Dustjacket

Date Finished: 5/4/2022

Rating: R

Keywords: Pregnant Loki, Female Loki, Doctor Strange/Loki

Spoilers: Thor: Ragnarok, Infinity War, maybe some for Endgame, but not really.

Disclaimer: These versions of these characters are probably unrecognizable to anyone who knows the canon better than me, but they still belong to Marvel and Stan Lee. Any elements taken from the original mythology technically belongs to no one and everyone.

Summary: Thor returns to Asgard after the battle of Sokovia to find Loki occupying the throne. As a Queen. A very beautiful, very pregnant Queen. It's a long story...

Author's Notes: This was swirling in my head since I recapped the first Avengers movie and it solidified a few days after seeing Ragnarok. I am not at all well versed in this canon and this is my first MCU story, so apologies for all the things I will no doubt get wrong. I'm learning.

Destiny - Part 4
by Diandra Hollman


Despite his general indifference toward her, Tony and Pepper's daughter formed an attachment to Loki over the next year and a half. Like a cat, she seemed especially determined to win over anyone who tried to ignore her. And once he started using magic to distract or entertain her she became completely enamored.

Neither of her parents discouraged her, which Loki believed to be simply reckless until the night Pepper brought her down to say goodnight to her father and she added a goodnight to "Uncle Loki". He caught the knowing glances Tony and Pepper exchanged before she herded the child back upstairs.

"Are you really using your daughter to appeal to my mothering instinct, Stark?"

Tony looked insulted by the accusation. "No, she calls every adult she likes "aunt" or "uncle". The only thing I've ever tried to appeal to - and I don't believe I've ever tried to hide it - is your desire to get Strange back." He collapsed the holographic files floating between them. "Look...we all lost somebody that day. If there's a way to get them back...or at least make that purple bastard pay for everything he took from us...we owe it to ourselves - to everyone - to do everything we can."

'If not to save them, then to avenge them,' Loki thought, recalling something Tony had said to him years ago. In another lifetime.

"While I believe there is very little chance we will succeed in this endeavor, I have witnessed your kind achieve the impossible," he murmured. "Because you are stubborn. Pathologically incapable of admitting defeat. It is your greatest strength."

A small smile briefly twitched the corner's of Tony's mouth.

"As for Stephen," Loki continued. "My people have significantly longer lifespans than yours. When we find a lover...a husband or a wife...we can expect to spend a few centuries with them. More if we are lucky. We were not made for the sort of grief that comes with loving someone for such a short time. I tried to discourage Thor from forming a relationship with a human woman. And now..." He met Tony's eyes. "Having him back on this world means having to watch him die in a few short decades. But it seems I cannot have him in Hel."

This time the smile spread fully across Tony's lips. He had never really believed Loki fully capable of altruism and he respected his honesty. "Yeah, I've been thinking about that...you said your daughter claims Strange isn't in the underworld. So we can assume the others are wherever he is, right?"

"A reasonable assumption."

Tony pulled up the data they had collected on the Infinity stones. "It's been bothering me that we don't know what the Soul stone does yet. All we have is hearsay from an alien on the other side of the universe."

When they had gathered data on each of the stones, Nebula had been the only one with even the slightest knowledge regarding the Soul stone. According to her, the high priestess of a planet she had once been held captive on had acquired it in the hopes that she could imbue a man she had created with life. Give him a soul.1 Nobody but her personal servant girl saw what happened and her account was little more than a vague warning. "It doesn't give life. It only takes." Nebula's sister had discovered the location of the stone and been forced to take Thanos to it. She had not returned.

"What if the stone is a gateway of some sort," Tony said. "To another world or another dimension or something. Another plane of existence."2

"Possible," Loki agreed. "And you think this is where they are?"

"It's a theory. But I can't think of any way to test it unless the Space stone can take somebody to whatever is on the other side of that gateway."

Loki pondered for a while. The Tesseract could take its bearer to any place in the universe at will. But this might be another universe altogether. "I'm not entirely certain it is possible to use the Tesseract to cross the barrier between worlds."

"Well, we won't know unless we try."

Loki could think of no reason to discourage any crazy theory the human could propose, so they brought the idea to the rest of the team.

The other Avengers agreed that it was worth trying, but spent a lengthy, often heated debate trying to determine who should be the one to actually attempt it. Loki thought it made sense for him to do it, as he had the most experience with the Tesseract, but he was soundly out-voted. Tony claimed it was because if the plan didn't work, they would still need him in this world to fight Thanos, but he suspected it was really because if it *did* work, nobody trusted him to come back.

They settled on letting the Widow be their ambassador. Loki taught her how to convey to the Tesseract where she needed it to take her. The irony was not lost on either of them, but, possibly even more than Rogers, she recognized the transformative power of redemption.

The plan was for her to stay no more than forty-eight hours. If she was gone longer than that, the experiment would be presumed a failure and her, lost.

"I'll see you soon," she promised the Captain, smiling, trying to reassure him even though it was obvious she didn't feel nearly as confident as she pretended to be. And with everyone in the ready room of the Avengers building standing a safe distance, she closed her eyes and concentrated on making the space stone take her wherever the other half of the universe had gone. After a minute, she disappeared in a small puff of blue light.

"Nothing to do now but wait," Bruce said hopefully.

They still held out hope, after the first day, that the plan would prove successful. But after the forty-eight hour window closed, almost all of them accepted it as one more defeat. The last one many of them could bear. After seventy-two hours, Natasha Romanoff was officially added to the list of casualties in the war against Thanos.

Tony retreated to his house in the woods, Loki to his post in the Sanctum. Practically everyone returned to the lives they had carved out for themselves in the past few years. So when Natasha reappeared suddenly - nine days after she had left - it was only to a very surprised Steve Rogers.

After indulging the Captain's relieved embrace, just stopping him from crushing her ribcage when he forgot his strength in his enthusiasm, she said "we need to find Scott Lang."

---

Steve and Natasha recovered Scott from the quantum realm via the machine hidden in a van in a San Francisco parking garage and brought him and the machine back to New York before gathering the rest of the group for a debriefing. It turned out the plan had worked after all, but with an unexpected hitch. Everyone who had disappeared with the snap had, in fact, been transported to another place. A parallel world, identical in every way except that time there moved at a different rate.

"For us, it's been four and a half years. For them, it's only been two and a half months," Natasha said.

"So you were only gone for, what, a few hours," Bruce asked.

"About ten hours, yes."

"This only took ten hours," Tony asked incredulously, gesturing at the plans Natasha had brought back with her. "They figured out time travel in ten hours?"

"Theoretically," Scott said. "Hank, Janet and Hope had already figured out how to go into the quantum realm and come back out, and we knew time works differently down there than it does up here. But it's unpredictable. We never had a way of navigating in there. But with those plans, maybe..."

"We can go back in time," Steve finished. "Gather all the stones again and reverse the snap ourselves."

"Why go through all that trouble," Rhodes asked. "If we can go back in time, why don't we just go back to when Thanos was a baby and..." he made a slicing motion across his throat with one finger.

"Because it doesn't work like that," Loki said, speaking up for the first time to the surprise of the gathered group who had almost forgotten he was in the conference room with them. "You cannot change the past. Hela tried to kill me before she was born. Before Stephen could bring her back in time to Odin."

"Who are Hela and Stephen," Scott asked.

"You can't create a temporal paradox," Tony said, ignoring Scott. "If Thanos never existed, we wouldn't need to build a time machine to stop him from splitting the universe in half." He groaned. "I am inevitable. That's what he said?"

Loki nodded. "Think of time as a river. Its path may not be entirely fixed, but you can't drastically alter it simply by throwing in one stone. Or, in this case, killing one man."

"But wouldn't retrieving the stones create a paradox too," Rhodes pointed out. "If they're not where they're supposed to be when Thanos goes looking for them..."

"We will be careful," Steve said. "Make sure we retrieve them from times and places where no one will notice they are missing for a little while and return them before anyone even realizes they were gone."

"Rhodey's right," Tony declared. "We're talking about six very powerful stones, any one of which could drastically alter the past if we screw up. They're alive over there. For all intents and purposes, Thanos failed his mission. Do we really want to risk calling his attention to that fact? Once he realizes what we're doing, he'll probably just come back from wherever he's hiding in the future and do it all over again, but this time maybe he'll get it right."

"Yes, they are alive," Natasha agreed. "And they have been spending the past months grieving the people they lost just like we have. They are trapped, Tony. They want to get back. And maybe they could figure out a way back on their own, but it could take them months. Years. And by the time they got here, most of the people they left behind would be long gone." She glanced at Steve, seeing understanding of this point settle with him perhaps easier than the others. "And if Doctor Strange is correct, Thanos won't know what we're doing until it's too late for him to stop it. Until the moment we use the stones, the future he knows will not change. But that future is only one potential future. It's not fixed."

A sort of calm washed over Loki as the Widow relayed information from Stephen. He had known the discovery that the victims of the Snap were in an alternate universe had meant Stephen was likely alive, but now he had proof. She had spoken to him. He had had at least some part in developing the plan they would now have to put into action. A plan to piece back together a universe Thanos had rent in two. And with this realization came another. "The question is not whether or not we should enact the plan," he said. "We already have."

Natasha looked alarmed for a moment, then slowly nodded.

"Wait...you mean there's already evidence in this...parallel universe that we built the machine and traveled back in time," Bruce asked.

"Yes," Natasha said quietly.

"Jesus," Tony muttered.

"And yes," she added quickly. "Thanos will no doubt come back for us. But this time we will be prepared. Fury is already coordinating on their end. We will be ready for him. *All* of us."

Nobody seemed to question her eagerness to change the subject before anybody asked further questions about the sort of "evidence" she had seen. Loki suspected he knew what the evidence was: Stephen. As keeper of the time stone, he would "remember" old timelines even if they were changed. They would change something. Loki doubted Stephen had told Natasha exactly what, but he had warned her against saying too much or doing anything that might change what needed to happen.

Tony was visibly struggling to weigh the chance of recovering everything they had already lost with the risk of losing even more by messing with time. His eyes met Loki's and Loki could see the same fear he had seen in Stephen's eyes years earlier when he had threatened to change everything, undo their whole relationship. He couldn't guarantee anything and he knew the fact that Tony wouldn't remember anything different if the timeline changed wouldn't be a comfort. But he knew Tony didn't expect that from him anyway. Tony would accept the risks and enact the plan. He only needed a small push.

"Rogers is right," Loki said. "If we are careful, we can reduce any impact we might have on the past."

Tony nodded. "Right. Small footprints. Get back what we lost and try not to die in the process." He took a deep breath. "All right. Bruce, you want to help me with these plans for Stuart Little's shrink ray here? Let's make sure this thing works before we go any further. Cap and Nat, we're gonna need all hands on deck for this. Think you can get the band back together?"

For the first time in what seemed like a long time, Steve smiled. "Already on it."

---

Thor's apartment in New Asgard was, to put it mildly, a mess. Every visible surface was covered in empty beer bottles and mostly empty cartons of food, some of which Loki suspected had spoiled long ago. A television displayed an image of a video game on pause. It seemed to be providing the majority of the light in the cave-like room. Thor sat slumped on a stained couch in equally stained clothing that stretched too tightly around his growing beer gut, staring dully at Loki. He had obviously been drinking already and it wasn't even mid-day. Loki wondered when he had last bathed.

"Time travel," he rumbled after Loki concluded his pitch.

"The widow claims to have seen proof in this other world that it will work."

"What for? So he can defeat us again?"

Loki scanned his surroundings again and wondered if it had been a mistake coming alone to try to convince Thor to join them. "I know you're scared," he began again. Thor snorted and Loki rushed to continue before he could deny the words. "But I didn't make a bargain to spare you because I believed you alone could defeat Thanos. I believed our people and the people of Earth needed you. They still do."

"And what is in it for you? You can't be doing this just to get the wizard back."

"No," Loki said softly. "I am doing this to get my brother back. The one I always looked up to. The one that wouldn't cower in shame like this, only showing his face once a month when he runs out of liquor to dull his senses so he doesn't have to feel." He yelped as Thor rose from his seat and lurched for him suddenly, slapping him across the face in a mindless effort to make the words stop, nearly knocking him from his chair.

Loki didn't straighten, addressing the ground as he continued. "I know my actions these last few years have contributed to your guilt - that you have grieved more than any man should have to bear - and I regret that." He looked tentatively up at Thor, relaxing as he realized another blow was not coming. "They will find a way. Thanos will return. Our best hope of defeating him this time is here, now, with all of the enhanced from both worlds. Please, brother."

Thor stood frozen in place for a minute, his pained, mismatched eyes slowly filling with tears. Then he crumpled slowly. First his face, and then his entire body. Until he was kneeling before Loki, sobbing loudly as all the pain he had tried to dull with alcohol came rushing over him again in a powerful wave. Loki dropped to the floor beside him, gathering him in his arms, and waited for the storm to pass.

---

Clint Barton was the last to join their mission and when he saw that Loki was part of the team he reacted about as badly as Tony had initially. The irony that Tony and Steve were the ones leaping to their former enemy's defense this time against one of their own was not lost on anyone. It was obvious Clint wasn't really convinced that Loki could be trusted (and Loki didn't blame him), but at least they eventually got him to stand down.

Bruce, Tony and Scott were able to build the machine relatively quickly from the detailed specs Natasha had brought back. They spent far more time planning the how, when and where details of the mission.

It was agreed that it would make sense to send whoever was the most knowledgeable about any given stone to retrieve that particular stone. But teaming them up was a little more difficult and selecting the time and place that each stone could be safely retrieved from and returned to before their absence was noticed required hours of debate.

Thor needed someone mentally fit to help him recover the Aether from the location where Jane had discovered it years earlier as nobody was sure he could see through its ability to alter reality. Rhodey was eventually volunteered. Tony and Steve volunteered to go with Loki and Nebula to retrieve the time and power stones respectively, mostly to satisfy everyone who still had reservations about them being part of the mission. Because it was determined the mind stone had to be recovered from a secured HYDRA lab, Clint was joined by the two expert thieves. Which left Bruce to partner with Natasha to recover the soul stone, the location of which she had obtained from Thanos' other renegade daughter Gamora during her time in the world on the other side of it.3

They each went through a sort of training and trial run so they would be physically and mentally prepared for the mission, traveling to a time and a place where there was no chance they could damage anything.

As they all stood on the launch pad, their five separate destinations locked in, Loki realized the inevitability of the moment. If Thanos hadn't used him, the Avengers would never have been formed. If not for Hela and Stephen, everything could have been different.

Every decision had led to this moment. To this battle over the future of the universe.

Burdened with glorious purpose, indeed.

The countdown reached zero and they all dropped into the quantum realm.

---

As soon as Loki touched solid ground again, he was shoved against a wall, Tony's hand clamping over his mouth as the suit's helmet folded itself back automatically. He grunted and struggled instinctively for a moment before registering the frantic shushing gestures Tony was making. He froze, listening. After a moment, he heard the faint sounds of baby Hela's whimpering coming from the Sanctum's "nursery".

Finding a span of time that the time stone was unguarded had proved most difficult. Loki had chosen the night he had used it in his own aborted time travel mission, assuring Tony that as long as they were quiet and careful to avoid being seen, the stone's absence would not be noticed for hours.

Now, he wondered if this was what had woken him that night.

The whimpering stopped, replaced by his own voice, humming a lullaby. It was far from the first time he had heard his own voice coming from a distance like that, but somehow it was different.

Loki reached to pull Tony's hand from his mouth and nodded. Tony let go and followed Loki as he crept silently to the pedestal where the Eye of Agomotto rested. Without touching it, Loki performed the series of gestures to open the amulet and remove the stone, transferring it to the case Tony held open, and then closing the Eye again. It wouldn't fool Stephen if he decided to check on the status of the stone, but on this particular night Loki knew he would be too distracted. Especially for the next twenty minutes or so.

But before they could run the retrieval program, Loki heard a noise drift from deeper in the Sanctum that stopped him in his tracks. It was Stephen's voice. He closed his eyes as the sound triggered his memory and suddenly his mind was in the other room, looking down into Stephen's eyes as a trembling hand swept his hair back from his face.

"So beautiful," Stephen murmured, his eyes filled with wonder and something Loki was beginning to suspect just might be love.

"We'll get him back," Tony whispered close to his ear and for a moment before he jolted back to his present self Loki felt as if he were in both places and times simultaneously. Hearing something from the next room that he thought he should go and check on before Stephen pulled him down into a kiss and he forgot all about it.

He blinked, jolting back to his present body, focusing on the pressure of Tony's hand squeezing his wrist to ground himself. He had known this would be a danger when he agreed to the mission. His memories of the night they had traveled to were half-faded and revisiting them now when he couldn't quite remember the feel of Stephen's touch...the warmth of his embrace...the taste of his lips...it felt like a sort of torture. But if he lingered any longer, if he did anything to jeopardize the mission, he could lose Stephen forever.

He nodded.

Tony waited a moment longer, until he was sure Loki was back with him. Then he punched the code into the keypad on his wrist and they returned to the quantum realm.

One minute after they had left - regardless of how long each individual team had taken to recover their stone - the entire group returned to the launch pad in the Avengers building.

All except one. Loki had been wrong about the proof of the mission's success being a change in the timeline. The proof was that one of their own would be drawn into the parallel universe of the soul stone in the course of completing the mission.

"Where's Bruce," Steve asked in alarm.

Natasha produced her carrying case containing the soul stone, cradling it in her palm as if it were a precious, delicate flower. "He was there before any of the others," she said softly.

---

After confirming that their presence in the past had not significantly altered the present in any way so far, Tony and Rocket set about rebuilding the gauntlet.

Steve debriefed the rest of them, gathering any intel they might need when the time came to return the stones to their place in the timeline. It was never explicitly stated, but most of them understood that the reason for this was that they didn't know how many of them would survive the battle with Thanos and, therefore, who would need to return the stones.

Natasha confirmed that Bruce's presence in the alternate world within the soul stone had been the proof that their plan would work. He had been in Soul World months longer than the others. He was the one who had worked out the rate of time dilation between the two planes and enlisted the crown princess of Wakanda to help design the time machine with Hank Pym and Janet Van Dyne.

It wasn't until the gauntlet was finished that the team realized they had never determined who should be the one to use it.

"I'll do it," Thor declared.

"We should at least discuss it," Scott said after the initial wave of protests from the others died down.

"We've waited long enough. I'm the strongest Avenger. I'll do it."

"That glove is channeling enough energy to light up a continent," Tony argued. "Even if you were in any condition to take that on right now..."

"Tony's right," Steve chimed in. "Using the stones almost killed Thanos." He squared his shoulders "I'll do it."

"No, wait," Natasha said. "Scott's right. We should discuss this."

Loki watched from the sidelines as the various members of the team argued, their voices blurring together and a sort of calm descended on him.

"I have to do it," he said over the din.

Everyone went silent, staring at him.

"None of you would survive."

Steve frowned. "And you think you can?"

"I don't know," Loki admitted. "But I am certain that this is my destiny. It is why my daughter has not granted me entrance to her realm. Whether she is trying to correct the mistake she made in Thanos or she simply wants to reclaim the souls beyond her reach...she has spared me knowing that I alone can restore the universe."

"No," Thor moaned. "Nononononono...it's my responsibility..."

Loki drew him close, pressing their foreheads together. Thor instinctively gripped the back of his neck just a little too tightly, but it worked to calm him, as it always had. "I must do this," he said softly.

Thor choked back a sob, his eyes full of tears. He recognized the truth of Loki's words, even as he struggled to accept them.

"The sun will shine on us again, brother," Loki whispered.

Thor sniffled and nodded shakily, then slowly and reluctantly released his hold.

Loki glanced around at the others. None of them spoke, but Loki could sense that in that moment they all finally accepted him as one of their own. Even Clint seemed at least humbled by his willingness to sacrifice himself for all of them.

Natasha stepped in front of him, the gauntlet clutched in her hands. For a moment, Loki thought she might insist on taking it on herself. 'I have red in my ledger...' But when she looked into his eyes, he could see that she understood. Perhaps more than any of the others. He wondered if Stephen had known as well. If he had seen this when he had looked into possible futures. If he had told Tony to convey his love to Loki because he knew they would never meet again in this world.

"Show me," Loki prompted. She nodded and closed her eyes. He touched her temples and let her flood his mind with images of the other world - at least as much of it as she had seen in the ten hours she had visited. It was identical to their world, as she had said, only populated with all the people they had lost. Humans, Asgardians, beings on other worlds she wasn't even aware of.

"Focus on me, honey," Stephen's voice said suddenly, pulling Loki's attention. "Thanos got us here because he willed us to join Gamora. You just have to reverse the process. Use me as an anchor to bring everyone back."

Loki gasped as he released his hold on Natasha.

"Yeah," she said quietly. "He knew."

A smile tugged at Loki's lips. He had always admired her talent for cunning and deception, even when she had used it against him. She had closely guarded the secrets she had learned on her journey into the parallel universe, watching as they took the paths she knew they were bound to take. Possibly even guiding them if they threatened to stray. She may have been physically weaker than her teammates, but she was quite possibly the most formidable of them all.

Loki nodded, his resolve strengthened, and took the gauntlet from her, waiting as she joined the rest of them at the edges of the room, taking cover behind protective shields. Tony ordered his AI to seal off the room and signaled to Loki when they were ready before his suit helmet concealed his face.

Loki looked down at the gauntlet. It was silver, made of vibranium and human sized, but otherwise nearly identical to the one Thanos had used.

'Focus on me. Use me as an anchor.'

He closed his eyes and concentrated on the world the Widow had visited. The world Stephen was trapped in. He slipped his hand into the gauntlet and cried out as pain immediately exploded through his body. He grit his teeth and forced himself to focus, to harness the power of the stones and will them to do his bidding. It wasn't all that different from operating the Tesseract, really. But far more powerful. No mortal was meant to wield all six stones at once.

He strained to move his fingers as all the nerves in his arm screamed. 'Bring them back,' he thought feverishly. 'Restore the universe as it was.'

He snapped his fingers and a wave of energy swept him from his feet. The next thing he was aware of was hands on him, pulling the gauntlet away, voices anxiously calling his name. They seemed to be coming from far away.

"Did it work?"

"Jesus..."

"Can you..."

He recognized this feeling, having experienced it many times before. The moment when the pain disappeared and he realized he was going to die. Calm washed over him and he gave in to the pull of darkness.

---

He opened his eyes to the now familiar path. An equally familiar figure approached, emerging from the mist before him. Her features were softer somehow, and upon a moment of reflection Loki realized it was because for the first time she was not scowling.

"Hold out your hand," she instructed.

Loki frowned at the odd request, but as he couldn't see any advantage to arguing with it, he raised his right hand between them. She caught his wrist and thrust his arm out perpendicular to his body, palm facing outward.

"What..."

But before he could complete the question, he heard the faint whistling in the air and saw the speck of silver in the distance, racing toward them. But even as Mjolnir's handle impacted his palm, his mind struggled to make sense of it.

"You destroyed it," he said stupidly.

"An illusion," Hela gloated. "I knew it would fool Thor, but I was surprised you didn't see through it."

She let go and Loki cautiously brought the hammer in front of him, expecting it to crash to the ground any moment. It couldn't be that simple...could it? Could one noble act undo a lifetime of wicked behavior? Had he saved more lives than he had taken?

"Why are you giving me this," he asked numbly. "I can't possibly need it in Hel."

"No," Hela agreed. "Not in Hel."

Loki looked up at the mistress of the underworld as he drew the obvious conclusion. "You still will not accept me into your realm."

She smiled. "It was never my choice."

Loki felt the now familiar pull as he was dragged back to life. He cried out as every nerve in his body seemed to still be screaming in pain, as if unable to process the sudden change. He blinked at the ceiling for a moment, registering the absence of all the people who had been there moments (minutes? Hours?) ago. The gauntlet was also absent. But his right hand was still clutched around the handle of Mjolnir.

He let go and slowly climbed to his feet before reaching for it again, expecting to find it firmly stuck to the ground once more. But it seemed it wasn't an illusion. For the time being, at least, the hammer had deemed him worthy.

A low explosion in the distance made the building he was in tremble. The battle with Thanos had begun then.

He staggered to a window and looked down at the battlefield outside. The Widow had been right: all of them had gathered to fight Thanos and his army. He tried to find Stephen in the crowd, but there were too many sorcerers on the field to identify one from a distance. He did manage to spot Thor as a bolt of lightning erupted from a spot near the center of the fighting. And he could recognize the Titan his brother was battling against.

Loki started to open a portal to that specific spot, but hesitated. No, he couldn't meet Thanos again like this. Not as Loki, the broken prince and heir of two destroyed worlds.

He smiled and closed his eyes, concentrating on shifting into a more powerful form. Into the Queen who had raised Sutur to defeat death herself at Ragnarok.

---

Thanos had just managed to pin Thor when a portal opened and Mjolnir sailed out, knocking the Titan from his feet. Thor laughed and whooped victoriously as Lorelei emerged after it and closed the portal. She didn’t have time to so much as acknowledge either of them before one of Thanos’- mindless soldiers barreled down on her. She drew her long knives and turned to dispatch it, leaving Thor to resume his battle with his long lost - and best - weapon.

She threw herself into the fight with the confidence of one who no longer feared death. She was unstoppable. Practically invincible.

She felt a movement beside her and spun to confront the possible threat, only to find Stephen blocking a blast that had been meant for her with a conjured shield. He grunted as he absorbed the blow, then turned to knock the advancing enemy back with a wave of pure energy.

For a moment, Lorelei was overcome with the urge to throw her arms around him and send them both through a portal to someplace safe. Because while she may not have feared her own death anymore, the possibility of his was another matter. She had the fleeting thought that if she had still been holding Mjolnir at that moment, it would have regained its impossible weight and crashed to the ground.

One of Thanos' minions charged at Stephen then and she moved to take it down before it got within striking distance.

The spell broken, she fell back into the rhythm of the fight, feeling Stephen at her back fending off any enemies that tried to take her by surprise. She fought with renewed determination to protect him as he protected her. Together they were - as she had long suspected - a truly formidable force.

They became separated when a ship hovered over the field and Stephen joined the other sorcerers in forming a shield to protect their own - both from enemy fire and from falling debris as Carol Danvers destroyed the ship.

Lorelei was too focused on her immediate surroundings to be aware of what the rest of the Avengers were doing, but every so often she caught brief glimpses of them from the corners of her vision. A blur of green as the Hulk charged at an advancing flank. A flash of the Widow’s red hair. A streak of lightning summoned by Thor. At one point, she thought she saw Mjolnir fly across the battlefield and return, not to her brother, but to Steve Rogers.

Similarly, she hadn’t been able to concern herself with Thanos’ position on the field since she had first arrived. Until she came upon him locked in battle with Danvers. The enhanced human was holding her own impressively, but the Titan was starting to wear her down. Lorelei seized the opportunity, lunging at him, her dagger arcing toward his neck. An invisible force stopped her, freezing her in place. After flinging Danvers aside, Thanos turned to Lorelei, something like amusement flickering in his eyes.

“Didn’t I kill you already?”

“I am the mother of Death,” she growled, struggling against the invisible hold. “I cannot be so easily defeated.”

“Hmm...”

The knife in her hand blazed hot suddenly and she dropped it with a yelp, the magic holding her immobile releasing in the same instant. Before she could produce another weapon, his gauntlet-covered hand wrapped around her throat. She wondered feverishly how many stones it contained this time. Had he gathered the ones he’d scattered before coming back to this time and place? What had happened to the glove the Avengers had fashioned?

“You never were able to see the big picture,” Thanos murmured.

He had almost convinced himself that he was finishing what Hela started. Balancing the universe. That the nobility of the cause outweighed the pleasure he found in the task. Almost. “You’ll...never be...a god,” she choked out.

A ball of energy struck Thanos and he dropped her with an indignant cry. ‘Stephen,’ Lorelei thought as she fought to catch her breath. But when she looked to the source of the attack, she saw a woman she didn’t recognize. Energy crackled around her and her eyes glowed with cold fury.4 She was flanked by the Widow and a spear wielding Okoye, a similarly murderous expression on the Wakandan’s face. The Widow nodded at Lorelei before launching an attack, joined by a newly recovered Danvers.

‘Yes,’ Lorelei thought giddily. ‘This is how we defeat him. Together.’

She forced herself to her feet and focused on fending off any enemies who dared try to rush to Thanos’ aide. From the corner of her vision, she occasionally spotted Okoye doing the same.

A primal scream cut through all the sounds of battle and a now familiar blast of energy radiated from a few yards away. The gauntlet. Someone had used it. Lorelei resisted the instinct to look and take her eyes off her current opponent. But the mindless minion of Thanos seemed distracted too. A confused expression twisted his features a moment before he disappeared in a flash of green light.

“Daughter,” Thanos moaned, sounding utterly betrayed.

As his army disappeared one by one in flashes of green all around them, Lorelei finally spotted the source of the gauntlet’s discharged power. Nebula lay on the ground, contorting with pain as the energy consumed her, but the sound emerging from her that more closely resembled laughter than screams. Thanos had taken everything from her and now she was getting her vengeance. A green skinned woman fell beside her with a shriek, frantically pulling the gauntlet from her hand.

Amid the confusion and chaos as Thanos’ army slowly vanished, a portal appeared and Hela stepped out. Lorelei watched dumbly as her daughter stalked up to Thanos where the other women had him pinned on his knees.

Lorelei was seized and spun around suddenly. She recognized the touch of the cloak and raised her dagger instinctively to meet the attack she assumed it was alerting her to. But there was no immediate threat to her. It took her a moment to spot the real reason for the cloak’s urgency. Stephen lay face down on the ground several yards away. Tony crouched over him, his suit retracted over his hands, which were pressed to the doctor’s back and covered in blood.

The confrontation behind her immediately forgotten, Lorelei ran to them, the word “no” ringing over and over so loudly in her mind that she wasn’t sure if she was giving it voice or not.

Tony’s helmet retracted as she fell to her knees beside them. “He’s gonna make it.”

She bent so her face was level with Stephen’s, looking into his eyes. It was obvious he was in pain, but he smiled when he saw her. “You did it, honey,” he gasped.

As her initial panic settled, she was able to fully take stock of the situation and realized how carefully worded Stark’s reassurance had been. He would make it. No doubt Friday had given him the exact odds on him surviving his injury. But the odds on him *recovering* were no doubt less favorable. He may have accepted the limitations of the injuries to his hands, but as Lorelei understood it had been a long struggle. If he lost the use of his legs as well...would that break him?

“Where is Banner,” she demanded frantically.

Tony didn’t answer, his eyes focused on something behind her. She turned just in time to see Hela reach for Thanos, the other women falling back and away as  both disappeared in a flash of green light.

“What just happened?”

“Strange!”

A teenage girl dropped beside Lorelei suddenly. “Now will you let me fix you, sorcerer?”

Stephen groaned softly and nodded shakily.

“Are you Loki,” the girl asked.

Lorelei startled. Before she could answer, the girl’s fingers were pressed to her temples and her mind was flooded with images of a lab in Wakanda.

“Take us there,” demanded the girl who could only be Princess Shuri. Lorelei bristled instinctively at the impudence that screamed royalty, but at that moment taking care of Stephen was all that mattered.

She reached to cover Tony’s hands. “Go.”

Tony looked her in the eyes as he spoke into his com-link. “Cap, Strange is injured. I’m gonna stay with him. You got this?”

“Copy that, Tony,” Steve answered immediately. “Keep me posted.”

Tony nodded. “Let’s go, Princess.”

It wasn’t the first time he had used the nickname on her, but Lorelei thought it sounded different now. More respectful than snide. Later, she would think back on it as the moment she realized just how far they had come since they met. But for the time being, she just nodded gratefully and opened a portal to the lab Shuri had shown her, sweeping it over all four of them.

---

Stephen had died enough times to know that the cliche about life flashing before your eyes wasn’t true. And yet some indeterminate time after he passed out from blood loss he found himself watching a dizzying kaleidoscope of memories ranging from his childhood and the loss of his sister5 to battling Thanos on the ruins of Titan.

Without any conscious input from him, one memory came to the forefront. He was on the cliff in Norway, singing James Taylor to the infant sleeping in his arms and telling her the story of the fallen prince who had found redemption. He watched as he gave his speech to Odin and handed her over, remembering the mix of agony and conviction he had felt at that moment. Giving up the time stone had not been nearly so difficult.

He opened his eyes to surroundings so bright he could make out nothing but the dark shape hovering over him. More recent memories came to him as the figure came into focus. Of the months spent trying to find a way out of Soul World. Learning about Loki’s failed efforts to plead with their daughter. Fighting beside Lorelei. The cold numbness as an enemy blade pierced his back.

“Is this Hel?”

Hela huffed softly in amusement. “No. Hel is for the dead.” Her fingers drifted from where they had been pressed to his temples and traced the white streaks in his hair curiously.

She had her mother’s ability to scan a person’s memories, Stephen realized as the fog of sleep lifted a bit more and he became more aware of his surroundings. He seemed to be in some sort of hospital, but the bed beneath him was hard. Like an operating table. He struggled to sit up, grunting with the effort, the stiffness of his body proving that he was, in fact, still very much alive. And yet he could feel his legs. And his hands, while still badly scarred, were not nearly as painful as they had been.

‘Now will you let me fix you?’

Shuri. He was in her lab then. He hadn’t quite believed her claim that she could repair at least some of the damage to his hands. Even if Agent Ross claimed to be living proof of her skill.6 She had taken it as a challenge.

Hela moved to stand before him. She eyed him critically, dispassionately, and he remembered accusing Loki of looking at him like that once. How must she have reacted when she discovered that half her DNA came from a lowly Midgardian mortal?

“You look so much like your mother,” he finally said.

She snorted. “I suspect Odin came to the same realization recently.”

It was still difficult for Stephen to wrap his mind around the fact that the daughter he’d held in his arms only months before and the 3,000 year old Asgardian standing before him were really the same person. He regretted the choice he’d been forced to make, but recognized the necessity of it. He couldn’t fault her for the resentment she must have felt. She didn’t know the reason her birth parents had given her up. He wanted to apologize, to embrace her, but he suspected neither gesture would be welcomed. So instead he settled for asking “what did you do to Thanos?”

“I put him and his children in a part of the realm where they will never again trouble the living or the dead. I believe your people refer to it as purgatory.”

It was a sort of poetic justice, Stephen decided.

“Is that where you confined Loki as well?” He had been relieved when he'd first seen Loki in his visions of potential futures, particularly ones where Thanos was defeated. But when he'd learned from Bruce and, later, Natasha of Loki's repeated deaths, both deliberate and due to reckless behavior he had been horrified. And when he had realized Loki would have to endure at least one more death to set the universe right...he had initially resisted. Natasha had finally convinced him and suggested he be the one to leave the "message" in her memories.

Hela's lips twitched. “No. He hasn’t figured out yet that we can’t be killed. He seems stubbornly determined to ignore all the evidence.”

“He really is immortal?”

“Indestructible. I suspect we will eventually succumb to old age.”

“You keep saying we. You’ve died before too?”

“Many times. It’s what inspired Odin to make me the goddess of death.”

Stephen had decided it was best to not try to untangle cause and effect when time travel was involved. Which came first: the woman or the realm that would bear her name?

Hela once again watched, unmoving as he climbed from the “bed” unsteadily. She flinched and seemed to resist the urge to pull away as he reached for her hand.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “For all the pain that you suffered.”

He thought he saw something in her facade crack a little just then. As if she had been waiting a long time for someone to say those words to her and had long since given up hope that they ever would. She stared at the scarred hand clutching hers and he tried to remember which side of her the legends described as corpse like, concealed by magic.

“Do you really believe no one is beyond redemption,” she finally asked.

Stephen gave a soft chuckle. “You just said Loki didn’t realize he would survive using the gauntlet. He went from the greatest terrorist threat this planet had ever met to being willing to sacrifice himself to save the universe. So yes, I really do believe in the power of redemption.” He reached his free hand to tuck her hair behind her ear. “And I believe you have more in common with him than you think you do. More than either of your fathers.”

Her expression was once more inscrutable. “I doubt I will ever understand why, but it is obvious he genuinely loves you. And as I have no doubt he would only resume his annoyingly persistent efforts to be with you if you were to die again prematurely...”

She pressed her own free hand against Stephen’s chest and he inhaled sharply as an odd warmth seemed to flow through him from the point of contact.

“What did you just do,” he gasped.

Her lips twitched in amusement. “I cannot grant full immortality, but that should extend your life by at least a couple centuries.”

“A couple...”

“Of course, it does not come with our invincibility. You will be protected from disease and old age, but not from injury.” She looked at their still entwined hands again before adding “intentional or accidental.” 7

"Thank you," Stephen said reflexively, even though she had openly admitted she wasn't doing it for him.

Hela began to pull away from him and he gripped her hand, halting her.

"Wait...when you were reading my memories just now...what were you looking for?"

"Donna only remembered the boy you once were. My mother knows the man you are now, but he is the God of Lies. The memories he showed me could hardly be trusted. Alice knew something of who you were in between, but even her knowledge was incomplete. I simply wanted to see for myself who you really are."

He didn't need to ask who "Alice" was. He knew instinctively that Hela must have found his teacher when she was searching her realm for people who had known him. Of course she of all people would know The Ancient One's real name.

"And who am I?"

Voices came from somewhere nearby, getting closer.

Hela smiled and stretched upward so she could press a kiss to his temple. "Father," she murmured. It wasn't really an answer. In fact, the word had all the inflection and weight of a goodbye. As the voices grew closer, she stepped backward, through a portal that appeared suddenly, similar to the one she had appeared out of on the battlefield. It winked closed with a flash of green a moment before the owners of the voices rounded the corner into sight.

"Stephen!" Within moments, Loki occupied the space their daughter had just vacated, reaching for Stephen with obvious worry. "What did she want," he demanded.

"She just wanted to talk. It's okay. I'm fine. I..." whatever reassurances he intended to say were muffled as he was swept into a fierce embrace. "Ow," he muttered between frantic kisses.

"Careful," Wong chuckled from the doorway. "He's still human."

'Am I,' Stephen wondered. 'How many humans get to live for centuries just because they happen to have fathered a goddess of death?' He would have to tell Loki about that development, but that could wait.

Loki's fingers ran along his lips, as if he still didn't quite believe Stephen wasn't just a figment of his imagination that could disappear at any moment and was trying to memorize every detail.

Stephen smiled. "I missed you too."

Wong cleared his throat. "I should get back." This was not technically true, but he was beginning to feel like he was intruding on a very private moment. He had only stayed to keep Loki from climbing the walls while they waited for Stephen to wake up.

Stephen tore his focus from Loki. "Thank you. Wong. For everything."

Wong bowed his head slightly and disappeared through a portal to his Hong Kong sanctum without another word.

"You shouldn't be out of bed," Loki said suddenly, as if he'd only just remembered, gripping Stephen's arms like he expected him to fall over any minute, guiding him back to sit on the hard metal slab.

Stephen allowed himself to be maneuvered, partly because he knew Loki was probably right. He looked around, only just realizing that he hadn't seen anyone else since waking up. He was in Shuri's lab, not a hospital, so it shouldn't have been surprising that there were no monitors alerting nurses the second he woke up. But it was still...deserted. "How long was I out? Where is everybody?"

"You've been unconscious for more than a day. Everyone is occupied with cleanup and resettlement. But a few of them wanted to be notified when you woke up."

"They can wait," Stephen pronounced, dragging Loki closer until he was framing the god's hips with his thighs.

Loki didn't resist, but his hands fluttered uncertainly over Stephen's body again, worried. "Are you in pain?"

"No more than expected. How about you?" Stephen laid his hand on the arm he had seen blackened by the power of the gauntlet in his visions.

Loki huffed in wonder that the human would be concerned about his pain. Nobody else had even asked. Though to be fair, Stephen was the only being still living that he had told about the lingering ache after his body healed. He pressed his forehead against Stephen's gently and whispered "no more than I am willing to bear."

Stephen closed his eyes and simply listened to Loki's breathing, taking comfort and strength from his presence as he was certain Loki was from his.

"I love you," Loki blurted suddenly and Stephen's breath caught in surprise. "I know it's absurd but I have spent the past five years regretting that I never said those words. Greedily longing for more time even though I know that no amount of time could ever be enough. It is hypocrisy that I have done the very thing I once tried to discourage my brother from doing and you deserve better than a lover who manipulates you into fulfilling his destiny by fathering a child..."

Stephen pressed a finger to Loki's lips, stopping the flow of words that had obviously been building up for a long time. "I love you too."

He didn't object when Loki kissed him again with all the passion of someone who sincerely thought he was never going to see his lover again. He tried briefly to match Loki's fervor before just giving in and letting the god have his way until his lungs started to scream for air.

A muffled thump came from somewhere nearby and Loki huffed, pulling away slightly to call "yes, you can come in now" over his shoulder.

Stephen laughed as the cloak flew to him and settled on his shoulders, doing a sort of rippling motion that called to mind the excited wriggling of a dog happy to see its master.

"I hear you're the new Sorcerer Supreme," he said, petting the cloak lightly. "Does that make you my boss?" It had made sense for Loki to assume the role once what remained of his people made Earth their new home and Stephen had no desire to challenge him for it.

"I would be a fool to expect that you would allow yourself to be subjected to any authority higher than your own."

Stephen smirked. "Oh, I don't know. I think I'd be happy to work under you." He squeezed his thighs around Loki pointedly, delighting in the way the god's eyes darkened slightly. "Speaking of which, this 'bed' isn't exactly comfortable, so I'm really hoping you kept the bed in the sanctum."

"Yes, but you will not be using it for anything other than sleeping for the time being."

"Yeah, I'm not in any condition to do anything strenuous for a while. And neither are you," Stephen added pointedly.

"Oh, I intend to join you," Loki murmured. "And I will see to it that you do not leave until you are fully recovered." He dropped his voice lower. "And then I will keep you there even longer."

Despite his assessment of his physical condition, Stephen felt desire burn through him. "You obviously have a lot of faith in my stamina."

Loki smiled and kissed him again. Calmer, but with no less passion than before.

"Well," Stephen sighed. "I suppose I should..." He did a quick search of his clothing for his sling ring, but the loose fitting gown he had been outfitted in didn't even have pockets. He started to do the spell Loki had taught him months - years? - ago to change clothing, but Loki held up his sling ring before he could finish.

Instead of just handing it to him, Loki lifted Stephen's hand, slipped the ring on his fingers and pressed his lips to a scarred knuckle.

Stephen bit back any joke that came to mind about Asgardian wedding rituals. "You are wrong about me deserving better, by the way. I don't know how I could ever deserve better than an immortal prince who is willing to literally go to Hel and back for me."

"Only for you." It was the biggest difference between them, Loki knew. For all his arrogance and claims of prior selfishness, Stephen was willing to sacrifice himself to save everyone. Loki's acts of altruism were reserved for a far smaller number.

Stephen slipped his hand from Loki's so he could create a portal back to the Sanctum, specifically the bedroom so they could just fall directly into bed. "Ready?"

Loki's hands went around his back to catch him in case his coordinates were off by a few inches - or a few feet - and Stephen swept the portal over them.

---
Epilogue


It was a few days before Stephen got up the nerve to ask if Hela really had the power to extend a person's life.

"Possibly," Loki murmured, his fingers tracing patterns Stephen thought might be runes or Asgardian words on his abdomen. "More likely she can simply refuse entry into her realm. As she did with Thanos. As she did with me."

"She claims she isn't doing that. That you're both just impossible to kill. There are legends about her surviving battle wounds that nobody could possibly have survived, which I thought was just embellishments from storytellers to make her sound more intimidating, but..."

Loki lifted his head to glare at Stephen. "You've been using Astral projection to do this research without leaving this bed, haven't you?"

"She said she was tired of you pestering her to see me and she could extend my life to put off having to do it again for a while." The words all came out in a rush as Stephen decided it was best to just rip the metaphorical bandaid off. But in the silence that followed the revelation, he wondered if it had been a mistake. "I wasn't sure I believed it," he added. "I've been researching the extent of her powers and what little is known about Helheim, but since she said the immortality she granted me doesn't come with invincibility - that it only works on disease and old age - I don't know how I could prove it short of deliberately giving myself radiation poisoning, or..."

Loki's hand covered his mouth, cutting off his nervous babbling. His face was a mixture of disbelief, hope and a bit of horror. "No. You will not poison yourself to test your mortality. I went through too much trouble bringing you back just to lose you again."

Stephen tugged Loki's hand from his face and entwined their fingers. "You think she could be lying?"

"I don't know," Loki admitted. "I doubt it. But it is not a risk I am willing to take."

Stephen smiled a little. "You still think I'll die before you can get bored of me?"

It took Loki a moment to remember the vow he'd made over five years ago. He kissed Stephen's scarred fingers. "I can't promise celibacy in your absence. Nor would I expect yours in mine. But I swear I will love you for as long as I live. And I will join you in our daughter's realm when my time comes."

"Is that what you've been trying to do these past few years? Join me?"

Loki knew what Stephen was really asking. Humans didn't take kindly to efforts to hasten a lovers' reunion through death, even if they tended to romanticize the concept in their literature and art. It was one of their more fascinating contradictions. "At first that was the only reason. I didn't see much purpose to continuing this existence after I lost my mother, my father, my home, you. I couldn't live with my failure to stop Thanos any more than Thor could. And unlike my brother I couldn't find comfort in alcohol."

Stephen gripped Loki's hand as tightly as he was able. He wanted to gather the god to him and kiss him until the pain in his eyes disappeared. But he didn't want to interrupt him. They needed to talk about this.

"For a while I could convince myself my intentions were noble. That in trying to convince Hela to reverse the damage Thanos had done I was trying to get back everyone who'd been lost. But that was just a lie I told myself. I only cared about getting you and Thor back and I didn't care how I did it."

"That can't be true or the hammer wouldn't have deemed you worthy," Stephen said softly.

Loki hummed. "Perhaps Hela was right. My time on this planet has changed me." He leaned down to kiss Stephen and murmured "you have changed me" against his lips. He sat up just enough so he could sit astride Stephen's hips. Stephen hissed and gripped his hips with both hands, holding him still, but Loki seemed content with not moving. He simply continued the lazy kiss.

Stephen reached to sweep back a lock of fallen hair and stared up at the god in wonder. Loki recalled the moment he and Tony had visited on their mission and asked the question he was pretty sure he knew the answer to. "You knew, didn't you? You saw me taking the time stone that night."

"No. I knew somebody else was here, but since the wards didn't go off and the cloak wasn't bothered I knew whoever it was wasn't a threat." He took a deep breath. "I'm sorry."

"What for?"

"In that other world, I was called to help Wanda. Thanos had killed her lover in this world and in her grief she lost control of her powers and encased a whole town in a bubble of altered reality where he was still alive and they were married and had kids. I could empathize...console her...share her pain, but I was helpless to do the same for you."

Loki nuzzled Stephen's hand, pressing his lips to one of the many scars. "Nor I you. We were fortunate. And I don't intend to take that fortune for granted." He leaned down to brush their lips together again when a loud crash disrupted the quiet of the Sanctum. They both responded immediately, instinctively.

When Loki reached the stairs, he realized why the wards had once again failed to alert them to danger. The dark haired, denim clad Latina picking herself up from the floor in the front entry was not familiar. But the man who was using magic - and a time stone - to piece the artifact she had knocked over back together... It was Stephen. But not HIS Stephen. His hair was longer and tied back, the white streaks higher on his hairline. His beard was shaped differently. And he wore a suit that was entirely black and red. The cloak was hovering on the landing above the pair warily.

Loki heard Stephen suck in a breath at the sight of his duplicate as he came up behind the god.

The other Stephen looked up and cursed under his breath. "Wrong universe," he told the woman.

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah. It's close, but the Loki we're looking for barely knows Stephen Strange."

"Okay, who are you and what are you doing here," Stephen demanded, holding a shield at ready in front of him. The cloak twitched uncertainly.

The other Stephen held up his hands non-threateningly. "You haven't heard of the Time Variance Authority by any chance, have you?"

"Answer the question," Loki said sharply.

"See," the other Stephen said to his companion. His hands moved suddenly, casting a spell that flowed out in a wave over Loki and his Stephen before anyone could stop him. The woman reached for his hand and pulled him sideways where they disappeared as if behind an invisible wall.

Loki blinked and closed the pocket dimension he had instinctively opened to retrieve a dagger. "What was that spell?"

Stephen dropped his shield, frowning. "I think he tried to make us forget they were here. Did he say 'wrong universe'?"

"Yes, it would seem they were from a universe that has worked out how to control interdimensional travel. And they're looking for some other version of me and an organization that controls time from the sound of it."

The cloak flew away, having obviously determined its services were no longer needed.

"Should we do something," Stephen asked.

Loki sighed. "There's nothing to be done. Except get you back in bed."

Stephen didn't seem to hear, too lost in thought. "He said it was 'close', and yet in the universe they were looking for, we barely know each other. I know there are infinite variations, but I can't quite wrap my brain around how those things can both be possible. Where did our path diverge from theirs?" 'Did you succeed in rewriting our history in that universe,' was the question he didn't give voice to. 'Does Hela even exist?'

"I would rather not contemplate it. Now return to bed before I am forced to carry you."

Stephen chuckled. "I'm tempted to call your bluff because I'm pretty sure you would never stoop to behaving like a caveman."

"You're right," Loki deadpanned. "There are far better methods than resorting to brute strength." He opened a portal to the bedroom behind Stephen and shoved him through it.

THE END

1. In the post-credit scene of Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2 that seems to have gone nowhere, the High Priestess of The Sovereign was found "creating" a being she claimed would be perfect and naming him Adam. This was assumed to be Adam Warlock, who was brought to life in the comics using the soul stone, I believe.

2. Obviously, the soul stone works differently in this universe than it does in the MCU. Or rather, it works closer to the way it does in the comics. The same goes for time travel. It contains a whole universe that characters can go into. In the comics, Gamora is queen of Soul World.

3. This was simultaneously the most fun part of writing this story and the part that almost drove me insane. I had a chart of all six stones and where they were located (three of which changed either because I felt it made no sense for the MCU anyway or the afformentioned difference in the way the soul stone works) alongside a list of all the characters involved. I started with the characters I knew HAD to go after each stone and then debated who I should send with each one and why. I almost had some of them teamed up differently. Because the story focuses on Loki and Doctor Strange, I had to focus on the time stone, but you can imagine what shenanigans Clint, Rocket and Scott got up to.

The difference in who uses the gauntlet each time is also dictated partly by the different trajectory of my story and partly by the desire to restore this moment of defeating Thanos to Nebula. It made sense for the MCU to have Tony make the sacrifice for purposes of the MCU, but for my story...he didn't have to. Neither version is really in line with the comics.

4. It only occured to me long after I posted this part of the story that it might not be clear who this is. It's Wanda.

5. The fact that Stephen got into medicine because his sister Donna died when he was a teenager is totally from the comics.

6. Yes, Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) and Everett Ross (Martin Freeman) met in Soul World. Feel free to imagine how that meeting went down yourself.

7. I know this sounds like shit I'm making up for story purposes, but it has a basis in the comics. When I was researching either for this story or for a recap, I found a little factoid that Stephen was made functionally immortal after his battle with Dormammu because Death was basically sick of him playing keep away and wanted to make sure it was a LONG TIME before she saw his annoying ass again. In this case, obviously, it is Loki she wants to put off seeing again for a while. And I'm just going to assume Stephen never made it to Hel when he was fighting Dormammu with time loops so she never had cause to see him before.

And obviously, in the end it turns out that this whole story takes place in an alternate universe that is CLOSE to the MCU, but exists alongside it. The intruders are, of course, the Defender Strange variant and America Chavez. This was written before "Multiverse of Madness" was released.

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4