'Really.'

But the Titan only smirked.

'Hela and Thor will never come for me.'

'But it seems like you are wrong.'

The Titan waved his hand. Two holograms popped up on either side of him. One showed Thor going down some stairs to the dungeons and the other of Hela going up the spiral staircase of a watchtower.

Loki was first skeptical. What if these were fake? But then Hela stopped and clapped her hands, and Ceberus slinked out of the shadows-

They were falling into a trap, and he's the bait.

'I wonder what your brother did to get the help of Lady Hela. Most of the time, she would want something in return… But no matter, I believe you and your brother need a sibling reunion.' Thanos chuckled. 'It wouldn't be long.'

'Master!' A Chitari soldier rushed into the room and kneeled. 'One of our squadrons found something you might be interested in.'

'What?' Thanos whirled around. The holograms faded away.

'Two Asgardians were found in one of the hunting dens.'

Loki's heart fell. More idiots.

'Who?'

'Lady Sif of Asgard and her companion Elixir.'

Loki's scowl turned into more of a confused expression. Sif was willing to come? Why was Elixir not with Thor and Hela but with her?

'Is there no one else with them?' Thanos asked sharply.

'Yes, master.'

'Bring them up!'

The Chitari scrambled away.

'It seems like your search party is bigger than I imagined. When has the famous Lady Sif been so kind towards her mortal enemy?' Thanos grinned. 'And when has she ever gone on a journey without her three friends, but with- I don't even know who it is. The name doesn't ring a bell.'

'Pfft.' Loki snorted. 'Not ring a bell. Surely you have crossed paths with him before.'

'If it's insignificant, it may as well not have.'

'He's ancient, that's for sure.' Loki scowled.

'Ancient? I am certainly intrigued to meet this 'Elixir'. You speak of him like a friend.'

'A friend he is, so if you dare touch him-'

'Oh I won't.' The titan turned around and looked down at him. 'But you will.'

'Whatever you are thinking, your plan will never work.' Loki glared. He wasn't giving a lot away about what would happen, and it definitely wouldn't work in their favour. If only he could get more out of that big mouth-

A loud scuffling came from outside the room. Four soldiers escorted a very calm Sif and a very unsettled Elixir to the Titan, and shoved them down on their knees.

'Why, welcome, Lady Sif, to my humble abode.' Thanos did a mocking bow. The soldiers jeered and jabbed the two with their spears.

'I believe this 'abode' is not yours.' Sif stated with her head held high. Her eyes shifted to Loki, but quickly turned away. Elixir only stared downwards at his reflection in the ice floor.

'Now, it is mine.' Thanos waved a hand. The soldiers took the cue and retreated out. 'So it is to my understanding, you are trespassing my land.'

'To take back what was not yours.'

'The Jotun? Why, I would have thought you couldn't have cared less.'

'I am only doing it for his brother, and it's not only him, but also this land-'

The Titan laughed.

'Where are the rest of your friends? The famous trio? Had they become cowards and let a woman go alone on a treacherous journey?'

'I am not alone, and it's nothing less for me to be a woman.' Sif snorted.

'And what can he do? Breath fire?' The Titan pointed at Elixir and roared again. Loki heard a growl boiling up from him, but Sif silenced him with an elbow in his ribs.

'Guards!'

The soldiers came back and dragged them away.

'I will think I am puzzling you.' The Titan turned back to him. 'But you will see soon enough. My soldiers do need some entertainment over time.'

'What are you planning?'

'Don't worry that you will be left out, you will be a part of it as well.'

'Of what?'

'Take him to his destination, and hand him a spear.' Thanos told the guards. Two soldiers rushed in and pulled a bag over him head. He was shoved and pulled away. The bag didn't do much. Loki knew the palace by heart. He felt they went down a spiral staircase, and when they got to the ground floor, led him out from the front entrance and into the city.

And then he lost track. There seemed to be a lot of arguing and debating between the soldiers as to where they should ditch him. Then finally, he was released from the chains and pushed down a hole. Something metal knocked the back of his head.

Loki quickly pulled the bag off his head. The metal thing was a spear. He looked up and found the hole was too deep to climb or jump out.

If only he conserved some magic for situations like this. But perhaps, healing his injuries was more important. It wouldn't do to crawl around.

Loki pressed his back against the ice wall, and waited.

OOO

'We can't let Natasha die!'

'But we can't hand over the Tesseract and the Chitari Scepter!'

'Natasha is important!'

'Handing over these OP things will only cost more lives!'

'Stop! This will not solve anything!' Steve pushed Clint and Tony away from each other.

'Then do you have any idea what to do?'

'No…?'

'And we only have five days left!' Clint cried out in despair. Personally Steve will think he had gone mad.

'When are Thor, Hela and Elixir going to come back?' Peter asked. 'What if they are in trouble?'

Everyone sat in silence, unable to come up with any plan to the situation. There's nothing they could do except for wait.

OOO

'Ceberus, find Loki!' Hela tried again. But her dog turned around in circles and looked up at her sadly.

'Can't you find him?'

The dog shook his three heads.

'Ceberus, go back to Hel and watch the gates. I have a feeling soon we will have visitors.'

The dog bounded into the shadow on the wall and disappeared.

This was really bad. If Loki couldn't be found by Ceberus, there was a good chance he couldn't be found by magic.

Hela was started to go down to check the other levels when the stairs suddenly disappeared. She went hurdling through empty space-

OOO

Clint knew they are going to sacrifice Natasha. There's no way they will give these things in exchange for her life.

And he couldn't get any other help either. Fury will definitely agree with Tony's idea. Cap will, too. Peter will not be taken into consideration for his young-age-whatever-

No. He smacked his forehead twice to get himself to calm down. There is still one person who might help him.

OOO

Thor swore he heard Hela's screaming.

'Hela!' He shouted and charged back upwards.

'Hela!' The palace echoed back. It seemed to be very empty.

'Uncle!' Hela's voice came from one of the corridors that branched off from the hall.

'Hela, are you alright?'

'I am fine, uncle. I found Loki!'

'Where?'

'Come!'

Thor stepped into the corridor, but Hela wasn't there.

'Over here!'

Thor followed the voice into another corridor, and stopped.

'Uncle, come on! We don't have much time. He's hurt badly-'

'You are fake.' Thor breathed.

A Chitari stepped out of nowhere, and pressed a button on the wall.

The floor opened up, but Thor reacted quickly and jumped backwards out of its way. He let his hammer fly and the alien was dead.

He retrieved his hammer. The sound of the commotion soon died away. Nothing else came at him. He looked down the pit and saw nothing but darkness.

What have they done with Hela?

Thor rushed out of the palace doors. The piece of land was bleak as he saw before, but there was a strange air of excitement in the air.

Excitement?

'To your positions!'

There was a loud roar and jeering from an invisible crowd. The big doors swung closed behind him with a bang.

'There are no rules! The last one standing will be free to leave!'

Thor then noticed a strange purple shimmer in the sky. A magic dome.

Arena.

He is someone's game.

'Let the Game to Death began!'

OOO

'Let the Game to Death began!'

Loki scrambled to his feet and grabbed the spear. The floor had risen, and he would soon be at ground level.

He would just have to fight his way out of a bunch of dumb beasts then.

OOO

Hela was awaken by the sudden noise. She jumped to her feet.

Oh no. What is going on?

OOO

As soon as the floor reached ground level, Elixir turned himself into Kitty-form and hid himself in the rubble. He would wait for the unwary to kill. Do not underestimate stealth, Loki had said before. It might make the difference between life and death…

OOO

Sif unsheathed her daggers. This should be easy.

And probably easy for Elixir too.

She wondered how he's doing in the different arena.

And she wondered how the Warrior Three are doing back at the cave.

OOO

'Achooooooo~~~'

'Shh!'

'But the Chitari left ages ago…'

'Yes, and they might still be around outside.'

The trio sat in silence. The fire was no more, and so was the ice wall sealing the entrance. They were very lucky the storm had died. Fandral was still confused what happened just then. He and his friends were awaken by a crash, and strangely enough, they were all bound up in a very, very oversized thick cloak. Hogun stopped his comrades from moving or making a sound until the shuffling around them were gone. Fandral swore he heard Sif and Elixir being taken away. Just thinking of it made him sick.

'Maybe they thought we are a bundle of clothes.' Volstagg said. 'And ignored us.'

'But they over turned the chest.' Hogun said. 'They wouldn't ignore a suspicious pile of clothing-'

Of course, Fandral thought. They knew nothing of what happened outside of the cloak. The best guess is that someone from the palace or nearby snatched them.

He stood up.

'We must hurry to the palace right now.'

'But I am hungry and frozen.' Volstagg shuddered. 'I don't want to move.'

'There will be fire and food there at the palace.' Fandral pulled him to his feet.

'Will there?' Volstagg's face lit up.

'Of course! (Loki and Elixir know how to make fire out of nothing, for goodness sake.) We can also go straight back to Asgard afterwards!'

'Let's go then! Onwards~' He swung his axe over his shoulder and rushed out of the cave.

Hogun shook his head.

'He won't remember anyway.' Fandral shrugged.

OOO

Thanos sat on his throne. The crowd of Chitari around him cheered and shouted.

He smiled.

Illusions were always his favorite thing.

OOO

Loki ran into an ogre with a club. The beast was small for his kind, but a lot faster. He wasn't as mindless either, Loki thought as his opponent deflected one of his quick jabs with his clumsy weapon. He used a wall for a jump and brought his spear down on the ogre, only to find the club fly out of nowhere and hit him in the stomach. He flew through the air and landed smack on his back. Gasping, he found the club flying magically back to its wielder.

What? How? Since when do ogres possess the power to manipulate magic?

The ogre brought his club down on Loki. He quickly held his spear horizontally and blocked the blow, but he knew soon either he would not be able to hold or the spear would snap.

Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed something glint off the spearhead.

Blond hair.

Loki was so shocked he didn't even see his opponent retreat and swing the club sideways, knocking him into a wall.

'Thor-' He managed. The illusion faded, and there was Thor coming towards him with Mjonir spinning in his hand.

OOO

Thor thought the Chitari will be easy to finish off, but it seemed like he was wrong. His fighting style was so familiar, it reminded him of something he couldn't quite catch.

The cowering Chitari uttered something.

Pleading for mercy? Thor thought and raised his hammer for a final blow. The Chitari started panicking and waved his hands around.

His movements were curious. He wasn't begging, he was trying to communicate something else.

Thor didn't lower his hammer, but he was confused.

The Chitari shook his head and grabbed the spear. Thor jumped back, but the Chitari didn't mean any harm. He handed the spear to him.

Cautiously, Thor took it in his free hand. The cold metal burned his palm, but he held it.

'What?' He questioned.

The Chitari reached out and turned the spear. The blade shimmered and caught a reflection of the Chitari's face, then Loki's.

Thor jerked up, and there was Loki standing in front of him, battered and bruised.

'Brother!' Thor cried out, dropped both of the weapons and smothered him into a hug.

'Stop-' Loki gasped and struggled away. 'The others! All of us are in the same arena and we are all killing each other! We have to tell them before it's all too late!'

Thor let go of him reluctantly and picked up Mjonir.

'But what can we do? They will still see us as mosnters.' He handed the spear back to Loki.

'If we can get something shinny and large enough and-' Loki stopped himself. 'No, I will tackle Hela, you tackle Sif.'

'Why? What about Elixir?'

'Because I know Hela, and you know Sif. Elixir is more of an ambush person in this situation. If he is still himself, he will stay in one place and wait for someone to pass. Or, he will lash out, but obviously not knowing who your opponent is it will be a stupid idea-'

'Loki, we don't have time.'

'Yes, of course. Let's get this over with.' His brother gripped the spear, turned, and stalked away.

OOO

'You do realize they will never come with what you asked for.'

'It's a bargain Thanos is willing to play.'

A Chitari came in and whispered into the Other's ear. A sneer spread across him face.

'Go and bring him in.'

The Chitari nodded and left the room.

'They didn't come.' The Other chuckled. 'But he did.'

Clint was escorted into the room. A group of Chitari behind him carried a heavy metal crate.

'Clint.' Natasha greeted him with a flat face. 'That's nice of you, but maybe you should fix a bit of your priorities.'

'I am simply being a human, Nat. Now, Ogre Face, I got what you wanted, give back what's not yours.'

The Other waved for his minions to check the crate. A Chitari rushed over with a crowbar. The group yanked and pushed, until suddenly the lid flipped open in an explosion of smoke that fill the room completely.

Someone grabbed Natasha and pulled her away.

'Clint!'

'I got this Nat.'

'No! Clint!'

The Other banished the smoke with a flourish of his arms and shouted for his soldiers after them.

'How did you find this place?'

'GPS.'

'What?'

'Kidding I don't know what super tech Coulson used but DUCK!'

They dove to the ground. A grenade went off.

'Clint this is the worst idea-'

'One of them!' Clint pulled her around corners. 'Coulson is waiting outside-'

'They will follow us back to base!'

'And we will beat them again like last time!'

Clint pulled her into a room and locked the doors. He jumped onto a table and removed a panel from the ceiling.

'Wait, your cuffs.' He clicked on the buttons. It didn't work. He got out a pocket laser and, carefully, cut it apart.

The doors knocked off their hinges.

Natasha slinked up the air duct and scrambled though it. Clint close behind her.

'Won't they catch up?'

'That's why I got this.' Clint pulled out a shock grenade, clearly stolen from Tony, and tossed it behind him.

There was a loud hissing from underneath them, then silence.

'That should keep them busy for a sec. Keep going.'

'Not the best rescue plan I would've thought of.' Natasha muttered under her breath.