Ninety Four
Grace, fighting with Peter, then hears Clint over comms. "Cap, what do you want me to do with this thing?!"
"Get those Stones as far away as possible!" Steve shouts.
Grace stops, flying into the air, searching for Clint and the gauntlet. "No! We need to get them back where they came from!"
"No way to get them back," Tony says, causing her heart to drop, guilt to start eating at her as she thinks of the Ancient One. "Thanos destroyed the quantum tunnel."
And then Scott rekindles her hopes. "Hold on! That wasn't our only time machine." A second later, Grace hears a car horn honking to the tune of La Cucaracha.
"Anyone see an ugly, brown van up there?" Steve suddenly asks.
"Yes!" a woman with a British accent shouts. "But you're not gonna like where it's parked!"
Grace looks at Peter. "You good here?"
He nods in the midst of fighting. "I got it. You go help save the universe."
She laughs before flying off, saying, "You're helping, too."
Over comms, her father asks, "Scott, how long you need to get that thing working?"
"Maybe ten minutes," he replies.
"Get it started," Steve instructs. "We'll get the Stones to you."
"We're on it, Cap," a female voice responds. Grace begins searching for the Stones, having to fight on her way.
Tony, meanwhile, spots Strange due to the very visible magic he's using, and he lands next to him.
"Hey," Tony says, his helmet retracting. "You said one out of fourteen million, we win, yeah? Tell me this is it."
Strange shakes his head. "If I tell you what happens, it won't happen."
Tony sighs. "You better be right."
Grace, from up above, doesn't find the gauntlet until she hears T'Challa over comms. "Clint! Give it to me." She knows where he is as he just landed with a wide burst of purple energy, making him easy to spot, and she flies over to him as he takes off, gauntlet in hand.
"I got you from up here, King T'Challa," Grace says, following him, helping to keep Thanos' army off him.
"Thanks, Stark," he replies, just before landing in another burst of purple energy.
But that's when it gets a bit hairy, as Thanos hits T'Challa with his blade from a distance — too far away from Grace to prevent or even see coming — knocking the gauntlet out of his hands. Grace flies down for it, grabbing it even as enemies swarm.
In her peripheral vision, while fighting off the army, gauntlet in one hand, she sees Wanda land in a powerful cloud of red in between T'Challa and Thanos.
"You took everything from me," she spits.
Thanos doesn't look scared, though Grace knows he should. Instead, he says, "I don't even know who you are."
"You will," Wanda replies, and she makes good on that, her hands radiating power, lifting two chunks of great debris and herself. She throws the debris at Thanos, then lands hard, hitting him with jabs of power, knocking him to the ground. Now above, Grace sees as he grabs his blade, and Wanda continues fighting him, fueled by anger.
"Stark!" T'Challa says, now smartly further away from the fight. "Give me the gauntlet; we need to keep it moving!" Grace flies lower down to the ground to give it to him, but then she's lifted up by an unseen force.
Sai fights against it. "I don't know what this is!" she says, comforting Grace immensely.
The force tries to rip the gauntlet out of her grasp. Then, she's turned around, and she sees an alien very much resembling an evil squid, his hand positioned as if he's the one controlling the force. Grace tries to blast him, but he deflects it.
T'Challa runs for the squid, shouting, "Hold on!"
And then a different voice, one filled with concern. "Grace!" It's Peter, swinging towards her, coming to her aid. T'Challa begins fighting the squid, distracting him, and Grace feels less force on the gauntlet.
"Take it!" she shouts at Peter.
She throws it toward him, and he webs it, shouting, "I got it!"
Soon, the force releases her, and T'Challa is flung away as the squid goes after Peter. Grace does everything she can to stop the squid, blasting him, then tackling him, though he uses force to push her away from him, his sights on the gauntlet. Tony flies over and helps her.
"You okay?" he asks. "I saw you- I was trying to get to you- I was too far-"
"I'm alright, Dad," Grace replies. "Don't worry."
They blast the squid together, leaving him down for the moment, and then go their separate ways, Grace leaving him with a little salute. Tony laughs and flies the other way, searching for Pepper in the chaos.
Peter, meanwhile, is fighting off bad guys with Instant Kill Mode, and he quickly realizes why someone would need it.
The spider legs shoot out of the back of his suit, stabbing at the enemies, and it's extremely helpful considering his hands are occupied with holding the gauntlet.
Up above, Grace sees Wanda on the ground, holding off Thanos' blade with her power, though she's struggling. In a moment, though, she gets the upper hand, hitting Thanos and knocking his blade away.
She then lifts him in red, along with debris around him, and he roars, probably in pain. Wanda moves her hand to the right and his armor begins to break up. Grace watches it all in glances, switching from fighting to observing rapidly, amazed yet not surprised at Wanda's display of power.
And then Thanos shouts, "Rain fire!"
With an involuntary gasp, Grace shouts, "We got missiles coming!" over comms. In another moment, they begin to hit, one after the other, striking the ground. Wanda goes flying, and Grace goes after her, managing to catch her midair around the middle. Below, magical, orange shields go up all over the battlefield.
Sai starts maneuvering around the missiles, saying, "Oh shoot, oh shoot, oh shoot, oh shoot," over and over.
Wanda looks up at Grace. "Thanks for the save, iertare."
"Not that you needed it," Grace replies. "I've missed you."
"How long has it been?" she asks.
"Five years."
Wanda looks back at her again, a bit surprised. "You're older, then."
"Twenty two," Grace confirms.
Wanda's eyes widen. "You're older than I am now. By two whole years."
Grace is almost startled by the information, as she'd always seen Wanda as older than she was anyway, which makes this even more weird. And then she realizes something else. "I'm older than Peter, too. By, like, four years." She looks at the ground in amazement. "I don't know whether to feel weird about this or rub it in his face for the rest of our lives." Wanda laughs at this.
"Uh, is anyone else seeing this?" Pepper suddenly asks. Grace turns and sees a flood of water about to pour onto the battlefield, but, luckily, magic starts holding it back, turning it into a spinning whirlpool.
"Dad, are you okay?" Grace asks.
"I'm good," he replies.
"Peter? How's the gauntlet?"
"I got this, I got this!" he assures her, then in the next breath changing his tune. "Okay, I don't got this. Help! Somebody, help!"
Grace flies around, searching for him, but she hears Cap over comms before she does. "Hey, Queens, heads up."
Thor's hammer goes flying through the air, and Peter latches onto it with a web. Grace sees him going with it, just until a missile breaks the web and Peter starts to plummet. Grace races over, but Pepper is closer.
"Hang on. I got you, Peter," she says, catching him.
Peter, the gauntlet still thankfully in hand, quickly realizes who grabbed him. "Hey, Miss Potts!"
"Um," Pepper says, a bit apologetically, "it's Mrs. Stark now, actually."
"What?!" Peter exclaims. "You guys had the wedding without me?!"
"Well, we didn't think you were coming back..."
"I mean, I guess that's fair-" He's cut off when Pepper passes him to a British woman literally looking like an actual goddess and riding a Pegasus. Peter's eyes widen in surprise. "Hey! Nice to meet you- oh, crap!" She turns the horse abruptly, and they start going downwards, which is absolutely insane.
Grace follows, still dodging missiles, Wanda using her power to fight the army from this position. Then, Grace sees Peter go flying off the horse once a missile lands near it, and she goes lower, not able to make it to him before he hits the ground. Enemies and missiles prevent her from getting as close as she'd like to be.
Sai zooms in on him. "He's alright. No need to worry." And then missiles start raining down harder. "Okay, maybe not so much." Grace continues trying to get to him, panicking, but then Sai zooms on someone jumping on top of Peter, protecting him. Grace can tell by the glint of his metal arm that it's Bucky Barnes.
Knowing Peter will be safe, Sai then turns and tries to fly Grace and Wanda to a safer place, away from the landing missiles.
But, suddenly, they stop. The guns just turn around and begin firing into the sky. Grace's brows furrow. "What in the world?"
"What the heck is this?" Sam asks.
Tony watches from his position above the battlefield, blasting down into it. "Friday, what are they firing at?"
"Something just entered the upper atmosphere," she replies.
A small blast of orange fire comes racing towards the battlefield, undeterred by the missiles hitting it. It goes right into the ship, which starts exploding at various parts, the guns hanging limp and useless. The ship starts crumbling from the front as a streak of blue flies directly through it, and then Grace realizes, seeing her from a distance.
"Oh, my gosh, it's Carol," she says, eyes locked on the beautiful destruction. The ship crashes into the water, sending up a huge and yet welcome wave.
"Danvers," Steve says, "we need an assist here."
She touches down, right in front of Peter Parker (Bucky got up a moment ago, and Peter assured him he was okay, so he left and returned to the fight). He's still on the ground, clutching the gauntlet like a teddy bear as he looks up at Carol Danvers in amazement.
"Hi," he says. "I'm... Peter Parker."
Her brows raise. "Oh, so you're Peter?"
"You know me?" he asks, surprised.
"Of you, yes," she replies. "Your girlfriend mentioned you." She gestures to the gauntlet. "You got something for me?"
Peter manages to stand and looks out at the approaching army, seemingly no less in number than when all this started. He hands her the gauntlet. "I don't know how you're gonna get it through all that."
Grace touches down with Wanda, setting her down next to Carol.
"Don't worry," Wanda says, as Pegasus Girl lands behind her.
Okoye approaches. "She's got help."
Pepper, Mantis, Shuri, a woman with the same powers as Scott (but with wings), Gamora, and Nebula all join them. Peter looks at Grace, her helmet down, defiant in the face of the giant army before her, fierce woman surrounding her, all ready to absolutely mess up Thanos.
Grace looks at him with a smile. "Hey. Haven't seen you in a few minutes."
He's even more amazed than before, stuttering. "You're- You're amazing."
She smiles wider, then kisses him, unable to resist doing so, even now. Pegasus Girl snorts. "As cute you two are, we don't have time. You can kiss after Thanos is dead."
They blush, and Peter steps away, going off to rejoin the fight while his girlfriend and her sick friends charge the army, tearing through it like they're ripping a piece of tissue paper. As they run, Grace wishes that Nat were here, leading the charge. She deserves to be.
"This is so awesome," Sai says. "That was so cool."
Grace blasts at her enemies, ending up near Okoye in the fight. She glances over at her. "Hey. Long time no see."
"Hey, yourself," Okoye replies. "Was that your boyfriend?"
Grace grins as she blasts an Outrider with her chest blaster. "Yeah."
Okoye nods a little. "He's not so bad."
Up above, Wanda stills two Chitauri beasts with her power, and then Pegasus Girl flies down the length of one, cutting it with her sword as she goes. Meanwhile, Carol blasts through the army like a rocket, hindered by nothing. If something's in her way, she just goes through it.
Pepper, Shuri, and Scott's friend — girlfriend? probably girlfriend — start running ahead, and Grace goes to follow her mom, carrying Shuri to help her out, as she can't fly. They reach Thanos ahead of Carol and all blast him collectively, the power hitting him hard and forcing him back, rolling on the battlefield.
"Awesome," Sai says.
"I know," Grace replies with a smile.
By the time Thanos gets up, Carol is past him, though he throws his blade at her. It hits the van, which contains a small Quantum Tunnel, right before Carol gets there, and there's large explosion of light. It sends Grace flying backwards as she closes her eyes tightly. She feels herself hit the ground, hears crashing and breaking, and everything hurts.
Sai says, "Oh, boy, this isn't good. This suit is totally gonna need some repairs."
"Great," Grace groans.
In the middle of the battlefield, Tony was fighting when it happened, closer to the van than before. He saw his wife and daughter absolutely blast Thanos — with help — and it filled him with a sense of pride and amazement. But then he saw the blade too, and the explosion.
He turns now, and he sees the gauntlet, previously in Carol's hands, now unattended on the ground.
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