The Mimic

180

It felt like déjà vu.

They'd all fought Thanos one-on-one before. Every single one of them. And they'd all failed. But this time was different.

This time, Thanos didn't have the stones. This time it was four-against-one, and every single one of them seemed to be pretty happy to not hold back on their attacks.

Y/n was the first to attack. A sick smile on her face as she disappeared right before Thanos' eyes. She'd used her teleportation tactic before, and it didn't exactly end well, but y/n didn't care. For five whole years, she'd thought about how she'd been impaled. She thought about the pattern she used for teleportation, the string of repetitive attacks, everything. Hell, she'd taught herself how to randomly teleport around a specific area. It was tough and disorienting, but if y/n didn't even know where she was going to be, Thanos would have no clue.

Complete and utter confusion.

The first thing that Thanos felt was a casual tap to his shoulder, causing him to smirk. It was going to be a simple fight if she was just going to tap him a few times. He swung around with his double-edged sword, planning on slicing y/n completely. "Was that supposed to be a-"

Y/n was gone. She'd teleported right behind Thanos (again), but this time it wasn't a simple tap. Y/n mimicked super soldier strength, jumping into the air as she landed a sharp spinning kick to the back of Thanos' head.

There was no time for Thanos to react. Attack after attack, he couldn't pinpoint where she was in time.

He was blasted with everything. Energy, fire, ice, even electricity at one point. Heavy-hitting kicks and punches caused his knees to buckle several times, but that wasn't even the worst of it. Y/n was in his head, speaking to him telepathically and taunting his every move.

"I thought this was going to be a tough fight!"

Fire blast.

"You're not good at this, are you?"

Slice to the face.

"This must be embarrassing..."

Kick to the gut.

Attack after attack after attack, Thanos was being completely beaten up, and his anger was rising. He was frustrated that he couldn't counter in time, furious that she was taunting him. "Get out of my head!" He yelled, blindly swinging his double-edged sword. He'd tried to figure out a pattern in her movement, but, just as y/n planned, there wasn't one. Thanos had no other choice but to swing and hope.

His wild swinging, worked?

Y/n was terrified of getting impaled again. Especially because this time there was no time stone to save her. She didn't want to go through all of that again, to die at the hands of a brute like him. So, she hesitated. She stopped teleporting wildly, and her attacks became more calculated and careful. Y/n's main focus wasn't causing suffering anymore. It was avoiding the sword.

Thanos noticed that. He noticed the careful movements. He noticed the pattern.

An arrogant smirk appeared on his face as he suddenly reached his hand out, y/n appearing right in front of it. He picked her up by the vest she was wearing - Natasha's vest - and held her up high into the air. He didn't even give y/n a moment to breathe before he punched her hard in the face.

Y/n's head rocked back, her eyes beginning to roll at the heavy punch. Her hands stayed wrapped around Thanos' wrist, desperately trying to burn him enough to force him to let go, but it wasn't working. She was far too disoriented to teleport away, the only idea she had left was-

Another punch.

Y/n could feel things breaking in her face. She could taste the blood in her mouth. Yet she still gritted her teeth, letting go of Thanos' arm with one hand so she could execute her final idea. Chop one of his fingers off.

Another punch.

Y/n's eyes almost completely rolled back, her jaw falling slack as she fought to stay awake. She could hear the rest of the team yelling, but the only thing she was focused on was grabbing that blade. She reached her arm down toward one of her many holsters, her bruised hand wrapping firmly around the handle. All she had to do was chop that finger off. Chop that finger off and take control back. Chop that finger off and-

Another punch. The final punch.

Y/n fell unconscious. Her body went limp in Thanos' grasp, her head completely rocking back. The blade of her dagger fell to the ground with a sharp clang, and y/n's body soon followed suit. Thanos slammed her into the ground, lifting his leg up to prepare to stamp on her head and finish the job.

But, just before he could, Thor, Steve, and Tony stepped in.

*****

"Shit..." Y/n hissed as she regained consciousness. Everything hurt, but the thing that was most prominent was her face. Soot caked her face and packed her wounds, her right cheekbone felt tender enough to possibly be broken, her left eye felt swollen, and she could only breathe out of one nostril.

Y/n had been out cold for a long time. A much longer time than expected, and the team were struggling without her. Tony had been completely knocked out and thrown across the battlefield. It was just Steve and Thor attacking, and it wasn't going well.

She let out a pained breath as she forced herself onto her forearms and up into a sitting position. It was obvious that her body had been tossed to the side, either by Thanos or by someone on the team, but she didn't care. All she cared about was getting back into the fight. Y/n spat the blood out of her mouth, blinking hard to try and focus her eyes. She had to do something that she didn't want to do, it made her feel sick even thinking about it, but she had no other choice. She had to click her nose back into place.

Y/n reached up with one of her soot-caked hands, squeezing her eyes shut as she took hold of her nose. It was definitely broken. She had no choice. "Three, two..." Y/n begun to count, trying to imagine Natasha being there to do it for her. "One-" She snapped it into place. The crack was loud and disgusting, but she could breathe out of both nostrils again. Now it was just time to get up.

She leant forward, taking slow breaths as she tried to stand up. Glass dug into her palms, searing the skin and deepening the cuts that were already there. She had to get up. She had to move, but the pounding in her head was so debilitating that it almost knocked her unconscious again. Her eyes kept rolling back, and the sting in the back of her throat was a telltale sign that she needed to puke. It was horrible. It was rough. It was complete carnage.

Y/n couldn't stand up. She just couldn't. Her body needed a moment - just a few seconds - to actually catch up. But those few seconds were when it seemed like the team needed her most.

Steve was on the ground. Tony was on the ground. Thor was pinned to the ground by Thanos, with his own axe millimetres away from piercing through his chest.

Y/n tried to move, she tried to shout, she tried to do anything. But she couldn't. She could barely hold herself up with her palms, let alone mimic any powers strong enough to hurt Thanos. The only thing that she could do was watch. Watch with pure horror as Thor neared closer and closer to death. Watch as Thanos defeated them, again.

That was when Thor's hammer suddenly flew through the air, hitting Thanos directly in the head. But it wasn't Thor. Thor hadn't lifted the hammer. So who was it?