Wow, I'm going to update in the late afternoon more often! So many reviews came my way that I was overwhelmed with joy and excitement. Some of it might have to do with the fact that the chapter ended on such an intense level…Man, my poor Loki! I almost cried as I wrote it, but I knew that it had to be done. It would've been too predictable if the Avengers simply fought Thanos off. Gotta make it interesting and realistic. Plus, I knew I could further the fic longer if Thanos took Loki. So, there's a method to my madness. Disclaimer at the bottom, as always. I would like to thank laureas for all of her help! I'll describe it more at the end.

The Rose Red Alchemist: Sounds like a good idea that I will consider. What names do you have in mind? I can't do the actors, because that's against Fanfiction rules and regulations and all that…

laureas: Anakin shall put up quite a fight, I assure you, considering you came up with a lot of it yourself! :D

AaylaKit: Boba will be back. I was so worried that I wouldn't get his character right! Your review made me so happy! And yeah, LOKI…! *cries* I have plans, don't worry.

chris: Yeah, I read that Thanos is a titan and he is indeed more powerful than the gods. When I read his powers, I was like, "Whoa. How're the Avengers going to get out of this mess?" Then a plan hit me. You shall soon see it unfold.

Ayy Kaim: Shawarma. Haha Tony. I'll bring that in somewhere when things die down. So glad you liked Boba. And yeah…as I told your sister, I have plans, I promise. Still…*sobs* Loki… :'(

FutureOscarWinner94: Definitely the hardest thing I have ever written. I had to capture everything just right and it was almost unbearable to write out Loki's pain and terror.

Guest: I have a plan. Everything I do at this point has a purpose and is thought out to the best of my ability. Haha, I loved doing the Boba line. It was fun.

Guest2: I know, right! Keep your eyes open, cuz things might get ugly…

Cassy27: You totally called how I planned to portray Loki. Nice one! :D

11SnowLeopard11: Yeah, got the reference like a boss. XD

CupcakeLovinGirl: You have no idea how much that made my day! I've gotten a lot of positive feedback, but never has anyone told me that my fic is their favorite. Thank you! I will keep you in mind every time I update. :) Ah, I just got your latest review. In response, I say yes, one other person recommended that. In my eyes, I see that, if more than one person shares the same idea, then it must be a good one and I will use it. So, though it isn't in this particular chapter, I have an idea of where to put it. Thanks!

Raychaell Dionzeros: Ask, and you shall receive! :)

The silence threatened to overwhelm them. Anakin, who had been forcing himself to refrain from commenting, finally shouted, "Cowards! You're all cowards! He trusted you and you turn around and handed him over to a fate worse than death! Yes, I sensed his intentions, and they were, to say the least, not good." He was growing so angry that he didn't even notice or care about the presence of the Jedi Council members in the room. "You sicken me—all of you! You told him that he was one of you—an Avenger—and you turn your back on him when things get rough!"

"Watch your tongue, Jedi!" Thor thundered. "Loki is my brother, and—"

Anakin stopped him midsentence by lifting him in the air with the Force and throwing him against the wall. Thor was too dazed to move, but he heard the Jedi Knight's next words clearly. "You have no right to call him your brother after what you've done! He called you brother, and you turned away. He shouldn't have had to reduce to falling to his knees and begging for you to save him. He shouldn't have needed to tell you that he'd do anything for you. You should have helped him even if he had nothing to offer!"

"Anakin, this isn't our fight," Obi-Wan whispered warningly, trying to soothe his former padawan.

"I'm making it my fight," Anakin said stubbornly. "You do what you want, but I won't let Loki end up facing this alone. Not when I know exactly what he's going through." He shot a scathing glance at the rest of the Council as he left the room.

Ahsoka followed. "I'm right behind you, Master," she said.

Silence followed. The Council members knew exactly what Anakin had been referring to. It was no secret that no one trusted him. Everyone knew that the Jedi Knight was different and that he had pains of his own that no one could possibly understand.

Thor pulled himself away from the wall and fell to his knees. Tony kept quiet, though he would normally comment on the broken wall. "What have I done?" Thor whispered. "My brother…What have I done?"

"It's okay, Thor—" Natasha began.

"No, it's not okay! I betrayed my own brother! I swore to protect him, and I just…stood there while that monster dragged him away! Don't you understand?" Thor's voice fell to a whisper. "He cried for me. He called me brother. He was desperately begging for my help, and what did I do?"

"You made a sacrifice for the good of the universe," Barton responded. "Do not blame yourself. We all betrayed Loki today."

Thor shook his head, anguished. He could not get the image of his brother out of his head. The pleading, the watering eyes, the desperation…The god of thunder could still see it as clearly as if Loki was in the room now. Finally, Thor stood up and picked up his hammer. "I'm going with Anakin," he said.

"What? Thor's that's—" Natasha began.

"Do not say 'madness'! Loki is an Avenger, and he needs us now."

"But we've got to make a plan of attack!" Steve objected. "We can't just attack this guy. We need a strategy, and I know that Fury could be of help to us if we contact him." He glanced around and lowered his voice. "Even if we can't plan in time to save Loki, we could at least find a way to defeat Thanos with the time he gave us."

Thor glared at him. "I can't believe we've given up! If it had been me that Thanos was after, would you let him take me? If it had been any one of us, would everyone just abandon them?"

Natasha chose her words carefully. "If it had been any one of us, it would have been for the best if that person was given up for the good of the universe. Said person must understand that."

"So you were expecting Loki to willingly give himself up?" Thor asked hollowly. "You all know full well that we'd be more inclined to give Loki up than anyone else on the team, just because of his past."

"We'll try to save your brother, Thor," Natasha said gently. "If you come with us to the main area, you can help us plan out a way to do so. If we're successful, we can save the universe and Loki from destruction."

"If we're not too late," Banner muttered grimly.

"We won't be if we act quickly," Steve said. "Let's contact Fury now."

"You can contact anyone you like," Thor said. "I'm leaving now." He stormed out of the room and rushed outside to Anakin, who was preparing his ship. "Skywalker, is there room in one of your transports for one more?"

Anakin sized him up skeptically. "Do you really think that coming with me will change what you've done?"

Thor shook his head. "No, it won't. But clearing my conscience doesn't matter at this point. All that is important is saving my broth—sorry, Loki—from, as you said, a fate worse than death."

"Good answer. Let's go."

"Do you have a plan?" Thor asked.

Anakin shook his head. "Stealth—and possibly a surprise attack—are all we have on our side right now."

Thor thought a moment, and then it hit him. "No—I have a better idea!" He walked out into the middle of the street. Since there were no people in the city, it was easier to move around. "Heimdall!" he shouted. "I know you are watching this! Send someone here with the Tesseract!"

Anakin raised a questioning eyebrow. "Are you suggesting we go straight to Thanos using that? We could always use my ship, you know, so we don't have what the titan wants right in our grasp…" He couldn't understand where Thor was going with this. It was sheer madness to use the Tesseract to transport to Loki's location. Thanos would surely go after it, making it more difficult to fight him.

"Trust me," Thor said. "I know what I am doing."

"So what do we do now?" Tony asked.

"We need to contact Fury," Banner said, "so we can form a plan and help Anakin, Ahsoka, and Thor."

"Sir, we're getting a transmission from Director Nick Fury," JARVIS said. "Shall I send it through the speakers?"

Tony smiled despite the situation. "That was easy. Go for it, JARVIS."

Fury's voice blared throughout the room. "I've encountered a problem on my way to headquarters," he announced. "Are any of the Jedi acquainted with a Boba Fett?"

Mace spoke up. "Yes. His father was the bounty hunter called Jango Fett. I killed him in a battle on Geonosis. Is he here now?"

"Yes. We have him contained, but I plan to bring him over there for questioning. I contacted you to let you know that we are on our way. Status report," he ordered without warning.

Everyone hesitated. "Um…well…we've got a situation," Natasha said.

"Get here as fast as you can," Steve said urgently. "Loki has been taken away by the angry Chitauri leader."

"What? But the Other—"

"—was a speaker for the titan called Thanos," Banner filled in.

"We will tell you everything when you arrive," Barton assured him. "Please hurry."

"I will be there in a matter of minutes. Fury out."

Thanos piloted the ship at a leisurely pace. He had been waiting for this day for a long time, so he might as well revel in it. Loki was next to him, feet bound, hands cuffed behind his back, and mouth gagged. He sat very still, defiance reflected in his deep green eyes. The titan glanced over at his copilot, grinning sinisterly. "It's a shame that your friends abandoned you without even lifting a finger to stop me," he said, cackling evilly.

They are not my friends, Loki thought bitterly.

"You look like you have something to say," Thanos said smoothly. "Why don't you say it? Humor me, god of mischief." He pulled the gag off of Loki. "How do you feel about your friends now? Not so glad that you helped them defend the Earth from the invasion now, are you?"

"They are not my friends," Loki spat, repeating his earlier thought.

"So, you don't even expect them to come and attempt to rescue you, do you? Even after you risked everything in keeping the Tesseract from the Other," Thanos taunted, wanting to provoke the Asgardian further. Loki shook his head. He would not speak anymore. He would not give the titan the satisfaction. "I asked you a question!" Thanos roared. He slapped Loki hard in the side of the face.

Normally, simple blows like that one would not damage Loki too badly. It would sting a little for a couple of minutes, then fade away. However, when Thanos struck him, he saw stars dance before his vision. The titan was demonstrating a snippet of his true strength, and it made Loki dizzy. "No," he choked out at last. "I do not expect them to rescue me."

"I didn't think so." The ship landed on a barren moon, where a familiar figure stood waiting. "Meet my ally." He yanked Loki out of the ship and threw him down in front of the cloaked figure. "We have a visitor, Count."

Count Dooku put his hood down to reveal his battle-worn face. "What have we here?" he asked, putting a finger under Loki's chin and tilting it up. "How much blood did you have to spill to get him here?"

"None. The Avengers and Jedi were strangely…willing…to give this one up. I told them that I was there to claim what is mine, and that I would give them time to bring the Tesseract if they handed Laufeyson over to me. They complied without a fight."

Dooku nodded. "Remember our agreement."

Thanos tensed in anger. "Remember your place. You are beneath me, and you always will be. I recall the conversation we exchanged. I will kill the Avengers as soon as they hand the Tesseract to me. I will then keep my promise to you, in which I will destroy the Republic that opposes you."

What he did not say, Loki noted, was that he would support the Separatists in the war. Thanos had very carefully chosen his words. He had said, "I will destroy the Republic that opposes you." He didn't say he wouldn't destroy the Separatists as well. Loki had a feeling that the titan would double-cross his alleged ally. The Asgardian considered warning the Count, but what was the point? They were both on his hate list. In fact, so were the Avengers. He quickly realized that he didn't care if Thanos killed them all after taking the Tesseract. It would serve them right. They deserved the fate that they had tossed him into. At least their deaths would happen quickly. Loki had no way of knowing how long he would be kept alive, silently begging for his death.

"Very well," Dooku said. "I thank you in advance, and I hope you know what you are doing. The Avengers could easily be tricking you into thinking that they will use the offered time to get the Tesseract for you."

"Do you think I have not considered that? I will be ready for them if they choose to attack. We will kill them all on the spot."

"How will you get the Tesseract, then?" Dooku wondered.

Thanos nodded toward Loki. "The Avengers will die, but he will remain. He will be the key to getting the cube. I will make sure of it." His gaze bore into Loki, who flinched unconsciously. "You cannot possibly imagine," he told Dooku, "the pain that this one will face for the rest of his miserable life."

Dooku dipped his head. "I sense that your power will be demonstrated to the fullest here. I am grateful for your alliance with me."

Loki was pretty certain that Thanos found Dooku about as puny and worthless as a mortal. However, the Sith Lord had invaded Earth for him. Perhaps this was a way of pretending to pay him back. By forming a fake alliance. Dooku had no idea what he was getting himself into.

"If you would excuse me, Tyranus, I have much to do," Thanos dismissed him. Dooku nodded and walked back to his own ship, where he would do who knows what. The titan faced Loki once more. "Do not think that you have been forgotten."

"Of course not," Loki said stiffly. He was being awfully bold for someone who was about to endure a fate worse than death.

The restraints dropped from Loki's hands and legs. "These will only get in my way," Thanos explained.

"We wouldn't want that, would we?" Loki asked, quick-witted as ever.

Thanos, enraged at Loki's outwardly calm demeanor, blasted him with an infrared beam so powerful that it sent him flying backward. The Asgardian gasped in pain, searching for knowledge of any kind on infrared radiation. He knew that it was safe to be exposed to it naturally, but when concentrated into a powerful beam…He looked down at his chest, where the blast had hit. That looked like a pretty serious burn. Loki preferred the cold, so having such an intensity of heat hit his body was more than uncomfortable for him.

"That was the…warm-up," Thanos sneered, laughing at his own joke. "Are you ready for round two?"

"Thor, what is it? Heimdall said you needed the Tesseract urgently, but he would not explain why," Sif said without a greeting. She held the object in question in her right hand.

"I do not have time to explain," Thor replied. "Grab onto me, Anakin. Ahsoka, take Sif's arm. We're going to Asgard."

"Thor, stop!" Fury shouted, but it was too late. Light flashed and took them away before the Director could do anything about it. He hated the fact that he did not have Thor and Anakin to help plot Thanos's downfall, but he would not lament over what he could not have. They had to think up a plan quickly, before the two Jedi and Thor would meet their end. Quickly, he went back inside, where he had left Boba in the hands of the Council.

Boba was glaring at Mace when Fury arrived. "So, you don't have an eyepatch," the bounty hunter scowled. "Good. Let me give you reason to have one right now!" He struggled against the restraints. "No, scratch that. You won't need an eyepatch because it would be a waste of time to put one on a dead body!"

"Calm yourself," Yoda said, waving a hand.

Boba was not weak-minded, but that was not a mind trick. Yoda was using the Force to relax the nerves in the boy's body. Though he fought it, Boba relaxed a bit. He was still angry, however. "Why don't you give me that lightsaber of yours, Windu?" he asked. "Make this a fair fight in which I behead you and everyone else stands by and panics." His hard gaze held a hint of pain. "You certainly didn't seem to mind my father having his head taken off."

"The death of your father was necessary," Mace said. He understood, though, how bad his action was, no matter how much good it had done. He had taken a boy's father away from him and, as a result, created a bitter monster. No, he thought. The boy was already corrupted by his father's teachings. Jango wasn't even his father at all. Boba was a young clone of him. He was raised by a monster, so he would've become a monster anyway, whether I killed the bounty hunter or not.

While Mace contemplated this, Fury paced the room. "There's no time to settle old scores right now," he said. "I brought Boba here to be questioned, but clearly there are other obligations we must uphold." He glanced around the room. "While difficult, I feel that what you did to Loki had a good reason behind it. Do not feel guilty. We must act."

"What's the plan, Director?" Natasha asked.

"We need to take him by surprise," Fury said contemplatively, "and it has to be fast. I saw Thor, Anakin, Ahsoka, and a female Asgardian transporting away with the Tesseract. I have reason to believe that they're going straight to Thanos now to fight him off, which is a stupid-ass move considering the Tesseract is what the titan is after. It'll fall right into his hands."

"What should we do, then?" Barton wondered.

"I say we suit up," Tony suggested. "I don't care what Loki said. Sure, Thanos has cosmic powers. But we have a Hulk."

Disclaimer: I do not own Star Wars or the Avengers, first of all. Secondly, I don't own a lot of Anakin's dialogue at the very beginning. A wonderful person named laureas gave me the idea and even wrote a lot of it out herself as a suggestion and was kind enough to let me use it. For that, she has earned the AWESOMENESS STATUS!

AN: Lots of elaborate schemes here, eh? Thanks for all the reviews, and I hope all of you will continue to support me in the journey that this fic has created. More is definitely to come, thanks to a lot of you. I am grateful for the ideas given to me that keep this fic going. Before long, it will have had more reviews than my first fic, Pwning and Gaming, which is pretty impressive. Invasion already has more Alerts. Though the favorites and views are not as high, I still feel that this is my best work yet. Keep the feedback coming and I will keep the writing coming.