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Chapter 27

Loki groaned and closed his eyes while rubbing his forehead. For the past ten minutes he had heard nothing but an infernal racket consisting of the ongoing screams, insults and meaningless shouts of Lady Sif and the Warriors Three and every now and then the pitiful attempts of Thor to create some kind of order in the chaos. The young king tightened his grip on the sceptre. If it hadn't been made out of pure gold, he'd probably would have crushed it in his palm. Loki clenched his teeth. He really couldn't take it anymore. Every second now he would…

"SHUT IT!"

There you had it. Even before Loki had realised it, the words had left his mouth, immediately followed by a swift movement of his arm. The golden staff hit the ground and the whole room trembled. The force fields crackled with energy and blew all four prisoners backwards inside their cell.

Immediately every sound disappeared, only to make place for a profound silence which send shivers down everyone's spine. Lady Sif and the Warrior Three crawled to their feet again, groaning and moaning. They walked back to the force field and looked down on Loki who hadn't moved a muscle and just let his eyes wonder over the four prisoners, showing nothing but pure anger and power.

"I suggest…" Loki started. His voice trembled with rage. His eyes turned dark and a serious expression covered his face. "I suggest… that we skip Thor's pathetic attempt to fill you in in the last five years… I do not ask you to trust me or even follow me. All I want is for all of you to consider the possibility that there is more going on in the universe then your ridiculous feelings of betrayal and revenge!"

Loki's voice faded away through the hall. He waited a couple more seconds to make sure his words had effect.

"Asgard and Vanaheim are on the edge of starvation! We barely have enough forces to protect ourselves, let alone any other realm! You don't trust me? Fine! Just follow your basic instincts, as you have done your entire lives! But at the moment, Asgard needs your help!"

The hall stayed silent for a couple of seconds. Thor stared at his brother, not really knowing what to think of everything. Sometimes he had to remind himself that Loki had been king for five years and, no matter what others whispered behind their backs, Loki was nothing less than one of the best king's Asgard had known. But nonetheless, Thor was still impressed and somewhere in his heart, also incredibly proud…

Sif and the Warriors Three shared a look.

"And how do we know this is not one of your tricks? How do we know you're not lying?" Sif asked. Loki rolled his eyes and opened his mouth to answer, but Thor was first.

"Because I tell you he's not…"

All eyes, including Loki's turned to the God of Thunder. The young king still hadn't fully adjusted to the idea that Thor was at his side this time…

"If you don't want to trust him, that's fine, I don't either." Thor continued. "But I know that what he's telling you is the truth! Asgard needs you!"

"What exactly do you need us do?" Volstagg asked after a couple of seconds. Even though his question was meant for Loki, he just looked right past the young king and fixed his eyes on Thor. The God of Thunder looked at his brother.

Loki took a small step forward. "Asgard is in need of a new army, new warriors to protect us. Due unfortunate circumstances, we have lost all our warriors but the new recruits. On top of that, we have also lost every single Master, which results in only a bunch of rude, undisciplined, useless recruits!"

Sif sniffed and smiled, but there was nothing friendly about her smile.

"What kind of king loses his forces like that in the first place? You're the one who's useless!"

Loki's eyes turned even darker, but the young king quickly raised his hand to prevent Thor from interfering.

"Well, my lady Sif… this useless king holds the key to your cell…" Loki said in a low, creepy voice.

Sif walked over to the force field and pierced her eyes into Loki's.
"I would gladly spend the rest of eternity in chains, locked away in the crypts of Asgard than serve you for one second! You will never be my king!"

Loki was trembling with rage. He felt the blood racing through his veins. The sound of it muted everything around him. Just before Loki opened his mouth, ready to raise his arm to blow Sif back, Thor jumped in between him and the cell. Loki blinked confusedly. His brother looked… angry…

Thor took a deep breath and looked from Sif to Loki and back.

"Just in case it wasn't clear! With 'unfortunate circumstances' Loki meant the Captain taking over Asgard during Loki's absence!"

Sif frowned and took a step back.

"You mean you left Asgard in the hands of a lunatic!" she screamed furiously. Loki wanted to shout something back, but Thor was quicker once again.

"The Captain had lost his mind, Sif! There was no way Loki or anyone else could foresee what would happen. You knew the Captain! He has served Odin for many years…"

Sif's yaw tightened. She knew Thor was right... She had known The Captain. In her eyes he had been a brave and good man.

"And why exactly did our 'charming king' stay away so long? Why would he ignore the desperate calls of his kingdom!" Fandral suddenly asked in the cell next to them with a smirk covering his face.

"Because no one was calling!" Thor answered angrily while turning to the fencer. "The Captain had imprisoned Heimdall. And secondly, because of me!"

All four prisoners looked up in surprise and fixed their eyes on the God of Thunder. Thor looked them in the eye one by one, before continuing.

"I didn't let Loki go…"

"You mean Loki was on Midgard?" Volstagg asked in amazement.

Thor nodded.
"Indeed, on Earth, where he saved my daughter's life, not to mention mine too!"

Loki smacked uncomfortably. He really didn't like the way Thor was praising him… Did he really save his brother's life too? The young king tried to find the memory of, that probably really desperate, moment in his life… He did push Thor aside when that idiotic SHIELD Agent had shot the Destroyer-weapon… Did that count as saving his life?

The others in the room stared at Thor in disbelief. In fact they didn't have any difficulty with believing Loki was capable of saving people since he'd saved their lives more than once during battles in the past. They just weren't sure Loki was still capable of doing that…

"I am not saying that Loki was right to imprison, but what I do know is that he is worth believing in!"

Fandral coughed sarcastically and shared a look with Volstagg who tried hard not to start laughing. Especially Loki's face was very entertaining. The young king felt as if he needed to puke!

Sif and Hogun on the other hand, kept a straight face and seemed to overthink Thor's words.

"If understand it correctly: you need us to teach a couple of rascals how to fight properly?"

Thor nodded, but was interrupted by Fandral.

"Teaching new recruits is far beneath me! Beneath all of us! We are Warriors of Asgard!"

Thor and Loki shared a looked. They both had to admit that they hadn't missed Fandral's remarkably annoying pride.

"We understand that…" Loki continued. "But unless you want to defend Asgard against intruders in the future on your own, I think you all understand that we need back up…"

"I don't mind being the only warrior…" Fandral answered nonchalantly. "Leaves more girls for me!"

Everyone in the room sighed and decided to ignore Fandral for the next couple of minutes.

"How exactly did the Captain manage to kill all our troops in a matter of weeks?" Volstagg suddenly asked.

"We'll fill you in on the details later…" Loki answered. "Are you in or not?"

The young king looked around him. He knew his despair was visible in his eyes. If they didn't want to cooperate, Asgard was lost…

The Warriors Three looked at each other and afterwards fixed their attention on Sif. The female warrior met their eyes. For a couple of seconds silent messages were send between the four friends.

Finally lady Sif nodded. She turned towards Loki.

"I don't need to believe you, nor trust you, but I did swear an oath to protect Asgard and the other realms. In name of the nine realm we accept your offer."

"Grand!" Fandral called out while clapping his hands together, completely destroying the serious tension. "The first girl I see, gets a kiss to remember!"

I hope you liked it, even though it was a bit short...

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