Premonition
Summary: At last, he would fulfill his birthright. At last, he would be king. What Loki believed was rightfully his was now within his grasp, but at what cost? Loki gets a rare opportunity to witness the consequences that stem from the aftermath of his actions on Midgard. After having this premonition, he will have a choice to make that will seal the fate of the nine realms. Rated M for violent, possibly disturbing graphic imagery and possible character death. Evil!Loki in the beginning, possibly AU toward the end.
This will be four to five chapters max. To make it longer would just ruin the effect. This is just a plotbunny that came to me earlier and was just scratching on the wall of my brain wanting to be heard.
Ch. 1: Midgard burns…
As he stood upon the top balcony of Stark Tower, Loki watched the mayhem around him with a kind of gleeful grin. The portal created by the tesseract swirled above him. The air near the device rotated angrily, causing his green cape to billow out behind him. The chituari army was doing its job beautifully, causing widespread damage and confusion.
Yes, he liked this. This was the most fun he's had in centuries. He heard the fearful screams of the pathetic mortals below and had to physically suppress a hearty laugh. Not even their measly champions, their precious Avengers, he scoffed at the thought, were able to withstand the force of numbers and technological advancement of the alien militia.
At last, no one could doubt him. At last, he would no longer be in shadow, always underestimated. Finally, he would take his rightful place among the great kings of old, and not even his cursed heritage would deny it of him. This was what he had been promised by Thanos. It was the undeniable truth that he would rule the denizens of Midgard uncontested in exchange for the tesseract. To fail at his end had not been an option. Now, he knew not how he could possibly fail.
"Enough of this, Loki!" Loki was torn from his joyful thoughts by a disgustingly familiar bellow. He cringed and turned to face his supposed former brother. Thor brandished Mojlnir first at Loki, and then toward the tesseract. "Shut it down or I will shut it down!"
Loki snarled and leapt toward Thor, scepter at the ready. Thor deflected his estranged brother's weapon and swung heavily at Loki's head, however, he dodged expertly. This exchange of blows between brothers continued for several minutes, Loki losing his scepter toward the end of their skirmish.
Just as Loki was about to turn to his magic instead, Thor pinned his hands with his own fists and glared intently into the younger god's emerald eyes. Loki seemed confused for a fleeting second, wondering why Thor wouldn't finish him while he had the chance. To fail to do so would go against everything Thor had ever been taught as a warrior.
"Look around, Loki! Look at the death and destruction you brought here! Do you really think this madness will end with your rule?" Thor pleaded intently, his stony blue eyes trying so hard to find even a small flicker of the beloved little brother he once knew in Loki's cold green eyes.
All Loki remembered after Thor's plea was a blinding flash of white light. He felt his body jar violently, but associated no pain with the odd sensation.
So Thor actually dealt the final blow, Loki thought to himself and admitted himself surprised. I never knew the sentimental oaf had it in him; perhaps I should not have underestimated him. If he were able to smirk, he would have at that moment as he just realized that his thoughts were complimentary of the older god.
Loki opened his eyes as the world around him stilled, and he was surprised that he could even perform that action. After a split second, a pungent smell of putrid burning flesh invaded his senses. The smell was so strong it made his eyes sting and water. What in the name of Hel is going on? He wondered.
Loki made to rise to his feet, but had to push a fallen slab on concrete out of the way as he did so. His godly strength was still a part of him, evidently.
As he took in the sight of his environment, he wondered for one wild moment if he had somehow fallen into the fiery realm of Muspelheim. The air was thick with smoke and the acrid smell of burning meat. The broken concrete that littered the ground was the only thing telling him that something was amiss. The sky had a faint orangey-red glow barely visible through the black smoke.
As Loki made his way through the wasted, broken land, he could make out the remnants of collapsed structures laid out row by row. Everything looked like the mortals depiction of the apocalypse. Loki realized that he must still be on Midgard. Not even trees or any other plant life seemed to survive. As he took in the sight, he nearly tripped over a large object in the shattered street that sparked as his foot hit it. He glared down at the offending object before betraying a slight gasp of shock which turned into a look of happy relief.
It was the letter 'S' portion of the sign that once adorned the top of Stark Tower.
His chituari army had been victorious. Pure delight flowed through his veins like wildfire. It was finally time to take his place as king.
King of what? Spoke a strange voice he did not recognize in the back of his mind. A dead, burning world? Look around. Have you seen even one living soul since you woke up? This made Loki observe his surroundings more closely. Indeed, the voice was right. He hadn't seen any survivors, and there were none to be seen even now.
Loki walked carefully another half a block until he stood in front of what looked like a ruined museum. As he picked his way among the rubble, he was caught off guard by several small figures lying among the debris. Once he realized what the figures were, he gazed down at them silently.
The bodies of human children, probably on a school day trip when the invasion hit. Some were obviously crushed, some partially burned, all unrecognizable.
Strangely enough, the sight struck Loki to his core, though he did not show it outwardly. Of all the wicked things he had intended, this had not been one of them. Despite that they were the spawn of a weak, pathetic race, they were innocent. Like a butterfly crushed under a boot for merely landing on a flower petal, these children had no more deserved their fate. His gaze was stoic, yet he grieved within.
From up above, he could hear the squawking of carrion fowl. Loki only gave them his attention because they were the first evidence of life on this god's forsaken planet. His curious gaze made its way up a broken skyscraper. As he looked upward, he realized that the building was the remains of Stark Tower. The tower became further blackened with soot and ash the higher he looked. The tower did not go up very far. The entire top portion had collapsed to the street below, which is where he had woken up from. As he inspected the damage, a horrible sight met his eyes that caused him to gasp aloud and cover his mouth with his hand.
Impaled in the edge of the broken tower was…Loki? But…that's impossible, isn't it? I am here. I am me! Aren't I? Loki thought desperately as he patted himself on the chest, as if the action would tell his mind that his body was real, because the image on top of the tower couldn't possibly be reality. The living Loki could not tear his own eyes away from the ghastly sight, as much as he wished to. His body had been impaled through his gut, the gold armor stripped away and the black and green leathers hanging from his lifeless shoulders in tatters. The body had no eyes staring out of empty sockets and most of his long black hair had been torn from his scalp, courtesy of the circling crows and vultures overhead. As he looked on in shock and horror, a vulture landed on a beam close to the body and began to strip and devour torn bits of visible flesh.
Just below Loki's own body was a crude message scrawled with what looked like flame, the letters scorched into the side of the building:
"ALL HAIL LOKI
KING OF THE
BURNING FILTH
THE CARRION FOWL"
Loki had to take a moment to catch his breath and attempt to regain his composure. He had retched uncontrollably at the images in his head and he could not stop shaking. The sight was more than even the god of mischief, lies, and chaos was able to handle.
"THANOS!" Loki screamed into the burning night. "THANOS, YOU TRAITOROUS BEAST! YOU PROMISED ME! YOU PROMISED!" Loki hunched over and placed his hands on his still shaking knees and attempted to catch his breath. Loki coughed deeply from his screams and from the smoke inhalation.
He looked up as his eyes caught a faint bluish glow. Loki stepped unsteadily toward the strange glow, almost afraid of what he would find. Strangely, the glow, so different in a world full of red and black and death, gave him a small glimmer of hope. Hope of what, he could not be sure. He reached down and picked up a small glowing, cylindrical piece of tech. It was very familiar to him.
"Was I such a fool?" Loki whispered lightly, the curling smoke and crows were all who heard him. In his hand was the small arc reactor that had blocked the magic of his scepter from taking over its owner's mind. He held the arc reactor that kept Tony Stark alive.
The next thing he knew, the white light blinded him once again, throwing off every one of his senses. Loki knew he had landed somewhere. He was familiar with teleportation, but he quickly realized that he somehow had no control over this. Someone, or something, was moving him around like a game piece. He registered the thought that under normal circumstances, this knowledge would annoy him greatly, but at that moment in his weakened state, he could not muster up the ability to care.
Even before he opened his eyes, the feeling he got from this place was worlds different than the death and emptiness he felt on Midgard. Yet, he felt it to be familiar somehow, but there was still an underlying sense of death permeating the air, as if he could feel the lost souls eating away at his spirit.