Beyla ~ (Loki)

29.

It all happened so quickly. The pace of their feet on the metal as the slaughter began. I tried to fight. I tried to defeat this monster. As the dead outnumber the living I lay on the floor beaten, bloody, and barely breathing. Loki holds me fighting tears.

An alien creature begins to speak as he walks among the bodies of dead Asgardians. Heimdall, badly wounded, reaches out as if he would stop the villain as he passes, but lacks the strength. He steps over Heimdall with no mind as he speaks as if we were scattered pieces of dirty clothing on a bedroom floor. "Hear me, and rejoice. You have had the privilege of being saved by the Great Titan. You may think this is suffering...no. It is salvation. Universal scales tip toward balance because of your sacrifice." The ugly creature looks to me, a sinister grin lighting up, "Smile... For even in death, you have become Children of Thanos." Loki shivers at the name. Thanos... The true monster. A shadow of death looms over us. Thanos reveals himself, the air becoming thick as he enters.

"I know what it's like to lose. To feel so desperately that you're right...yet to fail, nonetheless." He lifts Thor by the neck of his breastplate, the latter struggling feebly. "It's frightening. Turns the legs to jelly. I ask you, to what end? Dread it...run from it...destiny arrives all the same. And now, it's here. Or should I say...i am." Thanos holds up his hand to reveal a golden Gauntlet placed upon his hand. The Glove hosts the violet Power Stone. One of the six infinity stones in existence.

Thor cranks his neck around, "You talk too much." Thanos ignores Thor. He looks down at me with amusement. "Poor thing. You'll bleed out in hours." Thanos pushes at my side with his foot. Pain shoots up my spine and I scream. "STOP!" Thor yells in Thanos's hand. Thanos looks to Loki without a beat. "The Tesseract, or your brother's head. I assume you have a preference."

Loki from above me and replies, "Oh, I do. Kill away!" Thanos' face expresses surprise briefly before presses the gauntlet to Thor's left temple. The Power Stone glows brightly. Thor screams hoarsely. Loki starts to lose his cool demeanor almost immediately as Thor suffers, and breaks after only a few moments. "ALL RIGHT, STOP!"

"We don't have the Tesseract. It was destroyed on Asgard." I breathe out in dying. Loki glances at me. His eyes showing a lie. He lifts his right hand into the air and the Tesseract reveals itself. I sigh looking away. Thor laughs, "You... are the worst brother." Loki holds the Tesseract out to Thanos and advances, "I assure you, brother...the sun will shine on us again."

Thanos shuts his demeanor down, "Your optimism is misplaced, Asgardian."

"Well, for one thing, I'm not Asgardian. And for another...we have a Hulk." Thanos looks to his right just as a green and very angry mass slams into him. Loki dives for Thor, pulling both of them out of the way as the Tesseract skitters across the floor, and the Hulk charges Thanos.

The Hulk pummels Thanos, forcing him backward and shoving him into the wall of the ship. Thanos pries the Hulk's hands away; an expression of surprise and fear crosses his green face. Before he has the chance to throw more punches at him, The Mad Titan hits him in the neck and quickly turns the tide of the battle in his favor.

After several hard blows, Thanos picks up the Hulk and slams him to the deck, defeated. Thor slams a metal bar across Thanos' back to no avail. He is then kicked across the deck by Thanos and is promptly bound in metal debris by Ebony Maw to keep him from interfering further.

Heimdall lays feet from me as he mutters, "All fathers... let the dark magic flow through me one last...time." He summons the Bifrost, which carries the Hulk away. This, however, attracts the Mad Titan's attention. "That was a mistake." He borrows Corvus's glaive and stabs Heimdall through the heart, twisting the blade in the wound. I watch in fear as I see the light in his eyes dim and death take his soul.

"NOOOOOOOOOO!!!" Thor's scream fills what is left of the vessel. You're going to die for that!" Ebony May seals Thor's mouth shut with a pair of metal braces silencing him. Ebony Maw kneels before Thanos, offering up the Tesseract. "My humble personage...bows before your grandeur. No other being has ever had the might, nay the nobility, to wield not one, but two Infinity Stones."

Thanos takes the Tesseract in his hand. "The universe lies within your grasp." Thanos crushes the cube, revealing the blue Space Stone. He blows some of the fractals away, fingering the Stone between his thumb and index, before placing it on the gauntlet. Thanos is momentarily rocked by the surge of energy that pulses as the stone seats in its setting. "There are two more Stones on Earth."

Thanos's eyes direct to me. "Earth. Take her." Ebony Maw lifts me into the air having me dangle in pain. Loki swoops in under my frame. "If I might...interject... if you're going to Earth, you might want a guide. I do have a bit of...experience in that arena. Beyla doesn't know just everything. Help would be beneficial."

Thanos stares at him unimpressed, "If you consider failure experience."

"I consider experience, experience. Almighty Thanos, I...Loki...Prince of Asgard..." Loki stares at me as he leads on, "Odinson... The rightful King of Jotunheim... God of Mischief... Husband of Beyla Goddess of Bees... I hereby pledge to you..." Loki steps further to Thanos, a dagger materialized in Loki's hand, "my undying fidelity."

Loki braces himself, thrusts upward with lightning speed, and attempts to skewer The Mad Titan's neck, but is frozen in place by the Space Stone's power before the point could strike home. I choak out a cry only amusing the murderers.

"Undying? You should choose your words more carefully."

Thanos twists the dagger out of Loki's hand with his right hand, then takes hold of Loki's neck with the gauntlet and lifts him to eye level. Loki struggles, kicking, as his throat is squeezed. Thanos looks at me first as he increases his force on Loki's neck. I croak out in pain. "S-stop."

Loki, in his last breath, fights against Thanos, "you...will never be....a god."

CRACK

As the bones in his body snap my heart bursts. I claw at my chest screaming silent tears. The blood in my veins too hot to flow, it's burning me from the inside out. I stand to my feet, breaking the hold from the maw. I release several sharp stingers towards them, at a high mile rate. They would pierce straight through them.

Maw growls as he touches the single cut on his cheek. In a fit of rage he tosses me back, molding me to Thor's metal jacket. My eyes only lock on Loki's dead orbs.

The ship explodes, taking Thor and I drifting to certain death. Loki my love. I'm on my way.