The wind whipped through Loki's hair as the group raced towards the alien ships on several Wakandan carriers, filled with their soldiers. The Avengers were divided between the carriers- Anja was with him, while Natasha, Steve, and Bucky were on another. T'Challa was on another carrier as well, but Loki couldn't recall which one. Rhodes and Sam Wilson kept pace overhead, using their suits to fly. Meanwhile, Bruce was keeping up in a suit Stark designed, which he was told was called the "Hulkbuster"- a suit designed specifically to take on the Hulk one-on-one. If they hadn't been rushing towards a fight, perhaps this could've been an enjoyable ride amongst comrades, but Loki knew better. However, that didn't stop some of the others from being a bit more loose.

"How we looking, Bruce?" Natasha asked.

Bruce was leaping as he jogged along, staying right with the hovering carriers, and his voice was utterly delighted. "Yeah, I think I'm getting the hang of it. Wow! It's like being the Hulk without actually-" Before he could finish that sentence, he stumbled on a rock, causing him to faceplant in the dirt. A carrier passed by, and several Wakandan soldiers gave him dubious looks. Bruce stood back up, jumping back into the action. "I'm okay. I'm okay."

Loki shook his head, rolling his eyes as he put his attention back in front of him. Just in time for the next bit of pertinent information.

"I got two heat signatures breaking through the tree line," Rhodes informed.

With that, the carrier pilots swerved into U-turns, causing their craft to tilt and allow the seasoned warriors to slide over one side into a run, never coming to a complete stop. Luckily for Loki, he was practiced enough in battle to slide off the side as well, even as he guided Anja off the carrier. The two of them fell into the ranks of the other Avengers, Dora Milaje, and other Wakandan soldiers. There were chants and orders being shouted, the battlefield already ablaze in passion and determination. This was nothing like the last large-scale battle Loki had been a part of. This felt so much different than what happened on Asgard, yet the familiar rush of adrenaline brought him right back.

"You ready?" Anja asked. Her voice sounded so quiet, but Loki was sure that it was more to do with the overall deafening roars around them than her actually talking quietly.

Loki nodded, confidently. "Of course."

"I love you. You know that, right?" she continued.

He could hear the fear in her voice. She'd never admit it, but it was more than obvious to anyone who knew her well enough. Luckily for her, most of the people here didn't know her at all- let alone enough to know when she was terrified.

"Of course I do," Loki assured her. "I love you too."

Anja didn't get a chance to reply to him before Steve's voice interrupted them. "Loki!" He turned to look at the captain. Steve said nothing more, but nodded for Loki to come with him. Loki planted a quick kiss on the top of Anja's head before he made his way over to Steve and Natasha.

"C'mon. Let's go greet our guests," Steve continued.

T'Challa finished talking with who Loki assumed was another leader, before he joined the three of them. Without another word, the four of them slowly made their way towards the barrier wall. Loki recognized the two figures as Proxima Midnight and Cull Obsidian from Thanos' Black Order instantly. His former allies, captors... torturers. He held his head high as he pushed those memories back; things were different now, and Thanos and his Black Order were going to pay for their misdeeds.

As the four of them came to a stop in front of their adversaries, Proxima tested the strength of the barrier by drawing her sword across it thoughtfully. The barrier crackled under the weight of her sword, but it held strong.

"Where's your other friend?" Natasha mocked. Probably wasn't a good idea to start off taunting the enemy, but somehow Loki didn't think any of the Avengers cared about not pissing people off.

"You will pay for his life with yours," Proxima hissed. "Thanos will have that stone."

"That's not going to happen," Steve retorted.

"You are in Wakanda now," T'Challa added confidently. "Thanos will have nothing but dust and blood."

"We... have blood to spare," Proxima continued. She raised her sword over her head with a snarl, and the ships behind her started lifting their outer hulls to allow their passengers to disembark.

"Prepare to lose it then," Loki muttered before turning on his heel to walk away with the others, heading quickly back to the massed forces behind them. The sinking feeling in his stomach was only growing worse. He hoped Thor and Layla arrived with reinforcements soon or this could get nasty.

Upon joining their friends' sides again, it was Bucky who spoke first. "Did they surrender?" he asked sardonically.

"Not exactly," Steve replied.

Moments later, T'Challa began leading the Wakandans in a war cry. "Yibambe!" They echoed it back and forth for several seconds as Thanos' army began charging towards the barrier.

"What the hell," Bucky muttered flatly, seemingly astonished by the sheer number of Outriders charging at them.

"Looks like we pissed her off," Natasha added.

"You don't say," Anja muttered. Loki saw her shift slightly beside him, and a quick glance at her was all he needed to determine she was readying her ice for what was an increasingly inevitable battle.

Loki shifted his attention back to the force field, where the Outriders were bombarding it, flinging themselves at it and clawing, trying their damnedest to break through it. The few who had managed to push through it even slightly just had their limbs and bodies bisected. They were relentless and certainly had no regard for their own well-being. Loki knew that thanks to the New York invasion; the Chitauri army he used was no different from this group. But it didn't stop the sight from being gruesome.

"They're killing themselves," Okoye muttered, horrified.

Moments later, a few of the aliens managed to squeeze through the force field intact, running towards them. At T'Challa's command, the Border Tribe took a knee, raising their shields. The Kingsguard behind him leveled their spears over their comrades shoulders, and on command began firing at the approaching Outriders.

Several of the Avengers took their own actions. Bucky used his gun and began firing at them with precision, all the while Bruce made use of the repulsors in his borrowed suit. Beside him, Anja had started hurling chunks of ice towards the Outriders, still trying her best to not let her panic show. Loki rarely ever used his own cryogenic abilities, but decided energy blasts would surely be enough for now, and began picking off some Outriders as well.

Overheard, Sam Wilson was busy sending his small Redwing drones into the fight, also making use of his own pistols. "You seen the teeth on those things?"

Rhodes was also flying above them, and he was taking a no-nonsense approach to the whole thing. "Alright, back up, Sam. You're going to get your wings singed," he cautioned. Loki watched as he flew close to the highest concentration of Outriders before he dropped a barrage of mines, causing quite a spectacular explosion.

Shortly after that, everyone took notice of a pack of Outriders starting to run around the force field to their right. They were looking for a way through the defenses, and if they managed to break the line, it could spell disaster for Shuri, Wanda, and Vision back in the lab. Loki was going to voice the concern out loud, but Bruce beat him to it.

"Cap, if these things circle the perimeter and get in behind us, there's nothing between them and Vision," he explained.

"Then we better keep 'em in front of us," Steve answered grimly.

"How do we do that?" Okoye asked T'Challa.

The King of Wakanda glanced at her. "We open the barrier." He placed a finger to his ear, activating his communications. "On my signal, open North-West Section Seventeen." Loki didn't hear what control said back to him, but T'Challa's response said all he needed to know. "On my signal."

There were some murmurs from the other side of T'Challa that Loki couldn't quite discern from the noise of the battlefield, but while Steve readied one of his new vibranium hand guards, Loki took this as an opportunity to take a brief moment to focus. He thought about materializing his daggers, although he wondered if they would be of much use against their adversaries. He supposed in the worst case scenario he had them to fall back on if his magic wasn't enough.

T'Challa shouted a command, and the tribesmen disengaged their shields and stood, allowing T'Challa to walk out in front of them, eyes never leaving the enemy. "Wakanda forever!" He crossed his arms over his chest in what Loki assumed was a Wakandan salute before closing his helmet and leading the charge towards the barrier.

It had been a while since Loki had been a part of a charge. Asgard generally didn't use them- and even when they did, the princes usually were not part of the frontlines despite their battle prowess. Thor was much more likely to be at the front of the battle, blasting their enemies with Mjölnir; Loki preferred to keep his distance if he could manage it with magic, but sometimes that was impossible. It seemed this was going to be one of those times.

As they got about halfway to the barrier, Loki barely heard T'Challa scream, "Now!"

Loki watched as a small section of the barrier dematerialized, allowing the Outriders to pour through, momentarily distracted from finding another way in. T'Challa and Steve pulled ahead of the rest of the group, both literally leaping into battle and immediately bashing some of their enemies.

After a few more paces, Loki came to a stop, causing Anja to do the same. As the Outriders raced towards them, the couple began hurling energy blasts and ice at their assailants. For a few moments, it was working wonderfully. Anja's ice was slowing them down just enough for Loki to blast the hell out of them. It wasn't a fool proof strategy by any means, but it was taking out some of the Outriders and that was all that mattered.

Loki wanted to glance around and see how everyone else was fairing, but he didn't dare remove his eyes from the aliens in front of him and Anja. Keeping her safe was much more important than whatever was happening to the rest of the team. Surely they could hold their own anyway.

Before he could think too much about that, a couple of Outriders broke through the ice, charging at them rapidly. Too close of range for energy blasts, so Loki quickly materialized his daggers into his hands, just in time to sink them into the first Outrider that got too close to them. He glanced to his left, noticing Anja doing something similar, although she kicked the alien off the dagger after it went limp.

For just a moment, they were alone in the chaos as their enemies had seemingly taken aim at their allies instead. Loki looked over at Anja. She was unscathed for the moment, and he was relieved to see it.

"Where the hell are Thor and Layla?" Anja questioned between breaths.

"Hell if I know," Loki replied. "Hopefully they get here soon. I don't know how much longer we can fight them off."

Anja didn't say anything back to him, and instead used the momentary calm to glance around at their allies. Loki did the same, although he knew what he was going to see. The rest of the Avengers and Wakandans were in various states of struggling against their enemies. Bucky went down, fighting off Outrider fangs snapping at his head. Steve and T'Challa were fighting side-by-side, seemingly having the easiest time of anyone- which wasn't saying much since they were still struggling. Rhodes was hovering around the breach, pouring ammunition into the surge of Outriders- at least until the hammer of Cull Obsidian smacked him out of the sky like one would a pesky insect. Turning away from that only led Loki to see Bruce get dog-piled by Outriders, effectively pinning him to the ground. As for Natasha and the others, he couldn't see them and could only assume the worst.

"This is shit!" Anja added, kicking an Outrider that came too close before blasting it with ice.

Loki went to agree with her, but was interrupted by Bruce yelling, "There's too many of them! Ahhhhhhh!"

Suddenly, a large beam of rainbow-hued light landed in the middle of the action, an ax flying out of it, wreathed in lightning as it sliced through Outriders, freeing the struggling heroes. The ax flew back towards the light and into its wielder's hand just as the beam cut out, revealing Thor, Layla, Rocket, Groot, and members of the allied realms. Several of the Avengers and Wakandans looked on in astonishment and surprise, while both Proxima and Cull paused in apprehension. Neither of them had faced Thor before, and they were going to learn quickly what that entailed.

No one could have expressed what this meant for the Black Order and Outriders better than a newly freed Bruce, who opened the Hulkbuster's helmet and laughed with joy. "Ah-hahaha! You guys are so screwed now!"

Thor wasted no time and charged towards the Outriders. "Bring. Me. Thanos!"

The others he brought with him followed suit, following him into battle. Lightning gathered around him until he launched himself into the air, landing in the densest concentration of Outriders, zapping them all to death as his landing made a crater where they had stood.

Just like that, the battle was back on, and chaos engulfed the field once more. Loki put his attention once again on keeping Anja safe and fighting off whatever Outrider came their way. He had been nervous before, but now he fought the monsters with a smirk on his face. With Thor finally in play, Loki was confident they would survive this mess and defeat Thanos' army long before he ever arrived on Earth himself.

There was hope after all.

*****

Hey everyone! Hope you all are doing well. I finished this chapter late last night, but I wanted to check it over with a clear mind before I posted it. The good news about this story is that I have the next 3 chapters planned out and outlined, so I should be able to write them a bit more quickly. The bad news is that we are quickly approaching the sadness, and even I am admittedly not ready for what needs to be done. So I will tell you all now, buckle up.

Things here have been relatively strange this last month with illnesses and work, but things should be getting back to normal now. I feel like I've been much more consistently writing the last few weeks, so I think that can only mean good things for both of my current projects.

Thanks as always for your patience and for reading! It means a lot to me!

~arty_writes