Summary: AU. After escaping imprisonment on Asgard, Loki returns to earth, only to find himself in a different sort of prison... A psychiatric ward.
Chapter Thirteen: The Eyes
It was almost too good to be true! Frigga had found her way back to Asgard from wherever the hell she was, and not only that, but she was completely unharmed! She was safe. Loki only wished the same were true for Thor. For now, he assumed Thor was technically safe. The only thing that had been done to him was that his mind was no longer his own. He was wrecking things on Midgard under Thanos' influence.
He'd have to take care of that later, but for now, Frigga had come back! He ran as fast as his tired feet would carry him through the corridors, passed every bedroom, every washroom until he reached the throne room, where Frigga, in all her glory, was standing next to the throne. Loki was overwhelmed with emotion, torn between relief, anger and love. He wanted to throw himself onto his mother and squeeze her, allow her to wrap her arms around him as he laid in her grasp. But something held him back...
Frigga looked at him and did not speak. Her eyes simply looked Loki up and down and Loki saw an expression in her face that he never believed he'd ever see...
Disgust.
Frigga looked at him and looked disgusted. The sight of utter disappointment in her eyes broke Loki's heart into two. He never felt so betrayed, but in her eyes he also saw darkness, darkness that he could recognize easily as Thanos.
It hurt. It hurt so much that Thanos would take someone as loving, kind and pure as his own mother and turn her against him. First Thor, now Frigga. Thanos would stop at nothing to make sure that Loki suffered. Though, Loki couldn't understand why... Yes, he didn't keep his end of the deal. Yes, he said he would, no promised Thanos he would... Was this really necessary? Was all of this worth it to Thanos?
Loki grit his teeth as he looked into the eyes of his 'mother'. She only peered down her nose and him , still, not saying a single word.
Odin entered the throne room as well, behind Loki. He, too, was overcome with emotions for his wife and was tempted to run to her and embrace her, but when he noticed the intensity between his son and his wife, he knew something was wrong. Something had changed in his beloved wife, she no longer had that spark of energy. No longer was she radiating beauty and youth, no... She seemed tired, proud. All the things that he saw in himself.
"What is the meaning of this?!" Odin asked as calmly as he could. Frigga turned her head away from Loki and stepped down from where she stood beside the throne, she approached Odin and snaked her arms around his neck, smiling a strange, seductively wicked smile...
"You were right all along, Dear." Frigga spoke. "He needs to face justice... just like any other criminal." Frigga then turned away from Odin, completely ignoring him and she continued to harass Loki, making Loki feel smaller with each word she spat. "He's nothing but a whore, anyway. A disgrace of a son... You weren't worth the time I spent teaching you magic. You aren't worth anything."
That was Loki's breaking point. He could handle hearing those words coming from anyone else... ANYONE else, but not Frigga. Hearing words like that coming from her mouth was like being fed poison from a silver spoon.
Loki felt his heart began to speed up as tears began to cloud his vision. He would die if he allowed Odin to see his tears again. He couldn't allow himself to be seen like this, weak, sad... Crying. No. Loki lowered his head and he disappeared.
...
Odin found him relatively quickly. But, he technically cheated. He could see almost as well as Heimdall into the Nine Realms, he could spot Loki anywhere, and even if he couldn't, he knew Heimdall would. Loki didn't have the energy to cloak himself anymore, it'd all been drained from him. Loki simply sat in a corner of Odin's trophy room, knees held to his chest as he let the tears fall more freely now, despite knowing he was being watched.
"Loki..." Odin began.
"I made a deal with Thanos." Loki said. It was more like word vomit, he couldn't stop the flow of words from spewing out of his mouth. He didn't know what made him start talking about Thanos and his relationship with the Mad Titan. It was as if his tongue had a mind of its own and it had already decided that now was the time to tell Odin. "I made a 'deal' with Thanos. I promised him the Tesseract for Midgard... for... a throne."
Odin remained silent, Loki took that as an opportunity to continue talking.
"I was confused. I had been falling for so long, I would do anything to make it stop. I thought about it, it sounded like a good idea at the time. A throne, no, a whole realm to kneel before me. A realm to see me as a king, a rightful king. I thought..." Loki sighed. "I thought it would make you proud. I thought it would make you see me not as just another worthless Frost Giant."
Odin came foward and kneeled in front of Loki, gazing into his son's swollen, red eyes. Loki's hair was tangled, messy, as it had been when he was in his cell in Asgard. Odin reached out and swept the hair out of Loki's face, causing his son to flinch and shrink away from his touch.
"I never meant to hurt you, Loki..." Odin admitted. "I've made many mistakes with raising you... Perhaps, I expected too much from you at too young of an age." Odin pulled back his hand as he noticed Loki getting a little fidgety. "I may not have been the perfect father for you, Loki... But I have never lied when I told you I loved you." Odin stood up and began to walk away at that point, when Loki's voice stopped him in his tracks.
"I need to fix Thor." Loki said softly. "It's my fault he's ruining Midgard, and I have to correct my own wrongdoings."
"I will help you, Lo-"
"No!" Loki also stood, wiping the tears from his face, he walked to brush passed Odin and he snarled, "I don't need your help. I will fix this on my own." And with that, Loki took off running out of Odin's Treasury to the Rainbow Bridge, to Heimdall's Observatory.
...
The Avengers were trying their best to remove the spell that Thor was under. Thor was creating many disasters on Earth, breaking buildings, ruining streets, causing millions of dollars in property damage, however, he has yet to kill anyone. Some people he has harmed a little, but nothing fatal, not yet anyway... His rage was mostly focused on destroying the peace of Midgard, and all of the people of Earth were scared, wondering what they could have possibly done to offend the God of Thunder.
The only one of the Avengers who could possibly get close to matching Thor in strength was The Hulk, but as of lately, Thor always seemed to overpower even the Hulk. Tony would try to distract Thor by using non-lethal attacks, blasting him with energy and using special missiles that would only serve as to shock the angry Asgardian or to stun him just for a moment. None of this works, however and the Avengers were quickly running out of ideas.
Thor was at it again, this time he was in New York, it was late at night, or rather, very early in the morning. So early, in fact, that most people were retired to their homes and were asleep. But not the Avengers. Thor was using his lightening to destroy parked cars on the road, ripping traffic lights from their sockets and literally tearing up the sidewalk of the city.
Steve got close to Thor while Thor was in the middle of throwing cars into nearby buildings.
"Don't make me do this, Thor..." Steve said. "I know you're in there." But Thor was too far gone to take heed to anything his friend had to say and as predicted he lashed out at his friend and swung his hammer at Captain America, in which, Cap blocked it's impact with his shield. The rest of the Avengers went in after him one at a time and they all watched in horror as they were picked off like ticks. One right after the other, none of them could get too close to Thor without Thor swinging his hammer and knocking them ten feet back.
"He's too powerful!" Black Widow yelled over the sound of roaring thunder to Ironman. "We're going to have to wait it out like last time!"
"We can't wait it out this time!" Ironman responded. "The lives of other people are at risk, if one of those cars he's throwing around hits an apartment building, or if one of his lightening bolts decides to hit some electrical wiring system, then we're fucked."
Thor picked up another car, however this time it was aimed at The Hulk, who was prepared to catch it... Their fight was interrupted for a short moment as a bright, blinding flood of light appeared. By now, Natasha recognized this light as that of the Bifrost. She had thought that Loki returned from Asgard with help.
When the light cleared, all that they saw was Loki, looking tired with deep bruises under his eyes, yet his full armor remaining intact. Natasha had to admit, her heart fell a little.
"Do not interfere." Loki said to the Avengers. "This is my problem and I will deal with it."
"Hey, listen here, Reindeer Games." Tony began, "This is our problem too. Yeah, you were definitely the cause of it, there's no doubt about that, but when you come to OUR planet, threatened the lives of OUR people, then it becomes OUR fucking problem too!"
Loki only ignored them, partially and secretly glad that they wanted to interfere. He'd need all the help he could get with bringing Thor back. He was certain that none of them would even get close enough to land a proper hit on Thor, let alone sock him hard enough to cause unconsciousness. Loki wasn't too sure at this point that he'd even be able to hit Thor that hard. His strength had been drained, but regardless, he knew he'd be the only one to get close enough to Thor to try.
Thor noticed Loki right away and he quickly flew to stand in front of the God of Mischief. Loki only stared into Thor's cold, heartless eyes. The Thunderer only glared back and he opened his mouth to speak a string of words, something that the Avengers have not heard in a while.
"Look at you." Thor spat. "Pathetic. You've always been Argr... Unworthy to sit on the throne of Asgard, giving birth to that monster... Sleipnir. My father had the right idea of how to deal with your monstrous offspring..."
That was a hit below the belt, Loki could handle Thor insulting himself, but no one insulted Sleipnir. Loki still heldfast, the insults came spewing from Thor's mouth with such speed Loki could have sworn he'd be cut down to size with the words alone. As Loki half listened to Thor's little rant, he remembered the time he spent in the hospital... He remembered his doctor, Dr. Braun, how many times she told him that she cared about him, how many times the other doctors showed they cared. He thought about Bereit, and he felt sorry for having scared her so much. He didn't want to, but he even thought about Odin. He contemplated Odin's words:
I may not have been the perfect father for you, Loki... But I have never lied when I told you I loved you
A sudden feeling of worthiness boiled in Loki's heart as he remembered his time spent on Midgard, he reveled in it. The memories of being told he was worthy, being told that someone cared... It gave him a warm feeling in his stomach and gave him a strange sense of overwhelming confidence.
Loki raised his fist as Thor was still spewing insults and Loki punched Thor in the jaw. The impact sent Thor's head flying to the side and it was enough to stun him into silence. However, not enough to send him into unconsciousness. Loki knew this, but it still felt good to punch his brother. Thor wasn't even that upset, in fact, he looked almost happy, as thought that was the reaction he wanted from Loki.
Thor began to laugh a little and it worried Loki, but not enough to make Loki turn away. Loki stood his ground as Thor's head slowly, slowly turned to face Loki. There was a scary sort of madness in Thor's eyes...
The God of Thunder lifted Mjolnir high into the air and quickly began to swing it down onto Loki, who couldn't move fast enough to avoid it.
"Loki!" The Avengers called.
"Move out of the way, idiot!" Tony yelled.
Loki didn't have time to dodge the swing, he was, however, prepared to try to block the hit when it did come down onto his body.
Time seemed to slow down, it felt as though Loki was waiting forever for the hammer to come down on his face, in this time Loki regretted not at least attempting to flee. He could visibly see so many memories flashing before his eyes. Memories of when he was a child with his brother and parents. Memories of when he was on Asgard as a child, playing in the corridors with Thor, testing his magic with his mother and smiling as Odin took him and his brother on a trip to the mountains. He sad things as well, he remembered when Sleipnir was born, when his other children were born and taken away... He remembered when he was forced to give Sleipnir to Odin as a birthday gift... Worse, he remembered when Odin rejected him, and he remembered falling... Falling... falling... falling.
He dared to open his eyes and look up at Thor, but the second his eyes began to slide open, there was another bright lights that flashed and suddenly time sped up, so fast that Loki couldn't keep up with it. Suddenly Thor was on the ground, unconscious and The Avengers were gathering around, looking at their friend with sadness and relief on their faces. Loki looked around, he couldn't figure out what happened... How did Thor go from almost smashing his head in, to suddenly being knocked out on the ground.
A familiar aura could be felt and Loki groaned as he turned around and low and behold, Odin stood behind Loki, wielding Gungnir, looking hurt as he stared at Thor's unconscious body in a tangled heap on the ground. Loki was angry and he turned around and shoved Odin roughly.
"I told you, I could handle this on my own!"
"If by handle, you mean get yourself killed, then yes, Loki. You were doing an excellent job at that."
Loki growled, deciding that arguing with Odin wasn't worth the effort and he moved to Thor's side. Looking into the Thunder God's face. Thor looked so peaceful now, there was no more madness in his features, that was long gone. It was just Thor now. His brother had returned.
Loki felt so much relief and love for his brother. Had no one been watching, he'd probably have kissed his brother, oh, he missed him so much. At the same time, Loki was afraid... Loki still remembered clearly the times that Thor had attacked him in the hospital, he could never forget that no matter how hard he'd tried. Loki idly ran his finger's through Thor's hair and he continued to look at his brother's face with sadness in his eyes.
Natasha put a hand on Loki's shoulder. "It's over." She whispered.
"Come." Odin demanded. Loki peered over his shoulder and glared at Odin. "We're returning to Asgard."
"I want nothing more to do with Asgard." Loki grumbled.
"You said you wanted to prove yourself worthy to be a king, Loki?" Odin began. This got the Avengers interested, they'd never heard this side of Loki before. "You have your chance now. You have a responsibility to Asgard, Frigga is under the influence of the Mad Titan. You will fix this."
"Frigga is lost." Loki sighed. "I cannot bring her back."
"Loki." Steve said and he knelt beside the God of Mischief. "We're here to help."
Tony reluctantly spoke as well to Loki after Natasha elbowed him in the ribs. "Yeah, Loke, this Thanos guy... He's bad news, and like all other bad guys, he's going down."
Loki remained silent. He felt torn, he wanted Frigga back, and having Thor return to him was motivating. Yet, he didn't want to entertain the idea of getting Thanos more upset. He searched his thoughts, trying to find some sort of weakness in Thanos, trying to figure out how he could get his mother out of this, after all, she had nothing to do with his betrayal to Thanos.
"I will remain on Midgard." Loki told Odin. "Thanos only wants me, I will contact The Other and he will come for me. He will then release Frigga from his control. He doesn't want Asgard."
Loki easily persuaded Odin that this was the best thing to do, so Odin returned to Asgard, but not without telling Loki to be safe and express his love for his son once again. Loki kept his focus on Thor as Odin was lifted to Asgard by the Bifrost.
The other Avengers gathered around Loki and Thor. Loki didn't like the feeling of eyes piercing into his mind, he used his magic to make both himself and Thor disappear.
...
Thor regained consciousness almost immediately once Loki had teleported them to a place of safety, away from the eyes of The Avengers and away from the eyes of Heimdall and Odin. He brought them back to Detroit, to an abandoned home in the middle of dark, eerie woods. The building was falling apart, walls were peeling, bricks had fallen from the outside of the house and there was a light, but foul smell that told Loki there was obviously some parts of the house that were rotting. None of it mattered to Loki, however, when he saw Thor's big blue eyes open and when he saw how magnificent they were, he felt like he wasn't in some old, abandoned home in Midgard, he felt like he was in Valhalla.
Thor looked at Loki and his lips curved into a smile. "Brother..." He whispered.
"Shh, Thor..." Loki cupped Thor's cheek in his hand as he allowed his elder brother's head to relax on his lap. "Do not speak."
"Brother, I... I'm so sorry. Did I put you in danger? You know, when I was-"
"I told you, Thor... Do not speak."
And Thor went silent. Loki ran his fingers through Thor's hair and hummed softly, simply happy to have his Thor, the way Thor used to be, back. If this would be his late moments with Thor, he wanted them to be pleasant memories. He wouldn't blame Thor for all the fear that lingered in his heart, and Thor wouldn't spend the next couple of days apologizing to Loki for it.
Author's Notes:
Thorki is approaching. Sorry it took pretty much 13 chapters for it to get there. As I said before, I don't really plan out like, "Okay, Thorki in this chapter and then Thorki in the next chapter" I wanted to focus more on drama and plot than romance, but I will have it thrown in there.
Anyway. Let me know if you find any mistakes, this chapter wasn't really proofread, as it's late, but I wanted to update this.
Thanks!
- Rawiyah