Steel Hearts

- 43 -

In the blink of an eye, I'm back in the crater. Hovering above the ground, glowing a bright violet. Slowly lowering myself to the ground, I could see no time had passed while I was gone. I had caught myself in midair during the explosion. Within the swirling energy, my suit had changed.

Instead of my normal black and purple ensemble, I now wore one with all shades of purple and less black. The bodice a lighter purple was a high neckline, accented with dark violet and silver. My sleeves were black, but they only ran to my upper arms, leaving my shoulders exposed. I donned black leather pants with white and silver piping and knee-high purple boots. On my head was a silver metallic headband, matching my forearm cuffs. At my waist was an open skirt. It was short enough not to touch the ground as I stood.

Thanos stood proud and tall, reveling in the fact that the gauntlet was finally in his hand after the fight we put up. His eye twitches when my feet hit the ground. This wasn't over. His attention was on me as Tony stood behind him, not taking action. I followed his eye to Strange across the battlefield who was still holding the lake water back. Tony was frozen, silently accepting his fate as Strange held up a single finger. One chance.

Clenching my jaw, refusing to give Thanos the satisfaction of seeing my emotions, I light up my hands with the power of all six infinity stones and hurl an energy ball at him. I was angry and he knew it as I continuously used all of my powers to push him closer to Tony. This was our one shot of winning and he was going to die. I was angry that I had to sit by and watch my friend die. This only fueled my rage as I pushed myself into the air, landing on Thanos' shoulders.

Gripping onto either side of his head, I let him feel the pain that the universe felt when he had snapped in Wakanda. I let him feel the pain that I felt when I lost my mother. I let him feel the pain that I felt growing up not knowing where I belonged. I let him feel the pain that we felt when our friends turned to dust. I let him feel the pain that I felt when I lost Natasha not even mere hours before this battle.

While I distracted him, Tony jumped to action. He grasped onto the gauntlet and struggled against Thanos for several moments until he was forced to his knees with an aggressive punch. Thanos plucked me off of him and threw me aside.

Thanos made a noise of glee. His face was plastered with a grin as he stood tall once more, raising his hand into the air. He kept eye contact with both Tony and me as he uttered proudly, "I am inevitable," and snapped his fingers for the second time.

There was a metallic clang. No thunder. No bright flash of light. Just Thanos, holding his fingers in a snap. His brow furrowed and confusion etched itself into his features.

Tears started to spill and I smiled knowingly as Tony held out his hand, showing Thanos the stones he now possessed. Proudly wielding them in his Iron Man suit as they embedded themselves into the knuckles, the rainbow lighting ran up his arm and he breathed heavily. He was in pain. That was clear as he says, "And I... am... Iron Man," before snapping his fingers.

This time the white light flashed and blinded everyone on the battlefield. Immediately dust began to swirl and float away in the wind. Thanos' army was fading one by one. First the ones in the air and then the ones on the ground.

Thanos could only simply watch. Stumbling backward to sit on a stump behind him. He watched his army, his children, disappear with no sign of remorse for any of them. His chest rose and fell slowly, trying to keep his composure as he knew that we had won.

Slowly approaching him, I stand tall in front of him.

"You were supposed to be a myth," he breathes, looking up in disbelief.

Shaking my head, I say, "No. You are."

With that, he looked down toward his feet. Just as quickly as the others, the wind had swept him away. Thanos, the mighty Titan, the one responsible for the first blip five years ago had turned to dust. Vanished.