A/N: Short update, I'm sorry! It was short or not at all... Today was crazy busy at work!
Part Three.
He wasn't sleeping. Thor had been watching him as carefully as he could, but each time he moved to approach his younger brother something would stop him. By the end of the week he was convinced that Loki was orchestrating it to avoid speaking on the subject. So he waited, certain that he could be as patient as the younger prince if he were forced into it.
The days wore against the trickster, and his brother needed no further proof than the way that he nearly nodded off during one of Aegir's long-winded speeches. While Thor had been caught gazing off into nothing during those moments, Loki was a master of illusion. He could at least look interested.
"I'm not blind."
Loki turned, his magic covering all the usual signs, but his brother knew him too well for the usual signs. "I know," he murmured as if he had known he had been pushing his luck to begin with.
Thor gave a frustrated sigh, nearly hauling the younger god out of the hall and into a side room. Loki looked only mildly startled at the abrupt action and offered a somewhat repentant look. "This is nothing that you can fix, brother," he said softly.
"So you will not share your worries because you think I'm too dumb to-"
"I never said that!" Loki snapped. He stopped and shot Thor a glare that told him he knew the elder prince's play. "But you're just trying to get me to tell you."
"Perhaps it is a trick I learned from my younger brother," the thunderer beamed, receiving a halfhearted swipe for his efforts. "Truly, though, I wish to help in any way I can. I know your dreams have troubled you."
"Have you spoken to Mother on this?"
Thor frowned, this time seeming to take insult. "I didn't need to."
The room they had ducked into was quiet and empty. No torches burned in it and the curtains were pulled shut so only a sliver of sunlight filtered through. It did not help the exhaustion that pulled at every nerve.
"Forgive me, brother. Every time I close my eyes now I seem to be some place else. It makes for very poor sleeping conditions." He paused, feeling blue eyes study him.
"You need not fight this demon alone," Thor murmured.
"I fear I've found no way to fight it at all." The trickster leaned against an old, rickety table that looked to have been left in the room to rot. "The notes I gave to Coulson were on Thanos and the Chitauri."
Thor stiffened at the name he had heard only from Loki's mumbled nightmares. He'd pieced enough of it together to know that he was some powerful and shadowy figure that had something to do with the Tesseract. He had assumed the power that pulled the strings of everyone that he used. The Chitauri, Arlan, and his brother all included. Loki would never speak of him in his waking hours and Thor had only asked once. His brother had gone paler than he'd ever seen, green eyes wide and murmured some poor excuse as to why the subject should be changed.
"Why?"
"Because it might be of some used to them someday."
"Loki..."
The younger prince offered a shrug. "I owed them a debt. I repaid it with the most valuable knowledge I had for them."
"And painted a target on yourself."
"I was careful. I removed myself from the situation as I wrote it down and I added several charms to hide the notes from prying eyes... I am not unaccustomed to doing things in secret. I tend to be quite good at it."
"But you think they found a way in?" Thor asked softly.
"Perhaps they're just dreams..."
"You know the difference. If you believe that there is an attack on you then it is so."
Loki blinked, feeling a strange sort of relief wash over him in his brother's unreserved confidence. Thor was never one to back down from a fight, whether he could fight it or not. There had never been a question in the younger prince's mind that if he approached his brother about this that he would have a protector from anything that he could not handle. The problem remained in the dream and the sound of Thor's body breaking that gave him pause. He could still hear the Chitauri envoy - he had named the creature The Other in his mind, because after his dealings he was certain that they did not bother with names - whispering in his rough, gravelly voice that there was no hope for salvation, that he would take everything and would show the trickster what pain truly was.
"Brother?" Thor murmured.
"I'm afraid," Loki whispered before he could convince himself not to. It was Thor, after all. It was Thor and a broken table and the walls. "This is magic. This is my forte and I... I can't fight it, Thor. I've been through every book that even approaches the subject. Nothing has shed any light on it."
The crowned prince watched him carefully. "You know that I will let no harm come to you."
Thin lips stretched in an attempt to smile. "While I appreciate the thought, this is not your arena."
"Then bring me into it."
"It's not so simple..."
"But not impossible." He grinned brightly as he saw the younger prince's resolve melting. "We haven't fought the battles we've fought to go at our enemies separately, brother. Have you ever noticed it's when we try to fight them on our own that we fail?"
Loki shook his head, a smile perking his lips. "When did you become observant?"
Thor chuckled, slinging an arm around his shoulder and pulling him close. "Many hard lessons."
He wasn't sure when he fell asleep. The last thing he remembered was sitting at his favorite table in the library, Thor watching him and attempting to be helpful in any way he could. He had seen the blond nodding off, but he had been focused. Entirely focused, but now he was here.
"Loki?"
The second prince turned, eyes wide as they came to rest on Thor. His memories pulled and tugged from the sound of Thanos crushing the life from him.
"Where are we?"
"A rock," the younger brother croaked, voice rough as if he'd been screaming for ages. "On the edge of nothing."
Thor nodded and suddenly he seemed so real. There was something different, more solid to him and Loki couldn't stop himself as he reached out and touched his arm. "You're really here."
"We're in your dream, aren't we?" the crowned prince asked slowly, as if he worried that the question would sound more absurd to his brother than it did to him.
"Yes."
"Apparently you can bring me along with you."
A sharp scream split the air and Loki cringed. The brothers could hear the muffled cries of someone just over the rocks, as if trying to keep silence and not quite being able to.
"Loki, that voice," Thor murmured, moving towards the small ledge that hid the tortured person from view.
The trickster grabbed his wrist, expression bordering on frantic. Thor turned to argue, but the Chitauri came fully into view, his red-stained teeth bared in a twisted smile as the scream erupted once more.
Thor and Loki both jolted upright in their chairs, the elder prince nearly tipping over backwards in his haste to pull from the nightmare. His younger brother shook silently, long hands covering his face and running back through his hair. Their breathing was the only sound that filled the library.
"Is that what you see?"
Loki looked over, noting the uncomfortable expression the other wore. "At times. Recently."
"Loki, that scream-"
"Yes."
"Is that a memory or a fear?"
The trickster's eyes shifted, finding the table very fascinating. His hands were balled into tight fist he trembled until his brother reached a steady hand to him and their eyes met. "Both," he said, voice barely audible.
"They tortured you."
"They were not the only ones."
Thor's hand did not leave his brother's, but his gaze shifted as he processed the information. All he could see was Loki slipping again and again, and falling. He should have let go and he should have grabbed him. He could have. He had fallen greater distances with Mjolnir to pull him back up to sturdier land. He could have saved his brother the pain, the misery.
Loki sniffed, gathering himself. "It's in the past," he said and turned his hand to briefly hold onto his brother's. "Now we just have to come up with a way to throw them off."
"You're the clever one," Thor said with a forced chuckle.
"Yes, and I can't find one damned thing."
"Could SHIELD have done something to your notes?"
"No, I charmed them well enough to keep that path closed."
"What if they did something to counter the charms."
Loki rolled his eyes, standing. "The mortals outdo my charms?"
"Their science is strange. I've seen it do things that only our magic can do. Perhaps they did something without knowing it was done."
The trickster sighed. "Care for a trip to Midgard?"
"When have I turned that down, brother?"
TBC
A/N: I feel like I should say something witty here, but I've got nothing. I really hope that this is coming out better than I feel like it is... I usually take more time to piece together an idea for a story before I begin to toss it onto a page...