Timeless

◈ 17 ◈

After making use of the Tesseract and teleporting us off of Nidavellir, we landed back on Svartelfheim. Thor looked around, confused, before meeting my eyes. He didn't seem to understand what was happening when I put my hand on his shoulder.

"Thor, I need you to listen to me." I didn't wait for a response before continuing. "These past few hours have been....unreal. I had the chance to see you again and make amends in my life, but I think that this is where my journey ends."

Thor's gaze flicked between my right hand on his shoulder and the weapon in my left.

"Loki...."

"No, brother. Please just let me speak my mind. For once, I want you to know exactly how I feel."

He fell silent in a gesture for me to keep going. I did.

"Maybe my Second Chance wasn't about self-preservation. Fate wills me to leave you to forge your own path without me by your side. Perhaps it is better that way. After all, all I've ever done is slow you down. I guess, what I'm trying to say is," The words I'd been planning to say caught in the back of my throat as tears filled my eyes. "Well, it's funny how I've always known exactly what to say except for when I need to get the words out the most."

Pulling the Tesseract out of seemingly nowhere, I made a fist and crushed cube. In the palm of my hand sat a small, bright infinity stone. The indentation in the sword glowed blue as the space stone was drawn to it with a magnetic-like force.

It found its place in the sword with a metallic clink, and I smiled despite the tragedy of the situation we were in.

Plopping down on the ground with a sigh, I realized just how tired I was. It was time for me to finally rest.

"I want you to continue on without me. Once we destroy these stones, you can be free of me and the burden of defeating Thanos. He will be powerless once two of his strongest weapons go missing. I want you to keep living the best life that you possibly can. I've seen the way you look at Lady Sif. Chase after her heart like there's no tomorrow. Spend time with Odin-" I paused, finally feeling it appropriate to correct myself. "No, spend time with Father. He loves you more than you could possibly know, and on Valhalla, I realized just how much he missed both of us."

Thor sat down next to me and put his hands over his face.

"Keep fighting. Keep breathing and for the Norns' sake keep living. You deserve to be happy. And I wish that I could be there for you through all of your trials but if this is where we finally part ways then I want to do it with a smile on my face, resting assured with the knowledge that you will grow old with a smile on yours as well."

I didn't have time to react when he did the unexpected and snatched the sword out of my hand.

"Thor-"

"I heard what you had to say, and now you get to hear me talk." He said as he stood back up. I stayed sitting on the ground, frozen in place. "I think that what you just said is nothing but a load of bullshit. You're not going to leave again. If fate willed you to stay dead then you never would have been able to escape from Valhalla. What's going to happen now is that you're going to take my hand and we're going to go back to Asgard together. We'll destroy this godforsaken sword and find another way to get that infinity stone out of you. And if you believe that you have a choice in this matter, then think again."

I stared at his outstretched hand for a long time. The only sounds were our shaky breaths and the crackling noise that the rocks underneath Thor's feet made as he shifted his weight.

After a while, I took his hand and let him pull me up into a hug. He grinned at the pleasant surprise as I hugged him back.

There we stood on the dirty ground of Svartalfheim. Together as brothers.

For what I could only imagine being the last time.

Thor was too wrapped up in the hug to feel my hand shifting to the sword or my fingers tightening on the hilt. I didn't miss the expression of shock bleeding into horror on his face as I drove the blade into the same spot where Kurse had stabbed me a lifetime ago. His bright blue eyes widened in tandem with mine.

"I never did tell you that I couldn't have asked for a better brother. Even if I've always been the worst."

He reached out to steady me as I swayed to the side, but I stepped away from him as my knees buckled and I landed on my side on the ground.

"Loki!" He cried, on his knees in front of me.

"Stand back." I hissed through my teeth as they clenched into a sneer.

I could feel the power building up inside of me as the two infinity stones collided. With a sharp gasp, I started to lose control of my muscles. They twitched and spasmed, and the pain was so great that I was starting to see stars.

Just as the pain threatened to push me over the edge, I took my final breath and watched as red and blue light exploded all around me.

And then, I was staring straight at the light.