The Trickster: Ragnarok

by: Shadow Chaser

Disclaimer:

I do not own any characters from the Marvel Cinematic Universe. All characters belong to Marvel Entertainment, Marvel Comics, and Disney. I am not writing this story for profit, only for my own (twisted) amusement. I will try to return the characters unharmed, but some they might have a few scuff marks.

Story:

Chapter 8

He did not recognize the dark-skinned man that stood next to Captain America, having apparently been playing chess, a mortal version similar to tafl. But Loki did note that he had a posture and build similar to the Captain; attentive, unconsciously set in a defensive posture almost as if he could push Rogers behind him to protect him. Loki found that thought laughable, as he focused his gaze on the other man that had taken a step forward. It was apparent that he had been sitting in the corner of the open-aired area he had found himself in. He had risen with the languid grace of a predator that reminded Loki greatly of Fenrir. The metal arm affixed to his body radiated traces of magick, which puzzled him. The next thing he noted was that all three sported bandages and healing cuts and bruises. The dark-skinned man sported a lot less than Rogers and the mysterious metal-armed man, but all of them looked like they had just recently come from battle.

"Loki-" Rogers started, but he cut him off with a glare.

"Where is Thor," he repeated reaching behind him and noting to his faint amusement that both the metal-armed man and the other soldier had stiffened at his movement. He saw the barest glint of metal flying towards him and caught it with an raised hand while simultaneously drew close the whispers of the portal that he had ripped open to travel from Asgard to Midgard. Another quick twist of magick cloaked him from Heimdall's gaze lest he be quickly transported back to Asgard by Bifrost.

"Bucky!" Rogers took a step towards the metal-armed man who had thrown the knife at him before turning back and holding up his other hand, "Loki, Bucky didn't mean to do that-"

Loki only rolled his eyes at the fact that Rogers thought that a little knife thrown at him was going to set him off. He threw it back at the metal-armed man where it embedded itself into the concrete right near his feet. "Spare me your trivialities. Where is Thor," he repeated, his patience thinning with the lack of an immediate answer.

"We're searching for him-"

His thinning patience slid right into annoyance. They had a week since Thor had disappeared from Heimdall's gaze. A week since the Guardian had reported that lightning had struck as if there had been a battle, followed by a flash of blue and then no more. Loki had little doubt that Baldr had the Chitauri sceptre. He grudgingly admitted to himself that Sleipnir had not outright lied – which would have made it easier for him to detect, being the master liesmith and all – but had shaded the truth until it had been too late to see what his true goal was. He did not need this delay and took a step forward towards Rogers. If he continued on this banal vein, then he would demand answers out of him.

"Wait, wait, Loki-"

He was mildly surprised to see the Captain step towards him, matching his own single-step advancement, instead of stepping back. However, he also caught the fact that the Captain had held a hand back towards the metal-armed man he called 'Bucky.' It seemed more like Rogers did not want him to make any more sudden moves than worried about his own safety.

"Loki, listen, we've been running facial recognition worldwide since we've been at Karpov's, er, Baldr's base-"

"Where is this base?" Loki cut in, tempted to throw up several magick barriers to keep Rogers' other two companions from doing anything judging by the looks he was getting from both. It secretly amused him that they thought of him as such a threat while he thought of them as mere annoyances towards his goal of finding Baldr. He still could not fathom why Thor thought of them as worthy companions; except maybe the green giant Banner who turned in the Hulk, and perhaps Agent Romanov if her skills at wordplay had improved since he had last talked with her. The others, they hated him and he did not care for their feelings towards him.

"A couple of hours due southeast of Strasbourg, Germany in the Alps-"

Loki did not bother to hear the rest as he drew another thin blue line into the shadows of Yggdrasil-

IwillfindhimIwillfindthemIwillstopthismadness

"Wait, you shouldn't just rush-"

He only shot Captain Rogers a look before plunging through the darkened threads again, shuddering a little as he thought he lost himself in the inky blackness of nothing- And landed with another jerk into the sidewalk and streets of Stuttgart, Germany in front of the opera house. Shouts and screams of surprise assaulted his ears, but he paid them no attention as he turned and sealed the portal once more. He drew in a breath, twitching slightly at the small pull he recognized as the beginnings of exhaustion, having pulled at the skeins and weaves of Yggdrasil thrice in quick succession; from the Healing Halls to the Observatory, to Midgard, and now here.

He felt Jormungandr stir where he had been nestled into his pocket since his journey from the Healing Halls. He had almost forgotten about him and realized he had absently grasped onto the faint remnants of threads that had once been his core without a second thought – pulling him through the portals with him. No wonder he was a little exhausted, having traveled with someone else through the shadows of Yggdrasil was always precarious and deadly. His only Norn-saving grace was that as an animal form and one without a core, Jormungandr was far easier to transport than Sif had been the last time he had traveled.

"Stay," he whispered harshly towards the pocket the serpent was nestled in. He had no doubts that Jormungandr was reacting to the magick he was expending to keep himself cloaked in shadow – and by definition, also keeping Jormungandr cloaked in shadow since he was in his pocket. The serpent quieted once more and Loki looked around, eyes narrowed at how many people were starting to crowd around, their mobile phones raised – no doubt to take pictures of him.

He flicked his hand out, ripping the phones and electronic devices from their finger tips and all of them screamed, most running away while others stood in blank shock. Loki used the magick he had and crushed the electronic devices in a staccato of pops, sparking hisses, and oddly warbled beeps. He glanced to his left as he heard the distant familiar sirens of Stuttgart's police already responding to his appearance and shook his head. The Midgardians were still predictable after all these years. No doubt that once they discovered the consequences of the geas contract he had made with Director Fury three years previous was still in effect, they would think twice before coming after him with their pathetic sense of justice.

There was hardly any worry, as he knew he would be finished long before the sirens reached him. He closed his eyes, and cast his senses out towards the south and west of Stuttgart and beyond. In a way it was similar to when he had used it to find any trace of the Chitauri on Asgard when they had been cloaked from Heimdall's eyes. Strasbourg was unfamiliar to Loki, but Rogers had said Germany and so the only place he was familiar with that was in Germany was Stuttgart. He was familiar from a descriptive point of view with the mountain range the mortals called the Alps. Dr. Selvig had described it to him with its geological components and materials when he had been building the containment field for the Tesseract. So he cast his senses out towards the mountain range of the Alps, south, west, and east of the city... His mind brushed past the numerous little blooms of magick. A small part of him was curious as to the variety he felt, some fluid like the river, others static, stagnant, long forgotten wards or attempts at magick that felt ancient. There were wards that were like wisps, trace remnants from ages long before, the shuffling of ancient beings that once fought on Midgard and no longer existed. He could feel the magick of everything and anything around him, and forced himself to concentrate-

There! He felt the faintest trace of magick that belonged to the Chitauri sceptre. It was like a breadcrumb of sorts, the minute faint trace seemingly appearing from the middle of nowhere to where its 'droplet' so to speak grew into larger and larger beads. There were faint traces of the sceptre's unique signature magick in the air above it, but he suspected it was where it had been in transport before being seemingly handed to someone.

Loki knew he could have stretched his senses further, but he heard the faint warning hiss from Jormungandr who had shifted again and cracked open an eye. The snake had slithered half way up his shoulder and was peering beyond the folds of his collar behind him. The Stuttgart police were close then. He would have to continue his search at the place itself. He blew out a quiet breath and prepared himself. Walking the shadows of Yggdrasil to a place he had never been nor seen was almost as deadly as letting himself fall through the void of nothingness. He could easily walk right into a mountain or open a never-before seen path to eternal madness. It was, in a twisted sense, how he had found the Chitauri and Thanos. The roots of Yggdrasil were hidden in shadow for a reason, either banished by Asgard to the madness that was inherent in the voids and nothingness, or allowed for hidden forces to slowly gather their armies for ages. He suspected the latter for the Chitauri and for the Dark Elves that had been seeking the Aether.

He had never tried it before, but his teacher had explained it in theory to him when he had learned how to walk the shadows – to cross one's self. Taking the faint trace of magick that was from the sceptre that he first sensed in the Alps, he drew a thin line into the void, weaving the faint traces of the sceptre's unique and familiar skeins into the void itself-

Nornsletthisworkletthisworkletmadnessnotbeitisnothingness

iHAvesTrINgsBuTNOwIseE

It sung.

It sung, and Loki wanted to quail at the voice. He thought he felt something crawl underneath his skin, just right under the surface that he could not scratch. His mouth tasted dry. He heard Jormungandr's hisses become more frantic, the voices starting to grow louder- No, or was that the voices outside of the barrier with faint pops- Gunfire?

iHAvesTrINgsBuTNOwIseE

It continued to sing.

IdonotwanttodieyetblacknessfearpainwhywasIbetrayed

Loki's hand suddenly burned as he snapped out of his frantic frenetic haze with a start to look down to see them shaking. Jormungandr was attached to one of them, having wrapped himself tightly on a wrist and sunk his jaw into his hand. He blinked, oddly feeling disconnected for a second before he realized that the Stuttgart police had arrived in full force and had surrounded him, firing their weapons. The bullets had harmlessly pinged off of a shield he had instinctively conjured up. Loki glared at them, before looking once more at the portal and grimaced. There was no going back and plunged through it, the sensation of drowning engulfing him, his heart seizing in panic-

And tumbled out of the portal and into a dirt-packed snowy ground. He rolled twice before coming up into a crouch-

iHAvesTrINgsBuTNOwIseE

OhNornswhathaveIdonewhathaveIdoneIcant-

He immediately spun on his knees, staring back at the thin line of magick he had come through and with shaking hands, quickly sealed the portal. A second later, merciful silence reigned in the area and faint infantile singing stopped. It was only then that he allowed himself a shuddering breath to emerge from his lips, squeezing his eyes shut at the sudden wave of dizziness that crashed upon him. He felt Jormungandr withdraw his bite, uncoiling himself from the tight grip he had on his wrist. He absently cast a basic healing spell on the wound, as the snake slithered to his shoulder, winding himself around his shoulder and rested his head.

He wanted to tell Jormungandr to never do it again, but somehow the words would not come out and instead took a moment to settle his nerves. He sucked in a cool breath of alpine air and opened his eyes once more, taking his surroundings. Evergreen trees sat with broken branches, bark scattered everywhere, snow drifts covering half of them. It was evident that a large-scale battle had taken place here and Loki thought he could see the familiar burnt scorch marks that heralded Mjolnir's power scattered everywhere. The trace of unique magick that was the sceptre was stronger here, he could feel it without casting his senses out. It was concentrated towards the remnants of a half-destroyed building, almost the size of a factory of sorts. Parts of it were caved in and while there was no smoke in the air, Loki thought he could still smell the burning fumes of chemicals and a permeating roasted scent in the air. Bodies, no doubt, considering that several howls of wolves, coyotes, and other animals echoed just then. There were no immediate threats from animals, but it did not mean that the Midgardian predators were hunting inside.

"Jor," he commanded and the snake lifted his head up, flicking his tongue out before uncoiling himself from his shoulder and dropped to the ground with a soft plop. From there, the snake immediately grew several sizes larger, until his mouth was about the size of Loki's head and his coils large and thick enough to crush any animal that dared attack them.

This large, Loki could see himself reflected in Jormungandr's icy blue eyes, but the snake hissed softly and followed as he started towards the partially destroyed building. The only sound save for the soft howl of the wind blowing bits of snow everywhere was the crunch of his boots against the freshly powdered ground. He could feel trace amounts of the sceptre everywhere. However, he also felt a signature he could not quite identify. It seemingly lay dormant underneath the sceptre's trace as he wandered past the broken branches and twisted bits of metal.

Jormungandr slithered forward towards where a set of double doors was half propped open and squeezed himself through before expanding his coils, the groan of metal scraping against one another before he made a significant hole for him to mostly walk through. Loki ducked under a rebar and entered the base proper. It was dark, with the fading light of dusk settling in and making the shadows of debris longer than normal. He held out his hand and summoned a mote of light. With his other hand, he reached into the spaces-in-between and pulled out a small containment modular and put the mote of light in before releasing it. The drain of magicks from the spell lessened as the modular did its work in spreading out the power as it hovered just above his head.

He followed the trace of magick to where it was strongest and stepped over several overturned chairs and tables along with vast amounts of broken glass and liquids. The room he ended up in after several hallways and two floors of descent upon a rickety ladder, looked similar to Banner's laboratory aboard the Helicarrier as he surveyed the scene. Jormungandr slithered over the glass, crunching it further into the ground as he surveyed the room with his own animal senses. This was where the Chitauri sceptre was stored as he approached the highest concentration of magick and looked past it to see half-broken windows looking down upon a clinical metal area. Half of it was exposed to the elements outside, broken wires and pieces of building material he did not recognize swaying in the wind-whipped air.

He vaulted over the pieces of broken glass and landed the four stories down to the bottom knee bent, a crater forming at his impact. Behind him, he heard Jormungandr slither towards the open glass and stepped to the side as the snake fell and landed a second later with a lot more force than he had, the crater growing. There was the faint trace of magick concentrated around the area as he raised the mote of light higher, casting wide, long shadows. He had landed past the clinical area and down into a hanger bay of sorts if the warped metal of quinjets was any indication. A large battle had been fought here, this much was certain – and it was not the destruction around the area that told him that. He could feel the traces of sceptre magick along with the same unusual one he had felt from the metal-armed man. The Captain's shield had its own unique trace that he had long ago sensed and dismissed, but it was more than likely due to the properties of the vibranium from which it was made.

The only thing absent was the smell of ozone, of Thor's hammer which always lingered in the air long after a battle had been fought. Mjolnir's magick was as powerful as from the heart of the star it was forged in. He had been jealous when Thor had been first presented with such a kingly gift, and at times had wondered if he would be worthy enough to pick the hammer up; but it had never responded to him. If Thor only knew how much power was in Mjolnir. The halfwit had only been using the barest fraction of power since he had received the weapon; though he did consider that time on Jotunheim when they had been running from the bligesnipe that Thor had used a little bit more extra power from Mjolnir than he would have thought possible.

Loki raised his hand and expanded his senses outward, feeling the sceptre's magick permeate through the area before he suddenly started, opening his eyes with a frown and stared upwards towards the cloudy skies. That was not possible- He scanned the area again and a sense of disquiet filled him as he knew what he sensed was not wrong. Every single magick spell cast by anyone left a trace. The highest concentrations tended to drown out the simpler spells, be it on the battlefield or otherwise. The throne room of Asgard was such a concentration point, but it was suffice to say that Asgard itself had so much magick permeating through it that one need not scan it like he had been doing.

Midgard was another story, the absence of such magick more common than those with magick. But there were still traces around that for some odd reason, made it hard for him to find what he needed unless he had known what he was looking for. He had not sensed wrong – besides the Chitauri sceptre emitting a unique signature that he was familiar with, having wielded it before – there was the very rare trace of portal magick. Someone had opened a portal into the shadows of Yggdrasil above where he was. It was also where a relatively high concentration of the sceptre's magick was.

He thought for a moment that it was how Sleipnir had arrived in the throne room, but as he gently corralled the faint trace, he could sense that it was not like the borrowed aspect that Eir had been talking about. No, this was directly from the caster. He blinked, his head spinning a little at the implications. Was it Baldr who did such a thing? But...Sleipnir had claimed that for Baldr's plan to work, Baldr needed him to walk them through the shadows of Yggdrasil. However, he did not have time to ponder as he heard Jormungandr's sharp hiss and looked around, lowering his hand.

Red glowing eyes were moving in the shadows of the mostly destroyed hanger bay. He was surrounded.

"Tell me why are we going after Loki again?" Tony asked, but Steve caught the hidden wince in his expression out of the corner of his eye. He knew that Tony was still healing from the bruises, burns, and fractured bones he had received a week ago, but had insisted on suiting up.

"We're not, you're back up," Steve stood near him, but kept his eyes focused on a nondescript point beyond the cockpit window where Natasha and Clint sat. The two were not even remotely ready to go on a mission, but had volunteered to sit in the quinjet as backup.

"Right, but why the hell should we even go after him?" Tony asked and he heard the unspoken, 'why should we even help him this time?' in the other man's tone. His grip tightened on the handhold he was holding onto as the quinjet banked a little, following the jetstream to hasten their travel time.

He had asked Clint to open the throttle on the quinjet, forgoing stealth for speed. After Loki had left, he had immediately known where he was going and had ran inside, Sam chasing after him, wondering what was going on. He had ignored Sam's questions and told JARVIS to prep a quinjet before informing Maria about what had just happened. Maria had replied that she was aware of the situation and the others in the tower had been informed, but had asked what he was doing with a quinjet. Steve had explained that they needed to get to Loki before anything else happened and she had only stared at him for a brief moment before coming to the same conclusions as he had.

When he had arrived at the small helipad where a quinjet was always kept, he had found the rest of the Avengers half suited up, Bucky included. The fact that Bucky was there surprised him, but the others, they were still sporting bandages, slings, and were definitely not mission ready. Surprisingly, Bruce was also there, looking a little uncomfortable in a sea of uniforms and suits, but he had just shrugged and said that this time, the big guy might be needed.

Before he could say a word of protest, Natasha had stepped forward and told him that Clint would pilot and she would be co-pilot and gunner for whatever op he was planning; meaning they knew their limits and would be support to his op. He had designated Tony to stay in the quinjet too, knowing that he was definitely not ready to fly around anywhere in the Iron Man suit. Sam, Bucky, and Bruce would be with him on the ground team.

"Because, if he somehow gets Thor to show up, we need to break Karpov's hold on him," he answered Tony's question, hearing the small creak of the handhold he was holding on splinter a bit under his grip. He eased up a little, trying not to show the worry he was feeling.

"Maria's saying he's already shown up and caused a ruckus in Stuttgart," Natasha reported, looking back at them. She looked relatively healthy, but her pale face belied her condition. Her shoulders had been reset since they had arrived back at the tower a week ago, but she still moved with some minor stiffness that showed recovering muscles and structure. Still, she looked a lot healthier than he would have expected and supposed it was probably due to some factor of her Red Room training.

Steve pinched his lips together and closed his eyes briefly before rubbing them as he felt Tony elbow him gently in the ribs. Loki appearing in public was one of the things he was afraid of happening.

"He's probably overloaded Twitter-"

"That's not the point, Tony," Steve shook his head and opened his eyes, "if someone's asking him about what he did in New York..."

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Tony frown and absently rub his chest, remembering what had happened the last time he had confronted Loki about New York. "Well...shit, he's still got that stupid geas with Fury right?" Tony muttered, looking away before giving a frustrated sigh. Steve could only nod and the other man swore quietly. He and Maria had figured it out first, but now that the other Avengers knew it was only a matter of time. Even though the geas that had been made with Director Fury the first time around had technically been completed, Steve did not know if its effects were still active. Loki never told them much about geas, only that if its specifically worded contract was not completed, then the person who made the geas would drop dead. If the person had died in some other manner before the geas was completed, then it would still be considered and incomplete geas and the spell or whatever it was, still in effect.

Loki had bargained for the lack of punishment from the world nations or whatever powers that be, for his actions in New York. Director Fury had ensured it with SHIELD's power and reach. But since SHIELD fell and Fury was in hiding, he did not know if the contract's effects would be null and void and did not want to take the risk. Natasha reporting that Twitter, or whatever social media function that people took their news these days was already reporting about Loki...would there be a mass of dead bodies from individuals or governments who wanted Loki to pay in some way for his actions in New York?

"That's fucked up," Clint growled from where he sat in the pilot's chair, his voice tinned over the comms.

"Maria's on it," Natasha reported again and Steve nodded grimly. Maria was good at damage control and she was one of the few who had inside knowledge about Fury's former operations and had been present when the geas contract had been made regarding New York City.

"The sooner Psycho is back home on Asgard, the better off this will be, right?" Tony smiled thinly at nothing in particular.

"Steve, you don't think that if Karpov shows up, he might try the same thing to whatever he did with Thor, do you?"

Steve turned, staring at tail end of the quinjet where Bruce sat, still worried about the Hulk and not comfortable enough with the Hulk to let himself risk sitting in further in. Bucky sat across from him, arms crossed, eyes closed and seemingly asleep, but Steve knew his new body language well enough from the last few harried weeks that he was paying sharp attention to Bruce's question. Sam two seats away from Bruce, hunched over, but was staring at him, waiting for an answer.

He pressed his lips together. Bruce's question was deceptively calm, but he also knew why the doctor had asked it. Of all of the Avengers, there was probably one, maybe two that knew Loki's mind more than how he presented himself. Even then, Steve suspected the inner knowledge was not as in-depth, Loki always hiding something. Natasha was probably one; Loki allowing her to keep an eye on him when he had been plagued by the waking nightmare of Thanos ready to mentally pounce and control him through the geas three years ago. Loki had all but said that Natasha was an adequate substitute for Thor's presence. But the first person he had designated as an adequate substitute was Bruce. Of all of the Avengers besides Thor, Bruce probably knew Loki the best. Steve did not know what kind of mutual understanding Bruce had with Loki, could not even begin to fathom it, but he knew that it was definitely not friendship. Allies would be stretching it, but as he stared at the good doctor, he could see that Bruce understood like no one else did; at least like no one else until they puzzled out most of who Loki was.

There were many adjectives Steve could come up with for the self-proclaimed Trickster God, all of them not friendly or even remotely polite, but on some level, he understood. And that understanding had not come until that deceptively blue stone on the Chitauri sceptre had hit him and he had lost himself. Because in that moment, between losing himself and having his mind forcibly suppressed, he had seen something utterly terrifying, something he knew he should have known.

"Well, considering he'd probably blow us up to kingdom come, he could do the same with Thor right now," Tony pointed out, glancing back and forth between him and Bruce, "come on...you guys seriously want to actually help Loki? Again? I mean, it's bad enough we had to do it twice, but seriously, remember Odin? Asshole? Kind of didn't exactly care for us when he made that half-assed treaty, treatise thing? I mean, yeah, it's going to be bad if he gets control of both Loki and Thor, but I'd rather him control Loki than Thor."

"Or controlling no one," Steve said quietly, "I wouldn't wish that on any of my enemies, Tony, not now, not ever." He did not want to believe what he had glimpsed, perhaps part of Karpov's plans, maybe of his mind, but he thought he had seen Thanos.

Author's Notes:

Singing portals into shadows of Yggdrasil are bad.