Chapter Eight: Interlude: The Destroyer and the Supplicant (Loki's POV)
Loki stood on a balcony overlooking the starlit city of Asgard, clutching Gungnir. Plans were shifting like the waves he was idly watching from a distance, ebbing and flowing. His original intent had been to crush Thor's spirit with an artfully crafted blend of truth and lie, convincing the warmongering oaf to stay on Midgard and out of his way.
Learning he was a Jotun – a monster – was a blow. Loki glanced at the hand holding the mighty spear of his ancestors…no, not his ancestors. His hand was pale, just as it usually was and had been for over a thousand years. He imagined it blue, as he had seen on Jotunheim and in the Vault. As he considered the skin of his hand, it began to darken and turn Jotun-blue. He drew a sharp breath. No! It stopped, the color receded, and his hand was pale again. Loki closed his eyes and inhaled deeply, exhaling slowly, allowing his heartbeat to calm from the frantic jig the blue skin had induced. Gungnir. He should be mindful of his thoughts while holding the magical spear. It holds the power to break the enchantment allowing him to pass for an Aesir.
Loki's thoughts drifted toward the Casket of Ancient Winters. A prize, to be sure, and an excellent bargaining chip to be used against Lauf-…Loki's heart stuttered again and he took another calming breath. Laufey. His father. The beast who sired him, created him, caused him, Loki, to come into being. He gagged lightly in the back of his throat. Loki thought back to their brief interaction when Thor was hotheadedly trying to start a war. Did Laufey know? Does he know who he is? Or did he think Loki long dead? Loki analyzed every word, every motion both he and Laufey had made, searching for clues. He wasn't sure, and that made him uncomfortable.
Loki shook his head, carefully placing the Casket and Laufey to the side of his mind. No, there was something much bigger to consider. An infinity stone rumored to be on Midgard. That reeked of his fath- of Odin. It would be just like him to have had a hand in hiding such a powerful weapon on such a ridiculous planet. It was mad but brilliant. Nobody would suspect the least-advanced realm to be the guardians of an infinity stone. And there were so damn many Midgardians, it would be nearly impossible to find…unless they start playing with it. Now there's a thought. Perhaps that's how Thor found out about it – somebody played with it, got a taste of its power and wanted more. Hmmm. But which stone is it? If Loki could choose, the Power stone would be his first choice for obvious reasons. If not Power, then perhaps Reality to shape the world around him. Oh, the changes he would make…
A flicker of motion on the rainbow bridge caught his eye and Loki recognized, with a scowl, the forms of Asgard's most elite warriors traveling toward the Bifrost. He had anticipated this after denying them their request to end Thor's banishment, but he was still disappointed and bitterly angry that they did not recognize his authority as King. Didn't they realize that even if he wanted to bring Thor back – he did not – he would not be able to do so without committing treason? Despite what he would have had Thor believe, Odin was not dead and would wake eventually. Loki was not stupid – he knew full well that Thor would return to Asgard eventually. Apparently, Lady Sif and the Warriors Three were that stupid though, to believe Thor banished for eternity.
The Bifrost activated. Loki clenched his jaw in rage at the audacity of not only the four warriors defying his orders, but Heimdall as well. He spun on his heel, marching back into the castle. While Loki much preferred to be adored rather than feared, he expected respect from all. The bitter sting of betrayal from his flimsy fair-weathered friends drove him deep into the palace Vault. With his rightful placement on the throne being challenged at every turn, there would be repercussions. If Asgard will not accept him as a benevolent regent, they will fear him as a righteous king. Volstagg, Fandral, Hogan, and Sif would serve as a warning to the rest of Asgard.
The Destroyer stepped out of its encasement and stood at attention, waiting for Loki's orders. Commanding the automaton with his will as the wielder of Gungnir, Loki sent the Destroyer to the Bifrost and down to Midgard, thoughts of four specific Asgardians filling its robotic mind. After seeing its lumbering form off Asgard from a balcony, Loki settled onto the throne and waited for the Destroyer to arrive at its destination. His knuckles were white around the royal spear.
The moment it landed with a heavy thud on Midgardian soil, Loki opened his mind with the aid of Gungnir to scry through the Destroyer. A group of mortals were facing it, aiming antiquated firearms. Their leader placed a primitive sound projector to his mouth and demanded the automaton identify itself. Loki snorted. The Destroyer could not talk but, Loki thought mischievously, it could identify itself in a different way. Taking over the motions of the Destroyer with his mind, Loki halted and opened its faceguard, allowing the Odinforce it was imbued with to gather and rise before projecting the deadly energy through its head in a fiery beam. He aimed for their vehicles to make a point. He was not here for the mortals, but they would not be allowed to stand in his way. The vehicles exploded and the mortal men scattered.
Enjoying the chaos caused among the humans by the exploding vehicles, Loki aimed for more of them as the Destroyer stomped into the little town. A trail of smoke and destruction was left in his wake, identifying the Destroyer with actions if not words. Before long, the familiar forms of Fandral, Volstagg, and Hogun emerged through the smoke. Loki knew Sif would be somewhere nearby, likely to circle around and come at him from behind. Volstagg was launched toward him by the other two and Loki as the Destroyer swat the man out of the air like a fly. It was when he advanced on the fallen warrior that Sif made herself known from above, driving a spear through the Destroyer's neck. Loki smirked and sat back, letting the machine answer for itself.
The automaton paused for a second, calculating its freedom of control, then swiftly rotated its limbs to face the treasonous lady. Recognizing her as both a threat to its form and an identified target, the Destroyer blasted a lethal beam of the Odinforce at her. Sif was, of course, too quick and managed to fling herself out of the way. Loki would have been surprised and perhaps a little disappointed if she would have been killed so easily. The Destroyer pulled itself free from Sif's spear and chased her retreating form with a long beam, knocking her off her feet. Hogan and Fandral were nearby, supporting Volstagg, and the Destroyer turned and blasted them off their feet and through a window.
As glass, wood, and brick rained down around them, Loki caught a glimpse of something unusual. It took a second for him to process what he was seeing because it was so far out of context but there was no mistaking that awful blue skin. A Frost Giant had just ducked into one of the buildings. Adrenalin coursed through Loki's veins and his heart beat faster. Without taking the time to wonder how the Jotun found himself on Midgard, Loki laid his will upon the Destroyer, and it turned toward that building and shot a beam in the vicinity of the door. Fire and smoke obscured his view there but to the side, Loki saw more Jotuns darting through the shadows. He whirled around, vaporizing some easily. The more poorly aimed blasts merely knocked the giants off their feet and sent them sprawling.
Fandral let loose a battle cry in the background. Loki spun the Destroyer's head around and saw the Asgardian was brandishing his rapier, dodging and parrying an ice dagger. Hogun helped Volstagg to his feet and both joined the fray, fighting Frost Giants while only shooting occasional worried glances toward the Destroyer. Loki continued rotating the head until he spotted Sif. She was crouched behind a vehicle, catching her breath. A Frost Giant was sneaking up on her from a nearby alley.
As furious as he still was with Sif and the others, Loki's hatred for the Jotuns far outweighed his anger at the Asgardians. With a cold smile, he turned the Destroyer's head toward the Frost Giant behind Sif and vaporized it. Sif flinched and recoiled at the blast of the energy beam. Then, realizing it was not aimed at her, she looked around. There was nothing left of the Jotun, but Loki could tell by the stiffening of her spine when she spotted another giant a short distance away. Before she could react, Loki vaporized that one as well. He saw Sif look thoughtfully his way before she hefted her shield and threw herself into battle.
As Loki began to turn the Destroyer around, he heard a whisper in his mind.
Loki…
He stilled, perched tall on the edge of the throne, Gungnir in hand, and held his breath. It had been over a thousand years since he had heard an invocation and, by the end, they had grown rather boring. This was interesting. Who would invoke him? Loki waited in anticipation to hear what this new supplicant had to say.
Help me…I'm trapped…can't breathe…
Well, this was new. In the past, though he had been worshipped regularly, he was usually only invoked when someone was preparing to deceive another, the occasional berserker before going into battle, or mothers asking him to watch over their children's milk teeth of all things. Never before had someone prayed to him for help preserving their life.
Driven by a sudden insatiable curiosity, he spun the Destroyer's head around. The supplicant was nearby, he could sense it, but he wasn't sure where exactly in the thrilling chaos of battle she was. A flock of ravens began circling overhead. Loki cringed. Though asleep, Odin was most definitely aware and must have also heard the invocation. The ravens circled smoke from the building where he had first seen and killed a Jotun. Oh. The supplicant must have been in there when the Destroyer blasted through the wall. Oops. Loki felt a complicated mixture of chagrin and delight that he had caused her distress enough for her to pray to the old gods…to him. He could feel the power awakening in him in response to her reverence.
Before he could nudge the Destroyer to the building, Thor flew past him, a brightly glowing beacon, beating him there. He heard his brother's booming voice hailing a Darcy. Loki felt a flash of irritation. Of course Thor knows his supplicant. Of course his supplicant didn't call only to him. And of course Thor would glow brightly with the long-lost divine light. The Destroyer blasted another Jotun with a bit more force than necessary.
"LOKI!" Thor called from the burning wreckage. Loki swiveled the automaton's head back toward the supplicant's plight and stomped over. Peering through a hole created by the collapsed roof, he spied Thor easily enough kneeling next to chunks of roof and ceiling. The supplicant – Darcy? – must be under the rubble. Thor was certainly strong enough to lift it. Why call him over? He closed the Destroyer's faceguard, signaling to Thor his currently peaceful intent.
"Brother," Thor called, upon spying the Destroyer, "I need you to lift this rubble while I pull her free." So, his supplicant was not only trapped but also injured. Now Loki understood. He leaned back and carefully inserted the Destroyer's metal arm through the roof. Built for destruction rather than preservation, the Destroyer was really not the best vehicle for this operation, but Loki could make it work. Slowly, he threaded its fingers through the rubble, palming the worst of it. At Thor's nod, he carefully lifted. Dust plumed into the air as the rubble shifted. There was a quick flash of Thor's red cape down below and once it was a few feet away, Loki released his hold, sending the rubble crashing back down. He saw his brother – not brother – emerge from the building carrying a young woman. Her face was covered in sweat and soot. Fandral was fighting a Jotun just in front of them and that's when Loki noticed Fandral was also glowing with the divine light of worship, though it paled in comparison to Thor's. He glanced around and saw that Volstagg, Hogun, and Sif were also glowing. How annoying. His armored gaze followed his supplicant as Thor carried her at a run, the fires of the Odinforce burbling agitatedly in the pit of the Destroyer.
Loki watched as the other Asgardians flanked Thor. Trusting them to keep the intriguing woman safe, he turned in the opposite direction and scanned the town-turned-battlefield. He had a suspicion of how the Jotun had arrived but needed confirmation. Sure enough, more were approaching in small groups from the direction he had expected. Melding his intent with Heimdall's mind, Loki called forth the Bifrost to lift the Destroyer from the middle of the road in the ruined town to a small cave in the desert 30 miles away. The cave was swarming with Jotun who startled and cried out in alarm at his sudden appearance.
They never stood a chance against the Odinforce. While laying waste to his enemy kin, Loki destroyed the Urdoor, the portal through which they had come. Brushing off the familiar bite of shame that he had been the unwitting cause of this particular mischief by once showing the Frost Giants the Urdoor on Jotunheim and later using the Asgardian end of that portal to open another one to Midgard, inadvertently linking the two worlds, Loki worked with Heimdall to locate all the groups of Jotun en route to the mortal town and systematically irradicated them.
When Heimdall finally confirmed all the Jotun on Midgard were dead, Loki sent the Destroyer back to Asgard to return to its post in the Vault. He had not forgotten the disrespect and treason committed by the warriors and by Heimdall, but the supplicant's worship of all of them changed the situation considerably, connecting them through divinity. Also, Loki acknowledged that if Odin was commanding an entire flock of ravens on Midgard, he was probably going to wake soon. Perhaps the Allfather would appreciate being sought for counsel on the matter. The Norns knew he never seemed to take the right course of action to please Odin. Loki began mentally sharpening his silver tongue, ideas and suggestions swirling in his mind.
He stood from the throne and descended, lost in thought. As he passed the Einherjar standing guard at the base of the dais upon which the throne rested, one of them gasped. He turned and coolly raised a brow. The guard flushed in embarrassment though his eyes were still widened in awe. Loki looked down at himself drinking in his divine glow with a small smile that turned into a smirk as he looked back to the guard. "Ah, yes," he purred. "I am, once again, worshipped on Midgard. Take heed! It was I who was sitting upon the throne when the divine light returned to Asgard." He thumped Gungnir once on the floor, allowing it to ring dramatically through the empty throne room for effect more than purpose. Both guards' eyes widened even further, and they bowed respectfully as Loki took his leave. Plans were changing again, ebbing and flowing like the current.
A/N: Thank you to everyone who is reading and reviewing. I just saw that I'm not getting notifications about reviews, so I'll be sure to fix that! And apologies for the late post. Even though I'm a few chapters ahead of posting, I hit a wall on the last chapter and kept avoiding my computer! I'll try to stop chickening out and just sit down and start writing again.
Next up: The Queen of Asgard has a thing or two to say.
