Okoye flew out to the borders of Wakanda's airspace to guide the battered spaceship past their defenses. She had instructed the pilot that she spoke with to follow her no matter what and she would guide them to safety. Without her, there's no way that the ship would have made it through the decoy mountain which protected Wakanda.
Ramonda, the Queen Mother, Nakia and Shuri all stood with Thor as the ship landed on the strip outside the palace. The door opened and the survivors started to file out of the rescue ship. Some of them had tears in their eyes as they greeted Thor and embraced him, thanking him for their safe return. The Queens of Wakanda welcomed everyone as they exited, offering reassurances and showing the Asgardians where they can go for food and rest after their horrible journey.
As Valkyrie stepped off the ship with Korg behind her, she immediately turned towards Thor. "How goes things, Your Majesty?"
"Better now," Thor replied with a small smile. "Tell me how do they fare?"
Valkyrie looked over at the people who were being warmly greeted by the Queens of Wakanda. "They're tired, hungry and scared but I think they'll be better now."
"I can't thank you enough for what you did for them," Thor told her honestly as he hugged her in relief. "Is there anything I can do to repay you?"
Valkyrie shook her head. "I don't need repayment on this one. But we have something for you. We have them with us," she said softly as she placed something discreetly in his hand.
Thor froze in his tracks. "You have them?" he questioned to make sure he heard right.
Valkyrie nodded. "We were able to get Heimdall and Loki after everything happened. They didn't deserve that."
Thor opened his hand to see what Valkyrie had placed there. Loki's ring. He quickly waved Shuri over as two covered stretchers were brought out from the ship. "I know I am asking the impossible but if there is anything that can be doneā¦please I beg of you..." he pleaded with her.
Shuri heard the desperation in his voice before she looked over at the covered bodies. She didn't know what she could do if anything. "I'll do what I can," she told him without hesitation. "Go with your people for now. Get them settled and I can start an examination."
Thor was torn between his duty as King and his duty to his brother and friend. "Perhaps I should be with you?"
Shuri waved him off. "Don't take this the wrong way but if there is as much damage as you have described to me, I don't believe you will do well with it. Let me work and I will send word for you through Nakia and my mother. I will care for them as if they were my own family but you need to go so I can," she told him, trying to get him to push past his reluctance to leave.
"Please let me know as soon as you can," Thor stated as he turned to follow Ramonda, Nakia and the Asgardians inside the palace.
After the Asgardians had time to rest and eat, Nakia guided Thor and his people to where the river tribes lived. These were her people and they were more than willing to open their homes to the Asgardians for as long as they needed to until they could build their own. As each Asgardian family got settled with a Wakandan family, Thor made sure that he thanked every one of them personally because he knew very well what an imposition this could be. He was eternally grateful for the kindness Shuri had shown by opening her country to his people and he was going to make sure that he repaid every bit of it.
Several hours had passed when Shuri called Thor back to the city. Thor was tempted to call Stormbreaker in to get back to the palace faster when Shuri reached out to Okoye to bring him back. He knew he was holding on to a very thin thread of hope here but he couldn't give up just yet. Loki had come back twice before. "Tell me what you have found," he said breathlessly as he greeted Shuri at the door of her labs.
Shuri looked up at Thor sadly as she took his hand and led him inside. She could see how much he was trying to hold on to the tiniest shred of hope and she had to give the bad news. "First, your friend..." she said as she walked up to the first table covered with a sheet.
"Heimdall," Thor added for her.
"From what I could tell, your people had tried to treat his injuries. His body seemed to expel a large amount of energy right before he was stabbed."
Thor nodded. "He called the Bifrost through him one more time to send Banner as the Hulk to Earth to warn of Thanos' coming."
"That expulsion of energy in combination with his injuries led to what finally made his body give out," Shuri explained sadly. "I'm so sorry."
Thor swallowed hard and tried to blink away the tears that welled in his eyes. "He will be honored in the halls of Valhalla for all ages. He died protecting what remained of Asgard. I will need to make sure he is properly honored."
"I will help you in anyway you need," Shuri said gently as she led him further back into the lab to where Loki had been brought.
On another table, far in the back, Loki's body was laid out. His clothes had been cut away to reveal his gray skin and multitude of bruises and injuries. The hand shaped bruises on his neck stood out the most from where Thanos had strangled him. There were sensors and tubes all over him, most of which Thor had no understanding.
"Your brother though is a different situation," Shuri tried to explain. "He scared us at first with the color of his skin. We thought he was already gone. Once we got the chance to thoroughly examine him, he still had some signs of life. He had an array of injuries from the simple with the deep bruising to the complex where his throat was crushed. It's like he's on the threshold of death's door and he doesn't know which side to be on."
"He was not born on Asgard," Thor said softly as he wiped tears away from his eyes and took Loki's hand in his. "He was born on Jotunheim. My father adopted him when he was cast out to die by his own race. When he was born, he was blue-gray but my father had put an enchantment on him to have him blend in better with other Asgardian children. As an adult, he could maintain the illusion himself but not in this state."
"I know you said that there were things you wished to tell him and this may be your only chance," Shuri told him gently. "Your brother may not be long for this world. I have set up my best methods to heal him but it's up to him if he is still in the fight. Hearing you may give him the strength he needs. Take all the time you need."
Thor pulled up a chair next to Loki as Shuri backed off to give him some privacy. "I'm sorry that I said you were the worst brother. I didn't know what you had intended to do when I said it and I wish I could take it back. I don't want to wait until I see you in Valhalla for the sun to shine on us again. I want it now." Thor's voice cracked with a sob that he didn't even try to hide. "I want you by my side. I need my brother by my side." Thor barely got the words out before he broke down completely, his head down against his brother's chest.
Shuri couldn't stay back any more when she heard him burst into tears. She came back in, wrapped her arms around Thor's back and rested her head against his as he cried, trying to give him any comfort that she could. It was only moments before he lifted his head and turned to her. Shuri guided him to her shoulder, wrapping one arm around his back while the other stroked his hair, letting her own tears fall silently with him.
Thor fell into Shuri's arms without thinking. He finally fully let all his grief out as he held onto her, trying not to crush her small form. He had been holding everything he had been feeling back for so long that there was no way he could stop.
Shuri didn't know if minutes or hours had passed as she held Thor and honestly she didn't care. He needed to get everything out and wasn't going to let her friend suffer alone. When Thor finally stopped crying and lifted his head, Shuri could see that even though he was still wrecked he was doing better.
"I'm sorry," Thor whispered as he roughly wiped away what was left of the tears with the heel of his hand.
"Don't you dare apologize," Shuri replied as she took his face in her hands. "You're allowed to grieve. You're allowed to feel pain. You can only hold that in for so long before you break. I bet you feel a little bit better after that."
Thor nodded through a small and sad smile. "I would like to stay with my brother, if you don't mind."
"I don't mind. It might do him some good. But don't forget about yourself as well," Shuri reminded him as she went over to her computer.
Three days passed before Loki regained consciousness. Over those three days, his vital signs were improving, he started breathing more on his own and the gray color of his skin started vanishing.
When she heard a ragged cough, Shuri looked up from her work station to see Loki's eyes open and him starting to struggle with the IVs that were attached to him. "Good afternoon, Loki," she said warmly as she smiled at him. "My name is Shuri and you are on Earth...in Wakanda," she explained as she she untangled IV tubes and detached a few.
Loki tried to focus on the girl in front of him but everything was very confusing. He last remembered being choked by Thanos and now he was waking up in what seemed to be a healer's room. "Where's Thor?" he rasped out, wincing with the pain as he spoke.
"You may want to refrain from speaking for just a little while longer. Your throat took some serious damage and it is still healing, even if it is at an impressive rate," Shuri cautioned.
"Where's Thor?" Loki tried again to say despite the pain.
"Your brother was right. You are a stubborn one," Shuri smiled. "I'm hoping he's sleeping because he didn't leave your side for two and a half days. Never doubt how your brother feels about you ever again. It took several of us to convince him that you were not going to perish the second he left you and that if he wanted to care for you and your people, he also had to take care of himself. That convinced him to get some real food and some actual sleep in a real bed instead of that couch."
Loki was a bit surprised at Shuri's explanation of Thor's behavior. He turned his head slowly to see the absolutely tiny couch that was barely more than a chair. "How did he fit?" Loki mouthed.
Shuri laughed. "He didn't. It was absolutely painful to watch." Shuri checked over Loki's progress once more. "I am happy with how you are progressing and I would feel comfortable with moving you to a more comfortable room with more privacy. I am still going to monitor you for a bit longer. I will have to wake Thor up because he insisted that you are staying with him."
Loki sighed and rolled his eyes. "Be careful," he whispered.
"Why would I need to be careful?" Shuri inquired.
"He's impossible to wake up and when you do he's very grumpy."
Over the next hour, Shuri and an exhausted and groggy Thor managed to get Loki moved into Thor's room. Shuri set up the sensors on the bed and set Loki up with a fully loaded tablet so he could read, watch movies and text what he had to say until his voice came back.
Shuri avoided going to check on Loki's progress until after dinner to allow him time to rest after the afternoon's ordeal. Needless to say it didn't surprise her when she didn't receive an immediate answer when she knocked. She was about to open the door herself before it opened on its own to a dark room. Shuri walked in cautiously to find the only light in the room coming from Loki's tablet as he read and sipped at a cup of tea.
"How are you feeling?" she asked pleasantly.
Loki put a finger up to his lips to tell her to be quiet as he pointed over to the other bed where Thor was turned on his side with his back to Loki, sound asleep.
Shuri laughed. "I was in here earlier and I know he snores. How did you get him to stop?"
Loki smiled as he waved his hand to lift the magic he had placed on his brother before showing the tablet to Shuri.
Could you sleep with that going on? There's a reason why he is the god of thunderous snoring.
Shuri had to stop herself from busting out in laughter. "I take it you're feeling somewhat better."
Loki recast the spell on Thor and typed out his answer.
A little bit. It's frustrating that I can not use my voice.
"I completely understand but your throat had a great deal of trauma to it. If you push it too much, it will take longer to heal. Try to rest and you will make quick progress," Shuri replied as she started for the door. "By the way, what happens if you don't remove the spell when he wakes up?"
Loki laughed and then hissed in pain. He typed out a quick answer. A mute and infuriated god of thunder. Hilarious.
