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When Thanos invaded Jötunheim, the white morning light had only begun to crest over the jagged mountains and deep icy ravines. There was a chilly bite to the harsh wind that howled ominous warnings and woeful prayers throughout the empty streets, but there was no one to heed them. Thanos stepped over a few carcasses, giving them a soft nudge with his gargantuan foot to be sure that they were dead, though he was sure that his apostles would be sure to do it for him. His large shadow loomed over the bodies of women and children alike, fear still frozen into their grieven faces.
Thanos used his heavy foot to turn over a tiny body still gripped tightly in its mother’s arms. It was a toddler, dead. But jagged bones were easily discernible through it's icy blue skin. It was tiny, for a frost giant of course, in spite of probably still being comparable to the size of a six or seven year old human child, but at least half the weight. Grotesquely thin, just like all the others had been. He briefly wondered if maybe the child had been dead before he'd even arrived here. The war against Asgard had been unfair to the icy realm, leaving them with even more hunger and poverty than they'd suffered through before, with little to none trade with any of the nine worlds and little to no cultivated land, they'd been slowly starving to death and in all honesty, as unfortunate as it was to eradicate an entire species, he'd done it solely out of mercy. He was a saviour and it was he alone who could bring peace to the galaxy, one planet at a time. He gently removed his foot and let the child fall back to It’s resting position in it’s mother’s cold embrace. He tilted his head up towards the sky where the sun’s rays had just barely managed to trickle through the ever, constant netting of dark clouds, casting a morbidly jovial light over the massacre he’d inflicted on the realm. His chest was heavy with guilt but it was the torment he alone had to endure so that the world may live in peace. The world was cruel and cold and Thanos was a martyr; he suffered the crushing guilt so that others would not have to go to bed hungry, he endured the screams and frightened faces as he killed entire populations so that they would not have to live in squalor any longer. His reasoning was seldom understood by others. He was called mad, a tyrant, a monster. He was no such thing, he was a saviour, and he’d gladly kill millions more to assure the prosperity of the universe.
The titan wasn’t sure if he’d gradually found reality again or if the sound had roused him from his stupor, but he became suddenly aware of the softest of sounds. He’d thought it to be the dying cries of an animal, or perhaps even his own imagination, his mind still reeling with the screams of all those he’d slaughtered, but after almost an eternity of standing in complete stillness and listening, he realized that it was in fact wailing. The cries of a baby.He hesitated to follow the noise but did so anyway, he had no need to take an infant’s life with his own hands, without someone to care for it, it would easily perish on it’s own. But perhaps it was some morbid curiosity that drove him to venture into the palace, ice cracking and straining under his heavy feet as he tried to listen closely for the direction of the desperate sound. Had he not heard the child, he would have never been able to find it, the small chamber was expertly hidden behind a wall of gleaming ice crystals who’s reflections hid the entrance nearly completely from the naked eye.
The room behind was frigid and smelled damp and mouldy, the walls were of rough stone and Thanos was not even able to stand completely straight without his helmet brushing against the stalactite that hung down from the roof of the dark, cave-like confinement. The echo of water droplets falling steadily to the cave floor put his senses on edge, until he saw it. Up against the opposite wall was the tiniest of cribs, crafted out of crude, dead wood, likely the only building materials available to the Giants that wasn’t ice and snow.As the titan crossed the space, he became aware of two things: the child was almost impossibly tiny, much smaller than a normal giants offspring, bordering being small for a human’s offspring, and secondly, the thing looked absolutely brittle, arms thin with malnourishment and blue skin pulled taut over it’s protruding ribs. It was immediately apparent that the child had been neglected far before the poverty and crisis. Laufey was ashamed of his son and his tiny stature and the sickly thing had been quite literally abandoned and ignored here within the ice walls of the palace where his embarrassment could be concealed from the judging eyes of the kingdom. Killing this poor child would likely be an act of mercy.He noted a few deep scratches on the edge of the crib in the form of crudely carved letters. Engraved into the splintering wood was the name “Loki”.“Loki.” The titan said softly under his breath, his gaze finding the tiny being who continued to wail once more.
Keeping his gaze locked on the child, he extended a large hand, impossibly large compared to the infant and wrapped his thumb and index finger around the baby’s little neck. The little child was so small and fragile in comparison to himself, he could likely snap it’s neck with only one finger, it was for the best that he end it’s misery now. “I’m sorry little one…”To his surprise, the babe no longer cried, instead staring up at him with curious, deep red eyes. Thanos froze his movements when their gazes met and he recoiled his hand immediately. Something had frightened him. It wasn’t the hopefulness, or the fight, or the affection he’d seen in the child’s eyes that day, he’d seen a reflection of himself. Thanos, who’d been nearly murdered by his own mother after birth, who’d been shunned by nearly everyone he’d ever known because he was different from those around him, and this child was the same.
The titan didn’t realize he was crying until a few tears fell onto the cheek of the child below him, who reached up warmly at the gargantuan shadow above itself, begging for attention.
This child would live, Thanos would be sure of that.
It would not face the horrors of rejection or humiliation that he had.
Thanos gave a warm smile when the babe began to cry softly again, not pleased with the fact that he was being ignored.
“Hush now little one.” Thanos voice cooed, though it still echoed off the walls of the cave. “You are coming with me, you will never know squalor such as this for as long as you live…’And with that, he scooped the child into his arms and disappeared into the falling snow.