A Twist Of Marvel || Infinity War

80. I'm Ready

Naomi had been itching to move since she felt the rocking of the ship as it touched ground, but Strange stayed stock still. He hadn't offered any conversation, and neither had Naomi. The way he had looked at her earlier sighed like a rock in her stomach, but she did her best to ignore it. She fiddled with her fingers and chew her lip to try and ease her anxiousness, but sitting in a cold cell while she heard the commotion of Thanos's mindless army fade into nothingness was almost unbearable. It had since been long enough that there was inevitably a battle waging outside, Thanos having released the obligatory CGI soldiers from the confines of the ship.

Naomi released a shaking breath when a loud explosion tore through the silence, the ship rattling slightly in response. She looked to Strange, who seemed to have expected the blow. "Still trust me?" He cocked a brow. Naomi grinned, springing up from the floor in relief.

"Let's go."

Stephen nodded, raising his arms in front of him, the sling ring present on his hand catching Naomi's eye. Circling his right hand in toward his outstretched left, he created a small, spinning circle of golden sparks that expanded his height. Despite her stress, Naomi couldn't help but feel awestruck at the simple display of magic. Strange motioned at her to follow, and quickly disappeared through the portal. She readily complied, unconsciously holding her breath as she entered through the ring of light.

On the other side, Naomi found herself still inside Thanos's ship, but in a different room with shelves stacked high on all four walls. It was an armory room, clearly having been ransacked considering the scarce weapons carelessly strewn about on the shelves and floor. Naomi was confused, since Stephen almost never utilized weapons outside of his own magic, especially not ones as crude as these. She glanced down at an axe by her feet, formed sloppily out of a hard, black material. Clearly these were arms for Thanos's army, and not for himself or the Black Order.

Stephen, however, didn't appear to notice, or care as he quickly scoured the room, scanning over the floor and all of the shelves. She couldn't imagine anything of importance could be in the room, but Naomi didn't raise her concern with the sorcerer. She simply wanted the fight to be over and done with so she could see her friends again, and be assured that Thanos would never see his plans fulfilled.

But when Stephen suddenly turned to her, holding a jagged sword, Naomi's initial reaction was confusion, glancing from the blade to Strange. "What?" She asked.

"You'll fight with us." Stephen said simply, thrusting the sword into her hands. Naomi was quiet as she inspected it, thumbing over the notches driven into the fat blade. It was nothing like the swords she had seen Valkyrie wield, or Loki's daggers. The handle was lumpy and cracked, the material digging uncomfortably into her hands as she held it.

"Stephen, I don't understand." Naomi tried, holding the longsword with both hands away from her. It was true that Naomi had practiced some with swords during her training with Valkyrie, but that hardly made her prepared to rush into an actual battle. Naomi relied on her uncanny knowledge of the MCU to survive in this dimension, not her fencing ability. "I want us to win the war, but I can't do anything on the field, Stephen."

Strange turned toward her, and the rock in Naomi's stomach grew heavier as she recognized the look in his eyes. "Fight with us, Naomi. You've got the armor, the weapon." He gestured to her ensemble, which Naomi supposed was a bit damning. She was still dressed in the Asgardian armor given to her after she was shot during the escape from Ragnarok, which felt like months ago at the rate she had been traveling. But Stephen knew better than to assume she could fight based off of her outfit, so Naomi pressed further with a sense of dread.

"Why? If I can't take down some CGI monster, what makes you think I can help win this thing?" Naomi approached Stephen, releasing one hand from her grip on the sword to gesture in the air. She was aware that her words sounded cowardly, but damn it, Naomi was a thinker, not a fighter. She knew that she would feel like shit if she was the only person not out on the battle ground, risking their life against Thanos, but she also knew that rationally, there wasn't anything she could do. Naomi's knowledge had gotten her, and everyone else this far, and now it was up to the Avengers to take down Thanos.