Loki woke to the tapping sound on his window. He had been sleeping better these last few nights, but, as fate would have it, there arose another issue. During his slumbers, Loki constantly got the feeling that someone was watching him. He always woke just as the tapping sound from his window stopped. However, when he awoke this night, Loki saw what had been tapping on his window. A black bird that resembled a raven but with a white chest was flapping his white tipped wings, hovering just outside the window of Loki's Avengers Tower room. A magpie? Thought Loki, quick to identify the type of bird. The magpie tapped his beak on the window a few times more then flew over to where Loki suspected the windows to the living room were. It was strange, but Loki felt the need to follow the mysterious bird. He got out of bed and headed for the living room. The magpie rested upon the railing of the balcony outside, the starless night of New York City spread behind it. Hoping he wouldn't trigger any alarms, Loki stepped out on to the balcony. "What is it Mr. Magpie?" he wondered out loud, keeping a steady eye on the bird.

The magpie fixed his eye upon the boy and squawked out one word. "Loki." Then the ground fell beneath Loki's feet as darkness enclosed all around him. The closest thing Loki could describe the feeling to was from his faded memories of going through portals. He fell into blackness that seemed like it would go on for an eternity. Then, with a jolt, Loki crashed upon a floor he did not see coming. After such a long fall, he was shocked to find that he was all right. He realized that going through the portal had also put him in his Asgardian green and gold cloths. He pulled himself off the ground and turned around to face a stone pedestal with a shining gold helmet on it. The helm supported two large protruding horns and Loki immediately recognized it as the favorite accessory of his older self. Sitting atop the helm, resting between the two horns, sat the magpie.

"Hello, Mr. Magpie," Loki greeted the strange bird.

All of the sudden, bright green light shot up all about Loki and spiraled together to create the form of a man. Loki's eyes widened with terror. Standing before him, shimmering like a ghost made of glowing green light, stood none other than the adult Loki himself. "I am Loki, whose tongue was an anvil where the sharpest lies were forged. I am Loki, whose whim brought you here. I am Loki, who you must not trust," stated the ghost with pomp and arrogance.

The young Loki was quick to gain his wits. "What are the chances?" he said with his best poker face, "I'm Loki too. We should be the very best of friends." Loki paused and looked at his surroundings. A ring of green flames encircled Loki, the ghost, and the magpie upon the helm. Beyond that, there was nothing but darkness. "Where am I? What are you precisely?"

"I am the echo of a scream. This room is hidden behind a whim, buried in a daydream, covered in bad thoughts and malice," replied ghost Loki. "It is my message from me to you; from me to me."

Kid Loki fixed his gaze upon the adult Loki's ghost. "Then speak it, elder-self. I know the tale of how you died. Explain what puzzles me so. After you brought destruction to Asgard, you scarified yourself to save it?" Loki questioned.

The ghost Loki gave kid Loki a playful stare. "Is that right?" he asked his child-self with a quizzical tone.

Kid Loki thought for a moment, and then said, "No, it's not." Loki looked strait into the chaotic green eyes of his own ghost, tying to riddle out his scheme. "If you wanted to live, you would not have brought destruction to Asgard if the first place. You could have avoided battle all together. You chose to die. That means you wanted to die. That means you needed to die. There is only 'why?'"

Adult Loki smiled. "There is only one who Loki would sacrifice himself for."

Then, kid Loki began understood some of it. "You sacrificed yourself… for yourself?"

"I am a god of chaos. I must be unpredictable. It was clear to me that I had lost all my illusiveness after so many a year being that that I am. I had to evolve into something new. I wrote myself out of the book of death. I slipped predestination's noose. All I had to do was cut myself off, though not fully, from what would become my new body for a time. After a glorious death, I would be found or find my way back. A new Loki: a fresh page with fresh ink to write a free future." The ghost Loki looked upon his child-self's new form with hungry eyes.

Kid Loki pondered these words for a few moments. "You went into oblivion with nothing but the hope that there was something out there?" Loki questioned. "Or that someone would show you the path home?" This plan seemed like a long shot. It may not have worked at all if it had not been for Thor's sentimentality.

"The people of Midgard have a saying: change or die," said ghost Loki cryptically. "I would rather die than not change. I would rather be nothing." His look of spite morphed into a mischievous grin. "Thankfully, it did not come to that…"

It was at that point that Loki fully understood his older-self's ultimate plan. "You want my body, the body of a child, a clean slate so as to throw off all your suspecting enemies and cross those who's trust you've gained." Loki was enraged beyond all doubt. He would not be a pawn in this twisted game played by none other than his twisted self. He stood up strait and stated with defiant clarity, "You can't have it."

Ghost Loki looked amused. "Foolish boy. I am you. You cannot escape me. You are no different from me."

"I am you," Loki admitted. "But unlike you, I will change." Kid Loki's face was set in stone. With all the authority he could muster he declared, "I am now Loki."

"You fool! You cannot exist without me. I am part of you're soul. If I die, so do you." Ghost Loki stated, thinking he had won with a checkmate.

Loki closed his eyes. He could not allow his evil self to win. He reached deep inside himself to some sort of inner strength in order to overcome his older-self. Loki's eyes shot open. He felt it. He had found his magic. Emerald eyes aglow with defiance, he shouted at the ghost, "You are done. You are gone. You are now Ikol, my opposite, bird of mine, pet supreme. You are an ear-whisperer and a worm-eater," the green ghost of elder Loki morphed back into the form of a magpie. "You'll tell me what I want, and nothing more."

"Yes, master," squawked Ikol in his magpie language that only Loki could understand.

"Good." Loki had Ikol perched upon his forearm. "Let's get home."

With a flash of shimmering green light, Loki and Ikol reappeared upon the balcony of the Avengers Tower. The sun had come up in the time Loki had been gone, and shone upon the city with early dawn. Loki hoped the Avengers had not noticed his absence. But upon walking into the penthouse, Loki was greeted by stern stares from each of the Avengers who had seen the flash of green light from the windows that signified Loki's return.

Well this certainly won't be an easygoing morning. Loki thought.

"Loki, where did you wonder off to?" asked Thor.

"Yeah, and speaking of wondering off," started Tony, who could never let his words on any topic go unsaid, "I thought I made it clear you weren't allowed to set foot out of this tower by yourself." Tony was fuming, but then he saw the bird perched atop Loki's shoulder and became even more enraged. "And what's with the crow?" he asked exasperatedly.

"He's a magpie," corrected Loki. "And I didn't set foot out of the tower. In fact I never technically left it."

"Then were the hell did you go?" asked Tony, not wanting to get sucked up into Loki's twisted reasoning as excuses.

Loki pondered how to answer this question for a moment. Then said, "I guess the closest thing to what I was in would be a pocket dimension."

"A pocket dimension? Really? And how did you get there? Did you're little bird friend fly you there?" asked Clint sarcastically.

"Actually, funny you should mention that…" said Loki.

"Oh come on!" exclaimed Hawkeye.

"Loki," Captain America stared him down, "we want the truth. What happened to you and why do you have this bird?"

Loki paused. "You wouldn't believe the truth." The Avengers would probably dismiss it as another lie. Even Loki himself could hardly believe what had just happened to him. But then, what if they did listen to what he had to say? Would they think him in league with his older-self? After all, that was the adult Loki's plan all along: for kid Loki to be his new tool for trickery and deceit.

"Humor me," said the captain.

Loki took a deep breath and then started, "I was taken to a pocket dimension by means of magic. I did not intend to leave the tower. I was brought there by the ghost of my older-self, the Loki you all know and hate. He explained to me how this reincarnation thing was just another play in his many schemes. He tried to fully merge his portion of our soul to mine, making me no different than the evil Loki of the past who destroyed New York and all. However, I refused him access to my body and bested him with magic. Knowing that killing him would only cause me to kill myself, I transformed him into a magpie." Loki gestured to the bird that was sitting atop his shoulder, watching every action that came to pass with beaded black eyes. "Everyone, this is Ikol. He is my opposite. I enslaved him to me. Ikol only tells me things that I want to hear." The bird squawked, and Loki gave Ikol the evil eye.

The avengers just stared at the two with blank faces. "He was right," said Tony, "I don't believe him."

"It doesn't matter if you believe me," stated Loki, "because it's true."

"If that bird really is the son of a bitch that mind controlled me," said Clint, pulling out his bow and quiver, "then what's to stop me from putting an arrow strait through its heart."

"No! Don't!" Loki panicked. He tried to shield Ikol with his body.

"You're gonna defend him?" demanded Hawkeye, pointing an arrow strait for the bird."

"Weren't you listening?" asked Loki, exasperated. "I hate him as much as you do. But if you kill him then you kill me!"

Hawkeye looked from the bird to Loki and back again. He lowered his bow. "Fine," Clint said at last, "just keep that dam chicken away from me."

"Kid if your gonna keep that… thing here," said Tony, "I don't want to see one feather in my building. If that bird shits on any of my stuff then he's got to go."

"Don't worry," said Loki. "Ikol will do anything I tell him to do." The magpie squawked defiantly in Loki's face. "Though I'll admit, he's got a bit of an attitude problem."

"Then he must really be you," quipped Clint.

"Ha ha, you're hilarious," said Loki sarcastically, "But for now…" Loki walked over to the glass doors that lead to the balcony. He held one open. "You can leave." He said to the magpie. Ikol squawked once more. "Just go," said Loki, annoyed with the bird. Ikol leapt off of Loki's shoulder and flew away into the early morning sky.

Stark looked at the kid curiously. "Could you get any weirder?"

"Be carful what you ask for," said Loki, heading to the kitchen for some breakfast.