⁺˚*･༓☾　　☽༓･*˚⁺

14|Yibambe
⁺˚*･༓☾　　☽༓･*˚⁺

Had Luciana expected to be smiling on her way to a battlefield?

No.

Was she?

Yes.

The teen was amazed at how the Carriers, designed by Shuri of course, hovered over the grassy hills of Wakanda. Luciana had a bit of experience with hovering devices, Tony and Luciana had been working on improving her flight power over the past few years and had experimented with various versions of thrusters until they incorporated the newest Iron Man thrusters into her suit. There was a reason that Luciana's current suit was Mark 23 of the nanotech variants.

"How we looking, Bruce?" Natasha questioned, looking back at Bruce, who was jogging alongside the Carriers in the Hulkbuster.

"Yeah, I think I'm getting the hang of it. Wow! It's like being the Hulk without actually-" Bruce's excited voice was cut off as he face-planted after stumbling over a rock. He ploughed some of the earth and the Carriers past by him without care,

Luciana allowed a few giggles to escape her lips before quietly asking if Bruce was going to be okay. "He's fine," Natasha assured, her all too famous smile on her face.

On queue, Bruce scrambled to his feet. "I'm okay. I'm okay," Bruce muttered.

"I got two heat signatures breaking through the tree line," Rhody informed as he flew in front of the Carriers. Luciana bit her lip, now she understood what Pipin had meant in The Return of The King. Waiting on the edge of a battle she couldn't escape was much much worse than actually fighting. She flexed her fingers and rolled her neck.

The Carrier pilots swerved into U-turns, causing their craft to tilt and allowing the practised soldiers to slide over one side into a run, never coming to a complete halt. A Dora Milaje shouted a command nearby as the last Wakandans join ranks.

Luciana who had absolutely zero experience with the Carriers almost fell over the edge, thankfully Steve grabbed her arm, steadying her. Blood rushed to Luciana's ears and she uttered a thanks. The non-Wakandans hopped over the side of the Carrier with less grace and quickly jogged to join the ranks of Wakandan soldiers.

"MIE EFFA! YA HU! MIE EFFA! YA HU! MIE EFFA! YA HU! MIE EFFA! YA HU! MIE EFFA! YA HU!" Another tribe of Wakandans chanted, Luciana only knew they were a different tribe due to their armour being different from the tribe of T'Challa.

T'Challa walked up to a man who seemed to be leading the chant of his people. "Thank you for standing with us." T'Challa clasped the other man's wrist and the two held eye contact as the other leader—M'Baku—replied in Xhosa.

T'Challa turned away from M'Baku and walked back to Steve, Natasha and Luciana. "Miss Rivera, you can stay here with General Okoye while we go to the edge of the barrier." Luciana felt a blush rise up her neck as she nodded.

"Uhm, Luci or Luciana is fine Your Highness," She stammered and T'Challa smiled warmly at her awkward demeanour.

"Then there's no need for formalities from your side either, Luci." T'Challa nodded warmly at Luciana and she walked back and took her place by Okoye's side. Okoye glanced down at the teen, to a certain extent the girl reminded her of T'Challa when he was younger.

After a few minutes of Natasha, Steve and T'Challa conversing with a tall blue-haired and horned alien, the trio returned and took their places in the ranks of the Wakandan army. "Did they surrender?" Bucky hummed, briefly looking sideways at his old-time best friend.

Steve shook his head and sighed. "Not exactly."

Aliens started to rush at the barrier as soon as the horned alien dropped her sword down. Luciana gulped, those things were unlike anything she and many of the others had ever faced. Oh, how she wished to be back to the previous evening in her kitchen, with Daniela and Peter, and cookies.

"Yibambe!" The chant was deafening, all of the soldiers changed it at the top of their lungs, spears clanked against the muddy ground. While the non-Wakandans had no idea what the chant meant, the sheer power of how it was screamed, brought them energy for the fight to come.

"Excuse me, Miss General, but....what does yiba....." Luciana trailed off as she tried to pronounce it correctly.

Okoye studied the girl. "Yibambe is a war cry that means hold fast," Okoye looked back at the charging aliens. The bald woman rolled her head and straightened her face. "It gives us strength for the fight to come.

"Hold fast? That's....that's nice," Luciana breathed out, barely daring to watch the aliens slam into the forcefield barrier.

"What the hell," Bucky whispered in disbelief, the Brooklyn boy could barely believe the numbers their enemy had.

"Looks like we pissed her off." Natasha's words were grim, as was her tone. She had fought an alien army before, but back then she had Freya, Thor, Clint and Tony. In the present, she had all these other people, but it wasn't the same. Less than half of the original Avengers were present. The Avengers weren't complete, they wouldn't have Tony's mind, Thor's thunder, Freya's powers and Clint's aim. Besides the Chitauri were a different army, led by a narcissistic mind-controlled god. The current army was led by officers who served someone who had wiped out half of various species. Loki was child's play next to this.

"They're killing themselves," Okoye said horrified. They all watched as the Outriders pushed themselves through the blue barrier, their skin boiling off. The few who made it through alive, limped as they charged towards the Wakandans and their allies.

The front row of each group of Wakandans dropped to their knees and brought up their capes, activating their shields. Those behind them rested their spears on the shoulders of the ones on their knees and opened fire. Bucky and Sung raised their machine guns and fired away, Bruce joining the attack with his repulsers.

Sam swooped down, shooting at the Outriders. "You seen the teeth on those things?" His voice crackled over the comms. "

Alright, back up, Sam. You're gonna get your wings singed." Rhody flew towards Sam's previous location and dropped a barrage of mines.

Luciana notched an arrow and fired it, effectively taking down a group of Outriders as her arrow exploded. She wouldn't do much damage from back there, with a breath, Luciana extended her wings and took off to the sky and joined the air force of the fight.

"Cap, if these things circle the perimeter and get in behind us...there's nothing between them and Vision," Bruce spoke, making multiple people turn to see small groups of Outriders running around the force field to avoid the small army.

A beat of silence on the comms followed ."Then we better keep 'em in front of us," Steve answered, his voice heard and heavy.

"How do we do that?" Okoye wondered, turning to her king for answers.

"There's only one option here," Sung commented, finger twitching on her trigger and killing the Outriders in her range.

T'Challa pondered for a moment. "We open the barrier."

Luciana allowed her arrow to fly before turning to look at T'Challa with wide eyes despite being quite a ways away. "Open the only thing keeping the evil aliens from charging at us?" She asked over the comms.

T'Challa took a sharp breath. "I fear it is our only option." He raised his comm to his mouth. "On my signal, open North-West Section Seventeen."

"On my signal."

"Hey kid," Sam hovered near Luciana and she turned to look back at him. Instead of growing out her full mask that covered the entire upper half of her face, she chose to leave it as flight goggles so she could see and keep her eyes safe in the sky. "Cool wings." Sam nodded at her.

"Thank you." Luciana licked her lips.

M'Baku looked at the growing amount of Outriders before the barrier. "This will be the end of Wakanda."

Okoye looked ahead determined, Wakanda always went first. If that was going to be the final battle of Wakanda, then it would be a legendary one and she would fight until her last breath. "Then it will be the noblest ending in history.

T'Challa strode forward. He took a moment before raising his arms in the Wakandan salute. "WAKANDA FOREVER!!!" His words echoed over the green fields as his helmet closed. The army charged they were all running towards the barrier.

Halfway there, T'Challa raised his wrist to his mouth again "Now!"

The air team sprung into action, Luciana, Sam and Rhodey flew out to the bottlenecked barrier to slow down their enemy as much as they could. Luciana hovered just before the opened barrier, arrows flew from her bow at top speed. Most of them taking down at least one Outrider. Rhodey and Luciana would occasionally send harder explosives towards the back lines of their enemy.

The battle was heavy. People were falling everywhere and Luciana was thankful she had the ability to fight from the air, the ground looked absolutely terrifying.

Bucky struggled as an Outrider tried to bite his face off, pulling out a dagger he had gotten from Freya, he prepared to stab the alien. However, the Outrider died before he was able to, an arrow sticking out of its head.

Luciana pulled another arrow from her quiver, soon enough she'd be out. Tony had made her a nanotech suit, so in dire situations, Luciana could start using her suit as ammo. The other option was to allow her suit to retrieve its scattered nanotech. Luciana pressed a button on the side of her mask, slowly strands of nanotech dissolved and flew up, gathering at the bottom of her feet and slowly spreading over her suit. Luciana continued to shoot arrows left and right.

A moment of distraction was all it took for the alien from the park to slam a hammer into her. Luciana's small body plummeted towards the ground, pieces of her armour had broken off. Thin leggings, tank top and skin were exposed. The ground was approaching fast and Luciana closed her eyes, ready to accept her fate.

Then two strong arms caught her.

Luciana slowly peeled open an eye to see the friendly face of Sam Wilson. "Th-thanks." Sam nodded.

"Don't mention it. You good to fly?" He looked away from her and watched the fighting that continued around them. Sam's strong arms were tightly wrapped around Luciana's midsection, keeping her safe and in place.

Luciana didn't respond immediately, she watched the status of her suit on the glasses in her mask. "Yeah, you can.....you can let me go. Thanks again," Luciana panted and Sam dropped her, keeping an eye on her. Luciana's wings extended and she landed safely on the ground, nanotech still flying up from the ground and collecting around her.

"Behind you!" A Dora Milaje soldier belted and Luciana twisted around, aiming an arrow as she did. The arrow left her bow and Luciana was jumped by an Outrider. Snapping teeth were all she saw. Hastily Luciana used her bow to keep the large sharp teeth away from her face. The teen grunted as she tried to push the alien off of her.

The sounds of Luciana struggling caught Sung's attention and the Widow tried to work her way over.

"There's too many of them! GYAH! AAAAHHHHH!" Bruce screamed while being buried under the many bodies of the attacking aliens.

A beam of light demanded the attention of all.

Luciana sighed with relief as the alien on top of her was killed by lightning. She rose to her feet and saw the Bifrost disappear, leaving Thor, Freya, a brunette woman, a brunet man, a raccoon and a tree sapient in its wake.

"You guys are so screwed now!!" Bruce exclaimed with a laugh, his helmet retracting as he looked at Thanos' forces smugly.

Thor flew up into the sky, lightning surrounded him before he landed. Freya took off in the air as Nidhogg turned into his large size before she mounted him. They flew towards the army of Thanos, spewing fire at the Black Order.

Luciana flapped her wings and took to the air before landing. Using their stunned state to take down as many as she could with arrows.

A low rumbling was heard under the ground, slowly heading towards them. When the disturbance reached the edge of the trees, it turned into various vast moving mounds of earth that easily bypassed the force field of Wakanda. Gigantic wheels with spikes came out from the ground, it was clear that those things only had one goal, to destroy everything in its path.

"Fall back! Fall back now!" T'Challa commanded, not wanting his people to be fighting something that was impossible to fight.

Rhody, Luciana and Sam flew towards the wheels, using their firepower to try and destroy the wheels. "Focus that fire on the left flank, Sam, Luci," Rhody instructed.

"I'm doing it," Sam groaned as he kept on firing at the wheel.

"Okay," Luciana replied, firing explosive arrows at the wheels. She hissed as her arrows did no damage at all.

"Might want to step back a little," Freya warned as Nidhogg breathed fire on the side of the wheel, effectively destroying it. Luciana sighed in relief but tensed again as she saw more wheels approaching. Now Luciana understood why her parents wished for her to not live the life of a hero. She was a long long way away from Queens and now she wasn't Hummingbird from around the block, now she was an Avenger, for better or for worse.

"Guys, we got a Vision situation here," Sam called before he was tackled down.

"Somebody get to Vision!" Steve shouted.

"I got him!" Bruce flew off in the Hulkbuster suit towards where Vision should be.

"On my way," Wanda announced before she was tackled by Proxima.

Luciana spotted Wanda getting attacked and crept up behind the horned alien, Vision leaving her mind. The girl dropped onto the ground and shot an arrow at the horned woman, but the alien caught it and turned to Luciana, who paled. Proxima charged and smacked the teenager from Queens into the side of the trench. Hastily Luciana butted the side of her bow into Proxima's head, making the alien collapse and giving Okoye time to charge Proxima. Natasha and Sung joined the fights whilst Luciana tried to recover.

"Duck!" Luciana exclaimed as a wheel tore over the trench. At least they were protected in their muddy trench.

Proxima used the distraction to kick Natasha in the face, successfully throwing her to the ground before she managed to slash at Sung's leg. The Russian hissed and managed to fire a bite at Proxima, which at least slowed her down. Luciana notched her last arrow and fired it. Proxima flew off of Natasha and was pinned by a net that was released from the arrow.

Freya landed in the trench and pulled Proxima towards her. The Asgardian tugged Proxima upright by her hair and whispered something in her ear before slicing Proxima's throat. Blue blood spilt from the alien's throat before Freya dropped Proxima.

"That was really gross," Natasha panted as she pushed herself up, wiping some blue blood from her face.

With all the women safe, Vision became a priority and Wanda flew up before Freya looked at Oyoke and Natasha, taking off with them. Luciana flapped her wings, following her old and new heroes into the sky.

Wanda landed seconds before the three older women and Luci and immediately rushed over to Vision. "Are you okay? What? What is it?" She urged, dropping to her knees by Wanda.

"He's here." Freya's words made a pit form in Luciana's stomach.

The wind picked up slightly, the atmosphere turning eerie and dangerous almost. "Everyone, on my position. We have incoming," Steve announced over the comms.

Blue-black clouds emerged out of thin air. A portal that was created by the Space Stone. "What the hell?" Natasha half closed her eyes as she looked at the portal, instinctively moving closer to Luciana.

The purple titan exited the portal, a gauntlet on his left hand with most of the stones. Bruce had said what would happen if Thanos got all six stones, and that could not happen.

"Cap. That's him," Bruce confirmed.

"Eyes up. Stay sharp," Steve instructed.

Bruce reached Thanos first, and he lunged forward fist first, but Thanos used the Space Stone on him, rendering him immaterial until the Hulkbuster was partly buried in the stone of the cliff behind him. Which would keep Bruce from interfering again for some time.

Steve ran forward, only to be sent flying by the purple energy from the Power Stone before he even got to strike a single blow. T'Challa rushed forward, his armour fully charged kinetically, he leapt high and with claws extended, but was easily grabbed by the throat and punched to the ground. Which made his armour discharge violently. Sam swooped in, firing with both his Steyr pistols, but was taken down when his wings became rubbery and unable to sustain his flight.

"Wanda. It's time." Vision whispered and Freya and Luciana's eyes met.

Both women looked at each other before Luciana nodded and charged forward as Freya threw up a forcefield around Vision and Wanda.

"No," Wanda whimpered.

"They can't stop him, Wanda, but we can. Look at me. You have the power to destroy the Stone," Vision urged softly taking one of Wwanda's gloved hands into his own.

"Don't..."

"You must do it. Wanda, please. We. Are. Out of time," Vision whispered.

"I can't." The Sokovian shook her head and looked around desperately for help, she focused on Sung who was taken out swiftly by Thanos.

"Yes, you can. You can. If he gets the stone, half the universe dies."

"It's not fair," Wanda snapped back.

"It shouldn't be you, but it is. It's all right. You could never hurt me. I just feel you," Vision assured, he pressed Wanda's hand towards her and pointed it at his forehead.

Luciana flew forward, she had refilled her quiver and an arrow was fired at Thanos. It was no use, Thanos grabbed her by her legs, pulling her down to the ground. Luciana's head smacked into a stone and she fell unconscious.

How long had it been since Luciana's head had smacked into a pointy rock? She had no clue. But when she hazily stood up all she heard was faint shouting in the background. She blinked fiercely, the whole world was spinning and blurry.

She most definitely had a concussion, again.

Head feeling as heavy as a ton of bricks, Luciana rose to her feet. She clutched to a tree and blinked, trying to focus on the world.

Luciana could swear she saw Bucky Barnes become a pile of dust. "Great," She thought "Now I'm seeing things." Luciana reached a hand up to feel the hot wound on the side of her head.

That was strange.

Luciana pulled her hand back and then it was explained. She hadn't been able to feel the wound because her hand was gone.

A frown appeared on the teenager's brow as more and more of her body started to disappear. Luciana's brown eyes looked up and saw Thor, who looked at her. She hadn't expected her second meeting with Thor to be on her deathbed. The teenager tried to look back and find Natasha or Rhodey, but before she could she collapsed and disappeared.

a/n:
poor luci :(
it's missing t'challa hours here. and honestly just everyone.
i really want a new avengers movie, i feel like the mcu needs it.
oh well, next chapter is already endgame so we've got around 3 chapters
left before we move on to the next book, legado.

hope you enjoyed! please consider voting and commenting!
with love,
-vic

sad post:

date published: 5 august 2023
word count: 3357