Mischief on Midgard

Defiance

Underground, on a cold, dark asteroid floating through space, a man could be found in an equally cold cell. The man was chained to the wall of his cell. Perhaps overly so. There were chains wrapped around his wrists, his ankles, even his neck. Not that it was needed at this point. His entire body was riddled with bruises and the clear marks of long-term abuse. Really, it was quite a lovely collection of cuts, burns, black and blue bruising interspaced with more nasty looking green-yellow half-healed bruises.

Well, Tony, Loki thought to himself with a faint chuckle. You made fun of me once for not having any scars. How do they look? Better than yours, I bet.

On top of it all were the dozens of small holes riddling his person. Loki was not only Nebula's favorite 'toy,' but he had also become Ebony Maw's personal pin cushion. He dreaded the sessions with the pale-skinned alien. The last one had been particularly bad...

"A living body is such a curious thing," Ebony said as he bound Loki to a table using only his mind. Several long, black needles floated in the air above his head. "If you know where to strike, the pain can be worse than the harshest of blows."

A needle floated slowly through the air. In by slow inch, it floated closer to Loki's face until it came to a stop a millimeter from Loki's right eye. Loki bared his teeth at the alien but didn't move.

"A good thing too, now that we are not allowed to kill you," Ebony said with a small sigh. "We'll have to make do with just the pain."

The needle before him had been a distraction. Another needle, far more narrow, abruptly dug deep into the side of Loki's skull. A white-hot sensation of pain flared throughout his entire body. Loki's body spasmed from the pain, and he panted heavily for breath. Ebony smiled down at him smugly.

"You shall scream for me yet, Goding. Yes... oh, how sweetly you will scream," the alien purred.

Loki shook his head to clear his thoughts. He'd gone through a number of those sessions now. Some of them lasted for hours at a time. Other sessions seemed to last for days. Really, it was hard to tell how long he had been trapped here as there was no day-cycle for him to judge time by. Still... Loki was proud of himself.

He had yet to scream even now.

In those precious few moments that Loki had to himself, he would sometimes reflect on the past. He was so far away from Earth now, and the problems he had faced before all seemed so distant. He had no idea what was happening there. How had things gone with Ultron? Were the Avenger's dead? Alive and victorious? Alive but still fighting? Was Ultron dead or otherwise contained? He had no way of knowing. Not now.

And what was Thor up to? If they had indeed defeated Ultron, then Loki knew that Thor would be looking for him. There was no doubting that. And what of Heimdal? What did the All-Seer think of his disappearance? He was probably still baffled, trying to figure out how Loki had escaped his sight so thoroughly. Heimdal would be looking for him even now. All across the Earth...

Which was part of the problem. It probably wouldn't occur to either Thor or Heimdal that Loki wasn't even on Earth anymore. Loki knew how things would look to the pair. It would look like he had been given an opportunity to flee and taken it without a second thought. Things... looked bad. Even if he had a way to contact Thor or any of the others, how could he explain himself to them? Would they even listen to him...?

No. Loki was alone. Just like back then... and even before that. He was alone as he always had been.

Alone... and in possession of horrible knowledge. Half of the Universe was in danger. The true stakes in the battle ahead had been revealed to him. Half of Asgard. Half of Earth. Half of all life. Who would die? Who would be left behind to mourn those lost? The worst lottery in all of history. Thor wasn't safe. Even Odin All-Father wasn't safe. And Loki?