Chapter Text
Loki knew he would likely die here. After losing the Tesseract and Mind stone to the mortals, Thanos would certainly not be kind to him. The Hulk failed, Heimdall is dead, and his brother is stuck in a pile of scrap metal. His brother who so nearly died moments before. Despite his and Thors’ constant banter and complicated relationship, Loki can’t deny he couldn’t imagine a world without his brother. And while the revelation of his true parentage was what first led to his messed up head, his fall into the void and meeting Thanos is what truly made him lose his mind. And in a sense he meant it quite literally. Only after months of time in his prison cell on Asgard did he finally feel released from Thanos's hold. He presumed it was due to the magic cancelling barriers that made up the walls of the cell. Even still the connection took months to break. Goes to show how powerful the Mind Stone could be, no less the other infinity stones. Two of which just became in possession of the Mad Titan.
Loki watched Ebony Maw kneel down and present the Tesseract to Thanos. Thor to his left, far too close for his liking. Loki thinks hard, how could he get him and Thor out of this?
Then it hits him, he won’t, one of them would die, and the other left to mourn. It’s how Thanos works, kill half and leave the rest scrambling to pick up the pieces left by the lost. If Thanos killed him, would he leave Thor? Thanos would likely destroy the ship after he was done, but Thor has survived exploding before. Loki's sure he used some explosives sometime in their thousand years of existence while enacting revenge on Thor and his idiot friends. Asgardians have tough skin, he should survive; as long as Thor doesn’t antagonize Thanos after Loki's death, which he couldn’t guarantee.
Loki made up his mind, he really didn’t have much more to live for. Midgard- or Earth would never welcome him without Thors’ word of support, and even then it was debatable. Perhaps Banner would, but highly unlikely. They didn’t exactly have a friendly bond while on Sakarr. More of a mutual acquaintance. Either way Loki didn’t think he could ever consider Earth his home. Then again Loki didn’t really have a home at all. Yes, Asgard was where he grew up, yet he had always felt misplaced and unwanted, with the exception of his mother. His mother… oh how Loki wished his last words to her were not so bitter. He wished he could go back and redo it, and maybe with the Time Stone it was possible. But at the moment, he is about to walk into his own death.
With a deep breath, Loki slips on a smile and steps out. “If I might interject. If you’re going to Earth, you might want a guide. I do have a bit of experience in that.”
He got Thanos’ attention now. “If you consider failure experience.”
Loki grimaces at that. Clearly he hasn’t been forgotten. Even so he carries on, “I consider experience, experience. All mighty Thanos. I, Loki, prince of Asgard-” he pauses at this, considering his words. Then at long last choosing to realign himself, whether or not it was in a last ditch attempt to tell his mother he did not truly see her as just an adoptive guardian. He wasn’t sure if his mother could hear him from Valhalla, but Loki was sure he wouldn’t be meeting her there.
“Odinson,” he said in a soft voice. He takes a chance to glance at Thor, likely his last look at his brother before his imminent end. “The rightful king of the Jötunheim, God of Mischief. Do here by pledge to you, my undying fidelity.” He lets that sit in, and lets his choice sit in his mind.
Then with a quick motion Loki throws his dagger straight towards Thanos’ neck, but it stops, never even reaching. Thanos holds the Space Stone as it pulses and glows with power. He grabs Loki's wrist and twists till he loses grasp of his dagger. Then with his other hand grabs Loki's throat. Instinctively Loki tries to prey his hand off but it’s no use, he kicks and pulls but nothing. It burns his throat and he’s gasping for air, spots start showing up in his vision. Loki opens his eyes to stare the Titan straight in the eyes, and in a last ditch attempt to antagonize the maniac Loki spouts out, “You will never be a-” as he’s choking out the last part, “A god.”
The last thing he hears is a muffled cry to his left, then he’s fading away. And Loki nearly loses consciousness, but then he’s falling, the hands around his throat falling away. Then he feels nothing. He feels like he’s still moving, but he can’t feel anything, can’t see anything, can’t hear. It reminds him far too much of the void. Alone with his thoughts, though even the void has the feeling of coldness, here there was nothing. He tries to feel his hands but it’s like the brain circuits to his arms were cut off.
Was this death? Just a functioning brain to reflect on your life’s greatest mistakes and an eternal numbness? He thought death would mean ceasing to exist, not whatever this was.
Then he felt something, his seidr. Or something like it, a magic of sorts. The only thing was, it wasn’t coming from him. Yes, it was his magic, but it wasn’t him creating this- whatever it was. He could feel it creep closer through the void, and in a normal circumstance Loki would usually be very suspicious. And he still is, but it’s not like he can do anything about it. He can’t run away from it, so Loki lets it come to him, and even reaches out for it. It’s some sort of familiarity and right now Loki is kind of looking for that. So he reaches, and it comes closer, and closer until they touch.
Loki is hit with a wave of lights and sounds, then he’s falling again. But the fall is short lived, as soon enough he hits the ground with a grunt.
“Well isn’t that a strange sight,” a voice that's eerily familiar says.
Loki looks up to find- oh.
“Mind telling me who you are, why you’re here, and how you got into the prince of Asgard’s chambers?”
Loki looks up to find himself —albeit a slightly younger version of him — staring back at him, and it takes him a second to process what he’s seeing.
“You-” Loki chokes off his words, his throat dry. Wait, his throat. Loki clutches his throat that was previously strangled, and finds it completely healthy. A voice clears their throat and Loki turns back to look at himself.
He jumps on his feet, “Loki.” It felt strange to say his name while addressing another, “What time is it?”
His counterpart looked confused, “what time? Why would I know what time it is?”
And that was all Loki needed. Ever since he fell into the void, he’d made a habit of knowing what time it is or how much time has passed. He could tell you he was in the void for at least 7 months. At least, because he only started counting the days after being bored out of his mind in the void for the first few weeks. He continued it even after Thanos got him out, because by then it was a habit, eventually getting more precise and to the minute, or at the very least the hour. So if this Loki didn’t count the time yet, it must be before Thor’s Coronation.
Loki refocused on what must be his past self, if he’s to assume this was truly a time travel situation. “Fine, no need. How long till Thor's coronation?”
Other Loki seemed quite fed up with him by now, “Tomorrow, now will you tell me who the hell you are and why you’re impersonating me?”
Loki rolls his eyes as his younger self, “Come now, do you really have no imagination? Think, a being that looks like you, acts like you, is clearly wiser and older, and is asking about dates and time. What do you think this is?”
His other self takes a moment to answer, “Time travel, is what you’re proposing? And you’re from just how far?”
Loki lets out a dry laugh, “Ah, funny you bring that up. Keep in mind a lot can happen in a few years. A lot of bad things that I hope to change now, so if you would be so kind as to help me.” He leaves it at that, for good other self to accept our decline.
And of course, he does neither, “Time travel to fix a bad future.” He steps closer, “A little cliche isn’t it? For a Loki that is. Have any way to prove to me you’re really my future self?” The two of them now stand right in front of each other.
Loki looks at himself and internally winces at the way he acts. Back then he was still relatively tame while trying to get his fathers approval. He was so much more up tight and princely. “Well, if you’re always avoiding the cliche, then that'll be the new cliche wouldn’t you agree?” His other self doesn’t look impressed, so he gives in, “Fine, you want proof? I’ll tell you something you don’t even know about yourself. But something that wouldn’t ever change.” With that Loki snatched the wrist of his counterpart and froze it.
The other Loki desperately tried to pull away but soon enough the blue skin started to creep up and spread on both Loki’s. Loki watches himself freeze up in shock and denial, and when he looks up at Loki, the hurt and betrayal showed all over his face. Soon enough both of them are fully blue, with two pairs of blood red eyes. Loki's eyes soften, he knows all too well what his counterpart must be thinking. A Frost Giant? A beast, a monster that parents tell their children about at night. How much Odin's attitude toward his two sons makes sense now.
Loki slowly lets go of his wrist, but his counterpart continues to stare at his hand, then back at Loki. Then after building the courage in his voice he asks, “What is this? Some elaborate prank? A joke, an illusion, it has to be.” He watched his skin turn back to the usual Aesir skin color. Neither of them say anything for a while, the older Loki allowing his younger self to process. Eventually the other Loki speaks up again a little breathlessly, “Time travel then. Can’t say I expected to be the one to figure that out.”
Loki lets out a nervous chuckle at that, “As much as I'd like to take credit for that, this was not my doing. As far as I know.” Loki didn’t think he could ever accidentally time travel, no less without the help of the Time Stone. “Either way it’s given us a second chance to hopefully avoid certain events in the near future. Will you help me?”
His younger self ponders this, but eventually nods his head, “What do you need?”
And Loki grins at this, “Another name for you, because I’m taking Loki. I came first, don’t argue.”
So of course with that, they argued for quite a while.