ONE

Half Empty

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Korg looked around the bridge of the ship, then peered out of the window. "Well we made it over here ok. Funny how that new ship just cut ours in half like that - and then only attacked that bit."

A smaller figure appeared next to him, all grey and white armour and dark hair. "We might have succeeded in getting people to this half, but Thor is on that one," Valkyrie said. "We have to go get him."

"Nah, he said to wait here and protect everyone," Korg said cheerfully. "He's a fighter, right? And he's survived longer than Doug even though he's not that bright."

Valkyrie bit her lip. "When he said take everyone and hide, I thought he meant long enough for us to regroup and kill whoever it is attacking the last Asgardian ship."

"Yeah. But hey, we got half of your last Asgardians, and a load of ex-prisoner gladiators. Half is better than none. Anyway," he added, looking back out of the window, "we can go over there, put the fires out, and see if there are any food or supplies we can bring back to this half."

A sudden volley of weapons fire from the monstrous enemy vessel hammered into the drifting half-ship. It splintered, exploding and sending fizzing, spinning pieces into surrounding space.

"Er… ok maybe not," Korg said quietly.

Valkyrie's face went hard. "We find whoever did this and we slice them into pieces."

Korg put his palms up quickly. "Wait a minute, Better Doug - what about all the people on this half? You're like their leader now. Aren't you?"

Valkyrie looked up at him for a long moment. "No," she said. "I think it's him." She pointed past Korg's shoulder.

He turned and they looked at the immaculate figure sitting on the decking cross-legged, his hand gripping Gungnir so tight his knuckles were striped white and red.

"Oh him? He's asleep," Korg said. "He's been asleep since the ship got broke in half. Funny - he looks like a ghost I saw once."

"No… he's not sleeping. I don't know what he's doing, but… it's definitely something."

Korg trudged over and crouched before the figure. "Hey, Green Man. Whatcha doin'?"

The man on the decking opened his eyes, gasping as if it were his last. It took a few seconds for him to focus, to get some breath back, to realise where he was. "Shit."

"What is?" Korg asked.

The man got to his feet, brushing himself down with his free hand, planting the long Asgardian spear into the decking with the other. He looked at Valkyrie. "It's Thanos. He only destroys half of what he finds - and he's done that," he said, gesturing to the far window with his head. "He'll leave and we can patch up this ship and make our escape."

"Hold on a minute," she fumed. "If it's Thanos who's done this, then we track him down and we kill him. He killed Thor."

The man gave a whimsical smile. "Oh Thor's not dead."

"Then we bring him back," she said.

"We don't have time to go over there and search for him - he always ends up on Midgard and he has friends there who will no doubt jump at the chance to fight such a villain as Thanos. Whilst they're distracted we can get the surviving half of Asgard to safety."

"You're right we don't have time," she snapped. She pointed at the window. "The enemy ships will leave soon, you said - we need to attack right now."

"With what?" he asked reasonably, although everything about his face screamed condescension. "Half of the ship has been destroyed. This half needs repairing so everyone can keep breathing. We have no food, no water, and no heat source. What we need to do first is protect ourselves - who knows who else is going to come this way and find a stranded ship?"

"Maybe if someone else comes along, we could just get them to help us," Korg said.

The man settled a look on Korg so harsh it was a wonder the Kronan's rocks didn't shatter. "We are not doing 'get help'," he snapped. He looked back at Valkyrie. "We get our ship together and head back to Asgard."

"Asgard is gone, fool!" Valkyrie demanded.

"And because it is, she'll have been released. I hate to think of her wandering around space, looking for someone to kick when we could set her on Thanos and enjoy the show."

"Who 'she'?" she called, even as the man in green turned and began to walk toward the far door. "And don't you dare say Hela or I'll kill you where you stand!"

"Most definitely not Hela," he said over his shoulder. "Although that would be fun. No - someone who can track and destroy the tesseract that I just gave Thanos."

She drew a dagger. Before Korg could react she had hurled it straight at the man's back.

He simply turned and caught it.

Korg blinked at him, then at Valkyrie. "You two could join a circus," he said, impressed. "I know this woman who runs a travelling—"

"You gave the tesseract to Thanos?" Valkyrie shouted. "To save yourself, I'll wager! You coward! You self-serving bastard!"

The man's face lost all pretence at civility. His eyes, hard as diamonds, regarded her for a full second. Then he flipped the dagger round his hand and it disappeared. "I had my reasons - one of them being this woman will now know exactly where the tesseract, and by extension Thanos, is at all times. Even when he doesn't." He spoke slowly enough, but his voice was laden with something even Korg didn't want to poke with a stick. "He doesn't have all the gems yet. We can still kill him."

She leapt at him with a growl, but Korg stepped into her way. He grabbed her arm. "Look, I don't know who this Thanos is or what a tesseract is, but I know Green Man is right - we can't just drift here in space. People are already hungry and we don't know where we are." He let her go. "If he knows a place where we'll all be safe, then maybe we should go there."

"There will be no safe place if Thanos gets all the stones!" she shouted.

Korg shrugged. "Green Man said he hasn't got them all yet. Why don't we just get them first?"

"What?" she gasped.

"The Kronan here has a point," the man said smoothly.

"And I don't think Thor would want us to follow you anywhere," she spat. "We've all heard tales of you and your tricks."

The man walked back up to her and glared. "My 'tricks' just stopped Thanos from wiping out this half of the ship," he seethed. "My 'tricks' just saved Thor's life so he could fight another day. My 'tricks' just bought us time to find Thanos and kill him." He paused. "What have you done today, Valkyrie to a dead pantheon, gatekeeper to a broken tomb?"

She pushed him in the chest, turning away. "Where are we going?"

"Well hey - don't want to interrupt or anything," Korg said, "but the engines aren't exactly working at the moment. How are we going?"

"And why are we going?" she pressed. "You're walking out on a fight. As usual, or so I hear."

The man paused. He turned slowly and eyed her. Suddenly she didn't feel entirely safe. "Asgardians and the other people on this ship are going to start dying if we don't find water and food. Whether he planned to or not Thanos destroyed the half of the ship that was carrying supplies, and I don't know about you, but I'm pretty parched myself." He paused. "Far from me to antagonise anyone—"

Valkyrie opened her mouth.

He raised his index finger hastily and she stopped. "—But when all fifty of your hangovers hit you at once, even you will need water."

"So we get this ship under way, then," Korg said brightly. "Uh… how do we do that?"

The man turned and looked at him. "Right… yes. Find anyone on this ship who knows anything about engines. Put them to work fixing them. Those who aren't engineers can be assistants."

"Right you are, Green Man," Korg nodded. "I'll go get them started." He walked away, toward the door.

"Oh, for the record," he called after him, "my name's not Green Man."

Korg stopped and turned. "What is it then? You can't be Better Doug - that name's taken."

The man smiled. "It's Loki."

Korg gave a friendly wave. "Hi Loki. I'm Korg." And then he turned and walked off.

Loki turned to Valkyrie. "Thor is not dead," he said firmly. "But if we don't find this woman then half the universe will be."

She glowered at him. "Fine. We get everyone here to your friend and then we find Thanos and kill him. But know this," she said, pausing to produce a fresh dagger. She point it at his face so fast his nose jerked back an inch to prevent injury. "If you screw with us, if you try to harm any one of the people left alive on this ship, I will kill you, Asgardian prince or no."

He bent closer again, his eyes hard and accusing. "I'm not Asgardian," he said quietly. "Now… I suggest…" He put a hand up and his finger and thumb grasped the tip of the dagger pointed at him, freeing it from her grip, "you put your anger and your grief to better use. Like restoring power to this ship so we can save everyone on it." He flipped the blade around to offer her the hilt. "Yes?"

She snatched it off him. She backed up, watching him warily, as she walked from what was left of the bridge.

The moment she was gone Loki sagged. Grasping Gungnir for support he caught himself before he could fall flat on his back. He moved back to a step he could plant himself on, but something caught his heel and he flailed. Landing hard on his backside he grunted with pain, Gungnir slipping his grasp and falling to the deck. It faded and disappeared, and suddenly his hair was messier, shaggier, his skin paler and covered in ash and sweat. Rents and dents appeared in his sparse armour, rips and blood spatters on the green cloth beneath. He simply breathed, his eyes closed, before he put a hand up and nursed his throat. He let it go, pressing at his chest instead.

He detected a sound.

His head shot up to see Valkyrie peering round the doorway. "What were you doing all that time you were sat here?" she asked quietly, but her voice was strangely lacking in malice.

He made his hand drop and forced himself to sit up a little straighter. "Illusions. They take it out of you."

"You look like shit."

"Thank you."

"You're welcome." She studied him for another moment. "I should thank you, I suppose."

"Don't hurt yourself."

She smiled slightly. "We'll find this woman, not-Asgardian. Maybe you should get some rest before the others see the state our new fearless leader is truly in."

"We don't have time," he said, forcing himself to stand up.

"Make time," she said coldly. "We're down to half the population of Asgard, and Asgard is gone. You're the closest thing we have left to royalty - Odin help us."

"Your confidence in me is touching."

"Suck it up, Loki. Pretend you care about these people long enough to get them to safety. Then we find Thanos and tear him a new one - and get Thor back."

Loki inclined his head. "As you say."

She nodded and walked off.

Loki walked stiffly to the window and looked out at the debris that had been the other half of the ship. "If you die and leave me in charge of these people, brother," he muttered, "I will kill you."

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What, you mean this isn't how it happened? Thanks for reading!