Soo, sooo glad someone is reading this! C'mon, you could even tell me something (insults included, lol) , don't be shy *O*
however: if you see anything udated even after *years* it means that this time I'm going to complete it, I promise, even if no one should care ^^'
Chapter II: Guiding Light (?)
"Well, if you're done with your pathetic whining, I would say that we can go away from here." Loki said, opening the briefcase he was carrying and pulling out the precious contents.
"Hey, brainwasher, before you take us all to WeirdLand, at least wait a minute!" Tom raised his hand, with unusually authoritative attitude, so much that it amazed even Loki.
"You fucked my brain up; you had your fun, thank you very much!" The media-manager continued, in a mixture of cynical and sarcastic. "The point is that now you've caused a big trouble on the agenda and we will not move from here until I undo the damage you've done to me!" He concluded his tirade, impatiently, drawing his inseparable iPhone out, ready to deal with the proper people.
"Glen, it's me, for the charity night a big mess has happened, I can't give you the details, but you have to help me..." He began, and then moved away from his small audience, to be able to speak more easily while walking nervously back and forth.
Loki continued to watch him dazed, but in silence.
Matt and Dom had decided to reach their friend while he was talking on the phone, so Chris, left alone, walked over to Loki, deciding whether or not it was a wise move to give him a pat on the back.
"You think you're so Bossy, but you don't know our Tom!" the bass player chuckled.
"Maybe I shouldn't have ever set him free from my mind control!" the God of Lies muttered, making the bassist laugh.
Once the telephone conversation ended, the three returned.
"Now we can go there!" the photographer asserted.
"We're leaving because I say that we can go there!" Loki snapped.
"You, Bossy with the stupid name that I also seem to have for strange reasons, hold this thing and, you all, hold your hands until you create a circle. You, with beautiful hair, will give your hand to me," Loki instructed them, extending the handle of the Tesseract to Tom.
"Hey, I've already told you, my name is not stupid!" Tom muttered, holding hands with Chris who in turn gave his to Dom
"At least he knows your name. He has not even bothered to ask our names!" The blond groaned, before holding Matt's hand.
"I don't mind, actually I like to be called Beautiful Hair!" the frontman chuckled, taking Loki's outstretched hand.
As soon as the last contact was established, the device shone with an intense blue light that enveloped them all, making them vanish.
They reappeared in the glow of that previous blue light, but this time the scenario in front of their eyes was totally different.
The first thing that could not escape their gaze was a huge, majestic Golden Gate that marked the boundary of that wonderful kingdom.
Placed to guard the border there was an imposing figure, who scrutinized them with wary eyes, eyes that blended red with gold.
His innate suspicion was directed primarily to the one who, in a way or another, was part of that kingdom, indeed.
"Loki," said the keeper, with a solemn tone.
"It's heartening to know that you still remember my name, my dear old Heimdall!" Replied the younger god. "After all, I imagine that you cannot easily forget who almost froze you to death, huh?" He chuckled, digging the past up.
Heimdall did not even bother to reply, addressing to the visitors.
"Who are these intruders?" He asked.
"Do you think they look like Frost Giants, perhaps? Believe me, I have lost that bad habit!" the God of Lies replied with arrogance, while the four Midgardians watched speechless and motionless that frantic question and answer session.
"Who are they?" Heimdall reiterated, impassively.
"They are no allies from a hostile kingdom, if that's what you fear. They are part of the necessary equipment that I need to prepare the feast." Loki revealed, snorting.
"Hey, no one has ever defined us 'the necessary equipment'. For your information, you have seized a band that on Earth enjoys a worldwide success and-" Matthew pointed out, offended in his immense ego.
"Silence!" Loki and Heimdall snapped in unison, with the same annoyed tone.
In response, the proud frontman gasped and hid behind Chris, who he always considered his rock, his fortress and a refuge in which to seek shelter from unpleasant things.
And annoying two powerful gods went up right in the top three in his personal ranking of unpleasant things to defend himself from.
Dominic walked cautiously to the millenary guardian.
"Hey, man, you know, I have a drum-kit that has some golden parts. According to you, would I look as good as you with a golden outfit like yours? I have to tell you that it makes you seem even taller, not to mention how it sets those eyes off..." He said with all the aplomb that only a proper Englishman can have.
Heimdall merely glared at him so icily that even Dom ran right behind Chris, who at that time, more than the bassist of the band and their best friend was feeling more like the mother hen of those undisciplined troublemaker chickens.
Heimdall turned back to the young god.
"I do not like them!" He roared with his baritone voice.
"Oh, I do not like them, either, you can be sure of that. But I need them. It's rather different." Loki pointed scornfully.
"It's nice to feel so well liked when you are tourists in foreign lands!" Tom muttered sarcastically, as he already planned in his mind all the footage and photos that he would take at that place.
Chris wasn't even giving too much attention to what they were all saying.
He was making other important considerations in his mind.
- I haven't ended up splinched! Nobody has ended up splinched! Thank God! Well, thanks to my God, but a little thanks to this god, too, basically. – He pondered, patting his shoulders, arms and muscles, conscious of two petite presences huddled behind him, still in a state of semi-shock.
"What about my stupid, fake brother?" the God of Chaos resumed the conversation with the guardian, pretending disinterest.
"He's still around the Realms in order to find you. He has already patrolled two Realms." Heimdall replied.
"What a fool!" The brunet grinned. "Great. This gives me the right time for everything. Now, if you do not mind, I'll settle my necessary stuff here." He added, taking away his guests, or perhaps his hostages, under the gaze of the angry millennial god.
"Are all people so hospitable here?" Matthew asked Loki ironically, recovering from the shock and gaining more confidence in his actions.
"If you met mother, she would drag you to a feast of welcome that would be set up in your honor, and she'd fill you with all the delicacies possible, and would not accept any rejection!" Loki said with a smile.
"Well, then where is this gentle lady?" Chris wondered, since he felt a little hungry after all.
"It will not happen. Not tonight at least. Now I'm going to settle you in your rooms and I will make sure that you cannot get out from there to cause damage around!" the grumpy god of Chaos stated.
"You're kidding, right? I want to do a tour of the kingdom. There is so much to see here!" Tom protested.
"No, I'm not kidding. You shall stay here, good and quiet. I do not have time for you now and you need some rest. And most of all I need it!" Loki insisted. "I mean, we travelled through the Realms, aren't you tired by the trip?"
"Are you kidding me?" Dominic burst out laughing. "Do you have any idea of how many hours of plane or tour bus we have to face when we're on tour or have to release some interview? This has been a real godsend in comparison. I wish we could always travel so well!" he showed an electrified grin.
"I can't believe this!" Loki muttered to himself, while he crossed a path appropriately isolated, leading them to a complex of four rooms which obviously he must have had installed for the occasion.
"We only need one room!" Matt smirked, holding Dom's hip romantically.
The blond smiled sweetly at him and the two began to stare at each other like they always used to do, i.e. excluding the rest of the universe.
"Uh!" Loki winced, understanding... and also subtly envying them a bit. "Okay, just do what you please." He shrugged. "I forgot: if you try to go out you won't manage to do that, because I have limited your rooms into a magical boundary that you cannot cross, if not on my license." the clever god sneered, with deep disappointment from his four interlocutors, going to the exit.
"Loki?" Tom called him out.
"What else do you want?" The god turned again, rather annoyed.
"Don't you find it a bit strange? You told me that you left your Realm, you went to Stark Tower to recover your scepter." The photographer began to sum up, drawing the Asgardian's attention. "So in that place Tony Stark really existed, like the rest of the Avengers, I suppose."
"What is the damn point?" The beautiful god narrowed his emerald eyes so much to reduce them to two splits.
"When you arrived to the studios, looking for me, you ended up in a place where the things that happened to you are nothing but movies played by actors..." Tom went on.
"Actors who, for some inexplicable reason, look exactly like you, Thor, all the Avengers..." Chris remarked.
"It's true." Loki muttered.
"What can it mean?" Dom asked, intrigued.
All of a sudden, Matt was seized with a great lighting.
"Maybe the government wants to hide inconvenient truths from us. I mean, what happened has happened for real, but they generally brainwashed us, making us believe that it was only in movies! And the actors are not true actors, but... they're the real superheroes or super-villains." He paused, turning to Loki, who seemed to appreciate the gesture. "They only pretend to be actors. It's a genial cover, it's the perfect alibi. It's the queen of all conspiracies!" The frontman declared, gesticulating like a madman.
"I understand that these are the effects of a very tiring journey that you had to face and now you're delirious!" Loki figured out, looking at him with something very similar to compassion.
"No, Loki, no post-trip effect. He's always like that!" Tom rolled his eyes.
"If not worse!" Chris said, chuckling.
"Why don't you want to believe me? It's the purest truth, you should only open your eyes a little more and..." The frontman muttered, disappointed.
"Matteh, darling, you can't always find a logical explanation for everything." Dominic patted his lover's shoulder. "Sometimes logic does not exist, things just happen. Even in the most unlikely way." He continued.
"It's not true. There is always logic. In everything." Loki objected, becoming more thoughtful. "And now that I think about it better, the Tesseract had not the usual blue light when I landed in your town. It was a red light." He revealed, running a frustrated hand through his jet-black hair of medium length.
"Do you think that a simple change of light is so important?" Matthew sighed, annoyed at seeing so brutally mistreated what he considered the most brilliant of his theories.
"Yes. And it's very important. And I know who can help me understand something more. Assuming that the Tesseract could take me there again." Loki muttered. "Now, stay here and have your rest. I'll see you tomorrow and you will have to work hard." The fascinating, imperious god added, leaving.
"I think I will follow Loki's advice. As a matter of fact, I'm exhausted!" Chris yawned, waving his bye to his friends and heading to his room.
"I'm going in my room too, but more than sleep, I want to figure out if there is a way to connect to the web here!" Tom grumbled, drawing out his trusty iPhone and leaving as well.
Dom went into his room, which was the one that the two lovers had decided to share.
"Well, what can we do?" Matt asked allusive, reaching the soft bed with a jump, and then took off his jacket and shoes.
"We're going to sleep. What else would you want to do?" The drummer replied, following his example.
"What? Does it mean that you don't want to have planetarium sex?" The frontman insisted, rubbing himself against Dom, eager.
"Not tonight. And then I forgot my faff bag at home! I can only resort to a long beauty sleep and you won't prevent me!" The drummer imposed, resolutely.
"Listen, you can't stop the aging process forever." The brunet chuckled.
"Bells!" Dominic snapped.
"Relax. Look, if you get too angry you could get a wrinkle on your pretty face!" Matthew giggled again, as spiteful as a cat.
"I've had enough. This is the straw that breaks the camel's back. Get out of here!" The blond growled, knocking him off the bed and pushing him until he reached the back door.
"No, come on, Dommie, I'll be good, I promise!" Matt repented, reluctant to the idea of spending the night alone.
Whether it was a hotel room or a planet that until the day before he thought that it could only exist in the people's collective imagination, to Matt made no difference: he just wanted Dominic by his side. To feel his warmth warming his hands and feet that were always so cold, to feel the blond pushing against him in his movements during his sleep, to hear that oh so light snoring that was something tenderly childish, but mostly to watch him while he slept or to meet his smiling face a few inches from his, as soon as he opened his eyes the morning after.
Matthew longed to still have all this, but Dominic did not seem willing to give him that.
"Oh yes, you'll be good. I do not doubt about it. But you'll do it in your room, not here." Dom pointed out, pushing him over the threshold. "And for the record, Mattie, it's sex when I am with one of my occasional lovers or you are with your Hollywood diva. You and I only make love!" He pointed out, with wounded pride, before slamming the door in Matt's face and leaving his partner as puzzled as he was unsatisfied.
"No, Steve, it is useless to insist, I won't pay you a visit while you're on a mission." Tony muttered at the phone. "Yes, you're very brave, nope, you're not a hero only thanks to a laboratory test tube... and yes... I miss you too. And these statements you are extorting to me have a price you're gonna pay soon, especially the last one!" He murmured, sounding more persuasive.
"Sir, I'm afraid we have visitors." Jarvis interrupted them.
"I'll call you back." Tony whispered, hanging up. "Visits at this time of the day? Or rather late night? They must be of the unfriendly kind, am I right?" The billionaire figured out.
"Well, Sir, the last time he was here, you fell from the window, descending of a considerable number of meters." Replied the ingenious electronic device.
"Oh, him?! Really?" Its creator chuckled, surprised.
"Should I let him in? Also because he seems very determined to do it anyway." Jarvis warned him.
"Yes, go ahead. After all, I felt alone tonight!" The brilliant inventor shrugged.
A few minutes later, Loki made his triumphant entrance, with long and catlike steps, dressed as Tony had seen him in Stuttgart.
"Reindeer Games!" Tony greeted him cheerfully, making the God rolling his eyes, already irritated. "I hope you noticed right away that I did repair the window, so I'm not going to see the glass crashed again!" He added.
"It will not happen this time. It's hard to believe, but I have no hostile intentions." Loki smirked.
"You're right. It's hard to believe!" Tony stated, going to the bar. "Fancy a drink? The last time you were here you have not accepted it."
"And I will not accept it even this time." Loki replied to him, and then watched him a bit confused. "But... why do not you have any abrupt reaction? After all, it's four o' clock in the morning!" He muttered, puzzled.
Tony shrugged.
"What do you want me to say? I haven't slept properly for a long time." The Midgardian admitted, through clenched teeth.
"Nightmares related to Chitauri, huh?" The insightful god of Chaos figured out.
This time it was Tony looking at him bewildered.
"But you... how?"
"I've been there. To tell the truth, I'm still through it. I know how it feels." The Asgardian revealed
The two stared at each other empathically. It was strange to find something that both of them had in common. This made them feel somehow... tied.
So there wasn't need for further words on the subject.
"So, tell me why you're here?" Tony changed topic.
"First of all, to return this. I've told you that I would..." Loki said, handing Tony his scepter.
"Uh, very well. It seems that your mother taught you to keep your word!" Tony said sardonically, taking delivery of the fearsome weapon. "I'm beginning to seriously believe that this time you do not have hostile intentions. So, what's the other reason why you're here? And why did your Super Daddy let you free to hang around?" He questioned the god.
"He's not my father!" Loki growled. "About the other question..."
"… So now you want to know if your toy that travels in space is broken!" Tony summed up at the end of the god's report.
"Exactly." Loki said, handing him the Tesseract with confidence, for Tony to examine it.
"Well, I think that for this thing I'll need a consultation!" The Midgardian mused, pulling out his cell phone technology to open up a video conference with a particular person. "Before you ask me, he's in London right now, so no sharp reaction from a Midgardian who's awakened in the middle of the night!" Tony chuckled.
"Also because he's the last person from whom I would like to get angry reactions!" Loki muttered, restless.
"It still burns, huh?" Tony chuckled, waiting for the video-conference to begin.
"Hello?"
"Hey, Bruce, my dear Science Bro! It's me. You'll never guess who's here with me and what he needs." The brilliant inventor commenced, before giving him all the necessary information.
The two began a discussion with many of those strictly technical terms and language so scientific/physicist that Loki could not grasp even a tenth of what they were saying. And yes he had a thirst for knowledge.
However, he realized that they were talking about his Tesseract and it was enough.
"Yes, Bruce, that's what I thought too, but I still wanted your opinion. Thank you." Tony made the videoconference end.
"My dear interspatial traveller, I'll explain briefly what happened. When you took the scepter, you moved from your kingdom to this one, as you have done now... so everything is okay." He said and Loki nodded.
"But when you went in search of that band, to find them you ended up not only in their kingdom, but even in their dimension, which is parallel to ours. It's just there that you would have found them. You made a journey within the journey." He explained.
"Oh. I knew that the Tesseract was very powerful and had infinite potential, but... to cross dimensions!" The beautiful god commented in awe.
"Yeah. It seems that your toy already knew what you needed, even better than you." Tony winked at him.
"I don't usually do this, but... thank you... abnormal heart!" Loki muttered, pointing to the blue light coming from the middle of the human's chest, making him laugh.
"Not so fast, Reindeer!" Tony stopped him before he could return to his kingdom.
"What?" The Asgardian frowned.
"What's this issue that you have landed in a dimension where all our duplicates are actors?"
TBC
Notes:hope you enjoyed it, more craziness to come XD