33

Chapter 33: tell me which one is worse, living or dying first?Notes:

1) The heat in the UK is absolutely brutal and I hate it. Writing was difficult since the heat made my brain lag more than the computer I have to use.

2) A week and several script references later, I have another chapter to present! We edge closer and closer to the final battle...

3) Enjoy the chapter and leave a kudos and comment!

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter Text

"So, what actually is the plan?" He quietly asked Stephen as he hung from the ceiling.

He had become fidgety about five minutes into the slightly uncomfortable silence they had fallen into, too antsy about their current situation to sit around and do nothing. He hadn't been a part of the grand scheme of events, simply contributing whatever he could even if it could have a massive Butterfly Effect on the timeline.

"We need to get to Titan and meet the Guardians before going to Vormir and ambushing Thanos. If we're lucky, we can stop him from killing Gamora and taking the Soul stone."

"What if we don't get there on time?"

Stephen's expression sobered. "Then he'll have three Infinity Stones."

The weight of it finally sunk onto him. If Thanos had three Infinity Stones then it would mean he would be the most powerful being in the universe.

Fighting him would be difficult and their best chance would be to fall back to Earth and have their last stand on home turf. They would lose the element of surprise they had when they fought on Titan but they could hopefully make up for that in numbers instead.

Flinching as his Spidey-sense rang out like a gong, he jumped down from his web and warily made his way to the exit that Tony had leaned against for the past few minutes. He gave Peter a questioning look, but he shook his head in reply, peering into the hallway as he picked up footsteps in the distance.

"Someone's coming," he announced as shadows emerged at the other end of the long corridor, prompting Tony to activate his nanobot suit as Stephen levitated forwards, nodding at Peter before waiting on the opposite side of the doorway from Tony so they could ambush whoever was coming.

Both of them knew the Guardians were the ones who were coming to attack them, but it would probably help them if Tony knew.

"Stark, apprehend them, don't kill them," Stephen quietly instructed as he summoned one of his shields.

"Last time I remembered, you're not the one giving out orders," Tony retorted before motioning for him to attack from above.

Shooting a web up to one of the metal beams, he climbed up and stuck to the beam, ready to drop in to attack at a moment's notice. There was a high chance they would end up in another one of those hostage situations before any of them started talking but he hoped they could avoid that. Maybe he would manage to knock away Quill's gun before he could threaten Tony and Stephen with his life?

Someone murmured outside of the doors before chaos descended on them.

Someone through a metal sphere at them –it was no bigger than a tennis ball- but his eyes widened in recognition. Shooting a web at it, he yanked it high into the air at shot a web bomb at it to contain the blast.

Quill yelled out something vague before he charged in firing his blaster, Drax and Mantis in tow as they each decided on an opponent.

Webs rained down on them as the sphere exploded, a heatwave washing over him before he tripped over a piece of debris only to see Mantis's alien eyes staring at him, the weird bulbs on the ends of her head glowing.

He scrambled backwards before standing up and webbing her hands to her sides, almost feeling sorry when she yelped in surprise.

His Spidey-sense buzzed and he dodged Quill's blasts, activating his iron spider arms to climb the ceiling before tackling Quill mid-air. Wrestling with him as they fell through the air, he grabbed Quill's blaster and threw it across the ship, barely registering it clattering against the floor.

Catching Quill's punch, his eyes widened when he realised he had another blaster and he whacked him in the face. Yelping, he let go of Quill and hit the floor on the side he had been clipped by the billboard.

Groaning as his bruises ached, he staggered upright and backflipped as a projectile whistled through the air, easily avoiding Drax's daggers hitting him before he shot a web at his face.

Drax shouted in confusion as he tried to rip the web off of his face only to trip and fall.

Someone grabbed his neck, putting him into a tight headlock as warm metal pressed against his temple. Great, he was in a hostage situation again.

Mantis hopped to Quill's side, but he couldn't see her expression. Tony had his hand repulsor pointed at Drax's face. Quill had a gun pointed at his temple. Stephen had his magic shield up, his other hand free to attack anyone.

His heartbeat roared in his ears as they all stood at a stalemate.

"I'm gonna ask you this one time. Where is Gamora?" Quill asked, his voice trembling with anger as he put more pressure on the side of his head.

Tony glared at him, confusion swimming in his eyes. "I'll do you one better. Who is Gamora?"

"I'll do you one better!" Drax exclaimed. "Why is Gamora?"

He would have laughed at the exchange if he didn't have a gun near his head. He had forgotten about the lack of braincells the Guardians had.

"Tell me where the girl is, or so help me, I'll french-fry this little freak."

"Hey man, chill! We're not working with Thanos!" He exclaimed, sensing the stalemate was going to break at any second and he would die if he didn't do something.

"Alright, let me ask you this one time. What master do you serve?" Stephen asked, sensing they weren't going to follow the same script as last time.

"'What master do I serve'? What am I meant to say, Jesus?" Quill retorted.

"You're from Earth?" Tony asked, sounding incredulous and slightly resigned. He didn't blame him; the constant changing events became tiring after a while.

"I'm not from Earth, I'm from Missouri."

"Yeah, that's on Earth dipshit. What're you hassling us for?"

Quill lowered his blaster, his headlock weakening as he realised they weren't the enemy. "So this guy was telling the truth?" He gestured to Peter. "The hell are you doing in space if you're from Earth?"

"Dealing with Thanos," Stephen replied dryly. "You said he's taken Gamora?" He eyed Stephen warily, wondering what game he was playing. How much of the truth would he tell Quill considering he would probably have to justify why he knew who Gamora was.

"…yes. Why do you know who she is but they-" he gestured to him and Tony, "-don't?"

"I am the Stonekeeper of the Time stone. It can reveal the future if the wielder commands it to and has revealed what will happen within the next few days." Quill, Drax and Mantis looked at Stephen, all of their gazes filled with surprise. "Thanos will take her to Vormir and sacrifice her for the Soul stone."

He internally winced at how bluntly Stephen revealed her death but knew it was necessary for the Guardians to realise the gravity of the situation.

They couldn't afford to waste time if they wanted to save Gamora and he realised how much she must mean to them when Mantis looked devastated, Drax had a sullen expression on his face and Quill's face filled with rage.

His hand gripped his blaster so tightly his knuckles turned white. "We have to stop him. Show us the future and we can form a plan."

Stephen's mouth set. "I'm afraid I can't do that."

"What?!"

"Actually, I agree with this guy," Tony added. "Why can't you show us?"

Stephen sighed, shifting so his stance was unwavering and exuded finality. "It could affect the future even more than before, thus affecting the outcome. All I ask is that you trust my judgement and follow the plan I have."

"Why should we trust you?" Drax shot back. "We met you while attacking you."

"The longer we argue, the longer it'll take to get to Gamora and save her," Stephen pointed out. "You may not trust me, but you trust your friend and want her to be safe."

Quill muttered, irritated by the lack of power he had. Not that he blamed him; he would also be frustrated if he knew Tony was in danger and he could only trust a stranger he had met in an impromptu fight.

"The wizard is right," Quill told Drax and Mantis. "I want to save Gamora. What about you guys?" Drax reluctantly nodded and Mantis followed suit, albeit she looked slightly confused.

"Good." Tony clapped his hands together once like how a judge slammed down their gavel onto their block. "Now that that's all sorter, how the hell are we meant to leave? We're in the middle of space on a spaceship sending us to Titan which won't let me hotwire it."

Quill smirked. "Leave that to me."

He had only been on a spaceship twice – it had also been the same spaceship in two different timelines. Being in the Guardian's spaceship felt more…interesting than being in the doughnut spaceship. It didn't feel as hollow with different items filling the rooms compared to the hollowness of the doughnut spaceship – the Guardians definitely lived here whenever they weren't doing whatever they did. What did they do? Steal stuff for a living?

Quill had set a route for Vormir, saying they were going to fly towards Saturn before making the 'jumps' to get to Vormir. Saturn was the jump point and it would take them about half an hour to get to Vormir.

He had found a large window in the engine room after deciding he wanted to be by himself for a while. As cool as hanging out with space travellers was, his bruises ached badly and he wanted time to collect his thoughts.

The entrance to the engine room wasn't that big -roughly two metres across- and all of the engines were kept behind some sort of glass panelling, except the panelling dimmed the noise the engines made to a mildly comforting hum that faded into background noise. The room widened out so there was a sort-of viewing area showing the expanses of space to whoever visited.

Leaning against the wall, he sagged as he gently pressed against his bruises, judging how bad they were. They were probably mottled at this point but had reached the worst stage before they healed. It wouldn't take too long, maybe he would be lucky and his body would heal itself by the time they arrived at Vormir.

He didn't have much of a clue about how they were going to ambush Thanos. They didn't have all of the debris on Titan to hide behind and he didn't know what the terrain at Vormir was like.

He fidgeted with his hands as he thought about the Soul stone. How would they stop Thanos from sacrificing Gamora? He doubted they could talk Thanos out of the sacrifice and it would be up to them to get her away from Vormir.

Looking back out to space, it surprised him how pitch black it was. There were starts lighting up the sky like on Earth. The Sun was the only present star in the sky and it seemed fainter. His stomach clenched at the idea of how relative everything was, how miniscule everything was in the grand scheme of the universe, the multiverse.

Their sacrifices could impact their lives – okay, that felt too vague. Say he sacrificed himself so they could gain the Soul stone. His sacrifice would mean so much to his friends and family, but not as much to the trillions of beings in the universe. It would mean even less in the scale of the multiverse where there were other versions of him, maybe it would mean nothing.

Shit, he needed to stop thinking like that. It was demoralising and technically he shouldn't know anything about the multiverse.

…but what if he did sacrifice himself to get the Soul stone? Would it mean anything? Would Stephen or Tony keep the Soul stone and be able to win against Thanos by evicting his soul from his body and taking the gauntlet? It didn't sound like a bad plan except for part where he died.

That made his self-worth sound like it was below bedrock.

Still, he refused to let Tony die for the sake of the universe when everything went to shit afterwards. The state of the world declined with fake heroes like Mysterio emerging – but it was his fault Beck managed to get as far as he did. He gave him the EDITH glasses and believed him.

"Oh, there you are." He turned around to see Tony enter the engine room as he tucked the EDITH glasses into his t-shirt collar. "The wizard wants to reveal his plan with all of us there."

"Isn't he a sorcerer?" He asked as Tony stood next to him, looking into the void of space.

"I know. I've been saying it to get on his nerves." He chuckled at Tony's response. "The arrogance he has annoys me so I figured I may as well annoy him." He didn't bother correcting Tony. Stephen softened with time and he wasn't that bad.

"I was wondering…" he trailed off. "What if we took the Soul stone before Thanos? We would have 4 of the Infinity Stones and he would be at a disadvantage."

"We would also become a prime target," Tony pointed out.

"Wouldn't someone be able to wield the stones to disintegrate him? I know you have to be super powerful to even touch a stone but someone like Wanda or Thor would be able to do it, right?" He avoided saying Loki's name since Tony didn't know about him yet.

"Kid, did you forget what the wizard said about the Soul stone? A sacrifice is needed and I doubt it's reversible."

"I know…" he sighed. "It'd be so much easier if we stopped Thanos from even getting the Soul stone. He doesn't have the Space stone to get to us and if we keep Gamora away from him then he can't do anything."

Tony smiled wearily. "The universe doesn't want to be fair."

"It never has."

He looked back at space, eyes widening as he saw Saturn's rings in the distance. Thousands of rocks orbited the beige planet, most of them grey or black. It wasn't as colourful as the images on Earth depicted them as.

"Let's go back and hear what the magician has to say," Tony announced, clapping him on the shoulder before they walked back to the engine room.

Stephen nodded at them as they entered the area above the cockpit -he assumed it was because Quill could still hear the plan while he flew the spaceship- before explaining the plan, saying what each of them could do and pointing out they had to stay calm no matter what happened.

Quill described Vormir as a remote planet with next to nothing interesting except mountains, a lot of dirt, stone and massive puddles of water. He also said that was what Gamora had told him and he hadn't actually been there.

Arriving at Vormir after making a couple of jumps through hexagonal tear in space –that was how Drax explained it before Quill corrected him- made him question why the Soul stone was so far away in space. Wouldn't it be more suited in a place where there were more people?

The ship flew down into Vormir's atmosphere, revealing the purple-toned planet. The sunrays cast deep purple shadows through the clouds as the barren ground with uniform puddles greeted them, ripples of areas that looked like sand painting patterns over the planet's surface.

It was scary how such a beautiful planet had such a dark purpose.

Quill landed the spaceship on one of the stone slabs closer to the mountains that loomed over them, covering them in its cold shadow as they left and made their way to the base of the mountain.

"Where is the Soul stone meant to be?" Drax asked as he trudged through a puddle, ripples disturbing the still surface.

Stephen gesture to the top of the cliff where two massive stone structures dominated the skyline. "Up there. Thankfully, we don't have to climb the mountain to get to it." He waved his hand and opened a portal to reveal the top of the mountain.

Quill's jaw dropped. "Wait, why did I have to fly us here if you can open portals?"

Stephen shrugged nonchalantly. "The boundaries of portals are limited to a solid spatial area. A definite location is better than a vague point in the universe."

He stepped through the portal to see two towering stone structures casting shadows down the cliffside. The sun was fairly low in the sky, clouds moving across the sky quickly as the area darkened. They wouldn't have much time before it was dark and Thanos could arrive at any time.

"It's pretty," Mantis said after she walked through the portal.

"Too pretty," Tony muttered morbidly. He agreed as Quill, Drax and Stephen walked through the portal and examined the terrain. Many areas were uneven except for the walkway in between the two looming stone structures with rocks littering the ground.

"Uh, what now?" He asked, flinching when his Spidey-sense tingled. A few seconds after he turned around, a hooded figure emerged from the shadows. A black robe enshrined them completely, reminding him of something like a Dementor (subconsciously it reminded him of the Grim Reaper) and his heart lurched as he saw their face.

A red skull. It was as if someone had stripped all the skin and cartilage from the being's face, drained the blood and left the muscle before thinking what they had done was bad but unreversible. Okay, maybe he was being a bit dramatic.

"Tony, son of Howard," the shadowy being said with a deep voice. "Stephen, son of Eugene. Peter, son of Richard." He frowned at how the being knew who they were and who they were related to. "Drax, husband of Yvette. Mantis, daughter of Lua. Peter, son of Ego."

"H-how do you know who we are?" Quill asked as wariness built in Peter's chest. Tony and Stephen walked forward, Mantis staying hesitantly behind Drax as his hand lingered by his dagger.

"It is my curse to know all who journey here," the being replied. He glanced uncertainly at Tony, unnerved by the Stonekeeper. "What you seek is in front of you. As does what you fear."

"We did not ask about the Soul stone," Stephen said. The edge in his voice was warranted since they all knew Red Skull was talking about the price of taking the Soul stone.

"Yet you seek it regardless of when you will take it. I must remind you; it exacts a heavy and irreversible toll."

"We know about the sacrifice," he said, shrugging when Tony shot a look at him to keep quiet. He may as well ask for what he wanted to know while they still had the time. "How does someone get the Soul stone after the sacrifice?" He ignored Tony's slightly bewildered look at his question.

The Stonekeeper -he called him Red Skull since that was his defining feature- gestured to the cliff edge. "Once the sacrifice has been completed, the one who sacrificed will enter the Soul Realm to claim their earning."

Swallowing at the weighted words, he watched as Stephen muttered something to Tony before turning to face him. "You remember the plan?" He nodded. "We're setting up now."

"Can I ask you something?" He asked Quill as he settled into position. Seeing as he and Quill moved easily throughout the air, Tony had decided to put them together to ambush Thanos when he least expected it.

Stephen and Tony were hiding behind the other large column and Drax and Mantis were on separate sides of the cliff, everyone making sure they were ready before Thanos arrived with Gamora.

Red Skull hadn't seemed too surprised when Stephen had asked him to keep their presence a secret, simply nodding before fading away like a ghost once he was in the shadows.

"Sure," Quill replied as he adjusted the settings on his blasters before he lay down on his stomach.

"Who is Gamora? Like, who is she to you?"

Quill pressed his lips together before replying, setting his blasters to the ground. "She's Thanos's daughter. More importantly, she's my girlfriend." His jaw dropped behind his mask. Right, no wonder Quill had been so furious when he had found out Thanos had killed her.

Shit. What if Gamora died this time right in front of Quill. Apprehension settled in his stomach as he slowly nodded, nervousness finally hitting him. He didn't want to add to Quill's misery – if anything, he was trying to prevent it.

"She's one of the few people I have left," Quill murmured, not intending for Peter to hear him. "I can't lose her.

He almost said something to try and comfort Quill before his Spidey-sense tingled and he peered over the edge of the column to see Thanos trekking over rocks with a person slightly behind him.

She had red hair and green skin with silver lines on her cheeks. She wore a similar outfit to Quill, but with a long brown leather jacket and no visible weapons. Had Thanos disarmed her?

"Thanos, son of A'Lars. Gamora, daughter of Thanos." Red Skull greeted them as he emerged from his shadowy corner, leaving them to listen to the conversation with bated breath. They had a certain moment where they could sweep in and get Gamora, but they had to time it perfectly.

"How is it you know this place so well?" Thanos asked contemplatively.

"A lifetime ago, I, too, sought the stones. I even held one in my hand. But it cast me out, banished me here, guiding others to a treasure I cannot possess."

So that was how Red Skull managed to get to a planet in the middle of space. He doubted anyone would willingly come here without the Soul stone in mind and try to survive on a planet without vegetation. Hell, was there anywhere to get food?

Wait, Red Skull's words implied the Soul stone was sentient, that it had a mind of its own. Was that possible?

'I mean...it's one of the six most powerful stones in existence. It's entirely possible that it could communicate with any being, especially since it's the Soul stone.

"Where is the Soul stone?" Thanos asked as Gamora listened intently, though she radiated wariness as she clenched her fists.

"You should know, it exacts a terrible price."

"I am prepared."

"We all say that at first. We are all wrong." Red Skull shook his head before gesturing to the cliff. "What you seek lies in front of you. As does what you fear."

Thanos looked at the cliff before looking at Gamora. He could see the gears churning in Thanos's head before the realisation clicked, the Mad Titan looking surprisingly...upset? His eyebrows had creased and his frown had become noticeable from where he and Quill were.

Gamora spoke when it was evident Thanos had descended into seemingly unwarranted grief. "What's this?"

"The price. The Soul holds a special place among the Infinity Stones. You might say, it is a certain wisdom."

She raised an eyebrow as she crossed her arms over her chest, unimpressed by the Stonekeeper's explanation. "Tell me what it needs."

"To ensure that whoever possesses it understands its power, the stone demands a sacrifice."

"Of what?"

"In order to take the stone, you must lose that which you love. A soul for a soul."

Her hands dropped to her sides as she sighed, piecing together all the information she had been given.

Thanos murmured something that sounded awfully apologetic, too humane for a Titan hellbent on his purpose. Sorrow laced his tone as his next words sent chills through his body.

"I ignored my destiny once, I cannot do that again. Even for you. I'm sorry, little one."

The familiar shrill cry of a repulsor beam rang out seconds before a beam of light shot out from behind a rock, hitting Thanos's back armour as he clenched the gauntlet and the Power and Reality stones glowed ominously.

Quill jumped down headfirst from the stone structure they were on, blasters blazing as his jetpack kicked in and he swooped down to get Gamora, sweeping her into his arms before flying away.

Taking that as his cue, he leapt off the stone structure and shot a concussive web bomb at Thanos, knocking him back a step to make sure he couldn't take aim at Quill. A portal opened in front of him, showing him Thanos again and he realised it was like before.

"Magic." He jumped through the portal and webbed Thanos in the face, ignoring his aggravated shout. "More magic!" He shot a trip mine at Thanos's ankle, seeing it activate and kicking him in the face before leaping through the portal to avoid being swiped at. "Magic with a- oh shit!"

Yelping as Thanos grabbed him by the throat, uncomfortable pressure settled on his lungs until Thanos threw him far, far away from the portals.

"Kid!" Tony called out from over the comms.

Flailing, he shot a web at the cliff face as the sensation of plummeting filled his being.

The sun shone through the indigo clouds, the rays of light falling on him.

The web attached to a ledge.

Tensing his arms and core, he swung towards the cliff before shooting another web at the top of the cliff and pulling himself up and away from the base of the cliff, adrenaline coursing through him as his heart hammered in his chest.

That was way too dangerous for his comfort, but he knew he couldn't stop fighting. He had to stick to the plan.

"I'm fine," he panted as he latched onto a slab of rock close to the cliff edge, choosing to observe the fight as Tony carried on shooting Thanos with repulsor beams. "I'll be more careful next time."

"You better be," Tony replied, his tone filled with concern and edged with anger as more repulsor beams sounded. Was the anger aimed at him or Thanos? Hopefully it was the latter. "Quill has Gamora and hopefully they're getting away as we speak."

"Good," he replied. "How's Doctor Strange doing?"

A burst of violet light exploded from Thanos's gauntlet as Stephen waved his hands and the sky fragmented into geometrical pieces like a mirror being shattered.

'The mirror dimension,' he thought as Stephen summoned hundreds of glowing daggers, all of them manifesting in a deadly arc around him before he threw his hand forward, shooting the deadly array of daggers towards Thanos.

Clenching his fist and activating the Reality stone, a wall of stone formed in front of him as a shield, obstinate and fortress-like against the wave of daggers. A yell sounded as the stone wall collapsed and revealed Drax charging towards Thanos whilst Stephen conjured another wave of daggers.

Choosing this as a time to distract Thanos from Quill and Gamora -he could see them flying away, alarm making his heart skip a beat as he realised they were still in Thanos's range- he jumped from his resting place.

Swinging past the pile of rock that had formed Thanos's shield, he shot two webs at the titan's arm and tied them together as he flew through the air, wrapping the combined webs around his hand to tighten his grip before he landed.

Crouching on the ground to create a larger height distance between him and the Mad Titan, he pulled with all his might to retrain Thanos as Drax used his blades to slash his calf and the back of his knee, forcing him into a disadvantaged position.

Tony landed in front of Thanos and shot repulsor beams at his chest - the beams themselves didn't do much damage against Thanos's armour but it was better than nothing at all. Stephen levitated to the ground and manifested glowing amber ropes, restraining Thanos's other hand with the gauntlet.

It was similar to how they stopped Thanos last time.

Panting as he strained against the titan's strength, he observed as Stephen waved his free hand to open a portal for Mantis.

Except-

Thump.

His Spidey-sense screamed in his head.

Thump.

The Power stone glowed.

Thump.

His eyes widened as he opened his mouth to shout a warning.

A wave of pure energy exploded from the Power stone, the shockwave sending all of them flying away from Thanos.

Karen activated his iron spider legs, preventing him from crashing into the ground and dislocating his shoulder as Tony's suit stabilised itself and Stephen's ridiculously loyal Cloak caught him with ease. Drax slammed into a rock and hissed but didn't seem too shaken.

Looking at Thanos, his blood froze.

Thanos grunted, straining slightly as he raised his hand to an outstretched position with both Infinity Stones glowing. A burst of magenta light shot out from the gauntlet, its aim too precise to miss its target.

His heart stopped in his mouth as the magenta beam shot through Quill's jetpack, shorting it out to leave two figures falling against the indigo skyline. Dark clouds formed by the remnants of the sunset merged with their shadowy figures as they fell.

"Stephen!" He yelled, the sorcerer already reacting to the new development as he waved his hand to open a portal in the middle of the two stone columns they had hidden behind. Instinctively, he shot a web bomb a couple of metres beneath the portal to catch Quill and Gamora.

They fell through the portal, landing safely within the newly-formed net the web bomb had created before, once again, everything went to shit.

His Spidey-sense cried out but he was too late to react as a pile of rocks flew towards him and Stephen. Without thinking, he shoved Stephen out of the way as he took the brunt of the impact. Pain spiked from his torso as the rocks pinned him down, the weight crushing him as the force punched the air from his lungs.

Spots flashed in his vision as noises faded in and out of the static in his ears, the cries of his impromptu teammates somewhat audible until he finally regained his senses.

Drax, Mantis and Quill had been trapped under similar piles of rock, with Quill being the one closest to the cliff where Gamora and Thanos were, all of them trying and failing to shove the rock away from them even though it seemed futile. The Reality stone must have warped the rocks in some way, making them seem heavier than they were.

Tony's nanobot armour had formed chains to the ground instead of fully protecting his body, his jogging clothes revealed with none of the nanobots as armour, the manacles attached to his hands and ankles rendering him immobile.

Cloak had been pinned to the stone column by a particularly sharp stone and Stephen-

Oh shit.

Stephen had been distorted into 3D blocks, each segment a part of his body. There were six in total floating closely together in the air but nausea churned in his stomach at the sight. The Reality stone had horrifying uses when one knew how to control it.

Unfortunately, Thanos had centuries of knowledge about each of the stones.

Gamora grappled at Thanos's hand as he dragged her to the edge of the cliff, her rageful ('fearful,' his mind supplied) screams sending chills through his bones. Quill's desperate shouts joined in with the Thanos's hitching but determined breaths.

Flinching at the cacophony of horrifying sounds as the sun dipped under Vormir's horizon, the clouds darkened to a daunting black as Thanos reached the edge of the cliff, his grip on Gamora's hand unwavering as he completed his unforgivable act.

"No!" Quill screamed as Thanos threw Gamora over the edge.

Du-dum. Du-dum. Du-dum.

A gasp left her chest.

Du-dum. Du-dum.

Her final breath echoed in his ears.

Du-dum.

Crack!

An involuntary sob left him as he heard Thanos collapse to his knees with a dull thud.

Silence permeated the area for all of five seconds before the ground rumbled, stones clattering against the ground as light shot up in a straight line to the sky. The dark clouds blew away with the rings of light with such force it revealed the indigo sky, the resounding boom making his ears ring.

Glancing back at the cliff edge, his eyes widened as he realised Thanos was nowhere to be seen.

The rocks on top of him seemed lighter and he grunted as he pushed them off of him, fighting the urge to rip off his mask and wipe away the tears trickling down his face. His eyes stung as he stumbled over to Mantis and easily moved the rocks off of her, helping her up before going to check on Tony and Stephen.

Blinking away his final tears, he jogged over to Tony as he stood up, his nanotech armour now surrounding him protectively. A heavy silence settled over the remains of the battlefield as they watched Drax rush over to help Quill stand up, the latter slumping as he raised his hand to his face to wipe his tears.

He turned away. Quill deserved to have a private moment before he was thrown into another battle.

It didn't stop the guilt from settling in his stomach like a deadweight.

He swallowed the lump in his throat before turning to Stephen, the sorcerer in question back in one piece but definitely looking worse for wear. Cloak had settled itself on his shoulders once again, looking like it was trying to provide some semblance of comfort but knowing its attempts were in vain.

"We need to leave," Stephen announced as the Guardians joined them. "We cannot stop Thanos from taking the Soul stone, nor can we endure a fight against him in such small numbers." His face was grim as he readied himself to open a portal to the spaceship.

"Normally I would disagree with you, but after what just happened…" Tony trailed off, the Guardian's distraught state speaking for them all.

They had lost the fight. There was no denying it and the most they could do was gather themselves and regroup with the mass of Avengers back on Earth where they could defend the last three Infinity Stones.

Why did the universe allowed certain events to happen? Why did it allowed beings like Thanos to complete evil deeds for a seemingly 'just' cause when it was anything but? His methods didn't justify his final result.

As moral as he was, a tiny section of his brain knew he would do anything to keep the world safe, even if it meant killing to protect it.

He wondered if that was how Thanos felt before internally shuddering at the thought of sharing the same justification as an alien who wanted to kill half of the universe.

None of them talked as they entered the spaceship, the planet close to silence with the exceptions of Quill's occasional sniffle and Drax's quiet murmuring to Mantis, the latter crying silently. The spaceship left the ground soon after, all of them desperate to leave.

Quill circled near the cliff to gain altitude, the remoteness of the planet leaving goosebumps on his skin as he made his way back to the viewing area to think. To imagine that the planet had been isolated with one being on it, only for a fight to occur before it returned to silence once more.

Watching from the viewing area as they passed the cliff, his blood froze as he made eye contact with Thanos. The gauntlet gleamed in his hand, the Soul stone pulsing alongside the Reality and Power stones. He raised his head, the Soul stone glowing as he used it.

'It is all but a matter of time until I find you.'