New Tricks

"Where are we going?"

Loki bypassed her chambers, leading her down an unfamiliar passageway to a set of descending stairs. She was almost jogging to keep up with his long, rapid strides. The palace had wound down for the evening but now she could hear it springing to life again: voices and footsteps echoing from unseen corridors, panic and adrenaline already buzzing through the atmosphere. Her skin prickled, legs unsteady from the abrupt change of emotions she'd gone through in the past few minutes.

"Down. There are safe places in the vaults, protected by magic and furnished to last as long as needed until the battle is over."

"And we just wait it out?" At the bottom of the first staircase, the corridor twisted, revealing another leading even deeper down. The only light came from flickering crystals set into the stone walls.

"You do."

She faltered as they reached another landing, another bend in the passage. "I do? What do you mean, I do?"

He paused, turning to her with wide, skittish eyes. "I cannot be with you. My place is facing Thanos—my skills are required. You must remain safe." He cupped her face in his hands. "You'll be with the queen and her guard. If the worst should happen, the throne will pass to her. She will be glad of your presence."

Alex felt ridiculous for the panic welling in her. It made complete sense that he'd be fighting on the front lines against Thanos: he was the only one who'd faced him before, who knew what he was like. And yet, the outcome of his encounters had been disastrous. She remembered Loki's mutilated form, bleeding out onto the Bifrost, and shivered against him. "You better not get yourself killed."

He squeezed his eyes shut, suddenly pulling her tight against him. "I promise to return to you unscathed," he whispered into her hair. She inhaled him: warm leather and clean linen, a scent laced through nearly every memory she had. All the months she'd spent pushing him away seemed foolish now, though if they both survived this she'd probably chide herself for overreacting. "And to ensure Thanos does not harm a hair on your head."

The embrace could only last a moment, interrupted by the rumble of thunder overhead. "Is that..?"

"That is my brother, warming up." He released her, reining his emotions in, his familiar stoic mask settling in place. They took to the stairs again. "There is a forcefield over Asgard which will hold for a long time, unless Thanos has new tricks to play."

"You think he might."

"I've learned never to underestimate an opponent."

"You're not in this alone, you know. You have Thor. And your father. I reckon he can handle himself in a fight."

"Thor's place is not here. He has to protect Idun's orchards—though if it gets to that point, we are likely doomed anyway. But yes, I will fight by the Allfather's side. I dare say between us we're a formidable force."

"You're confident," she said, realising it for the first time. Loki's fear was not for himself. "You think we'll win."

"We are gods, Asta, and Thanos a mere abomination." The chill of his smile almost made her fear for Thanos. Loki didn't just want victory. He wanted revenge too, and given the chance he'd probably take it out of Thanos' hide in like payment for what had been done to him.

She was breathless by the time they reached the end of the stairs, the ground beneath her feet mercifully flat but the passageways still gloomy and narrow. Loki seemed to know where he was going, never faltering when they reached a turning or a fork, but the claustrophobia began to weigh on Alex. The last time she'd been anywhere like this…well. She'd been accompanied by Fear itself. Only Loki's hand in hers kept her anchored in the present. She wasn't back in the labyrinth, no matter how much her mind wanted to convince her it was so.

Wouldn't that have been something? If this was all a delirium she'd been suffering, lost in the remains of the place she lost her test, while Fear gorged on her.

Before she lost her grip on reality, the corridor widened and lightened as they turned onto a passage she knew.

"That's the weapons vault," she said, recognising the massive iron doors.

"Don't worry," he replied, his stride not slowing. "We go beyond it." But then he frowned, head turning towards the doors, and she stumbled into the back of him when he halted.

"What is—" Loki's hand covered her mouth, cutting her off.

"Shhh." She was pressed against him, his chest to her back, and she caught a flicker of light from her peripheral vision. It flashed down the hallway and around the corner, while Loki kept them perfectly still. "Something is not right," he whispered, breath fanning over the shell of her ear, and she shivered despite the circumstances. "I must investigate."

Yet he didn't move, not until she heard the echo of running footsteps. He tensed, arm tight around her waist, until a handful of guards rounded the corner. Not far behind them was the queen, backed up by another small troop, her pale dress shining against the gloom.

"Loki?" she questioned, "why have you summoned us?"

"Forgive me, mother. I would not call you from your haven if it was not urgent." He nodded towards the doors. "I can sense something is amiss within, but even I would not be so foolhardy as to enter alone."

The queen's hands flew to her throat. "You think he has breached our defences so quickly?"

"I do not see how he could, and yet…I cannot shake this unease."

One of the guards spoke. "Could it be an ambush?"

"All is quiet within," Loki replied. "It is unlikely. If he'd penetrated our walls, he would use his advantage to attack the palace from the inside."

"Very well," Frigga said. "Ovarr, choose your best men to accompany the prince inside the vault. The rest will wait out here in case this is an invasion tactic."

"You should retreat," Loki said. "Back to the haven."

"I can shield us all well enough," the queen reprimanded him. "We need to be able to raise the alarm if we have intruders."

Loki clamped his teeth together and nodded tersely, releasing Alex. She found herself with Frigga in a knot of the guards, while the rest swarmed forwards with Loki.

"Sometimes he forgets he is not the only member of this family capable of magic," the queen murmured to Alex. Alex glanced at her in surprise: plenty of myths mentioned Frigga had some magical ability, but she'd never heard it mentioned or witnessed it here. Frigga didn't speak again, focusing on the towering doors as Loki stalked towards them.

With every step he took, he shifted, his silhouette billowing out and darkening. It took Alex a moment to catch on to what was happening. His simple—for Asgard—clothing was being replaced, swapped for elaborate leather, padding and straps. Metal overlaid his forearms and shoulders, a green cape spilling down his back. She'd seen him like this before, in New York, but his armour had been tattered and tarnished then. Now it gleamed, the golden helm resting on his head most of all. In any other situation, on anyone other than Loki, it might have looked faintly ridiculous. He looked glorious, every inch the god, but not a merciful god. Heaven help anyone facing him like this.

Alex felt a pressure change in the air around her in the moment before the doors opened. The immense concentration on Frigga's face told her this was the shield the queen had spoken of. It kept her from grabbing the queen's hand for comfort.

Loki didn't turn the handle manually, instead pressing his palm against the air so the door swung inward. She tensed—they all did—waiting for all hell to break loose, but only silence rolled out from the vault. Then a horrendous smell, like charred meat, that made her stomach heave.

She heard Loki curse and step over something inside the entrance to the vault, while the guards around him paused. The others craned their necks to peer around their colleagues, and Alex was suddenly very glad she was short enough they all blocked her view. Every one of these men seemed battle-hardened, yet more than one paled.

Beside her, Frigga swore fluently.

Loki was only gone from her sight for a minute, striding out of the vault, and even from this distance she could see the white of his lips, the wide set of his eyes. Frigga dropped the shield and rushed over to him, Alex following.

"The guards?" Frigga asked.

"All the men we set to guard the cube are dead," he said. Alex had guessed as much from the awful stench. "Killed by an outburst of energy, though no living thing has entered the vault since we sealed it."

"Then how..?"

He smiled, a slow unfurling of teeth that unnerved her. "By turning my own trick against me. In the same way he was able to use the sceptre to create a link to the cube from across the universe, he used the fake Tesseract I provided to create a path to the real thing. After all, both were created from its energy and remained part of it. He didn't even need to set foot in the vault himself to make it work."

The pieces clicked together in Alex's mind. Here she stood, with only a few walls between her and the Tesseract, but she couldn't feel it. No creeping skin, churning stomach or crippling headache; the effect of the bodies had masked it, but now she recognised the emptiness where the cube should be.

"It's gone," she said, finishing Loki's report for him. "Thanos has the Tesseract."

A/N: I received a lot of grumbling about the interruption in the last chapter. Blame Thanos. He has such poor timing.

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