On Nidavellir, Thor and his companions were getting ready to make a new weapon. Rocket was in the pod, and Thor, without any environmental suit, jumped from the hull onto the ring surface with a cable in his hand attached to the pod.
"I don't think you get the scientifics here. These rings are gigantic. You wanna get them moving, you're gonna need something a lot bigger to yank 'em loose." said Rocket.
"Leave that to me." Thor declared.
"Leave that to you? Buddy, you're in space. All you got is a rope and a—" Rocket began, but before he could finish, Thor began to swing the pod around him in a circle. Rocket screams. He built up speed with three good loops then slacked his grip enough to send the pod shooting straight away from Nidavellir, trailing him behind it like a kite tail.
"Fire the engines!" ordered the God Of Thunder.
Rocket shook it off and fired up the engines. As the pod skimmed over the surface of the next ring out, Thor reached down and dug one hand into the surface, then both feet, finally getting a foothold against the forward motion of the pod. The ice-like accumulation around the ring axis crackled.
"More...power...rabbit!" cried Thor and Rocket accelerated for all he's worth. Finally the rings spun free, realigning into effective configuration as the star burst back into life.
"Well done, boy." said Eitri, watching the whole deal.
Thor, clutching the pod's forward windows, pointed to the star and happily declared "That's Nidavellir!"
Rocket gazed, amazed at the blazing core. An iris on the cladding around the star opened, firing pure stellar heat through the ring portals and into the forge...until the damaged mechanism failed, crumbled loose and slammed shut. The iris closed and the beam of light trailed off.
"Dammit." said Eitri.
"Whaddaya mean by "dammit"?" asked Rocket.
"The mechanism is crippled." Eitri replied. "With the iris closed, I can't heat the metal."
"How long will it take to heat?" asked Thor.
"A few minutes, maybe more. Why?" Eitri asked back.
"I'm gonna hold it open." Thor declared, with a determined expression on his face. He was now standing on the pod's hull.
Eitri gasped. "That's suicide!"
"So is facing Thanos without that ax." said Thor, before jumping in straight towards danger.
Meanwhile on Wakanda, everyone was getting ready for battle. Since Bruce was unable to Hulk out, he was wearing a Hulkbuster suit.
"How we looking, Bruce?" asked Nat.
"Yeah, I think I'm getting the hang of it. Wow! It's like being the Hulk without actually—" Bruce began, but then stumbled on a rock, making Okoye glare at him. "I'm okay. I'm okay." said Bruce as he got back on his feet.
"I got two heat signatures breaking through the tree line." Rhodey informed everybody, and the armies gathered to form a defense line.
M'Baku, the Jabari ruler, rallied his men with a war chant. King T'Challa offered him the Wakandan "handshake" and thanked him. "Thank you for standing with us."
"You're welcome, brother." M'Baku replied.
The Black Panther, Captain America, and Black Widow walked to the edge of the barrier, where Proxima Midnight and Cull Obsidian were waiting. Proxima tested the strength of the barrier by drawing her sword across it consideringly.
"Where's your other friend?" asked Nat.
"You will pay for his life with yours. Thanos will have that stone." Proxima retaliated.
"Wrong answer." Steve remarked.
"You are in Wakanda now. Thanos will have nothing but dust and blood." T'Challa added.
"We... have blood to spare." said Proxima. She brandished her sword with a snarl, and the ships behind her started raising their outer hulls to allow their "passengers" to disembark.
"Did they surrender?" asked the Soldier.
"Not exactly." Steve replied.
"Yibambe!" T'Challa cried out for his soldiers to stand fast as a horde of Outriders bounded towards the barrier. Proxima dropped her sword arm down in the signal to attack.
"What the hell." the Soldier remarked.
"Looks like we pissed her off." Daisy quipped.
The Outriders hurled themselves towards the barrier, squeezing limbs and bodies partly through only to be bisected. "Oh, no." said a horrified Okoye. "They're killing themselves."
As a few Outriders managed to squeeze through intact, the Border Tribe took a knee and raised their shields. The Kingsguard behind them leveled their sonic spears over their comrades' shoulders, and on Black Panther's command, fired at the approaching monsters. The Winter Soldier used his M-249 machine gun, and Bruce fired the Hulkbuster's hand repulsors.
"You seen the teeth on those things?" asked Sam, sending Redwings into the fight.
"Alright, back up, Sam. You're gonna get your wings singed." said Rhodey as he flew over the heaviest concentration of Outriders and dropped a barrage of mines, all of them exploding fantastically. Suddenly, everyone noticed a pack of Outriders changing course to go around the force field.
"Cap, if these things circle the perimeter and get in behind us... there's nothing between them and Vision." Bruce warned.
"Them we better keep 'em in front of us." Steve said grimly.
"How do we do that?" asked Okoye.
"On my signal, open North-West Section Seventeen." T'Challa sent out a command to everybody.
Requesting confirmation, my King. You said open the barrier? a voice came from the communicator.
"On my signal." T'Challa confirmed.
"This will be the end of Wakanda." said an anxious M'Baku.
"Then it will be the noblest ending in history." Okoye told him, undaunted. Everyone got ready to battle and T'Challa began snapping out orders in Xhosa.
When it was all over, the Black Panther cried out "Wakanda Forever!" before crossing his arms in the traditional Wakandan salute and put on his helmet. The barrier opened, and the Outriders began pouring in. Daisy sent out a warning shockwave and the heroes charged at the enemy army. "How much longer, Shuri?" asked T'Challa.
"We've barely begun, brother." the princess replied, as she began performing microsurgery on Vision to get the Mind Stone out.
"You might want to pick up the pace." T'Challa told her, but deep down inside, he had faith in his sister.
"Allfathers, give me strength." Thor prayed as he tried his best to open the iris of Nidavellir.
"You understand, boy? You're about to take the full force of a star. It'll kill you." Eitri warned.
"Only if I die." Thor stated.
The dwarf was boggled. "Yes. That's what... "killing you" means." he said. Thor grasped the two levers and pulled them down and towards himself, slowly opening the iris. The stream of stellar energy blasted pasts him and into the forge once again. Eitri kept on encouraging him to hold on, watching the metal ingots melt while Thor was looking increasingly charred. Finally, Eitri became able to tip the cauldron, pouring the metal into the mold just as Thor passed out. The jet carried him into the forge, Rocket following hastily and landing after Thor bounced limply off a structure to land on the floor. Groot finally looked up from his game at the thump Thor's body made.
"Thor! Say something. Come on. Thor, you okay?" cried Rocket as he ran over to the God Of Thunder, who, unfortunately, looked far from fine. Eitri clumsily and urgently pulled the mold, still glowing red-hot, onto the floor, breaking it loose from its frame, then started punching the mold itself with his metal fists to free the ax. "I think he's dying!" Rocket called to him.
"He needs the ax! Where's the handle? Tree, help me find the handle!" Eitri cried, but unfortunately, the handle was nowhere to be found. Groot, after pondering what to do next for a moment, decided to act and made the handle himself from one of his branches. Thor's fingers twitched, and the new weapon levitated in a crackle of lightning echoed by the sparks between the fingers.
In Wakanda, everybody was struggling. The Winter Soldier went down, fighting off Outrider fangs snapping at his head. Captain America and the Black Panther were still fighting side-by-side. War Machine hovered over the breach, pouring ammunition into the flood of bodies until Black Dwarf's hammer hit him out of the sky and to the ground. The Hulkbuster got dogpiled and pinned. "There's too many of them!" cried Bruce and began screaming, when help arrived in the form of an unexpected rainbow bridge. An ax flew out of it, wreathed with lightning and tearing through the Outriders, freeing the heroes. It flew back to the light and into its master's hand just as the beam cut out, revealing Thor, Groot and Rocket ready to fight.
Bruce laughed triumphantly. "You guys are so screwed now!" he declared.
"BRING ME THANOS!" Thor bellowed, charging at the horde of Outriders, followed by Groot and Rocket. Lightning gathered around him until he finally launched himself into the air, landing in the densest concentration of Outriders and making a crater where they had stood.
At Titan, Leyenar's group was watching as Thanos arrived, the fearless director just sitting out in the open since everyone present knew that, as long as she stayed in the fictional omniverse, nothing could do her any harm. That was her superpower, sort of. Something that followed with being a real person. (However, once a real person returns to the outside world, they lose their invulnerability, and if fictional characters ever come into the outside world, they are also able to inflict actual damage to real people while also gaining the same invulnerability real people gain in the Four-Dimensional Internet World.)
Once she saw Thanos, she greeted with an "Ollo!"
"I take it the Maw is dead. This day extracts a heavy toll. Still, he accomplished his mission." said the Titan.
Strange opened his mouth to say something, but Leyenar beat him to the punch and declared "Oh, don't worry about that, Spidey here took good care of him."
"Oh, so this is the One Above All's chosen one..." Thanos muttered.
"And I figure this place is your home?" asked Leyenar.
Thanos smiled. "It was. And it was beautiful." he said before using the Reality Stone to show everyone what Titan was like before its downfall—green lawns, intact buildings, water-filled ponds, strolling citizens, the jack-like structures hovering and connected to the ground-based buildings with beams of energy. "Titan was like most planets. Too many mouths, and not enough to go around. And when we faced extinction, I offered a solution."
"Genocide?" asked Strange.
"But at random, dispassionate, fair to rich and poor alike. They called me a madman. And what I predicted came to pass." Thanos said as the illusion died out.
"Congratulations. You're a prophet." Strange said sarcastically.
"I'm a survivor." said Thanos.
"Who wants to murder trillions." added the good doctor.
"With all six stones, I could simply snap my fingers, and they would all cease to exist. I call that... mercy." said Thanos.
"And then what?" asked Strange as he got up from his seat.
"I finally rest... and watch the sun rise on a grateful universe. The hardest choices require the strongest wills." Thanos replied.
Suddenly, everyone heard snickering and turned their heads to the source of the noise. It was Leyenar. "Well, I've got some bad news for you, Thanny. You messed with the wrong mob. Because we are the Avengers, the best of the best. Cream of the corn on a platinum cob. And we're gonna take those sparkly glowy stones right off your deadly glove thingy and sashay all the way back home."
Once she finished, Iron Man came in hurling a chunk of wreckage, too quickly for Thanos to react. "Piece of cake, Quill." he said.
"Yeah, if your goal was to piss him off!" said Star-Lord as he put on his helmet.
The wreckage on top of Thanos erupted in purple, as he bellowed in rage. He turned the hovering fragments into a flock of bats with the Reality Stone and swarmed Iron Man with them, driving him back through the ruins. Spider-Man webbed his eyes, and swung in to kick him in the face at the same time that Drax leaped from cover, blades in both hands, to knee-slide behind Thanos and try for a tendon slide across the back of the Titan's knee. Dr. Strange jumped through a portal and summoned a sword of golden energy, dueling with Thanos while Drax attacked similarly on his other side. Thanos punched Drax through a ruined wall, then shattered the blade with one hand and tore the web off his eyes. He advanced on Dr. Strange and kicked at him, but Strange's shield absorbed the damage and the Cloak lifted him free of the ground.
Star-Lord had been making his way back on the ground, and shot Thanos from behind. Thanos used the Power Stone to shoot balls of energy at Star-Lord while Star-Lord leapde towards Thanos using magical platforms thrown in his path by Dr. Strange, the last one placed above Thanos' head so Star-Lord could flip over him and slap a mine on Thanos' back. Star-Lord stuck his landing, disengaged his helmet, flipped Thanos a bird and fell backward into a portal. "Boom!" he said.
"Yay!" Leyenar cheered.
"Do not let him close his fist." Strange told the Cloak Of Levitation, and it swooped off Doctor Strange's shoulders, wrapping itself tightly around Thanos' armored hand. The Mad Titan began tugging at this unexpected wrapping while Strange made portals everywhere.
Spider-Man leaped through the portals while simultaneously attacking Thanos, chirping "Magic! More magic! Magic with a kick! Magic with—"
But suddenly, Thanos grabbed him from the air and threw him on the ground, growling "Insect!" He then threw the spider at Strange, knocking them both down. Thanos finally tore the Cloak away and then became promptly surrounded by fiery explosions as Iron Man bombarded him. He sucked all the flame into the gauntlet with the Power Stone and fired it in a stream at Iron Man, hitting him dead on and sending him far away, plowing through a massive fallen machine. Spider-Man leaped from behind, more conventionally this time, while Thanos concentrated his fire on Iron Man, webbed the gauntlet and drops down in front of him, pulling hard—but Thanos yanked on the web-line, pulling the much lighter teenager towards him, and punching him on his way past. He tore the webbing free of the gauntlet just in time for a small spaceship to attempt to crash-land on him. The ship dragged Thanos along for a distance, burying him under debris. He stood back up just as the pilot leaped in a great arc to punch him, landing in front of him with an energy-blade at the ready. It was Nebula.
"Well, well." Thanos muttered at the sight of his "daughter".
"You should have killed me." snarled the blue alien.
Nebula attacked Thanos with her sword. "Where's Gamora?!" she yelled.
And Leyenar knew she had to act—fast! She put Thanos in a little time loop with the Time Stone, rendering him immobile and smiled. "Doc, Mantis, do your stuff."
So Strange opened a portal straight above Thanos, out of which dropped Mantis, landing on the Titan's shoulders, her hands on his temples. He bellowed as she tried to put him under.
"Hold her steady, sir!" Tony told Leyenar as he rejoined the group.
"Don't let up." Leyenar said as she broke the loop, and Star-Lord and Peter rushed in to help Tony and Strange with the gauntlet.
"I thought you'd be harder to catch. For the record, this was my plan. Not so strong now, huh? Where is Gamora?" Star-Lord asked Thanos in a half-mocking tone.
"My...daughter...?" Thanos managed to utter out.
"No, bullshit. Where is she?" Star-Lord asked again.
"He is in anguish." said a shocked Mantis, and Star-Lord smiled triumphantly. Then Mantis began crying, and added "He...he mourns."
"What does this monster have to mourn?" Drax asked.
"Gamora..." Nebula gasped out, worry evident in her voice.
Suddenly, Star-Lord's expression shifted, then said "What?"
"He took her to Vormir. He came back with the Soul Stone... but she didn't." Nebula muttered.
"Okay, Quill, you gotta cool it right now, you understand?" said Tony as he removed his helmet, realizing what was about to happen.
"He's right. I love you, but you've gotta listen to him Right. Now." Leyenar added.
"She's lying...Asshole! Tell me you didn't do it!" Star-Lord yelled, off his rocker.
"Don't tell me you ditched Ronan, I didn't go through hell for you to switch love interests like that!" Leyenar said.
"Well, what if I did?" Star-Lord snapped back. "You might be the director but this doesn't mean you can—"
He was cut off mid-sentence. Leyenar had used the Time Stone to stop time and get Star-Lord away from Thanos. After dragging him to a faraway place, she let time flow again before collapsing to the ground, worn out.
"—toy with our love lives." Star-Lord finished, then saw a worn-out Leyenar next to him.
"You...are...welcome." the young director huffed out, as realization slowly dawned on Star-Lord. She had prevented him from miscalculating and ruining this entire mission. But then, in the distance, something unexpected happened. Thanos had somehow broken free from Mantis's control all by himself and snatched the gauntlet back. Horrified, they quickly got back to where the others were. Peter had just saved Mantis from getting hurt.
Then Thanos kicked Drax off his right leg and into Nebula and Star-Lord, knocking them down. He yanked on the Crimson Bands holding his right hand to throw Dr. Strange far away, and swatted away Iron Man and his repulsor shots. The remaining Guardians jumped up and charged him again, but he fired a pulse of indigo energy at them that knocked the three of them completely unconscious. Iron Man zoomed back in, his nanite arm cannon manifested, and then got head-butted to the ground. Thanos looked at him for a bit, then raised the gauntlet towards Titan's moon. Iron Man stared on, aghast. Thanos used a combination of the Power and Space Stones to shatter the moon's surface, then to bring the debris down on the field of battle at speed. Tony powered out of the way but got caught by a chunk of moon about the size of a baseball field, slamming into the ground. The Guardians went sailing into the air from the rebound.
Back in Wakanda, Shuri was working steadily to complete the Mind Stone's removal; Wanda stood by tensely. The Kingsguard, Borderers and Jabari had little success going against Black Dwarf's chained hammer—he either sent them flying or punched them into the ground. The Black Panther got free of his other sorties, and with a mighty leap, he used all his collected kinetic energy behind a punch that laid the Dwarf flat.
"Come and get some, space dogs!" said Rocket as he found a clear spot, facing another wave of Outriders head-on. The Winter Soldier, having come up behind the not-raccoon, grabbed him with his mechanical arm, holding him at arms length and spun around 540 degrees, firing his own M-249 at the same time. "Come on, get some, get some! Come on, get some!" Rocket continued to yell, then he was dropped and asked the Soldier "How much for the gun?"
"Not for sale." countered the Soldier.
"Alright, then, how much for the arm?" Rocket asked again, only to be brushed off wordlessly. As the Soldier walked away, Rocket vowed "Oh, I'll get that arm."
Meanwhile, Thor was making great progress with Stormbreaker, turning the tides of battle. "New haircut?" asked an exhausted Steve, noticing Thor's new look.
"Notice you've copied my beard." Thor grinned, and Steve face-palmed while Groot skewered three Outriders with his right arm.
"By the way, this is a friend of mine. Tree." said Thor as he introduced Groot.
"I. Am. GROOT!" roared the plant, hoping what he meant to say got through to the others. He was asking if they were going to help him or not.
But Steve said, "I am Steve Rogers.", bemused.
In Shuri's lab, she and Wanda heard a great rumbling from the faraway forest. Wanda looked down over the battlefield, and saw movement through the blazing forest between the troopships and the dome. When the disturbance reaches the edge of the trees, it turned into vast moving mounds of earth that easily bypass the force field and emerge—Threshers, sets of massive, motorized spiked wheels, intended for nothing more than shredding everything in their paths.
"Fall back! Fall back now!" T'Challa ordered.
Wanda watched as at least one set of Threshers separates into individual wheels and starts veering all over the battlefield, and then looked anxiously back at Vision.
"Focus that fire on the left flank, Sam." Rhodey instructed.
"I'm doing it." said Sam. The two fliers used their firepower to crack a Thresher but were unable to find a weak spot, but then the wheel was intercepted by Daisy and quaked apart.
"Oh, no, not today." she remarked.
Black Widow with her escrima sticks and Okoye with her augmented spear drifted together when they suddenly found themselves in the path of a Thresher. Both women cringed at their seemingly inevitable shredding when the Scarlet Witch landed in front of both of them, eyes glowing red, lifting the whole Thresher well clear of the ground. Looking behind her, the friendly forces have scattered and replaced by a charging mob of Outriders—the perfect place to throw a Thresher. Black Widow straightened with a pleased smile, Okoye with an amazed look.
"Why was she up there all this time?" asked the general, a bit ticked off and the Black Order soon told her why. Proxima updated Corvus that Wanda was out fighting, giving said dark warrior the chance to break into Shuri's lab. Sensing the danger, Shuri disconnected her gadgets from Vision, grabbed one of her sonic panther-paws and fired at Glaive, who sent both the princess and a Dora Milaje who was guarding her through the balcony railing and into the main lab floor. However, Vision was not where Corvus Glaive expected to find him. Vision was, in fact, charging at him and knocking him out the window to fall many meters down the face of Mt. Bashenga.
Sam saw it from above and alerted "Guys, we got a Vision situation here." before an Outrider tackled and grounded him.
"Somebody get to Vision!" Steve said.
"On it!" Bruce called out, making a beeline for the synthezoid, having finally figured out how to handle Veronica.
"On my way." Wanda said too, but then she was clobbered by Proxima Midnight's pommel and rolled down into the large ditch from the Thresher before she can move.
"He'll die alone. As will you." said Proxima as she jumped in, but then, a sudden shockwave hit her.
"She's not alone." Daisy insisted.
"She's got help." Nat added as she and Okoye joined in, and the three began attacking Proxima all at once.
Corvus Glaive kicked Vision, knocking him down; as he attempted to rise again, Black Dwarf showed up and swung his hammer in a full arc, throwing Vision even further. The synthezoid painfully started to climb to his feet again when a whooshing overhead interrupts the fight as Bruce Banner landed the Hulkbuster between the aliens and his friend. He took a defensive stance, pointing one hand's repulsor at each. "Oh, no, you don't!" said Bruce. "This isn't going to be like New York, pal. This suit's already kicked the crap out of the Hulk—"
But before he could finish, Black Dwarf grabbed his right arm, causing Bruce to grab the brute's hammer in retaliation. Bruce fired a jet and sent the both of them flying, then the two got into a struggle. "Guys! Vision needs backup now!" Bruce yelled as he was overpowered, then tried to summon the Hulk as his suit had one arm chopped off. "Hulk. Hulk, I know you like making your entrance at the last second, well, this is it, man. This is the last, last second. Ahhhhh! Hulk! Hulk! HULK!"
"NO!" yelled the big green monster.
"Oh, screw you, ya big green asshole! I'll do it myself!" said Bruce, then told his enemy "Come on!" before charging into the alien brute, then jumped into the air and delivered an effective punch with his remaining hand—swat, punch, hammer—except that blow got caught by Black Dwarf who then retaliated with a blow of his own, knocking Bruce flat. The Dwarf changed his left hand armor into a pointed weapon, and lunged forward to deliver a likely fatal blow, when Bruce grabbed the detached Hulkbuster arm out of the water, holding it so his enemy impales that instead, then slapped his hand on the controls. "See you later, Alligator!" he screamed with glee as the repulsors fired, taking Black Dwarf high into the air—high enough, in fact, to intersect the defense dome. The Hulkbuster arm dragged the Dwarf against the field to grotesque destructive effect, ending in a very final explosion.
"Hulk, we got a lot to figure out, pal." said Bruce.
Meanwhile, Proxima was heavily outmatched against Daisy, Wanda, Nat and Okoye. If she managed to dodge one woman's staff, a shockwave sent her into the range of a spear, then eventually, she lost grip of her sword then Wanda sent her flying into an oncoming Thresher, which tore her to pieces.
"You did great." said Daisy.
"Thank you." Wanda said, giving a slight smile.
As for Corvus and Vision, they had gotten into a brief skirmish. Glaive grasped Vision's shoulder and used the leverage to plunge his blade once more into the robot's chest. "I thought you were formidable, machine. But you're dying, like any man." he said, and made a grab for the Mind Stone but then got tackled by Steve.
"Get out of here! Quick!" Steve called to Vision, repelling Glaive's attacks with his arm-shields. Finally, the former captain managed to knock Glaive's weapon out of his hands before he's thrown over a fallen tree and pinned, Glaive's hand at his throat. Even with his physical abilities, Captain America was struggling—until a glaive-blade pierced Glaive's chest, and got pushed all the way through. Vision raised his enemy in a perfect mirror of the first attack on him, and held him for a moment, before dropping Glaive's corpse to one side and collapsing exhaustively.
"I thought I told you to go." said Steve as he helped his friend up.
"We don't trade lives, Captain." Vision said.
On Titan, The remaining Guardians and Avengers were dealing with the gravitic aftermath of dumping a large chunk of moon onto an unstable planet's surface. The unconscious Guardians flew upwards uncontrollably, moon-chunks still making fiery ballistic in-bounds, and random debris and massive rocks floating in any possible direction. Spider-Man was well-equipped to handle this physically, even if he was freaking out emotionally. "I got you! I got you!" Peter cried, as he webbed Mantis, snagged Drax and reeled in Star-Lord. "I'm sorry! I can't remember anybody's names!"
The Cloak of Levitation set Dr. Strange down on a relatively stable outcrop as Thanos extricated himself from rubble. The Sorcerer Supreme made a few passes with his hands, producing the familiar golden magic filigree circles, and slammed his hands down on the rock before him, invoking the Seven Suns of Cinnibus as a lightning-like effect of immense heat jumping from rock to rock until it reaches Thanos, sending him flying but the Mad Titan made use of the erratic gravity to keep control and fire back a blast from the Power Stone. Then Strange blocked the purple plume with a wall of Mirror Dimension, which he then pushed back at Thanos. He shattered the wall with the Power Stone, and suctioned the magic into a miniature black hole with the Space Stone, volleying it back at Dr. Strange. Just in time, Strange raised a shield and changes the dark energy into a swarm of aqua butterflies. Before Thanos can counterattack again, Strange levitated and invokes the Images of Ikonn, giving him many arms like a Hindu deity before dozens of Strange replications rushed away, forming a circular wall around a snarling Thanos. They called cast magical cords, wrapping around Thanos's torso, arms and hands; he struggled to close his gauntleted fist, and used the Soul and Power Stones to discover the real Strange among the many copies, blowing the duplicates away and sending the singular Strange reeling. Reality and Space pulled the doctor forward, Thanos grasping him by the throat once in range. Strange grabbed futilely at Thanos's hand.
"You're full of tricks, wizard." Thanos said, intrigued, then reached for the Eye Of Agamotto. "Yet you never once used your greatest weapon." He snapped the necklace off Strange's neck and found the Eye empty.
Then suddenly, a small rock hit Thanos's back. "Hey!" said a high-pitched female voice, causing the Titan to turn around.
"Ya looking for this?" Leyenar asked, holding up her Infinity Gauntlet with the Time Stone in it. Thanos was a bit taken aback, but not surprised. He had seen her worth.
"You throw another moon at me, and I'm gonna lose it." said a fed-up Tony as he flew in to join the director.
"Stark." said Thanos, seeming to recognize the billionaire.
"You know me?" Tony asked.
"I do." Thanos replied. "You're not the only one cursed with knowledge."
"My only curse is you." said the Iron Man. Small rockets popped out of his back and were launched at the Mad Titan.
The rockets all exploded on target, momentarily shrouding Thanos in smoke. Before it cleared, Iron Man pile-drove into Thanos horizontally, using his single super-jet boot configuration. As he bounced off, he flipped and stuck his landing, immediately re-configuring his boots into ground clamps for stability and his gloves into rocket-driven battering rams, punching Thanos into a ruined wall behind him. Thanos shook it off quickly, reached forward and tore Iron Man's helmet off, revealing Tony's surprised expression before the suit recovered automatically and re-formed his head protection. The Titan made use of the fractional delay and punches back hard, sending Iron Man sliding meters away, giving Thanos time to rip the brace device off the gauntlet. He immediately used the Power Stone to stream furiously lambent energy at his opponent, who made a shield to kneel behind just as instantly, getting pushed back even further by the incredible force. Then Iron Man slid out from behind the shield, letting the angled energy push him away for a faster start, and whipped back to Thanos with full thrusters on; he kicked at the Titan with his left foot, turning the boot into a ground clamp at the same time to pin the gauntlet, and kept on twisting while his left glove became a ram again, slamming into Thanos' face, cutting his cheek.
"All that for a drop of blood?" Thanos said, panting.
He smiled briefly before punching Iron Man, sending him pinwheeling, then began beating him with his fists. Iron Man attempted to block the blows with his forearms, but Thanos is relentless, picking him up by the helmet and blasting his midsection with the Power Stone. The gaps in nanite coverage were now gaping, as the armor lost the ability to recover from the intensity and extent of the damage. Iron Man landed hard from the Power blast, struggled to one knee and fired his right hand repulsor at the inexorable Thanos; the beam got easily deflected by the gauntlet. Tony scrambled to his feet to both feet as the suit tries to complete repairs, adding the beam from his left hand as well. Thanos walked right up to him, and backhands the incomplete helmet completely off Tony's head. He crossed his arms to block a blow from Thanos' gauntlet, and got his left hand caught over his head. In desperation, he formed what's left of his right glove into a short-sword, which is also easily caught by Thanos, snapping it off clean and driving it through Tony's left side. The fight was over.
"Oh, no, Irah!" Leyenar cried, horrified at the sight of her favorite Avenger beaten to a bloody pulp. She ran over to him and told Thanos "Spare him, and I'll hand over the Time Stone."
"Leyenar...don't..." Tony wheezed out.
"Who cares? You're more important than this glowy magic gemstone thingy!" cried the director.
"She's right. I've seen it." Strange joined in.
With tears in her eyes, Leyenar extended her gauntleted hand to Thanos, who pulled out the Time Stone from its socket and placed it in his own gauntlet. "One to go." he said, then opened a portal with the Space Stone to leave.
"Why did you have to do that?" Tony asked Leyenar.
"I'm not losing another Avenger." Leyenar said.
Strange turned to Tony, then said "We're in the endgame now, Shining Lord."
"Hold up. What did you just call me?" Tony said, a bit surprised.
"You'll get to know in due time." said Strange. "For now, all I can say...you're the reincarnation of someone else."
Back in Wakanda, the army of heroes were doing well after Thor's arrival. On the ground, M'Baku and the Jabari warriors were slaughtering Outriders like they were mere animals while Thor, with the aid of the Wakandan Air Force, took down the airships.
Wanda found Vision and landed next to him, asking "Are you OK?"
The robot flinched in pain before he could tell her.
"What? What is it?" Wanda asked.
"He's here." said the robot.
With that, wind picked up. It felt...strange. Eerie. Steve noticed, and warned "Everyone, on my position. We have incoming.".
And, oh boy, was he right. Thanos had arrived.
"Well then. Everyone, stop this son of a bitch !" Rhodey said.
The heroes all began attacking the Mad Titan with everything they had, only to be dropped like flies as Wanda hurried over to Vision. "It's time. They can't stop him, Wanda, but we can." said the synthezoid. "If he gets the stone, half the universe dies. You're not killing me, you're saving lives. Think about that."
"Wanda, do it, we will cover for you." Rhodey said through the comms.
"OK." said the redhead, with tears in her eyes. Red energy fired from her hand to the Mind Stone.
Somehow, Vision felt no pain, knowing his death will allow his friends to live, even as they were currently having the biggest beatings of their lifetimes. Sensing all of her allies down, Wanda had to send a blast at Thanos too, but the Titan was getting closer.
Vision felt it was time to go.
"I love you."
Then the Mind Stone, and Vision, exploded.
Thanos approached a distraught Wanda, and said "I understand, my child. Better than anyone."
"You have no idea." Wanda growled.
"Today, I lost more than you can know. But now is no time to mourn. Now is no time at all." said the purple alien, then used the Time Stone to bring Vision back before ripping the Mind Stone from his forehead.
"No!" Wanda gasped.
Thanos fit the stone into its socket, then raised his hand to snap but he was interrupted by a visibly ticked off Thor. "NO, YOU WON'T !" Thor yelled.
Thor sent Thanos his axe, only for the warlord to counter it with a blast from all six Infinity Stones. The magical axe cut straight through the blast, then got lodged in the Mad Titan's chest.
However, Thanos only smiled, leaving the God Of Thunder puzzled.
"You should have gone for the head." said Thanos.
Then he heckin' snapped.
Thanos found himself in a orange place.
"Hello, father."
It was a little Nebula, just how he found her.
The daughter he had that had so much potential, and he never saw it until it was too late.
"Did you do it?"
A little Gamora came next to her sister, his children in their young forms behind them.
"Yes, son, did you do it ?" Thanos's father stood behind the young ones.
"Yes."
Everyone nodded at him.
"What did it cost ?"
Thanos looked down, his children, including his favorite daughter, were dead, and his whole planet was gone.
"Everything."
End of Part 2