[1 year later]

I had finally understood it. The reason why the dreams kept occurring.

I cracked it as I finally finished studying and understanding everything there was to the infinity stones.

I wasn’t being attacked but rather someone was sending me a message constantly through my dreams.

I was being told about Natasha’s inevitable absolute death. It wasn’t the kind of death where her soul moves on but rather her soul is destroyed.

It was easy to guess the source of this message was me, because other than me, no one could infiltrate my defence. Somewhere, sometime in the future, I had somehow figured out a way to send a message to my mind using the infinity stones. The closer I was to it, to more vivid and clearer the messages became.

Each stone was like a set of coordinates; pointing me to the other until all of it reached the final one the soul stone.

Despite knowing the truth, my original plan never changed.

The issue with Dormammu was easily resolved, while the Ancient One still lived, now no longer using the power of the Dark Dimension to keep living thanks to me.

As for the Asgardians, they were relocated to the planet Nat, and I had our honeymoon safely along with the Dwarves. As for the space stone, I sneaked it away from Thanos’ grasp.

Everyone was more than prepped to face Thanos, and there was only one thing left to completely stop Thanos.

“Is this where the Soul Stone is?” Natasha enquired as we walked to the edge of the cliff.

“Yes.” I smiled as we ignored Red Skull who was calmly watching us.

“The final stone and we can safely get rid of Thanos.” Natasha sighed to which I smiled. I had secretly collected all the stones away from Thanos’ grasp.

He was going mad looking for them, not knowing I had them hidden all over the universe.

Sure, I could easily kill him with it, but my purpose wasn’t his eradication from the very beginning but rather Nat’s safety, and there was only one way to stop her from dying.

“So how do we get it?” She enquired.

I smiled as I sat down. “Come sit.” She looked at me in confusion before sitting next to me. I looked into the beautiful sight ahead of us.

“What’s the matter?” She enquired.

“Remember what I told you about there being more powerful and dangerous beings than Thanos?” I enquired to which she nodded.

“The infinity stones or rather the knowledge and essence I have gained from studying it will help you defeat and overcome a lot of enemies in the future.” I explained.

“Help you?” Natasha looked at me in confusion. “What are you…”

*Clack* Nat looked down at her hand and legs which were in restrain made out of my bots. “David, what are you doing?” She looked visibly panicked as she tried to free herself but found it impossible.

“Nat, have you ever heard of something called equivalent exchange?” I asked her as she used all her strength to be free as she ignored me. “The soul stone was sealed away by a group to stop anyone from harnessing its power…”

“YOU LIAR! YOU PROMISED ME!” She screamed at me.

Bots crawled and sealed her mouth as she looked at me in horror. “Your fate is bound to sacrifice yourself for the soul stone every time Nat.” I smiled as I caressed her cheeks. “But now you can’t.”

Leaning forward I planted a kiss on her lips as the bots parted away. “Don’t… please…” She pleaded in that brief moment before the bots sealed her mouth again.

“You are soon going to be a single mother of 2 kids Nat.” I smiled. “That purpose will drive you to live and survive above all. That’s what I want to see; you alive and well.” I stood up as I looked at her teary face.

I extended my hand at which point a sphere appeared above it made of my core nanobots. “I have said everything I wanted to say to you and our kids in here. I am sorry for ditching you before we even began our life together properly but what to say, I have always been selfish from the beginning, and you knew it.” I smiled as I took a step back.

With just a step away I removed the seal from her mouth. “I love you, Nat!” I fell back.

“DAVID!!” Nat screamed as she crawled forward as the bots moved like chains to stop her from falling with me.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Nat sat in the shallow water of Vormir hugging the nanobots in tears. “I hate you.”

“I knew you would say that. I wanted to leave the world not hearing that from you, which is why I sealed your mouth until the end.” David’s voice emerged from the bots to which Nat wasn’t fazed. “I have finished analysing the soul stone…”

“Shut up!” Nat pleaded. “Let me at least grieve you properly David, please.” David’s recorded conscience quietly looked at Nat as she hugged her knees.

David's artificial conscience seeing this transformed the bots into his self and hugged her.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

“Why? Why couldn’t you just stay? We could have run away from it all.” Nat cried.

“You will never run away Nat, especially from your loved ones.” David’s conscience spoke. “We both know that.”

“No, you don’t!” Nat shouted in grief. “You don’t know me, David! You are not a know-it-all! I hate you! I hate you!”

David’s metallic cold body hugged Nat as she grieved her heart out. “My conscience doesn’t have much time left Nat,” David spoke startling Nat.

“Please come back!” Nat pleaded.

“If I do, you will die.” David smiled as he wiped her tears. “The war has begun, go and live for our children my beautiful wife.” David leaned forward and placed a gentle kiss on her forehead before he began dispersing into white bots which began to assimilate into Nat’s forehead.

As it did, she slowly lost her conscience and fell back. Memories, knowledge, strength, and power filled her body, fuelled by the energy from the soul stone.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[A few hours later]

Thanos’ force anchored itself down on Earth.

“Where is David and Natasha?” Thor asked Bruce who was in his Hulk form while wearing battle armour.

“No idea, he said he was going to deal with the last stone,” Bruce answered while standing at the frontline of the Wakanda army along with the Sorcerrors, Guardians of the Galaxy and Captain Marvel.

Before them was a much larger fleet of Thanos than they had expected. Thanos had drawn out all his forces from every corner of the Universe for this fight having a premonition of the danger ahead. And he was right to prepare himself seeing how well prepared the planet he had looked down on before was.

“Where are the gems?” Ebony floated before the small coalition of defenders in comparison to the massive army more than enough to take over 10 planets the size of Earth.

All he got in reply was a blast of laser thrown towards him from Tony’s hand. “Unluck day?” Steve enquired.

“Tell me about it.” He sighed as he looked at the annoyed members of the Black Order.

“You guys are way more prepared than I had thought,” Gamora added.

“We had a really good seer,” Scott answered.

“Here they come,” Brunnhilde shouted.

“Bring me their heads!” Ebony ordered at which point the army of Chitahuri rushed forth.

Despite the massive disadvantage in numbers, Earth defended itself rather well against Thanos surprising them.

They kept pushing Thanos’ army back with little to no damage.

The Black Order was forced to go into the midst of the war sooner than they had expected.

Just at this moment a portal opened as a figure clad in Silver Battle armour appeared.

“Finally Pineapple head is here,” Tony grunted as he repulsed a Chitauri away.

“Woah is that Mr David?” Spiderman swung around the battlefield webbing and being a menace to everyone while asking excitedly.

*Whoosh* Just at this moment a huge wave of golden energy rolled out washing over the army of Thanos.

Strange who was wearing the Eye of Agamotto frowned as he noticed it vibrating minutely. “Another infinity stone.” He looked at David in shock.

Strange had only briefly encountered David, and that was when the Ancient One introduced them for the first time after the incident with Dormammu.

As the golden energy receded millions of Chitauri fell down lifelessly as if their souls had been reaped.

“Is it me or does that, not look like David?” Vision enquired.

“That’s not David, that’s Natalya,” Wanda replied as she unleashed her chaos magic skilfully striking every enemy before her in an arc of red lightning. “She is grieving.”

“Where is David then?” T'Challa enquired looking at the slowly waning barrier of Wakanda.

*Boom* However anyone could reply they watched as the silver-armored Natalya went berserk on the battlefield. With just a punch she destroyed half of Cull Obsidian's body and sent him crashing into the middle of a large cluster of Chitauri.

“DIEEE!” Natasha unleashed a grieved battle cry as she launched herself into the midst of the Black Order like a grim reaper.

“That’s the power of soul stone!” Gamora uttered in shock as she recognized the gem.

“What!? Didn’t you say someone has to sacrifice their loved one…” Rocket suddenly went deathly quiet as he remembered Wanda’s words. Everyone looked at Nat mournfully as they understood what must have transpired seeing her mad-like state.

Everyone watched as Natalya began to mercilessly kill every one of the Black Order’s members until only Ebony was left.

“Master save me!” Ebony cried under the crumbling pressure of Chaos magic that was crushing his own barrier of Telekinesis.

“Enough!” A black energy arrived throwing Natalya back saving Ebony just before his barrier crumbled.

A purple large humanoid floated out of a large ship while holding a black book. “Master.” Ebony smiled excitedly seeing their plan had succeeded.

“The power of Soul Stone…” Thanos looked at Natalya before looking at Strange. “And the power of Time stone. 2 most powerful infinity stones, where are the rest?” Thanos questioned.

“Die!” Natalya jumped forward only to be easily repelled by the black swirl of magic energy around Thanos.

“I never intended to use this, but you forced my hand.” A black aura surrounded Thanos as he opened the Darkhold.

Yes, Thanos’ goal had changed from the infinity stones to Darkhold. Ever since the infinity stones began disappearing one by one, he knew someone was purposely hiding them. The only way to find them was the book of Darkhold which held all the knowledge in the universe, along with a way to create a medium to channel its power now that the dwarves had gone missing as well.

He unleashed a spear of black energy towards Natalya. Seeing this Natalya formed her own spear of red energy and threw it forward.

*Bam* The bodies of pure energy clashed and began to slowly push the red energy back. Just at that moment, a mix of green, purple, blue, yellow, red, and golden energy swirled around the spear energizing it.

*Whoosh**Crash* Without a shred of resistance it broke through the black spear and flew towards Thanos who looked at it in disbelief.

*Bam**Puchi* Thanos looked at Ebony before him through whose heart the energy had pierced. “Master…”

Thanos nodded in understanding as he placed his hand on Ebony’s body. “Rest well friend, I will finish it.” Ebony nodded as his body began withering away under the combined power of the infinity stones.

Thanos glanced at Nat in confusion. “You don’t hold the infinity stones, yet you are in some way channeling its energy. As I suspected you have read the Darkhold as well huh?”

To Nat’s utter shock and disbelief, Thanos drew out the energy from the crumbling body of Ebony and wielded it.

*Whoosh**Bam* Nat raised her hand and defended herself from the combined energy of infinity stones with her own energy.

She looked up to see Thanos jumping towards her with his fist coated in black. She raised her hand and threw out bolts of energy formed from the combined essence of the infinity stones.

“Hahaha! It’s useless!” Thanos laughed as he absorbed the bolts and formed a much more massive sphere made from infinity stone's energy with much more expertise and control than Nataliya.

“You may have started playing with the infinity gems recently, but I have been studying about it a lot longer than you have!” Thanos threw the energy towards Avengers who were fighting at an impossible speed.

Seeing this Natalya rushed forward at a greater speed than Pietro and the energy sphere. Arriving before the sphere she pushed against it with her own energy of infinity stones and chaos magic. “AHHH!”

With great effort, she managed to deflect it away towards Thanos’ ship as she fell down revealing her burned skin which began to heal and regenerate rapidly.

“Nat watch out!” Maria shouted as she noticed Thanos appearing behind her holding a black sword.

Nat’s eyes widened as she turned around to see Thanos’ grinning face as he thrust forth the black sword of energy. The mental defense employed by David within her mind began working overtime as the black energy came closer.

It was obvious the energy had a corrupting and manipulative nature seeing how all her mental defence had activated.

“Shit!” Natalya was about to jump back only to notice blank tendrils grasping her legs.

*Puchi* Her eyes widened as the sword stabbed forward.