Snap.

There's a flash of blinding light, and all Thor wants to do is to lie down and embrace it, to take this win for what it is, but he can't. He feels around for the ground – why can he not find the ground? – and forces himself to stand up. He's not done yet.

As the light fades and the world comes back into view, all Thor can see is Thanos's army turning to dust. Much like when it happened to them, it's a slow process. It doesn't all happen at once. And that means that Thanos has to watch as everything he cares about is taken from him.

Poetic, he'd say.

Loki disagrees. By the time the light's cleared, the Infinity Stones have already been pulled from the nano gauntlet, and they fall to the ground as the green glow of Loki's magic fades away.

Loki doesn't go after Tony, the one who tore this all apart. He doesn't go after Thor, the one he seems to blame for everything. No, he goes straight to Thanos, tears welling up in his eyes as he looks up at the Titan.

"Father?" he whispers.

Thanos shakes his head solemnly. "It's over, Loki."

"No, it's not," Loki says quickly. "It's not over. We still have the stones. We can–"

"It's over, my son," Thanos says. "We lost."

"No." Loki shakes his head. "No, no, no. No, we–"

Thanos opens his arms, and Loki steps into them, sobbing as he buries himself against his chest. Thanos holds him close, and though he watches as it all falls apart, he shields Loki from that same fate.

And finally, after everything else is gone, Thanos turns to dust in Loki's arms.

Loki lets out an anguished scream, an ear-piercing screech that has everybody nearby shielding their ears on instinct. He falls to his knees, tears streaming down his face, desperately clutching the dust until that too is gone. His sobs ring out in the silence of the field until everyone starts moving, talking, panicking – but not Loki. He stays right where he is, so Thor stays, too.

He feels as though he watches his brother for hours. Time drags itself out, forcing him to watch his brother fall apart, again and again and again in some vicious cycle of pain. But then there's a hand on his back, and he looks up to see Heimdall by his side, watching with an uncharacteristically soft glint to his eye.

"He tried to kill me," Thor says quietly.

"I know," Heimdall answers.

"He was working for Thanos."

"I know."

"He called Thanos his father."

"I know."

Thor looks up at him helplessly. "What do we do?"

"That would be up to you," Heimdall tells him.

Thor sighs. It would be, wouldn't it? He is technically the king, even if he's done a shit job at it over the last five years. But he doesn't know what to do. He knows what he'd like to do. He'd like to bring his brother to New Asgard. He'd like to help Loki adjust to his new life on Earth the way nobody was around to help him adjust to his. He'd like to be friends again.

He doesn't expect that to happen.

"Heads up: Thor's brother's still here," Bruce's voice says in his ear, doubtlessly warning everyone else on comms. "Don't let him kill you – because he will kill you."

His gaze on his brother, Thor asks, "Should I try to talk to him? Or is that going to make things worse?"

"Someone will have to talk to him eventually," Heimdall says. "But give him time for the grief to settle first."

Thor nods, admittedly a bit reluctantly, but Heimdall's right. Loki's not ready to talk. He may never be ready to talk, but he certainly isn't right now.

Because there's nothing he can do on this front, he surveys the damage around himself instead. There are a lot of emotional reunions (oh, what he wouldn't give to have that kind of emotional reunion right now) and tearful conversations surrounding them.

His gaze falls to Tony, sitting with his back against a rock, his face paler than it's ever been – a big feat, given his adventures with Nebula in space. Pepper, Rhodey, and that Spider Kid are all crouched in front of him, trying to talk to him, though they only seem to get one- or two-word answers in return. He is not doing good at all.

He catches a glimpse of Nebula heading their way, and he feels himself tense at the sight. He reaches out a hand, and Mjolnir flies into it. He doesn't expect to use it, but if the last time she saw Loki was any indication, he may need it.

But when Nebula reaches them, she doesn't try to kill anybody. Instead, she just kneels down by Loki's side, silent, her head bowed much the way his is. She doesn't look upset – certainly not the way Loki is – but she's respectful; far more respectful than warranted.

Loki's wailing slowly turns to quiet sobbing as he begins to regain his composure, and through it all, Nebula stays with him. It's not clear if she's supposed to, if she's making this any better, but she does.

Until finally, he says, his voice dull and lifeless, "Are you happy now?"

"I am," she answers evenly.

Loki's head hangs low, shoulders slumped. She looks at him almost sympathetically, something Thor hadn't thought her capable, but Loki doesn't seem to notice.

"It was always going to end this way," Nebula tells him. "Be glad it was him who died and not you."

Loki scoffs and lifts his head, looking at her incredulously. "How can you say that?"

"How can you not see it?" she shoots back. "This was never about us. He never cared about us. He—"

"You're wrong," Loki says, his voice shaking with anger. "You're wrong. He did care. He cared about us more than anything else. You can't blame him because you threw that away."

"He killed Gamora."

"No, he didn't."

"He did."

"Then she deserved it," Loki spits. "She betrayed him. She's a traitor like you."

"He killed Gamora to get the Soul Stone," Nebula says. "A soul for a soul. That was the deal, and he didn't even hesitate to take it."

Loki pauses.

"We were never more important than the mission," Nebula says. "He would have killed you in a heartbeat if he had to."

Loki looks down at his hands, silent for a long while, until finally, he just says, "That's not true."

Nebula stands up and holds a hand down to him. He looks up at her, and her hand remains steady, her offer unwavering.

Finally, Loki takes it, and she helps him to his feet. There's a mutual respect between them, Thor notices. They don't seem to like each other and they're certainly not friends, but there's a respect there.

But then Loki catches sight of Thor, and his demeanor shifts. Gone is the grief and the pain that filled his eyes. Now he's just pissed.

"You," he growls.

Thor puts his hands up in a surrender of sorts. He didn't do anything! He's just been standing here! He hasn't even said anything!

Loki doesn't care. He charges forward, conjuring a knife in his hand that very nearly makes its way into Thor's stomach. Heimdall tries to grab his arm, but Loki shoots a hand toward him and Heimdall's thrown across the field. Loki hardly spares him a glance as he raises his knife up once more.

Thor grabs his wrist with both hands, and though Loki struggles against him, his one arm is no match for both of Thor's.

"Loki, stop this!" Thor pleads. "Please. We don't have to fight."

"This is your fault!" Loki yells. He kicks Thor in the knee, and if he hadn't turned his leg at the last moment, he has no doubt that his knee would have snapped at the impact.

"Loki, calm down," Thor says quickly. "We can talk about this." Because he really, really wants to talk about this. He wants to know what happened to his brother. He wants to know why his brother isn't his brother anymore.

"Thor didn't do anything, you know," Nebula tells him, remarkably calm for the situation. "He was pretty useless this whole time."

Thor finds that to be an unfair statement – he did kill Thanos the first time, after all – but he suspects that's something Loki would not want to hear right now.

"I should have killed you when I had the chance!" Loki brings his knee up, so clearly aiming for where the sun doesn't shine, and Thor drops his brother's arms and jumps out of the way. With his knife now free, Loki takes another stab at him, but Thor just grabs his wrist again. "I should have let the Destroyer crush you into a million pieces!"

Thor twists his leg behind his brother's and kicks his knee in from behind, sending him to the ground. Loki drops his knife and cries out, though whether it's from pain or his frustration, it's difficult to tell. Thor pushes him with his foot until he's lying flat on the ground, then steps on his chest, holding him still.

"I don't want to hurt you," Thor says. "But you have to stop fighting me."

"No." Loki's hand turns an all-too-familiar shade of blue blue, and he conjures an icicle that he stabs into Thor's leg. Thor starts to stumble away, but Loki grabs him, pulling him down on the ground, too. Loki climbs on top of him and presses the tip of the icicle against Thor's neck, and Thor prepares for the worst.

The worst doesn't come.

Carol grabs Loki by the waist, hoisting him off of his brother and holding him in place. Loki fights to free himself, but, much like five years ago, she's strong enough to hold him. Hopefully it will last longer this time. Hopefully this doesn't end the same way it did back then.

"Let go of me!" Loki yells, thrashing around in her arms.

Carol looks over at Nebula. "Is he always like this?"

"No."

Carol furrows her brows, looking between Nebula and Loki and Thor as if waiting for someone to elaborate, but nobody does. Thor certainly can't.

As Loki yells and screams and struggles to get free, Thor takes a much-needed breather. He sits up and looks down at his leg. Blood leaks from the wound, but nothing inside feels damaged. It's just a stab wound. He can handle a simple stab wound. He rips off a piece of his cape and wraps it around his leg. At least it's already red. Nobody will ever see how blood-soaked it becomes.

"You can't hold me here forever!" Loki yells.

"Maybe not," Carol says, "but I can get pretty damn close." With a condescending smile, she says, "You're not as strong as you think you are, buddy."

That seems to set him off, because Loki grabs hold of her hand, and though only her fingertips are exposed through her gloves, that's more than enough to feel the freezing burn of his Jotun flesh. She drops him instinctively, and Loki kicks her in the chest, sending her to the ground before turning his sights back to Thor.

Shit.

Thor forces himself to his feet, ignoring the throbbing pain in his leg. He's not ready to go through this again. Three rounds sounds a little unnecessary when there's no prize to be won.

"I can kill him for you again," Nebula offers. Thor pretends not to notice.

"Loki, we don't have to do this," he says slowly, cautiously.

"Yes, we do."

Loki runs at him, and Thor grabs Mjolnir off the ground just in time to swing it at him. Mjolnir collides with his brother's ribs, and he thinks he hears a snap as Loki's flung across the field. Thor sucks in a breath through his teeth. He might have hit him a little too hard.

Thor runs over to him, but when he crouches down, he does so at a distance. If Loki's going to throw another punch – or, more likely, another knife – then he'd like to stay out of stabbing range.

But it doesn't look like he has to worry about that. Loki coughs, and blood splatters out of his mouth. Thor grimaces at the sight. He really didn't mean to hit him this hard.

Loki chuckles weakly. "'Brothers,' right?"

"You started it," Thor reminds him – a phrase they've used against each other hundreds, thousands of times. If that doesn't sound like brothers, he doesn't know what does.

Loki starts to roll over like he's preparing to get up – or like he's preparing to fight again, but he can't possibly be that stupid – but he doesn't make it far before he starts coughing once more. He lifts his head off the ground just long enough to spit the blood from his mouth before collapsing again.

"Well, go on, then," he says, his voice hoarse. "You've won. Take your shot."

Thor sighs. "I don't want to hurt you, Loki," he says. "I never did."

"It's a bit late for that, I'm afraid," Loki says, a weak sarcasm in his voice. "You might as well finish the job."

Thor shakes his head. "I'm not going to kill you."

"Why not?" Loki asks it like a challenge, like he thinks he can goad him into it. As long as he stays there on the ground, he's wrong.

"Because you're my brother," Thor says simply. "Because I love you."

"I'm not your brother," Loki spits. "I'm a Frost Giant. Surely they told you that."

"That means nothing to me," Thor says.

"I'm the monster you vowed for a thousand years to exterminate," Loki continues. "Here's your chance. I could hardly make it any easier for you."

"I'm not going to kill you," Thor says once more.

"Why not?" Loki demands. "I'm not your brother. I'm not your friend. I'm the son of Thanos. I'm a Frost Giant. I am everything you hate. Why won't you kill me?"

"Because I love you," Thor says again. Doesn't he see? None of this matters because he loves him.

Loki groans, an almost animalistic growl. "Then kill me!" he cries. "Kill me because you hate me, kill me because you love me, I don't care! Just kill me!"

Thor furrows his brows. "Loki, what...?"

"I just watched my father die," Loki says. "I had to watch everything I know and love turn to dust. Don't make me live with that. Please." His voice cracks, and his eyes well up with tears. "If you love me, don't make me live with that."

Thor sighs. "I'm sorry–"

"Loki, stop it," a voice interrupts. "You're embarrassing yourself and that's embarrassing me."

Thor looks up to find that they've attracted a bit of an audience, but it's the green woman that he believes spoke to them, if her crossed arms and exasperated expression are any indication.

Loki raises his gaze to look at her, an awkward movement while he's lying flat on the ground. Any signs of vulnerability seem to disappear in the blink of an eye, like it never even happened. "Gamora, you're still here."

"Mm-hmm," she hums.

"Is anybody else...?"

'Mm-mm." She shakes her head. "Just you and me – and future Nebula." She gestures with her head to the luphomoid in question.

"And our Nebula, she's...?"

"Dead," Gamora says simply.

"Mm." Loki takes a deep breath, staring up at the dust-filled sky.

Gamora walks up to him, completely ignoring Thor as though he weren't even there, and holds out a hand. "C'mon, on your feet."

Loki shakes his head. "I can't."

Gamora rolls her eyes. "Why, because you'd rather stay on the ground until you die?" she asks sarcastically.

"No, because my ribs have been shattered," he says, his voice cold, sarcastic, but also oddly friendly at the same time. It's weirdly heartwarming in its familiarity, but Thor can't deny that it hurts to hear his siblingly banter with someone else.

"Father's done a lot worse than that and you've survived."

Thor furrows his brows, looking between them warily. He doesn't know what that means, and honestly, he's not sure he wants to.

It seems to mean something to Loki, though, because he reluctantly sits up and lets Gamora pull him to his feet, groaning in pain as he does. He starts to straighten out his clothing, but he grimaces and grabs his side before he makes it very far.

Gamora glances at Thor. "That's him?"

"Mm," Loki hums.

"I get why you hate him," Gamora remarks. "I'd be jealous, too, if my brother looked like that and I looked like..." She gestures to him vaguely, her face scrunching in distaste.

Loki shoots her a look. "If Father heard you call him that–"

"He's dead," Gamora deadpans. "I'm not worried about him."

Loki scoffs. "How can you say that?" he asks, incredulous. "Father is dead. How are you so... indifferent?"

"He was never much of a father," Gamora says. "You should know. You've had three."

"Gamora–"

"We were never his children," Gamora says. "We were his prisoners. He just called us that so we wouldn't realize."

Loki shakes his head. "Don't say that," he says quietly.

"You can't tell me you don't see it, too."

"It's not true," Loki insists. "It's not. He was our father. He loved us."

Gamora unsheaths her blade and raises it to his face. He doesn't even flinch. "Someone who loves you wouldn't do that." She traces the gash on his cheek with the tip of her blade, gentle enough not to reopen the wound.

Loki swallows hard. When he speaks, his voice is quiet, shaky. "He was teaching me a lesson."

"He didn't have to teach it like that," she says solemnly.

"I deserved it."

"Even you knew that wasn't true."

"He showed me mercy."

"That wasn't mercy."

Loki bites his lip, tears welling up in his eyes. "You're wrong," he says quietly.

The softness in expression dissipates. "Don't start crying." It's more of an order than a request.

"He loved us," Loki whispers. "He did."

"Don't," she warns him.

"Why is everyone saying he didn't love us?" he asks, his voice broken. "He did! He loved us! I know he loved us!" He breaks into sobs, tears falling down his cheeks.

Gamora lolls her head back. "And now you're crying."

"He loved us," Loki sobs. "Stop saying he didn't love us because he did!"

Gamora sighs, exasperated. "Loki..."

Loki closes the space between them, enveloping her in his arms as he sobs. Gamora clenches her jaw, frustrated, but she puts her arms around him anyway in a very uncomfortable hug. She looks around until she finds Nebula, and gestures very emphatically with her head to usher her sister toward them.

Nebula walks up to them. "Having fun?"

"Take him," Gamora says monotonously.

"He's your Loki," Nebula reminds her. "I already took care of mine."

Gamora looks down at Loki, still sobbing against her. "What do I do with him?"

"Kill him or keep him," Nebula replies. "It's your choice."

Thor takes a step forward, ready to make that choice himself before somebody chooses the wrong option, but a hand on his shoulder holds him back. It's the Star Lord, Peter Quill. Thor furrows his brows. What does he want?

"Dude," Peter says, "your brother's got issues."

Thor sighs. "Yes, he does."

"How come you never mentioned that your brother worked for Thanos?" Peter asks. "Because that feels like something we should have known."

"I didn't know," Thor says. "I thought he was dead."

Peter looks between them a few times. He opens his mouth, almost as though he's going to ask, then closes it again. It's probably a good choice.

After a long pause, Peter says, "You know, it's kinda funny. Gamora suddenly doesn't remember me; Loki suddenly doesn't like you..."

Thor furrows his brows. "How is that funny?"

"Well, not funny like that," Peter says. "Funny like 'isn't it weird that we're both going through it right now?'"

That does nothing to lessen his confusion. "But that's not funny."

"I'm not saying it's funny–"

"Yes, you are," Thor says. "You just said that it's funny. Twice."

"Okay, but I don't mean–" Peter cuts himself off with the shake of his head.

Thor just looks at him, confused, but doesn't question it again.

"Where are you going after this?" Peter asks him. It doesn't really sound like he cares. It's small talk, really. And though this seems like the wrong situation to engage in any type of small talk, he does so anyway.

"I don't know," Thor admits. "Back to New Asgard, I suppose." It sounds like a good idea in theory, but he doesn't really want to go, and it shows in his voice (not on purpose, of course, and certainly not for any manipulative reasons). "What about you?"

"I guess we'll go back to what we always do," Peter says. "Go places, get paid, go more places."

"Hmm," Thor hums. "Sounds nice."

"It can be," Peter agrees.

Thor folds his arms over his chest. "That sounds like a really fun way to spend your time."

"Yeah, I think so," Peter says.

Thor glances at him. "It must be nice to have such good friends," he continues. "You know, to be able to spend every day with them."

Peter looks at him, and Thor makes a point of looking away... then takes another peek at him to see if it's working. Peter's still looking at him.

"Are you asking to come with us?" Peter asks.

"What? No," Thor says, as though that's the most ridiculous thing he's ever heard. "I would never ask to intrude on you like that."

"But if I told you you could, you would."

Thor hesitates. "That depends. Are you telling me I can?"

Peter rolls his eyes. "Fine. You can stick around."

Thor grins. And Loki thought he was the manipulative one in the family. It seems they both have their own silver tongues.

"What about your brother?" Peter asks. "You're just gonna ditch him, or...?"

Thor's smile disappears. He looks back at his brother, still sobbing while a very annoyed Gamora holds him. What about him, indeed?

"I don't know," Thor says finally. "If he'll let me near him without trying to kill me, I'll figure it out."