Chapter 5

It had been twenty-two days since Loki, Nebula, and Tony had taken the Guardians' ship. He had kept out of their ways mostly just trying not to cry. Thoughts of Thor and the Guardians haunted his mind, their deaths replaying in his head like a cruel movie. Loki stared at Tony and Nebula. They were smiling as they flicked a piece of paper back and forth between them. He always wondered how in the world they could be smiling, much less over something so pointless. Did they not even realize they were stranded out here? That their friends and families were likely dead and the oxygen was going to run out tomorrow? Why would they even want to feel better? Loki certainly didn't.

"Loki, come over here and join us," Tony insisted, gesturing to him.

"Why would I partake in such an aimless activity?" he grunted from his place on the ground.

"To feel better?" Nebula replied.

"Why should I?" Loki asked, clenching his teeth. "Half the universe got wiped out and you sit here with your little game pretending nothing is wrong."

"Loki, you can't keep fixating on everything that's gone wrong," Tony argued.

"Why not?"

"Well it sounds pretty miserable," Nebula chimed in.

"Yeah," Tony nodded. "What's the point of living if you're just making yourself sad all the time?"

Loki sighed. "I've asked myself that same question." Nebula and Tony glanced at each other, their eyes wide. They didn't need to say anything to know that they thought the same thing.

"Loki… don't attempt that," Tony ordered.

"What's the point?" Loki sighed, pulling his knees into his chest. "The oxygen's going to run out tomorrow anyway. I'll die either way. Might as well save myself the effort."

"That one's a ball of sunshine," Nebula muttered, looking back at Tony.

"Can't exactly blame him," Tony replied, shrugging. "Dude did just lose his brother… and his friends."

"You know I can hear you, right?" Loki asked.

Tony glared at him. "Hey, if you don't wanna hear us, you can just go somewhere else," he snapped.

"Well alright then!" Loki stood up, marching toward the back of the ship. Nebula glanced at Tony.

"Is that really a good idea?" She asked. Loki put on his headphones and cranked the volume up as high as it would go. Not a smart decision but he didn't care. He just wanted to block out whatever Tony and Nebula were saying. He sat down on the ground, against a wall. After a while, Loki removed the headphones. The ship was completely silent. Moments later, footsteps echoed through one of the hallways. Loki followed the source of the noise. Concealing his presence, he spotted Tony, sitting in front of his Iron Man helmet. He pressed a button, and light was cast from the eye of it.

"Hey, Miss Potts… Pep. If you find this recording, don't post it on social media. It's gonna be a real tear-jerker. I don't know if you're ever going to see these. I don't even know if you're… if you're still��� Oh god, I hope so." Loki's gaze softened. "Today is day twenty-one, uh twenty-two. You know, if it wasn't for the existential terror of staring into a void of space, I'd say I'm feeling better today." Loki fell into deep thought as he listened to Tony's monologue. He clearly cared a lot about what happened and whoever he was talking to. But then why did he and Nebula avoid talking about it? Why did they act so happy? "But it's now dead in the water." Loki listened back in. "We're a thousand light years from the nearest Seven Eleven. Oxygen will run out tomorrow. And that'll be it. And Pep, I… I know I said no more surprises, but I was really hoping to pull off one last one. But it looks like… well you know what it looks like. Don't feel bad about this. I mean, if you grovel for a couple of weeks, and then move on with enormous guilt. I should probably lie down. Please know that… when I drift off, I will think about you. It's always you." Tony tapped the mask, and the light was gone. Loki was about to walk in when Nebula strutted past him. Taking Tony in her arms, she laid him down on what had once been Drax's seat then walked off without another thought. Revealing himself, Loki walked inside.

"Tony…" he murmured.

"Loki?" The response came, though Loki couldn't see Tony from this angle. "What do you want?"

"I… I'm sorry I disturbed you," Loki sighed, turning around. "I'll leave."

"No, wait!" Tony's voice shook as he spoke. Loki stopped. "...Stay with me… I don't wanna be alone."

"I'll go get Nebula," Loki replied, turning again.

"She didn't want to…" Tony's voice trailed off. Loki stalked into the room, his footsteps the only noise in the whole ship. He glanced down at Tony.

"Do you really want to be with me of all people?" Loki asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Honestly, I'll take anyone at this point," Tony admitted. "Just come here." Loki's first instinct was to scoff at him and turn away. What had this man ever done for him? However, as he gazed at Tony, his face weary and eyes full of longing, Loki couldn't force himself to leave. He sat on the ground in front of Tony. Without thinking, he rested his head in Tony's lap, closing his eyes. Tony's hands rested on Loki's head. His fingers wove themselves into Loki's hair, stroking it like a cat. "You know, I might have been a bit harsh on you." Tony's voice was hardly more than a whisper. "You really seemed to have turned over a new leaf since I last saw you. Um… I'm sorry about your friends… and your brother."

There was a pang in Loki's heart. "...and… I'm sorry about Peter," he replied. "Hopefully, we will be with them shortly." Finally, Loki stopped moving entirely, the tension finally leaving his body. Tony's hand stopped moving through Loki's hair. The air was still. Only the sound of Loki and Tony's breathing could be heard, which steadily grew shorter… and shorter… Tony's hand moved to the side. Loki forced his eyes open, glancing at Tony. "Stark?" Tony pointed at the window. Lifting his head, Loki turned to the window, immediately needing to shield his eyes. Bright light poured through the glass. In the middle of it, was a heavily armoured woman, floating in space without a helmet.

"Well, I've seen everything," Loki remarked, rolling his eyes. The woman zipped down, below the ship, the light disappearing with her. With a crank, the ship began to move.

"We're saved," Tony murmured.

"If she's fast enough," Loki grunted, pushing himself off of Tony and continuing to look blankly out the glass.

"What's going on?" a voice asked. Loki glanced over his shoulder at Nebula.

"We're going to Earth," Tony answered. Loki's eyes widened. Struggling to his feet, he sank into what was once Quill's seat. He gazed blankly at the planet as it faded into view. It was pretty obvious that Earth was one of the last places Loki ever wanted to return to, second maybe to Jotunheim. People would inevitably freak out at the sight of him. Normally that was something he'd revel in but now the thought of being treated like an outsider was daunting. However, Loki didn't know where else to go. Life was just sort of happening to Loki, with him making little to no attempt to control the outcome. Might as well just go with it. Not like I have a choice. As the ship landed, Nebula helped Tony to his feet, their arms wrapped around each other as Tony limped toward the exit. Grabbing Quill's mixtape, Loki stalked after them. Outside the ship, were some familiar faces. Steve Rogers rushed toward Tony, supporting him as the two spoke. Natasha and Bruce hung back. They were accompanied by a man Loki didn't recognize. The three met his gaze.

"Loki!" Bruce exclaimed, stepping closer. His eyes were oddly bright for someone looking at the man who tried to take over Earth. "You're alive?! Where's Thor?"

"He's dead," Loki grunted. Bruce's eyes widened. "Thanos killed him… not long after you left." He wiped away a tear, narrowing his eyes.

"I'm sorry, that must've been a very painful loss for you."

"Thor is dead?!" Natasha stepped closer. She was glaring at Loki, her arms crossed. "And we're supposed to believe that it wasn't you who killed him?"

"He wouldn't do that," Bruce insisted, resting his hand on Natasha's shoulder. "I was with him and Thor just before… Thanos happened. They're… well, they were, on better terms." Natasha's eyes remained narrowed as she glared at Loki.

"Loki?!" another voice exclaimed. Steve was now bolting toward him. Loki backed away, hands raised in the air but Steve continued to charge him.

"Hey! Hey!" Tony limped after Steve, resting a hand on his shoulder. "Chill, Cap. He's with us."

"Where's Thor?" Steve asked, eyes narrowed.

"He's dead," Bruce answered. Loki let out a sigh of relief, thankful for not having to explain again. "Loki is all we've got."

"Great," Steve muttered, looking away.

"Guys!" A voice called. Loki glanced at the man from earlier, who was now trying to walk with a limping Tony. "Help me get him inside!" Steve and Natasha rushed toward Tony, wrapping their arms around either side of him. A blonde haired woman, who Loki guessed was Pepper, was also with Tony. That left Loki with Bruce as they trailed after the others.

"Are you… uh… really gonna help us?" Bruce asked. "With defeating Thanos?"

"He killed my brother and my friends," Loki sighed, barely able to meet Bruce's gaze. "Why wouldn't I want to help defeat him?"

"You have friends?" Loki's eyes narrowed. "Sorry, that came out wrong."

"Just like you," Loki muttered.

"Okay, I kinda deserved that," Bruce admitted, extending his hand to Loki. "Now we're even." Loki accepted the handshake. The two pushed their way through the door and into the building. Tony sat in the front room, tubes attached to him as everyone else gathered around a screen Natasha had pulled up. Loki sat in one of the corners.

"It's been twenty three days since Thanos came to Earth," Natasha informed. As she spoke, various faces flashed on the screen behind her, some of which Loki recognized from New York. "World governments are in pieces. The parts that are still working are trying to take a census. And it looks like he did... exactly what he said he was going to do. Thanos wiped out fifty percent, of all living creatures."

"Where is he now?" Tony asked. "Where?"

"We don't know," Steve answered.

"He just opened a portal and walked through." Loki's eyes darted to the right at the sound of a familiar voice. His eyes narrowed at Rocket.

"Ah, look who it is," Loki growled. "The one who ditched us when we needed you most. Where's your partner in crime?"

"Gone, like everyone else," Rocket sighed. Loki's eyes widened, his previous bitterness melting away.

"We've been hunting Thanos for three weeks now," Natasha continued. "Deep space scans and satellites and we got nothing."

"Tony, you fought him," Steve stated suddenly.

"Who told you that?" Tony asked, his eyes narrowing. "I didn't fight him. No, he wiped my face with a planet while the Bleecker Street Magician gave away the stone. That's what happened. There was no fight."

"Did he give you any clues, any coordinates, anything?" Steve asked.

"Pfft! I saw this coming a few years back. I had a vision. I didn't wanna believe it. Thought I was dreaming."

"Tony, I'm gonna need you to focus." Steve stepped closer.

"And I needed you. As in past tense. That trumps what you need." Loki stared at the scene before him. Clearly, something happened between these two, as Loki didn't remember then being this aggressive toward each other when he first met them. Loki reached toward Quill's mixtape. "It's too late, buddy. Sorry. You know what I need." Tony stood up, shoving things off the table. They clattered to the ground. Loki cringed at the noise, along with everyone else. "I need to shave. And I believe I remember telling you, Cap." Tony marched toward Steve, eyes narrowed. His other friend stepped between them.

"Tony, Tony, Tony, stop!" he insisted.

"Otherwise what we needed was a suit of armor around the world!" Tony continued, glaring at Steve. "Remember that? Whether it impacted our precious freedom or not- that's what we needed!"

"Well, that didn't work out, did it?" Steve replied his tone calm.

"I said, 'we'll lose'. You said, 'We'll do that together too.' And guess what, Cap? We lost. You weren't there. But that's what we do, right? Our best work after the fact? We're the Avengers, we're the Avengers. Not the Prevengers, right?" Loki shot a glance at Quill's mixtape. However, he couldn't bring himself to put on the headphones as the scene before him pried his eyes away from the mixtape.

"Okay, you made your point," Tony's friend insisted, attempting to push him into a chair. "Just sit down, ok?"

"Nah, Nah, Nah." Tony pushed his friend away. "Here's my point."

"Sit down!" His friend snapped. Tony ignored him, pointing at the blonde woman that saved them.

"She's great, by the way. We need you. You're new blood."

"Tony!"

"Bunch of tired old mills! I got nothing for you, cap! I got no coordinates, no clues, no plan, no options. Zero. Zip. Nada. No trust. Liar." Steve didn't respond, the hurt evident in his eyes. For a moment, the two just gazed at each other, making Loki think it was over. Then it took a turn for the worst. There was a screech as Tony yanked something from his chest. Loki didn't know what happened until Tony's arc reactor was shoved into Steve's hand. Loki jerked back. "Here, take this," Tony spoke in short breaths. "You find him, and you put that on. You hide." After a few moments, Tony fell to the ground on his knees.

"Tony! Steve gasped. Loki pushed himself out of his seat, crowding around with everyone else. His heart pounded in his ears.

"I'm fine. I…" Tony froze, flopping to the ground.

"Okay, okay." Bruce stepped forward. "I need everyone to act fast. Who here is strong enough to pick him up?" Loki raised his hand. "Okay, I need you to carry him to that room." Bruce pointed down one of the hallways. Loki nodded before scooping Tony into his arms bridal carry style. "Lay him down gently on the bed. Someone else grab the arc reactor, I'm gonna go get something." Pulling Tony closer, Loki rushed toward the room Bruce pointed to, his hand brushing against Tony's hair. He put him down on the bed, his gaze lingering for a moment before he turned to leave. Loki flinched as something brushed against his sleeve. Glancing around, he saw Bruce, Pepper, and Tony's other friend crowded around the unmoving Tony. Loki rushed away, head hung low.

"Where you going?" a voice asked. Loki skidded to a halt, glancing to his side to see Natasha. Her eyes were narrowed.

"Oh, nowhere. I simply did not wish to be in the room where-" Loki pointed back at Tony's room. "-that happens." Natasha raised an eyebrow. "Are you just looking for excuses to be suspicious of me? What do you think I'm going to do?"

"You could be a spy for Thanos," Natasha suggested. "You did use to work for him. Who's to say you ever stopped?"

"He murdered my brother and friends-"

"An easy cover story for why you 'switched' sides," Natasha interrupted. "I know all your tricks."

Loki rolled his eyes. "You wish," he muttered.

Natasha pulled out a gun. "So you're admitting it?"

"I never said that," Loki replied, unable to stop himself from grinning as he raised his hands in the air. "I simply said that you don't know everything about me." Natasha lowered the gun, keeping her eyes narrowed at Loki.

"I'm watching you, asshole," she muttered. "Don't you dare try anything."

"Uh huh." Loki put on his headphones. It was silent after that, save for the music that was blaring in Loki's ears at full volume.

"Nat! Loki!" Loki removed the headphones, as he and Natasha turned to see Bruce in the hallway. He gestured toward them to follow. They went back toward the room where Tony was. Rocket, Nebula, Steve and Tony's friend were standing outside. Through the window, Loki caught a glance of Pepper, who was kneeling in front of a still unmoving Tony.

"Is he… alive?" Loki asked.

Tony's friend nodded at him. "Bruce gave him a sedative," he informed. "He's gonna be out for the rest of the day."

"You guys take care of him," the blonde woman ordered, marching off. "And I'll bring Xorrian Elixir when I come back."

"Where are you going?" Tony's friend asked.

"To kill Thanos." I like this one.

"You know, we usually work as a team around here," Natasha informed. "And between you and I, we're also a little fragile. We realize this is more your territory, but this is our fight too."

"Do you even know where he is?" Rocket asked, raising an eyebrow.

"I know people who might," she replied.

"Don't bother," Nebula butted in. "I can tell you where Thanos is. Thanos spent a long time trying to perfect me. Then when he worked, he talked about his great plan. Even disassembled, I wanted to please him. I'd ask 'where would we go once his plan was complete?'. His answer was always the same: To the Garden."

"How cute," Loki spat, his eyes narrowed. "The monster has a retirement plan."

"You're one to talk," Natasha muttered.

Loki turned to her, clenching his fists. "Excuse me?!"

"Guys, guys." Steve reached his hand out between the two. "Stay focused. Where is Thanos?"

"When Thanos snapped his fingers, Earth became ground zero for a power surge of ridiculously cosmic proportions," Rocket informed. "No one's ever seen anything like it... Until two days ago." A hologram popped up, showing the shape of a planet with a shockwave running through it.

"On this planet," Nebula replied, pointing at the hologram. "Thanos is here."

"He used the stones again," Natasha added.

"Hey, Hey." Bruce finally spoke up. "We'd be going in short-handed, you know."

"Look, he's still got the stones, so…"

"So let's go get him," the blonde woman replied. "We'll use them to bring everyone back."

"Just like that?" Tony's friend asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Yeah, just like that," Steve agreed, exchanging glances with the blonde woman.

"Even if there's a small chance that we can undo this…" Natasha sighed. "I mean we owe it to everyone who's not in this room to try."

"If we do this, how do we know it's gonna end any differently than it did before?" Bruce asked.

"Because before, you didn't have me," the blonde woman answered.

"Hey, new girl." She turned to Tony's friend. "Everyone here is about that superhero life. And if you don't mind my asking, where the hell have you been all this time?"

"There are a lot of other planets in the universe," she answered. "And unfortunately, they didn't have you guys."

"So… what are we gonna do about this?" Natasha didn't turn to face Loki as she pointed at him.

Loki's eyes narrowed. "What do you mean? I'm obviously going."

"How do we know we can trust you?" Steve asked, glaring at Loki.

"Listen, Rogers." Loki stepped closer to the Captain, eyes ablaze. "I hate Thanos as much as any of you, perhaps even more so, and I am a God. It would be foolish to deny such a powerful hand in combat."

"He's right," Bruce replied, standing by Loki's side. "We need all the help we can get against Thanos."

"And if he isn't really against Thanos?" Natasha argued.

Steve nodded. "We don't know if this is another trick or not. Bringing him along is just asking for trouble one way or another."

"Well I'm going to fight him one way or another," Loki snarled, taking a step closer to Steve. "Whether you bring me or not is irrelevant. Besides, if I'm really an untrustworthy savage, wouldn't it be wise to keep me nearby so I don't 'try anything'?" A stunned silence followed.

"I guess we can go by an "enemy of my enemy is my friend" logic," Tony's friend suggested, shrugging.

Steve let out a sigh, before nodding. "Alright, let's go get this son of a bitch..." Steven turned to Loki. "...together" Loki nodded.