31

Chapter 31: risk and rewardNotes:

1) I shit you not, I thought I would have signal at Glastonbury (hence the late update). There wasn't enough signal to make a phone call, let alone an update.

2) INFINITY WAR ARC!!! I'VE BEEN WAITING TO WRITE THIS FOR AGESSS

3) Enjoy the chapter and leave a kudos and comment!

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter Text

His heart stopped.

"What?!" He paused, biting his tongue to ground himself to reality so his thought process didn't spiral. "Wait, how do you know?"

"I placed enchantments around the area where the stone was being kept to protect it and to warn me if it was taken. Still, this cuts our time short and Asgard will be next on Thanos's list."

"So, when do we go there?" His voice wavered, borderline frantic with the new discovery. He didn't know the timeframe for when Thanos first took the Power stone but he hadn't expected it to happen so quickly!

"The timing hasn't changed. We can't go too early but make sure to be ready to come to the Sanctum short notice. Make sure you're ready." He hung up abruptly, leaving Peter to panic internally.

"W-will do."

"Okay, no offence to Stephen but that looks like a normal amethyst crystal," Ned stated as he picked the crystal up from the corner of his desk and sat on his bed.

"That's what I thought when I first saw it," he replied, setting the crystal on his bedsheets as he crossed his legs. "But it's really cool when it works. I have to have a strong connection to the emotion for it to project the memory."

"It's a shame MJ can't watch it work." Ned sighed. "So then…what did you feel when you fought Thanos?" Ned asked, sitting on his desk chair as he watched Peter think.

His first fight with Thanos had also been his first time in space and as childish as it was, he was excited. He had never been on another planet and he was going to fight a new opponent with a bunch on new people – again, he knew how childish and naïve it sounded, no one needed to remind him.

"…exhilarated," he replied, running a hand through his already messed up hair as he thought of a memory that would trigger his adrenaline.

As fun as swinging through the streets of New York was, the same level of excitement always came from that. He needed something that would trigger his adrenaline to the same level of that fight before he even thought of the crystal projecting it. Even diving from the Empire State building didn't bring the same level of excitement.

He wanted to think of something that was chronologically before the fight before Thanos so his stream of thought would naturally lead onto the fight on Titan. An event that he had never experienced before.

Aha! His adrenaline had surged to an irregularly high point when the tractor beam had caught him and he was clinging onto the spaceship for his life. It was impossible to forget how terrifying but exhilarating that experience had been, with the atmosphere fading as colours began to fade into the abyss of space.

The air had begun to thin out as the spaceship went higher and higher, the chill cutting through his suit like it was nothing and it hurt to breathe.

His toes and fingers had stated to go numb within seconds and he had been struggling to hold onto the spaceship as Tony had called out to him on the comms and told him to hang on, that his suit was coming and he would survive.

His heart sped up at the memory and his eyes shot open at Ned's gasp, the view of Earth flying away from them being projected by the orb. They watched as he let go of the spaceship, his view of everything blurring together until the suit encased him and the parachute opened.

Breathing in deeply, he imagined Titan, its dusty landscape filled with destroyed metal and filtered sunbeams as he looked around, taking in the Guardians. He had never seen anyone who wasn't from Earth and his excitement made everything seem much more optimistic than it was.

He had never told Ned about this part, at least not in enough detail, let alone been able to show him. It was as if he was baring one of the coolest moments of his life and pausing it before everything went downhill and they lost, costing them the Time stone.

"This is when Thanos arrives and we plan an ambush," he explained to Ned, sitting silently as the memory played out.

"You may regret that," Stephen said as Thanos walked towards him with heavy but measured steps. "He brought you face to face with a master of the mystic arts."

He crawled over the large metal structure he was on, internally wincing with every clink of his suit against the surface as he reached his position for the ambush.

"And what do you think he brought you?" Thanos asked.

"Let me guess. Your home?"

Thanos paused, resting on a piece of debris. "It was." He clutched his fist, powering up the Reality stone as it glowed scarlet against the baited atmosphere of Titan. "And it was beautiful."

The collapsed world around them changed, morphing into an amazing place. Strange star-shaped ships hovered in the sky as massive green buildings with gold highlights stood in the background.

"Titan was like most planets. Too many mouths, not enough to go around. And when we faced extinction, I offered a solution." Nausea swirled in his stomach as he figured out what Thanos meant.

Stephen nodded disbelievingly. "Genocide."

"But random, dispassionate, fair to rich and poor alike. They called me a madman. And what I predicted came to pass."

Simply hearing Thanos's insane reasoning struck fear into his heart like ice. How could slaughtering the population be a plausible solution to him? Planetary travel must have been possible and there must have been solutions for mass-producing food or even rationing it out so it reached people evenly.

Their conversation continued until Stephen stood up, defiance in his tone as he raised his hands and summoned his shields.

"I think you'll find that our will equal to yours."

The fight began and his heart raced in his chest as he watched Tony push a massive chunk of debris onto Thanos, supposedly crushing him underneath it.

Of course, nothing would be as simple as that for them and as a massive dust cloud rose from the debris, an explosion of violet from the Power stone emerged as Thanos yelled.

The debris exploded away from him as he clenched his fist and activated the Reality stone, changing the dust into hundreds of bats that chased Tony away.

Blood roaring in his ears, he shot Thanos with webs to the face as he swung by, making an opening for Drax who slashed at Thanos's legs with his blades. S

tephen took on Thanos in an imitation of hand-to-hand combat as Quill used the opening to join into the battle, leaving him to swing around and wait for his opening.

Quill used Stephen's shields to jump over Thanos, flipping over him and attaching an explosive to his back before jumping in front of a portal and throwing his middle finger up at Thanos.

"Boom!" He exclaimed before jumping into the portal and vanishing somewhere else, leaving Thanos confused for a few seconds before the explosive activated and inured Thanos slightly.

A portal fizzled in front of him and he leapt through it. "Magic." He punched Thanos before entering another portal. "More magic!" He grabbed Thanos's shoulders and pulled him forwards before going through another portal. "Magic with a kick." He landed a kick to Thanos's jaw. "Magic with a…"

Choking as Thanos grabbed his throat and threw him down towards the ground, squeezing the air out of him. Gasping as he hit the ground, his back aching and sure to get bruises later.

"Insect," Thanos gritted out as he raised him into the air and threw him into Mantis, completely unbothered by his yells.

It didn't take him long to recover as he staggered upwards, quickly helping Mantis stand up before swinging straight back into the action.

Shooting a web at the gauntlet, he used his momentum to pull him as far away from Thanos as he started pulling the gauntlet away. Praying his move worked, all he could do was pull until someone else joined him.

It didn't work.

Thanos yanked him forwards, punching the air out of him for the second time as his web snapped and he flew forwards and onto the ground.

Everything descended into pandemonium from there until they had a clear shot of Thanos with Stephen pulling the gauntlet with weird scarlet magic-thingies and Quill using a device which looked like lightning tethering Thanos to the ground.

Drax's blades kept him on one knee in a disadvantaged position and his webs keeping his chest bared out so he was strained.

He struggled to keep Thanos straining, activating his iron arms to keep him tethered to the ground as Tony pulled the gauntlet from Thanos's hand.

Stephen opened a portal, allowing Mantis to drop from wherever she was onto Thanos's head as she placed her hands on his temples and used her power to make him unwillingly sleep.

Chest heaving with stress, he looked forward, the air vibrating with the sheer power the Infinity Stones excluded. The stones glowed from underneath Tony's suit, the blue of the Space stone emanating from a few metres away.

The memory stopped, fading away into nothingness as his emotions of exhilaration and stress changed to underlying rage and undeniable fear. The memory warped into nothingness, leaving him and Ned staring into the empty space.

Ned opened and closed his mouth a few times until he found something to stay. "Dude, what the hell?"

"What?" He asked, surprised by Ned's reaction. Did he think their strategy was shit? Did he think the damage Peter took was too much? Did he think Titan looked like a complete wreck compared to what he thought it would be?

"What- I mean, how? Thanos is freaking huge! He had four of the Infinity Stones and you still took him on? How did you not freeze? I would have!" Ned rambled, the insanity of the situation finally reaching him.

"You're not going to…you're not gonna back out, are you?" He asked uncertainly.

"What? No! It's just…I have such a massive new level of respect for you. Like seriously, huge."

He let Ned carry on rambling as his phone buzzed, quickly taking it out of his sweatpants' pocket and checking who it was.

Magic Man

Sanctum, tomorrow at 4.

Me

Okay

Ned looked at him, having finished his ramble. "Who was it?" He asked as he leaned against the bedframe.

"Stephen. He wants us to come to the Sanctum at 4."

Ned grimaced. "Time to face the music."

His Spidey-sense carried on humming dully as they entered the Sanctum, the late afternoon sun shining through the Window of Worlds and onto the wooden floor as the doors softly shut behind them. Everything seemed normal, seemingly unaware of the history they would make within the next few hours.

His stomach curled in on itself as they walked towards the kitchen, completely apprehensive about what would happen within the next hour. Their plan was not full proof and there were a lot of things that could go wrong but they didn't have a choice.

They needed to slow Thanos down and hopefully gain the advantage against him if they were to win.

"Where is Stephen normally?" He asked, his voice echoing around the empty kitchen. There were mugs in the sink, a pot of something that looked suspiciously like a mix of tar and wine –no one needed to know how he knew what that looked like- on the stovetop and an empty carton of milk on the kitchen island.

"Sometimes he's in the rafters practicing magic," Ned replied as he grimaced at the pot. "Most of the time he's in the library."

He froze as his Spidey-sense tingled before he swivelled around to see Cloak about to ruffle his hair, the mystical garment pausing as if to check he was okay with it before it patted his shoulder and waved at Ned.

"Oh, hey Cloak!" Ned greeted cheerfully before walking towards it. "Do you know where Stephen is?" It shrugged in reply as a voice spoke out.

"There's no need to ask. We need to go to the Alcroft now," Stephen announced as Cloak settled on his shoulders. "We can't waste any more time."

Descending to the Alcroft brought back memories of redeemable villains who he had given a second chance to, the cells they were in opposite him once the lights flickered on. Weird magical artifacts from times he didn't know about stood against the walls, cluttered in their masses.

"As you said the other day, it should be relatively simple. You go in, take the Tesseract, hope Loki does pass by and warn him about Thanos. Bearing in mind Asgard will be collapsing promptly after, you will need to be quick," Stephen said. "If anything goes awry or starts collapsing, I will get you out of there regardless of how much progress you have made.

He and Nod nodded, unable to argue with anything considering it was a miracle Stephen was allowing them to pull this off. He supposed it was because of how dire the situation was and how Thanos had taken the Power stone earlier than they had thought he would.

"Peter has shown you the Space stone?" Stephen asked Ned.

Ned nodded. "Yeah, through the memory orb."

Stephen nodded, gesturing for Ned to step forwards and do what he needed to do.

Gulping, he watched as Ned found himself a suitable space in front of the cells and lifted his hand with the sling ring on, waving it in a wide circle as sparks crackled in an arc.

"Find the Space stone," Ned muttered, squeezing his eyes shut as he focused. The sparks spiralled into a circle, revealing a lavish vault.

"Holy shit," he muttered, walking towards Ned once he dropped his hand. "Well done."

Ned huffed, running a hand through his hair before stepping through the portal. "That took a lot more effort than what I expected."

"It would have," Stephen replied, causing him to turn around and see him observing them. "Making a portal to an object rather than a known location will cause more magical energy to be used. Focusing with a single image in mind means more magic is needed to find the actual source."

"So, if I wanted to open a portal to Mars, I could do it?" Ned asked.

"Theoretically, yes. In practice, not so much. I'll explain it to you when you're not in the middle of an important mission."

Shit, right, they didn't have time to spare.

The vault had high gold ceilings with partitions between each artifact, each partition engraved with complex designs highlighting the richness of Asgard. The two walls lining the vault were five metres apart with ceiling panels letting the Asgardian sunset beams through, colouring the chiselled marble floor a faded amber.

"I guess...you take one side and I'll take the other?" Ned asked, taking the right side when he nodded in agreement.

His Spidey-sense kept humming dully, keeping to the same level the same it had been all week outside of patrols. He wasn't sure why it kept alert despite the fact there was no active danger around him but had always kept his Spider-Man and web-shooters suit on him.

Most of the time it had been folded at the bottom of his school bag or he had been wearing it, but it somewhat appeased his sixth sense, lowering the constant buzz like an irritating fly to a gentle hum.

Peaceful silence hadn't been an option for the past week and he wanted to find a solution for it. Unfortunately, he would have to find that later.

Each partition revealed a carved out space for each artifact and each one he passed looked more outlandish than the one before.

There was a golden tablet with carvings in a different language that he had no hope of deciphering even with Karen and Tadashi's help (uploading Tadashi in his final suit update had helped him a lot on patrols). Thor would have had a better chance at working out what it meant.

In the next partition, a glowing blue box with darker blue veins stood in the hollow, emanating freezing waves every few seconds. Tentatively reaching out to touched it, he sharply withdrew his fingers when they numbed with one wave. It would be better for him to stay away from that considering he never did well in cold weather.

Norse words were engraved into the wall of the next hollow. Slipping on his mask, he blinked to adjust to the dimmed lighting before taking a picture of it.

"Karen, please can you translate the writing on this?" He asked as he gestured to the weird object in front of him. There was a hollow white space in the middle of the object with a lilac ring surrounding it. Both details were encased by a dull metal – a combination of silver, cobalt and iron which he knew wouldn't actually be those metal. Asgard probably had stronger metals than what was on Earth.

"Translation: Tuning Fork. I am unsure of the purpose of the object," Karen said. He thought about asking Stephen what it was before biting his tongue and moving on; he would ask later when they had the time and the Space stone.

He didn't take too long looking at the next section, deeming the skull of…whatever the monster was, because nothing had such a large skull with thin horns that was that scorched.

Warmth emanated from the next partition, a bowl full of spitting flames that made him keep his distance. The pure heat it pulsed made him wonder what would happen if he placed it next to the weird blue box. Would the elements clash? Would one overpower the other?

Shaking his head as he made his way further down the corridor, his heart leaped out of his chest as a blue cube flashed in his peripheral vision and he did a double take.

The Tesseract.

"Holy shit, Ned!" He exclaimed. "I found it!"

Ned jogged over, his jaw dropping when he saw the Tesseract.

"Imagine being close to this thing during 2012," Ned murmured, reaching out to touch it before faltering. "Should I- should I touch it? What if there's a safety mechanism or something and we get locked in here?"

"You'll be fine," Stephen called out from his end of the portal. "If you can portal in here then there are no restrictions stopping you from opening another portal."

"Um, okay," Ned replied, his hands trembling as he picked up the Tesseract. "Now let's go before something happens-"

His Spidey-sense spiked sharply, ringing in his ears a few seconds before the walls shook like an earthquake had struck Asgard. Ned's knees buckled and he placed his hands out as he tried to balance himself, completely caught off guard. What the fuck was that powerful that it could shake Asgard?!

"That's our cue to go!" He exclaimed, shoving Ned forwards as they started sprinting towards the open portal back to Earth.

The floor shook as they dashed towards the portal and he kept a hand on Ned's shoulder, pushing him forward and through the portal with the Tesseract but skidding to a stop as a voice sounded out.

"Who are you?" His blood chilled as a voice echoed in the chaos, the tone wary and unsure. "Turn around so I can see you."

He slowly raised his hands up as adrenaline fuelled him, ready to shoot Loki in the face if things went south. The God of Mischief's eyes widened as he took in Peter's appearance. Surprisingly, he looked okay. His hair looked greasy and he had a couple of cuts on his clothes as well as a weird bruise on his neck, but he looked like he was coping with whatever damage had just happened.

"You're from Midgard?" He asked, shock laced through his voice. "What is your business on Asgard?" He glanced at the portal, seemingly unaware of the Tesseract Ned was hiding behind his back as he froze.

"I- uh-" he stammered, fumbling for the right words as the God raised a dagger to his chest.

"Speak before you are silenced forever," he spat.

"Thanos is coming to Asgard," he blurted out. "He'll kill you and try to kill Thor if you have what he wants, so we've taken it. Come to Earth as quickly as you can to stop him from taking the Infinity Stones and killing half of the universe."

Loki raised an eyebrow but his face had paled slightly. "How do you know of this?"

"I…" He trailed off, resisting the urge to tell Loki he was from the future. No one he trusted knew that so why would he tell someone who was technically his enemy?

"You're not like the ones I fought all those years ago," Loki murmured, keeping his dagger raised, but his tone was contemplative. "There's something different…"

He gulped before raising his hand. "Please forgive me for this," he pleaded.

Shooting a web at Loki's face, he stumbled backwards into the Alcroft as Loki made an outraged noise, the portal shutting before his eyes as the sparks fizzled away.

He turned towards Ned, his heart beating wildly in his chest as they stared at each other, still processing what they had just done.

"We managed to steal the Tesseract," he breathed out.