The Beginning of The End
Void was whispered portentously, he’s coming…
Evie felt sick to her stomach, bile scratching her throat. Vision’s stone and her senses were alerting them to the raw universal power quickly approaching, and Evie felt the dred and fury mix. Settling deep within her bones. Every fiber of her body wanted to run and hide. Her dad was somewhere in space with Peter and the sorcerer from Bleecker street. But her mind couldn’t allow her heart the time to fully process the gravity of their situation with Thanos emerging. So she focused on the craving of blood. Vengeance for the ruin she had been left to manage alone.
The entire team was exhausted, and Evie was well beyond spent. Her ability to support herself was steadily fading, and her mind and body were still struggling to cope with all the events that had led to this point. She was holding herself together with the little energy she had left, fueled by sheer strength of will or perhaps even pure spite.
But it was ‘go time.’
As per her own words in the past, it was time to ‘knuckle up or shut the fuck up.’ There was no time to wallow in self-pity. Muchless fall to the fear invading her senses. A final showdown with the mad titan was imminent when the air suddenly filled with a muffled buzzing, clogging the ears.
Then, just beyond the trees, a ghastly portal opened and he stepped through.
Thanos was looking past all of them, straight at Vision’s stone. From her position, Evie could see he held the other five. Including the Time Stone… the one Tony, Peter, and Strange had gone MIA to protect. Fuck… “What did you do!?” She whispered into the breeze. Thanos seemed to have heard as he moved his steely gaze to her. “Cap… That’s him.” Banner said, pointing out the man hellbent on mass annihilation when he addressed Evie directly.
"You survived Corvus' blade… No one has done that. You're stronger than I expected, little one. But what of the child?" Evie had never felt cold a day in her life except on very few occasions. And this was topping them all. Her blood turned to frigid water, a cruel, bitter cold gripping her heart like a vice. How could he have known? She felt the weight of some of the people around her questioning his words. But instantly her mind went numb. Cleared. Devoid of all thoughts except for retribution. Void took over when Bruce's sneak attack failed. Having phased through Thanos' body when he activated the Space Stone, materializing in the rockface behind him. Trapping Banner in both armored suit and stone.
The gauntlet flared with the power of the stones he was using individually. Mocking them by allowing them to think that they actually stood a chance. Making fools of each and every single one of them. Steve took his stance after Stark was easily brushed aside, but a dazzling burst of purple light had him ricocheting into the air before he even got close. T’Challa was socked so hard, his vibranium suit unleashed an energy burst when his body pummeled to the ground. Sam’s wings got clipped mercilessly, and everyone else was tossed away like rag dolls. Evie went at him again. Against Loki’s last wishes, she was ready to go down swinging if it meant taking Thanos down with her.
With her blade up, she rose from the ground in a pool of black fog behind him. Like a demon emerging from black waters. Driving down the weapon straight towards his spine. However, the strike never happened. As Rhodey came to assist her with Barnes in tow, the two unleashed a hail of bullets. Thanos turned to face the frozen girl. Her eyes darted downward to see the thin veil of blue energy holding her captive. With one hand, he swiftly had the men disposed of, and with the other, he plucked her off the ground by her neck. Thanos raised her to eye level with him. From her new vantage point, Evie could see the tears on Wanda’s face as she proceeded to destroy the Mind Stone and Vision along with it.
With his free hand, the gauntlet fisted and she dropped her weapon gripping his wrist, struggling to take in oxygen as her airways collapsed.
“You shouldn’t fight this child. I’ll have you joining your husband soon enough.” He raised his fist and his left gloved hand connected with the entirety of her torso. With Steve coming to throw hooks again, Evie was sent crashing into the tall grass. A white hot pain igniting her whole body. Something was horribly wrong. “THOR!” She cried, clutching her womb. Meanwhile Steve had just been knocked into a daze after valiantly holding off Thanos by his gauntlet. Leaving Wanda to fend off the brute on her own while simultaneously killing the love of her life.
Evie crawled over to Steve, shaking him desperately. “Steve, Steve get up. Please Steve, get up!” As she searched for anyone else to help carry on, Wanda did the unimaginable. Vision was gone and the Mind Stone fractured into miniscule specks. A wave of power surged and whomever was still standing, were left laid out in the dirt. All except for Thanos. The shock wave was undoubtedly felt worldwide.
On her back, gasping for air, Evie looked to the sky and begged for mercy and compassion. There just had to be a higher power that certainly wouldn’t allow the good guys to lose, right? Please, please no one else! Please, I can’t lose anyone else… she thought.
“Not my baby. Please…” the words were uttered through her blurry vision as a broken sob, but Thanos' words to Wanda had her quivering as she moved clumsily to her knees.
“I understand, my child. Better than anyone.”
“You could never.” Wanda spat back venomously.
Thanos leaned down to caress the back of her head like a pet. “Today I lost more than you can know. But now is not time to mourn. Now is no time at all.” As Evie watched him saunter over to Vision’s corpse, her mind was screaming. Urging her to, MOVE! To do something, anything as the glove became shrouded in green iridescent light signaling the Time Stone working.
In a horrifying display of power, Thanos reversed time and Vision was resurrected. Wanda was the first to act. She tried to conjure her red magic to flow, but Thanos simply smacked her away as if she were a bothersome fly. Evie watched in absolute horror as she struggled to her feet against the screeching agony her body was experiencing. Void was doing everything to heal, to keep the baby safe, and provide enough power for Evie to muster up one final act. Vision choked when Thanos strangled him, easily picking out the stone. She faintly heard someone telling her to stop, begging not to try anything, to get out of there. But the world was lost to the incessant drumming in her ears. And then Vision was once more departed from life, now with a gaping hole in his skull.
Thanos’ body was coursing with a torrential luminescent energy displaying the colors of the stones all now in the palm of his hand. He howled as he consumed it all. And Void whispered to her mind, here he comes. Hold him steady! As the alluring colors of the stones glimmered under the Wakandan sunlight, Thanos stopped to admire the fruits of his labor. However, his moment was cut short when from the skies above, Thor delivered a powerful smite.
Lightning struck thunderously and Thanos was sent crashing into the earth. Evie knew this was the last stand against him and dropped all her other efforts, breaking the last bits of the glamor and protective spells. Summoning every last drop of magic within her, she imprisoned the titan when Thor launched his battle ax at Thanos. And when he tried saving himself by blasting the ax off course, Evie held him in place with one hand, a massive thick black blanket encasing him. And the other hand went up, calling Stormbreaker down even faster.
A bright flash of light bursted and when she could finally see again, Thanos had the face of the battle ax piercing his chest. Down on one knee, all he could do was rest a hand on the weapon as Thor landed before them. Evie was swaying, feeling so drained not even seven years of straight sleep could replenish her body. Panting, with his eyes ablaze, Thor grabbed him by the back of the head. “I told you, you’d die for that!” Baring his teeth, he buried the ax deeper as Thanos bellowed in pain. As Evie heard his labored breathing, she couldn’t help but smirk wickedly hearing Thanos groan, suffering. Somewhere in the back of her mind Void was gearing up to dance and spit on his remains.
“You should have…” Weakly rasping out the words, Evie snapped up to two men. “You should… You should have gone for the head.” With eyes blown wide both Evie and Thor shouted out, “NO!” Yet the damage had been done. It all happened too quickly. No matter how fast their reflexes, Thanos had won the war. All six Infinity Stones came to life in a burst of light rivaling that of a thousand atomic bombs getting set off at once.
“What did you do? WHAT’D YOU DO?!” Thor demanded. Thanos’ entire left arm was smoldering. Singed and charged. Taking one last final look at his defeated enemies, he retreated the same way he had appeared. When Stormbreaker thudded heavily against the dirt below, Evie felt a burst of warm liquid running down her legs.
Still clutching his ribs, Steve came into the clearing. “Where’d he go?” He darted between the two, agitated since he didn’t have eyes on the purple titan. “Guys… Where’d he go?”
“Steve?”
From behind Evie, Bucky was looking down at his metallic limb that was dissolving into particles of dust before staring back at them. In a heartbeat his gun was dropped and there was nothing left but a pile of ash in his wake. Steve kneeled down in total shock, and Thor was breathing so hard Evie could easily count them from several feet away.
“Thor!?”
The frantic cries for help and painful groans were filling the air as all around, locals and team members alike, started suffering the same fate. Evie could feel Void rattling erratically in her head, wailing in torment and affliction.
“Thor!”
People were seeking out their friends and loved ones desperately after witnessing them dissipate into thin air. Aircrafts no longer being manned, started to plummet to the ground. Fireballs erupting as they crashed.
“THOR!”
He finally turned to look at her. Evie’s shoes were glossed over in a rusty shade of red, her hands clasped over her abdomen. Tears were flowing as she looked a horrid sallow shade.
“Evie, what’s wrong!?” Thor went to gather her into his arms as she was quickly deteriorating. “Where are you hurt? Why are you bleeding so much? I-I can’t find the wound!” A gut wrenching scream finally tore from her throat. Evie gripped his armor till her knuckles were white. “H-help… Thor the baby!” His hand landed over hers and he saw how her body trembled, releasing wave after wave of black smoke and ashes. Evie couldn’t bear the pain. It was agony. It was so much so, just breathing was torture. But that didn’t stop the sobs and shrieks. She couldn’t even hear Rhodey shouting her name as he desperately looked for his niece. Nor could she register Steve and Natasha at her side frantically searching for a gash in the skin. Thor kept trying to talk to her but she was past the point of being able to form words, muchless registar language. Banner rushed over just as Rhodey did too.
“What is this? What the hell is happening to her!?” Rhodey was so anguished he nearly struck Thor to be able to get closer to his niece who seemed to be dying. But Bruce knew. One look at her and he knew exactly what was happening. “She’s losing her baby…” He breathed out.
With one last final strangled gasp, her head fell back, her body went limp, and her eyes closed.
“Oh my god.”
“Someone please tell me this is a nightmare.”
Steve alongside Natasha, Rhodes, and the little talking racoon stared at Evie’s swollen belly in profound perturbation as she kept hemorrhaging. Her body convulsing erratically, expelling the last remnants of her magic.