#30
Loki's stomach reeled at the sight of his tormentor. Judged by the sharp gasp that escaped Nebula's lips, hers did the same.
"You?" Thanos's voice boomed across the grassland, his charred face falling as he strode towards them.
Loki could feel the Avengers stir. The communication device in his ear crackled but the spell he had cast upon them prevented the message from reaching his ears. "Trust me," Loki whispered, the Maw's voice in his own ears making his flesh crawl. "Please. Just this once."
"Why have you come here, daughter? Why now?" Thanos demanded in his deep, awe-inspiring voice when he had crossed the distance to them. Beside Loki, Nebula's breathing quickened. "And you? The wizard told me you were dead."
"And what reason do you have to believe a lowly Terran sorcerer, oh, Mighty Thanos?" Loki enquired, remembering just in time not to use the expression Midgardian. His heart stumbled in his chest. "Were you not the one who always assured us that the group known as the Avengers pose no threat to your supremacy, Sire?"
Thanos's lips parted and he stared at him, his gaze a study in disbelief and confusion, which pleased Loki terribly and appeased his agitation at least a little. The titan narrowed his eyes and gazed past him, focusing the spot where the Avengers stood cloaked in invisibility, apparently still sensing their presence. "Why have you come here then, after all this time?" Thanos asked eventually. "Are you coming with information about the Avengers? Have they stolen the stones' magic from me?"
"How would they manage to do that?" Loki asked, gleefully aware that Barton and the rest could hear his every word. "Their strength is laughable."
Beside him, he could sense Nebula shiver. The eyes of the titan narrowed even further. "They know how to use magic."
"The so-called Sorcerer Supreme did, yes, but he has met his end," Loki went on, inwardly grumbling at the memory of how the pathologically self-absorbed wizard with the red cloak and the ridiculous curl of hair had caught him entirely by surprise and sent him spiraling facedown into a seemingly never-ending portal. "Both of them, actually. And you killed the Asgardian yourself," Loki continued, unable to resist the foolishly childish urge to belatedly remediate the impression Thanos surely had of him after he had persuaded the titan of his worth for the war against Midgard before losing the scepter and failing to present him with the Tesseract and then hiding on the throne of Asgard in plain sight to escape his punishment. "Who else would know how to wrench the stones from your mighty grasp by using magic?"
Thanos's brow furrowed. "The Asgardian," he spat. "Are you saying this weasel could have stolen from me? He was nothing more than a terrified boy trying to prove himself a leader. He was no one!"
"He had potential," said Nebula, her voice hoarse with disuse. "You said that yourself when he was your prisoner."
The revelation raised a tiny smile from Loki.
"Had, yes," Thanos repeated, seemingly oblivious of the Maw's reaction. "Past tense. But you failed to answer me. Why are you here?"
"To recover the rest of the stones," Nebula replied in an astonishingly firm voice. They had not had enough time to agree upon a course of action but the cyborg's utterance had the much-desired effect of derailing the titan's facial features once more. The sight was glorious and, as far as Loki was concerned, that was all that mattered.
"Where are the stones?" Loki demanded. "Tell us where the Gauntlet is before it is too late."
"Too late?" Thanos echoed, visibly flustered. "Too late for what?"
"For the remaining half's survival," Loki clarified. "For the universe's survival. The universe you created. Oh, Mighty Thanos," he said with a slight bow of his head that set his intestines on fire, "I am afraid you antagonized the stones and the price for that offense is quite high, unfortunately. The very fabric of reality is unraveling at this very moment but we can still remedy your actions if you turn the Gauntlet over to us and let me attempt to reverse the spell that causes the Infinity Stone magic to dwindle."
The titan glowered at him, recovering quickly. "Remedy my actions? You speak as if I made a mistake. I made no mistake," he spat. "I accomplished precisely what I set out to accomplish. I brought peace to the universe."
"I do not doubt this, oh, Mighty Thanos, but still, the stones are perish—" Loki began as tactfully as he possibly could.
"Peace," Nebula interjected with a snort. "You did not bring peace to the universe. You lied to us, all of us. You made us believe that you wanted to save the universe but all you did was plunge it into pain and despair!"
"All the time we spent together and you still don't understand that pain is the only thing that truly inspires people to grow," Thanos mused, his eyes sliding towards Loki in his guise. "The Maw understood. He would never betray me. He shared my vision. Who are you, really?"
Loki's mind reeled with possible things he could say to remedy the situation but, unfortunately, Nebula was being carried away by all the hurt and rage Thanos had instilled in her.
"None of us ever shared your vision," the cyborg spat, her voice trembling. The titan's eyes narrowed in suspicion and Loki understood at once that Thanos would not believe for a second longer that they were here to help him. "You coerced us into sharing it but we discovered what a fraud you actually are," Nebula continued, seemingly oblivious to the titan's skepticism. "You sold this vision of a peaceful universe to all of your children but, in truth, all you ever wanted was to be worshipped as a God!"
A universe, crippled by pain, which will arise from the ashes like the proverbial Phoenix, its inhabitants hardened by their collective trauma. And he has created it. He is its God.
The titan's lips curled into a sadistic grin. "A God," repeated Thanos, the threat in his voice unmistakable.
Y-you will never be a God.
In case you were wondering, Loki's inner God of Mischief voice chirped blithely, you are quite—well, how do you say it nicely?—busted.
"Did you really stoop so low as to line up with the Avengers?" Thanos focused Loki in the Maw's guise, wielding his enormous blade for emphasis. "Reveal yourself, beguiler!"
Loki gently placed a hand on Nebula's shoulder in one last desperate attempt to keep up the illusion. "Calm yourself, Nebula," he ordered in the Maw's voice, his heartrate kicking into overdrive when the cyborg recoiled under the coldness of his words and the authority of his touch. "We have not come here to assign guilt."
The cyborg drew a deep breath, her entire body trembling with reluctance. The pebble in Loki's ear crackled madly.
"We have no intention to attack you or question the virtuousness of the mission you accomplished, Sire," Loki assured Thanos in the Maw's voice. Even though Nebula's violent reaction pained him, he found himself unable to resist his own pride and the overwhelming urge to secure the Gauntlet all by himself in order to prove his worth to the thrice-damned Avengers once and for all. "You must forgive Nebula. She has been forced to spend some time with the Avengers after you accomplished your plan and their ludicrous concepts of charity and whatnot have dazzled her."
Nebula trembled beneath his touch.
"But what is far more urgent than the question of where your daughter's allegiances lie is that you—well, all of us, really—have underestimated the Infinity Stones and just how much of an influence they have over what has been brought into existence with their magic," Loki continued, Nebula as stiff as a statue of stone beside him as she apparently tried to keep her emotions under control.
Thanos grunted and flashed him a listless smile.
"You cannot deny that their magic is fading, Sire," Loki went on, carefully checking the titan's face for any trace of resistance. When he found none, he made his voice sound as dignified and submissive as he possibly could. "So, if you'd let my humble personage examine the Gauntlet in order to—"
Before Loki could finish, Thanos lunged forward, his sword poised to attack, and roared, "Keep your vile words inside your wretched mouth! The Maw would never question me!"
Loki instinctively released a seismic blast of Reality Stone magic, which shot out from his fingers in a red flame and turned into glass shards that sliced into the titan's armor with such an impact that he took a clumsy step backwards. The titan lowered his sword and recoiled ever so subtly when it dawned on him that, for once, he had underestimated his enemy.
"You were the ones stealing from me," Thanos snorted. "How?!"
"A magician never reveals his tricks," Loki responded coolly. He had frozen at the mere memory of Thanos for the past six years but seeing him now, helpless against the Infinity Stone magic he had betrayed with his delusions of grandeur, the purple giant was no longer a threat. Well, not that much of a threat at least. Despite the singes the stones had inflicted upon him, his physical strength was still not to be underestimated.
The titan's eyes nervously darted from his daughter to Loki, who was still wearing the guise of his most cherished subject, and back to his daughter. "That's impossible," Thanos whispered to himself, his composure finally slipping a little.
"Well, for you, it might be," said Loki, transforming back into his Asgardian self with a slick grin when he accepted that the titan would not hand over the Gauntlet without a fight. "But that is the difference between us. While you merely wish to be a God, I truly am one."
The titan barked a contemptuous laugh. "I should have known that vermin like you would find a way to even creep out of the claws of death!" Thanos hollered, lunging forward once more. "I killed you once and I will gladly do it again!"
Loki fired another blast of Reality Stone magic into his direction, which, albeit hitching a little, finally sent his former abuser staggering. "You don't have it in yourself to defeat me," Thanos huffed, his unforgiving eyes narrowing to slits, hands tightening firmly around the grip of his sword.
Reality stirred inside his mind, murmuring a nervous warning. Do not exhaust my magic, Loki. Use it wisely. Even though the stone's words were rather unsettling, Loki still felt his lips curl into a smirk at the sight of a Thanos who was, for once, forced to acknowledge his own vulnerability. If that isn't the perfect time to attack. "Maybe I don't," Loki conceded, lifting the invisibility spell. "But they certainly do!"
Even before the Avengers were fully uncloaked, Thor and Rogers launched an attack and sent the captain's shield sizzling with the powers of lightning towards the titan with full force. The rest of them moved into position around Loki and Nebula.
"Tell us where the Gauntlet is!" Thor bellowed.
Thanos caught the shield, the impact of its blast making him slightly trip backwards, but his facial expression did not slip. "Ah, the God of Thunder," Thanos snarled, throwing the shield back at Captain America's feet as if it was a piece of garbage. "How many nights have you spent in agony, wishing you would have aimed for my head?
"I will gladly correct this mistake," Thor hollered, wielding his axe once more and lunging towards the titan with such righteous determination that Loki trembled at the mere reminder how this attitude had earned Thor the praise of all of Asgard while he himself had been—justifiably?—ridiculed for his attempts to outwit their common foes with trickery.
Not now, you hopeless imbecile. Focus!
"The Gauntlet is of no more of use," Thanos responded, seemingly unflustered by Thor's battle cry. He ducked down and deflected the impact of the Stormbreaker with his own sword, sending the God of Thunder stumbling backwards.
"You bastard," Thor spat on a heavy breath.
"It is of no more use to you," noted Loki as he transformed Helgidómur's peaceful forest and grassland landscape into a barren, rocky desert with the Reality Stone's reddish glow, eliminating all possible hiding spots. "I can still wield the stones. She too," Loki continued with a nod at Valkyrie while he opened the pocket dimension, pulled out the scepter and handed it to her. "And he could, too," Loki finished with a motion towards Thor, "but we only have two and he has his axe, which is powerful enough in its own right."
His brother rewarded him with a big grin.
Thanos startled ever so slightly but, of course, the Norns damn his wretched soul, he recovered quickly. "Even if it is true that the Infinity Stone magic is fading, what makes you think that you can stop it?" The titan gave a condescending snort. "You of all beings in this universe? Hasn't it been proven to you time and time again that your entire existence is nothing more than a giant cosmic mishap?"
Loki felt his skin heat with shame and anger but before he could react to the insult, Thor swung his axe over his head and rammed it into the rocky ground, unleashing its full might in a sizzling blast of lightning that hurled towards Thanos and stifled the titan's foul speech by sending him another two steps backwards. Valkyrie leveled the scepter at him and, eyes fiercely gleaming with joy and pugnacity, released a surge of Mind Stone magic upon the titan that finally forced him onto his knees and elicited a muffled groan of pain from his throat.
Oh, what a glorious day to be alive.
"Tell us where the Gauntlet is!" Thor bellowed again.
The remaining Avengers pointed their weapons towards the titan for emphasis. Faced with Thor's axe, Shuri's vibranium guns, Hawkeye's explosive arrows, the cyborg's sword, Widow's pistols, Rocket's machine gun, the blasters of the two Iron Man suits—three if you counted Pepper's—and the remaining power of two Infinity Stones, Thanos lowered his head and closed his eyes, an eerie sound rising in his throat.
"Can we kill him now or what?" Rocket asked.
"I would love to," Stark replied, "but wouldn't that be a little too easy?"
"For the last time," Rogers ordered, "hand the Gauntlet over to us."
Thanos only snorted in response.
"Face it, father," said Nebula, her voice still thick with emotion. "You lost and you are alone."
Thanos opened his eyes and a deep, roaring laugh escaped his lips as he scrambled to his feet. "You have no right to wield these stones. Your tiny brains are incapable of grasping their significance. None of you would ever dare to make the sacrifice that I made. None of you is worthy of wielding them!"
Not that worthiness idiocy again. "The Reality Stone begs to differ," Loki replied and released another seismic blast that slammed right into the titan's chest.
"If you think that this is all it can do, you haven't understood its true powers," said Thanos on a heavy breath.
Loki felt a devious laugh building up inside his chest. "No, Mighty Thanos," he mocked. "It is you who has not understood. This stone is a part of m—"
Rocket cocked his gun and fired it in the titan's direction, drowning out Loki's words. "Enough with the pseudo-intellectual chitchat, greaseball."
Loki's lips parted in protest but the raccoon gave him no chance to speak. "I say we kill raisin head now and then look for the fucking Gauntlet ourselves. Who's with me?"
"How dare you," Thanos muttered under his breath.
"Great idea," Barton acceded and, for once, Loki had to agree with the archer.
Stark leveled his iron fist at him in silent agreement but before any of them could fire their weapons again, a deafening noise filled the air and the ground began to tremble beneath Loki's feet. "What were you saying again, daughter?" Thanos asked gleefully as five colossal space ships entered the atmosphere above him. "That I was defeated and alone?"
Eleven pairs of eyes darted towards Loki, narrowing in suspicion and agitation as the titan's laugh boomed across the plain. "I set up military bases on each of the moons," Thanos explained with a self-satisfied half-smile tugging at his lips. He glared at Nebula. "Have you still not learned how grave of a mistake it is to underestimate me, daughter?"
From the corner of his eye, Loki saw Iron Man, Pepper, Valkyrie and Thor lift off the ground and rush up to the descending space ships, the gaze of the remaining Avengers unable to fly burning into his skin.
"Alone and vulnerable, huh?" asked the Widow with a grim expression.
"I told you he was lying," Barton grumbled.
"We're doomed," whispered Shuri.
"I wasn't lying," Loki objected weakly. Thor and the others fired their weapons at the ships but their combined energetic blasts ricocheted off the ships' surfaces as if they were made of uru.
Loki sucked at his bottom lip, asking, "How was I supposed to anticipate that?" even though he was fully aware that he should have anticipated exactly that after he had spent close to a year in the titan's bondage and had witnessed first-hand how his military forces operated.
"I was supposed to anticipate that," Nebula said softly, her eyes going hard with self-loathing. "That's how he always built his strongholds."
"It's too bad that you were blind with rage and a thirst for revenge though," said Thanos, his voice dripping with so much contempt that Loki's entire body went cold. The titan had tortured him too, yes, but he was no one to him. Nebula had grown up as his daughter and still Thanos had seemingly inflicted upon her as much sorrow and terror as he had inflicted upon him, if not more. The very thought churned his stomach.
Nebula uttered a bone-chilling cry and surged forward with her sword.
"No!" Loki shouted. Overcome by a sudden urge to protect her from suffering even one more violation at the hands of her so-called father, he sprang after her and tried to grab her by the wrist but the cyborg was faster. Propelled by sheer rage, she stormed towards Thanos. From behind Loki, Captain America threw his shield at the titan and sent it swishing past the cyborg, but Thanos effortlessly fought back the attack and sent the shield back in their direction with his enormous double-bladed sword, the clang of metal against metal echoing through the air. When Nebula reached him a mere second after, he swung his sword again, his blade clashing into hers, and sent her flying back a few feet. She slumped onto the ground, grunting in pain.
"You will never defeat me," Thanos spat. The space ships were landing behind him at this very moment, the members of the Black Order spilling out flanked by the Chitauri as soon as the ramps opened. Valkyrie, Thor, Stark and Pepper opposed them as they marched out of the space ships' bellies but there were so many of them and the sight of the force he had once led into battle against New York sent Loki into momentary paralysis, depriving him of the ability to breathe.
Beside him, Nebula staggered to her feet, hands loosely clasped around her sword.
"Any spontaneous ideas?" Widow asked.
"Except for fighting them?" Bruce asked back, an awkwardly intimate glance passing between the two of them.
"Not getting ourselves killed would be nice," Shuri whispered as she fired a gleaming, purple ray of vibranium energy at Thanos, who was striding back towards them, his sword poised ready to attack. He sidestepped under the impact but it did not slow him down.
"We need a plan of attack," Rogers barked.
Shuri gulped audibly and fired her gun once more, again to no avail.
"We hardly have time for that, do we?" Barton scoffed. "Let's just, yeah," he continued with a frantic side-glance at the young Wakandan scientist, "try to not get ourselves killed." He drew the bowstring of his weapon to his ear and fired an arrow at the titan just as Rogers threw his shield at him and Rocket and the Widow fired at him with their Midgardian weaponry.
Thanos somehow managed to catch the archer's arrow in mid-air, crushing it in his giant purple hands and throwing it aside while simultaneously deflecting the shield with his sword, the bullets of the mortals' guns bouncing off his armor. The shield hurtled back towards them and slammed into Rogers with full force, driving him to his knees. Through his earpiece, Loki heard his brother and the others gasp in exasperation as they attempted to fight off the Chitauri.
"I'm not trying to be a smartass here but another blast of Infinity Stone magic would be just the thing right now!" Rocket roared above the noise of his rather useless machine gun.
Loki reached for the magic of the Reality Stone but Thanos had already crossed the distance between them and was drawing himself to his full height, his face only an arm's length away. Staring into the titan's merciless eyes, Loki felt his blood go cold again, the much-needed Reality Stone magic congealing inside of him.
"Loki, Prince of Asgard, Odinson, rightful king of Jotunheim, God of Mischief," Thanos snorted, raising his sword above his head. "I dare say this is the day of your final reckoning!"