A/N: FYI (in case you've gotten this far and this isn't completely obvious) this is now AU to everything in the Marvel universe after Captain America the Winter Soldier — and that includes Infinity War.

#

Thor sighed as he listened to the marble debris that was crumbling beneath his feet. To see his beloved Asgard reduced to rubble...nothing, to the Asgardian prince, was more heartbreaking...

Well, almostnothing.

Odin still seemed far too frail to Thor's liking, even after having had all of his injuries healed by Mistress Yìzhī. "Father," he asked tentatively, "are you certain that you are..."

"I am fine," Odin insisted angrily. "For the thousandth time, I am fully capable of surveying what has become of..." He let his voice trail off as his face fell into a mask of grim determination. "Loki was the instrument of...all of this?"

Thor shook his head. "No. But he is in allegiance with the being who was."

"And you are certain that Loki is in possession of the Aether?"

Thor involuntarily winced as the memory of the stone's attack flashed through his mind. "Aye."

Odin sighed wearily. "Your mother would have wanted me to show him mercy...to give your foster brother the chance to prove that he is not an enemy of Asgard," he declared. "That is not something I am capable of doing. Not any more." He turned around and crossed the room to where his seer was staring off into the vastness of space. "Have you found him yet, Heimdall?"

Heimdall's focus never wavered. "Not yet, my..."

That hesitation caught the attention of everyone in the room in a way that nothing else could have. "Have you found something?" asked Thor.

"Not...exactly, my Lord," said Heimdall.

Odin recognized the 'hunch' in his seer's voice. "Go on..."

"We are all aware of the peculiar trail of destruction that Loki leaves in his wake, my Lord," Heimdall replied. Odin nodded, so Heimdall continued, "I believe I have found that kind of trail."

"And where is that trail leading you?" asked Sif.

Heimdall's gaze returned to his current reality...and he leveled that gaze at Thor. "The one place that will least surprise you, my Lord."

Thor's body tensed as his soul filled with fury. Once again I must fight my brother for the fate of Midgard... "Has Loki yet arrived on Midgard?"

"No, my Lord," Heimdall replied, shaking his head. "If I return you straightaway you might just be able to, as the Midgardians say, beat him there."

#

Alexis winced at the crunch of breaking glass underneath her feet, grateful that she had decided to wear her relatively new sneakers that morning. She cast a quick protection spell on the members of her team before speaking. "What happened here?" she asked the group.

"The Collector's assistant tried to take the power stone for herself," Gamorra explained. "She blew herself up in the process."

Strange's eyes went wide. "Thisis what happens when a non-carrier tries to touch one of the stones?"

Quill gently shook his head. A flash of blue electricity passed over his hand as he pushed a sparking wire out of his way. "This ship got off easy," he replied. "Each one of the stones has the power to take out entire planets."

"Dear God," Strange exclaimed, breathing the words out in a low whisper...before the dichotomy stuck out to him. "Howdid this ship get off so easy?"

Gamorra opened her mouth to try and present a theory...then closed it quickly when she heard a quiet whimpering in the distance. The group fell silent, allowing the popping and crackling electrical noises and the low, sputtering hum of the ship's limping engines to be the only other noises anyone could hear. Gamorra took the lead, following the whimpering sound through the maze of debris until they got to the being who was making that sound.

Alexis could only gawk at the...uniqueness of the sight before her. "Is that...a duck?!"

"The name is Howard, toots," the duck replied. He leered at both Alexis and Gamorra with a gaze that could only be described as lecherous. "Nice to meet ya, Red. And greenie..."

Gamorra shot Howard a look that would have killed a weaker being. "Howard," she greeted the duck coolly. The warrior then turned to the being they had come to see. "Collector."

"How did you get on to my ship?" the Collector demanded.

"We are in search of a rare object," Strange replied. "Our...quest has led us here. To you."

The Collector sighed in weary despair. "Really, now? And what kind of an object do you expect to find here? Now?" He waved his hand to point out the wreckage that surrounded them. "After all of this..."

"A stone," explained Alexis. "A green gem of great power."

"A stone," the Collector repeated. "Of course. Of course you would come here in pursuit of one of those awful stones..." He spat out the last word with an edge of bitterness in his voice. "Of courseyou would be coming for the thing that would be most want to destroy me..."

Gamorra knelt down next to the Collector. "Do you know where the stone is, Taneleer?"

The Collector looked up in to the green face of his old friend. He caressed Gamorra's smooth cheek with the rough fabric of his crudely bandaged hand. "I am sorry, my dear, but I do not," he told her. The Collector then looked up and spoke to the rest of the group as a whole. "I heard you as you were speaking earlier. The damage you see around you was not caused by my servant's foolish actions with the stone of power. No..." His voice caught in his throat as he looked around and surveyed the damage for the thousandth time. "No, this time the damage was caused by an Asgardian..."

Alexis' attention was immediately piqued by the reference. "An Asgardian?" she pressed.

The Collector nodded. "That is where he declared himself to be from, although his appearance was closer to that of a frost giant..."

Alexis ignored most of the Collector's comment. "The Asgardian. What was his name?"

The Collector finally settled his attention on the one who was questioning him. "Loki. He called himself Loki of Asgard."

Strange perked up at the Collector's declaration. "Why does that name sound so familiar?"

"The Viking gods were all Asgardians," Alexis explained quickly. "That's why Thor is, well, Thor." The wizard then knelt down on the other side of the Collector. "What did Loki come here for?"

"The Aether," the Collector replied. "The gaseous remenants of the reality stone."

Alexis let out a low string of curses as she processed what she was hearing from the Collector. "This gas— is it in some sort of a container..."

"It was," replied the Collector. "But Loki broke the container open and inhaled the gas before..."

What few working lights there were on the damaged ship shone red as a klaxon sounded a piercing alarm to warn of danger. "Great," Howard quipped, rolling his eyes, "as if this day couldn't possibly get any worse. Who the hell...?"

Quill was also seeking an answer to Howard's question. The carrier disappeared for a split second...and when he reappeared, Quill was clearly shivering from a case of hypothermia. "It's Thanos," Quill declared. "He's here for Strange's stone."

"Please, Taneleer," Gamorra begged. "We can protect you, but we need that stone."

The Collector's Brown furrowed in confusion. "I swear on the remnants of my ship I do not know which stone..."

Quill recognized the sudden shift in Strange's demeanor. "You feel it, don't you?"

Strange shrugged. "I'm not sure. It's like there's this tugging at the back of my mind..."

"Open your mind to it," Quill instructed the sorcerer. "Just...see where it leads you."

Strange turned around, bent his knees and drew a circle of light behind the group. The circle spun, shooting off sparks of light in all directions. An image appeared within the circle. "What is that?" asked Rocket.

"A portal," replied Alexis.

"To where?" asked Taneleer.

Quill's eyes glowed green as the ship floor beneath them shook. A chunk of debris fell from high above the group, narrowly missing the platform they were all standing on.

"I suspect the time to scout out our landing spot has passed," Gamorra declared, her gut twisting in knots as she considered their dwindling options. "If my father gets his hands on Peter..."

"GO!" Strange screamed, ending all argument.

Alexis cast a spell to connect and shield the group before Quill dove through the portal. "LOOKS LIKE WE DON'T HAVE A CHOICE ANYMORE," she agreed, screaming through the growing roar. "LET'S GO!"

The group quickly followed.