The jet ride to the Kingdom of Wakanda is virtually silent with no one talking because they're all trying to figure out what the hell to do about the upcoming fight. This is the biggest fight they've been in and half of the universe hangs in the balance so it's daunting to think about. Through her turbulent thoughts, Emma can tell Steve is worried too, but not just about the upcoming battle. She stops Steve from his pacing and asks him, "Hey Steve can you come sit with me for a minute?"
Steve nods and takes the seat beside Emma, asking, "Is everything all right?"
"That's just what I was about to ask you. What's wrong? Besides the obvious..."
"It's just..." Steve starts to say but stops. I'm just worried about Bucky, he thinks to himself, but he doesn't want to bring up the sore subject.
Emma looks into his eyes and can tell what he's thinking, so she asks, "You're worried about Bucky aren't you?"
Steve can't help the small smile that makes its way onto his lips at Emma mentioning Buck. This is the first time in a long time he's heard her say his name. The moment passes though and he sighs, lowering his voice and admitting to her, "I'm just afraid, Em. What if they couldn't fix him?"
Emma puts a hand on Steve's knee and squeezes it, saying, "Oh come on, this is Shuri we're talking about. She and the healers fixed my broken spine and I was none the wiser. We're heading there to get this stone out of Vision because we know she'll be able to. I can almost guarantee they fixed Bucky and he's there waiting to see you. Everything is gonna work out just fine."
Steve nods and looks out the front end of the jet to see they were coming up quickly on Wakanda so he heads up to help direct Sam into the Kingdom. He orders him to fly the jet into a patch of trees and Sam tells him, "I hope you're right, or else we're gonna land a lot quicker than you want to, Cap."
Emma stands to look out at the landscape and as she watches the trees approaching faster and faster, she grabs onto a railing to brace herself for impact. The impact doesn't come though as the jet sails right through the trees and into the Kingdom of Wakanda.
Emma's mouth opens slightly in shock at the feat of engineering they just flew through and Steve can't help but chuckle a little bit, calling out to her, "And here I was thinking you'd been here before."
Emma laughs and rolls her eyes, defending herself with, "Well last time I didn't exactly know I was coming nor was I conscious to witness...that. And when we were leaving it wasn't like we flew out through the trees!"
"Time for bickering like an old married couple is up, you two," Natasha tells them as Sam lands the ship and opens the hatch in the back.
Steve replies, "Ha ha, very funny, Nat," before heading off the jet with her, leading the group.
Emma lags behind, gathering her stuff up slowly while her heart begins to pick up its pace at the thought of seeing Bucky again for the first time in years. She tries to stop the shaking in her hands and even out her breathing as she finally makes her way off the jet and into the sun. Looking around at Wakanda once again after all this time still instills a sense of wonder in Emma as she spins in a slow circle taking in the majesty of the Kingdom.
Ahead, Steve and Nat along with King T'Challa head the group with Bruce butting in to inform T'Challa how big of an assault to expect. As Emma catches up, she hears T'Challa beginning to name off all of the groups he will have fighting and then points to someone emerging from the building. "And a semistable 100-year-old man," Bucky says to the group as he smiles and gives Steve a hug.
"How've you been, Buck?" Steve asks with a big smile.
"Uh not too bad for the end of the world," he responds while taking a survey of the crowd Steve brought with him. His eyes land on Emma which makes her heart skip a beat and he says, "Now that one I don't think I've met."
Steve smiles and offers his hand out to Emma, saying to Bucky, "This is my girlfriend, Emma." He quickly kisses Emma's temple after he pulls her up to the front of the group.
Emma forces herself not to show the panic bubbling up inside due to seeing Bucky in person for the first time since DC. Steve can sense her anxiety and subtly rubs her back comfortingly to calm her down. The gesture helps a little bit, but Emma still can't help the panic inside. Over the years she had finally come to terms with what happened in her mind, but seeing Bucky in person was a whole different story. She hopes the fear from the past doesn't show on her face as she offers a small wave to him. She tries to think of words to say, but none make their way out of her mouth.
Bucky smiles at her, but looking into her eyes, something doesn't feel right. Suddenly, his mind is swept back to Washington DC. He sees himself hiding in the shadows of an apartment on orders from HYDRA to tie up loose ends. The girl he's waiting on has those same eyes... Her hair looks different now and she's a bit older, but Bucky could never forget the eyes of those he hurt as the Winter Soldier.
The group starts to make their way to Shuri's lab to fix up Vision and get the stone out of his head, but before Steve can head off with them, Bucky pulls him aside and whispers, "Steve. Emma...she looks so familiar. Please tell me that I'm not remembering right, that I didn't..."
Steve sighs and nods, telling him, "You did, Buck, but-"
Bucky shakes his head in shame and mumbles, "God I'm so sorry, Steve, I-"
"Buck," Steve says sternly, interrupting him. "It'll be okay. She knows it wasn't the real you, it's just hard for her sometimes. She's been through a lot and so have you, so when this is all over you two can sit down and talk things over. Build trust. It'll be a process, but I know you can do it. Emma's a very forgiving person."
"Well she's gotta be if she's put up with you all this time," Bucky replies, cracking a smile once more.
Steve chuckles and lightly punches Bucky in the arm, telling him, "It's really good to see you again, Buck. Now let's get this over with so we can all start that healing process. Together." After that sentiment, Steve heads off to the lab with the group heading in that direction.
When they arrive, Shuri is finishing setting up her equipment. She looks up to see them enter and smiles when she sees Emma. The young woman gets Vision set up on her lab table before quickly running over to Emma to give her a hug. "What happened to contacting me?" Shuri asks teasingly.
Emma smiles and admits, "We just didn't want to risk anything."
"Understandable," Shuri replies as she releases Emma from the embrace. She then turns back to the lab table to get started on Vision. As she walks to the table, she calls back to Emma, "Oh, by the way, I've created this really cool tech where you can remotely pilot ships from here. I'm sure we can get your AI programmed in quickly so you can pilot from here when the fight reaches us. You can protect us while I get this stone out. As long as it's okay with your Captain here."
Steve nods quickly, wanting Emma to stay as safe as possible. "That works for me," he tells Shuri.
Emma smiles and nods, "Sounds like I know my mission assignment."
With a look from Shuri, some of the lab techs nod and head over and gesture for Emma to follow them. They work quickly, getting SAM set up with the new system so it'll pilot just like she's used to. Although already programming rather quickly, they start to work faster as one of the members of the Dora Milaje informs everyone, "Something has entered the atmosphere."
Almost as if on cue, Sam's voice crackles over the coms, saying, "Hey Cap, we've got a situation."
This statement is followed by a crash and a rumble that shakes the lab. Emma looks out the window to see an alien craft on the ground with more incoming. She steadies herself and tries to stop the shaking in her hands as she types in the final line of code into her drone at the same time as the lab tech. As soon as they hit enter simultaneously, a command center similar to Fury's on the SHIELD helicarrier pops up around Emma.
The lab tech smiles and informs Emma, "This setup will give you command of all the Kingdom's small fighter aircraft. Control it just like you would your AI and you'll be fine."
Emma's mouth sits slightly agape at the new setup and she thinks to herself, Man, I could get used to this... After a few seconds, the shock wears off and she manages to get out, "Gosh I love technology..."
As Emma is taking in the tech and memorizing the layout, Steve comes up behind her, putting his hand on her lower back to turn her towards him. "Hey, Wanda is going to stay here in order to keep an eye on Vision and to destroy the stone when Shuri gets it out. You're the lab's first line of defense. If these things breach, you fight like hell okay?" Steve then pauses, his eyes and voice going softer as he whispers, "I can't lose you."
Emma nods, the gravity of the situation starting to settle in. Tears prick the back of her eyes as she clears her throat and whispers, "I will."
Over the coms comes Sam's teasing voice, saying, "Oh don't go getting all weepy on us now."
Steve and Emma can't help the small smiles that make their way onto their faces at the comment. They both temporarily turn off their ends of the coms though to talk for a few more seconds. Emma clears her throat once more and manages to say, "Whatever happens out there, you better come back to me, okay?"
"I will," Steve promises and leans in to kiss her tenderly, hoping to God it wouldn't be the last time...
After their kiss, Emma pulls Steve into an embrace and whispers into his chest, "Be safe." They pull apart soon after, turn on their coms, and get back to work, knowing they can't delay the inevitable.
Wanda walks over to where Emma is with her setup and admits, "Never in a million years did I think I would be in a situation like this..."
Emma looks up and nods, saying, "Neither did I. But we're here now and we need to fight. Not just for our own lives and those we love, but for trillions of other innocent lives across the universe." She pauses for a second before jokingly asking, "No pressure or anything right?"
Wanda forces a small laugh in response. She can't help but look back over to the table where Vision lay with Shuri working on him, worried. She sighs and whispers, "I hope this works..."
"It will," Emma tells her sternly. "We just need to buy some time and keep those things at bay. I'll do everything in my power to make sure they don't get to Vision."
"Thank you, Emma," Wanda whispers before pulling her into an embrace.
"Thank me later when this is all over, okay?" Emma asks with a smile at her friend.
As Wanda walks back to the table, Emma sends out SAM herself to take a fly around in stealth mode to see what the army has in store. As she looks around, she sees tons of hellish-looking doglike creatures running towards the protective shield that blocks the Kingdom from intruders. "What the hell are those..." she whispers at the sight.
"What do you see?" Wanda asks.
"You don't even wanna know," Emma mumbles as she starts tapping away at the command screens in front of her, preparing the small aircraft for a firefight.
Suddenly, Steve's voice comes over the coms, saying, "Emma. They know where Vision is. Line up everything you've got to protect the lab."
"Already on it," Emma replies as she finalizes her keystrokes. She sends out five fighter craft to hover in front of the lab with instructions to shoot any of the alien invaders on sight. After she does this, she sees some stragglers begin to leave the main herd and begin running toward the lab. She instantly sends two more crafts to off the stragglers so they don't get to their location. As more and more get the idea to head off from the pack, she taps her coms and informs everyone, "Hey guys, I'm not sure how many of these things I can handle on my own even with these ships..."
In response to this, T'Challa gives the command to open the barrier and let the creatures in to keep them away from the lab. At his command, the shield is opened and hundreds if not thousands of the hellish aliens flood onto the battlefield. Quickly, Emma says aloud to the AI, "Send out the remaining ships in instant kill mode with no friendly fire. Let's see what these aliens got."
A little while of tense battle goes by with Emma constantly monitoring everything anxiously. All starts to seem too overwhelming for the warriors on the battlefield when suddenly a huge beam of light rains down from the sky. The beam of light in question contains the one and only Thor Odinson! Before Thor is seen though, his new mighty weapon reveals itself and takes out a lot of the creatures attacking the other Avengers on the field.
"Yes!" Emma shouts in excitement and relief.
On the battlefield, Bruce starts laughing and shouts to the aliens, "Ha! You guys are so screwed now!"
The battle rages on and things seem to be on the up and up but then there is a deep rumbling in the ground below that shakes the lab. Wanda and Emma send each other a look before running to look out the window to see the ground exploding with huge circular saws that instantly destroy everything in their path. "I need to go out there," Wanda tells Emma urgently.
"Wanda, no, you need to stay here and destroy the stone when Shuri gets it out," Emma replies.
"But if I don't go out there and stop these things, they'll get into the lab. I'm going. I trust you to hold them off from here, please trust in me to hold them off out there."
Emma hesitates for a second before finally responding with, "Fine, go. I'll protect Vision."
"And I'll protect Steve," she replies.
Emma nods and tells her retreating back, "Be safe, be smart, Wanda." Wanda nods before sprinting from the lab. Emma then turns to Shuri and says, "Guess it's just you and me."
"And that is all we will need," Shuri replies with a smile as she continues her work.
During this distraction though, Emma's monitoring was left untouched and SAM suddenly alerts her of an alien about to breach the lab. "Damnit," Emma whispers as she tries to catch up to the alien with the outside crafts, but it's too quick. "I guess it's you and me now SAM."
Emma quickly gets SAM back to the lab building and puts her into stealth mode as she searches the halls for the intruder. When she locates him, Emma orders SAM to shoot him with a powerful blaster in the back. The large alien takes a swing at where he sees the blasts coming from, but the blow only makes the drone more powerful. "Oh, you're gonna regret that," Emma laughs as she sends the drone flying at the alien at full speed to blast his blow back at him.
Not realizing what had happened, the creature takes another swing at the drone to which Emma mumbles to herself, "Wow, you'd think they would learn from their mistakes." She deals another blow to the alien, but while she is reorienting herself, the creature takes the opportunity to evade her.
Suddenly, the door to the lab bursts open to reveal the alien Emma had been fighting moments before in the hall. While waiting for SAM to come and deal with him, Emma takes her pistol off of her thigh holster and begins shooting at him. She knows the bullets won't do too much damage, but any attention on Emma is attention that isn't on Shuri and Vision.
Without even being phased by the bullets from Emma's gun, the alien runs at the Dora Milaje warrior that had been assigned as their security detail. As the warrior and alien fight, Shuri begins to work faster on getting the stone from Vision's head. When the warrior is overpowered, the creature turns its attention to Shuri who desperately begins to shoot her own gauntlets at him to keep him away from Vision.
The alien manages to knock both women off the balcony before rounding on Emma once more. He takes a swing at her, but Emma expertly tucks and rolls away from the swing. She isn't fast enough in getting up though because the next thing Emma knows, she is being picked up and thrown at the wall like a ragdoll.
After a few seconds of seeing stars, Emma pulls herself off the floor, ignoring the overwhelming pain in her body. She thinks of Steve and what he would do at this moment, which snaps her into focus. She needs to fight. She needs to fight harder than she ever has before. "Not today bitch," Emma mutters as she spits out some blood from her mouth and assumes a fighting stance.
The fight never comes though. Instead, Vision manages to get himself off of the table and throws himself at the creature that was about to deal another terrible blow to Emma. When he does this, two fall out the window and onto the battlefield below.
Over the coms, Sam makes the announcement, "We have a Vision situation!"
"Someone get to Vision!" Steve shouts.
"I'm making my way down, but it might take a minute, that alien got me pretty bad," Emma replies in a strained voice as she runs down the stairs trying to ignore the excruciating pain in her ankle, back, shoulder, and head.
"I've got him, I can get there quicker," Bruce tells them as he begins making his way to the area where Vision is fighting the alien.
When Emma finally gets out of the lab, she sprints into the clearing, not seeing Bruce anywhere in sight but witnessing as the alien stabs Vision with his spear. "Shit..." Emma whispers and closes her eyes momentarily.
Steve's voice then enters her ear, asking, "Vision what's your status?" When there isn't a response, he asks, "Banner? Emma?"
"Vision's down," Emma breathes as the alien turns to make eye contact with her once more with a sick grin on his face. Emma balls her hands into fists and continues with, "I'm not sure how much longer I can last one-on-one with this guy..."
"Good thing you won't have to," Steve shouts as he sprints into the area and attacks the creature. Through his fight, he calls out to Emma, "Get to Vision and get him outta here!"
As she gets to Vision and begins to help him stand, the creature throws Steve off of himself and begins to strangle him. Rage and fear fill Emma's body and she looks around for something to save Steve with and spots the alien's spear. She quickly grabs the weapon and runs at the creature, driving the spear into its back along its spinal column, killing him instantly. Emma uses all of her strength to throw the alien off of Steve before dropping to her knees beside him and whispering, "I told you to be safe."
Steve chuckles the slightest bit and replies, "I know, I know." Emma helps Steve stand and they both make their way over to where Vision is on the ground, barely functioning. They help him to sit up against a branch and Wanda flies into the area, running to be by his side.
Steve and Emma give the two space and as they walk off a few feet, Emma whispers, "I'm sorry," not able to look at Steve.
"What for?"
"He got into the lab...I was supposed to prevent that," Emma replies.
"You did the best you could," Steve tells her.
Emma is about to go on, but she is cut off by a piercing noise that cuts through the air like a knife. All Emma hears Vision say is, "He's here," and she knows the fight is far from over.
The fighting on the battlefield seems to stop at Vision's words, so while everyone isn't occupied, Steve makes the announcement, "Everyone on my location, we have incoming." As the other warriors make their way to the area, Emma calls SAM to her position and activates the bracelets on her wrists to triple the energy in her punches.
Nearby, a cloud of blue smoke materializes and from it emerges the big man himself, the Mad Titan, Thanos. He dons a golden gauntlet on one hand adorned with colorful stones, the Infinity Stones. Only one is missing and it's the one attached to Vision.
Making his way back from his earlier fight, Banner whispers to Steve, "That's him..."
Steve engages his Wakandan-issued shields and tells everyone, "Eyes up. Stay sharp."
Bruce runs at the man in his Hulk-Buster armor first, but he simply phases through his body as Thanos uses one of the stones to render the attack obsolete. To ensure that Bruce stays out of the fight, Thanos only unphases him when he's stuck in a wall of rock.
Steve runs at him but is tossed away by purple wisps of energy from the Power Stone. T'Challa is the next to make an attempt, but he is punched to the ground and the energy in his suit is dispelled into the ground. After that, Sam tries to fly in for an aerial attack but is flicked from the sky like a bug.
Emma reaches for her second pistol and begins shooting at Thanos from one side as SAM blasts him from the other in a feeble attempt to weaken him. The Titan makes eye contact with Emma and says menacingly, "You. You puny Earth girl managed to kill Glaive..." He smirks before saying, "I'm going to enjoy crushing you."
As he flicks the other Avengers off like flies, he makes his way towards Emma who continues to blast at him with SAM. Within a few seconds, Thanos reaches Emma and just like plucking a flower from the soil, he reaches out and grabs to hold her up by her throat. He tightens his grip just a bit as she punches him with a surprising amount of power, but it's nothing compared to his own or even her other friends on the battlefield. He knows how easily he could kill her right now, but doesn't because he wants to make her feel like she has a chance. He wants to see her struggle for her life. She deserves to be punished for what she did. Her friends deserve to watch her die.
After a few seconds, Emma's power starts to weaken as her body begins to lose oxygen. Loudly, SAM begins to shout, "Boss! Boss! Vital signs are starting to fade, you have to fight!"
A few yards away, Steve shakes off the blow of the Power Stone and looks up to see where Thanos was now. What he sees is the Titan with his hand around Emma's throat and her body beginning to go limp. At the sight, Steve feels hot rage welling up in his chest. He doesn't even think, his body just jumps into action to save Emma. He sprints over and knocks Thanos's legs out from under him and this makes him drop Emma. As Emma hits the ground, she is dragged away from the immediate area. She doesn't know by whom though because all she's worried about is getting oxygen back into her lungs after what just happened.
Back in the fight, Steve punches Thanos in the jaw and then shocks the Titan by having the strength to hold back his hand that wears the gauntlet. Steve knows he can't let him win. He bares his teeth as he uses his full strength to try and get an advantage, his mind racing through all of his memories with Emma, with Sam, with Bucky, and this gives him the strength to keep holding on. All of this effort is for naught though as Thanos takes a swing at Steve with his other hand and this time he stays down.
Recovering a bit from the lack of oxygen, Emma finally gains the strength to lift her head up only to see Wanda having to use her powers to blast the stone out of Vision's head while still fighting Thanos off. A huge blast of yellow energy erupts as the deed is complete and the stone is destroyed. Mixed feelings of hope and sadness fill Emma's mind as she takes in the scene.
A few seconds pass and Emma tries to stand, but is pulled back to the ground by a force that isn't her own free will. The same yellow blast from before fills the air as she is tossed back to the ground as time turns itself back. Emma looks up at the scene once more only to see the madman rip the stone out of Vision's head himself. As he does this, Vision loses all color in his body in an instant and falls to the ground.
"Oh my God..." Emma whispers as she watches helplessly as Thanos fashions the last stone onto the gauntlet. The power courses through his body and even he screams at the pain they cause him.
Emma can't watch the rest as Thor comes in to fight the man because she's too busy crying and cursing herself for not doing a better job. After a few moments, she dares to take a look up at the battlefield littered with her friends just in time to see Thanos snap his fingers before falling back into a portal of his creation. Steve finally picks himself up from the ground and looks around, asking Thor, "Where'd he go?" Steve is met with silence, so he asks again, "Thor. Where'd he go?"
After that is when Thanos's desire comes to fruition. From beside Steve, Bucky stands up and says with concern in his voice, "Steve..." before fading to dust, leaving his gun to drop to the ground. Steve drops to his knees beside where his friend stood just moments before and his heart breaks. He lost Buck yet again... Panic starts to fill his body as he looks around for Emma and to see who else will fall victim to the snap.
Meanwhile, Emma gets the energy to lift her head and scan the field. She makes eye contact with Sam and feels shame rise in her body as she watches him turn into dust as well. "I'm so sorry..." Emma whispers as he fades from existence. Finally, Steve spots Emma on the ground and runs over to her. He pulls her onto his lap and cradles her in his arms praying she won't be next. Emma looks up to Steve with tears flowing from her eyes and she manages to get out, "Steve, I'm scared."
Steve holds her tighter and kisses her forehead before mumbling, "It's okay. I'm right here." Fear of losing Emma makes its way into Steve's thoughts as more of their friends fade to dust around them. Having this in mind, Steve adds to his thought, "I love you, Emma."
Emma's mouth opens slightly in shock at those three little words coming from Steve after so long, but she shakes off the shock and quickly says back to him what she's been wanting to say for so long, "I love you too, Steve." At the words, Steve holds Emma closer because these could very well be their last moments together.
Don't we just love a cliffhanger?