Late present, hope you like it! And Happy New Year!

Disclaimer: I cannot own Marvel or its characters, tis impossible.

Note: the lines indicate switches between the realities


He had a clear mind, free from all those whispers and temptings, and was able to think for himself for the first time in a long time. It was only his thoughts and his alone. He could finally go home, even if he was to be put in the dungeons, he was happy nonetheless. However, he also felt guilt in the pit of his stomach, destroying this city and endangering its inhabitants. Betrayal by father… no, Odin was difficult for him, and he made some mistakes but he didn't think it would escalate to such heights. By now the entire kingdom would have think him a monster, how could he go back to a home where everyone hated him to their core, what family could he go back to. Rotting in the dungeons didn't sound so bad, at least he was safe from him.

After saying his goodbyes to his friends, Thor motions for him to grab the mechanism and the cube within it glows intensely. Thor turns the handle on its side and a beam of light engulfs them both. Before he knows it, an electric surge of sorts rushes through his body, it hurts immensely and he can't think straight anymore. His eyes search for Thor, he is no longer by his side and he starts falling. Not again he groans, but this time he is being hurled in a downwards spiral with colours similar to the Bifrost flashing before him. He feels ill, already heaving but resists the urge to puke as he remembers he is gagged. He can no longer take the pressure, feeling light-headed, his heavy lidded eyes close.


Tom looks out the window, something calls to him but he can't quite put his finger on it. A certain familiarity beacons to him, it wants him to go to it. However, he doesn't feel like leaving, he feels fatigued from the all the acting he did today. He looks away and continues unpacking his stuff, he had left in a hurry this morning and hadn't the time to unpack properly. He hopes he's done enough preparation to allow himself time to get to the set and have breakfast with ample time to rest before doing the scenes. Satisfied with his work, he tries to change and prepare for bed but not before the feeling of being called came again. No longer being able to stand it, he put on his jacket, grabbed his hotel card and phone before leaving the room.

He looked into the woods, the only sources of light were the street side lamp posts and the moonlight, occasionally obscured by the clouds moving through the night sky. He contemplated whether to enter or not, it was quite dark and he could only see the outlines of the trees and ground. He turned on the flash of his phone and hoped he wouldn't get lost, then stepped into the darkness gingerly, shoes crunching any fallen leaves and breaking twigs every now and then. His heart pumped loudly in his chest, feeling that if it had beaten any harder that it might jump out of his throat. He didn't know where he was going but his instincts lead him towards his destination, he followed blindly. As he got closer and closer, he felt colder and colder as if the temperature dropped even more so when he progressed through the woods.

"Strange… it wasn't this cold when I got out" white puffs of breath formed as he spoke. He was already shivering and his choice of clothing didn't help, however he wasn't deterred from all this. His instincts kept tugging at him to move forward even though he felt that there was nothing to be found in the forest, he was about to be proven wrong. His phone shone onto something… gold? He let out a loud gasp as he saw it was a man, unconscious and in something similar to his Loki costume.

"Hey, are you alright?" Tom shook the man, trying to jolt him awake to no avail. He decided to bring him back to the hotel, it would be pointless to call an ambulance to the middle of nowhere. Tom grunted as he lifted the man, despite his size he was a lot heavier than Chris! The chains and shackles on the "Loki's" arms were in the way and Tom had to put his head through in order to support the taller man. Retracing his steps with the man in tow, he was trudging with the extra weight. He was getting increasingly worried as he continued walking, the man's skin felt as cold as ice and seemed like he would get hypothermia if Tom didn't hastened his pace.


"Point-Break, Wake up! Reindeer games is gone!" Tony was yelling in Thor's face, some of the other Avengers seemed to have been thrown a few feet away from them.

"What the- the tessaract's gone too, you don't think he uh" Hawkeye made a "magic" kind of gesture, he was still a bit disoriented and continued stumbling a bit as he approached them. SHEILD agents surrounding the perimeter were searching for any signs of the trickster and the tessaract, others were barricading passerbys from entering the park but didn't let any leave either, necessary witnesses.

"Director Fury is coming, Thor you have any idea what happened?" Natasha leaned onto Bruce for support, she was pinching the bridge of her nose, fighting a headache. Bruce didn't look too well either, he looked to be spacing out. Thor awoke from his stupor and looked for Loki. It felt like the time when he was cast to Midgard by Allfather, he felt giddy and couldn't stay on his feet for long, so he resigned to sitting on the floor.

"Neigh Lady Natasha, I know naught. Where is my brother?" Thor was hunched forward with elbow resting on his lap while Tony was leaning against the railing as his legs weren't working very well either, he was tapping away on his phone and was communicating with JARVIS via bluetooth headset. Each of them tried to recall the event, trying to make sense of what happened. Fury had finally arrived and demanded answers, Natasha told him what they thought had happened. He was irritated and beyond enraged, he started barking orders into his earpiece and yelled something about wanting to keep tabs on everything and anything that happened within the park's vicinity. Shortly after, the Avengers were shipped off to Tony's lab to do testing, unsure if there were any side effects besides being giddy as hell.

"Well uh, the good news is that nothing seems off, but uh we might be like this for a while…I think" Bruce was looking at saliva samples, statistics of the Avengers well-beings and writing notes as he spoke, he still looked a bit off. Tony was watching the footage of the event over and over, dragging screenshots of the video to the sides of his holographic screen, circling and writing whatever he deemed fit to have set the event in motion. He brought his mug to his lips, brows furrowing when he didn't feel any coffee meet his lips, huffed in exasperation when DUM-E tried to refill it and only to spurt it all over his workspace. He then proceeded to fix the coffee nozzle while the cleaning bot sucked up the felled liquid.

"Enough of this 'testing', I must find my brother!" Steve promptly grabbed Thor from under his arms, preventing him from making a new hole in Tony's lab.

"You can't leave, you're not well enough yet" Steve hesistantly let go of the blond, afraid that he might fly off. The chair groaned under Thor's weight as he sat down, he was worried about Loki, especially since the tessaract was gone as well, he feared for the worst. He still had that cotton taste on his tongue, the doctor called it a 'swab' and said that it was part of the 'testing'. He didn't like it.

"Point Break, relax! We'll find him and he's probably as battered as the rest of us, no way he'd leave the place that quick. Maybe he dropped in the water of something…" Thor was glaring daggers at Tony "Okay maybe not the water, uh maybe he got stuck in a tree" Tony gave a grin and quickly turned his chair to avoid 'awkward' with the raging thunderer.

Clint was looking at the footage as well, helping Tony find 'interesting' points before and during the event. The archer recalls that the tessaract had never acted strangely in Selvig's care, it had always remained quiet until Loki showed up. The glow was different too, when Thor activated the cube in the park it suddenly became extremely bright, then he was blinded and blasted away by an invisible force… "was it magic?"

After the testing, they all went to their rooms to rest except Tony. No matter how slowed down the footage was, he couldn't see what happened just before the flash of light. "Ugh magic " he groaned, he finally stopped watching after a couple of hours, his brain was in pain and demanded that he sleep.


Loki kept slipping in and out of consciousness, only aware that someone was holding him up and bringing him somewhere. The most irritating was the flash of light, it hurt his eyes immensely when it was shone straight into his irises. He felt extreme exhaustion and couldn't keep his eyes open for long periods of time. What was most comforting yet peculiar was the warmth of the body next to him, he had never felt such warmth before, even from Thor's crushing embraces. Unknowingly, he leaned ever so slightly towards the being that radiated heat akin to a pleasant summer's day, with the smallest smile upon his lips.


To be continued…

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