tainted dreams | chapter ten
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another messy chapter, i'm really sorry ): i just need to get the boring parts out of the way so i can start writing the good stuff!
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Rosalie and the Avengers were all gathered in a room with some hologram displays, sitting around a table. Tony, Steve and Bruce were pacing at the front, clearly leading the planning of the mission.

The rest were simply sitting down and listening, giving their input every now and again when they felt like something was going south with their plan.

"Okay, so the 'how' works. Now we gotta figure out the 'when' and the 'where'." Steve was the one to speak after a messy exchange of words between Nat and Tony. "Almost all of us has had an encounter with at least one of the six infinity stones."

"Well I'd substitute the word encounter for damn well near been killed by one of the six infinity stones." Tony rolled his eyes at Steve's words.

"I haven't, I don't even know what the hell you're all talking about." Scott raised his hand, followed by Rosalie.

"Same here."

"Regardless, we only have enough Pym Particles for one round trip each, and these stones have been in a lot of different places throughout history." Bruce looked worn out, a look that Rosalie thought didn't suit him.

He was always the positive light in their group. She noticed how he affected the team when Nat found out of his return. Nat was not one to let others see how she really felt, but the Avengers were her family she loved them very deeply. Specially Bruce.

"Our history. So, not a lot of convenient spots to just drop in." Tony continued with his stupid attitude.

"Which means we have to pick our targets." Nodding his head, Clint was starting to form a strategy in his head.

"Correct."

"Let's start with the Aether." Steve turned back to the screen, selecting one of the stones to bring the team's attention to it. "Thor, what do you know?"

Rosalie turned to see Thor sitting on a chair by her left with his sunglasses on. It was impossible to tell whether he was awake or asleep. The blonde couldn't help but feel a tight grip on her heart as she looked at the broken God.

Despite his different origins, Thor was more human that a lot of humans Rosalie knew.

Her parents, for example.

But she knew exactly what she wanted to do about that situation. Just not then.

After this stupid meeting is over. Yeah, I'll take care of it later.

"Is he asleep?" Nat asked, seriously worried.

"No, I'm pretty sure he's dead." Rhodey spoke calmly, his humour earning him glares from most of his team members and a high-five from Rosalie.

Thor suddenly woke up, startling Rosalie who lost her balance and fell back from her chair. Luckily, her infamous black mist was always on high alert and softened her fall, embracing Rosalie's body in warmth.

"Careful, little one." Thor rubbed his eyes before standing next to the screen. He seemed to have heard their conversation and was ready to speak of the stone. "Where to start? Um... The Aether, first, is not a stone, someone called it a stone before. It's more of a -and angry sludge thing, so -someones gonna need to amend that. Here's an interesting story though, many years ago, my grandfather had to hide the stones from the Dark Elves."

He wiggled his fingers to imitate a spooky ghost and made scary sounds in a very Thor-like manner.

"Wooooh, scary beings. So Jane-" An image of a woman with the tag name 'Jane Foster' popped up on the screen. "Oh, there she is. That's Jane. She's an old flame of mine. She-she stuck her hand inside a rock this one time, and then the Aether stuck itself inside her. And, she became very, very sick. So I had to take her to Asgard, which is where I'm from. And we had to try and fix her. We were dating at the time, you see. I got to introduce her to my Mother... Who's dead."

Thor started to look broken, and seemed on the verge of tears. The sight only broke Rosalie's heart even more, and she wanted to stand and hug him.

"And oh you know, Jane and I aren't even dating anymore, these things happen though you know, nothing last forever." Tony started to push him back to his chair, very coldly. "I'm not done yet, the only thing permanent in life is impermanence."

Yes, the man was drunk. But he was also dealing with a lot of grief.

Some people needed a reality check and a nice dose of compassion.

"Awesome. Eggs? Breakfast?"

"I'd like a Bloody Mary, thank you." Thor smiled and held his beer up in the air.

Rosalie took this as her chance to stand and take care of Thor. She felt like it was her duty to bring some joy into his life, so she softly grabbed his arm and pulled him towards the kitchen.

Nat and Steve smiled softly at her actions, understanding how the blonde's kind nature was suffering due to Thor's torments.

"That's my girl." Nat nodded, proudly.

On their way to the kitchen, Thor babbled about alcohol and video games. Rosalie laughed and engaged in his conversation, a plan becoming more and more clear as they walked.

"Do you like ice cream?" She asked as she instructed Thor to sit on one of the kitchen stools. "Because I have the perfect idea for our little meal."

"Have you seen my belly? Of course I like ice cream." His booming laugh was contagious, even if it seemed a bit faked to the woman.

"Then you'll love this."

He was quiet as she worked, watching her every move with interest.

Grabbing two bowls from one of the cabinets, Rosalie filled them with dozens of sweets. Firstly, she created a base with Oreo cookies and whipped cream. Next came the chocolate ice cream and little crumbs of cookies. Thor's stomach was growling, and it was loud enough for Rosalie to hear from where she stood.

Rosalie, as the marvellous chef she was, left the best for last. Using melted chocolate, strawberries and whipped cream as toppings for her masterpiece, she placed one bowl on the counter by Thor's unmoving body and smirked.

"What do you think?"

Silence passed between the pair as the God of Thunder examined the dessert in front of his face. Carefully taking a small piece of cookie from the wide of the bowl, he ate it and swallowed dramatically.

As a genuine smile rose to his lips, he grabbed the spoon Rosalie had been holding in her hand and started eating.

"It's perfect, I need you to make me this monstrosity every day for the rest of your mortal life!"

They both laughed at his word and dug in. Rosalie had to admit that her dessert really was a monstrosity.

A delicious monstrosity.

Watching as he ate and smiled like a small child, the blonde woman couldn't help but feel accomplished. She managed to make the broodiest, most complicated man she had ever met smile -while he faced his inner demons and possible depression.

That compensated for everything she had been going through. Seeing someone suffering and in pain was never something she enjoyed, and making someone's day better always brought some light to her darkest days.

Thor helped her, even if he didn't realise it.

And she helped him, even if she didn't realise it.

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The next step was to discover the 'when'. Rosalie was feeling so tired, but she couldn't stop thinking and helping the team.

They were all sitting around a table, eating a meal, and Rocket was pacing on the table in front of everyone.

"Quill said he stole the power stone from Morag."

"Is that a person?" Scott asked.

"What's a Quill?" And Rosalie sounded as confused as Scott.

"Morag's a planet. Quill was a person." Rocket facepalmed at the two idiots in front of him.

"A planet? Like in outer space?"

"Oh, look. It's like a little puppy, all happy and everything." Rocked imitated talking to a puppy as he pat Scott's head. "Do you wanna go to space? You wanna go to space, puppy? I'll get you to space."

Rosalie stopped with her fork in front of her opened mouth, baffled by the tone Rocket had used by the end of his sentence.

"That was disturbing."

Rocket laughed loudly and continued to tease Scott, scaring Rosalie even more than he had before.

Their brainstorming session continued a few hours later.

Nebula was standing in front of everyone in the planning room while Nat and Rosalie scribbled down notes for their plan on their cute little notebooks.

Rosalie had traveled all the way to the nearest convenience store to find them decent notebooks. If they were to plan a revolution, they would to it fashionably.

Rosalie's words, not Nat's.

"Thanos found the Soul Stone on Vormir."

They were all working very professionally, speaking to each other in business-like tones.

"What is Vormir?" Nat raised her focused face from the notebook and asked.

"A dominion of death, at the very center of Celestial existence." Nebula's robotic features hardened. "It's where... Thanos murdered my sister."

Rosalie looked up and an awkward silence fell upon the room. She wrote down what Nebula had just said, and Scott attempted to break the awkward moment.

"Noted."

"Be careful there. Noted." Rosalie's face was set in stone, fear starting to cloud her judgment.

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It was two days later that everything changed.

Tony and Nat were lying on a table surrounded by papers, and Bruce was lying down on the floor with Rosalie.

The brainstorming was slowly taking them nowhere, and everyone was feeling down. Determined as always, Nat was furiously looking at the ceiling as if it would give her all the answers that she needed.

"That Time Stone guy..." She started.

"Doctor Strange." Rosalie remembered the man she met before all hell went loose.

"Yeah, what kind of doctor was he?"

"Magic doctor."

"Neurostuff meets rabbit from a hat. Nice place in the village, though." Tony ignored Rosalie's attempt at a joke to lift everyone's mood.

"Yeah. Sullivan Street. Hmm... Bleecker." Bruce thought out loud, moving his pen around his beefy fingers.

A little lamp was lit inside Nat's mind. Looking to her side, she realised that Rosalie was sitting straight, looking back at her with the same giddy smile on her face.

"He lived in New York?" The blonde asked, clearly trying to get somewhere.

"No. He lived in Toronto." Tony responded carefully.

Laughing hysterically, Rosalie laid back down next to Bruce and threw her notebook in the air, missing her friends by mere inches.

"This is it!"

"Guys, if you pick the right year, there are three stones in New York." Nat stopped moving and said.

"Shut the front door!" Bruce yelled as he sat up in surprise.

"This is it!" Rosalie shared his excitement and repeated.

They knew exactly what to do.

Running out of the small room and towards a big conference room, Nat called out for everyone to run after them. Holograms were soon turned on to display the different locations.

The Soul and Power stones in space, 2014.

The Reality stone in Asgard, 2013.

And the Space, Mind, and Time stones in New York City, 2012.

"All right. We have a plan. Six stones, three teams. One shot." Steve spoke calmly, but with the pride of a man who finally accomplished the mission of a lifetime.

Steve and the other Avengers walked up and looked at the screens determinedly. A feeling of power was snaking around everyone's bodies.

"It's time." Rosalie said and felt a hand slipping to grab hers.

Nat was by her side, the older woman's grip on her hand reassuring, calming down Rosalie's trembling nerves.

It was time. They were going to do it.

And Rosalie would make sure that nothing would go wrong. She didn't want to lose anyone she loved, at least not again.

But she still had some unfinished business to take care of before she could focus entirely on their delicate mission.

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oh oh ohhhhh! here we gooooooo!
what do you think the unfinished business is? i gave a small clue in the beginning of the chapter (:
as always, don't forget to vote and comment to show your support! it makes me really happy and keeps me motivated to write new things!