Loki prodded. While his body and mind recovered, the injury to his magic lingered. Every time he reached for it, his sole permanent companion, it was as if he poked at a mangled limb and every touch threated to reopen the countless lacerations. It might have been more prudent to wait until later in his recovery, but he needed to be sure exactly what Thanos had seen before the uncertainty drove him mad. Besides, prudence had never been Loki's strength.

He lost track of time, aware only that his eyes had begun to water from the pain, but in the end he found the fortified bunker he had constructed around his more sensitive memories. Loki followed the line of the outer wall all along the perimeter. Unbreached. No evidence of damage either. If Thanos had noticed its existence, he must have assumed it was a natural construct of Loki's mind.

Grinning with relief, Loki opened his eyes and uncrossed his legs. Lies within lies. Believing he had uncovered Loki's falsehoods, Thanos shouldn't have reason to dig deeper. After all, how many people came to him with more than one cover story? Loki slid back until he was flat on his bed once more and despite the lingering pain, savoured the moment. It had been a long time since he had cause to be so pleased with himself.

He didn't have a chance to enjoy the moment for long, however. There was a knock, then the door slid open. Nebula leaned against the door-frame.

'You're in a good mood,' she said as Loki sat back up.

'I feel better,' he replied. 'And I'm glad you are here. I wasn't really up to thinking much last time you came to see me. You'd like some explanation from me, right? You've been more honest with me than I with you.'

Nebula froze for a moment, then shut the door to the room and walked over to the end of Loki's bed. 'Yes, rather so. Here I was thinking you were fleeing some petty tribal violence among your species, but it's all much grander. You didn't even grow up on Jotunheim. Didn't you —'

'It's not you, Nebula.' Loki cut in. He threw up his hand in an effort to get a few more words in. 'Please don't think this was a personal slight. It's just not a story I like to share. How many people would respond positively when I tell them I tried to destroy my home planet?'

'What about Baugi? I hear that's not your name either.'

Loki sighed, his good cheer utterly deflated. 'I borrowed the name from a friend. Well, we didn't know each other particularly well, so maybe "friend" is an over-statement. I help him once and he helped me out of a tight spot in return. You can keep calling me Baugi if you like.'

'I don't think so. Loki suits you better — more appropriately slippery somehow,' Nebula replied. Loki wasn't sure if it was meant to be a jibe at him or not, but Nebula made it sound like one. However, she then seemed to collect herself and went on in a milder tone. 'Now isn't the time for a long conversation about this. I came because my father wanted you to join us for the midday meal if you were feeling up to it. Will you?'

Were Thanos or any of his other children present, Loki would have gushed about the honour to receive such an invitation. With Nebula, he didn't trouble himself.

'It's not the kind of invitation you refuse, is it?' Loki climbed out of bed and reached for his shoes. 'Not unless you are nine-tenths of the way to dead already.'

After two days, he no longer needed to hold onto a wall to feel secure, so they moved at a steady pace through the corridors of the Palisade. There was little said. Nebula had reverted to the reserved woman Loki had encountered during their first few days of training together.

'How angry are you with me?' Loki said. Sometimes you just had to force the issue and get the aftermath dealt with.

Nebula motioned for him to take a left turn, then shrugged. 'I'm not really. You're right, your story isn't the sort of thing you blurt out to a stranger. It's just I told you how I ended up here and you... Look, I don't know, maybe I am somewhat angry. Would you've told me the full story eventually?'

'I nearly told you up on the roof,' Loki lied.

----------------------------------------

Loki remembered the dining room — the broad table carved out of obsidian in the centre and the stiff, high-backed chairs lined up on either side. The table was too wide for the space and there were no windows, so in an attempt to make the room feel less cramped, vistas of vast, distant nebulae and galaxies were projected onto the walls. The effort was of limited success. For a change, Loki didn't need Thanos' presence to feel dwarfed by the forces around him.

But Thanos was present — seated at the head of the table, flanked at both sides by his Children and the senior member of his administrative staff. Loki was glad he and Nebula seemed to have arrived late. The remaining seats were on the opposite end of the table to the Titan.

'I am pleased to see you up and about, Loki,' Thanos said as Nebula and Loki slipped into adjoining vacant seats. 'We have much to discuss, don't we?'

Loki forced a smile. 'If that is so, I am at your disposal.'

'See that you are,' came the reply.

Beyond that, Thanos had little interest in Loki at that moment. He turned to Proxima Midnight, who had managed to nab the chair immediately to Thanos' right, and queried the readiness of the thirty-sixth artillery unit. Proxima's answer sparked a rapid-fire discussion that drew in half a dozen people around the table. Lacking context and hearing only snatches of the dialogue from his distant seat, Loki couldn't follow the trail of the conversation.

The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

He worked instead on clearing his plate. Thanos and Loki's appetite didn't really go hand in hand.

'We should get back into the training hall tomorrow,' Nebula said between eager mouthfuls of her soup. 'We'll take it slowly. Better that than linger idly too long and become soft.'

Loki nodded. 'Quite right. Though I doubt you'll go all that easy on me.'

Nebula smirked.

Whatever else one could say about the ethics of those who facilitated Thanos' mad crusade, they worked hard. No one lingered at the table once they were done. Since Nebula and Loki had been the last to arrive, they were soon the only people, save Thanos himself, who remained in the room. Nebula too didn't sit about staring at her empty dessert bowl. She glanced to her father, then pushed her chair back.

'I have some errands to run,' she said. 'Do you remember how to get back to the medbay?'

'I will have him well looked-after if he doesn't,' Thanos answered in Loki's stead. 'Come up here and sit by me, Loki. Have you finished with your meal? If not, bring it with you. We'll talk while you eat.'

Nebula rested her hand on the back of Loki's chair, the tips of her fingers brushing along Loki's shoulders. 'I'll leave you two to it then.'

Loki wistfully followed her departure out of the corner of his eye while for his part, he rose from his chair and moved to sit by Thanos' side. He brought his plate with him. A polite man didn't talk while he chewed, thus chewing afforded you time to consider your words.

'When we last spoke, you made a certain statement,' Thanos said. What minute jovial undertone there had been to his words earlier was gone. 'You claimed your father once sought the infinity stones. I would like you to elaborate on that.'

Frowning, Loki set down his fork. 'Nebula hinted that you were searching for an alternative way to carry out your plans. Is this it? The infinity stones?' He chuckled. 'That's an ingenious idea.'

'What do you know of them?'

'They are the six elemental crystals born in the genesis of the universe. Each controls an essential aspect of existence — reality, space, mind, power, time and soul. Their potential has few rivals, but the stones are as dangerous to their wielder as they are to those the stones are wielded against. If you are not powerful enough to wield a stone, you won't survive.'

Loki could see Thanos' patience strain while he recalled what his history tutor had drilled into his head in the first years of his studies. Anyone with a thorough knowledge of the history of the universe would have been able to blurt out the same explanation, so it was not a word more than Thanos already knew. But Loki found himself reluctant to say anything more. He had set out to leave Asgard out of the game, yet had given up Asgard with his opening gambit. Now he had to give up the infinity stones too.

To make a mistake once is unfortunate. To do so twice is blatant stupidity.

And yet.

Means and ends, Loki. Ends and means.

'In truth,' Loki went on, 'I know little of my father's quest for the stones. He wishes to be known as a peacemaker and dislikes speaking of his more... bloodthirsty years. To my knowledge, he only possessed one. It was the space stone, I believe.'

'Possessed? Thanos' eyes narrowed. He leaned forward, his elbows sliding across the polished tabletop. 'Are you certain? What's happened to the stone since? Did someone take it from your father?'

'He hid it. On Midgard. It's one of the planets that make up the Nine Realms, but I cannot really tell you anything more precise than that about its location.'

'Oh, my friend, you've told me plenty already,' Thanos replied.

They weren't friends, but Loki did agree with the rest of Thanos' sentiment. He wasn't getting anything more out of Loki when it came to the infinity stones. Not the history of the Tesseract since Odin had brought it to Midgard; not where King Bor had buried the reality stone; not the location of the time stone; and certainly not how the dwarves of Nidavellir had once forged a gauntlet that would contain the power of all six stones.

'I'm glad I could be of service to you, my lord,' Loki said. He picked up his fork and sank his face towards his plate lest his expression betray him.

'Midgard,' Thanos said under his breath, then more audibly. 'Another planet I am unfamiliar with.'

Loki swallowed a piece of root vegetable he couldn't quite put a name to, then responded. 'Midgard is its name among the Asgardians; the local inhabitants call it Earth. There isn't much to say in favour of the native population. Their greatest achievements are the endless methods they devise to murder one other. They've made a few brief visits to their moon and sent some unmanned ships out to explore other planets in their home system, nothing more. If your navigational charts have the planet labelled, it'll be in the Virgo Supercluster.'

'That supercluster is thirty-three megaparsecs in diameter and contains a good hundred galaxy groups,' Gamora said as she strode into the room. 'Can't you do better than that?'

Loki waited a beat in the hope that Thanos would order Gamora out of the room, but he seemed unbothered by Gamora taking a seat opposite Loki. When a servant brought out a bowl of soup for Gamora, Loki surmised he would have to accept her intrusion.

'Certainly,' he said. 'It's in the Orion-Cygnus arm of the Via Lactea galaxy. Your navigational charts are most likely to list it under the designator "Sol 3". Is that detailed enough or shall I map out the flight path for you as well?'

Thanos' chuckle cut off Gamora's reply before she could get past the first syllable.

'Fate plays strange games. Titan is located in the Perseus arm, right next to the Orion-Cygnus arm,' he said. Still smiling, his gaze lingered on his daughter. 'Gamora, are you trying to avoid somebody or have you suddenly developed a taste for tepid food?'

'The latter, father. Definitely, the latter.'

Thanos' smile faltered. 'Careful. Don't disappoint me more than you already have.'

Although the words hadn't been directed at him, Loki drew back as far as the stiff chair would let him. Was this still about the fight between Gamora and Nebula? Or was this something else? He didn't particularly want to become entangled so deeply in Thanos' family matters, so he was relieved Gamora recognised the danger in her father's tone and made a show of contrition.

'I trust you don't want to disappoint me either, Loki,' Thanos said. 'I want you to give me a written account of everything you remember about this planet and about the infinity stones. Don't spare a single detail.'

Shivers trailed down Loki's back as he nodded. He had made a conscious decision to take a different path to Thanos, yet he was so close now to reprising his original role. A demand for information was how it had started last time too. Even the phrasing to Thanos' words was nearly identical. The Titan had offered Loki the chance to lead the invasion force not four weeks later. What if some events were beyond his power to his change? For all the muck between Asgard and Jotunheim, Loki had still killed his birth father and had still unleashed the Bifrost upon the frost giants.

He took a breath. 'How long do I have to make my report?'