Loki: Redemption

by Raven862

Before Loki faked his death, he begins having second thoughts of his past actions and latest plan throughout the experience. Once he got stabbed by Kurse and sees that Thor really does care. He realizes that he has gone too far and flees to earth to start a new life. Will Loki begin his new life and become the greatest hero of all time or will he fall back to being a villain?

58. Chapter 50 (part 2)

Meanwhile back on the Ship

Gamora and Nebula are about to enter the main control room, there is an awkward tension between the two sisters. The only interaction the two even bothered to give to one another is usually falls under the same routine, Nebula tries to break free from Gamora's grasp and tries to prove to her that she is fine and will handle taking care of herself but something always happens and she always finds herself back in the care of Gamora to much of her annoyance. Gamora is making sure that her sister doesn't try anything and to get through to the other room, along with making sure that her sister doesn't do anything that might cause them trouble or make her condition worse. She has to say that the Healing Potion that Loki gave Nebula really helped her, but there are still some bits of an injury still left right inside Nebula and she is still trying hard to remember some details or moments but is having a hard time doing so.

She just hopes that this could be the first step into a brighter future for the two sisters, that Nebula would be willing to hear her out and that they would be able to start to heal from Thanos. To finally move on and enjoy the freedom that they now have and to repair everything that Thanos has broken during all these years and they will start anew, she has been thinking a lot about what Nebula has said when they were in the control room of Thanos's ship. How things have turned out for Nebula ever since she was taken in, she remembers the simpler times before Thanos started their training. When they first met and the whole purpose of Nebula's arrival to have someone for her to beat up and over time become as heartless as the Black Order, but as a child she just saw Nebula as someone around her age to keep her company and they were close at first. Then when Thanos started training them and her desperate attempts to survive, that what drove her and what ultimately drove them apart. Gamora knows that she needs to talk to Nebula and that they need to clear things up.

"You know I can walk on my own, if you give me a chance to try." said Nebula as she is trying to convince Gamora to let her go.

If I do that, then you would fall on your face and I would have to pick you up. We'd be lucky if you don't worsen your concussion if you don't hit your head on these narrow hallway." said Gamora. "The last thing we need is to have one more person to worry about, though you really should consider yourself lucky that you are doing well and you can at least leave the room. You still have a long way to go and we are going to help you get there."

"Why should I trust you? How do I not know that this is not an act?" said Nebula. "There is only two people in this ship that I trust and one of them might possibly die if his brother fails, I also trust the twig more simply because he's a child and was kind to me. I don't think that I will ever move on from Thanos, he might return and then he will do everything to make sure that he gets a hold of both of us either for discipline or for revenge for our betrayal."

"If he does come back, then we will be ready and there is no way I am going to let that happen." said Gamora determinedly.

"How can you be so sure? He would have the Space and Soul Stone in his possession and you saw what happened to Loki, I wouldn't be surprise if I would be the first to go." said Nebula. "That is I think he would use the Soul Stone against us, but I am not- I hate the state of my mind right now, I can't even talk without forgetting half of the things on my mind or what I might say."

"We will get you to remember everything and once Thor comes back with both Stones and guantlet, then we'll start and we have already started." said Gamora. "You need to believe that-"

"I don't see why you are acting like you care, I wouldn't be surprise if you hate me." said Nebula who is already assuming the worst in her sister. "It is my fault that Thanos has gotten so close in succeeding in the end and that we might lose our... I mean your friend..."

"I never hated you and even after everything I don't think I ever had." said Gamora catching Nebula by surprise and simply gives a sigh. "I know what you did was wrong and I understand how you feel like you are not good enough and never will be for this second chance, I felt the same way until the friends I made when I escaped showed me that I can be a better person and start anew. We have both done many things for Thanos and the scars he made on us."

"You were never affected by them, you found the strength inside you to escape and help many with your friends by your side even if you don't have to." said Nebula. "You managed to survive him by winning and you only won with hopes that you survive. I wanted to win for revenge and didn't care what I would do unless it got me there and you never would have gotten that far if you truly only cared about winning and now... I became just like him, caused the same pain he inflicted on us and we could lose the closest thing we ever had to an older brother and it's-"

"It was never your fault, if we are going to blame anyone then the only one to blame is Thanos and you were never anything close on becoming like him. He causes pain and destruction with no moment to think if what he is doing is wrong, but you are blaming yourself for everything and Loki. That alone shows you are more admirable than he will ever be." said Gamora.

"Did you just give me a compliment?" asked Nebula who is now wondering if she heard Gamora correctly or was the concussion blocking her ability to make senses of the situation.

"Nebula, I thought a lot about what you said back in the control room. When we were children, I was fighting to make sure that I survive to live another day and to avoid more pain that he was ready to inflict on me. I never once thought on how it might have affected you and that was selfish of me." Said Gamora as she takes the time to find the words. "I want to make things right and try to be a better sister for you. I want to help you get through your concussion and anything else you may need, that is if you let me."

"I don't know..." Said Nebula who doesn't know what to say. "I need some time to think about it and..."

"I understand, we can talk more about it when we reach Terra." Said Gamora. "But remember no matter what happens you will always be my sister."

Nebula turns away from Gamora, can't helping but to give a small smile and knows that these words will always mean a lot to her. She was glad that Loki was right about everything and for that she knows that she will always be grateful for what he said and will remember this moment. She may not know what might be the best path for her after all of this, but for now she is just happy being in this position. At last she has found some comfort and now sees that she is now in a safe place, one where she will recover in until she finally finds the right choice for herself.

They soon arrived to the main control room, catching everyone by surprise as they see both sisters and how they are now here. As they are about to enter the room, Groot sees it as his chance to get inside and to see what's going on. So he grabbed a stylophone cup and puts it right over him and starts to race to the room and ready to hurry towards the entrance, hoping that everyone is distracted enough not to notice what he is going to do and is ready to make a run for it. That is if it's nessicarry and if no one spots him, hoping that he would make his escape.

"Now that was unexpected..." said Quill as he sees the sight of the two of them.

"I figured that I might have needed some fresh air..." said Nebula as she turns away feeling a sense of awkwardness when it comes to being in the same room as half of the Avengers and the other members of the Guardians of the Galaxy.

"Banner said that it was ok as long as I'm with her or at least make sure that she wasn't alone." explained Gamora. "She seemed to have improved a lot, thanks to that memory spell Loki did and the Healing potion

"At least, we know that Nebs over there is going to be alright." said Tony who is happy to see that things might be working out for her. "Since the last thing we need is to lose someone else to Thanos and besides you deserve another chance to live your life."

"Thanks for bringing me up here and for listening to... whatever I was saying to you." said Nebula as she and Gamora continue to make their way to the room.

Before Tony could even have a chance to answer, Steve pulls out a chair so Nebula can have a seat and Gamora lead her to it and help her sit on the seat. She notices Rocket's eyes quickly narrowed as he sees the stylophone cup make it's way to the door. He quickly runs towards it, with the cup quickly moving faster to try to reach the door once Groot feels as there is suddenly a gust wind. But that didn't help, when Rocket pulls up the cup revealing Groot to everyone in the room, Groot just gives a little nervous chuckle as he sees that has failed again in trying to get past the door.

"You do realize we can see you right?" said Rocket.

"I am Groot. I am Groot." said Groot trying to hide the obvious emotional tone of his voice and quickly gives a smile, with another nervous chuckle. "I am Groot?"

Rocket is about to say something or try to find the words to make sure that Groot stays in the room, he is now even wondering if he has to bargain to get him to stay. Maybe Quill, Gamora and himself should ask Drax for tips on how to raise a kid and how to make sure that they don't continue pulling stunts like this. Before Rocket can even have a chance to say anything to Groot, the door opens up right again with both Bruce and Jane entering the room. No one needed to be a deep thinker to figure out that something is going on and it has to do with Loki, that maybe he seems to be getting worse and that they are running out of time. Jane just gives a quick greeting and quickly goes into the supply closet to get a mop and a bucket. While Bruce is heading right towards Tony and it looks like there is a lot of things going on in his mind.

"Hey Tony, did you know that the system that you created doesn't detect body temperatures? Since right now Loki has a fever and we didn't find that out until Jane checked on him, do you know how we can quickly upgrade the system or do we have something in the first aid kit?" asked Bruce. "Judging from how things are turning out, Loki wasn't exaggerating when he said that this is worse than dealing with the flu. I have never dealt with anything like this and I don't think he's going to improve unless Thor gets his Soul back."

"Ok, one thing I don't get since we have the Reality Stone, why can't we just use it to create Loki a new Soul?" said Quill. "Then he will be fine for who knows how long it will take Thor to do whatever he's doing over there and then once he comes back then we'll give him his real soul back."

"Is he always an idiot?" asked Nebula rather bluntly.

"Unfortunately." said Rocket as he carries Groot back with him to make sure that he doesn't try anything.

"What? It's an idea." said Quill. "If what ever holds a soul can be tricked with a fake one, it might buy us more time and we will be able to save him. I mean isn't a Soul some essence that just allows one to be who they are or something about morality or soulmates or something?"

"That's not how it works." said Nebula annoyed. "According to Thanos, the Soul Stone is the most dangerous out of all the Stones simply because it can take one's soul from them. A soul is a vital part of one's body and one's essence because a soul is something that gives all of us life and it's energy allows us to live and have our own personalities. Take that away, then not only one dies, but they will also be lost and we will never be able to get them back."

"Wait, what about the Soul Stone? I thought that it suppose to collect souls or controls them." said Jane. "Wouldn't Loki's soul still be in the Soul Stone?"

"Unfortunately, it is not the case... The stone cleans out the soul it's collected and once it does then... no one can recover them." said Nebula. "I don't even think they would appear in any form of a afterlife simply because... his soul will no longer exist . The only Souls that the Stone collects and keeps are the ones that it absorbs because they become part of the Stone itself and lives inside it. There will be no way to bring him back..."

"So it's like permently deleting a file? Once you delete then there is no way to get it back unless you hack into it?" said Natasha realizing what that could mean for the Asgardian.

"What? There's no way that's true." said Jane as she is trying to see if there might be another way. "We need to check many more sources to make sure and-"

"Thanos was a lot of things, but a liar is not one of them." said Gamora as she confirms the hard truth.

"Just go to the back screen and I placed it specific modes in case of any emergency, it's just on injury mode." said Tony. "Just set it to S.O.S emergency mode and... You know what I'll just go in and set it myself, so that way it will save you the trip back in case the great Houdini over there needs you to help him on his latest escape act."

"Ok, so Nebula are you doing alright or-" started Bruce wanting to check in on her before they go.

"I'm fine now." said Nebula who is for once feeling a sense of safety, hoping that things won't end and that she didn't open the door for Loki to meet his end.

"Uh, just to be clear... Is whatever going on with Loki contagious?" asked Tony. "I know that he probably isn't and anyone can safely assume that, but I just want to make sure before..."

"He's not contagious, unless someone has the Soul Stone and is using it on everyone and even then it doesn't fall under that scenario." said Gamora. "I'm guessing Darcy is taking it well?"

"I don't know if she's still in denial or how things are going in there, that is if anything changed after we left." said Jane. "I guess I better hurry back and... check on them."

She quickly leaves the room, without wasting another second and only notices that Groot is trying to squirm his way out of Rocket's grasp to try to get in to the other side of the door and see what's going on. Jane is grateful that Rocket has a tight grip and that the sapling didn't escape and made his way to the other side to see Loki. She doesn't know how he would feel about a sappling who probably has the same mentality as a two year old playing around, if he would be annoyed or somewhat amused from the sight. But still she needs to hurry before Bruce and Tony get there, she doesn't know how he would react if he sees the vomit on the ground and judging from his reaction towards the idea of Loki being contagious, she doesn't know if it would be a good idea to let it happen and doesn't want to find out.

Aside from that, she really wants to check on both Darcy and Loki, to see if they are doing alright and just make sure that they are both doing alright. Since they are going through a difficult time right now, just because of the fact that Loki is fighting for his life and Thor hasn't returned yet. She wonders what is taking him so long, what might possibly be going on or if they are alright. Since Darcy is never going to get over the fact that Loki might be gone for good. Plus Loki is going through all this pain and none of them can put a stop to this and Thor is desperate to save him, yet they don't even know what is going on. She hopes that he's alright, he has to, for Loki and her sake.

---

A couple of minutes later back in the Med Bay

Darcy is trying her best to make sure that Loki is doing well or at least help him feel some kind of relief. Darcy watches Loki lay there asleep or mostly unconscious, she doesn't know she's not a doctor. But she does know that he is in pain, feeling a fiery heat that imprison him in that state and seeing him shiver as though he is freezing, seeing how much Thanos has done and how becoming soulless is now causing Loki more pain is tough. Making Darcy feel a sense of uncomfortableness and wishing that there is better way she can help. She just wishes that she can wave a magic wand and make all the pain disappear.

She doesn't even know what she is doing, if this is something that would involve with tech, something superhero related or something like movie, comic, book or tv trivia then she would probably nail it. But this is something that she knows that she can't fail or even want to fail. She might lose her friend and they still have a ton of things that are left unsaid and things that they have to do. But one thing she's sure of that she can't lose Loki like this and she is not going to stand there and watch Loki moan from the never ending pain. Darcy is going to do everything she can to save him.

Especially after everything they have been through and wonders what is taking everyone so long? She doesn't even know how much longer she can keep this up or if she can continue to do so. Of course she cares for Loki and doesn't want to see him this way, but she is not the right person for the job. She needs help or at least some pointers, so far she has just been placing a cold towel on Loki's forehead, regularly see if he feels any hotter than the last time and let him hold her hand again once he made his way to hers. Hoping that it would give Loki some comfort and maybe give her some as well. She knows that what she is doing is not good enough and that she needs to get help, but she just can't find herself leaving him. Especially if things have gone worse from there and yet she knows that she has to do something. But she doesn't know what...

"Thor..." said Loki catching Darcy by surprise.

"Loki, are you waking up?!" Asked Darcy rather excitedly. "Can you hear me? Please tell me that you are-"

"Thor... Please don't... That's not me..." said Loki. "I didn't mean for any of this to happen..."

Darcy let's out a sigh, as she realize that this is just a false alarm. She quickly places her hand on Loki's forehead, now covered in sweat and sees how hot he is and if anything his temperature is increasing rather than decreasing. Wondering how is he getting hotter by the minute and doesn't even know what to do. She really cares about Loki and knows that the chances of things not working out is getting higher by the minute. The only thing she hasn't tried is to turn on the room's air conditioning and see if it could help. But she doesn't even know where it could be to even turn it on.

Things seems hopeless, that is unless what if she tries talking to Loki? She knows that he's unconscious and that it might be a little awkward. But maybe some words of encouragement would help, that way he would know that he needs to get well and to keep fighting. Besides at least she knows that he might be able to hear or at least sense her even if he is unconscious, judging from how he responded to the past and how every time she squeeze his hand, he squeezed it back. It happens all of the times in movies and then a miracle always happens. Maybe it might be possible for him to hear her and that alone would at least make things easier. She hopes that it's true...

"You were pretty great out there. I mean not just because you defeated Thanos or anything like that, but you actually became the hero or rather the person, I knew you could be and you actually managed to find your way to it." Said Darcy trying to give Loki some praise before she decides to get to the most obvious thing that she has been wanting to say. "You managed to save the universe, found your way to Thor and find a home in a place that none of us would ever thought you would. It's crazy to think that we went through this journey right? I mean two months ago, we barely stood each other and now we are the best of friends am I right?"

She looks up and notices that Loki still hasn't responded or his condition hasn't changed at all. Darcy just gives a sigh, she knows that this isn't working or at least she is failing. If Loki is awake, he'd probably rolled his eyes and said something like "Darcy, that has to be the most awkward thing I have ever heard and I know you could do better or something close to it." She doesn't know what he would say towards that, but she does know that he would make some kind snarky or sarcastic remark. Him not trying to be rude and yet being honest about it, showing his Lokiness throughout the entire conversation until they reach an agreement or agree to disagree. But still that's one of the things she likes about him and usually enjoy it when they either have a debate about something or they simply just hang out whether it's doing something fun, talk or going out to find the next Infinity Stone. She knows that she needs to make these next words meaningful and hopes that if Loki hears them, then he will remember them and fights to live.

"You know when we first met, I didn't know what to think. I just thought that you came back to try to finish your Earth Invasion or some wired revenge plan where you would be trying to look like one of the good guys before you betray everyone and that you think evil schemes like every cartoon villain who never change and just pure evil. But it wasn't since you rescued that family, I started seeing who you are and wanted to help you." Starts Darcy. "In the end, letting you stay with me was one the best decisions of my life and you showed me the difference between a hero and a villain. That there are more than one way to look at a story and that there is more to someone than meets the eye and you are surprisingly great at being a superhero, I mean you did save the world after all and if you don't want to be Mysto anymore after all of this is over, then I won't push you and will be cool with it."

She waits to see if Loki would make a reaction or see if he's slowly waking up, but so far nothing is happening and she can already feel a sense of awkwardness. She doesn't even know how to continue on this route or if she can even continue this, maybe she should just cut to the chase and just say everything she wants to say. Though she doesn't know if she should tell him how she feels about him, she wants to let him know how she feels about him in case worst case scenario happens but in case things do work out, saying that out loud right then and there would lead to many possibilities. She can already imagine how awkward things would be at first if Loki simply wakes up and hears her say that, especially if he doesn't share the same feelings and can already imagine how awkward it would be just being in the same room having a conversation with Loki, let alone living with him and continue being his roommate. Not too mention, it would probably hurt their friendship and can hardly imagine how it would take affect, that...

Yeah, that would definitely be bad and already feel some of awkwardness already and feel it for Loki, that is if he doesn't feel what she feels. But she still knows that she is going to tell him how much he has impacted her and how she'll always value their friendship and time together. Maybe just get it out of her chest and hope that if he does hear her and when Thor comes back, then maybe things won't be as awkward as it sounds and that they can just repair their friendship and forget that has ever happened. She might as well try to do it now, she just hopes that it doesn't turn into one of the worst case scenarios or someone walks in on them. Then she will have a one way ticket to a very awkward conversation and situation.

"Well, I guess I just wanted to say that you need to fight and come back, I know that there are going to be many challenges once we get back and don't know what they are planning because you know the whole you are being the second most hated person on earth thing. I think Thanos took that spot at the moment and probably will hold on to it for a while. But I think after everything that has happened, we don't have anything to worry about us getting in serious trouble or at least I hope not. Even if it does not turn out the way we hope that it would, just know that I will be there to help in anyway I can. I'm sure the Guardians and Jane will be more than happy to back us up, maybe the Avengers if Thor convinces them to help. We'll get everything straighten out and you won't have to worry about going back in that cell again. Thor probably is going to do everything to make sure of it, he needs you to stay." Said Darcy trying to figure out the words that she needs to say. "He didn't go through a nightmare like that just to lose you now. You never let anyone tell you what you are and what you should do or even gave up on the hope that you would someday get what you wanted or at least someone to care enough to see you more than any illusion you conjure up. You never had to do anything, I mean I started thinking that you are cool ever since we started to get to know each other. Are you really going to give up now?"

She just squeezes Loki's hand and sees if he would make some kind of reaction. But the only thing she got was a squeeze and a small groan. Darcy knows that the big moment still has yet to go on and she doesn't even know how to say what she wants to say to someone who might not hear her and she might lose forever. She doesn't even know how Jane can handle this, if this is what it's like to have trouble to find the words to say to Loki. The worst part is that he doesn't seem to be getting any better and she doesn't know how to keep this up or if she can keep this up any longer. She gives a sigh, as she continues on...

"I just want to say a couple of things, that you are a really good friend and we had many awesome times together, that I will always treasure and value it. We have been through a lot together and I know that you might think you might not be good enough to think that you deserve a second chance and that you believe that you should pay for everything Thanos has done, but you shouldn't think that way, since you have the capabilities of being a good person and can use your abilities for good. We can't change the past, but you can move forward and start making amends and you have already started doing so and I think you definitely made it up to the Avengers with the whole stopping Thanos thing. Even then you might have found some way to redeem yourself, just because you are brave and smart and deep down you care." said Darcy. "I mean you chose to stay on Earth despite the fact that you know that you would face the consequences, you thought up on all these plans and every scenerio that we could face and you cared so much about stopping Thanos and eventually fixing your own mistakes. Not only that's just cool, it's actually truly is inspiring and amazing. Our friendship has given us both a chance to grow and we were there for each other even when things were getting tough, our time together really means a lot to me. I also saw the Light through you too..."

She just simply squeeze it even more and got a response from not only his hand. But Loki quietly make a feeble sound that quickly got her attention and it wasn't a groan or anything. It was almost like a sound that would show that he is listening and that alone is giving her some comfort. At least she knows that he's responding and might be listening to her. Now it's time for the hardest part and one thing that she just wishes that there could be a way to tell him without saying it or at least have a 100% guarantee that they are going to be friends no matter what. She doesn't even want to know how their interactions would be if it happens. But still she is ready to let Loki know and just hopes that she would be able to do it. She hopes that whatever happens, it would work out and that the two of them can figure this out. The last thing she wants is to turn their lives and friendship into an overrated Twilight novel or a soap Opera, it's making her a little uncomfortable just thinking about it. She can't stand any of that, does she really want to actually live it and risk ruining their friendship? That is if it things doesn't work out that way between them, then at least they can still be friends and things won't get awkward between them at all. That is she hopes...

"I have something to tell you. It's been something that I have wanting to say, I guess that I am starting things first after all." Said Darcy with a nervous chuckle, before giving a sigh as she is about to continue. "Loki, I... I just want to tell you that I-"

"Great, I made it here before they did and now to-" starts Jane making her way in and before she can do anything else, she notices the scene that is playing out. "Uh... what's going on?"

"Um... Nothing, it's absolutely nothing." Said Darcy getting up and trying to make herself look as if she's not about to say one of the biggest things she could ever say. "I was... um just trying to talk to Loki..."

"He's getting worse isn't he? I'm guessing that he's asleep right now?" Asked Jane hoping that would be the case.

"I wish... After you guys left, we just talked and do our usual Loki and Darcy stuff when we have a conversation. Me being the optimist, while Loki is pointing out the facts and we just hung out." Said Darcy trying to tell Jane all of the important details. "But Loki was coughing a lot and then the next thing, we knew is that he had this cough that was so bad that he fell unconscious after a minute or two it happened. Plus I think his fever is rising and I have been trying to see if I can bring it down with this whole washcloth routine that you would see in tv shows and so far I am not having any luck."

"Thor..." says Loki catching both Darcy and Jane by surprise. "Please tell me you have a plan, you can't be planning to just use your brawn and confront him. Hitting doesn't solve everything, Brother."

"Wait what?" Asked a confused Darcy staring at her friend.

"He said that or rather something like that to Thor, after we arrived in the Dark World and when we were finished setting up camp." Said Jane remembering that time and explain it to Darcy. "That was before we started to develop our plan to get the Aether out of me."

"That makes sense, I guess you can see that Loki has been calling out for Thor, he just started doing that." Said Darcy as she looks at her friend. "He needs him, now more than ever. I'm safely assuming that he still hasn't come back yet?"

"No, though I wish that he does for Loki's sake." Said Jane as she sees the gravity of the situation. "Along with the fact that he would safely come back for everyone's sake."

"Yeah, is it bad I don't like seeing him like this?" Asked Darcy nervously. "Not saying that seeing him admit that he likes his brother and wants him around is not great. But I would prefer it if Loki is awake and healthy, not becoming more soulless by the minute."

"No it's not, you two have a really strong and yet close friendship. Not too mention, you two have been through everything together and it's normal that you would dislike it." Said Jane. "I'm not a fan of this either, especially since now that I got to know Loki as a person and after I saw him pretend to die the first time... I don't think that it's gets any easier after you get to know someone and if something happens and you realize that they might soon be gone forever. After that is when one starts to see that the time that they spent together was not only short and yet meaningful."

"Yeah, let's just hope that things do work out." Said Darcy. "I also mostly let him hold on to my hand since he found his way to it and it seems to give him a comfort. I mean only for that and nothing more."

"Alright... If you say so..." said Jane as she stops to see the rushed excuse. "Well, I mostly went up ahead since Banner is going to bring Iron Man with him and they are going to fix the screen thing. Plus to avoid a scene, I decided that it might be best if I clean up that mess before they get here."

"It's a good idea, since Mr. Stark is the kind of guy who would not be happy if he sees something like vomit on the floor, let alone something that would make anyone uncomfortable." Said Darcy. "I wouldn't be surprised if he's a germaphobe. If I have to base it off from what I know and from what Loki told me is that he is the type of guy who would react wildly at a moments notice. I wouldn't be surprised if he either pretends that he didn't see it and hide his disgust or ask if Loki is contagious or something."

"He literally just asked that before I left." Said Jane. "That guy must not be a fan of getting close to germs."

"I don't know how he handles flu seasons, but still at least he's going to help." Said Darcy. It might be more helpful if we know exactly how he's doing without checking his forehead every five minutes."

"So how are you taking all of this?" Asked Jane as she put the bucket down, grab a water bottle and poured it into the bucket and placed the mop to let it get absorb in the water and get to work cleaning up the mess on the floor.

"I'm doing great, I am just hanging in there." Said Darcy.

"Uh, are you sure about that?" Asked Jane as she continues to clean up the mess. "Were you just talking to Loki just now?"

"Uh yeah, I thought that maybe if I talk to Loki and just tell him, don't worry Thor will be back at any second and he'll be alright would help." said Darcy trying to cover herself up. "That he's a fighter and he can get through this, I have seen a lot of movies where the hero or a friend of the protagonist, gets into a coma or knocked out and one of their closest friends talks to them and then they wake up, everyone lives happily ever after. It worked in Maleficent, Snow White and The Huntsman and G-Force, maybe it could work here."

"Uh... I don't know if it works that way." said Jane not wanting to say it, but she knows that she has to say it.

"Well, it was worth a try." said Darcy. "Uh, how much did you hear? You probably think that it's wired that I was just talking to Loki who is obviously unconscious and probably doesn't hear me and-"

"Darcy, I don't think that your being wired at all. To be honest, I think that it's kinda sweet that you were trying to make Loki comfortable." said Jane. "I didn't hear much except something about you wanting to tell Loki something."

"Uh... Yeah, I was going to tell him stuff. You know the typical us being BFFs stuff." said Darcy trying hard to deny any ideas that Jane might get any ideas. "Yeah it's just inside jokes between us and stuff."

"Alright..." said Jane who is already sensing that there might be more between the two, but decide to let it go and wait to see what happens.

Fortunately, Jane is able to clean up the mess and eventually both Bruce and Tony soon arrives to the room to get to work on the system and decides that she should give them an explanation. To avoid giving Darcy the trouble of doing so and to at least give her a moment to herself or to be by Loki's side, no one needs to be a deep thinker to know that they have gotten close over the months and that they really care about each other. While she was telling them everything that has happened and Bruce is busy following the instructions, Tony takes a quick glance and sees that Loki is really is in pain and sees that he is really in need of help and notices how Darcy is taking of it and can only imagine on how Thor might be taking it. He is remembering the whole Extremis incident and related to how it felt back then and wonders how everyone would react if Loki doesn't make it through this. Even though he and Loki never really got along or even think highly of him before he and Nebula stopped Thanos, but he knows how much he means to Thor and no one needs to be a deep thinker to see the deep impact that he created on both himself and Darcy.

Both of the Avengers, work on getting the screen to be on S.O.S mode and they managed to do it. The screen just needs to restart for a couple of minuetes and to get into the setting to see more of Loki's vitals and to be more complex than it was before they switched it over. Soon the screen starts to turn on and the restart progress has been completed, Bruce quickly scan Loki and waited to see what would be the current situation. Both Darcy and Jane turns their eyes to the screen to see how he might be doing and how much more they have to worry about before Thor comes in to give Loki, his Soul back. Once the screen turns back, on the top there is a flashing alert and they all can see exclamation marks for everything on the screen and how everything is either too high or too low. Bruce just gives a sigh as he sees how he has his work cut out for him and how much worse Loki has become in an hour and it's going towards a little over it. He also saw the temperature and sees how it's increasing and how it's slowly starting to slow down a bit, but either way it's not a good sign and Darcy even leaned a little forward to see the reading.

"103.8? That's not a good sigh isn't it?" asked Darcy nervously, already seeing the worst. "Especially since Loki is a alien with cold immunity and ice powers. Plus he was from and born in a place where it's literally made of ice and snow."

"I don't think it's a good sign for anyone of any species." said Bruce as he stares at the screen wondering what can they possibly do to reduce some of the symptoms, not even sure if they can do anything.

"So what should we do?" Asked Darcy determinedly.

"I don't know if we can do anything, Loki is in a critical condition that if there was any form of life in this planet or if we were back on Earth or Asgard then we would need to take him to a hospital. Assuming that they are as willing to help him as much as we do." Said Bruce. "Since there's the problem that many would have their own suspicions, there is no way we can get him any help without revealing something and that would only lead to people asking questions and we find ourselves in deeper hole. I can't imagine what would happen if we go to Asgard... Even if we don't have that option, there is also the fact that this is a lot of things happening here that the Soul Stone is responsible for. No human has ever dealt with someone having their soul taken or at least is planing in case it was to happen to one of us."

"But you could at least prolong the symptoms, I mean I know Loki said by using his magic during his showdown with Thanos that it sped up the dying process. But shouldn't there also be a slow down sequence?" asked Darcy. "I mean out of curiosity's sake and to at least maybe help..."

"I don't know, from what Thor told me about Hiemdell before you guys left to go face off Thanos and when we talked right after he found out about Loki, he said that the Healers tried to do every spell they could think of and gave him a lot of a healing potion, the same one Loki has, but it wasn't enough since by the time that Hiemdell was going to tell them something important, he... died..." said Jane and feeling bad for saying that and for revealing that detail.

"What do you think he wanted to tell Thor? I mean, I know that-" starts Darcy before quickly stopping herself and realizing something. "What if he knew about Loki and was going to tell Thor about Loki? I can't believe that neither one of us remember about Hiemdell and the fact that our secret could have been in jeopardy with him knowing."

"Look even if he did know, then why would he keep it a secret?" pointed out Tony. "I mean didn't Thor said that when Loki did his little stunt on Asgard before dealing with Thanos and the mess that happend back on Earth, he turned the guy into a popsicle? Wouldn't anyone hold a grudge against him, though I'm just basing my knowledge from what I heard and the only two Asgardians that I know."

"Well he seemed friendly to me when I saw him in Asgard and helped us out when we escaped." Said Jane. "I bet that he saw everything that happened back in the Dark World and his arrival back on Earth and then realized that Loki didn't mean any harm."

"Yeah, the only thing that got damaged was my phone and I eventually found myself getting a roommate, the best roommate." Said Darcy. "But even if your right, why didn't he come to us to reveal that he knows or at least gave us a cheat sheet on where all of the Stones are and heads up that we accidentally took the scepter and destroyed it. I still don't know how I am going to explain that one to Thor, why couldn't Loki have said something before all of this once he came back- Uh sorry about that little whatever that was..."

"It's fine, I don't think it's something anyone would know how to explain themselves for that. " said Bruce relating to that feeling. "At least find the right moment where he doesn't have to worry about his brother not possibly dying and the world isn't in some crazy situation."

"Going back to the subject, I think or at least like to believe that maybe if he did know that Loki is alive and playing superhero for us humans and trying to stop Thanos. That maybe he wants to give you guys a chance and to see what happens before he decided to tell Odin and later on Thor finds out or it gets too out of hand." Said Jane trying to figure out why would Hiemdell would keep it a secret. "But my point is that once Hiemdell started to get worse and he becomes responsive for a brief moment then he just died. The healers did everything they could and it wasn't enough."

"Well if Loki's magic is like an energy source that would have kept him up while he was fighting Thanos, what if whatever Asgardian have is what allows them to survive that long." said Darcy. "Maybe when Loki did his magic, it just ran out and that's why he's worse than Hiemdell and we're having this much trouble when it comes to helping him before Thor does. He did say that he would only get his magic back once his Soul returns to him and that alone is what would be the only way we can get him to be alright."

"So does that mean we're going to have to wait till Thor comes back?" asked Jane who is now hoping that her boyfriend will just walked in and then all of their problems can be solved.

"Maybe not, I think I might have an idea on how we might be able to at least slow down the whole dying process." said Tony and turns to Darcy. "You said that the place where there are more of the species, the frozen planet, how cold is it? Did Loki ever tell you?"

"Well it's actually pretty cold and it definitely would make a blizzard here look like a tropical beach vacation in comparison." said Darcy remembering a time that the two of them have together. "I'm still surprised that Loki is perfectly fine being in a place where it's probably at least negative a hundred degrees, I'd probably would be ready to drink all of the hot chocolate I can buy. That is if frozen wasteland alien planets have coffee shops, I would be happy to do so if I could. Why do you ask?"

"What if we turn on the air conditioning, the same kind of cold temperatures we would find in Jontunhiem. Did I say that right?" said Tony, earning a nod from both Jane and Darcy before continuing on. "Since if he's used to the colder weather and feels more relaxed in it, maybe we can use it to our advantage or at least make him a little more comfortable."

"So you want us to put the air conditioning in full blast with hopes that freezing the room will at least delay Loki's symptoms and the Soul losing process?" asked Jane who doesn't know what to think.

"I mean isn't it worth a try? We're not having any luck any other way and if this is the only way to save Loki then we should try." said Darcy. "I mean it might work, since the last couple of times it worked."

"I'm not sure, maybe at this point we have to be open for anything..." said Bruce who doesn't even know what to do next or if this might be a good idea.

"Great, now all I have to do is just go and get someone to go down into the control panel or to do it myself." said Tony as he starts to make his way out of the room, hoping that this plan works. "I would put on something if I were you guys, it might get really cold in here and- Now that I think about it, how cold do you guys think it should be in here?"

"Just make it a little cooler at first and then if it does work then we can talk through the com links to let you know if we need to turn up the air conditioning." said Bruce.

"Alright then." said Tony as he leaves the room to get to tell the others on the plan and then later do the plan, with the hope that it would work.

Bruce begins to get to work or try to figure out what the next best thing to do and how to deal with a case like this, he wants to help Loki. But the situation is only getting more worse by the minute and he doesn't even know how to keep up and with Loki now being unconscious, that is only limiting their options. It doesn't help that none of them can keep up as Loki continues to deteriorate and his soul is at the point of being lost forever. Jane notices this and can tell that this is anything but good and now remembering what Gamora and Nebula said, knowing that she should be there for Darcy no matter what might the outcome may be. She stares at Loki, as he continues to call out for Thor in hopes that he would be there whether he succeeds or not. Giving a sigh, she turns to Darcy as she tries to figure out what she can do to help or if she can help at all and at least trying to make Loki comfortable. Knowing that she needs to say something to her friend and she needs to say it right now, to give her some comfort or at least be encouraging to her and to at least make sure that she doesn't lose any hope on any possibilities.

"He's going to come back, I know he is." said Jane as she tries to ease any despair. "Thor would never give Loki up without a fight or at least he would come back for him."

"I know he will and I also know that he will have the Soul Stone with him." said Darcy as she watches Loki. "I don't even know how he would live without him, I don't even know if I'm ready to let him go."

"I don't think anyone is ready to let anyone go like this and I think he wouldn't want you to be upset for the rest of your life over him." said Jane as she places a hand on Darcy's shoulder. "But I think that you should at least hold on to hope, maybe that will help, just try to be realistic about it."

"I guess, at least things can't get any worse from here and that maybe we might luck out, is it bad that I wish that Loki did an illusion and he's hiding, laughing at us right now?" said Darcy not helping but laugh at that wish. "Then that would be something I don't even know if I should be more angry or happy at him. I mean sure I would be happy that he's alright, but at the same time be ready to give him a piece of my mind and- Now I know how you and Thor felt."

"Yeah, that is one incident that we don't want to go through again, but under these circumstances I think it might be great if that happened. Even if we'd be worrying over nothing, though I don't think that Loki would go that far again." Said Jane. "But still it would have been great if that's the case, even if we'd be telling Loki off for a while. I wonder what is taking Thor so long? How bad is this Dream dimension that got Loki against the whole going there?"

"Yeah, I mean what could possibly be in that world that is giving Thor a fight that is lasting this long and it might possibly make Thanos look like if he was a fly that we just flicked off?" Asked Darcy rather bluntly.

---

Back in the Dream Dimension or rather the reality that Thor's now in

Thor is now trying to figure out what might be the best way to deal with the scenario right in front of him. Here stands a Loki who managed to succeed in the path that he was blind to embark on. One that hasn't found his way towards redemption and one who has succeeded his goal on taking over Earth and consequently the nine realms. He doesn't even want to know what else might have happened in this reality and it is clear that Loki is feeling nothing but anger and resentment towards him. Thor wouldn't be surprised if Loki might have even crossed the line to hatred, though he hopes that he's wrong and that his brother is still in there.

He knows that deep down that he can't fight him or even wants to dare do so. Especially after getting Loki back and now he has to fight him again, he knows that it's not his Loki, but it doesn't make things any easier. Maybe if he tries to talk to Loki or if he tries to find some other way, he would probably complete the challenge without having to fight him. Besides he was able to inspire Loki by simply being honest about what his feelings and viewpoint of the whole situation. Then that led a change, maybe it could lead to something here.

"Loki, how did all of this happen?" Asked Thor who is about to head towards Loki before he pulls out Gungir, ready to aim it at Thor.

"Have you forgotten that I was the mastermind behind this genius plan for universal domination?" Demanded Loki. "It's either that or you are being too much of dimwit to stop and realize that I am more powerful than you ever thought that I would be."

"Loki, whatever words Thanos has placed in your head, they are not true, they are nothing but lies." Starts Thor trying to see if he can reason with Loki. "He's just using you to get the Infinity Stones and would be more than willing to-"

"Thanos? You honestly can't believe that I would still be under his command can you?" Asked Loki who gives out a laugh at Thor assumptions, before stopping himself to clarify some important details. "He's no longer of a concern or should I say that he was never a concern the moment that I started a rebellion against him and slaughter that beast?"

"What? So you took down Thanos and took over his entire operations?" Asked Thor who doesn't even know what might be a worse future.

"I have no need for the Infinity Stones, I already have my perfect world." Said Loki with a proud evil grin before turning serious. "Well almost perfect, now all I need to do is finish what I started and deal with you for good."

"Loki, I am not going to fight you and right now you need to stop to think about what you have done." Said Thor. "You enslaved the nine realms and did something to my friends and did more damage than anyone could ever imagine."

"I am not going to stop until you and everyone else knows how great I am and you are making a foolish decision on not even wanting to fight me." Said Loki who is determined to get a fight out of Thor. "You honestly want to head towards the weak choice of peace and try to make amends for putting me under your shadow. You threw me right into the void, you kept ignoring everything I ever said to you, you were the one who was the one that did anything you wanted without thinking of the consequences and most of the time I was the one that paid the price. You never cared and if I didn't do any of this then you probably would be with that woman and your friends being the-"

"Loki, I didn't throw you off into the void, you let go and you know better than anyone that-" starts Thor before giving a sigh. "This isn't you, the Loki I know would never sink this low and deep down, he's an individual who is a really good person who cares about the people that he cares about, that deep down he wants to make amends for his past mistakes and to try to move past them for a new chance to find his way towards a better life."

"Do you really think so low of me? Why would I regret any of this? I have gotten everything I ever wanted and finally rose to the top." Said Loki. "If anything you don't know the real me and my true nature. I was born to be a monster, but I chose to abandon those tendencies for a more leading role where I rule many that are made to be ruled and I can be the most powerful being in the universe. I have finally realize who I am and decided to embrace a side to me that I have been trying to keep inside me and one that would make me a good that would bring in a new era of my reign and power."

"Loki, you were never a monster and this is not the answer and you will never be happy this way." said Thor. "I have seen you change, you're growth and even before all of this how you are the most thoughtful, brave and in ways a kindhearted individual would. You are not any of this, this is not who you are, you said that the only reason why you nearly wiped out Jontunhiem and tried to take over Earth and whatever you were planning to do before you decided to give up on any plans for Asgard was to be my equal nothing more than that."

"I thought that it was my motive, but then I realize that I wanted to be more and that past desire was holding me back and now I want to finish what I have started." said Loki as he got ready to fight. "All I need to do is destroy you right here and now, so that way you will always remember how you not only failed in stopping me but to always remember what it is like to fall under a shadow and lose at least one thing you care about despite your best efforts. To make you understand that I am nothing compared to those monsters and the weaklings that you are so fond off, that I will do everything to make sure that you won't take what's rightfully and will not hesitate in doing anything and everything to you."

"I will not fight you, I don't want to fight you." said Thor. "Brother, we can work this out without a fight and we can-"

"We were never brothers and we will never will be!" Yelled Loki right at Thor. "Do you honestly expect that I would be your brother again? I mean I already feel humiliated in once calling you my brother."

Thor just stared at his brother in disbelief and kept trying to tell himself that none of this real. Nightmare just created this illusion in hopes that he would fail and that he wouldn't find the courage to face his brother. He just needs to remember that none of this is real and the real Loki is back on the ship with the others safe and alive for now, he needs to get the Stone before it's too late. He gets a grip on his hammer. Wishing that there is another way and if he can somehow avoid this fight. But he just needs to do it long enough to knock him out and then the challenge would be completed and all of this will finally be over. He just hopes that's the case and that he has the same luck as the last two times he fought Loki.

Before he can even come up with a plan or to figure something out. Loki races towards him, ready to strike his brother with the scepter and to use it to blast Thor right out of his palace and eventually to his own demise. But Thor is quick in trying to get out of the way, making sure that he miss every blast that Loki tries to throws towards him. He tries to see if he could use his hammer to try to throw the scepter right off Loki's hands. Then he can simply tackle Loki and be done, but Loki has a tight grip on Gungir and tries to hit Thor with it. Every time Thor dodges an attack, Loki continues to aim the scepter or blast harder at Thor and becoming more and more determined by the minute as he continues to fight Thor off.

But Thor is trying to figure out how to fight Loki or if he can even find a way to stop the fight. He can't hurt Loki or even wants to hurt him even if this one is not real. He tries to throw small bolts of lightning or try to find ways that he would be able to scare him off. So that way Loki won't have to feel as though as that he is trying to hurt him, but then again this Loki is not the type who would care about anyone trying to be nice to him. This is a Loki that won his invasion of New York, one who ended up taking over Thanos's forces and eventually turn the nine realms into his own personal empire. Along with hundreds of other things that would have guarantee power and a victory

He is not going to hold back, he is not going to give up until he is defeated. Every single time that Loki tries to hit Thor with his scepter, the more Thor tries to see if he can somehow fight Loki long enough for him to get a grip of Gungir and pull it out of his brother's grasp. If he has the scepter then Loki will lose his main weapon and then later the most he would do is simply create illusions and use his daggers. Then he would be able to try to outsmart him or better yet try to end the fight rather quickly might allow him to not only finish the fight but he would complete the challenge and he has an idea on how to do it.

So Thor keeps trying to hit Loki with his hammer, trying to make it look convincing, but at the same time try to see if he can get the right moment to use his hammer to knock the scepter right off from Loki's grasp and then he will have some kind of upper hand over Loki. As he continues to fight him, Thor takes a quick look and notices how Loki's fighting pattern has drastically change and how it ultimately is the style that Thor would normally use on any opponent that would want nothing more than to defeat him and it drastically changed probably from all of the time that has passed by ever since this Loki won New York. He has to change up his style and somehow see if he can hit Loki at the right moment and to somehow throw him off balance. Thor can't help but laugh a little bit, here he is trying to find a way to defeat Loki without hurting him and trying to create his own plan on how to do so, while Loki is letting his anger get the better of his judgement and doing everything to make sure that Thor meets his own defeat. It's crazy to see how the roles have been reversed in this fight.

Thor observes the fight and then he struck a small lighting bolt that seems to distracted Loki long enough for Thor to head right towards him and take a hold of Gungir. Thor just gives a sigh of relief that the plan worked, but at the same time feels a sense of unsurity. He feels like that this fight so far has been too easy, that for a challenge it is so easy that he is able to grab a hold of the scepter this easily. But he doesn't let down his guard in case, Loki might have a trick in his sleeves, that he might have something else planed that he might have to fight off. Knowing his brother, he can see the many scenarios that has a high chance in happening, how it will only provide a bigger fight, one that he would be ready to face whatever Loki might be planning to do and to be one step ahead. But the question is how? Loki is the type who would make a backup plan pre-made in case his back up plan fails. He keeps an eye on anything that might hint that Loki might be planning his next move and it can happen at any moment.

Before Thor can have a chance to even do anything, he notices that Loki is laughing hard and still seems to be confident in the idea of him wining the fight that they are now fighting. He turns to see what might be going on and what Loki might be laughing about, he turns around his head to find any sign of what might be happening and only stops and looks down, when he feels nothing more than a wooden stick in his hands. He stares down, realizing that Loki must have created an illusion and this time it felt more real and that it actually created a blast, a more powerful blast that not even the scepter would create. The next thing Thor knew is that he feels a blast that just blew him across the room and he sees Loki with his magic covering up his hands in a firely dark green aura. Ready to use his magic even more so then he has ever done so in the past, he must have gotten more powerful than he was when he tried to take over New York.

"What? Where's the scepter or any of your scepters for that matter?" asked Thor as he got up and narrowly escape another blast from Loki.

"Let's just say that during my time as ruler, I have been testing my skills and realize that I never needed either scepter, so I had both destroyed and realize that I always had the power inside me to do more than simple illusions and party tricks." said Loki proudly as he acknowledge the power he has deep inside. "I was only holding myself back and now am ready to finish what I have started, I dealt with your friends and they posed no challenge and met their ends one by one. They gave me a weak fight and I was able to show everyone what happens if one dares question me."

"Loki, I know that you are in there somewhere, I have seen you change and how in the end you were never anything that one may assume you were and you would have nver done any of this now." said Thor. "Has Thanos and the anger that you hold inside yourself, consumed your head and convince yourself that this is the way? Have you ever thought-"

"I think I have had enough of this nonsense." said Loki as he throws out a powerful blast of magic right from his hands and Thor is flown right out of the palace and into the street where he got up and is about to fight before Loki appears right in front of him, ready to do more than simply have a fight with Thor or any form of conversation with him.

"Loki, brother just wait one minute and listen..." starts Thor as he is about to get close to Loki and try to see if he can somehow talk some sense into his brother, but from one look into Loki's eyes, he sees that there is no sign of remorse in Loki's eyes and even if he has then he is hiding it too well.

"I am not your brother!" Yelled Loki as he sends out another blast and this time it hits right towards Thor and he threw him off balance, pushing him further down the street with Loki using his magic to levitate any debris or old broken cars to try to see if he can hit Thor and end the battle.

But Thor just tries his best to make sure he escapes from the attack or see if he can find a vantage point of some kind. He just tries to shoot out as much as he can when it comes to lightning and to see if he can somehow hit Loki long enough to render him unconscious. It would have worked, if Loki didn't come up with the idea to use his magic to create a force field, protecting himself from any lightning. He continues to try to fight his way with the hope that this Loki would see reason as his brother did and find his own way to redemption.

With every attack, Thor is having trouble keeping up and is even now wondering if Loki always had the potential of being this powerful with his magic. He doesn't even know how much longer he can keep this up or find some other way in trying to get the upper hand. He sees that Loki is not wasting a second in making sure that he can somehow hit Thor and make sure that he is defeated. He is trying to block off any attacks, wanting to try to see if he can hit Loki hard enough that he might just drop his hammer and simply call it a day. Then he would complete the challenge and he would not have to deal with this twisted version of Loki and he can leave and save his brother. He just has to and can't give up.

Unfortunately for Thor, Loki doesn't seem like he's going to give up the fight. If anything he's winning and is not holding back on any of his attacks against Thor and is trying to make sure that he wins the battle by doing whatever means he wants. While Thor is trying to make sure that he can somehow find a way to get Loki to listen to him or at least defeat him in a way that won't mean that he would wind up hurting him. Thor flies right towards Loki about to use his hammer to see if he can somehow push Loki on the ground with it. To see if he can somehow stop the fight and with the hope that it doesn't have to be the worst scenario that he is going try hard to avoid.

But that is easier said than done, Loki at that moment just send out a blast of magic right at Thor that knocks him from the sky and landed flat on the ground. He tries to get up before he sees an army of Lokis laughing right at him and ready to make his next. Thor tries to call out his hammer to make a blast that might throw all of the Lokis back and reveal to him like he did in their first fight on the Bifrost. But Loki simply just uses telekinesis to lift Thor up and slam him on the ground and continues to hit Thor with every ounce of magic that is inside him and all of the spells that he can think of that would cause pain towards his brother. The more Loki continues, the harder it makes Thor feels like he can fight and that he can even win without going towards the approach he doesn't want to go on. He can't even believe that this is a Loki that has gone this far and yet doesn't even exist, from the entire fight within he starts to feel more real by the minute, he can't keep up the fight.

Loki is making sure that he hits him with more and more magic, if it's not magic then anything that he can grab a hold of to make sure that Thor doesn't get up to fight back. He knows that Thor won't want to fight back unless he gives him a push and he is going to give him that push and then make sure that Thor feels that failure and get the sense of pain that he is hoping to make Thor feel as he gives up and defeated or give him a real fight, either way it would be a win-win for him and he would be able to get everything to be on his side with giving his brother no hope in finding any hope on trying to find a way to escape.

"How does it feel to be on the other side, the losing side? Where you realize that no matter what you do, you can never live up to what you may want the world to be and slowly realizing that you may never get what you want." said Loki as he throws out more blasts of magic at Thor. "Do you honestly believed that I have ever cared about you or anything from the past? I never cared about any of that and would rather continue to live the life I built than spend another minute dealing with you, though to be fair you have nothing left to lose and as well as I do."

"Loki, you have everything to lose... if we don't end this right now and if we don't resolve whatever you may be feeling and..." starts Thor who is feeling a sense of frustration and desperation. "If we don't start now then you or the you in a possible different world will die and this time it won't end well and you might not come back. I can't fight you or even want to, even when you were in this dark path, you always had the heart to care and remember the past, even if you were letting the pain that you are now feeling consume your mind. You are still my brother and one that I will still fight for, I know that you are still in there somewhere and I know that you can find the part inside of you to break free from all of this, heal and become the person that I know you can be."

At first, Loki looks taken aback and looks like that he is going to consider what Thor just said and maybe even end the fight. Instead, he just laughs at Thor and then sends out a stronger blast of magic and right at Thor. That alone shows Thor that this Loki is beyond reason and the idea that he might have to fight him is only becoming more and more likely by the minute and that alone is taking over his mind. He doesn't even know if he can after everything they have been through and how he might lose his brother forever if he doesn't win. He can't even imagine how much time must have passed by since they have started to fight and how much time must have passed by and he needs to hurry if he wants to save the real Loki...

"It looks like that you have become a little dillusional since the last time we met." said Loki with an evil grin. "Maybe you should learn to separate dreams from reality."

Thor stops himself and takes a moment to think to himself and realize that it's pointless in talking to this Loki, simply because he's not real and the fact that all of this is a reality that Nightmare created and that alone is only an illusion within itself. Even if he fights the Loki here, it would never be his Loki, since that what Nightmare wants to have him be hesitant and not fight any version of Loki, he knows how powerful their bond is and how he would do anything for Loki and that he has changed from the past. Nightmare is hoping that he wouldn't fight him, but this Loki is just him at his worst, what he would have been like if he won and if he was irredeemable. But that alone is not true, simply because the Loki he knows wouldn't have gone this far unless he was under Thanos's control and influence. He needs to fight him, for his brother, for his friends and Jane, for himself, for the universe.

Before Thor can even have a chance to get up and begin the fight again. Loki sneaks up from behind and starts to attack him even more than he would have done so before. He starts to send more blast magic and isn't going to stop himself, used a dagger to stab Thor and is using telekinesis to body slam him to the ground. From one look at the hatred in Loki's eyes, he is ready to beat his brother down and make sure that he doesn't get back up.

"Look at where the mighty son of Odin lies, the only one that was always too weak minded to get anywhere close on being the great king he destined you to be. You are nothing and you will always be nothing, I have managed to conquer empires, planets and realms. I have managed to become the most powerful being in existence, in all of history." Said Loki gloating. "While here you are fighting battles that you can not win and fighting a war that you have already lost. I destroyed everything you ever cared about, your parents, your friends and even the woman you love and you dare try to fight me. For what? In hopes that we would find it inside ourselves to make amends. That is nothing more than a child's dream, we were meant to be enemies from the very beginning and we will always will be. That is something that not even you can do anything to change and a fact that you need to learn to accept these facts. We were never brothers, you keep living in the fantasy your father created and don't even try to wake up from reality. I was wrong , On the day of your failed coronation. For loving you, I have always been and now that I see that I have always hated you and will always will. Now I am going to put an end to your miserable excuse for a life and then continue living my life ruling the nine realms and add more planets to my empire."

Loki is about to send out another magic blast, one that he knows that would be powerful enough to put an end to Thor's journey. But Thor is not having any of this and is ready to do more than play nice. This Loki is not the type of person that he knows Loki would never want to be or at least ever become. He is just from a reality where he lost himself to Thanos if Loki had won the battle of New York. One where he would follow a worst path where he would never find any hope to escape and always be trap with his choices. Now he's ready to fight the illusion and escape the reality that they are now trapped in and escape whatever plans that Nightmare was hoping that he would end up eventually failing in finding an escape and lose everything. He is not going to give up anything without a fight and only he decides when to give up and he is not going to lose everything he cares about and will do everything to fight back and save them all from whatever Nightmare has planned and from this reality. He is ready to do everything in his power to fight back and he slowly gets up with his hammer at hand and ready to start the next part of the fight and the part where he wins.

"You're right, you're not my brother, simply because my brother would never say something like that no matter how much we would have fallen apart. In fact, none of this is real and you are wrong about many things, I may not know much of what happened in this timeline. But I know one thing that the fight is not over as long as someone has the courage to continue it, the Loki I know would know that I don't give up that easily and he would have also known that I will never stop being his brother and will still fight for him. My hopes are not a fantasy, this is the fantasy and apparently one of my worst nightmares, I have seen you change and find true happiness without power of a throne and the hurt that you are letting consume both your mind and heart." said Thor as he got up and begins to shoot lightning bolts right at Loki, creating a blast that blew Loki back.

"Well I am a monster after all and was destined to be one." said Loki having a quick moment to reflect on his journey before becoming defensive. "What do you expect? Ever since Odin took me in, he has always favored you over me and once I found out that I was nothing more than a Frost Giant runt who is destined to for pain and destruction, I embraced my destiny."

"No, you are not a monster and you were never destined for any of this. You can choose what you want and who you are. You have always done so in the past and you chose to move past all of those stories and you managed to find your own path in life beyond the choices that you had and found your own happy ending. But it's clear that you are not the brother that I have always cared for and have no redeeming qualities if you believe that enslaving people and hurting the ones that I care about is the solution to your problems then-"

"Actually every single one of them are now dead and that alone must have made you feel like a failure." said Loki trying to taunt Thor as he creates more blasts of magic, but Thor managed to avoid every single blast that Loki is now throwing at him. "I'm assuming you came here to finally claim your vengeance and put me in my place or to ssimply be the hero you are and kill me to save what's left of everything?"

"No, I am not here for vengeance and I am definitely not here for that, I am here to save you and I am not going to give up on you or give you up without a fight. Well my real brother, you are nothing more than a illusion that is created to make me guilty enough not to fight you and then I can let you get away with whatever you have done and I won't back down." said Thor as he throws out more blast of lighting. "I am going to fight and do everything I can to save you, no matter what happens and going to prove you wrong and stop this twisted reality. To be the brother that you always wanted and the one that I know you deserve, one that is not going to let you go again and will stand by your side no matter what."

"Well, you're a bigger fool than I thought." said Loki as he blast even more magic right at Thor and gives him an evil grin. "This is going to be so much fun."

Without another word, Thor starts the next attack and uses his hammer to try to see if he can swing Loki off balance and to see if he can catch him off guard. Along with sending out more blasts of lightning right towards Loki, ready to put an end of the battle and to stop Loki so that way he can get the Soul Stone the Space Stone and the Gauntlet back. He tries to use his hammer to try to knock this version of Loki down and then maybe place the hammer right on him, then maybe make some declaration that his time of rule is over or something. He doesn't know what he should say or if he can find the words to say anything, as he continues to face off his brother and he is conflicted on what he might feel seeing any version of Loki defeated and on the path of villainy. But he knows that it has to be this way if he wants to beat nightmare in his own game.

He creates a bigger blast of lightning with the hopes that he would push Loki back or at least catch him off guard and aims it right at Loki and just wants to make this quick and just feels a sense of relief that this Loki is not the same Loki from his world. He sends it and unfortunately Loki catches a glimpse of what might Thor be planning and simply tries to create a powerful blast of magic and is hoping that it would knock Thor back and declare him victory. But it was too late since from the strength of the magic that Loki is now producing, the power that Thor's hammer is now creating, it is creating it's own powerful blast between the two of them and it's only starting to grow over the course of a few seconds. Out of nowhere, there is a blast that is so powerful that neither one of the two expects it or at least was prepared when the blast sends both brothers flying from the area and landed on the ground separately.

Thor got up from the ground, feeling a sense of relief as he sees that the healing potion that Loki had him drink earlier has already taken affect and that alone allows him to have any injury from this fight and the stab that Loki has done is now completely healed. So he just got up and start to head towards Loki. Unsure what he is going to see or if he is ready to see what might have happened to Loki and what the blast must have created and how he ended up hurting this Loki. That would never be anywhere close to the person his real brother is and is just a figment of his worst fears. When he sees Loki, he notices that he is cringing from the pain from the blast and trying hard to get up, but yet is failing regardless of his efforts, his armor was badly damaged and the hemet has flown off from his head and is perfectly still in one piece, though most of the gold is gone. He heads towards the evil Loki slowly, only realizing that no matter how many times he had to fight Loki, it is never going to get any easier and hopes that this would be the last time that he would ever have to fight Loki again aside from the occasional brotherly disagreement that would end them agreeing to disagree.

He gets closer to Loki, only feeling a sense of sastification that he knows once all of this is over that Loki would never go this far and he would never have to worry about losing Loki again. Even that would be wishful thinking, they still have many things to deal with once everything is over, when they return to Earth and most importantly when Loki up to it, but he is going to have to wait until later and hope that things do work out. But first he has to deal with this Loki and end whatever plans that Nightmare might have in store and make sure that he keeps his end of the bargain and return with everything in his grasp. He takes a good look at Loki, who is now staring at him defensively and without a second thought, Thor simply just places his hammer on him and wonders what happens now? That alone is the question that is going on in his mind as he wonders how long will Nightmare take to see that the challenge is now over and now it's time for him to give up the stones and the guantlet? He can't afford to loose another minute being in this reality and the dimension, he can't even imagine what might be going on in the ship or how Loki is doing right now.

"You worthless oaf!" yelled the evil Loki as he is trying to taunt Thor and see if he can make him angry enough to continue the fight that Thor just ended. "Here you are standing, acting like you have won this fight. But it's not over until one of us falls and as I can see neither of us is dead yet. Take this thing off me and let us finish this like how it has always been finished."

"This fight is over, I am not going to do no such thing. I would never hurt you and even if I have done so in the past, I will forever regret it and will always try to see if I can make amends with you." Said Thor as he looks at Loki. "But I can't do that to you, I can only do it to my brother and I know that he can still be saved. You are too far gone, but the real Loki is counting on me and I can't let him down."

"I see that you haven't changed your tune and you are still relying on that blind optimism." Said Loki annoyed. "Refusing to see the truth behind the illusion and expecting everything to fall into place."

"This is one of the many times that you are wrong brother or should I even call you that?" Said Thor as he sees Loki and is happy that he is not speaking to the real Loki or he is there right now. "You have shown nothing more than hatred and anger that was even stronger than how it was in the past. The idea of what you could have become if you had let Thanos and anger consume you is what led you down to this path. I know that you will never be the one that I care for and to be fair I don't think we would have repaired anything between after all that. But I know that I will always care for you even if you hate me."

"Oh trying to be all sentimental are we?" Said an angry Loki. "When are you going to face reality and grow up?"

"Well brother, it looks like you are being delusional right now." Said Thor as he points out the obvious and trying hard to keep his annoyance. "Maybe you should learn how to separate dreams from reality."

Before Loki can even try to figure out what to say or if he can find the words to say anything and think of a plan to defeat Thor for good. All of the sudden, both brothers or rather Thor and the Loki from this reality suddenly hear a clapping sound that seems to capture their attention, they both turn to see that it was Nightmare clapping. Deeply impressed by what just happened and enjoyed every minute of the fight that just happened. Thor got his hand out ready to summon his hammer ready to fight. He doesn't even know if this is still part of the challenge or if he would have to deal with Nightmare. But Nightmare has other things in mind.

"Wow, now that was amazing. I have to say that you both do know how to put up a good fight boys." Said Nightmare who has been entertained by the entire scene. "I honestly never had so much fun in watching something like this, it was so unpredictable and it was an edge out of my seat excitement."

"I don't think fun is the word I'd use." Said Thor who is annoyed with the fact that Nightmare enjoyed the fight that he had a hard time getting the courage to fight.

"Come on, the Thor and Loki fights are always the best. Seeing two brothers who deeply cared about each other having a little disagreement and they have an epic showdown is so exciting." Said Nightmare with an evil grin. "You two really should do it more often or create some form of stage version of it, I'd watch."

Thor just stared at Nightmare in disbelief and is ready to deal with him and to put an end to it. Feeling annoyed by the idea of how Nightmare is acting and thinking. There is no way he would fight his brother voluntarily, let alone produce a play on their fights. He is just ready to leave this dimension and just hopes that whatever Nightmare is planning, it will be quick.

"Who are you?" Demanded Loki as he is trying to get the hammer off him and is ready to fight Nightmare and defeat both him and Thor.

"Oh right, this reality." Said Nightmare remembering that he still hasn't ended the reality they are in, with a flick of his finger, Loki and the world that Thor has been in for a good ten minutes starts to disappear. Leaving only Thor and Nightmare behind, ready to talk to Thor and then initiate the next part of his plan to return outside this pocket dimension.

"Ok, I completed the challenge and defeated the worst version of Loki in history." Said Thor as he grabs a hold of his hammer and pulls his hand out. "Now that I completed my end of the bargain, it is time to complete yours and give me the guantlet and both stones. I think that at this point, I went above and beyond with having to fight some version of my brother for the third time. That alone was not a pleasant experience and allowed me the right to claim the Guantlet and the Stones, so if you give them to me now, I'll be right on my way."

"Well a deal is a deal, but first let's talk for a minute." said Nightmare. "There are still a few things that I want to discuss with you and I don't think that it can wait for another minute and it is really important, before I give up the stones."

"I don't have any more time to-" starts Thor as he feels a sense of frustration.

"Trust me, this will be worth your time and it won't take too long." said Nightmare as he gives Thor a sly grin.

Thor just gives a frustrated sigh, he can't believe this or wants to spend another minute in this dimension and almost have half the mind to fight off Nightmare. But he knows that it would be a losing battle and one that won't help the situation and would give the being an excuse not to hand it over. He just needs to play his game and hope that it would somehow work out, if he has to somehow figure out how to sneak around or fight his way to the stones then he will do it. He is ready to do whatever it takes for his brother and will be ready for whatever fight Nightmare might have in store.

---

Meanwhile back on the ship, in the main control room

Tony arrives to tell everyone the current situation and how they now have to turn on the air conditioning and directed it to just the med bay for Loki. For a theory that might possibly not be effective and one that they don't even know if it would work or if they would be able to do anything without causing any more trouble for Loki or accidentally freezing the ship. Resulting in them having to put up with the ship being a freezer for the entire trip back to Earth. They all take a look at the ship's blue prints and realize that the best thing to do is to try to get the main air conditioning bent to aim it right towards the med bay and have it adjust to be slightly cooler than they will be able to adjusted the coolness if they may need to do so, just to see if it might work and if they would be able to control it and turn it back to normal if it goes wrong. They just need to make sure that everything is alright and under control, that they will get through this.

"So let get this straight, you guys think that keeping the room as cool as the most wintery planet in the galaxy with the hopes that Loki would be perfectly fine or at least he would make it past a couple more hours best case scenario. If not allow him some sense of comfort, but a chance to slow down his chance of dying to buy the thunder muscle guy more time to get his brother's Soul back?" asked Rocket who is trying to get everything clear up and doesn't know what to make of the whole plan.

"Yeah, that's about right." said Tony. "Nice one on the 'Thunder muscle Guy' by the way."

"If this is what you guys usually do when one of you is about to reach the blink of dying?" asked Rocket. "Try to come up with ideas on what might possibly work and just wing it?"

"Well, it's a little more organized than that." Said Steve as he realize that is exactly what they are doing.

"Hey, it's no big deal, we do that all of the time." Said Quill relating to that as being the leader of the Guardians of the Galaxy.

"Maybe that's why most of our plans end up failing." Said Gamora annoyed as she remembers all of the times that they nearly end up failing their missions or put themselves in more danger from making their plan as they went through any given situation.

"But still at least we always make it through in the end" said Quill trying to defend their team style, but it is failing miserably.

"The last time, we tried to do anything without a plan, the five of us including Loki nearly got ourselves killed by a giant puppy and that was the second time we tried to deal with the same mutt, the first time Gamora and Loki weren't there." Said Drax catching the three Avengers by surprise. "The time before that, we lost Gamora to Thanos."

"Yeah and that's why we don't wing it and always have a plan." Said Tony as he acknowledged the current situation.

"In this case, I guess we have no choice but to wing it." Said Natasha. "Thor didn't exactly leave us on how to take care of Loki and what to do if we ever loses our souls manual."

"I am Groot." Said Groot. "I am Groot. I am Groot?"

"Groot says that he thinks that we need to get better on making plans and sticking with them." Said Rocket."He's also asks why don't we do that more often?"

"Now that's a very good question Groot." said Gamora as she glances over at Quill. "Do you have an answer to that one?"

"I can't say that I do." said Quill. "Even if I did, it would be to complicated for Groot to understand, not too mention a little embarrassing to explain everything out loud..."

"I am Groot. I am Groot. I am Groot." said Groot. "I am Groot?"

"He also says that if we really want to help Loki, then maybe we should throw him a get well party in the room right now." translated Rocket without even realizing what he is saying, before becoming surprised with hints of annoyance. "So that way he can be happy and we would accomplish our job and we all will get to see him. Can we do that Please?"

"I am Groot?" asked Groot hoping that someone would agree with him and that they would override Rocket's judgement.

"No, that is not a yes. The answer is anything that doesn't even come close to yes." said Rocket with a quick facepalm before staring down at the sapling. "Loki needs to rest not a loud party that would bother him more. Groot, I promise you, that you will have a chance to see him and will understand once you are old enough to do so. But right now it's not the time for you to do it."

"I am Groot?" asked Groot who is unsure what to make of the situation and wants a reason why wouldn't anyone want to react this way.

"It's because right now Loki is in a place where he just wants to take a break, not play around or fight evil giant purple monsters. He just wants to relax for him to get better, since being at risk of losing a soul... it's kinda like if you..." said Rocket trying to think of the best way to explain to the sapling and figuring out the words that he needs to say in order to make him see their point of view and then remember something. "Groot, remember when you got your legs and was trying to learn how to walk and how quickly you mastered it?"

"I am Groot." said Groot with a big grin, remembering how great it was to finally be able to do it.

"Do you remember how you sneaked off the ship while we were fighting off that giant squid monster? That you got hurt and you didn't want to walk ever again?" said Rocket catching Groot by surprise. "Until we encouraged you to not give up, but when you were hurt, you didn't or would want Quill to blast his music on all night to cheer you up right?"

"I am Groot." said Groot not even sure he wants that.

"Though to be fair, would anyone want to deal with that?" asked Nebula who is hoping that won't happen frequently and does not know what Gamora sees in him or how she would put up with any of them, but anything is better than being trapped with Thanos or stuck on this planet.

"Why do you have to drag me into these type of scenarios?" asked Quill who is feeling annoyed by Rocket's constant picking on him, but at the same time is cool with his attitude.

"Come on, you're the perfect example and one has to take advantage of using you as an example." said Rocket before turning back to Groot. "So yeah, right now Loki just needs some time for himself and you just need to give it some time. Do you understand the situation now or do I have to explain myself again?"

"I am Groot. I am Groot. I am Groot?" said Groot confidently, thus earning him a sigh from Rocket who realize that he just failed miserably and doesn't know how to explain it next.

"Even if we wanted to do anything nice or try to talk to him, we can't when I arrived to help Bruce change the mode, he was already unconscious." said Tony. "I don't know if it's form his soul starting to fade away or from having a 103.8 fever unless it changed since I left the room. But I have to be honest here, Reindeer Games definitely has seen better days."

"Ok, so who is going to go down there and see if this plan works?" asked Steve who doesn't know if it's a good idea or want to know what would happen if they go down a drastic route.

"I guess, I could go down there and try to see if I can try to adjust the setting." said Natasha. "It can't be too difficult than cracking any code, it would probably be something easier to manage."

"It looks like am coming with, since I know the ship and helped you guys design this thing and knows how this whole thing works, it might help speed things up." said Rocket, he also notices that Groot is making a little mischievous grin and he doesn't need to be a deep thinker to know what the sappling might be thinking. "Groot is coming with us, in case we might need someone small to repose some of the vents and to make sure that it is all aiming towards the Med room."

"I am Groot." said Groot with hints of frustration in his voice, as he sees that he has been foiled yet again.

"It looks like I am going to have a raccoon and a baby tree, as back up." said Natasha. "I don't know if I should be more surprised at the idea or be in disbelief at this, but then again the guy that tried to take over New York just saved us all from an apocalypse that an alien that was obsessed with the idea of balance and the power of six rainbow colored rocks nearly started. I think at this point anything is possible and this is going to be an interesting experience."

"Likewise, let's just hope that this is not a bad idea." said Rocket as he gets up and grabs Groot by the hand to lead the way.

"I think that this is definitely is a bad idea." said Nebula in a deadpan tone before allowing her annoyance shine through. "Even if we freeze the ship, we won't help prevent the inevitable and that is only just going to make us go through all of this trouble for a plan that we don't even know if it might work, sure Loki is a Jontun but when the Soul Stone takes a stone, it's victim will slowly fade away as the Soul is fading from existence, his body would weaken the longer he's like this and the closer he gets close to death, he would lose all of the strength that remains. Two outcomes could happen, one where it doesn't help him and only speed up the process, thus giving this story an unhappy ending and Thor's journey would have been for nothing or two, the entire ship would have malefaction from us tinkering with it and we would not only increase the air conditioning to where Loki resides, but it might result in us freezing the entire ship and depending on the stability of the ship, it might result in a breakdown where we all would have to evacuate and run for our lives. By the time, Thor is back and if we're lucky Thanos is not with him or in his place, ready to finish what he has started and destroy reality and everyone in it. If it does turn out to be Thor, then it will not only leave us explaining to him how we not only broke the ship, he'd loses his brother forever and we'd then be stuck on this planet with no escape."

Once Nebula is done, the room turns silent and neither one of them knew what to say or even want to think of that outcome of what might happen, if it does happen. Sure there are a lot of things that would go wrong, but never to this extent or anywhere close to it at all. Nebula seems to hit every single worst outcome that might happen if luck is not on their side. The deafening silence seems to have consumed the room, until...

"Or Nebula could be wrong and Thor can arrive at any moment to give Loki his soul back or if he doesn't, things don't go that route or at least not that far." said Gamora who quickly gives an annoyed glance at her sister, before she faces the three Avengers and the rest of the Guardians.

"On that cheery note... let's see what we can do about making sure we keep Loki alive for more than a hour, while we wait for Thor to return before we take off." said Steve.

"Right, along with not take any chances on adjusting the ship so much to the point that we wind up paying the price for it later." said Tony. "The last thing I want is to have a permanent vacation on an abandoned planet, at least until we get the ship repaired and we don't run out of food before we do so."

"Let's get going before anything else happens." said Natasha. "I trust that you are a pro at ship repairs and adjusting these things and I don't have anything to worry about?"

"Yeah, I did help build this thing didn't I?" said Rocket. "Are you good at ship maintence or at least have some basic knowledge?"

"Of course, this can't be too different from a Quinjet." said Natasha as she stares at Rocket and turns to the others. "We'll be back soon, with everything working out and we are not going to be stranded in this planet and we actually do something."

"Let's get going, come on Groot." said Rocket as he leads the sappling to the way to the maintenance room.

"I am Groot." said Groot who is not happy with the latest development and just let Rocket lead the way.

"Just bring your com links with you and we'll keep the three of you updated on anything that might be going on up here." said Steve.

With that both Natasha and Rocket gives him a quick nod, as they start to head their way, there is a lot of things at stake and they all don't know what might happen or if there might be anything else they would be able to do that might possibly help the situation at hand. They all still have a long way to go and there is no telling what might happen next, though Gamora does wonder what is going on in that room, she wouldn't be surprise if things are getting worse and as much as she wants to see what is going on and see if she can help, but she has to stay here with Nebula and be there for her sister. She has to make sure that the Infinity Stones stay safe as well, in case Thanos comes back and she wonders what Thor might be going through and how Thanos might be trying to do everything to make sure that he gets the key back to their dimension, out of the prison where ever he now resides in. What might possibly be going on that is holding up Thor this long?

---

Back in the Dream Dimension

Thor is waiting to see what Nightmare has to say and is really defensive at the moment to see what the being might want next. He can't believe that after he completed the challenge, this being wants something and the question is what does he want? Why is he holding the Stones from him and what does he want to talk about? Thor doesn't know how much time must have passed since he left the ship and went to try to get the Soul Stone, but he knows that he is not going to leave without it or at least put up a fight. One that he needs to win and yet he doesn't even know how he is going to do it, let alone thinks he would win. But he is going to try if nessicary, that is if Nightmare hasn't seen through his thoughts first.

Nightmare is feeling nothing but sastification and he is ready to initiate the next part of his plan and that alone is going to lead him one step closer to his ultimate plan. All he needs to do is play it cool and make sure that Thor believes every word he says and to make sure that he put the Asgardian exactly where he wants him and to make sure that he does everything and if he's right then, at any moment Thor will demand the Stones and the guantlet and he will threaten to fight him off and all of that hero nonsense.

"I have completed your challenge, I defeated whatever twisted version of my brother you created and kept my end of the bargain." said Thor. "Now give me the stones and the guantlet back or-"

"First of, you really should learn how to control that temper of yours, especially when you get your big brother instincts out." said Nightmare as he grins at an angry Thor. "Relax, I'm going to give you everything back, I just wanted to congratulate you that's all. It's pretty rare for someone to break out of my realities, I have to give points for you on that and how hard it must have been to fight off your brother and see how powerful he might become."

"My brother would never go that far or ever become something like that, at least I have the confidence now to say it." said Thor as he remembers what Loki was at his worst and compares it to the one that he just fought off just now. "He changed and-"

"Here's the thing about power Thor, once someone has a grasp of it then they will try to maintain it and will do anything for it." said Nightmare. "With the power of the Laevatein with him and being the only one that can wield it, he is becoming more powerful from it and if he survives from this whole ordeal, he might become as powerful as the sorcerer supreme or the last one at least. Don't worry, he's not going to become too overpowered, but powerful enough that would have the capability to create a world like that one if he chooses to."

"You're wrong, Loki would never..." said Thor as he remembers the fight and knows that things are not going to go that far or at least he hopes it doesn't go that far. "Just give me the Stones and the Guantlet."

"Fine, as you wish." said Nightmare with an eye roll, as he pulls off the guantlet and pulls it in front of Thor to grab a hold.

Thor slowly and yet nervously reaches out to grab a hold of the gauntlet and sees that both stones are in tact and that they are actually real. He uses the Space Stone to teleport a rock right into his hand and quickly sees if the Soul Stone works by summoning a small bug to come to him a couple of steps before breaking it's summon. He did it, he has reclaimed the Soul stone and he is going back, the universe is safe, his friends is safe and he can save his brother. He stares at the future before him and that things might work out and he is now one step closer to doing it.

"If you're not too busy admiring at those stones, I suggest that you go on and get a move on." said Nightmare. "You got what you wanted and you are free to go, your brother doesn't have forever to wait for you."

"You're right, may I ask why you gave them up to me voluntarily?" asked Thor who is still on his guard.

"I just want to keep my end of our little deal and besides the stones are so overrated, well when it comes to power anyway." said Nightmare. "I'm not the type that would go back on a deal, especially if it benefits me in someway or if it somehow leaves me sastified in a way."

"Well then... Thank you..." said Thor who feels rather awkward on the entire situation, before returning to try to be civil and yet try to see if he can get more information out of him. "I have to say that the Loki you created was really convincing, I almost thought that it or rather he was the real thing."

"I know right? It's crazy how these things work, how one can simply just summon any soul that is entrapped here and can use it to help manifestations of visions of both the person in question and the one that was trapped in the reality." said Nightmare rather proudly.

"What do you... You didn't..." starts Thor hoping that he's wrong and that Nightmare didn't just used the Soul Stone and that it doesn't bring any trouble or worse hurt Loki's chances to survive.

"I did, I used the Soul Stone to create my own masterpiece by using Loki's soul to allow it to guide me in making a version of himself that would terrify anyone even Thanos and Loki, himself. While I used Thanos' visions of Gamora and Nebula following his path, but add their sisterly dynamic and be part of Loki's army to make it feel more accurate, the best part is that due to me being a creature in charge of invading others' minds by giving them nightmares, editing some parts out and Loki's soul being in the stone itself, he not only saw the whole thing but he thinks that you are the worst brother int the world and would fight him like this on the spot, he didn't hear you try to reason with him." said Nightmare with an evil grin, as he sees Thor stare at the being in disbelief. "Don't worry the Soul is still in the stone, I can only see through it, not remove it and besides why would I want Loki's soul? But I do want to have some fun. Oh fun fact, did I also mention that every single time you hit Loki, it only sped up the process and his soul right now is on the blink of fading away and he's barely hanging on?"

"Wait, are you telling me that you deliberately..." starts Thor in a slow realization before letting it turn to anger. "Wait until I unleash the power of Mjonir on you, then we will see how much 'fun' you will-"

"Temper, temper, as much as I would like to see you try to beat me, you really can't afford to lose second, let alone have the possibility in beating me." said Nightmare with an evil grin that is only getting bigger and bigger by the minute. "Besides if you don't hurry than you won't have a brother to save."

Thor just gives a sigh, as he slowly realize and as much as he doesn't want to admit it but Nightmare is right. Only with the fact that Loki needs him right now and with the Soul Stone in his hands, he can save him and now all he has to do is hurry back and save him. Giving Nightmare an angry glare, for all of the trouble that he has just cost and trying to sabotage his chances of saving Loki. He pulls up the Guantlet, to use the Space Stone to get back to their dimension and to be back on the ship, he just hopes that he can get there in time before it's too late, that his brother is still alive, that he's not too late. He just wishes that he could hurry up and that he didn't fall right into Nightmare's trap and that he could find a way to undo what he did, as he is about to leave the dimension, he feels as though as time is going slower than it is. That he doesn't have a second to lose and has to hurry before it's too late.

As Nightmare watches Thor leaves, he has the biggest grin on his face. He is just happy that his plan is being set into motion, it doesn't matter to him if Loki lived or not. If Loki dies then he would have one less thing to worry, he doesn't want to deal with someone with that amount of power and if he lives, at least he can mess around with Thor for a bit. His plan is already into fruition and he's one step closer on making his escape, now all he has to do is wait for his next move...

---

Meanwhile in the Med bay

Things seems to be going rather quietly as they all try to make the most of the situation. Bruce is monitoring Loki and trying to see what else he can do to help. The air conditioning in the room might have helped, since Loki's fever is still growing but it slowing down and now it is at 104.9 according to the monitor. It was better than it was a couple of minutes ago, it was 105.2 and Darcy had to find a way to make the room cooler and managed to quickly change the air bents around to aim towards Loki, at least the cool air is helping his temperature decrease, more or less... Darcy is trying to see if there is a way to help Loki or at least make him more comfortable, while also trying to come up with conversation topics for both Jane and Bruce try to keep their minds off any negative thoughts. With the hope that some positivity will help lighten the mood.

Jane engages with the conversations, hoping that it would give Darcy some comfort and try to make things a little more easier. She really wishes that there is more that she can do, especially from seeing how much Loki means to Darcy and that she wants to do everything she can to help save him. Since Thor just got Loki back, he can't lose him again and Loki doesn't deserve to go out like this. She really wants to see him live, she doesn't want to see her friend die, that is if they really are friends. Maybe once Loki is well and if things work out then they can clear things up. But right now she sees him as a friend and wants to do more than just stand around here and keep the mood in the right direction and lift people's spirits. She just needs to figure out what it might be and wonders what might be the next best thing to do or figure out the words to at least give some comfort, she doesn't even know how to say it.

"So, is this what it's like to lose someone and not know if things will ever be the same again?" asked Darcy as she sees Loki slowing down on talking in his unconscious state and when Darcy tries to squeeze his hand, it wasn't as strong as before. "Like when that robot Destroyer thing knocked Thor out and before the magic hammer literally flew in to save the day, giving Thor back his powers as a bonus?"

"I guess, but it was more quicker than this and yet just as hard." said Jane. "But don't worry, Thor will be back soon and if luck is on our side then we'll save him."

"I hope so, why didn't one of us go with him or better yet we sent out a team with him?" said Darcy. "That way things would not only be quicker, but we would at least know that Thor would be alright and we wouldn't be in this position."

"Now that's a surprisingly a good question, why didn't we have a team go out with Thor?" said Jane seeing Darcy's point and can't help but to say that out loud.

"I don't know, maybe we all weren't thinking of that during the time..." said Bruce who has to admit, he has been asking himself the same question when he found out what Thor was planning to do.

"I know that he said that he needed to do this on his own and as a precaution in case Thanos escapes." said Darcy. "But still it might help matters if a few of us went with him and help, maybe we would have all been back on Earth by now."

"Yeah, at least it might have sped things up." said Jane as she can see her point and just hopes that Thor would hurry back, things are not looking so good right now.

"I know right? Especially since Loki might... this lack of Soul thing is very dark and it might..." starts Darcy as she turns her attention back to Loki. "But anyway, he should really hurry back and just finish this already."

"Darcy, I don't know that-" starts Jane before all of the sudden there is a loud beeping that is capturing all of their attentions and it was coming from the monitor and Bruce quickly starts to get a look on it, no one needs to be a deep thinker to realize that something is wrong. "Ok, what's going on?"

"From the look of things, it seems like everything is starting to shut down and if we don't get the Soul Stone now then..." starts Bruce who doesn't even want to say the word out loud.

"But we could still find a way to save him or at least to... Wait what about Wanda or the time Stone?" asked Darcy. "Maybe if we use it to reverse some of the effects of the Soul Stone and-"

"Darcy, from what Nebula and Gamora said that we need only the Soul Stone and even if we reverse the effects, we don't know how long it would last." said Jane.

"There is also the fact, that Thor has the Gauntlet and without it we might not be able to use the stone or if we'll be get Tony to create some kind of replica in time." said Bruce.

"There's always Wanda, maybe she can use her powers to somehow manipulate Loki's body into thinking that it has the soul and then it might buy us time." suggested Darcy. "I mean if she can put visions into everyone's heads then maybe she can somehow use this power to-"

"Change reality?" asked Jane skeptically. "I know that she's powerful, but I don't think that she's that powerful."

"I mean she did fight off Thanos with a full Infinity Gauntlet and hold him up in the air, Loki even said that he thinks that she's more powerful than any of us may think." said Darcy. "So maybe she might be able to do something, if not anything."

"Even if she could, she wouldn't know what should be done and I don't think Loki exactly gave her a copy of 'Magic for Dummies.'" said Bruce. "Besides she just lost Vision and her brother, we don't even know if she would be willing to do it or if she would be able to do anything without over doing it, since that's the main concern and one that we can't take any chance of."

"But still there has to be something we could do, I mean I'm tired of sitting here and doing nothing, especially since we can't do anything and have no way to communicate to Thor." said Darcy feeling a sense of frustration with the situation, before turning to Jane. "Unless you can expand the frequency past multiple dimensions without breaking the space time continuum."

"Can't say that I can, even with someone who is an expert with working on tech like Tony Stark and Rocket by my side." said Jane. "Even with Bruce Banner by our side, it might take years for us to make some kind of technology like that or at least a couple of hours earliest, which we obviously don't have..."

"Great, just great..." said Darcy as she sees the gravity of the situation, not even knowing how can things any worse from here or if they will have to face Thanos and ultimately have the fight continue on.

"Don't worry, as long as Loki is still stable and we don't have any more trouble then we will be alright." Said Jane trying to be positive. "We have nothing to worry about as long as nothing goes wrong."

"Great, now you've done it." Said Darcy annoyed as she places her other hand on her face, blocking her view, letting it slide off her face. "Now I know something is going to go wrong or Loki is going get worse any second."

"What?" Said Jane a little confused. "All I said was we got nothing to worry about as long as nothing goes wrong."

"Exactly, it's the ultimate jink." Said Darcy as she stares at Jane. "Whenever someone says something like that, then something always goes wrong or something bad will happen. Haven't you seen any movies?"

"Ok..." said Jane nervously.

"I doubt that things would go that far, sure it happens all of the time in movies and tv shows, sometimes it happens to us occasionally..." said Bruce trying to ease into the situation. "But I highly doubt that things would go that-"

"Mother?" Said Loki, catching the three of their attention. "Mother, how are you here?"

"Please tell me that he's..." starts Darcy. "Is it just me or has the last hour or so been Loki having nightmares?"

"Yeah, he has..." said Jane as she stares at Loki as she can hardly believe the coincidence and feeling a sense of guilt for jinxing it.

"Mother, you can't leave me now. Now... I have nothing to lose." Said Loki. "Everyone... they see me as a monster... They all... believe I am nothing more than capable of causing this destruction and I suppose they are right, it's my fault for everything that has happened..."

"Please tell me that he said all of this when you were in Asgard and you somehow eavesdrop this entire conversation." Said Darcy as she sees the sight happening right before her eyes.

"No, even if he said that to her, I was never in the dungeons to overhear it." Said Jane as she quickly turns to Bruce. "Is any of this normal?"

"It's not unusual for someone to have nightmares and probably more so if they have a high fever." Said Bruce. "But this feels a little too consistent to be just a coincidence and it is almost like the visions that Wanda placed in our heads back in the Ultron incident. Right before the Maximoffs changed sides, when they, you and Loki joined us."

"It's my fault that Thanos... caused all of this... I made him angry enough to go after me, brought forward all of the Infinity Stones to him and..." continues Loki. "If I haven't made that deal with him, none of this would have happened... Father was right, all I ever done was cause pain and destruction..."

"But it can't be from Wanda, she's not even here to do this." Said Darcy not even knowing what to think.

"I'm not sure, but-" starts Bruce before a loud beeping sound came from the monitor, giving a warning sound and from one look, he sees that Loki's vitals are dropping and shutting down.

"I hurt my brother and my friends for far too long and I might have even... ruined one of their lives..." said Loki quietly. "She... They... are better off without me..."

"What?" Said Darcy who doesn't even know what to think about that and finds herself talking to Loki. "No, that is not true. You are still a bright light to many of us, one that shouldn't even talk, let alone feel like that..."

"Please don't go... You are the only one that..." starts Loki before he stops himself and simply just let out a groan.

Jane is starting to feel desperate as her concern is continuing to grow more and more by the minute. She always thought that seeing Loki 'die' in the Dark World would have prepared her for any situations like this. But she realize that she is wrong and she's not prepared for this and might never will. She knows that she can't just stand there anymore and watch Loki suffer and see Darcy and Thor get hurt. Jane knows that she has to find a way to save Loki and that the three of them can't do this alone anymore. They need more hands on deck, she is going to find a way to save him. But first they are going to need more help in order to do it...

"I'll be right back, I just need to grab something and to give a status report." Said Jane.

"Wait, are you honestly going to do it now?" Asked Darcy in disbelief that Jane would think of leaving right now that they both needed a friend the most.

"Yes, but don't worry I am just trying to help and he will survive, I'm sure of it." Said Jane. "We are going to need all of the help we can get right now."

"But Jane, the others are not exactly the med experts, how are they going to help?" Said Darcy trying to point out the most obvious detail.

"Just wait, I think I have an idea or at least we might get something done that might help the situation." Said Jane, before she heads out, hoping that she would find something that might help the situation.

Darcy simply watches her go and wonders what she might be thinking that might help the situation right now. Since she doesn't think that there not much the Avengers, Guardians or Nebula can do or even if they can do something. It might not help for so long. That is unless they all develop a piece of technology that could communicate to Thor in another dimension while they were in there or have the Soul Stone in their convince. She just hopes that this is over soon, that both Thor and Loki will be alright and they can return back to Earth, she doesn't know how much of this drama she can take. Darcy never realized how stressful it is to be in a situation where one doesn't know that if things would turn out alright and relying on simply fate for it to somehow work out.

She doesn't know how anyone can handle all of this drama and stay sane, sure she cares about Loki, but she is not the type who would become a weepy mess who would treat it like the end of the world if she and Loki doesn't end up together. Though she would probably be sad if Loki dies and that they would ever be able to hang out again, sure she really likes Loki, but to her, their friendship is more important and she doesn't want to lose it, maybe they will get through the next steps and see what happens. But she knows that it's more important to her that they get through this next step and right now they need to focus on trying to save Loki. She's ready to do anything, ready to fight for her friend and to do more than just sit around, if only she can figure out a way how. So she got up and is ready to do everything she can to help, she is not going to let Thanos decide what should be the ending of Loki's story.

"Is there anything I can do to help?" asked Darcy to try to see if there is more that she can do and determined to do it. "I may not be the best when it comes to these things, but I want to help in anyway I can and do everything to do something, rather than just sit here and do nothing."

"Just try to grab everything that might help or at least anything that might either make sure that he stays alive for long enough or at least give him some comfort." said Bruce who at this point is ready to try anything to make sure that Loki stays alive.

"Ok, let's hope that this would be enough and that Thor comes back soon, then this will be over." said Darcy. "That we can save him, I don't even know what's to do next if we fail. How Thor is going to be if... Well then we need to keep moving forward and just try to help in anyway we can, I know that I am tired of sitting around and doing nothing except being the friend that just watches over him, when I know that I could be doing something."

With that Darcy got up and begins to look at the supply closet for something that might help or if there might be anything that would be helpful. There are many things in Darcy's mind as she sees through the cabinet and starts to ask herself if all of this would be enough? She knows that if luck is on their side then he will live and even then they will still have to face all of the consequences that Loki's past actions brought and she doesn't even know if they would pay some kind of consequence from the past or if Loki isn't going to end up in some prison whether it's Asgard or Earth. But still maybe with the mere fact that he saved the universe, everyone would be willing to forgive and forget. At least she hopes that everyone would, but they would have to worry about all of that later and somehow figure things out, that is if they can...

They all still have a long way to go and who knows what path they are all now going on is going to lead to, but she knows one thing that Loki needs to pull through and she knows that right now both brothers need each other more than ever. She has to do everything to make sure that he lives and just hopes that Thor hurries back before it's too late and whatever Jane wants to do to help, she just hopes that it's a good plan and is going to be something that would change the course of the situation and to hopefully buy them more time or it would give them some hope and they have a sign that things would be alright. All they can do now is try to do everything they can to help with the hope that they can do something and it would be enough, it has to...

---

Back in the main control room of the ship

The remaining Avengers and Guardians are trying to make the most of the situation and keeping an eye for any sign of Thor and waiting to see if they would have to put up a fight. Along with getting any progress reports from Natasha and Rocket, so far they are doing a good job in trying to maintain the air conditioning in the med bay that they haven't gotten any complaints from Darcy, Jane or Bruce. At least that's a good sign or at least they are hoping that it would be a the start of some kind of recovery until Thor comes. They all do wonder what is taking Thor so long and how hard whatever he might be facing is in that dimension?

The only problem would be that they don't know how much longer would it take for Thor to return and how much longer they would be stuck on Titan and if things are going well. They know that Thor would never abandon them and especially a Loki that is in a place where he is in the brink of death and he would be facing his final moments at any moment. Something else might be going on and the worst part is that they don't have a way to communicate with him or give him an update on what's going on. For now they are trying to keep themselves occupied by keeping their mind off the situation by give the ship some maintenance.

Quill is trying to have a conversation with Tony and Steve to try to get an idea on how much Earth has changed and anything pop culture related. While Drax, Gamora and Nebula at times only joining i. The conversation for their own questions and to get some form of context of what they might be talking about. But while having this conversation, Drax is busy sharpening his knives in case of anything, while Gamora is trying to make sure that Nebula is alright and at the same time feels included in the group. Nebula is trying to make the most of the situation and tries to get over any awkward feelings that she is feeling, this is one of the rare times that she was ever treated as an equal and yet the first time she has ever been in a group where she feels more accepted and treated with respect than any moment during her time with Thanos.

At least they are having a chance to get to know each other for a bit, that they are at least being close towards becoming alies or at least the closest thing they can consider to an alliance. Maybe they could at least be close enough to become friends or rather aquentences to one another, at least when it comes to the future, the two teams can rely on each other. They can all agree that one of the good things that have come from this entire experience, that at least they found more to rely on, it's crazy to believe that in these situations that they are led to people that would be once indifferent to them and later find some common ground to find themselves trusting of each other and alright if they are in the same room with each other. Their moment of having peace soon starts to end with Natasha, Rocket and Groot coming back from the maintenance area and control room and to see them about to join the conversation.

"Now that surprisingly worked better than I thought." said Natasha as she stops to talk to the others. "Who knew that one can work even faster with a talking raccoon and tree? Especially if the raccoon is an expert when it comes to the mechanics of a space ship."

"Come on, you were good on figuring out how to crack all of those codes and how to have us get through the mainframe without accidentally shutting down the ship." said Rocket. "I have to say that you aren't bad for a Terran, there are some that make you guys look bad."

"Thanks, I think..." said Natasha as she doesn't know what to make of that compliment.

"I am Groot." said Groot who is hoping that the banter would stop and is ready to get through that door this time.

"Well the good news is that we managed to figure out a great setting without freezing the ship and to avoid anyone dying." said Rocket rather happily as he approaches them. "Well that is unless you gotten any complaints about it while we were gone."

"No, can't say that we have." said Tony as he turns and realize that someone else is missing from the group. "Wait, where's Wanda?"

"She went into the supply room and just wants to be left alone." said Natasha. "That's completely understandable, she lost both Pietro and Vision recently and that is already making her feel as though she has lost everything."

"Yeah, judging how freaky her powers are, I know that even I wouldn't want to mess with her." said Rocket crossing his paws.

"Should we go check on her?" said Steve. "It is hard-"

"Let's give her some space, she has a lot to deal with right now and she really wants to be alone." said Natasha. "I tried to see how she was doing, but she just told me to leave her alone and tell everyone to do the same."

"Though, it's going to be tougher for her if Thor doesn't come true, I mean isn't she, Pietro and Loki friends or at least close enough to be in that category?" said Tony. "Pietro and her did know Loki is Mysto before the rest of us."

"I think she needs space, at the same time to let her know that she is not alone." said Drax. "If we allow her consume herself with grief, then it would eventually destroy her and lead her down a path of pain, anger and destruction."

"Wow Drax, that is surprisingly wise of you." said Gamora who didn't expect to hear that from him.

"I know what it is like to let the pain from my grief overtake me and lead me down a path where I have many regrets and it only caused more trouble." said Drax. "It's important for her to see that if we don't want her to get anymore hurt."

Before anyone has a chance to say anything or even find a way to help Wanda, Jane comes rushing in and quickly stopping to catch her breath from the quick run she just had and with the hope that she would get some help or at least find some good news. Everyone in the room can already tell that something is going on and the situation is not good as they sees Jane after her arrival. That it's not looking good or if it's getting anywhere close to getting better, that maybe luck might not be on their side and they might lose someone else today and if Thor doesn't return soon then neither one of them can imagine what would he say if he was too late. Before any of them them can say another word or even ask Jane what is going on...

"It's Loki... He is getting worse and his vital signs are changing drastically, they are dropping." said Jane. "I think he's... dying right now..."

"Terrific just what we need, one more thing to worry about and it happens to be the thing that we can't control." said Rocket annoyed at the situation and a bit saddened by the idea of losing a friend like this.

"It's not really a surprise..." said Nebula as she tries to ignore the level of guilt she is now feeling. "I don't think that anyone would have made it this far if they had to use the last of the strength to fight off Thanos, let alone use one of the stones to save me, it should have been me... I should be the one on that bed fighting for my life."

"Nebula-" starts Gamora wanting to say something that would give her sister some comfort over the situation.

"No, if it weren't for..." starts Nebula before she stops herself and stares down to the ground. "Forget it, I don't think it would matter anyway..."

"Do any of you guys know what we can-" starts Jane before stopping herself, once she spots something, a bluish glow that caught everyone's attention.

At that moment, everyone is ready to brace themselves for impact, not even knowing what they are about to face or if they will be ready to fight off Thanos again. Steve got his shield out, while Natasha got into a fighting stance and Tony places the Iron man helmet and armor on. While Quill places the Star Lord helmet on and grabs a hold of his blasters, while Rocket quickly got a hold of his blasters, aiming it right on the glow, Drax got his knives and make a fighting stance and Gamora got her sword extend, ready to possibly face Thanos once again and keep him away from Nebula. Groot got himself onto the control panel wanting to see what is going to happen next, Nebula got up her batons, she may be injured but she is not going out without a fight even if it would be difficult for her, especially if she can barely stand and Jane just got the first thing she sees which turns out to be a chair and just lifted it up to at least help the others. They are all ready to put up a fight and to defend themselves if they have to face Thanos and whatever he may have in store.

The blue glow ultimately expands itself to make it more toward a human scale, eventually it leads the formation of whomever is using the Space Stone to arrive and they all are ready for what they are about to face. In a quick second, the blue glow completely disappears and soon to their surprise and relief it turns out to be Thor, as he just is happy to finally be back on the ship and is ready to race over to save Loki. Everyone else just gives a sigh of relief from this development, dropping their weapons and anything they were planning to use to fight off Thanos. Tony and Quill remove their helmets, while Tony slowly removes the armor. They all notices that the Guantlet now has two stones and they are just happy that he managed to not only succeed but he is going to save his brother.

"Thor, you're back!" Said Jane rather happily and excitedly. "You also got the stone back! Thank goodness you came back and right now we have to go to Loki right now."

"What happened back there?" Asked Gamora. "What happened to Thanos?"

"You no longer have to worry about him, he met his end in that world." Said Thor staring at both sisters. "You are now free to live your lives without ever worrying about him ever again."

"How did he-" starts Nebula.

"I will explain everything later, right now I need to go and give my brother his soul." Said Thor. "There is not a moment to lose, the being that run the dimension has put his life in jeopardy even more than before. I know it has only been ten or maybe twenty minutes but-"

"What?" Said Natasha. "Thor, it hasn't been ten to twenty minutes."

"Of course it was, that's how long it took me to..." starts Thor as he starts to fall under a terrifying realization that he really hopes that he is wrong.

"Thor, in that dimension did time feel like it past differently?" Asked Steve trying to get a clear picture of what might be happening.

"In that world, it felt like that time has gone the same as it would and that I wasn't there for long." Said Thor. "If anything I was barely even there for a half hour."

"It has been a little longer than that bud." Said Quill who is taken aback from the truth.

"How much longer?" Asked Thor with a hint of concern in his voice, not sure if whether or not he wants to know.

"Let's just add that twenty minutes to another twenty and and hour to that one." Said Tony trying to give that fact straight.

"It has been... an hour and... forty minutes?" Said Thor in complete shock as he faces the truth right before him and how much time has been lost. "Loki! I need to get to him right now, how is he? Please tell me that he is better than I left him."

"I wish he was, he hasn't been doing well since you left. First he was coughing and having a hard time breathing, the next thing we knew he had a fever and fell into unconsciousnesss with only saying things." Said Jane. "While he was unconscious, it seems to be like if he was having a nightmare and one that lasted over an hour."

"Nightmare? That foul-" starts Thor ready to let his anger to rant about the being in charge of the nightmare dimension before he notices the confused looks on everyone's faces. "Sorry, it just that being... How's Loki right now? Is he still unconscious?"

"Yes, he's still unconscious and when I was there and his vital signs are dropping." Said Jane. "It's a good thing that you're here now, he needs his soul back now."

"If this is all the case then I need to go to him right now." Said Thor. "He might die at any moment and I don't know if I would ever forgive myself."

"Yeah, let's get going." Said Jane as she feels a sense of relief for everyone and for Darcy and Thor. They are about to leave the room and about to put an end to all of this.

"I'm sorry, for everything." Said Nebula out loud. "I never wanted to hurt him, it was all my fault that he is now like this..."

"Nebula, Thanos was-" starts Gamora who is trying to give her sister some reassurance.

"Well to be fair, it kinda is." Interrupted Rocket. "She did work for him and help him get all of the stones and his plans in universal anilation."

"I am Groot." Said Groot not helping matters.

"Rocket." Called out Gamora in annoyed tone.

"They're right, it did lead things to this point and that's not all..." said Nebula. "He was going to use the stone on me... But Loki pushed me out of the way and he didn't hesitate to take Loki's soul and was pleased with himself. Loki was ready to sacrifice himself to save me and... My point being that he wouldn't be like this if it weren't for me, if I wasn't in the way and he tried to take my Soul."

The room reaches a silence as they process the story that they just heard and stops to think about what they just heard. How Loki tried to save Nebula and any doubts of him not being fully redeemed are now gone. That for once Natasha, Steve and Tony are starting to see Loki in a different light and that he is not just as someone who was forced to work for Thanos or simply just Thor's brother. They are seeing that he is someone who has been far from the villain that they fought against. The guardians are all quiet at that not even knowing what to say, while Gamora is mostly quiet as she stops to face the truth, how Loki was willing to give himself up for Nebula and in a way for her, she starts to see that he not only cares about both her and Nebula but he has given them a second chance and wonders how things are going to end up from there. With the relief that Thanos is now gone forever, Gamora knows that she has to repay the favor somehow and is ready to do anything she can to help or do anything that might repay him.

Jane can't help but be surprised that Loki did that and yet wish that he didn't, since she doesn't know what to think, especially with after everything Nebula did. But still she did help defeat Thanos and judging from everything that has happened, she knows that if Loki found the light and find his own path to redemption, maybe this is the start of Nebula's journey and she find her path as well. That is if Nebula is ready and really wants it, but she knows that at this point that anything is possible and hopes that she would

While Thor on the other hand, knows how it feels to fail someone and aside from the trouble, he sees that Nebula feels some remorse and how the pain from Thanos has carved out Nebula and who she became and who she is slowly becoming after she decided to go against Thanos. At this moment, he doesn't see her as someone who is Thanos's partner in crime who is desperate to win and to beat her sister. He sees Nebula as someone who wanted nothing more than to escape the pain that she had to endure and to somehow escape from Thanos and have the freedom to live her own life. That alone is what allows him to see past her role in what Thanos has done recently and allow him to be a little more open minded towards her and willing to give Nebula a chance.

"It wasn't your fault, I am not going to hold Thanos's actions against you." said Thor to Nebula. "Family can be complicated to say the least and you started to make up for it when you chose to help us. Maybe you're not so bad and can move past your pain."

"Maybe..." said Nebula as she feels some relief that no one is holding anything against, though it is going to take some time to get used to this environment and feel like she can trust anyone from this group.

"Now if all of you excuse me, right now I have to save my brother and I can't lose another second." said Thor as he starts to race towards to the med bay.

Jane decides to follow Thor, in case anything happens and can't believe her luck and how things might have a quick turn around and Loki will survive after all. Gamora is about to get up, but something is stopping her and that is Nebula's well being. She has the feeling that she should be there in case of anything, in case they might need the other stones or at least someone who has some knowledge of the stones or at least be able to help in some way. But she knows that she can't just leave Nebula, aside from the potential war that she would find and end all of the shouting matches. There is also the fact that she has left Nebula behind for far too long and she doesn't want to make her feel if she is going back on her word and possibly create a rift between them. She doesn't know what would be the best option for her or how can she be in both places that she might possibly be needed.

Nebula manages to see through her sister and realizes the current situation that her sister is now facing, knowing that her sister debating whether or not she should go and see if they need any help or stay here to be with her. As much as she is happy to finally get the affection that she yearned for and seeing that Gamora is here, being the sister that she always wanted her to be, Nebula knows that one of them should be in there, offering their knowledge of the Infinity Stones and to help in anyway she can and Gamora is the only candidate that would fill that role and right now this is their chance, her chance to make things right with Loki and in hopes that it would save him. She is not going let Thanos have a final victory and is going to return the favor.

"Go." said Nebula simply.

"What?" said a confused Gamora who is confused in what Nebula is saying.

"Go to the med room... They are going to need all of the help they can get, they are going to need someone who knows about the Stones." said Nebula.

"I can't just get up and leave, you need me and-" starts Gamora trying to stand by her vow and hoping that Nebula would see what she is trying to do.

"Gamora, I will be fine for an hour and besides I had worser experiences than this. Loki's life is hanging on the balance and they are going to need one of us in case they might need the other stones or to know how the Soul Stone works." Said Nebula. "Since I can't walk and by the time I would get there, I can't even imagine what kind of chaos I would find an hour later. It has to be you, I know that out of the two of us you are the only one that can go over and help, if you don't then it might be harder on them. Besides it's not like you are leaving me completely alone, I will be surrounded by your friends and these Revengers."

"We're called the Avengers, we go out and fight the battles that no one could, not plan revenge." said Natasha trying to clarify that detail.

"You're team is called the Avengers and you all don't believe in revenge?" said Nebula in a tone of disbelief.

"It's just a name, not an angry rock group that goes around to beat up anyone that does us wrong or give us a hard time." said Tony adding on to argument.

"Well the name tells me a different story." said Nebula rolling her eyes at that part.

"Would you really be alright here, with the others?" asked Gamora rather nervously, not even sure if this is a good idea.

"I'll be fine, Loki and the others needs you more than I do." said Nebula. "Besides it might be nice to have a break from you."

"Ok, now that's harsh." said Quill feeling a little protective of Gamora at that moment and how she is doing everything to help her sister.

"It was just a joke, can't anyone make jokes around here?" said an annoyed Nebula as she glares at him, before earning only a few awkward giggles from some of the others and a annoyed sigh from Gamora who quickly turns to the others.

"Would it be alright with you guys if I left her with you guys?" asked Gamora. "Nebula is right, they are going to need someone who has some knowledge of the stones in the room. I want to go there, in case of anything but I need to make sure if it's ok with everyone first."

"I think it would be alright with me, since we all would be in here to make sure that everything is alright and Nebula is still doing alright." said Steve

With only Natasha and Tony exchanging an unsure glance to one another, not knowing if this is a good idea to leave Nebula alone with them, while Drax suddenly hopes that she's not any different from Gamora. Wondering if they are even ready for the task, since the only one that truly knows Nebula on this ship is Gamora and Loki, both of them are unavailable at the moment.

"I am Groot." Said Groot who is trying to see if he can get through the doors this time and goes over to where Nebula sitting and sits next to her on the counter, showing everyone that he's alright with her.

"Well she did save our butts then we, or rather I at least owe it to her." Said Rocket as he starts to accepts Nebula.

"Peter, do you think you can keep an eye on her and let me know if anything happens?" Asked Gamora, hoping that he would be alright with this and at least have one person that she can trust and see how she feels about the situation as she lets her guard down for a brief moment to handle it.

"Yeah, sure, no problem." Said Quill who doesn't know what to think of Nebula, but willing to do it for Gamora. "I mean how hard can it be? It's just your sister, who happens to hate you and the very person that probably wanted to kill you and us a ton of times just because we are your friends."

"Alright then, with that settled then I thank you all for your help and let me know if anything happens." Said Gamora before turning to Nebula. "Are you sure that you would be alright?"

"Yes, I will be fine." Said Nebula. "What's there to worry about aside from me falling off this chair?"

"Maybe your concussion causes you some complications that hasn't happened yet or when I come back I find everyone having shouting matches with you either arguing with them or I get a couple of complaints about how you have everyone a hard time." Said Gamora pointing out one of the most obvious outcomes that might happen if she leaves her alone for five minutes.

"It's not going to go that far, besides what would I gain from that?" Said Nebula: "Right now, Loki needs you more than I do. Just go and be there, we don't know what trouble they are going to deal with and you are the only one that you can help. Just go."

"Nebula, I-" starts Gamora who sees her point and knows that she has to go, but at the same time she can't just leave without saying a couple of words. "You're right, just don't try anything while I am not in the room and don't start a fight."

"Even if I wanted to, I can't." Said Nebula as she stares at Gamora annoyed. "Just go before someone dies."

"You better not make me regret this." Said Gamora giving a sigh as she glances at the others who some are alright with this, but others are unsure.

Gamora got up and is about to start to make her way to the med room, ready to see if she needs any help. Before she leaves, she quickly takes a glance back and notices that Groot was about to try to see if he can jump into her coat's pocket. But he was quickly caught by Nebula and place Groot on the ground with Rocket crossing his arms, clearly getting annoyed and going to keep a tighter eye on the sappling.

"I am Groot." Said Groot rather happily before earning a sigh from Rocket.

Gamora can't help but laugh a little bit from that attempt, she has to admit that it is a good idea and one that might have worked. That is if Nebula and Rocket didn't catch the sappling in time. No one needs to be a deep thinker to know that the sappling will be trying to be in the same room as Loki more once he is well, though she doesn't know if he would be flattered at the lengths that Groot has taken to see him right now or be a little annoyed at the attempts, but not too annoyed of the sentiment that he would be alright angry at the sappling, he always did have a soft spot for kids.

She leaves the room, heading towards the hallway to back to the med bay. Ready to see this through to the end and to help in anyway she can. Part of her just hopes by the time that she gets there, Loki would be alright and she would have gone there for nothing. That way things would be alright and they don't have to worry about Loki and he would start to heal. But they all still have a long way to go and they still need to resolve some of the problems that they still have to deal with. But right now, the main focus is to save Loki, protect the stones and make sure that everything does work out. Since now they are all free to live their lives without ever having to worry about Thanos again, Loki should have a chance to live in that world where he's free and Thanos is no longer a problem. That maybe things will make a turn around and Loki will survive this, but even then he has a better chance with the Soul Stone now in their procession and they can just give it back to him, they need to hurry and she wonders what might be going on in there and what they might find when they arrive. If Loki can still be saved that is...

---

Meanwhile back in the Med room

Darcy and Bruce is now starting to run out of ideas, as they tried everything they could think of in order to try to improve Loki's condition, as his fever reaches 106 degrees and to somehow work out some kind of miracle. But every time they either try something or came up with some clever idea, it always seems to have failed in some way by either not showing any signs of improvement or Loki just simply subconsciously rejects it through him reacting in a way that results in them needing to take turns in cleaning up any mess. So far they are not having any luck and they both can agree that they need Thor right now. They are trying everything, but so far nothing seems to working and that alone is adding more stress that either of them want at the moment.

"Ugh, after this I am never going to complain about having any big science thing like being stranded with Jane to see some cosmic reading or something that might be related to Asgard after Thor left Earth the first time and all nighters studying the frequencies in order to share her findings again." said Darcy. "Is doing stuff like this always this difficult?"

"Well, to be honest this makes any case I had to deal with look easy and I don't even know what else we can do." said Bruce. "Every single time that either one of us think of something, it doesn't seem to work or if we find ourselves failing in some way."

"Yeah, I don't even think any of our ideas seem to be working. I don't know if it's because Loki is not exactly a human or he's at the blink of..." starts Darcy before becoming more determined. "There has to be something more that we can do or figure out a way to contact Thor, he needs to know what's going on and we should try to find a way to get in that world to help him fight off whatever he's fighting off right now."

"I don't think we can do anything without it, unless we can figure out how to buy ourselves more time without bringing in some kind of consequence in the end." said Bruce. "That or we would be going in a huge circle that we don't even know what we are doing and we'll eventually be back where we started."

"Yeah, from the way Loki makes it sound, it seems like playing around with time seems to be a big risk." said Darcy before giving a frustrated sigh and quickly takes a look at Loki who is breathing rather slower than two minutes ago. "I just wish that this is over soon and that I don't know, Thor magically comes back into this room and has the Soul Stone with him, ready to save the day."

At that moment, Thor comes rushing in with Jane following him catching both Bruce and Darcy by surprise. Both of them feels a sense of relief as they see him with the guantlet with two stones at hand. He quickly enters the room and is clearly not happy with the sight right in front of him, how Loki is doing and the time that he has spent with the lack of a soul and how he was close on losing his life and to meet his life in a tragic end and one that would hurt anyone who cares about him on the ship. Thor wishes that this is nothing more than an illusion and one that Loki would pop out of nowhere to reveal that he's alright. How many times is he going to see Loki being on the blink of death? But this time, it's going to be different and he has the Soul Stone and Loki is going to get what his soul and they will start anew and move forwards together as brothers.

"Thor, am I ever glad to see you!" said Darcy not even bothering to hide her excitement and relief. "You got the Soul Stone and beat Thanos in an epic showdown!"

"I wouldn't say that it was Thanos or the fight was 'epic'..." said Thor as he enters the room and is heading right towards Loki.

"Well, it's great to see you and you're alright." said Darcy happy to see her friend. "Yeah, he's not doing so great and I think if anything he's getting worse than better, now that you're here with the Soul stone, then this will give things a great turn around and Loki will survive this after all."

"I just only wish that I came here sooner." said Thor as he is about to approach the bed and doesn't know what to say as he stares at Loki's unconscious state.

"You're here now, that's all that matters and now you can save him." said Jane placing a hand on him. "Then you two can start anew and never have to worry about anything splitting you guys up again."

"Yeah, as long as you go on ahead and work some of that Infinity Stone magic." said Darcy slowly getting up to give Thor the chair. "So are you going to do it or are you just going to stand there and be gloomy until one of us have to do it?"

"Right, I just hope that I get it right." said Thor as he sits down on the chair, and places the gauntlet on to the bed and is about to lift the gauntlet to place the Soul Stone right on Loki's chest.

"You do know how to use the stones don't you?" asked Bruce who wants to make sure that he knows what they are doing before they get it wrong.

"I have an idea, though I wish that I paid better attention when we went over the Soul Stone and it's capabilities." said Thor. "Loki was always the one who paid attentively during lectures and did better on exams than I ever did, from what I remember, all I have to do is to place the gauntlet on him while the Soul Stone makes contact. I just hope that I am right."

With the feelings of optimism growing in the room, Thor places the Guantlet with the Soul Stone right on Loki's chest. They waited for at any moment for the stone to glow, returning Loki's soul and hopefully leads to him waking up after it's done. But so far, there's nothing, no glow or any indication that Loki's soul is getting anywhere close on returning. Thor is feeling a sense of panic as he tries to see if he is doing it right and quickly tested the Soul Stone on an a fly that also stowed away, to see if it's real and it worked. He tries harder to see if he can find a way to try hard enough and hopes that it wasn't too late.

"Is this suppose to happen? Wasn't when Thanos took Loki's soul, a lot faster than this?" Asked Darcy the most obvious questions on her mind. "Does it usually happen that fast or when returning souls need a couple of minutes to take affect?"

"No, it's usually faster than this and I know that it has more of an immediate-" starts Thor as he is about to explain what he knows about the stones.

"Hey, I don't mean to intrude, but Nebula and I figured that it might be a good idea to have someone who has some knowledge of the Infinity Stones here. In case-" starts Gamora coming in before stopping herself as she sees the situation before her. "What's going on?"

"I don't know, I tried to give Loki his soul back." Starts Thor who is now feeling a sense of panic. "I did everything I was supposed to, I don't know if I-"

"Mother, you can't leave me... not again..." said Loki catching both Gamora and Thor by surprise.

"He has also been asking for you earlier and now asking for your mom." Explained Darcy. "He has been having nothing but nightmares after he-"

"No, this is not a good sign, it can't be anything good because of..." said Thor as he sees the overall affect of Nightmare and his actions. "Banner, how is he doing? Is he still..?"

"Many things are starting to shut down." Said Bruce. "I think... that he is starting to lose his strength to fight and to live."

"Mother... if you can't stay..." said Loki as he tries say what he is trying to say as he seems to be weaker than before. "Then let me... go with you..."

"He better not be going into the light..." said Darcy as she realize what's going on and really hopes that she's wrong and that it's just her maybe overreacting, before any of them can say anything, they just hear a loud beep, one that anyone would hear in a medical drama where the worst possible outcome occurs.

"What? No, this can't be happening, not again..." said Thor. "I have gotten the stone back, placed it right on him... He should wake up, not..."

"No, there's no way that... It can't end this way, there has to be..." starts Darcy as she sees the situation, quickly grabbing Loki's hand to see if it would squeeze back, but it doesn't and despite that she is not going to give up without a fight. "Wait, there is a way. A way we can save him and it's the wish."

"The what?" asked both Jane and Bruce at the same time.

"A wish, Loki told me about it, that's if one has all of the stones together on the gauntlet then we can have a wish, something that we really want." said Darcy as she faces the group. "We should use it, that might be our last hope and I still don't know about all of the details of it, but Loki made one thing clear that it's really powerful."

"He was right, according to Thanos, he said that the gauntlet can be used to give us what our hearts' turly desire." said Gamora. "It can also be dangerous, especially if we wish for something that can change the universe like Thanos did, but I think that it could work without some universal catastrophe in the balance that we would later have to pay the price."

"It will work, it has to..." said Darcy rather determinedly and yet sadly look at the brothers, how they are about to be separated with no hopes that Loki would come back.

"It needs to work, I already thought him dead and regretted every moment that I didn't have a chance to be there for him, to try to make amends and save him from the Dark Elves." said Thor. "If I allow this to happen, let him die when I know I could save him."

"Alright, here are the Infinity Stones and I think that you would have to place the guantlet right on him and just try hard to wish it." said Gamora as she grabs each of the stones from her pockets and place them all on the bed side table. "I don't think that his soul would be too far gone, there might still be a chance."

"Ok, then who's going to make this wish?" asked Jane who can't help but wonder out loud which one between Thor and Darcy will make that wish since right now it's clear that seeing Loki live is what the two want the most.

"Thor needs to do it." said Darcy rather quickly. "Right now, judging from what he was saying, he needs his brother now more than he needs me. Though I am definitely will be there, if he needs a friend or me in general. But I think that you guys have a bond that is so desperate to heal that it might work and he needs to know that you are there and you care. Plus you also called dibs on the Guantlet and have it on, so that's also another reason and are we really going to spend time discussing it?"

At that moment, Thor grabs each one of the remaining Infinity Stones and placed them all on the guantlet and then place it right on Loki's chest. Thinking hard on what he wants the most at the moment and how he hopes that this would be the moment where the stones would glow and Loki would wake up. But so far there is nothing and everyone in the room is surprised by the lack of any sign of the gauntlet using it's powers to somehow bring Loki back. Darcy is trying hard to process the reality right before her and just hopes that this is nothing more than a bad dream, Loki can't be dead or even close to it. He's tougher than that, he would never give Thanos anything close to sastification to some kind of victory and she stops to think about her own feelings towards him and how he would never know them. Even then, it doesn't matter to her if Loki does know but she just wants him to be alright and happy, that they would continue to hang out and that he would live a life free and have the ability to chose what he wants to do next. She can't imagine living in a world without him, let alone the apartment they shared that is full of memories and just wishes that he wakes up now.

While Jane and Gamora exchange a nervous look, they both can tell that the situation is not looking good and this is one of the many times that Thanos did something unforgivable and this pain will never fade away. Gamora feels a sense of guilt as she sees one of the first friends that she ever had being like this, wishing that she had done more to stop Thanos or find a way for him to escape before the attack on Earth. Why didn't she have gotten the courage that she needed and got up and get Loki and Nebula out back then when she had the chance? She doesn't even know how she is going to tell Nebula or how she would take the news, she can see the pain that Darcy and Thor are going through, she knows what it's like to lose someone like this...

Jane is feeling saddened by what happened to Loki and wishes that she can do something to help, that she can his friend and he would live. She realizes that this is harder than the last time simply because of the fact that she has gotten to know Loki and saw the person that he is. She can see why Thor cared about Loki and how Darcy found it in her to befriend him, she wishes that there is something she can do. Jane can already see how much loosing Loki would hurt both Thor and Darcy, seeing the close friendship that Darcy and Loki had and how they have been through many things in the past two months and how they were there for each other. Though she at times notices that the two of them at times act more than just friends but they just try to hide anything in between, but the only ones that they succeeded in doing so to each other.

She also stares at Thor, remembering the time when he was grieving Loki, after he faked his death in the Dark World and how hard it was for him to get through it, blaming himself for it and wishing that he didn't ask Loki for help. Now she can't help but imagine what pain Thor is going through as he has to go through this again and this time, there is no hope for Loki to somehow come back. Especially knowing the length that Thor went to save him and feeling as though as he failed in doing the very thing that he literally went to another dimension and fought who knows what to make sure that he get the stone back. She knows that after this, it's going to take a while for him to recover from this blow. Especially when he just got Loki back and knowing that he sacrificed himself to save the universe, that if he only tried harder to save him or if he only knew. She doesn't even know how to comfort him or if she could ever find the words to give it to him.

Bruce just watches the scene, he may not have known Loki beyond anything from recent events, when he was Mysto and what he has seen of him when Thanos sent him to take over the planet and even then from the sight is anything but pleasant. That they all lost three Avengers due to Thanos, he knows that Loki is not officially an Avenger, but he is close enough and just did save the universe and did everything that the Avengers believes in. That this is causing misery in the room that none of them could anticipate, he does feel like that he failed in slowing down the inevitable and that this is going to be a complicated situation, he doesn't even know how are they going to explain everything on Earth. But that alone is the least of their worries as Thor is going to be the one that is going to be the most hurt and he can't even imagine how it would affect everyone else that got the chance to know him, taking another look at the guantlet, nothing seems to be glowing.

"Doesn't the gauntlet usually let out some kind of glow that usually mean someone is using the power of the Infinity Stones?" Said Darcy. "Is it working or does... it need a couple more minutes to get started?"

"No, it should have happened by now, the wish should have been granted and if it doesn't then..." said Gamora starting to realize the situation and started to become somber. "He's gone..."

"What? No it can't end this way, Loki can't be... There is no way that he's..." starts Darcy as she faces the truth right in front of her. "But how... he was fine a couple of minutes ago... Well as fine as some one who is sick and unconscious... But he never showed any signs of... It should be back, he should be back..."

"The Soul Stone exists to take souls, once it does and if no one gives the soul back in time. Then they will perish faster with no hope of return." Said Gamora. "I don't know or think that it's possible for anyone to retrieve or reconstruct a soul, once it's been removed and perish."

"So that's it then?" Said Darcy who is now hoping that at any moment Gamora would be proven wrong or say something that would give them some hope, but all she got was a nod from her. "No..."

"Darcy..." starts Jane trying to hold back her own emotions as she wants to give some comfort to her friend, but she can't find the words to say it and quickly turns to Thor as he stayed quiet and stares hopelessly to his brother, not even bothering to hide how he is feeling. "Thor... Are you okay? Do you want to talk?"

"No... I can't talk about it..." said Thor as he tries to say the words that he is trying to keep in and yet failing to say them.

"Thor, I'm sorry that I couldn't have done more to save him." Said Bruce. "I know how much he meant to you."

"You did everything you could..." said Thor understanding and wishing the outcome was different.

"I'm sorry, for my part in this..." said Gamora as she stares guiltily at the two brothers. "I wish I made my realization about Thanos sooner... That I manage to get him out before the attack or talk him into telling you about Thanos sooner, I fail-"

"Gamora, none of this was your fault, Thanos had intense security measures and would have you and Loki pay severely for any attempt on escaping." Said Thor. "I don't hold any of this against you or Nebula, the only one to blame is Thanos and I don't know if I can ever forgive him for this..."

"Thor, if you ever need anything, the Guardians of the Galaxy will be ready to provide it." Said Gamora. "We saw Loki as one of us and we didn't want any of this to happen. The offer also stands for Jane, Darcy and any of your friends that might need anything..."

"Thank you, but right now I need to... be alone with him." Said Thor as he sees Loki lying right in front of him.

"Of course." Said Gamora understanding the situation and seeing the upset in his voice.

"Yeah, I think, that is if you are sure that you want to be alone." Said Bruce. "You don't have to be alone and-"

"I know but I want to be alone, for a little while." Said Thor. "So I can be with him and maybe even say goodbye..."

"Do you really want to be alone?" Asked Jane wanting to be there for her boyfriend and wishing that there is something she can do to help.

"I need to be alone with him and I want to be here, with just him like before." Said Thor as he feels the wave of lost hit him.

"Alright, I will be there if you need anything alright?" Said Jane as she pats Thor on the back and is about to leave the room with the others, wanting nothing more than to be there for him.

"Uh... Thor, I need to tell you something, Loki told me to tell you this in case..." said Darcy stopping herself from saying the last part, Thor makes no reaction and simply turns to stare at Darcy as she takes a breath to continue. "He wanted me to tell you that... He wanted to say goodbye and he's grateful that you went through all of whatever you went through in the dream dimension for him... He knows that you tried your best and... he wished that you guys could have had more time to rebuild your brotherly friendship and he's sorry that he hurt you..."

"Thank you for being there for him and for being his friend." Said Thor as he looks at her before turning back to his brother. "I'm sure that he was happy to have you here, before he... If only I could have done more... It wasn't enough and..."

"But..." starts Darcy before Jane just place her hand on her shoulder, knowing that it was time to go.

The four of them, leaves the room with a sense of regret that they couldn't have done more. That there is a sense of grief that hits deeper than Vision and Pietro, since they now have the one thing that could have saved him and failed in doing so. Darcy takes one look of the current situation that is right before her, wanting to see some form of Loki if it's one last time and just turns away feeling the pain of losing him. Jane wanting nothing more to stay to be a comfort for Thor and to get through the sadness of losing Loki, a friendship that barely have a chance to take off. She just hopes that she can be there for both Darcy and Thor as they get through this.

While Gamora now even more angry at Thanos than ever before, seeing that he nearly killed Nebula and succeeded in doing so with Loki, she doesn't even know what to say or how she is going to tell the rest of the team and Nebula what happened. Whenever Thanos dares to try to hurt others or if they die, at first she never cared and it didn't bother her. But if it wasn't for going on that mission and later seeing what Thanos was doing to Loki after he put her in charge of his training and the time that they spent bonding is what shown her who Thanos truly is and helped set her free. Now she knows how it feels to be on the other side, she wishes that she could have done more and knew a way to save him, the friend that she and Nebula sees as a brother at this point. The one that didn't deserve to meet his end, same goes for all of Thanos's other victims...

Once the four of them leaves the room, then all of the emotions start to set in, Thor sees how his brother is lying there and not showing any signs of life. He would give anything to see him pop out of nowhere laughing at him. But he knows that he is now too late and feel as though that Thanos won, even if he didn't succeed with his goals for the Infinity Stones, he still managed to take Loki's life. He is asking himself, why didn't he do more to protect him? Why didn't he realize the truth the moment that he felt a connection to Mysto? The moment where he started to remind him as Loki and then when Thanos coming in saying that Mysto is Loki, why didn't he try to piece it and see that there is a reason why they are so similar? He wishes that there was a way to reverse this and to bring his brother back, to save him and be there for him when he needed him most.

In a way, he is as much to blame as Thanos for what happened and here he was telling himself that he would be a better brother and do everything in his power to save Loki. Now he feels like that he has not only failed Loki, but he also hurt him in more ways than one and would do anything to reverse it, even with all of the power of the Infinity Stones in his grasp, it wasn't enough and it would never be enough. He just wishes that there is a way and he could find it, but judging from everything that Gamora said, there is no hope and if the healers from Asgard can't even save Hiemdell with their magic what makes him think that this would be any different? At least he saw Loki change for the better and was able to be his brother for a little while, he just wish that he didn't have to say goodbye to him. That there would be a happy ending and that things would have worked out, now all he can do is face the reality right before him.

"We have been through many scrapes before huh brother?" said Thor as he looks at his brother, trying to remain strong but is failing in every way. "Out of all of the days you chose to save the universe, it had to be today and it had to be this way. I wish it didn't have to come to this or that you didn't have to go through all of this, that I could have protected you better or it was me instead."

Thor continues to stare at Loki, hoping for some kind of reaction and so far he hasn't received any despite the knowledge that Loki wouldn't know and it was simply wishful thinking that is clouding his judgement. He knows that this is pointless, unless the last time, he knows that Loki might not be able to hear him or that some miracle could happen. But he is loosing all of the hope that something would happen and Loki would wake him up and survive what happened, he just needs to get everything off his chest and say what he needs to say if this is the last time that he and Loki can truly be together and this is the final moment that they can still be brothers. But little does Thor knows or even bothers to notice the guantlet, that he still hasn't taken off or even care about it still being on Loki's chest, since right now nothing else matters to him and he would be more than happy to destroy the Soul Stone if there weren't any lost souls that is entrapped there. The Mind Stone starts to flicker a little bit...

"I'm sorry that I couldn't save you and I couldn't protected you from him. Whatever you saw in those visions that those nightmares created, they are not true and whatever you think I said or did, I would never say or do them. They were nothing more than lies that were created by someone who wants to destroy any chance of happiness. You said that it would have been better to leave you behind and that you didn't matter, but you are wrong about that in so many ways. You matter to the ones that care about you, I have seen how much you have grown in past few months, how over time you have become a better person, that you chose to fight for something greater than yourself and make amends for what you did in the past, you cared about others beyond yourself looking at your friendships with Darcy, Jane and the Guardians, how you were willing to save us from Thanos, protect Jane and sacrificed yourself to save Nebula and put a stop to Thanos." said Thor trying to find the words that are hard to come out. "What I am trying to say is that I am proud of you and you matter to all of us, you matter to me... I wish that I have tried harder to get you back, if I knew that you weren't too far gone then... You can't leave, not after I just got you back and you have you're entire life ahead of you, you can't be done..."

The glow of the Mind Stone starts to glow brighter by the minute and it seems to be doing something that might be helping the situation. Soon the Space Stone, the Time stone and Reality Stone starts to unleash a glow that is about the strength of the Mind Stone. It seems like the Infinity Stones are trying to do something, but the question is what? Even then Thor doesn't even take the time to notice or care, he doesn't keep his eyes off Loki and wouldn't care less of what happens as he faces Loki in a state where he'll never wake up from. Eventually the Power Stone starts to glow and the power of the stones seems to be doing something so mysterious that it is activating on it's own without Thor's will and it seems like that it is doing something that no one has ever expected or even know that the gauntlet can do.

"I have never told you how much you meant to me have I? You are the smartest, strongest, bravest person that I will ever know and after everything that I have heard and seen, how you survived a year imprisioned with Thanos, dared to stand up against him and was able to come up with all of those plans and at the same time start to develop the kindness that I saw you have whenever you are with Darcy, how you were able to befriend Gamora and Nebula, even was willing to give up your life for Nebula, even after all she has done. You have found your way back, you went beyond anyone expected and redeemed yourself." said Thor as he stops himself, wanting nothing more to break down at the thought that Loki is now gone. "Even before all of this, I have always enjoyed the time that we had together before my banishment and after what happened in the Dark World, even if you were Mysto, even then I prefer it when you were not wearing the mask after I found out that you were him. I thought of the world of you and never would have thought that all of this would happen, that I might lose you..."

The stones are still glowing, as much if not more than before and the stones are doing something and it seems to aiming it's power to a lifeless Loki. But there is only one stone that still has yet to start the giving it's glow and that's the Soul Stone and it's barely even started to flicker. Waiting for the right moment for it to start and the reason for it to activate as the others are simply giving the brightest glow, even more brighter than it has ever been, more brighter than when Thanos was using them. That the stones are starting and they are ready to do something. But it is only waiting for the Soul Stone to activate, as it was happening Thor doesn't even know if there is anything else to say or if he can say it, but part of him feels like that he needs to say it and will say it.

"Please stay, I can't imagine my life without you and can't lose you again, you deserve to live as much as everyone in this universe. I was upset for two years when you were going down a path where you were following poisonous desires and it doesn't help that I thought you dead for one of them, you were at your worst in one of them because of Thanos and you were put in a prison cell in the other. I was at a lost for the past two months, blaming myself wishing that there was some other way. I can't imagine feeling the pain, grief and guilt for the rest of my life." Said Thor. "Loki, I never thought of you any less during that time and still saw and see you as my brother. The one that stood by my side and I grew up with, the one that was lost and needed the courage to see the error of his ways and to find his way back. I'm sorry if I ever wronged you and made you feel that you couldn't trust me to tell me about Thanos earlier or at least let me know that you were alright. I love you, I always have and always will, I am not ready to let you go. Please stay and come back, I'll try to be the brother you deserve and will do better. Come back and please stay..."

At that moment, all of the emotions that Thor is now feeling just took over and he completely broke down. Putting his head down right on the bed, keeping it close to Loki and yet not right on him. But finds himself, getting close to Loki until he reaches Loki's stomach and kept the hand with the Guantlet right on his chest, Thor just buried his head and sobbed. Feeling worse than how he was in the Dark World where Loki died on Jane's and his behalf, at the start of his journey and no where close to who he is now. But now after getting his brother back, seeing everything that has happened and with the promise that they will have a bright future. Thor would remain on Earth, be with Jane, have Loki and his friends by his side and they will never have to deal with Thanos again. But now Loki is gone and... he failed him and this time he can't fix this or find another way. He would give anything to reverse this and find a way to save Loki, he'd do anything for him and all he knows that he... just wants his brother back...

The Soul Stone starts glowing a bright glow where it dominates the glow of the other Infinity Stones. Soon that glow starts to shine brighter, with the other five Infinity Stones getting more and brighter. The glow is illuminating the room as though a burst of magic and light decided to empower it. The warm glow is bringing a sense of hope and light that is aiming it right towards Loki, that it seems to be glowing right through the room with no hopes that it would stop and yet it seems to be doing something that might give one the hope that things might work out and the power of the Infinity Stones are shining through, as it's power is going to do something that will allow many to have one more chance. The chance for things to start anew and for a new beginning to happen.

Soon the Infinity Stones start to all start to transition back to it's usual glow and seems to be completing the job that it has set out to do and one by one it slowly starts to return back to it's usual glow. The first one to go back to it's usual is the Mind stone, followed by the Space, Time, Reality and Power Stones. The Soul Stone is the one that is the last one to remain glowing and even then the power of the Stones are about to give a gift that would change the course of the outcome that is right before them. The fate that no one wanted and yet it is standing right before them... or is it?

The moment is silent and yet what about to happen next is going to be... truly amazing and yet impossible. Loki's chest starts to slowly rise and up and down as he is slowly starting to breathe and his hand starts to move as he was trying to see if he can feel a touch that he has been hoping that it would still be there and to realize that it's empty. While at the same time, feels something on him and he allows his other hand to see what it might be, he can only reach Thor's hand and to see if he can provide some comfort as his hand feels the familiar feeling of his brother's touch.

That feel catches Thor's attention as he got up and sees that Loki is breathing and that is giving the hope that he never thought that it would be possible and the hope that he never thought that it would happen. He watches as it looks like Loki is waking up from some kind of slumber, a nap that he wouldn't wake up from but he is and Thor got up hoping that it's happening and that he is not dreaming any of this. He sees that Loki just gives a little cough and give a little mumble that almost sounded like 'I love you too' and yet it is hard to make it out. Loki's eye lids starts to flutter a little bit and the machinery starts to activate once again as it starts to indicate life and that everything is starting to fall into place. All of parts that shut down is starting work again and every indication that Loki might be alive is starting to show and that alone is only making Thor's hope grow stronger until ultimately Loki finally opens his eyes, staring them right at Thor, with a silence surrounding both of them that neither one of them knew what to say, that is until...

"Thor..." starts Loki rather weakly and yet stops himself as he tries to figure out what to say and yet deep down feels a sense of sastification and relief that Thor is there and that the entire ordeal is over.

"Loki..." said Thor happily as he sees that his brother awake and that he's alive, that no word could describe his happiness and relief.

"Brother, we really need to stop going through these near-death exspirences." said Loki as he's trying to sit up and yet having some difficulty from feeling the pain of nearly losing his soul in the first place. "I am starting to lose count how many times I have almost died or you thought I died."

After a laugh from Thor, he quickly got up and quickly was ready to throw himself and hug Loki. That is before Loki placed a hand right in between them and Thor stops himself as he remembers that just because Loki is alive and awake now, it doesn't mean that he is completely healed or he would be up for it. So he calmly and rather gently starts to pull Loki into a hug and didn't even bother to hide his happiness on seeing his brother alive. While Loki on the other hand, he doesn't know what to make of Thor being so overly emotional and what is happening before him. Sure he probably took some kind of nap while he was talking to Darcy and Thor went to the dream dimension and possibly faced both Thanos and Nightmare, but he doesn't think that this would warrant this kind of reaction. Feeling a little awkward and yet a little touched by the reaction, he wants to say something and yet doesn't know how to break up this moment.

"You're back. You didn't... But how is it-" starts Thor before finally noticing the Soul Stone giving it's last seconds of glow before it's glow dies down, feeling a mix of relief, gratitude and happiness of the wish working.

"Thor, are you going to be so sentimental that you can't speak in a complete sentence or is there something else going on?" said Loki. "You are acting as though you have been through the most traumatizing experience in your life."

"You have no idea..." said Thor as he remembers everything he had to go through the past few hours going by the main dimension's time. "I almost lost you again and I got you back and-"

"Thor, what happened?" asked Loki. "All I know that I simply passed out and found you really upset, along with some of the pain being alleviated and... please don't tell me that Darcy went back on her promise and time traveled to bring me back..."

"She didn't... Do you remember what you saw? When you were asleep and anything that you might have seen?" asked Thor who is nervous of the idea that Loki remembers Nightmare's edit version of his life of his fight against the evil Loki.

"While I took my nap, I only heard something Darcy was saying before I fell into a deep slumber and only a little bit of what you were saying." said Loki. "Other than that everything was a blur, a painful blur that I don't even know what happened..."

"It's probably for the best..." said Thor as he is relieved that Loki can barely remember what happened. "They are probably nothing more than hallucinations..."

"Thor are you going to tell me what's going on or do I have to wait for someone else to come in and ask them?" asked Loki who's desires of knowing what happened.

"I don't know much, but while I was gone, they say you were really ill. From how you looked when I came, you were..." starts Thor who doesn't even know how to say the rest.

"Ill beyond belief that I look close to death?" asked Loki, which Thor just gives a careful nod. "Come on Thor, I couldn't have looked that bad could I?"

"You died just now." said Thor as he quickly turns away as Loki stares in shock.

"What?" said Loki who is processing the sentence that Thor just said in disbelief.

"It's alright, I wished you back with the gauntlet, that is I think I did, since the stones seem to have glowed or at least one of them did." said Thor. "But then again I was not paying that much attention to it, I was more focus on you. But that's the only explanation I could think of on how this was possible."

"It's nice to see you use your brain for once, but am I the only who is bothered by the fact that I literally just died?" said Loki who is still trying to process that revelation. "That you had to use... I just hope that I am not right about this wish not causing any sort of consequences that we would have to face later..."

"I doubt that it did and if does, then we will face them together." said Thor as he earns an unsure smile that later turns into one of reassurance.

There is a silence between the two brothers and the fact that they made it through this and that they are now facing a bright future. Thor is just happy and relieved that his brother is going to be alright and will live through this. That he actually did it, he saved his brother and got him back, Loki is going to stay and he's back and they will be able to start anew. That they will be free from the chains of the past and can live their lives freely. Without anyone or anything trying to tear them apart ever again. That Loki managed to find happiness again, change his ways and that he finally has him back on his side. That is more than enough for him and it will always will be.

While Loki is thinking about how he is now alive and that he survived all of this. Though he wonders what is going to happens now, are they completely done with Thanos or would they have to face a threat that is worse than anyone can ever imagine or anticipate? What is going to happen once they return to Earth, would he still have to pay the consequences of his past crimes? What is going to happen if Thor returns to Asgard, is he going to tell Odin of his survival and if so what would happen? Would he simply place him back in his cell so he would face the rest of his sentence or would Odin be more considerate of the fact that he just saved the entire universe? He doesn't even want to get started if The Avengers we're to confirm his identity and the consequences that it would bring for him. They would never accept him or believe any of them unless he can somehow prove to them that he is on their side, that everything they said truly happened and that he truly has changed. Not too mention the consequences it would bring to Darcy and everyone else involved such as Jane and Thor. For now he is just going to enjoy this moment, where he is at peace and is now finally free from Thanos. The future may be uncertain, but he knows that at least now he did it and actually stopped Thanos. He actually did the impossible with the others by his side of course. For now, he is just happy that this is over, aside from facing all of the problems that might be ahead of them, at least he can have a moment where he be happy that he has his brother by his side and have allies by his side and is now in a better place.

"I should go and tell everyone... that you are alive and awake..." said Thor as he is about to get up and before he can get up or get anywhere close to finish what he is about to say, Loki simply grabs a hold of Thor's hand and that stops him.

"Don't go, not yet. At least until, I fall asleep, I am feeling rather sleepy and I don't want to be alone in case..." said Loki who doesn't like the idea of him near dying or rather actually did and came back, not even sure how he feels about all of this and just wants to have Thor by his side not be by himself after everything that has happened.

"Of course, I'll stay." said Thor as he takes a good look at his brother and sees his needs and simply decides to be there for his brother.

Both of them, spend the time that they have together and rebuilding their relationship and from a distance without knowing any of the context, once could never guess that they were once against each other and that they were both in a place where they don't have any hope of finding any form of reconciliation or in Loki's case survival from Thanos. But here they are and the two of them are starting to repair the broken bond and to heal from the past two years. They speak for a couple more minutes and made the most of the time that they have together and the endless future that is right before them and the infinite amount of time that they have before them. Loki eventually falls asleep after feeling a sense of heat and exhaustion from his current condition, he even started to sweat a little bit once again, but feeling a sense of peace and simply rest, relieved that the war against Thanos is finally over and that he's finally free from him.

Once Loki does, Thor quickly checked the monitors and felt Loki's forehead out of concern and to much of his surprise he felt his fever coming back up and yet not as high as before and the machine doesn't seem to be giving any negative signs towards Loki. From one look, he sees that Loki is just simply asleep and feels a sense of relief from the sight that he is still breathing. Thor knows that he should leave and alert the others of Loki's survival, but part of him knows that he can't and wants to stay with Loki, to keep a vigil on him and make sure that he's alright and be there when Loki needs him. He sees this second chance as a gift and one that he will never take for granted and is happy that Loki is back, he knows that there is still some challenges they need to face and what he should do when it comes to their father...

He really would like to tell him and doesn't want to lie to him, but at the same time he does not want to cause any trouble for Loki and be indirectly responsible for his brother being stuck in a cell for his previous crimes or pay a worser consequence that might hurt him if Odin ever does find out and doesn't even know what happens if ever does happen. But he will worry about that later, right now he has a brother to look after and to enjoy every moment that this second chance has given him to be better for Loki. To be there for him and for them to start over and move past everything, he hopes that this is the start of a new begining between the two brothers and now he needs to tell everyone through his com link and finally be there for Loki. Be the brother that Loki deserves and help him heal from this entire ordeal, to finally be by his brother's side and for them to start anew.

---

Here it is chapter 50 part 2, it's finally here and Thor saved Loki, things are definitely heading towards the right direction.

You guys didn't think I was going to do it, did you? I mean there is no way I would ever end the story like that, let alone do it in general. Since first of all Loki's one of my favorite Marvel characters of all time, I'd never do that after all of the drama Infinity War brought with the character and secondly how am I going to do any follow ups and sequels with Redemption if he's gone? Though I kinda had this built up for a while and at least the emotional roller coaster ride is over for everyone, well at least for Thor and Loki. Don't worry everyone will find out what happened by the next chapter.

I really hope that you guys enjoyed this chapter and that the fiftieth chapter didn't disappointed you guys and exceeded your expectations as we are about to reach the final two chapters. That the next chapter will be more of a recovery chapter where we will see the characters heal and some plot points get resolve and then the final chapter will be the grand conclusion. I think the earliest I will be able to get the next chapter out is sometime by the end of March earliest and I will need some time to make the final two chapters the best that I can, that it would be worth the wait and will be really satisfying as I give the story that is worth waiting seven years. So there might be a delay, if there is then sorry about that, I just want these last two chapters to be perfect for the story and all of you, that's all.

Ok for Nightmare, ever since I have found out about him and I read about his character, I really wanted to include him in someway after I realize that he would be the perfect character who would not only be more powerful than Thanos and yet more dangerous. In ways, he is similar to Loki and is just as much of an intellect, but unlike Loki who is always ten steps ahead of everyone, Nightmare is 20 steps ahead of everyone with some kind of master plan. Since he knows everyone's worst fears and true desires, he is ready to use that against anyone that he might go up against. Thus making Thanos look like a five year old having a tantrum over not getting what he wants in comparison They (Loki and Nightmare) are kind of a foil of each other if one stops to think about it, something I would like to explore if I do a Redemption sequel.

Oh the time travel rules are a little different in the fanfic, since I developed them before Endgame came out and even then it would be impossible for the last two Avengers movies to play out in this storyline if things went the way the movies went. As for Ragnarok... I don't know, that's something to see if there's a Redemption 2 right?

There is also the thing I want to explain about why Darcy say Thor should use the guantlet and why didn't she get her moment like that, despite the bond that she and Loki shared. One of the things I wanted to focus on in the fanfic was Thor and Loki's relationship and this chapter is Thor's turn to try to save his brother, like how we saw Loki did in the beginning of the story before he started his redemption arc and the first fight against Thanos prior to the reveal. I got inspiration from Frozen, Tangled, Maleficent, Hercules and She-ra for this chapter and thought that the best way to show that bond, the moment where we see that nothing will ever tear them apart as they once were prior to Redemption is through the act of being willing to sacrifice themselves to save another. To see the journey of these characters went in this fanfic, how Thor is ready to do anything for Loki and how Loki went from doing things to his own benefit to being the hero that is ready to fight and defeat Thanos.

Ok, I imagine if it was Darcy, it would work but I think she knows how much it means for Thor to have Loki by his side and how much Loki wants to make amends and was willing to sacrifice himself in doing so. Despite her feelings, she would put Loki and their friendship first rather than have big moment on that scale and even then it would be too much. She values her friendships between both of them, though the one she's closest to is Loki obviously and she doesn't want to take a moment like this from them. Plus wouldn't it be too cliche if it was Darcy and how many times have we heard of that plot point far too many times already? But when I first started this story and was thinking about this chapter, I always knew that it was going to be Thor who will do it and thus giving the brothers the closure they needed to move forward. To look on to the future ahead and having a stronger bond than they had before the story first started, one that Thanos or anyone can destroy. :)

But anyway, I'm also going to focus on the rewrites of the first twenty seven chapters, I'm currently planning to get the next twelve out before we get to the next chapter and then before we reach the final chapter the next half. The prologue and the first three chapters are already uploaded and the fourth chapter is coming and these are not word for word remakes. There will be new scenes of the story and be an expansion, along with meeting up to the same quality of grammar and storytelling that the latest chapters has. So that way if any of us ever look back on it, then it will meet the same quality as the newer chapters.

I'm also thinking of possibly doing one-shot chapters for Redemption that takes place during the time skip and it can be anything like slice of life fics, Loki teaming up with the Avengers or just Thor and Loki as Mysto of course. teaming up (it can be a midquel story with multiple chapters), maybe even a Loki and Hiemdel team up (I still want to do it and would be happy to do it in a one shot) or maybe even Loki and Darcy's adventures of searching for the Infinity Stones. But it has to take place during the time skip and not be something that would add more to the main story that it would be necessary to read them. They are mostly would be stand alone stories that still in the Redemption canon and yet still be part of the story (think of it like a spin of series of a movie that the story takes place between the previous movie and the sequel like How to Train your Dragon (the first and second) or Tangled (for the movie and Ever After short) for example.) I'm open to any idea that you guys might have, just put a review or pm me with your ideas and I'll be happy to use your ideas to write them into one shots. (Maybe even a Guardians of the Galaxy prequel/midquel before Gamora got caught by Thanos or even one before she even met Loki or went through the events of the first Guardians of the Galaxy movie?)

Though I would be mostly doing Loki ones but I am open to the idea, but I was also thinking of having them to be more interconenctive than one may think, that it would be telling an overall story which would serve as a prequel, but at the same time they would be stand alone stories and within them, they will have a story arc that will lead into the rest of Redemption after the Age of Ultron arc. But the Gamora one is definitely going to be stand alone and I am open to doing more Redemption, but before I make any decisions I want to finish this story first before I get started on one shots or any sequels. Especially since the next two chapters and the rewrites are my top priority at the moment. :)

I can't believe that this story is almost done and we are getting close to the end and the story is coming to an end...

If you guys want to share a favorite moment or have any questions, you guys are so welcome to leave a review or pm me. I'd be happy to answer any questions and be happy to hear from you when it comes to anything you all may have to say. :)

Lastly, I want to say is that I am dedicating the Redemption fanfic to a good friend that has been there for me for the last couple of years. One that I will always appreciate that our friendship happend for the rest of my life. I am dedicating this story to Brigitta Pekelharing, a friend that helped me out of the darkness that I often take for granted. But I want to thank her for everything and helping me during the darkest time of my life, her friendship has made me grow into a better person and writer. I am always going to be grateful for the friendship that we shared and the impact that it made on me. In a way if it weren't for our friendship then there might not even be a Redemption because she got me into Marvel movies and helped me at the beginning of writting the fanfic. Thanks Brigitta for everything :)

How is everyone going to react with recent events? What will happen when they return to Earth? What will ultimately happen to Loki? Will he be able to live his life freely on Earth? Will he choose to leave with the Guardians of the Galaxy? What is the thing that Loki and Darcy wanted to say to one another before everything happened? Will they say it to one another or will those words be left unspoken? What will Thor decide to say to Odin? Will Odin find out about Loki at all? Will the Avengers agree to keep Loki a secret? See that he truly changed or will the feelings of the past cloud their judgement? Despite their choice then how are they going to explain any of this? What will Nebula choose to do with her newfound freedom? Will she heal from her injuries and start to let people in? Will Wanda get through her grief for her past loses? Are we going to see more bonding scenes with the Guardians, Loki, Nebula and Avengers before they all decide what to do next? What will the consequence will they have to face for Thor's wish? How will this story end?

I guess you guys have to wait until the next chapter to find out, to see the ending play out and how things will end for everyone. See ya in the next chapter. :)