We Remember Everything

by Thunderscourge

But Should I Write It All Off?

Luna had not returned to Equestria yet. Her seething rage was keeping her in Asgard, which coupled with her worry was enough reason for Frigga to let the princess take up residence in Loki’s vacant bedchambers.

Still, Luna was not about to mope around. She had waited by the Bifrost patiently, and soon enough her suspicions were proven correct. Thor strolled up to it in a more controlled anger, and behind him stood his warrior companions Sif, Hogun, Fandral and Volstagg. None of them seemed very pleased to have missed out on the action either, having returned the night before as Luna cried herself to sleep in Loki’s bed.

The crew seemed surprised to see Luna however, though for varying reasons. Sif and Hogun were surprised that she was there at all, while Fandral and Volstagg were more surprised that she had not run off to kill the culprit on her own, and Thor was surprised simply that she was not already wearing armor and preparing to do just that.

“A search party?” Luna questioned them, with Thor nodding in the affirmative.

“Of sorts. Heimdall has not been able to locate the missing, nor Thanos. We going to sweep over the entirety of the Nine Realms to see if there are any places hidden from his sight that Loki is hidden.”

Knowing that there are many more than nine worlds in space, Luna frowned at him, “And if he is not in the Nine Realms?”

Fandral replied with a smalls shrug, “Then we will expand our search, but we must begin somewhere.”

“I am coming,” Luna stated as a fact rather than a question.

Loki’s brother held a greeting hand out to Luna, “Be my guest.”

Thor would not deny her the opportunity to help find Loki and her apprentice, even if there was a chance she could go ballistic during the hunt. Thor would do whatever he could in his own power to find Loki, and he could only imagine what it was like to also lost a student at the same time.

Both Volstagg and Fandral were pleased to see Luna walk up to their group, a set of armor flashing into place over her ivory body. Lady Sif and Hogun were less pleased to see their new companion, though neither said a word as she joined them.

After all, they were loyal to the royalty, and both had enough brains to understand that perhaps the shapeshifter who could best Thor in combat would not be an enemy worth making no matter who her bedfellow was.

To Loki’s surprise, he awoke from a deep slumber with all body parts intact and without hanging over some roasting fire. Not from fear of his new companion, the ominously named Betrayer, but of fear of what else lurked out there. Loki had a feeling he had only scraped the surface of this world, and a large part of him did not care to wander through more of it.

Sitting like a stone statue at the cave’s mouth was the Betrayer himself. His back was turned to Loki and the other two new inhabitants, and he made no movement to acknowledge Loki’s awakening. However, the moment Loki sat up even half way the satyr’s voice rumbled.

“Mind explaining the two animals you brought with you?”

Despite the tinge of permanent bitterness Loki was beginning to read in the Betrayer’s voice, Asgard’s younger prince was not getting the feeling that this was an interrogation. Rather, it was a conversation of curiosity.

While trying to rise further Loki felt a jolt of immobilizing pain through his body as his mind was reminded that he had been brutalized by Thanos while not wearing armor as well as wounded by Laufey, a wound that was not bleeding for some reason he was quite unsure of but not about to take for granted.

After shrugging the pain off Loki nodded over to Trixie and then began to look for the Magpie he had created, soon finding it standing atop Trixie’s back rigidly, “I think you should know they are both sentient.”

That claim caused the Betrayer to turn his head, “Sentient? As in thinking as you and I do?”

Loki nodded while massaging his now aching head, his mind blurry and not remembering how much he told the horse-goat-elf-winged being before, “The horse is the apprentice of someone I know. She is quite skilled at magic, though I know little else about her. She has been comatose since before arriving here, after being mauled by two monsters.”

The Betrayer turned his purple head and glowing green eyes back to the exit of their small cave, “I will leave taking care of her to you then. I have little remaining knowledge of equine species and would do more harm than good.”

Loki beckoned Ikol to his arm and the feathered being was forced to obey with a flap of the wings, “This bird is a more interesting being. It seems Lady Death conjured up an alternate version of my own self, one with less scruples,” Loki smirked as the bird took its place, only for Loki to frown as he thought back to his obtaining of the bird, “He wanted to tell me something, but I did not care for his attitude.”

The Betrayer gave an amused snort but did not turn around in his post, “I could assume as much.”

While willing Ikol to stand on his shoulder Loki continued on about the bird, “He could likely speak if he so desired even after I forced him to transform. This quiet game is irritating, and when I feel it is the time I will punish his impudence and demand answers.”

The Betrayer let out a less than understanding noise this time around, “What are you keeping him for? Do you not worry he will return to his normal self?”

“As a magpie, he is unable to reach his full magical potential. Every species has differing potentials,” Loki smirked down at the helpless bird who could hear every word he was saying, then gazing over to Trixie, “That is why the horse is adept at using magic. Their species possesses far greater magic than practically any I have come across. But as a magpie, it would be all he could do to just speak.”

The satyr had no instant response. After a moment of silence he spoke with a neutral, careful voice.

“I see. So you turned him into something that he could not turn back from. Clever. But that does not explain his purpose.”

Loki looked back to Ikol with a less amused face, “That I have yet to decide. I want him to suffer, and that begins with being trapped like this. Furthermore, I bound him to my will, so he cannot disobey or leave me without me allowing him to,” he gives a pause before continuing, as Ikol shifting on his shoulder, “He knows things though...what I am not sure, but I could do worse than to listen to what he says.”

“Could he not lead you astray?” the Betrayer noted, though Loki could not tell if the man could see the irony in that statement.

Loki allowed the irony to go unstated, not sure how well the Betrayer would take to being called his earned name, “He could, but he may only do as I allow him, and I command him to only state the truth. I am known as the god of mischief, and he is my darker half. He would have me killed for humiliating him like this if I did not bind him like an animal.”

“You possess powerful magic. Remind me to stay on your better side.”

That caused Loki to shake his head for a moment. The ideas for the spells would not normally come across his mind, nor the energy to execute them...the whole experience made him feel off, and he had no explanation for it.

“I possess knowledge, a wealth of it, but even under normal circumstances using even one of those spells would have drained my power...certainly not something I could cast in quick succession...” Loki looked down to his hand before bringing it up to touch Ikol’s beak, “But when I used them, there was no end to my power...I know not where it came from.”

Loki’s words caused the satyr to purse his lips and grunt, “If I have learned anything over the years, it is that one should be careful what one taps into.”

The elf-being’s ears twitched and his mouth pursed. The sound of him rising caught Loki’s attention and the prince rose a brow at how the chimera was now walking off into the mist without announcing the reason.

“Going somewhere?” Loki called to him, a bit annoyed that he was not in the loop.

Almost completely shrouded by the mist, the satyr spoke in a low voice, “Stay here, human.”

Being called a human made Loki want to wretch, but he knew that he had not explained just what an Asgardian was compared to a human yet. That there was a difference. His companion in this hell likely thought Asgardian to be a type of human rather than another race entirely.

Even though he felt wrecked physically and all the pain of his wounds were fighting him, Loki stood up in opposition to this. He gave a look over to Trixie and nodded to the comatose equine.

“Stay here, horse,” he mockingly mimicked the satyr.

As Loki turned to leave the cave, the bird atop his shoulder spoke for the first time since its transformation, “You should leave with what he has left behind.”

Of all the times to talk, it was quite the opportune time to do so. When there were no others around to contradict it, no-one but Loki’s own conscious to turn away from it’s ideas.

Despite his own selfish nature, Loki felt gratitude towards the large elf. He had offered sanctuary in an unknown world. A dangerous, threatening world. What the cost of the sanctuary would be, Loki did not know, but he would not take the selfish way out and steal whatever little supplies the elf had.

Still, Loki was prideful and would not admit to his alternate self that graciousness, “I have yet to test his physical and mental capabilities, but for him to have survived this realm this long shows that he is no common being.”

Now ignoring Ikol, Loki started out in the same direction the Betrayer had left. While gratious, Loki was not about to sit around as something happened. After all, the elf had obviously heard something and was going to check on it. For it to cause him to get up and leave meant that it was probably something, and that drew Loki’s attention and interest as well.

It did not take long to catch up to the Betrayer, for he had not traveled too far from the cave. Upon seeing the purple, slightly tattered wings of his new companion Loki paused. The satyr had stopped walking, and was quite rigid. It was if he was staring at something that Loki could not see through the further mist.

After a moment of uneasy tension the Betrayer growled.

“What are you doing here, giant?”

Loki was taken aback. Was the Betrayer speaking to him? The satyr had just called him a human after all...Loki blinked as he thought about just how much he may have revealed about his history. Had he brought up being a Frost giant...or a half frost giant, as he learned recently? He had trouble remembering...

Before Loki could inquire, a familiar voice growled from just beyond the Betrayer.

“You have something of mine.”

Loki did his best to not take a step back, as he was quite sure he had passed a puddle on the way. He did not want to draw attention to himself, as he just heard the voice of Laufey.

His father had come and the satyr was standing in his way.

The ‘Betrayer’ played dumb in an almost mocking way, “Is that so? What do I have that could possibly be yours?”

Loki was taken aback as the invisible Laufey continued to growl, “My son. The genocidal beast you have taken. I would see him face justice for his crimes.”

“Then you must be Laufey. Now, I am not one for family squabbles, but your disowned son is recovering under my care right now,” it was then that Loki deemed the Betrayer’s name unfitting, “Should you lay a hand on him you will see why the lost do not inhabit this particular place.”

Laufey let out a small grunt, and given by how his voice’s level changed as he spoke he must have turned and started leaving, “So be it.”

The Betrayer likewise turned to leave, though when he did so he did not even give Loki a second glance. He just began walking towards him without a word, and Loki tried to find something to say until the satyr whipped around at an almost impossible speed to catch a hurtling ice dagger.

Not only the ice dagger was caught, but also three similar blades that had been aimed at his back. His speed had allowed him to catch them all, though it required the use of both hands. The Betrayer growled as he snapped the ice blades within his large palms, now speaking to the likely surprised Laufey.

“I may be blind, but that does not mean your trickery was unforeseeable. You think I would trust a man so callous that he would leave his son to die?”

Laufey made no verbal retort, instead charging through the mists to try and trying to assault the Betrayer head on. His first stabbing thrust was met with failure as the satyr caught the blue arm of Laufey with one giant hand still icy from the daggers that it had caught.

“This is your last warning,” the Betrayer growled to Laufey, who was struggling to free himself.

After his struggle did nothing to free him from the titan grip of his opponent, Laufey gave a snarling, “So be it.”

With that, he stopped trying to free himself. The Betrayer took this well, smiling down to the blue skinned giant before hurtling a fist into Laufey’s face. Laufey soon crumpled to the ground like a rag doll, though by his slight twitching Loki could see that he was alive.

Now free of the threat of Laufey, the Betrayer turned around to face Loki with a scowl as the elf’s ears continued to twitch.

“If you wish to survive, I would place more value in listening to your elders.”

Loki tried to play it off as nothing, though a cold chill went down his spine, “What? I was curious. Imagine my surprise to have a member of the family drop by.”

The Betrayer did not seem to receive the small attempt at humor well, as he firmly placed a hand on Loki’s shoulder before nodding to the place right behind Loki, “We have another visitor.”

With a burst of fear, Loki twisted around to find himself facing the cloaked Lady Death.

Cold. Very damn cold.

That was what came to mind to Luna on the world known as Jotunheim, where Loki hailed from. Cold in its temperature and cold in its people. The party Thor had assembled had passed by many citizens in the frozen tundra, yet none had tried to make any sort of contact. They only had leered with their red eyes and snarled with extreme passive anger at the visitors from another land.

Thor had claimed that there was a place where they could possibly find information, as suggested by Lady Frigga. Apparently the little known throughout all of Asgard about Thanos was that he had once been allied with the Frost Giants, though the extent and purpose of this relationship was not known.

That made it a good place to begin looking however, and Luna was determined to make sure they spilled every last word they knew about the purple giant who had broken into Asgard.

Heimdall had dropped them off a good few miles from their destination, as the place their desired to go was not accessible by the Bifrost given that it was underneath sheets of ice. Previously above ground, the kingdom of Jotunheim’s main castle had sunk when the Bifrost had swept across and damaged a good portion of the world.

Luna found herself somewhat entranced by the icey structure when first seeing it. The icy walls were similar to glaciers, and the ice of the castle was artfully carved. The varying shades of blue reminded Luna about her own various transformations and bodies, and the black abyss that surrounding it reminded Luna of her night sky.

The cold was not so bad after spending so long on the frigid moon, and Luna had learned to deal with icy beings in her time in Canterlot. She supposed she would have to learn more about the Jotuns before lumping them in the same category as the lowly Canterlot Elite.

The guards at the front gates made no move to prevent Thor’s company from entering, though they cast a gaze on them as icy as their world and blood. They had made combat with Thor, Loki, Sif, and the Warriors Three before and been utterly decimated in singular combat. While the Asgardians were not welcome, the guards knew they were in no position to stop them.

Thor led the others straight up to the very throne of the castle, Luna taking note of the architecture on her way through. She was smiling to herself upon walking up to the throne, whereupon Thor introduced himself to the Jotun sitting upon the throne.

It kind of reminded Luna of her last time visiting a king on their throne. Hopefully this would a more peaceful encounter than she had with Odin.

Thor politely kneeled to the Jotun king before him as his party followed suit behind him, “Sor, we come to your land in peace. There is a menace to the Nine Realms that we seek to stop, and we have reason to believe that your late king, Laufey, had dealings with them. He is a man known as Thanos, and he comes from a world we have no information of. Any knowledge of the man you could lend us would be most appreciated.”

The king atop the throne closed his blue eyelids and shook his head. He seemed disgusted by the gall of these foreigners who just strolled into his kind’s very throne room, “We owe your kind nothing, Asgardian.”

Despite their previous failure to repel the Asgardians, the guards in the room surrounded the party and leveled their various weapons at them. Rather than starting a fight, the group kept calm and let Thor resume his failing attempt at diplomacy.

“My party and I do not come to re-engage in combat. We have no desire to make battle—”

As Thor spoke the king rose from his seat and approached the prince. To cut Thor off, the giant placed a foot tauntingly on his shoulder and leaned down to whisper to him.

“Your kind is not welcome here, Asgardian.”

Whereas Thor once would have murdered someone for touching him without permission, the prince had since learned to temper himself. He kept calm while smiling up at the king. He dropped his hammer Mjolnir onto the ground and slowly rose up to face the king who stepped down from Thor’s shoulder as he rose.

Thor grinned to the man in the most sickeningly sweet way he could, “There was a time when I would have broken your jaw for that. But I am in no mood for unnecessary fighting. Tell me what your kind know of Thanos.”

The king scoffed down at the relatively short Thor, who the giant obviously towered over, “Why do you not ask the traitor prince himself?”

That was Luna’s cue to rise up, as the mention of a traitorous prince made her significantly more invested in the conversation.

Luna copied Thor’s sickening smile as she stood, “Forgive me, who are you?”

The King seemed amused by the woman who dare stand up before him, though he also grew a curious expression as he took a step back from Thor to look at the woman who stood even taller than Thor.

The king sneered down at her as well, “Fárbauti, ruler of Jotunheim after the death of my noble brother Laufey. I do not believe I know you, wench.”

Luna gave a mocking bow to him, “Luna, princess of Equestria,” while rising again she gave him a cheeky smirk, “Laufey. You know, my fiance has had little to say about his nobility. Something about being left to die by Laufey as an infant never sat right with him.”

The king seemed quite disgusted by Luna’s proclamation, “The traitor prince’s lover?”

Her ego stroked, Luna looked down to her hand and rubbed her fingers together before smirking up at him again, “Why yes, you could consider me something along those lines. But would that not also make me the princess of your kind? That you are not the rightful heir as told decided by the rules of inheritance?”

Fárbauti took a threatening step torward her, an ice dagger forming in his palm, “That disgrace will rule over my dead body.”

Luna’s sudden laughter caught Thor and the others off guard. Before any of them could move, she was lifting Fárbauti off his feet and into the cold air. The guards tried to react, but a strong gust of wind knocked them all away.

Luna calmed her mad laughter as she tightened her grip on the man in her grasp, “Oh, no, forgive me for stating the obvious, but that was a given the moment you decided to withhold information from us.”

Despite his precarious position, Fárbauti found it within himself to threaten her, “You, a lady, dare threaten me?”

The very next second he was blasted back with magic into his throne, crashing into the icy structure in a most painful way. Satisfied by his pain, Luna slowly approached him, “That’s one thing I think I’ll work on. Not a fan of the common sexism found in kingdoms to be honest.”

Slumped over the throne, Fárbauti spat out some blood before snarling at Luna and creating a shard of ice in his palm, “Work on?”

His quick strike faded through a black haze, Luna having used her Nightmare Moon powers to meld into the shadows. Completely surprised by this, Fárbauti was unable to avoid the strike of lightning that came from seemingly every direction. The electricity coursed through his body and he violently shook before the throne, only to have a firm foot slam into his spine and knock him on his knees.

Having reappeared, Luna bent down to grasp Fárbauti by his short hair and whisper in his ear much like he had to Thor, “After I dethrone you and become the true heir’s queen, of course.”

Recovered from the powerful shockwave of magic Luna knocked them over with, the guards in the room cautiously rose with their weapons in hand as Luna held their leader in her grasp. Thor’s company all relaxed as they stood in front of the defeated king, who was making no struggle to release himself.

Fárbauti raspily growled at Luna as she continued to tug on his hair, now having placed one armored boot on his back again, “You must be out of your mind.”

“Need a hand?” Fandral inquired, though by the looks of it he was quite unconvinced that she needed any assistance at all.

Luna snorted and waved the others away quite dismissively, not needing them at all for what she was about to do.

“I can handle this crowd. Please, go inquire about Thanos elsewhere. I will meet up with you later after I have extracted every last piece of information I can from this man’s head. The clock is ticking.”

Thor could tell that he would have to explain this all later to his father, but he felt some solace in the fact that the Jotuns had no capability for warfare and could not retaliate to this mess. Besides, no Asgardian had shed Jotun blood, and so on a very technical level they were free from the responsibility.

Still, he would let Luna use her magics on this man, and so Thor turned to leave the throne room with his warriors following suit. There were many others who they could question after all.

After the others had left, Luna looked around at the guardsmen who dared surround her. She did not want to kill them, as they were only doing their duty, but she could care less for the usurper in her grasp.

“I have heard in my time amongst Asgardians that those of Jotunheim respect strength and cunning. Now, tell me,” Luna yanked on Fárbauti’s hair again, “Does this pathetic excuse for a king display either in comparison to me? I wish you all no harm, but I will not hesitate to kill you in self defense should you try and interrupt me.”

Having seen her capabilities firsthand, the guards lowered their weapons and took a step back. They had a quarrel with her lover, not her, and there was no use losing their lives in an impossible to win battle. The Jotuns had waited hundreds of years to strike Asgard before, and they could wait again.

Seeing their silent surrender, Luna looked back down to Fárbauti.

“If you continue to resist me I will make you wish you had died this day.”

“Rot in Hel, witch,” his defiant pride standing in the way of self-preservation.

His response disappointed Luna, not that it would have saved him any of the pain she would inflict upon him. It just would waste more of her time.

“So be it. I hope you had sweet dreams last night Fárbauti. They would have been your last.”

Seeing Lady Death up close and personal again scared Loki less this time. He knew she had some sort of plan for him, as convoluted and odd as it may be. All he had to do was go through her motions.

“Hello again,” Loki casually greeted her, trying to hide the still gripping level of fear that accompanied meeting such a powerful being. Upon further review, should she grow bored of him she could just erase him, right? He was not so sure that he wanted to go through all of her little games now...

To his surprise, Lady Death turned around and began to walk towards where the cave was shrouded by the mist. Loki rose an eyebrow before following after her, confused as to why she would not stay with him if she was there to further torment him. Did she even want him to follow?

“Not going to say much, are you?” Loki taunted half-jokingly as he followed her.

The Betrayer followed behind Loki in very much the same way, his head shaking as he grimly noted, “She has not come for you.”

Now at the cave, Loki could see just what the satyr was speaking of. Lady Death was staring in at the immobile Trixie. Or rather, Loki could only assume that was what she was staring at given how her hood made her face impossible to see or read.

So, if Lady Death was there for Trixie and not him, Loki was left with other questions. What were her intentions with the horse? What was she even doing there alongside Loki?

“Why was she brought with me to this place?” Loki questioned slowly, his eyes drawn to the slowly lifting arm of death incarnate.

His question did not receive a proper answer, though the flash of black and green in her palm that followed gave him an idea. As her scythe reappeared in her open marble palm Loki used his teleportation to jump so that he stood in between the two.

His movement did not stop the shadowy figure from advancing further, but Loki creating a weapon of ice and pointing it at her did.

“Not another step,” Loki warned, though he wasn’t quite sure he could do anything about her killing Trixie even if he tried his hardest.

Her pause gave him some confidence though, and so Loki lowered the weapon in the hope of appealing to whatever humanity she held, “I know my crimes. What penance does this equine have to possibly pay to you?”

The complete silence of the lady gave Loki another chill. Luna would have made note of anything terrible Trixie had done in the past, yet all she had done was sing praise of her dedicated student. So what issue could this sadistic being have with Trixie then?

Loki himself took a step back as Lady Death moved forward as something dawned on him.

She was not the same exact size as she was the last time he met her. The same robe, rigid shapes poking into the hood’s sides, and same scythe...but she looked as if she was a teenager in frame this time. The robe did its part to conceal her body, but Loki could tell from observing her that it was not the same exact being as what he had met before.

As Death continued past and around Loki as neither he or the Betrayer made any further move to stop her. Instead Loki lowered his weapon and dropped his head as he realized just why this seemingly changing being would take issue with Trixie.

“The Betrayer says you are timeless. If this is true, what will she have to pay penance for?”

That stopped Lady Death from continuing her advance on Trixie, who then was only a step away. She turned back towards Loki, her face as shrouded by darkness as the land was by mist, and Loki felt anger bubble up inside of him.

This being could see the future if she was truly above time itself. Could she tell what others would do, what their future mistakes would end up being? If she could tell what everyone would do, then there was no free will for one to enact. Every time one took a life she allowed it. Every time someone died to the tragedy of another she allowed it.

Every preventable tragedy could be solved by one such as her. So why did she not go and fix everything? Why did she allow others to suffer so terribly with her great power?

“I can see why Thanos seems to like you so much. You are as cruel as he is.”

For the first time, Loki felt like he had the upper hand for Lady Death’s body had a tremor. He could not tell why or what she was feeling, but he had gotten a rise from her. He had not been able to use his manipulative tongue in some time and it was nice to see it working.

Seeing another shake through her body and robe, Loki continued his verbal assault, “That begs the question though, why have none of my family accompanied me here? If Thanos had slain any of my kind, surely I would have come across them. Been left here with them like the helpless being you seem to have some issue with.”

The emotion he had been cultivating in the enigmatic lady revealed itself as she whipped around fully and took a swipe at Loki with her scythe. The speed was far greater than Loki could react to, and he soon found himself stumbling back.

He brought a hand down to where she had struck him...only to find that she had struck him with the blunt part of the weapon. She could have struck him down, but she choose not to. Furthermore, the strike only knocked the wind out of him. His ribs were already sore, and the attack did not honestly add too much to his already apparent pain.

To Loki’s complete surprise, she was as weak if not more so than that superhuman in tights who fought him on Midgard.

Despite himself and the situation he found himself in, Loki could not help but laugh and mock this, “For all of what others have said of you, I must admit you are not as physically strong as I may have imagined.”

Her second blurring swipe was not as kind as Lady Death shook beneath her robes. The blade grazed across Loki’s bare chest and left a horizontal slit where it had struck. Blood did not flow from it, though Loki could feel the intense pain of having his skin slit.

The pain did not deter Loki’s taunting laughter, causing the Betrayer behind him to grip him by the shoulder and yank him away from the follow up strike, “Do you have some death wish? Quit taunting the omnipresent controller of death!”

Knowing that he could not shake the larger man off physically, Loki teleported back between Lady Death and Trixie with the space she had given up in her assault. Now in the way again, Loki coughed as Lady Death turned around to face him and Trixie again, “No. Not until I learn what her quarrel with me is.”

Seeing the near suicidal plan of his new companion, the Betrayer made a snap decision. One of his hands became engulfed in flames and lunged out with his long reach to strike the back of Lady Death’s head.

“Begone foul being!”

She disappeared in a black and green flash much like the one that had summoned her weapon, though quickly reappeared to the side so his strike went right through the air. With his arm outstretched and still burning, she gripped it with her free hand.

The Betrayer howled in pain as his arm’s flames quickly were replaced by frost. His arm frozen in an instant block of ice, he tried pulling away from her just in time for electricity to spark from her hand and course down through his body until it ran into the ground beneath him.

Loki seized the chance to strike as well, seeing no true way out of this with all of their lives intact. His ice blade sailed straight at where her neck should be, but with her demonstrated unnatural speed she sidestepped the strike.

Her hood was thrown back by her movement, but Loki received no look of what lay beneath as her fist crashed into his chin and knocked him off his feet. His own movement had allowed her strike to carry extra weight, and it was enough to stun him the single moment she needed to swipe at his legs to take them out from underneath him with her scythe.

On the ground Loki coughed in pain, a feeling that he should have just spit out blood rushing through his mind. He began to rise only for the butt of the scythe to slam down into his chest. Despite the new pain this wrought in his body, Loki decided to continue his plan.

“You’re the one Thanos wants to please. That mass murderer…” her body continued to shake, now to the point where anyone could notice it even without close observation, so Loki could tell his plan was working one way or the other.

This did not stop her from rushing to the ground and reaching for his throat to strangle him and stop his words, though Loki struggled and fought her grip as he continued to speak, “But he didn’t wipe out all of Asgard when he came for me, did he? Those visions you showed me…”

Loki teleported himself into an upright position a few feet away to free himself of her, though he had to avoid her insanely quick swipe with her scythe that followed. As she spun around in a complete circle from the momentum of the strike, Loki continued to speak his growing realization about her.

“You had him spare them. Spare me. I was promised something worse than pain should I fail him, yet here I stand.”

Her hand touching his back did not startle Loki, but it reaching through his skin like a ghost did. The next thing he felt made Loki gasp, as his entire being erupted with searing pain before being replaced by intense cold.

Loki watched as she walked past and through him with a ghastly image beside her that resembled himself. As his own ghastly image finished being ripped from his body, Loki found himself looking not from his own eyes but from the opposite perspective. He looked on at his flesh body as it sank to its knees and collapsed with blank eyes.

Loki looked down at his see through hands before gazing over at the woman beside him, “How—”

“The life she grants us may also be taken.”

Loki’s lingering spirit turned to face the newly arrived Laufey, who stood with a cold expression in the cave’s mouth. He walked past the Betrayer to stare at the woman who literally held Loki’s spirit in her hand.

Laufey pointed a finger at the collapsed Loki as well as his spirit, “You brought me to life so I could have my revenge. Thanos promised to help me wipe out all of Asgard, only to abandon my kind. You and your purple consort owe me—”

With the same demonstrated speed she had used to fell both Loki and his ally, Lady Death tossed Loki’s soul back at his body and rushing forward to assault Laufey instead. Loki felt the reverse process of when he had been removed from his body, and by the time he managed to regain control of his body and get up Loki was completely perplexed.

Not by the process of having his soul ripped from him, but the fact that the relatively weak woman before him was beating Laufey into the dirt and mud. She was going at the man with even more fervor than she had Loki, and any restraint and coldness she had when they first met was thrown to the wind as her black hair whipped around behind her as she continued to smash fist after fist into Laufey’s face.

Loki stumbled to his feet before collapsing pathetically. He felt completely out of it now that he was in his own body again, and he was feeling as weak as when he first woke up in this world if not weaker. Still, Loki crawled forward with all of his strength until he managed to pull himself to his knees.

By this time her assault on Laufey had ended and Lady Death was standing up and seemingly breathing heavily, though no noise escaped her as she finished. Loki took note of this, as not only had she not spoken before but she also had not even let out one grunt or growl in her furious attack. That was simply not normal, and it actually worried him.

With heavy shoulders and a gasp of pain Loki pulled himself to his feet finally and stumbled towards the woman who had made his life a literal hell, “This world may be yours to control, but think of those you have brought here,” Loki weakly lifted a finger towards Laufey, “Do they truly deserve this madness? Even monsters such as him...”

Loki could not believe it, but he could not bring himself to think that Laufey deserved to suffer under this woman either. If the other souls were any indication, it was not a place he would wish for almost any…

On the ground the weak voice of Laufey complained up to Lady Death, “Fitting that you would betray me. Just like Thanos. Just like y—”

She called her previously discarded scythe to her side to smack it across his face and knock him unconscious. Laufey collapsed completely as Lady Death stood above him her body still shaking as she once again dropped her scythe onto the floor.

Loki found himself observing her as she stood wheezing over the still Jotun. With her hood down the alabaster skin of her head and neck was on full display, or rather it was where her long raven hair and green, pointed face mask did not cover. No noise escaped her lips as she continued the motion of breathing heavily, though given how no noise came from it Loki could presume that she was not actually breathing but rather just going through the motions.

Her body was still quaking. Her head tilted back and her mouth opened into what would be a seemingly maniacal laugh as she continued to shake. No noise came out as she continued the motion over and over, her mad laughter silent as she seemed to lose track of what was going on around her.

Loki held a hand out towards her as he slowly approached, realizing that she truly was mute, “It is not that you choose to be silent. You genuinely cannot speak.”

Her mad laughter stopped as she turned to him in anger, a snarl appearing on her face as her mouth opened to say something only for nothing to come out. Her arm batter his outstretched hand away, though that did not stop Loki from continuing forward.

With as calm a voice as he could manage, Loki slowly spoke and approached, “I will not harm you.”

Her mask hid whatever emotion was held in her eyes, but her body’s quivering stopped. Something had caused her to go into a mad fit earlier and Loki had no idea just what it was. Was it his words? Something Laufey did? Things seemed to get worse after Thanos was brought up…

Loki’s intuition gave him an idea, and with that idea in mind he brought his arms around the shivering girl. What was visible of her face seemed no older than a teenager, as her size suggested, and her breakdown hinted that something was very off with her.

Still, when he brought his arms around her she did not fight him. She stopped moving entirely at first, seemingly made frigid by his touch. Loki was left to wonder if this would have the effect he was hoping for, as she was not reacting whatsoever as the seconds dragged on.

Across the cave the Betrayer narrowed his eyes at the two others as he began to recover from the most powerful magic he had been struck with in his long life wore off, his body no longer convulsing from the magic lightning that had coursed through him and the ice on his frozen arm dissipating. He could not understand what the ‘human’ was doing, though he was shocked to see the face of the lady for once.

The fact that it was a mere child made him stay his hand, having been ready previously to attack her for the sake of his new companions despite the futility of it all.

After moments of no movement and noise, Lady Death gradually lifted her arms to bring them around Loki in return. Her head lowered onto his shoulders and her body trembled in the way someone who was crying would, but no tears fell down her face.

Loki continued to comfort the mere child until her ‘crying’ stopped and she faded from sight and touch. Her body and any trace of her being there vanished without a trace, and Loki was left with his arms wrapped around thin air.

He looked down to Laufey and Trixie, then over to the Betrayer. Something had occurred to him that was making him understand the inner workings of the currently young woman.

“She has power over death itself. She exists all throughout time in a scattered continuity…” Loki sighed as he continued to think aloud, “If I were her I would have gone insane from this all long ago, especially if I had this kind of power and duty as a child.”

The Betrayer rose to his feet, ignoring his own suffering as he was quite used to doing. He nodded affirmatively as he thought about what Loki was saying, though his face grew grim as his eyes fell upon the defeated Laufey.

“What should we do with him?”

Loki too looked down at Laufey. His father had been a brutal man who left him to die. But he had also been the man who was able to lead and restore the Frost Giants in their time of defeat from Asgard.

Killing him now would be a possibly temporary solution. After all, Lady Death had brought him back to life once despite her seeming hatred of him. There was no telling if she would do so again, or if the world itself would not bring him back. Loki did not understand just how things worked yet, and he was not about to give Laufey more reason to wish him dead.

Instead, he could be the bigger man and possibly earn himself a partial pardon.

“Leave him.”