Loki and Ingrid 52--FINAL PART

Endings and Beginnings

Five years later~

I’m sitting alone again in my room, pouring over ancient Midgardian volumes that Thor had found in school. All of the stories, the myths—so interesting, but they got it all wrong. I shake my head. Earth folk are stupid. Maybe. A younger me would say that teasingly, so coy. I might have had fun, once. I don’t remember now. It’s been too long, sitting in my silent corner, watching Thor, Korg, Miek, and even Lyd play games sometimes. She might enjoy Midgard more than anywhere else. She’s told me she likes it here, even after the snap.

          Five years after, I still can’t believe that the inevitable happened. We lost—well, they lost. I didn’t do anything but sit by. I rested. I thought I would be better, but then…I heard everything that happened in Wakanda with Thor, and Thanos. Even Nebula. And Gamora. Half of all life, gone. Canute still sees me sometimes, so distant, he knows I’m too far gone. Lyd is the only one who ever talks to me, because she’s the only one who can read me now.

          Maybe the impact was dulled after the snap, but I still miss him. At least Thor got to kill Thanos…but it was a hollow victory five years ago. The stones were destroyed by Thanos’ doing. We’re still living in the aftermath, with no way to fix it. I miss home. I miss Colby, presumable vanished with half of all life. I haven’t heard from Sif either. None of them feel real though. I don’t think anyone saw it actually happening. Everyone is reacting differently, but all the same. Everyone is lost—

          “Hey.”

          I look up. It’s Lyd.

          “Thor wants to see you at HQ.”

          HQ? He’s back with the avengers? How? What happened? No, I mustn’t have even a spark of hope.

          “Yeah, Avengers HQ. We’d best get going.”

          Tell me what’s going on, Lyd.

          “Fine,” she sighs, sitting next to me.  “The Avengers—especially Tony, they have a super sciency plan to travel in time and get the stones—I helped with it a little bit.”

          I still feel even more useless…

          “You need to listen to me. It’s only for people who turned to dust…not people who died…before.”

          I nod.

          “Time travel goes really notoriously wrong. We could all die.”

          I nod again.

          “I’m not asking you to go—”

          But Thor is, isn’t he?

          He might just want to talk to you.

          I haven’t talked in five years, Lyd.

          “That’s obvious.”

          I can’t do it. I might run into…him.

          “I know…you’d try to save him.”

          Are you going?

          “I’m going after a different stone…the one that Nebula’s going after…we’re good friends.” I hear her voice drop to a whisper. “I couldn’t go to New York either.”

          I nod.

          “But I agree it’s too dangerous for you anyway. But they’re gonna fix what happened with Thanos, don’t worry.”

          You sound worried.

          “Stuff could go horribly wrong. Maybe Thor just wants to say goodbye.”

          Not more goodbyes. I’m not ready. I can’t.

          “Ship’s outside, Ingrid.”

          I nod. Okay. We’re doing this.

***

“Ingrid?” I hear the ever-familiar voice across the room. Lyd is chatting with Nebula. I’m alone. I have to do this.

          I walk over. I’m still staring at my boots. I can’t make eye-contact with those eyes…eyes which have lost everything.      

          Suddenly, I feel emotion, the first spark of life in years. I’m almost angry. I want to yell at him, ask him what he wants from me.

          “I can’t read your mind, Ingrid, I was always poor with matters of magic.”

          I nod.

          “We have one shot as a team, and we can’t mess up.”

          I nod again.

          “You hear that?”

          Yeah. Obviously, I’m not deaf…I can almost hear Loki’s voice in my head. What did I do? What did Thanos do. Why didn’t I do something earlier.

          “Good luck, Thor.” I say as I turn coldly to walk away.

          I’ll never get to have that confrontation with him in the present. Even if everyone is brought back…no, they have to do this for Colby, for Sif, for everyone. Anything can happen. And like always, there’s nothing I can do about it.

***

“Ingrid!” shouts Lyd, coming into the room abruptly.

          I look up at her.

          “Something bad happened, I’m not sure what happened with the time travel and Pym particles…we got all the stones back, but he saw the future inside Nebula’s head, he’s coming.

          “Did you tell the others?”

          “Yes, but—”

          “Hold on.” I say, “Does he know everything from the future. Who he killed, the blood—”

          “Well, yeah. I told Nebula everything. And he knows. He’s Thanos.”

          “Okay.”

          It’s not many times you get a second chance it isn’t—

          “GET DOWN!”

          I can barely breathe, suddenly, the building is collapsing, I’m falling under the debris with everyone…everything. What if he gets the gauntlet again? No. I can’t let it happen, I won’t.

***

“Ingrid, wake up!” I hear Lyd yelling again. I must have hit my head. “They’re holding him off.”

          I look up, out of the crumbling debris, to the fight going on, it’s Tony, it’s Steve, and it’s none other than Thor.

          I nod. I was never much one for combat, but I still have the little knife that—well, I know where I’m going to use it.

          Everything is rage, now.

          Suddenly, everything is quiet. A portal opens, then another, and another. I can’t believe my eyes, all the fallen Avengers. And Brunhilde. And…

          “SIF?” I shout. I’m running through the chaos now. I don’t even care. This means Colby is alive—they’re all back. That’s great…but it’s not over yet.   

          She looks at me. “Ingrid? Ingrid, is that you?”

          “Yeah, it’s me,” I shout.

          She runs up to me, “Where have you been?”

          “Might be a better question for you, but now’s not time.”

          “I see Thor—I hope he’s ok.”

          “He’ll be fine. He’s been through hell already. Asgard is destroyed.

          “I know, I was watching the readings…you’re alive! I mean, I was watching the readings and I assumed the worst.

          “Lyd saved me.” I say.

          “She saved me, too. I knew she would.”

          I nod.

          “I have to go check on Thor!” She yells.        

          “He’s fine!” I call back.

          I run. I’m going in. All the avengers are getting their chance now—Wanda is going in with her magic—all I have is my conviction—and this knife.

          “Thanos!” I yell. I’m below him. I’m on a different universe. “YOU PROBABLY REMEMBER ME, EVEN BACK THEN I WAS CAUSING YOUR TROUBLE!”

          He looks down at me, slowly turning away from the combat.

          “It’s the girl,” he says slowly, “I never encountered you directly, oh no. You were too elusive for me. But not now. The girl who knew too much.”

          A wicked grin spreads across his wrinkled purple face.

          “Never! You can’t win again!”

          “Oh, I will.”

          “You killed him.”

          “I never take sides in who I kill. Random. If they get in my way. I brainwashed him into doing my bidding, and you.”

          I scream, as I thrust my knife as close to where his chest should be as I can reach. It doesn’t kill him, no, it’s not that easy. “That’s for all the times you ever promised a false notion of peace!” I stab again, harder. “And THAT is for killing your own daughters!”

          He seems startled, but unphased. He has the gauntlet. He has it now. He’s raising his hand to snap. My heart stops. “AND THAT IS FOR KILLING THE LOVE OF MY LIFE!—”

          All is silent as Thanos snaps his fingers in slow motion. But nothing happens, aside from a resounding clanking noise.

          His focus is shifted away from me now. But I have his blood on my knife. I have his blood on my knife. I laugh, a sick, maniacal laugh. That was all I ever wanted. What I dreamed of.

          “I am inevitable.”

          I turn back towards the action now.

          “And I—” says Tony, holding the real gauntlet high, “Am Iron Man.”

          SNAP. All is silent as Thanos stares in awe, still bleeding. I see Tony collapse to the ground as the snap reverberates around the room, and Thanos’ minions begin fading to dust, and lastly, Thanos himself.

We did it. He is dead for good. The stones will be returned to their timelines I know. Tony sacrificed himself for the world—no gauntlet can be safely wielded by a mortal, but he is with his family now. It’s all over.

          I reach for my knife, still glistening with Thanos blood. I did it, Loki. I made him bleed. Everything is quiet now, except my racing thoughts. I’m crazy. Insane even. I did the one thing that gave me satisfaction on this earth. It has all driven me mad, driven me to do this. I hold my knife high, pointed at my own chest.

          I’m in the room again in my head, he was mad, he was mad too, and I loved it. I was an exploitative monster. I hurl the knife across the battlefield, collapsing onto the ashes of my fallen enemy. It’s. Over. All of it.

***

“Ingrid?” I look around quickly—I’m in a meadow of grass, but nothing is solid. Everything is calm. The birds are chirping in the distance. The blue sky, and farther off, the ocean rumbling in the distance.

          I seem to be floating a bit above the ground, in a translucent form. I search for the source of the voice, familiar yet different. Pure.

          Then I see him appear before me in golden robes. “Loki?”

          “This is your Astral projection, not your true body, Ingrid.”

          “Where am I?”

          “Wherever you want to be, Ingrid. It’s all in your head.”

          “I—I—” I fall to my knees, my translucent knees, everything feels so strange.

          “Get up, Ingrid.”

          “Is this a dream?” I’m still bewildered. I feel soft, and warm. I reach for his hand, but pass though.

          “You’re—you’re just an illusion—” I can barely speak, or breathe.

          “I am more than an illusion, Ingrid. As are you.”

          “Stop…stop being so cryptic, Loki.”

          “I must as to hide the nature of the afterlife.”

          “Am I…dead?”

          “No. You stopped yourself, Ingrid. Thank you for helping with Thanos, I’m sorry I couldn’t be there.”

          “You did everything.”

          “Look.” Loki motions below us, and I see the battlefield covered in ashes, and I see myself still lying on the ground, shaking violently.  

          “That’s me.”

          “That’s only one part of, you, Ingrid. You know that.”

          I nod. I almost feel like I have a deeper understanding. I wish this wasn’t an illusion, I miss him so, I want to touch him.

          “Some things cannot be, at the time, Ingrid.”

          “I know.”

          “Thor performed wonderfully.”

          I nod.

          “Tell him that.”

          “Of course…” suddenly, I see it. The young girl, sitting on the floor playing with her toys, without a care in the world.

          “And that’s also you,” he says, gesturing towards the spirit. “And that’s me.”

          I see a pale young boy sitting on a magical counter, eating grapes.

          “Those aren’t real grapes. A nice illusion.”

          “And that’s you…” I point at the lost adolescent in the forest that I once knew, feeding scraps to a silver ghostly Jotun beast.

          “And that’s you.” I look over my shoulder to see a blonde girl exploring the library.

          “And that’s you in Nova’s chamber.” I see it now. Getting tortured. I can remember the pain as an idea, a dull memory, but no feeling in this form. I see Loki now in Thanos chamber. I see all the Lokis and Ingrids now each scene moving independently, floating around us. Then there are Calders too. And my parents. I breathe it all in. It smells so good. I’m at peace. Suddenly, it’s all gone, and one Loki remains.

          “Are you ready to go back?”               

          “I don’t want to.”

          “It’s where you belong.”

           “I know. One day—”              

          He just smiles at me and casts the spell.

          WHAM!

          I’m back in my own body, on the ground.

          “Ingrid!” It’s my brother, Colby.

          “You came back!” I grin as I scoop him up like I’m the older one, and like he’s a kid.

          “Yeah. I still don’t know what’s going on.”

          Canute is coming now, followed by Thor and Sif, with Lyd and Nebula trailing, and Rocket the racoon bringing up the rear.

          “We did it.”

          Thor nods. His axe is worse for the wear, but certainly repairable.

          “Ingrid…” begins Lyd, approaching me. “Nebula and Rocket—with the rest of the guardians—Thor and I are going with them.”

          “That’s great.”

          “I gave Brunhilde charge of the kingdom, with Sif as advisor,” says Thor.

          “Good choice.”

          “Are you coming with us or going back to Asgard with them?” asks Lyd.

          “I…I don’t know.”

          “You have to make up your mind—well, after Tony’s funeral.”

          “I—I think I need to explore alone for a while. I know where I can get a ship—” I begin, “And maybe help some kids.”

          Lyd looks at me. “You sure?”

          “Yeah, sure. Then, who know where? I’m sure I’ll come back someday.”

          Lyd grins. “Need a lift?”

          “Yeah,” I say, “Yeah, that sounds good.”

          “Watch my ship here, Sif,” says Lyd.

          “Of course.”

          “We have some business here to clean up first, so let’s get going,” says Thor.

          “Okay,” I say, facing my friends. “Let’s do this.”

THE END