The last of the Avengers fought valiantly against Thanos, throwing all of their weapons and determination at him but however much they hit, bombed and cut, he would not fall. His body stayed immaculate whilst the humans around him fell to pieces, covered in cuts, gashes, bruises and internal bleeding.

The battle would not last long, only Captain America, Iron Man and the Hulk were left and Thanos was growing bored of their constant useless attacks. He snatched out and grabbed Iron Man by his head and slammed him down into the ground, crushing his face. "You tire me now, I realise that you Avengers are nothing. There is no strength of fight. You are weak." He announced with a heavy sigh, honestly disappointed in the strength of men, "I expected better."

Iron Man was thrown aside like a ragdoll and crashed to floor, inches from Loki's feet as he lay on top of a pile of rubble, a pole embedded in his stomach. The God stared up at the hole in the sky, choking back on the blood that pooled into his mouth and trickled down his chin; he had strived so hard to rid himself of the darkness of space but once again it was creeping into the corners of his vision. He had lost everything, again, why could he never do anything right?!

In the corner of his vision he saw a bright white light shoot up into the sky and disappear through the rip in space but he thought nothing of it as Thanos' shadow suddenly loomed over him.

"I put too much faith in you Loki. If you cannot defeat such pathetic mortals then you are not worthy to live." He grasped the pole and with little to no effort, wrenched it out.

Loki screamed and arched against the floor and his scream only increased when Thanos placed a large boot on his stomach.

"I promised you to the Other. He would have enjoyed tearing you apart sinew by sinew but I think that that would be a waste of his time." Thanos raised the pole, directing it at Loki's head, "he has to fix your Queen anyway after you foolishly thought you could kill her."

Loki stared up at him, blood and tears streaming down his face and had he had a stomach anymore it would be twisting and turning with pain and regret. Even in Hel he would not see his Queen again for she would never die.

Thanos raised the pole then struck it down and crack! The pole span away and struck a wall, embedding itself into it and Thanos hissed in pain.

"Step away from my brother." A strong voice echoed across the clearing and Thanos looked up in shock to see Thor raise his hand and Mjolnir crash into it.

The Titan stared at him and took his foot off of Loki's stomach, not noticing that the wound had completely healed.

"Hey Thanos."

He looked around and a huge energy blast hit him square in the chest and threw him backwards to slam into an already broken building. Iron Man stood up and shrugged his shoulders, "well, that was weird." He reached out to Loki who took his hand and was pulled to his feet and it didn't take him long to realise that the other fallen Avengers were standing, pushing out through the debris.

"We really are popping out of the dirt like daisies." Hawkeye said, dusting himself off and trying to feel the bone that had previously been stuck out of his back but it was completely healed.

"All of our scars are gone. We are reborn." Thor said, walking forward and clapping a hand on Loki's shoulder and he looked up at him, secretly relieved but he would never show or say it, in fact he felt better than ever.

Loki suddenly jerked as realisation hit him and he turned round, pushing past Thor but his stomach turned and his knees nearly gave out beneath him. Everyone had been healed, everyone was better except the one person that counted.

Helena was knelt on the ground and hunched over, the staff holding her up and small droplets of blood splashed onto the floor from her mouth. Legs trembling he started to walk forward but a hand grasped his shoulder and stopped him.

"I'm sorry Loki. We have more pressing matters." Thor said softly as the building behind them began to rumble.

"Avengers, assemble!" Captain America called and the group gathered together, "we didn't do well with the full on attack so let's get practical. Keep hitting him at different intervals. Keep him distracted."

"He's invincible. Nothing we do gets a scratch on him." Black Widow said, rolling her shoulder and cracking it, half wondering how the scar on her hand from many years ago was now gone.

"Keep smashing." The Hulk growled, pounding his fist onto the ground as Thanos pushed a huge slab of building off him and stared at them all, panting.

"No one gonna explain how we're all alive then?" Hawkeye asked drawing one of his arrows and finding that he had a full quiver again.

"Looks like that's gonna have to wait till later." Iron Man said, raising his hand at Thanos, noticing that his suit was at a one hundred percent capacity.

"Thor, hit him again. We take this in turns. We work as a multiple unit." Captain America said raising his shield.

Thor raised Mjolnir and threw it with pin-point accuracy. Thanos tried to catch it but it hit his hand and threw it back into his face, crushing his nose and Iron Man delivered the next blow with a barrage of bullets. Except this time, as the Avengers and Loki struck Thanos with everything they had, he took a proper beating and this lifted the Avengers spirits. But Thanos grew angrier and angrier, how could weak, pathetic mortals damage him?! He was a God amongst them, he had defeated whole worlds and destroyed them, he was invincible!

Wham!

The Hulk punched his face into the ground and minced it into the dirt then jumped back to grab his arm and swing him round in a circle, he let go and Thanos flew through the air to crash into the ground a few inches away from Helena's body. He had not felt such pain in a long, long time and he wheezed, feeling a broken rib poke painfully at his side, slowly he pushed himself up and looked across the Avengers, stood in a line and ready to attack.

"We suggest you back down. This is our world and we'll do everything to protect it."

Thanos climbed to his feet and looked over each human and God, disdain filling his bloodied face and he wiped the residue from his lip, "what sorcery did you use for this? A secret weapon, another freak? But remember, you can't win and you haven't won, you could never win against me." His large mouth spread out into a mad grin, teeth stained with blood.

The Avengers glared at him, flexing their muscles and preparing themselves for the next onslaught of fighting but then Thanos did something out of character. He straightened to his most threatening height and pressed something on his chest and a small red light began to flash. "Launch the atom dispersal bomb." He announced loudly, "and transport me to the hull." There was a flash of blue light, a loud whirring sound and Thanos dematerialised, shooting upwards into the crack in the space time continuum.

"Atom dispersal? Why doesn't that sound good?" Captain America asked warily.

"Because it does as it says. Thanos is akin to technology, he regularly uses such a weapon on other planets. I am sure he did the same for Asgard." Loki said stiffly, unable to look at Helena for fear of breaking down. He couldn't accept it, he couldn't accept what he had done.

"What do we do? This bomb, there must be a turn off switch, can't we teleport? Thor, Loki can-"

"No." Thor said, glancing at Hawkeye, "transportation was only available due to the Bi-Frost and now….now that Asgard is gone, we are stuck."

"Loki, can't you?"

"I can but I can only accommodate myself."

"Then why haven't you left yet?" Iron Man asked bitterly, "you should've run by now. That's what you normally do!"

"How dare you!" Loki spat, stepping forward and clenching his fists and him and Iron Man set to in a loud verbal fight, making the others join in, so angry and so filled with pent up sadness that they couldn't stop and for once, the only one who wasn't angry was the Hulk.

He stepped around his friends and walked towards Helen; she stayed exactly like she had fallen, completely motionless. He grasped the sceptre and wrenched it out, making her flop to the floor into a puddle of blood and the Hulk touched at her limp body with his massive fingers and rolled her over onto her back so she stared up with wide brown eyes.

"DON'T TOUCH HER!" Loki screamed and tearing himself away from the group, he charged forwards and raised his staff but the Hulk swung out a large hand and caught him, forcing him to stop but he kept struggling, "LEAVE HER ALONE!"

No one else could hurt her. No one else could make her suffer. He had to make sure that at least her body was safe. The Hulk scooped Helen up into his hand and her head flopped to the side, he lifted her down from the rubble and released Loki and the God found his love set out before him. His knees shook and he suddenly wished for the ground beneath to open up and swallow him whole. Everything. Everything he had done to make her safe, wasted. In the end he was the one who ended her; he was the one who had taken everything from her; if he had never met her, none of this would have happened.

"Well," Black Widow sighed, "there it is."

They all looked up at the sky to see that through the crack a silver object was hurtling towards them and the only one who didn't watch, grasped Helena into his arms and pulled her down to lay against him. He pressed his face into her long hair and let out a shuddering breath.

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry." Tears dripped down his creased face as he let out a silent wail and with their hearts in the throats; they watched the bomb hit the earth.