Thin Lines of Fate
Summary: AU. You can't fight fate. He knew that. He had heard it all his life. But when it's his family that will be destroyed (in an attempt to fight fate), it becomes time for Loki to take fate into his own hands.
Rating: T for minor gore
Genre: Family/Drama
[A/N:] So this was supposed to be a multi-part story, but I don't think have time to dedicate to a fic like that, so instead it became a oneshot. I've heard a lot about Loki's children, mostly through fandom, and this is my take on it that was supposed to be spun out into a full-fledged Alternate Universe story. This may or may not have been inspired by the writer Ordis, and his/her story Poisoned Ice. Not really sure. It was also (maybe) inspired by the kinkmeme fill "Wandering Child," which I'm not sure I should admit to having read.
Also probably actually inspired by this paragraph from the Norse Mythology page at TV Tropes:
"Not so Different: Despite all his many, many faults … he [Loki] was also quite a family man just like Odin and Thor. Notably he was said to have been raising his kids alone in secret after his first wife died. (Of course that was a BAD thing since they were monsters and Odin subsequently locked them away, but still.)"
Disclaimer: I don't want to get involved in the mess of Norse Mythology being in the public domain and Marvel owning their own version of some characters but I will say that if I owned Marvel's version of the Norse myths I would be a lot richer.
It's crime, but does it matter?
Does it matter much? Does it matter much to you?
Does it ever really matter?
Yes, it really really matters.
Living on a thin line, ooh,
Tell me now, what are we supposed to do?
- The Kinks, "Living on a Thin Line"
Odin had done this.
He hadn't been there, had watched as Angrboda's body had burned, but he had heard her screams.
She was condemned for being a frost giant and a mother of monsters, for seducing an Asgardian prince and leading him astray.
Because they thought he was lying when he said he had gone with her willingly. Because they thought he was crazy when he shrieked at them to stay away from his children.
Thor had been concerned, had brought him to the healers for rest and recovery, thinking him to be mad, maybe, or that he was under a spell the witch had placed on him.
But Loki had been perfectly fine. And the instant the healer's back was turned he was gone, before even Thor could grab him.
They had left him confined in the palace. Odin, in his supposed tender mercies, had decided that there was no reason for his son to watch his wife's execution. Thor had stayed to make sure Loki remained in the palace and also because he was convinced his brother was under some kind of spell.
But she was his wife, and he was too late…
When he forced his way through the crowd, there was nothing left. She had been burned alive, and all that was left was a pile of ashes and charred, glowing embers.
Thor was much better at shoving his way through the crowd and had almost caught up with him before he darted forward, stopping only when he had reached the pyre. He dropped to his knees on the hard earth that surrounded it and began to dig through the hot coals.
And Thor was running towards him now and Odin and Frigga were looking at him with disapproval on their faces and the court that had come to watch the execution was a titter of whispers…
He found, in the coals, Angrboda's heart. It hadn't burned. It was still beating.
He pulled away from the hot embers and pulled to his feet and with a sudden, animal ferociousness, devoured her heart.
And he laughed.
Thor had stopped and was speaking in low tones to Odin. The court was in a titter again; their whispers drifted past on the wind.
Poor Prince Loki. He doesn't realize he's free now. He really was bewitched by the sorceress – look at what he's done! She bewitched him! There's no other reason he would have done something like that!
And on and on they murmur. Loki feels her blood on his hands, knows it runs down his chin, and he does not care. He stands there, laughing, bloody, with a crazed look in his eyes. Nothing they say can reach him.
Until Thor steps forward, says something to the crowd, and pulls him away.
Still bloody and laughing hysterically, Loki allowed his older brother to guide him back towards the palace.
Because they said she bewitched him, and muttered behind their hands about sorcerers and their tricks and spells, and never for a moment felt embarrassed that they had condemned her for supposed sorcery while allowing him, a true sorcerer, to live.
After that, he spent two days confined to the healing houses, with anxious healers working around him when they weren't busy gossiping about him.
He knew. He heard it all.
He just didn't care.
Off in the distance, Fenrir was howling.
Thor had been there the first time Fenrir had howled. He had watched Loki go stiff and tense before fumbling with the blankets. "Fenrir needs me."
"Don't." Thor said, pulling the blanket back up over his brother. "You should stay and rest. I will take care of Fenrir."
Fenrir still howled from time to time. He was angry, and wanted to know where his parents had gone. Loki had just barely begun to teach him how to shapeshift before they were 'rescued' from Angrboda's clutches, and Fenrir was probably not even practicing his magic like he should be now.
He heard the healers gossip about how Fenrir was a monster, and that it was to be expected because his mother was a monster, and Loki couldn't even work up the energy to hate them.
On the third day, Jormungandr came slipping in under the door, slithered his way up on the the bed, and curled up around Loki's arm. He was still a little serpent, and had nearly no magical powers. He would never have enough to shapeshift with.
But that didn't mean Loki loved him any less.
Jormungandr liked to be with his parents, and he didn't mind the foreignness of the healing halls. He was had not been able to find his mother or his brother, but he was able to find his father.
And then one of the healers found him, and ran screaming out of the room.
"What a strange woman." Loki muttered, stroking his son's scaly skin.
The next healer who entered, however, was older and had no fear of snakes. She came in, and without ceremony plucked Jormungandr from his father's arms, tossed him and shut the door tightly.
She began to speak to one of the other healers before Loki had a chance to express his newly-provoked rage.
"I will be glad when his Highness seals these monsters away. The wolf always howls and now the snake visits."
Another healer shushed her up before she could say anymore, but she had said enough.
So when Thor came to see him the next morning, Loki made a point of asking about it.
It must have been bad, because normally, Thor would be glad that Loki was speaking without having someone speak to him first. Instead, he was reluctant to answer.
Finally he said, "Mother has foreseen the future. She has foreseen that Fenrir will kill father." He made no mention of what Frigga had foreseen Jormungandr do.
Noticing the look of alarm in Loki's eyes, Thor was quick to add, "But don't worry. Father has promised not to harm him! They're just going to seal him away until Ragnorok."
"No!"
"Loki, he's not going to hurt them, but they can't stay here." Thor said, holding his brother down to keep him from bolting. "So if he seals them away, then no one will have to hurt them."
Because sealing them away wouldn't hurt them, or Loki, at all.
It wasn't until Thor left a few short minutes later, thinking his brother to have finally settled down, that a plan crystallized in Loki's mind.
You can't fight fate.
You can't fight fate. He knew that. He had heard it all his life.
But here, now, Odin was trying to fight fate. He knew what was foretold and in an attempt to prevent anything, he would seal Fenrir and Jormungandr away.
Odin would try to fight fate.
And that was when Loki came to a conclusion: why should Odin be the only one allowed to fight fate?
After that, he began to 'recover.' Inasmuch as there had been nothing wrong with him to start with, it was an easy trick to pull.
No one had believed him when he said he wasn't under a spell but after spending a couple of days in the healing wards, and making it a point to not openly act hateful towards his father or brother, they finally believed he was getting better.
But he had always been a master of deceit. Or maybe his family was just full of fools.
Of all of them, Frigga looked like the only one who had and suspicions. She watched, him, a questioning look in her eyes whenever he appeared.
But she never said anything.
Not when Fenrir and Jormungandr started following him everywhere, even to the high table for meals with the rest of the court.
It was a week after he left the healing wards that he finally perfected his spell.
Heimdall was not the only one who could move others between worlds.
Not anymore.
By the middle of the second week, he was ready. In the coldest, deadest part of the night, Loki rose and, as quietly as he could, packed what he would need.
Jormungandr he wrapped around his shoulders, and with Fenrir padding along silently next to him, he slipped out of the palace.
Neither of his sons questioned him as to what he was doing or where they were going.
And by the time the alarm was sounded the next morning, alerting all of Asgard to the fact that the three of them were gone, Loki's spell had already taken himself and his children to the last place anyone would ever look for them.
Midgard.
You can't fight fate.
You can't fight fate. He knew that. He had heard it all his life. All of the things foretold will come to pass, and there is nothing you can do about it. There is no way to fight it.
But, Loki told himself as he walked through one of the forests on Midgard, with Jormungadr still wrapped around his shoulders and Fenrir bounding on ahead to investigate new smells he had never smelled before, sometimes you have to take fate into your own hands.
And snap apart the thin lines of fate that hold your family hostage.
FIN
[A/N:] So let me tell you about this story. One lazy Sunday afternoon while I was enjoying the feeling of having all my homework done, an idea occurred to me. I don't really know what comics cannon says about Loki having children, but thanks to TV Tropes I do know what Norse Mythology says about it. And all of Loki's kids get sealed or sent away because they're all monsters that will bring about the end of the world.
This story was supposed to be an AU where rather than let them get sealed away, Loki takes them to Earth, and they live a semi-normal family life in lovely New Mexico until the Chitauri attack when Thor finds them and then Odin gets involved and it all goes downhill from there. The tentative title for that story was 'A Normal Life.' But I didn't know what was going to happen in that story, so I dumped the idea and this story you read was the prologue, which I decided to expand and post instead.
It was only while scheming up Thin Lines of Fate/A Normal Life that it occurred to me that Odin did try and fight fate when he sealed away Loki's kids. If the wolf's just gonna eat you anyway, why bother? Because Odin was fighting fate. At least, that's my opinion.
Anyway, I think that's all I have to say about this story, except that the tone is weird. Anyway, please review, it makes the effort of writing the story worth and I love feedback on these little fics.
Thanks for reading!