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No, no, it can't be!
They can't be dead!
Seeing his brother sitting on the blood-soaked floor in a cage, arms wrapped around the dead captain's body, cradling him even, caught Thor off guard.
He'd expected to find him torturing his friends with a satisfied look on his face, not crying and hiding in the corner of a cage.
"Loki!"
Thor's voice was loud and clear, he tried to keep calm though.
He had to analyze the situation, had to find out what happened to his friends.
They couldn't be dead, right?
Maybe it was all a trick, an illusion.
"Speak! What happened?! Who did this?!"
There was no response but Loki had stopped crying and raised his head.
Red swollen eyes were staring at Thor now, fear and panic clearly visible in them.
But then something inside Loki seemed to shift. He got up, stepped out of the cage so that he stood in front of Thor now, with a straight back, his jaw shut but his gaze was lowered to the floor.
He looked like someone who knew that punishment was inevitable and knew that he had to accept it no matter what.
So far Thor had succeeded in staying calm, but this resigned expression on his brothers' face was too much to take.
"Tell me! Now!"
He demanded, anger rising inside of him as a suspicion to what might have happened here found its way into his head.
"Loki!" He said with a dangerous edge to his voice, "I'm not going to ask you again!"
"Me, " Loki muttered and then a bit louder: "Me, it was me. I killed them. Do with me as you please. Kill me, torture me, put me in the darkest dungeon, I don't care."
The anger inside of Thor reached a critical level.
It started to consume his whole body, spreading like a wildfire.
There was nothing he could do to stop it.
He didn't want to.
The red hot blazing emotion that had him in its grip turned now into something else, something much worse than anger; hatred.
At this moment, this particular phase of his life, he hated his brother for the first time.
Every nerve in his body, every muscle, every single atom that was him, wanted to crush Loki, see him suffer and show him the wrath of Thor, the god of thunder.
He swung his hammer and knocked his brother off his feet with all his might.
The weapon returned to him and Thor flew to the spot where Loki had landed hard on the ground. Moaning in pain but still conscious, the god of mischief couldn't move.
His body was jammed between two sharp rocks and he wasn't able to free himself alone.
Thor grabbed him by his now torn black shirt and pulled him ruggedly out.
They both heard several of Lokis rips snap, but neither of them cared.
In fact, Thor was pleased to hear that sound.
It meant pain for this sadistic little monster.
He'd always denied it, but maybe it was true, maybe Loki had been right all along about himself being an abomination.
A normal man couldn't kill the only people, who cared about him, could he?
Well, whatever, he was done with being nice and considerate.
Thor let go of his hammer, so that it fell to the ground right next to his feet.
He wouldn't need his weapon for what he was about to do.
Loki didn't lift a finger to protect or defend himself.
His brother had now one hand clasped around his throat and the other punched him in the face, again and again.
First there were only lacerations and bruises to be seen, but soon bones started to break until his face was no longer recognizable.
Loki never screamed or begged Thor to stop, because in his eyes, he deserved every single blow.
This was a just punishment and he wouldn't run from it.
Although he wasn't able to recall the act itself, he was sure that deep down it had been his decision to kill the Avengers.
After Thanos had left, there had been no one else around but him and the prisoners from Midgard. Therefore he must have been the killer. There was no other explanation, right?
"Why, brother! Why did you kill them?!"
Thor screamed and stopped hitting Lokis face for a moment.
The god of mischief wasn't capable to answer for his jaw was broken in multiple places and he was sure that some of his teeth were absolutely not where they belonged.
A desperate thought suddenly entered Lokis beaten mind.
Why hadn't he thought of that earlier?
He had to talk to Thor, but how?!
Magic was the only way now.
Loki had to try very hard to blend out the excruciating pain and to concentrate on his ability to create a clone of himself. It took longer than usual and Thor was about to start hitting him again, but then he stopped midway.
All of a sudden a second Loki appeared out of nowhere in front of the two.
There was not a scratch on him, he stood there with a straight back and dressed in his armor. He didn't resemble the original in his current state at all.
"Thor, listen to me. I can't change what I did, but maybe I can find a way to undo it."
Thor turned his head to face the clone but didn't loosen his grip on the real ones throat. It could be some kind of trick after all.
"How?" Thor demanded to know.
"I'm going to find their souls and give them a mortal form once again."
"Even if you were capable of doing such a thing, how do I know that you're telling the truth? And why would you do it anyway. It was you who killed them, remember? So why would you want to bring them back to life again?"
Thor eyed the clone suspiciously.
He wanted to believe so badly that his brother could give him his friends back but after all the lies it was impossible for him to trust Loki entirely.
The real Loki started to moan and whimper and at the same time the clone began to flicker and seemed to fade away.
But before he disappeared completely he said: "Please! I beg you, let me try it. If I fail, I'll turn myself over to you. You'll be the one to punish me and I won't run, just like I didn't run now. That's the only promise I can give you. But let me at least try it."
