Y'all this is where shit goes down, and I thought it was unfair to keep you all waiting now that we're SO CLOSE to the end of this and I've already made you wait a whole year, so... here it is. The final battle. And the following two chapters after this will just be wrapping it all up :)

~ ~ ~

The ride to Thanos' ship was filled with tense silence and nervous shifting. People were paired up or gathered in little groups murmuring to themselves. The planned amount of time to get to Thanos' ship was a good 5-6 hours, which left an unhealthy amount of time for stewing in their thoughts, if Tony did say so himself.

Peter, sitting beside him, was lost in thought, eyes occasionally flicking to where Wanda was sitting next to Steve and Vision.

They'd all had a great debate on whether they should risk Vision coming; should they utilize all the power they could or should they play it safe and enable that Thanos can't get to the stones? Eventually, they all decided on Vision attending, banking on the fact that they knew Thanos didn't have all the stones gathered, and they'd need all the help they could get. Because if they failed in this battle, it ultimately wouldn't matter where Vision was; Thanos would get to him eventually.

It really was now or never.

Eventually, about halfway through their trip, Steve stood up. Tony had been expecting it, really, the super-soldier seemed to have too much energy to stay in one place. He was surprised he'd lasted 3 hours.

"We should go over the plan," Steve said. "We've got time before we land. Can we connect to the comms of the other two ships to go over it?"

Tony nodded and with a short command to FRIDAY, they were all connected. Bruce was flying one ship, Nat the other, and Carol the one Tony and Steve were on.

"Okay," Steve started. "So we know we're going in split up, utilizing the three spacecrafts to attack from several sides. We know Thanos' ship is stationed above a small uninhabited planet, but we checked and saw that the atmosphere has enough oxygen and nitrogen to be similar enough to Earth. So if the battle has to be taken there, we won't suffocate. However, one thing we don't have is the guarantee of drawing Thanos out. At the moment, all we can be sure of is that he'll send his army for us, but all he has to do is sit there and control-" at the word control, Peter shot up, back ramrod straight and excitement in his eyes. Eyes glanced towards him.

Tony opened his mouth to question what was going through the kid's mind when Peter spoke up. Eyes glowing, he glanced towards Wanda again, catching her gaze this time as he said, "I have a plan."

~ ~ ~

Things weren't going as planned.

Well, Peter amended in his thoughts as he webbed another ugly-ass Chitauri alien to the ground, we still have a chance. 

Thanos had seen their spacecraft coming, and had sent out his own minions to attack before the Avengers could even reach the mothership to try and execute the plan. As Steve predicted, the battle had been taken to the small planet- which was promptly wrecked. Thank god it had been uninhabited.

As these thoughts rushed through Peter, he snapped up in shock when his comms crackled to life with Steve yelling "Thanos is coming down here, you guys, be ready!"

Nebula had informed them that this would happen; Thanos wasn't the type to sit by and let his minions do all the work. Tony had brought up the Battle of New York, why Thanos had let his minions and Loki do that if he liked to be in charge, and Nebula responded with saying that was just a tiny planet takeover for him. It's why when the portal was closed, he hadn't bothered to really try to open it again; it made no real difference whether he took Earth over in that moment or years from then. This, though, was a real threat to his power, and, like when Peter fought him before (or in the future? damn time travel), he would come down to do the work himself. Add to the fact that Strange, with the time stone, and Vision, with the mind stone, were both here in the same place, he wouldn't pass that opportunity up.

A question had been raised on whether or not they could just use the time stone to freeze time and chop off Thanos' head or something, but Strange had shut that down right away, saying that not only was he not experienced enough to do that (seeing as he was lacking two years of experience as opposed to Peter's Dr. Strange), but time had already been messed up allowing them a second chance and they could totally fuck shit up if they tried to meddle in that. (Well, okay, maybe more eloquent wording than that, but same point).

None of that mattered now, though, because Thanos was here, really here, and he was still just as horrifying as he'd been before. Peter activated instant kill, slicing through hundreds of thousands of Chitauri bodies, losing all sense of time. It seemed to speed by and slow down, the body count increasing exponentially, but every muscle screaming in exhaustion, limbs feeling like lead, numbness filling his very core.

He may have not been in the Battle of New York, but this was so much worse. If they were fighting a million Chitauri then, they were fighting a billion Chitauri now. And a billion is a lot. Humans don't seem to have a sense so how much more a billion is as opposed to a million; 1 million seconds is 11 days, but 1 billion seconds is around 31.5 years.

Snap out of it, Parker, now's not the time for a math slash philosophy session, Peter berated himself, looking up again at the battlefield, which was absolutely filled with Chitauri aliens. He didn't know how much time had gone by since Thanos had come down to join the fray, but now he was in the thick of the fighting, calling out orders and slashing through Avengers with little effort. 

They really had to go through with the plan now before they all got more exhausted and had no chance at winning. Just like the Battle of New York, they have to disable the power source. Except this time, it's Thanos himself.

Peter tuned back into his comms. "You guys, we have to go through with the plan really soon if it's going to work," he gasped out, hearing affirmative grunts at the end of the line. 

"A little busy right now, kid," Sam responded, letting out a huff. "We can't get to him, the Chitauri are too thick, and Wanda needs him distracted to get inside his head."

Peter's eyes scanned the battlefield, looking for the telltale flash of red magic that would mark their chance at victory. After a couple of minutes, he spotted Wanda, crouched behind one of the ships, with T'Challa and Steve ensuring that none of the Chitauri attacked her while she tried to use her magic to get inside Thanos' head- sort of like how Mantis did it the first time around, except it didn't involve putting him to sleep. She'd never attempted it from such a great distance before, but since it was their only real option she agreed to try.

As Peter stared, he saw her head shoot up as she frantically shouted something along the lines of "he's too strong" to Steve. Steve shouted something back, but Peter was already moving towards Thanos himself.

"Kid, where are you going?" Tony shouted as Peter viciously cut his way through the aliens, deploying his metal spider-legs as additional help. In any other situation, he'd feel bad about using his full strength, but he was fueled by his nightmares and the knowledge that there was no other way. No way to do it gently. Not when he's dealing with Thanos and not some mugger from a grocery store in Queens.

"To make a distraction," he shouted back to his mentor, still cutting through the Chitauri incoming from every direction. There were a plethora of shouts at that statement, probably along the lines of "no" "don't do that" and "stay back, kid" (the latter coming from Tony), but Peter didn't pay attention to any of them. The last time he tried to stay back (also Tony's wish), his mentor got a moon thrown at him, got stabbed in the side, and half the universe died. All in that order. No thank you.

He must admit, there's no way he would have reached Thanos through all the Chitauri if the titan himself hadn't allowed it. Even with his super-strength, instant kill, and spider-legs, he's not strong enough to take down hundreds of Chitauri all at the exact same moment. However, Thanos saw him coming, and, with a glint in his eye, waved away some of the aliens. Cue another round of shouts through his comms when he was several feet away from the mad titan.

Perhaps he was impressed with Peter's determination, perhaps he just wanted to kill someone; either way, Peter knew he had to do this. If not for the plan, so that Wanda would be able to slip into Thanos' mind when he was focused on Peter, then for closure. It wouldn't cure his nightmares, Peter knew, to fight Thanos; in fact, he was pretty sure it would make more of them. But he'd been left with a feeling of numbness, of failure, ever since he hadn't succeeded in pulling the gauntlet off of Thanos' arm. Maybe fighting him now- and hopefully winning- would get rid of that, or, at the very least, diminish it. And, well, if they didn't win, it's not like it would matter, because they'd all be dead or mindless minions of Thanos.

As Thanos landed the first blow, Peter's mind emptied of everything except for the fighting at hand. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Wanda taking this opportunity, but he was quickly drawn back into the fight. Punch, kick, dodge, grab, flip, repeat. He could see the surprise in Thanos's eyes, that he'd lasted this long, but this was all Peter had thought about, ever since he failed the first time. What could he have done, what moves did Thanos use against Tony the first time; he fought with Nebula as well, determined to last longer than he did previously.

And he did.

For about sixty seconds.

Peter's not crazy (well, okay, maybe a bit)- he knew all the training in the world would mean nothing when it comes to brute force, and while he's hella strong, Thanos is much stronger. But a minute still buys Wanda enough time to get inside the titan's head, and Peter can see it working.

When he goes out, it's the same way as before. Thanos grabs him by the throat- he hears someone scream his name through the comms- and tries to smash him into the ground.

Peter Parker doesn't make the same mistake twice.

Instead of allowing himself to be smashed into the ground with a force that was bound to break several ribs and crush his windpipe, he used the momentum of the push to swing Thanos up and over him, judo style. Despite his much smaller frame, because of his strength and the strength Thanos was intending to use to introduce him to the dirt in a rather harsh manner, the titan was flipped over onto his back. And in that half a second of utter shock (Peter was pretty sure the whole battlefield was staring at him), before he could recover his senses or get back to his feet, Wanda slipped into his mind. Peter could see the red haze flash over his eyes before he scrambled to his feet and started shouting at the Chitauri to retreat.

By now, the aliens were all milling around in utter confusion- just as Peter had hoped. They'd just watched their "invincible" leader be flipped over by a kid (even though that hadn't been a part of the plan, Peter still thought it was a pretty cool move), and now he was yelling at them all to back off because they were useless.

But the real punch hadn't kicked in yet. Tony- who'd made his way over to Peter in the middle of the confusion- was snarking at the aliens in a very Tony Stark-like manner, riling them up. The tension was high in the Avengers as they waited for Wanda to deliver the line they'd planned- still slicing through Chitauri aliens as they did, which was much easier now that they were confused.

"Only the strongest among them can fight alongside me," Thanos snarled at one of the members of the Black Order, who was protesting with "But Sire-"

When the Chitauri registered Thanos' words, all hell broke loose. This had been a tip from Nebula- she'd recalled how desperate she was for Thanos' approval, because if you were standing at Thanos' side, you were far more likely to live longer than if you weren't. Chitauri were clawing at each other, with the Black Order trying to break it up and the Avengers still killing as they went along. Peter saw Wanda collapse, completely drained from the strain of controlling Thanos's mind, with T'Challa and Steve still covering for her. 

With Wanda's influence gone from Thanos's mind, he started to regain his senses, but the third and final phase of the plan was already in motion. Peter jumped up and started shooting webbing at Thanos; since he was confused, it held him long enough for Thor and Carol to reach him. Peter stepped back right as Thanos fully recovered (looking incredibly furious); before he could rip himself out of the webbing and regain control of his infighting army, Thor shot lightning at him while Carol shot her plasma-y powers at him. 

Peter felt someone grab his shoulder and tug him away right as he heard a scream, along with the- quite awful- smell of sizzling flesh and bone as the two cooked Thanos from the inside out.

Despite the fact that Thanos was a terrible being who'd literally killed Peter once and sought to destroy the way the universe worked, Peter could feel the tears welling in his eyes at the horrible death he was experiencing behind his turned back. Soon, the yells stopped- even for someone as strong as Thanos, the combined powers of Thor and Captain Marvel were too much for his body to handle at a constant stream of exposure. He'd barely survived the snap and that was only a second or so of power coursing through him.

With Thanos defeated and his army decimated (and the Black Order killed, according to the plan at least), Peter had expected that he'd feel more jubilant. There was a part of him that was proud they'd saved the universe, but with the smell of Thanos's charred flesh and the scent of spilled alien blood around him, all Peter could feel was empty.

Death wasn't pretty, no matter who it applied to.

Peter felt a light touch on his shoulder, which shocked him out of his thoughts. He looked up to see his mentor, surveying him with a pinched expression. When he met Tony's eyes, the man's face smoothed out, and he patted Peter's shoulder in understanding. He steered Peter away from Thanos's corpse, not allowing the teen's eyes to settle on it, and though Peter was curious, he was also immensely grateful that he didn't have to see it. The sights and smell that it corresponded with were enough to fuel his nightmares for the next 67 years.

"What about the rest of the army?" Peter blurted out into the silence when they'd almost reached the spaceship. Tony's mouth quirked up in a smile. 

"Don't worry about it, kid, it's all worked out," he said, turning Peter around to see. Peter looked over at the extremely diminished Chitauri army, surrounding Thor and Carol. Tony continued explaining as Peter watched. "Thanos killed the Chitauri leader when he first conquered them. With him gone, they'll follow whoever is the strongest and able to give them supplies - and apparently Thanos's killers fit in that category."

They fell into a brief silence after that, and Peter could feel a burst of hope replace the emptiness in his chest that had been there since Thanos's death. Looking at the battle-torn planet, littered with thousands of alien bodies was jarring, but watching the Chitauri kneel to Thor and Carol made him hope that something better was coming.

There'd never stop being bad people (or titans). With good people comes bad people, with light comes dark, all that philosophical shit. But for now, they'd won- really won. Thanos hadn't killed half the universe. Peter could go home to his friends and Aunt May and not wonder on the way back if they'd been part of the 50% dusted.

It wouldn't be all good. New villains would come- Peter would still have to deal with Vulture (and maybe not get a building dropped on him this time). And he was bound to have a shit ton of PTSD and nightmares stemming from this (the taste of ash in his mouth, the feel of half his body becoming numb and floating away, the smell of charred flesh, the sound of battle, the sight of a torn and devastated planet-). But he could make an effort to remember the good that came out of it, the reason they'd done this (the taste of victory, the feel of Tony's hand on his shoulder, the smell of a soft breeze, the sound of Avengers congratulating each other, the sight of the Chitauri following Thor and Carol instead of Thanos-).

"We won, Mr. Stark," Peter whispered, feeling the hand on his shoulder tighten just a bit before loosening and patting him softly.

"Yeah, we did, kid," Tony said back. "And it was all because of you."

"Not all because of me." Peter retorted. "I would not  have won this battle on my own."

"Fine. 50% because of you."

"15%."

"25%, final offer," Tony said. "Kid, there would have been no battle if it weren't for you. You're the one who came back and warned us."

"So did Dr. Strange. I didn't really do anything." Peter said.

"Sure, because coming up with the plan with Wanda-" "-Nebula helped-" "-and fighting Thanos one on one-" "-you did that before, too-" "-and warning us all was no help. Sure. Still at least 25% because of you." Tony said.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever," Peter muttered, fighting to hold back a grin. He'd missed this. Bantering without the threat of Thanos looming over their heads. He felt lighter than he had in months.

"We really won," he said again, a tone of disbelief in his voice, after a beat of silence.

"Yeah, kid. We really did."

~ ~ ~

Holy shit that was so much fun to write (even if it's terrible because it's 3 AM. sorry). Anyways yes, two more chapters!! And then we're done. Wow. Wild. I hope you enjoyed this chapter! I was just going to make a celebration at the end when I first planned this, but when I reached that point it didn't sit right with me. Peter isn't really one to celebrate death, even if it's Thanos's. And plus, PTSD. So I tried a slightly more realistic tone, let me know what you think!

3283 words.