Two of A Kind

6 - The Last Piece

Aite sat on top of the bookcase, thinking over everything she thought she knew about Loki. For hundreds of years they worked together, toward a goal she thought they shared.

He told her he wanted to save his brother, the only family he had. She wanted to have her family around when she woke up from her magical coma. It seemed like they wanted the same thing.

So then why weren't things adding up?

Xandar had been destroyed days earlier than she'd expected. Sure, she could chalk that up to a memory lapse and call it natural. After all, it was nearly five thousand years, surely a few days difference was called for.

Then there was Thor who, while protective of his little brother, was not the doting presence she expected. He was distant and untrusting, but oddly hopeful. It was a combination she just couldn't understand.

What had happened? Had they not yet made up and reconnected after Loki's attack on New York?

Even that didn't make sense. There was precious little time before Thanos would have collected the Stones. If Thor died while Thanos was collecting them, and they had not already reconnected, when would they have the time?

"You seem deep in thought." Loki called up to her.

She turned and glared at him. "What else have you lied to me about?"

His eyebrows shot up toward his hairline. "Is it not in our nature to lie?"

She huffed and propped her chin on her hands. "And where's your wife?"

"Beg your pardon?"

"Your wife. Bitchy, hates meeting new people, loves making herself scarse for hundreds of years at a time while you train people to do your dirty work."

"I'm afraid I haven't met her yet. Or, if I have, I haven't the slightest clue who she is."

Aite huffed again. "The way you talked about her, I assumed you'd already be together when I got here."

"Really? What gave you that idea?"

She shrugged her shoulders. "The way you talked about her helping you through the death of your brother. And what you'd told me about your early days. You said she used to laugh all the time. At first, she wouldn't give you the time of day. Flirted with everyone but you and your brother. Got you all into more trouble than even you thought was fun." She shrugged again. "With all that, and the timeliness we were able to construct, I just assumed she worked with you guys. But Natasha and Wanda are the only single chicks here and, honestly, neither of them have the 'I want a piece of Loki' vibe. Not to mention Wanda's off with Vision, poor girl."

Loki eyed Aite, stroking his chin. "I wonder-"

"Ms. Aite." Friday interupted. "Mr. Stark and Mr. Vision are in the workshop. They'd like your final thoughts on the glove you helped design."

"Welp, work calls." Aite jumped down and headed toward the workshop.

"I wonder." Loki mumbled, following a few steps behind.

Tony was inserting the Mind Stone and Reality Stone into the glove when Aite entered, pulling the Power Stone from her inside pocket to set it as well.

Thor entered with the tesseract, setting it on the table and smashing it with his hammer as if it were the world's first pinata.

"Okay. That's the Mind Stone, Reality Stone, Power Stone, and Space Stone. All we need is Time and Soul." Aite smiled. "Then we can swat that SOB so fast he'll forget he's purple."

Tony smiled at her enthusiasm. "We'll go in search of your friend about the Soul stone in the morning. Tonight, we celebrate our victory."

"Almost victory." Aite corrected.

"Nuances." Tony drapped his arm over Aite's shoulder, steering her out of the room. "I believe we owe you a Caramel Apple taste test."

---

Later that night, as the team was slipping further and further into a drunken stupor, Aite made her way toward the workshop.

"Where are you going?" Loki called out as she was turning the corner.

She silently cursed her luck.

"Just checking on something." She smiled, turning back toward him. "Why aren't you at the party?"

"I came looking for you." He answered. "I've been thinking things over and it's not quite adding up. "

She planted her hands on her hips. "Tell me about it." She grumbled. "I'm starting to think I stepped into the wrong timeline here."

He stepped closer. "Earlier, you made it sound like this was all my idea."

"Well, mostly, yeah." She turned and leaned her back against the wall. "We searched for the stones for hundreds of years. Finally found out Thanos tried to destroy them but ended up just banishing them to far edges of the known universe. Unfortunately, we could only find two."

"Two?"

She pushed away from the wall and continued toward the workshop, ignoring his question. Once inside, she placed the last two stones into the makeshift Gauntlet and slipped it on. "Goodbye, Loki."

She snapped her fingers, willing Thanos and his army into nothingness while wishing Xandar back to it's former glory.

As the power of the stones coursed through her body, she could hear a woman screaming, sounding as if she were being burned alive from the inside out.

As the world grew dark around her, she saw the team bursting through the door. She had just enough time to wonder who had been screaming before everything went black.