Artemis : The Seventh Avenger ➳ Steve Rogers [1]

04 [ 16 ]

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STEVE

"Come on, wake up, Buddy." I hear Tony's muffled voice as I come to.

My eyes flickered open, taking a minute to adjust to the dark surroundings before landing on Tony's face staring down at me.

"That's my man." He says, his voice clearer now. "Lose this again, I'm keeping it."

He holds up my shield and passes it to me before helping me to my feet.

"What happened?" I asked, still slightly groggy from the blast.

"We messed with time, it tends to mess back." He says, "You'll see."

He leads me to an opening down the path, where Thor stood watching something out the horizon. We join him up front and I follow his sight to see Thanos sitting alone in the midst of the rubble.

"What's he been doing?" Tony asks.

"Absolutely nothing." Thor replies, managing to send a chill down my spine.

I shake off the feeling and focused on the matter at hand, "Where are the Stones?"

"Somewhere under all this." Tony answers, "All I know is he doesn't have them."

Relief fills my chest at that and I nod, "So, we keep it that way."

"You know it's a trap, right?" Thor asks.

"Yeah," Tony shrugs, "I don't much care."

"Good." The God says, "Just as long as we're all in agreement."

Just as the words leave Thor's mouth, a clap of thunder sounds through the sky, a bolt of lightning following close behind it.

Lightning courses through the God's body as he holds his hands out and soon his weapons have been summoned into his hands.

"Let's kill him properly this time." He says and I couldn't agree more.

We head down and slowly approached the Titan, who looked up at us.

"You could not live with your own failure." He spoke, the most I've seen him do so far.

"Where did that bring you?" He continued, "Back to me. I thought by eliminating half of life, the other half would thrive. But you've shown me that is impossible and as long as there are those who remember what was, there will always be those that are unable to accept what can be. They will resist."

"Yeah, we're all kinds of stubborn." Tony replies sarcastically.

The three of us slowly circled him, but that doesn't seem to faze him as he continues to speak.

"I'm thankful." Thanos says, "Because now, I know what I must do."

He raises from his seat, slowly putting on his helmet.

"I will shred this universe down to its last atom. And then, with the stones that you've collected for me, create a new one. Teeming with life that knows not what it has lost, but only what it has been given." He says, pulling his blade out from the ground where he had placed it, "A grateful universe."