Disclaimer: Avengers, Hunger Games, and all other elements belong to their relevant owners; I merely borrow them to write this story
Feedback: Always a pleasure to receive.
Falling Hope, Rising Threat
"Excuse me?" Octavia said, after the two young women had taken a moment to process what Thor had just told them. "He… he's my father?"
"OK, how the hell is that possible?" Johanna asked. "Last I checked, Octavia's spent her life on the Ark, which isn't exactly somewhere you can just drop into and then leave… and how do you know he's the dad, anyway?"
"I can be sure that Loki was the father because no other Frost Giant would ever be in a position to be on the Ark," Thor said solemnly. "And I can be certain that Loki was in such a position because I was the one who forced him to leave the Ark and return to his prison after he attempted to escape there."
"Yes, and did you actually help the people of the Ark or leave them without a care in the world?" Loki asked.
"I hardly left without a care," Thor countered, a shameful expression on his face. "My reasons… were poor, I acknowledge that now, but-"
"Hey!" Octavia snapped. "I get you two don't like each other, but you've just overturned pretty much my entire life, so how about you two explain how this shit's even possible, because according to the history books, you," she looked to Thor, "took him," she pointed to Loki. "back to Asgard to face justice for what he'd done on Earth during the Chitauri Invasion?"
"I did," Thor said grimly.
"And as for how it came about," Loki noted, smiling in amusement at Octavia, "I will share that story. As you aware, my brother took me back to Asgard following the Chitauri Invasion. Many things happened over the next few years, a lot of which will go over your heads so I will simply tell what mattered, which is that I was able to escape from this prison. Unfortunately the last plan I enacted did not go as planned. Odin took great offence this time, and with our mother no longer alive to temper his worse traits, he threw me into the darkest hole on Asgard."
"Worse than this?" Johanna quipped, only to see Loki's stare.
"My present accommodations are humane by any standard. The prison that Odin placed me…" Loki actually shuddered at the memory. "That was a Hell far worse than when I was falling between dimensions after my battle with Thor on the Rainbow Bridge."
There was a brief silence at that statement, even Johanna's brash attitude faltering at Loki's grim expression, but the prisoner eventually continued. "Within the first week I was already plotting of a way to escape, but Odin had placed dampening cuffs on me rather than simply relying on the barriers of cell. It took me decades before I could come with a way to siphon and store what magic I could use into objects that I could later break, all so I could have enough magic in the air to draw upon and cast a spell to transport me. I didn't even care where I would end up, just as long as I was no longer in that hellhole."
"And you ended up on the Ark," Octavia realized.
"As I said, I was in such suffering I didn't care where I ended up, so long as I was far away from that prison," Loki said, "However I never expected to see Earth from a distance-"
"Hold on, let me get this straight," Johanna cut in. "You were trying to get away from prison on Asgard, and got yourself stuck on some space station when you had to know that Earth was habitable?"
"And under the control of the individual who had essentially beaten him to a pulp during his first invasion of Earth," Thor noted, looking grimly at Loki. "You did not wish to expose yourself or others to the Maestro, I assume?"
"…Indeed," Loki said grimly, before he continued his story. "It wasn't long before I discovered by a lone man. He was already talking about getting someone, yet I couldn't allow myself to be discovered. So I killed him and took on his identity. I hid in plain sight, trying to regain my strength. Being free was one thing, but I had no intentions of remaining among humans for longer than I needed to..." he paused for a moment, a wistful look came across his face. "And then I met Aurora Blake. I had been working on one of the lower levels, a group of 'workmates' decided to trip me up as if it was funny. I didn't very much care to associate with anyone and they thought me very little of me. I was already plotting ways to hurt them without giving myself away when she came over."
There was a wistful tone in Loki's voice then. "She simply gave me help without want or care, and for the life of me I don't understand how I found myself so taken in by this single human woman that I, former Prince of Asgard, could not even make a proper sentence at that time."
"Quite a feat," Thor acknowledged, a brief smile on his face that was marred by the pain and guilt in his eyes, Octavia looking slightly tearful at this fresh story of her mother while Johanna was torn between her curiosity at the story and the feeling that she was intruding on a private moment.
"After that, I found myself making excuses to have our paths cross without looking deliberate. Eventually I moved in with her and her son, Bellamy. He was always amazed by my 'magic tricks'," Loki chuckled, looking over Octavia. "I had three years with them… with your mother and brother."
"Three years, and then what, you just left?" Octavia asked.
"In a way," Loki said looking directly to his brother, an action Octavia and Johanna picked up on. "He found me."
Loki, beaten and restrained by chains as he was held down by Asgardian guards, their weapons at his throats. He should have known better than to assume Odin would not stop hunting him down. He was only thankful he had not been in his home with Aurora and Bellamy; who knows whether these brutes would have simply killed them to keep his presence secret?
"I must admit, I never thought you'd seek refuge among the species you detest most."
His head snapped up at the sound of Thor's voice. He saw him as well as Sif behind him. "When one spends decades in the hellhole that I was placed in by the Allfather, you really don't care where you end up, so long as you are free." He said, keeping as close to the tone of who his brother should think of him. "I assume then Odin ordered you to bring me back there."
"Father is dead. I now rule Asgard."
The disbelief could not be hidden from Loki's face. There was a momentary smirk on his brother's face before it faded away, leaving nothing but the grim visage before him. "You will return to imprisonment, but not to the hell that our father consigned you to. Instead you will be returned to your original cell. It has long since been reinforced from when the Dark Elves invaded."
"But… prison? After this long?"
"No sentence can be too great for your actions against the realms of Asgard and Midgard," Thor coldly informed him. "Your assistance against the Dark Elves earned you the potential for leeway, but you threw it away in your subsequent coup; prison is all that awaits you now."
"…Very well," Loki sighed, bowing his head solemnly before looking urgently at Thor. "But before we depart, I have one last request to make of you."
"You are in no position to make demands, brother-"
"It is not for me," Loki replied, looking out of the observation window to observe the Ark, now floating in the distance. "If that structure had not been exactly where it was, there was a chance I could have died. The spell I cast to escape my torment could have left me in deep space, but at the time, death would have been preferable to remaining in Munkholme. Without ever knowing it, they saved my life. They deserve to be saved by me without their knowledge as well."
"What do you mean saved?" Sif asked, speaking for the first time. "What mischief have you done to these poor souls, Loki?"
"I've done nothing Sif. As you know, our technology is leaps and bounds ahead of them, and while sorcery is my expertise, I have spent years on the Ark, have worked in maintaining it as part of my cover to blend in and I can tell you with certainty that it is dying. Within two decades without any help, the Ark will simply cease to function and anyone aboard will be dead." Loki looked up at his brother. "So I ask you brother, help them escape this fate. Take them off the mass of metal and send them to a new world."
"… take him away," was the cold response from the King as he motioned with hands for the guards to take him away.
As he was taken away, Loki could only think about Aurora and Bellamy. He had argued for the people, but in truth, he had been fighting for them. He could not tell Thor about those he cared for, unwilling to risk what would happen if Thor knew there were actual people Loki cared for. He could only hope his brother hadn't become a heartless monster and wouldn't simply leave the people of the Ark to die. Aurora and her son would have a bright future on another world.
Even if he never saw them ever again.
"You asked your brother to relocate the people of the Ark eighteen years ago?" Octavia looked at her father with astonishment.
"I did indeed," Loki nodded, before shifting his gaze to Thor with a pointed stare. "Only, that's not what happened… is it, brother?"
Thor looked out over the Ark from the observation deck, grimly assessing the ugly mess of metal that had been so pitifully stuck together, before he heard footsteps behind him. "Is he secure?"
"He is," Sif confirmed. "And he isn't wrong. I had someone conduct their own casual assessment with our equipment without alerting the humans on board. They estimate the Ark will cease to support life within twenty to thirty five years-"
"And should that matter to me?" Thor cut in abruptly. "They'll find some way to overcome. Humans are good at surviving." He turned away from the window and walked past Sif. "We've spent long enough in the presence of fools. It's time to go home."
"That's it?" Sif asked, her voice showing her shock. "That's all you have to say? These people-"
"Humanity brought their fate on themselves," Thor snapped, turning back to glare at Sif. "They all knew the dangers of nuclear war, and yet they permitted themselves to be provoked into decimating their own planet so that their best chance of survival was that… thing."
"It was the best they could do-"
"After their own decisions crippled their best and brightest to be sacrificed like cattle on an altar so that the stupid and cowardly could live."
"You cannot judge the people on this vessel for the actions of the Maestro's slaves," Sif argued. "They are ignorant of everything that has befallen their brethren, and humanity are still entitled to our protection; we have an obligation to help them, especially we have the chance to do so. Jane would..."
"DO NOT DARE SPEAK HER NAME!" Thor roared. "How dare you! How dare you use her name in trying to defend these creatures when all you have ever been is envious of the love we had for each other! You dare defend these miserable beings with the human that meant more to me than any other! I will not aid those who have fallen so far; if they are worth saving after what they have done, let them save themselves or be damned forever!"
Moments passed before the king's rage faded enough to realise his own words, but more importantly realised that his right hand was bruised and had blood on it.
Looking down, he saw Sif on the ground, looking at him in disbelief, her right eye swollen shut and her skin was broken, allowing for a trail of blood to trickle down her face.
"... and you ask yourself how Mjolnir deemed you unworthy," she spat on the floor, disbelief fading to rage. Slowly and painfully she pulled herself off of the floor and began to walk away.
"Where are you going?" the King of Asgard asked, only for his long-time friend not to respond. "Sif stop! Stop this instance!" Silence. "I am your king! I command you to stop!" Sif's silence infuriated him further. "If you don't stop I will..."
"Kill me?"
Thor blinked, the scathing words coming from his trusted friend, who refused to face him, even if she had stopped moving. "Exile me? Imprison me? I dare to speak my mind and you react at me like a petulant child? Not even Loki when he usurped the throne acted as you have these last few moments." There was a long pause, Sif deliberately letting her words sink in. "I let myself turn a blind eye to you for many years after Jane, after Banner because of our friendship and for my own hidden feelings for you, feelings I know now you will never reciprocate. You had only one love of your life, and you lost her. But you have never dealt with the loss, but merely let it, along with your defeat by the Maestro and the loss of Mjolnir, fester upon your soul like a cancer. I thought I could actually bring you back, back to the man I knew. To the man I loved."
Thor stood there speechless, wanting to move to her yet finding himself unable to move. He wanted her to look him in the eyes, to turn around…
"But now I see I have but one recourse left for that."
Finally she turned to him, but to Thor's shock, there was no emotion on her face, his old ally staring coldly at him despite the effort needed for her to make her following statement so coldly.
"You are not my king. I do not recognize a man who would condemn thousands to death as a king I would follow, a king I would serve, or a king I would allow to rule me." Sif said without the slightest bit of emotion and Thor's horror removed her armor from her body, allowing it to fall to the floor, leaving her dressed only in her tunic. She unsheathed her sword, turning it to its double bladed configuration before splitting it into two swords. One she sheathed, while the other she tossed at Thor's feet. "I hereby enter exile on Asgard."
Thor shook his head in disbelief. "Sif, please don't this."
"Do not send messages to me, I will burn them. Do not try to send men after me, I will send them back to you broken and beaten. I will speak to no one but you and I will never speak to you unless you hold Mjolnir in your hands again. Until that day comes, goodbye, King of Asgard."
Thor watched, stunned beyond belief as Sif walked away and walked out of his life.
No one spoke at all. They just looked at Thor, his head bowed low, whether out of shame or simply lost in the memories he had just described, no one could tell.
"Sif hasn't been a part of Asgardian affairs or my life since the day I made that decision," he said finally. "I am not proud of what I did, or how I handled things with her, but..."
Anything else that would have been said was cut short by Octavia striking Thor in the face with her fist. The unprepared king was taken completely off guard by his niece's attack. He thought to chastise her as he got his bearings but stopped when looking at her. Her entire body was trembling with rage, her eyes burned with hate, hate focused entirely on him.
"It's your fault…" she hissed venomously. "Everything terrible that has ever happened to me and my family… is your fault."
"OK, that's a bit extreme; he didn't even know you existed-" Johanna began, reaching out to place a hand on Octavia's shoulder only to stare in shock as the hand was suddenly covered in a thin layer of ice.
"You… stay… out of this!" Octavia snapped, clenching her fists before she punched Johanna in the stomach, her suddenly ice-covered fists packing enough force to knock the Avenger into the wall. As her fists began to sprout more jagged ice fragments, Octavia practically stalked up to the fallen Avenger, raising her hands for another blow before Thor grabbed her arm.
"Octavia! You are not thinking clearly!" Thor shouted, hoping to reasoning with her. "I understand that life on the Ark must be harsh compared to normal people…"
"You understand nothing!" Octavia roared back, the temperature of the room dropping sharply. "I lived underneath the floor of my mother and brother's quarters for sixteen years because the Ark's laws only allowed one child per family! My mother should have aborted me in the womb but she loved me enough to have me!"
"My family's love for me was the only bright spot I had in that hell under the floor. And as I got older I learned the sacrifices they did in order to keep me alive. How my mother would whore herself out to members of the Guard to learn when they would be doing surprise inspections, so that I could hide to be safe. How Bellamy was training himself so he could be a member of the Guard himself one day to help me. And I actually thought that we could be together forever…" her eyes narrowed at Thor. "Until the day they found out. Would you like to know what they did when they found out about me, 'Uncle'? They threw me into jail… but not before I watched them space my mother out an airlock."
"No…" Thor said, his tone low as he stared at the girl, pain clear in his eyes as he stared at his 'niece'. As Johanna watched from the side, a quick glance at Loki showed the prisoner's keen attention to Octavia's story shift from horror to grief before settling on utter rage. Johanna raised Jarnbjorn defensively when Loki slammed against the prison barrier, roaring in rage as he beat his fists on the barrier. The shields were more than strong enough to hold Loki's weakened magic, but the 'explosion' caught Thor's attention long enough for Octavia to headbutt him while he was distracted, forcing her to release his grip on her.
"My first week in lock up, the Guard abused me day in and day out," Octavia glared indignantly at the ruler of Asgard, ice spreading further over her arms. "They hated me because I existed, going on about how they'd actually suffered because I was born and used up resources that could have gone to themselves, to their loved ones, instead of to an abomination like me! It got so bad I nearly died and that's when they got smarter about what they did cause they couldn't let me die in their care, 'non-exister' or not!"
"Octavia… I'm sorry…" Thor began, only for Octavia to violently shake her head.
"No, you're only sorry now!" she yelled, following her comment up by punching him in the face with her ice covered hands. The force behind them coupled with Thor's feelings allowed her to knock him off his feet and flat on his back. "Because apparently we're related! But you, you're just like them! Like all those other people in power!"
She pressed her advantage, getting on top of him, and Thor could see the loathing in her eyes. "You don't care about the rest of us! You only care about yourself!" She punched him in the face. "Everything is your fault!" Another punch. "It's your fault!" Another. "It has to be your fault!"
She continued to unleash her pain and rage upon her 'uncle', but Johanna could easily see that Thor wasn't even trying to defend himself, simply accepting her punches, bruises emerging on his face even as the force behind the subsequent blows began to fade away, rage and anger slowly shifting into grief.
"Damn you! It has to be your fault! It has to be!" Octavia cried out. "I don't want to be the reason she's dead-!"
"No."
Octavia didn't say anything, but as she looked up at Johanna, the other young woman now back on her feet, it was at least clear that she'd heard the new Avenger's words.
"Your mother may have died because you existed, but that doesn't make it your fault," Johanna clarified, laying her axe down as she sat in front of the younger girl. "It's not like you had any say in being born or not."
"You don't-!"
"Know what you've been through?" Johanna finished. "Maybe I haven't been where you are, but I can say for a fact that my parents were all killed because I told the gits in charge where they could get off for trying to tell me to prostitute myself to go along with the president's sick little power games."
Johanna took only slight satisfaction that she had both Octavia and Loki looking at her in shock after that comment.
"Somebody seriously wanted you to be a prostitute?" Octavia asked, the ice falling from her arms as rage shifted to confusion. "I mean, you told me… I guess I just…"
"Thought I was trying to shock you into calming down?" Johanna finished with an understanding nod, her expression solemn even as the pain in her eyes made it clear that this topic affected her deeply. "Believe me, I wish I was. 'Prostitute' might not be the right term as I wasn't exactly going to get paid for it myself, but… long story short, I was a minor celebrity back home, and the president of my country would get a lot of favours if he let the right people have some 'private time' with me."
"Banner?" Loki asked, looking curiously at Johanna. "He sold others for his own benefit?"
"I knew him as Snow, but we're talking about the same guy," Johanna nodded at the prisoner before looking back at Octavia, who was now standing in a small pool of what had once been her ice 'armour'. "Anyway, I told the bastard no, and he killed my family to make a point to anyone who might think to defy him later on; did the same thing to an old mentor of my team's leader, actually."
"Mockingjay?" Thor asked in surprise. "Captain Rogers was not-"
"It wasn't Rogers, Thor; it was her mentor from the Games after he won his own contest with a neat little trick nobody saw coming," Johanna clarified, waiting for Thor to nod in understanding before she continued. "The point is, your mom might have been killed because you existed, but she didn't die because you chose to do something and she ended up paying the price for it; you're not responsible for what someone else does, even if anyone wants you to think otherwise."
"But… but he left me…" Octavia protested, weakly indicating Thor as the Asgardian king stared sadly at her.
"He left the remnants of a civilisation that had let him down by killing off the woman he loved and driving one of his best friends insane," Johanna corrected, giving Thor a brief glare before she focused her attention back on Octavia. "Not saying he was perfect, and I agree that it was a bad call, but I like to think he'd have done something if he knew you existed, which is more than your Ark Council would've done if they'd found out about you before your mother pushed you out."
Octavia said nothing, the woman clearly physically and emotionally spent, the temperature of the wider room returning to normal as she slumped against the wall, staring listlessly at her father's prisoner.
Just what is this girl capable of? the self-titled Bloodaxe wondered, staring at this young girl who contained so much cold potential. And how much harm could she cause if she doesn't control it?
"Lady Johanna, I-" Thor began.
"Don't," Johanna held up her artificial arm with a warning glare. "I get that you were in a shitty place after Bruce snapped and tore through you and the old guard, and I get that you probably thought we weren't worth saving back when you came to the Ark, but… well, thinking that you were just ignoring Earth and learning that you actually saw us and decided not to do anything aren't the same thing."
"I acknowledge my shortcomings and failures in this manner," Thor said solemnly. "I assure you, you cannot loathe me for my inaction more than I do myself."
"I get that," Johanna said, nodding at him before she let out a slight chuckle as she checked her axe. "Actually, I'm kinda surprised I'm taking this so well; think I'd have started swinging this thing at you along with Octavia if I'd found out about this a few months ago."
"Being an Avenger has a significant influence on our number in many ways," Thor noted with a grim smile. "I recall that Lady Romanov in particular became warmer as time went on…"
"The Black Widow was a people person?" Johanna smiled, ignoring the curious glance from Octavia as the young girl looked up. "She seemed a bit… I mean, I liked her, but-"
"It was easier for her later on," Thor explained. "You encountered her early in our career; she became far more personally invested as we spent more time together…"
His voice trailed off as he looked upwards, the suddenly awkward expression on his face helping Johanna realise what he was thinking about.
"It was her relationship with Bruce, wasn't it?"
"The closeness they shared was… a contribution to what befell him in the end… but what they became should not mar what came before," the Asgardian king said solemnly. "Whatever Bruce was when you faced him, he was once a good man; you cannot forget that."
"I don't," Johanna said, once again surprised to find that she meant it.
She had accepted the idea that Bruce Banner wasn't going to become Snow in his timeline now that he knew what he might become in one future, but the fact that she could be this comfortable thinking about the Bruce Banner from the history she knew as a separate person from the man he'd become was a surprise to herself.
Right now, however, the biggest concern facing her was Octavia; the girl had just experienced a massive upheaval of her entire life, and obviously needed more than a few moments to come to terms with everything that had just been dumped on her so abruptly.
"Please help her outside, I will join you shortly so I can escort you to quarters for your stay here," Thor said, turning back to his brother. "Loki and I have… there are things that need to be said between us that I would rather remained between us."
"Check," Johanna said, crouching down to help Octavia up, the girl staring blankly ahead of herself with tears still gleaming in the corner of her eyes as they left the prison.
"Whatever apologies or platitudes you think to say, save them brother," Loki said coldly, as Thor turned back to look at him. "I asked you to save them. My daughter's suffering is all because of your choices."
"I know how much I have failed her, Loki-"
"No I don't believe you do. Otherwise you would be as concerned about my daughter's life as I am." Noting that Thor was simply looking at him in confusion, Loki continued his explanation. "Octavia is a hybrid child of human and frost giant, but due to the magic that conceals my Jotun nature, her humanity became the dominant of the two."
"Until she came into contact with Mjolnir," Thor realized. "Back on Earth, she had no powers, no strength other than that of a normal human…"
"And now her two sides are at with her," Loki finished for him, his tone grim and foreboding. "You've already seen the results of this internal struggle; she has gained inhuman strength and the ability to manipulate ice, but she isn't actively controlling it. It's not something she can consciously will. In time, her body will be wracked with unbearable pain as her two natures fight. She could literally die from rejection."
"And how do we stop this?" Thor asked. "If there is a way to reverse-"
Loki shook his head. "You cannot reverse this. Her only chance is to do as I did when I learned the truth about my own origins. She has to hold it."
Thor looked at Loki in disbelief. "You can't mean that."
"It is her only chance to live."
"And if it even works, she will no longer be mortal," Thor argued. "Everyone she knows and cares about, Octavia will outlive them all. She will outlive her own brother, Loki."
"But she will be alive! And in the end, that is all that matters!" Loki shouted, hands pressed against the glass of his prison as he stared at Thor with a passion and a fire in his eyes the King of Asgard had not seen in such a long time. "I have failed in so many ways, brother. Don't let me fail in the only way that I can be a father to my daughter behind this blasted cage wall!" He narrowed his eyes at Thor. "Take Octavia to the Casket. It is her only chance to survive."