Chapter Six
The Confrontation
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The Bifrost set her down in a city on Midgard this time, rather than the wide desert of Jane Foster.
Sif reached for her hilt as she turned, looking for threats and for Loki. She saw neither. She'd arrived in the darkness of the city center, grand buildings on the four sides of the paved square. Only a few people were about to see her arrive - some scrambling away, some staring in confusion. Sif ignored them, knowing Loki had to be close or Heimdall would not have set her here.
The building with the hanging banners was lit up brightly, music drifting from open doors. Since it was the only sign of people she started up the steps.
She'd climbed only a few when the music changed for screaming, and frightened people were suddenly pouring out of the front doors.
Ah, Loki, what are you doing?
She ran up the steps, shoving the wrong way through the panicked herd and to the main doors. She grabbed the two security guards with their projectile weapons and shoved them outside. "You can't help. Stay out of the way." They seemed to want to protest, but they heeded her authority, and she rushed inside as the last of the crowd cleared out of the grand hall.
She saw Loki right away and her step hesitated. She hadn't quite believed he was still alive, and yet there he was. He wasn't unchanged, though. Loki usually was conscious of his hair, since he'd always despised how it curled, but his hair looked strangely lank as if he hadn't paid it any mind since slicking it back. He was wearing some kind of Midgardian suit, though he had finished it with a green accented cravat and a long black coat as if he was unable to resist looking like himself even in other clothes. He was holding a mortal across a marble table, some unknown weapon at the man's head.
"Loki, what are you doing?" she called. "Stop this."
His head snapped up. He was first shocked to see her, then a grin spread across his face, malicious in its mockery. "Sif! So lovely to see you!"
"Let him go!" she ordered, and pulled her blade from its scabbard.
"In a moment," he answered, gaze flicking down to the terrified mortal he was keeping still with a casual ease. "There, all done." He grabbed the mortal's shirt in one fist and flung the mortal to the floor, and he lay in a heap. Loki tossed the device after him, straightening. In his other hand he held a short staff with a glowing tip - it looked like nothing Midgardian as it transformed into a thicker curved golden haft with a claw-like blade encasing a glowing stone.
"What's that?" she asked nodding to the staff.
He lifted it. "My scepter of rule." He didn't look at it, though, keeping his attention on her warily.
"Rule of what?"
"Midgard." He answered as if the answer was obvious. "You've come at the start of my reign. How fortunate for you to be here on this day I begin to bring order to this rabble."
"You can't possibly mean that! Rule Midgard? Why would you want to?"
His hand tightened on the staff and his eyes narrowed at her. "Because I will be king," he hissed at her in sudden sharp fury. "And no traitors will keep it from me, this time."
She rocked back, as if his words had physical force, and he stalked toward the main doors without another glance at her.
Racing after him, she was only a handful of paces behind him, when he whirled back around and pointed the scepter at her. It glowed brightly but not as brightly as the gleam in his eyes. "Stay out of my way, Sif! You can tell All-Father Odin I'm done with him. I have my own path!"
The staff fired a bolt of energy that tore up the paving at her feet, but she threw herself through the explosion and found herself untouched. Her sword blade slammed up against Loki's staff.
For a moment, they were frozen still, taut with the force pressing against each other's weapon, a few steps away from each other. She stared into his eyes, wondering where Loki was - this stranger looking out was someone else.
Abruptly he disengaged and ducked beneath the arc of her blade, as she staggered briefly in the absence of something to push against. She attacked again, the staff catching the blade again. She could have reversed and hit his open side, but she let her blade hold against the staff. He didn't continue the attack either. "Loki, what are you doing?" she demanded, looking into his eyes. For a moment, the blue depths held a desperation in them, meeting hers, as if he was looking for something in his turn. But he didn't find it, the openness flipping back to anger.
"Taking what should have been mine by right," he spat at her.
"There is no right in this!" she told him. "Look around, Loki. This isn't right! None of this is right!"
He sneered at her in disdain. "Still Odin's pet. He does no wrong, and I do no right, isn't that your way? Isn't that what's meant to be?" He slammed her blade aside with a sudden move, and moved back out of her reach. "Don't interfere in my plan," he warned and turned for the doors.
"Where's the tesseract?"
He stopped still and turned back around, grin now a rictus on his lips and his gaze cold. "The tesseract? Ah, so that's why. For a moment I thought-" He laughed bitterly. "If I'd known I could get the old man's notice with it, I should have taken it centuries ago. But I don't have it," he told her. "You wasted your time."
She was losing; she could feel it. There had been a moment she had seen Loki truly, but it was fading away. He thought Odin had sent her to retrieve the tesseract.
"That's not why I came!" she exclaimed frantically.
He stopped where he was, facing away from her, and for an instant, she considered throwing her sword in his back instead of revealing this to him, with this strange and vicious mood he was in. "Do tell." He turned slowly, lip curling in scorn as if he expected some ridiculous story. "If not the tesseract, why?"
Faced with his coldness, she swallowed hard and lowered her blade. "You… have a son."
He blinked and his mouth came open in sheer surprise that she would say such a thing, then he laughed. "Me? I've read the mortal tales, Sif. None of them are real."
She held his eyes. "It's true. You and I have a son."
Though she should have known he wouldn't believe her, it still hurt when he froze, eyes flickering with racing thoughts, and then he hissed, "Liar."
"I'm not lying!" she protested. "It's the truth. Please, Loki, listen. He's from that night in Vanaheim."
He chuckled in scorn. "Oh, it was? That night in Vanaheim was some months before the farce of a coronation. You would have known, but you said nothing."
"I didn't tell you, because I didn't know how. I didn't know what I was going to do. I'd only known for a few days, and then - everything fell apart and you died."
He was not persuaded by her explanations in the least. "Do you expect me to believe," he stalked toward her, face white with cold rage, "that you not only lied to my face and betrayed me, the rightful king, but you did so carrying my child?"
"Because it was all wrong! Because I knew you'd set it up. There was no one but you who could have brought the giants in, it was all your scheme! You were the betrayer, planning to seize the throne!"
His eyes, pale as stars, glared into hers. "My only plan was to show the All-Father what a reckless hotheaded idiot Thor is, and the only result I expected, was for him to slap Thor on the wrist and rescind the coronation. How could I expect more than that, when Odin had never punished him for anything? My dream was for Odin to realize I'd be a better king, but that was always a trick he played on me. Poor foolish boy who thought he was a prince, and found out he was nothing," he sneered, mocking himself. "Worse than nothing. Alone and forgotten until he dares to take something for himself. And now you come with this pathetic appeal trying to take it from me again!" He swung his staff wildly but settled again into bitter anger, walking away. "Well, I don't care. Take your phantom child and leave me alone. If it even exists, it's Thor's anyway," he shot at her over his shoulder.
She said steadily. "He looks like you, Loki."
Loki turned back. "Oh really? Like me?" Loki asked in a silky purr, stalking back toward her. "Black hair, pale skin, blue eyes?"
She understood then why he was so convinced she was lying; because he didn't know that she knew about the secret. "Yes, like you," she answered and lifted her head. "Black hair, skin the color of a winter lake, and scarlet eyes."
Loki went ashen, lips parting, and the staff nearly dropped from his hand. "What? I don't believe you," he whispered, but it was plainly hollow denial. "No, you would never - they would never -" he said harshly and turned away, shoulders stiff and hand tight on the scepter. "They told you. No. You would never keep such a monster."
"His name is Ullr, and I will fight anyone who calls him a monster," she declared.
Loki shook his head in disbelief, retreating away from her and the doors, heading backward across the tile. "No, no, this is a trick, a lie. You and Odin and Thor, you made this up to hurt me. There's no baby, there's no son, it's impossible! All you want is the tesseract. And to take this Realm away from me, because Thor gets everything, and I get nothing!" He shot another blast out of the stone of the scepter, but it went wild, tearing up the stones to her left. It wasn't near enough to make her flinch back, but she was unsure whether he had missed her deliberately or not.
"No!" she exclaimed and tightened her hand on her hilt, forcing herself to be calm. He was already overwrought, if she was also, this was going to end poorly. "Would you listen? We want you to come home, Loki. Whatever this is-" she gestured to the man on the floor and the gathering crowd outside, "is doomed. You know it. You're angry and upset, and I understand that, but this is not the answer. Come with me and see Ullr. He's real, Loki, I can prove it. He really is your son. You'll see - he's not a monster." She added quietly, holding out her hand to him, "And neither are you. Not if you come with me and stop whatever this scheme is. Come home and be a family with us."
His gaze dropped to her hand, and for a moment, she feared he would reject her offer. Then he looked her in the eyes and warned quietly, "If you mean to entrap me-"
She felt tight and anxious suddenly, though she knew all she was saying was true. If this went badly, Loki would never trust her again.
She shook her head once. "I don't. I give you my word. All I want is for you to see Ullr, so you'll know."
His gaze flicked to the glowing stone, jaw working and eyes flicking in uncertainty as if his scheme was in balance with Ullr's existence. He wanted to go, that seemed clear, but something made him hesitate.
"Loki, please," she entreated and put her sword away, holding out both hands now, empty. "Come away. Leave this place. There's nothing we can't fix yet, nothing broken beyond repair. Thor still loves you, your parents still-"
"They're not my parents," he interrupted sharply.
She wanted to object to that, but perhaps it was better for the moment to leave it alone. "If blood matters so much, then come see your son, who is of your blood," she told him. Frigga would be there, though Sif hoped she would be wise and let Loki see Ullr first, or he would think this was a trick.
Loki clenched his jaw, cheeks hollow, and for a moment, in the tightness of his face she saw the creases deepen around his eyes and his forehead, lines of stress and fatigue that hadn't been there before he'd fallen. As if centuries had passed for him, not one year.
But he wasn't arguing or objecting so she took it as agreement. "We'll go outside, and I'll call for Heimdall…"
Loki looked toward the main doors, as the sound of loud music and the deep thrum of some sort of engine interrupted. He seemed to expect the noise, glancing again at the stone of the scepter as if it held answers.
Then he shook his head once to clear it and lifted his face to hers, a grin on his face. "Who needs the Bifrost when I have a better way?"
"You have another way to get to Asgard?" she asked, incredulous. That was impossible, unless he had a ship with a star drive and surely Heimdall would have seen that a long time ago.
"I do. Take my hand and I can open the path."
He held out a hand toward her, but she hesitated, doubting the sudden recklessness in him. She'd seen him in this mood before, when he'd made up his mind to do something and he would let the consequences fall wherever they would, no matter how risky.
He laughed once. "Don't trust me?" he taunted. "You want me to see your helpless tiny baby, but you don't trust me to take us to Asgard my way?"
"If you hurt him, I will kill you," she stated it as a fact. While it was true, she regretted saying it as he drew back.
His hand fell back to his side, smile vanishing. "You think so little of me?" he returned, brows drawing together in hurt. "You believed I would murder the king, now you think I want to hurt your child? Perhaps it's best if I stay away then." He stepped back from her, expression closing into a mask, and he lifted the scepter again. "I have some new friends to meet and finish this farce."
"No, wait!" she exclaimed and ran at him. He leveled the scepter at her in warning, but she kept moving forward, until the point touched the fabric above her breastplate.
"You play with forces you do not understand," he warned in a murmur and didn't lower the scepter, but nor did he try to do anything with it. She could feel the point quivering against her. His hand must be trembling, which was something she had rarely seen. Loki usually had very steady, deft fingers.
"No, I don't," she admitted. "I don't understand what's happened to you. I don't understand why you should care about ruling Midgard, when you didn't before. But I don't believe you would hurt him. Please, take us to Asgard, Loki." She reached out slowly, her eyes holding his, and her hand laid over his on the haft of the scepter. His skin felt cold under her touch, but the tremor stopped. "Come meet your son."
His gaze flicked again to the doors, and the sudden smile at something he saw there, made her look as well. She saw a man in a tight-fitting multi-colored suit, carrying a round shield with a star on it.
"Surrender!" the human called. "The building is surrounded!"
Loki laughed at him, this time in true amusement. "Oh, is it? In every dimension? Foolish mortal." He gestured with the scepter to the side, and the air twisted and parted like a cloth shredding, to reveal a blank dark space within. "My lady, shall we?"
"Stop!" the mortal shouted and she glanced at him, as he hurled the shield at them.
Sif might have knocked it aside, but Loki caught it, smirking at the mortal's surprise as Loki grabbed it in one hand. "Another time, Captain Rogers." Loki threw the shield back and stepped inside the tear in space. Sif followed, as the tear was gone as if it had never been.
And they were in Asgard.