Hello everyone ! There it is the chapter for the week ! I think i twill be able to make up for the little nothing of last Sunday ! Good reading ! ^o^

Crédits : Marvel, Marvel, all Marvel ! ^o^

Chapiter 3 : You Were not Born Asgardian, my Son.

Eir said she had the illness in check, but half of Loki's face is still ravaged by it. It's like his skin had been torn-down before being sewed back on with shoddy material. Blue shoddy material. It is the same with his right hand. His eyes remain green though, even if the right one is now circled by blood-like red.

When Loki regains consciousness and sees what has become of his body, when he looks, horrified, at the stony blue skin of the Frost Giant that now crawls on him, he panics and screams until his voice turns raw. It cannot be it cannot be it cannot be. It. Cannot. Be.

Except it is.

When his Mother tries to approach and sooth him, he backs away and attempts to flee. But his knees are far too weak to support him and he collapses. He realizes that he cannot breathe, for his lungs seem to be made of fire. It is like he is burning alive. His skin itches and parts of it crack, only to reveal more blue under.

He doesn't understand what's happening to him. And that terrifies him. So he tries to get answers, even if his throat aches and his voice is gone. He looks at Odin with pleading, yet fierce eyes, for he knows that the All-Father surely knows what by Hel is happening.

Odin kneels down where his second son has fallen and, with shaky voice and blurred eye, begins his tales.

"You were not born Asgardian, my son." He makes a pause here, searching for his words hesitantly. "You are from Jotunheim."

At that, Thor jumps with a start and gapes in shock. His beloved brother ? One of those monsters ? Preposterous ! And yet, the blue skin, the strange patterns on it, the red eyes, the burning cold… He recognized them from the very start. But he thought, he hoped it was some kind of curse, casted from Jotunheim upon Odin's younger son, to make the one who once brought them on their heels suffer. He cannot believe that Loki is one of them. No, it can't be.

Loki, he, is very still. He waits for Odin to continue.

"You were born when the war was still raging between our two people. I found you, alone, abandoned to the winds' bites and to Death, because too meager to be thought worthy of living. And if you were born Jötunn, at the second my eyes fell on you I felt for you all the love a father can have for a son. So I took you away, far from the cold and from the hunger, and I raised you as one of mine. Only your Mother was let into the confidence. Even your own brother didn't know. Until today."

At that, Loki casts a brief glance at Thor. Seeing his brother's face, he knows that it is the truth. And he feels the anger fledge in his heart. Odin is still speaking though, so Loki brings his eyes back at him, even if part of his focus starts to crumble.

Odin explains him that Loki's magic was already here when he was but an infant. That as soon as Odin laid a hand on him, the blue disappeared to make him look like the one who was picking him up. To make him look like an Aesir. Odin admits, with some shame, he was at first relieved by that, for it was far easier to raise him as his own child under that hide. And so, he never told him, or anyone else, who he really was, fearing that Loki would be rejected and casted aside by people still resentful at the Frost Giants. He only meant to protect his son, nothing more.

So Loki grew up, convinced that he was an Aesir, that he was the second Prince of Asgard and rightful pretender to the Throne, just like Thor was. And his body never turned Jötunn again. But a lie, as big and perfected as it can be, never lasts. Even if he hadn't the look of a Frost Giant, Loki was Jötunn and could never change that. That is why Loki never felt the cold, even when storms were ragging outside. That is why the great heats of summer had always been trying for him. That was the cause of his illness.

There was a reason why Jötunns never tried to invade Asgard. Asgard's very own atmosphere was toxic for them, burning their insides until they turned into ashes. Loki's magic protected him as long as it could. But now, it couldn't anymore, for it was affected too by what was like poison for Loki. His body had stood it all, until it couldn't anymore and collapsed.

Asgard was killing the intruder, eating away his flesh from inside. And despite all Odin's powers and knowledge, despite Eir's healing talents and Idunn's golden apples, Loki was dying from it.

As Odin speaks and confesses himself, tears of guilt and pain start to run over his cheeks. He begs Loki to forgive him, because he is the one who forced him to live in a place that his body cannot withstand. Odin swears on his Ancestors' names that he'll find a way, that he'll use all his powers to heal Loki and allow him to be free of the pain, to live as long as he would have if he were truly Aesir. He swears on his remaining eye that he never wanted him to suffer and that he would give all it is in his possession to make things better. It's a pathetic and harrowing spectacle that the sight of Odin, Great Master of the Nine Realms, on his knees before his son and crying, crying, crying…

Loki does not cry. Odin's speech, promises and supplications are lost between the chaos of his thoughts and the pain of his burning lungs. He had heard him, but hadn't listened. All he knows is that he's not Loki of Asgard, son of Odin and Frigga and brother of Thor. He is a monster. One of those that made him shake and cry at night when he was a child. One of those that Thor swore to exterminate. And he will die in agonizing pains, burned alive by the very Realm he called home. Now that Thor knows that he is a Frost Giant, even a runt, will he slay him down, just like he swore to do ?

Loki's eyes fall on his hands. And when he sees that stone-like, alien and hideous skin that, he knows it, crawls on his right arm and devours half of his face, rage and hate fill his heart. Odin is not his Father, neither Frigga is his Mother. They lied to him. All his life is nothing but an odious lie. How can they expect him to believe them now when they say they are sorry ? How can they pretend understand his feelings and share his pains ? How dare they ?

Loki finds his strengths again and he gets up, forcing violently Odin far from him. Without saying a word, without even casting his once-parents a glance, he walks through the room with steady steps and clenched fists. He doesn't listen to Odin's desperate calls or Frigga's laments. He ignores the searing pain in his chest and flees (because regardless of how much he tries to deny it, he is fleeing) to his own rooms and double locks himself in.

But even the familiar hangings and beloved books cannot sooth him. It's quite the opposite. The room is full of shiny and precious objects, most of them dedicated to magic, all gifts given by his not-family. Loki rages and hates more. Those objects are only here to remind him who he really is. They all show him how hideous he is now. What he has lost. So, with methodic diligence and cold anger, he scatters each mirror, each surface susceptible to cast his reflection. Then he shatters the embossed furniture and burns down the delicate ornaments. All sources of light are extinguished. He destroys everything he can lay his eyes upon.

While ripping the Odin's banner off the wall, his right hand slips and scrapes itself on a twisted piece of metal. The blood runs red from the wound. Loki looks at it, fascinated and oddly relieved. His blood is not blue. Maybe it's not too late ? Maybe if he tears away the skin, it will heal back to normal ? After all, snakes can shed their skin whenever they want to, can't they ? So Loki digs his nails on his right wrist and pulls. He rips off that hideous skin until his forearm is covered with red. Until the pain of his right hand outmatches the one on his heart. He looks at the damaged he has done to himself and to his room and laughs, before starting to tear apart the banner again.

Finally, when everything is dark and laying waste, only at that moment Loki lets himself drop on the floor and cries.