The Bifrost vanished as soon as they touched down. A flurry of snow pelted them and quickly obscured the Bifrost's trademark runes. Volstagg almost immediately lost his footing and fell backwards. Thor saved him from plunging over a sheer cliff by grabbing his belt.
"Come on, big fella," Thor grunted. With effort, he pulled Volstagg back up to stable ground. Or stable ice, rather. They appeared to be on a glacier.
"This belt!" Volstagg gasped. "This belt is now my lucky belt. I will never take it off, not even when bathing!"
"You bathe?" Fandral quipped.
"Not the time for joking," Loki muttered, but he doubted any heard him in the howling wind.
"We should not be here," Hogunn said loudly, burying his hands in his armpits. Of the six of them, he was the least cold-tolerant. Surprisingly, Loki was the most. He had assumed Volstagg would be, given his weight, but that had been disproved the first time they went to Asgard's polar region together.
"It's too late now," Thor said.
"Actually, it's not," Fandral said. "We could turn right around, hop back to Asgard, share a mug by the fire. Could be nice." Listen to him, Loki implored silently.
Thor ignored the comment, naturally, and started off down the incline. Hesitantly, Loki followed, eyes darting about to every icy overhang looking for the coming threat. "Perhaps we should wait?" he suggested.
Thor looked back at him, surprised. "For what?"
"To survey the enemy. To gauge their strengths and weaknesses from a distance," Loki said, a little impatiently. They didn't even know where on the planet they were. Nor could they see where they were because it was blizzarding. There had been zero discussion of what to do when they actually got here, because Thor never bothered to plan more than the bones of his adventures ahead of time unless Loki forced him to. Loki had not bothered this time because he had never intended for them to get this far... it was incredible how successful stupidity could be at thwarting intelligence.
"I'm liking that. Gauging, surveying. Particularly the distance part," Volstagg piped up. It was telling when even the Warriors Three could see the faults in, or rather absence of, Thor's plan and the wisdom of not plunging into the driving snow head first.
"We know all we must," Thor said, digging in his heels at the barest hint of criticism. "It's time to act." He kept saying that, time to act, even though the action remained vague.
"He's just got to swing his hammer," Sif said as she wrapped her arms around herself and started following Thor. Loki sighed and followed as well. It was true. Thor had no need to discuss his intentions with his friends. Everyone knew the plan was just to find the enemy and hit it.
They trudged behind Thor for several minutes, catching sight of nothing but cold and barren wasteland. There was no hint of life besides themselves. Loki remained vigilant. The Warriors Three had started to huddle together for warmth. Sif struggled along stubbornly in Thor's lee. Thor for whatever reason actually looked invigorated. "It feels good, doesn't it? To be together again, adventuring on another world?" Thor shouted over the wind.
"Is that what we're doing? Adventuring?" Fandral called back through chattering teeth.
"What would you call it?" Thor laughed.
"Freezing," Fandral said flatly.
"Starving," Volstagg whined.
"Whining," Sif accused. She was like Loki and became more irritable when she was upset or worried.
"How about a song to lift our spirits?" Thor asked. Loki stared at him. This was even more tone-deaf than usual.
"No," Hogun said.
"Please don't make us sing again!" Sif said, slapping Thor's armored shoulder.
"If I have to listen to Volstagg's singing voice one more time, I'll fall on my own sword!" Fandral declared.
"Well, now I'm on board," Sif said sarcastically. Thor grinned at her.
Loki waived a hand to get everyone's attention and pointed ahead. The wind had subsided slightly, and with it the driving snow. Sprawling ruins were now visible on the mountain shoulder ahead of them. Thor whooped and started off again, picking his way through the jagged ice. Fortune had not totally abandoned them; a gravelly moraine lay between them and the edge of the ruined city, which was much easier to navigate than the river of ice itself was. Once they reached the moraine, they jogged across it into the relative calm between the walls of the ruins. Loki even smiled. It was almost pleasant here, out of the wind.
They wandered through the ruins, mostly roofless houses with crumbling walls made of ice, but there was some grander architecture here and there: monuments of jade, their cracks veined with ice. Stones of larger buildings shaken down during some ancient earthquake and never rebuilt. They came to some kind of open plaza and hesitated on its edge. Even Thor was not keen to venture so much out into the open. Across the plaza looked to be an old temple. Its walls were still standing, although its roof had fallen in.
"Where are they?" Sif whispered.
"Hiding," Thor said derisively. "As cowards always do." As if to prove his own bravery after saying so, he strode straight into the open square.
Loki bit back a curse and followed him, everyone else close at his heels. It would be worse if they got separated, particularly from Thor. Whatever else Loki might think of his brother, there was no denying his incomparable martial prowess.
When they reached the center of the plaza, a gray figure split off from the walls beside them. It was a Jotun sentry, his clothing and skin tone blending in well with the storm, snow, and tumbled rocks in the dim light. Loki looked around and saw more Jotnar blocking all the exits from the square. Naturally. They had probably been spotted when they were still back on the glacier.
"What is your business here, Asgardian?" the sentry called in a voice that itself carried the timbre of cracking ice.
"I speak only to your king, not to his foot soldiers," Thor said grandly.
"Then speak," a new voice said from the shadows of the temple. Loki squinted and saw another Jotun sitting on the covered balcony, half hidden by the icicles that dangled from the overhang. "I am Laufey, King of this Realm," the voice said.
Great! Perfect! Loki thought. How did this just keep getting worse?
"I am Thor-"
"I know who you are, Odinson," Laufey said before Thor started reciting his many titles. "Why have you brought the stench of your blood into my world?"
"I demand answers!" Thor said.
Laufey stood up and came into the light, or half-light rather, since the sun remained obscured by the storm. He was huge, Loki saw, if not the largest Jotun present. His skin was the gray-blue of slate, but his eyes were such a vivid red Loki could see the color clearly even from this distance. "You demand?" he asked, grinning slightly.
"How did your people get into Asgard?" Thor blustered.
"The house of Odin is full of traitors," Laufey said pleasantly. Loki wondered what exactly he meant. It was probably just a jibe to rile Thor. None of the Jotun could possibly know he was the one to send the coin-trap, if Laufey even knew about the coin at all. Loki had intended it to be found, but not necessarily by someone in Laufey's court. If Laufey did know what had happened, he might also have recognized it as the trap it was, and spoke of treachery for that reason. Certainly, a typical Asgardian would have thought so.
"Do not dishonor my father's name with your lies," Thor spat.
"Your father is a murderer and a thief. He stole what was ours and left our world in ruins. We have the right to reclaim the casket."
"Not when you'd use it to make war against other Realms."
"And why have you come here? To make peace? You long for battle. You crave it. I see you for what you are, Thor Odinson. Nothing but a boy, trying to prove himself a man." Laufey's words were a fishing expedition, Loki decided. The coin must have been found by someone who noticed the magic on it before attempting to pick it up. They had alerted their king to the presence of the strange Asgardian coin, and a sorcerer must have identified the latent connection to the casket. That was why two Jotnar had appeared in the vault rather than one. They had touched the coin synchronously with the actual intent of trying to steal the casket. Now that Laufey's agents had failed, he was baiting Thor to get him to reveal what exactly had happened on Asgard, so the Jotnar would be better prepared to deal with the fallout. This was bad news, and it meant Loki had to get them out of here as soon as possible.
"This boy has grown tired of your mockery," Thor continued his argument, blissfully unaware of the danger. Thor took a step forwards. Laufey's guard moved to assemble in front of him, and Loki hastily stepped in front of Thor.
"Thor, stop and think. Look around you. We are outnumbered."
"Know your place, brother," Thor said shortly. Loki rolled his eyes but did not move. This situation was too dangerous now to give Thor his head.
"You should listen to his counsel," Laufey called. "You know not what your actions will bring. But I do. Go now, while I still allow it."
"We will accept your most gracious offer," Loki announced loudly, still staring directly at Thor, daring him with his eyes to cross him. For a moment, Loki thought Thor might do it, strike him down, start a war, all of it. But with a glance back at his other friends, all of whom looked back with wide-eyed imploring, he relented. Thank the Norns. Thor turned around, back the way they had come. There was an opening in the lines of Jotun soldiers to let them through.
They might even have made it out with no harm done if a random Jotun guard had not muttered, "Run home, little princess," under his breath. Thor stopped in his tracks, and Loki blanched in alarm. He wasn't going to be able to stop Thor this time. Loki lunged for Thor nevertheless, only for his hands to scrabble unnoticed against his brother's armored back. Thor had already twisted, pulled out Mjolnir, and swung it to send the hapless guard flying across the plaza.
Loki, Sif and the Warriors Three all drew their own weapons and turned to form an outward-facing defensive circle with Thor in the middle.
"Silly hammer, has a mind of its own," Volstagg muttered acidly.
The Jotnar closed in around them, each sprouting thick layers of ice into a functioning armor. "I hope that's just decorative," Fandral said bracingly.
Thor stepped out of the circle towards the nearest-approaching Jotun and swung his hammer, grinning manically. "Next!" he cried, as the others rushed to keep the circle around him. Loki wondered why they even bothered sometimes. They could just as easily abandon Thor here as a distraction to facilitate their escape. The biggest problem in this instance was there was no guarantee Heimdall would open the gate for them, particularly without Thor.
"Well? What move, do you think?" Fandral asked. He tended to get more and more jocular with worry, rather than irritable. It was highly annoying.
"I say we use Norn's Revenge," Volstagg said with equal false cheer.
"At this close range? I think Alfheim Lunge is a better option," Fandral shot back.
"Maybe if they were three feet tall," Volstagg said.
"Shut up!" Hogun roared at them.
Thor clobbered another Jotun, and the battle ignited in earnest. There was no keeping their defensive circle when the Jotnar charged. The group scattered. Loki disillusioned himself and created a duplicate at the same time in order to retreat to a better position from which to both survey the battle and guard his comrades' backs with his knives. Hogun was backed against an icy wall, dodging fistfuls of ice that shattered around him on impact, but he managed to flip himself on top of the wall and then back behind his assailant to pound him in the back of the head with his mace. Loki was surprised he could reach that high and still hit hard enough to make an impact. Nearby, Sif expertly stabbed and slashed at two Jotnar, yelling at them to treat her like a lady, or else. One imperceptive giant pursued Loki's duplicate all the way out of the plaza and to the edge of a crevasse and ended up falling into it. That was honestly pathetic. Loki threw two knives into the eyes of two giants who had spotted his footprints leading to his hiding place. They both fell, but that meant he would have to move, since his location was confirmed by their deaths. He summoned his daggers back to him.
Loki glimpsed movement over by the temple and saw Laufey was waving forwards a true behemoth of a Jotun, twice as tall as any others. Rather than hurling globs of ice the size of hands or heads, it pulled great frozen pillars out of the ground. One massive working hit Hogun, sending him flying backwards. Loki blew a warm wind over to cushion his fall, but that was all he could do.
"Come on! At least make it a challenge!" Thor shouted as he easily dispatched a half dozen Jotnar. His back was turned to the latest threat. Laufey's champion bellowed for his attention. Thor spun around and grinned. "That's more like it!" He charged across the plaza. He ran straight into the next ice pillar. It even knocked him down, but he was up again, with the stupid grin he always wore in a challenging battle. He threw Mjolnir at the massive Jotun, knocking him down in just one blow after all. Thor's hammer slowed in midair and reversed back to him. He shook his head. "Ugly and stupid." Loki snorted at Thor's arrogant conclusion; he suspected this would be the last time the Jotnar underestimated Thor's strength and attempted to take him on in single-combat.
The Warriors Three were not doing so well, unfortunately. Sif and Hogun were covering each other effectively, but Volstagg had somehow ended up wrestling with one of the giants. His weapons were nowhere to be seen. Loki was unsure how he could help without hitting Volstagg but rushed towards him anyways. Too late, the Jotun wrapped thick fingers around Volstagg's bare arm, which started to freeze immediately. The jovial warrior screamed in agony as his arm rapidly turned red and then a necrotic black. He managed to head butt the Jotun and pull his arm loose, fortunately. His opponent's ice helmet shattered with the blow, and he fell down, apparently unconscious. "Don't let them grab hold of you!" Volstagg yelled. Then another Jotun was on him, even as two more intercepted Loki.
Fortunately, his cry got Sif's attention, who was closer than Loki in any case. By the time Loki disabled his latest opponents, she had lunged towards Volstagg and actually vaulted over him to skewer his next attacker while Volstagg was still down. Another Jotun took advantage of Sif's distraction to freeze Hogun in place from behind. Volstagg rolled over to hack him out of the puddle of ice encasing his ankles, while Hogun shouted at him, "Mind the legs!"
Where was Fandral in all this? Loki thought suddenly. He stabbed one last Jotun and then leapt behind the corpses to give himself some cover while he visually searched for their last companion. He found him, fighting another tall Jotun. Fandral was matching a broken sword against a lengthy blade of ice, like a dagger against a spear. So, all things considered, he was doing well. He even managed to stab the giant with his truncated weapon... and then the Jotun simply made another ice spear spring up out of the ground between them to impale Fandral's belly. Loki raced towards him, cursing in every language he knew and praying silently to the Norns not to let Fandral die because of this... his... stupidity. Fandral was bleeding out and nearly unconscious when Loki reached him. Another Jotun immediately attacked, so Loki could not even do anything to stabilize Fandral, just stand over and defend his body.
Fortunately, although Thor was still oblivious to everything but his own fun, the others quickly recognized Loki and Fandral's plight. Volstagg arrived in short order to see to Fandral. "I may need a bit of help. Not a good look, is it?" Fandral groaned at him. His vanity was incredible, even now. It was well-deserved though. Fandral's face was surely the fairest in the land.
"Just try not to bleed," Volstagg said as he pulled him off the ice stalagmite. If Loki were not currently fighting for his life, he would have told Volstagg not to do that until he had something in hand to staunch the bleeding afterwards.
Loki missed whatever else was said as his current opponent grabbed his gloved hands. He released his daggers and let his fingers slide out of his gloves. Quickly. He had more daggers... Not quickly enough. The giant grabbed his bare left wrist. Loki braced himself for freezing pain... except nothing happened. Or rather, something very unexpected happened. There was no pain. He did not freeze. But his arm turned blue, the color spreading slowly up his arm from where the Jotun held him. The blue was the same color as the Jotun's flesh. The two of them stared at eachother, both equally confused. Then Loki regained his senses and kicked the already-injured giant hard in the side of the head. He went down. Loki's arm returned to normal. He snatched up his gloves and daggers again and slashed the fallen Jotun's throat. He did not know what had happened, but he was certain he did not want it widely reported.
"Come on!" he heard Thor crowing distantly. He glanced over just in time to see his brother swarmed in the instant he let his hammer fly against a more distant target. Mjolnir fell to the ground, and six giants held Thor down, unable to call his hammer back to him. Loki found himself not particularly caring about his brother's situation. Thor could take care of himself. There was a rumble of ice cracking around and beneath them that seemed much more important.
"That can't be good," Loki said tiredly as he came over to check on Fandral and Volstagg.
"It could be good... early spring?" Volstagg said weakly.
Loki looked down and noticed for the first time this plaza... wasn't a plaza. It was a frozen lake, and there were now blurrily visible Jotnar reinforcements swimming up towards them, no doubt intending to rupture the ice to get to them. "Thor! We must go!" He yelled. He grabbed Fandral's legs while Volstagg took his arms. He looked back towards Thor, who had regained his feet. He had not regained his senses. His face was filled with bloodlust.
"Then go!" Thor shouted back.
"There are too many!" Sif yelled at him.
"I can stop them!"
Thor kept fighting. The others ran. But they couldn't get away. The ice was breaking up. It was too thick to immediately dump them in the water, but neither could they move very quickly, particularly with enemy soldiers popping up on all sides. Behind them, there was a bright flash of lightning and huge crash of thunder. The surface of the lake shivered to even more pieces.
"What's Thor done?" Volstagg asked in horror.
"Killed us all, probably," Loki said. They kept trying to retreat. The ice was now so treacherous even the nearest Jotnar had difficulty approaching them, but instead, the enemy breathed out a dense fog. Now they were truly stuck, unable to see the way forwards by more than a few inches at a time.
Just when Loki figured they would all definitely die here, Thor landed in their midst with a gust of wind. He had finally noticed his companions' peril. "Loki, we have to see," he said urgently. Loki released his grip on Fandral and raised both his hands. He concentrated and grabbed hold of the strands of magic holding the mist so dense and ripped the veil apart, revealing literally hundreds of Jotnar preparing to march against them. Even Thor hesitated to see them, now that he could also see Fandral and Volstagg were both injured. "Actually, could you bring the mists back, please?" His voice was almost timid. It might be the closest thing to an apology Loki had ever heard him say.
Against all odds, they were saved by the opening of the Bifrost in the midst of the battlefield. Odin himself charged out of it on his eight-legged sleipna, clad in armor and with Gungnir in his hands. He stopped short between the Asgardians and Laufey, who had finally ventured onto the ice in front of the temple, where it was still intact. Loki was so happy to see his father, it took a moment for him to notice there was no army at Odin's back. The Allfather had come alone.
The two kings glared at each other. Laufey slowly walked forwards until they were standing just a few feet apart. They did not fight, nor did anyone else move. At last, Odin spoke. "Laufey, end this."
"Your boy sought this out," Laufey said bluntly.
Odin nodded. "You're right. These are the actions of a boy. Treat them as such. You and I can stop this before there's further bloodshed." The words were true, but so, so misguided, Loki thought. There were dozens of dead Jotnar lying about. Even children could not get off with just a warning for that. Thor may be immature for his age, but he was no child, nor were Loki or their companions.
"We are beyond diplomacy now, Allfather," Laufey said scathingly. "He'll get what he came for - war and death."
Odin looked both grim and determined. "So be it."
Without warning, Laufey swung an ice blade at Odin. Odin blocked the attack with Gungnir, and the shock wave brought several Jotnar to their knees, including Laufey. Several others retreated. "Now! We'll finish them together!" Thor exclaimed excitedly, brandishing Mjolnir.
"Silence!" Odin snapped at him. He raised his spear, and the Bifrost slammed down around them, yanking them all back to the Observatory. Odin pulled Heimdall's sword from the Observatory controls and tossed it back to the Watcher, who slowly backed away, looking unusually chagrined. Loki crouched down by Fandral again, grabbed his own fallen glove, and shoved it into Fandral's still-bleeding belly wound.
"Why did you bring us back?" Thor asked. Loki could not guess how the blessed idiot could still be confused about this. He didn't bother looking up.
"Do you realize what you've done?" Odin shouted at him. "What you've started?"
"I was protecting my home," Thor said defensively.
Odin snorted. "You cannot protect your friends. How can you hope to protect a kingdom?" He turned back towards the others, face greying as he looked at Fandral, who was now fully unconscious. "Get him to the healing room!" Sif, Volstagg, and Hogun hurried to comply.
Loki got up as well, but he was not sure if he was meant to follow after the others or stay for the reprimand. As it happened, Odin did not even look at him, too incensed with Thor. At least that part of the plan had worked, he supposed. He did not feel good about it. Not at all.
"There won't be a kingdom to protect if you're afraid to act!" Thor said when the others were gone. Loki, Odin, and Heimdall all stared at him. "Whatever the cost, the world must know that the new King of Asgard will not be held in contempt," Thor finished.
"That's pride and vanity that talks!" Odin said, a note of despair coloring his voice now. "Not leadership! Have you forgotten everything I've taught you? What of a warrior's patience, cunning?" Loki coughed to cover his reaction to that. If Odin had been trying to teach Thor patience, he had never seen it. Moreover, Loki had rarely if ever been praised for his own patience and cunning. He was usually accused of trickery instead, though not, admittedly, by Odin, who simply failed to notice his antics.
"While you wait and be patient, the Nine Realms laugh at us! The old ways are done. You'd stand giving speeches while Asgard falls!"
"You're a vain, greedy, cruel boy!" And name-calling would be so effective to win this argument...
"And you are an old man and a fool!"
The whole world seemed to stop at Thor's words, mostly because Odin fell deathly quiet. He was rarely so quiet, only when truly enraged. This was the level of Odin-anger Loki knew he could no longer hope to control. He would have to hope for the best, hope Thor would survive whatever punishment Odin dispensed, hope Odin wasn't planning to become the final villain of Thor's morality tale.
When Odin spoke again, there was something terrifying beneath the calmness of his words. "A fool, yes. I was a fool to think you were ready." Okay, good. The concept of readiness implied Thor still had a future. Loki took a hesitant step forwards but froze when Odin looked at him balefully. He might be inclined to shield Thor from the worst of Odin's wrath, but not if it meant the stroke fell on him instead. Odin turned back to his eldest. "Thor Odinson... You have disobeyed the express command of your King. Through your arrogance and stupidity, you have opened these peaceful realms and innocent lives to the horrors of war." He plunged his spear into the Observatory mechanisms, and the Bifrost fired up again. Apparently, Heimdall's sword was not the only key. "You are unworthy of this Realm, unworthy of your title, unworthy of the loved ones you've betrayed." With each grim statement, he ripped away the accoutrements that marked Thor's position as heir apparent, the medallion on his chest, the scarlet cloak. "I hereby take from you your powers, in the name of my father, and his father." Odin opened a hand, and Mjolnir flew up into it. Thor's royal armor disintegrated, leaving him in just the plain tunic underneath. Loki's heart quickened as he watched, and he felt nauseated, even though this was marginally better than what he had feared Odin intended. "I cast you out!" Odin finished his curse by thrusting Mjolnir into Thor's chest. Son and hammer fell back into the beam of the Bifrost and disappeared. After a few seconds of watching with unreadable expression, Odin pulled Gungnir back out of the Bifrost mechanisms, and the beam guttered out.
"Where did he go?" Loki asked softly, fearfully.
Odin smiled kindly at him. "Midgard. He's mortal, for now. Are you alright, my son?"
Thor was mortal?! Loki stared at Odin a moment, trying to reconcile the smiling face in front of him with the rage that had been mere moments before. He tried to see love and care in the man who had just stripped five thousand years off his own son's life. "I..." He suddenly remembered his arm turning blue back on Jotunheim. "I'm fine," he said automatically. He felt his face smooth as his own confusion, fear, and worry summoned up all his customary defenses. He knew better than to show what he was thinking, when he so often thought things that made most Asgardians want to hit him. He was not Thor. He would say nothing to Odin until he knew what the Allfather might say back.
"I'm glad you were not injured. And I'm glad you had the sense to send a guard to warn me about what Thor intended. I am only sorry I came so late, and that your party was not waylaid here as it might have been, as I am sure you intended it to be." The Allfather glared at Heimdall. Odin took Loki's shoulder. "Come. We must speak with your mother."
Author's note: it's rather odd in my opinion how little reaction anyone has to the idea of "Thor is now mortal" in the movie. That's a pretty horrific curse in the scale of a nigh-immortal's life. Maybe all the congenitally optimistic Asgardians assume the curse is temporary, but in this story, Loki does not, because he's learned to expect objectively awful decisions from everyone around him, including family. Also, that means when Loki directly confronts Thor in Jotunheim, telling him no, they are going home, that's pretty badass. :) The sad thing of course being Odin isn't being a bad parent intentionally and has no idea Loki perceives him/Asgardians this way.