~Broken Family~

Iron Splinters Iron...

Gwen was in trouble.

Harley knew that somewhere in the depths of his brain, which was working in overtime to take in all the chaos. Almost as if he had a spidey-sense of his own.

"Gwen!" he shouted, ceasing his blasts at the aliens and taking to the sky. He scanned the ground below, easily spotting her bright white suit firing at Thanos from afar. From his position, he could see a bunch of aliens making their way over to her.

He shot back down to the ground so quickly he nearly lost his balance, but charged over to her without missing a beat.

Gwen noticed him, then turned. Her mask had long since been ripped off her face, revealing her frightened expression. It tugged at Harley's gut to see her in distress.

"Randos on your seven!" he announced dramatically, charging his blasters and firing in the direction he'd seen the aliens. He watched in satisfaction as they scampered away.

"Thanks!" she said, looking out of breath. "I---DUCK!"

Her spidey-sense must have warned her about Thanos' blow, because she roughly shoved him away just as his huge purple fist smashed into the ground where he'd been moments before.

"There's no stopping this," the alien said simply and calmly, as if they were having a board meeting and not fighting for their lives.

"Close your mouth, pal, or my girlfriend's gonna zap some webs in there!" Harley called. As if on cue, Gwen swung around behind the giant titan and webbed his arms together.

"Yeah, well 'your girlfriend' is doing all the work!" she shouted back.

Harley tried to blast Thanos while he was preoccupied with the webs, but another swarm of aliens dashed in to protect their leader and deflected it. Thanos snapped his arms free.

"Oh, just shut up and marry me already!"

"Seriously? That's how you're gonna do this?" Gwen grunted as she delivered a kick to the side of Thanos' head.

"How else would I? I thought you said you wanted a unique proposal! Well, here ya go!"

"You could at least---"

"Silly children," Thanos rumbled in his deep voice, almost as if he were disappointed in them. While Gwen swung in to kick him again, he grabbed her by the neck and slammed her into the ground, ignoring Harley's outraged yell. "While you flit about squabbling amongst yourselves, my army is mashing yours to a pulp."

Harley glanced over his shoulder, sickened to see that Thanos was right. They were losing. All of freakin Wakanda and Asgard's freakin godly soldiers couldn't save them.

"Let her go!" Harley bellowed, charging his blaster and pointing it at Thanos' head. "And pick on someone your own size!"

Gwen struggled to free herself underneath Thanos' heavy hand, but he turned his head to look at Harley and twisted it in confusion. "So, the lion is giving itself up for the gazelle?"

Harley gasped as he felt several sets of arms grab him tight and hold him still in a steel-like vise. He jerked and struggled against his captors, letting loose another scream of rage.

"Let her go! I swear I'll kill every last---"

The words dried up in his throat as Thanos pulled a Wakandan spear from the body of a nearby alien, pointing it towards a squirming Gwen's head. She stilled, breaths trembling as the vibranium tip inched closer to her skull. A drop of black alien blood dripped in slow motion from the tip and entangled itself in her hair.

Gwen locked eyes with him, fearful yet warning him not to do anything stupid.

"I find love interesting," Thanos rumbled again. "What lengths do two songbirds go to protect the other?"

"Just let her go," Harley said, noticing how stuffy his panicking was making his helmet. "Take me instead."

"Harley, you can't---!" Gwen started, but was silenced by Thanos pressing it against her temple.

"Let her go," he pleaded again, loduer this time, staring up into the cold, heartless face of the Titan. "Pretty please."

Thanos gave a nod and the aliens released him, stepping back to watch eagerly.

"I'm disappointed," Thanos admitted, the vibranium spear still pressed against Gwen's forehead. "No entertainment from the lion and the gazelle."

Faster than Harley could blink, the spear had ripped through his armor, flinging him several feet back. He felt warmth pooling from his chest.

He groaned, something slick rising in his throat. The alien blood bubbled and burned against his own, the blade that was an unfamiliar freezing sliver of ice mere inches from his panicking heart. Beating faster and faster, the stupid muscle not even realizing it was dooming itself in doing so. Dooming Harley.

Weakly, he stared up at the orange sky above him and realized he was dying.

He was dying.

Gwen's enraged cry was the last thing he heard as he was pulled into the aching, inky black waves.