Tabula Rasa (Unlike Loki: Book Two)

Chapter 85

(Loki)

Anna's breathing was shallow as Talia sat back up, her hands still on the sides of Anna's head.

Without looking at me she said, "You might want to stand back."

When I didn't move, she looked at met, "Trust me? Remember?" She smiled weakly.

I reluctantly got up, squeezing Anna's hand one last time and stepped a few yards away, never taking my eyes off of the girls.

Talia took a deep breath and then began chanting a spell no unlike the one By had uttered in Anna's ear.

Only, this one worked.

I watched as the bright orange light flowed out of Anna's mouth and into Talia's chest. Talia's immortality helped protect her from the stone's dangerous power. Thanos noticed what was happening and looked on with hatred. He had been absorbed in his victory, thinking that nothing else was going to happen but everyone sob about who had lost their lives.

He was too far away to stop Talia from what she was doing.

The last of the light left Anna, and she gasped for air, her eyes wide and bright. I began to run towards her, but Talia quickly held up a hand, warning me to stay put. Her eyes were bright orange, brighter than I had seen anyone's tonight. She stood up, a new confidence within her.

And she turned towards Thanos.

I ignored her warning and ran towards Anna, folding her into my arms. I could tell, just by holding her, that she was fine. She was alive and she was fine, really and truly fine. She wept into my chest, trembling and shaking. I held her close, her face buried in my chest. If Talia was about to confront Thanos, it wouldn't end well, for either of them.

"YOU!" Talia yelled at Thanos. She began chanting again, but this time in a language I knew.

Easily translated, she said.

Now that I hold the power of time,

I hold power over you.

I curse thee to be locked,

locked away for no less than

a century!

You cannot escape your trap,

not until your time is up.

Your power cannot match mine,

for I have the blood inside

of the one who was chosen

to protect the stone.

You stole it from her,

so now you shall pay!

The wind picked up around us and I threw myself over Anna as a hole seemed to be ripped into the sky, pulling the far side of Thanos's rock towards it. It quickly picked up force, and even Thanos was struggling to escape.

Talia had put him, and anyone who got sucked into that hole, in a time trap. A century long time trap. While the rest of the Universe went about it's normal everyday life, Thanos would be stuck repeating the same day, for 100 years, unable to reach anyone else.

He would be assumed dead, forgotten.

Beaten.

For now anyway.

"You have to get out of here!" Talia yelled over the wind. I could feel the pull.

"We can't leave him." I barely heard Anna say as I sat her up and hoisted her to her feet.

Talia's eyes met mine and she held her head high. "I'll get him. You get By." Talia turned and ran towards Leolin's lifeless body as I left Anna and headed for By's.

I picked him up and carried him back towards Anna. She had her hand over her mouth. I had taken the sword out, the wound mostly dried up. I laid him on the ground and Anna fell to her knees. "He was the Lost Prince." She lightly touched his cold face. "How?-" She asked me.

"He died trying to save you. To save all of us." I told her. She brushed his dark hair off of his face, a tear of hers falling on his skin.

Then, Talia was next to us, laying Leolin on the ground next to By. Anna gasped, wracked with new sobs. Her hands shook tremendously as she reached out for our dead son. She touched is smooth skin and laid herself on top of him.

She let out a scream of rage and pain a million times worse than she had ever uttered or I had every heard come out of my own mouth.

It was a scream of rage, of deafeat, of betrayal, of pain and sadness.

My lip began to tremble as I watched Anna in pain. So much pain. And more pain I could do nothing to heal.

Especially when that same pain was in my own heart.

The pull of the time trap was strong now. Anna looked up just as Thanos was sucked in.

"Take this!" Talia handed Anna a folded piece of paper. "You have to leave, now!" She yelled over the roar of the wind. We were dangerously close to being sucked in. "Make sure everyone is connected!" Anna grabbed on to my hand and picked up Leolin, holding him as if he were just asleep in her arms. I grabbed By and held on tightly to him. Talia turned to Anna. "Think of somewhere you can go. Somewhere that could be nearby." She said, grabbing on to Anna's face.

Anna nodded and immediately began thinking of somewhere; I could see it written on her face. "Yes." Talia said. "That will work. Call out to them. Tell them where you are." Anna did as she was told.

Talia made eye contact with me, and nodded her head at me. We would not part here enemies. We were not quite friends, but at least we were not completely against each other. I nodded back in understanding.

Anna looked up at the girl before her and touched her cheek. "Thank you." She whispered. "I would have been proud to call you my daughter." And she meant it. I could tell by every note in her voice that she meant what she said to Talia with every fiber in her being.

And Talia knew it too.

Tears of joy filled the girl's eyes and she smiled. "They are close." She stepped away from us and spread her arms out wide. "Don't let go." She said, and we held on tighter. "See you on the other side."

And then she slammed her arms together in a booming clap.

And we were transported.

Not like traveling along the Rainbow Bridge, but instantly and completely.

I looked around at our new surroundings. No wind. No Talia. Just the dark metal walls of the inside of what looked like a spaceship.

Someone nearby yelled out, "What the hell?" The owner of the voice stepped around the corner.

Was that-

Was that a racoon?!

A talking racoon?

"Peter?! What the hell is this? You drug us all the way out here in a hurry for a couple of freaks and two dead bodies?!" The racoon yelled through a doorway.

I heard footsteps stomping towards us and was bombarded with the presence of a very large greenish man with red tattoos who seemed to be holding a house plant, a very green woman with dark black and red hair, and an ordinary human.

"Anna?!" The human pushed through the others and knelt beside her. "Anna? Are you alright?"

Anna shook her head vigorously. She was rocking back and forth, holding Leolin tight to her chest. I looked down and noticed that she was gripping By's hand now, her knuckles white.

The human turned his attention to me and saw the pain more quietly etched on my face. He extended his hand out to me, "Name's Peter Quill. I heard Anna's call. Came as quick as I could."

I took his hand and shook it. "I greatly thank you." I said quietly.

We all sat there, in the dark, for a while, mourning the deaths we had not yet had time to mourn.