CHAPTER FIFTY EIGHT
A DEATH OF A HERO
[ AVENGERS: END GAME ]
Wanda was by the siblings' side in an instant. The woman was hugging the boy in the way of greeting since they technically hadn't seen each other since the fight that Steve and Tony supposedly had before Antares returned from Space. A stupid argument if you had asked her. It is an easily won battle too.
"Antares." the girl smiled, a hand outstretched towards the woman.
"You know, I'm now five years older than you." she smiled up at the red-haired which. Antares decided to laugh about their new age gap. It had once been a huge thing that they were only two years apart and were always treated differently despite having similar backgrounds with evil government facilities.
"Shut up." she laughed, reaching out a hand and pulling the dark-skinned girl to her feet.
"Are you okay?" Antares asked, losing all sense of jest from her tone of speech as she pulled the girl into a hug. The two best friends were reuniting under entirely different circumstances. To Wanda, it was like she had only seen Antares an hour ago.
"I will be," she answered, still sore from losing everything. They turned to the oncoming outsiders, her eyes growing dark. "We have the battle to win."
"That we do." Antares held Wanda's hand in hers as she told her brother that she would see him again soon as they too took to flight and landed down next to Carol, a woman Wanda had never met before.
"I don't know how you're going to get through all that," Peter told Carol as he handed her the gauntlet.
"Don't worry." Wanda brushed their oncoming doom aside while Antares placed a reassuring hand on the boy's shoulder.
"She got help," Okoye answered as Pepper landed beside her. Brynhildr and her flying steed landing behind the two magic girls.
"Why don't you go back to Rigel." Antares smiled at the boy. "Let the big girls handle this one."
Wanda and Antares went to the front lines, being the primary attack source with their long-range and manipulation abilities. Valkyrie was taking to the sky and smashing down the Leviathans that flew above. Antares was wasting thousands of Chitauri and Outsiders as they came at the group with a battle cry. Loki and the rest of the men watched on as their most potent defence decimated the playing field.
Antares was knocked back into Wanda, the two girls fumbling in the air before they went crash landing into a pile of rubble, the girls hitting their heads as a blast sent the whole team flying back or concussed. Antares opened her eyes, hand to her head as she looked towards the Van, the one they had been too close to, which was now broken and lightless as Thanos' double edges sword stuck out from it.
"No!" Antares managed to cry out as she realised their only way of ridding themselves from the stones was gone. Wanda groaned from beside her, taking the woman's attention as she held her up, cupping her chin as she checked for damage.
Wanda opened her eyes enough to see Antares dark brown eyes fill her vision. The red fading from the Witches green eyes like lightning strikes. "Did it work?" she asked, looking around. A strangled sob was leaving her lips as she noticed the sword sticking out of the Van.
"No." Antares shook her head and placed her forehead against Wanda's as she tried not to cry from their failure.
Loki took a running start towards the titan, taking what was left of Antares powers for his own as he sent a blast of green energy, reminiscent of a lightning strike towards the Titan. Using his telekinesis to push the goblet back towards Tony, who caught it within his open arms.
"You betray me?" he asked the God, this version of Thanos only knowing the performance of Loki that had aided him in his quest for infinity stones on earth all those many years ago.
"No," Loki growled as he sent another blast towards the Titan, causing him to kneel in pain as he clutched his singed side. "I betrayed them," he answered as he stepped aside, allowing Thor to dive, Stormbreaker in hand as he brought it down on the Titan's neck, Cap coming up from behind to help overpower the Titan.
"Stark, if you're planning something, now would be as good as any to do so." Loki eyed the genius behind him as the Titan blocked the attack and sent Thor hurtling into Loki, who in turn knocked into Tony as he dropped the gauntlet.
The Titan was quick to crawl towards the gauntlet and pick it up. Danvers hot on his tail. With one hand holding the gauntlet and the other stopping Danvers by throwing her like a rag doll. Everyone couldn't help but watch as everything started to connect back to their previous fight, with Thanos holding all six infinity stones on his gauntlet.
Danvers was quick to keep the Titans fingers separated, so he could not click his fingers together and cause another snap of existence. Who knew who would be left if he were to snap another time. The universe had already lost half its people once, and they couldn't bear to do it again.
The titan pulled the power stone from the gauntlet, using a single infinity stone against Danvers and overpowered her. The woman being sent flying. Loki stood from his spot, moving aside Thor. Loki and Tony looked at one another.
"Alright, guess it's just you and me, Goblin King." Tony sighed, seeming like Loki was the last person he wanted to fight alongside.
"What did you just call me?" Loki asked, brows furrowing as he rose from his fighting stance, stopping midway through, forming another energy blast.
"Seriously, not the time." Tony sighed.
"Right." Loki scowled as his hands rose, cursing green and yellow as he held the Titan down in place as Tony lunged for the Titan. He was taking the stones from his gauntlet.
As the Titan kicked Tony and sent him back, the pure force of the Titan overpowering the mortal sent a ripple through Loki as he broke free from the binds around him. Loki fell to the ground, raising on his elbows with enough time to see Thanos about to snap once more.
"I am inevitable."
Antares watched with bated breath as the Titan snapped his fingers, her heart thudding in her chest as she was waiting to be dusted once more, but it didn't happen. Nothing happened.
Wanda and Antares rested against one another as they watched the glow of infinity stones not come from Thanos but Tony's suit. "No," Antares whispered in horror. "No!"
"And I..." the man winced at the power of the stones coursing through his veins, Antares already had tears in her eyes as she tried to get up, but Wanda gripped her tight. There wasn't anything they could do now.
"Am..." Tony began to pant at the pain. Loki couldn't help but watch the mortal holding all six infinity stones through his broken armour. Banner had barely even been able to handle it. This was suicide.
"Iron man." Antares, let out a cry of shock as Tony snapped his fingers. Watching in disbelief as the Chitari, leviathan, and Outsiders all turned to dust before their very eyes.
The look of shock and pain on Thanos' face made them realise that they had won and he had lost. Loki stood before the man, looking down with disgust, anger, and acceptance of the Titan's fate.
The man who had brought his back to the living only to torture and maim him into doing his bidding was dying. "Have you come to gloat?" The Titan asked.
"No." Loki looked down at the man, watching as he died a second time, this time before his very eyes. "You will have no resurrections. Not this time. Not ever again."
And like that, the Titan died in a puff of smoke. Loki pulled his lips in, biting at his gums to stop the tears from welling in his eyes. His hands clenched at his sides as he looked to the ground. His shoulders were shaking with the pressure of holding in his sobs.
He was free.
"T-Tony..." Loki turned, welcoming the distraction as he heard the teen boy cry out for the man who had risked his life to save the universe.
Antares finally used the last of her ability to rise to her feet, helping Wanda up as well. The two girls were clinging to one another as they made their way towards the man who saved them all.
"Tony!" Rigel called again, his body crashing to the ground at the man's side. Rohdey was already there, a reassuring arm on his shoulder. "No, no, no!" He cried, hands hovering over the man's chest and face, not sure where to place them.
"Mr Stark?" Another kid, the same age as Rigel, came crashing down at the boys' side. "Mr Stark. Can you hear me? It's Peter."
"Tony, look at me. Hey, there we go." Rigel cried in relief as the man seemed responsive. His eyes following the two boys who clung to him like a father figure.
"We won, Mr Stark." Peter cried. "We-we won. You did it. Mr Stark, we won." Rigel took ahold of Peter as he screamed into the crook of the boy's shoulder. Both their bodies shook from their sobs, but Peter couldn't look away. Rigel whispered reassuring words to the man causing Antares' heart to break at sight. Antares stepped forward to get her brother, to console him. She had to do something. She had to. She could save him.
She could heal him.
A hand wrapped its way around the girl's bicep, stopping her from moving any closer than she already was. She turned to her left to see Strange with a sorrowful glare. "What are you doing?" She asked as she tried to make him let go. But he wouldn't. "I can... I can fix this."
"No, you can't." He replied. Antares was crying, tears cascading down her dirt covered face and leaving runs in their wake.
"I can save him. Please just let me save him." She cried, withholding a sob. "Please, Stephen."
"Some things you can't mess with, Antares." He replied. "Some occurrences are fixed in time. You would be risking everything if you saved him."
"That's bullshit." She cried out in a hiss, pulling herself back, causing her to stumble into Wanda's awaiting arms. Who then passed her onto Loki, who equally needed consoling. The two clung to one another as they watched with turned heads as Rigel and Peter clutched to one another, Rhodey holding them tight as Pepper said her final goodbyes.
"We're gonna be okay." Pepper sighed, folding Tony's hand in her own as the arc reactor shone through their interlocked fingers. "You can rest now." She whispered.
Everyone watched, sobs breaking through the quiet of fire crackling in the distance. The light between Pepper and Tony's fingers died as the hero became unresponsive. Tony's final sacrifice is to save the world. Rigel fell to his knees and let out a strangled sob as Peter and Rhodey followed suit. Pepper kissed the man on his left side, where the power of the stones had not left him disfigured with burns.
Antares watched, a sob leaving her throat as Clint kneeled, head in his hands. T'Challa was next. It seemed to ripple through the crowd as everyone took a knee, bowing in respect for their fallen hero. If it weren't for Tony, none of this would be possible.
Antares cried as she let go of Loki, falling to the ground in a heap before he helped her rise to a knee and watched as Strange and Wanda knelt beside her. At this point, everyone was kneeling apart from him.
Loki, with a final nod goodbye to his past self, took a knee by Antares' side. With his hand in hers, he paid respect to the man who brought back everyone Antares loved and killed the one man that constantly brought him pain. For that, he was happy to take a kneel.
A.N:
I want to remind everyone that this is the second time I have ever done a run-through of this movie, and I was writing this end in tandem with my other story. So below, I had added my commentary while I was writing this last chapter.
Also, note that I was a sobbing mess for two whole Business days after watching End Game in Cinemas that at this point, it is a running joke within my family
Wow, this has been a long time coming. I wrote this Chapter back at the start of August then just elected to ignore the fact that I had to upload it because I was scared people were not going to like it (plus UNI had been a pain in my but! I can't wait to graduate in two weeks!).