Frostbite

Fourteen

The battle raged on, neither of our groups getting the upper hand. Thanos had to have minions searching for the stones, but they had yet to emerge from the rubble.

Clint's voice finally crackled over the comms. I happened to look across the battlefield and spotted him sprinting through it with the gauntlet in hand.

"Cap, what do you want me to do with this damn thing?" he yelled, being ruthlessly chased.

"Get those stones as far away as possible!" Steve ordered from wherever he was.

"No! We need to get them back where they came from," I argued, killing another alien as it rushed me.

Tony sighed, flying past, "No way to get them back. Thanos destroyed the quantum tunnel."

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

The La Cucaracha tune sounded in the distance, and I stopped to peer around for his van. It was nowhere in sight. I kicked a soldier off the small hill and moved on.

"Anyone see an ugly, brown van up there?" Steve asked, waiting for a reply.

"Yes!" Valkyrie answered, "But you're not gonna like where it's parked!"

She was on her Pegasus in the sky, seeing what most of us couldn't. It had to be closer to Thanos' side of the battlefield, where the majority of his troops were.

"Scott, how long you need to get that thing working?"

"Maybe ten minutes."

"Get it started. We'll get the stones to you," Steve instructed.

"We're on it, Cap."

I kept moving across the battlefield, trying not to stay in one spot for too long. A dozen whips erupted from the ground and took hold off all the enemies in the immediate area. The next moment, they disappeared as they were dragged under the Earth. My head whipped around until I spotted him floating down to me.

"Stephen," I grinned, bowing low with a smirk. The other sorcerers kept fighting around us.

He rolled his eyes, but smiled, "Hey there, Elsa."

"Don't call me that," I said with a snort, "It's good to see you again."

"I knew you'd miss me," he teased. I opened my mouth to make another snarky comment, but Tony thudded to the ground next to me.

"Hey. Once upon a time you said we'd eventually win, yeah? Tell me this is it," Tony directed at Stephen, his face a tad distraught at the thought of losing again.

Stephen glanced between Tony and me, his expression growing dark. Panic coursed through me at that look, but I didn't know what they were talking about, so I kept silent. His demeanor was worrying, though.

"If I tell you what happens, it won't happen."

Tony stared a beat longer before tightly saying, "You better be right."

What the hell happened on Titan between them? Tony blasted off again and I met Stephen's eyes, confusion clearly plastered on my face.

"What the hell are you two going on about?" I demanded, crossing my arms in irritation.

"When we were on Titan, I used the time stone to look into the future to see if we had a shot at beating Thanos."

"And we did, right?"

He didn't answer, but gave me a pointed look, unwilling to give me any more information than he had given Tony. I sighed, giving him a nod before engaging with more oncoming aliens. It didn't sit well with me how vague he was being, but if he couldn't say...

We soon got separated, moving opposite directions on the field. I eventually began using only Eldritch magic to fend off enemies as my own power reserve started to wane from the strain of continuously dipping into it. It just needed time to replenish, and I knew how much I could pull from our dimension without overdoing it.

A blast from the sky struck nearby and I winced in surprise. Shots began raining down from Thanos' ship above, hitting all over the battlefield carelessly. He didn't care whether he killed his own troops to take us out. I kept an eye above me, ready to portal out of the way if necessary.

There was groaning from the area I had just left Stephen and I spun around to see what was happening. One of the cannons had hit a dam, crumbling it. Water from the river began pouring into the battlefield. Oh no. I moved to go contain it, but Stephen beat me to it. He swirled it into a funnel, holding it there.

I was abruptly thrown through the air as a blast hit right next to where I had been standing. We were being torn apart by their cannons; we'd all die if we didn't do anything about it soon. I rolled to a stop and pushed myself back to my feet, searching for a flyer that might possibly get us up there to stop it.

That thought was put on hold though as Peter fell from the sky, hitting the ground roughly, the gauntlet bouncing from his hands. His mask was down, and he curled in a ball, covering his head as the blasts increased tremendously. I dashed to him, kicking the gauntlet closer to him as I did.

I hovered over him and lifted my arms to the sky, creating a huge shield above us. He glanced up wildly and smiled a bit as he realized who it was. A blast hit the shield and my knees buckled for a moment, but I held firm.

"Peter-" I huffed, -missed you kid, but I see you still can't stay out of trouble."

He chuckled but was cut off as another blast hit my shield. I grunted as I pulled more magic to keep it steady. Like a switch, it just stopped.

The cannons swiveled around to point into the sky above themselves. I stared in confusion as did many around us. Shots were fired up into the atmosphere at only God knew what.

"What the hell is this?" Sam questioned, back in the air again now that it was safe.

A bright light of thundering energy surged down through the ship, causing a huge explosion. The ball of light darted through the ship a few more times, before it finally began dropping into the lake in ruin. Flying up there victoriously was Carol. I had never been more ecstatic to see her.

"Danvers, we need an assist here," Steve told her, assuming she had a comm in.

She spotted us on the ground and soared down to meet us. Peter was still hugging the gauntlet to his chest, scared to let go. I snorted at the sight of him.

"Hi. I'm- Peter Parker," he greeted her. She nodded to me before smiling fondly down at him.

"Hey, Peter Parker. You got something for me?"

Peter climbed to his feet and passed her the stones. I let the shield above us finally fade; my eyes drifting to the mass of aliens headed our way for the gauntlet.

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

Wanda landed next to me, dropping Okoye as she spoke, "Don't worry-"

"-She's got help."

Pepper flew into view and landed next to us, followed by Mantis, Shuri, Hope, Gamora and Nebula. We all faced Thanos' army, charging them with an undeterred confidence. We created a path for Carol, helping her get across the battlefield and to Scott's van. It was our one shot at getting the stones back before something went wrong.

In my peripheral I noticed Thanos heading straight for Carol as she closed in on the tunnel. Cursing I portaled across the field.

"We need to keep him from the stones!" I yelled, hoping someone was close by. 

I released a beam of energy, hitting him as three others did, too. Pepper, Shuri, and Hope had come running. The four of us managed to knock him off his feet, and he rolled across the dirt. Just as Carol was about to fly into the van, Thanos tossed his sword across the field.

"NO-" I cried, trying to portal, but it was too late.

It went directly into the tunnel, effectively destroying it. A powerful blast radiated through the area, sending everyone flying. Carol was tossed back, the gauntlet falling to the ground. And Thanos was running straight for it.