From within the barrier, the avengers along with the Wakandan forces watched as Thanos brought out all his ships and crashed landed to Earth outside of the barrier. They created massive crators in the ground. Flames erupted from the heat of the atmosphere. Trees exploded and fell over from the impact. The ground shook violently through the barrier, reaching the avengers and the city.
"That's a lot to be up against," Bucky noted, cocking his gun.
"Hold your fire," Steve commanded through the coms, "remember the plan. Protect the stones we have, get the gauntlet with the stones to Dr. Strange, and he'll portal it away until we get rid of this guy and his entire army."
Thanos opened a hull of his ship and stepped out into the bright daylight of the African country. He wasn't alone. Among him were his children, and he held an unconscious Loki by his arms forced behind his back, standing upright.
Tony took to the skies to overlook the trees in the distance to take a better view of Thanos.
"What do you see, Tony?" Steve asked.
"The big guy is about to make his big entrance," he answered, "and Loki looks like a rag doll by his side. I don't like this, Cap. It looks like he's under some kind of spell."
Thanos taunted, "Prepare yourselves for the introduction before the main event." He used his gauntlet and activated the soul stone against Loki.
Loki bolted upright, still being held by Thanos. He opened his eyes and revealed the orange glow of the soul stone having possession over his soul, and reminding him of every time he was overlooked, and overshadowed by Thor. He remembered his desire to take over Earth years earlier, and it fueled him as he saw some of the familiar faces who ended his short reign. Thanos handed off the reality stone to him, placing it on his chest to use in battle.
The avengers waited inside the barrier, and watched as Thanos pushed him off the platform. Loki landed gracefully on his feet on the ground many feet below.
Rhodes said, "He just dropped Loki and he looks mad as hell."
"Release the rhinos!" T'Challa commanded, "Air support, standby. Wait for the command."
The entire herd of rhinos ran across the fields and straight through the barrier, directly to Loki. He conjured two long swords, one in each hand, and then multiplied them to have more than five on each side. With his own magic, without even using the reality stone Thanos gave him, he took the blades themselves, still holding onto the hilts, and twirled them through the air.
His swords cut through rhino skin like butter, slaughtering the entire herd in mere moments. They collapsed at his feet in droves. He didn't even break his stride as he kept walking to the barrier and every rhino fell around him. The blades returned to his hands, and he made them vanish into thin air.
"Holy shit," Bucky whispered to himself.
"I hope Thor shows up sooner rather than later with that weapon," Steve said.
Bruce asked through the coms, "What should we do? Loki only has the reality stone, should we try to take it away from him?"
"No, keep your distance and wait for Thanos," Clint warned, "Loki will try to get inside our heads." He readied an arrow.
The avengers watched as Loki approached the barrier in his typical swagger, not even slowing down as he got right up to it. They couldn't believe their eyes as he slowly disappeared and faded away, only to slowly reappear inside the barrier and keep walking as if it had never existed. The only difference was he was a few feet off to the right from where he was before.
Everyone was too busy being shocked to try to stop him. Okoye asked, "How did he breach the barrier so easily? Can Thanos do that?"
Clint released an exploding arrow directly at him. Loki conjured another knife and sliced it in half before it reached him, causing the explosions to go off on either side of him.
Loki used his magic to change his clothing back into his traditional black and green Asgardian garb, golden horns and all. "Kneel!" He commanded.
With the reality stone, he forced everyone down onto one knee. "Attack!" Steve shouted, now unable to move. He attempted to lift his arms but nothing happened.
The Wakandan hover crafts overhead started blasting on his command, as did Vision with his mind stone. Loki conjured Captain America's shield and used it to deflect the blasts directly back at the ships, causing every last one to explode and breat apart midair on impact with the beam. Dr. Strange did what he could with the limited mobility he had to use his magic to shield everyone from the explosions and falling debri.
Stuck in a kneeling position, no one could move. Loki made the shield disappear as the blasts stopped, and created more than a hundred copies of himself. They all made their way to the crowd awaiting him.
Sam tried to ready his wings to fly but nothing happened. He asked frantically, "Which one is the real Loki? I already lost track!"
"Keep your eyes up!" Steve instructed over the coms. He tried to get up but nothing happened.
Meanwhile the spears and guns they did have and could use blasted aways at all the fake Lokis. They fell quickly to the bullets and blasts, the illusions quickly fading into nothing. Using the mind stone, Vision finally managed to break through the reality stone's grasp and flew above everyone to try and see for himself where Loki really was, but it was too late.
Unbeknownst to Vision, the real Loki had transformed into a fly, and had flown directly over Vision's head. Once in position, Loki changed into a large black boa constrictor and fell over Vision's body. Loki's squeezed Vision hard, breaking his vibrainium neck and tearing it apart in midair. Together they fell down with gravity.
"No!" Wanda shouted from the ground. She blasted him with her powers but he evaded as he transformed back and landed gracefully. He ripped the mind stone out of Vision's decapitated head with ease, and added it on his chest next to the reality stone. Thanos couldn't help but smile from his platform.
The reality stone spell on the Wakandan forces and on the avengers broke, causing everyone to jump back to their feet and get into position around Loki as quickly as they could.
Using the reality and mind stones together now, Loki swiftly covered the battlefield with bright yellow orange glow. Everyone's eyes instantaniously glazed over and they froze in place.
Now trapped within their own minds, the scene change was different for everyone. For Steve, it suddenly transformed into a dance with Peggy Carter.
For Bucky, he was suddenly shown New York City, the day he was supposed to leave for Europe to fight at the western front in 1943. Instead, the city was having a parade and everyone was throwing confetti out of every window. Hitler was dead, Japan and Italy had surrendered. The war was over, all without him ever having to step on an active battlefield.
Natasha saw her family as a child, only this time they were real. She had actual parents, and a little sister for real.
Clint witnessed his own family as well, as if he weren't pulled away from them to try and save the universe.
Wanda saw her life in Sovokia, also with her parents and brother.
Tony had a quiet life at home with Pepper.
On and on it went, with each avenger living their lives as if everything went differently for them. As if they weren't the avengers. It was all so real in their minds, they didn't question it. They couldn't.
Well, all of them, except for Dr. Strange. Loki found him creating more magic in an attempt to stop him from across the battlefield. His power over the time stone was the only thing protecting him from falling for the God of mischief and his two infinity stones.
Dr. Strange launched attacks through the crowd, but Loki dodged every blow with a dance. The cloak of levitation attacked him, only for Loki to make his own green cloak come alive and fight back, tearing it off and sending them both across the battlefield.
In an attempt to slow him down, Dr. Strange used his magic to make a golden string around Loki's wrists. Loki twisted it around on him with his own magic and forced it back onto Dr. Strange, wrapping both of Dr. Strange's wrists up so tight he couldn't break them free.
"Uh oh," he said anxiously, looking down at his hands.
Loki taunted, "Do you know reason why the northmen called us Gods?"
Dr. Strange tried to pull away but it was no use. He wasn't getting anywhere. He wanted to distract Loki for as long as possible, but he couldn't think of anything clever to say. "Your long lifespans?"
"Because we brought you mortals fire in freezing winters," he replied, "By the crown as Asgard, I bring forth the power of fire from Muspell."
Fire erupted across the golden magical threads and seered through Dr. Strange's skin. He screamed in agony as the heat engulfed his hands. He tried to pull away and break the spell, but nothing happened.
Meanwhile, Loki left his illusion behind to keep the fire going as his real body walked up to Dr. Strange. "What's the matter, doctor?" he taunted, "In too much pain for any witty banter?"
"No matter what you do to me, I'll never give up the time stone!" he shouted, struggling not to scream through the burning pain.
"Do you seek to escape this pain?" Loki asked, walking toward him as his illusion continued the flames, "Are you second guessing every choice you've ever made, wondering how your life ended up this way? Perhaps there was a point where could have chosen an alternate path, and you could have been a different man, living a different life. Not here, with me, getting your hands burned off."
Loki grazed Dr. Strange's hair from behind. He tried to shake him off. "Get away!" he demanded.
"Do you long for a simplier life?" Loki taunted, still standing beside him, "One with Dr. Christine Palmer, in a hospital in New York, perhaps?"
Dr. Strange turned ever so slightly to glare at him. "Keep her out of this!" He shouted, "You're a coward if you get her involved! A coward! You hear me?!" The pain cutting through his wrists was too much for him to take.
"What a disgrace to your title," Loki continued to taunt, "the sorcerer supreme. How supreme can you be when you can't even keep one woman safe? And you expect to protect half of all life against Thanos."
Dr. Strange finally managed to pull enough magic for himself and tear apart the magical threads tying him to Loki. Loki's illusion disappeared and Dr. Strange attempted to cut down the real Loki. "It's too late," Loki taunted. He tried to dodge Dr. Strange's blow but it sliced through his side.
Not wasting a second, Dr. Strange made a portal directly to Christine currently working at the hospital. He arrived to a scene of complete chaos as everyone was running in different directions, frantically looking for supplies and calling out for help. "Christine?!" he shouted, running around everyone else, "Where is Dr. Palmer?"
"Dr. Strange?" a nurse asked, looking him over in his odd outfit, "She's...she's uh...over there." He pointed through the crowd of people.
He ran onto the scene to find a massive hole in the roof, exposing the wires and pipes of the infrastructor dangled from above. "What happened?!" he demanded, pulling people away.
"The roof caved in!" a nurse answered, "What a freak accident!"
"Christine!" Dr. Strange shouted at her.
He gazed down at her to see debri sticking out of her chest, so close to her heart. She was covered in dirt and dust. He blood was dark red, slowly turning into the brighter and brighter variety across her whole body. She laid on the ground, struggling to catch her breath. "Stephen?" she asked, blood coming from her mouth, "What are you doing here?"
"Where's Loki?!" he asked, "What did he do to you?" He looked around at the face standing and moving around them but none of them were him.
"Who?" She asked, breathing heavily, "What are you talking about?"
He explained, "He's working with an insane alien to try to kill everyone, and he just came here and caused the roof to cave in on you! Where did that bastard go!? Christine, hang on, alright? Don't die! Keep breathing!"
"I want to go home," she muttered, "I'm so tired. I'm off the clock soon...I'll get to go home...and relax...I'm so thirsty, do you have water?" She grew paler.
Dr. Strange looked around and shouted, "Where is the crash cart?!" He turned back to Christine and said, "You'll be fine. You have to get to the OR before you can go home. Alright? Stay with me." He watched as her eyes were beginning to glaze over. "No, Christine, stay awake! No." He held her hand and felt her grasp slowly slip away.
He whispered to himself. "Dammit, I'll do it," he whispered to himself. He opened the eye of agamotto and revealed the time stone as Christine slowly faded away.
Just as he began to activate it, Christine's hand suddenly reached up and grabbed it. He watched her instantly transform into Loki. Dr. Strange screamed as the entire scene turned red and revealed the reality stone was in use the entire time. Loki said, "Made you look!" He ripped the time stone away from him.
The reality stone only gave Dr. Strange a temporary repreive. In the real world his hands were still getting burned off by the wrists, and he hadn't moved a muscle. He screamed in agony and collapsed into the ground besides his now amputated hands. He was in too much pain to do much else other than wimper.
"I'll leave you with a good memory," Loki said, touching his head again and sending him deep within his own mind, away from his own suffering.
Loki turned to the rest of the incapacitated battlefield. He could feel the tesseract was nearby, but couldn't tell exactly where. There was so much energy in the air from his own magic, and the other stones, he couldn't pinpoint it's precise location.
Loki looked across the crowd and tried to guess which avenger would be the best to tell him where it was. He marched up to Tony Stark, reached through his mask with an illusion, and asked, "Where is the tesseract?"
He searched his memories and found exactly where it was being protected. Loki turned around to the massive building right behind the battlefield. It was inside there, inside a box, with guards mounted around it. How sad, they actually thought that would work.
With the reality stone alongside his own magic, Loki tore the building apart and had the shrapnal fall directly into the battlefield, on top of the avengers and anyone else in the area. Everyone was still in too deep of a daze to properly react to him and the building falling apart.
Meanwhile, across the battlefield and through the barrier, now knowing the blue cube was within the rubble, Thanos was ready. He used the power stone to destroy the Wakandan barrier with ease. "Release the hounds!" He commanded.
The children of Thanos all opened their spaceships and revealed the thousands of alien dogs they had brought with them. The avengers were still dazed and confused, trapped within their own minds, unable to fight back as the hoards approached them. Then the black order themselves prepared for their own fights.
Meanwhile, Loki kept searching for the tesseract among the carnage he created. He lifted the debri, and the blue glowing cube finally revealed itself. As Loki dove for it, Thanos aimed his doubled bladed sword, and threw it directly at him.
Loki felt Thanos' sword cut deep into the back of his legs, all the way through the bone before he hit the ground. The pain from the near double amputation broke him out of the soul stone manipulation as he screeched in agony. Everyone around him instantly woke up from their daze in confusion, his spell over the reality stone now broken.
Feeling the blood rushing out of his body, Loki struggled to crawl over the debri from the building and get to the tesseract. If he grabbed it, he could get away and make sure Thanos would lose. All he had to do was get to it.
Suddenly, blasts rained down from the sky. The Milano came soaring through the atmosphere, orange and massive against the blue sky, and headed directly to the battlefield. Thor leapt out of it with his lightning and blasted everyone and everything away that he could with his new axe, stormbreaker.
Lightning lit up the battlefield as the ship landed off to the side. Although the guardians of the galaxy ran directly to Thanos, he dodged their attacks and fought back with the powerstone with ease, knocking their ship down and out. He finally made his way over to Loki just as he was picking up the tesseract for himself. Thanos snatched him by the neck from behind, and ripped the other infinity stones off of his clothing, placing them directly into his gauntlet. Now he had five out of the six he needed to succeed.
Loki clutched the tesseract in his hands, desperate to use it, but in too much pain to do so. Staring Thanos in the eyes, he transformed into a peregrin falcon, held the tesseract in his claws, and took flight directly upwards. He spun around in the sky in an attempt to evade Thanos, all the while desperate to get away from the scene.
Thanos took the mind stone's power and created an energy beam from his gauntlet. He hit Loki in the back so hard feathers flew. As he fell back to Earth ungracefully, he transformed back into himself, and crashed among the trees outside the battlefield.
"No!" Thor shouted, fearing that blast killed him for real this time.
With all the power he could muster, Thor rose up into the sky and generated enough lightning to power an entire city. It exploded in every direction, but he was careful to only attack Thanos' forces. With his axe flying through the air, it went through all of Thano's ships, tearing them apart and exploding them to pieces in every direction.
Managing to avoid his blasts, Thanos went straight for the tesseract. The other avengers were keen on stopping him, Wanda being the first to get in his way. She used her powers to blast his gauntlet directly, but it only took the powerstone alone to hold her back. He was too strong!
Drax came up from behind and did everything he could to break Thanos' skin. Nothing cut through, he was unceremoniously thrown across the battlefield.
Quill blasted him repeatedly in the back with his guns. "Where is Gamora?!" he shouted across the battlefield. "Tell me now, asshole!"
Rocket assisted with more blasts, but Thanos used the reality stone and changed them all into bubbles before they could even attempt to pierce his skin. Nothing was working!
Another spaceship appeared from the sky and crashed directly into Thanos, knocking him across the field as more dogs came out and revaged the avengers. Nebula burst out and took her sword straight for him.
"What did to do to Gamora?!" she demanded, "Where is she!?"
Thanos used his gauntlet to break Quill's guns and turn the bullets into bubbles. As he was doing that, Mantis managed to sneak up behind him and attempted to get him to sleep.
"Sleep!" She commanded. His eyes glazed over but he remained upright. "It's not working! He's too strong!"
"Come on Mantis," Quill said, running over, "You put a planet to sleep!"
Nebula ran in and attempted to pull the gauntlet off. Steve witnessed what was happening and demanded through his coms. "We have assistance in the field! Someone help them get the gauntlet off!" He fell back as more alien dogs overcame him.
Just when he thought he was too overwhelmed by the sheer numbers, a golden sword sliced through the aliens with ease and Heimdall revealed himself. He outstretched his hand. "Rise, Captain," he said, grabbing him by the arm and sweeping him off his feet as he pulled him upright.
Steve looked him over carefully, "I take it you're a friend of Thor's."
"My name is Heimdall," he replied, "I am the God of all seeing." Without so much as turning his head, he grabbed an alien dog about to attack him by the neck with one hand. He proceeded to rip it's head off, and tossed it to the side.
"It's nice to meet you," Steve said awkwardly.
Meanwhile, Peter Parker moved in on the fight and helped Nebula try to get the gauntlet off of him. Quill demanded, "Tell me where Gamora is!"
"He's griefstricken," Mantis confessed, struggling to hold him in a sleep, "he mourns!"
Drax demanded, "What does he mourn?!"
"My Gamora," Thanos said sadly.
"No!" Quill shouted, "She can't be dead! Tell me you didn't kill her!"
Through the coms, Tony said, "Hey kid! Eyes up! The poison blade lady is coming right for you!" He attemped to blast Proxima Midnight from the sky, but he didn't even slow her down as she came to Thano's aid.
Peter Parker leapt out of the way as she threw a knife at him. He had to let go of the gauntlet.
Seeing his chance, Thanos forced himself awake, threw Mantis and Nebula to the side, punched Quill out, then kept moving toward the forest where he knew the tesseract landed.
Meanwhile, Loki had crashed so hard in the forest he tore down several trees and laid knocked out in a crator from his own bodyweight. When he woke up, he noticed his clothes had been torn and burnt off from the mind stone, his horned helmet was gone. After being nearly been cut in half my Thanos' sword he could barely keep conscious through the pain. He knew he had to get the tesseract and get away. He had to. If Thanos got to the final stone, it would all over for everyone.
Through the searing pain, Loki turned over and pulled himself up and out of the crator. He steadied his breath and tasted blood. His legs were nearly completely amputated and refused to cooperate to his commands. No matter how hard he tried he couldn't even sit up. Instead he surveyed his surrounds before he finally saw it, the marvelous blue glowing cube. All he had to do was touch it, and he could teleport away to heal and keep the stone away from Thanos for as long as possible. It was still so far from him. As he used every bit of his strength to pull himself along his stomach, pain surged through his legs with every move he made.
It took so long for him to drag himself across the ground to finally reach the tesseract. When he finally did, he heard Thor's voice come up from behind him. "Loki? Where are you?" he asked.
He turned to look over his shoulder to see Thor walking up to him calmly. Loki grabbed onto the tesseract with his right hand just as Thor spotted him.
"There you are, brother," he said, smiling, "I was worried you didn't make it." He picked Loki up by under his arms and forced him up onto his feet.
Holding onto the tesseract in his right hand, Loki turned and used his left hand to bring forth frost giant magic to burn ice directly into his face. The reality stone's power immediately disappated and revealed Thanos underneath. Loki spat, "You can't merely transform, you have the play the part!"
Thanos broke the ice quickly and threw Loki to the ground hard. He dropped the tesseract off to the side. He reached over and covered it with his left hand, only for Thanos to stomp down on the tesseract so hard he broke every bone in his hand and wrist. The tesseract broke under the weight, revealing the space stone in Loki's now broken hand once Thanos moved his boot.
Using his unbroken right hand, Loki reached for the space stone and made a fist. Before he could create a portal to get away, Thanos grabbed him by the neck, lifted him up in the air, and squeezed tight. He couldn't breathe. Was this it? Was he finally going to die for real this time?
Lighting lit them both up as a giant axe came flying through the air and sliced into Thanos' back so hard he dropped Loki and the space stone along with it. Thor came up behind them, ripped his axe out of Thanos' spine. "Stay away from my brother, Thanos!" he demanded.
The other avengers came up from behind him, guns blazing. Thanos used the infinity stones against each and every one of them, thowing them all off to the side. Loki tried to move out of the way, or at least sit up, but it was no use. He was in too much pain. Instead, he watched as one by one they all fell before Thanos, even his own brother.
Thanos leaned over Loki once again and picked him up by the neck. He ripped the space stone out of his hand and put it in his glove. Loki conjured up a sword, using all the magic he could muster with his dying breath to make sure this moment counted. Thor picked up stormbreaker one last time and spun around with it.
Together, the two of them aimed their weapons and decapitated Thanos right before he could snap his fingers with all six infinity stones now residing in his gauntlet. His dead body dropped Loki unceremoniously to the ground. Thanos's body went one way, his head another. Blue blood poured out of the open wounds and spilled onto the ground.
Finally, he was deafeted.
"It's over," Thor said in instant relief, "we did it!" He punshed his fists into the air.
"It's been done," Loki said, taking in a deep breath and feeling his intact neck. That was close but they did it. They won!
Thor turned to Loki excitedly and said, "Loki, check out my new axe!" He raised it and landed its sharp side directly next to Loki's head. "I call it Stormbreaker! Isn't it great? Do you like it? What do you think?"
Without flinching, Loki looked up at it and asked seriously, "How are you supposed to be inconspicious with this monstrosity?"
"I'll figure that out later," Thor replied, laughing in relief now that the fight was over, "I'm just so glad you still live!" He smiled down at him.
"Where did you get that eye?" Loki asked, looking up to see Thor's right eye was now an ugly shade of boring brown, instead of matching the natural blue color of his original eyes.
"A talking ring-tail badger from space gave it to me," he replied, "what do you think?"
Loki smiled and answered, "You look better with two blue eyes."
He took a deep breath as he attempted once again to sit up. He leaned on his arm and forced himself more upright. His eyes stopped on something behind Thor and his face twisted into horror. "No!" He screamed.
He watched helplessly as Proxima Midnight stood behind Thanos and used the time stone to bring her father back to life. His body now whole, he stood before them once again! He took the time stone from his daughter, and readied his gauntlet. Loki threw a knife at Proxima Midnight, striking her through her shoulder and knocking her down.
"No, Thanos!" Thor shouted, turning and grabbing his axe once again.
He spun with stormbreaker, and attempted to cut Thanos' left arm off, gauntlet and all, but it was too late. Thanos snapped his fingers, and disappeared with a portal he created without a trace. A space stone portal made Proxima Midnight disappear as well.
Thor threw his Stormbreaker off to the side, cutting through a few large trees seemlessly, knocking them down.
"Did he..." Loki choked, not wanting to ask if their worst nightmare just came true.
"He was dead..." Thor said breathlessly, staring into the empty space Thanos was just standing in, "he was dead...we killed him...he was dead..." He sank into the ground and continued muttering to himself that Thanos was dead. He was. He died. Thor and Loki killed him off themselves. It was supposed to be over. But it wasn't. Thanos was brought back to life. Then he snapped his fingers. And now it was over. This time for real.
"What just happened?" Steve asked as he looked around at the heros gathering around. "Where'd he go?"
Walking up from the back of the group, Peter Quill looked at his hands as they turned to dust. "Oh no..." he whispered as he turned to dust. Then Drax, Mantis, Nebula, Rocket, Groot, one by one it seemed as though everyone was turning to dust right before their eyes. T'Challa, Rhodes, Okoye, the Hulk.
"I don't understand," Sam said as he watched them disappear one by one before his eyes, "where are they going?"
"Thor," Heimdall said, stepping up to him through the crowd, "it was my honor."
"Heimdall, no," Thor said painfully.
Heimdall held his sword in his hands. As they turned to dust, his sword plunged into the dirt. He said, "Get the stones. Don't let him win." He vanished into the wind.
"Mr. Stark," Peter Parker said, walking up to him.
"Kid, no," Tony insisted, watching him stumble on his feet, "You're alright. You're fine." He grabbed onto Peter tight.
"I don't feel so good," he said, full of fear, "I think-I don't want to go! I don't want to go! Mr. Stark!"
Tony didn't know what to say as he watched his little spiderman turn to dust and drift off in the wind. He turned his gaze up and stared up at both Steve and Thor.
Steve collapsed to the ground, unsure of what to do now. "Oh God."
"Thanos won," Thor whispered in horror, "he did it."