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chuuyrr · 1 year

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scarlet witch! fushiguro! reader participates in the kyoto goodwill event and takes everyone down

jujutsu kaisen x reader

masterlist of the series

╰➤ CW(s): major spoilers for jujutsu kaisen (kyoto goodwill event), multiple scenes of mcu! wanda maximoff were referenced (wanda vs thanos, wanda vs illuminati, and etc.)

╰➤ PAIRING(s): platonic! jujutsu kaisen x reader

╰➤ SYNOPSIS: in which you, teen! scarlet witch! fushiguro! reader, joins the kyoto goodwill event at jujutsu tech. the kyoto students, on the other hand, underestimate you due to your lack of cursed energy, them evidently unable to sense your chaos magic, your powers as the scarlet witch, which is why you are determined to show all of them their place and that you weren't a special grade sorcerer for merely nothing, most especially when overhear that kyoto principal gakuganji intends to have you and itadori yuuji killed. full request here.

both itadori yuuji and gojo satoru surprised the kyoto students, as well as gakuganji and utahime, with yuuji's survival and some strange-looking souvenirs, leaving the tokyo jujutsu tech students, particularly megumi and nobara, mortified, but the kyoto students preoccupied with gojo's souvinirs.

however, it wasn't long before you entered the picture. you were a little late because you had just completed a jujutsu-related mission. but the moment you met everyone and approached, all eyes were drawn to you, especially the kyoto students and gakuganji himself, because megumi, nobara, yuuji, and even the second-years maki, inumaki, and panda were already acquainted with you.

"you're late, [name]," your half older brother megumi greeted your arrival with a small huff of breath but a soft smile.

"sorry, nii-san, had to deal with some curses," you apologized to megumi before greeting nobara, yuuji, and the rest of the tokyo jujutsu tech second-years with friendly side hugs and some "hi's!" and "hello's!" before trotting towards gojo, your adoptive father, who had drawn you into a quick embrace.

"curses, huh? bet they were just a bunch of low grade fours," a mocking feminine voice had caught your ear right away.

you pushed yourself away from gojo and tilted your head, only to find yourself staring at a short-haired woman who resembled maki. with her arms folded, she was staring at you.

"you've got some nerve, lady," you remarked, clicking your tongue and folding your arms across your chest.

"riight?" nobara agreed, taking a step closer to your side and narrowing her eyes at mai.

"a-anyway! you must be fushiguro [name], we've heard so much about you!" miwa, the blue-haired girl, exclaimed ever so kindly with a smile, trying to ease up the tension that mai had started with you, "it's nice to meet you."

"hmm, so you're gojo's adopted daughter, but you're supposed to be from the zenin clan just like fushiguro-kun," noritoshi added to what miwa had said.

"you're the kid of the strongest jujutsu sorcerer who comes from the zenin family in some way," mai sighed, her lips quirking into a taunting smile, "very shameful if you ask me."

you scoffed, "implying something now, are we?"

"well, mai's not wrong; it's just that you don't have any cursed energy on you," todo explained, his words getting on your nerves.

"it's just quite disappointing," nishimiya added.

you held your hand towards utahime, gojo, and even megumi as they were about to intervene, signaling them to stop. as they stopped speaking, you took a step forward, "i'm not one for words, but i'd very much appreciate it if you stopped associating me with the zenin clan or just being the adopted child of the strongest jujutsu sorcerer. i'm not fushiguro [name] or labeled a special grade sorcerer for nothing."

"even gakuganji-san knows that very well, right, old man?"

with that, you looked at him, boring eyes as cold and piercing as ice, enough to send a horrible shiver down his spine while keeping his blood boiling.

"but you guys are just in luck today, you know? because you won't be dealing with okkotsu, you'll be dealing with me," you said, shaking your head.

with that, a "friendly" smile crept across your face, but there was something atrocious and sinister about it, especially given your subsequent choice of words.

"you have exhausted my patience with all your hypocrises and insults, so i do hope you understand that even now, and what's about to happen later in the field, is me, being reasonable."

and just like that, you became the talk of the kyoto students as they discussed their plans for the aforementioned event, just as megumi and the others did when you joined them.

nobara had just finished making yuuji hold a picture frame meant for a funeral to his face when megumi furrowed his brows as he noticed you staring blankly and quietly, deep in thought, as you leaned your back against a wooden beam by the porch, arms folded across your chest.

"are you okay?" megumi asked in concern.

"i'm good, no worries," you smiled at him kindly, closing your eyes briefly before opening them again, "do you mind if i step out a little?"

"just make sure to come back quickly. we still need to discuss our battle formation together, [name]!" panda exclaimed, to which you nodded before departing.

"ugh, i swear i'm pummeling those kyoto students," nobara sighed deeply, folding her arms across her chest. "[name] is clearly upset."

"they have no idea what [name] is capable of," maki said, her lips quirking into a smirk.

"yuuta having to face them before was mercy, but with [name]? it's a different story," panda said, and inumaki agreed.

"but still, they shouldn't have talked bad about [name] like that," yuuji frowned as he moved the picture frame for funerals away from his face.

when you told megumi you needed a break, you weren't exactly telling the truth. as you made your way to the meeting on the kyoto side, you adjusted your black fingerless gloves. you weren't bothered by their underestimation; in fact, it fueled something in you. however, because your abilities allow you to enter people's minds, you were able to confirm their true motive when they were riling you up earlier.

with that, you wordlessly hid and blended within the shadows as you eavesdropped on their meeting.

"kill sukuna's host, itadori yuuji, and that highly disrespectful witch, fushiguro [name]," gakuganji ordered, causing miwa to perk up and the rest to stare at him, "both of them aren't people, so we can just scratch everything down to an accident. no need to hold back or anything."

as you heard miwa mentally refuse, mai, mechamaru, noritoshi, and nishimiya from earlier set on following gakuganji's orders, you heard todo openly decline on their schemes and mention seeing takada-chan. despite the fact that todo and gakuganji had already left, noritoshi and the others continued their conversation.

"it's a serious problem that a half-baked guy like itadori, along with that so-called special grade, gets to be in this match to begin with; as a member of the kamo clan, i can't let this go by idly," noritoshi declared, furrowing his brows.

"i bet she just became a special grade sorcerer because of connections. she has no cursed energy, if anything she should be nothing more than at maki's grade," mai scoffed, "the nerve of her to threaten us like that as well."

"but you heard it from [name], she said she was dealing with special grade curses," miwa reasoned, "and the principal didn't say anything when she said he knew she wasn't just a special grade sorcerer for nothing."

"of course the principal wouldn't say anything. [name]'s adoptive father, gojo-sensei, was right there," shrugged nishimiya.

you closed your eyes as you unconsciously felt your own hands close into trembling fists. relax, [name]. keep your cool. this wasn't the time to let your chaos magic slip out of your control; that would be petty, at least not right now. it was one thing for them to insult and underestimate you, but to drag itadori, your yuuji-nii-san, into this as well? it was a no.

you weren't going to let this go at all costs, and as you left your hiding spot and headed back to tokyo, your eyes narrowed with a faint glint of red glow in them.

as soon as you were reunited with yuuji and the others, you put on a smile, not wanting to worry or speculate, but megumi, being your older brother, was still concerned. your smile was off. nonetheless, megumi didn't question it further and simply filled you in on how all of you were going to win the kyoto goodwill event with maki, unbeknownst to them that you already had a separate plan in mind.

in the forest, you and the other tokyo jujutsu tech students were getting ready for event. you obviously weren't paying attention to gojo's insistence on utahime delivering some sort of inspirational message to everyone when she's clearly unprepared. poor auntie utahime.

the truth is that you were already focusing on sensing the cursed energy of each kyoto student rather than the supposed "boss's" cursed energy. so, after utahime's words of encouragement and hearing gojo's start announcement, you ran alongside yuuji and the others, trailing one of megumi's dogs.

a spider-like curse had appeared out of nowhere from the tree branches, "where are you goooing?"

just as maki was about to dive in with her spear, you immediately shot your hand out and used your red psionics to halt her and panda just as megumi screamed "wait". todo had burst in on cue, snapping the spider curse off the branch. with maki and panda safe from harm, they both thanked you quickly as you released them.

"alriight! everyone's here!" todo exclaimed as he demanded, "come at me! all at once!"

at that moment, yuuji left your side and dashed straight towards todo. yuuji grabbed todo's face in his hands and harshly kneed him in the face, most likely breaking his nose due to the sound of crunching bones.

at that, maki yelled and signaled everyone, "disperse!"

megumi, maki, inumaki, panda, and nobara ran off and scattered as planned, but you stayed right where yuuji and todo are. when yuuji kicked todo in the face and jumped away, he perked up and let out a small yelp to see you still standing there.

"[name]-chan?! what are you still doing here?" yuuji exclaimed in surprise.

you merely flashed him a kind, close-eyed smile as you clasped your hands together, "sorry, yuuji-nii-san, but i'll have to take it from here!~"

"eh? what do you mean by that, [name]-chan?" yuuji furrowed his brows.

yuuji and even todo looked at you, confused, until you walked in a fast forward motion towards yuuji's back, your powers augmenting your speed.

before yuuji could react, you leaned in to his ear, your voice hypnotic as you shot a wisp of red psionics from your fingertips towards his temples, "sleep."

with that, the pink-haired boy's eyes closed and he fell to the ground, sleeping just as you had instructed. this astounded todo.

"how strange.. you don't have cursed energy, and yet..." todo laughed and stared at you in amusement, "ohoho! interesting! mysterious women are quite the charmer. do you intend to go against your own team's plans?"

"i've already said it earlier. this is just me being reasonable," you simply lifted your hand again, allowing red psionics to seep out.

todo charged in without hesitation towards you, just as you had predicted. you effortlessly slid to one side, then another, causing him to snap trees in half. you swept the floor with todo, easily sending him flying into a tree. you engaged him in hand-to-hand combat before he could react. your chaos magic may be intended for long range, but you aren't gojo's daughter or megumi's sibling for nothing.

your swift and domineering attacks, imbued with red psionics, caught todo off guard. the way you hit hard with your fists and kicks reminded him of how gojo fights and as he retaliated, todo was quickly humbled.

although he managed to punch you one or two times, you caught his fist in your red psionic-imbued hand the third time. you overpowered his raw strength with a smirk on your lips and forced him to back away.

you didn't even give todo the chance to use his cursed technique either because you had already restrained him with chaos magic and had his throat in your grip. as he clawed at your grip, todo saw something monstrous in your red glowing eyes.

you wanted to strangle him alive. you wanted to kill him, but you reasoned that this would suffice for the time being.

you stepped the heel of your boot hard on his chest. a blank expression resting on your face as you knocked him out unconscious in the same way you had put yuuji to sleep. one down.

you then looked up in the sky to see nishimiya from earlier, riding on her broom and talking to someone. her eyes widened as she discovered yuuji sleeping on the ground with todo knocked out cold.

"that girl just took them out like it's nothing.. she doesn't have cursed energy but.. she has these weird red glows.. did she lie about having no cursed technique?" nishimiya said to noritoshi.

"what do you mean?!" noritoshi responded to nishimiya, his eyes opening from shock.

you turned your head, your eyes narrowed, and you quickly lifted a hand and leapt into action. bullets fired from a distance at you and yuuji but those same bullets glowed red and came to a halt in mid-air. you gathered the bullets as you sprinted around, earning an annoyed yet surprised look from mai herself.

you returned all of her bullets to her with a smirk and a wave of your hand, resulting in bullets grazing her and hitting her arm due to the incredible speed of the shots. you then left yuuji's unconscious body alone, sprinted, and ran straight towards miwa, who readied into a stance and drew her sword.

you leapt, executing a quick, clean flip just as she did her simple domain, avoiding her blade like it was nothing.

"what reflexes!" miwa's mouth hung open as she turned to face you, her mental thoughts being heard by you., "i know i hesitated, but still, my counter didn't even scratch her!"

you maintained your poise as bushes and leaves rustled and crunched around you. mechmaru ran and positioned himself just a few steps away from you, ready to fire at your back, with you easily sensing mai and noritoshi's presence among the trees as they remained hidden.

"hmm... i'm surrounded," you muttered quietly, tilting your head as you watched nishimiya join miwa and mechamaru.

"just what the hell are you?" nishimiya demanded, glaring daggers at you, but you could tell she was terrified of you—perfect, "no cursed energy, and yet you..." she exclaimed further, referring to your red psionics.

"you're right, i don't have any cursed energy. quite ironic, isn't it?" you managed a small chuckle, relishing in her and the other's priceless infuriated expressions across their faces, "i go by many names.. many identities.. but one thing's certain, i'm your nightmare."

you extended your hand and directed red psionic vapors toward mai and noritoshi. as you took aim, mechamaru fired a blast from his hand at you, while miwa charged at you head-on with her blade. as you shot a much larger blast of your own red psionics at miwa, you lifted your right hand, generating a shield out of your psionics to withstand mechamaru's blast of cursed energy.

mechamaru engaged you in hand-to-hand combat, choosing the sword option, which resulted in multiple blades protruding from his forearm and his nails extending. you easily evaded his attacks, just like todo, even with mai and noritoshi sniping at you through the trees.

mechamaru took a step back, assuming a stance before opening his mouth. a much larger blast of cursed energy was generated and fired at you as a result. you nearly stumbled because you weren't expecting the attack, but you quickly went on defense, regaining your footing with your power pulling you up, and surged more of your red psionics to retaliate, and then you siphoned the blast.

everyone's eyes widened as you sucked up mechamaru's cursed energy like it was nothing, causing his cursed body to break. you overpowered mechamaru in this manner, sending him flying away. you then used your chaos magic to pick up a large piece of ground debris and crash it onto him, paralyzing him before knocking him out unconscious with his cursed body in shambles—his cursed energy now your own power. two down.

with mechamaru down, miwa got back up and attacked you again, this time with her sword. you were taken aback when she brandished her sword, and you used your red psionics to deflect a blow right on cue.

"mechamaru!" miwa yelled at the cursed body, which was no longer responding but was strangely quiet.

as you levitated, your eyes glowed red with power. you gathered more larger debris from the ground and threw it at miwa, who retaliated by slicing through with her sword and jumping to evade you. you darted towards her as your feet touched the ground, throwing unusually large blasts of red, with miwa putting up her sword to take the hits.

miwa let out a small war cry as she brandished her sword at you. you could feel her rage at you for what you did to mechamaru and todo, but her rage wasn't enough. yours was much stronger, much much stronger than hers. they wanted to kill you and itadori yuuji, so you're giving them a taste of your medicine; showing them what kill or be killed is really like.

your lips curved into a sinister smile as you defeated miwa in the same way you defeated mechamaru. miwa gasped in disbelief, her sword shattered by your massive red psionics alone. you picked her up with your red psionics again. for some reason, her cries and struggles simply passed from one ear to the other. you were starting to lose empathy for all of them.

you knew you were going to get megumi, nobara, maki, and everyone else on the team questioning the whereabouts of the kyoto students, including yuuji, whom you had knocked out unconscious, but a voice in the back of your head was whispering encouraging words in your ear. just a little more it said.

as you constricted miwa in mid-air, you raised your other hand, easily deflecting a piercing sharp blood that shot from the trees with a force field.

"let her go, now!" noritoshi yelled at you, leaving his hiding spot in the trees and taking multiple arrows dipped in blood to aim, with mai and nishimiya following in his footsteps, all three of them attacking you at once this time.

"you're going to kill her!" cried nishimiya, sending a strong gust of wind your way.

despite their protests, you continued to fight them one by one, making sure to cause them the most pain possible. you easily turned the tables on nishimiya because her innate technique is simply manipulating tools just like her broom. despite the wind currents she threw at you, you easily retaliated against her.

"she's healing herself while attacking us," nishimiya gulped, looking at the open wounds on your exposed skin from all the fighting close up with your red psionics patching them.

you reached out your hand and took hold of her broom, firmly grasping it with your red psionics as nishimiya struggled to regain control of it. with a smirk, you made a fist and smashed the broom in half right in front of her. you brought your other hand down and threw miwa's thrashing body towards nishimiya, causing them both to crash to the ground, both of them unconscious and covered in bruises and cuts.

four down. two more to go.

mai was a little tricky because of her fiery personality, but she didn't put up much of a fight. hence why adored your maki-nee-san more than her. maki was far more powerful and deserving of a higher grade than her annoying little twin sister. you easily stole her revolver and shot multiple spheres of red psionics at her before constricting her like you did miwa.

"you're a monster!" mai yelled at you as she struggled painfully in the grip of your red psionics.

you simply stared at her, blinking, before darkly smiling again. you had moved quickly forward, shooting a wisp of red psionics to her temples. mai's eyes turned bright red and she screamed.

"what did you do to mai?!" noritoshi enquired as he attacked you with a piercing wheel of blood while aiming arrows at you.

you tilted your head towards noritoshi as you took hold of his attacks with your red psionics and simply returned them all to him. even with convergence to push his blood to the limit, noritoshi was overpowered and caught off guard, impaled by his own arrows with his wheel of blood attacking him severely.

the heels of your boots clicked against the ground as you walked towards him. you return his gaze with your red glowing eyes, your blank stare sending shivers down his spine, completely unaffected by mai's pitiful screams as she tossed and turned in her sleep.

"i can't control everyone else's fear, only mine." your voice was eerily calm as you paused just a few inches from him, a sphere of red psionics morphing in your dominant hand, "would you like to suffer the same way she did?"

back in the faculty room, gojo and the other jujutsu tech teachers from kyoto and tokyo were taken aback to find you standing in the middle of the forest, surrounded by the unconscious bodies of the kyoto students through the crow. unfazed, you returned your gaze to the bird, but your eyes were glowing a menacing red color once more, aware that gakuganji was watching you.

you maintained a relaxed posture. neither your posture nor your expression had changed much, but you seemed to be a different person. even your adoptive father, a special grade sorcerer, was taken aback as you tilted your head and stared straight at them without any warmth in your eyes. your presence was as cold as ice, and the person gojo and the others were seeing right now was more dangerous and cunning than any special grade cursed spirit.

it was the scarlet witch herself.

"w-what's going on with [name]?" utahime was the first to speak up. even your auntie utahime was scared of your performance right now.

"i.. don't know.." gojo slowly drew his blindfold down to his neck, completely stunned, "this.. this is the first time i've seen kikufuku, my [name], use her abilities without holding back."

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angel-of-hunky-doryness · 6 months

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The Conflicts of Disney's Hercules (Part 2): Hercules vs Hades

Or as I like to call it: why Hercules and Hades are the best example of a literary foil muddled and lost in its own movie.

LONG POST, sorry not sorry.

The hero vs villain dynamic is a Disney staple inspired by the many fairy tales and folklore from which Disney has long based their movies on. However, this dynamic went through a glow-up when Disney started their Renaissance period kicking off with The Little Mermaid (1989).

This era of Disney brought in much more personality and character to their protagonists, but also bringing in a new type of villain. Now this was a sharp departure from your atypical evil stepmothers and wicked villainesses that Disney was known from in their early days.

That's why when Disney decided to adapt Hercules (1997) the writers needed a formidable foe for Hercules to throws hands with to fit in to this new era where you had the likes of Ariel vs Ursula, Aladdin vs Jafar, Simba vs Scar, etc.

And in the Renaissance, Disney started leaning more into their Shakespearean influences. Nowhere is this more evident then Lion King (1994) and to a lesser extent- based on deleted scenes, the broadway version, and live action remake- Little Mermaid.

The reason I'm bringing this up is b/c, my dear reader, now we're getting to the Evil Uncle Trope.

Or at least a failed execution of it, b/c Disney did not utilize it well in Hercules. It's just barely touched upon.

Yes, yes, I know who the real villain is in the original myth of Herakles and that could be a reason it doesn't work. But Herakles vs Hera doesn't work well on paper when you remember that Herk was the affair baby and Hera is actively trying to smite him and this is a film meant for children. And something, something, she doesn't carry the kind of raw emo goth energy a walking-talking Bunsen burner can provide.

Jokes aside and the accuracy of the Greek Mythology presented, I think Disney Hercules was adapted well to a modern audience.

HOWEVER!

Now I've made it no secret in the past that I don't really view this hero/villain pair as the central conflict of Disney's Hercules.

That is mostly because whatever antagonism Hades and Hercules had going on it's very one-sided, and almost surface-level. Hades is over here having the biggest blow to his ego with a little bit of existential crisis thrown in for good measure.

While Hercules is absolutely vibing to the Muses singing the greatest mind-melting musical number of the film.

Not once do we get a character moment where this corn-fed farm boy ever stops to think, "Hey, Phil, I know Thebes is a bad place and all, but where do these mildly inconveniencing monsters keep coming from?"

In all two of his interactions with Hades(I'm not counting the opening scene, Hercules is a baby, fight me), Hercules never realizes in the entire movie how he was wronged by this tall glass of daddy issues.

Which are:

Flambe man kidnapped Baby

Lil sun spot is mortal now for plot relevance or smth

Attempted murder via the goon squad

Monsters keep coming out of nowhere after Herc saves the sassy lady from the Centaur(TM).

And Hades, to his credit, really doesn't care enough to tell him.

Why?

Because it literally never bothered Hercules. Hades is the obligatory monster of the week to Wonder breath. That kind of revelation wouldn't bother him, Hercules doesn't even know there's a prophecy about him. Hecc, home boy barely struggles with the Titans at the climax.

This is basically the Wanda-Thanos meme but the roles are reversed.

And I would like to emphasize, Hercules isn't bothered by the monsters Hades sends at all. He gets over it fairly quickly once he gets over his first battle jitters. If anything, the biggest issue Hercules is facing post-Hydra is that even though society has finally embraced him for his strength, he's still extremely lonely.

Which leads to this pivotal moment in the film:

What is the point?

He's still a freak, but this time after years of training he's finally useful. My pal Rudolph the Red-nose reindeer understands this predicament rather well. And the loneliness that Hercules feels b/c of his superhuman abilities is such a fascinating angle the writers of Disney Hercules go with that isn't emphasized enough.

And I can't stress this enough: The internal war Hercules grapples with, of being caught between two worlds, struggling with something he was born with and of doing everything in his power to fit into both of these worlds? Now that makes for a compelling demigod.

What's more, the strange shift in how society view his strength is such a interesting element that could have made a better antagonist than Hades was and I bet if this movie was made in this new era of Disney films (2015-Present) it would've executed it with this premise in mind. Since Disney has moved away from mustache-twirling villains and focusing on things like generational trauma and internal issues.

The fear and scorn Hercules once felt is now being turned to adoration, but wait, that's not what he wanted!

He just wanted to be treated like a person.

Take the discus scene, Hercules tries to play frisbee with the other teens in his neighborhood, but he immediately gets told to buzz off.

His goal of reaching Olympus isn't to reunite with his real family it's to finally be around others who are just as powerful as him, somewhere he wouldn't be out of place.

And the funny part about all of this is how well it ties in to Hades. Because Hercules upholding his duty as a hero is essentially what Hades did in his respective career until the moment he had his very own What's the point? moment.

Now first and foremost, I'm here to say Hades did his job. Regardless of how respectfully he did that in his later years....

No zombie apocalypses as far as I can tell, so kudos to you babe.

And that kind of job isolated him pretty badly when you consider Hades is with the dead instead of the other gods, almost making Hercules' dream the same as Hades'. However that dream has long since distorted and twisted from centuries of bitterness and anger.

Which adds another layer to their similarities. The dedication they had for their jobs isolated them even further.

And funnily enough, Hades and Herc were both assigned to this task by Zeus.

Now that we've established how similar H&H are let's see if we can glean how it played out for Hades by looking at Hercules' beginning. Hercules started out with so much determination and hope as can be seen in I Can Go the Distance (reprise). And as we follow Hercules to seek a teacher, to undergo years of training, and to follow through with all that he had been taught, Hercules never lost hope that he would finally be with people like him.

Well that is until Hercules' talk with Zeus.

And we learn Hercules has been putting himself through tons of risks and labors for nothing...?

He could've accomplished being a true hero back in his old farm town, and before you argue Zeus never explicitly told him to walk the path of a hero- then why did he send him to Danny DeVito???

And I'd like to make it clear I adore that Herc is being told off by his dad. Being Superman in Metropolis can go to one's head at his age especially now that he has proven time and time again how useful his strength is. Hubris is a major character flaw associated with greek mythology even if it isn't the flaw Herakles has in myth, keep this in mind for later as I explain what his flaw really is and how we see instances of it in the Disney film.

With that kind of journey mapped out, I bet about two drachmas and my 4 pound sponsor that Hades did the same as Herc. And as a result invested too much in his job for him to realize that he became disconnected to Olympus as a result.

Yeah, okay this is more conjecture and veering into fanfiction territory here and since I've been writing a fanfic on this guy for the past 6 years I tend to do that w/o meaning to. So if I ever start being a little too sympathetic on Mr. Brimstone Breath over there, take it with a grain of salt.

However, it is my personal headcanon since Hades did help Zeus in the original Titanomachy that my mans became extremely distant in his attempt to become a feared and respected god of the underworld.

And that came with its own reputation as mentioned in Gospel Truth Part II. Hades can get one-track minded and that applies very well to Hercules too.

So in the end, everything Herc and Hades were doing wasn't getting them any closer to what they really wanted: social acceptance.

And this was a big thing in Ancient Greece. The worst punishment a person could receive in those times was being exiled. Outcast. Permanent hermitage.

Let that sink in.

It can be argued that Hades always vied for Zeus' position, but I personally believe he did so because every other attempt he's made to change his circumstances after his What's the Point moment he kept hitting a road block either from Zeus or his arrogance to continue ruling a kingdom even if it isn't the underworld. Until he basically reasons, yup gotta take down the resident thunder dunder head.

And I think it's this factor of loneliness that both these guys share that really exemplifies or differentiates why each one is a great foil to each other. Hades is the dark reflection of what Hercules could be if he continued to toil after godhood/accepted into Mount Olympus to no avail for years and years and years.

It's a very similar trope we see in Kung Fu Panda with Tai Lung vs Po. And where Zeus fits into the role of Shifu.

Remember, both these two were serving their people, but Hades has been around far longer. After centuries, Hades grew sick and tired of serving ppl for basically nothing so he decided to put all his anger and frustration to force the world to bend to him instead.

But this is all hidden in between the lines so it doesn't hit home to the audience unless you take a deeper look into these two characters.

And all that I've talked about above is not even what we see in the film.

So, let's talk about what we do see.

Exhibit Alpha: All Hades Breaks Loose

As always, Hades is a showstopper. Don't tell him that btw he doesn't deserve it.

After executing a perfect 9.8/10 gymnastic spectacle, Hades shows up ready to pounce and do what he does best: Wheel and Deal with a trick ace up his sleeve.

It's so funny seeing Hercules talk to this guy, b/c he just had a falling out with his mentor and he's absolutely not in the mood to talk to this fast-talking flame head.

And Hades was ready to mop the floor with the guy, but b/c he can't get Wonder Bread's attention he has to whip out Meg a lot faster then he wanted to. He couldn't even savor the moment- it's like wasting a fine cigar.

But Hades doesn't skip a beat and like any mob boss, snaps his fingers, does a bit of blackmailing, and my beautiful boy catches on that if he loses his powers for 24 hours- talk about the confidence on Hades' part here- ppl will get hurt.

Hades, naturally, assures him things will be fine. I mean it's not like they're living in Greek mythology or anything. And after all, Hades assures him, Meg will be safe from harm.

They even shake on it. With left hands.....

And as soon as the two break apart, Hades doesn't hold back on telling his nephew how badly he screwed up.

Leave it to your estranged uncle to sucker you into a terrible deal and then outline why that was the worst mistake of your lifetime. Grade A uncle-ing I say. Wonder if he learned that from centuries of putting up with Zeus' offspring.

And while I have discussed this scene before in Meg vs Hades, we see here the same betrayal Meg had gone through with her ex, but now Meg is taking on the role of her ex. So let's look at it from Herc's perspective.

Anyone else feel their heart breaking when Hercules accuses Hades of lying????

But this is what makes the scene for me:

Despite everything, Hercules still chooses to fight.

You can really see the strength of Hercules' character here. Cuz despite his stupid decision, he still bares the weight of his responsibility even without his god-like strength.

Hercules faces the Cyclops as a normie. Hades would never.

This is the moment where Hercules rises above Hades in humility and upholds his duty despite the odds against him. This moment cements Hercules as a hero.

Finally the cycle of similarities is broken by Hercules' unselfish act. And it should've been in my opinion the moment he gained godhood and not the one below:

Yes, I know how important it is for Meg's redemption and to show how pure and true their relationship is. They're my emotional support OTP, okay, but what's more compelling?

Hercules being saved by the woman who just betrayed him, or Hercules risking his life to save the city of Thebes now that he's just like everybody else? He doesn't have his plot armor anymore, he's facing a giant that's already going ham destroying the populace while everyone is trying to escape. Isn't that true hero material? To stand and face the threat and buy the people time to escape?

But I digress.

And oh man, when Meg gets crushed we see a side of Hercules that was hinted at after Phil called out Meg for being a fraud:

We see Hercules' flaw.

In fact, the same flaw that Hades has as well:

Wrath.

Exhibit Beta: A Swell Consolation Prize

Hades loses. Big surprise there. I'm not covering the Titan scene since Hades and Herc just trade frowns and smirks, so imma leave that one be for this post.

But Hades really does sign his death certificate when he starts running away and reminds Johnny Beefcakes that he still managed to get him where it hurts:

And boy oh boy, when Meg died in his arms, Hercules has murder on his mind.

This is the first time Hercules has a vendetta against Hades (with 10 minutes left). A true, true vendetta. He was willing to let go tricking him by using Meg, but now b/c Hades knocked over the domino that led to Meg's death and the job title he holds, he's ready to go kick ass.

And Lord, the writers knock a home run to the impulsiveness that sits at this central character flaw of Herakles.

Hercules, our Disney version, is ready to cheat death, beat Hades to a pulp and do anything to get Meg back. Alcestis and Admetus style, baby.

So Herc grabs Cerberus and forces the bloodthirsty puppy to take him to his master.

And now realizing that he still has a chance of pulling one over on Zeus, Hades is willing to look over the abuse upon his pet and gets ready to use the wheeling and dealing technique.

And while Hercules does *convince*, and I use that word very loosely, to trade places with Meg, Hades agrees. While some have pointed out to me how clever Hercules can be this was not one of those moments.

Wow the son of my greatest rival??? Hercules made a really easy bargain that Hades was gonna propose anyway. Meg is insignificant in the grand scheme of things so who cares if she got a 'Get out of Jail' free card.

But, Hades messed up. Dude should've had his cake and eaten it too and just fished Meg out so Herc could take that dip and avoid what was coming to him.

Y'see Hades wasn't aware of the true hero clause Zeus randomly made up just like how Hades randomly made up a god-to-mortal potion.

So we get this ending with Herc's debt remaining unpaid.

I joked to myself as I was writing this post to include a post in my Hercules Conflicts series where it's Hades vs Hades b/c let's be real, Hades caused all of Hades' problems.

Self-fulfilling prophecies babyyyyy

Oy... Can you believe that now that Herc and Meg are alive and kicking as mortals they still owe a debt to Hades? Not the best ending, mind you. Sure, Hades isn't getting out anytime soon, so does it matter in the grand scheme of things?

But it is a sweet and well-deserved ending for our boy Hercules. Bc despite everything, Hercules realizes that the ppl who love him and know him for who he is: his adopted parents, his coach, and his girl that he would rather live out a mortal life with them instead of one with his bio parents. He knows now that the acceptance he has always been longing for has been realized and he'd rather have the life he knows than risk it all for a life that might make him all the more miserable.

And just like Hercules, Hades is now permanently stuck in the world he was forced into. Funny how they both ended up in the place they were actively trying to leave. It's a well-deserved punishment even if the dead are screwed without someone to keep the underworld in tip-top shape.

It's a shame Hades didn't meet Hercules sooner in the film because there is tons of material here that could've really had them be a formidable villain/hero pair up there with the likes of Aladdin vs Jafar. To have them actively oppose each other and force Hercules to grapple with the knowledge that this god is doing everything in his power to keep him off balance. imagine if Hades showed up early on just to gloat and mock the kid and confirm everything Zeus had told him?

Hercules could've grown up with that chip on his shoulder, wanting to be a fighter and a warrior just so he could take Hades on for realzies and take on the hoard of monsters he's sending to doom humanity. Just so it culminates in the classic: We're not so different conversation to mentally mess with the hero about his morals and life choices.

Could've been great.

Regardless, thanks for making it to the end, dear reader.

Till next time.

#disney #disney hades #disney hercules #hercules #my rambles #disney villains #disney megara #greek myth #greek mythology

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beheworthy · 28 days

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Thank you for the tag @haeva 🥺

Last song: If I ever by Conor Maynard

Currently watching: last thing I watched was S1 of Emily in Paris and I'm currently reading 'the secret'.

3 ships: I got 2

Like I've said, Tyler x Nik is just my personal interpretation because I mean they're taking bullets for each other???? But I'd be okay if canon doesn't go there. But if Thor doesn't get to have babies with Jane, it's on sight for Marvel.

Favourite colour: black and red

Currently consuming: nothing atm

First ship: I shipped Alexis and Starscream from Transformers Armada back in the day because I thought that was what the show was going for. And I was like 'wow interspecies romance' (foundation for ThorJane lol). and Musa x Riven from Winx Club (don't look at me!)

Relationship status: don't want any more trauma.

Last movie: May December 3 months ago

Currently working on: You'd think after writing a 10k word essay on how my man is wronged by Marvel, I'd calm down. But uhhh I have ideas that haunt me for 7 more essays: 1. In defense of Thor's characterization in Thor2 2. How to make the audience sympathize with a character: Wanda vs Thor 3. Why Thor4's ending with the child sucks 4. Thor3 didn't manage the tone well either 5. Korg - the worst supporting character 6. The tragedy of being a Thor fan (fandom experience) 7. The brutality toward Thor (by his storytellers)

And some fanfics: 1. missing scene after Thor4 ship kiss where they actually do it because f you marvel they deserved moments of love w each other and not die celibate like you. 2. post Thor4 dream sequence where he begs her to come back to him. 3. their experiences after separating (him finding out she got wiped out by thanos, knowing she was brought back to life, and a scene w mantis right before Thor4 parallel w Jane finding out she has c*ncer). 4. tyler ovi reunion fic where tyler runs into ovi unexpectedly and they get to be father-son for a night.

No pressure tags: @notallthosewho-wanderarelost @fostertheory @m1ghtythor @karioke13 @uniiiquehecrt @coolnerdyrn

#about me #tag meme #thor #thor odinson #jane foster #thor x jane #marvel #tyler rake #nik khan #extraction #extraction netflix #extraction 2 #write up #fanfic

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caatws · 11 months

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i’m back to yell again bitch! why are characters grieving vision vs gamora treated so differently by both mcu canon and fandom???

i’ve been saying for the past 5 years how, when ppl blame peter for the avengers losing in iw when he lost his cool on titan after hearing thanos literally killed gamora, it’s hypocritical for these ppl to not also blame wanda and the other avengers, bc them delaying sacrificing vision to the literal last minute also directly contributed to thanos winning.

while vision had put wanda in the position to sacrifice him and she said no, gamora had also put peter in that very same position—and he said yes. and he was gonna do it, even though it pained him. wanda was only ready to do it when their backs were fully, completely, against the wall, and it was literally the final thing standing between them and thanos getting all 6 stones.

while my problem for years has been the lack of equally blaming wanda while blaming peter for behaving out of the same motivations—acting out of love for their partners, who were reduced to thanos’ pawns, and wanting to defend/avenge them—now considering everything else going on with gamora in the time since, there’s an extra layer to this that just has me...hm.

when wanda and the others act on behalf of their love, and eventually grief, for a white male character...it’s understandable, it’s valid, it’s relatable, it’s fine.

but any time peter has acted on behalf of his love and grief for a woc character...it’s treated as the reason thanos won and half the universe died. it’s considered an impediment to other characters, even in his own team who also once called gamora their family. it’s still relatable and understandable, but it is emphasized as an obstacle to overcome in a way that i don’t think wanda’s love and grief ever was.

wanda’s grief was so complex, so tangible, it spawned a whole show abt the ways we grieve and how it can become a dangerous part of our lives. and in the end, we’re made to sympathize with wanda still.

peter’s grief has still gotten its moments, but it’s been treated as a solitary experience the rest of the gotg don’t partake in, for whatever reason. when his grief causes him to act destructively or disruptively, it’s not given the “i support women’s wrongs�� empathy by fandom. sure, it’s still made out to be something we can sympathize or even empathize with—but there’s a certain grace given to wanda and her occasionally villainous actions, motivated by her grief, that i’ve just never rly seen given to peter when he fucked up the fight against thanos.

frankly, i don’t know exactly what this means. is it yet another byproduct of both audiences and marvel studios themselves prioritizing and upholding the avengers franchise over the gotg? probably, in part. is it bc w*ndavision is a more profitable ship and (white) wanda is a more profitable character to explore the complex emotional turmoil of? oh, i��m sure that’s an element at play. is it bc ppl like (white) wanda more than peter? that’s definitely part of it and comes as a surprise to no one.

is it an intentional disparity in canon about how much a white character deserves to be grieved vs a woc character? i don’t work at marvel so i could never prove or disprove this with certainty.....but i think it’s an awfully interesting element to consider, bc regardless of intentions, it sure has a certain....impact.

it sure just leaves a Taste in my mouth abt what makes a character more or less worthy of grief than another. when vision died, wanda could uproot the very fabric of the universe in her grief and we maybe want to root for her. when gamora died, peter simply reacted in the moment, and suddenly he’s the worst character in the mcu and the sole reason that an entirely separate character, the actual abuser and murderer, killed half the universe and now we have to hold peter accountable for it like lmao bro???

#long post #everyone who's been following me since the iw days....y'all are the real ones for still putting up with my occasional essays abt it #thank you 😭 truly.#madi.txt #the gamora situation

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galaxythreads · 9 months

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trying to follow gravik's plan makes me feel like i need to ascend to a higher level of thinking, because gravik has absolutely no idea what is going on. I have tracked his motivations through every episode with meticulous note-taking as I've watched this series and um. boys. It's not looking good.

Here's just a few in episodes 1-5:

We need to put the skrulls in normal society

we need to attack russia

we need to have rhodey spend the entire episode making sure that we all know it wasn't america/fury who attacked russia, after all the work we put into making sure russia thought it was america

we need to have England nuke america

we need to start wwlll

we need to kill the US president

we need to kill fury even though he's done exactly 0 things to stop our plans (and if Gravik actually stopped tipping him off to everything, he wouldn't be able to stop them)

we need to kill fury's wife for "insubordination"

we need to BLOW UP THE SKRULLS

we REALLY REALLY need this superhero dna bottle :( :( Fury made me collect it after a war and it made me sad. I want it back.

The very funny part to me is watching Gravik justify killing so many people because he needs to "keep his plans secret" and like. ??? You don't even need to kill anyone. Cause like. Your plans are not consistent. you have no idea what's going on and neither do i.

VS other villians in MCU:

Wanda, MOM: I need to get back my kids, it's the only way i'll be happy.

Thanos, all of the infinty saga: I need to collect the infinty stones so I can snap half the universe away and save it from poverty

Loki, the Avengers: I have to take over earth in order to feel like my life has any meaning. If I'm not a ruler, I'm not anything.

Killmonger, Black Panther: I have to burn Wakanda to the ground because of what they did to my father. They broke me. They didn't care, so why should I?

Gravik, Secret Invasion:

I think this is a longwinded revenge plot against Fury that Gravik is covering in a equality fight, but idk. guess we'll see episode 6.

#anti secret invasion #i cannot even begin to describe to you what a mess this series is

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valkyrieandstrangeridingaragorn · 1 year

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Wow check this article out basically out right says that any criticism that Sylvie is sexist. Like so annoying how it says that maybe Sylvie did the wrong but people shouldn't say Sylvie because of the reasons she did it

Wow, that article is really bad 🤦‍♀️ I'm not surprised it was written on that site. It's so tiring how these people love to scream misogyny every time the actions of a woman are questioned, what is it when we criticize a man, then? Misandry? It's ridiculous.

My biggest issue with articles like this is that the author claims fans are saying something but they show no proof of it. Where are the tweets, the comments, the posts from fans blaming her for Kang?

Then all that nonsense about Sylvie freeing the multiverse which is no more than a fantasy because what we see in the episode is she doesn't care about the multiverse or the variants or whether or not other people get hurt in the process, she's only thinking about herself and her own wants and needs. To frame her actions as some form of selfless and moralistic dilemma is to rewrite that entire scene. That's not canon.

But when they say this about what she did: "It's both understandable from a character standpoint and justifiable when comparing them with the other option laid out on the table"... uh, no it's not? Surely these people understand the difference between "I can sympathize with the plight and the mental state of a character when something traumatic happens to them and they act in the wrong" vs "Their actions are justified no matter what they do". This is like defending Stark for trying to murder Bucky, IDGAF if he's sad, he can feel however he wants, that doesn't justify attempted murder.

Also, she did have an option: Loki told her to stop so they could think of something and she refused. That's a deliberate choice on her part.

There are people who think HWR's idea is better? Well, there are people who think Thanos was right. What does that have to do with misogyny? How many people blamed Quill for the Snap? And I didn't see anybody call those fans "anti-men" for doing so. Hell, there are fans who blame Stephen for the Snap as well! They just love to scream misogyny for no reason at all.

Gotta love their claim though that those who don't like Sylvie won't support Wanda either. Well, newsflash, Wanda has always been one of my favourite characters but I can't for the life of me stand Sylvie. What now, do I get a misogyny card?

#loki negativity

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hunkahulkaaburningfudge · 8 months

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Yay! Okay, so I was reading the Spider-Punk comics recently, and I found out that in the comics, Hobie knows both Kamala Khan and Riri Williams, and they’re his band mates. And I know you most likely won’t incorporate into the story (nor do you have to of course), but I just find the idea of Hobie meeting Kamala and Riri (from 727) and being baffled about how different they are to his home’s versions of them (more likely Kamala, cause she’s just a sweet bundle of sunshine).

It’ll also be interesting to see the characters from Earth 727 react to the fact that the designation of “Earth 616” is wrong, and is actually Earth-199999.

I also bet their gonna question Miguel and the Society about where they were when all these other Multiversal threats appeared (and were thankfully defeated), like Wanda and Infinity Ultron (but mostly Infinity Ultron).

I feel like Miguel is also going to object to them trying to change their “canon” events. But then, why would the Watcher bring all of them there, y’know? Unless it was to show the other spiders (and Miguel especially) that the whole “canon” defense is a bunch of crap, and was just his way of dealing with his grief (they’re gonna have a field day with his backstory I tell ya). Not to mention to bring them all together to show them how big of a threat Kang and his variants are, and to help each other stop these smaller threats in their way, like Thanos, Arthur Harrow, Gorr, fucking Tiamet emerging from the planets core and destroying Earth (the society is gonna lose their minds learning about the realms outside the Spiderverse and all of this wild stuff).

I also talked previously about the theory that glitching is caused by technology rather than just being in a different dimension, while using magic, a thing that’s been around since the beginning and is more natural (rather than tech which is “created” in a sense) prevents glitching. And since it’s gonna be a bit until we get Beyond the Spiderverse and that whole explanation, it could be a good explanation in regards to why the MCU characters don’t glitch when they went to other universes (Strange and America in MoM, Multiverse Guardians when fighting Infinity Ultron, No Way Home). Another idea I had was that maybe what’s causing the deterioration of the Spiderverse is the tech itself, because it’s not natural. And by jumping from universe to universe using the watches and the colliders, it’s breaking the integrity of the spaces between dimensions that prevent incursions from happening (if that makes sense).

This is already getting to be a bit long, so I’ll just end it with this (but expect more from me in the future lol): Sam and Bucky are going to hate meeting even more Peter Parker variants 😂 they already have to deal with one

first of all, i'm so sorry for replying to this so late

omg kamala, riri, and hobie are in a band together? that's so cute!

oh yeah, i have a ton of ideas for spiderverse it'll just take some time for me to get to them

i've heard about the magic vs tech glitching theory before and i think it makes sense. however, loki s2 trailer has loki time slipping which looks suspiciously similar to glitching. it probably doesn't have any connection to each other though but it's fun to theorize

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averagewriter-inthedark · 2 years

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Infinity War II 🔥 | Dark Phoenix Series P.2

Takes place during infinity war

Read part 1 -> Series Masterlist | Marvel Masterlist

Characters & Pairings: Dr. Evelyn ‘Eve’ Alice Stark (OC)/The Eagle/Host of the Phoenix Force, Wanda Maximoff/The Scarlet Witch (platonic/ally), Doctor Stephen Strange (implied romance), Bucky Barnes/The Winter Soldier (implied romance), Tony Stark (platonic/Newphew), Howard Stark (Platonic/brother), Steve Rogers/Captain America (platonic/best friend) a lot of the marvel characters will be involved in this series.

Content Warnings: profanity, violence, near-death experience, angst, canon divergence | Female OC (She/her) | wc: roughly 6k+ (unedited so sorry for mistakes)

Premise: Billions of miles from Earth, the battle against Thanos is unfolding. Onboard heading to Titan, superheroes Tony and Evelyn Stark along with masked vigilante Peter Parker and Sorcerer Supreme Doctor Strange are pending the inevitable. The goal: stop Thanos from obtaining the Time stone and hold him off from getting the last of them. To their surprise they are not the only ones waiting for him on the planet. And little do they know, something powerful lurks in the distance. Something that will change the trajectory of Eve’s life forever.

I recommend listening to this during Eve vs Thanos

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Note: So I don’t have a face claim for Eve yet, but I imagine her having the same colored eyes as Tony since she’s Howard’s sister and dark hair. The reason I’m making her hair dark, is because I plan to do something with it in regards to the Phoenix force taking claim in her. Honestly I kinda picture young Monica Bellucci or young Penelope Cruz.

—————————————

They didn’t know how long they had been traveling, but it felt like hours. The ship was on a direct course for a planet called ‘Titan,’ which they assumed was where Thanos planned for his associates to meet him with the stones.

It was fairly quiet throughout the journey. Peter did the most chattering by staying close to Tony and asking him every question in his mind regarding the upgrades in his new suit. Strange put more protective spells on the amulet while Eve sat silently on the platform. Her feet hung over and she had her hands clasped together. If she were to somehow fall over, she didn’t worry.

Thank goodness for her suit.

Left to wonder, Eve had hope Earth was in good hands. If Bruce followed through with alerting Steve, then Vision should’ve been located and they’d be on their way to the compound. Rhodey would understand—but Ross sure as hell wouldn’t. What they did from there was a mystery and Eve could only hope they had backup.

“Mind if I join you?” A voice broke Eve from her thoughts, glancing up to find Steven standing next to her. She hadn’t even heard him approach. With a gently nod, Eve scooted to the side to allow room for him to sit.

Once he got situated, they both overlooked the open void of the ship. “Never in my years as a surgeon did I ever think I’d be floating in space going God knows where.” Eve chuckled, feeling the same way.

“Life surprises you in mysterious ways.” He scoffed, but there was a hint of a smile on his lips. After a moment with him not replying, Eve couldn’t help but asking, “So…you’ve always been able to do magic tricks?” From the corner of her eye she could see him sigh. She had to fight back a smirk at his annoyance.

“No. I’ve only been doing this for two years.”

“What suddenly spurred you to become a sorcerer, doc? You had quite the reputation in the city from what I heard.”

Stephen was silent for a moment before replying, “Well, I nearly died and lost everything trying to fix something that couldn’t be fixed. Along the way I put everything I had into a last resort and before I knew it I was defending the world from Mystic threats and monsters. Just kinda happened, you know?”

Eve tilts her head, sticking her lip out with lifted brows as if to say, ‘Sounds legit.’ If anyone knew what it was like to have your life altered before your eyes, it was Eve Stark. One moment she’s deep behind enemies lines in 1948 and the next she’s waking up in the desert with a look-a-like of her brother in the year 2008.

“And how is that working out for you?”

Stephen thinks for a moment, then he shrugs. “I don’t think I’ll ever get used to it.”

“Welcome to my reality,” she mutters, glancing briefly to where Tony and Peter were conversing. Tony had stress evident in his expression, while Peter tried making light of the scenario. Eve cared for the boy, but he sure was naive at times.

“I’m still an amateur though,” Stephen comments, pulling her attention back to him. “You’re definitely a professional if we’re being technical.”

“I’ve been doing this for a long time,” she affirms with a tight mouth. “But there are days where I’m still surprised.” She lets out a sigh before continuing, “There’s always something bigger. The fight never ends in this life.” Eve pauses, connecting eyes with Stephen. “You’ll learn that quick.”

“How do you cope with it?” Stephen asks. There was curiosity in his gaze. There was also one of unease.

Eve ponders for a minute, trying to think of the best way to answer without sound too self-deprecating. There really was no easy way to say it. “Usually I just overwork myself until I can no longer bear it. Or I shut down to the point I push everyone away.” She looks away from Stephen, brushing her fingers over the knuckles of her left hand. “Some loses are so hard you find yourself unable to take pride or joy in the victories.”

Stephen knows he probably shouldn’t ask the next question he was thinking. But like many people in the world, the cause of the rift between the Avengers was something many wanted to know more of. “What exactly happened?” When her head tilts up at him, waiting for him to specify, Stephen clears his throat. “I-I mean I know about the whole Accords—like everyone else. But what happened in Siberia? If you don’t mind me asking.”

Eve’s breath hitches in her throat, then she bits her lip. “Um,” she tries to laugh, but it comes out as cough. “You mean what happened with Steve?” When he nods, she squares her shoulders. “Have you ever trusted someone with your whole heart and soul?”

“Can’t say I have,” Stephen admits, looking away when he realizes how bad it sounded.

Eve chuckles, though it’s strained. “I’ve had a few people fall into the category over the course of this extended life. My brother, Peggy, Tony,” she falls quiet, sadness filling her eyes before she says, “My husband.” Stephen looks back to her, noticing how the knuckle on her left hand she kept brushing over was the ring finger. He didn’t know much of Evelyn Stark’s history, but he was aware she’d been married at the time of her disappearance with a young daughter.

“And Steve,” she finishes with a sigh. “When I woke up all those years ago the only person I could trust on this planet was Tony. Then Steve was found. And it felt like I could finally sort of breath again. I wasn’t the only one who was ‘stuck in time.’” There was a small smile from Eve as she thought back with fondness. “Howard was my brother, but Steve was my best friend. We were ‘Captain America and The Eagle.’ We fought the war together, Strange. We stopped Hydra, the Red Skull, Zola. If there was anyone I trusted more in the whole world that wasn’t my family, it was Steve. Then we picked up right where we left off in twenty-twelve. It felt natural.”

There’s a pause from Eve. Now she was getting into the rough stuff. “Believe it or not, I didn’t really care about what happened with the Accords,” she shakes her head, finally admitting the truth she held in years prior. Stephen’s brows raise with surprise. He wasn’t expecting to war hero to say something like that. “I wanted to be done with this life and planned to retire when the Accords were ratified. I didn’t know about the airport conflict. Tony only told me after when he needed me to come with him to Siberia.”

Stephen heard her breath catch again, Eve gulping as he eyes began to water. She held them back, “I thought for eight years my family died in car accident. Tony thought the same for nearly twenty. His parents—my brother. My husband and my daughter. But that wasn’t true—.” She closed eyes, flinching away as the image of their execution replayed in her mind. “You see, Strange, I trusted Steve with ever inch of my heart and soul. I loved him as much as you could love a person without any kind of romantic interest coming into play. And when he discovered the truth of what happened to my family—his friends,” she emphasized, her anger rising and she quickly recovered. “

“I don’t have anger toward the person who committed the act—let me be clear on that,” at the sorcerers confused gaze she explains further. “Hydra knew how to control someone. How to break there mind to the point where they become only a void. He had no control over what they made him do. And I would have understood that.”

Stephen nods slowly, the realization settling in. “What you’re saying is Steve knew your family was executed and kept it hidden. From you and Tony.”

“Yes,” she whispered, letting her head fall so she was gazing at her lap. “Know this, Stephen Strange, since you’re too deep now in this life you might as well learn the most valuable thing a person could know.” Eve lifts her head, connected them with his bright blue ones. He almost felt his heart skip by how intense the stare was. “The reason betrayal hurts so much is because it never comes from your enemies.”

Silence overtakes the two while Eve’s words linger in the air. She takes the time to think back on all that happened in the recent years. There was never a moment of rest for the war hero. Each year Eve felt herself slowly draining away.

After Loki, enemies turned up left and right. Some even right under their noses. There was the discovery of Hydra within SHIELDS ranks and not long after Ultron nearly committed global annihilation. Fighting those types of enemies were to be expected in the superhero life.

But Eve never anticipated she would have to fight her friends.

2016 was the most difficult year for Eve since waking up 60 years after being taken captive by Hydra. When the Accords came into play, Eve felt her best course of action was to retire. Part of her looked forward to it. Eve envisioned herself moving to the countryside, away from the city, and maybe even taking a job as a college professor or starting an organization to help underprivileged kids.

But that didn’t happen.

Her world came crashing down with the opposing arguments between the Avengers which resulted in half of them imprisoned at the Raft. Then there was the bombshell in Siberia where the truth of her families death, including her husband and daughter, came to light. And that Steve, her best friend and person she trusted most in the world besides Tony, had knew all along.

The aftermath that followed was a dark time for Eve. She cried every night and in the shower. A bottle of wine was empty by the end of each day and nightmares flooded her mind. Steve never once tried to contact her, which only fueled her anger. He had the audacity to send a letter to Tony with a phone, but couldn’t give her the same respect.

The only thing keeping her busy and in the superhero ways was Peter. The kid was young and Eve saw herself in him. Helping him felt like a breath of fresh air.

Speaking of fresh air…it looked like they were about to get some because of the blasting sound of the ships alarm. Eve and Strange quickly got up, moving to stand beside Tony in front of the screen.

“Hey, what’s going on?” Peter asked from behind.

“I think we’re here,” Stephen replied.

“I don’t think this rig has a self-park function,�� Tony goes to the right, putting his hand in what he believed was the control. “Get your hand inside the steering gimbal, close those around it,” he secures the clasp around his arm and pulls up a map in front of him. Peter does what he says, grunting when the latch squeezes his arm. “You understand?”

“Yep, I got it.”

“This was meant for one big guy, so we gotta move t at the same time.”

“Okay, okay. Ready,” Peter holds tight. The ship was descending fast. Eve moved to the middle next to Strange, the two watching anxiously as Tony and Peter attempted to drive the ship to a safe landing.

Suddenly a very large obstacle closes in on frame. “We might want to turn,” Stephen mumbles just as Peter starts to shout, “Turn! Turn! Turn!” Tony unlocks his suit, the helmet enclosing around his.

They managed to make the turn, avoiding the one obstacle only to collide with another. It takes the top portion of the ship causing it to rattle. Eve brings her bracelets together, banging them twice to unleash her suit while Stephen conjured a protective force around the group.

The ship hit the ground hard. Eve struggles to stay on her feet and pins her wings into the floor to keep stable. More of the ship comes apart before skidding across the ground until it stills. The force of it causing Tony to fall making Strange rush over. “You all right?”

“That was close,” Tony grunts, taking his hand to help him stand. “I owe you one.” Before anyone could say anything or ask where they landed, Peter descends upside down from his web with concern in his expression.

“Let me just say, if aliens wind up implanting eggs in my chest or something and I eat of you, I’m sorry.”

“I do not want another, single, pop culture reference out of you for the trip. You understand?” Tony raises a finger sternly to stop him, but Peter interrupts with urgency.

“I’m trying to say that something is coming.” Never underestimate spidey senses.

The second the words leave Peter’s mouth, a small object rolls in front of the group before a blast sends them backward. Both Stephen and Eve collide with debris, grunting when they land on the ground. They see figures emerge from the whole in the ships wall. “What the hell?” Eve mutters before an unknown voice shouts, “THANOS!!”

Something flies toward Stephen who deflects it causing the unknown person to scream. Next thing the guy knows is he’s on the ground when a red flying fabric wraps around his face.

The second intruder with a metal mask started flying as he shot toward the group with some kind of gun. Both Eve and Tony chased after him with Tony sending a rocket to throw him off. When they collided Tony did not realize something had been placed on him. Suddenly, he’s pulled against his will to the metal debris by a magnetic field.

Eve continues to pursue the masked assailant. When she gets close, Eve brings her arm cuffs together causing a loud *bang*. The force of it sends the man into a wall. He grunts from the impact and Eve goes to pin him before he could escape, but he’s too fast for her. A bright light blasts in front of her causing Eve to block it with her arm and the man knocks her back into the control panel.

Meanwhile Peter lets out a light scream when his eyes land on a lady with antennas glowing on her head. “Woah, woah, woah!” He crab walks backward in a hurry, “Please don’t put your eggs in me!” Before she could touch him, Peter shoots a web to bind her limps together. The lady grunts, stumbling as she walks and Peter is then kicked away by the masked man.

“Stay down, clown,” his gruff voice commands. Peter dodges his attacks, jumping up and away. When he tries to tackle him a blue stringlike material wraps around him forcing him down.

“Die, blanket of death!” Tony escapes and flies over to where the cloak was blocking the view of one of the intruders. Putting a foot on his chest, the cloak flew away to reveal a very buff man with grey and red skin. With Strange holding up rings, Tony with his blaster, Eve with her energy rockets and the masked man now holding Peter at gunpoint, there was a standoff.

“Everybody stay where you are. Chill the eff out,” He clicked his mask and it retraced, revealing a human-like man before them. Eve tilted her head as she glanced him over. “I’m gonna ask you this one time. Where is Gamora?”

Her brow raised in confusion at the question. Both she and Tony’s helmets retracted as Tony replied, “Yeah. I’ll do you one better. Who’s Gamora?” What they didn’t expect was the man laying on the ground to say, “I’ll do you on better. Why is Gamora?”

“That makes no damn sense,” Eve said appalled, mirroring Strange’s expression.

“Tell me where the girl is or I swear to you I’m gonna French fry this little freak.”

Tony’s face consorted into anger at the threat. “Let’s do it! You shoot my guy and I’ll blast him. Let’s go!” A very large blaster emerged from his left hand, pointing down at the guy.

“Do it, Quill! I can take it!”

“No, he can’t take it!” The antenna lady shouted.

“She’s right. You can’t,” Stephen agreed. Eve just rolled her eye, wanting to end the standoff and get to the bottom of who these guys were.

“Oh yeah? You don’t wanna tell me where she is?” the man, Quill, looked at the sorcerer. “That’s fine. I’ll kill all four of you and I’ll beat it out of Thanos myself. Starting with you,” he pushed the gun into Peter’s head.

“Wait, hold up?” Eve put her arms up to lower her defenses. “Run that by us again?”

“All right,” Stephen shook his head, also trying to wrap his head around what Quill said. “Let me ask you this one time. What master do you serve?” Personally that would have not been the question Eve would have asked, but she waited for an answer nonetheless.

“What master do I serve?” Quill repeated the question like it was a joke. “What am I supposed to say, ‘Jesus’?”

Tony lowered his own defenses, giving his aunt a bewildered look. As if his day couldn’t get more surprising. “You’re from Earth.”

“I’m not from Earth, I’m from Missouri.” Eve had to turn around, her hand coming to palm her face. The lack of brain cells this man had was unreal to the scientist.

“Yeah, that’s on Earth, dipshit,” Tony fired back. “What are you hassling us for?”

“So you’re not with Thanos?” Peter’s small voice cut into the conversation.

Quill’s expression turned to one of horror, “With Thanos? No, I’m here to kill Thanos. He took my girl. Wait, who are you?”

With the gun to his head lowered, Peter removed his iron mask. “We’re the Avengers, man.”

“Oh.”

“You’re the ones Thor told us about.” Eve spun back around at the antenna lady’s words. Tony tilted his head in alarm at the fact they knew of Thor. Like Bruce, the Avengers hadn’t had any contact with the God in over two years.

“You know Thor?”

“Yeah,” Quill confirmed, though he looked unimpressed. “Tall guy, not that good looking,” Beside him, Peter made a face as he finished, “needed saving.”

“Not that good looking?” Eve mumbled to herself like she couldn’t believe someone would describe Thor as such. She may have been a married woman at one point, but Eve knew an attractive person when she saw one.

And Thor was the definition of more than good looking.

“Where is he now?” Strange then asked causing Eve to narrow her eye on the group. She was suspicious why Thor wasn’t with them. Could he have sent them?

“He had to go to some star and get a weapon he described as a ‘Thanos killing kind,’” Quill raised his fingers to emphasize the point.

“And he sent you here?” Eve assumed.

“No,” The antenna lady, who still hadn’t said her name, cut in. “He sent us to Knowwhere.”

“Knowwhere?” Eve repeated with a tilt of her head. It sounded like a made up place to her.

“It’s the home of the Collector,” Quill explained, moving away to glance around the crashed ship. “The Collector was holding the Reality Stone,” the group stiffened at the mention of another stone. “We tried to get there before Thanos could take it.”

“And I take it you failed,” Stephen finished for him, disappointment and worry filling his veins.

Quill tried not to let Stephen’s words get to him, but the anger was evident on his face. “We had no chance. And he took Gamora with him. Her sister, Nebula, contacted us and told us to meet her here.”

“Where is this, Nebula?”

“I don’t know obviously!” Quill threw his arms up. “Why do you think I kicked y’all’s ass? We saw the ship and thought you were part of Thanos’s squad.”

“Well, you thought wrong,” Eve stated with a tight expression. “And you barely tickled us with the way you fight.” In the corner of her eye, Eve could see Tony and Stephen holding back smirks. They both looked very amused. Before Quill could fire back, Eve moved forward, determination in her gaze.

“But it’s time to step it up because that makes three stones Thanos now has—if he hasn’t gotten his hands on more. We’ve have the Time stone,” she pointed her finger to Stephen’s amulet, “And if Thanos hasn’t reached Earth then it means our friends still have the Mind stone. That means that—,” she paused to snap her fingers, thinking back to the names Wong had stated earlier. “That means the Soul is the only one we have no knowledge of where it could be.”

At the mention of the Soul stone, Quill stilled in realization. “That’s why he needed her,” his voice was so low Eve almost couldn’t hear him.

“What was that?”

“Gamora,” he repeated her name, “On our way to Knowwhere, Gamora made me promise her something if Thanos ever got to her. It was because she knew something he didn’t. Why she couldn’t let Thanos take her.” Quill brought his hand up to run through his hair, “She must have known where to find the Soul stone.”

Eve felt herself shudder, understanding what Quill was telling them. “And Thanos has her. Right this second?” His nod only sparked more dread. “Fuck.”

“Yeah, fuck.”

When the group finally makes their way outside, they make a haunting discovery. The planet, who Quill named Titan, was a ghost town. Well more like ghost planet.

Besides them, they was not a single sign of life elsewhere. What looked like buildings were run down and becoming dust. It was chilling to see how what once thriving planet looked like when it was withering away.

“What are you guys exactly?” Eve asks when she notices the large scale of their ship. The antenna lady comes up beside her, now free from Peter’s web.

“We’re the Guardians of the Galaxy.”

Eve raised her brow at the name. It was a interesting team name to say the least. “The Guardians of the Galaxy, huh?” Eve tried it on her tongue, shrugging a second later. “Cool. I’m Evelyn,” She stuck her hand out, “but you can call me Eve.”

“I’m Mantis,” the lady replied, shaking her hand with a smile.

“Neat name,” Eve complimented, amused at how fitting it was. Her attention then turned on Quill, who had a glowing device in his hand.

“What the hell happened to this planet? It’s eight degree’s off its axis. The gravitational pull is all over the place.”

“Yeah we got one advantage,” Tony sighs, “He’s coming to us. Eve moved to stand beside him, unaware Mantis was now jumping up and down to test the lack of gravitational pull on Titan. She even stuck her limps out and did a spin.

She was having a blast from what Peter could tell.

“We’ll use it,” Tony announced, turning around to face Quill. Eve followed closely. “Alright, I have a plan. Or at least the beginnings of one. It’s pretty simple—we draw him in, pin him down, get what we need. Definitely don’t want to dance with this guy. We just want the gauntlet—.” A sound from the side distracts Tony. “Are you yawning?” He asks with offense towards Drax, who was in the middle of a yawn. “In the middle of this—when I’m breaking it down. Huh? Did you hear what I said?”

“I stopped listening after you said we need a plan.” The reply has Eve drop her shoulders in defeat. How the hell were they going to defeat Thanos with this lot.

“Okay, Mr. Clean is on his own page.”

“See, not winging it isn’t really what they do,” Quill explains.

“Uh what exactly is it that they do?” Peter asks for the three.

“Kick names, take ass.” Mantis says with determination. Drax backs her up with, “Yeah, that’s right.” All the three could do was look on with absolute bewilderment. Not a single word passed between them. Eve brought her hand up to pitch the bridge of her nose, while Peter flickered his eyes between her and Tony.

And the billionaire genius? He was silently praying would put him out of his misery.

With a sigh, Tony finally says after a minute, “Alright, just get over here, please.” He glances up to Quill, “Mr. Lord, could you get your folks to circle up?”

“Mr. Lord,” Quill closes his eyes with a shake of his head. “Star-Lord is fine.” He nudges his head for the two to come forward. When they approach, Tony continues to break it down.

“We gotta coalesce. Because if all we come at him is a plucky attitude—.”

“Dude,” Quill cuts in much to Ton’y annoyance. “Don’t call us plucky. We don’t know what it means. Alright? We’re optimistic, yes. I like your plan except it sucks, so let me do the plan and that way it might be really good.” All the while Quill mansplains, Tony just looks toward Eve with a ‘we’re doomed.’

“Tell him about the dance off to save the universe,” Drax interjects.

“What dance off?” Tony asks, already not liking the answer.

“It’s not a—It’s not—It’s nothing,” Quill stutters and tries to brush off.

“Like in ‘Footloose’, the movie?”

He looks at Peter with excitement. “Exactly like ‘Footloose.’ Is it still greatest movie in history?”

“It never was,” Peter claps back. Quill looks back in offense.

“Don’t encourage this,” Tony steps toward the teen. “Alright. We’re getting no help from Flash Gorgon here.”

“Flash Gordon, by the way,” Eve feels her eyes roll as Quill moves closer to them. “That’s a compliment. Don’t forget, I’m half human. So that fifty percent of me that’s stupid,” he begins to make a circle with his finger. “That’s one-hundred percent you.”

“You’re math is blowing my mind,” Tony shakes his head in astonishment. Eve wanted to add, but felt she’d lose brain cells if she attempted.

“Excuse me?” Mantis’ voice captures the groups attention. “But, does your friend often do that?” All eyes drift over her shoulder to find Stephen levitating in a criss-cross position.

“Strange!” Tony calls out. “You alright?” Stephen’s eyes were closed and his head was twitching, almost like he was in a trance. Green surrounding his wrists. The Starks moved closer, watching with concern.

“Ahh!” The doctor suddenly screamed as he dropped down. They rushed forward, each catching one of his shoulders to help steady his balance.

“We got you,” Eve gently said. She squeezed shoulder while he panted, noticing how sweat had gathered on his hairline.

“Hey, what was that?” Peter asked.

“I went forward in time. To view alternate futures. To see all the possible outcomes of the coming conflict.” Eve stiffened at Stephens words. Already there was a sense of dread filling her with the tone of his voice. It wasn’t hard to gather things didn’t look good for them.

“How many did you see?”

He looked at Quill before answering, “Fourteen million-six hundred and five.”

Tony clenched his jaw, “How many did we win?” They all waited, silence filling the void causing the anxiety to rise each second. With a number of outcomes that large, not even having a hundred could bring hope of a victory.

And that final ounce of hope shredded when Stephen uttered just a simple word. “One.”

What’s a villain origin story without the villain having a monologue.

That’s what Eve felt as she watched Thanos pitch to Strange the reasoning behind his plan of universal genocide. “Congratulations, you’re a prophet,” Stephen took the words out her mouth. She was crouched down beside Tony, suits at the ready and waiting to make their move. It took everything in her to not fly up to Thanos and blast his head off where he stood, but they needed to do this play by play. The plan they came up with was good.

Now it was time to put in motion.

“I’m a survivor,” Thanos told the sorcerer. The avenger rolled her eyes. Only the worst people in the universe could justify such actions.

“Who wants to murder trillions,” Stephen fired back.

“With all six stones, I could simply snap my fingers,” Thanos snapped to show how easy it was. “They would all cease to exist. I call that mercy.”

Stephen rises from the ground, stepping off the pavement he was seated on. “And then what?”

“I’d finally rest,” the Titan hums. “—and watch the sun rise on a grateful universe. The hardest choices require he strongest wills.” A chill runs through Eve and she glances to Tony. He nods, signaling it was time.

At the same moment, Stephen brings his wrists up and casts his shields. “I think you’ll find our will equal to yours.”

“Our?”

By the time Tony and Eve slammed Thanos with a building like object to the second Mantis pulled him under her spell, it had been roughly two minutes. Two minutes with all seven of them plus a blue lady entering the picture did they have the mad titan bounded. Eve was already out of breath and sweating beneath her suit, but she kept a tight hold on the iron chains she had cuffed to Thanos’ legs. It was keeping him still while the others worked on removing the gauntlet from his wrist.

“Is he under?” Tony asked. “Don’t let up.” Mantis whimpered, eyes watering by the overflow of emotions she was feeling.

“Be quick. He is very strong.”

“Parker, help! Get over here.”

“Go, kid.” Eve took his webs in her right hand and combined with her chains. Using her wing powers, she pulled back a bit to strengthen the momentum.

Tony instructed Peter in a hurry. “She can’t hold him much longer. Let’s go.”

“We gotta open his fingers to get it off,” Peter mentioned and the two began to work on opening Thanos’ fist. Meanwhile, Quill finally made his way over to the group. There was satisfaction in his gaze as he looked on the Titan being overpowered.

“I thought you’d be hard to catch,” he raised a finger to Tony, “—For the record this was my plan.” His words made Eve scoff, the Avenger rolling her eyes. “You’re not so strong now, huh?” Quill’s eyes narrowed as he stepped forward. “Where is Gamora?”

Thanos groaned. “My Gamora.”

“No, bullshit!” Quill snapped. “Where is she?”

Mantis lets out another whimper. “He is in anguish.”

“Good.”

The Titan continues to groan. Mantis looks like she could cry. “He….he mourns.” To caught up in keeping Thanos still, no one noticed the look of realization from Nebula.

“What does this monster have to mourn?” Drax strains out.

“Gamora,” she exhales.

Quill freezes, before slowly turning around to face her. “What?”

“He took her to Vormir,” she begins to explain. “He came back with the Soul Stone. But she didn’t.” Though she didn’t say the exact words, everyone knew what Nebula was implying.

Tony was the first to speak up. “Okay, Quill, you gotta cool it right now. You understand?”

“Listen to him, Quill,” Eve calls out, strengthening her hold.

“Don’t, don’t. Don’t engage,” Tony orders, noticing how the man was turning back to Thanos. “We almost got this off!” He and Peter work faster. Quill could jeopardize them any second and the last thing they needed was Thanos to snap out of Mantis’ hold.

“Tell me she’s lying,” Quill demanded. Eve sees the grief stricken look from Nebula, understanding the two were more than likely close. “Asshole, tell me you didn’t do it!”

Thanos’ voice is hoarse, “I had to.”

“No, you didn’t.” The crack in Qull’s voice was evident. He repeats, “No, you didn’t.” Then his expression turns to one of absolute fury.

Eve could recognize the look of what he was about to do from a mile away. “Quill, don’t you dare!!” The words go in one ear and out the other for Quill. He brings his arm back—gun in hand—and collides it with Thano’s cheek. The Titan’s head snaps back, causing Mantis’ to lose her grip.

“Quill,” Tony shouts, moving to take Quill’s arm before he could land another blow. “Hey, stop! Hey, stop! Stop!”

“Peter, hurry!” Eve commands. Quill continues to struggle against Tony, fighting his way out of his grip. The gauntlet starts to loosen and Peter struggles to keep it in his hands.

“It’s coming—it’s coming. I got it—I got it!” Half of Thanos’ wrists becomes exposed and for a second they think they’ve won.

But they were too late.

In the blink of an eye Peter is kicked away before Mantis is thrown from Thanos’ shoulders. “Oh, God,” he springs up and away to catch her before she could hit the ground.

Thanos thrusts the leg Drax had been holding in front of him, flinging the man into Peter and Nebula. He collides with them like a bowling ball to pins causing all three to fall. Eve nearly lost her footing, but stayed steady.

The next person to be tossed away was Strange. Thanos took a hold of the whips to bring him over the opposite way. Tony attempted an attack, but Thanos simply backhanded him. And when Drax, Nebula, and Quill raced toward him, the power stone was used to knock them all out.

Eve was the last one standing. So, she did the only thing she could think of. She held tightly to the chains connected to the clasps on his legs and flew upward then forward. The action resulted in Thanos falling to his back, the Titan grunting in the process. Eve dragged him as far as she could, having the thrusters on her wings amp up before moving side to side.

Thanos kept hitting rock after rock. And it was pissing him off.

“Ah!” Eve shouted when she was suddenly pulled back by an unseen force. Purple surrounded her, a reflection of the Power stone, and Eve felt that power as she collided hard with the ground. The force of it was enough cut her temple beneath her helmet. She groaned, pain erupting in her head. Not to mention the wind was completely knocked out of her from the impact of her landing.

“Boss, you alright?” H.O.W.I.E’s voice sounded muffled despite being right in her ear.

She winced, “May have a concussion, but we’ll deal with that later.”

In the corner of eye, Eve could see Tony fly at Thanos. He kicked at his hand—focusing the attack on the gauntlet to prevent Thanos from using it. His attacks failed once more with Thanos punching him away and making him land not too far from Eve. Together they looked at their opponent, only for horror to consume them when he lifted the gauntlet and literally tore the moon orbiting above them to pieces.

“Oh my God,” she muttered and could only guess Tony was thinking the same. The rocks fell onto Titan. Right toward the Starks. They barely had time to react and when they did there was no room to escape. Tony dodged one moon rock only to collide with another and slam back into the ground.

Eve managed to navigate through the meteor shower. Her focus then drew onto the three unconscious figures of the Guardians. With the lack of a gravitational pull, they were floating in the sky after the impact of moon rocks plummeted down. “Shit,” she cursed, flying first to Drax who was closest to her. She caught him in her arms, breathing a sigh of relief when she caught sight of Peter. “Peter!”

“Ms. Stark!” He yelled back, swinging over to help.

Together the two rounded the guardians up with Eve flying to them before tossing them in Peter’s direction. He webbed them onto anything around him so they were secured.

All the while Strange was on a one-v-one battle against Thanos. The Sorcerer Supreme of the Mystic Arts and the Mad Titan. Strange did his best to overpower Thanos—even with four infinity stones against him. For a second, Eve thought Strange could come out on top. That was until Thanos used the Power stone to erase all the duplicate Stranges.

He pulled the sorcerer to him, grabbing him by the neck. “You’re full of tricks, wizard.” Stephen grunts when he takes the amulet and crushes it in his palm. “Yet you never once used your greatest weapon. A fake.” He heaves him away and Stephen knocks unconscious after hitting his heard hard against the pavement.

Thanos moves to finish him off, but a red iron plate encases his palm making him unable to close his fist. Tony and Eve land together side by side, drawing the Titans attention. “You throw another moon at me,” Tony seethes, “and I’m gonna lose it.”

“Stark.” Both the Avengers freeze.

“You know me?”

“I do. Both of you,” Thanos reaffirms, glancing to Eve in her gold suit. “You’re not the only ones cursed with knowledge.”

Tony exhales, amping up the rockets on his back, “Our only curse is you.” With that, the rockets release.

The Titan raises the gauntlet, “Come on!” Smoke surrounds him as they go off. Tony and Eve fly forward, countering and piggybacking off each other’s attack. At one point Thanos rips away Tony’s helmet, but the nanotech quickly forms another before Thanos lands a jaw shattering blow.

Tony groans as hits the ground and Eve is kicked away, but she quickly recovers. Thanos takes the chance to remove the iron plate before using the Power stone on Tony. Although he manages to get a shield up, the force of the stone’s power pushes him back several feet. Before he could blink, Tony collides hard with the rock and falls to the ground.

With a cry, Eve flies forward and turns to extend her feet, catches the Titan off guard. She kicks him off his balance, the two rolling several steps away and Eve finds herself in a heated battle. She focuses her attacks on the gauntlet—doing whatever to either remove it or stop him from forming a fist.

She jumps onto of his shoulders, using her wings to draw them back so Eve could then flip him onto his back. She presses her body onto his left arm, feet keeping his palm open. She then brings her fist up and lands punch after punch until he catches her arm and flings her away.

Eve lands on her back, letting out a grunt. When she gets up, she sees Thanos brings his one hand to his cheek, “All that for a drop of blood?” he hums when he sees the dark reddish purple liquid. The woman huffs, moving to continue the fight.

Unfortunately Thanos sees it coming. Before Eve could land another blow, he brings the gauntlet up. Purple radiates in a bright glow, and Eve’s breath catches when she finds herself unable to move. “W-what?” She stutterers, straining to move her muscles. A eerie sound fills her ears—the sound of mental crumbling.

It all happens to quick. Eve gasps when the air hits her skin. Her eyes go wide and she’s barely able to move her head. Gold levitates in front of her. A familiar shine to the color.

Thanos had took a part her suit.

It was floating around her in pieces. She couldn’t even tell which limbs were what. But she did notice how her very large and sharp wings were moving right in front of her. ‘Oh, God.’

Still unable to move, Eve lets out a choked cry. Her veins were visible with how hard she was trying to break free.

“You’re a strong fighter, Stark,” Thanos says, adjusting his wrist. The action turned the one wing directly in front of Eve downward. The pointed tip was leveled with her stomach. Smaller shards of metal pointed at her chest and torso. Eve’s panted, heart speeding up. In her peripheral, she could see Tony and Strange slowly coming to.

When both men saw what was happening, their face consorted in horror.

“A shame it had to end this way.”

“EVE!!!!”

A scream tore through Eve’s throat, echoing as she was hauled backward until her back met a rock and the pieces of her suit embedded into her body. The wing impaled directly through her stomach—coming to a hilt when it met the rock. Blood spilled from her mouth and the excruciating pain erupted within ever inch of Eve. (AN: If you’re listening to the song, I recommend having it at 6:45)

The sound of Tony crying out to her was muffled. Vision blurred as she struggled to breath. Each time blood poured from her many wounds. Eve grunted, her body shaking from the shock. Soon the pain slowly turned to numbness. There was no way she would survive.

Thanos turned away, not needing to finish the job when it looked like Eve was seconds away from succumbing to her wounds. He turned to Tony, who was too frozen by what he witnessed to notice the oncoming threat.

Eve tried to mentally call out to him, as though it would make a difference. ‘No, please no. Not him!’ It was useless. The Avenger was pinned with nowhere to go. Removing the wing would only cause her to bleed out. Her heart was already slowing down.

When all hope was lost, a rumble shook the ground. Though distorted, Eve managed to lift her gaze up toward the sky. At first she thought she was dreaming. It would explain it since she was seconds from knocking at death’s door.

Up in the already reddish hue of the sky, there was something bright orange and yellow floating on the edge of the atmosphere. It was so bright Eve thought it was a ship at first, but then it starting flying downward and she noticed how close it resembled that of fire. It didn’t have a distinct shape. It literally looked like the sky was on fire.

Eve wasn’t the only one who saw the strange entity. Thanos tilted his head, wondering what it possibly could be. Then it came closer. And closer. And closer until it was ground level and racing right in their direction.

Thanos snarls, raising the gauntlet in an attempt to stop the approaching figure. When it’s roughly fifty feet he uses the stones to destroy it. But to his surprise, Thanos is pushed away, skidding across the ground by the force of it flying past him.

Flying directly toward Eve.

Unable to escape, Eve felt the fear rise in her and she let out a strangled cry. The air became hot. It felt like she was in a sauna at full power as the entity swarmed her. It hit her chest full on, the force of it making her bounce against the rock she was pinned on. The pressure from the impalement went away, and Eve looked down to see all the metal shards including the wing had disintegrated.

Then she was rising off the ground, the orange flare surrounding her. It was so bright she could barely see. She couldn’t even make out where Tony and the others were.

It grew hotter. Hotter than any sauna she had been in. It was as though Eve was falling into a sun.

The intensity became stronger as though she could explode at any second. Her mind was cracking under the pressure—the heat coursing to the point it was becoming too much. Soon her vision turned black. Everything seemed to fade away.

There was only fire.

When a burst of energy consumed her, the scream Eve let out could be heard on every inch of Titan. Tony had to shield his eyes, the brightness so overbearing it was burning. All he could make out was Eve surrounded by orange fire until he barely was able to find her silhouette. It was like he was witnessing the birth of a star.

“EVE!!!”

A white light erupted as the explosion rocketed off the Avenger. Tony fell to the ground, shielding himself from the debris of rocks raining down from the sky. Strange conjured shields to deflect, and Thanos used his gauntlet to disintegrate the pieces. Dust consumed the air making it difficult to see.

When it cleared, the first thing they all noticed was a very large crater the size of Central Park. And in the middle was an very unconscious Eve Stark.

There was still orange surrounding her, but it appeared to be seeping into her skin. It was being absorbed by the woman with tiny glowing cracks along her face and neck and hands.

Tony’s stomach dropped, fearing the worst and unable to accept she was gone. Whether she was breathing or not, he couldn’t tell from the distance. Before he could run to her, Thanos was already up and moving. It broke the older man to not be with his aunt when she could be dead or dying.

But they had a mission to finish. And she would want him to finish it.

With a loud cry, Tony flew at the Titan. His foot came up and kicked the gauntlet to trap it down. Tony then swung down with his left fist. He lost the upper hand when Thanos flipped onto his back.

His suit was breaking apart with each blow—the nanotech unable to keep up with each repair. When Thanos got a hold of Tony’s left hand, the man conjured a blade on his right. He thrusted it toward Thanos’ stomach, but that hand was grabbed as well. The blade was ripped from his hand and driven into an area where his suit was not protecting him.

Tony grunted, shock filling him as he looked down to the weapon penetrating his torso. He winced, shaky breaths leaving his lips and the blood trickled down. Thanos began walking him back, and although Tony tried to push him away the Titan was stronger.

Holding onto the blade, Thanos pushed Tony onto a rock. Bloody and bruised, the Avenger tried to get a look at his aunt to see if she was still breathing, but couldn’t see her. He flinched when a hand came up to hold his head. “You have my respect, Stark. Both of you do. When I’m done, half of humanity will still be alive.” Tony groans when Thanos releases him before stepping away.

Panting, the pain in his side growing stronger, Tony glances to his left. “E-Eve,” he tries to call out, but it gets stuck in his throat. There was no response. Water fills his eyes, “Eve!”

Thanos watches with a blank look. “I hope they remember you two.” The Titan lifted the gauntlet, aiming first at Tony. The glowing stones stared back at the Avenger and he mentally prepared for them to be his last image.

But before Thanos could unleash the power, a voice croaked, “Stop.” Thanos glanced to his right at the sound. Stephen was pushing himself to a sitting position, panting, “Spare their lives and I will give you the stone.”

It was an offer too good to pass. “No tricks.” Stephen shook his head and Thanos directed the gauntlet toward him.

“Don’t,” Tony pleaded.

The Sorcerer ignored him. Raising his right hand, Stephen removed the illusion of the Time stone and it appeared out of thin air. Thanos opened his right palm, awaiting the gem to be handed over. Watching helplessly, Tony sighed as Stephen granted the Titan his wish. The glowing stone flew over to Thanos before being placed in the thumb holder of the gauntlet.

Green swarmed around his wrist causing him to groan. He then looked down to admire it, “One to go.” All of a sudden Thanos was blasted by a bright light, followed by a loud scream. Quill had finally awaken and was currently flying toward the Titan with determination. “AHHH!!!”

His attempt was a failure. Thanos simply used the Space stone to conjure a portal and he vanished from their eyes. Quill had been inches away from colliding with him, but soon found himself hitting the ground with a loud grunt. “Where is he?!” He shouted, removing his helmet and waving his weapon around.

No one answered. Tony was occupied with sealing the stab wound to his side with the very little piece of his suit that was intact. The rest of the guardians were waking up and Stephen was rubbing his goatee with his hand. Quill’s face fell in realization, “Did we just lose?”

Again no one answered. That was when the attention was directed at the lone woman lying in the crater.

“Eve!” Tony shouted, limping toward her. She laid unmoving, eyes closed and arms sprawled out beside her. There was no sight of the glowing orange entity that had surrounded her—what Tony believed had went into Eve. Upon a closer look, Tony realized the area she had been impaled had no visible injury.

No gaping hole in her skin. No guts hanging out.

Only torn clothing and the reminisce of blood remained. Eve’s stomach was intact.

Any other injures or blemishes were also healed—including the gash on her right temple. By the time Tony reached Eve, the glowing orange cracks in her skin subsided. The others watched silently, unable to do anything.

Bending to the ground beside her, Tony attempted to wake her. “Eve—ah!” He flinched back as though he touched fire. A burning sensation filled his palms. Tony tried to touch her shoulders once more, and again doubled back by how hot her skin was. Even through the clothes she wore, Eve was a fireball. Tony noticed the bottom of his hands were flaming red. Blisters started to form causing him to grimace.

The pain was unlike any burn he’d ever had.

“What the hell?” He mumbled, concern written all over him. He put his suit fully on with max cooling and began a severe burn treatment for his hands. “F.R.I.D.A.Y run a thermal imaging scan.” A few seconds later the robotic voice echoed in the silent void. Moisture began to coat Eve’s skin. Within seconds she was drenched in sweat.

“Boss, her heat signatures are reading close to three thousand Kelvins. That’s close to most stars in the Galaxy.”

Behind Tony, the entire group had looks ranging from worry, shock, and amazement. “How’s that possible?” Peter asked, moving closer to the two. Although clammy, Eve’s skin looked normal despite she’d been impaled. In fact, it looked like she was just sleeping soundly. “No one could survive a body temperature that high.”

“Thanks, Captain obvious,” Quill spoke sarcastically.

“Whatever that thing was,” Tony gulped, glaring at the man. “W-whatever went inside her—it-it has to be that. Wha-what was it?” He spun around to face Strange, demanding an explanation. “You’re a sorcerer—you protect our reality, you said it yourself. What the hell was that thing and why did it go into Eve?”

Stephen was at a loss for words. “I-I don’t know.”

“What do you mean you don’t know?!”

“Stark, I’ve never seen anything like that before,” Stephen winces when he tries to get up, but ends up staying seated on the pavement. “Believe me.”

Tony shakes his head in frustration. He turns back to Eve and takes her shoulders in his hands—this time protected by his suit. “Eve, wake up,” he gently shakes her, even going as far to lightly slap her face. No reaction. “C’mon, Eve. You gotta wake up—F.R.I.D.A.Y what’re her vitals?”

“The levels are off the charts, sir—I can’t get an accurate reading. She’s exceeding a heart rate of over two hundred beats per minute and her body temperature is rising. I’m trying to make contact with H.O.W.I.E, but the system is compromised.”

“Shit,” Tony curses, tightening his jaw as dread fills him.

“Is she having a heart attack?” There’s a crack in Peter’s voice. The boy looked scared by how lifeless his mentor looked. While he may not be a doctor, anyone would know a heart rate that high was deadly to the human body.

Stephen got up, ignoring the pain in his side and crouched down beside Eve. He couldn’t touch her even with his gloves on. “Can your AI do a EEG? We don’t have electrodes—?”

“F.R.I.D.A.Y.” Tony didn’t even half to ask. Two small orbs released from his suit and landed on Eve’s temples.

“Running one now, boss.” Lifting his hand, F.R.I.D.A.Y projected an image of Eve’s brain waves. Just like what F.R.I.D.A.Y had saw with the vitals, Eve’s brain activity was abnormal. Of course her ratings were always different than the average human due to the enhancement of the super soldier serum. But this was unlike anything the two had seen.

The image only lasted a few seconds before cutting out. Then the electrodes fell off in pieces. “What happened?” They noticed the pieces appeared liquid-like.

“They melted away,” Stephen said with wide eyes. He was in doctor mode and if they didn’t act fast Eve could die any second. “We need to slow her heart down—you need to shock her somehow.”

“We don’t even know what’s wrong with her—.” Stephen cuts him off

“It doesn’t matter, Tony! Her heart rate’s too high and it’s our only option. Kid—,” He calls to Peter who freezes. “Get over here. Your suit will protect you.” Peter rushes forward, anxiety ridden on his face as Stephen instructs him to hold down Eve by the shoulders.

Tony curses, “Dammit, fine! Show me where.” He changes the functions of his hands to act as a defibrillator. Stephen takes his wrists to places on the appropriate areas of Eve’s chest.

“Okay,” he takes a deep breath. Him and Tony catch eyes to exchange nods. “On three, shock her. Alright?” Tony gives another nod. “One……two…..,” everyone holds their breath. “Three!” A loud *zap* ignites as Tony presses his hands into Eve’s chest. The force of the shock causes Eve to lift off the ground. Peter strengthens his hold on her.

“F.R.I.D.A.Y, status?” “Her heart rate is still high, but there was a decrease in the beats per minute.” Tony looks to Stephen for the next move.

“Up the voltage and shock her again.” He sees the concerned look from Tony and says, “Do it.” A sound indicates the change in electricity and Tony places his hands on Eve once more. “One…..two….three!!” The second shock lifts her again.

They wait for F.R.I.D.A.Y’s voice. “Heart rate is decreasing, boss.” Stephen orders one more shock for good measure and finally they breath a sigh in relief when the AI relays, “Heart rate at one hundred beats per minute.”

“I-I don’t understand,” Peter says, backing away once Stephen gave the all clear. He looks to Tony, “She should be dead. Shouldn’t she?”

The older man let out a shaky breath. “Well, she’s still breathing. I-I don’t know how, but she is. That’s all that matters.” He attempted to wake her again. “Eve, Eve, if you can hear me—I-I need you to wake up. C’mon wake up.”

They all wait for any sign of movement from the woman. A flicker of the eyes. A twitch of the mouth. But there was nothing. She laid still as the sweat slowly evaporated.

Tony brings a hand to rub his face. It’s mixed with blood and dirt, but he doesn’t care. After a few moments Tony finally asks the million dollar question to Stephen. “Why would you do that?”

Stephen knew instantly what he was referring to. A shaky breath leaves his lips, “We’re in the endgame now.”

Seconds later a loud rumble shook the ground. Tony slowly stood from the ground—retracting his suit and turned, but remained close to his aunt. Mantis, who was leaning on Quill, felt a shift in the atmosphere. “Something’s happening.” They all looked at her for an explanation, but to their horror, Mantis turned to literal dust before their eyes.

The next thing they knew Drax was fading away. “Quill?” The half human man faced Tony, fear stricken.

“Stay, Quill.”

“Aw man,” were his final words. The air seemed to leave the older man. His chest constricted as the panic rose in his veins. Nothing could have prepared him for this moment. It all but confirmed the worst.

Thanos won.

“Tony,” Stephen’s voice was full of defeat. He waited for Tony to slowly turn toward him before saying, “There was no other way.” Then, like the Guardians, the Sorcerer Supreme was gone in the blink of an eye. Leaving only dust in his wake.

“Mr. Stark?”

If Tony could choke on the feeling of dread, he would be suffocating in it. Peter was limping toward him, tears on his face and looking down on his hands. “I don’t feel so good.”

Tony shook his head, “You’re alright.” It didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out what the boy was feeling. His spidey senses were strong. Stronger then either of them could have prepared for.

“I-I don’t—I don’t know what’s happening. I don’t know—,” he trips, falling into Tony’s arms. With arms tight around the boy, Tony holds him as if doing so would prevent the inevitable. “I don’t wanna go. I don’t wanna go, Mr. Stark. Please. Please, I don’t wanna go.” His knees give out and Tony gently lowers them until Peter is on his back. All Tony could do was watch helplessly as Peter whispered, “I’m sorry.”

The hand that had been on Peter’s chest hits the ground, Tony almost falling to his side when Peter vanishes into dust. He starred at his hand. Little pieces of dust laid in his palm, and Tony clenched it in a fist to bring to his chest. He could feel the rapid beat of his heart. It was rivaling that of Eve’s.

Remember his aunt and fear at the thought she may have dusted without him realizing, Tony glances over his shoulder. He is met with a sigh of relief when he sees her. Though she remained unresponsive, Eve was laid in the same spot.

“He did it.” With everything happening, Tony hadn’t even realized Nebula was still there. Like him, defeat was all over her.

Tony’s mind was racing. One thought came right after the other and they all were in similar fashion.

Eve.

Would she ever wake up? He didn’t know. If she did he’d be surprised since F.R.I.D.A.Y just alerted him of another spike in her heart rate. Then there’s the factor of her body temperature reaching the heat of a actual star. Whatever she absorbed was a mystery. And since none of the Guardians mentioned any sort of recognition, it was safe to assume they’d never seen anything like it before.

In just two short days, the universe as they knew what altered forever. Half of life ceasing to exist with a simple snap of the fingers. Who was lost in the chaos? Tony wasn’t sure if he’ll ever know. They were stranded on a planet billions of miles from home, with one ship he was unsure of how much fuel it had.

They truly were in the endgame.

………………

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