𝕚𝕟𝕗𝕚𝕟𝕚𝕥𝕪 | p.p. x reader | book two.

𝕋𝕨𝕖𝕟𝕥𝕪-𝕋𝕨𝕠

Before I had a chance to move, Carol had wrapped her arms around me in one of the tightest hugs I had ever experienced. She hadn't seemed to change much in the last 5 years, although that may have been because I had seen her a few times in holograms Nat let me sit in on. We had stayed in a fair amount of contact after she saved me and Tony from almost dying on the ship, almost taking responsibility for my wellbeing. She always said that if I needed anything, all I had to do was call.

"How have you been, Y/N?"
"Never better. Although I'm sure you've been having a great time up there in space."
"Well, I can say I've explored almost all of the galaxy at this point and then some. Something fun must have happened to you, considering you somehow de-aged 5 years."
"Yeah, time travel paradoxes do that to you. Pleasantries aside, we could really use your help."

Looking over Carol's shoulder, it was very easy to see the seemingly never ending amount of enemy adversaries that were on their way to take the gauntlet that Peter held in his hands back to their commander. It was gonna be a task and a half to get the gauntlet through them all, but considering the fact that I had seen Carol in action before, it couldn't be that hard.

"I'll take that gauntlet off your hands. Best if it stays out of reach from all of those guys."
"I'm not sure how you'll manage it, but better your job than mine."
Peter handed her the gauntlet, Carol tucking it under her arm.
"Wow, Pete, you have obviously never met Carol fucking Danvers. Terrifying if you get on her bad side, but insanely powerful if you make her your ally."
"Plus, she's got some extra help."

Wanda, almost appearing out of nowhere, floated down to stand on a fallen piece of concrete. A dark skinned woman dressed in royal garb joined us next, followed by Mantis, the woman on the Pegasus from before, and a dark skinned girl around my age wearing large bracers on her wrists. Pepper dropped from the skies next, and a woman who seemed to have similar powers to Scott joined us last. They started to head towards the oncoming army, myself hesitating before following.

"It'll all be okay, Pete, trust me. I swear, I'll come back to you this time."
"I know you will. Now go, they need you."
I pressed another quick kiss against his lips, my hand resting on the side of his face while his took it's place on my hip.
"See you soon, Spider-Man."
"I'll hold you to that."

Giving him one last glance, I jogged forward to meet up with the rest of the women who had begun preparing for combat. Wanda and Pegasus-girl took to the air along with Pepper, and considering the burning in my arms and legs, it felt like a better idea just to stay to ground control for now. Gathering up as much energy in my hands as possible, I pressed my palm to the ground and let electricity ripple through the lines of enemies before me.

Even though the blast took down half of the soldiers, even more seemed to pop up in their place. My palms started to sting from the sheer amount of electricity being shot through them, leaving my hands shaking and fingers cramping up. Grabbing for the sword on my back, I decided it was time to let myself recharge a little and work on my swordsmanship for once.

Swinging the sword in my hand I rushed forward, slashing at whatever alien came in my way. All of us made sure the path was clear for Carol to make it to the quantum tunnel, making quick work of the forcesthat attempted to chase her towards her destination. Metal and purple-shaded blood rained down from above us, courtesy of Wanda and Pegasus-woman taking care of the giant alien worms that were attempting to flank us from above. After a few more minutes, Carol had burst through the last of the obstacles in her way and was headed straight towards the tunnel. The only thing standing in her path was Thanos himself.

Myself, Pepper, the Gauntlet-girl, and the size-shifting woman from before were Carol's last line of defense due to the rest of our forces being caught up fighting the remaining sentries on other parts of the battle field. As if we were all thinking the same thing, beams of varying colors flew through the air and hit Thanos straight in the chest, knocking him on his back and sending him tumbling head over heels across the dirt and debris covered ground. Carol was only one more second away from the tunnel when, before any of us could do anything about it, Thanos sent his sword straight at the tunnel itself. A burst of white light covered my eyes, feeling the sensation of my body flying through the air soon after before my body hit a nearby piece of debris.

I coughed, rolling over onto my stomach in order to both expel whatever had made it's way into my respiratory system as well as take in any bit of oxygen I could. When my vision finally cleared, I noticed that the gauntlet was easily in arms reach. I did my best to get to my feet, running towards it as fast as I possibly could, practically diving for it before I was picked up by my leg and practically thrown across the area of the battlefield. Thankfully, I was able to regain control of my fall fast enough that I could be of use to Steve and Thor as they attempted to take on Thanos.

Thor had Stormbreaker practically pressed against Thanos' throat, a battle of sheer brute strength happening between the two. Steve quickly came to his aid, jumping on Thanos' back with Mjolnir to give Thor some extra leverage. I made a quick push off the ground and flew towards Thanos' towering figuring, grappling onto his right side and sending out a steady stream of electric pulses that left him writhing. Due to the large amount of strain I had put on my powers for what felt like hours prior, my electricity started to sputter and burn out, giving Thanos the chance to throw me off of his body as well as toss Thor so hard he was knocked unconscious. He punched Steve in the face, knocking him out cold.

I watched from my prone position as Carol took up her fight, deciding that maybe it would be best just to let her work this one out on her own. I watched each of her moves meticulously, from every punch to every kick and burst of power. She seemed to be holding her own, even being unfazed by a particularly powerful headbutt, before Thanos was able to free one of the stones from the gauntlet and use it to send her flying into next Sunday.

I had to do something, anything, to make sure that he couldn't snap his fingers. Once I was able to get to my feet I ran forward, swinging my sword over my head and attempting to bring it down on Thanos' neck. He easily deflected it, tossing me away yet again, but this time I was prepared for the harsh landing. Tony took his stab next, grabbing onto the gauntlet and doing his best to pull it off the Titan's arm. Once he was sent flying, I made another move towards him. This time, I could feel the cool metal of the gauntlet wrap around my waist as he grabbed me and pulled me to eye level.

"You would rather die than attempt to start over?"
"It's not fair to start over without the people you love. You can't just take half of the population away and expect the other half not to grieve."
"Maybe I was foolish. Foolish to think that humans could ever understand."

I let out a scream of pain as his fist began to close around my waist, the sound of my ribs cracking seeming to echo off of nothing at all. My eyes welled with tears from the pain, the blurry figure of Peter standing mere feet away coming into view.

I couldn't give up now. If I could just stop him from closing his hand, knock him out long enough, even make sure his nerve endings wouldn't work...

I remembered something me and Nat had practiced over the years.

"Your powers are connected to your emotions." Natasha fixed the boxer wrap on her wrist, loose from hours of sparring. "The more powerful the emotion, the more powerful the power. Draw from that emotion, from that happiness or that grief or that anger, and feed on it. Let it consume you whole and then use it to destroy entire worlds."

I gave in to it. I let the anger, the fear, and the hope consume me willingly. I dove headfirst into the grief of losing Nat, of Adam, of my mom. The happiness at seeing Peter again. The hope that I would see my dad again. And the all consuming anger toward not just Thanos, but the entire universe for fucking my life up like this.

My entire body tingled with burning hot rage. It was so hot I could feel it scorch my skin, almost smell it as it ripped my body apart from the inside out. My vision was clouded with shades of red, strings of white hot electricity shooting out from my fingertips. Thanos' face fell, eyes growing wide in panic, while I let the energy consume me fully. The burning spread through my fingers, my toes, arms and legs, throughout my entire body. With one last breath and the strongest scream I had ever let leave my lips, I let the energy shoot out as far as it wanted it to go.

Red. That was all I could see as I let it go. The pain in my torso began to subside, the pressure lessening by the second. The electricity continued to arc through the air, to the point where I couldn't stop it even if I tried. My head started to spin, arms and legs going numb, vision beginning to blur. The last thing I felt was my body hitting the ground before everything went black.