Time, at this moment, flowed backward.
Like a film playing in reverse.
Steve's stabbing motion froze, then slowly pulled upward.
The needle left Sentry's skin and even the tiny puncture healed.
Everything returned to three seconds earlier.
Back when Steve had just raised the syringe, not yet thrust it down.
"Now!"
Outside the river of time, Frieza's eyes blazed with murderous light.
He didn't attack Steve—that would waste precious instants.
His target had only ever been one thing—Sentry's head.
"Die! Power of a million suns!"
Whoosh!
A violet Death Beam, the instant time resumed, blew Robert Reynolds's head apart.
Pfft!
A tragic blossom of blood bloomed.
The dazed Sentry hadn't even grasped what had happened, the Void inside him hadn't roared.
His brain was already vaporized by the scorching energy.
Thud.
One of Marvel's mightiest hacks collapsed ingloriously, face-down in the rubble.
Deader than dead.
"Noooo!"
As Steve watched the scene, the syringe slipped, shattering on the ground.
Golden serum pooled, reflecting his twisted, despairing face.
The last hope… gone.
"Hah…"
Frieza exhaled a long breath.
Seeing the corpse, his heart finally settled.
Too close.
For an instant, he'd felt death.
Fortunately, he'd stayed cautious. He hadn't wasted time showing off—no letting the enemy transform.
That's proper villain etiquette.
"Oh-ho-ho-ho…"
Frieza returned to his elegant human form, though his clothes were a bit tattered, toying with the green Time Stone.
He surveyed the shattered Avengers, Steve kneeling like a soulless shell, and smiled like a victor.
"My, my, that was close."
"Almost let you wake the big guy up."
"But…"
Frieza set a foot on Sentry's corpse and ground it in.
"In front of me, miracles are paid DLC."
"And you are flat broke."
…
The wind stopped.
Or rather, even the wind dared not make a sound.
Above the ruins, there was deathly silence.
Steve knelt on broken concrete.
Those once-star-bright blue eyes stared hollowly at the ground.
Beside his knee, the shattered syringe lay.
Golden serum mixed with dust into meaningless sludge.
Before him, the man S.H.I.E.L.D. deemed its ultimate weapon, said to wield the power of a million suns—Sentry—lay like a discarded sack of trash.
A headless corpse still wisping smoke.
No chance to transform.
Not even the monster Void inside had opened an eye.
Casually erased by that demon.
"Heh…"
A laugh of self-mockery and despair escaped.
Nearby, inside the staggeringly expensive, Vibranium-built anti-frieza armor, Tony's stubbled face turned ashen.
"Jarvis."
Tony's voice came out a rasp.
"Sir, I'm here."
"Shut it down."
"Sir? The odds are slim, but a self-destruct might—"
"I said shut it down!"
Tony roared, then collapsed exhausted in the cockpit.
"Useless… all useless."
"He's master of time, sovereign of space and can crush celestial bodies bare-handed…"
"We're out of chances."
With a mechanical sigh, the pinnacle of human technology's eye-lights went dark.
Turned into a cold iron coffin.
Across the battlefield, Wong stared dumbly at the Ancient One's corpse.
The woman who'd guarded Earth for centuries, invincible in his eyes, lay quiet, a gaping hole in her chest.
Time Stone—gone.
Sorcerer Supreme—gone.
Kamar-Taj's spine—broken.
Wong's whip of magic flickered and dissolved.
He slumped and the sling-ring rolled from his hand.
Counterattack?
How?
That monster can even reverse time now.
And their final trump card is gone.
What fight is left?
Frieza extended a finger and dusted his shoulder, the gesture exquisitely elegant.
"My, my…"
He stepped toward the kneeling Steve.
Each footfall landed like a kick to every heartbeat present.
He stopped before Steve, looking down at this man who had lost everything.
"Captain Rogers."
"Is your ridiculous persistence still worth anything now?"
"Your teammates: dead, crippled, or quit."
"Your ace—the sleeping man—died before he could even throw a tantrum."
Frieza bent, his hideous face inches from Steve's, almost touching noses.
"I'll ask you one last time."
"Will you accept?"
Steve lifted his head slowly.
Dust and blood streaked his face and the star-spangled uniform hung in tatters.
His shield was nowhere to be found.
But within those blue eyes still burned a fire—small, yet never to be extinguished.
He stared at the cosmic emperor, at this devil of hopeless power.
Steve drew a breath, hands bracing against the ground, and those trembling legs, inch by inch, straightened.
Though every bone screamed, he stood.
He clenched his fists into the classic fighting stance.
Even facing gods, demons, an unbridgeable abyss.
"As long as one man still stands..."
Steve said, voice hoarse yet crystal-clear, "...this isn't over."
He glared at Frieza, fearless, enunciating every word.
"I can do this all day."