The rain has let up when morning dawns, and Veers and I make a meal with the eggs and waffles and pour ourselves cups of coffee. Surprisingly, the food is still hot and everything tastes delicious. I sip slowly at the coffee, allowing the hot liquid to flow over my tongue and burn it, and wait for the caffeine to kick in. My head feels better today and Veers looks better, her skin not as pale as it was yesterday.

"What's the plan for today?" Veers asks as we finish our breakfast.

"End this," I reply. "There are five of us left, Wong, Natasha, Clint, and the two of us. It's almost over. I say we make it so. Let's let today be the last one here."

Veers nods and glances into the canister at the rest of the food. Only the sandwiches remain, enough for us to have two apiece. After tucking those into my pack next to Cassie's stuffed rabbit, filling the two coffee thermoses with the water we collected from the rain and placing those in with the sandwiches, we ensure we have everything and prepare to set out. As Veers steps outside, I pull Peter's token from my belt and shine the image of his mask on the ceiling. The flickering red light pulls a grim smile to my face. "Today," I utter. "Today, I fulfill my oath."

"You coming, Loki?" Veers calls back, and I snap off the light, hiding the token back in my belt.

"Of course." I stride outside, not bothering to close the door as we won't be returning. There will be no need to.

I vow this will be the last day I spend inside this arena.

Wong, Natasha, Clint. Wong, Natasha, Clint. Wong, Natasha, Clint.

Wong will be on his own and Natasha and Clint will still be allied together, or so would be my prediction. Veers and I need to kill all three of them in order to win. They will all be hidden somewhere in this location, with the exception of perhaps Wong. If Veers and I work diligently, we can finish this Contest today and finally leave this arena.

And if worst comes to worst...then at least I will walk away.

The memory of Veers' kiss makes me feel guilty for a moment, then I shove it away. I said it best, myself: there is no place for sentiment in the arena. Helen Cho probably didn't deserve to die, but die she did. I have oaths to keep and I will keep them regardless.

But still...Veers.

Veers and I walk along the river away from the Gauntlet, discussing quietly various ways we can root out the other three contenders. If Wong has jumped through a portal to a different location, we won't be able to find him but we can at least eliminate Clint and Natasha as enemies.

"I can fly, take a look around and scout out," Veers offers now as we continue to walk. "We can get an idea of where everyone is and go from there."

I nod. "All right. But we must remember that they'll be hunting for us. With only five of us left and Clint and Natasha still seeming to be in an alliance, they at least will be looking to get rid of us as well."

"Do they know we're in an alliance?" Veers asks.

"I'm not sure about Wong, but Clint and Natasha know," I say. "Our pack was labeled with both a twelve and an eight. It was quite clear we're together." I wonder if that was the point.

Veers nods and her hands begin to glow with golden light, her fingers clenched into fists. Within moments she's flying into the air, the light trailing behind her as she ascends into the sky. I watch from beside the river, spear in my hand, and resign myself to waiting until she returns.

Wong, Natasha, Clint. Kill them, go home. Come on, Loki, you can do this. Whatever it takes. Wong, Natasha, Clint. Wong, Natasha, Clint. For Peter. For Cassie. Dammit, for Pietro, even. Wong, Natasha, Clint. Wong, Natasha, Clint.

If Veers and I actually ended this today, if we won, I could go home to Asgard and she could go home to Hala. I could see my family again, Heimdall, Nebula. And Gamora. I could see Gamora again, spend my mornings with her on the mountains like we used to, fight together in the privacy across the lake. For a moment, I close my eyes, thinking about her. It feels strange to consider Gamora now, after kissing Veers yesterday, but Veers and I won't last after the Contest. We can't. Despite our alliance in the arena, the Kree and the Asgardians will not settle their differences because of us. We'll each go home and only see each other when we have to mentor the contenders at the next Contest. By then, whatever fling this is will have passed away into sheer memory.

That thought draws me up short. Me, a mentor? It's either that or work for Thanos, I know, but still. A mentor? Talking to people in at least a slightly helpful way? I don't think I want to do that. Perhaps I can mentor the way Hela does – unhelpfully. That at least would be fun. I mean, I'd fit right in, what with Thor being distracted because of Jane and Valkyrie being always drunk.

I see Veers returning and clear my mind, watching as she descends and lands easily behind me, her fists dimming. "Clint and Natasha are in the forest, on the other side of the Gauntlet," she tells me. "Closer to the cliffs. No sign of Wong."

"Well, then, let's go take care of them," I suggest, and we're just about to start off when I heard a slight noise behind me. Suddenly tensing, I turn.

A large, fiery orange portal cuts through the air behind me, Wong standing in the center of it. He leaps through the portal and whirls his hands in a circular motion, closing it behind him, and I catch the glint of a sling ring on his finger as he does so. Within moments, Tao Mandala shields are up in front of him to defend against attack.

Veers raises her fists and two photon blasts shoot out, striking his shields, which absorb their energy. I generate an illusion of myself, making my true form invisible, and send the illusion straight at him while I edge to the side, flicking my spear out as it lengthens.

Wong smashes one of his shields into my illusion, dissolving it, and for a moment he's flustered, confused. Veers takes advantage of this and charges, managing to get in a strong kick before the DimJump regains his composure, staggering backward from the blow. Then, with a flick of his wrist, a fiery orange sword appears in his one hand and with the other, he expands the Tao Mandala shield to block Veers' next attack, sending her flying backward.

I slide in to attack the sorcerer, striking out hard with my spear. Wong twists at the last second, the spearhead catching in the fabric of his tunic and tearing it as he brings his sword up. The spear drives forward and I'm thrown off balance, right toward his weapon.

No, no, no!

I summon a dagger to my hand and whip it up in time to deflect his blow, just barely avoiding becoming impaled. Wong scowls at me, his face pinched in extreme concentration, and I suddenly crouch, ducking my head down, and the weight he was putting into his sword backfires on him when he topples over me and lands on the ground.

Jumping to my feet, I spin around and hurl my dagger at Wong, missing as he rolls to the side and catapults onto his feet. Veers is racing back toward us, firing photon blasts at Wong that end up missing or get blocked by his energy shields. Starting to feel angry at the DimJump, I thrust out my arms with all the strength I can manage.

Wong goes flying, as does Veers and several nearby bushes, dirt streaming down from their roots as they're torn from the earth. Even the water moves away from the scene of the combat in a wave. For a moment, I stand stunned, surprised at the power behind the telekinetic shove. It was more violent than I had intended it to be. But then Wong recovers and so does Veers and I shake my head to clear it, for the fight begins again.

I'm surprised that Wong hasn't already summoned a portal to escape from us, but then I realize he must be thinking the same thing Veers and I are. Today kicks off the endgame of this Contest of Champions and there's no escaping a fight. Fight now, or fight later. All three of us have decided to fight now, to either live or die now, for today this all ends.

My spear clashes against Wong's blade as Veers scoops up the dagger I had thrown at the sorcerer. For several moments we fight, the DimJump's attention held on me. At one point he maneuvers a Tao Mandala shield to block a blast from the Kree but for the most part, he's too busy fighting me to pay attention to her.

Then it happens. I hear the footsteps, know Veers is about to attack, flick my eyes up to see her moving in from Wong's left, and I slip to the right side, taking Wong's attention with me. The shields drop just enough for Veers to sail over them, twisting as she does so. Then she's colliding with him, slamming into his chest and shoulder and they tumble to the ground, the dagger flashing in her hand. I move forward to assist but there's no need, the blade has already dipped into his throat and returned coated with blood. The cannon sounds.

Wong is dead.

Veers shifts to the left, falling to the side of the body with my dagger still in her hand. Slowly, Wong's body fades into ashes and the Kree girl looks up at me, a weary grin on her face. "Here," she says, holding out the dagger.

I take it from her and then help her to her feet, both of us looking down at the pile of ash that had once belonged to Wong. For a moment, we're silent, and then I speak.

"All right, then. Now we just need to kill Clint and Natasha."

Veers nods.

We're truly in the endgame now.