note: my account is a spoiler-free zone for endgame. any direct spoilers for it with no warning will be deleted for the sake of those who haven't been able to see it yet. if you want to put a spoiler, comment "ENDGAME SPOILER" and then reply to your comment with the spoiler so it isn't visible unless you click on the replies. thank you!

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chapter four
CONSEQUENCES
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LENA'S LEG BOUNCES UP and down uncontrollably, but even that doesn't seem to be enough to calm the nerves racing at the speed of light within her. She's used to the sensation that makes her skin itch, warning that something catastrophic will happen if she doesn't do something to release the restless energy coiling in her veins. Her thumbs twiddle as well, but it barely helps.

She'd thought she'd gotten better since meeting Tony. Together, they'd tried to figure out what her parents had done to create her powers. She'd spent countless hours in his secret lab that still remains in New York City. They'd run test after test with little to no success, though Tony had managed to tweak something that had made the energy more manageable.

Maybe it's all going to shit now because of the treacherous situation they're in. She guesses that the man hadn't accounted for major stress to add another variable into the equation. Her mind only knows one way to deal with problems: movement.

The quinjet is smaller than it had looked on the outside. The seats are sparse and only seem to be used for takeoff and landing; there are rows of them on either side of the plane. Nobody else is sitting in one except Lena. The other Avengers are milling around with Steve and Sam at the front, Natasha sitting silently at one of the computers, and the others out of sight.

Bruce had sat next to her when the jet had lifted from the ground. Lena had squeezed his hand to the point of possibly breaking some bones, but he'd endured it without complaint as if he'd felt worse. Which he definitely has.

"Are you okay?"

Lena is able to place the voice to the proper owner before she even lifts her gaze from her rapidly-moving thumbs. Wanda Maximoff's thick Sokovian accent makes her voice unmistakable. When Lena finally looks up, she notices the red-haired girl leaning hesitantly against one wall of the jet. There's a respective distance between them that she's sure the older girl had done on purpose. In her early twenties, Wanda is the youngest person on this plane aside from Lena herself.

After a beat, Wanda scoffs at her own inquiry. "That was a stupid question— of course you are not okay." She glances around at the other Avengers who are scattered around, lowering her voice. "In fact, I don't think any of us are. And it is okay to be scared."

The younger girl releases a breath from her mouth— a trembling exhale, just like the rest of her. "I've been scared. I'm not ashamed of fear, but I've never felt fear like — like this."

Like we're fighting a battle we can never hope to win. The thought crosses her mind before she can stop it.

"I understand," Wanda says with a nod. "Bruce told me about you— the little bit he knows, at least. Your powers... they are not much unlike my own. I know what it's like to feel like they are controlling you more than you are controlling them." She casts a pointed glance at Lena's bouncing leg and twiddling thumbs. "I was made as well. The difference is that it was my choice. But this..." Raising a delicate hand, she forms a ball of red-tinted power in her palm before twirling it around her slender fingers, "it didn't feel like me until recently. Steve is better at the whole speech thing, but I guess what I am trying to say is that you cannot let your powers take control of you. If you do, they win."

Lena holds up her own hand and copies Wanda's actions of pooling energy into her palm. The blue tint makes the woman raise an interested eyebrow.

"I'm... unstable," she admits with some thought. "Tony was trying to help me reach equilibrium, but obviously we didn't do that quite yet. Sometimes I feel more thing than girl, if that makes sense."

She nods. "You will get there."

Lena chooses to believe that.

"We'll be landing in five," Steve announces to the occupants of the quinjet, scanning his royal-blue eyes over each face. "Everyone buckle up."

Wanda retreats back to her seat across the aisle as Lena fumbles for her seat belt. Bruce appears from some back area and resumes his place to her right. His lack of a greeting means that something must be bothering him, but what, she isn't sure.

She clutches the seat belt until her knuckles are white and the bones are prominent beneath her skin. The descent of the jet isn't bumpy by any means, but she does feel her ears beginning to pop as Sam aims the aircraft downward. Her heart jumps into her throat at the realization that they're flying straight toward a mountain—

"I hope you're right about this, or we're gonna land a lot faster than you want to," Sam says tensely, but his trust in Steve proves to weigh more than his fear, because he doesn't change direction and instead flies closer to the giant structure.

Lena's body instinctively tenses, bracing herself for an impact that never comes. She pops an eye open to see that her surroundings have transformed. Instead of seeing nothing but open farmland, she discovers an entire metropolis that's smaller than her New York but infinitely more advanced. A train flies on a raised track that makes it snake around the towering skyscrapers that seemed to have appeared out of thin air. Her jaw drops at the sight of the technology. She'd known that Wakanda had decided to open its resources to the rest of the world, but this...

She turns to see Bruce's face still screwed up as if he's unaware that they aren't flying at a mountain anymore. Lena gently nudges him. He shakes his head and opens his eyes, which immediately widen at the sights around him.

They continue their descent and Lena has to peel her gaze away from the window at the front of the jet in order to focus on getting herself out of the chair. Unbuckling her seat belt, she slowly eases herself to her feet once the jet has come to a complete stop. Her hands curl into fists to calm their shaking. She's about to meet royalty. The Black Panther. Peter had told her a little about him during one of their study sessions.

She can see it like it happened yesterday. Peter, reclining on her bed as he'd tossed an eraser into the air mindlessly. He was mostly fighting Mr. Barnes the whole time. I don't know why, but I do know that I wouldn't want to be on the receiving end of those claws.

Whatever feud he'd had with Bucky Barnes must be over, though, because Steve had picked here retreat to in their time of need.

Sam flicks a lever that lowers the exit ramp onto the concrete. He and Steve exit first, followed by Natasha, who gives Lena a closed-lipped grin of support before leading her outside. The sunlight is nearly blinding after being cramped in the jet for so long. Lena squints against it as she walks out, knees slightly wobbly at the sight of the fierce female warriors surrounding the king. They all have shaved heads, their bright red outfits shocking to her still-recovering eyes. The spears in their hands appear sharp enough to break through several layers of skin with even the slightest graze. However, they don't seem malicious, just cautious. Several male guards approach and flank either side of their pathway to T'Challa.

"Do we bow?" Bruce questions James as they emerge next. Lena is hit with a fresh reminder that this is his first time in Wakanda as well. Somehow, it gives her a sense of comfort knowing she's not alone in that sense.

"Yeah, he's a king," James replies matter-of-factly.

The teenage girl sends Natasha a questioning glance, to which the blonde gives a subtle shake of her head and a smirk. Lena returns it, pulling her lips into a line to keep from laughing at the Lieutenant Colonel's antics.

Then her gaze drifts toward King T'Challa himself and her breath nearly catches. She'd known he was handsome based on the pictures she's seen, but seeing him in person is a whole different story. His dark skin appears completely unblemished, curly hair cut fairly short. It's dark enough to appear almost black, but in the direct sunlight beating down from the heavens, she can tell it's brown at the ends. He's dressed elegantly yet simply in a black, floor-length tunic covered by navy blue fabric with silver embroidery draped over his shoulders. She blinks in an effort not to be starstruck; Natasha chuckles at her reaction.

"It seems like I'm always thanking you for something," Steve says with a grin as the two men clasp hands in a firm greeting. The king returns his small smile, revealing dimples carved into his cheeks as he does so.

Bruce clears his throat, dipping into a bow at the waist. James feigns confusion and incredulously whispers, "What are you doing?"

T'Challa holds out a gentle hand to stop him with his eyes glittering in amusement. "We don't do that here." Turning back to walk toward the towering building behind him, he asks, "So, how big of an assault should we expect?"

"Uh, sir?" Bruce replies, attempting to speak around Steve's towering form from the back of the group. "Sir, you should expect quite a big assault."

"How are we looking?" Natasha questions the king.

"You will have my King's Guard, the Border Tribe, the Dora Milaje, and..."

"...A semi-stable hundred-year-old man."

Lena jolts in surprise as T'Challa motions to Bucky Barnes, who seems to have appeared out of nowhere. His shoulder-length brunet locks seem to be freshly washed, his goatee trimmed and a smile on his face. It completely contrasts his muscled form and sleek metal arm. Lena can't help but admire it. Instead of the plain silver one with the trademark red star she's seen in pictures, this one seems new. It's traced with gold and is less bulky than his old one. It must have been created for him here.

Steve immediately surges forward and pulls the man into a hug. His posture seems less rigid than it had been moments before, like Bucky is a beacon of light in this dark tunnel they've been trapped in for the past day. "How're you doing, Buck?"

The smile on Sergeant Barnes' face lights up his entire face. "Not bad... for the end of the world."

The Dora Milaje and King's Guard flank them on their way into the towering building in front of them. Lena turns and silently admires the fierce woman on her right. Her face isn't set in a scowl, instead kept blank. The teenager whispers, "Wow."

It may have been a figment of her imagination, but she thinks she sees the woman's mouth quirk upward in a minuscule smile for a fraction of a second.

"We have a kid now?" she hears Bucky mutter to Steve. T'Challa's shoulder twitches, a subtle signal that he's listening in on their conversation. Lena's cheeks burn at the pressure of being noticed by all of these people she's idolized for so long. When she sees Peter again and tells him she actually met all of these people, he'll be ecstatic for her.

Steve explains Lena's sudden appearance and her association with Tony and Spider-Man. Bucky huffs at the mention of Peter, making Lena's gut churn until he dejectedly mumbles, "That kid blocked my punch," and she begins to glow with pride instead.

"This is my sister's lab," T'Challa informs them as he walks. The Dora Milaje woman beside him — named Okoye, if she remembers correctly from reports — opens the glass door for him.

Princess Shuri's laboratory is so awe-inspiring that Lena's breath catches in her throat when she stares up at it. It appears to be many stories high, its skinny structure towering so high into the sky that Lena has to shield her eyes against the sun to see the top. The distant sound of a waterfall makes Lena's blood chill, but the presence of the guards surrounding them makes her feel considerably safer than she normally would. Her face has only lost a smidge of its color.

Bruce appears shocked as well. The two science dorks stand side-by-side longer than they should, the teenager's excitement growing exponentially at the thought of meeting yet another scientific genius. With a laboratory like this... she wonders how smart the young princess truly is.

"Wait until you see the inside," T'Challa says to them as he turns to walk inside. Lena's heart leaps in her chest when she realizes that a royal just directly acknowledged her — and spoke to her, nonetheless. Her widened eyes turn to Bruce, who shakes his head at her fangirl-like behavior.

Sure enough, Lena is even more mystified by the interior of the princess' lab than she had been by the exterior. The design is like the Avengers Compound on steroids— everything is so modern and scientifically advanced that she almost wants to pause time just to be able to look at everything.

The King's Guard and most of the Dora Milaje stop to flank the corridor that they entered through. T'Challa himself leads them to the second floor of his sister's laboratory. However, Lena's eye snags on a few extra buttons in the elevator that are in the negatives and must lead to levels underground. Her eyes widen; just how big is this building?

The doors open, and before T'Challa can even step out, a female's voice rings out, "You're late."

"Yeah, yeah," T'Challa replies in a slightly annoyed tone. Lena is sure he's just faking it because she can detect the fondness in his voice. "Blame it on them, not me."

Lena follows the rest of the group out of the cramped elevator, marveling at the expansive room and gadgets within it. Natasha has to usher her past a table full of technological weapons. Finally, they reach the teenage princess.

Shuri is slightly shorter than Lena, dressed in a sheer orange lab suit that covers her from neck to toe. Her braided hair is pulled into two buns on either side of her head. She's small in stature, but her extensive knowledge and extraordinary brain make up for what she may lack in muscle.

Her eyes roam over the Avengers until they lock onto an injured Vision. Brow furrowing, she sets her jaw as she stares at the Infinity Stone in his forehead. "Help him onto the table."

Wanda and Sam escort the limping man onto the examination table Shuri has set up near the floor-to-ceiling window against the back wall. Vision winces as he lies down on it until his back is completely flat. Wasting no more time, Shuri hovers her closed fist over him and glides it through the air until she's reached his head. Lena squints, noticing an extremely faint blue glow encasing her hand. A beam of light shoots down from where her fingers are closed and scans the man. As far as Lena knows, the princess doesn't have any powers like her brother. She notices a band of wide, circular beads on the girl's wrist and wonders if the scanner somehow originates from them.

Shuri turns her hand toward the ceiling and opens her palm. A holographic image of the stone appears above it, swirling with colors of gold and orange. Bruce mutters a, "Woah" at the sight.

"The structure is polymorphic," the princess marvels through a breath.

"Right, we had to attach each neuron non-sequentially," Bruce explains, pushing his thick-framed glasses higher up on his nose.

Shuri shoots him a bewildered look. "Why didn't you just program the synapses to work collectively?"

"Or back up his consciousness into some sort of hard drive while he was still in the Cradle?" Lena blurts before she can realize she'd spoken. When the rest of the Avengers turn to her in surprise, she shrugs. "Since it was a part of Ultron and J.A.R.V.I.S, it seems like it could have been done as he was being created."

Shuri points to Lena in agreement, causing the taller girl to grin in accomplishment.

Bruce gapes at the two of them, struggling to form a coherent sentence. "Because we ... didn't think of it?"

The princess attempts to hide her chuckle at their lack of planning. "I'm sure you did your best."

"Can you do it?" Wanda questions, voice almost half-hopeful.

"Yes, but there are more than two trillion neurons here," Shuri replies solemnly, flickering her gaze to where T'Challa stands near the window. "One misalignment could cause a cascade of circuit failures. It will take time, brother."

Steve asks, "How long?"

"As long as you can give me."

Some sort of alarm begins to blare from Okoye. The bracelet on her left wrist is identical to Shuri's in all ways except color, and the woman easily disconnects a bead from it. When it rolls into her palm, a silver image of the Earth appears above her hand. Some sort of ripple forms across the continent of Africa. The largest rings spread to the whole continent, but the center is right in Wakanda.

The general's forehead wrinkles in concern. "Something's entered the atmosphere."

Just then, Steve presses a finger to the comm in his ear, tilting his head as he listens to whatever message is being relayed to him. Whatever it is, it probably isn't good. Bucky, Sam, and James had offered to keep watch outside of the lab to report on any problems.

"Something struck the top of the dome surrounding the city," Steve relays the message to the rest of them. "The shield held, but there's more incoming."

T'Challa straightens and lifts his chin. "Then the battle is soon to begin."

A muffled explosion from outside causes Lena to jolt and whirl around to face the wall of windows. The perfectly-clear glass gives her an unobscured view of the chaos that has already begun. Some sort of large-scale bomb strikes the grass just out of the force field's range and combusts on impact. The fire spreads toward the city, but the shield prevents it from moving any closer.

But how long will that force field hold?

Lena blinks and watches the smoke clear. She realizes with a spike of fear through her heart that the structures are not bombs. Rather, they have latched onto the ground and appear to be some sort of triangular pods from a larger ship. The smoke that pours from them rises into the air endlessly. Another one lands and strikes the forest, setting trees ablaze. Another lands in a lake. Soon there are seven, then nine, then Lena forces herself to stop counting in order to quell the panic rising in her chest.

Thanos' army has arrived.

"It's too late," Vision says through a pained grimace as he pushes himself to his feet. "We need to destroy the stone now."

Natasha whirls around with a fierce glare. "Vision, get your ass back on the table."

"We will hold them off," T'Challa says, walking toward the elevator with Okoye and her second in tow.

"Wanda, as soon as that stone's out of his head, you blow it to hell," Steve orders, voice somehow soft even at a time like this.

The woman nods. "I will."

"Evacuate the city, engage all defenses..." T'Challa turns back around to look at Steve, "and get this man a shield."

Captain Rogers gives the king a nod, then turns toward Lena. She can see the unease swirling around in his blue eyes. His face is tight, mouth puckered in a slight frown.

And yet he still makes her safety a priority. "You don't have to fight, Lena. You can stay here with Shuri and Wanda to help protect the stone."

Lena swallows, which turns out to be a bad idea because it gets stuck in her throat. She inhales deeply through her nose and straightens out her shoulders in hopes that he won't be able to see how terrified she truly is. If he knew, then he certainly would advise her to stay behind, which she can't do. Not at this point in the game. She'd already failed once in protecting the wizard and Peter from getting abducted by an enemy spaceship; she can't stay behind and watch chaos ensue again.

Tony had told her to stay on the ground. She assumes that also means keeping herself out of even more trouble, which means that fighting this battle would be a direct disobeying of his orders. But she can't stand idly by when something is going wrong. She never could— which is why although the hero in her feels the thrill of combat calling her name, her human side is utterly petrified.

"Like Steve said," Bruce adds, cutting off her deep internal monologue, "you can stay behind for this one. Nobody will judge you."

She inhales another deep breath and clenches her trembling hands into fists at her sides. "I can do it."

"Are you sure?" Steve asks.

"No," she admits, turning her gaze from the explosions shuddering the ground to look at him instead. "But I owe it to them to try."

T'Challa loads them onto several low-flying ships that are already waiting for them when they exit the lab. Lena boards with Natasha, Steve, and Bucky, bouncing up and down to alleviate the nearly overwhelming pressure in her veins. It's like her power can sense the danger and is begging to wreak havoc on the threat.

The ships have nothing to prevent them from falling off as they fly. They're simply flat, with no walls or ceilings to stop the wind from whipping into their eyes. A Dora Milaje soldier flies them closer to the edge of the dome. T'Challa's word spreads fast— his soldiers are already lining up in rank near the front lines.

She glances behind her to see Bruce flailing along after them in his chunky Hulkbuster armor. Since, as its name suggests, it was meant to be used against the Hulk, it makes him around the same size and stature that he would be if the green fella decided to make a grand entrance. The problem is that Bruce isn't used to himself being inside of the suit. She presses her lips together to keep herself from laughing when he trips over a rock and face-plants into the grass.

The ships drop them off near the gathering of defenses. Lena notices an unfamiliar tribe making dog-like howls as they jam their spears into the ground repeatedly, seemingly lead by a stockily-built man with a gaze that could cut steel. There's something unabashedly reckless about them that intimidates her.

"That's the Jabari Tribe."

It takes Lena a moment to register that Bucky is speaking to her. She faces him, jaw dropped a little in surprise, to see him studying her with his assault rifle in hand. It seems strange that he would bring a gun to an alien fight. Then again, he's likely most comfortable using it because he has been a soldier for so long.

She scrambles for something to respond with. "Oh, thanks, Sergeant Barnes. I.. uh... like your hair."

She internally smacks herself as her face turns cherry red. What? She likes his hair? That's the best she could come up with? Why is it that she can easily think of witty things to say to bullies or villains, but when it comes to the Avengers, she keeps making a fool of herself?

However, she thinks she catches a glimmer of amusement in his light eyes as he faces forward again. "You remind me of the Spider-Kid." The mention of Peter makes her heart clench. "And I'm not a Sergeant anymore. Bucky's fine."

"You got it, Mr. Barnes." This is almost the exact same thing that had happened between her and Bruce. "Please don't tell anybody about this conversation."

Lena quickly hurries toward Bruce, who has finally caught up with them. She's practically microscopic in comparison to him. The oval-shaped head of the Hulkbuster armor turns down to face her as he asks, "You okay?"

"I just told Mr. Barnes I liked his hair, so no," she responds honestly. Bruce's hand comes up to gently pat her on the head, rustling her hair and making her swat the giant thing away. "Not now, not now."

"Sorry."

Lena hadn't even realized that Steve, Natasha, and T'Challa had gone to speak with the two aliens that are standing outside of the force field until they merge back into the front lines. Judging by the doors opening in the pods and the battle screeches that emit from inside of them, their talk hadn't gone well.

T'Challa starts a war chant in Xhosa. The Wakandan warriors repeat his words with a strike of their spears in the grass, rallying their strength. Lena glances up at Bruce for a sense of stability. If she needs help, she has all of these people willing to give it to her. Just because she doesn't have Peter and Tony doesn't mean she's alone.

The female alien at the border of the dome raises her sword, a triumphant smirk on her black-painted lips that even Lena can see from so far away. An army surges forward in response. Creatures spill out of the forest, not quite animal but not quite human, either, snarling with rage. Some of them begin to melt upon contact with the shield surrounding the city. Others fight through it even as their limbs are severed off. Lena crinkles her nose at the sight of arms and heads thudding to the ground on their side of the force field.

Then she gets an idea. Before Bruce can reach out and stop her, she pushes her way through the crowd of warriors until she reaches T'Challa. Steve looks at her quizzically when he sees her flustered expression as she approaches the king, but he stays silent as she speaks.

"Excuse me, Your Majesty, sir," Lena says, hoping her voice isn't wavering as much as she thinks it is. He turns around with raised eyebrows as if surprised to see her so close to the front lines. She takes that as a sign to continue and points to the force field beyond them. "See that? The shield? I can do that, too. I might be able to hold them off a little longer."

"She should put one around the lab," Steve suggests to T'Challa, who switches his gaze from Lena to the captain.

The king turns his head back toward the aliens. They seem to be gaining strength the harder they push, a severed torso falling to the ground.

Lena rocks back and forth on her feet anxiously. "Please. Let me try."

One of the aliens breaks free through the dome, screeching victoriously and presenting its needle-sharp teeth that look to be at least half a foot long each. T'Challa's breath seems to hitch in dismay as if he'd thought the barrier would hold them off for longer.

"Very well," he agrees, then turns toward Okoye. "Do not engage until I give the order. Let her through."

The Dora Milaje step aside to clear the way for Lena. She inhales deeply before planting one foot in front of the other, quickly walking until she passes where Steve, Bucky, and Natasha stand. She thinks she hears the king's general incredulously whisper, "She is just a child—" but tunes her worry out and focuses on the power coursing through her veins.

There isn't much time. The aliens are already beginning to charge.

Lena releases some of the damper on her energy. Her gauntlets glow, growing brighter and brighter by the millisecond until they're almost blinding for her to look at. Then, once she feels her arms begin to shake from the force of containing it, she throws them out toward the oncoming army and sends a blue-tinted shield surging toward them with all her might.

It hits the first alien and mows it down as if it were a simple blade of grass, melting it until it's nothing but a pool of flesh within moments. She doesn't stop sending it forward until it's nearly touching the pre-existing dome. Although the creatures attempt to push through it as they had with the other one, they find it more difficult to penetrate.

Lena grits her teeth as the beasts barrel into her shield with all of their strength. Every hit makes her bones rattle. She digs her feet in the ground to gain traction, lucky that the boots designed by Tony are less likely to slip on the dry soil.

Movement catches her eye. Some of the aliens are circling the perimeter in packs, running on all-fours toward the backside of the dome. That's where Shuri's lab is. She could fortify the other side, but...

As if she and Bruce are on the same mental wavelength, she hears him shout, "Cap, if these things circle the perimeter, there's nothing between them and Vision!"

"Then we'd better keep them in front of us," Steve replies.

Lena's feet slide back a centimeter as the monstrosities barrel into her shield at once. Sweat breaks out on her hairline, and she's actually grateful that she doesn't have her wig on, or else it would be much worse.

She senses a presence beside her and dares to glance to her left. Her eyes widen at the sight of T'Challa standing there, scrutinizing her locked arms and her wince every time the aliens strike her force field.

"You have bought my sister precious minutes," he says, "but we need to open the barrier." He presses a hand to his earpiece to activate it. "On my signal, open Northwest Section Seventeen" — he glances at her with a nod of encouragement — "and drop the shield."

Lena nods in understanding, releasing a small grunt of pain as a particularly hard slam has shock traveling up her arms. They need to keep the army distracted by them so they won't circle around to the lab. Losing some of their defense is the smartest way to do so.

T'Challa shouts an order in Xhosa. Then, after a few seconds in which Lena can hear her heart pounding in her ears, he roars, "Wakanda forever!" and a battle cry erupts from behind her.

His Black Panther mask slides over his face, and he holds up a finger to the teenager to tell her to wait a moment. Then he takes off like a rocket. He moves faster than she's ever seen anyone run before, leading his army directly toward the buckling shield provided by Lena. She has no fear of being trampled even as the warriors completely surround her. It's like she has a protective bubble around herself as well; nobody comes even close to accidentally harming her.

T'Challa's voice rises above all of the others. "Now!"

Lena drops her arms with a gasp of relief as the tension in them disappears and her shield drops. All of the creatures that had been leaning into it fall forward at the loss of leverage, some into the waiting claws of the Black Panther and others into the spears of the Dora Milaje. At that same moment, a rectangular section of the city's barrier disappears. Endless amounts of aliens pour into the field. They blend in with those on her side until she can hardly distinguish friend from foe.

She needs a better vantage point.

Turning her head upward, she makes note of Sam and James taking out the ones near the perimeter. While Sam's red wings also serve as blades that slice through enemies like butter, the War Machine uses the guns in the arms of his suits to rain bullets on those coming in through the open hole. There aren't any more assaults from above. As far as Lena can tell, the creatures can only move on land.

"Mr. Stark is so gonna kill me for this," Lena mutters as she pools energy into her palms and faces them downward. Rocketing into the air, she aims her course to take her closer to the edge of the dome. It's much easier to see what's going on from above. She notices the bright red colors of the Dora Milaje, the colorful capes of the King's Guard, and T'Challa's suit turning... purple?

Someone strikes him. T'Challa crouches low as his suit emits a blast that knocks several aliens backward, toppling over one another as he attacks them with his claws. Kinetic energy. Smart, Shuri.

Lena focuses her attention back onto the army. Switching her blasts of energy to her feet, she gives the creatures hell from above. Blast after blast of energy shoots from her gauntlets until she's a whirlwind of movement.

Soon, that proves to not be enough. Although she hardly pauses to take a breath, she notices a gang pinning T'Challa down. Then Bruce. James gets knocked out of the sky by a Hulk-sized alien that bears striking resemblance to the one she'd fought in the park earlier that day. The thing tries to do the same thing to Lena by throwing his hammer at her, but she ducks out of the way just in time. If only she'd considered that he also had to get it back somehow.

The man-sized tool strikes her in the back, sending her somersaulting through the air. Her limbs flail wildly as she attempts to straighten herself again. But her vision turns from being hit too hard, and the ground is getting closer and closer with every passing second.

A hunk of metal slams into her. The world spins, sky and ground blending together as she lands flat on her back on something hard. Very hard. In fact, too hard to be the grass.

Lena looks down through swirling vision and notices a red-and-gold arm clutching her tightly to the Hulkbuster armor's chest. Bruce had caught her before she could eat dirt.

"There's too many of them!" he exclaims in dismay, making Lena realize how deep in shit they truly are if Bruce Banner is saying such a thing.

Then a blinding flash of light makes her shield her eyes away from it. It seems to come from heaven itself, leaving a multi-colored imprint on the backs of her eyelids from its sheer brightness. Something flashes out of the streak of light and mows down aliens without a guide. It takes her a moment to realize that it's a wildly spinning ax surrounded by... lightning?

The light fades, revealing a small tree-man, a raccoon holding a gun, and—

Lena makes a strangled gasp in her throat. "Is that Thor?"

In response, Bruce struggles to his feet with her still in his arms, lifting her six feet off the ground. His helmet snaps open to reveal his cackling face. "Oh, you guys are so screwed now!"

Thor stalks forward with murder in his gait. Lena watches him pass with her jaw practically hitting the ground as lightning crackles around him. His hair is shorter now, making it appear a darker blond than it had before, and making the pure rage in his face clear to all of his enemies.

"Bring me Thanos!" he roars, charging at the army with the tree-man and gun-holding raccoon following closely behind. The sky turns black in a matter of nanoseconds as he rockets into the air with his ax raised over his head. When he lands in the center of the wave of aliens without fear, hundreds of them are instantly fried.

"Holy shit," Lena mumbles as he switches into a battle technique so graceful it almost seems choreographed, weapon slicing through the hounds as if they're thin as paper.

Bruce delicately sets her back on the ground with a too-forceful pat on the back. "Go get 'em, kid."

She gives him a smile, even though pain laces through her back from the hit with the hammer. "I will."

As she turns around to rejoin the fight, he calls after her, "But be safe! Make good choices!"

Lena catches sight of Okoye fending off five of the mutts by herself. While she doesn't doubt the general's skills, she assumes she could use some help to not get her head ripped off. The teenager sprints forward and charges energy up in her gauntlets. Then, once she's close enough to not accidentally strike the woman instead of her targets, she blasts energy at four of them and melts them.

Okoye quickly jabs her spear through one and decapitates the other. When she turns around to see her with power still tinting her arms blue, she gives the girl a nod of thanks. "I guess you are not such a child after all."

"Oh, I'm definitely a child," Lena corrects with a half-grin. "But I guess what I can do is pretty cool."

The general stabs through another alien without even looking. Lena is pretty sure that she's in love with every Wakandan citizen at this point.

"I'm going to see who else needs help!" she says before launching herself back into the air.

As soon as she does, the ground visibly trembles. Lena watches as mounds form in the grass, moving beneath the parts of the dome that are still intact. She instinctively soars backward as four spike-covered wheels the size of skyscrapers break through the dirt and crush both Wakandan soldiers and aliens under their death-tools. Lena shoots out her arms and puts a shield between the spikes and soldiers, giving them time to fall back and regroup.

But it only lasts seconds. The Hulk-like alien's tool extends from its handle and slams into her from the side, breaking her concentration and therefore her force field as well. Nobody is able to catch her this time. She's barely able to form a protective aura around herself before she falls to the ground, rolls, and lies there in miserable pain for a second.

She's going to be covered in bruises when this is over. Her jaw is leaking blood now, muscles aching from being hit twice by that stupid hammer thing. She gasps at the sharp pain that races down her body as she pushes herself up onto her knees.

A blast of red hits the ground. Wanda Maximoff is on the field, strawberry blonde hair flowing behind her as she rips the razor-sharp wheels out of the ground and lifts them into the air with her telekinetic powers. A pack of mutts races toward her. In response, she brings her arms down in a furious arc and sends the contraptions speeding toward them, crushing them.

Well, damn.

Lena scrunches her face at the pulsing agony she feels when she forces her wobbly legs to stand. Her chest heaves as she sends blasts of energy throughout the battlefield, hitting various aliens at random and causing them to scream in agony as they melt. Usually she doesn't like to release so much power as to fry her enemies, but desperate times call for desperate measures. This isn't a fight where she can play nice.

The female with midnight-black hair and similarly-colored lips strikes Wanda in the temple, sending her rolling down into a shallow ditch. Lena notices her horns for the first time when she leaps onto the lower ground to land a killing blow onto the injured woman. There's a promise of death in her stance as she hovers over Wanda.

Lena catches sight of Natasha and Okoye sneaking up on her attacker. She silently rises back into the air and levitates just above them, making sure to stay out of Wanda's sight so she doesn't accidentally flicker her gaze to her and blow their cover. Power pools in both of her hands until she's holding a decently sized ball of blue-tinted energy.

"You'll die alone, as will he," the woman sneers to Wanda.

"She's not alone."

The woman whirls around at the sound of Natasha's voice. She turns to her other side to see Okoye aiming her spear. Giving an enraged yell, the alien jumps up onto a piece of rock in an attempt to strike Natasha down from above. Lena releases her ball of energy the moment she's in mid-air. It nails the unsuspecting enemy in the back, but she doesn't burn as easily as the others. She uses the momentum to slam her weapon onto Natasha's.

Lena straightens her arms to shoot beams out of her gauntlets, but the three women on the ground are a whirlwind of movement that makes using her powers too risky. She can't get a decent grip on the horned woman's whole body, or else she would just throw her up in the air and let Okoye run her through with a spear.

So she chooses to go for the next best option: coming back to the ground. Just as Natasha is struck hard enough to make her fly back and smack into the rocky side of the ditch, Lena sails down toward the alien at top-speed. Okoye distracts her long enough for the teenager to get close enough to tackle the woman. It doesn't go completely as planned, though; she turns around at the last possible second so Lena rams her onto her back instead of her front.

Lena lands a solid punch before the alien hooks her leg around her neck, flipping them over and raking her sharp nails across Lena's face in a series of long gashes. It feels like fire has ripped open her cheek. Hot blood trickles down her skin, but all she can focus on is shielding herself from the killing blow that the alien is raising her spear to deliver.

Before either of them can make a move, though, Wanda gathers her bearings enough to entangle the woman in a familiar red aura and lift her into the air just as a spiked wheel comes by. Lena gapes as she watches the body be instantly shredded until nothing but speckles of blue blood pepper the air.

Pained, Wanda drops back down onto the ground. Natasha cringes, wrinkling her nose as she mumbles, "That was really gross."

Lena nods in agreement as she slowly pushes herself to her feet. Her eyes gleam with involuntary tears from the heat of the scratch on her cheek, wiping the blood away with the back of her hand and likely smearing it all over her face. She doesn't have it in her to care— she's just glad they beat that bitch.

Natasha presses her hand to her comm, listening intently to a message. "Steve's calling for backup in the forest behind Shuri's lab—"

Before she can finish, Wanda rockets herself into the air and speeds off in that direction. Her desperation must have canceled out the pain in her head. Natasha doesn't even look very surprised, only slightly disappointed that she didn't offer to give one of them a ride.

Lena glances between the blonde and the general. "I can only carry one of you."

Okoye jerks her head toward Natasha. "Go. I need to find my king."

The blonde nods, slightly limping toward Lena. It's a miracle she is able to get back on her feet so quickly. The force of the impact on that rock should've been enough to knock the breath out of her, but then again, she's the Black Widow. Lena shouldn't really be surprised.

"I won't drop you," she promises, forming a field of energy around Natasha. The woman doesn't look frightened in the least as she's lifted off the ground at the same slow speed that Lena allows herself to rise. Once they're several feet off of the ground, Natasha gives her a nod as a signal that she's ready.

The girl speeds them toward the forest, filled with dismay at the fact that the so-called "precious seconds" she'd bought Shuri by using her force field hadn't been enough for them to succeed in getting the stone out of Vision. The least she can do is attempt to protect him from harm. They can't let any of Thanos' henchmen get to the stone first.

She finds the rest of the team quickly, considering the large Hulkbuster armor that makes Bruce stick out like a sore thumb. Natasha is eased onto the ground so gently she doesn't have to duck into a roll and protect her joints. Instead, she merely walks toward Steve and asks for a report.

"Everyone, on my position," Steve orders with a hand to his comm. "We have incoming."

Lena lands and uses the momentum to take a few curious steps forward. The leaves in the trees swirl around in time with the wind, but something still prods at her mind, insisting that something is wrong. It's peaceful here— and that's the problem.

Bruce turns around and immediately grabs Lena by the shoulder with his metal hand, pushing her behind his massive suit of armor before she can see why. But then she understands why he'd done it when he says, "Cap, that's him."

Him. Thanos.

Her blood freezes to ice, stomach dropping so violently she feels like she's going to be sick. Even so, she peers under Bruce's curled fist to view the Titan for herself... and immediately wishes she hadn't. He's taller than the Hulkbuster armor, rough skin colored purple and limbs wide enough to crush her head instantly. His hairless head offsets his square-shaped jawline. But the glove on his left hand is what truly catches her eye. Its golden color gleams in the sunlight, the stones in it glittering as well. It's such a beautiful artifact that it's a shame he's going to use it to wipe out half of the universe.

Bruce charges forward, but is quickly enveloped in a purple glow and phases through Thanos as if he's without form. Lena scrambles backward once she realizes she's in the villain's direct line of fire. Her fear makes her break out into a panicked sweat, though she still sends a stream of white-hot energy at him that turns into harmless butterflies with a wave of his hand. Her chest seizes in panic as her power is reduced to nothing with hardly a thought.

She thinks Thanos looks at her with something like pity in his eyes as he picks her up by the throat and throws her to the side like a rag doll. Lena lands in a heap of agony, staring toward where the Hulkbuster armor — with Bruce inside it — is half-molded into the rocky side of a cliff. She's never felt truly this powerless before. All of her heroes are cast aside in seconds, tossed out of the way unceremoniously. The most powerful people in the world, defeated in moments.

She can only hope that Wanda is succeeding in destroying the Mind Stone, even though the price of it is Vision. They have reached a point where they must do whatever it takes to defeat him. Because they'd thought they stood a chance... and this is where it has gotten them.

Lena grasps at her throat, still feeling the ghost of Thanos' gigantic fist clenching it. She wonders why he didn't bother squeezing it tighter and easily killing her. Maybe he doesn't deem her worthy of death by his hand— maybe he doesn't see any of them as more than pesky flies buzzing around his head.

And then power erupts through the forest. A golden glow spreads in its wake, making Lena shudder with the sheer other-worldliness it contains. She breathes a sigh of relief; it had to have been the Mind Stone. Wanda had done it.

But then, a few moments tick by and nothing feels different. She slowly lifts her head to see the other Avengers still immobile. Steve is lying motionless in the middle of a small clearing, making her heart rate spike with fear. She doesn't remember making the choice to start crawling toward him. She's only aware of the fact that that's all she can do, and then she's moving, aching too badly to rise up any higher.

He's face-down in the dirt. Lena extends a trembling hand and shakes him vigorously by the shoulders, breathing a sigh of relief when he stirs slightly at her touch.

Then that same golden power comes racing back the way it came. She ducks her head into her arm at the blinding light, heart pounding again at the unknown. Thanos is nowhere to be seen. Neither are Wanda or Vision. She can't see what's happening, can't—

Her thoughts are cut off by her own strangled cry when her partially-swollen throat constricts from her rapid breathing. Placing a hand to her neck, she tenderly touches the skin and winces at the unseen bruises that are sure to form.

Steve stirs again, this time enough to turn his head toward her and blink his eyes open. His first words are, "Where is he?"

Lena starts to answer, then realizes that it hurts too much to talk. She swallows painfully and then decides to merely give a shrug in response.

The captain grits his teeth and pushes himself up to a sitting position, placing a hand to his left side. She aches too badly to even lift her face more than three inches from the ground. Seeming to notice this, he gets to his feet before sliding his hands underneath her armpits, lifting her up onto her feet with ease. She sucks in a sharp breath when her feet touch the ground. Steve keeps one of her arms wrapped around his shoulder and grabs onto her middle to keep her from falling over. At the same time, he keeps his free hand pressed to his injured side.

"Ready to walk?" he asks. Lena nods, and they begin to take slow steps forward. Steve seems to know where he's going, but she doesn't, so she lets him guide her with the knowledge that she may have to face Thanos again.

They weave their way between tree trunks until they reach another clearing with nobody but a bewildered Thor standing in it. She can't help but notice the despondency and confusion in his eyes, which seem to be two different colors now that she's up close to him. The emotions on his face switch between frozen rage and dejectedness. But no sign of Thanos.

"Where'd he go?" Steve questions through a series of breathless pants. When he doesn't get a response, his voice turns more desperate. "Thor, where'd he go?"

"Steve?"

The captain turns them around to face the direction that Bucky's voice had come from. Lena's brow furrows at the sight of him staring curiously at his metal arm, which has turned brown and seems to be disintegrating into the air. His expression only grows more perplexed as he looks up at Steve. The rest of his body turns to dust until he loses a leg and comes crashing down. By the time he hits the ground, there's nothing left of him. A rifle clatters uselessly to the grass as ashes float through the air.

Lena's heart thuds so intensely she can hear it roaring in her ears, spreading adrenaline through her veins until they burn like gasoline. She winces when Steve limps toward the pile of dust that Bucky had turned into. It's like he'd just... disappeared.

She stumbles, bringing her free hand up to Steve's shoulder in order to steady herself, only to discover that she doesn't have a free hand. It has turned to ash in the same way Bucky's had. In a moment of blind panic, she looks up at the captain to see him already staring down at her. Her chest rises and falls nearly too rapidly for her to choke out, "Something's wrong."

His grip tightens on her side as if he can force her to stay. She closes her still-existing fist onto the fabric of his suit, not caring that she must be digging her nails in hard enough for it to hurt. Steve circles his other arm around her a moment too late. Her left side is completely gone, the ashes traveling up her body at a dangerously fast rate.

The last thing she sees is the Hulkbuster armor breaking through the trees. Bruce snaps his helmet back, locking eyes with her just as she fades to dust and everything ceases to exist.

_______

updated a/n: nocturnalamp just made this meme for this chapter and i am CRYING

KFNSNWJJSJA OK BYE

original a/n:

behold my longest chapter ever.

ouch! what a way to start off this mini hiatus that i went on! thank you for being so patient with me and waiting for this update. i wanted to wait until endgame came out in order to solidify my ideas and ensure that yes, i did want lena to be dusted in the snap.

whatever you do, don't think about tony being sad about peter but holding out hope that maybe one of his adopted children is still alive. don't think about him coming back to earth and looking around for lena. don't think about him asking bruce where she is and how he promised to keep her safe. don't think about how the world would come crashing down on him as he wonders how he'll explain this to her parents. don't think about it. just don't.

what was your favorite lena x avengers dynamic from this act? personally, mine is lena x bruce because he's like a third dad, but i also love her and steve and her and t'challa and UGH there are too many to decide!

the next chapter (or two, since i'm not sure how long they will be) will consist of the events of endgame and my own little closure on act two. then it'll be time for the sequel and far from home!

also, thank you for helping this book gain 20k+ reads since the last time i updated?? holy crap?? i'm so grateful WOW

— kristyn