The events in this chapter are synced with events in the movie Thor: Dark World
While his anger still simmered deep in his gut, the thrill of chaos also bubbled up and mixed with a splash of battle lust, a heady cocktail of emotions leaving Loki almost giddy. He would get his priestess back, there would be blood spilled for her capture, and then they would be gone, long gone and far away from that measly cell they meant to forget him in. He could taste the freedom, the endless stretches of star fields to cross and innumerable worlds to discover. No expectations, no reputations, no ghosts from the past to haunt them.
It would just be them together in the universe.
So he planned and he plotted in the back of his mind even while he and Thor cooked up a ruse over the sleeping human woman who was the center of all this trouble.
Leaving Jane in the dark as to her role in their plan is instrumental. He and Thor are too practiced at this, and she is an unknown liability. Her outrage at his seeming betrayal when he pushes Thor down a dusty hill is almost amusing and Malekith believes him absolutely when he declares himself an enemy of Asgard.
'Easy. Too easy. A whole planet of fools.' Loki thought, almost disappointed by how simple this whole puzzle was to click together. 'But it's not over yet.'
Wasting no time, Jane is drained of all the Aether and it is rejoined inside of Malekith.
And then the battle is joined.
Loki quickly found himself surrounded by lower ranking dark elves. While he'll never match his brother's natural prowess in battle, he is a trained Asgardian warrior and he is in no real danger.
Making quick work of all but one, he pinned the remaining elf soldier to a large, craggy boulder, stabbing his knife in his stomach.
"Where is she?!"
Loki watched with disgust as blood sputtered from the elf's mouth, sneering at his garbled answer of "who?"
"The priestess you took off Asgard! Where is she?"
"What priestess?"
He plunged his blade in farther with a dark, insidious glare.
"My priestess."
"We... we took no one from Asgard. We came only for the Aether, which you brought to us."
A cold, consuming dread washed away everything else, and with a quick twist of his blade, the elf fell dead to the ground.
He was not lying.
Kagome was not here.
But then... where was she?
The distant echo of pain, a searing, burning, mind bending pain raked through his brain and down his spine as realization gutted him mercilessly right were he stood.
When that cretin had been inside his mind, rifling through his knowledge and memories and finding all the scraps of whatever vulnerability he possessed to use against him, he'd been a little too keen on certain images of the strange, immortal human he'd made his own. He'd had very little control over himself at that point, but he'd pulled himself together enough to at least try to throw off any interest.
"She's nothing. Just a human, a diversion, a fleeting fancy."
Apparently it hadn't worked, and he was sure, absolutely certain with a sick, brutal certainty...
That Thanos had taken her.
'How could I forget that? How? How could I be so stupid?!'
His former plan was no longer enough. Leaving this planet and taking off with her was obviously not going to happen as she wasn't even here, but now it was very clear: if he wanted Kagome back, and he absolutely did, he would not be able to get her back alone.
He needed armies, he needed troops.
He needed... a throne.
Of all the tricks and plots he'd ever pulled, this was the quickest to come together, with the least finesse, but it would work.
There was no option for failure.
Thor was about to be pummeled right into the ground, so now was the time.
He scooped up one of the discarded swords and one of those awful death traps and ran across the stretch of rocks and dust, impaling the ugly thing attacking his brother from behind and triggering the death bomb against it's side. He lingered like an idiot and just as he predicted, the ugly troll grasped him and yanked him forward, thrusting the sword through him as well.
It was painful, but not deadly, not that his idiot brother would know that with the second act of his little show.
With a seamless illusion his skin began to grey and Thor is devastated, speaking of honor and dignity, things that mean nothing, but he was glad to have gained a bit more esteem with his brother who he will likely never see again. With his "last breaths" he imparted one last important message with a flourish of flattery.
"K-Kagome... she's..."
"I will retrieve her, brother, and I will make sure she makes it through the grief of your death once more."
"No... no. Not here she's... not here..."
"She's not?"
"I'm... I'm sorry... I'm sorry..."
"It's alright. It's alright. I will tell father of your deeds here this day."
"I didn't do it for him."
Thor's tears tracked though his hair and he wouldn't deny that he felt a mite of guilt, but he's mostly thankful that there was still so much for the others to do. Thor and Jane leave him behind to go continue to save the worlds, and when he was certain they were gone, he stood once more.
Pulling the sword out of his abdomen sends a painful shiver through him but it's easily shaken off. After one more moment to dust off his clothes and straighten his hair, Loki Odinson no longer stood on Svartalfheim, and an Asgardian soldier stepped away.
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Kagome's eyes flutter open to the sweet sight of soft spring grasses. She glanced around at the meadow she's laying in, confused and alarmed at the drastic shift from metal cage to open field. She pushed up to a sitting position and looked all around her, taking in her surroundings, and tension straightened her spine.
She was not alone.
Several yards away a miko looked out over the lush valley, a warm breeze trailing through her long silky hair and ruffling her red hakama.
Kagome stood and took several slow, reluctant steps, closing the distance between them, drowning in growing discomfort.
'Surely not...'
"Kikyō?!"
The miko turned and her breath was stolen.
Her own face smiled back, eyes glowing white and pink sparks of reiki skipping about her skin.
"...what?"
"Hello our Chosen." The voice that spoke was many and endless, eerie, meant to inspire awe and fear.
'It certainly works...'
"Your... chosen? Who are you?"
"We are the Shikon no Tama." It replied with a haughty tilt of its chin, and Kagome's eyes bugged out at the revelation.
"But.. why do you look like me?"
"Because our Chosen, we are you."
"I don't understand."
"We have found great peace and calm in the depths of your soul, and we will allow no one to wake the darkness held in check for so long."
"That's... very kind." Kagome stepped back, supremely uncomfortable and a touch creeped out to be talking with something that looked so like her. "But I don't understand... what any of this is." She gestured around helplessly, her eyes widening again when the replica of her face smiled.
"You are here because we had to take over, to keep us safe, to keep you safe. You will wake soon. Remember Chosen Priestess, your will is ours, and our will is yours."
Kagome nodded, ready to wake up and leave this awful dream behind.
"Yes that's predictably esoteric. Thanks so much."
Her face smiled wider, but with eyes glowing like balls of starlight, it looked like an empty mockery of happiness.
"Be well Chosen, we will be watching."
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Watching his brother grovel isn't quite so sweet as Loki once thought it might be, and playing the part of wise, doting Allfather is his least favorite role yet.
'I already can't stand this damn metal eyepatch.'
But this could not have gone more to plan if he'd been able to control every last working cog himself. Thor willingly giving up the throne, leaving it all to him, even unknowingly. He will have full reign with no questions or interference, exactly what he needed.
"If I were proud of the man my son had become, even that I could not say. It would speak only from my heart. Go, my son."
He could see the thankfulness, the peace of leaving with as much of a blessing from father as he would get, and Loki reveled in his victory.
"Thank you, father."
He watched Thor walk out and away, toward his new life, a life away from Asgard and he allowed his illusion to fall for just a moment.
"No. Thank you."
It zipped back into place as a side door was pushed open and guard walked in.
"Majesty, the first search parties are ready, we wait for your word."
"Very good, very good. We must get the girl back, she's a dangerous weapon in the wrongs hands. Go now."
"Yes, majesty."
He watched the guard go, and when the door shut firmly behind him, he let the illusion drop once more. He looked out from his place atop the throne, sighing in anticipation.
It was time to foster the greatest era of peace Asgard had ever known.
The soldiers were needed not for war, but recovery.
He had a priestess to bring home.