Shattered

Steve liked to pride himself on being pretty good at tactics. 

That being said, he was the obvious leader for the Avengers- he was good at assessing his team’s weaknesses and strengths, knowing where to put them, and executing good plans. However, when he’d taken the job, he had not expected anything this huge. Everyone had looked to him for a plan, even the weird space people. He’d never even been to space!

And so, he’d spent the better part of the hour holed up in his room with a notebook and a pencil and his brain, the only things he’d ever really needed, and came up with a slapdash plan.

It was rather simplistic, but there was only so much you could do when you didn’t have all of the variables, and didn’t even know half of your team, and had never been to space- still, it wasn’t a bad plan. And he’d never been one for complex battle strategies- this would work perfectly.

Even so, he felt a jolt of nervousness as he stood before this huge group of people who were expecting him to have a good idea, and wondered if he was really fit for the job. Natasha was a good strategist, too! Or- Vision was literally the smartest thing on Earth, not to mention Tony, who was the smartest person on Earth. And who said the space people wouldn’t be better? Loki was, while deeply irritating and also evil, supposed to be a master strategist, and his sister had fought in countless wars that were actually in space.

But there had to be a reason. There was a reason the Avengers looked to him, and everyone else followed suit even if they didn’t know him- he was a leader. He was a good leader, even if that made him sound a little conceited. And, even if he wasn’t from space, and didn’t know a whole lot about Thanos, he had made sure that he made up for it- it hadn’t been overly difficult to get a little information out of Loki.

So. He took a deep breath, and began.

“Alright. We have three infinity stones in our possession.”

Already, he was interrupted by an ungodly sound from the left of him. “You have how many infinity stones?” Peter Quill asked once he was done choking.

“Three,” Loki said. “Dr. Strange over there has the time stone, we have the space stone on Asgard, and Vision has the mind stone in his head, which I still don’t understand-”

“It’s a long story,” Tony sighed.

“- but either way, we have three. Technically, four, since we know that the reality stone is with the Collector.”

Yes. He’d taken that into account. “Right. So, our best strategy right now is to split them all up- we can’t have Thanos getting all of them at once, because that would be bad. Instead, we’ll make him spread out his sources- hopefully, this will be enough.”

Everyone turned their attention back to him, interests piqued. Good.

He shared a look with Tony, who nodded, slightly, and laid out his plan.

------------------------

Everything was great. Things were looking up in Scott Lang’s life. He and Hope and Dr. Pym had just gotten Hope’s mother out of the Quantum Realm, it looked like jail time for Sonny Burch, and Ava Starr’s body was no longer degenerating before their eyes. All good things. All great things, actually. If his life were a movie, this is where it would end, probably with touching music while the credits rolled.

And then, his phone started ringing.

Kinda ruined the mood.

“Scott, is that Louis? Or Cassie’s mom?” Hope asked, breaking away from her mother for a moment.

Oh, shit. If that was the case, then he was screwed- had the police come to his house? He was still in the lab! He couldn’t get home that quickly! He scrambled to get the phone out of his pocket and held it up to his ear without checking the caller ID.

“Hello?”

“Scott. We need your help.”

Oh, shit. Captain America. Not that there was anything wrong with Captain America! He was great! Just- really? Now?

“Uhhh, with what?”

“The universe is in danger.”

Come on. It was an actual reasonable request! One that he couldn’t exactly say no to, because what kind of asshole doesn’t try to save the universe?

Damnit, Captain America.

Not- nothing against the guy. Just. Damn.

“I- give me a second.” He muted the phone. “Hey, guys? We have a problem.”

“Is it the police?” Hope asked. “Cause we can pack up quick-”

“No, uh, Cap called.” Even if he still referred to him with his full title in his head, he couldn’t help but rub it in that he was allowed to call Captain America a nickname.

Hope’s expression turned stormy. “Off to Germany again?”

“No. Apparently the universe is in danger.”

They all stared at him with varying degrees of incredulity- Ghost clearly thought that he was crazy, Hank seemed concerned that he had hit his head- the only people that looked like they believed him were Hope and Janet.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Hope asked.

“Good question.” He unmuted the phone. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Huh? Oh. There’s an alien trying to collect a bunch of infinity stones so that he can destroy half of all living things.”

What.

“What.”

“Trust me, it seems crazy, but it’s true. Look, we’ve got a big team but I need all the help I can get here. I’m sending a team towards San Fransisco- that’s where you are, right? They’re already on their way. They can fly right past you if you don’t want to join, but if you do, just send me your coordinates in the next hour or so. And if you can bring friends with you, the more the better. I gotta go, text me when you decide.”

Did- did he just hang up on him?

“I. What the fuck.”

“What’s going on?” Hope pressed.

“Uhhh- apparently there’s an alien from, like, outer space trying to- get a bunch of rocks? Or something? So he can destroy half of all living things. I’m not really clear on how the two correlate, though, maybe he just really likes rocks-”

“Woah, woah, woah,” Hank breathed. “Half of all living things?”

“Uh, yeah, that’s what Cap said.”

“But- that would be a disaster!” Ghost gaped.

“No shit. He told me to text him my location if I decided to join, and, well, if the universe is in danger, I suppose I have to, but I wanted to check with you guys first.”

“Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me. We just got done with this problem,” Hope muttered, “and now there are aliens? Having a ghost was bad enough! No offense.”

“None taken?” Ghost said, still looking extremely confused.

“Well, he also said I could bring friends, if you wanna join-”

“Of course we do! Well, I do, at least, I can’t speak for the other three.” Oh, thank god. It would be so much easier with Hope standing at his side.

“We’re coming too, of course,” Janet added.

They all turned to look at Ghost, who possibly still thought they were all insane. Which they probably were. Ghost would be crazy to follow them.

“Sure, I’ll come.”

Well. It seemed they were all insane.

Great.

------------------------------

Right. Everything was in place. Steve liked it when everything was in place- it meant he had to do less fixing things, which was what usually happened when Tony did something stupid or Thor did something stupid or Clint did- well. At this point, everyone in the team (except for Natasha, because even if he thought something she did was stupid, he would never be brave enough to actually tell her that) had done something stupid to mess up his plans.

But that hadn’t happened now. Granted, it was relatively simple up to this point- it wasn’t like it was hard to split up into groups, but it still would’ve been foolish to get his hopes up.

As promised, he had created four different groups for four different infinity stones. As much as he hated to compromise the planet, one would be on Earth (and, god, just the thought that something being on Earth was something he had to specify was absolutely insane)- thankfully, Scott Lang had agreed to help, and had texted him saying that he would be bringing four extra people. He hadn’t been able to reach Nick Fury- he’d gotten directed to his voice mail- but hopefully he would get his message.

“Ready to go?”

He took a deep breath, and turned to Tony, who was completely suited up alongside Rhodey. He and Pepper had already said a tearful goodbye, and he could see that the man’s eyes were still a little red.

“Yep. How’s your group?”

Tony turned his head to look at where Thor and Bruce were chatting amiably while Hela stood extremely awkwardly a few feet away from them. Brunnhilde was near her ship, threatening Rocket (who was an honest to god racoon) with as many violent deaths as she could think up if he so much as scratched her ship.

“Uh, you know. Good. Kinda glad I’m not with the racoon or the crazy space people, but then again, I’m stuck with Hades. Honestly? I’m just glad Peter’s not going to space.”

Peter. Peter had been a conundrum- Tony had filled him in on the whole “Spider Man” thing last night, and they had decided (after a phone call with Peter) that if anything happened, they would include him… to an extent. He was going to Wakanda with the most powerful person Steve had ever met (and, even though he knew she would protect him, he had still lectured Wanda on how utterly grounded she would be if Peter had anything more severe than a bump on his head by the time they got back), towards the greatest army Earth had- he would probably be fine.

“Stark! It’s time to go.”

Tony nodded at him, and stuck out his hand to shake- Steve wasn’t lost on the metaphorical olive branch he was being sent- and Steve ignored it in favor of pulling him in for an embrace. “Be careful out there, alright?”

“Yeah, yeah. Don’t worry about me, I’ve got Thor and his terrifying death sister at my back.” Yes, Steve wasn’t too worried about Tony- he’d set him up with a powerful group. “But take care of yourself. And Nat. And Clint, and Sam-”

“Yeah, I will.” They regarded each other for another moment, before Tony broke away and headed towards Thor, Rhodey trailing behind him. Brunnhilde joined them after a minute and a final “Do not crash my ship” to Rocket.

They stood in a tight bunch (Hela was squished between Thor and Tony and looking very uncomfortable with that state of affairs), and Thor raised his hand to the sky.

“Heimdall!”

Steve squinted against the bright light of the Bifrost as it came down and engulfed the small group standing in front of him. The light faded, and the only thing left was a burnt circle in the ground.

“Woah,” Peter Quill breathed. “Awesome.”

They all nodded in agreement, and stood in silence for a moment, before Steve clapped his hands. “Alright, guys. Let’s go.”

They all got into their respective ships- Nat sat in the copilot’s seat (or whatever it was called, in space terms), being the best among them at figuring out how to work things. He suspected that Rocket would be doing most of the driving.

“Alright,” Sam grinned, sitting down next to him. “Ready to go to space?”

Oh, god. He was not at all ready to go to space, for god’s sake. But he nodded, and Rocket grinned from the pilot’s seat.

“Strap in, everyone! I like to take it fast.”

Before he could protest, or beg him to maybe take it very, very slow, the ship whirred to life, and they bolted off into the atmosphere.

And, though you could never get Steve to admit it, years later a grinning Sam Wilson would definitely attest to the fact that he let out a squeal of terror.

----------------

“Heimdall!”

Hela tensed up as her brother called up to the sky. She was, admittedly, nervous about going back to Asgard, as much as she had wanted to go back before. But there was nothing she could do about it now- the familiar feeling of the Bifrost rushed over her, carrying her off of her feet and shooting to Asgard.

Stark, Baner, and Rhodes screamed the entire time- she and Thor and Brunnhilde remained calm. Even though this was perfectly reasonable, as they had never taken the Bifrost before, she allowed herself a small smirk as they appeared on Asgard and Stark stumbled and fell to the ground.

“Oh, god, Thor, you do that every fucking time?”

Thor frowned. “Do what?”

Hela rolled her eyes at him. “Your mortal friends aren’t accustomed to the Bifrost. Stark, you get used to it after a while.”

“Fuck.”

She tore her eyes away from where Rhodes (who was surprisingly composed) was helping Stark off the ground, and spotted Heimdall by his usual spot. He was staring straight at her, as if he could see every thought in her head, and she shivered. She’d never particularly liked Heimdall- he hadn’t exactly condoned Odin’s… behavior, but he’d never stopped it, either.

“Er- Heimdall. Hello. This is- this is Hela.” Thor suddenly looked distinctly awkward, and she supposed she couldn’t blame him- she would feel awkward if she’d told her people to prepare for war on someone only to find out they were fine (she wouldn’t have looked awkward, Odin had never given her the luxury of having emotions show on her face- something that seemed to be falling away with time-, but she still would have felt it acutely).

But Heimdall only nodded, still not taking his eyes off of her. “Yes. The council is waiting for you in the throne room.”

Her stomach coiled at the thought of the throne room. Before, she’d wanted the crown so badly, she hadn’t really cared where she wore it (though she definitely would have redecorated). But now- now, all the throne room reminded her of was disappointed glares from her father and the violence and the hurt and the-

“Hey,” Brunnhilde muttered. “You alright?”

And the world jolted back into focus, where Brunnhilde was looking at her in concern and Thor was sending confused and what he probably thought were discrete looks at her, and where Odin was dead and couldn’t hurt anyone anymore.

“Fine,” she muttered back. Heimdall, finishing up greeting the Midgardians, started leading them towards Asgard. “Not looking forward to dealing with the bloody council. I hope they’re not the same ones as back in our day.”

Brunnhilde shuddered. “Norns, they were annoying.” She and Brunnhilde had not interacted much before, but they had still worked closely- or at least, she had worked with the Valkyries. And one of the few things that she could remember about Brunnhilde was that she detested council meetings and politics almost as much as she did.

They walked the rest of the way in silence, though that wasn’t without reluctance on some people’s parts. Thor kept opening his mouth like he wanted to say something to her, and closing it, then opening again. Not to mention she could practically see the questions whirling around in Stark’s brain, though he chose to refrain from asking them. 

The doors to the palace swung open, the armed guards on either side eyeing her with no small amount of suspicion- in fact, everyone was looking at her that way, like she was about to go off at any moment and kill everyone (and she noticed that, as they did that, they almost immediately backed off upon seeing Brunnhilde, who’s Valkyrie tattoo was very much visible- likely on purpose).

The palace had changed, and yet, a lot of things were still the same. The gold was the same- much of it had been won on her conquests- and a lot of the designs were exactly the same. But any sign of her was missing, any sign that there had been another royal in the palace. Places where her sword had gauged walls had been replaced or cleaned up, her portrait was no longer in the halls, her weapons no longer on display. She had been erased.

It still stung. Even though she knew that she shouldn’t care, as much as she liked to tell herself she didn’t care what Odin or anyone else thought of her… it hurt to think that she had not only been brushed aside, it had not been enough to banish her from her home, he had taken out every trace of her presence, as if he couldn’t even bear the thought of her.

Had she really been so bad? 

Well, yes, she had- she’d pillaged and plundered and killed millions, but so had he, and she didn’t see him taking out every mention of himself around the castle.

But he had- he had removed every mention of that earlier version of himself, she realized when she finally walked into the throne room. Because the ceiling, instead of the glorious account of their conquests, showed a peaceful scene of Odin signing peace treaties.

A jolt of rage like she hadn’t felt since her fall to Sakaar ran through her, and she clenched her fists. How dare he?! How dare he banish her for violence and erase any mention of his own by literally rewriting history? No wonder Thor had seemed taken aback at the thought that Odin had been the one to command her- he thought he had been peaceful throughout his entire rule.

“Norns,” Brunnhilde breathed out from beside her. Looking over, she saw that she, too, was frowning up at the ceiling. “He replaced the old murals?”

She opened her mouth to respond, probably something about how Odin was a traitorous old fool, but she was cut off by a council member she didn’t recognize.

“Thor. My king. You have returned.”

He nodded, and made his way up to the throne. He looked a little uncomfortable, but he still looked like he belonged there- just hadn’t gotten used to the idea yet. And, even though she’d already decided that she didn’t really want the throne, this made her feel more at peace with it- her little brother would do well. (With some advisors, of course. He would need Loki’s brain, and definitely Heimdall’s calming presence, and maybe a couple of battle strategists, but… he would be okay. Better than Odin, and that was all she needed.)

“So? My king? What is next?” Heimdall asked.

Thor took a deep breath, and shifted a bit on the throne. “Well. We have a new threat, though I’m sure Heimdall has already filled you in-” Heimdall nodded- “Yes. He is extremely powerful, and he is after one of the objects stored in Odin’s vault. We must stop him at all costs. We have other friends in different parts of the galaxy protecting some similar objects- we’ve no idea where he is going to go first. But we must prepare for war, immediately. Any objections?”

The council remained silent- Asgard never was a nation to refuse going to war. It was in their blood.

Thor, who almost seemed like he had been expecting opposition, blinked in surprise before regaining his composure. “Alright, then. We shall adjourn for now. All of the people with me will be granted full protection, and rooms inside the palace. You are dismissed.”

It was disjointed, she would admit. Maybe she could coach him at a later date. She wondered how he would react to that suggestion.

But it got the point across, and the council started out of the room, and Thor came down from the throne to speak to them (Odin had never done that, unless he was particularly displeased with her. She’d always had to look up to him.)

“Well. That was easier than I expected. Stark, Rhodes, Banner, I’ll show you to your rooms- I assume you two know where to find somewhere to stay?” She and Brunnhilde both nodded. “Alright. I’ll send someone to fetch you when it is time to meet again.”

Which left her and Brunnhilde alone to wander through the halls. She had wondered, briefly, if her old room would still be there, but she doubted it- and she wasn’t sure if she wanted to know (and there were too many bad memories there- there were too many bad memories everywhere in the castle, but she’d spent hours upon hours curled up crying in her room because of Odin).

“You know, I’m not really tired,” Brunnhilde said suddenly.

Hm. Yes, she wasn’t really tired either- now that she was back on Asgard, she could feel her energy being replenished, and she was practically vibrating with it.

“I should go find Fenris,” she realized. “I wonder what Odin did to him.”

Brunnhilde shuddered, and Hela remembered that the Valkyrie had never really liked Fenris. But she nodded all the same, and said, “Yeah, let’s go do that. We need all the help we can get, right?”

Yes, they definitely did. She and Brunnhilde paused for a bit, then headed down the hallway together.

---------------------------------

Terra.

He was relieved, almost, that the two stones were right where he’d thought they’d be. It made his job so much easier, especially with the Ancient One out of the way. Those pesky little humans wouldn’t be a match for him or his children.

He would send a few of them down to collect them. He had more important issues to attend to.

Millions of miles away from Earth, Thanos grinned, and clenched the gauntlet, the first of 6 infinity stones glowing brightly in his hand.