Las Vegas had become a battlefield.
The desert city, once famous for its neon lights and endless entertainment, now burned under a different kind of spectacle. Smoke rose in thick columns from shattered casinos. The famous Strip had been torn apart by energy blasts and explosive ordinance. Hydra had arrived with overwhelming force, their armored battalions and enhanced soldiers meant to crush the resistance once and for all.
But the situation had taken an unexpected turn.
With two major defectors—Thor and Wanda—now fighting against them, Hydra's supposedly unstoppable advance had stalled. They were hemorrhaging ground, falling into an increasingly disadvantageous position with every passing minute.
"Steve!"
Madame Hydra—Elisa Sinclair—fought her way through the chaos to reach Steve Rogers's side. Her green hair was matted with dust and blood, her elegant combat suit torn in several places. Behind her, Viper lay dead in the rubble, her body crushed beneath a collapsed section of the Luxor pyramid.
"Vision has obtained the last fragment!" she shouted over the din of battle, her voice raw with urgency. "We must return to headquarters immediately!"
But before she could finish speaking, crimson energy erupted around her. Wanda Maximoff's magic wrapped around Elisa like living chains, binding her limbs and yanking her backward.
"Elisa!" Steve, who had been trading blows with Iron Man, turned at her cry of distress.
The moment of inattention cost him. Tony's repulsor cannon caught him square in the chest, the concentrated beam sending him tumbling across the cracked pavement.
"Elisa ~" Tony mimicked in a high-pitched, mocking tone as he advanced. "Calling her so affectionately? Is she your lover, Rogers?"
"Shut up!" Steve snarled, his face flushed with rage as he rolled to his feet. "What do you know? Elisa is like a mother to me!"
"Oh, I see." Tony's faceplate retracted, revealing a smirk that could've cut glass. "So we met through playing vault-bridge then. How sweet—building family connections through maternal figures."
Steve didn't have time for Tony's psychological warfare. He hurled his shield with desperate force, the vibranium disc spinning through the air to strike Wanda's extended hand.
The Scarlet Witch cried out, her concentration breaking.
Freed from the magical restraints, Elisa didn't waste a second on self-preservation. Her own emerald magic flared to life, enveloping both Steve and the approaching Vision in a protective cocoon of energy.
"Run, Steve!" Her voice cracked with emotion she rarely showed. "Get the fragments to safety!"
Steve reached out instinctively, trying to pull her into the teleportation spell. "Elisa, come with us—"
But Wanda had recovered. Her eyes blazed scarlet, and a spear of pure chaos magic lanced through the emerald shield.
The magical energy pierced through Elisa's abdomen, the wound cauterizing instantly even as it tore through vital organs.
"Elisa!"
Goodbye, my child.
Despite the mortal wound, despite the agony that must have been consuming her, Elisa poured the last of her strength into the teleportation spell. The magic intensified, reality bending around Steve and Vision.
"No! I'm not leaving you—"
The world twisted. Steve's outstretched hand grasped only empty air.
When the magical energy dissipated, all that remained was Elisa's corpse, her green eyes staring sightlessly at the smoke-filled sky.
We won!
The heroes stood among the ruins of what had once been the Bellagio's fountains. The ornate plaza had been reduced to a crater, the surrounding buildings mere shells of their former glory.
Their faces showed shock more than triumph.
This was their first significant victory against Hydra in over a year. The tyrants who had ruled unopposed since the Great Illusion had finally been driven back in open combat.
Yet no one celebrated.
The fragments were still gone. Vision had escaped with the last piece.
All their effort, all the blood spilled, had ultimately come to nothing.
This was a meaningless victory—every gain would be reversed the moment Hydra reassembled the Cosmic Cube.
"At least we still have the option to leave this universe," Hawkeye said, his voice hollow. The archer had spent the entire battle watching friends die. "That's something."
Giving up on this world entirely was the most helpless option imaginable.
"How exactly do we leave?" Tony demanded, his armor scorched and dented in a dozen places. He pulled off his helmet, revealing a face lined with exhaustion and despair. "Rogers has all the fragments now. I doubt even Ben and his people can do anything against a complete Cosmic Cube."
He sat heavily on a chunk of rubble, head in his hands.
"We failed them. We failed everyone."
At that moment, T'Challa emerged from a portal, his Black Panther suit dusty but intact. He looked around at the assembled heroes with obvious confusion.
"Why do you all look like that?" He tilted his head. "Did we lose? I don't understand—we kept the fragments safe."
He opened his palm. The fragment of the Cosmic Cube still glowed with its characteristic blue-white energy.
? ? ?
Tony felt like a man on his deathbed who'd just been told he'd recover.
"What's going on?" He shot to his feet. "Vision already took the fragment—I watched him grab it!"
"Really?" T'Challa's confusion deepened. "I never saw Vision at my location."
"He took mine," Scott Lang announced, his voice bright with barely contained excitement as he jogged up to the group. His face was split by an enormous grin. "Or rather, I gave it to him myself."
"You gave it to him!" Tony wanted to strangle the man. "You're smiling about this?!"
"Wait, let me explain—"
"Let him finish," Hawkeye interrupted, his experienced eye catching something in Scott's demeanor. "Vision took one fragment, but he convinced Steve the collection was complete. Something doesn't add up."
"Exactly right!" Scott clapped his hands together. "Vision is—"
Tony raised a fist threateningly. "Get to the actual point, Lang!"
"Vision is one of us!"
The declaration hung in the air for a heartbeat.
"I knew it!" Vivi Vision jumped excitedly, her synthesized features showing genuine joy. "I knew my father was still good!"
"Give us the details!" Tony's entire demeanor transformed instantly. He looked ready to pull up a chair and popcorn. "Everything. Now."
"Vision told me the truth after Ben fixed him." Scott's expression turned sheepish. "I'd been wondering about it, since Ben clearly repaired his systems. Actually, Ben had already discovered I was compromised as an informant..."
Guilt colored his features.
"But instead of calling me out, he used it. He removed the control virus from Vision but arranged for Vision to stay embedded with Hydra, just like Thor and Wanda."
Thor raised his hand with a slight smile. "Can confirm."
"Vision deliberately misled Steve," Scott continued, his words coming faster now. "Made him think they only needed one more fragment, but in reality, one of the pieces they collected was fake. Including the one they just took from me."
"So where are the real fragments?" Miles asked.
T'Challa hefted the glowing shard in his palm. "I have one. The other is most likely with Ben himself. There's no safer location in any universe."
Relief rippled through the assembled heroes like a physical wave. Shoulders relaxed. Weapons lowered. Several people actually laughed.
"And there's even better news."
The voice of Mockingbird crackled through everyone's headsets simultaneously, clear and triumphant.
"Gentlemen and ladies, we have successfully deactivated the control programs on the Hydra mothership fleet. It's time to prepare for the final battle!"
Her announcement reached countless receivers across the continent. In cities from New York to San Francisco, heroes who had been waiting tensely for the signal finally allowed themselves to hope.
"Everyone," Captain Marvel's voice joined the communication channel, "do you mind if I go deal with the Chitauri Queen first? Otherwise, those bugs are going to be a problem forever."
Every eye turned skyward.
The planetary shield that had imprisoned Earth for over a year suddenly flickered. Sections began to fail, gaps opening in the energy barrier.
Captain Marvel streaked across the sky like a living comet, golden energy trailing behind her.
The Chitauri swarm followed in a massive cloud of alien flesh and metal, seemingly too fixated on their quarry to notice what was happening below.
But it didn't matter anymore.
Victory was finally within reach.
At the same moment, in Hydra's central command complex, Steve Rogers materialized from Elisa's teleportation spell with no knowledge of what had just transpired.
He was still trapped in the immediate horror—the image of Wanda's magic piercing through Elisa's body, the light fading from her eyes, the awful finality of her death.
He felt numb. Hollowed out.
"Zemo is dead. Elisa is dead too..."
His voice was barely a whisper. He'd lost so much in pursuit of what he believed was a better world. A new order built on strength and unity.
Was it worth it?
Vision stood beside him, face expressionless. After Ben's repairs had freed him from Dr. Zola's viral control, his intelligence had regained dominance. But even with his restored consciousness, he still couldn't comprehend why Steve Rogers—the legendary hero—had become Hydra's supreme leader.
The sound of running footsteps echoed through the corridor.
"Steve!" Dr. Zola's digital consciousness piloted a mechanical body toward them, his movements jerky with panic. "Steve!"
"The planetary shield has been deactivated! Someone has infiltrated our primary systems!"
Steve Rogers snapped out of his grief-stricken fugue. His eyes hardened, jaw clenching.
"Ben Parker." The name came out like a curse. "This is all his doing."
If it weren't for that interdimensional interloper, Thor and Wanda would still be under Hydra control. If it weren't for him, the operation would have succeeded. If it weren't for him, Zemo and Elisa would still be alive.
"At least we still have this." Vision extended his hand, offering the fake fragment that Steve couldn't distinguish from the real thing.
The false shard pulsed with genuine energy—enough to fool anyone who didn't know the truth.
"This is the last one," Dr. Zola said, his mechanical voice quivering with excitement. "You can change everything, Steve. No—Supreme Leader!"
He led Steve through the sterile corridors to Hydra's primary laboratory. Technicians scrambled to integrate the fragments into the golden armor that waited in the center of the room.
The armor gleamed like captured sunlight, covered in geometric patterns designed to channel and amplify Cosmic Cube energy.
As soon as Steve donned the suit, overwhelming power flooded through his entire body. Every cell sang with borrowed reality-warping potential. He felt invincible, capable of reshaping existence itself with a thought.
"Let's go." His voice resonated with unnatural authority, amplified by the armor's systems.
"I want those traitors to pay the price—before I change this reality forever!"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Writing takes time, coffee, and a lot of love.If you'd like to support my work, join me at [email protected]/GoldenGaruda
You'll get early access to over 50 chapters, selection on new series, and the satisfaction of knowing your support directly fuels more stories.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~