Thor and Loki soared west across the Atlantic, chasing the setting sun until they were far ahead of it. Soon, the Statue of Liberty came into sight and the City of New York behind it. At the heart of the city, stood a building that towered over the rest: the Avengers Tower. Formally known as Stark Tower, the Avengers Tower was a sleek, glistening monument whose windows glowed in the afternoon sun.
Thor landed expertly on the large balcony but Loki stumbled a little after the sudden stop. He quickly regained his balance, however. Loki looked up at the Avengers tower with a combination of awe and vague recognition. Then, a look of utter shock and terror appeared on his face. This was the place where many of the horrible things he had done in his dreams had occurred. He had stabbed his brother in this exact spot. He had thrown Tony Stark, a.k.a. Iron Man out of those windows up there, he had staged an alien attack on the Earth from the roof of this New York skyscraper. Why had Thor brought him here? These people surly hated him. Why not bring him back to Asgard, to their home? Where everyone probably hates me just as much, thought Loki to himself. Maybe there was some logic behind his brother's motive.
Thor saw the emotions play across Loki's face. He knelt down next to him and said, "You will be safe here. I will not let them hurt you. I promise." Thor looked over his shoulder to see a figure approaching the glass doors. "Wait here, I must explain these recent events to my friends." Before the figure on the other side of the glass could open the door, Thor opened it first with such swiftness that he nearly ripped the door off of its hinges. Luckily, he did not even break the glass. Loki hid behind a ledge on the balcony while Thor blocked the view towards him.
"What's up Point Break? I thought I heard some thunder on this bright and shiny day. How's are things in Asgard?" greeted an overly enthusiastic Tony Stark. "Come on in Goldie Locks, Cap is cooking spaghetti tonight. I'll see if he's put aside twelve extra servings for you."
Tony led Thor inside where everyone in the Penthouse greeted him as well, leaving Loki hiding on the balcony. "Greetings my friends in arms. It is truly grand to see everyone once again," said Thor.
"So what brings you to Earth, Thor?" Asked ever-polite Steve Rogers, he was in the kitchen, starting to prepare supper for everyone. Clint was fiddling with his bow and arrow on the couch. Natasha was leaning against the bar counter, arms crossed, observing the room with a mild interest, making herself look as cool as everyone knew she was. Bruce was playing around with some scientific simulations on a starkpad.
Thor's expression looked troubled for a moment and then he uttered in a serious tone, "My companions, my friends, something has happened and I must ask a rather large favor of you. Now, please do not let the sourness of the past cloud your minds on this—"
"Sir," spoke Jarvis, Stark's AI, over the hidden speakers in the room. "My sensors detect that there is someone outside on the balcony."
A puzzled look crossed Tony's face. "Thor, did you bring someone here with you?" asked Stark.
Cursing to himself, Thor took a deep breath and took a step back to prop the door open. "I suppose you must come in now," called Thor.
The Avengers watched from their seats in the living room as a child's small figure came into view from behind the glass doors and stood partially next to and partially behind the large thunder god. He was dressed in Asgardian garb just as gaudy as Thor's only with a green, gold, and black color scheme. He was uncomfortably skinny with pale skin, black hair, and strangely bright green eyes. The boy was looking very unsure and glanced at the Avengers like they might rip him to shreds at any given moment. Natasha looked intently at the child's face, as did the rest of the team, and found something vaguely familiar about it. Clint, however, saw the familiarity in the kid's face and immediately and almost irrationally so, jumped to conclusions. I was far-fetched conclusion but not that far off from the truth. He sprung from his spot on the couch with his bow in hand and aimed an arrow strait between the young Loki's eyes. "It's Loki." Clint said in an even tone but with enough hatred behind his voice to make a possessed demon sound friendly.
All the team members in the room were now on edge. Natasha whipped out a hidden gun and pointed it strait at Loki. Steve dropped the cookbook and took his Captain America stance at once. Bruce, in the corner seat, immediately starts doing some breathing exercises so as not to unleash the Hulk. Tony, looking very upset and probably wishing he had his Iron Man suit on, just starts shouting "Loki! What? I thought you told us he was dead? Why the Hell did you bring him here?"
"It's gotta be a trap," cuts in Hawkeye. "He must be playing Thor or something." Clint drew his arrow back even further, hoping to soon get some long-awaited revenge.
Thor steps between Clint and Natasha's shots, shielding Loki. "I shale only say this once," Thor says with all of the intensity of a mother bear protecting her cub. He has Mjolnir gripped tightly in his hand, ready to throw it if need be. "Drop. Your. Weapons."
Natasha lowers her gun. Clint hesitates, not sure that he wants to get on the bad side of an immortal alien god of thunder, then decides to do the smart thing and lowers his bow and arrow.
"Thor, explanation, now," demands the Black Widow, her eyes showing the same fiery intensity spread across Clint's entire form.
Thor looks into the eyes of each and every one of his teammates, and then starts, "This is indeed Loki. Though, not the Loki you have known before. The Loki that you once stopped from attacking New York is dead. The child that stands behind me is Loki's reincarnation."
"You expect us to believe that?" Tony asks with more than enough skepticism for the entire group.
Thor continues, "Aye, It is true. It would seem that, before his death, my brother made a deal with Hela, ruler of Helhiem and the keeper of Asgardian Souls, to erase his name from the books of hell in order to cheat death. However, even he could not guess as to how these events would unfold. He is now a child with no magic and has no intention of repeating the transgressions of his older self."
"So you think that just because he looks five now that we won't hold anything against him?" Clint asks angrily.
"I'm elven." Loki speaks up for the first time. "I think." He then notices everyone's glares and looks down again.
"I brought him here because there are those in Asgard, Odin included, who would see fit to kill him upon first sight. I had hoped my friends on Midgard would be more understanding. I thought that you believed in second chances." Thor looked around at his teammates who still seemed quite unsure about the whole situation.
This isn't going to work, thought Loki. Well, they didn't call me Silver-tongued for nothing. It's time I take the stand. Suddenly Loki stepped forward from his protected place behind Thor. Clint looked on edge and Thor glanced nervously at Loki. All eyes were on him. "I do not claim to be an innocent child. I am Loki, and I did do all of those horrible things my older self has done. I am plagued by nightmares every time I go to sleep. I now realize that these nightmares contain memories and these memories are nothing short of experiences. I have wronged each and every one of you as well as countless others over the span of my past life. I will not ask for your forgiveness, because I am sure I will never deserve it. Nevertheless, I apologize. All I ask is that you give me a second chance to prove my sincerity to you. I do not wish to be become the monster that I once was. If I am wrong, if I stray from my path to do better, then I will agree to any punishment that you see fit."
The room was in silence. Everyone, including Thor, was in shock and awe at the words that had just left Loki's mouth. Finally, Captain America, who had stayed quiet for most of the encounter, spoke up, "Life can be tough. It usually takes more than it gives. Sometimes it takes so much that we're not left with anything but a curse on our lips and a whole heck of a lot of regret. Not everyone gets a second chance at life," Then Steve's expression toward Loki softened a bit, "Don't waist yours."
There was an annoyed grunt form Tony "Maybe you're forgetting Capsicle, but this guy through me out of a window. He wreaked New York and killed on a whim. I'm also guessing by the pissed off look of Katiniss Everdeen over there that he hasn't forgotten how Loki wound him up like a toy soldier."
"You got that right," said Clint. "Wait what did you call me?" he asked, looking over his shoulder at Stark.
"I say we give him a chance," said Bruce, looking closely at kid Loki.
"What?" exclaimed Clint, "You gotta be kidding me!"
"A chance with conditions," said Natasha. "Like a sort of probation."
Thor, looking pleased at the overall consent, then turned to Tony, "What say you Stark? These are your halls after all."
Stark looked sternly at the little trickster god. "Probation," he said flatly. "You don't leave this tower unless you are told to and you are with someone. You keep out of my lab and out of my way. I don't want to see any tricks and if you do anything that causes harm to anyone, I call Nick Fury and he implements his ant and boot policy. Got it?"
Loki looked at the inventor with a face that betrayed the slightest hint of hope. However, he kept his posture businesslike and extended a hand to Tony. "Agreed," he said. Tony looked at the outstretched hand for a while as if it might bite him then offered his hand to shake and thus, sealing the deal.
"So who want's some Spaghetti?" asked Steve.
They all sat around the dinning table in an uncomfortable silence. The tension in the air was almost palpable. Loki sat next to Thor and was shifting uncomfortably in his seat. Steve served his Spaghetti into every bowl at the table. Loki looked at the steaming pasta in front of him with hungry eyes. He hesitated for a moment, not believing that all this food was his. After a quick glance around the table, he saw that everyone else had already started. Loki quickly gave in to his starving stomach, shocked at how hungry he really was. He tried to maintain some semblance of manners such as eating with a fork and pausing to chew his food. Loki knew he was still eating to fast and this did not go unnoticed by the rest of the table.
"Slow down kid, the food's not going anywhere," said Steve. "There's plenty of seconds for everyone."
Loki snapped out of his ravenous eating and paused to take a breath. "Sorry," Loki apologized, looking down at his now practically empty bowl. Steve passed the serving bowl of Spaghetti down to him so that Loki could fill it up again. "I guess I haven't eaten in a few… days." He said the last word quietly, hoping they would let it go.
"Why is that?" asked Bruce. The doctor part of him began to see the thinness in Loki's limbs and face, the circles around his eyes. The kid was obviously malnourished.
Loki looked around at all the curious faces at the table. Thor glanced down at him with a concerned look in his eyes. Uncertain if he should share, Loki began to eat his food slowly. Finally he answered, "Before Thor found me, I was living on the streets in Paris."
"Paris? How exactly does this whole reincarnation thing work?" asked a befuddled Tony.
Loki paused, unsure how to answer the question. "I don't know much about the whole deal that my older self made or anything, but I do have a few memories that are just my own," said Loki. Before he knew it he just started pouring out his life story. "They found me half drowned to death in the Seine River after a large thunderstorm. I had no memories, not even my own name. They— the authorities— put me in the hospital where the doctors figured I was about ten years old. That's why I figure I'm eleven. It happened a year ago. I was in the hospital for a month. After nobody claimed me, they sent me to a foster home. I was there for about two months. Nobody really cared about us there. Kids ran away all the time. So it wasn't like anybody noticed when I did. I lived on the streets in Paris then. Mostly doing card tricks in order to pay for my next meal." Loki stopped and put down the garlic bread he had been eating. The food suddenly lost all of its appeal to him. He stood up and simply said, "I'm not hungry anymore."
"You just said you hadn't eaten in days," countered Natasha.
"Jetlag," was all Loki said before he walked out of the room, leaving the avengers in shock.
Loki just wanted to get as far away from them as possible. He needed to be alone. "Sir," Jarvis's voice rang out. "I am to inform you that your room you shall be staying in is down the far hall and on the third door to the left."
Loki heard the AI but did not acknowledge it. He hastily walked to the specified room and slammed the door behind him. Why had he just told them that? Why couldn't he have just kept it to himself? Why had he so easily let out the truth? He was the god of lies! Why had he so readily let slip his whole life's story? Loki hated it. He hated that he had told the Avengers the truth about his pathetic existence. He should just lie, stick to his nature and all.
Loki glanced around the room, taking it in for the first time. It was obviously just a guest bedroom, although, it was quite nice considering Stark's taste for the overly expensive. The room was painted gray and had a thick carpet underfoot. The window took up the entire far wall and was framed by thick red curtains. Through it one could see the New York City skyline along with all its bright lights and busy streets. There was a queen bed with red sheets that looked quite comfortable. A nightstand was placed next to it with a strangely modern looking lamp and a high-tech digital alarm clock resting on it. There was a dresser in the corner. Loki assumed that it must have been empty. A small desk and chair sat in the other corner. As a finishing touch, a piece of modern art that strangely resembled the cosmos hung on the wall. Compared to the dank allies that Loki was used to sleeping in, this place could have been the halls of Valhalla for all its luxury.
After he was done visually inspecting the room, Loki took off his gold circlet and hung it on the corner of the desk chair. He then pulled the black hood from his head, exposing his unkempt mop of black hair. He ran his fingers through his hair in an attempt to alleviate some stress. His hair felt rather dirty. Touching Mjolnir may have restored his memory and given him new clothing but it had obviously not cleaned the grime of the streets off of him. There was a door leading to an adjoining bathroom that was apparently all his. He stripped down and hopped into the shower. The warm water felt like heaven as it gently cascaded down his pale skin. Slowly, the water rinsed away all the dirt and grime which were the last remnants of Paris Loki had. Once he got out of the shower, he stopped and stared at his reflection in the mirror. He was skinny; there was no denying it. Despite not finishing his seconds at dinner, that was undoubtedly the best meal he had had in his lifetime. His skin was pale, but that is to be expected as he usually did most of his work at night and slept during the day. He realized his hair was longer than he had thought now that it was wet. It framed his face and then flared out a little on the ends. His eyes were such a bright shade of green that they almost seemed to glow. His eyebrows had a certain curve to them that made it seem like he was always being mischievous. But this did little to distract from the dark circles under his eyes. Now realizing just how tired he was, he dressed in nothing but his leggings and fell asleep almost as soon as he hit the bed.
Then came the nightmares.