Smoke hung thick over the plains of Wakanda. The battle was won, or so they thought. The air still shimmered with heat from collapsing energy barriers, the sky cracked with ash and flame, and the surviving heroes gathered in the field of ruin bruised, broken, but breathing.
Alex stood at the center of it all, armor scorched, his cloak torn at the edges. The reactor on his chest pulsed weakly, dim light flickering across the dented surface. Nearby, Tony struggled to stand, one arm of his suit melted beyond repair. Thor leaned on Stormbreaker, breathing heavily, his eyes distant with exhaustion. Captain America and Black Widow checked the wounded, while Vision stood beside Shuri, the faint golden glow of his chest where the Mind Stone once sat flickering softly.
For the first time, it seemed over.
Then the world went still.
A wave of energy rippled across the field soft at first, almost imperceptible but enough to make the hairs on every neck stand up. The air distorted, bending like heat haze. Tony turned first, his sensors spiking red.
"Uh, guys…"
The distortion thickened, forming a shadow. Then another.
Out of the haze stepped Thanos.
Half his armor was gone, his body charred and bleeding from the last battle, but his eyes burned with purpose. The Infinity Gauntlet still glimmered on his left hand and in its center, the Mind Stone shone bright yellow.
They had never removed it.
Strange blinked, realization flashing across his face. "It was an illusion."
The Titan's mouth curled into a grim smile. "Did you really think I would leave my prize unguarded?"
He lifted his arm. Power hummed.
Alex moved first, summoning the Time Buster pistol, his systems flaring to life. "Everyone down!"
But Thanos was faster. He twisted the Gauntlet, and time itself slowed. Dust froze midair. The world turned silent and gray. Only Alex resisted, the faint shimmer of temporal shielding flickering across his armor. He could feel the pull reality being strangled by the Mind and Space Stones combined.
Tony's voice echoed sluggishly through the time-stilled air. "He's… moving…"
Thanos's hand began to close. The snap was coming.
Alex aimed. His pistol hummed with a low, terrible sound a single bullet loaded, humming with the power of the Time Stone itself. The energy signature bent the air around it.
He fired.
The bullet tore through the silence like a comet. It struck Thanos square in the chest. The Titan staggered backward, a look of disbelief on his face. The stones flared wildly, their light fracturing, shards of power scattering into the sky.
Cracks of green lightning ran across Thanos's body the energy of time breaking its own loop. His skin split, energy leaking like molten gold.
He dropped to one knee, coughing blood. Yet even in agony, his voice carried through the shaking earth.
"You think you've defeated me…" he rasped. "You are mistaken."
Alex took a cautious step forward, hand still on the weapon. "You're finished, Thanos. Stay down."
Thanos raised his head, eyes filled not with hate, but sorrow. "I tried to save the universe. To balance it. You've hastened its destruction."
The Reality Stone pulsed violently, reacting to his fury.
"Don't do it!" Strange shouted. "The fabric's unstable!"
Thanos looked up at the sky and snapped his fingers.
The sound was deafening, a thunderclap that shattered the heavens.
Instead of the dust of half the universe, a rift tore open above the earth. It was no ordinary breach. The sky split like glass, light pouring through the cracks not white, not gold, but colors no mortal eye was meant to see. The barrier that separated realities screamed as it tore apart.
Alex fell to one knee, the shockwave slamming into him like a storm. His systems overloaded, the plasma cores flickering out one by one. Stark's armor shut down mid-flight. Thor's lightning fizzled, and Strange barely maintained a shield as waves of reality distortion rippled outward.
Through the broken sky, they saw worlds endless, colliding, bleeding into each other. Shadows of other universes drifted in the void. Some were familiar some not at all. And among them, something stirred.
Figures.Eyes.Vast, hungry shapes beyond comprehension.
The universe had been wounded.
Thanos screamed, the energy consuming him, his body burning from within. His final words echoed through the chaos.
"I warned you…"
Then his form disintegrated, scattered across time and space, leaving behind the Gauntlet and the stones, each dim and unstable, flickering like dying suns.
Silence fell again.
The heroes stood in disbelief. The wind howled through what remained of Wakanda. The rift in the sky pulsed like a living wound.
Alex rose slowly, his armor sparking, one arm dragging. He approached the shattered Gauntlet, each step heavy with the gravity of what came next. He extended his hand, whispering a binary prayer, and the stones rose into the air one by one Power, Space, Reality, Mind. The Time Stone drifted beside them, faintly glowing.
Strange stepped forward, clutching his side. "Be careful, Alex. The energies are unstable. One wrong thought and they'll destroy you."
"I know."
He took them. The stones pulsed as if alive, their light merging with the energy lines on his armor. His systems screamed warnings power beyond comprehension trying to burn through him. He gritted his teeth, channelling the overflow into his reactors.
Reality bent. The battlefield began to heal.
Ruins reformed, soil knitted back together, and the fires that had ravaged Wakanda were quenched by golden light. The wounded were lifted by unseen hands, their injuries fading. The dead did not return Alex would not allow himself to twist time that far but the living were saved.
Stark removed his helmet, staring at the impossible sight. "You're… rebuilding the world."
Alex's voice was quiet, distant. "Someone has to."
He turned toward the rift in the sky. It pulsed like a heartbeat, and through it, the outlines of alien ships massive, dark, and uncountable began to stir.
"The wall is broken," Strange said grimly. "Other universes will feel this. They'll come. Not just cosmic entities… but everything that was once kept out."
Alex closed his fist. "Then we prepare."
He extended his hand, and the stones shimmered, reforming into a contained energy lattice a gauntlet built into his armor, the glow fading until only faint lines of light remained. He reached out to Strange and placed one stone into his palm.
"The Time Stone stays with you. Guard it well."
Strange looked down at it, the green light reflecting in his weary eyes. "And the others?"
Alex looked toward the horizon, where the sun tried to rise beyond the crimson-tinged sky. "They stay with me. For now."
Thor walked forward, Stormbreaker resting on his shoulder. "You've seen what lies beyond that breach?"
"I have."
"And what comes next?"
Alex turned, his gaze heavy with the knowledge he carried. "A war not between worlds… but between realities. What Thanos feared wasn't death. It was them."
"Who are they?" Cap asked quietly.
Alex's eyes flickered with faint light part human, part something more. "The Invaders. Beings who feed on existence itself. Now that the wall is broken, they'll come to claim what's left."
Tony stared at the glowing wound in the sky, his face pale. "And how long before they arrive?"
Alex exhaled. "They already have."
The rift rippled again, distant thunder echoing across the stars. Something vast moved behind the curtain of broken light not a ship, but an entire dimension folding in on itself.
Alex turned to the others, voice steady. "We rebuild. We fortify. Mechanicus will oversee Earth's defenses. Stark, you'll handle orbital weaponization. Thor, warn the other realms. Strange guard the Time Stone and map the rift. Every second we wait, the breach grows."
Captain America clenched his fists. "And you?"
"I'll do what I must."
As the others began to move, Alex lingered, staring up at the sky where the remnants of the Infinity Stones pulsed faintly in his armor. He could feel them whispering, each voice distinct, ancient, and heavy with purpose.
He whispered back in the sacred binary of the Machine God a prayer of unity and defiance.
"By the will of the Omnissiah… we endure."
The wind swept through the ruins, carrying his words into the rising dawn. Above, the rift pulsed once more a reminder that peace had not been won, merely delayed.
The universe had cracked, and the war for all realities had begun.