This one is going to take a bit of time. I'm not great at action, but I'm working on it, I promise. Comments are always appreciated! Thank you to those who always comment after I post a chapter. You all are my heroes.

IDon'tOwnMarvel

"I can't thank you enough." May smiled while I sat at their table. "It's so relieving to know that even when Peter is doing these very dangerous things, he has someone around to keep an eye on him. Lord knows I can't follow him everywhere."

I chuckled nervously at that. "Yeah, I really don't mind. The other guys are keeping an eye on him too. We won't let him off alone until he's well grown."

"Yeah, I mean, I bet the other avengers didn't let you just do whatever when you were Peter's age." May continued, making me want to cringe as I kept the polite smile. "I really expected someone older with how Peter talks about you. That couldn't have been that long ago, huh?"

"I'm…21." I nodded in confirmation, thinking about it for a second before pulling out a lie. "And, ah, no. I guess they didn't really. I showed up on their doorstep when I'd just turned sixteen, so it's not that far off from Peter."

Dinner with May was stressful, partially because I'd been avoiding it for so long, but also because I didn't want to freak out another person in my life. She was really nice all around, but I was super anxious about even being in her house.

"Hey, sorry about all the questions." Peter whispered by the door while I picked up my bag again. "You…probably expected that though."

"I don't know everything, dude," I smiled back politely. "And it's okay. Your aunt May just worries about you."

"Still," He passed a small look over his shoulder before smiling. "Thanks for coming."

I patted his arms, smoothing down his sleeves. "Don't mention it, kid. Have a nice night."

The compound was sort of quiet when I got back the next morning after spending the night at the New York sanctum, so I headed to where I knew someone would be hanging around at this hour. Tony was normally in his lab around now while Steve was probably off running and Friday confirmed that for me. Of course, Tony must move pretty fast because I had only just dropped off my bag in my room before Tony rounded the corner quickly, almost running smack into me.

His face fell in an indescribable pain, making me give him a worried look back.

"Are you okay?" I shut my bedroom door behind me to stand in the hall with him. "What's going on?"

He opened and shut his mouth, just looking at me for a moment before pulling me into him for a tight hug.

"Tony?" I asked again, my voice muffled by his shoulder while he held on tight and I returned the hug gingerly. "What happened?"

"Nothing." His voice broke, "Just…looking for something."

"Are you sure?" I hugged him back fully, not sure where this was coming from with him. "You don't look okay. You look like you've seen a ghost."

"I feel like that a little bit too." He whispered, resting his face in my hair and not letting go just yet. "Do you know where your journal is?"

I snorted at that, "What? Wanna look at the pictures?"

"I need to check on something, kiddo." He murmured into my hair, "I'll give it right back."

"I can just take it back whenever." I patted his back as he finally released me. "That's what the portals are for."

I raised a hand, making a portal and pulling my journal off the shelf before making another portal to wave at Wong at his desk with my journal in hand to show him. Tony smiled politely too at the man on the other side before both portals closed and I held the journal out to him.

"See?" I chuckled, trying to ease the tension on his shoulders with a shrug. "Nothing to be stressed about there. What's going on?"

"I'll tell you later." He shook his head at the question, gripping the journal tight in his hand before holding a hand out to get me to come in for another hug. "Come here."

I complied with a nervous laugh. "Yeah, okay. It's funny, I was just going to check on you in your lab."

"I know." He kissed my head, alarming me a little as I wanted to laugh that off too. "Friday told me. Stay out of trouble for me, okay?"

"Okay," I laughed again. "You're acting really weird. Is there anything to do in the lab right now? I'm kind of avoiding-"

Before I could finish my statement, I was falling and landed hard on the floor of the New York Sanctums.

Strange stepped over me, pocketing his sling ring again with a playful scoff. "You're in the way."

"Rude." I brushed myself off, standing up again and looking around. "This. I was avoiding this."

"We have guests, Lincoln." He rolled his eyes like it was the most obvious thing in the world before freezing in his place and looking back at me with narrow eyes. "Who were you talking to?"

"Tony?"

"No…yes?" Strange frowned, looking like he was thinking for a moment before nodding. "That's so weird. He's gone."

"Gone?" I asked, raising my voice. "What do you mean?"

"Well…" Strange huffed to himself, looking around confusedly, "I don't know. I lost the…location. That was really weird."

"He was acting weird." I mentioned with a nod. "He's borrowing my journal."

"What's he going to do with it?" Strange cracked a smile then beckoned me along to the stairs and warped us both to the bottom of them. "Look at pictures?"

"I guess." I shrugged it off. "I don't know, man. Who's coming?"

Strange nodded at the door right as it opened and the god of thunder stepped in. My mouth dropped open a little while I processed the timing.

"Oh my god," I looked back at Strange fast, at a loss for words.

"He is a god, yes." Strange confirmed cheekily, smiling at his own joke. "Yours? Well, you'd have to dish that out yourselves."

"Not funny." I deadpanned, lowering my voice. "Now? 'Now' was not what I was expecting."

"He's just dropping by," Strange shrugged me off. "What? Should I be worried about major threats?"

"Well, no-"

"A new plot?"

I opened my mouth and then shut it again, declining to answer before Thor interrupted, looking between us.

"Ah…" He gestured at me, nodding and then pointing. "Nice to see you again, Lenny."

"Lincoln." I corrected with a smile, honestly not expecting the world since I hadn't seen him in years. "It's alright. Nice to see you too. You here for Loki?"

"Oh, not particularly," He looked around the room while Dr. Strange clapped a hand on my shoulder. "I-"

I winced when the room changed, blinking off the short wave of nausea as I found myself sitting down alone in the library with Strange and Thor having disappeared. Frowning, I looked around and then got up. For a moment, I debated going to find them, but I ended up just looking around at the books. This was going to be mostly family business, so I didn't really need to get too involved with Thor's adventure. Sure, I could step in and follow him into the jaws of the literal goddess of death, but I didn't touch T'Challa's problems, so I wasn't going to start now.

To be fair, there was some major threat coming for the Asgardian people…but that's a god's battle. I didn't have any right to step in the way while literal aliens were dishing out family problems, right?

I warped back to the study.

Thor smiled when he saw me again. "Hello."

"I have to tell you, he was adamant that he not be disturbed." Stephen continued as if he hadn't just warped me there. "Your father said he had chosen to remain in exile."

"Ah, my father is no longer in exile." Thor looked between us, folding his hands behind his back contently, "So if you could tell me where he is, I can take him home."

"Gladly." Strange gave me a small look, his eyes narrowing just the slightest with a small upward rise of his chin before they both warped back away.

I sighed to myself and turned to walk back towards the lobby with a mocking tone. "'Did you want to come along too, Lincoln?' Oh, of course. I would love to spend time with my second favorite Asgardian. 'Here, then, let me bring you too.'"

The little trip of theirs would end in the foyer, so I portaled myself to the bottom of the stairs and then stopped and waited.

"Step Left."

I turned fast to see where the voice had come from, only to end up turning in a full circle while looking around me. "Huh?"

A beat of silence passed before I looked down and took one step to the left. Exactly as I did that, Thor and a bookshelf materialized to my right and Thor backed off it right into where I'd been standing before. I blinked at the coincidence while Strange made a portal in front of me.

"Ah, okay." I scratched the back of my head, brushing off the voice as the least weird thing about my whole life so far.

Thor smiled awkwardly again when he saw me before setting the beer down with a small sigh and going closer to Strange with me.

"He's waiting for you." Stephen stepped back, folding his hands behind himself with a content smile.

Thor nodded and took a step towards the portal. "Alright."

"Don't forget your umbrella." I said, giving half a smile to the god too and also folding my hands behind my back.

"Ah, yes." Thor extended his hand and arm, summoning Mjolnir.

I listened with my face slowly falling as there was a loud series of crashes through glass. Stephen winced too and looked at me, opening his mouth.

I held up a finger at him with Thor catching Mjolnir at the same time. "I'm not cleaning it up."

"Sorry." Thor brushed off the umbrella.

"Oh," Strange raised two hands, opening a new portal up in the air beside myself and Thor. "I almost forgot."

Out dropped Loki, smack onto the hardwood and making me wince a little from how that must've felt.

He lifted his head, glaring hard. "I have been falling for THIRTY MINUTES!"

I snorted and covered my mouth from the iconic line, forcing myself to look away with Thor also hiding his own amusement.

Strange nodded decisively at that. "You can handle him from here."

Thor nodded back with a small smile. "Yes, of course. Thank you so much for your help."

"Handle me?" Loki jumped to his feet with his eyes falling on me next with an almost surprised look. "You."

"Loki-" Thor warned, shifting closer to me as if to be ready to put himself in the way.

Loki huffed, turning his attention away from me again and back at Dr. Strange, slipping out two daggers. "I've got a word with you first-"

"Muro neclu orakre."

I turned my head to look again at the voice on my right side, not sure again where it had come from.

"Bye-Bye."

"Muro-" I almost repeated under my breath while sidestepping the portal, only to get snatched roughly by my arm at the last second. "GAH!"

Loki yanked me over to him and I passed through the portal with them and Loki's hand firmly wrapped around my bicep. Immediately, I was washed with cold nerves when I saw the literal Allfather standing in the distance. I wanted to be nowhere near this family business, let alone this moment in particular.

"What the hell, dude?" I hissed quietly, taking my arm back and shoving him aside to which he just smirked. I shook my head at him, reaching for my sling ring. "You know I can leave whenever I want?"

When I grabbed at where it was normally tied onto my rust orange robes, I found it very much missing and looked to a Loki who had already started to walk away. He definitely had it, but I was not about to chase him down while he was approaching his dying father. Instead, I turned in a full circle and looked around for maybe a second portal that Strange was going to make to bring me back. There was nothing.

"Muro…" I scratched the top of my head, not fully sure if I could remember the rest of what was supposed to be said. "Muro necru Oracle?"

Nothing again.

"Damn." I whispered, shifting awkwardly while several yards away, Loki and Thor were literally losing their father.

With little warning, I sensed a light above me and looked up fast, only to have to duck at the last second as something fell from the portal and onto my covered head. I may have gasped a little from the panic, only to look down and see my backpack sitting on the ground after having fallen. I picked it up and looked up again.

Did he… I stared at the sky, trying to process what was happening. Is he leaving me here?

This was not a place that I wanted to be at all, especially because of the fact that the most dangerous being in the universe was about to show up and wreak havoc. Gods were not in my pay grade at all, especially since this was specifically family business.

Thor and Loki, when I looked back, stood alone there on the edge of the cliff. Odin was long gone, and I started to gravitate closer to the two gods, not wanting to be left too close to Hela when she showed up. If Strange was out of his mind, I was going to have to ride this out until he came to his senses. And to do that, I needed to not die or be taken prisoner by the goddess of death herself.

"Condolences." I muttered, trying not to be awkward right there beside them with the cloud of black starting to swirl to my left and drive my nerves through the roof. "For your dad."

"Thank you." Thor replied while Loki just turned his attention to the swirling mass of horrors.

Honestly, I felt nauseous and could feel like a headache was already starting. Just knowing what was about to go down was enough to stress me out. Thor materialized on his armor with a crack from his hammer. All I knew was that I was going to be moving aside as soon as the bifrost-

"I have not known you for long." Thor put a hand on my shoulder, wearing his armor now. "But will you stand with us if it comes to a fight?"

I stared back at him for a moment. Well, shit.

I nodded, taking a deep breath and fixing my bag all the way over my shoulders with Hela taking a step out onto the grass. "You have me."

"So he's gone?" Hela cocked her head at us, stepping onto the grass fully with the dark rift closing behind her. "That's a shame. I would have liked to have seen that."

"You must be Hela." Thor replied, tightening his hold on his hammer by his side. "I'm Thor, son of Odin."

Hela scoffed, barely flinching. "You don't look like him."

"Perhaps we can reach an agreement." Loki nodded at her.

My heart thrummed in my ears while I almost felt faint. I sucked in a deep breath, holding it and then releasing it while trying not to freak myself out at the idea of being stabbed.

"You sound like him." Hela gave Loki a once over, making him shift uncomfortably. She looked over at me curiously next. "I don't suppose I have a sister too?"

I looked to Thor on how to answer. "Uh…"

She rolled her eyes. "Kneel."

"I beg your pardon?" Loki asked back with a disbelieving scoff.

Hela manifested a dark black blade and held it out, pointing it at us. "Kneel...before your Queen."

Let me tell you, I was a little tempted to comply with what was pointed at me.

Thor fixed his grip on his hammer. "I don't think so."

Hela shifted her shoulders forwards, ready to move closer, and Thor took that moment to launch his hammer at her. As suspected, she caught it mid-air and Thor kept his hand raised, clearly trying to summon it back in both his and Loki's shock.

"That's not possible." Thor strained, getting a worried look from Loki.

"Darling, you have no idea what's possible." She smirked back, the ringing of mjolnir shaking the air around us like it was ready to consume me.

I winced and raised a shield, praying that my hearing would survive right as the boom of the hammer being shattered pushed us all back a step.

Breathe. I reminded myself, lowering the shield to look back at her and the broken mjolnir. One, two…

Both brothers looked on in horror as the pieces of Thor's beloved hammer settled on the ground. Hela ran both her hands over her hair, transforming it into the array of black spikes that I remembered.

"Bring us back!"

Thor looked at his brother quickly with me, both of us protesting together. "No!"

Hela charged at us, but we were quickly enveloped in the bifrost before I could take my second lunging step to escape it. I was getting some serious flashbacks to New York and the chitauri asI started to fly upwards at a horrible speed. I clamped my teeth down and fended off the returning feeling of nausea while looking down at Thor's warning.

Loki threw two Knives at Hela from directly beside me, making her falter for a moment before she plowed right into him. His arm shot out again and grabbed me by the ankle, yanking me to the left. We crashed through the side of the bifrost together and in an instant, I was hurdling in circles with my body lighting up a bright purple.

Yeah, and I screamed…inaudibly to the absolute nothingness around me as Loki did not let go of my ankle.

Stars, nebulas, a galaxy, and many other interstellar formations shot past us while I tried not to panic too bad from the speed and confusion.

Then, we started our descent into a large dark hole, marking me as horrified that this was how I died. But, alas, the purple around me disappeared and I felt the sting of air on my skin as I fell through atmosphere. I gasped for air with Loki finally letting go.

"Agrovias."

"Agrovias!" I repeated immediately as it was the only attempt I could muster to live.

I got tugged by my back as something caught my fall and slowed it exponentially.

"Oh Jesus," I breathed in relief, looking up to see the golden wings and smiling. "OH WOW."

Forget that I was falling onto Sakaar and managed to land peacefully on the ground, the wings were amazing. I'd never read about a spell like that before.

"Thank you," I reached back to pet one as it disappeared again. "Awesome."

"Truly," Loki coughed, looking like a soaked cat in a bathtub from the way he was dripping with water. "No need to offer help."

"Well," I narrowed my eyes back at him and crossed my arms. "Maybe we wouldn't have this problem in the first place if you weren't always grabbing me. Now we're stuck here."

"Hardly." He barely batted an eye, running a spell of his own and drying his clothes. "You're a sorcerer. Just send us back."

"Oh, I'd love to." I held out my hand with a glare. "Give me back my sling ring."

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"Yes, you do." I insisted, making a grabbing motion with my hand. "Give it. The two attached gold rings on a metal plate? You took it. I know you did."

"I'm not a thief." He scoffed, looking off to his right, away from the river.

"That's exactly what you are." I stalked up closer, "Give me back my ring. This isn't my business to deal with, Loki. This is your sister."

He narrowed his eyes at something. "Shut up."

"No, you shut up." I snapped back.

He grabbed my mouth and the back of my head, pulling me back against him with the world shimmering to look almost foggy around us.

"Mfmft."

"Shut up." He gave me an urgent look, looking on to something over a pile of garbage.

I looked with my eyes too, holding his wrist with my hands. A figure moved over the mound, looking around curiously and then standing up before sliding down with several others following. He scoffed then and released me, the world around us shimmering clear again.

"Scrappers." He rolled his eyes, making them all back up fast in shock from our sudden appearance. "Harmless."

"Eh," I eyed them back, being ready to make a shield, "I wouldn't say that."

Loki turned in a full circle then and looked off in a direction before starting that way. I caught up to his heel right as the scrappers ran around in front of us as if to herd us back. Loki just waved a hand and I watched as the world went foggy again and an exactly copy of him turned and ran the opposite way with a copy of me following him in haste. The Scrappers took the bait and I only watched for a moment as they took off with foreign howls and yips after the fake versions of ourselves.

I guess I never really thought about the extent of what Loki could do. He wasn't exactly in the forefront of my thoughts until recently, and now I was finally seeing first hand how he managed his powers.

"You're falling behind." He called back, climbing over a hill of garbage and making me snap my head to look back at him and then warp beside him to catch up.

He stopped to blink at my sudden appearance before continuing along with a shake of his head. I followed after him quietly for a good ten minutes too, just taking in the fact that I was standing on an alien planet while Loki led the way through garbage. He also made us visible again while he was muttering to himself and shooting me looks.

After a bit, I could actually see where he was trying to go- The big city in the distance.

"What?" I asked after a little bit of his quiet chatter.

"You're not asgardian." He said out loud. "Or…human, obviously."

"Why 'obviously'?" I gave him an estranged look. "I am human."

"Humans can't possess the power that you do." Loki kicked a rat out of his way. "Don't think you can fool me."

"I'm not fooling you."

He barely glanced over at me before continuing up another mound to climb over it. I just warped to the other side and waited for him to slide down.

"I don't suppose you have a grand plan when you get to the city, do you?" I asked, continuing along beside him while we walked.

"I'm perfectly fine figuring out a plan as I go." He looked over at where some scrappers were wrapping up someone in a net. "Are you Kree or Skrull?"

"I'm human." I repeated, "And I know a guy in the city here. Well, I know of him. He sort of runs the place- In fact, I know of a few people here."

"So you know his tricks and weaknesses." Loki nodded, picking up his pace a little while I readjusted the bag on my back. "You're not useless."

"Thanks."

"You keep lying about the human thing." He accused casually, "You're not bad at lying. I'll give you that, but you lose nothing from just telling me."

I raised an eyebrow at him. "Why do you need to know?"

"Not long ago, you mentioned something to me." He stopped to give me a look, standing in the path. "You told me not to take the tesseract. What if I do?"

"You-"

"'Everything I love dies', yes." He nodded, "I heard that part too. Why would you know that? What kind of being possesses that many tricks?"

"Me?" I stepped around him awkwardly to keep walking with a thought in my head. "You know, I'll tell you if you guess it right, but only if you help me gain the favor of the big guy here. I don't want to be stuck here alone until Thor shows up."

"Thor is coming?"

"Eventually," I confirmed, "It's just going to take him a little bit."

Loki caught up with me to keep walking, more chatter coming from under his breath as he probably kept it up. Honestly, I was just going to say yes to whatever guess came first though. If he thought I was something way cooler than a human, I'd be able to live with that.

"Eternal?" He smiled a little like he was proud. "That's it. I understand the gold wings now."

"Mhm," I hummed back absently while he just looked so pleased with himself. "Good job buddy."

"You know, I've met one of you once." He almost bragged, "We had an Eternal woman who taught language classes in our school after she fled from her home planet. I don't suppose you know Lissa?"

"Do you know every asgardian?"

Loki snorted, making me smile too from my ability to make him laugh.

"Hardly." He replied, "I just wondered if you'd fled that planet too."

I shook my head, "No, my planet's gone."

"Seems like a running theme for you all, yes?"

I frowned, taking a moment to acknowledge that I actually did know nothing about eternals. Loki took that as silence though.

"Touchy subject." He moved on quickly. "Do you travel with any others? Or were you separated?"

I passed by a magazine with alien writing that caught my eye. On the cover was the image of what could be a bearded dragon if the water damage wasn't so bad on the ink.

"Ah, I had a companion." I admitted quietly, holding TC in my mind. "It always seems dumb when I think about it, but I honestly miss him."

Loki hesitated in thought at that before brushing off that subject too. "You must have had a life at least half as long as mine."

"It feels that way sometimes." I whispered, stuffing my hands in my pockets and warping to the other side of a hill of trash with Loki while trying not to lose my cool over TC again. "You're not so bad. I'm gonna be honest, I was not your biggest fan when you dragged me here, but there's someone I am actually excited to see."

"I don't have a problem with Eternals." He looked back at the hill I just warped us past. "Don't be misled by my curiosity. I find you utterly vexatious."

"What's vexatious?"

"You are." He lost the small smirk and moved on at a faster pace. "Lissa was interesting enough, though, I would never ask for your stories, as you probably haven't hit near two hundred yet."

"That young, huh?" I laughed a little, playing the part easily, "Man, I haven't been complimented like that in years."

"It's an insult to your naivety."

I smiled back at him, "I'll take it as a compliment to my looks."

"You shouldn't."

"I will."

He shot me a small glare. "Vexatious."