SHADOW OF DEATH
Summary:
When the World Security Council succeeds in detonating a nuclear missile over Manhattan, they also succeed in wiping out the Chitauri army. Unfortunately, the civilians of New York and the entire Avenger team are casualties. When Midgard spirals into chaos he did not create, Loki graciously volunteers to restore order. Loki was born to be a king, but he never desired the thrones of two realms both on the brink of destruction.
To assist him in his task, he recruits a mortal astrophysicist and an army of Winter Soldiers. Meanwhile, to assist him in his task, Loki is adopted by a certain secretive African kingdom and an extraterrestrial feline. Can the trickster successfully conquer all six Infinity Stones and prevent the destruction of all life in the universe?
Please note, this tale involves extensive character death and some dark topics.
Disclaimer: I own nothing. Marvel owns all.
Chapter 1: Midgardian Magic
Loki's head split with a brain melting headache. He groaned and rubbed his temples with his blood-stained fingers. He waited another moment before he ventured to open his heavy eyelids. He blinked. Where he expected to see bright sunlight dancing off towering behemoths of concrete, glass, and metal, he instead saw nothing but a canopy of leaves silhouetted by the dark night sky.
He sat up from the hard soil beneath him and brushed three dried leaves off his armor. His entire body felt as if he had been mauled by an angered bilgesnipe-one that managed to leave him unconscious for at least half a day. He let out a string of expletives in five languages and leapt to his feet.
He could not hear the sounds of the Chitauri or their enemy Avengers in battle. This meant either a cessation to fighting had occurred or he must be very, very far away. He searched his memory, his efforts hampered by his pounding head.
The last conscious memory he maintained was one he would much rather have forgotten. The green beast's rage, while impressive and a mighty sight to behold, was an experience he would prefer never again to have the honor of being reacquainted with. This explained both his aching muscles and his period of time spent in darkness. It did not explain how he managed to wake up in a forest of trees instead of a forest of unattractive mortal architecture.
Until this moment, his strategy for the battle continued to reap the desired results. The mortal's rag-tag band of effective, if irritating, miscreants proved admirable opponents to his brainless army. He grinned in satisfaction. Yes, those self-proclaimed "Earth's mightiest heroes," those "Avengers" performed exactly as he intended. Given the proper inspiration and prodded in the correct direction, they did indeed prove useful.
Even Dr. Selvig did not require an additional mental shove to fulfill the next stage in Loki's well-laid scheme. The slight bump on the head the scientist received tentatively broke his connection to Loki's scepter and despite his injury and terror, the man maintained enough of his wits to remember how to shut off the portal with the scepter, which Loki had conveniently left within his grasp. The good doctor even went to far as to genuinely believe he had managed to design the fail-safe into the portal generator himself, a convenient lapse in his memory which would only keep Loki's intentional sabotage of the device hidden longer.
It would all play out exactly as he wished now. The scientist and the Black Widow would close the portal, thus preventing any more Chitauri from entering the portal. His brother's Midgardian posse could easily manage the lingering foes. Loki could remain "beaten" (literally and figuratively) on the smashed floor of the arrogant Midgardian prince.
It would be a day at most before he would find himself safe in a cell in Asgard, two Infinity Stones securely in the weapon's vault of the most powerful kingdom in all the Nine Realms. Thanos could not reach him or his desired Infinity Stones in Asgard. He would finally have the time and the space necessary to plot the prevention of Thanos' schemes to acquire the remaining stones. Despite his myriad of bruises and a prospect of an eternity in prison, Loki smiled to himself. His plan continued to fall into place marvelously.
His smile faltered as a blinding flash of light exploded over the city. Loki could feel a tidal wave of raw energy rushing towards him, a destructive magic so powerful it would swallow him whole if he did not escape its path.
He did not take the time to deliberate. He fled.
Oooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
Loki's unease grew with his snatches of reacquired memories. That explosion had not been formed by any weapon the Chitauri wielded. Mjolnir, while nearly as powerful, did not burn with such poison.
Magic or weaponry, its source must have been the Midgardians.
Those fools, those mortal barbarians-what had they done? Had they allowed their fear to so overrule their logic that they would destroy their own subjects rather than risk the exceedingly favorable odds of defeating an invading alien army?
He only hoped the damage to the city remained minimal. A destroyed city is of no use to anyone and certainly of no use defending.
How many hours had he lain unconscious?
He would have to fix this, regather whatever tangled remnants of his plan still remained. He wrapped himself in invisibility and transported himself to his last known location on Stark Tower.
Where he found there no longer stood a tower and in its place lay a lifeless, demolished wasteland for as far as his eyes could see.
Oooooooooooooooooooooo
In days long past, when Loki and Thor were not quite men but no longer boys, Thor sometimes found humor in telling Loki the most gruesome, terrifying stories he could acquire. He stoked the flames of Loki's fear and then laughed at him for his cowardice when his storytelling achieved its intended result.
One time, the brothers delayed retiring till the last watches of the night. They sat on a log in front of the fire during one of their hunting trips, sharing secrets and stories. As the fire dwindled and exhausted itself, Thor took advantage of the darkness, broken only by a single flame casting unearthly shadows, to share his latest treasure of ghastly tales.
Thor finished his last story and then excused himself for a moment, leaving Loki to marinate in the dark, eerie atmosphere spun by his storytelling. Then Thor failed to return. In the long, living silence of the forest at night, Loki's mind, full of the horrors of ghouls and Frost Giants and men without heads, suddenly heard a single stick crack. A slow, heavy rustling sound grew ever nearer and ever louder as his heart hammered against his rib cage as if it were a bird beating against a cage. A low, menacing growl sounded from the darkest corner of the undergrowth behind his back.
While old enough to have some skill with a blade, Loki was yet to reach the age to fully understand the far-reaching effects his blade could produce. When his fear melted into panic, the logic of his mind became the captive of his overactive imagination and his impulses took control of his mind. He struggled to slow his breathing as he drew out a short knife from the ankle of his boot and threw it with perfect precision in the direction of the rustling sound. His sense of sense of calm returned only as he heard the sickly thud of his knife digging into his intended target.
Thor's following cry of anger and anguish broke through the spell Loki's fear had cast on him, filling him with a completely new sense of foreboding. Had he, in his fear, inflicted a mortal wound on his brother? He ran towards the sound and found his brother rolling back and forth in the dry forest leaves, favoring an injured shoulder.
Loki exhaled a sigh of relief as he saw his knife protruding from Thor's bicep and not his heart. His fears now evaporated into irritation and shame at falling for another of Thor's exploits.
Thor cursed and pulled the knife from his shoulder, angrily throwing it at Loki's feet. He drew a healing stone from a pouch and broke it over his shoulder. As the wound mended itself, he turned towards Loki again, broad grin glistening in the candlelight.
"Congratulate me, brother, for I am twice the victor this night! Not only have I bested your courage again but Fandril must now relinquish to me his strongest hound."
Loki rose one eyebrow and stared at Thor, daring him to continue his explanation. Thor grumbled a laugh.
"I bet Fandril that if given proper encouragement, you would draw your sword even though no foe assailed you. The fool did not believe you could be pushed so far through mere words alone."
Loki's expression turned into one of anger and he threw a second knife soundly into the soft ground between Thor's legs. Loki refused to speak another word to his brother for three days and only after Thor promised never to place wagers on Loki's weaknesses again.
Three months later, Loki mastered the art of projecting illusions and it was Thor's turn to draw a blade in fear in the depths of night.
Yet the imprint of that night, that uncomfortable moment, sank deep into Loki's memories. While Thor took it all in jest, Loki knew that he could easily and unintentionally have thrown a knife into Thor's heart. Fear robbed him of his reason, his wit, his grasp of reality, and his capacity to think beyond the moment.
He resolved to never let fear best him in battle again.
Unfortunately, one glance of blue, icy flesh exposed beneath the hand of a Frost Giant in battle melted his resolve. Loki found himself, once again, blinded and recklessly throwing knives in the dark, wounding those he loved in a panicked frenzy to protect himself from both real and imagined foes.
Yet he knew this weakness, this propensity to bow to fear, was not unique to him alone. Even the mightiest of warriors, the most honorable of kings could be felled by their fears, even if those fears were later proved foundless.
Now, Loki looked upon the ruined streets of Manhattan, lined with the ashes of proof that some of the greatest of self-inflicted calamities among the Nine Realms could be perpetrated in light of such blinding fear.
A/N: I was watering my garden a few days ago and this story idea popped into my head. I haven't been able to shake it. Instead it's been wandering around inside my head, growing and evolving and so I decided to let it have its way and come out. I have a full outline written, all the way to the happy ending (which there will be eventually), but I cannot promise it will come together quickly. Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoy the journey! Please review!