Ebony Maw swept through the grand, absurdly designed corridors of the Grandmaster's palace towards the hangar where his ship sat. Not being able to bring his discovery to his master at once grated at him. He had laid waste to countless misguided fools who thought to oppose Thanos, he had found exceptional tools to be shaped for his glorious purposes—Corvus, Proxima, and Cull, for instance—and he had brokered deals with powers such as the Grandmaster that could not be directly opposed (for the time being). Every task Thanos had ever set him, he had completed to perfection. For his devotion and his success, he had been granted power and privilege none of the Great Titan's other servants or children enjoyed.
And now he was delayed.
Granted, Thanos had only sent him and Cull to Sakaar for the army, which would still arrive on schedule, assuming their calculations of the temporal flux had been accurate. He could not be disappointed over something he was ignorant of. And if Ebony Maw couldn't deliver the mage to Thanos yet, he could at least prepare him for that moment. He would need to be broken of his defiance before he could be made useful.
He stepped onto the ship and opened his mouth to draw in a deep breath. Not even the palace was entirely free of this planet's stench, but the ship had its own air supply and had remained untainted. Better than the air was the sense of the ship itself. The energy it carried within its walls was as invigorating as a good meal. He would forever be grateful to Thanos for letting him build it.
Maw collected his tools and strode to the prison corridor. Before he entered it, he pulled up the security logs and played back some of the footage from inside the cell. The mage and the warrior were awake and free of their chains. He had expected as much. He tried to listen to their conversation, but all he heard was strings of nonsense syllables, and his translator let out a burst of shrill feedback as it failed to make any of it coherent. He quickly muted the recording. Very well; let them enjoy their coded language. He would simply get the information he wanted directly.
He touched his hand to the wall, which pulsed brighter and thinned like a parting membrane to create a doorway. Both of the prisoners within shifted instantly into a combat stance. Ebony Maw lifted a finger, and a dozen surgical needles shot towards them, along with the empty chains dangling from the ceiling.
X
It didn't take long for Natasha's prediction about their pursuers to come true. She had to pull Thor and Clint into an alley about ten minutes after they left the destroyed bar, when a pair of soldiers matching the ones who'd tried to pen them in outside the upgrade shop appeared a little way up their street. What was more, they kept stopping people in the crowd and showing them high-resolution holograms that looked like footage from their earlier fight.
They were going to get made in about two seconds looking the way they did. She pointed this problem out to the guys. Luckily, they were in the middle of a market, so it wasn't hard to disappear. Within minutes, she and Clint had found enough chalky body paint and brightly colored cloth to thoroughly alter their appearances. As finishing touches, Natasha pinned her loose curls up to match one of the bizarre hairstyles she'd seen multiple times in the street, and Thor wrapped his hammer so that it looked like an innocent parcel tied to his belt.
Disguises in place, Natasha walked with Clint a short distance behind Thor, allowing plenty of room for other people to get between them. Sticking too closely together as a trio could be as much of a giveaway as anything else, but the crown prince of Asgard was so tall that his shoulder-length blond hair was easy to follow through the crowd even when he was wearing the same crazy colors as the locals. The next time they saw guards, they were able to walk right past them without drawing so much as a glance.
Thor didn't say where he was leading them, but his clear familiarity with parts of the city crystallized the doubts that had begun nagging at her from his initial bear hug at the palace on Asgard. Judging from the silent glances Clint kept shooting her as they followed him, he was thinking the same thing.
They walked for over an hour (passing two more pairs of guards en route) before Thor turned to face them and jerked his head at one of the taller nearby buildings. He went inside, and after a few moments, they casually followed.
Futuristic garbage planet aesthetic aside, the skyscraper they entered looked a lot like a high-rise apartment complex. "Right," said Thor when they caught up to him in the empty, litter-smattered hallway beyond the doors, "I think it's on the 137th floor." They got on an elevator, and even though it wasn't much different from the ones at the Triskelion, Natasha felt very exposed going up the side of a building in a glass box on a planet where the crazy tyrannical overlord was already sending his goons after them.
They reached the target floor, where there were only a few pieces of trash lying around beneath walls that zigzagged with green and white shapes. Thor confidently led the way down corridors and around corners until they came up to a window overlooking the city and trash fields beyond. He didn't so much as glance out of it, but began fiddling with a panel by the door next to it instead. It flashed red with a very negative-sounding beep. He poked at it some more, and it did it again. He grunted in frustration, and electricity zapped from his hand into the panel. It made a much less healthy series of beeps this time and a thin trail of white smoke leaked out of the top. Apparently it did the trick, though, because the door shot open. Thor laughed and looked inside, then nodded in satisfaction and walked in.
"What is this, a safe house?" said Clint, looking around the room. Natasha had been right: it was an apartment, sparsely furnished and not particularly tidy. There were a lot of empty bottles lying around, some piled up magazines or books, dirty clothes here and there, and a distinct lack of personal touches. At least it had a view, or what passed for one on Sakaar.
"It should be safe enough," said Thor. "These are the living quarters of the woman from the mead hall."
"And you know her," said Natasha.
"She's the last Valkyrie of Asgard, yes," he said. He shed the cloth portions of his disguise and walked over to what looked like a kitchen, where he started rummaging through cupboards.
"Has she been stationed here?" said Clint.
"No, I think she fell through a portal or something a few hundred years ago after a battle," said Thor.
Clint glanced at Natasha again. She nodded and stepped forward. "Thor, we need to have a conversation."
"Yes, of course," said Thor with forced cheerfulness. "We'll have some food and then we'll discuss how we're going to rescue my brother and the Valkyrie!" He brandished containers of something that was probably edible.
"Not that," she said. He frowned at her, looking far more like an oversized puppy than he had any right to after what she'd seen him do. In some ways, this conversation would probably have been easier to have with Loki. Someone as shrewd as him would be less likely to get his feelings hurt from what was going to start out sounding like an accusation. "Look, we believe you that your interests are aligned with Earth's—you've proven that. And we believe that you value our well-being," she gestured at herself and Clint, "but it's pretty clear there's a lot you aren't telling us."
"Yeah, and that needs to change," said Clint. "We wouldn't have come here if we weren't willing to help you, but you're dragging us into some insane shit here. We've been to two different planets today, been attacked twice, and let an alien bird man shoot tentacle chips into our necks. We can't keep doing this on faith for someone we just met."
Thor's face fell, and it was suddenly easy to believe that he was really over a thousand years old. He gave a weary, rueful chuckle and set down the food containers in favor of a bottle of deep amber liquid. "I suppose I shouldn't be surprised that you worked it out. Stark and Banner were often lauded as the geniuses of the team, but there was little that ever escaped your notice."
Natasha and Clint frowned. "Stark and Banner?" said Clint.
"Neither of them is exactly a team player," said Natasha slowly, but she was more interested in Thor's use of the past tense, and the wistful familiarity in his voice. As far as she knew, Tony Stark and Bruce Banner might have both met Thor, but they'd never met each other, let alone worked together.
"Stark, Banner, the two of you, Captain Rogers, and I," said Thor. "We made up the original six Avengers. Earth's mightiest heroes. We fought side by side against many threats to your world, and you grew as dear to me as my shield-sister and brothers on Asgard."
"Okay...are we forgetting something?" said Clint.
"Not exactly," said Thor. He pulled the top off the bottle and drank a few mouthfuls. "I've just gone back into the past to before the Avengers existed, and now I'm the only one who remembers."
Clint's mouth fell open and Natasha sank unsteadily onto the low sofa. She felt like her brain had jammed. It was impossible, wasn't it? Even though her definition of the word "impossible" had undergone a radical adjustment over the last few weeks. And yet it perfectly explained Thor's knowledge of Sakaar, his behavior around them, and his intense hatred of seemingly remote villains like Thanos and his followers.
She struggled for a detail to latch onto to begin making sense of it. "Captain Rogers?" she settled on after a few seconds. "As in Steven Grant Rogers, popularly styled Captain America, the sole subject of Project Rebirth, who went down in a plane somewhere in the Arctic after taking down a rogue Nazi research division known as Hydra in 1945 and was never recovered?"
"He's still alive," said Thor, his eyes crinkling fondly. "If things happen the same way, SHIELD should find him in the ice sometime in the next few months, and if not, I'm sure Heimdall can help us locate him." His expression turned grave. "As to Hydra, I'm afraid it is far from defeated."
X
Loki couldn't move. The chains from the ceiling were coiled so tightly around him that he was losing feeling in his arms, and crystalline needles the size of swords hovered a hair's breadth from his skin at the points of several major arteries, trapping him against the back wall of the cell. The Valkyrie had taken one through the forearm when she tried to beat them away, before the chains reached her. Even pinned to the wall's uneven surface like an insect, with several more of the needles poised to inflict additional wounds, she glowered at Ebony Maw with no sign of pain or fear. Maw, however, had not acknowledged her for a second.
"You can make this much easier for yourself if you cooperate, mage," he said. "My master will learn everything you know about the Space Stone one way or the other. He always rewards those who serve him, and he never fails to punish those who don't."
"I'm terribly sorry for the inconvenience," said Loki in his most polite diplomat voice, "but I must decline."
Maw's eyes narrowed. Several of the needles rotated in the air without moving closer. "The only one who will be harmed by your obstinacy is you."
"I'm well aware of that," said Loki with a courteous nod. The needles didn't prevent it. "You see, I simply couldn't bear the humiliation of voluntarily working for a man so willfully stupid as to believe that ending half of all sentient life would be beneficial. If he were doing it for something sensible such as revenge or spite, we might be able to have a conversation. As it is…"
Maw seemed unperturbed. No doubt he'd heard every argument against Thanos's asinine plan and was thoroughly immune to them all. "Few are capable of comprehending the Great Titan's brilliance," he said. "They do not understand that great progress requires great sacrifice."
"Do your noble platitudes give you comfort in the absence of facts and logic to support your position?" said Loki. "Did they make it easier for you to watch him slaughter half of your people?"
Maw's smile sent a chill down Loki's spine. "The only day more glorious than when he came to my planet will be the day he fulfills his final destiny," he said. "Most of Thanos's followers require a great deal of persuasion to see the truth, but I am one of the few who sought him out. I begged him to bring his salvation to my world. He is generous and merciful, and he did as I asked, with my eager help." He gestured at the ship around them. "My kin live on in a far more useful form now. No other population has been granted such an honor."
"You used them as raw materials to build this ship," Loki realized, unable to conceal his horror.
"What the Hel?" said the Valkyrie from his right, glancing around at the pulsing lights in the walls with a sickened expression.
"An experimental design," said Maw. "One we will likely not use again. Few species are suited for it, and even those who are have limited application."
"You're insane," said Loki. He dispensed with the politeness, putting as much contempt into his voice as he could. "The whole lot of you are insane."
"On the contrary," said Maw. "We are the only sane ones in a mad universe. In time, you will see." All at once, the needles drove into Loki's flesh. He screamed, and somewhere beneath the blinding explosion of agony, it occurred to him that they had been aiming not for arteries but for the major nerve clusters that ran alongside them. None of them missed their targets.
X
"How can we be sure what you're telling us is real?" said Natasha. Night had fallen outside, and the lamp and kitchen lights cast a fluorescent glow over the room. Thor was sitting on the small chair opposite her, now holding an empty bottle, and Clint was pacing in front of the window that took up the entire front wall of the apartment.
Natasha didn't doubt Thor's story, not really, but things would be a lot less complicated if it wasn't true. Half of SHIELD's operatives were really Hydra double-agents? And they'd been working for decades without detection, twisting world events to generate widespread fear and increase their control? It shook the foundation of everything good she'd believed she managed to build for herself after Clint brought her over to their side. Hell, a lot of the information she and Clint were gathering on this mission now could do serious damage if Hydra got a hold of it. They were supposed to debrief with Sitwell when they got back. She wished she could be sure that the drinks on this planet wouldn't kill her.
"If I wanted to do you harm, I would hardly need to lie to you first," said Thor gently. Natasha could easily give him that one. "But I'm happy to give you whatever proof you need." He considered a moment, then looked at Clint. "There was a time when we all needed shelter from our enemies, somewhere 'off the grid,' as your people say. You brought us to your family's farm." Clint froze in his tracks, his entire body rigid. "You introduced us to the lady Laura and your children." Thor ran his fingers through his hair, looking sheepish. "I stepped on a toy house. I tried to nudge the pieces out of sight, but Rogers caught me."
Natasha couldn't help a brief chuckle at the image, and Thor smiled at her.
"The only way I'd tell you about them is if I trusted you completely," said Clint.
"You did," said Thor. He looked like the absence of that trust was causing him physical pain, and his expression became even more earnest, somehow. "Barton, if this quest takes you away from your family for any great length of time, I swear to you now that I will do whatever you ask of me to make it up to you and to them. I was foolish to invite you both to Sakaar. I should have remembered how time moves here, but I was so eager to rebuild the bonds we formed as the Avengers that I wasn't thinking."
"Why time travel at all if the Avengers defeated all of those threats?" said Clint. "Why would you want to do it all again and risk making it worse?"
"Coming back in time was more accident than plan," said Thor. "I'm probably lucky to have survived it. I thought it was my second chance, because Earth might have done well in those years with us to protect it, but the same was not true of Asgard. By the time I beheaded Thanos, I had already lost my world, every member of my family, most of my friends, and all but a handful of my people. I was an arrogant boy who had everything, and I took it all for granted." His eyes glistened with unshed tears.
"That's why you're so afraid of Thanos getting his hands on Loki, isn't it?" said Natasha. "It happened before."
"My brother never spoke of it much, but Thanos unmade him. He took him when he was hurt and vulnerable and twisted him into someone I barely recognized. Just when he was getting back to himself and we had truly become brothers again, Thanos killed him in front of me. When I realized I had come back to before any of it happened, I swore I would spare him that future, but if my recklessness lands him in Thanos's clutches again, and the Valkyrie along with him…." His voice broke and the tears came spilling down his cheeks. He looked at them pleadingly. "Protecting my little brother was the first responsibility I was ever given."
Natasha looked at Clint. She was raised to be a weapon. She had never had a childhood, let alone a family with siblings, and she had allowed the Red Room to rob her of a chance at any future family that would share her blood. With the exception of the Bartons, Fury, and maybe Coulson, she always put layers of false faces between herself and anyone else, so it was difficult to imagine what that kind of loss and survivor's guilt would be like, but simply being in the same room with Thor was enough to feel it. The poor guy had been through hell.
"We'll get your brother back," said Clint.
Natasha nodded. "Tell us everything you can remember about Sakaar," she said. "The smallest details might be something we can use to our advantage."
Thor stared at them, and then an enormous, grateful smile split his face.
Okay, normally it's the Brodinsons feels that make me cry when I'm writing this fic, but this time it was Brodinsons feels AND Thor missing the friendships he had with the Avengers. Sometimes, being the only one from the future can be super lonely. Also, this is a big week for Clint and Nat.
Oh man it was satisfying for someone as articulate as Loki to finally get an opportunity to drag Thanos a bit for his dumb plan. I ended up writing several different lines for him while I was drafting the scene, but I really liked the idea of him being less concerned with the heinousness of Thanos's plan than how freaking stupid it is, so that one became the winner.
I've been going to a jujitsu dojo since March, and that's where I learned about major nerves next to arteries. I'm not sure if it applies in every case, but they're definitely there next to the carotid, femoral, and brachial arteries, and it is not fun when someone jabs an elbow into them. I figured Maw with his "microsurgery needles" would know all about that kind of thing and how to take advantage of it.
I should probably stop trying to make Maw even creepier than he already is in canon. Hopefully that was the only Maw PoV scene.