Thank you for all of the follows and reads! You guys are amazing! Thank you especially to Natalie Rushman for that wonderful review! Sorry for all of the typos thus far; I've been on-the-go a lot lately, so I've been writing most of this on my phone.
When I watched Infinity War for the first time, I wondered how Thanos was able to pinpoint the exact locations of the Infinity Stones on Earth, so I created my own explanation of this chapter. I think in the movie, Thanos could just... sense the stones, but I thought that was a weak explanation.
But anyways... Onward!
Doctor Strange stared hard at Loki doubtfully.
"Thor Odinson is dead? Well, I really wonder who was responsible, God of Mishief."
Loki glared at Doctor Strange with narrowing eyes. "What? My brother is dead! And you are accusing me of his fate?"
Doctor Strange began to speak, but Bruce stepped forward.
"Thor's dead? What happened? How did you escape?"
Loki weighed his next words carefully. He was wasting enough time talking with them, and he knew that he had to send the signal to Ebony Maw soon, or else Thanos may grow suspicious.
"I... I assume you remember Thanos?" Loki said slowly.
Bruce shuddered, but nodded. Doctor Strange narrowed his eyes in curiosity.
"He killed Thor." Loki said. "I assume he killed the rest of the Asgardians as well. Heimdal was killed shortly after you left. And..."
Loki considered telling Bruce the truth. Bruce had already proven himself as a formidable ally, and he believed to have gained his trust through their endeavors together lately. And Bruce was a Midgardian healer. Perhaps if he told Bruce what had happened, Bruce could heal his throat so that Loki may become independent on the Power Stone. Then he would be free to fight against Thanos to avenge his brother... But it seemed too much of a gamble. Bruce may not even have to skill to heal him, and the Avengers may turn against him. Loki decided to just stick a toe on each of the sides to figure out how to go about this. Hopefully everything would work out.
Loki sighed, continuing, "I... I didn't escape. Thanos controlled me to attack New York, and I fear he may try to control me again. I cannot help you fight Thanos, as much as I greatly desire to avenge my brother. Though I regret to say this, you must assemble the Avengers to defeat Thanos. He seeks to gain the six Infinity Stones. If he gains them, he will be impossible to defeat."
Loki felt he had said too much, but at least he did not expose his full position. Doctor Strange seemed skeptical at this.
"Why would you tell us this?" He asked, lowering his golden whip.
"Because I cannot join your cause. Not yet. But I want Thanos to be punished for what he has done. Soon, perhaps even today, an alien by the name of Ebony Maw will attack to retrieve your Infinity Stone. Prepare yourselves because he is powerful. Now I really need to go."
Loki turned to leave, but Bruce grabbed his wrist.
"What's going on, Loki? Where are you going? You can stay with us! We can fight Thanos together! I know you're not as bad as I thought you were."
"I can't stay." Loki said. "You won't understand."
He shook off Bruce's grip and left. He could sense Doctor Strange approaching quickly from behind, but Loki slid out the doors before Strange could reach him and jogged across the street to where his ship was parked. Loki quickly pressed onto the ship's communication panel, recording a brief message of where the Time Stone was. He hoped that Bruce and even that annoying Doctor Strange may be able to hold off Thanos's children.
Loki sat within the invisible vessel for a while nervously considering returning back to Thanos's ship, but was terrified of confronting the Titan again. Maybe he could linger on earth for a while with the excuse of locating the other Infinity Stone. A short while later, he was aware of an orange glow within the Sanctum Sanctorium's windows. He recognized the shape of the glow being one of Doctor Strange's annoying portals. At first, Loki disregarded this, before briefly seeing Tony Stark's face emerge from the portal. Loki frowned. It had been a while since he had seen Tony Stark, and remembered how powerful his metal armor was. He doubted that emerging from hiding to domestically confront Stark would result in anything peaceful. But he considered Tony Stark for a moment, wondering if he might know where the Mind Stone might be, since the Avengers had taken his Scepter from him last time he had seen Stark. Cursing himself for his stupidity, Loki groaned and left the invisible vessel, throwing an enchantment of invisibility over himself and approached the Sanctum.
Loki leaned against the window of the door, peering inside and listening carefully. Doctor Strange seemed to be explaining the Infinity Stones to Tony Stark by creating an illusion of the Stones floating through the air.
"So all Thanos needs is these Stones?" Tony Stark crossed his arms over his chest
"And then he could create mass destruction on a scale hitherto undreampt of." Doctor Strange to
Tony Stark leaned up against a large pot, quipping, "Did you seriously just say, 'Hitherto undreampt of?'"
"Are you seriously leaning on the Cauldron of the Cosmos?"
Tony Stark straightened up. "Is that what it is?"
Doctor Strange's cloak reached out and slapped Stark. Stark stared at Strange in shock, but quickly recovered his cocky attitude.
"I'm... going to allow that. So if Thanos needs all six Stones, then why don't we throw out this one and the Mind Stone in Scotland."
Loki grinned, pleased at that casually thrown about information. Stark obviously was not the best secret-keeper, and it was working all too well for Loki. Loki backed away from the Santum crossing the street again to go back to the cloaked ship.
Loki was barely finished with sending a second signal, when he saw a massive disk-shaped ship come out of the clouds, blowing loose objects all around by they fierce wind it caused. Loki glanced up at it as it quickly approached over the vast cityscape, an unsettling unease at it approached. He recognized these ships as belonging to the Children of Thanos.