Timeless

◈ 10 ◈

We entered Svartelfheim ahead of schedule. We had about an hour before Malekith showed his face again, so there was no sense in rushing.

I drummed my fingers against the rim of the ship and sighed. Thor had a stormy look in his eye that had been there since we got to the realm, and he refused to speak to me. Jane was curled up next to him on the bench with her head resting on his chest. To my surprise, he didn't seem to mind.

"Are you going to tell me why you've been sending me death glares for the past twenty minutes, or would you like me to guess?"

Thor turned his head slightly so that he was facing me.

"I watched you die three times. I held your body in my arms and watched the light fade from your eyes two out of those three times. The first time, I never got that chance."

I didn't speak a word. Didn't move a muscle. I just let him talk. My fingers ceased their idle drumming the second those first words left his mouth.

"Then you came back. Three times, you came back. And every single time, you did so without seeming to care about how I felt. What I went through. Sure, you asked if I had mourned for you, but that was only your pride talking. Because the little trickster that seemed to fend so well on his own when he wanted to be left alone just couldn't stand to have other people move on without him. Your greatest fear is being forgotten, and you're not very good at hiding it."

I bristled at his accusations.

"Oh, just like you forgot me when Odin locked me away? You left me. Alone, with only the illusion of my Mother as I desperately tried to cling on to what was left of my sanity. I nearly went crazy, Thor."

"Well, maybe you did go crazy because then you decided that you were going to fake your death. It's always what benefits Loki and what Loki thinks is best. You couldn't give two shits about the rest of us."

His cheeks flared angrily, and I scooted back a bit, but if he was going to push, then I'd push harder.

"What did you expect me to do? Save the world and your pathetic mortal and then merrily hop on back to the dungeons, where you said you'd leave me when all was said and done? If you want to talk about 'feelings', then let's talk about how you ignored the fact that I was grieving for Mother too. I couldn't even go to her funeral, and it wasn't even a member of my own family that delivered the news to me about her death. You don't know what I went through, nor do you understand."

Thor stood up abruptly, shaking Jane awake. She fell back into her uneasy sleep without bothering to pay attention to what was happening.

"Do you really expect me to stand here and listen to your self-pity fest? Not everything is about you, Loki! I may not understand all of what you went through for a grand total of a few years with Mother doting on you and giving you everything you could ever want after you just murdered thousands of people, but you shouldn't pretend to understand what I've gone through for longer than that rolling the dice and watching you die over and over and over again only to pop back up like everything is fine! Everything is not fine! You have no idea what you did to our family! Mother spent weeks after your first 'death' in her room, wanting company from no one. She cried for days, weeks, months on end because she thought that she'd lost her son. Not a monster. Not a disappointment. The boy she'd raised since he was an infant. Do you know what you put us through?!"

It was my turn to stand up, only I was the one to cross the distance between us and punch him squarely in the jaw.

What I didn't expect was for him to grab handfuls of my shirt and shove me back so far that I tripped and fell out of the ship. He jumped down and landed next to me, the storm in his eyes turning into a full out hurricane.

I got to my feet as quickly as I could and nearly had an unfortunate run-in with Mjölnir, which flew past me so close that it sent a breeze blowing in my face.

He ran at me with a roar and tackled me to the ground. I twisted and squirmed until I landed a kick to his groin and managed to wiggle my way free of his grip. He was up in an instant, grabbing me by the hair and slamming my head into the ground. I clawed at his arm, but he grabbed both of my wrists with one hand and slammed my head down again with the other. He repeated this until I could see something red and sticky on the rocks below me.

I got my wrists free when he was preoccupied with slamming my head into the ground once again and grabbed his head to return the favor. I felt dizzy and could barely do more than stumble back a few feet before he had recovered. I spat out a wad of blood and quite possibly a tooth, then ducked out of the way as he used his full force to try and run into me.

He went down, and I took the opportunity to kick him in the face with my boot. He grabbed my foot and pulled as hard as he could, knocking me off my feet.

"Damnit, Thor. Stop." I choked out between gulps of air.

"What's wrong, brother? Can't take a bit of pain?"

He picked me up and hurled me about half a mile away, where I hit a pile of junk metal that was once a ship and crashed unceremoniously to the ground.

I couldn't think. I couldn't breathe. My head felt like it had been ripped apart and I could tell that I'd definitely broken at least three ribs.

"Had enough?" Thor shouted as he descended from the sky with Mjölnir in hand.

I grimaced and shook off the mess of twisted metal that had once been my horns.

"Thor, please. I'm sorry. I was wrong, I know. I'm so sorry."

He didn't say anything. He just crouched down next to me and set Mjölnir down on my chest. Tears gathered in my eyes as I desperately fought to pull the hammer off of me. I knew it was useless, but I couldn't just lay there on my back and take every blow he dealt me.

Unfortunately, that's exactly what happened.

He punched me as hard as he could, and I heard my nose break as the punch knocked my head back from the sheer force of it.

"Thor!" I screamed through the tears and blood streaming down my face.

He didn't seem to hear me. Instead, he just punched me again. I had no idea how long this would go on. If he kept it up, then Malekith could end up getting the Aether from Jane.

I wasn't sure how much longer I could take it.

I broke down in ugly sobs after his sixteenth or seventeenth punch, and he hesitated for a moment.

"Thor, I am so sorry. I swear, brother. I swear I'll never hurt you again. Please just stop hurting me. I'm not...." I swallowed my pride, knowing that my life might depend on it. "I'm not strong enough to take any more. I'm sorry."

He looked like he was considering letting up, but changed his mind at the last minute and pulled his fist back again for another punch.

It never struck my face.

I ended up standing a few feet away from him.

Trying to catch my breath and trying to figure out why I was holding Mjölnir in my hand.