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Summary: Prolonged incarceration can lead to prisoners becoming mentally unbalanced. Sometimes they even begin to imagine things. Loki knew this. He had seen it happen often enough. Perhaps it was happening to him as well. He had been in solitary confinement in Asgard's dungeon for 6 months, after all. Still, he could not shake the feeling that something was off about his guards. Was his mind playing tricks on him or was something more sinister at work?

This is set after Avengers and Loki has been imprisoned for 6 months.

Read, enjoy and review :)

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Imprisoned, Chapter 1: Stir Crazy

Loki was pacing in his cell. His m- Frigga had just visited him. Her visits were the only thing he could look forward to these days. Apart from her visits, his life had become monotone over the last six months. Every day was the same. Dull, tedious – boring. Loki's mind strived for stimulation.

Of course, he could practice his magic – he sometimes entertained himself with his own illusions – and he had books. That was far more than what any of his fellow inmates were granted, but not enough to even begin to satisfy his intellect's thirst for mental stimulation.

A person of lesser intellect might have been able to feel content, but Loki was growing more restless and irritable by the day, beginning to occasionally snap at Frigga, which did not help his mood either. The only thing that might have even irked him more than the endless boredom was the fact that the walls of his "room" left him little privacy. It meant he could not give in to the ever-growing urge to smash his furniture to pieces. No, he could not, would not, give them the satisfaction of knowing how much he was struggling with his confinement.

So, he was pacing now. For, what must have been the millionth time, contemplating his options. The result of his musing was always the same: he did not have any options. Six months in captivity and he had not managed to find a flaw in the system that would allow him to escape.

He flung onto his bed with a sigh, grabbing one of the books Frigga had been able to organize him. He desperately wanted to tear it apart and throw it into a corner, but it was the only source of entertainment he had. He carelessly flipped it open and began to read.

But, after a while, he felt a strange change of energy in the room that sparked his interest. Which was not all together difficult – at this point even an insect crawling along the wall had little competition when it came to his attention.

The change of energy, he soon noticed, was most likely brought on by the changing of the guard. It happened in regular intervals and usually did not attract his attention. But this time, something was different. He could feel, it, sense it. Something was off. But, unable to extend his abilities beyond his cell, he could not quite figure out what had changed.

He kept on the façade of reading his book, but really observed the newcomers. As far as he could tell, they looked and acted the same way they always had. Not that he had ever payed them any attention before.

His instincts told him that something was off about the new guard that was standing closest to his cell. But he could not quite put his finger on to what exactly irked him about the man.

Even after an hour – or at least after what felt like an hour, it was hard to keep track of time in a windowless prison - of observing the new guard, who looked just like the regular guards, he could not discern what was really going on and what his instinct had noticed that his conscious mind was still trying to catch.

Maybe he was imagining things. But just as he had decided that observing them was a futile endeavor, he noticed something off about the guard's shadow. An illusion, his mind told him. Unlike Thor, who, after a thousand years around Loki and Frigga, still remained blissfully oblivious to what he believed to be cheap, useless tricks, Loki was too skilled not to notice an illusion when he saw one, although this one was as close to perfection as he himself had ever come.

His interest was soon replaced by a tingle of nervousness. Whoever this new person was, and Loki was sure that he was not a real guard, if taking out and replacing Æsir was his modus operandi, his intentions most likely weren't peaceful. And Loki knew that the goal was either to free a prisoner - or to kill one.

Hours went by with Loki observing and thinking, but nothing happened. Perhaps his mind was starting to play tricks on him and he had just imagined the small inconsistency in the guard's shadow? Maybe he was slowly losing his mind. He knew that it could happen to prisoners. Prolonged incarceration could lead to all kinds of insanity. He had just always believed that he would be stronger than those peons.

When he was about to abandon his suspicions, one of the guards – not the one he had observed, however - walked up to his cell. He did not face the God of Mischief. Instead, he stood next to his cell as if he were standing guard.

Loki got up from his bed – he had long since abandoned any hope of finishing his book.

"You are by far more perceptive than I had anticipated," the guard murmured, "not that it will save you."

"Who knows," Loki smiled mischievously, "I might surprise you, yet again. Who do I have the pleasure of talking to?"

At first, the guard did not answer. But then, "If you fail, if the Tesseract is kept from us, there will be no realm, no barren moon, no crevice where he can't find you. You think you know pain? He will make you long for something as sweet as pain," whispered the guard, echoing a promise from a long time ago. He said this barely moving, not even looking at the prisoner, just staring at the cell opposite of his own.

The Other, Loki thought. Perhaps he wasn't crazy after all. He did not know the extents of the Other's powers, but apparently, he was either a shapeshifter, able to possess other beings or, as unlikely as Loki thought it was, better at casting illusions than him. If his companion, who he had first noticed, was able to cast the illusion upon himself or whether the Other was disguising them both at the same time, he could not tell.

Loki's face showed only amusement. "Go ahead - attack me. Kill me. I'm not scared." And he truly wasn't. If the Other indeed attacked him, his deception would be revealed. The rest of the guards would sound the alarm. He had nothing to fear.

The guard, however, smirked as well. "A quick and painless death?"

Loki's smile faltered for a second. "Torture, then?" It did not make a difference. The guards would be alarmed all the same.

"Torture? Have you not listened? I am not planning to hurt you. Not physically, at least."

Loki's brow furrowed. "Some form of mental torture, then?"

"In a way," whispered the guard.

Loki's mind considered the different options the Other had. He could think of several, the most obvious being illusions. He could use visions to drive him crazy. This, of course, would not work on the trickster, and he had a feeling that his opponent knew this. Maybe he would at a later point break him out and Thanos would torture him?

Loki marveled at the different possibilities. There was too much information he was lacking to adequately prepare. He would just have to sit back and wait until the Other revealed more of his plan or made a mistake that would give it away.

So, he returned to his bed, grabbing a new book, trying as hard as he could to ignore the Other.

It worked, at first. But as the days passed, and the Other, as well as his companion, remained his stoic, unspeaking guard, he began to grow restless again. As there was nothing else to divert his attention, his imagination had started to paint the most gruesome forms of punishment in front of his inner eye. He had trouble falling asleep, knowing the Other was watching him at all times. He barely ate, not trusting the food the guards provided him with. He couldn't concentrate on his books, worrying that if he did not watch the guard at all times, he would fall victim to his vicious revenge. Instead, he began to pace his cell again.

But perhaps this was the plan. Drive him crazy, paranoid. But even though he was growing paranoid, he knew it was by far too lenient for any type of punishment Thanos and his lovely children would concoct.

Loki was soon proven right and the situation turned even worse. About a week after he had first noticed the Other's presence, he noticed that one of the other guards had been replaced as well. The man looked the way he always did, but Loki could feel the energy in the prison changing further.

Two days later, a fourth guard was replaced, and Loki knew that he had to do something, anything, or there would be no Æsir left and he would be completely without protection.

TBC

A.N. I am new to the Marvel fandom. I haven't read any of the comics (unless you count Deadpool Kills the Marvel Universe) and have only watched all the movies once. But after watching Infinity War and Deadpool last week, I had Marvel stuck in my head and I began to read Thor fanfiction... I love how ambiguous Loki is. You could literally write a (MCU) canon compliant ff with him being the most evil, manipulative person imaginable, as well as one in which he is a misunderstood hero who was manipulated by Thanos. I first started out writing a story (IW spoiler!) in which Loki survives IW, but felt it would be too much work to do, the fact that Avengers 4 might change everything discouraged me and I thought there are already so many good stories on in which he survives, that I stopped.

Then I started this. I hope you like it. There will be 4 more chapters and I will update once a week.

Let me know what you think :)

A.N. to readers who follow my other stories: I am so sorry. I haven't given up on A Slytherin Through Time, but I watched Infinity War two weeks ago and then Deadpool and then my head was full of Marvel... Anyhow, this is a one-time thing (well, a several chapter one-time thing) and I will return to my beloved Harry Potter fandom after this.