Loki, the Undying
Rated: T
Summary: [Set immediately after Infinity War, Spoilers inside.] After his encounter with Thanos, Loki is found adrift in space. After finding that he is too late to attempt to help Thor save the universe, he is determined to find out the fate of his brother. After all, Loki is still the God of Mischeif, and he may have a few, albeit drastic, tricks up his sleeve.
000
**I REPEAT, THIS IS NOT A ROMANCE STORY. PLEASE KEEP THIS IN MIND.**
"So that's what happened," the woman, Cassiopeia, sighed and set down a food bowl for her cat. The feline creature, which was a bit larger than the cats that Loki was familiar with, had a long tail with a tuft at the bottom and vibrant black and grey stripes. Its ears were large and pointed, and it growled whenever Cassiopeia neared him.
Loki had just explained to her what he could about Thanos and his goals, and told her that he assumed that the mad Titan had succeeded. Of course, all of this was after their incident in the garden, which she was surprisingly quick to forgive him for. If he were to take a guess, he would say that she was lonely. There was no one else around for leagues—and that wasn't even the result of Thanos's decimation. There had hardly been anyone out there to begin with, it seemed.
Cassiopiea was a lovely woman, though perhaps a bit naïve. Loki had never been to this planet, Raynarn, and he had never met any of its natives. Based on the few pictures around the house, they all appeared to be similar to Cassiopea—mostly humanoid, with a few exaggerated features. She was tan, though he did not know if that was her natural coloring for from working outside, with large, brown eyes, and long, pointed ears.
After their initial meeting—or at least, initial after Loki was awake—she dug out some clothes for him and showed him how to work the shower, which fell directly from holes in the ceiling, mimicking rain. It was quite refreshing.
Then she made him dinner.
Loki sat across from her, picking at his meal. He had already devoured some of her food without any second thoughts, and so far, he had no ill side effects. He supposed that if Thanos couldn't kill him, it was unlikely that anything she could try to poison him with would do him in either. She asked him questions over dinner, primarily about other planets and places he had been. She appeared to be legitimately interested in what he had to say.
What bothered him was not the attention she gave him. He was used to it, of course. He could command a conversation most anywhere he went, beyond Asgard of course, and people found him quite charming. He knew just what to say and how to say it to keep people hanging on his words—it was why he was called Loki Silver-tongue, after all. What bothered him was the way she looked at him.
As if he were normal.
As if he weren't blue.
Either she didn't know what a Jotun was, or… Well there was no 'or.' Hotuns were reputed monsters in all of the Nine Realms, not just on Asgard. They were considered barbaric killers, albeit killers who rarely left their planet. But this woman did nothing, she barely even reacted when he shattered a glass after getting a bit worked up while talking of Thanos and freezing its contents.
She merely stood, gave him a wooden cup, and brushed up the glass shards.
"So what will you do now?" Cassiopeia asked, sliding the cat's bowl a bit closer with her foot. It growled again and took a swipe at her.
"That cat doesn't seem to like you very much."
"Yeah," she sighed, stepping away. "It was my friend's cat. I took him in after she… well, you know. Disappeared. Couldn't bear to leave him on his own."
Loki wiped his mouth and set down his napkin, pushing his plate away from him. It hurt to swallow, but it felt good to eat and drink. He felt like he was alive, which, to be honest, he had never, ever been more grateful for. Despite that, there was a pit in his stomach that grew each time he thanked Odin for his life. He supposed it was what other people called survivor's guilt.
Was Thor sitting down to a table to eat? Even if he had the capability or the chance, he probably wasn't. He was probably already working on a plan to reverse the damage Thanos had done. Loki wasn't sure it was possible. He knew the power of the tesseract, and he knew the power that had been in his scepter. Thor had told him that the mind gem had been in his scepter the entire time! He had not one but two infinity gems at his fingertips, and he let them slip away.
If he could go back in time to that moment, he would…. He didn't know what he would do. But he would decidedly not let the Chitauri into New York. He would not fight Avengers. He would not do any of Thanos's bidding.
Of course, it was easier to think these things than actually know if he would change anything if he had the chance. The Other, one of Thanos's minions, had been in his head at the time. He had a direct connection to Thanos and Loki knew that he would have had to sever that tie in order to try to change anything.
Well, it was a nice thought, but surely impossible.
Right?
Loki ran a hand through his hair, scratching the back of his neck as he did so. "Is there any way off of this planet?"
Cassiopeia shrugged as she took his plates and set them in the sink. "Well, not easily. We're a trading post planet, but not many come here, 'cept for a few times a year. We do a lot of farming, and send our excess off the planet. We always have a lot of excess, but now we may not have the hands to work the fields. Of course, if you think about it, we may not have a lot of demand now. If half the universe is gone, I guess that's a lot less people to feed. We may have even fewer traders this year."
Loki nodded to himself. There was a way off the planet, but it would be difficult. Likely harder in his blue form as well. "And how long can I stay here? If your, ah, friend who found me planning on returning for me at some point?"
"I suppose you can stay as long as you want. I've got room. I've got food. It's no bother to have some company for a while. As for my friend… I don't really know. I guess, I don't even know if she's alive. You were dropped off just a little before people started disappearing. For all I know, she disappeared too…"
Loki didn't sleep that night. He had felt he had slept long enough. The skyline was quite impressive at night, and though it was dark, a large moon emitted a soft glow. Loki sat for what must have been hours, staring at that moon. There were insects in the trees chirping all night. Part of him was extremely annoyed at the sound, but another part of him found the rhythmic hum soothing. He didn't want to be soothed, however. He wanted to be angry. Being angry made him want to take action.
He hated feeling like he should just give up. Asgard was gone, so there was nothing else for him to rule. Thor could be dead, so there was no one else for him to compete with. Thanos had won, so there were no other villains for him either serve or oppose. Why couldn't he just be happy with a quiet life somewhere?
Things had been fantastic on Sakaar. He had a wonderful little existence there. He was well liked, he had amassed a small fortune, and he could get away with causing a small amount of trouble. He could possibly go back. He could live out his days gambling and drinking. That didn't seem so bad, did it?
Maybe it didn't, but he couldn't help feeling so empty. In the past, no matter where he went, he knew that there was always a chance to go home. He knew that Asgard was still thriving, or that Thor was probably okay. But not now. Now he felt alone.
Finally, when the sounds of the night became too much for him, Loki returned to the house. He flipped on a light in the kitchen and rummaged through the cupboards. Surely there had to be some alcohol in this place. Farmers were always the first people to find a way to make booze. When he had no luck, he went to the basement.
It was very dark down there, and there was only one dim light. Despite that, Loki could see quite well—one of the few benefits of his Jotun nature. There were many boxes stacked in the basement. Some seemed rather old and partially rotted away, some were rather new. There were stamps and stickers, even a few brands in the containers that indicated they had come from other planets. He supposed that Cassiopeia would have to stock up for months at a time if the traders came through so rarely.
With a sigh, Loki stepped towards one of the boxes and tore it open: miscellaneous fabrics and clothes. That made sense. Shopping was likely rare in this area. She likely had to make and repair her own clothing. Another box was half open, that had spare parts for machinery. He hadn't seen any farming equipement, but he hadn't taken a walk into the fields yet.
A few boxes later, he finally found what he was looking for. Alcohol.
And boy did he hit the motherload.
"Does she even know what she has here? How could she have managed to get her hands on this stuff?" There were bottles of Revvyat Wine, covered in dust, in one of the boxes. Revvyat Wine was extremely rare, and she had an entire case. He had only had it once before, on Sakaar, and that was because someone traded the Grand Master for one of his warriors. Even Asgard didn't get Revvyat Wine, but that was because it was usually only acquired through illegal means.
"Wouldn't be surprised if some of the disreputable sort fueled up here. Wonder what she gave them for this," he muttered as he took a bottle and returned to the stairs. He looked around at the numerous other boxes he hadn't explored. Well, at the very least, if he were going to be stuck there for some time, he could do something interesting with his time.
In the morning, Loki woke to fingers around his neck. Thoughts of Thanos flooded back to him as he grabbed the hands and jerked them away from him. He sat up abruptly, keeping his hands on the thin wrists of his attacker. It took him a few moments to realize it was Cassiopeia before him.
He quickly released her.
"You fool," he hissed, "don't you know how dangerous it is to touch a Jotun!?"
She looked up at him with bewildered brown eyes and then smiled. She held up her wrists to him, showing off his handy work. They had already blackened. Fear and panic set in, thinking that he had accidentally harmed an innocent person—she could lose her hands!
However, as he stared at her, her smile didn't disappear. Instead, the black slowly started to fade away, leaving behind just her regular, tanned skin.
"Don't worry, I heal extremely quickly. That's how I've been able to apply salve to your bruises. You can't really hurt me as fast as I heal. It just feels a bit numb, and then goes away. I told you, I have some medical training. I didn't always live here. I spent some time one our sister planets during the Ring Wars. You're a pretty useful medic when you're really hard to kill."
"Wouldn't you have been a better soldier?"
Cassiopeia shrugged. "Maybe. I don't like fighting."
Loki nodded slowly and felt his neck. There was some sort of paste on his neck, likely the same as whatever he had felt the day before.
"The bruising was pretty terrible when you came here. It's been slow, but I've been able to speed up the healing."
"Wonderful," he replied, thinking that his bruising was the least of his concerns. "Now you wouldn't happen to have something that could restore magical powers, would you?"
Cassiopeia turned her head to the side, her braid falling over her shoulder. "Magic? Why would you need that something to restore that?"
Loki tried not to roll his eyes, not that it was even noticeable with his ruby red eye coloring. "I don't always look like this. Only when my magic has been depleted. I need it back if I am ever going to leave this place."
"Oh," she replied, nodding slowly. "Actually, I think I can make something for that."
000
Time passed differently on Titan, that much Tony knew. He couldn't tell if it was a natural side effect of the planet and its relation to a sun, or if it was the result of the Time Stone. Either way, he was stuck there, with no way to go home. He had survived Thanos, only to die on Titan.
And Pepper… He was starting to think he was doomed to never have the life he wanted. He had everything a man could ask for, but he continuously had to go off and put himself in danger. And for what? He had failed. Was Pepper even alive on Earth? Even if he could make it home and find her alive, would she forgive him?
No, he doubted it.
But it didn't matter. He was going to die there.
Maybe.
"Humans need to eat, if I'm not mistaken," a cold voice came from somewhere behind him. A packet of something was thrown to him. "I've only met Quill, but he seemed to need to eat."
It was the blue woman who had joined the fight. The one that had alerted Star-Lord to the fact that Gamora was likely dead. The one that had ruined their plan. Tony wanted to be angry with her, but he didn't have the energy. He felt empty. Hopeless. He was in the vastness of space, a scientist's dream, but he was alone.
"Your suit. It repaired itself. I want that tech."
Tony jumped up, throwing the supposed food pouch to the side. "You want this tech? Yeah, awesome. So do it. I can't repair myself out here in the middle of freakin' no where! My nano-tech can't repair, I don't have a ship that isn't broken into two pieces, and I'm going to lose my damned mind here before I die!"
The blue woman—was she a woman? Yes, Tony decided it was a woman—looked suitably unimpressed by him. Then again, she had just faced down Thanos. He supposed he wasn't near threatening enough after that. Tony collapsed and put his head into his hands, his hands that had held Peter not too long before, maybe, and watched him fade away into nothingness.
Pepper better not be pregnant. All Tony would do is get their child killed.
"You think you're the only one who's lost something?" The woman asked, raising a mechanical brow. "I just lost everything. A father I spent my life hating, and a sister I realized I loved too late. Are you going to do something about it, or just sit here in self pity?"
Tony stared up at her.
"And what should I be doing, Blue?"
"We get the time gem."
It was Tony's turn to raise his brow. "We?"
The woman shrugged. "I'd trust a man of metal more than I'd trust most. My name's Nebula, not Blue."
A rush of andrenaline that Tony didn't even know he had left surged through him and he stood. "Okay. Okay, yeah. That's something. The Time Gem."
"But first, we need to make some repairs. Can you replicate the tech that repaired your suit?" Nebula asked, nodding towards the pieces of Tony's Iron Man suit that were still slowly trying to repair, even now.
"With the right lab, I could."
"Okay," she said and turned. "Take that food packet. Eat it. Then we'll go to a trading post I know of. They have an independent lab we may be able to… commandeer."
"Commandeer. I like it." Tony replied and snatched up the food pouch. He gave a quick look around to the broken planet that had become a graveyard. Time Stone. Yes. Good. He could fix this. He had to. He couldn't possibly live with the survivor's guilt building up inside of him.
000
Author's Notes: Aha! Yes, see, this is an Avengers story! This plot will incorporate some things I know of the comics, as well as some theories for the sequel. I have no idea what is correct, so any similarities is mostly me getting lucky with a few people spewing theories at me! Again, a reminder, this is NOT a romance. Do you want Loki to have *some* romance? Let me know. If people think he should get some romance, I'll write it in. Otherwise, well, you'll see. Romance isn't my forte, and if I write it, it's extremely slow burn.
And now, some shout outs! (Want your name here? Review and I will give you a shout out! Reviews truly keep me motivated to keep writing.)
The Tribute Initiate: Hey! First review! You will forever have my gratitude for getting things kicked off! Thanks!
TheAngelicPyro: Thank you so much! I do not claim to be a fantastic writer, and I'm pretty terrible at catching any typos, but I feel like my writing has grown TREMENDOUSLY since my last Loki fic! I hope people will enjoy it!
Trustpixiedust & Aaeiilnn: You two both made me smile! "I'm here for Loki Living" is pretty much my favorite phrase! I love it! Thank you both for reviewing!
Soulamtelover4life: Thank you for reviewing! I hope you'll like the rest of the story!
Ameris R: Thank you for your review! Anyone familiar with CLAMP will know exactly that what note means, especially if they read my last Loki fic! ;)
Ale: Ah yes. I did enjoy the movie quite a bit, but I was just so angry at the beginning that it took away a lot of the sadness until I saw it again. Loki is definitely more serious in my mind. DEFINIELY not a comic relief.
Whirlwhind421: Thank you for your review! I hope you'll stick with me!
Ever your servant,
A.F