Chapter 6

Imagine Fire

What deal? Should he have answered him? Who knows? What..? Did the double speak to him? Impossible. They're simple-minded illusions, created for no other purpose than to fool anyone he chose to. In this case he thought it was the simple minded fooling him. To hell with it.

"I am prince Loki."

"A prince?" Coulson raised his eyebrows, arms crossed but he seemed genuinely interested.

"Correct. I suppose to you, one that belongs to an unknown world."

"We know of no life as complicated as our own on other planets..." Coulson started but paused, changing his tone to a more questioning one. "Does that mean you're suggesting that other people know of your existence?"

Loki started to relax and panic at the same time. Evidently the double had said something but he hadn't said anything too compromising. This would make things simpler if he had sewn his mouth shut.

"None of your kind. My world was surrounded by other planets inhabited by different species." Loki brought his hands above the desk and began to twiddle his thumbs nervously.

"Was? It... Why are you here? I think what I am trying to say is... What happened?"

"War." Loki answered blankly. Too quickly he thought for a second taking in Coulson's shocked reaction.

"War?" Coulson frowned, drawing away from the table slightly. "Forgive me. We have long had our ideas of more advanced civilisations and we have almost always pictured them as perfect."

"We were. We were peaceful, generous and kind. Others were... jealous of our ability to share, to move on. We weren't always so perfect. We were once alike, our enemies and I. We separated from their beliefs along with their barbaric traditions. They formed their own governments as we did ours. Similar though we may seem on paper, we are totally different once encountered on the battle field."

Coulson leaned forwards, craning his neck towards Loki and training his eyes on his reaction. "Is that a threat?"

He didn't reply. Loki's blank expression aggravated Coulson and he squared out his shoulders, breathing heavily as he raised his voice. "Have your enemies followed you here? Do they pose a threat to Earth?"

Loki's eyes dropped down and focused on the table before he looked up at Coulson through his eyelashes, then gestured with them towards the door. As Coulson turned his head, the lab door clicked shut behind Thor who had been holding it open, trying not to disturb them. Loki had always known Thor was there, hadn't spoken since he sensed him. Coulson however, clenched his fists, face going red while he hit a button on the small device, then turning to Thor with his hands on his hips. From his face, he looked angry but his voice portrayed him no more than just inconvenienced.

"Thor, could you wait outside for a minute? I won't be long."

Thor maintained eye contact before reaching for the door handle and letting his eyes wander to Loki, his grin evident even from that distance. He stood in the corridor, back against the wall, hearing the door click shut again and waited.

Coulson walked out two minutes later. He hardly acknowledged Thor, just nodded to him as he passed him, walking briskly down the corridor and into the lift. Thor saw he was shaken from his interview with Loki; thrown off his balance and missing the look of confidence and control. He had always been the controlling type, but so was Loki.

"What did you do to him?" Thor shot Loki a shocked and confused look but he ignored him, now sitting on the table again, chairs back in the lab, head down and knees drawn up to his chest, his arms loosely draped over them. Thor sat down as his desk, lent his arm on it and turned to Loki, waiting for a reply.

"I think he knows."

Thor's hand slipped and sent a few papers cascading to the floor.

"What?! Us?" Thor panicked, heart racing as he saw Loki straighten his legs and push his hair back.

"No, not that. Something much worse." Loki's voice was dry; his mind seemed on something else.

"Is it to do with those creatures? With Cavanah?"

He paused, clenching and unclenching his fingers. "Yes." His voice sounded deeper now, the previous joy in it gone. He looked up, shoulders hunched over. "Except this time, it's closer than I thought."

When Coulson had it in his mind that he was right, he had been known to completely look past etiquette and manners. Such were only useful when you didn't have the answer, or in his situation, when you weren't sitting on a possible gold mine of secrets. He did however respect privacy... to a certain extent. He knocked three times of the door and immediately entered, not bothering to wait for a reply.

"Sir." He closed the door and walked to Odin's desk, who looked shocked as he froze, watching Coulson take the seat opposite him and place the recorder in front of him.

Odin briefly looked down at it then back up at Coulson. Phil sighed, fidgeting with the device as he spoke. "With regards to he subject sir, we have made some interesting developments."

Odin's eyes lit up and he nodded, edging closer to his desk, his back straightening. "Continue."

Coulson pressed a few buttons on the recorder. Before the playback began, he softly said, "The beginning is very simple. Introductions mostly, but what interests me is his remark at the end."

They both fell silent and craned their heads in, hearing the tape begin; a slight echo effect audible as Coulson and Loki's voice sounded. They reached the point in the tape where Coulson paused it and waited for Thor to leave. The tape resumed shortly after. The sound of fingers tapping on the desk was faint before Coulson spoke.

"I'll ask you again. Do they pose a threat to us?"

"Not to you, but possibly to people you know. Their reputation is to kill anything they dislike, but they have been known to act... ordinary. Irrational for their kind."

"What exactly are you implying?" Coulson's voice was impatient. The recording was silent until they were able to hear Loki sigh, followed by some interference on the tape.

"That those who are in danger are blind to the destruction ahead; the torment to come and the abominations that are to be committed. But also that they will feel an overwhelming sense of confusion. This is because to them it is not truly new... they have already experienced this and survived. And even though there is more at stake, they know that they are safe, their loved ones are safe, and that they will always be protected."

Odin quickly glanced at Coulson, the sound of a chair scraping against the floor echoing before the tape cut off. Coulson leaned back in his chair as he reached for the recorder. Odin snatched the device up before Coulson could and held it up while he examined it.

"I would like to hold onto this for a while, if you please."

Coulson's mouth gaped while he slowly stood up, hands gripping the arm rests as he did so. Odin continued.

"I would like to play it back a few times. See if there's something we might have missed."

Coulson shrugged and nodded, disguising his disappointment with a sigh. "Of course sir."

He turned to leave. With the handle of the door held down, Odin spoke up again.

"And Coulson? I think for the mean time, it's best not to inform anyone else of this."

Coulson grinned, his back to Odin and replied through gritted teeth. "Don't worry, sir. I won't."

Odin walked shyly into the lab, noting Loki as he approached Thor's desk. He leaned over his shoulder and whispered in his son's ear.

"Thor would you leave us a minute?"

Thor got up from his seat and clapped his father lightly on the shoulder as he passed him. 'Uh, of course." He spoke quietly, giving Loki a cautious glance before leaving.

Odin fidgeted with his hands as he carefully walked towards the cage; Loki standing perfectly still, no emotion showing but feeling anxious and slightly vulnerable, not knowing how Odin would react or how he himself would act to him. His eyes followed Odin until he reached the cage door. Odin held his gaze with him until he stepped away from the door and instead stood in front of Loki, only the thick glass between them. Odin tilted his head to the side and opened his mouth. No sound came out; if there had been, he would have stammered. He breathed in and glanced down at his feet before his looked back at Loki, his stare much softer. Loki felt comforted by this.

"Do you view me as blind? Or as a survivor?" Odin's voice was uneasy, not as powerful and demanding as before but he still held himself tall up against the cage.

Loki closed his eyes and held his hands neatly in front of himself.

"I am unsure. Clearly you understood my message."

"So you did mean it for me?" Odin blurted it out, surprising himself as well as Loki. "It's strange, I thought I recognised you. My memory is clouded but... you don't seem like I pictured you. Now I'm not so certain it was you." Odin hung his head, supporting his weight against the glass.

Loki walked forwards and towered over him behind the glass.

"No doubt you've had flashbacks. Something that doesn't feel real enough to be the truth or distant enough to be false."

Odin raised his head and Loki noted his teary eyes, how lost they seemed.

"You associate that night with horror and me as the cause of your pain. What you fail to remember, was taken from you." Odin stood up straighter, broadening his shoulders as he took up a defensive stance.

Loki held his hands up, trying to seem as least threatening as he said, "What happened to you and Thor was tragic. In a way it was cruel to impose so much sadness on someone his age. But it was the kindest of sadness. It could have been so much worse."

Odin kept glancing to and from Loki, still supporting himself on the cage, his rage mellowed slightly.

"He doesn't remember alot of his time with her. He was too young to remember all the happy moments we had as a family. The only one he has a chance of remembering was the worst of all. You say I am missing something? Something from that night?"

Loki looked down at Odin. That time in the field he had stood tall and brave with Thor in his arms among the long grass, their house ablaze in front of them, Loki walking off into the distance. That would be one of the last true memories of Odin's.

"Yes." He nodded, running his hands down his face as he tried to find the softest of words. "That night, Frigga died in a fire caused by creatures that had been chasing me for some time. I regretted landing where I did the moment I saw your house; but I knew I was in no shape to leave so I told myself I wouldn't get involved, I wouldn't stay." He turned his back on Odin and walked to the back of the cage. Speaking so softly now that Odin could barely hear him, "I failed you... again. I'm sorry."

Odin furrowed his brow as he saw the torment and guilty look etched on his face. He went back to the cage door and entered. Loki sat down on a bench at the back of the cage and bent forwards, resting his head on his knees, wrapping his arms around his head. He barely looked up as Odin knelt in front of him.

"I don't think you did." He mumbled, not looking at Loki as he spoke, his mind elsewhere like Loki's was. "Me and Thor survived. In a way it made us stronger. We can fight them."

Loki looked up at Odin. He seemed empty while Loki felt physically drained; his body aching and a shiver reaching up his spine. Odin continued, his voice still timid.

"I never remember asking you for any promises," He looked into Loki's eyes; their colour lighter due to his tears, "but I don't doubt that I did."

Odin knelt in front of him and held his hands in his. Loki blinked away his tears as Odin looked at him, the same look, Loki remembered, that he had comforted Thor with when he was young.

"If I asked you to protect us forever, then clearly I was stupid to think I could expect that from one man. What I ask of you now, I hope will relieve some of the tension between us."

Loki took one of his hands away to dry his wet cheek. He placed his hand back in Odin's and smiled faintly as he continued.

"I ask that you tell me what took my wife and my son's mother, our home and our lives."

Loki relaxed in his seat and felt proud that even though he had gone through so much, that he could still be peaceful and calm. Odin loosened his grip slightly, feeling panicked at Loki's silence.

"I promise to release you. No matter what. Even if you can't tell me. I'll see you get to go home." He saw the sorrowful look in his eyes and dropped his gaze, speaking softer. "I'm sorry. I forgot."

Loki smiled, pushing aside his sadness and rested his hands on Odin's shoulders. "Yes... You seem to forget alot of things."

Odin quickly looked up, confused and perplexed until he smiled, realising. He got up and sat next to Loki on the bench, his vision blurry from his own eyes welling up with tears. Loki let his head fall back and hit the cage's wall, taking in a deep breath while staring at the ceiling. He waited until he thought he could feel the frustration and anticipation from Odin, eagerly waiting for him.

"You're right. You were stupid." He kept his head against the wall as he tilted it to the side. Odin was sitting up but still managed to share in his smile. They laughed together as Loki reminded Odin of the time he landed. They didn't say it, but they both felt like their laughter and joyfulness was disguising the terror they felt, Odin feeling more and more vulnerable as Loki mentioned his past encounters with the monsters from his previously forgotten past.

Thor lay in bed, unable to sleep, lost in thought. Both admiring the pattern casted by the moon over the wall and engrossed in the memory of a strange and peculiar dream he had woken from. Seeing the digital clock change to 1:47, it came as no surprise to him, that the bed shifted and he felt a warm hand slither under the covers and rest on his hips. Thor spun and was greeted by Loki's striking green eyes; usually a sight stunning enough to take his breath away, but he felt numb to his features. It made Thor realise just how off the dream had made him.

Loki frowned at him, his lips curling at his amusement at Thor's odd expression.

"In advance I do apologise but... what has you so bothered? Also," he punched him on the shoulder, "you let me in the lab."

Thor's room had been silent for so long that Loki's words made him jump slightly. He sniffed and nestled his head into the pillow, keeping an eye on Loki.

"Nothing, just a dream."

Loki scooted down the bed and nestled into his pillow, their bodies now parallel; their faces so close, they could feel each others breath against them. Thor sighed and placed his arm around Loki's middle, playfully pulling him closer to him.

"It's strange. I've never even seen anyone like her before."

"Her?"

Thor nuzzled his head further into the pillow, his words muffled. "A woman with long dark hair… braided and tussled over her shoulder. She wore red and silver armor and was standing in a darkened room."

Loki listened intently as Thor continued, his speech slurred because he was tired. He closed his heavy eyes as he continued.

"Suddenly the room glowed, amber lights on the floor it seemed. Next minute, the room's on fire and that's when I wake up."

Loki tightened his grip around Thor's waist. He yelped slightly as he opened his eyes but his playful mood dropped when he saw Loki's expression wasn't what he had expected. He gave him a pondering look. Loki edged closer to Thor as he wrapped his arm further round him, kissing him on the forehead before rolling over and turning his back on Thor.

"Just a dream."

Thor stared at Loki, his chest rising and falling gently. He lay flat on his stomach and muffled into his pillow. "Sweet dreams."

Loki kept his eyes open long after Thor had started snoring. "Nothing... just a dream." He whispered.

So sorry this took like 2 weeks to complete. Not entirely happy with it but I hope it is good enough. I do promise to try and get these out quicker. If anything I'm forgetting my own plot while I'm not writing. Please review and tell me how you think it's going so far.