This is a collaboration story between myself and my friend King Evil(account is being made as we speak, link to it will be on my profile). It is also being posted on Archive of Our Own under the same name. It is currently only on my account, but will be added to Evil's as soon as it can be. Please read, review, and subscribe.
-Little Raccoon
Disclaimer: All we own is the plot and a few OC's. Everything else belongs to their respective owners. ^_^
(Prologue)
The damage, the consequences were dire. The world was about to end, the sun was one with the aether and now, a part of it was in Loki. He was more powerful than ever. What Thor failed to do, Loki was doing right now. The darkness swarmed over the wasteland. Death and blood swept its way across the fields of ash, burnt to nothing but a crisp of whiff. Cracked urban terrain, no life, no existence. That is what Loki Odinson felt at that moment. He cherished it.
"Loki", Thor screamed as Malkeith's blade pierced Loki through the heart at the fair distance.
Thor ran like no tomorrow but, as he grew closer, all he could hear more and more clearly was Loki's laughter. He watched from a distance as Loki drew the blade out from within and slashed the laughing Malkeith across the throat, stopping the glory hog in utter silence. Thor watched as Loki hurled Malkeith's body afar from within himself. He watched as Loki laughed and fell. The pain, the hurt, once he finally reached him, Loki laid on the floor.
"keh, bwahaha, who would have thought I'd save you tehe?" croaked Loki.
Thor smiled, "I knew you would Loki", he said with a smile.
"tehe, pity" smirked Loki.
"Loki…"
"Save it Thor… I know mother isn't dead…keh" Loki replied in calm as his breathing eased up. He could feel himself slipping.
Thor was horrified, he had completely forgotten the reason why Loki had come out on the rescue mission. So, his brother knew and he still came and still defended himself. The guilt began to turmoil ten-fold.
He tried to find the words, as he did, the clouds began to darken followed by torrential rain. Thunder cracking away in respect of Thor's emotions. Thor watched as the rain covered Loki's cloak. In the moments spent looking for words of comfort, Loki Odinson laid still. His hair spread out like a frenzy in disarray.
"Tehe...the aether in me burns brother…. Tehe…there's …. Still the job…. To stop the sun…." croaked Loki.
"I don't care Loki... please…" pleaded Thor.
"Loki… no no…" Thor mused as he grasped his brother harder.
"Come here Jane…" Loki whispered.
Jane motioned herself forward with slight hesitation. "Yes Loki", she responded as she kneeled down beside.
Loki scuffled ever so faintly as he pummelled his pockets, with little magic remaining, he motioned the scrunched letter in his pocket over to Jane. With a trickster smile, "One more thing to do… tehehe".
With a blast of a green wave, Loki released himself out of Thor's arms while letting the pierced hole's dark magic eat within. The hole growing bigger and bigger. He smiled before letting himself fly. A feat, Thor had never seen.
"NO!", screamed Thor as he realised Loki had stilled his ability to fly. He watched helplessly as Loki flew to his doom with Jane standing astray.
The sun burned, it burnt like supernova. It was alive, it was moving. The sun was sad, it was angry. The rage spoke through raising temperatures accumulated across the realms. Planets were being drawn in, the scientific explanation gravity deterred to be stronger than magic. Yet he tried.
Standing mere meters away he stood. Carved in blue, a giant's height he stood. A misunderstood being, yet he didn't care. He was a scholar, a traveller, hungry for knowledge. An innovator is what he was known as by few, a monster by many. He merely sought himself to be a kindled being. A being created by the norms for one purpose to live life. To live like no tomorrow.
Being an iced being, the heat wasn't doing too well. He could feel the temperature rise; he could feel the claustrophobic tension swelling within his lungs. The swirling of sweat deepening in puddles. As he held his hands out, the green lights were born anew. With a ferocious slash, like carved knives it spread. Slowly engulfing the sun, like a mere piece of string, it carried on. Wrapping the sun like a children's gift. All that watched knew this was no mere trickery.
As the sun was engulfed. The shade of crimson was diminishing as the awakened emerald gleamed across the entire realm. It gave a pulse every so often; the liveliness of the magic was a class of its own. The live magic, it yearned and twirled. Almost a graceful dance in the danger. Those who watched closely, against the odds of survival, against the odds of suffering against the catastrophic weather, as deteriorating stones crumbled and smothered towards the sun. The blue giant merely smiled as he was slashed left and right. Hurled in every direction possible. Leaving the entirety of the nine realms to stare in awe.
Finally, what was mere minutes left the user exhausted. As the green lights faded in, blending in with the scorching red left a bright light of white. As the light faded, the sun was a mere yellow. What was trying to draw the realms in was no more. The planets merely astronautically manoeuvred itself to the correct alignment.
Those who peered watched as the being fell in space. It wasn't a fall where he was trying to hold on to dear life, no, it was the fall of a god. A smiling god as he was consumed by what was the sun itself.
Heimdall, the all-knowing Asgardian watched. He watched as the being didn't fight, he didn't try. He gave in to the darkness. As his foot touched the surface of the sun, the smoke and ashes given of merely got a gasp. A gasp of realisation that he was finally at the end of the road. Heimdall watched in shock, watched in shock as the berated prince from ages merely accepted the end.
The boy was berated from early child hood; a runt he was called. Abused by words, blood by assaults. He remembered too well as his memory sharpened. The jeers and taunts was the first stage of failure. Then came the realisation that he was a frost giant. A sworn enemy, stories told to children to keep them in line. That was the second failure.
Jane and Thor could do nothing but watch the remainder of Loki's head sink slowly into the core of the sun, they could feel something different. A thought sent was enough for Heimdall to answer. He enhanced the speech from within the sun. It was Loki's voice. It was mere whispers, "Tell Sif I'm sorry about her hair... tell her the monster is no more." he cackled.
From afar, from the corner of the world, on the isle of the unknown. A land made by hand and magic, soul and heart. A cloaked figure stood with what little breath was left. The blue within was light as ever. Like stone, cracks forming around the sole ranger. Alas, he didn't care, he just watched, just watched the show go down. He watched half his soul burn, the cost was great, but now he was free. Free from the hate, free from all to be a scholar. He looked down to his left dismantled arm. With a twist and crunch he yanked the remainder of the limp off.
In the corner of his eye, he could see two sorceresses shuffling closer. Like ying and yang one would wore black while the other wore white. Dresses which identically matched each other. the common feature, eyes which represented the strong green crescent emerald much like of Loki's.
The first, a dark elf, the heir to the dark world dressed in the Midgardian dress of white. The ears sharp and pointy, rich red lip stick, representing the succulent temptation of death. Her counter-part, much like a human, only a deformed abnormality in which, wings sprouted from behind her shoulder blades.
"Father?" asked the dark elf.
"Yes… Azni…" he yawned as he fell back ever so slightly.
"Are you sure this is what you want Father?" yearned Azni.
"Father has this planned out for centuries… teh" replied the other.
"Hela…" Started Loki.
"It's true, your more vulnerable father. You no longer have any magic" muttered Hela.
"You'll be vulnerable; we'll need to take precaution" said Azni in a thoughtful manner.
"Midgard?", asked Hela.
"Agreed. We can dupe papers and get Identification cards", answered Azni.
"Our appearances?" asked Hela.
"Come on sister, magic", sniggered Azni.
Hela giggled in response, only to stop at the sound of her father, "My my, my fine little daughters already making plans on my behalf", laughed Loki.
"Come on dad. Would you expect anything else?" giggled Hela as she nudged Azni to get a reaction.
As he looked back one last time, ignoring his daughters argue and bickering in the background. He smiled one last time, in his mind, the last time he'll ever be close to home.
"and so… Loki Odinson is dead" he said with a twinkle in his eyes.
The smile pierced the darkness, the smile of the fallen prince laid and locked eyes with the nine realms. This is what they deserve, let Thanos come and feast upon these wretched souls of the nine. The conviction and rage within the thought was strong and firm, only to subside in a matter of seconds. Letting a sigh relief, for the sake of the nine… I pray you fools to survive.
A bright light of green engulfed the trio in a spiral of fire in a shape of a gyre, "time to leave", exclaimed Loki.
"The exiled planar outside the nine… The lost world of the nine. abandoned, thrown and withered by the great war of the past. Ravaged, scorned and left alone to resemble a mere stone. A black misty world smothered in ice. An artificial sun glazing and blazing a glorious shine. At the heart of the equator, a pit laid waste at the foot of the volcano. the ground, ashes of brown, dust of grey and smoke of silver. The lava itself was red, but hints of blue illuminated down-stream… that my children… is home", mused Loki as he watched his two daughter wipe the dust and dirt of themselves from shadow walking.
Being a mage of the higher class, being secluded to oneself, being alone a dangerous move indeed Asgard, a dangerous move indeed. With no expectations, with no worry or threat, Loki had nurtured his magic past the essential core that is required by magical beings. Loki suppressed a grin he allowed himself to smile.
Hela watched the gleam emitted from her father, that smile, that jitter that she had missed from a young age. Being the queen of death had perks, but seeing her father alive and well, surpassed them all, "father… you can travel outside the nine?", she asked as she pulled Azni up from the floor.
Loki merely looked at his two daughters, letting his hair stray down long and frantic, he allowed his hands to propel themselves towards his daughter. The two daughters of mischief looked at one and another and grabbed on to their father's hand.
With both his daughters on either side, Loki led them down the trail through the narrow wooden path towards the foot of the cavern. "There is no bound to magic", he said as he passed along two silver snaked rings to both his daughters. "you can travel from the nine to here and vice versa".
A silver platonic ring welded by the dwarves of the modern Swartalfheim. Glinted and melded in the fires of Muspelheim. The power was great in mass and belief as a sense of green waved across the daughters.
After a moment passed, "Why is the place home?", asked Azni as she bristled herself through the cold. She was adopted, she didn't have the frost giant ability to shudder against the cold like her father or her sister, Hela. Deep down, the jealousy was real and pure, but at her heart and mind she knew her father, her sister, they didn't care. She was adopted because her father saw something in her, but it didn't stop her wondering why this place of all realms was home.
"Peace… tranquillity… silence… glorious", muttered Loki slowly
"You could be king of Jotunheim?", asked Hela as she continued to trail beside her father.
"Neigh… too much bloodshed", mused Loki.
"Swartalfheim?", asked Azni.
"Darling, why would I as a far take your throne?", chuckled Loki.
"Take neflheim then!", asserted Hela.
"Neigh, I conquered that realm for you when you were cast out… ahh, we're here", chuckled Loki as he let himself go to only turn and face his children. "This is as far as you both go".
"Father?" queered Azni as she cocked her head to the side to see the strange emotions being drawn on her father's face.
"Look at me Azni", muttered Loki.
Azni's eyes squinted on the blue figure, her father. Dry skin, impossible, he's a frost giant. "Father!" exclaimed Azni as she tried to propel her legs into a brisk sprint only to be held by her sister.
"Let her go", Loki said smoothly as he ran his hands threw his long locks of hair.
Hela sighed as she let her sister loose. She watched in exhaustion as her sister ran towards her father. She watched as Loki embraced the dark elf within his arms. It was hard to see the man before her, she looked and thought back over the past.
Turning ten, I was a mere child of the Asgardian culture. A prophecy for-told, loomed havoc and utter chaos. Remembering the memory like it was yesterday, the destruction and anarchy her father and Odin went through. There was always a certain strain between them, but that was truly the turning point. Father, one day had secretly taken me away to a realm of the dark. Devoured and conquered all in its path to fulfil the nature of what he is, a father. To show the significance, that in life, nothing is more important than family.
The irony was strong, she giggled. Being over a thousand years old in a house of gods who were known as leaders, couldn't distinguish their own prince's eye colour. The mere subtle absolution on the idea the great Odin, Frigga, Heimdall could not see the eyes gave a far compelling story. Father wasn't loved nor hated, he was tolerated for his position, for being a mere prize for the then said king, King Odin.
War and fire, ice and sorrow. A clash of the unknown belittling the core concept of the norms. He always chose the hard the way, never the easy route out.
Revelling herself from the relieved subconscious memories, she allowed herself to surface back to reality, to the present. She watched as her father continued to embrace her elegantly. The thought of not being involved in the family huddle was a tear in her heart. Green with jealousy.
Being the god of mischief and all, she supposed that she must have given off an odd vibe physically. It was the only explanation in thought to explain why her father would ask her to come in to the fold.
Her father was going into hibernation, solitude. He was done with life. And so here I am, as an elder sister, putting on a brave face for Azni. Maintaining the highest required posture, she allowed her heart to cry a few tears as she cuddled and huddled.
"Now, now. I'll see you both once again". Loki smiled smoothly. "I'm not a fan of the whole emotional aspect… am a monster after all. So, goodbye princess". Loki gleamed with a bow.
What was a spec of white smoke, the two sisters now found themselves on the outskirts of the Earth.
"Loki magic", muttered Azni as the tears carried on pouring down her cheek as she and Hela continued to subside a peripheral view of earth from the moon.
"What did father say?", asked Hela as she turned to face her sister.
"leef het leven…" whispered Azni.