(A/N- Hey guys! Thanks a lot for the reviews, favorites and follows. They seriously make my day and encourage me a lot!
This is a slightly bigger chapter than the others... I think. Mostly because I wanted to concentrate on Thor's POV but even then I had to split it cuz it was just taking up too much space.
Anyway, enjoy the chapter and lemme know if you want something/someone particular in the fic and I can try and see if that would go well with the story line I have in mind.)

CHAPTER 7

Location: A'askavariia

The red and blue grass swayed lightly in the early morning breeze and green flowers bloomed under an orange sky as the sunrays from the two suns touched the buds. The peaceful atmosphere was however disturbed as a rainbow colored light lit up the area and deposited four people and a ship in the middle of the moorland.

Thor stumbled as soon as he touched the ground and was held up by Tony and Nebula. Sweat covered his face and he was panting with overexertion. He could feel his eye drooping and he forced himself to stay awake as he took in his surroundings. There was no sign of civilization near him and he hoped that he had landed on a habitable planet in a peaceful part of the universe.

"Where are we?" Tony asked as he looked around him and tried to keep the heavy Asgardian upright.

"I don't know." Thor managed to say before his eye rolled back and he grew heavier. Tony and Nebula laid him on the ground while Rocket took out his device and started to work on finding out where they had landed.

"Do you have water or something in that ship?" Tony asked Nebula, who nodded and went to get one of those weird and potent energy drinks that Drax had been obsessed with ever since the Guardians had visited Acalidon, a party station in the Gwoich Star System.

Rocket fussed about his device and sat down next to Thor. As he waited for the results to come up, he said to Tony and Nebula, who had now returned with the drink, "He probably passed out of exhaustion. Before we left Terra, he said that he didn't know for how long he would be able to continuously use this rainbow thingy."

"Did you find out where we are? I don't think I have been here before." Nebula said to Rocket as Tony managed to feed some of the energy drink to Thor.

The raccoon looked at his device and said, "A'askavariia. I connected to the home network of this planet and it shows A'askavariia-FR29/231. They are somewhat peaceful people living in ordered anarchy. Quill once dated one of their kind, but he always denied it." Rocket had a bittersweet smile on his furry face as he remembered the one night they all had sat down and talked about all the different planets they had been to. It had started off as each of them trying to outdo each other and ended up with all of them reliving fond memories.

"A'askavariia?" Thor said groggily as he tried to sit up. The energy drink had been pretty strong. "Never heard of it."

"You wouldn't have." Rocket informed. "This planet is in a remote part of the universe. Not too hostile, so that's a good thing. Also, this locator shows that we are in one of the inhabited islands on this planet. Not many of those around here."

"What happened buddy?" Tony asked his friend in concern.

Thor put the Stormbreaker in his lap and said, "This is a new thing, to summon the Bifrost. Heim-Heimdall used to use his sword to summon it with dark energy if he didn't have access to the Observatory. The same energy is in this," Thor pointed to his new weapon, "but I am still not used to using it for so long."

"Pfft. You'll get used to it. You got it only yesterday." Rocket said with a shrug and disappeared inside the ship. "Come on, you idiots! You gonna sit out there like targets or you gonna come inside?"

As soon as they all were inside, Rocket raised the shields of his ship and sat down in the captain's chair. He and Quill had always fought over the chair, each wanting to be the captain. The fights usually ended with Gamora knocking both of them out and taking over the ship. With a heavy heart, he fiddled around with the controls and set up the Proximity Alarm and a few others.

"Normally, these A'askavariians don't leave their mainland but you can't be too careful." Rocket said and jumped off the chair and led the others to the inside chambers of the ship, carefully avoiding the private sleeping quarters. He didn't want to see the rooms just yet, even though he could picture them – Groot's messy room, Drax's filled with the various junk food, energy drinks and magazines, Mantis' looking like a spa and Quill and Gamora's that would be half organized and half looking like a meteor just hit it. He wasn't ready for that yet.

He led the others to the crew sleeping quarters, which were in the opposite hallway to the Guardian's sleeping quarters. Looking at Thor, he said, "You should get some rest. You look like shit. And you both too. I'll be in the front."

"You too get some rest, Rabbit."

"I thought his name was Rocket." Tony said as soon as Rocket had left.

"It is." Nebula said, searching for her things that she had left on the ship the last time she had been here.

Thor shrugged and said, "We call the creature a 'rabbit'." A faraway look came in his eyes and the god said, "He reminds me of this one time in our youth, almost seven hundred years ago when Loki and I had gone on a trip to the mountains. Just the two of us, no guards or friends with us. I still do not know how he managed to convince both Father and Mother to allow such a thing. But on that trip, we had come across a new born rabbit and took it home with us. We cared for it till it grew old enough and then one day wanted to leave. Don't tell anyone, but I'm sure Loki was the most upset that day." Thor laughed lightly, lost in thoughts of his childhood.

"Well, I don't know about you, but on Earth, that creature is a raccoon." Tony argued, trying to get the god's mind off his once again dead brother.

Tony still remembered the last time Thor had told him that Loki had died. He hadn't said anything about how it had happened and had completely shut down for months before coming into their common room one day with a new armor and a new hair style. The glorified mechanic had always wondered whether it was the Asgardian equivalent of a makeover but no one had mentioned anything to the god as they were just glad to have their friend back.

Thor shrugged once again and said, "They are just words. What for us is a rabbit, is a raccoon for you. It does not matter. There are places where red is blue and blue is orange. Still words. They don't change the thing, only how you perceive it and what you call it. Language problems, I suppose."

Thor sighed and moved towards the front of the ship. "Come, we must not leave him alone right now. None of us should be alone right now."

They found Rocket sitting on the Captain's chair and staring at the sky outside. His whiskers quivered every now and then and his ears twitched as the others entered the area. He sighed and said, "Sit. Don't touch the controls."

And they all sat in silence for the longest time, all lost in thoughts.

Tony cleared his throat and addressed Thor, who he knew was awake despite his closed eyes, "Thor, you said that Pep and the others wait for me. Who…who all…?"

"Your friend Rhodey is well and so are the Avengers. What did you call us…? Version 1.0?"

"All of us? They all are okay?"

"That's a relative term but they are alive."

"Alive is good." Rocket said gruffly and Tony nodded as he started to breathe a bit easier.

"What about Version 2.0?" Tony asked and he didn't even need to see Thor to know and feel the grimace on the god's face. "Who all are still…? I mean I know Vision wouldn't be. He had a damn Infinity Stone in his head. But the others?"

"Why did you have a person with an Infinity Stone in the head?" Nebula asked incredulously.

"Accident." Tony and Thor said in unison.

"Wanda… she isn't…" Thor said. "And umm… the Falcon, Steve's friend."

"Sam?"

"Yes, that one and his other friend too and the King of Wakanda."

"T'challa," Tony sighed, "and the other friend… did he have long hair and a missing arm?"

"Yeah. That dude. Cool guy. Cooler arm." Rocket said.

"Barnes." Tony said. "That was… Steve's best friend from his days before he became Captain America and also one of the reasons why the Avengers broke up."

"Why did the Avengers break up?" Thor asked, feeling angry about the whole thing. What could prompt friends to break up like that?

"Long story short, the usual things that break a group up – secrets, difference of opinions, hiding things. Important things."

Thor nodded in understanding as he thought about how Loki had broken away from their family and friends. These things, it turned out, were universal.

"They were heading back to the Compound when Rabbit and I left." Thor informed Tony and hoped that the animosity would not exist in such trying times.

"Good. That place is protected well enough. How do you feel, buddy? You think you can…?"

Thor nodded and got up. "Let's give it a try. I'm rested enough."

"You… might wanna make a pit stop." Rocket said, his eyes on his communication device. "We got a message from your friend, Oda."

"What does it say?"

"Yoda?" Tony asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Oda. King Oda of Planet Nix." Thor corrected and then asked, "Who is Yoda?"

"Short, green guy with long ears. You know what? It's not important right now." Tony said dismissively.

Rocket tapped the message and read out, "King Freyr of Vanhym-Vana-something."

"Vanaheim." Thor said.

"Yes that. Anyway, that dude found the broken ship of yours and … I'm sorry about this… your people who were aboard. He is conducting a mass traditional funeral for them at 15-23 standard universal time. That would be…"

"Midnight on Vanaheim." Thor said as he started pacing the length of the room. "Midnight is when we conduct our funerals. Start of a new day and all of that. I could drop you all of on Midgard, I suppose and then go to Nix."

"Isn't it on the Vana place? Why go to Nix?" Rocket asked.

"I would first have to send a message to Freyr about my arrival. I cannot just appear like that over there. Not like we did on Nix. It would be considered disrespectful, not to mention that they would fire at us without checking first. Vanaheim has always been prone to attacks because they have a lot of precious resources and they have pretty trigger-happy people over there."

"Time out." Tony said, holding his hands up in a stop motion. "There are different time zones in place, right? So, when exactly would be midnight on this Vanaheim of yours?"

"In linear time without taking into account the time zones?" Thor asked and then looked at the display unit of the ship and said, "Probably in another 15 or 20 minutes. I could…"

"You should be there." Tony said, getting up from his place. "They are your people and you should be there. We can reach Earth later. This is far more important."

Thor nodded and breathed out shakily. Funeral. He couldn't believe it. Not that long ago, he had been dreaming of settling down on Midgard with his people and now… His people deserved the best there was and he would give it to them. He would go there and he would be present. He would remember each person that had stayed back with the king and paid with their lives.

"Come on, Point Break, let's go." Tony said, donning his hoodie once more.

Wordlessly, they all followed the upset king and disappeared as Biforst took them in once again.

X-X-X-X-X

Location: Avengers Facility, New York, Earth/Terra/Midgard

Steve was laying stiffly on his bed on top of the covers, staring at the ceiling. He had lost track of how long he had stayed like that but he guessed a few hours, seeing that the first rays of the sun were starting to enter the room through the gaps in the curtain. He was honestly surprised when he had entered his room the night previous. All of his belongings were kept exactly where he had left them. He had half expected Tony to throw out everyone's stuff after what all had happened between them. Even the curtains had not been fully drawn as he had always liked to feel the morning rays on his face when he woke up. Now, it only reminded him that more or less a day had passed since Thanos had won and he and everyone else would now have to face the depressing truth.

As he watched the rays elongate and start to reach the far corners of the room, the good Captain wondered what had happened to his friend. He had never stopped considering Tony his friend, despite Tony trying to kill Bucky and then having the team imprisoned. That was why he had given Tony the phone with his number fed into it. Unfortunately, Tony hadn't called him when it was really required. Steve couldn't help but wonder if that was because Tony didn't have time to call him before everything went sideways or whether Tony didn't trust him enough to involve him in something like this. He wished it was the first one but he wasn't too sure.

Steve sighed as his morning alarm rang in the too silent room and he turned to switch it off. He almost thought of waking Sam up for their morning run before remembering that his friend was gone and he cursed at himself. Unable to lie in his bed anymore, the Captain donned his jogging attire and went for his usual run around the compound, hoping that it would ease his restless mind a bit.

X-X-X

The smell of coffee was what woke the ex-assassin up and she sat up abruptly before lightly groaning at her stiff neck and back. Looking around her, Natasha remembered that she had fallen asleep on the couch while talking to Pepper. Natasha looked at the couch that Pepper had occupied last night and found the strawberry-blond frowning in her sleep. The two ladies had stayed up for majority of the night before exhaustion had taken over and they both had slept off.

"'Morning."

The now blond looked at the entrance to the common area and saw Clint standing there with two cups in his hands. Natasha raised her hand slightly towards the coffee and Clint gladly brought the drink to her.

"Morning." Nat said after taking a few sips of the coffee. It tasted the same as it had always done, of Tony's favorite Jamaican coffee. Nothing had changed at all except maybe their friendship but she hoped that it was still reparable. That is, if Tony was even… no, he would be. Everyone from the original team was fine and Tony would be too.

"What's the time?"

"Almost 8.30." Clint replied, drinking his own coffee. "Steve and Bruce are cooking… something. I don't even wanna ask."

Natasha smiled at that. Just like old times. Steve and Bruce had sometimes cooked the breakfast, even when they used to live in the Avengers' Tower and the result of their cooking had always been a weird combination of something edible and something so bland that it should be made illegal, as they both were used to surviving with the bare minimum. But they had made it work. The only thing missing was Tony's mumbled rants about some latest project and Thor's half-snores as he would inhale most of the coffee before actually waking up.

A sleepy groan brought Nat out of her thoughts. Pepper turned around a bit before giving up going back to sleep and got up and immediately smoothed her tousled hair as she realized that she wasn't alone.

"Morning guys." Pepper greeted groggily and asked, "Anything new?"

"No. Sorry." Clint said sympathetically and prayed for Pepper's sake if no one else's that Tony was safe and sound wherever he was in the universe and that Thor would find and bring him home soon enough.

"Hey, guys. Breakfast's in the kitchen." Bruce said, his head peeping around the door jamb. "Don't worry, it's only pancakes."

"Thanks." Nat said with a small smile and watched with a pang as Bruce awkwardly smiled and retreated to the kitchen.

"Are the kids up yet?" Pepper asked Clint as she got up from the couch. She knew the only way she could keep herself sane till she knew of Tony's condition would be by throwing herself into work. Any work.

"I think so. Laura said that she would wake them up. You still haven't met any of them right?"

"No, I haven't." Pepper said and then excused herself to go check up on the other house guests. As she walked through the hallways and greeted Steve, Bruce and Jim on the way, she was glad that she had company. The house had always felt so empty in the last few years that the sudden increase of people had brightened up the day despite the situation.

Pepper skipped her and Tony's room completely and went to check up on the room near theirs that was now occupied by the Keener siblings. The room was quite bland in taste as Tony had still been debating on the type of furnishings he had wanted. She had always wondered why he had left that room empty instead of giving it to one of the other Avengers and she had gotten her answer the previous day morning when Tony had suggested children. She wondered if he had always had that plan in his mind or if it was one of his 'spur of the moment' things.

Pepper found herself staring at the children in the single bed that she sometimes used when she and Tony had a huge argument and imagined her own children in their place. She flung the thought out of her mind as Harley sat up and looked at her questioningly.

"Hey." Pepper said softly.

Harley waved at her slightly before looking at his sleeping sister. The boy looked as tired as he had looked when he had first arrived and now had dark circles around his puffed eyes. Pepper wondered if he had cried during the night. She wouldn't have blamed him. She too wanted to cry her heart out but she couldn't. She had to be strong. She could already see how the others were at their wits end. She wanted to be strong for them. She wanted to fulfil the role that Tony had many a times taken – of being the ray of hope when the Avengers would lose hope. He had done that quite a few times, whether it be in the field or at home.

"Do you want to sleep some more or you wanna get up and get some breakfast?" Pepper asked, crossing the distance to reach the boy.

Harley shook his head and whispered hoarsely, "Breakfast."

"Okay, go on and freshen up. You too, Jo." Pepper said, nodding at the girl who had been watching the two out of barely opened eyes.

Pepper met up with May, Happy and Rhodey as she walked the children to the kitchen which was now filled with people. A brunette that was most probably Clint's wife and Jim were making pancakes while Steve, Bruce and Natasha were sitting around the island, digging in. The dining table was occupied by Scott and his daughter and Clint with his three children. Pepper handed out food to the Keeners as introductions were made all around.

She quickly hit it off with Laura Barton, and took quite a shining to the children. They all sat down and talked about anything that wasn't related to recent events. It was halfway through Laura and Clint's story of their vacation that their peace was somewhat disturbed by F.R.I.D.A.Y. announcing that they had an incoming call from the U.N. rep.

"Transfer the call to the conference room. I'll take it over there." Rhodey said, getting up and Pepper joined him.

"I want to listen in." Steve said and the other Avengers agreed. Whatever would be discussed would no doubt affect all of them.

"Okay." Pepper said with a nod.

"Join us. It is only a voice call." Rhodey said and walked out of the kitchen with the others following behind him.

"Peanut, I'll be back in some time, okay? Jim's gonna be here." Scott said to his daughter as he got up to follow the other heroes out.

"Relax, I'm fine." Cassie said and made a show of eating her pancake.

"Come on. Let's see what the Government wants now." Clint said and motioned Scott to follow him. By the time the two reached the conference room, Rhodey was already talking to the Justin character.

"…back." The voice came over the speakerphone that held everyone's attention.

"It's not an issue. I just returned earlier this morning but you would have already known that." Rhodey said in his usual business like voice.

"Yes, we did. Thank you for providing breakfast to my people, by the way." Justin said and they could hear him smiling over the phone. When F.R.I.D.A.Y. had informed them that the other car was still there, Pepper had sent some coffee and food for the agents or whosoever was in the car through some of the bots and Happy. Even though it would have been way more polite to do something like that herself or through one of them, neither she and nor did anyone else, wanted to meet anyone from the outside world.

"Now, let's get down to business. First things first," the voice spoke, "why am I not speaking to Mr. Stark. Wasn't he the spokesperson for the Avengers?"

"He is currently unavailable." Rhodey said.

"Yes, I heard that before from Ms. Potts. But…"

"When I say he is unavailable, it means he isn't here right now."

"And where is he? Can I get a full picture?"

"I would rather wait for your boss to join in the call before I explain that. I don't want to explain everything twice."

"This is Cassidy Whitman," said a female voice. "You can explain now. Or actually, if you do not mind, I have taken the liberty to bring myself to the Avengers' Compound. We could have this discussion face to face considering this is such an important topic."

All of them looked up as the screen in front of them showed the security camera feed of two other standard black cars joining the first one at the vigil outside the door.

The voice continued, "If you are worried about hiding the others who are currently fugitives, do not bother. I know they are over there and I don't think we can really afford to pick fights where there are none. This is far more important than some Accords."

There was a long silence as the Avengers looked at one another and Rhodey switched on the 'mute' option. Once the red light blinked on the dial and indicated that they could no longer be heard by the two U.N. reps, they all started to discuss.

"My family is here. No way is anyone allowed to go near them." Clint said vehemently. "I don't care what the situation is."

"Same with mine." Scott said and Pepper agreed, thinking about the Keeners.

"How about we get the others in one of the secure rooms and F.R.I.D.A.Y. can monitor it all?" Steve suggested.

"You want to go through with this?" Nat asked.

"We have to. We can't hide in here. Accountability, right? And anyway they all deserve to know the truth, the sooner, the better."

Before anyone could say anything else, Whitman's voice said, "How about only Mr. Clampton and I enter the Compound? Only we will meet and talk to you. No one else. No other officials. Nothing."

Steve looked at everyone else and leaned over to hit the 'unmute' button. "That would be acceptable."

"Thank you, Captain Rogers."

As soon as the call disconnected, they all went to the kitchen to explain the situation to everyone over there.

"Just be in this side of the building. I'll be putting everything on selective lockdown, okay?" Pepper said, gulping down her coffee.

"You too, Pepper." Rhodey said.

"No." Pepper said with determination. "I'm sitting in instead of Tony."

"Pep…"

"Rhodey. My house, my rules."

Rhodey sighed, knowing that Pepper could be as obstinate as Tony and grumbled, "I can't believe you pulled that card. Fine, come on. Let's get everything in order. Happy is already at the gates."

They had sent Happy to ensure that only Clampton and Whitman entered the compound. As they all returned to the conference room, Pepper instructed F.R.I.D.A.Y. to lockdown everything else other than the route to and from the main entrance to the conference room. Soon after, Happy led in two people.

The man, Justin Clampton was a tall, middle aged man with short, brown hair, styled in the standard military way and kind, brown eyes and slight wrinkles that hinted that he smiled a lot. The woman, Cassidy Whitman was slightly older than her assistant. Her blond hair was tied up in a bun and despite her warm and bright smile, she looked like she had not seen a wink of sleep in the past 24 hours.

Once the introductions were made and everyone had settled, Whitman asked, "Can all of this be explained? Yesterday morning, we had an alien spaceship hovering over New York and there were reports of attacks in Scotland."

"And then," Clampton picked up, "we had Captain Rogers and the others walk in during a video conference with General Ross. I was also sitting in on that meeting. Anyway, fast forward to early evening, we have people turning into dust and just disappearing all over the world."

Steve nodded, understanding their confusion and explained, "The aliens that attacked both New York and Scotland yesterday were part of a larger group that was working for another alien called Thanos. The first attack was on New York…"

"I was present for that." Bruce cut in, knowing it would be better if he explained the things that no one else but he was present for. "Those aliens were searching for something called the Infinity Stones."

"Infinity Stones?" Whitman repeated in confusion. "What are those and why would we have them?"

"According to Thor, these stones are one of the most powerful things in the universe and that there are six of them in total. Imagine them as something out of one those adventure movies or stories where someone needs to collect all of them to…"

"…to achieve whatever the goal is." Clampton completed with a nod and then explained, "My kids are really interested in all that stuff. You can't help but watch it with them."

"Yeah." Bruce said. "Anyway, this Thanos was after these six stones and he came to Earth because we had two of these stones here."

"Excuse me?" Whitman sounded almost offended at being told that.

"We always have had at least one of these stones with us. The Tesseract," Steve said and waited for the two officials to acknowledge, "was one of them."

"But we don't have the Tesseract." Clampton said. "According to the S.H.I.E.L.D. case files, it was given to Thor to take it back to his planet for safekeeping."

"Yes, it was," Bruce agreed, "but the scepter that Loki had brought along with him when he attacked us was another…"

"Another one of these stones?"

"Yeah."

"Wasn't it the scepter that started the whole Sokovia battle?" Clampton asked, leaning forward.

"Essentially, yes."

"All we are aware about the scepter was that it was in the hands of H.Y.D.R.A. and it was being used to experiment on others and that it was destroyed in the Battle of Sokovia." Whitman said and looked at the others. "It wasn't, was it?"

"Not really." Steve confirmed.

Rhodey decided to come clean and said, "We registered Vision as an android that was made with a mixture of Stark Tech and Asgardian magic, but he was actually a combination of Earth tech, Asgardian magic and the Mind Stone. That's one of the Infinity Stones. His creation was actually an accident but it seemed that the stone would remain safe with him and so we didn't try to take it away."

"Wow." The two officials had identical looks of someone who had to digest a lot in a short amount of time.

"Okay. So, Vision is one of these stones things. What about the other? You said that we have two of them?" Whitman asked.

"We don't know much about the other except that it was kept in safekeeping with someone." Bruce said, carefully thinking about his words. He wasn't sure how much of this the wizards would appreciate. "This person was in New York and that's why those aliens came over here, to find this person and take away the stone. When he refused to give the stone, they took him away and Tony, I mean, Mr. Stark, went in after them to protect the person and the stone."

He had been about to say something about Spider Man but the slight warning look from Pepper had stopped him from mentioning anything about the mysterious school kid.

"Who is the person that you are talking of?"

"I honestly don't know him. I literally just met him yesterday for a few minutes before the aliens kidnapped him."

"I never thought I would see a day where I would take those words seriously." Clampton mumbled to himself.

Cassidy Whitman stared at the scientist for some time. She had done her research on the Avengers two years ago when it had been clear to the U.N. that General Ross was not a good correspondent for the Accords and she had been handed the control of the Sokovia Accords. Unofficially, of course, since the U.N. needed a valid reason to remove Ross from that position officially and so her assistant, Justin had gone in as a supporter of Ross and joined the team that was headed by the ex-Lieutenant, to find information about how the whole thing was being run. They had been pretty close to removing Ross from power permanently when the aliens decided to pay a visit.

In any case, she had read up as much as there was to read about each Avenger and their registered allies. She knew about their personal, professional and hero life. And she knew their personality.

From the S.H.I.E.L.D. files that her office had received, it had been obvious that the original Avengers team was haphazardly put together and ex-Director Fury had been pretty confident that the team would break up as soon as the danger had passed. But both he and the WSC had been surprised when the Avengers had only taken a short break and then resumed working together. That was when the secret organization had taken up a serious evaluation of the team and the major conclusion that they had drawn was that despite their differences, the team was very protective of each other and whosoever they considered an ally. So she knew that the man hiding the beast would not give up the name of someone, however recently acquainted, who was considered an ally by the Avengers.

Nodding slightly and vowing to get the name of this mysterious person somehow, Whitman said, "Alright. So, this person and Mr. Stark are somewhere in space. Any communication with them?"

"No." Natasha answered. "But Thor and another ally of ours have gone to search for them."

"So, that's what you meant. I thought Ms. Potts was stonewalling me." Clampton said.

"I needed time for the Avengers to get here. I cannot take any decisions on their behalf." Pepper replied with a little smile. She, for some reason yet unknown to her, knew that these two would be a million times better than Ross and maybe with time and good behavior, they could even earn the team's trust.

Clampton nodded and asked, "So, this alien… Thanos?"

"Yes."

"His objective was to what? Kill people? Why?"

"We don't know. We just came to know of him yesterday." Steve answered. "Thor probably has more information about that seeing that he has been searching for answers to all this for quite some time, but he is not here. When he comes back, you can ask him yourself."

Whitman turned to Clampton and said, "We need to issue a press statement. Maybe even a press conference, after we talk to the Council."

"World Security Council?" Steve asked.

He had never liked that Council. They were impulsive and didn't think out things. Who would in their right mind, release a WMD at one of the most highly populated cities in the world? Thank god, Tony had had the idea to take it out of the portal. Thinking about his friend, made Steve once again pray and hope for his safety. They needed Tony to come back. He needed to be safe. He was one of the original members, he was their oldest friend and if something had happened to him, Steve didn't know for how long the Avengers could hold on together. When Bruce had disappeared after the whole Ultron fiasco, the team had been tilted and slightly fractured, especially as Thor had left soon after. No, Tony needed to come back.

"No, the WSC had been scrapped after the Project Insight fiasco." Clampton answered. "I am talking about The General Assembly, but they can convene a special assembly only on request of UNSC – the actual organ of UN that WSC was somewhat based on. By the way, can you lift the jammer that is put in this room? I need to send word for Emergency Meeting to UNSC."

"F.R.I.D.A.Y." Pepper instructed and the A.I. informed them that they could now receive phone signals in the room. That was a standing protocol that Tony had put in place so that no one could listen in on them or disturb them.

"I know this is going against protocols," Whitman said, as Clampton went to a corner to talk to someone, "but I will arrange for all of you to be present at the meeting. It would be better if the world came to know of this through the people who were actually present over there, not to mention, you all are a beacon of hope right now. I will have Mr. Clampton arrange for everything. Thank you."

Not soon after, the two officials were escorted out of the compound and the Avengers joined their families in the common area and Pepper went to get in touch with some of her employees. She still had a company to run, end of the world or not.

"Now what?" Laura asked the others as they all watched over the kids chatting with each other.

"We wait." Clint answered. "For both Tony and further information from Clampton."

"Don't have to wait for long." Rhodey said as he entered the room and pocketed his phone. "Clampton just called. They arranged for the UNGA meeting in the evening. By then majority of the world leaders or their stand-ins would be able to make it here to New York."

"And all of you have to be there?" Laura asked.

"Version 1.0 needs to be there." Steve said and explained, "I mean the original team needs to be there. The others can attend if they want to."

"I hope Thor and Tony can be back by then." Bruce said and the other Avengers agreed. It felt weird to not have the whole team there and especially when they had to put up a united front in front of the entire world.

"Yeah." Steve sighed and moved to stand in front of the window, hoping that the rainbow light would light up the front lawn as it usually did to signal Thor's return.

X-X-X-X-X

Location: Mid-Point, Bottom of the Universe

The elevator deposited 12 beings in the giant, circular, seemingly never ending room, lit up in soft yellow lights. The room was built around something, but none of them could see it. The only way they even knew that there was something in the middle of the room, was because of the glass casing that stretched on forever and the raised platform and railings that went around the glass casing. It wasn't the enormous proportions of the room or even the glass casing that stopped the 6 Asgardians in their stride, it was the view inside. Or the lack thereof. Because the insides of the casing were empty and dark like the darkness that could be seen from the Bifrost bridge back in Asgard.

"Where are we?" Fandral asked, looking around the room. There was nothing special about the room they were in. It had plain walls that had lights every few yards and the only slightly notable thing about the room was the fact that none of them could see the other side of it, even through the glass in the middle. It unnerved him a lot but he wasn't going to let it show.

"The Center."

"That's what we call it anyway." Infinity said, looking in pride at the glass casing.

"And why are we here in this 'Center'?" Volstagg asked. He still hadn't come to terms with anything he had been told ever since he met Loki and Heimdall in the room above and so he had been pretty skeptical when the entities had asked his friends to follow them to some mysterious place that would suddenly reveal why Loki was so important to the all-powerful beings.

"More importantly," said Heimdall, "what is this the Center of?" His all-seeing, golden gaze was fixated towards the glass casing and try as he might, he just could not see what was inside. It frustrated him to no ends but there was a nagging thought in the back of his head that he had felt something like this before. He could not pinpoint that either.

"Now that is a good question." Grandmaster said loudly and looked at his companions and asked, "Who wants to tell a good story?"

"I will. You all always gloss over important points." Eternity said and motioned others to gather around him.

"Loki, come on." En Dwi said and pulled Loki out of his trance like state.

That was when the others noticed that the trickster god had not moved from his place where the elevator had dropped them off. He was looking at the glass casing with an overwhelmed look on his face. Schooling his features, Loki joined the others but still made sure to stay farthest from the casing and ignored the weirded out looks that his old friends were giving him.

Eternity cleared his throat unnecessarily as the Grandmaster passed out drinks to the Asgardians, out of whom only Volstagg and Loki accepted them. "Do I have everyone's attention?"

"Just get on with it." Death said, leaning against the railing.

"Shh." Eternity put a finger on his lips and then turned to address the Asgardians. "You all are aware of superclusters, right? You have some other name for the one you live in, I am sure."

"Yggdrasil. The tree of life." Heimdall answered. "That is the one we reside in."

"Ah yes. That."

"But isn't that a tree?" Volstagg asked.

Loki rolled his eyes and murmured, "It seems like you never paid attention in our lessons of the universe."

"He hardly attended those lessons." Fandral said, thinking about the number of times he and Thor had had to cover up for Volstagg's absence, all because he had been sneaking around either the palace kitchens or one of their favorite bakeries.

"They weren't the most interesting." The warrior answered with a shrug while both Eternity and Infinity glared at him for that remark.

Loki sighed in irritation and explained, "Yggdrasil is a supercluster in the vague shape of a tree. That is why we call it a tree."

"Which is why I always wondered why you used to say that you could travel using the 'branches of Yggdrasil'." Sif commented.

"Only because it is easier to imagine them as branches than as backdoors through the Nine Realms." Loki said skeptically, still unable to believe that the Warriors Three and Sif were actually paying him their full attention. He was suspicious of what they might want from him. They always wanted something from him. That was why they had tolerated him all those centuries.

"Ok, so what does Yggdrasil have to do with all of this?" Hogun asked Eternity.

"Hmm, yes. Well, obviously yours isn't the only supercluster in the entire universe. There are many others scattered all over."

"Like where Ria or Nix are situated." Sif said, giving Loki a side-eye. She wasn't going to forgive him for sending her to an almost hostile territory for a year. She would have preferred to stay on Midgard with that S.H.I.E.L.D. team.

"I have no clue what they are, but sure." Eternity said.

"They are some insignificant planets just outside their supercluster." Infinity informed him.

"Oh. Anyway…"

"You are absolutely horrible at this. No one will understand anything!" The Collector groaned. "Let the experts handle this."

"Will this involve holograms?" Entropy asked.

"When does it not?" Death replied as she watched Tivan taking up center stage and Eternity pouting like one of those little children she had seen on some of the planets.

"Alright. Story time." Tivan said, rubbing his hands together and throwing up a hologram that showed a large portion of the universe surrounding them. The Asgardians spread out as they tried to see more of the hologram while the celestials just stood off to one side.

"So, as you all know by now, the universe contains many galaxies, clusters and superclusters. Like your Y-sil."

"Yggdrasil." Sif corrected.

"That's what I said." Tivan said and continued as the hologram highlighted some of the clusters and superclusters he had been talking about, "Each of these contain some or the other form of life and the people residing within these structures can draw life and energy from the structure if they know how to."

"Like Loki?" Heimdall asked, already knowing the answer.

"Yes."

"You draw life from Yggdrasil?" Fandral asked.

"No, you fool!" Loki huffed in irritation. How was he ever friends with the very people who never even understood the simplest of things about him or his powers? "I don't draw life from Yggdrasil."

"Then what does Heimdall mean?" Hogun asked.

"Do you even know how seiðr works?" Loki asked and rolled his eyes at the blank expressions on their faces.

Before the god could say something rude and irritate the others, Heimdall explained, "Seiðr works on the principle that everything around us can be manipulated to the seiðr-user's whim and once a seiðr-user knows how to control this discipline, they can manipulate the surroundings. Their knowledge and powers are derived from Yggdrasil directly, but not many can actually reach a level where they can directly use the Yggdrasil."

Loki, going into his teacher-mode, like when he used to teach a few children of the palace staff back on Asgard about seiðr, started to explain, "Imagine going anywhere in the Nine Realms, without backup or weapons or even a healing stone…"

"That would be plain stupid." Volstagg commented.

Loki ignored the comment and continued, "…and being able to still survive whatever is out there. Imagine being on your death bed and having the nature revive you. That is what is meant by drawing power from Yggdrasil. If you have reached a certain level of control and awareness of the seiðr, then you don't have to consciously draw energy from the nature. The nature will itself transfer energy to you."

"That's not possible. If you are on your death bed then without healers or their powers, how would you even survive? Nature can't bring you to life." Sif said skeptically. She just wanted to wipe off the slight smirk that had somehow taken up a permanent residence on Loki's face ever since any of them started paying attention to his words. She couldn't believe that a decade ago, this same person would not have spoken much other than to throw insults or to persuade Thor from not doing something. In her mind, there were two Lokis – one who had died the day Thor had been banished and the other who was born the day Thor had been banished. She wondered if the second Loki had always been the real Loki and only needed Thor to be out of his way.

Her thoughts were cut short when Death spoke, "Unfortunately, for me that is, it is quite possible."

"You can do this, can't you?" Hogun asked with a raised brow. "That is how you are still alive when Thor had said that you didn't make it out of the fight with the Dark Elves. He said that he had held you, but that couldn't be an illusion because your illusions can't be touched. So you must have done this… this transferring of life or power or whatever."

"And at least one of you actually has a brain." Loki drawled and looked to address the Collector. He didn't want to discuss his powers with these people. It was obvious that the celestials knew but his annoying and hare brained ex-friends had no need to know of that. "What does that have to do with the story that you are telling."

Tivan shrugged and said, "Oh, nothing. Not yet, anyway. I was just telling that it is possible, it is you all who decided to digress."

"Then I apologize, please do continue." Loki said, reverting to his inherent politically-polite nature.

"Right!" Tivan said excitedly. "So, superclusters. Now, there are many, many superclusters and clusters out there and all of them are interconnected."

The hologram zoomed out to show millions of superclusters and clusters surrounding each other. "The areas that you use to travel through using spaceships and what not, are actually the pathways that connect all of these structures together. These pathways are the only ones on which you can travel."

The Collector flicked his hands and the visual changed to complete darkness. "But before all of this, we need to go further back. This darkness you see, this is the void."

"Ginnungagap" Hogun said and didn't miss the way Loki paled and moved slightly towards the light emanating from one of the walls in pretense of getting a better view of the hologram.

"Gin what?"

"It is what we call the void." Heimdall answered.

"You have weird names. How difficult is it to say, void?" Grandmaster asked.

"You are not even telling the story in the correct order." Eternity frowned.

"Anyway," The Collector said and smiled when he had everyone's attention, "this void is what existed in this universe before these four," he jerked a thumb towards the Cosmic Entities, "decided to make something out of it. So, life as we know it was created. But the void still exists and that is what ultimately connects every metaphorical corner the universe. No one can travel in void unless they are a celestial being like us."

"Or Loki." Sif mumbled, looking at Loki, who was now staring into the glass casing as if it held answers to all life.

"That was an accident." Death said sourly.

The hologram shifted to show various light rays popping up all over the void and intersecting each other many times. "Now, since no one can survive the void, they created these pathways on which life can survive. But that too was not enough for life to sustain. The planets on these pathways would not even survive for a millennium, but the planets at the intersections," some of the intersections were highlighted, "they could survive almost anything. So, all life that is thriving out there is because they are on these intersections and anything not on these intersections, do not survive for that long. But the pathways are used to travel to other structures as they all are connected. The pathways form a sort of bridge that connects all life."

"Like the Bifrost." Volstagg said.

"Much like that." Loki replied. He was now facing them and hologram, now that it no longer showed only the void. "Except that Biforst is a faster pathway that was created by Asgardians but these are natural pathways, like roads. Your speed on these depend on the speed of your transport, but Bifrost does not follow the same rule. Bifrost is a transport of its own, cutting through anything in the way, including the void."

Tivan manipulated the hologram to now show the various intersection of these pathways and said, "Your supercluster, Y-sil? It is one of the most populous ones out there just because it has way too many of these intersections within it."

"Each of the Nine Realm has an intersection of many paths." Loki said and looked at Tivan for permission. When he got a nod, he shifted the hologram to show the familiar map of the Nine Realms, except now it also showed the pathways that they had been discussing. Each of the Realms, barring Svartalfheim, had multiple intersections like crossroads. "And at each of these intersections is where the Realms lie, except for Svartalfheim. Their pathways are now passing through a black hole. Not much scope of life over there."

"Anyway," Tivan said, taking over the hologram once more, "all of these pathways have to emerge from somewhere, right?"

The hologram now showed all the pathways emerging from one point at the bottom of the hologram and then winding their way all over the place.

"This," Loki said, pointing to the bottom of the hologram first and then to the glass casing in front of them, "is what is in there."

"What?" Fandral asked, looking at the darkness in front of them.

Heimdall stared at the casing in frustration and said, "That actually does make sense."

"How can you tell?" Sif asked Loki.

At the same time Hogun asked Heimdall, "How does it make sense?"

Heimdall shrugged and replied, "I cannot see what is inside there, the same way I cannot see Loki when he is hiding himself from me."

"If Heimdall cannot see it, then it makes sense why we cannot see anything either." Volstagg said, looking at his friends.

"But," Fandral asked as he watched Loki go to the platform surrounding the center, "if these are pathways, shouldn't we be able to see them? I mean, don't you need to see where you are going on these pathways?"

"That's why we have stars. The only reason you can see where you are going is because of the stars out there." Infinity answered.

Eternity jerked his head towards the center and said, "You don't need stars over here. No one can travel this far and no one uses the Mid-Point to travel anyway."

Loki was now so close to the glass casing that his face was almost touching it. Tilting his head up, he tried to look as far as he could into the darkness and then leaned in to look down. A smile slowly lit up his face, a smile of pure, unadulterated awe and wonder.

"What is he doing?" Volstagg asked, looking at Loki.

"Discovering." Eternity replied.

X-X-X-X-X

Location: Nix, Just outside the Nine Realms

"Cool!" was the first thing out of Tony's mouth, the minute they landed on Nix.

"It really is." Nebula said, rubbing her hands together.

"I wasn't talking about the temperature, Smurfette."

Thor ignored the little banter between the two Guardians and Tony and focused on his surroundings. He had told Rabbit to send word of their arrival and was sure that the royal guards should be there to escort him. He looked around him and realized that he had landed on one of the most frequently used spots for Bifrost landings – the palace backyard. He had honestly just being aiming for not landing on someone or something. The god closed his eyes as he felt nausea take over once again. He felt like emptying his stomach except for the fact that there was nothing in his stomach to empty. He didn't know for how long he could continue using the Bifrost without passing out. He hoped that he had the energy for at least two more trips.

"Point Break? You okay, big guy?" Tony's voice cut through the daze that had settled in Thor's head.

"Yeah, yeah." Thor said dismissively and took a few deep breaths.

The sounds of approaching footsteps made the four look in front of them. From the palace's back entrance came a dozen men dressed in royal blue and silver, walking in typical honor guard position. Between them was a girl who looked to be in early twenties but looks could be deceiving. The procession stopped in front of the new arrivals and the girl bowed her head to Thor, bringing a fist over her heart.

"King Thor."

"Princess Eira. My condolences." Thor replied in the same manner sans the bowing. Tony supposed the god didn't need to bow considering he now ruled over the nine realms.

The princess smiled sadly at Thor and said, "Thank you. I am so sorry to hear of what all has transpired. Father filled me in on everything. May they all rest in Valhalla."

Thor smiled politely and thanked her. Noticing her grey and purple attire – the traditional colors for mourning on Nix, he guessed, "I have come at a bad time."

"We have not started yet. Father could not be here as he has to make the arrangements but he does send his regards."

"Please thank Oda for me."

Tony tried to not grit his teeth in irritation. All of them knew that Thor was in a hurry but the damn political responses had to intervene even now. The customary pleasantries and all that still had to be exchanged. This was exactly why he hated politics. You could never get into the heart of the matter directly. Nope. You had to go through millions of social protocols before you even reached there.

Eira took out a small device from a bag that none of them had noticed her carrying and handed it to Thor. "This is but a small token of gratitude from our side." As Thor accepted the device with a small smile, she said, "It has already been tuned in to the required frequencies."

"Thank you. I cannot tell you how much I appreciate it." Thor replied. "Please do not let me keep you waiting. I am sure the ceremony is about to start. I will find my way out of here."

After a few more pleasantries, Eira bid them farewell and walked back to the palace which was now lit up in hues of grey and purple.

"What's that?" Tony asked, pointing to the device in Thor's hand.

"Communication device." Thor replied, already typing something into it. "I am sending a message to Freyr's personal device. That way he will know that it is truly me who is contacting him as very few have the DSSC."

"Device Sequence Security Code." Nebula said before Tony could even think about asking what a DSSC was. "It is one of the most secure way to communicate."

Tony wanted more information on all of this alien tech around him but he knew now wasn't the time. But later, when they returned to Earth, maybe he could get Rocket and Nebula to explain him alien tech. A few moments later, the device made some noise and Thor looked at it solemnly.

"Let's go." He told the others. "We have got the approval to enter Vanaheim."

X-X-X

Location: Vanaheim

"Are you sure it is him?" the golden haired woman asked for the millionth time.

"Yes! For the last time, Idunn, it is Thor himself who messaged me." King Freyr yelled at his sister and rubbed his forehead.

"Fine. There is absolutely no need to be so rude." Idunn said as she smoothened her gown. The siblings were on their way to the designated landing spot for Bifrost for diplomatic missions. For rescue missions, the rescuers usually landed wherever they were needed, which was why half of the villages that were way too far from the capital city always had the Bifrost runic designs all over them.

"I just wanted to know how you are so sure."

"Because he signed off as 'drykkjumaðr' and addressed me as 'gløggvingr'. Who else except Thor or Loki would have the gumption or even the knowledge to do such a thing?"

Idunn laughed lightly and said, "None. No one other than the four of us and the other cousins were present during that particular diplomatic meeting."

Freyr snorted as they came to stop near the landing space and said, "That was hardly a diplomatic meeting. We all got so drunk and high that we had to sleep for an entire week just for the effects to wear off. I still do not remember everything about that week."

"Here they come." Idunn said as soon as the familiar rainbow light filled up the area. When it died down, Thor stood there along with three others and a blue ship.

Both Tony and Nebula held on to Thor's arms as they felt him sway. "Thank you friends," Thor mumbled, "it would not have made a good impression if I fell face first on the ground."

Idunn chuckled from where she was standing and Thor groaned. "I forgot she could lip read."

The cousins moved towards each other and came to a standstill in the middle while the other three were still standing awkwardly near the ship. Freyr and Idunn brought their fists over their heart but before they could greet Thor, the god shook his head.

"Not this time."

Idunn grinned at the waiving away of the proper etiquettes and launched herself into Thor's arms. "I'm so glad you are alive! And what have you done to your hair?"

"It's good to see you too, Idunn." Thor held on to his cousin sister a bit longer than he normally would have but it was so, so good to see family, extended as it may be, after all that had happened over the past week. Releasing Idunn, he hugged Freyr, her older brother and then introduced his friends, old and new, to his family.

"You actually made it before time." Freyr said as the group now walked back to where the royal guards were waiting for them. "I had been broadcasting that news for so long in the hopes that either you or Loki would hear about it and come."

"You knew Loki was alive?" Thor asked in confusion. He was pretty sure that no one had called Loki out on his bullshit.

"Do you remember Helga?" Idunn asked.

"That völva who sprayed me with dragon piss? How can I ever forget her?"

Tony and Rocket snorted at that and Rocket said, "Now that's something I would like to see."

"You really don't want to meet an angry Helga." Thor replied with a grimace.

"To be fair, cousin, it was kind of your fault. You angered her. She retaliated." Freyr told Thor. "Anyway, she had this prediction that Loki was alive. I didn't know what to believe. On one hand the All-Father had declared the customary mourning for Loki and on the other hand we have Helga telling us that Loki would return."

"And we all know that till date Helga has never been wrong." Idunn said. "So…"

"So?" Thor asked, clenching his fist and hoping that his cousin wouldn't ask the question he knew she was going to ask.

"So, was she correct? Did Loki return?"

"When has she been wrong?" Thor cross questioned with a sad smile.

"Wonderful." Idunn said with a grin that was copied on Freyr's face.

Before either of the siblings could ask another question, Thor asked, thinking about Freyr's twin who had been named after a variation of his mother's name, "Where is Freyja?"

"Someone had to stay at the palace and look over the preparations." Freyr said. "By the way, do you have any idea about what is happening to everyone? What is with the dust? Is this something to do with Ragnarok? Because Helga didn't say so but she has been way more agitated since that happened and all of this has been getting on my nerves especially with both Mother and Father…"

Thor exchanged a glance with his friends and the four told the whole story in pieces to the siblings as they walked back to the palace with the guards. The solemn party was greeted by a tired Freyja at the palace's entrance.

"Brother, could we wait for half an hour more? We have gotten confirmation from Alfheim and þvait moon in Niflheim." Freyja asked her brother as she stepped out of Thor's warm hug.

"Ask him." Freyr nodded to Thor.

"What?" Thor asked.

"The Æsir communities on both Alfheim and parts of Niflheim want to be here for the – the funeral. Do you want to hold till they arrive? It would probably take them half an hour to get here as they are using multiple portals." Freyja told Thor.

"Hold." Thor said after a few moments and Freyja sent the new orders through someone. Looking at his cousin brother, Thor demanded, "Tell me everything."

The younger king nodded and started to explain, "You know of the Alfheim-Jotunheim Trade Treaty? The one with the half yearly deliveries?"

"Yes."

"Well, Alfheim was delivering the usual cargo to Jotunheim when they came across a flying piece of metal. This is what has been reported to us. Anyway, they at first ignored the metal until they came across what seemed to be parts of some furniture. That is when they decided to go and investigate. They found a giant ship in pieces and people floating in space. They contacted the nearest station that just happened to be one of mine and we sent our soldiers to see what it was all about. One of the Vanir identified a friend of a friend and soon we found out that it was the ship that carried the remaining Asgard. Helga had predicted that anyone who survived Ragnarok would be on a giant ship."

"What hasn't she predicted?" Thor mumbled under his breath.

"We brought everyone back here along with the debris of the ship. That part is still in progress but I think we have gotten everyone."

"Thank you." Thor said gratefully, his throat choking up with emotions and his heart beating with dread for what was to come.

They had reached one of the conference rooms and the Vanir King dismissed the guards as he felt that Thor might need some time alone and away from prying eyes.

Thor sat down heavily in one of the chairs and closed his eyes as he mentally prepared himself for what was going to happen. His people, his-his kind, they were all gone. Not gone, his mind reminded him. Many still existed but they had settled down all over the place and even though Thor was essentially their king, they weren't the ones he had promised himself to take care of. His head felt heavy with all that had happened and his heart had yet to move past his brother's death to even go through the death of the many Asgardians.

A part of Thor didn't want to attend the funeral, didn't want to see the faces of those he had been unable to save, didn't want to see Heimdall and mainly didn't want to see Loki. He would not survive that. They hadn't had a funeral either of the previous two times that Loki had been presumed dead, even though he had been mourned and actually conducting a funeral this time would make the death permanent. Thor didn't want that. He didn't want to come to terms with his brother's passing. He had lost Loki before but this time, this time it just felt so much more crushing. Maybe because it felt so final, maybe because he had no other family to turn to or maybe because he had finally let his guard down and hoped for a better and improved future with his brother by his side. But all of that didn't matter anymore. Loki was gone and Thor was alone and he did not want to be reminded to that.

"Thor?" Idunn's soft voice cut in through his thoughts.

"Hmm?" Thor looked at his cousins' faces and knew that they were going to ask some sensitive question. The three had a peculiar tell that Loki had once pointed out to him. Every time they wanted to ask something sensitive or something that they weren't too sure of, the corner of their mouth would twitch in a weird way, as if they were trying to hold back a grimace.

"You never…" Freyja said, "You never said a thing about Loki. He survived Ragnarok, did he not?"

Thor nodded.

"Then why is he not with you?" Freyr asked. He could not remember a time when Loki had left Thor's side or vice versa. The brothers were widely known as Thor-and-Loki just because you would never find one without the other. Ever.

"Do you jest me?" Thor asked in a silent voice that was usually followed by him smashing something.

"Of course not."

"You say that you found all the-the bodies."

"Yes, we did. We ran a scan over the whole area just fo…" Freyr trailed off as he realized what Thor implied.

"N-no." Freyja muttered and shook her head in denial. Out of the three siblings, she had been the closest to Loki as they both were interested in seiðr and had even studied it together for a great many years.

"We-we didn't… they-th-they would have informed us if-if…" Idunn stuttered as she sat against the table in shock.

"You didn't?" Thor asked in confusion. "What about Heimdall?" Even if he could hope for a tiny second that Loki had once again faked his death, he was sure that Heimdall couldn't have faked his.

Freyr shook his head and denied that.

"Are you sure you found everyone? Because I saw… those… I saw."

"We will continue searching then." Freyr said vehemently, just as a knock sounded on the door. A guard came to inform that the Asgardians had just arrived and everyone had assembled by the river side.

"Thor?" Freyr said softly once the guard had left.

The god stood up and wordlessly led them all out.