A great hole was ripped in the very heart of the cosmos, from Earth to Homeworld, Sakaar to what remained of Xandar, the Jungle Moon to the Human Zoo, and nothing would ever be the same.
For in a small forest on Earth, a madman with the Infinity Gauntlet had snapped his fingers. And just like that, half the universe died.
In An Instant
is a crossover between Steven Universe and the Marvel Cinematic Universe at the end of Avengers: Infinity War written by Doc_Cairo and E350tb. Has not been updated since 2019.
Tropes included in this work include:
- Alternate Universe: Leaving aside the obvious Crossover between the Marvel Cinematic Universe and Steven Universe, Clint Barton/Hawkeye is directly stated to not have survived the Snap (though his family did), and Shuri is also confirmed to have lived. Endgame revealed that the reverse was true, with Hawkeye surviving to become a vigilante, while his family and Shuri died.
- Several other plot points seem to have been averted from Endgame, such as Carol Danvers not returning to Earth, and Thor not falling into an alcoholic depression after his failure to kill Thanos. Justified as this was written long before Endgame came out.
- Lars and the surviving Off-Colors are the ones who save Tony and Nebula.
- Apologetic Attacker: After Thor poofs Holly Blue Agate, he apologizes to her gem for disrupting her physical form- ignoring that she tried to hit him with an electrified whip. Though given that he's Thor, it didn't amount to much anyway.
- Big Damn Heroes:
- Two examples are how Steve gets saved after he's poisoned by Scorpion. First, Pepper Potts-Stark shows up in an Iron Man suit and knocks out Scorpion, and afterward, Steven is able to use his healing spit to cure the poison.
- Lars and the remaining Off-Colors are the ones to rescue Nebula and Tony from Titan's surface.
- Cardboard Prison: Subverted: While Scorpion, Vulture, and Rhino, common Spider-Man villains, were all able to escape confinement, it's only after half the universe was killed by Thanos, and they had help from an unknown outside source.
- Crossover Relatives: Suitcase Sam, a suitcase salesman in Beach City, is revealed to have actually been Barney Barton, Hawkeye's brother. He was an excellent archer and a former criminal, but reformed and moved to Beach City. The Avengers first meet the main cast when they try to recruit him to serve as a replacement for the Snapped Hawkeye, but he too was Snapped.
- Dark Reprise: Ruby sings "Here Comes a Thought," but the lyrics are changed to reflect her grief over Sapphire's death.
- Downer Beginning: The first chapter features all the victims of Thanos's Snap from Steven Universe.
- Face Death with Dignity: A few of the victims of Thanos take their death surprisingly well.
- Greg's last words are him trying to comfort Steven.
- Nanefua spends her last seconds telling everyone to get to safety even as she disintegrates.
- Upon realizing that she's disintegrating, Blue Diamond casually comments that perhaps now she will have peace.
- Heroic BSoD: The Crystal Gems who survive all go into one. Steven and Connie form Stevonnie for a few days, saying they can't deal with it apart.
- Killed Off for Real: Besides the many people who already died in Marvel, we have... note
- Frankly, there's more after that, and these are just the ones already known. Given the scope of the Snap and its goal- to halve the number of lives in the entire universe- the number of people snapped on Earth alone is in the billions.
- The Leader: Sadie accidentally becomes this to the human population of Beach City.
- Miss Exposition: Padparadscha is responsible for telling the Off Colors that Thanos was responsible for the deaths of half the universe.
- Mugging the Monster: Holly Blue Agate mistakes Thor for one of the Zoo's inhabitants and tries to send him back to the "containment area" by force. It goes badly for her.
- Squee: Lars does this when he meets Tony.
- Thor is visibly fascinated after he realizes that he's meeting gems, as he was previously convinced their race had gone extinct.
- While he doesn't squee, Steven is pretty clearly in awe when he meets Steve Rogers.
- Tranquil Fury: When Yellow sees Blue has been dusted, she calmly tells Blue Pearl to get the ship to her location now as she's going to fight Thanos.
- Tyrant Takes the Helm: Downplayed - it's stated that due to the deaths of most of the cabinet and the president and vice president after the Snap, Thaddeus Ross is now president, but he doesn't seem to be doing anything overtly bad towards the Avengers or superhumans in general yet, given all the damage done by Thanos.
- Underestimating Badassery: Yellow Diamond thinks Thanos isn't a threat at first, even after he assembles the Infinity Gauntlet (though, to be fair, she didn't think that the Stones or Gauntlet were real) - and she is apparently convinced she can still take him down after he pulls his Badass Fingersnap.
- We Have Reserves: Yellow Diamond doesn't seem to care about the deaths of half of all gemkind - up until Blue Diamond is "dusted." And White Diamond doesn't even care about that, saying that with all of the organic worlds now "up for the taking" it was a good thing.
- Worf Had the Flu: Connie is surprised that Peridot was actually poofed by Black Widow's shock round, given that Peridot had previously had a boulder dropped on her and come out relatively unscathed. Steven speculates that it was because she'd been working herself to exhaustion since the Snap.
