This chapter is a lot shorter than what I thought it would be and I apologise for that but I can guarantee that chapter 5 is going to be very long - it's the last chapter in the Infinity War arc of this fic. There will be about 1-2 chapters as a sort of intermission between IW and Endgame, then we get into my favourite parts of this fic :)
Chapter 4: The Bond
Loki kept that threat and the consequences of his past trip to Nidavellir clear in his mind. He didn't plan to trick Eitri - at least not yet - and he'd like to keep his head attached to his neck for at least the next decade, thank you very much.
Eitri led Loki, Rocket and Groot further into Nidavellir and the sight was always the same. His mind kept flicking back to how many stones Thanos had collected now - when he sabotaged the Statesman he already possessed the Power stone, and got Space after that. Loki hoped that the rest of the Guardians were successful in protecting the Aether but he wouldn't bet on it. Time and Mind were on Midgard last time he knew and only the Norns knew where Soul was. Maybe they did have a chance after all.
The four of them stopped at a private area leading off of one of the halls of workbenches. It was the closest point to the dying star in the whole of Nidavellir and Loki could feel it getting warmer. Eitri walked over to a pile of metal to find something. Rocket followed him and Groot flopped down to play that stupid video game again, making Loki even more annoyed with the tree. He didn't help Eitri, however, as something else caught his eye.
"Couldn't you just give it back to me?"
Eitri whipped his head round to find Loki indicating a beautifully designed golden sword.
"It's mine, isn't it? I was the last person to wield it," he continued. Loki wasn't wrong, Gram the Sword of Truth was his to keep, but Eitri couldn't trust the Liesmith with it anymore.
"You know why you don't own it anymore," Eitri continued searching through the metal with Rocket. "You tricked us into giving it to you and then you used it against your own brother."
"In my defense, he was possessed."
"That doesn't make a difference. You said you wanted me to make you a weapon worthy of defeating the Mad Titan, yes? Gram isn't going to kill Thanos."
Loki huffed. "It was worth a shot," he muttered. Eitri finally found what he was looking for. With shaking hands, he carefully put the mold of the weapon in place. "What type of weapon is it?" Loki strolled over to where the dwarf worked. The indent was long and narrow, not unlike Gungnir, Odin's sacred spear.
"A sceptre. It would be capable of calling the Bifrost, among other things. It's the weapon worthy of a king and the Allfather and mother informed me you would gain it in adulthood."
Loki furrowed his brow. Odin wanted him to have this? A weapon worthy enough for a king, forged especially for him? This reminded Loki of Mjolnir. At least he wasn't getting a hammer handed down to him from an older sibling he didn't know existed.
"We need to restart the forge. Awaken the heart of a dying star." Eitri said. Rocket made a sprint back to the pod eagerly. Loki shook his head in amusement.
"We don't need to do that," Loki stated. He knew exactly what Rocket was thinking and the raccoon looked back at him, confused. Loki tugged in his seidr, causing two large green flames to appear in both of his hands. Facing the rings surrounding the forge, he found them at them. On impact of the magic, they glowed green until the light disappeared and the rings started moving.
Loki adores showing what he could do with his seidr in Asgard as a child. A part of him was pleased that didn't go away as he got older.
With the rings quickly gaining more velocity, the star glowed back to life. The heat was becoming more noticeable and it felt more like what Nidavellir was in the past.
"Now that's Nidavellir," Loki smirked and waved a hand towards the star shining before them.
"Show off." Rocket's words lacked in negativity and showcased more awe than anything else.
The amazement was short-lived though, when Eitri cursed. "Damn it."
The mechanism slammed shut. The light that lit up the forge cut off due to the iris closing, making Nidavellir cold and dark like before.
"With the iris closed I can't heat the metal," Eitri said. "The mechanism is crippled."
From what he already knew, the iris only needed to be open for a few minutes to heat the metal enough to forge a weapon. Loki knew this would be suicide, especially due to his heritage, but so was facing Thanos without the sceptre. Covering himself with a protective layer of seidr, Loki jumped into the star's iris.
"Are you sure you want to do this? It'll kill you." Rocket asked, concerned.
"I didn't know you could and would be so worried about my health," Loki quipped.
"This'll kill you. You're taking the full force of a star." Eitri tried persuading Loki to stop, but the god wouldn't listen. Loki grabbed the levers on either side of him and readied himself for what would inevitably happen.
Loki pulled the leavers towards himself, barely being able to stifle a scream. The heat was the worst feeling imaginable - worse than all the Asgardian heatwaves in the summer that left him unconscious in the healing chambers for weeks; worse than the torture on burning hot coals that rendered him useless.
"Hold it, Loki hold it!" Eitri yelled. The ingots of metal melted and poured into the mold. "A few more minutes!"
'A few more minutes. I can take that.' Loki thought. He was getting progressively weaker and his skin was charred and burnt. He was losing sense of time. Had it been seconds or minutes since Eitri last spoke? Loki couldn't hold it anymore.
Eitri saw Loki struggling. The weapon was almost fully forged. Loki didn't need to hold it anymore. The prince blacked out, his body falling onto the floor with a loud thump. Groot looked up from his game and Rocket rushed over to Loki to check up on him.
"He's dying!"
"The spear is made but it's too hot to touch." Eitri stated. Groot looked over to the fallen god, who was still unconscious. The spear was broken out of the mold and was lying on the floor. He walked over and extended his arm to grab onto the sceptre. He wrapped his things around it in an intricate pattern, making a firm grip as a handle. Groot didn't really care much about Loki, he found him annoying and sassy, but he didn't want the god to die.
In one quick swing of his other hand, Groot cleanly cut the end of his hand, separating himself from the sceptre. Loki's fingers twitched at the new sense of magic in the forge. Slowly he gained consciousness, the familiar aura of seidr awakening him and giving him strength. The sceptre flew into Loki's hand, its power coursing through his veins and healing him; leaving no sign of any of the scars Loki just gained while making his weapon.
Loki stood up and admired the sceptre he was holding. It was made of a black metal that shimmered silver in the light. Twisted around it was the wood donated by Groot that acted as a grip, somehow fitting perfectly with Loki's natural hand placement. The bottom was a sharp point, perfect to spear someone if necessary. The top end of it had split off into three curves all directed inwards surrounding what seemed like a jewel. Loki didn't know where it came from, but it was an elegant green that matched the black the spear was made of. The gem glowed slightly, emitting a haze that was full of power and magic. The green matched the colour of Loki's seidr and when he wasn't touching it, the jewel would disappear. It was like it had a bond with him.
Loki looked back up. "Does it have a name?" He asked Eitri, who was also admiring his work on the godly weapon.
"Yes," the dwarf answered. "It's called Ísbrjótur, meaning Ice-breaker." Loki scoffed. Yeah, that translation sounded lame. He'd rather keep to the more elegant name. Just before Loki could ask why it had to mean ice out of everything, his question was answered for him. "It adapts to your abilities, meaning the gem would glow a different colour for what power you use. It's green now as seidr is your preferred choice, but when you use the power from your heritage it would glow blue, hence the name. That's also the reason why your parents didn't want you to have it until you knew."
Loki looked back up to the top end of his spear. So this meant Odin and Frigga planned on telling him that he was Jotun the entire time? He always presumed that they never wanted to tell him and therefore would never tell him the truth. In a way, this made Loki accept Odin as his father even more. He highly doubted that he would use the Jotnar part of Ísbrjótur, but he was glad he had the option. Loki nodded in acknowledgment. "Thank you."
Eitri looked slightly uncomfortable, like he wanted to say something else. In the end, he gave up on his internal battle about holding back the words on the tip of his tongue. "Ísbrjótur is a twin. It has another weapon that it would work better with. The other is called Stormbreaker."
Loki's heart stopped. If Ísbrjótur was a twin, and said twin was named Stormbreaker, that meant… 'No. No, this does not mean Thor would have the twin of my weapon. But, who else could control the weather and own a weapon with a name as daft as that?' Loki had to admit that Stormbreaker did sound pretty cool, though he'd never speak it aloud. He had read books about twin weapons - they had a bond between them just like the wielders and would work well on their own, but would be a lot stronger if used at the same time as its twin.
The pain and trauma from his last and most cared for family member came rushing back all at once and Loki felt guilty that Thor would never see or wield something 'as mighty as Mjolnir' again. Thor would have loved this. He would probably boast that he was the owner of the strongest weapon in the Nine Realms but more that Loki was his brother and the owner of the twin of Stormbreaker. It was then when Loki was struck by the thought that he'd do anything to be with Thor again, even if it was within his brother's shadow.
"Stormbreaker would be an axe with the power of Thor flowing through it, also capable of summoning the Bifrost." Eitri continued. Loki struggled to blink back more moisture from his eyes. He was definitely getting too soft.
"I… thank you," he replied. Loki could just feel the eyes from Rocket behind him staring at the jewel in the sceptre, definitely wishing he could steal it if he was able to.
Loki, Groot and Rocket shared their goodbyes to the dwarf and the god used what magic he could muster up to find the location of an Infinity Stone that Thanos hadn't already collected. Ísbrjótur's gem turned a golden yellow symbolising the Mind stone. Loki targeted its location - some African country on Midgard it seemed - and summoned the Bifrost, bringing him right into battle.