Warnings: None.
Five Years Later
This font=flashback
2023, New Asgard.
No one's POV:
It had been five years since Thanos snapped his fingers and wiped out half of existence before Tony Stark had figured out a way to travel back in time to get the Infinity Stones to the present. Professor Hulk (Bruce) and Rocket drove to New Asgard to get Thor and Destiny. After convincing Thor to come along (which took much longer than anticipated), Bruce and Rocket walked towards the palace, where they had been told Destiny was. The guards outside the palace raised their weapons at the two.
"Let them in." Valkyrie intervened, approaching the guards. "Believe me, she'll be happy to see them."
The guards escorted Bruce and Rocket through the palace to see Destiny.
Destiny's POV:
I walked down the hallways in the large golden palace as I made my way to my father's bedroom, where my father had requested my presence. The guards opened the door and I walked into the room. My father was staring out the window.
"Leave us." He ordered, as the guards left the room and closed the door.
"Father, if this is about me and the throne, then I'm afraid that I have already told you that I can't..." I began.
"Why is that?" He interrupted me.
He turned to look at me as I thought of something to say.
"It's just..." I started, thinking for a little bit as I shook my head slightly. "I was born to be a warrior, not a queen."
My father smiled and sat on his bed, and indicated for me to do the same. So I did. Once I sat down, he placed a hand on my shoulder, making me turn to him.
"You may not know it, but someday, you, my daughter, will grow to be a strong and wise queen. A queen who will rule over Asgard and it's people." He said.
I couldn't find words to reply.
"Think about those words every time you say that you're not ready." My father added.
I stood up, and turned to my father, giving him a small nod, before leaving his room and returning to my own, where I indeed thought about what he had said.
Here I was, sitting on the throne of New Asgard, as I did while ruling over this new kingdom for the past five years after Thanos' decimation. My father was right. It was a choice I did not really have but I took it for the remaining Asgardians who were left.
"'Someday, you, my daughter, will grow to be a strong and wise queen. A queen who will rule over Asgard and it's people'." I mumbled, repeating the words my father had once said to me a long time ago.
"Your highness?" A voice called out, snapping me out of my thoughts.
I looked up and saw a couple guards from outside, with two people standing behind them... Bruce and Rocket. I looked at the scene in shock before snapping back into reality.
"Leave us." I ordered, remembering my father saying those words when he was king.
All of the guards left until it was only me, Bruce, and Rocket.
"So, Queen, huh? You must have been doing a great job keeping everything under control for the past five years." Bruce remarked.
I smiled and nodded.
"Well, everything except your brother." Rocket commented.
My smile fell. I had visited Thor once or twice in the past five years and he was not the same Thor that I nor anyone else had once known.
"What are you doing here?" I asked.
"We need to ask you a favour." Rocket said.
I raised an eyebrow, confused.
"Tony figured something out. A way to fix everything." Bruce clarified.
"You mean... about Thanos? And the decimation?" I asked, quickly realizing what he was talking about.
"Yeah. We're going to need all the help we can get." Bruce said.
"What about Thor?" I questioned.
"Tough job, but we got him." Rocket said.
I smiled and extended my hand behind me. Lightbringer came flying straight into my hand and I could feel the power surge through me as I looked at my friends and equipped my staff.
"Count me in." I agreed.
Bruce smiled and I lead my friends outside the palace and approached Valkyrie.
"Is there something you need?" She asked.
"Yes, actually. I am going out on a mission. I need you to be in charge until I return." I said.
"Yes, of course, your highness." Valkyrie replied.
I climbed into Bruce and Rocket's truck and sat in the back of it, where Thor was already sitting and chugging down a can of beer.
"Sister! It's so good to see you!" He exclaimed happily.
All I could do was chuckle. Thor wasn't the same man he was even when we battled Thanos five years ago. He had changed.
But to be fair, as Queen of New Asgard, I had changed as well.
***
We arrived back at the compound. The time travelling method worked. Rhodey argued with Bruce about simply going back in time to kill baby Thanos. We all sat in a conference room discussing where and when we would all have to go back.
"Okay, so the 'how' works. Now we gotta figure out the when and the where. Almost all of us has had an encounter with at least one of the six Infinity Stones." Steve explained.
"Well I'd substitute the word encounter for damn well near been killed by one of the six Infinity Stones." Stark commented.
"I don't. I don't even know what the hell you're talking about." Scott said.
"Regardless, we only have enough Pym Particles for one round trip each, and these stones have been in a lot of different places throughout history." Bruce continued Steve's lecture.
"Our history. So not a lot of convenient spots to drop in." Stark added.
"Which means we have to pick our targets." Clint also added.
"Correct." Stark confirmed.
"Let's start with the Aether." Steve stated. "Thor, Destiny, what do you know?"
Everyone looked past me over to Thor, who seemed to be asleep on a chair in the corner of the room.
"Is he asleep?" Natasha asked.
"No, no. I'm pretty sure he's dead." Rhodey sarcastically explained.
"The Aether, first, is not a stone, someone called it a stone before. It's more of a... an angry sludge thing, so... someones gonna need to amend that." I said as Thor woke up.
"Here's an interesting story though, many years ago... Our grandfather had to hide the stones from the Dark Elves... Wooooh, scary beings." Thor cut me off. "So Jane..."
A picture of Thor's ex-girlfriend popped up.
"Oh, there she is. That's Jane... She's... an old flame of mine... She... she stuck her hand inside a rock this one time... and then the Aether stuck itself inside her... And, she became very, very sick. So I had to take her to Asgard, which is where we're from. And we had to try and fix her." My brother rambled.
"Thor..." I said.
"Just a minute. We were dating at the time, you see. I got to introduce her to our Mother... who's dead... and oh you know, Jane and I aren't even dating anymore, these things happen though you know, nothing last forever." Thor ignored me and continued.
I grabbed his arm and began to pull him to his chair.
"I'm not done yet, the only thing permanent in life is impermanence." Thor went on.
"Awesome. Eggs? Breakfast?" Stark questioned.
"I'd like a Bloody Mary, thank you." Thor replied.
"Okay, that's enough." I interjected as I pushed Thor back to his seat.
"Quill said he stole the power stone from Morag." Rocket said.
"Is that a person?" Scott asked, confused.
"Morag's a planet. Quill was a person." Rocket clarified.
"A planet? Like in outer space?" Scott questioned.
"Oh, look. It's like a little puppy, all happy and everything." Rocket said sarcastically. "Do you wanna go to space? You wanna go to space, puppy? I'll get you to space."
"Thanos found the soul stone on Vormir." Nebula said.
"What is Vormir?" Natasha asked.
"A dominion of death, at the very center of Celestial existence. It's where... Thanos murdered my sister." Nebula explained.
The whole room fell silent as we took in Nebula's information.
"Not it." Scott said.
"That time stone guy..." Natasha began.
"Doctor Strange." Bruce corrected.
"Yeah, what kind of doctor was he?" She asked.
"Ear-nose-throat meets rabbit from a hat." Stark said.
"Nice place in the village though." Bruce commented.
"Yeah. Sullivan Street." Stark agreed.
"Hm... Bleecker." Bruce corrected.
"Wait, he lived in New York?" Natasha asked.
"No, he lived in Toronto." Stark sarcastically replied.
"Guys, if you pick the right time, there are three stones in New York." Natasha explained.
"Shut the front door." Bruce said in surprise.
We discussed the stones for a long time before finally getting a plan.
"All right. We have a plan. Six Stones, three teams. One shot." Steve said.
We put on our new time travel suits and walked towards the quantum tunnel.
"Five years ago, we lost. All of us. We lost friends... We lost family... We lost a part of ourselves. Today, we have a chance to take it all back. You know your teams, you know your missions. Get the stones, get them back. One round trip each. No mistakes. No do-overs. Most of us are going somewhere we know. But it doesn't mean we should know what to expect. Be careful. Look out for each other. This is the fight of our lives. And we're gonna win. Whatever it takes. Good luck."
"He's pretty good at that." Rocket pointed out.
"Right?" Scott agreed.
"All right. You heard the man. Stroke those keys, Jolly Green!" Stark exclaimed.
"Tractors engaged." Bruce said.
"You promise to bring that back in one piece, right?" Rocket said to Clint, who was holding a shrunken Benetar.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah, okay. I'll do my best." Clint said.
"As promises go, that was pretty lame." Rocket remarked.
"See you in a minute." Natasha said, smiling.
We all then shrunk down to different points in time. I felt a little disoriented for a second before looking at my surroundings. Myself, Thor and Rocket, we had come to Asgard in 2013 to get the reality stone... but I couldn't help but stare at the hallways of the palace that I had once lived in.
A/N: Okay so I just had a moment of "I really want to get this chapter finished today" this morning so I did and I really like it. And I hope you do too.
A/N: So a fellow reader of this story (you know who you are) commented about Destiny becoming queen at the end of Ragnarok and I said that I had other things in mind... and this is what I had in mind haha.
A/N: "See you in a minute" AHHHHH THAT FRICKIN LINE I DON'T WIKE IT!!!
A/N: Anyway that's all the random things I have to say. Peace out, see ya, stick around for the next chapter, bye!
A/N 03/20/2023: I actually really like this chapter and can't wait to expand on Destiny's role as queen of New Asgard.