A/N - This is a pretty long chapter for you all. I wanted to squeeze most of the fighting into one chapter so it wasn't multiple chapters over one scene. Next chapter I don't think any of you will expect. If you wanna guess, go ahead and leave your guesses in the comments!
Happy Reading!
\LeeandSara11\
I stand with T'challa and his army at the front of the battlefield. My entire face is quickly covered by my mask as a similar purple interface appears in front of me again. I scan the area outside of the dome. It picks up multiple heat signatures, including some who are breaking through the tree line. Sam spots it before I did and T'Challa, Steve, as well as Natasha walk down to meet them on the opposite side of the border. They return quickly, and when they do T'Challa looks at me. And for the first time, I see fear evident in his eyes.
"What is it, T'Challa?" I whisper.
"If I don't make it..." he begins.
"No. Don't talk like that," I say while holding back tears.
"Just...promise me you will help Shuri. She will have a big task ahead of her and will need someone to rely on," he whispers.
"I..." I feel a block in my throat that causes me to go into silence. T'Challa looks at me and I know what comes next.
"I will," I say, my voice quivering the tiniest bit. T'Challa smiles gratefully and turns to the dome again, his once fearful faced turning into one of determination. One only a leader can pull off.
"Yibambe!" He yells out, the rest of the troops chanting the same from behind him. They continue before T'Challa turns to me.
"You have shown your loyalty and alliance with Wakanda and it's people. You are one of us now. So join us." he states.
With a small smile gracing my face, I join the battle cry. We might not win...but we will not go down without a fight. The lower half of my ask appears and I hold my hands out in front of me in defence.
But suddenly, the ships open. And out of them come thousands upon thousands of alien rogues. I don't even know what to call them. They look like a crossbreed of a dog and a spider that has been skinned. It was disgusting...and terrifying. Instead of cowering back in fear, I chant louder along with the troops, the translation of our words echoing through my head.
Hold fast.
The alien rogues soon reach the border, some of them so bloodthirsty, they break through the Wakandan dome. Some come out whole and ready to fight. Others die from being cut in half. All the Wakandan soldiers raise their shields in answer to the cries of the rogues. They ready their weapons, waiting for T'Challa's call. He gives the command and they answer.
All of us attack from a distance. Holding my hands out in front of me, I tear the rogues apart one by one. I use the pieces and parts that are left of the fallen to throw at those that are still running. As more begin to flood in, the majority start to run around the border where we can't follow.
"This is bad," I mumble under my breath.
"If these things circle the perimeter and get in, there's nothing between them and Vision," Bruce tells Cap.
"Then we have to keep them in front of us," Steve says.
"We open the barrier then," T'Challa says to us before giving to order.
I take a deep breath and focus on the border. This fight was about to get a lot more complicated. Digging deep into the Earth, I harness every drop of energy, every drop of power into my body. As I feel the power grow, I hear a surprised gasp come from Rogers.
"Erin...you're eyes," he whispers. "They're purple."
"Oh," I say. I didn't even know since my vision didn't go blurry.
"Don't worry about it," I reassure. Steve only nods.
At T'Challa's command, all the shields are dropped and our weapons are raised. I follow him and Okoye to the front lines, my hands growing a deep purple sphere around them.
"Wakanda forever!" T'Challa screams as the rest of his suit appears.
We all run into battle as Steve and T'Challa rush to the very front of our army. They take the first swings at the rogue horde, the rest of us following suit. Punch after punch, blast after blast, we take the aliens down slowly. That is until two new characters show up. They stand like us, talk like us, fight like us. Just as the other alien back in New York did. They must be the rest of Thanos' henchmen.
While I was fighting the rogue's and trying to identify the henchmen, I heard a similar yelp nearby. Looking towards my right, I see Barnes struggling to fight off one of the rogues. Acting on instinct, I make only my hand intangible and shove it straight through the chest of one of the rogue's in front of me. Then I make my hand solid and rip it out of its chest, rendering it dead on the ground. Rushing over to Barnes, I grab onto the rogue, my hands glowing, and toss it miles away from us.
"You couldn't have done that earlier?" he says between pants.
"You know us, Starks," I say as I help him up. "We love to make an entrance."
Both of us smirk at each other when suddenly, a beam of light comes out of nowhere and lands in the middle of the field. An axe laced with lightning strikes comes flying out of it and hits dozens of rogues at once. It starts to head this way, so I grab onto Barnes' arm and make us both intangible as we crouch down to dodge it. Once I look up, however, I see Thor. His hair is shorter and his eye is a different colour. But nevertheless...it's him. With his aze now back in his hand, he yells:
"Bring me, Thanos!"
He flies up into the air and quickly comes back down, burying his axe deep into the earth as it sends lightning every which way. Hundreds of rogues fall from the strike and suddenly, my energy is rebuilt. I feel a surge of power in me. Maybe we can win this fight...
Nope. I take that back.
As Thor begins to join our fight, the ground beneath us is ripped to shreds as four huge machines emerge.
"Oh...shit," I mumble under my breath. Cracking my neck and rolling shoulder, I run into the battle once again and straight towards the machines.
I stop in front of Natasha and Okoye who are fighting more rogues and try my best to stop the machines. I slow them down, but not enough since they are still tumbling towards me. It is then when I realize I'm going to need some serious back up to stop these things.
As if my prayers are answered, Wanda drops beside me, her hands and eyes aglow. Together, we lift the machines and put them on their sides, using them to flatten everything but our friends. Once we knew that we were safe, our hands drop beside us as we exchange a classic smirk.
"What was she doing up there all this time?" Okoye exclaims, causing me to chuckle.
I separate from the group and head back into the fight. My stamina is slowly beginning to drop and my fighting is becoming more and more sloppy. This fight feels like it will never end until one of us dies for good. And it cannot come down to that. I continue with what little strength I have left to kill these rogues, knives and all. But then a grim message comes through the comms.
"Everyone on my position. We have incoming." Steve says.
Thankfully, I was close. But once I ran over there, it was eerily quiet. Most of us are by Steve's side and we all watch each other back for what feels like hours. A portal then begins to open in front of us and out steps a large, purple person, the infinity gauntlet obviously on his left hand. For the first time in my entire time as Faded, my hands shake and I swallow in fear.
"That's him," Bruce says.
Thanos...
I feel my power renew itself and gather in my hands as well as in my neck. Standing in front of Wanda and Vision, I say:
"I can give you some extra time, but not much."
"Thank you." I hear her whisper.
By the time I look back at the Titan, he has already bulldozed through our entire team. With a deep breath in, I approach him and stand as confident as possible.
"So you're the Stark girl?" he says.
"What's it to you?" I ask.
"Well if you're anything like your father," he says while lifting his gauntlet up. "You'll be easy to kill."