WARNING: SPOILERS FOR INFINITY WAR INCLUDED.

Oh man, I can't believe this was meant to be a Christmas story and we're already in February. Sorry, guys.

And yes, you may call me out for the less-than-impeccable premise and plot of this less-than-Christmassy Christmas story.

It shows how brain-dead I've been for the past few months that I'd forgotten until about three quarters of the way through this fic that Strange was killed in the Snap, so I had to go through the whole thing to delete him and then fill in the gaps. Also, Tony Stark isn't stuck in space in this story either... But I can't really root him out of this. Before the Endgame trailer was revealed (*deep breathing*) technically this story could have taken place post-Infinity War in the following years, so somehow Stark could have returned, and they could have recovered the two later-mentioned Infinity Stones... But, it's safe to say this is essentially AU. (Apologies for that).

Um, merry Christmas.

"Is it possible?"

Thor waited for Tony to respond, unused to the man looking so serious.

"Well, I really never thought before a few years ago that aliens were real, and yet…" Stark shrugged. It creased his dark suit, the pinstripes going from straight to crimped before straightening again.

"If we can do this," Banner's voice was like someone on the edge of cliff, trying to gauge the danger of the fall before taking the step forward. "If we do this, there are a lot of risks we need to prepare for, even if the universes we've detected so far seem just like ours – "

"If Thanos can fight dirty, we need to step it up too." Tony pulled out a black velvet cloth from his suit jacket pocket and began polishing his sunglasses.

"But actually opening a portal into one of those dimensions…" Natasha's tone reminded Thor of her way of holding a gun to someone's temple; a calm warning.

"Gotta do what we gotta do."

"I agree." Thor dropped the two words in as decisively as he could, pouring mortar over bricks. "We have the chance to resurrect all our friends from the Snap with Time and Reality, but in particular we'll need someone who – "

The mortar crumbled slightly: "But why we would choose Lokiof all people to resurrect – "

"As I was saying, he has knowledge of the Stones," Thor tried to continue sounding purely rational. He almost succeeded. "And this wouldn't be a resurrection."

They don't know. They don't know what he did for us. Thor bit his tongue.

They don't know what he did.

(I barely know what he did)

"Is this your head or your heart talking, Thor?" Despite his faith in the direction they were heading, Tony's skepticism for one detail of their strategy – Loki – audibly leaked through. As if acid on marble, it ate away at the surface of their conviction. But Thor knew they would still reach the decision soon.

"Both. I know you don't want to listen to what my heart says, but you can't deny he'll be useful. I'll keep him in line if it comes to that. You can trust me even if you wouldn't trust him." He could not help but add, "It's not as if every other of our friends is completely innocent."

"If we're faced with an army of Thanos', I still think someone else from a parallel dimension like Wanda or Vision would be more – "

"This isn't about overthrowing more armies anymore – "

"He's right." There was reluctance in Bruce's quieter tone that Tony and Romanoff would clearly detect, but Thor was grateful for the second voice. "There's – therewas– obviously some kind of connection between Loki, Thanos and the Stones that we could use, if Loki were to help us, and – " Banner hesitated, but pushed through. "Ultimately, I think he'd choose our side. Or at least Thor's."

The silence was thick with misgivings, and calculations. Natasha folded her arms across her chest, although not with utter defiance.

"I'll keep him under control." Thor repeated. "Whatever version of him we find."

"So you're willing to give him a slap on the wrist if he acts up on us?" Tony tucked his buffed sunglasses back into his jacket pocket. "Willing to let us put him in a time-out corner if we need to?"

Thor glowered. "If we need to."

"You know, we have a foolproof Plan B if he fails to cooperate." Romanoff made no physical gesture or change in expression, but her hint was obvious. Thor could not help his frown deepening.

Another silence, but he could sense this one was a tipping point instead of a standstill.

"Well." Romanoff gave a slight tilt of her head at Tony, and then at Thor. "I guess we're stepping it up."

Stark clapped Thor's shoulder as he headed towards the door. "Ready for a family reunion, Point Break?"

Several hours later, Thor prodded, "How much longer?"

Stark's dark eyes tossed an amused glance at Thor over his shoulder, as he was about to close the lounge room door behind him.

"Are you kidding? We're two scientists, an assassin and a God trying to figure out how to open a portal into another dimension, and the God is probably the least helpful. It sounds like the setup to a bad joke."

Thor frowned. "I offered my help earlier but you declined."

"Have you thought of anything extra to tell us about the Stones or know much about any branches of physics or engineering?" Stark bit his lip. "Actually, you probably don't need either of those to join us pretending to know what we're doing. Or you could figure out how to hide your giant axe – "

"Stormbreaker"

" – with the abysmal name. Have you got a way of hiding it in case it's off to Earth we go?"

"Eitri made sure it can be concealed from sight and liberated whenever I need to." Thor brandished the axe from somewhere he did not fully know how to label; it bothered him slightly that it was reminiscent of Hela flourishing her own blades. He guessed someone unversed in science would probably say he was pulling the weapon from 'thin air'. Bruce might have devised a more technical way to describe it. Loki probably would have known. [CS2]

"Well then, brainstorm a couple of backup plans in case we need to persuade or kidnap your brother to help us. How about that?" Tony shut the door behind him. Thor stowed away Stormbreaker and sighed.

Tony's voice and a strange parcel entered the lounge room before he did. "We've got good news and bad news. Here, put these on." The parcel – actually one of the clear plastic bags Thor had seen him store his tuxedoes in – landed on the glass coffee table before Thor with a soft whump.

Thor looked up from the outdated magazine he had been trying to distract himself with, plucked from a nearby shelf – it was about high-tech computers, which appeared about half as advanced as Tony's coffee machine. Thor had paid little attention to the columns of tiny, slick lettering.

He tossed aside the slippery magazine and tore open the bag. Rising quickly, his chair skimming over the glossy floor, Thor stepped into the nearest bathroom to don the decidedly human garb. It seemed like soft Midgardian winter gear, plus a leather wallet filled with what was probably their nation's money. When he returned to find Tony waiting impatiently at the threshold, his hands were already clenched tensely; it twisted the plaid patterns on the knuckles of his woolen gloves.

"For your discreetness. It's their winter at the moment." Tony said in explanation as they stepped into the corridor.

"Bad news first."

"Sorry Thor, I'm going to give the good news first while we walk and talk. We've suddenly got no time left." Their footsteps echoed ahead of them as they hurried. Energy and tension were already seizing and fizzing through Thor's muscles, and he found himself striding several paces ahead with Tony dashing to keep up. He could hear Natasha and Bruce's voices crescendo into a clamour in Tony's work chamber at the end of the hallway, and suddenly he and Tony were both running.

"We've found a dimension with a relatively suitable version of your sibling." Stark was saying between breaths.

"Which one?"

"The littler one."

"Which dimension, Stark?"

"How am I meant to describe that? Third one on the left? Basically it was one of the only ones we could find with a Loki that wasn't already dead or working for Thanos – "

Thor hid his wince by quickening his step even more. Neither of them seemed inclined to acknowledge it as they approached the door.

"Not surprisingly, it's difficult opening a portal into another dimension, so we'll need to take advantage of any opening we can make. We managed to doorstop one open a minute ago, so you may need to hurry through before it closes on us – "

"I'm going through alone?" That was not the original plan. Which had not been especially watertight to begin with.

"We realised it'll probably take all four of us to re-open it to let you back in. Which we'll do in the same location it's in now, after seventy-two hours because according to Banner and my estimations that's when the Stones' energy peaks and troughs will be unstable yet safe enough to let us do it without any major backlashes to this dimension. Hopefully. Three full days, alright? Anyway," Tony added, "wouldn't you prefer to do this one alone?"

Another one of Tony's words needled Thor. "So this one will be a 'relatively' suitable version of Loki?"

They reached the door. Thor could hear a sound like rushing wind on the other side, and an ominous tingling in the air that reminded him of Yggdrasil's Convergence. "He was the best one we could find in the limited time we have," Tony was saying.

When they stepped through, it appeared as though a wound had been torn open in the very air. Like one of the Convergence doorways or Doctor Steven Strange's portals, but less neatly circular, less like it was allowed to be there. Like it was bleeding, with the shadows fragmenting around the edges as though they did not know how to behave with this disturbance in reality. They were going against the fabric of the universe, similar to how Loki used to teleport himself with his own brand of magic. Apparently it would always be wrong for Thor to find his brother again, even if it were only a weak mirage or a broken reflection.

Thor realised how familiar the scene on the other side of the gaping wound was. He felt his brow knit. "He's on Earth?"

"For some reason we haven't found out." Natasha almost had to shout over the sound of the airs of the two dimensions rushing to mix together.

Thor did not look away from the winter-tinged cityscape, grimy and glossy, that waited for him on the other side, as though his mind had already been sucked through ahead of his body.

"Thor," Banner called over the racket without looking up from the nest of Stones, each held in steel cradles and glowing iridescently, "You'll have to go through within the next minute, but – " he hesitated.

"What?"

"We overheard and saw a few glimpses of him and the dimension's version of the Avengers before fully opening this, and it looks like maybe you didn't exist in this one – "

"What?"

"But he's the best we could do, we're pretty sure he'd still know magic and about the Stones – "

"You're pretty sure? I have three days to find and convince my alive dead brother to join me across a magical portal to help save this universe, and he won't know who I am?" Thor probably did not need to roar so loudly to be heard over the wind.

"Uh, use your charisma – " Stark's voice was overridden by Natasha calling, "Thor. Go!" The edges of the yawning anomaly were starting to shiver inwards, like a rubber band stretched close to its limits and needing to either recoil or snap.

Shaking his head, Thor hurried into the new world.