Chapter 40: Judgement!

The room was just silent, and nobody dared to move.

"I, Thor, King of New Asgard, has reached a decision in the appeal judgement of slave Loki of the Avengers. The verdict had been agreed upon by Heimdall and a Valkyrie. Slave Loki, please stand up."

Loki was standing upright. He knew he had the support of the Avengers and it meant a lot.

"It had been brought to our attention that Loki was under the influence of someone of far greater power, feared by many. Loki is not responsible for a part of his crimes committed on Midgard. He was manipulated into attacking this realm. The Jotnar already declared they don't want anything to do with Loki and had banished him from their realm. Asgard has been destroyed, but not her people, and Loki's crimes against Asgard were still his own. So far, Loki had been serving the Avengers and he had learned a lot being with them. They also seem to have a great influence on him. So it the light of all that information, here's the judgement."

Now, Loki was holding his breath.

"Firstly, like any other slave, your family ties are restored. You are not the son of none. You are once again Odin's and Frigga's son, and my brother."

Well, one good thing, and it meant the world, even if Frigga and Odin were not there anymore.

"Secondly, your status will be changed. You are not a slave anymore, but a prisoner in custody of the Avengers — and their captain would act as your parole officer. It means the slave bond will disintegrate, but you still have to obey their rules. However, you will have to work in order to earn your freedom. You need to help those your hurt and balance the scale. Once you have complete community services, pay a fine — in the form of charity donations helping the victims of your attack — and save as many lives as you have personally taken, then, you will regain your freedom.

"This is my verdict and so it shall be," finished Thor and he then knocked softly on his armrest with mjolnir to add weight to his judgement.

So Loki was not free, and he was not expecting to be, but Thor had been fair. Loki would work and one day, earn his freedom.

Beside him, the Avengers were discussing the verdict like everyone else in the room. Loki was silent, just pondering his existence. And then, part of the verdict hit him. He was Thor's brother again. Officially!

"You are not a slave anymore," said Steve while patting Loki's back. "This is great! You're not free, but we can work with that. Hey, how do you feel?"

"I feel fine," said Loki.

oOo

They had gone back to Thor's house after leaving the royal hall. They would be heading back to the compound the next day, but tonight, it was a feast, well, a calm one giving that everyone was exhausted.

"Thor," said Storm.

"Yes, I'm your uncle Thor. And what is your name?"

"Storm!"

"Oh, you are a strong one. Brother, this one will be something when she grows up."

Beside Thor, Loki was smiling.

"Hey, just to clarify, Loki is not a slave," asked Tony.

"No, not anymore," said Thor.

"So that means that he can do magic, like, whenever he wants, right? Just checking," said Tony.

But he was right. Loki was not a slave, therefore the bond should not exist anymore.

"Come on, Loki, you know the bond was always an illusion, a way to prevent you from using your power," said Thor. "Wanda showed it to us this noon."

"The illusion has been in place for so long," said Loki.

"Well, maybe you just need a good reason," said Thor. "Or some motivation. Think of your children, they are free too. Think of this little princess over here."

"Princess," said Loki.

"Well, yes. I am king, but you are a prince. And has your daughter, she is a princess," said Thor.

"Am I a prince?"

"You are the son of Odin, and my brother. So yes, that makes you a prince. And Alex is also a prince," said Thor.

"But... I should not have my title back," said Loki, "not after I betrayed Asgard".

"You also help during Ragnarok. And you saved me as well. By taking the tesseract, you offered us a way out when no one had to sacrifice themselves. I should appoint you guardian of the tesseract. I know you know of its power, and if anything happens, you would be able to protect it."

"I would be honored," said Loki.

"I trust you," said Thor.

"But it would be unwise to put to space stone so close to the mind stone. Vision has one stone and two of those in the same realm is dangerous enough, those should not be in the same country," said Loki.

"So you would prefer we guard it here?"

"Exactly."

"Daddy!"

Storm struggled out of Thor's arms and he put her on the ground.

"Can she walk?"

"Not yet, no."

But then, Storm stood up and walked toward Loki. The father was so happy to see his little princess walking toward him. And then, she fell and her head was about to hit the leg of the table when Loki, wanting to stop her, used his magic to lift her up in the air and then brought her in his arms.

"You did it," cheered Loki, "you walked!"

"Daddy!"

"You did it too, Loki," said Thor. "You used magic."

"I did? Oh... I did," said Loki just smiling.

Well, today had been a very good day.

oOo

That night, Thor had a strange dream.

But that night, Loki did too.

They both shared the same dream, with their father.

Thor and Loki made their way on the cliff of New Asgard until they met Odin sitting on a rock there, just looking at the water.

"Oh, my sons. You made it," said Odin cheerily.

"Yes, we came," said Thor.

"But you made it too," said Odin.

"Made what," asked Loki.

"You are free," said Odin. "Well, not completely, but you are getting there. And I am so proud of both of you."

"Why did you send me to be a slave on Midgard? I understand that I did my crimes there, but why? They don't even have slavery anymore, surely you must have known that," asked Loki,

"I knew. That's exactly why I send you there. And it is the reason I gave you to the Avengers first, and Shield second. That part was crucial. I was expecting one of the Avengers to take you in because they are heroes and they would not have left you to go with Shield, because they would expect Shield to mistreat you. It was a way to guaranty you would be safe. You see, your sentence was also about learning, even when no harm can come to you. I knew they would not hurt you, because they have their values," answered Odin.

"Did you know about Ragnarok," asked Thor. "About us coming here?"

"When I banished you to Midgard, Thor, it was to teach you a lesson. But I also intended you to make friends. I was devastated when you, Loki, tried to invade Midgard. I was counting on your sentence to establish an alliance between our realms. This is a better place than Asgard and it allows you to start anew. You see, Ragnarok is about going back to the beginning, to have a new beginning. Thor is now king and you have the people on your side. But by changing Loki's sentence, you are showing all of Asgard that people can change and can earn second chances."

"You manipulated both of us so we would do what you intended," said Loki.

"Yes, and no," said Odin. "I did what I did for the good of Asgard, but also for the good of my family."

"Did mother know," asked Thor.

"I told her you would one day be brothers again," said Odin.

"My sons," said an angelic voice.

Frigga arrived from behind them and sat beside Loki.

"Mother!"

"Mother..."

"I am so proud of both of you," she said.

"Father, you said we were both born to be king," said Thor. "But only one of us could..."

"Only one of you is king. But that does not mean the other cannot rule," said Odin looking at Loki.

"What? No. New Asgard would not want a criminal, however reformed, to rule," said Loki surprised.

"There are many ways to rule," said Frigga. "I was Queen, and even if I was not in charge of Asgard, I had my say in many decisions."

"And I always listen to my queen," said Odin.

"Oh, not always. But you let Loki lives."

"It is only because of your mother that I sentenced you to slavery," said Odin. "She encouraged me to find another way that would get the favour of Asgard in matter of ruling, but also allow you, Loki, to live. And it also allowed me to plot in order to abolish slavery, which I wanted to do, but could never officially do."

"Behind all great man, there is a woman," said Frigga.

"You saved me," said Loki.

"I may not have given birth to you, but I am your mother."

"It saddened me to have to kill you, Loki, because it would have been the only acceptable punishment for your crimes, but your mother asked me to spare your life," said Odin.

"I hoped you can forgive me," said Frigga. "It was not my intention to see you become a slave."

"It was the only way to save my life," said Loki. "Thank you. Both of you."

"But Loki would never rule," said Thor.

"Like I said, there is more than one way to rule," said Frigga. "You have your strength, Thor, and you have yours, Loki. Neither of you is perfect, but you can complete each other."

"You want us to rule together," asked Thor.

"Every king needs a great royal advisor," said Odin.

"You knew I would take Loki," said Thor.

"Oh, we knew since you were both children," said Frigga.

"But, I am not free yet," said Loki.

"And the royal advisor Thor choose is not dead yet," said Odin. "Old, but not dead. Yet."

"You want me to get my freedom before his death so I can replace him," said Loki.

"You would be the greatest royal advisor of New Asgard," said Frigga.

"Sometimes, a ruler should not rule alone. You were both raised to rule, and so it shall be," said Odin.

"So this was your plan all along," said Loki. "You played a game of chess with us, placing us exactly where we should be."

"A king always needs to do what is best for his people, but I wanted to put my family first, I just had to find a way so the people would not suffer because of that. On Midgard, you are free to choose your path, and so are your people."

"Thank you, father," said Thor.

"Thank you," said Loki.

What a strange dream indeed.

oOo

They were back at the compound and it was a new day. Loki was free of slavery, but still a prisoner. It was morning, Alex was at his daycare and Storm was napping, so Steve decided it would be a great time to have a meeting with Loki, to which Tony, Bruce and Bucky decided to participate.

"So, now things have changed," said Steve.

"We all know, we were there," said Tony.

"Loki, now, you are a prisoner. And to get your total freedom, you need to pay a fine, to do community work and to save as many lives as you have taken," said Steve. "Do you know how to achieve all that?"

"I have some ideas," said Loki, "even though there is no rush, I still want to be free."

"How about that, Bruce and I are working on a few science projects. Jane Foster had that theory that magic is just science not understood yet. We are also working on another project concerning the Hulk. But what I want to talk to you about is a tesseract project. Your expertise with magic might come in handy and you will be paid. What we want is to revolutionise the travelling industry. Think about it, worm-hole to another destination would be awesome," said Tony enthusiastically.

"It is a concept so far, but we are working on something that would work a bit like the portal you created with the tesseract," said Bruce.

"So, how about a job offer," asked Tony.

"Yes," said Loki. "I mean, I probably need the permission of my parole officer to change job."

"And you have it," said Steve. "But I also want to propose something else to you. You need money, you need to do community service, and you need to save some lives..."

"Many lives," interrupted Tony. "Many, many lives."

"I know I won't get my freedom for some time, but when you can live as long as me, it is less of a problem," said Loki.

"So you're not that worry," asked Bucky. "It's just that I feel you and I are the same now, well, more similar."

"Except I was not minded controlled for all my crimes," said Loki. "I am still responsible for some of them. But Thor had been fair and now, there is a way for me to get my freedom. Probably not soon, but some day."

"Well, for the money issue, you have a job. For the community service, we can find something nearby. If you do one day per week, you could be done in less than a year," said Steve. "As for saving lives, I want to propose you the Avengers initiative."