Nothing good would come of it. Before the little snake even explained his oh-so-awesome, totally not at all treacherous plan, they all knew it would come back to bite them on the collective ass. But what choice did they have? That was the thing about him. His ideas and plans were the worst possible, but he had a way of spinning them so they sounded like the only viable option in an otherwise bleak and hopeless landscape. And that spell, that cunning he wove over the team would always start to unravel just at the moment they all realised they'd made a huge mistake.
And that mistake was standing in the middle of the room, six feet tall with shiny new horns and dressed like a reject from a Lord of the Rings casting call. But it was that smile; that wicked grin that telegraphed everything. The treachery, the deceit. He got what he wanted all right. It was always lies on top of lies on top of lies, and they fell for it again.
And then America tried to push him through a wall, and damn nearly succeeded. No-one really felt any better for it, but it was satisfying to watch.
They didn't have any time to waste, but their plans and options were effectively down to zero. Everyone went to their bunks to contemplate life, or what remained of it, as if that was it. Being tricked by a teenage trickster god took a lot out of a person, apparently. Especially when they were already run ragged from hopping from one universe to another, almost nonstop.
Kate tried to stay still and think, but she couldn't. Everything was abuzz, flying through her mind at the speed of light. So instead of sitting, she took to stalking round the ship. On her second circuit, she heard Loki talking to someone. But when he stumbled out of the room, shooting his feet a glare as if they were wrong, he was alone.
"Got what you wanted, huh?" she asked.
Loki didn't look at her. He shrugged as he leaned against the wall, stretching one long leg out in front of him, as high and as far as it would go.
"It wasn't meant to work this way," he said, sneering at her, or himself, or whoever. "My magic should have grown stronger; not vanished completely. This is very much not what I wanted."
He looked at his hand, as if he could see the magic there — or at least, where his magic should have been. Part of his new look came with black leather cuffs, as well as black nails. But not painted, like some angsty 80s goth; actually black.
Had they always been black? Kate wasn't entirely sure, now that she thought about it. Loki had always worn gloves before.
"What's with the new threads?" she asked, watching him stretch his arms out in front of him while he tested his reach. She couldn't help but reach out and pluck her fingers at the linen sleeve of his shirt? tunic? just to make sure it was real.
It was. She wasn't sure what she'd have done if it wasn't.
"I didn't think it would be greatly appreciated if I stood naked in front of everyone," Loki said. He reached up, pressing the palm of his hand flat against the ceiling. Apparently, just because he could.
"What are you doing?" Kate asked.
Loki stopped, and for the first time since they all walked out on him, looked directly at her. "I just grew two feet in twenty seconds. That's a strange thing for anybody to get used to."
Kate laughed despite herself. He was terribly, terribly charming, which was the entire problem. "And it didn't even work," she said with a mocking insincerity. She was glad it hadn't worked, and she was pretty sure if it had, no-one would have liked what would have happened next. They'd all been manipulated, and worse, they all fell for it again, and it was only because something had gone wrong that Loki hadn't carried out his plans, whatever they were.
"But I do have to admit. We probably won't turn quite so many heads now that we're not being followed by a bratty twelve-year-old everywhere. So it's not a total loss." Kate smirked at him as he wiggled his fingers. Everything about him was different, and he was right about one thing: it would take some getting used to.
Loki stopped wiggling his fingers around and turned his hands over, inspecting what little could be seen beyond the leather cuffs. Mostly, just long, bony fingers were visible. "How old would you say I am now?" he asked.
Kate leaned back, bringing her hand up to her mouth as she considered his question. "Nineteen? Twenty?" she guessed. "Twenty-one if you really push it."
Loki's face lit up like a lamp. "Sweet. I skipped right over that whole awkward puberty bit. I was not looking forward to repeating that."
Kate laughed again, shaking her head. Loki always did seem to live off in his own little world, ignoring the big things and focusing on those so trivial no-one else had even thought of them.
"So, what's the plan now?" Kate asked.
Loki took a moment to think about it. "Seeing if the door to my bunk has a lock, and then probably going from there."
It took her a moment to work out what he meant, and when Kate caught up, she almost reeled backwards.
"Ew. No! TMI!" she said, waving her hands for him to stop that train of thought right then and there. "That's disgusting. You—I'm going somewhere else."
She left Loki alone again, where he could contemplate his shiny new body without interruption, and went to go find David.
—
Noh-varr's ship was fast, but it didn't get them where they needed to be nearly fast enough sometimes. It would still take them almost a day to get back to where they needed to be before Mother unleashed hell on the world, and no-one dared tempt fate by wondering if they'd be fast enough. Perhaps it was optimism, or the desire to put up a façade of a unified front, that they all sat in the bridge as they hurtled across an endless void of deep space. But after the first twenty minutes, conversation waned. Another twenty minutes, and everything was silent, save the hum of the ship's mechanics. Kate didn't even realise she'd dozed off until a clunk to her right woke her. She looked over to see Loki rubbing his forehead, just under the edge of that ridiculous tiara he'd conjured for himself.
"I'm going to bed," he announced suddenly. He got up and shuffled back toward the main deck, barely sparing anyone else a backward glance as he went. "Do be sure to wake me when things start to get exciting."
Loki giving into the temptation of his bunk set off a domino effect across the bridge, starting with Billy, and then David and America.
"Sleep would be a good idea, if you can get it," Billy reasoned.
"Yeah, we want to be well-rested for the end of the world," America said, her tone not quite managing the joviality her words seemed to imply. If anything, she sounded bitter.
Kate couldn't really blame her. She was sure they all felt the same way.
As America vacated her seat, Kate got up to take it. She didn't say anything at first, only watching Noh-varr pilot the ship. They were the only two on the bridge now, the tense silence between them stretching out as planets and star systems blurred by.
"You're worried," Noh-varr observed finally.
"And you aren't?" asked Kate, surprised at the idea that worry would be unusual right now.
"I am." Noh-varr looked over at her, his face as impassive as ever. "But you're worried about something else as well." His gaze flickered for an instant back toward the hatch to the main deck. He was worried too, then; or at least understood what was bothering Kate.
"He's Loki. Norse god of lies and evil," Kate pointed out. She waved her arm back toward the deck, like she could point him out through the walls. "That was easy to forget when he was all cute and twelve, but you saw him now. He's trouble, and we're taking him with us."
Noh-varr turned his gaze back out toward the empty expanse ahead of them. "Loki has expressed a drive and desire to change his ways. He wishes to change thousands of years of habit and learned behaviour. This is not a change he can be expected to make overnight. The best we can do is be patient with him." He looked back over to Kate, his expression almost infuriatingly understanding. "And be extremely vigilant about not letting ourselves be manipulated by someone with thousands of years of experience with lying."
Kate looked back at the closed hatch, finding no answers there.
"You don't think it's an incredibly bad idea to trust him?" she asked.
Noh-varr looked at her for a moment longer before flipping a bank of switches overhead. "I never said that."
Kate sighed, looking down at her feet. "Yeah. What about you? You going to bed?"
"You should get some sleep," Noh-varr said. "I'll stay awake in case any emergencies should arise."
Kate stood hesitantly, not sure if she should stay up with him or not. But they hadn't had any real chance for sleep for days, and she needed rest before they got back to New York. Rather than say anything, she bent to kiss Noh-varr on his cheek before going back to her own bunk. She had to pass Loki's on the way, and he'd left the door wide open. Kate almost covered her eyes as she passed, until she heard him talking.
"No, shut up," Loki grumbled.
Kate stopped to see who Loki was arguing with, but he was alone, lying on the small bed with his back to the door with his hands covering his ears. He still wore his leather cuffs, but his shirt had been dropped to the floor, and his new horns hung on the back of the chair that sat against the wall. Thankfully, he had his blanket pulled up to his waist, so Kate didn't have to see what else Loki wasn't wearing.
"No, I don't care," Loki said. For a moment, Kate almost thought he might have been talking in his sleep, but then he grabbed his pillow and covered his head with it.
"I wish I could find a way to kill you again," Loki shouted, his words heavy and muffled from under the pillow.
Kate suddenly didn't want to know what was going on. Whatever it was, Loki certainly didn't want anyone else to see it, and she didn't want him to know that she had. She walked away quickly, leaving Loki to his undoubtedly-deservéd demons, and slipped into her own bunk. Everyone was on edge, and stressed out beyond measure, and Kate told herself that whatever it was she'd just witnessed, it was most likely a product of that stress. All she could do was ignore it as best she could and get some sleep. She wasn't sure she'd be able to fall asleep at all, with all the nervous energy buzzing through her, but she undressed for bed and slid in between the sheets anyway. If she had been awake for it, she would have been surprised at how quickly she fell asleep.