The Souls

"So... I have a question."

Heads looked up all over as they all turned to Peter Parker.

For a while now, everyone had been preoccupied, talking within their own groups, not minding anyone else. For the first time in a while, they all turned away from their own conversations.

Peter cleared his throat before he continued.

"So like, um, where is everybody?"

The room was quiet for a while, "What are you talking 'bout, kid?" Sam sighed.

Peter shrugged, "Well, we're all here because Thanos turned us all to dust, right? Us and half the entire Universe. So like... where's the rest of the Universe?"

Again, everyone fell silent as Peter's words were processed. That... that was a good question.

Where was everyone?

"You're wrong." This time, everyone turned to Loki, being the first to break the confused silence.

Peter raised his eyebrows, "Huh?"

"Not all of us were killed due to Thanos's Snap."

"Yes, thats true." Gamora spoke up, "Loki, Vision and I were in here way before he Snapped."

"So then how exactly did you die?" Shuri asked.

"He threw me off a cliff as a sacrifice to retrieve the Soul Stone."

"Sacrifice?" Bucky narrowed his eyes, "h...how?"

"Yeah," Sam nodded, "Sacrifices are supposed to be something special, right. So what makes you so important?"

Gamora narrowed her eyes at the crass man.

"I'm his daughter." she said loudly, so everyone would hear. She really didn't want to have to repeat that again.

"His daughter?" Shuri's eyebrows rose. "Gross."

Gamora wanted to be annoyed, but her lip twitched at the Princess's sass, "Yeah," she agreed. "It is pretty gross."

"What's it like having a dad like Thanos?" Peter asked, "You know, him being all... murderous and stuff."

"What's it like?" Gamora sighed at him, "Well, he threw me off a cliff and watched as my head split open on a hard rock at the bottom of it. And that's not even half as bad as what he did to my sister. If that doesn't answer your question, I don't know what will."

Peter nodded quickly, looking pretty ill, "Yeah... yeah okay, I got it."

"Okay, enough about your head splitting open at the bottom on a cliff," Quill said, he too was looking a little sick, "Let's move on. Like you, robot guy. How'd you die?"

"He's not a robot," Wanda spoke up immediately, "and he has a name."

Peter almost rolled his eyes, but this ladies glare made him refrain. He cleared his throat, "Okay then… the Vision. How'd you bite it?"

"Well, Thanos wanted the Mind Stone. And it was a part of me, so he merely ripped it out of my head. Resulting in my immediate death."

"Whoa," Quill winced, "Ouch, bro."

"Yes," Vision frowned, "It was very… ouch."

"Mr. Loki?" Peter spoke up after a beat of silence, "What about you?"

Loki had been hoping to be left out of this conversation, but seeing as all eyes were now on him, that didn't seem like a possibility.

He rolled his eyes with a sigh, "Thanos crushed my throat." He said simply.

Everyone's eyes remained on him as they waited. When it seemed that he was done, Mantis was the one to speak, "why?"

Loki's narrowed eyes turned to her, "What do you mean, 'why?'. Why would a murderous lunatic need a reason to crush someone's throat?"

"Well it seems that Thanos would." this time it was T'Challa who spoke, "After all, he killed his daughter for the Soul Stone, and Vision for the Mind. It's only logical to assume that he had something to gain from your death as well."

Loki raised an eyebrow, "Well your logic fails you, your highness. I had already given Thanos the Space Stone before he killed me. Of my own free will."

"You gave it to him?" Sam almost shouted, "You gave him the one thing he'd need to kill us all? What the hell man?!"

Sam knew that he wouldn't be speaking like this to Loki on any given day. He'd seen what the god had done to New York all those years ago. He knew what he could do. But he was already dead, so he really had nothing to lose.

Plus, he was angry, dammit.

Loki didn't even seem to care that Sam had raised his voice. His face was the mask of indifference, "Yes. I gave him the Stone. Some of us have a sense of self preservation. After all, you all nobly fought to keep him from getting the Stones, and yet here we are. Dead anyway."

"So you did it to save yourself," Wanda glared at him.

"Precisely." Loki smiled.

He was satisfied that the conversation was over, and then he heard a scoff.

"He's lying," Gamora told the group as she shook her head, "he did it because Thanos was threatening to kill his brother."

Loki's head snapped to her, his face showing emotion for the first time since they'd started talking.

"Hey!" He snapped angrily, trying to shut her up. Of course, she ignored him.

"He only gave him the Stone to save Thor. Not himself." She smiled at Loki, and only got a glare in return. He wouldn't say it, but he felt utterly betrayed. He had told her that when he thought that it would only be the two of them for the rest of eternity. He would have kept it to himself had he known that it might get out.

"Do the words 'in confidence' mean anything to you?" he hissed.

"Alrght, alright,." T'Challa, ever the peacemaker, put his hands up, "Let us not start something here, and get back to the issue at hand."

"Issue at hand?" Drax frowned tilting hia head, "There's a point to this? I wasn't listening."

There was a croaky sigh next to him, and then Drax turned as his shoulder was tapped.

"I am Groot." explained the teenager.

"Oh?"

"I am Groot." he said again.

"Alright..."

"I am Groot."

"I see." Drax nodded again, and then turned to Peter, "That is an excellent question, Man of Spiders. Where is everyone?"

The rest of the room watched on, confused.

"What... what just happened there?" Sam said quietly.

Bucky just shrugged, shaking his head.

Now that they were back to the issue at hand, everyone was quiet again, looking around at everyone else.

Everyone seemed to have the same thoughtful expression on their face.

Well, everyone except-

"I bet he knows." Quill spoke up quickly, pointing. Everyone's eyes followed his finger to Doctor Strange "I mean, you are the one who knew that we're in the Soul Stone. So I'm pretty sure you also know why."

Doctor Strange sighed. He didn't seem to be surprised that he had been targeted once again.

"Yeah doc, you've been awfully quiet about all this." Wanda narrowed her eyes.

Mantis tilted her head, "Yes. And did... did you not say before that you saw the future? Many, many times?"

Stephen's face was blank as he answered. He let out an inaudible sigh before replying, "I did."

"You saw the future?" Bucky frowned, "How? What... what do you mean by that?"

Stephen didn't want to answer, of course, but right now, what choice did he have?

"When I had the Time Stone," he explained to those who weren't there, "I went forward in time to see all the possible outcomes of the coming conflict."

"Holy shit." Bucky said with wide eyes, " And... and what did you see?"

"I saw us lose, and I saw us win."

"Man, you're gonna have to be more specific, than that." Bucky pushed.

Stephen fought the urge to grit his teeth, "I don't know how specific you want me to be considering there were Fourteen million six hundred and five possible outcomes."

Bucky tried not to show how daunting that revelation was, "Yeah but... we won right? Some of those end with Thanos dead. Right?"

"One of them does."

Bucky blinked a few times before slumping back in his chair, "Well fuck."

Shuri took over for him, "How exactly does that happen?"

"I am not at liberty to sa-"

"Oh fuck that man, we deserve to know." This time it was Sam who spoke, glaring at the sorcerer, "We're here dead, but not quite dead, in this goddamned Soul place. If you know anything about why, we deserve to fucking know."

"I am Groot." nodded the teenager.

"Do not repeat his bad language." Quill reprimanded.

Stephen shook his head, "If I tell you what I saw, then it won't happen. The future is a fickle thing, and our chances are slim as it is. I cannot risk-"

"Our chances?" Peter perked up, "As in... our chances."

Shuri seemed to catch on to what he was thinking, "Are you saying that this version of the future where Thanos is defeated... it includes us. Us... alive?"

"But if it includes us alive then why the hell are we in here and not out there?" Quill threw his hands up.

Voices picked up all over the room, talking over each other, shouting, demanding and asking questions that were never answered.

Stephen finally raised his hand to stop the onslaught, "That's enough!"

They quietened almost immediately.

"Look, I'm not keeping information from you because I want to. I cannot tell you how this ends. I cannot tell you if our side wins, or how we win, or any of these things you ask of me, and for that, I truly am sorry."

"Well then what can you tell us?" Quill asked quietly, "Come on, throw us a bone here, doc. We're gonna go crazy in here."

"Can you... can you at least tell us more about this Soul Stone?" shrugged Peter, "Why it trapped us in here?"

Stephen shook his head, "I dont believe the Stone trapped us. I think... I think its just keeping us. Keeping our souls until such a time comes when we are needed."

"Needed?" Vision said quietly, "So then... we will be needed."

Stephen sighed again, "I believe," he said slowly, "That the reason we are in here, is because we are the ones who will be able to stop him. We will help win the final war."

Gamora finally spoke over the silence, "But... but us stopping him entails us not being in here."

"Yeah, exactly. How do we stop him if we're stuck in here?" Wanda asked.

"We dont. we cant."

"So that means that to win this war..." T'Challa said, "we must leave the Soul Stone. We must get back home."

Mantis frowned, her antenna quivering, "But... but how?"

Everyone looked around at each other with questioning gazes, but inevitably, all eyes eventually rested on Doctor Strange. Because after all, he had all the answers, didn't he?

But Stephen wasn't looking back at them. He could feel their eyes, but he couldnt look back at them as he had to utter three words he truly hated saying.

He really did hate knowing everything.

He swallowed, finally looking up at the Souls surrounding him.

He shook his head, and he sighed.

"I don't know." he lied.