N POV
Nebula looked up as Gamora- Past Gamora- walked in.
"Tell me something." Gamora said staring at her, a cold look in her eyes. "In the future, what happens to you and me?"
"I tried to kill you." Nebula admitted bluntly. "Several times."
She remembered fighting her on Ego. She could still remember the strange rush of catharsis that overwhelmed her when she saw Gamora's life in her hands. When she saw Gamora's fear in her eyes. After a lifetime, she had finally beat Gamora in combat.
"But eventually, we become friends. We become sisters."
'You'll always be my sister.' Gamora said softly as she hugged her. After a moment, Nebula would embrace her.
After a long day of intense training shortly after Thanos death, her robotic arm had short circuited. Nebula tried to fix it herself, but after an hour or so of pestering, let Piper work on it.
Nebula told her stories of Gamora. Piper told her stories of Peter.
'Looks like we're both missing siblings then.' Piper noted as she tinkered. 'We could be sisters in arms if you want?'
'Sister in arms?' Nebula asked.
'Do they not have that phrase in space?'
Nebula shook her head.
'Well it's a way of saying we've fought together and would trust each other in battle. That you have my respect.'
Gamora walked closer to her. "Who was that girl? The one that killed Thanos?"
"Piper. See uses the alias Arachne though. She cut off Thanos head for killing her brother. When I learned Thanos killed you, I wanted to be the one to end him, but she beat me to it."
"Come on." Gamora reached down to her. "Thanos wants her dead. We can stop him."
Nebula stared for a moment. How many times had she rejected her offer before.
Nebula firmly grabbed Gamora's arm. "Let's."
PP POV
Piper groaned as she lifted the rubble off herself.
This is why you never underestimate your spidey sense! She yelled to herself as she leaned against the rubble of the former Compound, coughing. In the distance she saw a blue beam shoot down into the field. Thanos has just arrived. She could feel her blood boiling and her teeth grind together at the sight of Nebula walking toward him.
She betrayed them. She would make her suffer for this.
"Piper?" Thor walking over to her.
"Where are the others?" She asked looking back toward Thanos.
"Not sure."
"Thanos doesn't have the stones." Piper pointed out as she turned back to Thanos who was sitting on a rock, his helmet and double sword next to him. Nebula now walking away.
"Let's keep it that way then." Thor said next to her.
Screams filled the city. Screams of terror. Screams of grief. 'It'll be al-' Piles of dust.
"I'm going to kill him." Piper promised as she stalked forward only stopping when a hand fell on her shoulder.
"You already killed him." Thor pointed out pulling her back to his side.
"Then I'll do it again."
"What's he been doing?" Steve asked. as he and Tony approached. She rushed to hug him.
"Comms are done, Fri's working on it." Tony put a hand on her shoulder, he said as they separated, looking back to Thanos . "But they'll be alright."
"Where are the stones?" Steve asked.
"Lost somewhere under all this." Piper said emotionlessly. He was smiling the last time she saw him. "All I know is he doesn't have them."
"So we keep it that way." Thor said.
"You know it's a trap, right?" Steve asked.
"I don't care much." Thor said,
"Good." Piper said leading the way down. "Just as long as we're all in agreement."
"Let's kill him properly this time." Thor said summoning his hammer and his ax. Lightning surrounded him making his armor appear and braiding his beard before walking down.
"You could not live with your own failure." Thanos said as they neared. "Where did that bring you? Back to me. I thought by eliminating half of life, the other half would thrive. But you've shown me, that's impossible. And as long as there are those that remember what was-"
Piper rolled her eyes as she shot a web at his mouth. His glare deepened at her. "I don't care." She spat. "There's no excuse for genocide."
Thanos stood, ripping the web off with one hand as he put his helmet on with the other.
"Piper." He spat.
"You know me?" She asked genuinely confused as Tony stepped slightly in front of her. She didn't think an evil space dictator would've heard of a single girl from Earth.
"The girl who would kill me." He grabbed his double blade sword. So he knows what happened, but how?
"The girl who did kill you." Tony spat.
"A weaker me." He glared at Piper. "That won't give her the chance."
Tony shoved Piper out of the way as he lifted a shield, taking the brunt of Thanos strike.
Piper slid a few feet before moving to rush into the fray, only to stop as Thor placed a hand on her shoulder.
"Piper." Thor ordered as Steve joined the fray. "Find the stones."
"But-"
"GO!"
Piper hesitated looking to Tony who was in mid-combat.
"I'll be back as soon as I can." She promised before she ran off in the direction she saw Nebula go in.
TS POV
He was good.
Tony could still remember that day on Titan as they attacked him all at once he was still too powerful.
Now as he batted one of them away, the others would attack and it still wasn't enough.
His blood boiled as Thanos continued monologue-ing.
"I will shred this universe down to it's last atom. And then with the stones you've collected for me, create a new one, teeming with life that know not what it's lost but only what it has been given. A grateful universe."
He thought of Happy, Rhodey and Pepper who were all spared from the first snap. Who got a chance to continue living. He thought of Morgan, Piper, Peter and Harley. His children, two of which he lost. He would protect them. Even if it cost his own life.
The next few minutes were a flurry of movements. He slashed as him with an armor sword, ducking to avoid his own, before flying to the air and hitting him with a blast as Thor and Steve tried brute force.
He landed on the ground, opening several panels. "Alright Thor hit me!"
Thor yelled as he shot lightning through his suit, causing enough power to fuel almost every blaster he had at Thanos-
Who swung his sword to use as a shield before picking him up and using him as a shield as Thor threw his hammer at him.
Tony felt himself hit the ground before blacking out.
SR POV
Steve ignored his instinct to check on Tony as he rushed towards the Titan-
Only to be tossed aside like a bug. His shield taking most of the punch, but still flying through several boulders.
Get up! He yelled at himself. Get up!
He struggled to get to his knees as he heard Thanos and Thor's fight continue.
Suddenly, Thor's cries turned into screams of pain. He got to his feet in time to see Thor's hammer had been thrown at Thanos.
"Am I always picking up after you boys?" Steve looked over as Natasha caught the hammer. Where had she been?
Thanos growled before rushing to her. Steve threw his shield at Thanos knocking him back several feet.
Steve threw his shield again, this time Nat threw the hammer causing a blast that knocked Thanos to his knees. The two objects separated, Nat catching the shield as he caught the hammer. Well then...
The next several moments turned into a marathon of them trading the weapons and hitting Thanos with them. Steve even summoning lightning to hit him. Suddenly, Nat and the hammer were tossed aside. Thanos repeatedly swung his blade at him, cracking his shield in half down the was kicked further from Thanos.
He shakily pushed himself up. He looked up he saw a large army of Chitauri, Outriders and Leviathan forming behind Thanos.
"Well this is horrible." Nat noted as she came to stand next to him.
"We can't let him win." Steve said breathlessly. "We can't give up."
"Who said anything about giving up?" Nat asked. "Besides, where else am I going to get a view like this?"
PP POV
She shot her webs at a high piece of debris as she looked for the traitorous she- bot.
She swung down when she saw a small explosion. If Nebula killed anyone, she was going to rip her apart piece by piece. She'd leave her eyes for last, so she can watch.
She followed her through a debris tunnel to see her standing over Clint, gauntlet in her hands. "Father I have the stones."
She shot a web at the gauntlet, pulling it away from her. "No you don't." She felt her eyes heat up. "How could you do this to us? This isn't you."
"You don't have to do this." Clint agreed even as Nebula aimed her space gun at her.
"I am..." Nebula seemed to hesitate. "This."
"No you're not." She turned to see... Nebula and a green woman staring at them, both of them aiming weapons at the other Nebula.
"Nebula?" Piper questioned seeing this one had a familiar metal arm.
"You've seen what we become." Nebula spoke gently to the other.
"You're from the past." Piper realized looking to the Nebula
"Nebula listen to her." The green woman begged. "You can change."
"He won't let me." Nebula said but Piper saw the quiver in her stance. It reminded her of the Draco-Dumbledore scene. "Father wants her dead."
"But you haven't taken the shot." Piper said gently, putting down the gauntlet, before walking closer. "You don't have to be what he wants you to be. You decide what you want to be."
Her gaze softened slightly. "Sister in arms." Her eyes snapped into focus as she moved her aim ever so slightly and shot.
"NO!" Green woman yelled as Piper shot webs at both her's and Present Nebula's guns to the wall before they could shot the other Nebula.
They turned in time to see an Outrider fall to the ground with a screech, a hole in its chest.
"You trusted me?" The past Nebula said softly.
"Now help us kill Thanos." Piper said holding a hand out to her. After a moment she took it.
"This is great and all." Clint said picking up the gauntlet as they let their hands go. "But we have an end of the world crisis going on."
"Universe." Past Nebula corrected. "He's going to wipe out all of the universe, and recreate it."
Peter. Harry. Morgan. She can't and won't lose them.
"First, I need a way to tell y' all apart." Piper gestured between the two Nebula's.
One of them pushed a button on her wrist changing her outfit to purple with no sleeves, and took off her golden headpiece handing it to the other Nebula who was in red with one long sleeve and on metallic arm, and now a golden headpiece.
"Better?" Present Nebula asked.
"Very." The green woman rolled her eyes.
"We got to go." Piper urged. "Tony, Steve and Thor were fighting Thanos."
"And you left them?" Present Nebula asked as they ran, Piper leading.
"I killed Thanos when I was 16, surely three grown men could handle him."
"No." The three space woman said simultaneously.
"I'm Piper by the way."
"Gamora." The green woman replied as Piper jumped onto a pile of debris and pulled them out of the tunnel.
"Gamora your sister?" She asked Present Nebula who nodded. "Gamora, the Moron's lover?"
"The moron's what?" Gamora demanded.
"Later." Present Nebula dismissed as they arrived on the battlefield to see Thanos army of millions of creatures and hundreds of flying creatures.
"Shit." Clint swore.
"There should be an escape pod somewhere if you want to run." Past Nebula suggested as she and Present Nebula synced up their comms.
"My father's down there." Piper said eyes scanning for the familiar armor as she stepped forward. "I will not lose anymore family."
She stopped when a cold hand grabbed her arm. She looked up to Present Nebula.
"I understand why you want to fight. But not even we stand a chance against that."
'-Cap you hear me?' A man's voice spoke through the comm.
"Who is that?" Gamora asked.
'Cap it's Sam. Can you hear me?'
"It worked." Clint said a breathless laugh. "We got everyone back."
'On your left.'
They stood awed as hundreds of portals opened letting in hundreds of fighters, sorcerers and several familiar faces.
"How about now?" Piper smirked to them. Suddenly a giant Scott burst through the rubble.
'Avengers!' Steve yelled over the field. 'Assemble!'
/
AN:
So not a lot happened in this one.
But guess what?! Natasha's worthy! In my head she's been spending a good portion of her life atoning for the sins of her past. I think this would be a way for her to forgive herself.
And I'm keeping past Nebula alive too. While I understand why she died in the movie, I thought it would've been interesting to see her interact with present a little more.
Yeah, I know everyone seems to be living. But then again it's fan fiction!
Thank you to all the people who reviewed.
AlchemyWriter: I'm glad you like my loophole. Several of my teachers always said I had an eye for diction.
19vanelkc: LOL. I'm sorry I wasn't expecting that strong of a reaction.
GhostCastle16: Not going to lie I seriously considered killing Piper when writing that scene. Like originally the plan was for Clint and Nat to deliver the news that Piper sacrificed herself, skip over the final battle and then a couple of chapters of angst. But now the plan is for spoilers-spoilers-spoilers and then spoilers. LOL. I went with James Franco version of Harry Osborn. And your English seems good to me.
Grazi: I hope you'll like both of their reactions. As for Tony's fate... Spoilers.
kaia: Aww thanks. I'll try. As for which Harry did I use, I used James Franco. He was my childhood Harry. And probably the first time I understood what a character with shades of gray looked like. That may be important to keep note of.
As always thank you for reading. Please enjoy and review. Thank you.
Bye.