A/N – So this may not be my first fanfic but it's my first one about Loki. I've been wanting to write one about him for a while, so please let me know what you think! All comments, constructive criticism and words of wisdom are welcome. Not entirely sure where I'll be going with this, but the opening just came to me. Without further adieu, here's the beginning.
Chapter One
There was a storm brewing over London. The clouds were roiling, scudding across the horizon. There was a pulsing crack of far-off thunder, deep and heavy.
Alia watched the encroaching storm from her bedroom window. This was one of the few times where having a flat on the billionth floor was a good thing. There was almost nothing between her and that storm. It made climbing the stairs when the lifts were out of order worthwhile. She loved storms. Loved and feared them. They filled her with a sense of foreboding, and they filled her with a sense of power.
She reluctantly pulled herself away from the window. She had ten minutes to get to work. No more time to waste watching the storm roll in.
Alia grabbed her parka from the back of the chair and pulled it on, throwing her bag over her shoulder. She snatched her keys from the table, did a quick spin on her heel to check she hadn't forgotten anything, then raced out the door.
She was in luck. The lifts were working today. She rode one down from the seventeenth to the ground floor, shifting her weight impatiently. The doors slid open and she hurried through the foyer and out into the charged air. The rain hadn't started yet. She knew for a fact it would begin while she was on the tube, meaning she'd get soaked on the last stretch of her journey.
The London Underground itself was heaving. Alia wormed her away through the crowds, rushing past everyone on the steep escalators, before forcing herself onto a waiting train as the doors beeped harshly, sliding shut behind her. She held onto a bar beside a stone-faced businessman as the train pulled away.
Today was going to be a long one. She had an entire website to redesign. Everything she'd made for them so far they didn't approve of. She was fast running out of ideas, and it was becoming clear that monotony would soon be the death of her.
When the train finally pulled in at Alia's stop, she had to battle her way across the carriage to get off. Too much effort for a day she didn't want to put any effort into.
She took the stairs two at a time, hoping to at least beat the rain. She ascended towards the street and the sky. In her short time underground, the sky had gone from a slate grey to an almost black. She paused at street level, scrunching her eyes as she dared to look upwards. A lone drop of rain landed on her forehead before she even had time to register its fall. She blinked involuntarily and wiped the water away.
It was then that the sky lit up with a flash of lightning, an arc shooting through the clouds. Alia smiled as the thunder followed quickly afterwards and the wind began to pick up. Well, at least there was no downpour yet.
Alia was still staring upwards when the second flash came, brighter and closer than the first. This one shot downwards, but Alia couldn't tell if it struck anything. Her smile was fading now. This storm looked more violent, more angry, than any Alia had seen before.
She started moving again, shrugging her parka tighter around her. Maybe a day in the office wouldn't be so bad.
The third flash came, and it was enough to wipe the first two from anyone's mind. The lightning struck the ground with a force like a plane crash, thick and blindingly bright. There was a deafening crack, like stone breaking, and all pedestrians on the street froze.
The lightning had struck on the next street over. Only the next street over wasn't a street at all, but Trafalgar Square.
Alia had been going that way before, yet now she picked up her pace. Her boots slapped the pavement as she hurried along, heading for the corner. She rounded it, expecting to see blackened stone in the square, and that was exactly what she saw, except the patch wasn't empty at all.
Alia faltered, momentarily confused. So lightning might not strike twice and all that, but why stand where it just had? It was like you were asking for trouble.
She continued walking, planning on just breezing past on her way to work, getting a good look at the situation in the meantime. But with every step the unfolding scene became stranger.
Two men were stood in the patch of blackened stone. The first thing Alia noticed was that their outfits were odd, to say the very least, yet strangely familiar. Both of them were tall, with long hair. Yet that was where the similarities stopped. Where one was muscular and blonde, the other was lean and dark.
There was a thin crowd around the two men, who themselves seemed to be stuck in a heated discussion. The crowd was slowly backing off, but Alia couldn't help herself. Instead of skirting around the scene, her feet only took her closer.
Like everyone else, she watched on warily as the two men spoke to each other. Alia could barely make out what they were saying, words drowned beneath the rush hour traffic. They kept their voices low, but she could see the tension in their bodies as they spoke, necks straining to spit out what they had to say.
The blonde man was speaking, calmer than the other, and as Alia stepped as close as she dared she caught what she supposed to be the tail-end of his sentence. "You agreed you would tell us; you cannot go back on your word now, brother."
The other man blanched, but the action itself seemed ironic. "I never agreed to anything. I said what I had to in order to be freed and now my part in that charade is over."
Alia glanced at her watch. She was going to be late for work. She didn't think her boss would be too happy if the reason for her tardiness was that she'd been too engrossed in someone else's argument.
She moved to leave, yet didn't get very far when someone else's words caught her attention. "No, but they weren't there before. The lightning hit and then those two were there clambering off the ground."
Alia glanced behind her in time to see the blonde man scan the small crowd. He reached for the other man, gripping his shoulder and turning him away as if to leave, but the dark-haired one viciously shrugged him off. "If you think I will tell you then you're truly more stupid than I thought, brother." The last word dripped with a fierce sarcasm. "Thanos will come and the Earth will fall. I have no intention of saving a world that isn't mine. In truth, I look forward to seeing the look on your face when your precious humans are crushed beneath Thanos' fist."
The dark one looked to the crowd then and smiled, wide and condescending. He didn't seem to care too much that his confusing argument had an audience. He glanced towards his brother and said, "Perhaps I should warn them. Instil a little premature fear."
"Loki, you will do no such thing!" his brother answered, reaching for him again, this so-called Loki, but this time his hand went straight through him, Loki's figure flickering with a sickly green tinge.
A collective gasp went up among the crowd. Alia could only watch as Loki stepped closer to his audience. She was so astonished that she didn't notice the people around her backing off slightly, leaving her the person stood closest to the advancing Loki. She forgot all about being late for work and remained rooted to the spot. How had he done that? Her pulse was picking up, hammering in her veins. And with it came her anger. The fight or flight response. Always her answer had been fight, and it had garnered her a lot of trouble. Yet it was something she was unable to control.
Loki scoured the faces of the crowd. His eyes lingered on Alia and his smile only grew. A smile tinged sour. "You all must remember the events of New York," he began.
Alia didn't know if he was expecting a response, but the words slipped from her lips before she could give any thought to them. "Yeah, why?"
His gaze snapped back to her. There was an energy in his eyes, bright and thrumming. "Then you must remember the destruction," he continued, taking deliberate steps closer. Alia didn't have a response this time. Keeping her mouth shut was something she desperately needed to work on. "How would you feel if I told you that New York was only the beginning? That what happened there was only a fraction of the pain you will witness and endure?"
Alia didn't move. She watched him approach her as he spoke, his eyes locked onto hers, his step never wavering. She suspected his words were meant to frighten her, but they only made her stomach twist with an anger bubbling beneath the surface. He clearly took pride in scaring people, so scare her he would not.
"Loki," his brother snapped. He'd had enough of Loki's games now, and this time when he clamped a hand on his shoulder it didn't fall through him. "Loki, come with me, leave this."
There was still a hint of a smile on Loki's sharp face, so Alia took it upon herself to smile back. His brow furrowed almost imperceptibly. "Your name," he said. "What is your name?"
The question caught Alia a little off guard, but she answered anyway. "My name's Alia."
"Alia," he repeated, and she couldn't deny the name sounded softer and more lyrical on his tongue. There was a hint of amusement in his tone.
"Excuse us, Alia," the blonde brother interrupted, pulling sharply on Loki's shoulder, "but I must speak with my brother."
It was then that Alia noticed the large, metal hammer in his hand. She frowned. It all made sense now. This was Thor, one of those who had fought in the battle in New York. She'd caught some news coverage of it, but that was over a year ago now.
Thor half-dragged Loki away, back towards the blackened stone. He looked to his left and Alia followed Thor's gaze to see two policemen approaching. Instead of simply walking off, Thor began to spin his hammer at his side. Loki attempted to wrench himself from Thor's grip, lashing out, but Thor caught him by the back of his clothes and leaped.
And they were gone.
