AN: Not much to put here, except a lot of this chapter is taken from the movie, with differences, so I hope you enjoy it.
Chapter 75: Titan
Kurt walked as quietly as he could across the beam in the rafters of the spaceship, right above Ebony Maw, torturing Stephen Strange with long needle things; Peter Parker had come up with a plan to get Maw off the craft so that they could turn it around and head back to earth hopefully it goes as planned. He knelt and got ready as Maw turned around, catching Stark coming up behind him.
"Your powers are inconsequential compared to mine," Maw said,
"Yeah, well, I'm not the one who just got their ass kicked by a woman," Stark replied; Maw glared at him but said nothing. "Besides, the kid's seen more movies."
That was Kurt's cue, and he dropped down with a kick to Ebony as Stark blew a hole in the side of the ship, and Maw went out the whole Kurt teleported back up in the rafters so he wouldn't get blown out, and Spiderman caught Strange pulled him back in, and Stark sealed up the hole.
"We need to get this turned around," Strange said; Kurt was ready to agree with him, but Stark interrupted.
"Yeah, now he wants to run. Great plan." Stark remarked. Kurt frowned at him.
"No, I want to protect the stone," Strange said.
"And I want you to thank me. Now, go ahead. I'm listening." Stark replied; Kurt rolled his eyes.
"For what? Nearly blasting me into space?" Strange demanded.
"Who just saved your magical ass? Me." Stark replied.
"I seriously don't know how you fit your head into that helmet," Strange said.
"Admit it; you should've ducked out when I told you. I tried to bench you. You refused." Stark said.
"Unlike everyone else in your life, I don't work for you," Strange said
"And due to that fact, we're now flying doughnut billions of miles from Earth with no backup," Stark said.
"I'm back up," Parker spoke up.
"No, you're a stowaway. The adults are talking." Stark said.
"Adult?" Kurt demanded; everyone turned to him, "Funny, I don't see either of you acting like adults."
"Excuse you?" Stark demanded.
"I understand where you are coming from; I do, but we can't risk it; we have to keep the Time Stone from getting anywhere near Thanos," Kurt said.
"He won't get the stone," Stark replied, "We take him by surprise; he wouldn't even see what's coming."
"We can't take that risk," Kurt argued. "We need to get back to earth, warn people, and prepare for Thanos to arrive."
"And if we don't get back, Thanos probably won't show up there; lives won't be at risk," Stark said, "We take the fight to him, keep him away from earth."
"And what if we aren't strong enough to beat him?" Kurt demanded, "We couldn't beat two of his guys, and look how many of us there were."
"This will be different," Stark replied.
"No, Wagner is right," Strange said. "We can't risk it; taking the fight to Thanos is a bad idea; we need to get the stone back to earth, get all the people we can gather to help.."
"What help?." Stark interrupted. "There is no one to help."
"And who's fault is that?" Strange demanded. Stark looked away, for once lost for words; he now understood what Thor met when he said he would regret it once they were all gone and no one was there to help.
"You know what Thanos wants to do with those stones," Kurt said, "He attacked our ship; Saphira had three on her; we don't know how that fight went down, but the two bastards that showed up on earth were a part of that attack; it's a good possibility Thanos now has three stones, can you fight a super being that's carrying around three infinity stones? And Vision was on our ship, too. Thanos could even have four."
"He may not even have them; Loki most likely teleported away with Saphira to save their skin," Stark replied, "You did; you teleported Enid down to earth."
"Which stones were they?" Strange demanded.
"Space Stone, Reality Stone, and Power Stone." Kurt replied, "And Vision has the Mind Stone."
"That leaves the Soul Stone. Do you know where it is?" Strange asked, "No, don't tell me; I only want to know if it should be safe where it is."
"Yes," Kurt replied, "I don't think Thanos will be able to do what you have to to get it."
"See, if he can't get all stones, he can't wish away half of the universe," Stark replied, "So, what are we so worried about?"
"That Thanos will have five infinity stones," Strange said, "We don't know what five together can do; he might try anyway once Thanos discovers he can't get the Soul Stone, might even mess things up worse if he was to try."
"That is just more of a reason to go now and take Thanos by surprise," Stark said.
"You're impossible," Kurt snapped, turning and walking away.
"See, you're giving up because you know I'm right," Stark said.
"No, Stark, I'm giving up because I know it's useless to argue with five-year-olds," Kurt replied.
"Did you just.."
"Tony, I don't think you understand how great a risk this is," Strange said, "It means if Thanos gets all six stones."
"No, it's you who doesn't understand that Thanos has been in my head for years since he sent Loki with an army to attack New York, and now he's back, and I don't know what to do. So, I'm not sure if it's a better plan to fight him on our turf or his; you saw what happened back there, at least on his, he won't be expecting it." Stark said.
"My brother still has nightmares about what Thanos did to him," Kurt said, "He once had him chained to the ground while poison dripped into his eyes, and even he knows it's not a good idea to take the fight to Thanos and this is Loki I'm talking about."
"I thought you didn't argue with five-year-olds," Stark replied.
"Asshole," Kurt mumbled, he would grab the necklace around Strange's neck and teleport away if it wasn't for the spell Strange had put on it, and he couldn't teleport away without it; he had to make sure Thanos didn't get it.
"Fine." Strange replied after a moment of silence, "But I warn you, if it comes between protecting any of your lives or the stone, I have to pick the stone."
Kurt groaned and teleported up to the rafters of the craft and sat there above the other three, and pulled out his rosary to pray as the others tried to figure out how to land the ship; they were all going to regret this. He knew it. Kurt closed his eyes and started praying about the same time Stark realized he and Parker couldn't fly Maw's craft, and it started shaking, and the others were shouting; Kurt grabbed hold of whatever he could as the ship slammed down on the ground; Kurt fell from the rafters hard on the floor, he laid where he was for a moment to catch his breath, God those two idiots were going to get them all killed.
"Let me just say, if aliens wind up implanting eggs in my chest or something and I eat one of you, I'm sorry," Parker said.
"I don't want another pop culture reference out of you for the rest of the trip. You understand?" Stark ordered.
"I'm trying to say someone is coming," Parker explained. At that moment, there was a loud noise, and to Kurt's surprise, three of the guardians of the galaxy, plus Loki, came running in; Strange's cloak went flying and attacked Drax, and Quil grabbed hold of Parker and put his gun to his head.
"Everybody stay where you are; chill the eff out!" Quil yelled as Kurt stood; as much as he would find it amusing to watch the guardians beat up Strange and Stark, they needed to work together.
"I'm going to ask you this one time: where is Gamora?" Quil demanded.
"Yeah, I'll do you one better; who's Gamora?" Stark demanded.
"I'll do you one better: why is Gamora?" Drax asked.
"Tell me where the girl is, or I swear to you, I'm going to french-fry this little freak!" Quil demanded; Kurt glanced over at Loki, who was standing there watching, no emotions on his face; he turned his head slightly and saw Kurt, and they widened a little in surprise.
"Let's do it! You shoot my guy, and I'll blast him! Let's go!" Stark yelled; he had Drax down, pointing his laser gun at him.
"Stop!" Kurt cried, holding out his arms, stopping them.
"Kurt." Mantis cried out, rushing to him and hugging him; Kurt put his arm around her shoulders.
"Kurt?" Quil demanded, " What are you doing here?"
"I got taken trying to save Strange from Ebony Maw," Kurt replied, "why are you guys here?"
"Gamora took one of our escape pods and ran off," Quil replied, "Got a radio call from Nebula saying Thanos had her; we thought she'd be here." He let go of Parker, "So you know these clowns?"
"Yeah, they're why I'm here instead of heading back to earth," Kurt replied.
"Hang on, Stark said, stepping away from Drax and letting him stand. "You're from Earth?
" I'm not from Earth; I'm from Missouri," Quil replied.
"Yeah, that's on earth, dipshit." Stark snapped, "So, you know Wagner?"
"Yeah, he's dating my sister," Quil answered, Stark looking over at Kurt, still hugging Mantis, and raising his eyebrows.
"Yeah, I can see the family resemblance." Stark joked.
"Thanos isn't going to be killed standing around in here." Loki suddenly snapped and walked past all of them, heading off the craft. Stark frowned at him.
"Am I imagining things, or was that Loki?" Stark demanded.
"I wouldn't mess with him right now; he's not in the best of places," Quil warned.
"What do you mean?" Kurt demanded.
"Thanos killed Saphira," Mantis answered. "Loki isn't taking it well; he cried most of the way here, and now I feel nothing but rage coming from his emotions; I had to use my abilities more than a few times to calm him down."
"I'm going to go check on him.," Kurt replied; he gave Mantis a quick kiss and then walked off to find Loki. He was easy to spot, sitting on a large rock, looking at an illusion of Saphira he had made in front of him. Kurt walked over and sat next to him and waited for Loki to speak.
"I have been in love with Saphira for over five hundred years or more," Loki spoke, "We have been inseparable since our first meeting as children; even when apart for a century, we still stayed in contact by sending letters through our pocket universe, that time we were in separate prisons is the only time we couldn't communicate in some way, it's only been a few hours and I already miss her more than anything I've ever missed before."
"I am sorry, brother, if only I had made sure I had the right one," Kurt replied.
"It's not your fault," Loki said; he waved his hand, and the illusion of Saphira disappeared, "The only one at fault is Thanos, which is why I am here; I plan to kill him. How do you get here?"
"Enid and I appeared on earth; not long after Ebony Maw and Cull Obsidian arrived, we were fighting them, trying to keep them from Stephen Strange, and well, I ended up in Maw's spaceship; we got rid of Maw, I wanted to tell them we should go back to earth, but Stark wanted to take the fight to Thanos."
"Stark has always been an idiot," Loki replied, "Is Enid alright?"
"She was when I left," Kurt replied, "She beat Maw pretty good."
"Good," Loki replied, "Thor would be devastated if anything happened to her; I wouldn't want any of my siblings to feel the pain I'm feeling now."
"Where is Thor?" Kurt asked.
"Idiot had Groot and Rocket take him to Nidavellir to get himself a new weapon; he lost that stupid hammer when Thanos sent it through the space stone," Loki replied.
"Thanos has the space stone?" Kurt demanded. Loki nodded.
"That's how he got on our ship; now he has reality and power," Loki replied.
"Damn." Kurt cursed. Kurt didn't miss that Thanos had the Space Stone before arriving on their ship but decided it wasn't a good idea to ask Loki how he got it when Saphira was supposed to have had the tesseract. "What about Vision?"
"Heimdall sent him off the ship, using dark magic." Loki replied, "I am not sure where, but he's most likely on Midgard."
"Oh, okay, that's good," Kurt replied.
"Why were you protecting Stephen Strange? I'm guessing he was the guy standing next to Stark." Loki asked.
"He is," Kurt replied, "Enid had sent me to warn The Ancient One that Thanos might be coming for the Time Stone, only to find out she died and Strange, who is some wizard or something, took her place; it's his place to keep the time stone safe."
"And where is the time stone now?" Loki demanded.
"In that weird eye thing on Strange's necklace," Kurt answered, "That's why I wanted to go back to earth and keep the stone as far from...Loki, where are you going?"
Loki had jumped up and taken off, walking fast towards where the others were standing and talking. Kurt hurried after him; as they passed by, the others and their weird conversation about a dance-off, Loki walked up to Strange and, without warning, grabbed his shirt and put a dagger to his throat.
"Give me the time stone, now," Loki ordered; Kurt put his hands on Loki's shoulders.
"Brother, please," Kurt replied. Loki ignored him.
"I said give me that stone," Loki repeated. "NOW!"
"I can't do that; I swore an oath to protect the stone with my life." Strange replied.
"Then you forfeited your life," Loki said, pressing the blade into his neck harder. The others came rushing over, and Quil and Drax pulled Loki off Strange; he jerked out of their gasps, and Kurt got in front of him, holding his arms up.
"Loki, please, we have to work together to fight Thanos," Kurt told him.
"Brother, listen," Loki said, the angry look on his face suddenly turned to a look of desperation. "If I had that stone, I could go back in time, and I could save Saphira; I can get my wife back."
"Loki, you're not thinking straight. That's not how the time stone works." Kurt replied, "It'll show you far into the past or future, but you can only rewind time by a few minutes, Saphira she was, that happened hours ago."
"I can at least try," Loki replied, "Make it work."
"I'm sorry," Kurt replied; Loki looked at him for a moment, then turned and walked off; Kurt watched as he sat back down on that rock, put his face in his hands, and started crying.
"We probably should go over our plan again," Stark said; everything felt awkward now. Kurt felt awful for Loki. He has never hated anyone in his life, as he hated Thanos right now. After a while, Loki was able to pull himself together and came over to join the planning of taking out Thanos.
"We got one advantage." Stark said, "he's coming to us. We'll use it. Alright, I have a plan. It's pretty simple: we'll draw him in, pin him down, get what we need. Don't wanna dance with this guy; we want the gauntlet."
"And after you get the gauntlet, I will step in and kill him." Loki put in.
"Yeah, well, don't do anything stupid until we have the gauntlet and are out of the way." Stark replied, "Otherwise, he might overpower you and take the..."Stark trailed off when he noticed Drax yawning. "Are you yawning? In the middle of this, while I'm breaking it down? Huh? Did you hear what I said?"
"I stopped listening after you said we need a plan," Drax answered; Kurt couldn't help but grin a little at him; he's known the Guardians long enough now, he's even traveled with them some over the last couple of years to spent time with Mantis, and Drax not listening wasn't a surprise.
"See, not winging it isn't really what they do," Quil explained.
"Uh, what exactly is it that they do?" Parker demanded.
"Kick names, take ass," Mantis announced; Kurt started laughing, and even Loki smiled a little as Stark looked at her as if he thought he might have misheard her.
"Close enough," Kurt replied, laying his hand on her back.
"Alright. Just get over here, please? Mr. Lord, can you get your folks to circle up?" Stark demanded.
"Mr. Lord," Star-Lord is fine," Quil told him.
"You can call him Quil," Kurt spoke up, "That's his name, Peter Quil."
"You're name is Peter?" Parker damnded, "That's cool; my name is Peter too, Peter Parker."
"We have the same name, dude, nice," Quil replied; Stark shook his head.
"We've gotta coalesce. Cause if all we come out with is a plucky attitude..." Stark tried.
"Dude! Could you not call us plucky? We don't know what it means. Alright, we're optimistic, yes. I like your plan, except it sucks. So let me do the plan, and that way, it might be good." Quil said.
"Tell him about the dance-off to save the universe," Drax said.
"It's not a... it's not it..." Quil mumbled.
"Like in Footloose the movie?" Parker asked.
"Exactly like Footloose. Is it still the greatest movie in history?" Quil demanded.
"It never was," Parker answered.
"Oh, man, don't do me like that, my namesake," Quil said.
"I'm pretty sure I wasn't named after you," Parker replied, looking confused.
"Don't encourage this, alright," Stark said, pushing Parker away. "We're getting no help from Flash Gordon."
"Flash Gordon," Quil spoke up. "By the way, that's a compliment. Don't forget I'm half-human so that 50% of me that's stupid, that's 100% you."
"Your math is blowing my mind," Stark replied.
"Everyone shut up!" Loki demanded, "Thanos will be here any minute, come up with a plan; I don't care what, but you best get the stones from him so that I can kill the bastard."
"Excuse me, but does your friend often do that?" Mantis suddenly asked, looking towards Strange. He was floating a few inches off the ground, with his head moving about weirdly.
"Strange? You alright?" Stark called to him; they all walked over to him as he floated back down and looked at him. "You're back here."
"Hey, what was that?" Parker demanded.
"I went forward in time. To view alternate futures. To see all the possible outcomes of the coming conflict." Strange said.
"How many did you see?" Kurt asked.
"Fourteen million, six hundred and five." Strange replied.
"How many did we win?" Quil demanded.
"Two," Strange replied, "But since..." He paused and looked toward Loki before saying, "Since Thanos killed umm, Saphira looks like the second outcome is where we are heading."
They all decided to go with Quil's idea on how to get the gauntlet from Thanos; Nebula had shown up and joined the planning, and at one point, Kurt spoke up, arguing against the idea of Mantis getting on Thanos and putting him to sleep; Loki voiced it not being a good idea either, and it took some convincing to get them to agree, but not before Loki threatened to kill them all if Mantis got so much a scratch on her when everyone looked at Kurt, he just shrugged his shoulders and said he'd let him.
Finally, the time had come, and Thanos showed up, and everyone but Strange hid while he and Thanos talked; he mentioned what he wanted to do, how it was his destiny, what happened to his planet, and how he was kicked off for suggesting they did the same, Kurt tried to listen and keep an eye on Loki, who he could tell wanted to do nothing more than to attack Thanos, and hurt him.
"Our?" Thanos asked, just as Stark dropped a piece of the spaceship on him; then, one by one, they all took turns jumping out of portals made by Strange to kick or hit Thanos, though Kurt and Loki teleported in front of him, then teleported away, Loki didn't beat Thanos he used his dagger and kept slicing parts of him, Kurt noticed there was a handprint shape burnt on Thanos's face. He knew Saphira had to have put it there. Then Stark and Parker had gotten a hold of Thanos's arm, while Drax and Kurt tried to hold his other arm back, Strange made Mantis appear, dropping her out of the portal above Thanos, dropping her right on his shoulders; she held the side of his head, and used her abilities on him.
"Be quick. He is strong." Mantis warned, making Kurt worry about her a little.
"We gotta open his fingers to get it off." Stark was saying; Loki went over to try and help.
"I thought you'd be harder to catch. By the way, this was my plan. Not so strong now, huh? Where is Gamora?" Quil demanded?
"M-My Gamora." Thanks, gasped out. Kurt frowned; he didn't like how he said that.
"Oh, bullshit. Where is she?" Quil demanded.
"He is in anguish," Mantis said; Kurt looked up at her, worried because she looked as if she was in pain. "He... he mourns."
"What does this monster have to mourn?" Quil demanded.
"Gamora." Nebula answered.
"What?" Quil demanded, turning to her.
"He took her to Vormir. He came back, but she didn't." Nebula explained; Loki and Kurt glanced at each other, then Loki looked at the gauntlet; by the look on his face, Kurt didn't have to see it to know Thanos now had the fourth stone.
"I have an idea," Loki replied, making his scepter appear, "I'll just cut his damn arm off. Hold it still, Parker, keep your hands out of the way."
"Hey, asshole tell me you didn't do it?" Quil yelled just as Loki stepped back and drew back his scepter.
"I... had... to." Thanos gasped, Quil's eyes watered, and he suddenly started hitting Thanos with his gun; as Loki was about to cut off his arm, Thanos stumbled back; Mantis accidentally let go, and Thanos became fully awake, jerked his arms away from Kurt and Drax grabbed Mantis and tossed her off him.
"Mantis!" Kurt yelled; he teleported to her, grabbing Mantis around her waist, then turned, so they landed on the ground with Kurt landed first and Mantis lying on top of him.
"Are you okay?" Kurt asked; Mantis wrapped her arms around his waist and snuggled to him.
"Yes, "Mantis replied, "I like it here." Kurt laughed before sitting up and getting Mantis to get off him. Loki teleported next to them.
"You two okay?" Loki demanded, helping them back to her feet.
"Yeah, we are fine," Kurt answered; they looked back toward Thanos and the others who were now trying to gain control over Thanos. The three took off running back towards the fight, but it was useless; with four infinity stones, Thanos was almost impossible; no matter what they did, Thanos came back at them double than what they gave him; Mantis tried to use her abilities again, that didn't work, Quil tried beating him that didn't work, nothing Drax did help, Stark tried his lasers, that didn't work, and Kurt, Strange and Loki almost had him all doing magic at him. Still, Thanos was able to overpower them, and soon they were all beaten and worn out after battling for a while. Stark stabbed and didn't look good for him as Thanos walked toward him.
"Wait," Strange said, "Spare him, and I'll give you the stone."
"No," Loki shouted and, with a scepter in hand, ran at him and swung his scepter; Thanos stopped it, jerked it out of Loki's hand, and tossed it aside before grabbing Loki by the throat and lifting and choking him, Loki stared into Thanos's eyes.
"Do it then," Loki said, which surprised Thanos enough he loosened his grip on Loki's neck, who brought his legs up and kicked at Thanos's chest as he ran up him, did a flip, and landed on his feet, he blasted magic at Thanos, he backed up a little. Loki made a dagger appear and came at him, and got Thanos in the neck, who grabbed Loki and tossed him away; Loki landed hard on his back.
"The stone," Stark yelled, "you wanted the stone."
"Don't," Loki cried out, rolling over. Strange didn't listen and held up the time stone; it hovered between his two fingers and handed it to Thanos. Who smirked down at Loki as he put it in the gauntlet, five stones glowed, and Thanos grinned.
"This does put a smile on my face," Thanos said.
"I'm still going to kill you, at some point someway; you will be dead," Loki yelled, pure hatred on his face.
"Cute," Thanos replied before disappearing as all the others appeared.
"Did we lose?" Quil asked.
"Why did you do that?" Stark demanded.
"I had no choice." Strange replied; Loki jumped up and stood over him.
"No choice?" He demanded, "No choice? You wouldn't give me the stone so I could use it to try and save my wife, but you hand it to her murderer so that he can snap away half of the universe just to save Stark? "
"Brother," Kurt said, walking up and putting his hands on Loki's shoulders; he jerked away from Kurt and walked off without another word; Kurt looked down at Strange, who looked back at him.
"I truly had no choice," Strange said, "Saphira's death set us on the path we are on now; we're just here for the ride."
"AN Kurt didn't notice Thanos had the space stone before teleporting off the spaceship and thought Saphira still had it, the reason he said she had three.