The Last Sunset
a/n- my marvelverse/comicverse knowledge is a bit all over the place, so I apologize if something is off from the story. Enjoy it for what it is!
For all his scheming, overthinking, planning and tricks, Loki could still not fathom how it went wrong so quick. When they were on the bridge facing down Hela, it did not seem this hopeless. When he was watching Surtur rise from the vault, and trying to figure out how to get himself back to the arc, it didn’t seem this hopeless. Nothing could compare with the pit in his stomach and his horror when he saw Thanos’s ship rise in front of the arc. Nothing.
They were going to die. Thor was going to die.
Loki briefly wondered if Thanos would have found him so quick if he did not take the Tesseract. He rejected that thought almost as soon as it came into his head. There was no use worrying about that now. It had happened, and now Loki must face the consequences.
“You need to get out of here. Now.” Loki said, voice low, as if the neighboring spaceship would hear his words.
“What are you talking about?” Thor said, with confusion and his usual confidence. His tone was dismissive, and Loki felt himself bristle as his brother already began to reject his counsel.
“Thor, that ship, it will destroy everyone and everything, you have to leave.”
Thor practically rolled his remaining eye at Loki. “Whatever or whomever is on that ship, we will face it like warriors.”
Loki felt his anger rise as he turned to Thor. This was the pigheadedness he hated about Thor when they were younger. He acted as though every problem could be fixed with muscle and smashing a few things, and as though every other solution was cowardice.
“Thor. You must listen to me. Please.” Loki said, anger and fear mixing together so that his usual silvertongue stuttered and his voice quaked. Perhaps it was that more than anything else that caused Thor to turn to him and the dismissal in his voice to turn to concern.
“Loki, what’s going on. Tell me, brother.”
Calculating that he had only a few minutes left to convince his brother to get off the ship, Loki decided he had to be convincing as quickly as possible. “That ship belongs to Thanos, his power is unparalleled. He will kill everyone on this ship, and you cannot beat him alone.”
Thor looked at him, questions evident on his face. Luckily, he kept them limited “I’m not alone. I’ve got you, Hulk, the Valkyrie. Do you not think we can handle it?”
“No. Thor, you must get your midguardian friends. The Avengers. Maybe together you have a chance. I’ll stay here with the Valkyrie and hold him off.” Loki knew this was a useless plan. He felt a pang of sympathy sentencing the Valkyrie to her death with him, but no matter. It would be worth it if Thor lived.
“You’re serious, brother?”
“I swear it. If our relationship ever meant anything to you, you will listen to me this final time.” Loki said, his voice choking with emotion. To Loki’s ultimate embarrassment, he felt tears pooling in his eyes.
Perhaps it was the sight of tears on Loki’s face which stunned Thor into action. Perhaps it was some learned humility with the loss of his hammer. Either way, Thor nodded to Loki.
“If this Thanos is as bad as you say, I’ll stay with you here. We will send Hulk along with Valkyrie to midguard to alert our friends and get us help.” Thor said, voice final. “How do you propose we get them there?”
Loki stalled for a moment. He didn’t want Thor here. He didn’t want to have to watch Thor die. “Thor, you are the king, please.”
“And the King will not abandon his people, Loki. You must know that by know. I will not let the people on this ship be slaughtered without protecting them. I will not leave them. I will not leave you.”
And just like that, the fight went out of Loki. He knew he could not convince Thor to leave, and the little boy in Loki thought maybe for just a second that his brother would take care of the problem. Would protect him from the nightmare that was Thanos.
“How do we get them off the ship?” Thor questioned again.
Loki felt his cheeks turn red as he pulled the Tesseract from his pocket. “I can open a wormhole to midguard with this. It won’t be comfortable, but we can get them through it.”
“But not everyone?” Thor asked.
“No, I don’t have enough power to hold it open that long. A second or two at the most. My scepter is what allowed me to hold it open last time.” Loki explained, grateful that Thor didn’t ask any more questions.
“We must get them now. We are preciously short on time.” Loki continued. Thor nodded as the two took off to where they guessed Hulk and the Valkyrie would be.
The Valkyrie and Hulk were sparring when Thor and Loki burst in the room. Loki immediately began to open the wormhole while the Thor began to explain as quickly as possible.
“Hulk, you must get help, from the Avengers. Tell them Thanos came for us.”
“Hulk no leave. Hulk stay here and smash Thanos.” Hulk said firmly. Thor looked desperately at Loki, who had just opened the wormhole.
“You must.” Thor said. “Valkyrie, that’s an order. From your king.” Thor said, voice strong.
The Valkyrie looked knowingly at Thor. Loki knew that the hierarchy of Asgard meant precious little to her. That an ‘order’ was unlikely to be her motive. However, she seemed to understand that this was important. That he wouldn’t give her an order without reason.
“It’s Brunnhillde.” She said.
“What?” Thor questioned.
“My name isn’t Valkyrie, that was a position. My name is Brunnhilde.” She said, and with that, she grabbed the Hulk by the arm, and with power that her small size made you forget she had, she grabbed Hulk by the arm and flung him and herself through the wormhole, just as Loki lost control over it, and it disappeared into nothing.
As soon as they were gone, Thor turned to Loki, but before he could speak, the screaming began.
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The brothers ran toward the direction of the screams. Loki took in the scene with horror. Already bodies were strewn about. Those able seemed to be fighting the best they could, but the black order was crushing them like bugs.
Thanos himself did not even seem to be there yet.
Thor called the lightening, and Loki called his daggers. He felt himself tiring quickly, his magic was already fairly depleted from creating the wormhole with the Tesseract. He didn’t mention that to Thor.
The brothers fought. Loki saw Heimdall, clearly dead, and felt a moment of sorrow he didn’t realize he had for the watchman. Loki and Heimdall never saw eye to eye, but even Loki knew his death meant the end of Asgard. The end of their people. Heimdall spent his life in service of Asgard and it’s people. He was the watchman long before Odin found the abandoned jotun baby and brought him home with him. Loki could not picture Asgard without him.
Loki found himself locked in a one on one with the Black Dwarf. He glanced over his shoulder and saw both Proxima Midnight and Corvus Glaive battling Thor. He dodged a few blows, delaying the inevitable. Loki was strong, but even at full power could not take on the sheer strength of the black dwarf. It wasn’t long before he slammed Loki into the ground, head ricocheting off the floor, Loki felt his vision blur.
Before he had a second to even catch his breath, the Black Dwarf was on top of him, hand wrapped around Loki’s throat. Loki reached out to try and stab him with a dagger, but it was futile. His skin was impenetrable. He tried next to use some magic to remove him, but it was a weak push at best.
“I expected better, Loki Liesmith” the black dwarf said with a laugh, picking Loki up by the neck and slamming him into a wall.
“LOKI” He heard Thor yell. Loki glanced over to him but realized quite quickly there was no way Thor would be able to get to him. Thor was being held in place by what looked like some kind of forcefield, probably Ebony Maw’s work. Loki watched as Thor tried to use the lightening to burst through it, but it seemed to just bounce around before fading into nothing.
Loki was slammed into the wall again, but could not be so lucky as to lose consciousness. He also knew he wouldn’t be so lucky as to have the order kill him now. Thanos would want him personally.
The Black Dwarf threw Loki to the ground, and soon enough the Black order had him surrounded. He tried to get to his feet, but it took a few attempts before he was able too. He looked around and saw the bodies of other Asgardians strewn about. Just as he feared, he and Thor were the last ones. He wished desperately he had somehow thrown Thor through the wormhole as well.
It was then that Thanos appeared, seemingly stepping out of nowhere. He took in the scene. Thor, trapped by a forcefield, and Loki surrounded by the Black Order.
He let out a fake laugh at the site of Loki.
“Loki Laufeyson, didn’t I tell you that there was no way for you to escape me?” Loki said nothing and Thanos looked at Thor. “And now you’ve brought your brother into your mess.”
With that, Thanos grabbed hold of Thor, the force field breaking on contact.
Loki watched in growing horror as Thor tried to break free, with no luck.
“You have something of mine, Loki.” Thanos said. “I’m going to cut to the chase. You’ve stashed it somewhere that only you can recover it from. Give it to me, and I’ll spare your brother’s life.”
“LOKI NO.” Thor yelled, but was silenced as Thanos slammed him into the ground.
“I keep my word, Loki. Your life is forfeit, but if you want to watch your brother die first, that’s up to your next move.”
Loki wondered briefly what they would do if the roles were reversed. If Thor would give up the Tesseract for him. Probably not, Thor was always more noble than Loki. He was always less selfish. Loki couldn’t do it. He couldn’t watch Thor die.
With that he pulled the Tesseract from the pocket in space he had stashed it. He held it out.
Thanos took it, breaking it instantly for the space stone inside, which he placed on the gauntlet on his hand.
“Thank you, Loki. For that, I will make your death quick.” Thanos started. Thor was fighting with everything he had, twisting and shooting lightening from seemingly every appendage of his body. “You don’t want to miss this show Thor Odinson.” Thanos said, forcing Thor turn his head to face Loki.
“LOKI!” Thor screamed again. Loki looked at him making eye contact. Thor was screaming. They wouldn’t have a chance to say goodbye. There would be no dramatic final words like Loki had given him before. He met Thor’s eyes and tried to convey a sense of calm and peace, so that Thor would remember his final moments without horror. He felt a tear run from his eyes, despite his best efforts.
He saw Thanos give the command to Proxima Midnight to fire her weapon at him. This was it.
His eyes never left Thor’s as he said his final words. “Never doubt that I love you.”
Then there was nothing.
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Loki's body hit the ground, and for the first time Thor felt his death. It struck Thor as odd that he had ever mourned Loki’s death before. How could he have thought they were real? It seemed obvious now that they were tricks. When Loki died, Thor felt part of his soul rip out of him. It seemed laughable that any of Loki’s prior deaths had fooled him.
Thor screamed. He didn’t see what happened to Thanos and the rest of the order. They were there one second, but Thor kept screaming. Lightening burst out of him in uncontrollable rage. The ship started ripping apart, and suddenly Thanos and the black order were gone.
“THANOS” Thor raged. “I WILL FIND YOU.”
“I look forward to it.” Thanos replied voice seemed to be coming from everywhere. Then the ship ripped apart, and Thor felt himself flying through space. He slammed into something and lost what little grip he still had on reality. As the world went black he felt a brief second of relief that maybe he would be joining Loki.
For there was no Thor without Loki.
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The defeat of Thanos felt pyrrhic. The Avengers had lost so many. Steve. Tony. Clint. All gone.
Thor found himself morning Loki alone. While the others expressed sympathy to Thor, how could Loki’s death compare to the other deaths? Not to mention the thousands of civilians who died as well. The earth was in shambles.
It was one night close to the final battle that Thor finally found himself able to fall asleep. He dreamed, and in his dream he was young again, an adolescent. He was walking through Asgard’s palace looking for something. Although he didn’t know what he was looking for, his feet seemed to know where to take him.
He found himself in his mother’s garden and let out a smile at the site in front of him.
“Loki…” He breathed. His brother was sitting cross legged, book open on his lap, half eaten apple in his hand. At the sound of his name, he looked up and smiled.
“Thor!” He said with a laugh. His brother was young too, even smaller than Thor remembered him being.
Thor embraced him. It was a long hug, and Thor would not have pulled away if Loki didn’t make him.
“You're suffocating me.” He said with a laugh.
“You fool. How can I go on without you?” Thor said, words serious for his small body. He held Loki at arm’s length, refusing to let go entirely. His hands still on Loki’s shoulders.
“You don’t have too.” Loki said suddenly. “There is a boy. In Paris. He’s living on the street, and he goes by Serrure. Find him.”
And with that, Thor awoke in New York City. Before the sun rose the next day, he was in Paris.
Thank you for reading! The end is, of course, a reference to the comics and the return of Kid Loki!
Hopefully we all make it through infinity war. Let me know what you think!