Loki sits, and Loki waits.
They have bound his magic but they cannot bind his mind, no matter how they try. Even Odin, in all his glory, could never figure out how to stem the flow of Loki's clever thoughts, and Loki knows that, given enough time, he will find his way out of this prison.
He doesn't have time. Odin plans to declare a suitable punishment for Loki's misdeeds soon, and that punishment will not be sitting in a jail cell beneath the golden halls of Asgard.
Still, his mind work on plans and possibilities, and all the while he protests in small ways. He doesn't eat, he doesn't talk, even though they took the gag off as soon as they threw him in the cell. He refuses all visitors. He gives away nothing when questioned.
He doesn't sleep, either. This is not a form of protest so much as a problem. He would like to sleep, but he has nightmares, and they keep him awake. He hates to show signs of weakness, but the guards have seen him in the throws of these nightmares, and they are bound to have told Thor.
Still, Loki will talk to no one. He will wait, and when the time comes, he will escape.
Three weeks into his imprisonment, Thor comes. Loki doesn't even look at him, but Thor, persistent as ever, speaks to him anyway.
"Loki, I have need of your help," he says.
Loki freezes in his thoughts, because this is not what he expected from Thor at all. He expected begging, pleading for Loki to come to his senses. He expected a talk. He expected news about Odin's punishment for him. But a plea for help? Never.
Loki has never been useful to Asgard in his life.
The injured part of his pride says that he isn't going to start now.
"Loki," Thor repeats, imploring.
Loki looks up. Thor looks desperate.
Good.
"What could you possibly want from me?" Loki asks, voice a bit hoarse from disuse.
"Problems are arising on Earth," Thor tells him, "and the Bifrost is still being repaired. Our father," Loki glares at him, "is unwilling to have us use the tesseract for fear that our enemies will once again become aware of its power."
"You mean the Chitauri," Loki says. "Oh, they aren't planning on letting the tesseract get away so easily."
Thor looks horrified, and Loki grins, even though he doesn't want the tesseract in the hands of the Chitauri either. But it is amusing to pretend he does, and useful.
"So," Loki continues, apparently oblivious to Thor's reaction, "Odin wants me to take you on the paths between the worlds to Earth, and then help you sort out whatever issues you may find there."
"Yes," Thor says, looking wary.
"And to what end?"
Thor stares at him. Loki wants to smack him. Odin has plans within plans. Odin is a king, and he is manipulative, and he has strategy. He would not simply let Loki out of his sight in order to save the humans Thor loves so dearly.
"There is no end, other than to stop the trouble plaguing the humans," Thor says.
Loki wants to laugh in his face. Thor is naïve, even after everything they've been through. He rolls his eyes. "And what will happen when we are done?"
"We return," Thor says.
"And I remain locked up."
"That remains to be seen."
Loki sighs. Escape would be much easier if he were out of this cell, and to travel between the worlds he needs his magic. Odin is foolish if he thinks that Loki would not escape, and it bothers Loki that Odin would agree to this. It bothers Loki even more that Odin might have engineered this plan in the first place.
But Loki has little in the way of choices and even less in the way of hope.
"Fine," he says. "I'll agree to help you. Now. What problem, exactly, are we facing?"
"Elves."
Odin unbinds Loki's magic, and sends them off with two horses and not so much as a Goodbye. This makes Loki nervous—Odin always has something to say, but for him to remain silent means that by talking he would be giving too much away. And what he is giving away is anyone's guess.
Loki wonders about this as he tears open an entrance to the paths between the worlds, as Thor follows him through without a moment's hesitation, as they ride onward towards Earth. He wonders but he doesn't ask. Instead he asks Thor about the Elves.
"The dark Elves are bitter," Thor tells him, "as they once possessed the Casket of the Ancient Winters. They have come to find it again, lead by one called Malekith."
"And why would they come to Earth?" Loki asks.
"Because they believed that the Casket is on Earth," Thor says. "That is where they felt its power last."
Something cold settles into Loki's chest as he realizes why; he's had the Casket since he took it from Odin's vault, tucked away in a secret pocket of magic. The elves are powerful creatures, and it makes sense that they would have felt the Casket's power on Loki. After all, he never let the Casket go, and to be frank, with the business of the Chitauri and taking over the world, having the Casket on his person had never crossed his mind.
But, apparently, others had not forgotten about the Casket.
"Loki," Thor calls from behind. "Brother, are you all right?"
"I am not your brother," Loki snaps, more reflex than anything. He is not about to tell Thor that he has the Casket. This could be an advantage, and it is not one that he plans to give up on so easily.
They ride the rest of the way in silence.
Loki brings them onto Earth in New Mexico, an area where the fabric between worlds is thin, and Thor pulls out a mortal device known as a cell phone to inform his Avengers that he has arrived.
"I hope you've also informed them that I am here," Loki tells him, "Otherwise they will be in for a terrible surprise."
"I have," Thor says, with a frown. "We have had…long discussions regarding the matter before I came to you."
He does not elaborate, which Loki takes to mean that these discussions did not go as smoothly as Thor had hoped.
"Oh. Good," is all Loki says.
Thor looks at him. "Loki, I hope you are not planning to cause trouble. These Avengers are my friends, and you will only make things harder for yourself if you antagonize them."
Loki smirks. "Wouldn't dream of it, Thor."
Thor looks ready to reply, but is distracted by the sound of a plane from high above. Loki looks up as well; the plane circles, lower and lower like a hawk ready to strike, before hovering a few feet off the ground and, finally, landing.
The familiar figures of Director Fury, Steve Rogers, Clint Barton, and Tony Stark, all glad in their respective fighting gear, walk towards them from the aircraft. Thor raises a hand in greeting and calls out to his friends.
Loki remains silent by his side. His eyes find Barton, who glares at him in return, and he can't help but grin, just a little, at the fear he strikes into the heart of this particular Avenger.
"Good to see you, Thor," Stark says. He looks at Loki and frowns. "You, not so much."
"We aren't here to fight," Steve says, looking nervous. He casts a glance at Clint, who looks as though he came here to do nothing but fight, and Clint rolls his eyes.
"Norway," Fury says, his one eye trained on Loki as well. "These dark elves have started their attacks in the forests of Norway, taking out small villages and anything that might be in their path."
"And they have fucking magic," Stark adds, "so I hope you," this directed at Loki, "can get rid of them, otherwise you can get your ass back to prison right now."
"What about the Casket they keep asking about?" Steve asks Thor. "Why do they think that it's on Earth?"
"I cannot say," Thor admits. "The Casket used to be located on Asgard, but Loki took it. And since then, it has not returned."
Clint's eyes narrow. "So Loki still has it."
"It was lost in the void," Loki says. "When I fell."
Thor sighs. "Then it is lost forever."
"Or someone else could find it," Stark points out, "like the Chitauri."
"We are wasting time," Fury snaps. "We have to get to Norway and get those damn elves out of here."
"You are right," Loki says, grabbing Thor's arm. "We do waste too much time talking. Let us take action."
Before anyone can react—before Thor can so much as protest—Loki teleports himself and his once-brother away from the Avengers and to the cold wilderness of Norway, where Loki can sense the Elves.
"Brother!" Thor falls to his knees, off-balance. Loki places a hand over Thor's mouth and gestures into the trees directly in front of them.
A group of dark elves are sitting in a circle in a clearing, Malekith in the center. Malekith stands tall, his white hair like a beacon in the dark. He speaks in a different language, but Loki knows what he's saying; he wants to raze Midgard to the ground in order to find the Casket that the Asgardians stole, and if it is not on Midgard, then he will take the planet anyway as revenge.
Loki and Thor have the element of surprise.
Loki leans to the side and whispers in Thor's ear, "We wait until they sleep. And then we strike."
Thor frowns at the elves assembled. Surely there must be guards who keep watch, and other elves hidden. Malekith must be planning on bringing more to Midgard, because such a small army could not take a planet.
They watch and they wait. Loki is glad that the situation calls for silence, because otherwise Thor would try to talk to him, and Loki cannot handle another talk about how they were once brothers and how Loki should come to his senses and become once again the man he was before. Loki knows there is no going back, there never was. The moment he discovered his true heritage was the point of no return.
The way that Thor looks at him, however, is enough to grate on Loki's nerves. He could leave now, leave Thor and his friends to battle the elves by themselves, but he will wait. Loki will take the most opportune moment to leave and now is not it.
He has something he wants to show Thor.
He will cooperate, for now. He will act reformed. But Thor will see that Loki will not be the man he once was, will not bow to the will of the Allfather.
So he ignores Thor, and eventually the elves drop off to sleep, and Loki motions for Thor to creep closer to them.
Thor has Mjolnir ready at his hip. Loki has his daggers. The timing is good; if Thor's Avengers are smart, they will have tracked down their location and will be here just after the battle gets underway.
He wants the mortals to see, as well, what he is capable of.
"Call down lightning," Loki whispers, because it is always amusing to see others' reactions to Thor's powers.
Thor raises his hammer and clouds gather in the sky. Soon lightning streaks across the clouds, illuminating everything is neon-blues and yellows, and then Thor smashes the hammer onto the ground—
And chaos breaks loose.
Loki grins as the elves jump up, ready to attack. He throws a dagger and hits one in the neck. This should be fun.
The Avengers arrive when Loki and Thor are both covered in blood, none of it their own, and the elves are starting to gain an advantage. For the first time Loki is thankful for their presence, as Tony Stark swoops in and blasts a group of elves away from Thor, Rogers hits a few with his shield, the Black Widow ends up in hand to hand combat with three, and the Hulk goes on a rampage.
"Next time," Stark calls out as he smashes an elf into a tree, "don't disappear without the rest of us!"
"That was the fault of Loki," Thor calls back. "He teleported without warning me first."
"Of course it was."
Loki wonders where Barton is when something hits him in the shoulder. At first it feels like he's been kicked, but then a sharp pain spreads through the joint, and Loki reaches his other hand back and finds himself gripping the shaft of an arrow.
With a snarl he pulls the arrow out, and blood flows freely from his shoulder. He tosses the arrow to the side and looks around for Barton, wanting nothing more than to remind him who is the more powerful, who has more control.
Instead, when he whirls around, he finds himself facing Malekith, who kicks him to the ground.
"Ah, Loki, the lost prince of Asgard," Malekith hisses. Loki hurriedly conjures two daggers. "I see the Allfather has not done the sensible thing and killed you yet."
"He is not smart enough," Loki snaps, leaping up and going at Malekith with the daggers, but the elf dodges and swipes at Loki with a sword, and Loki must concentrate on not being torn in half.
Malekith disappears and reappears behind Loki, who knows this trick well enough to whirl around the second he can't see the elf, and he manages to dodge another blow from the sword.
Malekith moves to strike again; Loki dodges, but suddenly Malekith disappears and reappears inches from Loki's face, and pins him up against a tree. "I sense it on you," he hisses, "the Casket. Give it to me."
"If you kill me," Loki tells him, "you can't have it."
Malekith growls and tightens his grip on Loki's neck, effectively choking him and holding him in place. Loki can't even move his hands, which would be useful. He wants to stab the dark elf, shred him to pieces.
"It's a good thing," the elf says, "that we don't plan to kill you."
Loki's eyes widen as Malekith shifts before his eyes, turning into familiar figure of the Other. The skin becomes a sickly grey, the teeth sharpen, the hands freezing cold, and Loki's breath is stolen away.
"Found you," the Other hisses.
Loki knows not how the Other knows about the casket. Most likely from the other elves. Most likely from Malekith himself, wherever he may be. Around them the battle wages on, yet no one notices Loki and the Other, locked in their own silent battle.
Loki needs to think and think quickly, before the Other decides to take him elsewhere.
His plan—it could still work.
"You'll be sorry you did," he chokes out, and calls the Casket from its hiding place. Its appearance is so unexpected that the Other falls back, and Loki falls against the tree, gripping either side of the Casket in his cold, now-blue hands. He directs the energy at the Other, freezing him in place, and then expands it outwards, freezing the elves, and anyone who isn't smart enough to get out of the way.
Loki isn't sure how long he uses the Casket to freeze everything, but soon he is surrounded by elves resembling frozen statues, a garden of ice, beautiful in a disturbing way. Loki is aware, suddenly, as he returns the Casket to its hiding place, that he is being stared at. The Avengers, unfrozen, watch him, and Thor takes a step towards him.
He knows he is blue, and his eyes are red, and he has shown his true heritage to the mortals and to Thor, all of whom have never seen it before.
Loki isn't sure if he is imagining the look of horror in Thor's eyes. He doesn't want to know.
"Loki," Thor calls out, but Loki closes his eyes and wills himself away.
He lands in the realm of Alfheim, and he will run. He will keep on running, because he refuses to be caught by the Chitauri, to be brought to Thanos to suffer for his failings. No, he will find Thanos and the Other on his own terms, and he will end them.
And then he will turn his attentions to the Allfather, and exact his revenge on Asgard. He will make the golden people of his once-home see how wrong they were about Loki. He will make them suffer as he has suffered.
A small part of him wonders if he can go through with revenge on Asgard. He decides not to think on it.
So he runs, and runs, and doesn't stop running.
Thor knows he should have known that Loki would escape. When he returns home empty handed, however, he is surprised that Odin looks unsurprised.
When Thor asks him if he knew this would happen, Odin nods.
"This is Loki's punishment," Odin tells him, grim-faced and a bit sad. "Loki did not need me to punish him. Loki punishes himself."
Thor feels ill, and when he returns to Midgard and tells his friends that Loki is lost, forever running away, forever looking over his shoulder for his enemies, he thinks of the time he and Loki used to fight together, how they almost fought together again, and for the first time he has his doubts that things could go back to the way they were.