#i know everyone goes for mantis blades or gorilla arms

[ghostoffuturespast]

Lullaby

[marveloushiddleston]

The Monster Within

English German

Plot: After the last fight against Thanos, the task of the remaining Avengers was done. And a new team of Avengers must now protect the Earth from a new unknown force. Together with SWORD, Wanda, Vision, Doctor Strange, Carol, Bucky, Sam and Loki, who must first prove himself on Midgard as a team and face unknown enemies.

Will Loki finally be able to be who he is?

Prologue

Thanos' army is summoned to him, including Thanos' children, Chitauri, Sakaarans, Outriders and the Chitauri Gorillas. When Steve sees the army descend to earth, he slowly gets up. With fierce determination, he pulls his broken shield to his arm and stands alone against Thanos' vast army. Suddenly, a crackle comes through his radio.

"Hey, Cap, can you hear me?", Steve stops in his tracks and looks around.

"Cap, it's Sam. Can you hear me?", Sam asked. A yellow and gold portal begins to form behind Steve.

"To your left.", Steve looks back and sees the portal by his left. Three figures step through the portal: Okoye, Shuri, and Black Panther, fully revived and ready to fight. Steve and the revived Wakandans look at each other as Sam, in his Falcon armor, flies out from above. As he does, dozens more portals open around the battlefield. Through one, Doctor Strange steps outw. He is joined by Drax, Mantis, Star Lord and Spider-Man. Everyone watches in bewilderment and awe as more and more heroes arrive from all corners of the universe, all supported by their own armies, including Black Panther and his Wakandan army, Valkyrie and the Asgardians, Wong and the Masters of Mystic Powers, and several Ravager ships. Among the heroes are Bucky, Groot, Scarlet Witch, the Wasp and Pepper Potts as Rescue arrive.

"Is that all of them?" asks Doctor Strange Wong.

"What, you wanted more?" asks Wong, a portal opening behind them.

"Yes, I wanted more.", Strange explains with a sly grin on his face and raises his finger, "One more to be exact."

Wong is confused and turns around, the inside of the portal was dark and little could be seen. First, two black leather boots were seen stepping out of the portal. Finally, the person had stepped out of the portal.

"Loki?"

"Did you miss me?" he said, smiling unusually friendly and many of the Avengers were confused. But there was no time for questions now Giant-Man emerges from the rubble of the Avengers facility with Professor Hulk, War Machine and Rocket. The Avengers, Guardians, Wakandans, Asgardians and Ravagers take up battle positions. All the heroes face Thanos forces united.

"AVENGERS!" shouts Steve, calling Mjolnir over, "Assemble."

Thor makes a battle cry, as does Black Panther and the heroes as they attack. Thanos raises his sword and points at the Avengers, ordering his army to attack as well. Then the two sides collide. Steve takes Stormbreaker, but Thor flies to him.

"No, no, give it to me. You get the little one.", Thor says and the two exchange the weapons.

"You haven't changed, brother.", Loki says laughing behind him, "But you've gotten fatter.", Thor turns to him stunned.

"L-Loki?", Thor asks in disbelief. He walked a little towards him. Thor kept his distance though, too afraid that Loki would just disappear like that, "Is it really you?"

"Yes brother. It is me.", Loki confirmed. Thor pulled him tightly into his arms.

"How can that be? You were dead, Thanos killed you?", Thor asks, more to himself than to Loki.

"Brother, I don't think it's the right place or time right now.", Loki says and pulled back from Thor's embrace, "Now is the time to make Thanos pay for all he has done to me and all the others.", Loki smiled at Thor before the two brothers launched themselves into battle against Thanos.

When the Gauntlet got past Thanos, he attacked T'Challa, but was stopped by Wanda, who was filled with rage at the loss of Vision.

"You took everything from me," Wanda says in anger.

"I don't even know who you are.", Thanos declares disinterestedly.

"You will.", using her powers Wanda levitates some of the debris up from the ground and tries to defeat Thanos with it. Thanos tries to kill Wanda with his double bladed sword, but Wanda pushes it aside. She then uses her powers to crush Thanos in his armor.

"Fire rain!" yelled Thanos.

"But sir, our troops!" appeals Corvus Glaive.

"Just do it!"

The spaceship cannons start firing at the Avengers and fling Wanda away. As two arms closed around her in flight. Wanda opened her eyes and saw Vision. He lands on the ground and gently places Wanda on the ground. Carefully she touches his cheek.

"Vis?" she asks incredulously, looking at the place before previously was the mind stone, was now only the metal plate, no stone anymore. The rain of fire had stopped unnoticed.

"Wanda."

"I don't want to interrupt your reunion, but the battle isn't over yet," Pepper explained from behind the two and flew away. Vision nods understandingly to Wanda. She presses a quick kiss on his lips and flew after Rescue.

Wanda arrives at next to Peter. Valkyrie flies in on her Pegasus.

"Don't worry about her“, Wanda explains.

"She has help", Okoye says.

Pepper lands next to Okoye, followed by Mantis, Shuri, the Wasp, Gamora and Nebula. Thanos' army attacks while the women help Carol Danvers get through the Outriders, Sakaarans and Chitauri. Carol Danvers then flies glove towards the van, flying past enemies and enemy blockades, which she clears with ease. When Thanos sees this, he runs to Carol, but is stopped by Pepper, Shuri and the Wasp. After Thanos sees Carol fly past him, he throws his double sword at the van, destroying it and the quantum tunnel, throwing Danvers backwards and losing his grip around the glove, which falls to the ground. In the final moments around the Iron Gauntlet, Stark defeats one of Thanos' army and sees the Gauntlet. He runs to get it, but sees Thanos when he suddenly attacks him. Thanos knocks Stark away and knocks him down. Then Thor arrives with Stormbreaker and Mjolnir, assisted by Captain America and Loki, to hold Thanos arm down. However, Thanos overpowers them and knocks them Thor and Steve unconscious and hurls Loki across the battlefield. Carol punches him, but Thanos grabs her arm and flings her away. Thanos puts on the glove, gamma radiation from the stones burning him. Thanos tries to snap his fingers, but Carol Danvers gets back up and stops his fingers from snapping. Thanos pokes her in the head, but it does nothing. Just as Carol Danvers gets the upper hand by flying up and bringing Thanos to his knees, Thanos pulls the power stone out of his glove and uses it in his free hand to knock Carol Danvers away. Stark looks questioningly at Strange, who simply raises a finger and reminds him that the one victory over Thanos he foresaw is now in jeopardy. Stark nods. Thanos puts the power stone back in the glove and screams from the gamma rays coursing through it until Stark makes one last attack on Thanos, pulling on the gauntlet before Thanos swats it away.

"I am inevitable." says Thanos, confident of victory as he snaps his fingers. But when nothing happens except a metallic "clang". He turns his Hamd and realized that the Infinity Stones are missing. Tony raised his hand and the stones inserted themselves on his own glove. Gamma rays streamed through him, to Thanos' shock.

"And I am Iron Man.", Tony snaps his fingers with a loud "CLANG" and a blinding white flash. Rocket shoots a Leviathan and before she devours it, it disintegrates into ash. The Black Order begins to crumble into ash. T'Challa and Quill look around in surprise. Steve looks on, exhausted, knowing they have won. Thanos looks around in horror and sees his entire army crumble into dust. He looks at Loki, who just stares at him. Thanos sits down and mourns before slowly crumbling to dust himself.

The force of all the energy from the gauntlet has mortally wounded Tony's entire right side. He stumbles a bit before his body collapses next to a pile of rubble. Rhodey lands near him and goes to see Tony, his longtime colleague and friend. Peter arrives and sees Tony collapsed on the ground.

"Mister Stark?" he runs to his fallen mentor. Tears form in his eyes, "Hey... Mr. Stark? Can you hear me? It's Peter. Hey. We won, Mr. Stark...We won, Mr. Stark. We won. You did it sir, you did it," Peter kneels down.  Tony doesn't respond. Peter breaks down and hugs him.

"I'm sorry...Tony...", Peter says. Peter is gently led aside to mourn. Pepper sits in front of the fading Iron Man.

"Hey.", Pepper says. Tony can barely move his head, but manages to look Pepper in the eye]

"Hey, Pep ..." says Tony softly. Pepper puts her hand on Tony's arc reactor and Tony puts his hand on hers. Pepper looks closely at Tony's fatal injuries. Pepper kneels down beside him.

"FRIDAY?"

"Important life functions critical," the lifeless voice explains. Tony smiles with tears in his eyes.

"I can help," everyone turns to Loki, "Please, let me help."

Pepper nods and lets Loki take her place. Loki kneels down next to Tony. He places his hand on Tony's chest and closes his eyes. Green seidr envelops Tony's body and flows through him. The magic disappears into the air and Loki stands up.

"I can't do anything for him...", Loki says sadly as Tony takes a deep breath, "He's still his annoying self."

The Avengers breathe a sigh of relief and sink to their knees. Bruce rushes toward Tony to give him a medical checkup.

Pepper rushes toward Loki and before he can react, she embraces him. At first Loki was frozen, but then he hugs her back.

"Thank you. Tony and I have a four-year-old daughter, through you he'll be able to see her grow up," Pepper says before walking over to Tony. A strange feeling of pride ran through him.

A/N: My tag list is open, post in the comments if you want in it. And please also write me in the comments what you think of the chapter!

[cyberpawn-arc]

    When Jackie dies and Vale comes back from the dead, Vale at first goes into this “best defense is a good offense” mode. Leads to them getting Mantis Blades as this show of “don’t fuck with me don’t hurt me don’t test me I can’t take it anymore I’m not the same person I can’t be pushed around like that anymore”, but truthfully, it’s more like some crystallization of their grief. They want to be sharp and scary and spooky and maybe being intimidating is the way to go. Maybe they need to get on the level of other mercs. Be fucking terrifying and nobody will even think about going after their loved ones. They’re stuck in a stage of anger and forced acceptance because they don’t have the time to sit and properly grieve. They lose themself in the grief towards Jackie and the grief of watching their own self fade away. The Mantis Blades are an impulse decision made simply to feel strong for a moment in order to feel anything they can other than the grief of Jackie’s demise. Buy a new, shiny toy. Flaunt it. And hide behind that simple ostensible change to try and prove that you’ve moved on. But you haven’t. You never really do.

    After a few weeks of havin’ those Mantis Blades, they just...there’s probably this night where they get in a serious fight. End up nearly killing someone and there’s a moment where Vale gets a good look at themself. Gets a good look at their hands. Gets a good look at the blood on them. And then their hands are shaking. Their whole body is shaking. They can see the blood coating their cyberware and their arms and they don’t. They don’t know what’s happening and soon they’re crying. They’re sobbing their eyes out and they try to get the Mantis Blades put away and they’re rushing to Vik in tears. Begging for surgery. Begging to get the Mantis Blades replaced. Begging to get it done now and they’re transferring the cash before anything is done and after the work is done and Vale gets their permanent Gorilla Arms, they’re looking at their clean hands but it still feels like there’s blood on them and Misty comes in and sees Vale grieving and going right back to how they were when they first woke up from their coma. And they feel so weak and powerless and they don’t know what to do. 

    They just wanted to help they just wanted to make it to the major leagues they just wanted to make it there with Jackie and everyone says they’re strong but they’re not they’re not strong they can’t keep handling break after break like this they don’t want to be a burden they just want to live without this weight on their chest. But they just. They have to be strong enough to lean on someone every now and again.