♤Magical Entertainment♤《 Loki X OC 》

Chapter 3 ~ The memories

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Recap:

"As ready I will ever be, witchling," he sighed as he found her eyes, green meeting green before hers turned glowing red that sent an unexpected dread through him. He drowned the feeling before the woman's fingers pressed against his temples, and she dove deep into his reluctant but open mind.

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Soon Wanda found herself in a garden surrounded by beautiful hedges, flowers, bushes, alcoves, and arches covered in creepers. Straight ahead of her, at the end of a small snaking gravel path, stood a curved marble bench with a particular raven-haired god sitting on it.

"Where are we? Wasn't I supposed to go through your memories?" the auburn-haired woman asked the trickster god with a cocked eyebrow as she slowly began to tread the path.

"Soon, witchling, but first, I need you to swear me something," Loki confirmed as he patted the seat beside him, and Wanda hesitantly closed the distance and sat down on the other side of the bench.

"And what would that be?" She asked him, now a little suspicious. Loki shook his head, looking to his lap where his fingers were picking at his palm for a moment.

"I would very much appreciate it if you did not tell your team about what you are about to witness in my mind. I need you to promise me that I can continue to keep my memories to myself, and the ones I show you will stay between you and me," Loki asked her, finding her gaze again. She nodded once.

"I will respect your wishes. Let's get this over with," Wanda decided, earning a grateful nod and a sympathetic, almost apologetic, look from the god before the scenery around her changed. She stood on barren rock with peculiar stone formations and a starry void above and around her, with meteors floating lazily throughout. Wanda looked around, unsure of what to do. Once her eyes landed on one of the taller formations, Loki stood before it, hands behind his back and head slightly lowered.

"Allow me to escort you." He gestured for her to follow him around a large rock to her left. Slowly, she followed him. She rounded the corner and stepped right into the dreadful scene of Loki being beaten and whipped by horrible-looking aliens who were laughing and joking amongst themselves as Loki's bone chilling screams rang throughout the open space. Wanda stopped in her tracks as she covered her mouth in horror. She looked on in disdain and repulsion at the torture that these monsters amused themselves with. Finally, she managed to tear her eyes from the scene to look at her guide. He still looked at his much younger self being mercilessly beaten, stifling flinches at every crack of their glowing hot whip. Wanda opened her mouth to ask him something, but her words caught in her throat when a giant man with purple skin came round a corner. He was at least twice her size and the most terrifying thing she had ever seen.

"Who is that?" She stammered. Loki didn't look his way, keeping his focus on his own beaten and heaving form. The purple man spoke in a deep voice as he asked his men how the breaking of his recruit was progressing. Wanda spared a glance to present Loki; the muscles in his neck were twitching at every word spoken by the enormous man. He was still terrified of this monster even if he only displayed a cold facade over clenched teeth.

"Thanos, they called him," Loki forced out finally. "The mad titan. He was the brain of the operation. This was just after they found me, after I had fallen from the Bifröst. I don't know how long I spent at their mercy. Days, weeks, months, I have no idea." The scene blurred and changed many times over, but they all contained the same scenes: Loki being tortured in more ways than Wanda could ever imagine possible. They used everything from heat and starvation to magic and psychological tricks, but most importantly, they used the mind stone against him, the same stone that had caused her so much pain. She reached out a hand to place it on Loki's arm, to comfort him, but he pulled away from her before she could make contact. Wanda sighed. She felt horrible for him. All she wanted was to tell him everything would be alright, but of course, he would not indulge her, trying to keep his emotions at bay. The young woman remembered her own pain from her and her brother's time back at HYDRA, but she could never imagine what it was like for Loki to experience this all over again. To watch himself scream and cry as they slowly but surely broke him down into an empty shell, willing to do anything to make it stop. It made her feel sick. Suddenly, the flashing stopped. It settled on a memory. Loki was tied up like he had been all the other times, covered in his own blood, but this time he was alone, with no one there to torment him, and he cried: his sobs silent and convulsions only making his pain worse.