Chapter Text
Loki sprinted through the streets of Asgard. His breath was rough in his throat, panic spurring him on as he ran towards the bridge.
Find Stephen. Find Thor. Find Stephen. Find Thor.
Loki cursed as he stumbled, then cursed again silently as he rolled to the side, ducking between two buildings. Tripping might have saved him from being spotted by another pack of soldiers roaming the streets, and he couldn't afford the delay. He'd already wasted too much time- well, not wasted, but Thor had ordered him to guide the civilians to one of the secret paths out of Asgard. It had saved many lives, he was sure, but it had meant leaving Thor, Stephen, and the Hulk to face the enemy by themselves, with only whatever soldiers could be spared from protecting the civilians.
The moment Loki was sure Heimdall and Val had the evacuation in hand, he'd run, all the way back to the bridge, where his brother and boyfriend fought.
He reached the bridge, stumbling over a golden-armored body as he did, the dead man staring up at him with blank eyes.
Loki ran faster.
There. There, at the end of the bridge, were Thor and Stephen, still fighting.
And so was he.
Thanos had come to Asgard.
Loki had known, of course. The infinity stone contained within his body had warned him, even before he saw the familiar ships filling the skies. But it was different to see it, to see him standing on the bridge.
It had Loki faltering, just a bit, even as he took in the scene.
The Hulk lay unconscious on the ground, the bridge cracked beneath him as if he'd been slammed there. Thanos's work, no doubt. Stephen was surrounded by the Black Order, holding them off on all sides. He seemed uninjured, at least, which was all Loki could hope for.
Thor was fighting Thanos.
Or. Well. He was trying. Unlike Stephen, Thor was heavily injured, and it was slowing it down. So was the lack of an actual weapon besides his lightning- he'd picked up a shattered sword from a dead soldier, but it clearly wasn't doing him much good. He was battered, his lightning barely sparks.
The glowing purple stone in the golden glove Thanos wore probably had something to do with that.
The Tesseract was still in the vault. That was absolutely a problem. Loki had considered suggesting sending it with the refugees, but that would only put them in more danger, and there hadn't been time to retrieve it anyway. He should have grabbed it on his way back, but he cared far more about Stephen and Thor than what happened to the Tesseract, no matter how foolish that might be of him.
Loki's moment of hesitation was too long, and Stephen's cry of pain snapped him into motion. It wasn't bad- barely a graze of a spear on his arm- but Stephen was outnumbered, and clearly tiring, despite the solid defense he was putting up.
Instinct took over, and Loki's sight tinted red as energy tendrils shot from him, pushing the Black Order away from Stephen.
And then the moment faded and he realized that that might have been a mistake.
Thanos was looking at him. Despite Thor still fighting, despite his children sprawled on the ground, Thanos was staring right at him. Loki was carrying- literally containing within his own body- one of the things Thanos sought, and he'd just given it away, here on this bridge surrounded by some of the most dangerous people in the universe, the people who had torn apart his body and his mind, sent him back to burn his old life, and threatened to do far worse if he failed. And he'd failed anyway. And now, here he was, just another obstacle to cut down between Thanos and his goal, and fighting beside him were two of the handful of people he cared for, those closest to him, easy pawns for Thanos to use against him and make him suffer.
Thanos smiled.
Thor might never have gotten the details of what had happened to Loki, but he apparently didn't like Thanos smiling at his brother, because he charged, roaring. A bold, foolhardy move, and Thanos swatted him aside like a bug, stepping towards Loki.
Loki had fought armies. Had spent centuries at war. Had turned the literal goddess of death into nothing more than a stone statue without really even knowing what he was doing. He could face Thanos, too. He could make sure the Titan could never hurt Thor, or Stephen.
Loki couldn't move.
Fear paralyzed him, and all he could see was Thanos, striding towards him. The distance between them slowly but steadily closing. His own long-forgotten screams rose up in his ears, reminding him of what happened to those who defied Thanos. Of how much worse it would be a second time.
"Loki!"
Stephen was there, dragging them both out of the way as a chunk of rubble flew at them, the Maw continuing to bombard them. Stephen swore, letting go of Loki to conjure shields to protect them. Loki tried to will another energy tendril to knock the Maw down again, to turn him to stone like Loki had done with Hela, but the Aether simply writhed inside him. As if Loki's fear was affecting it. Or maybe it was the proximity to the other infinity stone that had the Aether hiding away.
It didn't matter why, really, except that Loki couldn't get it to attack again. Thanos was still approaching, Stephen was again defending them from multiple opponents, and Loki was standing here, useless and terrified. He managed to wrap a shaking hand around a dagger, ready to defend himself if any of their enemies got close, but Stephen's shields were keeping them at bay for now.
They were losing, though. Loki could think through his fear enough to tell that. They were outnumbered, one ally was down, he was practically useless, and Thor was struggling to stay on his feet. Not that it stopped Loki's idiot brother from launching himself at Thanos yet again.
Thanos turned, clenching a fist, and Thor went flying back as a purple wave hit him, sending him tumbling back towards the Bifrost.
Loki's panic built up until it exploded, a wave of red lashing out in all directions. It was enough to shove the Black Order off the bridge, but Stephen's shields faltered as well, and Thanos was only shoved towards Thor.
Damn. Damn, damn, damn.
"Go!" Thor roared, pushing himself up on a knee as he met Thanos's gaze. As the Titan's huge hand heaved him up off the ground.
The Maw resurfaced first, floating up out of the water, rage in his eyes, and Loki shrank back.
"Take care of him," Thor called, eyes fixed on Stephen. "Take care of my brother!"
And then Stephen's arm was around him, his hands making a series of motions Loki was starting to know well, and then they were falling, the Hulk tumbling first through the portal beneath them.
The last thing Loki saw before he and Stephen fell through the portal after the Hulk was Thanos tossing his brother over the edge of Asgard.