I found out that this will have 14 chapters in total, including both the Infinity War and Endgame arc. Enjoy!

Chapter 3: Eitri and Nidavellir

He felt eyes piercing his back. Loki had been stared at before on many occasions, when people were either scared or disappointed in him. Hardly ever did someone look at him in admiration or with any other positive emotion. This time didn't feel much different. Yes, it wasn't as harsh but it didn't feel great either. Loki spun around in the seat where he was putting in the coordinates to find the raccoon watching him.

It was a peculiar sight; a talking animal that could express emotions (or bottle them up, whatever the case may be) but who was Loki to judge? He saw a lot on Sakaar. Rocket and Loki stared at each other for a few seconds with the only sounds being Groot playing in the background. Loki lifted a single eyebrow up and the two of them broke eye contact. Rocket jumped onto a chair next to Loki before speaking.

"So… dead brother, huh? Yeah, that can be annoying."

Loki inhaled sharply. Thor's death was still - unfortunately - a weak spot. Out of all things they had to be talking about this. If they left the topic go, Loki could still believe that he was alive and so was Thor - thinking his brother was still alive but they were just seperated. Loki forced himself to reply.

"He's left me before. Or I've left him, depends on the way you put it."

"If you've left him before, why do you grieve?"

"I didn't exactly have a choice," Loki replied, thinking about the times he supposedly died. "I highly doubt you'd understand it as you haven't lost your entire family!" His voice rose as he continued speaking.

Apparently the raccoon had as little temper as Loki so when he spoke it was powered by rage.

"Well maybe I would understand because I have believed I've lost everything I care about before!" Rocket's eyes glanced towards the living tree at the back of the pod and Loki stored that bit of information for later. "The Guardians may be a bunch of jackasses, but they're my jackasses."

Loki bit his lip. What was he feeling? Certainly not guilt. He was too prideful to even feel the slightest ounce of guilt. But it just had to be then when all of his self confidence vanished like it went down the drain.

"I thought you were okay but it turns out you're just as cold and egotistical as the next person." Rocket hopped down to sit next to Groot.

'"You should know that when we fought each other in the past, I did so with a glimmer of hope that my brother was in there somewhere."'

"You know, I thought I would have needed to give you a communication device but it seems you can understand me perfectly fine."

'"That hope no longer exists to protect you."'

Loki knew more than anyone that words are a powerful weapon. If used correctly, they could make someone hurt as much as a knife in the back. The words Rocket said to him felt like someone shoved a dagger into his stomach and twisted it to cause more pain. It felt exactly like when Thor decided to visit him in his cell all those years ago.

Sentiment washed over him and threatened to drown him. Somehow Loki managed to hide the tears silently streaming down his cheeks like raindrops on a window pane. He hardly held back the sob creeping up from the back of his throat.

"Sorry…" he whispered. Loki was bad at gaining friendships and even worse at maintaining them, he knew that. From the Warriors Three to Valkyrie and the rest of the Sakaarians he was… not the kindest, to put it simply. It was a coping mechanism for him - push people away so they didn't see the real Loki. It was a habit he needed to break now that Thor was… gone.

"Hold up, did the Loki, puppet of the Mad Titan, apologise?" Rocket snarled. When he saw the tear stains on Loki's face his expression melted. Loki winced at the mention of Thanos and Rocket caught sight of it. "Are you sure you're up for this particular murder mission?" The raccoon asked.

"Of course I am. Why wouldn't I be?" Loki answered, wiping his tear-filled eyes and smiling the most fake broken smile. Even Groot didn't look convinced. "Rage, loss, regret, pain, revenge… they're all great motivators."

The rest of the trip was spent in a semi-comfortable silence. Groot was still playing that stupid little game ('honestly, what did the tree find so fascinating about that thing?') and Rocket was fiddling around with some random scrap pieces of metal. Loki stood up and stared out of the window at the front of the pod where thousands of starts shone. Loki idly started fiddling with his hair, braiding a lock to get the stray hairs out of his face. As he looked out his mind wandered. What if he couldn't defeat Thanos? He'd be a failure, what he was set out to be ever since he was born.

Loki didn't know how long it took for them to reach Nidavellir from when he and Rocket last spoke. It didn't even look like Nidavellir anymore; not as Loki knew it. It was the complete opposite of what it was supposed to be: it was dark and eerily quiet. Too quiet. There were hardly any Dwarves there - the only ones Loki saw were dead, rotting corpses - and the workstations were abandoned and messy.

This worried Loki. The Dwarves never left a project unfinished and their work benches were always clean and tidy. They took pride in their work. Nidavellir was supposed to be one of the most amazing realms out there, but this was definitely not what he expected.

When the pod landed, the three of them made their way out. Loki stopped Rocket and Groot before they stepped out though, as it felt suspicious. Loki did not like this. He had this weird feeling in his chest - nerves, probably - and attempted to swallow them down. He allowed a dagger materialise in his hand from his interdimensional pocket.

Loki slowly crept forward, the noise of his footsteps on the floor being the only sound echoing in the empty cavern. His hand holding the dagger began to shake and the hair on the back of his neck stood on end. Loki gulped. He started sweating nervously and looked back at his two new friends waiting on the ramp of the pod. When he looked back he almost died of shock.

There was a dwarf standing right there. They were less than three feet away from him and despite his tall stature Loki had to look up to see the dwarf in the eyes. When he did, Loki could have sworn his heart stopped beating and his blood ran cold (well, colder than it already was seeing as he was Jotun). Loki recognised the dwarf immediately. This was Eitri, the King of the Dwarves. By the looks of it, he wasn't king of much anymore as he was the only living dwarf Loki could see.

"Loki." Eitri growled. "I thought Odin had you banished from here." The dwarf stepped forward, making Loki inch back.

"Well, he did stop the Gatekeeper from allowing me to travel here, but you know I have my own means of travel."

"Maybe I should decapitate you now as I still own your head."

Loki winced again. The last time he visited Nidavellir in his adolescence was not the best of experiences.

"Or maybe I should send you back to the Allfather with you in shackles and your lips sewn shut again. That was quite entertaining." Eitri continued.

"I would appreciate you not doing that, King Eitri. I have come here to merely ask you a favour."

Eitri huffed and shook his head. "You should know better than to say that, God of Lies."

Loki did know better than to start a conversation with that sentence. This time he thought he would be able to gain something out of that and it was more important to get straight to the point this time.

"Go. I don't want to see you here again," Eitri yelled. He picked up a broken metal pole and swung it, aiming at Loki's abdomen. Loki yelped and jumped back, calling for another dagger in his other hand.

"Eitri, it doesn't need to go like this!"

"It will until you understand that you aren't welcome here!" Loki barely dodged a second swing this time aimed for his feet. He threw a dagger past Eitri and it would've skimmed the dwarf's ear if he didn't move his head in time.

That was probably a mistake as it seemed to anger Eitri more. His swings became more and more violent and quickly gained better accuracy. One hit missed Loki entirely. It hit the wall next to him and the end of the pole shattered, flinging little bits of metal and glass everywhere. Some were lucky enough to pierce Loki's armour which caused him to bleed but it was nothing his seidr couldn't heal.

Realising this was a fight he couldn't win, Loki cast an illusion of himself for Eitri to chase and ran back to the pod with a glamour so nobody could see him. When he reached it, Rocket was standing there waiting (was that concern on his furry face?) and Groot had miraculously decided watching Loki's near death was far more interesting than his video game. He dropped the glamour and took pleasure in watching his two companions jump in shock.

"Someone's not happy to see you," Rocket indicated towards Eitri who had settled down on a bench with his head in his hands.

Loki huffed. "That's one way to put it."

"So far whenever you meet someone, you either try to kill them or they try to kill you." Loki took a moment to consider this statement and noticed it was basically the summary of his entire life.

"I am Groot." Groot added.

"Or they ignore you," Rocket translated. Loki shook his head and smiled.

"I understood it enough. It was an elective in tutoring on Asgard."

"Gee, no need to show off, your highness." Funnily enough, Loki chuckled at the raccoon's response which soon passed on to the others. The pain of the glass and metal in his skin flared up as he laughed which reminded Loki he should probably heal that before it got infected.

"So what do we do now? The giant clearly doesn't want you here." Loki raised his eyebrows at the irony of Rocket's mistake, however he didn't allow his hands to move from his side where the injury was worse. Once there was a steady glow of emerald green healing magic in the area he wanted it to be in, Loki responded.

"We can't leave here without that weapon," he started. "It would defy the whole purpose of coming here in the first place."

"I am Groot."

"Yes Groot, you're correct. We should just steal one instead."

Loki rolled his eyes. "There's one thing you don't do to a dwarf."

"Aggravate them?" Rocket muttered snarkily.

"Okay, two things. The second is don't steal from them. Trust me, you really don't want to do both."

"And we do what? Talk to him like diplomats?"

The god smirked. "That's exactly what we do. They don't call me Silvertongue for nothing."

This time all three of them came out into the chilly darkness of Nidavellir. Loki had made sure his wound was all healed beforehand and cast some seidr around Rocket and Groot to protect them if Eitri decided to attack again. He really did not want that Peter Quill guy on his long list of people who wanted to kill him.

If it wasn't for Rocket finding the mold on the floor, Loki wouldn't have known the reason for the Dwarves' slaughter. Engraved in the stone was a gauntlet. A gauntlet large and capable enough to wield six Infinity Stones. That was not a good sign.

"Eitri…" Loki began speaking, this time in a more hushed tone.

"Asgard was supposed to protect us." The Dwarf King said, showing no sign of recognition of Loki.

"Asgard was destroyed. Thor and Odin… killed." Loki whispered. That was enough to catch Eitri's attention.

"Odin Allfather dead? You're having a laugh."

"He died on Midgard over two weeks ago."

Eitri heard the somber tone in Loki's voice. "What do you want from me?"

Loki looked down at Eitri's hands. Whatever Thanos did to them made them bloody, shaky and raw. "I need you to make me a weapon."

"What?"

"A weapon. Of the Thanos-killing kind," he repeated.

"And how could you repay me?" Eitri deadpanned. "I don't exactly have the hands to make it."

Loki sighed mentally. This promise was going to be tough to keep. "I'll assure you Thanos gets slain for what he did here. For what he's done all over the universe."

That was enough to convince Eitri of his help. "Fine. I'll help you. But any funny business, and I'll kill you and mount your head on my wall."

"I'm sure you will."

I want to apologize if the last half of this chapter is not as good as the first because I did write most of it late at night. I hope you liked this, I really enjoyed writing it and my eyes did this weird sweating thing when I wrote the conversation between Rocket and Loki... definitely not tears, what are you talking about?

If you didn't understand the reason why Loki wasn't supposed to come back to Nidavellir, there is a story in Norse Mythology where Loki makes a bet with the dwarves and he tricks them but it ends up with him getting his lips sewn shut as a punishment, as the bet was whoever wins owns the other's head. You should read it, it's one of my favourite parts of Norse Mythology.

Next Chapter: Loki makes the weapon. Until next Sunday! - Paradox