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"Alright, stop!"
Loki's voice came distantly, as though much farther away than he really was.
Thor could barely think through the pain pounding in his head. Thanos's grip loosened as he pulled the Power Stone away from him.
He tried to breathe, to catch his breath. The agony was practically unbearable; the only thing keeping him from collapsing was the massive hand caging his skull.
What was Loki doing? Why hadn’t he just said from the beginning that they didn’t have the Tesseract?
Thanos had come for it, boarded their ship, and slaughtered the Asgardians.
All because of a misunderstanding?
Through the blood in his mouth, Thor managed to get out, "We don't have the Tesseract. It was destroyed on Asgard."
Loki’s face flashed with something awfully like guilt. Slowly, he held out his hand, and in a small glimmer of light, the Tesseract appeared.
A burning anger erupted in Thor—somehow, it felt hotter than their surroundings. He should have known. Of course, Loki had taken it. Of course, he had betrayed him.
"You truly are the worst brother."
Loki stepped forward, hand raised, the damned cube casting a blue glow across his face. His voice was shaking but determined as he prepared to hand it over.
"I assure you, brother. The sun will shine on us again."
Why was he so sure?
Thor's muscles felt like lead. They were both beaten and bruised, but Loki's words always meant something.
What trick did he have up his sleeve now? What plan?
"Your optimism is misplaced, Asgardian," Thanos remarked.
Loki pulled his hand back slightly, turning his head so he could look up at Thanos.
"For one thing, I'm not Asgardian. And for another—"
A breath.
"We have a Hulk."
A thunderous roar erupted behind them. A blur of green muscle—Hulk. Thor barely had time to register before the hand crushing his skull vanished.
Thor swayed in his spot as the fight ignited around him. Loki's cape swirled as he dived for Thor, and they tumbled across the metal floor for a second.
—and suddenly, they were enveloped in a surge of blue light.
A pull, like a rope yanking him from the waist.
"Master! They're—"
A moment where it was impossible to draw breath.
A whirr of noise—
And then a thud as the brothers hit hard ground.
Thor inhaled sharply. The air was suddenly frigid around him. He lay on his back.
What? Where? The Tesseract—
Above him was a gray sky. He blinked. It was still there. Gone was the fire, the void of space.
Pushing himself onto his elbows, he glanced around. Loki was beside him, breathing just as raggedly, on his hands and knees.
They were on an empty grassy field. A nearby cliff edge led to a stormy sea. Three rocks sat like seats facing the waves.
He knew this place.
Midgard.
The same cliff where Odin had died. Where they had first seen Hela.
Norway.
Every bone and bruise pounded, his head feeling like it was going to fall apart.
He looked at Loki, his greasy hair dirtied and bloody like his ruined armor—only more apparent against the fresh grass and wind around them.
Thor pushed himself to his knees, mind swirling.
Bruce. Heimdall. They were still on the Statesman.
But he and Loki were here.
How?
His gaze landed on the answer lying beside his brother. Inanimate, glowing bright blue.
Thor’s blood boiled hot.
He had the overwhelming urge to take it and hurl it off the cliff into the sea.
It was supposed to be destroyed.
With a growl, he stumbled toward Loki and seized him by the collar, yanking him up.
"What have you done!"
It only took Loki a second to collect himself. His hands clawed weakly at Thor’s iron grip.
"I saved us," he seethed.
"Saved us?" Thor shook him roughly. "What about Heimdall? What about Bruce? Our friends—we could have fought!"
"No, you couldn't!" Loki snapped, staring at him as if he were the biggest idiot in the realms.
Loki was the idiot. That lying, traitorous—
"What did you expect me to do, Thor? Stab the Titan? Oh yes, that would end very well!"
Thor’s grip tightened. "You and your precious Tesseract—"
"There was no other way we would both make it out alive."
His words echoed in silence, the wind whipping around them. Thor’s grip loosened, but his hands remained curled into the tattered leather of Loki’s armor. His shoulders shook, his breaths uneven.
Loki pulled away from him so they were both kneeling, facing each other.
Quietly but firmly, Thor asked, "Why?" His voice cracked. "Why, Loki? Why didn’t you tell me?"
Loki stayed silent, his fingers twitching nervously as he gazed at the glowing cube.
"You know Thanos, don’t you?"
Loki turned his head, his bruised and cut face tense, his wet eyes flicking downward to his hands.
"Yes," he whispered, almost to himself.
Thor barely fought the urge to grab and shake his brother again. "Why, Loki! Why didn't you tell me? You knew this was coming, didn't you!"
Loki nodded slowly. "In a way."
"You truly are the worst, brother." Thor seethed, his breathing hard.
Loki stayed silent, head down.
Years chasing after a brother who always seemed just out of reach.
Thor had thought—hoped—that after everything, after Ragnarok, they had finally found a place where they stood together.
And yet—Loki had still gone behind his back. Still kept secrets. Still made reckless, damning choices alone.
"At least we're still alive," Loki said hoarsely. "We need to find somewhere safe for the Tesseract. He’ll be after it—"
"Who’s Thanos, Loki?" Thor demanded, forcing a steadiness in his voice that he didn't truly feel.
Loki would not slip past his questions. "Why does he want the Tesseract?"
Loki flinched slightly.
After a moment of hesitation, he murmured, "he is... You would know him as the one who supplied me with the Chitauri army."
All this time. All these years.
He worked with him? Gave him the Chitauri army?
Thor stayed silent, waiting for his brother to continue, glaring.
"The Tesseract... was supposed to be payment for that army."
Thor’s brows furrowed, his mouth gaping.
He didn’t know what to say, the sting of betrayal pressing down like the edge of a knife.
He should’ve expected it.
Was that why Loki had come to Asgard at all? Not to save their people, but just for the stone?
No. If that were the case, he would have just taken it. He wouldn’t have returned to the Statesman.
Then why—?
It was all too much. He closed his eyes for a moment, trying to ground himself in the now.
A gap of silence stretched between them, the wind blowing through the grass in relentless gusts.
"This is all your fault then," Thor murmured.
It was Thor's fault that he couldn't defend them, but Loki's—about abandoning Bruce and Heimdall, it was Loki's fault about Thanos—his voice rose. "The only reason half of our people are dead is because you couldn't pay him back. Because you brought that damned Tesseract on board!"
"I know!" Loki yelled. "But he would've come anyway."
Loki lifted himself from his knees and stood, swaying unsteadily as he did so, one arm clutching his side. "Yes—I know. He wouldn't have come to the ship—They're gone because... But he would have the Tesseract, Thor. I couldn't just let him have it."
Loki sucked a ragged breath, his anger competing with his exhaustion and his will to compose himself.
Quietly, he said, "He wants the Infinity Stones. I teleported us here because; at all costs, Thanos cannot get the Tesseract. He wants... He wants to use them to do the same thing he did to Asgard, but to every civilization across the universe. Halve every population."
Thor just stared.
Loki let out a hollow, bitter laugh. "I know it sounds absurd. I thought the same when I first heard it. In the beginning, I thought they wouldn't accomplish it... but with the Stones, he can."
Thor still sat there on his knees in the grass, his mind reeling.
"Why didn’t you tell me this?" he whispered.
Loki must have heard the betrayal in his voice because he didn’t look at him with his usual composure but with guilt. He turned his head away slightly, his hair blowing in the harsh wind.
"I—I... I couldn't," Loki admitted. "Look, I fooled myself into thinking I could run for a while, that I needn't have to tell you... even though it was inevitable."
Loki's voice cracked slightly. "It's too late to look back now."
Thor stood up too, pushing himself up, every muscle aching and bruised, the taste of blood still in his mouth, and the pounding pressure in his head throbbing.
He's going to kill Thanos for that.
For everything.
For his people, Heimdall and Bruce, who are probably dead right now—
He took a ragged breath and gazed at Loki, standing opposite him.
Thor clenched his jaw.
Loki stated, "We have to move. We need to warn the Avengers here on Midgard that Thanos will come for the Stones. He wants them all. If he came himself for the Tesseract, it's likely he'll do the same for the others."
Thor nodded. "Half of every population?" he murmured to himself.
"Of the entire universe," Loki confirmed.
"Look, I wouldn't be surprised if you don’t trust me, but we have to keep this safe together."
He bent down and scooped up the Tesseract from the grass, holding it in one hand.
"Please..."
Thor didn’t trust him.
The fact that for all these years, his brother had never mentioned that there was some mad Titan hellbent on killing half of the universe with the aid of Infinity Stones—information that would've been rather useful.
The fact that he had lied about the Tesseract being destroyed.
But his treacherous brother was all he had left.
"I don't trust you," Thor said.
"We will have to warn the Avengers together. And there, you will tell them—and me—how you know Thanos and more about him." He pressed harder. "You will tell us everything."
Loki nodded. With a forced, tired smile, he quipped, "They probably won't be happy to see me."
His expression softened into something more genuine. "I'm sorry, Thor."
He held the Tesseract out.
Thor hesitated a moment before taking Loki’s hand and placing his own on the Tesseract. Its powerful glow pulsed beneath his touch.
Energy pulsed through his hand, flowing up his arm.
By the Norns, he wanted that thing destroyed.
And Thanos dead at his feet.
A pull of swirling blue light—
The feeling of being yanked from the ground—
And they were gone.