The Light To His Lies (Loki)

F O R T Y - T W O

Fury, hotter than the feel of the iron against both my and Loki's chest, erupts through me. I'm going to kill him,

I scream Loki's name, wanting so badly to end his pain, wanting so badly to harm Thanos, and a new heat spreads through me slowly, a terrified bloodlust that fills me to the brim. Loki gasps and my nose fills with the scent of his burning flesh. I can't stop the scream from tearing through my throat, anguish piercing through me at the sight of my beloved and what he went through. His eyes are squeezed shut and I reach for him, trying to crawl toward him. The new, foreign heat spreads further until it overwhelms me, clouding my eyes and adding the immense pressure to my veins. I cry out and fall onto my hands and knees, gasping against the searing pain in my chest.

Then, suddenly, the sensation flips, like something clicked within my body, something unlocked. Like a deadlock turning, setting a door free, but it remained closed. It melts into only a feeling, a warmth spread over my skin that makes me pause. And then the door slammed open all at once. With a burst of colors in my vision the feeling turns euphoric, amazing, and I grind my teeth together as I raise to my feet. The iron falls out of Thanos' hands, leaving Loki hunched and panting, tears falling down his face and mixing with the blood of former injuries. Fury is alive inside me, clouding my eyes and my judgment, and I want more than anything to take the branding iron and stick it through Thanos' skull. To my surprise, Thanos turns slowly toward me.

I recognize the second the illusion changes, like a subtle shift in the atmosphere. And all thoughts are banished from my head.

There is only that moment, playing on repeat, and the heat in my veins. Kill him, this new force begged, burn him alive, make him feel what you feel. Make him feel what Loki felt.

My lips have become a snarl, my senses alive, fire lives inside me but it's not painful, it feels like something I've been missing my entire life, and I'm aching to unleash it. Thanos eyes find mine, a wide, menacing smile on his lips. And then suddenly fire is not just inside me, it is everywhere. Red hot flames dancing off my fingers, rolling off my skin and the once black room is ablaze as the fire licks up the walls and completely encases me. A scream rips through the air, and I'm too overwhelmed to even realize that it's mine.

Suddenly, I'm no longer in the illusion, I'm on my feet, heat clawing at my skin as I face Thanos and his daughter, both eyes are wide with a different emotion. Flame encircles me, it does not affect my skin but it singes off my clothes and turns them to ashes. Tears spill from my eyes, evaporating seconds later, and I yell in anguish, aiming this newfound power toward Thanos. Kill him kill him kill him, it is the song of my blood, the only thought I can hear or feeling I have. No fear that I'm giving Thanos what he wants. I only want to see his skin withered and burnt, to have the flames living in him as they do me.

Seconds after the fire came to me, the machine that hovers over me captures me and banishes this new power, and suddenly my legs and arms don't work anymore. The darkness slams into me like a solid wall, forcefully pushing me under. "It worked,"  I hear Thanos say, his voice carrying through me, the wicked delight in his words imprinting in my brain. I don't have time to realize what I've done until sleep has encompassed me.

I awake moments later, a throbbing pain lingering on my chest and a heavy weight still pressing on my eyelids. The soft light still shines on me, and I realize that I am suspended in midair once again. I feel the material of the gauntlets weighing on my fingers, like they'd never been removed. Like nothing ever happened at all, as if it were only a fever-induced dream. I take in the fact that I am wearing clothes, though they had been singed off to my recollection, but I still notice the nasty burn that scarred my flesh above my breast.