A/N: Warning: This is going to be a long author's note. I apologise for it. But bear with me.

I just can't believe the kind of response I've been getting. I had never imagined it. All of you are so kind. A special thanks to SaltyCandy Lost frost Wolf and FlareOfTheMidnightPanther for leaving such an encouraging review.

As I said before, I will take liberties with Loki's magic. I'll give it a source, some more powers and limits. This and the upcoming chapters will all have serious undertones and will mostly be dramatic. After all, they are preparing for the greatest wars of all times. Also, since we didn't really see the character of Valkyrie apart from her drunkard warrior persona, I'm going to make her kind, friendly and as someone who likes to take control of the people around her. As for Thanos, since we know absolutely nothing about him and his reasons and there is still a lot of time left till IW, I'll try to make him as flexible as possible so that I can conform my description to the movie description later. Still, I can't guarantee a fully canonical Thanos.

Tragedies, Strategies and Proximity

Ever since Sif had been banned from the training grounds, she had been confined to her chambers. But it wasn't the chambers that were getting on her nerves. It was Loki's words. What he said. What he meant. And what part of it was true. That was, all of it. Having trained in the indoor gym for days, Sif needed air. She was used to training in the green-gold pastures of Asgard with real warriors, not machines.

But Sif knew she had to go somewhere she could train under the clear sky. And two days later, she found just the place. It had been before her eyes all along. If only she bothered to look out her bedroom window more often. It was going to be Peter Parker's practice arena. She'll be visiting in the dead of the night. It was right behind the HQs. It wasn't a training ground inside the premises so she thought she wouldn't be breaking any rules either. And the space was ample. The ground stretched for almost a mile.

Sif wondered why he was the one receiving such special privileges…after all he was just a child, an annoying one at that. So what if his father was sponsoring everything? (Yes she thought Peter was Tony's son).

This also led her to question the fact that why exactly was Peter getting a new suit upgrade every other day but Agent Barton was still running armour less shooting pointy sticks at villains she heard Loki had stopped with his bare hands in New York. Loki.

She stopped herself right there, tonight was hers and she would not upset herself by thinking about Loki. Not at all. She thought, she would never understand mortals anyway. And why did she care? She wanted a place to train and she had one! If anything, she was thankful for the nepotism.

Sif reached under her bed to retrieve a silver scabbard with engravings of horses, and warriors on it. It was the scene of her first ever battle. Heimdall had gifted her this ancient Claymore sword in this silver scabbard. It was that one time she felt like she even had a brother.

She had called it Lady Moon Cleaver and hadn't parted with it ever since. She had been her only companion in so many tragedies so why not now? She pulled the sword out grazing at the the moon dust blade.

"How doth My Lady Claymore? It's been a long long time." she asked her beloved sword caressing the sword's brass grip and silver steel. She smiled at her as one does at an old friend.

Her armour was long gone and her hair was no longer in the confines of a ponytail. She wore highly elastic full-length black leather slaxs and a sleeveless red middy which reached mid thighs.

First, she threw her Moon Cleaver out of the window, which fell down with a loud thud. She was second to go. She pulled out a long rope she had one morning stolen from Stark's warehouse from her cupboard. Expertly knotted the end of it to her window pane and slid to the end of it. Once on the floor, she looked around. Quite pleased with herself.

Scene/Change

"2996", "2997", "2998", she mentally counted while pulling herself up two-thousand nine-hundred and ninety-eighth time. She had found a salmon ladder in the arena and doubled it up as a pull up bar. She was in the mood of working every muscle she could find in her body.(Not every muscle of course if you know what I mean hehe ). Having completed the 3000th pull up, Sif went on to do push ups, then crunches, and all the exercises ever known to mankind before finally... oh dammit! she forgot to bring her sword along today. And she was exhausted anyway. And so, she decided to retire for the night only to come back the next night, the next, and all the nights ahead. Sif found solace here, like she had met an old friend, she had met herself, again. And at end of one of these very nights, on a fateful break of dawn, Loki looked out his chamber window to see a very flustered Sif swinging the famed Moon Cleaver in the air as if she was Sif's own limb. She hadn't changed at all. He watched her as she bounced about in the field, air brushing the lose hair off her face. He followed her every action, trying to predict her next move, he started observing each eye movement, each breath, each gasp. And once he started, he could not stop.

Scene/Change

Loki was summoned to the central building of the Head Quarters to office number 03 . He was meant to report at sharp 5 PM. He also hadn't recieved any training schedules this week either. Which gave him a lot of time to practise his magic and so he didn't complain. On the day of schedule, he left his chambers at 4:55, entered the central building and made his way up the white stairs through the hardwood floor of the corridor and found Office 03 at the end of the corridor. Before he knocked on the door the door opened. Maria Hill nodded at him only to move aside for him to see the Director Nick Fury sitting in front of a long high-table. He had one palm of his hand on the other strectched out in front of the high table.

Welcome to the Avengers official strategy team. Have a seat."

"Strategy team. This couldn't go well in anyway ." Loki thought, still confused.

Loki suspiciously approached the table and noticed from the corner of his eye that Natasha Romanoff, Princess Shuri of Wakanda, Dr. Stupid Strange (damn that Nick Fury) and the red android Vision were sitting on either sides of the table. He took the empty seat next to Nato.

"Soldiers. You sit here at a very special position. We have selected you all for your knowledge of alien psychology, war tactics and of course magic." Fury finished by nodding at Strange. Loki frowned at this. If anyone here had knowledge of magic, it was him. He glared at Strange as he sat oppositte him with a smug expression, elbows on the table and fingers pressed together forming a temple. Loki narrowed his eyes at him. Strange rolled his.

"Now let's see if we have a representative from all sections. We've got Romanoff from the Original Avengers. We have Princess Shuri from Wakanda. Loki...of Asgard." Fury said taking pauses at apt moments, looking Loki in the eye while imitating his words when he first met him. Loki looked bored. That wasn't what got to his nerves, what he said next did.

"And we have Dr. Stephen Strange as a representative of sorcerors of... ."

"HAH!", Loki scoffed aloud before the Director could complete.

"May I offer you a cough Syrup? " Strange asked sarcastically.

"Haven't your worn out books taught you that Asgardians don't get these pathtic midgardian diseases? "

"Haven't your maesters on Asgard taught you how to recognise sarcasm? "

Loki's eyes narrowed further. Maria Hill made to intervene but Nato stopped her with the movement of her eyes. She had a smug grin on her face. Shuri did too. So did Nick Fury. Vision just blinked at both of them. Most of them were enjoying this.

"You're just so proud of your little hoola hoops you jump in and out of don't you? " Loki retorted.

Loki's eyes were so narrowed right now that he did not notice how, of it's own accord, the right end of Dr. Strange's cloak rose and swiftly slapped Loki left cheek. The impact of the slap left Loki stunned and humiliated.

"That STUPID THING! You think I can't charm my clothes to hit you? What are you like a century old to be doing such childish tricks? " Loki babbled as he tried to catch hold of the Cloak's free end and failing everytime.

"I apologise. My cloak isn't as good as hiding annoyance as the rest of the people in this room are" Strange said as Loki was shoved back in his seat by an unknown force of magic. He narrowed his eyes again.

"At least my magic comes from my skill...not some jewellery." Loki finally said with a smug expression.

Just then, a hairy hand rose up from below the table to the right of Strange and banged the table hard, hysterical laughing immediately followed. Whoever he was, he laughed as if a hybrid of a raccoon and horse was high on heroin and coughing for his life. Shuri, who was since long trying to control herself burst into laughter too. Natasha looked down the entire time and laughed as softly as she could. Dr. Strange remained calm as ever and to Loki had had enough.

"AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA Jewellery AHAHAHAHA AAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA you got HAHAHAHA Strange got roasted" the voice behind the hairy hand said as a the creature raised himself above and stood on the chair to become visible to all.

Still confused, Loki asked,

"What in the nine realms is this Raccoon..."

"I AM NOT A RACCOON... wait, did you say raccoon? Oh MAN that's right HAHAHHAHA"

Rocket broke into another fit of uncontrolled laughter.

Loki gave Nick Fury a "what on the nine realms look".

"There was no other representative of the Guardians available so... " Nick Fury said watching a still very amused Rocket with a terrified expression. Loki watched Rocket opened mouthed while Strange maintained his disposition.

Rocket had no plans of stopping just yet.

"Hey man! (he adressed Loki) you just (he shut his eyes for 3 second to giggle) got EVEN with STEPHEN".

And as he said the word "Stephen" he made to pat Dr. Strange on his shoulder, sadly, he patted a little too hard and Strange fell back with his chair. Good thing that before his head made contack with the floor the cloak spread itself out around his head and just barely saved him.

Loki couldn't control himself and started looking in another direction to supress a giggle.

Shuri instinctively whipped her phone out and snapped Dr. Strange's laid out look. She captioned it "the floor is bargain" and snapchatted it to Peter and Ned at once. Strange now, was some good meme material.

As the cloak lifted Strange to an upright position, Natasha, still supressing a giggle lifted Strange's chair up. Rocket was now looking at Strange with wide mopey eyes.

Strange thought he was sorry and wanted to aplogise. So he looked at him expectantly. He would give him forgiveness if he asked for it.

With want and desire in his eyes, Rocket as for it...

"Is that cloak saleable?"

Dr. Strange looked at Rocket with disbelieving eyes.

"No."

"Then I'm gonna steal it."

Strange frowned this time.

"Gentlemen Please, you all are the best minds in the universe. Shall we start or not? "

Everyone present there nodded. Loki wondered why he was here and nlt Heimdall. As good a tactician as he was, Heimdall knew and saw far more than Loki. He should soon find out why.

"So has it got a name? The strategy team? "

"Oh of course. It's called... (Nick Fury took a dramatic pause) The Strategists. "

Everyone looked at Fury furiously.

"What? We ain't got no time to invent fancy names. We're not poets. Now get to work. Pool your resources. And come up with a plan, a back up plan, and a back up plan for that back up plan. Because we haven't got any. Agent Coulson will be joining you all in the next meeting as a representative of SHIELD."

A weird sense of dread filled Loki's heart. Wasn't he the one Loki had killed? He again questioned the point of his existence in this circle. How could they trust him after all this time? How were they so sure that he wasn't doubling as Thanos' agent this whole time? Were these people, who had alone maged to defeat him and the Chittauri, that gullible? He again thought he'd soon find that out.

"That'll be all for today. We'll have the next meeting onon saturday with Agent Coulson present. It's agenda will be 'Our Resources' and Agent Hill will preside over it. Any questions? Good. You're all free to go now."

And each of the Strategists left the hall having found or lost at least something.

Scene/Change

It was 4 in the morning and Sif was training in the her arena. She had begun to call it hers now. As she swung her sword at the various logs of woods she had placed all around her, she heard a voice.

"You remind me of my fellow soldiers. "

Sif stopped to see Valkyrie approaching her. She had a beer bottle in one hand and swayed as she approached Sif.

"Lady Commander" Sif acknowledged her presence slightly bowing her head down in respect.

"Lady Sif", Valkyrie nodded back.

"May I help you? "

"No I just came out for some fresh air and also I thought I could use your company. "

Valkyrie sat on the flat top of one of the logs Sif had beheaded. And gestured for Sif to sit on another one in front of it.

Sif obliged, it had been days since she talked to another living soul except for room service and she didn't mind the prooximity of a decent being. Much less the company of her childhood idol.

"Do you want some?"

"No my Lady. But thank you for the offer."

None of them spoke a word after that. But just sat in silence. Valkyrie drinking and Sif gazing at the stars and Valkyrie, and at the stars again. This went on for 20 minutes.

With the first ray of the sun, Sif courtesied to Valkyrie and made her way

to her chambers with a weird sense of fulfilment and warmth. She discovered what positve effects peaceful proximity could do to the mind. And after a long winter, Sif went to bed, not coldly indifferent but happy, cosy and warm.

A/N: So there you go. I know nothing much of significance happened in this chapter but it was important because it sets basically everything for the next one. I apologise that it couldn't be more interesting. I originally meant for it to have some more Valkyrie/Sif dynamic but the chapter started exceeding my normal word limit. Believe me, Valkyrie/Sif dynamic is quite important to the fic. It's also a metaphor for the help people battling loneliness and depression can use if others just make the littlest of efforts. So please, no flames for it.I promise I'll upload the next chapter very soon. Give me three days tops (update:give a me week eh?). I again thank you for all the reviews. Please keep them coming. You all really are very kind.