The portal barely closed behind him when Peter found that his entrance into Asgard hadn't gone unnoticed.

Thor must have been anticipating something – or maybe there was some kind of set up with Heimdall – because Peter hadn't even taken more than a dozen steps toward the city when he found a wall of Asgardians coming toward him from that direction. All wearing armor, all carrying weapons and all of them so much larger and more intimidating than he was.

Thor was leading them, with his mighty hammer in one hand and an axe in the other, and beside him strode Heimdall and several others that Peter recognized from his time on Asgard. He stopped, allowing them to reach him.

"Peter? Is it happening? Has Thanos come?"

The boy nodded, trying to hide just how scared he was, and how frantic.

"They're attacking the compound."

"We'll go, immediately," Thor told him, looking at his lieutenant.

"There's a shield protecting the compound," Peter warned. "If you come in at the wrong area, you'll hit it and either kill yourselves or bring it down."

"How far out?"

"A couple of miles."

Thor nodded, looking from the boy to Heimdall.

"The Bifrost will put us outside this shield?"

"Yes."

"Did Tony send you for us?" Thor asked.

"Yes," Peter told him, which wasn't completely the truth, but he was grateful, because the addition of so many formidable warriors – men and women, both – would gain him the time that he needed. Even if the shield fell, hopefully. It also gave Tony and the others a better chance of holding out – and surviving.

The Asgardians might even make it so Peter didn't have to face down Thanos, after all – but Peter wasn't going to place all his hopes on that. Natasha had taught him better than that – and so had the universe, itself.

"You're so sure that the universe hates you," Alec said. "You might be wrong about that, you know?"

"Stay here," the god of thunder ordered, unaware of the conversation going on in Peter's head. "The Bifrost will overpower you if you try to come with us. Go to the city and wait for our return. Or to hear from your magicians."

Peter nodded, and started moving away, watching while even more warriors headed toward the meadow, and the numbers were steadily growing as they answered some silent call. A shadow fell over him, causing him to look up and he was shocked and awed to see a pristine white horse flying overhead, a woman on its back.

"Pay attention to your responsibilities," Alec reminded him, startling him from his amazement. "We need to find the stone."

"It's a flying horse…" the boy said, amazed to see mythology coming to life right in front of him.

Thor was one thing; a Pegasus was completely another.

"You're allergic to horses," the alien sorcerer reminded him. "Come on."

Peter watched as the horse landed, but then turned and ran toward the city, focusing on the teleportation stone in his left hand. As if aware that its time was now, he heard that familiar, cheerful, question in his head.

Where?

Peter focused hard, thinking about the great hall where he'd watched the play with the others. A moment later, he was gone from the field, and then reappeared exactly where he'd intended, only now the room was echoingly empty. He looked around, getting his hearings, but he wasn't sure where to start looking.

"We don't have time for this," the boy muttered, more to himself than to Alec. "We need to figure out where-"

"You!"

The startled and angry tone drew Peter from his growing panic, and he turned, seeing the last person that he wanted to see standing at the entrance.

"Loki…"

The god of mischief's eyes narrowed, and a look of pure hate marred his handsome features. It was only for a moment, though, and then he visibly calmed himself, with a look of fear crossing his expression, first.

"He's afraid of creating a portal…" Alec said, absently, in Peter's mind. Then he must have discovered the reason, and the boy felt a slight surge of admiration. "Oh, very good."

"What are you doing here, boy?"

"Nothing," Peter told him. He didn't have time to explain – even if he'd been inclined to. "Where's the space stone?"

"What? Why do – where's my brother? Do you seriously think that I would tell you anythi-"

There was a flare from the mind stone, and a vision of a vault filled with a number of fantastical items flashed into Peter's mind - plucked from Loki's memories.

"Thanks."

Loki started to move forward, confused.

"What are-"

Before he could get the question out, the boy's hand tightened, slightly, and he was gone.

Loki scowled, forcing himself to keep his mind calm, and he looked around.

"Thor? What is going on?" He didn't get an answer, and he went looking for his brother, determined to make sure he knew there was an unexpected – and unwanted – intruder in the city. He couldn't do anything about it, but his brother could. And would. "Thor?"

OOOOO

Thanos watched with impatience as he waited for the shield to be taken down, allowing his horde to overrun the annoying humans and their stupid stronghold. His army was doing well, all things considered, but he was in a hurry. His destiny was at hand, and he didn't want to wait any longer than necessary to have it fulfilled. He was also eager to kill Stark, but the man was on the wrong side of the shield, and so Thanos knew he needed to wait.

A motion beside him made him turn his head. The Maw was suddenly standing next to him.

"She's inside the shield."

The titan smiled.

"Good. It will be over in a matter of minutes, then."

Nebula wouldn't fail him; she was so eager to please. So eager to prove herself to him and his cause.

They watched as Ironman and Rescue flew by the inside of the shield, missiles streaming down on his troops, destroying them by the dozens even as they fought their way through the power of the shield.

"We can bring more ground troops down," Maw said. "The reserves can attack the city to the south of here. It will draw more defenders away from here."

"I want Clyde. Send half the remaining armies toward the city. Bring the rest to bear on the shield – and to be ready when it fails. Remind them all what will happen if they kill the boy."

"Yes, Thanos."

OOOOOOOO

"Are you seeing this?"

"I can't miss it."

Clint was running out of arrows, and nowhere close to running out of targets. More and more creatures were making it through the shield, only to fall to Tony, Pepper and Quill, first, and those that made it through the air strikes found a wall of Wakandans, SHIELD and snipers to come up against. More were coming, though. It didn't look like they'd even made a dent in the amount of enemies.

Rocket had a fierce Gatling gun in his hands and was on the edge of the rooftop firing at will into the writhing mass of creatures. Drax had long since vanished into the swarm, but Hawkeye spotted him, occasionally, working his way through them, slashing and killing every creature that came close to him. Clint saw Steve and T'Challa methodically hacking away at the huge creature that they'd been dealing with, each blow landed by one of the two seemingly having only enough effect to keep it from advancing on the compound.

Wong was near Clint, spells flying as he carefully picked targets that weren't close enough to the defenders to do them any damage. He was watching out for creatures that were coming from the other side of the building, bolstered by the woman who was in charge of the London sanctum. Every now and then, one of them would fling a bolt of energy at someone trying to overrun Natasha and Stephen, but those two were holding their own, with the help of the tree.

More enemies were coming, however, their arrival heralded by even more stone pillars slamming to the earth, flattening the trees before unleashing thousands of creatures at a time. The bodies were piling up, and the magicians found themselves needing to clear them away, moving them to the outside of the shield beyond the river.

"They're going to overrun us if they get through the shield," Rocket said, shaking his head, but never letting up on his trigger.

There was a flash of lightning off in the distance, followed by a low rumble of thunder.

"Great…" one of the military commanders in charge of the rail guns muttered. "That's what we need; a storm."

OOOOOOO

He found himself in the same room that he'd seen the vision of in his mind.

Peter looked around, realizing that it must not have been too far away from where he'd been when speaking with Loki, since he didn't feel any of the exhaustion that normally came with using the teleportation stone.

"You're going to want to leave it here," Alec told him, even as Peter started looking around. "The space stone will move you, now, and won't sap your energy."

"If I can find it…" Peter replied. "I-"

He felt a mental nudge that wasn't from Alec, and his eyes fell on a small, plain, wooden box. With a tremor of fear for what was to come, Peter walked over to the little chest and opened it. Nestled inside, gleaming dully like a sapphire lit up from within, was a small gem. Peter could feel the power radiating from it, and once more felt what could only be called a greeting, tinged with a little cheerfulness – as if the stone was telling him that it had been waiting, and then asking what had taken him so long.

The boy looked around, but didn't see anything to pick it up with, so he simply held his breath and fished it out of the box with his left hand, counting on the vibranium of his suit to protect him. There was a brief stab of pain as he picked it up, and held it against the other glove – the polymorph glove – but it only lasted an instant. Either that, or it was overshadowed by the surge of pain that went through his hand, and then his arm and then shot through is entire body when the stone and the glove became one.

Peter let out a soft moan of pain, and felt Alec – and both stones – trying to soothe him. Only one actually spoke, though, as he tried to catch his breath.

"You're doing great…" the ancient alien told him. "You can do this."

"Which one, next?" Peter asked, even though he knew Alec didn't have any more of an actual plan than he did. "Where do we go…?"

He felt the mind stone reply. A carefully planted image of a dark world with a lot of rugged peaks that seemed to go on for miles up into the sky. The boy straightened; he hadn't even noticed that he'd bent over with pain when the space stone had been added to his glove. Peter felt another surge of fear at the image in his mind; it was inhospitable and terrifying.

"They don't hide infinity stones on sunny, sandy beaches, apparently," Alec said, having seen the same image that Peter had.

"Any idea where it is?"

"No clue," came the reply. "But we don't need to know. Someone does, and that's enough for the mind stone to guide you."

The boy felt an agreement in his head, and then that other presence – the new one – suddenly made itself felt to him, once more.

Where?

It was a lot like the teleportation stone, Peter decided. Only the teleportation stone's voice was light, and new. This was a much deeper, and darker tone – and so ancient that it made Alec seem young.

Peter's reply was the image that he'd been shown, and a name came to his mind, even as he felt the mind stone point the space stone to an exact location on the dark, unsettled world.

Vormir.

A moment later, he felt himself being moved, and the teleportation stone fell to the floor of the vault with a clatter that no one heard.