Events in this chapter are synced with events in the movie Avengers Infinity War.
Inuyasha stayed close to Kagome's prone form, choosing to protect by driving back enemies who strayed too close. He felt bursts Of Sesshomaru's yoki And plumes Of Shippo's Fox Fire as they took down their own enemies, and fielded glances from some of the people he was unexpectedly fighting with. They didn't pay him too much mind beyond making sure he was on their side before accidentally attacking him, and he left them alone as well, staying close enough to the Racoon and Tree that guarded Kagome but far enough to not cause any questions.
His mind was whirling trying to process everything that had happened and changed in the last rapid hours, to keep up with where he was and what he was doing and who he was saving.
After not seeing Kagome for over 500 years, he should be surprised that she's blown back into his life all of a sudden with no preamble.
But given the current circumstances, he's not surprised at all.
'Damn wench would wind up in a mess like this. Whatever THIS is.'
He had a feeling it had to do with those American heroes who had been all over the news the last several years, and the very strange array of powers being used across the battle field seemed to support that line of thought.
'Whatever it is, I'll help her. I'll always help her.'
Gods knew she'd never hesitated to help him.
The pitch of the battle shifted, quieted, and the hairs on the back of his neck stood up. Several of the fighters on the field dashed foward and a surge of power tempted him forward as well.
He glanced over his shoulder, noted that Kagome was still safely nestled amongst the Tree's many branches, and decided it was safe to take off.
He skidded to a halt when he came upon that purple cretin back from wherever he'd fled, recovered and ready to brawl. He tossed everyone who ran at him aside, making a beeline for a different purple man taking a large beam of power right to the face.
'What the HELL is going ON?!'
The woman seemingly attacking the smaller purple man turned her other hand on the larger purple man, directing another beam of red energy at him, holding him off despite his own power coming from the metal glove on his hand.
The trees nearby rustled, and Kagome burst out. His eyes widened and he tensed, ready to leap to her side and sweep her away from danger like he always did, but she lifted her hands and fired a bright, hot bolt of sheer purity that combined with the other woman's power and drove their target farther back. Tears tracked down both their faces, and he brought up Tessaiga, charged up a wind scar, ready to help blow the creep sky high, but then a backlash of power washed across the field and tossed them all backwards. Thanos stood and pinned both he and Kagome down to the ground with surrounding dirt and debris, and almost in slow motion his gauntlet glowed, reversed time for the purple man who'd just been killed, resurrecting him before their eyes. He plucked a shining yellow stone from his forehead and placed it in the gauntlet with the others.
The man who'd saved Kagome before streaked out of the air, his axe embedding in the chest of the oversized enemy, but it wasn't enough.
With a sickening snap all went silent except for Kagome's shrill, anguished scream.
"What did you do?!" Thor yelled in alarm, and then the horror show started.
A vicious snarl rang out in the silence. He pushed the rocks and debris he'd been pinned with off and whipped around to find his brother, red eyed and feral, turn to ash and blow away on the breeze.
"Uh... Inuyasha?"
He turned again, finding Shippo staring at him, his green eyes wide with shock, fear, uncertainty. Inuyasha watched with sick finality as he, too, turned to ash and blew away.
All across the field, randomly and one by one, living, breathing bodies crumbled to dust and floated away, gasps and shouts and cries of horror and protest were a cacophony of misery and confusion, and when it was done they noticed that Thanos was gone.
Panic swelled and only was tempered enough to keep him on his feet when Inuyasha noticed that Kagome had not succumbed to the strange fate that so many others had.
A strong barrier bloomed around her, pushing the rocks that had caged her in away and she scrambled to her feet.
"Thor!"
He watched as she ran to this Thor person, flinging herself sobbing into his arms. He caught her up, crushed her close, fell sitting to the ground as he gathered Kagome into his lap where she curled up and pressed her tear streaked face into his shoulder. He petted her hair, whispered to her, and despite the way his fingers itched to fix her problems and shelter her from pain, Inuyasha felt helpless to do anything but sit near and watch over.
It wasn't his place to be her strength anymore, but damn if old habits didn't refuse to die.
The remaining fighters gathered close, stunned, needing to diminish the distance between them created by their missing comrades. He began to feel out of place, they all seemed to know each other in some way, but he only knew Kagome, and barely.
"Thor?" Her voice was small and broken, a whisper to break the heavy silence that blanketed the now still battle field.
"Hm?"
"Can you just take me home? I want to go home now."
Thor closed his eyes with a defeated sigh and dropped his head back to gaze blankly at the sky.
"I cannot. Asgard is gone."
She gasped, staring up at him with wide, haunted eyes, and then the queen of Wakanda rushed out, panicked, and ushered them all inside.
—————
They'd been given hot tea and wrapped in blankets to recover, count there losses and try to figure out where to go now. Kagome leaned against Thor's side, the heat of her cup seeping into her fingers, tear tracks drying on her face, numb to so very many things.
Loki.
Frigga.
Sif.
All of Asgard, the shining, glorious realm she'd made her home for the last 500 years were gone. Dead. Out of reach. Non existent. Thor had delivered the news of the destruction of their home as gently as he was able, but he'd had to blurt it all out in the end, still too choked on his own grief. He was so relived to have found her at least, thinking all his family gone, and she was too heartbroken and alone to hold onto her past anger at him.
He was all she had left, her only family.
What were they going to do?
"Alright, Uh, we have some new faces here, I guess we should get caught up."
Kagome blinked up at the man who'd decided to take charge of the ever lingering silence. He was young, handsome, tired, and his aura was as wilted and exhausted as everyone else's. He nodded politely at her and she gave him a weak smile.
"I'm Steve. I'm assuming you're here with Thor."
She nodded again and, thankfully, Thor spoke up for her, sensing her inability to speak. She simply leaned her head against his shoulder again and closed her eyes.
"This is my sister Kagome. Thanos took her from us some time ago."
"Your sister? You mean the one that you said was destroying Asgard?"
"No Bruce, not that one. She's dead. Kagome is the only sister of mine that matters."
Kagome felt what was left of her heart smolder with latent anger.
Thor and Loki had another sister, hidden away and kept secret.
Another lie from their father that made a colossal mess of everything. If he wasn't already dead she'd want to strangle him.
"Alright well," Steve interjected, voice barely more than a ragged sigh, "who's this guy then?"
They all glanced over, not a flicker of recognition from any save Kagome who gasped in shock.
"Inuyasha?! You're here? You're alive?!"
His ears fell back against his head and his eyes widened, feeling uncomfortable under the weight of so many eyes.
"Uh... yeah?"
"What... what are you doing here?!"
His eyes tracked around the room, noting every face watching him with an interest he didn't appreciate.
"Saw your light show on the news, thought you could use some help so... me, Sessh and Shippo came to make sure you were alright. We hadn't seen you in... well, we were kind of caught off guard. Then they Uh... got caught up in whatever that Thanos freak did with that bracelet thing. It's just me now."
Her heart fell. Her one time best friend that she hadn't seen in centuries, never thought to see again, who she'd thought long dead and gone and possibly even reincarnated at this point, was back and running to her aid without a second thought.
And he'd lost his family too.
'So Thanos has now also killed Sesshomaru and Shippo. God's I hate him. I hate him.'
"Oh Inuyasha I'm... I'm so sorry... I can't-"
"It's alright wench, just had to make sure you weren't about to go off like a bomb on live television."
Stunned for a moment, unable to take in that he was really here and alive and speaking to her, somber as he was, Kagome merely nodded and then shifted her attention to the blonde woman who'd stepped up next to Steve.
"Speaking of light shows, what was that out there? And why did Thanos have you?"
With a sneer, Kagome looked down into her tea cup and tried to swallow down the thick, hot anger and disgust that haunted her from her time as a captive of the great terror of the universe.
She closed her eyes and shook her head, trying to think straight around the shock and the grief and the exhaustion.
"Um... he Uh, he thought I was the soul stone. I'm obviously not, but, when he found out I wasn't he decided I was an angel sent to bless his mission instead and kept me compliant by promising not to..." she hesitated, the grief welling up again and pushing passed her eyelids. She swiped the tears away and hunkered closer to Thor who'd wrapped his arm tighter around her shoulder.
"He kept me compliant by promising not to kill my husband. But my husband had the tesseract so he did it anyway. That's why I exploded."
Steve stepped back up with a concerned frown, arms crossed, cogs spinning in his brain to fill in missing gaps of information.
"Hold on... your husband had the tesseract? Who is your husband and why on Earth did he have the tesseract? It was supposed to be kept safe on Asgard."
"It was." Thor answered for her, as this was a piece of the puzzle that only he had. "But we had to destroy Asgard to save everyone from my sister. My other sister, not... that is, my biological sister, Kagome is adopted. Anyway. Loki grabbed the tesseract when he went to trigger ragnarok. Thanos showed up very shortly after we all left in a ship."
Steve looked between them with growing alarm and confusion. Loki was not a name he'd thought he'd hear in conjunction to things related to Earth ever again. They'd had a hell of a time stopping him the last time he'd been here, and Thor had promised he'd be imprisoned forever.
"Wait...Loki had the tesseract? But you said... you said your husband..."
"Yes," Kagome clarified slowly, mystified by what seemed to be him willfully missing the point. "Loki was my husband."
An uncomfortable silence settled in their midst and the sudden icy unsureness coming from every aura but Thor and Inuyasha left her uneasy, but she held Steve's gaze unwaveringly. He blinked once, twice, and then cleared his throat awkwardly.
"I'm... sorry for your loss?"
She narrowed her eyes, but nodded in acceptance, too tired to press the issue or feel offended by how they were all acting toward her now.
"Thanks I think?"
"Right. Well, now that our mystery guests are accounted for, we should probably try to figure out what happens next." He shrugged, lost and tired and unwilling to take the leadership reigns again after all the devastation they'd all just endured. He was saved from trying to figure something out when the Queen of Wakanda swept back in and insisted they all be put to rooms to rest first, and then they'd be allowed to reconvene in the morning.
Bone weary and just plain sad, they all allowed themselves to be shuffled away, silently hoping that sleep would actually come for them and save them from their broken hearts and shattered souls.