This work is a piece of fiction. While inspired by real events, cultures, and practices in human history, the story blends factual history with fictional characters, dramatizations, and creative interpretation.
It is not intended to promote, glorify, or encourage any illegal activities, substance use, or harmful behavior. All depictions of sensitive topics are included solely for narrative and historical context.
For the effects of the story, all characters are to be considered above the majority age.
Reader discretion is advised.
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╔═══━━━─── • ───━━━═══╗
Earth-199999-B, Morag, 2014.
The fighter ships hovered around the fallen ships. Their scanners swept over and over the ship and came up with a negative on life signatures.
Outside Morag's atmosphere, inside the Sanctuary II, Ebony Maw reported, "No life detected, my Liege."
"..." Thanos didn't reply immediately. His deranged but sharp mind went over what he knew of the Avengers, and he reached a conclusion: the optimal plan. "Bombard it," he commanded.
Maw didn't question it; he relayed the order, and the fighter ships rained fire on the wreckage. With hidden apprehension, Gamora observed through the projections as the ship was reduced to rubble.
"Good riddance," Nebula scoffed, evidently pleased.
With the matter of the Avengers momentarily set aside, Thanos, Maw, Nebula, and Gamora turned to the Nebula from the future. She lay suspended in the air, her body parts disassembled, her face twitching unnaturally, like a glitching robot, and tears spilling from her dark eyes.
"I need information on this... Aragorn," Thanos commanded.
Nebula and Maw deligently followed their 'father's' command and carelessly ripped out all they could from the Nebula from the future's memories.
Earth, the one from the future, the one with Obelisks, was a matter of curiosity among certain circles in the larger quadrants of the universe. The first finds of its anomaly—the Obelisks, Halo, and the Isthmus—made to the larger outside when the Kree returned, after they experimented on humanity and created the Inhumans.
Back then, Aragorn had hidden the Obelisks, Halo, and Isthmus from them; however, after learning the local language, the Kree managed to get consistent reports from all specimens they captured. They all retold the same tale; they were consistent.
However, without proof, the idea that a race so far advanced beyond the Kree that they couldn't even detect them was ludicrous, at best. They'd rather believe that some other advanced species had visited Earth before them and that had created this consistent 'myth' among the svagae locals.
It wouldn't be until millennia later, when Aragorn no longer bothered concealing his 'toys', that the news of a super ancient civilization was spread through the intergalactic network.
Dating the age of the Obelisks was a complicated affair because Aragorn didn't build them all at once, and the normal methods of dating wouldn't work in Dragon Ore. However, that was not an obstacle for the more advanced civilization that managed to discover that some of the Obelisks were far older than the oldest known civilizations.
There were also the vague recounts left by some inebriated Asgardians that confirmed some of the findings from the races that visited Earth the most, namely Kree and Skrulls.
So, when Rocket and Nebula made it to Earth, when the wounds of the tragedy began to scab, when they needed to find a distraction from the all-encompassing pain, they turned their sights towards one of the big mysteries: the Imperium and basically anything related to Aragorn.
The Terrans were not shy about sharing their myths, history, and knowledge related to Aragorn; maybe if Fury had been alive, he would have thought it unwise and stopped the exchange of knowledge. Either way, no one had been in the right state of mind in those early days.
This is why Thanos, in 2014, after invading Nabula's mind and raping it beyond recognition, easily found intel in the enemy he saw handed his broken body to the surviving Avengers in the Garden.
What he found, though, was terrifying, despair-inducing, nightmarish, and unfair.
"... How did that happen?" Thanos muttered in disbelief.
There was no recording, imagery, or recount of Future Thanos and Aragorn's fight. All the Avengers knew was that their fight had destabilized reality around the Garden and that Aragorn had called that training.
Thanos was lost for words at the broken and undone state of his future counterpart after he 'trained' with Aragorn.
Six Infinity Stones, all the Infinity Stones of this Reality, and even that was not enough.
Maw and Thanos had gone over the memory countless times. They analyzed the destroyed planet, the snuffed sun, the fractured space, the time-space wounds the Avengers avoided with their ship, and the countless evidence left after the class that spoke one simple truth: Future Thanos had fought with a power unimaginable to Thanos, and yet, he perished.
"What are we to do about this?" Nebula asked. Her voice came out fearful of her father's wrath, concerned with Thanos's future, and reluctant, like a mortal acknowledging they could never explore the entirety of the Universe because its scale dwarfed anything conceivable by mortal minds.
She was not the only one experiencing this helplessness; Maw had also run out of ideas.
The Infinity Stones were IT. There were no greater heights, and Future Thanos had gathered all six of them. What else could they try?
If doing the same things while expecting different results was insanity, should they consider themselves insane since there was nothing else they could think of?
"Maybe if we attack with a larger army and the stones," Gamora suggested.
Gamora was the only one overjoyed. Even then, she had appearances to keep.
"How large an army would it have to be to make a difference?" Maw asked. There was nothing chiding about his words; they were in such a hopeless situation that he was accepting any suggestion with dedication, because anything could be better than what he was coming to, which was nothing.
"They'll have the stone when I bring you to the Future, right, Father?" Nebula asked.
Thanos gave an imperceptible nod.
"Those stones should not be a concern," Maw denied. "With the element of surprise, whether they have the stones or not, our arrival can create enough chaos to allow you to retrieve them... that monster is the problem." The way Maw said the last part was as if he were afraid of calling Aragorn's name and summoning him.
"We need information," Thanos declared.
What more information do you want? Where do you want us to get more information from? This is what Gamora thought with a deep schadenfreude.
"How long would it take you to replicate this?" Thanos asked Maw while gesturing to the Pym Particle charges.
"Based on initial analysis," Maw began, "possibly a few decades short of a standard century; however, as much as I loathe to admit, this is my best speculation based on initial results."
The use of Pym Particles was almost exclusive to Earth for a reason. This was so throughout many realities.
Thanos' mind understood what Maw meant. To provide a better estimate, the integrity of the charges would have to be risked, and that was not acceptable at the moment.
"... Other than a larger army... Chaos is to our advantage," Thanos stated.
His 'children' hung to his every word, two out of reverence and loyalty, one out of a desire to gain intel on the enemy.
"Destiny was fulfilled," Thanos said while staring at the replay of his beheading by Thor's Stormbreaker. "The actions of this Aragorn, the defeat of my future self, that's not where our attention should fall to. I won. Now, the Avengers are undoing their defeat."
The memories played back the most recent memories Nebula had of Aragorn, when he arrived with disinterest at the Avengers Compound and stated that he would collect the Soul Stone.
"Whether due to desinterest, skill of my future self, or unknown machinations, this being didn't stop or undo my victory," Thanos declared. "At the end of my journey, whether it shall be my doom or not, it matters not."
"My Liege," Maw said with concern.
"That can't be, Father!" Nebula protested with emotion, and Gamora faked concern.
"As I said, destiny was fulfilled and now the Avengers are trying to undo inevitability," Thanos continued. "I shall lead you to this future, and I shall prepare to face this entity, but what matters is that destiny is fulfilled, my death being part of that destiny is part of the tapestry."
Maw, with solemn loyalty, nodded. Nebula tried to put on a brave face, and Gamora looked away, wiping the most truthful fake tear of all away.
"We shall visit my old home planet," Thanos commanded. "Titan is where this all started. Titan showed me the truth, my people opened my eyes to destiny, and now, Titan shall be part of the end."
━━━━━━━ ● ━━━━━━━
Morag's surface.
Hours after the departure of the Sanctuary II, in the now-smoking crater where Hulk staged his end, Banner and Scott grew into visible size.
Slowly, they turned towards the pieces left behind of their ship, and anxiety gripped their hearts.
They needed the ship mostly intact; that was the requirement. Now, at best, the ship was in pieces.
"How-How delayed does this make us?" Scott stammered out.
"Delayed?!" Banner exclaimed. "This planet is a water world. The reason we needed an intact ship was that soon all of this," he gestured to the alien landscape around them, "will be underwater in a few months. Do you think we have enough time to escape drowning with the ship in that state?!" he pointed at the scattered pieces.
"..." Scott had no words.
"... I don't know what to do," Banner confessed.
"..."
"..."
"I'll see what can be salvaged," Scott said, refusing to despair so readily, and walked to the nearest piece of the ship.
Unlike Banner, as cold as it sounded, Scott had a family awaiting him. Unlike Banner, as selfish as it could be interpreted, Scott was not a nigh-immortal gamma-mutate.
He reached for the nearest piece of metal and tried to turn it over, only for the hissing sound of his gauntlets melting to stop him.
"You should probably wait a few hours more before touching any of that metal," Banner advised.
"I noticed," Scott turned back to glare. "Why don't you Hulk out and help me? If I'm gonna drown, I'd rather do so with a full stomach!"
"Do you think our food supplies made it out of... this?" Banner asked while gesturing at the smoldering pieces of their ship.
"Stark said the container could survive reentry. I'm gonna place my hope in the guy, okay?" Scott remarked.
Banner, because he had nothing more productive to do, other than contemplate the implications of being stranded alone on an alien planet, approached the smoldering metal piece and grabbed it to turn it over.
"Man! Are you stupid?! You'll get..." The words died in Scott's throat when he saw Script covering Bannner's hands like tattoos.
"A few years ago, I had a little encounter with some very... interesting Duskari," Banner said. "I was in an unfamiliar environment, and one of them approached me. He said he worshipped the Goddess of Law, and I wrongfully believed her subjects must be lawful individuals," Banner sighed heavily with regret. "Neither Hulk nor I liked the new look." Banner flexed his muscles, and Script covering all visible skin appeared over his body.
"What the hell?" Scott asked, mouth agape.
"Aragorn refused to remove them but helped make them invisible when not in use," Banner said, and the Script disappeared, except in his hands. "They are mostly party tricks. These ones protect my hands from things hotter than boiling water and colder than freezing water. Though, only if the temperature brings harm to me, that's why you don't see Scrip on Hulk, rarely anything harms him."
"I'm sure you can get burned with temperature below boiling water just fine," Scott commented.
"Apparently, not the Duskari," Banner replied. "That fact almost had me apologizing for having a normal, human, burning point."
"The Sages are all crazy," Scott added.
"... Yes, I don't think I've met one sane," Banner murmured.
Between the two, mostly Banner during the first hours, they scavenged the wreckage and eventually found the container with the supplies just before sunset.
Using some burning debris as a campfire, Banner and Scott spent the first night in Morag in low spirits.
"You know, maybe the problem is that we are rushing about the incorrect things," Scott commented while admiring the alien night sky.
"What do you mean?" Banner asked. He was using his P-Link to record the stars and project their relative position in reference to Vormir and Earth.
"Maybe we shouldn't be rushing to escape this planet; maybe we should be rushing about finding safe shelter to then rebuild our ship," Scott explained.
"Didn't you hear me? Morag is a water world; the reason there's land to stand is that the orbit is the closest it has been to its pulling celestial body in about 300 years," Banner said.
"But that doesn't matter," Scott argued. "We could build a ship, and I mean an ocean-faring ship, and then build our spaceship atop it."
"... That's... An interesting approach, but I'm afraid the ocean around here is more akin to the Drake Passage than the Pacific Ocean," Banner countered.
"..."
The night sky soon was hidden behind the black clouds, and not long after, the rain doused the 'campfire'.
"How about underground?" Scott asked and tapped the ground with his heel.
"... Underground... We would need a bell chamber to keep the water away... Oxygen could be left to our suits... What about take off?... There should be enough food... possibly... But, the timeframe...." Banner murmured his calculations and conclusions.
Seeing this, given that it was not outright denial, Scott smiled subtly under the shadow of the foldable tent.
The next day, Banner found the face of a cliff not that far from the campsite and looked for the most suitable crevice. After locating the most appropriate entry point, Scott had the nanites in his bracelet start eating and replicating. Banner Hulk'd out and then dragged the pieces of the ship back to the crevice.
A week later, the nanites and Hulk had dug a tunnel deep enough and were starting to dig upwards. The tunnel was wide enough to allow a small vessel to pass through.
Five weeks later, the water level had begun flooding the horizontal stretch of the tunnel.
A month in, the tunnel had been entirely covered, and the state of the world outside the bell chamber—air pocket chamber—was unknown to Banner and Scott.
Six years later, a small ship, large enough for two, landed in Vormir.
Banner was mostly unchanged, Scott—due to the passage of time and the stress experienced over the past six years—was showing his age.
Almost in ritualistic silence, they walked to the only structure on the Planet and climbed to find Aragorn in his draconic form coiled around himself, sleeping peacefully.
"..." Banner kept his silence at the scene.
"... I want to go home!" Scott exclaimed.
Aragorn opened one of his large eyes, and it was as if suddenly the wall in front of them had turned into a portal to outer space.
His eyes idly switched between red and blue celestial objects, from stars to constellations, to galaxies and nebulae.
"That can't be good," Banner murmured.
"You arrived faster than expected," Aragorn said, his telekinesis making the sound come from everywhere around them.
His large eyes turned toward the direction where their ship had landed. "I suppose it is thanks to Stark's machines that two humans stranded in a water world only took this long to reach Vormir," he commented.
"Can we return now?" Scott asked impatiently.
"That is not a problem..." Aragorn said.
"But?" Banner asked.
"Don't you want to collect yourselves and prepare before jumping back to 2023?" Aragorn asked, almost lazily.
"I don't need preparation, I'm ready!" Scott declared. "I need a shower in some honest to god Earthen water!"
"No, no, no, no," Banner rapidly shook his head.
"What? Dude?! Don't chicken out on me now!" Scott turned to Banner with a look of betrayal.
"You don't understand," Banner stated. "Aragorn doesn't speak for the sake of it."
"... What happened?" Scott asked after connecting the dots.
"Didn't Nebula have a few spare charges?" Aragorn asked, his tail lazily swaying behind him. "What do you think Thanos did with them?"
"... Oh, no," Banner said under his breath.
"..." Scott was speechless.
"A fight awaits upon your return," Aragorn said. His body shone with unnatural light, and his place stood his honey badger-size form. "Just tell me when you're ready to return." He coiled around himself and returned to his nap.
"... What can we even prepare?" Scott asked.
"The real question is... What do we have to prepare for?" Banner asked. "This is Thanos we are talking about. What do you think he would do with the spare charges?"
"... Grow into a real titan and squash Earth under his foot?" Scott, jokingly, half-exasperated, asked. "I don't know, man!"
"Could he use the charges to travel back in time and collect the Infinity Stones?" Banner pondered out loud.
"Even if he did, what manner of preparation do you think we could do stuck on this empty planet? Do you think we can prepare an anti-Snap gun? Genius-out the Thanos-killing nerve toxin?... You know what?" Scott narrowed his eyes in half-madness, half-genius.
"What?" Banner hesitantly asked.
"A bomb!" Scott said. "Let's make a planet-destroying bomb!"
"Scott... I don't think Tony left teh schematics for a planet-destroying bomb in our hands," Banner said, trying to ground his oldest friend to reality.
"No, maybe not, but I bet you can find some in there," Scott pointed at the P-Link hanging from Banner's neck.
"Do you think I'll find instructions to build a planet-destroying bomb in he-" Banner's question was stopped by the shine of a notification coming from his P-Link.
Eyes filled with suspicion, he turned towards Aragorn.
"I want you to suffer a little," Aragorn's voice came from nowhere and all around them. "So, do you think I did this to help you or sabotage you?"
"..."
"..."
Neither had an answer.
━━━━━━━ ● ━━━━━━━
Earth 2023, Avengers Compound.
The time machine whirled with energy, the quantum Möbius strip lit up to recall the Avengers, and it tried to do so; however, everything exploded.
*BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!*
Maybe calling it an explosion was downplaying it catastrophically.
It went so differently from how their return was meant to be that it was hard to compare.
The problem was that Thanos was aware that Stark, Rogers, Hulk, and Scott were supposed to be on that ship he encountered in Morag, yet only Hulk was identified, so what happened to the others?
Either they had left Hulk stranded in the past, or they had escaped to the future. There was the possibility that only Hulk was in that ship, but Thanos didn't think it likely; hence, he knew the Avengers would probably prepare to stop his arrival in the future if he gave them time. The most logical approach was to time his arrival with the Avengers' return.
Hence, the moment when the Avengers returned to 2023, so did Thanos... and so did pieces of Titan.
Chaos was their ally, Thanos concluded. He had seen the information Future Nebula held of the Avengers, and, through means unknown but that he associated with Aragorn most likely, the Future Avengers were no mere ants for him to squash.
Their technology was formidable, even to his eyes; the Imperium was a thing in this future, and the Obelisks only heralded dread to his eyes. He needed Chaos, with capital C.
So, using the spare charges of Pym Particles, he went to Titan and broke the planet apart, made a careful selection of a few pieces of assorted sizes of the planet—now asteroids—and bagged them into miniature rocks.
When the time machine pulled the Avengers and their 'baggage' back to the present, these gift-wrapped pieces of Thanos' homeworld were unwrapped and spat towards the atmosphere—aided by Thanos' ship's acceleration—all a careful calculation of the truly Mad Titan.
Was there a need to destroy Titan instead of any other planet or asteroids? No.
Was it rational to ignore his imminent death in the pursuit of proving his view of destiny was inevitable? No.
Was it rational to end half of ALL life, including the life counted as resources, to battle his perceived scarcity of natural resources? No. Not only irrational, but that was also stupid.
So, not only did he prepare the largest army he could, but he also thought it was logical to create chaos by dropping a few asteroids into Earth.
Thus, it was demeaning to call it an explosion. Things didn't just explode. Asteroids fell over the Avengers Compound, Upsate New York, the border with Ontario and Quebec, and Vermont.
It was Chaos.
The defenses of the Obelisks of the planet lit up with iridescent light, and domes of neutralizing force were cast around them. The countless lives watching the falling asteroids prayed and thanked with all their hearts that humanity had built most of their cities around Obelisks.
"THE HEAD LOST IT!!!" Countless Duskari outside the domes, those mixed with humanity, cried out loud while casting teleportation magic or activating warp devices and dragging as many humans as they could to the Isthmus. Many were not aware of the falling asteroids, but the technology—or magic, it was hard to tell—woven in their P-Links and personal tech activated automatically and warped them to safety.
The whole planet shook, and Tiamut, having felt the shake from that time about 65 million years ago, was reminded of the end of the dinosaurs' age. Granted, the terminal velocity of that asteroid crashing on Earth was not way above that of the asteroids Thanos volleyed on Earth. However, the difference in speed was made up for in mass and numbers.
Ultron once said, "I think a lot about meteors. The purity of them. Boom! The end. Start again. The world made clean for the new man to rebuild." In an apocalyptically poetic manner of speaking, he would have approved of Thanos' methods.
This Earth was different, though. Aragorn, even in his vindictiveness, couldn't allow Earth to perish, and, consequently, Tiamut. So, upon measuring the risk level of planetary destruction, the Obelisks began to automatically reinforce the planet.
Bright lights shimmer about the clouds of Earth. At the tip of the Obelisk, for the first time since the Obelisk network was completed, Aragorn's Eternal Flame was alight.
Starting from North America, where the reinforcement was most needed, the Obelisks' tips burned bright and faint, between the 'real' and the metaphysical, walls began to connect the Obelisks. As if creating a matrix of walls forming cells all over Earth.
The destruction was terrible, and countless lives were lost; however, it was not an apocalyptic result.
Slightly above the atmosphere, Thanos observed this with passive cadence, as if he had expected a similar result.
His ship was not the Sanctuary II; in fact, it bore no resemblance whatsoever. It was a cube, but one so massive that it dwarfed the old Sanctuary II.
Although Maw didn't have enough time to replicate the Pym Particles, he had managed to learn greatly from them. Instead of preparing an army while on the 'regular' plane, he sought to take advantage of the time dilation of certain areas of the Quantum Realm and prepared an army while inside these areas. This advantage was not one they could easily take advantage of, but it was enough for them.
"Attack," Thanos commanded. Like a swarm of Africanized honey bees, the Outriders and the Chitauri flew out of the hive.
Thanos wanted Chaos, and just one face of the planet being directly attacked was not enough. His forces, those that were not part of the elite, spread around the globe. The Elite, those trained the longest, those with the best cybertronics, those with the deadliest modifications, and the Black Order, descended to the coordinates of the Avengers Compound.
Buried under literal hills of rubble and pieces of Titan, the Avengers lay in shambles.
"What killed me?" Rhodey asked after opening his eyes.
"Rhodey," Natasha said with a forced voice. "Did you also die?"
"I think we all became roadkill," Rocket shouted from a distance.
"How are we alive?" Rogers asked.
"Remember my streak of anxiety attacks a few years ago?" Stark's voice came through the comms. "I hired a Sage to enchant some of my buildings' integral structures. It wasn't cheap."
"Tony? Where are you?" Barton asked.
"Trapped under something. Alive, though," Toy replied. "Give a minute or two, my nanites are eating a nice cave for me."
"What hit us? I could only catch a glimpse of something rocky coming out of the floor," Thor's muffled voice came from somewhere.
"Probably Thanos," Rogers said.
"Thanos?!" Rhodey, Barton, and Natasha exclaimed in unison.
"He saw his ship pulling Nebula before he sicced his dogs on our ship," Stark grumbled.
"I'm lacking too much context to make any sense of any of that," Rocket complained.
"What happened to Bruce?" Natasha asked worriedly. "We promised Brunnhilde we would bring them safe."
"... I don't know," Stark replied with hesitation. "Maybe Aragorn will bring them back, maybe he already did, but to another location, maybe..." He didn't finish.
"Ugh," Rocket groaned. "What about the Stones?"
"We got them all," Rogers said. "Yours?"
"No problem," Thor informed, his lightning sparked some light into the room. Unfortunately, not much could be seen.
While it was true that a Duskari had enchanted the structural support of the building, he did not enchant all walls, windows, and doors, and Thanos had ripped a hole in the ceiling, so there was a mountain of rubble and asteroid that had avalanched in. It was only thanks to their suits that they were alive.
"We need to ready the gauntlet," Rocket groaned. "Give it to Goldilocks and assist him in ass-whopping Thanos."
"With no Infinity Stones in his possession, we can end him. We should not assemble he gauntlet," Stark said. "Strange is not here, but Aragorn had mentioned that there was another Sorcerer Supreme he trained, and Thor is here this time."
"I don't believe it is wise to risk the gauntlet falling in his hands. I think we should keep the stones apart," Rogers added. "We have enough strength here to defeat him once and for all."
Nods and hums of approval spread.
"Guys, Nebula had the extra charges," Barton interrupted the rising morale.
"..."
"..."
"..."
"..."
"..."
"..."
"... We need to assemble the gauntlet," Stark muttered.
Nods and hums of approval spread.
↓Part 2━━━━━━━ ● ━━━━━━━Part 2↓
Thanos had wiped out half of all complex life in the universe after barely a few centuries of preparation.
Maybe a few centuries could be considered generations worth of time for some of the most short-lived mortals, but in comparison with the monumental task of halving all life within something as infinitely large as a universe, it's nothing.
Now, what if Thanos had more time for preparation? What more could he accomplish? With what ease could he achieve what he already realized? Because that's what possessing the extra charges meant in the eyes of the buried Avengers.
"What do we do about the missing Soul Stone?" Rocket asked in between grunts. Being buried alive was not a nice experience for a raccoon, or any other non-subterranean life form.
"Aragorn promised the stone would be here," Stark said. "He has never broken a promise. We should act under the assumption that the stone will be available when needed."
ThumpThump
Through the ground and the surrounding rubble, they all felt the arrival of something heavy and big landing somewhere close.
"What's that?" Rocket asked.
The last time Thanos' army invaded Earth, Rocket had not been on Earth for the arrival of the Outriders, so he didn't associate the thumping sound with them.
"It's them," Rogers said through the comms.
"The dogs," Natasha added.
"Thanos' army," Barton explained.
Anxiety spread, and Thor, being the most physically able, grunted in exertion, lifting the rubble pinning him down.
"Wait, wait!" Stark called out in a hurry. "Don't move, it could destabilize this place and finish the job for Thanos."
"We are needed above!" Thor declared.
"Give your suits some time, the nanites will eat your surroundings away in a few minutes," Stark explained. "Besides, remember the Sages were mixed among our kind."
"I doubt they'll stand by the side when this attack clearly targeted them," Rhodey added.
They were not wrong in their assumptions.
While the initial reaction was to curse at the head of the pantheon they worshipped, the Duskari were maniacs of their own.
Last time, when Thanos's army first invaded Earth, they had kept to the sidelines because Aragorn had explained what Thanos would achieve and what it meant to be outside of the protective sphere of the Imperium. Not even the Duskari were stupid enough to risk their lives in a 50/50 pull for the brainless reason of seeking a fight.
This time, however, there were no orders, no recommendations, no recall to the Imperium for them. This time, they even felt the blessings of their deities gracing their souls. That was all the permission they needed.
The Imperium was vast—the understatement of the epoch—and so was its population. Formed by a wide variety of different peoples, the population of the Imperium—while it could be divided into Noctelvi and Lucelvi—consisted of all varieties and tastes.
However, those called Sages by humanity shared a certain profile that they all somewhat had in common. If, in a relatively loose and lazy analogy, compared with a certain group within humanity, they would be like the humans who participate in charity.
Not the donations-from-a-distance type of charity people, they were the type of charitable group who visited impoverished children in X third-world country.
This is not to say that all of them were pure souls who cared for the needy. It's hard for generalization to stick with a group so large that it currently equaled the half of humanity that was snapped out of existence. But the idea was the same; they were the type of Duskari that cared. The type that gave a fuck or two.
Additionally, like any Duskari, they were slightly odd, if not crazy, under the eyes of 'normal' psychology.
So, when the shock of the situation passed, when pieces of Titan stopped raining, when Thanos' forces started invading, they smiled. A wide, crazy smile.
With the same feverish eagerness as the Custodians confronting incursions, or a gun owner at the first sound of clandestine noise within their homes, the Duskari exhibited smiles of excitement and expectation.
This was it, this was their time, this was exactly what they daydreamed about in their spare time, there was no need to hold back, they struck first, it's self-defense! This and many thoughts cycled through their battlethirsty heads.
And so, as dictated by the ancient custom, they aimed at the incoming ships, Outriders, Chitauri, Leviathans, and chanted with exhilaration, "IRA CAELI!!!"
Even buried under pieces of a planet, a building, and so much ground, Thor, God of Thunder, felt his divine domain stir and resonate with something.
"What's happening?" Thor murmured.
"Give me a sec, Friday is connecting to the SatNet," Stark replied.
A moment later, in the HUD of their suits, they saw lightning.
Lightning raining from the balconies and openings of the Obelisks, lightning raising from the ground up, lightning zapping horizontally, and lightning volleying as if it had mass.
When the different views zoomed into the origin of this lightning, they all found Duskari with excited smiles, aiming with both hands. Some even shouted 'Unlimited Power', though these were mainly Kitty's followers.
The Drachantheon Therion had always called the Duskari benders, because they were masters of matter and its different states.
After the electrifying 'greeting', they moved like mobile artillery. They waved their hands, made hand signs, chanted, and some even used Script; regardless of the method, they all bulldozed anything that wasn't human or Duskari.
With plenty of mana, blessed by chakra, and such a large history in casting and chakra-wielding, they pulled the entire repertoire and decided to test as many 'tricks' as they knew.
"... Maybe we should stay here," Rhodey commented. "I feel like things will be resolved on their own if we wait."
"Where were those guys the first time when Thanos was pounding our collective sorry asses?" Rocket asked.
"Mr. Abner had recalled them to the Isthmus," Barton replied.
"Are you sure this guy is the protector of Terrans? Because he is looking more and more like a douchebag to me," Rocket commented.
As usual, the Duskari were limited in the tech they could carry while on Earth; that was the only reason that stopped the battlefield from turning into a clash of weaponry. Was that for the best or not? It was hard to tell.
On one side, while testing weaponry during the war against the TVA, they destroyed and ruined the environment of the Isthmus, and it was in no small part their fault. But on the other side, technology sported a higher level of lethality on the battlefield. Though, to be fair, the Duskari didn't seem the least bothered with their current 'limitation.'
"Hehehehehehe!" A Lucelvi chuckled as it strode lazily towards the incoming wall of Outriders.
She was one of the many Duskari who had moved temporarily to Earth to supplant the need for missing professionals. This day was no different from that of any workday of the week, so when Thanos dropped chunks of Titan on Earth, she was caught in the middle of her job. Hence, as the preschool teacher she was, she was wearing her teacher attire. Not that it stopped her from swaggering towards the mutts attacking her school.
She made a combination of hand signs and stamped hard; the ground below the Outriders caved in. What they found at the bottom was not hard soil or rock; it was melting lava.
Like the frenzied beast they were, they kept clawing their way towards their target, even while their bodies literally melted and burned.
Not pleased entirely with the result, she waved signs again, and the walls in the cave-in opened up, and more lava flowed.
At a distance, not far from her, a male Lucelvi pointed towards the flying chariots of the Chitauri and chanted, "Vacuum!"
He was the accountant for the school, so he sported a blue suit for battlegear.
"Vacuum!"
"Vacuum!"
"Vacuum!"
"Vacuum!"
"Vacuum!"
"Vacuum!"
After each chant, a vacuum of matter was created in the path of the besieging chariots. Then the vacuum would be resealed immediately after. The Chitauri may have been equipped for the absence of an atmosphere, but they certainly were not equipped for the abrupt and repeated changes between absolute vacuum and pressurized climate.
They wobbled, some exploded, some managed to survive only to be cut down by blades of wind cast by another Duskari.
Some, those who had taken the more offensive paths of chakra manipulation, replicated 'Spells' taught by the People of the Abeyance in some of their culture exchanges arranged in the Halo every other millennium.
Some used their chakra to manipulate magnetism and take control over the metal in the enemy's armor.
A few controlled the temperature and fluctuated it violently between the Antarctic climates and the boiling point of water.
A few took hold of their senses and made them attack each other.
With the Duskari holding them back, with the Sages charging the front, humanity gathered itself, and in a matter of minutes, the armed forces around the planet responded.
This was not what Thanos expected, yet it was also within his possible projections. So he was not concerned... maybe.
Panels shifted in The Cube, and more forces swarmed out in response to the Duskari resistance. Thanos had the numbers, so he was determined to put them to use. Especially in certain parts of the planet where his forces were encountering the greatest resistance.
While the Duskari were individually formidable, enough to trash the Outriders and Chitauri, the greatest losses were not to their hands.
The Isthmus remained an impenetrable wall, so while many ships were futilely trying to break through the dome protecting it, not many had died.
The Sanctums of the Order of Sorcerer were simply impossible for Thanos' forces to locate; they didn't even know how they were dying when they got near these locations.
The real problem was the Sanctum Ingeniorum. It was a nightmare.
Clad in black, not a single glance of skin exposed, a crimson hue behind their helmets barely gave away the location of their eyes, hovering unbothered by gravity, Selene's erudite vampires aura-farmed around the perimeter of the island.
They were not really attacking; they were acting as relay points to their mistress's magic. Selene was at the peak of the Libralisk, magic circles and arcs of a red hue of shade similar to her eyes surrounded her in a dome-like formation. Unseen by the mortal eye, a field was expanding with her as the origin and her vampires as the relay, a field that assured anything with blood flowing through their veins quickly surrendered their vital fluid and became husks.
The field ignored all defense, no armor, no wall, no obstacle, no obstruction; whatever entered the field was mummyfied, their blood leaving them through their orifices. This blood would then feed a percentage to the erudite vampires, and the largest part would then be greedily absorbed by Selene.
Rivers of blood, literally, flowed above the island, all headed in the same direction. All with the same destination.
And the field was expanding; it was already beyond the limits of the observable horizon from within the Sanctum Ingeniorum. So, evidently, this was Thanos' biggest headache.
If left unattended, the field would continue its expansion, and soon the entire world would be covered. If he sent forces to it, they would all perish, undoubtedly, but at least, Ebony Maw had observed, while the field was draining their forces dry, the rate of expansion slowed down.
There was no correct option, and if Thanos' purpose had been to conquer or slaughter Earth, he would have, without a shadow of doubt, lost. The planet was unconquerable. But that was not his objective.
"Nebula," Thanos called out. "Take a Corner, deal with that island."
"Father!" Nebula said in acquiescence.
She marched out of the commande center with the determination to end the Sanctum Ingeniorum.
From outside the Cube, one of its bottom corners detached from it. The corner conserved its cubic shape, but as it detached from the Cube, it dragged behind a tail. Its tail was rigid, so the ship resembled an arrow.
The 'arrow' took aim at Earth and then shot forward. It ripped through the atmosphere and cared not for 'measly' concepts such as air resistance or re-entry angles.
The ship was large, a few blocks beyond the length of Central Park. A shadow cast by a ship that large would have, on a normal day, been the cause of mass hysteria. However, even while it flew above some important cities, given that there was so much chaos, no one panicked more than they already were.
The ship cut through the Atlantic's airspace and soon arrived at the climbing ceiling of the vampiric dome.
Then, arranged in a neat matrix, lights began to glow from the arrow's shaft. When the entire length was lit in these blue lights, the lights ejected.
Like a cluster bomb, the lights dispersed and rained down over the Sanctum Ingeniorum.
The Sanctum Ingeniorum was a demilitarized zone, but that meant little with the Libralisk in place in the middle of the island.... Though... in this case, the defenses of the Libralisk were not needed.
"Ah... So this is what Lady Death meant by that Aragorn was not different from a spoiled child who is usually in his best behavior," Hestia commented. Her brows furrowed with worry, her eyes on the incoming bombardment, and her heart heavy with all the death and damage she could feel around the world.
She pointed her palms upward to the incoming rain of bombs. Her hands warmed rapidly with the color of fire, and soon her Sacred Flames poured forth like a river.
The river of sacred fire split into tributaries, these ones split further and further, until they were not different from rivulets. From a distance, the whole phenomenon looked as if a river of fire was transforming into a flow of threads. Each thread was aimed at at least one bomb.
When the bombardment was at a distance from their entry into the dome, it met the climbing wall of threads.
Booooooooom! Both fronts met, the sky turned into a lighted ceiling, and soon after, black smoke clouded the natural and artificial light.
"..." Nebula narrowed her eyes at the holographic display in ire. She expected some resistance, but not complete protection.
The ship banked left and made a turn. The targeting system quickly identified the source of the Sacred Flames: Hestia.
"What am I even supposed to feel about this?" Hestia muttered. "You're not supporting nor stopping me, yet you're taking it out on the objective of my affection and care? How irrational can one be?"
Bombs were evidently not the solution, so Nebula tried something different. From the four corners of the arrowhead facing forward, long, thin barrels emerged, a blue light converged at the tips, and then—
Hestia flew right fast, and four pillars of light burned through where she had been an instant before.
"Photonic weaponry it is," Nebula commented.
She was right. Hestia was not a fighter, and, like the many deities of Earth-199999, she was not particularly outstanding in matters of battle. Additionally, her divine field was not one notably suited for combat. Hence, attacks moving at a percentage of lightspeed were beyond her capabilities.
Nebula took aim and loaded another attack. The tips of the four barrels lit up again with the deadly blue light.
"Ah, that's not a good idea," Hestia commented.
She sidestepped once, one laser missed her by a hair's breadth, she docked, and another laser cut above her. She was dodging the lasers just in time, but it didn't come to her easily. Sooner or later, she was sure her innate speed and prediction ability would fail her.
Regardless of the exertion, though, Hestia was not stressing over her 'dilemma.'
She ducked, rolled, sidestepped, flew left and right, and dodged for a few minutes longer; however, exhaustion caught her, and she made a mistake. She was corralled between two pillars of light, and two more fell on her.
Before the light consumed her, there were no shouts of pain and no mounted resistance; there was simply a heavy sigh, and then Hestia was no more.
On the Libralisk's highest floor, inside her room, a magic circle appeared, and Hestia landed softly over her bed. The P-Link hanging on her neck flickered with a green light twice, and then the Libralisk thrummed.
Hestia's bedchambers sported marbled walls and floor-to-ceiling windows. A rectangular bed canopy over a bed fit to accommodate multiple people. Hanged to the walls, she had several frames with pictures of her, Selene, and Aragorn. The changing backgrounds in the pictures painted the story of their travels through the civilizations of old.
Near the center of the room, there was a hearth burning homely with her Sacred Flame.
In a mood lacking joy, Hestia exited her bed and walked to the nearest window facing the battlefield.
The Libralisk thrummed repeatedly, and a bluish-white light illuminated from above the outside landscape.
"I shouldn't have gone out, as Selene said," Hestia said under her breath.
Then there was a blinding flash, and the Central-Park-size ship was replaced with a conflagration of bluish-white flames.
Above the atmosphere, Thanos observed as Nebula's ship was burned to atoms with a passiveness unbefitting of the situation.
Gamora gasped and covered her mouth in horror; the others of the Black Order didn't bat an eye.
"My Liege," Maw said. "It appears it is as you suspected; those with that jewel around their neck shouldn't be touched."
"Keep the vampire occupied with a steady stream of Outriders," Thanos commanded. "Destiny shall be fulfilled before her curse reaches me. It's time for us to move."
With deliberate slowness, he stood from his throne, the commanding chair, and put his helmet on. Maw offered him his double-bladed sword with his telekinesis, and Thanos decisively reached for it.
Under a beam of blue light, not that dissimilar in function to the Bifrost, Thanos arrived on the surface near the Avengers Compound. The Chitauri and Outriders dug deep enough to uncover part of the buried facility.
Inside the building, the Avengers, battered but not defeated, stood protectively around Stark and Rocket while the latter built and assembled the gauntlet.
"Are you sure that dragon will come through?" Rocket asked, worriedly. "We are gonna need that stone any second now."
"I'm sure," Stark nodded.
"Mr. Abner better hurry," Rogers commented. His comment brought Rocket and Stark out of their task, and they turned to him. They saw him and the rest observing the projection on one of the holograms: Thanos' arrival.
As if on cue, announced by its amber glow, the Soul appeared in its slot on the red gauntlet.
Then they saw Cull Obsidian raise his weapon high before bringing it down at full force.
The building shook.
"Tony, the building resisted two or three asteroid impacts... we are good, right?" Rhodey asked, his voice laced with nervousness.
"... The enchantments were a one-time thing," Stark revealed.
"..."
"..."
The building shook once more.
"Thor stay," Stark said before turning back to assembling the gauntlet. "The rest..."
"We'll hold them back as long as needed," Natasha said.
"I'll go too," Rocket said. "You don't need me anymore."
Stark nodded and soon only Thor and Stark were left in the soiled room illuminated by the blue glow of the holographs and the nanite forge assembling the gauntlet.
"They won't last," Thor stated the obvious.
"They don't need to," Stark replied without removing his eyes from his task. "Once you snap once, we'll have reinforcements. You'll recover and then snap twice, and we'll be done with this shit. I'll be home with my Morgan and Pepper, and you'll return to your gaming. Happy endings left and right."
"... You're afraid," Thor pointed out.
"Afraid? I'm terrified!" Stark exclaimed. Despite the emotional outburst, his hands were steady as they positioned the Time Stone in its corresponding slot.
"It will be alright," Thor reassured. "I'll make sure no harm befalls you."
"Oh, buddy, you've got it so wrong," Stark commented.
Thor tilted his head in confusion.
"I have Morgan, I have Pepper, and I have an extra life," Stark explained. "It's not me I'm afraid for. Steve lost James, Wanda, Vision, Pietro, and Sam. Barton lost his family, Nat lost hers and Barton's, Rhodey has only me and Pepper left, Lang at least has his daughter, you lost everyone close to you, Rocket and Nebula lost all. The only one I don't fear for is Bruce; you all are trainwrecks."
"..." Thor was speechless.
Outside, Rogers, Barton, Natasha, Rocket, and Rhodey approached the lobby and prepared themselves behind the reinforced walls for the imminent breach.
"Friday?" Natasha called out.
"At your service," the AI replied through the suit's comms.
"Did Tony prepare any special welcome for rude guests?" Natasha asked.
From inside the walls, above the ceiling, thrumming and whirling echoed. A few plates on the walls opened up to reveal automatic heavy firepower. Some of the openings sparked, and nothing came out. The building had been heavily damaged; it was already a miracle on its own that it was standing, and things still worked.
"That's reassuring," Rocket commented.
THUNK
The main entrance boomed with the crushing impacts from the other side.
"It's a funnel," Rogers said in a commanding tone. "You know what to do." He raised his rifle and pointed at the entrance.
"I say, why wait?" Rocket grinned with his canines.
"..." Rogers' eyebrow twitched, and with a resigned look, he hefted a Hadron Enforcer with both arms, aiming forward at the entrance.
THUNK
The main entrance shook and caved in; the shape of Cull Obsidian's warhammer could be seen.
"Is this truly a good idea?" Natasha asked with reluctance. "Didn't you say it could blow up an M-Ship?"
"If there's a time to use excessive firepower, it is now," Barton interjected.
"Archer dude is not wrong," Rocket chuckled.
Natasha turned towards Rhodey for support, but all she got was a shrug of his shoulders in response. Warmachine took aim with both hands and shoulder canons. Barton lifted a black energy rifle, thrumming with power, with softly glowing orange power lines. It was technology that resulted from SHIELD's joint research of the Destroyer Armor with Aragorn.
THUNK
"That can't handle another hit, Cap," Barton said. "Now or never!"
Rogers hesitated not even a second. He pulled the trigger, and Rocket's Hadron Enforcer shot a single round. The round ripped a hole through the battered reinforced door and then exploded on the other side. The force of the explosion finished the work and blew the door in.
For a moment, there was silence. Smoke rushed in due to the difference in pressure, some heat from the explosion came along, and the roars of the Outriders made for a distant background music. Then came his voice.
"Bring me the stones."
And the Outriders rushed forth like a rabid mob of World War Z zombies.
Barton was the first to open fire. The Destroyer Rifle discharged a shot of orange energy that evaporated anything in its path and then exploded, very much like how the Destroyer Armor's heat vision worked.
That was the start of the Avengers'—the surviving ones—last resistance.
For a few seconds, between the combined firepower of the building's defensive countermeasures and the Destroyer Rifle, the Outriders were vaporized or cut through in bulk. But the lift in morale was only temporary.
Cull Obsidian was powering through the main entrance because it was the first part to have been dug out, as the other parts of the building were buried under solid chunks of Titan. However, once that entrance was opened, the Outriders began to clear left and right from the entrance.
Like dogs digging a hole, they claw the dirt, rubble, and occasional asteroid piece away and allowing for the Chitauri to concentrate fire on the cleared walls.
From inside, the Avengers noticed the telling red glow of metal getting softened by temperature. A few minutes in, one last energy discharge drilled a hole through the melting metal, and the Outriders, in a rabid-like state, did not wait for it to cool down before tearing the hole bigger.
The Avengers focused their firepower on the new opening, but it wasn't even a minute later when another section of the metal wall burst open.
Culture on this Earth, which had received 'draconic' guidance since its early stages, was different. It was common sense that when Aragorn was involved or showed interest in something, seven out of ten times it was meant to be dangerous. Hence, the Avengers stocked up on weapons and ammo before they took their leap through time.
Additionally, given how advanced technology was, weaponry was deadlier.
So, in a combination of firepower and the advantage brought temporarily by their boxing in, they managed to hold back a few precious minutes.
There was a limit to the strategy, though.
The moment Thanos walked in, it all fell apart.
"Pull back!" Rogers shouted.
After Thanos came Maw, and telekinesis was a cheat.
With their weapons trained facing the enemy, they slowly walked back towards the stones.
Maw pulled debris, the fallen bodies of the Outriders, or even the still living ones, to block the firepower. He flexed his will, and the mounted torrets in the walls and ceiling were crushed.
"Commandable effort," Thanos commented while marching forward. He was not phased by the raining fire, but had to cover his eyes and mouth from the occasionally vicious placed shots.
Without them realizing, they made it back toward the room that had been destroyed when Thanos' Cube and asteroids broke through the ceiling. It was a room more open than the long hall, which was funneling the Outriders.
"Blow it!" Rhodey shouted after covering their retreat.
Booom!
The room lit up, and the facility shook.
The plan was to collapse the ceiling over the long hall; it should have worked, but...
"M-My L-Liege," with great effort, Maw held up the collapse. It was evident that soon enough, he would give in to the absurd weight, but he didn't care. Thanos gave him a glance of acknowledgment, and that was all the payment Maw needed.
"Back! Pull back!" Rogers commanded hurriedly. He was well aware they couldn't face Thanos upfront.
They pulled back, through the paths the nanites in their suits had opened for them, and moved closer to the stones. They were just a turn away from the lab where Stark was finishing the last setups.
Thanos, inevitable as he was, continued to march forward, the Outriders spearing his march.
They passed another hall, this one much shorter, and reached the Stones.
"He is coming!" Natasha shouted desperately.
"I'm almost done!" Stark shouted back.
"MOVE!" Thor yelled before discharging divine lightning into the hall.
"ARGH!" Thanos' shouts were heard from the other side. "This can't stop ME!"
With the exertion of his might, he powered through the lightning and got close enough to the end of the hall to make out the red gauntlet with the six Infinity Stones embedded.
"NOW!" Stark shouted before throwing the gauntlet in Thor's direction.
Stark switched with Thor, and his unibeam took over Thor's lightning.
The building shook; Maw couldn't hold the collapse anymore.
"I won't be denied!" Thanos shouted.
Under the terrified eyes of the Avengers, he hurled his double-bladed sword like a spear at the gauntlet.
"NO!" Thor shouted before hurling Stormbreaker in the trajectory of the sword.
For a moment, it looked like the gauntlet was going to make it to Thor, but then it stopped abruptly midair.
Behind Thanos, at the entrance of the short hall that led towards the room, Maw, the lower half of his body crushed, floated while reaching with his right hand forward.
"Maw," Thanos said in acknowledgment.
Maw lacked the ability to reply; it was doubtful he was even conscious. He made an effortful pulling motion, and the gauntlet flew in Thanos' direction.
Maw then crashed down and his heart beat last.
He had accomplished all he could. The Gauntlet flew in such a way that it looked like it was going to fit 'like a glove' on Thanos' stretched hand. But Thor would not fail twice.
He hurled Mjølnir at Thanos, forcing him to decide between tanking or not a lightning-charged Uru hammer or not.
"Nuisance!" Thanos snarled and dodged before forcing his body through the rain of discharges that so far the others had not stopped. When his towering body made it through, the Outriders he was damming behind him avalanched forth.
"FUCK!" Rocket shouted.
They were in an enclosed environment, and they could no longer clear away their enemies with a few well-placed explosions.
Enough Outriders made it in to force them to take them on in CQC.
The gauntlet had fallen somewhere between the Avengers and Thanos, and it was clear it was about to become a race to the 'finish line.'
Thor extended his hand, and Mjølnir flew from behind Thanos, clunking him on the back of his head. But it was not enough; the helmet protected him from serious damage. He did fall forward, though.
Stark didn't waste the opportunity; he made a hard-light vibroblade on his right and a hard-light shield on his left and launched forward.
Thanos rolled to his right to avoid the blade, but couldn't dodge completely. The blade carved a long cut across his left shoulder blade. Had Thanos not rolled, his head would have.
One leg kneeling and the other in a 90 angle, Thanos punched. Stark braced behind his shield before he was sent into Thor, who was about to reach for the gauntlet.
Thanos rushed towards the prize. Rogers saw this and launched his shield like a Frisbee. His arm was left extended with his palm facing forward.
The shield hit Thanos and forced him to stumble down, but that was not all, Mjølnir flew and collided with the shield above Thanos, the resulting shockwave forced Thanos into the cracked ground.
Stark came in flying towards the gauntlet and was an instant from reaching it when Thanos grabbed hold of the shield and sent it in his direction.
Then lightning rained on him. Thor used Stormbreaker and Rogers Mjølnir from the other side.
"AGHHHH!" Thanos roared.
The Outriders, a pair of them, seeing their master in peril, rushed toward Rogers and disrupted him. That was the opening Thanos needed.
He, with his body spasming, crouched under Thor's lightning, and Thor was forced to pull his thunder back unless he risked shocking his team or collapsing the ceiling down.
Stark saw the Outriders still pouring in and Natasha, Barton, Rhodey, and Rocket being overwhelmed and commented, "We need to find a way out."
In fear of bringing down the ceiling, they could not use heavy firepower, and given the numbers and nimbleness of the Outriders, they were at a disadvantage.
"Boss, there's no exit," Friday informed.
Thor decided to give up on the lightning. He hefted Stormbreaker and charged forward with the anger of all the losses Thanos had made him suffer as fuel.
Rogers came from the other side, Mjølnir in one hand and, since Thanos had thrown his shield in another direction, a short sword of eldritch energy conjured on the other.
"I recommend you cull their numbers first, Boss," Friday suggested.
Stark nodded and did that. Rogers and Thor were occupying Thanos long enough, and the gauntlet was being kicked between their legs, so he figured he could reduce the Outrider numbers; however, before he could move on it, Thanos did something they didn't expect.
Rogers and Thor were fighting under the assumption that no one would reach down for the gauntlet in the middle of the battle because it would be suicide. If you reached for it, you wouldn't have enough time to wield it, and the other side would kill you while the power of the Stones temporarily incapacitated you; that was the premise.
But Thanos' aim was not the gauntlet; he was also feeling boxed in and was sure that with the assistance of his army above, and Proxima Midnight, Corvus Glaive, and Gamora, he would fare better against these seemingly overpowered Avengers. He was losing, he could feel it; it was a matter of seconds. So he reached for the Power Stone.
Mjølnir clobbered him on the side, breaking a few ribs in the process, and Stormbreaker aimed for his head. He was dead. He was a fraction of a second away from death, but he was in contact with the Power Stone, and before losing his head, he felt the power burning through his hand. So he directed it all down.
Stark's eyes narrowed, and he managed to get a "FRI-" from Friday out before everything went out in a purple explosion.
Friday's prediction modules worked faster than Stark's response, so just before Thanos could blow everything up, she activated the protective features on everyone's suits.
The Avenger compound, after having been buried under Titan's asteroids, exploded and became a crater.
Part of Thanos' Army, those who were above digging for their master, were blown up in the process.
The discharge of Power knocked the Power Stone out of its socket, and the Gauntlet flew in another direction. Regardless, Thanos crawled out from under some loose soil.
After Thanos, the first to come to his senses was Thor, then Rhodey and Stark, who wore proper armor, and finally Rogers, who was protected by a few one-time enchantments he had woven under his suit back in 2014.
"Friday?" Stark croaked.
"Natasha, Barton, and Rocket suffered a concussion and are out but alive," Friday reported. "I engaged their suits' stealth mode and am keeping them hidden beneath the rubble."
"Are they alright?" Thor asked. He could see Rogers and Rhodey not that far from them, but the others were a mystery.
"Yes," Stark nodded slowly while taking in his surroundings.
The monolithic Cube loomed, casting an immediate, chilling umbra. To either side, a ring of jagged, upheaved peaks—Titan's fallen asteroids—encircled the horizon. The sky, already bereft of its blue, was rendered dark by this double obscuration: the Cube's vast shadow and the perpetual haze of cosmic dust billowing from the impacts.
However, equally pressing as the cube, they were surrounded by Thanos's army.
"We are fucked," Stark commented factually.
The gauntlet was not that far from Thanos' forces, the Power Stone was closer to Thanos, his army was surrounding them, and the cube was above them. Lastly, somewhere under all the rubble, their unconscious friends lay.
Then, space cracked beside them, at ground level, and something flew out of the crack faster than they could perceive. Then, there was a bright flash above them.
Drawn by the light, everyone looked above.
The flash died down, and confusion spread. What was that? Everybody questioned in their minds, however, when cracks began to spread on the Cube's surface and light seemed to be escaping from the cracks, everyone's pupils shrank.
The Cube exploded, and Gamora mourned silently the death of a sister that reformed.
From the crack, Hulk stumbled out.
He was different; his dark hair reached his lower back, and his beard covered his neck.
In the few seconds it took Hulk to assess his surroundings, the crack closed and the Cube exploded.
"That's not good," he murmured.
"T-82 seconds before the debris falls on you, Boss," Friday informed.
"Oh, no," Stark commented.
"At least, he'll die with us," Hulk pointed at Thanos.
"Why, you brute?!" Stark exclaimed while glaring at Hulk behind his armor.
Hulk had one simple reply that explained it all: "Aragorn."
"It's not over yet," Rogers said. "The Stones," he pointed at the gauntlet peaking behind some rubble.
Thanos seemed to think the same.
So, with a minute and 22 seconds to the end of the world or the universe, they all rushed forth.
Thanos threw himself at the Power Stone.
Gamora stabbed Proxima Midnight in the back; if she was going to die anyway, might as well bring down her 'family' with her.
Hulk reached Thanos a second too late, his green fist shrouded in gamma, braced against Thanos's purple-smoking one. Just before both fists clashed, Hulk pulled his fist back and twisted his torso to land a punch on Thanos's forearm with his other fist. Thanos' arm flew wide, opening him for a follow-up. Hulk, taking advantage of his momentum, shoulder-first, crashed square on Thanos' chest.
"Cough! AgH!" Hulk's shoulder tackle forced Thanos' breath out.
Thanos, crashing down, managed to will a discharge of Power that blasted him and Hulk away.
During this short exchange, Rogers, Thor, and Stark rushed towards the gauntlet; however, as it had been observed, it was closer to Thanos' Outriders, so by the time Hulk was blasted away, the Outriders had gotten hold of it and were rushing towards their master with the prize like the good dogs they were.
Carried by Mjølnir, Rogers flew after Thor and Stark as they barrelled through the waves of Outriders that stood in their way.
They may have been stronger than their original counterparts, but there was only so much they could do against the wave tactics of thousands upon thousands of Outriders in their immediate proximity only, with more pouring out ot of the nearby Outrider vessels.
It was unending!
Thor wielded his divine lightning as if it were an infinite resource. He fried Outriders by the dozen, with a few well-placed shots taking down hundreds, yet, like trying to drain a lake with a bucket, it was a Sisyphean task.
Out in the open, without the worry of tonnes of material over his head, Stark made free use of his missiles, Unibeam, shockwave attacks, and laser, yet, no matter how many Outriders he cut through, one was ready to replace the other right after.
"I lost sight of it!" Rogers shouted. That was the other hurdle. The Outriders, for such mindless beasts, were doing a splendid job in hot-potatoing the gauntlet.
"We have to advance towards Thanos, that's where they are taking it!" Stark shouted over the battlefield's noise.
"Time is running short," Friday informed.
Stark had Friday to remind him of the impending doom, but it was absolutely unnecessary, given that it was impossible to miss the falling balls of fire right above their heads.
"PUSH FORWARD!" Rogers roared. It was half despair, half rage, 100% will. Swinging Mjølnir and his eldritch construct, he jumped straight into the sea of Outriders. He didn't care about risks anymore; he simply jumped in Thanos and Hulk's direction. Whether his actions proved helpful in finding the gauntlet and saving the world or simply killed a few hundred beasts before dying to the Cube's debris, he did not care.
Thor roared behind him and jumped into the almost suicidal charge. He would clear a path; that was his objective. Logic dictated that the Outriders took the gauntlet in the direction of their master, so he followed in Rogers' example and simply charged forward.
Stark counted the seconds, observed with careful attention, Friday helped him, tracked every anomalous Outrider, multitasked to the point of a bleeding nose, and then, his efforts were rewarded. He caught a passing glimpse of red, his red, in the hands of an Outrider.
It could have been a mistake, maybe a hallucination brought by his growing despair, maybe a trick played by his eyes, but it didn't matter; in less than 15 seconds, he was going to die.
He cut through the waves of rabid alien dogs like a spear carrying infinite momentum; he drilled through the Outrider holding the gauntlet and came on the other side with the gauntlet in hand.
"HULK!" He shouted. He was flying his way; he couldn't afford to lose a single second. It might have been reckless, especially with Hulk wielding gamma as if it were Armament Haki, but this was it; there was no other chance.
Hulk understood the task and purposely took a vicious blow from Thanos to grab hold of him. Thanos understood what Hulk wanted and tightened his hold on the stone. He pulled his head back and headbutted Hulk with enough strength to make him bleed green.
"ROOOOOOAAAR!!" Hulk roared like a berserker. He forced the hand open and grabbed the Stone. The purple of Power began to course through his arm, and Thanos fought for control over it.
Seven seconds left, the sky had been covered entirely with flaming balls of debris. It was bright, but not because of the daylight, but due to the fire.
Thanos and Hulk fought harder for control over the Power Stone.
Stark arrived, three seconds left, he crossed sights with Hulk, and the green man painfully understood what Stark wanted. Hulk twisted his hand outward and forced Thanos' arm to twist with the motion. The movement forced both of them to release the stone, and just as it fell, Stark's hand cut in, and the Power Stone fell in its slot with some assistance from the nanites.
There were no pauses, no speeches, and no catchphrases. Stark had not even bled out the momentum of his abrupt arrival; just as much as the Power Stone had fallen, he was falling. Mid-fall, he snapped.
The light of the Infinity Stones shone bright, and falling flaming pieces of the Cube were no more.
With a sickening thud, Stark, burned by the power of six Infinity Stones, fell to the feet of Hulk and Thanos and skidded forward a few feet past them.
"TON—" Hulk tried to cry, but Thanos hit his throat and lunged for the gauntlet. He ripped it from Stark's arm and tried to fit it, yet he stopped. Not only him. Corvus Glaive, a few inches from stabbing Gamora through, stopped. The Outriders, swarming over Rogers and Thor, stopped.
And it wasn't only there, all around the world, all of Thanos' forces stopped.
"So, if you knew Thanos was around, why didn't you lock the gauntlet to work only for your side?" Aragorn asked. He was sitting in a lotus position, in his child form, hovering a few inches away from Stark. He made a motion with his long tail and flipped Stark facing upward.
"R-R-Rush," Stark replied in between labored breaths.
"Maybe it was my fault," Aragorn admitted. "Ever since Hestia's... news, I've been slightly out of it. It's rare that I don't get what I want... So, I didn't see this outcome in its entirety... At least not the part where he grabbed the gauntlet... Anyway... I'm tired of this Infinity War. I'm tired of this humanity, too... Let's just be over with this. I want to go cry myself to sleep in goth's thighs."
He pointed with his index at Stark, and all the damage was undone. "There, you've cashed your extra life," he said.
"Fuck," Stark said. He was healed, healthier than he had ever been, yet he made no attempt to move. "I'm also tired of this shit."
Aragorn nodded in agreement before turning to Hulk.
"And Scott?" Hulk asked.
"Here," Aragorn waved a hand, and Scott appeared inside a void barrier.
That weapon, the one Hulk had used to bring down the Cube, was something Scott and Banner built together after decades of work. Aragorn had used his control over time to create a field of warped time around them, giving them the time needed to actualize such a weapon.
Banner, as Aragorn had explained, was nigh-immortal. Scott wasn't. So after a while, Aragorn placed him in temporary stasis.
Aragorn waved his tail, and Nebula appeared near Gamora inside a void barrier in stasis. "Sister," she cried with a gasp.
'She is fine, and she will be fine, but you must return to your timeline,' Aragorn informed Gamora in her mind.
Gamora looked around warily before finding Aragorn staring back at her across the distance with his blue-red eyes.
'She was her own sister,' Aragorn added before another Gamora appeared inside another void barrier.
Aragorn then ignored the confused woman and gazed at the red gauntlet in Thanos' hand. He traced a line over the air with his left index, and Thanos' arm was severed at the elbow. With a wet thud, the arm fell down, and the gauntlet flew in front of Aragorn's face.
"Interesting design," Aragorn commented.
"I worked with what I had," Stark replied. He was still playing the role of a talking corpse. "What would you have done differently?"
"A crown. The original Infinity Stones, before the Multiverse was born, were affixed to a crown," Aragorn explained.
"Impossible, the energy would have fried our brains far faster than our wish-wishing ability," Stark replied.
"Mmm, I can understand that," Aragorn hummed.
The Stones, under his telekinesis, flew out of the gauntlet and floated towards his Eternal Flame. They circled around it and in between his horns.
"You know? If I touch these, the universe ends," Aragorn commented while pointing at the floating Stones around his flame.
"As I said, I'm tired of this shit," Stark grumbled.
Aragorn didn't reply; he brought his thumb and middle fingers together and snapped.
Thanos and anything related to him, minus a few exceptions, turned to dust.
He snapped again under the astonished eyes of the Avengers and Gamora, and all the hurt around the world in consequence to the invasion healed.
He snapped again, and those who had died to the invasion were brought to the present.
He snapped again, and those he fell to Thanos snapped returned to the present.
He snapped again, and humanity gained a coat of fluffy hair.
"Fuck you," Stark cried.
He snapped again, and humanity's coat of fluffy fur began to shine unnaturally.
"... I don't like this," Hulk commented.
"Fine, I'll stop playing around," Aragorn said before snapping again and undoing the past two wishes.
"Finally, this shit is over," Stark said. However...
Snap!
Snap!
Snap!
"..."
"..."
"..."
"..."
Stark and Hulk looked at each other and around with a look of terror and confusion; nothing had changed.
"Did nothing change, or did I wish to alter your perception so that you could not recognize what change?" Aragorn asked before disappearing, leaving behind only the Infinity Stones carefully hovering in place.
"What the fuck?" Stark asked.
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