- How's it going? I trust you're all doing well and staying healthy.

- Apologies for the lengthy absence. Having any spare time at all in my life is getting rarer. This one was difficult...primarily because it wasn't easy for me to decide on whether Tony or Peter should snap their fingers at the end. Then I remembered I wrote this to be an AU and so I went with a third option. I hope you like it.

Enjoy.

…

"Watch out!"

Lady Sif raised out her shield, blocking Proxima Midnight's spear just in time from piercing Maria's face. Hill gave her a small nod of thanks before she kicked the side of their enemy's knee. The woman's leg buckled from the blow, making her fall down on the knee that'd just been struck. Maria raised up her sword and swung it at Proxima Midnight with the intent of decapitating her.

The lone female of the Black Order rolled to the side just before the sword could slice into her neck. Maria's sword ended up hitting nothing but the dirt. Proxima Midnight stood up and kicked Hill away in the face. Lady Sif lashed out with her sword and attempted to cut off one of her arms. Proxima Midnight blocked the incoming sword strike with the middle of her spear and shoved it back. Their respective weapons clashed with each other for a few minutes, with neither one of them able to get the upper hand on the other.

Lady Sif finally drew first blood when she bashed aside the enemy spear with her shield and slashed her sword across Proxima Midnight's abdomen. The horned woman retreated away from her in a hurry before she risked a look at her bleeding gut. Her armor had kept her alive but Sif's blade still managed to cut deep into her midsection. Letting a frustrated growl, she charged in to attack the Asgardian woman again. Proxima Midnight sliced her spear downwards diagonally in an effort to strike her in the head. Lady Sif moved her body out of the weapon's path, with the sharp spearhead narrowly missing her arm.

Proxima Midnight didn't let up and quickly smashed the butt of her weapon up into her chin. Sif's head snapped back from the blow before her feet stumbled backwards.

Seeing an opening, the alien woman was about to jab her spear straight through the Asgardian warrior. Hill suddenly reappeared from behind with a badly bruised nose and tackled her away. The two combatants fell to the ground with Hill kneeling on top of Proxima Midnight. Grabbing her sidearm from her holster, Maria pistol-whipped her enemy across the face. She aimed her gun down at Proxima Midnight's hand...and rapidly opened fire five times.

The first two shots forced the Black Order member to release her grip on her spear. The last three bullets actually shot off a couple of her fingers. Compared to most of the other injuries she's suffered in the past, this wasn't that bad but it still hurt all the same. The loss of her pinky and middle finger was enough to make Proxima Midnight hiss out in pain before she grabbed Maria by the scruff of her shirt and threw her off. Hill grunted as she landed on her back just a short distance away.

Planting her foot on Maria's torso, Proxima Midnight kicked up her weapon from the ground and caught it in mid-air. "Time to die, you pathetic creature."

She pulled back her spear and was about to drive it into Hill's throat...when a silver blade suddenly erupted through the middle of her chest. Blue blood splashed down from her fatal wound onto Maria's cheek, making her close her eyes out of disgust.

"A basic rule of combat..." Lady Sif snarled, leaning close to the dying Proxima Midnight's ear. The alien woman fell to her knees with an expression of both utter shock and fear on her face. "Never expose your back to the enemy."

Those words barely registered with Proxima Midnight before she breathed her last and collapsed to the ground face first. Maria moved out of the way of her falling corpse. Blue blood poured out from the fatal wound in Proxima Midnight's torso and soaked the earth beneath.

Hill took a moment to catch her breath and wiped off some of the blue blood on her face. "Man, that was disgusting."

Sif let out a small chuckle as she picked up her shield. There was a nasty bleeding cut beneath her chin. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah, that kick from earlier damn near broke my nose though. Almost knocked me out too...what about you?"

"I'm fine. I-get down!"

Grabbing Maria, Lady Sif pulled her down with herself to the ground. A plasma round fired from the Sanctuary's turrets struck the ground Hill had just been standing on and exploded. The two ladies quickly rushed to find cover as more enemy ordnance levelled the entire battlefield.

…

Peter wondered why everything was so silent all of a sudden. He carefully opened his left eye and peeked up at the cloud covered sky. Instead of firing down at the field, the Sanctuary's gun batteries were now concentrating their fire at something hidden in the clouds. That something turned out to be a golden comet rocketing towards the ship...or at least that's what it appeared to be to most of the people looking up.

Spider-Man knew better though and he couldn't help but smile in relief. Said golden comet was none other than Captain Marvel herself, who just plowed straight through the hull of the Sanctuary. Violent flames tore the inner working of the ship a few seconds later. The ship's main source of power was obliterated thanks to one of her photon blasts, making the gun turrets on the outside shut down. Carol reappeared outside again by blasting a hole through the side of the ship. She immediately turned around and bulldozed her way through the Sanctuary again from the bottom all the way to the top.

Carol hovered in the air for a moment and watched the heavily damaged ship go down in flames. The Sanctuary crashed into the lake below, unlikely to ever fly again after all the damage she did to it.

Thanos watched with his remaining eye in horror as his ship fell out of the sky...the Sanctuary was the one thing that would've helped secure a victory for him and his troops. Now it laid destroyed and inoperable in the lake, brought down by an unknown woman of great power. With his flagship destroyed, the electronic signal that kept his chitauri drones functioning was also gone. Most of the alien cannon fodder dropped dead as a result. There was still some left thanks to the Q-Ships that were still in the air but their numbers were alas way too low now to be able to put up much of a fight.

Carol descended down to Peter...who was laying on the ground, hugging the nano-gauntlet close like a teddy bear. She couldn't help but giggle at how adorable he looked right now despite the present situation.

"Hey, Carol." The young Spider greeted, looking up at her with a relieved smile. "You're a little late to the party."

Captain Marvel playfully rolled her blue eyes. "You try flying all the way to Earth from the other end of the galaxy, Peter Parker. I heard you have something for me?"

Spider-Man nodded and rose to his feet before he handed her the nano-gauntlet. Carol grabbed hold of the glove and tucked it beneath her left arm. The two of them turned their attention back to the other side of the field for a second and saw most of Thanos's remaining alien troops beginning to move towards their position.

"That's a lot of bad guys." Peter muttered. "I don't know how you're going to get through all that."

Wanda descended down from above and stood next to them. "Don't worry..."

"She's got help." Okoye finished, rallying to their position with several other powerful women.

Princess Shuri stood beside the general of the Dora Milaje and charged up the power in her sonic blasters to maximum. A familiar looking winged horse trotted down from the clouds with Valkyrie on it's back. The Asgardian woman readied her spear for battle...which was heavily soaked with the blood of her slain enemies. One of the Guardians, Mantis, showed up from the side and stood ready to charge into battle with them.

Pepper dropped down from the sky and landed in front of everyone. Her helmet collapsed back into her armor before she turned to look at Spider-Man. "Take a minute to catch your breath, Peter. We got this."

He wanted to argue but pain suddenly shot through the large cut running down his torso, making him wince. Wanda placed her hand on Peter's shoulder and gently pushed him down to take a seat.

"You're still hurting from that wound you suffered earlier." She said, her eyes filled with worry. "Stay here and rest. I'll come back and heal you as soon as I can."

The Black Widow appeared from behind with Jessica and Elektra following her. Peter's mouth dropped a bit upon seeing the clad in red former assassin again. Elektra was amused by the shocked expression on his face and offered him a warm smile.

"Do as Wanda says and stay here. We'll be back before you know it." Natasha ordered before they moved out to engage the enemy with Pepper leading the charge.

Hope joined them along the way and grew back to her normal size before she prepared her stingers to fire. Nebula and the past version of her adoptive sister followed along from out of nowhere. Natasha was relieved to see the friendly Nebula still in one piece. The Scarlet Witch was the first to attack by firing off a couple of powerful psionic blasts out of her hands. Red energy bolts hammered into the hostile alien horde, killing many at the frontlines upon impact. Gamora ran forward and cut a chitauri gorilla down with her sword as she ducked beneath it's arm.

Corvus Glaive was taking the lead on the enemy's side and moved to engage Okoye in battle. Their fight was a very short one. The general of the Dora Milaje just stood her ground and jabbed her own Vibranium spear right through his chest the second he got within range. Corvus Glaive roared out in agony as Okoye flipped him over her head and slammed him down into the ground behind her. The Black Order member clawed at the air in agony for a few seconds before he finally died.

Jessica broke an outrider's jaw with a vicious left hook. Elektra threw one of her Sai's at a Sakaaran gunner. The blade impaled the alien in the head, taking one of it's brethren by surprise for a moment. The former assassin quickly ran forward and jabbed her second Sai up into the other Sakaaran's chin. Blood poured out of the alien's mouth as it slowly fell dead backwards. Elektra wrenched her Sai free and moved to kill more of these things.

Pepper shot her repulsor rays at an incoming leviathan, blowing up it's head in mid-air. The Scarlet Witch and Valkyrie flew past her and moved to attack the two leviathans behind it.. Wanda used her telekinesis to immobilize the one on the right and forced it down to the ground. Brunnhilde plunged her spear deep into the side of the other living troop carrier and carved through the leviathan's flesh as her steed flew past it's serpentine body.

Carol flew straight through the path the others had cleared for her. The surviving Sakaaran and chitauri troops attempted to stop her approach by setting up make-shift blockades with tanks but Captain Marvel easily destroyed them without even slowing down.

Thanos himself raced forward to fight the cosmic powered heroine. Pepper, Princess Shuri, and Wasp charged in and simultaneously fired their respective weapons at the mad Titan. Their combined firepower blasted Thanos down to the ground, allowing Carol to fly past him without any trouble. The purple being quickly got back up though before he chucked his blade at the van. The sword impaled the quantum tunnel located in the trunk, causing the whole vehicle to explode with a burst of bright lights.

…

Spider-Man watched in awe as the group of women fought their way past the swarm of enemies. None of the alien bastards stood a chance against their combined might and even Thanos got his ass handed to him. The mad Titan didn't stay down for long though. He quickly rolled to his feet and destroyed the quantum tunnel by hurling his sword at it. The resulting explosion sent Captain Marvel careening backwards through the air uncontrollably before she crashed against a chitauri leviathan's corpse. The nano-gauntlet slipped out of her hands and landed not far from where he stood.

Though Peter's first instinct was to go check on Carol first, he knew he needed to secure the stones before Thanos could. Spidey reluctantly ran to grab the nano-gauntlet. A flurry of sharp stones shot towards him before he could get very far. His Spider sense warned him in time and he was able to flip out of the way without taking a hit.

"That was close..." Peter muttered before he glared at the unknown assailant.

It turned out to be Ebony Maw, who stood just a few meters away on the opposite end. Gathered behind the last surviving member of the Black Order was a large group of Sakaarans. Their blasters were trained at the webslinger, ready to shoot him down at Maw's orders. Peter clenched his fists and stood ready for a tough fight against them all. Maw was about to tell his troops to open fire...when Luke suddenly jumped up from behind and tackled him down. Daredevil and Iron Fist ran past their fellow Defender and attacked the Sakaarans while their backs were still turned. Danny drove his fist into the face of the alien closest to him. One of them tried to shoot the martial artist but Matt smashed his Billy clubs against the side of Sakaaran's head before it could pull the trigger.

Luke struck a vicious uppercut into Ebony Maw's chin before he spared a glance at the webslinger. "Good to see you again, kid!"

Spider-Man nodded as he grabbed a Sakaaran by the neck and snapped it. "You too, Luke!"

Just a few meters away, Tony pushed a dead outrider off of him before he ran for the gauntlet. Unfortunately, Thanos had the same idea. The two of them reached for the stones at almost the exact same time. Thanos reached down to grab the nano-gauntlet first but Iron Man shoulder-tackled him in the ribs as hard as he could. Even with the armor amplifying his strength, he could only force the mad Titan away a few steps. Thanos drove his left elbow against the side of Tony's head.

The billionaire almost blacked out from the blow as he fell to the ground, unable to move for a moment.

Thor charged forward with both Stormbreaker and Mjolnir in his hands. He threw the hammer at Thanos but the mad Titan swiftly ducked out of the way. Thor attempted to drive his axe into the purple bastard's chest. Thanos managed to pull his body back just in time, although Stormbreaker did hack off a piece of his broken armor.

The God of Thunder tried to pick up the nano-gauntlet but Thanos grabbed his shoulder from behind and pulled him away. Infusing Stormbreaker with lightning, Thor swung it at the tyrant's face. Thanos caught the axe by it's handle with his right arm. Mjolnir came flying back to Thor's hand before he braced it against the lower handle of Stormbreaker, locking Thanos's arm in place.

"Graaah!" Thor yelled, his eyes glowing as the power of the Odinforce flowed through him.

Captain America leapt onto Thanos's back and grasped onto the top half of Stormbreaker. The mad Titan struggled for a moment before he quickly punched the axe-head of Stormbreaker with his free hand. Thor's grip around the axe slipped for a second, allowing Thanos to free up his right arm. He headbutted the God of Thunder away first before reaching backwards to remove Cap from his back. Steve got thrown into the ground, with the impact making him cough up a bit of blood.

Thanos knelt on top of the super soldier and knocked him unconscious with a hard punch to the temple. With both Captain America and Thor temporarily incapacitated, he was finally able to acquire the stones. Thanos was about to put the nano-gauntlet on when Carol dropped in from above. Dive-kicking the tyrant in the back of his knee, she followed up with a hard punch to his jaw. Thanos tried to retaliate by throwing his own fist forward but Captain Marvel pushed his punch harmlessly to the side before she clobbered him in the head again.

Punching her fist against the mad Titan's jaw once more, Carol tried to wrench the glove away from him. Thanos caught the cosmic powered heroine's arm by the elbow and threw her down to the ground. He picked up the gauntlet once again and finally slipped it onto his right hand. The mad Titan yelled as the combined power of all six Infinity stones flowed through his entire being.

Carol quickly flew forward and grabbed hold of the gauntlet just before Thanos could snap his fingers. He couldn't close his fist thanks to Captain Marvel holding his hand open with brute force. Out of desperation, he headbutted her with all the strength he could muster...but Carol didn't even flinch nor budge from the sudden attack. Thanos looked utterly fearful as she pushed him down to one knee and prepared to drop her fist into his face.

Thanos noticed the power stone glowing within the nano-gauntlet and an idea came to his mind before he pried it loose. With the purple gem augmenting his strength, he quickly punched Captain Marvel square in the head. Carol only had time to widen her eyes out of shock before she got blasted up through the air. Thanos took a moment to catch his breath...all the injuries he'd suffered in this fight were taking a toll on him. His wounded shoulder and right eye was hurting the most right now.

Slipping on the gauntlet again, the mad Titan braced himself as the combined power of all six Infinity stones flowed through him once more. He raised his arm and stood ready to snap his fingers.

…

Peter punched a hole right through a Sakaaran's chest before he pulled his arm back. He didn't normally fight in such a brutal manner but letting these aliens live wasn't really an option. These things existed only to fight and nothing else. The other Defenders were beating down the alien bastards that Ebony Maw had brought with him. Ebony Maw himself retreated after taking a devastating punch to his dried out face from Luke. Luke and Danny tried to give chase but they were ambushed by a horde of outriders on the way.

They had things well in hand though. The outriders were ferocious savage creatures but they were no match for seasoned combatants like Iron Fist and Luke. Looking over to where the stones were last seen, his heart almost stopped when he saw Carol get punched away by Thanos. Now he was about to snap his fingers with the gauntlet and wipe them all out for good.

"Matt!" He called out with a frantic tone. "Can you handle the rest here?"

Daredevil nodded as he kicked the teeth out of an outrider with his right foot. "Go! We'll be fine!"

He didn't waste any time and sprinted towards Thanos. He almost swore under his breath upon running past Captain America's, Iron Man's, and even Thor's badly beaten forms. Leaping forward to close the distance between him and the mad Titan, the young Spider noticed Mjolnir laying on the ground and he quickly held out his hand. The hammer levitated in the air and flew into his right hand handle first.

Peter charged up Mjolnir with lightning and bludgeoned Thanos in the head with all of his strength from behind just as he was about to snap his fingers. The powerful impact sent the mad Titan flying off to the side before he crashed into a pile of rocks. Thanos laid still for a moment in the dirt, with purple blood running down from both the side of his head and the scar over his right eye. Spider-Man's surprise attack with Mjolnir had struck close to his broken eye and aggravated it enough for the fresh scar to start bleeding again.

Thanos stood up in a hurry...and immediately regretted it as his brain started to ache badly. It's never happened before but he suspected a part of his skull had also been fractured from the hammer strike just now.

"You again!" The mad Titan snarled, glaring at Spider-Man with pure rage and malice. He hadn't felt this annoyed with an enemy in such a long time.

Peter tauntingly smirked behind the mask. "Glad you remember me. Our fight was never finished, asshole."

"You think you stand a chance against me now? I possess all six Infinit-hmmph!"

Thanos couldn't finish that sentence as the young Spider quickly shot bullets of webbing into his mouth and onto his eyes. The mad Titan began to choke before he desperately tried to pull the webbing off his eyes and out of his throat. Peter fired another strand of webbing at his broken chest plate and yanked him forward with a burst of strength whilst spinning Mjolnir by the leather loop with his other hand.

Once Thanos got close enough, Spidey smashed the hammer up into his ugly purple chin. A bit of blood and even some teeth flew out of Thanos's mouth as he was smacked into the air. Peter didn't let up and pulled the mad Titan back down with another web-line. Thanos landed on top of a boulder spine first, breaking it in half on impact. Raising Mjolnir to the sky, bolts of lightning rained down from above and struck the hurting purple bastard.

Thanos's yells of agony were muffled briefly thanks to the webbing still jammed in his throat before it got melted away by the heat of the lightning bolts. Scalding jolts of pain assaulted almost every nerve in the mad Titan's body. When bits of his purple flesh began to burn, Thanos resisted the pain as best as he could and aimed the gauntlet at Spider-Man. The six stones glowed brightly and unleashed a powerful blast of cosmic energy.

"Oh shit..." Peter muttered before the cosmic blast hammered against his torso and blasted him into a broken wall.

Mjolnir fell out of his grip as he slumped down to the ground. His torso was already hurting from the sword Thanos inflicted earlier...now it felt like his sternum was broken too thanks to that blast. Spidey's mask collapsed back into his suit as he attempted to get up...only for the mad Titan to plant his boot down on his chest. Peter gritted his teeth whilst looking up at him with tired eyes. Thanos looked like he had taken the worst beating in his entire life. Parts of his usually purple skin was horribly burnt by the lightning assault earlier. His destroyed eye and the side of his head was still bleeding heavily. There was purple blood pouring out from the side of his mouth too and he noticed the bastard was missing a couple of his lower teeth.

Thanos was glaring down at him with his mouth gritted but with some of his lower teeth missing, the mad Titan didn't really appear all that threatening anymore. He looked like a broken fool at the moment.

Despite his current predicament, Peter couldn't help but laugh a bit at Thanos's funny appearance.

"You find the prospect of death amusing, insect?"

"Nah...you just look like a complete moron right now."

Thanos grabbed Spider-Man by the throat with his left hand and held him up. "Annoying to the last. Still...you have my respect, young one. It's been a long time since anyone has managed to cause me this much pain."

Closing his right fist, the Infinity stones buzzed to life as they glowed brightly again. The mad Titan pressed his fist against Spider-Man's abdomen...he was going to blast a hole right through his body at point-blank range.

"Any last words?"

Rather than plead for mercy like most had done in the past, Peter just grinned defiantly at Thanos. "You're about to die."

Thanos was not expecting to hear that of all things from a man he was about to kill and was genuinely puzzled. The answer swiftly came though when an aura of scarlet energy suddenly enveloped his whole body and rendered him unable to move. His hand unwillingly released Spider-Man's throat before he found himself being lifted away.

"Get away from him..." The Scarlet Witch growled, turning the trapped Thanos around in mid-air.

Lady Sif ran past her and sliced off the mad Titan's right arm at the elbow with her blade. Thanos roared in agony as his severed limb dropped to the ground. A flurry of black blades rocketed through the air and impaled Thanos against a broken wall. The blades were embedded in both his legs, torso, and the one arm that he had left.

Thanos heard someone approaching and looked up to see who it was. The Goddess of Death was walking up to him with a sharp black sword in hand. Behind her, Sif picked up his severed right arm and removed the nano-gauntlet before she threw the limb away.

"Looks like my beloved gave you quite a beating. I wouldn't expect any less from him." Hela said, pressing the tip of her sword against Thanos's throat.

Thanos glowered at the Asgardian Goddess of Death. "...Just finish it."

Hela pulled back her sword and stabbed it right through his heart. The mad Titan wasn't quite dead yet though. She grabbed the dying Thanos by the back of his head and glared at him with a cold look in her eyes.

"I'd like to...but that task falls to my brother."

Once those words left her mouth, she retreated a few steps...right before a recovered Thor charged in and swung Stormbreaker right down the middle of Thanos's head. The purple bastard's skull was split in half, with blood gushing out from both halves of his head. The God of Thunder wrenched his axe loose and looked down at the body of his most hated enemy.

Thanos was dead for good this time...and the last remnants of the guilt and shame Thor had been feeling for the past four years died with him.

…

- A lot of the suggestions that people gave were mostly having Peter be the one to snap his fingers while some wanted me to stay with the original ending. Halfway through writing this, I realized Thanos could just be killed instead and his army would probably just fall apart after his death. Reminds me of the old saying...although I may not remember how it goes exactly. It went something like this: "If the head is rotting, the rest of the body will follow."

- Anyways, I hope you all liked this chapter. If not, I understand. Till next time.