"Just this once, everybody lives!" The Doctor, Doctor Who, season one, episode 10, 'The Doctor Dances'
The events in this chapter are synced with events in the movie Avengers Endgame
When Kagome woke, the smell of smoke and the electric feel of immediate danger set her on edge. Her head throbbed, and blood oozed over her eyes from a slit across her forehead. She wiped it away with the back of her sleeve and then gingerly pushed herself from the wreckage she'd been lying in. By some stroke of divine luck her bow and quiver had remained intact on her back, and it took her no time to find the stray arrows that had scattered when she fell. She scanned around her immediate surroundings and found a lot of snapped metal and smoldering ash. Her eyes widened in confusion, fear, and astonishment. The whole of Avengers Compound had seemingly exploded around them, and they were buried in the rubble.
'But why? What's happened?'
Stepping carefully, watching her footing, Kagome picked a direction and began walking, looking around for any sign of life from her other friends.
'Please don't let any of them be dead, please please please.'
She reached out in all directions with tendrils of her awareness, searching for auras among the wreckage and trying to feel through broken, fractured electronics.
Worry, confusion, and despair swallowed her thoughts and she could not puzzle out what might have caused this. They were right there at the end, so close to success they could taste it, only to have the world literally implode under them.
Had the stones done this? Had this been the ultimate price, yet another consequence to their backlash of power? But Thanos had not caused such an extreme event either time he had used them, so something else was at play here, something big that caused a knot of dread to tighten in her gut.
"Wench? Is that you? Oh thank Kami."
Not for the first since coming to Earth, Kagome felt something inside her snap to attention at the vague reference to divinity. Prayers were something she'd largely ignored since coming to Earth. For the most part, spiritual humans named their gods when they prayed, and no one prayed to her specifically, so she wasn't accosted by prayers on a daily basis, but every once in a while someone in range of her would be just vague enough that she'd hear.
But she brushed it off again as Inuyasha stepped out of a cloud of smoke, Pietro unconscious in his arms, their silver hair dirtied with dust and soot.
"Inuyasha, what the hell happened?!"
"I don't know! Everything was fine, people were coming back, the fucking birds were back and then this. This kid landed next to me and hasn't woken up.
"Here, put him down." Kagome gestured to a nearby spot that appeared flat and stable enough, and Inuyasha quickly but gently laid the swift footed avenger down. Kagome placed her hands on his head and drew up her stores of healing reiki, running them over and through his body to find what damage had been wrought inside him.
"I think he just hit his head, he's going to be fine. But we have to get him out of here. You'll have to-"
A shockwave of Thor's electricity washed through them and the hairs on their arms stood up. That had been a lot of power, a measure that Thor had not had to use in sometime.
Kagome's heart dropped as she reached out once more with her reiki, searching, searching for auras and answers.
After several moments of deep concentration, she pinged the auras of Steve, Thor, Tony, Clint, Scott, Rocket, Nebula, Gamora and -
'Wait... Gamora? I thought Gamora was...'
"Oh no..." she whispered frantically, pushing further out with her senses, forcing herself to see and feel past the blockages caused by haywire electric signals, ignoring Inuyasha's concerned questions, until she found the one answer she hadn't even imagined she'd have to pray against.
Standing alone, calm, the edges of his grossly familiar aura tinged with satisfaction, was Thanos.
"Oh no! Inu... I can't... I don't..."
Inuyasha grasped her shoulders with a firm grip to steady her and she looked up into his eyes which flashed steely and hard, stopping her rambling and chaotic, panicked thoughts.
"Slow down Kagome. What is going on?"
A tear slipped down her face and fear curdled in her heart. She grasped one of his hands to anchor herself and took in a slow, shaky breath that inspired no confidence.
"It's Thanos."
Inuyasha's aura cooled to frosty and then flared with bright hatred, the abrupt shifting making Kagome a little dizzy.
"How the hell-"
"I don't know Inuyasha! I... I don't know! But he's out there, and another Gamora is somewhere in all of this with the rest of us!"
"Okay... okay... what do you need?"
It was testament to the maturity that came with age that he hadn't already unsheathed tessaiga and blown the roof sky high, and his unshaken belief in her abilities settled some of her turbulent feelings. She was able to slow her thoughts enough to think, and she cobbled together a makeshift plan that made things a bit less chaotic.
"I think you need to head deeper into this mess and try to find the others. I'll find a way out. Thor, Tony And Steve are already out there, they'll need some back up, and I've almost killed Thanos before. I could do it again."
"Right. But what about this guy?" He asked, gesturing to the still sleeping Pietro.
"I'll place a barrier around him, one that will hold no matter what. He should be fine here for now."
Her barrier flickered into place, strong and gleaming with her power, and then Inuyasha pointed her in the direction he could hear outside air blowing into their prison of rubble.
"Inuyasha..." Kagome halted him as they turned in their opposite directions. She searched his face for just a moment as he stared at her questioningly, memorizing his features, the gold of his eyes, the silver of his hair, the characteristics of her oldest friend in the world.
"Just... please just be careful Inuyasha, okay? I can't... I can't lose you too, not after everything else."
He smirked that familiar, cocky, battle ready smirk and it bolstered her confidence just a might more.
"Keh. As if anything's been strong enough to take me down yet."
He turned and disappeared into the smoke, and Kagome took just one extra moment to gather her courage, send a extra pulse of strengthening reiki into Pietro's barrier, and head off to find her way back to the outside world and the battle awaiting her.
———————
It was a little slower going than she would have liked, but she kept close track of how her fellow fighters outside of the compound were fairing by keeping tight leashes on their auras.
So far things were stable enough, but then she felt Tony's aura dim, signaling he'd been knocked out, and she picked up her pace, moving a little more recklessly over the debris and wreckage.
Soon after, Thor's aura flared excitedly, and she almost dared to hope, and then it, too dimmed just like Tony's, and throwing caution to the wind, Kagome summoned up a barrier and swelled it out above her, blowing a hole through the top of the mound of twisted metal and glass and scrambled out.
The devastation surrounding her was sobering, and in the center of it all stood Thanos, surrounded by a horde of alien warriors ready to tear the lone avenger apart.
Steve stood, straightened his weary spine, and tightened the strap that held his shield to his arm, pain and exhaustion darkening his aura, but still he planned to stand alone.
Her respect for him grew. Steve stood by his convictions even when they were leading him to slaughter, and that kind of integrity wasn't easy to find.
But he wasn't alone, not anymore.
Lifting her hands, she sent a fortifying bolt of healing reiki into his back, and his spirit shined around him a little brighter. She began making her way down to join his side, anger bubbling up at the sight of the being who had caused her and those she loved so much misery.
Thanos didn't move, watching them curiously with an enigmatic smirk she couldn't wait to wipe off his face. There was no recognition for her though, only curiosity and vague contempt. She wondered at that, but not having him calling her "angel" was certainly a blessing she was not about to take for granted.
She was not quite half way to Steve's side when the air shifted and shimmered. She stopped with a breathless gasp as glittering gold portals opened out of nothing, and out stepped a legion of formerly fallen friends and allies. She watched as they filled in the space behind Steve, a veritable army of people of all shapes, sizes and abilities, ready to join him in the fight to save the world.
Tears streamed down her face at the hope and beauty of it, cutting through the grime that coated her skin, and then she was snatched around the waist and airborne. She looked up with a gasp into a set of glittering green eyes framed by fiery red hair. She relaxed instantly. She'd never seen this face before, but she'd recognize that foxy aura anywhere no matter how long they'd been separated. She'd spent too many nights curled around this very aura, keeping him safe and warm and loved when the world was only dangerous.
"Shippo..." she whispered in awe, the undeniable proof of their success with his return and the sweetness of being reunited with one of her family members from the past overwhelming her.
He winked a cheeky wink and then alighted on the ground at Steve's empty side, setting her down between them. He pulled out a sword limned with blue foxfire, and faced off against the common enemy of all life in the universe with the rest of them, confidence and surety lighting him from within.
Kagome pulled her first arrow from her quiver and aimed at one of the large alien ships behind Thanos, and then Steve lifted Mjolnir and spoke for the first time since their allies, their friends, their families had been returned.
"Avengers... Assemble."
—————-
The battle was joined with a titanic force that rivaled nothing Kagome had ever seen. Scott had emerged from the compound wreckage larger than life and carrying the rest of their buried friends, and was soon joined by an equally large Sesshomaru in ripping ships out of the sky with massive hands or poisoned jaws. Inuyasha could be heard casting wind scars that scorched through enemy lines and when combined with her arrows like the old days, they were an unstoppable force. Thor and Steve filled the sky with streaks of lightening, Tony made use of all of his suit's weaponry, and all around them farther than they could see hero's, warriors and soldiers of every kind fought for their lives and the universe at large.
Right as she loosed her last arrow, she conjured up a corona of purity that circled her at all times, and she sent bright, burning beams of it through enemy soldiers.
The energies of the stones began buzzing, and her power flared higher in response.
She spun quickly around, attempting to locate them, tracking them through the affect they had on her spiritual senses. A young boy in a garish red and blue outfit clutched the gauntlet close and flung himself through the air through a combination of stringy webs and spindly metal legs, and Kagome lent him a hand by purifying the alien hordes attempting to overcome him.
"Thank you!" He shouted as he soared over her head, and then Carol Danvers entered the atmosphere in a blaze of glorious gold light to join the fray. She passed through Thanos's ship like a hot knife through butter and Kagome flinched and took one moment to hope another version of herself wasn't in there before turning and trying to keep track of the stones which continued to bounce around the battle field. She erected a strong barrier around herself capable of singeing their enemies and took off, following their trajectory, trying to keep them in her sights. They traded hands swiftly and by a stroke of gross, inconceivable luck they landed near Thanos's feet. He was swiftly assaulted for them, and Kagome assisted her friends by pouring a cornea searing beam of reiki into him, watching in satisfaction as his skin began to smoke and smolder. His quick use of the power stone blew her back several feet and knocked the wind out of her. She flared her reiki higher to speed up her recovery, and something deep inside her, from the part of her that housed the power of the jewel, surged up and she felt in her spirit where it stepped up next to her higher consciousness. It pulled up her purity and divinity with it, and whispered seductively into her mind.
'Are you ready?'
Her eyes, glowing like stars in a distant galaxy, widened and she understood that it was time.
'Wake up!'
She took hold of the three strands of power that resided inside of her, the ones she'd always kept separate and drew up individually only when necessary, and she twisted them together into a tight, sizzling chord that she was uncertain she would never be able to separate again.
But when she felt the stones ignite nearby she knew separation was no longer an option, not on the battlefield, not among her friends and family, and not in her soul. She latched onto the swell of power from the gauntlet, one that was tipped more toward the light and ringed with Tony Stark's aura, and fed the chord of her power into it. Her soul found the core of the soul stone and broke it, calling forth those from their ranks that had been sacrificed for it. She called back the souls of the Asgardians Thanos had killed by hand, his last personal victims before purging the universe with ancient magic. She felt the pleading call of a strange soul attached to the mind stone, and she pulled it forward as well. Finally, she reached deeper into the void than had ever been possible, looking desperately for Loki in the cold darkness of nothing. Her chord of power yanked harshly, holding hostage all of her attention and leaving her oblivious to the decimation of Thanos and his forces and the life she'd returned to precious souls that meant something to so many still on the battle field. She would get to that later.
For now, her still blazing eyes saw only in the spiritual plane, as the thread of reiki in her combined abilities flashed and pulsed, calling to something somewhere far away. Her divinity fortified her, and the jewel worked its magic, opening a portal to a distant, dusty, forgotten corner of space. She cried out in amazement and relief when before her eyes floated Loki's body, frozen in its final moments and encased in the shining pink shell of one of her protective barriers. She pitched forward and nearly fell through in her frantic need to get to him, but a strong arm wrapped around her waist and steadied her. She glanced back at Inuyasha who grinned victoriously, tears tracking through the muck and blood on his face.
"I'll be damned wench, you did it. Let me help you."
She smiled gratefully, her own tears falling now in the rush of elation and release of so much unending grief, and she turned back around and leaned through the portal, calling back the power left behind in the barrier concealing her heart from the harshness of the open universe.
She drew it through the opening and then laid him to rest on the ground before bursting the bubble of purity shielding him and revealing him for the first time.
She sobbed at the his blank, open eyes and the harsh angle his neck had turned when broken.
"He's still dead. Why?" She asked herself, probing his body with her aura to find where it had gone into hibernation.
A spark of light at his neck caught her attention, and her shaking hands fumbled at his neckline. She gasped in amazement and disbelief when she pulled free the necklace she'd given him all those years ago as a small token of her love on the night of their nuptials, one she'd imbued with a piece of her very soul to keep him safe, one he'd sworn never to remove.
He'd kept that promise.
Inside the small glass orb she'd filled with her power she could feel his soul, bright and strong and warm, his familiar chaos pulsing and calling to everything in her that had ever made her who she was.
She clutched it to her chest for just a moment, and then an icy voice and a dangerous, claw tipped hand cut into her thoughts.
She looked up into the sharp, golden gaze of an ally from her distant past, and when Sesshomaru answered the question in her eyes by lifting tenseiga, the healing sword of heaven, she handed over the necklace without a word of protest.
"Tenseiga has spoken." Were his only words before tossing the necklace in the air. With a graceful swing of his arm he shattered the orb with the dull blade of the sword, and then plunged that blade into Loki's chest. It caused no arm, but created a channel to funnel his soul back into the body it belonged, and Kagome watched in awe as it eagerly went back to its home.
His body flashed, his wounds healed, and Kagome watched with bated breath as he continued to lie there motionless.
Finally, after eternity in a moment, he took his first gasping breath that sputtered into a pained cough, and Kagome threw herself at his chest, sobbing into his clothes, no longer aware of anything or anyone but him and how real and solid and alive he was.
Finally.
Finally.
Finally.
She felt as his fingers, weak and tentative, reached up faintly grasped her shaking shoulders.
"Little mouse... I can't breath."
She sat up, relieving the pressure she'd placed on his chest, and he took several more deep, cleansing breaths while she peppered his face with kisses and tears. As his strength returned he gingerly sat up, making no protest as she fell into his lap, wrapping his arms around her as tight as he was able.
Reunions of every kind commenced around them, but they stayed lost to each other.
——————
Sticky clouds of steam closed them in on all sides, obscuring their vision past the sleek glass walls and narrowing their world to only the place they stood entwined under the shower water. The grit and grime of war sluiced from their hair and skin and sped down the drain, but they remained still, unmoving, unwilling to part from each other even the barest of centimeters.
After so many years apart, they wouldn't waste a moment of time together.
Kagome blinked lazily and watched the steam swirl and churn, soothed by the feel of Loki's hands running up and down her back.
Three times in the nearly ten years since he'd fallen off the bifrost she'd seen him, heard his voice, but this was the first time she'd been able to touch him, and she felt as if she couldn't get close enough.
She never wanted to lose contact with him again.
From her spot in his lap on the battlefield she'd seen the last of Thanos's army turn to dust, watched Inuyasha's tear filled reunion with Shippo, Natasha, and even his brother. Watched as Sesshomaru revived the few allies that had fallen, and then returned Tony Stark to the world of the living, back to his wife and daughter, and then managed to disentangle herself from Loki just long enough to step back with the rest of them and allow Dr. Strange to harness the power of the time stone and put the Avenger's Compound back together.
Many had tried to corner her and thank her, most notably a woman named Wanda, Pietro's sister, who wanted to thank her for returning Vision to life, and then a man named Peter had wrapped her in an unexpected bear hug and sputtered out a broken thanks for returning Gamora, but she was in no mood to be polite, so Loki wordlessly scooped her up and flickered away, blinking back to being in a hallway and following her quiet directions to her room.
She had no idea what the others were doing now, how many still remained in the compound, how many had tried to go to their own homes, all she cared about now was the sweet, healing isolation she'd found with her returned prince.
Loki sighed, releasing the tension that broke up bit by bit the longer he had her in his arms. He'd gathered that some time had passed since he'd died at Thanos's hand, but the last thing he remembered was the visceral disappointment he'd felt that his years of searching for her had abruptly ended.
He'd longed to find her and hold her this way again.
He'd failed.
But she had not.
Not only had a gift she'd given him so long ago saved his life, but she'd then found him and pulled him from nothingness and back into the world of the living.
Back to her.
He'd never doubted the woman he'd tied himself too for eternity was extraordinary, but now there could be no doubts whatsoever on that score.
She nuzzled his chest and then kissed across his flesh, her arms tightening ever tighter around his waist. If she could, he was sure she'd step into his skin with him, and he would let her without a second thought.
He tightened his own arms around her in return, and then pulled back. She looked up at him in question and he studied her face, recommitting every curve, lash and line to memory. He caressed her cheek with the barest of touches, and when her eyes fluttered closed he pressed his mouth to hers. She melted against him, sighed his name like a prayer, surrendered to him like they'd not spent a single minute apart.
"Darling," Loki whispered against her lips, and she hummed absently in answer. "Come to bed with me."
Her lids fluttered back open, and her cheeks flushed from the heat of the water and the heat desire, but her eyes shimmered with tears of relief.
Relief that the endless nights alone had ended after all.
She shut off the shower and led him from the bathroom, into the room they would spend the night wrapped in each other after a long fight to return to each other's side.
And the sun set on the first day of their new forever.
————-
ETA: since posting this last night, the news has broken that Chadwick Boseman, our Black Panther, has passed on. This is shocking and devastating, and I hope and pray his family is able to find some comfort. Rest In Peace to the King of Wakanda.