Hey, we have a later post this time, but it's pretty long, so enjoy. Also note the chapter titles recently as foreshadowing through tarot cards.
TW- Gore?
IDon'tOwnMarvel
I stumbled a little from the strange transition and had to catch myself as Thanos let go of me too. TC was unceremoniously dropped too as if the Titan was fully confident in his ship's ability to keep us nearby.
Getting up and brushing myself off, I tried to take in the full size of this place with its towering ceilings and massive room with just a throne in the center. Stone paths navigated around pools of mysterious dark liquid that also covered the floor of the room. The throne itself was pretty big and could easily fit about five or six of me. Though, with all the dark colors and ambitiously abstract design, the whole of the room was pretty minimalist.
"You know, Gamora really hated this room." I called after him, trying to remain a bit casual while avoiding the horrible thought of the true extent of my situation.
I don't have any way home. I'm going to be trapped with Thanos forever. And so will TC…
"So she has reminded me many times." Thanos replied, looking around the room almost thoughtfully. "Who are you?"
I crouched to pick up TC as he came closer so I could keep my friend secure. "Lincoln."
"Your romantic attraction towards my daughter was only a mere guess…" He shifted in his place, turning to look at me again. "Therefore, I fail to understand why you would take her place and doom your cause for her."
"You were the one who took me." I shrugged, feeling my cards on my hip and wondering if there was any sort of spell around that could kill a titan.
TC sent some more comforting vibes my way, humming in a frequency that allowed me just the edge of confidence I needed to maintain a still figure under the gaze of Thanos.
He looked me over as if trying to read me. "You know more. Why would I put in more trouble for less benefit?"
I folded my hands behind my back. "It's simple math, right?"
"Correct."
"So if we're talking 'simple math'," I made quotations in the air with my hands, rolling on my heels. "We could talk about your plan to wipe out half the universe. Mathematically, you're going to end up killing a lot more than fifty percent."
Thanos walked past me in silence and I held my breath, watching a spot on the wall and trying not to panic from him being so close again. He sat down on his throne again in silence and I turned to look at him too, noticing the pause in the room as he waited for something.
Then, I noticed he might be waiting to hear me out. Like the opportunist I am, I continued.
"First you have to think based on species." I explained nervously, "If you plan on wiping out half of all life as a whole, you could accidentally kill everything on one planet and nothing on another. You'd have to be incredibly specific with your intentions."
"Half of life on every planet will be sacrificed. Your concerns have a simple solution." Thanos looked almost intrigued by my need to tear apart his plan. "My plan has been perfected over the decades that you were not even a concept in your parents minds."
"Okay, that's fair," I waved him off, turning to pace with my old nervous habit showing. "But what about just Earth for example. If you kill half of them with the snap of your fingers, way more than half are going to die and suffer for years. There are cars on the roads that will cause accidents that no one will be able to respond to, planes in the sky that could lose a pilot and then crash, doctors performing surgery that could leave their patient dead on the table. Not to mention, the children that are abandoned in a home because their parents disappeared. They'll die with everyone else left hanging. Now you've effectively killed three quarters of their population. They won't recover from that."
Yeah, okay, maybe in the movies humanity found a way, I bit my lip, watching Thanos's reaction. But the whole of my argument is correct. More than half will die and suffer tremendously for years after the snap.
Thanos eyed me as if he was actually listening. "You simply lack the experience, my child. Populations have flourished after I have taken the time to rejuvenate them. More may die, but it is a hecatomb I am prepared to make."
"You can't just play god. You don't have the right." I threw up my hand in exasperation, trying not to ramble again. "You sound like…Michael Bay when he butchered the Transformers because it was 'necessary for further projects'."
"You do not understand why this is necessary." He sat back in his throne, looking down at me like I was some oddly colored bug that he found. "You haven't seen what I have. You do not know what it is like to be the only one left of a decimated planet and home."
Oh no you didn't. I could sense the immediate anger of TC.
"I know exactly what that is like." I snapped, anger piling up in record time. "My entire universe was destroyed. I lost everything and you have the audacity to go tell me that you have suffered?"
He looked me over, just staring like he was contemplating something again in that awfully silent way that he was starting to be known for. I felt his eyes trying to study as if he'd find a lie in there somewhere. Being as angry as I was now, I didn't flinch. How dare he assume that witnessing destruction made us the same? How could he assume that I would want anything like what happened to me happen to anyone else?
Maybe he's mentally ill.
"You're insane if you think genocide fixes anything." I added, "It doesn't matter how much I've seen or experienced in my life. What matters is that I'm not trying to make everyone else have to know the pain that I live with every day."
"Yet," Thanos tilted his head a little in amusement. "You still fail to understand the big picture. It won't matter how they feel in the end because I will have saved them. And we have other things to discuss."
"I'm not telling you where the soul stone is." I stated plainly, crossing my arms with a fuming lizard across my shoulders. "I'm not an idiot."
"No, I don't doubt your intelligence." Thanos raised his fist with the gauntlet and the room started to change around me. The walls and ground shimmered over to change into a plain long hallway. "But even the strongest minds can be broken. So tell me, Lincoln, what happens when you are forced to confront your demons?"
"Demons?" I repeated at a whisper, watching Thanos disappear from view too until I was standing alone in the hallway with only TC on my shoulders.
I looked up and down the bare hallway, seeing where it turned at each end while TC's claws dug into my shoulders a little as tensions rose. Eventually, I decided to play along with Thanos's little game at least to buy time before Vormir, and started to walk down the hall in one direction. I didn't make it very far though until the voice of Thanos filled the space.
"Who are you afraid of?"
Quill materialized in front of me and I stopped short so as to not run right into him. I tilted my head curiously, knowing damn well that he wasn't real. Though, Thanos seemed to catch on that I didn't exactly hold an emotional connection to the man and he was quickly replaced by Gamora. She stared down at me too with eyes that just looked so…real.
Then, the person switched again to show more. Mantis and Drax both passed my vision as well until I noticed the area changing around me again.
"Even with a hero mindset," Thanos continued, "You have a breaking point. What is it?"
I remained quiet, just watching as apparition after apparition appeared and then disappeared in front of me until we went through Thor, Heimdall, Hulk, Asgardian civilians and then even Loki. The room turned into a landscape then- a grassy cliff overlooking the ocean with storm clouds rumbling overhead and wind starting to billow around past me. Everything was so real looking. I could even taste the salt in the air from the ocean and feel how it chilled my skin and covered it with goosebumps.
That's when the bodies started to appear.
Asgardian soldiers laid out on the quickly browning and dying grass with blood splattered and oozing across their armor and skin just like on the Asgardian ship. TC hummed comforting vibrations my way and I mistakenly raised a hand to pat him while Thor and Loki joined the dead and contorted bodies on the ground, their eyes lifeless and open in horror.
"I know." I whispered, holding back the bile that was rising in my throat as the familiar smell of death and gore hit my nose and paired with the smell of the ocean. "It's not real, dude."
"Who's to say it's not?" Thanos said back, still nowhere to be found with the sound of his voice swirling around me in the wind. "I control the very reality you stand on. Or…the reality that stands on you."
All at once, I lost my connection to TC and I whipped around fast upon realizing he was gone from my shoulders. He stood on the ground a few feet away and started to run back towards me. He didn't quite make it before he was dragged back by a red force and I stared in horror with my heart sinking through the floor as Thanos stepped into view, raising my best friend in the air with the reality stone. TC wiggled freely while floating until he was pulled tight by invisible binds and froze.
I opened and shut my mouth, looking around again to try and determine if this was another illusion until the throne room came back and it was just me, Thanos, and my best friend's life on the line.
"Okay," I held out a hand, my heart thumping loud in my ear. "We don't have to do this. Let him go please."
"Where is the soul stone?"
"I can't-" I looked back at TC's mouth opening while Thanos shifted his hand a little more.
Okay, maybe I've given enough time. I rationalized in my head while watching in fear for my friend. It's not like we'll be leaving anyways. Maybe it's time to stop stalling the inevitable.
"Vormir." I looked back up at Thanos. "Put him down."
Thanos smiled and used the power stone again, except I was dragged back and got to see as the different illusion dissipated in front of me right before Thanos caught me by my arm again. I looked up at him to see where TC was held in his hand again and sighed in relief before something else caught my attention.
As Thanos's gauntlet held around my arm, I could feel a pull from it again. The power stone caught my attention fast and I stared hard at it, even getting lost in the mere look of the stone while Thanos used the space stone to teleport us away again onto a sandy planet.
Thanos nudged me forwards on the sand, still holding TC secure in his free hand. "Show me."
The sound of scraping and groaning metal could be heard while Tony made an honest effort to keep his feet on the ground. With one final lurch forwards, the ship finally skidded to a stop on the ground of the alien planet. Strange lowered the shield around the lot of them and the air flurried up around them with dust and smoke threatening to choke their lungs from indoors.
"You alright?" Tony looked at Lincoln, "That was close. You learn how to fly spaceships with Thor?"
Lincoln just shrugged and shook her head while brushing off her arm from the rough landing. "I guess."
Peter descended from the ceiling slowly on a web string. "Let me just say, if aliens end up implanting eggs in my chest or something and I eat one of you, I'm sorry."
"I don't wanna hear another single pop culture reference out of you for the rest of the trip." Tony pointed back at the kid seriously. "You understand?"
"Someone's coming." Lincoln stated in that quiet voice she'd been using since Tony first reunited with her just a few hours prior.
She slipped a knife out of her sleeve again and Peter hopped down too.
"Yah, that's- that's what I was trying to say." Peter added right as a grenade rolled into the room.
Tony barely felt the blast as the warning had given him enough time to put on the suit, but it did blow him back a little. He only wasted half a second to watch Lincoln get up too and launch herself at the attackers before he went after the guy in the air too.
His efforts in the short dogfight had him momentarily stuck to the wall by a magnet before he was able to throw himself at the big guy that Lincoln was staring down with her knives.
"We were friends before this." The flying man said, holding a gun to Peter's head. "What happened to Star-Lord?"
Lincoln looked back at Tony with her two knives still out and in a defensive move. That's when he noticed how these intruders were giving her shifty looks.
"Where's Thanos?" A green woman asked, holding a knife out too and keeping her eyes trained on Lincoln. "How did you get away?"
Lincoln opened and shut her mouth before shaking her head. "I'm sorry?"
"You've seen her?" Strange pointed at Lincoln.
"She's terrible at cards." The man subjected to the end of Tony's gun added with a small laugh.
"You don't remember these goons?" Tony asked, looking at the kid next.
She shook her head. "Can't say I do?"
"You're really gonna keep doing this?" Strange asked her then, getting a nervous look back from Lincoln. "The jig is up."
"What jig?" Tony looked between them too.
"Doesn't Miss Rogers have a sister?" Peter chimed in while the whole room still felt tense.
Tony looked around at them again before deciding that if they weren't ready to kill Lincoln, he could put his gun away for the moment. He pulled it back and stepped away from the man. "Not a living one."
"How do you know her?" Strange asked, while Tony gestured for the flying man to let go of his other kid.
Luckily, this man listened and put his gun down too, letting Peter step back over to stand by Tony.
"We picked her up on a distress signal with Thor." Quill gestured vaguely over himself. "Covered in purple light and with some little Lizard thing."
"Thundercracker." The big guy that Tony had just been threatening added with a nod.
"You saw Thor?" Lincoln asked then, immediately more interested. "With me?"
"Yes, you don't remember that?" The green woman nodded at her. "You told me to come here."
Lincoln just looked at Strange again. "Maybe I did?"
"Maybe you did." Strange agreed, looking at the green lady again. "Where did you say she went?"
After determining the lack of hostility between all of them, they were able to regroup out of the ship while Tony tried to plan out some ways to stop Thanos. He was unhappy with the news that some 'Lincoln' had given herself to Thanos in place of this 'Gamora' that he couldn't care less for. She had to be important for 'Lincoln' to want to go in her place. The only other possibility would be that this other Lincoln was planning something that Gamora couldn't carry out on her own with this 'Thanos'.
Regardless of alternative Lincoln's thought process though, Tony still needed to fix something together for them all so they knew what to do when the mad titan showed up; possibly with Lincoln's double.
He looked back over at the Lincoln he was stuck with and started to wonder if maybe there was a good reason why she'd been acting so off since New York. She was sitting alone with a knife in her hands and spinning it while Gamora watched her like a hawk. That Gamora woman had just as many suspicions about the 'two Lincoln's' situation.
"Excuse me, but...does your friend often do that?" Mantis asked, directing all their attention to Strange next and pulling Tony out of his thoughts.
Said wizard was hovering above the ground with green light surrounding his wrists and holding him up. His head shifted quickly as if someone had sped up the frames in a video and then gave it a lime green filter. It was…disturbing to look at.
Tony furrowed his brow at the man, stepping on closer. "Strange, we alright?"
Dr. Strange fell forwards, gasping for air while Tony was only just barely fast enough to catch his arm to steady him.
"Hey, what was that?" Peter asked too.
The wizard took some steadying breaths before looking up. "I went forward in time to view alternate futures. To see all the possible outcomes…of the coming conflict."
"How many did you see?" Tony prompted further,
"14,000,605."
"How many did we win?"
Strange looked over at Lincoln. "Three."
Vormir spread out in front of me and I could feel my heart in my throat while I dreaded my plan of spending eternity here with Thanos. I was scared, to say in the least, but TC was right there with me to give comforting vibes. I think for the first time during this nightmare, I was happy to have my best friend by my side. It was nice to have the support, especially if we might be stuck here or on a wild goose chase with Thanos for a while.
Vormir was not my favorite place to be either and I was only grateful that I could clearly see the mountain out in front of me so Thanos didn't demand I guide him through an alien world. Trudging through sand was even less fun too since Thanos couldn't teleport us any closer than a certain distance. It was odd how the location affected the space stone, but I assumed that the soul stone's energy didn't want just anyone running up and grabbing it. Whatever the point though, I found that the webs of sand paths and fuck ton of puddles got old fast.
The skyline was pretty though and the air seemed to be a nice temperature for the long walk to the base of the mountain. The real work started when we had to hike up it and the temperatures got gradually colder up that path. Let's just say that by the time I saw snow, I was grateful that the sanctum clothing was mostly enchanted, including the boots, so I could keep myself and TC warm even with no sleeves and a halter top that wasn't super insulated.
My lack of prior planning for this was a little stressful, especially since I'd sort of just thrown it together on the fly after Thor was ready to throw hands with Thanos over a stone that Loki had promised me he destroyed. It had all piled on pretty quickly, but led up to this moment where I was preparing to try and convince Red Skull to keep the Soul Stone. If it didn't work, Thanos might still try and track down his daughter and toss her off a cliff. It was lucky that this walk was long. Thanos would have to walk all the way back down with me again if that was the result of this historic waste of time.
Of course, there was still the possibility of Thanos being so pissed off with me that he tries to kill me on the top of the mountain. That would be…alarming…but not unexpected after I spent all this time leading him on and driving him away from the person he needs to complete this mission for the soul stone.
"I wouldn't count on it, buddy." I whispered, stepping around a particularly large boulder on the cobbled path with my hand on TC. "I have a plan."
TC tilted his head at me in a questioning manner.
"Well, I'm not gonna tell you what my plan is." I chuckled back, "Thanos is walking right in front of us. That would defeat the entire purpose."
TC kept staring at me.
I sighed and shook my head. "The reason a plan works is because you don't tell anyone what it is. If you tell someone what the plan is, it will fail. That's how all stories go."
TC finally gave in, looking away with a hint of annoyance.
"You know, you've gotten really old and grouchy." I commented, petting down his back. "You're lucky I love you so much so as to not let the mad Titan kill you. Now you get to go on fun adventures with me for the rest of our lives. And, clearly, you could use a little fun."
"Tell me, young human," Thanos interrupted my convo with my lizard. "What price will the Stone demand?"
Eavesdropper, I rolled my eyes mockingly, trying to hold my cool still around Thanos.
I shrugged my shoulders behind his back. "Oh, I have no clue. There's a stonekeeper guy that'll tell ya."
As if on cue, Red Skull came into our line of sight, floating under a rock arch that looked almost like a cave with the snowflakes swirling around in the wind. The stonekeeper was a tad bit more unsettling than I had anticipated too with the caved in nose and deep eye sockets. Then again, he was over a century old and happened to be stuck here for quite a while. I'm sure they don't have top-tier skincare products hanging around on Vormir.
"Welcome, Thanos, Son of A'lars." Red Skull Started, "Thundercracker, companion of Lincoln, and Lincoln, daughter of Andrew."
I wrinkled my nose at the introduction. Don't say my dad's name, you comic villain.
"You know us?" Thanos inquired, stopping in front of Red Skull.
"It is my curse to know all who journey here." He floated downwards with his black cape flapping slowly in some wind that I could definitely feel on my back. "You should know...it extracts a terrible price."
"I am prepared." Thanos replied, standing at eye-level with the villain.
I scoffed quietly, accidentally drawing attention to myself. "Sure you are."
"It is what we all think at first." Red Skull looked pointedly at me, causing me to shift in my place at the sudden scrutiny. "We are all wrong."
The Stonekeeper led us further up the mountain silently, so I decided to invoke my not-so-perfect plan.
"So," I caught Red Skull's attention by walking up closer. "You've been up here for almost a hundred years, right? Like, since you fought Captain America?"
"It is my curse." He replied, not even looking back at me.
"Right," I nodded, getting a skeptical look from TC. "Curses are…tricky, I guess. Do you guard the Soul Stone, or is this more of a guide-like job?"
"I guide others to what I cannot possess." He floated up some stairs, leaving me to move a little faster so I could jog up them. "It could be considered sentry work."
I smiled to myself and glanced back at Thanos who was only listening in quietly. "What happens to you after the stone is taken?"
His expression flickered over with just the barest hint of unease. "I cease to exist."
"So as long as the Soul Stone is here, you live?" I asked, pulling TC off my shoulder and positioning him on my arm instead with his tail hanging down so I could keep him closer to the enchanted clothes with the snow. "Seems a bit sketch to me."
"That is a way to consider it."
TC grumbled to himself about the weather while I continued to question the guy and lug his oversized self up these stairs. "Let me get this straight- You live as long as the soul stone is here, you've spent your entire…life trying to possess an infinity stone, and now, you're trying to give away the one that you do technically have? That doesn't make sense to me. Was the gift of eternal life not all that you wanted it to be?"
Red Skull's face contorted slightly again and he remained silent, making me silently cheer a little at my Plan-A finally seeming to go the way I wanted.
"I mean," I continued to add on to any conflict in his head, "I would never-"
"It is not your place," He turned to look at me with yellow in his eyes, his voice turning to a frighteningly inhuman tone. "To question our purpose."
I stopped in my place too, staring back a little with my mouth shutting quickly. Averting my eyes was all it took for him to finally turn back around and continue back up the mountain.
Thanos passed by me with a small scoff, leaving me to trail behind the two next and worry about how I was going to mentally handle a Plan-B if I really couldn't convince Red Skull to just keep his stone to himself. The yellow eyes were a little spooky too, but I could deduce off of that that maybe the Soul Stone had some sort of hold on him already.
Looking behind me as we neared the top of the stairs, I could see the two sets of footsteps in the snow and my gut churned nervously from what might await me at the top. Thanos might get really upset once he realizes that I stalled his mission tremendously. He might get even more upset too when I tell him that my plan involves us being stuck together for eternity on this hellhole.
"What you seek lies before you." Red Skull said, breaking the chilling silence and drawing my attention back up to meet them at the top. "As does what you fear."
Thanos paced across the plateau at the top of the mountain and I went halfway with him, watching him look on over the edge. "What's this?"
"The reason you'll never win." I replied for him, feeling my legs twitch in anticipation while I moved my friend back onto my shoulders.
He looked back at me and maintained eye contact while Red Skull explained further.
"The price. Soul holds a special place among the infinity stones. You might say it has a certain wisdom."
Thanos squared his shoulders as if his fragile masculinity could buy the infinity stone. "Tell me what it needs."
"To ensure whoever possesses it...understands its power." Our guide continued, looking between myself and Thanos. "The stone demands a sacrifice."
The Titan's eyes shifted to me and I already knew what he was thinking when he replied. "Of what?"
"In order to take the stone, you must lose that which you love." Red Skull looked beyond the cliff. "A soul for a soul."
Even with Thanos's eyes drilling into me, I could feel a satisfied smile slipping onto my face.
"Where is she?" He demanded immediately.
"I have no idea." I bit my lip with a smile, feeling the glee off of TC too. "That's what makes this so much better. I have no clue where Gamora is. Can't hide what you don't know."
Thanos glared and marched towards me, making me back up swiftly and lose the smile as I prepared my hands to make a shield.
"I'll throw you over myself." He snarled, making my eyes go wide as TC got defensive over the expected anger off the Titan.
"Woah!" I created a shield, backing away in a circle from the Titan with a nervous laugh. "No need to be dramatic. Why don't we go try and dig her up? Yeah, maybe I told her to hide, but you know your daughter. Give it a couple years. She'll probably turn up!"
Thanos raised his fist and lit up the reality stone, only for it to simmer out and for us both to look at it in shock.
No space stone…no infinity stones I guess. I figured, trying to roll a spark off myself and realizing then that I couldn't even manage my own power anymore. If anything, this tower might've just evened the odds. At least, that's what I thought until Thanos growled again in anger and turned quickly to leave.
"A sacrifice must be made." Red Skull insisted with his voice still heavy of sulfur hexafluoride.
"I will return with one." Thanos huffed, pissing off the guide further and making the half-skeleton raise a hand.
"You have a sacrifice." Red Skull floated closer to the exit, almost blocking Thanos from leaving. "Make it or don't return."
My face lit up again a little. Thanos didn't love either of us and my plan B was rolling out perfectly. Sure, I might starve to death up here eventually, but arguably, Thanos might be stuck long enough too to do less damage to the universe.
I shrugged again innocently and kicked a rock. "God, I guess you'll have to just stick around here with me until we fall in love. But, you know, I'll probably die before then unless it's some 'at first sight' bullshit."
Thanos didn't lose the glare as I could see the endless turning of gears in his head.
"How's it feel?" I whispered then, letting the shield dissipate into nothing and dropping my hands as I stared back. "To believe so strongly that you are right, only for it to come back and…blow up in your face."
"You would stay here out of spite?"
"Ab-so-lutly." I drawled, pretending to inspect my nails. "Take a sip of sweet imprisonment, Michael Bay. You're stuck with me for…well…until I die. Then maybe 'OG Villian from 1941' will let you leave."
Okay, maybe this wasn't the best way to follow through with my grand plan, but as long as I was stuck here, holding Thanos captive, I had time to come up with potential other plans. He would be trapped for the time being, giving everyone else proper time to prepare.
I sat down on a rock nearby after brushing the snow off it. I think I might miss Tony though. And definitely Peter.
"The stone demands a sacrifice."
"You're repeating yourself." I hummed, looking up at the purple and indigo sky. "No need for that."
Thanos had since gone silent in thought. He was most likely trying to figure out how to fix his 'wonderful' plan. The fool thought he could still win this, even as he looked over me curiously like I was somehow a solution.
"You do have a sacrifice." He stated, staring me down and taking a step closer that made me get up again.
"I do not." I countered weakly, holding a hand over TC and putting myself back on high alert. "I'm not sacrificing shit for you."
"You will."
"No I won't." I shook my head, "I'd sooner throw myself off that cliff before I let anyone else go."
Thanos nodded once at that before starting over to me menacingly. "I have no preference over which of you lives."
TC flared up too as I backed up more into a circle and raised a shield, standing down with Thanos as my plan crumbled once again around me.
"Why can't anything go my way?" I whined to myself, waiting for Thanos to make the first move and wondering if I could manage to throw him off the cliff just for funsies. "Time is fucking spectacular at fixing itself."
Thanos threw a punch then from the gauntlet and it hit my shield. I managed to avoid his leg that he tried to sweep under me to knock me over. With the shield faltering too, I warped behind him and listened to the familiar spell whispered in my ear.
"Alrial Teladian!"
A spell manifested in front of my hands, knocking Thanos back from the gust of wind and closer to the edge.
Holy shit, I could kill him here, I jumped up on manifested stairs and climbed to Thanos's level to throw a kick at his face.
He managed to grab onto my ankle with a menacingly tight grip and threw me down. I landed on a shield, but TC had to be rescued by the cards flying out of my pocket to catch him from hitting the ground too hard. Thanos threw a fist towards the ground that I tucked and rolled away from it as this had very quickly turned into me fighting for two lives while Thanos just fought to keep his. Fighting for your life does things to your brain too, so that rush of energy was no surprise as it slapped me in the face and had me panicking with every move.
Unfortunately, panic can affect your judgment too, especially when I made a last minute dive towards TC and slide him back before Thanos could grab him. Instead, I was grabbed by my arm and dragged back towards the edge. I kicked at Thanos's leg with enough force to push him down to one knee and falter his hold on my arm. I slipped my arm out and shouted another assisted spell, manifesting a pair of large fists that I used to punch Thanos again.
"Don't you fucking try." I huffed out through deep breaths while he stayed on one knee by the edge of the cliff and caught his breath too. "I won't lose my best friend. Not again."
Thanos picked himself up fast then and I took a more defensive stance as I tried to slip away from every hit he threw. I worried now that he might've been holding back before with that new look of anger on his face that only got more intense with every missed and blocked hit. I was wearing down fast. This was nothing like chopping down undead soldiers since every hit from the titan on my shield felt like it might buckle my legs.
In the midst of holding myself up from another hit on my Shield, I spotted where Thanos had backed me towards, and who stood behind me. TC sat with his beard flared by the edge of the cliff and I felt my heart sink further as Thanos looked behind me too with a small smirk. TC caved in an instant to the challenge, being the hotheaded bastard he was, and lunged himself past me as if he could do some damage on the Titan.
I dropped my shield in desperation and threw a different spell to slide TC fast between Thanos's legs so he wouldn't get grabbed while he was being an idiot. This left me exposed though, and apparently open in the right way so that Thanos didn't have to reach far to snatch me up by my neck and dangle me off my feet. It wasn't so difficult to breath from how he was holding me, but I felt pretty vulnerable and especially terrified when the ground below my feet disappeared and I could just feel the wind coming up from the canyon below.
Panicked tears started in the corners of my eyes as I looked at him pleadingly, my fate on this planet resting in his hand.
"Please." I held on tight to his wrist with both my hands, tears falling down my cheeks now as I could feel my muscles trembling.
"Your loyalty is admirable." He took another step closer to the edge and I flinched from the height, my hands shaking and sweaty as I tried to keep a good grip on him. "If only you could see how I am here to save you and everything you hold dear. You won't understand, but your sacrifice for your friend will save trillions."
The flow of Red Skull's cape as he lowered himself down caught my eye then. That and the yellow eyes caught my attention as the worst feeling brewed in my stomach.
"I accept your sacrifice."
My eyes went wide from the statement and Thanos hesitated to look back at where I was staring at my friend in horror. I could feel every part of me go limp in hopelessness when I saw that dust and the last part of my friend dissipating into the air. I didn't have a chance to scream and instead felt myself drop to the ground and land on sand on my knees.
I squeezed my eyes shut and didn't dare look down at my hands with the approach of footsteps coming closer. My hands shook as I sat there on my knees, tense and yet motionless. Bile rose up in my throat despite that horrible empty feeling that pitted itself in me. I needed him there with me and I couldn't even fathom the future without him yet.
"I understand your pain, little one." Thanos's voice interrupted my silence, making the tears finally spill down into soft cries as I raised a hand to clutch my chest and hunch over.
His hand came down on the top of my head stroking my hair back while he slipped the soul stone out of my other hand with no resistance from me.
"When the universe looks to me as their savior," He hummed, petting my hair back while I held my chest with both of my hands now and shook with sobs. "They will know of your sacrifice as well."
Thanos took his hand back and I was infuriated in a heartbeat from those words.
"You killed him." I hiccuped, wiping my cheeks and unable to look at him while the Soul stone embedded itself in his gauntlet.
"In a grateful world, you will be celebrated."
"He died for nothing." I looked up at him through wet eyelashes and felt the tingle of emotion running energy down my spine like a shiver.
Thanos cocked his head at me and my glowing figure. I could even see in the corner of my eye how the sand reflected the energy and a snap of purple electricity rolled off me and hit the sand. However, with my eyes locked on Thanos, all I saw was red.
I screamed and threw myself at him through his blue portal, neglecting every possible self-preservation method on the planet with one thing on my mind.
Revenge.
"We can't be here." Strange said suddenly, standing up and looking around.
"Yeah, no shit, Sherlock." Tony snipped back, standing nearby Lincoln with Peter not far off either. "We're in space."
"Technically, we're always in space." Gamora chimed in, "This is Titan though."
Tony shot her a mildly annoyed look. "We need to get back to earth."
"Not preferable." Strange paced forwards a few steps and then looked at Lincoln with narrow eyes. "But it betters our chances."
"I say we fight him here." Quill crossed his arms. "I mean, we can take him. Right Lincoln?"
Lincoln looked at him hesitantly. "I don't know."
"Why don't you just ask your tarot cards?" Peter suggested, "You said those can always give you good answers."
"I...lost them." Lincoln gave Tony a sort of 'deer-in-headlights' look.
"Loki, you gotta stop, it's killing me." Strange deadpanned, getting a concerned look from Tony.
"What?"
"The point is." Strange waved them off, "We have better chances on earth, even if it means putting the last two stones he needs in the same place."
"Loki?" Peter raised an eyebrow. "He's Thor's brother. He blew up New York."
"He did not." Lincoln huffed, rolling her eyes, "He was manipulated into allowing others to attack Earth."
Strange waved a hand at her and Tony jumped back a step when she grew in height and…turned into Loki. He just stared for a moment with Peter also moving back several steps with a gasp.
"Rude." Loki shot Strange a glare. "You can't expect them to trust me now."
"I never said they had to."
"Lincoln's secretly a man." Drax gasped quietly too.
"No," Strange replied, exasperated. "Lincoln is with Thanos. Loki was sent back with Banner."
"I hugged him." Peter bit his lip and looked to Tony. "He's a bad guy."
Tony held a hand up with his suit powering on and a bout of anger coming up. "Why did you come back and not her?"
"Relax." Strange rolled his eyes too, slipping on what Tony recognized as a sling ring. "It wasn't his choice."
"You should've made her." Tony glared at the god. "So what, you were just gonna pretend to be a hero. It's great that you're still keeping up the lies."
"I'm not going to defend myself to you." Loki stated back evenly, "I'm fighting for the same cause you are."
"How do we know that? Huh? What if you're working for Thanos?"
Quill perked up at that with Gamora and the other 'Guardians of the Galaxy' also being put on edge at the same time.
"What do you mean?" Quill asked.
"Oh please." Loki scoffed, "Like I'd take the coin toss over the word of a prophet that we win one way or another by working together."
"She said that?" Peter asked, also giving him a skeptical look. "I don't know, Mr. Loki. Mr. Thor did tell me once that you've turned on him more times than he can count."
"I'm not quite as reckless now." Loki muttered almost sheepishly. "Regardless, my chances are better with you. I'm sure you'll find comfort in the fact that even if I was only trying to survive, I'd still be siding with Lincoln."
"Now that that's settled." Strange raised a hand and Tony fell fast, catching himself with his suit in the air before he hit the grass below him.
The others weren't as lucky and mostly just came tumbling down onto the ground before picking themselves up fast. Hovering in the air though, Tony could see what was strewn out ahead of him.
Up ahead were thousands of aliens with gnashing jaws clawing at an invisible barrier and failing to get through.
"Happy to see you could join the party." Steve's voice caught Tony's attention as he dropped to the ground and looked behind him at the Wakandan army and a few recognizable friends.
"Yeah, I'd hate to miss it." Tony breathed, looking around at the battleground he just fell on and then seeing Lincoln again.
He glared at him and fired a shot over his head, making Loki form back into himself again.
"Knock it off, Alias. We've got enough problems as it is."