It was bright sunlight when Heimdall brought them down on Sakaar. He burned his mark unto a pile of unidentifiable trash in doing so. Loki scrambled over to the next mound, which looked to be more stable and stank less, then collapsed onto his knees.

'Couldn't we've done that earlier?' Brunnhilde scoffed.

Loki let his head drop down to his chest. 'A toddler with the right sensor in his hand would be able to track the dark energy Heimdall used to send us here. Thanos and the Maw would've tracked us in minutes. They'll probably track us now anyway, it'll just take them a little longer.'

As Loki spoke, shivers ran up his spine. At times, Thanos lost his temper and acted on impulse, but that wasn't how it usually happened. He preferred to think problems through, to consider the variables, to find the most damaging response to an insult. And while he worked to track Loki down, he would have enough time to do just that.

And when he finally does come, it'll be with the fury of a wildfire.

He didn't want to contemplate what would happen to him and to Brunnhilde should they ever end up in the Mad Titan's grasp again, but his mind refused to cooperate. The stench of melting plastic and rotted flesh filled his nostrils; the howls of the dying echoed in his ears. Before he knew it, he was dry heaving. Loki's only salvation was the fact he hadn't consumed a proper meal in days.

'Loki? What's going on with you?' Brunnhilde grasped him by the shoulders and once the tumult in his stomach subsided, she pulled him to his feet. 'Come on, this isn't a place to linger.'

It was a long, largely quiet walk to the city. Loki had nothing to say and Brunnhilde only uttered banal encouragements when his pace started to lag. The two hours he had spent unconscious back on the Nesha IV hadn't built up his strength nearly as much as he'd liked and the trudge through the uneven, trash-laden surface of Sakaar left him exhausted anew. By the time they reached the building when Brunnhilde kept her flat, he was ready to collapse once more.

'I should've fucking known,' Brunnhilde groaned as she reached for the door to her apartment. 'I'm assuming you didn't do this?'

The lock was obviously broken and there were deep gouges all across the door itself. At a light push, the door popped open to reveal chaos. Brunnhilde's apartment had hardly been well cared for back when Loki had broken in and dragged her along to the Sanctuary, but this was different. Splinters of broken furniture and shards of shattered liquor bottles littered the floor; a number of filthy slogans had been scrawled across the walls.

'I'm going to figure out what the looters took with them,' Brunnhilde said. 'Clear up the couch as best you can and sit down. You're starting to sway.'

Loki didn't waste what little energy he still had on arguing. He brushed off the splintered wood and plaster off the couch, then collapsed on it. Brunnhilde moved through the apartment, muttering darkly under her breath as she found more and more damage. Loki sighed and allowed his eyes to drift shut.

When he opened his eyes again darkness met him. He lay on his side, his legs curled up and a thin blanket tangled up around him. Loki untangled himself from the material and sat up. He was still in Brunnhilde's apartment. Light from the neighbouring building fell through the shattered windows and provided enough illumination for Loki to make out the remnants of the furnishings.

'Loki,' Heimdall called out from a distance. A quiet sound followed, reminiscent to the rumble of a spring brook, then Heimdall's form took shape in the centre of Brunnhilde's apartment. Wind seemed to tousle his dreads and his eyes reflected a light that wasn't visible on Sakaar. 'Are you in need of assistance?'

'I must look really bad if you're asking me that,' Loki replied. 'Is Brunnhilde here?'

'The liquor left in the apartment didn't satisfy her.'

'Right, of course.'

While he wouldn't have declined a drink, or twelve, he was glad Brunnhilde hadn't shaken him awake and dragged him down to a tavern. In truth, Loki still didn't feel like himself. He reached up to push his tangled hair out of his eyes. When he tried to run his fingers through his hair, he found his hair was peppered with bits of glass and chunks of metal. On further examination, he understood that he had done a thoroughly poor job of cleaning off the couch before he had collapsed on it. There were bits of glass clinging to his clothes too. But he lingered on the misshapen bit of metal he pulled out from his hairline. The way it reflected the light was familiar.

'Is this a remnant from Nebula's sword?' Loki asked. 'The one Brunnhilde shattered with her blaster?'

Heimdall's head tilted a little, but no answer came. Or rather, Loki supposed there was an answer in that silence. Heimdall was reputed to see everything, but it was hardly the case. It was well beyond the bounds of reasonable to expect him to pay attention to how random pieces of junk had ended up in Loki's hair.

Loki ran his tongue over his parched lips. 'How about something you can tell me then. Is Thanos dead?'

'No. He was with the Maw studying the infinity stone in the laboratory.'

Loki nodded. It was no more than he had expected. To have killed Thanos in that blast would have been a magnificent stroke of luck and luck rarely ran in Loki's favour. There was an obvious follow-up question to Heimdall's words, but Loki couldn't quite bring himself to voice it.

'Did...' he tried again and cut himself off. He suspected he already knew an answer, but as long as he didn't have a confirmation, there was still a chance he was wrong. There was hope in uncertainty.

If Heimdall was cognisant of Loki's internal torments at that moment, he chose not to acknowledge this. Instead, he briskly explained, 'Your misadventures with the Titan are not why I come. I bear a message from your mother.'

'Go on then?' Loki replied, happy to embrace the change of topic.

'Your father has awoken.'

'That's.... that's good to hear. The best news I've heard in a long time actually.'

'She asks for you to return. If only temporarily.'

The smile on Loki's face faltered and he rested his head against the back of Brunnhilde's couch. It was too easy to imagine himself back in his mother's gardens, laying out all his griefs while they sat by the brook, surrounded by flowering bushes. And he would take slow walks with his father while Odin regained his strength. And in the evenings, he and Thor would sit by the fireplace in Thor's room and Thor would ramble incessantly until Loki knew every single thing that had occurred in his absence.

It was too easy also to imagine the gardens aflame, his father, still weakened from his long illness, struck down by a Chitauri spearman and Thor bearing the full brunt of Thanos' mercy.

'Please tell my mother that I am glad to hear father has improved,' Loki replied coldly, 'and that I hope she and Thor are well, but I won't be returning.'

'I will relay your message,' Heimdall replied. If he had thoughts of his own about Loki's reply, he kept them out of his voice and merely added, 'Is there anything else you wish your family to know?'

Loki shrugged as he rolled the bit of metal still in his hand between his fingers. It was no easy task to narrow down the sum of the million chaotic thoughts in his mind into something coherent.

'Tell my brother it would be prudent to fortify Asgard's defences,' he said in the end. 'As a precaution.'

Loki pulled his coarse blanket tighter across his shoulders, although he knew the action was unlikely to improve the tremors that rattled his body every twenty seconds or so. As far as the concoctions available on Sakaar went, the one he had taken the previous night was far from the best. The after-effects were always unpleasant. But it possessed an advantage other didn't - it allowed Loki to retain control over his mouth. Nothing ruined your mood quicker than realising you had just spilled your deepest secrets to a room full of naked strangers.

'Wow, you look like shit,' Brunnhilde noted as she climbed over the balcony railing and took a seat beside Loki. After two days of trying to clean up the mess in Brunnhilde's looted apartment, they had given up and found accommodation elsewhere. The apartment was the size of a rat's nest; the balcony was its sole redeeming feature. Not that Brunnhilde was interested in the view. She studied Loki with narrowed eyes, then smirked. 'Are those tentacle marks I see?'

She was riling him up. There had been no tentacled species involved. But Loki's lips were still swollen and the skin around his mouth irritated. Although the bite marks had faded, Loki still felt the trail his nameless partner had followed down the side of his neck.

How did that seem like a good idea yesterday?

'I'm back here on Sakaar, why shouldn't I enjoy the pleasures of local society?' he said.

'Yeah, you're enjoying yourself now all right. I'm not one to judge and I do understand the impulse, but we can't wait around long. It's been over a week now. Don't you think we should get a move on? Thanos is still out there.'

'Let him have the universe, I don't give a damn anymore.'

Brunnhilde crossed her arms. 'So you're going back to Asgard then? That's-'

'No.' Loki shook his head so vehemently his vision blurred. He went on nevertheless. 'Asgard is the last place I'm going back to. Here's good. I mean, I get it now - always a party to go to, always more to drink and something to swallow, always something happening at the arena. No one's trying to kill me, no one wants anything from me and I don't want anything from anyone. It's perfect.'

And when he finds me here, I don't much care about what happens to this pit of depravity.

'That's rather rich considering the crap you gave me for staying here for so long.'

'Hela is my half-sister. Hardly the same calibre of threat.'

'Are you kidding me?' Brunnhilde shook her hand and forced herself to calm. 'I'm going to refrain from breaking your pretty face for the moment because our to-do list is so bloody long. We have his plans for invasion of like twenty different worlds. These planets need to be warned about what'll soon descend upon them.'

Loki chuckled mirthlessly and waved his hand in Brunnhilde's direction. 'If you want to warn them, just go. There's no use dragging me along. The only thing I'm capable of doing is making things worse for everyone involved. Thanos and his lot excepted of course.'

'Loki,' Brunnhilde set her hand down on his shoulder. 'You're not in a good place right now, I realise, but will you try to listen to what I'm saying? You talked your way into Thanos' inner circle. You got the scoop on his scavenger hunt for the infinity stones and I have his battle plans. The exit strategy could've been less... hair-raising, but the sum of it is hardly a failure.'

But that's not why I went to the Sanctuary.

'I hold myself to a different standard,' he said in a haughty tone as he pushed her hand away. Brunnhilde's lips already thinned at that, but Loki wanted to do this thoroughly. He straightened his back. 'I see no need to discuss this further with you, Valkyrie. I dismissed you back on Theta-Three. If you wish to leave Sakaar, you are free to do so at any time.'

Brunnhilde grabbed his blanket and pulled. Before Loki could react, she had ripped the blanket off, exposing him to the frigid wind bearing down from one of the nearby worm-holes.

'Oh, come on, Loki. Do you think I can't tell what you're trying to do?' she sneered.

'Brunnhilde, leave me the fuck alone. I don't care what you do, just stop bothering me with your -'

'If you so want to be left alone, why are you still here? I paid for this apartment, not you.'

Loki cocked his head. 'Fair point. I'll be gone in ten.'

Brunnhilde was quick to reply, but Loki no longer cared to listen. He abandoned the balcony railing and stormed inside. There were only a few scant possessions for Loki to gather, so he was done in well under ten minutes. Without bothering to offer Brunnhilde any kind of farewell, he flung open the front door and was a flight down the stairs by the time he heard it slam shut.

At the bottom of the stairs, he slowed his pace. A block later, he came to a stop altogether.

'Loki,' came Heimdall's voice from somewhere behind him.

He spun around and glared. Heimdall had worn out his welcome since he had brought Loki and Brunnhilde back to Sakaar. Thor and Frigga were determined to have Loki return to Asgard and Heimdall had become their messenger boy.

'What is it now?' Loki demanded. 'My decision hasn't changed since last night.'

'Your father --'

'Stop,' Loki said sharply. He didn't want to hear what Heimdall had to say, all that would achieve was to leave Loki wavering about his resolution to remain on Sakaar and feeling even more miserable than he was already. 'I've had enough of this. I don't want you relaying any more messages from my brother or my parents. No more contact with them at all. They should just go on like I never existed.'

It'll be easier this way.