Chapter Text
Loki had always hated this planet. Not only did she associate it with the loss of many allies she had regrettably grown attached to, but the humid climate and heavy air truly made it a nightmare to live-... survive in. Unfortunately the incredibly dense forest creates good cover, and so E2-1032 was one of the safer planets the team regularly traveled to. And the many trees, while nearly devoid of creatures and insects, made it one of the few planets left with at least some amount of life surviving. It was honestly a miracle it wasn’t all ash due to the… incident.
“We should make it to the tunnel by nightfall,” Nebula shouted from the front of the group. Her, Gamora and Drax were busy quietly cutting down the various plantlife blocking their path, while the rest of the group, 9 people of different sizes, shapes and colors, either stayed guard on the edge or walked quietly in the middle. Loki was one of the latter, and was thankful for the interruption to her inner monologue. For months now the only thing keeping from a mental breakdown was the fact they were constantly on the move. Ironically the constant looming threat of death kept the fear of confronting the trauma in her head from reaching a breaking point.
The arrival of a subtle droning sound from deep in the forest suddenly shot through the group, sending the familiar feeling of dread through Loki’s veins. Everyone knows what this means without a spark of doubt.
Ultradrones
Hands slightly shaking, Loki quickly reaches out with her seiðr and makes the 12 of them invisible, also sending out an illusion of foliage around them to hopefully blend in with the environment. Loki knows to her core that this will stop nothing but the inevitable if they already found them, but if they were just doing their regular regiment they might continue on without suspicion.
Hope threatens to tug at Loki’s mind due to the noise seemingly being far away, but she quickly stomps it out, hope has almost always betrayed her, especially in situations like this.
The team of 12 wait anxiously, the only sounds picked up by Loki being the occasional breath and the thundering of her own heart. About 10 minutes pass, and despite her best efforts, that previous hope invades her being. Maybe they’ll be able to continue their journey, not have to risk dying like they seemingly do every day of their lives, maybe today will be beneficial for them, maybe-
CRASH
Every thought in Loki’s head stops, replaced by one word that destroys her to the very core of her soul.
Lightning
Loki can hear the team whispering around her, but not a single word from them can break through the apocalypse of terror that rushes through her being. She feels like she’s drowning, she can’t breathe, she can’t even think. Despite this every sensation is screaming at her, everything in her vision is a blur, her ears are ringing loud enough to cause agony, she tastes overwhelming bile in her throat, the air feels so heavy it might as well be solid. Someone is yelling at her, causing the ringing to get worse. A few words break through but her mind is so broken she’s unable to comprehend them.
Eventually her mind clears the slightest and Nebula and Gamora’s voices start to make sense. Clare made a portal out, they got all the supplies through, they just need loki to get in too. They both look like they’re 3 seconds away from dragging her in, but she’s able to control her body enough to slowly turn around and stumble towards the entrance out of this situation. She trips and falls before getting there, landing on the floor of “The Raven”, the ship they’ve been hiding in during this madness. Loki looks up from the ground and immediately wishes she didn’t. A split second before the portal closes, she sees him. Her brother. The one she saw die, but what she sees isn’t Thor. Simply his body being puppeteered by the one who killed him in the first place. Even the slightest glimpse of what they’ve done to him shatters her heart even further then she thought possible. Wounds from the battle still linger, his asgardian armor replaced by soulless iron, and worst of all, his eyes. Well, not his eyes anymore. Because all that’s there is the all consuming blue of the mind stone’s influence.
Quickly after the portal closes, Loki’s head hits the hard metal of the ship floor, blacking out.