Rogue: Annihilation (An Avengers Sequel)

36. This Isn't Your Decision

As soon as Clint spoke, clutching the gauntlet, Steve sprang into action. "Get those stones as far away as possible!" he said, using Thor's hammer, Mjolnir, to incapacitate an alien.

"No!" Bruce interrupted from his position a few feet away. "We need to get them back where they came from."

"No way to get them back." Tony reminded them. "Thanos destroyed the quantum tunnel."

"Hold on!" Scott's voice said through the fray of violence, as he shrank down from his giant self to his normal height. "That wasn't our only time machine."

Suddenly, we heard a jaunty jingle, almost like... a car alarm. Steve and I had the same idea, using the rubble to push ourselves to higher ground.

"Anyone see an ugly brown van out there?"

"Yes!" A voice immediately answered. "But you're not gonna like where it's parked." We looked up to see that the voice came from the Asgardian woman on flying horseback above us.

Steve nodded, addressing Scott once again. "Get it started. We'll get the stones to you."

"We're on it, Cap," Hope acknowledged. She and Scott shrunk down, which looked almost like they were becoming invisible to the naked eye.

While fighting off our own aliens, we watched as Clint made his way through the battle, avoiding everyone and everything as he tried to get the Stones as far away from Thanos as possible. However, soon Thanos spotted them, and sent some of his aliens directly towards him.

Suddenly, the area around Clint turned purple for a split second, and then T'Challa was standing in front of him.

"Clint! Give it to me."

As T'Challa took his turn to fight his way through the crowds with the gauntlet in his arms, soon, like Clint, he was spotted by Thanos.

"Hey," I felt a hand grab mine. I turned to see Wanda standing beside me, and immediately pulled her into a bone-crushing hug.

"Oh my god, I thought I'd never see you again," I said into her shoulder, tears brimming even though this wasn't the time or place.

"Rogue, I can end this," she said, pulling away from me while keeping a tight hold of my hand. She gave me a look of steely determination, and the anger on her face was palpable. "Thanos has no idea what I'm capable of."

We both turned to look as Thanos's army surrounded T'Challa. They had knocked the gauntlet away from him.

I squeezed Wanda's hand. "Then go show him."

She smiled, using her powers to fly herself between Thanos and T'Challa, giving him the chance to escape.

"You took everything from me."

Thanos glared at her. There wasn't a glimmer of recognition in his eyes, because of course, this version of Thanos was paying for his future crimes. "I don't even know who you are."

"You will."

Wanda used her powers to levitate herself, as well as heavy pieces of debris. She threw them at Thanos, hitting him directly, bringing him to his knees. Before he could stand up, she hit him again and again with both debris and the sole extent of her powers.

As he tried to get away from her, she used her powers to entirely engulf him in her red mist, at the same time that Peter Parker rescued the gauntlet from T'Challa, who was still being chased by the aliens. Luckily for us, Wanda had their master trapped.

"Rain fire!" Thanos commanded, knowing that there was no way he could take Wanda down.

The aliens on his side looked confused, but it didn't take more than a few seconds for them to follow his command – even if it meant putting themselves in danger.