Eccedentesiast: Sequel To Redmancy

Chapter 62

Loki POV

His emotions were all over the place, vasilating between joy at seeing Eloise alive and well, thriving was the word, seeing her anew made him realize how sick she had really looked before she died, confusion over everything, jealousy; every time the solider so much as glanced at her, touched her so casually, spoke to her, before she had died they had been close but now there was a whole other level of intimacy between them, he had waited for her to enter and come take her seat next to him, he expected she would show him she cared still, instead the solider had called her over and she had taken the seat he offered before even looking for him, then fury that erupted in his chest the second that her eyes met his.

Then the argument that ended in that fight, internally he groaned, he hadn't wanted her hurt, he looked up at her face as she had tried to stifle a scream,  he could still see the faint bruises from his hand on her throat.

Thor finally let him up, Stark quipped something and had everyone laughing, he ignored all of them.

Steve stood up, "What do we do with them?"

"We need to either move them or destroy them." Wanda said, "they are too dangerous."

"They cannot be destroyed so hiding them is our only option."

Loki rolled his eyes, when a snort met his ears, Eloise was tilting her head to the side looking incredulously at him, "You've dealt with two infinity stones and yet you know next to nothing about them."

She paused as if waiting to see if he was going to answer her, when he didn't she got to her feet, "It seems a history lesson is in order, Stephen would you mind assisting me?"

She stepped up to the middle of the room, Stephen followed her looking amused.

"In the beginning there was nothing, then the big bang occurred and the first created the six elemental crystals and sent them hurtling across the universe," as Eloise spoke, Strange and her both raised their hands and an image of the explosion appeared before them moving in slow motion the infinity stones came into view, "each of these stone, control an essential aspect of existence." Stephen brought out the two stones he was storing, "Space, Reality, Power, Soul, Mind, and Time."

Each one glowed when Steven mention it, "Now as we know from Loki's experiment in using the tesseract, it cannot defend against its self, the stones are susceptible to each other-"

"So we can use these stones to destroy the ones Thanos has?" Tony interjected, Eloise and Stephen exchanged a look.

"Noooooo," Eloise said, drawing the word out hesitantly, "In order for the very fabric of reality to continue on correctly,  either all of the stones need to exist or they need to be broken down to dust so they cannot be used but they still exist."

"And how do we break them down?" Steve asked his brow furrowed, "No one person is that powerful, simply attempting it would kill the person or being that attempts it." Loki sneered.

"Actually I believe I can." Eloise spoke up, "The first being I spoke of, I have good reason to believe that it was a fae or what came before the fae. Fairy is where the very universe started, it is where the magic of the universe started."

"Don't. You. Dare." Loki was on his feet, looking at her, she took a step back, "Do not even think about even attempting that Eloise, I swear..." 

Thor pulled him back in his chair keeping his hand on Loki's neck holding him in place.

She held her hands up in surrender, "I felt it was worth mentioning. The bigger problem we have right now, is getting the two stones away from Thanos that he already has."

Eloise went and sat back down, "She's right," Steve stood up, taking her place, "Before we can do anything, we need to get those other two stones from Thanos. Anyone got any bright ideas on how to do that?"

"We lure him somewhere and give it everything we've got," Bucky said, "we've got 4 stones, plenty of allies, we put out the call, get everyone here and take him down."

He reasoned. Everyone nodded.

"Then that's what we do. Do what you need to get ready and we need to figure out where." Steve nodded to everyone.

"I have some idea of where it will be, I believe it will be here on Fairy, I'll go start checking out maps, there's bound to be a few places that are away from people that would be advantageous." Eloise added with a smile to Steve, while several people stared at her.

"You can see the future now? That's sweet." Sam grinned at her.

"Yes and now, I can see glimpse of many futures, each depending on various choices, the closer what I'm seeing gets, the clearer what happens gets."

"So you can see how to beat him?" Sam continued.

"Not exactly,  for now what I see is there will be a battle, it is very vague, even the location is shifting, because our choice of where isn't set. I see times that we win, I can see times he wins. Even as it happens I may miss something, it's difficult still to see and focus on everything around me. If something is depending on a snap decision, I can't guarantee that I can warn you."

Her face shift to sadness, she looked at Thor, "I wasn't able to stop Thanos from slaughtering the asgardian ships, and only barely managed to save Loki and Thor from him. If I had gone with Stephen, he would have gotten the tesseract, killed Loki and left Thor to die drifting in space. I failed there."

Loki watched the tears well up and she gritted her chin to hold them back.

"Sister, you did everything you could, I do not blame you. " Thor said gently.

Loki's thoughts drifted to her death

"She stays out of it," all eyes were on him, "Eloise, you will stay out of the fight this time," she started to argue, "I mean it, I swear on the All-father, if I have to lock you up I will. You will not fight."

She stood up, "No deal, I will agree to stay out, it would make it easier to see what needs to be done, unless I am needed, because face facts you may need me."

He glared at her, and she stared him down, "If you try to lock me up, I can tell you it won't work, I can already see myself escaping and then the first thing I do after this is over is to kill you myself."

The entire time she stalked forward in a way that was more feline than human til she was standing over him, "You would do well to remember Loki, you have only seen my powers before they were fully formed or when they were being held back. Do not underestimate me or think me some damsel in distress."

She began harshly but by the end she spoke softly, almost pleading with him. Then she stood up and left.