OKAY GUYS I'M BACK.
I've been trying to fix this bloody thing for months but HERE IT IS. A version of No Good Deed that hopefully won't get deleted within the first… what was it last time? About four chapters? Sorry, I just got really angry about something and stress-deleted.
Anyway, I appreciate your patience with me if you were reading this first time round and hope you enjoy it if this is your first encounter,
H.
Canon Divergence after Avengers Assemble, set after The Winter Soldier but before AoU. The events of Iron Man 3/The Winter Soldier/AoS are the same but it ignores any Loki based plot developments from The Dark World. Basically assumes Thor or, more likely, Jane worked out how to save the universe without his help. In no way compliant with Age of Ultron.
WARNINGS
Torture (both past and present), blood/gore, suicidal thoughts, mentions of past child abuse, language, most likely more of these added as the rest is written/uploaded. The beginning is shameless Loki whump and Odin bashing, basically. (For the record, I don't mind Odin as a character but he's such an easy target for these things)
As far as pairings go I'm considering Loki/Bruce/Natasha but I may just fall back on GammaFrost or BlackFrost. If you could give me a review with your opinions on this or a message or whatever, that'd be great.
Disclaimer: I own nothing. With all those things I just had to warn you about, it's probably for the best.
From his post on the Bifrost, Heimdall watched the Nine Realms and the hundreds of thousands more worlds around them. There were billions upon billions of souls out there in the universe and Heimdall could see every single one of them from here, or anywhere else. A lesser mind would have crumbled long ago if it had been opened to these sights. A mortal couldn't have survived for over a minute. Heimdall knew many Asgardians thought him slow but he didn't mind. The things he knew and saw every day would both amaze and terrify them. To have so many experiences flowing through his head was worth their judgements.
The universe was a beautiful place, it was true. So much life, so much happiness. He saw it all. But then there was also the opposite end of the spectrum. So much pain. Heimdall's true burden was having to watch both on realms so far away, unable to do a thing to change any of it. Some days were easy. But then there were the wars that spanned entire solar systems and injustice that killed billions and he couldn't do a single thing about but watch.
Today was different. Today he could see the suffering and it was close, too close. Torture, and on Asgard, on his world. He didn't approve of this form of false justice, far from it; there was no honour in hurting someone who was already your prisoner. Heimdall would have killed the person responsible on the spot, however it appeared that Odin himself had approved it. He knew that the All-Father had been... Different since the Queen had died, but he hadn't expected him to go as far as torturing his own son. There had been a great deal of damage done on Midgard, but it hadn't been wreaked by Loki's hand. Heimdall had told Odin that before Thor had even brought him back here and expected him to believe it. Heimdall knew the younger prince had to be punished for his crimes against the realm before the events on Midgard but that did not come close to justifying this treatment.
Simply because some ancient myth created by the mortals had suggested the punishment currently being inflicted on Loki did not mean it had to happen. Heimdall knew he was not as bound by lore and superstition as the Allfather was but this had gone beyond insane.
Heimdall made his decision. He'd wait, but not for long. Just until the All-Father had stopped watching Loki as closely. He refused to allow this to happen, not when he could help.
There was a cave, deep beneath the main city of Asgard, so far down it was almost through the bottom of the realm. It had been forgotten by all but a few for lifetimes even in Aesir but had recently been rediscovered. A long, winding staircase was the only way in and out. At least it was the only way everyone except Heimdall and possibly the current inhabitant knew about. There was another hidden entrance in the rock, the remains of a long-dormant fault line, barely visible for the shadows around it, with rouch steps hewn into the rock behind it leading back up to the surface. Down here, even with the torches burning on the walls, it was too dark to make out specific details except in the spaces that had been lit up solely to threaten. At this moment, the cave was being used as a cell, a dungeon for the miserable creature that was once a prince, now just treated as a criminal. It was the first time Heimdall had been down here since it had been repurposed, several months since the first time he'd looked down here. He'd known what to expect, he'd already seen it as he saw everything, but he was still shocked. Everything was always far more vivid up close.
Odin seemed to have found the fact that his own son had begged for his life amusing in some sick way, for he had allowed him to keep living in a way that was far worse than the merciful death he would have been ensured.
Loki lay on a huge, flat altar of rock under the stalactite, chained down. Heimdall knew that in the mortals' legends, Loki had been tied down with the entrails of his own sons but he didn't have any children yet, thank the gods. If Odin had stooped that low, Heimdall couldn't have stood for it for a second, no matter what his orders.
Hanging from a huge stalactite on the cave roof directly above Loki and illuminated by the torches places around its coiled form, was a giant serpent, its glittering black eyes standing out from the shadows. From metre long fangs as thick as Heimdall's muscular forearms, glistening venom dripped slowly. In the Midgardians' legend, someone had been there to catch most of the poison but down here there was no-one. Each droplet of the poison hitting Loki's face caused him to scream and spasm against his bonds, even after the time he'd been here. The impacts were followed by a horrific hiss of flesh burning under them, that quieter sound combined with Loki's screams bringing even Heimdall close to flinching.
The Gatekeeper walked quickly to the rock. Loki tried to move as he heard the footsteps echo across the floor but without much success. Heimdall saw that the younger demigod seemed to think they were coming back to hurt him more. It appeared that some of the guards had taken out their boredom out on the young demigod before his official punishment had begun. His bare, pale chest was a network of scars from before this particular punishment had started. The Gatekeeper made a personal promise to make the lives of any who had been involved in this very difficult, knowing that even the All-Father must be confronted when he was back in his right mind.
He didn't speak yet to try and calm the younger man but internally cursed the All-Father and his inability to listen. He'd been a changed man since Frigga's death, even more arrogant and impulsive than even Thor had been before the events of the last few years.
Loki heard Heimdall's footsteps stop next to the altar and flinched away, trying to get as far as he could from the side he was stood, but the restraints stopped him from moving much at all.
The younger demigod tried to pull his pale, dangerously thin arm away from Heimdall despite the shackles and struggled feebly against the Gatekeeper's grip when he held his cold, twig-like wrist down against the rock to unlock the chains.
Loki whimpered, actually whimpered, a plea for mercy from someone too weak to use words, and Heimdall sighed softly.
"Be still, Loki, I'm here to set you free. Struggling will only make the pain last longer."
"Heimdall?" The younger demigod whispered barely audibly, seeming reassured just by the presence of a familiar voice.
"Yes." The Gatekeeper said quietly, not quite managing to maintain his usual calm façade.
Loki didn't believe that he was here to help, that much was obvious. Heimdall didn't blame him, after his own father had done this to him, he wouldn't trust someone who was practically a stranger, possibly an enemy. The gatekeeper straightened up as the manacles came undone. Loki immediately moved away from where the dripping venom hit, only a second before more would have hit his already-ruined face.
"I suggest we leave here as soon as possible." Heimdall said quietly.
Loki tried to stand but immediately started to fall, the Gatekeeper managing to catch him before he hit the ground.
"Perhaps it would be better if I carried you?" He suggested quietly. Loki didn't look up, just gave the slightest nod of agreement. Heimdall was almost surprise he managed to swallow his pride enough for this much assistance. They hadn't just broken the prince's body, but also his spirit. He hooked his arms under Loki's knees and shoulders and lifted him as gently as he could in his thick golden armour. Blood from Loki's various wounds immediately started dripping down Heimdall's armour and he knew he needed to get the youngest prince help as soon as he could.
"Why are you helping me?" Loki whispered as Heimdall started to walk up the cold stone stairs.
"Hm?"
"I was under the impression you didn't like me."
That was true. Then again, Heimdall didn't particularly like anyone much. He respected Thor as he used to respect Odin and Frigga. Lady Sif had also earned that much from him. Most other people he simply tolerated and Loki was no different. There may actually have been a time when Loki was younger when Heimdall did have some degree of that same respect for the younger of the princes but that had been replaced by mild resentment at his constant trickery and into outright dislike at around the time Loki had turned him into a giant ice cube. Otherwise Heimdall didn't hold anything against him that he didn't have against most others.
He didn't say any of that. He just shrugged. "No-one deserved that punishment, especially not you."
"I tried to enslave and kill an entire race."
"We both know that was not under your control."
Loki bowed his head to his chest without a response. It was obviously a painful memory and a difficult subject, as Heimdall expected. While the Chitauri realm and Thanos had somehow been shielded from him, he'd still seen all too much of Loki in the time before and since not to notice something wrong.
"I tried to convince your father..."
"He's not my father!" Loki snapped. "He wasn't before and he certainly isn't now!"
Heimdall didn't respond to that. Loki was right, of course. Even if he had still considered Odin his father after Thor's banishment and the events surrounding it, there was every reason for his bile now.
"Where are we?" Loki whispered, weakened by his outburst, tone seeming almost apologetic. That was something new.
"Heading towards the Bifrost."
"Will someone not see me?"
Heimdall snorted quietly. "You are not the only one on Asgard with magic."
"The All-Father-"
"-Is not as powerful as he once was, or as he seems to think he still is. He will never know you're gone."
Loki nodded thoughtfully. "You realise that if we are indeed as invisible as you implied, I could do anything to you and no-one would ever find out?"
"I'd like to see you try." Heimdall said in a distinctly amused tone.
"You don't think I could?"
"No, I do not."
Loki hesitated for a moment then nodded. "Neither do I."
"We have to leave Asgard."
Loki gave another nod, leaning further into Heimdall's chest. "I already knew that."
"Any preference as to which realm?" Heimdall asked, careful as ever.
"What does location matter?" He whispered, voice shaking. "I'll never been safe, not while the Allfather still lives."
"We are here."
Heimdall lay him down gently on the cold floor in the main chamber of the Bifrost. Loki didn't try to move from that spot, curling his knees up to his chest to try to stop himself from shivering, before Heimdall dropped a rough but definitely warm old blanket over him. It didn't quite stop him from shaking, that being mostly from shock rather than cold, but he muttered a "Thank you" all the same.
He heard Heimdall's heavy footsteps echo across the floor, and in his mind Loki could see the way the Gatekeeper always stood, back straight and shoulders back, full of confidence and the reassured calm of someone who knew they could literally rip you to pieces. When he was a lot younger, nothing more than a child, he'd been scared of this room and especially of its guardian. Even they would have been comforting sights at this point, but he didn't even see the darkness he'd always associated with blindness, just nothing.
It seemed only fitting that in the smouldering wreck of his life, Heimdall, the one he'd feared the most before he realised the Allfather's treachery, was the only person in the Nine Realms who actually cared enough to save him.
After such a long period of torture and the need to stay awake, his body was craving rest too much to care all that much about the philosophical side of his release. He knew that if he did fall asleep now, it would be more than just that and perhaps even the last time he did at all, but he was past the point of caring. He knew he needed to say one thing first.
"Heimdall?"
"Yes, my prince?" The lower voice echoed towards him, quiet but amplified by the hard surfaces of the cavernous room.
"Thank you for saving me."
Loki heard the echo of a weary sigh. "Do not thank me yet. You are not safe on Asgard, Loki. We must find somewhere you are, and the Allfather and his Ravens cannot watch all day.
"I already told you; there is no such place." Loki exhaled in what might have been a bitter laugh and finally managed to let go, more unconscious than asleep.