Nancy declared it was lunch time, which it was much later than Loki thought it was. It was indeed nearly noon. Loki and Eir confirmed, told Jane that Fredrick just needed to sleep and that when he woke up he needed to eat plenty of greens and a protein such as ham or fish. And for him to drink lots of water. After that everyone turned back to the house, except for Loki and Thor.
"Are you sure you want to do this next?" Thor asked. "Wouldn't it to be wiser to have a meal before attempting this?"
Loki gave a half smile and shook his head sadly as they walked slowly down the path to the large back yard that was a part of the forest. "No, I fear that if I attempt this on a full stomach I may become physically ill. Let us get this over with then we'll eat, rest a little longer in Fredrick's company before we go to war."
Thor solemnly nodded as they found a secluded place deeper into the forest, beyond what their barriers shielded. Loki drew a circle in the dirt and built up several smaller shields. The two brothers sat down before each other.
"Relax, brother," Loki smirked as he raised his hands to Thor's temple. They both closed their eyes. Loki took a deep breath before diving into Thor's mind. It was a mess of colors, light, fire and pain. Loki pushed backwards. The images rewinding. Loki slowed it down as he watched many of Thor's friends disintegrate into dust Loki pushed further back and saw a glimpse of Eitri the dwarf and the newly forged Stormbreaker.
Loki put a halt on his movement backwards through Thor's mind. He let everything still and the play forward. Loki did not merely watch Thor's memories, it wasn't enough. Loki needed to not just see what Thor saw, but feel it as well. Like Fredrick, Loki could sense the intent of the spell created, he could sense the different tunes the seidr hummed and vibrated through the air. Thor could probably feel it too, but with his lack of knowledge of magic, it would be meaningless to him. Even if Thor could recognize the different tones of magic, there was no way he could describe to Loki in a way that would make sense. No. The best way would be for Loki to relive Thor's memories, as Thor himself.
So when Thor fell from the full force of the star, Loki's body arched in agony. Loki felt it. He felt fire and smoke in his lungs. He felt burnt to a crisp. He laid barely conscious on the wonderfully cold metal flooring of Eitri's forge. He could feel his breath leaving in him jagged gulps. Loki was astonished as he re-lived Thor's pain of how close Thor had been to dying.
Before Thor could die, Loki felt Thor's seidr moving. It formed into small sparks of lightning and it called to the newly forged Stormbreaker. All at once it was in his hand and Thor was standing and Loki could feel the power of Stormbreaker rushing through him, healing him and bringing him back from the brink of death. Loki noticed a raccoon like creature and a Groot come to his side.
"It is time my friends, to kill Thanos," Thor spoke.
Thor nodded his farewell to Eitri as he lifted Stormbreaker and summoned the Bifrost. Loki watched from Thor's perspective as the rainbow light surrounded them and dropped them off in the midst of a battle field. Thor had only to think of where to go and Thor had thought to go to Thanos. That was different, much different than Loki had realized. Loki had thought that Thor needed to visualize a location, no wonder Thor got confused when Loki tried to give him specifics on a map. Loki should have mentioned a time and to 'just appear' near him at that time. It explained why Thor had been so late to fight Hydra when Loki fought with Vidar. Loki smirked in his mind and reminded himself not to over complicate things with Thor. The irony was that it was more complicated to go to 'just' where someone else was, rather than a specific location. Thor had always been a bit backwards with such things.
Before Loki could even feel Thor's feet hit the ground, Thor had thrown Stormbreaker out of the circular wall of the rainbow light. Loki saw it zigzag and bounce off the Outriders before boomeranging back into Thor's hand. As it returned to him, Thor's feet landed and the scent of Midgard filled his lungs followed by the odor of death and blood.
Loki noted Rogers, Ms. Romanoff, a man in a black cat costume and a large red robot that resembled Stark's Iron Man armor. The helmet of the robot retracted to expose Bruce's head. He burst into laughter and shouted, "Aha! You guys are so screwed now." Loki smiled sadly, knowing that Thor and all of them, would lose this battle.
Thor charged into the battle with the war cry on his lips that only made Loki wince. Thor shouted, "Bring me Thanos." So perhaps Thor's ability to control the Bifrost was not yet perfect, Thanos had yet to arrive to the battle field. Either way it explained Thor's late arrival to assist Loki on their first meeting.
Loki watched through Thor's eyes as his vision filled with cool electrical blue light. As he leaped through the air and his seidr interfered with the atmosphere, bringing a haze of dark clouds as he struck the ground with the hammer side of the battle ax. The destruction it caused was even greater than Mjolnir. Thor had clearly made an excellent upgrade.
Thor fought side by side with Rogers and when they had a moment they shared words. Loki rolled his eyes at the insignificant ramblings of the two, talking of haircuts and beards. Thor introduced the Groot as "Tree". Which clearly offended the Groot as he responded with an insult of his own. Loki had to remind himself as he heard Roger's respond with "I am Steve Rogers" that humans probably could only understand three words out of the Groots' entire language.
As Thor and his friends fought there was rumbling underneath the ground as ships towered over the trees and cut them down like sickle cutting the stalks of grass. The rumbling grew and the ground bulged under the blue barrier. Out of the bulge, breaking free from the soil burst a many wheeled track with a thick armor that towered more than fifty feet above everyone else. Loki wanted to direct Thor's attention to the massive killing machine, before remembering he had no control here. It was like one of Fredrick's movies, fates had already been decided, there was no altering the timeline. All Loki could do was to watch.
A streak of red light shot down into the path of the machines. Loki felt the vibration of seidr pulsing through the air. A figure, a young mortal woman held up scarlet glowing palms and used such a grand power of telekinesis to stop the machine, lift it into the air and to drop it only on the outrider monsters, that she left Loki staring in wonder. What power the young woman had? Loki desired to know more.
Thor took to larger targets, destroying the ships that spewed from their mouths the foul beasts of the outriders. Thor's ability to fly was more than just flinging his hammer about. It appeared now that Thor could truly 'fly', slow down, levitate and bring full destruction on his enemies. It was impressive. How did he and his friends fail so terribly to end Thanos with his god-killing weapon that only a King of Asgard could wield?
Then Loki sensed it. Everyone could sense it, he noticed as the mortals of Earth and dogs of Thanos froze in their battle to turn towards the warping in space. The Space Gem, or...the Loki's most coveted prize, the tesseract, was in use. Acting as a long range teleporter. Thanos had finally arrived.
Loki shouted at Thor, to go after Thanos now. But Thor was too far away. Loki could see the young mortal and her scarlet magic at work. He could feel the gauntlet in use. Loki knew screaming at Thor was pointless, just as pointless as Fredrick telling Anna not to trust Hans in his beloved film. There was a flash of red light, followed by a green one. Loki could feel time shifting and changing. The time stone was now at work. Following that there was thick ripple through the air that made Loki sick to his stomach. The mind stone. Loki knew its signature well from its time as the power source of the gifted staff.
Loki could not believe that this battle to protect the stone was happening while Thor was off doing what? Destroying ships? Blowing things up!? Thor was halfway across the wrong side of the battlefield. Loki mourned the fact of how this once great team was now so divided. No wonder they lost.
Finally Thor made his entrance, but far too late to save some of his friends. The sentient robot that the mind stone gave life to was drained of its color and laid with its head sunken in and crumpled on the ground. Thor struck Thanos with a mighty blast of lightning. It barely made him stumble. Thanos sent a wave of power from the gauntlet, well aimed, but not strong enough. Thor threw Stormbreaker and it cancelled Thanos' attack. With another grand flas of light Stormbreaker impaled itself into Thanos' chest.
Ah. Loki sighed sadly. Clearly he could see Thor's final mistake in this battle. Thanos made it clear to him as well.
"I told you," Thor began as he stepped up to Thanos. Thanos kneeled before him, his hand on Stormbreaker, trying to free it from his body. Kneeling made his height the same as Thor's and Thor held the back of Thanos' head. "You'd die for that," Thor continued. Thor pushed Stormbreaker further into Thanos' chest, making the titan scream. Loki knew Thor had made a mistake in this action...but...there was something nice about hearing Thanos scream in pain for once. Loki took great pleasure from that. And there was something...that Loki appreciated his brother taking revenge for him. It was a nice thought...at least, even if it was in the cost of half of the universe's destruction. Thor was such an idiot. But he was Loki's idiot.
Thanos leaned heavily into Thor's hand a weakly spoke, "You...you should have gone for the head." Loki frowned, but knew this to be the reason for Thor's failure. He chose revenge over a swift death. Loki appreciated the thought and appreciated the screams. But if Thanos was dead now, then Loki would not have to leave Fredrick's side and risk his life once more. It was hard to be mad at Thor though.
Suddenly, they were at that moment. Loki heard Thor scream, "No!" Loki watched as Thanos lifted his hand with the gauntlet and snap his fingers. It was more than just a snap of fingers. It was the power of the gems flowing over the gauntlet like an electrical current. The friction of that with magical properties of the metal of the gauntlet and Thanos' vision in mind, Loki could see and feel how Thanos activated the power that made reality of his desire. It was so simple, such a simple action, but the power at work was complicated. It took great power to wield the gauntlet alone, but the action was so basic, Fredrick could do it.
The Power stone was the catalyst that activated the other stones. The time stone slowed everything down. The flash of light was was like a magician's distraction, it hid the time lost after the snap. The mind stone reached out to half of all of the living beings in the universe. The Space stone opened a portal for each of them and pulled at them. It marked them. And each of the souls of that half of the universe had a one way ticket into the soul stone. The reality stone was slower, it was that final hum that vibrated around in the air. It was that thing that made it all possible.
When the light cleared Thanos stood straighter and Thor stared at the gauntlet that had burned and melted in his hands. Such a powerful tool, was clearly meant for a one time spell.
"What did you do?" Thor asked.
'What do you think he did, exactly what everyone feared,' Loki thought to himself as the odor of burnt Titan wafted near Thorn's nose.
Thor repeated his question. Thor could feel it, the aftereffects of being so close to such a powerful spell. But the oaf simply could not understand it. Thanos did not give him an answer. He only activated the device, controlling only one stone at a time. Thanos fell backwards into the portal and Stormbreaker fell from his chest as simply, Thanos was no longer in the same space he once was.
It was eerily silent as Steve Rogers limped out of the forest, bloodied and holding his side. "Where'd he go?" he asked, looking around. Thor was too focused on his internal chaos to immediately respond. Loki could tell from Thor's eyes as he preferred to stare at the ground rather than make eye contact with his friend. Rogers' called Thor's name and repeated the question. Thor barely glanced up but looked beyond Rogers.
Loki didn't recognize the soldier from previous encounters on Midgard, but did know him from this battlefield. A man with a metal arm, holding a gun. He called Rogers by his first name. But already Loki could see his deterioration. Already his body was becoming dust. Loki watched through Thor's eyes as half of the universe dissolved into dust and ash. Loki had seen it through a drugged foggy vision in the room where he was kept by hydra. When all was turned to dust.
There wasn't anything else that Loki needed to see. It was all clear to him now. He pulled his fingers away from Thor's temples and collapsed forward. So tired. With a flick of his wrist, the barriers that protected their bodies during the spell faded away. Thor caught Loki in his arms and turned him face up.
"Brother…? Are you well?" Thor asked.
Loki shivered, he felt sick. But there was nothing in his stomach to expel so he resisted gagging. He looked up at Thor. "I think I need a nap like Fredrick, same treatment as well, a nap and then good food." Loki closed his eyes wearily. Thor shook him lightly to make sure he remained awake. Loki shivered. It wasn't just a matter of 'using-too-much-magic' but Thor's memories was not a peaceful place. Loki's' body felt as if it had gone through the battle as well.
"I will grant these things to you, brother. But first, answer me this…?"
"What?" Loki asked, wearily he opened his eyes a slit.
"Do you know how to reverse the spell now? Can you restore the missing half?"
Loki gave a half smile and a shine came into his eyes. "Oh yes," Loki told him before falling into a dead sleep in his big brother's arms.