Swan Song ✧ STEVE ROGERS [✓]

77 - What Friends Are For

AS THE BATTLE RAGED ON, RAEVANNA LEARNED THAT THE TREE-CREATURE WAS NAMED GROOT, AND THE RACCOON WAS NAMED ROCKET. Both of them were from other planets, and they had traveled with Thor to help get a replacement for his hammer, which had been destroyed only weeks before by his sister, Hela, the goddess of death. Asgard had been destroyed in the fight, and in trying to stop Thanos, Loki and a man named Heimdall had been killed by Thanos. That explained why Thor seemed so enraged, and why his first words upon arriving in Wakanda was for someone to bring him Thanos.

Raevanna fought, and she fought hard. She was in the air, she was on the ground, she was using magic, her sword, and her fists. She was tired, she was sore, blood was dripping down her back and leg from the wounds the Outriders had inflicted, but she kept fighting, determined to win this battle. We can't lose, she kept telling herself. We just can't. 

As she flew overhead, Raevanna saw Thor, Steve, Diana, and Groot below her, talking as they fought. Thor was nodding respectfully at Diana, addressing her as "Your Highness" while the battle continued. 

Diana dipped her head in acknowledgement, using her shield and sword to fend off another Outrider before Raevanna heard her say over comms, "Thor."

"Wait, Your Highness?" Steve repeated. 

"That's right," Raevanna told him as she flew overhead. "Diana is a princess."

"Really?" Steve asked. 

"Yes," Diana replied. "But I don't brag about it."

"By the way, this is a friend of mine," Thor said to Steve and Diana, clearly referring to Groot. "Tree."

"I am GROOT!" Groot snarled in reply. 

"I... I am Steve Rogers," Steve answered, speaking formally but also slightly bemused.

Raevanna shook her head, laughing to herself at his response. But then, a sudden, deep rumbling was heard, echoing across the battlefield. Raevanna looked across the plains and saw movement through the blazing forest between the troopships and the dome. Then, the disturbance reached the edge of the trees, and it turned into vast moving mounds of earth that easily bypassed the force field and emerged. They were Threshers, sets of massive, motorized spiked wheels, intended for nothing more than shredding everything in their paths.

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

Raevanna watched in shock and horror as at least one set of Threshers separated into individual wheels and started veering all over the battlefield. She then quickly swerved out of the way as one of the wheels rushed by her, just narrowly missing her by inches. Looking to the side, she saw Sam and Rhodey attempting to crack a Thresher using their firepower, but couldn't find a weak spot, and the machine kept barreling across the terrain.

Raevanna balled her fists, ready to take down the Threshers. But then, Diana flew up beside her, a look of determination in the Amazon's eyes as she shouted, "Raevanna! Cover me!"

Raevanna nodded, creating a force field with one hand and using the other to attack the troopships with her magic as they fired at them. Then she watched as Diana sped through the air, pointing her sword in front of her and aiming right for the center of the Thresher. The Amazon moved at inhuman speed before she reached the machine and plunged her sword right into the center of the machine, then dropped her feet and her weight, causing her fall. Her sword dragged down the center of the Thresher, cutting its metal and severing its spikes, before she finally reached the bottom and fell to the ground, and moments later the Thresher screeched to a halt and toppled over, rendered useless.