Shine Again (An Avengers: Infinity War/Endgame Story)

Chapter 54: Come Back

Running towards the man who tried to kill her was not something Anja wanted to do, yet here she was. Side by side with Loki and Layla, she knew they needed to get to the rest of the team as quickly as possible. They would need reinforcements, or else Thanos would surely get the Mind Stone, and it would be game over.

And as far as she was concerned, it was already looking more and more like their time was up.

Upon their approach, she saw both Steve and T'Challa cast aside like they were ragdolls by Thanos. Bruce was in the Hulkbuster still, but he was encased in a rock face several meters behind the action, rendered completely useless. Sam Wilson fared no better, as Thanos used the Reality Stone to turn his wings to rubber, grounding him. Rhodey flew overhead, firing his guns at Thanos with some degree of effectiveness- at least until he used the gauntlet to crush Rhodey's armor around him and tossed him to the side too.

Anja tried to run faster, but her legs wouldn't go any faster so all she could do was keep heading towards her adversary and teammates, watching as he continued to knock them aside one by one. Bucky was Thanos' next victim; his gun was no match for Thanos punching him using the full force of the Power Stone. Anja cringed at the thought of taking the power of that stone again. Thanos seemed to be preferring that stone, as he used it to dispatch Okoye with ease before he used the Reality Stone to wrap Natasha in unescapable bands of earth. Groot stabbed his hands into the ground, wrapping Thanos in cables of roots, which he broke with zero effort.

Anja couldn't bring herself to watch what happened to Groot, so she glanced over to the right, trying to see the progress Wanda was making on taking out the Mind Stone in Vision's forehead. She had just put both of her hands out, magic spewing out of them as she glanced over her shoulder at the chaos behind her. Anja didn't need to see Wanda's face to know how pained she was at destroying the Mind Stone; Vision would be destroyed in the process, and that was ultimately going to damage Wanda in unfathomable ways too.

They were closer now, and Steve had rejoined the battle. He slid under a blow from Thanos, coming up swinging his arm shields, punching Thanos in the gut and chin. Steve grabbed the gauntlet, somehow keeping Thanos' fingers unclenched. It was taking a huge effort based on the strain on Steve's face and all the yelling he was doing. They were close enough now to see the impressed look on Thanos' face before he slammed his other fist into Steve's head, sending him flying and rendering him insensible once more.

The three of them finally made it to Thanos, and it was Layla who made the first strike. At some point she had drawn her sword, and she swung it angrily at the Titan- only to have him anticipate it and turn the blade to rubber on impact. This just pissed Layla off, and she swung a flame-covered fist in his direction. Thanos extinguished the flames with a nonchalant snap of his fingers, and grabbed her fist with his free hand, tossing her cartoon-style over his head into a tree trunk.

Anja glanced at Loki, and with a quick nod, he used some of his magic, making several dozen duplications of both of them surrounding Thanos. Anja was sure it wasn't fool-proof, but it would buy them a moment before Thanos wiped them out of action too. In the brief moment of his confusion, Anja and Loki both blasted Thanos with a combination of their magic, a green blast of energy and ice.

For a moment, it seemed to hold him back as he struggled through the magical combination, but then in a flash of red light, all their duplications were gone, and the two of them were sent flying backwards into another large tree.

Anja blinked, shaking the impact off to the best of her ability as she started to try to prepare a second attack. But when she looked up after her vision cleared, Thanos was already fixated on a new target several meters away. He was moving towards Wanda and Vision with single-minded determination. Wanda glanced over her shoulder to see him approaching her unopposed, and she swung her left arm around to fend him off with a steady stream of scarlet energy, pushing him back a bit despite his blue-purple energy shield. But it was only a momentary victory. Within moments, Thanos started making slow headway.