A/N: I wish I could post chapters every day for you guys! I've loved reading everyone's comments about what they think could happen next; I've already written nearly all the way up to the end of Endgame so I hope you end up liking what I've done :) Enjoy <3

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Your demonstration to Peter didn't last very long; Tony intervened after about five minutes ("What did I just tell you about saving your strength?"), so you sat and talked with Peter for a while instead. He had a lot of questions. You didn't mind. You were tired, but the thought of lying down and closing your eyes for a prolonged period of time when you had... that image of Loki in your mind didn't overly appeal to you.

Peter asked you what it had been like living in the tower with the team for a year. What was Mr. Thor like, was it true that he loved pop tarts? (Yes.) Was Black Widow really as mean as everyone made her out to be? (No, but don't tell her I said that.) Did Hawkeye really like to sit in the air vents? (No, you weren't sure where he'd heard that, although it did make you laugh.) What was Captain America like? (A gentleman, who didn't look his age.) What was Asgard like? (Amazing. Indescribable. Gone.) On and on the questions went, distracting your mind pleasantly and taking you back to simpler days.

You weren't sure how long you sat and talked for, but when you finally stopped talking it was because you were approaching the surface of a planet. Tony and Strange were at the front of the ship.

"Come on." you said to Peter, standing up and teleporting down to stand next to Tony. Peter swung down and landed in between you and Strange.

"What's going on?" he asked.

"I think we're here." Strange said.

"I don't think this thing has a self-park function." Tony muttered. Then he pointed to the big metal structure nearest to Peter, "Get your hand into this steering gimbal. Close those around it. You understand?"

Peter put his hand into the contraption and frowned, closing it around his arm.

"Yep, got it."

"This was meant for one big guy, so we gotta move at the same time." Tony instructed, looking out of the window at the planet which you were swiftly approaching; the surface of which was covered in what looked like a load of gigantic metal jacks, or starfish.

"Okay. Okay. Ready." Peter said, setting his jaw in resolve. You looked at Strange; he looked vaguely concerned. The ship was heading straight towards one of the enormous starfish structures.

"We might wanna turn. Turn! Turn! Turn!" Peter yelled urgently. The ship swung to the right as Peter and Tony moved, but from the immense crunch and the alarming manner in which the ship then veered forwards, you imagined that they probably hadn't turned soon enough. Tony's helmet shot up around his face, as did Peter's, and Strange stepped forward to create a shield around the four of you, clearly anticipating a rough landing. You followed suit, reinforcing the shield with your magic.

Strange threw you a look which told you that he thought your magic was useless compared to his.

"Better safe than sorry." you muttered, before lurching forward as the ship smashed into the ground, ploughing through the dirt until it came to an unsteady halt, leaning dangerously to one side. The ship creaked and sparked worryingly... and then all was still.

Tony's helmet came down again as Strange helped him to his feet, panting slightly from the exertion of trying to steer the ship.

"You alright? That was close." Tony said, looking at Strange and then over his shoulder to check that you and Peter were alright.

"Let me just say, if aliens wind up implanting eggs in my chest or something, and I eat one of you, I'm sorry." Peter said. You frowned.

Tony pointed at Peter, "I don't wanna hear another pop culture reference out of you for the rest of the trip. You understand?"

"I'm trying to say that something is coming." Peter explained, looking over your shoulder. You spun around just in time for a grenade to roll across the floor and stop at your feet; there was barely time to blink, let alone do anything to stop it from detonating.

You, Peter, Tony and Strange were thrown backwards as the energy pulse hit; you hit the front window of the ship hard and fell to the ground, winded.

"THANOS!" an unfamiliar voice bellowed, and then a blade flew through the air towards Strange, who deflected it skilfully and sent his cloak flying towards the attacker. You struggled to your feet, gasping for breath, just in time to see Tony getting attacked by some dude in a creepy mask, the eyes of which glowed red. The creepy mask dude slammed something on to Tony's chest, which was obviously magnetic because then he was stuck to the wall. You hastened towards him, but were side-tracked when you saw Peter scrambling away from a half human, half bug lady with huge, black eyes and antennae.

"Whoa, whoa, please don't put your eggs in me!" Peter yelled in panic, shooting web at her and pinning her arms to her side as you raised your hands, magic at the ready. Then the guy in the red mask flew in from nowhere, kicking Peter hard and slamming him to the ground.

"Stay down, clown!" the guy yelled. You blasted him with magic, sending him flying backwards into a wall with a thud, and then hurried to help Peter to his feet.

"You okay?" you asked, before suddenly an electric like cord wrapped around your legs and pulled, sending you crashing down to the ground with a furious yell. Then the guy with the mask was stood over you, pulling you to your feet and holding a gun to your head.

Tony had obviously pulled himself free from the wall, because now he was stood with one foot on a large alien with blue skin, the one who had thrown the dagger at Strange. A quick glance around told you it was only the three of them. Good. Strange was stood nearby with a shield of golden energy up; Peter was stood just to your right and the weird bug lady was next to him, her arms still stuck to her sides.

"Alright, everybody stay where you are... chill the eff out." the guy holding the gun to your head demanded, reaching up to release his mask, "I'm gonna ask you this one time. Where's Gamora?"

You frowned. Gamora? Tony had the same look of confusion on his face as he deactivated his helmet.

"Yeah, I'll do you one better. Who's Gamora?" he said angrily.

"I'll do you one better. Why is Gamora?" the blue dude underneath Tony's foot said aggressively. Everyone turned to look at him in confusion, even the guy behind you and bug lady.

"Tell me where the girl is, or I swear to you, I'm gonna French-fry this little witch." the guy behind you said, pressing the gun firmly against your head. Little witch?

"Let's do it! You shoot my girl, I blast him. Let's go!" Tony asserted, extending an evil looking gun from the end of one of the arms of his suit towards the blue guy's face beneath him. You assumed that Tony knew you were capable of disarming the guy behind you without getting hurt if he did try to shoot you.

"Do it Quill! I can take it." the alien beneath Tony's foot yelled, gritting his teeth.

"No! He can't take it!" the bug lady shouted.

"She's right. You can't." Strange said, completely deadpan.

"Oh yeah? You don't wanna tell me where she is? That's fine, I'll kill all four of you and beat it out of Thanos myself. Startin' with you." Quill said aggressively to the group, and then you, tightening his hold on you.

"Wait, wait! Thanos?" you asked, trying to pull away from him so you could see his face.

Strange was shaking his head in confusion.

"Alright, let me ask you this one time: what master do you serve?" he asked, looking at Quill.

"What master do I serve? What am I supposed to say to that, Jesus?" Quill replied scornfully.

Your eyes widened.

"You're from Midg- Earth?" you asked incredulously, twisting in his grasp to get a better look at his face. He looked human, but then, so did you.

"I'm not from Earth, I'm from Missouri." Quill ridiculed you.

"Yeah, that's on Earth, dipshit." Tony replied disbelievingly, "What are you hassling us for?"

"So, you're not with Thanos?" Peter asked from next to you.

"With Thanos?! No, I'm here to kill Thanos! He took my girl- wait, who are you?" Quill asked in total confusion.

"We're the Avengers, man." Peter said, letting his helmet down.

"Oh." Quill said.

"You're the ones Thor told us about!" bug lady said. You heart flew to your mouth.

"Thor?" you said urgently, shoving Quill away from you and tripping forwards in your haste to get towards the bug lady, "You know Thor? You've seen him? He's alive?" you asked, searching her face for answers.

"Yeah. Tall guy, not that good looking." Quill said, shrugging. You turned to him instead to see Peter giving him an incredulous look, "Needed saving."

"Saving... saving from what?" you asked desperately.

"Well, uh, he was kinda..."

This was taking too long. You went into Quill's mind, pushing past his overwhelming worry about some green lady, through to Thor. They'd picked him up after finding him floating in space; he'd been distressed, obviously... ugh, you couldn't get anything useful from this, all you felt was Quill's jealousy towards Thor.

You retreated from his mind and looked back towards bug lady, leaving Quill swaying and clutching his head.

"What was that? Hey, girl, you can't just-"

"Did he say anything about Loki?" you asked frantically.

The bug lady just looked at you in confusion.

"Hey! I was talking to you!" Quill yelled, stepping towards you. You blasted him with magic, sending him flying backwards away from you, not taking your eyes from the bug lady. The blue alien Tony had been stood on roared in outrage and started towards you, but Tony held him back.

"Kid-" Tony said, wrestling with the blue guy.

"His brother. He didn't say anything about..?" you trailed off. The alien's face had dropped at your mention of the word 'brother'.

"What? What did he say...?" you whispered, searching her face, your heart beating three times as fast as usual.

"Your father killed my brother." she recited nervously.

You swayed on the spot, your brain unable to process the sentence. Whose father? Killed my brother...

"Whose father?" you managed to croak after a few seconds.

"Gamora's father, Thanos."

Quill came flying back towards you with a yell, but before he could collide with you, you teleported outside the ship, gasping for breath. Maw hadn't been lying.

You stepped forward unsteadily, reaching for a nearby rock, but before you could make it your knees gave out and you thudded to the ground. The unexpected pressure provoked an unintentional sob from deep within your chest, and once you started you couldn't stop, pressing a hand to your mouth to try and muffle the sound.

It didn't work. You cast a shield of magic around yourself almost subconsciously, one which was thick enough so that no sound could penetrate it, and allowed the scream of desperation and grief which had been sat in your chest for the last few hours to escape. It didn't make you feel better.

Your chest had been tight since you'd left Midgard, and you felt physically ill, maybe that was what 'the feeling' would be for you. You grit your teeth and screwed your eyes shut, hunching over, trying not to see the image of Loki that Maw had shown you. He hadn't been lying, it had been a clear memory that he'd projected into your mind.

Sobs wracked your entire body and you struggled to draw a breath. You needed to know.

After a few minutes you got your breathing back under control, but stayed kneeling on the ground, unsure if you could get up again. The mist around you shimmered and faded; you felt weak and completely drained. This whole thing was pointless, Thanos was going to get the stones, he was the most powerful being in the universe. And there were just seven of you to protect the Time stone.

And Loki was dead. All the evidence pointed towards it.

"Kid?"

Tony's voice almost tipped you over the edge again, but you held on.

"Y/N, get up. Come here." Tony said, his hand on your shoulder. You slowly got to your feet, your magic burning so hard in your eyes that you had to blink a few times to stop everything from appearing purple. Tony held you before him by the shoulders.

"Did you feel anything yet?" he asked, referring to the soulmate connection between you and Loki.

You shook your head.

"Then there's hope. Right?" he asked. He didn't think Loki was dead, but he was mainly saying this to you because he needed you to be ready to fight. You smirked through the fresh tears which pricked at your eyes. Tony looked at you, then sighed.

"I forgot about the whole mind reading thing. Sorry." he said apologetically.

"It's alright. You're right." you said, taking a deep, shuddering breath.

"He's been dead before." Tony reminded you. You gave a half laugh, half sob, and nodded.

"Twice." you added.

"That's the spirit." he said, pulling you towards him for a hug.

"It's not quite the same with your suit on." you told him, tapping your knuckles against the hard, metal exterior of the Iron Man suit.

"No, you're right. I'll give you a proper hug when we're out of this mess and back on Earth, alright? Sorry, Midgard." he told you.

You smiled painfully, wiping at your eyes with the hem of your cape.

"Deal."