08 || over & over & over again

"AND HERE WE GO. AGAIN."

- Unknown-

Admittedly, Alison had to say that maybe this plan that she had conceived wasn't the best in the world.

Yeah, okay, doing the plan over and over again wasn't the best idea, now that she was doing it over and over again. But every failure, every time she traveled back, the plan still remained the same. Strange, who had surprisingly been able to stay in that strange pocket of time that Alison thought he would disappear from, hadn't found another future in which they had won in all of the times that they had done this.

Thinking back to what could have been their last attempts, it made Alison wince.

Try three ended with the heroes arguing too much, with Alison leaking her information too fast about her time travel. Everything was chaos, everyone left off kilter and hilariously unprepared for the attack when the siege on Wakanda began.

Try four wasn't any better, Alison being forced by Natasha to fess up why she was in Wakanda and acting so strange when they "ran into each other" again. Natasha had reluctantly let her onto the field, but she made Wanda come with them onto the field until the time came. And the time never did.

And Alison didn't even want to think about attempt six. Forcing Wanda to stay up in the lab no matter what happened led to some... disastrous consequences.

Nine wasn't much better either, Thor never showing up like Alison thought he normally would. That basically ruined any chance of succeeding. Everyone ended up getting overpowered by the foot soldiers of the Children of Thanos, barely retreating in time. There were so many casualties that bore on Alison's conscience from that go around.

In eleven, Alison didn't even make it to Wakanda. She was stuck with Skylar at Avengers Facility, not getting her best friend to budge. Again. Alison never even knew what occured in the battle that time, not even waiting to rush out into the open green fields of Avengers Facility and running back to the past.

And the last attempt, fourteen? It ended with more people dead than alive— and Alison couldn't deal with the consequences of that. There were so many deaths, so many screams of the lost as they perished that were echoing inside of her brain-even if they had won all the same.

Squeezing her eyes tightly as the quinjet jolted down on the Wakandan landing pad, Alison let out a small groan from where she was laying across the seats on the small airplane. She forced the screams of pain from her abdomen where the slowly healing wound from two weeks before had finally become a small gash, something that she would commonly get during patrols, and tried to stop that small feeling of hunger that gnawed away at the edge of her stomach.

Skylar was standing above her, that loser of a friend, smirking as her phone was pulled out. This time around, the Avengers had agreed to bring Skylar (reluctantly, Alison might add) and Alison was all the more grateful that they did. "You make the weirdest faces when you sleep." She commented, turning the phone's screen so that the pictures Skylar had taken were on full display.

Batting the phone away from her face, Alison looked up at her friend. "Well, when you're doing this as much as I am, you try and get naps when you can." She quietly fired back, the secret of what she had been doing staying strictly between the two.

That was the one consistency through every attempt, if it could even be called that. Alison would always tell her best friend that she had pulled a "Operation T Squared." It was code after Absinthe, and a promise that wasn't to be broken, especially after Skylar had almost whacked Ali across the continent after finding out the first time. After that, the youngest Stark had made Alison promise to tell her when she did "stupid self-sacrificial heroic shit", and, surprisingly true to her word, Ali did.

The first wave of people loading off of the quinjet, Alison gestured to the now lowering door, the sun peeking through. "Don't you have better things to do? Like annoying your friend who is literally the smartest person on Earth?"

"Nah. Besides, who needs the smartest person on Earth when I've got the biggest idiot on the planet beside me?" Skylar nudged her best friend, which made Alison give the smallest snort. "But we should probably get going."

Alison shook her head softly, rising rather jaggedly from her position. "You go ahead. I've gotta collect my thoughts for a minute." Seeing her friend give a worried look to her, Alison reached out to squeeze Sky's hand, whispering a few small words of encouragement.

Skylar was gone in an instant, bounding towards Shuri with an excited look.

Standing at the edge of the quinjet, an undeniable frown was molded on her face as she tried to keep her mouth shut, seeing all of the interactions between "new people" for what felt like the millionth time. Ali heard footsteps behind her, turning around to see Natasha Romanoff standing beside her, looking rather unamused.

"If I didn't know any better, I'd say that you're trying to avoid all of us." The former assassin raised her eyebrow, Alison's stoic glance back at her before turning back to the view of Wakanda. "You got something on your mind?"

"Nothing that you can help out with." God, all Alison had to do this time was stay quiet. This was... try fourteen? Fifteen? She couldn't even remember anymore, what with her brain running on literal adrenaline and maybe a banana or two. Weeks of living the same day definitely didn't help her situation. "Just dealing with some internal stuff."

"And what would that be?" Natasha asked the girl, coming to stand side by side with her. Both of the women were seemingly waiting for Sam and Steve to get out of the cockpit, where they were murmuring about something. Probably planning something, if Alison didn't know any better.

Realizing that Natasha had asked her a question, Alison almost let out a scoff. What was on her mind? Maybe the fact that the past fourteen tries of this battle had ended in nothing good? That she had seen them fail, over and over again?

Funny.

"If you're going to be this closed off, you can at least be polite enough to talk to the Wakandans. C'mon kid." Natasha nudged Alison, the girl jerking at the movement, everything aching inside of her.

Alison remained silent, not bothering to try and get herself to move any closer. She just wanted a few more minutes- a few more seconds to collect herself before starting down this path again.

"You know that watching people talk isn't the same as actually doing it." Natasha repeated, staring at the exhausted girl, her hard demeanor not cracking for a second. "Move it. We gotta get inside and start this thing as fast as we can."

Taking in one final breath, trying to savor the freedom of not hearing chaotic screams and the sounds of a battle in front of her, Ali let out a small sigh. She gave a weak nod, pushing herself from her leaned position from the walls of the quinjet. Trying to pull herself together, Alison got about three steps out of the quinjet with Natasha by her side before collapsing.

Shit.

The blackness eventually gave way to the bright and very familiar walls of the Wakandan lab, Alison groaning as she looked around, seeing only Skylar in front of her, gazing out the windows with a worried look. The quiet mutterings of Alison when her head was pounding caused Skylar to turn around at her friend, worried and irritated.

"Are you kidding me, Alison? You told me that you were okay to do this and then you passed out, and then when Shuri does a scan on you she tells me you're malnourished and you haven't gotten any real amount of sleep in two weeks?!" Skylar exclaimed, looking back at her friend, who was dedicated to trying to remove Vision's stone. Wanda was looking at the window beside her, not bothering to get in the way of the two bickering friends.

"Uh, surprise?" Alison winced as she slowly sat up, trying to crack a smile as she scratched the top of her forehead, feeling something moving with her. Looking to her arm, she saw an IV plugged into it, civilian clothes on her body. The bracelet housing that the new suit was stored in was resting on her wrist, ready for whenever she might need it. Ripping the IV off in an instant, Alison gave an irritated look to Skylar. "What do you expect when I'm reliving the same exact day and trying to fight off aliens every single day for two weeks?"

"What?" Wanda turned her head to the two girls that were standing in front of her, finger resting under her lip in worry as her gaze was directed away from the battlefield to them.

"You know that time I time traveled two years ago?" Alison looked to Wanda, seeing her nod slightly. "Yeah, well, two weeks ago, on this very day, I made a plan that if everything went to shit, which it has, I would go back until we succeeded. And it's been two weeks of me doing that, so, you know, my mental state isn't the best at the moment."

Ignoring the questions that came after the fact, and Wanda's very muddled Sokovian curses, Alison turned her eyes to the battle, trying to figure out what the hell was going on at the moment.

Flashes of bright blue cascaded down from the sky, dark and thundery clouds coming down, following a rainbow light that seemed to fall from the heavens.

Oh, so Thor had just arrived.

Skylar walked up beside her, handing her a black device that was a comm. "Figured you'd want to be in on the action. They took it out when they found out that you were so exhausted that you couldn't stand, figuring you wouldn't go into battle."

Fighting back a snort, Alison plugged the little device into the inner part of her ear. "Have they even met me before? I have a tendency to lean towards the more reckless and dangerous things people tell me not to do."

"And I tried telling them that. But who listens to a sixteen year old super genius?" Skylar fired back, earning a small chortle of laughter from Alison.

As soon as the small smile that started to spread on Skylar's face was seen by Alison, there was a rumbling underneath the lab, knocking everyone off balance but the super powered teenager, who looked unfazed by it all.

"What the hell was-"

"Look outside." Alison interrupted Wanda, pointing her finger down to the huge mechanisms destroying the battlefield. "They're called Threshers or something."

"I gotta-"

"Go." Alison spoke again, nodding at Wanda as the young woman prepared to land onto the battlefield, her hands beginning to glow a deep sort of red as she did so. "I'll hold down the fort up here. Just hurry when you come back."

Wanda was gone in an instant, and Alison could see the impact that she made down below her. Threshers directed at the heroes plunging into the ground, rescuing countless Wakandan warriors and superheroes. The young teenager could see Wanda stare up at the tower, giving a nod that she would be back in a few moments.

But as soon as the smile grew on Alison's face, realizing that things might be going well, she heard something behind her, turning to see two children of Thanos through the lab doors.

And not just two children of Thanos.

Absinthe stood in the doorway, grin as wide as it could be.

"You've gotta be kidd-"

Alison could never finish her sentence, as she soon came face to face with a wicked gleam in Absinthe's eye, and the sound of shattering glass echoed through her brain. All of the sounds were followed by a drop in her stomach, making her realize that she was falling- probably towards doom.

Closing her eyes, Alison braced for the fall, barely even feeling the rush of what almost felt like cold water cover her body, the nanotech suit stored in her wrist coming to her help as she fell to the ground.

Alison landed on the ground with a thud, rolling onto the forest with a loud groan. There were definitely scratches up and down her arms from the glass ( before her suit could protect her ), and everything seemed to hurt. Spitting some stray leaves out of her mouth, she looked up to see Absinthe land safely in front of her, a coy smile on her face.

"I thought when I told you to stay away from me or anyone else two years ago you'd listen." Alison sighed, trying to gather herself up to stand. Brushing a stray hair out of her face, the teenager tried to paint her expression to be one of confidence, rather than fear that this was truly happening again. She didn't know how she didn't ever realize that Absinthe was there in the past two weeks, or if she had just been foolish enough to assume 'Children of Thanos' didn't include the one that was sent to track her down and kill her two years prior. "Or are you really just that stupid?"

"Stupid?" Absinthe laughed coyly, a cold glint in her eye as she did so. "I was biding my time. I knew that wouldn't be the last time I'd be on Earth, and I'd be able to kill you again this time." She snarled, watching Alison slowly get up. When the girl stood, the woman swung at her, hitting a prime spot in her jaw. "And I won't spare anything this time."

Rubbing the spot where she was hit, Alison dodged yet another punch that was aimed for her face, opting to duck and elbow Absinthe in the side. She slammed her forearm up into the ribs of the Asgardian, trying to push her away from the bottom of the building and towards the trees.

The more obstacles, the better. It meant more places for Alison to try and use to her advantage and shove the woman against a tree or just try and hope that some amount of brute force was going to be enough to knock her out so she could focus on what was important.

Alison saw the woman falter for a moment, and took that moment to use the bracelet Strange gave her, zapping the woman– once, twice, and then a third, seeing her fall down and not get back up for a few moments.

That gave her some time, at least.

Stumbling back, Alison took that moment to catch her breath, trying to do a survey on her body after the fact that she had fallen what probably could merit a few stories. Her spine twinged with an old ache (which definitely didn't mean anything good if that injury was coming back), and the former hole in her body flared with residual pain. Reaching up to her ear to try and communicate with Skylar, it was evident that her com had rolled out and was nowhere to be seen.

Damnit. That made things much harder than they should have been.

Trying to think of what she could possibly do next, Alison saw Absinthe stir from her place where she had been knocked down, recovering quickly and changing towards the teenager. "Oh, shit!" Rolling to the side, Alison saw the woman run into a fallen log, stumbling over her steps.

There was no strategy to this, was there?

No plan, no backup, and definitely not any good defense mechanisms. All she had to do was make sure Absinthe didn't get close enough to knock her out and slit her throat. Or honestly, get close enough to realize that the teenager was running on fumes and could easily be taken down given the targeting of a few specific areas. Basically anything could lead Alison to an unagreeable death. And the dooming of her universe.

No big deal, right?

Hearing the woman get up behind her again (which honestly, how was she getting up and recovering this fast?) Alison whipped her head to see the Asgardian bring out a sharp and shiny knife, twirling it between her fingers. An exasperated sigh escaped Alison's lips, the girl screaming, "Oh come on!"

The glint of silver came flying towards her, along with the woman wielding it, slashing Alison across the arm. Alison's heart raced as the contact made a screeching sound against the weaved nanobots of Alison's suit. Part of her let out an exhale of relief at the fact that Tony had thought of these things with the new suit, the nanobots weaving with the fabric to make sure that there were no random knife slashes to the teenager.

At least some benefits came from telling Tony about everything that had happened with the bloodthirsty Asgardian.

Giving out a small laugh of shock and glee, Alison shook her head at Absinthe. Clicking her tongue, a small smile began to grow across her face as she turned to look the Daughter of Thanos in the eyes. "That old trick won't work any-"

Alison was cut off by the woman charging back at her again, slashing her deeply across the cheekbone, the sting causing her to wince. So maybe gloating was not the way to go when you had someone hellbent on killing you, noted. "Okay, rude." She responded, noticing that Absinthe was close enough in range for hand to hand, turning to kick the woman in the stomach.

Alison's move was too predictable. Her ankle was grabbed by Absinthe, who twisted her towards the ground, Ali falling on her face. "Even worse." She groaned, pretty sure that more than one of her ribs were bruised or broken. Touching her face, she saw the blood come back on her fingertips, and Alison sighed. "I had just gotten over the last ones too." She complained, twisting to be on her back, using just her legs to gather herself back up.

"Okay listen, Miss Arnora, I've had enough of you and your brothers and sisters." Alison waved wildly to mention them, tired of everything going on with them. "So how about we just call it a day and you crawl back down into whatever hell hole you came-" The teenager caught another punch the woman threw at her, sighing as she tossed her arm aside, punching Absinthe in response in the nose. "Or not."

Hissing at the impact from her nose, Absinthe snarled at Alison, blood beginning to drip down her face, smearing the red liquid across her face as she used the back of her hand to clear the flowing blood. "You talk too much." The woman lunged at Alison, barreling her head into Alison's stomach, aiming to pin her against a tree.

The wind knocked out of her, Alison barely had any time before she was knocked onto the ground again. Okay, so this was not going in her favor. Giving out a wheeze of a breath, Alison gave a quick gasp of pain as she scrambled for another idea, another solution. The last time she had fought Absinthe it wasn't easy. But she had help, and this time she was all on her own. There was a whole other battle raging on.

Scrambling for something to fix the situation she was in, Alison's hand fell to the ground, her hand hitting something hard. Something that felt like a gun. Gripping onto it, Alison followed the instructions that Clint had told her over a million times before, unlocking the safety like it was muscle memory. Alison pulled the gun up from its spot against the ground, leaning against the ground in desperation.

"You think that primitive human tool can stop me?" Absinthe laughed, drawing nearer and nearer to the girl. "It is nothing in comparison to my powers." Grabbing the gun, and Alison with it, Absinthe wrestled for it, desperate to turn it against the teenager, since her own weapons wouldn't be enough. "However, against you..." She pressed the gun against Alison's temple, a coy smile on her face, "It might just be enough to kill you."

Eyes filled with desperation, Alison grabbed the wrist of Absinthe the gun was in, careful not to pull the safety. Applying pressure to the woman's wrist, she heard Arnora scream as her wrist gave a small crack, giving Alison an opportunity. She had to be smart about the gun, be smart about everything that was in play. She couldn't let it go off, and not around her.

What came after was a dance of trying to wrestle the gun back, the leaves in the trees around them rustling with a wind that could send a chill down someone's spine- indicating that something was coming. But neither woman saw it, focusing on the fight for their lives in front of them.

Then, finally, Absinthe got the upper hand, a smart dislocation of Alison's shoulder through the brute strength of the woman brought Alison into a chokehold against a tree. Her hand with the gun moved towards Alison, trying to rest it on her temple and end her- once and for all.

In a matter of seconds, Alison pivoted out of the chokehold and swiped the handgun for what felt like the hundredth time during their fight. Turning to Absinthe's backside, she raised the weapon at the back of her head, and when Absinthe turned around to charge, the teenager, out of desperation, aimed the weapon and squeezed.

And a gunshot echoed throughout the Wakandan forest. 

<~*~>

wow! you guys are really getting spoiled! (well kind of, i'm scheduling these updates so they're more sporadic but i'm mostly prepping all of these on a lazy wednesday so you know we take what we can get) 

we're getting to the part of infinity war that I didn't write-- but you know that's what this weekend is for. I'm sort of terrified that I am rushing through infinity war but genuinely when you break it down into like separate sequences within the same movie the plot gets a LOT shorter, especially because you're bouncing from like 2-3 POVs the whole movie 

anywaysss rant aside we are getting to the good stuff now! are you ready? cause I'm sure as hell not!