Second to last chapter, enjoy ;) I'll most likely start on editing the earlier chapters, and after the next chapter I'll post another when the editing is done just to let you know, and do some shout-outs then ;)))))
It was that moment, that one moment, that truly un-made him, that truly broke who he had been. He had never loved or been loved, and though he had begun to truly love Tony, he had not realised the depth of his love – this true love – until Tony was milliseconds from breaking. In that moment he was shattered completely… And remade. Something new, something extraordinary, rearing up inside him. Oriax must have sensed it because she swung around, a hand outstretched, almost as if to try restrain him with her dark magic. Loki could feel the depth of her power and knew she would probably succeed, and Tony would break, and there would be nothing more for him to do but die. Until Steve, still lying at his feet, tightened his grip on his shield and swung it, hard, at Oriax, and it hit her in the back of her knees, bringing her crashing to the ground. Kneeling in front of him, as it were, though the sight gave Loki no particular joy. And that new power inside him reared up and begged to be let out. He opened himself up to it, throwing his head back as the magic crackled around him, bright and vibrant and so full of life and love. "Impossible," hissed Oriax. "You were broken!" And he had been, he thought as he looked at her. Perhaps he still was, irreparably. But Tony would be there, his mind broken just like Loki's, at his side. He raised his green-glowing hands and smiled coldly at her. "Oh, Oriax," he said coldly. "Didn't you know? Broken edges are the sharpest."
Had it been a tangible thing, this universe could not contain his fury. This was not the desperate kill he had made – unsuccessfully - when leaving Oriax's realm, nor the hunts for power and glory he had seen Thor take part in. It was almost like revenge, but for all of them. For himself as well as Tony. For Sigyn, and for all the others Oriax had killed, broken, hurt so badly they could never be repaired again. He let the emotion into his magic, and it stained darker green as his wounds knitted and healed, but he left them as scars that he would carry forever. He drew the poison from Tony's body, and healed his wounds, too – again, leaving the scars. Steve, Clint, Natasha. Healed. Fury. Healed. He shattered Strange's cocoon of darkness and he tumbled to the floor, beginning to gasp and breathe deeply, sitting up, watching in vague confusion. And Oriax… He drove his mind into her black power, looking at it, feeling it, sensing it. Hating it. Disgusted by it. And then he destroyed it, destroyed every single scrap of it, because although Oriax could survive physical imitations of death, she was not truly a physical being. The Oriax left kneeling in front of him was mortal at last. For a brief moment, he considered giving her to Fury to end. But looking over at Tony, at the slightest of smiles but the unending agony in his eyes, Loki decided this was his kill to make. It belonged to him and all the people who had suffered at her hands. One more time, he ripped into her mind. He could have made her suffer everything he had suffered at her hands, everything she had made others suffer. Instead, he showed her his emotions. He showed her the emotions of love and happiness and peace, let her see them, understand, and it was her own sudden guilt that made her scream, because she could finally see what she had done, at least in part. She had never felt those emotions, hadn't been capable of feeling them. But she had still had a choice. And for that, Loki tore the feelings from her and felt her mind grope blindly for them as her mouth parted in a silent scream. "Good bye, Oriax," he whispered, and she vanished. Even her soul he destroyed. She would never lead another life, never harm another soul.
He clapped his hands above his head and his magic streamed bright, shattering the remnants of the darkness. Around them, the golden army warred with the dark one. A sweep of his magic and every single Chitauri crumbled into nothing. There was a cry from the ship and a purple shield of power blossomed around it. Thanos had noticed all his troops were gone. The warrior titan would no doubt believe he would triumph anyway, with the power of the infinity stone at his command. But that was where he was making his mistake. He saw Thanos when he strode through the battlefield. He looked in his eyes, did not listen nor hear what he was bellowing, but looking deep inside his eyes he saw… At first, astonishment but surety – he thought he would win. But as the was of purple collided him and he swept it aside with barely a thought, he found fear in his eyes, as Thanos backed away from him. "How…" he watched Thanos mouthed, and Loki rose into the air so that he was floating above him, a green aura crackling through him. "The infinity stone was created at the dawn of the universe," he told Thanos. "But this magic… It is far beyond that. It is not of this universe nor any other, and it does not abide by the rules of any universe." Loki smiled, exultant, as the power rushed and roared through every inch of him. "It simply is," he told Thanos, and raised his arms. The entire ship shuddered upwards, strange, primal darkness leaking from it. A thought, and the entire ship was ripped to shreds, and he took pleasure in dispersing those shreds far across the galaxy. Another thought, and the power stone came free of the gauntlet.
The power stone itself was neither evil or good. It simply existed for the bearer to wield as they might wish. But more often than not, it was the evil people that sought it. Or perhaps just people who did evil things, like Thanos. The good would protect them as long as they could, but in the end, their blood would always be spilled, or their hearts corrupted. So, Loki simply reached out to the stone, felt it with his mind, understood it, and then shattered it. And Thanos… He may have been the one to command Oriax, but he was not her. So, Loki did not destroy him – he ripped another portal into the world and sent Thanos back, back to his home planet, where he might live out the rest of his days. He sought with his mind, immersed in his magic, ignoring completely the mortal world beneath him, though he was aware enough of it to protect it from whatever waves of power his magic might be giving off. The infinity stones shone in his mental image of the universe, their power singing to his own. Five points of light. One by one, he shattered them. All, except the time stone. He created an illusion of the stone and destroyed that instead. Only Strange would know, and himself. And Tony, too, because Loki could never hide something from his lover. The time might come, far in the future, when Midgard needed the infinity stones for a power far greater than Thanos, and the time stone waited for that moment. But until then, none would know an infinity stone still lived on, perhaps the most crucial of all of them.
His magic was still strong, too strong. It was beginning to fray his re-born mind, shatter him. He flung himself into it further, hoping to exhaust it enough that it would not eat away at him, not kill him. He scoured worlds and worlds, finding good and bad and ugliness and incredible beauty, and wherever his magic spread, trails of life followed. Barren planets bloomed, children cried with joy as the fields refilled, as forests teemed with life once more. And then it was over, the strange magic nearly gone. He returned to himself and saw through closed lids as the green aura around him faded, collapsing in on itself, and he half-fell to the ground, landing hard near Tony. It had taken all of a few seconds to spend his magic, but in using the magic time had stretched for him, making it seem like hours had passed, and suddenly all he wanted was to be with Tony, safe. He pulled the mortal to him and held him close for a few moments, ignoring the golden army staring at them in astonishment. Everything narrowed down to him and a seemingly unconscious Tony and he prayed to his ancestors that Tony would not just survive, but live. Agonising seconds passed as Loki fed the last of his magic to Tony, willing him awake, and then he finally opened his brown eyes. The Bifrost flashed in a circle around them as the golden warriors, bidding their farewells to the others but staying clear of Loki and Tony entirely, were taken back up to Asgard. It was only the Avengers, Fury, and Strange left, not that Loki noticed. The exhaustion from using too much magic too suddenly was setting in, and his arms slipped from around Tony, but the mortal sat up and looked at him steadily. Something sparked in his eyes and Loki found them strength to draw him close again, kissing him gently. There was immeasurable relief in both their eyes when they looked at each other and knew that they would not lose each other, not today, not for as long as they lived. Loki was pretty sure Tony was saying something to him, but the world began to collapse around him, and he drifted away from consciousness.
"What the hell was that?" Fury asked, but he seemed more… Frightened or shocked, almost, than angry. Tony curled around Loki, unable to speak any more, still unable to quite forget the feel of that poison. It was like… Nothing he had ever felt before. That Loki had endured it for even those few seconds longer than he had was a marvel, and he couldn't help but admire and love him all the more for that. Somehow, he had felt Loki's power, too, though he didn't think Loki had noticed it. He'd felt the same rush as Loki, the awful weight of it that Loki hadn't noticed as he'd been swept up in the current. He knew what Loki had used it for – and could imagine the good it had brought to all the other worlds he hadn't even know existed. He didn't answer Fury's question, not yet, but he knew the answer, even as Nat pulled him up, away from Loki, and he didn't have the strength to resist. Fury himself gathered up Loki, and they walked slowly towards Stark tower. Miraculously, he saw, it had not been destroyed. In fact, he realised in confusion, the entire city had been rebuilt through Loki's magic. He barely noticed it any more, wanting just to be able to lie down somewhere and sleep the whole thing away. They entered the tower quietly and Tony felt himself relax in the familiar surroundings. It had been so fast, too fast. Perhaps two, maybe three hours in total had passed, in which the earth had nearly been destroyed, in which he had thought he and Loki might break. In which they had broken, but somehow, what Loki had said was stuck in his mind. Broken edges are the sharpest. Ironic, that by breaking them Oriax had woven her own doom. Dimly, Tony felt his breathing, already slightly laboured, turn to panting as his body gave up. He somehow registered Fury scowling at him, and noted the worry hidden in his eyes. "I'm going to have a giant-ass mountain of stupid questions from the prime minister," Fury groused, but he looked awfully concerned and not genuinely annoyed, so Tony managed to huff a small laugh before the room lurched around him, and then darkness claimed him entirely.