The Trickster: Ragnarok

by: Shadow Chaser

Story:

Chapter 20

There was a few seconds of static that answered Steve before Sam's voice crackled across the comms, "Barton and Romanov are here. Their comms got fried in the middle of the EMP explosion of the quinjet, but we're having some tough time-shit, shit, shit!" The rest of the line went to static again and more lighting skittered across the skies as Steve squinted against the blinding winds once more. Thor's fight was getting closer to him. He could feel the winds pushing against his body and knew that he needed to be freed of the blade that pinned him to the ground before they could shred him apart.

His body felt like dead weight, his head light from the blood loss and knew that he had to get himself off of the blade before it did even more damage. He remembered Sleipnir fiddling with something on the blade itself before it expanded into a double blade and figured there had to be a button of sorts. He hoped it was nothing to do with twisting the handle as he gritted his teeth and reached behind him. His vision whited for a second at his movements, but Steve forced himself to stare at the incoming maelstrom that was dominated by the angry roars of the Hulk and the animalistic screams of Jormungandr against Thor.

In what seemed like an agonizing minute of groping for the release, he finally felt something small protruding from the handle and pushed on it-

Just as the teeth-rattling, earth-shattering boom filled the air followed by every single hair on Steve's neck standing on end at the closeness of the lightning strike. It was not even over when he stared at the maelstrom that had engulfed him – the high pitched mortal scream of death searing across his ears. He could only gape wordlessly as he barely remembered to catch himself as the blade retracted from his body and immediately felt even more light headed from the sudden loss of blood and of stabilization. From his vantage point and through the slight thinning of the high winds and blinding gravel swirling around him, he saw the shadow of Jormungandr fall heavily to the ground and laid still. A brief pause in the wind showed him the grievous wound the large serpent had suffered in the lightning strike by Thor, splitting a good part of him in vertically in half as the ichor of black blood poured out. Not even a second later, the wind kicked up again and Steve raised his hand to shield his eyes.

He tried to suppress the shudder of horror that filled him as he could not get the image of Jormungandr's prone body out of his mind. It was exactly like Ragnarok – like the Norse myths of old. Thor had defeated the Midgard Serpent. Was there to be nine steps for Thor to take before he died of poison? Steve did not doubt that the poison was already there – but not from Jormungandr, but rather the poison was the Chitauri's sceptre's hold on his friend's mind.

"-eve! S-Steve! Get-"

The crackling of the comm in his ear faded in and out as he grimaced against the winds that blew over him. The gravel and bits of obsidian volcanic glass that was kicked up tore at him and he could feel small cuts on his face. He wanted to hunch in on himself further, to shield himself from the deadly swirl of tornadic activity of the maelstrom above him; but he also knew that he could not risk opening the wound further even as he felt faint and light headed. He could feel his heart beating rapidly and knew that he had lost a good amount of blood. He could still feel something dripping down his middle, and knew that he needed to somehow stem the bleeding, but with the storm right above him he could not do anything, except pull his shield closer to him.

The ground shook again, but this time with uneven undulations followed by the angry roar of the Hulk somewhere in front of him. Steve forced himself to open his eyes and peer over the lip of his shield to see the faint outline of the Hulk roaring at the sky, one hand shielding his own eyes as he tried to find some purchase against the ground. His roar was answered not even a second later as Steve saw a red-caped blur slam into the Hulk's middle, driving him into the ground.

Steve barely rolled out of the way, gasping involuntarily as he felt the wet spurt of blood splash against his already damp uniform and his vision briefly turned grey. He barely managed to prop himself up as he saw Thor kneeling into the Hulk's middle, one hand gripping Mjolnir. But what surprised Steve was that Thor's expression was not a blankness that he had seen at Union Square, but rather, looked strained. The reason became clear as Thor seemingly struggled to lift Mjolnir from where he and the hammer pinned the Hulk to the ground. Mjolnir deemed Thor not worthy anymore to lift it. The Hulk himself was enraged, his arms and legs flailing about as he tried to both knock Thor away from the hammer and at the same time get the hammer off of himself.

Steve immediately took advantage of the situation as he ignored the flash of pain and more spurts of blood from his wound and ducked under one arm of the Hulk while throwing his shield at Thor. It hit the Asgardian solidly in the middle, sending him tumbling down one side of the Hulk's body to which the Hulk roared and tried to roll over to crush the Asgardian. However, due to Mjolnir pinning Hulk in place, it was unsuccessful and Steve used the momentum he gained as he caught his shield. He leapt over Hulk's body and kicked Thor solidly in the chest. He could see the moment where Thor reacted to his attack, raising his arms defensively before swinging back at him. But Steve was too well-versed and even with his wound, he managed to duck underneath the first thrown punch and side-stepped one of the Hulk's other arms flailing about in an effort to crush any and all that were around him.

Thor's eyes flashed with anger as Baldr controlled him from within and he saw the other man's teeth bared in a rictus that looked unlike the Thor he knew. The thunder god advanced forward, kicking the Hulk's green side, making him roar in pain and Steve nearly lost his footing around the Hulk as his arms slammed miniature earthquakes all around him. He only managed to grab onto the nearest stable object for purchase and looked down as his right hand curled instinctively around the pommel of Mjolnir.

It suddenly felt right and worthy.

Steve could feel the surge of strength and of power rush through him, but rather than drink in the heady feeling, he focused it all on the point of where he wanted the legendary and powerful weapon of the Thunder God to go. Like many times a child who played street ball with the local children, he always practiced his bat swing and so swung the hammer towards Thor who's eyes widened in surprise just as he had been ducking under one of the Hulk's arms.

Mjolnir connected solidly with Thor's head and knocked him head over heels away from the Hulk. At the same time, Steve let go of the hammer, allowing it to continue its momentum where it landed on Thor's chest, pinning the Asgardian to the ground even as he fell unconscious from the blow. The maelstrom abruptly stopped, sending a shower of black glass and sand down on himself and the Hulk.

The surge of right and worthiness disappeared as exhaustion and pain rushed through Steve and he grimaced, falling to his knees as he curled around his stab wound. He squeezed his eyes shut against the white spots that had appeared in his vision. He knew he had lost a lot of blood, maybe a little too much. His breath was shaky and his heart felt like it was beating too fast. He could feel the rumbles and snorts of anger from the Hulk next to him, but the sudden weakness that had gripped him would not abate. He heard the sounds of a victorious shout and the screech of one of the ravens, more than likely Muunin followed by the crackle and pop of a deathly silence that spread across the obsidian glassed battlefield.

"Steve? Steve!" Sam's voice was followed by a hand landing heavily on his shoulder and he opened his eyes and blearily looked up to see Sam staring down at him, concern filling his features. He looked beyond him to see that both Clint and Natasha had survived the explosion of the quinjet, though both looked a little worse for wear. Tony was just touching down in the suit and Steve surmised that both Tony and Sam had broken off the engagement against Thor to save Clint and Natasha when the quinjet exploded.

"I'm...okay-"

"Yeah right," Sam interrupted and Steve could only manage a faint smile.

"Probably right..." he agreed as he lifted his palm from where he had been unconsciously covering his wound. It was stained a dark red and he felt a little nauseous just looking at the sheer amount of blood on his glove.

"Just hang on, Steve, all right, don't go passing out on me-"

"Sure..." Steve felt very light-headed. He wanted nothing more than to sleep, but knew that it was the blood loss talking. He could feel a prickly sensation crawl across his skin; the super soldier serum's healing factor trying to compensate for the blood loss and the stab wound, but did not know if it was enough to heal him that fast. His world tilt a little at the same time he heard Sam's shout and then Loki's quiet voice echoed across the silent battlefield.

"Surrender, Baldr, you are defeated," Steve roused himself and forced his eyes to focus on the not-so-distant form of Loki who was pointing Gungnir at Baldr down on the ground.

Near them was Bucky, Lady Sif, and Huugin who were standing behind Muunin. It seemed that the former warrior turned raven-familiar had bested Sleipnir by sword-point, proving once and for all that the raven was truly the Lord of Swords. He was a little surprised that Bucky had been able to go toe-to-toe against Sleipnir and last that long. He understood why Sif and the ravens were able to withstand a lot of Sleipnir's attacks being Asgardians, but even he had been hard-pressed to keep up before he was injured. Bucky never ceased to amaze him and his fortitude was a thing to behold.

"Here, use this Sam," he turned at Natasha's voice to see her leaning down, holding out an unused healing stone that had been modified by Jormungandr. "Clint used his on the quinjet to keep us in the air when that geas attack," she explained, "I still have mine and I don't know what Jormungandr did to it, but it's a healing stone, so hopefully it'll heal."

"Are you sure?" Sam turned his head and Steve followed his gaze, forcing him to concentrate instead of letting the white spots in his vision distract him, to see Jormungandr's limp body nearby. It looked like his serpentine form was slowly shrinking, but there was still an ungodly amount of black ichor around the bisected section of the body itself. Had Jormungandr survived Thor's vicious vivisection of his body?

"Do it," Steve winced as he nodded his assent and watched as Sam crushed the blue stone in his gloves before halving it. He met his friend's gaze and nodded once before Sam placed both of his hands on either side of his wound and pressed.

Steve grunted at the white hot pain before he felt something seemingly slam into the wound. It almost hurt except for the fact that he could not even draw a single breath to scream much less breathe- When just as suddenly, the white spots in Steve's vision disappeared and he could feel his skin knitting, the wound's fiery pain slowly fading and opened eyes he did not know he had closed. At the same time, he felt re-energized, invigorated, and he looked down to see where there was once blood was now pink, whole, healthy flesh. There was not even a single scar.

"Wow," Sam commented absently as he reached out to help him up. Steve shifted his shield to his other hand and grabbed his friend's arm and gingerly pulled himself up, his world still a little dizzy, but otherwise he was slowly regaining his equilibrium. "Hate to say it, but it looked like you just glowed a little and then I literally saw your wound seal up like a zipper of sorts. Creepy, but wow..."

"Thanks...I think," Steve did not know what to make of the description, but as he leaned gingerly on his friend's weight, still a little unsteady on his own feet, he turned to see that Loki and Baldr had not even moved a single inch since Loki had demanded the ancient Asgardian's surrender.

"I'm more impressed that you lifted Thor's hammer," Tony's voice was full of relief, and Steve glanced back to see him walking towards them, glancing towards Thor who looked like he was still out cold.

"Instinct," Steve shrugged. He had a feeling that he would never lift the hammer ever again. Perhaps there was some kind of instinctive magic or a bond between the weapon and Thor; similar to how the ravens were extensions of Odin's eyes and ears. Maybe Mjolnir sensed some distress in its wielder and needed someone else to break the dark hold it had. Whatever it was, he would think on it later as he turned back to where Loki was staring down at Baldr.

"Yield and have judgment rendered upon you by Asgard law, Baldr," Loki's voice rang across the deathly silent battlefield, almost emotionless.

"I will not!" Baldr hissed, teeth clenched together. The Chitauri sceptre laid a few feet away from Baldr, a clear sign that he had been disarmed. A sudden ragged choking sound emerged from where Sleipnir also laid on the ground.

Steve saw Muunin's grip on a matte black sword, almost like an elongated feather of sorts, dip lower in warning and realized what Baldr was trying to do – summon Sleipnir towards him to fight. He took a half step forward at the same time Bucky and Sif took their steps forward to prevent Sleipnir from doing the same. Out of the corner of his eyes, he saw Clint readying his bow, arrow steadily on Sleipnir while Natasha had drawn both of her guns and pointed it straight at the prostrated man on the ground.

Sleipnir's body twitched and tremored as if it was not his own and it only took a second for Steve to realize that the other man was fighting the command, the geas, the summon of a familiar – whatever it was he was fighting it. Another choking sputter rendered the air and blood burst forth from Sleipnir's mouth like a bubbling fountain and Steve stared, horrified at what was happening.

"Loki-"

"Do not interfere, Captain," Huugin suddenly landed and appeared in front of them in his human form, one hand extended away from his body to prevent them from moving any further. "It is the King's judgment-"

"He's torturing him-"

"And is not a matter for mortals such as yourself, Falcon," the normally quiet raven stated, beady eyes staring at them with a hard look.

"Don't," Steve looked beyond the raven to see Sif suddenly change her stance, her shield and arm extended out to stop Bucky like Huugin had did with them. He met Bucky's hooded look with a helpless one of his own as he realized that by virtue of having fought Sleipnir, he was the closest of all of them to see what was really happening and it was disturbing him.

Steve realized that he had to stop this. Whatever confession or surrender Loki was trying to wring out of Baldr, it was clear that it was hurting Sleipnir as he resisted Baldr's mental commands. "Loki!" he ignored Huugin's deathly glare, "Loki, stop this-"

"You've lost, Baldr," Loki suddenly said, "all of your plans for nothing. All of your vaunted ideals for control amounted to nothing. You, are here because I allowed it. You are here because you are nothing. Did you truly expect to have regained the throne of Asgard? No, my dear Uncle. You truly do not understand what it is to make such a geas-"

"And you do?!" Baldr's voice was hoarse and he started to laugh, "you poor wretched fool of a Jotun whelp. I, am a magister-"

"Only in name, Baldr. Only in name," Loki's expression suddenly became menacing, "and never a true-born magister. Otherwise, your bonds would not have broken, your concentration never wavered, and you would not have lost this fight a long time ago."

Steve realized what had happened in the moment he had knocked Thor out with Mjolnir. It must have snapped the mental bond that had bound Thor to Baldr with the Chitauri sceptre. That kind of abrupt severing of a connection allowed Loki to disarm Baldr in those crucial moments and at the same time, allow Sif, Bucky, and the ravens to defeat Sleipnir. Such an effect must have been a mental whiplash of sorts to have disoriented the man from even doing anything else. It all but confirmed that Baldr did not even have any reserves to do anything overt except to gain whatever power was here on Earth in an effort to then achieve the throne of Asgard.

Baldr's laugh turned into a mad cackle, "And, you, whelp, are not fooling anyone. You think that you can hold onto such an illusion-"

The burst of a golden bolt from Gungnir was so fast that Steve almost did not catch it before Baldr suddenly slumped to the ground, dead. At the same time, Sleipnir suddenly stopped choking, released from whatever mental summons Baldr had been forcing upon him. His breaths wheezing in the stillness of the Icelandic air. Huugin lowered his arm at the same time Sif did too and Steve immediately ran forward, stumbling a little as his feet and the loss of blood caught up with him before he arrived near where Sleipnir laid.

He got his first good look at the red-haired man who had once been a great Asgardian warrior, but was now broken by Baldr and his machinations. Blood coated a majority of Sleipnir's once handsome, now wasted face. There were a few cuts, but a majority of the blood looked like it had come from the mouth. It was clear that Sleipnir was dying. Muunin was still standing by Sleipnir's head, black blade pointed at the other man's throat. There was an unreadable expression on Muunin's face, even more so than the usual blank dead-eyed look the raven wore. He thought back on the story that the raven had told of the fight on the Bifrost and realized that Sleipnir must have been the one to have dealt Muunin the mortal blow.

"This is the fate of familiars, little bird, there is nothing you can do for one who has their core tied to a master," Huugin spoke up quietly behind him and Steve turned to see that Sam looked a little torn. He knew his friend had combat medic training and was more than likely wondering what he could do to ease the clear pain etched on Sleipnir's face. To his surprise, Bucky stepped up next to Sam and gingerly placed a hand on his shoulder before letting go just as fast.

"I do not expect you to weep for me," Sleipnir coughed hoarsely at them, his bright icy blue eyes focused on them before flicking a look up at Muunin who still held him at blade point. He was clearly no more of a threat, but the raven had not moved a single inch.

"The tears dried long ago, Sleipnir," Huugin replied a little stiffly.

The red-haired man's lips turned up in a mirthless smile, his teeth stained with the dark red of blood still pouring from his mouth. He coughed again. "I suspect there were no tears, were there, Lord of Swords?"

Steve glanced up at Muunin's moniker and the raven only blinked once. Apparently it was some sort of answer that he did not know as the dying man coughed again and his mirthless smile became a little sadder. "I am truly sorry, Muunin. I do not expect your forgiveness, but I ask that you understand why I did it."

Silence reigned from the other raven as Sleipnir's breath became a little shallower, a little more ragged. Steve could not help but feel a bitter sadness as he could see the end for the other man. His was a tragic tale, one that certain lent weight to the stories of Norse myths and such, but at the same time, Steve knew he could never truly comprehend what Sleipnir did and why he had done what he had done.

"You should have let me kill your father in the first place, then none of this would have happened," Muunin suddenly said just as Sleipnir took his last breath.

As the rattling exhale was heard in the air, Muunin finally lifted his blade from Sleipnir's neck and seemingly sheathed it behind him. Steve could not even see where it went, and surmised that it had disappeared in a similar manner to how Loki occasionally pulled his modulars or even made his glaive appear from thin air. He was about to reach down and close Sleipnir's still-open dead eyes when a literal flame rendered the air near them and he quickly pulled his shield up, wary of an attack-

"Sigyn," Sif stated, staring at the two people who had appeared from the flames.

One he instantly recognized as Hel, the other was not even remotely human to say the least. The...creature, looked human, but seemingly floated a few inches above the ground. The body shape was feminine, curved and seemingly armored in what he could only describe as cooled lava, but what was exposed as skin or body was literal flames. Thin lines of fire trailed behind her and the black skeletal-like armor that covered her features also gave shape to a mouth and nose. But she had no eyes. In place of eyes, there was seemingly a maelstrom of fire that peered out from the depths.

"You're supposed to be dead Sigyn," he glanced at Sif to see her holding her shield a little defensively, "and you, Lady Hel-"

"Are here by my Prince's command, Lady Sif," Hel's voice was its usual monotone, but Steve could feel the power behind it, much like when he had first encountered her back in London a couple of years ago. "And Sigyn is quite deceased, my Lady, slain by my Prince. She now serves me as a Valkyrie in her full capacity suitable for her kind, a Fire Demon of Muspelheim."

Steve glanced at Sif to see her staring narrowed eyed at the fire demon named Sigyn. There was clearly history behind that look and he wondered if Sigyn had also been a part of Loki or Odin's coterie. Sif seemed to have made a decision as she finally lowered her shield and Steve relaxed. He took a few steps back and Sigyn took it as her cue to move towards them and knelt next to Sleipnir. A glance at the ravens showed that both Muunin and Huugin were standing next to each other, shoulder to shoulder though Huugin was looking worriedly at his brother.

"Are all Valkyries like that?" Sam whispered next to him and Steve shook his head.

"I don't know...from what I read, they're just there to escort those who fell in combat to the halls of Valhalla. They're usually associated with horses and winged things, but that's about it."

"Well...she floats," Tony muttered behind them and Steve could almost see the other man rolling his eyes in his suit. It would have been a little funny to him if not for the seriousness of the situation and of the fact that Sigyn looked utterly alien.

The Valkyrie daintily knelt down and slid her hands underneath Sleipnir's body. Not even a second later, the body instantly turned to ash, but instead of the ash falling to the ground, it seemingly lingered as if it retained the outline of Sleipnir's body.

"Whoa..." Clint exclaimed faintly behind them and Steve thought he heard a very quiet 'wow' from Natasha.

The Valkyrie stood up, before bending down and extending a hand towards the ash. To Steve's astonishment, he saw the ash-form of Sleipnir seemingly accept the hand and was pulled up. But as soon as the pile of ash stood up, it dropped away to reveal the ghost-like form of a man he barely recognized. It was only by virtue of the fact that he knew that the faint spectre had come from Sleipnir's ash pile that he realized the spectre was actually Sleipnir, free from the madness and the geas that had long consumed him. He was startlingly handsome, with eyes that were kind and helpful. A carefree smile was on his face, making him look even more youthful and Steve felt a pang of sadness at the sight of the spectre.

A familiar groan of pain broke the spell that had seemingly been cast over them and Steve realized that Thor was waking. He moved away from the others as he hurried over to where Thor laid, Mjolnir still sitting on his chest. Near him was Bruce, lying on the ground, seemingly taking deep breaths, having reverted from being the Hulk.

"I'm fine," Bruce called out as Steve glanced down at him, "just let me sleep here for a second..."

"Wake up sunshine," Tony walked over and knelt down next to Bruce as Steve hurried over to Thor. He saw Loki beyond them, standing near Jormungandr's prone body. There was black ichor still all over the place, but now, Steve saw the red blood mixing in with the black ichor and realized that Jormungandr's wound was more serious and also did not disappear after he had turned back to his human form.

"Thor?" Sif pushed past him and skidded to a stop as she knelt down next to Thor, "Thor?!"

Thor groaned again and blearily opened his eyes. They were a clear familiar blue and Steve breathed out a sigh of relief that he did not know he had been holding. "It is as if a thousand bilgesnipes trampled through my head," Thor groaned as he gingerly sat up, Mjolnir tumbling from his chest to land on the ground.

"You idiot!" Sif suddenly punched Thor on the shoulder, hard, and the Asgardian winced before glancing up at her.

"What was that for?!" he asked, rubbing his head.

"The bligesnipes, uh, that would be me, Thor," Steve took a half step forward bringing the groggy Asgardian's gaze on him, "I, uh, kind of used Mjolnir to knock some sense into you."

"Percussive maintenance always does the job when the sceptre is involved," Natasha commented behind him and Steve could hear the smugness in her voice.

"You, Captain Rogers, used Mjolnir," Thor stared at him and Steve nodded, a little apprehensive of what the thunder god's reaction was going to be. He received his answer as Thor suddenly bowed his head towards him, one arm across his chest. "I thank you, from the depths of my heart and soul for doing me such a great service. If you had not, if you had not been deemed worthy of Mjolnir, then I would have been forever lost. I do not know how to repay you, Captain-"

"Thor," Steve held up a hand to stop Thor and the thunder god looked up, his eyes bright with unshed tears of gratefulness, "Thor, listen, we all would have done the same for each other. We're sorry it just took this long to get you back and not realize what Baldr's plans were when he lured us to the base. You don't have to repay me and there's no debts involved, all right?"

"But-"

"Take Steve on his offer, Thor, he ain't this generous," Bucky suddenly spoke up near him and Steve blinked before looking at his best friend. There was a faint smile on Bucky's face and he almost laughed at the absurdity of it.

"I am glad to see you faring well since we had last met, Sergeant Barnes," Thor nodded, understanding the humor for what it was as well as why Bucky had said those words.

"He fares well, but you, are an oafish idiot of the highest order who should have known better," Hel's voice suddenly cut into their conversation and Steve found himself unable to move – much like when they had first encountered Hel in London.

He cursed silently for letting his guard down as out of the corner of his eyes, he could see the others also struggling to move, but was unable to. Hel was unpredictable and it was clear that she was up to something as he saw her walk into his line of vision and straight towards Thor who slowly stood up, the only one of them able to still move. Thor reached out and Mjolnir was instantly summoned to his hand.

"Lady Hel-"

"Loki freed me," Hel replied with a wave of her hand, seemingly sending out howls of the damned that echoed eerily in Steve's ears. "It was in his capacity as King of Asgard since Odin bequeathed Gungnir to him after Asgard's fall."

"Asgard...Asgard's fall..." Thor whispered before his expression closed and he seemingly pressed his lips together in anger, "I...I tried, I tried to warn him-"

"Your warnings are nothing but child's play. You should have known, Crown Prince Thor Odinson," Hel's voice was still a monotone, but her eyes seemingly flashed with anger. Steve realized that he had never seen such an expression on her face nor her eyes that dark with anger. From what he remembered, she rarely showed any emotion, and even then she was seemingly fickle. Now, she was clearly showing something and it did not terrify him as much as it felt horrific. It was as if all of the weight of the dead was pressing on him, but he could not do anything but let it seep into his skin, into his pores, and into his blood. Was this truly Hel's power?

"Pardon a moment," Hel suddenly turned and made a tugging motion. Steve heard chains before another faint spirit materialized, but this one was wrapped in ghostly chains of sorts. He realized that it was the spirit of the recently deceased Baldr.

"Sigyn," she called out and the Valkyrie walked over, still holding onto Sleipnir's hand. The spirit had a beatific expression on his face, oblivious to what was happening around him, as if he could not see them.

He watched as Hel handed over the chains to Sigyn who took it with a solemn nod and a blink of her sightless fiery eyes. "Please do not burn Baldr no matter what you may think of him. I wish to conduct a proper judgment of his crimes."

Sigyn merely nodded before looking beyond Hel's shoulder. Steve caught where her gaze had gone towards and saw Loki, now kneeling next to Jormungandr's body. He thought he caught the faint glimmer of a modular being placed on Jormungandr's chest, but could not tell. Turning his attention back to Sigyn, it did not take him long to come to the conclusion that the fire demon had been a part of Loki's coterie. She must have died when the coterie had first broken apart, but he would have thought that the dead did not linger on the living. It seemed Sigyn's action was contradictory of that.

"Finish your duties, Valkyrie. Whatever bound you to your coterie was shattered in death," Muunin suddenly said before a quiet pop rendered the air and the two ravens flew towards Loki.

It seemed that was all that Sigyn needed as she suddenly disappeared in a ball of flames, leaving Hel still holding them in their place and Thor looking torn between anger and guilt.

"The choice was made, and he could have sacrificed what was most precious to him, but he did not. He chose you," Hel stated before crossing her arms in a very childish manner, "I hope you are happy."

The caw of the ravens signaled the arrival of Loki as he saw Thor turn and take a few steps forward to meet Loki who was slowly walking towards them, Gungnir in his hands. He did not hear if words were exchanged between Thor and Loki, but saw Loki suddenly place Gungnir in Thor's hands, the ravens landing on Thor's shoulders signaling that Loki had truly transferred the weapon and command of the ravens to Thor. A bad feeling began to make itself known in the pit of his stomach as he saw Loki step back, the ever faint mischievous smile on his face.

The bad feeling exploded into dread as he saw Loki suddenly make a pulling motion across his face, as if he was draw the curtains away from something. Steve realized that the relatively hale, if tired looking visage was nothing more than an illusion. One that expertly covered up Loki's own struggle with the geas he had made with Thanos. Steve realized with a growing horror that when Asgard had been conquered, it was more than likely the same time Thanos had been freed and had begun to put pressure on Loki once more – echoing what had brought him to Earth three years ago in the aftermath of the Chitauri invasion. Whereas Sleipnir looked like he was drained of vitality and had a sallow look about him during his struggle with Baldr's geas on him, Loki's was more visceral – and it was one that Steve had seen before, three years ago on the Bifrost.

The familiar black stitches that ran a jagged criss-cross across Loki's lips had appeared, seemingly sewing his mouth together as blood congealed and fell from each painful stitch. His skin was peeling and flayed across parts of his exposed neck, face, and hands. Jagged slash marks oozed across his body, staining parts of his light armor and marring the color of his clothing. His hair looked stringy, almost unwashed and had an unnatural sheen that Steve realized was also blood.

"L-Loki...y-your-"

"A favor given is a favor returned, Hel," Loki did not bother addressing Thor's shock at the sight of his real persona and instead, stared at Hel who met his gaze with an equal one.

"As you command, my Prince," Hel replied before there was a feeling of incredible wrong as Loki traced a thin blue line into the air.

IwillnotfailIwillnotfailIwillnotfailIamtheTricksterGodIamLoki

He walked into it and disappeared from their view.

As soon as he was gone, Steve found that he could move again. But instead of moving, he could only stare at the spot that Loki had folded the shadows of Yggdrasil around himself. He knew that Loki had gone to confront Thanos, but the only question left was, at what terrible cost?

Author's Notes:

April 16, 2017:

Hooboy...let's see...

First, many, many apologies for not posting this in over a year. A lot of things happened since my last posting back in February of 2016. For one thing, I had yet another loss in the family in the span of three months that ultimately killed the muses for a while as I sought to cope with it. Then there was a big move and new job/promotion that stymied some of the long-term writing. I also got sucked into an original project that I'm working on so that took away from writing fanfiction. But since the release of the new "Thor: Ragnarok" trailer, I've basically decided that I will finish this story no matter what. Without further ado, I present to you, the last 3 chapters of this story and of the Trickster series.