Titan Battle

Once upon a time, on the broken moon of Titan, heroes came from every direction to fight the same battle, and for one moment they almost won.

Titan had been a beautiful place, long ago. A populated moon, full of cities and people and all the busy particulars of a living world. By the time the Guardians' ship broke through the upper atmosphere, Titan was ruins. Cratered plains. Shattered towers, their bones pale against a sky the color of faded indigo. The wreckage of a civilization that had not known what was coming until it was too late.

It felt, Nebula thought as she landed in the dust, like a warning.

From one direction, a red-and-gold figure descended through the haze: Tony Stark — Iron Man — whose suit of nanite armor was perhaps the most sophisticated weapon ever built by a human. With him was Stephen Strange, the Sorcerer Supreme, who wore a glowing golden pendant called the Eye of Agamotto. And with them was Peter Parker — young, quick, swinging between broken columns on artificial webs, calling out cheerful things to people he had never met.

From another direction came the Milano, carrying Star-Lord, Drax, and Mantis. And Nebula, who had escaped the Sanctuary II in the chaos and found her way here not because anyone told her to — but because she had calculated that this was where the fight was, and she intended to be in it.

The two groups did not recognize each other at first. There was a brief, energetic misunderstanding that involved quite a lot of hitting. Iron Man punched Drax. Spider-Man webbed Star-Lord. Doctor Strange conjured something alarming at Mantis.

"STOP," Nebula said, in the kind of voice that carries across any chaos.

They stopped.

A rapid and breathless exchange confirmed: same side, same enemy, no time. Good.

Doctor Strange took out the Eye of Agamotto. He grew very still. The amber light of the Time Stone spread across his face, and his eyes went deep and distant. He was looking at something no one else could see — millions of threads of possibility, each one a different version of the next few hours.

"Fourteen million, six hundred and five," he said, after a long moment.

"How many do we win?" Tony asked.

Strange was quiet for exactly the amount of time that felt like the worst possible answer.

"One," he said.

Thanos arrived the way mountains arrive — slowly, heavily, with absolute certainty. He walked across Titan's broken surface, the dust swirling around his boots, the golden Gauntlet gleaming on his fist, already holding most of the Infinity Stones.

The plan was complex and it had to be perfect. Mantis would use her empathic ability to reach into Thanos's mind and hold him very still. While he was held, the others would pull the Gauntlet from his hand. It was dangerous. It was almost impossible.

It was exactly the kind of thing Nebula was built for.

Tony built weapons in real time, nanites rearranging with frantic precision. Spider-Man swung between the broken columns. Strange held the air itself in geometric shapes. Star-Lord fired from above. Drax grappled from below. And Mantis — small, gentle Mantis — climbed onto Thanos's enormous shoulders and pressed her hands to his temples.

He went still.

"PULL!" Tony shouted.

They pulled. The Gauntlet moved — CLANK — one finger bent back — WRENCH — and for one heartbeat the galaxy balanced on the edge of a different future.

And then it broke.

Grief got into the plan. The grip came loose, and Mantis flew backward, and the Gauntlet blazed with terrible light.

They lost.

Nebula stood in the settling dust, alone on Titan's surface. She did not let herself stop thinking, because if she stopped, she would feel all of it at once — and there was no time for that yet.

She had fought beside Tony Stark and Peter Parker and Stephen Strange and held her own completely. Not a weapon, not a prisoner, not a mistake. She had been exactly what the moment needed.

That one small fact, solid as a stone in her palm, was what she carried forward.

All the way across years of grief and impossible journeys to a ruined compound on Earth where a second chance was waiting.

She was going to be there. No matter what it took.

She always was.