Infinity War Spoilers below!  Direct references/lines from the movie, but if you've seen it, you'll notice I've flipped a few things around.  This still means all the angst, obviously.

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When Steve had said that he didn't know how to fight something like what you were seeing right now, you had no idea that this was what he had meant.  Whatever these creatures were, they were limitless in their numbers, and for every one taken down it was as if they spawned three more in its place.  The vast battlefield below had gone from a beautiful, pristine green of life to a dark shroud of death as the earth was shredded and decimated by the sharp, unforgiving claws that your people were barely evading. 

The carnage and unyielding drive to keep these monsters away from Vision was something that you had never known before, and you were filled with a strange combination of pride in the people of the nation you had just joined and an uncontrollable fear for every one of them.  Beyond that, there was your team; they were your family before T'Challa, and Steve was at the heart of the fight where you couldn't reach him.  You were on comms, but all that you heard were the sounds of battle and orders yelled to each other with barely comprehendible voices.  One after another, you saw warrior after warrior and Avenger after Avenger stumble, nearly overtaken by the creatures that sought to tear them to shreds.  It wasn't a surprise to hear, but the panic that the words brought you nearly brought you to your knees.

"There are too many of them!"

"Shuri, please tell me that you're almost done," you begged.  "They can't last much longer out there."

"I've only barely begun, sister."

"I need to help them."

"No," she warned, "don't you dare take one step, (Y/N). You are here to help guard Vision and that is your only duty.  You are safest here."

"Right," you sighed heavily, "and I get the feeling that the Dora are here to guard me."

"Do you blame him for wanting to keep you safe?" Wanda now joined in.  "He loves you more than anyone else.  You and the future that you carry with you.  Don't even think about risking any of that when you know that even if T'Challa doesn't make it out of this, you must.  The only way that he can keep up this fight is to know that it's keeping them from you."

"Of course, I'm not going to go out there, but I can't make how I feel go away..." you stopped, your eyes drawn towards the sky as it filled with vibrant color and lightening directly above the battle.  It was against everything in you to allow yourself the hope that Thor was behind the brilliance, but with a sharp gasp that made Shuri look away from her delicate work, you could feel a very tiny spark come to life in your chest.  "No way," you smiled widely now, as your prediction proved true, "oh, those guys are so screwed now..."

~~~

With Thor so eagerly active in the battle, it not only gave you a moment to take a real breath, but it also gave Steve a welcomed, yet dared feeling of hope as well; it had been years since he had seen his friend, but that didn't matter, and catching up would have to wait.  Well, most of it would have to wait when he just couldn't help himself.

"New haircut?"

Thor turned to him with a smirk, "notice you've copied my beard."

"Are you boys seriously doing this right now?"you tried, but to no avail.

"By the way," Thor continued on, "this is a friend of mine, Tree."

His friend, Tree, paused in his own fight, looking back with excitement and determination just as he had speared three of the creatures straight through, waving them from his twisted branch of an arm like rag dolls.  "I am Groot!"

Without so much as a thought to hesitate, and after what he had been seeing on this day making him believe that he could definitely be seeing and hearing a talking tree, he felt the need for manners even in the midst of hell.  "I am Steve Rogers."

"Are we missing people, Captain, or has the team become smaller?  It's strange to not see (Y/N) at your side."

"She's up there," Steve pointed back towards the city, "watching over Vision with Wanda."

"Is she unable to fight?"

"Oh, I can still fight-"

Steve smiled to himself at your attempt to berate him, wishing for a time when playful banter could be had without what was happening around him.  Wakandans had fallen at his feet, people who fought for something that they may not fully understand, but knew that it was right.  T'Challa had brought his people to the front, his armies dutifully following him just as Steve had led his own armies so many years before.  But this fight was a much larger scale, with such greater stakes to be lost.  He feared that moments that he valued and treasured with you and with the team might never be found again.

"She can fight," Steve broke in, "but she's not going to.  She's going to have a baby in a few months and I refuse to even consider having her down here, much less what T'Challa would do to me if I let her."

"T'Challa?  Who's that?"

"Her fiancé.  The King of Wakanda, the country you're standing in."  When Thor simply replied with a continued look of confusion, Steve turned and looked out over the fight to find his teammate.  "There," he pointed, "the one dressed like a cat."

"Ah, that's a costume," Thor sighed in relief.  "Forgive me, but I have made friends of late who leave me unsure.  Which reminds me...I should like to introduce you to Rabbit once he convinces that handsome man over there to part with his metal arm."

~~~

You had been watching Wanda as she watched Shuri, trying to put yourself in her place and to understand how she must be feeling.  In the moment, you were both quite similar; either of you could lose the most important person in your life at any time, though for her, the risk of that outcome was much more likely.  There were no guarantees that Vision could live without the mind stone intact, but there was no other way.  It escaped no one's thoughts that if Shuri couldn't do this, or if Thanos' people were to get to him first, Wanda would have no choice but to destroy the stone and her love along with it.

"(Y/N), are you good here?" Wanda suddenly asked urgently, moving towards the door.  "You're good, yes?"

"Yes, go," you answered without hesitation.  The only thing that would pull her from Vision's side was something on the battlefield that she couldn't allow.  You rushed to the window to watch, expecting a scene that you truly didn't want to see, and you weren't disappointed in your expectations.  "Oh my god," you gasped, seeing several enormous mechanisms churning up the ground beneath them as if it were nothing, and they were about to destroy everyone in their path.  "Shuri, hurry."

"I'm doing the best that I can-"

"Get down!" you yelled to her, just as the door behind her was hit and torn to shreds.  The guards who had been standing ready to protect you were gone, replaced by a man who wouldn't hesitate to go through any of you to get to the stone in Vision's head.  You grabbed one of Shuri's gauntlets from her table as she grabbed the other, but your shots had almost no effect on him.  "Vision, get out of here!  Go!"

"No," he groaned, pushing up from the table, "we don't trade lives, remember?  He is here for me, so that is what he will get." 

"Vision, don't-"

But it was too late; he had rushed past you, ignoring that his body was continuing to shut down and the stone in his head was barely stable after Shuri's work.  He grabbed the alien and forced him through the large window to get him away from you, only to find himself tumbling down the side of the building and into the foliage below.

"Guys, we have a Vision situation here!" you called out to your team.  "He needs back-up at the base of the tower!"  You pushed up against the broken glass left behind in the windowsill, feeling the cuts in your skin, but paying them no attention.  Your eyes moved frantically to see where Vision had landed, but the trees were too thick to see through.  When you realized that precious minutes were passing by, you turned to see Shuri trying to stand, holding her head from the strike she had taken.  "Are you okay?"

"Yes," she groaned, "I believe so."

"I need my suit, where is it?"

"Are you insane?" she gasped.  "You most certainly do not!"

"I don't have time to argue, Shuri, please.  You said so yourself that the safest place that I can be is in the suit you made for me, so give it to me so that I can help.  If Thanos gets the mind stone, then half of the universe dies, and I refuse to stand by and not do everything that I can to stop him."

"But the baby-"

"Sister," you sighed, but it came out as a whimper through the choking lump building in your throat, "what kind of world would that be for them if we let this happen?  If I didn't do everything I could to protect their father when I had the ability to?  I have to do this, please understand.  Give me my suit."

~~~

Maybe Shuri was right.

The suit she had made for you was remarkable, that was never a concern for you once you had put it on; you still felt the hits as they came, but it was just the force of them without the pain of injury just as she had promised.  The suit absorbed the energy of each strike, redistributing it to use as you fought back exactly as T'Challa's suit did for him.  It took a little getting used to, but once you had the hang of it you were beginning to make your way across the field and towards Steve.  You stumbled a few times, cursing under your breath with each faltering step, forgetting that you still had your comm in your ear for the rest of your team to hear.

"(Y/N), are you alright?  What's going on?"

"Shit," you mumbled hesitantly before answering, "I'm okay, Steve, don't worry."

"Can't stop me," he answered, "but you can stop lying.  What are you doing?"

"Working."

"On?"

You paused and closed your eyes, taking a long breath before opening yourself up for the verbal attack that was sure to begin with your answer.  "Getting to you."

"Captain," T'Challa broke in, "you must get to her and remove her from the field immediately-"

"T'Challa, I'm fine-"

"Captain, now."

"Steve, don't you dare," you argued, "I can handle myself. My suit is protecting me, and I'll be damned if I'm about to sit up there on my ass...while people are dying..." you faded, just as the sounds of battle behind you did the same.  There was an eerie silence growing from every direction, with even the leaves of the trees above your head coming to a complete halt.  The air around you cooled despite the lack of breeze, leaving your skin crawling and your nerves raging.  "What the hell?"

"Everyone, on my position," Steve commanded.

One by one, the team gathered around him, staring towards the sky as you all waited for something to happen.  What should have been a sense of calm was anything but, knowing that the sudden shift in the fight and in the atmosphere around you could only mean one thing, and that the moment that everyone had battled so ferociously to avoid was about to happen anyway.

"He's here," Vision announced softly, with Wanda at his side.  The mind stone was still intact, and she was the final barrier that Thanos would have to face to reach him.

Seeing that T'Challa and Okoye had taken their place next to you, Steve moved to the front of the group, with Bucky right behind.  He had no idea where Thanos would appear from, his eyes searching through the trees and brush around him for any sign of movement. Little did he know, that once the Titan made his arrival known, there would be no question of when and where it would be.  The man towered above each of you, his form making even Thor look small in comparison.

"Cap," Bruce said quietly, "that's him."

Again and again and again, your teammates took their run at Thanos, only to be swatted away as if they were nothing.  Okoye held you back as T'Challa made his attempt despite your urging to get him to stop.  His body rolled across the ground, his voice grunting with each hit until he came to rest at your feet and slow to push himself back up.

"T'Challa, stop," you begged, "this isn't working."

"We must distract him.  She's destroying the stone."

"You're going to get yourself killed."

"Then so be it," he growled, standing again.  He evaded your grip and rushed forward once more, only to find the same result.  You wouldn't try to stop him again, instead, using yourself as the impetus to keep him safe.  When you made your attempt to attack, your plan worked perfectly.  "(Y/N), no!"

The force of his claws pressed into your arm, hurting despite the protection of your suit around it.  He yanked you back with so much strength that you toppled backwards and onto the ground with a solid hit; Thanos had his massive hand pulled back and ready to take you down, but T'Challa welcomed the attack in your place.  His body landed on yours with a heavy hit, but in doing so it left the Titan to not notice you, instead moving forward to face his final opponent between himself and the stone.

"(Y/N), are you okay?  Are you hurt?"

"I'm okay," you reassured him, "but we have to get up. Wanda needs our help-"

"No!"

Wanda's voice sounded nothing like her own as she screamed out at Thanos, helpless to watch him turn time back to repair the mind stone, only to rip it from Vision's skull and toss your friend's lifeless body aside as if it were nothing.  You were frozen in the shock of what you had seen, as was T'Challa, leaving you both completely immobile and watching the stone find it's home in the gauntlet once and for all.  The energy that coursed through Thanos' body radiated out in a wave of color, but you felt none at the sight.  All hope that you had held out during the fight was gone, and you couldn't fight the truth any longer.  This was the end.  Even when Thor ran his axe through the monster's chest, it gave you no solace; he should have gone for the head.

~~~

"Where did he go?  Thor?" Steve pressed.  "Where did he go?"

"S-steve?"

Bucky's voice, shaky and confused, made Steve turn towards him immediately, giving him just enough time to take in every second of his friend's last moments.  Again. It began at his arm, working its way up and into his chest, spreading quickly until his body had dissolved to ash, blowing away with the breeze that had returned around you.  Steve stumbled forward to where Bucky had been standing, dropping to his knees to touch the ground that had held him.  When he looked back to you, it had to have been the same pain in his eyes that he had carried seventy years before.  Steve had been thrust back in time, to a loss that he never should have had to live through a second time. 

"Steve-" you tried, but your attentions turned when the affect began to ripple to those around you.  Wanda, and Sam disappeared before your eyes, slowly enough for you to see the terror in their eyes before the end. 

"General, up!  Get up," T'Challa urged Okoye, "this is no place to die."  She reached out for him, but they couldn't connect, as she began to dissipate beneath his touch even as he desperately grabbed at her to keep her there.

"T'Challa!" you called out to him, rushing to his side. "What's happening?"

"I do not know," he whispered, "I...I do not know." He turned to look at you and his hands thrust forward, taking your arms into his grip.  "(Y/N), stay with me, please.  I cannot lose you."

"(Y/N)?"

Your eyes widened and your heart sank into your stomach like lead; before you even moved to see, and before you could take a breath to find sound to answer, you knew what was happening.  "Steve," you gasped, breaking T'Challa's hold to hurry to your friend.  You dropped to your knees and wrapped your arms around him, as if anything would actually be able to keep him there now.  "Steve, I'm here.  I've got you. You're okay, I'm here."

He grabbed you to him, the strength in his hold forcing the air from your chest, but you didn't care; it meant that he was still there, and you would suffer the asphyxiation just to feel him stay.  "I'm sorry, doll," he whined, "I'm sorry." His grip began to falter, but you held firm.  "I love you, (Y/N)."

"I love you too, Steve," you cried, "don't go, please."

"Tell Tony-"

When his words were cut off before they could find their completion, you didn't want to believe what your body was telling you, but you couldn't force your eyes open to see the truth; you couldn't feel him in your arms anymore.  You were sick to your stomach at what you had seen around you, and the loss was just too much.  "No...oh, god..."

"My love, I'm sorry."

But the nausea in the pit of your gut only grew, and it became harder to hold yourself up as your muscles trembled with sorrow and fatigue overwhelming them.  Your mind was spinning, making you lightheaded with even the slightest movement. You began to feel as if you were having an out of body experience of sorts, almost as if you were floating through the air around you, as if your life were merely a scene that you were watching rather than living it yourself.  "T'Challa...what's happening?"

"You're alright, (Y/N), I promise.  Look at me."

"I don't...I don't feel so good."

Once again, he grabbed your arms and turned you to towards him, his eyes frantically searching you to see for any sign that you were about to meet the same fate as the others, but he saw none.  He continued to watch for nearly a full minute before he felt safe to say anything in response, not wanting to have his final words to you be a lie.  "Nothing is happening.  You're still with me."

"No...there's something..." you continued.  Your head was swimming so violently that you began to waver in his hold, forcing him to lay you back onto the ground to keep you still. It was then that he became aware of what it was that you were feeling, but with the understanding came the pain; pain so violent and unrelenting and vicious that he almost lost his voice, but he knew that his pain was nothing compared to what you were about to feel. As much as he wanted to protect you and keep you from the agony, it was a power that even he didn't possess. 

"My love," he whispered, his voice breaking and strained, "our baby is gone."