Brothers' Walk
by étienneofthewestwind
Summary: One revelation changes everything. This is the story of how Thor and Loki (and the realms) deal with the fallout.
Disclaimer: I don't own.
Shouts of children greeted Loki Odinsson as he found himself on a strange street. Midgard, he decided after a look at the buildings and vehicles. Though the styles were different than what Loki had seen in his most recent trip through Asgard's cracks, no other place came close.
As a trio of children barreled past him, Loki realized that the children's shrieks were not from play, but terror. A gang of miniature beasts chased the costumed youth. Each beast radiated malice and similar magic signatures, unusual for their disparate appearances. One of the beasts closed in on the last child, and Loki had no time left to puzzle the creatures out. As the lead beast pounced with thoughts of the kill, Loki hit it with a blast of magical energy. The creature tumbled off to the side, and Loki threw up an illusion to conceal the fleeing children. Next, Loki blasted another of the beasts before shunting his physical presence to the other side of the street while casting an illusion of himself in his stead. Two of the beasts pounced on Loki's false image. The beasts then fought each other, with no apparent thought of the vanished illusion.
The last beast rushed at Loki. Loki blasted the beast to the side. He turned his attention to the fighting beasts, but the pair had left the street, one in pursuit of the other. Loki cast a quick alert ward around him and extended his awareness past the small street. No further beasts headed his way, but similar magic signatures littered the town. Most were the same intensity of the creatures Loki had just fought, but one cast the others into shadow. An entire building pulsed with the power, hot and loud, acrid and bright, yet somehow none of that. In all his centuries as a mage, Loki had never encountered the like.
Loki squinted his mage-sense and kept its direct attention off of the building. All of the other signatures moved, lived as had the beasts Loki had fought. Could the building be their hive? Loki frowned as he concentrated on the various signatures. Not all of them felt as malevolent as the beasts Loki dispatched. In fact, some of them felt terrified of other signatures. Did the beasts prey on their weaker—
Something between two creatures brushed Loki's awareness. He blinked and then concentrated. Thin threads of the magic connected all the living signatures. Thick ropes emerged from the building, each one connected to one of the living signatures.
Except for one that lead straight to Loki.
With a frown, Loki turned his insight inward. The same magic signature as the beasts saturated his being, yet did not contaminate his own magic. That explained why Loki had not felt the taint the minute he first tapped his magic in this cursed Midgard locale, but not why he would feel like the creatures or how Loki was even in this place. Loki continued his self-examination and realized his body had lost height. He conjured a mirror to examine his form as he found muted thoughts within in his mind and prodded at them. The face in the mirror belonged to him, not the adolescent mortal he found in the back of his mind. The black hair hung the length and style Loki currently sported, but the hue looked off. The body Loki stared at was taller than the mortal boy remembered, though not nearly as tall as Loki. The youth had become as thin as Loki and the armor he—they—wore was every bit as solid and genuine as Loki's own, rather than the flimsy plastic—
Loki's eyes widened and he rushed to the side of the downed beast that still showed signs of life. He laid his hand on the transformed child's chest. His magic filled her just in time to stay death. Healing magics were Loki's weakest suit, but he knew enough to ensure she would recover.
Eventually.
If the force that had conjured him and others into the participants of this costume festival were negated before anything else got her.
Loki sighed as his magic reached the limit of what it could do. He frowned at the girl. The magics of conjuration and possession had not interfered as much as he feared, but he would have liked to do more. Well you can't, Loki thought as he stood. He cast a ward to keep the unconscious girl from the notice of hostile entities and turned to the two dead beasts… the dead former boy and girl. Loki's hands balled into fists as he stared at them.
Loki fought and killed by his own volition, not for others' amusement. And he never slew young. Whoever or whatever lurked behind the façade of Ethan's costume shop would pay for changing that.
In blood and pain and death.
Ethan's may have possessed unseen depths in the magics that had spirited Loki into this body, but Loki had seen far better security wards than the place boasted. Loki simply stepped around them. He surprised the proprietor as the man removed a red-trimmed black robe. As delightful as the man's alarm was, Loki's focus was drawn to the altar in the middle of the room. In the center sat a two-faced idol from which the transformative magic flowed. Loki looked into the glowing eyes of the side facing him, and sensed a presence. Someone other than the mortal was using the magic to observe the chaos unleashed by it.
With the statue firmly in his awareness, Loki turned to the mortal mage—once Loki side-stepped to prevent his flight. "I presume you are Ethan?" he asked. As his host had heard the man introduce himself to the Slayer girl, Loki did not give the man a chance to answer. "Tell me, was this exercise your idea, or that of the… entity observing?"
"Just a spot of fun to liven up the evening," the man replied as he glanced at the other exit. "Didn't think you'd object. I researched every non-generic cos—er—"
Loki put all his malice into a wide smile. "I know all about that comic marvel of a supervillain from young Wells' memories. I assure you, I am not him."
"I-impossible," Ethan's face paled. "The spell can't compel an actual god, and I only invited Janus to play as he willed."
"I'm no god, and I am not amused." Loki's hand shot out and wrapped around Ethan's throat. He held the man so that his feet dangled above the floor for several seconds. Loki then tossed Ethan across the room. Ethan landed in a heap—and promptly fainted.
Loki rolled his eyes and grumbled under his breath. He approached the idol. Loki walked slowly around the altar and studied the nuances of the energy's flow. If Loki destroyed the idol, it would stop the energy flow and should let the possessed townsfolk reassert themselves. But what of Loki? Would he wake back in his bed on Asgard, or remain trapped in the back of Wells' head?
Cease to exist entirely?
Loki sighed and took a step closer to the idol. He disliked treating with beings he knew nothing about, save that they could be more powerful than him. Nor did Loki wish to show courtesy to anyone who would enjoy the night's slaughter. But as long as Loki made no promises, he might get answ—
Malicious laughter echoed in the base of Loki's skull and morphed into words: You really think you're above this, Silvertongue?
Loki suppressed a growl at the hated nickname, even as he realized the one peering through the statue knew Loki's very thoughts. Loki met the eyes of the idol's male face and instantly knew that the being had far more power than he had feared. Loki swallowed hard and clenched his fists as he sought to further shield his mind.
I brought you here, Little Giant; you can neither hide thought, nor hope to best me.
Little Giant? That was part of the comics' fantasy.
The laughter again filled Loki's head.Fantasy with more similarities to your world than the tales of gods?
The being had an annoying point. Loki's father and his army had been mistaken for gods by the mortals when Odin had lead the battle against the Jotnar to Midgard. The mortals merged the Æsir with their existing beliefs. A few visits to Midgard back, Loki had read the surviving myths and found their content… unexpected. The comics Wells knew drew heavily from those myths, but even the versions that maintained the Æsir were gods had some things correct that the myths got wrong. Still, the entity behind this erred in relying on some points of the comics.
Is that so?
The air around Loki grew cold. Tendrils of air curled into colder ropes which snaked under Loki's sleeves and trouser legs. The ropes, colder than anything Loki had ever felt before, wound up Loki's arms and legs and shattered his armor. Involuntarily, Loki looked down and saw a spiral of blue skin on each of his limbs. The blue spread out, consuming the rest of Loki's flesh.
'Tis but an illusion, Loki firmly told himself as he forced his gaze back to the idol. As his gaze met the glowing green eyes, Loki somehow knew that the entity behind it smirked at him.
If it is an illusion, touch it,the being challenged.
Loki snorted. His illusions might be vulnerable to touch, but Loki had no way of knowing if that held true for the entity.
He also had no way of knowing if it did not hold true for the entity.
Loki balled his fists and forced himself to ignore the increasingly icy cast to the magic flowing through his veins.
"What," he asked as steadily as he could manage, "could even bring mortals to know such a thing about me?"
You are not in another realm of your world, little foundling. In this reality, the Æsir and Vanir were gods, and when you strip out the parable, the myths you read hold a wealth of truth.
Another reality? Æsir as gods? Such concepts were so foreign to Loki as to be inconceivable.
Yet not impossible. The entity's amusement took on a dryer tone. The barriers between realities are malleable. Just as the myths spread to your own existence, basic facts of a world related to yours came here and were altered for entertainment.
A related world… So this being was not calling Loki the criminal Wells had admired.
Just the monster Loki's people reviled.
Does not a monster do monstrous things? the being asked. Are you so sure you don't…?
Loki found himself in his father's private study. He watched and heard himself argue that Thor was not yet fit to take over the throne of Asgard. His father dismissed Loki's concerns with an admonishment that jealousy was not becoming of royalty. Loki watched himself stalk out, and felt a plan forming inside his other head to force Thor to show his unworthiness…
The plan surprised Loki, but if the Thor in the vision had not grown, it was for the good of Asgard to expose the battle-hunger hidden by Odin's favoritism…
For the good of my country,the entity mocked. Loki found himself back before the altar in the costume shop. A common justification for treason.
Loki flinched. "I'm not—"
And what would you call another Asa who let an ancient enemy into the heart of Asgard? What if Odin failed to sense them the moment you dropped your veil? What if they turned the casket on the coronation party?
The thought hit Loki's gut like a punch. To think he could be responsible for—No. Loki shoved that thought firmly aside. He would not buckle due to some false vision.
A false vision you agreed with? I might have declined to pull the source Loki into this world, but when I looked through the realities, I looked in all directions. This is your path…
Loki fell into the aftermath of the disrupted coronation. He underestimated Thor's obstinacy, Heimdall's willingness to enforce Odin's commands, and the time it would take that guard to fetch Odin. As a result, the journey to Jotunheim occurred and was every bit the disaster Loki feared.
Loki saw Thor banished and himself set upon the throne with the discovery of Loki's nature fresh in mind. No one wished Loki on the throne over Thor. The more Loki sought to assert his control, schemed to eliminate Jotunheim as a threat, the more things went wrong. Eventually, Heimdall and the warriors who should have known Loki best set out to replace Loki with Thor.
In his rage, Loki had been sent the Destroyer after the group with overly broad instructions. He regretted it soon thereafter, but he could not overlook—
Treason? the being's voice swirled in Loki's head after Loki watched himself open the Bifrost. Committed with the same rationale that you used to disrupt the coronation?
Whose crime do you think Odin will find more heinous? Do you really think at this point he will not see through your plan? Or has it already occurred to you that "saving" Odin was a bad move?
"I could never setup my father's death!" Loki hissed at the statue.
That is your parent-by-blood you will intend to slay. Do not the Æsir hold blood-bonds dear? Do you truly not think the king who wished a permanent peace with Jotunheim would find the destruction of the realm monstrous?
"So that's it, then? I'll never be any good to Asgard?"
Your choice, the being replied. You shall never have the pride and respect of your father or people as a loyal son, no matter how hard you strive to prove yourself. If you choose the slow descent into monsterhood, you have the honesty of the Æsir's contempt being openly expressed and fear-born respect.
Loki scoffed. He had many flaws, but even he knew that such respect was false. And while he hated the talk behind his back and the ill-concealed mocking-
You will also do more good for Asgard, for all of Yggdrasill, than you would under esteemed in Thor's shadow.
Loki blinked. That made no sense…
The shop faded into another of Midgard's settlements. Sif and the Warriors Three battled the Destroyer as Thor and his mortal friends attempted to evacuate the town. The Destroyer shook off every attack, until Thor approached the Destroyer offering his life…
Do you think Thor will learn the necessary lessons so quickly, if you do not tell him that Odin died as a result of his actions? If you do not sent the Destroyer, how soon will Thor realize the effect of war on a populace?
Loki found himself in a wealthy man's abode. The Loki of the scene felt harsher, damaged—not mad; this Loki could reason well enough—but the thoughts Loki received from him lacked any hint of remorse, compassion, or care for consequences. Loki felt only rage and the desire to inflict the pain he had suffered on others whether he was defeated in the end or not. If fact, he had risked defeat just for the sake of being seen.
No, part of him craved his own destruction.
Loki was perplexed with how his mind could feel so familiar and so alien at once. He caught a glimpse of an endless fall in isolation.
A mortal offered that Loki a drink while he insisted that he was threatening Loki, not begging for mercy. The mortal listed and described a group of warriors—including Thor—dedicated to the defense of Midgard and then informed Loki that he had personally roused each and every one of them to seek vengeance upon his person…
You are the catalyst for Thor's transformation into the hero he needs to be, the entity said. Faint, cold hands lightly caressed the back of Loki's neck. For the formation of the team needed to face threats far more dire. That is the burden destiny has laid on you. A purpose as glorious as it is thankless. And it's one no mere hero could ever fill. But you can. You can do all this and more—
Loki's eyes snapped open and his fists balled as he realized the trap the being tried to walk him into. He was not some simpleton that would easily be tricked into villainy by pretty lies. Loki punched at the air before him and the city faded back into the costume shop as Loki's fist sank into the statue. The statue crumbled into dust.
Well, shite.
The entity laughed as the costume shop fell away…
The bridge shook as Loki slammed into the roof of a mortal's abandoned vehicle. Around him, the Hudson raged under Mjölnir's—
"LOKI!"
Loki's eyes flew open, and he kicked Thor away from him. Thor landed in a heap on the floor as Loki pulled himself into a defensive position at the head of his bed. A gasp drew Loki's eyes to the other side of his room. His mother stared at him shocked. Odin stood behind her, his expression stony. Thor picked himself up, his stunned eyes framed by a hairstyle that he had abandoned decades before—
Loki blinked as the world reasserted itself. "Thor!" he gasped. "Are you well?"
"Am I well? You would not rouse no matter what we tried, and when Father sent for a healer, you jolt up looking like Lady Hel's beasts were on your heels."
At my heels, not my throat. Thanks for the assessment of my courage, Loki thought. "I…" Was taken to an unheard realm, shown a terrible tale, Loki tried to say, but the words clogged in his brain."…Dream," Loki finally got out. "We were fighting Jotnar and one caught my arm, directed his power into it. My armor shattered under the cold, but instead of ice-burn, my skin turned blue, my magic froze." Loki's stomach fell as he realized that his magic still felt frozen. "The cold spread." Loki could not tell the truth, but... "You touched my skin and burned."
The queen's soft gasp drew Loki's attention to his parents. The look on their faces told Loki that some truth existed in the entity's tale.
Rage bloomed in Loki.
Loki's feet pounded through snow thicker than anything Asgard knew. For that matter, the white stuff was wetter, and the air warmer, than what he now remembered encountering in Jotunheim some sixty-odd years in the future. That thought spurred Loki to increase his pace. He reached the top of the current hill, raced along it—
And tumbled to a heap at the bottom after he mistook a snow drift for part of the hill.
Loki cursed under his breath as he sat up and wiped the snow from his face. Despite the force of his landing, only Loki's pride hurt. I did not think I had any uninjured pride left. Loki laughed at that thought. He could not stop and fell back in the snow. Tears from his laughter blurred the image of the moon above him.
When Loki's hysteria faded, he lifted his hand and called ice. It came faster than his earlier attempts at control, but it formed unevenly and shattered when Loki tried to correct the thickness. Loki closed his eyes and against flying shards, and by the time he opened them again, his "normal" skin tone had again asserted itself over Jotun blue. He sighed and let the hand fall down to the ground. At least I've enough control now to not call it…
Loki threw an arm over his eyes. He could not return to Asgard, not any time soon after what he said to Odin. And in truth, Loki was unsure he ever wanted to set foot in the realm ever again. Not after everything he had learned, everything he and his fa—Odin—had said. Loki had no desire to become the person the entity had shown him, yet the truth raged through him, a betrayal that Odin would never be redress.
A betrayal that no Æsir would admit needed redressing—not on Loki's behalf anyway.
Images of Asgard's reaction to his nature flooded him, and Loki flipped over and punched the ground. The wind picked up and sent a shiver through Loki's sweat-soaked body. He turned and trudged back toward the cave and hot spring he had selected for shelter.
Tomorrow he would seek out what a Jotun's nature entailed.
The Halloween-wrecked chaos had calmed as far as the residents of Sunnydale were concerned. The one Ethan Rayne had accidently invited to play in Janus' stead knew better. The effects of the possessions would reverberate in those who wore the cursed costumes for months, even years down the road. And as for those few who were possessed by actual foreign minds instead of their mind's idea of their costume... Well, not only would those possessed carry deeper and longer marks of that night, echoes of the possesseds' knowledge would remain with the possesser. Though the summoning to Sunnydale would pass itself off as a strange dream, flashes of insight would ripple up from the subconscious at opportune—and inopportune—moments.
And then there was that Loki.
The one would not allow the "future" knowledge to remain long. Still, it was mere sportsmanship to allow that Loki to show what course it would set him upon. After all, for every Loki that embraced the role of villain, there was one that remained loyal to Asgard. All those Loki's were unique, yet their lives followed certain patterns.
A tug on the one's magic signaled that that Loki's path was no longer nebulous. The one looked up the time stream.
Ho-ho. That is different...