Vormir was a dumb, stupid place.

Maybe that's just because I was bummed about my sort of impending doom, and was too busy with the thoughts in my mind to focus on the scenery, but, well, yeah. It was a dumb and stupid place, in my opinion.

The sky was that pink/purple color I would definitely want as my phone wallpaper aesthetic as we landed on the mountain of rock. Mountain of bloody rock. Yeah, it was shaped in a cool castle-like formation, but it was still rock. No wonder why this place has no good yelp reviews. Or isn't on yelp at all.

"Still not telling us the plan?" Rogers glanced at me as I stopped in front of the ship, head tilted to look at the sky, and I shrugged.

"You guys wouldn't understand anyway."

"Spoken like a true adolescent," Loki drawled, raising his eyebrow at me. I rolled my eyes.

"Well, adults suck, and I'm very depressed and young and have no money." I crossed my arms, almost theatrically. "We doing this or not?"

"I would love to say no," Loki muttered, and strolled forward. We followed, because sincerely, there were no other options.

There was a pathway leading inside, an arch of, you guessed it, rock, over our heads. It would have been kind of beautiful in a gothic style if you liked rocks. A haven for rock-collectors and rock-lovers and-god, I was thinking too hard about rocks.

It probably wasn't even rock, though. More like obsidian-which I only knew from playing Minecraft when I was young, or some exotic space rock-which was, when you thought about it, still rock. Obsidian is also still rock, isn't it?

So it was rock.

Oh god. Shut up, brain.

Rogers suddenly halted, looked up, and I froze as well, looking up at the dementor-like dark figure descending from the gloom. Red Skull. Here to bust me out from never-ending thoughts about rocks.

"Welcome, Loki, son of Odin," the voice came, low and echoing. "Eunseo Lee, passerby. Steve Rogers, son of Joseph Rogers, my final enemy." His bright red face emerged, and I tried not to laugh at the color of his skin. I was not a racist. Then what he said registered in my brain.

Passerby? Seriously? I wanted to roll my eyes, because can you make it any less obvious that I wasn't from this world? Also, final enemy? The dude had a serious flair for the dramatic.

"Red Skull," Rogers said grimly, his jaw set in a way that didn't really invoke good memories in me. "We're not here to fight. We just want the-"

"Soul stone, yes." His snake-y eyes turned on me. "It is my curse to know all who journey here. And the price, they will have to pay."

"How very not ominous at all," I flashed an easy smile, and nodded to myself. "Okay. Great. Lead us there, won't ya?"

I was pretty sure he glared at me because he didn't get to say his other dramatic lines. He swung around, still floating like a hot air balloon, and started up the stairs.

"So you've been here for century, huh?" I said, huffing a breath through my mouth because stairs were bloody steep and I wasn't fit at all. "Did you stand all round all day, waiting for people?"

"It is my punishment," he answered, annoyance shining though his tone. "Do not mock-"

I held up a hand, bending over. "Can we go slower?"

It was only two days ago I'd been tortured. And my ribs were still sore from being smacked all over the place, my neck would've been bruised still if Loki hadn't healed it, and I had not gotten any good night's sleep for the last week or so.

I was exhausted. With a good reason. And the dudes were all so fit and healthy I hated them for it.

Red Skull pranced on, paying me no heed. Loki glanced at me and Rogers, seemingly decided something, and followed him up. Fuck. That betraying asshole.

Rogers raised a hand to my shoulder, thought better, then pulled it down. "You okay?"

"Yup." I popped the p, hoping he would just walk on. "I'm fine." And then I had the horrible urge to apologize. Absurd, really, but I still blurted out, "sorry for yelling at you."

He looked kind of confused, so I elaborated. "Like, two days ago. On Nebula's ship. I shouldn't have yelled. I was like, super emotional then, which was stupid of me."

"Regis. It's okay," his eyes were not exactly warm, but somewhat close to that. "I shouldn't have pushed."

"Yeah, but still." I crinkled my eyes. "Can we, like, stop being so awkward then? And move on?"

He peered at me, and smiled slightly. "Okay."

"Not just the yelling thing, but uh, the killing thing too."

Those blue fucking eyes. I really hated them.

After a pause in which I went to the moon and back, he nodded softly.

And I was still on Vormir, I told myself. But, well, er, should be better to revel in small victories.

We crossed into the temple-like floor, high above the water and so close to the sky. The foreign view was nothing you would get in Earth, so alien, and absolutely gorgeous. I wish I hadn't been here for the soul stone. I wished I had been here for space tourism.

"What you seek, lies before you." Red Skull murmured, again with the dramatics. And this time, I let him have it. "As does what you fear."

"Nothing lies before me but a cliff," Loki sassed, looking around. "I do not particularly fear cliffs. We're also not here for a cliff. We're seeking a soul stone, don't you remember?"

"It's the price," Red Skull hissed, sweeping out a hand towards the edge. "To ensure whoever possesses it understands it's power, the stone demands a sacrifice."

Nobody looked surprised. Probably because I had already told them everything.

I sighed. "Of what?" I asked the inevitable, and Red Skull turned his red gaze upon me.

"In order to take the stone," he paused, for, again, dramatic effect. "you must lose what you love."

I stared back at him. "A soul for a soul," I muttered under my breath, and everyone was looking at me then.

"Regis-"

Rogers started, but I stopped him with a roll of my eyes. "No one's throwing themselves off the cliff, Cap. Don't be stupid." I stepped forward, looking down over the edge, marveling at the height. Loki grabbed the collar of my jacket, tugged me back.

"Then stay away from it, would you?"

I rolled my eyes again. "I'm not a toddler."

"Compared to me, you are." He retorted, and I made a face.

"Ew. Gross."

"The price," Red Skull repeated, probably angry we were all just kind of ignoring him. "You must sacrifice what you love, if you desire the stone."

"Uh, yup. We got that." I took a breath, released it, thought about the decision I was about to make. Then I decided I wouldn't, because even the thought of thinking about it was giving me headaches.

I was going to rush into this. I was going to do this like a teenager about to have sex for the first time. I was going to be reckless, thoughtless, and just plain stupid.

(I couldn't bear thinking about it. I couldn't. I just-)

"I give up my life." I said, painfully casually. And I swallowed, because my mouth was kind of dry. "I give it up. That's my sacrifice."

Loki stared at me. "What are you talking ab-"

"Your life," Red Skull hummed, looking interested for once. "Can you bear doing so?"

"It really would be better if you didn't ask any questions," I shot back. "but yeah. I can bear with that."

"Your family. Your friends. Your world." His eyes were strangely piercing, as they looked into mine. So different from Roger's warm gaze. Red Skull was just so dead, if that was the right word. His eyes were so dead. "Do you dare to give them up?"

I felt angry. I hadn't phrased it like that for a reason, for fuck's sake. I was barely dedicated to this. And there he was, trying to shake me off.

I knew with the power stone and the added help of the reality stone, dimension-hopping was possible, when you knew which one you were looking for. So if Thanos gets the stones, and he gets me-which sounds weird but was incredibly legit-, he was going to be able to destroy two worlds.

Thanos would be outraged at the idea of him being a mere movie character. He would want to become more, prove that he is more.

And the perfect way to do that was to destroy his creators, demolish the ones who had used him for entertainment.

It was so fucking predictable. And what I was doing was so fucking predictable as well.

I had hated martyrs when I was younger. I had hated them, because they all looked fucking stupid and idiotic and needlessly nice. But now that I was in the position myself, I could only see one option.

I didn't want my family to die. I didn't want the Avengers to die.

And maybe, just maybe, I would find a way past this deal. After Thanos was dead, and the threats were averted, I would be able to search and wreak the entire universe for a way back home.

And I would. Oh, I fucking would.

"Yes." I answered, fist clenched. "I dare."

Red Skull looked at me and looked past me at the same time, and everything went dark.

It was a crimson sky I woke up to.

"That dramatic bastard," I muttered, my hair floating around me in a halo. I felt weightless, half-submerged in the water. The decision I had just solidified did nothing to break this peacefulness.

Then, of course, Loki blinked awake.

"What just happened?" He demanded, sitting up, and I tried to focus on the sky overhead. It was a beautiful color of an alien sunset and look at the clouds, the swirling specter now covered by Loki's fucking dreadlocks-

"Would you give me some space?" I said, pushing him away. I felt desperate for those last moments of peace, because I was pretty sure it was going to be a shit-show from now on, but Loki didn't seem to share those inclinations.

Then Rogers sat up, looked at me with his puppy eyes, and I sighed, resigned.

"Okay, fine, just," I shrugged. "Lie down for a moment."

"What?"

"We need to be relaxed for this." I needed to be relaxed for this.

Loki looked very much like he was considering shaking my shoulders until I made sense, but he did so, pointedly crossing his arms. I tried not to roll my eyes. Rogers, of course, was better at following orders. I let out a breath, trying to steel myself.

"Soul stone wanted a sacrifice," I said, eyes tracing the countless blurs of stars I could see in the sky. "So I-I gave it one. The place that I come from. My world. My life that I once had."

Rogers turned his head towards me, eyes wrinkled. "But what does that mean?"

I tried to shrug, to act pretty nonchalant, but I knew far too much to do that.

"That I can't go back?" I said, voice strange. "That my back-up plan has spectacularly blown up in my face?"

Loki gave me a look that said what the fuck. He was surprised, and I was surprised that I had been able to surprise him. "You shouldn't have-"

"Did it already, so not helpful."

"...That was incredibly stupid of you," he said after another moment of looking at me like I was an idiotic kitten. I felt vague deja vu, and then blinked with understanding.

"You call acts of heroism stupid, don't you?" I nodded to myself, when he didn't reply. "Yeah. You totally do."

"Regis," Rogers started, sad and sad and sad. "Are you-are you going to be okay?"

I pursed my lips, tilting my body up and balancing it with one hand to the soft sand floor. I raised the other hand, palm splayed, and gazed at the sparkling stone I had staked everything for.

"I can deal, when it's all over." I said, closing a fist around the rock. "But for now, let's see if this was fucking worth it."

A/N: Wow. It's been...so long. Oops.

Mainly this chapter is for Eunseo Lee, the original, who got into somewhere she wanted to get into! (Sounds like she got into a bank and robbed it or something, but...her place is legal.)

And also, for you guys, because you guys are really awesome. Thanks for all the follows and the favorites and the reviews, everything that makes me feel more confident about my writing, about trying out new things. So thank you, and I hope I can provide at least a few moments of amusement for you.

Thanks, again. And I am pretty sure this story is coming to an end, and...let's hope I have the willpower to finish it.