Chapter 29: Steve

If he had to make a guess, Steve would say that the crowd currently sitting in the Asgardian palace's banquet hall was probably the weirdest the Realm had ever hosted.

Odin sat at the head of the table with Thor at his right hand and Heimdall on his left. The other Avengers and Guardians were seated along the length of the table, finishing off the meal Odin had had prepared for them after Tony left.

There had been little conversation during the meal, due no doubt to the team's shock at Tony's sudden departure, but now Steve felt it was time to get down to business. "We need to know what Thanos' next move is," he began, addressing the table in general.

Thor nodded, shoveling another piece of meat into his mouth. Loki sat beside his brother, watching him eat with an expression of reserved distaste. Neither seemed able to provide Steve with any information regarding Thanos, though.

"We may be able to help," Gamora said, slapping Rocket's paw as he went to pocket a piece of silverware. "Nebula?"

Gamora's cyborg sister nodded. "I've been tracking Thanos for months now. He changed course after the battle here."

"Where's he going now?" Banner asked.

"Earth," Nebula replied simply. "You Avengers have three Infinity Stones now. He wants them and he knows Earth's the fastest way to get them."

It made sense, Steve thought. If Thanos attacked Earth, there was no way they would rush there to stop him, and in so doing bring the Stones.

"If Thanos is going to attack Earth we have to stop him," Marvel said firmly, confirming Steve's thoughts.

Loki smiled humorlessly. "I'm sure he'd love you to try."

"'Try'?" Wanda queried.

"Thanos has two Stones," Loki elaborated.

Natasha shrugged. "So? We have three."

"Actually, we have four," Quill announced. He held up a metallic orb about the size of a baseball, nodding smugly as everyone stared. "Yeah. This is an Infinity Stone too."

"But the only Stone we can control properly is in my scepter," Loki pointed out. "Thanos can use both of his with ease."

"How?" Thor demanded.

"The Infinity Gauntlet," Loki replied simply, as if it should have been obvious. "It lets him channel the Stones' power."

Banner frowned. "Thanos wants to go around with the Tesseract stuck to his glove?"

"The Tesseract is a protection for the smaller Stone within," Loki corrected him.

Steve sat back, taking in everything he was hearing. "So the Gauntlet is what enables Thanos to use his Stones," he summed up. "So if we can get it off him, he won't be able to use them and–"

"We can use ours against him," Marvel finished.

Steve nodded. "Yeah."

"It won't be that easy," Loki objected.

"Mister Pessimist right here," Rocket grumbled.

Loki rolled his eyes. "Thanos has an army."

"A large army," Nebula agreed.

"So we need one too," Banner said. "Where are we gonna get it?"

There was a moments' silence. Steve glanced around the group and realized that the one person they were missing was the person they needed the most. He sighed silently. "I know where," he said.

Fitting fifteen people into the Guardians' spaceship was no mean feat. The trip to Earth was a bumpy ride for those who had lucked out on the ships' few seats, but Quill took it more or less carefully and it wasn't long before Steve saw Earth through the windscreen.

His eyes widened as he gazed at the cloudy blue orb hanging in space. He'd seen photos taken by astronauts since coming out of the ice, of course, but to actually be in space looking down at the Earth gave the mission a whole new importance. This is what I've always been fighting for, he thought. This small planet we call home.

His fellow Avengers were equally silent as they approached Earth. They passed smoothly through the atmosphere and Quill finally broke the silence.

"If you guys want to call ahead to let your people know we're coming, now would be a good time."

Steve nodded. Returning to Earth by spaceship might be more convenient than trying to get the Benatar through the Bifrost again, but it would cause quite the stir unless someone told the US military that they were a friendly ship.

He took out his phone and dialed Fury's number.

They landed on the flight deck of Avengers Tower.

Steve headed for the ship's door as soon as it opened, fully ready to be on familiar ground once more. They didn't have a ton of time anyway. They had to be ready and out of the city before Thanos hit Earth.

Fury was waiting for them by the doors into the tower, his expression as stern as ever. Briefly, Steve wondered what it would take to faze the guy. Obviously seeing a bunch of aliens land a spaceship in NYC didn't cut it.

Steve nodded to Jane and Pepper as they emerged from the tower to greet the new arrivals, then he turned to Fury. "We got here as fast as we could, but we need to get out of here faster. Thanos is already on his way here, and we don't know what part of Earth he'll target. My guess is wherever the Stones are, which means we need to find somewhere uninhabited."

Fury nodded. Then his gaze moved to something behind Steve and his expression grew cold, guarded. "Would you mind explaining what that con artist and my would-be assassin are doing getting out of that spaceship?" he asked Steve quietly.

Steve felt a now-familiar twinge of apprehension as he turned to watch Loki and Bucky approaching. "Loki's with us now," he explained, "and Bucky didn't actually die."

Fury's cool expression didn't shift. "And that's a good thing?"

Bucky stopped beside Steve and gestured to Fury. "Who's this?" he asked.

"Your second-to-last mission," Fury replied bluntly.

Steve saw Bucky wince, and Loki leaned in towards the former assassin.

"Memory lapse?" the Asgardian asked quietly.

"Yeah," Bucky sighed.

Loki nodded. "We'll work on it."

Steve wondered what exactly Loki meant by that, but now wasn't the time to figure it out. He turned back to Fury. "You spoken with Stark?"

Fury sighed. "Thanos? Infinity Stones? Yeah. Enough to get the idea. You can fill in the details. But let's get everyone inside first." He glanced pointedly at the Guardians. "Before some office worker has a heart attack."

Steve nodded. "I'm gonna go find Stark. We didn't part ways on the best of terms." The memory of it still left an ache in his chest.

"Watch your step with him," Fury warned. "He's a little … on edge at the moment. And he's just popped the question to Miss Potts."

A sort of pleasant surprise filled Steve. He'd always hoped Tony would realize he needed Pepper in his life in that capacity, and it looked like Tony had finally realized it too. He nodded to Fury. "I'll try to be gentle."

A glance around at the team showed Thor and Jane sharing a brief kiss as they met. The Guardians were walking along the edge of the flight deck, staring out at the city beyond.

"So Earth, huh?" Gamora said. "It's rather bright."

"I haven't been here in twenty-seven years," Quill sighed. His expression was filled with awe as he stared at the skyscrapers surrounding Avengers Tower.

"Maybe we should explore when Thanos is defeated," Gamora suggested.

"Definitely!" Rocket agreed. "There's bound to be something worth stealing on this cosmic junk pile."

A few feet away, Marvel frowned. "No stealing, thanks, Fleabag."

Rocket sighed. "It was just a suggestion."

Steve smiled as he entered the Tower. They might be about to face their greatest enemy yet, but the team seemed ready.

Most of them anyway, he allowed as he entered Stark's workshop. Tony was fiddling with a small gadget and didn't look up. Steve had known he'd be here. Tony always retreated to his work when things went wrong.

Steve drew a breath, and broke the silence with a gentle, "Congratulations."

No response. Tony wasn't going to make this easy. Steve sighed and sat on the edge of the workbench. "Tony–"

"You brought him with you?" Tony cut across. He didn't look at Steve, but his tone was cool.

"Who?" Steve asked, though he knew fully well.

Tony looked up then, and there was anger and hurt in his expression. "Don't give me that! Who do you think? Loki."

"He's on our side now," Steve replied patiently.

Tony gave a derisive chuckle. "Right. 'Cause he said so, didn't he? And he's such an honest chap."

Steve shook his head. "This time is different. Wanda says he's clean. He tried to kill Thanos. He was dying–"

"Wait. Hang on." Tony's expression grew darker, and Steve realized he might have said the wrong thing. "You mean you actually saved his life?"

Steve stood up. "Yes, I did."

Banner walked into the lab and stopped, glancing between the two other men in the awkward silence. "Bad time?"

"No," Steve said.

"Yes," said Tony.

"Oh, okay." Banner nodded. There was a pause, then he added to Tony, "You know, Loki's done nothing but help us ever since Thor freed him – even though we didn't know it."

Tony set down the gadget he'd been holding with a thump. "Are you really going to defend him too? Really?"

Banner held up his hands defensively. "Look, I'm not thrilled to have him on the team either. I just think we should give him a chance."

Steve was thankful Banner had shown up. If anyone could talk some sense into Tony, it would probably be the only other scientist in the room. Even as he had the thought though, Nat, Marvel, and Thor filed into the room. They stood quietly as Steve turned back to Tony, silently backing him up.

"He's not the only one with blood on his hands, Tony," Steve said. "We've all messed up."

"That's not the point," Tony said through gritted teeth.

"It's exactly the point," Steve replied firmly.

"So you're just gonna trust him after everything he's done?" Tony half-yelled. "Everyone he's murdered?"

Once, Steve had had misgivings about his reply, but not anymore. "Yes."

"And what about Coulson?" Tony asked quietly.

"You know that–" Steve began.

"What about Rhodey?" Tony yelled, finally losing control. "Did you forget about him? Or did your 'inner soldier' kick in so that you could just ignore the losses and keep fighting?"

That stung like a physical blow. "Of course not!" Steve replied. "Rhodey's death tore me up and you know it!"

"Then why are you trusting Loki?" Tony demanded.

"Because I know what it's like!" Steve replied, his own voice rising. "My best friend is a murderer too, but all I ever wanted was to save him."

Tony nodded, but his eyes were red-rimmed. "And you got your wish. He's alive, saved. I never got a chance to save Rhodey because Loki had him murdered!"

"Rumlow killed Rhodey, Tony," Nat said quietly.

Tony looked around the group, breathing heavily, and Steve knew he was realizing he was on his own for this one. Slowly Tony walked over to the window.

Steve felt sadness wash over him as he saw the tears running down the reflection of his friend's face. He spoke gently, aware that time was slipping by. "I'm not going to change my mind, Tony," he said. "But we need your help if we're going to defeat Thanos. And we can't do that if we're fighting each other." He paused. "Please trust my decision."

There was a long moment of silence. Then Tony walked to the door.

Steve watched with concern. "Tony?"

"Give me a moment," was all the reply he got. Then the door shut.