Thor landed on a ledge at the top of a rock covered mountain in the middle of nowhere. Loki transformed back into himself and walked around the rocks. The view boasted mountains for miles around, not a mortal in sight. "It's here somewhere, I know it!" Loki said, checking for hollowness under his feet.

With his axe, Thor brought lightning down and struck the earth. The rockface broke open and revealed a deep crevasse with a rainbow light inside. "There," he said, "I vote youngest goes first." He shoved Loki down feet first as payback for being unceremoniously chucked through the portal earlier.

Loki fell down the deep and dark chasm quickly, the wind rushed past his body and blew his long coat up against his torso and face. A rainbow light appeared, and he was suddenly falling upwards through a different cavern in Svartalheim.

Meanwhile Thor leapt in right behind him. As he fell, stormbreaker slipped from his grip. "Oh no," he said, "Loki, look out!" He watched it fall through the rainbow light first and desperately tried to catch up to it.

Now in Svartalheim, Loki flew through the air and landed gracefully on his feet in the black dirt. Just as he celebrated, he turned and watched Thor's axe fly sharp side first directly to his face! He turned and shut his eyes in a desperate attempt to dodge. He felt it's blade graze his hair and slice into the back of his head, the momentum knocking him down hard.

"Loki!" Thor shouted, too late to stop it. "Loki, are you alright?! I'm so sorry!" He ran to his brother's side.

Loki held his head in pain and got back to his feet without a word. He glared at Thor and demanded, "Hand over the axe!"

Thor gave it to him and watched him make it disappear with his magic. "I'm going to need that."

"Not now you don't," Loki said, holding the back of his head in pain.

"I never intended to hurt you, brother," Thor insisted, "I'm sorry! Stormbreaker slipped from my fingertips, and it shouldn't have! I should have kept it in my grasp!"

Loki said, "We need to move." He quickly turned and walked away.

Thor caressed the back of his head and then checked his hand to see it was now covered in dark red, almost purple, blood. "You're bleeding," he said.

"I can feel that," Loki said angrily, "but we have no time to waste."

"Let me at least stitch it up for you," Thor insisted, "it won't take long." He created a needle and thread with his magic and saliva and held Loki to keep him still. "I am so sorry. I can't believe I inadvertently hurt you again."

Loki asked, "Why is it I am always the one in the line of fire when you can't control your weapons?"

After a pause, he said, "I have no answer."

Once he was finished, Loki took out his knife and stabbed Thor in the gut with it. He bent over and gasped in pain. "Okay," Thor said, "I know I deserved that but that still hurt!" Loki pulled out his knife and began leading the way, knowing the underground library was nearby.

After some they spent some time walking in silence, Thor said, "Loki, Father did love you."

"Must we speak of this?" he asked, annoyed, "We have no time for chatter."

"That's the thing about talking," he said, "we can do so and walk at the same time. Look at us! You know I speak the truth about our father, Loki, the truth spell is still active!"

Loki replied, "Your opinion Thor, is that he shared love for me, so of course in your mind it is the truth. However, there is very little evidence to support such a claim."

Thor scoffed. "'Very little evidence,' Loki, are you serious?! He did so much for you as a father! Who saved your life when you were left to die as a baby? Unlike you, I don't believe Father did it strictly for political purposes."

"Odin saved me," Loki replied, "that is the truth, however he also lied about it for a millennium. Why?"

"I know not the reasons he lied to us," he said, "I'm more so wondering why you share no anger towards Mother. You're well aware by now that she lied to you for the same amount of time, yet you're not nearly as upset by that."

He answered, "She confessed to me she wished I had always known the truth and how she's always believed our family should have no secrets. How can you stand up for your father when he lied to you as well?" He added with a hiss, "Odin's second born."

Thor said, "I also hold anger towards him, but we don't speak ill of the dead."

"I believed the same until Thanos reminded me of every time he showed you more love than me," Loki explained, "he gave you Mjolnir and I got nothing! Then, after it was stolen-"

Thor coughed. "Oh no, brother! I told you we never speak of that incident!"

"Yes, I know," he continued, "I'm not mentioning the incident, I promise, only after such an event did Odin put the worthiness spell on your special hammer, and then I couldn't lift it, yet he still could!"

"'Worthiness' means having utmost integrity in every situation and always having pure intentions," he said, "we both know you have neither. It's your own fault you couldn't wield Moljnir and you know it."

Loki stopped and faced him and said, "Yet Odin always could, despite all his deceptions."

Thor froze in place, not realizing that was the case all along. "He must have had pure intentions then," he said weakly.

Not buying it, Loki kept walking passed the large rock formation and around some cliffs to a flat open area. He gestured to the ground. "This is the place."

Thor made lightning strike the ground in front of them and a massive carving appeared under the black sand. Loki used magic to open up the entrance to the underground library. They peered down at the pitch black darkness and the halls carved in stone, covered in massive ancient books.

"Dr. Strange makes claims it's in here," Thor said anxiously.

"Age before beauty," Loki said, patting his brother on the back. Thor glared at him. "What," he said innocently, "I'm not going to throw an axe at your head the second you depart. Go!" He pushed him towards the pitch black staircase.

Thor reluctantly went down first. Loki created a ball of light with magic and stepped in after him. It was so dark down there, Loki's light lit up nearly the entire space.

"No time to waste," Thor said, looking at the endless shelves and hallways of the deep dark space.

"Alright!" Sam shouted as he ran through the portal, "Damn this thing was difficult to get but we finally got it! Four down, two to go." He pretended to dunk the power stone sphere onto the table with the other infinity stones but placed it gently beside them instead. He turned to see Tony, Steve, Bucky, and Wanda all sitting at the table, staring at him.

"Wanda!" Clint exclaimed, "I don't believe it! That devious asshole actually managed to convince you to get out of there! Hey, how are you feeling?" He ran to her side and held her hand. He felt weakness in it, as if she weren't strong enough to even squeeze his fingers.

She said, "Yeah I'm okay, I guess. It's nice to see you again for real this time."

Natasha said, "It's good to finally have you back."

"How come you feel so different?" Clint asked, "What's the matter with your hand?" He squeezed it and felt nothing in return.

Dr. Strange explained, "She's been using magic to function for almost a year now, so her body has atrophied significantly. She's going to have to relearn how to do everything without magic eventually."

"I'll be fine," Wanda said. She used magic to make strings at her arms and legs and showed him how she can stand and walk, making herself look like a puppet, control over her head and everything. "See, I'm fine."

"That's probably not healthy," Natasha muttered under her breath.

Clint hugged her and said, "I'm just so glad you're back." As he let go he asked, "So where is Thor and his annoying little brat of a brother?"

Tony said, "They're trying to figure out a way to get the reality stone from some ancient book in a secret underground library far, far, away from here. Thank God too, now I don't have to look at him."

"We should put our focus now on our problem coming straight for us," Dr. Strange said, "we must come up with a plan to defeat Thanos and his minions."

Natasha said, "I thought you looked into the future and saw how we did this."

"I did," he replied, "but we still need to make sure it acts out accordingly. We already know their abilities but that helped us little against them last time. Also, a group needs to go and get the soul stone."

Steve said, "I'll do it."

"I'll go too," Bucky added.

Tony said, "T-minus 2 hours and 45 minutes to go. You guys better hurry."

"Completing this task is much harder than I initially thought it would be," Thor admitted, pouring through yet another book, "all these books are written in the ancient dark elf language because of course they are! We're on their world! I can't read any of this." He slammed one against a shelf.

Loki replied, "You should have paid attention during Mother's ancient languages lessons."

"Don't tell me you can read this mess," Thor said, opening up a completely different book with alien scribbles written throughout the pages. He asked, "Can you decifer these words?"

Loki hesitated before he awkwardly confessed, "I also should have paid better attention during Mother's lessons."

"Ha!" he said, "I knew it! I can't believe I thought coming here was a good idea! We're wasting our time!" He slammed the book back onto the shelf and huffed in defeat.

"I recognize many of these words," Loki explained, "but not enough them to figure out what any of these books are written about." He showed him the book he was holding. "This word means 'outside' and this one on this page means 'together' and when this other symbol is with this word it means 'always' or 'forever' depending on the context it's written in."

Thor took a deep breath, "Should we lose hope?"

Loki confessed, "I know I'm beginning to." Together they stared at the hundreds of bookshelves surrounding them. "This would be a lot less stressful if we had more time to search properly." He put his book back on the shelf.

"Perhaps we're looking in the wrong area," Thor said, "think about it, we're looking for a book on how to control an infinity stone. It wouldn't be sitting on just any old shelf. They would keep it hidden from prying eyes, too dangerous for just anyone to pick up and read on a whim."

They made their way through the halls and searched for any closed off books or some shelf locked away somewhere. It didn't take long before they finally found a strange locked up book behind a shelf far away from the entrance. Thor picked it up and opened it for Loki to read.

"This symbol means 'aether,'" Loki said, thumbing through the pages, "and this one either means 'reality stone' or 'reality warper' from what I remember."

"That word looks familiar," Thor said, pointing at it.

Loki confessed, "I can't recall that one's meaning. Do you know?" His brother shook his head. "This is entirely hopeless if this is the book we need and we still can't read it." He closed the book and slid down to sit on the floor.

"We're so close, brother," Thor said, sitting beside him, "this must be the book Dr. Strange claimed we would find."

"It could hold the spell we require," Loki said hastily, "or it could simply be a book written about the infinity stone. We have no idea because it's written in a 15,000 year old alien language neither one of us understands!" He took a deep breath and stared out into the darkness of the room. "I can't believe we've come so far only to meet such an insurmountable obstacle."

Thor took the book away from him and said, "Dr. Strange made claims we would find this book here, which means it must be of some use to us. Think!" He poked Loki's forehead. "If we can't read it, perhaps someone else can. Besides the dark elves themselves, who among our people knows this language?"

"Tyr would," Loki replied, "the God of war himself would be useful to have in less than three hours when Thanos shows up to murder us all."

"He was dusted."

"Heimdall would know."

"Yes," Thor said, "and he was also dusted."

Loki said, "Then forget the older generations who have all gone now. Who is our age, who paid attention during lessons, and is still alive?" He stopped to try and remember but it was hard given the pressure.

"I know," Thor gave him a knowing look and said, "Baldur."

Loki groaned. "Must it be him?"

"Come now, Loki," he said, "he was the best at ancient alien languages behind Hogan whenever we were studying. It's either him or you suddenly remember what all these ridiculous symbols mean." He held the book open for him to see in the low lighting.

Loki took it from his hands and said, "Alright I'll contact him, but if he gives me a hard time, I'm growing mistletoe throughout his entire house and trapping him inside it for several years." He stood up and projected himself to Baldur all the way on Earth.

"Baldur," Loki said, "God of light."

"Hey," Baldur said, "look who's talking, and finally looks well rested, and who's stomach no longer thunders for food. Someone must have finally eaten something and taken a nap." He turned to look over to his right and then back at Loki.

"What are you doing?" he asked.

"Some local mortal brats have come over and are throwing stones at our lovely wall," he replied, "but they're so weak and pathetic there's no way they can cause any damage. Still, I say it's best to keep up appearances." He turned back to the right. "Hey! Don't make me come down there and smite you!" He glowed bright and Loki heard children distantly screaming as they ran away. "So," he said calmly, "why did you send your illusion to me of all people, Loki?"

Loki confessed, "The fate of the universe rests on whether or not you, Baldur, God of light, can read this." He brought out the book and opened a random page. "I know you paid attention during our lessons as children."

Baldur glanced at it and replied, "Yeah that's some ancient dark elf language talking about how the aether can bend the universe to your whims if it's used properly."

"Project yourself to me and tell me everything that is in this book," Loki demanded, "Forthwith!"

He did as Loki asked and looked around. "What hell hole are you two operating out of?" Baldur asked, looking around, "You're both so dark I can barely see you." He shined brightly, making the entire space light up.

"We're on Svartalheim in the underground library of infinite knowledge," Thor answered, "in the dark, yes, but at this moment we're more focused on this here book. Is there a spell in it telling us how to take the aether out of a mortal body?" He opened it up for him to read.

Baldur replied, "It's been a while since I've laid my eyes on such symbols. These pages speak about control. These have warnings about selfish ambitions. Oh, these are some spells you can cast with it's power." Thor stopped flipping the pages. "It doesn't say anything about a mortal body in these paragraphs, but this spell gives you the power to take the aether out of a substance and turn it into the all powerful infinity stone."

"Are you lying?" Loki asked, "I spoke the truth when I said the universe is at stake, Baldur."

"I'm no trickster like you, Loki," he replied, "I don't lie to make myself seem more important than I am." He smirked at him.

Thor scolded, "Baldur!"

"I am a prince and the rightful ruler of Jotunheim," Loki replied hastily, "while you're nothing."

"Says the man who just required my assistence," he replied, "you're welcome, by the way."

Thor said, "That's enough out of both of you! Baldur, can you cast a translation spell on these pages to our language so we can actually perform this spell properly?"

"Sure thing," he replied, "anything for my king." The words on the pages turned into old runes.

"There it is," Loki said, "this must be the spell Malekith used."

Thor said, "Thank you, Baldur." He bowed respectfully and faded away into nothing. "Let's get out of here."

When Thor and Loki arrived at the scene, everyone looked more downtrodden than ever. "We did it!" Thor announced excitedly as he entered the room, "Loki can now cast the spell we need, and we shall aquire the reality stone shortly." He stopped and stared at everyone. "What's the matter? We're closer to winning now that we were before!"

Dr. Strange explained, "We tried to get the soul stone, but it requires a sacrifice in order to obtain."

"I told you, Steve," Bucky said, "I'll do it."

"We're not trading lives," Steve insisted, "not after everything we've been through to get this far. We're not!"

Tony walked up to Loki and demanded, "Did you know we'd have to do this?"

"No," Loki answered, "all I know is Thanos left his ship, and when he returned, he was quite sad and claimed I would never understand the fact that he lost his daughter, and then he activated the soul stone and used it against me." He froze as the realization hit. "Oh no. He must have sacrificed his own daughter to get it."

Steve said, "That's what red skull told us he had to have done."

Loki insisted, "I had no idea he killed his favorite daughter for it. I figured she died in whatever fire fight he was involved in! I never thought it needed a sacrifice!"

Thor said, "This doesn't have to be the end of all hope. We know Thanos already has it in is possession. Perhaps we can steal his and use it with the ones we have now. Dr. Strange-"

"I can't tell you what happens," he reiterated once again, "if I do, it won't happen. Don't ask!"

"Well," Loki said, "I suppose it's time for us to get the reality stone. Thor, are you ready?" He turned to him.

Thor frowned and answered, "No, I have no wish to return there."

Tony said, "Come on big guy, we now have and hour and a half top before Thanos comes to kick our asses so get going. What's the problem?"

"For starters, Jane has since dumped me, so I'd rather not have to see her again," he said sadly.

Loki interjected, "I thought you said it was mutual."

"I lied to spare my feelings!" he confessed angrily, "On top of that pain, the day this happened is also the day my mother was murdered. As well as the fact that Asgard has since been obliterated out of existence. I now must walk through those halls with that on my mind." He held his head in his hands.

As Loki patted him on the back he said, "We must go back, Thor. It's the only way we stand a chance."

"Activate the tesseract," Thor commanded, "let us go forth and get this over with."