Thor didn't know how Hydra was still alive.

They were rather resilient, which was fitting of the name, but he was getting tired of fighting them over and over again.

And they won each time, too. With ease.

Or, well, they would have, if it weren't for this most recent mission.

He finished knocking out what seemed to be the last Hydra agent, but the lull in fighting made him uneasy for some unknown reason.

The fight didn't seem done.

"Guys? I've got the plans, but there's some white gas being released into the building," Tony said through his earpiece.

"Do you know what it is?" Steve asked, breathless from whatever he was currently doing.

"No. But you guys better hightail it out."

"Huh. Maybe they're learning something," Clint muttered as he ran.

Soon, Thor and Hulk, who had already been outside, were joined by Steve and Clint. They shoved the metal door closed, but not before Thor caught a glimpse of the fog-like gas floating towards them.

"Should we be safe out here?" he asked, brows furrowing.

"Yeah. It's only a problem in enclosed spaces. You should probably step away from the building just in case, though," Tony said.

"Are you out?" Clint asked.

"No. The mist got to me, but my suit's filtering it out. Jarvis is trying to figure out what this thing is."

They paused, now several yards away from the building. Two of their group hadn't answered, and even Hulk seemed concerned, frowning and turning his head towards the building. "Nat? Loki?" Steve asked into the comms.

Silence.

"Guys?" he tried again.

Silence.

Thor tried not to be worried.

"The gas came from their side of the building," Tony said cautiously. "But it's receding now. It seems to be a hallucinogen."

Well, at least it wasn't poisonous.

"I'm going in," Clint said, hardset on getting to Natasha.

"I'll go in as well." Thor needed to see that Loki was okay.

"No, guys. That might not be safe. We don't want to lose you too," Steve said.

Thor sighed. He was correct.

"They're spraying a counteragent into the air now," Tony informed them. "Probably wanted to incapacitate us, and then come and take us."

"So there could still be more hostiles in the area," Steve clarified.

"Probably." A grunt and a blast. "Definitely!"

They began running back to the building to see more Hydra agents swarming the building and the surrounding area. They just wouldn't go down.

"All of these guys have oxygen masks on. They were prepared. I'm starting to think these plans are how-to guides to making soup or something. I mean, jokes on them, I need that, but..."

"Tony, shut up," Steve grit out, throwing his shield like a boomerang.

"Okay. Shutting up now."

Thor continued fighting the enemy and his growing worry for their incapacitated teammates.

"Hey, guys? It's safe to come in now. If-" A crash. "If there's this many coming for me, I wouldn't want to know how many are coming for Nat and Loki."

Thor's heart plummeted with a thunk.

"Go," Steve said to both him and Clint. "We've got this covered. Right, Hulk?"

Hulk didn't answer, but he did catapult five Hydra agents into the distance. Thor assumed that was a 'yes'.

He and Clint had split up towards Natasha and Loki's last locations, respectively. He tried to be worried for Natasha, he really did; but most of his concern was turned towards his brother, and he figured that she was in the best of hands with Clint.

He sighed. It was dark. Why were all Hydra bases so dark?

He turned a corner then, and ran, quite literally, into a masked Hydra agent. They stared at each other for half a second before Thor knocked him out with a swing of his hammer.

He stood in a fighting stance and prepared for more.

None came.

He slowly turned another corner, and then another, and was met with a trail of bodies. Each one had a familiar gleaming dagger in the neck.

"Loki?" he asked cautiously.

He paused, and heard the sound of ragged breathing.

"Loki?" He turned yet another corner to find his brother. His brother, being restrained by a Hydra agent with a knife to his throat and a gloved hand over his mouth. His hands were tied behind his back, as were his feet, and his eyes were unfocused.

"Let him go," he said, voice low. He couldn't hurt the man without hurting Loki.

"Drop your weapon, or I'll kill him," the man threatened instead. The knife was pressed into Loki's skin, and a thin trail of blood leaked from the cut. Loki tilted his head back, as if to avoid the blade, and closed his eyes tightly.

"Let him go," he repeated, feeling his anger grow.

"I don't think so." Loki gasped as his hair was grabbed, his head pulled back to expose more of his throat. Thor could see him blink a few times, as if trying to catch his bearings, before he elbowed the man in the gut. Hard.

The knife was dropped, Loki fell, and Thor threw out his hammer, catching the man in the chest and propelling him towards the far end of the hallway. The sound of the blade clattering to the ground echoed through the space.

"Loki. Hey." He knelt to the ground and quickly untied his brother. The cut in his neck had become jagged, but was still shallow and not inherently life-threatening.

Loki crawled away from him as soon as he was free, hitting the wall behind him with an audible thud. His breathing was still ragged.

"You're okay," Thor tried. What's Loki seeing right now?

His eyes darted everywhere, as if looking for an escape. "You're lying. Nothing's okay." He laughed humorlessly. The sound caused something to tighten in Thor's chest.

"But it will be," Thor said.

"No it won't!" Loki ran a hand through his hair. "It won't be because he won't allow it!" A tear fell from his watery eyes, and Thor struggled not to reach out and wipe it away.

"Who won't, Loki?"

Loki looked him straight in the eyes. "You are a figment of my imagination, aren't you? Surely you must know." A few more tears fell, and he curled in on himself. Away from Thor.

And Thor knew. He did. It had taken a lot of coaxing, but Loki had told him eventually.

"Thanos isn't here." Loki flinched at hearing his name, and Thor winced. "He isn't here. I'm here."

"No, I'm all alone. All alone, like always."

Thor moved closer and tried not to cry along with Loki. "Never think that. You're not alone, Brother."

Loki scoffed, even as he lifted a hand to wipe the tears away in a gesture so achingly childish that it tore at Thor's heart. "You're not. I wish you were, but you're not. I'm on his ship, and Thor will never come for me not because he can't, but because be won't."

Something twisted in Thor's chest, and norns, it hurt. "I would have come if I had known."

Loki shook his head, not even bothering to stop the flow of tears anymore. "The real Thor is brittle. He isn't soft. He laughs at my torments and cares little for me; hates me, as he should, 'cause I'm a filthy Jotun, and I-"

Thor couldn't stop himself from wrapping his brother in a hug. "No! No! I love you, Brother, so very much. And you are deserving of that, don't you understand?"

Loki frowned. "You're warm. Thor - Thor isn't warm."

"I'm real, Loki," he said, hiding his tears in his brother's dark hair.

"But Thor's over there." He pointed at the now-unconscious man across the hallway.

Thor shook his head and swallowed. "That's not me." He rubbed soothing circles into the space between Loki's shoulder blades.

"How can I be sure?" Loki asked, all wide eyes and tears. Thor swallowed and pressed a kiss to the top of his head.

"I'm warm, remember?" Loki nodded, and he pulled him closer to his chest. "The real Thor loves you without strings attached, and the real Thor will never hurt you like that titan did." He sniffed. "The real Thor needs you, Brother - I need you." He tucked Loki's head under his chin, letting him calm down and simply breathe. "I can't imagine life without you."

"Promise?" Loki whispered softly, afraid that everything would be an illusion.

Thor would prove him wrong.

"Promise."