Disclaimer: I don't own anything.
Chapter 32: Going To Knowhere
When Saphira first saw the spaceship, she had been a bit surprised by its size; it was huge, and the inside look to be built for someone to live in, long, roomy corridors leading to each room, there were five rooms meant to be bedrooms, her and Loki got one, Kurt, Mystique, and Remy all got their room. The last Loki and Kurt filled up with books and started calling it the library; there was also a kitchen, living room-like area, and a room that looked to have been where someone once had meetings; they had filled that room of games and stuff for entertainment. Still, they kept the long table in it to layout their maps and talk over their plans; the living area, they had put comfortable seats, with television and DVDs; they needed something to do while flying around space.
They had to do a little work on the engine, replace the battery, and some plugs, and a few other things to make it run; that part didn't take too long, and Saphira still had no idea where Remy and Mystique got the replacement parts when Kurt had questioned it, Remy had replied it's best he didn't know, that had made Loki more curious. Saphira could tell by the look on his face when Remy had said it, Saphira did not care, as long as they got the damn thing running so they could get the hell off Midgard, and they did. While those four were doing the mechanical work, Saphira was cleaning the inside; well, as soon as she recovered enough that it didn't hurt her. Whenever she was able to talk Enid into taking time off work, she helped with the cleaning, which meant they had Thor's help those days, too; everyone saved the heavy lifting for when he was there to help or do it himself is what usually happened.
Remy and Kurt were the ones to come up with the idea to put in games and a pool table so that they wouldn't get bored; Enid even allowed them to have a few slot machines to add, though, after a while, those got boring since they were winning the same coins over and over, with no way to use them or cash them in for real money. Saphira was the one that wanted a room with a television and movies, mostly older movies, like the ones that had Saphira in them. The entertainment wasn't the only thing added; with Enid's knowledge of technology and a little magic from her and Loki, they were able to rig the ship up with high-tech computers, and radar, and tracking, anything a modern-day airplane or vehicle might have, only twice as better, Saphira knew Enid did it because she wanted to make sure she stayed as safe as she could while flying around space for who knows how long.
And the ship isn't the only thing Enid gave them that she rigged with both Midgardain tech and magic; Enid also gave them all a smartphone she poured a lot of energy and time into; she took ordinary smartphones and made them ten times better by adding what she knew of Asgardain tech and mixed it with the Midgardain teach and added a little magic. Saphira could use hers to call her sister or anywhere else she wanted; everyone else could also. When Enid was showing her, she made sure she had one to give to Remy so he could stay in touch with Rogue, Saphira knew how it felt to get separated from the one you love, and it would help Rogue a bit to be able to talk with Remy and know he was safe. Plus, if they ever got separated, the oddball group could use them to call each other. Not the only tech Enid made, she also made Remy, Mystique, and Kurt bracelets that allowed them to understand any language and enable anyone to understand them; since space was full of different beings and languages, they wouldn't understand. Loki and Saphira did not need them because they, like all Asgardians, had Allspeak or what some call All-Tongue. They also knew how to speak a lot of different languages.
Saphira was in the room with the television; she was lying on the couch, watching one of her movies, ignoring the fact that Mischief was on the coffee table in front of her, batting her phone around; besides the cat, she was alone at the moment; after coming back to the ship, they all sat in the control room for a while, then the name Knowhere had popped in Saphira's head, Loki had heard of the planet, even had been there a couple of times, so, Mystique put the name in the space version of GPS the ship had, and they decided to head there, after sitting the vessel on course they all went and made something to eat, after eating they all went their separate ways, doing different things, that is how Saphira came to be lying on the couch watching the movie that got her an Oscar back in the day.
Saphira didn't know if the Power Stone was still there on Knowhere or even if it ever was there, but Loki knew of a guy there that called himself The Collector. He thought he might know something, it wasn't much, but it was somewhat of a lead since Morag had been a bust. And Saphira didn't know where to go or what to do next since, for some reason, her connection to the stones wasn't working right, or she didn't know how to tap into it other than names popping in her head, which was frustrating Malekith had known precisely where to go, why didn't she.
Not being able to tell the stones exact locations was bothering Saphira; the Phoenix gave her this job to do, opened up her connection to the stones, and she couldn't even do that; Saphira didn't know if this Star-Lord person still had the Power Stone or not; every time Saphira tried to sense the stones she got so many different readings and false leads it was confusing, and also lately Saphira hadn't felt herself and sometimes had pains going through her stomach, weird, hard to explain; the pains didn't happen too often and came and went, but were almost like an icy burn feeling, almost like a frostbit, which made no sense, especially because Saphira was sure it was leftover pains from her injuries, Enid had told her she might sometimes feel pain for a while. Saphira hoped they didn't last too long; it was getting harder for her to keep it from Loki. And if Loki finds out she's been having pains, he'll get too protective of her again.
And speaking of Loki, he suddenly appeared as if summoned by Saphira's thought of him next to the couch arm her head was lying on and started running his hand through her hair in a gentle way; it was tempting her to close her eyes and go to sleep.
"I've been looking for you, darling." Loki said; Saphira smiled a little but said nothing, "Your sister called me; she was a little worried that you weren't answering your phone. Said she's been trying to reach you for almost an hour now."
"My phone hasn't rung?" Saphira said; she sat up and took the phone from Mischief, who batted at her hand. She looked to see it was full of messages and texts from Enid. "The ringer got turned off somehow. Mischief must have done it. Did she want anything important?" Saphira texted Enid and told her she would call her later, then sat her phone down on the coffee table in front of her and laid back down.
"Just checking in, said you hadn't called her in a while. Is something bothering you?" Loki asked; he walked to the front of the couch, took Saphira's phone back from Mischief, who hissed at him and tried bitting his hand. Loki made an illusion of a mouse in the corner. Mischief jumped off the table and went chasing it, then Loki sat on the table and leaned forward.
"Are you hurt or ill?" Loki asked; Saphira shook her head.
"I'm just not feeling myself lately," Saphira replied. "I think it's because of being in space again, and we are having no luck finding the stones."
"I know you are upset because this connection of yours hasn't lead you straight to the stones, but we'll find them; it's helped more than you realize," Loki told her.
"Yeah, by given us useless names of planets," Saphira replied.
"They are not useless; you've given us some leads; we have places to go, not just flying around space without a clue." Loki said, "I believe that this Lord of Stars or whoever has the stone now keeps moving, maybe even on a ship; that's why you haven't been able to pinpoint an exact location."
"What about the other ones?" Saphira demanded. "I don't even think I'm sensing them; I know the tesseract is still in Odin's vault, the name Asgard keeps popping in my mind, I can feel the Space Stone there, I can picture the tesseract in my mind, then there is the Time Stone, I can imagine it inside these weird shape pendent in some dark room, in what looks like a glass display case, but I can not sense it's location, every time I try the name Midgard or Earth pops in my head, but that's because the Mind Stone is calling out to me, I can sense someone messing with it, I can't find where on Midgard, I...don't know what to do. I can't even sense the Soul Stone at all; every time I try, I get this forbidding feeling, almost like Death."
"Saphira, stop," Loki ordered in a stern voice; "Stop, take a deep breath, and clear your mind of all thoughts and feelings of any Infinity Stones; you are going to give yourself a breakdown. Are you trying to find them all at once?"
"I don't know," Saphira mumbled, setting up. "Maybe."
"This may be the reason you are not getting a good read of them." Loki replied, "You can only find one at a time, concentrate on just one, my love. Keep all other stones out of your mind and think of only the Power Stone."
Saphira took a deep breath and did as Loki said; she kept everything out of her mind and closed her eyes, and then felt a tingling feeling going through her body again; it was stronger this time and nearly took her breath away, but as soon as it came, it went, and Saphira leaned back and opened her eyes, the stone at the moment, was still on Knowhere as far as she could tell, someone used it tried to touch it. She surprisingly found herself anger about it.
"Darling?" Loki asked in a worried voice. Saphira looked at him.
"At the moment, it's still on Knowhere; I believe someone tried to use it, I could feel it, the power reaching out to me, almost like the stone wanted protection," Saphira explained. "I'm sure some idiot tried touching the stone itself, but I have no way of knowing who."
"That's alright, love, you have given us enough; end the connection to it for now if you can." Loki said, standing, "We are getting close to Knowhere; we'll check it out first, then go from there, " He reached his hand down to help Saphira stand, and, keeping his hand in hers, he led Saphira from the room and out into the corridor, just as Mischief knocked over a metal rack with DVDs trying to get the mouse that wasn't there.
"I thought you were doing magic with Kurt?" Saphira asked as they walked towards the control room.
"I did for a while," Loki replied, "But then your sister called me."
"Sorry about that," Saphira answered. Loki's dropped her hand and instead put his arm around her shoulder.
"That's alright," Loki said, "Kurt is doing quite well; we've moved to more powerful spells; he even made a double of himself."
"That's great," Saphira replied; she smiled at the look of pride on Loki's face; he loved the fact someone was learning from him so quickly. She could remember when he tried to teach her magic even though she couldn't do anything; Loki did enjoy trying to teach her; it must be even more exciting for him that the one he was teaching was able to do it.
"Loki, when I spoke to Pheonix after my attack, said I couldn't learn magic from you or my mother because it wasn't natural." Saphira said.
Loki stopped walking and thought a moment. "That does make sense." He took Saphira's hand in his and started tracing her palm with his finger. "Your abilities come from nature and anything natural; your connection to nature could block that which is not natural, the magic I tried to teach you, the magic your mother tried, isn't considered natural; it's not naturally something certain people have, it's a gift taught and given to someone from another, my mother Frigga taught me my magic like I'm passing the knowledge to Kurt. Is this why she chose you for the stones?"
"She said that's why the stones chose me." Saphira answered, "Said the stones were Naturally made, so, it fits in with ..."
"Your connection to nature." Loki kissed Saphira's hand, then pulled her to him, and kissed her forehead, right on the tiny scar put there by Mjolnir two years ago. "Darling, I believe you are even more special than even I thought...if that's possible." Saphira laughed.
"You always know what to say to cheer me up," Saphira told him, wrapping her arm around his waist. Together they walked to the control room that way.
When they got to Knowhere, Loki and Saphira split up from Mystique, Remy, and Kurt; they went to talk to Taneleer Tivan, also known as The Collector, while the other three went to see what they could find out elsewhere. The married couple walked hand in hand across the planet until they found the Collector's place, to find it half-destroyed, but when they entered, it was easy to see him sitting amongst his destroyed collectibles. Loki let go of Saphira's hand, climbed over the rubble, into the building, then turned around, lifted Saphira by the waist, and sat her down on the floor next to him; he frowned when he looked down at her feet.
"Darling, you forgot your shoes," Loki noted; Saphira shook her head.
"I lift them on purpose; they shrunk," Saphira explained.
"Shrunk?" Loki demanded, slipping his finger into Saphira's.
"The boots I was wearing are now a little tight on my feet; they fit me perfectly when I put them on this morning, so the only logical explanation is they shrunk," Saphira explained.
"In what way is that a logical explanation?" Loki demanded.
"Can you think of a different reason?" Saphira demanded.
"Darling, shoes can't just shrink," Loki explained. "It's not possible."
"See, you can't think of a reason either." Saphira pointed out. Loki sighed and shook his head with a slight smile; he could think of a possible reason, which he knew better than to voice out loud, that would be Saphira's feet had suddenly gotten a little bigger; he glanced down at them but couldn't tell. He glanced over at The Collector and noticed him watching them with a dirty look on his face.
"We'll talk about this later," Loki told her as he led her towards the Collector, who turned from them, staring at the floor. They walked up to him.
"Some party must have gone on here," Loki said, getting The Collector's attention; he glared up at Loki.
"Go away." He demanded.
"No, I do not think I will." Loki waved his hand, and a chair appeared, he sat down in it, and Saphira sat on the arm. "I know what happened here, there was an Infinity Stone here, and you are going to tell me what you know about it."
The Collector and Loki stared at one another for the longest time, neither backing down, but then the air turned freezing, and ice formed behind The Collector on the far wall then spared across to the floor and started coming towards him. It was so cold when they spoke you could see their breaths.
"What...are you doing?" The Collector demanded, looking widely around.
"If you do not tell me what you know of the stone, which one it was and who has it, where they went, or I am going to freeze what you have left of your worthless rubbish and you along with it," Loki told him.
"Fine, just turn off the ice, and I'll tell you." The Collector demanded. The ice stopped right before it got to The Collector, but the air stayed freezing; Loki had been getting better at controlling his ice abilities since starting their quest when he wasn't busy with other things; he would practice his jotuun abilities. He found them easy to do.
"I will know if you lie to me," Loki warned; he reached over and begun to play with Saphira's hair, twirling the curl at the bottom of her braid around his finger.
"Two days ago, a group of...outlaws came to see me." The Collector began. "They had this metal orb they wanted to sell me, the orb itself was worthless, it was what was in the orb I wanted, The Power Stone, they didn't know what was in the orb, or what an Infinity Stone was, just that everyone wanted it, I had to explain all that..."
"Hang on." Saphira cut in, "You had the chance to buy an Infinity Stone from some idiots who didn't know what it was, and you told them what it was? Why? That was stupid."
"My wife has a point; you should have kept your mouth shut, bought the stone, and sent the idiots on their way; that's what I would have done." Loki put in. "Let me guess when they heard what it was, they what? Wanted more money? Stone for themselves? "
"They backed out of the sale, refused me having it, claimed to want to take it to the Nova Corps for safekeeping." Collector explained.
"Not those fools." Loki groaned, dropping his hand from Saphira's hair.
"Who are they?" Saphira asked.
"They are something like a space military," Loki replied, "They are station on the planet Xander, but they expand throughout the Andromeda Galaxy, a nosy bunch of fools."
"Never heard of them," Saphira replied. "What happened when they backed out of the sale? Did you fight them or something?" She motioned to the destroy stuff; The Collector looked around at it with a frown.
"No, this didn't happen because of that," Collector replied. "My servant decided to touch the stone after that resulted in my place getting destroyed, the outlaws grabbed the stone and ran, that's when Ronan showed up wanting the stone..."
"Ronan?" Loki demanded, sitting up in his seat.
"I see you know who that is." The Collector replied.
"What happened next? Did Ronan kill them and take the stone?" Loki demanded.
"No, they were able to get away, where they went or what happened to them, I don't know, " Collector replied
"Who were they? " Loki demanded. "Can you tell me that? Names? How many they were?"
"It was four that came in here." Collector answered, "A talking tree, a talking Racoon, some whatabe tough guy called Star-Lord, and a Zehoberi named Gamora."
"Gamora?" Loki asks, frowning.
"Hey, babe," Saphira said, turning to Loki. "Is he lying? Don't seem to be to me, but a talking tree? Talking raccoon?"
"No, he's telling the truth," Loki replied. "Guess we'll head to Xander, see if we can find out anything there."
"You should know, Ronan wasn't the only one after them and that orb," Collector said as Loki stood, "The ones that call themselves the Ravagers and some other women were chasing them too; they may not have made it to Xander."
"Yes, well, thanks for the tip and information," Loki replied as Saphira stood and took his hand. "We shall take our leave; you may keep the chair."
With that, Saphira and Loki left The Collector's place and headed back towards their ship.
"Hey, Loke Loke," Saphira said, causing Loki to scowl; he didn't care for that nickname at all. "Who is Ronan?"
"One of Thanos' goons," Loki answered; Saphira stopped walking, and Loki turned around to see an angry look on her face. "Darling?"
"Was he one who...?" Saphira didn't finish the question; she didn't have to; Loki knew what she was asking.
"He got a couple of good hits in, but he was not there much," Loki replied. "Mostly out doing whatever Thanos sat him out to do."
"I hope he went to Xander." Saphira said as she started walking again, "Because, I am going to kill him."
"Saphira, darling," Loki called, hurrying after her. "I thought you said you would drop this whole revenge thing? "
"I said I would not go after Thanos," Saphira answered as Loki caught up with her. "I didn't say anything about his goons,"
Loki said nothing; he just slipped his hand in Saphira's and vowed if Ronan were on Xander, he would make sure Saphira didn't get hurt going after him, maybe even get a little payback of his own.
Saphira turned around to face Loki so that she could kiss him; when she turned back around, she took Loki's hand and all but pulled him towards the ship, but then suddenly let go of Loki's hand stopped and didn't move.
"Darling?" Loki asked, lay his hands on her shoulders. "Are you alright?"
"The stone, my Power Stone, I can feel it reaching out to me again." Saphira explained, "Something is using it for evil; I...can sense it somehow."
"Can you sense where?" Loki asked; Saphira took a deep breath and reached out to it; after a moment, she opened her eyes which had turned on a purple color.
"It's stopped now, but it's heading to Xander whoever has it now; that's where they are going," Saphira answered; she took off towards the ship only to stop as everything was suddenly spinning, and Saphira stumbled back right into Loki, who wrapped his arms protectively around her.
"Are you sure you are alright?" Loki demanded. Saphira nodded, then stopped as it made it worse.
"Yes, my connection to the stone is making me a little dizzy; give me a moment," Saphira replied. "The dizziness is starting to go away."
"Do you need me to carry you, love?" Loki asked.
"No, I'm fine now; just let me hold on to you," Saphira replied as the dizziness went away, for the most part.
"Of course, darling, you need not have a reason for that." Loki teased; Saphira put her arms around his waist as he put his around her shoulder, and they walked like that towards the spaceship, thankfully. By the time she got there, she was feeling better.
The others showed up at the ship as they were climbing aboard. After everyone got on and closed the door, they all stood in the corridor telling each other what they found out. The only way they will know if the people The Collector told them about made it to Xander was to go there and ask around, then find a way to break into the Nova Corps and get the stone, if it was there.
Mystique was able to get some information from a bar, which was pretty much the same thing Loki and Saphira found out, except that there had been a fourth guy with the so-called outlaws, called himself Drax, who had gotten drunk while the other four were trying to sell the stone. They all decided to head to Xander was the best option they had. Hopefully, the people did take the Power Stone there; if not, they were out of luck and had to go back to square one because they would have no idea where it was or where any of the others were either.
While the others went to the control room, Saphira and Loki went to their room so Saphira could lay down; it would be an hour or so before they reached Xander, and Loki thought she could use the rest; he hated her connection to the stones, but he had a feeling that wasn't the only thing making her feel not herself but decided to wait until after they got the Power Stone to look into it, he hoped his wife wasn't somehow becoming ill, that shouldn't be possible for them. If it were her connection making her feel this way, Loki would be glad when they hand them all over to The Phoenix; he just hoped Saphira hasn't changed her mind about doing that.
AN There is another chapter done. Hopefully, I'm doing it alright; the next chapter will probably be Thor and Enid show what they are up to and get their plot going.