A/N: This idea began after I watched the movie Thor. I saw the Avengers twice before Thor, so I thought I knew Loki enough... Well I was wrong, wasn't I? There seems to be such a gap between the Loki of Thor and the Loki of The Avengers. I briefly touched on it in my story "He's Like the Sun," but when Gabrielle Day and I began discussing it in earnest, we came up with this story. So within this story (taking place after Avengers, of course) we try to explain just why Loki had such a dramatic change. That, and it was a lovely opportunity to whump on our favorite Asgardians. Really, we wouldn't be fanfiction writers if we didn't whump on our favorites with the best of our ability XD
Drown the Echoes
He found himself standing on a familiar hill. It was one that he and his brother had often been to as children, just beyond the limitations that their father had set up for them in their youth. It had served as a setting for many play-pretend adventures as children, as well as one or two real ones once they grew. He wasn't entirely sure how he had come to stand on that hill, and his usually sharp mind was sluggish to give him answers. His elder brother was nowhere in sight, but there was a looming sense of dread in the air that sent a chill up his spine. An irrational fear seized at him and he spun, knowing that he had heard something, but he never saw what it might have been.
He'd only blinked, he was sure, but when he reopened his eyes he was no longer in that field. He was lying with his face buried in his arms atop a stiff cot in a cell on Asgard. The sound that had disrupted his dream was the sliding of his cell door, and he didn't need to look up to know who had entered. Irritation washed over him and he thought for a moment that if he were to lie motionless, perhaps he would mistake stillness for sleep.
The figure stood for several long moments just inside the doorway before moving to the single chair in the space and settling in it. "Since you are asleep, brother, I suppose I shall regale you of stories from my time on Earth. The ones you were not directly involved in, of course. I have many, and could fill many hours."
Loki shut his eyes briefly before rolling onto his side. "I would rather be skewered on the horns of a wild beast. Surely the great son of Odin has other things to do with his time than to bother me here in the pits of oblivion?" he murmured, green eyes flashing.
Thor smirked. "I knew you were not sleeping."
Loki snorted and propped himself up on his elbow. "If you are here to ask me the same question that you have been asking since we came back to Asgard, the answer remains the same as it was a few nights ago: I do not know. I do not know what went wrong. I do not know what happened. Take it at that and leave me to what peace I may have!" He flung himself back down to the cot, back to the blond.
Silence stretched between them for several long moments before he heard Thor sigh. "I spoke to Eric Selvig before we departed Midgard." More silence greeted him, so he continued. "Though he is inclined to disagree with my assessment, his description of what he felt when possessed by the Tesseract may fill in some of the questions that you and I have..."
"Not that again," Loki growled. "Do you really think my will so weak as to be taken in by the same thing as those mortals?"
"I do not believe it to be weak-willed, brother, but simply..." He trailed off. "You cannot deny that you were vulnerable when you fell."
Loki refused to look at him. He could deny it. He could deny it for all of eternity, and he fully intended to. He was very good at lying even to himself.
"Or were you really in full possession of your thoughts and actions when you sent me plummeting towards the ground to die?" Thor asked. His voice was so low it seemed as if he were asking himself and not Loki. The question made him freeze, no quick reply came to his lips as for all his brother's other questions. It was among the many things he did not have answers for and one of the many moments that slowly gnawed at him if he dwelled on it for too long. Thor spared him from making an answer by saying, "I cannot believe that you were."
Loki smiled. "You forget what I keep telling you about sentiment."
Thor sighed, stood and came to take a seat on the other side of the cot. He reached out a hand for his brother's shoulder and felt a pang of hurt when the smaller man winced away, almost as if the touch had physically hurt him. "I came this evening to say..." He stopped, voice full of emotions that a Son of Odin should not portray openly. "I came here to say that I trust you, brother. I trust that you believed you were doing what was right for Asgard when you manipulated us all, and that you were not in control of yourself - just as neither Eric nor Barton were - when you led the attack against Earth."
"You're a fool then," Loki spat, trying to shrug the elder Asgardian's hand away.
"That may be, but I do miss my brother terribly. Perhaps when I return you will have found answers within yourself."
Loki found himself sitting up, a strange sort of panic rising in his mind. "Where are you going?" he asked before he could stop himself. Why should he feel fear at Thor's leaving? He should be relieved. Perhaps he could get the silence that he'd so longed for. The silence that he could piece together his tattered mind within.
He watched Thor watching him and resisted the urge to conjure some trick to distract his brother's gaze, even as he worried at the others' departure. It was tiresome, watching Thor wait for something like a child awaiting a present they knew they were to receive. Whatever Thor was looking for in him was not there, but Thor did not look away as all the others did. "To Midgard and Stark's tower. They have just finished rebuilding and the Captain assures me it is as ugly as it was before. SHIELD has discovered something that disturbs them and they are calling for the Avengers to gather and look over the information." Thor said.
As the blond shifted to stand Loki said quickly, "I'm sure a great many things disturb them. What in particular makes them need all the great heroes of the Earth, so far as to call you from Asgard?"
"It is a threat that they do not understand. They contacted me because they thought you to be at the center of it."
"From a cell?"
Thor shrugged. "I told them it was not like you. I know your tricks, and this was not one of them."
"What is it?"
"What do you care?"
That stopped him. What did he care? "Anything to get my mind off the boredom," he offered at last. Thor didn't buy it. Damn. When had he developed a sense of intuition?
The blond shook his head and gave an unconvincing smile. "There is a force that drives at the mind of the mortals. It set quite a rift between Captain America and Iron Man, I hear, and they are still shaken by its effects."
Loki couldn't help to shake the feeling that it seemed very familiar. Something of a connection should be made between his earlier dream and Thor's description. His brother took his silence for disinterest. "I should not be gone long. I wish you well, brother, and I hope you find the answers that you need."
Loki did not offer a farewell of his own, as his mind was turning as fast as it could go. He heard the door slide shut in the distance, but sat still on his small cot, thinking back. Finally, he pulled together something that sent chills down his spine.
He was at the door before he could stop himself, palm slammed against stone. "Wait!" Only silence greeted him. "Thor!" he snarled. The cell did not reopen. Thor was gone - out of earshot. His words echoed in Loki's mind. There is a force that drives at the minds of mortals. That could only be the beginning. Captain America and Iron man had weaknesses that were open and easy to exploit, as he well knew. And as he knew even more intimately, so did his brother. "Guards!" he bellowed. The time for quiet was over. Now he had to get out. Silence greeted him and he could feel the irritation mixing with a rising panic. "Guards!" he called out again.
When the door opened he found himself staring at a face he had not seen since he was returned to Asgard, bound and gagged and kneeling. Odin Allfather stood in the doorway, head held high before his adopted son, demanding all the respect of the nine realms. Loki had refused to tell him anything upon his return, but had simply demanded his punishment without delay. Part of him had expected death, another part banishment, but to have been given chambers fit as a cell had never been in the plan, and it showed a mercy that did not suit Odin well. Neither did the look in the Allfather's eye now, but Loki couldn't worry about that. "Where has Thor gone to? You must stop him."
"You think this is the wisest thing that you could say to me? Issuing both question and command of things that are no longer your concern?" Odin asked, sounding displeased.
Of course, Loki doubted that he would sound anything but displeased when speaking to him from now until eternity passed away. "Thor spoke to me before he left of going to Earth." Loki tried again.
"Then why do you ask where he has gone if he has told you himself? Sit down and be silent." Odin said firmly.
Loki breathed in through his nose, collecting his scattered thoughts. He would only get one opportunity for this and if he failed both his life and Thor's would be forfeit, which would be difficult to prove with the only evidence he possessed nothing more than a thought and a feeling. "He is going straight into something he cannot understand," he found himself saying.
"Enough!" Odin roared, his voice reminding Loki of the day he silenced him just before Thor's banishment. He felt himself sink back, unable to stand straight under the power of that voice, and he bowed his head a little, green eyes searching for an opening to speak. "Your brother goes to offer help to a world that you nearly destroyed," Odin said. "He goes to help mend the tears you made."
"He goes to his own demise!"
"What are you asking, then? To go to his aid or to aid in his destruction?" Odin challenged.
Loki felt a surge of anger that made him look up in defiance, but at the look on the Allfather's face he dropped his gaze again quickly. "Very well. If you do not wish your chosen son to return to Asgard I will say no more." Loki said thinly and sat on the edge of the bed.
Odin's lips quirked in an expression that indicated he did not believe his adopted son would ever choose to say no more. "Do you truly believe that Thor is in danger? If you do, what do you know of it? Quickly."
Loki pursed his lips together thoughtfully. There was the issue. It was a feeling, a distant memory of something that seemed to have been blotted out for any real use. It was as if someone had gone into his mind and wiped the event out, covering it and smudging it until it was no longer recognizable for the event it might have been. He hated that feeling, and he'd felt it far too often in recent times. "I cannot say," he murmured at last, knowing that he must say something, but knowing it would not help his cause.
Odin snorted. "That seems to be your only defense as of late," he answered irritably. He stood and stared at his youngest son for a moment, and his features softened. "Loki, I would like to believe you, my son, but you have made that difficult." He sighed, looking worn down by the entire experience. "You know you need only to plead your innocence convincingly to attain your freedom, but you do not even try."
"What would you have me say?" Loki snapped, feeling anger rise within him. "Perhaps you simply drove me mad with all of your lies." If he didn't know better, he would have thought that had stung the Allfather.
"Your mother wishes a word with you. I came to ask that you be kinder to her than you are to the rest of your visitors."
"Must she come?" Loki asked without meaning too. It was getting to him, confinement, for him to keep letting words fall so carelessly.
"It is what she wishes. Will you do this one small thing for her sake?"
Loki merely nodded, his thoughts already moving forward, testing the web in his mind, looking for weaknesses in the possibilities. She might be the last chance, her mother's heart needing to comfort and to console, to see her family reconciled. Loki bit his lip to keep from smiling from even the slightest.
Odin turned to go. "You might have ruled together, you know."
"Don't patronize me," his youngest growled as the door slid open.
Frigga stood in the entrance, beautiful as always and she smiled appreciatively at her husband as he passed. She waited until they were closed in together to turn towards her imprisoned son. "You've denied my last three attempts to visit you."
"There's been no need," Loki answered shortly, holding his emotions in check. She had done him no wrong growing up, he knew, with the exception of being a participant in keeping the truth from him. Her love of Thor had never overshadowed the love she felt for her youngest. Truth be told - and he rarely reveled in telling it - he had not wanted her there because she reminded him of the happier days of his life. Those days that he could never retrieve, no matter how hard he might try.
She sighed heavily, reaching a hand out to touch his cheek. He did not shy away, but refused to look at her. "I heard what you told Odin. Do you truly believe that Thor is in danger?"
This startled him. No tricks needed, she had come out and asked. All she needed was the truth. "Yes," he managed, green eyes flickering in her direction.
"Why?"
Loki clenched and unclenched his jaw, and closed his eyes before speaking. "I know the ways of things that move in shadow, the way secrets and half-truths slip into ears and around the minds of both the unsuspecting and the guarded. No one who knows these movements of doubt and uncertainty uses them for any good. What Thor spoke to me of, a force in the minds of men...he is trusting. We both know this. He would be destroyed."
Frigga stroked her thumb over his cheek, grateful that he allowed even that small contact. "If you were able, what would you do to stop this force?" she asked softly.
"Whatever it took." He startled at his own words. Damn his loosening tongue. He had never known a day that he was not in control of it until then.
Frigga's hand began to tremble and she stood on her toes and kissed her son's cheek. "I will buy you whatever time you need if you swear that you will both come home to me when it is said and done," she whispered, tears standing in her eyes.
"You would have me defy Father? Now? Of all times?"
"You let me worry about your father. You worry about your brother."
As he took her hand to pull it away from his face, he realized that her words were what he felt. Worry for his brother, but whether worry Thor would come to harm or that Loki would not be the one to bring him to it he could not say. Would not say. "I will bring him home to you. I do not know how much time I will need. The people that Thor has gone to will not appreciate my presence, either."
Frigga smiled briefly. "Well, you've always got your charm." Her cheeky comment startled him and she slipped to the door. "I shall only be able to gain you one opportunity. You will know it when it arrives. Don't lose it." she said.
She gave him no time for response as she left him to his own thoughts. The silence of the cell seemed more daunting than usual as Loki took a seat on the cot to wait. He found himself up and down half a dozen times in twenty minutes, pacing, stretching, sitting, and then standing to repeat the ritual again. All the while he ran his plan through his keen mind. Though the repair of the bridge was coming along, the bitfrost was nowhere near ready to use, and certainly not by sneaking past those that guarded it. He would have to make use of other ways that he liked much less. He had used them before, while traveling to Jotunheim and allowing a few stay Frost Giants in to ruin his brother's big day. It would have to work if he were going to finish what he set out to do.
He nearly jumped when the door slid opened. He counted to three and when no figured appeared on the other side, he knew his mother had done what she had said. The hall was empty, and far too quiet. Loki moved quickly and silently through the labyrinth of halls. The situation on earth turned in the back of his mind, the constant nudging of knowledge just out of reach nearly making growl in frustration. It was so close, but would not come to light. Perhaps seeing what it had done to Thor's little Earth friends would help loosen the thoughts.
Loki thought he heard footsteps and paused, pressing himself against the cool wall. He need not go much further to be where he needed. Two guards moved towards his cell, but that was for the best. At least until he needed the power to transport himself there would be a doppelganger standing in his cell, looking at the two men that entered. He heard them yell very distantly as he had to recall the image to himself, muster the energy, and fling himself towards Midgard.
TBC
A/N: So, hope you like how it's begun. While it is Loki and Thor centered, we will also have the rest of the Avengers there as well, including our lovable Tony and Cap. As always, reviews are very much appreciated!
