Shine Again (An Avengers: Infinity War/Endgame Story)

Chapter 25: Lose A Lot

Thor smiled widely, but Layla wasn't convinced. He had been through a lot, more than any one should. He hadn't even talked about it much, but Layla knew it had been absolute hell. "Absolutely. Rage, vengeance, anger, loss, regret... they're all tremendous motivators," Thor rambled on. "They really clear the mind. So I'm good to go."

"Yeah, but this Thanos we're talking about," Rocket reminded cautiously. "He's the toughest there is."

"Well, he's never fought me," Thor declared, seemingly confident in himself again for a moment. "And I'm getting a new hammer, don't forget."

Rocket snorted. "Better be some hammer."

"You know, I'm 1,500 years old. I've killed twice as many enemies as that, and every one would have rather killed me, but none succeeded," Thor stated, the rage building in his voice. "I'm only alive because fate wants me alive. Thanos is the latest in a long line of bastards and he will be the latest to feel my vengeance. Fate wills it so."

Layla knew Thor was old in comparison to her, despite not looking like it. It was just how Asgardians aged. But something about him being 1,500 years old seemed really strange to her. Suddenly her twenty-five years seemed incredibly insignificant. On the other hand, she would be lying if she didn't get excited at the thought of Thor slaughtering their enemies. She hadn't seen him fight off anything since Ultron, and she spent half of that fight trying not to gawk at him. It was difficult to not stare at the Asgardian during normal circumstances, let alone when he was flexing his muscles and destroying robots. Sue her.

Rocket broke her thoughts with a question. "And what if you're wrong?"

"If I'm wrong then... what more could I lose?" Thor answered gloomily. He sniffed and hastily wiped below his eye. He stood and sat himself at the front of the pod, beside Groot.

"Hey! You still have quite a couple people you could lose, mister!" Layla called out to him. She was going to have to have a serious chat with him when this was all over. Layla knew what it was like to lose family. It sucked. Truly it did. But that didn't mean all was lost. Especially not when a few were still alive.

Rocket sighed, and spoke under his breath, "I could lose a lot. Me personally. I could lose a lot." Layla watched as Rocket stood, reaching into his pocket and pulling out what appeared to be an eyeball. She felt her nose scrunch up in disgust. Who the hell just carried an eyeball around? The raccoon walked over to Thor. "Okay. If fate does want you to kill that crapsack... you're gonna need more than one stupid eyeball."

Rocket handed Thor the eyeball, and it caught the God of Thunder off guard for a moment.  "What's this?"

"What's it look like?" Rocket responded, raising an eyebrow at him. "Some jerk lost a bet with me on Contraxia."

"He gave you his eye?" Thor questioned skeptically.

Rocket shrugged. "He gave me one hundred credits. I snuck in later that night and stole his eye."

"Ew, gross," Layla muttered.

Thor smiled sincerely. "Thank you, sweet rabbit."

Layla was further disgusted when Thor then proceeded to shove the eyeball into his empty eye socket. She could've gone her whole life without having seen what that looked like.

"Oh. I would've washed that," Rocket cautioned. "The only way I could sneak it off Contraxia was up my-"

Luckily he was cut off by some beeping from one of the ship's sensors. Layla looked up to see that there was a planet in front of them. It was a welcome sight after the emptiness she had been staring at for most of the trip.

"Hey, we're here!" Layla called out, relieved that she could finally get off the ship and get her mind off the weird grossness this little journey had been filled with. That was until she realized something was very off about this planet.

Thor smacked his palm against the side of his head, trying to get the eye calibrated. "I don't think this thing works. Everything seems dark."

"It ain't the eye," Rocket corrected, staring at the planet in front of them.

Rocket was right. It wasn't the new eye at all. Nidavellir was as dark and motionless as the three rings around it.

"Something's wrong," Thor replied. "The star's gone out. And the rings are frozen."

Layla took a deep breath. Of course. This just couldn't go according to plan. That would be too easy. Something had happened to Nidavellir, and she was sure whatever it was certainly didn't mean good news for the dwarves that lived there or for their quest for Thor's new weapon. She could only hope things were going better for the rest of her friends.

******

Hi everyone. I am SO sorry it took so long for me to post this. I've had this chapter done for a while now, and I just keep forgetting to post, or when I have time to update, something is happening. Mostly it's because my 15 month old is now SUPER mobile- I mean she's practically running and she likes to climb the couch and do dangerous things she shouldn't. Ah the joys of motherhood.

I figured while I was sitting here waiting for iTunes to finish backing up my phone (already did this once today, but encrypted it without knowing the password, so yay technology) I should pop on and give you all an update!

I hope all of you had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday (for those of you who celebrate it) and hope you all are doing well. I'm gearing up for a busy holiday season both at home and work, so I hope I can get a few more chapters posted for you all in all my stories between all of that.

Thanks as always for your patience with me. It means a ton to me. Truly it does. Hope to hear from you all soon. :)

~arty_writes