Loki was in the kitchen when he heard Raven coming down the stairs. She smiled seeing him there next to the sink, "You were up early."

"I knew we were leaving today, so I made you coffee. The exact mixture you like." He handed her a steaming mug.

Raven cautiously took a sip of it then smirked, "Only took you a year."

"Yes well if I weren't making it for someone who was so picky about the way she drinks it, it would have been far easier." He put an arm around her waist, leaning down to kiss her.

"Maybe I'm picky because I know you love to one up your brother when it comes to my habits." Her smile remained as she looked up at him.

"Even now so many years later you still push me to beat him." Loki took the mug back from her setting it down on the counter to wrap his arms around her but before he could seal his lips to hers a voice from upstairs cut through their moment.

"Raven, did you turn on the watering system for Louise's plant?" Thor yelled from upstairs.

Loki's face fell at their interruption but Raven just smiled, "No, can you do it for me?"

"Of course." He responded.

She pulled Loki in for one last kiss before Thor came down stairs, her fingers lightly brushing at his once again shorter hair. They released as Thor came down into the kitchen and Raven picked her mug back up, "Loki made coffee."

"Did you brother? Thank you." Thor walked over to the coffee maker, pouring himself a cup. Raven couldn't help but smile over her cup as Thor clasped Loki on the shoulder and the man returned it with an annoyed smile. She knew as much as Loki did actually love his brother, he wished that he would stay at HQ or go to the Asgardian settlement when they would return to her home, it gave them more time to be together without many ears around. Thor turned to look at them, "Are you two ready to get back to it?"

"Ah yes, fighting those that have risen up to take advantage of the weak in the state of chaos Midgard has found itself in. All the while, scientists attempt to find a way to take us back in time to return it all to its former glory." Loki smiled at his brother.

"Try not to sound so bitter when one of the others asks you that." Raven laughed and Thor did as well.

"I'm not bitter, I just don't understand why we hurried to find out where all the stones were and how to get them just to wait around for them to figure out a way to send us back. It's already been a year, how much longer must we do this?" Loki asked, knowing that as much as he wanted to meet his daughter, Raven was the one missing her.

"Soon." Raven put a hand on his arm, "I know you always aim for instant gratification, but sometimes…sometimes you have to be patient."

There was a knock on the door and they all turned to look at it. Clints voice broke through, "Guys we gotta go now. Something happened."

Raven rushed to the door, "Something bad or something good?"

"I'm aiming for good." He smirked at her.

"Well you never miss, Ronin." She looked back to Loki and Thor with a relieved smile, "See, patience."

They were ready to leave within five minutes.


The four of them walked quickly into HQ and were met with no one at first but they quickly made their way to the meeting room and everyone was in there and to their surprise they saw Scott Lang. Clint and Raven both stopped and she let out a laugh, "Holy shit where have you been?"

"The quantum realm." He laughed rushing up to her to give her a hug to which she didn't know how to respond. He quickly pulled away, "Not that close?"

"Nah." She nodded. The awkwardness is the room was broken by Raven taking a step away from Scott, "So was this the something that happened?"

"Yes." Tony said a giant smile on his face, "And because of that, we have the ability to time travel."

"What?" All four of them said at once, the other Avengers in the room smiling.

"How?" Thor asked.

"Lang, tell me, how long do you think you were in the quantum realm?" Tony asked the man.

"I swear it was only like a few hours." Scott said with a groan as if Tony still didn't believe him, "I went in and everything was fine, Hope and the others stopped responding, I floated around for a little while trying to find my way back out then I was spit out where I went in only no one was there. Has it really been a year?"

Thor and Loki both smiled at this while Clint and Raven looked shocked. Clint looked to Tony, "Can you sciencey people recreate whatever happened to him only backwards?"

"We think so based off of the tech he brought us."

"We can do more than travel back in time guys, really the things I saw while floating around in there were amazing!" Scott got excited.

"Like what?" Thor asked.

"Like other universes, I only caught glimpses but they're like ours, only slightly different." Scott was extremely excited by his discovery but this statement caused a quiet realization to go across the group.

Tony looked at Bruce, "Would that solve our worries?"

"About changing our timeline? Possibly." Bruce answered back.

"Wait you mean go to parallel universes to take their stones?" Rhodey asked, "That's what I think you're talking about right?"

"That's exactly what we're talking about." Tony said, "Raven was right that Strange said this timeline was the one in which we win so we have to make sure not to change anything, we could go back in time to the other universes to take their stones so that we don't change our own timelines."

"How do we know their timelines will be the same?" Nat asked.

"Yeah maybe their stones are in different places and that's why they didn't win." Raven added.

"I could always take a peak before we go back there." Scott said.

"Alright then." Steve said, "You guys work on the tech, the rest of us will solidify the plan and order of operations." He stood up and everyone looked around at each other, a sense of hope and will finally returning to all of them. He smiled, "Let's bring them home."


They decided the order in which they would retrieve the stones as well as planned who all would go back. While Tony, Bruce, and Shuri finalized the technology the rest of them would use B.A.R.F. to show Scott what to look for while he did reconnaissance. The two stones none of them had had that much interaction with were the Soul and Time stone and therefore they couldn't be sure they would be able to go to different universes to retrieve them since they didn't know if they would be in the same place.

Raven returned to her room after going through a play by play of her first interactions with the Aether so Scott would know what to look for there to make sure they could still access it in the same spot. She stretched her back as Loki came out from the bathroom and smiled at her, "Shouldn't be much longer now."

"Nope." She smiled back as he placed his hands on her hips, "You sure you want to stick around? Farm life was never in your plans."

"No, but I said I would not disappear from you again. Plus it wasn't dissimilar to my relaxed life on Asgard. Less people fawning over me, but I'm sure we could find ways to make things more interesting. And it will take some time for the Asgardians to rebuild completely here on Earth, which will also keep me occupied." He looked down at her.

"It's more than just that too, your life will change in ways you'd never thought possible with Louise around." She laughed, "Two A.M. wake ups thanks to a nightmare."

"Nightmares of what? I will remove anything that scares her from existence." He looked concerned for his daughter.

"You know, maybe it is because you're the one saying these things that it is attractive." She smirked, "Because Thor said something like that too once and I just laughed at him."

"Yes well, I can have an effect on people." He smiled before sealing his lips over hers.

"Lucky for you unlike most people the effect you have on me isn't fear."

Loki's face fell at this statement, "You don't think she'll be afraid of me do you?"

"No. She has no reason to be afraid of you. She doesn't know about any of that yet." She ran her hand over the side of his face, "She's going to be so excited to meet you."

"I'm excited to meet her as well." He put her forehead to his, "We'll really have her soon."

"Yeah." Raven said with a slight laugh, "I can't wait to see her again."

Looking at her he noticed for the first time in over a year that he saw a true smile on her face, one that showed him how relieved she was they had finally found a way to get her daughter and everyone else back. He would do whatever it took to keep that kind of smile on her face, and on the face of their child, forever. Pressing his lips to hers he made that silent promise to himself, he would become more than the God of Mischief for them.


She was heading to the kitchen when she heard voices of some of the others talking. She stopped outside the door to listen when she heard Steve say, "Tony, why are you just now telling us this?"

"Because I didn't think it was important until we had a way to not only go back in time but to get to Vormir." He answered.

"So let me get this straight, Nebula said that Thanos killed his daughter to get the soul stone?" Bruce asked then continued, "But the other alien with antennae said he was in mourning so that means he actually loved her. So you figure the only way to get the soul stone is-"

"By sacrificing someone you love." Tony finished the man's question. "Yeah, that's what I'm saying. And I'm also only bringing it up now because it's a thing that has to be done, but who's going to do it? Because I'm not losing Pepper...I can't."

"Well I mean won't we get them back when we return the stone?" Natasha asked.

"We don't know." Tony answered simply. "But I'm not willing to chance it. What about you guys?"

Nat and Bruce looked at each other for a moment. Bruce couldn't die with the Hulk inside of him and he couldn't kill Nat. Nat sighed, "And we can't ask Clint…he's lost to much already. How are we supposed to just ask someone to kill someone they love?"

"You don't. I'll do it." Raven said walking into the door way.

"What?" Steve asked her, "Who?"

"Loki." She answered her throat tight, "Love might be an extreme for the situation but I do care a lot about him."

"You know you might not get him back this time." Nat looked up at her.

"I know. But if we don't do it, I don't ever see my daughter again, Clint his two boys, Peter, Sam, Wanda…all of them." She reserved herself to the decision, "Thanos was willing to make sacrifices to get rid of half of the universe, how can I not be willing to make a sacrifice to get them back?"

"But a sacrifice like that…" Bruce's voice was soft.

"I've dealt with his death once…I can do it again." Her eyes became sad.

"Should we tell him?" Steve asked, "Get his opinion."

"No, because if he agrees is it really a sacrifice?" Raven looked at her friend, "Plus we don't know what his reaction would be. If he doesn't agree with it…he could leave, it…it could ruin my feelings for him. We should just keep it between us."

"Yeah." Nat agreed, "Sucks, I've actually started to like the guy."

"Yeah Rock of Ages does grow on ya." Tony said with a sigh, "We should re order the missions though, get the Power Stone before the Soul Stone, we might need him on that one planet- What's it called?"

"Xandar." Bruce told him.

"Yeah that one, we might need his magic to disguise you and Nat." Tony looked at her.

Raven nodded in agreement, "So we'll get it last then. He isn't sure if he'll be able to help Wong break the spell on the Eye of Agamoto, but he's willing to try."

"Then…then it's a plan." Steve said feeling bad for Raven. She left the room continuing on to get herself food, now with a beer added to it and Steve followed her out, "Raven, are you sure-"

"No. But…but it has to be done." She looked up at him, "I know you said that one life is too much…but is it really when it comes to something like this?"

"I-I…" He couldn't answer.

"Remember back when you found out Bucky was still alive?" Raven asked him and he nodded, "My question was answered back then. It it's between Loki and hundreds of millions, trillions maybe even at this point, the choice is easy." She put her hand on his shoulder, "But I guess that's easy to say when you won't be the one dying."

"But still a hard choice to make when you're the one killing them." Steve put his hand over hers, "I understand why though. And if it's the only way…it's the only way."

"Seems like it is." She responded and turned around, walking away from him.


A/N: Hey guys, sorry for the pause, I was having some writers block but hopefully it's gone now. Plus work has been killing me. I'll try to have the next chapter out soon! Let me know what you think!