"Holy shit," Tony exhales forcibly, the weight of the woman in front of him slamming into his chest as she collapses. "Anna, what happened? How did you get here?"
Anna grasps at his jacket, willing herself upright, "T-Thanos."
Gritting her teeth, she squeezes her eyes shut for a moment, biting back tears. The emptiness has already sunk into her bones, the knowledge, the uncanny awareness of the reality of Loki's death. It taints her reunion with Tony, an aching pain that turns relief bitter in her mouth, but she forces herself to take a deep, shaky breath.
"Loki's gone," she says, her voice cracking. "Thanos had him, he took him, and I...I got him back, I had to get him back. I had to get him back, but it wasn't enough. I don't know what happened. I-"
Her words jumble together, and Tony pulls her tightly against his chest.
"It's okay," he whispers against her ear. "It's okay, I got you. I got you now."
Twisting to glance over his shoulder at the empty hallway, he shifts Anna over to his side and leads her back into the large space where he left the kid waiting with Strange. They're slow-moving, Anna's body weak with emotion, but he's patient as Peter comes into sight. Instantly, the kid is on his feet, rushing toward them.
"Mr. Stark, what is--"
"Not right now, kid," Tony cuts him off. Ordinarily, the kid's tendency toward asking questions was annoyingly endearing, but his concern for Anna's condition takes precedence. Instead, he motions with his chin at Strange's back, "Hey, Magic Man, you got any healing spells up the sleeves of your dress?"
"It's not a dre-," Dr. Strange turns back toward him, and his eyes widen as he takes in Anna. "What's going on? Who is this? Another one of your strays?"
"Thanos had her," Tony explains, refusing to take the bait. "I found her in another part of the ship. She's a friend from home, and she needs medical attention. You're a magic doctor, surely that means you can help her."
Strange sighs, but Anna interrupts him.
"I'm fine, Tony," she says. "I'm okay."
"You're clearly not okay. You're bleeding, your clothes are torn," he pushes her away from him slightly, allowing his eyes to take in more of her physical appearance, and the words rush out before they fully register." I mean look at you, you're pregnant."
His jaw drops when it hits him.
"You're preg-you're pregnant?"
Anna gives him a weak smile, "Surprise?"
"Well shit," he exhales. "How long have you been in Asgard? How far along are you? How--"
"I don't quite know," she admits. "It's been...it's been a while. And here, I'm afraid I've lost track of the time."
"You look super pregnant," Peter interrupts, earning a glare from Tony and an eye-roll from Strange. "Oh my god, I'm so sorry. I shouldn't-I'm Peter. Parker. Peter Parker. But you can call me Spider-Man, although if that's weird for you, you can call me whatever you want. Especially if you're a friend of Mr. Stark's, oh god, are you a special friend of Mr. Stark's? Does that mean..."
"No!" Tony and Anna respond.
Dr. Strange bites back a snort, and Tony flips him the middle finger from behind Anna's back.
"Sorry!" Peter exclaims. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to assume. I jus--"
"This is Anna, kid," Tony interrupts. "Long story, abridged version, we go way back. She's Nat's sister, L..." His voice trails off at Loki's name. The brunette beside him gives him a half-hearted smile before untangling herself from his grip and easing down on a nearby surface.
"It's okay to say his name," replies Anna. "I know you don't love him, but I do. I did."
"Loki's gone?" Dr. Strange asks, stepping beside Tony. "But you're...you're human, not Asgardian. You were his... girlfriend? You dated that?"
"We were...bound a long time ago," she replies, ignoring his latter questions. "Ever since then, I've always been able to sense him. Especially after...after I became pregnant. Then it stopped. After Thanos visited me the last time, I knew."
"He visited you?" Tony asks. "More than once? Why? What did he say?"
Her face darkens slightly, and she hesitates. The only emotion strong enough to rival her grief over Loki's death is her anger toward Thanos after his threats toward her daughter, and it threatens to force itself out of her skin. She never planned on having children—not because she didn't want them, but simply because it never crossed her mind—and being with Loki meant children should've been impossible, or at least she'd assumed as much. After all, they were two different species, and they'd only slept together once. But no matter how unplanned her pregnancy was, she'd already come to terms with her impending motherhood, and she wants this baby more than anything in the world. Thanos' threats still burned within her, and she wants nothing more than to see the Mad Titan's death.
"Hey," Peter interrupts her thoughts, pulling her back to the present. "What's going on?"
Strange and Tony turn to watch as the ship breaks through an unfamiliar planet, hurtling rapidly toward the surface.
"I think we're here," Strange drawls as Tony pivots away, looking around for some sort of control to slow their descent.
"I don't think this rig has a self-park function," he says, before eying what appears to be some sort of steering system. He waves Peter over, "Get your hand inside the steering gimbal. Close those around it. You understand?"
Peter mimics his instructions, "Yep, got it. Got it."
"This was meant for one big guy, so we gotta move at the same time."
"Okay, okay," Peter nods. "Ready?"
Anna stands, grabbing a nearby support, as the ship continues to fly toward the surface of the planet. The four of them watch in terror as the ground rushes up to meet them, and the ship hurtles toward another massive ship abandoned below.
"We might wanna turn," Peter shouts. "Turn! Turn! TURN!"
Tony's suit ripples to life around him as their ship barely navigates its way around the one in front of them only to crash into another. The back half of the ship is ripped away, and Anna cries out as she's thrown to the ground behind the steering mechanism where Tony and Peter now stand. Strange glances at her before moving his hands in an intricate pattern, a glowing orange design forming an elaborate barrier around them. The ship slams into the earth, the rumble vibrating every bone in Anna's body, as they finally jerk to a stop.
"You all right?" Strange asks, dropping his shield and turning behind him.
Anna nods, and Tony drops his grip on the controls to pull her off the ground.
"I'm fine, Tony. I'm okay," she reassures him.
He removes his helmet with a grunt, breathless, as he turns back toward Strange. "That was close. I owe you one."
Peter descends upside-down from a web behind them, and Anna marvels at the spider-like nature of his pose. The teenager is clearly strong—strong enough to match strength with Tony's suit, at the very least—and he must be gifted with other supernatural talents. His youth peeks through, however, when he speaks.
"Let me just say, if aliens wind up implanting eggs in my chest or something, and I eat one of you, I'm sorry."
"I do not want another single pop culture reference out of you for the rest of the trip," Tony points at him. "You understand?"
He motions behind him, "I'm trying to say that something is coming."
A grenade rolls into view between them, and the three men are all blown backward. Three strangers appear in the doorway—one with glowing red eyes in the midst of his mask, another with some sort of antennas protruding from her head, and a third who rushes in last with a cry.
"Thanos!"
The last one shouts, whipping his knives toward Dr. Strange, who stops the blades with a quickly cast shield. He screams in frustration, and Strange's Cloak of Levitation whips off his back and flies toward the intruder, wrapping itself around his face.
The one with glowing eyes engages with Tony, and the two push their battle into the air as they twist and turn, each firing blasts at the other. A quick torpedo blast into the wall ahead of them sends the intruder flying backward into Tony, and he throws him down the ground only to find that some sort of magnetic disc has activated and pulls him into the wall.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Peter cries, scrambling backward away from the woman. "Please don't put your eggs in me!"
He shoots a series of webs at her, pinning her arms to her torso, only to have the masked man fly into him feet first and send him across the room.
"Stay down, clown," the man says, but Peter quickly recovers and jumps to the ceiling. Spider webs extend from his suit as he evades blaster fire, drawing the man's attention away from Anna, then leaps toward him only to be hit with a whip-like electric device that tangles around him and pulls him to the wall.
"Die, blanket of death!"
The largest one groans as he wrestles with Strange's cloak, and Anna sinks further into the shadows. Tony uses a blast from his repulsors to push himself away from the wall, disabling the magnet, and rushes to put himself between Anna and the man on the ground. He lifts a hand over his face, ready to fire, until the masked man steps into view. He's holding Peter to his chest, an arm wrapped around his neck, with a blaster of some sort pressed to the kid's temple.
"Everybody stay where you are. Chill the eff out," the man commands, reaching behind his ear to power down the helmet that disappears from his face. "I'm gonna ask you this one time. Where is Gamora?"
"Yeah, I'll do you one better," Tony interrupts, removing his own helmet. "Who's Gamora?"
The man beneath him struggles, "I'll do you one better. Why is Gamora?"
"Tell me where the girl is, or I swear to you, I'm gonna French fry this little freak," the man holding Peter threatens. He spots Anna in the corner, and his blaster pivots away from Peter's temple to aim at her. "Or her."
"Let's do it," Tony interrupts, panicking. "You shoot her, and I'll blast him. Let's go."
His suit transforms around his hand, forming into a massive cannon, that illuminates the man on the ground's face. Anna raises her hands slowly in a show of surrender and glances nervously around her. Tony might be right to call the man's bluff, but she's scrambling to find a backup option, fast.
"Do it, Quill!" The man beneath Tony's cannon shouts. "I can take it!"
"No, he can't take it," the woman stuck in webs cries, and Dr. Strange nods.
"She's right, you can't."
The man pivots his gun back to Peter's head, pushing the barrel of his weapon harder into the kid's temple, "Oh yeah? You don't wanna tell me where she is, that's fine. I'll kill all four of you, and I'll beat it out of Thanos myself." He points the gun back at Anna. "Starting with her."
"Wait, what?" Strange interrupts, extending his hand. "Thanos? All right, let me ask you this one time. What master do you serve?"
"What master do I serve?" The man replies. "What am I supposed to say, Jesus?"
Tony drops his arm, "You're from Earth."
"I'm not from Earth, I'm from Missouri," he scowls.
"Yeah, that's on Earth, dipshit," Tony snaps at him. "What are you hassling us for?"
Peter straightens slightly in the man's grip, "So you're not with Thanos?"
"With Thanos? No, I'm here to kill Thanos. He took my girl," he drops his gun from Peter's head. "Wait, who are you?!"
Peter's mask retracts, "We're the Avengers, man."
"Oh."
The woman gasps, "You're the ones Thor told us about."
Anna jolts at his name, her hands dropping as she takes a step closer. Tony motions for her to stay back, keeping his body positioned between her and the three intruders, before turning his attention back to the woman.
"You know Thor?"
"Yeah," the man behind Peter says, dropping his grip on the teenager. "Tall guy, not that good-looking, needed saving."
Strange frowns, "Where is he now?"
*boop*
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