Endless Mischief

Loki wouldn’t say he is bad at fighting, not really. He was quite good at it actually, if he may say so himself. He was quite the dangerous opponent, mostly thanks to his magic and trusted Daggers. He could make Illusions, send out shockwaves of magic, revert a falling building back to its previous glory and more, all without breaking a sweat. It was easy, really. His skill in throwing daggers was also half decent if he may say so himself.

So no, he wasn’t bad at fighting.

But he still wasn’t as good at it as he could be, if he would be able to actually learn more. The events of the last years sadly didn’t make that possible, and the loops had the tendency to start to late to actually be able to ask someone to a spar or fight some actually decent opponents.

Yes, you could argue that Thor and his group of mortals were fairly decent opponents, but really, he mostly only ever met them during the Invasion, and they at that point for some reason don’t want to fight him personally and rather focus on the Chitauri. He was slightly insulted that they thought the chitauri to be a bigger threat than him, but he guessed that was better than all of them attacking him at once. Because while he may easily be able to defend himself against all those mortals, the Hulk and his Brother could, well, actually harm him.

And really, the mortals only got him in the original time because he had let them. He wouldn’t actually be so stupid to start the Invasion right where everyone could see. Or to especially anger the Avengers, even if they weren’t really a threat to him and rather the Chitauri.

Really, Thor should have noticed something was off, but he was getting Distracted.

Point is, anyone he could fight, he by now knows how they react to what and what he should do in a fight against them, simply because he looped right into fights often enough. And yes, that made him fairly better at fighting, but it was still considerably nothing against what he could actually do if he had the time to.

And he had time, but the loops just seemed to have a personal grudge against him, because he almost never started earlier than the middle of the Invasion, which was considerably to late. Everyone already wanted to kill him then, no time for training.

So, every time he looped back at bad times, which was ninety precent of the time, he would instead study his magic. Well, if he wasn’t stuck in a cell. (Which he could easily escape by now. What, did you really think he didn’t spend a couple of loops figuring out how to escape these?)

He already knew a lot about magic, because he had after all studied it multiple years. But he was exactly aware that he knew only a small piece of everything there was, despite reading through the library since he was but a child (He wasn’t even nearly halfway through, and he spent most of the time of his life, which was over one thousand years long, in there.) So, every time he could, he teleported right in there and sometimes spend multiple years in one loop only reading books.

A lot of the things written there were absolutely useless and stupid, but hey, who would have thought that a book about the adventures of a Dragling, a Cat with dragon wings or features, could be so interesting? Loki certainly hand’t.

And when he was, after around a hundred or two very tiring loops, done with reading all of them, he probably knew more about literally anything then everyone else. Who would have thought that there was a word for watching people eat and hoping they’ll offer you some? Apparently that was called Groaking, but Loki wasn’t too sure he trusted that book from Midgard to tell truths.

Most of the things in there we’re stupid, but now he could at least honestly say he read all the books in the library of Asgard, which not even the All-Father had done. He was a bit proud of that.

Of corse when he went to tell the All-Father this, the loop reseted.

Loki was positive Time held a personal grudge against him.

***

(Credit to: Sonicgirllover)

Loki did not know what exactly he changed, but somehow he found himself in the Streets of New York, the very city he tried to take over with giant cats this loop, facing Thanos together with the Avengers. And Thanos had the time stone for some reason. That was probably Loki’s fault. He had killed Strange this loop, but the sorcerer had send away the stone with magic somewhere. Thanos probably killed the poor Bastard who found it. But that gave him an Idea.

Because what else could break a time loop than the Time stone? The damned thing was probably the cause of it in the first place! Loki wondered why he hadn’t thought of that sooner than 2000 loops. But some part of hime didn’t care, because this was a chance. He didn’t care that he only thought of it now, it was a chance to get out of this damned hel.

So, the moment Thanos stepped a foot on the ground, Loki was shot whisks of green magic at him. He walked closer and closer, using magic to whipe the Army and Thanos Children out of the way when they tried to stop him.

Finally, Thanos lurched at him with his sword, but Loki only had to lift his hand and it stopped at his neck. The irony wasn’t lost on him and he couldn’t help the chuckle that came before he could stop it.

Thanos raised his gloved hand, trying to use the stone to revert time, but Loki only lazily flicked his hand and Thanos own blade chopped of his hand. The Titan let out a scream, a mixture of pain and rage, before Loki once again moved his hand and pulled Thanos straight up to his own face.
“Good Riddance, Titan”, he whispered mockingly, then he clenched his fist and the Titans neck was crashed.

The Corpse fell to the floor and Loki gave it a strong kick with his left foot, effectively throwing the Titans Corpse at the feet of his Children. He picked up the gauntlet and while turning back to the Avengers switched out the time stone for an Illusion, while the real one ended in his pocket dimension.

The Avengers were staring at him like he just killed god. He took one look at the gauntlet and back at the Avengers, who tensed immediately.

“Brother, don’t-”, Thor started, but Loki just dropped the gauntlet to the floor and waved him off.

“Don’t bother, Thor. I have no interest in this thing.”, he said and gave the gauntlet a kick, making it land at the feet of the Avengers, who to absolutely no ones surprise looked suspicious and/or surprised. He sighed.

“You should destroy it. Maybe it’ll stick this time. My Magic didn’t work but maybe you have an Idea.”, he said.

“This time?”, Natasha asked and Loki just shrugged. It didn’t matter if they knew now, he could get out now.

“Yeah, this time. It certainly didn’t work when I tried a few years ago.”, he said, twisting the truth as he always did.

“You had that once?!”, Stark exclaimed and Loki turned his back to them.

“Not have it, per se, but I’ve meet Thanos before. A few times.” Yes he certainly didn’t have it, he was killed by it. Big difference.

“You met him-How?”, asked Rogers and Loki shrugged again.

“More often than I would like.”, he said, paused for a second and then added: “What’s the time?” He didn’t get an answer for a few seconds, then Stark hesitantly told him. He had five minutes until the loop would reset.

“Thank you.”, he said and pulled out the time stone.

“How did you meet him?”, someone asks and he considers his options. Eh, he could humour them a bit.

“Before New York was the first time, spend around a year there. I’m sure they-”, he glanced at the Black Order “-can confirm that.”, he says, turning back to them, the Time stone now in his hands and visible for everyone to see.

Everyone tensed immediately.

“You just have to trust me with this.”, Loki says and then activates the power of the stone while using magic to keep everyone in place.

“Loki! What are you doing?!”, Thor demands and Loki smiles at him softly.

“If I get this right, I’ll finally be able to escape this hel. You can do whatever you want with me after, alright? I just want to stop this.”

“Stop what?! Brother, you’re not making sense!”

“It will. I’ll explain it. You have to trust me this once.”, he says, then he snaps his fingers, using the time stone to end this loop. His Personal Hel.

It didn’t work.

The loop didn’t restart, but he knew it didn’t work.

He could still feel the lingering presence of the magic that made this hel. And Loki stared at the Stone.

“No-No-No!”, he stutters out, snapping again and again and again and again. It doesn’t go away. The ever present lingering of the loops was still there. Loki stared at the Stone. It shined greenly. Loki loved green. He didn’t now. Why did it have to be green?

He smashed the stone at the floor.

“You stupid, useless-”, he screams at it, aware that everyone is watching him as if he was a mad man. Loki sure was by now. He steps on the stone with his foot, shattering it, to the protests of various people, who could do nothing but watch as he still had them frozen in place. (He at that point didn’t realise that destroying an Infinity stone was impossible to most of the Universe and hardly manageable for those who could do it.) He stares at the Shards. The Shards were turning grey and loosing their green colour and glow.

Good.

He smiles, a small crazy looking thing.

That thing didn’t deserve that colour.

His smile fell and he stared at the shards in silent fury- or desperation? He didn’t know anymore.

“Why didn’t you work?”, he whispers, sounding completely defeated even to his own ears. “You’re supposed to control time, so why can’t you just undo this?” Silence. (Everyone had stopped shouting and were now staring at him in shock.) Of course it couldn’t answer, it was a fucking stone. And even if it had been sentient, he was positive it was dead now.

“Loki…?”, he hears Thor say. Loki doesn’t look up from the shards of the what he thought was his ticket out of this hel.

“…Loki!”, Thor said again, this time more insistent. Loki looked up.

“What”
Thor was looking at him as if he were mad, a mixture of fear, concern and shock.

“What was that?”, Thor asked, disbelieve and concern lacing his voice.

“I’m pretty sure you all saw what was going on. I took the stone, It didn’t work, I destroyed it because I was frustrated. That’s it.”, They all knew that wasn’t all of it.

“Brother what were you trying to do?”

“End this.”, he says gesturing at their surroundings with his right hand. “End this hel of what you call life. But I can hardly blame you. You don’t know and even if you do you won’t remember. It’s always the first time for you. I envy you, you know? I wish I wouldn’t remember.”

They stared at him like he was mad. And as if he was someone to pity. He huffed.

“Don’t look at me like that.”, he says with annoyance. ”Go ahead and ask. It’s going to reset in like one minute anyways.”

“…Are you stuck in a time loop?”, Stark hesitantly asks after a few moments. Loki chuckles.

“Bingo!”, he chirps with cheer as fake as Odins care for him. Hah, that was a good one mind-him.

“Is that why you… attacked us with cats?”

“Yup! It’s always fun to watch and definitely less destructive then what you fought the original time! It also tends to make you all hate me a lot less.”

“Always. That means you did that multiple times by now.”, Natasha concluded. “How many loops did you live?”

“I don’t know, I stopped particularly counting, but I would say a bit more than two thousand?”, he said-asked, but never got to see their reactions.

The loop ended.

***

Clint narrowed his eyes, letting them follow around his target carefully while waiting for the perfect moment to shoot his arrow. Loki dodged Thors attack easily and grabbed him by his arm, smashing him into the ground effectively a moment later. He immediately jumped back when Stark shot at him and swiftly took his way around all their attacks. It looked like he was dancing with his teammates and Clint hated the way he played with them, but Loki continued to jump and dance around, moving to fast for Clint to have a shot at him.

Thor charged at him again and Loki swiftly jumped up, grabbed his head with his legs and smashed Thor into the ground again and before anyone could use the chance to take a hit Loki was already gone, once again dancing around their attacks.

Thor got back to his feet again, stirring up quite a bit of dust while doing so, which was probably what lead to the loud sneeze that would follow.

“Bless you.”, Loki said while still evading attacks.

“Bless you.”

“Bless you!”

“Bless you.”

“Bless you.”, Clint said, too. After all, just because they were busy fighting didn’t mean they couldn’t all be polite and civil.

Thor continued to aggressively rub his nose and sneezed again. Again a chorus round of bless yous went around. When Thor sneezed again Natasha sighed, while continuing to shoot at Loki with her gun, who still danced around all attacks.

“Don’t worry, I got ya.”, she said and pulled out a pack of tissues with her second hand and handed it to Thor, who gave her a thankful nod while continuing to rub his nose. He took one tissue and sneezed into it hard, then crumbled it and placed it in a pocket somewhere while handing back the pack to Natasha.

“Thank you.”, Thor says and then proceeds to launch himself at Loki again.

***

“What would you do if you were stuck somewhere?”

The Question that started all of this insanity. It looked innocent at first, and really it was, at least until the person who asked it used magic to make everyone answer it. And by everyone Fury meant everyone.

It started with the Shield agent who was the one asked the question by the intruder, whose name they still hadn’t known at that point, that had asked the question calmly, like one may tell a riddle or explain the rules of a game. The Agent had found himself forced to answer with a “I would seek help” and only after he said it realised what he just said.

Then that need to answer spread like a wildfire. Everyone in the room began voicing their answer, varying from person to person. Fury himself had answered with “I would eliminate whoever got me stuck and get the hell out of there”, while Barton had answered with a simple “I would use the resources around me to get out”. When everyone had voiced their thoughts the man hadn’t seemed satisfied, but still disappeared into green glitter without another word.

That was supposed to be the end of it.

But then everyone they got in contact with started answering the question they never heard, and like he said, he meant everyone. Stark, Romanoff, Banner, Coulson, Thor (Supposedly the brother of the Intruder), the Security Council, the fucking president, other random agents, Hill too.

But once everyone was through that was it.

Or so he had thought until everyone in whole fucking New York started answering the question. Hell even Animals started to answer! (in their Animal sounds, but they did, if the fact that the Intruder, Loki, was found listening to a bunch of cats meowing something to him).

And then Thor told them it started on Asgard too. And then on other planets as well, apparently.

Still, the man who caused of all of this didn’t seem satisfied with the answers he got, and he somehow knew them all, even if no one told him personally.

Now, that the whole Universe was through and Loki was being held for trial on Asgard for cursing all of the fucking Universe, Fury questioned just why the man wanted to know that and why he was desperate enough to curse them to get answers.

***
(Credit to: Estella_9)

„Give me the Tesseract.“, Thanos says and Loki can barely restrain himself from rolling his eyes. Really, Thanos was a lot less scarier if you met him a few times. And know that if he kills you you‘ll be just fine. And really, even if he had the Tesseract, which he didn‘t, he left it on Asgard this loop, he wouldn‘t give it to him. Well now he wouldn’t give it to him, so he did the only other sane thing to do in this situation and pulled out the Casket of Ancient Winters and held it out to Thanos.

„That is not the Tesseract.“, Thanos says and this time Loki does roll his eyes.

„Yes, no shit. But it‘s hidden in there.“, he lies and Thanos narrows his eyes at Loki suspiciously.

„By the norns, did you really think I would have it laying around without any protection? That would be plain stupid.“, he reasons. Thanos narrows his eyes again and then nods.

„How do I get the Tesseract out if it.“

„Well, you either know the right magic or you destroy it.“

„I‘m not letting you use magic, Trickster. I‘m no fool.“, Oh but he was! He just walked right into his trap.

„Colour me surprised.“, Loki says with another roll of his eyes as he basically throws the Casket into Thanos Hands. Thanos wastes no time and throws it at the ground.

It‘s like an explosion.

In less than a second a huge Blizzard came out of the Casket and the temperature drops so much that it was even a bit cold for Loki. He didn‘t even want to know how cold Thor must be right now.

Ignoring the screams of range from Thanos and his children Loki narrows his eyes in hopes to find Thor somewhere in the snow that quickly piled up around them. There, a bit away from him, was a pile bigger than the others. There was no way it could have formed this quickly, even with the magic blizzard.

Loki fought his way through the storm and melted the snow with his magic, and sure enough there was Thor under it. He was pale and his lips were a light blue, but he was conscious, which was a plus point. Using his magic he got rid of the metal holding him back and quickly pulled him up. Thor stumbled and Loki let him lean on himself for support.

They slowly made their way through the blizzard, when he swears he heard Thor mumble something.

„What is it?“, Loki asks him and Thor looks him in the face.

„Y‘re blue.“, he mumbles out and Loki looks away.

„I know.“, he says. There was silence for a few moments.

„…Th‘t w‘s smart.“, he heard Thor again and Loki couldn’t help the smile that formed on his face. He was aware the Thor was trying to distract him, and he was thankful.

„Aren‘t my plans always?“

„M‘st def‘net‘y not.“

„Why, we both know that they are.“, he can see Thor roll his eyes. Loki was about to answer when he felt the magic in the air change around him. He stilled and let out a sigh.

Thor noticed this.

„L‘ki? Wh‘ts-“

The loop ended.

***

„What‘s a vine?“, Thor asks one day. Peter gets ready to explain it because-

„Wouldn‘t you like to know, weather boy?“, came the swift reply of Loki. Before he can stop it a gasp comes out of Peters mouth. Loki. Knew. Vines. Oh my god?!?

„You know vines?!?“, he shrieks as he climbs over the top of the couch to get to where Loki and Thor are standing.

„Well, yes. What do you take me for? A god who can‘t check in on what’s happening on Midgard all few years? Vines really are one of Midgards greatest Achievements.“ Peter can‘t believe his ears. Loki. Knew. AND. Liked. Vines!!! This was the best day of his life.

„Omgomgomgomgomgomgomgomg“, he shrieks again and Loki looks at him really amused.

„What, does no one in this damn tower know what vines are?“