A/N: Hiya! This is kind of a rest chapter, nothing terribly angsty, some joking around, only a tiny bit of plot. And then the action will start picking up next chapter! I'm looking forward to getting back to some fight scenes. (I honestly don't know if they'll be in the next chapter or not, I just know that, at some point soon, I will be writing fight scenes.)
IMPORTANT NOTE: There IS a single Ant-Man and the Wasp spoiler in here. It's very tiny, just a sciency term taken from a single line that was treated as more joke than serious warning, but I know any UK readers won't be able to see it until August, so I'm just giving you a heads-up. I am doing everything I can to keep this spoiler-free for y'all, though.
In Shuri's lab, Tony bent over the device Hope had brought, a black cube with a handprint scanner on four sides and a blinking operating panel on top. He had one side open, fixing a few last wires into place, Shuri doing the same across the table, with Hope overseeing and advising.
"How does this thing work again?" Rhodey asked.
"The quantum realm contains time vortexes," Hope explained. "This reaches into the realm, searches for one that takes you where you want to go, and effectively pries it open just enough to suck you through."
"It's going to feel weird, isn't it?" Steve asked.
"No idea," Hope answered bluntly. "This is technically going to be- no, Tony, that wire goes there- yeah, that's it. Anyways, this is technically going to be its test run."
Shuri clicked the cover of her side back into place, picking up the screwdriver to finish. "Sweet. Can I go?"
"Absolutely not," Ramonda stated. "Your place is here, daughter."
"I never get to have any fun," Shuri muttered.
"Building a time machine isn't fun?" Tony teased the teenager. Peter's gonna be so mad he missed this.
"No, it is, I just wanna go kick ass-"
Ramonda pinched her daughter's arm. "Language."
"I thought that was Steve's line?" Natasha taunted.
Steve threw his hands up. "Three years. It's been three years, Nat."
"Three years should be nothing to a man of your advanced years," Natasha retorted. Clint, huddled in tense silence in her arms, cracked a smirk.
"Is this what you are always like?" Okoye asked.
"No," Steve said.
"Yes," Tony said simultaneously. They exchanged a glance.
"No wonder you Avengers never get anything done," Okoye concluded.
"Hey!" Tony protested.
Shuri laughed.
"All right, I'm done," Tony announced, setting down his screwdriver. Hope typed in a code, multicolored lights flaring to life as the machine began to whir quietly. Everyone fell quiet, leaning in a little, curiosity and guarded hope mingling in eyes barely dry of tears.
"Who is going?" Shuri asked, without even a hint of envy in her voice.
"Me," Steve said.
"And me," Tony said.
"That's not going to be a problem, is it?" Okoye checked.
"Absolutely not," Tony confirmed, slipping on the nanite jacket Rhodey had gone to grab while they worked.
"I can go," Rhodey volunteered. Tony pretended to miss the significant look he shot at him.
"Count me in," Clint finally spoke, rising.
"Where are we actually going?" Steve asked. "Or, I guess I should ask when are we going?"
Hope tapped the machine. "This'll take you around Earth, but not off-world. You can't get to Titan like Stark said."
"Which means we need to wait until Thor gets back," Tony sighed.
"No," Clint insisted. "I'm sick of sitting around. I need to do something."
"You could go after an individual Stone," Shuri suggested. "If Thanos loses even one, we'll get the dissolved back."
"The Time Stone," Tony said. "That's been on Earth the whole time. And if we have that and we get Strange back, we can save Asgard, too."
"Asgard was destroyed for the Tesseract," Natasha pointed out. "If you grab that, Loki and Heimdall and all the rest will never die in the first place."
"And we do know the best time to steal it," Clint added.
"All good points," Steve agreed. "Are we all in?"
"Just one thing," Tony said. "If we're going back to the moment I think we're going back to, we'll need someone sneaky. Someone tiny."
Everyone turned to Scott and Hope. "I'll go," Hope said.
"Except we need you here in case this thing breaks," Tony said.
"I've got this, Hope," Scott promised, coming over to kiss her cheek. "I'll go live out a thief's dream, and you can stay here and be a nerd."
Hope lightly slugged his arm. "This nerd can kick your ass."
"And I wouldn't have it any other way. But, ah, one of you gentlemen is going to have to stay behind."
Clint crossed his arms stubbornly. Tony glanced between Steve and Rhodey, then let out a sigh. "I know you wanna come, Rhodey, but-"
Rhodey caught his arm. "You are not leaving my sight, Tones."
"I won't go into self-destruct mode," Tony promised, meeting Rhodey's intense stare. "But I need to go, and you need to rest. All right?"
Rhodey hesitated.
Clint clapped a hand on Tony's shoulder, prompting surprised glances from both him and Rhodey. "I will personally kick his ass if he tries anything uncharacteristically stupid, Rhodey. I'm not losing another kid today."
"I am not-"
"Eh, you do act like one," Rhodey said.
"Says the man who tricked Dr. Banner into bowing to T'Challa," Okoye reminded the room.
Rhodey waved a dismissive hand, suppressing a grin. "I'm holding you to that, Clint."
Clint dipped his head. "I'll do my best."
Scott went to put on his suit. When he returned, the four men gathered around the cube, each placing a hand on one of the scanners. Hope typed in the coordinates. "Good luck," she murmured, flashing a brave smile at Scott.
She hit enter.
The machine yanked Tony forward, the world exploding in a rainbow of sparks.
-MCU-
Mid-trip, it occurred to Thor that marching straight into a Reality-Stone-toting madman's home planet was maybe not a good idea. Luckily, they landed amidst dusty ruins, not a hint of life in sight. Just a breeze moaning along, toying with the dust their landing kicked up. Nebula flexed her fist.
"This is where we lost."
Her words met heavy silence, even the breeze unable to respond. If they hadn't given up the Time Stone… Vision and Wanda's sacrifice would not have been in vain. Sif and Loki would be here.
If Tony and the others manage to recover the Time Stone…
Rocket rested a paw on her knee. "You didn't lose alone."
"Gamora did."
No. They're gone. You must move on.
Thor gestured across the landscape. "Where's your ship?"
Nebula swallowed, lifting her chin. "I think I saw it… over there."
She took the lead, Rocket and Thor close behind her, Valkyrie bringing up the rear. The others had landed it beyond a ring of rubble, more than tall enough to hide it and far too wide to consider going around. So up they climbed. Rocket started off bounding easily between landings, but as the footholds grew shakier, he settled for hitching a ride on Nebula's back. Neither surviving Guardian protested.
Finally, they reached the ship. Nebula and Thor paused in the threshold, Valkyrie's hand on Thor's arm, but Rocket bolted through fast as lightning, headed upstairs. Moments later, a song, soft yet upbeat, filtered through the ship.
Ooh-oo child
Things are gonna get easier
Ooh-oo child
Things'll get brighter
Some day, yeah
We'll get it together and we'll get it all done
Some day
When your head is much lighter
Some day, yeah
We'll walk in the rays of a beautiful sun
Nebula nodded and headed inside, going to a different part of the ship than Rocket. Thor didn't stray too far, letting the ship's residents have their chance to say goodbye in private. He simply went to the last place Loki had been, resting a hand on the back of the chair.
Thor held his hand up behind him, letting his lightning swirl around in his palm, twining up his arm. "God of Thunder."
"Woah," Mantis breathed.
"Wait," Rocket said, "if you're the God of Thunder, shouldn't you control, I dunno, thunder?"
"Thank you!" Loki exclaimed.
"Seriously?" Thor sighed.
"I've been telling you that for over a thousand years," Loki pointed out.
"Oh, just sit down," Thor grumbled.
"Reminds me of Sakaar," Valkyrie said, going over to the table and picking up a glass that read Galaxy's #1 Mom.
"Do you miss it?" Thor asked.
"The basically unlimited booze and lack of obligations beyond punching people, yes. But fighting for Asgard again, however long it may last… Nah, I wouldn't give it up."
"Even if it kills you?"
She smiled bittersweetly. "I have everything to die for, Thor. I don't think I'd mind living, not anymore, but dying wouldn't be a shame either."
"But you are holding up all right?" he checked.
She laid a hand over his and the chair, squeezing both. "All I ask for is someone worth fighting beside, and someone worth dying for. Luckily, neither of you boys are your father."
Thor chuckled. "Harsh."
"You're not disagreeing."
"No, no I'm not. But he was my father, for better or for worse."
"I'll lay off the jokes," she promised. "On the condition that I'm allowed to tell you when you are acting like him."
"I welcome it," Thor assured her.
"Was he a good parent?" she wondered. "To you and Loki. Did he ever learn from Hela?"
"Not really," Thor said. "I'm pretty sure the best bit of parenting I got from him in our later years was actually just Loki in disguise."
Valkyrie laughed. "Oh, the irony in that."
Thor picked up the glass, brushing a thumb over the words. "He would've been a good parent. In a few centuries, anyway."
He could practically see the response ready on her tongue, trying to break free, about how they were still fighting, still not giving up on the dead, but she only smiled through tight lips and turned away.
The music shut off, followed by Rocket descending down the stairs, a pack slung over his shoulder. "Sorry about that. It just… feels too empty in here without the tunes. Kinda surprised Peter left the Zune here, but I guess he had other things on his mind."
"What else did you get?" Thor asked.
"Some old book Peter got from his mom that he used to read to Groot, Mantis's favorite necklace that Drax gave her, Drax's drawing of his wife and daughter, and… can I have that glass?"
"Oh, sure," Thor said, handing it over.
"Thanks," Rocket said, tucking it carefully into the pack. "Groot and Mantis got this for Gam's birthday a couple years back. She said it was her favorite thing, except for-"
"These," Nebula finished, coming downstairs with a pair of swords in hand. Their hilts appeared black at first glance, but shimmered fuchsia and emerald as they caught the light. One blade had something etched into it, a sentence in a language Thor only vaguely recognized.
Rocket smiled softly. "Peter's one-year anniversary present to Gam. He learned her native language to write that sentence. And to have conversations with her in it, but that sentence was the start."
"They're gorgeous," Valkyrie murmured appreciatively. "May I?"
Nebula hesitated a moment, then handed over the unengraved one. Valkyrie held it carefully, testing the balance and giving it a few small swings. "I stand corrected – they're exquisite."
"He saved up for the whole year, and they were the one secret he managed not to spill," Rocket explained. "And let me tell ya, the two of us looked very out of place in the city he ordered them from. The shopkeeper almost kicked us out until he proved he could afford her work. But it was the only non-Terran source of vibranium, and he wouldn't pay for anything weaker."
"He must've loved really loved her," Valkyrie murmured, giving the sword back to Nebula.
"More than anything," Nebula said, sheathing the swords in an X behind her back. "And she loved him just as much. She never stopped talking about him half the time."
"They could be annoying about it," Rocket allowed. "But Mantis loved it. So did Groot, before he hit the 'parental PDA is disturbing' phase."
The duo fell silent, gazing around the ship that held their memories with drooping shoulders. Thor let them have a moment before gently clearing his throat. "Eitri should be finishing soon. We should go."
Rocket shook himself. "Right. We can get the ship later, assuming no one steals it while we're off savin' the universe yet again."
He tried to sound nonchalant about it, and Nebula tried not to react at all, but they both stuck close together as Thor carried them back to Nidavellir.
A/N: And a real life note - I've officially committed to my own novel based off Norse mythology co-starring Loki, because rewriting IW and writing A4 aren't enough for me apparently. And seeing as I need to make money off that, and I'm already very passionate about those characters, it will be taking up my time and effort. I am still very dedicated to this fic, and have every intention of doing my best to finish it in a timely manner, but real life does take priority. (I'd say unfortunately, but I really do love those OCs, even though it hasn't even been a week since I decided to do this.)
