Shattered

Wanda hated the moments before a battle.

She supposed that had its roots somewhere- Ultron, probably, though if she really thought about it, that dreaded feeling of anticipation really stemmed from her earlier childhood- waiting for bombings to be over had given her a huge list of problems in and of itself, after all. She’d liked the battles themselves, at least as much as one could like a battle, while she’d been with the Avengers, the constant stream of comments and quips helping to keep her mind off of things. It didn’t hurt that she was easily the most powerful person on the field (unless Thor was there, but that was fun in its own way), and that she knew that even if she did get injured, Nat or Steve or Sam or Vision would have her back.

The people at her back now didn’t exactly inspire much confidence. She liked Scott okay, but she barely knew him, and she’d never met either Hope or Ava in her life. The Guardians might have each other’s backs, but she wasn’t part of their little team, and besides, they weren’t here right now and wouldn’t be for a while (though Quill was, apparently, shortening their arrival time by flying dangerously fast and also making a couple of illegal “jumps” that “might wreck my ship but whatever”, so they should be there soon enough). And Loki- well, she didn’t really trust Loki at all, even though he was Thor’s brother and not nearly as homicidal as she’d expected him to be from Clint’s stories. Part of her wished she hadn’t forced Vision off to the sidelines if only so he could be there with her, but she pushed that part down, because her desire to see Vision alive and well at the end of all of this far outweighed her desire to have him with her. 

“What’re the chances they’re just here for a talk?” Scott said, coming up next to her and looking out at the large spires that had landed outside of Wakanda’s protective barrier.

“It’s never that easy,” Hope sighed. 

“You sure? Cause- they’re standing there, and it looks like they might want to talk.”

She peered out across the field- sure enough, two of the people they had fought earlier were standing there, seemingly waiting for them.

“I can tell you right now how that conversation is going to go,” Ava said grimly. “They’ll demand that we give them the stone with the concession that they will leave us alone if we do, and we’ll righteously decline, and then they’ll send their army after us anyway. Why bother walking out there?”

Scott shrugged. “Maybe they’ll have something helpful to say? Y’know, villains do like to monologue. It’s like their thing.”

“Doubtful. But you’re welcome to it, if you want,” Hope said.

“Uh- I’m not going without backup. The big one looks like he could eat me alive.”

“I’ll go,” Wanda said shortly. Ava opened her mouth to protest, but she ignored her in favor of gathering up some energy and lifting herself in the air. She loved flying- it was so much quicker, and more efficient, and it looked cool. Too bad it was too much energy to waste normally and tended to get her weird looks when she was out in public.

She landed in front of the pair- she recognized one as the woman from earlier, and the biggest of the lot they’d fought. She felt a pang of disappointment that the squid-looking one wasn’t there- as much as Steve always said it was bad to enjoy hurting people, there had been a certain satisfaction in smashing him into the ground. She’d kind of wanted to do it again.

She gave them a smirk that she thought would’ve made Natasha proud, and said, “Where’re your friends?”

This, evidently, was a sore subject, because the woman scowled deeply. “Ebony is still… recovering from his injuries.” Ha. “And Corvus… Thanos did not appreciate our failure. But don’t worry. You will pay for his life with yours. Thanos will have that stone.”

She raised her eyebrows briefly at that- had Thanos killed him?- but quickly pushed it aside. “He won’t be getting it.”

“You underestimate our forces, little girl.”

Hot blood boiled in her veins. “I think you are underestimating us. You will find only blood here.”

The woman smirked. “We have blood to spare.” She swept her arm to the side, and the ships behind her began opening to reveal thousands upon thousands of snarling beasts. Wanda felt a stirring of unease, but refused to let that show on her face (even though it probably did- it was the one thing Natasha had never quite managed to teach her). She glared at the woman once more, and rose back up in the air to rejoin her companions.

“I presume she wasn’t helpful?” Ava asked dryly.

“Not at all. I did learn that two of the people we fought earlier are indisposed. That is good news.”

“What is good news?” T’Challa’s voice asked from behind her. She turned around to see him fully suited up next to members of his guard, his younger sister, and Peter.

She shook her head. “Never mind.” They all turned their attention to the beasts trying to break through the barrier, and her stomach coiled in disgust. “They are killing themselves.”

It was true- the creatures were throwing themselves at the barrier and falling apart before their eyes. But even as they did this, there were a couple breaking through along the line. The men in front of them held up shields and advanced.

“Hey, they’re going around!” Peter said. “They can’t break through behind us, there’s no one guarding Vision on that side!”

T’Challa surveyed the field- the small number of creatures breaking through at the moment were easy to dispatch, but if they all came through at once… but they needed to protect the stone. She could see the decision being made in his eyes, and wasn’t surprised when he turned to Shuri. “Can you open up the section of the barrier in front of us?”

She looked at him, surprised. “Are you crazy?”

“Can you do it?”

“Yes, but-”

“Then do it.”

She turned to the bracelet around her wrist, tapping away, and in front of them, part of the barrier slid open.

It did its job- abandoning the prospects of getting around the barrier, the creatures began hurtling towards the hole, pressing themselves in and pouring out onto the field.

Around her, people readied for battle- T’Challa slid his helmet over his head, his army rushed out, and Scott and Hope shrunk down and flew off. Wanda closed her eyes, and took a moment- if she wanted power, as much of it as possible, she needed to summon it up.

Her magic roared to life, dancing at her fingertips and filling her up with boundless energy. It pooled out of her, lifting her into the air above the field. 

When her eyes snapped open, they were red.

------------------------------

“Aaaahhhhh!!”

“Wooooo!”

“We’re all gonna die!”

“Hold on!”

Loki didn’t think it was possible to hold on any tighter than he was already. He had done many terrifying things in his lifetime, but somehow, hurtling towards Midgard at top speed in a vessel that was rapidly becoming more and more unstable was taking the cake.

Quill jerked the wheel, narrowly avoiding an entire planet that had come upon them suddenly, and Loki had the strangest sensation that his heart had leapt up to his throat and taken up permanent residence there instead. 

“We’ll be there soon!” Quill called from the front, looking back at them.

Loki let out an ungainly screech. “Keep your eyes up front!”

Quill cursed, and turned back around, jerking the wheel again to avoid an asteroid.

Next to him, Drax laughed loudly. “This is very fun!”

“This is not fun!”

“I am Groot.”

“How have you not looked up from that game you’re playing?”

“I am Groot.”

“Well- aaargh!” The ship dipped down, avoiding an object that Loki couldn’t even see, they’d flown by it so fast. He was pretty sure he’d left his stomach back in the last system.

“You are a horrible pilot!”

“Hey, I’m an excellent pilot! I just don’t happen to usually break every speeding law in the galaxy on a mad dash to Earth!”

“Please tell me we’re at least making good time.”

“We’ll be there in, like, 15 minutes!”

Oh, thank the Norns above. He was starting to regret not going to Asgard- he would take hanging out with Hela and Thor over this any day. Hela wasn’t even that bad, if he thought about it- she was just an older, slightly more violent version of him (and, perhaps, a shade more traumatized- Odin hadn’t been a good father to him, either, but he’d mellowed out in the intervening years). She was certainly less dangerous than Peter Quill speeding his ship through space like his tail was on fire.

15 minutes was a long time. Hopefully they would make it there before the battle got too bad- or before Quill killed them all, Loki reminded himself as the ship made another series of sharp turns.

Yes, it would be quite the miracle if they managed to make it to Midgard alive at this point.

--------------------------------

In no longer than 5 minutes, Scott discovered that these aliens were not very smart.

They were viscous, sure- sharp teeth, sharp claws, and killer instincts made for a terrifying creature. But he and Hope had been darting around them the entire battle and taking them down, and every single one of them had a look of complete surprise (at least, that’s what he thought it was) on its face, as if it hadn’t seen it coming at all. 

It made his job so much easier, which was good, because they were starting to get overwhelmed.

They’d been doing great in the first few minutes- T’Challa’s army was as formidable as promised, and cut through the aliens in great swaths. Peter Parker had webbed up huge sections of the creatures (and it really was very lucky that they weren’t too smart, because Peter kept calling out what kind of web he was going to use next), making them easy pickings. Wanda was acting like a kind of human bomb, going to sections where there weren’t any people on their side and sending out a wave of energy, knocking down every creature around her.

But there were just so many of them. And T’Challa’s army was beginning to fall right in front of his eyes, and T’Challa himself had disappeared in a giant swarm of aliens, and Wanda looked like she was getting tired, and Peter had gotten knocked out of the air.

Scott wasn’t doing too hot either- he’d lost sight of Hope a minute ago, but there was nothing he could do about that, because one of the aliens had caught sight of him, and was lunging forward to nab him up in its mouth.

He shot up to his normal height and punched it square in the face. This had the unintended effect of every alien in his proximity turning towards this new and previously unseen target, and he gulped. 

He didn’t have time to reach for his regulator before they swarmed him.

----------------------------

BANG.

Vision jerked up from where he’d been sitting. “What was that?”

Ayo got to her feet, spear in hand. “I don’t-”

The door flew open with another bang, and one of the aliens that Vision remembered from earlier burst in. He seized one of the Dora Milaje around the neck and threw her into the wall. Ayo chucked a spear at him, which he easily caught and flung back at her- she had to dive to the side to avoid it hitting her. The alien flew at him.

Vision quickly phased out, darting around him. The Mind stone glowed in his head as he sent a laser towards the alien- then stopped as he started reflecting it off his blade. He didn’t want it to hurt anyone on his side.

He put all of his force behind one hand, and swung it at his opponent’s head. He raised a hand to block, but Vision knocked it aside and caught him on the side of the head.

“Ha!”

But this only served to make his opponent angrier, and he roared and sent his weapon right through Vision’s middle.

Searing pain shot through his stomach, and he gasped for air, trying to phase away but finding himself unable to. What-

He was thrown off and onto the ground. The tip of the blade dug into his forehead, prying at the Mind Stone-

The alien suddenly jerked backwards as if someone had hit him with a bullet. He stumbled, then raised his weapon, looking around frantically for what had hit him. Another hit came from behind, and he swung his blade around in that general direction.

Vision struggled to his feet and sent a quick burst of light from the stone. This time, it seared into the alien’s skin, and he roared in pain and whirled around.

But he was still mad- he spotted something near him, and grabbed out for it, and next thing Vision knew, Hank Pym was appearing as if out of nowhere as he flew through the air and hit a nearby wall. The alien growled in triumph, but it was short lived- Ayo had gotten to her feet, and sent her spear through his arm.

He howled, dropping his blade, and starting towards her- only to be stopped by another blow to the stomach, this time, Vision assumed, from Janet. He batted at her, and she flew towards the opposite wall as Hank. 

He advanced on Ayo, who was now spearless. Vision spotted his blade sitting on the ground where he’d dropped it- if he could just-

The only indication that he gave that he knew what was happening was a slight gasp and his eyes widening before the blade pierced his heart and he went limp.

Vision promptly collapsed to the ground, and Ayo rushed to help him up as Hank and Janet got to their feet.

“I think,” he gasped, “that Wanda may have been right about that extra protection.”

-----------------------------------

“Wanda!”

“What?” she snapped, trying not to sound too annoyed. She wasn’t really annoyed, just feeling the fatigue creeping up on her, as well as an oncoming sense of hopelessness as she saw everyone around her begin to fall to the overwhelming crowd of beasts.

“One of the aliens from earlier came and attacked Vision.”

That got her attention quickly- she’d thought something like that might happen, that’s why she’d put Vision away with good defenses, but her heart still stopped at the thought that Vision could be hurt.

“Is he okay?”

“He is fine. We took down the attacker.”

She relaxed, and sent a blast of energy towards a group of aliens that were getting too close. “Good.”

“Things going okay out there?”

“Nope!” came Scott’s frantic voice. “Need a little help here!”

She searched the field, quickly locating him, surrounded by about twenty aliens and looking like he was drowning in the sea of them. She flew over, and got them out of her way.

“Dude, thanks,” he gasped. “Holy shit.”

“Anyone else?” she asked. 

“Ahhh!”

She felt a jolt of fear- that was Peter. Her head snapped around. Where was he-

Ah. “Bye, Scott.”

“Oh, bye-”

She took off, freeing Peter from the aliens swarming over him. “Are you okay? Are you hurt anywhere? Any broken bones, or stab wounds, or-”

“Notice how she didn’t react this way when I was being attacked,” Scott grumbled.

“Because you are an adult,” she snapped. 

Peter shrugged her off. “I’m fine. No broken bones. At least, uh, I don’t think so-”

“Wanda!” T’Challa called.

Oh, god, what now?

“What?”

“We have a problem. Up at the front.”

Her eyes searched towards the barrier, where- oh. 

The bigger alien was swinging around his war hammer, catching several Wakandans with each swing. “I’m on it.”

It was, she reflected, unfortunate that she was the only person with great amounts of power on the field right now. She sighed, and readied herself for a long battle of running around and fixing other people’s problems.

… At least, until Loki got there.

-------------------------

“Holy shitttt!” Loki screamed.

“Only five minutes away now!” Quill shouted, not paying nearly as much attention as he should’ve to where he was going.

Loki closed his eyes tightly shut, then immediately opened them- if they were going to crash and burn and die, he wanted to at least be aware that it was happening. 

Five minutes? He wished it was sooner (then immediately dismissed that- that would mean Quill going faster, which wouldn’t be good for anyone)- then he would be able to escape this ship to the relative safety of a battlefield.

-------------------------------

“Hey, Fury? Been a while- we’re in a bit of a jam. There’s, uh… an alien trying to kill half of the universe. So, you know, we’re trying to stop him. And we kinda need all the help we can get, cause we’re splitting into a couple of teams to spread out his forces. Most of us are going to space, so you won’t be able to reach us, but Wanda and Vision and P- Spider Man and Scott Lang are all going to Wakanda. I’m gonna tell T’Challa that he should be expecting someone else, so if you want to head over there, just contact him. And get any help you can find… we’re gonna need it. Uh- bye.”

Rogers had sent him this voicemail a couple of hours ago, now. As he hurtled towards Wakanda with Maria and a couple more agents left over from the S.H.I.E.L.D days, he toyed with the pager Carol had left him all those years ago. Should he contact her? It had sounded like Rogers kind of had the situation under control- at least, he seemed like he’d planned this out more than New York. But. It also sounded like this was a much bigger situation than New York had been, and Carol was the most powerful person he knew. 

But then again, he didn’t want to put all of his cards on the table just yet. He would wait, to see how disastrous the situation was, before he called anyone.

Hill leaned over to where he was sitting. “Hey, Nick? We’ll be there in five minutes.”

“Alright,” he sighed. “Let’s get ready, people!”