Picking Up
(All the Broken Pieces)
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Loki felt the usual pull of his brother's annoying call, and excused himself from the War Council's chambers, moving to his room in casual steps. It wasn't rare for Thor to call on him for any ridiculous reasons, but now that he was infiltrated within Thanos' ship, the man decided to abuse the power he had as King and brother. Loki talked to some of the guards out and about the hallway, obviously very casually, taking his sweet time to get to the room, and rousing no suspicion from his host.
The ship was big enough, he took enough time, and once inside the room, Loki placed a magic seal around everything, a bubble of comfort and secrecy where no one on board could realize his treacherous acts.
Loki moved to the dresser, right beside it a large mirror hung, wrapping around the ceiling to the other side of the room, offering quite the view of the entire suite. Greens and blues decorated the walls, reflecting his clothes and basically his ever-shifting personality. Blue for new, green for old… or so one of those warriors/hosts had suggested. Taking a deep breath, Loki closed his eyes and pulled at his brother's incessant call.
Like answering the damned contraption, the one Thor carried around while on Earth, just swipe and talk…
On the mirror Thor stood staring at him, surrounded by what was the Stark Tower in his endeavor to take over the earth, now refitted to be the Avenger's main compound in the city. A long makeshift table served as command center, and the Avengers were watching Thor as if he'd gone mad.
Loki made sure the others could also hear his voice, even when Thor was the only one capable of seeing him. "Majesty I live to serve you."
"It's no time for jesting brother."
"Nor the place, I assure you." Thor seemed happy they finally agreed on something.
"What can you tell us about the enemy forces?"
"I am fine, yes, thank you for asking."
"Loki."
"I was just with the War Council, and their forces are great. Much greater than the army delivered for the battle of New York. Much bigger."
"Loki, does Thanos have the Tesseract?"
"No," That was his only bargaining chip, Thanos did take the copy of the Tesseract Loki had offered, and the fake had been crushed and added to the gauntlet, where it currently rested quietly. Loki was quite proud he'd managed that one. "The fake has been added to his collection. It should destabilize the others enough. But it'll need time."
"That we don't have." Thor cursed softly, and relied the news, only then he found out the rest of the Avengers could hear Loki too.
"I do know," Said Loki, pulling a digital toy from within his cape. "Their plan of attack." Thor congratulated him in the endeavor and they started to banter as Loki explained the plan. Every word was annotated by SHIELD and the Avengers, making the room they were in a flurry of movement, and almost about to end, Loki felt the shadow of darkness fall over him.
"Loki?" Asked Thor, realizing his brother's eyes had gone wide.
Unlike the connection to Heimdall, the link between the brothers was strong, and couldn't be broken by shaking one's head. Thor watched, from a million miles away, as Thanos himself confronted Loki about the fake tesseract, his actions as spy, the impossibly ridiculous idea of betraying the titan… "Thor! Turn away!" Loki looked up, giving the charade up, his eyes were blue, a tell-tale sign he was talking to the god of thunder. Thanos hit him, and Loki landed on the bed, the piece of furniture creaked and groaned before breaking and falling under the weight the titan suddenly placed on it. One knee on Loki's body, struggling Loki looked around finding the mirror above, as if meeting his brother eye to eye… "Don't look, turn aw…" Thor played unwilling witness, through the mirror wrapping around the ceiling as Loki was forced to the bed and his heart was ripped out.
Literally.
The Tesseract escaped the confines of Loki's hold, deep in some unknown pocked and clattered on the floor, it was picked by Thanos the bloody hand tainting the pure energy.
Thor's scream boomed into thunder, as the connection was suddenly broken by death, and Valkyrie was at his side, the anger on the King's countenance forced her back with a shock, the crackling of electricity blinding them, and everyone watched.
"Loki is dead!" He announced in a cry of anger, and then wailed to himself, before forcing a deep breath and turning to the Avengers. "How good the information he gave us?"
"We now know several weak spots. I think we will make it."
.
.
Thor pleaded with the green woman to help.
Her lover wasn't too fond of the idea, and fought with her for a couple minutes, before she pushed him to the side of the hallway and whispered in quick hushed tones. The one called Star Lord turned sharply to him, and started to apologize.
"Sorry man, I didn't know… Was he your brother?" The green one didn't turn to Thor, who sheepishly scratched his arms.
"Yes, he died a hero's death."
"I heard he gave you the info for the win. Good guy." Thor said nothing, but looked down at the metal floor of the small spaceship, waiting for the man to make up his mind. "Alright, I don't like the idea, but I wanna help a fellow hero out."
"Thank you, Quill." Aid the woman, and she kissed him, surprising the hell out of the man. Thor was confused for a moment.
"She kissed me!" He whispered, surprised, and turned to Thor, repeating the words in an amazed tone.
"Enjoy it my friend, you earn it." As the one called Drax appeared from the other side of the hallway, Star Lord told him what Gamora had done, and Drax laughed at him. "How soon can we go?"
"If you get your stuff now, in an hour, we are just refueling."
"Then I will be back in fifteen minutes."
Star Lord started planning, while Thor walked out the ship and towards Valkyrie, who gave a small smile. "They will help me." She seemed relieved, and started to march for the ship, but Thor stopped her. "I need a head count, and once that is done I want you to take the warriors home."
"I thought I was coming with you."
"No, this I must do alone. Once I return we will gather the council and continue with… whatever it was we were doing before war."
She wanted to say something, but bit her tongue back. "Very well, Majesty." She smiled, and took hold of his shoulder. "I am sorry for your loss."
"He was your friend too." She nodded, and turned to obey his orders. From the side Iron Man appeared, and landed by Thor, who offered a hand to shake. "My friend."
"I heard you are going into space to recover something."
"Yes, I must bring my brother home." Stark nodded, and offered him a medium sized box. "Rogers thinks you'll need this." The King took the box, confused. "It's… a coffin. You press this button and it opens up to… full size." He seemed eluding the subject, as if it was as personal to him, as it was for Thor. The god of thunder knew Stark was not stranger to loss, and was grateful of him stepping out of his comfort zone to help out. "I would have created a wonderful memorial box," He said referring to the coffin, "but Pepper said it was insensitive of me. Plus it would take a lot of time to make and you don't have much…"
Thor nodded, "My brother deserves a mausoleum, I shall ask for your help once I return."
"Sure thing,"
"Thank you, man of Iron," Tony gave a nod, and Thor squeezed the handle of the box and headed towards the Milano.
.
.
"I know the room," Said Gamora walking through the now empty hallway of the ship she once called home. Thor gave a general explanation of the room he'd seen Loki walk to, unsure if it would help, but the woman was sure of her words. She did know this ship from one end to the other. "It was one of the flashiest ones." That seemed about right, the used a tablet like instrument to search the right area, and waited for Thor to walk beside her to talk. "I know he was your brother, but I heard he attempted to enslave Terra."
"A moment of weakness, yes, but it's all in the past."
"Hm, I don't know what it's like to lose a sibling, I mean… Nebula and I are still working things out, but I can only imagine."
"My brother played dead a couple times before, I am…" He wanted to say he was used to mourning, but not sure if it was the right thing at the moment. He would never get used to losing Loki, or mourning, or life without him. But once away, he wasn't yet able to process the fact his father was dead.
Leaving all that in the back burner, he gave a small smile to Gamora.
"I just don't know how I would react, and seeing you this calm is unnerving." She pointed out, logically, she was right, but Thor gave a nod. He wasn't ready to do this, yet here he was; his responsibilities did require he delivered the glorious dead back to his people. But who was waiting for Loki's body back at their new home? Only Thor, and probably Valkyrie; the same woman who had suggested blowing the ship up and letting the past be gone. "This is the room." She pointed at the next corner and was about to enter the access codes but turned to look at Thor, who snapped out of his thoughts violently. "I…" She swallowed hard, it was obvious she had no idea what to say.
"I accept your condolences, new friend."
"Should I wait for you?"
"Yes, I shan't take long." Gamora nodded, steeled herself, and punched in the codes to enter the room. Thor took a deep breath and managed the box into the room before himself, to assess all was safe.
Thanos was defeated, there was no enemy in sight, he was just stalling.
The scene was… gory.
The spot where the Tesseract had fallen was marked by the blood shed by the titan's blow, it was further away than Thor remembered. It had been hours, no more than a day, and the room was so cold… the boy was over the bed. Thor swallowed hard, as he neared the gigantic bed, ruffled by a night's sleep and the fight. "Loki?" It was ridiculous, really, to call out to him. The trickster wouldn't, and didn't, answer.
"I'm here brother."
His poor little brother. His body was prone on the bed, legs dangling from the side. His cape red with the blood loss, his arms were open one bend in an unnatural way, his face was pale, his green eyes wide open… Thor took a deep breath and calmed his crying heart. We will mourn again, let's pick him up, bring him home, we will mourn again.
Given time all injuries heal.
Thor placed the box on the floor and pressed the button, the coffin opening fully, he lifted the lid and then turned to his brother's body. He fixed the slim arm so his forearm rested over the open injury, covering part of it, and then the other arm. He was cold, unholy cold, but his skin had not shifted to Jotun blue. He'd remained Asgardian which he was sure Loki would have preferred. His head was turned up, towards the mirror, mouth open. Thor reached with his fingers to close his eyes, and let out a little sob.
"Let's go home, brother." He said brokenly, reaching around his brother's neck, and lifting him from bed.
"Thor?" The King dropped his brother back to bed, believing he was speaking, but found him still dead. "Here, you daft fool." Looking up he saw the image of his brother in the mirror, in all his Asgardian glory of black and green. Even his helmet was on.
"Loki! Is that…"
"I'm dead." He deadpanned, and seemed to regret having done so, eyes watering slightly. "I left you a message because I knew you'd come for me, you are foolish that way." So, Loki did this with his last threat of magic?
"Brother…"
"I expect you to at least let me have a marked grave, after all I am a traitor. I don't need a funeral, I don't think I even deserved one. My body would not burn, my soul will not raise." Thor understood, this was a simple message, there was no interacting with it. His eyes softened, sentiment was showing off his features, but it was impossible… "Don't blame yourself for this, Thor, I choose this path." Thor bit back a reprise. "Bury me, brother, and let me go." He wanted to say something else, but he then screamed in pain and the image faded, leaving Thor crying softly. The King turned to his fallen brother, and lifted the body up.
"You will have a funeral of heroes, brother." He said, settling the body into the cold coffin. "Your essence will raise and join Mother's in the stars, and you will be remembered as the stray son of Asgard that came home to his people when they needed it the most." He kissed the man's forehead and then caressed his hair, before calming down and closing the coffin. It lifted from the floor, following Thor as he left the empty room.
.
.
When Sigyn died, Loki stopped singing.
He threatened with returning from the grave and haunt every single waking second of Thor's life if there was singing in his own funeral.
So, there were no hymns for the fallen, no soft music.
Loki would have what he wanted for his funeral.
Only three avengers accepted the invitation to the nigh time funeral: The Iron Man, with his flaming beautiful Pepper, Steve Rogers, now shaved and joining the world at large, and Bruce Banner. Pepper commented how empty the place was, very few Asgardians who survived weren't even there, so basically… It was the Avengers, Brunn and Pepper.
Then the Guardians of the Galaxy arrived, Gamora presenting his condolences very eloquently, Nebula by her side.
When Thor was about to call for everyone to move towards the waters, where the small vessel was to be set on, Jane Foster arrived, running, knowing she was very late. Thor felt his heart come alive, and moved towards the door, Darcy and Selvig also arrived, and he was now fully surrounded by friends.
When he set the mourning vessel over the calm waters, Stark pointed out that the drop from Angel Falls waterfall would most likely not only crunch the vessel to pieces, but destroy what was left of the body. "Are you sure buddy?" He whispered to Thor, uncertain it was a good idea.
Thor smiled at him, "I'm sure." As the words left his mouth, Valkyrie pushed the boat down the extremely calm down waters; there was magic afoot here, muttered Banner, Valkyrie joined him, giving him a glowing green orb. Pepper was holding one, and so were Gamora and Steve.
"What do I do?"
"You'll know." She said, turning to look up at the vessel. As it moved to a safe distance, Thor clapped his hands, and a blast of lightning ignited the vessel, making everyone gasp and slightly pull back in surprise.
"Dude!" Muttered Peter Quill, huffing, Groot agreeing with him.
Tony winced, just as the boat was about to fall from the ledge.
The echo thunder was heard, and the vessel floated, making everyone gasp. Gamora turned to Nebula, and their hands intertwined, the little orb glowing warmly, and together they released it. Pepper did the same, looking as it floated away, and Bruce muttered on how well their timing had been. Jane walked over to Thor, wrapping her arm around his back, his blue eye was set on the falling vessel, the strands of green and gold lifting to the skies and vanishing among the stars. "What was that?"
"A heroes' funeral." And he turned to smile at her, closing his eye in pain.
Now was the time to mourn.
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Author's Ramblings: Hey! I made this! How do you like it? Remember to Review, they make me tickle.
This story had a whole different ending, with Loki arriving to Valhalla and all… but it dragged on too long and this was supposed to be a drabble. I like it, I've been studying Loki for more writing and I can say he is tasty good to type as. Also; I have been ignoring all storyline wise about Infinity Wars, I am super excited about it but I want the movie to surprise me. I have no clue where this came from so I just rolled with it. I loved Thor Ragnarok and it shows, doesn't it?