I take the first watch after we split some rations Peggy had managed to grab from the Gauntlet region, Tony and Peggy choosing places to sleep. Sitting beside Veers, I balance my scepter across my knees with one hand, placing the other gently on her shoulder.

The night is quiet. Tony has set himself in a tree, his mask down, but I know he probably has sensors to wake him up immediately should there be a threat – either from another champion, or from me. Peggy sleeps at the base of the tree, arms crossed, pistol gripped tightly in one hand. She either trusts me enough, or trusts Stark's sensors. Come to think of it, he's probably established a sensory perimeter around the two of them.

There is no sign of any other champions being near us; just what I've come to accept are the normal sounds of the woods. I'm waiting for the dead champions' faces to be shown, so I can know who else died.

As if on cue, I hear the theme and look up to see the familiar "Avenge the Fallen" flash across the night sky, framed by the leafy foliage. I chose a good spot to sit, I suppose.

First the female champion from Jotunheim is shown, then her image dissolves into dust in order to be replaced by Korath. Minn-Erva follows, and then Annie Weying from District 10. Both champions from Vanaheim follow.

Six dead. Seventeen left to die.

And three of those are my allies at the moment.

I exhale, looking back at the energy shield behind me. It's comforting, on the one hand, to know that we cannot be approached from the back, but I also don't trust the barrier. I know it's just the arena marker, keeping us in here to die, but it makes me think of that final battle at Wakanda, all those years ago, and how the shield had not been totally effective then.

But then again, what would try to get in here?

"What happened?"

Veers' voice is low, but confused, and I quickly look down at her as she starts to move. She pushes herself up onto her elbow, twisting to look at me, and I see the confusion in her eyes. "Where are we? Loki?"

"Sh," I hasten, moving my scepter and turning to face her. "It's okay. You got...you got knocked out in the fight. We're camped for the night."

As Veers struggles to sit up, she winces and stops and I hold out a hand to steady her. "You were thrown into the energy shield during the fight," I tell her. "It burned your back. Stark said everything seems okay, the only injury is the burn. And some of your hair was singed off."

"Help me sit up," Veers directs, and I help ease her into a sitting position, doing my best not to touch her back. She grits her teeth until she's upright next to me, scanning our surroundings. "Fill me in."

I tell her how the fight with the Kree turned out, and about the other deaths we hadn't known about before. I don't tell her about the exchange between me and Tony, though, nor that I had figured out what drew me to her in the first place.

"Get some rest," I tell her. "You were unconscious for a long while, Veers, you should rest."

She shakes her head. "I just woke up from resting, Loki. I don't need any more. I'm serious. Let me take over your watch." When I hesitate, she adds, "Please."

I can see actual anguish in her face, in the set of her jaw, and that's what makes me relent. "Fine, darling, but wake me if anything happens. If not...." I ease myself down onto my back and turn away from her. "Wake Tony in a couple hours, it's his shift next. Just watch his perimeter sensors."

Closing my eyes, I ease into a steady state of breathing, trying to demonstrate the trust I have for my district partner. I hear Veers adjust her position, working to maintain my balance between alertness and apparent restfulness. Eventually, however, I do allow my body to succumb to sleep.

My dreams are fitful. At one point, Veers and I are fighting a faceless horde, my scepter and her photon blasts working in tandem, and then suddenly I look over and it's not Veers beside me, but Gamora. But my dream self doesn't start, only continues to fight. It makes perfect sense. Our battle back to back then transforms into one face to face, us sparring in our old haunt on the mountainside. But then she's Veers again, and that, too, makes sense.

I'm thoroughly disoriented when I wake at the constant switching between the two women.

For a moment, I lie there, struggling to clear my head. Then it hits me – what woke me up? I see no light seeping down through the trees to indicate dawn. I jolt up, gathering my legs under me as I tighten my fingers around the scepter shaft.

Veers is standing, fists clenched and beginning to glow. Tony has just dropped out of the tree, his faceplate snapping up. "What's going on?" he and I demand simultaneously.

"I'm not sure yet," Veers replies, glancing up. "But I heard a humming. Listen." The three of us stand stock still, searching for the noise. Within a minute, I hear it: a deep humming, the sound of something powerful. I can feel it in my bones.

"I have a bad feeling about this," I mutter.

Tony's faceplate slams back into place. "Running a scan on nearby power sources," he says. "Let's see what we get...."

"What's going on?" I hear, and turn to see Peggy rising, drawing her gun.

"We're trying to figure it out," Veers tells her, turning and gazing toward the energy shield before raking her gaze down the tree trunks, as if one of them might morph into an enemy at any moment. "Something's wrong, though."

"That's not great," Tony states suddenly, and his faceplate snaps up a moment later. "Okay, whatever this is – it's some ancient power. Of a similar source to the energy around the Gauntlet earlier."

Our eyes all meet. "I wonder," I say, but I don't finish the thought. It's clear from all of our expressions that we all know what it is that I wonder. There's no time to waste stating it. "Anything else?"

"It's surging."

"From where?" Veers exclaims, her fists glowing brighter. I recognize the hue; we are one gradient away from getting a photon blast.

"My analysis couldn't pinpoint it exactly – it fritzed a bit. Seemed to read that it was coming from all around us, but that can't be –"

Tony suddenly is cut off, his voice becoming static for a moment before disappearing completely. I turn, but then realize there's nobody to turn to. I'm suddenly alone, and the trees are no longer there. "Veers!" I call, not wanting to raise my voice too loud, but then I hear nothing in response and scream, "Veers!"

Nothing.

My heart racing, I spin frantically, yelling again and again for my district partner. But Veers doesn't answer, doesn't appear, and then I see where I am.

I'm in the quadrant, where I found Peter dying.

I see him lying on the ground, weakly reaching out to me. But as soon as I start toward him, roused from my initial shock, he fades into ashes. Falling to my knees, I grasp at the dust, feeling a sob catch in my throat. No, this isn't happening again. Not again. No.

Then I'm standing on a street in a ruined city, and I see Cassie dying on the ground.

No. No. Not this nightmare. No, I can't take it, no. "Veers!" I yell again, feeling the hoarseness in my throat, and turn and run, away from Cassie's body, away from the destruction and my failure. I hear Cassie call my name, her voice weak and feeble, and my step falters. How can I abandon her, now?

That's what you do best, little Asgardian.

The voice is not my own, I know that. I do not address myself as little. But it is in my head, echoing painfully. There is no sound, but I know the cadence.

You run. You know nothing else. But try as you might, you cannot run from destiny.

Thanos.

I slam to a stop, just to spite the voice in my head, and turn. But Cassie's already gone, just ashes drifting in the wind. I am too late, to offer a friendly face, a friendly voice, a last moment of comfort. I failed her.

You know you can't do anything, right? These things already happened. Cassie died before. In the other arena. You can't do anything here. You were there for the real Cassie. Remember, Loki. You didn't abandon her.

The Thanos cadence interrupts my own inner voice. But you did fail her, Asgardian. That is your destiny. To be a failure.

"No," I say, suddenly wanting to scream. The word feels empty, pointless, and so I scream. "No!" Then I turn, running, wanting to leave this all behind, not knowing what I'm running towards. All I know is I don't want to see those ashes any more. I don't want to see anybody's ashes anymore.

Then my foot catches on something and I go sprawling, and for a moment, the city around me flickers. A surge of hope rushes through me, but then the city is suddenly gone and I'm back in Asgard. Then I see exactly where I am and I feel all the hope drain out of me.

No...no, no, no!

Frigga is standing before me. I don't see Gamora, I don't see Ebony Maw, just my mother. I don't know if that's because neither of them are here, or if my vision has just narrowed to the point where my mother is the only thing I can see.

And she's about to die.

Again.

I can feel my heart throbbing in my chest, the pounding in my ears, my voice stuck in my throat. Frigga, who I never apologized to. Who did everything for me she could. She raised me, who was not her child, as if I was, and never treated me any lesser than Thor. And I am about to witness her die again and be powerless to stop it.

No. But this time the voice in my mind, my voice, is calm. This is nothing but an illusion. You saw it flicker. You saw it hesitate.

You own illusions. Do not let Thanos rule you with them.

I reach for my own magic, the power my mother tutored me in. I do not know if it is any match for whatever energy holds me captive here, but I can try.

This is all just a trick. And I need to get out of here and finds Veers, Tony, and Peggy.

I stretch out my mind toward the tapestry of magic woven all around me, trying to find the thread and undo it. It's all fake, it's all just a trick, and I'm the god of tricks.

What are you the god of again? The memory of Hela speaks in my mind, prodding, mocking, but still managing to be completely serious.

The god of mischief, Hela. The god of damned mischief and illusions.

I feel the image of Asgard shudder around me as I probe at it, and then I fixate my attention on my mother. She has to be the thread, I know it, because the entire reason for the Asgardian illusion is her. Because Thanos knows that he can strike at me with her death.

Even though I know she's not real, that she's just a figment, I still hesitate for a moment. Then I steel myself. I'm sorry, Mother.

I pour all of my power against the illusion of Frigga, looking to dispel it. It is harder than when I release my own illusions, because then all I did was let go of the spell, erase it all with a flick of the fingers. But this is not my spell, and it stems from a stronger power than my own innate strength. It takes all my straining, and even then it's only as Frigga starts to collapse in death that the entire façade shudders.

My teeth grit as I continue to shred the spell, hoping it is not beyond my strength to do so. I'm seeing trees now in certain spots, native to Wakanda and not to Asgard, and know that it's working. Just a little more, and I can go.

Then I see larger gaps in the illusion and I lunge for the closest one, staggering and gasping as I fall out of the Asgardian façade. A jolt goes through my body as my palms strike the hard ground, my arms folding in on impact. I tuck into a roll, releasing my magic and coming up on one knee, lifting my scepter before my torso to block an attack.

There is none. Stumbling to my feet, I take a look around, trying to get my bearings. The trees are thinning ahead of me, the ground sloping down somewhat, and I set off in that direction, wanting to get away from this cursed wood.

It doesn't take long before I break out of their cover, without any more trouble, and I instantly collapse. Exhaustion wracks my body, and I draw deep, shuddering breaths, my face and back and chest slick with sweat. Pulling my tunic away from my body in a futile attempt to make it stop sticking, I then scrape my hair out of my face and force myself to look up and around.

I'm on the edge of the open plain we started in, the Gauntlet about a hundred feet away from me. The humming sections of energy from earlier are no longer visible, but the divisions they made in the ground are still plainly evident. I'm right in the middle of one of the marked areas, and I follow it back to the Gauntlet to see the yellow glow of that replicated Mind Stone, beaming back at me.

So that explains the visions, I suppose.