49. Avengers: Endgame (4)

STEVE'S POV

Bruce had managed to snap his fingers and fainted as the glove slid off his now burnt arm.

"Bruce!" I said as I rushed to his side.

"Don't move him," Tony warned, and Bruce grabbed my arm,

"Did it work?"

"Worth a shot. It's over. It's okay," Thor assured him. FRIDAY turned off the lockdown protocol, and Scott walked over to the windows. Clint's phone suddenly started ringing, and he walked over to pick it up. As he answered, his voice was strained by pure joy,

"Honey. Honey."

"Guys," We heard Scott say, "I think it worked!"

Suddenly, something started shooting at the compound, causing the building to crumble in multiple places. I was hit in the head and was knocked out.

KATIE'S POV

I gasped as, all of a sudden, I fell forward, landing on my knees on the leaf-covered ground. Very confused, I looked at my hands, not understanding how I was still here in Wakanda. Thanos was gone, and he had snapped his fingers. But here I was. I stood up and brushed the leaves off of me when I saw Uncle Bucky. With tears of joy clouding my vision, I ran over to give him a huge hug.

"Uncle Bucky! Bucky!"

"Katie! What the hell is happening?"

"I don't know. The last thing I remember was turning into... dust? Where is everybody?" I looked around again and spotted Wanda. I ran over to the girl who was practically my big sister and hugged her. "Wanda!"

"Oh, Katie!" Wanda fell into my arms as tears fell down her face from partial joy and grief.

"I'm sorry I couldn't help save him," I apologized, referring to Vision, as my tears finally fell.

"We both tried, that's all that he could have asked for."

I nodded and hugged her again. As we pulled away, Uncle Sam and T'Challa walked out of the trees and into the clearing with the three of us.

"What's going on?" Uncle Sam asked after our hug, but we all shrugged. The five of us looked for anyone else and soon found Groot and many people from Wakanda's military.

"I still don't understand what's happening," I announced to everyone near me once we helped anyone stand and adjust. We all swiftly turned around at the sound of a Wakandan carrier heading toward us. Okoye stepped off with Shuri and T'Challa's mother, and they embraced T'Challa. I smiled at the sight of the family and friends reuniting.

"General, what has happened?" T'Challa questioned Okoye.

"Five years ago, you, along with many others, disappeared. Thanos had succeeded. But, I do not understand how you are here now."

We were all shocked about the fact that five years had passed when suddenly, a sparkling circle appeared in front of us. A man dressed as some type of wizard stepped out and introduced himself,

"Hello, I'm Dr Stephen Strange."

"Can we help you?" I questioned, putting a force field ball in my hand as a sort of warning.

"There is no need for that, Miss Rogers. As the General informed you, it's been five years since Thanos tried to wipe out half the universe. He succeeded, but the Avengers were able to bring us all back. Now, our help is needed."

"Why is it they need our help now, Doctor?" T'Challa asked.

"Thanos is back, and it's going to take all of us."

Everyone nodded and came together to prepare. Dr Strange then started opening more of his sparkling portals. Through the one that he had come through, I spotted Spider-Man, Peter, and we smiled at each other before focusing on the task at hand.

STEVE'S POV

"Come on, Buddy. Wake up," I gasped at hearing Tony's voice and feeling something kick me. "That's my man." Tony held my shield and handed it to me, "You lose this again, I'm keeping it."

"What happened?" I questioned.

"You mess with time. It tends to mess back. You'll see." He helped me stand on my feet, and the two of us joined Thor as he observed Thanos from the past in the distance. "What's he been doing?"

"Absolutely nothing," Thor answered, and I asked,

"Where are the stones?"

"Somewhere under all this," Tony told me, indicating toward the rubble. "All I know is he doesn't have them."

"So we keep it that way."

"You know it's a trap, right?" Thor informed us, and Tony replied,

"Yeah. And I don't much care."

"Good. Just as long as we are all in agreement." Thunder then cracked as Thor stretched out both his hands to summon his hammer and axe, and his casual clothes transformed into his armour. "Let's kill him properly this time."

The three of us walked over to confront Thanos face to face. Once we neared him, Thanos spoke first,

"You could not live with your own failure. And where did that bring you? Back to me. I thought by eliminating half of life, the other half would thrive. But you've shown me that's impossible. And as long as there are those that remember what was, there will always be those that are unable to accept what can be. They will resist."

"Yep. We're all kinds of stubborn," Tony sarcastically told him.

"I'm thankful. Because now, I know what I must do. I will shred this universe down to its last atom." Thanos put his helmet on and spoke again, "And then, with the stones you've collected for me, create a new one, teeming with life. That knows not what it has lost, but only what it has been given. A grateful universe."

"Born out of blood," I stated.

"They'll never know it. Because you won't be alive to tell them."

The fighting began, and Thor and Tony went straight at Thanos. I threw my shield at him and got a few punches in as we collectively tried to beat him. While I fought him, Tony and Thor worked together so Tony could hit him with a strong blast from his suit's hands and body. Thanos twirled his blade to divert the energy, but Tony was able to get close to him. While Tony tried to fight him, Thor came at Thanos with his hammer, but Thanos used Tony as a shield, knocking him out. I tried to attack him again but was easily shielded away. Pushing myself to get up again, I saw Thanos pushing Thor's axe into his chest. I reached my hand out to will Mjolnir into my hand. Once it reached my grasp, I threw it at Thanos. It hit his face and continued to fly but stopped and flew back into my hand. Thanos had a shocked expression on his face as Thor proudly stated,

"I knew it!"

Thanos kicked Thor to the ground before proceeding to battle with me as I held both my shield and Mjolnir. I used both weapons to my advantage as we fought. Once I used the hammer to throw blasts of lightning at Thanos, I jumped toward him, but he soon got the upper hand and stabbed my leg before knocking Mjolnir out of my hand. I swiftly got up and used my shield to protect myself from Thanos' blade. But his blade was stronger than my shield and broke it into pieces. He knocked me to the ground and as I attempted to get up, Thanos said,

"In all my years of conquest... violence... slaughter... It was never personal. But I'll tell you now... what I'm about to do to your stubborn, annoying little planet... I'm going to enjoy it... very, very much." Thanos summoned his army, and I felt hopeless but pushed to get up anyway. We weren't going to lose. Not today. I stood up against Thanos alone.

KATIE'S POV

As Dr Strange did his thing, Uncle Bucky said to me,

"Stay by my side or Sam's until we see your dad, ok? I don't want you getting hurt before he sees you."

I gave him a warm and thankful smile before answering,

"Yes, sir."

Once the sparkling portals started opening, I thought that I might be able to reach Dad through the communicator,

"Dad, do you read me?" When I didn't get a response, I turned to look at my uncle Sam, and he tried,

"Cap, it's Sam and Katie. Can you hear me?"

The sparkling portals began to fully open, and we could see Dad on the right of the portal. "On your left."

When we were able, T'Challa, Shuri, and Okoye stepped out first. When I was ready, Uncle Sam held me in position and flew out of the portal. Uncle Sam dropped me to land a few steps ahead of the three Wakandans as he circled around. I smiled reassuringly at Dad once I felt firmly planted, and I thought I saw tears in his eyes. After everyone else stepped out of the portals, including Uncle Bucky, Groot, Wanda and more, a giant Ant-Man burst through the rubble of the Avengers Compound. I looked around and prepared to fight alongside the giant Avengers team.

"AVENGERS!" Dad yelled as I took my place by his side. Then, after a moment, and once Mjolnir flew into Dad's hand, he finished, "Assemble."

Uncle Thor made a battle cry along with T'Challa and everyone else. We all charged toward Thanos' army, and they charged at us as well. Both sides collided, and I used my power to fight and help anyone I could. Uncle Bucky and I worked together to take out multiple aliens, and the raccoon soon joined us. I did a front walkover to attack three Chitauri with force field spears, but I only killed two of them. The third almost got me, but Dad hit him with Mjolnir. My eyes widened in surprise at seeing him actually fight with the hammer.

"That's definitely new," I joked before Dad quickly hugged me with one arm and kissed the top of my head. When he pulled away, we quickly went back to kicking ass together. After more fighting, I heard Uncle Clint ask over coms,

"Cap, what do you want me to do with this damn thing?"

"Get those stones as far away as possible!" Dad instructed him, holding off one alien while I put a force field spear through another. Hitting the big alien on the head, Dad tossed him to Uncle Bruce, who punched him away before speaking,

"No! We need to get them back where they came from."

"No way to get them back. Thanos destroyed the Quantum Tunnel," Uncle Tony stated. I was very confused but listened to Scott speak as I fought more,

"Hold on! That wasn't our only time machine."

After a moment, I heard a car horn playing the song La Cucaracha in the distance. Dad jumped to higher ground before yelling,

"Anyone see an ugly, brown van out there?"

"Yes!" a woman replied, "But you're not going to like where it's parked!"

"Scott, how long you need to get that thing working?" Uncle Tony asked.

"Maybe ten minutes."

"Get it started. We'll get the stones to you," Dad instructed and assured before helping me defeat another big alien.

"We're on it, Cap," I heard another woman say as I punched an enemy into the ground. Attempting to prevent a Chitauri leviathan from crashing down on a number of my teammates, I put up a force field around it. But it was strong, and I grunted in pain as it attempted to push to break free of my hold.

"Hang on, Munchkin, I got you," Uncle Tony said through the coms, and I spotted him flying toward my force field. I opened a small hole for Uncle Tony to throw a bomb in before closing it. The explosion went off, and I released the shield.

"Thank you!" I called out with a smile as Uncle Tony flew off to help others. All of a sudden, Thanos' spaceship cannons started firing. I made multiple shields above different areas to try and protect all of us. Dr Strange's friends did so as well. Suddenly, one of the cannons hit a dam, and water began to flood into the battlefield.

"Uh, is anyone else seeing this?" Aunt Pepper asked about the water, and I saw Dr Strange take care of it. Continuing to hold up shields while Dad covered me, I heard Peter yell for help,

"Help! Somebody, help!"

Dad and I both turned in the direction Peter was in before I worriedly whispered to myself,

"Peter."

Dad quickly jumped to Peter's aid,

"Hey, Queens, heads up." He threw Mjolnir, and from what I could see, Peter shot a web and started gliding along. I let out a breath of relief, still holding up force fields as the cannons continued. Before Dad or I could react, a giant alien ran at me and knocked me down, causing my shields to fall. The cannons relentlessly fired, and I tried to fight off the alien in front of me to save my team. I pushed him off, and he was hit by cannon fire. I let out deep breaths before moving to put my shields up again, but the cannons stopped and turned toward the sky. Confused, I waited to see what they were firing at.

"What the hell is this?" Uncle Sam yelled over coms, and I had the same question in my mind. A bright light came surging down and flew straight through the ship, causing it to explode and crash into the lake. We all cheered, and Dad spoke,

"Danvers, we need an assist here."

I quickly turned to Dad and pleaded with my eyes to go and find Peter. As Dad nodded, I put a spear through four aliens and then ran up my force field steps to try and find Peter. Once I spotted him, Wanda suddenly passed me and offered her hand to give me a quicker ride there with her powers. I smiled and took her offered hand as she pulled us both toward Peter and a blond woman, who I assumed was Danvers. Peter passed the blond the gauntlet before stating,

"I don't know how you're going to get it through all that."

Wanda and I landed on his left, and I assured him with a determined smile,

"Don't worry."

"She's got help," Okoye finished as more superheroines started arriving, including Aunt Pepper, Shuri, and many others that I had yet to meet. We all charged at the group of aliens coming at us while the woman carried the gauntlet through the army. I raised myself on a force field platform and did a front flip back onto the ground while firing spears at the ten aliens around me. Raising myself on another platform, countless more came at me, and I defeated them all until a strong blast caused a gust of wind to throw me toward where Peter was standing. As my legs and arms waved around, gravity pulled me back toward the ground, and Peter attempted to catch me. But instead of successfully saving me, he pulled me into his chest, and I ended up knocking him over. The two of us groaned, and I apologized while brushing my long ponytail away from my face,

"Sorry."

"All good," he replied with a groan, and I slightly chuckled as we helped each other up. Suddenly, we both turned to see a very buff alien charging at us, and I prepared myself. I turned to Peter, and we shared a thought, smirking at each other. Stepping in front of him, I raised my left hand with my palm facing him, and he took it in his before placing his other hand on my waist. Peter lifted me to kick the alien, and right before my foot hit him, I put a force field spear at the end of my foot, and it stabbed him. Peter put me down, and we high-fived before turning around and spotting Uncle Thor, Dad, and Danvers getting their asses kicked by Thanos. The gauntlet was in Thanos' hand, and Peter and I raced to help, fighting off anyone who tried to stop us. Thanos managed to put on the gauntlet, but Danvers was able to stop Thanos from snapping his fingers. She got the upper hand when Peter and I were only a little bit away, but Thanos overpowered her with one of the stones. I panicked and tried to go faster, but Thanos' army kept getting in the way. Thanos was about to win when Uncle Tony made an attack, but Thanos simply punched him away. I lost all hope when I saw Thanos snap his fingers after he spoke,

"I am... inevitable."

But nothing happened. Turning to look at Uncle Tony, I saw he had gotten the stones on his Iron Man suit. I was shocked and punched another alien away in frustration as I watched my uncle announce,

"And I– am– Iron Man." He snapped his fingers with a loud clang and blinding light.