"Ned, you're sure you're up for this?" Scott's voice said crouching next to a very nervous pie maker.
Ned wasn't quite sure if he was up for this, as he had quite some performing anxiety (usually, when he brought people back to life it was just him, or him and Emerson, not him and an audience of superheroes) but there was a god of thunder looking at him with hopeful blue eyes, and damn, he had to try.
Scott Lang would never have guessed that a key element in righting wrongs would be the tall long chef from his favourite pie place, but here they were.
Cassie and him had been hiding out in Couer d'Couers because it was a pretty isolated village, and they figured they'd be safe there. And they were, lots of things were weird in that town, but supervillain drama never got to them. And then all of those people disappeared, and Scott had to go back to hero duty and they undid the disappearance of all them, through very hard work. But still, there had been some heavy losses, and Scott was unwinding in his favourite pie place, with Ned, the cook with the kind smile, his girlfriend Chuck and Olive, the tiny waitress.
".. and you know, we've managed to undo most of the damage, but still... I feel so bad for Thor, the guy has lost everything, poor man saw all the people in his planet get killed, including his little brother...And he's a top-notch guy, real good man, I just wish I could do something for him..."
Olive and Chuck were looking at Ned intensely. Ned cringed.
"I could... Maybe I could help."
It turned out, Ned could bring people back to life. It came with a set of rules (he couldn't touch them ever again, somebody near the revived person died in its place...) but, yes, he could bring people back to life. It didn't even surprise Scott, after everything he'd seen.
So Scott set a plan in motion: first he had to find Thor's brother's body, which was no easy feat. Luckily, a Valkyrie lady had installed a tracker on him (in case he betrayed them, or in case the reward the grandmaster set for his return was too tempting) and with the help of Shuri they managed to locate the part of space where the signal was, and find a vessel to take them there. Valkyrie was a great companion, that knew a lot of bad songs he'd never heard about and a lot of "once I was drunk and..." stories.
They found Loki's body, and retrieved also Gamora's body, you know, since they were already in outer spaces picking up bodies of people who shouldn't have been killed.
In the meantime, Shuri found a way to unrandomize Ned's gift: with some electrodes she managed to control who died in the place of the people brought back so that fall back would be on some cockroaches from a house about to be fumigated, making everyone safe.
They called Thor, and the rest of Avengers and Guardians, who met up in Ned's Pie place, hopeful. Everyone was excited, trying not to get their hopes too up. Sadly, there was nothing that could be done for vision as Ned's gift only worked with biological life, but.... Pietro's body had been preserved on ice, just in case.
He was the first one to be touched by Ned.
His eyes opened, he gasped, and looked around him.
"Wanda? How long have I been sleeping?"
She let out a little cry of joy, and carefully touched his face. They lost themselves in an embrace. The others nearly applauded.
One minute later, a cockroach died. That was it, the price that had to be paid. Only that.
The next one was Gamora.
Ned had his doubts, because she was an alien, and he'd never touched aliens before... But she touched her and she woke up, like all other humans. Peter Quill teared up and spun her around.
One minute later, a cockroach died. Another wrong made right.
Then it was Loki's turn.
Ned was fidgeting. They had used some magic to undo the damage done to his body in space, but still, he was one looking the worst of all three. And if he messed this one up, he wouldn't be letting down Thor, who wasn't just a literal god, but, much like Scott Lang had described, a top notch.
Thor hadn't wanted to, but his hopes were up, very up. He'd seen the others come back and thought that maybe... he could have something back. His home was gone, his parents were gone... but if he got Loki back, at least, the rest of the losses wouldn't hurt so much. His brother had always a very important presence in his life, and he missed him every day that he passed without him.
Besides, he'd died too young. There was still a lot of mischief and drama that Loki could (and would) do. So many more adventures and sly smiles. So many mistakes, on both of their sides, to make up for.
Ned touched the man in the cheek and nothing happened at first. Then there was a deaf moan and the figure on the ground curled up on himself, coughed up some blood. Thor's face lit up.
"Loki?" He sat on the floor next to his brother, feeling so much better. "Can you hear me?"
Loki looked at Thor with bright eyes.
"Thor... you're here..."
"I am, brother. And so are you."
One lone tear fell out of Thor's good eye as he got closer to Loki, touched his forehead with his own, heard his breathing, felt his slowly returning warmth.
"I wish you would stop scaring like this, brother... But it's all right, if you come back. You must always come back, you hear me? Always."
Loki's eyes were bright too and he was whispering.
"Thank you for finding me. Thank you for enough enough. Thank you for still loving me, despite everything."
There was not a dry eye left in the house.
Some time later, after the emotions were a bit calmer, Ned uttered a sentence he never thought he would say:
"So, any of you newly undead superheroes want some pie?"
They did.
Victory had never tasted so sweet.