Disclaimer: I do not own Thor, nor the Avengers.

Chapter 9 – The Battle of Wakanda

Things happened fast over the next two days as they all prepared for Thanos' arrival. There were two factions of the war effort, as Steve referred to it, the science division and the infantry – more terminology Steve brought from the Second World War – and both were busy non-stop. Jane naturally aided the science division alongside Shuri, and anyone else who'd proven themselves capable, which in this group was quite a few. Tony, Hope and Bruce though were also a part of the infantry and kept moving between the two, so their time in the lab was limited; Steve's main goal had been to train them all as a team, which wasn't possibly without all of them present. To that same end, a portion of Asgard's army arrived that first day to train alongside them, switching out every so often with other Asgardian soldiers so that they might all have trained together at least some of the time. Unfortunately for team building, Thor could not, and would not, put Asgard at risk of a sneak attack by bringing all of Asgard's army to Earth. For now it seemed that Thanos had bought into the Soul Stone not being on Asgard, but they would not risk him returning to find out for sure when their army was not there to stall him long enough for Thor to return. It was clear that Thor was in his element, even splitting his time as he was between training and his wife and daughter. Jane too was splitting her time, though more because she was still the sole source of food for Aerith, having been glad to discover that as much of the past that was still prevalent on Asgard, wetnurses were not one of them, and she refused to bottle feed unless absolutely necessary. She had just finished feeding the baby and put her down – wide awake though content – in the crib that had been brought into the lab for her when a visitor arrived.

"M'Baku." She greeted, having gotten used to the Jabari leader's presence these last two days.

"Queen Jane." While he refused to call T'Challa King, he had no such qualms about addressing her and Thor by their titles, claiming that they were ruling another world, not his country. T'Challa didn't hold it against him, hearing the teasing tone in his voice, though there was still some truth behind it. "I have come for the updated Kimoyo Beads, Shuri said they were ready."

"They are. Let me get them." She replied, going to the other side of the room and sighing when Aerith began to cry. While too young to have already become a mommy's girl, it was as if the baby could sense when Jane wasn't near and she didn't like it at all. Preparing to hand the beads to M'Baku and comfort her daughter, Jane was surprised when the crying stopped. Coming back into the main room she was even more surprised to see her child in M'Baku's arms. It was a strange sight to be sure, mostly because it was M'Baku, the hard as nails Jabari leader, but also because he dwarfed the baby. Her own father did that as well, being just as tall and heavily built, but when Thor held his daughter, it looked nothing but natural.

"Don't be so surprised." He said, having noticed her wide-eyed expression. "I have children. I know how to calm a child." Jane couldn't help but smiling.

"I admit I'm a bit startled." She said. "But not terribly surprised. Not after I saw the softness in your eyes when you look at her." He growled softly and she laughed. "Don't worry, the Great Gorilla's reputation is safe with me."

"But not me." Shuri's voice rang out. She looked far too amused and M'Baku quickly handed Aerith back to her mother, leaving both women laughing.

"Careful, Princess." He gave her his most intimidating growl, but Shuri merely scoffed.

"You don't scare me, oh mighty Gorilla." M'Baku scowled and Jane patted him on the shoulder in mock sympathy before giving him the out he was no doubt looking for.

"Here are the Kimoyo Beads." With a grunted thank you, M'Baku left and Shuri and Jane shared another laugh before getting back to work. It was a few hours later that they finally left the lab and joined the others for lunch. Meals were a time they all spent together, the parents of the group wanting time with their children and so instead of taking five minutes to shove food in their mouths whenever they had a second during training, meals had turned into a true break for them all, though especially the parents, including Thor who happily took his daughter into his arms when Jane and Shuri arrived.

"He's going to spoil her rotten." Loki muttered with a frown, having come up beside her. Jane raised an eyebrow.

"As if you won't." Loki laughed and smirked down at her.

"True."

"So any progress with Sif?" Jane then asked.

"No. Lady Sif still hates me." He had stopped lying to Jane about his developing feelings for Sif shortly before he'd gone to Thanos. Sif, however, was still very much in denial, though her feelings were there for all to see if anyone cared to look.

"She doesn't hate you." Jane said softly. "She's at war with herself because she loves you but is too stubborn to let go of the past and see that you've changed."

"But have I? You and Thor are so insistent on my goodness, regardless of my protestations and the proof of the past."

"You may be the God of Mischief and live up to your name – you're certainly a pain in the ass sometimes – but you're not evil." She replied. Loki looked like he wanted to protest but she wouldn't let him. "Not much we can do until after Thanos is defeated, but once this is over with we'll work on getting Sif to come round, even if I have to order her to stop being so stubborn." Loki laughed but it was cut short when Thor, who'd happily been cooing at his daughter – much to Tony's disgust – stood suddenly, his head snapping up towards the sky.

"Thor what is it?" Jane and Loki both rushed over, while everyone else crowded around as well.

"Heimdall." He muttered, absentmindedly handing Aerith to her mother. He appeared to be far away for a few moments before snapping back to himself. "Thanos, he moves on Asgard!" Jumping into action, Thor summoned Gungnir, banging the staff on the ground. It served two purposes, the first to summon his armour, lightning enveloping him for a moment and leaving him ready for battle. The second purpose was as a signal, for the moment they heard the echo of their King's staff, the Asgardian's present assembled instantly. "Asgard is under attack." He addressed the gathered soldiers. "Go, rally your brothers and we will protect our realm!" He raised Gungnir high, which was all the signal Heimdall needed. The Bifrost opened and the Warriors Three led the charge to gather the rest of Asgard's army for the coming attack.

"We're coming with you." Steve said, having gone to grab his shield.

"No." Said Thor. "This may be a diversion, or a trap. He cannot know for certain that the Soul Stone is indeed on Asgard, but he is certain that the other two stones he needs are here. This may be a ploy to lure half of us to Asgard before he changes course to come here for the other stones, or he may be trying to lure all the stones into one place. Either way we cannot let that happen."

"And what if you're wrong?" Rhodey asked, he and Tony having also suited up.

"Then it is still safer to have the final two stones away from him and as protected as they can be." He replied. "Do not worry. The Soul Stone stands above the others and it is under my command. I will not hesitate to use its power if necessary." Although they didn't like it, no one could argue with his logic; they had to keep the stones away from Thanos no matter what. Seeing they weren't going to fight him, Thor turned to his family.

"I'd say come back to me, but I won't ask you to make promises you can't keep." Jane muttered. She knew she wasn't going with him. Thanos had chosen to try and take them by surprise by attacking Asgard, and Aerith would be safer wherever Thanos wasn't, which meant that she was staying too.

"I will do all I can to return." He promised instead. "I love you, Jane. You and our daughter."

"And we love you." They didn't mince words for they couldn't drag it on. With a quick kiss, Thor turned to leave, only to see that he wasn't the only one who had remained: Sif and Loki stood to the side, standing close together though not touching.

"Do not die." Sif said finally.

"For the Allfather's sake?" He asked, remembering she'd said similar words when he'd gone off to face Thanos the first time. "And the Queen's, if I remember correctly."

"And for mine." Loki's eyebrows shot up, as did everyone else's. He'd only just said to Jane mere moments ago that he'd made no progress with Sif, and here she was asking him not to die for her. "Do not read too much into this." She cautioned, seeing the smile forming on his face. "I do not know what this is, but it would anger me not to find out."

"Then I will take you at your word and not read to much into it. Under one condition." Sif raised her own eyebrow now, a challenging look on her face.

"What condition?" Instead of answering her verbally, Loki bent down and kissed her. She was surprised enough not to throw him off right away and he did not linger long enough for her to regain her wits. Smiling mischievously, Loki turned and with a wave entered the Bifrost. "Loki!" Sif shouted angrily, unsheathing her sword and quickly following him. With an amused look to Jane, Thor too waved a final goodbye and entered the bridge that would take him home, Heimdall closing the Bifrost after him.

"I still don't like that he went alone." Tony muttered. Jane turned to face him.

"Aw, are you starting to care, Tony?" Although her sarcasm was loud and clear, Tony could see the real fear in her eyes.

"Yes." He said simply. Not knowing what else to do everyone returned to whatever it was they had been doing, except for those that had been training. With the battle having started and knowing that it would not only be a matter of time before it came to them, they decided that there wasn't much more they could do in terms of actual training and it was better to rest and ensure they were ready, there was only so much teamwork building they could do after all. It was then that another problem, and potential solution, at least to one problem, was presented to them. Wanda had dragged Vision to the lab and demanded to know if the Mind Stone could be separated from him without harming him.

"It's impossible, we should not be concerning ourselves with this." Vision protested, but Wanda wasn't having it.

"You're just afraid of what will happen if you do not have the Mind Stone's power within you anymore." She said.

"But it's not even possible-"

"It might be." Shuri interrupted, Jane was quick to agree.

"We've been so focused on keeping Thanos away from the stones so he wouldn't even have the chance to kill you for it we never though about if we could separate it from you."

"But-"

"Enough." Wanda snapped, using her power to move him onto the examination table. "I'm done catering to your fear of not having the stone's power. If there is a way for you to live without it, we have to take it so you can live." Shuri didn't waste any time and ran a scan of Vision, a projection appearing from her Kimoyo Beads.

"The structure is polymorphic." She said.

"Right, we had to attach each neuron non-sequentially." Said Bruce.

"Why didn't you just re-program the synapses to work collectively?" Bruce opened his mouth to answer but came up short.

"Because we didn't think of that." He muttered, looking to Tony who coughed embarrassedly.

"I'm sure you did your best." She said condescendingly, in Tony's direction.

"Can you do it?" Wanda wanted to know.

"Yes. But there are more then two trillion neurons here. One misalignment could cause a cascade of circuit failures."

"Meaning?" Steve asked.

"It's going to take time." Jane answered. "As long as you can give us." An hour was how long they had before things went to hell. An alarm sounded throughout the building suddenly, pulling their attention away from Vision, and Aerith from sleep. Shuri had things well in hand, and though she was of some use, she'd honestly been mostly getting in the way. Her specialty was the cosmos, not the brain or human – or partially human – body, so she did not feel bad for going to comfort her daughter, or going to find out what was wrong. She found no direct answer as they left the lab, though it was bad if the people running in every direction at top speed was anything to go by.

"Ayo!" She called, spotting someone she knew. "What's happening?"

"Something has entered the atmosphere and landed outside the barrier." Ayo said and Jane followed her outside where the entire army was clearly gathering.

"That's a Black Order ship." She muttered, recognizing it from her research into Thanos and anything to do with him.

"A what?" Ayo asked.

"The Children of Thanos." Jane said, continuing to analyze the ship until she saw figures emerge from the trees, and three of their own going to meet them. "Thor was right, the attack on Asgard was a diversion." She handed Aerith to a still confused Ayo. "Take her inside please." With that she rushed off to join her friends. She ran passed the gathered army and straight to the five figures standing at the barrier's edge, seeing clearly that Natasha looked truly pissed off, though it was harder to tell what Steve and T'Challa were thinking.

"You are in Wakanda now." She heard T'Challa say. "Thanos will have nothing but dust and blood." The three beings outside the barrier laughed.

"Stand aside, mortals. I will not tell you again." They were dismissive in their tone, and added a careless wave of their hand. Natasha reached for her gun and Jane took that as her cue to step in.

"Thanos will get nothing, except exactly what King T'Challa said, Proxima Midnight." The attention turned to her and instantly the dismissive attitude disappeared.

"The Queen of Asgard." Proxima's tone had turned guarded. "I would have thought you would be with your King."

"This world is under Asgard's protection. We do not abandon our own. As your brother learned the hard way."

"You will pay for his life with yours." Proxima was becoming angry and Jane decided now was the time to end the discussion.

"I doubt it." Without a backward glance Jane turned and began to walk away, clearly expecting the others to follow, which they did.

"Sorry about that." She said when they were far enough away not to be heard. "I know you've fought her once, and killed her brother, when they went after Vision the first time, but you don't really know them."

"And you do?" Natasha asked.

"The Black Order, the Children of Thanos, are almost as arrogant as he is. That is why they dismissed you. They believe Earth to be insignificant and its people weak. I let Proxima believe that Asgard protects Earth and that is why you were able to kill her brother. Not because you yourselves are strong, but because the might of Asgard was at you disposal."

"Let her believe that." Said Steve. "We'll prove her wrong." Jane smiled up at him.

"Exactly my plan." By now they were approaching the gathered army, the Avengers standing front and centre. "Stephen, come with me. It best if you're not out here right now with that stone."

"Except that it's very powerful and we could use all the help we can get." Scott spoke up.

"Except that right now they only know the stone is here, they don't know who it's with or what its bearer can do." She replied. "They're underestimating us right now and we need that to buy us time for Shuri to separate the Mind Stone from Vision. Hopefully the rest of you can decimate enough of their forces by the time we're needed so that they can't hope to win once adding us to the mix." Jane was proving to be a good tactician, though one word stood out to Tony.

"By the time we're needed?" Jane rolled her eyes.

"Would it really surprise you to know that I can fight?"

"Yes. Yes it would." Although it annoyed her to hear him say that, it didn't truly bother her. She knew it wasn't because of her gender or any such silly thing and entirely to do with the fact that she'd never let on that she could fight.

"Well I can. But right now it's best that they continue to believe that the might of Asgard is protecting the stones, so we'll leave them to you for now." She pointed towards the barrier were an alien race could be seen leaving the treeline and rushing at the barrier, though it didn't stop them for trying to break through at any cost.

"They're…killing themselves." Okoye muttered, seeing that indeed the monsters were running at the barrier and pushing their way through at the cost of their own lives.

"Good luck everyone." Jane said. They nodded and turned to the oncoming assault, Tony getting the last word in as his mask fell into place.

"And may the Force be with us."

A/N - Sorry for the delay! I hope to be back to once a week updates, though I make to promises. Only 3 chapters left though if I stick with me plan!

Review please!