Hello everyone! Sorry for the delayed update, but I had finals. Anyway, we are slowly approaching the end, there will only be about 3 more chapters (maybe less, maybe more and one will be the epilogue). This chapter is a bit shorter, Tony and Steve talk, Loki and Emily make plans and… well, you'll see. The next ones will be more interesting I promise (for more information scroll all the way down).

A bit thanks to all those who are still reading this!

The Calm before the storm

The remaining Avengers just stood at the dock and kept looking into the water. It was too deep to swim to the bottom and pick the cube up. Loki exchanged a few looks with Emily and they both started to laugh…
Thor threw Loki on the ground. The cube appeared on the ground next to him dry and undamaged.
"How many more times are you going to fall for that, brother?" teased Loki as he dusted himself.
"What are you doing here?" asked Thor not letting his eyes off the trickster.
"Like I said, hanging out. I'm here for the kid." Loki answered pointing at Emily.
"What does she have to do with it?"
"Don't act like you have no idea. You know exactly who this is. Until now, you just didn't care."
"Oh and you did?"
"Yes, yes I did. I watched her grow up to her mother's image. From a helpless newborn to the most powerful creature, I have ever seen. Her mother, by the way, was the Asgardian goddess of peace."
"If that was true, you wouldn't have attacked Midgard."
The others nodded agreeing with Thor, only Tony seemed lost in thoughts.
"No, I think he's telling the truth." Murmured Tony and then turned to Loki: "Winning the Earth was never your plan, was it? You wanted to be stopped. Emily was on the other side of the planet when the attack started. That's how you planned it. In case we failed, there would still be someone there to stop you."
"I'm impressed. The only realm I ever wanted to rule was Asgard. I had to get the mind stone away from Thanos but at the same time, he had to think I'm on his side. Unleashing the Hulk on the flying fortress of yours was not part of my plan, but I have to admit it came in handy. Now let's get down to the important stuff. Thanos is on his way here with an army and we're running out of time…"

Few days have passed since the encounter. Although everyone was giving their best to stick together, the teams were still divided. The Guardians of the Galaxy flew back to space after exchanging all vital information (among other stuff). It is hard to tell who was more freaked out the day they met:

A spaceship landed in front of the HQ. Thor hadn't exactly told them who the Guardians were. No Avenger expected a talking tree or a talking raccoon. After some basic introduction the group moved to the meeting room to exchange info. Tony kept looking between Rascal (the female raccoon Tony brought from Japan) and Rocket, or talked to Rocket. Teen Groot was playing on his phone or something like that. Rocket was both disgusted and impressed. Disgusted with Rascals low behavior and impressed by Tony's intellect. Those two sat down for 'a few' drinks before they left. Plus Rocket was eying Bucky's arm for some reason… Cap wasn't sure where to look first, Vision kept his poker face on. Emily and Fury acted professionally and managed to avoid any conflicts between the parties. The fact that both groups were a bit alike might have helped. So after a whole day of chatting and once they managed to get Rocket and Tony away from the bar, the groups parted ways knowing they would meet again. The Guardians would now go to Knowhere and try get the purple power stone before Thanos. That is if he doesn't have it already…

Dr. Strange returned to the Sanctum. After what he'd heard, he too knew they were very close to losing everything. Steven looked out of the window into the streets. They looked peaceful, no person out there knew what they were about to face and to be honest he wasn't sure either. Strange looked down at the Eye of Agamoto, he knew that he had to protect it from the threat.

It was now early morning and Emily was training with Loki outside.
"If they don't talk it out, I don't know what else to do with them. Cap won't admit he made a mistake and Tony feels betrayed."
"So that's what it's about? Have you tried locking them into the closet?"
"I thought about that, but I'm afraid they'd attack each other. Plus, Tony tends to get claustrophobic and that ain't good."
"What about a bigger room with surveillance? If something happens, we could always step in."
"Yeah, we could try that."
"Now, we need a backup plan. What if everything else fails?" asked Loki as Emily dogged the dagger he threw at her. She knew he wasn't talking about the Tony/Steve issue. The doomsday was coming.
"I have one idea…" Loki listened carefully. The plan Em came up with could work, but it would come with great sacrifice.

With the help of all the Avengers Emily and Loki finally managed to lock Tony and Steve into one room. It one of the rooms in the new mansion. "We're not letting you out of there until you talk it out. Water's on the table." She said and sat down in the living room with the others. An hour later Steve finally said something.
"You never called."
"You said to call when I needed you."
"I see. You have a new team, found new friends…"
"I had them all along. At least they won't betray me and then claim it was all my fault. I didn't tear the Avengers apart, Rogers, that's on you."
"You shouldn't have signed the Accords."
"Then you shouldn't have proven them necessary. Remind me how many people died on your heroic quest? The ones in Romania, those on the Raft, Lagos, Berlin… Should I go on? They were just doing their jobs, wanted to return to their families in the evening. I'm not even going to get started on the amount of other damage. I signed them because it was the right thing to do and so did the others. We could have solved it together, but you were just being an idiot."
Steve wanted to argue, but he realized that Tony was right.
"I'm sorry, Tony. You were right. Can you forgive me?"
"For the sake of the world let's say yes, but I won't forget."

Night has fallen upon the mansion. Most of it's occupants were getting ready for bed. Emily was sitting on her bed when Tony walked in and slowly closed the door.
"Was it that bad?" he asked as he climbed on the bed.
"What exactly?" she said turning her face to him.
"Me and Cap."
"Well, the tension between you two was undermining any progress in teamwork, besides negative energy isn't good. We will have enough of it in the near future, so we should probably try to enjoy the time we have left."
"Yeah well, you're right. Come here."
They held each other till the morning came. Little did they know they didn't really have 2 months left and the end would come a lot sooner than they expected…

Next up: Tony's birthday party gets crashed by Thanos? Just kidding, but it could be interesting…

Alright, here's the real thing: Tony's birthday wish, Thanos shows up on earth and the battle to save humanity is here...