Destiny Arrives

by Liza Palmer

  She forced herself to keep eye contact with Vis, wanting her face to be the final thmg he saw as he lived his last few moments on Earth. But as time wore on she found it unbearable to watch as the life slowly drained from Vision. For a brief moment, she looked away. Her heart breaking, tears streaming down her face, Wanda grew more and more hysterical.

  Looking back over at Vis, she needed to make his pain come to an end. She needed to give him one last act of true love. Wanda brought up her other hand and doubled up the energy now aimed at the Stone. Vis would feel no pain soon. He would be free from all of this. At least she could give him that. Vis closed his eyes and let Wanda's energy move through him.

  Close by, each hero took his or her turn against Thanos, and each was met with swift defeat. Bucky. Okoye, Widow, all rushed toward him or fired upon him only to have their weapons halted or turned back on them. Steve Rogers ran at Thanos from behmd and slid on his knees, hitting the Titan in the leg. Thanos was surprised someone actually landed a blow. He lifted his Gauntleted hand, made a fist, and swung down to crush the nuisance before him. To his shock, Steve Rogers caught the fist in both hands, stopping it. Teeth gritting, he pushed back at Thanos. Even the villain was impressed...before landing a blow with his other fist that sent Steve flying.

  The Scarlet Witch's powers were causing the Mind Stone to finally crack slightly. She heard Thanos approaching from behind her and split her focus, blasting Thanos with one hand while intent on destroying the Stone with energy from the other.

  Wanda threw up an energy barrier that bought them enough time for her to focus on Vision. The final moments were at hand and they both knew it.

  "It's all right," Vision whispered, his eyes locked on hers. Wanda poured all of her energy into destroying the Mind Stone. "It's all right," Vision repeated.

  Outside the barrier, Thanos bashed the energy field with the Gauntlet, but it barely dented. He had come so far, and the final piece was slippmg through his fingers before him.

  The Mind Stone began to crackle suddenly, finally reaching critical damage. As Wanda sobbed, Vision spoke, his voice intimate and tender. "I love you." Her cries burst from her as Vis's eyes closed. His face was calm and serene as the Mind Stone shattered. Yellow energy shot out and washed over everyone. Vision collapsed, his entire body ashen gray.

  "I understand, my child," came Thanos's voice as he approached Wanda. "Better than anyone."

  Wanda's eyes flared. "You could never!"

  To her surprise, Thanos looked softly at her. "Today I lost more than you can know." He walked to stand beside the lifeless body of Vision. "But now is no time to mourn. Now is no time at all."

  Formmg a fist with the Gauntlet, a magical green ring appeared around Thanos's wrist. He had activated the Time Stone, reversing time. Wanda weepmg, the destruction of the Stone, Vision's declaration of love, all played back in reverse until Vision stood before him. Mind Stone mtact and on his forehead.

  "No!" Wanda screamed, but was blasted across the clearing by Thanos.

  The Titan faced Vision and gripped him by the throat. He lifted him and pried out the Mind Stone from his forehead. Vision's forehead crumbled and his body went limp. Thanos threw him aside.

  Holding the Mind Stone above the final bezel over the vacant knuckle of the Infinity Gauntlet, Thanos dropped it into place. Instantly, cosmic energy that had not been collected m a smgle place smce before the Big Bang washed over him and coursed through him.

  Thanos arched his back and bellowed. He raised his fist and the energy began to dissipate.

  All six Stones were pulsating in unison now. He stared at them, so transfixed he never saw the lightning bolt aimed for his chest hit him square m the center, sendmg him tumbling and crashmg through a copse of trees.

  Thor appeared and raised Stormbreaker. Before Thanos could react, Thor hurled Stormbreaker end over end until it found its mark in Thanos's chest, embeddmg there with a dull thud.

  Thor walked to the Titan, who was struggling to find breath.

  "I told you you'd die for that." Thor pushed Stormbreaker deeper into Thanos's chest, causing him to stifle a cry of pain.

  Panting for air, Thanos met Thor's gaze and smiled, privy to a joke only he knew the punchlme to.

  "You...should have...gone...for the head." Thanos gasped as he raised his hand. Thor saw the Infinity Gauntlet on it, all six Stones glowmg. Thanos gave a bigger grin as Thor's eyes widened in horror.

  "NO!"

  THANOS SNAPPED HIS FINGERS.

  Thanos, the Gauntlet no longer on his hand and dressed in a tunic, stepped out of a simple structure, shallow water surrounding him. He was no longer on Earth. In fact, he wasn't sure where he was.

  A noise made him turn. He saw a young, green-skinned child approach him.

  "Daughter?"

  "Did you do it?" she asked.

  "Yes."

  "What did it cost?"

  With a heavy sigh, he answered. "Everything."

  As quickly as his mmd had drifted, it snapped back to focus and he was on Earth again, in Wakanda, Thor above him.

  Thanos looked at the Infinity Gauntlet, which was burnt and cracked now, but the Stones still glowed. A teleportation portal opened behind him and Thanos vanished from Earth, leaving the inhabitants to discover the consequences of his actions. Stormbreaker dropped to the ground as the portal closed.

  "What did you do?" yelled Thor, but Thanos was gone.

  Steve came running in. "Where did he go?" he asked Thor, but the Asgardian had no response. "Thor. Where did he go?"

  Bucky's voice interrupted as he entered the clearing, walking strangely. "Steve?" Before he could say more, he dropped his gun and turned to dust, blipped out of existence. Steve ran to where his friend had been, but there was no sign Bucky Barnes had been in that spot except the ashes left.

  M'Baku watched helplessly as his fellow Wakandan warriors and citizens turned to dust around him.

  "Up, General, up! This is no place to die." T'Challa was helping Okoye to her feet as he started to turn to dust. When he was gone, Okoye fell to the ground, searching frantically for her king. In the clearing near Okoye, Rocket sat by Groot, who was painlessly and ever so quietly turning to dust in front of him. "I am Groot," he said weakly.

  "Oh. No., .n-no, no, no! Groot!" Just as Rocket reached out to embrace his closest friend, Groot turned to ash m his hands. "No!" Rocket cried out as his heart broke, the ashes of Groot settling all around him.

  Wanda held Vision's lifeless body m her arms, and as she turned to dust, she smiled. Relieved that she didn't have to endure one more second on this planet without her love.

  All by himself. Falcon struggled to stand, turning to dust before anyone knew where he'd landed. Alone and afraid, his ashes drifted along on the Wakandan wmds.

  "Sam?" Rhodey called out, running to him but not making it in time. "Sam? Where you at?" Rhode}- called out again.

  No one answered.

  Across the galaxy on Titan, Mantis looked up.

  "Something's happening," she warned just before turning mto dust. Tony watched in horror as Drax looked up.

  "Quill?" Drax said, just before turning to dust, his ashes now part of the dusty ruins of Titan. Quill looked to Tony in horror.

  "Steady, Quill," Tony eased, walking toward him. Quill looked at his arms, and must have felt somethmg because he managed to utter "Oh, man," before turning to dust himself.

  From the rubble of the stairs, Doctor Strange called to Iron Man. "Tony." He made sure Tony was paying attention. "There was no other way." With that, he turned to dust as well.

  "Mr. Stark?" Peter Parker's voice was weak and scared. "I don't feel so good." No, Tony thought. Please, no. Not him. Peter stumbled toward Tony, his arms outstretched. Tony rushed to Peter. "You're all right," Tony assured him, just like he'd done before.

  "I don't know what's happening. I don't know." Peter fell mto Tony's arms and Tony wrapped his arms tightly around the boy. Peter held on to Tom- and began to cry. H
e was just a kid. Tony held him as he sobbed. "I don't wanna go. I don't wanna go, sir. Please. Please. I don't want to go. I don't want to go." Peter fell to the ground and Tony with him. Peter's arm was still tight around Tony's neck.

  Tony leaned in. Look at me, kid. I'm calm. You 're going to be okay-, he thought. I'm right here. I'm right here. Just look at me. Tony grasped Peter's shoulder, his eyes locked on his as, with a tiny whisper, Peter turned to dust.

  "I'm sorry." Tony slammed his hand through where Peter once was. His hand now full of nothing but ashes. Tony willed it to be false. Willed the boy back. Willed another chance to save him. To be there for him. To protect him. To love him.

  "He did it." Nebula's voice came from behmd Tony. He had forgotten she was still there. At least m this decaying part of the universe he wasn't completely alone, Tony thought. Then it struck him—what Nebula said. Thanos had achieved what he'd set out to do—to balance the universe, at any cost.

  Pepper. Had Pepper survived? How much had he truly lost?

  Captam America rolled Vision over and assessed the damage to his friend just as Natasha ran up.

  "What is this?" Rhodey asked, looking around at the remaining five Avengers: Thor, Banner, Natasha, Cap, and himself. "What the hell is happening?"

  Sitting next to Vision's gray, discolored corpse. Cap began putting the pieces together. His face paled and his entire body deflated.

  "Oh, God," Cap said as he realized what Thanos had done.

  Somewhere on a planet far away, the sun was rising. Thanos sat on the front steps outside a simple hut as the rays of dawn hit his face. For the first time since he could remember, the Titan's face lit in a genuine smile. Thanos had won.

  "Still no word from Stark?" Nick Fury asked.

  "No, not yet. We're watching even- satellite on both hemispheres, but still nothing," Maria Hill said as she scanned her device for answers. "What is it?" Fury asked.

  "Multiple bogeys over Wakanda," Hill said urgently. "Same energy signal as New York?" "Ten times bigger." Maria's tone was serious. "Tell Klein we'll meet him—"

  Just then a black SUV screeched around, crashing just in front of them. "Nick! Nick!" Maria yelled, pointing at the spinning vehicle. Fury hopped out of the car with Hill. She walked up to the black SUV "They okay?" Fury asked after the driver.

  "There's no one here," Hill said, meeting his eyes, her voice scared and spiraling.

  Above, a helicopter crashed mto a building. The city was m absolute chaos. It was worse than the Chitauri, worse than Ultron. "Call control. Code red," Fury ordered.

  But Hill didn't answer. "Nick," she said, her voice soft. Nick Fury turned in time to see his partner turn to dust.

  "Oh, no." Nick took out an old-school 1990s-era pager and punched m a sequence of digits just as he saw his own hand turn to dust.

  "Mother—" Fury sighed just as he disappeared.

  The device fell to the ground, flashing the word SENDING...SENDING...Finally, it connected. The device lit up.

  On the display was a red, blue, and yellow insignia. If anyone saw it, they might not have recognized it. But to those who knew, it meant only one thmg: someone had received the call for help. THE END

  LIZA PALMER is an internationally best-selling author of nine novels, including Conversations with the Fat Girl and Nowhere but Home. An Emmv-nominated writer she lives in Los Angeles and works for BuzzFeed.