Hello, everyone! In this chapter you, at last, get the answer to your question: Who is Iant? I personally loved writing this chapter. I had most of it written long before I actually started posting. I hope you all enjoy!
I hope you all read my Avenger's Christmas story, An Old Fashioned Christmas: An Avenger's Romance. If I get up to ten reviews on that story, I will post a bonus epilogue inspired by New Years Day.
I do not own Avengers or any characters associated with Marvel. I only own Diana.
Chapter Eleven
Cages
The flight back to the Helicarier didn't take long, and Loki found himself being escorted through the corridors under heavy guard. They passed a lab where Bruce Banner was working on some gadget. As he passed, Loki turned his head to look at the scientist. When they made eye contact, Loki smiled a knowing smile.
He was placed in a large, round cell with nothing in it except a single slab, built against one wall as a cot. The doors were fastened with heavy locks. A dark-skinned man with an eye-patch, whom Loki identified from Agent Barton's descriptions as Director Fury, strode up some stairs and over to a control panel where he began flipping switches.
"Just in case it's not clear. You try to escape... you so much as scratch that glass," he pressed a button and the metal floor beneath the cage irised open to reveal open space beneath him. "30,000 feet straight down in a steel trap. You get how that works?" he closed the portal and gestured from Loki to the buttons before him. "Ant, boot."
Loki chuckled inwardly at the return of his analogy when they first met. "It's an impressive cage. Not built, I think, for me."
"Built for something a lot stronger than you."
"Oh I've heard," Loki turned to look into the camera. He knew they were watching him, so he might as well talk to them. "A mindless beast, makes play he's still a man." He turned back to Fury, "How desperate are you, that you call on such lost creatures to defend you?"
"How desperate am I? You threaten my world with war. You steal a force you can't hope to control. You talk about peace, and you kill 'cause it's fun. You have made me very desperate. You might not be glad that you did."
Loki mentaly shook his head. Fury was just posturing. He could see in that one good eye how much he wanted the Tesseract back. "It burns you to have come so close. To have the Tesseract, to have power... unlimited power. And for what," he turned to the camera again, "a warm light for all mankind to share?" Figure that out, Stark. He turned back to Fury, "And then to be reminded what real power is."
"Well let me know if 'real power' wants a magazine or something," Fury said as he walked away. Loki remained standing in the middle of the cage for a moment, alone with his thoughts. Then, he was interrupted by a most surprising voice.
"You do know that he was just being facetious, right?" Loki turned, and saw a young woman standing against the glass of the cage.
He cocked his head questioningly, though he had an idea what she was talking about.
"You are not real power. Real Power can only come from Iant, the Creator of All Things."
Loki cringed inwardly at the sound of that name. He recognized it. It was the name of the Enemy, and it gave him a feeling of dread. "Who are you?" he asked.
She smiled, "Someone who wants to help you." Loki stared at her, confused. He recognized her from the jet that they had used to bring him there. She was still wearing the blue and silver outfit she had been wearing then, but she looked comfortable, not profesional. She had curly, dark brown hair, and brown eyes and a kind smile. Her eyes were filled with what he could only describe as pity. Pity, that was directed at him. The thought angered him. He needed no one's pity. He was too powerful to need pity.
"What do you mean, help me?"
"Oh, I don't want to help you escape the cage your body is in if that is what you are thinking. I want to help you escape the cage your soul is in."
"What do you know about my soul?" he snarled. Loki was getting angry. The girl was so calm, he had to find a way to rattle her.
"I know it is trapped inside you." She looked directly into his eyes. "Thor told me about your parentage." Loki glared into the camera, and then back at the girl.
"Yes, so what?"
"You feel abandoned. You think that, just because he is not your real father, Odin cannot love you as a son. They all love you. They mourned for you when they thought you were dead. You see, you loved them too. You were jealous of Thor, yes, but you still loved him. Deep inside yourself you know that you still love them as your family." She looked down, breaking eye contact with him. "I know how that feels."
Loki looked sharply at her. "What do you mean, you know how it feels?" he snarled, "You have never been abandoned by your family. You have never lived all your life as one person, only to find that you are someone else. You have never lost the only people you ever cared about!"
She snapped her head up, her eyes locking with his again, "I lost my parents in a car wreck when I was thirteen! I lost my brother to the glitter and dazzle of the outside world. I lost my best friend to the same. I lost our cook, the only woman who cared for me after my parents died, to cancer! You're right, I haven't lived as one person only to find that I am someone else, but I know what it is like to lose your family!"
Loki stared at her. He had more incommon with this human girl than he ever thought possible. They had both lost everything. A slow smile spread across his face. Maybe they could help each other. "I'm sorry I yelled at you," she whispered.
"You're right. You do know at least a little how I feel. Perhaps we can help each other," she looked up at him, but didn't say anything. "Let me out of here, and I will do whatever I can to help you."
She sighed and shook her head. "No, Loki. You don't understand. I cannot help you out of either cage that you sit in."
"What are you talking about?"
"You can't get either of us out of the predicaments that we are in."
Loki glared at her, "I am powerful, I can do whatever I want."
She shook her head, "You are powerful. I never said that you weren't. You just don't know how to apply it correctly."
"Enlighten me."
She chuckled, "I can't show you. Only Iant can show you that, and He will only do it if He has chosen you."
He glared at her. She used that Name again. How exactly did they get back to this subject? He thought they had reached an understanding. However, he decided to try humoring her a little, and see if he could get her to say something he could use against her. "How can I be chosen?"
She sighed again and placed her fingers against the glass as though trying to plead with him to listen. "This isn't something you can earn, Loki. The Parma says that the Grace of Iant is a gift. You can't earn it through works. If you could, that would allow people to boast that they were the one who saved themselves."
Loki couldn't help himself, "Stop saying that Name," he growled. Every time she used that Name, he could feel a dread inside him. He was through humoring her. He wanted her to go away.
She shook her head. "Oh, Loki. How far you have run from Him. I pray that, one day, He will reach out and stop you. That you will turn around and run in the correct direction."
"I am not running from anything, and I don't need anybody!"
She smirked, "You don't need anyone. Yeah, that's why you're sitting in a glass and steel cage waiting for someone to come and rescue you."
"Oh, so that's why you're here. To try to get information from me."
"No. I'm here as a messenger. I have a message from Iant. He wants you to know that everything is part of His plan. No matter what happens, He planned it from the very beginning of Time. He planned for you to be born small. He planned for Odin to find you in the temple and take you back to Asgard to be raised as his son. He allowed you to learn what you really were, and to feel betrayed because of it. He allowed you to try to take over our world. He has planned what will happen after this. You may think that you control your fate, but Iant controls everything, and everyone."
"Lies!"
"No, Loki Iantson. Not lies, Truth."
Loki stared at her. "What did you just call me?"
She looked genuinly surprised at herself. "I think I just called you Iantson. Now that is funny because I did not mean to say that. It just came out."
"I am no son of that liar! What has He ever done for me that I should be a son of His?!"
"He died for you, Loki."
"Why would he die for me?"
"Because if there was ever anyone in the universe who needed salvation, it would be you, Loki."
"I do not need to be saved."
"Um, yeah, you do. We all need to be saved from our sins. Odin, Thor, me, you, everyone needs to be saved from our sins. We are running from Him until he reaches out and stops us and says, 'I choose you to be my child'. Based on the fact that I, for some reason, called you Iantson, I would say that He just chose you."
For once, Loki was speachless. Why would his enemy call him Son? It just didn't compute. The girl glanced at her watch. "I gotta go. Tony's going to be mad enough at me as it is. I'd better not keep him waiting any longer." She was about to turn and walk away, but she hesitated a moment. "Iant loves you, Loki. Whenever He finally turns you around and shows you where to start, I have a feeling that you will do a whole lot of good in this universe."