A large purple-ish man grabs me off the ground and slowly drags me towards Loki. I try to break free from his hold but my body is too tired and weak to move.
"I know what it's like to lose. To feel so desperately that you're right... yet to fail, nonetheless. It's frightening. Turns the legs to jelly. I ask you, to what end? Dread it. Run from it. Destiny arrives all the same. And now, it's here. Or should I say... I am."
He throws me down in front of Loki and holds up his fist to reveal to himself wearing a gold metal gauntlet containing a purple stone.
He then looks back over to Loki as he grabs a hold of me again. "The Tesseract, or her head. I assume you have a preference."
I pleadingly look into Loki's eyes. "No matter what, you can't let him have it...I'll be fine."
"Don't worry, love, I have a plan."
"Oh, I do. Kill away!" Loki says.
He places the gauntlet against my head and activates the purple stone in it. It's energy courses through my veins, burning me from the inside. I try to use the mind stones power within me to block it, however, the purple stones energy proves to be too powerful, causing me to scream out in pain.
"We don't have the Tesseract. It was destroyed on Asgard!" Thor shouts trying to get him to stop.
Loki glances over to Thor, shamefully, and then conjures the Tessaract into his hand.
"Loki, no!"
"Don't fret, our plan may still work."
"You really are the worst, brother." Thor says disapprovingly.
Loki holds up the Tessaract. "I assure you, brother, the sun will shine on us again."
He removes the gauntlet from my head and drops me down on the ground. I try to get up and go to Loki, but my body won't move. "Your optimism is misplaced, Asgardian."
"Well, for one thing: I'm not Asgardian. And for another...we have a Hulk."
Loki dives out of the way as Hulk emerges from the shadows to fight the purple man. A brawl takes place and the Tessaract gets lost amongst the confusion. Loki makes his way over to me to try and discreetly use his magic to heal my injuries.
Thor tries to help Hulk, but another grayish creature binds him to the floor with his powers and picks up the Tessaract.
I see a man, out of the corner of my eye, summon the Bifrost bridge to send Hulk away. But before he can send anyone else, the purple man stops him.
"That was a mistake." He says as he stabs the man who summoned the Bifrost, through the heart.
Thor screams. "You're going to die for that!"
"Shhhh." The grayish creature binds Thors mouth and then bows before the purple man as he holds up the Tessaract to him. "My humble personage... bows before your grandeur. No other being has ever had the might, nay the nobility, to wield not one, but two Infinity Stones. The universe lies within your grasp."
He crushes the Tesseract, revealing a blue stone inside of it and places it in the gauntlet next to the purple stone.
"There are two more stones on Earth. Find them, my children, and bring them to me on Knowhere."
Loki starts walking towards the creature with the gauntlet.
"Loki, what are you doing?" He doesn't respond, but I see him conjure a small dagger in his hand. "Loki, don't! He's too powerful."
"If I might, interject. If you're going to Earth, you might want a guide. I do have a bit of experience in that arena."
"If you consider failure experience..."
"I consider experience, experience. Almighty Thanos. I, Loki of Jotunheim, God of Mischief, do hereby pledge to you, my undying fidelity."
Loki then tries to stab the man, unfortunately for him, Thanos was faster and uses the blue stone to stop him.
"Undying. You should choose your words more carefully."
Thanos goes to reach for Loki and without hesitation, I use the last bit of energy I have left and quickly cast a spell to switch our places, so Thanos grabs me instead.
Thanos looks over to a confused Loki and flashes an evil smile as he lifts me up by the throat and tightens his grip, causing me to gasp for air.
"What did you do!?"
"I'm...sorry..."
"NO!!!!" Loki shouts as he starts running towards us.
Right as Thanos was about to snap her neck, Rhi quickly sits up in her bed, gasping for air and clutching at her throat.
"Darling, what is it? What's wrong?" Loki looks at her with concern and worry.
She throws her arms around him and starts crying heavily into his chest.
"Shhhh. Its alright, mitt vakre lys. You're safe now." He coos as he pulls her into himself more. "Was it, a nightmare?"
"No,I-I think it was a vision."
"It's alright." He says as he tucks some of her hair behind her ear. "Tell me what happened."
"I... I can't."
"Then, can you show me?" Rhi shakes her head. "Please, love."
She slowly nods her head and Loki places his fingers against her temple. When he's done, she feels him tense up as he pulls away.
"Thanos..." Loki whispers.
"I-I didn't know what else to do! He was going to kill you and-" She looks up at him as he sits there stunned and speechless. "Loki..."
He snaps out of his thoughts and starts to get up out of the bed. "I have to go."
She quickly grabs one of her blankets to wrap around her self and grabs him before he walks out of the room.
"Wait! Where are you going?"
He pulls himself away from her and uses his magic to change back into his Asgardian leathers. "I just, need to leave."
"Okay...then, I'm coming with you." She says with a smile. "It'll just take me a sec to gather a few things. Then, I'll just have to leave a note-"
"No." Loki cuts her off.
"Oh, come one. I've always wanted to travel and besides..." She walks back up to him and leans up to his ear to whisper. "I think we can have lots of fun together."
"No!" Loki pushes her away. "You need to stay here."
"Oh...when will you be back?"
"Never." He says coldly.
"What?" She says breathlessly.
"I let myself get...distracted and stayed on this horrid planet longer than I needed to. It's time for me to go."
"But, I thought...w-we...you promised..."
"Technically, I only promised to stay for as long as I can."
Her heart shatters as the initial shock of his words finally sank in, causing her to snap and slap him hard across the face. "You bastard! Didn't are time together, mean anything to you!?"
"No."
"Bullshit!" She tries to slap him again, but this time he catches her wrist before she makes contact. "I know when you're lying! Tell me the truth! Don't I at least deserve to know!"
"It doesn't matter." He throws her arm back at her and starts walking away. "I'm leaving and you'll never see or hear from me again."
"I trusted you..." She whispers as tears begin to roll down her face.
"I did warn you that sooner or later, I would hurt you."
She couldn't believe what she was hearing and yet, at the same time, she wasn't all that surprised. He was right. He warned her and she happily took the risk.
"Then...can you at least do me a favor?"
He turns to face her again. She wipes the tears from her eyes and returns the same cold stare he is currently giving her.
"If you really are leaving and truly don't want to see me ever again..." She pauses as her breath starts to hitch a bit. "Can you erase my memories of our time together? I know you can."
"Very well." Loki says emotionless and without any hesitation.
Rhi bites her lip and clenches her fists. She had hoped that maybe with that ultimatum, Loki would snap out of it and she could reason with him. But it was no use.
She takes a deep breath before continuing. "Just...don't change the part about me knowing that I'm half elf and can wield magic...please."
He nods his head and guides her back to her bedroom. She changes into some pj's and lays down so Loki can perform the spell. He then waves his hands over her to put her to sleep and performs the memory wipe spell.
"You really are a monster after all." Was the last thing Rhi said before she fully passed out.
* * *
Rhi wakes up the next morning to her alarm clock blaring and gets up as usual to get ready for work. Right as she was about to get into the shower she does a double take when she sees herself in the mirror. She smiles to herself sadly when she notices that her body is covered in hickeys and thinks back to the previous day with Logan. She remembered going to the lake and having a few rounds of sex with him, but the rest of the day was a blur.
Not wanting to get a hard time from her Dad, she decided to cover any visible marks that she couldn't cover with clothing with some makeup.
When she gets down to the library, she sees her dad waiting for her by the entrance.
"What are you doing here? I thought I told you to take the next few days off. That way, you and Logan could have a chance to spend some time together."
"He ended up needing to cut his trip short." She takes the keys back from Tony and opens up the library. "He got a job offer to work during the summer at one of the universities back home, and they needed him back overseas as soon as possible."
"Oh, well good for him. Anything...interesting happen after I left." He says while giving her a knowing look.
"Dad!" She cringed and lightly shoves him.
"Sorry, had to ask."
"Even if it did, I wouldn't tell you." She laughs.
"Will we be seeing him again anytime soon?"
"Nah, we decided it was better to just go our separate ways."
"Well good riddance. I didn't like him anyway." He glances over at Rhi who seems to be lost in her thoughts. "You ok?"
"Hmm? Oh, um, yea...I think I'll be fine."
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