In Your Eyes // Steve Rogers

Endgame

Nebula and Thanos fought against one another as Strange and I hustled to position ourselves opposite one another. This was it; with Nebula being his sole attention, it was our way into the master plan of pinning him down.

Thanos punched Nebula to the ground. He raised his fist to strike with the power of an Infinity Stone.

Strange shot out glowing orange whips that wrapped around the Gauntlet. He smacked his hands together and they tightened, fully encasing Thanos's hand from closing, but also from movement of his arm entirely.

As Thanos raised his other hand to release himself, I shot a blast at his elbow that opened his hand, to which I imitated Strange's whips with my wistful green energy and caught his free arm. He tugged at me uselessly; I had slid into a chunk of debris I steadied myself against, practically horizontal against it, but sturdy enough to keep his arms spread defenselessly.

Tony quickly landed and held steadily onto the Gauntlet, prompting Strange to dissipate the whips and open a portal above Thanos' head. Mantis dropped through, wrapping her legs around Thanos' neck and forcefully applying her hands to his head. With a groan, within seconds, he stopped struggling, and he fell still, his eyes glossed over.

"Is he under? Don't let up!" prompted Tony urgently.

"Be quick! He is very strong!" cried Mantis painfully.

"Parker!" shouted Tony. "Get over here, she can't hold him much longer, let's go."

Peter release his webbing and bounced over to Tony, grabbing the opposite side of the Gauntlet and trying to wiggle it from Thanos' hand. He and Tony were both giving it all their strength to tug it from his wrist.

It was then that Quill flew in. Landing in front of Thanos, he chuckled, "Thought you'd be hard to catch! For the record this was my plan. Not so strong now, huh? Where's Gamora?"

"Quill, no!" I shouted, grunting profusely. The mention of Gamora made Thanos noticeably shrink. For a split second, he stopped fighting. I knew that meant nothing good. "Help us get it off, first!"

"My Gamora," whined Thanos.

"Bullshit. Where is she?"

Mantis cried, "He is in anguish!"

"Good," said Quill.

"He mourns!"

"What does this monster have to mourn?" yelled Drax.

Strange and I whipped our heads to each other, panicked. He reattached his whips to Thanos' armor. I made eye contact with Peter, begging him through my eyes to work faster, harder. My gut feelings about the Guardians had been proven right, in the moment we desperately needed to win, were so close to winning.

I shouted once more for Quill to help me hold him. It wasn't a lie. As Mantis had begun to search Thanos' feelings instead of solely focus on keeping him unconscious, Thanos regained strength. I went from holding my rope on his arm tightly to having to regroup it entirely, wrapping it around my forearms for extra support. He was waking, and it didn't seem like Peter and Stark had made any progress.

"Gamora," said Nebula blankly. "He took her to Vormir. He came back with the Soul Stone. And she didn't."

Quill's face fell entirely. He stared at Thanos, knowing he heard the assumption, and he waited. His own thoughts raced, begging for an opposition or a confirmation.

"Okay, Quill, you gotta cool it now, okay," said Stark, letting his mask fall. He continued to tug on the Gauntlet, faster. "Don't. Don't, don't engage! We almost got this off!"