Loki was so glad when Thor finally got off his ass and sent the coordinates, because waiting had got boring an hour ago, when they started. "Finally," he said to the communications unit that Scott had dubbed "The Space-Phone Thing" which, of course, couldn't hear him. But he liked to think Thor could hear all the insults he called him through it.

At least during the last hour or so, they'd concreted a plan to not only find Wanda's cyborg husband, but also her kids. And hundreds of back-up plans too. Well... they had. Loki personally hated to make plans. Thinking ahead wasn't really his style – it made his reflexes sharper and thinking quicker. But he let them do things their way, and just focused more on the spell he was helping Wanda do.

Well, not a spell as such. Mental alteration maybe.

Earlier, when Wanda was talking with Mephisto there had been a significant change in not only the atmosphere, but inside her own mind.

She'd already been fighting against the Darkhold's power, and Loki had been able to sense her internal battle with this own telepathic powers, and with the excessive amount of energy she was using to try to hold back the darkness, it was no wonder she'd been so withdrawn and barely spoke.

But the real breakthrough came when she was talking to Mephisto, because suddenly Loki was actually able to read her thoughts again, which meant she was back in charge of her own mind. He'd actually been rendered speechless – the shock was unbelievable. And that was not in his nature to be physically affected with surprise.

It had been so surprising because Loki (unbeknownst to Strange) had been reading Strange's mind for everything he knew about what the Darkhold did to people, and he'd given up hope for Wanda, like, altogether. Apparently it was supposed to be impossible for anyone to break from its power, and once someone tampered with the Darkhold, that was it – your fate was sealed, and there was no going back. You couldn't tell, when it had infiltrated your brain, which voice was your own, or which voice was the Darkhold's influence, until it was too late and it had consumed you.

That's why Loki felt like they were just putting off the inevitable with Wanda – even if she could contain it now, they'd still have to kill her later. But when that had happened, he'd suddenly realised there might be a chance to break her away from it completely.

Strange and even Scott had definitely felt something too. On the way out, while he couldn't hear what they'd been talking about, it was very obvious they were whispering to each other. And it didn't take a genius to figure out what it was about.

Not only was Loki amazed that he could once again read Wanda's thoughts, however, but she'd also sent him a telepathic message to request his help.

Now, no one had trusted Loki to help them with something as serious as what Wanda was asking in a very, very long time. He didn't blame them – he wasn't exactly the most trustworthy of people. That's why he was surprised that Wanda was trusting him to do this.

She'd set up a long-lasting telepathic link between their two minds, so both of them would always be able to know what the other was thinking, no matter how far away from each other they were. But it also meant they could cast spells into each other's minds, (like his illusions) and share power naturally – if one of them cast a spell, the magic would be shared between them automatically. Basically, it had a few perks, but one major downside for him.

Which was the reason she set up the link in the first place. It meant they would both share the Darkhold's influence.

Wanda's idea was to set up this link between their minds so he could help her cope with the Darkhold's influence, since her plan was to suppress it entirely until she found a way to destroy it. She wasn't stupid, and knew it would overcome her if she tried to cope alone, but she had the idea, if they did it together, that they could do it without being consumed by the dark power.

So Loki had agreed to this, of course. He wanted to help, if he could. Wanda made it quite clear he didn't have to, and she'd cut off the connection whenever he wanted, and he could tell Strange and Scott. She didn't want to keep anything from them now.

He hadn't said anything yet simply because they hadn't asked, and it felt weird to suddenly come up with that.

There was only one catch.

Every instinct Loki had was telling him to take advantage of the immense power of the Darkhold, and it was almost impossible to ignore. He wasn't a saint, and the old him wouldn't think twice about using dark magic. Heck, even now, he didn't have a problem with most dark magic. With some of the things he could do with his own magic, that could technically be counted as dark magic. The Darkhold could give him so much more power – he could literally do anything.

The thing that kept him from actually doing it was that he knew that was the Darkhold's voice in his head, not his own.

How do you know that? It seemed to ask.

Because I'm not that stupid, douchebag, he replied, and a smirk came onto his face accidentally, which he immediately wiped or Strange would probably think he was insane.

Another thing that kept him from giving into the power was that he knew he'd never be able to escape it when it took over. Wanda was, mentally, surprisingly strong, and it meant she really did have a chance of ridding this thing from her head.

In fact... Loki would never admit it, but all Midgardians were incredibly strong in the mental department. They might have been weak and pathetic physically, but even insecure Midgardians could be surprisingly strong when they wanted to be.

Him, on the other hand... well, Loki knew his mental strength was pretty shocking, and there was no point denying it to himself. Maybe he could put on a carefree, sarcastic front when he wanted, but the truth was, he wasn't nearly as strong as he pretended he was. He turned to violence way too quickly when he was faced with any stressful situation, rather than thinking logically like Scott excelled at. Maybe he was better than he used to be, back during the darker times, but even he could see that if the Darkhold took over, he'd have no chance to escape again.

So he wasn't going to let that happen. And he wasn't going to let it happen to Wanda either.

"Loki, are you zoning out?" Strange's voice asked, jolting him back to reality. Oh god, everyone was staring at him.

Well. Shit.

"It appears I am," Loki said, rubbing his forehead. He couldn't help it – this whole "suppressing the darkness" thing was really affecting his concentration, and it was annoying. "What were we talking about again?"

Strange didn't answer, looking at Scott as though concerned. Loki made brief eye contact with Wanda, who shrugged. "That's not like you, dude," Scott said, and he definitely sounded concerned.

"I don't think not sleeping is agreeing with you," Strange added.

Loki opened his mouth to speak, but then Wanda spoke. "Wait, you haven't been sleeping?" she asked. "That's not good."

"Not at all for a few months, and not really for a few years, no, but guys, seriously," Loki said, and there it was, that instinctive defensiveness that always came when other people were concerned about him. "Don't make a deal about this, please. I just zoned out. It happens to everybody." And still, he wasn't sure why he didn't just tell Strange or Scott what was going on. Ignoring the looks they gave him, he just continued, "Now what were we talking about?"

Strange and Scott shared one last concerned look before Strange got past it (well, not past it, he had the feeling he'd talk to him again about it later) and said, "Well, Thor just got back to you with the coordinates and we were just discussing the best way to get there."

Loki stared down at the coordinates, committing them to memory. "Ptch. You're even discussing that?" he asked, sarcastically. He allowed them a couple of seconds to exchange the predictable confused glances he knew were coming before elaborating. Sliding the communications unit back into his pocket, he stood up and continued, "We're obviously teleporting."