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The Hulk roars, and Thanos readies the purple orb. Clint fires off arrow after arrow.
Scott shakes his head, his face ghastly pale and covered in sweat. "He'll kill him before he even—"
"Not just that; he has them all!" Natasha can't stand it. "He has all of the gems; everybody's wasting their time—" The air's so still. It feels like wind should be howling, the fabric of this place should be pulling apart because everything's about to crumple, cave in and sit as an ash heap, and offering to Death itself, something that could not care less about any offerings or anything, not even the lives it willingly gobbles up. What kind of being loves nothing?
"You need to distract Bruce," Scott pants, clutching her shoulder. "Both of you—but Natasha—"
"If I get close I can do it."
"You'll die!" Clint shouts over his shoulder. "I can—"
"We always work together," Natasha points out. "What are you planning, Scott?"
"What, you don't trust me?" He smirks.
"I don't trust anybody." But I trust you. And Clint, and Bucky and Steve and Tony. All of you.
You're my friends.
"Can I get a ride?" Scott asks Clint, nodding at his arrows.
Screw this. Natasha charges forward, leaping over fallen rocks and crumpled mortar. "Bruce!" she calls.
A Chitauri shot lands in her shoulder, and Natasha stumbles. She pushes herself on, lungs screaming and burning. Arrows fly nearby—Clint's giving her cover—
"Bruce. Come on," Natasha wheezes, staggering closer. Her arm throbs; she feels woozy. Am I bleeding?
He turns to her, growling. In the distance, Natasha sees Thanos, that purple monster. He's watching with interest, like their pigs he's about to slaughter. Natasha pushes him from her mind as she reaches out towards the Hulk.
You're always Bruce. But she can't have Bruce now. Damn pragmatism. Damn survival instincts.
An arrow shoots into Bruce's shoulder. The Hulk howls, yanking it out and crumpling it.
Well, Scott, you better have been off it by then.
"Get the purple guy," Natasha tells Bruce. Scott, get the gems. Though how he can—
Bruce lunges upwards, clawing and pulling his way up to the place where Thanos sits. The Titan climbs off his chair, eyes solemn, but a deranged grin sliding over his face as his fingers loosen—
"Not so fast, you giant, ugly grape!"
Bruce roars again, but beside him Scott surges into Giant-Man. Snarling, the Hulk throws himself at Thanos, pummeling, and the purple gem sails through the air. Scott tosses it to her.
"Don't throw it, you imbecile!" Clint screams from behind her.
Don't touch it! Natasha reminds herself, whipping out one of the containers Gamora had given them. One down.
A boulder crashes down. Natasha barely dives out of the way as Scott pries what looks to be another stone—
And there are no more arrows.
"Clint!"
"Come on, man," Scott pants, clutching the last two gems as he slides down towards Clint. A boulder rests on his legs, and Clint's face is twisted in pain. "Hold on."
"Where's—"
"Bruce is still fighting—he got the last gems, really—"
Clint moans.
"No, don't you do that!" Scott shouts, dropping down next to Clint. "Stay with me, man. You gotta stay with me. For Laura, for Lila and Cooper and Nathaniel. We both gotta make it back to our kids—I promised Cassie—"
"Get out of here, then," Clint wheezes. "I'm not gonna be able to walk—"
"I don't care. I can't just leave you—Laura would kill me, okay?" Scott tries desperately to keep Clint alert, keep his eyes focused.
If he wants any chance of moving this blasted boulder, he'll have to blow himself up to giant size.
And if he does that, Thanos will see and obliterate him. And probably Clint.
There aren't other options.
Scott steps back.
"What are you doing?" gasps Clint. "Don't—"
A flash of red, white and blue, black, and silver. Steve, Natasha, and Bucky.
"You're helping me?" Clint, face smeared with dirt and dried blood, gapes up at Bucky.
Bucky frowns as if to say of course.
"No one ever told me you Avengers were so slow," complains Scott, but he's so happy to see them he could kiss them.
"You're an Avenger too," Natasha tells him, rolling her eyes as she glances at Clint. Her lips tremble.
"I'm not dying," Clint rasps.
"Good. I don't have to kill you then."
Scott kneels to help shift the boulder. Clint lets out a gasp of pain. His legs are both bent in unnatural lines. Scott scrambles and grabs his shoulders.
"Here." Natasha grabs Clint under his knees. Clint's face screws up in agony.
"We'll give you cover," Bucky tells them.
Natasha nods.
Scott and Natasha race through the broken terrain, searching for better cover. Flashes of blue light—shots of some kind—fly around them. Natasha grits her teeth as if she's been hit, but Scott doesn't have time to stop—can't ask questions—they'll die if he wastes his breath on a question—
"Shit!" Scott finally gasps as they lower Clint to the ground below what looks like a large rocky outcropping.
"Stay with him," Natasha orders. "Please."
"I will," Scott promises as she looks down at Clint's face. Her eyes looks like they could cry, but there are no tears. "You?"
"I'm going back to help Bucky and Steve," Natasha says.
"They aren't behind us?"
She shakes her head.
"Too much fire," gasps Steve. "Sam can't fly over in this."
"We'll make it." Bucky ducks behind a rock, gravel digging into his side, his hands. Expertly, he picks off a line of Chitauri firing at the Guardians, at Thor.
"Good shot," Steve says.
Bucky swallows. The Winter Soldier's always been a part of you.
This is different. War, not murder.
What's war except murder for ideological causes?
This time, though, Bucky has a choice. And whether it's right or wrong, he doesn't know, but he's choosing to save his friends, save the universe. He'll deal with the consequences of killing these Chitauri later.
"Did we get the gems?"
"Think so!" Steve says. Hope so is what he means.
"If we did this can't last much longer!" They need to move further away from Thanos. If they can, because they can't make Thor wait to use the Gauntlet. Not with so many lives at stake.
What do theirs even matter?
Steve meets Bucky's eyes, and Bucky knows he's thought the same thing.
We're probably going to die here.
"It's okay," Steve pants.
Bucky thinks of Natasha, his heart pounding and blood rushing through him. He doesn't want to leave her alone.
She'd be okay. He clings to that thought.
But he'd rather be a part of that okay.
A light flashes above them. Bucky's head snaps back.
Stark.
"Tony," Steve chokes out, dust flying through the air.
"Didn't think I was going to leave you here to die, did you? Sam's busy," Tony adds as he lands. "Suit's taken a few shots that I'll expect you both to pay to repair."
You're helping me too? Bucky can't understand it. Don't you hate me?
You care about Steve more, Bucky realizes. Finally.
"We can't fly out," Steve pants. "You'll get shot down."
"And you'll both get hit," Tony agrees. "Good thing the Guardians are giving the Chitauri another distraction."
"What?" Bucky asks.
"They're charging up there to fight them."
"That's suicidal."
"Eh, Gamora knows what she's doing." Tony shrugs.
They're risking their lives for us, and they barely know us. Bucky swallows.
"We've got to—" Steve starts, but then a flash of light cuts him off. He clutches his side, right below his heart, and doubles over. "I'm all right."
"Uh, no you're not," Tony stammers, grabbing one of Steve's shoulders as Bucky grabs the other. Blood seeps through, and Steve meets Bucky's eyes. So many questions stir, but he can't manage to speak.
"Hold on," Bucky pleads, lowering him to the ground. Everything feels cold—the air, his blood, his clothes, the ground. He presses against the wound, but the blood seeps through, jarringly warm. No. No no no no no. Please.
Steve's gasping already, and Bucky can't—he can't let his friend die. Not now. Not this way. There's an answer—there has to be—why does his brain feel like cobwebs occlude any rational thought?
"We need to get him to Thor, or Loki," Bucky ekes out, meeting Tony's eyes. "They're—"
Tony nods, his face ashen. "Stay with me, Steve," he orders, voice trembling and hand pressing, pressing against the wound, next to Bucky's. "You better freaking stay with me, man. Hold on. Dammit!" Tears are streaming down his face already.
It's not over yet. Steve's breath gurgles, but it's there, and it's pumping life into Bucky as well. "We've got to take a chance. If I—you don't have to, but we've got to try—"
"We'll both try." Tony grabs the jacket Bucky's already yanked off and stuffs it into the wound. Steve moans. "Oh my God, you actually feel pain?"
Trying to keep things light. Steve almost smiles, and Bucky shakes his head. "Let's do this." He grabs Steve's knees, Tony his shoulders, and they push through the battle together, shots whizzing around them, trying to grab either of them, take them down, but none of it matters. Both only focus on saving their friend.
As shots steam towards them, Bucky grabs Steve's shield with one arm and blocks them.
Death's in his hand, and everyone's expecting him to use it. The Warriors Three, his lifelong friends, the woman who loves him and whom he loves. His brother, his friends who've saved his life and whose lives he's saved so many times.
With one final blow, Thanos sends the Hulk reeling. Bruce lands on his neck and Natasha cries out.
"Just use the power stone," shouts Loki. "The purple one. Or the Aether; you're more familiar with that. Or the Tessaract. Pick one!"
The spider kid hobbles over, face bruised and eyes terrified. Blood streams from a gash over Sif's eyes. T'Challa and Gamora help Starlord stagger, his leg bent at a nauseating angle.
"Thor Odinson." Thanos's voice echoes, and it seems like everything else draws to a standstill. Dread hovers in the air.
"You got something to say?" hollers Drax. "So do we!"
"We do?" pants T'Challa.
"You killed my family! You killed her family!" He points to Gamora. "And hers." Nebula, who appears atop an overhang, covered in grime. "You tortured them, and him." Loki, whose face pales. "You—"
"Why do you try to avoid Death?" Thanos asks, directing his eyes to Thor. His gaze cuts to Thor's spine. "It comes for everyone, even Asgardians."
"Because life's funner?" gasps Starlord.
"Everything great that you've built—your Earth, your Asgard—it'll all become dust eventually. Why do you even want to prolong something that won't last?"
Everyone looks to Thor. Should he have an answer? Because he doesn't.
"Because—it's—" Thor struggles. "Good. It's good."
"Your humans are slaughtering each other daily. Your Asgardians are in turmoil because their king is dead—thanks to the Frost Giant he tried to show mercy to."
Loki flinches.
"Shut up," Thor orders. "You will never speak about my brother—"
"He isn't—"
"And I'm not your daughter!" Gamora yells.
"I never was," Nebula agrees.
"Life is good," Thor says, anger surging through him, familiar anger that boils and churns. "People—humans, Asgardians, Jotuns—whatever you are, Gamora, Nebula—they're good."
"Which is why you seek out special powers to protect yourselves," Thanos scoffs. He smirks at Wanda, who appears with red glowing in her eyes and in her hands.
"A desire for vengeance and death brought me to that," Wanda says. "And now I use it for good. Like you never will."
"Yeah, someone once told me that with great power comes great responsibility," chimes in the spider kid.
"You don't have any Infinity Gems," Thor informs him. "You surrender now, or I will destroy you."
"Why are we giving me that chance?" grunts Drax.
Thanos smiles, a leering grin. "I do."
Vision.
That wasn't part of the plan. Thor glances to Wanda, who watches in anguish as Thanos grabs the man—cyborg?—man away from the Chitauri dragging him. His hand descends to Vision's skull.
"No!" screams Wanda.
"I'm warning you, Thanos," Thor shouts, heart in his throat.
"He exists because you are only capable of creating monsters."
"Except him?" snaps Sif.
"Your hawk's legs are crushed. Your captain's bleeding out."
Steve. No.
Loki meets Thor's eyes, panic screeching. Sam stumbles backwards and flies off. Thanks a lot. But Thor doesn't blame him. He needs to find Steve.
"None of you know how to create anything good. You're all—"
"We screw up a lot, yeah," agrees Rhodey. "But we try damn hard, and that's where you're wrong. Trying is good. We get happiness and we get love and we get each other, sometimes for too short a time, but we get it anyways. We try."
Wanda's lips move as if she's repeating part of what Rhodey said.
I can't destroy Thanos without destroying Vision as well, Thor realizes.
"You're all worth nothing alive, and you're beautiful dead," Thanos says.
Wanda meets Thor's eyes and shakes her head. And she takes off running, charging directly towards Thanos. A nasty smile spreads over his lips—he'll use the Mind Stone to kill her, kill them both—
Thor grabs the Power Stone but Thanos is already ripping at Visions' head—and then he's not, because Mjolnir flies towards him and bashes Thanos in the head, and Thor didn't throw it but he doesn't have time to think about it. He unleashes the Power Stone.
Purple glows. A flash of red. Thor flies backwards. His head strikes something hard, and then there's blackness.
