cut you off
#2a - stephen cuts off his arm
The second Nebula’s attack distracted Thanos they had their chance. Stephen threw the crimson bands of Cyttorak at him, wrapping them around the Titan’s gauntlet and wrist, and then solidified them.
He turned, to pull himself out of the hold, and missed Drax, who leaped from behind the rubble he had been trapped in earlier and kicked at his leg, making him lost his balance and drop on one knee.
Quill shot his quad blasters at him before he could get his bearings back, electrifying and locking the Titan’s right hand in place, giving the Spider Boy’s a chance to web his left side with his strangely durable webs as Stark came to his left, pulling at the gauntlet.
Thanos groaned, trying to pull away from the two things holding him in place, and Stephen opened the portal, dropping Mantis over his head.
The Titan screamed, and even though he had seen this, for a moment Stephen worried that it wouldn’t be enough. That after all he had not seen the right future, that he had somehow miscalculated.
But then the Titan’s eyes went white.
“Is he under?” asked Stark, pulling harder. “Don’t let up!”
“Be quick!” asked Mantis, already looking exerted. “He is very strong!”
“Parker!” called Stark. “Get over here! Help, get over here, she can’t hold him much longer,” he said, as the young boy secured his web and rushed to help him pull the glove with his superstrength.
Quill chose that moment to land back in front of them, eyes fixed on Thanos instead of making any effort to help Stark and Parker. “Thought you’d be harder to catch,” he said, taking off his ridicolous helmet. “For the record, this is my plan.”
“Not so strong now, uh?” he then taunted, moving closer to the Titan still. “Where is Gamora?”
In many futures, this was the moment they lost. The moment where Quill stopped listening to everyone else, and that doomed the entire universe.
In this future, Stephen Strange had taken the metaphorical gloves off.
“Stark,” he called, beckoning the Cloak closer to him. Normally he found himself rolling his eyes at some of the quips superheroes exchanged, but this time he couldn’t help himself. “What do Thanos and Captain Hook have in common?”
He could not see the man’s eyes, but he was sure his eyes had widened and his lips lifted up as he understood Stephen’s hidden meaning.
“Wait, what-” asked Quill, and then Stephen traded places with the Cloak, throwing the portal.
“Jump!” called Stark, both him and Parker moving in perfect sync as the portal widened to let them through and then snapped closed.
Thanos’ scream as his arm and then gauntlet fell into another portal and in Stephen’s waiting arms - the thing was heavier than expected - was violent enough to startle and throw Mantis off him but there was no need for her power anymore.
Thanos was a formidable player, but with a major limb suddenly missing, crazed with pain and with no Infinity Stones, it was easy to defeat him.
Drax found great pleasure in sinking a blade in his chest in the name of his wife and daughter.
#2b - nebula has her revenge
Nebula did not believe in long and careful plans like the ones Stark, Strange and Quill argued about all the time.
She was like Rocket, and a smarter version of Drax. She had one goal, one task, and she would do anything to achieve it, no matter the personal cost or the cost on anyone else.
She did not care about the heroes’ stupid plan.
Her goal was very simple: kill Thanos.
To kill Thanos, she needed to catch him by surprise and also rid him of the Infinity Stones.
She had been waiting for her chance since Ego (since he had killed her parents and brought her to his ship of terror and called her ‘daughter’ with sneers and scorn).
So when Stark and the Spider started pulling on the gauntlet and Quill started gloating, she did not pause.
She picked up the blade she had stolen from Thanos’ ship, the blade he had used to slay many before he had gotten his hands on the Power Stone, and before Quill could finish saying Gamora’s name or anyone else could stop her, she had sank her blade into his gauntlet wielding arm.
And then, as Thanos screamed, Mantis fell and chaos reigned, she ran her blade through her ‘Father’s’ neck.
“This is for me, and for Gamora,” she said, ignoring Quill’s screaming and the chaos, staring at Thanos’ dead eyes in satisfaction.
Because Nebula wasn’t stupid. “He went to Vormir with Gamora,” she told Quill, not looking at him. “He came back with the Soul Stone and without her.” She spat on Thanos’ corpse. “You didn’t deserve this mercy. Rot, you bastard.”
Gamora would have been proud.
#2c - tony cuts off his arm
Strange was holding his fire rope thingies on one side and Peter was holding him with his webs on the other, and Tony moved.
One thing about Tony Stark, he had never used the full potential of his suit: not during New York, not in Sokovia, not against Rogers and his team.
He hadn't dared.
Hammer had been right about one thing: Tony had created a sword with untold possibilities and insisted it was a shield.
The Iron Man suit was a tank. Could also stop tanks.
It was the most dangerous weapon on Earth, and Tony had promised himself he would never dare hurt anyone on Earth with it.
But he wasn’t on Earth.
So Tony used his nanobot created tank, capable of surviving a hit from the Power Stone and a moon thrown at him, and put it in high gear.
“FRIDAY, let’s see what I can do when I put my mind to it,” he said, even though the AI wasn’t actually in space with him. “100% power. Parker, close your eyes, don’t you dare disobey.”
He hoped Peter listened, because there was little more disgusting than the smell and the sight of Thanos’ limb falling to the ground after the laser had both cut and fried his arm, eliciting howls Tony was surprised the Titan's throat could produce.
The sounds stopped pretty soon when Tony directed the second energy blast straight for his chest, where he knew his heart to be.
“See, now we match,” said Tony to the dead Titan, looking proudly at the perfect circle he had cut through his chest.
Perhaps not what Yinsen meant when he asked Tony to not waste his life, but hey.
One less genocidal titan around was better for everyone’s health, in Tony’s opinion.