It was a favorite tactic of the Children of Thanos to maraud through the Invisible Network, the veins through spacetime favored by the universe's underbelly. There were plenty of interdimensional rifts and wormholes unmapped to the traditional jump points and unpoliced by Asgard. Indeed, the so-called "Branches of Yggdrasil" only included the largest and most stable parts of the network connecting the lucky-few Nine Worlds, and even these were opening up to more discrete travelers since the Asgardians' Bifrost was now defunct in a happy coincidence.
It was a chance encounter that led to the discovery of the Asgardian Puppet. He was Nebula's prize, a thought signature fleetingly detected but easily plucked from the void once she started hunting it. He had the coloring and the raiment of Asgard, long limbs, black hair, and green eyes when she lifted up the lids. He was clearly alive and appeared physically well once she returned him to real spacetime, but he was unarousable. That was no concern to the cyborg, however.
In truth, the prize pleased Thanos and the Other for more than usual. "Never before have my children found a living mind in the Invisible Network without the benefit of a spaceship to contain it," Thanos mused to the Other after Nebula had been dismissed. The discovery was very interesting. The fact that the mind in question was an Asgardian was even better.
"His power must be considerable. I shall make him into such a weapon for you, my lord," the Other hissed in excited agreement.
Thanos snorted and smoothed the hair from the young Asgardian god's forehead. "Make him into another son for me, Imp. Not just a weapon. He is worth it."
The Other hesitated, but bowed agreement and started to set up his tools for the task. After only an hour, though, they were both frustrated. No matter how much pain, shouting, light, or even gentle coaxing they threw at him, the Asgardian was not waking up. If he did not wake up, then he could not be broken, could not be forged, could not be tempered. "This is... futile!" the Other eventually spat.
"Hmmm... Perhaps a return to fundamentals is in order," Thanos said reasonably. "Perhaps he is more damaged than he appears."
The Other grunted in distaste but extracted a handheld medical scanner from the bottom of his cart and passed it over his charge. They both leaned over it, watching the screen suspiciously. There was nothing at all wrong with the Asgardian's body. Turning to his head, the anatomy was again entirely normal, all the way down to the cellular level. The Other blinked, and tapped the scanner, studying it for quite a while. He pinched and prodded some more, still studying his device. "Interesting. Everything is perfectly healthy and yet...his mind is not just asleep, my lord. It is vegetative. There is not enough spontaneous activity to achieve conscientiousness, just enough to maintain vital internal functions." He bared his teeth and looked up at Thanos. "He is already broken!"
"Ohh..." This was not a prize but a gift, already broken by the universe or perhaps by Lady Death herself. He could mold this to whatever he chose. But only if he figured out how. He frowned. "The usual methods will not be effective then. You have my permission to experiment with the Mind Stone, Imp."
Progress was slow, for both the Other and Thanos his master were unpracticed with the one Infinity Stone they had claimed as yet. Every day with the gift was another gift from Lady Death as far as Thanos was concerned, however, as he had not had the substrate to learn how to control the stone before. Every day of trial and error and practice was preparing him for his inevitable final quest. And yet...
"I am dissatisfied," Thanos pronounced as he watched the Asgardian walking jerkily across the lab, bend into a squat, then jump into the air. It looked for all the world like a life-sized marionette, and its slack-jawed expression and empty eyes placed it squarely in the uncanny valley.
The Other exhaled through his teeth as he guided the Asgardian back to the worktable and caused it to awkwardly recline before releasing the spell. "I am as well, my lord," he admitted.
Thanos ran a finger along the Asgardian's limp arm. "According to lore, the Mind Stone's power is in accessing and augmenting the powers of the mind. Perhaps we are going about this the wrong way."
"What is your instruction, my lord?"
"You are currently attempting to use the stone to create a false mind. Although I have no doubt the power of the stone is sufficient for this, neither you nor I have the subtlety to conceive of let alone create a fully operational yet independently functioning mind. A mind consists of a billion billion connections and thoughts, and that is simply too complex. You would have to use the stone on yourself to even attempt the conception, and also use it to enact the spell, but..." he laughed, and the sound sent a shiver through the Other's bones. "But to use the stone on oneself is to risk oneself."
The Other's gaze flicked back to the stone, then to the Asgardian, then back to his master. He licked his lips nervously, waiting.
"I shall not risk you yet, Imp." Thanos smiled, showing his teeth. "No, as I said, we are going about this the wrong way. We should not be using the stone to create new connections to the Asgardian's body but rather to access what is already there. We know his brain is intact. Use it."
The Other raised a hand to his chin, considering, then grinned back at his master. "Your will be done, my lord."
The next day, after hours of study with the stone and some experimenting on one of their prisoners due for execution, the Other lay a whisper of thought into the Mind Stone, drawing its power to him. Then, slowly, carefully, he threaded the power through each circuit of the Asgardian's brain. He was growing tired and thirsty by the time he finished but dare not pause for fear of losing his progress. Finally, he looked up at his master. Thanos nodded once. The Other fed the stone's energy into the Asgardian, holding his breath in anticipation. Almost immediately, the body stiffened up and started to convulse. The Other cursed and bled the power away again. The seizure abated.
"Do you still have the connection?" Thanos inquired cooly.
"Yes, my lord." The morning's work was preserved, at least.
"Good. Wait a few minutes, then try again. Slower. And Imp, do not damage my prize."
"Of course, my lord."
The second attempt failed exactly as did the first. For the third attempt, they tried using a sedative to ward off the convulsion. That also failed spectacularly. Even more frustratingly, the Other lost half the connections he had worked on that morning.
"We will have to try again tomorrow, my lord, and start over from the beginning. I doubt I will be certain of re-harnessing every circuit otherwise."
"Actually, Imp, I think you should try once more now. We have probably just been overwhelming him by flooding the brain with so much energy. It might work better with a more selective approach. In fact, reduce what you still hold by three quarters. I do not wish to damage him while we tinker."
"Very well... My lord, might I suggest we go further and attempt to isolate perhaps the motor system first? That way, we will be able to spare other regions from experimentation."
"Agreed."
The Other carefully released neural circuits one by one. Then when he was reassured the connectome still linked to the stone was finally winnowed down to something more manageable, he let energy flow into the remaining channels. The whole body jerked, then was still, then jerked again. And again. He cut off the power again, cursing. All he had accomplished was changing what kind of seizures he was causing.
"Again, my pet. Gently."
Cautiously, he allowed the barest trickle of power to bleed through. It was still too much, and the Asgardian's face twitched rhythmically. The Other pictured a dam between the stone and his subject, mentally slowing the flow. At first, nothing seemed to happen, but with just a little more force and a little direction from his own thoughts, the Asgardian's arm slowly rose into the air, hand curling into a triumphant fist. The Other smiled, and so did the Asgardian. The Other laughed, and so did the Asgardian. The Other laughed harder and said, "I see I shall have to work on separating my motions from its, but I think it fair to say this is excellent progress." The Asgardian said the same thing, in the same cadence, an echo most delightful to the Other's ears.
Thanos started laughing then too. "He has a sweet voice. You have done well, Imp. Rest you both now, and we will start again in the morning."
The next day was devoted to mapping the Asgardian's brain, isolating each system in turn. It got easier with practice. They were rewarded first with the welcome discovery that their gift was, delightfully, magically gifted! As soon as the Other energized the region in question, a panoply of colors like an aurora burst forth, illuminating the entire laboratory. The Mind stone grew brighter in response, and the room seemed to fill with voices until the Other realized he was somehow unintentionally accessing the thoughts of everyone within a considerable radius... including his master! The Asgardian must have latent telepathic abilities. He quickly deactivated the circuits, not wanting to risk hearing something he shouldn't and enraging Thanos, but the Titan only smiled.
"Lady Death's gift is full of surprises."
Next they opened his memory, and the wonders were beyond imagining once they started sorting through.
They had not just any Asgardian, but a prince. Son of old Twice-Blind himself. And this particular prince knew so much! He must have been some kind of scholar, they supposed, such a well of information he had within his quiescent brain. Much of it, Thanos already knew of course. But far from all. And then the pièce de résistance... the Asgardian had studied the Infinity Stones in the past, including the Tesseract, which the Children of Thanos had only recently located on Terra. It was clear why the Lady had sent him now. It was time.
It took another month to perfect the Asgardian Puppet, and the final plan was not without risk. Still, there was no glory in a plan without risk. Thanos and the Other did eventually manage to create a working mind for their puppet. The Asgardian's own vegetative mind remained the template, but the Stone was the conscious force that united the various otherwise uncoordinated cognitive systems and give the puppet direction. It was a delicate balancing act, and even a minor physical movement of the Puppet in relation to the stone could perturb the balance of power in each master circuit. The new-forged mind was thus prone to waywardness and frequently drove the Other to fits of spitting rage in his attempts to reign it in.
To Thanos, it was beautiful and impious and rebellious, and he loved it like one of his Children. The downside was that the stone had to go with it to maintain consciousness. There was no way to maintain the spell with any precision from another planet.
Thanos kissed the Puppet's forehead as he placed the staff in its hands. He smiled at it. It was not one of his Children, but it was, more than any of the others, one of his creations. "Are you ready to claim your throne?" He asked it.
It grinned up at him. "I am burdened with glorious purpose," Loki of Asgard agreed.
Author's note: So yeah, Loki did not escape the Void unscathed. Leave a review, tell me what you think!
The main idea I'm working with here is the idea of consciousness as an emergent property of the brain. All the various regions of the brain contribute something to the whole, but the resultant behavior and personality is a product of the balancing and reciprocation between them, rather than mere stimulus-response feedback. When Thanos and the other first try to control Loki, they are going about it like programming a computer, and it's clunky. The next attempt causes seizures because they basically just sent a signal to every part of the brain saying "go! go! go!" The trick is in figuring out selectivity. The final spell is basically a relay system between various parts of the brain with a master command of whatever the Other wants to happen. In basic neuroscience, it's mostly a crutch for the defunct thalamus, although the spell is also modulating the cortex to get the "outputs" to line up with the master command.
