Chapter 3
~ III ~
~o~0~o~
At least Heimdall took care of the Tesseract, Loki thought melancholy as Thanos’ hand closed over his neck.
When Sanctuary II fired at Statesman for the first time, Loki knew it would end in death. His, most likely, but it mattered not. Thor needed to survive. If there was any chance for the battle against the mad titan to be won, Thor needed to survive.
And Loki would help him with it as long as he could.
The Aesir survived the destroying of Asgard, they survived Hela. And all be damned if they couldn’t survive a bunch of filthy aliens. The Valkyrie screamed and seethed, but she took care of the people and took them away from the battlefield, that now raged aboard the Statesman.
Heimdall and Thor fought against Cull Obsidian, while Loki was trying to distract Maw. It was difficult and Loki was losing, but at least he was giving the other two gods time. The Hulk was engaged with Proxima and Corvus and his chances looked manageable.
But all of this meant nothing when Thanos stepped his feet on the ship. The moment it happened, everything as if stopped.
Loki knew they were the dead men. In the second when everyone was distracted by Thanos’ arrival, Loki threw a spell so that Heimdall disappeared from everyone’s eyes but his. Not that Loki went around and preened about how intelligent he was, no. But he suspected that if the worse came to worse, Heimdall would have the power to transport Thor to safety, so the Thunderer would continue his journey.
Even if it meant being alone.
Loki could not suppress his pained howl when Thanos pushed his arm with the knife away and in the next breath titan’s another – gauntleted – hand hit him across it, breaking it seemed all the bones in his left arm. Dazed from agony Loki thought he heard Thor shouting his name, but his mind was too distracted with watching purple energy dance across his broken arm, multiplying the painful sensations. It took seconds until he couldn’t feel his arm, which now fell uselessly at his side.
It would be difficult to live without an arm.
Before Loki could fully comprehend what his revelation meant to him, his eyes snapped up when he felt a crushing weight on his throat.
Oh gods.
Thanos decided to stop playing with the food and has gone for the kill. Loki’s mind exploded in panic and fear, when he couldn’t take a single breath. It was even worse than his arm. Loki felt blood streaming down his face, his veins bulge painfully, his vision going dark.
It was the end.
Loki swore he had one last heartbeat to live, when the hand holding him suddenly disappeared and Loki fell on the ground hard. He gasped for air, but it was a very close call, that he didn’t know if he breathed again or just couldn’t anymore. Then he felt hands touching him, carefully but hurriedly. Loki, still wheezing, tried to open his eyes, but everything was a red blur, he couldn’t see. It hurt to see.
The whine was ripped from his throat as he was straightened out to sit across from the one who was near. His magic was working relentless to heal the horrible damage to his throat, but Loki was tired, he didn’t have enough energy to begin with.
“-ki. Loki! Please!
No. No, it was too painful. Loki wanted to freeze time so that it would. Stop. Hurting. He couldn’t feel his arm, his neck – by the gods – it hurt something horrible, his mouth was full of blood, he still couldn’t see much. But he was pushed to his feet, that couldn’t hold his weight and was half carried somewhere.
Please just leave him somewhere to rest.
He felt Bifrost energy envelop him and would have cried from relief, if it didn’t mean that he was jolted from all sides by the jump and after eternity dropped somewhere hard. He didn’t move anymore.
“Loki? How… How is your arm?”
“I think it’s gone, Thor.”
He could see the moment Thor comprehended his words and the horror that stole his breath away. But the Thunderer schooled his face to a smile – weak and pathetic – to reassure him.
“I don’t believe there is nothing to be done. We-we will find a way, brother.”
“I wanted to save it!”
“For yourself?!”
“NO! Keep it away from him! So he would never get his hands on it.”
“No, Loki. I’m sorry. I truly am. Please come here. I didn’t want to hurt you.”
“Well. You rarely not do so.”
“I am sor-“
“Forget it.”
“So. What do we do?”
“We plan, brother.”
~o~0~o~
Thank you for reading!