LOST CAUSE

Messalina could feel her heart aching. It was a pain that lit her every nerve, and she knew the only way to soothe it was to stand by her brothers side. She hated herself for feeling this - it was impossible, and the mission needed them to be apart. Her heart would just have to hurt, as long as it saved the universe. 

"Messalina?" The crackle over her comms dulled the pain. At least she could hear his voice. 

"Sorry, Oct. Just preoccupied." Messalina wanted to focus all her energy on the conversation she was having with Octavian; she knew that was just as dangerous as going into a fight weaponless. 

His sigh crackled over the ear piece. She missed half of what he said, the ageing tech muting what he had to say. She cursed Peter for giving them the shittiest comms they had - they clearly were as old as his rusty ship. 

"No, I get that. It's getting a bit too real now, isn't it?" Octavian commented, and Messalina hummed along, watching with furrowed brows as they neared Knowhere. She had a sinking feeling in her gut at the sight - something was amiss. "It's weird, knowing that we'll never actually know if we changed the fate of our own reality." 

Messalina mindlessly agreed with Octavian, clambering carefully out of her seat and nearing the large window with wide eyes. Her heart thumped so loudly it was deafening her, and her breath was caught in her throat. Gulping thickly, she turned to the pale faces of Peter, Gamora, Drax and Mantis. "Does it normally look like this?" 

"It looks deserted." Gamora muttered. 

Messalina swore under her breath. That was the first red flag. If the people who'd been there before sensed something amiss, then something was deeply wrong. 

Drax's rough voice cut into the tense silence. "I'm reading movement from the third quadrant." 

Messalina didn't ask for a translation of what it meant. She gathered that it meant that something was down there: this knowledge did nothing to soothe her racing heart. 

"Messalina? What's going on?" Octavian's frantic voice raged down the intercom. Messalina paid him little attention, placing a hand against the glass and squinting at the land. "Messalina?"

"Ssh!" She scolded Octavian, turning to Peter. He didn't look thrilled at the situation, parking the ship on the ground. Everyone stayed in place for a moment - she had a suspicion no one wanted to disembark the ship. No one wanted to see what waited for them outside. 

"Let's go save the world," Messalina encouraged, forcing a bright smile on her face. She marched out of the room, making her way to the exit hatch without looking a single one of them in the eye. She didn't want to, knowing that she'd just see graves and not people. 

The heavy synchronisation of footsteps echoed behind her, and that was the moment from where there was no turning back. After this, they would have to continue down their chosen path and not stray away, otherwise they could risk their lives and the lives of billions. Messalina gulped. With each step, the weight on her chest got heavier. 

Their steps quietened as they made their way through abandoned hallways, finally reaching the first checkpoint. Rubble was thrown everywhere, the Guardians and Messalina throwing themselves behind the first one they could find. Cases that held unspeakable things were shattered, and the life that the room once captured had been devastated, leaving behind an empty shell. 

A single peek over the rubble had Messalina quaking - she was in the very same room as Thanos. The weight only got heavier, and her breaths shuddered out of her. She tried her best to hold it back, sharing a shaky smile with Mantis. Briefly, she squeezed her eyes shut, her heart constricting just as tightly. It felt like she was going to burst, with all the horror Thanos left in his path flashing before her very eyes. 

"Messalina?" Octavian's voice pulled her back. Her eyes snapped open, breaths breaking out of her in controlled gasps. Octavian - her brother. The whole reason she started down this path. The one she was trying to protect. She couldn't break down, not in this vital moment. 

"Thank you," she muttered, letting confusion consume Octavian as she silenced him, turning to the Guardians and tuning into the present. She needed to be ready. 

A gasping voice echoed in the silence. "I don't have it." 

For the first time in a long time, she heard the voice of the mad man who made her life spiral out of control. His voice was almost jovial, and it filled her with such hatred it took all of the strength she had not to fling one of her knives directly into his eye. "Everyone in the Galaxy knows you'd sell your own brother if you thought it would add to the slightest trinket to your pathetic collection."

As Thanos was speaking, the Guardians began expertly weaving their way around the rubble, crouching in the shadows. Peter gaped at them, silently defeated as he followed them. Messalina was on his tail, her knives already caressed in her hands. 

"I know you have the Reality Stone. Giving it to me will spare you a great deal of suffering." The loud whimper that followed made Messalina grateful that she wasn't watching. Listening to the titans voice was enough to have her shaking - seeing him too would be a challenge she'd tackle another day.

His voice was strained, words tainted with agony. "I told you, I sold it. Why would I lie?"

"I imagine it's like breathing for you." His remark set Messalina's jaw. It wasn't enough to torture him, but he had to taunt him too. 

"More like suicide," the Collector gasped.

Thanos huffed a laugh. Messalina nearly stepped out from behind her cover in shock - it was hard to think that a monster could have a sense of humour. "So you do understand. Not even you would surrender something so precious."

The Collector's voice was wobbling, and she could imagine he was shaking in fright. One look over the rubble proved her right. "I didn't know what it was."

Thanos sighed, more groans spearing her ear drums. "Then you're more of a fool than I took you for. Last chance. Where's the stone?"

Messalina, as much as she hated it, couldn't tear her eyes from the scene taking place in front of her. They couldn't save the Collectors life; Strange confided to her that no matter what reality, the keeper of the reality stone would perish. Still, she could feel the muscles in her hands twitching, begging her to throw a dagger and save the mans life. 

Shuffling and the low whistle of blades being unsheathed tore her attention away, her finding a definant Drax standing tall. His blades were out, and her heart instantly dropped. "Today..." Drax began his promise, and she hissed at him to stand down, to put the blades away. About how this wasn't the way, this wouldn't solve anything and would only leave him needing to be avenged too; he was deaf to her warnings. Peter was more insistent, hissing his name sharply to remind him. Drax merely continued his pledge. "He pays for the deaths of my wife and daughter." 

Just like that, he slipped away. Messalina's jaw dropped - she couldn't believe he was willing to jeopardise the lives of everyone he'd met, who had become what she could imagine a family, for revenge. 

"Wait!" Peter commanded lowly, Drax responding with only a glance in Peter's direction before making his way towards Thanos. Peter let out a low huff of exasperation, hurrying behind him as quickly as possible to catch up. "Drax, he doesn't have the stone yet. We get it, and then we can stop him. We have to get the stone first." 

Messalina sneaked up next to Peter, placing a firm hand on Drax's arm, pushing it down. "We need to wait, otherwise we won't stand a chance." She was conscious of how loud her whisper seemed in the silence.

Drax looked down at Messalina's hand. He shrugged her off. "For Ovette. For Camaria."

"No!" Peter tried to pull him back, Drax using all of his strength to push forward. Messalina frantically snatched at his swords, only letting out a tiny groan as she held onto the sharp edge, feeling it slice into her hands as she tried to wrestle it out of his grip, agony flaring within them.

Mantis slipped behind Drax, and with only placing a hand on his head he collapsed to the ground with a loud crash. Messalina's heart nearly burst out of her chest, and not wasting a beat she ducked, cradling her bleeding hands carefully. 

She could feel the titans gaze turning in their direction. It was only for a second; it made her feel physically sick. Thanos picked up the Collector, tossing him carelessly into a collecting case, then turned his full attention to the disturbance. 

She wanted to vomit. 

Peter tried to give commands to his disobedient team but like all attempts to gain control, it failed massively. Gamora didn't listen to his commands at all, moving straight in the direction of Thanos. She leapt on Thanos from a stack of boxes, furiously slashing her sword at him. He caught the blade, snapping it effortlessly in half. Gamora was undettered, stabbing upwards with the sharp remants into his neck, and then attacked again with a vicious stab to the chest with a red jewelled dagger.

Messalina gaped as Thanos fell down to his knees, brows furrowed as he took in his adoptive daughter look at him with murder in her eyes. "Why you? Daughter..." He reached out with a bloody hand, it seeping continuously out of his neck and leaking from his chest. In a blink of an eye, he collapsed to the ground. 

She stared at Thanos' body, eyes squinting. "This can't be right..." 

Messalina spun away from the celebrating Guardians and mourning Gamora, a deep breath shuddering out of her chest. There was no way that defeating Thanos was as simple as two stab wounds. If it had been that simple, why didn't they win? Why did the people in her reality run and hide when all they had to do was stab him twice? 

Unless he wasn't really dead. 

"No." Messalina gasped, spinning around desperately to the Guardians. A warning was on her lips - there was never a chance to voice it. 

Thanos' disembodied voice filled the room. "Is it sadness I sense in you, daughter? In my heart, I knew you still cared. But one never knows for sure. Reality of often disappointing."

She kicked herself for not seeing it sooner. Before her very eyes, the scene disintegrated. The ruins and rubble were replaced with ash and fire, the Collector vanishing and his prized cases disappearing. If only she'd noticed sooner, if only she was more like Locusta she would've known it was all a trap.

"That is, it was. Now... Reality can be whatever I want." 

Thanos was very much alive, and he stalked towards them, flexing the Infinity Gauntlet with a flashing red jewel embezzled within it. She'd failed. 

Gamora stared at the man, the scars of her tears still fresh on her face. "You knew that I'd come."

"I counted on it. There's something we need to discuss, little one." The way he spoke to her with a level of fondness sent a shiver down Messalina's spine. It was a blessing that Octavian didn't join them - if he did, he'd already have died by Thanos' hand.

Messalina saw the hesitation. She saw how Gamora waited a beat to reach for her broken sword, and watched as she paid the price for it. Thanos snatched at the back of her neck, swinging her in front of him, almost as if she was a shield.

The Guardians all cried out for their friend, watching helplessly as Gamora, their family, was in the grasp of their enemy. Messalina stayed silent, a dagger in her hand and ready to launch. She knew she couldn't do much, but fuck it all. He had one of the most important people in this mission in his grip, and she wasn't going to let the mission fail because of her. Messalina tried to deny that she prepared the knife for throwing in revenge, for stealing her brothers youth and her parents. 

"Go to hell," Messalina cried, knocking the knife back and letting it fly off of her fingertips. Thanos spun his head out of the way, the knife gliding lightly across his cheek. 

He simply turned to her. 

Messalina gulped deeply. She wished she hadn't turned off her comm, a last goodbye to Octavian begging to be heard. 

The Reality Stone pulsed, and Messalina, Drax and Mantis were scrambled. 

Messalina doesn't remember much of what followed. All she knew is that Gamora was stolen by Thanos, and the immense shame that consumed her once she was back to her full self. It felt like now she was fighting for a lost cause.

She failed. 

-

hey guys! i have a quick favour to ask - has anyone reading this watched the shadowhunters series on netflix or read the mortal instruments books? i have an idea for a fic based on them and could really use someone to help bounce ideas off.

hope you guys had a good week, and happy friday!

-thirdwheelchurchill