Hi! I'd like to dedicate this chapter to the person who brought NaNoWriMo to the community where I found it. May you write many more books and continue to do the many other creative things you do!

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This chapter was a bit of a struggle...Please bear with me.
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Chapter 26 – Showdown

And you could have it all
My empire of dirt
I will let you down
I will make you hurt

- Nine Inch Nails: Hurt

...

What Thor had asked of Loki, he had done. Only he had known the secret passages in order to accomplish their mission. The rogue forces had now been defeated and their mother, Frigga, was recovering, although Loki had not been allowed to see her. Two days had passed and they were now back on Midgard. Thor had actually offered Loki to take him back to Asgard but he had insisted returning to the asylum. Thor had not asked him why although Loki could see he would have wanted to. He just said it's better that he would wait here. Of course the real reason was that he needed to know if Diana could somehow still be there, waiting. He just hoped, even if it did feel like an irrational hope to him.

"I will speak to our father," Thor began as they were now standing in the courtyard of the hospital.
"He would have never allowed me to ask for your help. But it was the only way."
Loki nodded. They stood there in silence and finally Thor broke the it.
"I will not call you my brother because you have made it clear you do not wish that."
His look was cast downwards and then he raised it to Loki's eyes.
"But know this, I still consider you that."
Loki gave the most minute nod. He would never in a million years have admitted it to Thor, but yes, he had missed him. Finally, the two former brothers bid farewell and parted in the evening mist.

...

Loki opened the door. His room was empty.

Of course she isn't here, you fool.

He found his message on the floor, wrinkled, and understood it was her tears that had stained it. And there he stood, feeling empty, staring at the parchment, when suddenly there was a flash of light and everything went black.

...

When he regained consciousness, he noticed he was in pitch black darkness.

Thanos.

Loki instantly knew. It was a terrible realization. When the cloak of concealment had faded of course Thanos had also pinpointed his location. Loki knew this now for sure and he couldn't help thinking how he could not have considered it. Thanos had promised to pay him for his failure to conquer Midgard and failed he had.

Suddenly a shift came and the blackness ended. He was on a barren planet and he knew this was Thanos' home planet, if one could call it such. Home was much too nice a word for it.
"They were right to hide you in that mundane place," the Other, Thanos' right hand, said with a menacing voice.
The gross, cloaked creature confronted Loki and he felt he could not move. There was a spell on him.
"It truly was the last place where to look you from," the Other gave an ugly chuckle.
"Now, let me see...," he said anticipatingly and put his ugly claw-like finger on Loki's forehead.
A jolt of pain instantly inflicted the other side of his head.
"We found your little mortal and I can see you care for her. Oh, even better...You love her."

No.

Loki could feel the rage inside of him and he felt helpless. The Other signalled something to the figures that had been in the shadows behind him all along and they left.
"She has no quarrel with you," Loki said as calmly as he could.
"But we have one with you," the Other said and growled with a low voice.
"You failed us. And we told you cannot run."
"What do you want?" Loki asked.
"Nothing much," the Other said.
"Just your pain and your suffering...Indefinitely."
With another touch of his finger, a blinding pain went through Loki.

...

Diana realized she was lying on a surface, and even now that her eyes were open, she could barely see. It was so dark. She touched her forehead and felt the warm liquid, her blood. She remembered now. She had probably hit her head to the sink when she passed out. She felt so numb and she actually considered the possibility that she was experiencing a psychosis. Her head hurt like crazy and slowly she began to remember what had happened right before she passed out. It made her feel sick. All those surfaced memories of Loki...Nothing made sense anymore.

Where was she?

Diana felt so weak and numb that she just remained resting on the surface. After some time had passed, there was a light. A dim and eerie light. Something she had not noticed in the darkness had been opened and someone was now approaching her. Somehow she didn't even understand to fear it. She just felt so detached from everything. The next thing she knew was that some kind of claws, which she could barely perceive, caught her and lifted her from the surface. She was dragged to a place that was clearly outside, but it was unlike anything she had ever seen. She was dragged for quite some time, quite painfully, in a grey, colourless landscape under a dark, starry atmosphere. Finally she felt another surface, and she understood this was the ground, like fine grey sand. She had been thrown on it. All the sensations were real but her brains refused to make sense of them, so all remained surreal.

"I just brought her here...so you can see her die."
The words were said by a terrible looking creature above her. The way it looked made Diana think that perhaps this was...a nightmare.
"Diana," suddenly she could hear her name. It was his voice. Diana immediately turned to look the way the voice came from. The haze in her head cleared a bit and she couldn't believe her eyes. She could see Loki, also lying on the ground. They were perhaps ten feet away from each other. He looked so pained. Their eyes met and she saw the desperation in his.

"Wait," Loki suddenly said in a loud voice.
"Perhaps I failed to lead the Chitauri to Midgard..."
He turned to look at the Other.
"But there are still ways I could serve. I am certain there are ways to use me."
He had chosen exactly how to emphasize his words.
"No," Diana found herself saying with a hoarse voice.
Loki didn't look at her. She could feel the tears rising in her eyes.
"In fact, if you let her go, you will have my fullest co-operation," he said coolly.
Diana was shaking her head.
"No..." she said again, desperately. She felt she barely had a voice.
The creature laughed and looked at Loki.
"Ah, Silvertongue..." it said with a slithering voice.
"I fear that path no longer exists."

Suddenly a loud boom shook the atmosphere. It had been the voice of thunder. The events that followed unfolded in front of Diana like she was watching it from distance. She actually felt she was transported into a scene in the Lord of the Rings. There were suddenly people dressed in medieval battle gear around her. Suddenly she recognized Loki's adoptive brother in the distance, now dressed in full battle armor, a red cape, attacking creatures that had stood in the shadows surrounding them.

"You have the magic now!" he shouted.

Suddenly Diana realized the cloaked creature blasted something towards her and she covered herself reflexively. That moment she saw something green sparkle next to her. A wave of pressure hit her and it was followed by a blinding pain on her side. Lying there on the ground, eyes closed, she touched that part of her body and felt her shirt was covered in blood.

Was this it?
Was it her time to die?

Then, she saw Loki. The last thing she remembered seeing was him transforming as he kneeled next to her. Suddenly he was wearing an armor, clad with gold, a dark-green cape and the most spectacular helmet with horns. She had never seen anything like it. She could only look at him. Loki's expression looked worried, concentrated. Diana's side was in so much pain and she just couldn't speak. It was like everything was happening in slow motion. Every now and then, she could see Loki was looking away from her for a second, blasting something. Bright green light. Those moments she could see the rage on his face. Blind rage. Then everything went black. It felt like a lot of time passed.

Was it a dream?

She was drifting between consciousness and unconsciousness.

"Diana" she heard a voice in the darkness.
"This might hurt. I am so sorry."
She could feel hands on the wound on her side and then there was light. A green flash.

A sensation of falling, floating in darkness.

Then she felt a warm breath in her hair, a pleading hush close to her ear.
"Please, my love. Stay with me."
Again she drifted deeper into what felt like a blanket of stars, so soft and calling.

...

Loki lifted Diana in his arms as if she weighed nothing. Then he spoke to the nothingness in front of him, but with a voice that was sure it would be heard.
"Heimdall. Bring us to Asgard. And tell a guard to inform All-Father of what has happened."
In an instant they vanished into a cascade of light and in another they reappeared on the platform of the observatory. Heimdall had transported all of them, also Thor and the other warriors. They now looked at Loki warily.
"Prince Loki is with me, no one is to arrest him," Thor said with his booming voice. Then, both him and Loki, Diana still in his arms, ran towards the entrance where the horses were. For a moment Loki gently handed Diana to Thor, only to mount the horse. Then Thor carefully raised her back to him. Loki still had his magic and he used it to bind Diana onto him so he could ride as quickly as he possibly could. Thor also mounted his horse. They understood there wasn't much time so they were soon riding in full gallop, side by side, the Rainbow bridge flashing under them. Finally, they arrived at the gates of the golden city and continued up to the palace.

...

Thor bursted through the doors of the healing rooms, holding them then open for Loki and Diana. And older woman with silvery hair rushed to them, and looked at Diana. Her eyes shot to Loki's.
"Eir," Loki said laying Diana on the closest bed.
"Tell me what I can do."
She was biting her lip as she approached her, hovering her hand above the bloodied side of Diana. Loki's armor was smeared with her blood.
"First a combined life support spell." Eir said with a serious tone.
Loki went immediately next to her. Then, he looked at Thor.
"Go tell the All-Father I need to stay here and help. And I need my magic to do that."
Thor was turning to leave when he heard Loki's voice again.
"There was a tracking spell on me, I assume."
"They thought you'd try to escape somehow."
"Of course."
Thor left the healing rooms, leaving them at work.