Chapter Text
"Oh, mighty Thanos I Loki, prince of Asgard, god of mischief, the rightful heir of
frost giants, Odinson hereby declare my undying fidelity,” Loki said and then attempts to attack Thanos, but Thanos catches him and stops him and supposedly kills him and then drops him in front of Thor.
Thanos then disappears with the stones.
Thor pulls himself over to Loki, expecting he's going to die so He hugs Loki and prepares to die with him.
The last thing Thor hears before the explosion is a heartbeat, and it's wasn’t his.
Then the ship explodes.
The next thing Thor noticed, he was lying on the floor of what looked to be a
spacecraft, surrounded by strangers. He was on his feet immediately, stumbling
as his numb, half-frozen legs almost refused to carry his weight. Backing away as far as the cramped room allowed, he took in his surroundings. He found the people looking at him.
Straightening, Thor returned the stare, turning his head to acknowledge them all.
There was a Midgardian man and a creature that looked like some kind of rabbit. Another man of bulky posture stood to the left, accompanied by a
green-skinned lady with fiery red hair.
A strange woman with antennas starred with her eyes wide open and behind her a tree of some sort. Together, they made the strangest company Thor had ever met.
"Who the hell are you guys?" He asked confused, Lightning cracked between
his fingers, readying for the fight that could possibly come. His experience with the strangers of late had not been positive.
"Woah, easy, man!" The Midgardian raised his hands in a peaceful gesture, while
the strange rabbit creature at his side pulled out a blaster. "Rocket, not here!"
He chastised. The rabbit creature rolled his eyes but lowered his weapon slightly.
The others just watched Thor, still surprised by his awakening.
"Not exactly a thank-you we could expect," Rocket muttered with reproach.
"You know, we have just picked you up from space. Mantis there woke you." he
made a vague gesture towards the woman with antennas.
That was when Thor realized who he was missing.
" Where's my brother?"
"You mean the dead body over there?" Rocket pointed to his left.
As Thor turned his head to follow his paw, he saw the familiar form laying on the floor.
"Not much we can do there, sorry." Rocket told thor.
"No." Thor's knees buckled treacherously, and the lightning sparkling around his fists shot uncontrollably, crafting a smoking hole right next to a control pad.
"Whatever you're doing, don't!" The Midgardian cried. "You'll blow up my
ship!"
"It's my ship!" Rocket huffed in annoyance.
But the lightning disappeared just as quickly, Thor's energy already spent
in the battle with Thanos. He barely had it within him to stand. He forced himself
to move towards Loki, grasping at whatever he could find within his reach
as his legs threatened to cease carrying him.
Mantis got their first. She knelt by the unmoving figure and rolled him on his
back. "He's not dead," she gasped, a hint of surprise visible as her black eyes
blinked.
"Holy shit, what?!" The Midgardian choked. "How the hell is this possible?"
"Not-" Thor stumbled again in his eagerness to reach his brother, desperately
clinging to the tiniest string of hope.
"He's terrified and hurting, but not dead, Peter," Mantis said to the Midgardian as she kept her hands hovering over Loki's head. "I can wake him too."
"No, wait"
But it was too late. With Mantis's gentle touch, Loki jerked awake. A scream
caught in his throat and his hand flung up. He coughed, his breathing coming in
hitched gasps, and continued pulling frantically at the collar of his gear, unable to grasp a lungful of air.
Thor fell on his knees beside him as Mantis scrambled away. "Loki, stop!" He
grasped Loki's wrists and held them to stop Loki further Damaging his throat.
Thor leaned forwards so that he could be seen. "It's alright!" His voice carried
the edge of hysteria that contradicted his words.
It didn't work. Loki made a pained noise and his left hand froze, but Lokis
breathing was just as hectic.
"Th'r," he wheezed, and Thor sighed in relief that at least his brother seemed to
recognize him.
"He's gone for now. Thanos is not here," Thor promised.
Whoever these guys behind him were, they looked friendly enough, or at least
not too willing to kill them on sight. Thor had little energy left to spend
dwelling on whether they could have had ulterior motives and had picked
them up from space for their benefit.
"Thanos?" The green-skinned lady, who kept silent so far, repeated slowly, her voice distant.
"Do you know of him?" Thor asked.
Thor let his eye fall off Loki, and he turned to face her, cursing his inability to see
the entire room without moving. It was a disadvantage he had yet to work on in a fight.
"Gamora is the daughter of Thanos," the big guy offered.
Thor placed himself between the strangers and his wounded brother. Loki's left hand seemed useless, and the knife fell from his grasp, so he clung to the other, desperately trying and failing to haul himself up.
"Thanos slaughtered half of my people and almost killed my brother!" Thor growled and dragged himself back to his feet. Crackles of lightning danced around his fists and shoulders.
"No, no, wait!" The Midgardian, Peter, rushed forward. "She wants him dead as much as you do."
Thor glanced from him to Gamora, who nodded. He was trying hard to take her
word for that when his brother looked at her with what bordered on outright fear . Loki's posture screamed of mistrust, but Thor could also see hate and determination that steeled Gamora's gaze as she looked him in the eye. He let the lightning subdue. And put his hand on gomaras shoulder, "Families can be tough"
"Yeah, I know what that's like my mother died, and then I was kidnapped, and
then I found my father, but then I discovered that my father killed my mother, and then I had to kill my father and then the person who I thought hated me all the
time I spent with them actually loved me as his child, and then he died to save me, so l understand" Peter says.
"There are no friends of Thanos here, alright?" "How about you guys sit down
and take a breath?" Rocket offered.
So, Thor found himself sitting on a bench with a thick blanket around his shoulders, slowly de- freezing, with a bowl of hot soup in his hands. He was left with bone-deep exhaustion and a pounding headache, courtesy of a close touch of the Power Stone, but he was alive and breathing. And he was not alone.
Loki was slumped to his right, leaning against his shoulder. It had taken some
maneuvering to get him there, as he had let no one but Thor so much as lay a
finger on him. He looked no better than when he had been woken and was still half a step away from passing for a corpse, if not for his shallow, wheezing breathing.
He cradled his left hand in his lap but dared not close his eyes and go into a healing sleep. His gaze never left Gamora, even as she withdrew to the farthest part of the room.
Thor listened as Gamora talked about Thanos and his goal to wipe out half of the universe. His anger would have boiled untamed, had it not been for his exhaustion. The Thanos he faced had wielded only one stone, and still, he had slaughtered all those who had not escaped in the pods with Valkyrie. He had bested the Hulk.
A shiver and a pained gasp drew Thor's attention. Loki seemed to struggle to breathe again, his good hand hovering over, but never touching his swollen throat.
"Why is it not healing?" Thor frowned as he realized Loki's left wrist swelled and
bruised instead of getting better.
Loki didn't reply, just kept gasping for breath.
"Loki," Thor said again, trying to get his attention, but it didn't work.
He gently shook Loki's right arm. Loki looked at him, which made pain shoot through his head.
"It's OK, just breathe. I know it's hard, but please keep breathing." Thor told loki.
"I'm…fine" Loki wheezed.
"You guys are creeping me out," Peter said. "We pick you up from NOTHING, that
man there, was definitely choked and dead... -ish. And now he's talking already."
"We are not easily killed," Thor answered.
"Creepy or not, it seems you are short on whatever it is you are using to stay alive," Rocket addressed Loki as came over with a couple of small packages.
"So, maybe try the good old-fashioned way?" He dropped them at Loki's
knees, entirely ignoring how tense and still he went.
Loki stared down with a frown.
"Oh, you know? Cold for the swelling?" Rocket rolled his eyes. "Can't hurt to try.
Then you can go on with the magic thing you are doing."
"Thank you," Thor said, seeing that Loki would or could not answer. Thor
nodded to rocket and wrapped the cold dressing around Loki's wrist.
"Is there a place where we could rest?" He asked, knowing well his brother
would not let his guard down unless they were alone. If they were to go
against Thanos, Thor required his brother back in form. And, as much as he
loathed to admit it, he himself required to be able to formulate a trail of
thoughts without having his head split in half.
"Oh, yeah, we could probably spare you a room for now," Peter said.
"lam Groot?" The tree nudged Thor expectantly.
His input was unexpected, as, for the whole time, he seemed entirely preoccupied with his game.
"Thank you, young friend, but there's not much you could do to help." Thor offered him a warm smile, but Groot ignored him and reached for Loki's wounded
wrist.
Unable to back away, Loki attempted to pull his hand free and yelped. Groot ignored him too and held his hand in both of his own, concentrating. Thor was
about to react and drag him away from his brother, but Groot's efforts paid off, and tiny sprouts sprang from his hands. Both brothers watched in amazement as the branches grew, entwining, and soon weaved a brace around the damaged wrist. Cutting himself off the brace, Groot looked up back at Thor and smiled brightly. "I am Groot."
"That was brilliant!" Thor felt a genuine smile lighten his face, and he stood up, this time hauling Loki along with little effort. Wrapping his arm around his brother's back, he tossed Loki's goodhand over his own shoulders and smiled to himself at the position he placed his brother in.
Clearly, Loki recognized it too.
"No. Get. Help." He whispered.
"Well, you need it, brother' Thor chuckled softly.
"Thank you," Thor said and then nodded he tgen led Loki to where they could possibly rest.