Retribution ★ Avengers

Pretty Sure He's Dead

"So," Steve started, and the screens in front of them lit up with different images of the infinity stones. "The how works, but now we gotta figure out the when and the where. Almost everyone in this room has had an encounter with at least one of the six infinity stones."

"Or substitute the word 'encounter' for damn near been killed by one of the six infinity stones," Tony quickly added.

"I haven't," Scott said. "I don't even know what you guys are talking about."

"Consider yourself one of the lucky ones," Marlena muttered as she looked at Scott.

"Regardless," Bruce began speaking. "We only have enough Pym Particles for one round trip each, and these stones have been in a lot of different places throughout history."

"Our history, so not a lot of convenient spots to just drop in," Tony said to the crew.

"Which means we have to pick our targets," Clint added.

"Correct."

"So, let's start with the Aether," Steve looked at Thor, who was still sleeping in his chair in the corner of his room, but no one could tell from the sunglasses on his face. "Thor, what do you know?"

Everyone looked at Thor, but he still hadn't moved.

"Is he asleep?" Natasha asked no one in particular.

"No, no, I'm pretty sure he's dead," Rhodey remarked, earning a quiet laugh from Marlena.

"Can someone wake him up?" Steve asked.

Marlena knew no one else would, so she got up and walked over to Thor. She squeezed his nose shut with her fingers and waited for his body to react to the lack of oxygen, and once it had, she stepped back. Thor woke up immediately, but his glasses remained on his face. He looked at the team, he looked at the screen, and then he stood up, his covered eyes falling on Marlena.

"That was incredibly rude," he said to Marlena.

The brunette simply shrugged and sat back down, while Thor fixed his attention on the screens at the front of the room.

"What are you guys talking about?" he asked Steve as he eyed the screens. "The stones, okay, what about them? What do you need from me?"

"What do you know about the Aether?" Steve asked him again.

"Um, where to start," Thor took off his sunglasses, while everyone watched and waited for what he had to say. In actuality, they were ready to hear what was about to come out of his mouth. "Um, alright, the Aether—first, it's not a stone. Someone called it a stone before," he pointed to Steve, who gave the God of Thunder a look. "It's more of an angry sludge sort of thing, so someone's gonna need to amend that and stop saying that."

The team just watched as he put his eye drops in. The Thor in front of them definitely wasn't the Thor they knew and loved, but rather the product of intense grief. They all dealt with it and were all still dealing with it, so they couldn't and wouldn't judge him.

"Here's an interesting story about the Aether," Thor continued. "My grandfather, years ago, had to hide the stone from the dark elves, so Jane, actually—oh, there she is—Jane is an old flame of mine. She stuck her hand inside a rock this one time and then the Aether stuck itself inside her and she became very, very sick, and I had to take her to Asgard, which is where I'm from, and we had to fix her. We were dating at the time and I got to introduce her to my mother...who's dead."

Thor was getting upset, that much everyone could notice, but no one chimed in yet. He wasn't done speaking.

"Jane and I aren't even together anymore, but these things happen, y'know, nothing lasts forever...except the Aether."

Tony grabbed Thor and tried to take him back to his seat, but Thor was adamant. He wanted to be heard.

"I'm not done," he gently shoved Tony out of the way. "After that I gave the Aether to SHIELD for safe keeping," he mentioned to the group.

"And what a shame it is that they all turned out to be Hydra," Marlena spoke up nonchalantly. She looked up from her painted nails to look at Thor, a cheeky grin on her face.

"Why yes, I heard about that, so I had Lady Sif retrieve it for the Collector," Thor said to her. He wiped his face again. "She's dead, too."

"Good to know!" Tony finally grabbed ahold of Thor and pulled him off to the side. "You want some eggs for breakfast? Steve makes a mean omelet."

"No," Thor shook his head. "I'd like a Bloody Mary."

Marlena shook her head and looked over at Natasha, who was absolutely amused by the current situation.

"Do you think anyone would notice if I left?" she whispered to the redhead.

Natasha chuckled and nodded her head. There was no way she'd let Marlena leave anyway; if she had to deal with the boys for the rest of the day, Marlena had to deal with them as well. "There's no way you're leaving me in here with these idiots," she answered.

"Marlena," Tony's loud voice startled the brunette.

"Yes, Tony?"

"You are literally the walking essence of the Reality Stone as we've now come to know," Tony reminded her, though he knew he didn't need to. "Tell us what you know about your creator."

"Thank you for putting it that way, um, it's exactly what Thor said," Marlena answered and pushed her glasses further onto her face. "It's just angry sludge, it hurts like a bitch."

"So, what's say we go back in time five years ago to when you got your ass wiped by Thanos in Wakanda," Tony started carefully, though he didn't miss the glare on the young woman's face.

"How do you even know about that?"

"That's not important," Tony answered her quickly. "How would you feel about going back and getting the stone from, say, yourself?"

Marlena huffed and shook her head. "No thank you, I don't feel like creating an inter-dimensional evil twin; I told you it hurts like a bitch."

"Who's to say you don't already have an evil twin here in this dimension?" Tony teased the brunette with a wink. "What's the harm in one more?"

"Whatever you say, Tony."

"Right," Tony trilled his lips and turned to look at Thor. He was sipping on a Bloody Mary, and Tony didn't have a clue who brought it to him. The only thing he could gather from it—among Rhodey's and Clint's hushed conversation, the nauseating expression on Marlena's face as Thor burped loudly behind her, and Natasha scribbling away at her notepad—was that the day was going to be a long one.