"How exactly are you going to make Strange give you the Time Stone?" Loki asked, following Sophie to the nearest restroom.
"Well, if I can't kill him for it, because it might make his protection spell permanent, I have to try coercion."
"Right, but... how?"
Sophie came to a halt right outside the bathroom, so Loki and Soeren stopped too.
"I'm going to need a pink and a blue candle, and a piece of chalk," Sophie said, "I'm going to cast a spell to get agreement. Specifically, for Strange to agree with me that the stone isn't safe with him, so he should give it to me. This ritual is going to take a while, and I must not be disturbed. So your jobs for the next hour or so is to keep everyone out."
Loki conjured the items she mentioned and handed them to her. Soeren was smirking.
"I can do that," the elf said.
"And then what?" Loki wanted to know, "You said you have a way to destroy an Infinity Stone."
"I'll tell you before I do it. I did promise, after all – no more crazy shit without telling you first. I mean to keep that promise, believe me."
Loki sighed as Sophie went into the lavatory. He put his back to the door and leaned against it, folding his arms. He wished he could watch whatever ritual this was, as Sophie's magic was still such a mystery to him, even after all these years. It was like nothing he'd ever seen before, not similar to his own magic, or Strange's, nor anyone else's. He couldn't even feel whatever it was she was doing in there, but Loki guessed she drew a circle on the floor with the chalk to contain the energy of the spell. Which was a good idea for many reasons, chief among them being if Strange felt something off, magically speaking, in one of the bathrooms, he might come to investigate.
"This is absurd," he said aloud suddenly.
They were in a sorcerer's sanctum, while his lover, who was Queen of Alfheim, ruler of Light Elves, made use of said sorcerer's bathroom to cast a spell on him to get him to agree to hand over a magical stone that controlled time, which they needed to stop a giant, purple titan from eliminating half the universe's population.
Soeren looked over at him with a bored expression.
"Just another Wednesday," he said.
Loki almost laughed. Instead, he shook his head and decided to brood some more. He lost track of how long Sophie had been in there, but eventually Strange found them.
"You haven't left yet," he said as he approached.
He and Soeren both tensed, readying themselves for a fight.
"No," Loki began, "We were just –"
At that moment, the bathroom door opened, and Sophie leaned in the door frame, smiling.
"Well, good," Strange said, "I've been thinking over what you said. And you're right. The Time Stone isn't safe, so none of us are. You have to make sure Thanos doesn't get it."
"We'll be glad to," Sophie said, glancing at Loki.
Do you remember the containment vessels I asked Eitri to make? She asked through their mental link.
You mentioned something about that. Quite a while ago, actually.
Well, thanks to that foresight, we can accept the stone without being disintegrated. One of the containment vessels is in my nightstand drawer on Alfheim. Can you summon it now, please?
Certainly, kitten.
Sophie nearly smiled, but didn't because her poker face was still on for Strange's benefit. She didn't know how strong he was mentally verses her spell's power, and it could be a very tenuous thing. The smallest slip might give away this wasn't normal, and that could be enough to break the spell. But it was odd how she used to despise that nickname, then grew into wearily accepting it, which expanded eventually into secretly liking it. She watched Strange like a hawk as he opened the amulet around his neck and drew out the Infinity Stone. From the corner of her eye, she saw Loki conjure the containment vessel and hold it open. The second the stone was in, it snapped shut, and Sophie stopped holding her breath.
Good, let's get out of here, Sophie said to Loki in her mind, We need to go somewhere with no one around. A wide, grassy plain or something.
As she sent this thought to him, she took Loki's arm, while Soeren moved behind her and put a hand on her shoulder.
"Thank you," she said to Strange, "For your cooperation."
With that, the three of them vanished. Once they appeared in the desolate location Sophie had requested, she let out a deep breath.
"I wasn't expecting it to work so quickly," she said, "Last time took a few hours."
"You've messed with people's free will before?" Soeren asked with raised brows.
"Just temporarily," Sophie replied dismissively, "It was B.M. – Before Mjolnir."
She ignored the pang of loss she felt at the mere mention of the hammer and turned to Loki. She wore a smile like a mask, because she had to convince him what she was about to do wasn't dangerous and she would be fine. She should have just saved it for someone else, because he saw straight through it, having worn smiles just like it himself.
"Okay, here's the part where I do some crazy shit," Sophie told him, "Even B.M., I've had the ability to manipulate energy...and to channel it. I channel energy for spells, for healing – I used it once to heal Barnes's arm – and this is where I use that skill to destroy an Infinity Stone. I'm going to use my body as a conduit. The energy from the Space Stone will go through my body, and into the Time Stone. With me directing the flow and severity of the energy, I can destroy the Time Stone."
"Have you ever channeled so much energy?" Loki asked with arched brows.
Sophie took a deep breath. Damn her promise to never lie to him.
"No," she released the breath with the word.
"I didn't think so," Loki said.
She could see the ember of anger sparking to life in his eyes as his mouth tightened into a thin line.
"Because it could kill you. And I think you know that, because you requested a location where innocent civilians won't be injured by this. Which is the real reason you didn't want to tell me before now."
"Well, yes, I figured destroying an Infinity Stone wouldn't be easy because it's not going to go gentle into that good night. But I did tell you, as I promised. And I can't do it unless you help me, because I don't have mastery of conjuration and can't bring the Space Stone to me."
"If you think I am going to condone this –" Loki hissed, eyes flashing, hands curling into fists.
"Then Thanos wins," Sophie interrupted swiftly, "He could wipe out half the universe."
"I don't care!" Loki shouted.
He seized her by the upper arms, fingers digging in so tightly Sophie was sure she would be bruised later. She let him do it and only looked back into his eyes calmly.
"I don't care about the rest of the damned universe, Sophie. I care about you! I love you! And if this kills you..."
"If I don't do this, I could die anyway," she said softly, "I could be one of the people he snaps out of existence. It's a gamble. But it's one we have to take."
Loki stared at her in silent, impotent fury for the next several seconds. Then he kissed her so fiercely it made her head spin and insides melt simultaneously. She clung to him as she kissed him in return, needing to breathe but ignoring it, because she didn't mind asphyxiating as long as she was kissing him. Finally, they parted and rested their foreheads against one another. For a few moments, they remained in this position. Loki finally looked up and locked eyes with Soeren.
"Why aren't you any help?" Loki demanded.
The tone would have been waspish, but the desire to inflict pain lessened greatly with that kiss. Soeren only shrugged.
"I... am conflicted," the bodyguard admitted, "It is my duty to protect Her Majesty. Yet it seems this unique situation is one where only she can do that."
Loki sighed and released Sophie, taking a step back.
"If this kills you, I'm going to Valhalla and dragging you back by your tiny, non-pointy ears," he threatened as he conjured the tesseract, "And then I will give you the spanking to end all spankings."
Sophie only nodded. She watched him place the tesseract on the ground, and the containment vessel holding the Time Stone on the ground a few yards away. Sophie went to stand between them and gave Loki a wan smile.
"Here goes nothing," she said.
Welcoming Raivokkuus was always jarring. She could suddenly see an insect across the field, and the sun was abruptly blinding. Closing her eyes helped, but she could still hear two erratic heart beats a distance away, could hear their breath. She could smell Loki's sweet, spicy, smoky scent along with the earth under her feet, and Soeren's own muted musk. The wind whipping her hair and along her skin was no longer a pleasant sensation, but rough and abrasive, the weight of her clothes was unbearable. And the humming of energy in her veins was constant. She felt so...alive. It was always like this when she slipped into Raivokkuus. Like she had been sleeping, and suddenly, she was awake. She didn't know if doing it like this would help her, or if it was only more likely to kill her. She did have the ability to do wondrous things in this form, could summon much more energy than she could do otherwise...perhaps it would help her survive much more than normal as well. If it did, the pain would be excruciating, as her senses were also obviously enhanced. Both a blessing and a curse, then. And the scales were tipping precariously from one side to the other.
Extending her arms in either direction, she concentrated on the energy radiating from the Infinity Stones. The process of drawing in energy was similar to the grounding and centering she did at the beginning of a casting ritual, like the spell she'd just cast to manipulate Strange. In her mind's eye, the energy from the Space Stone drifted towards her as thousands of tiny orbs of cold blue light. Sophie drew that energy into herself though one arm, gritting her teeth as the hairs on the back of her neck stood on end. She directed the flow down into her stomach, then up and through her other arm, out into the Time Stone. When the energy exited her body, Sophie imagined it as a solid stream of blue light.
What she wasn't expecting was for the stream to become a rushing river. Sophie shouted as every nerve of her being felt like it was being set alight, not with fire, but with crackling sparks of electricity. As she was used to lighting and the way it pricked, she found the sensation familiar, but far more intense. This was not like a light tickle the way lightning felt to her, it was more akin to a thousand needles savagely jabbing into her flesh, joints, bones, muscles, every part of her. One corner of her mind registered Loki taking a step forward. She didn't know how she knew, because she still had her eyes closed, and most of her brain was paying attention to the agony ripping through her body.
"No!" Sophie shouted, "I've got this!"
She forced her eyes open, just the barest slit, to look at the Time Stone. She was whimpering with pain now, she had to bite her lower lip to keep from screaming. Gorjaadhal, vittun, Sophie thought savagely. After only a few moments, she lost the struggle to keep from screaming as the energy from the Space Stone increased, almost as if it could sense her thoughts. She was starting to get a headache, but little cracks were appearing in the Time Stone. Now she was screaming at the Time Stone, using the pain this was inflicting on her to fuel her determination to get it done. After what seemed like an eternity but was likely less than a minute's long process from start to finish, the Time Stone exploded. Sophie let the darkness swallow her, relieved it was over.
When Sophie woke, her entire body felt like she'd been pounded with many Mjolnirs. She hadn't even opened her eyes.
"Ouch," she muttered.
"Serves you right, idiot," Loki said with an indignant sniff.
Sophie opened her eyes and saw he was sitting beside her. This was a bed, but not the one in her chambers, or in a Midgardian hospital. She was in the healing room in the palace at Alfheim.
"I love you too, Loki," Sophie smiled, "But in my defense, I thought I would have some control over how fast the flow of energy went. I didn't. I was truly only a conduit, a path through which the energy traveled. That stone...it's like it has a mind of its own. Yet, I think it likes me."
"It nearly killed you," Soeren spoke from against the wall, staring at her like she was insane.
Sophie shrugged.
"But it didn't."
The elf put his face in one hand.
"Uurisel narthöör," he muttered.
"I don't think they're going to help you much," Loki snorted.
"Since when did you learn Shiväialkei?" Sophie asked.
"I wanted to know what you were saying during sex," Loki said with a charming smile, "Turns out 'Uurisel, vääth' translates to 'Stars, yes'."
Sophie groaned and put a pillow over her head.
"I hate you," she muttered.
"Kira liljal nol ahi," Loki replied amiably.
"Stop it," Sophie demanded.
Why was it so incredibly sexy when he spoke Shiväialkei?
"I also thought it would be a good idea to know what you're saying to other elves when I'm around," Loki continued in English, "I hate being left out of the conversation."
"I had noticed you like to talk," Sophie replied, "So tell me this: have you sent word to the Guardians?"
"I have. I've mentioned Thanos, the Infinity Stones, and how it would be nice to know where the Soul Stone is. They're coming here for an in-person meeting."
"Here? Oh, no. No, no, no. We have to get out of here," Sophie said, beginning to get up.
"You need to rest and eat, Your Majesty," Soeren protested, taking a step forward.
"No, I need to get as far away from this realm as possible," Sophie said, "And you need to alert the Geilää to expect an attack. Hopefully I can draw Thanos away, but they should be prepared just in case."
"We've stopped Thanos," Loki said, frowning, "He can't snap his fingers and eliminate half the universe anymore."
"No, I stopped Thanos," Sophie said, "I was the one that destroyed the Time Stone, and he will rightfully place the blame on my shoulders. He's going to want to kill me for this. Hopefully. Hopefully he won't go after my people. And I am sorely lacking a Mjolnir, which is something I really want if I'm to defend my life against this guy."
"Eitri could make you one," Loki said.
"Exactly. So, Soeren, get word to the Geilää. Then get to the Guardians of the Galaxy and escort them to Nidavellir."
Before he could morph into his smoke form, a spinning circle of golden light erupted from thin air, and Strange stepped out of it. Once he was through, the portal closed behind him. He was giving Sophie a murderous glare.
"Oh, hey man, I uh I guess you've woken up," Sophie said with an attempt at a charming smile.
"What," Strange said slowly, enunciating clearly, "did you do to me?"
"Nothing," Sophie said innocently, "Just helped you see things my way."
"You deliberately hijacked my free will," Strange fumed.
Sophie held up her empty palms.
"Just temporarily. See, you're fine now."
"Where is the Time Stone?"
"She destroyed it," Loki said calmly.
Strange did a double take in his direction. When he looked back at Sophie, the anger was gone from his face, replaced with an expression of awe, disbelief, and... perhaps a hint of fear.
"You did what?"
"I had to," Sophie explained, "I told you, Thanos has to be stopped. And while we have taken away his ability to snap out half of all life...he is still dangerous. And will be full of vengeance when he finds out about this. So. Will you help us?"
"You have to be lying," Strange said, "The power it would take to destroy an Infinity Stone..."
Sophie could see him mentally calculating, then he shook his head. The next time he looked at her, it was more apprehensive and fearful than before.
"How powerful are you?" he asked.
Like hell Sophie would tell him the truth – that the power didn't come from her, she just knew how to channel it. The less he knew of her abilities, the better. Besides, if he thought she was more than she was, perhaps he would be less inclined to attack her, which Sophie preferred, as she really didn't want to fight him unless she had to. But should he push the issue, she had a few tricks up her sleeve she could use to surprise him and perhaps gain the advantage enough to actually win.
"I'm as strong as I need to be," Sophie shrugged, "Still, I wouldn't turn down some extra help."
Strange continued to stare at her.
"The sanctum was attacked shortly after you left," he replied, "They were looking for you two, and the tesseract."
"Thanos was – no, you couldn't have survived."
"It wasn't him," Strange admitted, "A couple of his lackeys. They wanted the Time Stone too, but when they noticed it was gone, they dropped me like a sack of flour and left."
"Well, you're welcome then," Sophie said.
It sounded to her like her deception saved his life. But he frowned at her.
"It should have remained with me," he said stubbornly.
This again, Sophie thought, irritated, What will it take to get it through his thick skull? Should I smack him or something?
"They would have extracted it from you, in some way," Sophie replied, "I know you think your spell is unbreakable – and perhaps it is – but they would have found a way to make you give it to them, through means far less gentle than mine, I assure you."
"You had no right!" Strange shouted suddenly.
"Right?" Sophie snarled, advancing on him, "What right does Thanos have to wipe out half of all life? None! Yet he would have done it if he could have. Unless someone stopped him. You weren't going to do it. So I may have had no right to steal your bloody stone and destroy it to protect everyone. I did it because I could. Because it needed to be done. And you couldn't stop me, which is what's really bothering you, isn't it? That some tiny woman not even five feet tall, probably younger than you too, is more powerful than you!"
Strange's mouth narrowed into a thin, tight line as he glared back at her. You arrogant asshole, Sophie thought, fuming, Try something, I dare you. It was wrong of her to find his insecurities and hammer at them, but he was so infuriating she just couldn't help herself, the words came spilling off her tongue almost before she knew she was speaking them. It was probably also wrong of her to represent herself as something she was not for the purposes of intimidation. Because Sophie knew she wasn't necessarily stronger or more powerful than Strange, just that they used magic in a different way. She didn't know how to and perhaps couldn't make portals out of thin air, just like he couldn't kill someone from miles away using no more than a doll and a pin. One way of magic maybe wasn't stronger than another, but they had different uses, different manners of execution, and the mysteries of those differences gave each side a strength the other didn't have.
Loki's magic was like that. He could do things Sophie could not. Likewise, she could do things he couldn't. It was the same between her and Strange. All the same, Sophie noticed a key difference in her manner of magic. Loki and Strange had both learned theirs from someone else, and thus had a streamlined, more scientific approach. Sophie had learned this from no one and had to almost make it up as she went along, figuring things out for herself, finding what worked and what didn't on her own. That made her magic more of an art than a specific science, though at times it could be both. She thought it was that creativity that gave her the edge, because her skills could be adapted to suit a variety of situations. Conjuring portals only did that, moving things with one's mind did only that, teleporting only moved a person or persons from one place to another. But understanding how to draw energy from different sources and knowing how to manipulate that energy to one's own benefit could accomplish more than one thing. She did that in sympathetic magic, in rituals, in making weapons and armor out of her own aura.
"Look," Sophie said, taking a deep breath, "Though it physically pains me, I will admit I think this is one fight I can't win alone. If it were Thanos alone, and I had a decent weapon, maybe. But it's not just him. It's him plus however many goons he has with him. We can argue about the legality of my actions later, when this threat has passed. To that end...will you help us defeat Thanos?"
Strange's grim expression didn't alter, but he did nod. Just once, but it was enough.