Thor did not go to the dungeon that day. No sooner had his mother left his chambers when Odin summoned him to the throne room to attend the morning audiences. Thor stood on the dais beside the throne and listened to the petitions, careful always to keep his eyes averted from the Tesseract, again contained and set on its pedestal, opposite him on the dais.
Thor wondered at the danger, continuing to keep the cube so close. If Loki escaped again, he would know immediately where to find it, Thor pointed out to his father when in private. But Odin replied that the Tesseract would be no safer anywhere else in the realm, than here under the Einherjar's guard and his and Heimdall's watchful eyes. Besides, being in the vault had not protected the gauntlet.
In the afternoon, the king retired to his bed, and had Thor sit on the throne, to hear applicants from Asgard's furthest farms after their long journey to the palace. By the time this business was finished, the dinner feast was served; then evening had fallen, and Thor did not dare speak to Loki in darkness, when he might do anything. Instead he passed another night with the Warriors Three and Sif. They drank no more mead than usual (Fandral was still not quite recovered from the previous night) but played dice games for low stakes, with a little friendly brawling when rolls went badly.
Come morning Thor jerked awake from a deep but uneasy slumber, disturbed by forgotten dreams and some slight pricking guilt. Before his mother might appear to press him on his promise, Thor quickly bathed and dressed, donning his armor as if he were going to war, then proceeded down to the dungeons.
Descending the stairs into the cell, he found its inmate standing by the window, a silhouette in stripped-down black; his armor had been taken from him. Loki glanced to Thor and then back outside, unconcerned.
As if nothing had changed, and this grated on Thor. He thought Loki should appear differently now that he had revealed his real self, even to Thor. He should look like a monster, a fiend, a traitorous scheming villain; no longer like Thor's brother. But here he was as he had always been, pale and dark, quick-fingered hands clasped behind his back, head inclined back to gaze down upon the abyss with aloof, refined poise. Loki had always been as good at lying with his visage as with his tongue.
His eyes were sunken still, set in dark shadows, the hollows of his cheeks almost gaunt. But the apparent exhaustion did not show in the straightness of his back, in his smooth sneering voice—that too unaltered, for all Frigga's concerns. "So the noble Thor would yet come to the prisoner's cell. And here I hoped myself finally rid of your cloying company."
Thor crossed his arms over his chest, stared at Loki and said nothing. All the better, if Loki would speak to him anyway; Thor could keep his promise to his mother and to himself as well. Words were ever Loki's weapons and Loki's battlefield; Thor would not fight him on that treacherous ground.
"No answer?" Loki turned from the barrier to look at Thor, tilting his head as if genuinely curious. "Ah, have I at last provoked Odinson's famous temper? So this was what it took—you claim Midgard as ally, but in the end you care not what happens there, how many mortals might be slaughtered. But risk Asgard..."
He took a step forward, watching Thor's face, though Thor set his lips tight and did not meet Loki's eyes, staring over his shoulder into the mists beyond the windows.
"Oh, but it was not Asgard," Loki said, soft as a snake rustling through grass. "Not the realm; not even what I did to your beloved father. It was the gauntlet, wasn't it. That I touched you with it, and opened wide your soul—tell me, Thor, how much did you enjoy it? Is it not glorious, the certain reality of power? You who've always loved being the strongest—did you not love that?
"Or," and Loki paused, one contemplative finger brushing down his lip, "or was it not enough, when within that power you knew the truth as well, that I was your better? Does it sicken you now, to recall how you bowed and scraped to me? I could have bade you lick my boots clean, and you contentedly would have knelt. Tell me, prince, in your deepest heart did you not enjoy it, the secret gratification of obeying one superior to you?"
Thor breathed in and out through his nose, focusing himself as he would before a battle, ignoring the baiting taunts of his foes. He listened to Loki's words because he had vowed to his mother he would; but he did not need to acknowledge them. Besides, to try to parry would only be to open himself to greater attack, if Loki realized how close his feints had come.
Loki leaned back, hip casually cocked, arms spread in contrast to Thor's crossed closed stance. "I should bring you with me after all—worth the risk, that I might share that joy with you. Next time I shall. We'll go to Midgard, you and I, and you can lead me to your allies, your mortal friends—"
"Stop it," Thor rumbled before he could help himself; lies or not, he did not wish to hear this.
Loki's eyes opened slightly larger, catching the light in a gleam of triumph. His lips curled in a wicked smirk. "Oh, but haven't you looked forward to that reunion?" he asked. "If no more than I. To bring the gauntlet there—that clever man of iron, his heart might be shielded, but not so his mind; and it would be great fun to play with his demons. And to have the little hawk back at my side, where he belongs—at least for long enough to kill his pretty spider whore, as I promised her.
"The soldier, now, bores me; I would leave him to your hammer, and have you bring me his heart afterwards, as a trophy. And the monstrous beast...ahh, his fantastic body rules over his mind; but the gauntlet would dominate his mind first. It would trap him in that weak human shell, and then there would be no end to what I could do to him. Or, well, I suppose an end eventually; they are called mortals for a reason..."
Thor said nothing, gritting his teeth, not allowing Loki another victory. Loki's smile widened; he licked his lips, went on, "Then it would be time to seek her out, your clever human lover. Dr. Foster would be thrilled to see you again, don't you think? Running into your arms, overjoyed—until she looked into your eyes and realized they were no longer hers; but by then it would be too late for her—"
"How?" Thor interrupted. "How do you intend to do any of this, from here?" and he nodded at the cell.
Loki barked a laugh, shrill and gleeful. "You think this will hold me? How long do you think I'll stay safely imprisoned this time? Know this, Thor, when I escape, when once more I take up the gauntlet and the cube—you will be the second one I come for, the second thrall I take.
"And can you guess the first?" He leaned close, as if they were brothers once more, Loki at Thor's shoulder, murmuring advice into his ear. "The first will be the bitch queen who so deviously tricked me, when like a fool I took her cunning for maternal affection. Not a mistake I'll make again. No, I'll let her live to witness all your crimes, so that she may know her son by blood is no less a monster than her son by lies. Then at the end, while she still begs denial, I will have you take her—"
"STOP!" Thor roared, and Loki did, his poisonous words choked short by Thor's hand around his throat, by the rattling clang as Thor slammed him back against the metal bars that outlined the transparent barrier.
Loki gagged at the impact, body jerking; but he was grinning still. He brought up his hands, coiled his arms around Thor's and wrenched. Thor released him before his forearm could be snapped between Loki's, and Loki ducked and threw himself forward, ramming his shoulder into Thor's solar plexus, knocking him back.
Instead of following up this blow, Loki dodged past him—going for the staircase, Thor realized, and lunged for him. He caught at Loki's sleeve, only for his hand to pass through nothingness—
"Every time!" Loki gloated in Thor's ear, his duplicate image vanishing as he wrapped his arm around Thor's neck. Thor kicked backwards, tried to elbow him, but Loki twisted like an eel to avoid the blows. Hand-to-hand, they knew each other too well, strengths and weaknesses alike; when wrestling Loki's speed could match Thor's strength, or close enough not to matter.
Loki's arm dug in until Thor saw spots over his vision. He did not know if Loki might use him to escape the cell, or whether his unconsciousness would keep the barricade from opening—did not dare to find out. They might be matched in unarmed combat, but Thor was never weaponless.
He summoned Mjolnir to his hand and released lightning over them both. The current surged through them, invigorating Thor, throwing Loki back.
He slammed into the barrier and fell on his back on the floor of the cell, heaved himself up on his elbows, wheezing, to glare up at Thor standing over him. As he had been on the rainbow bridge, that year and more ago.
Thor could have ended it then, and none of this would have happened. Should have ended it then—but he could do so now. He raised Mjolnir over his head.
Loki was staring—not at Thor but at the hammer, eyes wide. His tongue worked behind his parted lips, a trail of blood leaking from the corner of his mouth as he sought words, some lie to escape this—
No, Thor thought—no, not escape. The wild wideness of Loki's eyes was not fear, not terror despite his pale cheeks—it was hunger. The avarice that he had so carefully hidden whenever he saw or spoke of the Tesseract, now showed naked on his face as he stared up at Mjolnir. The words his tongue struggled to find were not those that would stop the hammer, but those that would bring it down on him.
Thor froze, suspended by shock. Loki panted, found the breath to speak, lips cracking into a joyless, taunting smile, "So Thor Odinson is that much a coward—"
"Stop this," Thor said, one more time, as slowly he lowered Mjolnir to his side, "Loki, stop."
"Coward," Loki hissed again, struggling to sit the rest of the way up. His mouth was still stretched into the grin, his teeth bloody behind his bloody lips. Backed up against the wall, he dragged himself to his feet with its assistance. "He told me my conviction was lacking, but yours no less so—oh, but you didn't hear that part, did you? The little man with the big gun—the agent whose heart I ran through, while you watched helpless from my cage. His dying words to me were that your allies would defeat me—but it was only my army you defeated; I am here yet, while he is dead. I will be here still, when all your human friends are gone. I will find it—I will take the Tesseract, from wherever you have hidden it—"
"Hidden it?" Thor asked, realizing too late that this was most certainly another trick to get him to talk.
Loki laughed like a broken thing. "I know, you fool! Even if I couldn't see or touch or channel the Tesseract, I still could feel the beat of its distant pulse as it sat before Odin's throne, waiting for me. Wherever the cube has been sealed away now, whatever miserable world it's been buried in, if you let me live I will find it; I will take back what is mine, my right and destiny—"
Thor frowned. "The Tesseract is where it has been, in the throne room."
Loki's eyes narrowed to green slits. "You lie."
"Why would I?" Thor asked. "Without the gauntlet—without me—you'd have no chance of taking it from the All-Father's guardianship, wherever it's put."
Loki stepped forward, scrutinizing Thor's face, reading every feature as he would a magic scroll. "No," he said, shaking his head. His smile became a grimace, red-stained teeth clenched behind it. "No," he forced through them, "no, no—!"
Without warning he whirled around to hammer his fists on the window behind him, screaming, "No!—I am still here! I will—I will endure, I will live, so that I may reclaim you—reclaim the gauntlet—I will take up your power, I will bear it! I will rule, as I promised you, as you promised me—do not forsake me—I will be your sword and your shield, your voice and your emissary—I am still here—!"
The clear barrier did not crack under his blows, did not even quiver, accepting every impact with a dull muffled thud. Loki's fists were leaving red smudges on its transparency. "Loki!" Thor said. When Loki did not stop, he stepped closer, grabbed Loki's wrists to halt his next assault.
Loki struggled, but not his calculated attack before; instead he thrashed wildly to free himself, wrenching against Thor's hold until Thor thought he might yank his shoulders from their sockets. He leaned in with all his weight, shoving Loki against the barrier to restrain him as he forced his arms back, cried again, "Loki!"
Loki's head twisted around, his eyes flashing across Thor's, gaze skipping like a stone over water and then locking on, searing green. He stilled in Thor's grip, drew himself up under Thor's gaze. "Thor," he said, throat working, stuttering with his lower lip catching between his teeth, bitten red and bleeding again. "Thor, brother, you must—you must—take me to the throne room; I will build the Bifrost again, I will remake it anew, perfect. Just let me—with the Tesseract—I promise, I promise, I promise you, brother, I will do it truly. You'll be back on Midgard in a fortnight, back with your friends, your love. An hour would be all I need, an hour with the cube, and then I'll stay in this cell, I will stay and not leave, I promise, just let me—just let me, Thor—"
This was a lie, Thor thought; it was a trick, Loki saying outright what he claimed to want, to distract from his real goal. It was a lie, the water dripping from Loki's wide bruised eyes, coursing down his hollowed cheeks; a lie, though Loki stared like he did not even realize he was crying, not trying to blink the tears away.
When Thor let go of Loki's wrists, Loki's arms fell limp at his sides. He slumped back against the barrier, next to the blood his broken knuckles had smeared across it. His eyes were still fixed on Thor's face, and his mouth kept moving, but his voice had cracked, died away, and his unvoiced whisper hitched with his uneven rasping breaths, "—Let me, just let me—"
Thor said his name, but Loki did not seem to hear him, even staring at him so intently. Thor was not sure Loki understood the words he himself was speaking, if he even realized he was still speaking them. Slowly Loki slid down, until he sat on the floor, arms over his drawn-up knees, like a child would sit. His lips stopped shaping the whispers, but stayed parted, so his breath whistled softly between them. The tears dried on his face; he did not wipe them off, still staring, now at nothing, the empty space in the cell behind Thor and before the stairs.
Thor crouched beside him, slowly, as warily as one might move around a cornered animal; though Loki did not flinch back, did not even seem to notice him. Not until Thor cautiously laid a hand on his arm; then his head jerked up. He stared at Thor, his eyes red-rimmed, but clearer; the red made the green seem brighter. "Thor," he said, brow furrowing, as if puzzled that Thor were there at all; then he gave his head a quick shake, said, "No—no. You cannot, can you. I would not be allowed near it. Nor in the All-Father's throne room again."
"No," Thor said, pronouncing the words carefully so they could not be misunderstood, "you would not be."
Loki's tongue flicked out, dabbed at the blood crusting at the corner of his mouth. His voice was eerily even, would have been smooth had his throat not been hoarsened by his screaming before. "I would—I would find a way, a way to convince you," he said. "If I were not so tired now, and if it were not so loud in here..."
It was nearly silent in the cell, but for Loki's unsteady breathing, and the faint howl of the wind through the stone crags and the abyss's depths, barely audible through the windows. Another lie, Thor thought, though he did not understand its meaning. He did not understand, either, what Loki thought he might convince him to do; take him to the Tesseract, or else...
"If you are tired," Thor told him, "you should sleep."
Loki's head tilted to the side, eyes distanced with thought, before he agreed, "Yes. Yes, if I could."
"You can try," Thor said. He pushed himself to his feet, took Loki's arm and drew him standing as well. Loki leaned against him, so heavily Thor thought if he moved away Loki would collapse back where he sat, like one of the badly made top-heavy figures Fandral would sometimes whittle.
He tugged on Loki's elbow, and Loki walked with him, one step at a time to the cot. He laid down on it, one leg dangling off, as if he had not the strength to pull it up with the other; he closed his eyes, and his breathing evened, slowed.
Another lie, Thor thought, a sham. Loki could not have fallen asleep so quickly. Loki would not have listened to Thor's counsel at all. He was only pretending, that he might take Thor by surprise, try again to escape.
Thor put his hand out and was almost surprised to touch not an illusion but Loki's solid shoulder, rising and falling with his sleeping breaths.
Thor watched the cot as he climbed the steps out of the cell, ducking down to keep his eye on it until the barricade was set. Loki did not open his eyes, did not stir, even at the clang of the metal sliding back into place, locking the prisoner within his cell.
Thor felt as if he could not breathe, as if the tunnel were caved in on him, all of Asgard's weight bearing down on his chest. He marched through the dungeon's corridors, all but running, and the lift was too grinding slow bringing him to the surface. Even in the open sunlight he felt that pressure closing in around him, until he gasped from it.
He went to Frigga as he had vowed to do, found her in her weaving room, at her spinning wheel. She rose when he entered, hurried to him.
"Mother," Thor said, "he..." and then he could not go on; he could not find the words himself, nor the heart to repeat any of Loki's.
Frigga looked up at his face and without a question opened her arms, and Thor bent down into her embrace. This time he was the one who soaked her dress's shoulder, while she stroked his hair, murmuring soft comforts, as if he were a little boy again, sobbing in her lap.
to be continued...
Thank you so much, everyone who's taken the time to leave a review! I'm so happy to know someone else is enjoying this story...more than the characters, anyway (oh Thor, oh Loki, I'm sorry...but you know what they say, it's always darkest before dawn...)