A/N: How is this my first Infinity War fanfic? Oh, that's right, because I only wanted to write about Loki or Peter Parker, and both were dead. I doubt Loki will be coming back, though I know Peter will be, so here's this story to help with our collective sadness.

Ch. 2—Loki's Savior

Loki watched in absolute terror as Thanos held his hand, and his knife, in the power of the Space Stone. But he'd known that would happen. He knew Thanos wouldn't be able to be killed that easily. He'd done in it in the slight hope that maybe he'd succeed, but he was already planning the same escape route that he performed in front of Thor and Jane several years ago. He knew how to make it look like he was killed. Thanos only had his arm in thrall, after all.

The only difficult bit was what would happen after. Before, all Loki had to do was wait for Thor and Jane to leave. Actually, he'd expected it to be even easier than that. He'd expected Thor to take his body back to Asgard, and didn't really know how to feel when Thor had just left the body of his dead brother there on the ground of an alien planet. But then when they left, he could just pick himself back up and make his way back to Asgard.

Here he knew it would be a little more difficult, because if he knew Thanos, and he certainly did, more than he wanted to, Thanos wouldn't just let the dead lie in the event that some of them were still alive. No, once he left, he'd destroy everything in sight, and then Loki would just be floating in space. But he was sure he'd think of something. He was a survivor, and so was Thor. It would take more than a Titan with a couple of stones to kill them both, especially on the same day.

Still, as Thanos lifted Loki up by the neck and began squeezing, Loki began to doubt his brilliant plan. He wasn't invincible, after all. There was only so much protection he could give himself. And if he passed out, he wouldn't be in control of what happened to him any longer. And that was exactly what he could feel happening, as Thanos' grip tightened around his neck. Loki began gasping and choking, because he could still definitely feel it, even if he knew he was safe. But he was slipping, he was falling, and he didn't know how to stop. "You…" he managed to gasp out, in the seemingly likely event that he would die after all, "Will never be…a god!"

Thanos smiled, but he was clearly angered, because he suddenly squeezed as tight as he could, and just like that, Loki lost in his fight to maintain consciousness, and everything went black.

His subconscious was still very busy and active however, and instead of dreams, Loki was instead plagued by sounds, loud sounds, but indiscernible sounds. He couldn't even distinguish voices from the rest of the clamor. But he was able to sense that Thanos had indeed left destruction in his wake, and Loki was going to perish by floating in space. And yet even then the noises didn't stop; they grew increasing louder and louder, until finally, when he thought he could bear it no more, they began to dwindle, and to become more recognizable, until he realized he was listening to the noises of a city. On Midgard.

He opened his eyes warily, and saw blue sky overhead. He turned his head and saw that he was lying on some steps, leading to a very ancient building. Right out in the open, with people rushing past and all kinds of cars honking. He sat up and desperately tried to recall anything that might have happened to get him here. Someone had to have brought him here; there was no way he just fell here from space. So why did they just leave him literally lying on the street?

He stood up, surveying the city as he tried to figure out which one it was. Not that he had a lot of experience with Midgard, other than New York. This actually looked pretty similar to New York, except that people were driving on the other side of the road here, and there was a giant wheel in the center of the city that he would have remembered seeing before.

He turned and looked back at the building on whose steps he'd woken up, wondering whether to go in. But he only took one step before he collapsed right back down. Thanos had tortured him a bit after blowing his ship up, but he hadn't noticed before how intense the pain actually was. As Loki tried to stagger back to his feet, he saw a young woman walking by on the sidewalk, slower than the others, which made them bump into her and shout angrily.

But she ignored them, and instead studied her phone intensely.

"Jane?" Loki ventured.

She looked up in surprise at hearing her name, and then her face turned to rage and shock as she saw who it was. She slowly pointed at him. "No," she said. "No, you died. I saw you."

"Nope," Loki winced, as he pressed one hand to his stomach and used to other to touch the wall as he walked down. But it hurt to do that, and he realized Thanos must have broken his arm in his last few minutes there. That was a new sensation.

"But you were stabbed, so how the heck did you survive that?"

"Faked my death," Loki said, gritting his teeth. "Made it look like I was stabbed. Did it again just now, actually. This time it didn't go as well as it might have."

"No kidding, you look pretty messed up."

Loki didn't say anything, but leaned against the pillar at the end of the stairs and began breathing heavily. Jane looked him up and down, and then crossed her arms and watched him in anticipation.

"Well?" Loki finally asked.

"I'm waiting for you to ask me," she said.

"Ask you what?"

"Ask me to help you."

"What?"

"I know you're waiting for me to offer," she said. "Because I'm a decent human being, and because you saved my life. And I will, but…I know it's going to kill you to ask, so I'm waiting for you to do that."

He smirked. "And what help do you think you could offer me, a prince of Asgard, who…" He tried to take a step forward, but winced and again sank slowly to the ground.

She smirked back. "Well I can help you walk, for one thing," she said. "You're super lucky I'm still in London. I'm moving back to the U.S. in a couple days, but I still have a couch at least that you can crash on today. But first you have to ask me."

Loki took a labored breath, and took a minute to weigh his options. But not being able to come up with an alternative, he pursed his lips and glared up at her. "Will you help me, Jane Foster?"

"Absolutely," she said, reaching down and pulling his good arm around her neck.

All of this was completely new to Loki. Even when Thanos had tortured him before, when he'd sent him to earth the first time, it had been all in Loki's mind. And even though Loki had been pretty banged up by the Hulk during that adventure, this feeling of a body that was completely broken and exhausted was one he'd never experienced. When they arrived at Jane's apartment, she led him past an army of moving boxes, and dropped him on her couch, where he immediately went limp.

"I'd have taken you to a hospital," she said. "But I honestly don't trust you with anyone when Thor isn't around, so you'll have to trust in my basic sense of science to fix whatever immediate problems you have."

Loki didn't answer, because he immediately fell asleep again almost before she'd finished her sentence. This time it was much calmer, as there were no noises or voices to plague him this time, and when he woke up he was surprised to see that it was the following day. He hastily jumped up, and went into the kitchen in search of Jane.

She was on her laptop, chewing her sleeve, with an empty cereal bowl beside her. "Good morning," she said, after briefly raising her eyes at him. "Actually, I'm not sure if it's still morning. How are you feeling?"

Humans. It was so odd the way they could make you feel completely out of your comfort zone, and yet they were so fascinating at the same time. "What did you do to me?" he asked suspiciously. "It's like there was never anything wrong with me."

She grinned. "Well, you are a god or an alien or something, so that probably helped," she said. "Do you want anything to eat? I mean I don't know what you guys eat, but Thor was usually pretty happy with whatever was lying around." She began twirling a piece of hair between her fingers. "Where is he, by the way?"

Loki's face took on a look of worry that he instantly banished. "I don't know," he admitted. "We were in a ship, flying to Midgard, when we were attacked. I don't even know how I got here; I just sort of woke up here. I don't know about him, but I would have very likely…died if I hadn't seen you, so…thank you. I suppose."

She laughed. "Wow, I wasn't even gonna ask you for that much," she said. "You must have been hit on the head pretty hard. But I guess this makes us even now. I don't think I ever thanked your for saving my life before, either. So thanks." After a pause she added with another grin, "I suppose."

Loki didn't know why he felt compelled to smile at her right then, but he didn't fight the feeling. She smiled back, but both smiles faded when a crash was heard from outside. Jane rushed to her door and threw it open. She stared at the four cars that had collided in front of her apartment, and then ran outside.

"Jane!" Loki cried, but she didn't listen; she looked further down the road and saw more car crashes. She began running down the street, and Loki took off after her. But she stopped when she saw someone in front of her turn to ash and flake away.

She screamed in horror, and turned to Loki. "What's happening?" she demanded. Loki just stared at the pile of ash in even more horror than her. Then he glanced at Jane's hand, and suddenly grabbed her face with both hands.

"Listen to me," he said. "Just look at me, you're going to be fine."

"Don't lie to me, Loki," she said angrily, with tears in her eyes. "Am I dying?"

"I don't…know," he said honestly.

She glanced down at herself, and watched herself flake away. The last thing she did was look up at him and hiss, "You better have not had anything to do with this," before disappearing completely.

Loki hastily looked at his hands, but to his great relief, he was fine. He looked up and noticed that he was standing in front of the building he'd woken up in front of. But now there was a girl standing on the steps, with folded arms, surveying the scene.

He marched up to her. "What are you doing?" he demanded.

"I'm not doing this, if that's what you're implying," she said.

"Who are you then?"

She turned to look at him. "I'm the guardian of the London Sanctum," she said. "And do not raise your voice at me, because I'm the one who brought you here."

Loki stepped back in surprise, but before he had time to reply, she looked back at the street and asked, "Do you know what is happening here?"

Loki swallowed and looked around. "Thanos found all the Infinity Stones."

"Yes," she said. "Now I'll be the first to admit that I ignore most of what happens in the world outside of London. But I was watching your ship, and I saw your interactions with Thanos. I knew you deserved more time to explore this hero path that you've found, and now it seems that, as likely a good number of the Avengers are ash now, you're going to have to explore that path more quickly than I imagined."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

She turned to him again. "It means," she said. "That you'll have to be an Avenger now, Loki."