Carmine Jewels ║ Wanda Maximoff

Chapter 69 - Closer To The End

Keira grabbed Natasha's hand and gave it a light squeeze. "See you on the other side, Tasha." Despite the rather tense moment, a smile still painted her lips. At the very least, despite everything going on with the aliens and the Mind Stone, she was surrounded by friends.

"That better be a promise, Key." Natasha could only muster a half-hearted smile, her mind too occupied with the possibility of losing her best friend. But she had kept her word to Keira and focused on keeping her head quiet so Wanda wouldn't know the risk that blowing up the Mind Stone could entail.

On Keira's other side, Steve readied his new arm shields.

These new ones were quite a contrast compared to his old frisbee of freedom. But since he had left that shield for Tony to take back in Siberia, he needed something else to protect himself with. These were just a tad more aggressive rather than defensive, although they could do with some aggression considering what lay ahead of them.

T'Challa shouted a command in Xhosa and the Wakandans lowered their shields. It was no use waiting around for the inevitable impact when they all knew they needed to fight. The king stepped in front of his people, his faith high. "Wakanda Forever!" He shouted and crossed his arms over his chest in an 'X' before they fell to his sides as his mask appeared.

This was the signal they all had been waiting for.

Everybody sprinted forwards with their weapons at the ready. Since they were running downhill, Keira had to concentrate hard on where she put her feet, or she would trip and fall flat on her face, just as Bruce had done before.

War cries filled her ears from every side like music and the effect was incredible. Her brain couldn't come up with a moment where she had ever felt more powerful than she did at this moment. The only thing that might draw her attention away was the prickling in the back of her head, and she did her best to just ignore it.

Steve and T'Challa broke off from the rest of the group since the two of them were some of the fastest on the field. And while Keira could've easily joined them, she wished to try and keep Natasha safe so instead, she matched her pace to the spy's.

Her steps didn't falter when the barrier opened and the aliens came crashing through, although her eyes involuntarily widened at the sight.

They snarled and growled as they climbed over each other in their haste to reach the storming army. Aliens and humans clashed together in the middle of the shallow river, or stream would maybe be a more accurate word to describe the lazily running water.

Natasha, being the expert she was, knew that fighting in water would tire her out much faster so she held back on the sandbank and waited for the aliens to cross the water to come to her. Meanwhile, Keira got caught up in the moment and launched herself into the air, plunging her sword down an alien's neck.

Blood, water, and mud splattered all around her when she landed, forcing her to wipe some of it off her face with the back of her hand. If she had been able to catch a glimpse of herself in the rippling water, she probably would've laughed out loud at the pure disgust etched on her face. But she didn't get time to think much about it and instead swung her sword in an upwards motion just in time to cut off an outstretched limb that reached for her throat.

If Keira had been naïve enough to think that she would be able to keep track of Natasha in the fighting chaos, she was seriously mistaken.

It barely took five minutes before she had lost track of where everyone was, including herself.

All she could see were flailing limbs and flashing teeth. The taste of iron already laid heavy on her tongue, although she wasn't sure if it was her own blood she was tasting or some dead alien's. With her sword slashing through the air, her arms quickly grew tired but she refused to give them rest. Instead, all of her energy went into trying to inflict as much damage as possible to every alien she came across.