34

Chapter 34: I may not live to see our glory, but I will gladly join the fight

Notes:

1) I had the whole chapter planned out, I swear. It shouldn't have taken me this long to get to updating but procrastination is a bitch and I swear the next update should be much sooner!

2) Fun fact: this is the penultimate chapter of the first half of this fanfic!

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

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

Chapter Text

The journey back to Earth was silent.

Quill stayed at the front of the ship in the cockpit, flying the ship like his life depended on it. His enthusiasm from earlier had faded away, his fury stomped out by Gamora's death. Drax had tried to comfort him but it was evident nothing was getting through to Quill, prompting them to leave him be.

He couldn't blame him for wanting to be alone. After May's death, all he could think of was getting away from the bright lights and every person who wanted to talk to him.

Tony had gone back to the engine room and he guessed Drax and Mantis had gone back to their respective rooms. He and Stephen had stayed on the upper deck area, the glass separating them from the abyss staring back at them.

"We…we royally fucked up," he murmured, Stephen turning to face him. "He has three of the Infinity Stones and is after us. We need solutions."

Stephen sighed. "Who do we have on Earth?" He asked himself. "Thor and Loki will arrive soon and the majority of the Avengers are going to Wakanda for the final battle."

"Wanda and Vision will be going from Edinburgh, Ms Romanov will be coming from…wherever she was," he added, shrugging at Stephen's raised eyebrow at his latter statement. "It's nearly impossible to track where she is. You kinda have to expect that from the greatest spy on Earth." He cleared his throat. "Anyway, we need a strategy to defeat Thanos and keep him away from the Infinity Stones."

Some of the strongest beings in existence would be fighting in the battle. Thor and Loki were gods, Wanda was the most powerful telekinetic witch he had ever seen, Stephen and Wong were strong sorcerers. Tony and Shuri were some of the smartest people he knew and the Wakandan warriors would be there to fight.

The odds weren't favouring Thanos as much as they had in the other timeline. Still, they couldn't relax. Thanos had three of the Infinity Stones and knew how to wield them but they needed to guard the Time, Mind and Space stones from him.

Technically, he had two options. They could move the Space stone to the Vault in Wakanda or he could leave it at Ned's house and hope Thanos would never find it. Surely there wasn't a way for him to find out where it was without prior knowledge or someone telling him?

All he could do was hope he didn't end up in a position where he, Stephen or Ned had to give away its location.

"I'll confer with Stark and Princess Shuri about what the strategy is to beat Thanos," Stephen said. "We cannot allow a repeat of what happened earlier to occur. It would be disastrous."

He nodded. "Hopefully we'll win this time."

Guilt weighed him down heavily as he stared at the stars whizzing by, the rings of Saturn fading away as Quill flew them back to Earth. Letting Thanos win would mean going back in time would all be for naught. Altering the timeline to fit what they wanted would have done nothing in the grand scheme of the universe and the idea scared him. He couldn't stand the thought of doing so much only for it all to mean nothing.

Clenching his fists, he silently promised to fight his hardest to make all the changes worth it. They had to beat Thanos no matter what the cost. He had been determined to take the fall to make sure the multiverse stayed intact, willing to let the world forget who Peter Parker was to make sure they would all be safe.

He would do the same again if it meant everyone stayed alive.

Arriving at Wakanda hadn't been too difficult. Once they had entered Earth's atmosphere, Tony had appeared back in the cockpit and had called T'Challa to tell him they were going to land in Wakanda. Landing in the same place where the jet had arrived last year almost brought back happy memories before the sobering thought of what they had to face in a few hours came to mind.

"Sorry our visit has to be because of an alien invasion," Tony apologised as T'Challa met them at the Palace entrance with Shuri by his side. He wore the same clothes as last time but she wore jeans and a crop top, albeit with her hair tied up and a tablet in her hands.

"Unfortunate circumstances are inevitable. How long until Thanos will arrive?" He asked, nodding at Stephen when he stood next to Tony.

"A matter of hours. He has the Power, Reality and Soul stones currently. We cannot allow him to gain any more without a catastrophic outcome occurring. Wakanda will be our final stand."

"I see." He turned to Shuri. "I trust that you know what to do."

"Of course," she replied. "By the way, we are going to have several Avengers join us within half an hour. Okoye is preparing the Dora Milaje and the rest of the troops."

"Good."

"Now, I'll need some time to prepare so if you'll excuse me." She nodded at T'Challa before waving goodbye to him and walking into the Palace, leaving him, Stephen, Tony and the Guardians with T'Challa.

"Follow me. We can decide what the strategy to beating Thanos will be while we wait for the other Avengers."

They made their way up another spiralling staircase before emerging on one of the higher floors that had balconies that overlooked a massive green space with no settlements on it. He swallowed nervously, well aware that the desolate green space would become the ground for the most decisive battle he would face.

The world depended on them winning this battle to prevent Thanos from using the Infinity Gauntlet and turning half the universe to dust. With the crucial moment nearing him with every second that went by, he couldn't help but think of what he might need to tell Tony in case he did die, either by Thanos's hand or by sacrificing himself.

He knew he had promised to stay alive no matter what, but he knew how naïve and overly optimistic that promise was. So many things could go wrong within the final battle and if push came to shove, he would sacrifice his life to make sure everyone survived. He would use the Infinity Gauntlet and get rid of Thanos if he needed to.

One event he would make sure would not happen was Tony sacrificing himself. He was too important to everyone – too important to Pepper, him, Morgan (even if she wasn't alive yet) and the world in general. He had created time travel when it had been considered impossible. The world had descended into chaos after his death and he couldn't bear the thought of Tony dying again.

Some of his emergency protocols on his suit involved sending videos to Tony about what to do if he died. His ideas on how to help the world cope with the Snap, asking him to keep an eye on Fisk's activities to stop the rise in crime, to help the world back on its feet if Thanos succeeded.

He had debated telling Tony he was a time traveller but decided it wasn't a good idea. The chances of someone finding that video before or after it had been sent to Tony -if he decided it needed to be sent to him- were too high. He couldn't risk any of his progress being undone and had decided if he was going to tell Tony, he would do it in person.

He needed to talk to Tony before the battle started. Hopefully he would find a chance.

They entered a large room with a balcony overlooking the massive space, a chandelier and a large black table with a 3D hologram of Wakanda. He and Stephen stood on one side of the table with the Guardians standing opposite them, T'Challa stood at the top end and Tony stood on the bottom end.

The hologram showed a scale replica of Wakanda with different areas pinpointed with different coloured markers; blue markers were used for the mountainous region on the Northern area, red markers were used for central Wakanda and purple markers were used for farmland. The stretches of green space were distinct against the gridded hologram, most of them covering large stretches between settlements.

"We will use this plain to base our defence," T'Challa said as he used his thumb and index finger to zoom in on the map, showing the plain in front of the Palace. He tapped the area, highlighting it before changing the hologram to an overview of the plain. "The Vault is behind this section-" he pointed to the left side of the hologram, "-and the barrier falls on the opposite side of the plain."

T'Challa pulled at the side of the hologram, a shield forming where the enemies would be on the plain. They would have to make sure their strongest fighters were spaced across the field to act as barriers and have quick access to the Vault if they needed to defend it, or would they choose to form a barrier in front of the Vault to stop Thanos?

"I imagine that Thanos will have the Chitauri with him?" Tony asked as he glanced at Stephen for confirmation. "We'll need an army that matches his numbers if we event want to think of winning."

"He'll have his army," Stephen replied, frowning as he looked at the hologram.

"The Chitauri? They're the crappiest fighters in the galaxy." Quill scoffed. "How long did it take you to fight them the last time they attacked Terra?"

"Terra?" He asked, slightly confused.

"Earth," Mantis clarified.

"Two to three hours," Tony replied, scowling at Quill's comment. "Moving on, T'Challa?"

"Our army is preparing as we speak and the Dora Milaje are on standby. We will easily match the Chitauri army on the ground but there is another way to defeat them."

"Blow up the mothership!" They all turned to Drax. Looking puzzled, he continued. "What? Everyone knows that."

"He's not wrong – I mean about blowing up the mothership," T'Challa said. "The nuclear missile destroyed the mothership when you flew it through the portal the Space stone had opened. A missile with similar power will do the same and we can get rid of Thanos's distraction and focus on the main threat."

Tony frowned as he stared at the hologram of the Chitauri mothership. He knew his and Tony's memories of 2012 would differ considerably since he, Ben and May had hidden around the debris of a desecrated shopping mall near where the Chitauri fight had been. All he could remember was watching lightning strike all the Chitauri near them before a state trooper had evacuated the area.

He doubted Tony had come out of the fight unscathed both physically and mentally. They had all seen Iron Man flying into the portal in the sky with the nuclear missile aimed to destroy New York in the UN's bid to get rid of the alien problem. No one flew into space and knew they were probably going to die and came out alive without some trauma and he knew Tony had PTSD.

There had been internship days when Tony had been slightly off, when he had been irritated way too quickly for it to have been normal, when he had avoided looking outside and focused on whatever they were working on in the lab. He didn't speak much those days and it took Peter saying whatever he could think of -mainly rambling about whatever happened during his patrols or at school- to bring him out of his mind.

If they followed the strategy T'Challa was suggesting, Tony would potentially have to relive the same experience to save the world.

"The only way we could access the Chitauri mothership is with someone flying the missile up to it, regardless of its altitude," Stephen stated. "I can open a portal to a point in the sky but not to space. The spatial boundaries of sorcerer are unfortunately limited."

"We can figure out who will fly it once the others have arrived. I'm sure there are several Avengers who can fly," T'Challa replied. "Once we destroy the mothership-" he pressed a couple of buttons and a hologram of the mothership appeared, "-focusing our attacks on Thanos should theoretically be easier."

Tony shook his head, his arms crossed over his chest as he started speaking. "He has three of the Infinity Stones and can destroy us by using his will. We need to take the gauntlet away from him and keep him occupied simultaneously."

"Who would keep him busy?" Quill asked. "We fought him on Vormir and he blasted us away like we were flies. We need the strongest people available to fight him head-on."

"That's where the wizard comes in handy," Tony remarked, ignoring Stephen's unimpressed stare. "He has one of the stones and is one of Thanos' targets. It's a double-edged sword if he's in the battle but it'll sway the outcome in our favour considerably."

"Are you implying I use the Time stone?" Stephen asked.

"If it helps us win the battle, then yes. It's better than leaving it as a sitting duck in the Vault and I'm assuming you're the only other person who knows how to use it besides Thanos."

"So, if Doctor Strange is fighting Thanos to stop him from getting to the Vault, who else would be with him?" He asked, mentally trying to work out who their heaviest hitters were.

Wanda would definitely be able to hold her own against Thanos. Seeing her in the final battle at the Compound had proved that.

Thor and Loki were Gods and he doubted they would back out of a battle against the Mad Titan.

"I'll be there," Quill stated, his voice unwavering. "It's the least I can do for Gamora."

His skin crawled at the reminder that they had failed Gamora. Her vague presence in the timeline hadn't been noticeable to him until it became too big of an issue to ignore and now she was dead and it was his fault-

Quill would undoubtedly be there for to avenge Gamora and he couldn't find a fault in his reasoning. If anyone deserved to have a go at Thanos, it was him.

He was going to be there. As terrifying as Thanos was, he needed to be there to make sure Tony did not do anything stupid like sacrifice himself when there would be other solutions. He needed to be there to see whether they won, lost or whatever other outcome there would be.

Tapping his fingers against his side anxiously as Tony and T'Challa worked out more of their strategy to beat Thanos, he wandered over to the balcony and looked over the plain where one of the most decisive battles of the century would be fought.

Thanos would stand outside of the shield with his army, simply waiting for it to fall so he could fight his way to the Mind stone and become one step closer to his goal. Or would he send more of his generals to wear them down before going to fight?

Shuddering breaths escaped him, barely noticeable to anyone else but too noticeable to him. Goosebumps trickled along his arms as the pressure on his chest grew until it felt like someone had lowered a weight on his chest and he was too weak to push it off.

"Kid?" He glanced over to see Stephen approaching him. "You good?"

Stiffening, he hummed in reply, shrugging half-heartedly as he leaned against the balcony. He didn't trust his voice to remain steady. "Just…nervous. Waiting for an alien hellbent on killing half the universe isn't exactly what I'd call fun."

"Can't say I would either." Stephen sighed as he stood next to him before speaking quietly. "We don't have much time so I can only suggest this now. I want to move the Tesseract."

His eyebrows furrowed. "Why? In case we fail?"

"I don't want Ned to be caught in the crossfire if we do. The last thing he needs is a Mad Titan storming his house for an Infinity Stone." That definitely wasn't a pretty picture in his mind.

"Where would we move it?"

"Kamar-Taj." He had no idea where that was but he guessed that was where the rest of the sorcerers were, meaning the Space stone would be protected to a decent extent.

"You're sure this is a good idea?" He wasn't sure how secure Kamar-Taj was but it was better than leaving it at Ned's and letting his poor best friend suffer because of his idea. He wouldn't be able to protect Ned and he would rather die than let Ned face Thanos by himself.

"It's that or we let Thanos get to Ned."

"Then there's no choice. Take it to Kamar-Taj."

Stephen nodded before walking away to Tony and T'Challa leaving him to his thoughts.

The chances of him surviving the battle were higher than in the previous timeline but he didn't feel comfortable going into the fight without leaving a final message for Tony. Most of his precautions were in place but in the heat of the moment, he wanted to re-record his final message and go into the fight knowing he had done everything he could. Maybe he wouldn't need to send it. Maybe they would win and he could delete the video with a clear conscience, but it never hurt to be prepared.

(The dull hum of his Spidey-sense hadn't stopped and he needed to get away from everyone. The pressure in his chest would inevitably explode and he wanted some time to prolong that.)

After excusing himself from the meeting room and wandering around until he found some toilets, he took off his mask and breathed, staring at his reflection in the gold-lined mirror. The room itself was nice with marble surfaces and plain walls with paintings presumably of Wakandan culture, but he couldn't find it in himself to focus on them.

Breathe in.

1, 2, 3.

Hold.

4, 5, 6, 7.

Breathe out.

8, 9, 10.

Repeating this a few times until he felt stable enough to breathe normally, he slumped slightly, the tension in his body too much to bear as he stared at himself. A bruise from when his face had smashed against the rocky ground of the cliff at Vormir had faded away on his temple. His ribs ached slightly but it wasn't anything to worry about; they would fade away before the final battle.

He started to slowly pace as he debated re-recording a video explaining he was a time traveller to Tony, fiddling with his fingers as he realised he had been putting it off for a while. At first he had been resolute that Tony couldn't know he had time travelled, especially in 2016 and 2017. It could have messed a lot of events up to a point where he wouldn't have been able to predict the events. They needed an idea of where they were going and what would happen before they had to change anything.

As the months progressed and his bond with Tony grew until it seemed like he was a pseudo-father to him, he couldn't help but think about telling him. There had been countless opportunities but he had stayed strong (and fearful) and kept his mouth shut. The beginning of 2018 had made him question his secret even more but then he and Ned had stolen the Space stone and Thanos had arrived and there was no more time.

He had spent countless nights thinking about telling Tony. How would he break the news that he was a time traveller to him? How would he react? Would he lose his trust in Peter? Would he look at him with disgust for not doing everything he could to change the future? Would he blame him for whatever happened in the final battle?

Doubt clouded his mind, the uncertainty of the potential outcomes overwhelming. What if he was making the wrong decision by telling Tony he was from the future if he died? What would it change? Would it help him if he returned? Was it too insensitive to tell him over a video rather than in person? Would he question him when (if) he came back from being dusted?

Flinching when his Spidey-sense rang out, he swivelled around to face the doorway only to see Tony entering the toilets, his eyebrow raised as he slowly walked towards him.

"What's up, Underoos?" He asked, keeping his voice steady as he placed his hand on Peter's shoulder. The action grounded him slightly and he dropped his hands to his sides, relaxing slightly as his Spidey-sense dulled again.

"Just thinking about what'll happen after we fight Thanos," he replied weakly, hoping his lie was believable enough. The next few hours would be crucial to their success and he didn't want to ruin anything by telling Tony he was from the future and being asked what happen because-

If he did, Tony would find out he died in the other reality.

He wanted to stop it from happening again.

He needed to stop it from happening again.

The world would go to ruin if Tony died. He had seen everything go downhill so quickly because of it. The world had been in disarray without the Avengers, without Tony Stark, because he made so much of an impact when he was alive.

"If we win or lose?" He nodded. "You'll overthink it. In fact, you probably have overthought it." He would have acted offended if he hadn't been internally shocked by Tony's statement. He didn't even know why he would be offended considering Tony had hit the bullseye within a few seconds of being with him.

"Y-you're not wrong," he said before chuckling slightly. "I need to stop thinking about it, don't I?"

Tony smiled softly, something he reserved for very few people. "Yep. We're doing everything we can to prepare. What will be will be." He dropped his hand from Peter's shoulder to his side. "Now, T'Challa wants us to set up a few traps around the edge of the shield so we can slow down the Chitauri. You coming?"

"Right, yeah." He swallowed, shoving his conflicting emotions to the back of his brain to be dealt with later. "Let's go." Putting on his mask, he followed Tony out of the toilets, his regrets trailing behind him, out of sight but not out of mind.

Setting up traps hadn't been difficult. He had placed several web bombs around the edge of the shield and left Tony to place the other bombs elsewhere.

Wiping out a few Chitauri or at least disorientating them at the beginning of the battle would lend them an advantage for a minute or two, but the Chitauri were known for their strength in numbers. They undoubtedly would gain the favour of the battle at one point, but he didn't know how long they would keep it.

Crouching down, he placed the last web bomb into the hole he had dug and quickly covered it with the dirt. No one actually looked where they were running in battle and he doubted the Chitauri would be an exception to that assumption.

T'Challa had activated his Black Panther suit and had gone to check on Shuri to make sure everything was going as smoothly as it could, yet he felt something was amiss. He knew the other Avengers were going to arrive soon, if not within the next few minutes, except there was something nagging him at the back of his brain. He needed to explain something…

Wait, had Stephen gone to Kamar-Taj to drop off the Space stone? He wasn't with them currently and Peter hoped he would arrive soon because-

His Spidey-sense tingled and he stood up, scanning the empty plain for threats. All he could see was grass stretching out in front of the palace, the sunlight glinting off the large structure as a beam shot through the sky.

Wait, what?

His heart thundered in his chest as a beam of light struck the ground a few metres in front of him, making him wince and close his eyes to stop himself from being blinded. The redness behind his eyes disappeared a few seconds later, so he opened his eyes to see four figures.

One was what he could only describe as a large raccoon with several guns and ammo slung over its shoulder. Next to it was a wooden alien which was a few foot shorter than him, maybe 5'4" at most.

A person with greasy black hair and navy bodysuit -the armour was mainly on the shoulders and hands- and a cape stood next to a man with short hair with mainly black body armour, a red cape and a weapon similar to an axe. The handle was the only part which seemed different to ones he had seen online. It had lots of intertwining branches which formed the sturdy handle instead of a single piece of wood.

The most distinct feature of the man with short blond hair was that he had an eyepatch over one of his eyes, dark crusted blood showing around the edges of the eyepatch.

He had no clue who the first two were but Thor and Loki were definitely standing in front of him.

"Uh, Tony, am I hallucinating or is this real?" He asked as Tony landed slightly in front of him in the Iron Man suit.

"Nope, I'm seeing what you're seeing. Point Break, as much as I love seeing you, why is your brother here?" He asked, his hand outstretched and aiming at Loki.

"Please, I can hardly believe I'm back on Earth either," Loki sneered, his cape billowing out menacingly as he summoned two daggers, both of them gleaming viciously in the sunlight. "I've been dragged along to a place I'd rather not be."

"Brother, please. We're here to stop Thanos," Thor said exasperatedly. "Besides, you're the one who suggested we come here after Thanos attacked our ship."

"Thanos attacked your ship? When?" He asked, his blood running cold at the idea of being attacked by Thanos with nowhere else to run except the freezing abyss of space.

"You." He flinched at the rage in Loki's voice, tensing when Tony raised his other hand with his repulsor firing up. "You're the one who was in Odin's vault."

"I'm so sorry for web shooting you in the face," he said before Loki could throw one of his daggers and kill him. "I needed to escape and it was the only thing I could think of! I didn't mean to offend you and honestly you're pretty nice considering you didn't kill me immediately then so-"

"Kid, you webbed him in the face?" Tony asked incredulously. "You went to Asgard and did that?"

"With Ned's help, but yeah."

Tony chuckled. "That's the funniest thing I've ever heard."

"Brother, is this true?" Thor asked as he turned to Loki. "Is he why you insisted we come to Earth?"

Loki gritted his teeth, frustrated with the circumstances he had been forced into. "…yes. He also said Thanos was going to take the Tesseract from us and kill half the universe, so we needed to take our final stand on Earth."

"He's not lying." They all turned to face the raccoon. The talking raccoon. "He took the Reality stone from us when we were at the Collector's. He's going to use Gamora to find the Soul stone."

Uh oh.

"Your other teammates are here," he said. "Quill, Drax and Mantis." It wasn't his place to say Gamora had died on Vormir. He would keep quiet and hope Quill found a time to tell his teammates before they found out in a crueller way.

"Oh, good. Nice to know Quill managed to get them here in one piece."

"You don't have much faith in Quill, do you?" Thor asked as he started making his way towards the Palace.

"I am Groot." Did the tree alien just speak? "I am Groot."

"Nah, don't worry Groot, of course I trust Quill. He's a bit of an idiot when he's emotional, that's all." The raccoon waved off Groot's apparent concern as he followed Thor, leaving him, Tony and Loki at the back.

"I don't trust you not to stab anyone in the back. You can walk in front of us." Tony jerked his head towards where the others were heading.

"As far as I'm concerned, I am simply here to kill Thanos. I don't trust you either but 'the enemy of my enemy is my friend'." Loki sighed, walking in front of Tony and him to catch up with the others. He waited until he thought Loki was out of earshot to say anything.

"I think he'll be okay for now," he murmured, knowing Tony would catch it over comms.

"Why do you think that? For all I know, he'll change sides the second Thanos arrives," Tony spat out, his disdain for Loki clear.

"He seemed pretty clear that he wanted to kill Thanos. Also, I'm not sure what a repulsor beam will do against a God."

"He doesn't need to know that."

"I'm pretty sure he does already. He's complying because he knows it'll benefit him for now."

Tony grumbled under his breath. "He's lucky I didn't pulverise him on the spot. The second we've dealt with Thanos, I want him off Earth."

"I don't think he wants to be here either. My warning was enough to bring him here though, so I guess he understands the threat we're facing."

They entered the meeting room where they had been before only to see it filled with people. Natasha and Wanda were talking about something to do with the hologram, Vision and Shuri were discussing in the corner, T'Challa and Stephen were on the balcony and Rhodes was talking to Sam Wilson.

Captain America and Bucky were talking to Bruce who was pointing at the hologram of the mothership before Quill mentioned something about shields and pointed to the underbelly of the spaceship.

"Rocket!" Drax exclaimed, strolling to the raccoon as the rest of the room's inhabitants paused their conversations to observe them.

Tensing as he sensed so many eyes scanning him, he caught Quill's saddening expression as he looked at his teammates. He would have to break the news of Gamora's death to them and Peter doubted he wanted to say it in front of so many people.

"Loki?" Captain America asked, nearly all of the original Avengers sans Thor bristling with weariness. Natasha stiffened slightly, her body poised to attack at a moment's notice. Bruce stepped backwards as Captain America stared at Loki piercingly. Tony's quickening heartbeat signalled his anxiety rising again as Thor hesitated, unsure of what to do in front of his ex-teammates.

Silence reigned. He could have heard a pin drop with how quiet everyone was. No one dared to move in the presence of Earth's first extra-terrestrial attacker until Thor coughed awkwardly, trying to break the silence.

"So, my brother isn't here to attack us," he said. "Thanos is the common enemy here. Also, good to see you made it in one piece, Bruce." Bruce nodded hesitantly but kept his eyes on Loki.

"I'm not interested in any of you weaklings," Loki sneered. "There's no point in focusing on me when there are bigger threats approaching."

That didn't seem to comfort anyone. Whilst the original Avengers remained vigilant and wary, he and the others weren't sure what to do.

He had been in New York when the Chitauri had attacked with their Leviathans but he hadn't fought them. Wanda had been in Sokovia and he doubted Bucky would have been in New York. T'Challa, Okoye and Shuri wouldn't have been majorly concerned with the attack. Sam and Stephen would have been doing their other jobs, Vision wasn't even alive and he didn't know about the Guardians.

Tony sighed exaggeratively, drawing all the attention to him. "Unfortunately, he's right. We don't have time to deal with him when our threat is an hour away."

That seemed to break the uncertain spell that had settled over them and they all jumped into action, determined to make use of the time they had.

Thanos was minutes away with the Chitauri army.

They had spent the best part of an hour preparing, working out who would be where and fighting who until Shuri and Okoye were alerted that the army was ready and that Thanos's spaceship had passed Mars.

Wakandan warriors in red armour streamed onto the palace grounds in their troops, quickly getting onto the jets that would take them to the plain. The Chitauri army would arrive soon and the air buzzed with apprehension and slowly steeling nervousness.

He paused by an alcove as anxiety swirled inside of him, stealing his breath away from him until he reigned in the storm of doubt in his head. He needed to be optimistic! They had increased their chances of winning the battle significantly by getting all of the Avengers in Wakanda.

The Mind stone wouldn't be taken from Vision so he wouldn't die by Thanos' hand, meaning Wanda wouldn't be put through more grief if they won. Thanos didn't have the Space stone so he wasn't as powerful and Stephen still had the Time stone.

His Spidey-sense hummed as someone approached him from behind and he turned around to see Stephen with his usual stoic look which gave away nothing. He nodded, acknowledging the sorcerer's presence before they both looked at the troops assembling on the plain.

"Don't do anything stupid," Stephen said before he levitated onto the plain, following the hundreds of warriors in their formation until his Cloak was the only identifying feature Peter could see.

Right, he couldn't be too brash during this battle. Had Stephen used the Time stone to see the future and seen a reality where they won? Were they destined to use this one?

He hadn't let himself entertain the idea of losing yet. Not fully. To do that would mean that he thought they had a bigger chance of losing than winning and it was demoralising to say the least. He needed to play his part and focus all of his effort into making sure they won, even if it meant using the gauntlet himself.

Would that count as him being stupid?

Stiffening when his Spidey-sense buzzed, he turned around to see Loki appearing near another alcove near him with a pensive look on his face. He strolled towards Peter, pausing when he was a metre away before asking him something he never expected.

"You're from the future, aren't you?"

His blood froze.

"W-what?" He stammered, his palms sweating as he tried to deny it. "How- I have no clue how to time travel!"

"Don't insult me with such feeble lies. I have no patience for such antics," Loki said, his lip curling with disgust. "How else would a mortal know of Thanos?"

"I swear, I have no idea how to time travel." He technically wasn't lying. Stephen was the one who had made them all time travel.

"My mother was raised by witches and passed her knowledge onto me. I can tell you have rune magic covering you and that sorcerer."

Stephen's magic left traces on them after a year and half? He knew it was magic concerned with temporal and spatial dimensions but he didn't know the scale of it, only that the Runes of Kauf-Kaul were some of the most powerful to be used.

Maybe he would ask Ned when he found a good time to. Wait, if Loki could work out he had time travelled, what would stop other magic users like Wanda from working it out too? Did she not have the knowledge yet?

"What would you do if I said I was?" He asked lowly, hoping no one would overhear the conversation. The last thing he needed was someone else overhearing and asking him if he knew what would happen or what he had seen.

"How bad is the outcome if we lose?" Loki's voice still held the threatening edge but it had softened with concern for the future. Maybe he wanted to know for his own benefit, or maybe he wanted to know as a form of morbid motivation, but he decided to keep his response honest. He wouldn't try to lie in front of the God of Mischief but he wouldn't tell him everything.

"Catastrophic."

Loki nodded, digesting the information before his eyebrows furrowed. "How come you're not instinctually on guard like the others? It's not an advantage in life."

He was too trusting. He knew that. It had been a quality that had taken everything away from him whether it had been trusting Beck immediately because he was a 'hero' and an adult, meaning he would be able to take charge when Peter had felt he hadn't been able to.

Trusting the villains from other universes had been a naïve move on his part. He had trusted that they would accept his help without question or resistance, that they wanted to change who they were and become good again. It had been a foolish mistake and a time where he should have kept his guard up more than ever, yet he had let them into Happy's apartment without question.

All he had wanted to do was help.

"I have a record of trusting people when most people don't," he replied hesitantly. "Besides, we have a common enemy and it'll benefit both of us if he's gone."

"Don't expect me to be soft around you because you're a child."

He shook his head. "I never expected you to." Wait, Loki had said his mother had been raised by witches – wouldn't their magic be different to Stephen's and Wanda's? It wasn't like he would get any other opportunity to ask. "What's your magic like?"

"Excuse me?"

"Doctor Strange's magic is different to Wanda's, so I'm assuming yours will be different too. I'm not asking you to show it to me – well, you can if you wanna but it's fine if you don't, but I'm guessing Asgardian magic is different because it has different origins."

"Child, your rambling is descending into nonsense." He stopped rambling only to curl into himself slightly at Loki's slightly amused look, smugness flashing in his eyes. Had he made a fool of himself already? "Asgardian magic isn't a rarity like magic is on Earth. While fewer individuals seem to possess it here, it's an advanced field of science for us. Not that you could grasp the extent of it with a short explanation considering how short of time we are."

"Right, we should go…" He trailed off as his Spidey-sense rang out before his hand instinctively caught the dagger that literally appeared out of nowhere, only for it to dissolve into thin air. "Illusions?" He asked, slightly bewildered that Loki tried to trick him. He should have expected it and Tony would have had a heart attack if he had seen what happened.

"You have a sixth sense." He nodded. "No wonder you're not on guard when you should be. You rely on your instinctive reactions."

He shrugged before turning to leave. "I've survived for this long with it."

"Yes, but for how much longer?"

Loki's question lingered in his mind as the god disappeared in front of him. Scowling as he realised his conversation must have been with an illusion of the trickster god, he made his way to the jets that would take him to the battlefield.

Notes:

Loki is always up to his sneaky tricks!

Leave your predictions for the final battle in the comments :)