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Chapter 26

Thor watched his brother push the golden sceptre into the whole. Behind the door he could hear ancient, magical locks click open.

Old friends? Thor thought. And then it suddenly struck him. An uncontrollable rage filled his body from tip to toe. With one might leap, Thor jumped right in front of his brother, preventing him to walk through the now open doors.

"You bastard!" he shouted furiously, raising his hammer. Jane was so surprised by Thor's sudden outburst that she took a step back. What had she missed?

Loki on the other hand, didn't seem impressed at all. He just sighed and threw his brother a bored look.

"Now, now… we're not going to shout, are we…" he said sarcastically. "Remember your daughter is present. We don't want to spoil her upbringing with your nasty words, brother…"

Thor took a step towards Loki. His face was inches away from his brother's, but the young king still didn't show any kind of fear.

"They are your fr.."

"Were!" Loki interrupted. "They were my friends, Thor…"

Thor turned silent. He refused to break eye contact.

Loki's eyes turned dark.
"They were my friends…" he repeated in a hard whisper. "Our friendship was lost a long time ago… Just in case you forgot: every single one of them has threatened to kill me!"

"That might have something to do with the fact that you wanted to kill me in the first place!" Thor hissed back.

Loki pulled up his eyebrows and bit his lip, showing his most innocent face possible. "I was simply avoiding the crowning of a useless king…"

Thor took a deep breath. "Your pathetic sense of hatred and revenge doesn't give you the right to imprison Asgard's best warriors!"

Loki smiled. "No, but being king does! It was simply too dangerous!"

"Dangerous!" Thor shouted. "Then why are you freeing them now?"

Loki sighed and stepped past Thor.

"Asgard is in need of good warriors…

"What makes you think they will trust you enough…"

"I don't think they will trust me! I told you this would bring us in danger… But don't be afraid, brother… That is why you are here!"

"And why do you think I still trust you! You imprisoned my friends! For almost six years!"

"I told you before, Thor! You can't trust me, but you know I only would do something in favour of Asgard. Letting these people starve and bring chaos and ruin to the nine realms is not going to get me anywhere!"

Thor looked away. He knew Loki was right.

The young king searched for eye contact.
"Now is the time to decide if you accept me as your king or not! When we enter these prison cells, your friends won't even think about the possibility of me being their ruler. Only you can persuade them! They only listen to you, as they've done their entire lives!"

Thor hesitated so Loki saw his chance.

"Please Thor… Asgard needs them, we ALL need them!"

The God of Thunder sighed.
"All right, but don't think this will be easy! If they don't want to listen, it will never work and Asgard is doomed!"

Loki nodded his head and gestured Thor to lead the way, but Jane's voice interrupted.

"I don't want to interrupt your lovely conversation, but can someone fill me in on… well… everything! I'm not following!"

Loki and Thor shared a look.

"Loki imprisoned Lady Sif and the Warriors Three. He wants to release them now. And he needs me to keep them from killing him…"

Jane pulled up her eyebrows. She loosened her grip on her daughter. "Oh… I see…" she said. All this time she had thought that they were on their way to their doom... Now everything seemed a lot more reasonable.

Frigga jumped out of her mother's arms and joined her father.

"I am going to meet Lady Sif!" she cried in excitement while pulling her father's hand.

"Steady, Frigga! It is not that simple!" Thor called out.

"Actually," Loki interrupted nonchalantly, "it is that simple! Now, if you're done with wasting my and Asgard's time, I suggest we get going!"

Frigga almost jumped a foot in the air of excitement and pulled her father after Loki... Until they were brought to a halt once more by Jane's voice. Everyone looked back. Jane stood at the entrance of the hall. She tried to walk through the doors, but for some reason she just couldn't. An invisible force prevented her from following the others.

"Thor!" she called out. Thor and Loki frowned, but at the same time they remembered again.

"Right… I forgot…" Loki said. "Only Asgardians can pass through that door. Nothing personal… Just for your own safety…"

Jane stared at the young king in awe.

"Safety!" she screamed. "And your taking my five year old daughter!"

"Almost six!" Frigga reminded her mother.

Loki sighed and rolled his eyes. "It's only Sif and the Warriors Three… They would never hurt her!"

"You just said…"

"I know what I said! These cells are NORMALLY meant for the most dangerous criminals. NOW they're for… safekeeping…"

"If only Asgardians can enter..." Jane continued. "How is it that you can enter? You're a Frost Giant!"

Loki scowled. "I'm Asgardian enough… just like Frigga…"

Jane shook her head. "Frigga is not going without me! Frigga, come here!"

Frigga's expression turned sad. "But, mummy… I'm going to meet Lady Sif!"

"You can meet her here too!"

"But mummy…"

"Actually, I think it is better if Frigga joins us…" Loki interrupted. "She might come in very handy to calm them down. You know how much they like kids…"

"You are not going to use her as a sweetener!" Thor joined in the conversation.

"Oh, but I like being sweetener!" Frigga quickly interrupted. "Please mummy! Please daddy!"

Both parents shared a look.

"Loki says I can!" Frigga added.

"Yes…" Loki confirmed with a smile. "Loki says she can…"

Thor sighed and rubbed his forehead. He realised Loki had a point. He shared another look with his wife. Jane sighed and finally nodded.

"All right then… I'll just wait here, all alone…" she said softly.

"Okay!" Frigga shouted in response. "Come on daddy!"

-xxx-

They walked for another five minutes, passing empty cells before the end of the hall became visible. Loki stopped. Thor looked at his brother and saw that Loki was in fact pretty scared. Somewhere, Thor felt bad for him. Even though he hated Loki for imprisoning his friends, it couldn't have been easy to make this decision.

"So, what do you want to do?" Thor asked. "Do they know you're king?"

Loki shook his head, knowing that would only make Thor more angry, but it didn't matter anymore. He would find out soon enough.

"Great…" Thor muttered. "They think the Allfather imprisoned them… and they think he's still king…"

"Then we just tell them Loki is king now…" Frigga interrupted impatiently. She really didn't see what all the fuss was about.

Loki smiled difficultly. "Of course… let's just tell them that…" he said sarcastically.

"Yes!" Frigga confirmed happily, not noticing Loki's irony. She let go of her father's hand and ran towards he light at the end of the hall.

"Frigga! Wait!" Thor called out. Both brother's immediately ran after the little girl, but it was too late. Frigga ran in the last part of the hall and found herself in between four cells. Two on her right, two on her left. The people sitting inside them were so surprised that they didn't even got the chance to say anything. Frigga stopped, crossed her arms in front of her chest and put a serious expression on her young face.

"Loki is the King of Asgard now! He's been king for six years and he's been doing really great! If you have any problem with that, you… well… you got to deal with it!"

Thor stopped Loki just before they entered the light of the cells. He watched his daughter in disbelief. He wasn't the only one, though. Loki was awe struck and couldn't believe Frigga had really just said that. But that was nothing compared to the surprise of the four prisoners. For the last five years, almost six, they'd been locked away in these cells, seeing no one but the guards who brought their food. And now, a little girl, they'd never seen before, but seemed oddly familiar, just busted in.

Lady Sif was the first to find her voice again. She got up from her chair in the second cell on the right and walked over to the golden force field, preventing her to escape. She looked down on the little girl.

"Excuse me, child, but who are you?" she asked.

Frigga almost swooned when she realised that Lady Sif, her idol was speaking to her! She dropped her arms and smiled. "Hi, Lady Sif, my name is…"

"Frigga!" Thor interrupted.

Sif couldn't believe her eyes. "Thor!" she said in upmost surprise. The Warriors Three: Fandral, Volstagg and Hogun, also walked towards the force field to see their old friend.

"What are you doing here!" Sif continued.

"Daddy! Daddy! It's Lady Sif!"

"Yes Frigga…"

"Daddy?" Fandral asked with his usual sneer playing on his lips. Even the years of imprisonment couldn't take that away... He shared a look with the other three prisoners.

Frigga nodded her head. "Yes, he's my daddy!" she proudly explained.

Sif scowled. "Who's your mother…" she asked.

"Jane! Jane Foster! I am Frigga Foster!" Frigga said in return, not noticing the jealousy in Sif's voice. Thor bit his lip when he saw his friends eyes turn even darker.

"Right.. Frigga, why don't you wait there for a second while I explain the situation"

Frigga scowled. "But I already did that! I told them that L…"

"Yes… yes, but…"

"Yes.. what was she talking about?" Fandral interrupted.

"She said something about…" Sif continued, but she wasn't really sure she'd heard what she thought she'd heard.

"Loki…" Volstagg finished for her. His voice sounded dark.

Thor sighed. "Right…"

"Ye-ees…" Frigga interrupted again feeling as if no one was paying attention to anything she was saying. "I said Loki is the King! You have to listen!"

Everyone turned silent and looked at Thor. The God of Thunder softly groaned and rubbed his forehead.

"All right! Since we just skipped our plan of being subtle, there is no use in hiding anymore…"

All eyes fixed on Loki who walked onto the scene until he stood next to Thor.

"Surprise…" he said with a grin. Sif and the Warriors Three couldn't believe their eyes. Inside they started to boile and a hundred words were fighting to find their way through their mouths.

"See!" Frigga said. "That wasn't so hard…" Thor and Loki both looked down on the girl after which they looked at each other. Loki kneeled in front of the little girl and tried to smile. He wasn't mad or anything, but he really thought that one more remark of the his niece would blow the whole room to pieces.

"Frigga… why don't you go back to your mother and wait there for us…"

Frigga frowned and turned sad. "Why?" she asked. "Did I say something wrong…"

Loki opened his mouth, knowing he would probably start listing everything she had said wrong, but he managed to keep silent.

The young king smiled. "In fact… No… You haven't… But I really think you should go back now…"

Loki bit his tongue. His niece looked at him in disbelief. What was he saying? Why couldn't she stay?

Suddenly, a friendly smile appeared on Loki's face. "You know what? Why don't you go to your mum to tell her all about the magic I'm going to teach you after we're done here?"

Frigga's face lit up. "Really?" she asked in a whisper.

"Really really… but only if you go to Jane now…"

Frigga nodded, hugged Loki, waved at everyone while saying "Goodbye everybody!" and turned around to run all the way back to the big doors where her mother was still waiting for her.

Loki got to his feet while clearing his throat. He looked at Thor and grinned.

"Well, that was remarkably easy…" he said with smile.

The God of Thunder scowled.
"I don't want you to teach her magic…" he said harshly.

"We'll talk about that later!" Loki answered with a look around him. All four of his former friends were trembling with rage.

The young king sighed.
"Where were we…"

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