章 2187: 55
Chapter 55: Oh Good, Aliens Again
Notes:
Morning guys, so uh....one more chapter.
Chapter Text
Natasha had poured everything into setting the trap to the best of her abilities from the second the task had been given to her. The amount of trust, the importance of it all was humbling. More than she deserved. More than she could have ever imagined being given. By anyone. And the world, her peers, her team, everyone. Of course, she wasn't the first option anyone wanted in charge of Earth's defence. But she was who everyone could agree to.
"It's a good plan." Steve's strong, steady voice came from behind her shoulder.
She shifted ever so slightly, turning to look at him. It was odd, he was standing where she usually stood. Just behind the shoulder of the person whose orders she was following. Only now it was her orders. And Steve standing at her shoulder in support. "I know."
"It'll be enough." He reassured.
Natasha stared at the field, the heavy artillery, the dug in position, the ground meticulously trapped, Wakandian force fields, all of it set to turn their enemies into corpses. "It has to be."
"It will be." Steve looked at her, his face doing that thing filled with complete, unquestioning faith that was utterly unshakable. "And if we lose then at least we did together and gave it our best."
She looked back out at their forces. Maybe she'd have commented on how even a year ago a gathering of the best forces in the world gathered in one place wouldn't have been something she'd have thought possible. Or that here they were at an alien invasion, again. Perhaps even a quip about Steve's Steveness. Instead her head snapped up as great metal landing craft slammed into the ground. The earth rolled with the force of it. Great ditches dug up.
There was a 'boom' as one of the craft slammed into the forcefield over the base. Natasha could see the fiery remains as they rolled off the dome of energy. "Remind me to thank King T'Challa for assisting on our defences."
"Of course. Still not over the secret high tech country thing." Steve glanced at her, lips turned up. "Now you all know how I felt when I woke up and saw the future."
Natasha smiled while breathing deeply. Then she hit her com as hoards of chittering chitauri came pouring out of the half dozen landing craft. "General Xi, turn our landmines on the outside perimeter hot."
-"Understood.'- The General in charge of their outermost defenses reported.
And into the breach.
Natasha felt a visceral fear at the hoard coming. Thousands and thousands of mindless, raging monsters. They had to outnumber them three hundred to one at the very least. Despite all that she liked their odds. So far.
The clear blue sky lit up as great explosions tore up the ships that had been above the upper atmosphere.
Darcy Stark's voice came through the comms. -"Enemy ships eradicated. Nothing but us in this solar system."-
No clarification was needed for that. Every single soldier on the field would know what those explosions meant. The chitauri hoard on the ground was all that was coming. At least for now. New battleships would have to drop into their solar system for reinforcements to arrive. And if that happened Dr Lewis and Dr Foster's portal weapons would turn those ships into nothing but space debri as well.
And then the charging hoard hit the landmines. Several were blown into so many pieces their chunks hit the forcefield. It was horrific carnage. Natasha hit her comm. "Colonel Adams, take out those landing craft."
-"Aye, aye Ma'am."- The Colonel replied.
Natasha knew she was showing too many teeth as the planes staged off of the SHIELD Helicarrier three miles south. It was rising above the hills it'd been hiding behind under cloaking. Full air support. She didn't know if they could defeat the thousands of chitauri. But she knew they couldn't afford any possible heavy artillery or other nasty surprises from the crafts. Once through the forcefield they had Rhodey, Tony, and Wilson for close and controlled air support. It was a risk. But one she didn't doubt herself for making.
It took three minutes of deafening explosions, horrific carnage, and the first of the chitauri reached the forcefield. They slammed into it like they hadn't had to climb over the now potmarched earth turned and torn from mines. Their landing craft exploding as their air support hammered them. Despite the utter destruction being rained down on them, the slaughter of thousands of them, they kept coming.
Slamming into the forcefield they kept coming.
"They're killing themselves." Okoye leader of Wakanda's Dora Milaje uttered in horror at the field of slaughter.
Natasha watched as the chitauri tried to encircle them. They merely were succeeding in killing even more of themselves. It was horrific. And thousands died. She waited till the forcefield was failing. "Bring down the forcefield in twenty seconds. Switch out the power modules powering it and have it ready to go back up in three minutes."
-"That seems like a bad idea."- Shuri's voice came. -"But I'll do it."-
Natasha gave her next orders. "Defence formation Victor Bravo. Air Avengers when that forcefield comes down focus on breaking up the center." She didn't need to say that the purpose of that was to prevent any one position from being swamped. "Brace yourselves."
And then the forcefield came down.
Their artillery roared as it punched holes in the enemy ranks. The ground inside the forcefield was as neatly filled with mines as the ground outside of it had been.
Two minutes of deafening weapons fire.
And then silence.
Natasha swallowed. Not even an entire fifteen minutes of combat and not a chitauri was left breathing. The battle was over. Decisively, horrifically, a bloodbath. Even her extensive knowledge was hard pressed to think of a battle as miserably one sided. They hadn't lost a single man.
Tony circled back. He landed besides her. "Was that it?"
"This could be a forward fleet?" Steve shifted slightly.
Natasha moved to hit her comms to tell the men to stand down and reload, not that they'd be out. They may have been slightly over prepared. By a factor of fifty or so. Possibly more. The machine gun turrets alone had enough ammo to mow down a few armies. -"Resecure your positions. Dr Lewis what are the satellites picking up?"
-"Nothing that shouldn't be there. I'll let ya know if that changes."-
There was a bright stream of light. Natasha recognized the colors and barked orders into the comms. "Hold your fire!"
In a flickering of brilliant colors like star light and crackling, arching bursts of lightning Thor, a tree and what looked like a raccoon landed in the field between the dead chitauri and their dug in forces. Thor was holding...an axe instead of a hammer and lightning was curling off of him.
Thor stilled as he seemed to recognize the enemy was dead. He turned and spotted them, his voice was raised. "I see that I am late. What news of Thanos?"
Natasha paused. "Do we have a megaphone? I didn't think we'd need one."
Steve shrugged. "I think you can forgive yourself for forgetting. " he cupped his hands and shouted from deep in his chest. "THOR AND FRIENDS! GET UP HERE!"
Thor beamed, grabbed the….tree and lept. Lightning burned and burst from him, propelling them through the air. They landed with a distinct thud. He looked up, he looked like he'd been through hell. There was a rage to him that hadn't been there the last time she'd seen him. But then his home had been destroyed. He didn't blink an eye at Natasha standing in the position of authority at their command post. "Your battle is done?"
"That remains to be seen." Natasha gave a pointed look at the cooling gore that remained of their enemies. "Whether this was a brief foray or the first wave of a larger attack we don't know yet."
Thor gave a sharp. "Good, then Thanos will be on his way. He always finishes what he starts, and he will not have sent an army as large as that without plans on following it himself."
The raccoon holding a gun sniffed. "I thought Tera didn't have intergalactic scale weapons?"
"An army expecting our enemy is different from aliens dropping in on unexpecting cities filled with civilians." Steve, slung the gun he'd been holding behind him. "Do you know what we should expect next?"
Natasha stilled as the air in the middle of the field rippled. She grabbed Thor's arm before he could do something stupid like charge. "Wait." It was an order. He didn't break ranks.
The air itself tore open like a seam pulled free. Standing there, glove with four glowing lights was a behemoth of a purple being. He should have looked ridiculous. He didn't. So this was Thanos.
There was a moment where it felt like time held still. And then Natasha was barking orders to fire at Thanos. Hoping against hope they were able to shoot him down as they'd shot his army down. But he raised his golden, gilded hand and every round fired at him stilled in the air. And then the field of battle rippled. Every torn up corpse rose, their injuries gone as if nothing had happened. An entire army brought back to life with a flick of his gloved fingers.
"Fuck."
////
Bucky sat down on the edge of the roof, his feet hanging off the side. The wind was chilling up here. But he wasn't focusing on that. "Hey kid."
"Did Darcy send you?" Peter asked, his mask was off, but otherwise he was in his suit.
He shook his head. "No."
"Then why are you here?" Peter looked at him, his eyes had the slightest of a red rim, his face tight.
Bucky looked out over the city. "I'm not with Steve."
"....what? I uh...what does that mean?" The kid sounded genuinely confused, the hurt at being left behind didn't dissipate though.
He frowned slightly. "It means I'm not fighting this time." Bucky wondered at how to put it into words. "I was getting itchy standing down there, watching everyone preparing and waiting for something to happen when I can't do anything. Not this time." He paused. "It's the first fight I've not followed Steve into. Or well….the worst one."
"So you're not used to the waiting around?" Peter checked.
Bucky shook his head. He didn't like talking about feelings. But somehow he knew the kid needed to hear this. And in some ways he needed to get it out. His therapist would be so proud. "I followed Steve into fights my whole life till Hydra made me go into them." He frowned. "So you're right. I don't know what to do with this waiting around being useless." His robotic hand fisted.
"But you chose not to?" Peter sounded vaguely confused still. Which was fair, he was just a kid. Choosing something against his instincts wasn't a lesson he'd learned yet. But then the horror of war wasn't something he'd learned yet either.
Bucky considered that it was...his mind was such a patchwork of memories and thoughts and feelings. "I don't know who I am. If I go out there I'll….it'll be who I am."
"You mean like you'd be the Winter Soldier again?" Peter asked slowly.
He twitched slightly. "No. But maybe I would be 'a' soldier."
"That's terrible. But you have a place here. You don't have to fight." Peter turned looking at the ground. "But I want to. How can I protect the people I care about if I can't be there? How can I be a neighborhood Spiderman if there isn't a neighborhood?"
Bucky grunted. "You can't. Not this time." He had seen so many thousands like the kid march off to their deaths. Deaths that meant nothing.
"So we wait." Peter cleared his throat. "I can't go down and watch. It'd be worse I think."
"So we wait." Bucky agreed. He looked at the kid. "Do you want to fight to fight or because it's the right thing to do?"
"Who wants to fight just to fight?" Peter's face scrunched up. "I mean sparring is fun? But it's the right thing to do. If we have these abilities and don't use them then...well the bad things are kind of our faults right?"
Bucky felt resignation at that. "You're another Stevie." He shook his head as he hopped up to his feet. "Give it a few years kid."
"I know. Doesn't make it feel less awful to wait." Peter grumbled.
Bucky understood that. His skin felt itchy, he was restless knowing there was a fight he wasn't where it was happening. Or about to happen. "We have to trust in our people."
"Easier said than done." Peter pulled on his mask. "I'm on the comms if you need me."
Bucky gave a sharp nod. It was time he checked in on the control room to see if anything had happened yet. "Good luck kid."
////
Wanda grabbed the incoming spinning, ground chewing alien weapons. They were huge disks of destruction that had been rebuilt from the wreckage as the chitauri had been brought back. She ripped them out of the ground and threw them back at the enemy. Her form was wreathed in red as she paused to see if that had stopped them.
The group of soldiers she'd saved stared at her in awe, and then were back to dragging their comrades out of the artillery bunker they'd been manning before the chitauri overran them.
Everything was loud. The guns were roaring. Chitauri everywhere in a murderous haze of insanity. Not an ounce of self preservation. Reaching out her powers, she grabbed around the incoming alien's throats. Lifting she clenched her fist snapping their necks. Releasing them her free hand snapped to her ear as her comm went live.
-"Wanda, Quake, help Thor. Don't let Thanos use his glove again."- Natasha's voice snapped out orders.
She sucked in a breath and nodded. "On my way." Her powers burned as she wiped sweat out of her eyes and looked up. The angry looking lightning on the horizon would be where Thanos was. She looked back at the soldiers she was guarding. They wouldn't make it to a fall back point or another of the bunker's if she left them.
Wanda grit her teeth. "RUN!" She turned and grabbed the heavy artillery they'd been using and used it like a bat to whack back the chitauri. Her powers rolled inside of her, starlight and possibilities and she risked everything to give these few men a few precious seconds to run. It might be enough. It might not. It was all she could give them.
She rose up into the air, her power wreathing her, and then she flew towards Thanos. Usually her powers felt like starlight, but she was so close to the infinity stones. Their power lit up her senses in a brilliant array of color and power she could barely comprehend. Locating Thanos wasn't difficult once she opened herself up to feeling the world beyond what was in front of her.
As she moved, the wind rushing past her, she could see the battle. Thor was all lightning and roaring rage, Steve was determination and pain as he raised his shield. And then there was Daisy slamming into Thanos, the shockwave from her attack sending the chitauri behind Thanos flying, several disintegrating from the force of it. He'd been forced to block with his gauntleted hand.
Thanos lunged, Daisy barely ducking the ruthless strike aimed for her head. And then his backhand slammed into her gut sending her flying.
Wanda snagged Daisy out of the air before she could slam into the earth. Her mind automatically connecting them. She could feel Daisy's thoughts, and knew Daisy could feel hers. Where Wanda would have simply thrown her power at Thanos she could see the ruthless breakdown of weaknesses that Daisy had been forming. Their eyes met. And then Wanda chucked Daisy straight at the Mad Titan.
Daisy arched through the air. She pulled her fist back, her powers gathering in her arm and then slamming into the ground as she just missed Thanos. The ground cracked, great chunks flying as she landed. The entire earth beneath the battle shook, fissures ripping open.
As the Mad Titan stumbled, he turned, swinging around to attack Daisy's open back. Only he went flying as Wanda slammed her powers into the side of his head.
Wanda landed besides Daisy, eyes narrowed as she gathered starlight and the energy that felt like chaos around her fists. She knew she must be coated in tendrils of red as she prepared to unleash everything she had at this monster.
"Good timing babe." Daisy wheezed slightly as she adjusted one of her gauntlets.
Steve grunted as he joined them, his shield ready for what was coming. "Be careful, he only needs one hit."
"Got that." Daisy winced.
Thor landed with a thud on their other side. "Plan?"
"Follow our lead." Wanda's powers flared.
Daisy's eyes narrowed as she raised her voice, actually shouting at Thanos. "OY! FEEL LIKE SURRENDERING? OR WE GOTTA DO THINGS THE HARD WAY?"
"You cannot win." His voice was cold, dismissive. As if they were nothing before him. "I am inevitable, your struggles to stop me mean nothing."
Daisy snorted. "Well as my dad'd say, Earth is closed asshat."
"Why are we talking back to the evil warlord?" Wanda asked dryly despite knowing exactly what Daisy was doing. Though she had some doubts that pissing off the monster with four of the physical aspects of the universe was wise. But she wasn't the agent.
Steve wiped a trail of blood from his chin. "Showing up uninvited is bad manners."
"It's a habit of his. Very rude." Thor replied.
"So petty." Thanos raised his gauntleted arm.
Wanda threw a burst of sheer power at him. And then the pause ended and the world burst back into motion.
Thanos was forced to defend himself, his fingers spread to catch the power. His feet digging into the ground to keep himself from being tossed backwards.
She threw magic at him rapidly. Her lips pulled back as she dug deep to hold him back.
Daisy turned to Steve. "Toss me!" And then she grabbed his arm.
Steve didn't blink, just spinning to create momentum and then tossed her over Thanos's head. A grunt escaped his lips as he released her. Then he grit his teeth and charged straight for the Titan.
Daisy cushioned her landing on the other side of Thanos and then threw a wall of vibrations crashing into his back.
With a gasp, Wanda threw everything she had into him, trapping him between her and Daisy's abilities.
Thor slammed down towards Thanos with his axe, lightning flying from him.
There was a burst of sheer power, sending Wanda and Daisy both flying backwards.
Wanda hissed as she found herself laying in the soft overturned earth. Sucking in a breath of air she rolled onto her knees and looked up. There before her was Thanos, he was holding Thor's axe with his gauntlet. Steve's shield caught in his other hand.
She could feel Daisy's thoughts, and knew them. And she acted. Wanda rose to her feet, power welling in her as she focused on the burning in her very blood. They had one chance to make this work. She clenched her teeth letting her power immolate her as she dragged every wisp of power she contained within her. It was through Daisy's eyes she saw the battle as her own vision turned red.
Daisy threw out vibrations knocking Thor and his axe out of Thanos's grip. And then she launched herself at him. It was badly shaky as she careened towards him. And she paid for it. An iron grip catching her around the throat. Her hands scrambling to hang onto the golden gauntlet holding her aloft, feet hanging uselessly above the field. She wheezed as she stared into Thanos's eye. "Sup."
"Brave but foolish. You've accomplished nothing." Thanos's grip tightened, beginning to choke her.
Daisy's lips twitched up despite wheezing as she desperately tried to suck in air. "That's what you think." She hissed. And then unleashed every vibration she'd been building up, shattering every bone in his hand all the way to his shoulder. His bones nothing but millions of slivers unable to do anything, save cut into the muscle and tendons of the arm.
She dropped as Thanos roared, his arm falling limp, completely unable to so much as raise his arm let alone snap his fingers or use the stones in his gauntlet. As Daisy hit the ground she rolled away. The signal for Wanda to act.
Wanda used Daisy's knowledge of the field and unleashed everything she'd gathered in a stream of sheer power, slamming Thanos into the ground. A minor part of her recognized Steve was protecting her from chitauri attempting to protect their master. But it barely registered as she poured out her abilities in a geyser of chaos and magic at Thanos. His skin ripping and shredding in the face of power he could no longer hold back.
And then Thor roared, his axe swinging through the air in a clean arch, cutting through muscle, sinew and bone in one motion. He slammed to his knees from the effort. But so did the Titan's head.
Wanda tipped to the side, her knees hitting the ground as she ceased her attack. She felt drained as she panted, her throat sore. Her hand reached up touching her throat, she'd been screaming hadn't she? And then her eyes snapped to where she'd last felt her girlfriend. "Daisy!"
She moved to stand, chitauri were going to swamp them. She had to get to Daisy, Daisy's pain radiated through her and she knew Daisy wouldn't be able to recover in time to defend herself. But her legs failed her, she tilted down, face planting into the dirt. Desperation and panic rang through her. And then there was a streak of gold and red.
Tony slammed down over Daisy, blowing a hole through the chitauri that had nearly reached her. "You ok kid?"
"No." Daisy wheezed, but accepted his hand up, her other hand holding her throat.
Wanda's shoulders slumped in relief. She focused on getting her breath back. It was hard to tell what was Daisy and what was her, as far as breathlessness. But here and now the bond between them was vital. It was unthinkable to break it. She clamored to her feet, her motions nearly drunk, but her legs held her this time. She stumbled over the turned up, fishered and cracked earth, soaked in chitauri blood.
As she reached her, she caught Daisy, her powers flickering across their skin. She pressed her forehead against Daisy's. Their emotions reflecting back and forth. Relief, victory, pain, love, fear, exhaustion, everything that was in them.
"Not to interrupt whatever moment you two have going on, but a little help would be nice." Tony's propulsors whined as he shot another chitauri. "You know, big bad dead, lots of little bad still very alive."
Daisy huffed, pulling away. "That was weak." She threw a wave of vibrations sending several chitauri flying.
"I've got an angry red head yelling at me for leaving my role as air support." Tony's head focused on Daisy. Even without only the ironman faceplate visible, the weight of his concern was palpable. "You good?"
"We're good." Daisy assured him.
Wanda twisted, her back slotting naturally against Daisy's. "Go, we've got this area." She grabbed a group of chitauri snapping their necks with a twist of her wrist.
Wanda wiped green ooze, probably blood, off of her face. "Do you see anymore?"
"No?" Daisy stumbled and then landed on her butt in the dirt. "I think I broke something."
She stared at her girlfriend in disbelief. "Your ribs. You broke your ribs. And ripped a lot of stitches." Wanda frowned and then kicked at the gauntlet laying in the mud. It was technically still on Thanos's arm? It didn't really count if the Titan's body was missing a head. "What are we going to do with this?"
"No idea." Daisy rubbed at her throat. "Think he broke my clavicle." She was clearly ignoring the sluggish bleeding from the various ripped stitches she had. Also the fact her every breath hurt.
Wanda stepped over to her and dropped down next to her. "We won."
"Yay...go team." Daisy winced, but leaned against Wanda. Her exhaustion and pain echoing through the bond that still connected them. "Glad I'm not the one who has to deal with...whatever happens now."
Wanda stared at the gauntlet, four infinity stones glowing in it, then Thanos's corpse, and then the battle torn landscape. She had no idea what happened now. A part of her hadn't exactly expected to win. Huh…. "Agreed."
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