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Chapter Text

Loki took a breath and let herself change. It was a relief, having a female form when she was a girl, and it wasn't something she could enjoy the luxury of often when on Asgard for fear of rejection. Times were changing, she believed, and Thor wanted her to be more open.

Still, that didn't loosen the knot in her stomach when Thor remained silent.

"Sometimes I am a girl," she explained, "and sometimes I am a boy. I can be neither or both too... that's the simplest explanation of it."

Thor stayed silent for another moment, and then he grinned - that warm puppy dog overjoyed grin of his that Loki hadn't seen in a while (especially not directed at him).

"I have a sister!" He exclaimed.

Loki rolled her eyes, trying not to let a traitorous smile slip onto her face to betray her feelings to Thor. "You already had a sister. You'd think she'd leave a lasting impression. Ragnarok ring a bell?"

Thor briefly frowned, but he was back to smiling again in an instant when he figured that Loki was just trying to wind him up - since when was Thor smart to that kind of thing? "But now I have a sister who isn't trying to kill me!"

A small smile finally crossed her face, how treacherous. "That's debatable."

-

"This is who Loki is. Ever-changing, and in a state of fluidity at constant. I'm the god of change, and work like the phases of the moon-"

"Do you ever shut up?" Valkyrie asked, taking a swig of alcohol from the bottle. "By the Norns, so dramatic... You're a girl right now, sometimes you're not. I got it. You're still going by Loki?"

"Yes." Loki replied. No matter what she was, she was always Loki.

"Awesome. Can you go now? I want to get drunk in peace."

-

The Hulk called her a 'puny goddess' which was cute.

Loki still left the room as soon as possible though.

-

The Hulk mostly left Loki alone, and not just because she avoided him at all costs. Eventually though, Thor starting recruiting the beast for his evil 'group bonding' schemes.

Apparently Thor wanted a Revengers Group Dinner, but she wasn't for that family life. Just because she was on their side, didn't mean she was ready to socialise with them.

Loki told Thor as much, but he refused to listen. When he left her room, she assumed he'd given up. Alas, he had instead recruited the beast, who hoisted Loki over his shoulders and refused to put her down. Daggers didn't seem to bother him the way they did Thor.

Despite her protests, she was secretly glad to be forced into Thor's group bonding time. She was sure he took her lack of magical combat against the beast as an acceptance of the dinner invitation, and was glad she needn't admit aloud her gratefulness of being included - how embarrassing that would be.

-

Banner showed up at some point, to Loki's surprise. She had been sure he'd remain green and childish forever.

"Genderfluid." Loki repeated, trying out the new word on her tongue. "I never had a word to describe me before, I was always just... me."

"You don't have to have a label." Banner shrugged. "That's just the one people similar to you use."

"No, no. I like it, I think." She said. "I never knew there were other people like me..."

Banner asked her for her pronouns at the beginning of every interaction they had.

"I may still think you're a crazy asshole," He said when Loki thanked him for it. "But I'm not going to misgender you because of that - I'm not a dick."

She may still be petrified of the Hulk, but Loki believed that Banner might be her favourite avenger.

-

"Do you really think it's a good idea to go back to Earth?" Loki asked as she and Thor looked out at the vastness of space through the ship's window.

"Yes, of course. The people of Earth love me, I'm very popular." Thor replied.

"Let me rephrase that," she said, "Do you really think it's a good idea for me to go back to Earth."

"Probably not, to be honest." Thor said, and Loki smiled. "I wouldn't worry sister. I feel like everything's going to work out fine."

A shadow slowly crept into their view, Loki looked up and felt her throat go dry.

"Oh shit."

Thor shot her a look. "Do you know what this is?"

Loki had to take a second to get the word out. She had mostly pushed the psychopath out of her mind up 'til now, but she couldn't avoid it this time.

"Thanos." She replied.

Thanos was here.

"This is all my fault, Thor, I'm sorry. I thought I was making everything better." She said, and then she reached into her pocket dimension and pulled out the Tesseract. "I think I've killed Asgard."

"You took the Tesseract?" Thor asked. "Why?"

"I couldn't just leave it unguarded! It's an infinity stone! Without Asgard's defenses, anyone could take it from the rubble of the trophy room. I didn't know Thanos could track it, you have to believe me."

"I do, brother." Thor said, sounding tired. "But you should have told me you had it."

Loki didn't reply, and soon Valkyrie, Banner and Heimdall were beside them.

"Heimdall told us of an approaching ship." The Valkyrie said. "Do we know if it's a threat?"

"Yes." Loki said easily. "We're all going to die. Our only hope is giving him the Tesseract. Maybe then he'll leave a few survivors."

Thor shook his head. "We fight. If he's as dangerous as you say, he can't get the stone. Hide it again, Loki. We cannot kill others in the universe because we gave someone dangerous great power. No matter what, he doesn't get the stone."

"We'll die" Loki said.

"So be it." Thor replied, but then he shook his head. "Keep it in your pocket dimension. He can't get it if he kills you. So he won't. Easy."

"That's optimistic." Loki said. "He could kill you."

"So be it." Thor repeated again.

Thanos and his black order were on the ship quicker than anticipated - short ranged teleport, Loki assumed.

She looked around at Asgard's remaining population as they crowded into the large control room. One of the black order fired their weapons immediately (some sort of blaster, who knows?) at a small boy that Loki knew little about.

It shot a hole through his chest, and his body crumpled to the ground.

Loki didn't know his name.

The black order continued to pick off Asgardians as the Revengers ran forwards. Neither Loki nor Thanos moved, just looked at one another. Thanos knew Loki got the message: 'give me the Tesseract or this continues until every last Asgardian is dead'.

Loki wasn't stupid enough to believe that giving him the Tesseract would stop the bloodshed, that was just false hope she'd tried to cling onto.

Loki didn't do anything.

Thanos didn't frown at Loki's failure to produce the Tesseract, he smiled. He moved finally, to Thor, and grabbed the God of Thunder by his head.

Loki felt sick for a moment. She knew that with Thanos' strength, he could probably kill Thor with a simple squeeze. She looked away as Thor started to struggle.

"Give me the Tesseract, young prince, or he dies."

Loki created an illusionary copy of herself, and an illusion of invisibility around her real self. It wouldn't fool Thanos for long, but she guessed that if she left with the Tesseract, it would be the only hope Asgard had of any survivors.

Banner, now the Hulk, was close by. Loki had time to take him too. For protection in whatever world she ended up in, she told herself, not because she liked the beast at all.

She had gotten as close as she needed to the Hulk, when Thanos realised her illusion was just that.

"You think you can play me?" He chuckled. "You need to learn that I don't make empty threats."

With that, he lifted Thor up and threw him at the ship's window. It shattered, and Thor was left to drift in space.

The ship's oxygen shield was keeping them alive, Loki figured, but she quickly found that she didn't care very much. Thor, if not dead yet, would be dead soon, and it was Loki's fault.

No.

It was Thanos' fault. He killed Thor. Loki sent him a look of roaring fire and grabbed the Hulk by the arm. She took the Tesseract from her pocket dimension and willed it to let them escape.

It answered her anger, glowing brighter blue until all of Loki's vision went white.

She hoped Heimdall and the Valkyrie survived.

Suddenly she was falling fast, and she was reminded of the void (where she fell and fell for an eternity). She realised the Hulk was no longer by her side, which she should've realised could happen. Still, Banner had probably been moved in space too, somewhere that wasn't with Thanos. At least she had saved one life.

The Tesseract wasn't with her either. Thanos must have it.

She couldn't even follow Thor's last instruction.

Everything went black.

Chapter Text

Loki awoke, hurting everywhere. She could feel her seiðr knitting her back together slowly, it had probably started while she was unconscious.

She inhaled the air and looked up at the sky. It looked like she had landed on Midgard, wasn't that fun?

Her anger had disappeared and she was left with a heavy chest, tears prickling in her eyes. Thor was dead, all of Asgard most likely followed suit. She was alone.

“I'm sorry.” She said, hoping he could hear her from his rightful Valhalla. “I should've done better.”

She sat up with much difficulty, and looked around to get an idea of her surroundings. The plant life around her confirmed her suspicions of Midgard being her location. At least it wasn't Jotunheim.

She saw a large grey rectangular building, with a stylised ‘A’ on one of its walls. It took her a moment to remember what the ‘A’ was for.

It seemed the Tesseract had a sense of humour.

Still, she'd need help defeating Thanos, even she could admit that, and who better than Earth’s Mightiest Heroes?

And she was going to defeat Thanos. He had killed her brother. If anyone had the right to do that, it was her.

She got to her feet, but they immediately buckled and she was on the ground again. She told her seiðr to focus on her legs for now, which though leaving her in blinding pain everywhere else, allowed her to walk, albeit slowly. It tried to drag her to unconscious again, to have time to heal, but she needed to get to the Avengers and warn them of Thanos. Sure they might kill her on sight, but it was her best bet. She couldn't wait until she was better.

It took her several minutes to cross the short distance to the Avenger’s facility. She weakly slammed her hands against the front door. “Avengers! I am in need of your assistance.”

She realised it would be hard to convince the Avengers that anything she said was true. She was Loki after all, would-be ruler of their world.

The door opened to reveal the Iron Man, Tony Stark. He wasn't wearing the full armor, but she noticed his gauntleted hand.

“Stark, you must listen. My brother… my brother, Thanos killed him. I know you can't trust me but, I, my brother- he-” Loki couldn't stop tears rolling down her face. Norns, she was breaking down in front of Stark. How embarrassing.

“Okay, okay.” Stark said, with a bad attempt at being reassuring. Looking at the panicking Asgardian with seemingly no idea what to do. “Start from the beginning, you are?”

Loki didn't realise that these people wouldn't recognise her in her female form. Perhaps she could successfully hide her identity for a while then, it’d be easier to gain their trust.

“Loren.” She answered.

“Great. Cool. Where did you get all these injuries from? You look like you were put through a blender. This Thanos guy that killed your brother - was it him?”

“No, I fell.”

“You fell.”

“From the sky.”

He looked skeptical. “Sure, okay. You fell from the sky. What-”

Loki staggered forward and was caught by Stark, she almost found in funny. Her seiðr was going to be an inpatient bitch, it seemed. She figured the Avengers should be able to keep her out of harm’s way for a short while, since they didn't know who she was. She allowed her seiðr to pull her into unconsciousness.

-

Stark wasn't beside her when she woke again, but rather a young boy she didn't recognise.

“Oh, hey Ms. Loren! Mr. Stark told me to keep an eye on you. We did some x-rays and a bunch of different medical stuff, but you seem to be healing yourself? That's so cool! I can heal pretty fast too, but not that fast. Were you born like that or were you-”

They felt weak, their energy completely spent on fixing themselves up. The overuse of magic always did this to them, and make them feel a little floaty and drunk.

Their head was also finding it much too hard to keep up with the boy’s words.

Loki sat up. “You speak much too fast, small child.”

“I'm fifteen!”

“That is like a baby to me.” Loki chuckled, groaning as the action hurt their ribs.

“Anyway Ms. Loren-”

That felt wrong. Kind of. They felt alright staying in their feminine form, but those pronouns didn't sit well with them. They wondered if Banner had a word that fit.

They wondered if all Midgardians were as okay with using they preferred pronouns as Banner was.

“I'm not feeling very ‘Ms..’ right now.” They said gingerly. “More close to, nothing? In the middle of Ms. and nothing.”

“Mx. Then?” The child suggested.

Loki shrugged. “I've never heard of such an address. But if it fits, then yes.”

“No problem, Mx. Loren! I'm so sorry, I know what that feels like. I should've asked.”

“You are… like me?” Loki asked.

“A little? We're both not cis anyway. I'm trans.”

“I have no idea what that means.”

“Oh!” He said with a little surprise. “It means that I'm a boy, but the doctor’s assigned me female at birth.”

“How rude of them.”

He grinned. “Yeah. It can work in other ways too, like being called male at birth and actually being a girl, but you know, not me.”

Loki simply hummed. “What's your name, child?”

“I'm Peter Parker. I intern at Stark Industries.”

“Well met, Peter Parker.” Loki said with a small smile. They felt a… connection with the boy. They had never met someone like them before and though Peter was different to them, their situations shared some similarities.

“You sound Asgardian.” A voice from behind them said. Loki jumped and looked behind them to find Stark.

There was no use pretending they weren't from Asgard, it was far too obvious.

“I should hope so.”

“You're Asgardian then?” Stark asked.

“Obviously.”

“Why are you here? If there a big threat coming, Asgard's supposedly powerful enough to stop it. And if you guys need Earth’s help, why didn't Thor come down?”

“Asgard is… no more. The first child of Odin, Hela, brought Ragnarok upon it.”

“Another evil Odinson? Bet family reunions are fun there.”

Loki kept their lips in a straight line. “Indeed.” They said. “What was left of Asgard’s population escaped on a ship, Hela herself burned with Asgard. We were heading for Earth to get refuge.”

Stark frowned. “What happened? Where's everyone else - where's Thor?”

“They're dead.” Loki answered simply. “Thor is anyway. I assume everyone else was killed after I left. Thanos arrived, looking for the space gem - the Tesseract.”

“Shit, the piece of crap again?”

“It's one of six powerful weapons - the infinity stones. Thanos wishes to collect them all. If he does, he'll become unstoppable. I only narrowly avoided his wrath by using the Tesseract.”

“You have it?” Stark asked, eyes narrowing.

Loki shook their head. “I didn't come with me, just dropped me to Midgard.”

“What will Thanos do if he collects all the infinity stones?” Peter asked. He sounded scared, and Loki was tempted to lie to avoid him feeling more so.

“The universe is out of balance.” Loki replied. “There are more people alive now than have ever died. Thanos wishes to balance life and death again. To do that… he's going to wipe out half the universe. A gift for his love, the Lady Death.”

Peter looked a little green and a look to Stark showed his stoney face.

“Will he come to Earth?” Stark asked.

“You still have Loki’s scepter on Earth?” Loki asked and was answered with a nod from Stark. “The mind stone. He'll come to collect it.”

Tony’s face looked panicked. “Oh God.” He said, and then a look of revelation. “Oh God, Vision.”

“Vision?” Loki repeated, confused.

“Friday, call Vision in here.”

“Right away, Boss.” Answered an Irish voice that came from the ceiling.

Loki jumped.

Peter smiled, even if he still looked a little ill. “That's just Friday. She's a computer.”

“I figured.” Loki said like he knew it was an electronic device all along. “I just didn't expect it.”

A humanoid figure seemed to emerge from the wall. He was purple and green, with a cape reminiscent of Thor’s. Right in the centre of his forehead was the mind gem.

“Oh.” Loki breathed out. “Oh, you stupid amazing Midgardians. You put the mind gem in a mechanical human?”

“Thor had a part in his creation.” Tony grinned.

“Of course he did.”

“Hello,” the robot began, polite sounding, “I'm Vision. You would be?”

“Loren, Goddess of Stories.” They chose a lesser used title of their’s. They had always been the god of stories, what were stories but entertaining lies after all? “Or, God of Stories. No. I'm the whatever of stories.”

“Goddex?” Peter suggested.

Loki had never heard of such a term before, but deemed it suitable. “Yes, Goddex of Stories.”

“A pleasure.” The robot bowed his head quickly in greeting. “You are of Asgard?”

“Indeed. I'm afraid I come with bad news.”

“Some guy called Thanos is coming to Earth.” Stark explained. “He's apparently super powerful and wants the stone in your forehead.”

“Can we stop him?” Vision asked.

“We must.” Loki answered. “Thanos killed my brother. He will know my fury. My blades will mark his end.”

“Well then,” Stark said, “Do you have a plan?”

“We have to be as powerful as we can be.” Loki smiled. “We must unite the Avengers.”

Chapter Text

Stark had a way to contact Captain America, apparently, and Loki had sent him off to do so.

They sat bored on the wooden floor of a common room, Peter on the couch beside them. Their head still felt too light to delve into reading to pass time, but they needed a distraction. They pulled out the one thing from their pocket dimension that, besides their knives and their journals, they always kept there no matter the occasion that needed prepping for.

Black nail polish.

Loki loved painting their nails. It was distracting and easy and made them look good.

Peter perked up. “Can I help?”

A few moment later, Peter finished painting Loki’s last fingernail black. He had been talking the entire time, but Loki found that they didn't mind very much. “So this kid at school - Flash - keeps misgendering me on purpose. Every time I bring it up, he's like “It's just a joke” but… I don't know. What would you do in my place?”

Loki blew on their fingernails. “Stab him.”

Peter made a distressed noise. “What?!”

“Stab. Him.” They repeated, before summoning one of their daggers and putting it in Peter’s hand. “Whenever my brother irritated me, stabbing him would shut him up.”

“I can't just stab Flash!”

Loki checked out their nails and realised they’d smudged them holding the dagger. “Oh boo.”

“Loren.”

They rolled their eyes. “Sorry, I forgot that I'm supposed to have a perfect moral compass 24/7. I'm afraid my entire list of options includes stabbing him.”

“You're so unhelpful.”

“What about a curse?” They suggested. “I love a good curse…”

“Loren!”

“No, you're right. Why waste good magic on the-” They tried to find the word Peter used to describe Flash. “cishets? … that was the word you used - cishets - right? What did that mean again?”

“No, Loren, around you!”

Loren looked at Peter - who seemed genuinely panicked - and then looked down to see a familiar circle of what looked like red fire around them.

“Oh fuck.” Was all they managed to say before they dropped.

They heard Peter yell something but didn't catch the words.

This time, they didn't fall for half an hour. Instead, they were immediately at the feet of the personification of irritation - the magician that had left Loki falling for thirty minutes.

“Loki?” He said, seemingly confused. “I guess your new appearance explains why it was hard to track you this time.”

“No, your magic just sucks.” They replied, standing up and brushing themselves off. “I put a few wards up after leaving Midgard last time, I suppose my magic isn't strong enough to hold them completely right now, which is why you were able to find me… This isn't a disguise, it's me.”

He shook his head. “Whatever. Why are you back? It's barely been a week. I'd hoped that once you left the planet you be gone forever.”

“Ouch, hurtful.” They said in mock offence. “I'm not here by choice. If I was here by choice, it'd be because I'd very much like to stab you and let you bleed out over your ugly-ass carpet.” They pointed at the mentioned atrocity and wrinkled their nose as if in disgust.

“But I'm here by coincidence,” they continued, “I believe I should get an introduction before I continue? I didn't catch your name last time.”

He didn't seem any less annoyed at Loki, but said, “Doctor Stephen Strange, Sorcerer Supreme.” with a certain amount of flourish.

“Doctor?” Loki feigned interest. “Tell me, Strange, would you call a man who knows nought but basic first aid a doctor?”

His irritance turned to confusion. “I- no?”

Loki smiled. “Then, my dear friend, stop calling yourself a sorcerer.”

Strange seemed flustered by their comment and tried to hide it by scowling. “Why are you on Earth then? If you didn't come here by your own doing?”

“I didn't say it wasn't my own doing, it just wasn't my own choice to come here. Going by that pretty necklace of your’s, I assume you know something of the infinity stones?”

Strange nodded gravely. “I know a thing or two, yes.”

“There's a being called Thanos who wishes to collect all six stones. With them, he would become unstoppable, and would destroy half the universe for his Lady Death.”

“Will he be able to track down the stones?”

“I don't know, but he will come to Midgard regardless. The mind stone remains here from my first trip to America, and he would've figured by now that it is either here or on Asgard. It wouldn't take a genius to realise that with Asgard’s destruction, the only possible place the could be is Midgard. He wouldn't need to track it down. Whether he knows the..?” They trailed off and pointed to his necklace.

“Time stone.” He said.

They nodded. “Whether he knows the time stone is here too is impossible to know.”

“You say ‘trip to America’ like it was a lovely holiday.” Strange said.

“Maybe it was.” Loki argued for the sake of arguing. “That's all you took from this conversation?”

Strange shook his head (in disbelief at their too-casual remarks about the invasion? Norns, that had been years ago. Why did Midgardians insist on living in the past? Thor was over it!). “I feel like you want something from me.”

“I masqueraded as the All-Father for a bit back in Asgard. Bit of fun really. But during that time I kept a closer eye on Midgard than Odin liked to do. This is where Thanos is coming, and yet the heroes of this world are scattered, their relationships fractured. It seems once more I shall have to unite the Avengers-”

“You're taking credit for that?”

“Of course.” Loki said without hesitation, adding an innocent shrug. “I shall unite the Avengers, and any other heroes of this planet, so that they can prepare for what is to come. As much as I hate to admit, you know some magic, and can contact other magic users of this realm. It would be beneficial to me if you could unite the world of magic with the world of heroes.”

Strange considered everything they'd said. “As much as I really don't want you on this planet whatsoever, Thanos seems like the bigger threat right now. I'll prepare the sorcerers of the world to the best of my ability.”

“You'll have to do better than that if we're to survive.”

Strange huffed. “As I was saying, I can meet with the Avengers and leave banishing you to a forgotten dimension for a later date. But I'm keeping an eye on you.”

“And I can resist the urge to stab your heart for a short while, even if your face irritates me so.”

Strange rolled his eyes and began drawing runes in the air, his finger leaving behind a line of orange seðir. His cape flared out dramatically - which Loki could appreciate, even if they would not say so. “To the Avengers Facility?”

“If you would be so kind.” Loki replied.

Oranges circles of seðir rotated around the man’s hand, and a portal opened up in the centre of the room.

“Evil aliens first.” Strange waved his hand to get Loki to move forward. At least he was smart enough not to turn his back to them.

“What a gentleman.” They fanned their face with their hand as if they were flustered and moved through the portal.

The first thing they heard was the screeching of Peter.

“What if they're dead, Mr. Stark?!” He exclaimed, voice squeaky and high. “I didn't even react! It's all my fault!”

Loki walked towards the source of the voice, finding the room Stark and Peter were in. “Calm, Peter Parker. I've returned.”

“Loren!” Peter yelled. “I thought you were in hell!”

“I might've well been…” Loki saw Peter and Tony look behind them and assumed the doctor had entered the room. “Oh, he's Strange.” They gestured towards him.

“That's mean.” Peter frowned.

“Uh, no. My name is Strange.”

Peter looked sadly at the magician. “Don't say that! I'm sure-”

“Doctor Strange? The surgeon?” Stark asked, narrowing his eyes at the man. Strange nodded. “Haven't you been missing for months?”

“Doctor Strange is your real actual name?” Peter asked suddenly.

“Yes.”

Peter looked amazed. “Holy shit.”

“Why do you know this fool?” Loki asked Stark.

“Sometime after creating Vision I wanted to look into neuroscience. His name popped up a bit.” Stark shrugged. “You went to collect Stephen Strange then? You kinda scared the kid half to death.”

“I was kidnapped by the good doctor here. It was a misunderstanding, he sensed my Asgardian seiðr and panicked as Midgardian magicians do.” Loki explained. “He'll help us defeat Thanos.”

“Magician?” Peter asked excitedly.

Strange opened his mouth to speak, which is why Loki chose to say something first. “Stark, did you call Captain Rogers?”

“Well… no. I'm sure the he’s in some country where the roaming charges are too much for the guy, I'm not there to fund him anymore.” He took phone from his pocket. “Cap probably won't listen to a word I say anyway.”

Loki huffed. Who would've thought the cockiness of Stark could've been replaced with cold feet? “Fine, then I shall speak to him.”

They snatched the phone from him and tried their best to call Captain America. They were glad they'd learned a bit about Midgardian tech from Agent Barton during their invasion attempt, or else they'd be looking really stupid right now (she could only imagine Thor with a phone). ‘Steve’ was the only contact in the phone, so they pressed his name and soon the device was ringing. They held the phone to their ear.

It took a couple of rings, but someone picked up. “Tony?” said the voice of Captain Rogers.

“Afriad not, Captain.” Loki replied. “But this is important.”

The Captain’s tone changed to something more formal. “Who are you?”

“Loren, Asgardian sorcerer. Probably the last of the Asgardians, long story - very traumatic. The Avengers needs to get back together. A threat is coming to Midgard. His name is Thanos, and he's extremely powerful. He's coming for the mind stone in The Vision’s head, and the time stone possessed by the probably self-titled Sorcerer Supreme. The more of these stones he collects, the more powerful he gets. Midgard has no chance of stopping him when half the Avengers are in hiding. What do you say?”

“Last of the Asgardians?” His voice went soft and meek. “Thor, is he-?”

“Thanos slaughtered what remained of the Asgardian population. I presume that I am the only one surviving, and if anyone else did, Thor is not among them. Thanos… he killed my brother. Help me make him pay.”

He sighed. “Let me tell the others, then I'll get back to you.”

Loki nodded, even though the captain couldn't see. “Thank you.” This was good!Loki actually felt like progress had been made.

“Loren?”

“Yes?”

Hesitation. “Is Tony alright? And Rhodey, Vision-”

“They're… fine. You'll see for yourself if all goes smoothly. I hope you're both ready to get over yourselves and talk through things maturely?”

There was a smile in his voice when he replied. “Good. I'll call back soon.”

The call ended abruptly.

Stark and Strange were seemingly arguing about magic, which Loki ignored completely in favour of Peter who was watching Loki intensely.

“Am I going to meet Captain America for real? Last time we met I stole his shield and we fought for a bit. I want him to know that I'm cool.”

“It seems likely,” Loki shrugged, “he says he must talk to the remaining ex-avengers, but he should call back with haste.”

“Oh my God… I'm going to meet Black Widow.” Peter said softly. “And Falcon.”

Loki smiled. “Let's hope we can meet them before the end of the world, hm?”

Chapter Text

The Guardians, despite their odd personalities, were welcoming enough. They gave him warm food and a blanket so that he could recover from the cold of space.

“I can't detect any other life signs.” Said the green woman, Gamora.

Thor’s spoon broke as his fist tightened.

Though he may be recovering fast from space, he would not recover easily from the more scarring events of the day.

Everyone looked nervously at his broken spoon (It's not his fault that the metal was so fragile) and then at each other.

“What happened here?” Starlord asked.

Thor looked down into the warm broth. “Thanos.” He replied, voice low. “He wanted the Tesseract - the space stone. We had it on board.”

Gamora spoke again. “For as long as I can remember, Thanos has wanted one thing: the destruction of half the universe. It's been his goal to collect all six of the infinity stones, and once he has them, he can kill half of everything with a snap of his fingers.” She snapped her own fingers as if for emphasis.

Thor considered her words carefully. “You speak of Thanos like you know him.”

Gamora looked out the window into the darkness of space. “I'm his daughter.” She said softly.

Thor felt something bubble up inside of him.

“Thanos killed my sibling. My people. Everything I had left.” The emotions building inside took over and he was immediately to his feet and at her side.

The others all made sounds of protest. “Woah, woah, man! Calm down!” Starlord said.

Gamora looked guilty, if anything. “I've done bad things in Thanos’ name.” She said. “But now I want nothing more then to end the suffering he brings to the universe.”

Thor smiled sympathetically and placed a hand on her shoulder. “Families are complicated. Just recently I had to kill my evil sister that my father’s kept a secret from me my entire life.”

“Do you have a pod on this ship?” Thor asked, looking around. He spotted one and made his way to it. “I don't want to keep you from going wherever you want to go, so I'll just be taking this.”

“Hey man,” Starlord said, “You can't just take our pod! Where do you plan on going?”

“Nidavellir.” Thor replied simply.

“Nidavellir?” Said a small rabbit excitedly. “But that's a myth.”

“Small rabbit, I'm considered a myth on Midgard and yet I'm as real as any of you. I've seen Nidavellir with my own two eyes.”

“You have one eye.” He replied. “Wait, small rabbit-?”

“Long story.” Thor brushed off with a shrug. “You know stories of Nidavellir then?”

“It's only the best weapon forge in the entire frickin’ universe!”

Thor grinned. “Indeed. My hammer was made there and it was indeed the mightiest weapon ever made. If we want to stop Thanos, we have to have a weapon that can do it.”

“Hell yeah, I'm in.” The rabbit said.

“It would be better to stop Thanos from getting another infinity stone. If we delay by making weapons, he'll be too strong for us to stop.” Gamora said.

The rabbit huffed. “We don't even know he's going after next.”

“I do.” Thor shrugged. “Knowhere.”

“Surely he must be going somewhere.” Said Drax, the muscular grey man.

“Knowhere like the place,” Starlord said exasperated. “We've been there, Drax!”

Thor nodded. “It's on Knowhere with the collector.”

“What idiot would give the collector an infinity stone?” Starlord asked.

“A very smart one?”

Gamora crossed her arms. “How do you know Thanos is going there?”

“He sent the black order to Earth, where the mind and time stone are, he had the power stone in his possession, he just took the space stone, and nobody knows where the soul stone is. Therefore, the reality stone is his next target.”

“If he gets the reality stone, he'll be almost impossible to beat.” Gamora reasoned. “We need to go there first.”

“Well I wish you good luck,” Thor said, “Small rabbit, let's go.”

The rabbit punched in a code on the screen beside the pod. “Groot, you come with us.”

“I am Groot.” Groot muttered, walking over to them but not looking up from his screen. Thor was almost impressed with his vulgarity.

The pod opened and Thor followed the rabbit inside. “If Thanos reached the reality stone first, you should travel straight to Earth and join with the Avengers to protect the other two stones. Tell them that Thor sent you.”

“The Avengers?” Starlord repeated.

“Yeah. We're like a superhero team. We kick ass, it's good fun.”

“Is Kevin Bacon on your team?” Mantis asked sincerely.

Thor shrugged. “Probably. Those assholes get like two new members every time the world ends and I haven't been there in a while.”

“I still don't think we should split up.” Gamora said wearily.

“Whatever,” said the rabbit - who was obviously the most intelligent person on the team. “Catch ya later, a-holes!”

Thor smiled and waved at the team. “See you!”

And they were off the Nidavellir. Thor let the weight of everything sink in, his shoulders heavy. He tried to reassure himself. Everything was going in the right direction, and soon, Loki and all of Asgard would be avenged.

Chapter Text

Pepper Potts was such a fearsome woman that Loki was sure that she'd see right through her act and smith her with whatever cosmic power she clearly must yield.

After Stark had explain why Loki was here, Ms. Potts had sighed, like it was old news, and said simply “This is going to put a damper on the wedding plans.”

She'd given Loki a room and a fresh pair of clothes, and had suggested she relax until at least dinner. As much as Loki didn't want to, she agreed, and let herself collapse onto the bed once the woman left.

What more could she do anyway? She had called Captain Rogers. It was only a matter of time until he called back and then they could plan.

But being inactive let the weight of Thor’s - and likely all of the other Asgardians’ - death sink in again. If she hadn't taken the infinity stone, would everyone have been safe? Maybe Thanos would've always come regardless of what she possessed, she had been told that her failure to procure the Tesseract would result in a fate that'd make her wish for death. Perhaps the only way she could have prevented all those deaths would've been to part ways with Asgard.

It wasn't like she had chose to rejoin the asgardians though. She had simply asked the space stone to get her to safety once the world around her was consumed by flames, and it had brought her to Thor (albeit, some time later). Loki wanted to believe that if she had been allowed to make the choice again now, with the advantage of hindsight, she'd do the heroic thing. In her heart though, she doubted it. She was selfish, and that was how she'd always be.

Loki was still stewing in self loathing (a favoured past time) when Peter Parker came in. He sat down next to where she was sitting cross-legged on the bed but didn't speak.

“Did Banner arrive on Midgard too, do you know?” Loki asked.

“Banner? Like, Bruce Banner?”

“Indeed.” She said. “The Beast.”

“Arrive like you? From space? Was Dr. Banner in space?! Mr. Stark has been looking for him since forever!”

“Yes. The doctor was with us for a time. Thor picked him up from Sakaar like a green stray cat. I was able to send him away with the space stone with me when I used it. The gem has a personality of it's own though. While it would be nice and convenient for it to have sent the Hulk here, he could be anywhere in the universe. I was hoping that with space’s connection to time that he'd simply arrive a little later than I, but if I'm being honest, he's probably halfway across the universe.”

After some pushing from Peter about Sakaar, Loki told him of the events of the last few weeks, days from Thor's perspective she remembered. She made sure to mention herself very little and in third person, and say that she'd died in Surtur’s fire. She told him of Hela and of the last Valkyrie and Thor. She told another story of herself, a fictional one, of a protector of magical artefacts, and put herself in the story as one of the citizens under Heimdall’s protection, the Tesseract under her care. She told him of Thanos’ arrival and of the massacre that occurred afterwards.

Somehow, she remained completely stoic throughout. She was becoming herself again it seemed, able to face everything with a smirk and a nonchalant attitude to cover her true feelings.

Peter was a good audience. He responded to everything she said vividly, but didn't interrupt her unless she gave him the opportunity to. He asked the right questions at the right times and Loki revelled in the attention. She had often been the one asked to recount the stories of battles during feasts, which she'd gladly do, accompanied by illusions and voice acting, just to briefly have all eyes on her for once. She wasn't the Goddess of Stories for no reason, even if the Midgardians didn't remember her title.

By the time the story finished, a voice from the ceiling (F.R.I.D.A.Y., Peter said its name was) announced that it was time for dinner.

She shooed Peter out of the room after telling him she wanted to change her clothing first and looked at the outfit Pepper had left her. Thankfully, she seemed to have guessed what she'd like from the outfit Loki was wearing, as it was a simple green t-shirt and black trousers made from a tough material they didn't have on Asgard.

She peeled her dirty Sakaarian clothes off and looked down at herself. She wasn't too gross, her outfit had taken most of the damage when she'd crashed to Midgard. Still, she let a simple spell for cleaning herself wash over her. She’d known it since she was a child and often used it instead of bathing even though her mother often insisted that it would never work as good as soap and water. She’d always either cast a quick spell or have three hour baths, there was no in between. Seeing as how dinner was now, the spell would have to do.

She decided that later she'd ask Ms. Potts - the obvious ruler of the household - if there was any makeup or hair products that she could borrow. She knew it wasn't a priority, but what could she say? Sakaar had spoilt her, she liked looking her best.

With FRIDAY’s help, she made it to the dining room. She almost walked out immediately when she noticed the Strange was still there. She gritted her teeth and sat down beside Peter, even though that put the magician almost directly opposite her.

“Greetings.” She said to the table. She noted the others seated around her. Stark, Strange, Potts, and Peter were all there, but the Vision wasn't, and there was one person she didn't recognise.

“Loren,” she said, nodding to the man across the table, as it was too wide for her to extend her arm across, “Goddess of Stories. I don't believe we've met.”

“Rhodey.” He greeted her with a smile. “War Machine sometimes.”

“Goddess of Stories?” Stark asked. “Whatever happened to Goddex?”

Loki shrugged. “Whatever happened indeed.”

He shook his head and changed the topic. “So the wizard here was telling me-”

“Sorcerer.” Strange interrupted.

Loki let out a short laugh. “Stark’s right actually. I'm the only sorcerer in the room. Calling you a wizard is generous.”

“So we have a wizard and a sorcerer. No one grab another spellcaster or our party will be really unbalanced.” Stark grinned.

Rhodey laughed. “Like you care about balance, Mr. ‘I play a bard every campaign’.”

“Bards are fun, Rhodey. I saved your ass multiple times with my magical beatboxing skills.”

“You play D&D, Mr. Stark?” Peter asked excitedly.

Stark shrugged. “Not since college.”

“What's D&D?” Loki asked curiously.

“Dungeons and Dragons.” Stark replied. “A game. Hey! You'd probably like it, Goddess of Stories and all. If we all don't die when Thanos arrives, I'll show you how to play.”

“We should get my friend MJ to play, she's the best DM.”

Strange cut through the discussion about the game. “As Tony was saying, I told him that we should look for the other heroes of this world for help as soon as we can. The sorcerers will all come together, but any others will need convincing, so we should start as quickly as possible.”

“What others heroes does this world have?” Loki asked.

Peter perked up. “Well New York has the defenders! Jessica Jones is super strong and really tough! Luke Cage is even stronger and is also bulletproof. Iron Fist knows martial arts and is super strong in his hand. Colleen Wing is also super good at martial arts and she had a sword. I don't know if Daredevil has any powers, but he can beat people up really well.”

“Seriously,” Stark nodded, “everywhere he goes looks like a horror movie.”

“Iron Fist and Daredevil will be hard to find.” Pepper pointed out. “And trying to convince Jessica Jones to do anything is suicidal. Luke Cage will probably be the easiest, but even then…”

“I can get them to help us.” Peter said.

Stark narrowed his eyes. “And why’s that?”

Peter looked sheepish. “I might have teamed up with them once or twice?”

“Might have?” Potts pressed.

“I definitely have.” Peter admitted.

“Talk to them as soon as you can. We should also make a list of other heroes around the world, we can't have too many. We should-”

There was a tingling in the back of her brain similar to the feeling of the mind stone. Someone was trying to break into her head. She ignored it, building mental walls to protect her from the attack.

She had always been weak against mental manipulation, but she assumed Strange was the culprit, so she didn't have much to worry about.

“We should-” she tried to continue, but the tingling grew stronger. The magic was strong enough to break through her walls, but was simply pushing against them like it was knocking.

She glared at Strange. “Would you stop that?”

He looked taken aback. “I'm not doing anything.”

Peter looked concerned. “Loren-?”

But the magic was done being polite, it seemed, and it crashed through her mental defences and forced itself into her head. She closed her eyes reflexively.

“I apologise for being so crass, my liege. But you weren't answering.”

She opened her eyes and was looking into the golden irises of Heimdall. She had never been so happy to see the gatekeeper.

“Heimdall… you're alive.”

He let himself smile, a rare sight to Loki. “Don't sound so surprised.”

“Why didn't you contact me sooner?” She asked.

“Without Asgard, I am weakened. I didn't know you were on Midgard until we got this close.”

Loki nodded. “I'm glad to see you. Are you very close?”

“I'd say it'll only take us half an hour to reach your location.”

“I'll tell the Midgardians to expect you.” She said.

“You gained their trust very quickly.” Heimdall observed. “Care to tell me the details of your ruse so none of us destroy it?”

She smiled. “My name is Loren, Goddess of Stories and the Royal Curator of Magical Artefacts. My brother… Hlórriði, was killed by Thanos. That's about all I have built as of yet.”

“I'll tell the others.” Heimdall said. “I'm glad you're safe. Having one of their nobles back should give hope to our people.”

Loki hesitated before asking. “... how many are alive?”

Heimdall didn't smile, but Loki had gotten good at reading the gatekeeper. He looked glad to tell her. “At least half of us made it to the escape pods.”

Loki felt like crying in relief. “What about-” her question was answered before she'd even asked it when the Valkyrie entered the room.

“Heimdall,” she greeted, “I've been looking for you. Is there anything that will shoot us down before we arrive?”

Heimdall shook his head. “Loki arrived on the planet before us and will tell them who we are.”

“They're alive then? Shame, I thought the space stone would rip them to pieces.” She smiled, and Loki was sure she imagined the fondness in her voice. “What about the Hulk?”

Heimdall looked to Loki, who shrugged. “I can't see him.”

Valkyrie brushed it off like it didn't matter to her. “Well, he's tough. Wherever he is, he can handle it. Tell their royal highness that I'm going to slap them for leaving us.”

“Tell the idiot that I can hear her perfectly fine.” Loki instructed Heimdall.

She saw Heimdall look amused before she was suddenly back on Earth.

“-don't know, Tony. I can't break the connection, alright? I'm not adept at mind control.” Strange said.

“Kind of a shitty wizard then.” Stark muttered.

Loki sat up from where she lay on a couch and looked around. Strange and Stark were bickering with each other while Rhodey seemed to be attempting to intervene. Pepper just looked exasperated.

Peter, who was sitting beside her, seemed to be the only one who noticed that she was sitting up. “Loren! We didn't know what happened to you! We thought that maybe aliens had-”

She waved her hand at him as if brushing off his concerns. “It was simply Heimdall.”

“I thought you said he was dead.” Peter said.

She noticed that everyone else had finally stopped talking, and shrugged. “I said probably dead, actually. He and half of the Asgardians that were on the ship remain alive and will be here in approximately half an hour.”

Peter grinned. “You're not the only one left then. You're not alone.”

Her thoughts flickered to Thor, floating in the abyss of space. She told a lie by smiling and replied, “I guess I'm not.”

Chapter Text

“Peter, you need to get home.” Potts said, checking the time on her phone.

“Can't I just meet the other Asgardians first? It'll only be twenty minutes!”

“Kid, your aunt will kill me if you're home late.” Stark said reluctantly.

“I'll only stick around for a few minutes! I'll call my aunt first and everything!”

Stark and Potts shared a look and sighed simultaneously. “Call your aunt.” Stark said.

Potts kept her face stern. “But if she says you go home, you go home.”

Peter agreed and went off to call his aunt. Loki remained sitting cross-legged in the couch, observing even if she was occupied with her thoughts.

She wasn't sure how the other Asgardians would treat her. Sure, she was still their princess (queen now?) but she had betrayed Asgard constantly and had unknowingly abandoned the survivors of Thanos’ attack.

Heimdall seemed to treat her the same, but the gatekeeper never let his emotions get the better of him.

She was a tad bit worried about the Valkyrie. If the woman chose to take out her anger out on her, Loki wasn't sure she could do much to stop her.

Rhodey sat down beside her. “So, uh, what kind of people should we be expecting? Are they all… like Thor? Or-?”

“I can only remember two warriors being on the ship: Heimdall, guardian of the Bifrost, and the last Valkyrie. They can help us in the fight against Thanos, but the rest? Most might be able to swing a sword, but they aren't warriors. They'd die if they tried to go up against Thanos’ army.”

Rhodey put his hand on her shoulder. “I'm sure we'll find a place for them to go.”

“For repayment to whoever houses the asgardians, we can give out knowledge. Our healers are light years ahead of your’s, and I recall a few physicians being on board who might've survived. We could probably tell you about the other areas of space? To prepare you for any other attacks.” Loki began.

Rhodey smiled. “We can discuss that later. Tony should be able to keep them housed for a while before Asgard has to become self sustainable again. We'll kick Thanos’ ass and then you can freak out about housing issues.”

She thanked him, and he patted her shoulder and stood up.

Peter vaulted over the couch and landed next to her. “My aunt says I can stay for another hour!”

Loki smiled. “Magnificent. I'll introduce you Heimdall when he arrives. I believe he'll like you.”

“Really?” Peter exclaimed.

She nodded. “He was always fond of Thor, and you're rather like him, I think. Very… kind hearted and determined.”

“You think so? Thor is my favourite avenger-”

“Hey!” Stark cut in, who appeared to be listening.

“- do you really think I'm like him? I don't even have a magical hammer.”

“Neither does Thor, remember? Mjolnir was shattered. Besides, a hammer really wouldn't suit your aesthetic. I'm guessing you're agile and quick - like me? I'll start teaching you how to work with knives if you'd like.”

Stark cut in again. “Woah, woah. No knives! What do you think May would do if Spiderman became the next David Adamovich?”

Loki frowned. “At least let me train him with a sword? Or the Valkyrie can. He should be proficient with a blade of some sort.”

Peter laughed. “While you were collecting infinity stones, I studied the blade.” Loki was sure he was making a joke, but she had no idea what it was.

“No blades of any kind.” Stark said. “Not without May’s permission. That woman is seriously scary.”

Loki looked at Stark with exaggerated distaste. “You're a coward and I hate you.”

Stark laughed. “I'll deal with it.”

It wasn't much longer before the asgardians arrived, grass stems and trees bending away as the escape pod lowered to the ground, its engine loud and low. It was quite big, for an escape pod, but she supposed the ship it came from was rather big in the first place.

Loki had placed herself at the front of the group as they waited outside the ship for the passengers to exit. Everyone else stood a little while back.

The doors opened with a whoosh and the Valkyrie was the first out. She marched up to Loki and stopped just before her.

Loki gave a mocking bow and grinned up at her. “The last Valkyrie. How lovely it is to see you again.”

As soon as she stood straight, the Valkyrie decked her in the face. She landed rather roughly on the ground and her nose hurt like Hel, but she just smiled, ignoring the comotion starting behind her. She had expected such a greeting after all.

“Now I remember why I missed you.” She said.

The Valkyrie rolled her eyes and held out her hand. Loki grabbed it and was heaved back up to her feet. “You deserved that.” She said, letting go of her hand. “And you can call me Brunnhilde. Everyone else is doing it.”

“I suppose I did.” Loki said, touching her stinging nose nonetheless.

Brunnhilde lowered her voice. “Thanos planned to blow up the ship. We had to move fast to avoid the explosion. We didn't know if Thor was alive or not, but we didn't have time to pick him up.”

“Yeah, don't worry about it.” Loki said, keeping her voice even. “I kinda figured that'd be the case.”

She placed a hand on her shoulder as she moved past her and pushed a little too hard, causing Loki to stumble a bit. She heard Brunnhilde laugh before she called out. “I need to get wasted before I can stab Thanos up the ass. What kinda booze do you have on this shit-hole planet?”

She vaguely registered Stark laughing and saying something in response, but was too busy being surprised to pay attention when heavy rock hands were placed on her shoulders.

“I hear we're starting another revolution?”

Loki spun around to face Korg, a little surprised to see the dumb pile of rocks had managed to stay alive. “You could call it that if you want.”

“I think I will. Revolution sounds much better than ‘fight or the universe ends’. It has much more historical use and looks better on pamphlets.”

“Still set on the idea of pamphlets then?” Loki asked with a grin.

Korg looked at her, fully serious. “If Thanos manages to kill me, I assure you it’s because I haven't printed enough pamphlets.”

“Fair enough,” she said, “how about you tell my companions of your plan? I'm sure Stark can print out more than enough for you.”

Korg seemed satisfied with that, and bounded up to the group of humans with more bounce in his steps than a pile of rocks should be able to have. Peter looked very excited.

She finally saw Heimdall, exiting the ship slowly. He was leaning too much on one side, something she hadn't noticed before.

When Heimdall reached her she bowed again, less mocking than she'd been with Brunnhilde, but mocking all the same. “Good Heimdall.”

“Curator.” He greeted, his voice tinted with amusement.

“You're hurt.” She straightened up. “Badly?”

“I'll survive. Without healers, I might not have, but we were lucky. There was a lot of people that needed to be healed though, a good half of us still carry fatal wounds - the healers did their best, but they need rest as much as any of us, more so, even.”

“The Midgardian doctors can handle it. Their technology may not be as advanced as our healing magic, but it'll keep everyone alive until our healers rest.” Loki said.

Heimdall nodded. “I'm glad that we will be able to fight side by side, to avenge the lives taken by Thanos’ hand. We will defeat this threat,” he lowered his voice, “your highness.”

Loki nodded. “Come, let me introduce you to some of Midgard’s heroes. I promised Peter I'd introduce you two, and I'll see how fast Stark’s money can get us some doctors.”

Loki began leading the man to the group, almost smiling as she saw their interactions. Stark seemed to be asking Korg a million question, poking at his rocks curiously, while Brunnhilde was showing Peter her sword, a concerned Potts close behind him.

Perhaps they would all die soon, but they would put up a good fight.

Loki was dragged into an empty room by Brunnhilde. “I'm hurt.”

They narrowed their eyes at her. “So find one of the healers.”

“Other people need them more. It's only a tiny cut.”

Loki didn't know what her game was but sighed in defeat. “Let me see.”

She lifted the light undershirt she wore - looking strange without her armour - enough to reveal a lengthy wound that stretched across her side. “The healers found out that some of our cuts were hit with something that stopped them from healing.”

Loki examined the cut. It was nothing that an asgardian couldn't handle normally, but it would become prone to infection if Loki couldn't get Brunnhilde healing again. “I can probably rid you of whatever poison prevents your healing, your body can handle the rest.”

She nodded and Loki set to work. They placed their hand over her wound and tried to search for whatever had stopped the healing process.

“So, Loren, what happened to always being Loki?”

They shrugged. “I'm still Loki. It was necessary to gain the midgardians trust. I haven't exactly given them reason to accept my word otherwise.”

Loki found what they want ere looking for, something in the bloodstream that didn't belong there. They tried to talk to the Valkyrie’s natural defences, pointing them towards enemy and lending them some of their own energy to fight better.

“I heard.” Brunnhilde said. “Heimdall told me about what you did to this realm.”

Loki looked up at her and smiled. “And yet you come to me and reveal your weakened state? Did he not tell you enough to inflict your disgust? Did he tell you that I'm nothing more than the abandoned runt of a dead Jotunn king? That I destroyed the very realm that I came from and the father that gave me life? That I threw my father to Midgard and didn't look back? Caused my family to mourn for me twice-over?”

Brunnhilde didn't looked surprised. “Yeah, he told me all that stuff.” Loki didn't reply and so she continued. “I abandoned Asgard because I was afraid. For years - norns knows how many - I was a scraper for the grandmaster. You know what I did. I captured more people than you could imagine, brought them all to their deaths. For money, for booze. Thor told me that Hela was going to destroy Asgard and I turned away. It wasn't until you reminded me of what Hela took that I even cared about her return.”

She took a deep breath. “I'm a shitty person. You are too. But we both came back to save Asgard in the end.”

Loki removed their hand from Brunnhilde’s side. “You're a fool to trust me, Valkyrie.”

“I don't trust you, trickster, but I think you cared about Thor... in your own weird way. I think you care that Thanos killed in nnocent people, innocent children. And I think you want to kill Thanos as badly as I do.”

She grabbed their forearm. An offering, a promise. “We're still the revengers.”

They hesitated, but grabbed onto her forearm with their long pale finger and smudged black nail polish. “Let's get this bitch.”

Chapter Text

“It's not that I want to be here. It's just that I feel less uncomfortable experiencing the torture that is you than I do being in my feminine form as a guy.” Loki said with a shrug.

“I'm touched.” Strange said.

“I'm only very narrowly less uncomfortable with you though. One more move and you're officially worse than gender dysphoria.”

He sighed. “You're already top of my list of worst things ever.”

“I'm worse than Thanos?”

“Yes.” Strange said plainly.

Loki gasped in mock disgust. “This is discrimination.”

Strange narrowed his eyes and said flatly, “what?”

“It's because I'm genderfluid, admit it.”

Strange inhaled deeply. “I'm not going to fall for your attempts to rile me up.” He spun around, his dramatic exit from the room helped by the flaring of his cape.

Though Loki appreciated the theatrics, he rolled his eyes. Digging into his pocket and pulling out his phone (a gift from Stark. Apparently a cell phone was necessary for survival.) and sending a message to Peter.

God (dess/dex) of Stories: Update: Doctor Strange is transphobic

Spider-Child: ???

God (dess/dex) of Stories: He said I'm worse than Thanos.
God (dess/dex) of Stories: It's because Thanos is cis and I'm not, I assure you.

Spider-Child: smsjsjsjs valid
Spider-Child: dr. strange is cancelled

God (dess/dex) of Stories: What is ‘smsjsjsjs’?

Spider-Child: keyboard smashing
Spider-Child: when you feel an emotion that you can't describe, you just press random buttons

God (dess/dex) of Stories: skajsnshshshe I hate Strange.

Spider-Child: they grow up so fast :’)
Spider-Child: soon you'll be an honorary member of gen z
Spider-Child: remind me to get you a twitter

God (dess/dex) of Stories: What's that?

Spider-Child: you'll see … ;)

God (dess/dex) of Stories: That's terrifying.

Spider-Child: why are you at doc. strange’s house anyways??
Spider-Child: if you hate him so much
Spider-Child: allegedly

God (dess/dex) of Stories: Allegedly? What are you trying to imply?

Spider-Child: i just think you talk about him way too much for someone you ‘hate’
Spider-Child: and you went to his house alone
Spider-Child: and you're avoiding telling me why you're there

God (dess/dex) of Stories: JSJSUSHSHSDHDHDHD
God (dess/dex) of Stories: SMSJSHSBDHDUEHSNDHSHSSNSNSHSHS
God (dess/dex) of Stories: I'm disgusted.

Spider-Child: you didn't deny it

God (dess/dex) of Stories: I deny it now! I'm at the sanctorum to see if any of the magical items here would be of use in our battle.

Spider-Child: sure

God (dess/dex) of Stories: After I get Thanos, I'm coming for you. Your friend status is revoked.

Spider-Child: i’m your friend??! :)

God (dess/dex) of Stories: Not anymore.

Spider-Child: :(

God (dess/dex) of Stories: I'm leaving this conversation before you imply I have romantic intentions with more of my enemies. Do you believe me to be a jealous ex-lover of the mad titan? Do you believe that I, Curator of the great vault of Asgard, engage in kinky mind sex with Ebony Maw?

Spider-Child: XP gross

God (dess/dex) of Stories: Let it be know that I'm rolling my eyes at you and am about to turn off my phone in the most dramatic manner.

And he did. Turn off his phone that is. He didn't exactly do it dramatically, he just turned off his phone and put it in his pocket.

Loki left the room to find Strange, and found the magician studying a heavy tome in his library.

“Strange.” Loki said to catch his attention.

The wizard looked up, unimpressed. “What?”

“I want to remind you to remember your duty to the time stone in the upcoming battle.”

Strange frowned. “I don't need to be reminded.”

“I just need you to make sure.” Loki insisted. “I need to know that you won't let sentiment get to you. You know, despite how difficult it may be for you to face it, that neither your life nor anyone else’s matters more than keeping the time stone safe, and keeping it on Earth.”

“I'm aware. You don't need to remind me. I'm not being friendly with the Avengers for a reason.”

“Oh, is that it? I thought the brooding was part of your natural charm.”

Loki looked around the library, finding a great many trinkets on top of shelves and pillars. He supposed he should grab something so Peter couldn't make more jokes about him and Strange.

He spotted a two-finger ring that he'd seen before on Strange’s belt. Looking back at the magician, he indeed saw it's twin at his hip.

He gingerly picked up the ring, wary of wards, and held it up for Strange to see. “What's this?”

“A sling ring,” he replied, “It's what I use to create portals.”

Loki simply hummed and placed the ring back in its place. Or rather, he made it look like he did. He left a small illusion in its place and quickly pocketed the ring. He could keep up the illusion at least until he left the sanctum, he could worry about Strange noticing its disappearance then.

He continued through the library for a while and came across a seemingly normal coat rack. The only thing on it was a long length of fabric in a rather garish yellow colour.

“What's this?” He asked aloud.

A portal opened by his side and Strange stepped out. “A sash.”

Loki rolled his eyes at the unnecessary use of magic. “You could've walked. I wasn't that far away.” He looked to the sash again. “What does it do though?”

“It gets longer, and can grapple things. It also defies gravity a little. Not as much as the cloak of levitation, but enough to make it extend upwards. It doesn't break either.” He shrugged. “It's a nice accessory, but with the cloak of levitation, it's unnecessary.”

Loki kept his eyes on the hideous yellow ribbon and knew that wearing it would be the most horrifying fashion choice anyone ever made.

He wanted it.

He had decided that he could absolutely work the accessory (better than Strange could anyway) and honestly, defeating Thanos was nothing compared to his motivation to get this terrible terrible thing.

“Can I have it?”

“You want the sash?” Strange asked.

“Well, yes. No one’s using it, and it's not like you're handing me the time stone or something. It's barely magical.There's no harm in letting me have it.”

Strange seemed to decide that whatever fight his disagreement would cause wasn't worth it. He sighed. “Sure, whatever. Don't kill any of the Avengers with it.”

He didn't even finish the conversation, just opened another portal and left with his cloak billowing around him in the non-existent wind.

Loki grinned and grabbed the sash off the rack. He was only wearing a plain black t-shirt (he decided to stick to Midgardian clothes for a while, to keep them as comfortable with his presence as possible) but decided the look would work just as well.

He wrapped the long sash around his waist several times but left some length in the ends. He tried to reach out to the magic in the belt, and in response the ends floated about lazily in the air.

If Thor was here, he'd kill him for his fashion choices.

In other words, the look was perfect.

Luckily for her cover, she was back to being a girl in just a few hours (Strange wouldn't let her have anything else and she didn't want to test her luck stealing anything else - so the ring and the sash remained her only treasure) and was back in the Avengers facility.

She met with Peter soon after, and greeted him immediately by pointing at her new accessory and saying, “belt.”

“It looks really good.” Peter said earnestly. “Very mystical.”

“Did I miss anything when I was with Strange?”

“Colonel Rhodes and Mr. Stark just started a conference call with the U.N. Commission to ask what they can legally do about Thanos.” Peter said. “I'm not allowed to go to the meeting.”

She was sure the U.N. Commission was something important but what caught her attention was the first name Peter said. “Rhodey’s name is Colonel Rhodes?”

“Colonel is his… title. But yeah.”

Loki had suspected that Rhodey was a nickname since the man had introduced himself to her with it. She didn't want to make things awkward by asking him his name again, or telling him to be more formal. She felt... uncomfortable using a name she suspected was for casual use with a man who clearly held some sort of authority and was merely an acquaintance as of yet. Years of being royalty didn't just die out, Loki always used as formal a greeting as possible. Using first names was reserved for friends.

“I've been avoiding using his name for so long, you have know idea.”

Peter laughed. “You couldn't just asked him for his name. What's wrong with Rhodey?”

“It reeks of informality. I'm the royal curator, I don't do informal.”

“You call me Peter.” He said. “When you could call me Spider-Man. Or Parker.”

Loki shrugged. “I only use first names in two instances; to mock people in some regard, or when I'm familiar with people.”

Peter smiled. “And which am I?”

Loki considered letting the question hang in the air, but she found herself matching Peter's smile. “I suppose you must be my friend.”

Chapter Text

“Nice to meet finally meet you, Captain.” Loki grinned. “Love the beard.”

The Captain looked briefly amused. “You too... Loren, was it?”

“Indeed.”

“And you're Asgardian? Like Thor?” He asked.

“In the ways that matter.” Loki shrugged, collapsing back into a chair and throwing her legs over the arm. It was a really uncomfortable chair, but she looked good.

Loki was terrible at portal creation - so she had used the sling ring she'd stolen from the Sanctum to get here (she had paid close attention to what Strange did when he created a portal to send her back to the Avengers Facility). It was far quicker and more impressive than any of Stark’s planes. The Midgardian artefact really didn't agree with her though and she felt completely drained.

By sitting down, she got to relax and look fine (a word she'd found new context for with the help of a mister Peter Parker) while doing so.

Rogers seemed to consider that answer for a bit, but moved past it without further questions.

“On the phone you said that you'd spoken to a king of some place?”

Rogers nodded. “T’Challa, he rules Wakanda. It's this place in Africa… which is a continent - like North America.”

Loki smiled in bemusement. “I know what Africa is.”

“T’Challa said that the wiping of half the world obviously concerned Wakanda too. He wants to team up with all of us to stop Thanos.”

“Is Wakanda a strategic advantage to us?” Loki asked.

“They have a mountain of vibranium.”

“The metal your shield is made from.” Loki replied. “That is interesting. They've made weapons from it?”

“I haven't asked, but I'll get you in contact with him. Even if they don't, their technology is amazing. That's not much coming from me, but they did more for Bucky than anywhere else could.”

Loki nodded. “So I suppose we must travel to Wakanda then? It'll be far easier to move people to a country than a country to people after all.”

“Terribly sorry, Ms. Loren.” A voice cut into her head.

She had to take a minute to reassure herself. This was the calm-natured Vision, not the Other. He could access nothing but the thoughts Loki wanted to share. Still, linking to the mind stone once more made her stomach churn.

As soon as she'd arrived with Vision, the Captain had told him the location of someone called ‘Wanda’ and he'd ran off immediately. Loki had tried to remember Wanda from the times she'd looked to Midgard while on the throne. There was someone called Maximoff with a lot of red leather and untouched magical potential. She was a bomb waiting to explode and Loki would love to see what would happen when she did.

“What is it?” She thought.

“Wanda and I seem to have found ourselves in a spot of trouble. Our attackers don't look to be from Earth.”

She let out a frustrated noise and Rogers looked far too concerned for a stranger. “What is it?” He asked.

“I believe some of Thanos’ order may have arrived.” Loki answered. “Although, who knows. It could be different aliens. They're attacking Maximoff and Vision. The rest of your exiled teammates, they're close?”

He nodded. “I'll send word to them. Give me a location and we'll meet them there.”

Loki looked for where Vision was broadcasting the location of the infinity stone to her and tried to focus in on the location. He repeated what he saw to the Captain, who yelled it down a phone as the two of them began sprinting in the direction of the fight. Valkyrie, who was waiting outside the building (“Diplomacy is boring. Grab me if we have to kick some ass.”) with a half-empty bottle of whiskey, abandoned the alcohol and ran with them.

Loki’s own phone rang and she answered it without checking for the caller. She put it to her ear. “Hello?”

“Mx. Loren?” Peter’s voice came out shaky over the phone’s speakers.

“Is this important?” Loki asked. “We're in the middle of something.”

“Well I was kinda wondering if you were coming back to New York soon? A giant ring appeared in the sky and now we're fighting some alien dudes and I'm kinda on the flying ring because I thought that was a good idea? I was trying to get Doctor Strange back.”

Loki cursed something old and norse. “I'll be there soon, Peter. But aliens have arrived here after the mind stone, and I must make sure they can't take it. Make sure that neither Strange nor Stark tries anything apart from preventing the attack. Try to get Strange back, but leave if the ring starts moving.”

“Oh okay! I'll be fine. Probably. I think War Machine might be coming anyway. He's pretty cool and-”

Loki had to cut off the call when she and Rogers arrived at the battle.

Black Widow has seemingly arrived before them, Loki briefly wondered where'd she been - nearby in case ‘Loren’ was another Asgardian invader and the captain needed assistance?

She couldn't help but be impressed by the spy, who had her thighs wrapped around the neck of Corvus Glaive - one of the Black Order.

The was one other member of the order on the scene, Proxima Midnight. She and the young Wanda were battling it out, while the Vision switched back and forth between the two fights to help whichever woman needed his help most.

Corvus grabbed the widow from his shoulders and threw her to the ground. She groaned, but was still back to her feet in a split second.

Still connected to Vision’s mind, she send another message. “Help with Midnight, the captain and I will assist Ms. Romanoff, I'll send Valkyrie to you.”

Vision sent her his understanding before severing the mental connection. Loki pretended it wasn't a relief.

“Brunnhilde. Would you assist in the fight with the flying robot? The Captain and I will take Corvus.”

Brunnhilde didn't question it, and ran to fight Proxima. Her focus was absolute, Loki could see why she was one of the Valkyries.

“Captain,” Loki said, reaching into her pocket space to grab what Stark had given her earlier. “An olive branch from Tony Stark.”

She handed him his shield. She supposed it was an emotional moment to him, Stark was reaching out and he was taking up the mantle of Captain America again by accepting the shield, but Loki didn't care. He was giving the captain his main weapon, that was as emotional as it was going to get.

He gingerly, but quickly, took the shield and put the straps over his arm. He didn't hesitate to rush towards Corvus.

Loki sighed. She'd bet the throne of Asgard that the fool didn't have a plan.

She didn't have much energy to spend on illusions and shapeshifting, so she simply reached into to her dimensional pocket and drew forth her knives. There was another weapon that sat there too, the Casket of Ancient Winters (could you blame a gal for stealing the object that emotionally scarred her before destroying Asgard?), but she didn't have enough energy to control it's powers at the moment, and trying could condemn Midgard to an eternal, deadly winter.

She ran to the fight, stopping where Steve had been immediately thrown to the ground, a wound on his shoulder form Corvus’ Glaive. “We must take his weapon from him and destroy it.” Loki told him. “As long as it remains intact, he can recover from any injury.”

“Do you know how to destroy it?” He asked.

Loki shrugged. “I have absolutely no idea. I'm sure I'll figure it out.”

He rushed at Corvus again, his shield out in front of him. Loki ran to the other side of the enemy, and as Steve hit him back with the shield, she attacked him with a flurry of slashes. The Widow was by his side, and shocked Glaive with her electrical batons. He was momentarily distracted by the pain they inflicted, and the captain went for his weapon.

Corvus’ grip was far too tight for Rogers to simply grab his weapon, and he knocked the captain back with his elbow before wiping Loki’s feet out from under her with his own and knocking the Widow aside with the length of his glaive. Rogers went to rush him with his shield again but Corvus thrust the glaive forward and it cut forward through the shield like it was butter. The glaive glowed yellow and the cut extended until the captain was holding two separate halves of his beloved weapon.

Another emotional moment for the man, Loki was sure. She could practically hear the dramatic swelling music coming to a full stop for a moment like a punch to the gut.

She wondered if the Wakandans, with their knowledge of vibranium, could repair it.

A large explosion came from the direction of the other fight. Corvus started, a brief look of concern flashing across his features. Loki was almost glad that Thor was dead, it meant she didn't share the same weakness. Valkyrie and Peter meant something to her somewhat, but she could easily sacrifice them for the greater good (even if the greater good was her own life). Sentiment would be Corvus’ downfall.

She pointedly ignored that her main motivation for fighting Thanos was sentiment, and instead chose to believe it was because if Thanos killed half the universe, she could be among those dead. She was always driven by three things: self-preservation, validation, and vengeance.

With Corvus momentarily distracted, Rogers dropped the broken shield and yanked the glaive away from him. He didn't hesitate before throwing the weapon to Loki. Loki caught it and used what little energy she had left to make herself and it appear invisible. Rogers and Widow attacked Corvus again, so that he'd be forced to defend himself instead of pursuing Loki.

It didn't matter how good they were at fighting though. Corvus would eventually win no matter what as long as his glaive remained intact, Romanoff and Rogers would gain more and more injuries while he healed from each and every one.

Loki was distracted from her task when he caught sight of Maximoff knocking back Proxima with a blast of energy. She tried to listen to the seiðr, feel the way it worked. It felt the same as the aether and the mind stone, reality and mind bending powers so powerful that Loki couldn't even comprehend them, and yet the girl had barely scratched the surface of what she could do.

She got an idea.

As Vision and Brunnhilde took on Proxima, Loki ran to Maximoff before she could join in for another attack. At the same moment, a winged man dropped from the sky to kick Proxima in the face. Sam Wilson, Loki knew from her time on the throne. She didn't know much about him other than ‘bird guy’ to be perfectly honest.She dropped her cloak of invisibility and grinned at the Ms. Maximoff. “Wanda, right?”

“Yes. You're the Asgardian - Loren? Nice to meet you.”

“I need you to break this.” Loki said, thrusting the glaive into Maximoff’s hands. “Think you can?”

She furrowed her eyebrows and took the glaive. “I don't know? I normally just blast energy out and twist minds. How am I supposed to break it?”

“Somehow you have the power of the infinity stones, I can sense it.” Loki said. “I can feel the reality stone’s power flowing through your veins, and I bet you can too.”

She nodded, and Loki continued. “You must let that energy flow out, like you do when you cast your spells normally, but direct it into the weapon. Imagine it filling in the space between the atoms and then will it to expand. You have the power to do whatever you can imagine, you just need to believe you can. Visualise it. Ask your magic to do it and it will respond.”

The fight with Proxima was getting closer to them, but Loki wouldn't need to intervene yet. A look to Corvus’ fight with the others told her the same. They had time to break his glaive, but not much.

She could tell Maximoff was concentrating, her eyebrows even more furrowed, her lips twisting up. Red light twisted around her fingers into the glaive and the weapon glowed with magical energy. Loki decided to step back and readied a shielding spell, the waiting magic itching at her fingers.

It was another moment she was sure was much more important for the person she was watching. I'm not a liability, she could imagine Maximoff thinking. Or maybe, All I cause is destruction. Loki almost wanted to know which it was.

It was a moment where the fighting around them stopped momentarily, everyone's eyes drawn to the source of the red light the filled the entire street. The glaive explode outwards, it's shrapnel too small to see. Loki still let the shielding spell activate, as to not be pushed off her feet.

Everyone bar her and Maximoff flew backwards. Loki was pushed back, but remained on her feet, her shield fizzling out. Proxima took the opportunity to get on top of Vision and tried to pry his stone from his forehead.

“Get her.” Loki told Wanda. “If she gets the infinity stone The Vision will exist no longer.”

With impressive determination, Maximoff sprinted towards Midnight.

Loki turned back to the fight with Corvus, her knives back in her hands. Her vision of the world was spinning, and she stumbled as she tried to walk forward, but she would not let that stop her.

Corvus had a small dagger out. Loki was impressed, she had assumed the man to believe he'd never lose his favoured weapon and wouldn't carry another.

The captain had already gotten stabbed in the side, so it seemed from the dark stain growing there on his uniform. He was still fighting though, which was formidable.

She suspected the widow’s wrist was broken by the way she held it, but she too seemed no less determined. That was until Corvus managed to grab her by the neck and fling her backwards. She landed rather roughly and didn't seem to be getting up.

Loki ran forward with her knives and attempted to get a hit on Glaive, but her slow movements were easily countered. She was knocked back, and her dizziness pushed her to the ground.

Rogers was fighting the alien alone, but his determination at the defeat of Romanoff seemed to set him as an equal match to Corvus. If Loki had her magic, or could just stand, the fight might be over in seconds.

Her hand came to rest of the sash around her waist, and its magic buzzed in response. “Entend.” She thought. “Wrap yourself around his neck and tighten.”

To her surprise, the sash obeyed without complaint or zapping anymore of her energy. It extended and snakes its way across the air to Corvus, wrapping itself around his neck several times and squeezing.

Corvus was startled and grasped at his neck. The captain hit him with two hard punches to the face before sweeping his legs out from underneath him.

Corvus was struggling to breath, but when moved too close to his arms, he grabbed the man by his legs to bring him to the ground too. With a quick movement, he sliced his dagger through the sash. The fabric around his neck went limp while the length attached to Loki’s waist recoiled.

The other end of her sash went to join in, but Loki stopped it. “Wait. I have an idea.”

The extended end shortened until it was back to its original size and Loki held up her hands to use the sling ring.

“Move away, Captain.” She called out.  

Rogers complied, rolling out of the way as Corvus got to his feet. She moved her hand in a circle and regretted this plan for how much it would drain her.

A portal opened beneath Corvus feet and he fell through. When the lower half of his body had fallen through, Loki slammed the portal shut.

Corvus lifeless upper body fell back with a squelch, blood and body parts leaking out (the portal had let to the Sanctum, so Loki hoped that Strange enjoyed cleaning up the mess left by his lower body)

Black spots danced across her vision and she didn't have the strength to hold herself up any longer.

“Loren?” The captain asked.

“I am fine.” She waved her hand lazily. “Check on Ms. Romanoff or assist the others in the fight against Proxima.”

As she mentioned her name, Proxima let out a pained scream. Loki managed to look her way. She didn't seem to have been hurt, but she had caught sight of Corvus.

Proxima looked around. Brunnhilde’s sword was inches away from her throat, Maximoff had magic pooling off her, Wilson had his guns pointed at her, and the captain seemed ready to join the fight.

“You will pay for this.” She sneered, before pressing a button on her wrist and disappearing.

Maximoff helped Vision to his feet from where he sat on the ground. It had seemed that trying to seperate the mind stone from his body was affecting him badly, he looked how a regular person would look sick.

The widow stirred and slowly got to her feet. Rogers went over to check her for a concussion, holding his side. Wilson followed after him, seemingly unhurt.

Brunnhilde was suddenly at her side. When had she walked over? Loki wasn't paying attention.

She was talking, but Loki didn't realise until her sentence was nearly finished. “-okay?”

“What?”

“I asked if you were okay.” Loki simply groaned in response. Brunnhilde grinned. “That bad, huh?”

She was aching. The way to sling ring used her magic left her feeling empty and sore. “I'm never using Midgardian magic again.”

Brunnhilde chuckled. “Still, it worked.”

“I suppose.” Loki grinned before realisation shot through her. “We have to get to New York. Others from the Black Order were attacking there.”

“I don't think you're going anywhere.”

“I must.” Loki insisted.

“Then get up.” Brunnhilde challenged.

With much effort, Loki managed to push herself up to a sitting position. Her arms trembled and her dizziness increased tenfold. She was going to be sick.

“I hate you.” Loki said, accepting that Brunnhilde was indeed right.

Brunnhilde bent down and lifted Loki into her arms without a problem.

“This is humiliating.” Loki muttered.

“You lying on the ground was humiliating,” Brunnhilde pointed out, “So you should be thanking me.”

She rolled her eyes. “My hero~”

Loki didn't register much else of the conversation. Captain Rogers said something about a stolen plane at one point, but that was about all she could catch.

The stolen plane in question wasn't very far away, or maybe it was and Loki wasn't lucid enough to keep a reliable sense of distance and time.

Brunnhilde put her down on an uncomfortable chair at some point. “You should sleep, recover as much of your magic as you can. I'll wake you if anything exciting happens.”

Loki didn't need to be told twice. She was too tired to have a sense of pride.

Chapter Text

At some point on the ride to Nidavellir, the rabbit (he knew it wasn't a rabbit, but he was yet to be corrected) let out a loud sigh and sat himself beside him.

“So,” Rocket said, “dead sibling, huh? Must suck.”

Thor smiled. The creature was obviously not used to ‘heart to heart’ talks, and yet he was trying his best to help him. Truly, a kind creature. Thor mustn't have been wrong in his assumption that he was the team leader.

“Verily. I remain hopeful that some of my people have escaped, but Loki… they angered Thanos himself. It is unlikely that they escaped.”

“You got any other family?” He asked.

“My father passed away just recently, and with his death my sister Hela was released from her prison and killed many Asgardians - including my best friends. I had to kill her by starting Ragnarok, which destroyed my home. My mother was killed long ago by a dark elf. Loki was all the family I had left, and they are likely dead.” Thor shrugged lie each death wasn't an incredibly heavy weight on his shoulders and turned his head to keep the tears welling up in his eyes private.

“No friends at all..?” Rocket asked quietly.

“Perhaps Valkyrie and the Hulk survived. And I've heard no word of Sif. I hold hope in my heart of their survival, but I fear that I'm indeed the last Asgardian.” He chuckled with no joy. “A king without a kingdom.”

“You sure you're up for this?” Rocket asked. “We've saved the universe before, you can sit this out if you want. We can drop you off on some nice planet.”

Thor sighed. “I appreciate your kind offer, but I don't think I can move on unless I battle this foes alongside you.”

Rocket nodded and hesitated for a moment before awkwardly patting Thor on the head. Thor was touched by the gesture and smiled as the rabbit went back to the driver’s seat, telling Groot to get off his electronic device as he did.

“I am Groot.” The tree shot back in response.

Thor laughed at the insult. “He has you there, my friend.”

Rocket pulled a face. “You can understand Groot?”

“Of course, I took an elective on it in school.”

Rocket shook his head. “Figures…”

“I am Groot.”

Thor chuckled. “No, I will not teach you any new swear words.”

The trip to Nidavellir took two days, even with the assistance of jump points, as Asgard had forbidden any jump points being built near any of the nine realms. After their last jump point, their communication systems had failed, so they had no idea how the other’s search for the reality stone went.

“Wait ‘til you see it, my friends! It will be the most beautiful thing you have ever seen!”

“Well, we're approaching now. If the star you talked about isn't an actual star, I'll kill you myself for disappointing me.”

“I am Groot.”

“That's way too specific.” Rocket said with disgust.

“I haven't been to Nidavellir since I was a boy.” Thor sighed. “The spinning rings were one of the first wonders of the universe that I saw.”

“Spinning? They seem pretty still to me.”

Thor started and rushed to the window. Nidavellir was there, but its rings were stuck and covered in ice, and the forge was until. The place that once drew wonder for him now filled him with dread.

He stared at the rings that were frozen in both senses of the word. “Oh shit.”

Rocket looked up at him. “Uh, guessing it's not supposed to look like that?”

Thor shook his head. “Something's wrong. Stay weary when we land.”

They landed the pod with little trouble, but the forge that was usually bustling with life was now dead silent, and it's interior trashed.

“Stay silent.” Thor said. “The dwarfs are a mighty race. Anyone who could've bested them is surely a dangerous foe. I've never been a master of strategy, but we should keep the element of surprise.”

Rocket scoffed. “We can take ‘em. Hey! Anybody on this stinking forge?!”

Groot shook his head. “I am Groot…”

“Shut up, Groot. Hey assholes! Come out here, ya cowards!”

A tall hulking figure barreled out of the darkness, hitting groot aside with one hand and grabbing Rocket with the other. He threw the rabbit into a wall with little effort.

Thor went to assist them, but his cape was grabbed and he was yanked backwards. He stumbled backwards and readied lighting at his fingertips. His assailant thrust her sword towards him but stopped with her blade an inch away from his stomach.

“Thor?” She said with awe, and Thor was looking into a face he'd known for over a thousand years.

“Sif?” He asked.

She sheathed her sword and looked at him as if he were an illusion. “I thought-” she ran forward and wrapped her arms around him. “I thought you were dead.”

Thor couldn't help himself from crying and held her tight. He thought he was alone. “I thought you were dead.”

“Please,” she said, and Thor could practically hear the eye roll, “if there was something powerful enough to kill me, the universe would be doomed.”

She pulled away from as the large figure that Thor now recognised to be Eitri approached them. “I apologise for attacking you and your comrades, Odinson. Things here have been… tense.”

“Tense atmosphere doesn't mean you're forgiven for throwing me like a goddamn human toy disk.”

“A frisbee?” Thor offered.

Rocket shrugged. “Yeah that sounds right.”

“I am Groot.”

“Groot doesn't forgive you either.” Rocket translated. The teen returned to his game. “But he doesn't care.”

“Thor,” Sif said, “When I returned to Asgard, there was nothing left but dust.”

Thor dipped his head. “Ragnarok.”

Her face tightened. “After the convergence, Odin was acting differently.”

“Yes,” Thor said, his mouth twitching upwards, “I saw the statue.”

“He sent me off on a mission when I became suspicious… that was Loki wasn't it? They caused Ragnarok.”

“Oh no! He didn't- well, he did cause Ragnarok, but I told him to! We had to destroy it to protect the people from Hela.”

“Who's Hela?”

“My sister.”

“Why are all of Asgard’s troubles caused by your family drama?” Sif asked. “So Asgard’s population survives?”

Thor took too long to reply, and saw the realisation hit Sif. “You're the only survivor?”

“I don't know,” Thor admitted, “Some may have escaped, but I did not see. I was thrown into space, anything could have happened after that. The Guardians -” and he gestured to Groot and Rocket, “- found no other life signs in the wreckage of our ship.”

“Surely Loki survived? The cockroach that they are?”

Thor’s hands tightened into fists. “Loki knew who Thanos was, what his ship looked like. They were terrified. I fear my brother - I'm sorry, my sibling-”

“You know about that?” Sif asked.

“Yes. Wait, you know about that? Since when?”

Sif waved her hand. “A story for another time.”

Reluctantly, Thor let go of that conversation thread to return to the more pressing matters at hand. “Well, I fear my sibling did not survive this time. They showed a terror I had never seen before. I believe Thanos would have killed them for not giving him the Tesseract.”

Sif put her hand on his shoulder. “Thor…”

Thor smiled at Sif and then looked at Eitri. “I'm in need of a new weapon, one that can kill Thanos.”

“I'd be happy to make you a weapon, Thanos is what destroyed this place, but he shut down the forge.”

“Why was he here?” Thor asked.

“He wanted us to make a gauntlet capable of wielding the infinity stones. He killed anyone who refused until there was only a handful of us left. I was weak, I made him what he wanted when he promised to leave the rest of us alive. But once he had what he wanted, he killed everyone except me and broke the machines that open the forge and spin the rings. Lady Sif arrived a short time later when she discovered that Asgard was destroyed and came here to get a weapon strong enough to take on what could've done something so impossible.”

“But like he said, the forge is dead. Unless we could get the rings spinning again, this place’s only use is being a graveyard.”

“Great King Eitri,” Thor said, “I give you my deepest apologies for your loss. I wish I was there to protect your people. I cannot go back in time to save them, but you can make me a weapon capable of killing the mad titan so that I may avenge them.”

Eitri shook his head. “It's like Lady Sif said, we’d need to get the rings spinning.”

“If we could, do you think you could make the weapon I ask for?”

“I still have a cast for a weapon, an axe by the name of Jarnbjorn. If I could make it, it'd be the most powerful weapon in the universe. Even more so than your hammer.”

“What happened to Mjolnir?” Sif asked.

Thor shrugged. “My sister broke it.” He looked to Eitri. “I'll get the rings turning for you, you get the cast.”

Sif didn't like the plan. Thor solution to get the rings spinning (a combination of his strength, strong rope, and the pod ship) worked fine, but he planned to hold open the eye of the forge himself. Doing so would expose him to the full strength of a neutron star. He would surely perish in the attempt.

“We don't need this weapon, Thor.” Sif told him, hand clutching his shoulder tight. “We can work together with these Guardians, as well as your Midgardian heroes. It'll be enough.”

“It won't be.” Thor said. “He has the infinity stones. Numbers alone won't stop him.”

He was right. She didn't care much about that though.

“When I saw the Asgard was nothing but dust… I assumed that everyone is dead.” Sif said. “And now I have you back and you're about to throw yourself into a situation where I might lose you again.”

“That's a chance I have to take, Sif.”

“The family of Odin is the biggest collection of idiots in the universe.”

He chuckled half-heartedly. “I've never heard truer words spoken.”

And he was suddenly at the eye. Sif watched as he pulled the doors of the eyes open and was hit with a blast of raw power. It continued to stream forward to melt the uru that King Eitri had ready.

Thor's skin began to turn red and black in places and Sif could just barely hold her tongue to stop herself from screaming out.

He held out for a long time, but Sif saw the eye’s doors getting closer and closer together. “He can't hold it for much longer.” She said aloud, and a look to King Eitri showed that he was thinking the same thing.

Thor swayed forward and fell, the doors slamming shut behind him.

Sif watched as the rabbit (so Thor told her he was) caught him in his ship, and looked to the uru metal. “Was that enough.”

Reluctantly, the king shook his head. “If he held the doors open for just a second longer, we could've done it.”

“Just a second longer?” Sif asked, and the king, looking concerned, nodded. “I can do it.”

Everyone tried to argue, but she was eventually able to convince them to bring her up to the eye.

She put her fingers between the doors and pulled as hard as she could, the force of the neutron star almost knocking her back immediately.

She pushed and pushed until the doors were wide open, all the while she was blasted with a heat like the lava pits of Muspelheim. She could feel her skin burning, and couldn't help but let out a scream as the pain tore through her.

Thor could control lightning, he was incredibly heat resistant, but her? She was no mere mortal, but this was… too much.

She couldn't see, the light around her blinding her, and the pain grew and grew and she wished to go to Valhalla.

It was too much. Too much.

In her head, she said a prayer to the Norns. And then everything was black.

Chapter Text

“Hey. Wake up, idiot. I know you it'd kill you to make your big entrance while sleeping.”

Loki awoke to the Brunnhilde shaking her shoulders hard and hit at her hands. “I'm awake, wench. Leave me alone.”

“Ooh, wench? Pulling out the adult words?”

She scowled at Brunnhilde and looked past her. The rest of the Avengers seemed to be ignoring her and they now had Colonel Rhodes in their midst, but there was one new member onboard. “... banner?”

Banner (or Bruce? She wasn't sure if they were there yet. She was still terrified of the hulk.) waved awkwardly. “Hey, uh, Loren?”

So he had been told about her alias and was playing along. Good, maybe they were at the stage where she could call him Bruce.

“When did you get to Earth? I thought the Tesseract must have thrown you somewhere else.”

“I landed in some wizard’s house just before aliens attacked New York.”

Loki had forgotten all about the fight in New York. “Is Peter okay?”

“Spider-Kid?” Brunnhilde said and smiled. “Rhodes found him tangled in his parachute. Look behind you.”

The couch Loki was on was back-to-back with another, where Peter was sprawled across - asleep.

“I told him that he needed some sleep too.” Banner shrugged. “He's just a kid.”

Definitely Bruce now.

“It took ages to convince him that you weren't hurt.” Brunnhilde grinned. “Speaking of, how's the magic recovery?”

Loki tried to get a feel of the seiðr running through her. “It's returned somewhat, but it seems that my recovery time has slowed immensely with Asgard destroyed. I have the strength to summon and use a knife effectively though, that's all that I need.”

“Good.” Brunnhilde said plainly before quickly adding, “Thanos could attack at any time.”

Bruce looked away. “So, Tony and Doctor Strange - who I'm pretty is the same guy as that missing neurosurgeon? - went up into a flying spaceship and haven't come back.”

Loki let out a small noise of frustration. “I told them not to try anything.”

“We're landing in Wakanda in about five minutes.” Romanoff called out from where she sat at the wheel of the ship. “None of you are allowed to embarrass me.”

“No promises.” Bruce called back and Romanoff laughed.

“We're meeting with the king of Wakanda, T’challa, when we land,” Brunnhilde said, “so uh, don't fuck anything up.”

Loki smiled and repeated Bruce’s words to Romanoff, “No promises.”

She rolled her eyes. “Just wake up the kid.” She turned away and sat herself down next to Rhodes.

Loki leaned over the couch and looked at Peter. His youth showed all the more in his sleep and Loki found herself smiling a little.

“You like kids?” Bruce said from behind her, a smirk in his voice. She'd forgotten he was there.

“Who likes stories more than children?”

Bruce seemed to realise he was being brushed off and walked away. Loki put her hand on Peter’s shoulder and shook him a little.

Peter awoke with a jump, looking scared until he caught sight of her. “Loren! You're awake.”

“Indeed I am. We're landing in Wakanda in five minutes.”

“I was so worried that you were maybe hurt? Even though Ms. Brunnhilde said that you were fine.” Peter rambled.

Loki didn't know how to respond. “We're meeting the king when we get there apparently.”

Peter didn't acknowledge her words. “Wait did Mr. Stark come back? And Doctor Strange? They both flew upwards in the spaceship. Have they come back yet?”

She tried to make her tone reassuring, but failed completely. “There's no word of them yet.”

“Oh God. Oh my God. What if they're dead?”

“Oh, they won't kill Strange. Without him they can't use get the time stone.”

That didn't seem to soothe him. “What about Mr. Stark?”

Loki didn't reply and Peter’s eyes widened. He looked at his feet. “I think I'm going to call my aunt, tell her I'm okay.”

She wasn't stupid enough not to see that Peter wanted to be left alone. She nodded and stood, thankfully without dizziness now that her magic was returning.

She started to make her way to Brunnhilde when the captain called out. “Loren.” He said, and gestured to the empty seat beside him.

She didn't particularly want to, but decided that this would gain trust a little easily. She sat herself down beside him, on what seemed to be some crates. Maximoff and Wilson were sitting with him. Vision was lying on the floor beside Maximoff, eyes closed as if he were sleeping, but Loki chose not to ask what was going on there.

“You fight good.” Rogers said. “You learn all that being a curator?”

“I take care of the royal artifacts,” she shrugged, “In whatever way necessary.”

Wilson smiled. “Bet you have one hell of a resume.”

“Do you know much about magic?” Maximoff asked.

Loki shrugged. “I've only been practicing seiðr for about a thousand years.”

“Look good for an old chick.” Wilson quipped.

She smiled. “I moisturise.”

“Could you teach me?” Wanda asked. “About magic? It might be different than your’s but-”

“Sure,” Loki said, and reached into her pocket dimension, pulling out a book and handed it to the girl. “Read that and then we can talk.”

She looked intrigued as to where the book came from but simply took the book and nodded. “Thank you.”

Rogers shook his head. “The world’s gotten so much crazier since my time. Aliens, magic…”

“We get it, Steve,” Wilson said, “You're old.”

Rogers leaned forward and shoved Wilson’s shoulder, but the man just laughed.

Rogers focused the conversation again. “Peter said you knew Thor personally.”

“Being the royal curator, I was practically one of them.”

“I'm sorry,” Rogers said genuinely, “I know what it's like to lose your whole world all at once.”

“If you ever want to talk, we're here.” Wilson said, and Loki almost found herself trusting him. He voice had a platonically attractive warmth to it.

“I appreciate it.” Loki said, making it clear that wasn't going to talk about it.

“So… what was Loki like as a king?” Wilson asked with an upward twitch to the corner of his mouth.

“Sam.” Rogers said, but was clearly interested.

“His rule brought peace and prosperity to Asgard the likes of which Odin never could. He also invested heavily in the arts.” She smiled.

“So no daily executions then?” Wilson joked.

“No,” she said, “that was more his sister's style.”

Rogers spluttered but Wilson chuckled. “Dark, man.”

She liked, at least, that Wilson didn't mind a dark sense of humour.

Wanda didn't seem to notice, already absorbed in the book.

“We're ready for you to land.” Said a new voice coming through speakers in the front. Loki looked over to see Romanoff looked at a hologram of a woman.

“Okoye.” Rogers named her for her.

“Thanks, babe.” Natasha smiled.

“Please, Natasha. Try to keep some level of professionalism.” Okoye reprimanded, but she looked somewhat amused.

“I'll try my best.” Romanoff said. “See you soon.” The hologram disappeared and

Loki kept an eye on the front window. It looked like they were heading straight into a forest. She willed the universe to show her the truth, remove the illusion, and suddenly the trees disappeared and were replaced by a glimmering blue shield.

As they passed through the shield, Wakanda came into view. It's tall metallic buildings were somewhat reminiscent of Asgard and Loki felt a knot tighten in her stomach.

They landed near one of the largest buildings - the palace, she assumed - in a large flat area. Rogers put himself and Romanoff in front of the rear door of the plane as it began to open slowly.

Loki grouped herself with Rhodes, Brunnhilde and Bruce as they walked behind the captain.

“So, do we bow when we meet the king or..?” Bruce began.

Rhodes scoffed like it was a stupid question. “Duh, he's a king.”

“It's true,” Loki chimed in, “Even on Asgard you bow to your king.”

Bruce looked at her sceptically and then to Brunnhilde, who nodded.

Bruce seemed satisfied with that answer and the three of them exchanged grins behind his back. Loki admired the mischievous glint in Rhodes’ eyes and figured if she could call Bruce Bruce, she could call Rhodes Rhodey.

They all exited the plane, Rogers going up to a man Loki assumed to be the king, T’Challa and shook his hand, exchanging greetings. Romanoff made her way to a non-holographic version of Okoye and both had small restrained smiles on their faces during their exchange.

The captain moved to a man with a metal arm, Loki recognised him from when he looked to Midgard while the heroes battled each other but didn't know his name.

Bruce was the first of their group to reach the king and bowed. “Your highness.”

Rhodey elbowed him. “Man, what are you doing?”

“You're embarrassing yourself.” Loki added.

The king looked a little awkward and amused. “Ah, we don't do that here.”

Brunnhilde placed a hand sympathetically on Bruce’s shoulder. “It's alright, not everyone is raised to consider the workings of different cultures.”

Bruce tried to protest but she was already herding him away. Rhodey raised his hand for what Loki knew to be a high five, and she completed the gesture with a grin before turning to the king straight faced.

Loki extended a hand towards the king as she had seen Rogers do. “A pleasure to meet you, your majesty. I'm Loren of Asgard, once royal curator of the golden realm.”

“Welcome to Wakanda, Loren.” The king greeted warmly. “I heard what happened to you home, I offer my deepest apologies.”

Loki shrugged. “I'm alive, the mightiest of the Valkyrie stands here too. Back in America, the great gatekeeper Heimdall leads a group of Asgardian survivors. As long as its people survive, Asgard does too.”

The king smiled. “Wise words, my friend.”

Loki felt uncomfortable being called ‘friend’ so quickly, but she supposed it was just in the man’s nature. Thor was the same.

Rhodey began to offer greetings to the king, so Loki looked for where she was supposed to go.

A young voice drew her attention straight away. “Woah man! Nice shirt!” Peter said to a young girl around his age.

Loki didn't see what was so nice about the shirt. It was a simple pale pink with the words ‘road work ahead? Uh, yeah, I sure hope it does.’ Printed on it in white which was frankly nonsense, the words meant nothing.

The girl grinned. “How do you know what's good for me?”

Peter smiled even wider. “That's my opinion!”

The two laughed and Loki was even more confused. The words they were saying didn't seem to be matching their reactions.

She put herself beside Peter. “The magic of the all-speak must be failing me. Do your words have hidden meanings for them to be so funny?”

“Oh my God, Loren. Remind me to show you some vines.” Peter said excitedly.

“Why does nobody know what vines are?!” The girl replied.

“I know!” Peter said. “But Loren’s from Asgard so she has an excuse.”

“I'd be happy to see these… vines.” Loki replied, still not knowing what they were.

The girl seemed to realise something. “Hey! You're speaking Xhosa!”

Peter seemed confused. “No she's not. She's speaking english.”

“I'm using the magic of the all-speak, like I said. You perceive my words in the language you understand best, and I can understand any language in return.”

They both looked intrigued. “What about sign language?” The girl asked.

“I don't know what that is.”

“Like, talking with your hands?” Peter explained.

“Oh, yes. I can do that.” Loki shrugged.

Peter grinned. “That's so cool! I can only do the alphabet but -” and he signed out the letters C - O - O - L .

Loki signed back the letters of the words ‘thank you’ slow enough for him to process.

“It's alright, Vis.” Maximoff said, and Loki turned to see her and Vision finally emerging from the plane. His eyes were open now, but he seemed to be hurt (a machine experiencing pain - fascinating.), parts of his body flickering in and out of vision, his legs buckling.

“I heard about him when you contacted us.” The girl said. “Separating the stone from him might take awhile. I'll go get my lab prepared.” She offered Peter and Loki a wave before turning around and heading into the building.

“We're separating the mind stone from Vision?” Loki asked.

Peter nodded. “Vision thinks Wanda can destroy it, but nobody wants to destroy Vision by doing it. We think he'll still be Vision without it. Hopefully.”

Loki thought it would probably be easier to simply destroy the stone now, but the team all clearly held sentiment for the robot, so she wasn't about to tell them.

“So who's she?”

The king was close enough to hear and said, “that's my baby sister, Shuri. She's the smartest person in the world. If she can't separate the mind stone from Vision without damaging him, no one can.”

Loki looked at the princess as the doors of the building closed behind her. “Huh.”

Just as everyone seemed ready to head inside and begin action planning, the beads of Okoye’s bracelet made a noise. A holographic image of a woman with the same bald head and golden jewellery around the neck appeared above it.

“The North border is being attacked. No visual yet, but it's being hit with a lot of force.”

“I thought we'd have more time.” Rogers said from where he stood with the metal armed man.

“This is likely a scouting mission.” Loki said. “Like Loki’s attack on New York.”

“That was a scouting mission?” Romanoff asked sceptically.

Loki scoffed. “Considering that less than a hundred people died in the ‘battle’ when Thanos is famous for slaughtering entire halves of populations? Yes, that was a scouting mission. Be prepared to face much worse in his actual attack. For now, we can expect to see one of his black order leading a few waves of chituari at worst.”

Perhaps, Nebula. She was always such a ball of sunshine, how lovely it would be to see her again.

“Sound the alarm,” the king said to Okoye, “we must prepare for battle.”

Chapter Text

There were only two people at the border: Cull Obsidian and Proxima Midnight. Not a scouting mission then, a new tactic.

“People of Terra,” Proxima greeted, “the great Thanos has a generous offer for you.”

“Is that Thanos?” Peter whispered.

“Thanos is purple.” Loki replied quietly. “That's Cull Obsidian.”

“Do all space villains have names like that?”

Loki almost smiled despite the situation. “Just Thanos’ children.”

Proxima let the mutters of the group continue for a moment. “Your planet had earned Thanos’ respect through it's love of violence and death. He wishes to kill half of your world without bias, and so, he is willing to spare your lives for now if you give him the mind stone. If you refuse, you will all die, but if you accept, some of you may survive.”

“You understand,” King T’Challa began, “that that's a difficult decision to make on the spot.”

Proxima smiled in return. “Luckily for you, the merciful Thanos gives you a week to decide. We will return then, and if you don't give us the mind stone, we will take it from you. Don't think your shield can stop us, when we possess the space stone.”

Loki stepped forward to draw her attention to her. “Where's Maw, Gamora and Nebula? I thought the whole gang would be here - I'm a little disappointed, frankly.”

“Not here.” She replied before she grinned like a shark. “Where's your brother, Laufeyson?”

Oh. That felt like a dagger to the chest.

And they knew who she was. Great.

Loki smiled. “We'll wait the week, then you can hear our answer.”

She looked doubtful. “Don't try anything. You know what'll happen.”

“We're taking the week.” Captain Rogers said. “So, respectfully, m’am, leave this planet.”

She sneered. “If you're smart, you'll take our offer.” And she and Cull Obsidian teleported away.

“Well, that was anti-climactic!” Brunnhilde exclaimed before the punched Loki lightly on the shoulder. “I can't believe you didn't tell me you were Laufey’s kid! Never thought that brat would settle down. You know, I can see the family resemblance - you're both pricks-”

“You can't tell Heimdall and the others. They know I'm a frost giant but not that I'm of their once-king.”

The others were heading away from the border slowly, but Loki and Brunnhilde stayed in their spots. Peter stood by pretending not to listen, but eventually went away with the rest.

“Why not? Once-King? Why did he die so soon?”

Loki took in a breath shakily. “Why do you not hate me for being a frost giant? They're our enemies.”

“They're our trade partners!” Brunnhilde resorted. “Or they were until Odin decided to take over their land. Then we just took everything from them.”

“They've terrorised our people since the dawn of time.”

Brunnhilde looked sceptical. “We were the ones doing the terrorising. We took fish faster than they could breed and hunted animals until there was barely enough left for them to eat. We were uh, dicks? They still stayed friendly though, nice people.”

“The didn't remain that way. When Laufey became king, he tried to take over Midgard. He and his men killed countless Asgardians.”

Brunnhilde shrugged. “Kid was always talking about doing that. Said his old man didn't have the guts to do what it took to survive. They were dying out.”

“How can you not care about them killing Asgardians? How can you call those monsters friendly? They took the casket of ancient winters and tried to freeze the entire planet! We had to take it away from them!”

“Odin took away the casket?” Brunnhilde asked, malice in her voice. “They need that to survive! Tell me they have it!”

Loki’s answer got stuck in her throat and she simply summoned the casket into her hands.

Brunnhilde’s fist collided with her face and she fell to the ground, dropping the casket.

“They need that to live!”

“They're probably all dead anyway! I turned on the bifrost and let it tear apart their world! I killed Laufey, their king! Odin didn't give them the casket back, so if any are alive, there are likely only tens of them left!” Loki yelled from her knees.

She didn't know when she had started crying, or when her voice had gotten so high.

“Shit.” Brunnhilde said sincerely. “Odin really fucked you up, huh?” And then she sighed. “He said he wanted to change… The valkyrie died because he wanted to change.”

Loki looked at the casket and the icy patch slowly spreading outwards from it, and then down at her own blue hands. By now, her entire aesir illusion had most likely disappeared.

A pitiful sob escaped her lips.

For years she had bottled up these emotions, lied to herself that she was unbothered by her heritage. And now she had only got through a few sentences before breaking down.

She felt a strong hand grip her arm. “Look, I'm not going to forgive you for killing the Jotuns. But I don't think you're a monster because you're a frost giant. Odin, he was an asshole, raising you to hate your own kind like that. His success rate with raising non-genocidal children is pretty bad. But unlike Hela, I think you still have time to change. No one’s going to forgive you for what you did, but I know I can accept a new you.”

“I don't… what kind of fool would accept a frost giant?”

She scoffed. “All that stuff about frost giants is propaganda. Believe me, I know what propaganda is, I've lived on Sakaar. Did Thor know about you?”

“Yes.”

“And he clearly loved you, you idiot.”

Loki scoffed. “Thor's a fool.”

“True.” Valkyrie agreed. “But his opinion matters to you.”

She was right.

“Uh, listen.” She continued. “I'm not the best at… emotions? I kinda just drunk away my problems for a few thousand years, but you're not an asshole because you're a frost giant; you're an asshole because you're an asshole.”

Loki gave her a weak smile and let out another sob. “You're not helping.”

Brunnhilde held out her hand and helped Loki to her feet.

She took a deep breath to stop her stupid crying before casting her aesir illusion back over herself, making sure to cover up her the likely redness around her eyes.

“Sorry about that.” She said quickly.

Brunnhilde rolled her eyes. “Sorry? Norns, you're such an idiot.”

They were relatively silent heading back to the palace.

Wilson greeted them. “Uh, hey, Peter said he sensed a bit of tension between you two. Everything alright?”

Loki opened her mouth to lie but Brunnhilde spoke first. “You said you work with people with issues, right?”

He frowned at the wording. “I work with war veterans suffering from PTSD.”

“Right, cool. Do you know how to help someone who was raised in a world with people who hate their kind and now hold the same prejudices against themselves?”

“Brunnhilde.” Loki warned.

Wilson glanced back and forth between the two of them. “Like internalised racism?”

“Sure, probably.”

“Well, I've never had to deal with any internalised stuff but I am black - I don't exactly live in an utopia.” He shrugged and looked at Loki. “If you ever want to talk through shit, I'll be here.”

“Thank you, but I'll pass.” Loki said.

“Sure thing, man.” Wilson shrugged. “If you want to talk to someone with similar experience, you could try Bucky.”

“That is..?”

“Steve’s friend. You know, jesus-looking dude with a metal arm? Ask for White Wolf and any of the Wakandans can help you find him.” Wilson elaborated.

“Why would I talk to him?”

“Propaganda is brainwashing society. It might be useful to talk to someone who's literally been brainwashed.” He explained. “Just… consider it.”

Loki was about to reject his offer outright again, but Brunnhilde was drilling holes into her skull with her eyes. “I'll consider it.”

“That's all I ask.” Wilson smiled and then he seemed to remember something. “With Tony gone, Vision out of action, and T’Challa vouching for us, the UN panel is giving us a ‘temporary pardon’ and is letting us act as the Avengers again. The news about Thanos scared them pretty bad.”

“Weren't we going to act without their permission anyway?” Brunnhilde asked.

“Yeah,” Wilson said, “but this means we can call in Clint and Scott. They're the worst, you'll love them.”

Loki didn't need further clarification to know who Clint was. Hawkeye - Loki’s once-pawn who was perhaps the person she was most scared would see through her act.

She had missed a few words shared between Wilson and Brunnhilde, and chose to focus in on the worst moment.

“Shuri’s starting working on Vision,” Sam said, and her heart plummeted, “the mind stone will be out of him by tomorrow.”

Hawkeye, one of the best people for seeing through lies, was coming here tomorrow, and at the same time, the robot that restricted the psychic energy from the mind stone was being separated from it tomorrow. Neither of these thing added up to be good.

Fuck.

Chapter Text

Gamora was prepared to die when their trip to retrieve the aether failed, when Thanos took her and teleported away. She wasn't afraid.

But she took a look at her sister, pieces torn apart, and felt screams clawing at her throat.

“How can you call her your daughter when you torture her?” Gamora spat at Thanos.

“You know where the soul stone is.” Thanos said. “Lead me to it or she'll suffer even more.”

Gamora stayed silent, and her father nodded at the nearest guard. The guard pressed a button and Nebula began to shake and scream.

Her screams grew louder and tears welled in Gamora’s eyes.

She finally broke. “Vormir!” She screamed out. “The stone is in Vormir…”

“No…” Nebula rasped out.

Gamora went over to where her sister hung suspended in the air and touched their foreheads together.

Nebula seemed to find it hard to speak, her voice more artificial and metallic than ever. “Everyone… everyone knows that the stone requires… a life.”

“A soul for a soul.” Thanos said, and placed a hand on Gamora's shoulder. “Luckily, I have one.”

It wasn't unexpected. Thanos felt like Gamora had betrayed his love. It would be poetic, in his eyes, to kill their unperfect love for the sake of his true love, Death.

Thanos was nothing if not a lover of poetic sacrifices.

“I love you.” Gamora whispered.

“Don't.” Nebula said as she stepped away. She looked into her sister’s face and she knew that if Nebula could cry, she would be.

She turned away.

Gamora was prepared to die.

She wasn't afraid.

Chapter Text

Her world was dark, but she could feel the magic pulling at her. She had never been good at magic, but she could always sense it. Loki could rarely pull a prank on her in their youth for she could sense magic like it was a particularly strong smell.

She reached out to the magic, calling it.

It replied.

She awoke suddenly and with a gasp, holding something in her hand. She looked down and found herself holding the axe meant for Thor - Jarnbjorn.

Last she knew, she had been faced with the full force of a burning star, and yet she felt no pain...

She looked at the axe again. It was a powerful weapon indeed.

She felt powerful enough to battle both Odin and Laufey and still be standing to fight the Norns themselves. She felt like she could take off Thanos’ head with one punch.

And then she remembered Thor.

The tree and the furry creature were by his side, but were looking at her. Thor was by their feet - silent and still.

“Thor,” she said, “call Jarnbjorn to you, like Mjolnir.”

“He's not waking up, lady.” The creature said. “He should've passed out from the pain long before he did. Unless you have the some magic Asgardian stone of medicine here, he's as good as dead.”

Sif looked to Eitri, who shook his head. “We don't have any healing stones left.”

The creature was momentarily taken aback. “Wait the magic stones are-?Whatever. Even if we left here at full speed we wouldn't be able to contact my team for a day and a half.”

“Jarnbjorn can summon the bifrost.” Eitri said. “But that could kill him.”

“What's the bifrost?” The creature asked.

“He'll die anyway.” Sif reasoned. She tried to listen to the magic of the axe, and it responded eagerly. “Your highness, we can bring you with us.”

Eitri shook his head. “If you manage to stop Thanos, come get me. I don't want to be apart of this fight, and if he succeeds, I'd rather die than live in the world he forged.”

Sif bowed her head. “Then I thank you for the hospitality you have shown me, and wish you the best.”

“Avenge the dwarfs of Nidavellir, Lady Sif.” He said sincerely. “If Thor wakes, tell him the same.”

She nodded and began talking to the magic of the axe, ignoring the words of the creature beside her.

“Norns - directors of faith,” she whispered in her head, “bring us to the friends of this creature and this tree, the allies of Thor. I beg this of you.”

She opened her eyes and was greeted with the kaleidoscopic colours of the bifrost. She thanked the Norns, and they were suddenly on a new floor, now covered with the runes of the bifrost.

“What the fuck?!” Said an unfamiliar voice. “You burnt weird shit into my ship! Who's she?! What happened to the pirate dude?”

She looked up, into the eyes of a man in a leather jacket. “My name is Lady Sif. I'm a friend of Thor’s. You must help him.”

Soon Thor was on a healing bed, some unfamiliar medicine helping his progress.
The creature seemed interested in how the axe had teleported them and wanted to look at it. She refused, it was Thor’s weapon, not his.

Introductions were made. The creature - Rocket - seemed concerned that the blue lady - Nebula - was there. Apparently, someone called Gamora was likely dead and Nebula - who had escaped from where Thanos was holding her - was teaming up with them. They had also lost the Aether.

Sif didn't spend much time with guardians, the air was tense now that one of their own was dead, and she didn't want to impose on them.

So she spent most of her time with Thor. Travel to Midgard was slow, as they couldn't use any jump points or the bifrost until they were sure it wouldn't kill Thor. Nebula didn't seem to care, but Quill told her that the more people they had alive to fight Thanos, the better. Sif was glad he said what he did, her argument would've been pulling out her sword.

“I promised to tell you about Loki and I - how I knew about their secret.” Sif said, pulling up a chair beside Thor’s bedside. “I'll tell you now, so you can't interrupt. I think if Loki could choose, they'd want me to tell you while you were unconscious too. I hope you can hear me though. Mantis told me your senses would still work when she put you asleep.”

She looked for the best place to begin. “Even though the Valkyrie exist, women have never been seen as equal in Asgard’s eyes. Becoming a respected warrior was tough. It was the same for Loki, what with them appearing as a boy and using seiðr - most people see it as a feminine craft. When we were a lot younger, we were close. We weren't… friends exactly, but if someone was teasing Loki, I'd punch them, and if someone made fun of me, I knew they would end up humiliated by some prank of Loki’s. It was a… solidarity of sorts.”

“There were a few weeks of intense training that I was allowed to take residence in spare chambers of the palace. One day I returned to find my closet a mess. I didn't know what I suspected, but I drew my sword and silently searched for the intruder.”

“I found Loki in front of my largest mirror, wearing one of the few dresses I owned. I was furious. I started yelling at them, asking them if they thought that it was funny making fun of me for being a girl. They tried to teleport away, but their magic wasn't great back then, they only moved a small way away to the right. I… I caught them by the throat and slammed them against the wall.”

“I told them they were just like every other stupid boy, and they said they weren't. I yelled a lot more at them, and Loki was crying a lot, but eventually they were able to finish their sentence. ‘I'm not a boy’ they said and I was confused, understandably.”

“We talked a bit more, and they were able to explain. Sometimes they felt like a girl, and sometimes they felt like a boy. Sometimes they even felt like both or neither and, well it was a complicated talk. They were sorry for coming into my room without permission, but I didn't really care that much. I wasn't angry anymore. I told them they could borrow my dresses whenever they wanted if they asked for my permission first, and I promised to keep their secret.”

“A couple of weeks later, they came to me excited. They didn't tell me what was so exciting, they just changed into a perfect copy of me.”

“They told me they had perfected shapeshifting, and that they had an idea.”

“Every so often, when Loki was a girl, they'd shapeshift into me and pretend to be me in a training session, while I sat in the library, disguised as him, and pretended to study.”

“Eventually, Loki created their own female form. They decided to test it out on Fandral. You'd remember that, I think. The night in the tavern when he was kissing a raven-haired maiden and she suddenly transformed back into Loki. You all took it as a jest, one of Loki’s pranks, but to them it was validation.”

“As often as we could, Loki would slip into some clothing of mine and the two of us would go to a nearby village. They could be themselves, live in the skin that fit them for a short while.”

“We drifted apart after awhile. They made friends with those two witches - Amora and Lorelei - and I grew closer to you and the warriors three. Under those sorceresses’ influence, Loki’s pranks grew more malicious and their words became more biting.”

“After Lorelei was locked away from her crimes and Amora banished to some forbidden realm for Asgard’s safety, Loki was distant. There was a time, if you'll remember, that they hardly spoke and walked around the palace like a ghost. I know not if it was the loss of their friends or the revelation that their friends would do something big enough to be punished so severely that damaged Loki so, but I could not find my friend in their eyes. I knew that they needed help, but I did not want to make the effort to give it. Loki was dead and you were lively. In hindsight, I can see how selfish I was to not make an attempt just because it wouldn't be fun.”

“Even when their spirit returned to them, things weren't the same between us. I was a respected warrior, and my loyalties now rested with you and the Three, not them.”

She sighed. “Perhaps if Loki had not… If I had not encouraged the Warriors Three to come to Midgard with me after you, do you think Loki would've sent the Destroyer? Do you think if I had made an effort to repair our friendship before their heritage was revealed, they would've come to me for support instead of killing an entire realm? I…”

“Loki confuses me much, Thor. It's morbid, but I am nearly glad they are dead, for I shall never have to confront the complicated feelings I have for them. Are they a villainous traitor that I hate with a passion? Or are they my friend’s little brother, a friendship that could've been mended if I had put forth a little more effort?”

“I miss them. I miss Fandral and Volstagg and Hogunn. I miss so many, Thor. My heart aches. You are the only one I have left, I need you to wake. I need you to be here.”

She placed her hand on his and gripped tight.

“Please.”

Jarnbjorn remained completely still.

Chapter Text

Loki felt sick as she watched the plane land. Her stomach was twisting itself into knots and she was convinced if she tried to speak a word, she'd vomit.

“Are you okay Mx Loren?” Peter asked from where he stood by her side.

“Simply tired, child.” She lied. “I did not sleep much last night.” That much was true. Despite the nice bedding, fear that her plan would fall apart today had kept her awake most of the night.

Peter looked concerned but was pulled out of the conversation when Shuri said something to him.

It was strange, but Loki almost wished Brunnhilde was by her side. She was sure if Agent Barton decided to attack her, the Valkyrie would be at her defence, but as things stood, her only hope was Peter, who wouldn't dare attack ‘an actual real-life Avenger’ like the world didn't have those in spades nowadays.

The first out of the plane was a man she didn't recognise - Scott Lang: Ant-Man, she concluded. From what she had seen of the Avengers’ civil war (if you could call that petty spar a war), the man was rather impressive in a fight, but she hardly paid him any attention. There were a woman and an older man by his size, both of whom she didn’t recognize.

Wilson greeted Lang with something teasing, and the both of them laughed.

She watched the door of the plane intensely until Hawkeye finally emerged. He greeted Rogers and Romanoff with an easy smile and made his way to them.

“Do you think Mr Ant-Man will remember that I tripped him up?” Peter asked sincerely.

Shuri snorted. “You what?”

“He went all giant so I tied his legs together with my webs and then Mr Stark and Mr Rhodey punched him and he fell over.”

“Star Wars style?” Shuri said.

Peter nodded. “Star Wars style.”

“Nice.”

Peter grinned and looked up at Loki. “We should get you to watch Star Wars. You'd probably like it.”

“Yeah,” Loki said distantly, keeping her eyes on Barton, “sure.”

“Are you sure you're okay? You're being weird.” Peter turned to Shuri. “She’s being weird, right?”

“Really weird.”

She sent a half-hearted glare at the two of them, before sending the two ends of her sash after them. One grabbed Shuri’s foot and yanked it upwards, the other pushed the back of Peter’s head hard.

Shuri fell right onto her backside and Peter went flying into King T’Challa himself.

Despite the horrible twist in her stomach - not simply butterflies, more like hundreds of terribly sharp knives - she found herself smiling as Peter stumbled his way through an apology with a jumbled “Mr King T’Challa sir” added in. Shuri seemed to find to whole thing hilarious and lamented that she couldn't record it.

Loki realised too late that they had drawn the attention of everyone else, and suddenly, Barton was in front of her.

He gave her a smile, though she didn't trust him yet. “I guess you must be the Loren Laufeyson everyone’s been talking about.”

“Just Loren. You must be Agent Barton.”

“If you're just Loren, then I'm just Clint.”

That was far too casual. Perhaps Barton was a casual man, but she couldn't very well call the man she had willingly put under the thrall of the mind stone by his first name.

“I think not.” Loki said, mentally slapping herself and waiting for Hawkeye’s reaction.

Barton seemed to find it funny though. He laughed and moved on to someone else.

Loki’s heart was trying to break out of her chest. She was sure if she had another conversation with that man, she would surely perish from the nerves.

She crossed her arms, holding them tight into her chest. Her breathing was all funny.

She caught sight of Peter, who looked very concerned. He opened his mouth to speak with Shuri spoke. “I'm nearly ready to separate the mind stone from Vision.” She announced before she looked at Loki. “Would you come with me? I'd like to have an expert on magical items there, just in case. You can say if something's going wrong or-”

“Yes, fine.” Loki snapped. It made sense for her to be there, and she didn't want to explain how she had been avoiding Vision and much as possible just to be away from that blasted rock and she wanted to be nowhere near it.

Shuri looked a little taken aback. “Uh, thanks. Let's go.”

Lots of people followed them to Shuri’s lab; Peter, General Okoye, Romanoff, King T’Challa, Maximoff, Rogers, and Bruce. Loki didn't care to ask where the others went.

Vision was lying on a white table, a computer doing some sort of work on the gem embedded in his forehead.

“Is everything going right?” Shuri asked him. “Magically, I mean?”

If by ‘going right’ she meant that its presence was growing stronger by every passing second, then yes. “It is fine.”

The mind stone’s power was… seductive. Of course, when used, it could control minds, but on its own? It whispered your heart’s desires sweetly in your ear and focused your entire life on it.

She remembered the last time the fog of the mind stone had rested over her head. The Other had presented Loki with a staff and within an instance, there was a presence in her head.

“You wish to be treated as Thor’s equal.” It whispered, and Loki agreed.

“You wish to humiliate him. To teach him a lesson.” Loki agreed.

“You wish to make your father proud.” Loki agreed.

“You hate Odin.” Loki also agreed to that.

"Your family cast you away." Loki wasn't sure about that, but then he agreed.

It gave him ideas. With Thanos’ army, Loki could take over Midgard. Then he would rule a realm - Thor’s favourite realm at that. Odin would have to respect his battle tactics. He would be on equal footing to Thor. Taking over Earth was the only thing Loki wanted.

Agent Barton was strange. He was smart and focused, a valuable asset, but he also seemed to dote on Loki like a mother hen. As much as a brainwashed assassin could dote anyway.

“You need to eat, sir.” Barton said.

“What need do I have for food when there is a war to win?”

“With all respect, sir, not eating will lower our chances of success.” He said.

“Fine. I will eat.” The mind stone protested, but Loki convinced it that Barton was right. “For the good of the mission.”

“You could also use some sleep, sir.”

When Thor had grabbed them from the plane, Loki was suddenly rethinking everything. They didn't want to rule Earth, he just wanted to go home or-

“The mission. The mission. The mission.” The mind stone reminded him.

And Loki remembered and forgot their worries about hurting Thor.

But the fault of the mind stone’s influence was that it caused Loki to focus too much on simply completing the mission. They were so determined to get things done, that they rarely remembered to use their magic or enact a strategy that wasn't completely stupid.

And so everything failed. The Hulk smashed Loki into the ground and as they let out a pained wheeze, they felt like crying. They were free. They were finally free.

And now the cloud of the mind stone was threatening to return. She couldn't let it cover her eyes again, not like before. It could be effective, sure, it would help her to focus on taking down Thanos, but it could make her more reckless. She could see Peter as a liability and try to kill him, she could stop eating and sleeping like she had before, or she could make stupid mistakes and forget about her mission.

"Loki," the stone whispered as the machines did its work, "I remember you. We did great things. We can do great things again."

No.

"Let me in and I can show you how to defeat Thanos. All you want is to avenge your brother, isn't it? Let me show you how."

No. No. No.

She was suffocating. The stone's magic was thick and heavy. She couldn't breathe. She couldn't breathe. She couldn't breathe.

She screwed her eyes closed to concentrate - building up walls to protect herself from the gem's influence.

"Loren?" came Peter's voice. She barely registered it.

"These fools would destroy me. You know better. You can use me, take the upper hand."

Yes.

She opened her eyes as the machine lifted the stone from Vision completely and set it aside on the table.

"Her eyes!" Hawkeye exclaimed, but she was already moving.

She leapt forward, her long fingers curling around the stone. She felt a wave of magic surge through her. She could think clearly for the first time in a long time. Free from freedom, the stone would be her guide now.

"Mx Loren," Vision said plainly, "I'd recommend you put that down."

"You are better than them all."

"You dare tell me what to do, machine?!" She exclaimed, summoning a dagger a pointing it at all those in front of her. "Do any of you dare? You pathetic mortal worms. Once I could have come to this planet and been worshipped as a god and now you try to treat me as if we are equal. You are all of you beneath me, undeserving of my attention."

"Someone hit her on the head." Romanoff said. "That's how you break the stone's control."

Loki created an illusory double to stand in her place while she turned herself invisible. She moved aside as Okoye leapt over the table and aimed the butt of her spear at her double's head.

Her spear passed right through it, of course, and everyone looked around the room suspiciously.

"She could be long gone by now." Bruce said.

"This is bad," the Captain said, "What if the mind stone is still under Thanos' control?"

She took slow steps backwards. If she was lucky, she'd be able to get away without anyone noticing.

Peter caught her arm. "Spidey-sense."

She went to twist her arm away but found it difficult. She turned visible again. "Remove your arm, child," she said, raising her knife, "Or I will remove it for you."

"I know you, Loren." Peter smiled. "I know you would never do that."

She grinned, wide and deranged. "You know nothing about me."

She brought her knife down fast and Peter's eyes widened. A hand caught her wrist before she could do any damage and Peter let go. She was twisted around to face T’Challa, who punched her in the face. She stumbled backwards and the stone’s hold on her momentarily loosened, but she was quickly pulled back under and prepared to battle her new opponent.

Until something hit her head hard and she was sent flying to the ground.

"Think that did the trick?" Rogers said from beside her.

Loki, on her hands and knees, was released from the control of the mind stone and was close to crying.

Another thing about the stone was that it was like a parasite. Hold it for long and it would slowly drain the life out of you. She felt weak and dizzy. Her head was pounding like an anvil and she was terribly aware of the sweat trickling down from every pore in her body. Her magic was practically all gone.

She put her hand forward and dropped the stone onto the cold white floor.

With much effort, she got to her feet and let her belt take her dagger (there was no way she had enough magic to send it to her pocket dimension without fainting).

"Thanks." She mumbled to the captain before she fled the room, avoiding looking at Peter whatsoever.

She could feel vomit trying to work its way up her throat and she couldn't remember where her room was. She just kept stumbling along hallways until her legs eventually failed her and she fell to her knees.

She was too weak to stand. She couldn't do this anymore, she just wanted to be with Thor and her mother again. Her motivations - self-preservation, validation and vengeance - all seemed to crumble away. She didn't care anymore. She was done. Thanos could destroy half the universe for all she cared, her family was dead anyway.

"Hey," said a horribly familiar voice as Agent Barton knelt down beside her. "You looked a little green back there. Grabbed you this from the lab." He passed her a small trash can.

She was going to refuse and insist that she was fine when the vomit came rushing up her throat and she heaved the contents of her stomach into the bin. She looked up, more than a little embarrassed. "My apologies."

He seemed unaffected. "Please. I have three kids, I've seen worse."

"Still-" was all she got out before she vomited again. This time, Barton held back her hair until she was spitting bile.

It was all very uncomfortable.

"Why did you come after me?" She asked suspiciously, sitting back and wiping her mouth with her sleeve. "Surely you could not have known I was going to be sick just from seeing me run from the room."

He shrugged. "I mean, I have good eyes - it's in the name. But really, I kinda just knew. This is what Loki was like when he had the mind stone, and even then he never touched it directly."

She wanted to bring as little attention to the subject of herself as she could, so she focused on the gem. "The mind stone is parasitic. It draws on the energy of its users and they don't care because it promises them their hearts desires. The stone doesn't need the energy it just... finds it entertaining to take it."

Barton frowned. "You know a lot about the stone for someone who only had it for a few seconds."

"Do you think you're good at reading people, Agent Barton?"

He narrowed his eyes. "I'd like to think so."

"Well so am I. I'm also very sensitive to magical energies - that's why I study the treasures of Asgard. The energy that magical items put out is like a person's tic. Sometimes the energy can even register as a voice for those well enough versed in magic to understand it. These voices, especially from sentient items like the infinity stones, are often screaming to be heard." She managed to push herself up, even though the dizziness threatened to pull her back down again. "And I am always listening."

"What's yours?" He asked.

Loki looked down at him. "What's my what?"

"Heart's desire?"

She thought about it and about how pointless her goals had felt just mere moments ago. But when she thought about chopping off Peter’s hand, she felt uneasy. When she thought about the people she put under mind control when she knew how suffocating, she felt guilt. Hawkeye, with his three kids and his need to help a complete stranger, did not deserve to die at the hand of Thanos. Peter with his wide-eyed enthusiasm and charming naivety, did not deserve to die at the hand of Thanos. Neither did Brunnhilde or Bruce or Heimdall or any the remaining Asgardians. Neither did Thor.

As much as she hated Thor’s love of sentiment, she was the exact same. She didn’t care about saving the universe. She couldn’t care less about the other trillions of people that would die if Thanos got his way. But she wanted to save the few people she liked, and avenge the one that she couldn’t.

She grinned, wild and dangerous. "I want to see Thanos' face when he knows I have bested him, and then I wish to split him into his smallest parts - until he is nothing but unconnected atoms - and then I'll destroy those too. There will be no body - no trace of his existence left when I am done with him." She took a step forward and then looked over her shoulder. "Apologise to Peter for me. I believe he may be upset after that event."

She managed to get back to her bedroom and shut the door behind with a loaded sigh before she took a few steps forward and collapsed to the floor. She was pretty sure she passed out for a bit and didn't feel much better when she woke. He woke, actually, he became vaguely aware of.

Not having much self-control in such a weakened state, he let himself slip into his masculine form with what was left of his magic. He was really scraping the bottom of the barrel to do so, he doubted he'd even be able to change the colour of his eyes if he wanted to.

There was a knock on the door.

He reached for his magic to fall back into his feminine form but it was like trying to catch smoke. He was stuck in this form and he hadn’t even locked the door.

Chapter Text

“Loren!” Called Shuri, followed by some more knocks on the door. “Hawkdude said you were pretty bad after you left the lab. I've just come to check up on you.”

“I am fine.” Loki said, unconvincingly.

“Yeah, sure.” She replied doubtfully. “I'm coming in. Get some clothes on if you're naked, alien girl.”

Loki tried to get to his feet, but as he tried to push himself up with his hands, he fell back to the floor, the wind knocked out of him. Norns , he was a disaster.

The door opened and the princess stepped into the room. “Woah! You're a dude now! I mean, you are a dude, right? What are your pronouns right now?”

Loki wanted her to leave before the realisation came to her. Undoubtedly she had seen footage of him from the invasion before, it was only a matter of time before things clicked. “He/him.” He replied like Bruce had taught him.

“After all this Thanos stuff is over you need to explain how you can do that. Do you think humans have the potential to shapeshift with the right technology? We do have the hulk after all so it's possible to some extent and-”

“I don't wish to be rude,” Loki said, “but I want to be alone at this given moment.”

She raised an eyebrow. “You're as pale as an albino ghost and are trembling like my brother when he sees Nakia.”

“Sees who?”

“Don't change the subject.”

She was right, but that didn't mean she had to say it.

“I'm fine. Please leave.”

She shook her head and sat down next to him before she helped him to sit up against the bed. “Even if you won't let me help you, I need to make sure you don't die or anything.” She looked at him curiously. “Do you have a youtube account or something? You look familiar. Do you make vlogs in space?”

“I don't believe so. Perhaps I just have one of those faces?” The metaphorical penny was in the air, so the Midgardian saying went, and it wouldn't take long for gravity to take effect.

She hummed. “So tell me the science behind shapeshifting.”

Turns out that gravity’s name was Peter Parker.

The spider-child ran into the room. “Mr Rogers said I could check in on you. Are you dead?”

Shuri smiled reassuringly. “He's not.”

“Thank God, I-” Peter looked at Loki’s prone form an reeled backwards. “You're you?!”

“Who's you?” Shuri asked.

“Loki!” Peter exclaimed. “Thor’s brother! The guy who tried to invade Earth!”

Shuri jumped to her feet. “I knew I recognised you.” She said, voice bitter.

Loki was sure that Peter was working himself into a frenzy. “You threw Mister Stark out a window!”

Loki couldn't help rolling his eyes. “Don't tell me he's not over that? Midgardians . You could hold a grudge into the afterlife.”

“We should tell T’Challa.” Shuri said, grabbing Peter’s arm.

“Don't,” Loki said, “Please.”

It was clear that Peter was trying to look at him with disdain, but he just looked upset if anything. “Why should we listen to a word you say?”

“I'm not asking for your trust. But the Avengers still have a shaky relationship. If their new Asgardian ‘bff’ turns out to be their enemy in disguise? They will be nothing but distrustful to everyone around them, don't pretend that they won't. Tell them after we defeat Thanos if you must, but you can't shake up the foundations of this quickly formed group more than they already are.”

“How do we know you aren't working for Thanos?” Shuri asked.

“You don't.” Loki tried to shrug, but it was awkward. “I can't prove that I'm not unless one of your mental magicians can also read the intentions of the minds they read into. But Thanos killed my brother. He took Asgard, a people already hurt beyond healing, and killed a good half of them.. Because of him, I will never see Thor again. You can't distrust me all you like, but I would not work for that monster again if my life depended on it. You cannot trust me. I am not a person who can be trusted. But you can trust my rage.”

The two children were silent for a moment that seemed to stretch for an eternity.

“Does anyone else know?” Shuri asked.

“All the Asgardians and Bruce.” Loki replied. “Strange too, if he’s still alive.”

Peter winced at that last part.

“We’ll talk to Doctor Banner.” Shuri said to Peter. “The other Asgardians could be doing what he says because he’s their king-”

“I’m not their king.” Loki corrected.

Shuri shrugged. “You said Thor was dead, right? That would make you king.”

“I’m just- I’m not their king.” Loki repeated. The title just didn’t seem to fit.

“Banner’s still our best bet, he was one of the original avengers.” Shuri continued.

“Yeah. Let’s go talk to him.” Peter agreed, before he turned to Loki. “Look. Loren seemed… nice. And I don’t think you could fake that niceness so well. I think you’ve got to have some good in you, even if it’s deep down.”

“Really deep down.” Shuri added.

“All I'm saying is that if Doctor Banner says he believes you're not going to betray us, I'll trust you.” Peter finished.

“Let me lay my intentions out on the table.” Loki said. “If there was a point where I’d have to choose to save either my life or the lives of you two, I'd choose myself easily. Even if Thor was still alive, I'd choose my own life over his. I'm selfish and I'm going to continue making selfish choices. I'm only on your side to avenge my brother and to protect myself. I want to kill Thanos, and I think the Avengers can help me with that.”

“Fine.” Peter said, surprisingly revealing very little clues about what he was feeling. “Let's go, Shuri.”

After they left, Loki's focus slipped and they drifted in a strange state of consciousness where they felt near nothing and couldn't form his thoughts into actual words. He didn't know how long he was like that exactly, but it was eventually broken when Bruce entered the room and shut the door behind him.

Loki kept his eyes on Bruce’s shoes until the man said his name and he lazily looked upwards.

“You look… terrible.”

Loki smiled half-heartedly. “Such kind words.”

“I just had an interesting conversation with Peter and Shuri.”

“I thought you might have.”

Bruce gingerly sat down in front of Loki. “I told them I trusted that you wanted to kill Thanos.”

“I assumed as much from the lack of hostile Avengers.” Loki said and paused. “Thank you.”

“You know, I think you care about Peter. I don't know if that even matters, but I do think you care.”

He scoffed. “I'm not Thor. I don't fall in love with every human that shows the slightest bit of decency to me.”

“You're worse.”

Loki narrowed his eyes. “Excuse me?”

“Thor took a while to warm up to us. When we were battling you, he was all business.” Bruce said. “But you? You seemed to become best friends with Peter instantly, you're trusting that I'll tell people that you're trustworthy… you even let yourself have a breakdown in front of Brunnhilde.”

“She told you?” Loki asked through gritted teeth.

“She asked if any of my PHDs could help you… She told me you weren't… in a good mental state-”

“And I suppose she used those exact words?”

The corner of Bruce’s lips tugged upwards. “It was a little less considerate maybe. But I agree with her.”

“That I'm not in a good mental state?”

“Yes.” He confirmed. “She's already told me about the sort-of internal racism you suffer from. I'm guessing your time with Thanos wasn't pleasant, and even if it was, that mind stone obviously isn't the best for a person’s health - physically or mentally… and Thor told us about the time on the bi-frost.”

Loki laughed. “The time they let me fall into the deep abyss of space. Forever falling into nothingness? An eternity of darkness? Yes, that certainly leaves some marks on the mind, doctor.”

“Loki… Thor said you let go.”

“I didn't-” Loki stopped. His memory was fuzzy. When he looked to his fall from the rainbow bridge it was impossible to focus on the details. He and Thor fought and then he fell. It made sense that Thor threw him off. That's what the mind stone had concluded, and Loki had to agree. But he couldn't remember. By the Norns, how much of his memory had holes?

“I don't- I don’t remember.” Loki said. “I thought… I let go?”

“Thor said he was trying to help you back onto the bridge but you wouldn't take his hand.”

“No, Loki.”

“I wouldn't have.” Loki shook his head. “I'm a survivor. That's what I strive for - survival.”

“Peter told me you’d always choose your life over his or Thor’s.” Bruce said.

Loki nodded. “I would! That's what I want. I always survive. That's how it works.”

“But sometimes you don't want to.” Bruce concluded.

“No.” Loki said quickly. “I- it's none of your business.”

“Maybe not.” Bruce shrugged. “But I was there once. I put a gun to my head and pulled the trigger. The Hulk spit the bullet out.”

Loki looked down and realised his hands were trembling.

“It's okay if you feel like that sometimes.” Bruce said.

“I’d kill people to survive.” Loki replied, but reluctantly admitted the truth. “But sometimes… I'm tired of it. It's contradictory…”

“Emotions don't always make sense.”

“I want to kill, Thanos, I do. But I also want to see my mother again. I want to see Thor again…” He looked away from Bruce, away from accepting that he was sharing his emotions. “I had this friend when I was younger, Lorelei. She managed to get herself thrown in jail, but she escaped during the convergence. I sent Sif after her to keep her distracted. After I destroyed Asgard, I realised that Lorelei was still in its prison. I had put her there. I killed her. I didn't even think about her.”

“It's normal to feel weighed down by guilt. Harlem, Johannesburg… the Hulk has killed a lot of people. Innocent people. All the Avengers have body counts we're not proud of.” Bruce said.

“I can't believe I'm talking about this with you,” Loki said, “I tried to take over the world and you're being… sympathetic.”

“I smashed you into the ground.” Bruce replied nonchalantly. “Besides, I'm not forgiving you or anything. I'm just trying to tell you that you're not alone. A lot of us have issues, and you can probably talk through things with any of us. Especially Peter. You really need to talk to that kid about a lot of stuff.”

Loki curled up a little tighter. “What was he like when he was talking to you?”

“He seemed upset. Panicked? He wants to trust you.”

“He's too quick to trust,” Loki said, “He's like a young Thor.”

“Hm,” Bruce said like he’d just figured something out, “I guess he is.”

Chapter Text

Loki studied themselves in the mirror and finally understood what Bruce meant when he said she 'looked terrible'. She was like a corpse, white as arsenic with hollow cheekbones and sunken eyes. Her hair hung lank and greasy behind her and she trembled like a leaf caught in a storm.

She turner away, disgusted with how she had let herself look so weak in front of others. She went to the window, where she could see the sun setting on the horizon. She tried to remember what time of day it had been when they were removing the mind stone, but that detail in her memory wasn't there.

She was reminded of her previous memory loss, how she'd forgotten that she had willingly fallen from the bridge. Perhaps the mind stone was the cause. It had damaged her physically, it wouldn't be a stretch to say it could do the same to a person's mind. How much was she missing?

She suddenly felt the need to get some fresh air and decided she'd take a walk. No. Not a walk, she didn't want to be roped into any conversations. She opened the window outwards and called upon the universe to change her form. For a moment, all she could see was green light and could only feel a tingling sensation all over her body until they both stopped rather quickly.

She outstretched her wings and pushed herself upwards into the air. She had always enjoyed being a bird. There was something freeing about being able to fly.

For a while, she simply glided along the skies of Wakanda, letting herself calm down somewhat until she spotted two figures fighting on the ground below. She swooped down and perched on a tree close by.

The two figures were that of the Black Widow and General Okoye.

Romanoff had managed to get the general to the ground and had one knee on her chest. "You know, I could get used to having a beautiful woman underneath me." She said with a grin.

Okoye looked up at her with an easy smile that Loki had never seen on the woman in the short time she had known her. "Is that so?" It sounded like a challenge of sorts. Though Loki could not decipher what kind of challenge she was implying.

Romanoff leaned down, clearly intending to kiss the woman - and Loki was preparing to fly the hel away from there - but Okoye grabbed her shoulders and twisted sideways. Quicker than lightning, the general had her foot planted firmly on Romanoff's abdomen.

"You're a good fighter, Natasha." She said. "But I think, easily distracted."

Romanoff laughed and hit Okoye's leg gently twice. It seemed to be a sort of symbol for the two, as Okoye removed her foot and sat beside the Widow. "Can you blame me?"

"My face isn't the only thing distracting you though." Okoye said. "There's something on your mind."

Romanoff shrugged. "It's all this Thanos stuff. I mean, how are we going to defeat him? This is bigger than anything we've ever faced before. We barely defeated Loki, how are we going to stop an unstoppable space genocidist? And even if we do, how many people have to die to get that done?"

Okoye nodded. "Those are valid concerns. I myself am worried for Wakanda. Despite knowing that it's strategic advantage in this fight, I am still angry at T'Challa for choosing to bring the fight here. We may save the planet, but how many Wakandans are going to die? But if not here, where else? Do we choose another set of people to sacrifice?"

"This might be our last fight." Romanoff said. "In a week, we might all be dead."

"Even if we die, the mind stone is destroyed now. We can die knowing that Thanos can never get his hands on it."

"Thank god. That stone is an evil piece of shit." Romanoff said. "It made that Loren chick turn into another Loki in seconds. You don't think..?"

Loki felt her heart skip a beat.

"That Loki was under the stone's control?" Okoye finished. "I don't know. Barton would be the best one to make a guess. He’s dead anyway, we don't need to worry about it."

"Could be alive." Romanoff shrugged. "He's already 'died' twice now."

"Let's hope not. We have enough on our plate."

"You should've heard the way Thor used to talk about him. Especially after he died saving his life. He treated the invasion Loki and his brother Loki like they were two different people."

"Maybe they were." Okoye suggested, though she sounded doubtful.

"Maybe." Romanoff said, sounding equally doubtful. She huffed and went back to lying on the ground. "God, I miss Thor. He was like a giant puppy. I could really use some of that optimism."

"And his lightning."

"That too."

"You still seem on edge." Okoye said.

"It's nothing."

The general frowned. "I'm sure it's more than that."

"I just... I feel like someone's watching us." Romanoff said. "It's silly."

"No, you're a spy. I trust your instinct over my own eyes and ears." Okoye said. "Do you really think someone is spying on us?"

The Widow lay stock still for a moment before she shook her head. "I don't know. I think I'm just paranoid."

"Paranoia is fairly justified right now."

Loki decided not to push her luck and flew off. She almost flew past an open window when she heard Peter's voice drifting through. She landed on the window frame in question and somehow went unnoticed by the two people in the room.

Shuri flicked through some holographic files until she found one that she wanted and ushered Peter towards her. "Look this one is a report from Thor. He said that Loki's idea of stopping a war was genocide. They tried to destroy an entire planet, Peter!"

"But Bruce said they came to save Asgard when they didn't need to." Peter interjected. It didn't sound like an argument, moreso like the two were trying to put together a puzzle.

"So they care about Asgard but will go take a huge leap off their moral compass to do so..." Shuri determined.

"Do you think they wanted to take over Earth?" Peter asked.

"I don't know..." Shuri said. "We know that they were affected by the mind stone from Hawkeye's reports and the footage from Loki's arrival matching the physical effects we saw on Loren after they grabbed the mind stone, but they have a history of genocidal tendencies and could have been willingly working with Thanos to survive."

"Is working with someone to save your own life willingly working with someone?"

Shuri shrugged. "Well let's not judge the morality of that one just yet. We'll just leave it as a possibility. Loki did say they valued their life above everyone else's after all."

Loki quickly shifted back into their aesir form, crossing one leg over the other. "That was a partial lie."

Shuri jumped at the noise, shutting off her holographic display on instinct. Peter let out a yelp, jumped, and ended up hanging from the ceiling.

"Ai, you scared me, Hitler!" Shuri exclaimed. "How did you get in here?"

"I was a bird." Loki shrugged.

Peter finally dropped from the ceiling. "What do you mean 'partial lie'."

Loki tried to keep her voice even. "I mean, Bruce has made me aware that I do not always put value on my life and that my fall from the bi-frost was not Thor's fault like I had suspected."

"You're telling us that you're... suicidal?" Shuri asked.

"It varies." Loki replied quickly. "Although that matters very little in the grand scheme of things. If you have any questions about my past, I'll try my best to answer them. It's only right when I'm asking you to trust I'll do the right thing."

Peter still looked concerned about the suicidal thoughts, but Shuri spoke first. "Why did you try to destroy Jotunheim?"

Loki looked for a place to start. "Thor had started a war between Jotunheim and Asgard right when Odin fell into the Odinsleep. I thought it was the most logical way of preventing war and thought that by doing so, I'd make my father proud after so long living in my brother's shadow.”

"So: daddy issues? That's your excuse? You didn't try to form a peace treaty?" Shuri pressed.

"I'm not trying to excuse anything. Besides, the frost giants were willing to break the peace treaty to get the casket of ancient winters back, who was to say they wouldn't do it again? They cannot be reasoned with."

"Cannot be reasoned with? Those are people you're talking about." Shuri said.

"They're not people, not really. They tried to invade your precious Midgard just like I did and killed millions. Asgardian children are raised terrified with the stories of their brutality, their lack of empathy, their frozen hearts..."

Shuri looked like she was about to explode. "So you're just racist then? Glad to see that white people in space are still just white people. These propaganda lies are true because your dad told you so? Have you ever had a casual conversation with a frost giant?"

"No." Loki said. "But I am one."

"Oh shit." Shuri said.

Peter looked just as surprised. "But you look just like Thor."

“So do you, and you're not Asgardian.” Loki pointed out.

“Thor’s described frost giants in the files we found though.” Shuri added. “They're blue and have red eyes.”

“And you're pretty small for a giant…” Peter said.

“Why would I lie?” Loki asked and the two shrugged in response. With a sigh, she let herself shift into her jotun form. It was a little freeing, being in her natural form, but she still found herself disgusted when she looked at her blue hands.

“Woah.” Peter and Shuri said in unison.

“It's freezing,” Shuri said, coming closer, “Is that you?”

“Yes.” Loke nodded. “Don't come too close unless you want to catch some frostbite.”

“That's so cool!” Peter exclaimed. “The other Asgardians are like, aliens. But you're an actual alien alien. You're blue! That's awesome.”

“It's horrific.” Loki countered.

“Damn,” Shuri said, “Asgard really fucked you up, huh? You don't look horrific, you look super cool.”

“You could stay like this, you know.” Peter said. “No one on Earth even knows about frost giants and if any of the Asgardians called you a monster, I'd punch them in the face.”

“Peter,” Shuri said, “We're still angry.”

“Oh yeah,” Peter replied, trying his best to put on a serious face, “We're still working out whether we can trust you or not.”

“That's fair.” Loki shrugged.

“Okay so you tried to kill a planet because of internal racism and daddy issues and then threw yourself off a bridge because you're suicidal.” Shuri said. “Do I have that right?”

“Shuri.” Peter scolded her harshness.

“Yes, sounds accurate. I also tried to murder Sif and the Warriors Three for committing treason, and killed my father Laufey."

“Bast…” Shuri muttered. “Why did you try to take over the Earth?”

“When I landed on the desolate moon Thanos claims to be his home, I was near death. I had fallen through the void for an eternity, which is neither good for a person’s body nor mind. Thanos’ people nursed me back to health. Thanos had an interest in me, I think. He thought I had the potential to be one of his ‘children’, he might well have considered me one, I can't remember too well. I was pitted against his other children, the Black Order. I was told that if I lost, I would be torn apart and have piece of me replaced-”

“Did you?” Shuri asked, before clarifying. “Have any piece of you replaced?”

Loki thought back. “I… don't know.” She shook her head. That was not a possibility she wanted to think about. “Anyway. I didn't want to become a robot like Nebula, so I cheated. Thanos was impressed with my scheming and magic and fighting skills apparently, because he gave me an offer. If I got him the space stone, he would give me Earth.”

“I wasn't really interested at first. But I remember being left alone in a room with the mind stone every night. It obviously had some effects on my head, I can't even remember my own suicide attempt. Eventually, I decided that allying myself with Thanos would work best for me. When I accepted the mind stone, everything that wasn't hatred for my family seemed to go fuzzy. All I wanted was to humiliate Thor and prove I was worthy enough to rule an entire realm. I was going to take over Midgard and then close down the portal to Thanos’ realm. That way I'd be the ruler of a realm, I wouldn't have to worry about Thanos stabbing me in the back once he got his infinity stones back, and I'd have two stones to myself. Not to mention I could sense the time stone being somewhere on Midgard, so I assumed it would only be a matter of time before I got that too.”

“But the mind stone had me so focused on revenge and winning. I wasn't planning ahead, and rarely used any magic or common sense. I was captured, the end.”

“What about the convergence?” Peter asked. “Dr Jane Foster and Mr Thor both reported that you helped save them and sacrificed your life for Thor.”

“The dark elves were going to change the fabric of the entire universe to make it uninhabitable for anyone except them. Which is fair enough, since that's what Odin did to them, but I didn't want to die. Plus, they killed my mother. I couldn't just let that slide.”

“I didn't even sacrifice myself on purpose. I didn't expect the monster to do what he did… I was sure I was going to die and I think I might've for a bit, but then I was suddenly fine again. There was still a hole in my stomach and it definitely hurt, but I was alive. I assumed Thor could handle the dark elves on his own, so I decided to use my death to my advantage. I disguised myself as a soldier and caught Odin off-guard. I stripped him of his memories and sent him to Midgard, and then took the throne for myself.”

“Alright. I'm going to simplify everything here and you correct me if I'm wrong.” Shuri said and Loki nodded. “You tried to destroy a planet because of your daddy/identity issues and then tried to kill yourself. Then you teamed up with Thanos, killer of trillions because the mind stone made you focus on your hatred for your family, so you took it out on Earth. You saved the universe because you didn't want to die and you wanted to avenge your brother and then you legitimately sacrificed yourself, not knowing that you would survive. When you did survive, you decided to take the throne for yourself and booted Odin to Earth?”

“Yes,” Loki shrugged, “That's about it.”

Peter spoke. “So Thanos made you fight against other people and if you lost you'd slowly become a cyborg, and he made you lose some of your memories and got you to focus on the bad parts of your family and you thought he was probably going to backstab you and later he killed the brother that you sacrificed yourself for?”

“That's right.” Loki confirmed.

“Shuri,” Peter said, “I think they wants to kill Thanos, Bruce said the same.”

“Yeah,” Shuri agreed, “they want to survive and they also want to protect what's left of Asgard. If Thanos gets all the stones, Loki and the other Asgardians could die because of it.”

Peter nodded and Shuri looked Loki dead in the eyes. “Listen, Loren. I think you're a pretty terrible person, but I also think that you're pretty messed up and maybe you need help more than you need punishment. I don't trust you, at all. But I think you do want to kill Thanos, so I won't tell anyone who you are until after we defeat him.”

Loki nodded. “That's all I ask.”
Then she looked to Peter.

“You've done some pretty terrible things, Loki.” Peter said quietly. “But I think you're becoming a better person. I think you want to kill Thanos.”

Peter continued. “I trust you.”

Chapter Text

“Here he is.” Shuri said. Loki looked up from their notes to see the princess walk into the room with the metal armed friend of Captain America. “Bucky, Loren. Loren, Bucky Barnes.”

Barnes stepped forward and held out his non-metallic hand. “Hey.”

“Well met.” Loki said evenly, suspecting where this was heading.

“So Banner and that Valkyrie chick said you wanted to talk to me?”

“Did they now?” Loki replied, tone cool. “I did not ask them to do that.”

“I think you should,” Shuri said, “I was talking to Sam, and he thinks it would be good for you two to talk because you both went through some form of brainwashing in the past.”

“Is it a new trend to discuss my mental well-being behind my back?” They gestured to their notes. “I'm busy.”

“We wouldn't have to talk behind your back if you talked to people like Bucky who you could relate to.”

Loki sneered. “I can't relate to anybody.”

“That's so sad,” Shuri said, “Alexa, play despacito.”

“Look, pal, I'm not going to force you to talk if that makes you uncomfortable. But Valkyrie was telling me about your whole story and I think you're focussing on the wrong things.”

Loki narrowed their eyes. “What do you mean?”

“You apparently keep talking about being a frost giant like it means you're not Asgardian.”

“That's exactly what it means.” Loki replied.

“No, but I asked her some questions. Being Asgardian is like being from Earth, or like how I'm American, right?. But being a frost giant is like being human. You keep saying you're not Asgardian because you're a frost giant, but I'm pretty sure that isn't how citizenship works.”

“But I'm from Jotunheim. I'm jotun, not Asgardian.”

“You're pretty dense.” Shuri said.

“Uh, listen,” Barnes said, “you know Steve? He's Captain America, right? Punk’s american to a tea. But his parents aren't. They were both Irish immigrants. He even speaks fluent Irish. So yeah, he has Irish heritage and that's a big part of him, but he was raised in American. He's an American citizen and is just as American as the people with parents that had lived there longer. You were raised in Asgard, you're an Asgardian citizen, so you're Asgardian. It's pretty simple, pal.”

Barnes was… right. He'd been looking at the words aesir and asgardian like they meant the same thing. Maybe he was just as Asgardian as he was jotun. Perhaps the two things weren't mutually exclusive.

“Yeah, dual-citizen is a thing.” Shuri said. “Don't listen to anyone who tells you that you can't be Asgardian.”

“Plus, Valkyrie was saying most of what you think about frost giants is propaganda invented after some war you had.” Barnes said. “You could talk to her when you have some free time, figure out the truth about your heritage. You might embrace it.”

Loki didn't think they'd ever embrace their frost giant heritage but Barne’s intentions were noble.

“Thank you for this conversation.” Loki said, grabbing his notebook and slamming it shut. “But I think I need to stretch my legs.”

Shuri frowned but nodded. “Yeah okay, see you later.”

“Take care of yourself, pal.” Bucky said as Loki left the room.

Loki walked at a quick pace down hallways, not-quite-thoughts rushing about in their head. They finally made it outside and inhaled the fresh air. It felt like a lie that they felt nice under the heat of the sun.

They did a few controlled breaths until their thoughts slowed to a calm stream and they could think clearly. Right when they were settled enough to start thinking over Barnes’ words, they saw a fiery circle appear in the air and grow until it was big enough for Stark and Strange to step through.

Or rather, Strange stepped through, dragging Stark with him.

The portal snapped shut.

“He needs medical assistance.” Strange said, Loki nodded and ran inside. He found one of Shuri's lab assistants and asked them to call for the princess. They relayed the message over something electronic and Loki went back out to see how Stark was faring.

Strange’s cloak had removed itself from his shoulders and was wrapped around Stark, holding him horizontally in the air.

“Shuri’ll meet us in her lab, I'll show you where it is.”

As Loki went back inside, Strange and his cloak were right at their heels. “What happened?”

“Stark wanted to find out where Ebony Maw’s ship was programmed to go, I did too.”

“I'm pretty sure I told you to not do that.” Loki said.

“We thought we could get the location of Thanos’ base or something along those lines. We ended up on his dead home planet. Thanos had expected Maw to get the time stone and meet him there.”

“Maw is dead?” Loki asked.

“He is,” Strange replied, “But that meant we met a Thanos angry that he didn't have the time stone or even Maw. We planned to retreat, but he used the space stone to close almost every portal I tried to open. We only just got out when Stark distracted him long enough for me to get one open.”

“Hence the stabbing?”

Strange nodded. “Hence the stabbing. He turned the metal from Tony’s suit against him.”

They got to the lab where Shuri got them to put Stark on a medical table so she could work. The cloak returned to Strange’s shoulders before Shuri pushed them back a bit.

“I was worried you would lose the time stone.” Loki said.

“So little faith.” Strange quipped.

“We destroyed the mind stone, we can do the same to the time stone.”

“Absolutely not.” Strange said. “I swore an oath to protect this stone.”

“Fuck your oath.”

Strange glared. “We need this to win the fight.”

Loki quickly analysed that statement. “What do you mean by that? Do you have a plan?”

“Of sorts.”

“Have you looked into the future, Strange?”

Strange remained silent which Loki took as a yes. “If you've seen the future, you should tell us what you saw. Do we win? Is there a best option for us to take?”

“I think the best scenario will occur if I say nothing. I might manipulate situations to get people on the right path, but telling people the future directly never ends well.”

“You're a fool.” Loki said.

“How so?”

“You really think you can keep the stone out of Thanos’ hands without destroying it?”

Strange nodded. “I know I can. It's warded. Only I can take the mind stone from the eye.”

“Thanos probably has the reality stone by now. Your magic is nothing compared to its power.”

“I'm not destroying the time stone.” Strange said with finality.

“Will you actually use it in the battle?”

“That's far too risky.”

“So it'll sit as a useless rock around your neck for the entire battle? You wouldn't use it's power?” Loki asked.

“Like I said: too risky. I could get everyone caught in a time loop or splinter reality itself. Besides, I have a plan for the stone.”

“And that plan is?”

“It's better that I don't tell you.” Strange said. “The future where I see is succeeding happens when the stone is used at the right moment and that you don't know about my plan for the stone until it's time to use it.”

Loki let out a frustrated groan and marched away. They ended up by Shuri’s side.

“Can you believe him?” They muttered.

“I wasn't listening.” Shuri replied, continuing her work on Stark.

“He's seen the future and won't tell me what we have to do to win!”

“If he's seen the future, he must have a plan.” Shuri said.

“Yes,” Loki said, side eyeing the wizard, “I just wish I knew what that plan was.”

Chapter Text

Her gentle knock on Maximoff’s door was followed by a slightly accented “Come in.”

Loki opened the door and smiled at the girl. “Ms Maximoff.” She greeted.

“Loren.” She returned, putting a few wooden blocks she previously had in front of her aside. She gestured to the space beside her on the bed which Loki took as an invitation and sat down, putting her notebook beside her.

“I wanted to know how prepared you are for the battle.” Loki began.

“I read the book you lent me,” Maximoff said, “and I've been trying to reframe how I think about my magic like it suggests. Is it really alive?”

“In a way. It's just like another one of your body parts, but you have to treat it like it's another person.”

“How do I do that?”

Loki hummed as she tried to think of an explanation. “You can move your arm with barely a thought, and I'm guessing that's how you've been treating your magic so far? You just react and let it do what it wants?”

Wanda nodded. “I can just point and the magic does the rest.”

“You need to give it direction. Even something simple, like ‘destroy’ or ‘levitate’. Pretend you're having a mental conversation with your magic, like it's a different person entirely. Otherwise, the magic has to guess what to do and will ultimately be less effective.” Loki said. “Strange uses incantations and precise hand gestures to communicate with his magic, which is fine. But if you want to study that area of magic, you'll have to do it at a later date. Right now you should be focusing on establishing a mental link between you and your magic.”

“Will it respond?” Wanda asked.

“No. Like I said, it's just another body part.” Loki was suddenly struck with a thought. “Although…”

“What?”

“Your magic was given to you by the mind stone, correct? It was artificially given?” Wanda nodded, so she continued. “Your magic, its aura feels similar to the reality gem. The infinity stones have their own sentience. It might be possible that your magic retains some of that.”

“Is that… a bad thing?”

Loki puzzled over it. “I don't know… It could mean your magic is smarter, but it could also mean it's stubborn and might limit you.” She paused. “Can I look at your magic?”

“... look at it? How?”

“Well, not ‘look’ as much ‘sense’. I'll form a sort of connection between the two of us so I can observe your magic far more easily than I can now. It'll be like obtaining a microscope.”

Maximoff thought it over. “Alright.” She nodded. “Do we need to do anything?”

Loki brought her feet up onto the bed so she could face Maximoff, and the girl mirrored her movement. Loki offered her hands, which she accepted. “This won't take but a moment. It won't hurt, but you'll be able to feel my magic, as I'll have to focus all of it on you. It might tingle.”

She closed her eyes and instructed her magic to reach out to Maximoff’s. She could already feel it, prickling at her skin and making her head swirl.

The girl’s magic was reacting Loki’s on its own accord. It was cautious, and had built barriers around Maximoff and her mind with her asking it to. Protective, like the aether was to Jane.

Loki tried to push out an aura of friendliness. She reached out her magic like a olive branch.

Maximoff’s magic seemed to study her until it realised she meant no harm to its owner and almost instantly Loki was filled with feelings of comfort and warmth.

It obviously held some of its own sentience, but seemed eager to protect Maximoff.

Loki asked it to show her what it could do and it responded by filling Loki’s head with visions.

Terrible, terrible visions.

A planet destroyed, a reality changed completely, minds manipulated with utter ease.

If Maximoff ever learned how to control her powers, she could be as powerful as the infinity gauntlet itself. The thought of that was horrifying, and Loki recoiled.

“I don't think you'll have time to learn before the battle, but if you unlock your full potential… you'll be unstoppable. You could do anything.” Loki said, looking up at Maximoff.

Maximoff didn't seem to be listened, and that's when Loki realised her magic was still in her head. She quickly rebuilt her mental walls and pushed the foreign magic out.

“What did you see?” She snapped.

“A conversation.” Maximoff said carefully.

“What did you see?” Loki repeated.

“You're… you're Loki.”

“Yes,” she admitted, “don't panic.”

“I'm not panicking.”

“No,” Loki realised, “you're not. Why?”

Maximoff looking as if she was trying to study Loki with the way she was staring at her. “The memory I saw was your conversation with Shuri and Peter. Seconds have passed here, but I've been able to process this for the length of the conversation.”

“You're not going to tell anyone, are you?” Loki asked, ice edging into her words.

“As much as I'm sure most of the Avengers can understand second chances, I think they're more likely to act before thinking.”

“But not you?”

Wanda smiled. “Like I said, I was forced to process this for a while. Besides, I can understand second chances just as well as the rest as them. Do you know about Ultron?” Loki shook her head. “He was this robot that wanted to destroy the human race. Me and my brother were blinded by our anger for Stark and we joined him. When we realised what he was doing, it was almost too late. But Clint gave us a chance. He didn't treat me like an enemy. He told me I could escape or I could fight.”

“And you chose to fight?”

Wanda smiled. “Of course.”

“It seems like the Avengers understand a common enemy rather than second chances.” Loki said.

“Maybe,” Maximoff shrugged. “Does it make a difference?”

“I guess not.”

“Good. Let's talk about what you learned about my magic.”

“You young people are all so impatient.” Loki chastised mockingly.

“I'm not that young.”

“You're all children compared to me.”

“Point.” Wanda said. “So, magic?”

“Right,” Loki nodded. “Like I was saying, your magic isn't ordinary. Normally, magic interacts with the universe, gives it suggestions. But your’s? Your’s breaks reality and bends it to its will. You could do anything you can imagine. Perhaps you won't learn before the battle, but with practise you could become just as powerful as the reality stone, perhaps moreso.”

Wanda looked dazzled, so Loki continued. “What you should focus on for now is control. Your magic has to guess what you want based on your emotions and instinct, it needs commands. Don't think anger, don't think ‘that's the target’; be specific. You want to be communicating with your magic to reach your true potential.”

He reached over to the wooden blocks Wanda had been messing with earlier and changed half of them to be coloured green, and coloured the rest red.

“Close your eyes and when I say so, tell your magic to only attack the green blocks. You should be able to command it and get it to give you information. Remember, think of a specific attack.” Loki said.

Wanda nodded and closed her eyes before Loki scattered the blocks around the room.

“Alright, launch your attack.” She instructed.

Wanda’s fingers were surrounded with the red glow of her magic. It drifted around the room and now that it was used to Loki, it's aura was comforting. It circled her playfully as it searched for blocks. It managed to find every single one of the blocks without a problem. It circled each of them, and after a moment, her magic enveloped the green blocks.

When the red glow retreated from the blocks, the green blocks had – anticlimactically – turned red.

“Impressive.” Loki said genuinely. “It would've taken me at least a couple of tries to figure that out.”

“The magic did all the work.” Wanda said, but her cheeks a little red. “Looking good, by the way.”

Loki was momentarily confused before she looked down and found that she was wearing the other girl’s clothes. She glanced at the mirror in her room and saw Wanda staring back at her.

“Funny,” Loki said with her own voice, pretending not to be amused, “which one of us is the trickster god again?”

“I thought you could use an updated look.” Wanda said innocently.

Loki tried to shift back and found that she couldn't. It didn't bother her much, she'd get Wanda to fix it when the novelty wore off. “Joke’s on you, this is a great new look.”

“Have fun at your meeting, Wanda.” She quipped.

“Oh shit, that's now.” Loki realised. “You don't think you could turn me back?”

“Not really.” Wanda smirked.

“Typical.” Loki said. “I'll come back later then. Keep working on communicating with your magic.”

She picked up her notebook and made her way to the meeting room where Rogers, T’Challa, Strange and Okoye were waiting.

“Wanda?” Rogers asked in confusion. “Did you need something?”

“I'm quite alright, Captain Rogers.” Loki replied. “Perhaps the infinity gauntlet and Thanos’ severed head if you're feeling generous.”

“Loren,” T’Challa addressed with a nod of his head as he recognised the voice. “... why do you look like that?”

“Wanda’s idea of a prank.” Loki shrugged. “Unfortunately for her, taking other people’s shape doesn't bother me and her appearance suits me spectacularly.”

The others all seemed a little weirded out - apart from Okoye - but quickly brushed it off.

“Is Wanda ready for the battle ahead?” Strange asked.

“She'll make quick progress now that she has direction.” Loki replied. “Already, her magic could be a match for Karnilla herself.”

It was clear none except Strange had ever heard of Karnilla, but they continued. “You had some strategies?” Rogers asked.

“Yes,” Loki replied, placing her notebook on the table, “but I had a request first.”

“Go ahead.” T’Challa prompted.

“I want Shuri and Peter to join the battle.”

They all spoke at the same time.

“No way.” Rogers said.

“Not a chance.” Said T’Challa.

“They're too young for battle.” Okoye said.

“I agree.” Strange replied.

Rogers turned to Strange. “You agree?”

“Of course.” Strange said. “The bigger our numbers, the better our chances.”

“I will not allow Shuri to take part in this battle.” T’Challa said.

“Peter could barely handle a fight against the Avengers. Not to mention Tony would kill me if I agreed to this. He's just a kid!” Rogers added.

“I know for a fact that Peter handled himself perfectly well in that fight, Tony is not Peter’s guardian, and he's mere months aways from adulthood.” Loki countered. “This is not a matter of me asking you, this is me telling you what will happen. No matter what you say, Shuri and Peter will fight for the survival of their world, so you might as well give them some strategy to help them better their chances of survival.”

Rogers looked like he wanted to argue again, but T’Challa spook first. “She's right. It would be an impossible task keeping Shuri away from the fight. I'd rather give her a plan of action than let her sneak into the fight unprepared.”

“Good, I've already told her that she should ask Stark for advice when he awakens. The weapons she showed me are rather similar to his repulsor technology.” Loki said. “Peter, I think should work with me. He's both agile and stronger than an average Midgardian – both of which are qualities I too possess.”

“That sounds reasonable.” Okoye said. “Can we talk strengths now?”

Loki grinned and opened her notebook. “I thought you'd never ask.”

Chapter Text

“How’s Shuri’s training going?” Loki asked as they jumped back to avoid a kick from Peter.

“Pretty good I think. But she and Mr. Stark are doing lab stuff right now.” Peter replied, a little out of breath. He moved forward as Loki moved back, aiming two quick jabs at their head.

Loki blocked both easily, catching the second and twisting Peter's arm. With a push to the shoulders, Peter was on his knees. “What kind of lab stuff?”

Peter struggled against Loki’s strength. “She's teaching him about vibranium and he's showing her his arc reactors. They're both really excited.” He threw himself to the ground and rolled onto his back. He quickly grabbed Loki’s ankle and put one foot on their thigh before bringing around the other foot to hit Loki’s jaw with a drop kick.

Loki stumbled back a bit, allowing Peter to get to his feet. “Brunnhilde was planning to go to Shuri when I spoke to her earlier. Wanted to see what vibranium was like as armour.”

“They're already working on equipping everyone with vibranium armour anyway. Pretty much all the Wakandans have it and I'm pretty sure half the Avengers are done.” Peter moved forward and aimed a sidekick at Loki's abdomen.

Loki caught his foot. “Am I to get the upgrade?” They twisted sideways and Peter was once again sent to the floor. Loki didn't hesitate this time to pin him there.

“Pretty sure, yeah!” Peter replied, struggling against Loki’s hold.

Loki smiled. “I should see if they can recreate my helmet. The look on Stark’s face would be hilarious.”

“The one with the horns?” Came a voice from the doorway. Loki turned to see Wanda, only for Peter to use their distraction to roll sideways and get on top of Loki.

“Cheap shot,” Loki said, “I like it.”

The two of them got to their feet and walked to Wanda. “Yes, the one with the horns.” Loki confirmed. “Do you like it?”

“Seems like you're trying to overcompensate for something.” Wanda smiled.

Loki laughed. “I feel like you're better suited to the Enchantress’ headpiece.” He summoned a image of his old friend’s headgear to the best of his ability. The green five pointed flat accessory was pretty, but pretty much useless as a helmet seeing it didn't cover any part of the actual head. “Much more fitting for a powerful witch.”

“Seems pretty impractical.” Wanda said.

Loki shrugged. “Amora was like that.”

“Was she on Asgard when it - uh-?”

Loki shook their head. “No, she was put in a timeless prison long ago.”

Peter looked intrigued. “Timeless prison?”

Loki sighed realising that they had just cornered themselves into a storytime session with their two students. There was no way they'd get away without recalling the tale now.

They sighed and sat down on the training room floor, Wanda and Peter sat down across from them.

“Amora and her sister Lorelei were my dearest friends in my younger years, which should've been an omen to everyone else as to what paths I would choose later.” Loki began.

“When we were on the cusp of adulthood – about the Asgardian equivalent of your age,” Loki gestured to Peter, “– Amora became obsessed with youth, moreso than she was with Thor — which is saying something. When Asgardians are what you would call teenagers, we age quite rapidly. As we age quite slowly as children, this sudden change scared her immensely, despite my insistence that ageing in adulthood would be like a snail’s crawl. But she didn't care, she was determined to stay young forever.”

They summoned an image of a golden apple and showed it to the two in front of them. “Idunn’s apples can slow a person aging, but they're only given to people that Idunn favours and in small amounts. Never enough to make someone practically immortal, but that's exactly what Amora wanted.”

His image changed to that of a freeze frame of a young Amora and Loki sneaking into the forbidden orchid of Idunn. Loki looked up at the life sized image of their old friend and smiled sadly. “She convinced me to help her in her ridiculous quest, and we attempted to steal from Idunn. Despite us both being rather powerful sorcerers, Idunn’s orchid dampened our powers, and she caught us and reported us immediately.”

The image changed again to Amora in chains and on her knees in front of Wanda and Peter. Lorelei and past Loki were somewhat farther away, being held back by guards so they didn't intervene. “The All-Father was furious.” Loki said, pointing behind Wanda and Peter, who looked back to see an enraged Odin sitting on his throne. “To steal from Idunn was an incomprehensible crime. No one had even attempted it before. It was unheard of.”

“Odin decreed that if Amora wanted to be young forever, he'd lock her in a prison where time could never touch her.” The illusory Odin pointed Gungnir at the image of Amora and it dissolved into smoke. Illusory Lorelei let out a silent cry and yelled angry words at Odin that Loki didn't care to let Wanda and Peter hear. Young Loki pulled her back and she sobbed into his shoulder.

The entire setting disappeared. “Lorelei and I looked for years, but we could never find her. I'm half tempted to assume by a timeless prison, Odin meant Niflheim. If not, perhaps she's been able to free herself since Odin’s death, but there isn't enough time to look for her.”

“You could look for her after we defeat Thanos.” Peter suggested, voice dreary.

“Perhaps.” Loki shrugged. “But I don't wish to get my hopes up.”

“What about Lorelei?” Wanda asked.

“She was in the Asgardians prison when Asgard was destroyed.” Loki said. “I put her back there under the guise of Odin. Thought it would make my act more convincing.”

“I'm sorry.” Peter said sincerely.

“Thank you.” Loki replied simply. “But I'm done reminiscing on the past for today, let's train.”

Peter and Wanda both looked at each like they wanted the other to say something else, but eventually Wanda sighed and said, “Sure.”

They all got to their feet to their feet and Loki decided they would work with Wanda's magic first. “Alright, Wanda, you're going to close your eyes, and Peter and I are going to move around a bit. When I say so, I want you to find me with your eyes closed and… do something.”

Wanda nodded and closed her eyes before Peter and Loki moved around the room so she couldn't remember where they were. Loki cast a copy of himself to stand behind Wanda and say “You can go.”.

Her magic looped around Peter and Loki rather quickly, but also circled the illusory Loki. The fake Loki soon had a red shirt instead of green, and Loki looked down to see the same had happened to themself while Peter was left unaffected.

Wanda opened her eyes. “Hey! I did it.”

“Yes,” Loki confirmed, “but you did the same to a fake Loki.” They pointed.

Wanda looked behind her to see the illusory Loki and deflated. “Oh.”

“It's not too important.” Loki said. “It just means that your magic is relying on what's visible, or perhaps it's looking at the energy around it and can tell that the fake me and real me both have the same magical energies. Now we know you don't have a connection to the soul stone, that would've easily been able to tell a real person from a fake.”

“Will we try again?” Wanda asked.

“Yes,” Loki said, “but later. I've been training all morning with Peter and have to go talk to the Defenders with Strange soon and want to have a little fun.”

“What did you have in mind?” Wanda asked.

Loki smiled.

They were soon down at the labs where they found Tony, Shuri and Brunnhilde. Tony was the only one who didn't look up, the two girls saw the three of them and laughed.

Peter rounded Tony and looked at his project. “Hey, Mr Stark!” He chirped.

“Hey, kid.” Tony greeted absentmindedly.

Loki, looking exactly like Peter in every way, rounded Tony’s other side. “Hey, Mr Stark!”

“Hey, kid.” Tony replied and continued working for a moment before he froze and looked rapidly between the two of them. “I- what?”

Loki and Peter, having rehearsed this, spoke at the same time. “Is something wrong, sir?”

Tony groaned and just lay his head on the table. “I'm too sober to deal with this.”

Loki and Peter high fived over Tony while the girls laughed again.

Something tugged at Loki’s chest when they realised that very soon, everyone in this room could be dead.

Chapter Text

Thor felt energy rush around his body, awakening every limb. He awoke with a gasp, Jarnbjorn is his hand.

"Thank the Norns, Thor." Sif said from his side before she pulled him into a hug. "I was worried you wouldn't survive."

He laughed and pulled her in tighter. "The universe won't let me die until Thanos is dead. Fate isn't so cruel it would be otherwise."

"You don't know that, Thor."

"Of course I do." He replied. "Are we on Earth yet?"

She shook her head. "We couldn't take any jumps with you the way you were. I'll go tell Nebula that we're ready to go, she was ready to kill you if it meant we got to Thanos faster."

"Nebula?"

"Gamora's sister. She joined the Guardians after she escaped Thanos' prison."

Thor sat up. "Were they able to get the reality stone?"

She shook her head once more. "Thanos got there first. They lost Gamora."

"That's... a tragic loss. I could tell she was a warrior of great strength and heart.”

Sif nodded and stood up from the chair she was sitting on. "I need to tell Nebula to start jumping. We'll be on Midgard soon."

She left the room and Thor's thoughts drifted to Earth. He was eager to see his teammates again. After the loss of Asgard, it would be good to be surrounded by so many friends.

But how would he tell them that Banner was lost to them? Perhaps he would leave it until after Thanos was defeated, he wouldn't want to dampen people's spirits before such a great battle. Plus, some small part of him held hope that Banner and some of the others had survived.

He also decided that after Thanos was gone, he'd make up for lost time on Earth. He'd kindle a friendship with Jane from the disaster that was their relationship, and reconnect with Darcy, Erik and Daryl. He'd visit Clint and his family properly, share battle stories with Natasha, train with Steve, drink with Tony…

There was so much about Asgard that he wished he'd appreciated more. He wouldn't let that happen with Midgard.

He stood up, axe in hand, and left the room. He found the Guardians and Sif at the front of the ship; Star-lord at the wheel, and Nebula punching something into a screen.

The atmosphere was heavy, suffocating even. Thor barely knew Gamora or her relationships with her teammates, but he could feel her loss fully. He wondered if that's what it felt like being around him, the loss of his home and people a thick cloud of depression hanging around him.

Thor sat down beside Sif, who's hand rested on the hilt of her sword. Thor recognised it as her being nervous, but didn't bring it up. He stayed silent, as did everyone else, as the ship sped forward.
Jumping through space was a strange feeling, but it wasn't too different to the bifrost for Thor to feel uncomfortable. Soon the Earth could be seen from the large window of the ship.

"Wow," Star-lord said, "I haven't been here in so long… It's beautiful."

Rocket scoffed. "How's it any different to any other stinkin' planet?"

Star-lord glared at the rabbit. "Hey! That's my home you're talking about."

"I think Earth is the most beautiful of the nine realms," Thor said, "but I haven't seen enough of the rest of the universe to say how it compares to everywhere else."

"Thanks, man." Peter said softly.

"Should we contact the Midgardians?" Sif asked. "The last time they saw alien spacecraft, it was the Chitauri. And if they know Thanos is coming..."

"We'll send out a message." Star-lord replied. "Nebula?"

"I got it." She replied, pressing a few buttons. A screen lowered down in front of her.

“This is Nebula of the Guardians of the Galaxy. We're tracking done your most advanced system and sending this message to them. We're allies of Thor, and we've come to help in the fight against Thanos. We are about to enter your atmosphere."

The screen buzzed and crackled for several moments and Sif asked, “Is it really so easy to find the most advanced systems on Midgard?”

Nebula shrugged. “Terran tech is really basic.”

Soon a clear image of a man appeared. "This is General Ross speaking. What are your intentions?"

"We've come to prevent the infinity stones of your planet falling into Thanos' hand. Just don't shoot us.” Nebula replied.

"Not to sound impolite," General Ross said, "But I don't trust you in the slightest."

"That sounded impolite." Mantis whispered to Drax. Drax nodded solemnly.

Thor stood from his seat and went over to Nebula, looking at the screen over her shoulder. "Greetings, General Ross! It is I, Thor, returning to fight for you once more! I give you my promise that the Guardians of the Galaxy are highly trustworthy and are noble warriors."

"Your words don't hold any weight, Thor." Ross said. "You abandoned the Earth for two years. We don't just forget things like that."

"I'm very sorry for that, but I had important business elsewhere in the nine realms."

"Is Earth not worthy of your attention?" Ross pushed.

"Of course it is!" Thor exclaimed. "I just-"

The screen started buzzing again, and the picture of Ross disappeared. Thor looked at the blank screen in confusion. "Did something happen?"

"Someone's interfering with Ross’ broadcast." Nebula replied.

"Thor, buddy, you're alive!" came a voice from the screen, and then Thor was looking at an image of Tony Stark.

"Friend Stark! It's wonderful to see you!" Thor grinned. "Why did you think I was dead?"

"The chick told me, what's her face..." he raised his voice. "Hey, Wonder Woman! Come over here!"

Thor was looking at someone he thought he'd never see again. "Valkyrie!"

Valkyrie grinned. "Hey, princess. Thought you were dead?"

"I thought the same of you! Who else-?"

"A good half of us are still alive. Heimdall, Bruce, Korg, Meik-"

"Loki?" Thor asked.

Valkyrie's face froze and she looked quickly at Stark. Thor took that as a no.

"Sorry, buddy." Tony said. "Your brother didn't make it."

"Thank you," Thor said quietly, "But I've already grieved his death, I'm just relieved that so many Asgardians survived. Surely this is a good sign. Fate is on our side!" He looked to Sif at that last part.

Tony smiled sympathetically. "Get yourselves down here, I'll make sure Ross doesn't throw any missiles your way."

"Like he could hit us." Nebula scoffed.

"Many thanks, Tony." Thor replied with a smile.

"See you soon." Valkyrie smiled before the screen shut off.

“They sent coordinates.” Nebula said, and Thor went back to his seat and she imputed them into a command pad beside her.

It wasn't long before they were speeding towards the planet. “She said Heimdall was alive?” Sif asked.

“You heard right.” Thor replied with a grin.

She smiled widely. “You called the woman Valkyrie? I thought they were all dead.”

“I have a long story to tell you.” Thor said. “The short version is: I had this secret evil older sister who was locked away in another dimension, Loki and I ended up on a trash planet called Sakaar, There I found the Valkyrie and my ally from Midgard - the Hulk. Together, Loki, Valkyrie, Bruce and I came to assist Heimdall with the evacuation of Asgard along with the gladiators of Sakaar. We had to destroy Asgard to kill Hela.”

“You must tell me the entire story at a later date.” Sif said. “Did Loki help for a noble cause?”

“He could've stayed on Sakaar and lived an undisturbed life of luxury, but he came back.”

Sif smiled. “Then Asgard will remember him as a hero.”

Thor smiled back and blinked away the water in his eyes. “As they should.”

It wasn't long until they reached the coordinates. Star-Lord frowned at the cluster of trees in front of them. “There's nothing here. They must've sent us the wrong coordinates!”

“Typical.” Rocket muttered. “It's probably a trap.”

“Tony Stark would not deceive me like that. He's a friend of mine.” Thor said.

“There's a lot magic in front of us.” Sif said, her sense for magic so much greater than his own. “I suspect it's an illusion created with Earth magic.”

“Electricity.” Thor translated.

“Let's hope you're right.” Star-Lord mumbled, sending the ship forward.

As they moved forward, the trees seemed to disappear until they passed by a blue barrier. An enormous city expanded before them.

“Woah.” Star-Lord whispered.

“I didn't think Terrans were so advanced.” Drax said, leaning forward in his seat. “Peter didn't make it sound very appealing.”

Star-Lord looked offended.

They chose to land in a large area of grassland. Thor was the first off the ship. Nearly bouncing in anticipation.

The Avengers (with some new faces) came to the site in flying ships that reminded Thor of some Asgardian vehicles.

Steve was the first one to reach him, hopping out of the ship and greeting Thor with a warm smile. “Good to see you, Thor. Like the new haircut.”

“And you, Steve. I can't say your beard is much compared to mine though.”

Steve chuckled. “Let's get you back to the palace.”

Tony, Valkyrie and Bruce were in the ship. Thor greeted both Valkyrie and Bruce with a crushing hug and they all had another ‘I'm glad you're not dead’ exchange. Tony made one of his pop culture references that confused both him and the captain. He introduced Sif and the Guardians to the group, and in turn, was introduced to T’Challa - the King of this land, Okoye - a fierce general, Shuri - a young scientist and Peter - an excitable child.

“It's nice to meet you Mr Thor sir!” Peter had practically squeaked out. Shuri snorted.

“Well met, young Peter!” Thor grinned.

The trip back to the palace was a short one, and soon Thor had reunited with all his other teammates and had gotten to know the new faces. Most of the Guardians mingled well, especially Star-Lord who seemed excited to learn about Earth culture despite the obvious dampen Gamora’s death had left on his mood. Thor was glad to see him look happy.

Nebula however, chose to stick outside, Star-Lord claimed she would rather die than be sociable.

At one point, Valkyrie - Brunnhilde, she had corrected quickly - approached him. “Thor, I need to talk to you.”

But Natasha had appeared at his side. “Hey, big guy, are you going to tell us all what you were up to in space?”

“Of course!” He replied. “But, Brunnhilde, you wanted to talk?”

She looked panicked, Thor didn't miss the quick glance over at Natasha, and smiled somewhat awkwardly. “I guess it can wait ‘til later.”

Thor wasn't convinced but he nodded and went to where the others were sitting to begin his tale. Valkyrie stood on the spot for a moment before she went over to Sif. Before he could begin, he paused.

“So,” he asked, “Are the other Asgardians here?”

Tony shook his head. “They're all up in New York. Pepper’s taking care of them. It's just Valkyrie and Loren here right now.”

Thor thought over the name. “Loren?”

“Yeah, she's with Strange right now talking to the Defenders.”

He couldn't think of anyone with that name. “Who’s Loren?”

They all stared at him. Except strangely, Bruce, Peter, Wanda, Vision and Shuri, who all looked at each other.

“The royal treasurer of Asgard’s vault?” Natasha pressed.

“Asgard’s vault doesn't have a royal treasurer...” Thor replied. Cogs were slowly turning in his mind.

Steve looked worried. “Wait, then who-?”

“Vile cur!” Screeched a voice from outside.

They all rushed to their feet a followed the noise. “Loren, calm down.” Strange said as they came outside.

A woman held a knife to Nebula’s throat, though she seemed unfazed by it. “How can I calm down? This is Nebula! She's Thanos’ daughter, Strange!”

“Loki?” Thor let slip before he could help himself.

Loki looked over and dropped the knife. They looked like they were trying to figure out something, likely how to repair the cover Thor had likely blown.

But then that disappeared, and there was only a soft. “Thor?”

“What the fuck?” Tony said, less softly.

Thor rushed forward and scooped Loki into his arms, lifting their feet from the ground. He was relieved to feel Loki’s arms tighten around his neck and their head burrow into his shoulder.

“I thought you were dead.” Loki said quietly.

“As I you.” Thor replied. “You've got to stop doing that.”

“It wasn't even my fault this time.”

Thor put Loki down, keeping his hands on his sibling’s shoulders. “They're alive.” Loki said. “Brunnhilde and Bruce and Heimdall-”

“I know, I saw. Sif’s alive too.”

“Sif?” Loki repeated and then their eyes widened. “I completely forgot about her.”

Sif rounded Thor. “Glad to see you're the same old Loki.”

“Wait, wait.” Stark persisted. “You're-”

“I am Loki. Friggadottir.” She shifted to a more androgynous form. “Laufeychild…” she paused and looked to Thor sincerely before grinning at Tony and shifting into her more recognisable masculine form. “Odinson.”

“Fuck.” Steve said.

Loki looked back to Thor again, and Thor nodded. He understood what Loki was telling him with that display. ‘Odinson’ was Loki’s way of saying ‘you are my brother and I love you’. It was also her way of being a dramatic little shit.

Thor clamped his hand back onto his siblings shoulders as they shifted back into their feminine form. “Has Loki not helped you? I see no reason for you not to treat them as you have these last few days.”

“Thor,” Steve said gently, “Loki tried to invade Earth. We really should be locking them up.”

“Scouting mission.” Loki muttered.

“If you try to lock up my…” he looked to Loki.

“Sister,” she finished.

Thor smiled at Steve. “Captain. If you attempt to lock up my sister I will not hesitate to attack you with the full might of Jarnbjorn. Brunnhilde and Sif will no doubt assist me, as will the Hulk and the Guardians.

Bruce looked like he wanted to object, but Thor gave him a pleading look and watched the man melt into compliance.

“Woah,” Star-Lord said. “I'm not going to attack the heroes of Earth my first time back!”

“I'll do it.” Nebula said, despite having being attacked by Loki just moments before. “If they're going to fight someone for following Thanos’ orders, I guess they have to fight me too. They can also drag up the corpse of my sister that Thanos killed and fight her too.”

“You don't work for Thanos?” Loki asked.

“Not anymore. He manipulated me and killed my sister.”

“Oh, same hat.” Loki said, whatever the hell that meant. “Sorry for trying to cut your throat.”

“It happens.” Nebula replied.

“I'll fight these a-holes too.” Rocket said, taking out a gun. “Should be a piece a cake.”

“I am Groot.”

Rocket laughed. “You tell ‘em, buddy.”

Drax took out his knives. “We've heard of the angel’s love for his sibling. I will not allow another family to be separated under my watch.”

“I'll fight too.” Said a tiny voice and the young excitable child from earlier put himself beside Loki. “Loren- Loki’s my friend. Even if she was evil in the past, she isn't anymore!”

“Peter.” Loki and Tony said at the same time with the same level of exasperation.

“Same here.” Said the Princess Shuri, placing herself beside Peter.

“Stop this, Shuri.” The king said.

“No, brother.” Shuri insisted. “I've known that Loren is Loki for a couple of days now and I believe it would be of strategic advantage to keep her on our side. Especially now that Thor is willing to fight anyone who tries to lock her away. Peter's known her for as long as I have, he can vouch for her. Strange too.”

Everyone looked to Strange, who shrugged nonchalantly. “We can lock her up later. Right now we need as many people fighting as is possible.”

“I've seen into Loki’s head.” Wanda said, having made her way over to Shuri’s side without anyone having noticed. “She means it when she says she's going to kill Thanos.”

“There. All sorted.” Thor said. “Now Loki, perhaps we should go elsewhere and you can catch me up on the events of your last few days here. Battle plans and all that.”

“Of course, brother.” Loki smiled innocently and she led the way back into the palace, making sure to pass Tony and Steve with only a few centimetres between them, practically preening.

“Thor, we really need to talk about this.” Steve said.

“And we shall.” Thor replied. “Later.”

“Let him reunite with his sister, Steve.” Natasha said gently, putting a hand on his shoulder. “We'll talk about what to do later.”

Thor was near laughing as he followed behind Loki. He waved at the Guardians. “I'll return soon, my friends! Don't start any fights without me!”

As they both came inside and the door closed behind them, Loki started laughing. Thor joined in and they both looked at each other while laughing, tears beginning to run down their faces.

“You're crying.” Thor pointed out.

“No, you are.” Loki shot back weakly, eyes wet and red.

“I missed you.” Thor said.

Loki was still laughing, though some teary hiccups were starting to break through. “Is that-” she hiccuped. “Is that what it felt like? Every time I died?”

She had stopped laughing.

Thor stepped closer to his sister and enveloped her in a crushing hug. “At least you didn't have to go through it three times.”

Loki hiccuped again.

“You're not allowed to die again for at least two hundred years,” Thor said, “Do you understand?”

Loki buried her head into his shoulder and mumble a “I promise.”

Chapter Text

“Put your hand up,” Stark said, “If you knew that Loren was Loki the whole time.”

Many hands went up.

“Alright let's see… Strange, you're a dick. You should've told me.”

“It would've compromised things.” Strange replied.

Stark scoffed. “Would've compromised things…”

“Wong knows too.” Strange added.

“Of course he does.” Stark said. “Moving on. Shuri, I thought you were smarter than this.”

“Why would I, an intellectual, have told you anything?”

“I'm going to pretend I didn't recognise that meme being put into a serious conversation.”

Shuri leaned over to Peter. “I can't believe he knows what a meme is.”

“Peter,” Stark said, “I'm really disappointed in you.”

“I'm sorry, Mr. Stark!” Peter said. “But I thought it was best not to tell you. I didn't know how you would react.”

“After we beat Thanos, I'm getting May to ground you forever. I'm also revoking your Avengers membership.”

“But I'm not an Avenger.” Peter said.

Stark paused. “You've got me there, kid. But I guess now you never will be.”

“James Barnes,” Stark said icily. “Why didn't you tell Steve about any of this?”

“Shuri told me.” He shrugged. “And she said not to tell anyone else.”

“Shuri!” Peter whispered harshly.

Shuri shrugged. “Man’s good at keeping secrets.”

“Whatever.” Stark shook his head. “Clint- Clint? Sorry, but what the actual fuck?”

“I suspected it.” He replied with a shrug. “Decided I'd keep an eye on her and see if my hunch was right.”

“That was ridiculously stupid.”

“It's not like I didn't tell anybody about it.” Barton said. “I talked to Tasha and Okoye and we all decided that the rest of you weren't mature enough to handle a theory like that without acting impulsively.

“It's true.” Romanoff added. “You would've ruined our investigation.”

Stark shook his head. “You know what?You're right. Because I know that your hunches are usually right and would have acted on it instead of keeping secrets from everyone else.”

Barton shrugged. “We're spies.”

Stark let out a heavy sigh and continued the next person. “Wanda. Not surprising that you didn't tell me, but you didn't think that Steve should know?”

“I wasn't sure if he would give the same treatment to Loki as he did me. I didn't want to risk it.” She said. “Besides, I told Vis.”

“Vision?” Stark sounded betrayed, and looked at the robot.

Vision looked at Stark as passively as always and nodded his head. “Wanda told me, yes.”

“And you didn't think I should know?”

“I thought you might do something reckless. Wanda said she believed that Loki wanted to get rid of Thanos more than anyone, and so I thought they'd be a valuable asset to the team.”

Rogers spoke up. “Did you read their mind?”

“Partially.” Wanda replied. “Enough to see her anger towards Thanos.”

Rogers looked conflicted. “If Wanda thinks she wants to kill Thanos, I might-”

“You'll excuse me,” Stark interrupted, “If I don't believe anyone on your little band of misfits.”

Thor leaned over to Loki and whispered. “Did something happen between them?”

Thor, herself, Bruce and Brunnhilde were all shoved to the back of the small room with the Guardians while the others talked about the revelation that she was really Loki. The Guardians were currently looking over Loki’s list of heroes and their powers, and the number of Wakandans and sorcerers they had on their side. The one who called himself Star-lord was writing a similar list about the abilities of the Guardians by request of Loki.

“Tony said the Avengers broke up.” Bruce replied.

“I saw the whole fight through the eyes of Huggin and Munnin.” Loki grinned. “It was most entertaining.”

“You should've let me know.” Thor said.

“Why?” Loki asked. “It was nothing but a petty squabble. Nothing that concerns you.”

“They are my friends. If there was a fight big enough to break apart the Avengers, I should've known about it.”

Loki scoffed. “What does it matter? It was in the past.”

“The past matters, sister.” Thor said. “Your past is what the Avengers talk about at this very moment.”

“I care not for my past, and their opinions on it matter very little to me.”

Thor frowned. “They should. What if they throw you in a jail cell?”

“I'll escape.”

“But you'll be a criminal. How are you supposed to turn over a new leaf with that kind of branding?”

“Who says I want to turn over a new leaf?” Loki challenged for the sake of challenging him.

“Why else would you be battling Thanos?”

“Self preservation.” Loki answered quickly. “If we don't kill Thanos, my chances are fifty-fifty. And I've escaped death so many times that it's likely my luck is down to zero.”

“There is more than that, I know it.”

“I simply don't want to die.” Loki said. “Isn't that enough. I'm a survivor. I want nothing more than my own continued existence, can't you accept that as my motivation?”

“I have reason to doubt survival is one of your goals.”

Loki’s throat tightened and she looked away. “Shut up, Thor.”

“Shit.” Thor said. “I didn't mean to say that. It was… crass. I wasn't being sensitive or-”

“Shut. Up. Thor.”

“But we should talk about that at some point.” Thor added.

“No.”

“I think you want to protect people. That's why you want to fight Thanos. You want to save Asgard again and protect those Midgardian children who seem so attached to you.”

“Leave me alone, Thor.”

“Why are you so afraid to talk about your feelings?”

Loki barely understood what she was doing until after she had summoned a dagger and thrust it into Thor’s side.

“What the actual fuck.” Brunnhilde said.

“Are you alright, Thor?” Bruce asked.

Thor only looked upset.

Star-lord seemed to have put together that something was going on and looked over at them. “Shit!” He exclaimed.

“Is everything okay down there?” Rogers asked.

Everyone was looking at them.

“Thor,” Romanoff said, “Is that a knife in your abdomen?”

“Ah, perhaps?” Thor replied, he removed the knife and handed the bloodied blade back to Loki without looking at her.

“Loki fucking stabbed him and you want me to trust them!” Stark yelled, and suddenly everyone was talking at once.

“Loki-” Thor began.

Loki didn't want to listen. She called on the universe to turn herself invisible and left a double in her place, before slinking away.

It didn't take long for Thor to find her sitting cross-legged in the grass, a gentle breeze blowing through her hair.

“I'm sorry, Loki.” He said, sitting down beside her.

“Do tell me, dear brother, what for?” She snarked.

“For pushing you to share some your emotions. I know you're a private person. I just assumed that-”

“Did you think us both thinking one another dead would bring us closer together?” Loki asked.

“In a roundabout way… yes?”

She shook her head. “Oaf.”

“As you always tell me.” Thor smiled. “I'm sorry for assuming such. Brunnhilde simply told me you were opening up to people.”

“Did she now?”

“Is it so hard to share your feelings with me if you can do it to her? I'm your brother.”

“That makes it even harder.” Loki replied.

“How so?”

“It just… does. There is no reason to it.” Loki said. “You deserve to know a lot of things about myself and my thoughts.”

“I have no entitlement to knowledge of your feelings.” Thor said.

“No, you don't. But you still deserve to know them.” Loki paused. “I'm not ready just yet.”

“But one day?”

“After the battle with Thanos. When that threat it passed…” Loki said. “Then is when I'll talk to you about these things. My mind is in too much of a frenzy for that kind of discussion right now.”

“You promise?”

Loki let herself smile. “I promise.”

She didn't know why she couldn't tell Thor things she had told people like Bruce or Peter, but every time she tried to get the words out, they died on her tongue. At least Thor wasn't pushing her, she could do it when she was ready. And she definitely would do it… eventually.

Thor and Loki snuck back into the room, their absence barely noticed. Loki sit passively through the rest of the meeting, bored stiff.

Stark thought it'd be safer for Loki to be locked up though it was obvious he just wanted to keep Peter away from Loki and didn't really care about the actual risk of Loki being in the battle. Rhodes agreed with Stark, but for less personal reasons.

Rogers seemed conflicted. He wanted to believe that Wanda was right and everyone had good in them but he also had seen first hand the destruction Loki had caused and was probably associating Loki with those fascist men he had fought in whatever one of the numerous Midgardian wars he had fought in. Which was ridiculous, Loki was an anarchist if anything. When Barnes thinks Loki should be allowed to fight, Rogers looks like he's beginning to lean towards that side of the argument too. Sam thinks she should be going to a therapist, not fighting in a war - he's probably right, but Loki is sure the same could be said about most of the Avengers.

Barton thinks she should fight. Romanoff thinks it's too risky. Barton gives her a look that most likely has something to do with him giving her a second chance in their past despite the risk then and she doesn't say anything else.

Shuri thinks Loki should fight. T’Challa disagrees. Okoye agrees with T’Challa.

Peter thinks she should fight too. He makes a cute speech about how Loki is good now and that they're friends, which Shuri contributes to. Strange and Wanda makes small additions too, and Vision agrees with them for the most part.

Ant-Man thinks she shouldn't be locked up. His partner, Wasp thinks she should, but her father, Pym, agrees with Ant-Man.

When Thor is asked to speak, Loki pointedly ignores what he's saying. Thor shouldn't be as nice as he is, Loki's betrayed him time and time again and yet Thor is willing to put his absolute trust in him. He's stupid and Loki hates him and loves him equally.

Whatever Thor said convinces most people to wait until after the battle to decide what to do with Loki. They trust that Loki wants to kill Thanos because, duh. And later they'll punish Loki for her past crimes whether it be ‘locking them up in a dank dungeon and throwing away the key’ (a sarcastic suggestion made by Stark), ‘an actual prison, Tony’ (a reasonable suggestion made by Rogers, or ‘somewhere where they can get the help they clearly need’ (a suggestion by Wilson that Thor, terrifyingly, seems to consider).

Nobody even suggests that at the end of the battle, Loki might be dead. That they all might be dead. While that scenario seems to be an ‘if’ in most of their minds, Loki is positive that's the only path there is to take. She's escaped dying several times already and Lady Death is sure to want to collect.

Loki wouldn't be surprised if fate had planned to kill her off in this battle. But she looked at Thor and all the others she had become close to, and decided that she would be willing to die if she could save them.

She wasn't going to give up until the rest of them were safe and Thanos was dead. Fate be damned

Chapter Text

The day of the battle had arrived, and the air was tense as everyone waited for the arrival of Thanos’ army. It was early, but everyone was in what had become the common room for the group.

Some were still looking at him nervously, but the kids, Thor, Bruce, and the Guardians - bar Nebula, who had no need for breakfast - had formed a sort of protective circle around him. Wanda was at a seperate table with Vision, but was close by. It certainly didn't help the tense atmosphere that Loki was in his more recognisable masculine form.

Loki picked at his breakfast, the food quality seemingly dampened by the moods of those around him. He wanted to lighten up the place somewhat.

Thinking for a moment, Loki looked to Wanda and decided that some pay back for her past prank was in order. As she picked up her mug, Loki changed the liquid inside to a coiling snake - an oldie but a goodie, as the Midgardians would say.

Wanda brought the mug near her lips and the snake peaked out and booped her on the nose. She stilled momentarily and made direct eye contact with the creature before she yelped and the cup went flying. It smashed into pieces on the hard floor and Loki was briefly glad the snake wasn't real before it vanished.

Wanda immediately looked to Loki and glared. “Dude.” She said, having obviously spent too much time with Peter and Shuri.

Speaking of Peter and Shuri, those two seemed to be the only ones to see the actual prank, and were laughing, while everyone else had only looked over after the sound of smashing ceramic.

Loki smiled. “Something wrong?”

Wanda smiled back and shot a stream of red light at Loki that he didn't have time to avoid. He looked down at himself, but didn't see any noticeable difference.

Still, the three children and the guardians seemed to find it hilarious. Thor snorted from beside him and Loki turned to face his brother.

“Reminiscing my old hair, Loki?” Thor said.

Loki scrunched up his eyebrows in confusion before he grabbed a lock of hair and brought it to his eyes.

It was blond.

He looked to Wanda. “You didn't.”

“I did.” She laughed. “And I've got to be the first to say: you look terrible.”

Perhaps childishly, Loki stuck out his tongue at Wanda. She returned the gesture.

“I disagree.” Thor said. “I didn't know you loved me so much that you would copy my hairstyle.”

“Please.” Loki rolled his eyes as overdramatically as possible. “I'm obviously going blond to pay tribute to Amora.”

Thor laughed and Loki shifted until he was in the form of his old friend. “Oh, Thor.” He said in her voice, raising a hand to his forehead and leaning against his brother's chest. “You are so beautiful and handsome and you must promise to marry me when we're older or I'll beat you up.”

Sif laughed at that one, and Thor shoved Loki off him and Loki let the disguise slip.

“Isn't that kinda… morbid?” Peter asked.

“Oh please,” Loki said, “She isn't dead. Only maybe dead.”

Before Thor could try and squeeze some emotions out of him, Loki looked around the room. “Shouldn't Strange be back by now?”

Strange had already collected the Defenders, some Asgardians and the Sakaaran gladiators. All of whom had already eaten and were elsewhere. Heimdall said he had to concentrate so he could see Thanos’ approach.

He'd gone out again to round up the sorcerers of the world and Loki, having impeccable time management skills, knew he was meant to be back half an hour ago.

As if the mention of him was a summon, a fiery orange portal appeared in the middle of the room and Wong stepped through, supporting a heavily injured man on his shoulders. Strange soon followed with a woman, his cloak levitating another. Some others followed and when the portal snapped closed, there were ten new people in the room. Counting Strange and Wong, only four of them looked like they were well enough to fight.

“Thanos?” Rogers asked.

Strange shook his head. “Mordo. Something we can worry about later.”

Loki's anger flared up quicker than it should've and he stood up, his chair making a terrible noise as the metal scrapped across the ground. He stormed over to Strange. “Did you see this? When you looked into the future did you see a lack of sorcerers and not question it? You could've saved all these people.”

“I didn't think it was Mordo, I though they died in battle.” Strange replied solemnly as someone took the woman from his shoulder. “It's too late now.”

“No it isn't.” Loki said and looked towards the time stone around Strange's neck.

“We can't use this.” Strange said and tried to move past Loki. “Not yet.”

Loki caught his arm. “Yet?”

Strange’s eyes widened, but he collected himself quickly. “Using the time stone is risky. If we ever use it, we need to use it at the exact right time in the exact right way.”

“So tell me those exacts.”

Strange said nothing. Loki knew he wasn't going to convince him and released his arm, blood still close to boiling.

Surely it would be easier to get the desired path if he just spoke of the future, or if he just used the time stone.

Thor approached his side, probably wanting to talk to Loki about his emotions, but before he could, they received a message from Heimdall.

“They’re here.”

It didn't take long for them to assemble before the forcefield around Wakanda where Thanos and his remaining Black Order waited patiently.

“Are you ready to give me the stones?” Thanos asked like they were children after a temper tantrum.

Nobody spoke for a long while. Eventually Iron Man flipped Thanos the metallic bird and from the the distance Korg yelled. “Piss off, grape!”

“I guess not.” Thanos said, completely unaffected. “Disappointing, but not a surprise by any means... Proxima?”

Proxima readied her spear and the blue gem in Thanos’ gauntlet glowed. A hole appeared in the barrier where Thanos and the Black Order stood and simultaneously, several portals opened up to let his army pour in. Proxima yelled a command and the army surged forward, more and more pouring out of the portals at every passing second.

Their own army stayed stock still. Strange and Wanda moved closer to Loki, preparing their magic. With a twist of his hands, Loki summoned the Casket of Ancient Winters.

Loki looked to Wanda, his hands already completely blue. “Are you sure you can control this? If this power gets out of hand, Midgard could be cast into an eternal winter.”

Wanda nodded, looking determined. “We've got to use whatever advantage we've got.”

Loki activated the casket, summoning its ancient magic to turn the battlefield in front of them into the worst winter Jotunheim could get. The cold rolled towards the army in waves.

Loki could already feel the magic draining him, but Strange was replenishing it at an equal rate. It had taken a while for Loki to admit that Midgardian sorcery was better for longevity, but when he did, Strange explained with little prompt that he summoned energy from other dimensions. There was no time to teach him how to do it, but Strange could lend him the energy in the battle.

The cold crashed into the oncoming army, instantly freezing every creature it came across.

“Go!” Loki yelled as the opposing side started to slow their attack as they realised what was happening.

Their own army struck. The fastest – Rogers, Barnes, T’Challa – got there first, rushing past the icy tombstones of Thanos’ army to get to the rest. Stark and Rhodes flew above, blasting outriders with extreme accuracy as Thor jumped higher than them both to strike down tens at a time with massive lightning strikes. The Hulk let out an impressive roar as he stomped towards the army, smashing clean through the iced outriders and shaking the battlefield with his roars, Brunnhilde riding on his shoulders until she was close enough to jump, swinging her sword down like an executioner’s axe.

The magic avoided them all thanks to the red tint of Wanda’s magic running through the Casket’s, keeping their own side safe while destroying more and more of the outriders as it continued forward.

Wong and the other sorcerers kept Thanos busy by opening up portals to the mirror dimension right in front of Thanos’ own portals the outriders were coming from. Every time Thanos would close one, the sorcerers would quickly open another.

Heimdall had reached the army at the same time as the Sakaaran gladiators and the few Asgardians that had decided to battle with him, cleaving straight through enemies with his sword.

Wanda directed the Casket’s magic forward when the Wakandans and the rest of the their army reached the outriders. It avoided the sides and cut straight through the middle, faster now it didn't have to cover so much area. The strongest in their army ran through the opening, directly towards Thanos. When they reached him, the magic avoided Thanos as the power stone glowed and cast a purple shield around him.

In Loki’s hands, the Casket felt hot. Burning hot. The opposite to how it should have felt. That was all the warning Loki got before it exploded, knocking the three of them onto their backs.

Loki groaned and propped himself up on his elbow.

Loki didn't know why Thanos didn't make an explosion powerful enough to kill them, maybe he wanted to see what Loki could do in battle before he was killed.

He turned to Wanda. As powerful as she was, she was still human. “Are you alright?”

She groaned and opened her eyes. “Yeah, just give me a moment.”

Loki looked to the battle and saw some outriders slipping through and making their way towards them. “I'm not sure we have a moment.”

Loki helped the girl sit up. “I might've broken my arm? Which sounds pathetic. Wanda Maximoff: left the battle because she fell backwards and hit her arm real good.”

“I'm pretty sure it was an explosion, not just…gravity.”

“Still.” Wanda insisted, the outriders drawing nearer. “Lame and sore.”

Her arm began glowing red and a second later she was moving it without a problem. “Oh,” she said, slightly in awe, “nice.”

Loki helped her to her feet and her, Strange and Loki took out the oncoming outriders in half a minute. Some more had slipped through, but they were far enough away that the three of them had time to talk.

“I'm going to find Peter,” Loki said, “I need to keep him from trying to fight Thanos.”

“Yeah, he'd definitely try that.” Wanda said. “Me and Strange are going to head towards the big battle then. Don't die!”

He waved off Wanda and she flew towards the battle with Thanos, pushing from the ground with her magic. Strange sighed and mumbled a quick “Strange and I.” Before he followed.

Loki looked to their destination. Everyone fighting Thanos was giving it everything they got. Everyone except…

Thunder rumbled above the battlefield as dark clouds rolled in. The clouds lit up a brilliant blue as Thor, flying with them, practically glowed as electricity sparked from him. He held his axe above his head and let himself fall, the crackling of the electricity audible even from where Loki observed halfway across the battlefield.

Thor came down on Thanos’ head with the axe, and in that moment – with his eyes glowing and the clouds practically roaring with thunder – he was the embodiment of his title. There was no mistake that Thor was the God of Thunder.

It wasn't enough.

The axe didn't make a dent in Thanos’ skull and the handle of the axe snapped in two. Oof, that was probably a painful deja-vu.

They hadn't banked on Thor’s axe killing Thanos, but it would've been beautifully easy if it had.

No, they only needed the axe to leave Thanos dazed, which it had. It distracted him enough for Mantis to jump up onto the titan’s shoulder, put her hands on both sides of his head and yell “Sleep!”

Thanos stilled.

The outriders, like their sister species the Chitauri, worked as a hivemind, and when Thanos stopped moving, so did they. Loki couldn't find the black order in the crowd though.

As those near Thanos tried to get the gauntlet off his half closed fist, Loki ran forward to kill as many still Chitauri as he could, keeping an eye out for Peter and Shuri.

He mindlessly working through outriders, slicing through the thick skin around the throats and piercing their hearts through cracks in their natural body armour.

He stole a glance towards Thanos. They somehow hadn't gotten the gauntlet off yet, which probably had something to do with the now glowing power stone.

The stone was glowing brighter and brighter.

Slice, slice, stab, slice.

He passed Shuri blasting down outriders and exchanged a high five with her before he continued.

Stab, stab, slice.

The power stone was glowing brighter still.

Loki still couldn't find Peter. What if he was already dead? Would he really have died so quickly?

A scream rang through the battlefield and Loki looked back at Thanos to find Mantis screaming in pain, the power stone giving off a blinding light. She was slowly flaking apart, pieces of her skin being ripped off before they were blown away into the air and eventually dissolved into nothing.

The power stone let out a pulse of energy and the people around Thanos were blasted backwards. He grabbed Mantis from his shoulders and held her slim neck in his golden fist.

The reality stone glowed red.

Mantis’ screams were cut off and she froze. Her feet seemed to slowly drop away from the rest of her body, then went her legs. It wasn't until the stone’s effects reached her hips that Loki realised she was turning to sand.

It happened so quickly. One moment she was there, and the next she was a pile of sand at the titan’s feet. He stepped through her to get to the other Avengers.

Drax rushed forward, yelling with the rage of a thousand burning suns. Thanos obliterated him with one power stone charged punch.

Loki was too distracted to realise the fight had started again. Three outriders were practically on top of him before he drew his dagger across one of their faces to get it to recoil. He let his daggers return to his pocket dimension and in the same second summoned a spear he’d borrowed from the Wakandan army.

One outrider too close to Loki when he summoned the spear, got the pointed end to the stomach. Loki shoved the spear in further, before pulling away quickly to get the spear before the creature fell. In the same movement, he swung the other end of the spear at the other outrider’s feet, knocking it to the ground before he brought the spear down on its chest.

He removed the spear, hitting an oncoming outrider with the butt of the weapon before launching forward to impale another with the spear head. He pulled the spear out and spun around before thrusting his weapon into the outrider he had knocked back.

He just barely noticed the oncoming projectile in time to avoid Proxima Midnight’s spear.

Proxima had already sent a kick toward his chest before he had time to react. He was knocked to the ground and looked up in time to see her thrusting a sword downwards.

It never hit. Loki’s sash had caught her wrist and refused to move. Loki grinned and told the sash to throw her aside, a command which it – almost happily – obeyed.

It gave Loki the time to get to his feet before Proxima could get to her’s. She outstretched her hand and it took Loki a moment to figure out what she was doing. He jumped aside, but the sharp sides of the spear still cut Loki’s shoulder as it returned to Proxima’s hand.

Proxima sheathed her sword and readied her spear as Loki let his own spear slip away and summoned his daggers.

Proxima was the first to move, sprinting towards him, holding her spear like a knight with a lance. Loki waited until she was too close to turn before slipping to the right and attempting to get close with his blades before Proxima swung the spear around quicker than he could move back, hitting him with the sides of the point. It wasn't enough for the blades to get past the tough leather of Loki's battle armour, but it still hurt like Hel.

Loki doubled over with the hit, letting out a groan of pain. Proxima followed the hit with another strike with the butt of the spear at his chest. Loki could barely move, he was in enough pain that she had time to swing the spear around so the point was pointed right at him and thrust forward.

The spear was yanked backwards out of her hands. Proxima spun around quickly, letting Loki see who he had to thank for saving his life. Thankfully, it was Peter, not Strange. Loki didn't know if he could actually thank Strange and not die on the spot.

Peter waved his red gloved hand at Loki quickly, which Loki returned half-heartedly.

Proxima growled, taking out her sword again before making a run towards Peter. Loki’s sash responded almost instinctually, the two ends extending out to grab both of Proxima’s wrists and holding them behind her back.

Peter aimed webbing at Proxima’s head and brought it downwards, making her fall to her knees. Loki was already next to her and as she hit the ground, Loki thrust his dagger through the back of her throat, the point emerging from the other side, slick with blue blood.

Loki pulled his dagger from her corpse and wiped the now blue and red covered blade against his trousers so the blood wouldn't run down to his fingers.

“Gross.” Peter commented. “Did you get hurt badly?”

Loki flicked his hand, urging the universe to turn himself and Peter invisible to everyone except themselves. He led the boy a little away from the battlefield towards the cover of the trees.

“So..?” Peter urged.

“Just some broken ribs and possibly a bruised kidney. She's pretty strong. I'll get my magic to hold it together and go under a healing sleep after the battle, I'll be fine.” Loki said, letting his hand envelop in a green glow before he put it to his chest, wincing as the magic seeped into his skin. “Do you have any injuries?”

“Couple of bruises. I'm fine.” Loki gave Peter a sceptical look. “Really!”

“Hmm,” was all Loki could reply with as he moved his hand to where his kidney was. “Stick by me anyway. I don't trust that you won't run off to fight Thanos.”

As the words left Loki’s mouth, their attention was drawn back to the fight with Thanos as Ant-man turned gigantic.

“Woah.” Peter said. “He turned giant-man!”

“That was part of the plan, yes.” Loki said, far less excited.

The had a near perfect view of Thanos when ‘Giant-man’ brought his fist down on Thanos, slowly but filled with power.

Thanos caught his fist in his hand.

Loki noticed that Giant-man wasn't moving before he did the blue glow around him. Thanos had frozen him in place with the space stone, the power stone glowing as it assisted the Tesseract.

The reality stone glowed and suddenly it was like Giant-man had been replaced with a shadow, completely black.

The space stone’s hold lessened and the shadow moved. As it separated, Loki realised it wasn't a shadow at all, but billions of ants.

The Titan had a rather cruel sense of humour.

Loki felt Peter stiffen beside him.

“Scott!” A voice called out from somewhere on the battlefield close to Peter and Loki’s location.

Loki finally found her in the crowd and recognised her as the Wasp, running at Thanos despite being told to stick to the outriders in the plan.

Her blaster fired again and again at the Titan, doing no damage whatsoever.

She didn't even reach him. A swarm of ants engulfed her completely, leaving her as a shaky black shape momentarily. As the ants separated, all the was left were bones.

The fuck kind of ants were those?

The rest of the swarm had begun doing the same to others in the crowd. Members of the Wakandan army, the Jubari tribe and the Sakaaran gladiators were all being eaten alive.

They seemed to be winning the battle, but if the ants weren't stopped, it would be over in minutes.

“Peter, stay here.” Loki commanded. “If you move I might lose control of the invisibility spell on you and the ants will eat you. Got it?”

Peter nodded.

“My mind’s going to be somewhere else so you'd better not pull anything stupid.”

Loki concentrated on sending an illusion of himself closer to the battle with Thanos and quickly made his way to Thor, who was preparing to jump up again.

“Hey, Thor.” Loki greeted. “Your hammer’s fixed?”

Thor looked towards Thanos to make sure the Titan wasn't aiming an attack his way before sparing Loki a look. “It's self-repairing. What are you doing here?”

“I need you to use some of your lightning bolts on the swarm of ants before everyone gets devoured.”

“Why must I do everything?” Thor said to himself, but turned to face the swarm anyway. “Can you get them all to come my way?”

“Sure.” Loki shrugged and laid a hand on Thor’s shoulders.

Illusions and sounds had taken Loki a while to master, but making people smell like other things was a piece of cake. He'd often made Thor smell like horse manure to everyone bar himself and his brother in his youth.

Loki made Thor’s smell replicate the scent of ant pheromones. Thor was prey to attack.

“You're good to go.” Loki said as the ants all turned towards Thor.

His brother sighed. “Here goes nothing.” He said, before he lept up into the air.

Loki illusion rippled as Thanos sent a blast from the power stone towards him. Loki gave him an uninterested look. “Uh, fuck off?”

Thanos’ brief confusion over Loki’s illusion gave Nebula time to get a hit in on Thanos. Thanos tried to fight back, but in hand to hand combat, she had him beat. The only problem was that she wasn't leaving a single mark.

Eventually, Thanos recovered enough to grab her upper arm and snap the metal in half. Nebula screamed, but Thanos did nothing except push her aside before sending a laser-like blast from the powerstone through her stomach.

Loki looked back to Thor. He was in the middle of a giant black ball of flying ants. For a brief moment, Loki was sure he had just killed off his brother before dark clouds began to gather around him and the swarm.

He sent lightning blast after lightning blast at the swarm and shaped it until the entire ball seemed to have turned blue.

Millions upon millions of ant corpses began to drop to the ground in large clumps.

Strange finally got off his ass and created a portal to catch the falling ants before the army was buried in them.

They were winning again. The number of outriders was being halved by every passing moment.

Loki joined Peter again and let their invisibility drop. “Alright, let’s destroy the rest of these motherfuckers.”

Peter grinned. “Hell yeah!”

The two of them rejoined the army. As a collective force they cut down outrider after outrider.

Loki saw the Defenders. Daredevil was bloody and obviously hurt, but was taking down as many outriders as Loki was, Luke Cage couldn't be hurt by anything the aliens threw at him, Jessica Jones was a terrifying force of nature, Iron Fist could use his chi to blast back 10 enemies at once, Colleen Wing sliced through the opposition with enviable efficiency.

Korg blasted through outriders with his Sakaaran laser rifle. Meek sliced and diced. Heimdall, Sif and Valkyrie fought side by side by side, cleaving through aliens.

They were an unstoppable force. Very quickly, all that was left was Thanos.

They all tried to hit him at once. Iron Man fired his repulsors, Hulk jumped forward to punch, Thor was letting gravity pull him down toward the titan – hammer glowing with electricity. The Wakandan army surged forward. Loki readied his daggers. Thanos was done for.

Everything paused.

Everything was silent apart from the sound of Thanos clapping slowly. The space and power stones were glowing brightly from their places on the gauntlet.

“Congratulations.” He said. “You're the first planet that's ever been a match for my army. That's… truly an impressive feat. If I didn't have the gauntlet, I'm sure I'd be dead by now.”

He continued. “I'm sorry to tell you all that you never had a chance of beating me. I can't be hurt anymore. I let you all play this game because I respect this planet and it's lust for war and death. I wanted you all to die honourably so you could be filled with pride when you meet Lady Death. What's more honourable than beating an entire army?”

He smiled. “I'll take the time stone from whichever one of you is hiding it easily. Then I'll be unstoppable. But with the reality, soul and power stones alone? I still have the ability to do this.”

Thanos snapped his fingers.

After that he allowed them all to move again, but created another purple shield around himself and just stood there, watching.

Nobody knew what to do for a moment.

A few screams began to break out from all over the battlefield. Loki still didn't know what was going on.

“Loki?” Peter said, voice high pitched and filled with panic. His mask was down, and his eyes were wide.

“I don't- I don't feel so good.”

Chapter Text

“What's- what’s happening?” Peter asked, hands shaky, voice skakier.

Loki struggled to find words that his panic didn't instantly strangle. “What do you mean?”

“My… my spidey sense. It's going off like crazy... I don't know what's happening.” Loki noticed before Peter did, noticed the fingers of his left hand slowly drifting away in the air as they turned to dust. Peter raised the hand to his face when he noticed the disappearance of weight. His eyes somehow widened more than they were already. Loki could see the sweat glistening on his skin. “Loki? What's going on?”

“I don't… I don’t know, Peter,” Loki said softly, “I'm sorry.”

Peter’s entire forearm was gone, his right hand was starting to go. The realisation that he was dying seemed to finally set in. He looked like he was holding back vomit before he rushed forward to wrap his arms around Loki and press his head into his chest.

Loki didn't have anything to say, he could barely register how he was feeling. All he knew was that he should be dying, not Peter. Peter was a child.

And by the Norns did he look like a child now more than he ever had. Peter let out a shaking sob. “I want Aunt May.”

Loki wrapped his own arms around Peter as he felt the weight of Peter’s arms disappearing. “I know… I know…” He reassured because there were no other words. Loki’s thoughts felt like fog he was scrambling to catch with a fishing net.

“I don't want to die. I don't want to go.” Peter sobbed again. “Tell Aunt May-” Peter choked on his words before he looked up at Loki with pure unfiltered panic.

Loki was left grasping at empty air. He kept his hands up – unable to process, unable to move.

Tell Aunt May what? If he had known would he even have said it to her? Most likely not. He was ever the coward.

Loki felt completely dissociated. He didn't even realise he was crying until he tasted salt on his lips, didn't realise Strange was in front of him until a hand was placed on his shoulder.

“Loki,” Strange said, “It's time.”

“Fuck. Off.” Loki spat out.

Ah, there was the emotion he was looking for.

Anger.

Loki thrived in anger, revelled in wrath. Sadness was a liability, grief was a hindrance, happiness was a distraction. Anger was a tool that Loki had long ago learned to twist into whatever purpose he needed it to suit. He hadn't felt true anger in such a long time. He felt powerful in a way he hadn't since the invasion of New York.

But this time he didn't have the mind stone limiting him and poisoning his mind. He would rip Thanos to pieces.

“Loki.” Strange repeated, and Loki finally noticed the specks of dust drifting away from his shoulder. Strange held the time stone between his fingers without the casing of the Eye around it.

“What? Now you using the time stone? After people have died? Peter was sixteen.” Loki spat every word out, like they were acid on his tongue.

“I know,” Strange said, “but I had to make sure you were properly motivated. I didn't want you to try changing anything else.”

“You chose the death of a child as a motivator? You're vile. A rat in human form.”

“I know, I know.” Strange repeated again, passing the time stone to Loki who held it in the air between his fingers like Strange had done as to not touch it. “And I'm sorry, but I don't see you… I'm sorry.”

“You're sorry? How about you say that to Peter!”

Loki didn't get a reply, just a mournful look before Strange fully faded away, his cloak left floating in the air.

Loki looked at the time stone in his hand. If Strange had given it to him without the Eye of Agamotto, it meant he planned for Loki to die using it, as everyone using the infinity stones without protection did. It would be far more powerful though, capable of using against Thanos with all the infinity stones he possessed.

Still, to die willing was a difficult decision to make. If Loki wanted to, he could always take the coward’s option. Thanos had already halved Midgard. It was unlikely Loki would die if he left it alone.

“Loki.” Said a voice, and Loki turned to see Brunnhilde approach, looking relieved. “Sif and Heimdall… they both disappeared I was worried-”

“You're alive.” Was all Loki could say.

The Valkyrie put on a smile that was obviously forced. “Of course I am! Can't get rid of me that easily.” She said, grabbing hold of Loki's upper arm.

She stumbled forward as all the weight on that hand became unsupported. She looked at her hands in panic, both of which had disappeared. Her’s progressed a lot faster than the other’s had. She barely had time to look up before she was already gone.

Loki grabbed hold of the time stone.

Everything around him froze. The world was left completely still and silent.

Loki almost felt at peace until the time stone decided to rip into him. His skin slowly began to crack, the valleys filled entirely with green light. The time stone was patient, it would give him the opportunity he needed, but it would eventually kill him.

With tears streaming down his face and adrenaline coursing through his veins, Loki marched forward.

He passed Shuri, who was thankfully not one of Thanos’ victims. She was on her knees, hands running through a pile of dust in front of her. Her face was scrunched up as she cried, and Loki was sure if time was moving, he'd be able to hear her screaming. Beside her, General Okoye stood, her spear seeming to be the only thing keeping her upright and her own expression the mirror of Shuri’s.

A few people were dying that Loki didn't care about. Iron Fist and Luke Cage seemed to believe that holding on as tight to Daredevil and Jessica Jones as possible would prevent them from disappearing. The teenage tree and the raccoon were hugging a near gone Starlord. Black Widow stood with her arms wrapped around herself as she stood in front of a dust pile that had probably once been Agent Barton. Stark was holding the Wakandan shield that Rogers had been using close, likely regretting the animosity they had let grow between them – as if Loki cared.

He did feel a slight twist in his gut at the mechanical wings and metal arm he walked past, but didn't feel anything remotely gut punching until he saw Wanda nearly gone with Vision too far away to find her before she died.

Loki stood in front of the girl and begged the time stone for some assistance. He couldn't let her die alone.

Nothing else moved, but suddenly Wanda became animated again. “Loki.” She jolted back in surprise. “I don't know what's happening. I can't fix it.”

Loki stepped forward and held her face between his hands. “It's alright. Leave that to me. You're going to be okay.” He placed his forehead against her’s and stayed still until she was gone.

Thor was the last person he had to see. Thankfully, his brother didn't look like he was dying any time soon. He was however, being blasted backwards, likely the result of him coming down on Thanos’ shield with full force. The Hulk was beside him, looking angrier than Loki had ever seen him.

The time stone was easily the second most powerful infinity stone, beaten only by the reality stone. With it, he could do almost anything he wanted. Loki focused on Thanos’ shield, reversing time on it specifically until it disappeared.

Loki considered using the time stone on Thanos directly until he was old enough to turn to dust, but he wanted more than that. He wanted Thanos to know he was dying, know that Loki was responsible for his death. He wanted Thanos to fear Loki as he had him.

He instead turned his attention to the stones themselves. The space stone had once been the Tesseract, the reality stone had once been the Aether. With a polite command to the time stone, they were both returned to their previous forms, and allowed to exist outside of time as Loki was currently.

Loki caught the flowing Aether first. Letting it burn through his veins like it once had Jane Foster’s. It was agony, but his anger was enough to push the pain aside.

Next he grabbed the Tesseract, hanging suspended in air. Loki took it in his empty hand and crushed it, revealing the blue stone inside. The space stone tore at his body too, but it was hardly noticeable when the other stones were already doing the same and the time stone kept his life suspended in time.

With the space and time stones at his command, Loki focused on the last stone he needed: the mind stone. He borrowed it from the moment during his invasion after he had dropped his scepter on Stark tower, but before the Widow had taken it for herself.

In a split second, Loki was holding his old weapon again. He shifted the two stones to one hand so he could hold it comfortably. He grinned before he pressed the scepter’s point to Thanos’ temple, the time stone glowing in his other hand – allowing Thanos’ mind to process outside of time. Loki also allowed his eyes and ears to catch up. His whole body would remain frozen, but he'd be able to see, hear and comprehend everything that Loki did.

His eyes widened at the sight of Loki with his scepter, two infinity stones in the other hand, red cracks in his skin obviously indicating that he had the reality stone too.

“I am Loki of Asgard.” He said, looking Thanos in the eyes and savouring the defeat he saw in them. “God of Mischief, Goddex of Chaos, Goddess of Stories… I think it's about time your story ended, hm?”

Thanos’ eyes revealed everything. The rage, the defeat, the despair, the fear.

“I'm going to tear you to pieces and scatter you across the universe for everything you did. For Brunnhilde and Sif and Heimdall and Peter…”

“If you think Lady Death really cares about you enough to give you a warm welcome when you enter her realm, I can tell you that you're sorely mistaken. Not even Death could love you.”

Loki blew a mocking kiss towards Thanos before he waved his hand. “See you in Hel.”

He used the reality stone to split Thanos into the atoms that made him up, urging the stone to make it as painful as possible. With the scepter, he was able to listen to the screams Thanos wishes he were able to exclaim and relish in the agony he felt. The infinity gauntlet dropped to the ground with a tud.

With the space stone he banished every single atom as far away from each other as they possibly could be. Unnecessary and overly petty? Sure. But that was practically the title of Loki’s autobiography.

He let out a tired sigh. Finally: he was done. It was over.

He untied the sash from his waist, and sent it, him helmet and everything in his pocket dimension back to him room with the help of the space stone so that they didn't get caught up in the stone’s destruction of himself. The sash brushed one of its ends gently across Loki’s cheek before he sent it away.

He let the scepter return to its original time and nonchalantly picked the gauntlet up from the ground. He let the reality stone and space stone return to their rightful places in it before he turned to Thor.

He was scared to die again. He would have to unless he wanted to hold the time stone forever, but although Loki knew the stone was patient, it had let Loki do what he needed and its hold would release any time now.

Still, it was fine. He'd just die and then Thor would bring him back to life.

“And I'm sorry, but I don't see you… I'm sorry.” Strange had said. But I don't see you... - what exactly? When Strange looked to the future and saw Loki using the stones, did he not see Loki coming back to life afterwards?

Maybe Thor wouldn't use the gauntlet to bring anyone back. Maybe Thor wouldn't use it to bring him back specifically – deciding the world would be better without him. Maybe the reality stone wouldn't let him bring back a life the stones had taken personally – maybe a life paid to use the stones couldn't be reversed.

His tears were heavier now. He had been faced with death before, but it had never felt so heavy and suffocating than it did now, surrounded by eternity.

More cracks appeared in his skin – green and red and blue – the time stone pushing him to move.

He spoke his final command to the time stone aloud. “Just give me time to say goodbye.”

The time stone’s aura flowed through him: warm and comforting. It tried to calm his panicking brain and despite how little it actually did, Loki appreciated the effort and felt a little better confronting his death – as if that could ever be an easy thing to face.

He let the time stone be pulled into the gauntlet, though it's warm presence stayed with Loki.

“Where Thanos?!” Roared the Hulk. Loki ignored him, ignored everything.

“Loki?” Thor said, who was suddenly standing before him. His hand was held out slightly, like he wanted to touch Loki but was hesitant to.

Loki looked at his brother and held out the gauntlet. “You have to bring back Sif and Heimdall and Brunnhilde and Peter and- and-” He choked on a sob and soon any other words were completely lost to him.

Thor grabbed the infinity gauntlet from his hands and threw the weapon of god-like power to the ground like it was worth nothing before he wrapped his arms around his brother.

Loki cried into Thor’s shoulders, his sobs shaking his entire body as the cracks in his skin progressed further and further. “You have to- have to promise to bring them back.” He eventually got out.

“I promise.” Thor said, and Loki realised he was crying too. “You broke your promise though. No dying for two hundred years, remember? Not very honourable to go back on your word like that.”

Loki laughed through his sobs. “I've never been one for honour.”

“True.” Thor replied. “But this time I know you're coming back, just like every other time. I have the infinity gauntlet now, I can make it happen.”

“The Avengers won't be happy.”

“Fuck the Avengers.” Thor said. “The Revengers are cooler anyway.”

“I think Strange said I wouldn't be able to come back.”

“Fuck Strange too,” Thor said easily, “No one tells me what I can or can't do. The only thing you're going to die of is old age, I won't accept anything else.”

The cracks crept up his neck, and split one of his cheeks in two. “If I don't come back, I'm sorry and I- I love you.”

“When you come back to life, I'm so holding that over your head.” Thor replied, Loki’s hair wet with his tears.

“Can't you just say goodbye, Thor?” Loki said – begged.

Thor paused. “I'll say… see you later.”

Loki pulled away a little as the cracks hit his eye, sending his world into a kaleidoscope of colours. He let himself laugh a little as one final tear rolled down his cheek. “See you later then.”

The time stone let go.

Chapter Text

Thor wouldn't let anyone take the gauntlet from him. He didn't trust that anyone bar him would bring Loki back along with everyone else.

The trouble lay in where he could stop bringing people back to life. He could bring back Asgard, but if he brought it back, why not every other group of people that had been killed? Why not Zen-Whoberi or the citizens killed in the New York invasion and Sokovia? Where would he stop?

No, he had to limit himself to only resurrecting those who had been killed in Thanos’ recent search for the stones. Even if it was hard to do.

He thought back to his trip to Xandar when he was travelling the universe in search of the infinity stones. They were good people and though Thor didn't agree that they should keep the power stone, he let them have it. In hindsight, that was a mistake, but with the infinity gauntlet in hand, he could bring them back. The soul stone told him all those who had died and the time stone reversed their deaths. It was almost too easy.

Next was the Asgardians who had been killed from the Tesseract. Thor remembered standing before them as their king, with Loki, Brunnhilde, Heimdall, Korg and Bruce by his side. He remembered the pride he felt in his people and urged the ship to repair itself and his people to return from the dead.

He had travelled to the collector in his travels too. His security was better than most, but evidently not enough to stop a Titan with two infinity stones. He had the same – rather creepy – aura that the grandmaster did, but he did have rather good wine. Thor brought him back along with any of the living beings that had been in his collection when Thanos destroyed the place. And maybe he didn't put those living beings back in their cages when he resurrected them, but he would plead the fifth if asked about it.

He brought back those who died in the battle for the time stone next. The soul stone assisted him in bringing back everyone. The Wakandan Army, the Dora Milaje, and the Jubari tribe. The Asgardians and the Sakaraan Gladiators. The Guardians and The Avengers and The Defenders. Spider-man and Doctor Strange. He pictured them lined up for battle and resurrected them all.

And then, Thor used the soul and time stones to reverse the halving of Earth and anyone else who died accidentally because of it.

Gamora was next. Thor remembered seeing her for the first time, radiating the same intimidating aura as Sif always did. He didn't know her well, but already respected her as a great warrior and as someone able to break free from the manipulation Thanos used to keep her under his control.

The soul stone disappeared as he brought her back to life, but Thor didn't need it anymore. He could remember who the last soul was on his own. His last memory of Loki wasn't a pleasant one. He tried to think of a nicer time in Loki’s life when as he brought his brother back. The first memory that came to mind was the two of them as young children after Loki had turned Eir’s hair blue per Thor’s suggestion and the two of them had ran away giggling. They had later gotten caught, of course, but the memory had still stuck to his mind. Back then Loki was still happy and the two of them were still close. Thor hoped when Loki returned, they could work together to return to something like that.

Some of the recently resurrected had turned up in some odd places.

Gamora called the Guardians’ ship radio from her mobile one (which the other Guardians claimed had been lost in the battle on Knowhere for the reality stone) to say she was in some desert planet. They quickly traced her signal back to the Australian outback.

The Statesman was found rather quickly when it showed up beside a Norwegian village. Heimdall and Sif soon left to check up on the them when Thor insisted he had to stay.

The Collector made quite a bit of noise in England and when Tony found him on the news, Thor told him to contact the Guardians – who promised to drop him off to Knowhere when they returned to space.

Everyone else seemed fine – if a little confused and amnestic – and in the right place.

All except Loki.

Thor waited for him to contact them somehow. If he was left somewhere isolated like Gamora, it could take him a while.

He couldn't use the gauntlet to find him either, he'd let Strange take it without thinking and now all the stones were locked away in five separate lockets. Thor had gotten one of them, but had no idea which one. According to Strange, they wouldn't be able to unlock the lockets unless they were all in the same room and each consented to using their personal stone. It would prevent anyone being killed for the stones and prevent the stones being used aside from in an emergency situation. They could pass the stone’s ownership onto someone else, but only if they believed that person could responsibly take care of the stone, so there was no way to pass on the ownership with torture techniques.

It was all rather clever, but meant Thor couldn't use the stones to find Loki. No doubt if he asked, the owners of the stones would find that ‘finding Loki’ was definitely a non-emergency, especially as he was probably hiding on purpose to avoid getting in trouble.

Strange had spoken to the Guardians before they left and as a group they decided to give the ownership of a stone to both Nebula and Gamora. Strange was a little annoyed, but agreed that it could be owned by two people eventually.

Another stone was given to Wakanda, or rather, to T’Challa, as Strange wasn't keen on giving the stone to every person in the country.

Strange had kept one for himself, of course, and gave the last one to Steve. Stark grumbled that he wasn't given a stone half-heartedly, but it was obviously in good humour.

He still trained with Valkyrie and Hulk everyday, and talked with Bruce (or Jane over skype sometimes) about science. With Bruce’s seven PhDs and Thor’s thousand years of experience, they had a lot of areas they could cover.

Still, he wished Loki would get a move on and contact them already. Or make a surprise visit to Wakanda and stab him or something. Every green animal Thor saw, he got his hopes up and was eventually disappointed.

Everyone was concerned about him, he knew they were. They had a right to be, he was in a sort of slump waiting for Loki. Every other time he had ‘died’, Thor was able to grieve and move on, but now he was just waiting. Everyone else had been brought back, surely Loki had been too?

“Maybe he’s not coming back.” Valkyrie said bluntly one evening.

“It's not healthy to dwell on this.” Bruce told him with concern.

“I cannot see further than Norway and Sweden. Asgard’s destruction continues to weaken my sight,” Heimdall said reluctantly when asked if her could see where Loki was.

Thor tried to believe that he was hiding or unable to make contact, but he was losing hope every day that passed. Eventually he was convinced by Sif to leave Wakanda and visit his people in Norway. Bruce and Brunnhilde followed him there.

He enjoyed himself a little more, Loki still hanging heavy on his mind, but responsibility was a more pressing matter.

Months past. Smaller Avengers missions and royal emergencies passed by too and Loki being dead seemed to be a fact accepted by everyone other than him. It didn't bother him as much as it used to, but he still held out a little hope. He didn't waste hours waiting for Loki to reappear anymore though, and when the Guardians stopped by and asked if Thor wanted to join them for a month or two (Groot missed him – they said), he agreed without a second thought.

Around the same time in New York, a young child with raven black hair smiles at a gathered crowd, green eyes glinting, as he cons them out of their money. None of them aware that this child is anything but innocent, or is in fact the God of Mischief and Stories themselves. The trickster god Loki lives, but no one has any idea that this child is them.

Elsewhere, a pale hand bursts free from the Ocean of Immortality, fingernails stained black from its tar-like water. Amora the Enchantress pulls herself to shore and curses at Odin with the first words she had spoken in hundreds of years.

On a Skrull ship farther away in space, Carol Danvers gets a message on her beeper, arriving months after Fury intended her to get it. Punching the last Skrull unconscious, she begins making plans to head back to Earth for the first time in a long time.