Between the clanging blades, the shouting and the thunder of the soldiers' feet, the ambient noise in the training hall verged on deafening. There wasn't much to be done about the clanging - this was the point of their endeavours here. The exclamations of victory, grunts of exertion and raucous war cries also bothered Loki little. The stomping, on the other hand, bothered him a great deal.

The Exians as a species were naturally heavy on their feet and not renowned for their martial skills, a testament to the scraps Thanos accepted into his fold. Loki had gone through dozens of footwork drills over the past fortnight in an effort to do something about this obvious handicap. The Exians were starting to change direction quicker, but so far, the noise hadn't improved in the slightest.

There won't be many covert missions for this lot.

Loki paused to watch one of the many mock fights going on in the hall. The two fighters had training gear on, which was laden with sensors that identified where they had been struck, as well as the velocity and the angle of the hit. It was enough information to identify not only who had won the exchange, but to also calculate the likelihood of death from every strike given and received. Watching the two men sparring were three of their comrades, whose task was to do what the sensors couldn't - identify why certain moves were successful and others failed.

Ince roared in frustration as the sensors on his chest and left arm lit up, then flashed the pattern that indicated he had received a fatal blow. Whipping off his mask, the Exian turned to Loki. 'He keeps hitting into my attack. These three can't tell me what I'm mucking up here.'

The three observers to this sparring pair started to respond, but Loki motioned for them to quieten down. This was a flaw in this system of peer-review, but while he would have liked to watch and coach every pair, there was only one of him for the dozens of Exians in his charge. He beckoned over Ince's opponent.

'Would you like to share how you are getting these hits on Ince?' Loki asked. He recognised the man's face, he was one of the youngest in the company and rather smaller than the others, but his name escaped Loki.

The Exian's ears drew up. 'I can't quite explain it, sir. I see him moving towards me and I just know that if I go for it, I'll get him before he can get me.'

This one's worth watching.

'It's all right,' Loki replied. 'There are many things we see without realising that we are seeing them. Ince, he's not counter-attacking into your attack. He's attacking into your preparation. Your first step is very large and slow. Once you notice it, it's like a warning beacon for what you're about to do.'

'It's always about the footwork with you, captain.' Ince said. He let out a guttural roar, which Loki had come to understand passed for a chuckle among the Exians.

Loki smiled. 'I think you're catching on, Ince. We'll work on this tomorrow. Is it time for you to rotate partners?'

'One more hit.'

'Make it count then.'

A warm hand slid over Loki's shoulder and trailed up to the top of his head. Words - unintelligible, but soothing - crooned into his ear. Loki slammed the boundaries of his mind shut and his vision exploded in white pain.

'Sir?' Ince called out, grabbing Loki's arm.

It took a few seconds for Loki's vision to clear. He now stood about a foot back from where he had been, with Ince's long fingers wrapped around his forearm. Loki extracted himself from Ince's grasp and glanced around. Only a couple of the other Exians had noticed that something had just made their instructor stagger back like he'd been struck with a lightning bolt.

'Captain?' Ince tried again.

'Everything is fine,' Loki said. 'Thank you for your concern. Please return to your training.'

'Yes, sir.'

Loki made another, more careful, sweep of the hall. Sure enough, Ebony Maw stood up on the narrow balcony that overlooked the training area. Loki climbed up the stairs and walked over to the Maw.

'You don't have to linger up here,' Loki said. 'It's so far up you can't see anything useful. Besides, the soldiers would be honoured to meet you.'

'I have already seen what I sought to see,' Ebony Maw replied with a self-satisfied smirk.

'What just happened to me. Was that you?'

'That night we first met at the evening meal in the Mess, I suspected you sensed and repulsed me. I was right.'

'So that's what it was. Have to say, that's more than a tad creepy.'

He had second thoughts about those words the moment they came out of his mouth. There was nothing intelligent about antagonising Ebony Maw. But he had been concerned with not voicing his initial thought: that fucking hurt. The Maw had probably surmised as much, but it would have been idiotic for Loki to confirm his weakness. Although, to be fair, Loki had partially inflicted the pain on himself. While Loki had mostly recovered from his trial by mind stone, his magic remained tender (for the lack of a better word). He had overreacted and slammed his mind shut with far more force than necessary.

Loki drummed his fingers along the balcony railing. 'Was there something you wanted to extract from my mind? I thought my answers satisfied Lord Thanos. Or is this a personal enquiry?'

'If you can repel me, you must know something of mind manipulation,' Ebony Maw replied as he drew his hands together in front of his chest.

At those words, Loki understood the direction Ebony Mow was steering the conversation towards, which was a relief. Loki knew a shortcut. 'Magic, yes. I know quite a bit about it. But I won't be much use to you as a sorcerer. I've been told, I was born with a great capacity for magic, but as I grew up, the sum of what I could produce amounted to little more than purple sparkles. I studied for years, reading every book I could get my hands on, with no success. There's something broken in me.'

This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

'Hmm. A traumatic event can precipitate such a thing, especially in a child.'

Ripping apart space and time so violently your younger self is obliterated counts too I guess.

Loki remained silent for a moment, feigning contemplation, before he responded. 'The Jotnar say my mother was a sorceress. While I have no proof, my suspicion is that she drained me of everything she considered valuable before they left me out to die. Why waste the potential power boost when you are in the middle of a war? The mind has forgotten that betrayal, but the magic remembers the violence of that act. It recoils when it comes in contact with another's magic; I can barely control it. You saw this twice now.'

'Three. Perhaps.' Ebony Maw lifted his hands up until the tips of his bony fingers rested against his chin. 'Every mind suffers under the sceptre, but it was different with you.'

A trio of war cries cut through the general din in the hall, reminding Loki that he and Ebony Maw were not the only people in the vicinity. Loki's persona had to incorporate multiple dimensions today.

'I'll have to defer to your superior experience with that sceptre,' he said. 'I beg your pardon, Ebony Maw. While I appreciate your visit, I need to return to my students.'

The Maw nodded. 'It is my error. I was under impression the training session would be finished.'

'They need the extra hour.'

'General Glaive would approve of your efforts.' Loki muttered out a thank you and was about to turn away, when Ebony Maw furrowed his nose and went on, 'Would you consider assisting me on a project? The Great Titan and I might benefit from an additional perspective.'

'What sort of project?' Loki asked. It took all of his self-possession to keep his tone from betraying the weight the question carried in his mind.

'It concerns the infinity stones.'

Loki bit his lip to mask his grimace. 'You ought to have led with that. I already promised our lord all the assistance I can offer on the subject of the stones.'

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

Nebula swung out her left leg and jumped. She caught the barely visible crack in the stone with her right hand, then pulled herself up until she found a bit of rock that would hold her feet. Loki meanwhile tried to memorise her movements from a good three metres further down the cliff-face. He still wasn't sure why he was hanging off the side of a mountain largely by the strength of the two limbs he had found holds for. He would have never allowed Thor to talk him into spending his well-deserved free afternoon on this.

'Ebony Maw would've just glided up to the summit,' Loki muttered under his breath. 'Proclaiming the glory of Thanos the entire way up too.'

He had never quite mastered the trick Ebony Maw used to move himself around without the aid of his feet, but an intelligent sorcerer could solve the problem in any number of alternate ways. Namely, conjuring a ladder up top. Of course, that wasn't a viable solution in this instance as Loki was trying to downplay his magical ability as much as possible, but they didn't even need magic. They had left a perfectly fine ship sitting idle at the bottom of the cliff.

Loki glanced down. From two hundred metres up, the ship looked like little more than a speck of silver in a landscape of brown dirt and reddish, iron-rich hunks of stone. At least rappelling down would be much quicker than climbing up.

He sighed and resumed following the trail of Nebula's ascent. She had been up this mountainside many times before, so she moved without fear of making a mistake, stopping only so Loki wouldn't be left too far behind. The last seventy or so metres up to the summit proved the most difficult, with the available handholds shallow and too far apart. Loki focused solely on remaining clung to the side off the cliff. With every move up, the fall back down became longer. He had survived numerous bad falls over the years, but those experiences had never been pleasant, so he was keen to avoid another one.

Above him, Nebula reached the lip of the cliff and crawled over the edge, first her torso, then her legs disappearing from view.

'Come on, Loki, we're here!' she called out. A couple of seconds later Nebula's upper body came into view and she extended her hand out to Loki.

He wasn't anywhere near in position to reach her, so he hurriedly climbed the remaining few metres. When he was close enough, he grasped Nebula's hand and she helped him climb over the cliff's edge.

'Thank the Norns, that's done,' Loki said. He pulled off his small backpack and attempted to brush off the dust that had accumulated on his hands during the climb. 'As far as cross-training goes, this isn't my first choice.'

Nebula laughed. She had already pulled out a flask from her bag and sat down on the bare ground, dangling her feet back over the lip of the cliff. Loki took the spot to her left and accepted the flask when she passed it to him. The water inside was flavoured with some kind of citrus, which left the water somewhat sour, but it was refreshing nevertheless.

'Don't you like the view, Loki?' Nebula asked.

From their vantage point they overlooked Sanctuary City, which was now bathed in the angled, crimson and mauve lights of another sunset that camouflaged the detail of the sordid activities going on in the city.

'Best view I've seen since my ship first landed on Theta-Three,' Loki conceded.

She accepted the flask when Loki offered it back to her, but said nothing more for a long while, seemingly content to enjoy the opportunity to escape the city. Loki was mostly just glad that the awkwardness between them after the 'revelations' in the wake of his interrogation by the sceptre were behind them now and Nebula felt comfortable enough to relax herself around her once more.

'One day we'll probably have to leave this place,' Loki said.

'I suppose.' Nebula shrugged. 'I suppose one day you'll want to return to your home too.'

'When we are victorious, yes. And you'll go back to Luthom?'

Nebula turned the flask in her hands. 'For a short time maybe. I think my father will always have some task for me, however big or small. I wish one day I could see your home-world. Well, home-worlds. And to meet your adoptive mother. She... sounds nice.'

When Thanos had arrived on Luthom, Nebula's own mother had been in the unfortunate half of the population who had been chosen to become the Children of Thanos through immediate execution. Loki certainly wasn't opposed to sharing Frigga with her and suspected Frigga would warm up to Nebula within moments of meeting her.

'You are welcome to visit and to stay as long as you like,' Loki said.

You are also welcome to run away with me right this minute.

A little over two weeks ago he had lied to her in claiming he had been tempted to tell her the truth. The problem was, since Nebula had brought up the idea, Loki couldn't shake the possibility of revealing the truth to her. She had turned on Thanos only a few years later and it was clear in so many of the conversations between them since they met that she had grievances about the lifestyle Thanos had chosen for her.

At the same time, she had betrayed to Thanos that Gamora had discovered the location of the soul stone. After the near disaster with Brunnhilde, Loki couldn't risk any more loose ends. As long as Thanos possessed the mind stone, no one was safe. Even Heimdall had been a mistake. No matter how well-meaning a person was or how much Loki trusted them, Loki could never share the truth with them on the off-chance they ever crossed paths with the Titan.

Loki had never cared for confidants and whispered secrets in the dark, but choosing not to share a secret differed greatly from the knowledge that his mind held truths he couldn't reveal to a single person in the entirety of the universe. His path was his to walk and his alone. His burdens were never to be shared. How long could he go on until the lies couldn't smooth over his behaviour? People didn't like to be lied to; they would demand explanation and they would withdraw from him if his answers didn't satisfy.

Loki's face must have betrayed something, because Nebula frowned and said, 'You all right? You don't look right.'

'A touch of light-headiness,' he replied quickly. 'It'll pass in a second.'