AN: UGH. I'm sorry, I've been spending the majority of this month working on a writing project, and the two fics I have going on were placed temporarily on the back-burner. But! I have the next chapter for you. Hopefully you'll enjoy my little twist on things. (hohohoo)~~

A Vow of Silence

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The Endgame

Part I

When Ada finally woke, the first thing she registered was searing pain. She sucked in a breath, shuddering as she blinked in the relative darkness of the spaceship's main floor. Sparks from deteriorated walls and pillars in the ship briefly illuminated her surroundings, but what she saw churned her stomach violently.

She was laying on the hard floor between several dead bodies. The stench of death and blood filled her nose, but when she tried to move, terrible pain wrenched a cry from her lips. She looked down and finally noticed the jagged piece of metal protruding from her left side. It bit into the flesh, just a few inches above her hip. With a shaking hand, she nearly touched the sharp edge of the metal, but she thought better of it. She doubted she was strong enough to pull it out herself right now, and she needed to find…

Tears burned in her eyes, streaking down her cheeks. She struggled to remember.

What happened?

The thought rang in her head, over and over as she strained to move her shaking limbs. She knew the ship had been attacked. That was obvious enough. By who, or what, she didn't know. No matter how much she wracked her addled brain, she just couldn't remember.

Eventually she folded herself into a sitting position. Then, using a dead man's torso, and then a nearby wall, she finally managed to stand. Her eyes must have been adjusting to the dark as well, because already she could see better.

But that was when she noticed the lick of purple flames sparking at the far end of the main floor. She watched it for a moment, mesmerized, until she realized the fire was growing larger.

Her eyes widening, Ada turned on her heel and stumbled in the opposite direction. Using the wall to support her she gradually picked up speed, leaping as well as she could over bodied and damaged parts of the ship.

Passing a familiar platform, Ada noticed that through a pair of large, clear doors, there once were several escape pods lined along the chamber inside. The chamber was now empty.

"Where are you going?" Fandral yelled at her, grabbing her arm as she tried to push past him.

Ada didn't think. A spell materialized in her hand. She pushed at his chest with it, sending him careening away from her into the group of Asgardians that clamored into the escape pod. Lady Frigga and Vira helped pull him to his feet, but Fandral only stared at her in horror. He shouted her name, shoving his way through the crowd, but Ada's tears blinded her as she stepped further away, back onto the ship's main platform.

The pod's doors shut in front of her, closing her off from her brother before he punched fiercely at the glass. Ada knew he'd meant for their positions to be opposite at this door. He'd meant for her to escape, safe, while he stayed to die fighting with King Thor, and Heimdall, and with Loki. In her breaking heart, she whispered goodbye.

I cannot let him die alone.

Ada turned a corner and finally found light. There at the end was the ship's main controls. She choked on a sob to find Heimdall laid on his back, golden eyes unseeing as his own sword pierced his chest. She knew she could not save him, so she kept moving, however sluggishly. Her vision was blurring every now and then, and her wounded side burned with agony at every step she took. But it was worth it when she heard a grunt, and a struggle.

Just a few feet ahead, was Loki. Battered and bruised, he tried to drag himself to a bloody and unconscious Thor. Her heart rising into her throat, Ada felt a brutal heat of flame behind her as she raced to his side.

"Loki!"

Loki snapped his head up, hearing someone approaching. But she was the last thing he expected. Eyes wide and angry, he wet his dry, cracked lips. He couldn't help that his heart swelled at the sight of her, alive, if with torn clothing and marred skin. His sternum bloomed with a more severe pain.

"What the Hel are you doing here?" he hissed.

Ada only flinched a little at his shouting, but she all but fell to her knees at his side with a gasp. Her hand went to her side, and his gaze sharpened at the piece of metal piercing her body. She ignored his hand on her arm when she noticed the sheer amount of blood weeping from a large hole in his stomach. Courtesy of the titan Thanos.

Damn purple bastard, Loki thought, hissing in pain when she touched him with delicate fingers. He knew his brother was not dead. Yet. But soon enough, they all would be. The destructive flame of the Power Stone had already eaten up more than half of the ship. It now licked at the walls around them, the ceiling above. Soon it would destroy the entire ship, and everything in it.

Loki was pulled from those thoughts, rather forcefully, as an azure glow brought his attention to Ada and her hands. She held them over the wound in his midsection, a fierce determination knitting her brows together. Her face was already pale, beads of sweat forming at her temples.

She was trying to heal him.

"Ada," he uttered. He clamped his hands over her wrists and cursed the weakness in his grip that wouldn't let him stop her.

What does it matter? he wanted to say. They would soon be dead.

Despite that knowledge, he let his fingers sink into her knotted hair. Briefly her eyes grazed his, despaired, but still refusing to give up.

What he managed to say was something much different.

"It's too much." He bit back a groan of pain. Whatever she was doing, it was nearly unbearable. "You'll kill yourself."

Ada shook her head. Either tears were swimming in her eyes again, or they were blurring on their own. It was getting hard to see, let alone sit up straight. But soon she felt Loki's hand tightly wound around her shoulder, holding her steady. His words faded into the background as she focused singularly on her task, channeling as much magic as she could through her body.

She could feel it working, every cell of tissue knitting back together according to her will. Nearly there.

Biting her lip until she tasted blood, she held out past the telltale ache behind her eyes, the nausea in her stomach. More. A little more.

Darkness edged at the corners of her vision.

"…at's enough. Ada!"

Eyes rolling back into her head, Ada fell against him. Loki grabbed her before she pressed that piece of metal further into her body. The flesh around it bled, like the dribble of dark red falling from her nose.

A hand on his shoulder startled him. It was Thor, barely alive and unable to speak. His remaining blue eye implored him as the ship finally started deteriorating around them. I am here with you, that look said.

Loki formed the beginnings of a spell on his fingertips, but Ada's hand shot out first. Still leaning bodily on Loki, she grabbed Thor's wrist, the air around them crackling with her spell. One last spell.

A sheen of blue washed over them, just before the ship imploded.

The next time she woke, it was with a scream tearing from her throat. Such pain left her trembling where she lay, eyelids fluttering at the blazing, bright lights above her. A face soon blocked them out, though it was hard for her to distinguish who it was.

A warm voice spoke soothingly. Magic clung to her skin, warming her up from the inside out. It felt like a thick, comfortable blanket of familiarity wrapping around her completely, making her feel safe. But she still whimpered at the pain.

A hand, slender and strong, brushing her cheek and wiping away her tears.

"I know, darling," they murmured. "Worst is over."

Ada's eyes gradually closed as the combination of that voice, and their magic, encouraged her to sleep again. She hadn't had the time or the will to register the table she laid on, or the crew of nosy people staring mere feet away.

Loki ignored them, his lips pressed in a hard line. He stemmed the bleeding of Ada's wound with one hand. But he allowed the crew's sole competent member to sew the wound closed, since Thor didn't have the delicacy for it. Not that Loki would allow him to try, even if he could.

The woman that did spoke and moved like a warrior, graceful but direct. She wore purple streaks in her hair and had green skin (obviously not of the Nine Realms, or anywhere close to them). She also possessed kind eyes when she looked down at Ada.

Loki didn't move away from her body. Instead, he looked down at the long and jagged metal fragment in his hand. He'd pulled it out swiftly, but he would never forget the way her eyes wrenched open, the sound of her screaming.

With a sudden hot anger coursing through his blood, Loki tossed away the fragment. He was filled with loathing, not only for Thanos—their self-deluded enemy who played at being a god—but for himself. Loki had chosen to save the Tesseract, the Space Stone, and that action had drawn Thanos right to them.

Just as his petty actions had once driven Malekith's demon towards Frigga, on that day. It had let to Loki's eventual escape from prison, but had Frigga's pain been worth it?

Loki stared at his hands, which were covered in Ada's blood. Was her pain, her sacrifice that let him live—was that worth this?

"Brother," Thor said. His eye showed concern, and he looked like he was restraining the urge to grasp Loki's shoulder. Loki was grateful for that, as he was in no mood to be consoled.

"Water?" he snapped at the woman, who was still taking her time with Ada's stitches. Her dark eyes flicked up to his flatly at his tone, but the tightness in her lips told him she was deciding to let it go for the moment.

"Peter," she called to one of the onlookers, a man who looked like he was straightening his posture on purpose. He looked between the woman, who he obviously cared for, and Loki, who he clearly didn't trust. Loki would have smirked at the thought, if he valued at all what this dull crew of degenerates thought of him.

"All right, buddy. Bathroom's back here."

"Not for me," Loki said, his tone measured. With a mere thought and a spell, the blood was wiped clean from his hands. "For her, when she wakes."

Peter looked down at Loki's hands with wide eyes. Then his gaze flicked up, solidified with wary suspicion.

"Suuure," he agreed with a nod. A larger man leaned over, whispering loudly near Peter's ear.

"He is some kind of witch."

"Nah, ya think?"

"I don't think. I saw it with my own eyes, he is definitely a witch."

Loki fiercely ignored Thor's pointed look of amusement. These idiotic delinquents called themselves Guardians? Not quite, he thought.

"Dontcha mean man-witch?" snarked the odd raccoon creature from the pilot's helm.

"Ah yes," whispered another. She seemed to be of yet another strange race, the antennas on her head straightening a bit with her cheerfulness. Her head of dark hair tilted slightly as she smiled. "A pirate-angel, and a man-witch."

Loki held in a sigh. Thor's pleased little smile was all the more irritating.

"Water," Loki repeated, more tersely this time. Peter gave him a mock-salute and disappeared within the bowels of the ship. Eventually the others did the same, leaving the Asgardians and the only person aboard this ship Loki saw to be reliable.

"Thank you, Gamora," Thor said. He was dirty, bloody, unkempt, and still managed to convey the same honest graciousness that Loki knew he would never possess naturally. It was actually a relief now, knowing he wouldn't have to pretend to be that kind of man. Although, it did leave something of a bitter taste in his mouth.

He would never again sit on Asgard's throne.

And yet, as he looked down at Ada's weakened body, he was grateful for what she'd once said to him.

"You took the throne, but even if it belonged to you, I think it bores you."

It still slightly irked him even now, to admit she had been right. But Gamora's reply managed to pull him out of his thoughts as he noticed the shadow of guilt in her eyes.

"It's the least we can do," she said.

Loki's narrowed green gaze slid over to her. "I didn't think the daughter of Thanos would harbor such empathy."

Gamora's look was just as sharp as his. Thor's hand on his shoulder did nothing to ease Loki's burgeoning curiosity, but it did remind him (begrudgingly) that there were more important things at hand. Namely keeping Thanos from collecting the remaining stones of power. The Infinity Stones.

"We need to go," Thor said. "Thanos is gaining power as we speak."

"Go? Go where?" Peter echoed. He returned with a pitcher of water that Loki took from him, smirking at the man's suspicious look.

"Nowhere," Thor said. He released Loki's shoulder and began searching the ship. Loki was sure he was looking for an escape pod of some kind. A ship this size could feasibly carry one.

"He must be going somewhere," Gamora said. She finished on Ada's stitches and gently used a salve she had on hand to protect the site of the wound. Loki watched her and Ada closely. His woman would sleep peacefully for a while, but pain or discomfort could still disrupt her.

"No, Nowhere? It's a place. We've been. It sucks," Peter deadpanned. "Hey, that's our food!"

Loki turned and rolled his eyes. Already his brother was pillaging through their cupboards and drawers for food. Not that his own stomach wasn't calling to him at the thought of sustenance.

"Not anymore," Thor said. He grabbed what rations he could before he continued on his search.

"Why would he go to Nowhere?" Gamora asked Thor. She straightened from her seat and stood.

"The Reality Stone has been stored there for years," Loki supplied, meeting his brother's gaze with an arched brow. That wouldn't have been his first choice to house such a ridiculously powerful artifact, but he hadn't exactly had input in that decision.

"It's been safe there with a man called the Collector," Thor explained.

"If it's with the Collector then it's not safe," Peter said incredulously. "Only an idiot would give that man a stone."

"Hard to argue with that," Loki said, rather purposefully under his breath. Thor shot him a glare.

Despite his past blunders, Loki could admit, Thor's deduction was probably correct. Thanos already had the Power and Space stones. The Time and Mind stones were still on Earth, and there was no record Loki had ever found of the location of the Soul Stone. So that only left the Reality Stone, easy for the taking before Thanos tried his personal hand at laying siege to Earth. Loki knew all too well who would be there to greet the Mad Titan.

"Then we have to go to Nowhere now," Gamora said.

"No," Thor said. He turned to Loki with a look he'd come to expect. "We need to go to Nidavellir."

The darkness of space passed by their small ship at an unfortunately sluggish speed, in Thor's opinion. The rabbit creature Rocket had volunteered to be their pilot, and Thor was grateful for it, though not for the time their journey would force him to stew in his thoughts. Memories of what happened on his own ship, to his own people. It weighed him, the profound guilt of being a failed leader.

And that came with his own personal loss. Heimdall, and countless others.

Their only saving grace was that Bruce had surely made it to Earth by now, and Valkyrie had managed to save many of their people. His mother included. Though Thor himself was lucky to be alive, along with Loki.

Thor watched his brother with a measure of quiet disbelief. The fallen prince, conniving and treacherous at his worst, and prickly at best; yet now he sat across from Thor, with a woman in his protective embrace. Loki's wandering gaze soon found Thor's as he frowned.

"What?" Loki said, his tone flat.

Thor tried, in vain, to lessen his smile. "What?"

Loki's green eyes were just as sharp as they always were, narrowing marginally. Thor couldn't help but prod him a bit anyway.

"If Mother could see you now—"

"Just shut up," Loki said. Then he soured a bit. "I'm not quite in her favor at the moment, so I doubt at what a joyous reunion that would be."

Thor couldn't exactly blame Frigga. He was used to dealing with the disappointment and rage that came in dealing with Loki's schemes, but now their father was dead. There was no surpassing that Loki had contributed to it, regardless of any of his regret or remorse. Frigga would surely need time to forgive, even her favorite son.

It didn't even pain Thor to admit that truth (that much), at least to himself, that Loki was her favorite. Now, Thor couldn't even claim to be more reliable.

"Regardless, we have Thanos to deal with first," Thor said, a grim sort of smirk quirking at his lips. "Then the rest."

"And before Thanos, to Nidavellir. Your insipid quest for a new weapon," Loki surmised dryly. "Honestly, must you always hide your wealth of intelligence behind a blunt object?"

"As opposed to you, behind your magic," Thor tossed back.

"Whatever I utilize is but an extension of my will, however I see fit to use it," Loki countered.

Thor saw truth in this, as it was the same for himself. He no longer needed to rely on the aid of a weapon, but would use it as an extension of himself. His power.

He smiled. "Then for once, we are like-minded."

Loki shared his thirst for vengeance, smirking back at him. Soon enough though, the warm body shifting in his arms earned his attention. He glanced down, just as Ada was blinking up at him slowly in confusion. But it wasn't long before she grimaced, a short groan of pain sounding in her throat as she squinted against the ship's harsh ceiling light. Loki leaned over her, trying to shield her face as much as he could. His arms wrapped more protectively around her waist and shoulders.

Though her confusion turned to wide-eyed panic as she tried to sit up, pushing away from him with eyes glazed with fear and trauma. Loki quickly pressed a hand to her cheek and uttered the words of a spell, to see what she saw within her mind.

She wasn't recognizing him yet, still trapped in whatever gruesome memories had taken course as she'd slept. Gently as he could, Loki pried her out of it. Between his hand on her cheek, allowing his magic to seep into her mind, and his murmured words of soothing assurance, her eyes lost their unseeing fear. Her breathing eventually calmed, and awareness brought some color back to her face as her trembling hand scrapped for purchase on his armor-clothed chest.

She caught a stronghold near his collar, her breathing labored as she took in the calm reality of his face. Loki covered her hand with his and held it firmly in support. "You're all right."

"What…" Her coarse voice worked to form what she wanted to say, and she looked up at him imploringly. "What happened?"

"The ship was attacked by the titan Thanos," he explained, and gave a brief summary of the events that followed. But he made sure to remind her of who had survived by fleeing on the escape pods.

"You should have been on one of them," he added, not being able to keep off a harder, pointed frown as he looked down on her. Ada had the decency to appear a little wary, but not at all repentant, he noticed.

"Before the last pod was meant to leave, I switched places with Fandral," she said. Her voice was a little stronger that time. "I can't regret my actions."

Loki's lips pursed, but he very well couldn't fault her small smile. Once again, she'd used his words against her. "I cannot regret my actions towards you. They are part of what entwined our paths…"

"But I am sorry," she continued, her eyes gleaming with amusement, and great sorrow all at once. "If I've made you worry."

Loki let go of her hand briefly to stroke her cheek with the back of his hand. Yes, she'd made him worry. In her sadness, he saw the carnage she regretted seeing, the loss she felt for so many of their people dead. Was it this difficult for a healer, even though they too saw the horrors of war?

In the end, he didn't berate her for being reckless. Not only would it be rather hypocritical, but in truth, what he felt was…

"Frigga would've been proud to see that little stunt you pulled," he said, raising a brow. Ada lowered her gaze, flushing a little.

"Yes," said Thor, reminding Loki of his presence with that insufferable smile still on his face. He drew Ada's attention, and his hand reached out to settle on her shoulder warmly. "Thank you, my lady, for your protection. I'm glad that you are well."

Sending Thor a deceptively blank look, Loki's arms tightened a fraction around the lady in question. Thor, catching his brother's stare, knowingly eased away. His smile remained.

"Protection?" Ada echoed, her voice lilting in confusion as she looked to Loki for an answer. His gaze fell on her, softening a fraction.

"At the end, you managed a preservation charm," Loki said. "It worked…rather well I'd say."

Her flush intensified, but her face brightened with a small, pleased smile. With effort, she turned to Thor with reverence.

"It's good to see you're unharmed as well, my king."

Loki's spine tightened, but he realized it was a petty, fruitless thing to be spiteful over. In any case, he couldn't be spiteful towards Ada. The way she looked up at him, slow and tired as her eyelids began to fall, softened both his tongue and his heart. He drew her hand from his armor, encouraging her without words to relax against him.

"Rest now," he said. "We will be there soon enough."

She had more questions, but her depleted, recovering body simply wouldn't let her stay awake any longer. "Where're we going…"

"You'll know when we're there," he said, smirking as she snorted in annoyance, then drifted back into a healthier sleep.

Feeling Thor's idiotic gaze upon him, Loki served him with a short glare. "I said, be quiet."

Thor raised his hands placatingly.

"I said nothing at all."