Champion

Out of Time

Somebody was screaming and as Willow clutched her aching head and tried to stand, she realized who it was. Mantis was still on her knees and screaming in horror at something in front of her. Willow rubbed her eyes, feeling woozy as she finally found her footing. When she opened her eyes again, she realized why Mantis was screaming. Drax was at Thanos' feet, a large knife embedded into his chest. It didn't look like he was breathing anymore.

"What did you do!" Gamora was screaming next. Willow looked towards her and saw that she was trying to fight her way out of Scott's grip to get to Thanos' or to get to Drax.

"Somehow he saw through his version of reality." Thanos said, flexing his fingers in the gauntlet, the three remaining stones shining in the sunlight. "He tried to kill me. So I just returned the favor." Suddenly, like in Willows worst nightmare, she saw Steve sneaking up behind Thanos.

"No." Willow whispered. She locked eyes with Steve. Kicking off of the ground, Willow used the vibrational force around her to propel herself towards Thanos. Even though he had been looking the other way, he turned to gauge her approach. She slammed into him with more force than he thought was possible for such a small girl but he merely stumbled backwards and threw her off of him like a rag doll. Willow slammed into somebody's chest and he groaned a little as he tried to right both her and himself. "You okay Bucky?" Willow asked, her arm feeling a little bruised from where Thanos grabbed her.

"Never better." Bucky murmured as he set her back down on the ground lightly. "You and I had the same idea but you got there before I could." Willow laughed a little and shook out her arms as she watched T'Challa, Dr. Strange, Steve, Natasha and Peter all go after Thanos. Dr. Strange was making more of those weird glowing portals and Peter was jumping through them and attacking Thanos at random angles. When Thanos caught Peter though, everyone gasped.

"Leave him alone!" Gamora shouted, flying into action to save Peter.

"I really think we should all be out there." Thor complained over the comlink as he watched his teammates work from a distance. Willow pressed the button on her own headpiece so she could reply as her and Bucky raced into the fight.

"We'll bring out our big guns when we're in a jam. You know the plan." Valkyrie spun her sword around in her hands.

"We're the big guns." She said with a smirk. "Lighten up Thor, we won't let those Avengers have all the fun."

"Is it supposed to be fun?" Korg asked. "It doesn't look like it."

Thanos was holding off six Avengers with one hand and fighting his daughter with the other. The Reality Stone had left several of the Avengers looking and feeling like lumps of clay, slumped onto the ground and the rest had had their energy drained by the Power Stone, though they didn't realize it in that moment. Thanos wasn't really interested in the Avengers though, he wanted to know what had happened to his daughter. Hadn't she died? Had she been merged with the Soul Stone?

Gamora was not holding back. She swung and ducked and kicked and stabbed at Thanos every chance she got. But it was like a cruel dance and Thanos was always one step ahead of her. "What happened to you daughter?" Thanos asked as the Avengers tried to assemble around them once more.

"You killed me!" Gamora screamed. "You don't get to call me that anymore!" She slashed at his knee and then ducked around and tried to stab him in the back but Thanos used the Space Stone to move away from her, leaving Gamora a frustrated and aggravated mess.