Avengers and Avatars

"This world is so beautiful," the purple giant whispered. "So few times have I been able to say that. And until now, never has their beauty bid that I stay my hand."

The Dreamwalker stood firm, in the circle that would be the site of the battle that would determine the fate of the world. His hands gripped the double-bladed spear that would be his weapon. His eyes darted towards his wife and children. But most of his attention was focused on the giant. The one who stood above even the na'vi. The one who stood with his back to the chieftain of the Omaticaya, as legionnaires removed his golden armour.

"It is amazing," the giant continued, "that a mere four light years away, that I should encounter a world so different as this." He paused. "Well, different in its last days. The third world of Sol was like this one once. Green. Blue. Beautiful. Just like Pandora." He sighed. "Just like Titan."

The Dreamwalker stood firm. Even as the purple giant turned to face him, wielding nothing but a sword whose blade was wider than a na'vi's head.

"Of course, what happened there was the same thing that happened at so many other worlds," the giant continued. "Too many mouths, not enough food." He chuckled. "But you already know that to be true, don't you?"

The Dreamwalker stood firm, but he could not hide the fire within his eyes. The twitch in his cheek. The tell-tale signs that even if his body was that of the na'vi, his mind was still human. And all species, he supposed, bore some level of affinity for their homeworld, even when they turned their back on it.

"Twenty billion," the giant said. "Dead seas, dead lands, polluted sky. Twenty-three billion, eating away at the carcass of their world." He smiled. "I will admit, that when I cleaved their number in two, I was sorely tempted to go ever further. Even ten billion is more than that world can sustain, especially in the state your former species left it in."

"How kind of you," the Dreamwalker murmured.

"You judge me," the giant said. "That is your right. It is likewise my right to point out that you turned your back on them. Sent them away from this world. That they were already starving by the time my ship arrived." He flexed his shoulders. "Billions more will die in the years ahead, but I have no doubt that the sons and daughters of Earth will survive in some form, albeit in numbers that allow their planet to heal." He sighed, casting his gaze over the Omaticaya. Of warriors and healers, of shamans and hunters. "And so, I am brought here next. To Pandora. To continue the Great Work of finding the Balance of the Universe. And yet, this place, its people, give me pause."

"Then stay paused," the Dreamwalker murmured. "Turn around, and depart."

The giant chuckled. "Oh Jake Sully, we both know that isn't going to happen."

The Dreamwalker, Jake Sully, he of the tawtute, now one of the People, frowned. There was no doubt in his mind that the giant and his legionnaires could wipe out this entire moon in the blink of an eye if they so desired. All part of some mad quest of reducing planetary populations by half in a bid to save the universe. So, on one hand, the giant was mad, and he wanted to call him mad. On the other, the giant had yet to do any such thing. So if this was a chance at averting the fire, he was going to take it. For his tribe. For Neytiri. For his children.

He'd have sent them away by now, if the giant's legionnaires hadn't blocked off any chance of escape, be it through ground or sky. Some of them had wanted to fight – they had driven off the Sky People ten years prior, they could do the same to these creatures. However, Jake had stayed their hand. The battle ten years ago had only been won through Eywa's help, and the slimmest of chances. Here, the only chance he had right now was in this ring.

"There is a thing that many have said to me, before I took their lives," the giant said. "The arc of the universe bends towards justice. That someone will stop me eventually." He chuckled, and there was a darkness in his eyes that Jake glimpsed at – a darkness that reminded him of Quaritch. "They have said that for over a century, and still, the Great Work has continued."

"Maybe they didn't say it loud enough," Jake murmured.

"Perhaps. Or perhaps my cause is just. Or perhaps the arc has yet to bend far enough." He shrugged. "Today, we will see if that is the case." He pointed his sword at Jake. "I will fight you, Jake Sully, son of Earth, child of Pandora. By my word and honour, no harm will come to this world until I give the order. If you succeed in slaying me, as so many others have attempted, then I will know I was in error, and that the fires I have inflicted upon a thousand worlds were meant for me."

Jake remained silent.

"But if you fall, as I expect you will, then the Great Work will continue. Half of the na'vi race will die. That has always been the way, and it will always be so."

"Why?" Jake asked.

"What?"

"Why?" Jake repeated. "You've seen the People. You know they possess no threat to you."

"To me, no. To the universe, yes."

"You are the threat!"

Jake glanced at Neytiri, as she broke ranks with her people.

"What are you doing?" he whispered.

Neytiri ignored him, instead looking at the giant. "You are a monster," she said. "You've told us as such through your stories. Your very presence defiles this place."

The giant just looked at her. Not in rage, not in contempt, but something else. Something Jake couldn't quite put his finger on.

"You should leave," Neytiri said. "Even if what you said was true, that life will inevitably consume itself, the People live in balance with the world. We take only what is needed, and we, and our world, are all the better for it."

"That is true," the giant said.

"Then-"

"That is true…for now," he continued. "But what of tomorrow, my lady? The day after? A month, a year, a decade, a century? Every species across Creation was once as you were. But in the end, they always break their covenant with their world. In the end, they take more than what can be provided. Their numbers grow. They look to the stars, and seek more there as well. I have seen it." He looked at Jake. "Your mate has seen it."

Neytiri let out a hiss. "We are not Sky People."

"No. Any more than you are xandarians, or kree, or skrulls, or asgardians, any of the hundreds of races I have encountered. But it matters not. The ladder is long, and we all climb it eventually." He smiled at her, and Jake saw Neytiri recoil. For in it was not malice, but rather, affection.

"Blue," the giant whispered.

"What?"

"You have the skin of one of my daughters, and the eyes of another," he said. "I hope that when this is over, you will be among those spared. Perhaps I will raise you in a manner that befits your beauty."

Neytiri spat at him, and the giant frowned.

"Or perhaps your children," he said, glancing at Neteyam, Lo'ak, and Tuktirey. "And perhaps I will raise them better than those who came before them."

Neytiri said nothing. But as she turned around, Jake could see the fear in her eyes. The desperation. Neytiri wasn't stupid. She understood that if the giant let loose his forces upon Pandora, there would be no escape. Nowhere to hide. Everything depended on this piece of madness he had construed. Either Thanos would die, or half of the na'vi race would. And by estimates Jake recalled from Hell's Gate, that would mean casualties in the hundreds of millions. A genocide far smaller than what had befallen Earth, and so many other worlds apparently, but a genocide all the same.

"Neytiri…"

She passed by Jake, but came up to his ear. In one hand, she slipped something into the satchel that dangled from his waist. With the other, she cupped his cheek, bringing his face close to hers.

"Kill him," she whispered.

She kissed him, in all too brief an exchange. Then she returned to her people. The Omaticaya. The men, women, and children, who would watch the Dreamwalker do battle with the giant.

"Now then," the giant said. "Shall be begin?"

Jake picked up his spear and nodded. The giant swung his sword, cutting through air like some macabre practice for cutting through flesh.

"I am Thanos," the giant said. "I am the Last Son of Titan. And you…" He pointed the sword at Jake, "are a dead man."

He lunged at the Avatar.

Five minutes into the battle, and Jake could see that it was almost certainly lost.

Thanos had strength and height, and despite both, he did not lack in speed. He'd appreciated that from the start, and so far, it was that consideration which had kept him alive. Thanos swung his sword, but had so far only cleaved the air as he had prior. However, every time Jake struck out with his spear, he either hit air, or hit steel, or whatever the hell Thanos's sword as made out of. The giant had removed his armour, but it was a moot point, because Jake had so far been unable to reach any part of his body.

"You've fought better than most," Thanos said, as he parried another of Jake's strikes. "You should be proud."

"And you should be dead."

Thanos chuckled, as the two combatants circled each other under the Omaitcaya's new hometree. "I should be," he said. "By all rights, I should have died on Titan with my people. But fate, justice, whatever you call it, had other plans for me. Lady Death declared that Titan must die, so that the universe might live."

"Lady Death," Jake sneered. "You sure she just doesn't want you to kill as many people as possible?"

"If I sought the deaths of as many as possible, you would not be standing here today."

"No," Jake said. "Guess I wouldn't."

He let loose a flurry of blows. Thanos blocked every one of them. He swung his sword, and a tip of it cut Jake's arm. From the corner of his eye, he could see Neytiri wince. He could see Tuktirey let out a sob, and her brothers tending her. He could see the hope draining from his people's eyes.

"It is funny," Thanos said. "I once sought a means to do the Great Work in one go. Stones, containing the power of Creation. I would snap my fingers, like this…" He did so. "…and the sun would rise on a grateful universe."

"Magic stones," Jake said. "What, like unobtanium?"

"No, but unobtainable." Thanos sighed. "I have since learnt the truth of the world, Jake Sully. It owes you nothing. There is no quick path to salvation."

Jake swung the spear. Thanos sidestepped him.

"Tell me," Thanos asked. "Do you fight for Earth? Or just your new home?"

Jake yelled and kept swinging the spear. Again and again, Thanos blocked it.

"I ask, because no species ever truly forsakes their own people. Asgardians are never fully at home with guardians. Kree cannot share the bed with skrulls. And even my very daughters sought to avenge the people they once called theirs."

Jake, panting, nevertheless managed to smile. "Sounds like they had the right idea."

Thanos frowned. "I assure you, they did not. And they died less well than half of the human race did."

The smile turned into a frown.

"In case you're wondering, it was screaming."

A scream echoed throughout the canopy. The scream of the Dreamwalker. The scream of one who fought for not one, but two worlds. A scream that gave even the Mad Titan pause. With strength and speed he pressed the attack, his spear cutting through the air, and doing the dance of the People. The titan raised his sword, but it was too late. The spear found its target…

The titan's cheek. The Dreamwalker staggered back, exhausted, as Thanos put his hand to his cheek, purple blood dropping on purple skin. He looked at the Avatar, smiling.

"All that for a drop of blood," he whispered.

Jake said nothing.

"Let's see how well you bleed."

He let out a yell as Titan swung his blade. As he realized that Thanos had been playing with him all along. That this could have been ended eight minutes ago if he wanted. Thanos hadn't just been holding his forces back, he'd been holding himself back. And as important as that realization was, it meant nothing, as Thanos's sword cleaved his spear in two. As the tip of the blade cut through his stomach. As Jake fell, hearing Neytiri scream.

I'm sorry.

Thanos grabbed him by the neck and lifted him up. Like Quaritch had, all those years ago. Only now, Neytiri couldn't save him. If she fired, the people would die. Thanos had made that clear that this battle was between them, and them only.

I'm so sorry.

Thanos, for his part, looked sorry as well. "Such a shame," he whispered. "I hoped…" He looked aside, at the Omaticaya. At the legionnaires before and behind them. "I almost hoped that you would succeed where so many others failed. That you might prove me wrong."

Jake, struggling to breathe, whispered, "still…wrong…"

"The person who forsakes his own people for another tells me of right and wrong," Thanos said. "That either makes you the best avatar of justice in this universe, or the worst."

Jake said nothing. He was instead reaching for something in his satchel.

"You will die here, Jake Sully, child of the Sky People, father of the na'vi. You will die, half your people will die, and I will live."

Jake tried to whisper something, but the titan's grip was too tight.

"Last words?'" Thanos asked. He loosened his grip slightly. "Very well. Speak."

"You are the one…who's going to die."

"Really?" Thanos's lips formed a sneer. "How so?"

"Because I'm the one with the bomb."

"What?"

He stuck the shaped charge onto Thanos's chest. A high powered explosive stored in the armoury of Hell's Gate, retrieved a decade ago, and never used. Thanos looked down at in shock, and in the process, dropped Jake onto the ground. For a moment, their eyes made contact. The eyes of two warriors who believed in their causes. The eyes of murdered, and murderer both.

"It's over," Jake said.

He dived aside, as an explosion sent Thanos flying backwards, and him into unconsciousness.

"Jake!"

His head was spinning. The world was spinning. His body was being shaken.

"Jake!"

His eyes blinked, as if caught between the real world and the dream. As if his mind was in one place, and his body another. Like being in the link, he reflected, before Eywa had made the transfer of his mind permanent.

"Jake, wake up!"

He was technically already awake, but hearing Neytiri's voice…that brought him out of the dream. And the sight of her face, the tears in her eyes, her teeth in a smile…that put all the nightmares away.

"I'm awake," he moaned. "Stop shaking me."

She smiled, before hugging him. Before kissing him. Before helping him sit up.

"How long was I out?"

"Seconds." She hugged him even tighter. "Just seconds."

"And Thanos?"

She nodded across the clearing. To the smouldering body – a pair of legionnaires were looking down at it.

"You killed him," Neytiri whispered. "You actually killed him."

"I…" Jake smiled. "I did it." He let out a whoop. "I did it. I actually did i.

Neytiri smiled and hugged him again.

"It's actually over.

"Nothing is over…"

No.

Thanos. He was getting up.

It's not possible.

His body had been scarred by the blast, but somehow, he was still standing.

"Nothing is over," Thanos whispered, "while I'm still breathing."

Jake scrambled to his feet. Neytiri scrambled back. Thanos gripped his sword.

"Next time you try that…" Thanos whispered. "Go for the head."

He charged at Jake. He tried to reach for one of the halves of his spear. But it was too late. He was too slow, or Thanos was too fast, or perhaps it was the arc of the universe itself. Either way, the result was the same – him, being impaled on the sword and lifted up into the air.

Neytiri let out a cry. His children let out sobs. The Omaticaya began to scream. He, however, did nothing. His body was dead. His mind had yet to catch up with that fact. So in this limbo, in this place between life and death, between the dream and the real world, in the place where the Eye of Eywa did not see…he lived long enough to hear Thanos's words.

"I'd say next time, go for the head," he whispered. He leant in forward, and as his vision faded, as blood poured out of his mouth, Jake could see Thanos's scars. Left by the blast, and by those before him. "But there isn't going to be a next time."

He let the body of the Dreamwalker fall off his sword. And for a moment, Jake Sully, the Dreamwalker, could see the universe.

He could see Thanos give the order.

He could see the legionnaires begin to fire.

He could see the ships above let loose their lances of death.

He could see his people burn.

And then at last, as the dream ended, see nothing.

A/N

Why yes, this is a representation of Avengers: End Game overtaking Avatar in the box office, albeit only doing so by getting a second theatrical run. How could you tell?