Life Dies In The End

Chapter 60

Frigga's words echoed in my mind as I reappeared on the platform. The world spun, causing me to collapse to the ground. I'll see you in Valhalla. Did that mean I could die someday, that I'd finally be free of my curse and get to live out a normal Asgardian life? Was there something in this book that could take away my curse?

A hand rested on my back pulling me from my thoughts. I glanced up to see Tony kneeling next to me and the team standing behind him, all of them looking somewhat worried. I knew what all of them wanted to hear, they wanted to hear that it worked. I went to speak as Tony began to help me to my feet, only to be cut off by him.

"You all right, Samurai?" He asked as the spinning stopped.

"Yeah, yeah." I pushed him off as I held up the book and looked towards the team. "It worked."

I handed the book to Tony knowing he'd want to make sure it is the real deal. It's not like he could do anything with it. He wasn't gifted with magic and even at that he'd never be able to read Frigga's coding. She wrote her spells in an old language that only a handful of people ever knew. She taught it to me when I was young. The only person here that would be able to read it, is Thor. Not because she taught him it, I doubt it since he couldn't use the spells, but because of his allspeak.

A small buzz of words filled the room but I didn't really pay attention, my mind still stuck on the idea of finally being free from my eternal life as Tony handed the book back to me. The team started to walk towards one of the offices, everyone talking about what to do next. We needed to figure out when to go back and where. We had already discovered how, now it was down to two steps. It was all up to planning now.

Everyone filed into the office and found seats around the room as Steve pulled up some images on the hollow graphic screens. Each stone appeared on the screen, the only one to not appear was the soul stone.

"Okay, so the how works." Steve spoke, grabbing my attention. "Now we gotta figure out the when and where." He stood next to the screens as he looked towards all of us, who had all found spots around the room. "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 joined Steve up by the screens, with a cup of coffee in his hand.

"Well, I haven't but I don't even know what you're all talking about." Scott spoke, confused on what they were talking about.

"Regardless, we only have enough Pym Particles for one round trip each," Bruce brushed over Scott's confusion quickly. "And these stones have been in a lot of different places throughout history."

"Our history." Tony sighed, knowing that made it a lot more complicated. "So, not a lot of convenient spots to just drop in, yeah?"

"Which means we have to pick our targets." Clint added from his spot in the doorway, gaining a nod of approval from Tony.

"So, let's start with the Aether." Steve looked toward Thor. "Thor, what do you know?"

I turned to face Thor, only to find him sprawled out in a seat, a beer in his hand. His eyes were covered by sunglasses, blocking me from seeing if he was asleep, but from his breathing pattern, it was obvious he was.

"Is he asleep?" Natasha asked after a moment of silence.

"No, no." Rhodey quipped as an answer to Natasha. "I'm pretty sure he's dead."

I looked to Rhodey, gaining a look of apology from him as he realized his joke wasn't all that funny to me. I sighed as I rose to my feet and stepped towards Thor. I still hadn't fixed things between us, I hadn't found the right moment too. I haven't talked to him since my outburst, but I was just waking him up, that's all. It's not like we'd have to have a conversation.

"Thor?" I placed a hand softly on his shoulder as I spoke, causing him to stir slightly. "You need to tell us about the Aether."

"All right." Thor sat up slowly, his words slurred together. "I'm up."

Thor rose to his feet as I returned to my seat. With his back to me, I sent him a sad look. I couldn't help but feel like it was my fault that he was in the state he was in. He had gone from a bright, bubbly, happy go lucky kind of guy to what stood in front of me. A man who was only a shell of what he had been. A man who had lost himself over the years. It broke my heart to see him like this, the second we got a moment of time away from the others, I would apologize. I would try my best to fix what I broke.

"Uh, where to start? Um..." Thor stumbled over his words as he reached the screen projecting the Aether on it. "The Aether, firstly, is not a stone. Someone called it a stone before." Thor seemed lost in his mind as he removed his sunglasses as he spoke. "Um, it's more of an angry sludge sort thing so someone's going to need to amend that and stop saying that." I caught a few people exchanging looks, everyone all concerned for Thor or confused. "Here's an interesting story, though, about the Aether. My grandfather, many years ago, had to hide the stone from the dark elves." Thor imitated a spooky noise before laughing softly and resuming once again. "Scary beings. So, Jane, actually..." Thor turned to the screen clicking a few buttons as he trailed off, before an image of Jane appeared on the screen. "Oh, there she is. Yeah, so Jane was an old flame of mine. You know, she stuck her hand inside a rock this one time and the Aether stuck itself inside her and she became very, very sick. And so I had to take her to Asgard, which is where we're from," Thor gestured between him and myself, before looking towards Scott, who seemed to be the only one really interested in what Thor was saying. "And we had to try and fix her. We were dating at the time, you see, and I got to introduce her to my mother..." Thor paused, his face falling as he sighed. "Who's dead and, um," Thor's voice was broken as he continued to speak, only causing me to feel even worse. "Oh, you know, Jane and I aren't even dating anymore, so..." I glanced at Bruce, trying to signal that someone should take over for Thor, Bruce caught on quickly signaling to Tony to remove Thor. "Yes, these things happen, though. You know?" Tony started towards Thor as he continued to ramble. "Nothing lasts forever. The only thing that lasts forever..."

"Why don't you come sit down?" Tony cut off Thor trying to get him to stop talking.

"I'm not done yet." Thor brushed off Tony causing him to look towards me for what to do next, to which I shrugged. "The only thing that is permanent in life is impermanence."

"Awesome." Tony patted Thor on the back as Thor laughed at his joke. "Want some eggs? Breakfast?"

"No." Thor scrunched up his face in disgust. "I'd like a Bloody Mary."

Tony looked at me once again, almost as if I was Thor's mother and Tony couldn't do anything without my say so. I nodded softly saying to give him a Bloody Mary. From the looks of Thor he had been depending on alcohol for the last 5 years, now wasn't the time to make him go cold turkey.

Tony guided Thor out of the room saying we'd take five and regroup to discuss the next stones. A silence fell in the room as a few people left to eat and others stayed to read up on the stones. I headed towards a balcony, I had noticed when I entered. I needed some air and I wanted to read some of the spells in The Book of Seidhr.

~~Hi, Fallen_Angel here. Have a good day and be good people.~~