WANDA MAINTAINED her tight hold on the arm of her seat as she looked out the window of the quinjet, looking around at the many large buildings that she could see as they approached the landing pad.

Carson peeled his eyes away from the book he was reading, that was mainly to distract him, and turned his head to the side to look at Wanda, frowning when he took note of her demeanour.

"Everyone ready?" Steve looked around at them all as he stood up from his seat. "Sam, open it up."

Sam nodded and flipped a few switches on the control panel to power down the jet before pressing a button that opened the door.

Carson moved his hand down onto Wanda's thigh. The contact pulled her from her stare with the window and she looked over at him, giving him a small smile as she met his eyes.

"Hi." She said quietly.

"Hi witchy." He gave her thigh a small squeeze. "It's time to go, you okay?"

"I'm fine dorogoy." Wanda nodded and gave him a quick peck before standing up. "I'm just a little nervous, that's all. I don't like walking into something that's outcome is uncertain."

Carson got up and placed his hand on her cheek. "I know love, I know." He sighed. "But this will be over soon, alright? Then we can fly back to Edinburgh okay? I promise you."

Wanda leant into his touch and rolled her head back slightly so she could look up at him. "And for that, I can't wait."

He smiled and intertwined their hands, lowering them down to their side. "Come on, let's go."

The two of them followed behind the rest of the team, watching as Steve and Natasha approached T'Challa. Steve gave the man a nod and shook his hand.

"Seems like I'm always thanking you for something." The super-soldier said.

Bruce looked over his shoulder at Carson and Sam. "Should we bow?"

Sam and Carson both shared a look, smirking a little as it seemed they both had the same idea in their head.

"Oh definitely." Sam nodded.

"Yeah man, he's a king, you gotta have some manners." Carson added.

Bruce nodded and turned back to T'Challa, clearing his throat to grab the mans attention as he started to bow. T'Challa's brows stitched together in confusion and he lifted up his hand to interrupt the scientist's action.

"What are you doing?" Rhodey looked down at Bruce.

"Uh, we don't do that here." T'Challa informed him.

Bruce stood up straight and looked back over at Sam, Carson and Wanda, glaring at them as they all chuckled to themselves.

"So," T'Challa began as he started to lead everyone towards the building. "How big of an assault should we expect?"

"Uh, sir, I think you should expect quite a big assault." Bruce told him from behind.

"How we looking?" Natasha asked.

"You will have my Kingsguard, the Border Tribe, the Dora Milaje and..." The Wakandan king pointed towards a man that was walking towards them.

Bucky.

"And a semi-stable one hundred year old man." Bucky quipped as he walked towards them all.

Steve smiled at his best friend and instantly pulled him into a hug. "How you been, Buck?"

Bucky grinned. "Uh, not bad, for the end of the world." He looked over at the rest of the group, his eyes coming to a stop as they landed upon Carson.

"Bucky." Carson nodded. "You're looking well."

The man gave him a small smile. "Well, they definitely gave me a run for my money here, that's for sure."

Carson chuckled and looked down at his metal arm, noticing it's new appearance. "I see you took the arm into the shop."

"What can I say?" Bucky shrugged. "I figured it was time for a new look."

~~ ᗢ ~~

T'CHALLA lead the group through the large building and up to his sister, Shuri's, lab. Carson and Wanda both helped Vision lay down on the table while Shuri stood at the side, pressing a few buttons on the control pad.

Once Shuri gave them a nod that everything was ready to go, the couple stood back with the others, watching as the young girl scanned over the androids body before projecting an image of the Mind Stone onto her hand through the beads on her bracelet.

"Woah." Bruce watched the process in awe.

"The structure is polymorphic." Shuri stated.

Bruce nodded. "Right, we had to attach each neuron non-sequentially."

"Why didn't you just reprogram the synapses to work collectively?" Shuri asked the scientist.

Vision glanced over at Banner from the table in curiosity, along with everyone else's heads turning too.

Bruce blinked a few times before speaking up again. "Because... we didn't think of it."

Shuri nodded slowly. "I'm sure you did your best."

Carson raised a brow at the girl, a small smirk forming on his face at the fact that she'd already proved to be able to outsmart the scientist.

"Shit Bruce, what happened in those years you were away huh?" Carson grinned. "I'm starting to think we should've got Shuri here on the payroll."

Bruce rolled his eyes and moved over towards T'Challa to talk to him about something.

"Can you do it?" Wanda asked.

"Yes, but there are more than two trillion neurons here." Shuri started to explain. "One misalignment could cause a cascade of circuit failures." She looked over at her sibling. "It will take time, brother."

"How long?" Steve questioned the girl.

"As long as you can give me."

Carson slid his hands into his pockets and walked over to one of the large windows in the room that overlooked the vast amount of land below as he let the others continue their conversation.

He felt someone join his side but kept his eyes trained on the view ahead of him for a moment before turning to see who it was, his gaze lingering on a forest.

The forest.

He inhaled sharply and looked to his side to see Natasha already looking up at him with a concerned expression on her face.

She quickly glanced over her shoulder before speaking up. "You're thinking about your vision, aren't you?"

"What makes you think that?" Carson gave her a smile, trying to hide his true feelings about this whole situation.

Natasha sighed. "Carson..."

He ran a hand through his hair, looking at her for a moment before deciding to say anything. "That obvious, huh?"

"No, I just, I know you. I can tell when something is bothering you." Natasha shrugged. "Look, maybe what you saw wasn't real... your mind could've been playing tricks on you. Or maybe— maybe your vision has nothing to do with the dreams you've been having. You said it yourself, remember? You believed that that's all it was. Just a dream."

"I don't know what I believe anymore Nat." He moved his hand up to his head and started tapping his finger on his forehead. "This feeling... I don't know how to describe it but it's— it's coming back again, and maybe I'm being paranoid or maybe this is some sort of warning but it's still there and I don't... I don't know what to do. What if there's something else I should be doing? Something that's supposed to stop this or—"

"Hey, hey, look at me." The blonde reached forwards and placed her hands on his shoulders, breaking him out of his ranting. "Listen, Shuri probably isn't going to be done for a while so why don't you go get some rest, wait for this to pass over?"

Carson took a deep breath and shook his head. "No. I'm staying here."

Natasha gave him a look. "Are you sure?"

"I'm sure." Carson nodded and shot her a tight-lipped smile before looking back out the window. "Besides... where else am I gonna get a view like this?" He said what Natasha once said to him in Sokovia, all those years ago. She smiled and gave his shoulders a light squeeze before letting go and looking out the window too.

Wanda suddenly appeared at his side and slid her arm around his, moving her head down to lean on his shoulder. "Is everything alright?"

Carson looked down at her and kissed the top of her head before sliding his arm around her shoulders. "It is now."

"If it's your head again then maybe I could h—" She lifted her head up from it's place on his shoulder and looked up at him, her mouth instantly closing when she met his eyes, along with her eyebrows scrunching up.

Natasha noticed Wanda's reaction and walked over to her side to see what was going on, only for her face to display the same emotion when she looked at him too.

Carson dropped his arm from Wanda's shoulder and looked between the two women in confusion. "What? Why are you both looking at me like that?"

"Your eyes." Wanda pointed out.

He looked back towards the window and took a few steps closer in order to catch a glimpse of his reflection, only to find that his eyes were flickering a faint glow of red.

Carson rubbed his eyes and checked his reflection once again but seemed to have no luck in them returning to their normal colour.

He turned back to face them. "I don't know why they're—"

Before he had time to finish his sentence, the sound of Okoye's bracelet beeping stopped him, along with the same sound coming from the speakers in the room. Everyone looked around at each other while Okoye pulled up a small hologram in the palm of her hand, analysing it intently.

"Something's entered the atmosphere." The woman informed them all.

"Hey, Cap, we got a situation here." Sam's voice was heard in the comms.

That's when the distant rumbling and crashing was heard coming from outside. They all moved towards the windows and watched as multiple ships began hurdling towards the ground, some of them crashing into the dome that surrounded the city.

"It's starting..." Carson mumbled.

"It's too late." Vision groaned in pain as he began to sit up from his spot on the table. "We need to destroy the stone now."

Natasha looked at vision and started to march towards him while shaking her head. "Vision, get your ass back on the table."

"We will hold them off." T'Challa told everyone as he made his way over to Okoye.

Steve turned his attention towards Wanda. "Wanda, as soon as that stone's out of his head... you blow it to hell, alright?"

Wanda nodded. "I will."

"Are you gonna be okay?" Carson asked her.

Wanda nodded in confirmation and squeezed his hand.

He smiled down at her. "That's my girl."

"Evacuate the city, engage all defences." T'Challa ordered his soldiers that were still in the room. He looked over at Steve and pointed towards him. "And get this man a shield."

Steve started to walk out the room, patting Carson's shoulder as he walked past. "Come on C, it's time to go."

Carson nodded then turned back to Wanda. She cupped his face and pulled him down, pressing her lips against his. After a few seconds they pulled away and Wanda looked up at him, trying her best to suppress the nerves she felt creeping up on her.

She knew that she had to stay there, that she had a job to do. But she couldn't help but feel terrified at the fact that she couldn't properly keep an eye on him, that she couldn't go down there and fight with him.

"Please just..." The girl whispered as she rested her forehead against his. "Be careful."

Carson smiled and moved his head away before bringing her hand up to his lips and placing a soft kiss against her knuckles.

"I'm always careful, witchy."

~~ ᗢ ~~

CARSON APPROACHED the edge of the protective dome, along with T'Challa, Natasha and Steve at his side. He watched as Proxima ran her blade along the wall of the barrier, the alien's brows coming together at the lack of damage it seemed to do against the tech.

They all came to a stop and looked between the two aliens stood on the opposite side of the dome.

"So," Carson smirked as his eyes met Proxima's. "Where's your other friend?"

Proxima scowled at him. "You will pay for his life with yours. Thanos will have that stone."

"That's not gonna happen." Steve glared at the two aliens.

"You are in Wakanda now." T'Challa spoke up. "Thanos will have nothing but dust and blood."

[A/N: looks like he really hit it on the nose with that one... heh]

Proxima's grip on her blade tightened. "We have blood to spare." The alien let out a grunt and raised her hand into the air. And just like that, the many battle ships that landed outside the dome started to raise up into the air along with their doors getting ready to open.

Carson, Natasha, T'Challa and Steve all made their way back over to the front line, taking a spot next to Bucky and the other Wakandan soldiers.

"They surrender?" Bucky asked them.

"Nope." Carson replied, popping the P.

They all watched as huge swarms of mutated aliens that almost looked like dogs started pouring from the ships. T'Challa inhaled sharply at the sight before shouting out a chant Xhosa, his soldiers repeating after him as they hit their spears against the ground.

Carson's face scrunched up at the sight of the new species of alien that was fast approaching. "Nasty looking little shits aren't they?"

Natasha nodded, her facial expressions mirroring his. "You can say that again."

Proxima waved her blade down and ordered her fighters to attack. They all stormed towards the dome, thousands more becoming visible as they emerged from the treeline. 

"What the hell..." Bucky mumbled.

"Looks like we pissed her off." Natasha quipped, earing a small chuckle from Carson.

"Maybe a little, yeah." Carson shrugged. "Do you think she's still mad at me for killing her husband?"

"Oh, definitely." Natasha nodded.

The large groups of aliens started to collide with the barrier, none of the daring to stop. They didn't even seem to be phased by the fact that the barrier was killing them off one by one. They continued to relentlessly try and pry their way through, most of them getting limbs chopped off in the process.

Okoye watched the scene happening in front of her in horror. "They're killing themselves."

However, despite a large amount of the alien's dying, there was still a small group of them that somehow managed to get through the walls of the dome unharmed.

T'Challa shouted something in Xhosa once more and his soldiers powered up their shields, along with resting their spears on top of them. Once T'Challa had finished giving his orders, the soldiers began firing at the aliens.

Bucky and Carson gave each other a quick nod before joining in on the fight, with Bucky shooting at them with his gun and Carson blasting them with his powers.

"You see the teeth on those things?!" Sam said through the comms as he flew by, opening fire on them as well.

"Alright, back up Sam you're gonna get your wings singed." Rhodey added. He flew along the line of the barrier where the aliens were managing to make it through and dropped multiple grenades down on them.

Bruce took note of the aliens starting to run around to different points of the dome. "Cap, if these things circle the perimeter and get in behind us... there's nothing between them and Vision."

"Then we better keep 'em in front of us." Steve answered.

"How do we do that?" Okoye questioned, turning her attention towards T'Challa.

"We open the barrier." The Wakandan answered. He pressed his finger to his ear to activate his earpiece. "On my signal, open North-West Section Seventeen."

"Requesting confirmation my king. You said open the barrier?"

T'Challa nodded. "On my signal."

"This will be the end of Wakanda." M'baku muttered under his breath.

Okoye tightened her grip on her spear. "Then it will be the noblest ending in history."

T'Challa ordered his soldiers to lower their barriers and he stepped out in front of them. Steve armed his new shields and looked over at his friends, giving them a nod.

Carson rolled his neck and allowed his energy to start forming around his hands once again as he took his stance. "Don't go pulling your back out now, old man."

Steve let out a small chuckle and shook his head. "I'll try my best."

T'Challa took a deep breath before raising his hands up and crossing them over his chest, allowing the claws on his suit to shoot out along with his helmet forming around his face.

"Wakanda forever!"

~~ ᗢ ~~

buckle up for the next one mfs

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