Author's Note: Word of warning this is the longest "Author's Note" ever. So, sorry.

The votes are in. And I just want to say thank you to all my voters!

(Einhornsirup, Frida521)Tears for Those Who "Died"=2

(Arwen347, BenevolentCupboardhatch, Zhalo Shadowcell)Coping Mechanisms and Heated Arguments=2 ½

(Cookies, heartnut, JemiLeaMallari)Budding Friendships Contribute to Breakthroughs=3

(Arwen347, Lavendor Queen, thomas again, TripleLLL)Love is for Children=3 ½

And a special mention to Captain Spunker who said to pick whichever one best fits the overall content of the chapter. So the winner is Love is for Children. Cool. So, yeah.

Before we go on to the chapter I would like to take a moment to have a special shout out. Once upon a time when I had a different fan fiction account with three not very popular stories, I used to PM each and every reviewer for my stories and thank them or answer their questions or whatever. But with the vast amount of reviewers and the high demand for chapters and you know, life, I haven't really had time to do anything like that.

So, first let me say I am truly happy to have now one hundred and seventeen reviews and that I am not playing favorites. I can't PM everyone at this point and some of my reviewers I don't even know who they are (because they didn't login and are "Guests") so I just want to have a shout out to those who gave me long, thoughtful reviews that made my day or made me laugh. And I cannot reiterate this enough, I love all my reviews and the fact that people would go out of their way to give little old me a compliment is amazing. But anyways, shout out time:

AnnaTheEmporium, Arwen347, AutoConBuddy, , BenevolentCupboardhatch, Captain Spunker, Cookies, DXRULES103, elfqueen13, fan girl 666, fan-de-carlisle-cullen, Frida521, Genesis09, JemiLeaMallari, Lavendor Queen, LeiaOrgana457HP, lilyxsnapex4eva, Miss Hiraya, OrangeWolf4, PhoenixFantastic, RedHeadLena, Shadow Lily Potter, thomas again, thomas w, xXCinderzXx, and Zhalo Shadowcell.

Many thanks to tyry95 for telling me about the misspelling of "Heimdall" in the Prologue and to whoever the Guest was who told me that Wakandans should not be described as African Americans but just as Africans. (Sometimes I have dumb moments.)

Extreme special shout out to the following:

To heartnut who said I should send my story when it is complete to Tom Hiddleston. That made me the happiest person on Earth. :)

To TripleLLL who has given me a review on every single chapter. I always look forward to what you'll say next and I love that you were my hundredth reviewer!

And to Einhornsirup who asked what my favorite part of HISHE's Infinity War was. Answer: It was a four-way tie.

1. Nebula taking down Thanos like the boss she is.

2. "Don't worry everyone, I got this. Mirror Dimension! And gone! Yes! Wong!"

3. Rocket stealing Bucky's arm and then trying to sell it to the cast sitting in the café.

4. "Hello everyone! I'm back! Have I got a story for you! I faked my own death, again."

And I just have to say it again because I'm paranoid, I love you all! If I didn't mention your name, that doesn't mean I don't appreciate your review. Honest! (Don't be mad at me? Please?)

So…now that all that jazz is done with, we can continue on with the story. Enjoy!

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Chapter Eight: Love is for Children

Time was being odd again. The hours just seemed to slip past as if they were minutes and before either Loki or Nebula knew it, the sun was lazily starting to come up over the horizon, painting the sky a light blue and bright yellow. They had stayed up and talked for over seven hours. Well, what could they say? They had been apart for nearly six years and they had a lot of catching up to do.

And there was no rush in doing so.

If they ever stopped the reality of the situation would probably set down on both of them hard and they would be back in the same boat they had been in before: stuck in a deep cloud of depression.

"So, you traveled halfway around the galaxy to find your sister in order to finally defeat her in combat and then you…spared her life and you helped kill her boyfriend's dad, the giant planet?" Loki asked with a hint of wonder. He had to have heard her wrong.

"Yes."

Or maybe not. They both sat on the floor of the large room with deep gray colored walls and small golden lights placed on the ceiling. The floor was carpeted with thick, soft, fury black material. It was like a large woolly blanket. Nebula sat with her legs crossed about four feet away from Loki who had his legs to his chest. "I'm sorry but, wasn't Gamora the sister you hated? Why would you change your mind after all of these years?"

"Wasn't Thor the brother you wanted and tried to kill?"

"Okay, point taken."

Nebula sighed, "I…I always wanted a sister." She didn't say anything for over a minute, her words just hung there in the air. Loki didn't reply, not wanting to push her. "Out of all those horrible people who were my "siblings" Gamora was the most tolerable, but she never once reframed when it came to beating me in combat. And every time she did…" Nebula clenched her metal hand into a tight fist.

"I get it," Loki whispered. He didn't want her to feel like she had to go down her awful memory lane again to make him understand. He did. And he wasn't sure he wanted to hear about how Thanos would put sister against sister and then replace a part of the loser, always Nebula, with machinery again. During his time on Thanos's ship he had often had a morbid sense of curiosity when it came to Nebula. He truly wanted to know how Thanos was responsible for her having non-flesh and bone parts. But now that he knew what Nebula had gone through for all those years…it made his time on the ship seem like a walk through the park.

"Killing Quill's dad or whatever he was, was just to ensure that the universe would survive. It's a little difficult to seek revenge on your insane father if the galaxy is destroyed."

"I'm sure."

"And what can I say? Gamora and I were trying to be, well, she is my sister." Nebula paused for a moment before adding quietly, "She was my sister." Despite the desperate attempt to keep their conversation away from their hardships it was unavoidable. Loki had told her about the death of his mother and Odin and Nebula told him that Thanos had killed Gamora and made all of those Guardian people that Rocket talked about vanish. Loki was about to say something, what he did not know. Perhaps something comforting or maybe he was going to change the subject and lead them both away from the pain. But before he could Nebula muttered, "Oh, I should probably mention that I kind of yelled at your brother."

"How do you "kind of" yell at Thor? You either did or you didn't."

"Well, I did."

Loki smirked, picturing Nebula shouting at Thor who probably had that classic confused look on his face. "I am so sorry that I missed that."

Nebula glanced at him and the serious look she had made his smirk disappear. "You never told him about what had happened on Thanos's ship."

Now Loki didn't understand where she was going with this or why she had brought it up. "No, I didn't."

"I figured as much. I kind of-I did tell him."

I could not have heard her right.

"You…you told him?"

"A little bit, yes."

Loki felt a jab of worry and anxiety in his stomach. He didn't hold back his concern feelings when he asked, "What did you say?"

And Nebula, as brutally and bluntly honest as ever, answered, "I said that Thanos had you tortured every day for months."

Loki stared at her, feeling the anxiety spread. Then he sighed almost frustrated. "Oh Nebula, I really wished you hadn't done that."

"Look he may be a brainless jerk, but he is your brother. He had a right to know."

"Yes," he snapped back, "but I am the one who has the right to tell or not to tell whoever I want."

"It just slipped out. I was mad, okay?"

"Yes, I know. I'm not upset, I just…" he sighed again, "Stars above, this is going to make life so much more difficult. Because he's not going to drop it." No. Knowing Thor, he would question him constantly with that worried look plastered all over his face. Loki hated that look. And if Thor knew about what had happened, however little, then he had to see how weak Loki truly was. That's how Loki felt. Weak. Weak for ever being put in the horrible situation in the first place. And he wasn't sure he was ready for Thor to go back to looking at him differently.

Nebula crossed her arms. "If your brother did drop it, I would probably punch him in the jaw."

Loki had to chuckle at that. "Now that I would love to see."

She had a glimmer of a smile. "You are so confusing, you know that? You go from mischievous to depressed to self-loving to self-loathing. I'm no expert, but I think that means you have some issues."

"Only some?"

"Don't get cute with me," she said in a tone, but she still had that small smile making it obvious that she wasn't too upset with him or anything like that. "You know I'm right."

"Do I?"

"I was right about Thanos and the Mind Stone, you said so yourself. Who's to say that I'm wrong about this?"

"Just because you got two things right in the past does not mean you are right now." Nebula raised her eyebrows at him expectedly. "Yes, alright, those two things were pretty monumental things but as you said yourself, you knew Thanos much longer then I had. Just because you have a perceptiveness about him does not mean that you have one about me." Nebula didn't say a word but she just continued eyeing him with a, really, are you serious, look. Loki sighed, annoyed with himself. "Fine, you probably have a perceptiveness over me too, because you know me very well. But-"

"Are you done yet?"

"No."

Nebula shrugged. "Fine. That's fine. It's kind of fun to watch you have an argument with yourself."

"I'm not-" He stopped himself from going on. This was pointless. Why get all worked up over something that she clearly was right about? "Alright, I yield. Yes, I am inconsistent sometimes when it comes to my emotions and actions. It's a personality flaw. Okay? Are we done?" Nebula half smirked and glanced at the ground. "What?"

"You make it sound so bad to not be one hundred percent perfect. No one is you know."

He sighed exasperatedly. "Yes, I know, I just-I'm not-"

Nebula raised both her hands in front of her, as if to stop him. "Okay, clearly this is a subject for another time. How about we talk about something else?"

"What a wonderful idea," he said, very glad to change the subject. Getting into his self-esteem issues was a talk for another time and even though he trusted Nebula, he wasn't sure if he wanted to tell her all about that mess. "What haven't we talked about so far?"

"We have not discussed how it is daytime and that we've been up for seven plus hours."

"True. Not really a great conversation starter though."

"There is no pleasing you."

"Satisfaction is not in my nature."

"Really? I couldn't tell." Nebula uncrossed her legs and stretched them out in front of her on the fury carpet. "Should you check in with the Asgardians?"

Loki had almost forgotten about the refugees. It was a miracle that they all, or at least half of them, were still alive and not just alive, but here. Thor must have been ecstatic to see most of his people safe and sound. And of course Valkyrie. Nebula had told him that the loud mouth warrior had survived the snap. On one hand, he was glad because it was obvious Thor felt something for the woman, but on the other hand he could just picture her storming into the room at any second and start yelling at him for tricking her to get onto the pod ship. And he wasn't too thrilled to have to potentially deal with her wrath. The last time he pissed her off she had knocked him out and tied him in some chains that were enchanted to prevent magic users from using their magic. In order words, he was stuck where she had left him until she had come back with Thor and Bruce.

He stretched out his legs as well and then he stood up. "Yes. I should do that." Nebula nodded understanding. "Want to come with?"

Her head popped back up and she shook her head. "No, I don't think that's a good idea."

"Why? I am literally just going where the Asgardians are, checking up on them, and then leaving. Besides, I do not know where this shelter is that you said they were in."

"You could ask your brother," she grumbled.

"Yes, I could. But I'm not going to." Nebula sighed in annoyance. "So, you'll just have to lead me to them."

"Or you could ask virtually anyone who lives here."

"Again, yes, I could. But again, I'm-"

"You're not going to. I get it, I get it. Fine." She stood up and half glared at him. "For being like a thousand years old, you can act like such a twelve year old."

He laughed at that. "I know it's not meant to be a compliment, but I'm going to take it as one."

Nebula rolled her eyes and stalked to the door. "Come on." He followed close behind still wearing a smirk. "And stop smirking like an idiot!" He laughed again.

Nebula had lead him to the seven-story blue building near the heart of Wakanda, filled with just as wondrous tech as the rest of the city. They walked up the inclined planes to the different floors and all Loki did was pop his head through the opened doors to see how everyone was doing. The verdict? Well, everyone who he saw and was still here was doing well. The refugees were a smaller group then what they had started out as, but it was good to see those who remained alive and well. It filled him with an odd feeling. It was like relief but also happiness. He was just glad that his people were safe.

My people?

He wasn't technically an Asgardian, at all, but he felt that he was one and that they were his people. It was dumb. After everything he had done, the Asgardians would be fools to want him as part of them. And also there was that whole thing of them hating Frost Giants so…

"How much longer?" Nebula asked from his side.

"Just a minute. I'm almost done." If he had left at that moment he probably wouldn't have gone into the last room to the left on the sixth floor and seen Valkyrie sitting at a silver metal table with her feet perched on the edge of the table, cleaning her sword. The second her saw her, he tried to quickly back out of the room but Nebula was in the way and he almost stepped on her foot.

"Hey, watch it," she grumbled, and that got Valkyrie's attention.

The warrior woman glanced up, saw Loki, and set her sword aside with a semi-threatening look. "Well, look who's alive."

Loki glanced back at Nebula. "Now you've done it." Nebula threw her arms in the air with a, what are you talking about, look. Loki faced Valkyrie again and stated, "Glad to see the Asgardians are alive even if that means you too."

Valkyrie blinked unimpressed. "Wow. Was that you're attempt at hostility, because it needs work. And I'm sure you know it, but what's up with that bruise?"

Loki stepped further into the room, approaching the table where the woman sat lazily. "The battle was difficult and very nearly deadly. Now, should I be worried that you will try to hit me?"

Valkyrie shook her head no. "No. I'm madder at Thor than anything else."

"Good."

"That doesn't mean I'm overly pleased with you either."

"I know, but as long as I don't have to look over my shoulder for your wrath…" That was the last thing he wanted to do. To have the fierce war loving Valkyrie plotting to get back at him, in however small way, was not something to look forward to. At that moment he noticed the equally fierce General Okoye standing in the corner of the room near the large window. "Hello," he said to the General who just gave him that famous stare of hers.

Valkyrie smirked. "She's got to have the best death stare in all of the nine realms."

Okoye turned slightly to look at Valkyrie, her death stare turning to a friendly look. "I don't know, you have a pretty good one yourself." Valkyrie chuckled at the complement.

Loki chuckled in amusement. "I knew you two would get along wonderfully."

Valkyrie frowned not understanding so she turned back to the General. "What is he going on about?"

The General answered, "Before the battle began, he said that we would get along with each other because we both were warriors that protected the crown and we do not like him," she pointed at Loki, "very much."

"Oh, then yes." Valkyrie turned back to face Loki and folded her hands behind her head. "We do get along in that sense. Although, not liking lackey here is not that original of a character trait."

"His name is Loki," Nebula said in that gruff and sassy way that Loki had grown to love. He hadn't realized that she had followed him all of the way into the room and was now standing next to him with her arms crossed. He wasn't sure what he liked better, the fact that Nebula had spoken up for him or Valkyrie's surprised look that Nebula had done so.

"Yeah, I realize that," Valkyrie said. "Calling him lackey is just a thing I do to get under his skin." Nebula did not reply but those transfixing eyes of hers set their sights on staring Valkyrie down. And for the first time since Loki had met her on Sakaar, Valkyrie appeared to not have any witty come back or threat to say at Nebula's stare. In fact she seemed startled by the glare.

Loki half smiled and glanced between the three women in the room and mussed, "Personally out of the three of you, I think that dear Nebula has the best death stare. But you know, that is only my opinion." After a minute or so, Nebula decided she was done and slowly stalked back to the door to leave.

I guess we're leaving.

That was probably a good thing. Watching the three women go into a glaring contest sounded like loads of fun but it would probably lead to an argument at some time. And star's help the world if Nebula, Valkyrie, and General Okoye got into an argument. Besides, he had checked in with the Asgardians and they all seemed well so that was that. He joined Nebula in leaving the room but before he walked completely out, he turned back to the two warrior women and said in passing as a way to say goodbye, "General, Brunnhilde."

He hurried out the door and raced through the hallway a bit before he even heard Valkyrie shout out, "Don't you ever call me Brunnhilde!"

Nebula glanced at Loki. "What did you do now?"

"Oh, nothing. I just couldn't resist that. Speaking of which, if you ever want to get under Valkyrie's skin just call her Brunnhilde."

"Why?"

"That is her real name and apparently she does not like it very much."

Nebula half smiled. "I'll keep that in mind." As they exited the blue building, they both saw that the sun had risen in the sky even more. It was a beautiful, warm, and almost hopeful beacon that seemed to state that it was a new day and anything was possible. A new day it was, but the hope for anything to be possible was lost in the reality of the situation. "Looks like it will be a nice day," Nebula muttered to herself. "You must hate the heat here though."

"I'm not a fan, no. But I think after all the years of having sometimes blistering summers on Asgard have helped with my adaptability to warmer weather." As they strolled somewhat causally back to the black building, they noticed Rocket off to the side of the street they walking through. He was sitting alone glaring miserably at the ground. "Should we say something to him?" Loki asked Nebula, slowing down his walking pace so he wouldn't pass the raccoon.

She stopped walking completely. "Since when did you get involved when it came to comforting strangers?"

"Since like yesterday. Also he was somewhat nice to me when I was dealing with my own problems, I feel like I should do the same. Or something."

"Suit yourself, but I think I'll head back to the room."

"Why?"

She narrowed her eyes at him. "You know me better than most people, Loki. I do not do well when it comes to emotions. And I was the one who had to tell him that the Guardians were gone in the first place. He would not be happy to see me."

Loki slightly nodded. "Alright. Well…I will just do this and then I will be back shortly."

"Okay."

"Alright."

You are going to see her again in less than two minutes. Part ways already!

He awkwardly waved goodbye and stepped back to head where Rocket was. It was odd. He wanted to see how the raccoon was dealing with his losses but he really did not want to leave Nebula's side. Odd, very odd. "Hello," he said stepping closer to the sidelines where Rocket sat.

"Hey," Rocket muttered.

"Nebula told me what happened," he cleared his throat, "Do you want to talk about it?"

"Not really."

"Understandable, I guess." He glanced down and noticed that Rocket was grabbing fistfuls of the yellow dry looking grass that was growing along the sidelines of the abandoned street and tossing them aside. He looked down the street and saw small piles of uprooted grass. Evidently Rocket had been at this for a while. "I'm sorry, but why exactly are you uprooting grass and then throwing it to the side?"

"Not everyone can take out their anger by destroying a freakin' room." Rocket dug his fingers and nails into the dirt and threw another bit of grass and roots with all his strength and it went to the other side of the road.

"Ah, I see…So, I'm just trying to understand. You were upset, no doubt, and then you thought to yourself…destroy the grass?"

Rocket looked up at him for the first time since he came over. "I don't see why it's any of your concern."

"I suppose it is not my concern but I-"

"But nothing. I don't need some eccentric green clothes wearing jackass to be making jokes when I'm dealing with all this shit."

"I'm not-"

"You just did with the grass."

"Okay, but it was not my intent to-"

"Yeah, whatever." Rocket got to his feet and stomped away in a huff. Loki rubbed his forehead.

Well, that was a disaster.

He honestly did not think he had been too jokey or insensitive but, who knows? Maybe he was. Or maybe Rocket really didn't need to talk to anyone right now and he just needed some time to be alone. He decided not to go after him and to head back to the room. He might just catch up with Nebula before she even got to the room.

When he climbed up the stairs off to the side of the black sleek building where he and Bucky had formerly been acquainted, he saw the blonde ex-assassin sitting on the little stone wall that ran alongside the concrete bride that lead to the landing pad where the Quinjet was still parked. "Red."

Her head spun to look at him and then gave him a small nod. "Loki." Natasha appeared to be both tired and stressed out. Not a surprise really after everything that had happened only the day before. She crossed her arms and moved around so she was still sitting on the wall, but facing Loki. "Wha'cha you doing out here?"

He was slightly taken aback by the question, since the two of them had never engaged in small talk before. Maybe this was the beginnings of them eventually talking about where they were supposed to go from here. After all, she saved his life. Loki sighed. He was thinking too much again. "Nebula and I went to see how the Asgardians were and then I was trying to talk with Rocket."

"Rocket is the raccoon right?"

"Correct. Nebula said that his group of friends all disappeared after the snap. I thought I would try…" he drifted off not really wanting to talk about the rest of what happened. "What are you doing out here? I would have thought that with Stark back the Avengers would be regrouping again."

She started to chuckled. "Yeah. You're right, but it wasn't very enjoyable. Tony and Steve love to get into some pretty heated arguments. So, I thought I would take a break from that and just wander around. I kind of hoped that I would run into you." Loki blinked his eyes at that but before he could reply, Natasha continued with, "I see you still have your war wounds."

"Yes, well," he unconsciously reached for his tender and still very sore throat, "um, I never did thank you for what you did."

Natasha nodded glancing down at the cement. "Yeah. I just…don't worry about it… Your welcome." It was the first time he had seem the usually well put together, ten steps ahead of everyone else agent seem so flustered and unsure of herself. Maybe she wasn't sure what saving him meant either.

He glanced down at the cement too. "Guess we're not going to talk about if we can trust one other?"

"I mean, if you want to-"

"No. No, I don't. I was just asking for your benefit."

Natasha nodded. "Oh. Okay. Cool…" That seemed to be the end of the conversation but then she sighed. "Look, I know what I said at the base and I know how I felt about you, how I still feel about you, but…"

"You are the hero, Agent Romanoff. You would save anyone in trouble. Even me."

"Maybe." She looked him right in the eye. "Or maybe I saw a guy trying to protect his friends about to get himself killed and I intervened."

They really could not go back to where they were before. How they saw each other was so drastically different now. But instead of continuing with this conversation Loki backtracked to something Natasha had said. "Why did you want to run into me again?"

"Oh, I was just curious."

"About?"

"About the nature of your, um, relationship with Nebula."

Loki blinked a few times. "…What?"

She shrugged. "She's the first machine based person that you met that you were talking about, right? And you two obviously have history. What kind of history is the question."

Loki knew he was giving her a confused look with his mouth open. "…What?"

Natasha lost her patience. "Are you two an item or not?"

That's what she thought? She thought that they-oh for star's sake, give him a break. He swallowed and thought how best to reply to her ridiculous question and then he thought of it. "What did you say to me when I asked you if you were in love with Agent Barton?"

"Love is for children."

"Exactly." Loki had never ever thought about having romantic mushy love. He had trouble with just love from family or friends and he was so complicated and inconsistent that he doubted that anybody would be capable of falling in love with him. And he wasn't even sure if he was able to fall for anyone. Besides, what was that type of love anyways? Something that married couples had and then it became a waiting game to see who despised who first. Not that his mother and Odin hadn't had a happy marriage. They always seemed to get along. He didn't know, he just never thought much of all that romantic stuff.

Natasha as if reading his mind, right on cue said, "Romantic love or not, she cares about you. You see that, right?"

Yes, he did. And it was slightly surprising. They had not been friends during his time on Thanos's ship, or that's what she had told him, and yet here they were acting like old friends. If he was being honest to himself, he thought of her as his friend. The closest friend he ever had. He suddenly realized he hadn't said anything a long time. But what was he supposed to say, certainly none of the things that had been running through his head. So he just shook his head and started to walk away. "Thank you for the conversation, Red. It was very odd."

"Maybe, but it was so much better than the one between Tony and Steve."

He chuckled. "I can just about imagine the drama." Then he left the blonde ex-assassin and headed back to the room where Nebula was no doubt waiting for him.

Bruce didn't know why he needed to be here. He totally did not need to be here in the middle of this fight. In fact, if he wasn't so exhausted he would have told Rhodey to come with him and they could find Natasha and let Tony and Steve argue it out among themselves.

"Look, Tony, I get it-"

"Really? You do? Tell me what you get."

Steve inhaled trying not to yell. "You're hurting, but if you haven't noticed everyone's hurting. We cannot just go guns blazing into space and hunt down Thanos."

"Why not?" Tony asked in his usual irresponsible way, although this time his tone was laced with anger. "You said that we were going to figure out a way to fix this. Best thing I can come up with is we track him down, attack him, take the Gauntlet, and bring everyone back."

"Tony, listen to me-"

"How 'bout no."

"Getting everyone who is still alive killed is not going to bring Peter back."

"Don't you dare-"

"We have a responsibility to the people who are still here on this planet."

Steve was holding fast that the Avengers needed to be on Earth to help prevent mass panic, but Tony was dead set on getting revenge on Thanos and somehow miraculously bringing everyone who disappeared back. Both plans had their drawl backs and their good points, but honestly Bruce was too tired to care or to put in his two cents. So he just slouched over the silver table he sat at watching the two leaders of the Avengers go back and forth on what they were supposed to do, while his headache got larger and larger. He never got that bottle of aspirin that he had wanted. Everyone in the room probably needed it. Maybe Shuri had some or maybe she could just stick some of those metal beads to the temples of everyone's heads.

Shuri had left with her mother and M'Baku not too long after healing Tony's wound. The young genius girl and her mother had left to finally mourn properly and to get some rest. M'Baku had to take care of his Jabari tribe and he felt that he wanted to check in with the rest of the Wakandan warriors. M'Baku might have been a little overbearing and even a little more obnoxious but he was a good man and leader. He technically wasn't the leader of the entirety of Wakanda but…boy, he sometimes acted like it.

Tony who was still glaring at Steve, let out a deep breath. "You know, you and I can go around and around on this forever probably and not get any closer to figuring this out. I mean, we've done that before, haven't we?"

Steve walked around the table and stood closer to the window looking out over the city. "I don't mean to fight, I just think that we need to focus our attention here before going after Thanos without any sort of plan."

Tony crossed his arms over his chest and said defiantly, "I have a plan: attack."

Steve pressed his fingers into his temples and muttered, "Tony, you and I both know that's not good enough."

"Maybe. But I already had this great plan laid out and I lost. You had your great plan laid out and you lost. Maybe we just need to, I don't know, change it up. Do something so crazy that it's bound to work."

"Is that what's going through your head?" Steve asked in a tone. "The crazier the better and maybe somehow luck will be on our side?" Tony shrugged. Steve shook his head. "That is so naïve and I know that you know that."

"Do I?" Tony snapped. "Every second we waste-don't you see that I'm just trying to get…" He shook his head, apparently too mad to go on. He then glanced at Rhodey standing near the door and Bruce sitting at the table and from his surprised look, Bruce could tell that he had forgotten that they were both still in the room. Tony focused his sights on Bruce. "What do you think?"

Bruce sat up straight. "What?"

"What is your opinion on this? Should we stay here and help the people of Earth or should we try to defeat Thanos and bring back those who are gone, therefore we forgo the whole preventing the mass hysteria that Cap is so damn worried about."

Bruce closed his eyes and shook his head. "Oh, I don't know."

"What do you mean you don't know?"

"You know how long it has been since I've slept? You two do realize its morning, right? I am in no mood to try and think about this. And don't pull me into this drama between you guys and make me be the tiebreaker. That's just mean." Tony tilted his head to the side and gave Bruce an odd look and Steve nodded understandingly. At that moment, Bruce saw Thor walk past the door. "Hey, Thor!"

Everyone in the room jumped and Thor came back to the doorway, taking one step into the room. "What?"

"Hey, can you help these guys," Bruce pointed to Tony and Steve, "with their problem of deciding what to do next?"

Rhodey scoffed from where he was standing. "Way to get the attention off of you and onto someone else."

Bruce raised his eyebrows at Rhodey. "Would you like to put in your thoughts on the matter?"

"Not really."

"Well, then Thor can-" He glanced at Thor and he had to do a double take. The gruff and strong man for some reason looked so lost and small. He looked like someone had told him the worst thing in the entire world and he had no idea how to process it. "Are you okay?"

Tony and Steve both looked to the God man and saw what Bruce saw. "Thor?" Steve asked taking a step towards him. "Is everything alright with the Asgardians?" Thor was glaring at the floor and did not answer Steve's question. "Thor?"

"Hmm?" he asked, still in his own world.

"You seem a little out of sorts, Point Break," Tony said.

Thor nodded his head and said quietly, "I haven't really slept. At all. I've just been…thinking." He looked up and seemed to realize he was in the room for the first time. "I'm sorry, did you all want something?"

Steve shook his head softly. "No, we're fine. Are you?"

"Yeah, sure, I just need to, um, keep thinking. Well…I should be, uh…yeah." He turned around and left the room with that lost hurt look still written all over his face.

Tony glanced between the three other men in the room. "That was weird. Right? I know I haven't seen the guy in like two years but that was weird right?"

Bruce nodded. "A little bit yes." It was extremely weird. Thor wasn't one to hold back his feelings on something, he was a very open person. And he had already expressed his feelings on what he thought they should do when it came to Thanos and he had been a lot less vengeful acting when Valkyrie and the Asgardians arrived. So something had to happen to make him be in this weird funk of his. What could have happened to make the mighty Thor seem so lost? Bruce stood from his chair. "You know what guys, I think I'm going to see if he's alright."

Steve nodded. "That's a good idea."

"Yeah. And hey, if you two," he glanced between Tony and Steve, "still need an unwilling tiebreaker, why don't you just ask Rhodey where he stands with this whole "what do we do next" dilemma?"

Rhodey threw his hands in the air. "Seriously? What did I ever do to you, Bruce? I don't want to be dragged in the middle of this either."

"Sorry," Bruce muttered as he walked away from the drama and stress that seemed to follow Tony and Steve around. He went in the direction Thor had when he had left and it took about ten minutes but Bruce finally tracked him down. Thor had left the black sleek building and had gone to the small garden that Bruce, Natasha, and Rhodey had been in before the battle began.

It was a mix of what you would traditionally see in a garden and some wonderful technological advances that you would never think to be in a garden. There were several finely pruned shrubs, long limbed trees, delicate flowers of several different hues, and a fountain in the middle carved out of white marble that had a panther as its focal point with water spurting from its mouth. Those were what made it seem like an ordinary garden. What made it extraordinary was the clear glass fifty feet above it supported by very large glass pillars. The glass was like the many different screens that Shuri had used, as projections could be seen dancing on the glass and the significance of the projections were they controlled the temperature and weather conditions of the different parts of the huge garden. If there was a section of the garden had trees that needed lots of water and another that had flowers that needed really warm weather in order to grow, then more than likely it would be raining in part of the garden and extremely warm in the other part at the same time.

Thor was sitting on a bench in a fairly warm section of the garden next to purple and yellow flowers with large petals. Bruce walked the stone path leading towards him and sat next to him. "Hello."

"Hey," Thor muttered. Bruce decided he wasn't going to push Thor. Pushing never solved anything. He would let Thor tell him what was bugging him in his own time. And Thor was quiet for several long seconds before he asked, "You're going to stay here, aren't you?"

"Yup."

Thor sighed. "Okay… How's Tony?"

Bruce shrugged. "Good, I guess. He's all healed up, but he's taking all of his own losses pretty hard." He started to chuckle humorlessly. Now he knew he was dead tired. "Tony and Steve reunited less than eight hours ago and they have basically been fighting the whole time."

Thor shook his head tiredly. "Sounds about right for those two."

"Yeah."

The silence that followed was not at all comfortable. Thor was fidgeting around with an unusual air of anxiety around him and Bruce wanted to be patient but he was finding it difficult to not just bluntly ask why he was acting so weird. Thor finally turned to Bruce. "Can I confide something to you?"

Bruce nodded. "Of course you can. What is it?"

Thor took in a deep breath and clasped his hands together. "Alright, when Loki came to Earth all those years ago I was convinced that someone was helping him. I asked him who controlled the would be king and gave him his army, his scepter but…but by that point he was too far gone. Now I know that it was Thanos who had given him the scepter and the army. But-but I never thought…"

Bruce watched Thor carefully seeing his friend's eyes flash with a deep sadness and an extreme amount of rage. "Thor?"

Thor shook his head quickly. "You didn't see Loki before Thanos attacked us or before you came to tell me that the Asgardians were here. Bruce, he was shaking. Shaking. He's absolutely terrified of Thanos. I wanted to know why and I wanted to ask how that Nebula girl knew so much about Loki, so I asked her and she kind of answered both my questions. She said that Thanos had…had Loki…tortured every day for months… Months!" Bruce had been leaning in slightly closer to Thor so he could hear what he was saying because he was saying it so quietly, but he jumped back when Thor suddenly shouted. Then Bruce could hear thunder start to loudly boom and crack in the distance. He didn't need conformation that it was not from the glass over the garden. He knew it was Thor. "That heartless bastard," Thor added quietly, clenching his fists as small bits of lightning formed around them and sizzled out into the air.

Of all the things that crossed Bruce's mind of what was bothering Thor, never in his wildest dreams had he thought it would be what Thor had said. His jaw dropped slightly. "So, wait-why- why would…when did-did this even happen?"

Thor kept his barely contained rage together. "According to Nebula, it was after Loki fell from the Bifrost that Thanos got his hands on him." The thunder grew louder. "It makes sense now. He falls from the bridge and then a year later he is alive and he has this crazy poisonous idea to take over Earth. I…I never could figure it out. Why he had changed so dramatically. I thought… It's because of him. Thanos. I know it is." Thor took several deep breaths trying to calm down while Bruce just stared at Thor trying to wrap his head around this new information.

"Thor, I…" What was he supposed to say to him?

Thor shook his head and said in barely above a whisper, "Loki was so quiet before, so thoughtful. Always practicing his spells, reading. Always showing he was smarter than me by pulling off those pranks of his. And he had been hurting. So much. Bruce, he was almost always ignored by basically everyone. Because of me. And I took advantage of him for so many years, for so many centuries…and then he falls victim to Thanos and…and I didn't even stop to question why he acted so differently. For over a year I almost hated him for what he had done and it probably wasn't even his idea in the first place. What kind of brother am I to not be able to see what is directly in front of me?"

Bruce felt like he had been slapped in the face. "And it probably wasn't even his idea in the first place." Loki's scepter. It had the Mind Stone in it, that's how he was able to take over Clint's and others' minds, but if Thanos gave it to him…who was to say that Thanos didn't use it on Loki to take over his mind? That could totally explain why he had gone from a crazy guy trying to kill everyone to a mischievous guy who was at least trying to do the right thing. Now Bruce felt like an idiot for not seeing it either. "Thor," he began, "just because you didn't see it doesn't mean that you are a bad brother. Nobody saw it. We all just took Loki's actions as face value and none of us thought that there was something more going on."

Thor nodded silently and unclenched his hands. The thunder started to become more and more in the distance. The next thing he said had nothing to do with what Bruce had said. "You know, I wondered for hours after Nebula told me, why Loki had never told me. But now I know why. He would have felt ashamed and like it was his fault and he would have worried that I would look at him differently."

"Why would he blame hims-?"

"Because that's what he does!" Bruce jumped back again. "When Rocket and I had found him, he had destroyed an entire room and when I tried to comfort him he said this whole thing with Thanos was his fault. He said he had known about Thanos and his plan for years and since he hadn't said anything about it, it was his fault."

Maybe Bruce should have just stayed in the room with the two stubborn leaders of the Avengers because sitting here listening to Thor had just made his headache worse. "Loki could not have been the only person in the entire galaxy who knew about Thanos."

"That's exactly what I said! But I don't think he believed me. Dammit, I wish there was a way to convince him it's not his fault. God, if he's beating himself up over this, what could he be thinking about New York?"

Bruce sighed. "Look, the important thing to know is that you shouldn't push Loki about this, but you should tell him everything you just told me. You should both just bring everything out into the open, that way maybe you will both be able to move forward." Man, at what point had he become the group's therapist?

Bruce wasn't sure if he had reached Thor or not, but then suddenly Thor got to his feet. "You are right. I just need to talk to him. Right. That's the best thing to do." He sounded like he was trying to convince himself of his words.

Bruce eyed Thor for a moment before saying, "Do you want me to come with you?"

"God, yes. I don't even know how I'm supposed to approach the topic. What do I say? Hello, brother. Did you have a nice sleep? Oh, by the way the blue girl told me you were tortured for months on end and I want to talk about it."

Bruce rubbed his pounding temples as he stood up as well. "Please don't do that. You'll know the best thing to say when the moment comes."

"And if I don't?" Thor asked with genuine worry.

"Give yourself a little more credit. You are his brother, you know him better than anyone else."

"I used to think that as well. But now I'm not so sure." And together they left the garden and headed for the room where they had left Loki.

After talking about what had happened between him and Rocket and telling about his conversation with Natasha, minus the whole part where she insinuated that he and Nebula were involved in a "more than friends" relationship, Loki was officially out of things to talk about. Well, he was sure he could have come up with something but as it turned out Nebula was a bit tired. He asked her if she wanted him to leave so she could sleep on the couch for a while but she said no. She did however have a request: she wanted to see his calm memory. He had no problem with that.

He flicked his hand and the green glow shined from his hand and then it went around the entirety of the room transforming it into the beautiful golden field from his childhood. They both sat in silence, again on the carpeted floor, watching the memory unfold to the point where young Loki and young Thor frightened those small white butterflies. Nebula was sitting against the wall in the room but because of the illusion it looked like she was sitting against a large trunked tree in the shade. She half smiled. "It's amazing that your illusions look so real."

"Well, that is kind of the point."

"How can it "kind of" be the point? It either is or it isn't."

Loki smirked at hearing her throw his own words from earlier back at him. "Hilarious."

She smiled again and focused back on the illusion. "Is there a way to make them solid?"

"Yes. Although, they take more concentration and energy so I usually just stick with theses." Nebula nodded as the memory reached its end and the field slowly morphed back into the high tech room.

"Can I ask you something?" she asked, sounding unsure.

"Of course."

"Isn't it painful to relive these happy memories?"

He thought about it for a moment. "Sometimes. But even if I did not use magic to engulf reality for a moment, I would still be thinking about it so I should just do it this way."

"In other words, I'm going to do it anyways so I should do it the right way."

"Correct."

She shook her head. "If I could do what you can…I don't think I would want to conjure up memories. I would be too tempted to conjure up ones that were not real. I would be bound to get lost in the fantasy of a better life." She sat quietly for the next minute appearing to want to say something else.

Loki misread what he thought she wanted to say. He thought she was going to say something more about her past to try and make him understand. She didn't have to, because he did understand, but that's not what she wanted to say. "Nebula-"

"You know, you weren't just another prisoner to me." She had said it all with one breath and when she was finished she looked him right in the eye.

Loki blinked a few times. "I'm sorry?"

"I pretended that you were just another prisoner but the truth is I did miss you when you left and I was so upset when I thought you were dead. Loki, you are the only friend I have ever had…"

She is my friend…

Nebula continued on. "I couldn't kill Gamora because I wanted her to be my sister but also because I thought she was all I had left. I lost you and she was it… Now I have you and I lost her." She suddenly started to tear up more than he had ever seen before. "I can't seem to win, can I? I just…I don't know what I am supposed to do now."

Loki stared at the poor girl a second more before standing up and walking over to her and sitting right down next to her. She barely seemed to notice until he patted her shoulder. "I know. I understand. What Thanos stole from you, from me, from everyone, there is no easy way to move on. We just have to make the simple peace that we are here and they are not and…it is terrible but right now there is nothing we can do…" It wasn't very helpful, he knew that. He just felt like he should try to say something semi-comforting. He sighed, "I have Thor, Bruce, and you. And you have me. I promise, you'll always have me-"

She practically jumped him when she suddenly threw her arms around him in an almost death hug. He was shocked by it but not completely. It took him a moment to realize he should probably hug her back. It was slightly awkward and yet at the same time it felt perfectly normal to put his arms around her slender form and hold her. They sat there for who knows how long until Nebula half whispered half cried, "Gamora was his favorite daughter and he didn't even think twice about it. Her life for that damn Soul Stone."

"I know," he said patting her back.

"A soul for a soul," she added with disgust.

Yes. The fantastical Soul Stone, hidden away for eons in a place where no one could find and even if you could find it, you had to sacrifice the person you loved most in order to get the soul controlling and entrapping stone-

Wait…wait. Could it really be that simple?

What did the Soul Stone do in the long run for Thanos's plan of wiping out half of the universe? All the other stones had a specific purpose, did they not? In order to carry out his plan, Thanos would need something that could warp reality and had an immense amount of power. Something that could wipe out the minds and bodies of half of everyone throughout all of space and time. All who vanished were no longer on the plane of the living, that much was very clear, and he had assumed like everyone else who remained that they were dead and gone. But were they really? Where had their souls gone? What if they were not in the afterlife plane at all? What if they were in some sort of soul world created by the Soul Stone?

Because wasn't that what the Soul Stone did?

It controlled and entrapped souls.

"A soul for a soul."

In exchange for wielding its power, the stone took all of the souls of those who vanished.

And if they were in this "Soul World" well, then they were not dead, they were just trapped. And if that were the case, all worlds can be visited in one way or another.

Loki had become still. "Could it be possible…?" he murmured.

Nebula sniffed and wiped at her eyes when she pulled slightly away to look at him. "What?"

He looked at her with wide eyes not really seeing her because his mind was going a million different directions after having this breakthrough. If he was right then it might be possible to go to the Soul World and rescue those who were gone. But only if he was right. There had to be a way to test his theory-

The ritual. The one that mother said was too dangerous to do.

Of course, the ritual to walk in the afterlife plane for an unlimited amount of time. If he did the spell and walked amongst the deceased and could not find a single person who had vanished then it meant that his theory was correct. He had to go and do that spell. Now.

"Loki." He looked at Nebula and saw that she appeared both confused and worried. "What is it?"

"I…I am so sorry but I need to go and test a theory."

"What?"

He took his arms away from her and slowly stood up. "I'll be back in a minute. I swear. Fifteen minutes. Tops." He started to leave feeling guilty for leaving in a rush but this took priority. And he needed to do the spell while lying on a completely flat surface. Like the metal table in Shuri's lab. As he walked through the door and turned down the hall he almost ran, quite literally, into Thor and Bruce.

Bruce appeared more tired than usual and Thor looked almost nervous. Bruce held out his hands when Loki almost ran into them. "Whoa, please don't run anybody over. Specifically me."

"Sorry about that," Loki said in a rush.

Thor cleared his throat. "Ah, Loki, brother, I just wanted to come and talk to-"

"Yeah, now's not really a good time. I need to go test my theory."

"What?" Thor asked now looking very confused. "What are you-Wait!-where are you going?"

Loki had already started jogging through the halls to get to Shuri's lab but he called over his shoulder, "I need to test my theory, give me a minute." Knowing Thor, Bruce, and Nebula they would probably follow him. That was okay, as long as he could concentrate on casting his spell. Two minutes later he ran into Shuri's lab and saw Stark, the dear Captain, and Rhodey all standing around. "Hello, I'm going to need to borrow this room."

Stark glanced at him and then did a double take. "Reindeer Games, what the hell happened to you?" he asked pointing to Loki's neck.

"Thanos has a tight grip. Stark, good to see you're alive. Now let me reiterate, get out."

Stark crossed his arms. "We were here first."

"Oh brother," Rhodey muttered, rubbing his head. "Now we've got two guys who act like kids all the time."

The dear Captain decided to put an end to that and simply asked Loki, "What do you need the room for?"

"I need to lay on a flat surface to test my theory."

Stark narrowed his eyes at him not at all understanding. "Alright, is anyone else confused?"

Loki sighed annoyed, "Oh for star's sake, never mind." He walked to the metal table and got on it. "Nobody say anything, I need to concentrate." He laid down on the perfectly flat surface and remembered the steps to the ritual. He closed his eyes, crossed his arms in an "X" across his chest, raised one hand in the air, waited for it to glow green before he raised the other one, and waited for it to glow as well. And then he whispered the spell that he had whispered all those years ago, "With the power of life in the multiple dimensions, allow me to walk with the dead for a moment." He twisted his hands to make the glow increase and then unlike the last time he tried to do the ritual, he was able to slam his hands down at his sides against the hard metal table and boost his soul or astral body or whatever it was into the afterlife plane.

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Author's Note Again: And here we have another chapter completed. And before what I had originally thought too. So, yeah. The next chapter will be the first that will lead us into the big exciting thing that I have planned. Heck, I think next chapter with Loki in the afterlife plane will be pretty exciting. I mean, it has been fun to write Loki's interactions with the Avengers, I know I will have fun writing his interactions with some of our favorite characters who have died.

(Sneak peek: I'm totally going to have Loki meet Pietro in the afterlife plane.)

This has nothing to do with the story but I have found this really well done Infinity War fan edit by a YouTuber named Samplevi. After all the fan edits I've seen that are depressing, this one was just epic. It gave me the chills. So I thought I would bring it to everyone's attention. It's called: Infinity War | Legends Never Die.

So…I guess I don't really have much to say except thank you to every reader, reviewer (all of you), follower, and favoriter. I can never seem to express my gratefulness enough. The only reason I continue this thing is because of you. Each and every one of you. Thank you so very much! Have a good rest of your day!