AN: Holy shit guys that took so much longer than i expected. dONT WORRY I HAVE AN EXCUSE! i started grade 9 on the 2nd so shits been happening, and friend drama and all that jazz that comes with high school Im going to keep this short because im writing this AN at school on my phone and its a pain in the ass. soo, uh, enjoy the chapter!

Chapter 14 ~ Welcome to the Black Parade

.

Jane wasn't quite sure what to think as Loki pushed through the bushes and out of sight. Obviously, the god had been helping the group before she'd arrived. But something about his outburst was… suspicious to her.

Nobody spoke for a few moments, until the young boy- Spider-Man, he called himself, stepped forwards.

"I'm going after him. Maybe I can talk some sense into him." The young hero set off in the direction Loki had disappeared, before pausing and looking back at Jane. "He really isn't that bad. All he's done since I've met him is be sarcastic. I'm sure he didn't mean what he said."

And then the boy was gone.

Jane sighed, bringing her hands to her head where a headache was slowly growing. She forgot how much of a handful alien God's could be. Especially Loki; he was probably the most annoying out of all Asgardians he'd met.

Jane glanced over to Dr. Strange, who was staring at her.

"What?" She asked, a bit more snap to her tone than she intended. Oh well; she was pissed and she's show it.

"I believe you should go apologize."

"To who? Loki?"

"Yes," Strange said.

"Are you serious? Weren't you the one who told me that he wasn't worth it?" Jane asked, crossing her arms.

"While I did do that, I hate to admit that Loki is a key element to getting us out of here. You should go find him."

Suddenly, the large black wolf was beside her, green eyes bearing into her brown.

"Yes, bring Fenris with you. Just in case," Strange added, nodding to the wolf mentioned.

Fenris twitched his ear and jerked his head in the direction Loki had disappeared. Jane smiled shakily— it was a two story tall fucking wolf, what was she supposed to do?!— and begins in that direction. She is faintly aware of Fenris stalking on behind her. She didn't have to walk far to catch up with the Spider-kid. Unfortunately, that's not all she found.

Spider-man was kneeling at the edge of the river without his mask, hovering over something in the water. Something that turned the water crimson. Something that was clad in green, littered in injuries and unresponsive.

Something that was… Loki?

"Oh, my god," Jane gasped, hurrying over to kneel next to the god. He was much paler than usual, with blue veins bulging out of his temples. Spider-man had two fingers pressed on the side of Loki's next, checking for a pulse.

"Is he…" Jane prompted, unable to complete the sentence. Spider-man shook his head of brown curls (how old was this kid?) sadly.

"He's gone," Spider-man replied. Jane sighed. So much for apologizing.

She felt hot breath on her neck, and Jane turned her head to see Fenris had approached. The wolf let out a sad whine, nudging the dead god with his muzzle.

"We should probably tell the others," Spider-man said quietly. Jane nodded.

"Yeah. Let's bring his body back. Fenris?" She looked at the wolf, who raised his head at his name. He flicked his ear as he crouched down low so Spider-man could delicately loft Loki up and rest the corpse on Fenris' back.

They trudged back to camp in a mournful silence.

…

Hela led Loki away from the throne, and the pair now walked down the crumbling corridors of her palace.

"Where are we going, if you don't mind my asking?" Loki piped up, keeping stride with the Goddess. They passed various people; all of them were pale and dead-looking, which they probably were, wearing torn clothing that hung off their thin and bruised frames. Loki gave each a passing glance, but otherwise didn't pay them too much mind.

"Surprisingly enough, I am currently unable to leave my realm. That's what I need you for," Hela replied absently.

"Then how are you supposed to help me?" Loki demanded.

"Oh, I'm not going to help you. I'll have to send you someone who isn't blocked by the barriers instead." Hela shrugged in a care-free way.

"And how will this 'someone' be able to help?" Loki huffed as they passed several tall double doors that reached up to the ceiling.

"You think that I'd just send you with some rookie? I'm wounded, Loki!" Hela gasped dramatically.

She led him around a corner and they stood in front of a door. It was smaller than the rest, not as grand. It was a dark wood, a contrast to the stone and concrete. Loki looked at Hela in question. He was met with a smirk. Hela waved her hand and the door opened.

It was a relatively small room, equipped with a desk, chair, bed and…

"A girl?" Loki asked, eyebrows raised. The girl's head shot up from where she sat on the bed. The girl was certainly different from everybody else he'd seen in the realm. Her hair was sleek and shiny, her clothes were in decent condition, and she wasn't as dead-looking. Her brown hair fell just below her shoulders, and her gray eyes were wide as she stared at the newcomers.

"M-my queen!" The girl stuttered in surprise, immediately getting to her feet and bowing to one knee in front of Hela. Loki stared at the girl in complete wonder.

"Naomi. Apologies for barging in unannounced. I hope I didn't interrupt anything important?" Hela asked, regarding the girl with a soft smile.

"Nothing is more important than you, my queen," Naomi replied instantly, keeping her head bowed. Help rolled her eyes.

"Cut the bullshit and stand up, Naomi. I have a quest for you." The girl, Naomi, stood and met Hela's green eyes with curious gray ones.

"So soon after your return, my queen?" Naomi asked and tilted her head.

"The world goes on, my dear. And this is a… different kind of quest," Hela said, before turning her attention to Loki. "This is my adopted half-brother, Loki."

"Hello," Loki greeted with a nod. The girl nodded curtly in return.

"The same half-brother that sent a fire demon to kill you?" The girl asked, coldness leaking into her tone. Loki huffed.

"Well, yes I suppose he did. That matters not now. Loki is capable of something that I want, so in return we're going to help him."

"With what, my queen? World domination?"

"No. Saving it, actually," Hela replied, the corners of her mouth twitching into a small smile.

"Oh?" Naomi switched her curious gaze to Loki. "You're the god of chaos, right? Shouldn't you be the one causing chaos?"

"Well, I'm actually the god of mischief. So, no. I suppose you could say I've had a change of heart," Loki shrugged.

"Huh. Never saw that coming," Naomi mumbled. She turned her gaze to Hela. "And what will I be helping him do?"

"You're going to show him out of the realm, and assist him in bringing souls back from the Soul stone."

"That's all?" The girl asked, raising her eyebrows.

"Well, it won't be that easy, my child. You are against Thanos, and he will surely not let you retrieve the souls he had tried so hard to steal."

"The mad titan? That's the reason you've been acting strange, isn't it, my queen?" Naomi asked, frowning. "What has he done?"

"Gathered the infinity stones and snapped half of the universe out of existence," Loki huffed, speaking freely for the first time. He had been observing, trying to analyze the girl. Surely she had to be powerful if Hela was sending her with him.

"Oh. That sucks," Naomi said.

"No kidding," Loki deadpanned, And Naomi gave a childish grin.

"Well, the two of you had better get going," Hela interrupted. Loki smirked.

"Why? Are you so quick to get rid of me, dear sister? I'm honoured."

"No, you imbecile," Hela huffed with a roll of her eyes. "I can sense death on the horizon."

…

It had been almost a year since they'd all been together.

The Avengers has drifted apart, all going separate ways to try and deal with their losses. Some had left together, while others went alone. Nobody said goodbye, nobody begged anyone to stay. They just shrugged their shoulders and moved on when another person didn't show up to nightly meals.

After a few months, only Tony was left in the Compound. He was in his lab all the time, so it wasn't lie he was missing any social interaction. He just focused on building, focused on fixing things. Anything to get his mind away from the boy with curly brown hair pleading for his life in Tony's arms.

They were all separated, until they weren't. Until, after a year of nothing, something happened.

It was like a switch flipped in everybody's mind. They suddenly knew something was coming. Some had dreams, while others just had the feeling. They all only knew of one bad thing left in the universe that could cause problems.

Thanos.

So, the Avengers assembled in the compound. Thor had given up on Valkyrie and sat farthest away from her as she spoke with Carol. Korg had been clueless, and was off with Meik doing god knows what. Bruce was sat next to Thor, trying to spark up some form of conversation, Tony was speaking quietly and urgently with Pepper and Rhodey, Clint and Natasha sat away from the rest of the team, and Steve sat in between Nebula and Rocket.

"So, why are we here again?" Rocket asked in a huff, crossing his arms.

"I don't know, Captain Spangles over there just demanded some emergency meeting," Tony piped up as he stepped away from Pepper. Steve sighed.

"You should all know why you're here. Thanos is still out there. Maybe if we could just get the stones from him, we could-"

"Don't," Clint interrupted harshly. "Don't give out false hope. Everybody we lost? They're gone, and there's nothing we can do to change it. So don't give us hope of a victory we could never achieve."

"We couldn't beat Thanos with the heroes that we lost; how could we hope to beat him now that everyone is gone?" Bruce spoke up, bringing a hand up to hold the bridge of his nose.

"But if we just try, maybe we could bring them back! All we need is to get the stones!" Steve insisted.

"None of you are strong enough to wield all of the stones," Nebula piped up. "My father is a wicked being, yes, but nobody could challenge the fact that he is only just strong enough to wield them."

"So then we'll find someone who can wield them! We'll-"

"Steve," Natasha interrupted. "Stop. There's no hope left. Stop doing this to yourself."

"Nat, come on. We can fix this! We just have to find Thanos and fight him for the stones!"

"We already lost! What gives us an edge now?"

"Carol said it herself; we didn't have her last time, nor did we have the Valkyrie."

"Woah woah woah, why the hell are you bringing me into this? I'm only here because there are hot girls and booze!" Valkyrie interrupted, and as of to make a point, Valkyrie took a long swig from an amber bottle. Carol scoffed from next to her.

"Okay, Iced Americano, even if we were to go through with this— which we won't, how would we even find the Genocidal grape?" Rocket asked, crossing his furry arms.

"Where the hell'd you get Iced Americano from?" Bruce mumbled as Steve replied.

"He still has the stones, and the stones give off some sort of energy, right? Don't we have three scientists? We could track him."

"That's… actually a decent plan," Tony said, sounded extremely surprised.

"Yeah, it would be, except we don't know what energy the stones radiate. It could be anything!" Bruce insisted stubbornly.

"Gamma," Nebula said simply.

"What?"

"The stones radiate strong Gamma rays," Nebula repeated, as though it were obvious.

"Yeah, that makes sense; the Glow Stick of Destiny radiated Gamma rays, and so did the Tesseract. They both ended up being infinity stones," Tony murmured, running a tired hand down his face.

"So, what, we monitor the entire universe until we find something we think is the Infinity Stones?" Rocket asked. "You terrains don't have the greatest tech. It was hard enough to make the locator pirate boy requested." Rocket gestured to Thor as he spoke.

"Pirate?" Thor mumbled, earning a snort from Bruce.

"No," Steve said after a moment. "We don't. We let him come to us."

"Uh, excuse me?" Tony's voice was barely heard over the uproar the idea created.

"That's suicide!" Clint huffed.

"There ain't no way in hell we live through that," Rocket growled.

"You jackasses couldn't even beat him last time!" Valkyrie pointed out.

"Everybody shut up!" Natasha snapped. "Let him finish."

"Thank you," Steve said with a nod and a small smile towards Natasha. Natasha returned the smile. "Now, I know the idea seems…"

"Idiotic?" Rhodey supplied.

"Insane?" Tony tacked on.

"Senseless?"Clint suggested.

"I was going to say farfetched, but thank you all," Steve sighed. "I was thinking if we could get him to believe he was missing a stone…"

"We could use the signal to lead him right to us and take the stones," Bruce finished.

"Well, what the hell would we do with them?" Rocket huffed. "Polish them and keep them in a museum?"

"No," Tony mumbled thoughtfully. "No, we could use them for something better."

"Like what?" Pepper asked.

"Well, when Thanos snapped his fingers, half of the universe disappeared, right?" Tony asked, moving to stand next to Steve. His gaze wandered along each and every remaining Avenger.

"Right. The stones did his bidding," Nebula answered. "He wished for balance and they complied."

"What if we wished for something? If one of us wielded all the stones? They would have to do our bidding."

"Tones, no! That is a horrible idea!" Rhodey huffed.

"Now, hear me out!" Tony snapped. "We have literal gods on our side," Tony pointed out, making a gesture towards Thor who blinked in confusion.

"Eh, what?" He mumbled.

"I'm saying that we have people strong enough to possibly wield all the stones! Thor, if we could just get you the gauntlet—"

"But the stones took a toll on even Thanos. You didn't see him after he snapped; the gauntlet was burnt to a crisp, and so was half of his ugly face," Natasha pointed out thoughtfully. "How do we know the same won't happen to Thor?"

"We don't," Steve murmured. "But it could be worth a shot." He glanced up towards Thor. "If you are willing, that is."

Thor thought for a moment. Most of his people were dead, and so was his family. Valkyrie barely gave him so much as a glance these days.

"So, you were only protecting yourself from getting hurt is what you're saying?"

Maybe Valkyrie had been right before. But if he took this chance now, if he could bring everybody back—

If he could bring Loki back…

"I'll do it."

…

When the trio made it back to where the others were waiting with Loki's body, the clearing fell silent. Spider-man sniffled from somewhere behind her, and that was all it took for hell to break lose.

"I-is that Loki?" Sam asked.

"Holy shit…" Bucky murmured, taking a step forwards.

"What the hell happened?" Quill demanded.

"We don't know," Jane croaked, helping Spider-man slide Loki's corpse off Fenris's back. "We found him like this in the river."

"Was there signs of a struggle?" Stephen asked, taking charge and marching forwards to examine the body.

"I-I don't know. I wasn't really… looking for one," Jane confessed.

"There was blood on a nearby tree, and leaves surrounding it almost as though something or someone had been thrown into it," Spider-man piped up quietly. Stephen hummed thoughtfully.

"Well, there isn't much we can do," the sorcerer shrugged.

"What are we gonna do with the body?" Bucky asked. Sam snorted, muffling his laughter with his hand.

"What's so funny?" Bucky demanded, crossing his arms.

"I-I'm sorry!" Sam wheezed. "Just the way you said it—" he broke off with a snicker, gasping for breath.

"I think he's saying it sounded like you killed the guy," Quill piped up.

"I am Groot?"

"No, he did not actually kill the guy, Groot!"

"I am Groot."

"Fenris? Would you mind..?" Stephen trailed off, and Fenris nodded. The delicately took Loki's body in his jaws and disappeared into the bushes.

"That was most unpleasant," Drax huffed. Mantis, who had left to calm the Barton children down, looked up with sad black eyes.

"I wonder what happened to him?"

"We have no time to dwell on that now," Stephen declared. "We have work to do."

When the darkness lifted in the Soul world, signaling its equivalent to day, the group set off with Stephen Strange in the lead. He didn't say anything, not even when Spider-man asked where they were going.

The trees were beginning to thin, giving way to nothing but a land of musty orange.

They didn't stop their journey, and Fenris ended up carrying the Barton children on his back when they started complaining about walking so far. Still, Stephen said nothing.

Not until they reached a large, orange dome.

"What the hell is this?" Quill asked, marching to the front of the group. "You made us walk all that way for an orange wubble bubble?"

"No," Stephen replied, but he didn't say anything else.

"I am Groot," Groot huffed.

"He is very ominous, isn't he?" Drax agreed. "Like a true wizard."

"Why don't you just tell us where we are, Dumbledore?" Quill huffed.

"Harry Potter reference?" Spider-man perked up, smirking a little.

"Do they still have that on Earth?" Quill gasped.

"Hell yeah! I'm a Hufflepuff," Spider-man states proudly.

"Wow, who would have thought," Sam mumbled dryly.

Before any arguments could break out, Stephen pressed his hand to the dome. The orange liquid-like bubble rippled around Stephen's hand over and over, an orange shine casting over each face watching in wide-eyed awe. The group of dusted Avengers were almost caught in a trance as the bubble rippled, until finally it didn't.

The bubble retracted from around Strange's hand, melting away until it held a gap large enough for people to walk through.

"Woah," Lila murmured.

Stephen stepped through the gap and gestures for the rest to follow him. One by one, the Avengers stepped through. First Spider-man, then Sam, Bucky, Quill, Mantis, Drax and Groot. When Fenris and the Barton kids approached, the bubble melted back further for the large wolf to haul himself through. Nathaniel giggled as he brought his hand up to touch the dome; the orange rippled around his small fingertips.

The land beyond the dome was not covered in soft, golden grass. Instead, it was filled with shallow water that reflected the sky.

"What is this place?" Mantis asked in wonder.

"I do not know of it's name," Stephen confessed. "However, when I looked into the future, I saw someone in here that could help us. Come, we have wasted enough time already."

With that, Stephen began walking again. Spider-man glanced at Jane and shrugged in confusion, before following him. Fenris leaned down to let the Barton children of his back. Nathaniel squealed in delight as he was brought knee-deep into the water, and began splashing around. Cooper brought his hand to the water and skimmed it lightly as he walked, while Lila joined Nathaniel. Fenris kept the three on track with gentle nudges when they slowed down or a low growl when they strayed too far in their games.

Jane thought it looked almost parental.

As they kept walking, a fog settled over the area. It looked like something almost from a horror movie, and the group could barely see the dark outline of each-other.

"As if this place couldn't get ominous enough," Sam huffed.

"Stick together," Stephen ordered curtly. "Don't let anyone out of your sight."

And so they kept walking. After a few minutes, the fog began to thin, and the dark silhouette of a mountain lay on the horizon. Dark shadows were cast along the group as the sky began to darken. The group continued to wade through the shallow pool of water, a few casting cautious glances around them. And then, Stephen stopped.

Bucky, who wasn't paying attention, bumped into the sorcerer.

"What the— why have we stopped?" He asked, rubbing the part of his head that had collided with Stephen's. The latter simply turned.

"Wait," he warned, before turning back and bringing his sling-ring to his fingers. Stephen began to murmur a spell, and a series of orange shapes appeared in front of his waving fingers. The shapes sparked before exploding, earning a help from Nathaniel.

There was an eerie quiet for a few moments. Everybody glanced uneasily at each other, and Fenris had pulled the young children closer to his paws.

And then there was a girl.

She had green skin, and her long magenta hair was pulled back and braided into two pigtails. She wore a purple dress, and regarded the dusted Avengers cautiously.

"Who are you?" She asked, tilting her head with childlike curiosity.

"I do not believe that is the question we should be asking," Strange replied simply. "Who are you?"

The girl blinked, caught off-guard, but opened her mouth to reply.

"I am Gamora."

..

sorry not sorry :-)