- Chapter 42 -

Everything slowed down until Tony could only focus on that one thing. Her heartstring? It wasn't that bastard. Odin forced her into it. Her forced her. He crossed his arms over her chest. "I'm sorry, babe. I don't think I heard you right. Could you say that again?"

"I bartered the Casket of Ancient Winters and a heartstring to Lord Hela to safeguard the souls of those I killed," Loki looked Tony in the eyes as she spoke with more volume.

Every time he'd been forced to listen to her scream in agony for hours on end came and went through his mind. Each of those times was caused by the poorly healed wound in her chest. There was nothing he could do to stop it once it began. They were both utterly powerless. Her screams played over and over again in his mind. The pain she endured fed his own. The small dam of control that Tony constructed to hold back the flaming tide of his rage buckled under the swell. He walked away from her, out of the kitchen. Blinding rage swelled up to fill him. Orange-red bled across his vision. He clenched his hands into fists, unclenched and flexed his fingers and clenched his hands again. Small orange sparks rolled over his skin and flickered at the tips of his fingers. The tight burn of rage spread through his chest and into his shoulders. His rage burned him. He needed it to burn everyone else as well.

A slight tremor is his shoulders spread to shaking the rest of him. Tremors spread out to shake the house. Orange seidr sparks rolled back up his arms towards his chest. They absorbed into him just over his heart until they were no more. A fiery line etched its way straight down the center of Tony's chest. It was about five inches long. From the top of the line another fiery line etched its way down to the right at an angle. At the bottom of the first line a second fiery line etched its way up and to the left at an angle. Each of these lines was about two inches long. A third fiery line etched its way through the center of the very first line, traveling downwards from upper left to lower right. Two more shorter lines, one over top and one underneath this center line, etched their way downwards from upper left to lower right. The fiery rune blazed brightly over the center of his chest with a light more brilliant than the arc reactor. The Rune of Power was locked into place over his heart. Fiery Lines of Power formed at his shoulders, flowing down his shoulder blades to bend down his sides. White hot seidr suffused his dark hair. It replaced his hair with flames that sizzled the air around him. When he turned back to Loki there was only fire where his eyes should've been. Currents of air pulled towards him to create a vortex of steam as the house continued to shake. The windows started rattling in their frames. Painted texture coating cracked along the ceiling then fell to the floor. One of the right-side fiery bent Lines of Power pulled away from his skin to arch out behind him. A moment later the one opposite it pulled away.

.-.-.-.

He doesn't seem to feel to fire. Director Fury wasn't certain what he was seeing. The closest point of reference he had was something akin to a modern-day headless horseman. A chain wielding, motorcycle riding vigilante with nothing more than a flaming skull on his shoulders. The Director wasn't certain if this was similar or not. The sparse reports he had on the other entity suggested an occult reason for its existence. Occult. Loki uses magic. Did he do this to Stark?

Why aren't they on fire too? Bruce frowned at the screen. There was fire in Tony's hair and lines of it forming at his shoulders, as well as a fiery mark over his chest, but his clothes weren't burning. He realized that he should be more worried about his friend burning to death, but that point stuck in his mind.

As he saw what Anthony was doing Frey's eyes widened slightly. He tried to tell himself that it was only the kitchen that was damaged, that both Loki and Anthony were well in the previous recording. The damage done to the kitchen wasn't on the same level as the explosion that Anthony was building to. As he watched the buildup of seidr, he feared. The Rune of Power was burning brighter with every moment. Loki is with-child, please Anthony, don't do this!

.-.-.-.

The immense buildup of seidr flowing openly around Tony was unmistakable to Loki, it burned against her. It would destroy everything for dozens of miles around if it was allowed to explode. The Sphere of Destruction it could trigger would be catastrophic for the south-western United States. Loki moved towards him. The rage pouring out through his seidr burned at her skin. The pressure of it pushed her back. At least Jay will keep the children safe. "Tony, please! You can't light this fire!" she called to him, moving closer. The pressure of his seidr kept pushing her back. She had to hurry and contain this. The power he was trying to call couldn't be allowed to come, not yet. It wasn't time.

"I will find the ones responsible," the whisper was low and viscous. "They're all going to burn," the force of that one word shook the house sending little bits ceiling raining down. Cracks snaked across the floor from under him. Several of the windows in the living room cracked. One of them crumbled out into the ocean. Tony wanted to destroy everything, burn everything. He wanted Odin's blood. Another right-side bent Line of Power arched off his skin. It burned in the air with the others. One of the currents of air ignited then flamed out. Smoke tinged the other currents grey. The vortex off steam swirled faster around him. Another of the left side bent Lines of Power broke free of his skin to arch out behind him. A sphere of highly pressurized seidr built around him then burst swiftly. The walls near him shook and cracked as part of the burst sphere hit them. The steam and smoke were briefly pushed outwards from him before it was all sucked back towards him. The lines of seidr crawling up over his skin ignited into lines of rolling flame. The cracked floor smoldered under him. It blackened, shattered, and then melted. The pressure of his seidr kept him suspended in the air as the floor was melting away beneath him. The ceiling above him burst into flame. It burned in a flash before the flames were sucked down into his skin. The last two fiery bent Lines of Power pulled free of his skin. They arched out with the others, three bent lines flaring out on either side of him. His fiery wings flared out further as Tony unconsciously flexed his shoulders. They flexed, flared, then shattered the house around him. Little flame coated pieces swirled in slow circles around him. Bricks from the front walk began pulling free as they too were sucked in towards him and coated in flame.

.-.-.-.

Sitting quietly, Odin hoped that he was wrong about what manner of beast Stark might be. He held a little tighter to his wife and feared. The rune on Stark's chest wasn't indicative of anything other than the collection and building of power. It didn't give him a firm answer. The fiery Lines of Power made of orange seidr that were arcking out like forming wings were certainly closer to an answer than not. Please let me be wrong in this. Being wrong would let him bring his son home. It would let him get Loki to the healers where the boy desperately needed to be. Odin would have no problem making the humbling request for aid from Vanaheim himself so that Frey could come and see to Loki. Odin had never wanted to be wrong more than he did right then. If he was right, then Asgard had unwittingly made an enemy of incomparable power. This was an enemy that had possession of his gravely ill child. He already knew that he wasn't wrong. Odin just didn't want to admit that yet. What Loki did was a deep enough wound in him. Admitting that he had no power to even try to remedy the situation would be another deep wound.

To get a better look at the bent Lines of Power arcking out from Anthony's shoulders and back Frey leaned forward on the table. They were much thicker than he thought they should be. It struck him as very odd and even more concerning. Anthony had only just come into his powers. According to the legends, the progress Frey was seeing was decades of experience, perhaps even more than a hundred years' worth, done in about a year's time. It indicated that Anthony was much closer to his final incarnation then Frey knew, but he didn't know how that happened. His nephew-by-law still had very little control and far too much anger. Placing that kind of power in the hands of a man like that was a recipe for disaster. It was a disaster that Frey had no power to stop.

Frigga leaned against Odin and took comfort in his strength. The was still a numb sense of horror and disbelief playing through her mind. His heartstring. My beautiful boy traded his heartstring. Little tears kept trickling down her cheeks. Her hands clenched in Odin's vest when she saw the powerful orange seidr being wielded by Stark. More little tears trickled down her cheeks. It was looking very much like Stark was the beast he appeared to be. Frigga stifled a small sob. If he truly was that beast, then there was no possibility of retrieving Loki. Her son was badly maimed, his mind was unbalanced, and she couldn't bring him home without Stark's consent. Another wave of tears trickled down her cheeks. It hurt to know that her child was in the hands of someone so powerful and angry. Anger wasn't what Loki needed. She wanted Loki in Frey's hands, to be healed. Unfortunately, she didn't know if any of what she wanted was a possibility.

.-.-.-.

Pushing forward, Loki pushing hard against the burning pressure of her husband's seidr. Her glamour flicked over of her skin as rage and grief bled out from him in waves. The things burning around him slowed her getting to Tony. When she reached him, she placed her hands on either side of his face, pulling him to her until they were face to face. Her seidr uncurled and flowed outward into Tony. His seidr responded before he could stop it. Silver sparks ignited like small explosions around them. Golden flames flowed around the silver sparks, igniting the air. They flowed in open waves and currents without ever combining. Loki forced her seidr into his claim mark to activate it slightly. It allowed her to draw off his seidr. The potent hatred and fiery rage swiftly drew out of him into her. The flow of seidr from him poured heat through her blood but she didn't stop. A Cooling Wave Weave was composed quickly and released to cover them both. It swiftly cooled his burning skin and her heated blood. It was moments like this that made her wish she was stable enough to use an Overwhelming Upheaval Spell. If you do this you'll burn me too, her seidr whispered to him. "Be calm, Love, please," Loki whispered. She pulled him just a little farther away from the melted floor. Another few steps and the fiery Lines of Power shuddered then flexed again. The flames coating the shattered pieces of the house extinguished so the pieces could come back into place. They were knit back together by the golden flames.

Safe with me, his seidr whispered to her. Tony's seidr pulsed. It blew the smoke and steam away from him as the light in his chest faded away. His feet touched the floor as his seidr fed back into his core. The bent Lines of Power receded back into his back then faded away. Only the painful ache was left behind to stab at his spine. The darkened brown of his eyes returned as the fire in them receded. The white hot seidr suffusing his hair drained away leaving his normal short brown hair in its place. Most of the inferno dwindled as Loki drew the poisonous hate from him. He jerked back from her. "Don't try to make me not angry at those worthless pieces of shit! Asgard forced you into it! It's their fault!" his voice was a ragged snarl of rage and grief.

"This anger gets us nowhere!" Loki was firm in her stance. "Rage won't salvage the future!" Hope won't either, for there is none left.

.-.-.-.

Loki is able to extinguish the inferno, but for how long? Odin worried that perhaps it was already too late. If he's able to light the inferno, then it's only contained, not extinguished. His arms tightened around his wife. "Asgard forced you into it! It's their fault!" He even knew where the inferno was aimed. This had gone from boring to terrifying all too quickly and there was still more. That was the most frightening thing. There was more that he didn't know and couldn't guess at. Little tears were pushed back and willed away. The small shudder down his spine was only contained. It couldn't be stopped. How could this have happened?! Not my son, no!

Even though the fires were quenched it was very clear to Frigga that the embers burning beneath them were still there. Loki wasn't truly safe and wouldn't be until they could get him away from Stark. How that could happen wasn't something she was able to think of at the moment. She was still having a hard time processing what Loki did. A large part of Frigga didn't want to believe it and wasn't going to until it was properly confirmed. That part of her was grating uncomfortably again the Truthkeeper having already said that everything they were being shown was the truth. She didn't want to believe. All Frigga wanted right then was for her son to come home.

Taking a deep breath, Frey sighed quietly in relief. Anthony hadn't truly been stopped, merely slowed down. This was going to increase the magnitude of his rage dramatically. That wasn't something Frey wanted to give thought to. It was coming to a point where even Loki was having a hard time calming him. This was a problem that he could do very little about. He couldn't regrow her lost heartstring. Finding out how she might have healed her eyes became an important priority. If he could use what she used, then he could perhaps heal her. Even then, he still wasn't certain it would work. Heartstrings were notoriously difficult to heal. It was the only chance he saw to contain this situation before it grew beyond control. Very soon Anthony's rage was going to be unmanageable.

.-.-.-.

Putting his hands on her shoulders, Tony asked, "You'll never get better, will you? It's not just damaged, it's destroyed! And you didn't tell me!" He jerked her towards his chest and wrapped his arms around her. He rested his chin on the top of her head. "All these years, I thought you were getting better. You're not! After everything I've done, I didn't fix it." The thought of his Loki living the rest of her life with bouts of debilitating pain was unendurable. Little tears misted over his eyes. "This is it; this is what we have. All we have. Ashes, just ashes."

Grief was better than rage. Loki could feel the grief rolling off him and she grieved as well. She brought her arms up to wrap around him. There was no good answer. "Every day I have with you is a gift," she whispered. How much long will be able to stop this? What happens when I can't? It was a slightly panicked thought.

"You won't get better, will you?" Tony had to know. Loki's silence only compounded the fear and anger coiling in his chest. "Loki, please."

"No," Loki never wanted to tell Tony this particular truth. The damage to her remaining heartstring was too much to be healed by normal means. She wanted to tell him the whole ugly truth. It was on the tip of her tongue. Instead, she swallowed it back down. She'd only directly shared the ugly truth with two others. One was bound to silence; the other was bound by sacred oaths. It was a truth that Tony couldn't have yet. If tonight's fit was any indication then he would probably never have it.

"I should have died in the theater, but I didn't. I should have died afterwards, but I didn't. I should have died during the dark days. I truly should have died then. Still, I didn't. I'm bound to you in all things now. It might not be perfect, but each day is still a gift to me. I love every day that I have with you, no matter the pain." She pulled back so that she could see his eyes. "I'm grateful for every day that I have with you, with our children. I'm grateful for the life that I have. I'm grateful to you for that life." Rage wouldn't salvage their future, nor would hope. Perhaps if she could teach him control fast enough, then he could save them again. Loki couldn't give him that false hope though. Hope was treacherous. It'd betrayed her too many times for her to ever trust again. Time was running down so swiftly. Loki doubted he could learn everything he needed to before she would have to leave.

A quiet numbness was spreading through him. There was a terrible fear that he'd never given voice to that he now had to. "Am I responsible? For what happened in the theater?" He looked down to her chest, to the scar he knew was there, "Did I make it worse?" He tried to push the memories of a broken column and rubble falling into a pool of blood out of his mind.

"No, there was nothing that happened before the explosion that you could have changed. It was an ancient spell, more powerful than anything else you've been exposed to," Loki leaned back into him. "It wasn't your fault, it was mine. Sacrifices had to be made, and I was willing to make them. I always have been. The asking price was high, it always will be. I'm willing to pay it. I know that you, our children, everyone I care for is protected. I've known that for years. I'm at peace with it. Every day after that one has been a gift," Loki said calmly. "One that you've given me."

.-.-.-.

An ancient spell, a shield, and a bargain with the Heart of Asgard for the raising of it. Odin pondered over the meaning of these things. None of them led to happy places. An asking price for safe passage for us. He was ashamed to think it, but he'd rather Loki not have paid that price. It was too high. He would rather go to war again than give thought to his son having a heartstring forcibly taken from him. I would rather drown in blood than face that.

The Auric Shield Spell. Frey still didn't know enough about that spell. Loki was never able to tell him much. Seeing it cast hadn't been nearly enough information for him. All Loki could tell him was that it was ancient magic. He finally knew how ancient it was, Celestial magic. A spell to protect Yggdrasil itself, to refuse entry to her enemies. It was powerful enough that the Heart of Asgard was willing to bargain over it. None of that told him how the spell worked. It wasn't enough information to be comfortable with. He would be most comfortable if she could teach him the spell. Unfortunately, Loki had a very hard time relaying what she knew about it without collapsing. The strain of her memories was heavy indeed.

An exploded spell? Is that what happened in the theater? Thor wiped some of the tears out of his eyes. More trickled down his cheeks. An exploded spell would be a very odd thing to have happened. It wasn't outside the realm of possibility for a miscast spell to explode violently. He watched several spells explode as Loki learned more complex magics. The injuries those explosions caused were one of the main reasons their father punished Loki for even studying magic. The punishments didn't deter his Little Brother, nor did the explosions. Eventually their father simply gave up. Loki wasn't breaking any laws in studying magics, and he only ever harmed himself. Thor grimaced at that thought then wiped more tears away. He did think it was odd that one exploded for Loki so recently.

The last of Loki's spells to explode was still quite the memory for Thor. He and the Warriors Three were sitting in the dining hall eating breakfast when Loki joined them. He was nose first into a book, carrying it with one hand. His other hand was busy tracing the runes of the spell into the air as he sat down. "Memorize the runes to compose the spell," Loki always told him. This spell didn't go off properly. It latched onto their breakfasts just before exploding. By the time the spell stopped exploding, they were hip high in a variety of breakfast meats, sweet buns and cut fruits. It was only Volstagg who didn't complain. That was over five hundred years ago. Thor hadn't seen Loki fizzle a single spell in the intervening time. What magics were you working, Little Brother?

Though Thor's gaze travelled from screen downwards, he wanted to be up and leaving. He wanted to go to Loki, to speak with him so that he could apologize and try to set things right. More tears gathered in his eyes. There was no way he could set everything right. Not anymore. He looked back up and hoped that Loki might still be willing to even speak with him as family. He hoped it might be so with everything he had.

.-.-.-.

As another dark and wicked idea popped into his head Tony looked away for a moment. He made certain to keep it tightly controlled because he couldn't risk Loki ever finding out what he'd done, what he was still doing or what he was going to be doing. "I'll build you a new one," he said quietly. A limb built, not born. I can fix this. Just a simple repair or replacement. The induction system isn't a problem, I control it completely. It'll be the next step for it and I. Tony wondered if this was the reason he needed to finish the testing on and then use his next generation factory. The old factories were more stable but carried the stink of their original owner. If they didn't work, then he'd just retrofit with something from the new factory when it was ready. Either way, I'll make it work. Tony didn't care how he got it done. He was going to build her what she needed.

He had work to do again. Like all the rest of his work, it would get done.

Little machines appeared in Tony's seidr then, not surprising her at all. Loki smiled sadly up at him when she saw then briefly. It was a machine she saw constantly in his seidr, but never saw him using. She wondered if he was ever going to get around to building the odd insect machine she kept seeing. My King of Machines. "Tony, you can't build a heartstring."

"I can. I will build you a new one. I will fix this," Tony looked into her eyes as he said it. He always loved the shimmering shadow he saw there. It was his own shadow. The shadow to his flame. If I have to rebuild you from the inside out, then I will. I won't let you go.

Letting his seidr flicker out of his core, Tony forged it into a Restoration Orb Spell that was as powerful as he could make it. It would do the work for him while he finished speaking with Loki. With what he'd just learned, he had to know the rest of it. The spell released to begin making repairs on things he didn't care to waste his time repairing the house. There were more important repairs he had to make. Looking back to her, he said quietly, "I still have work to do." A steely fire was filling his eyes again. It was one that died down in recent years. That fire was still there, sitting like the smoldering embers of a primeval forge. The fires were lighting again. Great things were waiting to be made since the forge was ready to be used again. Before that Tony needed to know what he was going to create. Her drawing out his rage helped it to die down to a manageable level. It wasn't gone, but he could think straight again. So, he gave her another hug before he picked her up again to carry her over to the counter where he gently set her down. He liked to talk to her while she was sitting on the counter, or on one of his workbenches. It was easier to reach her when she was above him.

While Tony's fires of creation were primed to go, unfortunately, the embers of his rage-fueled inferno were only smoldering in his chest. They couldn't be stoked fasted enough for him. He took a breath, a moment, for himself. Tony placed a hand very gently over her heart. It wasn't visible, but he knew what rested under his hand. "He didn't do that, did he? Hela did." Loki nodded silently. Stepping back, he took another few moments to collect his thoughts. Everything I've done, and it wasn't going to get better. That thought hardened his resolve to achieve a permanent fix to the problem at all costs. A Memory Cube always went with him when they went to Vanaheim. Instead of working on toy designs for his personal library he'd keep working on the new designs that he was going to start that night. Plans for a permanent resolution were already piecing themselves together in his mind. They were shuffled to the back of his mind so they wouldn't leak out through his seidr. Loki wouldn't know and he still had other dark and wicked things to deal with first. "Ok, ok. Now I want the rest of it. You bargained. What next? How did you get to him? I want the truth, Loki." His fists clenched and unclenched reflexively a few times before he noticed that he was clenching them because the ache in his back dug in again. The tight burning moved through his chest and into his shoulders again. It met the ache to tighten it as well. Flexing his shoulders and stretching never helped, but he always tried to find relief anyway. It was only when he burned that it felt right.

A movie would have been better than this. Loki tensed again as their bargain activated. The scar itched a little, so she rubbed gently at it. The seidr in her blood produced another powerful urge to tell him what he wanted to know. She was grateful that she'd managed to talk around the worst of it. It was frightening that he might ask before she left. It was a fear for another day. Tony wanted this truth. It was one she could give, even if she didn't want to. Loki looked into his eyes. There was still so much rage, so much grief. Through it all, she could see both his love for her and his desire for the truth. There was still no getting out of this. "Once the bargains were in place, I used the monitoring station to track the direction of his armada. It was moving in a consistent direction, towards the Nine Realms. He was several days from an asteroid field that was the farthest out that I could power the compound's Bifrost to. I knew that was where I would meet him."

"You attacked him? That's ballsy," Tony frowned and stretched out his shoulders again. They were still very tight. It was causing the ache to throb dully. "That's how he got you with the scepter?"

Just tell him, just get it out. Stop stalling. "I didn't attack him," Loki said quietly. She couldn't stop the guilty look she knew she had. The guilt was terrible and vast. She destroyed their future. It was her fault alone. "He had an armada with twenty-five million warriors. A conventional attack would have been entirely useless without an army at my back. I had no army. I didn't even have allies. If I had attacked him openly then I would have been overwhelmed. If I'd gone to him like that, he would have ripped the truth from me and made me into what you all thought I was."

.-.-.-.

"Clint, was Loki under the scepter's influence?" Bruce asked. That would surprise him if it were true. Clint hadn't ever mentioned it.

"No. Not that I noticed," Clint shook his head. He didn't like the thought of Loki being under the scepter's control any more than he liked any of what he was hearing. It was all disturbing.

He engaged a powerful foe while mortally wounded and blind. I should have been by his side! Thor didn't like the thought of his Little Brother engaging an enemy with an Infinity Gem by himself. Even the thought of it brought him intolerable pain.

Twenty-five million. Director Fury felt a small but cold wash of fear. It was a numbers game, and SHIELD didn't have the numbers to win that game. With the technology the Chitauri had, even the combined might of Earth's militaries couldn't win that game.

.-.-.-.

Nervousness had Loki picking at the hem of her shirt for a moment before she slumped just slightly. There was enough rage drawn off for her to hope there wouldn't be an explosion. A quick glance over to Tony's Restoration Orb showed it still working. Power radiated from it. His Restoration Orb Spells were more powerful than many mage's Restoration Spells were. The area in between the kitchen and front door was about halfway to being repaired. The rest of the house would come after. She straightened up, squared her shoulders, and looked directly at Tony. "I knew that I had to go get close to him so that I could get the gem and get away to Midgard, to the Tesseract. Only from Midgard could I attract Asgard's attention. My main problem was that I observed him using the Infinity Gem against others. I wasn't able to cast a powerful enough ward to shield my mind from that, so my plans would be on display for him if I didn't go about it properly. Simply presenting myself wouldn't be enough."

"I had to appeal to his sense of cruel irony. Him bending me to his will wouldn't be ironic, but him finding me, broken and vengeful, molding my mind with his poisoned whispers, then going forth willingly as an instrument of his wrath? I, who'd destroyed his entire force on Jotunheim in a childish tantrum? I, a fallen Prince of Asgard, returned like a rabid dog? That's cruel irony. That, Anthony, was what I used. I didn't get close to him. He brought me close. I didn't take the gem. He gave it to me," Loki wanted to stop, never wanted to tell him this. This was one of the worst secrets she kept.

"One of the keys to diplomacy is that in order to get, you must at least have the appearance of giving. To get the gem, I had to give him a slaughter. It was a simple trade," she said.

"Loki," Tony started then stopped. He wondered what she meant by that, but his shoulders were still bothering him. No amount of stretching was going to alleviate the tight burning through his shoulders. It was equally true of the ache digging its claws into the middle of his back, so he gave up trying to find that relief as well.

"The compound didn't have enough power to operate the Bifrost again. I used the knowledge I gained from the archives to set up an array which was able to channel the Cosmic Stream through the Bifrost machinery. It was a onetime use. Channeling the immense power of the Cosmic Stream would destroy the array. First Light wouldn't have the power to use the compound's Bifrost to pull me back. I arranged everything as best I could, then aimed it for the asteroid field like a cannon," Loki was almost done. Just a little bit more.

"Loki, you said no one could withstand the Cosmic Stream alone. You said," Tony stopped as he realized exactly what Loki had done. The enormity of it struck him as Loki continued. "Oh god, no..." and his voice died away.

"First Light activated the Bifrost upon my command, and I fell into the stream. It didn't hurt at first. It didn't feel like anything. For just a moment I wondered why I hadn't been allowed to do it before. That's when the noise began. The sound hit me like a solid object, tearing into me. Voices, thoughts, heartbeats. There are more than ten trillion sentient lives in the Nine Realms, and for just a moment, I was one with each and every one of them. I could feel myself stretching, tearing at the seams. The pressure was immense. My bones shattered. My seidr ignited, burning me from the inside out. Everything was ripped away leaving only agony. I remember going through the first few asteroids and bouncing off a few more after that. When my mind finally shattered apart it was a relief. I couldn't feel it anymore, and I was grateful for that. I was grateful," Loki continued to talk even when she saw the horror in his eyes. "The last thing I saw was his armada moving through the endless void. They were early. There were smaller ships coming for me, … then there was nothing." They both knew what tiny hell she woke in.