Chapter 104
Rocket had been through a lot of shit. He'd gone through many battles and fights in bars. It came with the job of completing certain deals with dubious levels of legality. And as such, more often than not, he found himself in a skirmish.
Ever since getting involved with the Guardians however, he'd found himself to getting into more and more dangerous fights. But despite his history, he thought of himself as one of the good guys now. He thought of himself as one of the guys who would fight for truth and justice and yada yada, as long as it came with a generous payday.
But the battle against Thanos had been personal. He was in Wakanda when the rest of his team had fought against the Titan on his home planet. He was millions of miles away while they all turned into dust. But the sight of his once best friend and current teenage son turning into dust was not one that he'd be able to forget ever.
He fought with his team as they protected the Reality Stone, desperate to keep it out of Thanos' reach. They fought side by side, as they took out hoards of Chitauri soldiers that came their way, as he shot them with the gun he'd jacked up over the last few days. Wakandian technology had been impressive, to say in the least, especially given the arm that the Princess and the Iron Woman had created it on the planet that the rest of the universe didn't often give much thought to.
He saw Thanos stalk towards them, and there on his gauntlet lay two stones. The Power and the Space. And now he was coming for theirs.
"Daughters," Thanos said as he spotted Gamora and Nebula. "I had hoped you would keep better company than a group of vigilantes for hire, however here we are. Nebula, I am unsurprised about. You always did have a way of disappointing me Daughter. But Gamora? I had hoped for far more from you."
"Do not speak about her like that," Gamora said, rushing to her sister's defence. And sure, the blue half android had fought against them several times. But the devastation she'd felt over the loss of Gamora had been real. She couldn't fake that level of pain.
"I know you have the Reality Stone," Thanos pressed on, "And that you know where the Soul Stone is. Join me, my Daughters. I am going to win this fight. You both know it to be true. So why fight against me? Fight with me, and we'll restore balance to the universe. Create a Utopia. Where the three of us can reside together."
"Except that wasn't what happened last time around, now was it?" Rocket spat out, "You murdered your own daughter to get your hands on the Soul Stone. And you will do it again if you have the chance. Yeah, thanks but no thanks, Buddy. You're not getting your hands on the Soul Stone or the Reality Stone this time around. Not without going through us first."
Thanos looked slightly shaken at the concept that he'd murdered Gamora. And Rocket wanted to laugh. He didn't even say which daughter he'd killed, but it was clear to him that only the loss of one daughter would be painful.
He pitied Nebula. They may have had their issues in the past, but such a callous response was heartbreaking.
"You will not win, Father," Nebula spat out, "You may have tortured me for the information last time, but I wiped my memory chip. Even if you wanted to find it, the location of the Soul Stone is gone from my archives.
None of them mentioned that Gamora still knew where it was.
"I shall find it nonetheless," Thanos shrugged. "Either way, after this battle I will have my hands on five of the Infinity Stones. What is one more in comparison?"
"Even at the cost of your own daughter's life?" Peter Quill spat out. "Man, my father was bad, but dude you're just as awful."
"It is the price I must pay," Thanos said, looking regretfully at Gamora. She was the one who had the Reality Stone on her, tucked safely in her pocket in its casing, and it would be her Thanos would have to go through. While he may not hesitate to kill the rest of them, they hoped he'd show a bit more restraint at the moment towards killing his favourite child.
"But you shall not pay it," Nebula screamed, as she charged at him, weapons drawn, and landed a strike against his face.
A small cut appeared, as she drew blood from the attack. And yet, he did not flinch.
"All that for a drop a of blood," Thanos smirked. "I thought I taught you better, Daughter. This is fighting with emotion. You must be better if you want to defeat me."
He lifted her up by the neck and tossed her body to the ground as she lay there motionless.
"We shall end you, Thanos!" Drax roared, and together, they charged at the man, aiming attack after attack against the Mad Titan.
He dodged them one by one, as he threw them off to the side callously.
Drax was the first to be thrown backwards, and as he hit the ground with a loud sound, Rocket could see that he'd lost consciousness.
Groot was next to go down, as he attempted to wrap his branches against the Titan to hold him steady as one branch attempted to pry the gauntlet off his wrist. But with a pulse of energy from the Power Stone, Groot's branches withdrew, singed by the power and looking burnt.
"I am Groot," his friend said in pain, as he fell over.
Mantis and Quill charged him in sync, while she attempted to wrap her legs around the Titan while Quill distracted him, to which Quill received a punch in the face and Mantis was swatted like a bug.
Leaving him and Gamora.
He nodded at the woman as he ran towards the man, shooting him with everything he had, as the bullets were absorbed by the Power Stone. They, instead, were retired back at him through the Space Stone, and he felt a growing pain in his stomach.
He looked down and saw that he'd been shot back by his own bullets.
"Oh boy," he said, as he fell to the ground. The world became blurry around him, and the last thing he remembered seeing was Thanos standing over Gamora's body, plucking the Reality Stone from her and placing it into the gauntlet.
Ava's fingers moved across the keyboard faster than she thought she's ever typed before. Time was of the essence and she knew they didn't have long before the battle broke away from outside the compound and came to them. Already the defences of the Compound were starting to wear thin, and she knew that they needed to get the Mind Stone out of Vision's head as soon as possible.
They wouldn't have long. They'd been working straight for the last few days, only stopping when necessary to break for food or sleep. There were probably a few hundred synaptic connections left to program and she knew they'd be able to get through them soon enough.
She just hoped it gave them enough time to get the Stone out of Vision's head.
"Almost there," Shuri grimaced as they heard a thud from outside the room. Her fingers continued to fly across the keyboard, despite the pain and exhaustion they were feeling.
She'd apparently tried to do this once before, but she hadn't been fast enough then.
She would not fail this time around.
"And done," Ava said, as she connected the final synapse away from the stone and to the other parts of the code.
The lasers above them began to move, as the Stone was extracted from Vision's head.
"How do you feel, Vision?" Bruce asked the Android carefully as Vision sat up on the operating bed.
"I feel…different," Vision commented, "The loss from the power of the Mind Stone is noticeable. However, I feel more in tune with the rest of my programming. It is like my coding is running in unison without dissonance."
"That's good," Ava told him encouragingly. "Now, we need to get this stone to Wanda. She may be the only one who can destroy it."
"Wouldn't that be a waste?" a deep voice commented, and they turned to see the doors to the lab forced open as the Dora Milaje lay on the ground, dead. In the excitement of the Stone's removal, it seemed as if none of them had noticed their guest.
"Thanos," Bruce said flatly in recognition, being the one who'd seen him before.
"I see we too have met," Thanos said, seeming more interested than anything else. "Tell me, what was it that you lost that was so great that you stooped to this?"
"All that matters is that we all will win this time around," Ava cut in. "You won't get your hands on the Stone."
"Are you going to stop me?" Thanos grinned, "I already have three of them. Do you really think I will not be able to get the fourth?"
She looked at his gauntlet and sure enough there were the stones that Thor and Loki, as well as the Guardians had been protected.
She prayed that they were all still alive.
"Be that as it may, you will not touch this Stone, Destroyer," Shuri said firmly.
"We'll see about that," Thanos said, stepping forward.
Shuri picked up two guns and began shooting it at him, and Thanos used the power of the Reality Stone to turn each bullet into birds as they flew away. He turned on her then, as he used the same stone to wrap her up in branches and hold her firmly in place.
Well, this would not go well.
She forced the lab into a lock down state, and glass split the room in two, as Thanos stood across from them.
Thanos smirked and the glass turned into a million ants, crawling away.
She tried not to let out a startled squeal, as she began typing frantically. They needed to get the Stones off his Gauntlet and perhaps she could use some of the tech in the lab to do so. She sent some of the moving arms in the lab to try and hold him back, while one began prying on the Gauntlet.
"Do you think these machines can hold me?" Thanos laughed, as the Power Stone shined brightly, as the power surge caused the machines to short circuit.
She stood in front of the Stone.
"Vision, get it out of here now," she told her grand-nephew, but before Vision could fly away, he was held in stasis by the Space Stone.
"You mean to stand against me?" Thanos asked her, "You are a brave one. You remind me of my daughter. Feisty and strong. If I had found you as a child, I would have raised you as my own, and you could have been powerful."
"I'm pretty happy with the parents I had, thanks," she spat out. She wouldn't trade Peggy or Daniel Carter-Sousa for the world.
He backhanded her, before hitting her again but this time with the Power Stone, and she flew backwards as she crashed into the wall.
"Ava!" Bruce screamed, and she felt her head grow fuzzy. She looked up to see Thanos pluck the stone right out of Vision's hand.
"Are you going to stand against me?" Thanos laughed at Vision and Bruce. "A broken machine and a man without any weapons."
"Oh, but you just hurt the woman I love," Bruce growled, and she saw his flesh begin to green. "And I do not take too kindly to that."
She watched as her former boyfriend turned into the Hulk, and Thanos stared at him in fascination.
"And what are you supposed to be?" Thanos asked him, as he pointed the gauntlet at Hulk.
"Don't touch Ava!" Hulk roared in response instead, using far more words she'd ever heard him use before.
He charged at Thanos, and she watched as the two stumbled out of the Compound window and straight into the battleground, before she lost consciousness from the pain.
Toni flew across the field watching the carnage around her.
It was terrifying to see everyone give it their all against the Chitauri and Thanos and still be struggling to try and hold their own.
Through JARVIS, she'd found out that three of the stones they possessed had made their way into Thanos' care, and that they were next.
They'd gone from having four Infinity Stones to one. And now Thanos had four of his own, and he had no qualms wielding any of the Stones against them.
He'd won the first time around by using the Stones against them after all. When she'd fought Thanos on Titan, he'd had four of the stones on him then as well.
How many of her friends were still standing? Were any of them hurt? How many wouldn't live to see it past the fight?
"THANOS!" Thor roared, as he landed in the middle of the field, filled with fury and rare, as his lightning took out the nearby Chitauri warriors. "Come fight me you coward!"
"That can't be good," Steve said in her ear, and she agreed as she blasted away a hoard heading straight towards Peter.
"Thanks Mom!" Peter said, as he webbed up a few of the aliens himself.
"Looks like you guys can use some help," she heard a familiar voice say, and looked up in surprise to see the RESCUE suit in front of her.
When she'd first come up with suit designs for Pepper and Ava, both her friends had been sceptical. Neither were fighters and neither planned on fighting any time soon. But while Ava had her mother's training behind her, Pepper had no self defense.
So with a bit of coaxing between her and Rhodey, they'd managed to convince the woman to have a suit available for her in case of life threatening emergencies.
"Pep?" Rhodey asked his fiancé in surprise, "What are you doing here?"
"Peter was right when he said this was as big of a battle as it got," Pepper said, flying alongside her and Rhodey. "It didn't feel right to leave the fighting to you all while I stayed behind. I asked your Aunt and Uncle to watch Morgan. I hope that's alright?"
"Of course," she said quickly, grateful for all the help they could get.
She saw Captain Marvel send a powered blast towards one of the alien ships, as she brought it crumbling down to the ground.
"THANOS!" Thor screamed again.
"He's coming," Sam gave them the heads up, and she circled back towards where Thor was standing, as she landed beside him. Steve stood on his other side, and they were quickly joined by the twins, Danvers, Peter, Sam, Rhodey, Natasha, Harry, and Doctor Strange, who held the Time Stone close to his chest.
"We'll keep the Chitahuri at bay," Hope told them, as she and Scott fought the nearby aliens, alongside the Wakandian soldiers and the Asgardians that Thor had managed to get to fight by their side.
"I see you've come to make a final stand against me," Thanos said, sounding amused, "Do you really think you can stop me?
"You took everything from us once," Wanda said, sounding particularly unhappy about Vision's fate in the original timeline, "You will not succeed again."
"Is that so?" Thanos asked her with a laugh, "I do not even know who you are. But I beat three of your teams so far and each one crumbled. What chance do you stand?"
"Perhaps we don't stand any at all," Toni said. "But it doesn't mean we won't fight you."
"Antonia Stark," Thanos said her name, "I wondered when I'd fight against you. From the stories, I thought you'd be far more formidable. Instead you are just a girl in a suit."
"Woman," she smirked back.
"THANOS!" Hulk's roar sounded out as her friend charged onto the field. She didn't want to ask what triggered his transformation after all this time.
"Seems like you pissed a lot of people off," she told him, "It's not too late to give us the Stones and to go back to where you came from."
"Never!" Thanos roared out. "I will not run away like a scared child from a fight.
"Oh?" she asked him, "Well, then I'd brace yourself."
Hulk approached then and sent a punch Thanos' way, knocking him backwards. Thor flew into the air then, as he gathered lightning from the air around him, and sent a pulse straight at the fallen Titan.
Thanos wince in pain, and she flew in shooting alongside Rhodey, as Thanos' struggled to block all the attacks at once.
He may have the Stones, but there were still far more of them than there were of him. If they could send enough attacks his way, then they may be able to stand a chance in fighting him. They may be able to beat the Mad Titan.
Natasha and Harry began chucking knives at him, as Bucky sent his own gunshots the man's way.
Thanos grabbed them both as he sent them back with the Power Stone and used the Reality stone to crush Bucky's gun and wrap the three of them in the rocks from the ground.
Peter send a web to cover the Stones, and Thanos was left scrambling to grab the webbing off the gauntlet, leaving her and Steve time to swoop in and attack. She flew in as she grabbed a hold of him and flew him backwards, while Steve sent the shield at him, causing a dent in the Titan's armour.
Thor used the hammer again, as he managed to land a cut on the Titan's leg, which wasn't clean enough to cut the leg off but one which left him unable to move.
"You will not win this fight," Thor told him with fury. "You have harmed so many people. You will not harm anymore."
"You will not defeat me!" Thanos screamed through the pain as he charged at them again, only for Wanda to wrap him up in a ball of magic, while Strange blocked the use of the Power stone from hitting Sam.
Pietro ran in, as he attempted to grab the gauntlet off of Thanos' arm with his super speed before the Titan was any the wiser, but unfortunately for him, he'd barely managed to loosen the gauntlet before the Space Stone was used to send him to the edges of the fight and his legs were turned to rubber.
Pepper and Rhodey flew at him, as the couple shot him with the rocket launchers she'd placed in their suits. Each shot was enough to cause Thanos to wince in pain, and she used the opportunity to fly in herself, as she used her nanobots to lock Thanos' feet in place.
They needed to stop him from using the Stones. They needed to get the stones away from Thanos. The fight wouldn't end until Thanos was dead, and even then, there were still thousands of Chitauri soldiers surrounding them. The fight wouldn't be over until they were all gone.
Or sent away.
A plan began to formulate in her head, as she saw Hulk and Thor go at Thanos again. Hulk took advantage of the Titan's trapped legs as be began pounding against him, and Thor used the opportunity to send a burst of lightning through him, weakening his strength.
But still, all of it would be for nothing if Thanos managed to use the Stones to heal himself. To win the fight. They would lose again. All of it would have been for nothing. All the time travel, the planning, the pain. They'd go through it all over again.
And there was no guarantee who would survive the Snap this time around.
If Thanos were to be believed she was sure none of them would make it through the fight successfully. She was sure they would all perish this time around so nothing would be able to stop Thanos from his victory once more.
Which would mean that there were no more do overs. There were no more chances. No more attempts to make it right.
This was it.
Their final stand.
And if they lost this fight, then they would lose for good.
Toni wasn't sure they could afford to take that chance. Not when there was so much on the line. Not when she could lose her children once more. Vision once more. And Aristotle forbid, her own husband. She couldn't lose them. She wouldn't lose them. No matter what it took they had to win this fight. Regardless of what the cost was.
Regardless of if the cost were her own life.
They'd hypothesized about it. About who would be able to wield the power of the Infinity Stones and survive it.
They'd hypothesized that Bruce would be fine. He'd survived the radiation from his accident, and the theory was that Hulk would keep him safe if he were the one to do the Snapping this time around.
They also thought that perhaps Thor would survive as well. He was used to wielding large quantities of power every time he channelled lightning through his body. He channelled it through his very being, without an iota of consequence.
Steve had gone through the initial transformation from the Serum, and his body was able to recover from nearly anything. And Peter had survived a radioactive spider bite. So potentially, the two of them would also be able to risk the Snap.
Though she was unwilling to test any of those theories, she was especially unwilling to test the final two theories. She would not lose her son or husband because they were the ones who snapped their fingers.
She knew that neither of them would forgive her either for what she was considering, however she knew that they had to do this.
Strange had told them they'd only won one of the versions of the future he'd seen. And perhaps this was it.
He had meditated again once she'd told him what had happened to see the possible outcomes, and the Wizard had been tight lipped in telling her whether they were following the course of that one winning timeline or not.
She saw Peter be thrown backwards, as Rhodey scooped him up before he crashed into the ground.
Steve still had fight in him, but she could tell her husband was getting worn out.
Sam's wings had long since turned into rubber, grounding him. And Wanda's magic was no match for the four stones Thanos was wielding.
"Strange I need the Stone," she told the man, and he looked at her scrutinizingly. "You know what it is that I must do. Let me do it."
She expected a protest, given how uneager he was to part with the stone, and she waws half convinced that she would need to convince him to do so.
He nodded at her, as he removed the Stone from the Eye of Agamotto, and it embedded itself in deep within her gauntlet. If she'd had any doubts about this being the right course of action before, him handing over the Stone all but confirmed to her that this was what needed to be done to ensure their victory. She just hoped she didn't mess it up.
She had nanobots cover up the Time Stone embedded in her gauntlet up so that Thanos didn't see it coming.
She took a deep breath.
She'd had pre-recorded messages for both Steve, Morgan, and Peter in the case that something happened to her. She knew it wouldn't make up for any of it, not by a longshot. It wouldn't make up for all the future moments to come that she would be missing.
"I'm sorry," she whispered, knowing that none of them would be able to hear her.
"Miss," JARVIS said, and she closed her eyes. One of her oldest children. There for her each time she thought she was going to die, "I'm here."
And now he'd be with her when she actually did.
"I'm sorry, Baby," she told him, "I love you all so much. Thank you for everything that you've done for me. For always being there for me. I love you."
"It was an honour being by your side," JARVIS told her, "I'll take care of all of them. You need not worry."
She saw Thor go down, as Thanos captured all the lightning that Thor had thrown his way and channelled it back at him with raw energy that he couldn't absorb.
This was their only choice.
She looked over at her husband, "I love you," she told him on their comms via a private line, and she saw him freeze, sensing that something was about to happen. She knew that there would be no coming back from this. The minute she set out on this course of action it would be the end.
She sent for an extra set of nanobots, knowing she'd need all the bots she could to do what it was that she'd able to do. The nanobots attached themselves to her reactor, and she braced herself.
She was a Stark.
And Starks were made of Iron.
They did not break.
They did not bend.
She would not let them lose.
She wondered if every moment in her life had led her here.
Every failure. Every triumph. Every loss. Every victory.
Everything in her life had given her the strength to be here. The love of her family. The need to constantly do better.
To thrive. To create. To build. To make.
Every single thing had led her to this moment. Every single thing had brough her to this final fight.
She knew she wouldn't survive this. But she would have to try anyways.
She flew at Thanos, giving it her all, as she tried to land a punch straight into Thanos face.
Instead, he caught her fist with his Gauntlet arm.
Bingo.
She knew they'd never be able to get the Gauntlet off of his arm. They'd tried that countless times, failing every single time they'd attempted it.
But that didn't mean they couldn't get the Stones off the Gauntlet.
"Extraction has begun," JARVIS said in her ear, and she knew she need to keep Thanos distracted. So she held on while he squeezed her fist tightly.
"Did you really believe that would work?" Thanos laughed at her, as he tossed her to the side. "Don't you not know yet, Stark? I am inevitable."
He snapped his fingers meaning to channel the power of the Stones that he had straight at her. She could see the others brace themselves for what was to come.
And instead, he was met with nothing.
She smiled back at him as she removed the mask covering her face. She wanted him to look straight into her eyes.
"And I am Iron Woman," she told him with a smile, as she flashed her armour covered hand back at him, with five Infinity Stones glimmering straight back at him.
"No!" Thanos screamed, at the same time as her husband, as he realized what she was about to do.
She hoped they would all forgive her when this was through.
She snapped her fingers.
She prayed for it to all be over. For everyone on their side to be okay. Restored to what they were before they went against Thanos and the Chitauri. She prayed for the army of aliens to fall before them. For Thanos to be defeated.
They didn't have the Soul Stone this time around. They didn't have the same level of power that Thanos had when he'd snapped the universe away. She wasn't even sure this would work. But she had to give it her all when it was their best chance to defeat Thanos once and for all.
And one by one, the Chitauri ships disappeared, as Thanos was left without an army. He fell to the ground as well, writhing in agony, similar to the pain he'd caused billions around the universe.
They didn't turn to dust this time around. There wasn't enough power to wipe out their existence. Instead, their lifeless bodies crumpled to the ground.
But when everything was said and done and the battle was won, Toni Stark-Rogers was gone.
A/N: And the Avengers have defeated Thanos! But at what cost?
