"Go. I can make it from here. What you gave me is enough to keep me moving." Nozomi slid from my back, her landing unsteady but her voice firm.
I gave a single nod and turned toward the source of the corruption in the air. "If you die, I'll track your soul through every realm." Her only reply was a tired laugh.
Nothing stood between me and my target. I pushed off the ground with everything I had, the pavement fracturing like a spiderweb, and shot forward.
When I cleared the tree line, the scene was almost absurd. Bruce Banner was embedded in a wall inside the Hulkbuster. The others weren't doing much better. T'Challa was down. Rhodey's suit was crumpled around him like foil, though his ragged breathing meant he was alive. Steve and Strange were trying to coordinate, but it was a losing fight.
I stayed hidden in the branches, watching, trying to pull myself together. But with Nozomi siphoning a steady stream of what I regained, it was like trying to fill a cracked cup.
Strange levitated, multiplied into a dozen copies, and they all lashed out at once with binding spells. Steve charged in the opening. Thanos didn't even flinch. He clenched his fist, and a wave of raw force erupted, dissolving the clones and throwing both men back. I gripped the tree to keep from being torn away.
Thanos walked to Steve, who was closest, and lifted him by the throat. Steve struggled, but it was useless. "You are persistent," Thanos said, his voice a low rumble. "I will ask once. Give me the stone."
I felt other energies approaching—strong ones. Time to move.
I launched from the tree, arcing through the air toward him. I couldn't help the taunt. "Your mother taught you to pick on people like that?"
He turned at the last second, surprise flickering across his face. By then, I was already there.
My kick, fueled by everything I had left, slammed into his wrist, forcing him to drop Steve. I spun in the same motion and landed another blow to his jaw. His head snapped to the side, but that was all. As my feet touched dirt, I pivoted, pulling on a reckless surge of power. A wild idea. I drove both palms into his midsection. He blocked with the gauntlet, but the force still sent him crashing through a line of trees.
The backlash dropped me to one knee, my breath sawing in my chest. Steve stumbled over, concern etched on his face. "You alright?"
I forced a grin. "Peachy. Just need a minute. Wizard—hand me the stone."
Strange's eyes narrowed. "Why?"
"I've got an idea to end this. We're out of time. He's getting up."
He hesitated, jaw tight. "It will kill you."
I pushed myself up, my body protesting. "I'll take the chance."
"You are… unexpected," Thanos said, his gaze finding me as he emerged from the debris. "You could join me."
I stared flatly. "You offer a partnership to everyone who lands a hit?"
He began to answer, but a roar cut through the air. "THANOS!" Thor descended like a thunderbolt, Storm Breaker screaming toward its target.
Thanos raised the gauntlet, a beam of energy erupting to meet the axe. Storm Breaker tore through it, slowed but not stopped. Thanos parried it with his blade, the weapon spinning away—but in that moment, Thor was already there, reclaiming it.
"Now would be a good time, Doctor," I called out. Strange watched the god and titan clash, conflict in his eyes. Finally, he sighed. A golden portal spiraled open, and he drew out the green stone.
"Do not make me regret this," he said, placing it in my hand. "If he takes it, your death will be my doing."
I expected it to hover. Instead, it settled heavily in my palm, and I felt it—time. Not as a concept, but as a substance, a rhythm I could now command. A grim smile touched my lips as I slipped the stone beneath my glove. A green aura wreathed me, and my strength returned in a rushing tide.
"This should be interesting," I muttered and charged.
The earth shattered where I'd stood. In less than a breath, I was at his side. Surprise flashed in his eyes, but his reflexes were faster. He ignored Thor's lightning and swung his blade for my neck. A good move—if I were running on fumes.
I poured power into my legs and leapt. His sword swept through empty air.
Divine Lance.
The spear formed in my grip, silver and screaming with condensed energy. The very air warped around it.
I threw it.
It didn't travel. It simply was there, striking Thanos square in the chest.
The explosion wasn't sound—it was annihilation. Trees vaporized. The ground inverted. Thor was hurled back, his lightning scattering.
For half a heartbeat, I thought it was over.
Then Thanos walked out of the smoke.
His armor was scorched and cracked, the ground at his feet molten. The Power Stone glowed angrily, and the Soul Stone pulsed like a second heart.
"So," he said, calm, almost approving. "Time bends to your will."
I landed, green energy swirling around me. "On loan. You weren't invited."
He raised the gauntlet.
Space itself crumpled.
I felt my body being folded into nothingness—and refused. I wrenched time back a fraction around myself, snapping into place just as the void tried to claim me.
Thor hammered down from above, Storm Breaker blazing.
Thanos caught it. He caught the axe, boots gouging trenches as he held back the god of thunder.
"You should have aimed for the head," Thanos growled.
Scarlet energy detonated against his side before he could strike back.
Wanda descended, a vengeance given form. "You took everything!"
Reality twisted. Metal shrieked as she tried to crush him inward. The Mind Stone flared, resisting her will with pure, stubborn force.
With a roar of effort, he broke free.
Then the world went mad.
The sky turned to glass. The ground liquefied. Thor suddenly swung at empty air as Thanos reappeared behind him, blade high.
I intervened.
Time snapped.
I rewound Thor one second, yanking him from the path of the killing blow. Thanos's sword cleaved nothing.
"No," Thanos snarled, irritation finally cracking his composure. "Enough."
He punched.
The Power Stone lit up.
My ribs shattered—then unshattered as I rewound the injury mid-impact, the pain flashing through me like white-hot wire. The Stone gave me power, but my flesh still remembered.
Then—a familiar presence, growing closer.
"Nozomi incoming," I breathed.
I didn't pull her to me. I reached through time and rewound her—not her position, but her state. Her exhaustion vanished, her power surging back to its peak.
She landed in a cyclone of energy, eyes blazing open.
"Oh," she said, flexing her hands. "That's more like it."
She didn't wait.
She hit Thanos like a comet, a fistful of raw power snapping his head sideways. Thor followed, Storm Breaker biting into his shoulder. Wanda wrapped his legs in chains of crimson light.
For the first time—Thanos stumbled.
But he fought back with memory. The Soul Stone flared, and suddenly we were facing phantoms—fallen allies, echoes of regret, a psychic onslaught.
I crushed the illusion with a pulse of temporal will, anchoring us in the now. "He's bleeding! Don't let up!"
Nozomi nodded and went utterly feral.
Thor summoned the storm.
Wanda tore at the fabric of the world.
I moved, time and soul-flux fused into every motion.
We hit him together.
A god of thunder.
A scarlet witch.
A soul-forged warrior.
And a thief of time.
Thanos was driven to one knee. The soil of Wakanda fractured beneath him.
Thor gave him no quarter. Lightning from the heavens channeled through Storm Breaker in another devastating strike. Thanos blocked, but the impact drove him deeper into the earth.
Wanda did not land. She hovered, a dark star of grief. Her power seized his gauntlet hand, fingers locking around it. "This is where you stop," she said, her voice cold enough to freeze fire.
She clenched her fist. The Reality Stone flickered—unstable.
Nozomi shot through the chaos, her hand phasing through the warping light. "Borrowing this!" With a sharp pull, the Reality Stone came free. The world snapped back to normal with a thunderous crack.
Thanos roared in fury.
He slammed the Power Stone into the ground. The shock wave flattened everything nearby, throwing Thor back and mangling metal. I felt the blow in my bones—and rewound the damage before it could take hold.
Too many fixes. A deep, warning ache settled in my core.
I blurred forward anyway, catching his arm as he tried to swing. Our eyes met. He saw the strain in mine.
"You burn brightly," he grunted. "A short, fierce flame."
"I've heard that before," I spat back, twisting against his strength.
Nozomi finished it. She slipped beneath his guard, her hand a blur of violet light, and wrenched the Power Stone from the gauntlet. The released energy blew us apart, but without the stone to focus it, it dissipated harmlessly.
Two stones gone.
Wanda let out a cry of effort, and the Mind Stone answered. It tore itself free, flying to her hand. She stared at its glow for a moment before encasing it in a prison of her own power.
Three.
Thanos dropped to both knees, breathing heavily, his armor a ruined shell. Yet, he smiled.
The Soul Stone blazed. "For all your might," he rasped, "you understand nothing of sacrifice."
I felt the move before he made it. Time itself seemed to recoil.
I didn't rewind. I skipped—forward, past the moment of activation—and slapped my palm against the gauntlet. "Mine."
The Soul Stone came loose with a whisper of countless voices. It sat hot and heavy in my hand before I sealed it away. My vision swam. My legs trembled.
Only the Space Stone was left.
Thanos looked at it, then at the four of us surrounding him: Thor, bleeding but unbroken; Wanda, radiant with wrath; Nozomi, poised and grinning; and me, barely standing.
For the first time, he looked cornered.
His hand moved for the final stone—
Nozomi kicked his arm wide. I froze that instant, reached in, and took it.
Silence.
No snap. No grand finale. No last words.
Thanos simply collapsed forward, the empty gauntlet hitting the ground with a dull thud.
Thor stepped forward, raised Storm Breaker—
—and it was over.
The Mad Titan fell, his face fixed in an expression of pure, stunned disbelief.
I stared at the body, waiting for the twist, the trick. Nothing came.
A long breath left my lungs. "Well," I managed, the green light around me guttering out. "That was… underwhelming."
My knees gave way. The world swam. When my adrenaline stopped traveling around my body, the cost of stolen time crashed down all at once.
The last thing I knew was the solid catch of Nozomi's arms before the darkness took me.
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Sorry for the late upload, guys. I was busy with school stuff. I am really sorry. This chapter is about 1K words or so.