〘 :*¨༺ 𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞 𝐡𝐞𝐢𝐬𝐭 ༻¨*: 〙

"I'm still worthy."

ᴠᴏʟᴜᴍᴇ : ▮▮▮▮▮▮▯▯▯

" god, it's brutal out here "

BLAKE PICKED AT the collar of his suit, pulling the tight fabric away from his neck. He adjusted his footing on the platform of the time machine, testing out the souls of the shoes in his suit.

"Five years ago, we lost." Steve began. "All of us. We lost friends. We lost family. We lost a part of ourselves. Today, we have a chance to take it all back. You know your teams. You know your missions. Get the stones. Get them back. One round-trip each. No mistakes...no do-overs. Most of us are going somewhere we know. That doesn't mean we should know what to expect. Be careful. Look out for each other. This is the fight of our lives and we're gonna win. Whatever it takes. Good luck."

"He's pretty good at that," Rocket observed, looking up at Blake, who nodded, also impressed by the speech.

"Right?" Scott chuckled.

"All right, you heard the man. Stroke those keys, Jolly Green." Tony ordered.

"Trackers engaged."

Blake took a deep breath, trying to calm his racing thoughts and his racing heart. His throat itched for the burn of alcohol, begging to become at ease in his own body.

He felt the platform turn, wiring on.

Just breathe my love. We'll find each other.

Blake took one last deep breath as his helmet expanded onto his head, engaging its power.

He felt an odd sensation take over his body as he watched the platform expand below him until he felt as if he was falling. His panicked breaths were the only thing he could hear as his body teleported through odd-shaped tunnels in time.

ASGARD, 2013

Blake watched as the world fixed itself around him, expanding back to normal size.

"God, that felt weird." He groaned as his white suit shrank from his body to reveal his regular clothes.

"Sh," Rocket hissed, beginning to follow Thor down the corridor. They snuck through the area they had appeared in and made their way out into the large corridors of the Asgard palace.

"Whoa," Blake gasped in awe, looking around the intricate stonework as the group hid behind a large pillar. The sound of distant talking echoed through the whole hall, the voices becoming clear to the three.

"Oh, there's Jane," Thor whispered, looking around the pillar to see Jane requesting pants.

"All right. Here's the deal, tubby." Rocket began, hopping off a statue. "You're gonna charm her and I'm gonna poke her with this thing and extract the Reality Stone, and get gone lickety-split."

"I'll be right back." Thor sighed, retreating from them. "The wine cellar is just down here. My father used to have this huge barrel of Aakonion ale. I'll see if the scullery has a couple of to-go cups."

"Hey. Hey!" Rocket called after him. "Aren't you drunk enough already?"

The opening of a door echoed through the hall, stopping their conversation. Rocket ducked under the statue while Thor and Blake hid behind two pillars.

Thor looked around his pillar, his eyes catching the sight of his mother conversating with her maidens. He walked out from behind the pillar, mindlessly following the sight of his mother. Blake looked around the pillar to see what the god had been staring at.

"Who's the fancy lady?" He asked as Rocket hopped onto the statue to take a look as well.

"That's my mother," Thor answered solemnly. "She dies today."

Blake hissed with a wince. "Oh, that's today?"

Thor looked down at the ground, his gaze distant. Blake shared a look with Rocket as Thor's breathing grew heavy.

"I can't do this. I can't do this. I shouldn't be here. I shouldn't have come. It's a bad idea!"

"Come here," Rocket said, waving Thor over. Blake clenched his jaw, watching the godman hyperventilate.

"No, no, no. I think I'm having a panic attack."

"Come here. Right here."

Thor nodded, repeating his words in mumbles. He stepped towards Rocket and the second he was in fasinaty the raccoon slapped him across the face.

"You think you're the only one who lost people?" Rocket retorted whilst Thor caught his breath. "What do you think we're doing here?" Rocket waved his fist between himself and Blake. "We lost the only family we've ever had. Ellie, Quill, Groot, Drax, the chick with the antenna...."

"Mantis," Blake added, his chest heavy.

"Yeah, all gone." Rocket continued. "I get you miss your mom, but she's gone. Really gone. And there are plenty of people who are only kind of gone, and you can help them. So, is it too much to ask that you brush the crumbs out of your beard, make schmoopy talk to Pretty Pants, and when she's not looking, suck out the Infinity Stone and help us get our family back?"

Thor sucked in a deep breath, looking down shamefully, "Okay,"

Blake squinted his eyes, leaning down to catch Thor's face.

"Are you crying?" Blake asked, glancing over at Rocket.

Thor shook his head, trying to contain a sob. "No," He answered meekly. He nodded, looking up at the two. "Yes. I feel like I'm losing it."

"Hey man, get it together." Blake rested his hand on Thor's shoulder and gave him a small shake. "You can do this."

Blake resisted the urge to punch the godman as he looked at him with glossy eyes.

"You can do this," Blake reassured, pointing at Thor's chest. Thor nodded, taking a deep breath.

"I can do this,"

Blake gave him a nudge on his shoulder. "Yes, you can."

"Good," Rocket sighed, hopping off the statue.

Blake nodded, following after Rocket with Thor trailing behind, or so they thought.

"I can't do this. I can't do this." Thor mumbled, spinning around and leaving the others down the hall.

"All right, heartbreaker, she's alone." Rocket informed. "This is our shot."

Blake's brows furrowed at the silence behind them and turned.

"Thor?" Rocket called, stopping in their tracks. "Thor!"

Blake let out a heavy sigh, groaning in frustration.

"I'm gonna kill him," Blake groaned.

"You can't, he's a god," Rocket reminded him as they went towards the pillars again.

"Well, I'll get pretty damn close."

Rocket rolled his eyes, leaning against a pillar as he thought of a different plan.

"So, if I don't have a job, what am I doing here with you?" Blake asked, gesturing towards himself.

"You're backup in case marshmallow man couldn't do shit. And I wanted to keep an eye on you so you didn't embarrass me in front of the others." Rocket explained casually.

Blake scoffed, grimacing at the raccoon's words. "Embarrass you? How would I embarrass you?"

Rocket shrugged. "You embarrass me,"

"I'm twenty-one years old, you and I have no relation. You're a raccoon."

"Do you really want to be saying things like that to your future father-in-law?"

"Oh right, 'cause I'm so lucky to have a psychotic trash panda as my in-law."

Rocket glared at him, raising his hand to point at the boy. "You could have it a lot worse pal. You're lucky Ellie loves you or else you would be ashes right about now!"

Blake crossed his arms over his chest, rolling his eyes. He didn't retort back, a slight panic rising in him from the threat. He was lucky.

"Let's get this done and get everyone back," Rocket said, pushing himself off the pillar and walking down the corridor.

⭒☆━━━━━━━━━━━━━━☆⭒

ROCKET AND BLAKE had successfully got the stone, not in a pretty way though. They had waited for Jane to wake up and with Blake holding her down, Rocket was able to extract the stone.

"Thor!" Rocket yelled as he and Blake ran away from the palace guards.

"We got it!" Blake added.

They maneuvered around pillars once they spotted Thor and the lady from before.

Blake huffed, keeling over to try and catch his breath. He stood up, his face scrunched in pain as he held his side.

"Oh, hello." Blake greeted, waving at the lady.

"Hi. You must be Mom." Rocket added awkwardly. "I got the thing. Come on. We gotta move." Rocket told Thor, holding up the extractor.

"Oh, I wish we had more time," Thor said to his mother.

"No, this was a gift." She corrected, holding Thor's hands in hers. "Now you go and be the man you're meant to be."

"I love you, Mom."

"I love you,"

Blake puffed out a breath, looking around awkwardly as the pair hugged.

"And eat a salad." She added after they parted.

"Come on, we gotta go." Rocket reminded, tapping his controller to get ready for the trip back. "Three, two-"

"No, wait!" Thor interjected. Blake furrowed his brows as Thor raised his hand into the air.

"W-What am I looking at?" Rocket asked.

"Oh, sometimes it takes a second."

"Ah, okay." Blake mocked his understanding.

A gust of wind flowed through the window as a large hammer slammed into Thor's grip. Thor laughed and flipped the hammer in his grip.

"I'm still worthy."

Blake sighed, signaling for Rocket to continue back to get them home.

"Whatever you say, dude," Blake commented, watching the white suit appear once again over his body.

⭒☆━━━━━━━━━━━━━━☆⭒

BLAKE SHIVERED WITH discomfort as he appeared back on the platform of the time machine.

"Did we get them all?" Tony asked.

"Are you telling me this actually worked?" Rhodes laughed. All heads turned to Clint as he fell to his knees.

"Clint, where's Nat?" Bruce asked.

The silence they were met with was enough for an answer.

Blake looked down at his shoes, feeling out of place in a place of such grief.