Chapter Two:
"I forbid it. My son is too young, too reckless. Yet too willful to go on such a trip with you," Odin declared, and The Doctor saw Rose frown out of the corner of his eye. Really now, this had been all her idea. He'd just been hoping for a relaxing few days while the TARDIS repaired itself and off they could go again.
He should have known Rose would do this. Always picking up strays. That little boy from the spaceship back when he'd had bat ears and a big nose, Jack, Mickey...why not pick up the prince of Asgard and take him for a spin in her mind? The Doctor could see all kinds of problems with it (do not interfere) and one of them being that magic and the TARDIS? Not such a good mix. And magic came as naturally to Loki as flirting had come to Jack, so he couldn't exactly forbid him from doing it.
Rose had used the puppy eyes to convince him. He hated the puppy eyes.
(He didn't admit to being curious himself. Years ago, for a few brief minutes, he'd wanted to make off with the baby Jotun himself and drop him off on some distant home where he'd never hear the words Asgard or Frost Giants. But that wasn't too be. Down that road led to an early death for the human race at the hands of several alien invaders, and The Doctor loved the human race. Brilliant and important.)
Odin wasn't worried so much about his son being reckless, The Doctor knew that. Knew about the plan that had formed in Odin's mind, long before it had even been a spec inside the Allfather's brain. Loki was half a son and half a pawn in this political game; loved but misunderstood and always watched carefully. At any time, Odin could both be losing his son and his pawn if Loki decided to wander off (which, if The Doctor was correct, he had several times already. Some of the books in his chambers that The Doctor may or may not have wandered into came from Olympus, not usually easy for the Aesir to get a hold of. Uneasy relations, lack of trade. Zeus again.)
"Really now? He's four hundred years old! If your son wants to go somewhere, I highly think he's going to go anyway...with or without daddy's approval," Rose said. The Doctor had to grin at her audacity, his lovely little human, such bravery. If any Aesir maiden had dared say that to the Allfather, she'd have been punished quite severely. He recalled one during the war that had declared that Frigga was quite plain in the Allfather's hearing...probably didn't have too much of a happy marriage with that village idiot she'd been forced to marry. Brains of a cow.
Odin of course was two steps away from shouting off with their heads, friends or not, so the Doctor stepped in, "No dimension hopping! Just some sight seeing. Never even miss him. A few relaxing days traveling around the nine realms...do him some good. After that incident with the dwarves..." His tone grew dark as he thought about it. Not all those silly human myths about the 'Gods' were true, but some were of course. The Doctor had noticed the still healing scars peppered around his mouth and Thor seemed as fond of his hammer Mjlonir as anyone would be of a brand new car.
Vicious race, dwarves. All of them. Greedy, cold, and not ones to take tricks lying down. Never play a game of poker with them.
"That incident with the dwarves as you say proves that he is too reckless. He could have died; I can not trust that he shall not cause more incidents elsewhere. Relations are too stiff at the moment to disregard jokes."
"What if I take both of them then?"
Thor was more reckless then Loki. His TARDIS might be smashed to bits. Literally. Rose and her puppy eyes and talks of loneliness. How he should relate. (He'd always wanted to study a magic user as well. The certain ones he'd come across during the war had been less than helpful in that endeavor.)
"You wish to take the crown princes of the realm of Asgard with you Doctor? In your time machine?"
Frigga spoke this question like it wasn't so much an inquiry but a statement of fact. He hated foreseers. Too prone to accept their visions as absolute truth. Too knowing. Too flawed. They saw and they did nothing to prevent their visions from happening. How much of her sons' lives had she seen? How much was she willing to let play out?
Just like him.
He looked from Frigga to Rose. Her eyes were pleading with him to agree. She desperately wanted this. What drew her to men like Jack and Loki? Was it that 'bad boy' complex? Some little lost lamb thing?
What made Rose stay around men like him? Beyond his brilliance of course.
Puppy eyes again. The Doctor cursed inwardly and he rolled his eyes to the golden ceiling, "Yeah, I do. Both of them."
She was right anyway. The Allfather could protest all he wanted; his son would find a way to come if he really wanted. Or Rose might smuggle him in. Stowaways on the TARDIS, running fugitives from Asgard for kidnapping princes. What a story to tell her mum over a nice cup of tea.
Plus bringing Thor along would prevent him from coming after them himself.
"We are too travel in this wooden box? How are we to move? I see no horses to pull it along, no wheels. Is this some jest brother?"
The Midgardian girl was rolling her eyes behind his dumbfounded brother. Loki smirked to himself. Convincing her to persuade the Doctor to let him come along hadn't been hard. A few statements about his fascination with the machine during their conversation the other night had been all that had been needed. It had never been so easy to convince someone to do his bidding before.
She was trusting.
As well as surprisingly interesting to converse with for a Midgardian. She did not understand half of the wonders the machine was capable of or how it worked but she had a certain compassion to her that Loki had never seen in a woman. She listened. It was refreshing, after years of only Thor and the Imbeciles Three to talk with in any sort of manner that had nothing to do with double-dealings. Or distrust.
He had lied of course. Lies came as naturally to him now as breathing did to everyone else. Lies mixed with truth. He had cut Sif's hair out of jealousy, but if he had not corrected Rose's assumption that the jealousy had been placed towards Thor and her affection for his bumbling brother, he was in no rush too. The truth of it all was much simpler. She had insulted him; she had become an interloper. Thor no longer saw her as a potential bedmate without her golden hair.
Sif had gotten the better end of the bargain in the end. His lips were still stinging from the punishment of the dwarves from whom he'd gotten her new hair. Dark. How she hated him for that.
Thor may no longer see her as a bedmate but her affections of a romantic nature would never, could never have been returned by Thor, for Sif was not of a queenly nature. But Thor now saw her as a warrior. A higher honor in his eyes. A queen he would one day need; a warrior was someone he wanted by his side.
He could not tell the Midgardian girl what emotions had really motivated his actions. The truth would have made her see him for as petty as he really was.
He was not in any hurry to lose a companion to talk to. Thor's conversations of late had turned, like any interest of the Aesir, to war. Taking his cues from Odin, he was beginning to show his despair of his brother's interests in magic. Loki was quite tired of being dragged to the training yard for proper male pursuits and being hit gleefully by Sif or one of the Imbeciles Three.
Was it too much to ask to be left alone to his books for a day? The brothers had scarcely been apart for more than a week in his entire lifespan. Now he was forced to endure the inane conversation of the four that followed his brother like loyal dogs.
It almost made him look forward to the snake like words that came out of Eris' mouth everytime he ventured to Olympus to trade with her. She was a back-stabbing, vile harpy, but an intelligent, useful one.
Thor had begun tapping at the TARDIS. Loki could hear her indignant humming in his head; she clearly was not too fond of the way she was being prodded at. He looked forward to the look on his brother's face when he saw the inside of her.
She was beautiful. Old and flawed and utterly beautiful. Not even his magic would ever be able to reach the power that he had felt in the heart of her. It was like a drug. Intoxicating.
"No jest brother. Sure you want to come? Accommodations will be a bit tight. You might even have to cling on to the sides," he teased, picturing such a sight. He heard Rose giggle. He turned to smile at her without thought.
(Thor had in fact not wanted to come. He had been heard complaining loudly at the possibility of traveling around in a time machine while he and his band of warriors had been plotting to go hunting in Nornheim. He was in his years of greatest glory seeking.)
Loki wanted to go. And the Allfather would not permit for him to go alone. Therefore, Thor would come along because Loki wanted it.
He loved him for it. And resented it. Out of the two of them he was the one father did not trust? Reckless? Had he forgotten who had sent him off to the dwarves to begin with? To appease Sif's rich mother and father?
And had he forgotten the prizes that Loki had brought back with him? Mjlonir and Gungir were fine instruments for the Aesir, hand crafted for the use of only the hands of those worthy of them.
In the Allfather's eyes, he was the reckless son.
When she'd been sixteen she'd been living with her boyfriend Jimmy. Rose just couldn't see how a four hundred something alien needed daddy's permission to be able to come. And a chaperone as well. Was it just some royalty stick? Or was the Alldaddy just going to be really that much of a buzzkill because his son apparently liked to play a few jokes?
The hair thing was a bit mean spirited. But Rose had done a few things when she'd believed herself in love with Jimmy and, far as she could tell, four hundred years = sixteen year old human mentality. Teenagers were prats.
Most of them grew out of it. She had. Her mum had been there for her and been as understanding as any mum could be. Rose pretty much figured all Loki really needed was someone to talk to. She spent a few days hanging around him now, alternating between long, awkward pauses and him talking at her like The Doctor did sometimes when he was off on some particularly enchanting subject in his mind that she only half understood.
He talked like someone used to talking to himself. Surprised when she answered back or asked questions.
So when he'd mentioned the other night about how fascinating the TARDIS was to him, he'd clearly been hinting. She wasn't stupid. She could see he was trying to place the idea in her mind. Thing was, it had already been there. She'd been trying for days to get the Doctor to say yes to bringing him along.
The Doctor could have someone else to rant to for a few days that actually understood him and Rose could visit some alien shops while he was babbling on. It was a win/win for all three of them. Well, all four of them. Taking along Thor hadn't been ideal, but he was a nice enough guy. Full of himself sure, she'd lost count of how many times he'd hit on her since she'd gotten here, but nice.
The princes were arguing.
Really, these two might be aliens and hundreds of years old, but they reminded her of every single neighborhood boy she'd ever met. Thor was the jock older brother, and Loki the emo geek. She giggled as she pictured Loki with black nail polish and glasses, dressed all in black and Thor is a rugby uniform. She could hear them arguing over her little fantasy.
"So, arm and a leg I've had to give up for this trip. Almost thought I'd have to promise him my last regeneration to get the go ahead for this," The Doctor said, interrupting her thoughts. He had arrived with a bunch of guards and Thor's friends who'd come to see them off.
Odin had demanded a lot to let them come. Not just that Thor accompany his brother, but also that they go on a diplomatic mission for him to some...Must planet or something. Had it been rust? Names here were weird. What ever happened to good old planet Jupiter? For that matter, was this planet some sort of alternate dimension Saturn or something?
The Doctor hated wherever it was they were going to at any rate. And hated being told what planet to visit. He much preferred just driving with no directions at all half the time.
"Never had to deal with someone's father before have you," she quipped, looping an arm through his. He grinned at her. This golden light was really doing a lot for his complexion; the sun was shining off his brown hair.
"First time for everything! Should have brought along your mum, she'd have negotiated him down in two minutes. Just for the want of her to be quiet," he remarked. She smacked at his arm for that remark.
"So...fire breathing lizards! Fun," she said. She'd caught something about fire and lizards in the rant about Must-Rust. Could have just been the Doctor insulting the inhabitants again.
"Fire breathing lizards? Am I to have a chance at battle and slaying some vile creature then on this venture," Prince Thor asked, as the Doctor pulled out his TARDIS key from his pocket.
"Slaying? No there will be no slaying! Piss off the locals. Really, you Aesir, all about the slayings. No wonder aliens avoid you all. Peaceful creatures. Well, most of them. Well...some of them. But no, rule one: No slaying! Of any kind. Especially not the ship! Keep the hammer in your pocket there," he said, opening the door.
Loki held her arm back and smirked, "Watch. I believe the view is better from here."
Rose raised an eyebrow at the brunette prince and then she heard a shout, "What is this sorcery?"
There should be popcorn stands in Asgard, she thought. Thor was indeed trying to slay something. Mjlonir refused to fly past the doors of the TARDIS. He wasn't happy about it.
She'd never forget the image of a muscle bound Thor with his left foot on the wall of the TARDIS pulling at a hammer stuck in thin air.
The machine was truly a marvel, Loki speculated. Her revenge for his brother's rough handling of her had been better then he would ever have dreamed. Thor was still sulking about having to leave his hammer in the hands of their father.
The ride to where ever they were going was not as smooth as walking through the shadow paths of the realm. Those paths were dark and still, and extremely slow. Time was stilled around them so that it seemed as if a being was appearing from one place to another in the blink of an eye. They were like the void. One wrong step and the traveler could be lost.
The TARDIS was a mass of swirling and bumping. Loki had to grab at the rails to keep from being jostled about. He could feel himself wanting to throw up. It was like the sensation of the Bifrost Bridge when traveling to other realms on missions, but worse. The Doctor was not a good captain of this ship. The Vessel spun around in circles and upside down at the speed of light, twisting and turning through space, all that energy passing through and around his body, filling his mind and leaving him cold as it passed.
Rose could sit with only one hand holding on to the rail. Her complexion had no hint of green to it at all. Clearly one must grow use to the method of traveling. Thor had a death grip onto the rail next to him and one on his arm.
The Doctor bounced around like a giddy mad man.
He could feel time swirling around them. It was alive and sparked at every one of his nerves. The intensity of it was overwhelming. He wanted to reach out to it but the urge to be ill from the ride was preventing him from calling upon his magic to investigate.
Abruptly it jarred to a stop. He could hear a loud, whirring screeching noise that would announce to anyone wise enough to listen of their arrival. Subterfuge was not one of the benefits of this machine. Or there was something broken.
The air of this planet felt familiar. Vaguely familiar.
"So Muspelheim. Fire giants! In and out quickly, hop hop," The Doctor said, grabbing his long coat and putting it on. He grabbed Rose's hand and pulled her from her chair. Thor groaned. He looked weak from the ride.
Muspelheim? They were in that barren wasteland? Thor and Loki had traveled there once as children during negotiations for trade with the Allfather. It was like a desert land. The inhabitants were tall, with bright red hair and an ability to manipulate the dust particles in the world around them to create flames.
Loki had heard they had a new King. The Allfather's hands had clearly been at work for this trip.
The machine had indeed alerted the Muspel to their presence. The TARDIS had landed in a palace, a throne room as tall as three floors of the Aesir's, fire reflecting off red and orange walls.
Guards with flaming torches and swords surrounded them as they stepped out of the TARDIS. Thor had brought battles with him it seemed.
"Really, is this anyway to greet guests?"
The Doctor was pulling out his little bit of paper. The one he used to make people believe he was whom he wanted them to believe he was. Loki wondered how he could replicate it.
"Ambassador for the Allfather, here to speak with your King. Surtur isn't it?"
The guards ignored him. Loki's skin tingled as he felt their black-eyed stare fall upon him, "Prince Loki Odinson. You are under arrest for crimes against the Princess Angrboða."
His brother managed to croak out between his gasping breaths, all of his body leaned up against the open doorframe of the TARDIS, "Brother, whom did you offend?"
Loki blinked, gazing at each of the guards circled around them, lost. The Doctor and Rose stared at him. Who in the nine realms was Angrboða?