Pull | Infinity War

Chapter 30: "We're in the endgame now."

Now Playing: I'm Not The One: 3OH!3

You're way too young to be broken

You're way too young to fall apart

You're way too young to play these games

But you better start

"Don't you dare Stephen." Strange leaned against a rock, visibly damaged and hurting. His hair, streaked with dust, stood out in some places. There was no way to describe it, he just looked so defeated. 

Thanos turned his head toward Stephen, curious as to why a broken Doctor Strange was interrupting him. 

"Spare their lives, and I will give you the stone." Thanos paused, processing what Stephen had just offered. 

"No tricks." Stephen shook his head, and points the gauntlet, holding four stone, in his direction instead.  

"Don't!" Stark's half-hearted attempt to stop Stephen went unnoticed. Stephen took a deep breath and reached his hand up toward the stars, thumb, and forefinger an inch away from touching. The Time Stone that Iris had only seen once, glowed bright green into existence from God knows where between Stephen's fingers. Iris noticed it never touched his skin.

He opened his hands, the scars on his hands that Iris had spent so many hours tracing trembled- for some reason it was particularly obvious. The Stone floated through the air from Stephen to Thanos' bare hand. They watched him intently, unmoving out of shock and fear as the Titan drops the Stone into the thumb of the gauntlet. And energy pulse, green as the stone itself causes Thanos to wince.

"One to go," He muses. An energy blast hits the gauntlet and Thanos grimaces in surprise, looking around for the cause. Iris follows suit, eyes landing on Quill, flying straight for Thanos, firing with both of his guns, screaming in incoherent rage.

And the worst part about it was, Thanos didn't even bother with a response, with a counter attack- he just left. A blue and black doorway opened up behind him, and the Titan stepped backward and vanished. The doorway disappeared, and Quill flew through where Thanos had been just second ago and crashed into the ground. He rolled a couple times, then stood, guns ready to blaze again.

"Where is he?!" Nobody answered they were all too shocked and tried to formulate a response. Iris stared numbly at Stephen, who gaze was fixed on Tony. Quill's mask opened, revealing his face, a mask of fear and defeat. "Did we just lose?"

Tony' turned to Stephen, a pained expression pained across his features. "Why would you do that?"

"We're in the endgame now." 

"What the fuck does that mean?" Iris burst out, suddenly angry. Stephen winced and turned toward her. 

"I... can't tell you." Iris sprung to her feet, but the fatigue and weariness of everything that had just happened crashed on her shoulders once again, making her stumble, nearly falling flat on her face. "Whoa there," Tony muttered and rose to his knees to steady her. "Sit down cowgirl, don't you dare faint on me."  

Iris raised her arms to her sides to steady herself, and slowly lowered herself to the ground again. "Don't you dare pull the 'I'm a mystic wizard, you wouldn't understand what's going on' bullshit excuse on me Strange." Stephen smiled grimly. 

"You have no idea what's happening, do you?" 

"I know enough." Stephen shook his head and chuckled.