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Dr Stephen Strange was growing tired. He could feel the tremors in his hands bleeding through to the rest of his body as he relentlessly watched each alternate reality play out until they started to blur together. Each choice, each path towards the battle between Earth and Thanos for the infinity stones was drenched with blood and loss.
He pressed on despite the fatigue and the weight of the universe on his shoulders. His eyes never stopped scanning each moment in a million alternate realities in search of a way to win the battle. A single moment that would indicate a way for earth to survive the hell storm Thanos was bringing upon them.
But there was so much heartache. So much sacrifice. So much death.
Strange was starting to grow wary, not just from the physical effort of maintaining the magic needed to sort through all the multi-dimensions, but also from the emotional toll of seeing people he loved, people he had just met and, people he didn’t even know being slaughtered by an ugly purple giant.
He took a moment to wipe the sweat from his brow and refocused, knowing that it was dangerous to over exert himself in case he missed something integral. Strange knew when he had started scanning through the alternate realities that he was looking for the proverbial needle in a haystack, but there was no other way around it. He had to find the key, the hope amongst so much loss and failure, to stop Thanos from gathering all the Infinity Stones.
It wasn’t just earth at risk - it was the whole damn universe.
But no pressure.
Strange continued sorting through the mine fields, flicking his wrist ever so slightly to pass from one reality to the next. He had exhausted all roads with Tony Stark and his energetic protege bouncing around in a spider onesie. Despite the choices Stark made there was no change in the outcome of the war. He had watched both Tony and Peter die a thousand different painful ways and he’d be relieved to see them survive in just as many different ways.
Strange shifted his focus from Stark and the boy and continued on with other paths and other people. Other Defenders - or Avengers. Whatever the hell they wanted to call themselves.
He smiled to himself, if he could really call it a smile. It was more like a pained grimace, but it was enough to shake himself out of his momentary depression and continue with the task at hand.
Zeroing in on the battle front that played out on earth in Wakanda, Strange swept through the alternate paths and choices of each major player. There was the King of Wakanda dressed in some sort of cat onesies - seriously what was it with this group and their leotards?
The King fought in all black, side by side with his Dora Milaje warriors. Strong, focused and determined, the King’s choices weren’t as limitless as the others he fought with. All all realities his destiny was to fight and die or fight and almost die. Any of the progress made on the battle field were due to the sacrifice and support of the warriors and avengers around him.
He moved on.
There were two men in the sky assisting those down below with a set of manufactured wings and a less sleek version of Tony Starks iron suit. There were moments when the two were killed in the onslaught and moments when they survived without more than a scratch. These men had paths set to assist in providing support to the warriors on the ground.
None of their outcomes made a difference to the war.
As Strange continued to search for any forks or detours in realities previously unnoticed, he found himself suddenly draw to a golden cluster of paths, or to be more specific; what looked like a looming tree with thousands of branches twisting away from the main trunk.
He moved towards this tree like cluster and as he focused in close to Thanos, he reached out a hand to select one of the branches and was overcome by a ripple of intense pain, anger and anguish. He hesitated and then opened the reality to see why these paths were emanating such power. The reality window opened to revel an athletic blonde haired woman clutching the broken body of a man he immediately recognised as the infamous Captain America. Thanos towered over the two, his hand raised ready to smite the two from existence. The woman, still cradling the lifeless body in her arms, looked up at the purple alien without a shred of fear in her eyes as he asked her for any last words.
She smiled and it was a terrifyingly brutal thing fuelled with fire and vengeance. “Yeah, see you in hell asshole.”
And then she was dead.
Grasping the next branch, Strange was overwhelmed by the sheer multitude of scenarios and actions revolving around these two individuals. There was an excess of energy in this space of time and he was surprised by the way in which the multiverse seemed to be almost feeding off it. His head began to ache from the sheer act of going through ever single one and attempting to find out why each one was so different from the last. Despite the pain though a part of him was growing excited - was this what he was looking for?
The bulk of the realities now seemed to start the same. The blonde woman and the captain fought side by side in battle, sometimes running down the hill and towards the front of the battle, and sometimes they broke away from the battle front and followed the angry grape back towards the forested hills.
As Thanos searched for one of the infinity stones, he was waylaid by the young woman possessing control over a scarlet force he knew to be Wanda Maximoff. She was a key player in the war - he knew that much and had already cycled through many of her alternate realities. However, this time his focus was on the the captain and the blonde as they aided the Scarlett witch, often coming to her rescue as her impressive powers failed to keep Thanos back.
The first time the captain died trying to beat back Thanos a ripple of emotion was so strong, it hit him like a fist to the face. Dead and in pieces, what was left of the Captain lay face down in the dirt as the blonde unleashed a scream so gut wrenching he was sure it bleed through to the other realities surrounding it.
Strange frowned. Thanos had briefly paused at the sound of the woman’s scream and turned to face her as she broke free from behind Wanda’s Scarlett forcefield.
The doctor himself was taken aback by the unkept rage and wild darkness that filled the blondes eyes as she retrieved a piece of metal from the captains detached arm. Before Thanos had a chance to react she snarled and launched herself towards the aliens face. She drove the strange metal shield into Thanos face and used the remaining weight of her body to drag it down his face.
Thanos roared in fury and stumbled back a step as his hand flew to his face in disbelief. Strange smirked. The blonde landed safely on the ground and snarled back up at the enraged alien with a look that dared him to come for her - and he did.
Despite Wanda’s attempt to protect the blonde, Thanos snatched the blonde up from the ground and squeezed. Strange quickly changed to the next reality, not wanting to see the final outcome.
Feeling squeamish, he grasped hold of the next reality and the next as she attacked Thanos in retribution each time the Captain fell to the ground. Every time he died she snapped and turned into someone more animal than human until finally the Captain didn’t fall. Instead, the blonde took his place as she threw herself in front of the Captain and the scarlet witch and she was slammed solidly to the ground by Thanos’ fist.
This time it was the Captains turn to scream her name and Strange was surprised to learn that the blonde was none other than Natasha Romanoff. The black widow. He remembered her now. The fiery red head who told congress once to all but fuck themselves. Strange narrowed his eyes, fixated on the Captains reaction as then man bellowed in rage and retaliated against Thanos until he too joined Romanoff in death.
The next set of realities brought a man with a silver arm erupting from the trees and firing at the purple giant relentlessly. This change in time gave the Captain enough time to drag an injured Romanoff to safety behind Wanda’s wavering shield.
With this slight change in timing, Strange watched as the Captain attempted to render first aid to the woman but she was already to far gone to be saved. She clutched his chest and pulled him down to whisper something in his ear before going limp in his arms. With her death, Wanda was distracted enough in her grief that her shield failed completely and she immediately killed and disposed of by Thanos. The man with the metal arm tried desperately to haul the Captain to his feet but the man was too slow to react and they were killed as a result.
There was so much pain and so much heartache that Strange could barely stand it. It was clear to anyone that these people loved each other so fiercely and were like a family. Even as Strange cycled through the next realities the only thing that changed from one moment to the next was that instead of Wanda’s shield failing, the Captain jumped to his feet and ran towards Thanos with such rage and fury that the blow from his fist sent a surprised Thanos hurtling back on his ass.
The war seemed to stop for a moment, as everyone closest to the group realised what had just happened. There was silence and then a roar as Thanos climbed back onto his feet. Before the Captain could land another blow, Thanos took hold of the captain and drove him face first into the ground.
Strange released a defeated sigh.
He had thought for a second that this had been the needle he was looking for. Feeling discouraged, he cycled through the next few realities that all played out in similar fashion. Sometimes the punch the Captain landed made Thanos take a step back. Sometimes he landed on his ass (those ones were Strange’s favourite) and sometimes Thanos saw the punch coming and struck the Captain before he had a chance to lift his fist.
In one interesting reality, Romanoff and Rogers worked in tandem as she shredded Thanos’ face with the shield, while Rogers took out his legs. They both took his unsteady movements to make for the gauntlet, however upon touching the purple stone Romanoff was instantly vaporised.
Switching tact, Strange cycled through the opposite paths on the tree, ones in which the two didn’t follow Thanos to the trees. Instead they continued to fight on the plains.
It was here that he learned more about the dynamics of the two and began to understand the pain and loss he had previously viewed. The two were two halves of a perfect whole. He could see that now. They worked in perfect synchronicity, fighting together side by side in a way that made it look like they were dancing partners. There was a flow of shared energy between them that Strange envied. Romanoff and Rogers fought back to back, eliminating the obstacles that came their way. They defended one another, fought for one another and even as one moved forward, the other stepped back in time to defend the others back.
It was beautiful and completely distracting. Strange shook his head mentally and focused not on the beauty of the energy between the two, but on the effect they were having on the battlefront.
Then came the thickest and most district path.
Romanoff took a step left instead of right, and a long black sword came out of nowhere and buried itself through the middle of her chest. The woman released a surprised gasp, and the sound immediately captured the Captains attention, despite the chaos surrounding him. He whirled around and as their eyes locked, she mouthed ‘I’m sorry’, before sliding to the ground. He dove for her and caught her head before it hit the blood soaked ground, being careful to pull her body towards him.
The Wakandian warriors, as if sensing their suddenly vulnerable comrades, tightened their ranks around them until there was a circle of women and men fighting back the aliens from the duo.
Blood began to leak from the blondes mouth and Strange knew from years of medical training that it was over for her and that there was nothing to be done once the blood leaked into her collapsed lungs. He watched with interest as she raised a shaking hand to the Captains sweat stained face and smiled apologetically at him. The look was so tender and so full of love that Strange immediately knew that he had misread the initial perception of the two’s relationship. It clearly more than just a case of friends or team mates.
The moment seemed to stretch out forever as her eyes slowly slid shut and her hand fell from his face. Tears sprung from the Captains eyes and her cradled her head to his chest, kissing and murmuring into her hair.
The battle raged on relentless despite the two, the alien forces pushing back at the Wakadians warriors like an angry sea pounding against well-worn cliffs.
And yet the Captain did not get back up.
He stayed were he was, holding the woman he so clearly loved to his chest and Strange realised why this path was different from the others. He was watching a reality were Captain America gave up.
His actions seemed to send an invisible shock wave through the battle as more and more warriors fell. Thanos later left the forest triumphant with a new infinity stone added to his gauntlet ready to destroy the world, and no one left to stop him.
Strange looked back to the Captain, but still the broken man did not get up. Even as the alien forces penetrated the tight circle and drove swords and knives into the back of the kneeling Captain, he simply held on to the dead blonde in his arms until he too fell dead beside her.
The Doctors hands fell to his sides, temporarily taken aback by the enormity of their situation. He could still feel the cold anguish leeching from one of the worst realities he’d seen thus far.
He struggled to lift his arms again and cycle through a new set of possibilities. He could still feel and taste the pain and anguish bleeding through from the realities. How could someone else’s pain effect him so much? How could these two individual humans have such an impact on the course of the earth’s destiny?
He continued searching.
The next few were as heartbreaking as the last. Sometimes the two fell side by side in death, others they continued fighting unaware that the other had fallen until a glance over their shoulder told them of the others fate.
In some they just kept fighting until Thanos unleashed a powerful world ending blow to the planet and they all died in a blast of rock and fire. When these moments happened, Strange couldn’t help but take note of the way that seconds before the blast destroyed them all, the pair joined hands and turned to face death side by side, their fingertips still coiled together even as flesh was torn away from bone.
He was beginning to grow wary.
With the world’s end seemingly at the edge of his fingertips, Strange was forced to move on from the pair until he suddenly spotted it.
The solution.
The holy grail.
Grinning with the confidence of a man who knew he was about to save the day - and the known universe - Strange watched his suspicions play out and knew the choice he would need to make. While it was not a perfect solution, it was indeed hope and the end required only the sacrifice of one.
Before he had a chance to alert Tony to his findings, he indulged himself in sneaking one last look at the outcome of the pair that had brought about so much emotion and hope inside of him.
For his own self interest, he watched as the battle ended with earth having been saved. He eventually found them at the edge of the tree line. After watching the Wakandian warriors easily deal with the last remaining aliens not yet dead, the Captain turned to the blonde and whispered something in her ear. A beautiful smile spread across her dirt, sweat and bloodied features. Then she reached up and pulled the captain down into a soul searing kiss. Behind them their team mates grinned and cat called as the Captain swept the blonde up into his arms and returned her kiss with an equal amount of enthusiasm.
Strange smiled himself.
Feeling rejuvenated, he readjusted the collar of his cape and flew off to alert the others of what he had found.
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