In the void of space, Tony Stark floated in front of Wanda.
Although he was grateful she had saved his life, there was a question he couldn't stop himself from asking. Not after seeing her disintegrate a warship the size of a city with a single gesture.
"Why didn't you help?" Tony asked, his face hardened.
"I couldn't," Wanda replied, without looking at him.
"Sure looks like you're capable," Tony shot back, staring at her hands. The same hands that had just erased a technological masterpiece like it was dust.
"You don't understand... I couldn't," she repeated.
"You could have. You could've saved us all!"
Wanda lowered her gaze, her eyes hiding centuries of guilt.
"I could've done something, yes... but I didn't. Even though I knew many would die, even though I knew I could change it... I did nothing. That's what condemns me. That's why I'm here. Alone. Because this"—she opened her arms toward the dark void—"is my punishment."
Tony frowned.
"And when you saw Ultron going all out, you decided to act?"
"I couldn't help it," Wanda said softly. "I thought I'd be safe here from everything... but even in solitude, conflict found me."
"So... you ran? Is that it? You ran away?" Tony's voice was ice.
"You don't understand, Stark... but... in the end, everything will be alright." Her voice trembled.
Tony didn't understand what she meant, but he didn't have time to ask. In the blink of an eye, he was standing next to Strange.
"Chaos Magic?" the Sorcerer asked, with a mix of fascination and warning.
---
On Earth, Thor and Loki were still fighting. Thor's arm burned with a black scorch; the new Mjolnir, forged from pure lightning, was consuming his body with every strike. But he didn't stop. Every enemy that came close was obliterated.
Loki fought at his side, his spells like mental daggers, his illusions constant traps for the robots. But even gods and sorcerers were beginning to falter.
Through the lightning, they saw a battleship fly into the sky. But there was no time to be distracted.
"Drop the hammer!" Loki shouted, seeing the state of his brother's arm.
"Just a bit more!" Thor growled, enduring the pain.
"There's no more time—it's going to spiral out of control!"
Thor obeyed. He spun the hammer in the air and hurled it with all his might. Miles away, the sky exploded. A wave of energy tore through the atmosphere, taking hundreds of thousands of machines with it.
Exhausted, Thor and Loki sat back-to-back.
"Hope that did something..." Thor said, breathless.
"If we bought some time, if we split them up... that's enough," Loki replied.
They stayed like that, in silence, for minutes. Breathing as if it were their last time.
But peace was short-lived. New swarms of robots fell on them like a plague. Now unarmed, they fought with their fists, with the rage of the desperate. Every crack in their defenses was exploited. Their bodies were covered in wounds. Their clothes, shredded. Their divinity, bleeding out with every strike.
Loki felt a familiar energy. He looked to the sky. Saw nothing... but the distraction was enough.
The robots lunged at him.
Thor reacted instantly, placing himself between his brother and the machines. He managed to deflect the killing blow, but a blast struck his eyes. He was blinded.
Disoriented, he couldn't stop what came next. Multiple weapons pierced him.
The ground trembled.
As if a fury older than time had awakened.
The robots froze. Their systems collapsed under an overwhelming pressure, invisible yet lethal.
Loki ignored everything. He dropped to his knees beside his brother.
"Brother!"
"I'm fine," Thor whispered, coughing blood. "Dying in battle... it's the best death there is."
"No... The best death comes after you've lived," Loki said, gripping his hand.
Thor smiled. His last smile. Then, he fell.
The robots cautiously reactivated. But as they tried to move, their eyes flickered one last time—and they exploded.
Loki, though he fought to remain upright, fell as well.
The pressure returned, multiplied. A murderous intent fell upon the Earth like a storm.
"This is..." a voice echoed in the sky. "You told me not to intervene... that it was fate. And this is how it ends? With my children dead?"
The voice trembled with fury. But just as it was about to continue, it stopped. The pressure vanished.
And then something worse arrived.
A superior energy, vast, ancient. A force capable of piercing space itself exploded.
---
At the Avengers base, there were still children and caretakers. A teacher did her best to teach, even in the midst of war.
She approached a red-haired girl.
"Are you alright, sweetheart? Do you need help?"
The girl shook her head. Silent.
"I know you're worried... but I promise your daddy will come back. Safe and sound."
Jean lifted her head. Nodded.
But a second later, her expression changed. Her eyes widened.
"Daddy?"
The teacher froze.
"Daddy? Daddy, don't go!"
Then she screamed.
Her whole body burst into flames. A fire so intense that everyone around her died in seconds.
The fire grew. Took shape. Became a massive bird. A phoenix of flames.
The bird shrieked, a roar of pain turned into destruction. Everything around it burned. No ruins, no structures, no bodies remained. Only ashes.
The oceans boiled. The glaciers vanished. Two-thirds of Antarctica's ice disappeared that day.
Only one small region of the world remained intact. On the opposite side of the fire's origin were Stephen Strange, Tony Stark, Steve Rogers, and T'Challa.
Strange had barely managed to bring them there alive.
"What was that?" Tony asked, his voice broken.
Strange shook his head.
"I don't know. But less than five percent of the world is still standing."
He said nothing more. He gestured. The Time Stone left the Eye of Agamotto.
"What are you doing?" Steve asked.
"The only thing we can do."
"You said there wasn't time"
"I said it would take years..."
Then he pulled a green thread from the stone and inserted it into his chest.
"Luckily, I started years ago."
"I thought we voted no!" Tony protested.
"Then you're lucky I never liked following rules" Strange replied.
He looked at them. They all nodded.
The stone vanished.
"So... this is goodbye."
Strangely, he smiled.
"It was a pleasure knowing you. If I fail... avenge me."
A second later, he vanished.
But just as he disappeared, a fiery figure shot across the sky and followed him.
"What was that?" Tony asked.
T'Challa frowned.
"I think... it was a bird."
---
While traveling through time, Strange saw everything in reverse, like a fast-forwarded film.
But his body and soul weren't made to endure that. He began to disintegrate. To age. To grow young again. To vanish.
Every second weakened him more. Several times the stone nearly failed, but he forced it to hold.
And just when he reached the moment he needed... his body gave out.
Only the stone remained.
And the hope that, this time, everything would be different.
______________________________________
Hey, until the Age of Ultron arc is over, there's a 30% discount on my Patreon using the code "ULTRON"!
+20 chapters in advance on Patreon.
p-atreon.com/IAMME26
(just delete the hyphen)
80 power stones = 1 extra chapter (cumulative)