"Loki, what have you done?"

His eyes drifted to Scrapper 142's armor-clad form awaiting him as he boarded the third (or was it the fourth? he'd been too distracted to notice) quadrant of the Statesman, hands latching onto a nearby railing so as not to lose his balance. Loki sucked in a steadying breath as he watched the Valkyrie's eyes dart behind him towards his escape pod, panic flickering in her eyes when she realized that he was all alone.

Standing to his full height, Loki let 142 further inspect the pod he had used to escape the Statesman while he felt the thrum of magic beneath his skin. Further within the quadrant, Loki knew that more of his people waited inside — at least, half of how much he and Thor had escaped Asgard with. Cries of fear arose from the crowd of the remaining lucky Asgardians as they anticipated their king's return, but Loki was afraid he had to disappoint them.

But first, he had to deal with the Valkyrie who had now returned her attention to him.

He met the fire in her eyes with all the strength he could muster. "Where's Thor?"

Loki winced, but not because of her words.

"Father, we will not fail you."

The next thing Loki knew, he was being held against a wall. His back colliding with metal, a groan tumbled from his lips as he felt 142's arm against his collar and the coolness of a blade touch his throat. Elsewhere, his arm was locked in place by her other hand, his other one pinned behind him, leaving no room for escape. But Loki did not budge, remaining still as he let his concentration shift elsewhere.

"You snake," she hissed. "You left him to die."

The venom in her voice did not go unmissed, but Loki had a more dire matter to attend to. Channeling his energy into a distant place was no easy feat, no matter how much he made it seem so, and it required almost every ounce of focus he had to keep his illusion perfect.

"...I do have a bit of experience in that arena..."

Loki had to admit though, 142 was not helping at the moment.

"It's part of the plan," he bit out, freeing his hand from behind him and using it to deliver a blow to her abdomen, loosening the lock she had on his throat as Loki stole the blade in her hand only to be met with a blow to his shin.

"I consider experience, experience..."

Concentrate! Loki blocked another blow from 142 as a growl left her lips. Slipping the blade to his other hand, he allowed her fist to connect with his cheek just as he pointed the blade at her side. Feeling the sharp tip prod against her armor, the Valkyrie fell still as her anguished eyes narrowed down on the Liesmith.

"He's alive," Loki gritted out in between pants, beating 142 to it just as she parted her lips to speak. Inhaling deeply, Loki did his best to solidify his double on-board the Statesman. As he felt the quadrant steadily gain distance from the Sakaaran vessel, the more he felt his magic strain to keep up a tangible illusion.

142 must've seen something because the fury in her stare waned, concern flashing across them for a split second. Loki then took note of the haze of green that ran over his frame for the briefest of moments, a refresher of sorts so he could keep the details on his double consistent. From the smudge of dirt on his forehead, the fine material of his attire, the small cut on his cheek, Loki knew very well aware that the devil was in the details. The smallest mistake could easily throw off the Mad Titan and ruin everything.

"...Odinson..."

Beyond the quadrant, Loki saw. He met Thor's pained gaze as they followed his double's every move, every step taken towards Thanos. He ignored everything else, the fire and the ruins that surrounded him, as he only saw the warlord, the Titan's beady eyes wary and cautious of Loki as he sought to see the telltale slip of an illusion.

He wouldn't find any. Loki made damn sure of that.

"...God of Mischief..."

To his relief, 142 finally stepped away with him but not without shoving the Trickster as well. Loki didn't mind it, the loss of proximity allowing him to gain further traction over his magic as he kept up the illusion. Tightening his grip on the blade that 142 had so generously provided him with, Loki allowed a replica of it to appear in his double's hand, making sure that only his brother would see it. A green sheen of light also ran over the blade that Loki held himself, drawing a confused look from the Valkyrie before him.

"What are you doing?" she asked.

"This," Loki breathed, "is the ace up my sleeve."

A surge of magic then traveled up his forearm, forcing it to stay in place. The familiar echo of the Tesseract's energy reached Loki as a gasp left him. 142's eyes widened into saucers at the faint stream of blue that snaked up Loki's forearm as his grip grew into an iron one on the blade.

"'Undying?'"

A smirk threatened to pull at his lips, the pieces of the game finally falling into place as Loki watched, through his double's eyes, Thanos grasp his arm. The Titan pulled it away from his person before forcing Loki to drop the blade. Only then did Loki also let go of the actual blade, the metal falling with a clang to the floor.

Then he felt large, coarse digits wrapping around the column of his neck. A choking sound left his double but Loki very much felt Thanos' hand against his own neck, a faint shadow of it. He reckoned it was the Space Stone's work, allowing Thanos' actions to have an influence over his own person and not just his illusion. With an intake of breath, Loki realized that the Space Stone was indeed doing its job, letting Thanos' actions reach through to Loki himself via his own magic. Transcending space and distance, the hold on his neck then suddenly felt too real, and almost all air left Loki's lungs at the realization.

He didn't have a mirror but the look of horror in 142's eyes told him enough. Summoning every bit of the magic he possessed, Loki found himself battling the power of the Space Stone, his mind willing his body to stay within the quadrant and not to be willed away by the Space Stone back into the Statesman, within Thanos' death grip. Loki's efforts were not fruitless as he began to feel the foreign magic ebb away from his own, though he took care to keep his double picture-perfect. He allowed Thanos to feel the blood rushing in his veins, the bones shifting beneath his skin, the hatred in his bloodshot eyes. He thrashed, violently so, knowing it would only add to the Mad Titan's glee.

Yes, he would allow all this, allow Thanos to feel victory when it was truly Loki who was triumphing.

With one last push, Loki felt the air rush back in as the Space Stone lost its hold on him. Thanos' on his double, however, did not.

This was it.

"You will never be a god."

He allowed Thanos the satisfaction of hearing his bones snap, even if it meant breaking Thor's heart. His body's double fell limp, lifeless, as Thanos dropped the corpse. But Loki knew he was still far from the end; he was only finished with the second act. Somewhere, a muffled cry reached him, undoubtedly Thor's. While Loki had already done this to Thor in the past, he knew that to see his younger brother die in such an unceremonious manner would only add salt to the wound. Loki didn't mind — it was necessary.

"No resurrections this time."

Loki almost laughed. Resurrections were for the dead, something that he was not.

Gauntlet in hand, he watched through lifeless eyes as Thanos clenched his fists, a haze of purple escaping him as fires began to erupt all around the Statesman. For a moment, worry plagued Loki, worry that Thor may not survive this after all. Then he remembered his brother's strength, how he repeatedly proved himself to be Asgard's best, how he had held his own against the Goddess of Death, and how he had lived through all that only to smile in the end. Yes, Thor would survive, Loki realized, and he would see him smile again at the end of all this.

But for now, Loki would let his brother mourn.

Thanos had long left the spaceship, him along with his children. Loki felt Thor crawl towards his double's corpse, one hand reaching for his as Thor choked out his name. He leaned his head against the illusion's chest and Loki put all that he had into making the double's flesh feel real, if only to provide Thor with short-lived comfort. Besides, that was point — to make it all seem real so, in turn, all the pain, anguish, and loss would feel as real.

Killing half of a king's subjects provided adequate motivation, but it wasn't enough.

Kill the only family he had left, however, and the thirst for vengeance would be insatiable.

A flash of light then blinded Loki, making him lose his grasp at the threads of magic that he was weaving, but it was not for naught. Through the quadrant's windows, Loki saw the Statesman explode in the distance. Akin to the death of a star, bright light boomed from the Sakaaran vessel, causing 142 to flinch and raise an arm to shield her eyes while Loki merely closed his eyes in exhaustion.

Thor was alive. He knew it deep in his bones. His brother was a god, after all, and gods did not die easily.

If only Thanos knew as much.

As his breathing turned ragged, Loki went to the nearest wall and collapsed against it, sliding down to the floor. A few feet away, 142 watched him warily, evidently unsure of what to do next or of what to feel. When the Valkyrie blinked, Loki almost thought that she was blinking away tears, but then it could've just been his exhausted mind playing tricks on him.

Needless to say, she did not look pleased.

"What did you do?" she demanded, voice dropping dangerously low.

"I gave our king the... inspiration that he needed."

"Inspiration?"

"You can use another word if it rests uneasy on your tongue. Safe to say, I think, that Thanos won't see what's coming for him."

"No one's coming for him if Thor's dead," 142 uttered.

"He survived Hel. He'll live through this," Loki assured her. He would need to explain in more detail what he had done but for now, he settled for an enigma. "Neither is he broken. He's quite the opposite, actually."

Loki once knew of a nearly-insurmountable rage when Frigga had died. He was sure now that Thor felt the same after witnessing his younger brother's apparent violent death, an anger that would surely give him the perfect drive to kill Thanos.

Trust my rage, he'd once told Thor. This time around, it was Loki's turn to trust in his brother's rage.

He was not the God of Mischief for nothing.

Author's Note: I wrote this at 2AM nonstop, which is a miracle itself because I usually have a short attention span. This idea was based off a theory from livinghologram on Tumblr which I read on Twitter (whut) that stated that Loki faked his death in order to provide Thor with the perfect motivation to go after Thanos, since killing half of Asgard's population would have not been enough, apparently. This was a scenario I had not written before so it's fairly clunky in some parts, I think, but let me know what you think and don't be afraid to leave some constructive criticism! Although, if I'm being honest, I just wrote this to pacify my worries that Loki is truly dead. Really though, he's just out there chilling with Valkyrie and Korg and waiting for all of this mess to blow over, right?

Also, to explain that title, I was originally gonna go for "Castling" which is a move in chess where you sort of switch the king and rook to further protect the king and it just seemed to fit this story. "King and Rook" just seemed more catchy though so I just ran with it!