The guards brought Odin to his chambers. Frigga already ran alongside them. She along with healers came to Odin's side, ushering him into his bed. All of them worried and concerned for their King. Their love and devotion powered their every step, in every tender act in keeping the AllFather alive.
Loki and I stayed away from it all. Not so far as to seem disinterested but not close enough to get in people's way. The ordeal in the Vault still had Loki shaken. His fingers were pressed into his palm, tapping away. I kept my hands clasped behind my back. Any signs of freezer burn long since melted away, this action just calmed me down.
As Frigga walked inside, she reached for Loki's arm. He tensed for a small moment. He looked at me. His expression solid, stone, an unbreakable man that totally wasn't in the middle of an identity crisis. I gave him a subtle nod, trying to give him assurance. I would still be here when he came back. Not even Freyja could make me leave.
No matter how hard she glared at me.
Or how loudly her feet stomped as she marched towards me.
Or how hard she grabbed my arm, dragging me from the AllFather's room. Her grip tightened with each step. She smiled politely at the few passing guards. When clear, she pushed me against the wall.
"What the hell are you thinking?" Freyja snapped.
"That you're really strong in this world." I replied. Seriously, why did she get super strength? She's lucky my powers gave me durability or I would be complaining about bruises. Maybe I should anyway just to annoy her.
Freyja hissed, squeezing her hand around my arm. "No more of your games. You're plundering sent us straight into Jotunheim and lost us Thor! The plan was to delay the coronation not banish him!"
"Would you not call that a delay?"
"Worse yet now you've killed Odin!" Freyja ranted.
"He's gonna nap for like, two days."
"Well whatever your plan was, I hope you're satisfied. Asgard is on the brink of collapse at this rate!" Freyja scolded. "What next, chop off Loki's head? Freeze Frigga in ice?"
I glared. "It's not on the brink, geez."
"Just- tell me the Plan. Just say what you were thinking." Freyja demanded.
What was I thinking? Oh, I can tell her what I was thinking. What I was thinking was of all the times Freyja let me down in the past. All the identities she wore to do it.
Myself as Oil, her as a robotic Melody. My voice telling her that she shouldn't attack a man because my plan would fall apart. That man killed her a day later, attacking her after a failed blitz attack.
In Doctor Who, her home reality, River Song in all her curly-haired archeologist glory. Her going against my plan to keep her alive and not dead. She decided her brain being fried worked better than doing what I said.
Equestria. River Song, a pony in the Crystal Palace. Hilarious. Her name fit way too well. I told her a plan- no not a plan, a backup. A backup, buck wild half baked idea. She made me carry it out. She made me do that to Donna Noble.
Giving you information has only ever hurt me or those I cared about.
Why would I do it again?
Luckily for her, Loki returned from Odin's chambers. He held Gungnir in his hands. At the sight of it, the guards all knelt before him. I followed suit. A quick nudge from me had Freyja joining.
Loki looked at all of us. While his expression stayed fixed and unmoving, even from this distance I saw how tightly his fingers gripped Gungnir.
The guards rose after the appropriate time. Freyja and I followed suit. Freyja grabbed my arm, dragging me ahead.
"Prince- I mean, King Loki." Freyja began. "Might we take a moment of your time?"
Loki glanced at me. I gave him a polite smile, giving my head a gentle tilt. Loki looked back to Freyja. "Yes."
Freyja squeezed my arm. Why do that, it's not like I'm gonna run away from you two interrogating me. Freyja's questions would be ignored. Everything I had would go to the person needing the most help.
"Let's go to my chambers. They are more suited for this kind of discussion." Freyja explained.
Oh yeah I'm gonna be tortured.
==L==
Freyja threw Morgan down on her lounge chair. The Queen composed herself, lying her hands in her lap. She kept that deceptively gentle smile on her face. Loki wondered if anything could make that expression crack. He remembered Morgan's expression when she saw...when his true skin came out.
The fear in her eyes, the way her fingers curled in pain on his hands. Morgan's eyes darting around them for help. Loki saw through her lies. As the god of them, that was his right.
He'd trusted her. He followed her plan to the exact letter. Thor became banished, Fath- Odin fell, and Loki became king. This hadn't been what he wanted- he only wanted Fat- Odin to wait until Thor was ready. Morgan's plan ruined that. Thor was banished. Loki- Loki discovered the awful truth of his parentage.
That Morgan stood with him meant nothing. She only stayed for fear. Her exit was blocked by a Frost Giant. Even now, she avoided his gaze and kept her attention on Freyja.
"Okay. We're here to talk about our game plan. Yes?" Morgan asked.
"Yes." Freyja smiled widely. "So tell us-" She walked up to Morgan, slapping her in the face. Loki hoped it hurt for a good long while. "-what the bloody hell were you thinking!?"
Rubbing her cheek, Morgan frowned at her. "Your boytoy was right about mixed signals." She complained. "We need to focus on the strategy going forward."
"We don't need to strategize. There's no time." Loki replied.
"No. We make our own time for this." Freyja insisted. "If we go around on whims, we might as well have given Thor the throne-"
Loki glared at Gungnir, still in his hand. The weight of it oppressed him. He wondered which was worse: the curse of Gungnir, or the curse of his flesh? Both stung so deeply...both were heavy, noticeably so. He couldn't even stare at his hand without feeling rage swell inside him.
"-which you still haven't answered for." Freyja scolded.
Morgan sat straight, squaring her shoulders back. She dropped the smile. Loki saw every move as calculated, every action as planned. Everything leading to now stunk of plots and deceptions. His own existence turned out to be the greatest trick of them all.
Her fear was so clear on her face. After their brief conversations, after seeing her warmly and openly accept his magic, seeing her fear made something shift in him. Loki wondered if that hurt worse.
"Well go on. Say something." Freyja pressed. "Give some half-cocked, convoluted excuse for why you did this."
Morgan blinked, keeping Freyja from getting anything. She turned to Loki. Her mouth turned, tilting into a frown. As Loki glared at her, her eyes softened.
He still remembered that fear on her face...visceral and real. He'd felt it too.
Why was she doing this? Why ignore her friend in favor of a Frost Giant?
"Answer her." Loki ordered.
Morgan turned to Freyja. "Thor needed to go to Earth."
"No he didn't!" Freyja snapped.
"He did, actually." Morgan replied. "There are things down there he needs to do, people he needs to interact with. You saw him with Odin. Being sent his room in time out wasn't gonna change him. Thor's the type that needs to hit rock bottom before they even realize they were falling."
Freyja scoffed. Loki wanted to agree with her. A few hours prior, he would have. Now? Now he wasn't sure. Freyja noticed his doubt. That only made her angrier at Morgan. "What things did he need doing that couldn't be handled by you?"
Morgan said nothing.
Loki glared at her. The Queen met his glare. Her glare was much less sharp, knowing full well that she stood against a monster.
"I'm-" Morgan stopped, swallowing. "It's-"
Loki stepped forward. Freyja stepped back, away from the night of Gungnir and from the Frost Giant who wielded it. "Did you know?"
Morgan looked at him, eyes wide and open. She swallowed again. Loki met those eyes. He looked inside, realizing just how long she'd been looking at him and only him. He didn't even need to hear her answer. Her entire face spoke of it.
"Does she?" Loki looked at his friend, the only ally he had amongst all of these people. As he realized this, Loki recalled that Freyja was here to foster peace for the Vanir. A war prize, just as him. Loki lived in a delusion while Freyja woke every day reminded of her shackles. Was that why she befriended him, that she too knew of Loki's monstrous form.
"Of course I know." Freyja replied. "Why else would I make her tell you?"
"Freyja shut up." Morgan snapped. Loki fumed. "Loki, I know what Thor is doing, that's what Freyja means. I watched it- him- with mortals, that's all-" Morgan tried to explain.
"You know. Both of you know." Loki raged. Freyja tensed behind him. Morgan darted her eyes between the two. No doubt she planned on the best way to bring down a Frost Giant. "Who else knows? Who else knows the great lie of Loki Odinson?"
"What are you on about?" Freyja asked.
"You idiot shut up-" Morgan scolded.
Loki laughed. A tired, bitter laugh. "Oh, I see through you now. All of this, a trick to shame me, to shame the throne of Asgard."
"No! I swear that's not-"
"Do not think you can lie to me, witch!" Loki snapped. Morgan stepped to the side, blocking Loki from Freyja. "Not again! Not ever again!"
"Okay!" Morgan held her hand over her heart. "Okay hold me to my word. I swear I'll tell you the truth!"
Loki glared.
"I swear-" Morgan paused. Her face twitched into a frown. She took a breath, looking up at him. Loki found himself frozen to the spot when Morgan locked eyes. "-I swear, on everything that matters, I'm not lying to you."
She stepped forward. As careful as a child would reach for a butterfly, Morgan put her hand on Loki's. Loki's rage still burned, fuming and twisting in his belly. Yet with Morgan looking at him so earnestly, he couldn't find it in himself to push that anger on her.
"She meant, that she knows the truth about my powers." Morgan explained. "Me. Selfish, selfish me, making this entire thing about myself. That's what she meant."
"But you know." Loki replied. "You know about- knew the truth."
Morgan nodded. "I knew before I met you. What Freyja said- I can see the future. I watched the whole last week and most of the next. Well, actually most of the next two years. So when I say that Thor needs to talk to people on Earth, I mean it. He exposes them to the worlds beyond their own."
Loki shook his head. He gripped tighter to Gungnir. Morgan gripped tighter to his hand. He let out a shaking breath. "You said nothing."
"We'd just met." Morgan replied. "Why would you trust me?"
"What are you two on about?" Freyja's question broke the tension they'd built.
Morgan gave him a small grin before stepping back. She glared at Freyja to shut her up. "Loki. Do you want her to know?"
Freyja looked between them. "Know what? About that 'Great lie of Loki Odinson'? What more am I missing?"
"Loki?" Morgan asked, ignoring Freyja's question.
Loki wasn't used to people choosing him over others. To choosing him and his wishes over anyone's. So long he had been told to be silent, to know his place.
"No. I'll say it." Loki stated. Morgan nodded. She stepped back. Loki walked up to Freyja. She glanced at Morgan in confusion before looking at Loki. "Odin- I am not Odinson."
"Then what are you?" Freyja asked. "Odindottier? Friggason? Odinbur- it doesn't change-"
"Laufeyson." Loki answered.
Freyja paused. Her eyes widened, her jaw lowered. She looked Loki over before looking at Morgan. Morgan a waggle of her fingers. Freyja sighed, her shoulders moving with it. "...are you their ward?"
Loki laughed, mirthlessly. A ward. How lovely a word for something Loki could only dream of. A ward would be more valued than him. Loki Laufeyson, a now useless relic that Odin couldn't even lock in his vault.
"Odin said he took Loki from a Jötunn temple at the tail end of the war." Morgan explained when Loki continued to laugh.
Freyja shook her head. She gawked, running her hand through her golden hair. "Seriously? Seriously. He stole a baby from a temple?"
"Yeah." Morgan replied. She grimaced. "It's not a good look." She looked at Loki. "Not- not that I think you're a bad look. Or that your Jötunn- uh- that he- it- you-"
"Just stop." Freyja advised.
Morgan pushed her lips together, nodding.
"They have manipulated me." Loki stated. "Both of them, all my life."
"Loki-" Freyja began. Morgan lifted her hand, quieting the Vanir down.
Loki continued. "I am not more but a stolen relic. Odin said as much, Morgan, even you saw that. 'There is a purpose to all he does', Frigga in the same breath cursed at Odin for not telling me the truth and then absolved him of blame!"
Morgan winced. Good. Not even she had a counterargument for that!
Loki hissed in rage. Though he did not want her arguments, he had expected it. He wanted her to say something, anything, to counter the revelations about his supposed mother and father. He could not be the horrible monster that Loki feared he was.
"I can't believe her." Freyja growled. "She's complicit in this gaslighting!"
"No, no-no-no. Don't start that. Frigga is a cool mom! She's always so nice to Loki from what I've seen." Morgan defended.
Loki wanted to feel proud of her, for supporting his mot-...for supporting Frigga, even if it left his chest feeling hollow.
"Look at it this way. Has your mother said even HALF of what Frigga has?" Freyja prompted.
Morgan tensed up. She glared at Freyja. Well, she usually glared at Freyja, this time with more contempt. "...I told you that stuff in confidence."
"You have no confidence, thanks in part to your mother and the rest to your father." Freyja countered. "You said your mother always called you a melodramatic liar, who 'only insists she's adopted to make a scene'."
"I wasn't adopted! She was right about that!" Morgan reminded her.
"And the rest?" Freyja prompted.
Morgan hesitated. The answer was clear to Loki, who could see the self-hatred already there in her expression and the forced squaring of her shoulders. The posture of someone pretending they weren't hurt. He had practiced it often enough. "I do lie..."
"But you gave them plenty of chances to hear the truth, they never listened. I remember your rants." Freyja countered. "It's why I never bothered the same with mine."
"They did this to you as well?" Loki asked Morgan. "Called your words false, because they liked the lie that much more?"
"I mean...I was a brat. They were high strung, and I never helped-" Morgan dismissed.
"Morgan. Listen to yourself." Freyja scolded. "Tell me that's not gaslighting in action."
Morgan paused. Loki watched her wrap her arms around herself, hugging her body as her eyes filled with doubt. "...why the hell do you know so much?"
"Because I was made to kill you too. Figuring your weaknesses to exploit them as part of that." Freyja explained.
That was something Loki should pay attention to, given that Freyja had said she and Morgan were friends. Morgan herself wasn't phased by that news. That was an issue for another time.
"Gaslighting, you both keep using this term." Loki pointed out. "It's meaning escapes me."
"Gaslighting is a specific form of manipulation, made to make someone question their own memories or perceptions." Freyja stated. "Of which you and Morgan have examples in spades."
"Oh like you're Miss Perfect." Morgan scoffed.
"Yes, what did you mean by you would kill Morgan? Are you not friends?" Loki asked.
"I never claimed moral high ground. I'm a psychopath." Freyja stated. Morgan groaned. "You're not even shocked. Just once, can I say something that surprises you?"
"You already did. About Frigga." Morgan reminded her. "I can't believe you'd say something so awful about her."
"She is...She is not wrong. I am different than other Frost Giants." Loki argued.
"Do we know that, though?" Morgan asked. "I mean...those few conversations do not a whole race make."
"You saw how they lived." Loki argued. "The ruins of their planet, laid to waste with not a single good Frost Giant in sight."
"Because Asgard took their one source of power, slaughtered them, and demonized them." Morgan explained. "They've had nothing for millennia."
"It's a common tactic in war efforts." Freyja added. "Can't exactly kill the enemy if you know they have Sunday dinners with the family, just like you. Or that the soldier you just stabbed had a five-year-old at home."
Yes, that would make it less simple. Loki pictured Laufey in his mind. He found he could not imagine the King with a too-small babe in his arms.
But he was different...he...he had to be. He couldn't be the same as other Frost Giants. If he was no different from them then...then... what did that mean about him?
"So." Morgan squared back her shoulders, letting her hands rest on her hips. "Can we...actually plan things now?"
"Plan things?" Freyja repeated.
"Yeah. I mean- I've got a great plan in my back pocket to keep the peace with Jotunheim." Morgan offered. "It's a good one."
Loki had an idea as well. All things considered, he liked his idea a whole lot more. It would prove to Odin and Frigga for sure that Loki was a true son of Asgard, a worthy son. Better to play along with Morgan's plan. "And you have experience in peacemaking?"
Morgan beamed at Loki. "You could say that." The expression was so devious, so smug, that Loki reconsidered his idea.
==L==
The doors to the hall were thrown open. The heavy sound of boots pounded on marble echoed in the vast chamber.
"Allfather, we must speak with you urgently!" Sif called out. Her and her fellow Warriors ran into the golden throne room.
At the foot of the throne, they halted. Odin and Frigga weren't on the throne. Instead, dressed in his usual green with large curled horns, sat Loki. Standing at his sides were Freyja, dressed in regal robes of blue and purple, and Lady Morgan, dressed in a blue dress decorated with gold.
"Freyja, look. Our friends." Loki greeted them.
Freyja smiled thinly. "How wonderful to see you all back on your feet."
"Where's Odin?" Fandral asked.
Sif watched the trio in dawning horror.
"Father has fallen into the Odinsleep." Loki revealed. "Mother fears he will never awaken again."
"We would speak with her." Sif ordered. The Allmother would have reason, she would see that Sif and the Warriors were correct. Loki couldn't be trusted, and now Sif knew his allies couldn't either.
"She has refused to leave my father's bedside." Loki explained. It only served to make the ground less level under Sif. "You can bring your urgent matter to me." He rose dramatically from the throne. "Your king."
They kneeled. Every inch she lowered, Sif glared harsher at the false king.
"My King." Sif began, struggling to even get the words out. He didn't deserve the throne, not after betraying her true king so deeply. His allies by his side deserved even worse. Freyja had never been on the side of Asgard- always belittling Sif and the rest of the Warriors. The friend by her side was cowardly for following behind. "We would ask that you end Thor's banishment."
Loki, Lady Freyja, and Lady Morgan chuckled.
Sif fumed. She knew Loki enjoyed their suffering- it was no apparent his allies were equally sadistic. Loki especially enjoyed watching them humiliate themselves before him. He always had. Making them bow, making them beg and plead for Thor back. Even Freyja, for all her coldness, still sparred with Thor with more force than needed. Morgan was their lackey- siding with them, probably no true thoughts of her own. The three of them must truly be heartless to turn against their shield brothers so easily.
"My first command cannot be to undo the Allfather's last." Loki explained to them. "We're on the brink of war with Jotunheim. Our people need a sense of continuity in order to feel safe in these difficult times."
Loki's words were good. A lesser Asgardian would believe them true. Sif only saw his insincere frown, the mocking tilt of his voice, the smiles exchanged between Freyja and Morgan. Loki didn't care. He never did.
"All of us must stand together for the good of Asgard." Loki assured them.
Sif wanted to lash out at him. She wanted to scream to the golden ceiling, let her voice carry to all of Asgard. This King was false. He stole this throne from Thor. What are the chances that the day Thor is banished, Loki rises as the king?
"Yes of course." Fandral replied when the other Warriors were shocked silent.
"Good, then you will wait for my word." Loki ordered them.
"If I may...beg the indulgence of Your Majesty." Volstagg laughed good-naturedly. Sif wanted to tell him it was no use. Loki wasn't on their side. They laughed at her, dismissing her idea that he was the traitor as Laufey said. Let them laugh at Sif now. "Please reconsider-"
"We're done." Loki stated. The tone came with a finality boosted by the power of a king.
The Warriors rose to their feet. They walked out from the throne room, dazed. Sif glared once over her shoulder. Morgan waved her fingers at Sif. This enraged the Warrior more.
She swore to the Norns, to Odin Himself- she would fix this. She would bring Thor back.
Whatever it takes.
==L==
AN: Get it?! The monster is toxic friends!
Yeah, this took a while...I got stuck in a four-class eight-week session at school so...writing was hard.
WandaVision also happened and it gave me a lot of ideas for Morgan in the future. Like dudes- dudes I've written so many drabbles of Morgan and Wanda, being vaguely upset that Wanda's basically ripping off Morgan's thing of reality changing to escape your problems. Like- like that's literally Morgan's thing and I am upset. If you have anything you wanna say, I'm on Tumblr as authora97writingupdates and on Instagram as authora97 so pleasepleaseplease dm me to chat.
Now I'm gonna scream until Falcon & Winter Soldier comes out. Updating should increase as we get closer to Loki the Series.
Thanks to Lil'Sparrow7 and eM2201 for favoriting
Thanks to nicopop for following
