#50

The brothers looked at each other and for the briefest of moments, Loki could tell that Thor remained convinced that his younger brother should do it because his mind was more potent while Loki remained convinced that his older brother should do it because his body was more resilient. Yet, considering the fact that they had convinced Nemesis not to annihilate the universe with the promise that they would rule together, Loki felt a nagging suspicion that the proof of their capability to reclaim all that was lost, which the Goddess had demanded, should be delivered together as well.

Even though it was hard to tell really, what the Goddess had truly wanted from them.

Only Yggdrasil itself knows, Reality had replied when he had questioned the stone about Nemesis's motives and the more thought Loki gave to this, the less sure he was of what exactly had transpired and why it had transpired. How had they convinced Nemesis in the first place? Why had the Goddess let them and the mortals speak, limiting herself to the role of an interlocutor in their midst when she could have easily glanced into their thoughts? Why had she waited for them to translate their thoughts into words under pressure instead of gazing into their souls the way she had in the void and making sure they were truly convinced?

Had she enjoyed watching them, testing them? Had she hoped they would arrive at the idea of ruling together all this time? Had Odin?

Well, as you have said earlier, his inner voice reminded him. Gods move in mysterious ways. Unfortunately, that was true and would remain true for all the time that the universe had left.

"So?" demanded the Widow, her forehead pinched together into an apprehensive frown. Loki felt pity stir up in him when it dawned on him that her mortal brain—all of their mortal brains really—had not yet processed any of the unthinkable things they had been forced to witness during the past months. They had brushed Nemesis aside as quickly as she had disappeared back into the gem, focusing immediately on the next task, but once their ordeal was finally over, they would be haunted by images of Niflheim, Nemesis, Thanos, the Soul World, the Chitauri and the Infinity Stones in grueling nightmares and they would wake up drenched in sweat for many months or even years to come.

Thor had opened his lips to speak but no sound was leaving his mouth.

"They are suffering in there," Barton reminded them quietly but urgently. "With every passing minute."

"Please," said Shuri.

"We should do it together," Thor announced before he corrected himself, the strength and confidence of his younger self returning to his voice. "We will do it together." He glanced at Loki for support. "Right?"

"Yes," Loki said without hesitation, his mother's words replaying in his ears. There is so much you can do. There is so much that your brother can do, so much that you can do together, and yet you both still struggle to accept who you can be.

"How?" asked Rogers.

Loki drew in a sharp breath. "Well, I have an idea," he said and, despite the encouragement he had received from them earlier, he remained conscious of the feelings that an announcement such as this coming from the God of Lies, Mischief, Stories, Drama and Chaos had instilled in people in the past and would probably instill in them in the foreseeable future. He glanced at Thor. "It is quite outlandish, but it might work."

"It might?" asked Valkyrie.

"Outlandish?" Stark echoed with an expression of incredulity mixed with traces of awe etched into his face. "Outlandish, really? What could possibly be more outlandish than soaking up the whole power of an Infinity Stone and channeling it through your own mind? What could possibly be more outlandish than us traveling to Hell or speaking to the Goddess of Creation or you just appearing out of thin air because you reduced your own body to a subatomic state or you killing and reviving yourself with a spell or releasing your dead Mom's spirit from the afterlife to give you a pep talk?"

Loki bit back a giggle. "Well, if you put it that way."

"Just do whatever you have to do," said Rogers. "Please. We trust you."

Oh, oh. Are you certain that this is your verdict, Captain?

Loki allowed a half-smile to creep onto his lips before he gave a nod and reached for his magic, testing its strength and finding that it was slowly returning. "Thank you," he said. "I need sustenance and a little preparation time but I will be with you again shortly."

"Please, hurry," Barton begged him and for reasons Loki could not yet fathom, his hostility had evaporated entirely. The book of Nemesis must have been quite a revealing read indeed.

"The Infinity Gauntlet is restored," he said with as much compassion as he could muster for a man who had showed him nothing but contempt. "I do not think your loved ones are still suffering but you have my word that I will hurry."

"Wait, where are you going?" asked Thor. "What do I do?"

Loki flashed his brother a grin. "Perhaps it would be a great idea to meditate."

Stark guffawed as the Thundergod's eyebrows hiked up his forehead. "Are you serious?"

"Just rest," said Loki. "You will need every ounce of your mental and physical strength for this." He glanced at Shuri. "I suppose I will find food in the kitchen of the palace?"

The young scientist gave a nod and Loki directed his attention at Valkyrie. "Make sure that he rests."

He had promised them to hurry and, yet, almost three hours had passed when Loki sauntered back into Shuri's laboratory after he had reinvigorated his glamour with the help of a short nap, a quick refreshment of the spell he needed for what lay ahead and a meal of fruits and meats and fish prepared by the cooks of the palace. The crowd gathered waiting for him in eager anticipation, he immediately noticed, had grown and his body involuntarily tensed in response to the sight.

"Hey, man," said the Kronan, raising his rocky hand by way of a greeting. "How are you doing?" His unsightly insectoid companion Miek was by his side and so was a tall, slender but wiry black man with closely cropped hair, whom Loki suspected to be the friend coordinating one of the emergency aid programs that Stark had mentioned during their brief stay in New York.

"Fine," Loki pressed out, his eyes sweeping the room. The warrior woman who had raised her spear against him earlier was there again as well and her gaze was as hard as the rocks that the Kronan's body was made of.

"This is Colonel Rhodes," Stark said with a jerk of his head in the direction of his friend. "Loki, Rhodey. Rhodey, Loki. Wong brought them here to witness the big show-down."

Rhodey nodded by ways of a greeting. Loki gave a stiff nod in response to the introduction but his attention was focused on the one person who was not there. "Where is my brother?"

"Resting as requested," said Rogers but the moment he said this, Valkyrie and Thor came back into the laboratory as well and Loki noted to his satisfaction that his brother looked as restored and confident as he had before this odyssey had started. Probably because he has slept for the first time since he brought me back, Loki guessed, shuddering at the thought.

Thor's face lit up even further when he spotted Korg and Miek and he crossed the room towards them in three giant strides, giving them huge, bear-like Thundergod hugs. "We missed you too, man," gasped the Kronan, patting Thor's back.

Loki patiently waited through their salutations and did his best to stop his eyes from rolling into the back of his head, certain that one of the others would interrupt them soon enough.

The raccoon did not disappoint. "Don't you guys think you could wait with the hugging until everyone is back?"

"Of course, yes." Thor harrumphed. He smiled at Rocket and then his eyes traveled the length of the room, landed on the Infinity Gauntlet for a second and then fixed on Loki. "So, what's our plan, brother?"

"Our plan is that I will be using my powers of memory manipulation on the stones," Loki replied with a cautious glance at the wizard, who immediately asked him how. "I shall not bore you with the specifics, Mr. Wong. Suffice is to say that I have mastered the skill of memory manifestation and memory erasure and that I am quite confident that I will succeed."

Well, mastered the skill is maybe a bit of an overstatement …

Shush.

"Okay and where do I come in?" asked Thor.

"We are going to use your body," Loki said with a grin, thriving on the shock and the flurry registering on all of the human faces. "You are going to put on the Infinity Gauntlet and I am going to fuse my mind with your body so that you can snap at the exact same moment the spell is in place."

To Loki's genuine surprise, Thor did not look distraught in the least. "What do I have to do?"

"You just have to open your mind to me and I do as I say," Loki told him. "Nothing more."

"Wait," said the Widow. "Isn't there a less complicated way to do it? That seems—"

"Dangerous? Bold? Pretentious?" Wong provided. "I mean … no offense."

Loki forced a smile onto his lips. "I could put on that glove and do it by myself but, if you will allow me this, I have no desire for the Infinity Stone magic to scorch my flesh down to the bone. My brother's body will be able to handle the repercussion of their magic, which is why he will have to do the physical snapping while I will do the mental snapping."

"Savvy?" asked Stark but no one paid attention to him.

"You are sure that my body can handle it though, right?" Thor asked. "That's not just another wild guess?"

The forced smile on Loki's lips turned sincere. "I am sure."

Thor nodded, walked over to the gauntlet, forced a deep breath down his lungs and then slipped his right hand into the cool Uru of the glove with a confident smile. "Then I am ready."

"One more thing," said Shuri. "I would ask you to take that outside if you don't mind."

"Terrific idea," Stark concurred and Loki supposed that he was thinking of the blast the Aether had released inside his own workplace.

Once outside, Loki drew a sharp breath and placed his hand on Thor's forehead under the watchful eyes of the Avengers, the Wakandan palace guard and a crowd of bystanders who was slowly gathering around them. He had performed a spell such as this before, tapping into another person's mind, visualizing the single threads in the tapestry of their thoughts and emotions, and pulling them out to erase a memory, but not like that. Not in another person's body and not on such a monumental scale.

"Hey, calm down," mumbled Thor, which rose a few agitated murmurs from the mortals. "I can basically feel that your magic is shaking."

Shut up, Loki hissed. I am calm.

Thor blew out a breath. "If you say so."

Now, tap into the glamour of the stones. Feel their magic.

Thor struggled at first and Loki had to command his brother several times to open his mind before the combined memories of the stones finally appeared in front of his inner eye in the form of a vast, colorful tapestry.

"Wow," mumbled Thor.

Wow indeed, thought Loki and then busied himself with the task of isolating every thread influenced by the Titan's desires. He forced himself to think of Thanos and everything that the Mad Titan had involuntarily revealed to him through the Mind Stone and its manipulations one last time; everything that he had told the Avengers in Stark's compound in New York what felt like eons ago. He did not think of his deed in terms of annihilation; he thought of it in terms of salvation … He did not lie to you, not on purpose anyway. He deceived himself. He truly believed that he was going to perform a miracle to liberate the universe from torment … He always thought of suffering in terms of empowerment and believes pain to be the fabric of all life, so he decimated half the universe to empower the half that remained. He probably still believes that he has brought a new universe into being and he did it with loss, torment and suffering. A new universe, crippled by pain, which will arise from the ashes like the proverbial Phoenix, its inhabitants hardened by their collective trauma. A new universe that he created as a God.

As Loki focused on these thoughts, single threads started to glow on the fabric in front of his inner eye in the same purple as the Titan's skin; single ones at first but more and more of them lighting up until they morphed into a crooked shape of Yr.

The rune of death.

These threads need to be pulled from the tapestry of your memory, Loki commanded, compelling the Infinity Stones to expunge their magic of every thought the Titan had ever inflicted upon them. All the beings who lost their lives due to his delusions must return, he told them. You must reweave the fabric of your reality. Thanos no longer exists and neither does his wish to subjugate the universe. Things must return to how they were before he got hold of you. That is the only way you will survive.

The threads glowed treacherously and Loki felt his mental strength wavering but he pressed on nonetheless, commanding them to pull them out by the sheer power of visualizing the act.

Next, he reminded the stones of Asgard as they crackled madly on Thor's wrist, reminding them of the Realm Eternal perching atop the World Ash with its golden pillars and its library and its weapon's vault and the Odinforce pulsating through the universe from the Hall of Yggdrasil. The corresponding threads in the tapestry became visible as well, pulsating in a bright gold, morphing into the rune of Algiz.

The rune of life, of beginning, of protection.

This you must give back, Loki said, his mind's eye landing on two particular bright threads that could not be rewoven. I command you to weave the tapestry of the universe anew. The stones protested, indignant at his insistence and clearly terrified by another monumental spell that would drain their powers.

You must, Loki urged them. Or else, you will not survive and all will perish.

Slowly, their resistance began to crumble as Loki held on to the visualization of the tapestry, to the threads glowing in bright shades of purple and gold and to a thousand invisible hands ready to pull at them, until he felt that everything was in place.

"Should I …?" asked Thor.

Yes, Loki whispered and, then, his brother snapped his fingers and the Infinity Stones obliged and the threads were pulled and the connection between them broke. Loki's mind was jolted out of Thor's body and he felt the jolt in every bone of his body. And then he felt something else, a surge of magic so powerful that all the glamour he had wielded in his life before paled in comparison.

Is that … the Odinforce?

Loki staggered and glanced at Thor, at his brother's naked arm, at his armor that had burned away, and at the Infinity Gauntlet that was still crackling with the Infinity Stone magic that had scorched the Thundergod's skin with a thousand rainbow-colored miniature lightning blasts, but the images were not registering. Not really.

Thor was biting his lips, his face twisted into a grimace of pain. "C-can I t-take it off n-now?" he asked through clenched teeth.

"Did it work?" asked Barton, his voice a cautious whisper of hope.

"I am fairly certain that it did," Loki replied but, with his mind once more fried with exhaustion, he could not be sure. He felt a wave of dizziness and closed his eyes against it. Once more, Stark was beside him in an instant, supporting his elbow.

"Take it off," said Rogers.

Thor yanked off the glove, heaved a booming groan of pain and threw it away, sending it clattering onto the ground. It was unsinged, Loki saw when he opened his eyes again, its golden surface gleaming in the sunlight. Yet, no one seemed remotely interested in the Infinity Gauntlet, which is why Loki used the moment of the others' distraction to seal it away in a pocket dimension on an impulse he did not fully understand.

Just in case, he told himself. Just in case.

"Are you alright?" Valkyrie asked Thor, panic in her voice. She glanced at Loki, who shrugged frantically.

"I d-don't know," Thor bellowed through clenched teeth. Valkyrie made a step towards him but he slapped her away, his knees buckling. "Ask me ag-gain when the pain subs-sided and I can …" He interrupted himself with another groan. "I c-can … breathe."

Loki's heart shattered inside his chest when he realized that he had underestimated the thickness of his brother's skin and he lunged towards him, his hand rubbing over Thor's back. "I am sorry," he whispered. "I thought … I really was sure."

Thor shook his head, grunting.

The Avengers stood frozen in what might have been dread or guilt.

"Son of a bitch!" Thor cried out and Loki startled. "Not you," the Thundergod corrected himself, his breathing finally slowing down. "I meant …"

"Well, we cannot be sure of that though, can we?" Loki jested and, after a moment of confusion, Thor's hoarse laugh boomed across the yard. Loki joined in, tears stinging into his eyes.

"I'm okay," Thor whispered and before Loki knew what he was doing, he had swept his brother into a hug after recoiling from Thor's every display of affection in front of the mortals. Thor's body relaxed inside the embrace and he rested his chin on Loki's shoulders for a moment before he looped his arms around his brother's back and squeezed him tight. "I am so glad to have you back," the God of Thunder sobbed and, out of nowhere, Loki was hit with the realization that they were strong in different ways and that he was a lot stronger than Thor in some of those.

Not that it matters.

No, not anymore.

"Guys," whispered Agent Romanoff. The sons of Odin broke out of their hug and Loki followed the gaze of the Avengers to a bench under a tree at the far end of the yard where the air began to swirl, softly at first but swiftly turning into a small gust of wind that released a plume of ash, which then materialized into the bodies of two Wakandan soldiers.

Notes:

~ Okay, so you finally got a real hug! See? I am not THAT cruel. Or should I say, not only cruel?
~ As for the rest, I know that this is pretty damn dramatic but I always wanted them to do it that way, from the very beginning, and it's Loki and it's magic and let's make it as dramatic as possible because why the Hel not? I also always wondered how magic wielders convince the stones to just alter the fabric of reality on such a grand scale and I always imagined Thanos to have done a similar thing inside his head when he snapped his fingers. So, basically, what I'm saying is, there needed to have been some kind of spell uttered silently in the heads of all Infinity Stone wielders, especially since they are talking in my version of the story, which is why I chose this.
~ The idea of pulling the threads out was inspired by Liza Grimm's Heroes of Midgard.
~ I debated with myself for two hours if I should let Rhodey and the others join the team since they do not add anything to the plot at this point (and I am fully aware of that) but I just thought Tony would have called him for that at least. Or maybe I'm wrong but that is just one paragraph, so I don't care.
~ And I am sorry, Ravenleaf, but Strange has to wait until the "big reunion" in the next chapter. My apologies. Yeah, maybe I am a little cruel.