'Good luck,' Gamora said and chuckled. 'Shit. Never thought I'd be saying that to you.'

Loki muttered a few quick words of gratitude in reply and stepped away, his feet shuffling over the rough surface of the helicarrier's deck. Citing changing climatic conditions, the ship's crew had dropped the USS Gibraltar to a lower altitude. They were still well-above the ocean, but low enough that the Midgardians could suffer to be outside without resorting to cumbersome breathing apparatuses. This allowed an entire party to gather to witness their departure: Rogers, Stark, Concannon, Travers, Hill and about two dozen SHIELD agents whose faces were very familiar, but whose names Loki never bothered to learn.

'Loki!' Thor called out from the ramp up to the quinjet that would shuttle them over to the nearest patch of land available.

When Asgardians travelled, they inevitably left their mark. In light of Midgard's present precarious situation, it seemed a poor idea to allow Heimdall to burn a hole into one of the more formidable assets the Midgardians could rely on for their defence.

Eager not to anger his brother further, Loki ran across the runway and up the ramp. Not a second after he was on board, either Romanoff or Coulson closed the hatch. No doubt frustrated they couldn't do more, Romanoff had volunteered to pilot the quinjet, while Coulson had argued that, since she was still recovering, a co-pilot would be a prudent addition. However, as the quinjet's engines kicked in and it rose into the air, he climbed out of his seat, letting Romanoff work on her own.

'I can't say I'm big on this plan,' he said, moving to the back end of the fuselage. 'We've no way of verifying the accuracy of what Gamora said.'

'I know,' Loki replied.

Does the man think me daft?

In fact, Gamora was the least of Loki's anxieties. How many had there been on Titan against Thanos and still lost? How many had fought in Wakanda? Two men against the Mad Titan seemed a folly. The only consolation Loki could find was the thought that the Avengers' and the Guardians' previous failures were proof that the obvious strategy wouldn't work and they had to try something different. Thor and Loki venturing out to face Thanos head on was that alternate strategy. But Loki couldn't bring himself to embrace that notion. Loki and Brunnhilde had set out to kill Thanos once before and failed dismally.

Thor, who presently peered out the quinjet's window with his jaw tight and his shoulders squared -- every inch of him the warrior-king from the sagas, was the sole reason Loki hadn't yet commandeered another of SHIELD's quinjets and fled as far as he could. Loki knew his brother. As much as Thor's temper made him insufferable to live with at times, it could also become a potent weapon.

'You've offered clemency to the Titan's daughter, have you not?' Thor said, tearing his gaze away from the window.

'We told her from the first day that we could negotiate the charges against her if she cooperated,' Coulson replied. 'We'll honour that. And if he does descend upon us... Never mind, we'll cross that bridge when we get to it.'

'I swore to protect Midgard, I intend to fulfil that oath,' Thor responded.

Loki frowned. There were so many 'what ifs' and 'what abouts' in this scenario, surely even in Thor's mind, yet none of them wanted to give discuss the possibility of failure. But this wasn't a time for cowardice. He ran the tip of his tongue over his lower lip, then spoke. 'Should Thor and I fail, it'll be up to you and your team to put together one last line of defence.'

'You and Gamora were quite emotive about how inadequate humanity --'

'When pressed against the wall, I'd take Midgardians over many other species in this universe,' Loki replied. 'The last time you and I met in the old time-line? I'd just lured Thor into that lovely cell and, with the helicarrier high in the air, sent the entire thing tumbling tens of thousands of feet to the ground. You saw what I did to my brother - a god from ancient myths - yet you just walked out and challenged me all the same. I remember you were holding this ridiculously sized gun that you didn't know how to use. Just an average, middle-aged man, but you didn't look the slightest bit afraid of me. I put the sceptre right through the chest of course, but you still managed to taunt me, saying that "I lacked conviction" and then you took a shot at me.'

'Is this meant to be an encouraging story?' Coulson said. Whether he was cognizant of it or not, he did subtly shift away.

Careful not to slide off balance as the quinjet banked, Loki moved to close the space Coulson's retreat had created. 'Inspiring speeches to the beat of a war-drum are Thor's responsibility. But I can say this much. Nick Fury has a good idea in putting together the Avengers. And his instinct is right, even Banner will be an asset and not a liability. But really, the Avengers don't mean all that much. This planet is populated by billions of ordinary people. People like you, Phil, who'll continue fighting when the odds seem impossible. And that'll be enough.'

'I pray you're right.'

Coulson seemed about to continue, but Romanoff lowered the quinjet's nose, nearly sending everyone else inside the jet tumbling. A rocky island emerged from the blue-grey water, then, well before Loki was ready, the quinjet descended on a deserted beach peppered with shale.

'This is where we say goodbye today,' Thor said with forced cheerfulness.

Romanoff leaned out of her seat. 'Good luck, boys.'

The four of them exchanged numerous wishes of good luck before Loki and Thor finally stepped out onto the pebbled shore. Thor then shouted for Romanoff to take off and watched the quinjet until it slipped into the gathering storm clouds. Loki, meanwhile, merely listened to the water foam up as waves rolled in.

'Do you believe the words you said to Coulson?' Thor asked, rolling Mjolnir's handle between his fingers and the palm of his hands.

'Oh, if it comes to open battle for Midgard, they'll fight bravely. And they'll die bravely, every single one of them.'

'There's honour in such a death.'

'You know what's better than an honourable death? Living.' Loki said and immediately dismissed his own words with a wave of his hand. With a sigh, he kicked a pebble, sending it tumbling across the beach. 'Thor, I don't want to go after Thanos with things between us like this. Before you call for Heimdall, we should ta --'

Thor glared at his brother. 'Heimdall! We're ready!'

Swearing, Loki scrambled to complete his transformation into Gamora.

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

It was commonly thought among the Asgardians that Heimdall had the power to see everyone in the universe. Potentially, this was so and as far as Loki could tell, Heimdall quietly encouraged this belief. In practice, however, his abilities had limitations. Trillions of people lived in the universe, he could hardly find one out of those trillions when he didn't know where to look. He was also liable to lose track when wormholes were involved and blind to anything outside his own dimension. But Gamora had offered up enough information for Heimdall to finally find Thanos -- on Melchiorre, the home-planet of the Tanaj Empire.

Or rather, what had been the Tanaj Empire. Heimdall's magic seared its brand into the ground as Loki and Thor landed and the heat of that brand vaporise the stagnant liquid that had pooled over the ground. Loki gagged at the foul smell, then nearly lurched over as he realised that what he smelled was excrement mixed with drying blood.

'What is this? Norns have mercy on their souls,' Thor mumbled.

Keeping a hand over his mouth, Loki followed the trail of Thor's gaze and almost emptied the contents of his stomach anew. They stood in the middle of a great square surrounded by tall walls of carved obsidian. Someone had neatly bisected the space. On the left -- a few scattered pieces of clothing. On the right -- piled bodies. Thousands of them, all pressed together so tightly it was impossible to tell what limbs had belonged to whom. Yet someone remained unsatisfied. Soldiers were climbing over the corpses, occasionally discharging their rifles into the tangle of limbs and torsos under their feet.

'Thanos has taken the planet,' Loki said. 'I think they're making sure there are no survivors here.'

Thor exhaled sharply. 'This is --'

'Who are you!' shouted a hulking Outrider. He jumped off the piled corpses and rushed towards Thor and Loki.

'Hold on, hold on,' Thor responded. He slipped his hand through Mjolnir's strap and let the hammer hang off his wrist as he brought his hands up. 'We mean no harm!'

How the fuck does Heimdall decide where we land? It's like he uses it as an opportunity to make my life difficult every time. Smug bastard.

Loki stepped in front of Thor. The pallid light of Melchiorre's two distant suns, which seemed all the more inadequate after the vivid shades of the wormhole Heimdall had just sent Loki and Thor through, left much hazy, but there was enough illumination to make out the Outrider's uniform. Loki cocked his head. 'Do you not recognise me?'

The Outrider stopped in mid-step, but was silent. Half a dozen more of his compatriots soon caught up to him. One of them piped up in a hesitant tone. 'Aren't you Gamora?'

'Precisely.' Loki let out a dissatisfied huff. 'Is my father here? Tell him I have returned and I bring a guest. This is Thor, King of the Asgardians. He's to be treated with utmost respect.'

'Yes, ma'am,' said another of the Outriders. Armbands on his biceps identified him as a troop leader and his guttural hiss sent two of his men running towards the three-storey complex that overlooked the square. 'I don't mean no disrespect, but why the restraints?'

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'Why indeed?' Loki turned to Thor and thrust out the shackles towards him. These were a shallow replica of those Gamora had been forced to wear and Loki could have disposed of them himself with ease, but it was dangerous to only half-heartedly commit to a deception. 'We had a bargain, your majesty.'

'So we did.' Grimacing at the swelling numbers of Outriders moving towards them, Thor unlocked the shackles and pulled them off Loki. He let the shackles drop to the ground.

The Outrider troop-leader lifted up the faceplate of his helmet and wrinkled his nose in distaste. 'Follow us,' he ordered.

Neither Thor nor Loki had reason to argue with the directions. A good half of the gathered Outriders stood motionless until Thor and Loki passed, then trailed behind, forming a sizable rear-guard. They moved quickly through the square and into the sprawling complex where, thankfully, the stench from the dead wasn't so potent.

Before they left, Loki had tried to pry out of Gamora everything she knew about the Tanaj. It turned out she knew little more than he did, but from what she had offered him, Loki surmised they were in one of the many palace complexes built for Tanaj's two imperial clans. It might have even been the grand palace itself. They must have passed through a dozen courtyards, the walls of each more lavishly decorated than the last.

However, at an odd pentagonal courtyard decorated with bright mosaics and carved lapis lazuli, the Outriders came to a stop and the troop-leader turned to Loki and Thor. 'It is protocol for everyone to be searched or they can't go further.'

'If you must,' Loki replied with a snide tone that he thought was a perfect mimicry of Gamora's inflection.

The Outriders were thorough, divesting Loki of three knives that he had hidden in compartments of Gamora's clothing. With a show of great reluctance, Thor relinquished Mjolnir as well. At that point, the bulk of the Outriders fell back. Only five remained to escort Loki and Thor through two more unoccupied courtyards and to a twelve-foot-tall archway of carved azure.

'The Great Titan will want to see these two,' the Outrider troop-leader said to a quivering woman who stood by the archway.

The woman was a foot shorter than Gamora and looked to be a native of Melchiorre. She bore a close resemblance to the dead out in front of the palace complex. Loki wondered if she had been there, had merely been lucky enough to end up on the other side of the square. If, of course, it was fair to consider that a lucky outcome. The Outrider's words sent her quivering even more violently and as she led Thor and Loki through the arched passageway, she seemed to shrink further into herself.

Loki hadn't been conscious of the quiet in the palace until the sound of laughter and overlapping conversations became audible. Someone was celebrating. Loki wasn't surprised that once they passed through another agate arch they emerged on the largest courtyard yet. And it wasn't just the size that distinguished this one from the rest. A long table was set up in the centre. The space immediately around it brimmed with people -- the party-guests seated on low benches and the servants, many of them in stained and torn clothing, rushing about to accommodate every need. Loki made a scan of the table: scores of Thanos' officers, Cull Obsidian, Proxima Midnight, Ebony Maw and some Tanaj representatives, who were better dressed than the servants, but looked decidedly mortified by their surroundings.

The head of the table, however, was empty. Loki turned to question the Tanaj woman and found she had melted into the hubbub of the celebratory party.

'Gamora,' Thanos called out. There was plenty of the noise, which the walls of the courtyard only amplified, but Thanos' voice cut through it all.

Loki spun around. He and Thor had entered through a side entrance, while Thanos and two adolescent Tanaj had come through the even grander, twenty-foot-high archway of obsidian and lapis lazuli. Thanos still wore much of his blood-spattered battle armour, the shoulder pieces glistened where they caught the suns' rays.

'I see it's time to congratulate you and Proxima on a victory,' Loki said. As he fought to remain in control of his breathing, Thor's hand clenched around where Mjolnir's handle should have been.

Standing beside the two Tanaj adolescents, neither of whom looked like they have reached their adult height yet, Thanos mass seemed all the more formidable. It became worse yet, when he abandoned the two Tanaj. Loki's breath hitched as Thanos crossed the distance between them and hooked a finger under Loki's chin, forcing Loki's head to tilt up. Even with the thick leather gloves Thanos had on, the gesture forced more intimacy than Loki could ever be comfortable with.

'I trust you made them pay for every hurt and insult,' Thanos said. 'You look well at least, if tired.'

Loki made himself release the breath he had been holding. 'Not quite yet, father, but I will.'

'Good. And who is this?'

'Thor, King of Asgard and Protector of the Nine Realms,' Thor said haughtily. 'I wish to discuss the future of the Nine Realms with you. As a gesture of good faith, I have facilitated Gamora's escape and return to you.'

'Hmm. You don't look much like your brother.'

Thor scowled and replied with enough venom that Loki wasn't certain if the words were mere pretence or not. 'He was adopted and no true brother to me.'

'Family is difficult, is it not?' Thanos smiled, but his gaze slipped back to Loki and there was no sign of affection to be found in Thanos' eyes. Loki was certain, come morning Thanos would want Gamora to answer for her failures on Midgard. 'I thank you, Thor, King of Asgard, for the assistance you have rendered my daughter. If you wish to speak, we shall. But would you not join our celebrations first? The new emperors of the Tanaj and I have just settled a peace treaty.'

Both young men, who still stood where Thanos had abandoned them, sank their faces towards the flagstones under their feet. In fact, one of them seemed to be weeping. Loki turned to his brother. There was nothing that could be done for the Tanaj now and only one acceptable answer to Thanos' offer, but while Loki wore Gamora's face, it wasn't his place to provide a response.

'If you have a place at the table for me,' Thor said, 'I shall consider it an honour to participate in the celebrations for such a momentous an occasion.'

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

The celebratory feast stretched late into the evening. Hundreds of lanterns were lit and the surviving palace staff rushed about, taking away one course and bringing out another. Thor, as a visiting dignitary, had been seated close to Thanos and the two scions of the Tanaj imperial clans, while Loki ended up further down the table amid Thanos' military cadre. He listened in and laughed along to the tales of successful skirmishes and tricky counter-actions, but it was impossible to relax. Every time the servants reached for a plate, their hands shook and every time Thanos' head turned in Loki's direction, Loki had to make a concerted effort not to drop his cutlery. It was a relief when the announcement came that the last course of the night had finally been served and the party guests began dispersing.

But that relief proved very temporary, because Thanos soon beckoned Loki to the head of the table.

'Is this what it's always like?' Thor was asking as Loki ignored the painful knots in the pit of his stomach and took the seat Proxima Midnight had recently vacated.

Loki slid his hand over blots of dark stains across the table top, then glanced to the two Tanaj emperors, who still sat at the table and dumbly peered at the scene around them as if stupefied. Loki flashed them a warm smile. 'From what I heard from the others, this was a hard-won victory.'

'Not so much in the end,' Thanos replied. Shouting at the far end of the courtyard momentarily drew his attention; a group of Tanaj noblemen had taken an issue with the accommodations they had been reassigned to and were making a ruckus. 'You wished to talk, your highness. I certainly appreciate your coming. I'm very interested to hear how this alliance between yourself and my daughter came to be.'

To Loki's befuddlement, Thor blushed. 'The Midgardians locked Gamora in a cell when she was captured, but on the third day of her captivity, she overpowered the guards and fled. The Midgardians begged me to aid her recapture and I obliged. When it came to blows, however, I found myself surprised. You daughter fights with more valour than any Midgardian. Still, I prevailed and returned her to Midgardian custody, who found a more secure cell - one Gamora couldn't escape without aid. But the encounter remained on my mind...' Thor bit his lip and gave Loki a side-long glance. 'Well, I began to visit Gamora in secret and we'd talk.'

Thor's eyes drifted lower, to the curve of Gamora's breasts. Loki had to try his hardest to transform his instinct to burst into laughter into a show of Gamora's embarrassment. This was why he loved his brother -- when it came to it, Thor could be as creative as Loki.

'I'm glad you found companionship in trying circumstances, daughter,' Thanos said. He leaned forward and brought his hands under his chin.

Loki frowned. The leather gloves Thanos had on didn't match the design of his armour nor had Loki ever seen him wear gloves of any kind before. While Loki debated with himself as to how Gamora would query her father's wardrobe choices, Thor motioned to the people still lingering in the courtyard.

'Can we move somewhere quieter,' he said. The shouting from the Tanaj was escalating and the situation looked about to turn ugly. 'I'm unaccustomed to discussing important matters in the presence of dozens of strangers.'

'Certainly.' Thanos rose from the table and whistled. 'Cull, watch our two boys don't get up to mischief!'

The young Tanaj emperors whimpered at Cull Obsidian's approach as Thanos led Thor and Loki inside the palace. In Loki's experience, many species revelled in larger-than-life architecture. The Tanaj, who seemed to grow to no more than five feet tall, were no exception. This palace had grandiose proportions. Yet, obscenely, as Thanos passed under one twelve-foot-tall, gilded archway after another, it almost looked like the palace had been constructed specifically with him in mind. He finally turned back to Thor and Loki when they reached a spacious, circular hall. In contrast to the rest of the palace, there was little finery here. The sole exceptions were the sprawling chandeliers overhead and the ten over-sized statues that overlooked the dual thrones set up on a large dais in the room's centre.

'We can speak freely here,' Thanos declared. The two thrones, rather surprisingly, had been constructed to accommodate only the average Tanaj, so Thanos had no hope of occupying either of them. Instead, he sat down on the stairs of the dais. 'I do hope your affection for my daughter isn't the sole reason you're chosen to forsake your previous allies.'

Thor scoffed. 'To call them allies is far too generous. The Midgardians have forgotten the true relationship between them and the man on the throne of Asgard. I intend to remind them of how little they are worth. In fact, I intend to remind everyone that they should offer a proper degree of respect to the King of Asgard.'

'You come to me --'

'My Einherjar are strong, but not as numerous as they should be. We, Asgardians, are a long-lived race, but we're also slow to come into adulthood.'

As he spoke, Thor paced the room, seemingly due to his agitation with the Midgardians, but Loki caught Thor's quick glances while he moved around the space. Like Loki, he was trying to assess the security of their surroundings. There were four entrances to this hall and from where they stood, it was difficult to see whether there was anyone on the other side of the open doors.

When Thor next moved past him, Loki gently rested his hand on Thor's bicep in what he hoped Thanos would interpret as a gesture of affection. 'Father, give Thor an army and he will lead them to victory. Then we will all share the spoils.'

Thanos looked dubious. 'Does your brother still live?' he asked.

'He's with the Midgardians. He was unaware of my plans to depart, but by now he might've surmised what has happened. I take it you consider Loki a threat.'

'He has caused a great deal of trouble for me.'

'He's always been a source of trouble.' Thor fiddled with his vambrace and resumed his pacing. 'Still, I am of two minds about what ought to be done with him. If directed properly, his mischief can bear good fruit. I wonder if killing him would be a waste.'

Loki shook his head. 'There's a saying, can't remember what planet it's from -- never turn your back on a tamed beast, you never know when it might bite you on the arse.'

Thanos chuckled, which Loki used as an opportunity to climb up the first of the dais steps. As much as every fibre in Loki's being cried for him to turn and flee, he needed to get closer. The closer, the better.

'You may be right, Gamora,' Thor replied. 'It is likely safer to eliminate him.'

I love you too, brother.

'No, I need him alive,' Thanos said. Thor's pacing left him standing too far from the dais to converse comfortably, so Thanos clambered up. 'At least for a time, he has to live.'

Loki moved two steps up until he stood behind Thanos and drew his hand up. As he reached into the pocket dimension, the mind stone hummed with frenetic anticipation, matching the beat of Loki's thumping heart.

'Father!' he said sharply.

Startled, Thanos turned around and found the sceptre pointed right at him.