Pepper Potts was such a fearsome woman that Loki was sure that she'd see right through her act and smith her with whatever cosmic power she clearly must yield.

After Stark had explain why Loki was here, Ms. Potts had sighed, like it was old news, and said simply "This is going to put a damper on the wedding plans."

She'd given Loki a room and a fresh pair of clothes, and had suggested she relax until at least dinner. As much as Loki didn't want to, she agreed, and let herself collapse onto the bed once the woman left.

What more could she do anyway? She had called Captain Rogers. It was only a matter of time until he called back and then they could plan.

But being inactive let the weight of Thor's - and likely all of the other Asgardians' - death sink in again. If she hadn't taken the infinity stone, would everyone have been safe? Maybe Thanos would've always come regardless of what she possessed, she had been told that her failure to procure the Tesseract would result in a fate that'd make her wish for death. Perhaps the only way she could have prevented all those deaths would've been to part ways with Asgard.

It wasn't like she had chose to rejoin the asgardians though. She had simply asked the space stone to get her to safety once the world around her was consumed by flames, and it had brought her to Thor (albeit, some time later). Loki wanted to believe that if she had been allowed to make the choice again now, with the advantage of hindsight, she'd do the heroic thing and go elsewhere. In her heart though, she doubted it. She was selfish, and that was how she'd always be.

Loki was still stewing in self loathing (a favoured past time) when Peter Parker came in. He sat down next to where she was sitting cross-legged on the bed but didn't speak.

"Did Banner arrive on Midgard too, do you know?" Loki asked.

"Banner? Like, Bruce Banner?"

"Indeed." She said. "The Beast."

"Arrive like you? From space? Was Dr. Banner in space?! Mr. Stark has been looking for him since forever!"

"Yes. The doctor was with us for a time. Thor picked him up from Sakaar like a green stray cat. I was able to send him away with the space stone with me when I used it. The gem has a personality of it's own though. While it would be nice and convenient for it to have sent the Hulk here, he could be anywhere in the universe. I was hoping that with space's connection to time that he'd simply arrive a little later than I, but if I'm being honest, he's probably halfway across the universe."

After some pushing from Peter about Sakaar, Loki told him of the events of the last few weeks, although she made sure to make it days from Thor's perspective, and to mention herself very little and in third person, and say that she'd died in Surtur's fire. She told him of Hela and of the last Valkyrie and Thor. She told another story of herself, a fictional one, of a protector of magical artefacts, and put herself in the story as one of the citizens under Heimdall's protection, the Tesseract under her care. She told him of Thanos' arrival and of the massacre that occurred afterwards.

Somehow, she remained completely stoic throughout. She was becoming herself again it seemed, able to face everything with a smirk and a nonchalant attitude to cover her true feelings.

Peter was a good audience. He responded to everything she said vividly, but didn't interrupt her unless she gave him the opportunity to. He asked the right questions at the right times and Loki revelled in the attention. She had often been the one asked to recount the stories of battles during feasts, which she'd gladly do, accompanied by illusions and voice acting, just to briefly have all eyes on her for once. She wasn't the Goddess of Stories for no reason, even if the Midgardians didn't remember her title.

By the time the story finished, a voice from the ceiling (F.R.I.D.A.Y., Peter said its name was) announced that it was time for dinner.

She shooed Peter out of the room after telling him she wanted to change her clothing first and looked at the outfit Pepper had left her. Thankfully, she seemed to have guessed what she'd like from the outfit Loki was wearing, as it was a simple green t-shirt and black trousers made from a tough material they didn't have on Asgard.

She peeled her dirty Sakaarian clothes off and looked down at herself. She wasn't too gross, her outfit had taken most of the damage when she'd crashed to Midgard. Still, she let a simple spell for cleaning herself wash over her. She'd known it since she was a child and often used it instead of bathing even though her mother often insisted that it would never work as good as soap and water. She'd always either cast a quick spell or have three hour baths, there was no in between. Seeing as how dinner was now, the spell would have to do.

She decided that later she'd ask Ms. Potts - the obvious ruler of the household - if there was any makeup or hair products that she could borrow. She knew it wasn't a priority, but what could she say? Sakaar had spoilt her, she liked looking her best.

With FRIDAY's help, she made it to the dining room. She almost walked out immediately when she noticed the Strange was still there. She gritted her teeth and sat down beside Peter, even though that put the magician almost directly opposite her.

"Greetings." She said to the table. She noted the others seated around her. Stark, Strange, Potts, and Peter were all there, but the Vision wasn't, and there was one person she didn't recognise.

"Loren," she said, nodding to the man across the table, as it was too wide for her to extend her arm across, "Goddess of Stories. I don't believe we've met."

"Rhodey." He greeted her with a smile. "War Machine sometimes."

"Goddess of Stories?" Stark asked. "Whatever happened to Goddex?"

Loki shrugged. "Whatever happened indeed."

He shook his head and changed the topic. "So the wizard here was telling me-"

"Sorcerer." Strange interrupted.

Loki let out a short laugh. "Stark's right actually. I'm the only sorcerer in the room. Calling you a wizard is generous."

"So we have a wizard and a sorcerer. No one grab another spellcaster or our party will be really unbalanced." Stark grinned.

Rhodey laughed. "Like you care about balance, Mr. 'I play a bard every campaign'."

"Bards are fun, Rhodey! I saved your ass multiple times with my magical beatboxing skills."

"You play D&D, Mr. Stark?" Peter asked excitedly.

Stark shrugged. "Not since college."

"What's D&D?" Loki asked curiously.

"Dungeons and Dragons." Stark replied. "A game. Hey! You'd probably like it, Goddess of Stories and all. If we all don't die when Thanos arrives, I'll show you how to play."

"We should get my friend MJ to play, she's the best DM."

Strange cut through the discussion about the game. "As Tony was saying, I told him that we should look for the other heroes of this world for help as soon as we can. The sorcerers will all come together, but any others will need convincing, so we should start as quickly as possible."

"What others heroes does this world have?" Loki asked.

Peter perked up. "Well New York has the defenders! Jessica Jones is super strong and really tough! Luke Cage is even stronger and is also bulletproof. Iron Fist knows martial arts and is super strong in his hand. Colleen Wing is also super good at martial arts and she had a sword. I don't know if Daredevil has any powers, but he can beat people up really well."

"Seriously," Stark nodded, "everywhere he goes looks like a horror movie."

"Iron Fist and Daredevil will be hard to find." Pepper pointed out. "And trying to convince Jessica Jones to do anything is suicidal. Luke Cage will probably be the easiest, but even then..."

"I can get them to help us." Peter said.

Stark narrowed his eyes. "And why's that?"

Peter looked sheepish. "I might have teamed up with them once or twice?"

"Might have?" Potts pressed.

"I definitely have." Peter admitted.

Loki nodded. "Talk to them as soon as you can. We should also make a list of other heroes around the world, we can't have too many. We should-"

There was a tingling in the back of her brain similar to the feeling of the mind stone. Someone was trying to break into her head. She ignored it, building mental walls to protect her from the attack.

She had always been weak against mental manipulation, but she assumed Strange was the culprit, so she didn't have much to worry about.

"We should-" she tried to continue, but the tingling grew stronger. The magic was strong enough to break through her walls, but was simply pushing against them like it was knocking.

She glared at Strange. "Would you stop that?"

He looked taken aback. "I'm not doing anything."

Peter looked concerned. "Loren-?"

But the magic was done being polite, it seemed, and it crashed through her mental defences and forced itself into her head. She closed her eyes reflexively.

"I apologise for being so crass, my liege. But you weren't answering."

She opened her eyes and was looking into the golden irises of Heimdall. She had never been so happy to see the gatekeeper.

"Heimdall... you're alive."

He let himself smile, a rare sight to Loki. "Don't sound so surprised."

"Why didn't you contact me sooner?" She asked.

"Without Asgard, I am weakened. I didn't know you were on Midgard until we got this close."

Loki nodded. "I'm glad to see you. Are you very close?"

"I'd say it'll only take us half an hour to reach your location."

"I'll tell the Midgardians to expect you." She said.

"You gained their trust very quickly." Heimdall observed. "Care to tell me the details of your ruse so none of us destroy it?"

She smiled. "My name is Loren, Goddess of Stories and the Royal Curator of Magical Artefacts. My brother... Hlórriði, was killed by Thanos. That's about all I have built as of yet."

"I'll tell the others." Heimdall said. "I'm glad you're safe. Having one of their nobles back should give hope to our people."

Loki hesitated before asking. "... how many are alive?"

Heimdall didn't smile, but Loki had gotten good at reading the gatekeeper. He looked glad to tell her. "At least half of us made it to the escape pods."

Loki felt like crying in relief. "What about-" her question was answered before she'd even asked it when the Valkyrie entered the room.

"Heimdall," she greeted, "I've been looking for you. Is there anything that will shoot us down before we arrive?"

Heimdall shook his head. "Loki arrived on the planet before us and will tell them who we are."

"They're alive then? Shame, I thought the space stone would rip them to pieces." She smiled, and Loki was sure she imagined the fondness in her voice. "What about the Hulk?"

Heimdall looked to Loki, who shrugged. "I can't see him."

Valkyrie brushed it off like it didn't matter to her. "Well, he's tough. Wherever he is, he can handle it. Tell their royal highness that I'm going to slap them for leaving us."

"Tell the idiot that I can hear her perfectly fine." Loki instructed Heimdall.

She saw Heimdall look amused before she was suddenly back on Earth.

"-don't know, Tony. I can't break the connection, alright? I'm not adept at mind control." Strange said.

"Kind of a shitty wizard then." Stark muttered.

Loki sat up from where she lay on a couch and looked around. Strange and Stark were bickering with each other while Rhodey seemed to be attempting to intervene. Pepper just looked exasperated.

Peter, who was sitting beside her, seemed to be the only one who noticed that she was sitting up. "Loren! We didn't know what happened to you! We thought that maybe aliens had-"

She waved her hand at him as if brushing off his concerns. "It was simply Heimdall."

"I thought you said he was dead." Peter said.

She noticed that everyone else had finally stopped talking, and shrugged. "I said probably dead, actually. He and half of the Asgardians that were on the ship remain alive and will be here in approximately half an hour."

Peter grinned. "You're not the only one left then. You're not alone."

Her thoughts flickered to Thor, floating in the abyss of space. She told a lie by smiling and replied, "I guess I'm not."