AN- Multiple POV switches between Ash and JJ in this chapter! And extra long to make up for the additional week of waiting and to just make it easier to combine the endings and keep that pattern going ^^;

Ash's POV

"Hmm?" I was woken up by the jet shaking a bit from turbulence and I bolted awake when I noticed Xay wasn't next to me.

"He just went to the restroom." I turned and saw Zaruk walking into the cabin to sit in front of me.

"Where's everybody else?" I asked, noticing how I was the only one sitting in the cabin.

"They went up front to see us arrive." They pointed toward the cockpit where I could see everyone gathered around the front window.

"How far are we?"

"Just a few more miles." They told me and I tried to relax a bit but my armband glowed in response to my uneasiness before I took a deep breath to calm down and it dimmed back down in sync.

"Where did you get that?" Zaruk motioned to my armband and I tapped my hand on it to make it morph back out into its staff form before answering,

"I found it on Sakaar when... I was forced to fight to stay alive..."

"May I?" They held out a hand and I handed the staff over to them so they could examine it and their eyes landed on my name etched into the shaft along with the other names before looking up at me and I admitted with a bit of shame in my voice,

"There were times when I doubted that I'd ever leave that place alive..." I looked down before telling them, "When we finally got off that horrible planet, this man who.. was a friend of Thor's and could see everything that goes on in the universe, Heimdall, told me that this staff contains all the core energies of all the previous wielders of it and they were all lending me their strength but that it was 'my strength' that made it possible?"

"He was correct about the 'lending you their strength,'" Zaruk began to explain, "This is the staff of Unaraizus."

"You mean the 'Core Healer'?" I remembered the story from my time at the fire wielders training camp.

"Yes, they could not only heal Ivras, but they were able to discover a way to transfer and manifest life energies into special crystals to be used as additional strength, one of which was used on their own Tool. This staff was their final and greatest creation, used to stop enemy Kree invaders that had attempted to breach the planet's atmospheric storms numerous rotations ago. Unaraizus was able to single-handedly defeat them, but lost their life in the process so everyone thought their staff had been lost to the stars.. never to be found again..."

Zaruk handed the staff back to me before adding,

"However, it would seem that it has become your Tool. We might not have been able to give you a proper ceremony for your receival of it but as the humans say, 'Better late than never.'" Zaruk gave a smile at the last part of their sentence and I smiled a bit too before I remembered and asked,

"Did Xay already receive his Tool?"

"Not yet..." Zaruk reached under their cloak to pull out what looked like two wooden sticks, like the ones used for drums, but a closer look made me realize they were made from the same Zephamore wood as their staffs and mine and I questioned,

"How...?"

"Thanks to the Wakandans, and some seeds I've kept with me all these rotations, we've been able to grow some Zephamore trees on this world and these are the first Tools to be created from them."

I was about to ask 'how' again when Sam called to us,

"You three might wanna get up here or else you're gonna miss it."

Zaruk and I got up from our seats with Xay finally coming out from the restroom to join all of us at the front so we could see we were about to fly into a jungle-covered mountain but right as it seemed like we were about to crash, we went right through the holographic force field and the city of Wakanda was revealed to be in the distance in front of us.

"It feels good to be back..." I whispered as we flew past the guarding statue of Bast and flew toward the landing area.

"Huh?" I looked down at the crowd gathering where we were landing and saw some Chrysintheans walking alongside the Dora Milaje and there were a few others walking around with passing civilians, it seemed I missed out on a lot while I was a space gladiator.

After the jet landed and the ramp extended down to the ground, we all disembarked and I heard Dad ask Rhodey,

"Should we bow?"

"Yeah, he's a king."

Raising an eyebrow, I was about to stop him but Rhodey put an arm in front of me with a slight smirk as Steve greeted T'Challa as they shook hands,

"Seems like I'm always thanking you for something."

Dad cleared his throat while bowing to T'Challa before Rhodey asked him,

"What are you doing?"

"Uh, we don't do that here." T'Challa dissuaded him with some hand motions and Rhodey sent him a smirk before T'Challa turned to me and told me,

"It is good to see you again Lathitha."

"Likewise." I dipped my head down in respect before he turned back to the others and asked,

"So how big of an assault can we expect?"

"Uh, sir, I think you can expect quite a big assault." Dad told him a bit frantically after shaking off his confusion for my Wakandan name.

"How we looking?" Steve asked him and T'Challa answered,

"You will have my King's Guard, the Border Tribe, the Dora Milaje, and..." T'Challa pointed in the distance as Bucky, now wearing a metal arm and a sleeveless uniform as he introduced himself as,

"A semi-stable, 100-year-old man."

Giving Steve a handshake before pulling him in for a hug as he asked,

"How you been, Buck?"

"Uh, not bad, for the end of the world."

"We're gonna make sure that doesn't happen.. not again..." I assured him determinedly and he smiled lightly at me before saying,

"Been a while Lathitha..."

"OK seriously what's with this whole 'Lathitha' thing?" Dad finally voiced his confusion.

"It shouldn't be that surprising Dad, I mean after all you gave me a new name when I first got to this planet."

"'Lathitha' signifies 'The rise of the sun' or 'New Beginning, New Journey' both of which seemed to apply to your daughter when she first arrived here." T'Challa explained to Dad before I added,

"It was Shuri's idea." I shrunk down a bit when I remembered and asked, "Is she here?"

"She's waiting for everyone in the lab and I believe she maaay have a few choice words for you in particular." He looked at me with an amused 'Glad I'm not you' expression.

"That's what I'm afraid of..." I muttered before leading the others to the labs where Shuri was indeed waiting for us and looking at me with an expression of mixed annoyance and anger with her arms crossed in front of her.

"Alright alright.." I walked up to her with my arms raised in surrender as I told her, "Let me have it..."

I winced when I felt her punch my shoulder as she whispered,

"You idiot..." Before pulling me into a tight hug that she released me from a few seconds later to smack the back of my head playfully to say,

"Well I'm glad that suit kept you alive long enough for me to say that to you and I see you have a new accessory." She raised her eyebrows at my armband so I made it morph into my staff.

"I'd say the suit's been properly field tested at least and I picked this up on an alien planet. A different one." I smiled and used my staff to sent a few sparks her way, not enough to start a fire but enough to annoy her before getting serious to tell her,

"We've got something we need your help on... the fate of the Universe depends on it..."

"Ooh my favorite." Shuri "cheered" a bit sarcastically before we were all invited in but Sam, Bucky, Zaruk, and Xay volunteered to stay outside to stand guard.

Once inside, Vision was led to a table to lay down on so Shuri could scan him with her Kimoyo bead bracelet before pulling up a holographic scan of the Mind stone above the palm of her hand as she awed,

"Whoa... The structure is polymorphic."

"Right, we had to attach each neuron non-sequentially." Dad explained before Shuri questioned,

"Why didn't you just reprogram the synapses to work collectively?"

Vision gave him a look that practically voiced the question 'yeah, why didn't you?' before Dad answered hesitantly,

"Because.. we didn't.. think of it."

"Well I had suggested it but then you and Tony told me 'it'd be too complex to factor in the synthetic interneuron structures' remember?" I reminded him and Shuri gave me a smile before telling Dad,

"I'm sure you did your best at the time."

"Can you do it?" Wanda asked and Shuri looked at her seriously as she explained,

"Yes, but there are more than two trillion neurons here. One misalignment could cause a cascade of circuit failures." She looked to her brother to tell him, "It will take time, brother."

"How long?" Steve asked.

"As long as you can give me."

Suddenly, a beeping sound started coming from Okoye's Kimoyo bracelet and she swiped a bead into her palm to read the alert before announcing,

"Something's entered the atmosphere."

*Hey, Cap, we got a situation here.* Sam spoke over the comms and I rushed over to the window to see some kind of structure falling out of the sky from outside Earth's atmosphere towards the city, but thankfully the dome forcefield around the city stopped it and it blew up on impact.

*God, I love this place.* We heard Bucky over the comms before Sam cut him off with,

*Yeah, don't start celebrating yet, guys. We got more incoming outside the dome.*

Sure enough, more structures fell from the sky and landed just outside of the dome, but, thankfully, they didn't do anything just yet.

"It's too late. We need to destroy the stone now." Vision tried to protest as he was getting off the table before Nat bluntly ordered,

"Vision, get your ass back on the table."

"We will hold them off." T'Challa announced before Steve told Wanda,

"Wanda, as soon as the stone's out of his head...you blow it to hell."

"I will." She nodded and everyone started getting ready as T'Challa started telling everyone,

"Evacuate the city. Engage all defenses." He turned to point to Steve, "And get this man a shield."

JJ's POV

As Rocket was piloting the pod over the rings of Nidavellir, I felt a stabbing pain in my chest and I looked down to see my core glowing before it died back down and I was getting this haunting feeling something bad happened when Thor pulled me out of my thoughts by getting into the airlock to get to the outside.

"Are you sure you've thought this through and you didn't like.. lose your mind in that ship explosion?" I asked him as he fully got out of the pod and floated down to the ring with a rope attached to the pod Rocket and I were in and he was holding the other end in his hands.

"Yeah I don't think you get the scientifics here. These rings are gigantic. You wanna get them moving...You're gonna need something a lot bigger to yank 'em loose." Rocket agreed with me but Thor just told us,

"Leave that to me."

"'Leave it to you?' Buddy, you're in space. All you got is a rope and a-AGH!"

Suddenly, Thor began swinging the pod around by the rope and Rocket and I yelled as his seat spun around just as fast but I didn't have time to buckle up so I was stuck against the wall.

"I-I'm g-gon-n-na puuuuuke!" I yelled from my spot before the pod stopped swinging and was swung away as Thor shouted,

"Fire the engines!"

Rocket's seat went back to its right position so he could pilot the pod and we took off, getting dragged slightly as Thor held onto the rope and dug his feet into the ring to try to get it to move with us, but he got stuck at the edge of the ring with us still trying to pull it.

"More power, rabbit!" Thor shouted to us.

"O-on it!" I shakily got up and hurried to the wall closest to the engines and placed both my hands on it before sending the biggest energy surge I could send out and the ring finally moved and the pod jolted and sent me falling to the floor where I lay for a few seconds trying not to let my stomach win the battle it was having against me.

"You good back there?" Rocket called back to me before I breathlessly held a thumbs up into the air and he laughed but I couldn't tell if it was from teasing or relief.

A smack to the front window made me look up from the ground and I saw Thor on the window smiling and pointing as he told us,

"That's Nivadellir."

I finally got up without feeling the need to vomit and raced over to the window where me and Rocket's eyes widened from how awesome it looked and the energy it was radiating that I could feel from this far from it before the light streaming toward the forge suddenly cut off and disappeared.

*Damn it.* We heard Eitri over the pod's comms and Rocket asked,

"'Damn it' what's 'Damn it?'"

*The mechanism is crippled.*

"What?" Thor asked from outside.

*With the iris closed I can't heat the metal.*

"How long will it take to heat?"

*A few minutes, maybe more. Why?*

"I'm gonna hold it open."

"Are you out of your frackin' mind?!" I yelled to him and Eitri agreed with me,

*That's suicide.*

"So is facing Thanos without that axe." Thor told us stubbornly.

I sat down in a chair with a groan as I muttered,

"I really hope things with my sister are going better..."

Ash's POV

I was sitting between Zaruk and Okoye on the hover carriers alongside other carriers conveying more Dora Milaje, Wakandan warriors, and even a few Chrysinthean warriors heading toward the section of the dome where the structures had landed when I finally voiced the question I wanted to ask as soon as we made it here,

"Where did all the other Chrysintheans come from?"

"After your... disappearance," Okoye started to explain giving me a pointed look at 'disappearance' that made me shrink down in my seat like a child being scolded before she continued, "Your fellow 'Outlaw Avengers' began locating other refugees of your people and, once our King was informed of how you were all being hunted in a continued genocide by the human Brent Hallaway and whomever he is working for, we have been sheltering them here."

"And in return, we've been sharing our knowledge with the Wakandans and we've found that we as civilizations are remarkably similar." Zaruk told me and I gave them a bit of a hesitant look as I asked,

"The same knowledge you shared with Ross?"

"Yes but he had overlooked its value due to its.. non-weaponry nature."

"We however have been utilizing it and finding ways of combining it with our technology, especially Vibranium based ones after the Princess made the discovery that it somehow boosts your peoples' natural abilities."

"Have you been able to reach everyone else who managed to make it to Earth?" I asked Zaruk and they looked a bit melancholy as they answered,

"There were approximately 7 other hidden refuges on the planet, 3 of them were completely wiped out before we managed to get there and the 4 that were left we managed to save everyone and bring them here..."

"Have you figured out what 'The Reaping' is yet?" I asked, remembering the note that was left at the first refuge that was attacked.

"Not yet, but everyone at the 3 refuges that were obliterated were either killed or their cores were stolen, we have no idea what they could possibly want with all that spiritual energy, but now that you've returned with Unaraizus' staff, I'm certain that somehow Hallaway, and whoever he's working for, found a way to take their core energies discoveries and weaponize them to fully steal a Chrysinthean's core."

"So many enemies with a grudge against us..." I spoke softly as I held the staff in front of me and the light reflected through the crystal to make a mini rainbow in my hand as I started to ramble, "Why are we hated so much? We've done nothing to antagonize others and we can't even defend ourselves or they interpret it as attacking and.. it just seems like merely existing is why they want us gone and-"

A hand on my shoulder made me stop and look up at Okoye as she told me,

"Lathitha, people always fear or have disdain for things and people they do not understand or are different from them. We cannot allow that to determine how much good we attempt to put out into the world or the people we strive to aid..."

I looked down in silent thought before Okoye smirked and added,

"And remember; that hatred and fear will eventually catch up to bite them in the-"

*How we looking, Bruce?* Nat cut her off with a comm to Dad before I finally looked back to see him suited up in a Wakandan version of the old Hulkbuster suit Tony had created years ago.

*Yeah, I think I'm getting the hang of it.*

We looked up to see him using the thrusters in the hands to boost himself over the carriers before landing and running as he spoke eagerly,

*Wow! It's like being the Hulk without actually-* He tripped over a rock and fell as we passed by him with Okoye giving him a dubious look as he comm'ed,

*I'm okay. I'm okay.*

"Are we sure he will be able to hold his own in battle?" Okoye asked with the same expression in her tone as on her face.

"He's always believed in me, so I'll always believe in him." I told her without hesitation but she just looked back and asked,

"Does that mean I have to?"

Luckily I was saved from answering when Sam reported from his position flying above us alongside Rhodey,

*We got two heat signatures breaking through the tree line.*

After the carriers stopped, everyone quickly disembarked and assembled into lines before the war cries of the Jabari tribe were heard and I looked over to see T'Challa greeting M'Baku.

"Have the other Chrysinthean Protectors been training since I was last here?" I asked Zaruk and they nodded before answering,

"The Dora Milaje and the Jabari both oversaw training those of us who wished to learn to fight. Xay was the youngest and yet the hardest working of all the recruits, that's how he came to graduate earlier in his group."

I smiled a bit fondly at Xay as he was watching T'Challa, Nat, and Steve walk over to the section of the dome where I saw Proxima and Cull standing outside the dome as Proxima was testing the force field with her sword.

"Shouldn't you give him his Tool now?" I asked but Zaruk shook their head before telling me solemnly.

"In order to accept one's Tool, you must bond with it under your true intentions, which wouldn't be wise to attempt while he is still emotionally.. unsteady."

"Then that's going to make things a bit more difficult..." I muttered as I looked at the interaction still going on at the edge of the dome.

"Your mother was late in receiving her Tool as well, you know? Before she became a Protector?"

"Really?" I looked down in thought before suddenly remembering; my mother's Tool was an umbrella that was made of Zephamore wood like any other Tool, but it also had lotus-like flowers and vines growing around on the wooden frame that still allowed rain to drip through for her to use. She used to tell me and my sister about her time as a Protector when we were both younger and how sometimes the 'bad dreams' caught up with her and made her sad, but it wasn't something for us to worry about.

My remembering was interrupted when the structures started opening up and I saw T'Challa, Nat, and Steve coming back over before Bucky asked them,

"They surrender?"

"Not exactly." Steve answered and I side shrugged and told him,

"It was honorable of you to give them a fair shot to back down..."

Before I felt the ground rumble in the distance so everyone went on guard and I spun my staff around and thumped it to the ground to make it and my marks shine before saying,

"But it looks like they chose the hard way..."

"Yibambe!" M'Baku shouted as some of the Border Tribe warriors went in front on the defensive as countless monstrous creatures were seen running from the direction of the strange structures toward the dome.

"What the hell?" Bucky whispered as we all watched the creatures starting to scratch mindlessly and furious at the barrier.

"Looks like we pissed her off." Nat snarked as the creatures started making it partially through the dome before it sliced them in half, but it didn't deter them from still trying to get through.

"They're killing themselves." Okoye spoke in a disturbed tone.

"Maybe but look..." I pointed to where some of the creatures had started to pull themselves through the barrier enough to get through, more or less, unharmed and some gave a shriek of triumph.

T'Challa gave a sharp shout to signal the Border Tribe to engage their shields while some readied their laser spears from behind the shields as some of the creatures started running towards us.

"To war!"

Laser fire was shot toward the creatures and some hit their marks but some still managed to dodge to continue their pursuit so Bucky joined in with a machine gun, Dad fired with the repulsors in the suit's hands, Xay used his hands to shoot fireballs, and Zaruk and I used our staffs to shoot energy blasts.

Just as some creatures almost got to us, Sam came in overhead to shoot them down and when one tried to jump up to snap at him, he comm'ed,

*You seen the teeth on those things?*

Before Rhodey told him,

*Alright, back up, Sam. You're gonna get your wings singed.*

Right before he dropped a barrage of grenades over the field closest to the barrier and blew a bunch of them up.

As we continued our long-range attacks, I noticed the creatures started to go around the dome so I yelled out,

"Uhhh guys?!"

"Cap, if these things circle the perimeter and get in behind us, there's nothing between them and Vision." Dad told Steve and he responded seriously,

"Then we better keep 'em in front of us."

"How do we do that?" Okoye asked T'Challa and he answered,

"We open the barrier." Before he comm'ed the request to an officer and I turned away to look at Xay and took ahold of his hand, making him look at me with the same blank gaze as I told him,

"Xay, no matter what happens.. just.. know that you're my best friend and, even if life separates us, I will always fight to get back to you because your light is what guides me..."

Xay looked down at our interlinking hands as he slowly closed his around mine before whispering,

"All I've ever wanted to do was to protect and save people..."

"This will be the end of Wakanda." M'Baku speaking made us turn to him before Okoye spoke determinedly,

"Then it will be the noblest ending in history."

"And if we have anything to say about it, it won't be the complete end..." Xay stood tall and his marks shone before I noticed that the same light was shining from under Zaruk's cloak and they took out the drumsticks out before holding them out to Xay and he took them in each hand as Zaruk readied their staffs, I spun my staff around, and everyone else readied their weapons as T'Challa shouted,

"Wakanda Forever!"

Crossing his arms in the Wakandan salute before everyone started running forward yelling as the T'Challa signaled for the barrier to be open and it was, allowing all the creatures to start flooding through.

Once the two charging groups met, it became a matter of shooting at any enemies that came too close while trying to watch other peoples' backs.

JJ's POV

"Thor, you realize if you die we will literally have no way to use the thing you died for and is apparently the only thing that can stop Thanos!?" I yelled to him through the comms as he set himself in the middle of the lens.

*Is she always this pessimistic and snarky?*

"Kinda comes with the job." Rocket shrugged and I looked at him with a 'are you kidding me' look before Eitri told Thor through the comms,

*You understand, boy? You're about to take the full force of a star. It'll kill you.*

"Only if I die."

*Yes. That's what killing you means.*

"Famous final words..." I muttered as Thor grabbed two holds to open the iris back up and let the light flow through him back toward the forge.

*Hold it! Hold it, Thor!* Eitri shouted through the comms before I asked,

"Gora, how's it lookin'?"

*It's working!* Came her response and me and Rocket watched as Thor was struggling to keep the lens open as the pure energy coming from the star was starting to burn him.

As I watched worried, I put a hand on the glass window and started tapping into Thor's emotions from afar but, when I did, all I could feel was the scorching heat and felt like I couldn't take another breath without breathing in more smoke and fire and I started to choke if I hadn't cut off the connection.

"He can't take much more!" I told Rocket before comm'ing Gora, "How much longer?!"

*Just another minute should do it!*

"He doesn't have another minute!"

*Now!*

Just as she said that, Thor let go of the holds and the force of the star's energy carried him back toward the forge and Rocket quickly steered the pod after him.

As soon as we landed we saw that Gora was already using her spines to check on Thor while Groot sat off to the side amazingly looking up from his game and Eitri was using his metal-covered hands to smash the mold apart to reveal the axe head halves.

Me and Rocket joined Gora by Thor's side as Rocket tried talking to him,

"Thor! Say something. Come on. Thor, you okay?"

"C'mooooon..." I tried shaking him but he still didn't wake up.

"I think he's dying." Rocket told Eitri and he told us,

"He needs the axe! Where's the handle? Tree, Cat, help me find the handle!"

He started throwing things aside trying to find it and Gora went to help him as I thought of something,

"C'mon c'mon c'mon!" I started rubbing my hands together to create static electricity before jolting it into Thor trying to get him to wake up and I kept doing it as I started shouting, "You have to get up! I need you to take me to my sister! I know she's on Earth and she's in trouble so you need to get your ass up so I can get to her before it's too late again!"

I could feel Rocket's eyes on me as I readied another jolt but it was Groot who caught my attention as he threw the game down and I stopped trying to jolt Thor to ask him,

"What're you...?"

I watched as he kneeled down over the axe handles that were still kinda glowing red from how hot they were and used his own hand to pull the two sides together making his arm the handle and was yelling in pain as he raised his arm up before chopping it off to finish the axe up.

"Groot!" I ran over to him as he held the stump where his arm used to be with the regeneration already startin' to kick in so I asked him, "Why'd you do that?"

"I am Groot..." He told me which translated to 'getting you back to your family, Sis...'

"Aww c'mere you big ol' softy." I smirked as I pulled him in for a hug that he tried to fight at first before giving up and patted my back with his good hand as his other one finished growing back.

All of a sudden, I gasped as I suddenly felt the air starting to charge with electrical energy so I took a step back from Groot to keep me from accidentally zapping him.

"What's goin' on?!" I could hear Rocket ask as I felt energy starting to surge through me and the marks on my arm started glowing as my hair started floating above my head with the static building up and we turned to see sparks popping up from the hovering axe as Thor's hand started to twitch a bit before it flew into his hand and the burns on his body started fading away as he started to stand back up.

"'Bout time." I smirked as I absorbed the electricity back into me making my hair fall back down but my marks were still glowing and I saw Gora walking back over with her antennae glowing too.

"Let's get to Earth shall we?" Thor asked and we all crowded around him as he lifted the axe up to the air and a rainbow light surrounded us before we shot off through space in the direction of Earth.

3rd Person POV

Ash and Xay were flying side by side through the air with Sam and Rhodey, shooting any Outriders that tried to catch them in midair and helping out anyone who was being overrun with too many of them but over time the number of Outriders flooding in through the barrier was starting to become too much.

Ash was lifting a Jabari tribe member out of a group of Outriders that tried to swarm him and was setting him back on the ground when she heard Bruce yell over the comms,

*There's too many of them! AGGHH!*

"Dad!" She screamed and was about to fly off in his direction when a strong grip on her calf kept her from taking off and rapidly pulled her back to the ground as she saw that an Outrider had bitten into her leg, slashed her hand, making her drop her staff, and was trying to claw and bite at her if she hadn't activated the arm guard shields to keep it back but more were joining it to overwhelm her as she screamed in pain from her leg injury.

*Ash!*

Abruptly, a rainbow light shot down from the sky and hit the ground with enough force to shake the earth and an electrifying axe flew out from the light to slice through the swarms of Outriders that were piling on top of everyone before it was called back to Thor as he, Rocket, JJ, Groot, and Gora stepped out from where the Bifrost had landed them.

Ash pushed a dead Outrider off of her and retrieved her staff in time to see the five of them preparing to fight as she heard Bruce yell out,

"Hah! Hah! Hah! You guys are so screwed now!"

"BRING ME THANOS!!!" Thor yelled as he and the others charged in to join the fight before he leaped up into the air to deliver an electrically charged wave that spread through the ground to eliminate any Outriders around him.

He's alive... Ash thought happily before she noticed JJ and Gora with him along with Groot and Rocket and was about to call out to them when she was tackled by an Outrider and had to focus on trying to stop it from clawing her face off.

Meanwhile with the four of them, Rocket had teamed up with Bucky to shoot any Outriders that got too close while yelling,

"Come and get some space dogs!"

Bucky picked Rocket up by the back of his jumpsuit and spun in a circle so they could shoot from all sides as Rocket continued yelling,

"Come on! Get some! Get some!"

Before he was put back down and he asked,

"How much for the gun?"

"Not for sale." Bucky told him bluntly.

"OK how much for the arm?"

And he looked at him in disbelief before moving to shoot more Outriders as Rocket muttered,

"Oh I'll get that arm..."

"Fight now, theft later." JJ chucked a mini bomb at some Outriders that were running toward her and she summoned her orbs to fly her through the air so she could throw multiple mini bombs below her but one Outrider managed to swipe at her platform making it glitch as it started falling apart and she fell through of the air.

"Coming in hot!" She yelled as she landed near Thor, Steve, Groot, and Gora and managed to land in a somersault to soften the landing.

"Need some help?!" JJ punctuated her question to Steve with a blast of electricity that charred an Outrider about to attack him from behind.

"Thanks." Steve breathlessly thanked her before she turned away to fight another Outrider.

"New haircut?" Steve asked Thor as he finally noticed said change.

"Noticed you coped my beard." Thor motioned with his hand on his own beard.

"Rah!" Groot drove his arm through the bodies of four Outriders and Gora used her spines to slash at any Outriders that got too close and was even able to lift one up to toss away from her.

"Oh by the way these are friends of mine, Tree, Cat." Thor introduced them as Groot yelled still holding up the Outriders,

"I AM GROOT!"

"I am Steve Rogers." He introduced himself and Gora held up a free spine to him as a handshake as she spoke,

"I am Gora and this is-"

"JJ." She introduced herself before stomping a boot to the ground to unleash a shockwave of energy that wiped out all the Outriders in front of her.

"Who is actually Ash's sister." Thor added and Steve looked at her in disbelief.

Unexpectedly, everyone felt the ground rumbling beneath them and looked to see the structures releasing something else that ripped through the dirt underneath the barrier and made it to the surface on the other side to reveal giant, razor-like machines that started mowing through everything and everyone in its way.

*Fall back! Fall back now!* T'Challa ordered everyone as everyone started running away from them as they broke out of the line they came in and went in separate directions.

*Guys we need to stop or at least slow those things down!* Ash spoke through the comms before she took to the skies and ended up flying behind Sam and Rhodey as he spoke,

*She's right, both of you try focusing your fire on the left flank. Xay, Zaruk, aim for the central nodes.*

*We're on it!*

Ash whipped her staff through the air unleashing a stream of flames at the machine, damaging it but not enough to make it fall to the side or break apart. She was about to ready another blast when a flash of blonde and gold caught her eye and she saw Nat and Okoye about to be hit with the blades.

"NO!"

Luckily, Wanda landed from the sky and used her powers to lift all the machines clear off the ground before throwing them down onto their sides over a bunch of the Outriders, killing them all instantly and saving them.

Ash landed on the ground closest to Nat and pulled her into a relieved hug before doing the same to Wanda as Okoye asked motioning to Wanda,

"Why was she up there all this time?"

Making Wanda smile ruefully as Ash shrugged and suggested,

"For dramatic effect?"

*Guys we've got a Vision situation!* Sam comm'ed everyone before he was cut off with a pained grunt and Steve yelled,

*Somebody get to Vision!*

*I got him* Bruce alerted him as he used the suit to fly off in Vision's direction.

"We're on our way." Wanda told them as she and Ash were about to take off but they were both smacked aside by Proxima's spear and they landed painfully on the ground as she told them,

"He'll die alone as will you."

"They're not alone."

She turned to see Nat on one side and Okoye on the other and the three of them engaged in battle as Ash managed to push herself off the ground to crawl over to Wanda as she was still struggling to gather her bearings.

"Wanda c'mooon get up..." Ash urged while trying to pull Wanda up but she put a hand on hers and pushed her away telling her,

"Get to Vis..."

Ash hesitated to leave her behind before she heard Bruce yelling in the distance and gave her a quick nod before shooting off toward the forest just as Bruce comm'ed,

*Guys! Vision needs backup, now!*

Ash summoned up as much energy as she could to her hands and blasted over the canopy and saw that Bruce was fighting Cull near a river below the ledge where Vision was being cornered by Corvus.

Diving down with the speed of a bullet with her staff in hand, Ash swung her staff at Corvus and sent him flying away with the force she gained while landing on the ground on a dime as he was launched off into the forest.

"Vision are you alright?" Ash asked as she limped her way over to him and helped him off the ground.

"In a manner of speaking, not really." Vision answered honestly.

"Yeah..." Ash nodded in understanding, "Let's get out of h-"

She was cut off when the tip of a glaive tore through her stomach and she dropped to her knees, looking down at the weapon piercing through her as her breathing became shaky before she whispered to Vision,

"Go..." Falling to her side she pushed her staff to Vision's direction and it hit him in the chest, picking him up to take him as far as it could while Corvus harshly pulled his weapon out from Ash's body before he pursued Vision, leaving Ash for dead.

On the battlefield, JJ felt a harsh pull on her core and looked in the direction of the forest before shouting to Rocket, Groot, Gora, and Thor,

"Ash needs me!"

"Go!" Thor yelled to her as he sliced through another Outrider.

"C'mon!" Gora started running toward the forest but JJ picked her up and used her orbs to create a semistable platform to fly over the treetops searching for her before their eyes fell on the red and orange in the middle of the green and brown surroundings and landed on the ground before they quickly ran over to Ash's still body.

"Nonononononono c'mon I just got you back I can't lose you again!" JJ shook her sister by the shoulders before she noticed the crimson orange blood trickling through her suit from the wound just under her ribs and saw her regeneration wasn't kicking in so she asked frantically, "Gora, what do we do?"

"If you can manage to connect your Ivras, you should be able to boost her regeneration with yours."

"But we've never done that before!"

"I can help connect you two but it's up to you to focus your energies to save her." Gora stretched out two spines, one to plunge into Ash's wound and the other to wrap around JJ's wrist closest to her marks.

Taking a shaky deep breath, JJ closed her eyes and pictured in her mind her core energy as a yellow light and Ash's as a reddish-orange with Gora creating a physical bridge between the two so she could share her core energy with her sister.

After a few seconds, she felt a warmth passing from her, through Gora, into her sister's body and a gasp made her open her eyes as Ash sat up and patted the area she was stabbed through that was still stained with blood but the wound itself was gone and even the bite mark on her leg had been healed before finally looking her sister in the eyes.

"Astra...?"

"Lumna...?"

They whispered to each other before they tightly hugged one another crying into each other's hair as Gora wrapped her spines around them both and they stayed in the unified embrace for a minute before they pulled away, wiping their eyes dry before they chorused,

"It's JJ/Ash now."

Making them both laugh a bit before JJ stood up and helped Ash up since she was still really sore from having a critical wound only a few seconds before.

"I'm so happy that I finally found you..." JJ pulled Ash into another hug and she hissed in pain a bit before whispering back,

"Me too... I just wish we weren't in the middle of a battle to save the universe."

"Yeah that does put a bit of a damper on the mood..."

"I am just relieved that now we are back together." Gora placed a spine on each girl's shoulder before saying a bit sorrowfully, "If only your mother were here.. She would be so happy to know her daughters are back toge-"

Gora was suddenly cut off when they heard a yell of pain in the distance and Ash remembered,

"Vision!" Readying to run before the soreness made her stop and grunt with her teeth gritted.

"Hold on." JJ fired up some of her orbs and they rolled around Ash before materializing the semi-stable force field right under her feet making her wobble on her feet a bit as it hovered up before she landed on her hands and knees realizing it was going to fly her around.

"Huh I wonder if this is how Aladdin felt?"

"Who?"

"Nothing, let's get to Vision."

JJ and Gora ran on foot while Ash kneeled on the hover platform as it followed after their commander and they made it in time to see Vision using Corvus' own glaive to stab him through the chest as he was standing over Steve.

"Talk about irony..." Ash muttered loudly as Vision fell to the ground exhausted and they both turned to see them there.

"I thought-" Vision started to say before Ash answered with,

"I thought so too but luckily my sister managed to heal me." She stepped off the platform but was still swaying unsteadily so JJ wrapped one of her arms around her neck to support her.

They were all still catching their breaths and Vision held out Ash's staff for her to take back, nodding in thanks for her effort to save him, when the ground started rumbling again and they looked up to see that the structures that brought the Outriders were starting to take off but Thor was destroying every single one of them with Stormbreaker.

Ash felt a familiar rush of energy coming toward them and she looked up in time to see Wanda drop in and hurry over to Vision asking him,

"Are you OK?"

But before he could answer the Mind stone started glowing and he cried out in pain as Ash and JJ's cores and Gora's antennas all started glowing too and seemed to be causing them pain as well from the way they flinched and held a hand to their cores before Wanda asked,

"What? What is it?"

"He's here..." Vision told her and Gora added hauntingly,

"And he has the other five..."

"Everyone on my position, we've got incoming..." Steve comm'ed to everyone and they all started coming our way from the ground while Xay and Zaruk flew in from the air.

"Astra, Gora-" Zaruk was cut off with a hand raise from JJ to remind them of the situation at hand as they all listened around them.

Everyone stood around feeling the ominous ambiance of the air around them before a gray and blue ring-shaped cloud appeared in the distance behind them and out stepped the figure they were expecting but were still incredibly wary of; Thanos.

"Cap..." Bruce started and Ash finished for him,

"That's him..."

"Eyes up, Stay sharp!" Steve readied his shield and they all went to charge at the Titan.

Bruce made it to him first but Thanos used the Space stone to phase him through his body, past him, and into the rock wall of the mountain behind him.

He used the Power stone to push Steve away and when T'Challa leaped up to pounce on him, he was grabbed by the neck and punched down.

Sam came flying in, shooting Thanos with both guns but a quick wave of energy from the Space stone grounded him and sent him rolling on the ground.

Right as Rhodey was launching every missile he could form his War Machine suit and Thanos used the Space stone to crush the suit with Rhodey still in it before tossing him aside, Wanda had begun using her power to start destroying the Mind Stone and the action seemed to be affecting every Chrysinthean within the area as Xay, Zaruk, Ash, JJ, and Gora's core energies all started glowing and they all winced but continued the futile onslaught against Thanos.

He used the Power stone on Bucky when he tried to shoot at him, Okoye tossed her spear at him as Nat ran beside her, and the Power stone was used to deflect the spear, toss Okoye aside, and summoned sharp stones to keep Nat pinned to the ground.

Groot plunged his arms into the ground to grow roots that surged toward Thanos and wrapped around him as JJ and Ash rode on top of the roots and jumped up, about to grab their hands to connect their cores and combine their powers, but Thanos broke free of the roots and used the Space stone to toss Ash and JJ in different directions to keep them from reaching each other before using the Power stone to toss Groot and Gora aside as well.

As he drew closer to Wanda and Vision, Wanda regretfully began to double her effort to destroy the Mind stone and the pain it inflicted on the Chrysintheans doubled with it as Xay and Zaruk fell from the air not even getting close to Thanos with their attack before they were tossed aside and landed on the ground nearly unconscious.

As the last obstacle between Thanos and Wanda, Steve slid in and began continuously punching Thanos with his shields before he grabbed onto his gauntlet-clad hand, struggling to keep him back before Thanos ended his efforts with a punch to the head.

With no one else between him and his goal, Thanos started toward Wanda but she freed one of her hands to blast a beam of her powers at him that Thanos shielded himself from using the Space stone as he continued to push forward.

After a few more seconds, as well as a heartbreaking goodbye from Vision, the Mind stone finally shattered sending out a powerful shockwave of energy.

The blast left Wanda on the ground but her grief prevented her from getting up as she cried and a barely conscious Ash could feel her pain, the same pain she felt when Pietro had been killed, but she fell back to the ground unable to get to her friend as Thanos started to talk to her,

"I understand, my child... Better than anyone..."

"You could never." She tried to seethe angrily but her resolve broke back down to sorrow as Thanos placed a hand on her head and told her,

"Today, I lost more than you can know. But now is no time to mourn."

"Now... is no time at all..." He summoned the power of the Time Stone and rewound time on the area Vision was destroyed in and was fully brought back making Wanda cry out,

"No!"

Before she was smacked aside and Thanos grabbed Vision by the neck and lifted him up to harshly remove the Mind Stone from his head, leaving him a faded lifeless corpse.

As soon as he inserted the Mind stone into his gauntlet, Thanos immediately felt the power of all six Infinity Stones surging through him and around him each Chrysinthean in a close radius started to spasm as their powers seemed to drain from their bodies toward the gauntlet in light streaks.

The process was cut off when a lightning strike from the sky knocked Thanos down and sent him skidding across the ground before he shot a beam of all the Stones' energies combined at Thor but he just threw Stormbreaker down and it seemed to slice right through the beam towards the source, lodging itself in Thanos' chest.

As Thor was landing on the ground and starting pushing Stormbreaker further into Thanos' chest while telling him,

"I told you. You'd die for that!"

Off to the side, Ash and JJ were coming to and silently getting up before making eye contact with each other, silently communicating a plan to help Thor finish off Thanos.

However, just as they were readying to stand behind Thor and finish the job, Thanos whispered,

"You should've... You.... You should've gone for the head..."

Before he raised the gauntlet up and, realizing what he was about to do, JJ and Ash started to run towards them shooting a beam of their elements towards him as Thor shouted,

"NO!!!"

Just as he snapped his fingers sending out a bright light that blinded everyone nearby.

*SNAP!!*

When they opened their eyes, Ash and JJ found themselves standing in the middle of an empty space that looked like the ground was made of water and the sky was a sunset.

"What the...?" JJ went to flick her goggles over her eyes but found they were there, same with her orbs and weapons.

"What is this?" Ash questioned as she realized her staff was missing and she and her sister weren't even in their regular clothes but in Chrysinthean tunics, hers in red and orange and JJ's in yellow and light blue.

"Daughter?"

They heard Thanos' voice behind them and they whirled around with their guards on high alert before they saw some kind of temple structure in the distance where a little girl was standing.

Thanos walked toward her, not even seeing JJ and Ash yet as JJ started walking toward the little girl as well, recognizing her green skin and the way Thanos called her 'daughter' with Ash hesitantly following behind her sister.

When they were a few feet away, the little girl turned around revealing a young Gamora as she asked her 'father,'

"Did you do it?"

"Yes."

"What did it cost?" She asked in a beaten-down tone.

"Everything..."

"Gamora?" JJ finally spoke up with her voice slightly cracking as she realized what seeing Gamora in this plain meant; she was dead, killed by her 'father' for the Soul stone.

"Goodbye Sister..." Young Gamora directed to JJ before sending a tiny smile to Ash and Thanos finally turned around to see the two of them there with JJ glaring the deepest death glare she could ever summon at Thanos with Ash standing behind her looking defiant as well.

In the blink of an eye, the three of them were back on Earth with Ash and JJ standing behind Thor as he stood in front of Thanos, his axe still embedded in his chest but the gauntlet was now scorched, smoking, and slightly damaged from the Snap as Thor demanded angrily,

"What did you do? WHAT DID YOU DO?!"

Thanos smirked mockingly at Thor before using the Space Stone to teleport away leaving just the axe smeared in his purple blood behind in the dirt.

"Where'd he go?" They turned to see Steve who was standing up looking around while gasping frantically, "Thor... where'd he go?"

"Steve?" They turned to see Bucky walking over but his arm was slowly starting to disintegrate into ashes before he stumbled and the rest of him crumbled apart leaving just his weapon on the ground as they watched in horrified shock before Steve went over to the remains of his friend and looked to Thor in shocked disbelief.

"Up, General. Up! This is no place to die." They all heard T'Challa nearby and Ash saw him helping Okoye up before he started to 'dust' as well leaving her to fall back down to the ground.

JJ looked around frantically for her teammates and rushed over when she saw Gora lying on the ground close to where Groot was leaning against a fallen tree starting to dust as he whispered to Rocket,

"I am Groot..." Which translated to 'Dad?' and made JJ tear up as Rocket started to choke out,

"No.... No. No. No. No!" He tried to touch his face but Groot fully crumbled apart leaving Rocket near speechless, "Groot... no."

"Goodbye my friend..." Gora spoke to him as she was starting to dust as well but still shakingly tried to reach a spine out to him that he quickly took a hold of before it crumbled apart in his paw,

"Gora... no...."

Ash was watching in horror as more of her teammates were dusting as well as she saw Wanda fade away while mourning over Vision's body and she heard Rhodey call out in the distance.

"Sam? Sam!? Where you at?!"

"Xay!" She rushed over to where Xay and Zaruk had been thrown to and saw his feet starting to dust as she cried,

"Nonononono..."

Stopping only when she felt Xay's hand on her cheek and he smiled up at her while whispering,

"It'll be alright... Stay strong Starlight..."

Before he fully crumbled apart and Zaruk followed soon after leaving Ash kneeling on the ground crying over the remains of her best friend and mentor.

JJ came over after a minute and helped her sister off the ground with her arm around her neck and used her free hand to grab her staff as they headed back to the group of the remaining Avengers and Rocket.

"What is this? What the hell is happening?" Rhodey questioned as Steve was kneeling over Vision's body and Thor, Nat, Bruce, and Rocket stood behind them.

"Thanos did it..." JJ spoke up as she was still partially dragging her sister toward the group since she was still in grief-filled shock, "He-"

All of a sudden, the same blue and gray ring-shaped cloud portal opened behind them and they were pulled in before it disappeared, faster than it had appeared, leaving Ash's staff and JJ's goggles on the ground.

"JJ/Ash!" Bruce, Nat, and Rocket all yelled at once seeing 'their' kids disappear before their eyes.

"Oh, God..." Steve looked around and realized they were the only ones left and they had no idea what was going to come next.

...

...

On a different planet, Ash and JJ were spit out of the portal and they scrambled to their feet to figure out where they were.

They had landed on tall, soft grass and all around them they saw exotic plants and trees and a small hut in the distance with a few moons and planets being seen just outside of the atmosphere.

"Where are we...?" Ash questioned as she surveyed the area in front of her and JJ thought before remembering something Gamora told her once and telling her,

"The Garden..."

"Correct."

They whipped around to see Thanos standing behind them with an unsettling smile on his face as he told them,

"Welcome, my children, to the new universe order..."

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The Spark Sisters will return in Avengers Endgame

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9564 Words

AN- That's it for Avengers Infinity War!

Next up is Endgame and I will be doing my best in the next few weeks to get started on getting the script for that movie, dividing it up into chapters, and filling in the rest of the storyline but it might be a little difficult since I'm only a month away from finals week and I have a bunch of other college stuff I need to work out before the school year ends...

Hope you all enjoyed and until the next chapter, Bye!