The Last Shifter (a Loki romance)

Chapter 145

The first few months of our journey were relatively smooth. There were certain growing pains to contend with, but that came with the territory of having so many people in a confined space like this. Our supplies were dwindling to dangerously low levels, but Thor and Heimdall were certain that they would last us the rest of the journey to Earth.

We were a month out from Earth now, and Loki and I had decided that it was finally time to catch Thor up on the past events. That, and a few days ago, certain alarms had gone off. Wards I had set around the Power stone and the orb had been destroyed and not long after, whispers had come over the holo nets that Thanos had attacked and decimated Xandar. Fear had been festering in my heart since then, a shadow and a threat looming in my mind. I'd reached out to Gamora, but all she could do was confirm that they had heard the same news. For what little good it would do, I'd told her to make for Earth. Thanos would have to come there eventually, and there we would make our final stand.

"Hey." Loki was in front of me with a hand on each shoulder. My wounds from the battle with Hela had long since healed completely, "You were worrying again." More and more, Loki had to keep pulling me out of my head when I got too wound up thinking about Thanos. He could not have chosen a better window to start his final sprint.

"You with me?" Loki tucked a spare lock of hair behind me ear, his fingertips brushing my birthmark.

"Yeah." I whispered, "I'm here."

"Good. I'm going to need your help explaining these Accords to Thor."

To say that Thor seemed unconcerned about the Accords was an understatement. For the most part, he only expressed concern about the fact that the Avengers had splintered. Not to mention, we had to remind him that Loki was still a wanted war criminal.

"Seriously, brother." Loki was getting annoyed and I was close behind, "Do you really think it's a good idea to go back to Earth?"

"Of course! The people of Earth love me, I'm very popular."

"Even with the Accords?" I crossed my arms. Thor just shrugged.

"You said at the beginning, an alternate option was to retire. Then, I shall 'retire' from the Avengers and be the King of Asgard." I scoffed.

"Let me rephrase that." Loki began before I could blow up at him, "Do you think it's a good idea to return to Earth with a massive amount of pomp and circumstance that will plunge Arista and I into the limelight?"

"Probably not, to be honest. But I wouldn't worry, brother. I think everything's going to work out fine." Famous last words, Thor. Famous last words. And if everything was going to work out fine, why did I feel like the shadow in my mind was growing even now?

Wait.

It wasn't the shadow in my mind that was growing. It was the shadow of a massive ship coming up outside. The ship that haunted my darkest dreams.

Thanos was here.

At first, blind panic filled me. My worst fear had been realized! He was attacking here and now and there was nowhere to go! Nowhere for the people to run and nowhere I could fight him that would be free of collateral damage.

I felt myself begin to spiral, but for the first time in these past months, I pulled myself out without Loki's help. No. I refused to be held captive by my emotions. I'd been waiting too long for my shot at Thanos to let his surprise attack get the better of me now.

So I closed the Bond. I sealed it completely and centered myself, summoning my weapons to me. Just the weight of my sword at my side and the feeling of my armor against my skin helped me banish my panic and focus. I also pulled my rings box from its dimensional pocket and slipped all ten on. At once, purple and blue became the dominant colors in the black opals, sensing the close proximity of the Tesseract and the Power stone.