Ragnorak
Disclaimer: I don't own anything from the movies Thor or The Avengers Assemble and I'm not making any money from this fic
Summary: It's the end of the world
Warning(s): Spoilers for the above-mentioned movies; violence; mentions of torture; character death; spanking
Author's Note: I wasn't going to write another Avengers story this soon, but then I found the deleted scene from the Thor between Thor and Loki. I'm not quite sure how this fic came from that scene
Everything had been taken from him. Every feeling, memory, individual thought... everything was gone. All that was left was the rage, filling him so completely that there was no room for anything else.
There was a whole army behind him. An army of the dead. An army of frost giants. He'd gathered allies from all over the other realms. Midgard was destroyed, its sun swallowed by Fenrir and Jormungand's poison raining down all over the realm.
Now, the army stood at the Bifrost. Its leader stepped forward, approaching the large man guarding the entrance to Asgard. "What's the matter, Heimdall? Has everyone abandoned you to hold the defences of Asgard alone?"
The gatekeeper's expression didn't change as he regarded the leader. "Loki."
It was one word, but it carried a whole weight behind it. However, Loki was far past the age where he could be cowed by the gatekeeper. "Stand aside... and I'll let you live."
"You know I can't do that."
Loki didn't have to look behind him to know that the first wave of his army was approaching. He focused on Heimdall and spoke quietly. "That's too bad. I would have let you live."
Heimdall made no response, but he moved fast, raising his sword and slicing it through Loki, who simply dissipated into nothing.
Loki wasn't a coward, but he knew Heimdall very well. He'd hidden within the ranks of the army while he'd sent a double to talk to the gatekeeper.
A screech rent the air above Loki's head and he looked up to see a host of Valkyries flying towards them. They met Loki's army in a clash of blades, war cries erupting from both sides.
Loki used his magic without hesitation, creating his doubles to fight for him as he pushed his way through the army. He drew up a magical shield around himself as he came towards the entrance to Asgard.
The gates were open. Heimdall was on the ground - whether dead or dying, Loki didn't know. Nor did he care. No... the only thing he cared about was the fact that he could now enter Asgard. His army was ahead of him - the first wave, anyway. And the rest were at his back. He'd lost a lot of warriors, but he knew that most of the Valkyries were dead. And his sons were still there. He could sense them without needing to look round.
The Asgardians were a row of warriors dressed in golden armour. Then, as Loki's warriors raced past him and hit the line of Asgardian soldiers, the line splintered and the air was filled with screams and groans as people fell, never to rise again.
"Loki!"
Loki's attention was pulled towards the only one who'd ever be able to get through to him. Thor strode through the army, knocking people out of his way, his face set in a grim expression.
"Don't bother trying to get through to me," Loki said, taking a step back and moving his staff protectively in front of him.
Thor stopped and it gave Loki quite a strange feeling, to be looking at the person whose brother he'd been raised as. There was fighting all around them, but as Thor made eye contact with Loki - who didn't break it - all of the other sounds and sights seemed to merely fade away.
A whole myriad of emotions flooded through Loki, threatening to dispel the rage that had filled him for so long. Loki couldn't believe that all it took was just seeing Thor to make him feel this insecure and unsure about his plans. He didn't want to let go of his rage and immediately went on the defensive. "Get out of my way, Thor."
Thor watched him steadily, but with a hint of sadness on his face. "Why are you doing this, brother?"
"I'm not your brother!" Loki hissed. "I hate you!"
Thor opened his mouth, but was abruptly attacked from behind by Jormungand, who had been sneaking around behind his back. Thor turned, but although Jormungand went for him, Thor just moved back, dodging the serpent's attempts at attacking him without actually trying to kill him.
Maybe Thor's refusal to attack would stop a lot of people from attacking him with so much viciousness, but all of Loki's children remembered how they'd been treated by the Asgardians. Loki watched with his face not changing - ignoring the battle going on around him - and noticed that Thor was quickly tiring. He was big, but Jormungand was a lot bigger and a lot faster.
The serpent's jaws closed over Thor's shoulder and from the grunt of pain that came from the thunder god, Loki guessed that Jormungand had injected poison into him. When the serpent released him, Thor stumbled forward about seven steps before collapsing onto the ground and going limp.
The sight of Thor's death filled Loki with a sadness he hadn't expected to feel. It shocked him and pushed all of the rage out as he reached a hand out, a cry of shock and grief escaping him in one loud cry. "THOR!"
Loki jerked out of the vision, panting a bit, surprised to feel tears running down his cheeks. He wiped them away quickly and then looked around to make sure he was still alone. His entire body still ached from his landing after he'd fallen from the rainbow bridge, but that was nothing compared to the pain in his heart.
Although he had chosen to let go and fall, there had been a part of Loki that hadn't wanted to die. He had been so tempted to allow Thor to pull him up, but he hadn't been able to face his failure. And he hadn't been able to face the fact that he'd tried to kill Thor. Even if they weren't true brothers, looking up into Thor's face, all he'd been able to see were the years they'd grown up together.
And so he'd let go, expecting - and almost wanting - to die.
It hadn't happened, though. Instead of death, Loki had been captured. He was now held in a tiny cell, tortured and starved. They wanted him to open a gateway for them, in return for his release. Loki had no idea how long he'd been held for - time seemed to move much slower here, or maybe that was because he was in so much pain all the time. Even the slightest movement aggravated his wounds and he couldn't breathe without shards of agony slicing through him.
Up until now, Loki had had no intention of agreeing to help his captors. He'd been prepared to die like this. Thor probably thought he was dead anyway. Loki couldn't blame him if that was the case. But he still didn't want to let anything happen to Thor if he could help it and so he'd used his own blood to perform a scrying spell.
Only to discover that, if he didn't agree to this, he'd turn in some other way and end up destroying the nine realms. And, ultimately, Thor would end up dead anyway. Loki had seen how things would turn out if he agreed to help the beings that held him captive, but if he did it that way, Thor would live.
And that meant there really was no choice.
Loki took hold of the other end of the Tesseract, his hands bound together and the muzzle preventing him from speaking. He felt the faint jolt as he and Thor were transported to Asgard and looked around before focusing on Heimdall, watching the gatekeeper.
Thor had set the Tesseract down and now he held onto Loki's arm, making Loki feel like an errant child. But he'd seen the way Thor had looked at him. Thor had lost any hope of getting Loki to listen to him and that hurt Loki far more than he'd ever expected, even if this had been his own choice.
Loki could have turned back at any time. He could have easily told Thor everything and accepted his brother's help along with whatever punishment Thor chose to give him for being weak. And Loki had wanted to do that. It had taken everything he'd had to pull away from Thor and stab him. Stab his brother.
But it was better if Thor didn't believe he could be changed, because if Loki died, the vision wouldn't come to pass. He was sure of it.
Loki blinked and realised that Odin was there. It was a little disconcerting to realise that he had been so lost in his thoughts that he'd failed to notice the AllFather's presence, but he quickly forced a look of indifference onto his face. The sentence would be death. Everything Loki had done ensured that.
"He cannot be brought into Asgard," Odin said quietly.
"Then what is to be done with him? Banishment?" Thor asked.
"I have seen what he's done," Odin answered. "There is no hope of redemption for him. We cannot just keep him prisoner for the rest of time."
"Then what are we to do with him?" Thor sounded like he was frowning.
Loki kept his gaze focused on Odin, but noticed the way the AllFather made eye contact with Thor. Loki was expecting the answer, but he still felt his stomach drop as Odin spoke. "Since rehabilitation is impossible and imprisonment won't work, the only path left to us is execution."
Thor's grip tightened on Loki's arm, hard enough to make Loki wince. "No! I won't allow that."
"Thor, your defence of Loki is admirable, but even you must know that he's beyond saving." Odin spoke as calmly as if he was discussing the weather. "Hand him over to the guards."
Instead, Thor's grip on Loki's arm tightened so that it was almost unbearably painful. Loki was jerked back against Thor's chest, looking down to see that he was effectively trapped with one arm pressed against his stomach. Then, as Thor reached down to grab the Tesseract, Loki felt the world swirl around them once more.
When the world cleared again, Loki glanced around with some confusion, realising that the two of them were standing on a barren rock. The next thing he realised was the fact that Thor's arm was still across his chest and that he was held fast, no matter how much he tried to wriggle and squirm free.
After a moment or two, Loki felt Thor's fingers lightly touching the muzzle before removing it and lightly tossing it to the ground. Loki worked his jaw for a moment or two before he spoke. "What are you doing? I would have thought that you'd be all for letting me be executed!"
"I know you, brother," Thor said. "There's more to it than what I've seen so far. You're hiding something."
"Are you still spouting that same rubbish?" Loki returned. "We are not brothers. I don't hold anything but contempt and loathing towards you! You might as well return me to Asgard. Whatever you feel about me is wrong."
There was silence from Thor for a few moments and then he finally spoke. "I brought you here to try and talk some sense into you, but now I think that I'd better try a different tact. Do you remember what happened when we were younger and you did something dangerous or wrong?"
Loki remembered vividly and he immediately began struggling, panic surfacing inside him. "Don't you dare!"
Ignoring Loki's struggles as if he wasn't even moving, Thor dragged him over to one of the large rocks. Taking a seat on the rock, Thor then upended Loki over his lap.
Loki froze in shock for a moment or two and then renewed his struggles - at least as much as he could with his hands tied in front of him. This wasn't how things were supposed to go! In every single plan he'd made - every possibility he'd thought of and accounted for - this had never factored into it.
A sharp pain exploded on Loki's backside, Thor's hard hand landing across the tops of both cheeks at once, breaking into Loki's inner tirade. He kicked his legs out and couldn't help the soft cry that escaped him as a second swat landed just below the first. Even through his leggings, the smacks hurt.
The fourth swat landed right across Loki's sit spots, at the exact same force, eliciting a yelp from Loki. The next one landed across his thighs and Loki tried to catapult himself off Thor's lap, nearly succeeding.
Thor pressed an arm against Loki's back, pushing him down flat against his knees. Loki would have protested the discomfort, but he quickly became more concerned with the burning, fiery pain Thor was igniting in his backside and upper thighs.
"You are not a monster, Loki," Thor said firmly, his hand never ceasing the hard smacks. "I know you. We grew up together. We were raised as brothers. Do you think I'm going to just forget all that? Or believe that you have?"
"I have forgotten!" Loki felt his chest beginning to tighten and his eyes burn, knowing that tears weren't far away. "It wasn't supposed to be like this!"
Thor paused, resting his hand on Loki's flaming backside. "What wasn't?"
Loki drew in a deep, ragged breath and blinked several times, trying to force the tears away that threatened to fall. "Let me up first." He meant it to be demanding, but with the way his voice trembled, it sounded more like a plea.
"I think not. Somehow, I believe you'll be more honest in this position."
"If I live, you'll die."
"What do you mean?"
Trying to blink back tears, Loki explained the vision he'd had. "There was no other way... I had to do it..." He buried his head in his arms, his shoulders shaking as he felt the tears finally get released.
Thor sat in silence for several moments and then finally spoke quietly. "You would never become what you were in the vision."
"There's no way you can be sure of that."
"You set up a protection for Midgard. And you were so desperate to save me that you worked to make me think you were my enemy and that you hated me. There is no way those emotions could reverse so completely."
"You seem absolutely sure of my feelings for you."
"You lie a lot of the time, but there was a time when I could tell you were being truthful," Thor said quietly. "When you told me to never doubt that you love me, I knew you were telling the truth then."
Loki closed his eyes, remembering that day. Things had seemed so simple then. And then he'd followed through with the mischief that he'd thought of, ultimately leading to Thor's banishment and he himself learning about his true heritage. "I'm sorry."
"Don't ever apologise for telling me the truth."
"I'm not. I'm apologising for what I've done." Loki drew in a deep, shuddering breath. "I was telling the truth then. I did what I thought was necessary, but I never stopped loving you or considering you my brother."
"Nothing you've done has changed how I feel about you," Thor said. "You are my brother. I don't care that we're not related by blood - we're still brothers."
Loki relaxed over Thor's lap, but then tensed again as he felt his brother's fingers in the waistband of his leggings. "What are you doing?"
"I'm going to punish you - as your older brother. And then we're going to stay here and talk and decide what to do next." As Thor spoke, he eased down Loki's leggings, bunching them right down around his ankles.
The plea died in Loki's throat and he pressed his head in his arms. He didn't have long to wait before Thor's hand landed all over his bare bottom and thighs. Without the protection of his leggings, the smacks were much more painful and had a much crisper sound to them.
Thor's hand was hard and unyielding and it didn't take long for the tears to fill Loki's eyes and spill over once more. His legs kicked a bit in response to the smacks, but he wasn't actually trying to escape.
Finally, the spanking stopped. Loki was breathing heavily, his tears streaming down his cheeks, but when Thor gathered him into his arms, Loki quickly cuddled in close and leaned his head against his brother's shoulder. He couldn't cling to Thor with his hands tied, but he pressed in as close as he could and relaxed with his brother's arms around him.
"Let's talk," Thor said quietly after a few moments.
"Do I have to get up?"
Thor shook his head with a trace of amusement on his face and removed the chains binding Loki's hands.
With his hands free, Loki could now do what he'd been wanting to since falling from the bridge. He wrapped his arms around Thor and clung as tightly to his brother as Thor was clinging to him, burying his head in his shoulder.
The End
