The Brightest Star

Chapter 46 - We Lost

(Kára's POV):
"Kára, Thanos has the time stone, we are coming," I heard Loki speak in my head and I turned to Steve.

"He is coming," I informed him as I plunged my dagger into another creature.

He nodded then spoke into his communication system, "everyone stay sharp, Thanos will be here soon. Wanda, now may be a very good time to protect the stone. If you have to, destroy it."

"Loki, where are you? I will lead the fight to you," I communicated with Loki, hoping to get more information.

"You are not participating in the fight, are you? Kára, get inside and find protection or better yet go home, I cannot risk losing you."

I rolled my eyes, despite knowing that he could not see me, "just shut up and tell me where you are."

I could almost hear him sighing, "we are off to the right on the outskirts, I think he has located the mind stone and is making his way over."

"Steve! He is that way!" I pointed to the location that Loki had described.

"You sure?" He asked, receiving a nod in response. "Everyone follow me, I know where he is."

I almost gasped when Thanos came into view, his tall stature insanely intimidating. By his side was my husband, acting the part of the loyal follower. Each one of the Avengers ran towards the Titan, but quickly fell, unable to prevent the inevitable. Instead of going after Thanos, I noticed the woman Steve had called Wanda not too far away. She was using magic to destroy the mind stone sitting in the forehead of the man in front of her. I remembered what Loki had told me about needing to keep the mind stone away from Thanos at all costs, so I chose to take the defensive as opposed to the offensive.

As Thanos came closer to Wanda I turned to her, "do not worry Wanda, I shall protect you. Please just focus on destroying that stone."

She nodded, glancing at the looming threat. I threw my hands out in front of me, creating a shield of protection. Thanos tried to pass through it, but it held up against him, causing his eyes to harden into an icy glare. He turned to Loki, who was watching me with fear in his eyes. He gave him a smirk before using the power of his gauntlet to send my flying back. I tumbled across the ground and then leapt back up onto my feet, ready to face him again. However before I had the chance to do anything the power of an exploding infinity stone threw me back again. I looked up and saw Wanda crying over Vision's body, the mind stone fragmented in his forehead. It was over, Thanos had lost.

Or at least that was what I thought. The gauntlet shone green as Thanos moved it to the left, causing Vision's body to get up again, reversing the effects of Wanda's magic. I cried out, sending a blast of magic hurling at Thanos as he plucked the mind stone out and placed it in his gauntlet. Loki joined me, clearly fearful that Thanos had won. However with the gauntlet, Thanos was easily able to overpower us, send me flying back again. My back hit a tree, sending waves of pain rippling through my body. I blacked out for a second, but was brought back by the sounds of my voice be called out.

Thanos smirked watching as Loki ran to my side, "ah so the traitor has finally revealed his colors. I hope you know that when I kill you, it will be quite personal."

He raised his gauntlet and I began to fear what he was planning doing with the stones as Loki had never actually told me what his ultimate plan was. Thor interrupted this thought as he came down from out of no where, burying his ax in Thanos's body. I sighed in relief, letting my head rest against the forest floor as Loki took my hand and placed a kiss upon it, apologizing profusely.

I smiled up at him, "it is ok Loki, we are ok."

My hand dropped down to the ground and I looked down at it in confusion, watching as Loki's body began to turn to ash. I called out his name, trying to grab onto him, but all that I made contact with was the remnants of his disintegration. Expecting to turn into ash myself, I waited for death to overtake me. However once I realized that it was not going to happen, I looked up at Thor who was now standing in front of nothing, his ax lying on the ground.

"What just happened?" I asked him, forcing myself to get up off the ground, despite my screaming body.

"Thanos won," he replied as he sunk to his knees, defeated.

"Wh-what?" I stuttered, looking around me, where the ashes of others who had received the same fate as Loki blew in the light breeze.

Panicking, I focused my attention on my clone, needing to know if my children were alright. I reached out to hug the three of them to me, hoping desperately that simply by holding them I would be protecting me from what Thanos had done. But even as I held them Eerika and Narfi turned to ash in my arms, crying out for me before they vanished.

"Mamma?" Eira asked, stumbling backwards in fear.

I forced back tears as I smiled at her, "do not worry, darling, we are safe. We are safe now. Everything is going to be ok. I love you so much and I promise neither of us is going anywhere. I am going to bring you somewhere else now, is that ok with you?"

She nodded, probably too terrified to do much else. I had my clone teleport to Wakanda so that I could have my daughter with me while the Avengers figured out what to do next. We all went inside the Wakandan palace, trying to regroup and see if there was anyway to reverse what had just been done.

I noticed Thor in the corner of the room, not making any attempt to participate in the conversation. Of all of the Avengers, he seemed to be taking the loss particularly hard. I brought Eira over to him and sat beside and placed my hand on his leg.

"Is she all you have left?" He asked, not even raising his gaze to meet mine.

I nodded, "right now I am just grateful that I did not lose her too."

"I should have been able to stop him. If I had just hit his head instead of his chest, none of this would have happened. This is all my fault."

"Do not say that, Thor, you know that that is not true. None of us in this room or who turned to ash was able to stop him, you are not alone. Besides it is not your fault, the only person to blame is Thanos."

-

(A/N): Ok so that gif kills me so I thought it would be an appropriate match to this emotional chapter! I bet none of you actually thought that I would do this, huh? I apologize, but I wanted the story to go in this direction!