Give Them Back To Me

The Soul Stone

Meredith froze in shock. Her entire throat was dry and her mind was blank. The man who killed her family, was her grandfather? Thanos reached out to touch Meredith again, but his hand was shot by Rocket. Anger could be read from all over Rocket's face. 

"Don't you fucking dare touch my niece!" Rocket screamed, firing again at Thanos. Thanos stood up, reaching the hand with the gauntlet out in Rocket's direction. In the amount of time type took Meredith to blink, Thanos had Rocket by the throat. Everyone, the Avengers and Nebula, took their position around Thanos, ready to attack, yelling at him to drop Rocket. Meredith however, did the opposite. She got to her feet, running to Thanos' side and started to punch him as hard as the twelve-year-old could. Thanos looked down at the girl, watching the young girl wail on his side with tears running down her face. 

"Let go of him! Let go of my Uncle!" The child screamed, her voice cracking in between words. Thanos threw Rocket aside, reaching for the child instead. Thor caught Rocket as Nebula blasted at Thanos, leaving burn marks on his arm without the gauntlet. 

"Don't touch my niece," Nebula sneered. Thanos smirked, knowing exactly how to get inside of Nebula's head.

"But daughter, I thought you despised your sister? I thought you hated Gamora for always besting you in combat, for never letting you win. She knew what happened to you after every battle. So why would you take care of her offspring?" Thanos stalked closer to Nebula, Nebula refused to lose her composure.

"Gamora was a little girl just like me, you were the one who tortured me. If you think I'm letting you do that to my niece, you are wrong," Nebula rapidly fired at Thanos, everyone striking him at once. Thanos struggled to fight everyone off, throwing them to the side with the powers of the stone one by one. Meredith ran backward, back to the place she had originally gone down first. She grabbed her mother's sword from the ground and placed the earpiece back on, thankful it was not shattered and activated the helmet. 

Thanos continued to throw his opponents off one by one, weakening with every blow. Meredith started to run back towards the battle when a swarm of voices filled her head, telling her to stay back. She recognized one voice out of the jumble; one of them was Gamora's.

"Mom?" The young girl said out loud, looking around desperately for the source of the voice. That's when Meredith noticed something peculiar about the gauntlet.

 The Soul Stone was lit up on Thanos' gauntlet, but he was not using his powers. The more Meredith focused on the gauntlet, the more the Soul Stone glowed. The voices in her head grew louder, Meredith losing track of her mother's voice. Meredith finally put the pieces together.

The Soul Stone was communicating with Meredith. Her mother's voice continued to fill her head, telling Meredith to stay away from Thanos and from the battle. But soon, another voice she recognized began to give her orders. That voice was Quill's. He was giving the young girl commands of how to weaken Thanos, to bring him to his knees and take the gauntlet from him.

Meredith followed the commands of her father. She ran straight into the battle, pulling out both of her father's blasters and firing at all of the points he told her to. He said to shoot where the deltoid and pectoralis major met, just to the side of the jugular, and directly at the solar plexus. Meredith followed every direction her father's voice yelled in her head. 

Thanos crumbled to his knees, his eyes filled with rage as he glared right at Meredith. Gamora's voice in Meredith's head soon overpowered Peter's, screaming at her to run. She heard Rocket and Nebula yelling the same thing. Meredith listened, taking off in the other direction. 

"That is no way to treat your superiors, little girl!" Thanos bellowed, getting back on his feet and taking off towards her. 

Rocket shot two cables into Thanos' back, sending an electric shock through the Titan's body. Thanos reached behind the ripped the cables out, yanking them forward and sending Rocket flying. Thanos snatched Rocket up by the throat again with the hand containing the gauntlet. Thanos began to crush Rocket's body. 

"Any last words you pitful raccoon," Thanos said, loosening his grip slightly on Rocket to allow him to speak. Rocket started laughing dryly, looking Thanos in the eye.

"You can try and take claim on the Zen Whoberis side of Meredith, but there's another side you'll never have control over."

Thanos gripped Rocket tightly again, bringing him slightly closer.

"Oh really? What side may that be?" 

"I mean, you tell me. She's Quill's daughter as well!" Rocket said as loudly as he could to cover up Meredith drawing her mother's sword.

Before Thanos could register what was happening, Meredith was already rushing at him with the blade in hand, listening to all the voices of the guardians trapped inside of the stone screaming go for the joint. Meredith knew exactly what that meant. She jumped up in the air, bring the sword down on Thanos' extended elbow. 

The twelve-year-old took Thanos' arm clean off, Rocket falling to the ground gasping for breath. Thanos was taken back, stumbling backward before falling to his knees, clutching his bleeding stump. The Avengers moved in to finish off Thanos, forgetting all about Nebula, Rocket, and Meredith. Nebula was at Rocket's side, helping him catch his breath when she realized, both Meredith and the gauntlet were gone. 

Meredith had ripped the gauntlet from Thanos' arm, well what was used to be his arm, during the commotion of the Avengers taking over and took off into a wooded area. She clutched the gauntlet in her hand, placing the Soul Stone against her forehead as she tried to listen for her parents' voices. But instead, another voice spoke to her, telling her exactly what she needed to do. 

Meredith slid the gauntlet on.