➢𝗗𝗘𝗔𝗧𝗛 𝗜𝗡 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗘𝗬𝗘➢

『 All you have is your fire
And the place you need to reach
Don't you ever tame your demons
But always keep 'em on a leash 』
―𝘏𝘰𝘻𝘪𝘦𝘳, "𝘈𝘳𝘴𝘰𝘯𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘴 𝘓𝘶𝘭𝘭𝘢𝘣𝘺"

⟶𝑪𝒉𝒂𝒑𝒕𝒆𝒓 11: 𝑺𝒂𝒄𝒓𝒊𝒇𝒊𝒄𝒊𝒂𝒍 𝑭𝒂𝒕𝒂𝒍𝒊𝒕𝒚⟵










☟




𝘼 𝙁𝘼𝙇𝙇𝙀𝙉 𝙒𝘼𝙍𝙍𝙄𝙊𝙍.

-𝙼𝙰𝚈 𝟹𝟷𝚂𝚃, 𝟸𝟶𝟷𝟾-

𝚆 𝙰 𝙺 𝙰 𝙽 𝙳 𝙰

Corvus Glaive kills one of the guards just outside the lab, alerting Princess Shuri who has to disconnect her equipment from Vision's systems, him releasing gasps at the sensations.

Ayo, a Dora Milaje, engages Glaive but is sent across the floor. Shuri finishes her shutdown and grabs one of her sonic panther paws to fire at Glaive. The Dora attacks again, but Glaive sends both women through the balcony railing and onto the main Wakandan lab floor.

When Corvus looks to the table where The Vision used to be, the synthetic being charges at him unexpectedly and knocks him out the window as they fall many meters down Mount Bashenga.

From a higher view Sam Wilson spots it first, announcing over comm, "Guys, we got a Vision situation here."

He is tackled and grounded.

Steve Rogers pants as he slices another Outrider with his panther shields, and lifting up his wrist Captain America shouts desperately, "Somebody get to Vision!"

"I got him!"

Bruce Banner with better control over the Hulk-Buster suit flies overhead and makes a beeline toward the android, while on the battlefield a recently joined Wanda Maximoff affirms, "On my way."

She groans in pain when a slice from Proxima Midnight grazes her upper forehead, keeping her from getting to her significant other.

The woman is turned over by the other, alien one "He'll die alone. As will you."

"She's not alone." Natasha Romanoff speaks up, and from across Proxima is not only the Black Widow but the leader of the Dora Milaje in Wakanda.

Okoye readies her staff, then nods. The females engage in a rigorous battle.

Not so far off from them, the blood underneath the skin of Dani Rockland runs cold as she tries to fathom what to do here. With Vision needing help and others currently occupied.

The young Avenger is not one for having much skill, and even with her abilities that have since been freed from the devices dedicated to controlling it, the thirteen-year-old can't help the unbearable desire to include herself in an already dangerous situation. In return making it even more dangerous. Fatal.

"Hey, Dani!" Princess Ania grabs hold of the blue-jacketed girl's left arm, stopping her stride in order to try and ground her, "Where are you going?"

The honey-blonde teenager emits a few heavy breaths, looking around at her surroundings that consist of utter and complete chaos, it is hard to make out the members of her surrogate family, which makes her panic even more...

She swallows thickly, whispering quietly, "I can't lose anyone else."

"I can't lose anyone else."

"... I can't ..."

Without thinking, Agent Rockland makes a break for the treeline to where The Vision had just been taken to.

Ania Udaku was taken back by the ghastly look in her friend's eyes, one she had never seen before, and it was one of emptiness. One of a complete and total loss of control in the depths of anxiety that in turn made her irrational.

She can't go on her own, she shouldn't go at all. Not without Steve or T'Challa. That's what Ania thinks.

That's what Ania knows.

"Dani, just wait a minute! Dani!" The White Cat has to quicken the pace of her jog in order to match the near-to-sprint the thirteen-year-old persists, and not far behind them is the boy smitten for them both in a way.

Tarik Umoya follows, "Hey you two, wait up!"

"Wait for me!"

Izitena after slicing through the heart of an Outrider watches them, and her look goes from serene to irritated in seconds. What on Earth are these children doing?! Do they know what they're getting themselves into?!

This is war.

❀❀❀

Agent Rockland doesn't stop running. She runs through the trees and forest directly past the Battle in Wakanda towards her main and only goal which was reaching Vision. Her Uncle Vision, who is one of the only trusted adult figures she has left in her life.

One of the only ones who she still has faith and trust in.

Dani runs, breath hitching when she isn't able to move as efficiently as she once could earlier, that should've been a warning sign that the girl is now in immense danger because she came alone. She is alone.

Except, she isn't.

The reflection from the sun shining through the trees makes the teen aware of the presence of Ania and Tarik, who unintelligently followed her into the midst of all of this, though it is not known entirely what is dumber at this point: Them running after her or her running herself ...?

Anyways, the White Cat tries to remain civil as she senses Dani's heightened emotions by trying to reason, "Look, Dani, shouldn't we go get help? I-I don't think we're strong enough to take them on our own."

"Something bad could happen," Tarik adds with a tremor to his tone, Dani ignoring them both when jerking backward as her Uncle Bruce's voice echoes out of the Hulk-Buster suit.

He takes on Cull Obsidian.

"Guys, Vision needs backup now!"

The girl voices with confidence yet vulnerability and irrationality, "There's only one."

Corvus Glade approaches Vision, and Dani, as if it's the most obvious thing in the world, is the calmest, "We can't call for backup, we are the reinforcements! If this is too much you two can leave. I can handle this on my own."

"Dani..." Tarik starts, but Ania cuts him off.

The sixteen-year-old steps forward, placing a gentle hand on the thirteen year old's shoulder, and she enlightens her, "You don't have to."

"It is better to stay together."

"We are with you."

Dani stares stoically, gaze breaking from the two in front of her when groans from her synthetic uncle begin to increase when he yet again is impaled, and that severely alarms her.

Little did she later know that while Ania was providing encouragement and remaining supportive, she was also looking to compromise rather than charge in right away to a fight, avoiding casualties.

To avoid a sacrificial fatality, that now will not be avoided.

Corvus Glade takes Vision in a chokehold, taunting relentlessly, "I thought you were formidable, machine."

"But you're dying," The Vision's body still ripples like before, stammering, and the alien continues menacingly, "like any man."

He yanks his blade out, and Vision can only muster a small noise until he drops to the ground helplessly, in a profuse amount of pain and Glade prepares to extract the stone from his mind.

But Dani steps in.

Well, Dani, Ania, and Tarik, the Golden Trio.

Agent Rockland signals a blast into the side of Corvus, knocking him back and away from her Uncle Vision, and from there the enhanced girl proceeds to try and muster more energy from the pieces of the Tesseract inside her but hence it does not work, and instead, she takes cover when a circular ForceField comes up at the reaction of the tip of the staff being thrust at her.

After dodging that attack she duck-rolls so that she is right in front of him, telling the synthetic being while throwing out a hand, "Get out of here!" and soon enough is taken off her feet when the barrier subsides and Dani hits her head on a stump.

Vision hovers over her while in pain of his own.

With the most powerful one taken out, this just leaves the non-enhanced Wakandan teenagers, and Ania and Tarik both do not hide their fear when, unchangeably, they are dragged into the fight. They are not prepared. They are inexperienced warriors.

No . . .

Tarik charges first, raising his glowing blue disks that are still Sister Nakia's and flinging them into the ribs of Corvus Glade.

One hits him perfectly, subduing him a bit but the other not so much, and the sixteen-year-old nearly dodges a sharp slash before one gets him right in the thigh, and the boy groans as he falls to the ground.

"Tarik!" Ania's voice is a shriek, though she shortly realizes that it is just her now.

Alone, up against an opponent that far outmatches her in strength. In speed. In strength.

The White Cat readies her staff, and with a deep breath, emits a sharp battle cry when preparing to protect her friends. Fight in war.

Something she just isn't ready to do as it turns out, unsurprisingly.

There is a bit of hope that she can last for longer than anticipated, as the girl uses her quick adjustment to battle scenarios to her advantage in moving out of the way of most of Corvus' strikes, though there is one that is just impossible to avoid, and it aims straight for her chest. Her heart.

Ania is tongue-tied, left to fend for herself, and finds much difficulty in doing so, especially in a war like this. One that is infinite.

No . . .

The girl tries to dive, to dart away from the incoming spear that had impaled Vision and is about to impale her. 

Tarik from on the ground holds his thigh while a look of horror crosses his features. It's like it all happens in slow motion.

Another figure jumps in the way and takes the brunt of the attack. 

The stab right through the heart... and Ania is horrified.

Absolutely... Horrified.

"... Izitena."

The White Tiger stumbles in front of the sixteen-year-old, having gotten there JUST in time, and with none to waste she made a choice. One she will never regret.

Ania does.

The white uniform belonging to the tiger spots a tint of red quickly and drips as Corvus then pulls the staff out, and Izitena is standing for merely three seconds longer before falling backward into the arms of the student whom she just took a spear for.

Took a hit, one that is sacrificially fatal. She made a sacrifice.

Her breathing is shallow, her heartbeat dropping by the second though she still manages to crack a smile. One of somewhat tranquility while the immediately panicked face of Ania peers down at her. In terror, though initially in shock.

"I-Izi ... Wha-WHY?!"

The woman coughs as her chest burns from the open wound leaking out, hitting all necessary arteries, and quietly she tells the girl who is like her own daughter, "It... is up to you now, White Cat."

A claw-suited hand reaches up to touch the Princess's face, stroking it, and while Izitena's pales, her last words are what she will pass on as a remembrance of her title. Of her legacy.

In officially naming Ania, "The White Tiger."

"No," the child weeps, sixteen years let alone many with her teacher not nearly enough, it's too soon, and Ania is completely shattered inside.

She can't. She can't do this without Izitena. Her teacher, her mother, her role model, the actual White Tiger. I mean she can't, she shouldn't... she's not ready.

She's not ready to be without her. Without Izi.

The girl cannot hold back her anguish anymore, and when it's finalized that the woman's chest has gone flat, no longer rises, her grief breaks out in uncontrollable sobs and yells, "Izitena, Izitena! NO! IZITENA!!!"

"MOM!"

Tears roll down her cheeks and Ania pulls the limp body of her former teacher close, and she continues to cry and shake while across from her Corvus is stabbed through the stomach by Vision.

Tarik sits up while still in an amount of pain, only now not only physical but severely emotional as yet another one of his mother figures has died. Izitena.

The White Tiger, and Ania's teacher. The White Cat.

Dani Rockland shortly pulls herself upright and immediately stumbles back in fright at what has just happened. Somebody else died.

Someone who although had not been gunned down, ultimately laid down their life for others, sacrificed herself, and that is always noble.

The child intakes small breaths but swallows them as she instead carefully treks closer to the other one who quietly continues mourning the loss of someone very important to her. Ania brushes her fingers over the long eyelashes of her teachers as they blink closed, and from there the teenager sits on her knees. Dried up tears stinging the sides of her face.

Dani reaches out with a hand, putting it on the girl's shoulder, and soon enough, intentionally, her abilities regenerate some sort of healing process for the Wakandan-teenager.

One for the emotional pain.

The Princess grabs hold of the enhanced girl's arm and nearly twists it in anger, "Just what is it you think you are doing, Danielle!?"

"I was just trying to..." the thirteen-year-old jumps, voice much weaker and less indifferent than she had been acting this whole time, as for once Dani has received some sort of dose of reality... and incredulously it was through looking death in the eye.

Again, for her, but firstly for Ania. Which is why she acts in the way she does.    

"Trying to what?" the Wakandan repeats the American girl, tone turning harsh, "Heal the pain I experience from a loss as devastating as this, that is the last thing I want!"

"Ania," Tarik strays behind, voice small as he calls out to her and it can be told that he too is suffering from the emotional agony but Ania's first instinct is to be angry, have anger, and she expels it onto the one who made them come out here in the first place.

Dani stands up for herself, rather coldly, "Things like this happen, people die... but, you don't wanna die too—,"

"Do I?" Ania challenges, stepping closer until she is in Agent Rockland's face, and she continues, "Because it feels like I just did. She's gone. Izitena is dead."

"And so would you be instead, if she hadn't been there," the thirteen-year-old displays harshness, but with truth, "sometimes ... there just isn't another way."

The Princess says with naivety, "You couldn't possibly begin to understand what I am feeling right now..."

Dani matches her tone of conviction, darkly enlightening, "Think again."

The two females stare blankly at one another before the arrival of others alerts their awareness, and rather than continue to stand off, maybe even insinuate something that shouldn't be, Ania does not engage. It's not in her nature. 

She is heartbroken and needs time to overcome a large loss, but there is no time for that right now because they must focus on winning.

Winning this fight.

Winning a fight that has already been lost.

For the hour is upon them.

The hour... of the fallen.

☽ ☽ ☽

Lord M'Baku slashes through another Outrider before beginning to loudly chant alongside his warriors.

"MAYAFFA!"

"YA HU HU!"

"MAYAFFA!"

"YA HU HU!"

Thor is in the air, using Stormbreaker on the Outrider drop ships which are now retreating.

He is more successful than the Wakandan Dragon fliers firing on the fleeing ships.

Others still do their jobs in trying to fight off as many of the trespassers as possible, but subsequently, the key players draw themselves into where Vision is located, and still, there are three broken children.

Dani has already been for a long time.

Tarik just recently after witnessing a war, his first war, and Ania...

There are no words to describe the amount of heartbreak and grievance the White Cat experiences right now. Because she's never experienced it before.

Stumbling on her feet as she looks around aimlessly is how King T'Challa finally finds his daughter, and the state is one that panics him for what has troubled her. What... happened.

"Ingelosi yam, Ingelosi," the Black Panther reaches his daughter, making contact by grabbing one of her arms, and he asks her, "Ingaba nonke nilungile?" My Angel, angel. Are you all right?

Ania's face is stained with tears, and through them, she stutters, hiccuping, "Owu, thixo wam, oh, thixo wam, oh, thixo wam." Oh, my god, oh, my god, oh, my god.

Another hand that is vibranium takes hold of hers and the White Wolf is instantly by her side.

"What is it?" Bucky is terrified to see Ania in such a state, especially when he can feel the ripple of her skin beneath and all that are in proximity witness the sixteen-year-old express her horrification at what had just gone down.

Her head turns in the direction of where her teacher lies, "She... just... jumped,"

T'Challa follows her gaze, his brown eyes are wide, and instinctively pulling his daughter into his chest is what happens when Ania barely finishes her own sentence, staggered, "I-I-In front of me,"

"Shh, baby, I know." He hushes, and from behind him, Okoye tears up when registering that Izitena had been killed.

Izitena, instead of Ania.

T'Challa fumbles, "Bast..." God.

He presses a firm kiss into her hair before slowly peeling Ania back from him, the warm chest of his Panther Habit, and the girl rubs at her eyes while others arrive.

Dani stands on her own whilst having an arm crossed over herself, wrist slightly aching from being twisted when trying to take on Corvus Glaive by herself. Not necessarily... but with the inexperienced warriors, it was almost the same.

Blood that dries in her honey-blonde hair is what Steve Rogers notices first when making his way toward the area, and the man holds back the strong urge to ask if she is okay... because he knows she would ignore him.

The thirteen-year-old instead continues to try and heal her dislocated joint while Ania and T'Challa talk quietly, Tarik shortly being embraced by Okoye as a plan of what to do with the two of them eventually comes into motion.

Ania looks at her father, "I think I need to run away now..."

Her voice is so small, meek, broken, and the man doesn't allow it to go on, "That's okay."

"I'm sorry."

She shushes any deterrent that T'Challa may bring onto himself for letting her fight in this war, knowing that with her ambition either way she would've joined, and Ania with another hug from her father and both a squeeze and assurance from Bucky grant the sixteen-year-old a journey back to Shuri's Lab.

Sitting out... for the next fight.

That just leaves Dani.

Before exiting, the two Wakandan teenagers make eye contact with the American one, who clearly has been nothing but cold this entire time... toggling with something else, and Ania says to her, honestly, "Not everyone can be like you."

Agent Rockland uncrosses her arms. The one girl reads the other when it comes to fighting, and blatantly, their differences.

The meaning of it.

Though Dani has more experience and will stay to fight alongside the Avengers for one last fight.

Really... the LAST fight.

Ania and Tarik start to take off, but not before the White Cat picks up her staff used throughout the war, offering it to Dani, "Here."

"Keep it."

She refuses, lifting up her left wrist that has a vein glowing blue underneath, and the teen assures, "I've got this."

The sixteen year old's both nod simultaneously, and Tarik tells her, "Be careful."

That is how she is still alive. Careful, until it's out of her control . . .

When other forces are wrecked.

Not too far away, Wanda lowers herself down to meet Vision, who reels from a stab wound as she tends to him near a fallen log, "Are you okay?"

The Mind Stone begins trilling again, causing the man to groan again, and the woman inquiries, "What? What is it?"

He looks right into her eyes, fated, "He's here."

The Mad Titan has arrived.

https://youtu.be/U2Kc8WSwjq8

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Here is a fun quiz: Did I not study at all today for my AP Exams and instead write & post two chapters of this book In the same day? Y = Yes N = No.... Gosh I need help. Oh well my exams in my school do not count towards our grade are just for college and stuff and I need to retake those classes anyway cuz of the pandemic but HEY LOOK AT THIS BEAUTY OF A CHAPTER I AM SO PROUD. Honestly after taking a break for a while from writing because the vibe was just off I am so relieved that everything just felt so right with this chapter and the one before it & honestly I will tell you all now... this is where it's really going to get intense.

About other things... Yep, Ania lost her mentor/one of the most important people in the world to her in this chapter and it was heartbreaking, just proves that her and Tarik are not ready for what they went through in this book and YES that will deeply affect her after endgame... assuming everyone makes it through you know because it's no secret that something is coming.... hint hint, *snap*

Anywho I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter I really love it and think I did a pretty solid job It's nice to know that I am still able to push out stuff like this even though I've struggled the past month with writing. All in all this has been one of the hardest stories to write just because of how BIG of a deal it is; Infinity War is A LOT and I want to get everything write.

Comments, votes, predictions?? Who's gonna die next Jk jk haha or am I kidding... 🤭

K that's enough love you all and have a safe night ❤️😘

~Alessandra dreamkept~