Curled up on the floor at the back of the fighter, Bruce gritted his teeth. He had abandoned the co-pilot's chair in favour of the floor, hoping to get at least an hour or two of rest. But there was no way he could sleep; his stomach cramped with hunger pains. Arguing that they needed to stay as far away from Thanos as they could, Loki had set the fighter on an inefficient arc that skirted the edges of the Solar System. The decision had kept them safe thus far, but it had tripled the length of their journey. Bruce wasn't certain how long they had been on the fighter now, the units of time the fighter's onboard computer provided left him only more confused, but two days had to have passed since he had last eaten or slept.
When the waves of pain temporarily let up, he rolled onto his back and stared at the dull grey of the fighter's roof. Although they spoke softly, the fighter was small, he could hear Loki and Brandr talking up at the front.
'A question for you,' Loki was saying. 'Did Arnfinn really send you off after the books?'
'Not as such,' Brandr replied with a wince.
'I thought so. Arnfinn was my tutor once too, from what I know of the man, it didn't seem like something he'd do. Then why did you run off instead of heading to the escape pods?'
'I wanted to find you and Thor. I thought… I don't know, I don't remember what I was thinking. But, do you think Thor's all right?'
Silence lingered. Bruce could just about picture the scene — Brandr sulking in the co-pilot's chair and Loki working over-time to restrain himself from snapping at Brandr. The boy had already asked this twice (only phrasing the question slightly differently) and both times Loki had told him that he didn't know. There was a cruelty to bringing up Thor again. Despite their fighting and bickering, no one who spent even a few hours with the brother could miss the affection they held for each other.
Perhaps realising that he wouldn't get the answer he wanted out of Loki, Brandr ventured to a different topic. 'How come we were attacked? What did they want?'
A chair creaked as someone shifted their weight, then Loki sighed.
'I am Jotun, you know that, right?' he asked.
Careful not to make noise and alert Loki to the fact that he had an eavesdropper, Bruce propped himself up on his elbows. He had been aware there was a back-story to Loki's parentage. Thor had told the Avengers long ago that his brother was adopted, but he had refrained from sharing the details. Back then Bruce hadn't dwelled on it — every family had its secrets. However, if Loki's parentage had something to do with their present situation, Bruce thought he had a right to know.
Brandr sucked on his lip. 'I know. Was it them that —'
'No. It's just something you need to know for all of this to make sense,' Loki replied. 'I was furious when I found out the truth about my parentage. So furious, in fact, I was ready to destroy Jotunheim, but Thor and the All-father thwarted my plans.'
'And you fell off the Bifrost when it broke. I remember hearing the stories.'
'I chose to fall. Sometimes death seems the easier path to take.'
A blaring alarm cut off Loki's next words.
Bruce scrambled up and rushed over to the cockpit. 'What's going on?'
'Low fuel warning.' Loki smiled wryly. 'I've been expecting it for a while. Fighters are designed for short-range sorties and mid-air refuelling, so there was never going to be enough fuel in the tanks to get us all the way to Midgard. I'm going to power down the engines and leave just the support systems running. We should save some fuel for our entry into the Midgardian atmosphere.'
'Wouldn't that just leave us drifting?'
'Sure. But our trajectory is correct, at least we'll be drifting in the right direction.'
Loki made no pretence of being interested in Bruce's opinion on his plan and began powering down the engines. He was gentle with the throttle, sliding it back slowly until the rumble of the engines became a hum and then petered out altogether. Bruce glanced to the cockpit windows. Past the deep gouges in the glass, he saw only empty space.
Christ, how much longer?
Brandr slid off the chair and offered it to Banner, who happily collapsed into it. Getting up onto his feet left him lightheaded and he didn't feel like he had the energy to stay upright for long. It was only a couple seconds later that his conscience caught up to him — Brandr probably felt no better. However, the boy had propped himself up against the back of Bruce's chair, leaning his chin on the headrest. He seemed comfortable enough.
'Loki's telling me about who attacked us,' Brandr said.
Bruce considered his options. What Loki had been telling Brandr was candid, he wasn't certain Loki would be willing to be as open with Bruce. On the other hand, there was precious little else to do while they were stuck on this ship except talk.
'I think I'd like to hear all about that myself,' Bruce said.
Loki threw him a dark look, then tilted his head back until he was staring at the top of the cockpit. 'I suppose there is no reason to keep the story to myself anymore,' he said. 'After I fell, I, well, I kept falling. No idea how long, though it felt like decades. I lost consciousness after a while and I woke up on the outskirts of the Nova Empire. Out there imperial control is seldom to be found; the local militias rule. I was so weak by then the warding hiding my true features failed and they took me for an odd-looking Kree, with whom they had been at war for centuries. They… Let's just say, I shed no tears for them when one of Thanos' lieutenants cut them down to a man.'
'Thanos is Kree then?'
'No, the Mad Titan is something far more powerful than any Kree. But he would rather others do the work for him. When his lieutenant found me and recognised me as Jotun, rather than Kree, he took pity on me. But he also saw that his master could find a use for me. Thanos likes nothing more than to exploit a personal rivalry to his advantage. So he made me an offer — the Tesseract, or rather the infinity stone within it, in exchange for Midgard.
Since Loki had begun his tale, his words had near tumbled out as if he had longed to share his story with someone for years, but now he hesitated and when he did begin speaking again, he looked flustered. 'For what it's worth, I didn't accept. Not at first. But he knows how to be persuasive. And from Midgard, I thought, I could conquer all the Nine Realms. Except that worked out rather badly.'
Bruce shook his head. Saying that the invasion attempt ended rather badly was such a cheap attempt to gloss over Loki's colossal failure that day. But what about the rest of it? SHIELD agents had spent days trying to get Loki to talk and they had gotten little more than repeated proclamations of 'I am burdened with glorious purpose'. It was quite a different tale he was telling today. How likely was it that this version of events was the truth?
'You tried to conquer my planet as an up yours move to your father and Thor. Good to know,' Bruce said. True or not, he might as well play along for the moment.
Loki snorted. 'What did you think I did it for? Earth's pristine air?'
'With you, who knows. Maybe you took offence at how Norse mythology portrayed you,' Banner replied. 'So I assume you realised Thanos wouldn't be happy you reneged on your side of the deal.'
'Or I didn't just renege. I lost the one infinity stone he had, thus instead of having two in his possession, he had none. Faking my death seemed the most prudent move. And it worked out well until Thor returned.'
'You didn't have to pretend to be your father,' Bruce said, rubbing his hands over arms. The temperature in the ship had already been frigid before, but now that the engines were off, it had dropped further and goosebumps had proliferated over every exposed inch of Bruce's skin.
'Thor returned the Tesseract to Asgard, then decided to go off adventuring himself. I couldn't leave it unprotected.'
'You could've told your father,' Brandr protested.
'The All-father wouldn't have listened. He would have thrown me back into a cage, locked me behind every lock in Asgard and melted down the keys.' Loki coughed and made a face. His voice had grown increasingly hoarse over the course of his story, so Bruce assumed that like he, Loki was starting to suffer feel the effects of dehydration. 'Then, once Thor returned and exposed me, it was only ever a matter of time until Thanos found me. True, once Asgard was gone and I had the Tesseract, I thought I could beg my way into Thanos' mercy by exchanging the Tesseract and what I know of the other infinity stones. That wasn't enough — he wanted Thor and I couldn't agree to that.'
Bruce wasn't sure how he ought to respond. Out of this entire story, there was only one fact he felt certain of — fear of losing Thor had made Loki flinch away from a deal with Thanos. But the results of that choice had been catastrophic. It hardly felt appropriate to commend Loki on his fraternal loyalty. At the same time, he couldn't condemn it either.
What an infernal mess this is.
'Did Thor think Thanos would threaten Earth?' he asked.
'Thor and I saw the inside of his ship — the Sanctuary hosts Thanos' invasion fleet. It should reach Midgard not long after us. A ship that size moves slowly, but it will reach its destination.'
The words left Bruce breathless. If the story Loki had spun for him and Brandr was true, Earth was under serious threat and likely unaware. Thor had realised this and did the only thing he could think of — he sent his brother to help defend the planet.
Bruce glanced back at Brandr, who was still clinging to the back of the co-pilot's chair. 'Brandr, you look like you're swaying on your feet,' he said. 'Why don't you have a nap?'
'It's too cold to sleep,' Brandr replied.
Loki clicked his fingers and a wave of hot air rolled through the ship.
Brandr grinned. 'That's so nice. Why can't it always be this warm? Can you teach me that?'
'One day,' Loki replied. 'Go lie down. He's right, you could use some rest.'
The boy nodded — this wasn't the first time Thor or Loki had nudged him out of a sensitive conversation — and shuffled over to the back of the ship. The fighter lacked many basic comforts, but they had managed to pull off the back of the jump seat. It was a tolerable substitute for a pillow.
'If what you say is correct, I'm not sure where to begin.'
Loki fiddled with the straps of his seat belt. 'You could say nothing at all.'
'Would that I could. Do you still have the Tesseract hidden on you?' Bruce said. When Loki nodded, he went on. 'There wasn't any way you could've used it?'
'The moment I use it, Thanos will be able to trace its location. Nor is it a simple object to use. There's preparation required and cooperation on both sides is immensely helpful. I expect you remember the set up I needed Selvig to construct in New York before I could open the portal for the Chitauri.'
'Vaguely.'
Loki's frown morphed into a callous grin. 'That's right. It was the green one who was there.'
'Yes, and Stark showed the footage of exactly how that went for you,' Bruce replied. 'Look, I don't know how much Thor told you about what he and I discussed for when the Statesman got to Earth. Refugees are not always well received on —'
'There is a convention protecting the rights of refugees, isn't there?'
'Yes, there is.' Bruce raised an eyebrow. 'However, as some enterprising politician is bound to point out, it wasn't written with aliens in minds. The Tesseract and your knowledge of Thanos is an opportunity you should take. With Thor gone, you are the only remaining member of the royal family, aren't you? You have a responsibility to do as the rightful king of Asgard.'
'I'm the rightful king of no one and nothing,' Loki snapped. He pursed his lips, then seemed to force himself to relax the tight line of his shoulders. 'Did you find any water back there?'
The change in topic left Bruce wishing he had Hulk's strength and could pummel sense into Loki. Certainly, words were not going to be much use, the stiff line of Loki's jaw made that clear.
Bruce sighed. 'There's a jerry can back there. I think it's water, but it smelled foul. I'm not sure it's drinkable'.
'Probably not then,' Loki said.
He undid his seatbelt and climbed out of his seat, then pulled off his cloak. Offering no explanation, he strode past Bruce.
A few moments later, Bruce heard Loki speak. 'Hey, are you still awake, Brandr? Have my cloak. The heat will dissipate in the next ten minutes or so, I'm afraid. I've never been especially good at that spell and since the cold rarely bothers me, I never made the effort to practise.'
'Thank you,' Brandr muttered in reply.
Loki's expression was unreadable as he returned to his seat, while Bruce couldn't quite contain his amusement. 'I didn't think you'd enjoy the company of children.'
'I don't know how it is on Midgard, but where I was raised, it's considered bad manners to be mean to orphans,' Loki replied.
