"Loki!" Tony yells, frustration and relief both balanced in his voice. "Where did you go? You just up and left!"

"I know, I know," I answer, dropping to one knee beside him. "My apologies, Stark. We need to hurry and get the others so we can get out of here swiftly."

"You don't say?" Tony says, his voice dripping with sarcasm. "Damn you, Loki! What happened?"

"The Mind Stone," I tell him, dropping my voice. "It's getting stronger. We really need to hurry. How's Peggy?"

"Out," Tony replies. "Seems to be dreaming. Or in an illusion, whatever. Can you break her out?"

"Keep an eye out for any creatures or other champions," I order, and inch closer to Peggy.

She's lying on her back, mostly still, but her muscles tremble. Her eyelids flicker. Tightening my grip around the scepter, I take a breath, reach for my magic, and press my fingers against Peggy's forehead, willing my way into her nightmare.

As far as nightmares go, I've seen worse.

Peggy is standing in a large Midgardian space, facing away from me. I'm not even sure what type of room this is supposed to be. A smooth wooden floor, with round tables clustered at one end of the room, adorned with red, white, and blue ribbons draped around the edges, miniature American flags arranged in little glass vases in the center.

There are other people around, men dressed in some sort of crisp, dull brown uniform, women in nice dresses and neatly arranged hair. Peggy is younger than her current age, her hair now the shade of dark brown that I remember from the recap of her Contest, pinned back from her face. Her dress is navy blue, with a pleated skirt.

I'm still not sure where the nightmare-portion of this illusion is.

Then I see someone approaching.

I tense. This must be it. Then I see the figure's face, and suddenly I understand the nightmare.

It's Steve Rogers.

He's also dressed in uniform – not his Captain America one, but the same one as all the other men. He approaches Peggy as she takes a step toward him. "Steve," she breathes, as if hardly believing it's him.

Steve just smiles, reaches out and takes her in his arms, in that formal ballroom dancing style I remember Jane trying to teach Thor a couple years ago – which subsequently led Thor to trying to teach me, with horrible results. Time seems to slow down as they gently move across the dance floor, their footsteps barely making a sound.

Then he fades from her arms. Not like bodies in the arena, like those killed by Thanos' snap, but just...gone. Out of existence. No time to even process his disappearance. Just...there one moment, not there the next.

The entire chamber is silent. Peggy just stands, her arms still up in the dancing form, a shiver running through her body. "Steve?" her voice is strangled as she whispers the name. "Steve?"

And that's it. Peggy, stranded in the middle of an empty dance floor, her entire body trembling, Steve's name echoing around the space. And yet, for how seemingly mundane this nightmare is, I can feel chills going down my spine, and a pain stab in my chest. There is pain here, too. And it's quiet pain, but still aching.

"Peggy Carter," I say, unable to bear the silence any longer. Peggy whirls around, her skirt flaring around her knees, her eyes wide as they come to fix on me. In that rapid movement, I see her dark brown waves flash with grey for a split second. "You are dreaming. You need to wake up." With the last two words, I send out waves of magic, striking at the walls of her illusion. "Captain Rogers is not gone. You are being deceived."

"What?" Peggy wavers. "No...he's in the ice. I...I heard him. We had a date, that Saturday. For a dance. He...he didn't make it."

"No," I assure her, trying to sound soothing. "Captain Rogers is not gone." Then I lunge forward, summoning my power into my fingertips before I touch her forehead. There is some initial resistance, but mostly just confusion. Peggy's too caught up in her nightmare to resist.

It takes a moment to find the relevant memory, which frightens me. People will repress things, I've found, but not enough to forget. But Peggy Carter...she actually did forget. Whether it is because of the Mind Stone, or something else, I don't know. But it drains a little bit more magic than I intended to recapture the memories of Captain Rogers coming out of cryo-freeze, of their first meeting the morning of the Reaping, televised for the galaxy to see, her joy at seeing him again, her love for him, her anguish over realizing that this was a set-up by Thanos or one of his Children. I force all that to the fore, and the rest of the memories from that Contest all come rushing back. I see it, too, and it hits me that this was what Thanos planned for Heimdall, before my interference.

I grind my teeth. Good thing I volunteered, then.

Peggy gasps, and I feel my body jerk. I come out of the memories and see her face, now streaming with tears, as she clasps her hands to her chest, her body shaking. It takes me a moment to reorient myself, for the image of Heimdall approaching the dais on the day of the Reaping has raced across my mind and I feel white hot anger clouding my head and eyes. Thanos did not just inflict that on him, but also on Steve Rogers, and he forced Peggy, unable to take his place, to watch and hope and fear. He makes us all do that, every year, across the districts.

Viciously, I shake my head. I can't think about that. It doesn't matter, it can't. This is how it is. This is how it always will be, because upsetting the Balance does nothing but create trouble for the one who did it, and his entire family. I should know.

"Peggy!" Tony exclaims, his face white as a sheet. He wraps an arm around her shoulders, trying to calm her choking sobs, while I fall back, drained. I'm not sure how much more I have left in me.

And we still haven't found Veers, which means she's probably still stuck in the Mind Stone's influence. Great. Just great.

"We need to move," I say, forcing myself to my feet. Already, I can feel the Mind Stone probing at me, trying to possess my mind, floating visions before my eyes of my dead mother and Gamora being tortured by Ebony Maw. I shake my head, gritting my teeth, and glance around, hoping against hope that Veers is nearby.

Tony helps Peggy to her feet, who seems to have calmed down somewhat. "Veers!" I risk yelling, but get no answer from my district partner and an emphatic "Shush!" from Tony Stark. Stymied, I exhale. What now? I can't leave without her. Not with our alliance.

"We have to find Veers," Peggy murmurs. "We can't leave her in here."

"I know." I look around. "I need to hold on to both of you, to keep your minds clear. That, or you both leave and I keep looking for Veers."

"We stay with you," Tony says immediately, and Peggy nods.

"Okay, then." I position myself between the two champions before realizing that I only have one free hand, since I'm holding my scepter. "I have to hold on to you to try and keep the visions away, but –" I examine the weapon and realize that it will shrink into a more manageable form, so I tuck it into my belt after doing that. "All right." Wrapping my fingers around their wrists, I set off with the District Four champions alongside me to look for Veers.

I don't know how long we look before I see a flash of light in the darkness. After a year spent with her, I recognize it as one of Veers' photon blasts. "There!" I hiss, hurrying forward. "Guard me while I get her out."

We burst through a stand of trees and see Veers, on her feet but very dazed. Her eyes are glassy and I know she only sees the horror which is in her mind right now. Her fists glow, and I figure that she's been shadowboxing with whatever illusion the Mind Stone has given her. I pause, uncertain, watching her for a moment.

"Peggy, you need to keep your distance," I say. "I can take one of those photon blasts, and I think Stark's suit should survive it, if needed, but you won't. Trust me."

Peggy doesn't look happy about this, but she nods. If she watched the Contest last year, she saw what Veers could do to a mining pod with one blast at long distance. The Kree is not one to mess with. At the recollection, I can feel ghost tendrils webbing across my skin, like the crystals that had stretched across my face at my exposure to space, but I scratch at my cheek, letting my nails dig into flesh. I'm not dying. Not yet. Tony looks unconvinced, so I gesture for him to go with Peggy. His suit will protect him, sure, but will most likely sustain damage. He's better off at a distance, and although I don't particularly care about his life, the child's watch on his wrist, a message from Valkyrie and most likely also Hela, tells me I better keep playing along. Besides, no one will attack me once I get to Veers. She's enough of a guard right now to protect me, if she doesn't attempt to kill me first.

So I advance, drawing my scepter out of my belt.

Veers shifts, adjusting her footing to face me head on, and I throw myself into a roll just as she thrusts her right fist forward, a photon blast shooting through where I just was. I come up on my feet and stride toward her swiftly, deflecting a second blast to the side with my scepter with difficulty.

"Control," I hear her mutter. "Control. Can't sleep."

I'm within a few feet of her now. I need contact with her, preferably her head, to get into her mind and break the hostile illusions down. But just before I reach out my hand, Veers lifts her hand and drives her glowing yellow fist straight into my chest, releasing a photon blast at the same time.

I feel the heat kindle in my ribcage, my lungs screaming, as I'm hurled backward. Pain ricochets through my body, only getting worse when I slam into a tree trunk. Crumpling to the ground, I erupt into a fit of wheezing, gasping for the air that was forced out of my lungs.

I've been hit by Veers' photon blasts before, but never like that. Before, it hurt, but now I feel like I might be on fire. My chest especially feels like it's melting. The close contact of the blast must be the reason for the intensity. That's why my pod fell to pieces like it was made of dust. I'm only still alive because I'm Asgardian.

Well, frost giant, I suppose.

It takes me a very long minute to catch my breath, during which I begin to fear that I will never breathe again and will just die here, melting into the jungle floor. I can hear a little voice in very back of my mind, screaming at me to get up, to move, to protect myself. To free Veers from the prison of her mind. But it's too faint, just barely tracing a path across my brain. My lungs are screaming, too, along with my body, and they are so much louder.

Move!

Inexplicably, it's not my little mental voice which conquers the pain of my body, but the sound of my brother's, as if he's bellowing in my ear. I start, force myself to sit up, the thought of Thor watching me right now a surprisingly good incentive. Maybe it's the thought that he's sitting back in Asgard, alone since Odin has fallen into that coma-like sleep of his, watching the Infinity Endeavor with...with what? Trepidation? Fear? Loneliness, in the huge palace with nobody around but maybe Volstagg and Fandral? Or have even they abandoned my brother?

Whatever Thor is feeling or thinking right now, I don't want him to have to watch me give up. I won't give him the satisfaction or the disappointment, whatever it would be.

Dragging myself to my feet, I watch Veers warily. She's still in her trance, but she's shifted away from me, eyeing some other shadow enemy only she can see. I inhale, then make an excruciating sprint at the Kree. She begins to pivot toward me just as I leap, gritting my teeth with the effort.

My hand smacks into her forehead and my knee hits her chest, knocking her to the ground. I hear her indignant gasp, but before she can react my magic penetrates into her mind.

In the illusion, Veers is standing in the center of a large space. It takes a moment for me to recognize it as some sort of training area. She's dressed in a green wraparound tunic and loose trousers, her fists up in a defensive stance, bouncing slightly on the balls of her bare feet. I furrow my brow. That's the clothing she wears at night, on Asgard.

"I can control it," she mutters, a resentful look on her face.

A sudden memory hits me. Before our first Contest, when Veers had flown up to my balcony. She had mentioned about how, when she couldn't sleep, she would wake up Yon-Rogg. Like how she would later wake up me, once Yon-Rogg was dead.

I wonder if this is a version of one of those nights.

"Veers," I call, keeping my voice calm while simultaneously striking at the walls of her illusion. I don't want to spook her, for some reason. "It's me, Loki. You are in control. You do not have to worry about that anymore."

"Loki?" her voice falters a bit. "Where's Yon-Rogg?"

I hesitate. "Not your concern, anymore. I am the one who fights with you now, when you can't sleep. Trust me."

"Why should I trust you?" Veers asks. Her voice is slightly hostile.

"Because I am the only one who can get you out of here," I tell her. "You are trapped in your mind, Veers." I lift my arms, gesturing to the flickering walls of the illusion. "See? It is coming apart, as we speak."

Veers suddenly looks wary again, and her fists begin to glow. I hold out a hand. "Careful. I am not your enemy. I am your ally, and I'm here to get you out of here. Please remember, Veers. I am Loki, and I love you." Is it just me, or do her eyes narrow a bit on that? "Let me get you out of here."

For a moment, I think she's going to blast me and begin trying to figure out how do best subdue her and break her out of her own mind, when she lowers her fists, the glow dying out. "All right. Get me out of here."