Chapter 8 The Sanctuary

There was a vault.

Vault again. Odin loves vault, doesn't him?

He thought to himself, and they climbed down using the ladder attached to the right side of the narrow entrance. It was a long way down until they reached the ground.

The familiar wind was breezing out of nowhere and it was freezing cold. But tricks don't always work, they turned into Jotun form as long as they felt the breezes. There were windows on the top of the wall, directly linking to the ceiling, the light was dim but it was not too dark.

On the wall right in front of them, there was a wooden case with ice on it because of the coldness, the case did not have a lid, and a green glamorous key was floating in the case.

Angrboda gave Loki a nudge, asking him to take it.

He stepped forward, and the unknown voice came again in his mind, 'The third key, Endurance. Three keys taken, two more to gain. Child, it was a long day, and you did it. The end game, the destiny had not arrived yet, and we were right.'

Then the voice was followed by an insulting laugh.

Hey? What did you mean? The destiny had not arrived yet and you were right? My life is not a game, not a chess you Gods are playing with, go look for a real chess board!

Loki thought while the keychain appeared on his hand, and he grabbed the green key, but it seemed to be controlled by some unknown force, he couldn't pull no matter how hard he tried.

'Not anger, child, not anger or rage,' the voice echoed in his mind.

He slowed down, he could not stop raging, that was his emotion! So he distracted himself, thinking about the lovable and beautiful memories he had, from his childhood memories with Frigga and Thor, to his precious memories on Sakaar, then to his time with Angrboda.

He grabbed the key again.

It gently fell on his hand and he put it onto his keychain, Brotherhood, the blue key, Secrets, the purple key, and now Endurance, the green key.

He took a deep breath, but as he turned around a flash came straight from the ceiling and took him away like the Bifrost, in a horrific scream he vanished from the vault.

'Wait! What?' Angrboda shouted as she ran towards the flash, and eventually, the flash took her too.

'Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!' The two screamed as they fell onto the ground. Their hair was a mess and their clothes are somehow torn. When Angrboda recovered from the fright she shouted at Loki terrifically, 'where are we?!'

'I don't know!' In horror Loki shouted back.

'How are we supposed to go back?!' She asked again, more desperately.

'How do I know?!' Loki shouted at her, he had lost his control already.

They were trying to hold their breath, and as they panted they realised this was no ordinary place.

There was a circular building on the land, there were no mountains or trees in sight, all they could see was a brown dusty sky and rocky ground. A creature somehow like a robot was wandering around, his whole body was made out of metal, with a golden crown-like existence around his forehead. His cheeks were flourished by the colour purple and his eyes emotionless.

As his feet landed on the ground in front of the two he turned around and looked at them sitting on the ground.

Loki recognised him, he might even think he had interacted with him before.

'The Chitauris!' Angerboda gasped as she saw there were a bunch of others standing around them.

'We are on the Sanctuary, the place where the Chitauris lived,' Loki continued with her.

'I thought they were all killed in the battle of New York!' exclaimed Angerboda, looking at him with her hips slightly away from the ground.

'Look! You really think Thanos would send his whole bunch of army to Earth? Only Earth?' He almost yelled at her.

'No but you would!' She yelled back, and as soon as she yelled all the Chitauris looked in their direction.

Their eyes looked like a thousand of red raging planets gathering around, ready to slash them into halves and shatter them into pieces. Loki stared at them, this scene was so familiar, so familiar it frightened him, for all those tortures and failures he had experienced, he found himself speechless, his tongue stuck, something was so clear, so clear yet so vague.

He cannot move, he cannot move until someone grabbed his hand.

'Run!' Angrboda shouted to him as he rose from the ground, and they started to run for their lives.

The Chitauris were robots, they were used by Thanos for one very important reason - they didn't know compassion and sympathy. And that means they would never hesitate to kill children or young ladies or poor old men, and that means no troubles, and hence that means useful. And yes, they wouldn't hesitate to kill anyone, even themselves, they served only their master, and they did only their mission.

Now, they were their mission.

Or more accurately, he had been their mission for a damn long time.

What happened in the Sanctuary? What was it like? Angrboda knew, she knew every part of it, those memories were so cold. She felt a taste of morbid at her fingertips and she dared not to think about them, those cold memories.

They couldn't run through the whole Sanctuary, they knew no way out, and they fully understood this.

But before anyone could think of a perfect plan, there was already no time to worry about, as they had already found themselves surrounded by the Chitauri army. In the middle of the Chitauri crowd, they stood speechless.

It's egg against stone.

Loki knew this, better than anyone else.

'It's time to fight,' he told the girl beside her, and the dagger and darts appeared as soon as he finished his line.