Thanos was here. Steve clicked his shields into place. Even in the middle of the battlefield Natasha heard Steve's low tone. Okoye looked across at her and she nodded. The two females shared a grudging respect for each other, you could almost say they were friends. They ran towards the forest, Okoye casting a quick glance to check on her fellow Dora Milaje.
"Nat?"
"We're on our way." They were feet away when she watched as Steve was tossed to the side and T'challa was hurled to the floor. She watched as James tried taking on Thanos with only a gun and cursed him, swearing in every language she knew. She had yet to tell him about their past. She wasn't sure whether the doctors here had helped regain his memories, either way springing all that on him just before or during battle was not a great idea. But now she feared she may never get the chance.
She heard Okoye's battle cry as she watched her King fall. She joined her in the charge at the mad Titan. In her peripheral vision she saw the general get blasted into a tree. At least she wasn't dead. Natasha continued to run, pulling out her tasers as she did so. She knew she must look like a fool, attacking a powerful being armed with nothing but two zappy sticks. She was within striking distance when he took notice of her and raised the earth.
Her feet stumbled over the rocks rising beneath her. She hit the ground hard on her back and had barely let out a breath when she was buried. Her body was pummelled into the dirt and crushed by the massive weight. She was dead before her head had hit the ground.
Bucky witnessed the whole thing. He remembered Natalia and had wanted to speak to her but Thanos had come and it didn't seem like the right time. Now he regretted not saying anything because he would never get the chance to again. He watched as her battered form disappeared beneath the stone. It was a painful way to go, not like the Banner guy who'd been immediately killed once he turned solid again.
He tried lifting himself from the floor but his limbs protested too much. He got distracted as a familiar blonde ran at the Titan again. He mentally swore at Steve. Unable to do anything but watch, Bucky felt his age hit him as Steve's head was crushed and he was tossed to the side like a rag doll. They were dead. Steve and Natalia were dead. Blood rushed through his ears and his head pounded with intense pain. His mind felt like it was being cleaved in two as an onslaught of memories burst through in a raging torrent.
Memories of a scrawny Steve and dim bar, of a buff Steve and a group of rowdy idiots. Of red haired Natalia entangled in his sheets, of a bruised and bloody Natalia standing victorious over him. Steve using a trash can lid as a shield, Natalia standing en pointe perfectly still. Memories of swirling leaves and an asthmatic Steve blended with thick snow and a naked Natalia. The memories of an electric chair and a whistling train. All of it flooded his brain and rendered him useless. Subconsciously he felt the reverse in time but nothing registered until his trip down memory lane finally ended.
He got up on shaky legs and headed towards the Wanda girl. He saw the red thing lying empty and black like a dead shell. He saw the girl clearly distraught and some guy with an axe looking horrified. What shocked him the most was to see his best friend standing tall, as if he hadn't just been clubbed to death by a space alien. "Steve?" That's when the sensations started. A prickling feeling spreading from his toes to his fingertips. Like pins and needles. He stared at his hand as the prickling turned numb. He watched as he turned to dust and started fading away.
At the last moment he remembered Natalia and smiled faintly at her possessiveness of her weapons as he dropped her gun and sank to the floor. His mind going blank and empty as he disappeared into the void.
It was Natalia's turn to witness. The last thing she remembered was a heavy weight crushing her before darkness. She knew she'd died, her body was still adjusting to the realignment of her soul. She'd watched and breathed as James had risen to his feet and stumbled away. She'd tried calling out but only managed a little gasp. Her bones felt wrong and misplaced and her whole body felt heavy like a sack of wet sand. She pushed herself to her feet and heard the cries of Okoye. Thanos had won. Clearly the King had not made it.
She stumbled forwards towards Steve and James. What she found was Vision's body and Steve seated within a pile of ashes. Thor looked morosely on as he stared in horrified awe at the floating ash. "Oh God." Steve's words pretty much summed it up. Natasha clutched her side and sank to her knees. James was gone. She put two and two together. James was gone and so was half the universe.
A/N until someone told me I had no idea that the avengers had been killed by Thanos but when he reversed time he inadvertently brought them back to life.
