The sceptre sent veins of cyan-hued energy trailing over and under Thanos' skin. Loki laughed. He had forgotten the potency of the soaring satisfaction the mind stone imparted upon its wielder and the euphoria that coursed through your veins when you reached out to snatch another's mind.

The blue reached Thanos' temples; memories that weren't his own flashed before Loki's eyes. A busy, prosperous city bursting with people, all of whom rushed past a ragged wisp of a child begging for water. Two girls -- undoubtedly Gamora and Nebula in their younger days -- argued over a bag of candy. A firestorm vaporised all in its path, roaring out towards a dark horizon where no sentient creature would ever walk again. Loki pressed the sceptre further. He was close, soon he would have Thanos at his mercy, but he wasn't yet there.

Thanos roared. The mind stone's energy seemed to convulse, something Loki had never witnessed or heard of it doing before. Before he could react, Thanos had already pushed the sceptre out of the way with enough force to send it flying out of Loki's hands.

He advanced on Loki. 'You'll pay for that.'

Horror took place of the glorious elation of the previous moment. Loki backed away from Thanos and his feet slipped off the stair he had been standing on. He tumbled off the dais.

Loki scrambled back onto his feet. Between half-chocked up breaths, he dropped the illusions he'd woven over himself, found the sceptre and clung onto it with every ounce of strength he had. Only one thought remained as he edged closer to utter panic -- he needed to keep Thanos away from the mind stone. Loki continued scrambling back and sent a blast from the sceptre in Thanos' direction, but that only left the Titan snarling with fury.

This is it. Really it.

A whir that Loki had never welcomed half as much as he did now became audible. A second later, it grew louder. Then, with a thunderclap that made even the massive statues above them tremble, Thor held up Mjolnir. Loki sucked in a breath. Thor was here, it wasn't over just yet.

If Thor's fists couldn't quite do the damage that Thanos' could, Thor was more agile and Mjolnir was a powerful weapon. Had they been matched one-to-one, Thor might well have struck a serious, if not a decisive blow. But they were in the middle of a palace occupied by Thanos' troops. The tumult of the fighting carried and Outriders soon poured in through the open doors.

Hissing out a string of curses, Loki used a spell to slam all the doors shut. Yet there were dozens of soldiers already inside. And loud thumps came from the corridors; the soldiers on the other side of the doors would force their way inside soon enough.

'You're a fool. You both are,' Thanos sneered as he threw a left hook at Thor's face. 'Asgard will pay the price for your mistake.'

Thor ducked under Thanos' fist, but if he offered a response to Thanos' threat, Loki never heard it. Three Outriders converged on him, the muscles of their many arms taut and ready to tear him apart. Loki swung the sceptre in a wide arc. He didn't dare to try mind control in the middle of a battle -- that required a degree of finesse that he didn't have time for with the numbers stacked so heavily against him and Thor, but he was liberal with the energy the sceptre could channel from the infinity stone.

The energy pulse tore through the Outriders advancing towards him and they all slumped to the ground. Yet that hardly solved Loki's problem. Outriders had been bred to pay no heed to the fate of their comrades. Once the heat of battle subsumed them, they pressed upon the enemy with the furore of rabid wolves. Loki would have to kill every single one of them before they stopped coming.

The door to Loki's left exploded, sending shattered fragments of the heavy door flying in every direction. More Outriders poured in.

The longer this goes on, the worse it's going to get. This palace is teeming with Thanos' people.

Loki edged out of the Outriders' reach and tried to take stock. Thor and Thanos had ended up atop the dais. Thor's mistimed swing left one of the thrones shattered; that was all he had managed to achieve.

'Think, you pathetic bastard, think,' Loki muttered.

He sent a small blast at the two Outriders closest to him, then a much larger one at the left-most of the humanoid statues that haughtily gazed down at the battle happening at their feet. It toppled sideways. A small swipe of Loki's hand and the statue came down across the gaping hole where Thanos' men had blown out the door.

The makeshift barrier seemed to hold, but to make sure, Loki dropped a second statue across the opening. No doubt with enough effort and explosives, Thanos' troops could blast through the heavy granite too, but the magnitude of the explosion needed would risk bringing down the entire building. Loki grinned as he deflected an Outrider blade with the shaft of his spear and, one-by-one, brought down the rest of the statues until every entrance into the hall was barricaded. None of them would be leaving until this fight was finished, one way or another.

Loki focused on the Outriders, taking care to keep them away from Thor. He even snuck shots at Thanos where he could, though that had little effect. Neither Thanos nor Thor could find a decisive opening. Loki, however, was getting somewhere -- the number of bodies on the floor grew and fewer raced to tear out Loki's throat.

Thor snarled. Thanos had feigned an attack then dived into a roll; Thor ended up slamming Mjolnir into the ground, shattering every flagstone within a ten-metre radius. While Thor huffed in irritation and straightened up, Thanos was already back on his feet. For the first time, Loki saw him shift away from Thor.

Thanos ripped off his leather gloves and threw them aside. Loki's eyes widened. Thanos' left hand looked unremarkable, but the right, well, Loki didn't know quite what to make of it. It was generous to call it a gauntlet -- the apparatus left Thanos' fingers exposed and it was composed of crude, ill-fitting parts that jutted out at odd angles. Something uncouth had happened to this proto-gauntlet. Some pieces seemed to have been snapped, others were charred and burns bubbled up where the metal met the skin of Thanos' hand.

Thanos caught Loki's expression and smirked. 'A makeshift solution, but it served us well against the Tanaj.'

He pressed his hand into a fist and the bright lights of the throne room disappeared.

Loki found himself in a much darker place -- the courtyard where Thanos' followers had been celebrating earlier. The system's twin suns had set hours ago and the Tanaj servants had extinguished the bulk of the lanterns. Loki spun around. Thor had regained his bearings quicker than Loki had and already launched himself at Thanos once more. If anything, the wide perimeter of the courtyard offered Thor the advantage. He did his best work with Mjolnir when he had plenty of space to move.

However, the courtyard was still far from empty. The bulk of Thanos' most fervent loyalists were still there, sorting out uppity Tanaj noblemen. They rushed to their master's aid.

Shit. As if the space stone in Thanos' hands wasn't bad enough.

Loki blocked the spear Proxima Midnight thrust towards his stomach, only to come under attack from Ebony Maw. Now having the sceptre in his possession, Loki felt himself more a match to the Maw's telekinesis than before, but there were only so many attacks he could deflect at any one time. Proxima Midnight aimed her next thrust into his flank and someone among Thanos' officers had the presence of mind to call for more Outrider reinforcements, who now rushed into the courtyard armed with blaster rifles as well as swords. Beads of sweat ran down Loki's brow as he battled to remain alive.

He managed to catch only glimpses of his brother amid the furore. Thanos, always glad to take a backseat where there was an opportunity to do so, had let Cull Obsidian struggle with Thor and merely watched the spectacle. Loki forced a large pulse of energy out of the sceptre, enough to overwhelm Ebony Maw's magic and sent him careening into the courtyard wall. He jerked out of the way of Proxima's attack, then started pushing through the Outriders that stood between him and Thanos.

Someone grabbed Loki by the back of his neck with such force that he ended on the ground, flat on his back. Proxima pressed her foot on his stomach and brought up her spear, energy pulsing between the weapon's triad of prongs.

Light overwhelmed Loki's eyes as the dark sky parted and a great beam came down into the courtyard. Proxima twisted to see what had happened, which suited Loki just fine. He buried the pointed end of his sceptre deep in the meat of her calf and slipped from under her foot. Despite her howl of pain, Proxima reacted quickly. She grabbed Loki's shoulder and pulled him backward until he once again ended up on the ground, only this time he stared up at the pale face of the Sorcerer Supreme.

'Need some help there, Loki?' she asked in a soft tone that was utterly incongruous with the bloody battle underway all around them.

She didn't wait for him to reply; she already brought up her hands and summoned mandalas dripping with Eldritch magic, then stepped up to challenge Proxima. That gave Loki a chance to gather his wits. That light had been Heimdall's work; the flagstones of the courtyard now sported the familiar circular brand. He had brought through not only the Sorcerer Supreme, but Rogers and Gamora too. Had this been Heimdall's idea? Or had the Midgardians negotiated this? It didn't matter. Once the initial ambush failed, stealth no longer held any worth to Loki or Thor. In fact, they needed all the help they could get.

Does this mean I'm going to have to thank him if we get out of this alive? Bloody wonderful.

The tide did seem to turn in their favour. Rogers came to Thor's aid against Cull Obsidian. Neither his size nor his axe proved a match for the two of them working as a team. Cull fell first to his knees, then with another blow to the crook of his back, Mjolnir sent him sinking to the ground. He didn't get back up.

The Sorcerer Supreme made headway against Proxima Midnight, but then Ebony Maw came to Proxima's aid. Magic flowed freely while Proxima scrambled away and into the throng of Outriders. The courtyard teemed with them now. Some of them merely pushed off to the side the Tanaj who had been caught in the courtyard when the fighting broke out and kept them contained. But the majority were eager to get a piece of those who had dared to attack their master.

Loki did his best to cut through as many of them as he could as he followed the path of Proxima's retreat. One sword made it through, however. Loki hissed in pain as the Outrider drove his blade through Loki's upper arm. He turned the sceptre and the pulse of energy from the mind stone eviscerated the Outrider's face. One way or another, this struggle ended tonight; he didn't have time for niceties.

'Let go of me, bitch,' Gamora shouted. Loki hadn't seen how it happened, but Proxima Midnight had grabbed her and now dragged her towards Thanos.

Proxima raised her voice so everyone could hear, 'We've a traitor here!'

Thanos grabbed Mjolnir by the hammerhead and chucked it as far as he could; the hammer took Thor with it. 'Another show of trickery?'

'No, father,' Gamora replied. 'I just couldn't ignore my conscience anymore.'

For the first time this night, and possibly in all the time Loki had known Thanos, he got the sense that the Titan was disturbed by what was going on. Thanos hunched his shoulders and clenched his jaw, before responding. 'So be it, daughter.'

That tone didn't bode well. Not daring to find out what the next moments might entail, Loki pushed past a vicious-looking mercenary, who bore a captain's regalia. Loki grabbed Proxima's arm and wrenched her away from Gamora. He winced; it felt like a hundred needles had been sunk into his already aching arm.

A pulse of blue light swallowed the courtyard, but when he pried his eyes open again, he was surprised to realise that he still stood on the same spot he had been a second ago. Only Thanos and Thor seemed to be missing.

Loki spun around. No, he hadn't made a mistake. No one else was missing, it really was only Thanos and Thor gone. A lump solidified in Loki's throat.

All be damned.

Thunder roared and, a fraction of a second later, lightning lit up the sky.

'Thank the fuck,' Loki muttered, then raised his voice so he could be heard above the din in the courtyard. 'Rogers!'

The captain had gotten himself caught in a swarm of Outriders. He glanced over to Loki, then seemed to understand. He flattened himself as much as he could and threw the shield over himself, which allowed Loki to unleash the raw power of the mind stone at the Outriders.

Rogers climbed out from the bodies and rushed over to Loki, but Loki shook his head. 'Work with Gamora here. I'm going to find Thor.'

Loki thought he knew what Thanos was trying to do. It was a logical strategy - separate them and take them on one-by-one. But he probably hadn't counted on the fact Loki had learned long ago; where Thor walked, thunder and lightning followed. Loki needed only to chart the sound.

Out in the smaller courtyards, it was even darker. There were plenty of soldiers about nevertheless. Plenty of confusion too, as troop-leaders and officers shouted contrary orders. No one paid much attention to him and he was happy for it to stay that way, so he crept along the periphery of the courtyards.

Someone chanted. Loki frowned, trying to place the low-guttural sound. Before he had any success, a band of Tanaj burst in from one of the side arches, chanting and roaring war cries. Loki hurriedly pressed himself against the wall, but he had been spotted already. One of the Tanaj from the very front of the pack, a particularly short one, yelled out an order and then swerved to face Loki.

'Surrender now,' he demanded. A new blast of lightning barrelled through and Loki recognised the speaker. It was one of the young Tanaj emperors, the one who had snivelled as he stood at Thanos' side. He had stripped away much of his elaborate regalia and now held an Outrider sword in his hands. In the voice of one who wouldn't reach adulthood for years yet, he pressed. 'Drop your weapon!'

'If it's all the same, your majesty, I'd rather keep it,' Loki replied. 'Before the night is done, I'd like to drive this thing as deep into Thanos' skull as it'll go.'

The Tanaj lowered his sword by a couple of inches. 'You intend to kill him?'

'He deserves it, a million times over.'

'He does,' the Tanaj replied. 'Go then. There aren't many of us left, but we'll do what we can.'

Loki nodded to the young emperor, then continued moving as quickly as he could, but Thor and Thanos eluded him. Several times, he caught flashes of light that could have only been the space stone in use. Thanos was no doubt toying with Thor; Mjolnir was worth little if the enemy moved too quickly for you to land your strike. Shaking his head, Loki decided that scouting the courtyards would get him nowhere. He wiped away the blood dripping from his injured arm and gritted his teeth as he climbed up the courtyard wall. The roof was slanted and the tiles slippery, so it wasn't the surest of footings, but the vantage the roof provided him was unparalleled. At the next flash of lightning, he spotted exactly where Thanos and Thor were.

He sprinted across the rooftops. When he was close enough, he sent a pulse of energy at Thanos' back. The Titan moved and it was only a glancing hit, but it got Thanos' attention. He tore a decorative sculpture off its pedestal and threw it in Loki's direction. His aim was worse than Loki's. The sculpture never gained enough height and ended up sailing through a window instead.

'Both of you'll beg to die long before I'm done with you!' Thanos hollered.

'You'll need to get to us first,' Thor replied. Two spins of his hammer and he was in the air. He landed on the roof, by Loki's side.

If Thor was hoping for some perverse game of cat and mouse, Thanos wasn't in the mood. He clenched his fist again. Loki tumbled out of mid-air and landed atop corpses of two Outriders.

Cursing whatever miserable wench had given birth to Thanos and didn't have the decency to smother him there and then, Loki rolled off the still-warm bodies. He ended up in a muddle of fresh blood and spilled guts.

Loki climbed back onto his feet. Thanos had taken them back to the courtyard where they had started. There seemed to be fewer Outriders flooding into the space and the Tanaj who had been kept at bay earlier had managed to take up weapons too. But there was no sign of an end to the bloodshed.

And if the blood-flow were to slow, it wouldn't be because the battle had turned in their favour. Thanos had to have troops elsewhere on the planet and definitely in orbit off-world. No doubt someone would've called them in by now. Or Thanos himself might be able to use the space stone to bring them here; Loki didn't know the capability of this gauntlet Thanos had managed to cobble together. How many more reinforcements could Heimdall scrounge up for their side? He couldn't use the Bifrost to bring people out here, but had to funnel a raw form of dark energy to open the wormhole, which was difficult work.

'There are two infinity stones here,' Loki muttered to himself as he helped a Tanaj noblewomen bring down an Outrider. 'He has one, I have one. They say the Norns are fond of symmetry.'

He inhaled a shuddering breath and turned. Rogers and Thor were having another try at Thanos. Loki took a few steps, trying to keep his mind on the Sorcerer Supreme's assurances, back on that night that already seemed like a dream from a century ago. You're on the right path here.

One more step. An outrider stepped in to block Loki's way; Loki brought him down. Three more steps. That seemed close enough. Loki lifted the sceptre and embraced the intoxication of an infinity stone allowed to unleash its full potential.

The light that poured from the sceptre was far brighter than the light of the Bifrost, brighter than entire stars. The mind stone, after all, had been there when the universe began and still held the might of that blast. But it hadn't been there alone. Thanos raised his hand and the mind stone met its equal.

Heat and pulses of raw energy radiated off the intersection between the two stones. Dark figures, so pathetically small against the grand power of the universe, staggered back, screaming. Loki snickered at them. Their pain didn't matter. The mind stone probably melted his face and set his hair aflame, but he didn't care. His pain didn't matter. He knew only that he needed to push more, coax more out of the stone. If he set the universe on fire, he didn't care -- so be it. The mind stone had to prevail.

'Give it up! Surrender and you'll have mercy!' Thanos roared from somewhere in the periphery of Loki's consciousness.

Loki clenched his teeth together and forced more out of the sceptre, even pouring every trace of magic contained within his own body. The light swelled and the pulses grew more frequent. But where everyone else had fled, one figure moved in the opposite direction. He brought his hand back and with a thunderclap loud enough to shatter stone, he slammed his hand down.

Thor.

The world exploded. Loki was thrown backwards several dozen feet and into a cold puddle of someone else's blood.