Ash's POV

Not again... not again... not again...

My mind kept numbly repeating in fearful disbelief as the ship came closer and the ship rocked a few times with the crippling blows we were receiving.

"We need to get as many people as we can off before they board us." Thor devised.

"How many escape pods are there on here?" I asked worried about what the answer would be and was proven correct when Loki answered grimly,

"Not nearly enough..." And the sinking feeling only worsened when he added, "Even if there were enough, we would never be able to get everyone off in time and we would never be able to outrun him..."

"Well, like Thor said, we should focus on getting as many people out of here as we can and holding them off while we do so." I restated Thor's idea and he nodded before saying,

"Heimdall, Loki, and I will go round up the remaining soldiers to hold them off long enough for you, Valkyrie, Korg, and Miek to get people into the escape pods."

I nodded sharply before turning away to take a deep breath before running to tell Valkyrie, Korg, and Miek the plan and we got to work directing people to the escape pods, prioritizing getting all the children and parents out first.

I was helping to load groups onto ships when I heard a commotion,

"Hurry now!" A grown voice hurried before a shrill voice yelled,

"Nononono!"

I looked over to see a little girl with blonde hair pulling away from her mother, refusing to board the ship and, when I looked down at the floor where she was reaching, I saw that she was reaching for a doll she had dropped.

Running over while quickly sheathing my staff into my belt, I picked up the doll to hand to her, making her smile and thank me before hurrying onto the ship with her mother.

Looking at the mother and daughter, I wondered for a moment if, towards our home planet's end, my sister Astra had at least gotten to see our mother one last time and told her goodbye since I never got the chance to and would never get another one again but I was shaken out of my thoughts when the ship rocked violently again.

"How're we looking?" I asked Valkyrie and Korg from their posts near the other pods.

"We're going to fill up soon and then we can be off." Korg answered and I nodded before telling them,

"You three go on ahead with the pods, I'm gonna stay and do what I can here."

"You insane? That's suicide." Valkyrie bluntly stated before I told her determinedly,

"I know but... I can't just sit back or run away and let this happen again without putting up some kind of a fight."

"Well for your sake I hope you have some kind of plan."

"Y'know... for the first time... I don't really have a plan..."

"Well then it was nice knowing you..." Korg waved to me as he and Miek boarded the pod they were on and launched it off before Valkyrie gave me a two fingered salute to say,

"Be seein' you?"

I nodded to her before she too launched the pod she was helping along with the others that managed to fit more people within them, jetting them to safety as far away from this ship as possible, leaving me in the bay.

I stayed standing there with a hand over my pounding heart and core before I whispered,

"Time to do something..."

Before I hurried to get back to the viewing area where we had first spotted Thanos' ship only to skid to a quiet stop when I saw what was happening inside... Bodies of dead or dying Asgardians, including a wounded Heimdall, carpeted the floor and there were three other beings in the room with their weapons raised toward Loki, who was holding up the Tesseract while Thanos stood there with Thor in one hand and on his other hand was a golden gauntlet with a glowing purple stone within one of the six spaces on it.

"No..." I breathed out as I realized that Thanos had gotten ahold of one of the Infinity Stones and somehow, instinctively, I knew it was the Power Stone and now I could feel the Space stone contained within the Tesseract.

"Your optimism is misplaced, Asgardian." Thanos spoke and his voice sent chills down my spine as I watched him reach for the Tesseract before Loki pulled it back slightly to say,

"Well, for one thing: I'm not Asgardian... And for another... We have a Hulk."

*ROAR*

Right on cue, Hulk came in and started punching away at Thanos, but something seemed off as he barely seemed to be fighting against him and I heard one of the beings say,

"Let him have his fun..."

Only making me that much more wary that Thanos was holding back his true strength and I was proven correct when he started fighting back and it only took a few strikes to weaken him before he was lifted above his head and tossed to the ground, defeated.

"Dad!" I yelled, running into the room with my staff wielded and I waved it in front of me to create several fireballs before I swiped at them with my free hand to fire them at Thanos before I stood there in front of Hulk with my staff raised in front of me protectively.

"Tiny Blaze..." Hulk weakly murmured before falling unconscious.

As the smoke started to clear from the blasts, only to reveal Thanos still standing there with not even a burn mark on him or his armor.

"What...?" I whispered before my hands were bound in front of me with a strip of metal as two coils of metal rose from the floor to trap my legs in place.

"Rah!" Thor tried to hit Thanos with a beam but he was kicked back away before he was restrained by one of the beings who had telekinetic abilities using pieces of metal.

I saw Thanos coming toward me no doubt to finish Hulk off, but my eyes caught Heimdall's and I heard him whisper,

"Allfathers... let the dark magic flow through me one last... time..."

And I could feel a sort of energy building up within the room so I closed my eyes to concentrate on giving it some of my power right before a rainbow light edged with fiery wisps picked up Hulk from behind me and carried him away from the ship in a bright flash.

Go... Get the others... I mentally whispered but I had no idea if they could hear me before they were whisked away and I turned my sight back forward.

Before Thanos could register what happened, I used the power up while it was still flowing through me to rapidly melt through the metal restraints so I could leap up to try and strike him with my staff, but, before my strike could make contact, more beams of metal wrapped around my hands, binding them back together, forcing my staff to go back to its armband form and anchoring me back to the ground in a kneel as Thanos turned his attention to Heimdall,

"That was a mistake."

Taking up one of his follower's weapons and driving it through Heimdall's heart making me and Thor cry out,

"NOOOO!"

I could feel Heimdall's lifeforce leave his body as it stiffened and fell still underneath the weapon and some tears welled in the corners of my eyes before I shook it off and it was replaced with a fury that seemed to radiate to me from Thor from the way he shouted angrily,

"You're going to die for that!"

But the telekinetic being waved their hand and more bands of metal rose up to silence him by bolting around his mouth as he hushed him in a condescending manner,

"Shhhh."

"No!" I tried to fight back before another metal beam wrapped around my ankles and a last one secured itself around my armband to prevent me from using it and to further restrain me.

"Ahh..." I froze when I felt Thanos grip my head in one hand to force me look at him as he slightly kneeled in front of me and spoke in a hard to read tone, "A Chrysinthean after all this time... and so young..." I flinched my eyes partially closed as he circled a thumb around my left eye tracing my marks before he finally released my head to say, "Now you will see why I had attempted to eradicate your people entirely..."

My eyes widened as my fear was replaced by the demand to know,

"What are yo-mmph?!" Before, just like Thor, I was silenced as well with a metallic gag as the telekinetic being held up the Tesseract to Thanos reverently as he addressed him while kneeling in front of him on one knee,

"My humble personage... bows before your grandeur. No other being has ever had the might, nay the nobility, to wield not one, but two Infinity Stones. The universe lies within your grasp."

Thanos looked at the Tesseract for a moment before starting to crush it in his grasp and it completely pulverized to dust revealing the small blue Space Infinity Stone.

My muffled shouts of protest fell on deaf ears as Thanos continued with inserting the stone into another space on his gauntlet and it released a wave of energy through him that also spread through the air towards me as I shuddered at the impending doom feeling that resonated through me as another Infinity Stone was put under his control.

"There are two more Stones on Earth. Find them, my children, and bring them to me on Titan. And bring her with you, she may prove to be useful yet." Thanos ordered his followers before motioning to me and, with a hand wave, I was pulled up from the floor and hovered over to the large, lizard-like being who grabbed me in one hand as I tried in vain to thrash free.

"Father, we will not fail you." One of the followers pledged as she and the others held a fist to their chest and kneeled in an honor-giving motion.

"If I might interject..." Loki's voice butted in and everyone turned to look at him as he spoke, "If you're going to Earth, you might want a guide. I do have a bit of experience in that arena."

"If you consider failure experience..." Thanos disproved.

"I consider experience, experience." Loki spoke grandly as he walked toward Thanos, "Almighty Thanos. I, Loki, Prince of Asgard..." He looked toward Thor as he emphasized, "Odinson..." Before he continued walking forward and I caught sight of a flash of green light coming from his hand that was hiding behind his back, "The rightful King of Jotunheim, God of Mischief, do hereby pledge to you, my.. undying.. fidelity."

Right before he surged his hand forward with a dagger in his grip to attempt to stab Thanos, but the Space stone was used to stop his arm in midair and I could feel my chest flare in pain as the stone was being used near me.

"'Undying.' You should choose your words more carefully."

The pain I felt only worsened when Thanos grabbed Loki by the neck and lifted him up into the air in a chokehold and my empathic senses were heightened enough to feel Loki's pain as he struggled in his grip.

I could hear Thor's muffled cries for his brother as Thanos looked him in the eye before tightening his grip on Loki as he managed to choke out,

"You... will never be... a god."

Right before a sickening crack was heard, his body went limp, and Thor's muffled cries were heard as I felt weaker from having sensed another soul leaving their body within range for the second time that day.

"No resurrections this time." Thanos told Thor as he walked up to him and dropped his brother's lifeless body in front of him before he walked back towards his followers and raised his gauntlet up, the Power stone giving off a single powerful wave of energy that started to destabilize the entire ship before using the Space stone to open a portal so they could make their retreat with me in tow and the last thing I saw before the portal closed and everything went dark was Thor's grief-stricken face.

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2237 Words

AN- First post for this new story for this new year! ^^ I am hoping to get the Infinity War and Endgame segments done before the year is over so that I can get the yet-to-be-named next segment started.

Next, a question;

Which group do you think should take Ash with them back to Earth: Ebony Maw and Cull Obsidian or Proxima Midnight and Corvus Glaive?

(If you don't know the characters' names, simply put, should Ash be taken to New York where they face Strange, Wong, Banner, Peter, and Stark or to Scotland to face Wanda, Vision, Nat, Steve, and Sam.)

I have ideas for how either path could go but I'd like to hear what you all would want to "see"/read about. I'll be leaving the voting open until I get at least 3 or 5 votes depending on how many people actually read this story and are willing to comment for a span of two weeks so the next chapter won't be out for three to four weeks ^^;

I hope to hear from you all reading and am so thankful that you've followed my stories all the way up to this point and hope I do well in making it worth the two or three years long wait ^^;

Until the next chapter, Bye!