The Brightest Star

Chapter 44 - Travel Delays

(Loki's POV):
The ship that I now only saw in my nightmares loomed before us, my heart stopping. I knew what was to come and it consisted solely of death and destruction. My brother looked at the ship in confusion, having no idea of the terrors that lay within.

"Brother, you must get as many of the Asgardians as possible into the other ship and have them continue to earth without us. I will try to deal with him while you worry about that, but I do not know if I will be able to save those who remain on this ship," I spoke, rushing to the front of the ship.

"Wait, Loki! Who is on that ship, why are you so certain of our demise?" Thor questioned, calling after me.

"I shall inform you of everything later, just get people off of this ship!" I replied, continuing my journey without looking back.

I should have known that Thanos was going to find me, I was a fool to have let my guard slip. If I had just left the tesseract on Asgard to be blown up, it was likely that the Asgardians could have gotten to earth in peace and I would be reunited with Kára. The thought of my wife made only more guilt wrack my body. Because of my own personal interests, I had stolen the tesseract which allowed for Thanos to collect all of the infinity stones, putting her life at risk as well as our children's.

There had to be a way that I could stop Thanos, but I knew that if I did not think quickly I would simply be another dead body along with the rest of the Asgardians. There was not much I could do to prevent Thanos from achieving his goal from beyond the grave. I had to play along with Thanos in order to not only protect my family, but also the lives of the Asgardians around me.

I pushed past the Asgardians so that I could be at the front of the ship when Thanos boarded. The Black Order entered first, with him following closely behind. Before they could began executing the Asgardians, I stepped towards him and bent down on one knee, "oh, mighty Thanos."

"Loki," he spoke, distaste spewing from his voice. Perhaps this would be a bit more difficult than anticipated. "I see that you are not dead."

I smirked, "do I ever really die?"

"We can test that question, I would love to kill you after how terribly you failed me."

"I am sorry, but I was not aware that I failed you," I spoke innocently, holding my hand out and letting the tesseract materialize in it. "Is this not what you sent me to earth to acquire?"

"The space stone," Thanos observed, taking it from my hand. "You may think that this makes up for your failure on earth, but you lost another one of the stones while you were there. As a result, I have no more stones than I would had I not sent you to invade that measly little planet."

"With all due respect, I was never aware that you had given me an infinity stone. You simply told me that the scepter was a way to control the chitauri. Had I known that it contained one of the stones, I would have altered my plan so that I could return both stones to you. The Avengers were stronger than I had anticipated and I had to improvise, I did what I needed to to acquire the tesseract."

"And for that you have my gratitude," Thanos spoke, crushing the cube in his fist so that the only the stone remained in the shards of the cube. He placed the stone in his gauntlet, having to take a moment to adjust to the sudden pulse of energy surging through him. Once recovered, he turned to his henchmen, "Maw, round up the Asgardians on the ship and execute half of them."

"I don't think so," I heard my brother growl from behind me, lowering himself down into a fighting stance, equipped with a sword.

I rolled my eyes at him and sent him flying back with a surge of energy, "I do not think killing any of these people is necessary, sire. The people on this ship is less than half of what the population used to be, the rest were killed by my sister Hela or else blew up with the planet. Life has done your work for you and now you may focus on collecting the rest of the stones. If you would will it, I would gladly continue serving you and assist you in that search."

(Kára's POV):
It had been a few days and I had still received no word from Loki. I had no idea if he had even made it off our property alive, never mind if he had eventually defeated Hela. I just wished that I knew what was going on, even if someone came to tell me that he was dead it would be better than this uncertainty. The children were beginning to worry as well, although they had no idea the gravity of the situation. But they kept asking me where daddy was and when he was going to come home.

I did my best to assuage their concern, but it was hard to do when I had no information as to the whereabouts of their father or exactly what kind of threat he had to face. I tried to assure them that he would be back soon, that they simply had to be patient, but I was not sure if even I believed in my words. The way Thor had spoken about Hela and had come to Loki for help, I knew that she was not someone to take lightly.

I had chosen to take time off from work until Loki came back, telling the restaurant that my husband had taken ill and I needed to help him as well as look after the children. Part of me regretting that decision as it led to more free time, when I would do nothing but worry about Loki's safety, but I needed to spend time with my family.

I was outside playing with the children when I heard his voice in my head. It was muffled, as though it were from a great distance, and I began to wonder if I had imagined it. I would not have been surprised if the past few days of agony had turned me crazy. But I heard the voice again, this time clearer.

"Kára, can you hear me? Please say something, I need to speak to you," I heard him say.

"Loki? Are you alright? What happened? I have been so worried," I replied, thankful to here his voice again.

"There is no time for that, I will recount everything that has happened once I get back home. Listen to me, you need to find the Avengers, they are a group of superheroes that protect Midgard. Tell them that Thanos is coming and they must do everything in their power to prevent him from obtaining the mind stone. I do not care if they need to blow up an entire city to do so, he cannot get his hands on that stone, do you understand me?"

"Loki, what is going on? Where are you?"

"I am working with Thanos, hoping to find a way to foil his plans. We are on our way to Titan, but I expect we will be met with very little resistance so he will most likely obtain the time stone. Please, just find a way to contact the Avengers, they might have the force necessary to defeat him."

-

(A/N): This was inspired by what we could have been if the Russos weren't cowards (one of their original plans was to have Loki turn into a double agent when Thanos took over the ship as opposed to dying .5 seconds in). Also, I apologize for skipping over Ragnarok, but I figured everyone has seen it (and if you haven't then you better go watch it right now!)