Real-Life Myth

Thirteen.

When Thanos finally arrives, he finds only fresh debris from Ebony Maw's ship. Doctor Strange is sitting on what may have been plaza steps once. "Oh, yeah, you're much more of a 'Thanos'," he remarks.

"I take it Maw is dead. This day extracts a heavy toll. Still, he accomplished his mission," Thanos states.

"You may regret that. He brought you face-to-face with the Master of the Mystic Arts."

"And where do you think he brought you?" Thanos inquires. Star-Lord crouches behind wreckage with his weapon ready, behind Thanos and to his left. Lana is crouched next to him, a duel blade similar to the one Gamora and Thanos share is in her hand. She twirls it around her fingers as she waits to use it. Spider-Man peeks from above and behind Doctor Strange.

"Let me guess. Your home?" Strange remarks.

Thanos smiles reminiscently. "It was. And it was beautiful." Thanos curls his gauntleted fist and activates the Reality Stone to show Strange Titan before it was destroyed - green lawns, intact buildings, water-filled ponds, strolling citizens, the jack-like structures hovering and connected to the ground-based buildings with beams of energy. "Titan was like most planets. Too many mouths, and not enough to go around. And when we faced extinction, I offered a solution."

"Genocide."

"But at random, dispassionate, fair to rich and poor alike. They called me a madman. And what I predicted came to pass." He relaxes his fist; the Stone stops glowing and the illusion fades back into the true state of Titan.

"Congratulations. You're a prophet," Strange says sarcastically.

"I'm a survivor," Thanos counters.

"Who wants to murder trillions," Strange adds.

"With all six stones, I could simply snap my fingers, and they would all cease to exist. I call that. . . mercy."

Doctor Strange stands. "And then what?"

"I finally rest. . . and watch the sun rise on a grateful universe. The hardest choices require the strongest wills."

Doctor Strange summons his Mandalas, entering a fighting pose. "I think. . . you'll find. . . our will. . . equal to yours."

"Ours?" He looks up to a see a chunk of wreckage descending rapidly on him, too rapidly to react, and powered by Iron Man. He is subsequently crushed by it.

"Piece of cake, Quill," Tony remarks as he flies down.

Quill triggers his mask and follows. "Yeah, if your goal was to piss him off!" Lana rolls her eyes at the two men.

The wreckage on top of Thanos erupts in purple, as he bellows in rage. He turns the hovering fragments into a flock of bats with the Reality Stone and swarms Iron Man with them, driving him back through the ruins.

Spider-Man webs his eyes, and swings in to kick him in the face at the same time that Drax leaps from cover, blades in both hands, to knee-slide behind Thanos and try for a tendon slide across the back of the Titan's knee. Hawkeye shoots arrow after arrow at the mad titan, each one sticking in his back.

Strange jumps through a portal and summons a sword of golden energy, duelling with Thanos while Drax attacks similarly on his other side. Thanos punches Drax through a ruined wall, then shatters the blade with one hand and tears the web from his eyes. He advances on Strange and kicks at him, but Strange's shield absorbs the damage. The Cloak lifts him free off the ground.

Star-Lord has been making his way back on the ground, and shoots Thanos from behind. Thanos uses the Power Stone to shoot balls of energy at Star-Lord while he leaps towards Thanos using magical platforms thrown in his path by Strange and Lana (of course the later is using the Space Stone she possesses and not her actual powers), the last one placed above Thanos's head so Star-Lord can flip over him and slap a mine on Thanos's back. Star-Lord sticks his landing, he disengages his helmet, flips Thanos a bird and falls backward into a portal. "Boom!" Quill exclaims. The explosion knocks Thanos to his knees and dazes him briefly.