Chapter One – Intruder

Loki's eyes snapped open. He was lying in bed, gazing up at the canopy overhead where an image of Yggdrasil was woven into the fabric, its threads glimmering faintly in the dark. He noticed his fists were clenched, balled tightly as he clutched at the sheets, but otherwise it seemed he had slept calmly. The only outward evidence of the nightmare was the tension in his muscles and his quickened breathing, which was gradually returning to a normal rate.

The dream wasn't new to him. It hadn't bothered him for a while, but it was one he'd had before, although he'd forgotten how vivid it could be. Still, it was nothing more than a dream. He wouldn't let it shake him, especially not now he was no longer imprisoned and he'd succeeded in assuming control of Asgard. It wasn't worth affording attention to when he had to focus his energies elsewhere, such as keeping the glamour of Odin in place. Sometimes he could maintain it while he slept, although tonight appeared to have thrown him. He shouldn't even be sleeping at all, ideally, if he was to keep everyone believing that he was Odin, although that wasn't always easy. He was still weakened from his near death experience on Svartalfheim - which had been a closer call than planned - and that combined with maintaining the constant illusion was draining. Every few nights he'd order some privacy after daylight hours just so he could grab some brief rest, and it wouldn't do to have nightmares disturbing that. Although it seemed that wasn't something he had much control over.

Letting out a long, slow breath, Loki wondered if maybe getting some air would help. It wasn't as if he needed it to live, but the effect of breathing it could be calming. He tried to sit up, with the intention of heading over to the balcony, but as he did so he felt something sharp prick at his throat, forcing him back down.

He felt a weight shift on the bed beside him, and then a voice hissed from somewhere above his head. "Loki Laufeyson?"

So, there was someone is his room. Someone invisible. Who was holding what felt like a knife to his throat. Well, that was disconcerting.

"Who's asking?" he retorted calmly. "I don't normally hold conversations with thin air."

In response there was a ripple of purple light above him, which flickered and receded as a humanoid form solidified into view. The figure was kneeling over him, holding what he could now see what was some kind of short spear to his throat. It was clad mostly in lightweight armour and its facial features were obscured behind what resembled a Chitauri helmet, but Loki could see some pale grey skin mottled with blue on its neck and in the spaces between its vanbraces and shoulder armour.

"Thanos wishes for you to know your failure will not go unpunished."

Considering the dream he'd just had, that was also disconcerting. The coolness of his reply hid how quickly his mind was working. "Well, if you were planning on killing me in my sleep, waiting until I woke up wasn't a very good idea."

He couldn't see anything behind the mask, but he imagined the creature was snarling at him. "Were you to die in your sleep, your suffering would be inadequate."

"We wouldn't want that," he remarked drily in response to the vicious words, and then the creature growled as it shifted the aim of the spear and jabbed it towards Loki's right shoulder.

It never made contact. Instead the tip sank harmlessly into the mattress, and a brief flash of light glimmered around it as the projection receded. The real Loki rolled off the bed in the opposite direction, hand swiftly reaching under the pillow to grab the knife concealed there, and then turned back to face the creature that had been sent to kill him. "How did you even get in here in the first place? I'll have to have a word with the guards about that."

"Invisibility has its advantages," it replied, before lunging at him with the spear again, which he dodged and then tried to slash at its exposed neck with his own blade, but he was too far away.

"Do you even realise how late you are?" he challenged it, dodging more of its attacks as he realised how ineffective his knife was going to be against the longer ranged weapon. "New York was a year ago. I'm King of Asgard now. You don't want to make an enemy out of me."

That caused it to pause, hesitating mid attack. That opened up an opportunity for Loki to strike back at it, but he held his ground, curious to see what it would it would do next.

"King of Asgard? How?"

"Well, I've managed to make everybody believe that I'm Odin, but the official story is that I'm dead, which does make one wonder why you're attempting to kill a dead man. Where have you been living this past year?"

The helmet was obscuring its facial expressions, although Loki could imagine how pissed off it looked, even if he wasn't too sure what exactly its face looked like.

"There was only a narrow crack left in the universe after the portal was closed, and it has taken me a long time to claw my way through it. I find now that things were not as I was expecting." Its tone sounded curious, and it had lowered its weapon into a less aggressive stance.

Loki shared a similar sense of curiosity, and he lowered his own knife and tilted his head as he examined the creature further. "You're not a Chitauri, are you?"

Its capacity for conventional speech had been indication enough, but other than the helmet and its general form, it didn't much look like a Chitauri either. That made him curious as to what it was and why it had been sent.

"Sending a Chitauri whose life force is linked to the mothership would have been a disadvantage. I may not be a Chitauri, but I shared their fate in their entrapment between the worlds."

He gave it another curious look. "Then what are you?"

It didn't answer. Instead, without warning, it raised the spear and lunged at him again.

Again, he dodged, but seeming to have anticipated this the creature simply discarded the spear and continued moving forward, raising its other hand in which it brandished a blade to slash at Loki's face. Taken by surprise, Loki only just managed to twist out of the way and felt blood trickle down his cheek as it grazed his skin.

Backing away, he glared at it and gritted his teeth. "Now I'm curious. What colour do you bleed?"

It was he who initiated the attack this time, retaliating by jabbing forward at the exposed spots on the creature's upper arms and throat. It parried and counter attacked effectively, but not well enough to prevent a well timed cut from Loki slicing the skin on its right arm. He heard it hiss in pain as it recoiled away, a gold coloured fluid welling up from the cut, and he smirked in satisfaction.

"Do you really think this is wise?" he questioned it, even as it tried to resume its attack. "The world believes Loki is dead, and now I rule Asgard. Whatever you think you can achieve by killing me is nothing compared to what I could give you."

"You have made such promises to us before that you have broken," it snarled, unrelenting in the way it continued to strike at him, and he could feel himself tiring from dodging and blocking the attacks.

"Don't be a fool," he spat at it, "How was anyone to know how powerful the Avengers were, when even they themselves didn't realise? Your people asked me for the Tesseract. The Tesseract is on Asgard. I can still give you what you want, and more."

He hoped that his attempts at reasoning would be successful, and it seemed that they were. The creature paused again, but knowing it could resume at any point Loki kept his weapon raised.

"How?" it asked.

He didn't answer immediately, taking a moment to assess the situation. It seemed like a simple creature, taking orders presumably from Thanos or the Other, which were no doubt to kill him, but could he persuade it of a different course of action? Maybe there was a way to make this situation work for him. "That may require some co-operation from you," he replied cautiously, hoping that the creature was capable of enough independent thought that he could at least discuss this. If not… well, calling the guards in here to take care of it might lead to complications that he'd rather avoid.

It didn't respond straight away, but then replied in a calm but cautious tone to match his, "I'm listening."

"Show me what you look like."

He asked to satisfy his own curiosity more than anything, but after another brief pause the creature complied. It raised a hand to push the helmet upwards off its face to rest on top of its head, and Loki raised an eyebrow as he took in its appearance. It was more humanoid than he'd been expecting, but with greyish skin and deep set eyes, and blotches resembling freckles covering its nose and cheeks. The ridges of its cheekbones were particularly pronounced, and two elongated, almost tusk-like teeth protruded from its bottom lip, which only exaggerated the sinister expression on its face. It was also, if he were to compare with typical human features, unmistakably female. That surprised him, although now that he considered the voice and other aspects of its appearance, that did seem to make sense.

As he cast his gaze over her, amber eyes flashed back at him in a glare. "I am acting on the orders that were given to me, although I will listen to what you propose. So speak."