Things were going very badly from both sides at the Avengers Base. Daredevil, Groot, Bucky and Mantis couldn't beat Carol. Falcon, Shuri, Drax and Punisher weren't having a very good time against Thanos either.
At a critical moment, Thanos loses his axe and falls near a defeated Groot. Carol was laying waste to the heroes, even snatching the rings from them and heading towards Thanos to hand them over. Thanos finished off the other heroes, but was interrupted by Carol's scream. He already had the Stones, he didn't need to kill them yet.
When Carol was only a few meters away from Thanos, a series of blue lightning bolts unexpectedly fell on her and charred her. The woman fell to her knees, most of her body burned. The rings fell a few meters away. When she turned around, she saw Groot standing, Stormbreaker in his hands.
Falcon saw him a few feet away and with a smile on his face exclaimed "The power of all the gods..." Groot finished off and got his well-deserved revenge on Carol, taking an axe to her head. Now Thanos was next.
He had a fierce battle against Thanos but not even with the power of the Asgardian Axe could he against Thanos and he ended up knocked down just like the rest.
Thanos took the five Infinity Stones and placed the rings on his fingers. With the Mind Stone he summons all the Outriders to recruit his army.
Even though all seemed lost, the only one left standing is Bucky, willing to take on the army alone; as would Captain America. Thanos scoffs at his foolish act of heroism. He tells him that whatever he does, the Outriders will search the planet for the Power Stone, even if they have to burn it to ashes to find it.
Suddenly, a large shadow darkens the atmosphere. Both Bucky and Thanos miss each other. On the distant, high horizon, figures emerged, blotting out the sunlight.
In the West, when the sun went down in the gray dusk, the five seekers came to the aid of the heroes: Spider-Man, Wanda, Strange, Star Lord and Nova, who had the Power Stone in his hand.
The other heroes rise to fight at his side against Thanos and his army. Thanos' expression quickly changed. He swallowed saliva and looked nervously at the heroes but instantly changed his mind; he had all five Stones and an entire army against only a few heroes .
Despite that, the heroes' confidence was higher than ever; willing to lay down their lives for that battle. They are approaching the army little by little as they prepared their weapons. Bucky's battle cry started the real Final Battle...
Star-Lord, Falcon, and Sam roam the air, attacking the ground troops with their Blasters. Meanwhile, Strange was taking care of the huge flying Chitauri worms.
On the other side of the field, Shuri and Daredevil trade weapons; Shuri with the Man Without Fear's Samurai sword and Matt with the Wakandan spear.
Drax and Punisher compete to slaughter more enemies, Drax with his knives and Frank alone with his rockets. Groot and Spidy make a joint attack against the Dark Order. Mantis was having a hard time fighting due to the wound on his back, but Falcon was helping from the skies.
A few meters away, there was Wanda, heading determinedly towards Thanos until a golden body landed right in front of her: Carol Danvers, her body charred. A confrontation between them began.
Star-Lord was left alone with Strange, battling together.
-But look who's back. I remember you saw 15 million futures and one came out right, didn't you? You said-
- This isn't the end, Quill. This battle is the beginning of the end.
- "Beginning of the end"? I don't want to hear any more weird stuff. I just want to know if we can win, Strange-
-Yeah! Tell us how we beat him, Doctor Weird." Spider-man joined the conversation.
-If I told you how it would end, it wouldn't happen...
-How nice! You were very helpful, Doc," said Spider-man. Quill interrupted the conversation:
-Wait, Strange. You said you didn't know what would happen after Thanos snapped. The future was uncertain, you said.
-But it wasn't true. You knew all along. You invited me to your Sanctuary to teleport me to Wakanda," said Spider-man, realizing the Wizard's plan.
-Mantis was not the only one who knew where to find the others. When she was injured, you could have told us where they were and let her die but you didn't," said Star-Lord. Parker added:
-You needed us...
-And to answer your question, that's how we'll beat him... Together. Each of the heroes continued fighting.
The fight lasted for hours. Each enemy they defeated, Thanos rose again from the ashes and made him more powerful. The team was becoming increasingly tired and drained of strength.
Bucky knelt and watched as Mantis and Punisher were outnumbered. He realized that defeating an almost infinite army was impossible. At that moment, he checked his pocket for the photo of Howard and Tony. He had to keep the promise and deliver that picture.
So, he got up, dusted himself off and put that memory away. He decided to gather the group and focus on attacking Thanos together to get the Stones out of him. That was the plan. But someone had to guard the Stone.
Nova and Strange were to distract the army, while the others attacked Thanos. To put Sam at risk would be to lose the only Stone they had left. They had to protect the Power Stone and keep it away from Thanos.
Meanwhile, Wanda managed to defeat Carol, confusing her mind, manipulating tons of debris against them and having an aerial battle. When her rival was almost defeated, the Scarlet Witch threw her into the mouth of one of the giant flying worms. Subsequently, Punisher launched a flurry of rocket blasts towards the huge beast.
Wanda lay down on a rock, exhausted. She saw that she had a large hemorrhage in her right leg and stopped the bleeding with her hand. Suddenly, Daredevil walked past her and stopped to call out to her. They were needed in the center of the field and had to hurry.
-I can't move! My leg is bleeding.
Daredevil looked at her and pitifully said:
-We don't have time to bleed.
Daredevil continued his pace. Wanda tried to stand up and, with a cloth torn from her suit, stopped the bleeding. She continued on her way through the air to avoid using her broken leg.
Finally, the heroes gathered and circled Thanos cautiously. In the distance, Strange created a barrier kept the army out, but locked his teammates in with Thanos.
The heroes fought back and, although they left him badly wounded, they were being defeated by the power of five Infinity Stones and the wielded Stormbreaker. Their combined attack left Thanos disoriented. The Titan took a desperate measure and stopped Time.
Thanos broke through Strange's protective barrier and stepped out onto the battlefield. Absolute silence. All the surrounding army, heroes, explosions and destruction came to a standstill.
Thanos felt the essence of the Power Stone. He looked to the skies and among his airborne troops and paralyzed explosions, he saw a body still moving among static bodies. Thanos smiled and teleported out of the place in a blue cloud.
In the air, Sam was escaping at full speed, guarding the Stone in his hands. He dodged flying debris and frozen bodies to lose it to Thanos. Suddenly, Nova's Jetpack turned into dozens of flying butterflies.
Sam plummeted into a pile of debris. He was caught in mid-air by Thanos, who grabbed him by the neck. They were both left floating in the middle of the battlefield.
Thanos didn't even squeeze his neck, but Sam was giving in. While Nova couldn't hold his gaze, Thanos couldn't let him out of his sight.
-I think you have something of mine, Xandarian," thundered a deep, powerful voice. The Power Stone was slipping from Sam's trembling hand, but he wasn't about to let it slip away.
-Well..." the mad Titan began to unleash a flurry of punches in Sam's face, breaking his nose and bruising him. He felt himself being stepped on, crushed, shaken and pummeled at the same time. With his fists alone, Thanos shattered his ribs and broke his leg.
Thanos threw him into a hill of rubble. Even so, the boy was still holding it, even though he is losing consciousness. Thanos admired him for that even though the effort had been in vain. The Mad Titan knelt down to take the Power Stone from him and flew away.
Thanos landed exactly where he thundered his fingers the first time. In the same place where this story began. He already had a full hand of Rings. With the Space Stone, he reshaped one of the remaining rings and placed it as a bracelet on his left hand. With all six rings complete on her hand, all that remained was to place the last Stone, which was on her other hand.
Memories of Sam flashed through his mind at that moment. He no longer had the strength to continue fighting. He was about 50 meters away, in the pile of rubble. He managed to twist around and look up at the cloudy sky with narrowed eyes. He rolls to see in the distance the Mad Titan donning the Power Stone.
A brilliant surge of energy coursed through Thanos' arm. He roars in pain. He struggles against the Stones, which are burning his insides.
Sam saw his Blaster, badly damaged. Only he alone could stop Thanos and his shot had to be accurate or he would lose the opportunity. With difficulty, Sam positioned his arm and aimed at Thanos. The helmet covering his head was destroyed. Thanos raised his hand with the rings to snap. Sam's eyes widened in terror. Then, the boy looked up and pointed at the hand. At that moment, he closed his eyes. The high-pitched noise in his ears silenced. He cleared his mind and all his senses came into focus.
-As a needle through water..." He whispered. He fired. Y...
With a precise shot, Sam hit Thanos' hand, stopping the Snap and, with it, returning Time to normal. The army and the other heroes awoke from the loop and returned to the attack. Sam sighed in relief and leaned back against the rock he was leaning against.
Thanos' expression had changed. He looked confused everywhere but as he readied himself again to snap his fingers, something stopped him. An invisible force restrained his fingers from closing his hand. The Titan struggled to close his hand but could not.
Spider-man materialized, deactivating his cloaking mode, and stopped holding Thanos' hand for Strange to restrain it with magical chains. Soon, the others arrived. Between them, the Avengers restrained Thanos.
A small orange portal opens above him and out of it comes Mantis, activating his antennae to numb him; but the power of the Stones prevented this from happening. Although the heroes fought with everything, they tried not to cause him mortal wounds. They only wanted to take the Rings from him.
One blow finished off Thanos. A punch to his face stunned him for a few seconds. The Titan shook his head and looked to the front, where Star Lord stood, aiming his Blaster between his eyes. Thanos closed his eyes, awaiting his end. Star Lord stared at him and, with his finger on the trigger, whispered:
-Bang... -.
But no shot was heard. The trigger was not pulled. Star Lord looked mockingly at the frightened purple man. He holstered his weapon in his pocket. Thanos opened his eyes, relieved, but continued to struggle to keep his rivals from taking the Stones from them.
-I knew you didn't have the courage to kill me," he said.
"Dying is easy" a female voice came from behind Thanos. He Titan turned his head slightly to see out of the corner of his eye a figure in the air raising a sharp spear. A glowing spear was falling on his arm.
By the time he realized it, Shuri already stabbed his restrained forearm, severing his limb in two with a dry slash. Purple blood splattered the surrounding party members. Thanos let out a cry of agony and despair.
The Titan saw his severed arm and then his hand with the Rings lying on the floor. He tried to reach for the rings but a foot got in his way. Already on his knees and almost sprawled at his feet, Thanos looked up to see Shuri, wielding the Wakandan spear.
-For T'Challa-
The noise seemed to stop completely for Thanos, who collapsed limply to the floor. He looked up to see the heroes surrounding him and his army falling. Everything he did and everything that happened to him turned against him. "It can't end like this. I didn't do all this for nothing" the Titan kept repeating to himself in his head.
Wanda quickly grabbed the maimed hand from the floor and pulled it a couple of feet away from Thanos. She pulled out the six rings and held them in her palm.
In an unexpected attack, Thanos lunged at Wanda and kicked her in the chest. Wanda fell unconscious. The heroes had no time to react and when they realized it, the rings went flying through the air.
As he advanced, Thanos was taking down Bucky, Shuri and Daredevil with one hand down. With a desperate pace, he continued on his way to the six Stones lying on the ground a few feet away. Whatever patience and sanity he had was lost at that moment.
All the heroes on the battlefield put their priorities on pause to see what was happening. Thanos stopped right in front of the Stones and crouched down to get a better look at them. With a smile on his face he said:
-Their worst mistake was not living with their failure. Their fate was inevitable.
All the heroes tried to approach at top speed. Thanos reached out his hand to take the Stones but, to his surprise, his fingers pierced the rings. His smile faded. The rings vanished in a blue cloud; Thanos knew what that meant.
The Mad Titan looked up desperately and turned his head to his left. There stood Sam, leaning against a rock and raising his index finger to the sky, on it was the blue Space Stone.
The heroes stopped, shocked. The atmosphere came to a standstill.
The same blue cloud began to course through Nova's right hand, causing the remaining Infinity Rings to appear on his fingers and a Stone in the center of his palm. Within seconds, the energy of the six Stones coursed through Sam's entire body.
With tremors, the boy lowered his hand to snap his fingers and eliminate Thanos at once. Thanos already knew his end; he knelt down, looked at his troops one last time and bowed his head. But something stopped Sam. Nova clenched his fist, activating all the Stones at once and, with a defiant look at Thanos, flew into the air.
While in the air, Sam's right arm burst into multicolored flames. His eyes began to light up through his Nova helmet. Everyone looked on in amazement. Nova rushed full speed at Thanos, grabbing him and carrying him into the air across the battlefield.
Nova began pummeling Thanos with his fists and wiping out the entire army single-handedly with the power of the six Infinity Stones. Distorting Reality, manipulating Time, controlling the Mind, changing Space at will, destroying with Power and fracturing Thanos' Soul.
With every blow he struck, Nova was disintegrating hordes and hordes of enemies. Within minutes, Sam had wiped out the army and was forcing Thanos to see him.
Finally, when the battlefield was clear, Nova threw the Mad Titan into one of the columns of the Base, destroying it. Sam was left floating a few meters away, no longer able to move.
A rainbow of different colors reflected in Thanos' eyes. At that moment, the Titan began to sweat, his hands trembled and his legs turned to jelly. Thanos fell sprawled on his knees in the middle of the field. He looked down at his fallen army and let out a final breath, "It didn't have to end like this."
With his fist and recharged Stones, Sam gave Thanos the final blow, generating a shockwave that disintegrated all the Outriders around.
The smoke vanished. Thanos lay on the floor, his body completely charred, his hand missing and motionless. Sam lay beside him equally wounded.
"Why didn't you kill me, Nova? You could have" Thanos asked breathlessly.
Sam answered him "You will learn what it is to lose...to feel deep down that you came close to defeating us and winning, but you failed utterly and for eternity you will remember it."
When the others arrived, Sam was sitting with his back against a large rock and appeared to be resting. The right side of his face was slightly burned and the rings lay charred on the ground. The heroes knelt beside him. He opened his eyes and tried to speak. At last a few words came out, slowly:
"S-sometimes you have to g-play it, m-boy."
Sam made a claw and placed it on his heart in honor of his father. He paused and his eyes closed, tired. Quill smiles at him with teary eyes.
The heroes knelt down and all placed their claw on their hearts in honor of Sam.
Groot gathered the rings and finally snapped his fingers. A bright white glow dazzled all the heroes