chapter xiii of the death season :
" I HOPE THEY REMEMBER YOU . "
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" But . . . that up there , that ' s . . . that ' s the endgame . "
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january 11, 2018
titan
PANIC EATS AWAY AT HER CHEST as Lisa desperately tries to dig through the crushed debris of the fallen moon. Thick red dust swirls through the air, her suit automatically changing colors to camouflage her from Thanos' sight and give her more time. She just needs a little more time. Plasma shoots from her repulsors, trying to loosen the heavy rocks until her hands are sliced open and bleeding from trying to yank them away.
Her father is underneath there, maybe broken, maybe dead.
And she couldn't save him. She would do anything to save him.
Angrily gritting her teeth, she knows she has to break the silence. She won't find him otherwise.
"Tony, where are you?!" Her voice echoes through the red atmosphere, the dust becoming too thick to even see through, "Dad?!"
A soft shuffle among the rocks makes Lisa freeze. Flicking her hair back, she squints hard through the red haze and allows her silent footsteps to guide her forward. The rocks continue to shift and move, beckoning her closer. Lisa takes one more cautious step forward and pauses, now hearing nothing but her soft heavy breathing.
She grits her teeth, nervously bouncing, "Come on, Dad, come on..."
The air shifts.
A shadow passes.
Something's coming.
And her spine is being cracked as a large hand snaps around her, yanking her out of the haze and into Thanos' vicious gaze. Everyone else has fallen. Tony is gone. Stephen, gone. Peter, gone. But not her, and she's gonna make him pay.
Something suddenly so very dark clouds her vision and suddenly she feels like she's being pulled away, like she's leaving her body and being taken somewhere else. Her ears begins to ring and her hands begin to ache. A cold feeling wells up in her chest, like cold hands circling around her pumping heart. A pressure builds behind her eyes and what can only be a bomb goes off within her lungs and ravages up her throat.
And suddenly a low deep scream explodes from her lips as she thrusts her hands forward and then light bursts from her very pores, beyond just the veins in her suit and the repulsors. It feels like fire. It feels like death itself. It feels good.
Thanos flies backwards, the titan's body crashing so hard that the ground around him cracks.
Lisa's feet trip and she nearly falls as her own power shoves her a few steps away from the titan. Lisa nearly topples forward in shock, her body still glowing with a strength she's never seen before. Her wide eyes trail down her arms to her hands that flicker.
Lisa's eyes are wide with panic as she finally gathers herself to so intelligibly say, "What the heck was that?"
"You did it. You finally did it." The massive titan slowly moves towards her, his voice low and reassuring, "Don't you see now, child, don't you see?"
Darkness curls and slithers up her veins, staining her skin above and leaving her with a new kind of scars. She lets out a gasping breath, feeling the power curl up her chest and her throat until it invades her mind entirely.
She tries to make it stop. She knows it's what Thanos wants. She tries to resist it, but she knows she can't. Of course she can't.
"You are capable of more power than you know." Thanos spits the words out like poison, "You think the day that Odinson touched you with the Mind Stone changed you?"
Lisa stills her fight, the world fading out from around her and her chest heaving as she waits for the answers she didn't know would ever come. Her body slowly straightens and she can't hear anyone screaming for her not to listen to him anymore. All she can see is Thanos.
"No, Daughter. It did not change you, it awakened you." Thanos whispers in a voice so comforting and sure, "It awakened a great power within you - one of death, one of the future, one that can harness the strength of all six Stones if you let it."
Lisa's eyes swirl with that sick unnatural blue and she suddenly understands that terrifying feeling she felt all those years ago when Wanda Maximoff gave her a vision. Power. She ran over the bodies of her dead loved ones for this. For this chance. For the Stones. For the balance. For the throne.
And it feels so good.
"You do not know how to use it, but I will show you, Daughter..." Thanos slowly stretches his hand out to her, "Let me show you."
Lisa's eyes fall from Thanos' face and back down to her hands.
She wants it. His version of mercy. Oh God, she wants it so bad.
"Yes..." Lisa mumbles slowly, her small and bloodied hand slowly, carefully reaching out for Thanos now, "Yes."
His fingers brush hers. She's close. She's so close now.
Unnatural eyes flickering uncertainty, she softly whispers, "Wha-What will happen to my family?"
Because that's what they are. They aren't just a team. They aren't even friends. They're family now.
Thanos tsks, "What inevitably happens to all heroes... they fail. But you and I, we will finally prove them wrong."
She pauses, her fingers hovering over his.
Hesitation crosses her face. Only briefly. Only for a second. But then the power within her surges and drives her forward, closer to the mad titan.
And then Lisa can feel it, that pain in the back of her mind that grows worse and worse, digging into the very fibers of her brain until it completely consumes her.
And then, come the visions.
Six glowing stones burn brighter and brighter until they consume the earth, leaving it half withered and fading away.
A redheaded girl screams and cries and then turns to face a boy that looks so... familiar.
A group of remarkable people stand within a devastated city; the heavens are pouring down but they are not afraid.
A brunette with a scar on her face stands with her parents, a child in her arms and tears in her eyes.
A girl with pale blue hair shrinks from view, panickedly sprinting through a burning ship.
A young girl and a captain stand at the ready, but the captain is not him... it's someone else.
The throne comes into view, a scorned prince, a sparrow-like ship, a great director, a legacy.
It's all so distant, it's all so unclear. But it's real. It's all so real.
And then she comes back to reality with a light in her eyes and no fear in her heart.
"I don't want it." Lisa slowly realizes, a breath and a laugh of relief exiting her lungs before she excitedly shouts, "I don't want it!"
Thanos, however, is not as excited. Lisa's eyes worriedly widen just as the titan growls in anger, throwing her away from him and punching her into the dirt.
"Oof!" Lisa smacks down to the ground, coughing and rasping at the pain in her chest.
"They have asked you to live on your knees, to ignore your destiny, like they once asked me. Every day of your life, they have beaten you as you lie there. What do you do? You stand up! I ask, what do you do, Lisa Stark? What do you do?!"
The girl that has been knocked down all her life slowly raises her head, "I stand up."
Lisa yells as she leaps up and begins shooting at Thanos, twisting and curving underneath his punches. The young woman releases a scream as she yanks her hand back and then thrusts it forward, ready to plunge it into his skull. But Thanos sees it coming from a mile away. He wrenches her wrist to the side and then throws up his other hand around her throat, holding her midair as she begins to choke.
The girl does everything she can to make the power come back, control the energy flowing through her body. But all it does is flicker and spark at her fingertips before dying out completely.
Lisa angrily rolls her eyes. Typical.
"You want to kill me, Thanos?" Lisa rasps, her vibranium covered hands giving up at clawing at his fingers, "Do it!" Her voice builds to a scream, "Do it!"
Thanos just barely smirks and cocks his head to the side, "I'm not going to kill you. You may not want this future, but it is the future you will have. Because it is our destiny. Because fate wills it so."
"God!" Lisa grunts and bares her teeth, furiously kicking her legs as if this can ward off the fact that the sides of her vision are beginning to grow dim.
As Thanos still walks forward, he slowly lifts his hand only for a large metal clamp to suddenly fly and snatch over his gauntlet. Lisa coughs and her eyes widen at the sight as Thanos growls in anger. A familiar red and gold suit suddenly drops down in front of the two, blocking their path forward.
Tony slowly raises up from his bent position with his fist on the ground, and he breathes out, "You throw another moon at me, and I'm gonna lose it."
Lisa laughs a small strangled sound, slowly smirking and then grinning all of her teeth up at Thanos - just to show a little resistance.
"Now," Tony tilts his chin to the side, still breathing heavily, "let my girl go."
"Stark." Thanos' head twitches, disgustedly spitting the word out.
"You know me?"
"I do. You're not the only one cursed with knowledge."
Tony lets out a tight and sighing breath, the words ringing off the inside of his skull.
And the Stark finally spits back, "My only curse is you."
The back of his suit suddenly ejects small blue-glowing bombs, making him yell in a familiar warning tone, "Lisa!"
Lisa immediately understands and she suddenly claps her hands together, twisting her opposite thrusters so that her vibranium suit immediately paints back up her body. Thanos yells in anger and he tries to cover himself as the bombs fly right for them, exploding off of his body in yellow fire and puffs of gray smoke.
As Lisa tries to regain her senses, Tony flips over, forms two large fists, and then launches them directly into Thanos chest, making him crash back into the rocks. Thanos grunts and reaches forward, completely tearing off Tony's mask. The man's eyes widen in shock before the helmet quickly reforms. As Thanos' fist that crashes hard into the side of his skull, Tony is twisted around and his body scrapes into the dirt. As the man's daughter raises herself to her feet to put up a fight, Thanos thrusts his foot forward and collides it directly into Lisa's face.
Lisa flies back and lands down hard on top of Tony as pain ricochets in both of their bodies. Tony mumbles incoherently and Lisa rolls herself off of her father, gasping for breath as she lands into the dirt. Her blue eyes slowly raise to peer through her damp and dirtied hair, watching as Thanos stumbles closer. She has to do something. She has to do something!
The titan rips the clamp from his gauntlet, raises his fist, and then a burst of purple energy launches towards them.
The Stark instantly raises up onto one knee and he moves to raise a shield, trying desperately to protect his daughter.
But then something happens.
Blue light flows through Lisa's veins and her eyes begin to glow. Her shoulders slowly straighten. She steps in front of her father, gently pushing his shield down. Tony looks up at her with wide worried eyes as the young woman slowly raises her hands.
Thanos is right. All her life people have knocked her down. They've beaten her as she lied there. She thought she couldn't fight for herself. She thought she wasn't strong enough. Because that's what they told her. And all this time, she was trying to prove them wrong.
And that's where Thanos is wrong. Suddenly it all makes sense. Every last bit of it. She has nothing to prove. She was already strong, long before anybody told her she was.
She just was.
Lisa closes her eyes and then the purple energy collides into the girl without mercy, ravaging up her flesh and at her bones until there should be nothing left of her. But Thanos' eyes gleam with horror when suddenly the energy begins to twist and swirl until it slowly reveals the girl standing standing among it. It courses around her like a magnet, and as she thrusts her hands forward, all the wrath of an Infinity Stone comes right back at him.
Thanos is thrown back once more, smashing hard into the ground as the energy keeps coming.
And Tony doesn't waste any time. The man whirls around from behind her, a hard metal boot clamping down into the dirt so that he can punch Thanos directly across the face as hard as he can.
But then nothing happens.
A sick near smirk comes over Thanos' lips as he pants and touches the barely visible cut on his cheek, "All that for a drop of blood."
He suddenly flips Tony over, making him crash onto his back before he jumps on top of him, punching him again and again. He then grabs him up by the neck and then uses the glowing gauntlet to punch him in the stomach, launching him back once more. Tony cries out as he hits the ground, but Thanos just keeps coming.
Lisa looks up from her weakened state, not used to such power. Her eyes widen and she throws herself to her feet, trying to get to them.
Tony struggles up to his knees, using all of his energy to fire a long plasma beam at the monster who pushes closer and closer.
The iron suit struggles to reform, half of his face showing before Thanos finally comes face to face with him and punches it completely off. Tony's eyes widen and he quickly tries to block his next punch, grunting and yelling as Thanos pushes his grip aside.
A long golden blade quickly crawls out of his suit and then, without a second's hesitation, Tony launches it forward. But Thanos turns aside, catches the sword, and breaks it.
And then he plunges directly it into Tony's stomach.
Lisa stops her running and then she jolts back, as if it was her that was just stabbed. Because she can feel it. Oh God, yes, she can feel it. Her bleeding hand instinctively flies up to her mouth and her heart lurches within her chest. Blood rushes down from her face and her quivering lips pull apart in absolute horror.
"No!" Lisa shudders back a few steps, screaming as loud as her voice will allow, "Dad!"
Tony just suddenly stops, gasping for breath and looking up at the monster with disbelief and pain wrought in his eyes. Thanos bares his teeth down at the man who suddenly looks so small. Tony grunts in agony, stumbling as the titan pushes him further back. He forces him down into a sitting position and then rests a hand upon the man's head, as if he's a child, as if he even remotely cares.
"You have my respect, Stark." Tony still manages to glower up at him, gasping for air as Thanos ducks down, "When I'm done, half of humanity will still be alive and your child will be by my side."
The fear of suffocation sets in as the pain burns and ravages Tony's side, making his lungs feel so much smaller and weaker.
"Dad!" Lisa screams and tears stream down her face as she sprints and then trips over the ground, landing on her knees and scrambling across the dirt to reach his side.
"I hope they remember you." Thanos straightens back up, staring down at them with a strange look in his dark and vicious eyes.
"Oh my, God..." Lisa chokes the words out, shuddering at the sight of the hole gaping in her father's side.
Lisa's eyes slowly trail up to his bruised and battered face and her expression contorts at the pain she sees there. She lifts her own hands up and takes his trembling face in her gentle grasp. Tony briefly closes his eyes and lets out a sharp and pained breath, leaning into her touch.
"No, no. Dad... Oh my God..." Lisa visibly clenches her teeth to hold back the sobs wracking her chest as she presses a hand to his bleeding side, "Please not you, oh God, not you, Daddy."
A mix of blood and spit drains out of Tony's mouth and he grits his teeth hard as his tired eyes shudder up to her gaze. His lungs shake within his chest and his eyes are vibrant with pain as he studies her features that have always matched his so perfectly. His baby; the person he loves most in the world, more than anyone, more than everything.
A large hand suddenly stretches forward and Thanos grasps around Lisa's skull, roughly yanking her back as she lets out a pained shriek. Tony panickedly reaches out for her and he raspily cries out when his bloodied fingers slip from hers while Thanos drags her back.
Trying so hard to sound threatening but failing just the same, Tony painfully grunts out, "Leave her alone." And when this does nothing, the great Tony Stark turns to begging, "Please. Please, she's just a kid."
Thanos yanks her to his side, squeezing tighter onto her skull as her eyes shine that vicious blue and he slowly raises his gauntlet towards the man.
"No, no, stop! Me! Kill me! Not him!" Lisa screams raggedly, her voice cracking and shaking as she screams at the top of her lungs, "You don't have to do this! Just kill me!"
"Destiny... requires the greatest sacrifices." The titan quietly responds to her screamed pleas, his own not-so-stone-cold heart aching within his chest.
"Stop, please Thanos, please!" Lisa's head is yanked further back and the titan stares down as tears stream down her face and she whispers panickedly, "Mercy. I beg of you. Mercy! Please, Thanos, give us mercy, I beg!"
"Every god must have his sacrifice."
A long silence follows, empty of all voices except for Tony's ragged breathing. As she glares up at the titan, Lisa's hands begin to shake and her eyes begin to flicker with fire and her shoulders begin to tremble all from her building, her always building, pure and soul-consuming fury. She always knew that her rage would get her killed one day. She always knew it would be the end of her.
It's all been leading to this.
Eyes glowing brighter, she hisses through clenched teeth, "Not one like you."
Yanking a spare knife out of the leg of her suit, Lisa releases a scream as she twists and completely stabs the blade into the leg of titan. Thanos loses his hold on her and surprisedly drops down to one knee, allowing the girl to spin around and slam her hands upon either side of his head. Thanos growls and bares his teeth at her, frozen in place as her hands start to glow that bright bitter blue.
"You wanted to court Death..." Lisa seethes in a voice that sounds nothing like her own, glaring into the titan's eyes, "You're looking right at her."
Tony's eyes stare into his daughter with shock and horror, a disgusting feeling pulsing from the pain in his side.
Thanos' head flies back and his eyes flash white as twisting images flood his mind. It is a kind of agony only matched one other time when he threw his favorite daughter, Gamora, off of a cliff. And within these images, he sees all of the things Lisa has ever seen in the past and in the time that has yet to come, all the horrors, all the blood. Thanos sees the future, oh God, he sees it so clearly. He sees the trauma. He sees the end. He sees ash and fire and stars. He sees death. He sees her.
She's let him in.
And it's exactly what Thanos wanted.
Thanos' hand suddenly jolts down to his leg and, as Tony cries out to warn her, the titan yanks the knife out and then slashes it across the young woman's face. Tony screams as Lisa is twisted around and falls limply into the dust and dirt. Tony's wide brown eyes are stuck solely on her form, his mouth hanging slightly open as she bleeds on the ground but he is unable to get to her. It's his worst nightmare.
Blinking harshly through the thick red liquid that pours down her face, Lisa quietly groans and struggles to force herself into movement. She presses a hand to her gushing face, dragging the blood away. Biting back another cry, the young woman's eyes darkly raise up to the titan before her expression morphs into a glare and she lets out a harsh breath, unsteadily trying to get up again.
"Lisa!" Tony calls out, the words coming out nearly gargled and throaty, "Lisa, stop-,"
Thanos squints and cocks his head at Lisa while she coughs harshly and shakes her head down at the ground.
"No." Lisa breathes out, still shaking her head as she stares up at the titan, "No."
It feels as if the left side of her entire rib cage is broken and blood still drips down her face, but she keeps trying to lift herself up. And Thanos just watches with a look of interest, nearly intrigued to see if she's really going to do it, if she's really going to be able to do it. And with each push and with each gasp for air, Lisa slowly raises up to her feet, stumbles in front of Tony, and stands between her father and the titan.
Lisa holds an arm up to her abdomen, trying to stop the pain as she slowly straightens and shakes her head, "Me. Not him. Me."
"Your world in the balance and you bargain for one man?"
"Yes." Lisa breathes back, wincing at the pain in her body before she yells louder, "Yes!"
Thanos thrusts his fist forward, crashing his knuckles into the girl's body. Lisa tumbles back and smacks down hard once more. She bites back another cry of pain, barely even being able to roll onto her side as she coughs at the blood in her mouth.
"Pathetic."
Tony trembles from either rage or pain, perhaps a horrific mix of both, as he tears his gaze from his struggling daughter to glower back up to the titan. He bares his teeth, blood still oozing out of his mouth before Thanos turns and raises his gauntlet once more, aiming directly for Tony.
"Stop!" Stephen tiredly looks up and grunts, "Spare his life... and I will give you the stone!"
"No!" Tony struggles to get the word out of his drowning lungs.
Thanos squints at the sorcerer, "Another one of your tricks?"
Stephen slowly shakes his head.
"Don't-!"
Stephen summons the green glowing stone until it glitters in between his thumb and forefinger, studying the thing deeply. Tony stares at Stephen with blood over his face, dropping his head and scoffing in anger that he would sacrifice everything for him. He doesn't think he's worth it. He knows he's not worth it. But, with great difficulty, Stephen slowly sends the glowing green stone over to the titan.
Thanos carefully takes the time stone with a sick twisted smile and the stone snaps into place within the gauntlet, making Lisa cry out and thrust her hands fly up to the sides of her head. Tony looks at him with bloodied parted lips and fearful eyes, and Lisa painfully peers through her hands, all of them being forced to watch as Thanos grows only stronger.
"One to go."
Quill suddenly flies in from behind, firing everything's he's got but the titan merely looks up before a portal quickly forms behind him.
And then Thanos disappears completely.
Lisa's eyes slowly roll shut and she visibly clenches her teeth. She heaves for breath for a few more moments, gently rocking her aching body back and forth to squelch the pain in her head and the desire in her heart.
Rubbing the blood from her face, she slowly makes her way over to where Tony still leans with his own blood pouring out of his side. Lisa lets out a shuddering breath as she bends down beside him, touching the side of his cut and bruising face.
"I'm sorry." Lisa whispers lowly, nodding at him with stinging eyes.
Tony just slowly shakes his head at his daughter, knowing it wasn't her fault. And with tearful eyes, he slowly rolls his head over to look at Stephen who still lies a few feet away.
Tony lets out a heavy breath and twitches his head into a shake, "Why would you do that?"
Stephen stares at him long and hard, his eyes meaning so much more than he can say:
"We're in the Endgame now."
[ There's something happening here
But what it is ain't exactly clear
There's a man with a gun over there
Telling me I have to beware
It's time we stop
Children, what's the sound?
Everybody look - what's going down ]
xiii. for what it's worth malia j.
ahhhhhh we made it! we made it! stephen giving us that spoiler at the end tho, geez dude. so what did you think?! lisa is so much stronger than she thought, huh? what do you think about that? and isn't tony and lisa just heartbreaking? oh honey, it's gonna get so much worse. how do you think all of this is going to affect endgame, hmm? well here's a slight spoiler from me: thanos is nowhere near done with lisa yet. it's only getting started.
so guys, i'm officially back and the book has been pretty much finished on my end. all i have to do is post so be ready for some massive spamming.
i think you guys can guess what's coming next, don't you?
are you ready to find out who lives and dies?
that's right, buddies, next chapter, we get to face the decimation.