Golden Horns and Red Thorns

The Beginning of the End

     Ragnarok had finally come, like Odin had told me so many times it would. The first born he had banished would be free at his death, and it would go downhill from there. Not his exact words, but that's to sum it up.

     I was the Royal Guard, staying by his side and the Queen's almost constantly. Being in the palace of Asgard since I was fairly young, resulted in me becoming somewhat close to the two princes; Thor and Loki.

     There was something unsaid between the trickster God and I, a relationship based on only our actions and not our words. But a deep feeling for him rooted itself inside of me, and I would do anything to keep him safe and alive.

     When the Allfather fell into Odinsleep, and Thor - the soon to be King - got banished to Midgard, I remained by the throne's side, serving Loki for the short amount of time he was King. That night when he was declared dead from falling from the Bifrost, I felt as if half my soul had left me along with the God.

     Years passed, and news of him invading Midgard had spread quickly. Loki "died" twice, the Queen was now dead by the Dark Elves' hand, and now Odin has ascended to Valhalla. Thor was the rightful King of Asgard now... Unless there was no Asgard to rule.

     I was on the run alongside Heimdall and considered a traitor of the throne when Hela, the Goddess of Death, made her way into Asgard and Ragnarok took place. I was replaying these past events in my head while making my way to Loki's quarters on the Asgard refugee ship. I knew something the others didn't.

     My footsteps rang loud through the empty metal hallway as I ran, my boots clanging on the cold floor. My light brown hair flew behind me as if wind was blowing in my face and my hazel eyes were wide with anger.

     I didn't bother knocking on the grand door to the Prince's room, and barged straight in, startling him. He was staring out at the stars, deep in thought, until I came in.

     "Tera," he breathed, relieved. "I'm not going to lie, I thought you were Banner coming to fling me around a bit more." He said chuckling, turning towards me. He looked at me with light in his blue-green eyes, like he usually did. 

      We'd never address whatever this was between us. The universe hasn't been so kind to us in our existence, it would be crazy to think it would give us a break with each other. We've been thrown together and torn apart countless times before, what would stop it from happening again?

     That light was quickly taken over by concern when he realized my breathlessness from running to him.

     "What is it? Are you alright?" He rushed out, walking over to me quickly.

     I got straight to the point. " I know you have it."

     "Have what?" The Prince questioned.

     "God damn it, you are a fucking genius, Loki. Don't play stupid with me. I've always been able to see right through you." I came at him with a venom-laced tone of voice.

     He smirked,"Well, not alwa-"

     "You have the Tesseract." I stated bluntly. His face fell, and it was almost like I could feel his stomach dropping and his heartbeat pick up. "Maybe you are stupid." I laughed in disbelief.

     "It would have been destroyed with Asgard, Tera." he defended.

     "Maybe that's a good thing!" I was yelling now, a mix of emotions exploding out of me. "He's after you, Loki! He's collecting the stones and he's tracking you down and you could have led him right to this damn ship!"

     "Tera-"

     "You "failed" taking over Midgard, do you know how mad that had to of made him?"

     "I know-"

     I interrupted "Do you? He's the Mighty Titan! The Space Stone could have been destroyed once and for all! He won't be able to succeed if he's missing one!"

     "Tera, please, let me sp-"

     "It doesn't make any sense, why did you-"

     "I DON'T KNOW!" He hollered, shutting me up. The outburst caught me off guard.

          It was silent, only our heavy breathing and the humming of the ship could be heard.

     "I-I don't know. I don't know. I felt like I... Like I needed to. It was burning into my damned soul, Tera. I needed to take it. I don't know why, but I needed to." He stammered, his face turning a light shade of red. He was trying to calm me down. It was advised that no one would be around when I grow angry.

     "You didn't need to." I retorted.

     "Maybe... Maybe I did. I don't know. I just had a strong feeling..." He walked away from me, turning to look back out to the stars. His long body slouched in defeat.

     He was never afraid. But he was terrified of Thanos.