You gasped a heaving breath as the swirling lights of the Tesseract's portal suddenly disappeared, and you fell to the ground rather unceremoniously in your adapted wedding dress.

On top of Loki, again.

"Sorry," you coughed out awkwardly, rolling off him and pulling him up. "Where are we?"

Everywhere as far as you could see was rubble and destruction, but you could vaguely recognise a skyline you'd known for years.

This is New York?

You started to walk down what you thought was the road, when Loki grabbed your wrist and pulled you back to him. You accidentally spun with the movement, landing in his arms with wide eyes.

"I love you, Y/N," he whispered. "I couldn't wait any longer."

You looked up at him, remembering the lost nights spent next to his cell, and sweet nothings whispered through a wall.

You pushed up on your toes, kissing him fiercely, taking his face in yours as his arms wound around your waist. It was so desperate: you were both afraid of running out of time. You pulled back, just for a second to gulp down some air, before leaning in again, this time with your arms around his neck, one hand stroking the back of his head.

"I love you so much," you said, resting your foreheads together, unable to pull your gaze from his now crimson eyes.

You didn't even care that your skin was now entirely blue from prolonged contact - because Loki made you feel like the most beautiful woman in the Nine Realms.

"The fuck is this?" someone yelled behind you.

Loki instinctively pulled you behind him, and you jumped out to stand side by side. His knives were out, and your sword unsheathed. You guessed a pair of Jotuns making out (one of them in a dust covered, half-slashed wedding dress) wasn't a familiar site, in any realm. You looked for the source of the voice and saw ...

"Clint!?" you ran at the archer, tackling him with a hug he gladly returned. Loki narrowed his eyes, but you waved your hand at him, telling him it was fine. "What are you doing?"

"Y/N, I live in New York," he deadpanned. "Also, you and Silvertongue over there? Since when was that a thing? I thought you hated each-"

"That was a misunderstanding," you cut him off. "Are the others here?"

"I can take you to them," he said, bringing you relief before he narrowed his eyes at Loki. "But not him."

"Listen, Clint," you stepped up to him. "Yes, Loki did the wrong thing. But you need to give him another chance. And something was ... off about Loki."

"YOU'RE RIGHT."

A deep voice boomed from everywhere and nowhere at once. You looked for the source of it, sword extended in front of you. Clint appeared to be speaking rapidly into an earpiece, checking his quiver at the same time.

"Who are you?" Loki questioned, his eyes flicking about as he fiddled with his palms, returned to their normal shade.

"I AM THAT VOICE INSIDE YOUR HEAD. IN FACT, I CONTROL YOU. I AM THE REASON EVERYTHING SINCE YOUR FALL FROM THE BIFROST HAPPENED!"

"Loki!" you cried in concern as he suddenly collapsed.

"Y-Y/N..." he moaned in pain, writhing in the rubble.

"I AM THE LORD OF THE SHADOWS, DARKIER!" the voice, Darkier, roared.

You suddenly looked to your left, where a shapeless mist of black was swiftly hurdling through the air. To your shock and horror, a similar mist emerged from Loki, who was thrashing about in the exorcism.

"Leave him be!" you yelled. Clint was muttering faster, and you saw flashes of red, gold, blue and black, telling you that Natasha, Stark and Cap had arrived. "He does not belong to you! He doesn't belong to anyone, leave him alone!"

"EVERYTHING HE DID FOR YOU EXPRESSED IN AFFECTION WAS ME!" Darkier howled as the blackness closed in. "HE NEVER LOVED YOU AND HE NEVER WILL!"

You felt tears streak down your cheeks. "Loki? Is that true?"

"Of course it is," he snarled. "You hated me, so I hated you. How could that change?"

You sobbed loudly as the man you loved turned away from you. The voice of Darkier cackled deeply, and you felt anger beyond anything you'd ever known. You let the blue skin and red eyes take over. "You played with my heart! You tore Loki's life apart! You destroyed me, and for that, I swear on my fucking life I will destroy you!"

You pushed your hands together and ripped them apart, causing a massive swirl of red punctuated with diamond-sharp spikes to rush from your body. It was the same shade of your red eyes, mixed with dots of e/c and shards of ice. You hurled the storm at Darkier, whatever it was, and felt a dull pang of satisfaction as it screamed as it was torn apart by your destruction.

Piece by agonising piece, Darkier was ripped to destruction, howling all the while until it was abruptly halted mid-yell, a ringing silence filling the air as that black mist vanished.

You slowly fell to the ground, consciousness fading from your mind with the exertion.

Not seeing the last wisp of mind-controlling Darkier slip from Loki's body.

But the others did.

"He was still being controlled," Clint whispered, staring as the Asgardian prince stirred slowly. "Did he-"

"Y/N!" Loki cried out brokenly, answering the archer's question as he skidded to your side, feeling desperately for a pulse as the blue he'd so hated before you crept up his fingers.

The memory of what had just happened suddenly hit him with the force of a truck, and a tear slipped from his eye, half blue, half red, as he backed away, a true heartbreak visibly paining him.

"I love you, I'm sorry," he whispered, leaving your side. "You will hate me. I'm so, so sorry."

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