Chapter Text
They didn’t. Because she was right. Lord knows what they might’ve tried if she hadn’t been here.
This was exactly how it was supposed to go. Loki swore she wouldn’t screw it up this time.
Thanos marched through the portal, a swagger in his step. It made Loki uncomfortable to even think about putting the words ‘Thanos’ and ‘swagger’ in the same sentence, but it worked unfortunately well.
They were hiding, all of them. Waiting for their cue.
Thanos looked around, a smirk on his face.
Strange was sitting on a pile of rubble looking incredibly relaxed. He caught Loki’s eye, and she nodded.
“Oh yeah,” said Strange, grabbing the attention of the purple grape. “You’re much more of a ‘Thanos.’”
Thanos glared, ignoring the words.
“I take it that Maw is dead.” His voice was expressionless. “This day extracts a heavy toll.”
Loki rolled her eyes. Being a poetic villain was her thing. Thanos just couldn’t pull it off as well.
“Still, he accomplished his mission.”
This bitch is still talking? Sad.
“You may regret that,” said Strange.
Whilst Thanos and Strange were talking, Loki was counting the seconds in her head. After roughly a minute of boredom, she looked upwards, and waved. She turned her attention back to Thanos.
“’Our?’” he said, confused. He looked up too late. Stark was already plummeting down towards him.
There was a ground-moving crash and Loki fell backwards.
She scrambled to her feet, steadying herself. Peter shot what looked like webs onto Thanos’ eyes.
Oh, that’s why he’s called Spiderman.
Loki rushed forwards, smacking her hands into Thanos’ boots. Ice began to form around his feet, creeping upwards, fastening him in place. Loki choked as she tried to breathe. She’d used up way too much energy, and it probably wouldn’t hold that long.
Thanos flailed his upper body around, aiming punches at everyone who came near him. His predicament seemed to have made him forget about the power his gauntlet possessed.
Good. First, we confuse the bitch, then we defeat the bitch.
Peter flew through one of Strange’s portals.
“Magic!” he yelled, sailing past Thanos and through the next portal.
“Magic again!” he taunted as he reappeared, before vanishing again.
“Magic with a kick!” he said as he booted Thanos in the cheek.
Thanos grabbed him by the neck and smacked him to the ground.
No.
“Insect,” said Thanos.
Loki dashed forwards, headbutting Thanos’ fist. It was a hard enough blow that he let go of Peter. She got to her feet and dragged Peter out of harm’s way.
“I think you’ll find, you stupid grape,” Peter was calling to Thanos. “That spiders are actually arachnids!”
“Shut up and get your breath back,” said Loki.
Stark was rushing towards Thanos now, apparently more determined than ever. There were blasts and explosions everywhere. Loki fought the urge to curl up in a ball and cry.
Peter was panting and there were tears streaming down his face.
“I tried to…He was just too…”
“Shhh,” said Loki. She wiped the tears off Peter’s face, stroking his hair back. “Stay here, Peter. It’s okay.”
“But I-”
“Stay.”
Loki got up. She could barely stand, but she had to. For Thor and for Peter alike.
When did I adopt this kid again?
She ducked as there was a sudden blast from the gauntlet. Thanos hadn’t completely forgotten it, then. Fire expelled in an almost perfectly straight line, and Loki could see someone at the end of the blast. Falling.
“Mr Stark!” Peter screamed.
“Peter, no!” said Loki.
But it was too late. Peter ignored her. His mask was back on, and flew towards Thanos, full of rage. Seconds later, there were webs all over Thanos’ gauntlet- which only lasted seconds, before they were torn off and thrown away, Peter with them.
“Peter! Dude!” yelled Loki. She’d never called anyone ‘dude’ in her life before, but, in times of crisis, people often do things they’d have never expected of themselves.
“Watch it, greasy!” yelled Quill.
Loki pivoted, just in time to see a pod flying towards her. She rolled out of the way and let out a sob. When she’d come up with this plan, she hadn’t really considered the thought that Thanos would fight back.
The pod smashed into Thanos, knocking him over, breaking the ice holding him in place. It was little more than debris now.
Thanos got to his feet slowly, searching around for the pilot.
Loki saw a flash of blue. It came to a halt before Thanos, knives out.
“Nebula!” Mantis cried from somewhere behind a block of rubble.
Nebula grinned, before fixing her eyes on Thanos. Her face was full of murder.
“Well, well,” said Thanos, smirking.
“You should have killed me,” she said.
“Mantis, now!” Loki screamed. Nebula’s head snapped around to watch as Mantis fell through one of Strange’s circles, landing perfectly on Thanos’ shoulders.
“Sleep…” cooed Mantis, her hands on the sides of his head.
Thanos screamed, the ground rumbling. Loki watched with her fingers crossed.
The cry died down, gradually. Thanos’ eyes rolled back into his head.
“Woah!” exclaimed Peter, his voice a few metres off. At least he was alive.
“Be quick!” said Mantis, urgency in her voice. “He’s very strong!”
“Strange!” yelled Loki.
“Alright, hold his arm out.”
Stark did so.
“Remember,” Loki said as Strange rushed forwards. “His arm first and then his head. But whatever you do, don’t hit Mantis.”
“On it,” said Strange. And, for some reason, Loki trusted him.
“What?” Nebula said. “Why do you need to say that? What’s going-?”
“I’ll explain soon!” said Mantis. Her face was pained.
Stark held Thanos’ arm out, having to use both hands.
Strange approached, his circles in front of him.
“Now,” Loki commanded.
There was a cry from Thanos as his arm fell off.
“Quick! Go for the head!” said Loki.
Strange aimed. And fired. Loki jumped up, grabbing Mantis out of the way. They hit the ground at the same time as Thanos.
Then, everything was still.
“Did it work?” said Peter as he stumbled towards them.
“Yeah,” breathed Stark. “Thanos is dead.”
They all stopped for a moment, taking time to breathe. There was a thump from somewhere near the gauntlet, but nobody looked up.
I did it. This is all on me. I stopped that bitch-ass grape, and everyone is alright. All we need to do now is find-
“Gamora!” said Nebula suddenly.
“What?” Quill stared at her. “Can we get some context please?”
Nebula ignored him, scrambling to her feet. She made her way over to the gauntlet, limping slightly.
Everyone stared after her, to see what she was doing. A flash of green crossed Loki’s vision.
“Gamora!” screamed Quill. He ran towards the green, followed by Drax and Mantis.
The green thing- person, maybe- was moving now. They sat up straight.
So that’s Gamora.
Loki, Peter, Stark, and Strange watched from a distance as everybody greeted each other, checking Gamora was okay.
“Hey,” said Mantis. “You guys can come over too.”
Glancing at each other, the four made their way over. Apparently, Thanos- who was Nebula and Gamora’s adoptive father- had sacrificed Gamora so as to gain the Soul Stone. She hadn’t actually been killed, simply trapped inside the stone. After Thanos had died, that must have broken the curse (or whatever it was) that was holding her captive.
They all introduced themselves properly. Peter did his regular thing of calling everyone ‘man’ and ‘dude’ before checking they were cool with it (they all were). Loki didn’t really dislike any of the new people- the Guardians of the Galaxy, apparently- but she especially liked Nebula. They were both adopted- Gamora was too. Both had daddy issues (so did Gamora). Both had tried to kill their siblings (Gamora hadn’t) and, thankfully, neither of them had succeeded. Loki also mentioned that she was blue too. Nebula didn’t believe her until Loki showed her fingers in her Jotun form- only her fingers, mind. She didn’t really like to flaunt it.
They sat and talked for about half an hour, before Drax spoke up.
“I guess we should find Rocket and Groot,” he said. Then he looked at Loki. “Thor’s with them.”
“Oh, yeah, let’s go find them.” Loki paused. “Wait- oh, also, I’m male now guys- wait. Groot as in the language?”
“Uh…” Drax glanced at Quill who shrugged.
“Or is Groot a tree who speaks Groot? And you all thought that was their name?” Loki tried not to sound exasperated.
“We…might have thought that,” said Gamora.
“He is a tree, yeah,” said Quill. “You’re telling me Groot is a language?”
“That’s exactly what I’m telling you,” said Loki. “It was an elective on Asgard. Thor took a course in it. I did Ancient Elvish.” He grinned at the memory.
The Guardians gawked at him.
“You shape-shifted again,” said Drax, obviously to fill the silence.
“Yeah, I do that when my gender changes.” Loki set his jaw, determinedly. “Now we’re going to find Thor.”