Spoilers for: Thor: The Dark World and The Sound of Drums

Disclaimer: Don't own Thor or Doctor Who

Chapter 1 – Preservation Act 1

It had taken five minutes for his magic to trash his room.

It had taken another half hour for him to stop screaming.

Now he sat, huddled, next to his bed, staring blankly at the golden grid before him, a thousand and one 'what ifs' raging in his head.

He didn't have the energy to wipe away the tears on his cheeks. His mind was entirely blank, barely registering anything.

That was, until there was a wheezing sound somewhere off to his left.

His lips curled up into a humourless smile, the glaze fading from his eyes. He turned his head to see the TARDIS materialise, and land with its usual thump. He quickly altered his illusion so that it hid the ship from the view of the guards. A moment later, the door of the ship was opened, and a familiar Doctor stepped out.

"Loki?"

Loki's heart dropped. It was not the Doctor who had been to visit him as a child; not the Doctor he had hoped for. Rather, it was the one who had got him into this mess in the first place: the one who had left him in the Sanctuary.

But, a voice in his head asked, hadn't he asked the Doctor to do that?

"Loki… What happened?"

Loki blinked up at him and deadpanned, "You do not know?"

"All I know is that I got this." The Doctor pulled out a leather case from the inside of his pocket. He flipped it open to reveal the message written inside:

Dungeons on Asgard. Help me. Loki.

"How did you even send it?"

Loki looked up to the Doctor's face. "I didn't mean to."

He reached into the back pocket of his trousers, pulling out his own psychic paper. He opened it, to see the same message fading away on the paper.

"Where did you get that?"

The Doctor marched over to Loki, kneeling down beside him. He pulled a strange device, long and thin and metal, from his pocket and pointed it at Loki's psychic paper. He pressed a button on the device's side, and it made a strange buzzing sound.

"Hmm," the Doctor pocketed the device.

He reached forward with his own psychic paper and touched his to Loki's. Loki gasped as a strange, almost electrical, sensation radiated up his arm. He pulled his hand back; the Doctor did the same.

"It's the same piece…" the Doctor murmured, stuffing the psychic paper back into his inside pocket.

"Doctor?"

The voice was female, and coming from the direction of the TARDIS. The Doctor and Loki turned towards the ship as a young girl stepped out from it. Loki felt a pang of guilt at the sight of her. Indeed, the Doctor had never wanted to abandon him in the Sanctuary.

He had done it for her. And Loki had let him.

"Oh. Hello." Rose gave him an awkward smile and waved at him. He nodded in acknowledgement.

"You must be… Loki." Rose walked over to him as the Doctor stood up. Rose took his place by Loki's side. "I'm Rose."

Rose held out her hand. Loki shook it.

"I assure you, I am not in the habit of making such first impressions."

Rose shrugged. "This is not the weirdest first impression I've ever had, believe me." She chuckled, and Loki even felt a small smile pull at the corners of his own lips.

"Loki, why did you send me that message?"

Loki turned from Rose to the Doctor. "I told you: I did not know that I had."

The Doctor pursed his lips and folded his arms over his chest. "It's not impossible, if you've already created a psychic link with the paper. I'm guessing you got this from a future me?"

Loki nodded. "But how would I have sent a message unknowingly?"

The Doctor shrugged. "It's not unheard of, if it's a message that the person really needs to get across. The question is, why did you really need to get a cry for help across to me? What has happened?"

"Yeah, why are you in prison?" Rose asked, turning back to Loki. Loki opened his mouth to reply, but the Doctor interrupted him.

"No, it's nothing to do with that. He's in prison because of an attempted invasion of Earth."

Rose's eyes went wide. "You tried to invade Earth?"

Loki winced at her harsh tone.

"When was this?"

"2012, it's not important. He wasn't exactly himself."

Loki looked up at the Doctor. "You know that already?"

"Last time I saw you, the Mind Stone had no effect on you. Your eyes were green instead of blue."

"And what colour are they now?"

Rose leaned nearer to Loki's face. Loki fought the urge to move away.

"Maybe… a mixture? More like a sort of… teal?" She turned to the Doctor as if asking him for confirmation. He nodded.

"You've broken its hold. But not completely."

Loki gave him a small smile. "It was not I who broke the Mind Stone's power over me."

The Doctor's brow furrowed. "Then who did?"

"I cannot tell you."

The Doctor nodded in understanding. "But can you tell me why you called me here?"

Loki shrank back, leaning his back against the wall, all posture forgotten. He gulped nervously and closed his eyes.

"The Queen is dead."

"The Queen?"

"I'm sorry."

Loki barely heard the words from his companions' mouths. There was a moment of silence before Rose spoke again.

"The Queen… She was your mother, wasn't she?"

Loki grit his teeth. He opened his eyes to look up at her. "No. I was not her son, and she was not my mother. My mother left me for dead on a barren wasteland because I was nothing more than a runt."

The Doctor rolled his shoulders back, fury rolling in the depths of his stormy eyes.

"No."

Loki looked up at him, his brow furrowing. "Odin told me the story."

The Doctor shook his head. "Odin told you the version of the story that he knows. He does not know everything."

Loki chuckled humourlessly. "And you do?"

"There are stories about you which have spread further than Asgard and Jötunheim. Stories which go beyond the Battle of New York."

"And you are a collector of such stories?"

"You hear a lot when you travel around the universe like I do."

"And what have you heard?"

The Doctor's lips quirked, his blue eyes beginning to glisten with excitement. "That's just another perk of travelling around the universe like I do. I don't have to just tell you."

The Doctor practically skipped over to the TARDIS, pulling the key from his pocket and unlocking the door in one swift movement. Rose got to her feet, offering her hand to Loki to help him up. He declined, pushing himself to his feet. And if he wiped his eyes clean when she turned away from him to walk to the TARDIS, she didn't have a clue.

"Where are we going?" Rose asked as she and Loki entered the TARDIS and closed the door behind them. She wandered over to the control panel and jumped up onto it, sitting on a flat surface, away from any buttons.

The Doctor shot Loki an apologetic look. "Jötunheim."

The smile melted from Loki's face.

"I'm sorry?"

"Jötunheim," the Doctor repeated.

Loki's hands clenched by his sides. "Why?" he growled.

"What's wrong with Jötunheim?" Rose asked innocently, looking between Loki and the Doctor.

"It is my home realm," Loki explained through gritted teeth. "And they will kill me on sight for what I have done to them."

"Have you forgotten about the TARDIS, Loki? It also travels in time."

"We are travelling through time?" Loki blinked.

The Doctor nodded.

"To when?"

"All will become apparent."

"Or you could just tell me now."

The Doctor grinned mischievously. "Now where would the fun in that be?"