Chapter 96
The journey hadn't taken more than a couple of hours, and in her head, she had been running different scenarios and possible plays for when they fought Thanos. While she may have had her AIs to help her on Earth, she was far from her home planet, and it was up to her to do all the calculations on her own.
"Hey, what's going on?" Peter asked, and she looked up to see the ship approaching the surface of a planet.
"I think we're here," Strange said, as he gave her a nod. But the ship didn't slow.
"I don't think this ship has a self-park function," she said urgently. Meaning they'd all crash unless she parked the ship. She turned to Peter, "Get your hand into this steering gimbal. Close those around it. You understand? This was made for one big guy, so we got to move at the exact same time."
Just how big was Thanos exactly?
"Okay. Okay. Ready," Peter said, as they both locked into the rigs.
The ship came closer to a set of spikes, and she heard Peter get frantic.
"We might wanna turn. Turn! Turn! Turn!" Peter said quickly, and she suited up, as the ship clipped one of the formations. Peter's mask slipped over his face, and Doctor Strange threw up a protection shield around them all.
She felt the impact as the ship split apart, and she fell to the ground, loosened from the steering mechanism.
"You alright?" Strange asked her, as he helped her to her feet.
She glanced over at Peter, before answering, and saw him hanging upside down from a web.
"That was a close one," she answered him in relief as she saw her son was okay, "I owe you one."
"Let me just say, if aliens wind up implanting eggs in my chest or something, and I eat one of you, I'm sorry," Peter rambled, and she felt her tension lighten up ever so slightly.
"Are you just a walking pop culture reference?" Strange asked him in confusion.
"I'm trying to say something is coming!" Peter said urgently, and she immediately turned, but not before a grenade landed between the three of them.
She flew off her feet and landed backwards.
"THANOS!" A greyish alien screamed out, as he threw a blade at Strange. The man deflected it, as the Cloak flew after him, covering his face.
There was a small group of them, but she wondered just how many more of Thanos' men would be sent her way.
She flew up after the man with the rocket boots and face mask as she shot a rocket at him. The man hit part of the ship and she used his disorientation to throw him to the ground. He pressed a button then, and something that had been attached to her suit without her notice lit up and pulled her towards the wall.
"Ah! Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa! PLEASE DON'T PUT YOUR EGGS IN ME!" she heard Peter yell.
"Stay down, clown!" the male who had been fighting her kicked him to the ground. Peter webbed himself upwards as the male began shooting at him. Peter's six-legged attachment came out, as the male threw a cord around him to contain him and aimed a gun at his head.
"Stay away from my son!" She screamed as she dislodged herself and raised a gun to his head.
"What do you mean you son?" The male asked, as he took off his helmet. He looked suspiciously human. "You have a spider for a son?"
She pointed a thruster at him, and he took the gun off Peter and aimed it at her.
"Okay, whoa. Let's just chill the fuck out," the man said, "I'm gonna ask you this one time. Where's Gamora?"
Her own helmet came off, "How about I do you one better? Who is Gamora?" she asked, wondering what in the hell was going on.
"I'll do you one even better!" the man who had been fighting Strange's cloak said. "Why is Gamora?!"
If the man was fazed by his friend's questions, he didn't say anything.
"Tell me where the girl is, or I swear to you, I'm gonna French-fry this little freak," he pointed his gun at her son again.
"If you as much as touch a hair on my son's head, none of you are going to make it off this ship alive," she said calmly without even blinking. She raised another thruster at the grey alien.
"Do it, Quill! I can take it," The grey monster said again.
"No, he can't take it!" the female one said, and finally someone without testosterone controlling their actions.
"She's right. You can't," Strange confirmed.
"Oh yeah? You don't wanna tell me where she is? That's fine. I'll kill all three of you and beat it out of Thanos myself," the man said, as he waved the gun at Peter. "Starting with you."
And suddenly it clicked in her head. They didn't work for Thanos. They wanted to fight him.
"Wait, what?" Strange asked, clearly understanding the same thing. "Thanos? Alright, let me ask you this one time: What master do you serve?"
"What master do I serve?" The man mocked, "What am I supposed to say? 'Jesus'?"
"You're from Earth," She said simply.
"I'm not from Earth. I'm from Missouri," the man argued.
Oh Darwin help her, he was an idiot.
"Yeah that's on Earth," she said with a sigh. "Okay here's what's going to happen. Clearly. you're not with Thanos. Neither are we. So put down your gun and stop threatening my son. Then we'll talk."
"So, you're not with Thanos?" Peter said in disappointment, and she wanted to glare at him. Now was not the time.
"With Thanos?" The man looked appalled, "No, I'm here to kill Thanos! He took my girl- Wai- who are you?"
Peter took off his own helmet, "We're the Avengers, man."
The man deflated.
"You're the ones Thor told us about!" the female alien said excitedly.
"You know Thor?" she asked, wanting to know what they knew. Because if Thor trusted these aliens and apparently human, then they must be somewhat reasonable, right?
"Yeah. Tall guy, not that good-looking, needed saving," the man said, clearly feeling emasculated by the Asgardian God.
"Where is he now?" Strange asked them.
"He went to get a new weapon to defeat Thor," the female said again, and Toni nodded, as she helped her son to his feet.
"Okay," she said, "Here's what's going to happen. We're going to get off this ship. I don't know how stable it is, and if it will explode, and if it does, I don't was us anywhere near it. Next, we're going to regroup. Clearly, we all want the same thing. Thanos defeated. Thanos will be coming back here. And when he does, we'll need to be ready."
"Who put you in charge?" the other man glared at her.
"Well I figured someone with an IQ above 30 should lead," she said simply, "Besides, as long as Thanos is defeated, isn't that all that matters? So yeah, I'm putting myself in charge. But we need each other if we're going to have any chance at defeating Thanos. You want to get your girl back. We want to get home to a planet that will exist with all its inhabitants after this. So why not work together."
"The human has a point," the male alien said, "I thought all humans were dumb like you Quill. How come these ones are smarter?"
"Most likely had to do with when he left the planet," Strange said coolly. "I'm assuming you haven't been back to Earth in a few years."
"Try ever," Quill said, as he followed them off the ship, he pulled out a device as he started scanning the planet. "Not since I left anyways. The heck happened to this planet? It's eight degrees off its axis. Gravitational pull is all over the place."
The female, Mantis, as she was being called looked like an innocent child, jumping all over the place due to the low gravity of the planet.
Peter was no better, and she knew he was living his inner Star Wars fantasies about being here.
She looked around as well, taking everything in. But now was not the time to fangirl about being on a new planet, now-matter how excited Peter looked as well at the concept.
"Okay," she exhaled, as they made their way over to a piece of land to regroup together, "The way I see it, we got one advantage. He's coming to us. We'll use it."
She looked around, and saw Mantis and Quill looking over at her.
"All right, I have a plan. Or at least the beginnings of one. It's pretty simple. We draw him in, pin him down, get what we need. Definitely don't wanna dance with this guy. We just want the gauntlet," she finished, and the grey alien, Drax, yawned.
She stared at him.
Did he seriously do that?
No one had yawned when she spoke since grade school when people were trying to teach her the place they thought she deserved; below them.
"Excuse me?" she asked in disbelief. "Are you yawning? In the middle of this, while I'm breaking it down? Huh? Did you hear what I said?"
"I stopped listening after you said, 'We need a plan'," Drax shrugged unapologetically.
Wow looks like being an asshole was not only a trait that humans possessed.
She turned to Quill, who appeared to be their leader, "Okay, I guess, Mr. Clean is on his own page."
"See, not winging it isn't really what they do," he shrugged, as if he were used to it.
Dear Chatterjee, how on Earth did they ever get anything accomplished?
They seemed to be the most disorganized group she'd ever met.
"Uh, what exactly is it that they do?" Peter asked, all but raising a hand.
"Kick names, take ass," Mantis said seriously, as Peter tried very hard not to giggle.
Drax agreed, "Yeah, that's right!"
She sighed deeply.
Okay.
She could do this. "Alright, just get over here, please. Mr. Lord, can you get your folks to circle up?"
She said his name with heavy sarcasm, that clearly went over his head.
"Mr. Lord," Peter let out a disbelieving noise, "Star-Lord is fine."
"Mm hm, fine. We gotta coalesce. 'Cause if all we come at him with is a plucky attitude..."
"Dude, don't call us plucky," Quill said, and honestly she wondered if he had any education at all. "We don't know what it means. Alright, we're optimistic, yes. I like your plan. Except it sucks, so let me do the plan, and that way it might be really good."
"Tell him about the dance-off to save the universe," Drax bellowed, and she nearly face palmed.
They weren't serious.
Were they?
Perhaps if this were fiction, she'd enjoy the movie.
But this was real life.
They were not going to have a dance-off with Thanos.
"What dance-off?" she asked, slowly.
"It's not a... it's not... it's nothing," Quill said, embarrassed.
"Like in Footloose, the movie?" Peter, the ever-loving pop culture reference nerd, asked.
Quill lit up, "Exactly like Footloose. Is it still the greatest movie in history?"
"It never was," Peter smirked.
Quill looked at him like a kicked puppy.
"Please stop," she asked her son, "We do not want to encourage this."
"Okay," Peter conceded, and she knew the two were waiting to be able to get back to talking about pop culture.
"We're getting no help from Flash Gordon here," she sighed.
"Flash Gordon? By the way, that's a compliment. Don't forget, I'm half human," he said pointing at the two of them. "So that 50% of me that's stupid? That's 100% you."
She wanted to laugh.
She had how many PhDs?
And this man had the nerve to compare the two of them.
"Your math is blowing my mind," she deadpanned.
"Excuse me," Mantis said, cutting off their banter, as she pointed at Strange, who'd been quiet for quite some time. "Does your friend often do that?"
She looked over to where he was sitting cross-legged, as he floated above the ground. The Time Stone around his neck was glowing, as he closed his eyes, and his head jerked rapidly from side to side.
"Strange!" she called out to him, "Are you alright?"
He snapped out of it then, as he fell back to the rock he had been hovering over and looked like he'd gone through something major.
"Hey," she said, trying to relax him, "You're back. You're alright. You're here, okay?"
He looked up at her.
"Hey, what was that?" Peter asked, as he came over to them.
Strange panted, "I went forward in time to view alternate futures. To see all the possible outcomes of the coming conflict."
Quill looked interested in that, "How many did you see?" he asked.
"Fourteen million six hundred and five," Strange answered.
"How many did we win," she asked the question she'd been dreading.
Strange looked in her eyes intently, as he paused, as if to think about what he wanted to say.
"One."
Ava got off the landed quinjet and exhaled. The trip to Wakanda had been quiet for the most part and she didn't blame anyone. There wasn't a lot to say, what with Toni off in Space with Peter and Steve being absolutely gutted over it.
And Bruce was back.
She had caught him looking her way a few times but neither of them had managed to successfully start the conversation. But how did one question their ex-boyfriend and former love of their life about where they'd been for the last few years?
She shook her head. Now was not the time for this. Thanos' army would be back for Vision. The most important thing was protecting her grand-nephew at all costs. They needed to get that stone out of her head no matter what.
"Seems like I'm always thanking you for something," Steve told T'Challa gratefully as he shook hands with the man.
Ava looked around, and there were several Dora Milaje following closely behind him.
"We are here to assist, Captain," T'Challa told him, "Shuri is waiting in the lab, so Miss Carter-Sousa you may join her in getting the procedure started."
The Wakandian King beckoned for them to follow him, "How big of an assault can we expect?"
Bruce answered that question, "Uh, Sir, I think you can expect quite a big assault," Bruce said, clearly unsure of how to address the king.
"How we looking?" Natasha asked, as she looked over Wakanda.
"You will have my Kingsguard, the Border tribe, the For a Milaje and-" he cut off, gesturing to a man approaching them.
"A semi-stable, hundred-year-old man," Bucky said with a smile as he hugged Steve.
For the first time since Toni's disappearance, she saw Steve smile.
"How you been, Buck?" Steve asked him.
"Not bad," he responded, looking a lot better than he had the last time they'd talked. Wakanda had been good for her other ex. "For the end of the world."
"James," she said giving him a nod, and he softened as he looked over at her.
"Ava," he said, not hugging her, and she was grateful. Because she really didn't know how to feel about seeing both her exes again in such a short period of time. Especially given she most likely would not have seen either of them if it were not for the looming threat of Thanos.
Bruce looked at them both, and she could see a sense of understanding dawn on his face, as he realized Ava and James had dated while he'd been gone.
"We should get to the lab," Harry said, sensing her uncomfortableness, and she smiled at him gratefully. He wrapped an arm around her as they followed T'Challa inside into Shuri's labs.
The labs, simply put, were incredible. Ava had seen them over the video chats they'd had before but it was nothing in comparison to seeing it in real life. She could see why Peter loved talking science with Shuri because the girl had already started getting to work the minute the entered.
"We need to think about strategy," Steve told T'Challa, "Ava, Bruce, can you handle it here while we look at the defensive structures?"
She nodded, and Steve left the room with the King, leaving just her, Bruce, Shuri, Wanda, and Vision in the room.
"Vision, you must try and see if there is an alternative," JARVIS told him, and she looked up to see Toni's first AI and his son engaging in a conversation.
"You know as well as I do that there is no other options, Father," Vision said, closing his eyes. "From a logical perspective, destroying the stone at all costs is the only option."
"And yet, I find myself unable to be willing to accept that as the only choice," JARVIS said, voice heavier than she'd ever heard it before, "I have initiated the backup of your code online. However I insist that you must try and find another alternative before you seek destruction. I do not know if the backup would be sufficient in the case of the stone's destruction while it still resides within you."
Vision closed his eyes, but nodded in agreement, as he allowed Wanda to guide him.
He lied down on the bed, as Shuri scanned over him with one of her kimoyo beads, before she flipped her hand over and a hologram similar to the ones Toni used in the lab projected over her palm.
"Whoa," she commented, "The structure is polymorphic."
"Right, we had to attach each neuron non-sequentially," Bruce answered as he glanced over at Ava.
"Why didn't you just reprogram the synapses to work collectively?" Shuri asked, as if it were the simplest thing in the world, and Ava grinned.
"Because we did not think of it," Ava commented to the child genius.
"I'm sure you did your best," Shuri reassured them. "I am going to begin scanning so I can get an estimation of how much work needs to be done. From what I can see, it will take a bit to calibrate. So I'm going to go over here to work with Vision. In the meantime, I suggest the two of you talk. I can sense the tension from here, and it's making it rather difficult to focus."
She shook her head, "I'm not sure now is the best time."
"Why not?" Shuri asked her simply, "The computer is running the simulation to ensure this will work. Wanda is with him for moral support and I am looking over the numbers. There is nothing for the two of you to assist with until the simulation is complete."
She sighed, but agreed, as she and Bruce walked over to a corner of the room. She supposed it was only a matter of time before she and him finally had that talk.
She crossed her arms, as she looked over at Bruce.
"Space?" she asked him. "There was no where on Earth you could run away to? What were you thinking? We have no idea what space is like! What planets are inhabitable or where there is life! What if something happened to you? What if you'd been hurt?"
"I wasn't thinking," he admitted. "I wasn't even in charge for the last three years. Hulk was."
"You're telling me Hulk took you both out of the Earth's atmosphere," she asked him in disbelief.
"Yes," he said simply. He paused, before meeting her eyes, "I'm not going to deny that I was always going to run. After Johannesburg, I felt so ashamed of what we'd done. We'd hurt so many innocent people, Ava. And it was a nightmare. After joining the Avengers, I finally felt like the two of us could help people. Like we could make a difference. And instead, I hurt them. Again. Like I always did. I couldn't take the chance that I hurt you."
"It wasn't you," she shook her head, "I saw the reports, Bruce. Wanda had messed with your mind. She admitted it during the trial. She wanted to make amends with you, but you were gone. I'm sure she will want to make them to you after this is all over. It wasn't you who hurt those people."
"It doesn't matter," he said sadly, "I can see that we weren't the reason for the attack, but we still attacked. And Hulk wanted to leave. He'd felt betrayed by Natasha, as had I, and I'm not sure why we ended up in space, or how we ended up in space. All I know is that he thought everyone hated him, and when I finally got control again of us, we were in a planet called Sakaar where Hulk had been some sort of warrior champion for the past few years. Thor played a soundbite on the ship. Of you singing. Apparently Toni had it on the ship alongside some other memories, and it brought me back. I found out how much time had passed, and I was devastated, Ava."
She softened slightly at that.
"I'll tell you all about Asgard after and everything that happened there. But I want you to know that I never meant for this to happen. I never meant to hurt you. I just wanted to keep you safe. I know that you moved on with Barnes, and I don't hold that against you. How could I when I'm the one who left you?" he asked her, "But I want you to know that I still love you. I've always loved you. You and Toni have never seen me as a monster. But you're the one who loved me anyways."
She went to say something, but he shook his head, "I don't have any expectations from you. I don't expect you to tell me that you feel the same way. I know none of this has been easy for you. I just want you to know that I'm here to stay. And that I'm not going anywhere."
The simulation completed then, saving her from having to answer. But she gave Bruce a soft look, knowing he truly did mean what he had said.
They made their way back over to where Shuri was, as Steve, T'Challa, and the guards re-entered the room, having gotten the notification from Shuri that the assessment was complete.
"Can you do it?" Wanda asked, anxiously, as Pietro placed a hand on her shoulder. "Can you get the stone out of him?"
"Yes, but there are more than two trillion neurons here. One misalignment could cause a cascade of circuit failures," Shuri said, as she glanced at the holograms again, before looking over at T'Challa, "It will take time, brother."
"How long?" Steve asked her.
"As long as you can give me," she answered.
"Okay," Steve exhaled, "Ava, Bruce, I'm assuming you're going to stay and help?"
"Yes," Ava nodded in agreement. She may not want to spend time with Bruce but Vision was family. Saving him was the priority. Beyond anything else.
Okoye's own kimoyo beads chimed in alarm then, and the woman flicked a bead into her palm. The bead projected a globe with a pulsing location marker.
"Something's entered the atmosphere," she said, seriously.
"Hey, Cap," Wilson came over the comms, "We got a situation over here."
"God, I love this place," Bucky remarked in response to something, and she glanced outside to see Wakanda's protective barrier be struck.
"Yeah, don't start celebrating yet, guys. We got more incoming outside the dome," Rhodey said to them.
She could see ships landing outside the perimeter, and saw Steve and T'Challa exchange a look.
"It's too late. We need to destroy the stone now," Vision said, trying to sit up in protest.
"Vision, get your ass back on the table," Natasha told him seriously.
"We will hold them off," T'Challa said as he and the guards headed towards the door.
Steve looked over at Wanda, "As soon as the stone's out of his head, you blow it to hell."
She nodded seriously, "I will."
"Evacuate the city. Engage all defense procedures," T'Challa said, as he turned to Steve, "Time to get your shield."
The warriors left the room, and she stayed behind, with only Bruce, Wanda, Vision, and Shuri.
"Time to get to work," Shuri said, as she began typing on her keyboard to recalibrate the synapses.
She took over one of the keyboards, as Bruce the other, and the three of them began working to reprogram Vision.
She just hoped they would be fast enough.
Steve looked out over the treeline as the ships moved towards the barrier. It was holding for now, but he knew it wouldn't be for long.
"How we looking, Bruce?" Natasha asked, as Bruce wore the Hulkbuster. He'd opted to join them, knowing they needed all the manpower they could get. The synapses for Vision were being recreated mostly by computers in a way he didn't understand, and Ava and Shuri had stayed behind to supervise.
"I think I'm getting the hang of it!" Bruce said, a little excitedly, "It's like being the Hulk without actually…" he cut off as he tripped on a rock, "…I'm okay. I'm okay."
"I got two heat signatures breaking through the tree line," Rhodey said, as he and Sam flew over them.
The ships reached the barrier and the warriors jumped out of the ship and into a formation as they began chanting.
Erik Killmonger stood at the front of the pack, leading the chants and T'Challa nodded to him as they approached.
He walked over to the barrier to meet Thanos' warriors, followed by Natasha and T'Challa.
"Where's your other friend?" Natasha asked the man, despite knowing the answer.
"You will pay for his life with yours. Thanos will have that stone," the female alien warrior said.
"That's not gonna happen," Steve told them firmly.
"You are in Wakanda now. Thanos will have nothing but dust and blood," T'Challa added.
"We have blood to spare," the female alien said, unworried.
She raised her sword up with a snarl, and the ship behind her began to rise, as soldiers poured out of it.
He walked back to the troops, knowing there would be no peace between them.
"Did they surrender?" Bucky asked, sardonically.
"Not exactly," he retorted.
He could see the alien soldiers moving through the treeline and knew it wouldn't be long now.
"Yibambe!" T'Challa chanted and his warriors responded to the call.
"What the hell," Bucky said, as they saw the sheer number of warriors coming their way.
"Looks like we pissed her off," Natasha said, as she smirked over at Harry.
They began tearing through towards the protective barrier, as their limbs were dismembered by the shield.
"They're killing themselves," Okoye said, horrified.
But despite the pain, a few made it through.
They began shooting at the ones that came towards them.
"You seen the teeth on those things?" Sam asked over the comms, as he shot at them.
"Alright, back up, Sam. You're gonna get your wings singed," Rhodey warned the man.
They could see a few move across the perimeter line and Bruce spoke anxiously.
"Cap, if these things circle the perimeter and get in behind us," he started, "Then there's nothing between them and Vision."
"Then we better keep them in front of us," he said grimly.
"How do we do that?" Okoye asked, and he closed his eyes, knowing he wouldn't quite like the answer.
"We open the barrier," T'Challa said, understanding. "On my signal, open North-West Section Seventeen."
"This will be the end of Wakanda," M'Baku said as he looked over at Okoye.
"Then it will be the noblest ending in history," Okoye nodded.
He raised his shield, as T'Challa yelled, "Wakanda forever!" he screamed, and together the troops ran towards the barrier.
He watched as it fell, as he threw himself into the midst of the alien soliders, knocking out as many as he could.
"How much longer, Shuri?" T'Challa asked his sister.
"We've barely begun, Brother," she responded back.
"You might want to pick up the pace," T'Challa grunted.
There were so many of them, and he could tell that they were barely holding on. It was hard not to feel overwhelmed by the sheer numbers.
"There's too many of them!" Bruce screamed out, as Rhodey was knocked out of the sky by the large alien leader's hammer.
He felt himself get piled up by several of the alien creatures, as he struggled to get them off, and he felt the sentiment.
The sky lit up then, as a rainbow beam appeared, and he watched as the aliens were thrown off of him by a bright blue lightning bolt.
He rolled over, as a grateful smile filled his face. He saw Thor standing there, as the rainbow light faded away, grabbing his new weapon in his hand, as he stood there in front of them.
The fighting around them stopped, for a moment, and he knew everyone was looking at the newly arrive trio, out of curiosity, out of gratitude, and out of relief, as the alien creatures looked a little confused.
Bruce's armour opened up so he could yell out at the alien creatures, "Ahahaha! You guys are so screwed now!" he screamed, out of excitement and relief that the Norse God was alive and had joined them.
The sentiment echoed among them, as a new wave of energy broke amongst the group.
There was a raccoon and what looked like to be a standing tree creature beside the Asgardian man, and he knew there would be plenty of time to ask questions about it later.
"Bring me Thanos!" Thor screamed, lightning radiating off of his body as he launched himself into the air, throwing himself right into the midst of where the creatures were, as his landing created a crater where they once had stood.
He nodded in agreement, as he threw himself back into the fight, re-energized by the joining of their teammate in their fight, as for the first time since the barrier was brought down, he felt a wave of hope that they would stand a chance in this fight.
And hopefully, just hopefully, there would be enough time for Shuri and Ava to get the stone out of Vision's head and destroyed before Thanos got to it. And if they could do that, then they truly may stand a chance in being able to win this fight.
He just prayed that wherever Toni and Peter were, that they were doing alright.
