Things were bad for Jasper, Lapis, Peridot and the remaining Guardians to say the least.

After failing to retrieve the Reality Stone, the three gems from Little Homeworld along with Quill, Drax and Mantis went to the ship of the latter ones to discuss what they were going to do now, it didn't exactly went like they thought. They've been inside of their ship for over five hours, and they didn't do anything useful. Quill had completely lost it after Thanos took Gamora, and the main problem about it was that he wouldn't stop playing the same song, for over five hours now! The main reasoning behind this was because he wanted to 'get his groove back." or something like that. 

Everyone had no idea what he meant by that, but decided to not ask him about that.

"Peridot. Can you?" Jasper finally asked the short green gem, having enough of this song as all of the gems sat by the table.

"If it is like my tablet." Peridot nodded her head as she raised her hand and a moment after she catched Quill's zune with her metal powers and brought it to herself. When it was finally in front of her, Drax immediately took it from her, and turned it off.

"Finally." Lapis said, being sick of this song just as much as everyone else was.

For a few moments, there was quiet. Then Quill yelled from his seat, faint, "Turn it back on!"

"No!' Drax shouted.

Quill pointed at the three gems, "Can one of you take it from him? You're closer to him than me."

"That's not an option." Peridot shook her head.

"We were getting sick of listening to the same song over and over again." Lapis said what was on their minds.

"That's right Quill! I will not listen to the same song! Over and over and over!" Drax agreed with Lapis.

"I'm screwed up, man. I gotta get back in the groove! Specifically the New York Groove!" Quill reminded them why this song should play over and over again.

Drax still held the zune with himself, refusing to give it back to his captain.

"Give me the Zune." Quill repeated himself.

"No!" Drax said back, shaking his head.

"Give. Me. The. Zune!" Quill proceeded to repeat himself.

"No!" Drax's answer was the same, as he ran away with it, with the device still in his hands.

Quill turned to the three gems, "I know you already refused to give it back to me, but I'm asking you again."

"No." Jasper shook her head.

"This isn't helping anyone, Quill, and that includes you too." Lapis pointed out.

''The man who sings this song is a degenerate!" Drax stated.

''I will not sit here and allow you to malign Ace Freely!" Quill exclaimed as he booked it to Drax, on the opposite side of the table from him. The two were equal distance away.

"Both of you stop!" Peridot said, as she jumped on the table, "Arguing is the last thing we should do now!"

''Give me the Zune!" Quill shouted, ignoring what Peridot just said as Drax trying to figure out in which way Quill was going to go, so he could duck him.

"Stop both of you!" Jasper said, standing up from her seat along which was quickly followed by Lapis.

Quill, still ignoring what everyone was saying to him, chased Drax around the table, avoiding the spots where gems stood, until the one who had the Zune said, "Ace Freely is not helping! We haven't even left Knowhere yet!''

"Quill, we understand that you're upset because of Thanos taking Gamora, but sitting and listening to the same song for hours is not going to help you!" Lapis pointed out.

''I'll feel better!" Quill pointed out.

"You won't until you stand up from that seat and do something!" Jasper stated.

"We lost Gamora because of you." Quill said, with his eyes not leaving Drax.

"We lost Gamora, because you would not allow me to seize the moment!" Drax stated, before gesturing towards Lapis, "She was the one who was holding me to the ground with her water magic!"

"What did you just say?" Lapis asked, clearly taken off the guard by Drax blamed her for holding him away from Thanos with her water chains, "We had a chance to suprise him but you wanted to attack him the moment you set your eyes on him!''

Drax scoffed at Lapis reply, avoiding her angry expression as he looked at Quill, "What do you care? You tried to kill her!" 

"She said I'd be saving the universe!" Quill yelled back.

Mantis, who stayed away from the entire argument suddenly spoke up, "I would kill either of you to stop this blinking yellow light.''

"Blinking yellow light?" Jasper turned her attention to  the Guardian who stayed silent for majority of the argument.

"Please, don't tell us that it's what I think it is." Peridot said, as she hopped off the table, onto her disc and flew over to where Mantis was sitting, to check what this yellow light was, "Oh my stars... It is what I think it is..."

"What blinking yellow... the coded message channel?" Quill said, walking over to the screen as Peridot nodded her head in confirmation. 

"How long has this been on?" Peridot asked Mantis.

Mantis didn't reply to her question, as Quill looked down to look at her, "Mantis, a blinking yellow light means someone sent us a secret coded message. How did..." His head shot up as he pointed at Drax, who now stood by Jasper's side, "This was your job."

"It was his job!" Mantis repeated, pointing at Drax.

''But..." Drax said, looking down confused, "It's yellow. And you said 'if it's yellow, let it mellow. If it's brown, flush it down.' Those were your orders.''

Jasper looked at him, wanting to know if he was serious or now, and Lapis, was now angry at him for different reason.

''I wasn't talking about the coded message channel.'' Quill pointed out.

"There's... twenty-two important secret encoded messages..." Peridot spoke up as she was pointing at the screen, "Over twenty messages that could have help us..."

"And instead we were just sitting her for five hours, listening to the same song for five hours..." Jasper stated, with anger in his voice.

A beep came from the machine, as Peridot, "Oh, great. Now twenty-three!"

"Peridot? Can you read them to us?" Lapis asked as Peridot nodded her head.

"Who's Nebula?" was the first thing Peridot asked after opening the messages.

"It's Gamora's sister." Quill told her as he looked over at the messages to read them. A moment after yelled out, happily, and it seemed like he was going to freak out because of it, "Gamora is alive!"

Peridot continued reading the further messages Nebula sent them, "Thanos is taking her to Titan!"

"It must be his home planet." Lapis stated. The name of this planet was Titan, and everyone called Thanos the Mad Titan, so it was pretty obvious to her.

"...Why aren't you responding? Why aren't you responding? Are you getting my important coded secret messages?" Peridot continued reading the messages until she found something useful, " ... Ship coordinates!"

After reading the coordinates, Quill immediately moved towards the map. He began to press some things on it, probably typing the coordinates, or something similiar to that, as Jasper asked Peridot, "Peridot. Do you remember the coordinates she wrote there?" 

"Of course I do." Peridot nodded her head, turning her attention to Jasper and Lapis.

"We'll follow you in Shi'ra's ship." Jasper said, to which Quill nodded his head in understanding, before the three gems moved out of the Guardians' ship and made quickly made their way to Shi'ra's ship.

At least they were where to go...

----

"Follow me." 

Eitri's voice traveled amongst the masses, the Dwarf rising up and stomping forward out into the midst of the forge. Azurite, Shi'ra, Steven, Bismuth and Spinel stepped aside to make way for him, soon joined by Thor, Rocket, and Groot. Reluctantly all of them followed the Dwarf into a certain room. Mold casings lined the walls, a pair of metallic clamps moving across the ceiling and prying a specific mold from its place, bringing it forth to rest before the group.

"This is the plan? We're going to hit him with a brick?" Rocket stated.

Eitri shook his head, "It's a mold. A king's weapon. Meant to be greatest on Asgard. In theory, it could even summon the Bifrost."

"Bifrost?" Spinel asked. She never heard about it before.

"A way to travel between realms." Eitri answered.

"So, it may take us to the Infinity Stones on Earth." Azurite stated.

"Did it have a name? The weapon?" Thor wanted to know.

The Dwarf smirked, turning to Thor and nodding. "Stormbreaker."

"That's a bit much." Rocket stated.

Thor stepped forward, "So, how do we make it?"

''You'll have to restart the forge. Awaken the heart of a dying star." Eitri answered, glancing to where the start would be lit.

Thor glanced over around the group, "Which one of you is the strongest"

 Everyone looked at Bismuth who nodded her head, as she asked, knowing that Thor wanted something from her, "What do you want me to do?"

"I want you and rabbit to fire up the pod." Thor said, earning nods from both of them.

-----

The three gems from Little Homeworld and three Guardians of the Galaxy had arrived on Titan. The trip was quite a nervous one, but there was small relief inside of them, because at least now they knew the next possible location of Thanos, so they still had a chance to stop him, and to save Gamora from him.

After landing on this planet, both crew got out of the ships and met each other on the field.

"So, we're here." Quill was the first person to speak up. 

"Ready? Are you all ready?" Jasper asked.

"You don't need to ask." Quill replied.

"Good." Jasper stated.

"Guys." Mantis spoke up, "There is something approaching."

"Something?" Quill said.

"Is it them?" Lapis asked.

"I don't know." Mantis answered, as everyone looked in the direction she was looking it, "It is like... a flying circle... that is getting very close to the ground.."

Suddenly, there was a shattering boom, hard and sharp, from outside of the ship, and it almost made Peridot fall from her disc. It was a rumbling, prolonged noise, that lasted very nearly a full minute because of its destruction.

"Guys. I think they're here." Lapis stated.

"Let us destroy them." Drax said, unsheathing his knives.

"Took those words right out of my mouth, Drax." Quill said, clicking on his mask, as Jasper summoned her helmet.

After making sure that they had everything they needed, the group headed out towards the place of the crashing. When the place where it crashed came into their view, they a large, circular ship had completely shattered on impact. It was split into two parts, and tehy were all running to the closest. They spotted that the ship had holes and rips inside of the of it, a lot of them. They could crawl through them, but luckilly for them there was no need for that, because there was  a hole that was big enough for all of them to rush in. It was at the ground level.

Mantis poked her head out of the corner, and spotted three figures inside, "There are three figures who I have never seen before. I think they may be children of Thanos."

Quill nodded to the group before rolling a grenade into the room and snapping on his helmet. All six of them rushed through the doorway, ready to fight with the people inside.

"Thanos!" Drax shouted, storming the ship. He threw his knife at the cloaked figure, who neatly deflected it with a mystical shield, and in return send his cloak at Drax's face, half-smothering him and throwing him to the floor.

Quill, Lapis and Peridot immediately after rushing into the place flied up, which was quickly followed by the masked figure who took off and went after them, with Peridot being the first one he came across. The green gem lifted a piece of metal from the floor and was about to push it at the masked figure but she quickly stopped in place when she got a feeling that she already saw him. The figure titled his head at her, confused that she just stopped out of sudden, and decided to ignore her, for now. The green grem watched him leave and she couldn't help but feel that she already saw him before, but she couldn't remember where. Perharps if she got more time to look at him, she'd remember where she saw him before.

Using the fact that masked figure was confused by Peridot's actions, Lapis flied over to him, ready to put this figure in water chains in case if he attacked her and said, "Surrender, or we will use force." 

"Go ahead, blue-clues." The masked figure said back, the blaster on his hand was in ready, but before he could fire it Lapis who was already prepared for his attack, Quill threw a device at his suit, which pinned him into the wall. 

Mantis approached a person in a strange spider costume, who after spotting her began to crawl back from her, ''Ah! Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa! Please don't put your eggs in me!"

The person began firing strange web at Mantis, pinning her arms to her body, just before Jasper charged into him, pushing him away from her, "Stay down!"

She was about to charge at the figure again to make that he'll stay down for the rest of the fight, but she didn't had a chance to make he way over to him, as this figure extended his spider-like legs and jumped on her, but fortunely for her, but unfortunely for him, Quill threw a electric cord that wrapped around the figure, sending him to the ground.

"Die blanket of death!" Drax shouted, thrashing at the cape that still tried to suffocate him.

The masked figure in the suit freed himself from the magnet that practically glued him into the wall, as Quill picked the person in the spider costume from the ground, and held him close to himself, as a hostage as Jasper stood close to both of them. Seeing this, the masked figure flied over to Drax, who was pulled away from the cloak who went back to it's owner a second after. The masked figure put his boot on his torso, holding him down to the floor, having his weapon aimed at him, while the other one was aimed at Quill and Jasper who were still holding the person in the spider costume as a hostage. The caped figure stood near Mantis, ready to fight with Lapis who was now standing in front of him. She was ready to fight with him too.

"Everybody calm the hell down! Chill the F out!" Quill said as he clicked his mask off his face, and pointed his blaster at the masked figure, "I'm gonna ask you this one time. Where is Gamora?"

"I'll do you one better! Who's Gamora!" The masked figure responded.

"I'll do you better! Why is Gamora?" Drax said.

''Tell me where the girl is, or I swear to you, I'm gonna French-fry this little freak." Quill said, pressing his blaster closer to the figure's face.

''Oh, yeah? Let's do it. You shoot my guy, I blast him, let's go!" The figure said, pressing his weapon closer to Drax.

"Yeah? You'll blast him, then I'll make sure that there will be nothing of your suit left!" Jasper said, readying herself to do her poweful charge.

Peridot who stayed silent for the entire fight, now finally had a good glance at the man in the suit. She was eyeing him since the fight stopped after Jasper and Quill revealed that they were holding one of their as a hostage. She knew she was him somewhere before, and after having a good chance to eye him, she finally realized who it was. The actions, the his suit. Especially his suit.

She gasped in shock, "Wait a second... Are you Iron Man?"

The masked figure looked over at the short gem, with his hand still up and blaster still charged. The mask fell away, and Peridot found out that her suspicious were correct it was Tony Stark! One of the Avengers! She cursed herself for not realizing it sooner. Steven showed her videos of this guy on TubeTube!

"How do you know me?" He asked, clearly suprised that this alien knew who he was.

Lapis, recognizing this man as well, lowered her hands, "Everyone! Relax! We're on the same side!"

"What? Who are they?" Jasper asked, turning to the two gems. 

"So, you're not with Thanos?" The masked figure who was held by Quill asked.

"With Thanos?! No, I'm here to kill Thanos! He took my girl. Wait... who are you?" Quill asked, confused by what was just happening.

"We're the Avengers, man." The figure who was held by Quill answered, as his mask fell away, revealing a teenager.

Quill lowered his blaster and Jasper's helmet disappeared from her head, both of them realizing that everything that happened now was just a misunderstanding, "Oh."

"You're the ones Thor told us about." Mantis stated.

"You know Thor?" Tony raised his brow.

"Yeah. Tall guy, not that good looking, needed saving." Quill answered.

"Where is he now?" The caped man asked.

"He went to a place called Nidavellir to get some weapon to kill Thanos." Quill explained.

"If you're Iron Man, then who are these these two?" Jasper asked, gesturing towards spider-figure and the caped man.

"I'm Peter." The person in the spider costume introduced himself in a friendly manner despise the fact that Quill and Jasper held him as their hostage just a moment ago, as his mask disappeared from his face, revealing a kid in his teenage years, "But you can call me Spider-Man."

"My name." The caped man said, tersely, "Doctor Strange."

"What are you doing here?" Peridot asked, confused by the fact that one of the Avengers along with two other heroes from the Earth was in space, instead of Earth.

"Because I have what he wants." Strange said, doing some weird things with his hands, before the necklace on his neck opened, revealing what it was hiding.

Peridot could feel her eyes opening widely in shock...

This man had one of the Infinity Stones in his necklace...

-----

The group was getting themselves ready to create Stormbreaker. Rocket and Bismuth were in the escape pod, as Thor and Eitri were getting everything that would help them in some way.

Azurite, Spinel, Steven and Shi'ra stood in the back, their part of this whole thing being to help Eitri if there will something he'll need help with.

Azurite was chatting with Spinel as they waited for the signal which would inform them that the process of making Stormbreaker has begun, as Steven approached them, "Hey guys."

"Steven." Spinel said to him, with a small smile.

"What is it?" Azurite asked him.

"I was wondering If I can talk with you, Azurite. In private." Steven asked them.

Azurite and Spinel exchanged looks together, before the latter one nodded her head, "Sure." She glanced at Azurite, "I'll be with Shi'ra."

Azurite nodded his head at her, before Spinel went over to Shi'ra, leaving him alone with Steven, "What do you want to talk about?"

"I want to know how are you doing." Steven told him.

"I'm doing just as you can except, kid." Azurite answered.

"Nervous?" Steven asked, saying the first thing that came into his mind.

"Nervous? That's a gentle way to put it." Azurite stated. 

Steven put his hand on his, "Azurite, I know I said it before. I don't know about him as much you do, but I know there has to be a way to stop him." 

"How do you know that? The last time we information about him, he had two Infinity Stones, and with the Space Stone, he can be everywhere right now. He may even have more of them now. If this axe will be able to kill him even with the stones, then we need to make it." Azurite told him.

"I'm just certain that we're going to find a way how to stop him. I'm sure that you were having similiar thoughts when you and Quill's crew defeated Ego." Steven said.

"Ego was  a much different situation." Azurite pointed out.

"I know that, but from what the Diamonds told me about celestials about two days after you moved to Little Homeworld is true, then it certainly wasn't an easy thing to do." Steven said.

"Because it was. Sometimes I still wonder how I got out of there alive." Azurite said.

"This is what I'm talking about here, Azurite. All of us are ready to do whatever it takes to stop him Believe me, we're going to find a way to defeat him, no matter how much it'll take.'' Steven assured him.

"If you say so, kid." Azurite said, as he bit his lips at what he was going to say now, "I never got to say this, but thank you." 

"For what?" Steven raised his brow at this.

"For everything. If you didn't follow me into my ship after I fought with you, I'd probably still be working as a mercenary and do jobs for the people I despise, but in Little Homeworld, even though it took me a while to open up myself to the other, I feel happy in there. I haven't been that happy since Konoritos. I met gems, and some of them became very close friends of mine, I even found someone I grew to cherish." Azurite said.

''Azurite, you don't need to thank me for that. I knew you weren't evil. You were just a gem who was in a need of help and wanted to belong somewhere, but his past experiences were driving him away from having what he wanted." Steven said, with a small wave of his hand.

"But it still doesn't change the fact. Even though we don't talk with each other very often, I'm grateful to you." Azurite said to him.

Steven smiled at him.

Azurite returned the smile.

Before the coversation could continue, they heard Thor who didn't had any environmental suit on himself, jumping from the hull onto the ring surface with a cable in his hand attached to the pod.

"I don't think you get the scientifics here. These rings are gigantic. You wanna get them moving, you're gonna need something a lot bigger to yank 'em loose." Rocket stated.

Thor looked back to Rocket and Bismuth, "Leave that to me."

"Leave that to you. Thor, you're in space. All you got is a rope and a..." Rocket was cut off as Thor began swinging the pod around him in a circle. Rocket and Bismuth both screamed, not excepting it, as Thor builded up speed with three good loops then slacked his grip enough to send the pod shooting straight away from Nidavellir, trailing him behind it like a kite tail.

Bismuth was the first one in the pod to shake off from the sudden movement as she pressed forward, ignored the twirling mess her head had become, and roared as the engines came to life

As the pod skimed over the surface of the next ring out, Thor reached down and dig one hand into the surface, then both feet, finally getting a foothold against the forward motion of the pod. The ice-like accumulation around the ring axis crackles, "More... Power... Guys!"

Rocket responded in kind, and put his hand on Bismuth's on the thrusters, putting everything he had into them. Finally the rings spin free, realigning into effective configuration as the star bursted back into life.

Spinel cheered at the star turned back on, "Yes!"

"Well done boy." Eitri stated.

Thor, clutching the pod's windows, points at the star, "That's Nidavellir!"

Rocket and Bismuth glanced at the blazing core, with smiles growing on their faces as they were amazed by the view of t. An iris on the cladding around the star opened, firing pure stellar heat through the ring portals and into the forge... until the damaged mechanism failed, crumbled loose and slammed shut. The iris closed and the beam of light trailed off.

"Dang it..." Eitri said.

"Dang it? What do you mean by it?" Shi'ra wanted to know, looking up at the dwarf.

''The mechanism is crippled.'' Eitri answered, running all over the room to look at different instruments.

"What?" Thor asked.

''With the iris closed I can't heat the metal." Eitri replied.

''How long will it take to heat?" Thor asked another question.

''A few minutes, maybe more. Why?" Eitri responded.

"I'm gonna hold it open." Thor exclaimed.

"That's suicide." Eitri told him.

"So is facing Thanos without that axe." Thor pointed out.

Azurite swallowed, knowing that Thor was right, "He's right. We need to make this axe."

Thor was now standing in the rings, preparing himself, "Allfathers, give me strength.''

"You better have your spit prepared, kid." Shi'ra whispered to Steven.

"Don't worry about it." Steven assured her.

''You understand, boy? You're about to take the full force of a star. It'll kill you." Eitri said to Thor.

Thor shook his head, and took a deep breath, "Only If I die."

Eitri nodded, confused, "Yes. That's what... "killing you" means.''

Thor let out one last breath, before grasping the two levers. He pulled them down and towards himself, slowly opening the iris. The stream of stellar energy blasted past him and into the forge once again.

"Hold it! Hold it, Thor!" Eitri yelled as he ran over to mold, followed by the rest. They watched the metal ingots melt while Thor was weaker and weaker with each second. Finally, Eitri was able to tip the cauldron, pouring the metal into the mold, and to make this whole process faster, Azurite, Steven, Spinel and Shi'r ran over to him and helped him to pour the metal,  just as Thor passed out. The jet carried him into the forge, Rocket and Bismuth followed him and landed right after Thor bounced limply off a structure and landed on the floor. Groot finally looked up from his game at the sound Thor's body made.

"No." Steven said, running over to Thor's lifeless body.

Bismuth and Rocket got out of the pod and ran over to the God of Thunder and knelt down, as the latter one said to him, "Thor! Say something. Come on. Thor, you okay?''

"C'mon, we need you." Bismuth said after Rocket, shaking Thor's body, before glancing over at Steven, "Steven."

"I'm on it!" Steven who was already kneeling beside Thor licked his hands and placed them on Thor's body, earning a confused look from Rocket.

"He has a healing spit. It may heal him." She explained, earning a nod of understanding from Rocket.

"He needs the axe!" Eitri stated, frantic, "Where's the handle! Tree! Help me find the handle!"

As Eitri, Rocket, Bismuth, Spinel ans Azurite scrambled around the workshop, trying to fit a handel that would fit the axe, Steven stayed behind and still had his hands on Thor, trying to keep him alive.

Groot looked sadly at Thor, then scowled with determination. He stood up, dropping his game on the ground. He extended his fingers towards the two parts of Stormbreaker, growing them. As he twined them around the two parts, he cried out at the burning pain, but didn't stopped, slamming them together and locking them permanently into one thing. He raised it above his head, with a cry, and chopped his extended arm with his other hand.

Thor's fingers started to twitch, which Steven didn't fail to notice. He let his hands off Thor's body as  the new weapon levitated in a crackle of lightning echoed by the sparks between Thor's fingers.

They did it.

They created Stormbreaker...

----

Jasper, Peridot, Lapis, Quill, Mantis, Drax, Tony, Peter and Strange made their way out of Thanos and moved to a place where they could plan their next move, because with Strange owning one of the Infinity Stones, it was now obvious that Thanos will come here sooner or later and they needed a plan how to fight him.

''The hell happened to this planet?" Quill asked with a device which was giving him the reading of Titan, "The planet's eight degrees off it's axis. Gravitational pull is all over the place."

"What happened here?" Lapis asked, taking a moment to observe basically apocalypse weathered planet. This planet was certainly far away from it's golden years.

"I don't think I want to know, Lapis." Peridot answered.

''Yeah, well. We've got one advantage. He's coming to us." Tony stated, "We'll use it."

"Then take him down, I hope." Jasper said.

"Alright. I have a plan. Or at least the beginnings of one." Tony said said, having everyone gather around him, as they listened to what he had planned, "Simple enough. We draw him in, get him down, take what we need. Definitely don't wanna dance with this guy. We just want the gauntlet...." 

Tony was suddenly cut off by the sound of Drax, yawning, loudly.

"Are you yawning?" Tony asked, turning to Drax, who seemed to not pay any attention to him, "In the middle of this? When I'm breaking it down? Did you hear what I said?

"I stopped listening after you said 'we need a plan." Drax truthfully responded.

''Okay, Mr. Clean is on his own page." Tony said to Quill, pointing at Drax.

''Yeah, not winging it isn't really what we do." Quill explained.

"Um." Peter raised his hand, pointing at Drax, "What exactly is it that you do?"

"Kick names. Take ass." Mantis said firmly.

"Yeah, that's right." Drax nodded his head to that.

Jasper slapped her hand to her face, as Lapis and Peridot stared at the two Guardians, neither of them responding to what they just said.

Tony was doing similiar thing to Lapis and Peridot. He just stared at them, blankly, uresponsive, before he finally said, after a moment, "Alright, just get over here, please... Mr. Lord, if you could get your people to circle up?''

"Mr. Lord.'' Peter scoffed, gesturing to Mantis and Drax to join them, ''Star-Lord is fine''

''We gotta coalesce, because if all we come at him with is a plucky attitude, then..." Tony was interrupted by Quill.

''Dude. Don't call us plucky. We don't even know what that means." Quill cut in.

''It means having optimism in a bad time.'' Peridot explained.

"Now, we know." Quill said, ''Alright, yes, we're optimistic. I like your plan, except, it sucks. So let me do the plan, and that way, it might be really good."

The trio of gems shared a besumed glances with each other.

''Tell him about the dance off to save the universe." Drax said confidently to Quill, with his hands on his belt, as Quill stared at him, annoyed.

"What dance off?" Tony asked.

"It's nothing." Quill waved it off.

"Jasper, do you know anything about this?" Peridot whispered to Jasper, looking up at the orange gem.

"Did Azurite told you about them defeating a guy named Ronan the Accuser?" Jasper whispered back.

"Yes. He did that when he was pretending to be a guy who just wants to buy his friend a birthday gift." Lapis answered, remembering the talk she, Peridot, Garnet, Amethyst, Pearl and Bismuth had with Azurite, not long before Spinel and Steven revealed his true intentions.

"One of the reasons why they won was because Quill distracted him with a dance off, giving Rocket and Drax enough time to strike." Jasper explained, saying the same thing Azurite told her a while ago.

"Are you serious?" Lapis asked, clearly not imagining that it was how the Guardians defeated Ronan the Accuser.

"No, I'm not." Jasper responded. She wasn't exactly a joking mood, "He saved an entire planet with a simple dance off."

"A dance off, like in Footloose the movie" Peter asked in disablief.

"Exactly like Footloose!" Quill said, suddenly elated, "Is it still the greatest movie in history?"

Peter grimaced, "It never was."

"That's right." Peridot agreed with Spider-Man, as Quill looked like someone just slapped him in the face, "The movie version of Camp Pinning Hearts is the greatest Earth movie In history."

"It never was neither." Peter shook his head, making Peridot frown. Even Lapis frowned at his words.

"Don't encourage this, you two." Tony said to Peter and Peridot, "We're getting no help from Flash Gordon here.''

"Flash Gordon?" Quill replied, "By the way? That's a compliment. Don't forget, I'm only half human, so that 50% of me that stupid is 100% of you.''

''Your math is blowing my mind right now." Tony stated.

"Excuse me." Mantis interrupted, looking back to where her eye were on a moment ago, "Does your friend often do that?''

Clearly confused, Tony stepped forward, "Strange! We alright?"

Doctor Strange didn't respond, floating in a meditative pose, with his cape flowing behind him. Around him hunk the necklace with the Time Stone which was active at the moment. His head was shaking widly, leaving after expressions ranging from shock, to anger, to frustation.

Tony slowly walked over to him, and everyone else followed. Just before he reached him, Strange fell to the ground with a yell, his head no longer blurred and snapping.

"You're back, you're alright." Tony said, kneeling down to him.

"What were you doing?" Lapis asked the question that was on everyone's mind.

"I went forward in time. To view alternate futures. To see all the possible outcomes of the coming conflict." Strange explained.

"How many did you see?" Quill asked.

''Fourteen million, six hundred and five." Strange replied.

Tony hesitated to ask, "How many did we win?" 

Strange paused for a moment.  His gaze was mostly at Tony. He finally replied in dread, "One..."

-----

Location: Wakanda

On the Earth, The Avengers and Wakandans were struggling to hold back hordes of the outriders.

A few of the invaders pinned Bucky Barnes, the Winter soldier to the ground, who tried to fight them off by drawing his knife out and stabbing them. War Machine was in the sky, unloading everything he had as the outriders were charging through the hole in the wall, before something really big hit him and made him fall on the ground. King T'Challa in his Black Panther suit was slicing through every outrider that attacked him, but was eventually brought down on the ground by a few outriders at the time, as Captain America was pinned into a rock, stabbing the outrider into the neck with his new shield, before the other one grabbed him and threw him to to the ground.

"There's too many of them!" He shouted.

Suddenly, a large beam of light appeared out of nowhere in the middle of the field, and an axe flied out of it, wreathed with lightning and tearing through the Outriders, freeing everyone who was pinned down by them. It flied back to the light the beam cut out, revealing Thor, Groot Rocket, Azurite, Steven, Shi'ra, Spinel and Bismuth. Rocket jumped off Thor's shoulder and cocked his rifle, Groot stood ready for battle, both of Bismuth's hands turned into a very sharp blades, Steven summoned his shield, Azurite readied his claws, Shi'ra drew her spear out as her plasma caster in ready as well, and Spinel took her scythe out of her chest.

"You guys are so screwed now!" Bruce Banner who was in the Hulkbuster suit shouted, the mask disappearing for a second revealing his grinning face.

"Bring me Thanos!" Thor growled as all of them charged forward at the horde of the Outriders

Lightning was gathering around the God of Thunder until he launched himself into the air, landed in the densest concentration of Outriders and made a crater where they had stood...

---

I already have written some parts of the next chapter (Like Orange Pearl having her last laughs with Centi and her crew before the battle), but it may take me more than usual chapter to write, mostly because it's going to have a lot of fight scenes. Like the fight on Titan, or Azurite vs Proxima Midnight.