At some point on the ride to Nidavellir, the rabbit (he, of course, knew it wasn't a rabbit, but he was yet to be corrected) let out a loud sigh and sat himself beside him.

"So," Rocket said, "dead sibling, huh? Must suck."

Thor smiled. The creature was obviously not used to 'heart to heart' talks, and yet he was trying his best to help him. Truly, he was a kind creature. Thor mustn't have been wrong in his assumption that he was the team leader.

"Verily. I remain hopeful that some of my people have escaped, but Loki... they angered Thanos himself. It is unlikely that they escaped."

"You got any other family?" He asked.

"My father passed away just recently, and with his death my sister Hela was released from her prison and killed many Asgardians - including my best friends. I had to kill her by starting Ragnarok, which destroyed my home. My mother was killed long ago by a dark elf. Loki was all the family I had left, and they are likely dead." Thor shrugged like each death wasn't an incredibly heavy weight on his shoulders and turned his head to keep the tears welling up in his eyes private.

"No friends at all..?" Rocket asked quietly.

"Perhaps the Valkyrie and Hulk survived. And I've heard no word of Sif. I hold hope in my heart of their survival, but I fear that I'm indeed the last Asgardian." He chuckled with no joy. "A king without a kingdom."

"You sure you're up for this?" Rocket asked. "We've saved the universe before, you can sit this out if you want. We can drop you off on some nice planet."

Thor sighed. "I appreciate your kind offer, but I don't think I can move on unless I battle this foe alongside you."

Rocket nodded and hesitated for a moment before awkwardly patting Thor on the head. Thor was touched by the gesture and smiled as the rabbit went back to the driver's seat, telling Groot to get off his electronic device as he did.

"I am Groot." The tree shot back in response.

Thor laughed at the insult. "He has you there, my friend."

Rocket pulled a face. "You can understand Groot?"

"Of course, I took an elective on it in school."

Rocket shook his head. "Figures..."

"I am Groot."

Thor chuckled. "No, I will not teach you any new swear words."

-

The trip to Nidavellir took two days, even with the assistance of jump points, as Asgard had forbidden any jump points being built near any of the nine realms. After their last jump point, their communication systems had failed, so they had no idea how the other's search for the reality stone went.

"Wait 'til you see it, my friends! It will be the most beautiful thing you have ever seen!"

"Well, we're approaching now. If the star you talked about isn't an actual star, I'll kill you myself for disappointing me."

"I am Groot."

"That's way too specific." Rocket said with disgust.

"I haven't been to Nidavellir since I was a boy." Thor sighed. "The spinning rings were one of the first wonders of the universe that I saw."

"Spinning? They seem pretty still to me."

Thor started and rushed to the window. Nidavellir was there, but its rings were stuck and covered in ice, and the forge wasn't lit. The place that once drew wonder for him now turned his skin cold.

He stared at the rings that were frozen in both senses of the word. "Oh shit."

Rocket looked up at him. "Uh, guessing it's not supposed to look like that?"

Thor shook his head. "Something's wrong. Stay weary when we land."

They landed the pod with little trouble, but the forge that was usually bustling with life was now dead silent, its interior trashed.

"Stay silent." Thor said. "The dwarfs are a mighty race. Anyone who could've bested them is surely a dangerous foe. I've never been a master of strategy, but we should keep the element of surprise."

Rocket scoffed. "We can take 'em. Hey! Anybody on this stinking forge?!"

Groot shook his head. "I am Groot..."

"Shut up, Groot. Hey assholes! Come out here, ya cowards!"

A tall hulking figure barreled out of the darkness, hitting groot aside with one hand and grabbing Rocket with the other. He threw the rabbit into a wall with little effort.

Thor went to assist them, but his cape was grabbed and he was yanked backwards. He stumbled back and readied lighting at his fingertips. His assailant thrust her sword towards him but stopped with her blade an inch away from his stomach.

"Thor?" She said with awe, and Thor was suddenly looking into a face he'd known for over a thousand years.

"Sif?" He asked.

She sheathed her sword and looked at him as if he were an illusion. "I thought-" she ran forward and wrapped her arms around him. "I thought you were dead."

Thor couldn't help himself from crying and held her tight. He thought he was alone. "I thought you were dead."

"Please," she said, and Thor could practically hear the eye roll, "if there was something powerful enough to kill me, the universe would be doomed."

She pulled away from as the large figure that Thor now recognised to be Eitri approached them. "I apologise for attacking you and your comrades, Odinson. Things here have been... tense."

"Tense atmosphere doesn't mean you're forgiven for throwing me like a goddamn human toy disk."

"A frisbee?" Thor offered.

Rocket shrugged. "Yeah that sounds right."

"I am Groot."

"Groot doesn't forgive you either." Rocket translated. The teen returned to his game. "But he doesn't care."

"Thor," Sif said, "When I returned to Asgard, there was nothing left but dust."

Thor dipped his head. "Ragnarok."

Her face tightened. "After the convergence, Odin was acting differently."

"Yes," Thor said, his mouth twitching upwards, "I saw the statue."

"He sent me off on a mission when I became suspicious... that was Loki wasn't it? They caused Ragnarok."

"Oh no! He didn't- well, he did cause Ragnarok, but I told him to! We had to destroy it to protect the people from Hela."

"Who's Hela?"

"My sister."

"Why are all of Asgard's troubles caused by your family drama?" Sif asked. "So Asgard's population survives?"

Thor took too long to reply, and saw the realisation hit Sif. "You're the only survivor?"

"There was another attack. Thanos- I don't know," Thor admitted, "Some may have escaped, but I did not see. I was thrown into space, anything could have happened after that. The Guardians -" and he gestured to Groot and Rocket, "- found no other life signs in the wreckage of our ship."

"Surely Loki survived? The cockroach that they are?"

Thor's hands tightened into fists. "Loki knew who Thanos was, what his ship looked like. They were terrified. I fear my brother - I'm sorry, my sibling-"

"You know about that?" Sif asked.

"Yes." Thor paused. "Wait, you know about that? Since when?"

Sif waved her hand. "A story for another time."

Reluctantly, Thor let go of that conversation thread to return to the more pressing matter at hand. "Well, I fear my sibling did not survive this time. They showed a terror I had never seen before. I believe Thanos would have killed them for not giving him the Tesseract."

Sif put her hand on his shoulder. "Thor..."

Thor smiled at Sif and then looked at Eitri. "I'm in need of a new weapon, one that can kill Thanos."

"I'd be happy to make you a weapon – Thanos is what destroyed this place after all – but he shut down the forge."

"Why was he here?" Thor asked.

"He wanted us to make a gauntlet capable of wielding the infinity stones. He killed anyone who refused until there was only a handful of us left. I was weak, I made him what he wanted when he promised to leave the rest of us alive. But once he had what he wanted, he killed everyone except me and broke the machines that open the forge and spin the rings. Lady Sif arrived a short time later when she discovered that Asgard was destroyed and came here to get a weapon strong enough to take on what could've done something so impossible."

"But like he said, the forge is dead. Unless we could get the rings spinning again, this place's only use is acting as a graveyard."

"Great King Eitri," Thor said, "I give you my deepest apologies for your loss. I wish I was there to protect your people. I cannot go back in time to save them, but you can make me a weapon capable of killing the mad titan so that I may avenge them."

Eitri shook his head. "It's like Lady Sif said, we'd need to get the rings spinning."

"If we could, do you think you could make the weapon I ask for?"

"I still have a cast for a weapon, an axe by the name of Jarnbjorn. If I could make it, it'd be the most powerful weapon in the universe. Even more so than your hammer."

"What happened to Mjolnir?" Sif asked.

Thor shrugged. "My sister broke it." He looked to Eitri. "I'll get the rings turning for you, you get the cast."

—

Sif didn't like the plan. Thor's solution to get the rings spinning (a combination of his strength, strong rope, and the pod ship) worked fine, but he planned to hold open the eye of the forge himself. Doing so would expose him to the full strength of a neutron star. He would surely perish in the attempt.

"We don't need this weapon, Thor." Sif told him, hand clutching his shoulder tight. "We can work together with these Guardians, as well as your Midgardian heroes. It'll be enough."

"It won't be." Thor said. "He has the infinity stones. Numbers alone won't stop him."

He was right. She didn't care much about that though.

"When I saw the Asgard was nothing but dust... I assumed that everyone was dead." Sif said. "And now I have you back and you're about to throw yourself into a situation where I might lose you again."

"That's a chance I have to take, Sif."

"The house of Odin is the biggest collection of idiots in the universe."

He chuckled half-heartedly. "I've never heard truer words spoken."

And he was suddenly at the eye. Sif watched as he pulled the doors of the eyes open and was hit with a blast of raw power. It continued to stream forward to melt the uru that King Eitri had ready.

Thor's skin began to turn red and black in places and Sif could just barely hold her tongue to stop herself from screaming out.

He held out for a long time, but Sif saw the eye's doors getting closer and closer together. "He can't hold it for much longer." She said aloud, and a look to King Eitri showed that he was thinking the same thing.

Thor swayed forward and fell, the doors slamming shut behind him.

Sif watched as the rabbit (so Thor told her he was) caught him in his ship, and looked to the uru metal. "Was that enough?"

Reluctantly, the king shook his head. "If he held the doors open for just a second longer, we could've done it."

"Just a second longer?" Sif asked, and the king, looking concerned, nodded. "I can do it."

Everyone tried to argue, but she was eventually able to convince them to bring her up to the eye.

She put her fingers between the doors and pulled as hard as she could, the force of the neutron star almost knocking her back immediately.

She pushed and pushed until the doors were wide open, all the while she was blasted with a heat like the lava pits of Muspelheim. She could feel her skin burning, and couldn't help but let out a scream as the pain tore through her.

Thor could control lightning – so he was incredibly heat resistant – but her? She was no mere mortal, but this was... too much.

She couldn't see with the light around her blinding her, and the pain grew and grew and she wished to go to Valhalla.

It was too much. Too much.

In her head, she said a prayer to the Norns. And then everything was black.