THE DEATH SEASON ▹ final avengers ✓

21 | the greatest failure

"Cognitive recalibration." Natasha speaks up, crossing her arms over her chest and nodding.

Everyone stares in awkward confusion.

Glancing around, the blonde just rolls her eyes and sighs, "We'll hit her in the head really hard."

"And you are confident that will work?" Thor raises a doubtful brow.

"It brought Clint back..." Natasha shrugs, "Unless you all have any other ideas."

Dressed back in his stealth suit, Steve eventually agrees, "We can have the Wakandans on standby too, if it comes to it."

The team nods in silent approval, going about their final checks to be ready for the inevitable coming fight. Svetlana wipes at her lips, frowning at the lingering bitter taste in her mouth. Stilling crouching in front of her, Natasha raises her eyebrows in question. Once Svet assures her she's ready, the mother kisses the daughter's forehead and then, just like in all her nightmares, Natasha puts a weapon into her little girl's hands. They share a look, knowing what this means, what is at stake.

One last fight. One last chance. They have to make it worth it.

As everyone mills around him, Steve lets out a quiet sigh and slowly pulls out his compass, his brows furrowing at the same worn photograph of Peggy from so long ago.

Still standing beside her daughter, Natasha slowly glances over at him, "This is gonna work, Steve."

"I know it will." Steve's blue eyes are so terribly heavy as he looks back them, "'Cause I don't know what I'm gonna do if it doesn't."

Svet sharply looks away from her uncle, her bottom lip beginning to tremble before she clamps her teeth into the tender raw flesh. The near seventeen year old has tried so hard to push that chance to the back of her mind. She can't afford to think that way. If this doesn't work... the years after this... there won't be a life for her. If they can't bring everyone back, she's not even sure who she would be anymore.

If they fail today, in just a few moments, what will Svetlana Barnes become?

Carol flies back up to the front of the ship, looking confused as she reports, "No satellites, no ships, no armies, no ground defenses of any kind." She grits her teeth, "It's just him."

"And Lisa?" Rhodey immediately questions, worry for his niece twisting the uncle's brow.

"No sign of her."

"But that's enough." Nebula determines lowly, black eyes narrowed and vicious.

THANOS IS WEAK .

The mad titan, the one who annihilated half the universe, now spends the rest of his pitiful existence in a false illusion of serenity. The giant limps along as he gathers his harvest, clearly still wounded from the Snap. Thanos slowly approaches his small wooden hut, setting himself down and allowing himself a kind of peace that the rest of the universe will now never know.

But he will pay.

Suddenly Captain Marvel slams through the thin roof, knocking Thanos down, twisting around his body, and grabbing tight onto his neck. Bruce, clad in the HulkBuster suit, bursts from the ground and snatches tight onto Thanos' arm that still wears the withered and decaying Infinity Gauntlet. The titan chokes and gasps, shocked at the sudden attack.

But it's about to get so much worse for him.

Lightning strikes once more and Thor slices through the sky, hurling the sharp edge of his axe right into the curve of the monster's arm. Thanos screams in agony as his hand is lopped off, and Rhodey and Rocket follow in with their own guns raised.