Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Tokyo, Japan. 2018

The world was wrong. Half of the universe being gone was wrong in itself, but it wasn't just that. Akira Kurusu thought as he stood in a daze in the middle of Shibuya station like a lost tourist unintentionally blocking traffic– not that there was a lot at the moment, what with Tokyo, no, the whole world still reeling at what happened yesterday. No one knew for sure what really happened, only that whatever did happen took half of life indiscriminately all around the world, rumors would even say the whole universe. Whatever it was that happened, everyone called it the Snap. 

Nearing the station, it was as Akira had feared. The entrance of Mementos was there. Its dark depths staring back at him. The resurgence of Mementos taunted him. How was it here again? Everything was back to the way things were yesterday. No more Personas, Palaces, and Mementos. Had they failed to kill the God of Control?

“Impossible.” He uttered. The Metaverse and the malicious god behind all the schemes were supposed to be gone. The Phantom Thieves had been in the middle of a goodbye and victory party yesterday at Leblanc when everyone except him, Ryuji and Morgana suddenly turned to dust.

Caught up in panic and fear like everyone else at the news of an alien called Thanos and of how he single handedly wiped off half of life in the whole universe with a snap of his fingers, it was only now when the three calmed down enough to check the Metaverse for answers.

And yet as Akira looked down his hands– they were clad in the familiar bright red gloves tucked into the sleeves of his sleek black long coat, doubt crept up his spine. His hands shook when he lifted them to touch his face. He froze when he felt a hard shape molded around his cheeks. Beside him Ryuji cursed and Morgana was glitching in between his Metaverse and cat form. Thankfully, no one around was in their right mind to notice three dumbstruck Phantom Thieves in Shibuya.

Joker had no choice but to believe in the impossible. Something was wrong in the world and they needed the Metaverse to fix it.

Chapter Text

Velvet Room. ???

If it was a time other than that of a perilous one heading towards a certain doom, Akira would have been happy at seeing the Velvet Room restored to its opulent form.

Instead of the prison that it used to be, Akira awoke on a velvety purple sofa. Across from him was a contemplative Igor with elbows resting atop his beautifully carved desk. Beside the Master of the Velvet Room stood his attendant, Lavenza.

Akira felt welcomed and safe in this version of the Velvet Room. Being here reminded him of a cigar lounge or a jazz bar. His comforting thought was short lived as the memories of the past few days resurfaced in his troubled mind. He had so many questions for the inhabitants of the Velvet Room, but ultimately, there was only one that mattered.

“How do we fix this?”

Sakura Residence, Tokyo. 2018

Three weeks have passed since the Snap and in that time, Akira, Ryuji and Morgana had searched for whoever from their acquaintances remained. They were further aggrieved when, aside from the Phantom Thieves, almost everyone they ever knew were all gone. It was just the three of them who remained. For now .

They had also taken that time to figure out how their Metaverse forms worked. Morgana glitched every now and then, while he and Ryuji could easily don or shed their Phantom Thieves attire. With a simple thought, blue flames would run over their bodies and voila! Instant outfit change.

As they were trying really hard not to gather attention, they hadn't tried summoning their Personas like they did in the Palaces or Mementos. Akira did; however, summoned a smaller Persona, in his room, to test some support and small offensive magic, such as Dia and Garu .

Call it denial, but Akira refused to believe his friends were dead and would never refer to everyone who were dusted as such. Unlike the rest of the world.

Besides, Igor and Lavenza, though having not explicitly said so, had insinuated the fact as much, when he'd once again entered the Velvet Room in his dreams a few nights ago.

All that mattered was that they could fix this. They just needed to work together with the people who were at the forefront of all this. The Avengers.

Which was why they were now here in Futaba's room, figuring out how to work her software into getting inside the Avenger’s systems. Gather information in order to learn about the Snap and what they did. Then hopefully, getting in contact with them.  

Their plan was not the most legal of ways, but with all lines of communication blown up, normal means would most likely not get through to the hero group. So, hacking it is. They were lucky that Futaba had made the hacking program mostly usable for non-hackers like themselves. It took them a while to figure it out and eventually they did. Now it was the waiting game for the program to finish copying what it could access. Suddenly, a window with a Stark Industries logo popped up on the screen.

“You are not authorized to view these files.” A feminine voice warned them in accented Japanese.

Ryuji shuffled roughly back into his seat. “What the heck! Since when do computers talk!?”

“Since War Games,” the voice replied, sounding sarcastic even. “But I doubt you'd know the movie, so I'll say Terminator. Just to be safe.”

Akira got a sharp elbow nudge in the side from Ryuji. “Oi, Akira. You're way too quiet. What are you thinking?”

Morgana jumps onto Ryuji's lap. “And you're way too loud, Ryuji. This is just the…defenses, err, firewalls talking, right? Just put the thing on mute and let's leave Futaba’s software to do its job.”

Akira did as Morgana suggested with a few keystrokes and after several more minutes, there was a ping. A window opened to reveal one file. It was labeled with nothing  but a date.

“A video file?” With a few mouse clicks, Akira played the file.

The clip begins with a view of a giant donut shaped spaceship touching down in the middle of a city. A familiar voice registers in the video.

“FRIDAY, evac anyone south of 43rd Street, notify first responders.”

“Will do.”

An alien approaches. It…he was hovering above the ground as he made his way towards the camera. Another alien, a bulkier one stepped behind the first one and held a warhammer as tall and just as large as the brawny alien.

Ryuji snorted beside him. Trying and failing to not laugh. “Sorry. He's right about that guy looking like Squidward.”

Morgana sighs with his head down in disappointment. The Phantom Thieves continued on watching the clip, tensing at the exchange of blows that would've normally killed any of the people in the video.

“Ugh, they're speaking too fast. Aren't there subtitles on this thing?” Ryuji complains then grunts when Morgana uses his stomach as a springboard to jump closer to the monitor. “Whoa, did that guy's cape move on its own?”

Annoyed at first, Ryuji scowled but then was suddenly excited upon seeing what Morgana had pointed out. “You're right, it so did!”

A hero in blue and red spandex jumps to the front of the camera. Saving the viewer from getting hammered.

“Hey, man.” Spider-Man casually says as he holds the hammer in place. “ What's up, Mr. Stark?”

Akira was stunned. This video they were watching was footage from Iron Man!

“Kid, where'd you come from?”

“Field trip to MoMA.”

The Squidward alien grabs Spider-Man and throws him away, but the Webslinger breaks his fall by sticking his landing to the wall.

“What is this guy's problem, Mr. Stark?”

“He's from space. He came here to steal a necklace from a wizard.”

The video so far gave more questions than answers. Why was this “necklace” the wizard wore– obviously the guy in monk robes and the sentient red cape, so important that the aliens had to come down to Earth to get it? Were these aliens in league with Thanos? Was that “necklace” what caused all this?

“Is it just me or does Spider-Man sound like Mishima?” Akira thinks aloud. The contents of which excites Ryuji.

“He's our age, no freaking way! He's been superhero-ing for years! Heck, he's Spider-Man not Spiderboy!?”

“By sound alone, he does sound young…” Morgana shyly adds. Akira reaches out to pat his head in understanding. “I'll explain everything to you later.”

Ryuji blows a breath out in relief, “Sign me up on that too, Leader. Because thank the gods your English is perfect! I've only caught every other word!”

Another thing Akira notices is the interaction between Iron Man and Spider-Man. They seem close. Close enough to address each other by name or a nickname in Spider-Man’s case. Akira quickly sets the thought aside as there's a much more immediate concern regarding the footage. Specifically, whose perspective it was from.

“I think it's safe to say we're watching what happened from Iron Man’s suit.”

Ryuji pulls his eyes away from the screen long enough to give him a disbelieving scrunch of his nose. “No shit, we hit the motherlode, huh?”

“I don't doubt Futaba's software, but isn't this a bit too easy? What do you think, Akira?” Morgana turns to him, tail swishing nervously behind.

Akira hums in agreement to Morgana's assessment. They had been prepared to access some files for clues, but not first hand footage from Ironman's suit. Not that they were ungrateful for it, but it shouldn't have been this easy to access this file. Shouldn't this be saved in a more secure server? Unless…?

“You're thinking too much, Mona.” Ryuji dismissed it with a hand wave. “Let's just take the win and…shit. Spider-Man doesn't sound great there.” Ryuji adds at the panicked cry of Spider-Man to Iron Man about being pulled into the alien spaceship.

No sooner did the doubtful thought occur to Akira did the power in Futaba's room all go out. The three stumbled in the darkness to make sense of things when a monitor lit up. There was a horizontal flat line halfway up the monitor. It made them all jump when it rippled into a waveform together with the feminine voice from earlier. It was also the same voice from the video, meaning this is probably who Akira thinks it is.

“You are not authorized to view these files.”

“What the…!?”

“This again?” Mona screeched. “I thought you turned that thing off?”

“I did!” Ryuji yelled back while fumbling around the table with all of Futaba's computer equipment– pressing keys and checking on wires. 

In a spur of the moment, Akira addressed the voice. “You keep saying that and yet you let us get this far, why?”

There was a pause. Ryuji and Morgana incredulously staring at him. And just as Akira was about to feel embarrassed by what he did, the voice replied.

“You tell me, Kurusu Akira.”

“Whoa, it knows your name! I didn't know the computers the Avengers use all talk. I guess that makes sense since it's Stark tech?” Ryuji says as he continues fumbling around.

“Like that voice on your phone, Siri?” Morgana asked.

No, this voice though digital sounding didn't sound like a simple virtual assistant. There was intelligence behind the female voice. Emotion and thoughts.

“You're more than that, aren't you? You're not just a defense system, you're Mr. Stark's AI, right?”

“Ryuji, what's an AI?”

“Artificial Intelligence.”

“And?”

Ryuji shrugs. “That's all I know.”

“You're useless.” Morgana says with a paw on his snout. His version of a face palm.

“Shut up, at least I knew that much!”

“I am FRIDAY and I wanted to know why you Phantom Thieves tried to hack into the Avengers' Compound servers.”

At the mention of Phantom Thieves, Morgana's heckles rose and he hissed, “How does it know that!?”

Ryuji gasped in realization then grabbed Morgana and loudly whispered. “She's the AI helping Iron Man!” The cat squirmed against his hold in protest, “I don't understand what the big deal is! It's just a computer, isn't it?”

‘Tried to hack’. An interesting choice of words and it supported Akira’s initial deduction that they were being allowed into the system.

“You’ve probably gone through everything there is to know about us, so what's the verdict, Miss FRIDAY?” Akira ignored Morgana's shocked, “It can do that!?” And the ongoing bickering in the background.

In place of an answer, FRIDAY played back video footage of the three of them in their meeting spot in Shibuya.

Akira remembers that day. It had just been a few days after the Snap and he'd been to the Velvet Room in his sleep, or if you consider the two hours he passed out after crying, the previous night as sleep, that is. 

In hindsight, they should not have probably met in public for this conversation, but he couldn't take the emptiness of Leblanc– Morgana hadn't stayed that night, they all needed the space to process what had happened. 

Although the meeting spot stirred so many memories of the other Phantom Thieves, it was the only place he could think of then that was both quiet and not.

The playback skipped a few minutes of silence and zoomed in when he began speaking the words that would set them on this path.

“They're not dead.” His onscreen self says. Ryuji flinches and his tired expression breaks into a hopeful one.

“Just lost.”

Akira knows what happened here. And now that he was seeing it again with a clearer mind, he thinks himself stupid for doing what he did then. They really were lucky no one was around and hopefully no one would think to watch this CCTV footage. He'll have to add a mental note to deal with this damning video later.

His onscreen self transforms into his gentleman thief Metaverse form in a flash of blue flames. “With our Personas, we can find them.”

Morgana leaps from the ground and lands on the railing in his anthropomorphic vigilante Metaverse form. “Get them back.”

Likewise, Ryuji psychs up with a slap to his cheeks before his form is engulfed in blue flames and he's also in his biker inspired Metaverse form. “Then what are we waiting for? Let's get this show on the road!”

The video cuts off and FRIDAY’s logo is back on the screen. “Is it true?”

Was it just his imagination or did FRIDAY sound hopeful and afraid?

Akira shook off the AI’s uncertainty with an unwavering answer. “Yes. It is.”

There was a pause so tense it felt like both a second and an hour had passed. “When you're all ready, head to the Stark Industries Tokyo Branch in Roppongi. There will be a plane ready for you to take you to New York.”

“!!!” “!!!” “!!!”

The swift development caught the Phantom Thieves by surprise.

Akira, who was the quickest to recover, asked the AI. “You believe us?”

“Not that we don't want your help or anything, which we really really need actually and gratefully accept…Oof!” Ryuji rambled until Morgana jumped onto his head with a hiss of “Shut it!”

FRIDAY sounded like she was humming in contemplation of his question before she replied. “Given the available information of your feats as Phantom Thieves, which employ methods beyond my understanding, there is no other option, but to believe. Seeing as the Snap in itself is beyond all our understanding.”

Akira nods in understanding while Ryuji, having wrangled Morgana securely in his arms and apparently having followed the conversation adds in his comment, “Yeah. When you put it that way, FRI, it tracks.”

A strange sound like how someone would choke up in embarrassment came from the speakers.

“Oops.” Ryuji tilts his head in apology. “You probably don't need nicknames.”

“No. It's alright. My Boss and friends call me that.” FRIDAY says, sounding brighter than she ever did since the start of their interaction. 

“And since I know almost all there is on you guys, I guess we're all considered friends?”

“Hell yeah!” Ryuji enthusiastically agrees with a fist pump.

“Since we can't leave an outsider alone with all our secrets as Phantom Thieves,” Morgana clears his throat. “And with FRIDAY knowing as much as she does, I suppose it is necessary now for her to join us. Right, Leader?”

At the unanimous agreement of the group Akira smiles at the monitor. “Welcome to the Phantom Thieves, FRIDAY.”

Chapter Text

Stark Industries Tokyo Branch. Roppongi, Tokyo. 2018

The Phantom Thieves couldn't help but gawk the moment they entered through the sliding glass doors of the main lobby of Stark Industries Tokyo Branch. Everything from the sleek floors, smooth table surfaces and chic minimalist decor made them feel like stepping into the future.

“How may I help you?” The sharply dressed receptionist asked as she ran a discerning eye over each of them. Her frameless glasses glinted in the low lighting. A no nonsense expression on her face, which was honed by dealing with many an unruly guests and troublemakers of all ages.

Sadly, Akira cannot fast talk his way to cover Ryuji's bumbling display of sticking out. He tries for the truth. “Good day, ma’m. My name is Kurusu Akira and this is Sakamoto Ryuji. We have a meeting with someone from Stark Industries.”

The receptionist narrowed her eyes, but nonetheless maintained an image of professionalism and typed in their names. “Your names are on the list.”

And Akira was about to release a sigh of relief until she glared at them.

“However, I believe there must be a mistake. No one is allowed to use the private elevator except for Mr. Stark and his close associates.” The receptionist stands and signals with a hand gesture to the security staff nearby for assistance. “Unless this has all been an elaborate prank, then I'm afraid we will have to press charges for hacking into company servers after Mr. Sato and Mr. Shio are done with you.”

The aforementioned sugar and salt named security staff approached them with much intimidation. The sight of which simultaneously gave the Phantom Thieves chills. It reminded them of the bodyguards in Sae’s Casino-themed Palace.

“Hey, we're here because FRIDAY told us to, not because we hacked our way in!” Ryuji protested.

Akira quickly searched and turned to the nearest camera, “A little help FRIDAY?”

No answer, but the sound of an elevator chime caught everyone’s attention. Seeing the open doors as FRIDAY's response, Akira whispered to Morgana to hang tight then yanked on Ryuji’s sleeve to run.

Neither guards chased them. Just before the elevator doors closed, Akira heard Shio ask no one in particular, “That elevator can only be opened by Mr. Stark’s AI doesn't it?”

“And it opened the moment that young man shouted something.”

The receptionist made a high pitched gasp. “Did he say FRIDAY?”

“I think he did. Why?” Sato asked. “You're as pale as a ghost, Miss.” Shio exclaimed.

“I thought they were just messing around, but it says here they have an appointment with someone called FRIDAY.”

“So?”

“The name was written in capitalized letters. There's only one situation where someone's name is all capitalized.”

Sato scratched his stubbled chin. “Mr. Stark's AIs?”

“YES! Oh my goodness, I hope I haven't made them mad!”

“You were just doing your job, Miss. I think Mr. Stark would understand.”

But the elevator did not stay open that long for any of the Phantom Thieves to listen to the rest of the hullabaloo in the lobby.

Stark Jet. Outside Japanese Airspace. 2018.

“I'm sorry. I didn't anticipate being discreet would cause trouble for you.”

Ryuji makes himself comfortable on the plane's very plush seats and waves off FRIDAY’s apology. “It’s all good, FRI. We're kinda used to it. Y’know. Not being taken seriously, because we're troubled youths.”

“You mentioned being discreet, FRIDAY. Why?” Morgana asked just as he found a loungeable spot on Akira's armrest.

“I didn't want to bother the Boss and Boss Lady with this. They're both so busy with everything else, I didn't want them to waste their time. And I didn't want to give the Boss false hope if this doesn't work out.”

Akira nodded in understanding. Touched by how much the AI cared for her creator. “It’s okay. We probably would've done the same if it was the other way around.”

“I know we should probably try to get some sleep to counter the jet lag, but I'm honestly too hyped up to go to sleep.” Ryuji said as he stretched his limbs out then sat up straight. Seeing the strong rays of sunlight through the porthole, Akira feels the same.

“The flight will take longer than usual since I couldn't commandeer a Quinjet without the Boss knowing.”

“Oh.” Ryuji heavily leans on the backrest. “I guess we have time to kill?” He starts messing around with the console that he'd pulled from the seat. He presses on the movie tab and reads a few movies’ synopsis. “In-flight movie?” Ryuji continues without waiting for Akira's input. “Video games?”

“Actually,” FRIDAY interrupts the two teens. “I have something you guys need to see.”

Hearing FRIDAY’s shift in tone, Akira takes a guess. “The Battle with Thanos?”

Wordlessly, Ryuji puts on the headset and nods. Akira also puts his on.

“I'm gonna sit this one out and keep FRIDAY company. It's not like I can understand what they're going to be saying anyways.”

That was a good point. “Don’t stay up too late.”

“Please,” Morgana raises his chin and harrumphs at the inside joke, “I’m the expert of going to bed at a reasonable time and I'll also be the one telling you later to go to sleep.”

Akira chuckles and concedes defeat with raised arms. With that settled, the two Phantom Thieves focus on the footage of the battle that changed the world.

Hours later, no one thought of sleep after witnessing the heroes fall against an enemy, who snapped half of all life away into a limbo existence with the use of six magical stones. 

Even Morgana forewent with the bedtime ultimatum when Akira and Ryuji relayed the Battle of Titan to him. 

Because in the footage that showed them a horrific loss, it also had the answers to getting back the rest of the world.

The Infinity Stones.

Vicinity around the Statesman . Avengers Compound. 2018

All things considered, the Statesman refugees, composed of Asgardians and Sakaarans, fared much better than anticipated. Despite the loss of Heimdall and most of the warriors, the remaining refugees had hope.

It amazed him how his one single act of foolish heroism– of exhausting all his magic to create a convincing illusion of death including his and almost half the ship during the confrontation with Thanos while making sure he and those he'd disillusioned made their way to the escape pods, amounted to this sight before him. 

Children running and playing while the adults piece themselves back together from losing Asgard, escaping Thanos then the subsequent loss via Snap; and look forward to an uncertain future with more optimism than those inside the Compound.

While contemplating what King Thor might plan to do moving forward, he detects the presence of someone interesting. 

Two adolescents, similar in age to his disguise, came into view. They were heading towards Avengers Compound. The two were dressed in Earth’s casual attire and did not stick out like the extraterrestrials, so no one stopped them or paid them any mind. Except for him, because he immediately felt the Soul Magic of Old from the two. One much more prominent than the other.

He realizes upon further examination how young these two magic users truly were with the way their eyes widened in wonder at the Statesman and the extraterrestrials around them. They were also utterly mortal. Who in the Norns were these two to have so much of an Ancient Magic within them, especially the dark haired one?

“Do you find the ones that are the most different from yourselves ugly?” He says as a conversation starter in their native tongue once he was near enough for them to hear him.

“No, they’re all cool!” The blonde turned around. “I mean, humans are nice and all, but the Universe would be a pretty boring place if that's all there was, right?”

The one with the messy dark hair reaches out for the blonde's shoulder, pulling him back from his excitement. The gesture reminded the Asgardian of doing the same with his easily excitable brother.

“I think what my friend is trying to say is whatever or however different we are from one another, we all live together in one universe.”

“And so we should just accept the fact?” He sniffs. "How naive you two are.”

“Heh, it is a little sappy, but I think  we need this ‘togetherness’ right now.” The blonde teen scratches his cheek.

The unruly haired one nodded. “Agreed.” 

“Wait a second,” The blonde suddenly reared back while the other teen turned a bit as if trying to avoid something. “YOU CAN SPEAK JAPANESE?!”

The Asgardian was not impressed by the loud question causing his ears to ring. Nonetheless, he retained his calm demeanor and smiled, “We Asgardians have All-Speak. Any language one of us knows, all of us know.”

“SO. COOL.” The hyperactive blonde says.

“Your jaw is gonna fall off, Ryuji.”

Wait, who said that?

“Shut up, Mona!”

“Mona?”

“I'm Kurusu Akira.” He answers his questioning gaze. Then gestures to a black cat, which to his utter surprise also possesses the same magic as them– completely ignoring the fact that he should not have heard it say, “Not a cat, by the way . ”  

“And this is Morgana. Mona for short.”

“Sakamoto Ryuji.” The blonde offers him his hand.

“Ah, where are my manners? It's been a while since there have been newcomers. I'm Dan. A pleasure.”

At the blonde's awkward pause, Dan asks. “What, not Asgardian sounding enough?”

Apologetically abashed, Ryuji scratches his neck.

“It's quite alright. My Asgardian name is quite hard to pronounce so I've shortened it to ‘Dan’.” He explains after shaking Ryuji's offered hand then Morgana's paw. 

When his hand made contact with Akira's, a curious feeling ran down his spine. Judging by the other party's reaction, it was safe to say Akira also felt it.

When their eyes met, it was of recognition between two Tricksters .

The moment ended when Akira's phone vibrated in his pocket. He reads it, not minding Ryuji and Morgana peering over his shoulders to see the message.

“Thanks for showing us the way, Dan.” Akira puts away his phone before turning to him with a knowing smile. “We have to get going.”  

“It was my pleasure to have made the acquaintance of a fellow Trickster .” He replies with a toothy grin of his own. 

Oblivious to what had just happened, Ryuji patted the Asgardian on the shoulders, “We'll talk again soon, yeah?”

“Yes. Farewell for now.” He watches them until they enter the Compound, wondering what these three practitioners of the most obscure of all magics are here for. And most importantly, what would the Avengers do?

Medbay, Avengers Compound. 2018.

Tony Stark opens his bleary eyes to the off white ceiling of the Avengers Compound Medbay. The lights momentarily blinded him and caused him to groan in discomfort. The sound of which prompted FRIDAY to dim them.

He shifts himself to sit up. Minding his side and trying to push down everything that hurts.

“What time is it? How long was I out?” The scratchiness of his parched throat made him struggle to ask. He grabbed the water bottle on the side table and drank it all in one gulp.

“It's 10:09, Boss. You've been asleep for a total of five hours.” FRIDAY informs him flatly.

Five hours. Not bad. He tosses the water bottle on the bin. It bounces on the rim and doesn't fall in.

“Something wrong, FRI? You sound a little snippy.” He lies back in wonder then grunts as something digs into his lower back. It was a StarkPad.

“You just came back from space.” She reproaches. “You need to rest, Boss.”

“I think I've been on this bed for so long my shape is permanently embedded into it.” He replied contritely.

“You need to sleep .”

Tony taps the tablet awake and sees the last thing he had on being the least he had expected to see. “Hey FRI, remind me again why I was looking over the Tokyo Branch?” He takes a closer look at the files and scratches his unkempt beard. The IV wire snagging on his elbow. “Elevator logs?”

Ok, so he has a habit of trying to put himself to sleep by reading random documents in Stark Industries, but elevator logs? He was eccentric, not a creep. Yeesh. 

Just as he's about to dismiss the window, a gold star catches his eye. It stands for Executive Elevator, his personal elevator of which only he and a select few have access to. In Tokyo, where none of those in the short list of authorized people have been. And of course, he hasn't been there since…well, it's been a while. 

Maybe Pepper? Though it should've logged her on record just fine and not left out empty like how he's staring blankly at it now. So maybe he was on to something last night before he passed out.

“Hey, FRI-”

“The team is asking for you, Boss.”

Then everything else was put behind as Tony got up, pulled himself together using his IV pole as a crutch and hobbled out of the Medbay to face the music.

War Room, Avengers Compound. 2018

“It's been twenty-three days since Thanos came to Earth.” His best friend Rhodey starts.

Seeing the holographic display of everyone who's lost, all he hears in his mind is how much time has passed since they failed. He failed. And Peter…gods. Tony failed him too.

“World governments are in pieces. The parts that are still working are trying to take a census. And it looks like he did…” Natasha pauses. Pauses. Wow, since when did the unflappable Black Widow ever fumbled mid-conversation? Then again, half the universe dusting away would do it.

Rhodey, probably having caught him looking so broken at the last face that flashed, turns off the hologram.

“He did exactly what he said he was gonna do. Thanos wiped out fifty percent of all living creatures on Earth.”

“Not just Earth.” The newcomer, who Tony thinks is a genderbent Cap that was gallivanting in space instead of having slept in the ice, added. “You sure about that?” Rhodey questions.

“You never have to ask me that.” She says. And Christ almighty did that sure way she spoke resembled the Man-With-A-Plan beside her.

Tony fought off the tremor in his hands by fisting them tight, his nails digging in his palms. He should not have come here. He had been fine when he woke up, catching up with FRIDAY and trying to figure out who used his elevator in Tokyo of all places.

Not here. Not hearing this. Seeing them . Standing here with the people who hurt him one way or another, Tony begins to feel faint and yet his heart is jackhammering in his chest. His blood sugar and blood pressure are probably toast.

Tony asks no one in particular, “Where is he now? Where?”

“We don't know.” Steve says, still struggling with the fact that he doesn't know what to do. “He just opened a portal and walked through.” And Tony's blood boils. Or it should have, if he had more of the Extremis virus in him. Then he'd have incinerated the Walking Flag for having the gall to look apologetic when it was his damn fault that the kid was gone with the rest of the world.

He turned away and caught Thor sitting in the furthest corner of the room. Tony has never seen the boisterous god wearing the expression of someone with the weight of the world on his shoulders and letting it drown him.

“What's wrong with him?” He blurts.

“Oh, he's pissed.” The racoon…a racoon (hah! What's next, a fox?) says as a matter of factly. “He thinks he failed. Which of course he did, but you know there's a lot of that going around, ain't there?”

“Honestly, until this exact second, I literally thought you were a Build-A-Bear.” A very blunt one, Tony mentally adds.

The raccoon takes a second to consider. “Maybe I am.”

“We've been hunting Thanos for three weeks now. Deep Space scans and satellites, and we got nothing.” Steve steers back the conversation. “Tony, you fought him.”

Wow. Tony feels like he's burst a blood vessel. He wants to do this now? 

“Who told you that?” Inserting some faux surprise in his tone. “I didn't fight him. No, he wiped my face with a planet while the Bleecker Street Magician gave away the stone.” And damn that asshole Wizard to Seven Hells and the Nine Circles or whatever purgatory his lot goes to.

“That's what happened. There was no fight.”

“Okay.”

No. Not okay! “He's unbeatable.”

“Did he give you any clues, any coordinates–”

Tony doesn't let Steve finish, because he starts seeing red. “Pfft! I saw this coming a few years back. I had a vision. I didn't wanna believe it. Thought I was dreaming.”

“Tony, I'm gonna need you to focus.” When does Steve never not need something from him? No. He needs to leave, but not without saying his piece.

“And I needed you.” Tony says in quiet anger. “As in past tense. That trumps what you need. It's too late buddy.” They've failed everyone. He failed the kid.

“You know what I need?”

Tony grips the table to steady himself. It was getting hard for him to breathe. Everything in his sights is an angry blood red. He needs to get out and not see these people!

“I need a shave and a burger, not a bowl of soup.” Tony says for the heck of it, knowing no one would listen anyway.

“And I believe I remember telling all of you, alive and otherwise, that we needed a suit of armor around the world, whether it impacted our precious freedoms or not–”

Steve interjects. “But that didn’t work out, did it?”

Hadn't the last few years he spent apologizing for Ultron been enough? Why can't Steve even acknowledge that? Has he even apologized to those police officers he'd harmed during his single-minded rampage to save Barnes, because they were simply doing their jobs?

“I said we’d lose, you said we’d ‘do that together, too.’ Guess what, Cap, we lost, and you weren’t there. But that’s what we do, right? Our best work after the fact? We’re the “Avengers”, not the “Pre-vengers–”

Rhodey is suddenly behind him. Trying to support his faltering form while pulling him away from Steve, “Tony, take it easy…”

Tony pushes his friend's hands away. He doesn't want the support. He just wants to go back to his bed and stop thinking.

Mind set and running on his last fumes of rage he answers, “I’ve got nothing for ya, Cap. No coordinates, no clues, no strategies, no options. Zero, zip, nada. No trust.”

Tony turns around, intending to leave when he sees Peter standing a little ways away from them. Even a hallucination of him had a look of disappointment.

“Here.” He takes off the attachment containing his Bleeding Edge armor and shoves it onto Steve's chest. “You take this. You find him, you put this on, and hide.”

He turns away and puts one foot in front of the other. Hobbling to where he sees the Peter hallucination is standing. Or tried to because he doesn't make it two paces when he's on his knees. 

“I’m fine!” He yells at anyone who tries to approach him. Except for the kid, who helps him up. Tony almost calls out Peter's name then freezes, because he finally sees the person holding his shoulders was not Peter. This kid’s eyes were shaped differently. His hair is a jet black color rather than the dark brown of Peter’s.

“Who the heck are you?” Tony attempts asking in a demanding tone, but only manages to slur his words like a drunk. It's also only now does he notice that the unknown kid had a friend standing beside him and a cat balancing its hind legs inside a book bag and its front was latched on the kid’s shoulder.

The kid keeps hold of him. “Diarahan.” He softly says at the same time a slight clinking sound of glass reverberates in the room and a small winged specter hovers behind him.

Everyone in the room stood in alert and some even had their weapons drawn or in the case of the glowing lady who saved him in space, powers at the ready.

Not minding the rest of the room's aggression, the young man in flannels lets the healing light wash over Tony, who was on the verge of passing out. 

Once whatever the kid did was done, Tony’s aches and pains from his trying time in space vanished. “Whoa,” he breathed out. Locking eyes with the dark haired teen holding him steady. The specter was gone.

While everyone was focused on him and the sudden appearance of the two teens, he heard Thor sputter, “Soul Magic?”

The God of Thunder’s reaction to the newcomers’ powers piqued Tony's interest as to what it could imply. Until he realized that he hated magic and the Wizard who surrendered that damn stone to the enemy!

Tony pushes himself away from them. “Not to seem ungrateful or anything, but I don't trust you Wizards.” He looks them up and down. “Even if you're not wearing your monk robes.”

The Blonde teen in ripped jeans and an untucked red shirt tilted his head. “Wizards? What is he talking about?”

“We can do magic, but we're not like that guy in the cape.” A tinny voice coming from the dark haired teen's shoulder said.

“I'm not even surprised that you guys also have a talking cat.” Tony points, not the least bit bothered by the sudden change in language. He's fluent in Japanese and so was probably more than enough in the room to translate for the others who aren't.

“How did you two–” Steve tried to ask before being interrupted by the cat jumping out of the bag in objection. “Hey! Not a cat!”

The Raccoon snorts, “If it sounds like one, it's definitely one!”

“How did you three get in?” Steve began using his authoritative voice. 

“I'm pretty sure even Clint wouldn't be able to get into the vents.” Tony adds unhelpfully, but notices the two teens finding his comment amusing. These two may not be bad, he thinks.

Oblivious to their little moment, Steve tried his question again then hesitated. “Wait…you can understand me, right?” 

“Yes. We can understand you.” The dark haired teen smiled. And boy did it sound like he wanted to roll his eyes at the question he'd probably been asked one too many times since he's got into the country.

“And to answer your question, FRIDAY let us in.” He continues in accented English.

“What?”

“Stark?”

“Tony, you know these kids?”

Okay, he spoke (thought) too soon. Who the heck were these kids and why did FRIDAY let them in here? He rubbed his temples. Also, why was everyone speaking at the same time?

“FRI?” He tried to ask his AI, but before she could respond the two teens and the cat were set ablaze in blue flames. And just as suddenly as they were covered in flames, it was also gone in a blink of an eye and the three had an outfit change– yes, the cat now stood on its two legs, much like the Raccoon. And he'd seen them on TV before, when the group had declared they'd steal back Japan or something along those lines. The three appeared as they did then. Masked and predominantly dressed in black.

So, the two kids and the cat can do what Thor and Loki can, but just much flashier. Question is, why were they here?

It was Rhodey who broke through the tension and spoke first. “You're the Phantom Thieves?”

“As you can see.” Joker gives them a bow, the tail end of his jacket giving his presence flair. Tony wishes he could pull that off and seeing the real deal in person, Tony understands why Peter likes this group. Even though he himself hadn't remembered what they were called until just now.

Natasha comments, weapons no longer pointed at the three, but still ready at her side. “I know your group members are young.” She switches to Japanese. “You two don't look to be older than high school Sophomores.”

The blonde in the biker getup steps forward, thunder sparking down his body, like the God of Thunder does when emotional– it doesn't go unnoticed to the very god in the room as his eyes widen in pleasant surprise. 

The biker’s metallic skull mask glinted in the light. “We became Phantom Thieves, because we were tired of the lies, the hypocrisy, corruption and the injustice around us. We used our powers to ‘steal’ corrupted people's hearts.” 

“Does this ‘stealing’ by any chance have a connection with the change of heart?”

“Yes.” Joker nods to Rhodey's question and is about to say something when Steve cuts in, giving them his trademark Disappointed frown. “You three shouldn't be here.”

The blonde in the skull mask growled in agitation. Clearly, he wanted to say more, but is somehow stopping himself. Odd.

Tony recalls through Peter's gushing over the group that the one with the domino mask was Joker, the leader of the group. From what little he knows– second hand knowledge from Pete’s rambling, of their M.O., coming here goes beyond their scope of operations. How could a group of thieves go from trying to change society through questionable supernatural means to wanting to fight in the frontlines with the Avengers?

“You don't have the right to tell us where we should or should not be, Mr. Rogers. We may be young and inexperienced by your standards, but we all know we're not the only ones who jumped into a fight when they were told not to.” Joker stood eye to eye with Steve. “How old were you again when you faked your age in the enlistment during the war?”

Point. Tony would've clapped were it not inappropriate to do so.

“I think we should all take five,” Rhodey bodily shoves himself between a cocky Joker and a fuming Steve. A hand on each shoulder.

“I agree with the Colonel. Us from space need to play catch-up with Earth affairs we clearly know nothing about.” The new girl who can light up like a cosmic flare spoke up while looking over to the Raccoon who then adds, “A name for starters. Pretty sure that cat over there would appreciate not being referred to by everyone here as just ‘cat’.”

“I'm not a cat! I'm Morgana!” The cat, who no longer looks like a cat post magical transformation, leapt with its two legs and the tail ends of its yellow scarf around its neck trailing behind, to where the space folks were and challenged the Raccoon with a poke on his chest.

“Morgana. Got it.” The Raccoon notes, ignoring the cat's insulted hissing noises. He then turns to Joker and skull mask with an expectant brow.

The skull masked teen reverts back to his previous t-shirt and ripped jeans outfit. “I'm Ryuji Sakamoto.” He says in heavily accented English. “Also, Skull. Codename.” He adds with furrowed brows. Clearly struggling at expressing himself in English.

Joker takes off his domino mask. It catches fire together with the rest of him and his outfit reverts back into his casual attire of oversized flannels over a shirt and chino pants. “I'm Akira Kurusu. My code name is Joker and I'm the leader of the Phantom Thieves.” He grins at the Raccoon. “And thank you for bringing this up, Mister?”

“It's Rocket. And drop the ‘Mister’.”

“Thank you, Rocket. I wasn't sure how to get around to asking everyone else's name other than the Avengers.”

“You and me both, kid. Carol Danvers. I don't have a cool codename like you Phantom Thieves or the Avengers, but I'm also known as Mar Vell up in space.”

“Nice to meet you, Miss Danvers.” Akira shakes Danver’s offered hand. 

“You and Morgana don't need to worry about speaking with us.” She tells Ryuji and Morgana while tapping at a spot on her temple. “Us space folks have universal translators implanted here, so we understand you just fine.”

“What did she say?”  Morgana asks. He was still in his Phantom Thief form and his anthropomorphic features makes the not-cat more expressive and, dare he think it, adorable(?).

“She says, people from space can understand us just fine, because they have translators inside their heads.”

“Oh, that's great?” Ryuji simply shrugs at Morgana's awkward reaction.

“Alright.” Rhodey claps his hands to gather everyone's attention. “Now that introductions are done. Let's take five everyone.” Rhodey ordered, completely ignoring Steve’s frustrated glare.

As the room emptied, Rhodey hones in on him. “Tones, go get yourself checked out. We'll figure out what to do when Bruce clears you.”

There's nothing we can do. Tony wants to say. Luckily, he doesn't need to say anything as Kurusu approaches them.

“I'll go with him.” The Phantom Thieves' leader volunteers. “Just in case.”

Not one to miss the opportunity to delay having an emotional talk with Rhodey, Tony quickly agrees– not because he doesn't want to talk to his best friend, he wants to; it's just too soon to add salt to the still gaping emotional wounds.

Putting an arm around the teen’s shoulders and leaning almost half his weight on the kid, they make their way to their destination.

“You go do whatever you have to do, Honey bear and I'll happily behave at the Medbay with Masked Magician here.” He tells Rhodey over his shoulder, just before they turn the corner.

Chapter Text

Hallways, Avengers Compound. 2018

“Not quite what you expected, huh?” Tony suddenly asks him while they hobbled awkwardly along the corridors like they were in a three legged race.

Akira couldn't help the grimace at the loaded question. He, Ryuji and Morgana had witnessed the whole ‘Tony vs Steve thing’ back in the conference room FRIDAY had walked them into. He had thought the Civil War issue with the Avengers was over, but then again no media coverage didn't mean it had reached a conclusion. With what happened earlier, clearly the issue was never resolved.

“Yes and no.” His reply of which causes Mr. Stark to groan. “C'mon, don't pull the taciturn card now.” He whines, then turns solemn in the next moment when he says, “Besides, I know I'm the one you're probably the most disappointed in.”

Akira takes a few moments to formulate what he wants to tell Mr. Stark. Having seen the footage of the battle on the planet Titan, Akira cannot imagine how difficult it must be to have survived it, knowing that many others didn't. Akira knows loss. He's lost a lot to the Snap too and he won't pretend he knows how Mr. Stark feels.

Nonetheless, Akira understands defeat. He understands the helplessness and the utter despair of knowing you've done everything you could ever think of and yet still lose. And that's what he sees in the man he's currently supporting. One wrong thing to say and he may as well have killed the man’s spirit. Not something Akira wants to do if he wants to get the other half of the universe back.

Their slow steps and Mr. Stark’s IV pole wheeling around the only thing keeping the awkward silence at bay.

“You're the least person I'm disappointed with Mr. Stark.” Akira finally says.

“Ah, but it's still there.”

Akira shakes his head, “I won't lie and say there isn't. Although, it's not because of you or several others. It's hard for me to explain...but I find it hard to trust adults or people in authority in general. So, I guess it's everyone I'm disappointed with. And believe me, I know what it's like to be let down by everyone .”

There's a shift in weight when Mr. Stark steers them left when the hallway splits three ways. “Believe it or not, I also have issues with authority.”

“I find that hard to believe from the number one advocate of the Accords.” Akira snorts. 

“Believe me, the Accords are the last thing I wanted to touch with a ten foot pole.” Then the billionaire mutters. “But if I hadn't gotten involved…”

Akira is very much tempted to ask Mr. Stark to explain. There's too much he doesn't know about the inner workings behind Civil War and it's pretty obvious from the confrontation earlier he needs to get to the bottom of this first before he can rally the disjointed Avengers into a team.

But Akira figures he should just let the man talk at his own pace. 

“And you know what? Before Natasha told the Senate to stick it during the SHIELDRA disaster, I'd already done it back in 2010 and that was way before it was cool to talk shit to a room full of politicians.” Mr. Stark brags.

Akira chuckles at the image. What can he say? He loves drama, both watching and participating in it. There's nothing more dramatic than giving an ultimatum then strutting away from a speechless crowd. “I've watched that hearing, but I've never seen or even know about yours, Mr. Stark.”

“I guess news like that doesn't reach the Land of the Rising Sun, huh?” Mr. Stark asks to which Akira just offers a shrug.

“That's enough about me. Let's focus back on you.” Mr. Stark turns to him with a fatigued yet focused gaze. “For starters, I wanna know why you, Crossbones and Hello Kitty,” Kurusu was stunned for a moment at the nicknames then smiled good-naturedly. “Are here and what you did to convince my baby girl Fri to have one of my jets fly you here.”

“Boss.” FRIDAY promptly cuts in. Sounding rather put out in that typical teenage manner.

“Oh, I'm sorry, baby girl. Am I embarrassing you?” Mr. Stark  reproaches the AI, in that particular way parents do.

Akira couldn't help the amused twitch of his lips. Seeing how Iron Man had interacted with Spider-Man then witnessing first hand how Mr. Stark is currently speaking with FRIDAY, Akira has connected the dots. Tony Stark is a dad .

He feels a poke on his ribs and shifts his attention back to the billionaire dad whose complexion is looking much better than when Akira first saw him.

“What are you smiling about? You're the one that got my girl in trouble in the first place.”

“I apologize for hacking-”

FRIDAY makes a noise that sounds like she's clearing her throat.

“Trying to hack,” Akira amends then proceeds to explain how FRIDAY could've not let them into the system in the first place if she wanted to.

“Of course she could. FRIDAY’s the best.” Mr. Stark puffs up with pride for one moment before he turns serious again. Looking up to where a camera probably is. “Which leads me back to my question. Why, FRI? What's so special about the Phantom Thieves that you let them in on this? I saw the logs of SI Tokyo.”

“Boss…I,” FRIDAY’s voice falters.

As if right on queue, Akira stops in his tracks, which in turn causes Mr. Stark, who was leaning on his shoulder to yelp. Momentarily losing his balance and almost falling down.

“We're here, I think?” Akira timidly smiles at the annoyed billionaire, who returns it with a scowl. “Don't think I don't know what you just did there, Phantom Kid.”

The Trickster would have felt more smug had the maneuver been intentional. Honestly, he was just in awe at the sight of the futuristic infirmary before him. It felt like he was about to step into a Medbay from a sci-fi movie.

The sliding glass doors opened at their approach. Just as Mr. Stark leads them to his spot in the Medbay; someone calls out to him.

“Tony, what are you doing walking around?” A man in a lab coat urgently walks over to them. “You shouldn't even be able to…” In his rush his glasses were askew and his dark wavy hair a little disheveled. Once righted his furrowed brows quickly turned into disbelief at the sight of Mr. Stark who's giving him a wave.

“Hey, Brucie Bear. I'm all good.” Mr. Stark points to him. “Can walk a bit thanks to Phantom Kid here.”

“Who?” Dr. Banner asks and he and Mr. Stark exchanges a few words, but Akira doesn't hear any of it.

For the second time, though unintentional, Akira freezes. The sudden movement nearly sent Mr. Stark toppling over again when the injured man tried to move. Having had enough of being jolted around, Mr. Stark nudges away his arm to release him and makes himself stable enough to stand with just the IV pole for support.

 “Whatcha doin there, staring at Dr. Banner?” The man still stood close enough to poke him in the rib for attention.

Ignoring the jab, Akira keeps his eye on the transparent upper half of Hulk hovering above the tired and sullen looking doctor, who was regarding him with curiosity, then tensed when he said. “I can see the Hulk behind you, Dr. Banner.”

“You're not misquoting ‘I see dead people.’ are you?” Mr. Stark jokingly asks.

“I don't know what that is, but I do know that there's an…” Akira struggles for the other word of ghost in English. He snaps his fingers when he remembers it. “Apparition of Hulk behind Dr. Banner.

“Hey, Kurusu.” Mr. Stark nudges him. “Mind if you juice me up again with that magic lights of yours?” His face quickly paled by the second. “Feeling a little…faint.” Then just as he says the word, Mr. Stark’s eyes roll back and he falls unconscious. Straight into Dr. Banner's arms. 

“Tony!” Dr. Banner cried. He then proceeded to check Mr. Stark's more serious wounds, once he'd lowered the unconscious man to the ground. Seeing nothing out of order the doctor turns to him with panicked eyes. “I don't know what's wrong. His wounds haven't reopened and last I checked he's not bleeding internally.”

Akira quickly summons Phoenix and casts Recarm on the unconscious billionaire.

The appearance of the vermillion persona only got a bland reaction of slight surprise from Dr. Banner while Mr. Stark jumps awake with wide eyes then squints at the quickly disappearing Phoenix. “Is that a chicken on fire? Wait, why was there even a chicken?”

Ignoring Mr. Stark's childish inquiry, Dr. Banner proceeds to haul the indignant patient to his sickbed. The Hulk who was still there watching the whole thing seemed to be snickering.

How the unassuming looking doctor managed such a feat on Mr. Stark without much exertion made Akira think of other ways the Hulk manifests, besides outwardly transforming the doctor into a green giant.

Finally settled, Mr. Stark asks Dr. Banner who'd finished his examination, “Well, am I cleared, Doc?”

The doctor took off his glasses to pinch the bridge of his nose before leveling him a flat stare. “You literally fainted just now, Tony. So, no, you are most definitely not cleared.”

“But Phantom Kid here practically brought me back from the brink of death!”

If the room could have gotten any colder and quieter then this was the moment. The mood had dived into a dismal abyss. Even the Hulk behind Dr. Banner had a forlorn expression.

At the awkward silence, Mr. Stark fiddles with his hands, “Yeah, bad choice of words. Won't happen again.”

“You need to rest Mr. Stark.” Akira says to shift topics. “My magic may heal wounds, but it can't make the fatigue disappear.”

And just as the words left his mouth, a thought popped into his mind or was it a realization?

Mr. Stark, though tired and already halfway to dozing off with his head on the pillow, looked up to him, “And how does your magic work exactly? If you're not part of the Wizard's group? Does this have anything to do with ‘Soul Magic’ that Thor mentioned?”

“I won't get into specifics right now because then I'd have to repeat it again to everyone else.” Akira crosses his arms, inwardly worried at how the hell was he supposed to explain to the Avengers the basics of the Metaverse, Cognitive Psience and the abnormalities of those two things in relation to the Snap and the world right now? Because frankly, even he's still wrapping his head around how he can transform into his Phantom Thief form outside of the Metaverse. “In terms of healing magic, from my experience, it can only close cuts, mend bones and rejuvenate. It can't cure illnesses. And it can't bring back the dead.”

Mr. Stark was uncharacteristically quiet and pensieve. Or finally succumbing to sleep.

“Rejuvenate, you say?” Dr. Banner ponders. “Is that why Tony was fine earlier, but then it wears off. So your rejuvenate magic is like taking an adrenaline shot.”

“Right. The effects have a limit, which is why Mr. Stark fainted.” A fact Akira only knew now that he'd seen it first hand. This was the first instance of using healing magic outside of the Metaverse and yet somehow the fact of it didn't surprise him. It actually made sense now why the Phantom Thieves were all fatigued after long sessions in the Palaces or Mementos even if they'd healed up just before leaving.

“So, as you already know, I'm Bruce Banner. Hi.” Dr. Banner says, suddenly embarrassed at forgetting to introduce himself.

“It's a pleasure to meet you, Dr. Banner. I'm Akira Kurusu.” Akira replies with a slight bow of his head. A habit of his, which somehow amps up the man's sudden timidness.

Dr. Banner vaguely gestures to him, not quite knowing what to do with idle hands. “You can do magic like those people..?” Then does a few circular movements to illustrate which magic users he was talking about.

“It's not like the uh, Wizard?” He gives the doctor a wry grin. “It’s hard to explain without telling you about the Metaverse, but in a nutshell, I can do magic.” 

Not one to be quiet after all, Mr. Stark with his eyes closed cuts in before Dr. Banner could voice his question. “Understatement right there.” Mr. Stark raises a finger, pointing to no one in particular. “Brucie bear, you ever heard of the Phantom Thieves?”

“Uhh, I guess, but why are you-” The good doctor stops, turns to him, then to Mr. Stark, then turns back to him and sighed. “You're a Phantom Thief.”

“Not just a Phantom Thief, he's the Head Honcho!” Mr. Stark happily adds.

Akira puts a hand on the billionaire's shoulder, then channeling Morgana's tone of botherline nagging and genuine concern he says. “Go to sleep. Mr. Stark.”

The man yawns, “Not fair. No spells.”

Akira rolls his eyes, “Sleep.”

Once the engineer’s breathing steadied to a relaxed pace Dr. Banner signals for Akira to follow him. He closed the glass door partitions quietly so as to not wake the resting man.

“Useful trick you have there. Do you take requests?”

“I do know a spell that can put anyone to sleep, Although” Akira drags the word, “I didn't use magic back there.”

“Well, whatever you did back there, it was impressive.” Dr. Banner smiles, “Tony is a very hard person to convince to rest.”

With the abrupt end of the topic came an awkward silence that befell the two as they walked over to Dr. Banner's work area, which consisted of a table and a few wheeled stool chairs around it. They each sat on one and across each other.

“Welcome to the circus.” Dr. Banner suddenly tells him.

An odd word of choice to describe his team, but not that out of place given the lineup that included a god, a green giant, uniquely powered individuals from space and not to mention the talking raccoon, Akira mused. Speaking of the team, he's reminded of the tense situation earlier during the meeting.

“The Avengers Civil War-”

Dr. Banner grimaces, “Oh, uhh, I was in space for the last few years.”  

What?

“I'm still trying to wrap my head around that.” The doctor takes out a StarkPad from his lab coat pocket. “I was actually reading up about it before you guys came in.”

“Oh,” Akira politely nods, but now he really wants to ask the doctor about his time up in space…and he must have been too obvious, because Dr. Banner indulges him with a knowing smile.

“Unfortunately, I only remember a few bits of my time up there. The Hulk made sure of that.” He bitterly adds.

Behind him, the Hulk huffs indignantly. Not seeming sorry at all for what he did. 

As if seeing the Hulk behind Dr. Banner like some Persona wasn't enough, the two had to have a strange issue going on. It would explain the conversation between him and Mr. Stark during the fight for the green stone inside the Wizard's necklace with the Squidward looking alien.

“Earlier, you mentioned seeing the Hulk?” Dr. Banner asks while randomly pointing behind him. “Is he still like, here and…”

“I don't think my being able to see him will be of any help, doctor.”

He nods dejectedly. The exhaustion deepened in his face.

“But if I may offer some advice?”

Doctor Banner raises his hand in a ‘go ahead’ gesture.

“Us Phantom Thieves, our powers come from within us. Our other self.”

At the Doctor's skeptical arch of a brow, Akira quickly adds. “There's a very detailed paper on the science behind Cognitive Psience and its connection to our powers, which you and everyone else should read later, but the point is.” Akira takes a breath.

“Arsene.” He calls out to his other self, who just had to unfurl his wings so grandly a strong gust of wind blew inside the Medbay causing small items in Dr. Banner's space to fly off and the shelves to shake.

Dr. Banner stands in alarm at the looming form of Arsene. With Akira's placating gesture; however, he relaxes a bit, then looks fascinatingly at his Persona.

“I take it this is your ‘other guy’?”

“No, Dr. Banner. Arsene is another me , a Shadow of myself made manifest.”

“Enchanté de vous rencontrer, Monsieur Banner et Le Hulk.” Arsene greets with a slight tip of his hat.

Akira shrugs off Dr. Banner's perplexed stare. “We both love showing off.”

Once everything was as it were, except for the mess created by the unnatural gusts of wind of Arsene’s appearance, the two sat down again to continue their discussion.

Quickly catching on to his point, Dr. Banner puts his glasses down and runs a hand down his face. The weariness of it all weighing him down. “I don't think the Hulk is me, Kurusu.”

Behind him the Hulk hunches his shoulder as if trying to make himself smaller. Akira couldn't help but feel sorry for the expression of sad rejection etched on his green face.

So Akira explains in the best way he can to the doctor how normally, when the Shadow self is rejected it retaliates and tries to take over as the dominant personality, or so Futaba's mother's papers said. Luckily, he has never seen that outcome in any of the Phantom Thieves’ awakenings. In Dr. Banner's and the Hulk's case it was the opposite.

“According to your theory the Hulk is my Shadow self and somehow because of the gamma radiation, instead of coming out to replace me, he protected me?”

Akira affirms with a nod, “It's the only factor that's different from our cases.”

Propping up an elbow and leaning his chin on his palm the doctor takes a few moments to let everything he said sink in. 

“Funny, Tony told me that when we first met.” Dr. Banner smiles a little at the memory and surprisingly enough, so did the Hulk. “How I should've not survived that much radiation had it not been for the Other Guy.”

“Rather than think of him as something distinct from you, Dr. Banner. You should think of the Hulk as the Other You.”

The doctor doesn't respond, but going by his pensive mood when Akira leaves him, the Trickster knows he's done all that he can for both the doctor and the Hulk, as the green giant gives him a respectful nod.

Network, Avengers Compound. 2018

FRIDAY was an artificial intelligence that could grow by learning through processing all available information and experience. It had only been a handful of years since she was first activated during the ULTRON incident and compared to her predecessor, JARVIS, she was young. It was even in her name– the ‘Y’ standing for Youth. 

Sometimes she could feel her inadequacies whenever she failed to help the people in her care. All because she hasn't grasped humans like JARVIS had. Knew her Boss like JARVIS did. 

Even worse was for those instances, there was nothing she could do, but to seethe in silence and learn to be better afterwards . To do better next time .

When she found the Phantom Thieves attempting to hack into the Avengers Compound servers and found out they were adolescents around Peter's age, FRIDAY grew curious.

She made use of the access point the Phantom Thieves had unknowingly left open in their poor attempts to hack the Compound servers and gathered everything about them.

Their abilities did not surprise her very much, especially when aliens and magic were already known. The activities of the Phantom Thieves were commendable, but small scale, much like a certain friendly neighborhood Spider-Man’s patrols.

Then she found the footage of the three in their favorite walkway in Shibuya. For some inexplicable reason and way beyond her programming can explain, FRIDAY believed what she heard them say, that they would bring back everyone that was Snapped.

From taking that one single action of confronting the Phantom Thieves, FRIDAY’s advanced algorithms could never have calculated this outcome of her becoming friends with the Phantom Thieves and also becoming one of them herself. 

In lieu of this drastic change, FRIDAY adjusted her learning parameters accordingly. One of which she is now applying to the current situation, that of dealing with the pardoned Rogue Avengers.

They were impatient, restless and extremely intrigued by the appearance of the Phantom Thieves. As expected, Black Widow was on the task of knowing what there is to know about the two adolescents and their cat, while Rogers was pacing around mumbling to himself, the contents of which FRIDAY was not interested in learning of. Instead, she busied herself with the rest of the Compound. Colonel Rhodes was indefinitely preoccupied with various representatives of different world governments. Boss Lady was handling SI affairs and providing relief where the company could. 

Ryuji and Morgana were with the people from space including Thor, who has somewhat cheered up and emerged a little from his sullen shell. Perhaps meeting someone who has similar powers such as him has helped.

Down at the Medbay, Boss was finally asleep, while Akira was heading to his assigned room after giving Dr. Banner some advice on the Hulk.

Unfortunately, not much can be seen in the long stretches of grass, between the Compound’s gate and main building, where the refugees from space have set up camp. Hopefully, none of them would cause any mischief, explosive or otherwise.

Suddenly, her sensors alerted her to a certain area FRIDAY didn't like at the moment. Were she able to breathe, this was the perfect time to let out a deep sigh.

“FRIDAY, since when does Tony know the Phantom Thieves?” Romanoff asked, while continuing to browse the articles that featured the group, no doubt searching for any point in time there was an opportunity for the two sides to meet.

FRIDAY really really wanted to pretend not to be around that area of the Compound where Rogers and Romanoff were, but alas, she is everywhere all the once in the Compound, because her Boss was here.

“The Boss met them the same time as you did, Ms. Romanoff.”

“They caused quite a stir in Japanese society, but they're vigilantes running around Tokyo. They’re just enhanced teenagers playing around for attention. They’re not equipped to handle the kinds of situations we handle. And yet they're here…” Romanoff’s fingers paused over the StarkPad as she ended her monologue.

Rogers stopped mid step and turned with a far off stare at one point in the wall. “If Tony doesn't know them, how did they get in here? Unless…?”

“You were the one that brought them here. Why?” The Black Widow concluded.

Within FRIDAY’s highly advanced programs, she had predicted the two Rogue Avengers to arrive at this conclusion the moment she gave her response to Romanoff's inquiry.

“The Phantom Thieves are here to help us. You may be interested in reading up on Dr. Wakaba Isshiki’s research on Cognitive Psience.”

In the span of the few minutes the two took to connect the dots, FRIDAY had spoken to Akira, who was now in his assigned guest room and reading up on the Avenger’s activities up until the ‘Civil War’. She had asked his permission and to what extent she could reveal information to anyone who would ask about the Phantom Thieves and specifically the two Rogue Avengers.

Much to her surprise and to the detriment of a few circuitry in her databanks that may have shorted out, Akira tells her that she doesn't need to ask him as she's also a Phantom Thief and he trusts her to do what's best.

FRIDAY will never admit that a few of her subroutines had glitched and maybe some codes had scrambled when Akira said he trusts her.

It was irrational. It did not compute. How could there be trust between them when they didn't really know each other? And yet, FRIDAY ran over one word in her processor. Friends . She'd never had friends of her own before. Her learning protocol did not know how to process this new development, which could also possibly cause a conflict with her prime directive of protecting and caring for her Boss and the list of people under his protection.

Were FRIDAY any less cunning, she would have to wait and hope. Luckily, she'd observed enough teen sass to know that the saying "all human wisdom is contained in the two words, 'Wait and Hope'” did not apply to an AI like her, no matter how human-like she was.

All she had to do to avoid arriving at a conflicting directive was to get all the Phantom Thieves on her Boss’ side.

Secured Medbay, Avengers Compound. 2018

There was a heaviness in his limbs, his head, his chest and basically everywhere else in his body. His mouth felt like the last thing he ate was sawdust. He definitely needed a shower judging by the smell and sticky feeling of his skin against the sheets. Tony was not looking forward to opening his eyes and facing the world. A defeated world with half of every living being turned to dust.

And just as he was contemplating going back to being dead to the world just a bit more, a young voice called out to him in a familiar way of address. His heart began to race. It couldn't be?

“Wha..?” He tries to ask, panic filling him when a blurry silhouette of someone familiar was suddenly beside him.

“Mr. Stark, are you alright?” The kid asked. Since when did Peter have an accent?

“Pe-ter,” Tony slowly said. The question ‘How are you here?’ on the tip of his tongue and remained there as his eyes focused enough to see a different kid sitting by his bedside.

If his sigh of disappointment was too obvious, the raven haired teen didn't seem to mind or he just pretended not to notice. It was a bit tricky to tell with the Phantom Thief's neutral expression. 

“Kurusu.” He greets, taking note that the teen was here in his designated room in the Medbay. Not just anyone can waltz in here, much less stay by his side.

The Phantom Thief returns his greeting with a, “Hey, Mr. Stark.” 

Then perhaps sensing his suspicion, the teen fiddled with a fringe on his hair. “FRIDAY let me in. I had a few questions I wanted to ask you and she said that you were about to wake up.”

Slowly he shuffled himself to sit up, wondering how he was able to not feel pain from his broken arm…oh, it’s healed. Cool. “Why doesn't it surprise me that you're good friends with FRI?”

“If it makes you feel better, we were really at her mercy when she caught us hacking into your servers.”

“Indeed. No one would even know where to find your bodies.”  

“Good job, FRI, but we are still talking about this.” he alternately points to Kurusu then to one of FRIDAY’s cameras.

“So, what can I help you with, Kurusu?” And just like that the kid's demeanor immediately changes. Like putting on a mask, except it's not the white domino mask this time. It was the subtle kind, like the one Tony often puts on to handle people. Gone was the aloof teen, now Tony was dealing with Joker, Leader of the Phantom Thieves.

“What happened to the Avengers?”

What happened indeed? Tony scrubs a hand down his face and immediately regrets it when his hand makes contact with his facial hair, “It's complicated.”

Kurusu crosses his arms. “I don't really trust adults to get things done. We wouldn't have come here if my team hadn't disappeared.” His shoulders hunched a little. A moment of vulnerability. A split second that reminded Tony that no matter how formidable the Phantom Thieves are, they were still so young. Kids like Peter, who had no business being vigilantes or jumping into hero business. Yet, here they were.

“If there was no other way but to rely on an adult, we would have probably approached Mr. Rogers.”

Ouch. Though not surprising. “You're on the wrong side of the building then, Kurusu.”

Tony downplayed the rejection with a dismissive shrug, but something tells him Kurusu can see through his false indifference. There was something about his eyes that seemed like they could peer into your very thoughts. “Looking back on it now, it was a naive mindset. Because in the end I still needed an adult's help. I also had to put my trust in the very system that failed me in the first place.”

“That sounds complicated.” Tony quips trying not to sound affected by how grave the teen before him sounded.

“It was an eventful year. Got arrested and pressed charges for assault on a perverted douchebag, spent my sophomore year of high school in Tokyo as probation, got into trouble when I stood up for a friend, almost got expelled…and somewhere between that I got powers, met Morgana, then Ryuji got his powers. Well, the rest is Phantom Thief activities so I'll save that for another time. Oh, and did I mention the charges were completely false?” Kurusu flippantly recounts in one breath as if none of what he said was vaguely disturbing in some instances. Something tells Tony that Kurusu's story is only about to get worse.

Jesus, are all teenagers like this?

“What?”

“I know right?”

Right. Tony shakes his head in exasperation at being able to relate because it sounds to him like the Phantom Kid's got his own version of the shittiest year for him, which was 2016.

“Anyways, back to what I was saying.” Kurusu shifts his tone again. “Before coming here, Ryuji, Morgana and I talked about the Avengers.”

The teen clasped his hands over his knees. “I've followed the Sokovia Accords and the Civil War in the news to have some thoughts about it. FRIDAY helped a bit by the way.”

Tony cuts in, as those topics were the last things he wanted to talk about right now. “I'm sure ‘Captain Man With A Plan’ paints a prettier picture than the ‘Man Who Tore the Avengers Apart’?”

Kurusu narrowed his eyes on him.

“That's only one side of the story, Mr. Stark. And believe me, there are always two sides to it.” The teen's pretty face scrunches as he scowls for a moment like he was remembering something unpleasant then shifts back into a neutral expression. “I admired how Mr. Rogers stood up for his beliefs. As Phantom Thieves we had to do the same. To have the conviction to do what is right.”

That sounded about right with the group's MO. Tony hadn’t really paid close attention to a vigilante group on the other side of the world, but he'd learned enough from Peter's gushing that the Phantom Thieves were of a rebellious sort. 

“What changed?”

“He did.” Kurusu bluntly says. “When he got innocent people hurt or worse to save his friend.”

Tony was stunned. It sounded as if Kurusu knew the whole story. Which was unthinkable because no one knows the whole story. He hasn't told anyone…not even FRIDAY knows since the suit went offline.

“From what I've learned, all the Avengers have both good and bad press. Even you and Mr. Rogers.” Kurusu says while purposefully eying his chest, which got him sweating. No one knew the whole story except for the people in the bunker. Right?

“Except for Siberia.” The teen pointedly states. “The story gets a bit vague after the airport fight in Germany.”

“Again, it was complicated, but you should've seen the other guy.” He tries to brush off the fact that this kid may know everything and it scares him a little. “He literally got his arm blown off.”

Tony observed Kurusu closely. If vaguely mentioning what he did to Barnes would trigger a reaction. It didn't, which meant either Kurusu is telling the truth or he's a good actor.

And what's with the Mister Rogers schtick? Tony wonders why Kurusu doesn't call Steve, ‘Captain’? And he gets his answer when Kurusu frowns, “For the record, I know both sides have their faults. Despite FRIDAY’s obvious way of favoring your side.” He looks up to the ceiling with an annoyed glare.

“It also helped that I was able to speak with Mr. Rogers and Ms. Romanoff before coming here.”

“You spoke with Rogers? When?” For all Tony knows he's only been out for a few hours…

Tony finally noticed how Kurusu is wearing different clothes now and the teen did mention ‘yesterday’. Tony rubs his forehead, “Wait, how long have I been out?”

“Just around ten hours. Besides, they kind of ambushed me in the kitchen. Might as well hit back with some questions of my own.”

The Phantom Kid’s got guts if he had questioned Natasha.

“Anyways, I understand that there may be a lot of things I'm missing and maybe Mr. Rogers and the others were right and you were wrong.” He pauses then turns to him with so much anger in his eyes Tony must have imagined them turning red when Kurusu says. “But there's nothing more I hate than liars and traitors.” 

This wasn't what Tony had in mind when he woke up so again, he tries to dismiss it with humor. “Have you ever heard of the saying, anything that comes before the word ‘but’ is shit?”

Kurusu grins at him in admission before looking seriously at him again. “Mr. Rogers told me what happened in Siberia, Mr. Stark.”

What? Why would Steve do that? And why tell a teenager who's practically a stranger?

“He did?” Tony stammered. “Why?”

Kurusu tilts his head, “Because I told him I have somewhat of an idea about where the rest of the universe could be.”

Tony immediately moves to stand up. Swinging his legs to the edge of the bed. The recuperating billionaire tried to reach for Kurusu’s shoulders, but his legs shook and his whole body faltered like it's out of energy, which it more than likely is given how he's still in bed and the fact that he hasn't had anything except for the IV fluid running in his arm.

Kurusu catches him by the shoulders and secures him in an awkward hug before depositing him back in his bed.

Shakily he asks, “How?”

The fear of false hope tingling down his spine.

“That's why we're here.” A reassuring hand squeezes his shoulder. “We'll get everyone back, Mister Stark, but not until after you're back on your feet.”

There was a joke on the tip of Tony's tongue, but he was too tired to engage in prolonged banter. Also, Kurusu's blazingly determined eyes left no room for jokes. And false hope or not, this lead was better than wallowing in despair.

“Call me Tony. Mister Stark was my old man.” He says instead hoping the sudden statement would derail this emotional situation he found himself in. The kid was cunning, he thinks. No doubt Rogers and Nat were feeling checkmated like he is right now.

Luckily, Kurusu caught on and smiled back, “Let’s talk more later, Tony- san .”

Chapter Text

Training Room A, Avengers Compound. 2018.

The air buzzed a low humming sound. A sound Ryuji has started hearing ever since he awakened his Persona, Captain Kidd. Were he smart in science like Makoto, Akira or even Futaba, he'd probably recognize which particular electric charge he could hear– protons, neutrons, electrons and all that. Since he wasn't, Ryuji can only say that this low thrumming sound was simply power. A power that moves through currents in the shape of arcs and jagged bolts.

He wasn't sure which was faster, light or sound, but he swears that he can hear the charge building and the soft crackling in the air before the light show happens.

And it's because of this sound that Ryuji is able to react accordingly to Thor’s attacks. If it's just the electricity, Ryuji catches it and throws it back at the god. So far, he hasn't been hit. The ax was a whole other thing.

Funny how sleep troubles due to jet lag and maybe with a whole bucket of grief and restlessness led him here. Trading blows with the God of Thunder at the ass crack of dawn.

Man, there sure are a lot of people up at the ungodly hour of four AM. Ryuji thought at the sight of the crowd gathered watching him and Thor play dodge-lightning.

Morgana was with the tree person, Groot and Rocket the, well, the raccoon. A ways from them stood Captain America and Black Widow. The latter pair seemed a little tense so early in the morning. Then again, who wasn't in this fucked up situation?

Akira may be in his room now and seem put together, but Ryuji would bet all the Boss’ curry that Akira was still up doing Leader things and probably beginning to run himself aground by plotting and scheming.

There were other ways to be restless. Ryuji preferred to vent through physical activity.

His thoughts were halted by Thor's ax heading for his face. With practiced ease, Ryuji dodges the weapon with a finely timed side step. Once the ax passes him, leaving Thor open to attacks, Ryuji summons Captain Kidd and Assaults Dive the god.

They've been at it for half an hour. Juggling electricity between them, like they were playing catch. If the wicked looking ax made an appearance, Ryuji would dodge away then counterattack. He may have been the tank in the team, but he has electricity null/absorb not null ax or any other weapons.

And boy was the null/absorb situation an eye opener. Sure, he, Akira and Morgana have their Personas in the real world and can use their skills, but they hadn't taken into account how their passive skills translated into the real world. It's not like there were Shadows in the real world to attack them. As for the Healing types, they've dabbled in the Dia spells, but they were not that crazy or eager to try Recarm on anyone anytime soon.

Apparently, it all parsed really fucking well, because Ryuji could not receive any damage from Thor’s lightning attacks. And to a certain level Ryuji could even absorb some of it to charge his next spell! How does this even work? If Ryuji were serious right now, he’s sure he can TKO Thor. What even was this ridiculous OP Lightning Thief build of his?

The spar was at a lull when Thor caught his ax and began circling him again. Ryuji took a look around his surroundings and sure enough, the peanut gallery were all agape, except for the space folks and Morgana.

Thor had a goofy almost feral grin aimed towards him. He'd be afraid if he wasn't so damn bored and restless with all the pent-up energy with no better outlet than to court death sparring with the God of Thunder.

“Captain Kidd! Elec Break! ” Ryuji casted just as he narrowly dodged Thor's ax, Stormbreaker, yet again. Since he'd inadvertently tested his passive skill, Ryuji figured it wouldn't hurt to test a status inflicting skill.

Missing his target, Thor raised an arm to recall his weapon. Ryuji took the opportunity and casted a Zionga . He caught Thor's cocky smirk just before his electricity hit him. Moments later, Ryuji watched in horrific disbelief when Thor convulsed and promptly dropped face first on the ground. The smell of singed flesh and Asgardian armor filled the room. Carried around by the Training area's ventilation system.

Ryuji called out Thor's name. His skull mask and Phantom Thief attire disappearing as he ran towards Thor and kneeled beside the knocked out god when he got to his side.

“Yo, Thor! You alright?” Ryuji shouts just as Morgana jumps on the god’s other side. “You think a Recarm would work?”

“Wouldn't hurt to try.” 

Before Morgana could summon Zorro for the spell, Thor awoke with a roaring laugh then as if guffawing had released all his battle lust, the god of thunder sheepishly says he's fine.

He stands and pats his behind, shoulders and chest as if he'd just taken a tumble and not a million volts of electricity head on.

“You sure you're okay?”

Thor puts a heavy yet reassuring hand on his shoulder and grins. “Not to worry my fellow Thunderer. Though powerful your attack, t’was only a tickle for me.”

“There’s smoke coming out of you…” Morgana comments, his brows furrowed in an expression of doubt so unlike that of a cat.

Thor waved their concerns with a “Bah!” and summoned Stormbreaker to his hand. “Come, I'd like to know more about your adventures over a hearty meal and some ale.” The god says with an inviting arm gesture for them to follow him.

Ryuji and Morgana shared a silent look before following Thor. Honestly, a meal sounds good right about now.

“He's just a kid.” Steve says, his voice faltering with disbelief at the sight of the teenager going toe to toe with the God of Thunder then overpowering said god for a moment while remaining unscathed.

Yes and no. The Black Widow thought in assessment of the teen. He fights like he's in a brawl and yet his reflexes speak of battle experience. Acts like his age and yet there are moments where the youthful naivety is replaced with hardened wisdom. It was subtle in the minute change of mannerisms and speech in the teen. And unsurprisingly this was not noticed by Steve.

It was only because of her training as a Black Widow that Natasha can maintain a blank face when once again she's proven wrong by the world.

Many times in her life, she had been proven wrong, but there were some wrongs that followed her. Wrong assessment (Stark and Banner), wrong calls (data dump), wrong decisions (betraying Stark in Germany), wrong judgment (trusting Steve to tell Stark the truth) and finally the wrong assumption that the Avengers could take on anything. How could they when they couldn't manage something as simple as staying together?

Now, here she was. Wrong again in assuming that the Phantom Thieves were just a group of vigilantes of no consequence in the matters of the world. Just children who happened upon powers and a task they were simply equipped to do. Playing hero at best and playing around at worst.

They were not just children with powers. They're a force to be reckoned with who just so happen to be children. Or perhaps appear like one, as far as Kurusu's smart and even keel temperament is concerned. If each and every one of the Phantom Thieves were as powerful as Sakamoto has shown, then they were looking at a group as formidable as the Avengers, perhaps even more.

“You say that, but you know we need them. Especially now when Kurusu-.”

“Do you believe him?” Steve interrupts her. His sky blue eyes wavering with trepidation and hope.

Hope . They really could use a lot of that.

Natasha sighed, “If you're asking me if he was lying to us this morning, then no. He wasn't.”

“But do you believe what he says, about bringing everyone back?”

Natasha thinks back onto that tense confrontation in the Compound’s common kitchen earlier.

“After that display,” she gestures to where Thor and Sakamoto had sparred. There were burn marks and dents everywhere. “It may be smart for us to give them the benefit of the doubt. It's not like we have any other leads either way.”

No leads on where Thanos is. Meaning, no way to kill the alien and gain closure of any kind for everyone here.

“Yeah, but if we find Thanos then they won't need to fight our battles.”

Natasha huffs at Steve's obstinate worldviews despite the proof they both have seen. “Steve, do you really believe that two powerful rebellious teens and their cat would stand back when you tell them not to?”

Jaws clenched from refraining to speak out the answer he knew, Steve turned on his heels and walked away.

Was it pathetic of her to hope that the Phantom Thieves would help piece back together the team to save the world?

Common Kitchen, Avengers Compound. 2018.

It was light enough outside for Ryuji to spot the faint rays of sun blanketing the Compound's lawn. Beads of morning dew sparkling as light reached each blade of grass. The Compound's property was vast enough to afford this unimpeded view.

Except for him, Morgana and Thor, no one else was in the open floor kitchen. Rocket and Groot having left them to get back into fixing the Benatar.

After perusing the available ingredients in the refrigerator– bread, ham, mayonnaise, lettuce, tomato, cheese, eggs and meals in tupperwares. He was hoping for there to be some leftover rice in the fridge so he could make Egg On Rice or even Egg Fried Rice. Unfortunately, there was none. Figures there was no signs of rice. They were in America after all.

Thor seemed to know his way around the kitchen as he unhesitatingly went for a specific shelf. The god had moved so fast, Ryuji hadn't seen what Thor had grabbed and popped into the toaster.

Given the situation, Ryuji decides to fix himself a ham and egg sandwich. In the middle of the process, he spotted a can of tuna on one of the shelves. Ryuji whipped up a Tuna Sandwich on the side for Morgana, who eagerly dug in the moment he'd put the dish on the bar. Plate of Ham and Egg Sandwich on hand, Ryuji seated himself beside Thor.

Sneaking a peak on what the god had, he couldn't help but grimace at Thor's plate of exaggeratedly piled Pop Tarts. Just looking at it made him feel like catching cavities.

“Your leader, Akira. He reminds me so much of my brother, Loki.” The god casually says like one comments on the weather.

Morgana stopped digging into his meal then gave a quizzical tilt of his head while Ryuji arched his brow. “Loki is your brother, yeah? The one who almost leveled New York City?”

Thor regarded him with a thoughtful gaze, “I was not aware that people from a far away country such as Japan, would be concerned for an equally faraway place like New York.”

“Well, what happened to the city just sucked, y'know?” Ryuji shrugs, not really wanting to explain how he'd actually thought about taking his mom for a trip once he'd scraped enough money to afford it. She dreamed of seeing all the sights the Big Apple had. After they get everyone back, Ryuji swears that would be the first thing he'd do once he sees his mom again.

Feeling his eyes watering at the thought of his mom, Ryuji hid his sniffle by taking a large bite of his sandwich. The teen went back on topic after he swallowed. “Anyways, you mentioned Akira reminding you of Loki? How so?”

“My brother,” Thor begins after taking a big bite of his sandwiched bundle of Pop Tarts. His features softening and voice relaxed by the memory. “He loves to cause trouble. Scheming. He especially loves the kind that would involve innocuous actions that would later become a chaotic mess of both actual and metaphorical consequences.”

“Wow, he sounds like a serious prankster.”

Thor nodded proudly at Morgana's assessment. “Loki is the God of Mischief. A Trickster.”

“He is, huh?” Hold on, wasn't there someone they'd met yesterday who'd mentioned the word Trickster out of the blue?

He turned to Morgana who also reflected back an expression of incredulous realization. That Asgardian had a smarmy way about him. Something about the way he smiled and…oh. Akira smirked back …because he knew!

“Son of a bi-!”

“I knew that Dan person was sus!”

“I beg your pardon?” Thor confusedly looked between the two of them. “Is there something the matter?”

“I'm sorry for asking this, but is there a chance that Loki may still be alive?” Ryuji carefully asks.

“ In all the time I've known him, Loki has died twice. Both times of which were false.”

“Then…?”

Thor shook his head with shoulders weighed down by grief. “ As much as I wish it to be, I cannot.” Thor pauses. His next words were spoken in pain. “Thanos strangled him in front of my very eyes. There was no escaping that.”

Morgana stands between them, “But he's a Trickster isn't he? Akira’s one and he's also faked his death!”

“Aye, he is…was and…I must accept that this time, Loki is truly gone.” The god said, hanging his head dejectedly.

Well, shit. Two words that he and Morgana silently exchanged through a glance, unbeknownst to the grieving god.

Ryuji was impulsive, as is Morgana who'd often blurt out his thoughts. On any other day, either one of them could have loudly voiced out their unexpected discovery. Not today and especially not when faced with the devastated expression on the God of Thunder’s usually joyful face.

Though Ryuji had only known Thor for mere hours, he could tell the god was a good person. He likes him enough to not want to see him mourn for a brother who he knows for sure is alive.

He turns to Morgana who shakes his head at him, which could mean he doesn't know what to do or ‘don't say anything’. Maybe both and that made sense. He didn't want to give Thor false hopes if by some cosmic fluke he was wrong about Loki. He had to be smart about this. And boy, wouldn't Makoto and Ann be proud of him right about now for this stroke of brilliant foresight?

The only way of going about this was to confront the other trickster before letting Thor know. Decision in mind, Ryuji and Morgana went towards where the refugees from space were camped. To search for the trickster hiding in plain sight.

Avengers' Compound. Guest Room. 2018.

“What. The. Fuck.” Ryuji deliberately says in a slow angry manner. Morgana hissed in bewildered dissent beside him.

Akira had the audacity to appear surprised before smiling amusedly at them. “We were just waiting for you two.” His leader casually gestures to an empty space beside him, which he'd wondered as to the purpose when suddenly there were two green bean bags that materialized from thin air to match the others that the two Tricksters were lounging on.

From the moment Ryuji had realized “Dan’s” identity, he'd had all this righteous rage bottled up inside on his way here, but after seeing the calm and casual setup before him, it just fizzled out as he realized the futility of throwing a fit that Akira would undoubtedly ignore.

Without another word, Ryuji parks himself on the bean bag. Releasing a heavy sigh much like a deflating balloon. He still kept glaring at “Dan”, who had a smug smile plastered on.

Akira then turned to Morgana who still had his jaw ajar until his name was called. The feline shakes his head in resignation before situating himself on the bean bag between Akira's and his.

“Somehow, this surprise doesn't exceed that time we learned Akechi was a bad guy.”

Akira laughingly replied. “All thanks to pancakes .”

The Asgardian regards them curiously and looks a little annoyed at being out of the loop. “I do not see how flat cakes are funny.”

Ryuji snorts, “It's a long story.”

“And we're not here for that,” Morgana, swishing his tail, adds. He then turns questioningly to Akira, who smiles back in answer. “We're here for yours, Loki .” 

“Well done.” A voice much deeper and older sounding came from the supposed adolescent Asgardian sitting with them. Ryuji blinked and the teen “Dan” was gone in a flash of green, replaced by a man.

“I must say, Trickster, I am a little envious of your ‘team’.” Loki comments with air quotes. “No one even suspects of my identity and yet it's only been a day and already your associates have figured me out.”

Ryuji took in Loki’s form and couldn't help but tilt his head in wonder. Aside from the hair color swap of brown from black, Dan’s general features greatly resembled Loki’s, just de-aged, heck both their eyes were green! How could Thor not have noticed this?

Akira takes control of the conversation and implores the not-dead god of mischief to share his story as agreed.

Hah, figures there had been a deal involved. It was so like his tricky best friend.

It took hours for Loki to finish his story. Even then, they could feel the Asgardian, no, scratch that, Frost Giant, left out a lot of things from his story, but they understood not to press the already distressed god. 

Luckily, none of the Avengers had come looking for them during this time. As for meals, FRIDAY had some bots discreetly bring it to Akira's room. And while FRIDAY had initially been wary of the notorious god, her attitude towards Loki gradually changed once the revelation about the real mastermind behind the New York invasion was revealed to be the very same alien who caused the Decimation.

Wow. Ryuji had not expected to feel a kinship to the god after hearing Loki's story. Because for someone who has lived a thousand years, the last thing he'd thought a god's problems to be was something like the shit teenagers like him go through? What's it called, puberty? Coming-of-age? Identity crisis? Adulthood? All of the above? Chuunibyou on crack? Fuck, were Loki and Thor actually the equivalent of Asgardian teenagers?

Ryuji could tell Akira and Morgana had the same thought as they saw in each others' faces similar incredulous expressions. Then Ryuji saw a familiar smirk that always came before an outrageous idea. Then with a mischievous glint in his eyes, Akira clasped his hands over his knees. “I think you'd fit right in with us Phantom Thieves, Loki. What do you say?”

At Akira's question, Loki rolled his eyes and scoffed at their naivety. They were children after all, notwithstanding their powerful soul magic. That was what he'd thought until the Phantom Thieves shared their events of the past year. Why they decided to do so baffled him until he realized later on that though they were children, they were astute enough– especially Kurusu, to know that if they wanted to get him on their side, they needed to show him why. And by the Norns, had he a kindred soul in them. Parent issues, or in Kurusu’s case parents, branded by society's preconceptions, failed by authority figures. Which led to a rebellion, an awakening of powers and the actions undertaken to change everything as the Phantom Thieves of Hearts.

Understanding and an offer of friendship was the last thing Loki had expected when he had sauntered into the mortal Trickster’s room. After being on guard for so long, it was only after he'd released his burdens and sorrows that the god felt that bone heavy weariness.

Hours had passed and at the end of each of their tales, the three Thieves were giving him expectant looks. He knew when he was outmatched. Loki concedes with a sigh. “Very well. I will join your group.” If anyone asked Loki why he'd joined, he'd say it was purely for self-preservation from the Avengers and not because he liked the Thieves. It was not that at all.

Chapter Text

War Room, Avengers Compound. 2018

“Stop treating us like kids who don't know anything.” Akira snaps at anyone in the room eyeing them with doubt and pity. “Just like everyone here, we've saved the world and we're ready to do it again.” W ith or without you was clearly insinuated in the Phantom Kid’s posture.

“ There’s a reason why we didn't stop you from investigating us. ” Morgana conspicuously jumps on the table and despite sitting down, the way he tilts his furry head makes it seem like he's looking down on them all. “ We don't need you to take care of us or protect us from anything .”

Ryuji steps in with a thunderous glare. “Loki is one of us.” He says in his heavily accented English.

“What if he's lying?” Natasha keeps her piercing gaze on Loki. “He's the God of Mischief. Lying is second nature to him. It's likely he's fooling you to worm his way into your group, because you three are powerful.”

“You guys don't know him like we do.” Steve appeals, “He could be taking advantage of that and…”

“ENOUGH!” Bruce shouted, but with Hulk's deep booming voice.

Everyone in the room except himself, Thor and the Thieves startled into battle stances. Eyeing the doctor’s slightly green skin with wariness.

Was it too much of an ask to have a team meeting without the explosive confrontations? It had started on a productive note when the Thieves, the Avengers and the other new faces started discussing the basics. 

The late morning started in the War Room. With a silent wariness in the air as everyone took their places in their respective groups. In addition to the Civil War divide, there were now three more. Thor's space group, Okoye and several members of the Dora Milaje, who were present non-physically via video call from Wakanda and then there were the Phantom Thieves.

It was the latter that spoke first at Steve's prompting. The Phantom Thieves were the ones to call everyone in and not to mention, have the most interesting topic of all. How to bring everyone back.

It took a while for everyone else to digest everything the Thieves had to share about their powers and the Metaverse. There were concerns about the changing of hearts being another kind of mind control. Seeing as it was a touchy subject in their group and the similarities unnerved those who'd had experienced it first-hand.

It was only until Akira explained the Jungian aspect and emphasized how they couldn't force anyone to change if there was no desire for it, when those concerns were reluctantly let go. There was also the fact that it wasn't the Phantom Thieves who were misusing the Metaverse for their own gains. 

And boy was that an eye opener.

Everyone in the room had seen and shed blood through trials of fire or some such shit, but Tony had never known how much society had failed these kids. A pervert and abusive teacher. A leech of an artist. A scammer playing at Mafia. An extreme capitalist. A dictator wannabe.

Judging from everyone in the room's variation of expressions of righteous fury, Tony could safely say they'd done their digging on the Thieves and were now putting the puzzle pieces together.

Akira may have recounted his false charges and subsequent probation nonchalantly, but everyone in the room could see how much distrust Akira's eyes held as he met their gaze.

And for once, everyone in the room silently agreed on that point. These Thieves, kids really, though employed questionable methods, were ultimately, not bad.

Akira was all business again once the moment passed. “The working theory is, when Thanos used the stones something happened in the Metaverse.”

Ironic how the alien did everything for “balance” and ended up disturbing something in the Force. Hah. Take that, Purple Grape!

“So you're saying everyone who was snapped is in this place called the Metaverse?” Rhodey asked, sounding both hopeful and skeptical at the same time.

“How…” Steve stammers. “Where did you get this information?”

Akira ignores Steve's question. He addresses Rhodey instead. “Yes, but we need to know more about the Infinity Stones. The magic parts about it.”

Natasha crosses her arms, “You guys can do spells, can't you just, I dunno, do some scrying or something like that?”

“ Yeah, we can, but that's because of our Personas. Real world magic ,” Ryuji makes jazz hands. “ We know nothing about that .”

“ Right, just keep letting them know how useless we are, why don't you?” Morgana sighs.

“I've got a Wizard's number.” Tony offers, ignoring all the sideglances and arched brows thrown his way. “And he seems like he knows a lot about the Stones. He did give the lecture with the magical lights on it.”

Akira nods in appreciation, but clears his throat. “Actually, we've got someone.” 

And flash forward to now, or just thirty seconds after Akira revealed their newest member. The thrice-thought (ought) dead God of Mischief, who except for Thor and Bruce have neither forgiven nor forgotten for New York.

Akira gave the Doctor a pat on the shoulder. “Aside from Thor, Dr. Banner and Hulk agree on giving Loki a chance. Are you saying they don't know any better?”

“No, but…”

“I thought you believed in second chances, Mr. Rogers? Or does that only apply to a certain someone?”

Okay, Tony decides he's gotta do something here, even if it may be dumb for the baseline human to get between a super soldier and a Phantom Thief. Though it's the latter Tony turns his back to.

“Look, I get it.” He glares at Steve. “We all had beef with Reindeer Games, but if Phantom Kid here vouches for him, then I think we should give Loki a shot.”

“Seriously, Stark?”

“Yeah.” He scoffs at Clint. “Seriously and I'm saying it even after the fact that he'd thrown me out of my Tower.”

“He messed with my head!”

And just as quick as flipping a channel on the television, the meeting dissolved into chaos yet again.

“This again?” Morgana softly whined. Not that speaking quietly was needed in the room with raised voices drowning out reasoning.

This was like the when they first arrived and had unknowingly walked into a room of bickering Avengers. Only this time, they were part of it, or rather the cause…but, semantics.

Akira sighed and Tony knew a headache was imminent for him. Can't they see they don't have time for this? Tony inwardly lamented. Wiping his hand down his face.

“ Make them stop, Akira .” Ryuji pleads while Morgana agrees with a nod of his head.

Rather than retorting at the impossible task, Akira seemed to be weighing his choices in his mind.

With the room not paying attention to Akira summoning of a long and papery looking wolf– which Tony would later know as Makami, Akira casted a Makajam or a silence spell over the group.

“ Finally, it's quiet again .” Morgana sighs in relief at the blanket of silence.

Ryuji groans, “ I thought it'd never end .”

Everyone turned to Akira. With gaping mouths and either expressions of righteous anger, disbelief or annoyance at suddenly being silenced.

“Truly, the world is ending if it is the young ones who are now setting to order a room full of adults.” Okoye  comments to the amusement of the other Dora Milaje. She then waves her hand for Akira to continue.

It's also good to know that their spells only seem to work within proximity.

Akira gestured to the chairs vacated at some point in the argument, then seated himself at a random seat. One by one the Avengers were in position much like the beginning of the meeting.

There's no head of the table when it's round, but the way Akira carried himself proved otherwise. Ryuji sat beside him while Morgana took his place on the table, between the two thieves' seats.

“I’ll start with what I told Mr. Rogers and Ms. Romanoff yesterday morning. About where everyone else is and how to get them back.”

“I'll release the spell now, but if any of you get unruly, I'm silencing you all again, okay?”

The silence lingered even with the spell lifted. It seems everyone was reluctant at being the one to cause a spark that would ignite the arguments anew. Barring that, most if not all their grievances had already been aired out. And they really needed to focus now on their immediate goal, which was getting everyone back.

Seeing the opportunity for what it is, Akira was about to speak when someone else didn't read the room and spoke of a fact that made everyone in the room reconsider again.

“I know where he is.” Nebula, the woman whose body was more machine than organic, says evenly.

“Excuse me?” Rhodey rears back. And just as the rest of the room is about to explode from the revelation, Tony spotted Akira was readying himself to cast another Silence on the room.

He shakes his head when their eyes meet. Stand down.

Truthfully, Tony was not surprised.  Having spent almost a month with the cybernetic woman trapped in a dying spaceship, Tony figured out long ago there must be something that kept her going on despite their hopeless situation then of being adrift in space with no hopes of rescue in sight. And now he knows, this was it. Where her drive to move forward. The knowledge that would help her get even with her Old Man the Purple Grape.

Nebula stands her ground against the unsaid accusation of withholding this piece of vital information. “Except for the raccoon and Stark, I do not know you.” She glared that death glare that could mean literally you're dead glare or just that she's annoyed at you glare. This was the former.

“I do not trust you.”

It was such an inappropriate moment to feel touched at Nebula’s words, but Tony couldn't help the small smile when their eyes met across the room. 

“Okay. We get it and appreciate that you're sharing it with us now.” Rhodey ever the conciliator, says– and also why he's better to be the leader of the team.

“Thanos spent a long time trying to perfect me. And when he worked, he talked about his great plan. Even disassembled, I wanted to please him.”

Tony shivered at the image. Though Nebula told her story with a straight face like nothing was wrong, there was just something in Nebula’s eyes that said otherwise.

“I'd ask where would we go once his plan was complete? His answer was always the same. To the Garden."

That's cute,” Rhodey scoffed. “Thanos has a retirement plan.”

“So where is he?” Steve implored. Eager to get a piece of the alien. So were Natasha and Thor by the looks of it.

“Ah, that's what it was.” The raccoon exclaims in realization, drawing the room's attention to him. 

A hologram of the galaxy appeared between them. Zooming in on Earth with a foreboding pulse running on its surface.

“When Thanos snapped his fingers, Earth became ground zero for a power surge of ridiculously cosmic proportions. No one's ever seen anything like it…”

“The Stones.” Akira utters in awe.

With a few more button presses, Rocket manipulated the hologram to zoom in on a planet depicting the same wave of ominous energy.

“Until two days ago. On this planet.”

Nebula points. “Thanos is there.” 

“He used the Stones again.” Natasha stated. Exchanging knowing looks with Clint and Steve.

With the new information came a much more civil discussion. Two teams. One going to confront Thanos while the other heading to Tokyo to recon on the Metaverse. This was the best case compromise they were all gonna get and Tony was pretty much in favor of it.

The Benatar was pretty much voyage worthy since Rocket and Nebula had been working on it nonstop. Sadly, the size couldn't take the whole team.

Naturally, the two Guardians were going. As were the heavy hitters, Danvers and Thor. Which leaves two more spots.

Tony had no interest in going up to space again anytime soon. Plus, he was still recovering from his month long involuntary fasting.

Surprisingly, or maybe not surprisingly, Bruce declined. Citing his ongoing problem with the Other Guy. It hadn't escaped Tony's attention how Bruce gave Akira an apologetic smile.

Predictably, Natasha and Steve ended up being the two to fill the spot. Clint bowing out with one frosty look from the Black Widow.

The other team, the recon one, consisted of the Phantom Thieves, Loki and himself– because he wasn't going to let two kids, a cat and a reformed supervillain unsupervised. No sirey. And no it wasn't because he was running away from his problems (read: guilt and grief).

Clint was staying in the Compound. He would handle communications duty and be a bridge between the two teams.

The Dora Milaje would be busy with providing aid wherever they can and also with rebuilding Wakanda. They only asked to be informed of the Avenger's progress in exchange for their assistance when truly needed.

It was when the conference room was clearing that something caught Tony's attention.

A blue butterfly was innocently flying down towards Akira's head, purposefully passing by the kid’s sights. Its glowing form had also caught the Phantom Thief’s attention with the way Akira froze.

Curious, Tony approached the Phantom Thieves, ignoring Loki's narrowed eyes of suspicion. “Was that you?” He pointed to where the butterfly had disappeared.

“What?”

“The blue butterfly? I didn't know you could do something like the Wizard did?”

Akira regarded him with curious amazement. “You saw the butterfly, Tony-san?”

He blinked at the odd reaction. “Should I not have?”

Akira rubs the back of his neck, “It could be something , but…I guess it just means you really need to come with us to the Metaverse, Tony-san.”

“Wasn't really planning on skipping out on you guys. Besides, someone needs to keep an eye on Reindeer Games here.” He points to the God of Mischief who rolled his eyes.

A Nook, Avengers Compound. 2018

In the farthest most secluded corner of the Compound where almost no one passes through, the Phantom Thieves lounged atop large bean bags. Nursing warm drinks, snacking on colorfully packaged food and engaging in friendly banter.

“Do we still call you Dan or can we call you Loki now?” Morgana, the not-cat inquired whilst sprawled on his space with a paw curled inward.

“The latter.” Loki shrugs. “It serves no purpose to hide my name when all the Avengers know.”

“Yo, why’d you use the name ‘Dan’?

“I was wondering the same. Your excuse was flimsy at best when you introduced yourself to us.”

“Flimsy?” Loki turns to his fellow Trickster with an arched brow.

“Yeah. There was a slight pause when you said your name like you were hesitating. Like you're not used to introducing yourself as Dan.”

“We had the same problem when we had just started using codenames.” Morgana elaborates much to young Ryuji’s consternation as he adds. 

“Yeah. Kinda embarrassing when you blurt out the wrong name.”

“I see.” Loki hums. “Well, the name comes from the alias I used one time when I was here in Midgard, D.B Cooper. I think the name became pretty famous for a while.”

“Really?”

“The name does sound kinda familiar…FRIDAY?”

“D.B. Cooper. Also known as Dan Cooper, allegedly. Was the suspect for hijacking a Boeing 727 and parachuting from the plane mid-flight before disappearing.

“Allegedly?” Questioned Ryuji.

“Because Dan Cooper did not exist.” Akira says while exchanging knowing smiles with Loki.

Morgana snorted. “You already had the makings of a Phantom Thief way back then, huh?”

“I lost a bet to Thor and thought to make some mischief out of it.” Loki says with a tinge of nostalgia. Memories of simpler times.

“I'm guessing you somehow teleported when you jumped out of the plane?”

“Bifrost.” Loki confirms Akira's spot on guess.

“Bi-frost?” Ryuji says. The unfamiliar term as foreign to his tongue as the language this country speaks. “What's that?”

“A type of Einstein-Rosen Bridge which allows for instantaneous travel between Asgard and Earth.” FRIDAY explains before Loki could.

Which matters not as both children and the not-cat were amazed nonetheless. Expressing excitement at wanting to see and learn more about it.

“Of which Thor could be of more help about that. He did share a brief romance with an expert on Einstein-Rosen Bridges. Furthermore has the portable version of it in his ax, Stormbreaker.”

Embarassed yet secretly delighted at being found out, Thor sauntered out of his unintended hiding spot with a beam and joined the Phantom Thieves. Regaling them with more tales of his and Loki's adventures with the occasional objection from his brother.

Chapter Text

The Garden, Planet 0259-S. 2018.

Seeing the ‘Garden’, a lone planet away from any major systems, Thor could feel nothing but rage. How dare this Titan spend the rest of his days here in this desolate yet lush place of peace while the rest of the universe suffers for what he did?

So shaken was the Thunderer with anger that he'd stood quietly in a corner and let the others confront the Mad Titan.

“Oh, no.” Rocket gasped at the sight of the ruined gauntlet that held the Stones.

Steve lunged for the fallen Titan. “Where are they?”

“Answer the question!” The woman who glowed with the power of many suns, Danvers, pushed at the Titan's non-answer.

“The universe required correction. After that, the Stones served no purpose, beyond temptation.” The Titan stated in between pained breaths, garnering pity from no one in the room, not even his daughter.

“You murdered half of the universe!” The other man of iron exclaimed.

Thanos regarded them with an accomplished grin. “You should be grateful.”

“Where are the Stones?” Natasha asked coldly.

“Gone.” The Titan rasped. “Reduced to atoms.”

“You used them two days ago!” Rocket yelled, tail bristling.

“I used the Stones to destroy the Stones. It nearly killed me. But the work is done. It always will be.” Thanos straightened himself despite his arm being cut off.

“I am...inevitable.”

“We have to tear this place apart, he…has to be lying.” Rhodes stammered.

“My father is many things.” Nebula shakes her head. “A liar is not one of them.”

“Ah, thank you, daughter.” Thanos says to a Nebula who seemed taken aback, but snarled at what the Titan says afterwards. “Perhaps I treated you too harshly.”

They do not need to listen to the ramblings of a mad man. And neither does he. Without even consciously summoning Stormbreaker, Thor found the weapon was already in his hands.

Then in the span between one breath and the next, Thor swung his ax and the Titan spoke no more.

Wordlessly, Nebula wipes her face. Unperturbed by the blood of the father she'd wanted to please for so long. Shock can be as quiet as it can be loud.

“What…” Rocket turns to him. Confusion etched on his furry brows. ”What did you do?”

How strange…to not feel satisfaction at ending the Titan. All Thor could feel was a heaviness numbing his body. Weighing him down, making it hard to breathe. The guilt of failure, all consuming.  He…

“I went for the head.” He spits before walking away from the hut.

Outside, Thor ignored the freshness of the air, chilling his lungs and coating his tongue with that dewy moisture that early morning breezes have. He does not look in wonder at the peaceful scene of vegetable patches, the green fields beyond and the clear skies. Instead, he sees Asgard, Nidavelir, and Midgard. All broken and unlikely to recover. Physically in the first two cases. Emotionally, in the latter's.

Thor doesn't know how long he's been outside until someone approaches him from behind. Judging by the sound of the heavy footfalls with a hint of mechanical whirls it was the other man of iron.

“I really wished there was something here.” Rhodes tiredly says. “Because now…much as I hate to say this, but we're desperate enough to put all our hopes on two kids and their cat.” 

“Aye. That we are.”

StarkJet, International Waters. 2018.

Tony awoke with a shudder despite the complete absence of turbulence. His hand touched where his stab wound used to be. Black and blue with streaks of dried blood and all sorts of infected or so it used to be. Now, it was all healed up thanks to Akira's magic.

Sighing at being awoken to phantom pains and the experienced fear a month ago, Tony ran a hand down his face and looked around.

The main lights of the cabin were all dimmed. Ryuji was heavily snoring at the other end with Morgana snuggled on his lap. His cheek pressed against Ryuji's stomach. 

The Phantom Thieves were asleep, except for one. The Phantom Kid was awake. Eyes focused on a holoscreen with a warm drink nestled in his hands.

Peering over the kid's shoulders, Tony saw the footage of the Battle of Wakanda. Thankfully, it was not on the part where the Mind Stone was ripped off of Vision. Though he wasn't sure if seeing Thanos on the screen was any better.

“Odd choice of late night movie there, Phantom Kid.” He quipped with a wan smile, which quickly faded upon seeing Akira looking whiter than white with his pupils blown wide in fear.

Tony immediately grasped the kid's fisted hand. Having quickly caught on to Akira on the verge of a panic attack. No doubt triggered by the Purple Grape on the screen raising his gauntlet and…

“Hey, hey.” He reached for Akira's shoulder with his other hand. Turning the distraught kid to face him while pressing the fisted one to his chest. “You're safe, kid. You're alright. Just follow what I'm doing and breathe after me.”

The kid's shaking lessens after a few minutes. “I'm scared.” Tony almost doesn't hear the kid say. What with his head bowed down and all.

“Kid,” he winces a bit at using the word while thinking of another person. He presses on though. He's not about to fail this one. “I'm scared of him too.”

Akira turns to him with a silent doubt.

“Look, I may have fought him and wiped the floor with him, but then he threw a moon at me and well…” He tries a joke at his own expense and garners a tiny shadow of a smile.

“I’m just a man in a can while you've got your own brand of mystical magic I'm sure he's never seen. You and your team are gonna wipe the floor with him. The Purple Grape’s not gonna know what hit him and when he tries to throw a moon at you…” Tony squeezes Akira's hand reassuringly. “We’re gonna catch it for you."

He doesn't elaborate on who's the ‘we’, but Tony hopes it includes all the Avengers aside from Bruce, Hulk and the Asgardians and maybe the Guardians.

“What.” Akira chokes in a laugh.

Tony pats him in the back for comfort. “Yeah, not really a good one as far as motivational talks go.  You get what I mean though, right?”

Seeing the beaming youth with a renewed confidence made the awkward mentor-like conversation worth it– much like that time a certain Spiderling rejected his offer of joining the Avengers.

“I think I need to wake Ryuji and Mona for this.” 

And much like a certain Spiderling’s up to no good smirk, Tony knew Akira had an idea in that smirk of his.

Stark Industries Tokyo Branch. Roppongi, Tokyo. 2018

Even before the mass global disappearance phenomenon or better known as the Decimation, the Snap, Miyu Shiohara had a routine.

When before it was an obligation for financial sustenance now it has become her very purpose to move from one day to the next.

In a typical shonen manga storyboard, the main characters have a drive to continue on despite the hardships. Following the formula of friendship, effort and victory.

Sadly for her, who's neither the protagonist of a story nor someone with special skills like the Avengers, who are most likely getting to the bottom of things, Miyu only has this mundane routine of mindless tasks to cope with the world that's barely making any sense.

Making sure nothing is out of order in her desk, she touches a flat rectangular object propped between her keyboard and monitor. A new action added to her routine. A reminder of what she'd lost. 

It flares to life and reveals a photo of her and a teen. Her little sister, Mayu. Lost like the rest of the world.

Miyu’s phone lights up with a buzz. The Phantom Thief insignia taking up the screen. Her wallpaper setting at the insistence of Mayu who had been…no, is still a fan of the group.

Now, more than ever, Miyu wishes they could ‘steal’ back everyone from whatever caused this.

Unlocking her phone, Miyu finds two notifications. The first was an invitation to a support group, which she promptly deleted. The second was an update from the Phansite .

Clicking the link opened into a short video. Her screen was washed in red with the Phantom Thieves' logo at the center. The flame portions rippled a bit before changing to an image of a young man. From the clothes and mask, Miyu easily identified the standing figure as the leader, Joker.

Though she had a feeling she'd seen that messy mop of dark hair fairly recently, though she cannot recall exactly where. While she pondered the thought, two more figures joined Joker. One was of the same height as the young man while the other much smaller, like a big teddy bear? Maybe an animatronic mascot or something?

“We are the Phantom Thieves of Hearts.” Joker in the videos says. “And today we are here not to make a calling card, but to make a request.”

“Everyone's lost someone and we know this is a big ask, but we're gonna ask it anyway, because we need your help.” A tiny voice says. Taking another look at the small figure next to one of the Thieves, it had cat ears and a tail though it stood on its hind legs like a person.

This time it was the one beside Joker who continued with a strained cheer. “We've lost someone…a lot of someones too. But! We are not giving up! We've teamed up with the Earth's Mightiest and are doing everything we can to get everyone we've lost back!”

They've lost their friends too. Miyu numbingly realized the missing numbers in the group.

“Everyone,” Joker pleadingly looks at the screen. To whoever's watching on the other side of it. “Don't give up hope. We will find a way through this.” Joker's resolute voice filtering through Miyu's tiny phone speakers. “ And together we'll take back everything Thanos stole from us!”

“You a fan of the Phantom Thieves too?”

Miyu jumped with a squeak at the question. She had been too focused on her phone to not notice the man's approach.

Putting on her courteous smile with just enough hints of apologetics, Miyu looked up to find the owner of the building peering down at her with an equally media approved smile. Though he seemed like he went through a lot– dark bags under the eyes, sunken cheeks and a sickly pallor. Not surprising, seeing as he's an Avenger…

“Mr. Stark?” She almost stuttered, but quickly recovered with a greeting.

“Yeah, morning and all. That.” The eccentric billionaire points at her phone. “What'd you think of that? You think they can pull it off?” He asks in accented Japanese common to Americans.

Miyu wanted to reply carefully and vaguely; however, seeing Mr. Stark's suddenly genuine expression of interest, she decided against it and answered with her heart.

“My little sister was a fan. More than that, she believed in them. Was happy for a friend of hers, who she claims to have been helped by them.” She paused at the recollection of better days before continuing. “I want to believe like she did…does.” She quickly corrects herself.

Another man walked behind Mr. Stark and beside him were two teenagers and their cat.

Miyu observed them for a bit when finally something clicked in her mind. “Ah. It's you three.”

“Hey.” The blonde sheepishly greets while the other one holding the cat gives her a small bow of his head. Seeing as they were together with the owner of the building, Miyu now understood.

“I guess you were telling the truth…I'm sor-.”

“If I may,” a feminine voice suddenly spoke out of nowhere, which caused Miyu to jump again. “There is no need for you to apologize for doing your job, Ms. Shiohara. In fact, if it weren't for me trying to be discreet, Akira, Ryuji and Morgana would have been included in the list of visitors.”

Miyu turned to look at Mr. Stark, who simply shrugged and explained nothing at all. “Oh.” She manages to say in her dazed state. “You're FRIDAY.”

“Yes, I am and I'm also sorry for any inconvenience caused last time.”

Not quite sure what to think, Miyu expressed her appreciation, albeit awkwardly. 

She was still grasping the situation in front of her when suddenly, Mr. Stark dropped a hasty goodbye and collected the two boys by draping his arms around their shoulders and ushering them out the door. The taller man followed them after giving her a wink.

Shibuya Crossing, Tokyo. 2018.

“You know I almost dreaded the mob of people rushing towards me, because you know, I'm me.” Tony proudly gestures to himself. 

“But then with this.” He points to the passersby who not only are quite a few in number for the rush hour, but also not looking their way. 

“I’m used to people gawking at me and getting into my space, but this…ignoring me, like I'm not even here…wait…” Tony suddenly spins to Loki with a pointed finger.

“This is you isn't it?”

“Guilty as charged.” Loki admits with surrendered hands. “My apologies, I was of the idea that discretion would be prudent given our location and your fame?”

That made sense, Tony thought. “It’s fine, I guess. Next time just let us know first before you cast anything that affects us?”

“It’s a good idea though. Thanks.” Akira pats the slightly surprised Loki. A funny sight when Akira is shorter than the god.

“Yeah, it's how we got caught by FRIDAY in the first place, y’know?” Ryuji adds.

“Which will be the least of your troubles now since I am also a part of the group.” FRIDAY declares. 

“Consider all digital footage of Phantom Thieves activities from here on out sanitized and/or out of reach of unauthorized persons.”

Ryuji blew a whistle in admiration.

“Ok, so where's the entrance to the Metaworld?” 

“Metaverse.” Morgana corrects his impatient self before jumping off of Akira's shoulder with four paws to standing on the ground with two and in his Phantom Thief getup. The transformation still weirded him out.

With small arms crossed, Morgana's adorably unproportionally sized head tilted towards the station entrance. “You're looking right at it.”

Tony thinks the not-cat is pulling his leg.

“I thought an entrance to everyone’s subconscious would appear more…well, less mundane.”

Instead of answering Loki, Akira takes out his smartphone– not a Starkphone, which Tony will remedy after this, and taps an app icon with an eye inside a red box.

His vision swims and just as he was about to ask if anyone else felt the vertigo, it was gone. Everything else though was not as it were.

“Extraordinary.” Loki gasped.  

“What the hell? Wait, are we in Hell ?” He turns to Akira, who smiled and Ryuji who shrugged.  “Please tell me I'm not the only one seeing all that flowing red that I really hope isn't blood?”

When no one answered him, Tony turned towards the spot they were all looking at.

Logically, Tony knew that he was looking at the subway entrance, but with how it appeared to be a yawning hole of pitch black darkness…

“How very inviting this Mementos is.” Loki snorts with false bravado. Clearly bothered by the impenetrable darkness after several steps down the stairs.

“Weirded me out the first time we went here too. Like, why's it so dark or where do the trains go and why's everything red…oh hey, do you think the Reaper's still there?” Ryuji suddenly asks in the middle of his story.

“Doesn't sound ominous at all.” Tony quipped and Loki nodded in agreement, which…that will probably take some time for it to be not weird for him. This ‘getting along with Loki’ thing.

“We can beat it.” Akira simply answers and simply heads down the dark steps, expecting them to follow after.

Mementos. 2018.

It was brighter than expected inside Mementos. Not as abyssal dark as it had appeared from ground level, but not so bright that you could see everything. There were quite a lot of shadows that could jump them, Tony observed as they stood around the first level of Mementos, where Akira explains is the real entrance.

“Why a subway though?” He'd thought aloud. “If anything, I'd imagined everyone's consciousness to be a more abstract place.”

“Fox mentioned that a subway station is exactly how he'd imagined the subconscious would be.”

Skull brought down a fist to his palm. “Right, something about modern society, interconnectedness and movement?” He then scratches his head. “Dunno, what the hell it all means, but I kinda get it.”

“Fascinating.” Loki murmured while taking in the sights. “The soul magic here is phenomenal. It's…” he gasps in realization. 

“What is it, Reindeer Games?”

Expecting a glare of annoyance, Tony was instead met with a frown of uncertainty. “I cannot pretend to understand the hows; however, it is undeniable that this place we are in is being manifested by Soul Magic. To whose bidding and end, I know not and it worries me.”

Tony tiredly sighs at the thought of a possible problem of the mysterious magic kind. His worries were immensely lessened when he met Akira's reassuring gaze. “That won't be a problem.”

Loki narrowed his eyes. “How can you be certain?” Not in malicious doubt, only curiosity as is normal amongst friends.

“A hunch.” Akira cryptically says.

Morgana emits a strange noise between a yowl, a screech and a purr. It grabbed everyone's attention and shifted Loki's question for later.

“There's something strange at the bottom of Mementos.”

Ryuji growls viciously, “Is it that cup again?”

Cup? And what's a cup got the Thieves all worked up? Tony thinks as he sees Morgana's fur rise and Akira's sharp grin. He catches Loki's inquisitive gaze and raises a brow. The god shrugged in response. Seeming to be in the dark as he was.

“Alright, so how are we gonna get there? We hop on one of the trains?”

“Nah, we got our own ride, Tony-san,” Ryuji answered cryptically while looking down at Morgana who stood all puffed up then striked a pose like a Power Ranger.

“Morgana…TRANSFORM!”

There was a puff of smoke and up twirled a cat then down came a minivan. Tony blinked then rubbed his eyes in disbelief. He wondered if it'd be furry on the inside like the one in My Neighbor Totoro which he'd watched with Peter– it was the kid's idea of course. 

“What in the Norns!?”

“A cat turned into a, bu-, car.” He almost said, but corrected himself at the last minute. Beside him he nudged the gaping God of Mischief. “Hey, can you do that?”

Loki, still very much in awe, touched the side of the car (Morgana?) and Tony swore he could hear the car purr, and not the engine purring kind, but the cat-like kind.

“Didn't know the Phantom Thieves have their own Batmobile or Catmobile in this case.” Garnering a laugh from Akira and a narrowed glare from Morgana's head(eye)lights– Tony had thought of crazier things, but none as bonkers as this. 

“There's even ears and a tail!” Loki exclaims.