JJ's POV

"Aaaare weeeee theeeeeere yeeeeetttt?" I whined, leaning back in my seat with my hand on my forehead dramatically.

"You ask that one more time, I'm gonna-Grrr..."

I smirked at Rocket's annoyed half-threat as the pod was still flying through space in the direction Thor directed us to Nidavellir.

"Hehehe..." I laughed before holding up my hand to high-five Groot but he ignored me and kept playing his game and Gora continued her catnap on the bench behind him so I grumbled and crossed my arms as I leaned back in my chair sitting in it to where my legs dangled over the armrest.

"I see childishness is not something you share with your sister..." Thor muttered from his seat and I leaned my head all the way back to give him an upside-down look before sitting upright to ask him seriously,

"So what's my sister like?"

"Well.." He looked at the ceiling for a second before saying, "Smart.. strong.. talented at many things."

"Like what?"

"Wouldn't you rather wait to meet her so you could ask her these questions yourself?"

I looked back up at the ceiling as I muttered,

"If she's with Thanos, chances are she's not coming back..."

"I wouldn't discount her just yet, she's survived much worse..."

I gave him a 'yeah right' look and he added,

"No it's true: crashing into an experimental nuclear energy core, the destruction of a large, airborne city and a planet, a few years of being a gladiator on Sakaar-"

"Woahwoahwoahwoah wait!" I sat upright and sat on the armrest facing in Thor's direction before yelling, "You tellin' me she's been on Sakaar this whole time?!"

"Not the whole time but some of it, yes." Thor admitted nervously seeing my death glare.

"She was that close and I couldn't even feel it..." I leaned back down "What kinda sister am I...?"

"The kind that should feel grateful she's even still alive ta begin with." Rocket cut in and I waved my hand at him to signal 'mind yer own business' before Groot spoke up,

"I am Grooot!"

"Seriously bro? Now?" I asked him in disbelief.

"Tinkle in the cup. We're not looking. What's there to see? What's a twig? Everybody's seen a twig." Rocket told him.

"I am Grooot!" He pointed at me.

"Relaaax I'm not looking..." I rolled my eyes as I turned my seat away from Groot before asking him, "And did you have to ruin the moment?"

"I am Groot!"

"Tree, pour what's in the cup out in space, and go in the cup again." Thor told him and Rocket and I looked at him in disbelief as he asked,

"You speak Groot?"

"Yes, they taught it on Asgard. It was an elective."

"I am Groot." Groot told us to let us know he was done.

"Finally.." I turned my seat back to its normal position before asking, "How much further til we get there?"

"You'll know when we're there. Nivadellir's forge harnesses the power of a blazing neutron star. It's the birthplace of my hammer. It's truly awesome." He sounded nostalgic while talkin' and it went quiet before I heard Rocket whisper,

"Okay, time to be the captain." Before he got up from the captain's seat to talk to Thor, "So, dead brother, huh? Yeah, that can be annoying."

"Well, he's been dead before, but this time I think it really might be true."

"And you said your sister and your dad?"

"Both dead."

"Still got a mom, though?"

"Killed by a dark elf."

"A best friend?"

"Stabbed through the heart."

"And you're still sane after all that?" I asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Yeah I mean are you sure you're up to this particular murder mission?" Rocket

"Absolutely." Thor smiled so wide it was almost creepy as he told us, "Rage, vengeance, anger, loss, regret...They're all tremendous motivators. They really clear the mind. So I'm good to go."

"Yeah, but this Thanos we're talking about...He's the toughest there is." Rocket told him.

"Well, he's never fought me."

"Yes, he has." I stated.

"He's never fought me twice. And I'm getting a new hammer, don't forget." Thor reminded us and Rocket muttered,

"Better be some hammer..."

"Otherwise we're screwed and we ditched our team for nothin'." I spoke up louder so that Thor could actually hear me and he seemed to think on that for a sec before speaking again,

"You know, I'm 1,500 years old. I've killed twice as many enemies as that, and every one of them would have rather killed me, but none succeeded. I'm only alive because fate wants me alive. Thanos is the latest in a long line of morons and he will be the latest to feel my vengeance."

"And what if you're wrong?" Rocket asked and Thor looked down before answering,

"If I'm wrong then what more could I lose?"

He stood up to go sit down in the seat next to Groot and Gora as she put a paw on his hand and tapped it comfortingly as Rocket muttered again,

"I could lose a lot. Me personally. I could lose a lot." Before looking over to me and Groot and I cocked my head to the side before giving him the 'you're goin' soft' smirk and he gave me a glare before reaching into one of the pockets on his belt to get out a mechanical eye to tell Thor as he handed it to him, "If fate does want you to kill that crapsack, you're gonna need more than one stupid eyeball."

Thor snatched the eye away as he asked,

"What's this?"

"What's it look like? Some jerk lost a bet with me on Contraxia."

"He gave you his eye?"

"No, he gave me 100 credits. I snuck into his room later that night and stole his eye." Rocket explained before returning to the pilot's seat.

"Uhh with help from me and Gora last I checked." I added with my arms crossed before Gora mumbled,

"Yes much to my chagrin..." Shuddering from the memory of how she had to use her spines to boost Rocket in and out of the room while I handled security before the three of us had to escape through the gutter system back to the Benatar to avoid the cops.

"Thank you, sweet rabbit." Thor thanked him and me and Gora gave each other a shared look that we weren't gonna let Rocket live that nickname down anytime soon.

We turned out attention back to Thor as he took off his eyepatch and even Groot paused his game to watch as he started to shove the eyeball into the socket and Rocket turned to look before turning back to tell him,

"Oh. I would've washed that. The only way I could sneak it off Contraxia was up my-"

*BEEP* *BEEP* *BEEP*

Luckily the alarm sounded to interrupt him before he could finish his sentence as he announced, "Hey, we're here!"

All of us gathered by the front window around the pilot seat and I heard a few smacks from where Thor was hitting the side of his head to make the eyeball focus as it spun around and focused and refocused a few times before it finally adjusted and Thor told us,

"I don't think this thing works. Everything seems dark."

"It ain't the eye." Rocket told him before he piloted the ship to land and we all got out to wander around, Groot still playing his game and Gora walking behind us to make sure "we weren't being followed or attacked from behind" but her tail was puffed up and her antennae were vibrating so I could tell even she was scared.

"Aside from being trashy, it's like the whole place is frozen or somethin'..." I muttered as I kicked a tool aside after almost tripping over it and I lowered my goggles to scan the area to see if anyone was around as Thor told me,

"An adept observation, the star's gone out and the forge is inactive.. That hasn't happened for centuries..."

We walked around a bit more and I still wasn't reading any life signals when Rocket asked Thor,

"You said Thanos had a gauntlet, right?"

And he answered,

"Yes. Why?"

"Look anything like that?"

I pulled my lenses up to see a mold of the gauntlet I saw in Thor's memory and my lenses vibrated to tell me a life signal was detected just as Groot finally looked up from his game long enough to ask us what was going on and Thor told us,

"Get back to the pod."

Just before he was smacked to the side by a large figure and when Rocket tried to rush whatever had attacked him with a large gun in his paws he and Groot were hit to the side too.

Luckily for me and Gora, who had jumped in front of me to protect me despite being scared, I managed to summon my orbs with a boot stomp to create a shield in front of us as we was almost hit too and, just as they were about to punch down on my shield again, Thor called out,

"Eitri, wait! Stop! Stop." Holding his hands out to whoever had attacked us and they stopped attacking long enough to choke out,

"Thor?"

"What happened here?" Thor asked "Eitri" and he yelled,

"You were supposed to protect us. Asgard was supposed to protect us!"

"Asgard is destroyed... Eitri, the glove. What did you do?"

Eitri sat down against a broken junk pile before telling us,

"300 dwarves lived on this ring. I thought if I did what he asked, they'd be safe. I made what he wanted. A device capable of harnessing the power of the stones. Then he.. killed everyone anyway... all except me... 'Your life is yours.' he said 'But your hands are mine alone...'" He showed us his metal-covered hands and even I had to cringe at how bad that must've hurt.

"Eitri, this isn't about your hands. Every weapon you've designed, every axe, hammer, sword...It's all inside your head. Now I know all hope feels lost... Trust me, I know... but together, you and I, we can kill Thanos."

"Wow... Did you have that rehearsed or was that on the fly?" I broke the tense moment of silence and everyone looked at me with their eyebrows raised before Eitri announced,

"If we are to stop Thanos, then we will need one of the most powerful weapons ever conceived."

He stood up and led us over to some kinda upright conveyor belt that spun around after Eitri hit a lever to move a big brick of metal in front of us.

"This is the plan? We're gonna hit him with a brick?" Rocket asked in disbelief.

"It's a mold. A king's weapon. Meant to be the greatest in Asgard. In theory, it could even summon the Bifrost." Eitri told him before Thor asked,

"Does it have a name?"

"Stormbreaker."

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

"Well I think it sounds regal." Gora sat down on the ground as she looked up at the mold in awe.

"You would say that." Rocket muttered and Gora swatted him with her tail before turning her nose up in the opposite direction to him and he looked like he was ready to retaliate before I spoke up,

"Aaanyway." I looked over at the two of them with the 'stop arguing like a married couple you lovebirds' look before I asked, "How the hell are we supposed to make this thing when everything's frozen?"

"We'll have to restart the forge. Awaken the heart of a dying star." Eitri told us and Thor got a look in his eyes like he had an idea as he told us,

"Rabbit, fire up the pod."

"This is gonna be fun..." I smirked over at Rocket as he grumbled and he and Thor started to head back to the pod with me following before I felt a pull coming from my chest.

"What the-?!" I looked down and saw my core glowing so I tried to hide it by covering it with my hand but when I did I saw a girl with short red hair wearing a silver pendant sitting asleep with her head on the shoulder of another Chrysinthean in my head before the vision faded and I looked up at the stars beyond the forge rings before whispering,

"Ash...?"

2067 Words

AN- Sorry for the three week hiatus ^^;

With the next chapter being the Battle of Wakanda, normally it probably would've taken me longer to write and post it if it weren't for the fact that next week is Spring Break so hopefully I'll be able to get it out before the week's done between work and fun club stuff ^^

Hope you all have a great week and if you're going on Spring Break too soon, hope you get to spend it with friends and/or family :)

Til the next chapter, Bye!