Chapter Text
“I got it!” Shuri exclaims proudly as she pulls the final virtual thread from the mind stone. The stone lifts from Vision’s head, causing him to convulse a twitch violently.
“Vis.” Wanda worriedly clutches his hand, looking into his eyes.
“I’m alright, Wanda.” He responds weakly, reassuringly squeezing her hand,” Now you need to destroy it.”
Wanda nods solemnly looking to the floating stone in front of her. The sight of it glowing with power seems to resonate with something inside of her. With a deep breath, she reaches towards the stone, coating it in layers upon layers of red energy. She gives one last smile to her love, before extending her arm towards the windows of the tower, sending a bolt of energy to shatter the glass. She sends the stone out of the window, quickly following after it.
As she disappears from view, Vision struggles to get up, trying his best to move towards the windows. He grunts in frustration at his new limited functions. He looks down to the battlefield, watching his friends destroy the intergalactic troops. He lets out a small sigh of relief, before a jaring stabbing pain explodes into his reality. He’s thrown into a nearby wall as Corvus Glaive impales the synth through the abdomen, glaring at the now empty hole in Vision’s head.
“Where’s the stone?” Corvus growls out, putting more pressure into the glaive.
“I’ll never tell you.” Vision sneers back through gritted teeth. Corus lets out an angry yell , taking out the glaive and raising it to strike. He pauses, looking slightly to his right, before a sickening grin creeps across his face. He lifts his glaive and hits Vision over the head one more time, before leaping out of the window.
Vision groans, touching his head and looking over to the window. He then looks up to the carnage on the floor above him. He leans heavily on the wall as he forces himself up to his feet. He grunts and groans, trying to force his broken body to the windows. He tries to float into the air, but can’t manage to stay aloft for more then ten seconds. He hits the floor and lets out a yell in anger.
“Vision.” Shuri’s voice shocks Vision, as he quickly looks to try and find her. She limps slightly down the stairs, holding her gauntlet loosely in her hand. She limps over to Vision, staring him up and down. She carefully looks at the fresh wounds given by Corvus, before quickly limping to the back of the lab. Vision hesitantly follows.
She swipes objects off tables in an angry huff, looking for something. She frantically scans from table to table, until she picks up a necklace made of fangs of some kind. She laughs triumphantly before turning to vision and tossing them to him.
“I can’t make the repairs right now, but this will keep you walking and fight ready.” Shuri says,” Put them on.”
Vision puts on the necklace, and a swath of black erupts out, covering his body in a black panther suit. He looks shocked at the sudden development.
“Come back once this is over and I’ll fix you properly.” Shuri laughs,” Now go! They need you out there!”
Vision nods, the frustration of his injuries hindering his movement now gone. She sprints to the busted window, jumping out and taking to the air in flight. It’s not as stable as he can normally sustain, but it’s useful enough. He looks to the battlefield, where the tides seem to be turning in the favor of the Avengers. Thor erupts the battlefield in lightning, killing dozens of enemies in a single swing of his new weapon. Then the call comes.
“If anyone can hear me, I need immediate backup.” Wanda’s voice echoes over the coms.
“Location.” Steve’s voice responds almost inhumanly fast.
“Eastern forest area.” Wanda responds quickly.
“On my way.” Vision says over coms, turning to the forest, scanning for life. He finds the thermal response of Wanda, along with two other figures that don’t appear to be allies. He flies over at the fastest pace he can muster, landing heavily on Corvus.
Vision begins his fight against Corvus and Cull. Exchanging blows to keep them away from Wanda as she floods the gem with an immense amount of energy. For every blow he receives, Vision makes sure to pay it back and keep attention on him. The battle pauses for a moment when Captain America appears from behind Corvus, stabbing him from behind with his own staff. Vision thankfully nods and continues to fight Cull. Bruce Banner breaks through the trees, tackling Cull out of sight, leaving Vision and Steve to watch over Wanda as she continues into the gem.
Steve and Vision stand, ready to fight anyone when the stone explodes. The blast knocks them to their knees, causing Vision to whip his head around to look at Wanda. She lies on the ground, her chest heaving heavily. He rushes over to kneel by her side, slowly helping sit up. He holds her gently as she pants heavily, gasping for air. She looks up weakly and gives a grateful smile towards Vision. He gleefully gives her a smile back, kissing her forehead.
“Oh, my children, why so exhausted?” The booming voice of Thanos seems to echo in their souls, making their hearts tremble in fear. The pair slowly turn their attention to the approaching titan, no sign of defeat on his face. Vision carefully positions himself between the titan and Wanda.
“You can’t win.” Vision says with a slightly desperate tone. Tahnos only chuckles slightly in return,” She destroyed the stone, you can’t win!”
“Can’t I?” Thanos lifts his gauntlet, a shimmer of green surrounding it, making it’s way up his arm. He slowly turns his hand. Vision looks in front of him, the forest rustling quietly. Wanda yells from behind him, and he turns just in time to see Wanda being batted away by the imposing purple figure. Vision leaps forwards to cushion her fall.
Vision quickly checks her over, she’s panting heavily from the use of her power. She hazily looks to Vison, face full of worry and pain. Vision tries his best to comfort her, carefully holding her in his arms and placing himself as a block between the titan and his beloved. He doesn;t want Wanda to see him, to see their failure.
Lighting rains from the sky, and hope wells up in Vision once more. If anyone could stop Thanos it’s Thor. He hears the thunder crash and the sound of an impact behind him.
“Vis.” Wanda sighs out weakly.
“I’m here.” He says, taking her palm and placing it onto his cheek,” You did a great job, Wanda.”
“Vis...” A small smile appears on her lips as she gently caresses the synth’s cheek. The warmth wells up inside the two of them as they share this wondrous moment together.
“Wanda...Wanda I…” He starts to speak, when the hard clink of metal impacting echoes behind him. He doesn’t dare to look, instead locking eyes with Wanda, horrified. Her calm and happy eyes turned panicked in a moment. Vision desperately clutches to her hand, but it soon starts disintegrating in his own. “No...no, no, no, Wanda.” She weakly looks to Vision, a sad smile on her face, and a single tear in her eye.
“I’m sorry.” the words almost echo as her body dissolves into brown ash in his hands.
It takes a moment for him to process, before he begins to try and catch the pieces in the air, without success. He holds the small bundle in his heavily clenched hand where hers was set. He slowly brings the ash to his forehead, to the small hole where the stone had once set. He pushes his clenches fist harder into his forehead. If he could cry, he would, he wants to.
“I can’t feel you.” He whispers in a horse tone. He sobs dryly, the pain in his chest almost burning from the intense emotions. He silently clutches the ash to his chest, hoping to sooth the fire. It isn’t until a hand firmly plants itself on his back, that he’s alerted to the presence of many others around him.
He looks up to see Captain Rogers, eyes wet with tears, but also cold with a sense of conviction. Vision looks around to see Rhodey, Natasha, Okoye, Doctor Banner, the sentient Racoon and Thor. Everyone looks disoriented and confused. Only Thor looks shaken, yet regretful of the situation. Vision could figure just by that sound.
They lost.