Phoenix

by Faceplanted

Wherein Loki is fire (and isn't that ironic, a child of fire and ice?) and the world is kindling. And Ragnarok is more or less inevitable anyway, the universe ends and begins and ends again (and again and again) and, every one is the same, but different. The world must, will, end. As a bonus, there's a small cameo from Tony Stark.

1. Fire

Phoenix

Chapter One

Fire

I am fire.

And what a joke that is, the frost-born beast of the flames. But I am fire, as surely as Thor is thunder and lightning and sunshine, for the flames are my soul and being, the inferno that thrums just beneath my frozen skin, fire and ice-

-hm, it makes sense, simply because it's so impossible. I am both fire and ice, because I am chaos, and what better chaos is there, besides warring natures housed in one body?

I am fire, and fire burns. Fire spreads like an ink-stain upon parchment, and leaves destruction in its wake. I am fire, and I will burn.

Burn any and all I touch.

I used to wonder why, why the stories of Ragnarok are whispered, because the very notion of ending everything made no sense. They hated me, on the basis of old wives tales and the babblings of three old crones crouched over a well. Why, I wondered, would I do something that made no sense?

Why, indeed.

I am fire, and it is in the very nature of fire to burn.

Fire brings life, but what life can I bring when my own is a patchwork of ill-begotten woes? Fire is change, and I was thwarted at every change I brought. Fire is hope, but what hope can I bring when every word I speak is perceived a lie?

All that's left to me is to burn. And burn I shall.

I am the end-bringer, children of the worlds. You shall burn.

CYCLE AFTER CYCLE AFTER CYCLE

WHAT OF YOUR PAST, LIESMITH?

REMEMBER, LIESMITH, THE SECOND CYCLE DRAWS TO AN END

I have wrought destruction. I am Loki, Loki who used the bridge to attack Jotunheim, Loki who attempted to take over Midgard, Loki who grew up believing a lie, Loki who

Loki who died for his brother?

(I am not dead. But I will be. I want to be. It will be such incredible fun.)

I am Loki who told Thor (not my brother) I was proud and hurt him and burned the world he loved.

I love him, my not-brother.

I also burn.

REMEMBER, REMEMBER

What am I doing?

No one knows I'm alive, Thor doesn't know, Fa-Odin doesn't know, why am I

But I want to burn…

…but I could start anew, afresh, wander the worlds as I please

And yet

I want

To burn everything. Why? I am fire. Fire burns.

REMEMBER

One might wonder how I plan to do this.

It is simple. I fell, and I listened I did. I am that child who listens to the wordless whispers of the wind, not quite there but with a definite presence that carves out the worlds. I taste the colours of the sky and my eyes have always been trained on the endless pitch black of that void between the stars. My fingers know the texture of Yggdrassil as well as they know my mother's touch.

I have fallen through that waste-space between stars, encased in shadow.

I know what lives in that shadow.

I also know how to free them.

As I fell, I saw many things. But these-

A wolf bound in chains

A rotting corpse-woman upon a desolate throne

A massive serpent coiled in the seas of Midgard

(And me, but different, bound in chains, venom form some massive beast dripping upon my brow, as a woman held a bowl aloft to keep it from burning his—my—skin.)

They sought the end as much as I, the corpse-woman told me. I am not alone in my misery, they said. They detested Asgard, wanted the worlds to burn as they have in the past. They would help me, she said.

She told me she loved me. They all did, she said.

(who are you I've seen you before but I don't remember I want to remember who)

I heard all this as I fell, but before my outstretched fingers could do more than brush her bony ones, I plummeted past.

The Queen of Helheim, she was.

Ha, I have an army. Because I listened, listened though many of her rotted words must have been lies. However, they are sweet lies, far less cruel than the golden weavings I was enshrouded in for so long.

It matters not. For I have kindling for my flame.

(Are you proud, mother? Look what I'm doing. Your not-son can be great)

(I want everything to burn, mother)

(I want them to die, mother)

(It won't hurt, mother. No one will be hurt. I'm sorry for Midgard, mother, I don't know what I was thinking. This is much better, mother, they will all die and it will not hurt)

(I'm not sorry, mother. I'm coming to see you, mother.)

(I'm happy, mother)

I am Loki, endbringer. I am Loki, who has greeted Death twice. She let me go with only a kiss on the head and a whisper telling me that she looks forward to seeing me.

("Who are you? Where am I?"

"The Void, Liesmith. You fell."

"I let go. I wanted to…am I dead?"

"Not yet. But when you do, I will be here.")

("Hello again, Loptr."

"Who…you…you are Death."

"I am."

"Am I dead now?"

"No. Not yet. But when you do-"

"You will be here?"

"As I was every time you died in the past.")

I am Loki. I will burn the world.

And then I will sleep.

CYCLES PAST, THE CHILDREN OF YESTERDAY

MOURN THER DEATHS THAT NEVER WERE, LIESMITH

AVENGE YOUR CHILDREN, WHO WERE NEVER BORN

I'm at the edge of the worlds.

I sat on Asgard's throne, twice. I let it go.

Why?

(burnburnburn the worlds must burn)

I…I don't..

I can't think. I'm confused, but I'm resolute. The stars above, the winds, the voices in my mind all say the same thing-

REMEMBER, LIESMITH

AVENGE AND BURN

YOU ARE THE ENDBRINGER

THIS IS YOUR FATE

-and I can't breathe. There is a universe expanding in my chest, stars exploding behind my closed eyelids, a black hole beneath my feet, sucking me in, and around me is the suffocating black of the space between stars.

I want everything to burn. I want to be the flame that lights the universe's pyre. I want to dance in the ashes, and laugh at their corpses.

I simply cannot fathom why.

(what reason do you need make them hurt for the hurts they gave you revenge revenge revenge make them burn and all things die anyway this is more satisfying fire burns you are fire so burnburnburn like the never ending flames of Muselpheim MAKE THEM DIE)

But I must-

("I love you," she whispered, as I slipped through stars. "I love you more than you can fathom.")

-because I am fire, and fire burns.

BE THE INFERNO, CHILD

LOKI, LOPTR, SILVERTOUNGUE, LIESMITH, SKYWALKER, ENDBRINGER

CHILD OF FROST AND STORM, OF ASGARD

BROTHER TO THE ALLFATHER AND THE THUNDRERER

MOTHER OF MONSTERS AND FATHER OF BEASTS

I can't breathe-

I feel

Myself

Burning

I stare out at the stars stretched out before me like infinite eternity. I close my eyes for a few seconds, calming myself (I CAN'T BREATHE I CAN'T BREATHE I'M DROWNING IN SPACE I'M BURNING I NEED TO DESTROY) before opening them again. My fists unclench, and I take a step, foot hovering over the space, the other still planted firmly in the desolate landscape of the Dark World. The portal opened around me never seemed so much like a gaping maw before, a mouth opening up to the universe.

I step into space, and a path opens before me, carved out into the very fabric of reality. Far ahead, a tree stands vast and endless, golden, gleaming and infinite-

(homehomehome I am home this is home I belong here)

-and I start walking.

STEP INTO THE FLAMES

ONE HUNDRED STEPS, LOKI, SON OF NO ONE

ONE HUNDRED STEPS, COUNT THEM AS YOU GO

ONE HUNDRED STEPS INTO THE INFERNO

ONE HUNDRED STEPS UNTIL THE END

As I walk, I count my steps.

As I count, I see things.