Thor once held three things as absolute truths.
One: No matter what, family came first. Two: It was his duty to protect Asgard and its people.
Three: His grandfather's mistakes were a thing of the past.
In less than a week, all of those had quickly become irrelevant. He had no family left. The remaining Asgardians were scattered to the winds on escape pods or… or dead. And now…
"Thor? You alright?"
Thor cringed and sank to his knees. Now the third truth had become a lie.
Almost instantly, there was a flurry of sound around him. Thanos had been gone for nearly half an hour, but they still stood in the clearing - gathering themselves, searching for their comrades. He'd seen Steve Rogers tearfully shoveling handfuls of dust into a Ziploc bag. Natasha had made a brief call to someone, then sat in silence with her back propped against a tree stump. Rhodes had stopped searching for his friend Sam.
But now -
"Hey! Thor, what's going on?" "Fuck, not him too -" "Thor, talk to us -"
He heard Banner screaming his name in the distance -
Nothing registered, except for the feeling of something twisting around his heart - which could only mean one thing.
Someone had found the ring.
My son. Should it ever be found -
His hand stretched out, reaching blindly. Not understanding, Steve hesitantly grabbed it, but Thor jerked away. His eyes fluttered shut.
He could feel it -
It and the one who holds it shall come to you.
"What's that?" said Colonel Rhodes' voice, sharp and thin with pain.
The air seemed to ripple, a faint roar of wind coursing through the Wakandan jungle. Thor's fingers grasped thin air and pulled -
The jungle exploded with light, and a man rocketed through the trees. He landed in front of Thor in a groaning heap of limbs and cloth. Immediately, the others were on guard - weary, but alert. Natasha's stun batons were out and pointed at the strange man; Rocket aimed his machine gun at him, and Steve scrambled to his feet, wearily holding up his fists.
The man took a deep, shaky breath and rolled onto his back. Upside down, his eyes met Thor's. "Oh, it's you," he groaned. "I should have known."
"Do I know you?" Thor said blankly.
"I doubt it," the man said, sitting up. "Ooh. That hurts. Okay. My name's Wong - I'm a friend of Stephen Strange."
Thor's eyebrows shot up. "The sorcerer?" he asked. He remembered the man, from when he was on Midgard last, looking for his father. Odd man. Mostly cheekbones. Had a very rude cloak. "Right, yeah. Strange. Where is he?"
"He was captured," Wong said heavily. "By one of Thanos's lackeys. Took Stark and the spider-kid with him. I don't know where they are now, but -"
"Wong?"
Bruce's voice interrupted them; they turned to see him stumbling through the undergrowth, beaten and bruised from his time in the Hulkbuster - but he was alive. "Wong, what are you doing here?" he exclaimed. "I thought you were still in the New York sanctum -!"
"The Sanctums are gone," Wong said grimly. "Everyone is dead except me." Thor and Bruce winced. They were the only ones there who understood the significance of that; nobody else was even aware of the existence of the Sanctums -
Wong opened his hand; in the center gleamed a simple golden band. Thor froze. "I was entrusted by the Ancient One, the former Sorcerer Supreme, to keep an eye on this," Wong said seriously. "Apparently, 'keeping an eye' on it means getting yanked into…"
He glanced around. "Where are we?"
"Wakanda," Steve supplied helpfully.
Wong made a face. "Wonderful. Jungle. Just great," he muttered. "I forgot my bug repellent."
"Isn't there a spell for that?"
The ring shimmered in the shadow of Wong's palm.
"It's too much work."
Thor reached out -
Bruce offered, "I have some Off back at the palace if you need it -"
Wong closed his hand and snatched the ring away. "What do you think you're doing?" he said suspiciously to Thor.
Thor scowled. "That ring," he nearly snarled, "belonged to my grandfather. It's an Asgardian weapon, and - look, can you just give it to me?"
"Why?" Wong said blandly. "The Ancient One specifically told me to keep it away from Asgardians." Thor frowned. "Why should I listen to you?"
"Because -"
"This is a freakin' fascinating discussion -"
Rocket interrupted the conversation, walking towards them with his gun braced against his shoulder. "But unless that ring can help us stop Thanos -"
"It can."
Thor spoke before he realized he'd opened his mouth. Everyone was staring at him. "My... my father... once told me," he said haltingly, "that it brought a Celestial to its knees once. It... It might stop Thanos." He swallowed and focused on Wong. The man was still sitting on the ground, staring skeptically at the ring, as if he couldn't believe he was holding their salvation in the palm of his hand.
"Wong," Thor said seriously.
Wong looked up, one eyebrow raised.
Thor put every bit of sincerity that he could into his voice. "Tell us everything your order knows about the ring," he demanded, his voice shaking slightly. "And if there were any notes on it in your Sanctum, bring them to us here." He added, "Please."
After a tense silence, Wong nodded and pushed himself to his feet. "I'll do my best," he confirmed, raising his hands to open a portal. A dusty library lay beyond the sizzling circle of light.
Just before he stepped through, Thor cleared his throat. "Uh - about the ring?" he said. "Can I have it back?"
Wong snorted and stepped through. "Not on my watch," he said derisively. "The Ancient One wanted this ring out of your people's hands for a reason. I'll be back."
"No, come on -!"
Wong shrugged and quickly closed the portal.
They all fell silent, staring at the thin air where the portal had been. Steve took a deep breath. "It looks like we're on our own for now," he said heavily. "Until Tony and the others get back from space."
"If they survived," Rocket said bleakly. "Man, Gamora's gonna be pissed at me, when she finds out about… about -"
His ears drooped. Thor tentatively placed a reassuring hand on Rocket's head, and the rabbit's knees buckled. "Sorry," he said hurriedly, removing it.
"Don't mention it."
"So, Thor," Bruce interjected.
Thor looked at his friend. He leaned against a tree for support, one arm braced across his stomach. At Thor's questioning look, he waved a dismissive hand. "What exactly is that ring Wong had?" he said. "LIke, what was it used for?"
Thor thought back. Memories darted past, so old they were almost out of reach. His father, telling them stories of the Celestial Wars - then a millennium later, grizzled with age, telling him of the Ring and what it was used for -
The Midgardians cannot know the truth!
Scowling, Thor shoved his father's voice away. "It was a weapon," he announced to the clearing. "My grandfather Bor forged it from the remnants of another artifact, and used it to conquer the Nine Realms -"
"So, like the One Ring to Rule Them All?" Rhodes interjected skeptically. Bruce almost snickered.
Thor heard the capital letters in Rhodes' words and cringed. Another one of his father's deceptions. It had lasted longer than any of them had realized. "Something like that," he said feebly. "It -"
Damn it. This would take too long to explain. He sighed heavily. "We should find a better place to speak of this," he said to the others. "Lead the way. I don't know where the hell I am."
There were hands on his body.
"Damn it, how does this thing come off... Hey. Hey!"
Slap! His head lolled to one side.
"Stay with me, you useless hunk of metal," the voice snarled. "I need to get this thing off of you. How does it work?"
He opened his mouth. Closed it. The air of Titan seared his lungs.
"No, no, don't even fucking think about it!" His vision swam, and a bluish face swam into view. Nebula, his brain supplied. "You're bleeding out," the woman said harshly, her eyes glittering with rage that hopefully wasn't directed at him. "Your patch job was halfway decent, but it's not holding. I need to get this suit off before you die. "
One of her pupils expanded, and she glanced down his torso. "Yeah, you're definitely bleeding," she said tonelessly. "The glue isn't holding. What's your name again?"
He blinked slowly, stared at the darkening golden sky. Deep in his chest, he felt a raw, torn edge where his name had been.
"Hey!"
A hand slammed on his chest, on the arc reactor -
cold, redwhiteblue
STEVE
cold cold COLD siberia
so was
mr stark
i
my name is TONY
please
i don't want
STARK
to go
He gasped and grabbed Nebula's wrist.
The cybernetic woman gave him a steely look. "Finally," she muttered. "Now. Tell me your name, and tell me how this damn thing comes off, so I can shove your large intestine back inside your body." She glanced at his torso again and said, almost nonchalantly, "Is that your large intestine? I don't know much about Terran biology -"
"Tony."
Her eyes locked on his.
"My name is Tony," he gasped. Every word hurt like a lobster was pinching his balls. He tasted blood. "Is my large intestine really falling out? I -"
Something like mirth glimmered in Nebula's eyes. Her voice was still deathly cold. "No. I just needed your attention." She cleared her throat. "You really are bleeding out, though," she said. "Get the suit off so I can clean it properly."
Yeah. That was probably an issue. Wincing, Tony got the nanobots to withdraw, and they scuttled over his body, retreating into the arc reactor. Nebula watched them go with a blank face. Tony had no idea if she was impressed. He didn't care.
He looked down at his torso and cringed. The adhesive over his stab wound had already started to pull away from the edges, and blood was seeping out. "You got anything for this?" he asked Nebula.
She cocked her head and looked at him, a calculating gleam in her eye. It reminded him of Vision, almost - he would have that same look when he was thinking -
No.
He couldn't do that. No, he couldn't let his mind go there. Everyone was dust. That meant Thanos got the stones; that meant Vision was toast. Just like -
Like -
I don't feel so good -
There was no other way -
"Stop that!"
Nebula's fist slammed into his shoulder. Tony winced and fought back the urge to scream. He'd jammed it something fierce, blocking Thanos's last hit. "We don't have time to get distracted," she said harshly. "Get the suit off, so I can disinfect your wound and patch it."
"I - no, it's fine, I got this," Tony grunted, sitting up.
"It doesn't look like you 'got this,'" Nebula said derisively.
And that was it. Something like rage bubbled in Tony's throat. She put a hand on his shoulder to shove him back down, but he batted it away. "I've had worse," he said, glaring at the cybernetic woman. "I've had my chest carved open without drugs in a cave. I've had a glorified Energizer battery stuck between my ribs for most of a decade. A scratch like this -" He gestured angrily at his wound and snarled, "It's not a fucking problem. "
Nebula stared at him again. No blinking. Jesus Christ. "Okay, you've got to stop doing that," Tony said. "It's kind of creeping me out."
"Tough luck," Nebula muttered. She unzipped one of her pockets and threw a first-aid kit at him. Tony caught it and tore it open, searching for some basic antiseptics. None of it was in a language he could understand -
"Red packets are antibiotics."
"Right. Knew that. Thanks, Smurfette." Nebula rolled her eyes and stood up. Tony ripped the packet open and squirted some kind of clear gel onto the edges of his cut. It stung like a bitch. Some things were universal, he guessed.
He called up the nanobots again to add another layer of adhesive spray. He watched the glue methodically layer itself over his wound again, shooting from the applicator on his wrist. Like the webs from Peter's web-shooters.
Don't. Don't go there.
Oh, man.
Quill's last words echoed through his head, and Tony gritted his teeth. God, he couldn't stand that man's voice. Still. A part of him respected Quill - liked him, even. Though losing his cool at Thanos, right when they'd almost gotten the gauntlet off, was a dick move -
Don't bullshit me, Rogers, did you know?
Tony sighed. Yeah.
He was a hypocrite.
Fucking Christ on a crutch.
"Tony."
He looked up. "Yeah?"
Nebula knelt some distance away, near a large pile of dust. Her fingers were sifting through it, as if searching for something. "Can you stand?" she said, her mechanical voice hoarse and sharp.
"Working on it."
His legs were stiff and sore, but he managed. Tony briefly considered summoning the suit again, forming it around his legs to help him walk. "What's up, Smurfette?" he called to Nebula.
She glanced over her shoulder. "My name is Nebula, " she hissed.
"Jeez, sorry," Tony said defensively. "So what is it?"
The woman's fingers closed around something in the dust, and she lifted it towards him. His breath caught somewhere between his heart and his mouth. "How well did you know the wizard?" she said curtly.
She was holding Strange's weird ring.
How?
"My God," Tony breathed, snatching it from her metal fingers. Everything Strange had been wearing had vanished with him - did he let go of it just before he died? Was this his plan? Its carvings were crusted with dust - with Strange, he realized with a nauseous lurch - and he took a breath so deep it strained his ribs. He could see the man now: thrown into elegant shadow inside the alien ship, eyes cruel and sharp as the lines of his face. " I would not hesitate to sacrifice you to keep the stone safe." His head twitching and mouth blurring as he meditated, the Time Stone glowing around his neck -
Tony…
He must be getting melodramatic in his old age, if he thought he heard Stephen's voice in Titan's howling wind.
When the hell did he become Stephen?
Too late - he was dust now, too damn dead to hear him.
How well did you know the wizard?
"Not well enough," he croaked.
Nebula's lip curled slightly. "Pity." She stood up and dusted off her knees. "I can access my memory banks to find footage of him."
After a split second of thought, Tony saw where she was going. He started to shake his head. "No. No, no, no you can't be serious," he stammered. He held up the ring and said, "I don't know jack shit about using it -"
"Neither do I, but you're the best option we have," Nebula snapped. "I don't know how it will react with my cybernetics. It's a Terran artifact; you're a Terran. Use it to open a portal to Terra."
"It's not that simple!" Tony spluttered.
"Well, it looks like it is," said Nebula defensively. Her eye whirred and glowed, and a hologram of Stephen appeared between them. Tony felt another pang in his chest, looking at the Sorcerer Supreme. The hologram zoomed in on the hand without the ring.
"Copy that. Then do that." The view switched to Stephen's other hand. Nebula's eyes glittered as she looked at him again. "Shouldn't be too hard," she said - was that a smirk? "You built that nanobot tech yourself. You can figure it out. You're not too shabby, for a Terran."
Tony raised an eyebrow and slid the ring back on. "Is that supposed to be an insult?" he snorted.
Between them, the slow-motion hologram of Stephen opened a portal. "My only long-term experience with lifeforms from your backwater, boondocks planet has been Quill," she said.
"Ouch. My condolences."
"Unnecessary, but accepted." The hologram shut off, and Nebula looked into his eyes again. "Stay here," she said tonelessly. "Best of luck. I'm going to find the Benatar ."
"The what, now?" Tony said.
"Quill's ship. If it's not completely trashed, we might be able to use it," Nebula said.
Tony glanced at the sling ring. Was it on the wrong fingers? He wasn't sure. "Then why the hell do I need to learn to use this?" he said, wiggling his fingers.
Nebula's eyes glittered, though her face remained expressionless. "Who said it wasn't part of the plan?" was all she said, before she turned and stalked off through the crashed ships.
Tony's mouth opened and closed, fishlike, for a few seconds. Fucking space people and their fucking spacey plans. Nobody tells me anything, he thought, adjusting the ring on his fingers. This was weird. "Okay, Stranger Things," he muttered to empty air. "If you're watching this, please don't laugh. You have every right to, but I'd rather you not. Okay. Okay, okay… start with the left hand…"
