(A/N - Hey guys! So I know this is a bit behind schedule but only cuz I haven't been keeping well and then there was a pretty important festival in between all the crazy that is my life currently. Anyways, lemme know how you find the chapter. :D
Also, my next update is probably going to be in December because I have exams coming up and I'll get back to writing once I am done with that.)

CHAPTER 9

Location: Svartalfheim

The Valkyrie took a deep breath and splashed the naturally cool water on her face in an attempt to chase her sleep away. She was kneeling next to the pool of groundwater that they all had found somewhere towards the back of the cave that the refuges had set up camp in. Some of the older Asgardians had managed to separate the water pool into two portions – one for drinking and one for washing. The pool wasn't big enough for the use of hundred some people but they had been managing pretty well for now. She wondered for how long this would continue, for how long the people would cooperate with each other before the fights erupted. She hoped that their message reached Vanaheim or Alfheim before that happened.

One day, Brunn thought as she wiped her face with a clean portion of her otherwise dirty cape. It had been one whole day since they were stranded on this stupid planet. Normally, she wouldn't have cared. After all, one day wasn't all that long. But now, with no food or trained people or any feasible transportation, she didn't know for how long they all could hold out. For now everyone was being cooperative and cordial to one another, but she had seen what such situations could do. The people had still not come to terms with their fate and she dreaded the moment that happened.

A shrill cry brought her out of her reverie and she snapped her head up, looking around for danger. What she found was a young girl, barely a millennia old, holding a little child in her arms. A crying child. The absence of danger did nothing to soothe the warrior. She would prefer fights over crying babies any day. Not that she didn't have experience with crying babies, but she no longer had the patience for it.

"Sorry," mumbled the girl as she rocked the baby, trying to get him/her to sleep.

Brunnhilde nodded her acknowledgement and the girl took it as an invitation to make small talk.

"Birger," the girl hoisted the baby at that and Brunn smiled slightly at the crying boy, "he is the youngest in the family. He was born last year and he just cannot stop crying. Father was the only one who could get him to settle down but now…" the girl trailed off and cleared her throat.

"Have you fed him something?" Brunn asked, thinking about what kind of baby food they could have. Nothing came to her mind.

"Yes, one of the mothers out there fed him. I am Iona, by the way."

"Brunnhilde." With that she nodded and walked towards the front of the cave. The crying of the child was getting on her nerves now.

"I… sorry, umm… I heard that we sent messages to Alfheim and Vanaheim?"

"Yes, we did. Got any family over there?" Brunn asked, turning to face the blond haired girl once again.

"My mother and oldest brother. They were visiting my aunt on Alfheim." Iona said in relief and went back to handling her brother, who had achieved a previously unknown level of shrillness.

Taking the chance, Brunn quickly exited from there and walked down the somewhat dark tunnel to reach the front of the cave. The seiðkona, Eda had left some glowing balls of light in the tunnel to light it up but even that was not enough. At least the pool area had natural light filtering from the holes in the ceiling of the cave. The same went for the front room.

She leaned against the wall as she looked at the people scattered around the cave. At least the double shift was in effect. Some time back, Korg had suggested that they all take shifts and rest and so far it was successful. The ones who were resting were relaxed in the knowledge that there were others who could protect them while they slumbered.

The half that was sleeping had shifted to the back of the room, leaving enough space for someone to come and go to the pool area. The other half that included most of the Sakaarians were either sitting in circles and chatting or loitering around the cave. There was one group of girls that she assumed was the class of seiðkonur, who were sitting in a circle and talking and practicing their art. Another group containing mostly of men and some women were at the front of the cave, looking through the crates of weapons that they had brought back from the ship graveyard. Yet another smaller group was sitting in and around the skiff that was parked at the cave's entrance. They all seemed to be engrossed in listening to the Nine Realms Channel.

She felt someone's gaze on her and looked around till she found Korg waving one rocky arm at her, signaling her to join him. The Kronan had Miek draped over his one arm as usual and she wondered whether he ever tired of doing that. But considering that Korg was far more innocent and too pure a soul than anyone she had ever met, he probably wouldn't have even registered something like that.

"Scrapper 142!" Korg greeted as she neared him and his enthusiasm reminded her of Thor. He had been pretty enthusiastic and happy about things when he hadn't been brooding about the future.

"I thought you were supposed to be sleeping. Don't worry, I have got everything under control."

Brunn shrugged and said, "I told you call me Brunn. I slept for some time and don't want to sleep anymore. Anything interesting going on here?" She looked at the Sakaarians sitting and playing some sort of game with rocks. She wondered if those rocks belonged to Korg.

"We are just playing a game of 'Break the Tower'. Do you want to join?"

"No thanks." Brunn said. She was familiar with the game. It was the favorite pastime of the gladiators. It was a boring game but she guessed that they didn't really care considering that they would only survive for a few days before being killed in the Grandmaster's game. She wondered what that old man was up to. Whether he still lived or not. He better had died. He was enough of a creep to deserve death, which probably meant that he was still alive, cuz slimy people like him always survived any situation. At least Topaz was dead. Small comforts.

The clatter of swords and blades brought her attention to the group that was rummaging through the weapons crate. She made her way towards them in irritation. What did they think they were doing? Hardly any of them looked like seasoned warriors. She wasn't in the mood to treat wounded people because of their own foolhardy ways. Not to mention that they didn't have any equipment to treat people.

"What are you doing?" she snapped at the group as she neared them.

"Um… sorry, just going through the weapons we have." Magna said as she picked up the swords. At Brunn's questioning look, she elaborated, "Most of us have gone through simple fighting techniques as is… was mandatory on Asgard. We thought we could, you know, build up on that and learn to fight more."

A man, Raul, she remembered, nodded and said, "It would give us something to do and wherever we end up, we would need to know how to defend ourselves. None of us are trained warriors except for you and few of the Einherjar who were on leave during the attack or came to protect us."

"Fine," the Valkyrie nodded, "you do that. Just don't kill each other and stay away from the blasters!" She looked pointedly at the few who were holding the blasters. As the two boys who had picked up the blasters, kept them back, she explained, "Dark Elves' technology is very sensitive to touch. You have to be careful when you use them. Those blasters could tear through almost any metal known to us."

"And we don't want that sort of trouble over here." Magna said pointedly.

Brunn suppressed a smile as the two boys looked ashamed and asked Magna, "Are you the eldest of the children here?"

"Yes, along with Kari and Tyra." Magna pointed at a tall girl with blue eyes and jet black hair, sitting in the middle of the circle that some of the kids had formed. "Tyra Unnsdottir. She is of my age, that is, nine hundred and ninety four years old. Kari is slightly younger at nine hundred and one and we have the two children of Volstagg the Valiant. They are somewhere in their eight hundreds. Everyone else is below six hundred, as far as I know."

"Alaric Volstaggson." A red haired boy stepped forward to introduce himself. He had been one of those who were looking at the swords. "And this is my sister, Gunnhild." He nodded towards a red haired, freckled girl, holding a sword in her hand.

Brunn nodded and smiled at them. "Well, carry on with your fighting or whatever. I'll go check on the others."

"Mmm actually," Gunnhild said with an impish grin, "we were sort of wondering whether you could help us in that."

"Excuse me?"

"You could train us in fighting. I mean you are the Valkyrie. There is no one over here who knows these things better than you."

"Right." Brunn pursed her lips and looked at the others. They all were looking expectantly at her and she barely stopped herself from groaning. This was not something she wanted to do. As much as training others excited her, she was sure it would also be too close a reminder of the days that she was trying to forget. As the leader of the Valkyries, it had been her duty to train the others and she wasn't in the mood for a trip down the memory lane. As it was, between Loki's cheap trick and the incessant questions of the children, she had remembered far more in the past few days than she had in the past century. The 'no' was on the tip of her tongue but somehow she couldn't find it in herself to disappoint the barely concealed excitement on the redhead's face and she found herself making a compromise.

"How about you all practice and show what you have got and I'll correct you?" Brunn suggested. It was the closest she could offer now to proper training.

"That's great!" Magna said excitedly, cutting off Gunnhild's reply which was probably some argument. "We'll let you know who all wants to join in this."

Brunnhilde smiled at Magna as she understood that the girl was helping her get out of the slightly uncomfortable situation. It looked like she understood far more than she let on. Good for her, Brunn thought as she walked away from the group. She joined Korg, who was now passing out some of the snacks to the children. She hoped that he was mindful of the fact that they had only a meager amount of foodstuff and sooner rather than later, they were going to run out of it. She spent the next few minutes helping him and Royd sort out the food situation.

It was some time later when the shift was changing and most of the people were awake and others were getting ready to retire, that Sol came running into the cave. She and Kari had been on the skiff for almost the entirety of the day.

"Brunn!" Sol panted as she skidded to a stop in front of the warrior. "You have to hear this. Come on!"

Without waiting to see if the Valkyrie followed, Sol ran towards the skiff. Brunn followed her and hoped that some sort of message would have come through, but was doubtful about it. Kari had told her that it would take some time for their own message to reach the other realms.

"…that have died the glorious death."

Those were the first words that Brunn heard from the broadcast and realized that they all were listening to the Nine Realms Channel. She quickly jumped on to the skiff as the meaning of the words sunk in. That was the Asgardian and Vanir prayer for the dead. Her heart thudded against her ribcage as she increased the volume. If this was what she thought it was, then everyone else also needed to hear it.

"It has been almost an hour since the final rites were carried out for all those we have lost today. The mass funeral was carried out in the capital city of Vanaheim, conducted by King Freyr, Princesses Frejya and Idunn. At the last minute, King Thor of Asgard, the new All-Father had attended the funeral…"

At that a cheer rose amongst the crowd as they celebrated the fact that their king still lived. It took a shrill whistle from Brunn to shut them up so they could listen properly to the remaining news.

"It has now been confirmed that Prince Loki of Asgard and gatekeeper, Heimdall, did not survive the attack on the ship that carried the people of Asgard. While their bodies are yet to be found, their rites have already been performed. In other news, King Thor has also confirmed the reason behind the mysterious dust that took away so many of our friends and family. The perpetrator behind this horrific crime was none other than the infamous Mad Titan Thanos. With the help of the ever elusive Infinity Stones, the Titan was able to wipe out half the life in the universe. King Thor, along with the famous but never seen heroes of Midgard and a few other allies are currently looking into this matter. Please stay tuned in to hear more about the Mad Titan Thanos."

There was absolute silence in the gathering as the news report droned on and on about the funeral and the feast that was still in progress. From their own personal experiences, they knew that the feast and the story telling that followed would go on till the early morning. Solemn, dirty faces looked at one another in search of comfort but found only the lost people that they were.

"Hey," Korg whispered to Brunnhilde as people started dispersing, either back to the cave or to roam around, lost in their own thoughts, "this Loki was the same guy who led us to your planet, right?"

"Yeah."

"Just checking. Great guy, little testy, but he led the revolution for us." Korg said with a shrug. "Too bad he died. He could have led another revolution. At least Thor's alive."

"Loki was Thor's brother." Brunn said as she finished saying the prayer in her head.

"That sucks. Not that they were brothers. No, that would be nice. I meant that he died." Korg said as he sat down next to her and Kari, who was comforting Sol and typing away furiously on the keyboard.

"What are you doing?" Brunn asked Kari, ignoring the rambling rock next to her.

"Trying to figure out just how far away we are from a satellite station. To be able to get the broadcast over here, there should be a station somewhere near us. Although, why they would put a station in a dead realm, is beyond my understanding."

"Probably to monitor the dead realm." Brunn deadpanned.

"I'll let you know if I… got it!" Kari exclaimed excitedly. "I've been trying to get this for so long. There is a satellite just beyond the black hole. It's far away though, so that it doesn't come too close in contact with the black hole."

"Okay, so we have the satellite location. What will that do for us?" Sol asked as she looked at the screen displaying some random numbers that she assumed were the satellite details.

"That's the tricky part." Kari said. "If we can get to the satellite, I could tamper enough with it to set off an alarm. All of the satellites are linked to Asgard and in absence of Asgard's support, Vanaheim. Once the alarm goes off, you can be sure that they would send someone to come to check it out. That would probably be faster than waiting for our message to hopefully reach them and then waiting for their message to reach us."

"But you cannot do this from here?" Brunn asked, pointing to the keyboard.

"No." Kari shook his head. "All of the satellites are heavily protected to ensure that no one can tamper with them. You need physical passcodes and presence to enter the satellites."

"And you have these passcodes?" Sol asked incredulously. "You hadn't even joined the department yet."

"Yeah, but I did work for ten years on one of the satellites for my training. I know the emergency override code. It won't be the same for this satellite but I can work on it or else I can set off an 'Intruder Alarm'. Although that should be something of a last resort."

"And how do you suppose we reach there?" Brunnhilde asked, not unkindly but still skeptical of the plan.

"The Dark Elves' ships." Kari replied. "You said that we found one that was in working condition but didn't have enough fuel. If we could find some other ships that contain fuel, we could siphon the fuel. We could even carry the skiff with us because those ships look big enough to carry a skiff…"

Brunn chuckled at the excited look on the boy's face and asked, "How long have you been planning this?"

"Quite some time." Kari admitted sheepishly. "I feel that this is our best shot right now."

"Alright," she nodded and returned the grin that was on Kari's face.

Location: Mid-Point, Bottom of the Universe

With his eyes closed, he could almost imagine a larger-than-life tree in front of him or rather, only the trunk of the tree, but the branches were not far behind, spread all over the universe, all interconnected and all thrumming with life. The energy force gleamed white for it encased all color, all life, everything in the universe, within it. It was all for the taking, if only one knew how to take it.

Loki nudged a tiny piece of his seiðr in the vast shining trunk. He could almost see his green standing out in the surrounding white. He remembered his first few lessons with his mother when his seiðr had started to act out because he couldn't control it and after he had driven away every tutor either through his sharp words or his stubborn nature to do whatever he wanted to do. He remembered her telling him that all seiðr came from one central location but only a few could tap into that power and manipulate it to create magic. The physical manifestation of seiðr would always be a unique color even if it did not seem so to the naked eye. It was a mark of differentiation, of one's own identity in the midst of a vast sea of other seiðr-users. That color could never change. He remembered fondly as his mother had showed him her own golden-yellowish color and had encouraged him to mix his green with it. The result had been spectacular, both visually and to feel. Frigga had then told him of the theory of how all colors would make white, but that there were infinite colors and only the center of all seiðr would ever be white. He still couldn't believe that he was now standing in front of the very center that he would often dream of finding.

He had discovered his wanderlust at quite a young age, namely when he had crawled out of his nursery in the middle of the night to find his mother, just because he couldn't sleep. He had been unable to talk or see far away items very clearly back then, but he knew that restlessness within him had to be quenched and he had somehow managed to crawl around with such vigor that even the guard who had finally found him, had been surprised by his excitement. Obviously, Loki personally didn't remember this incident. He was far too small for such a feat, but he had often had Odin and Frigga recount the tale so many times that he could almost picture it in his mind. This wanderlust had often given his adoptive parents quite a headache when he had grown up and especially when he had discovered portals and later on world-walking. He still remembered the first time he had attempted to use the pathways between the worlds to travel.

Loki had been a few centuries old and had been practicing a new spell with his mother in the gardens when he had felt a thrum of energy. Normally he used to ignore such things for they weren't very common and would disappear as soon as they appeared. But this time was different. He could feel it, in the way the energy only kept building up, in the way that everything was suddenly far brighter than he remembered them to be. He had soon dropped his half-perfected spell in favor of finding the source of this energy. He had walked halfway across the garden before he found the perfect spot and then had spent almost an hour trying to focus on the energy. All the while, Frigga had patiently waited for him to finish, already knowing what he had discovered. It took him an embarrassingly long time to get a hold of the energy, but when he had gotten a hold of it, he let it pull him up. The feeling of seiðr coursing through him had been so overwhelming that he had lost sense of what he was doing and ended up falling on the ground and breaking his ankle. Such was the height he had fallen from.

Even then, Frigga had patiently smiled at him and healed his ankle. She then explained about the pathways and how a few could actually sense them and even fewer could use them. She was one of the small percentile who could use the pathways, although not for long and not for very faraway places. It was then that he had decided to hone this skill and had spent almost half a year, falling from varying heights before he got a hold of it. The first time he attempted to travel in that manner, he had ended up passing out for three entire days. But he persisted and he prevailed.

Have I made you proud?, the question echoed in his head and for the first time Loki thought that maybe Frigga would have actually been proud of where exactly her son, albeit adopted, stood at that very moment. Although he didn't imagine her being proud of how he got there. On the contrary she would have yelled at him for getting himself killed, again.

He averted his mind from thoughts of his deceased mother. It would do him no good to try and remember her time and time again. He had been trying to get rid of the habit of talking to his mother's memories in his head. Not a healthy way of coping with her untimely death, he knew that but he could not get himself to let go of her. So he concentrated on the green blip in the white expanse and for the first time he wasn't standing out, for the first time he realized that he fit right in.

Slowly withdrawing himself from the heady experience of the energy of the pathways, Loki thought about all the information he had been provided with. He had learnt a lot more about the stones in the past few hours than he had in the past few years and it all left him reeling with ideas and theories and what-ifs. He took a calming breath to assemble his thoughts and was grateful that none of the other Asgardians were in the room with him. Some time back, they had finally had enough of the room and left to return to the resting area they had all been in some time back. The celestials, barring Infinity, had also left for whatever it was that they did. Loki was grateful that it was Infinity who had stayed back with him in the room. He felt the most comfortable with her, perhaps due to his close relationship with the space stone, but whatever the reason, her presence was soothing.

Loki turned to face her, only to find her already staring at him. He decided to ask a question that had puzzled him for some time now and hopefully she would be more inclined to give a straightforward answer than her companions.

"If I may ask a question?" Loki asked politely and waited for her acknowledgment. "Why did Eternity say that my method of world-walking was unheard of? I am certain that I could not be the only the one who could do such a thing."

"You are and you are not." Infinity said with a shrug. "As in, you are not the first one who could use the center directly to travel the paths. But that is in the multiverse. In this universe, you are actually the first, which is surprising as this universe is still far younger than many others out there and we see this type of talent only in the oldest ones."

"As for why Eternity said what he did, well, I cannot say I am entirely sure of why he does things that he does but he does like his drama and I suppose he thinks that saying something like that would incline your friends to follow you."

"He is probably wrong then." Loki said as he walked away from the center.

"Maybe, maybe not. Give it sometime. I told you there is a good reason why those five were chosen. Trust that."

Loki childishly frowned and shrugged and moved on to the next question.

"Why are all of you interested?" Loki asked with a skeptical look in his eyes. "In all of this. In getting the stones back? It could not just be that the soul stone would give away under the strain of the energy in it and destroy half the universe. I suppose you are already used to creating and destroying universes."

The celestial grinned at Loki, making him nervous. "I knew you would ask this question. Eternity owes me the rights to the creation of next universe."

"I beg your pardon?"

"Nothing, nothing. Now, as to answer your question. Hmm. It is more or less personal interests for us rather than the destruction of the universe. We have Entropy and Death doing that on a regular basis."

"Well, Death has already explained why she is interested in getting the stones back. The souls didn't go to her and she is rightfully annoyed. For Tivan, the Collector, he is more interested in vengeance. You see, when he realized that all of the stones were in the same universe, he too was interested in adding them to his collection. Obviously, not permanently. He would gotten them together and then they would have separated on their own but his ego would have been stroked. So, when he received the reality stone, he was overjoyed. His objective was getting fulfilled on its own and so he arranged for the power stone to be brought to him but when the power stone was taken away after that little mishap, he was annoyed but when the reality stone was taken away by Thanos and that too after destroying every other collection that he had, Tivan was rightfully angered. That is his reason."

Loki nodded in understanding. He knew the Collector was obsessed about his collection, even more so than the All-Father had been about his vault. That was the main reason why he had asked for the Reality Stone to be given to him for he would guard it with his life.

"As for En Dwi or as you know him, the Grandmaster, well, he is obsessed with his games."

"Verily."

Infinity chuckled and continued, "His favorite type involves real people and that is his reason. You see, he enjoys the game of chess, but his version involves real people. He uses them and moves them around like pawns in a game. He controls it all, but with what Thanos did, he lost that control and he lost half of his pawns."

"And now he wants to take Thanos' game away from him?"

"Yes. As for Eternity and I, we both do not like how the stones were used and with the use of gauntlet, the natural progression of the stones has been hindered. We just want to start the cycle again."

"And Entropy?"

"Oh, he doesn't really care but we forced him to be here. Emotional blackmail is a powerful tool, especially among family."

Loki nodded his agreement and a small smile graced his face as he thought of the hundreds of times he had managed to talk Thor into or out of things due to emotional blackmail.

"There are other celestials out there, but most of them relocated to other universes when the stones came into play. They usually do that. Now that you know of our reasons, do tell yours. Are you in or out?"

"Do I have a choice?"

"Obviously."

Loki got a faraway look in his eyes as he thought about his early days under Thanos' minions and said solemnly, "I made a vow to myself." He looked at Infinity and promised, "You will get your stones back."

X-X-X

"I don't trust this. I don't like any of this. Whatever this is." Sif said the second all five of them were secure inside the resting area.

"I still don't understand. How did we even get here?" Volstagg asked as he moved towards the cart in the corner of the room that contained snacks. "One moment we are being killed by some locked away sister of Thor and the next, we are talking about cosmic beings and Infinity Stones and Titans destroying half the universe."

"And Loki being important enough to right the wrongs." Hogun added.

"Exactly!" Sif said, flopping down on a couch, her arms crossed over her abdomen and a scowl on her face.

"Do you think he can really do all the things they said he can?" Volstagg asked, munching on some otherworldly food.

"Maybe." Fandral said with a shrug. "Do they have any reason to lie?"

"So what?" Sif asked in exasperation. "We are just supposed to blindly trust Loki now?"

Heimdall made a noise of agreement and drew Sif's ire towards himself.

"Heimdall! Do not tell me that you trust him! Not after all that he did to us. To Thor!"

"Trust Loki?" Heimdall repeated as he sat down on a chair. "I do not trust Loki nor will it be wise to do so. I doubt that even Loki can trust himself. Such has been his nature since his childhood. But I do believe that he has his own ideals and I do not see him at any point allowing such atrocity to exist." The all seeing gatekeeper said, referring to Thanos' work.

"He said that he worked with this Thanos." Hogun pointed out.

"He also said that he had a plan to stop Thanos from getting the stones." Volstagg countered.

Sif nodded and pondered, "So, what is the truth? Did he work with Thanos or did he want to stop Thanos?"

"Or maybe he double crossed Thanos. Loki does that." Fandral commented.

"Or perhaps they all are true." Heimdall said.

"Gatekeeper, what do you know that we do not?" Sif asked, annoyed by Heimdall's arguments in favor of Loki.

"Many things." Heimdall commented cheekily. "But above them all, I do not believe Loki to be the epitome of evil like you do."

"I do not!"

"Sif, you kind of do." Volstagg said in between bites.

Enraged, Sif yelled, "Well, let me refresh your memories. Loki took over the throne of Asgard, he killed Thor when Thor was a mortal, he tried to destroy Jotunheim, he tried to kill Thor again, he then tried to take over Midgard and killed hundreds over there, then he faked his death and took over Asgard under the guise of All-Father. Do you want me to continue?"

Everything was quiet for some time as they all digested Sif's words. Then Heimdall broke the silence and commented, "He saved Asgard from certain death. We were on the Bifrost, a couple hundred survivors and me. Thor, his Midgardian friend and the Valkyrie were fighting Hela's army. It did not seem that they would win for long and that would have been fine had we had somewhere to go, but there was no place that we could go to. Behind us was Hela and her army and in front of us, the remainder of her army. Even with the sword, I could not have activated the Bifrost and gotten everyone to safety. It was a lost cause and we were losing hope. That was when Loki appeared with a spaceship and reinforcements. He ordered everyone on the ship while he and the others fought off the army. He started Ragnarok on Thor's orders for it was the only way to ensure Hela's death."

"Yes, he has done horrible things before but he also assisted us when we needed help. Loki always has had his own agendas, but he does value somethings and even though I do not know of these things, I do know that he would help out when we need help. He always has. That is why I am willing to follow him on this path."

"One good deed does not wipe out all the others." Fandral said with a frown.

"'Tis true that he has betrayed us far more than he has aided us." Volstagg added.

"Is it?" Heimdall asked. "If I do remember correctly and unless my sight has failed me, Loki had always aided all of you on your little adventures. You may not have seen it, but I did. He would cover your backs and protect you whenever you had a weak side."

"We do not need protection in a battle." Sif spat. "And we have no weak side."

"You always have an opening on your left." Hogun commented nonchalantly. "Fandral hardly ever pays attention to his right. Volstagg ignores the threats coming from the left behind him and I do the same for my right side. Thor hardly covers his back."

"Because we do it for each other."

"No, Sif." Hogun said gravely. "We covered Thor's back for him and Loki used to cover ours. I started paying attention to that when we started going out to restore peace after Loki's imprisonment. That had been the reason why we started getting injured more and more."

"Alright, let's say that I believe you and that Loki has aided us as much as he has betrayed us, what does that mean for our current situation?" Sif asked sourly, not wanting to continue the line of conversation anymore. "We still cannot trust him and in dangerous quests like these, there needs to be ultimate trust within the group. I can trust you all to watch my back, but Loki? He is far likely to leave us for dead than he is to help us."

"And you are likely to do the same to me." Loki said from where he was leaning against the door jamb. "You should really learn how to talk softly if you do not want someone to listen in."

"How long have you been there?" Sif growled at the smug god.

"Not long enough, apparently."

"Give us a reason to trust you." Fandral asked solemnly, hoping that his old friend would do at least that much.

Loki shrugged as he came into the room and said, "Never, ever trust someone, Fandral." He looked at the frowns on everyone's face and sighed. He wished he had never agreed with Infinity for giving them a chance. Reminding himself that he only did this because it might aid him later on, he said, "But if you do want a reason to follow me into this… quest, as you call it, know this, I would not betray you or leave you for dead until I deliver you to Thor. You have my word."

That stopped any protests on his companions' lips. They knew that Loki had never once broken his word and though that didn't calm the warriors any, it did make them reconsider their position. And if they got to go to Thor in all of this, then they would take the risk.

"I thought we had to go to fight Thanos." Fandral said.

Loki slowly peeled a fruit he picked up from the cart that Volstagg was raiding, before answering, "We make a detour. I drop you off with Thor and you can all rejoice your reunion and I will go ahead."

"To fight Thanos? On your own?" Hogun asked in confusion.

Loki gave him a condescending look and said, "No, to collect information. No one in their right mind would go against Thanos on their own."

"Yes, and your mind is sound." Sif said sarcastically, stealing a piece of fruit that Loki had cut out.

Loki frowned at her and ignored her comment. He was not in a mood to talk about the state of his mind. He still was not sure of that himself. He had slowly been healing himself while ruling over Asgard for the past years but thanks to his busy schedule, he had only been able to reverse so much of the damage that had been inflicted upon him. He only hoped that his death and subsequent revival had been akin to setting him as good as new but he was not so sure. While his body may have been healed, he could feel his mind reverting to its disarrayed state. It seemed that the longer he was alive, the more he was going back to how he had been. Well, as long as his seiðr didn't go back to the pitiful state it had been in, he would be able to manage.

"What information do you require and why?" Volstagg asked. "We pick Thor up and go fight Thanos. Just like old times."

Loki sighed and said, "This is not some childish adventure that Thor thought up in a haze of rage or in drunken stupor. We cannot just go barging in, axe and swords swinging, with no regard to anything. This is something that no one is ever prepared for and we need to be prepared."

"If you think that we are going to let you go anywhere off on your own, then you are mistaken, old friend." Hogun said in a grim voice.

"Hogun's right. How are we to know that you would not just go off somewhere to hide until this all blows over?" Sif added.

Loki rolled his eyes and said, "Believe what you will. I do not care. That is my offer, take it or leave it. You have no other option."

They all looked at each other as Loki finished the last of his fruit and stood up, looking at them in disinterest.

"Fine." Sif agreed with his terms. She was going to have to later figure out how to accompany him further ahead. After all, they had gotten their orders from the celestials themselves. They had been brought to life for this purpose and she was going to follow that order. Like Hel, she would let Loki go off somewhere on his own. He was unpredictable and he had once worked with Thanos. Who was to say that he wouldn't go and inform the Titan of the latest happenings?

"Then, shall we start?" Loki asked with that annoyingly polite smile of his that gave them all goosebumps, even Heimdall.

"So," asked Fandral, as they all stood up, "how do we exactly get out of here? Do we have like a spaceship or something?"

Loki sighed in annoyance and said, "No, you fool. You have something better. You have me or were you not listening to whatever had been explained downstairs?" Without waiting for a reply, Loki instructed, "Now huddle together, hold hands and do not let go under any circumstance. Unless of course you are in the mood for a painful death by the hands of the universe."