MOAR! Okay, I've ski- I mean, missed school today to type out some more of Brother Trickster and Tricksters-in-arms if I feel like it.
Onward to adventure, I guess.
" Director Fury? Someone's on the phone for you." One of the agents called. " And Selvig wants to speak with you."
Fury nodded absently, taking the slim dark cell phone from the agent's offered hand. He pressed it to his ear, sweeping down the dark hallway towards Erik Selvig's lab.
" Hello?" Fury muttered into the phone. Very few people knew the Director's phone number.
" Director Fury?" Captain America's voice issued out from the cell phone. " We have a problem."
" What kind of problem?" Fury slowed to a stop outside of the lab, pressing the phone closer to his ear.
" A world ending one, apparently." Captain America answered. There was another voice in the background, distracting the Captain.
" Rogers, who else is with you, what is the danger?" Fury demanded, voice rising.
" Hand it to- Fury, I presume." A cold, lilting voice crept out of the phone. " Yours is not the only realm, and from what I've seen I fear you are out-gunned."
" Out-gunned by what?! Who are you?!" The Director growled. One of the agents appeared at the corner of his remaining eye, looking worried.
" My name is Loki, and the Chitauri are coming for Midgard." The new voice hissed, agitated. " They will bring war and destruction with them."
" What are the Chitauri, God dammit! Tell me!" Fury shouted at the phone. The agent jumped, shifting fearfully. Fury finally turned to him.
" Sir, Selvig is asking for you."
" Fuck Selvig! Look, Loki, if that's your name, tell me everything you know!"
" Sir, the Tesseract-"
" The Tesseract?!" Loki screamed from the other end. " Lock it up, destroy it-"
" Why?!" Fury spat, marching into the lab. The Tesseract, a burning box of blue energy, sparked and- growled?
" They will come from it! They will send-" The Tesseract flared, azure streams lashing out around the machine containing it. The sound coming out of it steadied out into a loud drone, growing shriller with every second.
" What the Fu-" Fury's swear was cut off with a bang, thrown back as a beam of blue energy shot out of the Tesseract. Someone caught Fury mid-fall, steadying him. " Barton? Where were you?!"
" I see better at a distance." Clint Barton answered, pulling his bow free of the sheath across his back. " Look!"
There was someone on the platform, seemingly forged out of sapphire energy. His clothes were dark, a trench-coat sweeping down to his knees. His head was bowed, but he straightened up, blue eyes sunk into his gaunt and pale face. In his hand, a dark scepter tipped with a glowing blue stone scraped the ground.
" Sir, put the scepter down!" Fury commanded, leveling his gun to the man's head. The cell slipped to the ground,
The man glanced down at the scepter, dry lips pressed into a thin line. With lightening speed, the scepter rose and a blue flare shot from the end, sending an agent flying to a wall. Fire was opened immediately on the man, bullets slamming into his chest as he threw himself forwards, tackling several agents to the ground.
A voice, clear as day, leaked from the phone.
" It's too late."
The man paused, turning his head to the phone. Bullets ricochet off his skin but he payed them no mind, trotting over to the phone and scooping it up to press to his ear.
" Loki." The man said, his voice creaking like an old floorboard.
" Gabriel." Loki replied on the other end, loud enough for all in the room to hear in the lull between gunfire from the remaining agents. " You gave up."
" I gave up." Gabriel agreed. " But they've showed me things, I can take revenge, on- I can rule Earth, protect it better then my Father ever did."
" You'll hurt people."
" Necessary casualties."
" I'll stop you."
" I hope you do, Kiddo." Gabriel shut the phone, hosting the scepter up on his shoulder. " Where were we?"
Barton tried to sneak up behind him, one arrow held like a dagger in his hand. Without warning, Gabriel spun around and grabbed Barton's wrist as the agent raised his hand to stab him. Barton tried to punch him with his other hand, but the scepter rose to block him.
" You have heart." Gabriel murmured, tilting the blue gem towards Barton's heart. A wave of blue power rolled down the staff, coiling over Barton's chest before rushing to his eyes, settling there like a cumbersome fog.
Barton slipped the arrow back into his quiver, following Gabriel willingly as he turned the last few scientists brave enough to stay behind.
Fury crawled over to the Tesseract, his jacket frayed and smoking from one of Gabriel's scepter's attacks. He yanked the Tesseract free, pushing it into a metal case meant to contain it before shaking his hand, the black glove he wore smoking and melting.
" Don't." Gabriel called to the Director as he tried to sneak out the door.
" Who are you?" Fury spat, drawing himself to his full height. He towered over Gabriel, but he knew height didn't equal skill.
" I am Gabriel." He replied simply. " And I've been told to take over Earth."
" You just follow orders like a good little soldier?" The Director sneered. Gabriel's eyes flashed from blue to gold, then back.
" I am not a soldier." He growled. " No-one rules me!"
" Except the Chitauri." Fury noted the shudder then rippled through the shorter man's frame at the word.
" I don't serve the Chitauri. I rule them!" Gabriel shouted, sounding like a child.
" The portal is unstable." Selvig called, cutting in. Blue light swirled around on the ceiling, twisting and coiling like so many deadly snakes.
" Sir, Director Fury is trying to stall us, he means to bury us." Barton spoke up, drifting over to Gabriel's side.
" Well, then." Gabriel's cracked lips twisted up into a smile. Without waiting for orders, Barton yanked his gun out and shot Fury in the chest. The Director went flying backwards while Gabriel and his group stormed past, the metal case shielding the Tesseract cradled in Gabriel's arms.
Fury got unsteadily to his feet after they left, yanking a slightly dented bullet out of his bullet-proof vest as he took out his transceiver.
" Anyone copy?" He grunted, stumbling towards the exit. " Barton and Selvig are compromised, they have taken the Tesseract, stop them by any means possible and get out of the base!" Behind him, parts of the ceiling crumbled down, crushing lab equipment and dead agents.
As the Director fled, the blue energy from the Tesseract tore the base apart.
" Loki?" Steve called his name firmly, snatching the phone out of the god's numb hands. " Are you okay? What happened?"
" It is too late." Loki repeated, tensing his jaw. " The Chitauri have sent their.. leader here. He will open the portal for them."
" Is that who you were talking to? Did you know him, and what happened to Fury?" Steve's voice grew stronger, more like a Captain and less like- well, Steve.
" Yes, yes, and most likely dead. Their leader, Gabriel-" The name stuck slightly in his throat. " He will have killed most of the people there, if they tried to refuse him the Tesseract."
" Well, what do we do? Phone back? Can we get to the base in time to help?" Steve continued his questions, hardly stopping to breath.
" We can do nothing, the phone is almost certainly buried under heaps of rumble and I know not where the base even is." Loki growled, pacing. The walls of the small apartment Steve had brought him to seemed to crowd around the god, making him feel trapped. " We will have to wait until someone contacts us."
" Why would they?" Steve asked, one question too many.
" Because I have knowledge!" Loki spat, ceasing his pacing to glare at Steve. " I know of the creatures and he who leads them. If your ruler, Fury, does not contact us it either means he's dead or dumb as a bag of rocks!"
Steve raised his hands, palms facing the agitated god to calm him. " Okay, but I don't want to just sit here, I'll go mad."
Loki threw himself down on one of the battered old couches with a sigh.
" I am well aware of that, Son of Rogers. Warriors hate waiting, but recklessly charging into battle will cost this and all realms their freedom and lives."
Steve was silent for a moment, turning over all Loki had said in his mind, before opening his mouth again.
" Hey, why are you helping us? I mean, your not from around here, are you? So why?" Steve prodded, unknowingly poking a sore spot.
" My friend asked me to." Loki ground out, wondering why he was telling the truth. Just lie! Say you like there cuisine, something! When he spoke again, all that came out was the painful truth. " He freed me from the Chitauri when we were both imprisoned. I owe him a dept."
Steve nodded wordlessly and the two lapsed into silence. Of course, with all the questions still swirling in Steve's head, the silence didn't last long.
" Are you the real Loki? I read up on your file, SHIELD keeps tabs on everything that goes on and the Destroyer leveling a small town got on their radar." Steve shot a sideways glance towards Loki.
" Yes, I am the real Loki. And if something like that went unnoticed by your protectors I would wonder how Midgard hasn't dropped out of the sky." Loki sniffed, staring out the window.
" . . . Why? Why'd you send it?"
" A temporary lapse in judgement. I needed Thor, that oaf, out of the way, I did not foresee Thor's mortality." Loki admitted, grinding his teeth together.
" Okay." Steve shut his mouth again. The way things were going, Loki guessed the silence wouldn't last long.
" . . . What's your favorite color?"
Loki groaned.
" Thor, your king summons you." Thor glanced up, fleetingly wondering why Father would send Heimdall to fetch him.
" Did he say why?" Thor asked evenly, standing up from were he had been sitting at his desk. With one hand, he unsuccessfully tried to hide the journals he had been poring over. Loki's journal.
" I believe you must here it from the All-Father himself." Heimdall replied, golden eyes softening slightly. Before Thor could question him further, the Gate-keeper vanished back to his outpost.
Confused, Thor stashed the journals back into a nearly untouched book shelf and rushed off to the throne room.
Odin's stony expression resided a bit when Thor came into view. The golden haired prince was still dressed in stiff leather armor, meant for training and stained with blood and sweat. Mjolnir thumped against his leg with every step, like a second heartbeat echoing Thor's own.
" Father, why have you summoned me?" Thor called as he swept down the hall, halting a few feet away.
" Come closer, my son." Odin commanded, his voice a tired whisper. Puzzled, Thor obeyed, drifting closer until he sat at Odin's feet.
" Father, why do you look so pained?" Thor asked, worry furrowing his brow.
" Loki lives." Odin rasped, raising one hand to stop Thor's bubbling questions. " He dwells on Midgard. You must bring him back, so he can face punishment for his crimes."
Thor's face had nearly split from the massive smile stretched across it, but at the mention of punishment, it faltered.
" But father, aren't you pleased that my dear brother lives? Why must he be punished?" Thor cried, making to stand. The All-Father's hand on his shoulder kept him down.
" Listen closely." Odin hissed, face dark. " There is something I have kept secret far too long. Loki is not your brother."
Thor immediately raised his voice in protest. A low growl from his father silenced his yells.
" I found a child in the temple that housed the Casket of Winters, many years ago. In the ruin, and snow, there was a small child, merely a babe." Odin's voice was weary, like time had focused into a physical object that weighed on his mind and heart. " He was small, for a frost giant, abandoned to die by his father, King Laufey, I believe. I took him home, and raised him as my son. Loki is a Jotun."
Thor felt like the floor had been tugged out from under his feet.
" You never told me." He croaked, shrugging off his father's hand. " That is why he sought to destroy the Frost Giants. He is one of them-" Emotion coated his words and forced them to catch in his throat. His brother, Loki, was the creature Thor himself had sworn to slay, many times over?
And Loki lives with that knowledge, that the brother he fought beside, played beside, had promised to rid his species of Yggdrasil?
Odin's beard.
" He must hate me." Thor murmured.
" No, Thor, he can not blame you." Odin grabbed Thor's chin, forcing him to meet the old king's single eye. " But you must bring him home. He is a danger-"
" NO!" Thor boomed, tearing himself away from the All-Father. " He is my brother, and I trust him!"
" Thor, you fool, I've just told you-"
" No, Odin!" Thor snapped, hand tight around Mjolnir's handle. " He is my brother. We grew up together, blood means nothing! I will go find him, and beg his forgiveness for the pain I have unknowingly caused him all these years.
" Thor-"
" Do you deny his right as your son?!" Thor challenged. At Odin's silence, Thor's rage grew. " Then you are not my father." He growled coldly.
Thor marched out of the hall, his feet thunderous against the golden floor.
Odin just watched him go sadly, sinking into his throne.
Two chaps done in just as many days! I had to rewatch the first bit of Avengers to make sure I got that part right. Poor Gabriel, poor Loki, heck poor Thor! Oh, and this chap is 2,430 words! That's twice as many as my shorter chaps, and more then I normally do, certainly.
Enjoy, Internets, and Peace Off!