Chapter 85

Titan

Tony and Peter yanked at Thanos's gauntlet as the antenna-ed alien held him under some kind of trance. Even in the AC-controlled suit sweat prickled on the back of Tony's neck as he desperately pulled and twisted; this was their one shot. But then–

"Where's Gamora?" Quill growled.

Tony still didn't know who Gamora was, but he could feel the horror and grief that began to seep into the air when it came out that Gamora (whoever she was) might have been killed. By Thanos. Shit.

"Okay, Quill–" Tony retracted his helmet, because he knew what it felt like when that grief-fuelled rage came over you. He knew how it felt to look into the face of the person who killed your family. "You gotta cool it right now, you understand?"

Quill didn't respond beyond turning slowly back to Thanos. Fear spiked in Tony's chest. "Don't, don't – don't engage, we almost got this off!" he shouted. But Quill wasn't hearing him so he turned back to the gauntlet and focused on pulling – pulling to save Peter, and Quill, and Pepper, and Maggie, and half a universe.

Quill started shouting in Thanos's face, rage and grief burning in his eyes.

Tony didn't see the moment Quill snapped, but he heard his shout and the crunch as he pistol whipped Thanos in the face.

"Quill! Quill, stop, stop!" Tony dove at his ally to pull him back but it was too late. Peter had almost pulled the gauntlet free when suddenly Thanos broke the trance, yanked the gauntlet back into his grip, and sent them all tumbling away; Peter leaped away to save Mantis, and Thanos kicked Drax against Quill and the blue cyborg before tossing Strange into the distance. Tony leaped in, trying to salvage the situation – if he could just grab the gauntlet once more, if he could have one more try-

But then Thanos looked up, raised his hand, and clenched it into a fist.

Tony's mouth dropped as he realized the scale this fight had taken. Up in the atmosphere, the moon began to move.

Wakanda

Spurred on by Thor's arrival, Maggie launched back into the air and rained down fresh hell on the Outriders. They'd been thinned out by Thor's lightning blasts so she Rhodey and Sam cut through the leathery creatures with deadly aim. As Maggie flew, blasting and slicing, she tried to find a good angle on either the big, armored alien or the horned female one – they were wreaking havoc on the field.

She soared up and over the plain, and as she gained height Maggie spotted Bucky turning in a circle, holding the (apparently very vocal) raccoon thing aloft as they both shot at the surrounding Outriders. She made a mental note to ask him about that later.

There were Wakandan ships in the air now, assisting Maggie, Rhodey, and Sam in picking off Outriders from the sky, so she maneuvered around them as she made her way across the battlefield. Thor's arrival had not stopped the flow of Outriders through the portal.

As she circled around the epicenter of the fight, Maggie overheard Steve's chat with Thor over the comms and found herself smirking despite the violence unfolding beneath her – all this time she'd been hearing about Captain America and Thor as two of the founding Avengers, almost mythical figures, and there they were talking about their haircuts.

She didn't think she was needed in the middle of the fight thanks to Thor and Steve generally handling the situation, but as she soared overhead she saw an Outrider launch itself at a group of Wakandan soldiers with their backs turned.

In the space of a breath, Maggie dropped out of the sky and impaled her heel spurs in the Outrider's back. It howled and arched backwards, trying to swipe at her, but Maggie ripped and her feet came free as the Outrider tore in two. The Wakandan soldiers fought on none the wiser. Maggie caught herself midair and hovered a few feet off the ground, wings spread and engines burning.

She looked over to where Steve had just finished introducing himself to the sentient tree, and found Steve, Thor and the tree staring at her.

"Quit flirting," she advised Steve, who had the audacity to smile at her, and then she turned to Thor and gave him a small nod. "Hey." The god of thunder nodded back, a faint frown of puzzlement on his brow.

Over the comms Rhodey called for assistance, so Maggie rocketed back into the sky before another word was said.

Back on the ground, Thor smashed an outrider with his axe without even looking at it, and turned to Steve. He nodded to Maggie's figure soaring away. "New Avengers?" he asked.

Steve huffed a laugh. "That's Tony's sister Maggie," he explained. "The Wyvern."

Thor gave an approving nod, his bottom lip sticking out. "Wyvern indeed." He lifted his axe, summoning a bolt of lightning, and together they hurled themselves back into the fight.

Maggie and her wingmen strafed the field of Outriders with Wakandan aircraft at their flanks – the sky belonged to them and them alone, and they pressed their advantage. Maggie had fired a few shots at the female horned alien, but she was tricky and quick to sic hordes of Outriders on Maggie as soon as she got close.

She and Rhodey had just blown up a group of Outriders when Maggie's ears pricked at the sound of a distant cracking, like thunder breaking on the horizon. But when she looked to Thor, he hadn't raised his axe.

"What the hell is that," breathed Sam.

Maggie followed his gaze out past the blue dome, to the burning forest. The trees in the forest were undulating as if they sat on the surface of the ocean and not on the ground, and after a second Maggie realized that the distant cracking sound was the sound of their trunks shattering.

Suddenly the grass plain beneath the dome bulged and erupted, and with an earsplitting crash a horrific machination of whirling blades surged onto the battlefield. Maggie cried out and veered away. The blades were tall, higher up than Maggie and the others had been flying, spewing dirt and looking like a giant metal behemoth sent to devour them all and spit them out as nothing but bones and dust.

"Fall back!" T'Challa shouted, "Fall back now!"

Maggie only just avoided the deadly path of the blades as they surged forwards, her heart in her mouth and her lungs burning for air. She whirled and stared in horror at the devastation below: the churning land-eaters had split apart and now veered across the battlefield eating up Wakandans and Outriders alike, leaving open wounds in the earth in their wake.

"Air support!" shouted Steve into the comms.

Maggie dove. She rocketed in front of one of the bladed wheels and swept sideways, physically slamming soldiers out of the way – she might have broken a few of their bones, but at least they'd be in one piece. But there were five of the deadly rotors and only one of her.

"Rhodey, Sam!" she called, "Converge on the middlemost wheel!"

She roared upwards and they coalesced in the air like a flock of desperate birds, trying to blast through the thing as Wakandan aircraft took on the others. The wheels swerved across the battlefield without direction or reason, and most firepower seemed to bounce off them – as Maggie and the others circled the single wheel they watched it mow down soldiers before it.

"Focus that fire on the left flank, Sam," Rhodey urged.

"I'm doing it!"

In close succession they launched their fire in concentrated spots – Sam's machine guns, Rhodey's repulsors, Maggie's energy blasts. Finally on their third round a gust of fire lit up the whirling axis of the wheel and it fell onto its side with a percussive explosion.

None of them celebrated. They soared away to chase down another deadly wheel.

Another set of five bladed wheels erupted onto the battlefield a few hundred yards away from Maggie and she turned, only for her stomach to drop when she saw the white blonde of Natasha's hair and the red and gold armor of a Dora Milaje in the thing's path. She surged forward but she already knew she would never make it in time. Natasha threw up a hand to cover her face, as if that would protect her.

Just before Maggie glanced away – she couldn't bear to see them mowed down, she just couldn't – a figure shrouded in red light dropped in front of the giant machine and spread her hands.

Maggie stared as the entire metal behemoth slammed to a halt and, with a metal groan, hovered into the air borne aloft on ethereal scarlet light.

"Wanda," she breathed. Vision had told her that Wanda was exploring and expanding her powers, but this… Maggie abruptly realized that the young woman standing before the hovering machine of death with her eyes glowing red and her hair shining in the sun was the most powerful being on this battlefield, second only to maybe Thor.

Wanda threw down her arms, and like coins cast to the ground the bladed wheels slammed down on top of the Outriders to either side of her and swept away her enemies.

Maggie stared for a second longer, taking in Natasha and Okoye's bewilderment, before shaking her head and turning to chase after another churning wheel. Wanda's got it covered. She smiled as Okoye said: "Why was she up there all this time?"

Though that reminded her: "Shuri, what's the situation with Vision?"

"We're okay here," came the Princess's terse voice.

Maggie turned, tracking the closest wheel of death with her eyes, only to catch a glint of metal out of the corner of her vision.

"Shit!" With a desperate wrench of her wings Maggie veered out of the path of the big alien's hammer – he'd tossed it right at her, a snarl on his face – only to collide with a Wakandan ship also veering to avoid the hurled weapon. Maggie's armored head bounced off the side of their cockpit and her wings slammed against the Vibranium hull, sending both her and the ship crashing down to the grassy plain below. Maggie barely got a chance to suck in a breath before the Outriders pounced, swarming over the fallen airship and trampling Maggie in their attempt to rip her apart.

"Guys, we got a Vision situation here!" Sam called. Maggie's heart leaped, even as she punched and kicked at the Outriders climbing over her. She caught a glimpse of sunlight through the leathery black bodies. Vision situation. The thought of what that could mean made her heart clench painfully in her chest.

"Somebody get to Vision!" Steve shouted.

"I got him!" came Bruce's voice. Maggie shored up her suit's defenses before unlatching a grenade from her belt and detonating it. The explosion knocked the breath out of her, but it blasted the Outriders away and gave her enough room to stand and start firing. Behind her, the airship pilots dove out of their fallen craft and threw themselves into fray.

Maggie got free just in time to see Wanda, a few hundred yards away, touch her commpiece and say: "On my way-" before the horned female alien leaped across the battlefield and threw a fist into her face. Wanda cried out and went tumbling down into one of the rocky grooves left by the bladed wheels.

For half a moment, Maggie hesitated. We've got a Vision situation. Her every instinct screamed to leap into the sky and rocket toward her friend, but… she didn't know if that would be enough. She did know that if anyone here could protect Vision, it was Wanda.

And Wanda shouldn't have to face this alone.

In the torn-up gouge in the earth, Proxima Midnight dug her fingers into Wanda's shoulder and flipped her over. The young witch groaned, her teeth bared.

"He'll die alone," Midnight told her, eyes full of loathing. "As will you."

"She's not alone."

At the low, even voice, Midnight snarled and turned around. There, in the middle of a battlefield with grime on her face and a ghost of a smile on her lips, stood Natasha Romanoff. At the alien's glare Natasha tilted her head slightly as if to say what can you do?

Midnight heard a swish of metal and looked back to see a red and gold armored woman level a spear at her, her eyes focused. Mortals. Infuriating in their belief that they could stand against the might of the Children of Thanos.

At that moment, a shadow fell over Proxima Midnight and she turned her head once more to see the woman with the metal wings standing on the lip of the embankment, her red goggles glowing. Her spread wings cast a shadow over the groove in the earth. The woman glared down at Midnight, and Midnight's lip curled in reply. So they have chosen this place to die.

Behind her goggles, Maggie's eyes narrowed. She spared a glance for her fellow warriors, and saw only sheer determination.

Anger flared in the horned alien's amber eyes and her muscles bunched. Maggie made a flash calculation that the alien's rage would send her at Natasha first, and she was right: with a roar, the tall blue-haired being leaped for the Black Widow and their weapons sparked together. Maggie and Okoye moved as one – Okoye sprinted forward, spear raised, and Maggie leaped to kick her heel spurs at the alien's head.

The alien caught her foot, still sparring with Natasha with the other hand, and tossed her to the ground. Maggie spat out dirt and rolled to her feet. Ahead, Natasha kicked the alien in the chest and Okoye whirled her spear at her. The alien's back was to Maggie.

Time to die.

She let out a battle cry of her own and sprang claws-first.

Maggie, Natasha, and Okoye darted around the lithe blue alien in the trench, flashing spears, staffs, and claws. Maggie used her wings to her advantage, slicing them at the alien in one moment and in the next leaping up to fire energy blasts at her. The bladed wheels of death swerved across the battlefield around them, and on the ground Wanda groaned.

As they fought, Maggie listened desperately to the comms – she heard Bruce fly to Vision's rescue only to be distracted by the big alien. She heard Vision cry out in pain and she faltered mid-strike, allowing the female alien to throw an elbow into her face. Then she heard the glorious sound of Steve shouting at Vision to get out of here, go!

Maggie gritted her teeth and threw herself at the sneering blue alien with a wild roar. Gone was the cold, cool calculation of the Wyvern; these beings had come to Maggie's home to tear her family apart, and she would offer them nothing in return but metal and blood. The battle raged around her – burning, screams, gunfire – and inside her heart, making her blood sing with war and fury. She lent her strength to Natasha and Okoye, and borrowed theirs in return; Natasha lost her grip on her electrified staff and it tumbled to the ground, and Maggie and Okoye stepped in as one to cover her. An instant later Maggie fell to one knee under one of the alien's devastating blows and Natasha used her shoulder as a spring board to swipe her staff down at the alien's head.

Okoye fell, thrown into the dirt like a rag doll. Maggie dove in, only to reel back when the alien swiped her blade and sliced a scarlet line through Maggie's brow. Blood flooded into Maggie's eyes and blinded her. The alien rained down blows on Natasha until she fell backwards, and then plunged a narrow blade down at her neck which Natasha blocked at the last moment. They struggled, will against will.

Maggie could barely see but she dove forwards, sliding feet-first in the dirt like a batter skidding to home base before kicking upwards and feeling her foot connect with the alien's chest with a satisfying crunch. The alien staggered back, gasping, before turning her burning amber eyes on the Wyvern. Maggie's muscles bunched in preparation for a retaliatory blow. But no blow came.

Instead, a red glow blossomed around the snarling alien's torso. She hesitated, her eyes going wide, before she suddenly soared into the air with her limbs flailing. Maggie stared up open mouthed as her opponent flew right into the path of an oncoming bladed wheel, and didn't look away in time to avoid the sight of the alien's body being torn apart in a burst of blue blood.

Maggie looked down, chest heaving, to where Wanda now sat in the dirt. Behind her, Okoye stared up at where the alien had been ripped to shreds.

In the dirt beside Maggie, Natasha pushed herself to a seated position. Aquamarine blood splattered the side of her face. "That was really gross," she muttered.

Maggie wiped blood (her own and the alien's) out of her eyes, and turned back to Wanda. Her heart pounded like a drum in her chest and battlethirst still roared in her veins. Wanda met her eyes.

"Vision," Maggie breathed.

Wanda's eyes flashed scarlet, and in the next moment she was gone – Maggie's head jerked up to see her soaring away on scarlet light.

Through the comms Maggie heard a faint conversation.

Steve said breathlessly: "I told you to go."

Then came Vision's voice, and Maggie let out a breath of relief that made her head fall back into the dirt. "We don't trade lives, Captain."

Titan

"You have my respect, Stark." Thanos cradled Tony's bare head with his gauntlet, almost affectionate. His relentless eyes looked into Tony's. Tony gasped at the feeling of the blade in his gut, at the blood in his lungs. "When I'm done, half of humanity will still be alive." He pulled the blade out and Tony's chin dropped to his chest. He was no stranger to pain, but this… the hole in his body was almost nothing to the agony of defeat.

Standing over him, victorious, Thanos straightened. "I hope they remember you."

Blood leaked from Tony's mouth and dripped down his chin.

Thanos lifted the gauntlet and as one, the four Stones glowed. So this is what death looks like.

"Stop."

Thanos looked aside, to where Dr Strange slumped against the wreckage.

"Spare his life," Strange pleaded. Tony glanced up, eyes wide. "And I will give you the Stone."

Thanos's brow creased. "No tricks?"

Breathless, beaten, Strange shook his head. Thanos pointed the gauntlet at him.

"Don't!" Tony shouted past the pain tearing through his body. If it comes to saving you, or the kid, or the Time Stone, I will not hesitate to let either of you die. Tony stared at Strange, begged with his eyes. Strange had promised.

But Strange didn't meet Tony's eyes. He raised his hand, and like a star blinking into existence the glowing green Time Stone appeared between his fingers.

Thanos extended his hand. Tony had to look away. He lay useless in his broken armor, just a bleeding man at the end of the universe. He saw the glow out of the corner of his eye as Strange sent the Time Stone toward Thanos.

Thanos looked at Tony when he caught the Stone: a deliberate look. It said I win. And then, with the barest hint of a smile on his face, he set the Stone in its waiting place on the gauntlet. His face glowed green and his eyes closed, and Tony felt bile rise in his throat.

When the Stone had been accepted into the gauntlet, Thanos looked down and murmured: "One to go."

Maggie. Tony's heart lurched.

The gauntlet lit up with a burst of blasterfire as Quill leaped in, yelling in fury, but Thanos only spared him a perplexed glance before stepping backward and disappearing into blue light. Quill flew through the space where Thanos had been and tumbled to the ground, before staggering drunkenly to his feet again.

"Where is he?" he demanded, his eyes bright.

Fighting the pain that moved sluggish and sour through his body, Tony closed his wound with nanotech coolant. But he couldn't rein in the crushing sense of defeat. It paralyzed him. It felt like a vice around his chest, crushing inwards. All his life had led to this useless, bloody moment.

He met Quill's eyes and saw the moment Quill realized: "Did we just lose?"

Tony's chin dropped back to his chest. Tears burned his eyes, and all he could think of was the people back on earth, not knowing what was coming. Who was coming.

Tony knew Maggie would do anything to protect Vision. And he knew, deep down… it wouldn't be enough.

He turned his head, looking toward where Strange slumped against the warped metal. "Why would you do that?" he whispered. He didn't have the energy to shout – there was no more fight left in him.

Strange met his gaze. After all the hard talk, all the fighting… Strange looked at him with empathy. His jaw clenched.

"We're in the end game now."

Wakanda

Outside the dome, Thor was destroying dropships. Maggie, Okoye, and Natasha rallied, casting their eyes about for their next target – Vision was safe and would be on his way back up to Shuri's lab in no time, the flow of Outriders from the dropships had ceased, and the Wakandans were beginning to turn the tide against the Outriders on the field.

Even as she flared her wings, preparing to soar back into the fight, Maggie's heart leaped. They could do this.

Then Vision's low whisper came through the comms: "He's here."

Even in the midst of the battlefield, with wheels of death screeching through and Outriders snarling, Maggie sensed the eerie silence that fell over the comms of the Avengers in the forest. Her head swiveled, looking to the calm exterior of green trees.

"Everyone on my position," came Steve's voice. "We have incoming."

Maggie ignored the swoop of fear in her stomach and instead nodded to Natasha and Okoye. Wordlessly they stepped towards her so she could wrap her arms around their waists then launch all three of them into the air.

It was a quick, silent flight toward Steve's beacon in a quiet clearing in the forest. Natasha and Okoye were remarkably calm for their first time being airlifted by the Wyvern, their arms looped around Maggie's shoulders and the wind rushing in their faces. They landed amidst a rapidly growing group of Avengers (Sam, T'Challa, Bruce, Rhodey) and after letting go of her passengers Maggie instantly ran towards Vision. He was slumped against a log with two glowing wounds in his chest, as Wanda crouched protectively over him.

"Vision, are you okay?" He looked up at her, and her heart dropped at the sheer panic in his eyes. "Vis…" his eyes skittered away again, and Maggie looked around. An eerie wind rustled through the tree branches, sending leaves drifting to the forest floor. No birds sang.

The other Avengers looked around with discomfort on their faces. Bucky wasn't here yet – she could hear him running over the comms.

"What the hell…?" muttered Natasha.

Maggie's blood started to cool and her adrenaline faded, leaving a tingling sense of instinctive fear in its wake. She'd never known a silence like this on a battlefield. She turned, eyes darting around the forest.

In the Hulkbuster armor Bruce turned, and as he did a blue light materialized a hundred yards away. Maggie's breath hitched as she watched the blue light intensify and expand, wind gusting about it. The light flickered with smoke and electricity, growing more solid by the second until –

A being stepped out of the light.

He stood tall; a purple-skinned titan in gold armor, wielding a gauntlet.

And Maggie knew him. She didn't know his face, she'd never seen the likes of him in her years on Earth. But she recognized something in him: death. Maggie had seen death in so many forms throughout her life, around her and dealt by her. Death had hung heavy around her and threatened to consume her.

Death shrouded Thanos like armor. Like he breathed it.

Maggie went cold.

Thanos stood before them and just stared. He took them in and then his attention moved past them, to Vision and the Stone in his head. Behind Maggie, Vision's breath stuttered.

"Cap," Bruce murmured. "That's him."

Steve activated the Vibranium shield on his forearm. "Eyes up," he ordered. "Stay sharp!"

Maggie didn't move consciously. But one moment she stood frozen as she looked death in the eyes, and the next her feet were pounding on the ground as she ran behind Steve, her wings rising to either side of her and her engines burning. Thanos paced forward, his face passive, as if he had all the time in the world. Maggie might have been imagining it, but the ground juddered with each step he took.

Bruce got there first, repulsors roaring and his fist reared back. But Thanos simply clenched his fist and Bruce faded through him, glowing in a spectral blue light, and when he solidified again found himself entombed in the solid rock of the nearby cliff face. Next, Steve went flying in a burst of purple light. Thanos didn't even break his stride.

In the split second before she attacked, Maggie's mind whirled. She'd never faced powers like these, didn't have time to plan to get around them – thinking fast, she broke her headlong charge and instead zig-zagged through the air towards the incoming titan, firing scarlet energy blasts. He let two of the blasts break apart against his armor before waving his hand.

Purple light bloomed around Maggie and she felt a sickening sense of movement before her back collided with a tree trunk so hard that her vision blacked out. She dropped to the dirt, mind reeling.

It was Vision and Wanda's urgent whispers in her ears that lifted her head. They weren't talking to her, and she could barely make sense of the words through her disorientation, but she understood enough to make ice creep around her heart.

"We are… out of time."

Maggie groaned, lifting her head out of the dirt, and opened her eyes. Vision knelt before Wanda with his hands wrapped around hers, tears in their eyes – an awful mockery of a proposal.

Let us fight for you. Maggie heaved herself to one elbow and looked toward Thanos, who still strode inexorably forward. If she could just stop him–

Thanos paused for a moment when War Machine appeared in the sky above him, raining down missiles and gunfire, and as he turned his head Maggie saw blood on his cheek. Someone made him bleed. Her heart leaped in her chest. He's vulnerable.

She made it up to two elbows and then cried out when Thanos clenched his fist, crushing Rhodey's armor around him and casting him aside. Ahead of Thanos, Wanda cast a stream of red light directly at Vision's forehead. The ice around Maggie's heart crept into her veins, paralyzing her.

Maggie's gaze turned to the gauntlet and something deep inside her cried out. The Time Stone. The small green gem glowed brightly amongst its fellows on the gauntlet, looking as if it belonged there.

Tony.

Shock turned to fear. Fear turned to fury. Get up, Wyvern.

Screaming between her teeth, muscles burning, Maggie heaved herself to her hands and knees. The ice around her heart shattered.

Bucky appeared out of the forest ahead, roaring a battle cry as he fired on Thanos, before a wave of purple energy knocked him aside. Okoye soon followed. The earth surged up to trap Natasha in rocky claws.

Keep swinging. The Wyvern wasn't a creature of ice. The Wyvern was made of fire. Fire scorched through Maggie's veins, burning away fear and pain and defeat, and she felt like she'd been engulfed in an inferno. Flames licked at her lungs, in her throat. She surged forward.

Maggie didn't throw herself between Thanos and Vision. She soared up silent and sudden, before plunging her heel spurs down at Thanos's exposed skull. As if he had eyes in the back of his head he dodged, sending her sailing over his shoulder in a gust of wind and screaming engines, but she turned wicked fast and fired her energy blasters at his head. He shrugged it off like summer rain and his calm eyes met hers for the first time.

Behind Maggie, Wanda sobbed.

Before Thanos could raise his gauntlet Maggie dove forward and slid between his legs, wings retracting (keep him turning, keep him off balance). She threw her momentum into a kick to his knee which barely made him stumble. Thanos twisted and threw his other fist down at her but she curled over, letting the blow fall in the middle of her back.

A metal clang rang out across the forest followed by Maggie's cry– her Adamantium spine had absorbed the blow, but just barely. Another of those and she'd break. She looked over her shoulder and saw Thanos frowning at her.

After half a moment of consideration he pointed the gauntlet down at her. Maggie burst into action with a snarl, unleashing her arsenal of lasers and flares up at the titan in a blinding light show to distract him. He winced, head tilting back, and Maggie used the second that bought her to flip to her feet and kick up, plunging her heel spur toward his neck. He caught the blow with the collar of his armor but that had been her bluff – in the same move she dug her Adamantium claws into the gauntlet itself and heaved. She'd finish what her brother started.

A budge. Maggie felt a tantalizing slide of movement beneath her claws and the fire roaring through her gusted, swelled – only to gutter when she felt a firm hand wrap around her ankle.

At that point of contact she felt cold flow through her, shooting up her leg and across her body. She looked up and met Thanos's eyes. Saw irritation there. His muscles bunched, the Stones on the gauntlet glowed, and then he threw her.

Maggie couldn't see much beyond the blazing blue and purple light shrouding her, but she could feel the air moving around her – or rather, her through it. She could tell she was moving fast because her stomach pressed up against her diaphragm and wind tore at her with sharp fingers.

Maggie arced across the sky like a blue and purple comet, soaring at least two miles, and only the automatic functions of her nanotech suit kept her from being torn apart when she collided with the ground.

Back in the forest, Thanos beat Steve Rogers into the ground. His eyes lifted to the witch.

In a crater of her own making, Maggie groaned. Her every muscle was alight with pain from her landing and from the chilling echo of Thanos's power. She tried get her arms under her, only to realize that she couldn't move her limbs. Her eyes snapped open and her head jerked up, and she stared down at herself – her entire body below her shoulders was locked in thick, sparkling ice. She was frozen solid, stuck in a crater back in the grassy plains of the battlefield. Even through her suit her body ached at the cold. She could hear the Wakandans battling the last of the Outriders, closer now.

And over the comms, she could hear…

"I love you." A whisper, not meant for her.

Maggie's breath rushed out of her chest and she turned her head, desperately twisting against the ice until she could see back to the forest she'd been thrown out of; red light glowed through the trees like a scarlet beacon, emanating shuddering waves of power. Maggie could feel the grief behind that power, the love. It throbbed out of the forest, glowing brighter and brighter. Tears streamed down Maggie's cheeks, washing away blood and dust, and she realized she was shouting Vision's name. She couldn't move.

And then the red glow cut out, washed away by a blinding golden light that erupted through the trees and sent a shockwave rolling across the battlefield.

Maggie's heart stilled.

Vision.

Her mouth was still open but she wasn't screaming now. She just… stared. At the silent forest.

She thought maybe the ice locked around her had seeped into her chest.

Maggie couldn't move. Couldn't think. Could only listen as, through her commpiece, she heard soft, desperate breaths. And footsteps.

"I understand, my child." A soft voice. Thanos. "Better than anyone."

"You could never." Wanda's fury called to what little Maggie had left – maybe it was all she had left now. Her head thudded back into the dirt and she looked up at the blue sky. This is it, then. She concentrated on her strength, rallying her will and pushing against the ice entombing her. This is the price of winning. It didn't feel like a victory.

All she had left was to finish the mission.

"Today I lost more than you can know," came Thanos's voice. "But now is no time to mourn. Now… is no time at all."

An odd chiming sound rang through Maggie's earpiece and her eyes widened. Something is wrong. She felt the wrongness of it, strained her head back to see the trees in the forest shifting, swaying. Energy pulsed in the air again, the hair-raising energy of something immense happening.

Maggie began to wrench her shoulders, desperately fighting to free herself from the ice. She called to her cybernetic connection to her wings, tried firing up her engines. She felt the metal crushed against her back warm up and then die out. Golden light shone above the forest and then vanished, as if it had been called back.

Wanda screamed "No!"

Sweat poured down Maggie's forehead as she wrenched against the ice. Over the comms she heard pained, choking gasps that sounded all too familiar – Vision – and then…

Crunch.

Maggie screamed. This was hell, she was sure of it: trapped and useless, listening to her best friend die again.

Thanos roared, and desperate tears filled her eyes. Get up, Wyvern.

A shadow flashed over the sun, followed by a streak of lightning. The ice around her right heel spur cracked. Still fighting, Maggie's eyes tracked Thor as he hurled his axe downward and soared into the forest. There was a burst of rainbow light and impossibly, around the grief swirling in her chest, hope sparked. Maggie threw her shoulders forward and back, feeling the ice shift.

"I told you," Thor growled. "You'd die for that."

To the chorus of Thanos's pained groans, Maggie balled her fists and wrenched. Crunching, cracking sounds filled her ears. Pain arced up her spine.

She ripped free, shattered ice sparkling in the sunshine, just in time to hear a soft-spoken growl: "You should have gone for the head."

And then there was light.

Maggie reared back against the eye-searing flash-bang of light, her hand flying up to shield her eyes. She staggered, and her body shrieked with pain.

"What did you do?"

Breaths in the silence.

"Where'd he go?"

Maggie looked around at the trampled, torn up battlefield she stood in. Her mind felt numb. Thanos escaped? She couldn't see him.

She turned, her heart pounding with some sickened realization that her brain hadn't caught up to yet. The sun shone bright in her eyes.

She heard Bucky call Steve's name, and she turned back in the direction of the forest. That note in his voice… Maggie tried to lift her wings, but the ice had mangled them. She started running.

As she sprinted through the long, swaying grass, Maggie saw a strange movement out of the corner of her eye; she turned, but there was nothing there. Then she ran up to a knot of Wakandan soldiers, and before her eyes two of them crumbled.

Maggie faltered, almost falling, watching their forms just vanish away without a whisper. Ash on the breeze. Their companions stared.

Her skin flashed hot then cold, a roiling feeling swirling in her stomach. Her skin crawled.

She kept running, though her brain felt numb and unconnected from her body. She heard confused shouts. Over the comms, she heard Rhodey calling for Sam. To Maggie's left a Wakandan aircraft dropped out of the sky and exploded on the plain.

She felt the judder of her feet hitting the earth, sweat and blood and tears sticking on her skin. The ringing in her ears was deafening. She ran past a mountain soldier as his face screwed up with pain and he fell to his knees. He was gone before he hit the ground.

"What is this?" came Rhodey's voice. "What the hell is happening?"

Maggie tore through the forest, branches lashing her skin, images of people fading away burned into her retinas.

She heard Steve say "Oh god," seconds before she burst through the trees and skidded to a halt in the clearing. Her unbound hair whipped her face as she glanced around.

She saw Vision's body, cold and grey, and she felt as if an iron vice was closing around her throat. No one looked up at her – most looked at the ground or into the distance, their eyes unfocused and wild. She'd never seen people look so hopeless. She'd seen the look in someone's eye when they knew they were going to die, but this was… this was new. This was worse.

She counted faces.

Her breath caught and she opened her mouth. She already knew the answer, but it couldn't be true, so she asked:

"Where's Bucky?"

And Steve just looked at her.

And she felt the world crumble around her.