A God's Reflection
Author's Note: A Marvel One-Shot set in Loki's POV, Post-Avengers but pre- The Dark World. Just something I thought up of.
Disclaimer: I don't own Loki or Marvel.
Humans, thought Loki, really don't know anything.
It was a strange thing to think, but seeing as he wasn't getting out of his prison anytime soon, he may as well think about something other than the people who had put him here. Besides, it was true; humans, in comparison to Asgardians, really didn't know anything.
Loki knew that there had been a time when they believed in gods and demons and magic, a time when they knew which worlds to love and which to fear. They knew about Asgard and the gods. Asgard had even helped Midgard a couple of times. The gods had been worshipped.
Then the humans started to turn away from Asgard, and eventually believed that gods did not exist. The once mighty tales of heroic deeds fell into legend, and then into myth. Magic was seen as fictional, and science prevailed – the humans, of course, didn't realise that they were one and the same. But despite this, Asgard had continued to watch over Earth – watching, but not intervening. Loki had asked Heimdall about them, and the answer was always the same – fighting over money and power and land.
Loki found the wars to be rather boring. In the end, nothing was really gained. Countless lives lost because humans were incapable of being decent to each other – of course, his idiot brother did not see war like that.
He thought about his brother for a moment – no, not his brother. Loki was adopted, so Thor was not his brother, and Odin was not his father. He had been shocked, at first; he had felt angry and betrayed. He was a Frost Giant – a creature that people despised. He had always known that Thor was the favourite, and then he knew why.
But in Loki's mind, the throne of Asgard was rightfully his. Thor was an oaf, he was not worthy of being king. He believed it then, and still believed it now.
He had said the same to the Chitauri. They promised to give him an army to conquer Earth in return for the Tesseract – a powerful and dangerous relic, which could either create or destroy.
Loki thought back to his failed attempt to take over Earth. In truth, he would have preferred to have done it his own way – not by causing destruction wherever he went. When he had appeared before the humans in Berlin, they had feared him. It was such chaos on Midgard – that was the Chitauri's doing. He couldn't act how he normally could, for they had threatened to kill him if he did not get the Tesseract, or if he attempted to strike out on his own. Loki – a master of magic, of lies, of deception; reduced to a destruction wreaking maniac simply because he had no choice.
Even when fighting Thor on Stark's tower, he wished that the circumstances were different. He wouldn't say he hated his...brother; he despised him, but he didn't hate him. Thor had still had hope, but Loki knew that the hope was gone now. Thor had asked him to come home, to stop the madness and the destruction – and Loki had looked at the burning buildings and wrecked streets. But if he tried to turn back, he had known that the Chitauri would come after him. So he had injured Thor and flown off to cause more destruction.
But the Avengers had defeated him anyway, using the Tesseract spear to destroy the barrier surrounding the Tesseract. He had been muzzled and brought back to Asgard to 'face justice'. Now he was imprisoned for life, condemned to spend the rest of his days in a cell, reading books.
Mind wandering back to humans, he wondered what they thought now. Again, their knowledge really wouldn't have expanded that much – they weren't that advanced to start with – but now they were aware that gods existed. He wondered how they would react. No doubt they would worship Thor and condemn him – no different to how it was on Asgard, really. But perhaps they would not be so ignorant about their place in the universe; some had believed they were alone in the cosmos.
He wasn't so sure about the humans – they hadn't learnt their lesson about using such power. Odin, for some reason, hadn't interfered when they tried to use it the first time; the second time had led to the Chitauri invasion.. But Loki couldn't really blame it all on them – only a fool would leave such a powerful relic in the hands of those who wouldn't know how to use it, and only a fool would let it remain there in a time when some humans would do anything to win the war, including stealing the Tesseract.
Maybe the humans didn't know much, maybe they weren't as advanced or as intelligent as the Asgardians. But one thing Loki couldn't help but admire – not all of them ran scared of those who tried to conquer them. Some would stand up and fight. Maybe they weren't all as ignorant or as fearful as he first thought.
Loki did not hate humans. He never had done – sure they were primitive, and some seemed to hate others, but he had never hated them. It was not his style to wreak havoc and destruction upon people, and he wouldn't have done if the Chitauri had not been involved. He may be a god of mischief, but he wasn't a monster.
He was a person. And despite what the majority said, there were still those who thought the same thing.
There was still a chance. He didn't realise it yet, but there was a chance of redemption.
And it would soon come to light.
End of story
This is a prequel of sorts to an upcoming story, and there may be some others.