'He is alive!' was Laufey's first astonished thought when he heard. No one had ever been known to come back from the Void, the timeless nothingness that kept the realms separated. How had he done it? What kind of amazing trick was this?
The fact that Loki intended to wage war on the humans of Midgard with an alien army, did not trouble Laufey nearly as much as it did the Æsir. 'Stepping into your sire's footsteps, are you boy?' he thought with some dark amusement and an odd ache in his heart. Maybe he would even be successful where the King of Jotunheim had failed. Without the Bifrost, Asgard was unable to interfere this time.
Though apparently there were other ways to reach the distant realm. In an incredible display of power, Odin sent his son Thor to Midgard himself, with instructions to bring both Loki and the power source known as the Tesseract back to Asgard. Wielding so much magic however weakened the Allfather, leaving him looking even older and more tired than before. He really had to be desperate to stop his adoptive son.
There was nothing to do for Laufey but wait. Frequently he went to see the construction site of the Bifrost, to check on the progress, which was still dismally slow. He continued to visit Heimdall for news from home, only now he was asking for news from Midgard, as well.
The situation on Jotunheim was still tense, and Laufey feared the outbreak of a civil war was imminent. It could mean the end of them all, dying people that the Jotnar already were, but it was hardly a surprising development, given their violent natures. Even at the best of times the king's control had been a fragile thing. Sometimes he wondered what had kept it all together for so long... his sheer desperation and ruthlessness maybe.
On Midgard Loki was apparently leading the humans on a merry chase. At one point he got himself captured, but escaped soon enough, leaving chaos and destruction in his wake. These days humans were said to be a more advanced race than all those centuries ago when the frost giants had tried to conquer them, yet they were faced with powers far greater that anything they had ever seen in their short lives. Laufey doubted they would prove a great challenge for Loki and his army, even with Thor backing them up.
But then there came the unbelievable news that Prince Thor and his human allies had gained a great victory over Loki and the Chitauri (and according to Heimdall, most of the credit didn't even go to Thor). The crown prince was expected back any day now, with his captive wayward brother and the Tesseract.
And Laufey did not know at all how he felt about that. Somehow it had been easier to accept the truth about his first born child when he had believed him dead. A dead man could do no more harm to his people, nor could he hate them. A dead man perhaps could even be forgiven, for he had already paid the ultimate price. Loki however was very much alive, and probably still full of hatred and desire to hurt the Jotnar, most of all the sire who had abandoned him as a babe. Neither could Laufey forget the feeling of helplessness of feeling his realm dying while life was about to leave his own body, lest alone forgive the trickster for it.
So when Thor and Loki returned, he fully intended to keep his distance. Whatever sentence the Allfather decreed as punishment for the prince's crimes, it was none of his business. He did not want to see his lost son again – only more heartbreak could come out of such an encounter.
However there was no getting away from the palace gossip, and soon he (and everyone else) knew that Loki had been sentenced to lifelong imprisonment in the dungeons. Laufey did his best to ignore this knowledge - yet found that he could not. Loki was on his mind whether he wanted it or not, even when not awake. His sleep was being plagued by nightmares, most of them featuring manic princes, dead worlds, and blue babies. And blood. Always blood for some reason. Blood on black ice, blood on dead blue skin, blood in the sunless sky... it was everywhere and he could never escape it.
His time on Asgard was coming to an end - with the Tesseract in the Æsirs' hands the Bifrost repairs were finally progressing. He was still expecting consequences for attempting to murder the Allfather in his sleep, so when Odin summoned him to a talk, Laufey went with some trepidation. As it turned out however, Odin only wanted to reinforce the old peace treaty between Asgard and Jotunheim, that had existed since the latter's defeat. The terms were as bad now as they had been then, but Laufey was in no position to renegotiate. Grudgingly he agreed, relieved that his people would have to pay no greater price for his folly. He was prepared to leave, never to return, and put this whole unfortunate business with Asgard behind him, including the son that was no longer his.
But then another rumour began to circulate the palace... that Odin had not just simply sentenced Loki, but had also disowned him. It was said that he wasn't even really the Allfather's son, that he was only adopted. No wonder he had turned out the way he had! After all, bad blood would always show! Though nobody seemed to connect Laufey to the boy, therefore that particular detail about his parentage had apparently not leaked out yet.
When the King of Jotunheim heard the rumour, he couldn't help but laugh. "If it is true, you are a fool, Odin." he muttered to himself. Loki had once held the lives of two kings in his hands. He could have chosen to kill them both if he so wanted, but he had only gone after his birth father, proving that he was Odin's in all but blood. Laufey doubted the Void had changed him so much that this was no longer true. What would the Allfather hope to accomplish with such an act, apart from driving the boy way? Did he expect Laufey to come forth and claim his disgraced offspring, to take him off Asgard's hands?
His curiosity got the better of him. On the eve before his departure to Jotunheim he found himself treading down the steps to the dungeons in the company of a guard, the Allfather's written permit clutched in his hands, doing what he had fully intended not to do. He wasn't even sure why.
It was not hard to discern Loki's cell. Where all the others were bare and devoid of anything, his contained a number of commodities so as to retain some modest luxury - and to show everyone that this prisoner was the son of a king (which he was either way, even if it was only a king of a dying world). There was of course also the cell's resident to set it apart. Such was his presence that Laufey's gaze was drawn to him even before he glimpsed the interior. Loki was lounging on the bed, his nose buried in a book. He did not appear to be aware of anything else around him, but after a moment he put the book away and gracefully got up, walking nonchalantly towards the glass that separated him from his visitor. The two of them eyed each other.
Nothing about Loki's appearance connected him to the Jotun child Laufey had once left at the temple. Outwardly he looked everything the Æsir prince he was pretending to be: pale skin, dark hair (few Jotnar actually had hair), sharp, intelligent, blue-green eyes. His height while average for an Æsir, would be considered small for a giant; some would even call him a runt (but really his shortness wasn't so surprising given Farbauti's lineage – and not unusual for a sorcerer, which he was said to be).
Loki's initial expression of surprise quickly changed into one of contempt, lips curled disdainfully, as he regarded his sire. "And here I hoped I had killed you." was his greeting.
Laufey carefully kept his expression blank. "It takes more than that to kill me." he said. Some had tried over the years, believing him fallen from grace after the Casket's loss or hoping to gain power through his death (both in a few cases). They had all been disabused of these notions. Jotunheim still needed Laufey. She would not abandon him so easily.
"I see you haven't come to join me." Loki remarked, taking note of the single guard in Laufey's company. The Allfather's generosity had not gone quite so far as to grant him complete privacy. No doubt every word between him and the prisoner would be reported back to the king. "Such irony," Loki mused, "The monster who would have seen Asgard's downfall is permitted to roam freely, while the one who would have been its saviour is locked away."
A sardonic laugh escaped Laufey. "What saving did Asgard need? Did you truly consider us a threat?"
"You did declare war on us." Loki pointed out.
"Empty words to appease my people. Without the Casket there is nothing we can actually do." And wasn't that a bitter truth! "But you are already aware of that, are you not? You knew exactly what to offer to ensnare me in your trap... the two things I desire most: the Casket and revenge."
"It was all too easy," Loki admitted with a careless shrug, "My plan was working perfectly and would have succeeded had not my brother interfered at the very last moment."
"Your brother," Laufey murmured, and for a strange confused moment he was not thinking of the thunderer but of Helblindi's empty eyes, the last he remembered of his son. There had been no way to return his dead body to Jotunheim – he was not sure how the Æsir had deposed of it, nor did he want to know.
A sour expression appeared on Loki's face. "Asgard's perfect golden prince. I'm sure you remember him."
So there was some resentment there. Laufey filed that information away. "Prince Thor is not easy to forget.", he remarked.
Loki snorted. "Yes, he certainly tends to leave an impression." He fixed Laufey with a shrewd glance. "Does it gall you? To owe a life debt to Asgard's crown prince? To your enemy?"
It did gall him, but the King of Jotunheim would never admit this. "I owe him much more than that", he said gravely, "Tell me, trickster, did you ever consider the consequences of your actions? Did you ever think of all the lives you were going to destroy? A whole people, a whole world..."
"A world of monsters!", Loki sneered, "One that will remain a threat to all realms for as long as it is allowed to exist! Why should I care about any of your kind, Jotun! Why should I regret what I have done? Do you think you can appeal to my conscience, my humanity? You who would go to even greater lengths to wipe Asgard off the World Tree?"
While Laufey had suspected this, it still left a bitter taste in his mouth. Odin had really done a great job of poisoning Loki against his own people!
"No," he said, "I am not here to appeal to your conscience." There would be no point, for the boy probably had none.
"Why are you here then?" Loki demanded to know, "Do you wish to assure yourself that the evil prince is safely confined and won't try to murder you in the night? Have you come to taunt me? Or is it vengeance you want? I hope you are not expecting an apology! That would be a waste of both our time!"
Why had he come? Laufey still had no real answer. He considered the boy, his blood, his first-born, trying to find a trace of himself in him to no avail. 'We are both prepared to do all that is necessary.' a traitorous inner voice whispered, the part of him that had agreed with Loki's assessment that he wanted nothing more than to see Asgard annihilated. He quickly stamped it out. They were nothing alike! Still...
"I know the truth," he said at last.
"The truth about what?"
"About your parentage."
Loki stiffened, clenching his jaw and balling his hands into fists. There was an odd green glim in his eyes as he regarded Laufey. "The truth," he hissed, "So Odin has told you. I am sure it was an unpleasant surprise to find out that the undesired runt has somehow survived, nurtured by your enemy to be a thorn in your side!"
That stung, but Laufey tried to ignore it. "It is why you tried to kill me, isn't it?" he pressed instead, "Why you tried to kill us all. To rid yourself of what you must consider a tarnished bloodline, a family of monst..."
He stopped talking when a flash of green light erupted from Loki, smashing into the walls and furniture, breaking most of the latter into pieces. Suddenly he was very glad about the enchanted glass between them.
"Do not presume to know me or my motives!", Loki snarled, eyes shining madly, "You of all have no right to judge me!Any unfortunate connection between us was lost when you abandoned me to death! Having the same blood meant nothing then, therefore it does not mean anything now! You've seen what an asset I can be, so you come here, hoping to gain from this revelation, to use me against the Allfather as he would have used me against you. But I will be a pawn no longer, pushed around as others see fit! I will take what is owed to me and no one is going to stop me! No one else is going go use me for their own gain, least of all some monster who sired me by some cruel trick of the Norns! My fate is my own!"
Laufey stared at him silently. Strangely now he recognized himself in this haunted, beaten, angry creature. 'We are like cracked ice you and I,' he thought, 'damaged, but not yet broken.' However he could not afford to feel sorry for Loki. This was no son of his – the boy had made it more than clear - and he fully deserved whatever punishment was dealt to him.
"You also presume." he said in a low voice, "But you do not know me or my motives, either. What gain would I seek from you when you have brought me nothing but pain and distress? My son – who would have been your brother – is dead because of you. I nearly lost my life and my realm to your machinations. You are nothing but trouble, Loki Liesmith and I would sooner ally with a fire demon than ever rely on your assistance again!"
"So why are you here?" Loki asked coldly, "What do you seek?"
Laufey's fallen world flashed before his inner eye, now a gloomy wasteland of ice... dark and cold... lost. He remembered the temple, the fear, the desperation, the loss of innocence... death. And suddenly the answer came to him, for it was what he had been seeking all these years, ever since that day that brought ruin to everything he had held dear.
"Hope," he whispered, "I came seeking hope. Because you lived when you were not supposed to. Because you lived when everything else died." But there was no hope here. There was no hope anywhere. He slowly shook his head. "Coming here was a mistake."
Laufey didn't wait for a reply, he just turned around and left without another word. He never looked back.
I'm not sure whether Odin disowning Loki is canon or not. Apparently he does so in the Dark World prelude comic, but not in the movie. So I included it as a rumour, and you can decide for yourself which version you prefer.
Both Loki and Laufey have given me some trouble in this chapter. They simply refused to cooperate, and it's totally their fault if some parts of their 'talk' seem forced. I think they would have been perfectly happy to pretend the other doesn't exist and to never see each other again. Alas, the plot demanded otherwise.