I could have done it, Father! I could have done it for all of us.

No, Loki.

Loki had fallen before, but not like this.

Before, there would always be solid ground or a pair of arms to catch him at the end. This was nothing but his own fault, as everything he knew shrank out of sight until there was only blackness and the tiny pinpoints of stars, far far away.

He could still feel the smooth warmth of Thor's hammer slipping away under his fingers as he let go. He could still hear Thor's cry – perhaps he was loved and missed, in spite of everything – but Odin had been silent.

You couldn't have a Frost giant sitting on the throne of Asgard.

Loki knew not of where he was falling. All his time spent in the grand libraries, trying to find books and stories of something other than battles won and battles lost had been for naught, for magic and its users were looked down upon. Places beyond the branches of Yggdrasil were rarely spoken of, except for Hel, and one other place.

The Negative Zone.

A place of sheer cliffs, broken stone and desolation. Creatures resided there, made of torment and darkness, like him, unwanted beings forced to the edge of space. Perhaps there he would find some form of comradeship, of solace.

Even his own father had cast him out for his weakness, even as a babe.

Space flickered in and out of his vision as he plummeted, robes whipping behind him. He saw strange things; artifacts thought lost in the passage of time, beings that were immense in their kindness and cruelty in equal shares. He wanted to know what they knew – could he be spared this punishment somehow, this sentence he imposed on himself for his deeds, and the condemnation of him by his people?

I am the monster that parents tell their children of.

Light grew ahead of him, light that seemed to draw the breath from his lungs and make him ache for air.

Revulsion rose inside of him suddenly, like a wave. The Negative Zone was swallowing him whole, taking him as one of their own. He felt his mind cave under the sick pressure of some thing as he collided with packed earth, crying out in pain.

Boots, soiled with dust and darker things entered his vision. He looked up into the gaze of a monster as its' mouth split into the semblance of a smile.

Voices echoed in his head, not his own.

You –

Abandoned creature-god –

So weak –

BOW TO LORD THANOS –

Rip him apart, so very hungry, Mistress –

You are ours.

He finally belonged to someone. That was all he knew then, and for now that would have to suffice.