Twenty-Two - The End

Avengers Facility Ruins, Upstate New York - Earth

2023

"It's my birthday! It's my birthday!"

Bursts of colourful fireworks filled the air as a new ship descended down upon the battlefield - this one round and painted yellow and red.

"No," cried Thor.

"It's the Grandmaster orgy ship!" cried Bruce.

The door slid open and out stepped the Grandmaster himself, Taneleer Tivan right beside him.

"Brother, hand me the Melt Stick."

Tivan gave a dramatic roll of his eyes as he passed his brother his staff.

"Alright now." En tapped the top part of the staff against his palm, almost impatiently. "Now, now, this is not just a capital offence, but an offense on many, many levels. So many."

"Enough talking, more fighting," urged Tivan.

"We could do that. I'm good with that."

"My friends!" Adonia strode over to them, arms outstretched. "Glad you could join us."

"Darling! You think we'd be kept out of all the fun?"

"Well come on then, the battle is nearly won!"

Carol descended down to the battlefield and landed before the frightened Peter, who was laying on the ground hugging the Gauntlet with all his might. "Hi... I'm Peter... Parker..."

"Hey Peter Parker. You got something for me?"

He handed over the Gauntlet - gladly. "I don't know how you're going to get through all that," he said, nodding towards the charging army. "I mean, you did just crush that spaceship, but..."

"Don't worry." Wanda landed beside them, follow by the other ladies - all the other ladies.

"She's got help," said Okoye.

"Lots of it," finished Kalyna.

"We'll clear at path for you," Nora told her girlfriend.

Carol took the Gauntlet and blasted forward - heading right for the open van, the time machine ready to go. Thanos charged towards her, giant double-bladed sword in hand, but Pepper, Shuri, and Nebula backed her up, firing a three-way blast at the charging Titan. Carol whipped past him, but he launched his blade ahead of her which directly struck the van. The blast from the destruction of the quantum tunnel sent everyone flying back back.

The Gauntlet had fallen from Carol's grasp in the blast and now lay out in the open. Thanos charged towards it - Tony slamming into him to keep him away from the Stones. Thanos responded by punching Tony back, both Thor and Cap jumping in this time, working together to try and disarm him. Though weaponless now, the Titan proved no less fierce a foe.

Carol threw herself at him, trying to keep the Gauntlet and Stones out of his grasp. He tossed her aside He managed to take up the Gauntlet, slipping it on - the energy charged up his arms, the glow pulsing through his veins.

But right before he could snap - again - Carol jumped back into the fight, grabbing ahold of the gauntlet on his arm. The energy around her glowed as she tried to use her powers to crush the Gauntlet. He however, removed the Power Stone and used it to cast her away with a forceful purple blast, before returning it to the Gauntlet and moving to snap again.

Tony jumped in once more, grabbing the gauntlet in both hands and pulling with all his might, trying desperately to yank it off the Titan's arm. But Thanos only punched him down again.

"Hey!" Suddenly, Kass appeared, having de-activated the Invisi-tech. "Hands off of my man," she hissed.

She was instantly backed-up by her fellow look-alikes, all seven of the other ladies diving in at once and surrounding the Titan. Their joined might as the Infinity Gauntlet proved overwhelming, but they still couldn't manage to remove the Gauntlet from Thanos's arm.

They all stepped back to make way for Adonia as she approached. She held up her fist, her set of Stones floating around it. In return, Thanos held up his now armored fist, his Stones glowing as well.

Two sets of Stones.

For a long, silent beat they both stood staring at each other, staring each other down, both armed with the same power. Then-

"Mama."

A new voice spoke. Her breath caught in her throat as she slowly turned around. "Thane?"

Her young son stood behind her, looking so small and vulnerable in the middle of the battlefield. She stopped to stand before him, but did not reach out to him, knowing that he wouldn't really be there. "It's a cruel trick," she said, following a moment of silence.

"It is."

"Making one relive what could have been. What once was..." She knew it couldn't have been real, not really.

Thanos clenched his fist bearing the Gauntlet, the red glow of the Reality Stone illuminating, and in a flash of red, before her eyes, the memory of their son vanished. Thane was gone once more - he had always been gone.

Now she clenched her own fist with the Stones. Her eyes glowed red, she now projecting a vision.

Another memory. One of them sharing a tender moment following one of their early balancing missions, both removing their helmets to stare at one another in a calm moment following the chaos of the invasion.

"I knew in my heart you still cared, My Love."

"You're right, I do care. That is why this will be difficult." The red glow in her eyes dimmed and then fully faded, and the memory was gone. "Surrender the Stones."

"You know I cannot do that. Now when I finally have them within my grasp - literally."

"I know. And how far are you willing to go to keep them?"

"You know that as well."

"I do: infinity."

One multi-coloured blast from each set of six Stones shot forward, meeting in the middle in an intense surge of energy that illuminated the entire battlefield.

The blast gave off an incredible amount of power from this paradox, something that had never before occurred, and may never occur again.

Keep him distracted just long enough for-

She abruptly cut off her blast of Stone energy, sending his own blast right back at him, stunning him for just long enough for Tony to dive in one last time, once again going right for the Gauntlet and attempting to yank it off of Thanos's arm.

Thanos backhanded him away and Adonia stood still as he raised his arm.

"I am inevitable-" Snap!

Click!

There was no blinding flash, no blast of energy, not this time. There was only a faint metallic sound.

Confused, Thanos glanced down at his arm - the Gauntlet still covered it, like a new piece of armour, but, he found, when he turned it over, all six Stones were gone, had vanished.

But they hadn't gone far...

A groan turned everyone's attention to where Tony now knelt, multi-coloured energy crawling up the arm of his suit from the Stones, forming his own sort of temporary Gauntlet.

"And I - I am Iron Man..."

SNAP!

"NO-" Kass's scream was drowned out by the blast as he gave a single swift snap of his fingers.

Two sets of Infinity Stones?! Epic!

Ugh, now we get into the sad ending :( I'm sorry, but you knew it was on the horizon...

Thank you so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed as always! :)