"Put these over your ears. We will be listening and watching, and I will talk to you through the whole thing."
"You don't have to. I was a prince. This is what I was trained for."
"And he is not a vanir or jotun or dark elf or whatever you have entertained in Asgard at this time period. He is martian and proud."
"If you think that I don't know about the pride of an warrior-"
"Don't try to fit him into any models you have in your head. He is not Asgardian, the martians are like-"
"frost giants."
"-martians. Aesir and frost giants are not the only warriors in the universe and I need you to stop thinking of either."
"that's not very easy," Loki muttered, looking hatefully at his blue hands.
The Doctor grabbed his hands onto his own, and met Lokis eyes.
"Later, we will talk about this. I promise. But right now we have to concentrate on this moment. Just- just go and try to get him to see that we primitive people want to apologize."
"I'm not one of the primitive people."
"yes you are."
"I was raised in Asgard-"
"And from my point of view Asgard is primitive. Don't worry, it's not a bad thing. I have found in my travels that it is the primitive cultures-"
"Yes, I understand. Doesn't that mean that the ice warriors are primitive too."
"Well they are. But don't tell him that I said that."
Loki snorted in amusement. If they ever got back to the tardis, Loki would make the Doctor take him to Gallifrey. If they truly were so wonderous and advanced, Loki wanted to see for himself. Actualy, why hadn't he asked that before. The Doctor should take Loki to his home planet. Surely the Gallifrey of legends would be the greatest wonder that the universe could offer.
Loki decided to bring the subject up with the Doctor later. Now he needed to concentrate on putting his silvertongue into good use.
"-please let us help you. You are not our enemy."
it was familiar. It was calming. How the words flowed from his tongue, easily and steadily. Tempting and coloured with poorly masked pleading tone. It was Lokis speciality, and made the listener feel so good about themselves.
"And yet I am in chains."
Loki recognized the tone. He was being tested.
"You are a warrior. In our place you might have not shown as much mercy to a threath."
"When did I threathen you?"
"I'm sure, that you know that an warrior of your reputation is a threath everywhere he goes."
a praise veiled to look like an unintentional slip. Mixed with fear. No matter what the Doctor said, warriors were warriors and ticked the same way across the universe.
"And yet you attacked me."
"Jus a boy. Using an cowards tricks. Humans are prone to do foolish things when scared."
"Yes. Cowards. Tell me Doctor, how does it feel to hide behind this boys words."
Loki glenched his jaw. Was he just dismissed.
"You are not talking to the Doctor, you are talking to me."
"Then why do I hear the Doctors words behind all of yours?"
"You want to have this converstation without the Doctor. Fine, lets talk, just you and me."
Loki could hear the Doctors franctic "No" from the headphones, before he ripped them off of his head and crushed them with one hand. Now the audio had been cut off from the chamber. Of course they still had the video, but hopefully Skaldak would not know. Or care.
And the Doctor wouldn't hear what Loki was going to say next.
"The Doctor wants to do this the nice way. He believes that you will understand his reasoning and mercy. That's what he wants you to be. But you and I know differently. We're monsters and we don't care about mercy. Ours or others. We kill and we fight and we do not know mercy, for it is not in our blood. What is in our blood is survival, and that is what I offer to you. Agree to what the Doctor offers you, and we will both walk away from here. Oppose us and I will end you. Like a monster."
"You threathen me?"
"Yes."
there was a moment, when only the dribbling of the water could be heard and then a screeching rasping sound.
It took a moment for Loki to understand that that rasping sound was laughter.
The ice warrior was laughing.
"You came here to threathen me you little thing. Me, the fleet comander of the nix-thassis. Tell me little monster, what will you do. I have lost my home, my people, my daughter. She stood by me on her first taste of action. We sang the songs of the old times. The songs of the red snow. 5000 years, now my daughter will be dust. Only dust."
Loki was momentarily halted. He had had a daughter? They had sung songs? And the warrior, the warrior sounded heartbroken.
But there was no time for that.
"You have your life and your people. The Doctor says that they live on. They will come for you."
"The Doctor says! The Doctor SAYS! I will rip the lying tongues from both of you! You can take your poisonus help and choke on it. I may live alone but I will not die alone!"
Loki had heard enough. The Doctor might hate him for this, but Loki was ready to face that.
This creature was no better than the frost giants and would not yield to the Doctor. It would not rest untill all of the mortals, the Doctor and Loki would fall under its claws.
The irony did not escape loki as he summoned the ice to form around his arm.
The Doctor had forbidden Loki to bring any of his knives to this talk, but even the Doctor could not take away the ice from a frost giant.
Loki plunged the icy blade straight trough the eye socket of the armor.
It met nothing.
Loki took a step back and stared at the empty shell.
It wasn't in. It had escaped.
"you were right, little monster. We are the same." came the voice from the shadows surrounding Loki.
"expect that I am stronger."
Then one of the shadows plunged from the dark and attacked.
The Doctor was angry. Out of all the stupid reckless things his companion could have done...
The Doctor should have Ran and fetch Loki the moment he cut off the audio from them. But he hadn't acted and instead had sputtered angrily, but still hoped that Loki would know what he was doing. He had trusted Loki to not do anything stupid.
And what had Loki done? Loki had stabbed Skaldadk
The Doctor wouldn't deny his relief of the fact that the armor had been empty and Loki had not managed to kill the martian.
The thought was instantly followed by dread, because the martian had left his armor, and was currently on the same room with Loki.
The Doctor ran.
He could only hope that he would be fast enough.
He would not end up standing over the funeral ice of his companion.
No. Loki was asgardian, he would want a burning boat.
No! Loki wasn't going to die. Not here, not under The Doctors watch.
So the Doctor ran.
When the Doctor finaly reached the door, he could hear the thumps and clashes of an ongoing fight.
Good, there were still two of them left to fight.
Wasting no time, the Doctor started to twist the heavy door open.
Something, or someone, was thrown against the door on the other side, and both of the Doctors hearts missed a beat.
"Loki!"
"Don't ope- Argh! That door! Aaaagh!"
The Doctor wrenched the door open, and immediatly two shapes burst through.
The other was nothing more than a blurr, as it dissappeared somwhere behind the Doctors back, with impressive burst of speed.
The other was the one the Doctor was paying all his attention. The blue shape of an injured frost giant, that had been leaning on the door, and had fallen straight against the Doctor when the door had been violently opened.
"I told you not to open the door!"
"You're a companion, you don't get to make the rules."
"You let it free."
"You let it almost kill yourself."
"It wouldn't-" Loki started, but had to stop ranting to spit out a lump of dark red blood.
The Doctor quickly took Loki by the shoulders, and propped him to sit against the wall, while he checked Lokis health.
Eyes were maybe a few shades of paler red than was healthy for a frost giant, which meant that Loki was suffering from bloodloss, but that was no news after Loki had managed to stab himself just few hours ago. Loki had also gained few new scratches on his face and one more severe looking wound on his cheek. No head wounds under the hair, the Doctor felt with his fingers. The battle adrealine was still running high, as the touch almost froze the fingers off of his hands.
No major wounds on the torso, maybe the leather armor had been a right call afterall.
Lokis right hand was still covered in ice, but even through the now melting shards, the Doctor could see that the wrist was not on natural angle.
Legs were all in one piece and not bleeding, so he was going to assume the best.
Letting out a breath he had been holding, the Doctor met Lokis pale (too pale, too much blood lost.) eyes again.
"What did you think you were doing!"
"You let it free!"
"You tried to kill him!"
Even the Doctor flinched at the power on his voice. The voice of the oncoming storm. The lonely god.
Lokis pale red eyes widened and he didn't answer. There was terror in his eyes. Buried there deep, the same terror that the Doctor had seen too many times before. The terror of an companion who for the first time, sees not the Doctor, but the time lord behind the names oncoming storm and lonely god.
All rage left the Doctor and only tiredness stayed.
"That's not how we do things. Haven't I told you before. We. Do. Not. Kill. Killing is never the answer."
"Isn't it. What a hypocrite you then are. Don't tell me that those eyes have never killed before."
Oh little asgardian. How much anger and lonliness could that little frost giant body hold. So much potential being buried under the blanket of pain.
"Loki, you are better than this. You are angry and scared and confused and I need you to focus. We can't kill him. If he dies on our hands, what do you think will happen when his people come for him. What will they do when we have nothing more than his corpse to give them. You are clever, you should know this."
"I knew exactly what I was doing! That creature will not show us any mercy. It won't matter if it is dead or alive when, or should I say if, its kind comes for it. No matter what, it will see us all killed. Now it will just kill us all with its own claws! Why did you open that door?"
"Isn't it obvious. You would have died in there."
"You could have locked the door and made sure that I would have been the only one."
"And do you really think that I would do that."
"You should have."
The Doctor wanted to gather his stupid companion for a hug, or maybe slap him in the face. He wasn't sure which one he wanted to do more, but both were impossibilities, seeing as Lokis biology was still in high survival gear and made his skin dangerous to touch.
So instead he leaned back on his folded legs and attempted to calm both himself and the situation.
Oh, and maybe the humans too. They needed to be calmed too.
"What the hell just happened!"
Yes, the humans needed some answers too.
"The signal. It has stopped," informed the professor from the back.
Yes, yes the signal had stopped.
"He left his armor. For an ice warrior to leave his armor, is the greatest dishonor one can commit. Skaldak is desperate."
"Wouldn't that make it more vulrenable?"
"No. It will make him more dangerous. Skaldak didn't get an answer from his martian brothers. He believes that he is all alone now."
Skaldak belived himself to be the last of his kind. and now he had all the rage and the lonelliness and madness that came with that.
"He has nothing left to lose."
Loki knew that he had been right. If he had sucseeded in killing the ice warrior, they wouldn't be now all huddled in the wet room, listening to the sombre captain talking about sacrifaces and destruction of the world. His right hand pulsed with dull pain, even though it had been enclosed in layers of ice to keep the broken bones in place.
Even if he had failed and lost, if just the Doctor would have done as Loki had told him, and locked the door, they would have not been brought to this.
Loki had done the right thing.
Then why was it, that again no one else could see it.
He had done it for the Doctor. Not for the mortals or even midgard. He had done it for the Doctor.
For that ancient, wise, powerfull time lord that had jumped straight out of his bed time stories.
And the Doctor had rejected him. Had looked at the sacrifaces that Loki was willing to make for him, and had turned away.
He wantted to hate the Doctor, but for his own disgust, could only feel emptiness.
"Don't be too harsh on yourself, son."
Loki blinked at the old mortal that was lounging against the same rail as he was, and was apparently talking to him. The professor, they had called him.
"I can see it in your eyes. None of this is your fault."
"Of course not. It was the stupidity of you humans that started this all."
"Yes. I'm afraid it is. I guess we just have to hope that the Doctor can get us all out of it."
"I'm starting to highly doubt that."
"courage son. Who knows what the next hours will bring to us."
"Death."
the mortal took a deep breath and shook his head slowly. "Very possibly. Stepashin is already missing, and I fear for him. But I'm russian and I've seen war. There is always hope."
Loki wanted to retort, that he was asgardian, and a mortal could not possibly tell him about warriors hope. But the man had said war, and what could he say to that. Loki had never experienced war, and there was no scathing retort, that would not make him sound like a petulant child.
"You should have stayed in the cockpit, resting."
"Thank you professor for your input. You are missing the input, where I am not a feeble human."
"your wrist is snapped and you are shaking all over. Now that the adrealine is starting to wear off, you might drop any minute."
"Again, not human."
"you are a brave boy-"
"I'm not a boy!"
"You know Loki, the good professor has a point."
"And I think I'm going to stick with you, Doctor. "
the Doctor didn't have any argument against that so he just continued onwards in the drippling corridor.
The professor just looked at Loki with utterly detestable amount of concern in his gaze.
Here he was, Loki of Asgard, being pitied by a mortal.
No. Loki of Jotunheim, Loki reminded himself. The blue skin was a second by second reminder of that.
"Courage my dear." the professor muttered to him and Loki hated him for it.
"let us sing a song to keep our spirits up."
the words were so ridicilous that Loki just had to stop and stare at the professor.
It was very...Asgardian idea.
"I am not singing a song."
"what. Don't they have songs where you come from?"
Loki decided to just ignore the professor.
Which for some reason translated as a cue for the mortal to start singing
"-and I'm hungry like a woooolf~. One of my favorites. Duran Duran. Come on, your turn. Don't they really sing anything in your planet?"
"Of course we have songs. " Well actually, Loki doubted that the frost giants had any. They were monsters, they wouldn't sing songs. But Loki didn't want to think of that, so he allowed his mind to return to Asgard, if just for a little moment."The warriors used to sing, The valkyries took my maiden fair, while marching. Lady Sif said that she hated it, but would always hum it when she thought that no one could hear."
"Then lets hear it. C'mon."
"I am not singing." Loki huffed. Discomfort and self loathing momentarily forgotten.
Then came the voice. The voice of someone being brutally killed by a monster. Loki knew the voice, for he had heard it before in his travels with Thor.
The Doctor dashed straight on the direction of the noise, because of course he did. Loki and the professor followed, because of course they did.
The sight that greeted them was not unexpected, but still no less gruesome.
The man had been torn apart, brutally and utterly.
"It's a monster." the professor whispered. Loki silently agreed.
The Doctor, of course did not.
"No professor. He's frantic and learning. Learning all about you, your strenghts, your weaknesses. It wants to know its opponents. It doesn't want to be taken by a surprise again."
"Again?" the professor asked, but Loki already knew what the Doctor had meant.
"Loki was strong. Stronger than Skaldak ever would have guessed. He put up a fight for Skaldak, and skaldak wasn't expecting that."
Yes he had put up a fight. Fight that he would have lost. If the Doctor would not have opened the door, it would have been him laying on the ground, torn in little pieces.
Instead it was this mortal on the ground, barely recognisable and the stench of blood almost touchable.
It didn't matter that he was an aesir. Or Jotun. He was trapped in the bottom of an ocean with an creature both stronger and faster than him, and right now his changes of survival were no more better than any of these mortals in the ship.
The realisation was scary. Was this what Thor had felt like when he had seen the destroyer close on to him, while still on a mortal body?
Had the same realisation bought Mjölnir back to him?
But there was no Mjölnir for Loki, there was only the dark desperation waiting to swallow Loki and his hope. He briefly wondered if Heimdall could see him. If Odin could. Did they know that he was alive. Did they care. Would they care if he died. Would they ever even know. Or would he just dissappear here, under a midgardian ocean in the past, without anyone in Asgard ever knowing the truth.
They backed off from the room and its bloody stench, closing the door behind them. The clang of the metal door sounded more dooming than it should.
The Doctor had dashed of in a flurry of dark hair and purple jacket. Loki had not dashed after him.
Instead he was now sitting on a damp corridor with the old professor and trying to guess wether it was blood or just water, that was making his stomach so wet.
"Loki, talk to me. What are you thinking?"
The professor was watching him, looking so old, and parental, and concerned, and it was such a joke, because he was midgardian and Loki should have laughed, but instead he just sagged in on himself and started talking."
"I'm Asgardian. I was trained as a warrior, I was trained by the finest teachers in the realm and- and I'm older than all of you mortals. So much older. I've lived for thousands of midgardian years!"
"but?"
"But why do I feel like I'm the youngest person on the ship."
The professor had a fond smile tugging on his lips, and if Loki had felt even little bit better, he would have cared, but now he didn't have the energy to even do that.
"Tell me Loki. How old would you be on your own years."
"150 ár."
"and would that be much for your people?"
"No."
"Your age is not made up by numbers my boy."
"Dont call me a boy."
"I'm sorry, but as a former parent and an old man I can't help myself."
Loki should have propably been annoyed, but mostly he was just amused. He was being babyed by a mortal.
"So you have children?"
"A daughter. I used to sing to her when she was just a baby. My fierce little baby girl. She had the eyes that told you that she would grow up to be a fighter, that one."
Loki was going to ask more, but he didn't get the change. The conversation and the pain and the blood loss had made him unobservant and suddenly there were claws grabbing his head.
Skaldak had found them.
Luckily for Loki, the old mortal man was not just an old man, prone to baby beings thousands times older than himself. He was also a warrior and instantly grabbed his gun.
Two neat shots over lokis head and the claws retreated, leaving thankfully Lokis head still intact.
Of course the creature just got annoyed and went for its attacker. When the long green claws setteled over the professors head, Loki reached for a knife.
Expect that for a second he had forgotten that his right wrist was broken and covered in ice. The pain shooting from his hand made his eyes fire up and the fingers wouldn't move to grasp the hilt of the blade. No! The mortal was going to die, right there in front of-No!
But the professors head din't get crushed to pieces. The creature, no it couldn't be hesitating, couldn't it?"
there were running footsteps behind him, and then the Doctor was there, hovering beside Loki.
For lokis surprise the creature started talking from its place from the shadows on the ceiling, instead of just killing the man and disappearing again.
"You attacked me. The martian law degrees that the people of this planet are forfeit. I now have all the information that I need. It will take only one missile to end this cold war."
Something flickered in Lokis mind. Information gathered from the future. The east and the west. The mutual fear. The cold war...
the Doctor tried to reason with the martian. "There is no need for this, grand marshall." he begged, but for no avail. The martians voice was raw, nearing maddnes. Familiar.
"My people are dead. Dust. There is nothing left for me, expect my revenge!"
"There is something left for you Skaldak. Mercy." the Doctor sounded desperate. Desperate and pleading. Loki knew that his words would not be heard. He knew the resonance of that voice, knew the insanity behind it. Knew that nothing would penetrate it. Not even the words of the Doctor.
There was another set of footseps behind him and then the captain was there too, pointing his own impressivily big gun at Skaldak.
"We will negotiate from the positition of strenght!"
"put the gun down!" Loki hissed at him. The captain was brave, but right now he was also being a fool. If the martian would have been intimated, it wouldn't still be there, red eyes glowing from the shadows. The Doctor glanced at Loki like he was a pet that just learned a new trick. Loki rolled his eyes. It was clear that the ice warrior still had the leverage of the situation, and it was best to not piss it off.
Lokis suspicion was proven right, when the empty armor of the ice warrior walked into the room.
"It summoned the armor." The Doctor helpfully pointed the obvious.
The mortals, concentrating on a wrong issue here, asked the Doctor, "how is it doing that."
"Sonic tech." the Doctor answered. "few decades and the ironman will figure it out for you. Well not exactly, but almost. Actually I personally liked Tony Starks designs always better than-Skaldak! NO! Wait!"
"And then they were running. Always, always running.
