Bend Around the Wind by Scyllaya

Chapter 6: The Great Escape [1]

Chapter Six

The Great Escape Part I

Cassiopeia Galaxy

Shedir System

Sector 40

His body was in pain and his nose filled with the unmistakable stench of dirt and blood. Darkness was never his enemy, neither cold, but in this hole, at the mercy of the henchmen of The Other he despised it. He should be insulted really that Thanos didn't deem him important enough to show up himself, but in reality he was more than glad about the absence of the Mad Titan. On one hand he would've been able to bargain with him, The Other always disliked him greatly, so no wonder every offer Loki made this time around was disregarded. But in the end it was better to have Thanos far away. What he planned could never be made into reality if he was also present. His chances were already unfavourable as they were. His magic was sealed away and his body was weakened, he did not know where they were exactly either. It was not hard to figure out that they had do be in some dark corner of the Cassiopeia. It was the only inhabited galaxy one could see the Andromeda from in such detail. Not that their exact location mattered. They were too far away from the Nine Realms so even if his magic were available, he wouldn't be able to walk on the secret paths, the branches of the Yggdrasil did not reach this far.

The plan was sloppy, to put it frankly, and his only help truly left much to be desired. Stark could be useful though, despite being a mortal, Loki could've ended up with much worse. If anything the human was one of the smarter ones of his kind and – as he proved before in their battle on Midgard – capable of immense amount of destruction with the right weapons at his disposal. What did Barton tell him? "Merchant of Death"? It certainly had a nice ring to it. Thor and the Beast may have been the most powerful members of the so called "Avengers", Barton may have been the most resourceful and the Widow the most deceitful, but Stark, oh Stark was clever, very clever, unpredictable and a master of Midgardian technology, which had its own uses even if it was far less advanced than magic. Useful indeed, so there was no reason to get rid of him, not now anyway. The Widow or Barton would've been suitable too of course, but they would've been also a lot more likely to slit his throat than Stark. He did not expect the inventor to hold out quite so long though. It was surprising to still see fire burning in his brown eyes, Loki would've assumed that he would break much sooner. Usually he disliked to be proven wrong, and it would've been much easier to get him to do what Loki wanted had he been less hale in mind, but in this case Stark's strength – or stubbornness – was to his advantage.

He was not easy to figure out still, not even after this much time. There was distrust in his eyes and he looked at everything Loki said with suspicion, but he still reached out with a helping hand whenever there was need for him. Sentiment, useless sentiment, that's what it was. He would've been more comfortable if he would be able to guess what the human would do in any given situation, but somehow even in his weakened state he refused to behave like a pawn. It was infuriating, just like the lack of fear in his gaze. Suspicion yes, doubt certainly, but not fear. He was lucky that Loki had need of him. Stupid human.

'So... tomorrow?' Stark asked. 'Morning I guess.'

'We will not be as weak, so yes.'

The first part of the plan was rather easy and it really didn't need much planning at this point. It took a long time and a lot of patience to get here though. Too long. Loki suffered many blows from their captors whenever he goaded them, but their anger made them foolish and they gave him too much information. And whenever they thought him unconscious they freely talked among each other. That is how Loki knew that there was an aerodrome in two days walk from their prison, literally the only place that could aid them in their escape. Many ships departed from there, it was ideal. Once they reached the Andromeda and were on Skrull territory, The Other and his men would have a hard time following them. Thanos was feared yes, but not enough for a whole empire to bow down before him because of two little prisoners. They would not want to get involved and The Other did not have enough men with him to force his will. Even if Thanos was pleased by the death-toll, the destruction of the Chitauri army was still a blow. And as far as Loki knew the Skrull Empire was in anarchy, which made the Andromeda all the better place for them to hide for a while. He only cursed his luck that it took him this long to get this small amount of information. The Other was a lot more careful than the last time.