This Is Stella's Reality

Loki and I stared at each other from opposite sides of his cell. A guard had let me in and currently was standing watch outside the golden barriers.

Carefully, I stepped closer to the god before me. I realized we had never truly touched. Our hands had brushed within the confines of his library, but this was the physical world.

I sat beside him on a small bench. He faced me. "This may be a bit uncomfortable," I mumbled as I rose my fingertips to his temples.

He winced when our skin connected. He was freezing cold. I massaged his tense muscles, relaxing his mind and seeping into his thoughts.

Show me, I said.

And he did. The world exploded before me. It was more jarring than anything I had ever seen.

I saw through his eyes, looking down at his hands and the wounds that were bandaged around him. I heard his confusion as he walked through empty passageways until The Other stood before him.

He was crippled with age, but somehow he still moved with unimaginable strength. His hands were boney, and the skin looked as if it had been vacuum sealed over the knobs and joints of his fingers.

A servant stood behind him, clutching the infamous golden scepter with its bright blue stone. I felt Loki tense, and anxiety shot through me. My breath was caught in my throat as they exchanged words.

What is it you seek?

A throne.

Then a throne you shall have.

And then the world became strangely blue and swirling as if I were drunk. Loki collapsed to his knees and heaved, clutching his heart and struggling to breathe.

It was hot, and my skin felt as if it were burning. The Other was speaking, but I could not hear what was being said.

The memories shifted, and we were on earth now. Nick Fury stood before Loki, playing his mind games in an attempt to distract. But Loki was smarter than he was, and the SHIELD facility holding the tesseract fell easily.

I watched Clint and others fall under the spell of the scepter, and the memories transitioned again.

We were in a bunker of sorts. The Other had established a connection with Loki through the scepter and the two were speaking as mind-controlled SHIELD agents scurried around.

If you fail, if the tesseract is kept from us, there will be no realm, no barren moon, no crevice, where he cannot find you.

The connection was severed, and for a moment, Loki looked like himself. He was afraid, and I felt the fear overcome me. But a moment later the scepter reasserted its control over him, and he was glazed over once more.

The rest is as I remember it. Wormholes, chitauri, witty banter, surrendering, the arrest, and back to Asgard.

I calmed his mind before I pulled away, and something in the deep recesses of his thoughts called to me.

It was the memory of me falling from my portal. My body was limp and freely descending to the chaos below. Thor flew up to catch me, and Loki's eyes drifted up to the wormhole I had fallen from.

On the other side, the world was bright white with towering pillars and embossed marble. People in long dresses and laurels atop their heads held their hands over their mouths in shock.

And then the portal closed.

Loki looked down to where Thor was cradling me on the ground. The rest of the team was crowding over me. I felt his confusion wash over him, and then a moment of recognition.