Chapter 17: Infinity War II
"You're much more of a Thanos." Dr Strange sat on the stone where he just saw millions of possible endings of this with the Time Stone, while everyone else hid around the two.
"I take it the Maw is dead." Thanos said calmly, "This say extracts a heavy toll. Still, he accomplished his mission."
"You may regret that." Dr Strange responded, "He brought you face-to-face with the Master of the Mystic Arts."
"And where do you think he brought you?" The Titan asked.
Dr Strange had a look around the planet, "Let me guess. Your home?"
"It was." Thanos said, using the Reality Stone to make the planet look like how it was before. Glorious, full of happy citizens that lived in a nice city, "And it was beautiful. Titan was like most planets. To many mouths, not enough to go around. And when we faced extinction, I offered a solution."
"Genocide."
"But random, dispassionate, fair to rich and poor alike." Thanos admitted, "They call me a madman. And what I predicted came to pass." The "reality" faded away and the surroundings turned into the dull planet they were on again.
"Congratulations, you're a prophet." Dr Strange said optimistically.
"I'm a survivor."
"Who wants to murder trillions."
"With all six stones, I could simply snap my fingers." The Titan said, "They would all cease to exist. I call that mercy."
"And then what?"
"I'd finally rest... and watch the sun rise on a grateful universe." They both stood up, "The hardest choices require the strongest wills."
"I think you'll find our will equal to yours." The master of the Mystic Arts formed orange magical shields in his hands.
"Our?" The Titan looked up when a sound of a huge thing falling down came from above.
Iron Man pushed a large rock and crushed it right on Thanos' head.
"A piece of cake, Quill." Mr. Stark said in the earpiece.
"Yeah, if your goal was to piss him off." Quill replied, holding us his gun and flying to help.
The rock exploded with a purple light, with Thanos standing there, unharmed. The Reality Stone controlled the pieces of rock to follow Mr. Stark and attack him. Sylvia quickly used her powers to make the rocks turn and smash them on Thanos as a reformed large piece.
Spidey took the chance and shot a web at the Titan's eyes and a second later Drax slid under Thanos with his daggers to cut his leg.
Dr Strange came from a magical portal and created a golden sword to fight Thanos just when he got the web off his eyes. Quill came jumping on rocks to the rescue from behind, and then shot Thanos on the back. He jumped across on Dr Strange's magical stepping circles and stuck a bomb on Thanos.
The bomb blasted with laser a second after Star Lord jumped backwards into Dr Strange's portal and raised his middle-finger at the Titan.
Dr Strange warned them not to let Thanos close his fist, and his cape flew to Thanos' left hand to tie it up. He then created portals for Spidey to come flying from all directions and give Thanos some beats.
"Magic." Parker shouted, giving a punch, "More magic." He shot some webs, "Magic with a kick." He kicked Thanos in the face, "Magic with a…" He didn't get to finish when Thanos grabbed his neck and pushed him the ground.
"Insect!" The Titan scowled and threw Spidey to Dr Strange to let them both fall off balance.
He just tore Dr Strange's magical cape away when Mr. Stark came flying from above, shooting bombs around him and making a lot of fire. Thanos used the stones to make the fire shoot at Mr. Stark, but Sylvia was quicker and made the fire shoot back again.
Spidey shot a web at Thanos' left hand, but he tore it away easily. Before he could do anything else to the young Avenger, a small spaceship crashed in his face and his other daughter, Nebula came out to fight him with a blue sword.
"You should've killed me." Nebula growled at her father.
"It would've been a waste of parts!" Thanos retorted.
The blue alien slashed her sword at Thanos and shouted, "Where's Gamora?" But she didn't get an answer and got thrown into the trash.
Thanos didn't get a chance to do one more move. Dr Strange made dark red strings to tie his fingers tightly. Drax kicked his leg and he half-kneeled. Quill shot a lightning device to control his other arm, while Spidey swinged to give a web and four spider legs came out of his suit to help the pull. Sylvia made the rocks tie his left leg.
Dr Strange made a portal to let Mantis land on Thanos' head and control his mind. All of them worked on one thing: getting the stones.
"Is he under? Don't let up." Mr. Stark checked.
"Be quick." Mantis yelled, "He is very strong."
Mr. Stark and Parker worked on pulling off the Infinity Gauntlet, while Star Lord questioned Thanos about Gamora.
"He… he mourns." Mantis told Quill, putting her hands on Thanos' head.
"What does this monster have to mourn?" Quill asked.
"…Gamora." Thanos managed to say in clear agony.
"What?"
"He took her to Vormir." Nebula said, "He came back with the Soul Stone. But she didn't."
Mr. Stark clearly saw what Quill was about to do and tried to calm him down, but Quill was far too lost in his anger that he slapped Thanos in the face. Mantis lost control of the Titan and all their work turned to nothing.
Everyone got pushed away and Spidey grabbed Mantis who got thrown into the air. Sylvia used the air to stop people from falling too hard and shot sharp stones at Thanos.
The Titan was back in his full strength and used the stones to fight them. All of them had nothing to fight back because of Star Lord's reaction.
Iron Man flew to Thanos and used a blue sword to fight him, but he got thrown away to the ground and Thanos pulled a moon down to crush them.
"No, no, you're not doing that." Sylvia hissed and used her powers to block the moon from falling down into Titan's atmosphere. But still, some stones fell down and Mr. Stark nearly got hit. The stones caught on fire and made bombs that caused them to get blasted away. Spidey shot webs to avoid everyone from falling while Sylvia was busy blocking the moon.
Dr Strange was the only one who hasn't got anything to work on and he used magical shields to create orange lightning that shot towards Thanos. The Titan avoided the hits and used the Power Stone to shoot a purple lightning at Strange. It was blocked by a wall of glass that was pushed forwards to him, trying to take Thanos into the Mirror Dimension. The mirror wall was broken down by Thanos and the pieces formed a ball that sucked more rocks into it while flying over to Dr Strange. The Master of the Mystic Arts made a big shield just in time and turned the ball into green butterflies.
Dr Strange rose from the ground and many pairs of hands formed behind him that turned into a lot of Doctors. They circled Thanos and tied him with thousands of orange strings. Thanos closed his fist with great effort and made Dr Strange to show his real self, and then pulled him to grab his throat.
"You're pull of tricks, wizard. Yet you never once used your greatest weapon."
Thanos pulled the Eye of Agamotto off and crushed it into pieces. But the green Time Stone didn't show up and he realized he was tricked.
"A fake." He said angrily and threw Dr Strange away.
Just as he was about to use the stones again, a dark red thing controlled his hand and stopped his fist from closing. Iron Man flew back and landed in front of Thanos.
"You throw another moon at me, and I'm gonna lose it." The moon didn't hit him, though. It was back in its orbit thanks to Sylvia.
"Stark." Thanos murmured.
"You know me?" Mr. Stark said, surprised.
"I do." The Titan replied, "You're not the only one cursed with knowledge."
"My only curse is you." Mr. Stark shot bombs from his back at Thanos, making smoke around him. Then, he kicked the Titan and hit him with nanotech weapons. Thanos made purple energy shoot at Mr. Stark and he used a lot of nano to shield himself from it. He flew to Thanos again and hit him on his face.
"Come on!" Thanos said while rubbing his face and saw the blood, half laughing, "All that for a drop of blood." He threw Stark away and walked closer to him.
Mr. Stark used the rest of his suit to shoot laser at Thanos while making a sword, trying to stab the enemy.
He missed, and Thanos grabbed the sword to stab it into him instead. Thanos made him step back and he sat on a rock with the sword right through him.
"You have my respect, Stark." Thanos said with a hand on his head, "When I'm done, half of the humanity will still be alive. I hope they remember you."
Sylvia knew he was going to kill Mr. Stark. No matter how he lived through this, she knew she couldn't just stand there and watch.
"And you have my loath." She growled and shot a huge stone sword from the ground at Thanos. The fighting blood of the house of Odin ran in her veins when she faced the Titan and duelled him with shifting rocks.
Their fight didn't last for long because Thanos had four stones already and he used the Power Stone to smash her into a broken spaceship.
This is really it. She saw Thanos pointing the Gauntlet at her. I'm gonna die in this damn time-travel.
"Spare their lives…" Dr Strange spoke up just as the four stones shone, "and I'll give you the stone."
"No, don't." She murmured, her emotions taking over logic.
"No tricks." Thanos turned to him. Dr Strange revealed the Time Stone in his hand, and the green stone floated to Thanos. The Titan put the stone on the Infinity Gauntlet and felt the power it gave him. "One to go."
Suddenly, Quill flew out and shot bombs at Thanos. The Titan used the Space Stone and went to Earth, ignoring him. Star Lord landed on where Thanos had been standing a second ago and looked around.
"Did we lose?" Everyone else's reaction told him yes.
Mr. Stark used nanotech to heal his wound from the sword, getting up, "Why would you do that?" He looked confused, remembering the Doctor saying, "I will not hesitate to let either of you die".
"We're in the endgame now." Dr Strange replied.
"I'm gonna help the rest." Sylvia told them, getting up.
"No, you are not going to, kid." Mr. Stark said strictly, "It's enough to have two kids messing around here."
"The last stone's on Earth, on Vision." She responded, "If Thanos gets to him, your robot dies, sir."
Don't get yourself killed. She heard Dr Strange's voice in her head.
Course I know not to. She replied in her head. I just need to see to the things happening.
"Wait, will any of you explain how you're gonna get to Earth from this who-knows-where?" Quill asked, confused.
"She has to," Dr Strange told them, "it's our last chance."
They're in Wakanda.
"I'll live." Sylvia sighed and Apparated before anyone could stop her.
She landed in a forest next to grasslands. The Wakandian army was busy fighting what Hawkeye called "mad alien dogs".
Thanos was already here, and the rest of the Avengers already knew and were fighting him, trying their best to keep him away from Vision, who was with Wanda. Their effort did nothing. Thanos was far too powerful with five Infinity Stones.
Sylvia couldn't see this. She knew she would lose herself in this fight and change her own future.
Thanos made his way to Vision just when Wanda used her powers to break the Mind Stone. But Thanos had the Time Stone from Dr Strange and reversed Vision's death, only to take the Mind Stone and kill him again.
Thor was here as well. He has got his Stormbreaker and threw the axe to Thanos. It hit the Titan in the chest, but it didn't kill him somehow and he got to snap his fingers.
Time to disappear.
She made sure that no one saw her in Wakanda, and she knew that the people on Titan would think she turned into dust if she didn't go back.
The plan was cruel, but it was the only way she could came up with.
She Apparated to Grassland Cottage, where she and her mother lived until she was five in her Earth life. She saw in the blurred world how Bucky fell down and left nothing but dust.