3
Your headache had come back and you started getting flashes again. It was becoming tiring at this point. "Are you alright?" Wanda asked.
"What do you see?" Pietro asked.
You shook your head, pressing a hand to your temple, "It's just...flashes. Nothing is set in stone, things keep changing. Like some thing's being... rewritten."
"Do you see anyone specifically?" Steve asked.
You pressed on, shifting your touch on your temples to search through the visions. You moved away from the flashes and looked to see if you could get any faces. But you heard voices instead.
-
"You will have my Kingsguard, the Border Tribe, the Dora Milaje, and-"
"-A semi-stable, 100-year-old man."
-
"It will take time, brother."
"How long?"
"As long as you can give me."
-
"Something's entered the atmosphere."
-
"It's too late. We need to destroy the stone now."
-
"You are in Wakanda now. Thanos will have nothing but dust and blood."
"We... have blood to spare."
-
You came back from your visions, breathing in deeply and looking around to see people watching you for answers.
You sighed, "I'm a little rusty on voice recognition...but I can trust we'll have Bucky, the chick from earlier, I think that may be T'Challa. And I think... I think Thanos himself is coming."
"Is there anything else?" Rhodes asked.
You shrugged, "There will be an army. There's a fight, obviously.
Steve nodded and thanked you, turning back to Sam.
"Drop to 2600, heading 0-3-0," he told him.
"I hope you're right about this, Cap. Or we're gonna land a lot faster than you want to," Sam muttered. Sam directed the jet into a mountain and you all braced yourselves in case this didn't work.
The Quinjet passed through a camouflage force field into Wakanda's Golden City's valley. It was beautiful, you looked out at the kingdom in wonder. Sam landed at the airfield outside the palace. King T'Challa and his warriors approached to greet you all.
You all left the jet, Steve and Natasha leading. followed by Bruce and Rhodey, with you, Wanda, Pietro and Vision slowly taking up the rear.
"Should we bow?" Bruce whispered to Rhodes.
He spoke seriously, "Yeah, he's a king."
You joined in, "Otherwise it's just disrespect. Come on, this is Wakanda."
"Seems like I'm always thanking you for something," Steve said, shaking T'Challa's hand.
Bruce walked up and bowed awkwardly, clearing his throat. "What are you doing?" Rhodes mocked.
"Uh, we don't do that here." He dissuaded Bruce with a motion of his hand; Bruce shot you and Rhodes a look and was answered with a pair of big grins.
You walked up to T'Challa, shaking his hand, "Glad we get to nicely meet. Sorry about the whole..."
"You don't need to apologize," T'Challa told you, "Let us start over as allies."
You smiled, "That sounds great." Wanda and Pietro greeted him with you, Vision giving his greeting as well.
"So how big of an assault can we expect?" T'Challa asked. You all began to walk back into the administrative building.
Bruce spoke, "Uh, sir, I think you can expect quite a big assault."
"How're we looking?" Natasha asked.
"You will have my Kingsguard, the Border Tribe, the Dora Milaje, and..."
Bucky smiled as he walked toward Steve, passing some Kingsguard taking Vision to another facility. "A semi-stable, 100-year-old man," Bucky said.
You were a little unsettled by that, you heard the same xact words in the vision. You hoped whatever future was coming was a good one.
The two friends share a hug, and Steve spoke, "How you been, Buck?"
Bucky shrugged, "Uh, not bad, for the end of the world."
~
In a lab, Shuri, T'Challa's younger sister, scaned the Stone with her kimoyo beads while Vision laid on the examination table. She flipped her hand over and studied the hologram projected over her palm. "Whoa. The structure is polymorphic."
"Right, we had to attach each neuron non-sequentially," Banner told her.
Shuri asked him, "Why didn't you just reprogram the synapses to work collectively?"
Vision looked at Bruce as if to ask the same thing. You didn't understand any of this, but you'd listen to it. Bruce spoke hesitantly, as if embarrassed, "Because, we didn't think of it."
Shuri gave him a reassuring smile and told him, "I'm sure you did your best."
Wanda spoke, "Can you do it?"
"Yes, but there are more than two trillion neurons here. One misalignment could cause a cascade of circuit failures," Shuri said. She looked to her older brother, "It will take time, brother."
And there it was again, your visions.
Steve spoke, "How long?"
You answered in sync with Shuri, "As long as you can give me/her."
Everyone turned to you. You motioned around the room, on edge. "How did you...?" Shuri wondered.
You spoke, "I've seen- heard this before. We're-We're following the timeline."
"Is that good?" Pietro asked.
You shrugged, "I-I don't know. I can't see how this ends. The same familiar feeling crept up on you again, as if you were having déjà vu.
Okoye's kimoyo beads began to chime, she flicked one bead into her palm, where it projected the globe with a pulsing location marker.
You spoke with her as well, "Something's entered the atmosphere."
"It's them," you said, looking up at everyone. "They're here."
Over the Avengers' comm, Sam spoke, "Hey, Cap, we got a situation here."
The defense shield over the Golden City destroyed one of the alien vessels when it slammed into the field at full attack acceleration.
"God, I love this place," Bucky accidentally said over the comm.
"Yeah, don't start celebrating yet, guys. We got more incoming outside the dome," Rhodes alerted.
The shock waves and debris from the ship landings destroyed acres of forest and boiled up against the dome. The lab had an excellent view of the landing sites. You and the twins looked at each other in concern over the scope of what you'll be facing.
Struggling to sit up and slide off the exam table, Vision spoke, confirming your visions, "It's too late. We need to destroy the stone now."
"Vision, get your ass back on the table," Natasha scolded.
"We will hold them off," T'Challa said.
He, Okoye, and the guards headed for the door. Steve turned to Wanda, "Wanda, as soon as the stone's out of his head... you blow it to hell."
"I will," she told him. He turned to you and Pietro, "Come on. If this gets ugly, we'll need you."
He turned back to T'Challa and you turned to Wanda, Pietro at her side. "We have to go."
"No, Y/N, brother. It's too dangerous," she replied, grabbing your hands.
We have to," Pietro told her. You nodded, "As much as I don't like it, you have to stay here with Vision and protect the Stone. We'll come back, I swear."
Wanda watched you both with sad eyes, "I don't want you to get hurt."
"We'll be fine," Pietro said, kissing her forehead. He gave her a reassuring smile and turned to join the others.
"We'll be fine," you smiled at her, "You're my life now, there's nothing that would keep me from you. You stay here and protect the Stone. I know you can, you're the strongest of all of us."
"I don't know about that." She looked down at her hands, unsure. You out your finger under her chin so she would looked at you again, "I do."
You both shared a meaningful look. You smiled, "I love you, be safe. Pietro and I will be back."
"I love you, too." She sighed, kissing you gently. You turned to join the group and she called your name. You turned to look at her.
She told you, "If you get hurt, I'll hurt you."
You chuckled, "As long as you don't break my heart."
"Never."
~
You, Natasha, T'Challa, and Steve walked to the edge of the barrier, where Proxima one of her little friends stood. Proxima tested the strength of the barrier, drawing her sword across it consideringly.
When you reached the barrier, her eyes drew over to you. Natasha spoke, "Where's your other friend?"
"You will pay for his life with yours," she said. She turned to you, cracking a small smirk as she asked, "Where's your soulmate?"
You responded nonchalantly, "Nowhere you need to be in a hurry to get to."
She hummed, "We know who you are. He knows. He's given orders not to harm you..."
"Fascinating," you quirked a brow, "Probably going to make it harder on your end though, huh?"
She scratched her sword across the barrier where you stood, bloodlust in her eyes as she spoke, "I can't wait to deliver you to him."
"You won't get the chance," you said, almost a growl.
She chuckled before turning to the others, "Thanos will have that stone."
"That's not gonna happen," Steve told her firmly.
T'Challa confirmed, "You are in Wakanda now. Thanos will have nothing but dust and blood."
"We... have blood to spare," she responded. She brandished her sword with a snarl, and the ships behind her started unloading their "passengers" to disembark.
You looked at the passengers, concern in your eyes though your face gave away nothing. You turn around with the others and return to your armies.
A touch sardonically, Bucky asked, "Did they surrender?"
"Not exactly," Steve sighed.
T'Challa lead the Wakandans in the war cry "Yibambe!", telling them to hold fast as the passengers bound toward the barrier. Proxima dropped her sword arm down in the signal to attack.
Flatly, astonished at the numbers of monsters rushing toward them, Bucky spoke, "What the hell?"
"Looks like we pissed her off," Natasha commented, glancing at you. You shrugged, "I have that effect on people."
Pietro shook his head as he looked over at you. "You couldn't have been a little nicer?" he questioned.
"Nuh-uh," you shook your head.
Okoye stared horrified, as the passengers bombarded the force-field, squeezing limbs and bodies partly through only to be bisected. "They're killing themselves."
You started getting a little antsy as you watched them. As a few passengers managed to squeeze through intact, the Border Tribe took a knee and raised their shields. The Kingsguard behind them leveled their sonic spears over their comrades' shoulders, and on T'Challa's command, fired at the approaching monsters. Bucky used his M-249 machine gun, and Bruce fired the Hulkbuster's hand repulsors. You ignited your fire in your hands and bounced a little in your spot. Your eyes lit up as you prepared to fight.
You all started to notice a pack of passengers starting to run around the force-field to the right of the defenders' position. "Cap, if these things circle the perimeter and get in behind us... there's nothing between them and Vision," Bruce pointed out.
"Then we better keep 'em in front of us."
"How do we do that?" Okoye asked her king.
T'Challa spoke, "We open the barrier." He put his comm to his mouth, "On my signal, open North-West Section Seventeen."
Nervous and unsure, someone responded, "Requesting confirmation, my King. You said open the barrier?"
"On my signal."
M'Baku spoke to Okoye, eyes still glued to the passengers, "This will be the end of Wakanda."
Okoye spoke, her words slightly laced with sadness, "Then it will be the noblest ending in history."
You grabbed Pietro's hand with yours (of course, not on fire). He looked down at you and squeezed your hand. "Be careful," you told him.
He kissed your hairline, "You, too."
You smiled and took a breath, turning back to the passengers as you got ready to fight.
Steve readied one of his Vibranium hand guards. T'Challa shouted a command in Xhosa; the Border Tribesmen disengaged their shields and stand, as the Black Panther walked out in front of them, never taking his eyes off the enemy.
He breathed in deeply as he announced, "Wakanda Forever!"
He crossex his arms in the Wakandan salute and closed his helmet, charging for the barrier. The heroes and leaders were at the fore of the charge. Halfway to the barrier, T'Challa shouted into his comm, "Now!"
And thus, the fight ensued.