#7

Before Thor could clothe any thought in words, Hela released a blast of energy so fierce it catapulted them both out of the halls of Hel and onto the frozen lands outside her kingdom as the portal was closing in on itself behind her. The blast hurled them across the ice and sent him rolling over a few times. When Thor finally scrambled to his knees, Loki was lying flat on his stomach, his arms and legs sprawled out. He was almost naked except for a pair of undergarments and the remnants of the black-green leather suit he had worn when he died, which were clinging to his skin in single tatters as if the rest of the garment had been burned away. Every rib was visible under his sapphire blue skin, which looked as if someone had stretched it across his bones like a thin canvas. His raven-black hair had grown even longer, and was flowing down to the bottom tip of his scapula in unruly waves. Thor sat rooted to the spot, paralyzed with incredulity. No, this can't be. He is … This is not … Seconds, or even minutes, crawled by, the faint sound of water splashing against the shore the only noise in the deathly stillness, before Loki slowly propped up his elbows and lifted his head, his eyes frantically searching the frozen plains of Niflheim. Oh God, those eyes. They were red and huge and cold like the eyes of a dead man but somehow still alive with madness.

"Loki …" Thor was almost choking on the name. He struggled against his emotional paralysis and crawled toward his brother. Loki stared at him with those wild red eyes, drinking in the icy air. Thor put both hands on his shoulders, feeling sharp, gelid bones under his fingers. "It's me, brother, it's Thor."

Loki blinked. Thor could hear his brother's lungs rattling back to life in his chest.

"It's alright!" Thor almost yelled in an attempt to drown out his own fear. "I am here now, Loki. It's gonna be okay."

Loki inhaled deeply, recognition slowly setting in. "You fool," he whispered in a faint voice, his words interrupted by heavy breaths. "I would've … been … drained soon …"

"Drained? What does that mean?"

Loki merely stared at him with a vacant expression and greedily gulped in the air, filling his depleted body with new life. Moments passed between them in an almost menacing silence. "Why?" Loki finally asked and cast him a look of reproach.

Thor was nonplussed. "What do you mean, why?"

"Why did you bring me back?" Loki's tone was almost hostile now although his expression remained mostly blank. Thor let go of his brother, his palm numbed by the cold of Loki's skin, and scrambled backwards on his knees, putting some space between them.

"You called for me," Thor clarified. "You called to me for help."

A weak half-laugh escaped his brother's lips. "I almost certainly did not."

"Yes, you did." The exchange between them made Thor recall that fateful, long past conversation. I remember a shadow, living in the shade of your greatness. I remember you tossing me into an abyss. Loki's memories had been twisted before and they were twisted again now. Hela had forced her entry into his mind, tainting it with her black magic. Once again, he had come out of a mess he had catapulted himself into a little more insane and Thor knew that arguing about it would was all but pointless. "Never mind," Thor mumbled, disheartened in the face of the realization that they were back to square one and that he would most likely not be able to live up to the promise he had made to Tony Stark . "The only thing that matters is that you are alive again." For now.

Although Thor had tried to steel himself for the impact of the possibility that his brother had wanted Thanos to kill him, Loki's next words shook him to the core. "That was not your decision to make." His red eyes narrowed. "So, at least tell me why."

"Because you died," Thor tried. "Again. And I missed you."

"No, you didn't," Loki whispered.

"Yes, I did."

Loki shook his head in slow motion. "There has to be more."

"Yes, there is more," Thor admitted after a pause, kneading his tingling fingers. "We might need your help but I would have brought you back even if that wasn't the case because, in the first place, I really did miss you."

"Who is we?" Loki asked but the answer came to him soon enough. "No," he gasped, his words tumbling over themselves and crashing against each other. "Thanos … how is … did they … are they safe … Valkyrie and Bruce and …"

"They both are."

A silence crept over them and for a moment, neither of them spoke. "You defeated him, didn't you, brother?" Loki finally asked, his voice jittery with dread. "Thanos?"

Thor shook his head. "That's why—"

Loki sprang to his feet like a scalded cat, almost jabbing his finger in Thor's face. "You don't get to do this to me!" His breathing was heavy, his black curls falling into his red eyes, those red eyes that were gleaming out of his deep blue face. His brother's Jotun appearance, which had not registered fully with Thor until that moment, stirred up unwanted feelings of distrust and hatred inside him. No, we can do this. It is not too late. This is still your brother. Nothing has changed.

"Do what, Loki?" Thor asked, carefully holding up his hands as if to make a peace offering.

"Leave me alone!" Loki hissed before he turned and started running astonishingly quickly for someone who had just been thrown out of Hel.

Thor took after him, chiding himself for kicking down his brother's front door instead of knocking gently and asking for admittance. "Where are you going?"

"Away from you!"

"And where to?" Thor yelled, followed by another thing he deeply regretted as soon as it had left his mouth and faded away into the air. "You are naked and … blue. You have nowhere to go."

Loki stopped dead in his tracks. He turned halfway, the jawline of his profile as sharp as the edges of a rough diamond. "There is one place," he whispered.

"No, Loki!" Thor shouted and grabbed his brother by the wrist, once more surprised by its coldness against his fingers.

His brother winced at these words. For a moment, Thor just stood there, holding on to Loki's icy blue arm, his palms burning up again, not knowing what to do or what to say. He feared for his brother's sanity as well as his own. They had only been together for a few minutes and already they were bringing out the worst in each other as they had done so many times in the past. Yes, their relationship was toxic and would probably remain so for a long time. Yes, bringing Loki back had probably been an idea of tremendous stupidity. Yet they were here now and Thor was determined to make it work as he realized with a sudden almost blinding clarity that he could not live without him. Therefore, he did the only thing that he thought his brother might appreciate. "Perhaps we can come to an arrangement." Thor felt bad as he saw Loki frown at the words and even worse as he continued but he forced himself to carry on. "I have many things to apologize for and I cannot let you go before I have not tried to make them up to you. Give me four weeks, Loki. If you still want to go back in four weeks, fine, but if you give me a chance I promise you I will make you not want to go back."

Yeah, right.

Loki stared at him in utter confusion.

"Please," Thor mumbled, willing himself to continue. "I may have brought you back against your will but let me show you that your place is right here by my side because I believe that. I really do."

"Who are you?" Loki asked eventually, a look of distrust and fear stamped across his face.

"I am your brother," Thor said firmly. "Please, Loki. Use this chance."

Loki's red eyes flickered challengingly. "Chance for what, exactly?"

Thor felt his body grow stiff with the fear of giving the wrong answer. Talking to his brother had always been like stumbling across a minefield but never had the right answer mattered more than in this moment. Redemption? No, this is too unrealistic. Love? God, that sounds trashy. Acceptance? That might work. He decided on, "Belonging."

Loki's gaze traveled to his blue arm still locked inside Thor's fingers. "Belonging, huh."

Thor squeezed his brother's wrist for emphasis. "Yes, belonging. I don't know why you think so little of yourself"—actually I do but we cannot afford to go there now—"but to me, you are my brother and nothing is ever going to change that." At least, that much was true. Nothing would ever change the fact that he loved his little brother and that he'd just offered his own soul and that of one of his friends just so that Loki could live for another four weeks.

Loki seemed to think it over. "Four weeks," he finally agreed and then created an illusion of one of his signature green-black garments that enveloped his emaciated frame, concealing his true state of being as his illusions had done so many times before. What the illusion did not conceal, however, was the color of his skin. "But I am not going to face the Avengers," Loki added.

Thor gave a nod. "Deal." He felt a pang of conscience at this empty promise but there was no other way. He could not decide between his love for Loki and his duty as an Avenger and he was sure he could do them both justice if only he had a moment to think. It was all going to be okay. They would figure it out. Besides, Loki had broken just enough of his own promises over the years that he could persuade himself it was not too terrible.

"And where will you take me?" Loki asked, a hint of curiosity in his voice betraying the look of indifference stamped across his face.

That was a very good question. Don't you dare bringing him back anywhere near us unless you are at least one hundred and ten percent sure he is sane enough to not want to kill any of us, Tony Stark had told him and he didn't mean to. He needed time to talk to Loki in order to convince him that he had come to understand his brother's emotional struggles—even if that wasn't entirely true—and that he would help him fight his demons; one of which happened to be Thanos. He also knew he would have to start by jolting Loki out of the emotional defense he'd started rebuilding the moment he'd been released and there was only one place in all of the Nine Realms he could think of that might help him do just that.

"You will see," Thor said, swung Stormbreaker and summoned the Bifrost for a gateway out of the land of the dead.

A thousand thoughts whirled through Loki's head but he caught hold of only a few as he watched the rainbow bridge fly past the edge of his vision in a blur. Since when can Thor summon the Bifrost all by himself? What is this new weapon? How did he get into Hel? Then, the only thought that truly mattered: You always knew he would come. Loki looked up at his brother, who looked different somehow as he held his new hammer that looked more like an axe than an actual hammer raised above his head. The expression on his face was determined, his jaw set, and Loki knew immediately that Thor was taking him back to Midgard. Where else would he take you? There is no place else, you oaf.

They landed in the midst of a forest with trees towering around them in all shades of luscious green. The sunlight was spilling through their leaves, touching the ground in a magnificent play of colors. Birds were chirping. It was almost peaceful.

"That is strange," Thor mumbled and while Loki heard the words, their meaning was lost to him.

Thor started walking, still mumbling to himself, and Loki trailed after him in a daze as his mind, still slow and smudgy, was groping for something—anything—that would anchor him to the world of the living. His feet did not seem to touch the ground even though he heard leaves and twigs crackle under his boots as he walked. His vision was still blurry at the edges. He stared at Thor's back as his feet seemingly moved by themselves. The most dizzying thing was, however, that Thor did not seem to be Thor at all but an illusion that looked like him to some extent but did not think and much less talked like him. Why would he come, anyway? Surely, this must be a trap. He remembered Hela's touch of death on his skin only moments before, and the pain she had caused him by greedily sucking on his memories, as if she had physically reached into his brain and yanked out nerve after nerve. Then, suddenly, her eyes had widened. "Oh, little Laufeyson's got a visitor."

He had been far too befuddled too understand. A visitor?

"Your big brother is here," she had whispered into his ear. "Shall we let him in?"

Incomprehension, then recognition, then nothing but sheer panic. Noooooo! Don't come here, please, leave me here, I deserve this, don't come here, it will be over soon, I will be drained soon, no, please, please help me, it hurts so much, please help me, no, stay away, please, just don't, it will be over soon, don't come here, please help me.

She had disappeared for a while but then she had come back, grabbed him by the neck and flung him away like a garment and before he even knew it, Thor was kneeling in front of him, his big, warm, meaty hands on his shoulders.

This disconcerting version of Thor that was familiarly insensitive—only Thor could tell you that you had nowhere to go only minutes after trying to persuade you that he had missed you and somehow truly mean both of these things—but at the same time unfamiliarly caring. Never before had he said that Loki belonged by his side. He had insisted several times that they had grown up together, implying that he missed the person his brother used to be, but he had never before said that he missed the person Loki had become. He had said it now and suddenly, Thanos, Hela, the Avengers, the destruction of the Nine Realms, death and everything else no longer mattered. At least for as long as it took them to reach the edge of the forest.

This is a ploy, Loki thought, his blurred mind finally sharpening just as Thor shoved aside the branches of a bush to clear the way. This cannot truly be happening. The accursed Avengers are tricking me. I need to get out.

The bright sunlight almost sliced Loki's eyeballs in half when he stepped out of the shadows of the trees. He tried to close his eyes against it. It was incredibly hot, too, the air humid and almost heavy, gluing onto his closed lids like spider webs.

"We're here," Thor announced.

Loki swayed under the sweltering, pressing force of the sun and took a few clumsy steps back into the shade. "Where exactly is here?" Loki asked and carefully opened one eye, squinting against the light, but closed it again.

"Is something wrong with your eyes, brother?" Thor asked.

"No, it's just … hot," Loki groaned and sank to his knees as his body was slowly, but inevitably, giving in to the strain of Hela's torture, the excruciating trip through space and the seemingly limitless power of the sun.

"It is not that h—" Thor started but then he seemed to remember something. "Holy shit, you're a Frost Giant. Is it … does it hurt?"

His brother's words hit him like a war club. "No," Loki hissed. His skin did prick a little, yes, but he knew better than to admit as much. Like himself, Thor had grown up in the belief that the Jotuns were a lesser race and he would not do his brother the favor of acknowledging that a little sunlight was afflicting him when it should not have bothered him at all. Midgard was a place of mostly moderate climate and he had seen other Jotuns move around freely and unhindered in such a climate before. There was no reason at all for him to react so strongly to it. Yes, he had been dismayed, if not entirely surprised, to discover that his Jotun appearance had not changed back after Hela had released him but he had not expected that his Jotun body would fail him at the very first opportunity.

"That's good, I guess," Thor mumbled.

"Yeah," Loki agreed although nothing was good. His body was not functioning the way it had for over a millennium. Thanos was still alive. The Avengers had failed to defeat him. The titan was still out there and, in all likelihood, he was in possession of all six Infinity Stones. Of course, he was. Loki had sensed the outcome as soon as the Infinity Gauntlet had touched his skin. He'd sensed the raw molecular power and the cognitive abilities of the two stones inside of it. They were of ancient origin after all. They communicated with each other and with the rest of the universe. He had known what would most definitely happen the minute Thanos had closed the gauntlet around his neck—and maybe that was part of why he had done it—but he did not dare to seek for confirmation of the events unfolding after his death just yet.

For now, other things were more important, too. First, he needed to figure out Thor's motives. He lied to you, the voice came back. It was always coming back. You don't believe that he truly missed you, do you? Don't be fatuous. He's using you to get to Thanos.

Of course, he is. The question was how exactly Thor was planning to use him. And why he'd given him exactly four weeks.