Loki's words died away without an echo. He breathed deep. As king, Thor would have heard Loki's challenge easily.
Still, for the first time in over two years, Loki stood within sight of Asgard's glittering golden towers, and he gloried in it. Overhead, the galaxy turned, glittering stars suffusing the nebulae around them with fantastic colours. All around him the waters roared as they hurled off into nothingness. He was home.
And there, streaking towards him through the air, Mjolnir leading, was Thor.
Landing on the pier, Thor stood facing Loki, face blank.
Loki took in the sight of his brother, dressed in his armour and ready for battle, helmet now gold instead of silver, but otherwise the same as it had been on that day of Thor's coronation. When his brother had been brash, and joyous, and – though he'd rather have died than admit it – nervous.
Loki's throat grew tight, and his heart ached. "Nice feathers," he said, barely keeping his voice steady, remembering how they used to tease each other about their respective helmets.
Thor's expression hardened. "Do not pretend, Jotun, to be my brother."
Anger rose. "Well, forgive me for having had no idea about being a Jotun. Father didn't exactly take me aside and let me know aaall about being a monster. In fact, it wasn't until you brought your conquered slaves to Asgard, the better to show off how strong and fearsome you are, that I even met a Jotun."
"So, that was when you replaced my brother. How long did you torture him before you killed him?"
Loki gaped. Words actually failed him for a moment. "Re- replaced? Is that the fairy-tale you've concocted now? Come on brother, even you can do better than that. Show some imagination, oh, wait, I forget, that was always my job."
"My brother is dead," Thor hefted Mjolnir.
"It's me!" Loki yelled, rage and helpless frustration pushing the words out, "It's me you thickheaded ham-handed oaf! There is no other Loki!"
Thor's face grew red, his jaw set stubbornly. "You expect me to heed your lies after you killed my father, monster?"
"I didn't kill Father!" Loki yelled, frustrated beyond tears, but here there was the barest room for doubt. He didn't actually remember Thor striking Odin down, he could only infer it from the chaotic bits of memory he retained from the fight, when Thor had chanced upon him in his Jotun form as he sat by Odin's side. He wouldn't have- He was sure... but if it had been an accident…..
Thor was twirling Mjolnir. "I will see you dead, Jotun, and avenge my father and brother on all your kind."
Thor attacked, Mjolnir swinging in with an overhand blow. Loki brought Gungnir up to block automatically, but still the force of the blow drove him back into the Bifrost chamber, sending him tumbling over the low dais. Right, no more blocking, Loki thought muzzily.
Thor stalked into the chamber after him, grim as death. "I see now that the only thing you Jotuns understand is force," Thor said grimly, picking up Gungnir from where it had clattered to one side. As Loki pushed himself up, stunned and breathless, he saw Thor slot Gungnir in, activating the Bifrost.
"What- what are you doing?" Loki wheezed.
"Opening the Bifrost to Jotunheim." Thor left Gungnir in the dock, Mjolnir whirling again in quiet menace. "Now, die."
This time, Loki didn't try to block, as he had nothing to block with. Doing his best not to be where Mjolnir was, Loki drew Thor back out onto the pier. Loki called on his old standby, his throwing knives, but he knew that without Gungnir, he was in trouble. And Thor was fighting in earnest now, not talking as he lunged, swinging Mjolnir with deadly intent. Still, Loki had to try and carry out his plan.
Loki, too, was silent, avoiding Thor's attacks. Again and again Mjolnir struck the pier with ringing blows, Thor growing ever more enraged.
Behind them, the Bifrost roared ominously. Loki dodged left, Mjolnir flying past him. Why would Thor open it to Jotunheim? Loki twisted out of Mjolnir's way as it returned to Thor's hand. And why was he leaving it open? An overhand strike, leaving another dent in the pier. Why-
"You'll destroy Jotunheim." Loki realized, stopping dead. "Thor!"
Mjolnir struck him dead in the chest, sending him skidding and tumbling away on the pier. It was madness. The resistance had no base close to the Bifrost site – no need to make it easy for Thor's forces – but Thor did. There was an outpost there, a garrison manned by Aesir and Alfar to secure the Bifrost site. That had to have been destroyed already, and the damage would be spreading. It would spread until it consumed the entire world.
"Thor, you can't, you can't-" Loki rolled onto his back, trying to get his breath back.
"Why not?" Thor asked as he placed Mjolnir square on Loki's chest.
A wind whistled by them, air swirling towards the roaring, searing nexus of light that the Bifrost chamber had become.
Thor laughed, long and loud, exultant. "All your tricks and lies, and what good are they to you now, creature?" He had to yell to be heard over the deafening roar. Thor took a few steps backwards to better appreciate his handiwork.
Loki lay, stunned. Mjolnir pressed him like a mountain, driving the breath from him. Jotunheim and everyone on it would be destroyed. The Vanir and their humans. Stark and his assistant. The Jotuns who had fought alongside Loki. Laufey who had pledged his support. Even the timid little Svartalfar scribe. On Svartalfheim, thousands more would die for naught, for Loki's brilliant plan.
And it would be all his fault.
Loki half groaned, half sobbed, hands going to Mjolnir's handle. The leather was warm under his palm, damp from Thor's sweat. Loki wrapped his hands around the handle of the hammer he had never been able to even shift – and raised it up.
It was like carrying a sun. Awkwardly Loki rolled to his feet, moving around Mjolnir more than with it and not daring to let it touch the ground for fear that he wouldn't be able to lift it a second time. The mighty hammer almost dragged his arms out of their sockets, bowing his back and straining joints and muscles until Loki thought his chest would collapse as his arms frayed and snapped. But he couldn't stop, driven by some madness that others might call loyalty, and his legs staggered forward bringing him closer to the Bifrost chamber. He dared a glance over his shoulder and saw Thor, dumbstruck and staring, unable to comprehend what Loki had just done, and was still doing.
Arms trembling, Loki let the wind sweep him towards the Bifrost, cloak whipping around him. The pier was pocked and crumbling from Thor's previous blows, but it yet held.
Loki bit back a sob, feeling the crumbled crystal beneath his boot. Mjolnir was raised over his head, although he had no memory of lifting it and could no longer feel his arms.
Behind him, through the scream of wind and the pounding of his own blood in his ears, he thought he heard Thor yell, but it was too late to stop him, and Mjolnir came down with the weight of a thousand worlds on the weakened, cratered crystal.
The pier shattered. All the energy being fed into the Bifrost through it, backlashed.
Mjolnir was ripped from Loki's numb hands, and both he and Thor were flung up, up and back. And then down again. Thor caught hold of the ragged edge of the pier, but Loki had been further out, and tumbled into open space, hurtling down after the Bifrost chamber.
"Grab on!" echoed in Loki's head, and he landed on fur, hard. Desperately he clutched at Hogun's black mane with deadened fingers as the Svartalfar demon ran through the air as if on land.
Thor's roar of cheated rage echoed out over the waters as Hogun turned and made for land. Loki kept his face buried in Hogun's fur, utterly spent.
"Over here, I've found a crack into Yggrdasil!" Hyouki's voice came. "Hurry!"
Loki managed to turn his head. Thrym was there, holding tight to Hyouki. Clutched to his chest like life itself was the Casket of a Thousand Winters.
Behind them, he could hear the Vanir swearing harshly. Then the chill of the space between worlds enveloped him as they slipped through a crack in reality, and it was almost more than Loki could manage just to hold on.
The Bifrost was destroyed, the Casket retrieved. They were victorious this day. But all Loki felt was empty.
