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Jane Grant Soleilvie, of number four Privet Drive, was not proud to say that she was perfectly bored, thank you very much. She was the last person you'd expect to be filled with such weariness, because, after all, she
controlled the sun
. If she really wanted to, she could burn us all to a crisp, especially the pale ones.
Her life had once comprised of sunshine, a hot prince, and happiness. But everything changed when Thanos attacked.
Her cave was not particularly interesting. Half of the dust that coated the cave’s walls were from the previous dwellers that were slain at the hands of Thanos. Sometimes, she really wanted to join them. Disintegration was the dream.
The rain violently fell on Jane’s cave. She used to love the sound of rain, peaceful and calming. But now it came as a reminder of her mistakes. Truthfully, Jane lived alone because of a dark twist in her past. The raging storm tossed her into a sea of memories.
Prince LeBron and Jane were innocently playing outside in the rain. The storm was harsh, but they loved how the rain felt. And she loved him. LeBron was a rather attractive Canadian prince that she was, to be frank, attracted to. He could have gotten a hole in one any day if he tried (that’s what she said).
They were playing their favorite game: throwing fireballs at each other. Jane and LeBron played this game each day it rained in their city, laughing as the fire they created mixed with the water. She moved her hands around, relishing the warmth of her hands, and pushed the fire outward towards LeBron, teasing him to fight back with his own fire.
It was the hour before the solar eclipse, when the sun shone so hellishly down upon mere humans but filled her with the sun’s energy, sending her into the Sun God state.
When Jane looked up, the fire was already nearing LeBron’s face, and he was turning around too late. She opened her mouth to shout, but in vain. She had lost control of her powers — Jane the Sun God could never control herself in this powerful state. The screams penetrated the air as the smell of burning flesh invaded her nostrils. His cries would haunt her for the rest of her miserable, cave-dwelling life, especially when a storm was raging.
She was brought in front of the king, furious that Jane couldn’t control her powers.
Iroh
nically, Jane was also quite attracted to the king, Prince LeBron’s father, so it really wouldn’t have worked out between them. #ripped
Quite creeped out by her attraction to him, the king banished Jane the Sun God to live in a cave and never see the sun again.
As for Prince LeBron, he was scarred, figuratively and literally, in the shape of a maple leaf. He lost his eye, his love, and his honor. He could never walk out of the palace ever again without dishonoring his #ripped dad.
That wasn’t all that happened to poor Prince LeBron. Jane could still remember the feeling of his ashes on her knuckles as her tears fell to mix with her blood.
The battle with Thanos had ended. They had lost. The Sun God had attempted to save the Earth and reclaim her honor by leaving her cave and defeating Thanos. Prince LeBron had also left the palace for once, along with his hot/#ripped dad. However, she failed. They
all
failed. Thanos had snapped his fingers and slowly, one by one, the people around her had begun to disappear.
Then she heard Prince LeBron’s voice. “Ms. Sun God? I don’t feel so good.”
“You’re alright,” she said, but she knew what this meant. This would be the end of them, the end of LeBron.
“I don’t — I don’t know what’s happening, please.” His knees buckled, his body falling on top of her. She barely caught him, but her injuries brought both of them down. “I don’t want to go,” LeBron whispered like a mantra. Their eyes met, hers, stinging with tears; his, with inconceivable pain and fear.
“I’m sorry,” he said, and he drifted away as she screamed. His ashes tasted like maple syrup.
Years have passed since that day. Over time, the guilt and anguish had numbed, suppressed under the routine of everyday life. The sound of drizzling rain, however, never failed to trigger her mind. As she heard the constant sprinklings outside, she became tear-ridden once again. Slowly, like a true Gen Z kid, she felt the burning desire for the sweet release of death all over again.
Also like a true Generation Z spawn, Jane secretly embraced her inner identity. Her passion, her lifestyle, her religion — all was centered around her closet fursona.
Although she fervently welcomed her identity in private, she had yet to voice her true colors and sexuality out loud. Which was all well and good; in fact, she did obtain some relatively normal sexual passions, such as (but not limited to) certain nation-themed Avengers, that kept the suspicion of her fellow gods off of her.
The days alone in the dark cave began to harden her heart, leading her to make peace with her fate in her lonely lair. Jane was just beginning to accept her life alone — half the universe still quaking in the aftermath of Thanos’s victory — when she heard a faint chittering in the distance. Weirdly enough, the sound churned her butter.
She crept closer and closer to the source of the sound. She knew what it was, and she moved with anticipation. After years of solitude in her cave, she had become an expert on her favorite creature and recognized the sound as the call of the magical fox. At the same time, Jane was careful not to get her hopes up: the fox may not want to be acquainted with a failure of a warrior, someone who could not defeat Thanos.
At the cave’s entrance stood what Jane considered to be the world’s most magnificent creature.
Jane watched with fascination behind the cave wall. The fox was, after all, the first other mammal she had seen since LeBron’s tragic demise. She was unsure of her capability of interaction now, having kept to herself since then. Jane observed the orange and white coat of fur, not daring to make a sound. The fox shook his body and water droplets fell to the floor as violently as the rain did to the world outside.
Suddenly, Jane didn’t want to be alone anymore. She could still hear LeBron’s plea of fear, and she sensed her own fear rear into her: her fear of wasting away in the cave, never to recover from her tragedy. And so, Jane came out of hiding, just as the fox swerved around.
Just as quickly as her conviction to face another being had come, the overwhelming nature of this potential interaction, the opportunity to study the fox just within reach, gave her sudden pause. Indecisive, she turned to run; however, she heard his voice ringing clear in the midst of the sound of rain against rock.
“Hey,” he called. “This cave free to hide in through the storm?”
Jane gasped at the sound of his voice. Grasping at what was left of her courage, she said, “Yeah. Make yourself at home.”
“Chilled legumes,” said Nick.
She smiled to herself, pleased to indulge in her furry fantasies.
This was it,
she thought.
Now I can finally adopt the fursona of the majestic fox.
In an effort to make this interaction less awkward than it inevitably was, Nick attempted to create small talk. “So,” he began. “How long have you been in this cave?”
Jane turned her head, ashamed of her origins. “Oh, just about... six years,” she said, trying to be nonchalant. Instead, she ended up being totally chalant.
“Oh... that’s — that’s a pretty long time,” said Nick, scratching his snout awkwardly with his paw.
“Yep. It’s been pretty lonely here all by myself.” Jane tried in vain to minimize the bitterness in her voice.
“Too bad,” Nick said. He was no stranger to loneliness. “Why’s that?”
“No biggie,” Jane shrugged. “My boyfriend burned alive and I inhaled his ashes.”
Great job, Jane
, she chastised herself.
Scare away the first living being you meet in six years by spilling your depressing backstory to him.
“What the f*ck. My first girlfriend turned into a hat.” She almost laughed at his self-deprecating smirk, lost in memories. Her new companion had the same dark sense of humor as she did — and the same honesty.
“That’s rough buddy.”
“Yeah. Yeah, sure is.”
The awkward silence stretched. Nick began talking to fill the void. “So,” he coughed. “I guess I’ll be here for a long time. At least until the storm passes.”
“That’s good,” Jane said. She was in
tree
ged by Nick, and not just by the fact that he was a
fox
. There was just something about him — something that made her want to know him better.
Slowly, the two made gentle conversation. Even more slowly, they became friends.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
The first few days inside the cave were the easiest. As Steve waited for his wounds to heal, he formulated plans in his mind; plans that would, upon his initial thinking, deliver him back to Thanos with the promise of victory.
But now, after months in a cave attempting to plan a way to defeat Thanos, he realized he had changed drastically. Steve Rogers was terrified. He was hiding from Thanos himself, leaving the cave only to hunt for food and search for water.
The Avengers were gone. Even if he succeeded in finding Thanos, there was no way Steve could defeat him single-handedly.
He could still remember that day of the final battle against the Mad Titan. The Infinity Stones, Thanos’s horcruxes, needed to be destroyed, but they would die in the process. Steve was no stranger to making the sacrifice play.
He had lost Bucky twice. Once in the war, and another time in Thanos’s snap. It began with his real arm, the one not made of vibranium. Slowly, Bucky turned to dust, with a final, “Steve?”
He had screamed in grief and choked on it, accidentally inhaling Bucky’s ashes.
He thought he knew what grief was, how it drowned someone and left them in the water to die. But he was wrong.
Tony was gone in the blinding flash of the Mind Stone; Bruce crushed the Time Stone in Hulk’s hands. Clint staked an arrow through the Space Stone with an arrow; Natasha crumbled along with the Reality Stone. Thor used Stormbreaker to break the Power Stone to bits and pieces, but the god was gone, as well.
He reached toward the Soul Stone, ready to destroy it, but a huge purple hand stopped him, flinging him out of the way.
“It’s okay, Mr. Captain America Mr. Rogers sir, I got it!” Before he could yell at Tony’s kid to stop, Peter — the Spideykid — used his webshooters to obtain the Soul Stone.
He was just a kid. But then again, so was he when he went down with that plane.
Peter crushed the Soul Stone in his hands, strong from the spider bite that changed his life, but that now led to shortening it substantially. The kid was golden, reminding Steve of himself, of someone who always wanted to help at any cost. In this case, the cost was his life. Tony would be proud of the young Avenger. Steve knew he was.
Peter died. They were all dead. Except for him. The world needed him: it was up to him to kill Thanos.
Steve stood up before the huge purple
thing
, the monster that just took all his friends. He held up his fists.
Thanos came toward him and swung his fist. He blocked it with two hands, straining against the force behind the hand.
“I could do this all day,” he yelled up as Thanos laughed in his face. He could feel himself losing the grip on Thanos’s fist. He couldn’t accept defeat, he couldn’t, he just
couldn’t
—
— and yet, he could feel it threatening to swallow him whole.
Steve, as a side effect of the serum he took to serve his country, could remember every vivid detail of every battle he fights. So Steve remembers the exact moment that one person jumped toward the two facing off, one to rule the universe and the other to save it from his reign. He remembers the voice saying, “No, you can’t. You still owe me a dance,” before fighting Thanos off with him. He remembers the blood seeping from her cracked skull after Thanos merely flicked his fingers in her direction and her body flew into a tree a few feet away.
And he remembers running like hell.
He can’t face more people dying instead of him. He was supposed to destroy the Soul Stone, not Peter. He was supposed to kill Thanos or die in the process, not her.
As he healed in the cave, he could only think of one thing: when Thanos killed her, a piece of Thanos’s soul connected with him.
Steve is the first and now, the last Avenger. And Steve is the last horcrux. And
the last airbender.
Steve Rogers was always the person to make the sacrifice play. But if he dies, who will kill Thanos?
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Thinking back to how it all began — his whole story — Thanos felt a surge and mixture of pride and despair when he thought of how far he had journeyed in his conquest for supremacy.
That day when a little orphan boy, ugly and purple, checked himself into an abysmal orphanage amidst his parents’ disappearance, was long in the past. In contrast to the place he has regretfully called home for most of his childhood, Thanos’s current manor was fit for the formidable overlord he was.
Posh and elegant. Fit for a king. All that was missing was a sense of security in reign. This such security — the one roadblock between him and all he had worked toward — was obstructed by the existence of a certain fellow (albeit, cowardly) god of the sun.
It was disheartening how many of his people saw him only as the final product of what they proclaimed him to be: The Dark Lord. Thanos considered himself a multifaceted Titan. All of the murders and genocides that he committed to help who he considered to be the beings worthy of life thrive on the new planet were, in his mind, justified in his agenda.
However, to this day, his most prominent and memorable killing was that of none other than Peggy Carter. The eagle-shaped scar on Steve’s forehead serves as a constant reminder of the very path his own wand took as it pulled the life out of Peggy, amidst the screams of both her and his last obstacle.
His last obstacle. The last Avenger.
This obstruction, by and far, has proven to be even more of a weakling than Thanos had originally postulated. He still remembers the way the boy’s courage trembled as he raised his fist, laughing in his face. He still remembers the evident vocal anguish upon Steve seeing the bloody remains of Ms. Carter.
The last memory he possesses of this particular murder was Steve running away from the battleground that he helped create. Immediately in the aftermath of the battle, when Thanos was about to deliver the final blow, and when the world needed him most, he vanished.
She served her purpose,
thought Thanos.
The boy will come to come to accept that, should he ever come out of hiding and meet his fate.
The intertwined destinies of the infamous Sun God and Steve Rogers drive Thanos forward. But without their presence — which by this point, he accepted would not be given voluntarily — his goal would always be one step back.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Two months later
If someone has asked her this question months ago, Jane would have never been able to picture herself frolicking through the woods with such a close companion. But today’s life is nowhere near as desolate as the one before, and Jane’s elevated mood currently permeated the fresh air that currently surrounds her and Nick.
“I love these woods, this fresh air, this smell of nature! I am one with it,” Jane said, embracing her NorCal spirit.
“That’s cool man. The woods remind me of the time my friend Judy got shot and turned into a hat by some hunter,” Nick deadpanned.
“...That’s rough, buddy,” said Jane.
“I too embrace locating humor in the demise of my ex-lover,” said Nick.
The two were laughing when a sudden gunshot filled the woods. Nick’s fur raised in fear, as the previous conversation suddenly began to hit too close to home.
And suddenly, all he could see was this:
Nick barely had time to decipher any of his emotions. One minute, he and his beloved Hopps had been enjoying a peaceful stroll in the woods of Zootopia. The next, well
—
Everything changed when John Smith attacked. The next minute, blood was rushing out of her as the bullet rushed in. She fell to the ground with a cry for help.
But this time, there was no help. Nick could do nothing except watch the life drain out of the love of his life, while simultaneously trying to mute out her screams to assuage his pain.
Nick tried to comfort Judy, but in vain. “Don’t worry, I’m getting help right now! You’ll be okay, just
—
wait for me!”
He ran away, out of the woods, seeking someone to call an ambulance to save her life. But when Nick returned to where Judy’s bleeding body had been, there was no sign of her except for the remains of her mangled heart.
A few months later, he was still grieving. He had no idea who had took her carcass. He wanted her to have a proper funeral, at least, surrounded by carrots.
Depressed, he went to her favorite department store every day, remembering the love of his life. One day, he entered the store, and the first thing that entered his vision was the fur of his departed beloved. It was a grey and white fur hat.
“No,” he whispered, remembering what happened years ago.
“I will NOT be turned into an article of clothing!”
In a dash faster than what Jane could comprehend, Nick bolted off into the trees. Startled, Jane called his name over and over again, but to no avail.
She was angry at Nick’s abandonment, but she tried to understand his reaction. His ex-love had died because of a hunter. She contemplated giving him space, but ultimately decided that Nick needed her now more than ever. Determined to help her friend, she tried to find him, running off in the general direction he had gone.
Jane looked around the woods around her, yelling Nick’s name over and over. She began to grow concerned about her friend, as he had run off without knowing the way of the woods in Mount Baldy. Anything could happen — he could have run into that hunter by now, and been turned into a hat, just like Judy.
Growing frantic, she began to shout his name louder. “Nick!
Nick!
NICHOLAS!” Suddenly, she hit something large and hard behind her (that’s what she said). Startled, she jumped around, ready to fight if it was the hunter.
What she saw, however, made the pit of her stomach burn like she had never experienced before.
“Oh,”
Jane breathed. “Hello.”
“Hi,” the man said. He wore a navy uniform with a white star stitched on it, and red and white stripes below the blue of the shirt. He was well built, his bulging muscles showing clearly through the tight uniform. He was a man like no other, like the baby of a pirate and an angel. A full beard donned his face, so unlike LeBron’s egg-like features. On his forehead was a strange eagle-shaped scar. He was holding a bright red, white, and blue shield, with a white star in the middle of the shiny red. It was beautiful, made of vibranium. She could see how the metal shone in the sunlight and recognized its magnificence. Slung across his shoulders was a rifle.
As quickly as her feelings came, she worked to dissipate them. She stood tall, and asked the man, “I’m looking for my friend. Have you seen a red fox around here?”
The man adjusted his grip on his gun. Jane noticed this little movement, and before he could respond, Jane gasped.
“It was…
you
? Who fired a random gunshot that scared my friend?”
“Who the hell is friends with a fox?”
“Who the hell hunts for a fox?”
“A lot of people. Starved people. People trying to survive.” Even as he said this, Steve felt a twinge of guilt for scaring away the girl’s friend. Her face fell even further and her eyes filled with tears.
“You have to help me find my friend. This is
your
fault. Nick could be
dEaD
!”
Steve couldn’t bear the look in her eyes as she pleaded with him. Intent on regaining his honor, Steve decided then and there that he would help her find her foxy furry friend. “You’re right. I’m sorry. It
is
my fault. A lot of things are, these days.”
“RIP. Like wat.”
He stared at her for two minutes.
Steve held out his hand. “I’m Steve. Steve Rogers.”
She hesitated, then returned the gesture. “Jane. Jane the Sun God of the country Mount Baldy, banished by Fire Lord Ozai because of scarring his one and only son LeBron. Nice to meet you.”
“What the f*ck.”
“You too.”
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Nick gasped for breath as he ran further into the woods, away from the gunshot that had sent him plunging into memories about Judy.
Memories swirled around in his mind as he struggled to contain them. His thoughts were muddled and his instincts off base. All he knew was that he had to get out of these treacherous woods, preferably back to the cave, as fast as possible.
But before he could even begin to swerve around, he was hit with a powerful wave of what could only be described as
magic.
He faintly heard a voice, thunderously yelling in the background, in his general direction as he fell towards the ground.
His mind fluttered. His mouth quivered. He lay there, restless on the soil carpet that encased the forest. But as much as he tried to resist the incapacitation, that same voice was the last sound he heard before the lights in his mind went dark.
Thanos considered himself to be a rather resourceful Titan. He knew his foes and he know how to exterminate them, one by one. Unspeakable events might torment his reign, should the Sun God and that Rogers fellow ever meet and merge their respective powers against him.
It had taken him weeks to locate the exact whereabouts of the Sun God. In that time, he noticed that her companion, a lowly red fox, seemed to be the closest she had to family.
As Thanos knew too well (RIP Gamora), family meant weakness. However, it also meant knowing the secrets of those close to you. Finally, he would find the Sun God and dispose of her before she disposed of him and his righteous reign.
Thanos stood before the still body, blueberries in hand. As he forcefed the berries to the fox one by one, life once again began to visibly stir within the little one. Slowly, the fox woke up, his eyes dazed but focused on Thanos, who he would from now on consider his master.
“Soldier,” said Thanos.
Nick stood no chance against the blueberries, the power Thanos had over him. But this was Nick no longer.
“Ready to comply.”
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Part Six - The Captain and the Sun“So, what were you doing in the woods with your friend?” asked Steve, struggling to keep up with Jane. She was walking ahead of him quickly, clearly still furious at him for scaring the fox away. “Just walking around,” said Jane. “Enjoying the sunshine and nature. Not hunting other animals like Mr. Rogers, friendly neighbor, over here.”“Look,” Steve started as Jane whirled around, her long black hair swaying near his face. “I’m sorry about your friend and I’m sorry for questioning your friendship with a fox. I just… I guess I forgot how special friends could be.” He looked away. Peggy, Bucky, Natasha. They were all gone now. At least Jane had someone she cared about.He didn’t want any more blood on his hands. Wasting away in the cave, he didn’t have much to live for. But now, he had the opportunity to be Captain America again to remember who Steve Rogers was before Thanos: someone who lived to help people. He could start with Jane.“I’d forgotten, too,” admitted Jane. She looked away from Steve, feeling a bit of pity and understanding for him. “But Nick helped me remember what it feels like to care about someone other than yourself.”Steve nodded, and Jane felt something stir within her. He looked lost, forlorn, and weary. He looked as if he carried the fate of the universe on his broad shoulders, which carried his shield behind his back.“Maybe, with time, you can remember, too,” she finished, hoping it would be enough to comfort him. When he looked up, his blue eyes shone with desperation. And her radiant ones shone with hope.“Thank you,” said Steve, grabbing Jane’s hand. Jane’s heart beat steadily. For an infinite moment, they held hands and the world stopped spinning.But then it was over, and they resumed their journey through the woods, a bit of trust in their temporary partnership.
They began to talk more, and Jane was reminded of when Nick stumbled into the cave for the first time. Slowly, they became friends, learning about each other’s pasts and lost loved ones.Just as Jane was beginning to see Steve in a whole new light, she felt herself being snapped upwards, accelerating suddenly. A quick turn to her right showed Steve following an identical trajectory.“Steve!” yelled Jane.“Jane!” yelled Steve.They continued their upward motion until suddenly, they sat still in fetal position in cramped metal cages hanging from trees. Swinging side to side, they tried to identify methods of escape, but without success.Jane looked up to see what the strange mechanism was that had CAPtured them. It was then she saw it: the telltale tail of a red fox.“Nick?!” Jane gasped. “Nick, what are you doing?”His eyes were red and bloodshot, but that didn’t bother her as much as this: they held no recognition of her.“Who the hell is Nick?”
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Part Seven The Day of Black SunJane’s eyes filled with a medley of emotions all at once: fear, despair, loss. Is this loss? “Nick, what are you talking about?”“I don’t know any Nick. I only serve Thanos,” Nick’s voice droned on in a robotic tone.Steve put his hands on the metal bars and started bending the steel that caged him in. He couldn’t pay attention to the reunion going on; he had to save himself from Thanos.“Nick,” Jane whispered. “I can’t lose you to him, too.” Her hands shook. She knew what she had to do. She had to do something she hadn’t done since LeBron died in her arms. The truth stood before her as obviously as LeBron’s ashes flew into her mouth when she once screamed over the remnants of his body: she had to use her powers once more. She couldn’t escape her destiny.Her hands burned through the metal, calling to the power of the sun. She fell to the floor and recovered from the drop quickly. Nick came toward her, tail whipping behind him in a menacing manner. “Nick, I don’t want to fight you. Please don’t make me hurt you.”Nick said nothing, and pounced, claws stretched in attack.Dropping down on the ground as soon as he created an opening between the bars, he surveyed the fight. It would be so easy, he thought, to escape unnoticed. His opportunity was here.He has faced many dilemmas before. Memories of Bucky, Peggy, all of his friends - they all came flooding back before him. But never before have his insides tossed with the thought of such inner turmoil.There was one inescapable commonality, however, in all of the deaths he’d had to face before: the blood of his old friends rested firmly on his shoulders because of his inability to fight Thanos.He had two choices: fight or flight.His limited time with the girl before him had touched him in more ways than one. Besides providing much needed companionship, the feeling of being so close to another person - so close that you could almost feel your stories and emotions intertwine - taught him perspective.He had spent enough time living in the darkness of the cave. Now, it was time to rise out into the sun.With this decision in mind, Steve began to stand tall. Rays of light poured over his face, his chest, his entire being.“Avengers Assemble!” Steve yelled. “Oh, wait.”But Steve soon realised - even though his team could not physically be present, because he has accidentally let Thanos slaughter them, their ashes would always be with him. Especially Bucky’s, because he could feel them sandpapering his intestines to this very day.His decision made, he turned to Jane.“Nick, please. You’re my best friend,” Jane pleaded as she deflected him with another fireball, singeing his right paw.“No,” he growled in return. “You’re my mission.”Jane let her guard down for a total of one second. Her arm was scratched and she lost the fireball growing in her hand. Nick was winning the fight because of her reluctance to harm another friend. She couldn’t stop thinking about LeBron and his maple syrup ashes.Nick was too close, close enough to harm her, and she couldn’t let that happen either. The only way to snap Nick out of this must be defeating Thanos: if that would save her friend, then she would do whatever it takes.But she couldn’t hurt him either. She was already too scared of her destructive power, capable of scarring those closest to her.So Jane froze, Nick’s claws nearing her jugular, unable to do anything except think. She closed her eyes in anticipation.But nothing happened. She opened her eyes again to see Steve’s hands on Nick’s, holding him back and throwing him to the ground. She’d forgotten about Steve, thinking he had run away in the chaos. But he stayed. To save her.“Thanks fam,” said Jane.“No time for thanks,” replied Steve, and caught her wrist, pulling her up from the ground. “We’ve got to go before Thanos comes.”“No!” protested Jane. “Defeating Thanos is the only way to save Nick.”If not for Bucky, he would have been tempted to say that there was no Nick anymore, that there was no hope for Jane’s foxy friend. But he knew that saving brainwashed beastly best friends was possible. And he’d be damned if someone else lost theirs.“No,” Nick said, rising from where he was thrown. “I told you. There is no Nick. You are my mission. And I serve Thanos.”Nick rushed forward, coming toward Steve, who held his fists up in anticipation. He swung a right hook as Nick swiped at his face. He blocked paw after paw coming to claw his eyes out. “Swiper, no swiping!” roared Steve.Jane rolled her eyes. “LOL WAT. Fight now, meme later.”Steve lost his focus then. It was rather difficult to imagine him, Captain America, a super soldier, losing to a mere fox, but there was something different about Nick. But Steve was starting to slip, backing away from the feral animal. It was as if Thanos had made him powerful with dark arts, in addition to brainwashing him.Jane saw Steve struggle as the fight progressed. The sun rose higher and burned brighter behind them. Steve fell to the ground and Nick rose for the final blow.Suddenly, Jane felt a surge of power. Power burned within as it did to the rays behind. This was the Sun God state, the time when the Sun God was at her most powerful, fueled by the light of the sun. Feeling many emotions at once - inspiration, desperation, longing - she emitted the strongest fireball she had ever shot out before (except for maybe the one that burned her boyfriend’s eyeball) and pointed it directly in Nick’s field of vision.“yIKES,” exclaimed Nick. “Woah,” exclaimed Steve. “Are you sure that’s safe?”“Don’t worry,” said Jane, calm, though surrounded by flames. “I won’t hurt you. Not this time.” She had forgotten that this boyfriend wasn’t her actual ex-boyfriend, LeBron, and was still thinking about how she burned his eye out.But as magnificent as the fire had looked upon its creation, slowly but surely, the brilliance began to decrease. The world around the battleground became darker in more ways than one.Through Jane’s eyes, everything around her seemed to be working in slow motion. She saw, with terror, her creation fizzling out just before it reached its target. Her eyes dropped. Her mouth shook. After six years in a desolate, depressing cave, she knew precisely what it felt like to lose the power of light that had previously permeated her existence.She knew she was done for. And Nick did too.Scrambling forward on all paws before the supersoldier could recover from the shock of watching Jane (but in secret he was also in awe of her like damn Jane she’s HAWT pun intended) transform into the Sun God, Nick swiped Steve’s gun from his hands and swung it into Steve’s face. He fell with a thud, unconscious.The terror from the rifle had left Nick’s being. Now, it faced Jane and her boytoy.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Brief flashes of light. A face standing over her. Then darkness.This pattern of vision seemed to repeat in Jane’s eyes for what seemed like an eternity. After a while, her eyes adjusted to her new surroundings and all she saw was the dejected, weak face of her comrade, a purple bruise on his jaw. Which made Jane admire his nice, defined jawline until Steve finally spoke.“We got recked, dude.”“No shit, Sherlock,” replied Jane.Jane looked around, observing her surroundings. Nick had obviously captured them, just as his master, Thanos, wanted. She and Steve were in a sort of prison; the walls were made of rock and metal bars lined the opening of the cell they sat in.“So. I didn’t know you’re the Sun God,” said Steve, a hint of admiration in his voice.“Well, it wasn’t as conspicuous as your identity, seeing as how your large shield basically adorns your entire logo, but yes. I rise with the sun. Not gonna lie - at first, I thought your outfit was like a freaky cosplay thing, but then I saw how you started to help me fight my friend. I assume u da real deal.”“Yeah, everyone knows I’m Captain America. Punching Hitler since 1941. It’s, like, common sense.”“Hitler died four years later.”“I hit the corpse for funsies.”“Kinky.”“Glad you think so.”Steve was glad he got to lighten the mood a little bit, but there was still a burning curiosity within him. One statement the girl made during the battle was still etched in his mind.“Hey… what did you mean when you said ‘I won’t hurt you - not this time’?”Jane glanced away, feeling her shame rise up again in her at the same rate that the sun rose to block her winning shot.“That was … a long time ago,” Jane began, sighing as she reluctantly told her tale.As she spoke, Steve’s eyes widened with both fear and empathy. He thought from her previous story that she had been sheltered her entire life - not an impossible thought considering he knew she lived in a cave - but a disturbing one nonetheless.He thought also, but not for the first time, of the immeasurable strength that the girl must possess. To be able to survive hearing the shrieks of her loved ones, to have to cope with harsh realities that had been thrown her way - and still come out standing tall… The finesse with which she coped were ones that Steve used as inspiration for his own recovery. He himself was unable to do so, but, maybe now he could.At the blink of an eye, however, Steve saw this very finesse escape Jane before his very eyes. He could recognize her desire to drop down, to tear at her hair and to cry at her inevitable demise at the hands of someone she trusted.And it was up to him to pick up the pieces. To return the favor.To not fail her as he had when he had allowed them to be captured by Nick.“Hey, it’s okay,” he struggled to say, but she started to cry for her best friend, for the betrayal that had just stabbed her. For Nick. For LeBron. All of her losses muddled in her brain in an incomprehensible mess.“My best friend was brainwashed, too, you know,” said Steve, sadness dripping off the sound of his voice like LeBron’s maple syrup.Jane looked up, unable to tell if this was Steve’s voice of genuineness or if he was just trying to pull her up to help them escape. “No, really.” Steve laughed nervously ;), seeing as Jane didn’t believe him. “His name was Bucky, and he’s been my best friend since I was a kid. I couldn’t save him and seventy years later, I find out he’s been this brainwashed assassin and that his new mission is to kill me. So I know what you’re going through.”Steve cleared his throat, lost in memories. After everything, every loss, Peggy, Natasha, the Avengers, all he could think of was how much he missed Bucky. How much he missed his closest, most loyal friend. The feeling of betrayal and confusion when he caught his shield. The hope and stubbornness that he could be redeemed.“But he remembered me later, and some people helped him break free of the people who hurt him. So maybe, Nick can be saved.”But then Steve remembered how he inhaled Bucky’s ashes, how everything he had risked to keep Bucky safe was in vain because of Thanos. “Then I lost him to Thanos, too.”After that, Steve couldn’t stop. He told her everything about their final stand, about the Avengers’ deaths, about Peggy dying for him. Once there were no more words left, he stopped, suddenly exhausted.A long pause. Steve briefly wondered if he had unleashed too much on her. If his sins didn’t measure up to hers. If she felt a level of terror towards him that was equivalent to his feelings of awe towards her.“Well,” Jane started, in a broken voice. “I guess we both have reasons for redemption.”And with that, a smile. A faint one, one that could slip from his sight at any instant, but a smile nonetheless. He knew he had gotten through to Jane, had seized her back from her inner demons just as he had had to do for himself all that while ago. This vulnerability that exuded him was, at the very least, one step in the right direction for his own absolution.The small moment of peace was interrupted by the padding of paw against rock and the heavy footsteps of a purple beast. The pair rose to meet them, standing together against whoever was coming. They were ready to face their demons, united against a common enemy.The two beings came into view: Nick and Thanos. Nick’s lips were stained blue. Jane wondered why, but now wasn’t really the time to ask.After her gaze shifted from Nick, she beheld the sight of an ugly, horrendous purple monster Barney.“Thanos,” Steve said, sounding as if he wanted to reach out and rip his throat out. Finally, she came face to face with the creature responsible for the death of LeBron.“Well, what a pleasant little reunion we have going on here,” grinned Thanos. “What a shame that I’ll have to separate you two just about now.”“What the hell are you talking about?” growled Steve, anger emitting out from every bone in his body, which was simultaneously reaching to protect the girl beside him.“I challenge yOU - “ Thanos pointed his huge purple finger at Steve’s beard. “To an AGNI KAI!”“Gasp,” went Jane. “Same,” went Steve.“What,” said Nick. “Why are you talking like that? What’s the matter with you two?”“Okay, sure, I’ll do it.”Jane whirled around in surprise. “What the f*ck. Do you have a death wish. Are you a millennial suddenly.”“As a matter of fact, not. 1918 and proud,” he said, while sticking up his American shield with pride. “ANYWAY,” Thanos shouted, trying to get the attention back to him; these bitches can’t show appreciation to the greatest. “We’ll fight, you’ll lose and die, and you, Sun God, will fight your former best friend, and die, and I will reign over the universe forever and ever and ever.”“Jokes on you. I have no friends.”“Hey, what about me?” protested Steve. “We’re more than friends, Steve.”“That was quick.”“Well, we’re gonna f*cking die in like 12 minutes, so.”“Good point.”“Again, what is wrong with you people?” Nick asked. “And how do you make that asterisk sound?”“ANYWAY,” Thanos said, again. “We shall now commence the AGNI KAI!” “Chilled legumes,” said Steve.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
The group casually walked to the arena above the prison, bickering along the way, while Thanos occasionally interjected with a call for silence. Neither party dared to attack the other - honor is of utmost importance in an AGNI KAI.Finally, they reached it - a disgusting, blood stained space of dirt and ash. Jane and Steve choked as they were both reminded of what that ash truly was: pieces of people.Steve and Thanos each went to their respective sides of the arena, as Jane and Nick went to theirs as the respective seconds.As par the commandments, Steve and Thanos has their seconds meet face to face. But the time for negotiating a deal or negotiating a time and place was over. Right here, right now, the battle would commence. Steve lunged first. He threw his shield, ignoring the laws of physics as it flew up and hit Thanos’s purple ugly nutsack of a chin. It struck him with a loud clang, but Thanos shrugged it off completely, moving forward toward Captain America slowly. His forehead ached, and Steve was reminded of what he was: a Horcrux, destined to die in order to defeat Thanos.Meanwhile, Jane was trying to do as Steve had said: save Nick. If he had saved Bucky, surely she could redeem her best friend. She blocked his claws with small fireballs created not to harm but to defend herself.“Nick!” she called, desperate to see his life in his eyes just once more. But her pleads seemed to fall on deaf ears. All she heard, over and over, was the same drone of voice that stated “I only serve Thanos. I only serve Thanos.”One of Nick’s claws hit Jane’s face, and in the moment she let out a trembling scream. Upon hearing this sound, Nick stopped in his tracks.A friend. A love. A scream. Memories of blood, of gray and white fur on the floor, of lifeless eyes, invaded his blueberry-infested mind. A back and forth, so often and so repetitive that his mind was unable to keep up with the shuttering. He looked at Jane, the girl so full of anguish in front of him, and his eyes began to soften.Jane saw her chance. “Nick, Judy wouldn’t have wanted you to do this!”The memories of fur hats were immediately replaced with memories of a warm cave. A friendly smile. The sun.Something of a past life flickered in Nick’s mind. Judy - his Judy. There was something else, lurking behind the memory of fur hats, that told him there was more to life than only serving Thanos.“Judy … ?” Nick said.Unbeknownst to Nick, Thanos heard her exclamation as clearly as he did. He knew his servant to be compromised. Abandoning the famous albeit weak Captain America by pushing him to the ground, Thanos approached Nick and Jane.It was all too easy to dispose of the fox. He had served his purpose, bringing the Sun God and the Captain to him, and now there was no use for him. He picked up the fox and tossed him as easily as one would with a tissue.The crack of a skull against a wall. Eyes losing focus. A body losing life.“NNNNNNOOOOOOOOOooooooooooo!” yelled Jane.“Oh no,” yelled Steve.Much like the day Nick had captured them, Jane felt a surge of power, a rush in her veins, the unmistakable feeling of reaching her ultimate level of being: the Sun God state. With a frustrated yell at her best friend’s death, she felt fire and light surround her, forming from her fingertips.It was all Thanos’s fault. Everything - LeBron, her years in solitude in the cave, Nick, even Steve’s losses - traced back to him. She readied herself for battle.“Ha ha you done messed up,” Steve said to Thanos.But Thanos grinned his evil grin. He knew the prophecy surrounding the Sun God. If she were to die within this precarious state, the lineage of the elemental overlords would cease to exist.With an arm raised up and his wand held high, Thanos thundered “AVADA KEDAVRA.”Steve had started to grin when Jane rose with power. But as he watched the path of Thanos’s spell hit his newfound love, his grin faded as quickly as Jane’s life would have had he not done what he had done next. He knew he could not let Jane die.He lost his best friends. She lost hers and her honor. But he believed she could save the world.So Steve rushed in front of the wand’s path, staring death defiantly down. The spell hit him directly in the center of the eagle on his forehead, and a chill went down his spine.And with that, Steve Rogers, Captain America, the first (and now apparently the last) Avenger, lay dead on the arena floor.Thanos fell with a great roar. Jane wondered why, when, looking at Steve’s eagle-shaped scar, she understood: Steve was also the last Horcrux.Jane remained in her Sun God state, amassing power as Thanos took the time to recharge the spell after that bitch Rogers screwed up the first time for him. “You … You will pay for eVERYTHING!”With a battle cry of fury, a bolt of light thrusted from her hands as it traveled towards Thanos’s fear-filled eyes. The complete energy of the Sun God, so starved after the eclipse that occurred just hours before, unleashed towards the purple beast and rendered him lifeless. The ground thudded because he was so frigging heavy as he fell to the floor.Coming off of her high, Jane breathed and slowly regained her composure. Exhausted, she was not immediately aware of the circumstances around her. Her first sight was, amazingly enough, that of a limp, still Thanos, which filled her heart with joy like no other dead body had done before. Not that she was a necrophiliac. Just a Thanos hater. “Steve! We won!” Jane cried triumphantly. But when she looked around, her smile of relief turned into a sob of grief.Steve Rogers was dead. Jane crawled over to the body and cried, her tears rushing forward and falling on his beard.She anticipated many ideas in that moment. Images of herself, once again alone in the wretched cave, filled her mind. The one thing she did not anticipate, however, was the glow of his beard hairs as her tears rained down on them.Moments passed. Life stood still. Then, all of a sudden, Steve coughed and began to sit up.“Jane,” he struggled to breathe. “Did I ever tell you I had a thing for Southeast Asians?”“Gasp,” said Jane. “Steve!”Never had she been so happy as that moment when Steve looked in her eyes, blue eyes clear and full of admiration. “Did I ever tell you I had a thing for West Asians? Especially those named Chris Evans?”“Who the hell is Chris? I only serve Thanos.”Steve nervously laughed. “So, how am I alive?”“Idk man. The power of my eye liquids.”“Why would you run in front of me? You died, Steve!” said Jane, feeling tears fall down her cheek again.“I can save today. You can save the world.”Jane laughed while tears still streamed down her cheeks. But the moment of joy was short-lived.Jane was reminded of her other love, although one of a whole different kind. She turned quickly, seeing the wall which had violently made contact with Nick’s body at the hands of Thanos.Jane ran. All she knew was that she had to get to Nick, to save him, to thank him - to give him a second chance just as she had gotten with Steve.Jane ran. As Nick’s furry body came closer in sight, as well as the blood staining the walls, Jane tried to conjure up more tears to heal him with by thinking of both LeBron and Steve’s tragic deaths.But as tears fell onto Nick’s fur, nothing happened. It seemed the magic was gone. “This is so sad Alexa play Despacito. Why isn’t this working?” she cried out in frustration.“Maybe because I died with a spell and he died by, like, cracking his skull open. Idk.”“Such logic. Much wow,” contemplated Jane Grant Soleilvie The First The Sun God of the Western Hemisphere, even as she felt such sorrow for her fallen fury foxy friend.“Nick can’t get a future, Jane. The dude is dead. But we can do better. We can honor him.”As Jane gazed into Steve’s eyes, she knew that he would help her follow through on that promise, even if his life depended on it. A moment passed. Steve stared back. Time seemed to suspend for a moment as Steve leaned forward, keeping her gaze. This was the woman who saved the world, his life, and his future. This was the woman who smiled into his lips and she reciprocated his touch.*Ten Years Later*Jane Grant Soleilvie lived a quiet, happy life in the meadow on the outskirts of San Francisco. She had a ginger cat named LeBron and a grey and white rabbit named Judy. Her two sons, Nick and Bucky, looked up to their father, Steve Rogers.Jane missed Nick and LeBron everyday. And she knew Steve did Bucky and Peggy. But at the end of the day, she knew the life she and Steve built for themselves honored their memory. She finally had peace.The scar had not pained Steve for 19 years. All was well.