Scorpio

TWENTY - Predicament

A/N
It's been nearly two months... My apologies for the wait. Exams are over and I've entered the 2018 Wattys!

VOTE, FAN, SHARE if you liked this chapter! Hope you enjoy :)
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The familiar spectrum of the Bifrost surrounded Thor as the trio flew across the universe, the rush sending a comforting thrill down the Asgardian's spine. Peering through the light, however, he was horrified to see the landscape below dotted with numerous fires and burning buildings.

He was too late.

"No..." The lost king murmured in disbelief; his dismay only increasing as his feet struck a very solid ground. The gassy stink of burning sulphur overpowered the putrid smell of old corpses, drowning out any familiar Midgardian scents of grass, asphalt or oceans as he so often remembered Midgard to be like.

"I am Groot?" Groot asked, concerned; his translation lost over the noise of a falling structure behind him.

Thor looked around desperately, not hearing the humanoid. Gone was the landscape, gone was the once untamable beauty of nature, gone were the people who built the community by hand and mind. 

This scene was much too familiar - it was somewhere he loved, lost, and he couldn't do anything about it.

It was Asgard all over again.

"Let's take a walk, big shot." Rocket suggested from what seemed so far away, sympathetically patting the god's knee. The latter nodded numbly in reply, his mind bombarded with thoughts of despair as he willed his legs to follow the two guardians.

--

"Doesn't look very Earthy to me..." Rocket commented a while later as they meandered aimlessly through the smoky terrain; unfazed by the disturbingly twisted limb he stepped over.

"I mean, where's the gateway arch? And the liberty statue?"

Groot murmured something incomprehensible as he reached out and plucked something from the dirt, brushing it off curiously. "I am Groot."

"You've found them?" Rocket echoed incredulously, slowing for a closer look.

"I am Groot!" Groot extended the cleaned object proudly in his arms, and Rocket's hand flew unconsciously to his gun. He elbowed the muscular god trudging beside them forcefully; finally getting him to look down on the third jab.

Nestled among Groot's wooden limbs was the decapitated head of a female Knowhere-bot.

"We're not in Midgard." Thor breathed, the crease between his brows slowly dissipating in relief. 

"We're in Knowhere."

"I am Groot," Groot confirmed, sheepishly. Pointing, he exclaimed, "I am Groot!"

Following his finger, Rocket spotted a smoking blue-and-gold spaceship standing out among the rubble.

The Milano III.

"Apparently we're not the only ones in the wrong destination." Rocket quipped, crossing his arms. "Whatever happened to 'see you on Midgard'?"

Thor ignored Rocket as he strode over to the spaceship. 

"It's still running," the Asgardian noted, confused; "though its occupants are missing."

A distant yell rang out through the crackling of fires, and Groot immediately straightened, looking around for the source of the noise.

"I am Groot!" He responded to the call, cocking his head for a reply. Another yell came, and his posture went rigid.

Without looking back to see if his companions were following, the humanoid ran off.

"Groot?" Rocket and Thor called concurrently after the teen. 

The god and the alien exchanged a look, before sprinting after their companion.

--

Picking through the rubble, they were met with a frightening sight: a random assortment of wriggling limbs scattered around, a pair of marble busts donning fierce expressions of battle; and in the center of it all, Gamora frozen statue-like while Peter stretched out in barely-distinguishable segments by the feet of a sinister silhouette.

Groot was nowhere to be found.

Thanos' unmistakably dark, condescending voice echoed through the clearing. "Young one...so naive. Didn't I teach you?"

Sweat beaded on the assassin's forehead as she fought to withhold a yell; her dark eyes glaring angrily at the back of her foster father's figure as her chest heaved painfully.

The light from the fires hit the silhouette's face as Rocket and Thor made their way around the scene, emphasizing the Mad Titan's haunting lilac skin and prune-like chin. Rocket pulled his lips back in a snarl of dislike as he attempted to look through the wreckage for Groot, silently cursing the humanoid's much longer legs.

"Caring is a weakness."

Gamora's face tightened in pain as an alien mechanic fixed tiny motors to the bloodied stump that had once been her wrist. The broken pieces of Peter's mouth flexed uselessly; silenced as he tried to call for help. Thor grimaced upon noticing the Aether was not the only stone in the Infinity Gauntlet - the power stone also sat against Thanos' knuckles, glowing eerily in the hazy dimness.

"Sentiment is irrelevant."

The other pieces of Peter flinched as the mechanic unknowingly stepped on him, and a wriggling limb curled into itself as the alien kicked it out of its way. Gamora clenched her teeth as the henchman proceeded to slowly torch parts of her new hand, hissing as the flames brushed her swollen flesh beneath the metal.

"In the end, everyone you trust will turn. Everyone you love will fall.
And you won't be able to do anything about it."

"RARRRRGH!" Looking up, Thor spotted Groot flying towards the head of the Mad Titan; and his heart plummeted. In the split second, the teen's wooden form turned into mud and dropped harmlessly to the ground, splattering gritty dirt across the bloodstained floor.  

Thor had to wrap his hand around Rocket's snout to keep him from shouting and jumping into suicide himself as Thanos exhaled audibly, finally turning to meet his adopted daughter's eyes.

"I'm just saving you the pain."

The god hauled the upset raccoonoid back into the safety of the shadows, ignoring the scratch marks the alien left on his skin. Only then did he set the guardian on a stone, grabbing his furred shoulder with a powerful grip.

"Listen to me." The king demanded in a hushed tone. "The guardians are still alive. The bug, destroyer, Lord of stars, Lady Gamora, Groot, are all under a trick of the eye. But if you go out there now, you'd be confined to their same predicament until he gets what he wants, and leaves. This is the power of the Aether."

"Then what do you suggest we do? Leave them?" Rocket snarled quietly, freeing his muzzle from Thor's hold.

"We need a plan," Thor answered, lapsing into silence as he began strategizing.

Rocket sighed, his genetically-engineered intelligence automatically formulating a course of action at the four words.

"I believe I've got an idea..."