Spencer crouched down behind a piece of debris, watching carefully as a large imposing figure emerged from a black cloud and began surveying the damaged remains of Ebony Maw's ship. She glanced away from him to look at the rest of the team. It looked as if everyone was in place, ready to play their part in hopefully stopping this tyrant once and for all. Quill was behind some other wreckage not far away from Thanos, his weapon drawn and ready; Peter was peeking out from above and behind Strange, who was sitting upon what may have once been a plaza's steps.

    "Oh, yeah, you're much more of a Thanos," Strange mused, finally catching the figure's attention.

    "I take it the Maw is dead," he stated. When Strange barely nodded, he continued. "This day extracts a heavy toll. Still, he accomplished his mission."

    "You may regret that," Strange cautioned. "He brought you face-to-face with the Master of the Mystic Arts."

    Thanos took a few steps towards him. "And where do you think he brought you?"

    "Let me guess. Your home?" Strange answered, sounding a bit annoyed.

    Even from where she was positioned, Spencer could see a reminiscent smile upon Thanos' face as he rested a foot upon a piece of debris before placing his gauntleted hand over his knee. "It was," he said fondly.  He raised the hand from his knee, making a fist before the red Reality Stone flashed. "And it was beautiful."

    The landscape around them all quickly changed. Green lawns, intact buildings with incredible architecture, and gorgeous ponds replaced the debris-covered scenery that surrounded them. Citizens of Titan walked along the stone paths, and the jack-like structures that were now just broken reminders of the planet's prosperity hovered above the buildings, beams of energy emanating from them. Spencer had to admit, Titan before was lovely.

    "Titan was like most planets. Too many mouths, and not enough to go around," Thanos continued. "And when we faced extinction, I offered a solution."

    "Genocide," Strange breathed.

    "But at random, dispassionate, fair to rich and poor alike. They called me a madman. And what I predicted came to pass," Thanos explained. He relaxed his fist again, and the Reality Stone stopped glowing, causing the illusion to fade back into the true sorry state of Titan.

"Congratulations, you're a prophet," Strange retorted sarcastically.

"I'm a survivor," Thanos insisted.

"Who wants to murder trillions," Strange countered right back.

"With all six stones, I could simply snap my fingers, and they would all cease to exist," Thanos went on, snapping his fingers when he said the word. "I call that... mercy."

    Strange stood. "And then what?"

"I finally rest... and watch the sun rise on a grateful universe," Thanos answered. He paused for a moment. "The hardest choices require the strongest wills."

"I think... you'll find... our will... equal to yours," Strange replied, summoning his mandalas with every pause and entering a fighting stance.

"Ours?" Thanos asked.

Spencer knew what was coming, but she looked up just as Thanos did. A chunk of wreckage was descending rapidly upon him, far too rapidly for him to do anything about it. Tony was the one propelling it towards him, and it crushed Thanos easily upon impact, causing a cloud of dust to surround them.

Tony flew past. "Piece of cake, Quill." There had, of course, been some debate about the plan prior to settling with this one.

Quill triggered his mask and followed after him. "Yeah, if your goal was to piss him off!"

Spencer took this as her cue to get her helmet on as well and follow after them. That chunk of debris was only going to hold him for so long, and they were going to need to be ready to hit him with all they had.

Sure enough, moments later, the wreckage on top of Thanos erupted in a purple explosion as he bellowed in rage. Immediately, he used the Reality Stone to turn the hovering fragments into a swarm of bats, sending them flying at Tony and pushing him back into the ruins. Spencer took a deep breath; this was going to get tricky.

Just as Thanos finished with the bats, Peter smacked him in the eyes with some webbing, swinging back around to kick him in the face at the same time Drax leapt from cover, blades in both hands as he did a knee-slide behind Thanos in an attempt to slice one of his tendons in the back of the Titan's knee. As Drax began dueling Thanos on one side, Strange emerged from a portal on the other side, and summoned a sword of golden energy to do the same.

    Tony started to fly back in, so Spencer used her suit and took to the sky as well, allowing her a better vantage point of the battlefield below. Plus she'd be lying if she said she didn't feel safer in the air. She put her attention back on the Titan, waiting for the right moment to strike.
   
Thanos punched Drax through an already ruined wall, and then shattered the blade with one hand before ripping the webbing from his face. He puts his focus back on Strange, kicking at him. Luckily for Strange, his shield absorbed the hit as it sent him flying backwards, his Cloak lifting him from the ground.

    Quill was coming up from behind, blasting Thanos in the back. Understandably, this caused Thanos to turn and fire balls of energy from the Power Stone towards the man. Quill easily dodged them as he leapt towards Thanos using magical platforms Strange had conjured up for him. The last platform was placed above Thanos' head, and when Quill got to it, he flipped over Thanos and slapped a mine on the Titan's back. Unsurprisingly, Quill stuck his landing as he disengaged his helmet.

"Boom!" he exclaimed before nonchalantly giving Thanos a middle finger as he fell backwards into a portal.

Spencer couldn't help but laugh as the mine exploded, knocking Thanos to his knees, dazing him briefly.

Her laughter quickly died as she heard Strange mutter something unintelligible from the distance she was at, but she assumed it was an order to his mystical cloak, since it flew off his shoulders, wrapping itself tightly around Thanos' armored hand. The Titan started yanking at the cloak, trying to free himself of it. Strange started flinging portals everywhere, and Peter leapt through one on Thanos' left.

"Magic!" Peter shouted as he punched Thanos in the head before disappearing in another portal to the lower right before reappearing above Thanos. "More magic!" The boy yanked Thanos' head down hard before leaping down into a portal in front of him. Peter leapt through another portal high and behind Thanos. "Magic with a kick!" He kicked Thanos before falling feet-first into another portal, and then he reappeared on Thanos' right. "Magic with a-"

Before Peter could finish that, Thanos snatched him from the air by the neck and slammed him to the ground. "Insect!" he snapped. He then hurled Peter at Strange, knocking them both down.

As Thanos started freeing himself of the Cloak, Spencer glanced at Tony. He gave her a quick nod, and then the two of them began bombarding him with missiles. It seemed to be effective, at least until Thanos sucked all the flames and explosions into the gauntlet with the Power Stone and fired it at Spencer and Tony, hitting them dead on, sending the both of them flying backwards into a massive fallen machine.

Spencer- for what seemed like the millionth time today- shook her head as she tried to shake off the pain and delirium that came with crashing through solid objects. She could make out some commotion before another large crash, but she couldn't determine much more than that at the distance she was at and over the beeping of several of her suit's monitors. She slowly sat up, trying to place where Tony was. He was a few feet away, slowly sitting up with a palm to his head.

"You good, Spence?" he asked.

"I think a better question is are you okay?" Spencer echoed.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Tony brushed off. "Let's go get this gauntlet."

Tony didn't wait for her before he took off towards the battle again. Spencer sighed and activated her suit once more, following behind Tony. As the two of them flew back to the action, Spencer watched as all their comrades- as well as a blue newcomer- tag-teamed Thanos.

"Where's Gamora?" the newcomer yelled as she ran at Thanos, brandishing a sword. Whoever she was, she knew Gamora, and seemed super pissed about her being taken too. That was all Spencer needed to know to know this woman was on their side. Unfortunately, Thanos easily punched her away.

Strange used this opportunity to use some of his fancy magic bands to pinion the gauntlet, pulling Thanos' fingers open as it tried to pry the gauntlet from his hand. Thanos tried to pull free, but Drax slid in from the side, kicking his knee causing the Titan to lose his balance before wrapping himself around Thanos' kneeling leg. Meanwhile, Quill shot an electric trap onto the ground, and the tangle-field from it held down his unarmored hand. Peter swung in too, shooting webs at Thanos' chest, wrapping it around him and then anchored himself to the ground using the Iron Spider legs. Strange opened one more portal above Thanos' head, and Mantis dropped from it, landing on his shoulders and immediately placing her hands on his temples. The Titan groaned; whatever Mantis was doing was seemingly working, as he seemed to be almost asleep.

When she and Tony got back to them, he immediately began helping tug on the gauntlet as Strange reapplied his magical bands while his Cloak helped pull. It seemed like Thanos was out, perhaps not fully asleep, but certainly incapacitated.

Spencer decided to try her luck with helping Mantis. She landed to Thanos' right, placing her hands on his arm. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes, focusing her powers on trying to keep Thanos calm so the others could yank the gauntlet free. Right away, despite Mantis' efforts, she was met with a lot of resistance, as he tried to free himself from their mental and emotional manipulation.

"Is he under? Don't let up," Tony said.

"Be quick," Mantis said, near tears. "He is very strong."

Spencer winced. "Yeah, what she said."

"Parker, help! Get over here!" Tony barked. Spencer didn't dare open her eyes, but she assumed what happened based on what Tony had said. "They can't hold him much longer. Let's go."

It was silent for only a second before Spencer heard Quill not too far away from her. "I thought you'd be harder to catch," he said, almost tauntingly. "For the record, this was my plan. Not so strong now, huh? Where is Gamora?"

"My... Gamora...?" Thanos muttered.

"No, bullshit," Quill scoffed. "Where is she?"

Spencer felt the surge of pain and agony rush through the Titan, her stomach sinking at what this probably meant.

"He is in anguish," Mantis answered, unable to hide the shock from her voice.

"Good," Quill snapped.

Mantis began crying. "He... he... mourns."

"What does this monster have to mourn?" Drax questioned.

"Gamora," the newcomer said.

There was a small pause before Quill asked, "What?"

The sinking feeling Spencer had was only growing stronger, as flashes of guilt and sadness overcame her. Whatever Thanos had done could not have been good- and Spencer's concern was confirmed when the blue woman spoke again, the horror and sadness in her voice giving it away.

"He took her to Vormir. He came back with the Soul Stone... but she didn't."

Tony immediately recognized the danger, and removed his helmet. "Okay, Quill, you gotta cool it right now, you understand?" he cautioned. His words were lost on Quill, who continued to turn to face Thanos. Tony's calm demeanor shifted, this time shouting his pleas desperately as he continued to try to pull the gauntlet from Thanos' hand. "Don't, don't, don't engage! We've almost got this off!"

Quill stood directly in front of the Titan, his anger more than apparent on his face. "Tell me she's lying," he said. When Thanos said nothing to him- which shouldn't have been a surprise to him since he was under heavy hypnosis thanks to Spencer and Mantis- Quill yelled. "Asshole! Tell me you didn't do it!"

Much to Spencer's surprise, Thanos did answer this. "I... had... to."

Quill started to tear up quietly. "No, you didn't... No, you didn't!" Suddenly his sadness was overcome with anger, and he pistol-whipped Thanos twice in the face, causing Mantis and Spencer to both let go as they felt his pain. Quill's rage continued, and he kept smacking Thanos with his gun. "No, you didn't!"

Tony and Drax at the same time yelled, "Quill!"

Tony leapt for Quill's arm, rehelmeting and leaving Peter to pull the gauntlet off alone. "Hey, stop! Hey, stop! Stop! Hey, stop! Stop!"

Spencer was temporarily distracted from the Quill drama when she heard Peter yell, "It's coming! It's coming! It's coming!" She saw as the fingers of the gauntlet became loose and Peter was able to pull it away a bit. "I got it! I got it-"

But this victory was short lived. At this moment, Thanos woke up completely, and he was truly furious. He flung his head backwards into Mantis as he grabbed the gauntlet just as it was sliding off his hand, causing Peter to stumble back. The Titan then flung Mantis from his shoulders, and backhanded Spencer, sending her flying backwards into a large rock. She was truly getting tired of getting thrown into rocks or walls today. She shook off the impact in time to see Peter saving Mantis, as well as Thanos absolutely wrecking the rest of the team- Drax got booted into the blue lady and Quill, the bands Strange was using to hold his right hand had been used against him and sent him flying, Tony and his repulsor beams swatted away like he was a fly.

The Guardians all jumped up and charged at him again, but he aimed the gauntlet at them, and with a pulse of indigo energy, the three of them were all unconscious. Spencer sighed, knowing fully well that this didn't bode well for any of them. She stood, trying to think of something- anything- to try to get the gauntlet from him again. Not that she had much time before someone else tried something.

Tony zoomed back in, his nanite arm cannon manifested, and Thanos just head-butted him to the ground casually. Thanos glanced at him for a moment, and then he raised the gauntlet towards Titan's moon. Tony looked up with what Spencer could only assume was astonishment, since that is the exact expression she had. Thanos used a combination of the Power and Space Stones to shatter the moon's surface, sending the debris raining down on the battlefield rapidly. Spencer started firing away at the debris, trying to break up some of the larger chunks as Tony powered out of the way. Unfortunately, he was caught by a huge chunk of the moon Spencer had missed, slamming him to the ground. She and all the Guardians went sailing into the air upon impact. Luckily for her, she had her suit and could fly; their new acquaintances did not have that luxury.

Chunks of the moon were still flying through the air, creating fiery ballistic inbounds- not to mention the random debris and massive rocks floating about in every direction. Peter was bouncing around, obviously panicking despite the fact that he was as equally well-equipped to handle this mess. He was webbing the Guardians, saving them from falling to their deaths.

"I got you! I got you!" he exclaimed as he caught Mantis and Drax before securing them to something not moving. "I'm sorry I can't remember anybody's names!" He webbed Quill, reeling him in too.

Spencer's attention shifted towards Strange, as the Cloak of Levitation set him down on a relatively stable outcrop as Thanos removed himself from the rubble. The Sorcerer Supreme made a few motions with his hands, producing the ever-familiar golden circles before he slammed his hands down on the rock before him. A lightning-like effect of immense heat jumped from rock to rock until it reached Thanos, sending him flying although he was able to make use of the erratic gravity and fire a blast from the Power Stone back at Strange. Seeing what the stone had done to Anja, that was one that Spencer knew she wanted to avoid at all costs.

Luckily, Strange blocked the beam with a magical wall, which he then pushed back at Thanos. The wall shattered around the Titan, who just suctioned the magic into what appeared to be a mini black hole with the Space Stone, volleying it right back to Strange. At the last possible moment, Strange raised a shield, changing the dark energy into a swarm of aqua colored butterflies which returned to Thanos.

Before Thanos could do another counterattack, Strange levitated and invoked some more of his magic, giving him multiple arms like a Hindu deity Spencer had read about once before dozens of Strange replications rushed towards him, forming a circular wall around the incredibly angry Titan. All of the Stranges cast magical cords, wrapping around Thanos' torso, arms, and hands. Thanos struggled to close his gauntlet fist, and used the Soul and Power Stones to find the real Strange amongst the copies, blowing the duplicates away and sending the real Strange reeling as well. Using the Reality and Space Stones, Thanos pulled Strange forward, grasping him by his throat once he was in range. Strange clawed futilely at Thanos' hand.

"You're full of tricks, wizard," Thanos mused as he reached towards the Eye of Agamotto.

"No!" Strange gasped.

Much to Spencer's dismay, Thanos snapped the Eye off of its chain with ease. "Yet you never once used your greatest weapon," he continued. He crushed the amulet in his bare hand, and somehow there was no Time Stone to be found. "A fake."

He threw Strange hard enough that when the wizard's head hit a stone, he passed out. Spencer went over to him, checking his vitals as she gently shook him in an attempt to wake him up. Almost simultaneously, a red and gold device slapped to the palm of the Infinity Gauntlet, bracing the fingers open. In a blur, Tony flew in, and his voice alone told Spencer he was fed up.

"You throw another moon at me, and I'm gonna lose it," Tony threatened.

"Stark," was all Thanos said back.

This seemed to throw Tony off guard a bit. "You know me?"

"I do," Thanos replied. "You're not the only one cursed with knowledge."

"My only curse is you," Tony sassed back. Small rockets started to pop out from his back, launching rapidly at Thanos.

"Come on!" the Titan yelled.

The rockets all exploded on target, momentarily shrouding Thanos in smoke. Unfortunately for Spencer, it clouded her vision too, and she could only barely make out Tony piledriving into Thanos horizontally, bouncing off of him and doing a flip before sticking the landing. She nearly rolled her eyes at the theatrics, but decided to keep her eyes opened and focused in case Tony needed some back up. Not that she was sure what she was doing. Strange was still unconscious, and she had no idea where the others had all gone exactly.

Tony immediately reconfigured his gloves into rocket-driven battering rams, punching Thanos repeatedly into a ruined wall behind him. The Titan shook it off quickly, and reached forward, ripping Tony's helmet clear off of him, briefly revealing a very surprised Tony for just a moment before the suit recovered and reformed his helmet. Thanos made use of the delay, and punched back hard, sending Tony sliding meters away, giving him plenty of time and space to rip the device clear off the gauntlet. Immediately, he used the Power Stone, sending a stream of furiously lambent energy towards Tony. Luckily Tony had formed a shield to kneel behind just as instantly, although the force of the energy was pushing him back. Tony slid out from behind the shield, letting the angled energy push him away for a quicker start, whipping back towards Thanos with full thrusters. Tony kicked at the Titan with his left foot, turning the boot into some sort of clamp at the same time to pin the gauntlet as he kept twisting, his left glove becoming a battering ram once again, slamming into Thanos' face. Even from this distance, Spencer could see that Tony had managed to cut the Titan, something none of them had managed at that point.

Thanos was panting. "All that for a drop of blood," he muttered. He smiled, and it sent chills down Spencer's spine. Thanos punched Tony, sending him pinwheeling for a moment before he started to beat him with his fists.

Tony attempted to block the blows with his forearms, but Thanos was relentless, and eventually picked him up by his helmet as he blasted his midsection with the Power Stone. The gaps in the nanite coverage were gaping as the armor began to lose its ability to recover from the intensity and extent of the damage. Tony landed hard from the blast, and he struggled to one knee before he fired his right hand's repulsor at the seemingly inexorable Thanos; the beam was immediately deflected.

Tony finally got to both feet as the suit tried to complete repairs, adding in an additional beam from his left hand. It made no difference; Thanos walked right up to him, and backhanded the incomplete helmet off of Tony's head. Tony crossed his arms to block a blow from Thanos' gauntlet, and the Titan caught his left hand above his head. Tony was desperate- Spencer could tell- and he formed a shortsword with whatever was left from his right glove. It was immediately caught by Thanos, who snapped it clean off and drove it through Tony's left side. The fight was over.

"No!" Spencer yelled, tears swelling in her eyes as she momentarily stopped worrying about Strange.

Thanos looked over at her for a moment, but that was all the attention he gave her. Thanos walked Tony backwards until he sat, placing the gauntlet almost comfortingly on Tony's head. "You have my respect, Stark," he mused. "When I'm done, half of humanity will still be alive." He paused for a moment, as he let go of Tony's head, straightening up and stepping back. "I hope they remember you."

Tony was just a bit distracted, blood drooling from his mouth, his breathing compromised. Thanos raised the gauntlet, closing his fist as all four Stones began glowing in their settings.

Spencer no longer cared for her own safety and fired a rocket of her own at the Titan, but without even looking at it, it disintegrated, obviously from the effects of a Stone. She went to stand, but a voice shook her from her thoughts.

"Stop!" Strange yelled from beside her. She looked over to see him sitting up slowly, and his voice sounded as damaged as he looked. "Spare his life... and I will give you the Stone."

"No tricks," Thanos stated, shifting and pointing the gauntlet at Strange as the wizard shook his head.

"Don't!" Tony pleaded.

But Strange's mind was made up. He reached up, plucking the Time Stone out of its hiding place in the stars. He opens his hands, and the scars and the trembling they caused are much more obvious now. The Stone floated to Thanos' bare hand as Strange watched him intently. Thanos took the stone and wasted no time dropping it into the thumb setting on the gauntlet, the energy pulse making the Titan wince.

"One to go," Thanos said proudly, just as an energy blast hit the gauntlet in the one empty setting. He grimaced in surprise.

Suddenly Quill was back on the scene, screaming in incoherent rage as he flew towards Thanos, firing away with both guns. Thanos seemed bored by the assault, and didn't dignify it with a response before using the Space Stone to dematerialize. Quill flew right through where Thanos had been standing, crashing and rolling several times.

Quill stood and took his helmet off. "Where is he?" he demanded. When no one paid him any mind- as Tony was busy stitching up his wound to the best of his ability and Spencer brought Strange to his feet- his tone changed. When he spoke again, his voice was now fearful instead of furious. "Did we just lose?"

Tony turned his attention to Strange, annoyance in his voice. "Why would you do that?"

All Strange said back was, "We're in the endgame now."

That one statement told Spencer all she needed to know. They could still win this.

*****

Hey everyone. It's been a bit. I've decided this story is going to be my main focus for a while until I can get through the Snap at least. I initially told myself I wanted to be there by the start of the new year, but due to some recent events in my life, I am not sure I will be able to get the next two chapters (we're that close!) done in the next 2.5 weeks, but I will try my best! Hopefully in a few weeks time, I can share some good news with you all.

I finished this chapter a couple nights ago, but I finally found some time to proofread it and get it properly formatted for here. I've honestly just been super exhausted, and it has been hard to find the motivation to do much other than sleep. Hopefully that feeling passes too with time.

Anyway, I'm going to do my best to get these next very crucial chapters done as soon as possible!

Thanks- as always- for your patience with me! I hope all of you are doing well!

~arty_writes