Do you ever wonder how you ended up where you are? Wonder about if you made the right choices along the way? Do the current events unfolding before you seem too ludicrous to be real?
Well as a fifteen year old girl with glow sticks for hands running into a battle that will determine the fate of the universe... me neither.
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The Bifrost wasn't cold as Rose had expected, but rather it made the surrounding air feel heavy. The blinding light made Rose close her eyes, but the weirdest part was the infinite feeling of falling. A sickening feeling made her want to go back, turn around and hide like a scared puppy. The smell of ash appeared without warning, not a good sign when you are being thrown somewhere you don't know. Next yelling, gunfire, and explosions; her hearing was back. Her feet touched the ground, it was some grass dried by the sun's heat over many years. Rose opened her eyes, if she wasn't so serious she would have gasped.
A battlefield, Thor took them to a battlefield. Rose recognized it as Wakanda, why they were there she had no idea. Smoke rose to fill the air, dirt and debris rarely stayed on the ground for long, hundreds of Wakandan warriors were outnumbered fighting against yellowish-black alien creatures running on all fours. It felt like, only for a second, the entire war halted to look at the group who arrived. Rose took one last deep breath, closing her eyes and focusing all the energy she had to the surface. When she opened her eyes, her entire forearms were glowing like the Tesseract once did. Her eyes gave off so much light that everywhere Rose looked appeared to have a blue hue.
"You have to be the strongest you can be," an inner voice called out, "Bring your mind back to the place it once was, when empathy and hesitation were fairytales."
The teen surveyed the scene once more, whispering under her breath, "Hail Hydra."
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While Natasha (or better known as Black Widow) had only seen Rose fight on few occasions, she knew something was different as the teen flew around the battlefield. Rose fought without fear, jumping into hordes of the Outriders (the alien creatures controlled by Thanos's lackeys) and coming out victorious. Back in Sokovia and Germany Rose's fighting style was more aligned with someone who learned to fight on the streets, relying on agility and clever tricks. Now she fought like a solider, someone trained to kill without regard for their own safety. The two of them fought until their paths crossed in one of the many trenches that had formed during the battle.
Natasha got closer to Rose, "We need to keep them away from Vision, it's just a matter of time!"
Rose shot one of the Outriders dead with her powers, "Understood."
Natasha spun around to see an Outrider jumping towards her, tackling her to the ground. She put a bullet in its head, all that did was anger it. Someone tackled it off her, followed by the squeal of the same alien dying. Looking up, Rose was returning her bloody knife to its sheath. Natasha made eye contact with the teenager, who had burn scars and cuts forming across her body.
"Watch your back Romanoff," the teen spat.
Rose ran straight back into the fight, wielding a cold blooded determination Natasha could only admire for a second.
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It hit like a train, straight to Rose's gut. All of the Infinity Stones were on Earth, all in the same country. She could feel the Mind Stone in Vision's head sending out energy the entire battle, pulsing through the ground in waves. But when the other five arrived (with no buildup or warning Rose might add), the fifteen year old was brought to her knees with fear and shock. Her arms began to shake when she tried to push herself up, like all the strength vanished with the wind.
"HE'S HERE!" She screamed as loud as she possibly could, ringing out across the entire battlefield.
People craned their heads towards the voice, everyone understanding exactly what those words meant.
Why couldn't she stand? Rose needed to get off the ground, but her instincts were calling for her to run, that was no chance at survival if she followed the infinity stones, that her best shot at getting out of there alive was getting as far away from there as possible. Someone picked her up by her forearm, forcing her to her feet as they ran towards the lab Vision was in. She looked up, her eyes meeting the blue irises of Steve Rogers. Her mind stopped thinking about pure survival, forgetting the training she underwent years ago. She ripped her arm away from the Captain's grasp, her legs moving a new vigour. For the first time Rose realized she needed to be a hero, not just a bored kid with superpowers.
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They all stood in a small clearing surrounded with trees, Wanda was using her powers to destroy the Infinity Stone in Vision's forehead. Rose knew that meant Vision was going to die, but they had run out of time. A portal opened up, the titan who started this all stepped through. Rose saw Thanos for the first time, finally understanding why he was so feared. He towered over everyone, looked strong enough to snap Hulk's neck, and wore a golden gauntlet with five out of six Infinity Stones. Rose stood in front of Wanda, pretending not to see the tears that streaked down the woman's face as she destroyed the Mind Stone still in Vision's head.
Thanos threw everyone out of his way like they were merely insects to him. Rose was terrified as he walked slowly towards her, nobody coming close to delaying him. Captain America jumped in front, holding one of Thanos's arms for only a second before being knocked to the ground.
"Ok, if you fuck up half the universe dies. No pressure right?" Rose's own mind said to her as her arms released a light bright enough that it began to burn her own skin.
Once Thanos got close, Rose jumped towards him. It was like hitting a wall, he didn't even flinch. A portal opened beneath them, causing both to fall through.
On the other side was hundreds of feet into air right above where they were. As they fell, Thanos attempted to use the stones to knock Rose away. She stayed glued to him, even after the Power Stone nearly took out her entire left leg. Thanos swung towards her head, but Rose dodged and moved to his back. The air rushing past made her eyes water, and the ground was approaching fast. Before the two of them hit the ground, Rose opened another portal. They both hit the ground of a completely different place, a snowy and iced tundra providing freezing temperatures. They rolled away from each other, trying to catch their breaths. Thanos groaned as he stood up, the fall seemed to have at least hurt a little.
"You have a strong will child," Thanos limped over to Rose who was trying to push herself off the ground unsuccessfully, god that maneuver hurt.
He crouched down and used his hand the size of her head to gently life her eyes to meet his. Something about his gaze was comforting in the worst way possible, like Thanos meant no harm while simultaneously causing it across the entire universe. He sighed and let go, turning around to a black portal he made himself using the Space Stone. Rose reached out and wrapped her arms around his ankle, requiring both arms to do so.
"I have no more energy," Rose began to sniffle as she tried to teleport them both, "I-I can't stop him."
Thanos looked behind him and grabbed Rose by the neck, carrying her back into Wakanda. It was such an odd sign of respect, that he was allowing her to witness her defeat.
On the other side Thanos tossed Rose into some underbrush, all she could do was move like a rag doll. He turned back to where Vision once was, and where Wanda was on her knees crying. The green Stone in the gauntlet sent light that wrapped around Thanos's arm as he turned back time, bringing Vision back to life. No matter how much Wanda screamed and fought, she was no more than a pest to him. Once the Mind Stone was whole again, Rose could only watched as Thanos ripped it straight from Vison's head and placed it into the final slot on the gauntlet. He held up his arm in victory, preparing to snap his fingers. A crack of Thunder came from the sky, Thor flew down embedding StormBreaker into the titan's chest.
A feeling of relief fell over Rose as she watched Thor shove the ax deeper, earning a cry of pain from the alien on the other side.
"You... should have aimed for the head."
The snap of fingers, a blinding light, a scream from a girl.
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Steve looked around, holding his breath as his friends slowly turned into... dust? Bucky, T'Challa, Wanda, Sam, all gone before being able to let out their last words. His eyes caught sight of someone crawling out from the bushes, seemingly barely alive. It was Rose, her hands were shaking as they grabbed the grass and pulled her forward. He ran over, getting down on one knee to try and help her.
"Rose? Are you ok?" Steve questioned, he had to save at least someone.
He pulled the black backpack off the teen, throwing it aside to flip her over. Rose was crying, genuine tears pouring out of her blue eyes which the light had faded from. He pulled her black mask off, looking her in the eyes.
"I-I can't feel my legs," Rose said, fear causing her lip to tremble.
Steve looked and saw Rose's legs slowly turning to dust, each bit carrying a bit of light away with it.
"Hey, you'll be ok," that was a lie, but all he could offer was comfort.
Rose looked much younger than ever before, like a small child who wasn't quite ready to die. That wasn't the Rose he fought next to in Sokovia, who had no vendetta against the concept of death. He used his hand to gently wipe away the salty tears.
"Shhh, there's no need to cry."
"Rogers, I'm going to die aren't I?"
"You are going to be alright, just try and breath."
Rose took in a shaky breath, "The hard drive is in the front pocket of my bag, promise me you'll look at it?"
"I promise."
"...I'm so sorry."
That was it, Rose took a final breath as the power of all the Infinity Stones took their toll. In the end death isn't an agreement, it's a promise made to everything to every exist. And the Grim Reaper always keeps his word.