The Beginning of the End (Elanor)

Chapter 11

Um, so, F-bomb incoming. Also, these next 2 chapters are gonna be short, because I wanted them to be split up

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The light faded away, leaving everything the way it had been. Stupidly, for a moment, I thought maybe it hadn't worked. The gauntlet smoldered in Thanos' hand, melted to the point where it could never be used again.

"What did you do?" Thor demanded. "What'd you do?"

Instead of responding, Thanos summoned a portal and fell back into it, letting the axe in his chest fall onto the ground. My father, holding onto me with his arms, stumbled forward, brining me with him. I swallowed down the pain and managed to stand a little straighter.

"Where'd he go?" my father asked, looking around. "Thor. Where'd he go?"

"Steve?"

I gasped and pushed away from my father, sprinting toward Bucky as we turned to look at him. It started with his arm, quickly spreading to the rest of the body, until he was nothing but ash, causing his gun to drop to the ground. I choked as my throat tightened, leaning down and scooping it up into my hand.

Suddenly, I became horrified at the thought I was holding Bucky's remains, and attempted to brush them away quickly. My father rushed over and wrapped his arms around me, pulling me away from the scene as I broke down sobbing.

"Up, general, up! This is no place to die."

I turned my head to see T'Challa disintegrate into brown nothingness as Okoye laid there, a confused expression on her face as the hand he extended down to her disappeared.

"I am Groot," the tree creature said sadly as he began to fade. The raccoon Thor had arrived with began to tear up-- something I had no idea raccoons could do-- and took a single step forward, extending one of his hands out.

"No, no, no! Groot, no!"

Wanda's body began to fade, and she leaned her head up to take her final breath before fading away. I cried out and reached in her direction, trying to run to where her body had been, but my father held me back.

"Sam!" Rhodey cried, looking around for him. "Sam, where you at?"

My father ran over to Vision's body and turned it over as Nat sprinted around the corner, her eyes wide and panicked.

"What is this?" Rhodey asked. "What the hell is happening?"

No one said anything for a while, trying to process what happened.

"Oh, God."

My eyes wandered around, staring at the dust, the ashes, Vision's grey body, and tossed aside, mangled and blood-stained, my wings. I felt nothing at first, choking on my own tears and attempting to breathe. I dared to look down at what had been Bucky, and a surprising anger bubbled up inside of me. My mind wasn't quite with me, and I abruptly let out a loud scream.

"Fuck you, you big, purple freak!" I shouted, looking up as though he were there. "You can't just get away with that! You can't! You're going to pay for this! You-you--"

I broke down into sobs again, collapsing onto the ground and burying my face in my hands. I felt arms wrap around me and pull me up, and my father pulled me into his chest and ran his hand through my hair, trying to comfort me despite his own sadness.

"Ela, we have to--" He paused, trying to find a new way to phrase things. "We should check on New York."

We said distant goodbyes to the Wakandans and took the shambles of our team back onto the Quinjet, no one daring to utter a word. We still had Bruce, Nat, Rhodey, my father, and Thor, and the raccoon Thor had brought with him.

That was still really bizarre.

I leaned my head against my father's shoulder, and suddenly, everything from today, most likely the blood loss, caught up with me, and I felt my mind go fuzzy. My vision faded in and out, and I felt my body pitch forward before the world went back.