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CHAPTER FIVE

Friends From Work

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SAKAAR

"Ana? Loki?"

Thor beamed brightly at the sight of familiar faces. Hela had almost killed him during the speedy path to Asgard in the Rainbow Bridge, but he managed to evade her clutches and crash through the Bifrost free from injury. He found himself on Sakaar, bound to a chair with an obedience disk on his neck, thanks to Brunnhilde. The Grandmaster, newly transformed into a colourful leader, stood behind a keyboard synthesiser in a VIP room in his palace, performing a tune to welcome his new contender. He danced on the spot, wagging his eyebrows suggestively at the God of Thunder. Thor could only sit there and watch, disturbed.

Ana and Loki were unusually close, seated together across the room from Thor, enjoying cocktails and mini sandwiches. Loki had just revealed a punchline to a joke, causing the crowd around him to burst out laughing. Ana raised her hand, giving Loki a high-five. She grinned at the trickster, going to lift her glass when her eyes darted over his shoulder at the blond man on the other side of the room.

Ana choked on her drink.

"Thor?"

Thor heard her mumble out his name, and began nodding his head, his smile growing. "Yes. It's me!" He called.

Ana gestured for Loki to look behind him, and watched as he turned white while his eyes enlarged significantly. He cleared his throat, offering his fellow VIPs a fleeting smile. "Excuse us one second." Thor's mouth dropped open when he witnessed Loki hold Ana's hand in his own. He couldn't stop staring as Loki led her to him, eyes squinting with suspicion.

Thor glared at their joined hands. "Loki!" He seethed.

They stopped in front of him, and Thor gasped softly when Ana leaned into the trickster, one hand resting on his chest. She had a shimmering, long blue dress on that matched the colour of Loki's suit.

"Shh!" Loki hushed. "You're alive?" He noted, looking his brother over.

"Yes, of course I'm alive." He glanced at Ana, "Loki, what kind of trickery is this?" Thor hissed.

"Relax, it's not really her." Loki waved it off. The second those words left his lips, Ana's eyes flashed green, the same green that anyone could find in Loki's illusions, and a smirk that didn't fit her spread on her lips. Loki had casted an illusion to deceive the Grandmaster into believing the real Ana wasn't out in the city, breaking laws and buildings.

"Where is she?" Thor panicked, trying to spot her in the sea of Sakaarians. He even focused on a buffet table off to the side where he assumed she could be. Nothing. "Is she dead? She can't be dead! I promised her doctor I'd look after her as long as there is life within my breast. There is still life in here, Loki!"

On cue, a window shattered behind them when a woman crashed through it. Thor couldn't turn his head to see what had happened because he was stuck to a chair, but Loki could and he widened his eyes, making sure that the Grandmaster wasn't aware of the accident. Ana rolled to a stop, and held herself up by her hands, choking from the smoke she inhaled seconds ago. She brushed the short strands of her hair away from her face, and breathed out.

"Ah, damn..." She muttered under her breath, spinning around, eyes on the aircraft that fell out of the sky, leaving a trail of thick black smoke in the air. She frowned to herself, and lifted a hand to her chin. "I really thought it would work this time."

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