'One.' Loki tapped the butt of a re-purposed broomstick against the floor with just enough force for the thud to be audible to everyone in the room.

The lines of Exian soldiers moved a step forward.

'Two,' Loki called out and brought down the butt of the broomstick handle once more. The Exians moved another step forward. One more tap. 'Three!'

The Exians exploded into an attack, striking down their imaginary opponents. Loki waited a moment, giving his pupils the opportunity to assess positioning of the various parts of their body and to make adjustments accordingly, then tapped again. The Exians returned to their starting position.

'One,' Loki called out, starting the footwork drill from the beginning again. The Exians hadn't yet earned their break.

The double doors behind Loki were flung open, cutting him off just as he was about to bring the broomstick handle down for the second count in the exercise. He turned on his heel. A trio of Chitauri had positioned themselves to completely block the doorway.

'Something I can do for you, gentlemen?' Loki asked.

'Are you Captain Loki Odinson?' the tallest of the Chitauri responded. The insignia on his uniform marked him out as an equivalent to a sergeant, but his tone offered no deference to Loki despite his superior rank.

'I am.'

'Then you are to come with us, sir.'

'By whose orders am I to do so?' Loki said as he lowered the broom-handle. He had ripped the actual broom part off, so at a pinch, what remained could serve as a staff. The Chitauri weren't the brightest when they weren't under the direct control of their hive mind, which seemed to be the case right now. It was best not to provide opportunities for them to misinterpret the situation.

The Chitauri sergeant wrinkled his nose, then squared his shoulders. 'General Glaive's.'

That didn't clarify matters for Loki. He hadn't even been formally introduced to Corvus Glaive, who seemed to be wholly focused on preparing for some campaign. And the previous time around, he had exchanged all of twenty words with him.

Loki forced a smile. 'I cannot refuse the general's orders.' He turned back to the Exians. 'In my absence, move onto sparring practice. Evaluate each other.'

He tossed the broom-handle into the corner of the room on his way out. The untreated wood wouldn't last long in a fight against proper weapons, if he had to resort to physical confrontation, he preferred to have his hands available to make use of other implements of defence. Behind him, the noise coming from the Exians rapidly rose in volume - they weren't the best at organising themselves without the detailed orders of a superior officer. It was another weakness Loki had to drill out of them.

Loki bit his lip in an effort to stop himself chuckling at his preoccupation with the performance of the company assigned to him. The Exians didn't matter, yet here he was spending hour after hour making them better soldiers.

'Hurry on,' the sergeant muttered. He gestured for the two soldiers accompanying him to fall back behind Loki and make sure he wasn't dawdling.

It wasn't a long walk. What really distinguished Sanctuary City from the typical urban settlement in the universe was the inhabitants' constant proximity to an interrogation room or a prison cell. Loki soon found himself in a poorly-lit, grey cube furnished only with a table and three chairs. Two were vacant. Brunnhilde occupied the third.

Are you fucking kidding me?

'You look well-rested,' Loki said while he took stock of the bruises on Brunnhilde's skin and the dried bloodstains on her clothing. The garments themselves looked to be in a far worse state than it had been the last time he had seen Brunnhilde wear it. Behind him, he heard the Chitauri withdraw and someone else entered the interrogation room. 'What's going on here?'

'What do you think is going on?' Gamora said.

She had the smug look of a person who had already done the calculations and had concluded that she was assured of victory. Nebula had also slunk into the room, just behind her sister, but she wore a decidedly different expression. All in all, Loki liked this set up less with every passing second.

'I can't quite say,' Loki replied. 'A surly gaggle of Chitauri interrupted my work and informed Corvus Glaive wanted me. Yet I don't see the good general here, only my former employee, who should've been far away from the Sanctuary by now.'

'Glaive is delayed.'

Loki leaned in to examine the Valkyrie's blood-shot left eye and to get a better look at the bindings around her wrists. 'Ah. Well, he's a busy man. So am I. Brunnhilde would you care to explain how you ended up here, so I can figure out why I'm here?'

Brunnhilde's lips parted, but before she could produce a sound, Gamora cut in. 'There was an intrusion into the Palisade last week; an investigation was initiated. Your... former employee was apprehended as part of this investigation. She had a host of data originating from the Palisade's systems on her person.'

'Great mercy. I had no idea she was capable of such a thing.'

'So you didn't know about this?' Nebula asked.

Loki vehemently shook his head, saving the curse words for his inner thoughts. 'I dismissed her when I was released from the Palisade medbay. Your father promised me accommodation and I thought with me living and working in the military compound, it made no sense to keep a guard around. I'd had no need for her beforehand as it was. I told her to find her way back to her home-planet. As far as I knew, she'd left. I hadn't even heard about this break-in until now.'

'It was kept quiet. Reputation's important,' Gamora said. 'The break-in is not actually why we are here, but rather information revealed upon more thorough investigation. She has made allegations about you and your motives. She claims you hired her to assist you while you spied on activities in the Sanctuary. You were allegedly ordered to do so by your adoptive father and will report back to him on what you have found here.'

Although his heart thumped, Loki forced his voice to remain level. 'How did you get this information?'

It's got to be beatings and threats. Got to be. If it was the mind stone, I'd be cowering before Thanos' feet right now.

Gamora shrugged. 'The usual way.'

'I'm sorry, Loki,' Brunnhilde muttered.

'You're sorry?' Loki snapped. 'You're sorry? You're just drunken, back-alley scum, who -'

'Is it true?' Gamora demanded, raising her voice to drown out the diatribe he had been building up to.

Loki glanced to Nebula, who still stood a step behind her sister and peered at him with widened eyes. He took a breath and made a show of trying to bring himself under control. 'Of course it's not true. Look, Gamora, you were right, I did sleep with her while she was employed as my guard. Once. Only once. I drank too much one evening and that was that, except then she started to expect things and make demands. She spat in my face when I told her to go. Surely you know how reliable confessions obtained under torture actually are. She's pissed at me for rejecting her, why wouldn't she make up all sorts of tall tales about me?'

'She stole from the Great Titan, she's marked for death already. The condemned have no reason to hold back the truth any longer.'

'That doesn't mean she doesn't have reason to lie though,' Nebula said. 'If you're going to die, you might as well get revenge on everyone you have grievances with.'

Brunnhilde let her head drop forward until her forehead hovered all of two inches above the tabletop. Gamora grabbed a fistful of Brunnhilde's hair and wrenched her head up. 'Have you considered, sister, that you might be biased on this matter?'

'Although you might think otherwise, sister, I do possess a modicum more intelligence than an Outrider,' Nebula replied. She made a circle around Brunnhilde, peering down at the Valkyrie as if she were laboratory specimen. 'She's awfully quiet now, isn't she? Anyway, where are you taking this? You don't have the authority to question Loki.'

'So that'll be why you want Corvus Glaive here,' Loki said with a huff.

He was no longer a random wretch pulled out from the slave pits or an unknown pilgrim coming from who knew where; he was officially in Thanos' employ. More specifically, he had a position and a rank in the Titan's armies, which placed him under the command of Thanos' chief general, Corvus Glaive. Gamora couldn't just apprehend a person from the army corps and interrogate them without Glaive's expression concession.

'He'll be here soon enough,' Gamora said, 'and I've briefed him on this already.'

Loki sighed. 'What reason would he have to deny what you ask from him?' His voice grew strained. 'I realise, in hindsight, I may have been overly harsh in what I said, Brunnhilde, but this is a low move. Well, not much I can do now. You might as well start your questions, Gamora. The anticipation won't improve what's about to come.'

'It will for me,' Gamora replied. 'Why don't you take a seat, Loki? Nebula, get her out of here and put her in the black cells. I got everything I need out of her already.'

Nebula's eyes lingered on Loki as she grabbed Brunnhilde by the shoulders and pulled the Valkyrie out of the chair. There was no trace of compassion in the way she handled Brunnhilde, yet she looked aghast. Afraid for what was about to happen to him, Loki realised. They were all Children of Thanos here. He knew what awaited him in Gamora's hands. So did Nebula.

'Take her chair, Loki' Gamora said, pointing to the chair Nebula had just forced Brunnhilde to vacate.

'Certainly.'

He rested his hand on the chair's back. It was made of a steel alloy of some kind, the whole chair all one piece - probably made from a mould in a factory right here in Sanctuary City. As far as interrogation room furniture went, it was a good chair.

And, as it happened, surprisingly aerodynamic.

The chair struck Gamora right in the face. The force of the hit wasn't even close to knocking her out, but it did disorient Gamora long enough for Loki to flip the table in her direction as well. He rushed over to Nebula and Brunnhilde. Getting out of this room wasn't going to be easy - in attacking Gamora, Loki had betrayed himself to Nebula and Brunnhilde's hands were bound.

Thankfully, Brunnhilde still had her wits about her. She kicked out, making Nebula groan in pain. Loki leaped onto Nebula's back and wrapped his hands around her neck. However far each modification of her body pushed her towards relinquishing the body she had been born with, Nebula still needed to breathe. She let go on Brunnhilde and clawed at Loki's hands. He held on, feeling the protest of both the natural tendons and the robotic additions against his fingers.

'That was the stupidest thing you've ever done,' Gamora sneered as she wrenched Loki off her sister. 'You'll realise that very soon.'

Loki slumped to the floor and by the time he was back on his feet, Gamora had her sword drawn. He met her first strike with his own pair of knives. For all his training since arriving at the Sanctuary, Loki's heart drummed. He pushed Gamora's sword off to the side, then moved in. His knives had a shorter reach than Gamora's blade, so getting close was vital.

'Loki!' Brunnhilde yelled.

Nebula rammed into him, using her body mass to push him away from Gamora. He lost his footing and one knife. The resulting heap was a mess of limbs, not helped by Brunnhilde leaping into the confusion. Fists, feet, foreheads. Kicks, swings, jabs. Loki didn't bother keeping track of where the attacks came from, focusing only on warding them off. Nebula, it seemed, was determined to beat him to a pulp.

He managed, eventually, to push her off and to reclaim the knife he had dropped. There was another flash of silver in the periphery of his vision, but he ignored it. Gamora had positioned herself in front of the door - the door that was the sole exit out of the room.

'Your father is a monster,' Loki said as he moved towards her. 'It's hard to admit to it, but you know this is true.'

Her reply was an enraged holler. Loki sidestepped her attack and raised his hand to aim a blow into Gamora's back. Brunnhilde got there first. She sank a sword deep into Gamora's abdomen and turned her wrist, making the sword scrape through Gamora's intestines. What followed wasn't a scream. All Gamora managed was a tortured whimper.

'Come on!' Loki shouted. He flung open the door and pulled Brunnhilde out of the room.

No one waited around outside. Gamora had either not expected Loki to cause trouble or had assumed that between her and Nebula they could come out victorious should they encounter resistance. Immeasurably relieved, Loki muttered a thanks to the Norns for Gamora's over-confidence. He was sure Nebula would stay behind until her sister could get medical attention; they had a few minutes before the pursuit began.

He held Brunnhilde by the upper arm as they hurried down the corridor. 'Drop that sword. That's one of Nebula's, isn't it? Too distinctive.'

'Pity,' she mumbled and let the sword fall out of her hands. 'It was a good scoop to get it. She was so busy trying to turn that handsome face of yours into mush.'

'Do as I tell you and be quiet.'

Brunnhilde smiled weakly, then added, 'The handcuffs are kind of distinctive too, don't you think?'

She did have a point there. Loki stopped in mid-step and spun her around, then peered down at the handcuffs again. They were robust and positioned closely around Brunnhilde's wrists, so there was no smashing them off or trying to slip them off Brunnhilde. But the lock mechanism itself was unlikely to be complicated or warded. Loki pressed his hands against the handcuffs and tried an unlocking spell. The lock clicked open.

'I'm still good for something.' He slid the handcuffs into his pocket and glanced around. Still no one in the vicinity. 'After this, you're really going to have to stay quiet.'

He let his magic burst out, spreading first over himself, then over Brunnhilde. When it settled, he had to suppress a laugh. Brunnhilde's incredulous expression didn't at all belong on the face of a Chitauri.