((A/N: I'll say it in advance: I haven't the faintest idea about the Marvel comics, my familiarity begins and ends with the MCU. What I do know intimately is Norse mythology. So I'm (probably) going to adopt (at least) one character from the mythology with no knowledge of what that person does in the Marvel comics. He hasn't shown up in the MCU, though, so I'll stick to the source material I know (more or less).

I don't know how frequently I'll manage to update, and I quite honestly don't know how I'll get to the point where I want to end up. So there's an excellent chance that I'll be just as surprised by what will happen as you.

Also, I said I'd write any potential sequel after the release of Infinity War. There are two reasons why I'm not waiting. The first one that occurred to me was the fact that I'd actually have to wait for two movies, since Infinity War is going to have two parts (kind of, maybe, not in name but in spirit or some such). That means I have no idea if I'll be any the wiser after the upcoming movie, nor do I know what year I'm placing this one in. I'll leave that vague. The second reason was simply that the trailer was severely disconcerting. So this is my take on what I think will happen. Will have happened. At least as far as the fates of some of the characters are concerned.

My title is a song by Delain, the chapter heading is taken from the same one.))

1. You Know It's Not a Day for Heroes

Thor awoke with a start in the middle of the night. He was alone, the bed beside him horribly empty and it would remain like that. And as if that fact alone wasn't unbearable enough, every time he closed his eyes he had to relive what would always be the worst moments in his life. He himself drifting in and out of consciousness; so many of his people dead; Loki, somehow, miraculously, almost unharmed and walking over rows upon rows of corpses towards Thanos; offering the Tesseract; offering it in exchange for Thor's life; all that in a haze of pain that swallowed almost all sound except the beating of Thor's own heart. And then, clear as day, Thanos's voice as he took the Infinity Stone from Loki's unresisting hand. 'I will bargain with you. But this isn't the price. A life can only be bought with another life.' And still, Loki hadn't resisted, hadn't even flinched as a gauntleted hand grabbed his throat and lifted him up. Hadn't struggled until the lack of air took his pride and he flailed, feebly and pointlessly. And then Thanos had left, had left with Loki still grasped in one hand, now limp, swinging sickeningly at every step that monster took, away from Thor, away from the Asgardians, leaving Thor without even a body to bury.

Now the war was over. Thanos was no more, but the cost had been high. Too high, Thor couldn't help thinking. Not all Asgardians were dead. The titan had moved to attack earth after he had taken Loki from Thor, had kept his word to spare Thor for now and had deemed the rest of them too irrelevant to bother dealing with them then and there.

Now they were in a S.H.I.E.L.D. facility that was large enough to house them for the time being, but they couldn't stay here. They would ask to be allowed to settle on the coast of Norway. Thor swallowed past the lump in his throat. He was the king of relics on a planet that wouldn't survive its indigenous inhabitants long enough for even the oldest of the Asgardian refugees. He had lost his family, many of his friends, and an uncountable number of his people.

But that wasn't the crazy part. The crazy part was that something in him refused to believe it. He rationalised that this was due to the fact that Loki had cheated death twice, had tricked Thor into believing he was dead. But this time was different. This time, Loki wouldn't let him grieve while he laughed at how soppy Thor was. This time, he'd let Thor know. And that was where the crazy came in, insisting that Thor would feel it if Loki was truly dead, wouldn't be caught up in denial. He had grieved before. For Loki, for his mother, for his father. But this time … he grieved for his friends, but he couldn't do it for Loki, because every fibre of his body protested against accepting that he was torn from him for good. That denial gorged itself on its own lie that somewhere, Loki was alive, his magic strong enough to keep them connected. It was no wonder he had nightmares. If this continued, he would be unable to rule anyone, even himself.

Thor forced himself to lie back down. To try again to sleep. If only until the apparition plagued him again.

Ϡ

It was day five. Not the first day five, but the … ah. He couldn't be sure. Day five, anyway. Five days without passing out was good. His record was at seven. Then he'd gone and ruined it by trying to get the hell away. Without success, apparently. He'd come to hours or days later, still trapped.

Loki gave a tentative and futile tug at the shackles that chained him to the rock and somehow inhibited his magic. When he'd first woken up on this forsaken place, he had burst into a fit of hysterical laughter. Oh, it was just perfect, considering how he and Thor had made fun of the foolish tales the Midgardians told, using their names but getting everything wrong. Tales about Loki having Balder killed with a mistletoe of all things; of Thor being a mindless brute; of Loki being tied to a rock with the intestines of his son. He didn't even have children. Not as far as he was aware, at any rate. And now here he was, chained to a mountain. There was no snake and no venom, but the ground was grumbling underneath him. With what, he couldn't say. He couldn't even say for sure on which planet he was, but he was prepared to guess that it was the Earth. And it was freezing cold.

Anyway. It was day five. Loki listened into himself. He wasn't completely without his magic, but something about his chains kept him from using it. He couldn't teleport or transform or use any other means to get away. How long did it take a jotun to starve to death? Long, it seemed, since he wasn't showing signs of it so far, but he couldn't spend an eternity here. And the tremors in the ground spoke a language of their own. This place was bad news. Somehow, he had to manage to flee. Either that or find a way to protect himself against whatever it was that was brewing here. Or, of course, to do what Thanos had meant him to do and perish, after all.

There had been a time where Loki had been desperate enough to attempt to end his life. He'd failed, had ended up with Thanos and had learned what it was like to be tortured in mind and body. Then, he had found the thought that Thor believed he was dead hilarious. He'd left his brother to mourn him a second time, had felt tremendous satisfaction to know that Thor suffered the same way he had when he'd learned he had no family. Now, he wanted nothing more than to tell him that he was alive and would be fine. He screamed with all his soul, but with the chains stifling his magic, he doubted it was doing anyone any good.

He had to stop. It was a waste of his resources. If he wanted to get out of this, he needed one of two things: outside help or enough time to collect himself, until he was strong enough to get the hell away. The former would be a miracle. The latter was a challenge. But another rumble reminded him that the odds weren't in his favour. He wouldn't get to another day five, unless he was very wrong.

Ϡ

'All right.' Tony clapped his hands together and looked at the lot in front of him. 'Do we have any news about the missing people?'

'Missing persons.'

He looked at Pepper. 'Yes. But I don't like that. Persons sounds so cold. Derogatory, even. We're talking about friends here, in some cases. Allies, at least.'

'All right. You're right. Missing people. The thing is, not everyone knows who we know is safe or dead. You may want to recap that.'

'I don't want to. But I will. Those that are safe are depressingly simple to state. They're standing in this room. Our casualties include Steven Rogers, James Rhodes, James Barnes, Wanda Maximoff and, of course, Vision.' He swallowed, glued his eyes to Pepper's before continuing. 'There is a list available in the entrance hall. If any of you know the whereabouts of some of the missing people, you can tell me or anyone from S.H.I.E.L.D. really and we'll update it. Our first task, right now, is to regroup. But that isn't where this ends. There are several things that need doing. Among the most important ones are the Asgardians. S.H.I.E.L.D. will contact the Norwegian government on your behalf. We don't expect much … no, in fact, any resistance on their part. What you, Thor, specifically, and your fighters, have done for us, what your healers are still doing for us, places humanity so deep in your debt it cannot be repaid.'

'We do not want anything else. But we need a place to live.'

Tony smiled at the God of Thunder and nodded. 'I know. It will be done. So. Is there anything else, anything we are forgetting? Anything that should be on our radar but has slipped our attention?'

'One thing,' Fury said. 'It's minor, but it was something we noticed. The activity of the Eyjafjallajökull.'

'Ah. Of course. For those who slept through 2010, it's a volcano in Iceland. While it has shown some signs of activity late in 2017, it shouldn't have erupted that soon.'

'Excuse me …'

Tony tried and failed to pin a name on the agent who had spoken. 'Talk to me. I'm not going to bite. Why am I even doing this?'

'Because you were the first to open his mouth into the awkward silence of this meeting,' Clint said.

'Well. I'm not above learning from my mistakes. But seriously, Nick, you're better at this. Or Phil, you like talking. No? No. So, you had a question.'

'Yes. I mean … could Thanos have done that, even? Force a volcano to erupt?'

'First of all, the volcano hasn't erupted yet. It's going to, however, and soon. The truth is, we don't know what he could have done with the Aether. We suspect that it is possible, and the timing seems strange otherwise.' Tony massaged the bridge of his nose. 'Let's … not make this a priority. We have evacuated the people in its vicinity, and that should be that. We cannot stop the eruption.'

'But maybe we can find out why Thanos caused it,' Natasha said. 'I'd like to go there. He must have had a reason. Also he might have left behind some artefact we don't know about, something that could still be a threat after he's dead. Also … frankly, I need something to do.'

Coulson nodded. 'You'll get a team to fly you over. It'll have to be soon, though, we expect the eruption to start in three days.'

'Fine. Anything else? No? Good. You know where to find us if something comes up. And don't forget about the casualties and missing people. Also, questions. If you have any questions at all, ask.' He raised his arms. 'We all have lost friends, have made sacrifices … Our victory came at a very high cost. But we have won. Despite the destructive power of our enemy, we have succeeded. Survivor's guilt is a very human thing to feel, I know I have to fight it, but it won't help us in the near future. We have to act. We have to …' He took a deep breath. 'We have to deserve being alive when so many are not. Thank you all.'

((Tony Stark is someone I fully expect to die in Infinity War, but I cannot bring myself to kill him. The people he lists are also on my list of predicted deaths. Them and Loki. And Pepper's going to get pregnant.))