The Seventh Infinity Stone

Taking a Trip Down Memory Lane (And it was Awful)

Loki had ordered that only he would obtain the Power Stone. Alita wanted to go; she argued that her knowledge of Morag and her mental map of the planet would be important, but he had been firm. He countered that they would need her when they traveled to the Duat and at the moment she was tired and needed rest and maybe some food. Loki knew magic and though the type of magic he used took little if any energy; he knew what she did to occupy the Avengers would have taken a lot of energy. She did not let it on, but he could tell that she was more exhausted than she seemed. But that was not the only reason he wanted to be alone on this mission. He wanted answers.

Titus had his uses; he provided the men that Loki needed now that he did not have the support of the Chitauri. Also, he knew of places that could not be breached by enemies and had his own unique powers. His services were rather inexpensive; all the godling desired was chaos and Loki happily complied. However, Loki needed more than mercenaries or even an army, he needed a weapon. Something or someone that when he won and ruled Midgard it or they would be able to keep order in his new kingdom. Alita was his weapon and he almost lost his control over her, he wanted to know why. He wanted to know Alita Renate, what made her tick.

When he stepped out of the portal he created, he startled a woman wearing a mask who was holding the hand of a child who was also wearing a mask. She brought the child closer to herself and promptly guided the child and herself as far away as possible from Loki rambling about something he did not understand though he heard his own name. Clearly, the people of that dimension did not forget him from London. He ignored them and continued on his way. He traveled down empty filthy streets, the city eerily silent as if its inhabitants were collectively mourning.

The city itself seemed to sag with deep depression and unease. The mother and child were the only other people he came across.

Loki remembered Alita saying that Earth in her dimension was currently going through a pandemic. In fact, that day was the first time she had been outside her grandpapa's house in months due to the fact that he was high risk and very old. That would explain the masks the mother and child were wearing.

He slinked into a dead-end alley and searched through the graffiti on the wall. He hovered over some that made the word Ares. Pressing the letter 'A', that section of the wall pushed in and he twisted the concealed brick. Letting go it continued to turn and as it did, the entire word began to glow. The letter slowed until it came to a stop in its original position. The glow (which had been white) turned blood red. Without any hesitation Loki walked right into the wall, only there was no wall. He was in some sort of martial art studio that doubled as a game room with several arcade games lining the walls on the right.

A buff man in all cameo was playing some sort of war game. He aimed a plastic gun and killed the AIs in droves. He had several real weapons all over his body though he looked like he could just as easily kill someone with his bare hands if he wanted to. His very presence radiated anger and looking at him Loki wanted to pick a fight with anyone that came his way. Did not matter who they were, they needed to go down. Loki shook his head and the feeling passed, he knew how to deal with this Greek god.

The man put down his weapon and turned to look at Loki, "Yo, Loki! You're back! I take it you found what you were looking for?"

"I did but your information was two generations out of date Ares."

"Oh, that's right, that's right. Sorry for the mix-up, but when you've lived as long as I have, time and people tend to blur together you know? Yeah, I forgot that old Jeffrey had a son and his son had a daughter, Alita wasn't it? Interesting las her life has a lot of heartaches, I wouldn't want to be in her shoes. She gets into a lot of fights, sure, and after all, I like a good fight, but she carries a lot of pain and guilt. Nasty stuff," Ares said.