"THIS IS NOT MY FOOD! I know not what this is," – He spits as if offended by the mild taste Loki has conjured. – "this slime, this..."- Another spit, as he tries to clear the flavor from his mouth. – "This liquid filth!"

The Warriors Three are backing away, slowly, as if not even aware that they're doing it, but it is not them the Titan wants. A reach, a grip, and suddenly Loki is dangling two feet above the ground, his collar tight in Thanos' grip.

"YOU DID THIS."

The debonair smirk in place: This, Hogun, this is how a real Trickster does things. "Of course." Even his tone, sweet, patronizing. If you are going to lose, at least lose with style. – And who says he has lost this yet? All thought he had lost when Brokk claimed his head as well. "It was your vanity that made it easy. Tell me pray, Lord Thanos: What would Lady Death think and she knew you'd been tricked by four such lesser beings as we?"

"Liar!" A swing of the mighty arm: By Odin's beard, the floor of Stark's penthouse was softer than the ground in this accursed chamber! "Cheat!" Another swing: Hogun, Fandral, Volstagg, friend warriors, if you are going to help, pray do it quickly! "...Trickster!"

Loki's body smashes against the chamber floor for the third time. He is Jotun-born, and near immortal, but that doesn't mean he does not feel pain. Now, he thinks, now he will find out what the Warriors Three are truly made of.

"Loki is of Asgard." The deep, rumbly voice belongs to Volstagg. "Harm him, and you harm all of us." He hears footsteps. But what kind of attack can the big warrior mount when he is unarmed? "Have at you, Titan-God!"

A mighty thump, and Thanos staggers back, almost losing his hold on Loki. It is Volstagg's belly that is the weapon; who had thought Loki would ever have cause to be grateful for that?

"Loki, a sword!" It is Fandral's voice. "Not all of us carry our bodies as our weapons."

"And free yourself," comes Hogun's voice. "By the Norns, if ever there were a time for those spell-casting powers you're so proud of..."

A spell, yes. It's like the words wake him from his inertia. Loki thinks the incantation, shape-shifting second nature after a lifetime of practice, and he slides free from the Titan's grip in serpent-form. Ah, but Thanos is clever. Loki-serpent does not have time to change forms again, before a big, booted foot, stomps down, aiming for his head.

Hogun's hands swipe, catching the green coils of his serpent-form right before his sure destruction. "Now would be a good time to change back."

"You aren't frightened by serpents?" Loki, Aesir-seeming again, steps away from the grim warrior's hold. But now is not the time for repartee.

"The swords?" Fandral's voice is panicked, and he turns to see him crouched, half behind the upended table, and half behind Volstagg, as Thanos approaches.

A conjuration of weapons is an easy spell, albeit not one there's much use for on Asgard. Loki wills weapons for all of them: A sword for himself and Fandral, an ax for Hogun, and a broadsword massive as his voluminous belly, for Volstagg.

"Look to your laurels, Titan-God." Loki takes the position of defense, familiar from hours of combat-practice with Thor. "This time your victims will be your defeat."

"You're a cheat, Loki of Asgard." Thanos rushes, toward Fandral, not toward Loki.

The debonair warrior jumps free at the last possible moment. "More fool you for believing him." He delivers a smack with the flat of his sword, catching Thanos across the face.

There's no blood where the sword cut. Can the Titan even bleed, so far into such a long lifetime, and with so many dark deeds behind him? Loki can't pull his gaze away from the sight. Will this be his fate too, to be dried out by eternity after eternity of darkness?

Behind him, unnoticed, the three warriors mass for attack. They come at Thanos with their weapons swinging, puny weaklings, dwarfed by his mass. Never has Loki been so grateful for the warlike spirit of the Aesir. All of them have seen Thanos' power. That they can still attack despite having seen it, is impressive. ...And it might just be what gets them out of here.

A massive mailed fist swings. It hits Fandral full in his stomach, knocking him back to land in a heap against the wall. Loki feels his anger hot in his chest. Fandral is a comrade, he will not let him be dispatched so easily. Not thinking about strategy, or what is the best way to victory in this battle, he mutters an incantation, draws a magic circle that catches the Thanos mid-step, holding him in place.

Hogun and Volstagg pile on with a shout. Loki sees their arms upraised, hears the hacking sounds as their swords connect. It is pure foolishness to think they can destroy the Titan-God as they would a mortal combatant, but their attack gives him the cover he needs.

Covertly, he makes his way to Fandral. "You should be fighting," the gallant warrior murmurs. He looks up at Loki with pain-glazed blue eyes.

Loki is fighting. Did Fandral not notice... But this is a debate they have had many and many a time before, and now is not the time to have it again. "I should be doing what I do best," Loki says. "Lie still." He passes a hand, mutters a few spells under his breath, and sees the blood disappear from Fandral's face, hears his labored breathing become smooth again.

"By my 'womanish' healing arts, I have saved a warrior for our defense..." He breaks off. Fandral's attention is elsewhere. Already his eyes goes past him, to the battle.

"He has Volstagg."

Following his gaze, Loki sees Thanos' mailed hand, locked around the big warrior's throat. "Not for long." He looks at Fandral. "Go, you can stop him." A few words, – Fandral does not even hear them. – and what goes is a second Volstagg. A few more words, and an army of Volstaggs dance around the Titan. Loki cannot hold back the pleased laugh, as Thanos' eyes widen and his grip breaks on the real one.

Trickery is it? It is his "trickery" that has protected them as far as this, and, with a little thought, it might just get them all back to Asgard.

"Where's Loki?" He hears Volstagg's words, the fat warrior apparently unaware who it was that just saved him. A moment later, and the more proper question would be,"where's everybody," as another incantation clouds the chamber with fog. Dancing doppelgangers: Lokis, a hundred Warriors Three... – And, a more difficult incantation, the few of them who can actually strike blows, that make it all the harder for Thanos to find his real foes.

Loki creeps back into the shadows. If they are going to win this battle, he needs to do what he's best at for once, no more pretending that he is a warrior like the others. Loki thinks. When the builder would have taken lovely Freya, when the dwarf Brokk would have taken his head: His mind saved the situation when all thought it impossible. All it took was logic, and a little bit of deception.

He's far enough away that the battle just looks like a melee of fog-shrouded figures: He sees Thanos go down. Ducking to avoid a blow, bending to strike? The confusion is such that he cannot tell. Volstagg's mighty red-clad arm swings, but is it the real Volstagg, or one of his doppelgangers? How is he to know? A satisfaction to know that if he can't tell, Thanos won't be able to either.

Keeping so many doppelgangers on the field, along with the fog, is draining his energy fast. It's mind-energy, but it's physical as well. It takes an effort of will that he can feel all through his body. Piled on top of that is the concentration he needs, to figure out what has to be done next.

Loki looks out at the noise and chaos of the battle. He wills his mind blank, but blank it will not go. There is too much at-stake here. He keeps seeing warriors go down, Thanos' blade slicing them. He cannot tell if it is the real Warriors Three who are being hurt, and he dare not move close enough to tell. If only... If only what?

"If only Thor were here." His lips form the words soundlessly. – A moment later he is muttering another incantation, a shielding spell, as he sees Fandral too close to harm's way. – Then his mind returns to the thought: He needs the Thunder God here. The mighty power of Mjolnir might not be enough to stop Thanos, but it would slow him down, sure enough. But how to get him? Loki thinks of his brother, lost in Thanos' enchantment. What held him there? Why did he not wake?

It's too much, he cannot think about it. That look on Thor's face the lost, hopeless look, as he searched for someone, anyone anywhere around him, it's too close to how Loki felt himself, when he was lost in the void. All the time he's spent wishing that his brother could feel, just once, as he's felt himself: Did he ever imagine he'd feel such pain when it happened? Watching anyone suffer that is too close to suffering it himself.

"Loki." A big hand grips him, a burly arm emerging from the fog. "A little help here?" Volstagg grates.

It's like being wakened, as if a link has been severed. "You idiot!" Loki turns on the big warrior, spits all the emotion that was building in him right at his head. "Blind, clumsy oaf. Do you call yourself a warrior? The fog is there." – He gestures. – "The doppelgangers are there. Here, there is just one fat hog in armor, inviting Thanos to slaughter him."

...And if the sight of the big man out in the open hadn't been enough, now Loki's voice is additional enticement. He realizes it, and throws the protective fog around their part of the room as well. He conjures the doppelgangers. He's not going to be able to do it for much longer though, his energy won't last.

"Get back there and fight," he tells Volstagg through gritted teeth. "We need you."

"I'd say the same about you, Silvertongue." Volstagg throws one resentful look, but he returns to the combat, sure enough, and Loki is left alone again. Now he must just find a way to use the quiet and figure their way out of here.

He was distracted before by his thoughts, his memories, like being helpless, as if his mind was not his own ...Like the spell Thanos has over Thor and Sif. And what woke him?

"Half of it's him," Loki mutters. "Half of it's our own minds."

He jumps up, stationary no more, for he knows what to do. If he can just get to his brother in time... If the Warriors Three, aided by his spells, can just keep Thanos sufficiently distracted...

Turning back, he throws incantation after incantation: A thousand sounds, sights, distractions, to confuse even the mind of a Titan-God. As for himself, he must find Thor and Sif. He does not think they will be far. They did not need to be, when their own minds provided the distance and the imprisonment.

The chambers of the dream realm are dank, empty, high-ceilinged and sharp-rocked as they always seemed in his dreams. Shorn of the glamor of of Thanos' presence though, with the Titan-God's too busy fighting to extend his influence as he did before, they seem smaller. There seem to be fewer of them. In truth, it seems he could traverse this realm with but a short walk, an hour perhaps at most, for what had felt so vast and never-ending. A good thing, for he must find Thor fast. – And Sif too, his conscience reminds him of his obligation to her. But it is Thor, with his fighting strength, who will keep Thanos occupied long enough for Loki to break his hold and return all six of them to Asgard.

He searches. The first chamber is not empty. He can sense pain here. He hears the footsteps of some other poor imprisoned soul. Barely visible, he can see not one victim, but many. But not the ones he seeks. Loki continues past.

Another chamber, and a third: Thanos' dream realm is a spider's web, with all his victims nicely trussed and waiting on his pleasure. For half a moment, Loki thinks of freeing all of them: Oh, if only he could! What satisfaction to see the Titan-God's face, when he realized his pretty, weak,fallen prince had stolen these gifts he would give Lady Death! But he dare not. So far from his presence, his illusions will fade soon. It will be only three Aesir warriors, fighting unprotected against Thanos' might. He has to have Thor free to help before that happens.

And the next chamber yields what he is seeking. Ere he goes in, he is hit by the wave of Thor's loneliness. The Golden One is not used to being alone. He turns, – Loki sees him as he enters the chamber. – looks this way and that, with blind, uncomprehending fear on his face.

"Thor." Loki touches him. Let Thanos' connection have weakened, he prays, let him be able to wake Thor without psychic connection, which would divert valuable power away from the illusions he is sustaining on the battleground!

His brother looks, turns a not-seeing gaze Loki's way. "B-brother?"

"Thor!" This time he puts his arms around him, gives one of the bone-crushing hugs it's always been Thor giving him before.

Understanding lights his brother's eyes. "Brother!"

Weak-kneed relief floods him.

"Never have I been so glad to see anyone, brother! I thought myself alone. ...Where are the others?"

Where Thor thinks he is, is a good question. Does he yet have any inkling of their situation? Loki puts his hands on Thor's arms, looks into his brother's face. "I haven't time, brother. You must go back three chambers." He gestures the way. "You will find the Warriors Three there, locked in combat with..." –

"With a masked creature? Wearing a black hood?"

"That is the servant. They are fighting his Master." Loki pushes Thor. "Go." – Oh, pray let him be able to! Let Thanos' connection be broken enough! – "I must find Sif."

A nod. Thor understands. "But I am unarmed, brother. Can I summon Mjolnir here?"

Loki shakes his head. "I know not. Here." He conjures a weapon, broad, and heavy to suit his brother's might.

"How well you know my preferences, brother." Thor grins. "I will find our friends," he says. "Together we will defeat this adversary."

They won't. It is to be hoped they will be able to keep him busy at least though, until Loki can release Sif from her spell. After that, with five of them fighting, hopefully he can break the connection that holds them all in this realm. "Go." He watches until Thor obeys, then turns to his search.

"Join me on the battlefield soon, brother." There is an urgency in Thor's tone that is not in his usual commands that his younger brother follow him into combat. Does he finally acknowledge the power that Loki's magic can bring? Or is it merely the fear of being parted from him again, so soon after the loneliness of Thanos' illusions?

For now, there is no time to care. Loki nods. "As soon as I've found Sif."

Loki has studied the incantations for long-distance magic, but he has used them little. The spells he used for the battleground here, were merely the ones he's always used; he has little idea at how far a distance he can maintain them. They drain his power too. None are huge spells, but there is a cumulative effect. It will not do if his magic is exhausted before he has returned them all to Asgard. Urgency thrums in him. It wants to turn into panic, but he fights that away. He cannot, he dare not, give in to his own emotion while his brother and the others need him.

"Sif." He passes more chambers, each holding its own cargo of lost souls. Mentally, he searches, looking for the fear and shame that he felt, when Thanos showed him his old shield-partner. "Sif!"

There is no answer of course. Fool he, even to call. It attests to his own fear, that he'd think to get a response from one lost in the Titan-God's spells. Finally, only by dint of long searching, Loki finds Sif, and when he does, she looks at him with blind eyes and uncomprehending fear on her face.

"I am no maiden, but a warrior." The words are a moan. "Loki, he took my beauty. I have to prove myself by fighting!"

He took her beauty? Memory floods: When he cut her hair... But did not the dwarfs make new tresses for her? True their golden color did not last, but he had never known Sif cared about that. Loki hesitates to go up to her. Even can he break the spell, will Sif trust him enough to go with him?

"You have proven yourself again and again." The last time he touched her, he remembers, was to put the dwarf-wrought curls into place. He wonders: What will he see in Sif's eyes when he wakens her? "Again and again you have proven yourself. Your hands are calloused; your body wields a sword with skill."

"Look at me." Still that same look on her face: Blank fear and pain. "Just look at me, with this ugly dark hair! Why bother trying for beauty?"

The mind-link was easy with Thor, because they were allies. It has only been a few times that he has betrayed his brother. Betrayal? Faugh! He will have none of it. Sif has teased him for his clumsiness with a weapon. She has taunted him when he relied on spells to win a battle. Why do her betrayals mean nothing, and it is only his that matter?

Loki steels himself. And he dwells on these past hurts, he will be as immobilized as Sif. "Sif," Well Loki Liesmith knows how to gentle his voice and entice those who have no reason to trust. "I am he who did this to you. I am Loki, and I am here to bring you to your friends."

There is a jerk under his hands. "Silvertongue!" Sif turns, regards him with anger only. "You lie, as you always lie. You are a cheater born!"

"Later, Sif." It takes all his strength of will to focus on the girl, and not on himself, but that is past anger he sees in her eyes, not the recognition he needs. "This is not the past. I am not here to hurt you. – Wake, pray," he says, "for your friends need you alongside them in battle."

"...In battle?" Slowly, true recognition enters her face. "I... But where? And with who?"

How to explain it? ...How to explain it quickly, so they can return to the battle, before he has exhausted his magic? "Sif, do you remember who brought you here?"

She nods. "It was a man, a man in a mask. No," pausing. "It was a voice. It was the voice that brought me. The man said he served him."

"It is the voice we fight," Loki tells her. I persuaded him to materialize. He..."

Sif's eyes are on him. He sees doubt shading the trust he needs. But that is the way it happened. Why must she question? By Odin's Wounds, why must they always question?

"I had help from the Warriors Three." A nod from Sif tells him the trust has returned. Once again – As always, by the Hounds of Bor! – it is the answer that will make Loki Silvertongue look bad, that convinces. "Together, we persuaded him to materialize."

"The Warriors Three? They're here?" Sif grabs his arm. "Loki, we must go to them! I remember that voice." She shudders. "Materialized, he must be formidable indeed."

They are running already. Chambers flash by, the moans and cries of their imprisoned cargo still audible, still disturbing. Ahead though, closer with each step they take, he can hear the sounds of battle. Steel clashes, voices cry. But quickly, at the speed they are going, he makes out the voices of his comrades.

"Have at you, Titan-God!" That is Volstagg. Loki had thought him threat only to roasts and mead bottles, but in battle he is untiring.

"My arm! – Curse it, Fandral, you only make it worse." And Hogun ...wounded? "Go to Volstagg, he needs support." The grim warrior's mind is still on the fight, despite the injury he's received. Loki hopes that he's still got power enough to heal him.

"Do not worry my friend." – Thor's voice. As he hears it, Loki also comes near enough so he can see the battle. Volstagg, who seemed elephantine back on Asgard, is here but a terrier-dog, hacking and nipping at Thanos' leg. The Titan-God stands over Hogun, lying wounded half under the table from their earlier competition and, between them, holding him off, stands Thor. The sword Loki conjured him is upraised. It bends under Thanos' attack.

"Loki, a weapon." Sif's voice is urgent.

His power flags. And he gives her one, will there be enough left to strengthen the sword he has conjured his brother?

"A weapon, Silvertongue!" Sharp-voiced Sif; she sounds a very shrew. "As you value your life."

Still he might have used the power to arm Thor instead, had her shrieking, voice not caught the Titan-God's attention. Thanos turns their way. "Oho, reinforcements?" His voice sounds tired, but not nearly tired enough. He is far from defeat. "Is this my pretty Prince's girlfriend?"

"A weapon." ...bitch. Valkyrie... It is drawing at the very dregs of his strength to conjure them, but he gives her the two swords, the one long and the other short, that she is accustomed to taking into battle.

"Behind me, Loki." The shove she gives him is sharp. He would draw back, to try and recoup his strength a little, but pressed against the wall of the cavern, with Sif in front of him, and Thanos bearing down on them both, he cannot.

"Loki, Hogun needs your help!" Off to the side, he can hear Fandral. – He can see him, bloodstained and far from his usual debonair self, waving and calling for help. For once, he fully understands the importance of having a healer with their company... And just at a time when Loki cannot summon the magic to heal. Sif's body presses him back against the cave wall. He'd push her aside, but the moment's respite feels good. He needs time, at least a little time, else he can help none of his comrades.

"Oho, the girl." How to say what is in Thanos' voice? It is greed, pleasure on top of cruelty. "I remember this one. She thinks herself a warrior."

"I am a warrior." Sif's blade makes contact. More fool she, if she has not noticed Volstagg, striking blow after blow, and doing not a whit of harm. "I've stopped uglier things than you and gone home and had a hearty breakfast."

And the taunts. Oh yes, let's start exactly where the Warriors Three started, then we can all fail in exactly the same way. But how to succeed? It's Loki who must figure that out of course.

"Thor!" Shouts heard muffled, through Sif's body, and the noise of her taunts. A red-clad arm, waving.

"I see it, friend Volstagg. He has Sif."

From behind Sif, Loki raises a hand. He would summon the fog screen from before, but he knows he lacks the energy to do it. He mutters the incantation. A faint mist blurs the edges of the cavern, leaving his comrades exposed.

"You've led me quite the pretty dance, my Prince." A swipe of Thanos' arm, and Sif goes sprawling. "I hope you did not think you were going to get away? Or..." – A hollow, grating laugh. – "Or that you might rescue these other little victims? What was it you said before: 'hope disappointed is more amusing than mere terror.' How right you were." Behind, to both sides, Loki sees his comrades attacking. Blades slash, Thor's blade, Sif's blade, Volstagg's. None to any avail. They are but pin-pricks to the Titan. "I've enjoyed playing with you, Loki of Asgard, but I grow weary. It's time to finish this."

An argument, a word of persuasion ...a spell. Ever before, the ideas teemed, but now his mind is blank. Did he really think he might save the others? Did he think he might win victory? Thanos' words recur: Yours was the heart of a child. You were easily bent to my purposes. I laughed when you were defeated, as you will always be defeated... Where are his lies? Where is his silver tongue? Where are his tricks, now when he needs them?

"Monster!" Sif's words come through only vaguely. "I will not let you destroy any of Asgard."

"As if you can stop me." Thanos turns. – For a moment only, he turns. – "Loki was my tool, my servant. You and your friends are my victims. I will take care of your fates soon enough, but first I must destroy" -

...First I must destroy this unworthy tool. He hears the words, surely Thanos has said them. With no recourse left, Loki steels for the blow that will follow.

– "You destroy nothing." Thor's voice. Thor's voice louder and more sure than anything in this cursed cavern. And, following it, the crack of thunder. Loki opens his eyes to see lightning flash. Impossible, isn't it? Has Thor really summoned Mjolnir here, to the dream realm?

"Loki is my brother." Calm voice of absolute control. "Foul villain, you think I would let him die here, in your clutches? He is coming with me."

Mjolnir, here? This is no dream. It is no illusion of his conjuring, for he has not the strength to conjure it. This is the real Mjolnir, the war-hammer of the God of Thunder. – It is a crack in the dream realm, through which reality intrudes. Who can tell what will come next?

"You think you've won, Thunder God?" Thanos' voice. – Thanos, sounding rushed, almost nervous. - "Loki told me about you. You preen yourself on the effects of your brute force, and yet intelligence is beyond you."

These are mere words. Where are the actions?

Thanos bends toward Loki again, but his attention is behind him, on Thor and Mjolnir. "You may keep your little playfriends," he spits. "Take them and go. Loki is mine, in payment of the debt he owes me."

Half-seen past the Titan-God's shoulder: There is a paling of the dream realm, all around the edges where Mjolnir is. And in the center the hammer shines, more real than everything around it.

"You know that is not how this will end." Still that calm assurance in Thor's voice. Hel take him, does he know why Mjolnir is their salvation? Does he realize it is the hammer's reality that matters, and not its brute force? Foolish questions. And wasted words, like Thanos' wasted words. Already Loki can see the dream realm disintegrating. Its component parts fragment, dissolve into a blur.

The last Loki sees of it is the Titan's face, impossibly close to his. The last he hears is words grated: "Little bitch-prince would hide behind the Thunderer, would he? You really think the might of Asgard can protect you? This is not the end, Loki. It will never be the end, until you make recompense..."