Fate, as Loki would discover, was a cruel mistress.
He had let go of his staff- his last connection to Thor, connection to safety, because he had been done.
"No, Loki…"
The memory clamped into his brain and refused to let go. He hated Thor. There was no doubt of that. He had acted out of hatred and jealousy but betraying Laufey had been his plan. He was going to show Odin that he was a capable son and King without the 'brother' who had always cast a shadow on him. He had tried so hard and for so long, and it had all wound up for naught. It always had been. It always would be. So he decided that he needed to fall in more ways than one. His life's goal was impossible, there was no need to go on.
If your own… 'family' had that little faith in you after you struggled so hard to do everything for them, what was the point in living anymore? He had wanted to die. He had let go to die. He had thought falling through the realms would do it. He'd be torn up, caught between worlds, his body nor soul would stand a chance.
Of course, he hadn't counted on the gates to the realms overlapping in places. And just when he was ready to accept death:
He kept falling.
The stars faded, there was a flash of white, gold-tinted light, and then nothing but blue. He was aware enough to see that there was ground coming up to meet him, and then he crashed down, and there was nothing but pain, then all awareness faded to black for a moment, then came rushing back to him.
When he came to again, there was heat beating down on him. Nothing unbearable, but just more than he had encountered in some time. He carefully opened his eyes. He could've move, but he could observe. That was good enough for him. Solid, apparently tan ground, light blue sky, grey-white clouds, one yellow, bright sun-
No.
No.
He was back on Midgard. He had fallen to Midgard. In more than the literal sense. Well wasn't that poetic justice that Odin and Thor would appreciate for separate reasons?
Rather suddenly, pain caught up with him. It was near crippling. He tried to will it away, and in a brief, panicked thought, he realized he couldn't. The more he tried, the worse the headache that had started became.
There was a strange sound from behind him and he strained to look to see what it was. There was a large one of those… wheeled chariots he had seen in his last visit there, and three bodies coming at him that he couldn't make out.
"What the fuck?! What the actual fuck, this happened again?! I JUST TOLD YOU PEOPLE I DON'T GET PAID ENOUGH FOR THIS!" Shrill. Female.
"It's not intentional, Darcy!" Strangely accented. Male.
Third voice, female, even, hopeful, "Is it Thor?!"
"Too small to be Thor," the main replied.
Well, that was different. And then it hit him- if they knew about Thor and were Midgardians that meant-
Oh, this situation kept on getting worse and worse. It was the mortal who had stolen Thor's heart, the man of science and the idiot girl. He heard them getting closer.
"Is it Fandral?" the Idiot Girl continued, sounding a little to hopeful. Of course the ponce had charmed her when he was barely there for a Midgardian day.
"Hair's too dark," the scientist pointed out.
The fools were going down the line of who had come to their precious Thor's rescue. If they had met Thor and his friends, or at least done their research, there was truly only one option left. And of course they couldn't figure it out. He sensed shadows over them, and for some subconscious reason, he tried to look at them.
The scientist was frowning down at him.
Jane Foster had a disappointed look.
The idiot girl, in turn, was staring at him like he had sprouted a new head, which, as far as he was concerned, might have actually been a possibility. "Why's his all… Gotye-ey? Thor didn't look like that."
"He's not Thor," the scientist countered, just as Loki tried to open his mouth to say as much. The mortal continued to lean forward over him. "Oh, I know exactly who you are."
The idiot girl looked from Loki's face, to Eric. "Loki? Is this Loki? He's got the look and all the green, except, ya know, looks like he went thirty rounds with Mike Tyson-"
Maybe those two weren't such lost causes after all. He'd have to see about this Mike Tyson, too. Must've been some cheap imitation of a witch of his- Odin and Thor's realm.
Thor's mortal, however, didn't sound thrilled. "If it is, we're not helping him, right? He tried to kill us. He killed Thor… temporarily."
An unfortunate turn that I can still rectify, Loki wanted to say, but he couldn't bring himself to speak. He had lost the ability to move again as well.
"Actually it was the giant metal death monster that killed him…" Idiot Girl pointed out.
The Scientist considered both sides for a moment. "… It may be best if we… take him. If he's left on his own, who knows what he's capable of."
Loki was dimly aware of silence, and then the world spun around him- another unfamiliar feeling. He tried to flex his fingers, get some sort of spell going to get away or get them away, but nothing happened. In fact, the moment he tried, he felt his power drain from him in one fell swoop. The loss was suffocating, and strangely enough, that was enough to get his body to jerk violently.
"What's happening?!" Idiot girl squeaked.
"He's… seizing?" the scientist began. "I guess- we- I- We can't just leave him here then. Who knows what he could do if he recovers. We need to get him to the hospital, too…"
"And how do we explain the whole 'he's potential murderer' and a him-sized-crater-in-the-desert thing?" Idiot Girl asked.
"… We'll work on that."
Loki seized again, and suddenly there was pain again, this time unlike anything he had felt. It was vision blurring, mind numbing. This was new. This was different. This was bad. He struggled to breathe, failed, and then everything went black again.