chapter xi of the death season :
" GET YOUR SCRAWNY BUTT OVER THERE . "
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" Fine . I ' ll do it myself . "
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january 11, 2018
titan
A MAD TITAN SUDDENLY APPEARS from a ripple of black that tears through the orange sky. His dark eyes slowly skate across the desolate landscape that stretches out in every direction around him, searching, searching, always searching for them. Thunder and lightning cracks through the desolate planet before his eyes. The titan's wandering gaze finally comes to a sharp stop when it finds that a confident man with a maroon cloak sits comfortably across from him.
"Oh yeah." Stephen slowly hums out, studying the titan, "You're much more of a Thanos."
Thanos slowly walks closer to him, his deep voice speaking up to ask, "Where is the girl? I can sense her presence enough to know she cowers nearby."
"I'm not cowering." Lisa's voice suddenly carries across the destroyed planet.
The brunette slowly steps up the platform to be by Stephen's side and Thanos gives a small pleased smile at the sight.
"I was just dreading seeing your ugly mug for the first time in real life." With a small smirk, her flickering eyes slowly trail up the great height of the titan, "After all this time... finally, Thanos."
"Ahh, it speaks... and knows of me by name." Thanos smirks and cocks his head to the side, "Should I be flattered?"
Lisa flashes a white-toothed grin that looks eerily similar to her father's before it completely drops into a blank and cold silence.
"I take it that the Maw is dead... This day extracts a heavy toll. Still, they accomplished their mission." Thanos' eyes find Lisa once more and then they stay there, lingering on her long enough for the message to get across.
With glowing hands clenching into fists, Lisa pales just a little at the truth. It takes Stephen just the same amount of time to realize what Thanos is saying and he glances sharply at the girl, finally understanding her desperate need to get to Titan.
"She neglected to tell you, then?" Thanos paces around slightly, gazing after them as if solemn, "That was her mission that I sent her on, along with the other children of Thanos. To retrieve the Infinity Stones and those attached to their power. Still, two is better than none."
"No... Wait, wait-," Lisa whispers, her confused eyes slowly widening in horror as her voice echoes across the dusty planet, "Just wait-I, no, no! I-I didn't do it for you!"
"You've done all of it for me." Thanos tells her in his deep and soothing voice that sends shivers up her spine, "It's all all right now, my child. There's no more need to play games."
Lisa's eyes fill with tears and she looks over at Stephen with a gaping mouth, "Strange, listen, please, I-I didn't mean-,"
Stephen silences her with a sharp and lingering look.
And the girl slowly falls silent and her eyes glare into the dirt below her feet.
"You used her as a vessel." Stephen finally speaks, turning from Lisa back to the titan, "You manipulated her. She was your trophy. But she's on our side now."
"You think that'll be her vengeance? Oh no..." Chuckling, Thanos' eyes set on Lisa, "Her vengeance will prove much more imaginative."
"You may regret that." Stephen threatens casually, "She brought you face to face with the Master of the Mystic Arts."
The titan moves closer to the two, making Lisa stiffen, "Where do you think she brought you?"
"Let me guess." Stephen lowly says, "Your home?"
"It was." Thanos quietly concedes and then the reality stone hums within the gauntlet.
Letting out a sharp breath, Lisa's eyes turn red and then the world around them changes to something from long ago, lush and green and populated.
"And it was beautiful. Titan was like most planets: too many mouths, not enough to go around. And when we faced extinction, I offered a solution."
"Genocide?" Stephen offers in disgusted disbelief.
"At random." Thanos confirms so plainly, still seeing nothing wrong with what he wants, "Dispassionate, fair. For rich and poor alike. And they called me a madman..." The world is pulled back into reality, dusty and devastated, "And what I predicted came to past."
"Congratulations, you're a prophet." Stephen spits out with narrowed eyes.
"I'm a survivor."
"Who wants to murder trillions!"
"With all six Stones, I could simply snap my fingers," he raises his hand and then does as he says, "and it would all cease to exist. I call that..."
"Mercy." Lisa finishes with an angry whisper, her eyes drilling into the titan.
Stephen slowly stands and takes a few steps down the platform, "And then what?"
"I finally rest. And watch the sunrise on a grateful universe."
He softly purrs, "The hardest choices require the strongest wills."
Lisa stares at him for a long moment, her eyes growing distant and her lips pulling apart in thought.
Stephen swiftly brings his hands together and then his hands are glowing with power once more, "I think you'll find our will equals to yours."
"Our?" Thanos lifts his head just in enough time to see a gigantic column flying down through the air towards his suddenly small-looking form.
Tony's eyes are concentrated when he smashes the huge column straight into Thanos just as he raises his gauntlet and the purple stone ignites. Dust rushes out from around the crushed titan and Lisa grinds her teeth, knowing that won't hold him for long
"Piece of cake, Quill!" Tony quickly chirps with a half-smirk, gliding through the air.
"Yeah," Quill sasses with a frown, flying after him, "If your goal is to tick him off!"
"Lees, you okay?" Tony yells over to the girl as she sets into a run from her spot beside Stephen and jumps up to be by the others.
"Yeah," she waves him off, focusing on the column and waiting for Thanos jump out at any moment.
"You sure?"
"I said I'm fine!" She insists, being saved from having to explain herself anymore when suddenly purple energy bursts the column apart and shows a screaming Thanos underneath, his fist shaking with the power of the purple Stone, "Uh oh-,"
With a rageful yell, the titan unleashes his gauntlet on everyone around him. Everyone dives in with everything they have, eager and completely willing to do their part to take the titan down. As the fight continues, Peter suddenly starts swinging in through orange portals, hitting Thanos in every which way that he can.
"Magic!" The boy announces with a punch across Thanos' face.
"More magic!" With another punch, Peter disappears and reappears with a foot in the titan's face, "Magic with a kick!"
As Thanos gets more and more disoriented, Peter swings in and happily yells, "Magic with a-,"
But before he can finish though, Thanos snatches Peter around the neck and smashes the boy so hard into the dirt that the very ground beneath him cracks and splinters.
Baring his teeth, Thanos accuses the struggling eighteen year old, "Insect!"
"Ugly!" Lisa screams right back, jumping in to whack the titan right across the head with a long spear.
He gives her a sharp demeaning look before kicking her hard in the chest and then hurtling the pair of siblings through the air and directly into Stephen who has only just managed to get back to his feet. The three let out pained and quiet yells as they hit and tumble across the rocky ground.
No one moves for a long moment.
When she finally opens her eyes, Lisa finds herself choking on the blood pooling in her mouth. She coughs a little, messily wiping it across her cheek as her tired, aching eyes scan the area. Stephen winces and tries to sit up a few feet away, making it clear that he's still alive, at least. That leaves one other person. She bites back a wince as she forces herself onto her elbows to find Peter further past Stephen, unmoving.
"Peter?" Lisa raspily calls out fighting the panic in her voice.
No response.
"Oh my, God..." Her eyes burn and she coughs as more blood drips down her bottom lip, "Peter!"
Pushing back her tangled hair, Lisa stumbles to her feet, trips, and then ends up crawling across the dirt to get to him, his body crumpled and limp against the sharp and jagged rocks. Her hands shake and she holds her breath as she gently turns the boy in the metal suit over. Ignoring the fight around her, she forces his mask to retract and her hair falls into her face as she leans over him.
"Are you dead?" Lisa whispers worriedly, poking at his cheek.
The teenager shows little signs of life at first, giving a small groan before he squints an eye up at her and quickly shakes his puffy hair, "Only on the inside."
Lisa heaves a sigh of relief before throwing her hair over her shoulder to look at how the fight still wages behind. Thanos is engaged in some kind of hand-to-hand combat with an unfamiliar blue woman who is taking the titan on head-on.
"And now there's this lady!" Lisa breathes heavily before nodding at the two around her, "Come on!"
The three hurriedly leap back up; Stephen snapping a crimson band around Thanos' gauntlet, Lisa shooting repulsor beam to blind him, Drax snatching onto his legs, Quill magnetizing his free arm to the ground, Peter swinging in to web up his chest, Tony lands to pull free the gauntlet, and Mantis falls from a portal above to rest her hands on his skull.
Thanos screams in denial, straining against the strength of everyone until Mantis' antennas glow a pale yellow and then the the titan's eyes change to a strange murky white.
"Is he under?" Tony breathes heavily, still trying to hold onto the gauntlet, "Don't let up!"
"Be quick!" Mantis winces with a pained whine, "He is very strong!"
"Parker! Lees! Help!" Tony yells over to the two kids, "Get over here, she can't hold on much longer, let's go!"
Lisa rushes to help and Peter lets out a yell as they try to yank the gauntlet off Thanos' monstrous fist. Quill quickly lands few feet away, running the last few steps to slow down before he sets a dark glare upon the titan.
"Thought you'd be hard to catch." The man mocks before giving the two Starks a childish expression, "For the record, this is my plan."
Tony just scoffs as Lisa rolls her eyes before her expression immediately darkens when she looks back at the titan.
"Not so strong now, huh?" Quill gets in his face to angrily interrogate, "Where's Gamora?"
Thanos struggles against Mantis, growling, "My Gamora."
"No. Bullcrap. Where is she?!"
The titan just growls again and doesn't respond, his glazed and distant eyes leveling on the girl who stands behind Quill, busy trying to help Tony and Peter get the gauntlet off. Quill follows Thanos' line of sight and his eyes narrow between the two, his glare lingering on the titan for a long second.
"You!" Quill finally points at Lisa.
The girl jumps and pulls back from the finger-pointing, "Me?"
Peter eyes Quill cautiously, moving slightly more in front of his sister in defense.
"Back off, Quill," Tony warns, his eyes narrowed at the other man.
Quill just ignores the two, waving them off to say to Lisa, "You said you can see the future! Find out where he took my girl!
Lisa squints incredulously, "Uh I wish I could, but I can only see the fu-ture, Mr. Quill."
"Then do something! He did something with Gamora!"
"Okay yeah, I get that and I'm so sorry, but again he did something in the past, sir." Lisa sassily pulls a face at the man before giving an apologetic shrug, "I've never seen in the past."
"Well, get your scrawny butt over there and give it a try!"
Lisa defensively narrows her eyes, hesitating for just a moment as she lets out a heavy breath, "Fine." When Tony nods for her to let go of her pull on the gauntlet, she steps over to Quill and points a long and teasing finger at him, "But call me or my butt scrawny again, and I'll rip your arm off and beat you to death with it, hm?"
Peter snickers under his breath and Tony raises his eyebrows in surprise.
"I'll take that chance." Quill shoots back with just a hint of a smirk.
Lisa playfully squints at him before sighing and turning to look at the titan, "All right, time for some answers, you big ugly creep."
Lisa releases another heavy sigh and slowly steps over to Thanos, her suit retracting like drying paint from her hand and allowing her to carefully place her palm upon his forehead. Her hand begins to glow a bright blue and both her and Thanos' heads fall back in simultaneous motion. Tony watches her carefully, his brows pulling in and his teeth gritting at the painful sight. The girl suddenly twitches, wincing and turning to the side as the flashes roll from the titan's mind to hers.
"You think you can stop me?" Thanos voice suddenly breaks into her focus, drawing her eyes open and her gaze stuck on his face.
A long moment of silence stretches between them before Lisa puffs a heavy breath and shakes her head, "Well, we're sure as heck gonna try."
"But do you think you can stop me?"
Lisa doesn't respond, a slight wince marking her features and a trembling starting in her hands as they move to rest on either side of his skull.
"Do you even want to?"
Lisa seems to almost force herself to shake her head, "You know I do, stop trying to screw with my head, ya ugly shriveled grape."
"You were meant for more..." Thanos slowly growls out his words, looking like it's a fight with each breath, "You know you were. Your destiny, is so close at hand. You've dreamt of the throne and the peace as much as I have." The titan gives a raspy near laugh, "You desire it."
"Lisa, shut him up!" Tony snaps, having had way far enough of Thanos and his taunts.
"You will listen to me..." Thanos hisses, fighting both Mantis and Lisa's control.
"No!" The girl suddenly yells, her eyes leveling with his and her voice growing so commanding, "You're done now. You are going to shut your disgusting trap and you will listen to me as I tell you what is and isn't going to be destiny.
"We will get that gauntlet off your shriveled prune hands, we will kill you, and then we will go home! There is no throne! There is no version of this where you come out on top! Do you understand me?"
Thanos just gives a hoarse laugh.
And Lisa trembles with rage, "Do you understand me?!"
But the titan just keeps on laughing, "Of course, I do. I, alone, have looked into the darkened corners of your soul... and know you for what you truly are."
"And what am I?!" Lisa yells, getting into the titan's face.
"A survivor. Like me..." Thanos' face flashes with a strange grief and memory, as if there is something within the recesses of his mind that kills him.
And then it comes. The memory.
Lisa suddenly cries out, the pain of it hitting her as well.
"Lisa!" Peter's eyes panickedly widen and he stumbles where he stands, "Stop-! What's he doing to my sister?!"
"What's happening?!" Tony harshly demands, forcing himself to stay where he is because he knows he can't let up now.
"They-they are in anguish!" Mantis cries out, her face contorted as she can feel the sadness of it tearing at her heart too.
"Lees-!" Peter yells for his sister, wanting for it to stop, not wanting for her to be in pain.
"Good!" Quill hisses in disgust and glares into Thanos' eyes, pleased that at least the titan is hurting.
"They-they mourn."
"What does this monster have to mourn?!" Drax grunts out from the ground, still trying to hold Thanos in place.
"A woman..." Lisa suddenly whispers, a tear slipping down her cheek as her blue eyes slowly open, "He mourns a woman."
"Gamora." A low voice slowly speaks up from behind them all.
With a look of absolute horror, Quill slowly - painfully - turns to face the blue woman, Nebula, and whispers, "What?"
"He took her to Vormir. He came back with the Soul Stone." Her ink black eyes seem to sparkle all the more as Nebula struggles to swallow, "She didn't."
Lisa slowly pulls her hands away from Thanos' skull and her hands shakily cover her mouth. His eyes blankly staring at the blue woman, Quill's lips slowly part and a sick feeling fills the pit of his stomach. It hurts. It hurts so much. His bottom lip trembles, his eyes fill with tears, and he feels the numbness in his heart break with rage.
And Tony is the first one to recognize it - after all, he's seen it so many times in the mirror.
"Okay, Quill," Tony's mask pulls back so that he can try to level, try to connect, with the other man, "You gotta cool it right now. You understand?"
Quill doesn't seem to hear him, slowly turning towards Thanos with rage lighting a fire in his eyes.
"Don't, don't! Don't engage!" Tony lowly screams in desperation, his grip still firm on the gauntlet, "We almost got this off!"
"Tell me she's lying!" Quill gets in Lisa's face, screaming at her until she closes her eyes and quickly turns her head away.
Nebula just slowly closes her tear-filled eyes.
Quill quickly turns on someone else, anyone else, and to the titan he demands, "Tell me you didn't do it!"
"I had to." Thanos groans.
"No, you didn't. No, you didn't." Quill desperately and slowly shakes his head before completely being overtaken by grief and screaming, beginning to beat the titan, "No! You didn't! You didn't!"
Thanos' head jerks back and forth, his white eyes flashing back and forth to normal as Quill continues to beat him. As if she's the one he's is trying to beat to death, Mantis sucks in a pained gasp and her hands drop as Lisa lets out a shriek, throwing herself to be in between the the man and the titan.
As Drax's grip of the titan loosens, Tony hurriedly lets go of the gauntlet to dive and grab the man around the arm, "Stop, stop!"
"I almost got it, it's coming!!" But Peter doesn't give up, his metal feet diving into the ground as he keeps trying to tear the gauntlet off, "I got it! I got it!"
And as the gauntlet finally comes loose in Peter's hands, Thanos and Lisa meet white eyes and then the haze fades and then all that's left is the titan. Lisa barely gets out a cry of warning before he's throwing his head up into Mantis' chin, yanking the gauntlet back from Peter, and then hurling the yelling empath far away from him.
"Oh God!" Peter worriedly leaps into the air, catching Mantis midair and tumbling to the ground with her safely in his arms.
He kicks Drax off of him before taking down the rest of the charging guardians, throwing Stephen hundreds of feet away, and smashing Tony back away from him. Lisa stands alone before him, a war waging in her own mind as she struggles to know what to do. She backpedals slightly as the titan looms over her, his shadow falling over her much smaller form.
Her mind shakes with uncertainty, with desire.
With a sharp shake of the head, Lisa snaps her arm out beside her and a long blade slides from her fist. With a yell, she leaps up and tries to sever his hand from his body, done with just trying to yank the gauntlet off. Thanos snags her from the air, catching her tightly by the throat until Tony leaps back in, knocking her from his grasp. Lisa smashes into the rock below, gasping for air as Tony tries to go head-to-head with the titan. But the titan just beats on the man harder, knowing that his daughter is watching.
And when both Tony and Lisa are down, Thanos turns up to the sky, raises his fist, and bares his teeth.
Then, a gigantic orb within the sky begins to shudder and pull.
An old familiar vision of the pale yellow world and the heavens raining down hits Lisa.
The sky falls in.
Her father has never looked more terrified.
"No... No, Thanos, don't-!" With a strangled gasp, Lisa scrambles to get off the ground to get to her unmoving father.
As Thanos screams and thrusts his fist forward, an entire moon is yanked from above and then begins plummeting towards the waiting ground below.
Fiery rock and moon come hurtling down at the two, dust and smoke infecting the air as Lisa raises her arms over her head, running across the rocky terrain to get to Tony who still lies on the ground.
She has to get there in time.
She has to save him.
She can't lose him.
Not now.
Not yet.
She's so close, she's nearly there. And then suddenly a foot is crashing into her spine and pinning her down, holding her back from getting to Tony. Thanos stands above her with a vicious smirk and Lisa lets out an angered scream as the world is blown to bits around her, begging for Tony to get up. Finally having the strength to move, the Stark's eyes widen in horror at what he sees and Tony hurriedly tries to get out of the way when the moon collides into his body, driving him towards the ground, and then smashing him completely within the dust.
And then it's just Thanos and Lisa.
[ my oh my, we must've got it wrong
falling skies
the storm is coming strong
no one is coming out of this unscathed
who could be ready for these war and games?
my oh my, we must've got it wrong
the world is unraveling ]
xi. the world is unraveling milck
whew, alright guys, sorry that this chapter was long overdue. and it's definitely not one of my favorites either, but it was a necessary one i had to write. what did you think about it? i'm a little worried. we had lisa facing some serious inner turmoil (which is only going to get worse DUN DUN DUN), peter and lisa had some sibling moments, gamora is dead, tony is smashed, and now we have thanos and lisa facing off!! thoughts?!
and next chapter we are going back to wakanda for some worrisome svet moments aaaah, the poor baby! be ready folks! oH AND we have our very favorite dreamboat's return and svet's reaction to that so we have that to look forward to! the chapter is already decently started so it shouldn't be too long of a wait and definitely not as long as lately, sorry for that!
but please DO have patience with me, guys, life is crazy and stressful. i appreciate your love and your support! you all are amazing!
how would you feel about leaving a comment, a vote , a follow even maybe? it encourages me to no end!
and look out for more updates on my other stories 'cause they're coming your way! xx