Chapter Text
Thanos knew perfectly well that by now the ‘heroes’ would have decided to make a last stand with the remaining stones.
The Keeper of the Time Stone had fled to earth, no doubt to gather reinforcements, and leaving behind the fool in armor to try and hold the Titan off (had he truly expected that to do any good?)
So it was surprising for the Titan when he appeared at the closest proximity of the Stones – at a location where he knew his forces would be waging battle against whatever allies the Stonekeeper had managed to gather – and found only a deserted city, unharmed and silent.
Then he smiled. Sorcerer.
The Space Stone glowed softly in the gauntlet and the next moment the Titan stood within the Mirror Dimension. The Reality Stone answered his command and at an instant the sorcerers’ control over the dimension ceased.
If he wished, he could simply fling them all out into the real world again and force the heroes to wreck havoc on their own land. However, that would simply be…wasteful.
Everything needed its balance, and from what he had seen, the city they left behind was as balanced as any humans could call up. It would be a pity to destroy it unless necessary.
He paused for a moment to take in the scene of battle. The Stonekeepers’ allies were doing an admirable job, he had to admit. His outriders had been crippled.
Aware that whatever they did in this plane could not affect their homes and any who may have been left behind in them, the human army was no longer holding back or bothering about collateral damage. The effect was only too obvious.
Even the Titan could not repress a twinge of regret as he saw the corpses of Proxima Midnight and Obsidian. If Proxima was slain and Corvius was not on a rampage of revenge, that meant he too had perished.
Were all his children to be taken from him, then?
“This day exacts a heavy toll” he admitted to himself.
“It’s about to get heavier, I’m afraid” a calm voice said. Thanos looked down to see a young human standing before him, seemingly unarmed except for a shield in hand. “You have one chance to surrender.”
The man’s face betrayed no fear, his voice steady and sure. His offer was sincerely meant.
Even though amused, Thanos had to admit he couldn’t help but feel mild admiration for the man. He would ensure this one died a noble death.
“Where are the Stonekeepers?”
“Here”
The Space Stone warned him an instant before the portals opened, too late to prevent them.
The two Stonekeepers – the sorcerer and the machine – stepped out, accompanied by a young woman with hair like flames and a man in a metallic suit like the fool who had tried to challenge him on Titan.
Together with the first man, they now surrounded him.
No matter. Thanos reached out with the Power Stone, intending to strike first with a blast that would obliterate the five.
A red mist rose from the hands of the woman, enveloping the blast of the Stone and absorbing it. Before the Titan could react to this, the man in the metal suit and the sorcerer struck.
The metal suit’s blast was one he had been exposed to once on Titan, but here the Reality Stone was being used to counter the sorcerers turning the Mirror Dimension on him.
Thanos staggered under the combined onslaught.
“Now!” the shield bearer shouted, and the Mind Stone’s keeper darted forward, grabbing hold of the Titan’s arm.
The machine seemed to gain in density far more than it should have, and Thanos was taken off guard and off balance for an instant – but only an instant.
The Power Stone lashed out, and the machine was struck down.
“Vision!” the woman cried out, eyes glowing red, glowing with power.
Thanos countered her intended strike by the simple measure of tossing the foolish girl away from him with the Space Stone. He blinked as she was swallowed up by a portal mid air and rematerialized on the ground out of another in an instant.
However, she was disoriented by the sudden teleportation – it would last only a moment, but a moment was enough. Thanos advanced on the machine – and the Mind Stone- his sword raised to strike.
The Space Stone glowed again, creating an impenetrable barrier between him, the armored man and the sorcerer. The sorcerer would figure out how to portal through in an instant, but by then it would be too late.
The instant before his sword would have struck the incapacitated machine, the shieldbearer dived between them. The shield splintered under the impact of the sword – but it did its duty, taking the brunt of the force and protecting its wielder.
And by then, of course, the sorcerer, the woman and the armored man were stepping out of a portal.
Thanos could see what the strategy was – keep him off balance, keep him reeling under the brunt of blows that were too weak by themselves to significantly damage him, but too strong to be ignored. If he attempted to concentrate on using any Stone, the attacks might well do permanent damage.
The Titan nodded, appreciative of the courage. The machine was back on its feet, fast recovering. Interesting.
Titans are powerful. Thanos was even more so than normal. But even he could not stand against a concentrated charge without stumbling. And a single stumble was enough.
The armored man and the machine concentrated burning beams of power upon him, forcing him to the ground. The Crimson Bands of Cyttorak came to the sorcerer’s call, binding the Titan down.
The shieldbearer darted forward, grasping his arm. Grasping the gauntlet.
Thanos roared in rage, about to lash out, but the woman’s eyes glowed and red mist rose around him, swallowing all.
The battlefield vanished. He was standing on Titan, Titan as it had been on those terrible last days.
People, his people, those who had refused to listen to him, but who he still cared about, dying around him. The planet burning down around him.
And now Gamora was there too, Gamora, Nebula, Proxima, Corvius, Obsidian. His children. Calling out to him.
Claiming how he had failed them, how it was his fault they were perishing, how he had not done enough. How he had failed and now the universe was dying, like his own world did.
……………………………………
“How long can you hold him?” Rhodey asked.
Wanda was pale, sweating. “I… Not very long.”
Strange still kept Thanos bound to the ground, but he knew that if the Titan started to struggle in earnest it would not be enough to hold him. Rhodey and Vision stood ready to blast the Titan if Wanda’s hold faltered. Steve struggled against the gauntlet.
T’Challa, Sam, Okoye, Bucky and Natasha, all armed with Wakandan weapons, circled the Titan and his opponents to keep the outriders from coming to their master’s aid. For those involved, those few moments seemed to last an eternity.
But finally, the gauntlet was sliding off from the Titan’s hand, it was in Steve’s grip… And just in time, as Wanda staggered back, unable to bind the Titan in her illusions any longer.
Steve, darting away with the gauntlet in his grip, knew full well that they could not hope to keep Thanos away from it for long. They would not need to.
Even as he ran, he was dislodging Stones from the gauntlet – the Power Stone was too dangerous to touch, but the others had no such restriction.
Sam swooped down and caught the Reality Stone, soaring up and out of reach of Thanos. Redwings converged on the outriders who took off in pursuit.
Steve tossed the Soul Stone to Natasha, who seemed to have somehow commandeered one of the outrider’s vehicles for herself. She drove straight for a portal that Wong opened before her, exiting the Mirror Dimension.
Bruce, who they had decided was still too out of balance in his armor to be sent out at Thanos himself, fought through the outriders converging upon Steve and took the gauntlet from him. The outriders instantly shifted their pursuit to Bruce, not noticing the Space Stone still clutched in Steve’s hands even as he fought.
Thanos let out a roar of rage as he realized what had happened.
He may no longer have the gauntlet at his command, but Thanos was still a titan and near mad with fury. The magical chains holding him down snapped.
Natasha managed to pull a very dazed Wanda out of the way in time, but Strange, who was the nearest to the titan, was not so lucky. He was tossed aside like a ragdoll, only the Cloak managing to save him from a broken neck.
Rhodey couldn’t fire missiles, not with his own allies so close, and Thanos seemed to be simply shrugging off the laser blasts.
The Mind Stone’s energy beams burned away the titan’s flesh where they struck, but he seemed to not even notice it in his rage.
Then the sky opened and the Bifrost roared down.
“BRING ME THANOS!” Thor’s voice was loud enough to momentarily drown out all sounds of the battle.
In this timeline too, Thor did not go for the head. He wanted a slower, more painful death for the enemy who had massacred his people, his brother.
However, in this timeline the Warrior prince’s desire for vengeance would not have the dire repercussions it did elsewhen. There would be no unbearable guilt and shame driving him to drink or gluttony.
The Mad Titan died in the Mirror Dimension, Stormbreaker carving its way through his ribs to his heart.
………………………………..
“D’you think…” Mantis began carefully.
“They are dead” Tony declared “All of them. He killed them all. Like I saw. Like I warned them. Damn you, Steve, why the hell wouldn’t you listen?”
Drax rolled his eyes. Nebula made a resolution to keep a very careful eye on the human when he put on the armor – he really didn’t sound like he was stable enough to be wielding a weapon of such power.
Quill, for his part, had heard enough of the Accords from Tony Stark to send his opinions of his home planet to an even lower level .
Hell, the Guardians were convicted criminals, they were given pardons and medals for saving the world – the earth governments want to convict the Avengers for saving the world? And this guy was trying to get everyone to agree to that?
He was saved the trouble of responding when a blinding light erupted around them. The Bifrost opened to reveal Thor, Rocket and Groot, along with two humans.
“You okay, Tony?” Rhodey asked.
Tony nodded, turning to Steve “This – this is what I warned you about. This is why I wanted to put a suit of armor around the world. This. And now… Now it has come and we weren’t ready! He won!”
“He…didn’t” Steve looked like he was beginning to seriously worry about Tony’s mental status “I mean, if you mean Thanos, he didn’t. He’s dead. The Stones are safe.”
“It’s over, Tony” Rhodey put a hand on Tony’s shoulder gently “It’s okay. We won.”
“We…won?” Tony looked like he could barely believe what he was hearing.
“Thanos is dead?” Nebula and Quill asked together. Both looked more than a little disappointed at being denied the chance to deal the death blow themselves.
“The battle is over?” Tony asked again “You…won?”
“We won” Steve promised.
“All you need to worry about is Pepper ripping you a new one once she finally gets a face to face with you” Rhodey grinned, trying to disguise the fact that Pepper was not the only one who wanted to rip into Tony.
Taking off alone… What the hell was he thinking? When he knew Thanos was coming to earth after the Mind Stone anyway?
……………………………………..
In this timeline, there was no Snap. The world was not left in turmoil. However, nor could it remain unchanged.
The Accords didn’t last long once the public realized the part the Anti-Accords heroes played in saving the world while the Accords authority tried to delay reactions.
Rhodey was court martialled for his disobedience to Ross, but used the chance to bring to light exactly how and why the Accords as they were would have literally destroyed the world had he chosen to follow them.
It didn’t help that Tony Stark, the Face of the Pro-Accord faction, had not been even on the same planet during the final battle. Of the formerly Pro-Accord Avengers Colonel Rhodes and Vision very publicly withdrew their support.
The people, already on the edge fearing that their enhanced loved ones or friends would be rounded up and disappeared into the Raft forever, erupted in rage.
Lawyers and the Press thrashed the human rights violations the Accords brought up. Images of the heroes of the Battle of Wakanda while confined in the Raft inflamed public ire.
General Ross and Tony Stark became the targets of popular rage, though Steve Rogers himself spoke up for the latter. Stark Industries products began to be boycotted. Ross resigned.
Politicians finally began to give in to popular pressure. Countries began to withdraw from the Accords, or claim that they would not enforce them. The 76 nations that had refused to ratify the Accords even to begin with lobbied for change in the UN.
When Steve Rogers spoke up, offering to negotiate a new Accords – one that would guarantee oversight with safeguards – which the enhanced individuals would have a part in drafting, the UN eagerly took him up on the offer.
Tony chose to retire from the Avengers – this time permanently – yielding to Pepper’s and Rhodey’s encouragements and Everret Ross’ subtle threats.
The sorcerers’ role in the incident was purposefully downplayed, as all Sanctum Keepers and the government officials involved agreed that it was better to keep it as a footnote than open up a new debate about magic. It helped that Kamar Taj already had legal standing with most nations’ secret agencies, so it wasn’t like much needed to be changed.
Stephen Strange refused to officially join the Avengers, but agreed to remain on as a consultant.
The Avengers returned to New York again, though they opted not to return to the Compound, which brought back too many bad memories for Wanda.
The Sokovia Accords would go down in the history books as one of the major human rights disasters of the twenty first century.