How The Mighty Fall
A/N : Hello! Please leave some feedback if you have a moment :) This is my first Marvel series and I will try to keep it as close to canon as possible.
This fic will take place during and after Infinity War part 1, so unless you want to read a few spoilers I recommend that you save this fic in your library until after you watch the movie.
I crossposted this to archive of our own a few years back under the pseudonym MiraButterfly
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So this was it. Death. Or rather, dying. Loki had never expected to actually die by Thanos' calloused meaty hands, but had lived it almost every night in his dreams in an assortment of different ways.
Merely practice, he now supposed. Never had he dreamed that he would be dying trying to save Thor, the people of Asguard, and at least half of the universe. The ship lay in ruins around them, bodies littering the floor. Thanos and his fugly children were clearly winning this battle.
Loki would call Thanos a power hungry ape even as Thanos was suffocating him, but that would clearly be an insult to the apes.
His snark couldn't save him now. Here he was. Grape hands upon his neck with a vengeance, like a vile necklace. And just like a hideous piece of jewelry, Loki wished he could take them off.
As he struggled to get in one of his last breaths of air, lungs on fire and heart pounding, he felt... an eerie sense of calm wash over him. The blood rushing in his ears blocked out all noise, he couldn't hear his brother's cries of anguish.
He had been alive for a few thousand years, and had his share of heart-wrenching agony- emotionally and physically. He knew this day would come eventually. Death had simply come knocking one too many times.
On some level, Loki was ready for this moment. Perhaps he would have been well and truly ready, if the fates of so many weren't up in the air.
He had no home, as both of the realms he (almost) fit into were destroyed. He had done so many horrible things whilst under Thanos' control. Maybe he deserved to not have a happy ending, to die unceremoniously like an unloved minor character in a cheap movie. He would like to think not.
Moments from his childhood and beyond flashed before his eyes fleetingly, yet vividly.
When he was just one-hundred years old and jealous of Thor for being the crown prince, he had turned himself into a beautiful snake and stabbed Thor for picking him up.
Another time, when he had dyed Thor's hair to a deep auburn using his magic. Loki lied, telling Thor that he just simply had no idea who did this magic or how to undo it. The brothers got into a fight, and Loki stabbed Thor in the arm. Looking back on it, Loki mused that perhaps he stabbed Thor more than he would care to admit.
Reading in the royal library from breakfast until supper, alone, so that he may finish his lessons faster than his peers.
The first time he realized he wasn't quite like the rest of the Asguardian children.
Frigga holding a young Loki after he had a nightmare. On that night she used her magic to lull him back into a dreamless sleep, spending hours with him to make sure he didn't slip back into a nightmare.
Getting stuck as a woman for a week due to a prank on Thor gone terribly awry. Fandral romantically pursuing Loki until the truth came out. Ever vain, Loki's only solace being that he had at least turned himself into a pretty girl. While some were disgusted or just simply uncomfortable, Frigga actually found she liked having a daughter for a change. When Thor teased Loki for his sudden endowment, Thor was stabbed in the thigh.
What he wouldn't give to be able to stab Thanos in one of his eyes at this very moment. It doesn't matter which one, he isn't that picky. Perhaps he would even settle for a good shank to the grape's chest right about now.
He was drawn back into his memories as a few more moments and feelings flashed before him, within him.
His first love. His first heartbreak. Flings that ensued.
Slowly feeling more and more cast aside. Anger building.
Thor's coronation. Making it so simple for Frost Giants to get into Asguard.
Learning he wasn't of Asguardian decent.
Falling through space.
Thanos. Thanos.
The memories continued to flash before his eyes until Thanos brought Loki back to the current moment with a particularly tight squeeze to the neck. If he planned to suffocate him to death, Loki was really beginning to wish he would just get on with it.
Although he had a solid grip on Thanos' arms, he felt the strength in his body giving out. There was no trick, no magic he could use to free himself and he knew it.
In the moment before his slender neck was crushed, he pled to Odin to allow him to join Heimdall in Valhalla despite the things he did and didn't do. He was no angel, this he knew, but he had changed, and for the better these past few months.
He was dying a warrior's death.
Right as he died, he locked eyes with Thor for the last time, hoping with all his being that at least he would make it out of this mess alive. He felt the sickening crunch of his neck giving way, and heard it too.
Loki's last living thought was, "Oh, shit".
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A/n: Since this is the prologue this will be a shorter chapter. Please leave a comment so I can know how I'm doing. Thank you!