We had a Hulk, Loki thought. Heimdall had just closed the Bifrost for what Loki believed to be the last and final time. He cast Bruce Banner and his counter part, back through space.
Likely to Earth.
Loki turned his attention back to Thor. Thanos had just given Loki a proposition that he had refused.
Loki cringed as Thanos pressed the hot metal of the gauntlet to Thor's skin. The power stone activated at Thanos's will and burned into his brother's flesh. Thor could only suppress his screams for so long before he began to cry out in pain.
"Stop!" Loki said. His voice breaking a little. He and his brother had been through so much together; betrayal, loss, countless fights. All that they had been through, brought them to this moment, to this formidable foe.
"I will give you the tesseract." Loki said.
"We don't have the tesseract." Thor said. But Loki did. What Thor didn't know wouldn't hurt him, or at least that is what Loki used to think.
He raised one hand and the cube appeared in his hand. In the glow of the blue light, Loki could see the surprise on his brother's face. That surprise was quickly replaced by anger. Loki realized that his impulse for power had put them in harms way, rather than secure any advantage. Loki slowly raised the tesseract to Thanos, his head bowed in defeat. Thanos snatched the cube from Loki's grasp shattering the protective glass surrounding the stone. The atmosphere around them seemed to thicken for just a moment as the gauntlet and the stone connected like magnets.
"And now, for the next stone." Thanos boomed.
"I believe they are on Earth, Sir." said a dry and wizened looking creature. His hands curled together like a spider and the tall, thin structure of his body was curtailed by a slight hunch in his back.
"Perhaps, you'd need a guide on Earth!" Loki said energetically. Thanos gave him a blanketed stare; he seemed neither interested nor moved by Loki's proposal.
"I, Loki, Odinson, God of Mischief-" but Loki moved too quick too soon, and without much thought. He had gone to strike Thanos, mid sentence. But with two stones, Thanos was twice as powerful and twice as unstoppable.
He froze Loki mid thrust. Loki's knife a couple of inches from Thanos's neck. Loki hesitated and struggled against Thanos's power. A look of understanding dawned over Loki as the titan sighed, clearly disappointed. Before Loki could make another proposal, Thanos's fists closed in around Loki's neck. He lifted the God of Mischief off his feet. Loki could hear his brother screaming behind him, but his mouth was muffled by metal binding.
Was this how it would end for the God of Mischief?
Loki's face contorted in pain as Thanos began to choke the life from him. Loki could feel his throat constricting and collapsing. A tight and pounding pressure began to build in the base of his temple. He could feel that he was dying.
"You will never be a god." Loki croaked before Thanos's crushing grasp snapped his neck.
Thanos dropped Loki's body to the ground and stepped over it to make his way back to his ship. As soon as Thanos and his lackeys departed, Thor's restraints released and bursts of purple flames began to envelop the ship.
Loki! Thor shouted as he rushed to cradle his brother's broken body. Tears fell from Thor's face as he hunched over Loki. Thanos's brutish finger prints were embedded along the back of Loki's neck and his head was permanently twisted to one side. "No!" Thor cried again. He threw one arm over his brother's body as if he were protecting him, but Loki was already gone, or so Thor thought.
The ship broke apart amidst the destruction of the purple flames. In the explosion, Thor was still grasping what he thought, was Loki's body as he began to fade out of consciousness.