A/N: I've been writing loads again and I think I've actually almost finished part two which is a bit scary, but that means 1) more chapters, quicker and 2) I can get started on this new fic I've been talking about! I hope you enjoy this chapter, it's a bit of a heavy one so strap yourselves in (actually, keep yourselves strapped in for the next load of chapters, there are going to be some trigger warnings).

...

Loki appeared at your side, grabbing hold of your arm again.

"I'm sorry." he gasped, "I should have-"

He stopped talking as you caught sight of what was going on behind him and took a step back, your eyes widening in alarm.

Loki span around to see Thanos looking up to the sky and raising the gauntlet towards Titan's moon. Using a combination of the Power and Space stones he yanked his fist towards the ground with a grunt, in doing so shattering the moon's surface and bringing the debris raining down towards you in a large meteor shower.

You and Loki were surrounded by a combination of both of your magic in an instant; a second later the planet's gravitational field was destroyed. Everything began to rise into the air, apart from the enormous lumps of rock which were still pelting the planet's surface; moon chunks making fiery ballistic in-bounds towards you. Loki grabbed you and teleported you both out of the way of a piece of rock which was roughly the size of a baseball field and had been heading straight towards you.

Tony and Strange were nowhere to be seen; Peter was flying around and using his web to secure Drax, Mantis and Star Lord, all of whom had been unconscious and had been helpless to resist the new, upward gravitational pull.

"I'll find Tony, you get Strange." you said, shrugging Loki's hand off of your arm and making to teleport towards Thanos, but Loki held you back.

We're done.

You turned to look at him in confusion.

"...what?"

"Y/N, we can't beat him. We tried-"

"Yeah, and we'll keep trying!" you argued, trying to pull your arm away again, but Loki held on, shaking his head. You stared at him, at a loss, before turning back to Thanos who was now facing Strange, alone. The magic the wizard was using was powerful, more powerful than anything you'd ever seen before, let alone used yourself.

You and Loki watched their exchange of magic like a tennis match, until Strange levitated and did something which made it seem as though he had multiple arms, and then in a flash there were hundreds of Strange's surrounding Thanos, forming a circular wall around him.

Thanos snarled, and then he was wrapped in hundreds of glowing, magical cords: powerless... for a second. He struggled to close his gauntleted fist, and used one of the stones to discover the real Strange amongst the hundreds of fake ones, blowing the duplicates away and sending the real Strange reeling backwards.

Loki-

We can't.

We might!

We can't.

You knew he was right. Thanos used the gauntlet to pull Strange back towards him and grasped him by the throat; Strange flailed and grabbed at Thanos' hand in vain.

"You're full of tricks, wizard." Thanos growled.

"No." Strange choked as Thanos reached for the Time stone. You made to move forward again, but Loki pulled you back, this time less gently. He span you around by the shoulders to look at him.

Stop it.

If he gets this stone, we might die. I might be wiped out and you might not. Or vice versa.

Loki shook his head, pushing the thought away.

That's a fake stone.

What?

At the same time, behind you, Thanos said, "A fake." He crushed the fake stone in his hand, and then threw Strange to the side in a rage, knocking him out.

"Loki. We can't just stand here and watch him do this."

"It's already done." he implored.

"No! It's not!" you insisted, turning back to Thanos. At that exact moment, Tony appeared and slammed a red and gold device on to the Infinity gauntlet, bracing the fingers open.

"You throw another moon at me, and I'm gonna lose it." Tony told the Titan.

"Stark." Thanos said.

"You know me?" Tony replied, after a beat.

"I do. You're not the only one cursed with knowledge." Thanos told him.

"My only curse is you." Tony grimaced, deploying a load of small rockets from the back of his suit which launched at Thanos.

"Come on!" Thanos roared as the rockets shot towards him and exploded on impact, shrouding him in smoke. Tony flew after them, driving into Thanos hard, before bouncing off him and landing hard on the ground, his boots securing him to the ground before punching Thanos sending him flying into a wall behind.

Loki's fingers were digging into your arms again. You understood that he was scared, so were you, but you weren't going to stand by and let Tony face Thanos on his own. You couldn't.

He can't use the gauntlet. Come on!

Loki wavered, and then let go of you. You teleported to Tony's side in an instant, your magic burning strongly at your fingertips again. Thanos didn't miss a beat as you appeared, ripping Tony's mask from his face to reveal his surprised expression for a second before his suit recovered automatically and re-formed his head protection. He swung for Tony during the fractional delay, but you caught his arm with your magic before he could make contact.

"ASGARDIAN!" Thanos roared furiously, turning his efforts towards you. Then Loki was behind him, pulling him away from you with his magic. Tony zoomed in and delivered a flying kick to Thanos' face; you relinquished your hold on his arm for a second to take a breath as he staggered. Thanos didn't miss a beat, yanking the brace device Tony had slammed on to the gauntlet off with apparent ease.

Loki was in front of him.

"No!" you shouted, fear making you reckless. You teleported in front of Loki instantaneously, only managing half a shield before you were hit with a blast from the gauntlet which sent you flailing backwards.

Strangely, you didn't hit Loki, but went flying all the way back to the side of the ship you'd arrived in, slamming into the side of it with great force. The breath was knocked from you as you hit the wall, and then the floor; the gravity was becoming more stable.

You rolled over painfully, struggling to push yourself up on to your hands and blinking hard; your vision had gone blurry and your head was pounding. Raising your head to look back towards Thanos, you saw Tony fighting him, and green magic shimmering in the air around them.

Loki was nowhere to be seen, but your eyesight was acting up. You tried to get to your feet and fell straight back down again with a groan as pain shot through your left arm and down through your chest. That didn't feel good.

Suddenly fresh pain lanced through your shoulder; you gasped in discomfort before fear caught in your throat. Loki.

Then he was beside you, collapsing to the ground in obvious agony. His shoulder had been torn open. You tried to say his name, but nothing came out; getting blasted into a wall of solid metal by an Infinity stone had really messed with you. All you could do was hold on to him; you didn't have enough energy left in you to try and heal him even slightly.

Loki closed his eyes and cast an illusion around the two of you, despair replacing the anger which had been present in him not long ago.

I tried.

I know.

You looked back over to Thanos; Tony was fighting him one on one. A sob tried to escape you, but you fought it down, determination rising in your chest despite the hopelessness of the situation. Loki was shaking his head, his eyes still closed.

"Tony." you croaked, trying to get up again... and failing. The pain was too much.

But Tony was out there alone.

"Y/N, don't." Loki sounded broken. You couldn't bear it, any of it.

Thanos had Tony on the floor and was pelting him with punches; his suit was beginning to fall apart. You doubled your efforts, trying so hard to fight through the pain, but it took all the willpower you had to even get to your feet. How were you going to help Tony?

Y/N, stop, please.

Thanos lifted Tony to his feet and blasted his midriff with the Power stone, sending him reeling backwards and then knocking what was left of his helmet straight off of his head.

"No." you choked, stepping forward painfully. Thanos was going to kill him. You'd hardly taken three unstable steps before Loki caught you around the waist and pulled you backwards. He was in agony; you felt how much it was hurting him to try and hold you back while keeping an illusion up at the same time; on top of your own pain it was making your knees weak.

"Get off." you said, your voice cracking as you tried to pull away from him. Your magic swelled painfully inside you as you watched Tony, his face terrified and exposed before the Titan, try to defend himself as Thanos walked towards him, using the gauntlet to effortlessly deflect the beams of energy Tony fired at him.

"Loki, please." you begged, tears falling down your face as you wrestled with him, trying to get to Tony. He didn't respond; he couldn't, every last ounce of his energy was going into keeping the illusion up and holding you back.

Tony deflected a blow from Thanos with his left arm, which was then caught above his head. He used what was left of his right glove to form a short-sword, which Thanos caught sight of immediately.

"No, please..." you sobbed, half blind from the pain. Not Tony...

Thanos snapped the short-sword from Tony's hand and drove it clean through his stomach. You screamed Tony's name; Loki's grip on you tightened and then fell away. The illusion dropped as he passed out. Thanos didn't even turn around.

You followed Loki to the ground, your knees finally giving up on you.

"Lokes, Loki..." you whispered, your hands shaking as you knelt over him. Thanos was talking.

"You have my respect Stark. When I'm done, half of humanity will still be alive."

He straightened up and took a step back, aiming the gauntlet at Tony's head.

"I hope they remember you."

"Tony, no..." you rasped; you'd been meant to shout it, but it was probably a good thing that you hadn't. You were halfway to your feet, your head spinning wildly when another voice emanated from across the battlefield from you.

"Stop."

Strange was sitting up, and sounded entirely unruffled.

"Spare his life... and I will give you the stone." Strange said to Thanos. At first you thought you'd heard wrong. Strange would never...

"No tricks." Thanos said, turning to point the gauntlet at Strange instead. Strange shook his head.

"Don't." Tony's voice grated as he spoke.

Strange ignored him, summoning the Time stone from apparent nothingness, and sent it floating over to Thanos. You stared as Thanos plucked the stone from mid-air and placed it into the gauntlet; a pulse of energy so strong ran through him that it made him wince. You sat back down heavily next to Loki and put a hand on his arm.

"One to go." Thanos said. Then, out of nowhere, Quill came hurtling towards the Titan, bellowing in incoherent rage and firing shots at him.

A portal opened up behind Thanos, and he turned around and disappeared through it. You blinked and he was gone. Just like that.

Quill flew through the empty air where Thanos had moments previously been standing and crashed into the floor, rolling several times before coming to a dazed stop.

"Where is he?!" he asked angrily, scrambling to his feet and de-helmeting.

You wanted to get up and run to Tony, but you didn't have the strength to even call out to him. And you couldn't leave Loki.

"Did we just lose?!" Quill continued furiously.

"Why would you do that?" Tony said sadly to Strange.

"We're in the Endgame now." Strange told him grimly.

You were crouching over Loki, trying to find the smallest ounce of magic in yourself to try and heal his shoulder. Would it knock you out, or worse? Tears were still running down your face. All of that, and Thanos had got the stone anyway.

You'd lost. He only needed one more stone, and he was going to get it.

"Oh my god, Y/N, are you...? Is he...?"

Peter, covered in dirt and blood and as white as a ghost was limping towards you.

"He's alive. He just- I... I can't heal him." you said quietly, frowning and pressing your lips together as you tried to hold back the tears in front of him.

"I'll get Mr. Strange, hey, Mr. Strange?"

Strange tried to heal you first, but you pushed him away, pointing at Loki mutely. When Loki's shoulder was no longer open and his face had regained some of its colour, you finally let Strange heal you.

You were still bone tired and ached all over when he'd finished, but at least now you could stand up and walk. You did, over to Tony, and hugged him for the longest time you could remember.

"Hey, watch it kid. I've got a stab wound here."

"I noticed."

Then you went back over to Loki, who was still out cold. You sat down next to him and gently moved his head into your lap, leaning back against a huge chunk of metal behind you and closing your eyes, pushing your fingers through his hair.

Trying not to listen to Quill's awful, grief-filled thoughts, you allowed yourself to surrender to the void.