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Peter fell through the sky and plummeted towards the ground; clutching the infinity gauntlet to his chest tightly. He crash landed with a grunt but quickly threw himself upwards to get away from any enemies that would be scouting his sacred possession. Before he could comprehend what was happening, Peter was flung back by some sort of energy blast. The spider hero rolled along the ground and soon his back hit a hard surface. Peter curled in on himself, trying to protect himself from any greater harm.
More energy blasts started to hit the nearby ground, causing everyone to scatter. Suddenly, all chaos stopped and the avengers craned their necks to the sky to see what caused the abrupt stop. Thanos’ ship had redirected their laser canons’ blasts to an unknown force that must of been ahead of them in the cloudy sky.
“What the hell is this?” Sam shouted through the comms.
“Friday, what are they firing at?” Tony questioned his AI, eyes still focused on the sky above.
”Something just entered the upper atmosphere,” the digital voice explained.
Thor looked to the sky, eyes darting around.
Was someone going to help them?
Or kill them?
The thunder god flexed his fingers around the hammer that was gripped tightly in the palm of his hand, ready to destroy the anonymous threat.
Out of the sky appeared an orange rectangle? Similar to the wizard man that Thor had encountered on his quest to prevent Ragnarok. Memories of him and Loki flooded his brain, overtaking his previous thoughts. Thor snapped back to reality, shaking his head in frustration.
“Man of Iron, what is this?” Thor’s voice boomed towards Tony, who stood a few metres away from the god.
”If only I knew,” Tony muttered under his breath.
”It doesn’t matter what it is,” Steve started,”It’s distracted Thanos’ army, that’s all we need.” he signalled the others.
”Look, Mr Rogers, you’re much more of an expert than me in these situations,” Peter began to say.
”Kid--“ Tony warned.
”But whatever that is, it seems kinda important,” the teen ignored Tony, scratching the back of his neck.
Before Steve managed to reply, a loud bang sounded across the battlefield. The team looked up to see something start to emerge out of the orange portal. Thor’s worried gaze formed into an angry stare, prepared to fight the new opponent.
Except it wasn’t a new opponent.
It wasn’t a new anything.
A man dropped out of the portal, breathing heavily. The figure seemed far too familiar to Thor, way too familiar. Tony and him sauntered up to the man, along with the rest of the gang. The man was dressed in a tight fitting shirt, with leather straps binding his shoulders. Thor could see bruises and cuts littered across the person’s arms. And then the man lifted his head, making direct eye contact with Thor.
“Holy shit!” Peter exclaimed.
Tony wasn’t in the right state of mind to correct the younger’s choice of words because…Loki,
Loki, was in front of him.
Tony whipped his head around to meet Thor’s gaze. But the thunder god wasn’t looking at him. His expression had contorted into an emotion Tony couldn’t read. There was a mixture of hate, regret, relief and sadness all conjured into a single look.
Thor wasn’t having it.
None of it.
That wasn’t his brother. That wasn’t the man Thor had screamed his heart out to. That wasn’t the man that Thor had gripped onto as tightly as he could when what was left of the Statesman had blown up. Thor remembered what felt like hours of silently crying into Loki’s body before he had passed out in the middle of space.
How many times did Thor have to see his brother’s lifeless body until he knew it was real?
The brother that had died in front of Thor was not the one that was kneeling on the ground right now.
”What the--“ Sam voiced quietly.
”Lok--who are you?” Thor controlled the sob that would eventually break free from his throat. The god broadened his shoulders, and stood taller, trying to appear more composed. He would not cry for yet another time over Loki.
Never again.
The figure threw his head up, black hair flinging upwards, “Thor?”
Thor tried to hide the wobble in his chin but to no avail. He scrunched his eyes up for a split second, begging the tears away.
”Who are you?” the thunderer repeated in a more irritated tone.
”Thor,” Loki demanded.
”What?” Thor declared, angrily.
“It’s me?” the man that wore his brother’s face begged. Loki jumped upwards, racing towards Thor, “Thor, brother--“
”I am not your brother,” Thor demanded, stepping backwards away from Loki.
”You…you don’t believe me?” the trickster said in a quiet voice.
”Believe you?” Thor scoffed, a sly smile plastered on his face, “Loki, how do you expect me to believe you? After all you’ve done! You have died multiple times. And now you’re here expecting me to believe you? You must be joking.”
Thor tried,
He really did try, to ignore the hurt that painted over his brother’s the man’s face.
”I know I have betrayed you on many occasions, I have tricked, manipulated, fought you but I promise…I promise you that it is in fact me, Loki…your brother.”
Tears started to trail down his brother’s cheeks and Thor noticed the slight tremble in his shoulders.
”Uh…guys? We kind of have like a big purple man to defeat so…we should probably go?” Tony disrupted.
“Yeah, jus--“ Loki started, only to get knocked away with an energy blast.
”Loki!” sudden panic overcame Thor, not letting him lose sight of his brother.
He raced towards Loki, who lay on the ground, groaning in pain.
”Hey! Lokes! Are you o--“
”Lokes?” the mischief god repeated, “Never took you as one to use nicknames, brother,” Loki chuckled.
Heat rushed across Thor’s cheeks, “Well, I--uhm, yep.”
”What is this?” Loki questioned, standing up and brushing off debris that had stuck itself to him, “Have I made the Thor Odinson speechless?”
“Shut up,” Thor snapped at him, and strutted away, making sure Loki wouldn’t see the smile that had crept up his face.
”Can a guy not even get a hug these days?” Loki asked, offering his hands out in an embrace.
The thunderer spun on his heel and marched up to Loki, “You made me believe you were dead, that I was never going to see you again. And you expect a hug?”
His brother looked downwards, arms dropping to his sides, “I guess n--oh!” Loki exclaimed as Thor grabbed him by his shoulders and pulled him into an embrace. The older dug his nail’s into the younger’s back, which earned a little yelp from Loki. But it wasn’t until they had both begun to sob into each other, that Thor had broken down properly.
Loki’s own stifled cry’s were muffled as he pushed his face harder into Thor’s neck.
”I’m sorry, Tho--I’m so so sorry. It’s all my fault everythi--“
”No, Loki, I forgive you, I’ll always forgive you, okay?” Thor soothed the shorter.
He felt Loki do some sort of movement that Thor could identify as a nod, which let him breathe a little easier, “Now…let’s kill this son of a bitch, yeah?”
”Mother, wouldn’t like that language,” Loki laughed, pulling away from Thor.
”Oh, shut up, will you?”