Chapter Summaries

Carol brought the injured Guardians and the Benatar safely to Earth, landing near the Avengers' headquarters in New York. The Guardians emerged onto Earth's soil and were met by Nick Fury and a group of agents.

• Quill remembered Gamora as the Benatar approached Earth, while Carol explained that Loren Morgan was Earth's most powerful and unpredictable defender.
• Carol protected the Benatar as it entered Earth's atmosphere and guided it to a landing site in New York so the Avengers would know about Thanos.
• Quill stepped onto Earth's soil, followed by Rocket, Groot, Drax, Mantis, and Carol.
• Nick Fury arrived with a group of people in black SUVs and approached the Benatar.

Fury brought Carol Danvers and the Guardians of the Galaxy to Avengers headquarters, where Carol warned the assembled heroes that Thanos was coming to Earth with two Infinity Stones. The heroes were left facing the approaching threat.

• Fury met Carol and Quill in New York and led them toward Avengers headquarters.
• Quill returned to Earth and grieved Gamora's absence as he followed Fury's convoy.
• Loren noticed the convoy and decided with Alice to wait before intervening.
• Fury required the Guardians to surrender their weapons before entering the conference room.
• Fury introduced Carol and the Guardians to the Avengers, and Carol announced that Thanos was coming with two Infinity Stones.

Carol explained that Thanos was coming to Earth to collect the remaining Infinity Stones and erase half of all life, prompting the Avengers to discuss how to stop him. Android 18 and Nymph arrived to warn them that Thanos’s fleet would reach Earth in three days, and Android 18 said she would handle him, leaving the team reassured but still preparing for battle.

• Carol told Tony, Steve, and the others that Thanos had obtained the Power Stone and Soul Stone and wanted the four remaining Infinity Stones to wipe out half of all life.
• The Avengers discussed intercepting Thanos in space or defending Wakanda, while Quill questioned whether Carol could defeat Thanos herself.
• Nick Fury suggested that Loren’s people should act, and Carol revealed that they had already arrived.
• Android 18 and Nymph entered through a Space Gate, showed a star map indicating Thanos’s fleet would reach Earth in three days, and said Android 18 would deal with Thanos.
• Nymph warned the Avengers to worry about beings stronger than Thanos, then she and Android 18 left through the Space Gate.
• Fury and Natasha said they trusted Loren’s people to defeat Thanos, while Tony promised to finish upgrading his armor within three days.

With three days remaining before Thanos’s fleet arrived, Fury assigned the heroes their roles and Avengers Headquarters prepared for battle. Tony upgraded his armor, Steve trained, and the others gathered intelligence, modified weapons, or sharpened their combat skills.

• Fury assigned Natasha and Clint to contact global defense systems, Steve to plan ground combat, Carol to delay the fleet, and Quill to fight alongside the Avengers and offer tactical advice.
• Tony worked in the lab to upgrade his armor, while JARVIS reported that the new suit was more resistant to impacts and faster.
• Steve cleared his mind and practiced precise shield movements in the training room.
• Natasha searched for intelligence from a Moscow safe house, while Rocket modified an energy rifle and Groot carved a wooden figurine for someone.
• Drax sparred with Steve, enduring a shield strike and throwing him off before the two agreed to fight again.

As Thanos’s fleet approached Earth, the Avengers prepared to meet the invading force. The chapter ended as the warships emerged above New York and Wakanda raised its energy shield.

• Mantis synchronized her emotions with the plants in the Avengers Headquarters garden to prepare to help survivors after the battle.
• Carol spotted Thanos’s fleet beyond Saturn and reported that it would reach Earth in two days.
• Three days later, Carol warned the Avengers that the fleet had crossed Mars’s orbit and its advance force was entering Earth’s atmosphere.
• Tony, Steve, Natasha, Rocket, Groot, Drax, Mantis, and Quill rushed to join the defense, with Quill hoping to find Gamora.
• The warships emerged from a rift in the sky above New York, and Wakanda activated its energy shield.

The Avengers and Wakandan forces fought the Outriders as Thanos's flagship shattered Wakanda's shield. Thanos confronted Carol and brushed off Tony's attack, while the battle continued to rage around them.

• The Avengers joined T'Challa and Wakanda's defenders as Outriders fell onto the shield and began draining its energy.
• Tony opened a gap in the shield and attacked the Outriders, while Carol, Rocket, Groot, Drax, Mantis, Natasha, Hawkeye, and Steve fought across the battlefield.
• Thanos's flagship fired its main cannon and shattered Wakanda's shield, allowing the Outriders to flood into the city.
• Thanos descended to confront Carol and claimed he had come to reclaim the Infinity Stones.
• Thanos struck Carol with a Power Stone shockwave, and Tony attacked him from behind with the Mark LII Armor.
• Thanos endured Tony's attack and called him an insect.

Thanos overwhelmed the Avengers in Wakanda and unleashed a devastating energy sphere capable of destroying the battlefield. Carol charged straight toward the sphere as it began erasing everything in its path.

• Thanos pinned Tony with the Power Stone, threw Steve and Drax aside, and struck Carol hard enough to send her through Wakanda's wall.
• Carol rose again and held back a fissure Thanos tore through the battlefield, while Tony attacked him with his armor beams.
• Thanos trapped Tony in a force field and formed a massive sphere of energy with the Power and Soul Stones.
• Carol warned everyone to retreat, but Thanos said killing them all was the purpose and sent the sphere toward Wakanda.
• The sphere began vaporizing the ground and flattening everything around it, and Carol charged toward it.

Carol, Tony, Steve, and the others struggled to hold back Thanos's Power Stone until Android 18 arrived and crushed the energy sphere. Carol survived but had burned away much of her life, and Android 18 landed at the crater's edge.

• Carol burned through her life force to slow the Power Stone's expanding sphere, while Tony joined her with his Palm Cannons.
• Steve used his Vibranium shield to block the sphere's radiation as Rocket, Groot, and Drax tried to help; Natasha and Clint fought off flanking Outriders.
• Carol held the sphere in midair, and Thanos waited for her and the others to run out of strength.
• Android 18 descended through the rift and crushed the sphere with her fist until it vanished.
• Tony caught Carol as she fell, and Okoye's medics carried her away alive but aged and gravely weakened.
• Android 18 landed at the edge of the enormous crater in Wakanda.

Android 18 overwhelmed Thanos in Wakanda, stopping his Infinity Stone-powered attacks and crushing his armor with her strength. She left him badly injured but still in her grip after he insisted that his willpower and cause justified his actions.

• Android 18 crushed Thanos's Power Stone energy sphere, and he recognized her as an opponent unlike anyone he had faced.
• Thanos attacked Android 18 with the Power and Soul Stones, but she caught his fist and cracked the Infinity Gauntlet with her grip.
• Android 18 seized both of Thanos's hands and swung him into the ground, smashing him into Wakanda's vitrified terrain.
• Android 18 lifted Thanos by his wrist as he declared that his actions preserved the universe's balance and his willpower was stronger.
• Android 18 dodged Thanos's punch and struck his chest with her elbow, shattering his armor and making him bleed.

Android 18 defeated Thanos and took the Infinity Gauntlet, then Alice killed him with the Mind Stone after telling him Loren had considered her the backup plan. Thanos died in the crater, ending his threat to Loren and Earth.

• Android 18 punched Thanos into temporary paralysis and removed the Infinity Gauntlet, taking the Power Stone and Soul Stone.
• Alice descended into the crater and told Thanos that Loren had sent her to ensure his complete elimination.
• Thanos complained that Loren had not come in person and vowed to find him after rising again.
• Alice fired a beam from the Mind Stone that separated Thanos's body into two halves and killed him.

Android 18 and Alice killed Thanos, took the Infinity Gauntlet, and ended the immediate threat to Earth. They left the aftermath to the Avengers and returned to Loren with the two Infinity Stones.

• Android 18 crushed Thanos's energy sphere, and Alice used the Mind Stone to cut him in half.
• Alice and Android 18 recovered the Infinity Gauntlet as the Dark Order fleet retreated after Thanos's death.
• Tony questioned Android 18 about her strength and why she had not intervened earlier, and she explained that she followed Loren's orders.
• Steve thanked Android 18 and Alice for saving Earth, while Alice recorded data on the battle and its participants.
• Android 18 refused to tell Nick Fury what Loren planned to do with the gems, then walked into a Space Gate and vanished with the gauntlet.

After the battle, Alice told Quill that Gamora could not be brought back, and he chose to keep living while hoping to find her someday. At Morgan Manor, Loren took the Power Stone and Soul Stone into his body, giving him the power of four Infinity Stones.

• Alice told Quill that the Soul Stone’s price could not be reversed, but urged him to accept reality and live well.
• Natasha comforted Quill, and he followed her back to camp, saying he needed to keep living and find Gamora.
• Android 18 returned to Loren with the Infinity Gauntlet containing the Power Stone and Soul Stone.
• Loren explained that the Infinity Stones did not make Thanos invincible and decided to keep them from circulating again.
• Loren separated the two stones from the gauntlet and devoured them, bringing the number of Infinity Stones fused with his body to four.

After Thanos’s death, Ebony Maw resolved to continue his mission despite the Dark Order’s losses and dwindling supplies. As the damaged fleet searched for a place to resupply, two Skrull ships approached Sanctuary II without explanation.

• Ebony Maw, Proxima Midnight, and Cull Obsidian mourned Thanos while the surviving Dark Order fleet drifted through space.
• A Dark Order officer reported that the fleet had twenty-eight usable warships, limited supplies, and fuel for thirty days of travel.
• Ebony Maw chose to continue Thanos’s mission and ordered the fleet toward the nearest supply point.
• The sensor officer reported two unidentified ships approaching Sanctuary II without firing or sending a signal.
• Ebony Maw recognized the approaching ships as Skrull vessels, including the mothership Redemption, and faintly smiled.

After learning the Skrulls had approached them, Ebony Maw ordered the damaged Dark Order fleet to attack and seize their mothership. He captured the Skrull commander and forced him to submit, leaving the Skrulls under his control.

• Ebony Maw rejected the officer’s suggestion to detour and ordered the Dark Order fleet to capture the Skrull mothership and take its people alive.
• Twenty-eight Dark Order warships attacked, but the Skrull mothership’s shields held and its guns destroyed one of their ships.
• Ebony Maw tore open the mothership’s shield with his Telekinesis, and Proxima Midnight and Cull Obsidian breached the hull for Dark Order soldiers to board.
• Proxima Midnight and Cull Obsidian fought through Skrull defenders while Ebony Maw walked to the mothership’s bridge.
• Ebony Maw disarmed and restrained the Skrull commander with his Telekinesis, demanded the mothership and its people, and received the commander’s submission.

After capturing the Skrull mothership, Ebony Maw learned that the Skrulls had developed a way to send objects through time using the Quantum Realm. He ordered their scientists to build a working time travel device anchored to the Mind Stone, and seventy-two hours later the machine activated.

• Ebony Maw took command of the Skrull mothership after its remaining crew surrendered.
• The Skrulls' chief scientist explained that their research into the Quantum Realm could send objects to other points in time, but lacked precise targeting.
• Ebony Maw proposed using an Infinity Stone as a temporal anchor, and the chief scientist said its signature could make targeting nearly exact.
• Ebony Maw ordered the scientists to build a time travel device aimed at five years in the past, using the Mind Stone as its anchor, and gave them seventy-two hours.
• Seventy-two hours later, the ring-shaped device activated as the twelve hundred scientists and technicians stood at their stations.

Ebony Maw traveled five years into the past to warn Thanos that he would die before completing his mission. After hearing how Loren Morgan’s forces killed him, Thanos asked whether Maw had come to change the future.

• Ebony Maw entered the temporal vortex and arrived aboard Sanctuary II five years earlier.
• Thanos recognized Ebony Maw and ordered him brought aboard, then asked why he had appeared from outside their time.
• Ebony Maw told Thanos about the Infinity Stones, the Avengers, and the events leading to Thanos’s defeat.
• Ebony Maw revealed that Loren Morgan’s two subordinates had taken Thanos’s Infinity Gauntlet and killed him in thirty seconds.
• Thanos asked Ebony Maw if he had come to change the future.

Thanos decided to pursue the Infinity Stones and sacrificed Gamora on Vormir to obtain the Soul Stone. He then retrieved the Power Stone from Morag, bringing his total to three, before his fleet entered the Dark Elves’ region.

• Ebony Maw urged Thanos to act before his enemies grew stronger, and Thanos decided to begin with the Soul Stone.
• Thanos took Gamora to Vormir, where she stepped off the cliff and died, allowing the Soul Stone to appear.
• Thanos claimed the Soul Stone and set it in his Infinity Gauntlet beside the Mind Stone.
• Thanos traveled to Morag, retrieved the Power Stone from its flooded temple, and added it to the gauntlet.
• Thanos's fleet entered the Dark Elves’ region, where the survivors of Svartalfheim had waited for thousands of years to seek revenge.

Thanos learned that the Reality Stone was sealed beneath Svartalfheim and led his fleet to claim it. Malekith prepared the Dark Elves to defend their mothership as Thanos's forces approached.

• Ebony Maw told Thanos that the Reality Stone lay beneath Svartalfheim and that the Dark Elves could not break Bor's seal themselves.
• Thanos decided to take the Reality Stone, confident that his three Infinity Stones could break the seal.
• Malekith's sensors detected an unknown fleet of more than three hundred warships approaching Svartalfheim.
• Malekith ordered the Dark Elves to raise shields, prepare weapons, and launch combat craft for defense.

Thanos shattered the Dark Elves' mothership shield, entered the bridge, and forced Malekith to help him find the Reality Stone. Malekith faced the choice of obeying Thanos or risking the power of the Infinity Stones.

• Thanos's fleet fired an all-out volley that weakened the Dark Elves' mothership shield, while the ship's return fire failed to penetrate the fleet's defenses.
• Thanos walked through space to the mothership and used the Power Stone to shatter its shield and tear open its hull.
• Thanos entered the bridge and confronted Malekith, identifying him as the Dark Elves' ruler.
• Thanos told Malekith that the throne had changed hands and demanded that he help locate the Reality Stone sealed in Svartalfheim.
• Malekith questioned why Thanos needed him and considered refusing, but Thanos raised the Infinity Gauntlet bearing three stones.

Malekith agreed to lead Thanos to the Reality Stone after Thanos threatened his people and demanded that the Dark Elves serve him. They reached the rift on Svartalfheim where Bor had sealed the Stone five kilometers underground.

• Thanos told Malekith he would take the Reality Stone and make the Dark Elves serve him afterward.
• Thanos threatened to destroy the mothership with the Power Stone, and Malekith agreed to serve him to spare his people.
• Malekith led Thanos and Ebony Maw across the ruins of Svartalfheim toward the buried Reality Stone.
• Ebony Maw sensed the Stone beneath the ground and said Bor's seal had weakened over thousands of years.
• Malekith told Thanos the Reality Stone lay five kilometers underground inside Bor's sealed space, which only the power of the Infinity Stones could break.