Hey, guys. Um...I have a question. Has anyone seen Infinity War yet? If so, please message me. I need to talk about it. A lot. My family and friends all think I'm being ridiculous about it, and in a removed way, I know they're right, but still! Anyone? *sigh*
Anyways. Despite my raging emotions concerning Marvel Studios, I somehow managed to edit and post this chapter. Hope you enjoy!
Disclaimer: I own nothing!
Chapter Three
Several days passed before I could eat without throwing up. I forced myself to stand, pace my cell, keep my strength up, but it was more than difficult. The effects of that scepter had left me drained somehow, and I couldn't stop thinking about it.
The rush, and the dream. They were the best things I've ever felt.
The door to my cell clanged open, and I instantly turned to find the Other stalking forward with a guard behind him. He lifted the scepter and planted it onto the stone ground, a golden light flashing from the gem inside of it. "Do you want to dream?" he wondered.
The sight of the Scepter nearly pulled me forward. It took all I had to stay where I was. Every part of me said yes, that I wanted nothing more than to dream that everything was back to normal again.
But it wasn't. I had let go of the staff. Thor and the entirety of Asgard think I'm dead. Nothing could erase the pain in Thor's eyes as I let go. Not even a dream.
"Dreams do not replace reality," I answered, squaring my shoulders as I clasped my hands together behind my back. "When are you letting me out of here, exactly? I have refused you and your Thanos. I am of no use to you if you keep me here."
"You are exactly where we need you to be," the Other responded as he took a few steps closer to me, the staff in hand. "And whether you want to or not, you are going to dream again."
The Other lifted the sharp scepter and thrust the blade towards me. I took and instant step backwards, the scepter missing me by centimeters. The Other froze for a moment before coming after me again. I turned to the side, and dodged the sharp tip of the scepter.
The Other was about to come for me a third time, and I was prepared to dodge. But as the scepter flew towards me, I was grabbed from behind. The hands of the guard were like steel manacles keeping me in place. The tip of the Scepter touched my chest, and the same exhausting, exciting rush blew through me, making every part of me tense, but after a second, every muscle relaxed as the rush faded to bliss, and I was pulled into another dream.
"Loki, no!" he shouted.
It would be better to fall. Get out of his way and not live with a family who wanted to kill me.
I let my aching hand loosen, the blood rushing back to my fingertips. The slick metal quickly slid passed, but before I could fall, Thor released the staff and grabbed my hand with both of his.
What was he doing? Why wasn't he letting me fall?
Thor grunted with effort as both he and Odin pulled me up, dragging me back onto the cracked Bridge.
"What are you doing?" I harshly questioned.
"I don't want you to die, Loki," Thor responded, grasping my shoulder.
"Why not?" I gasped. "You'll have to kill me, anyways. Wasn't it you who swore to hunt down and slay all Frost Giants?"
"But you're not-"
"Yes, he is," Odin voiced, cutting off Thor's statement. "Loki is a Frost Giant. I found him as a baby, abandoned in Jotunheim. I should have told you both sooner. I am sorry."
Thor glanced between us for a moment before a shadow eclipsed him. We all looked up and found a large piece of Bifrost debris careening towards us.
I instantly put my hands up, sending a spray of ice that encased the metal and pushed it back a little. Thor held his hand out, and his Hammer instantly flew into his open palm. He spun Miljoner faster and faster before letting it go. The Hammer flew towards the metal I had iced and shattered it into pieces above us. The debris rained down around us, cracking the Bridge further, but we were unharmed.
Thor took one look at me, and his eyes widened with both fear and shock. I glanced down at my hand and found that it had turned to the dark blue of a Frost Giant. The skin ridges on my forearm stood out like whitened scars, but they quickly faded away as my Asgardian form reasserted itself.
I looked back to Thor and found that he was still staring at me. I couldn't tell if he was disgusted like he should be or simply shocked.
Thor swallowed deeply before smiling softly. "You needn't be ashamed, Brother. The red eyes are a bit off-putting, but it's who you are. We need to both accept that."
He still thought of me as his brother after all of this?
Thor took hold of my upper arm and pulled me up from the ground, Odin following. They both took me back to the castle, and because Odin had woken up, the title of king was transferred back to him. The reason Thor was banished was because Odin was trying to teach him a lesson that he had apparently learned, so Odin officially welcomed Thor back into Asgard, and everything returned to normal.
The palace was kept slightly colder than it was in the past, and that gave me a level of energy that I only had during the winter or battles in Jotunheim. My mother and Thor didn't treat me any differently, even after Odin stepped down. Thor kept me close, and I was his advisor in many strategies for battle.
The hardness of the stone floor gradually wormed its way into my consciousness and woke me from the dream. For a moment, I thought the dream was real, but the sight of the familiar dark room and rough stone walls quickly reminded me that it wasn't.
It wasn't real. I had let go, and Thor didn't catch me. I was in this cell. Not in Asgard. I was trapped here with Thanos, the Other and that scepter.
I was so tired. My entire being ached like Thor was beating me with his Hammer, and my head pulsed with each of my pounding heartbeats.
The cell door clanged open, and that probably meant that the Other had come back, but I couldn't bring myself to care. I was too exhausted to care.
"Before you go back to sleep," someone said-a quick glance up let me know that it was one of the guards rather than the Other, "you need to eat." The guard gently placed the metal tray on the floor before leaving the cell, the door slamming shut.
I glanced towards the tray and found that it was the same food as from yesterday. If the last time they gave me food was yesterday.
How long have I spent here? Weeks, months? There was no way to tell time here. No clocks or even a sun-or at least, not one that I've seen. And where even was here? They still haven't told me, and it didn't look like they were going to.
It didn't matter. I let my eyes close and drifted off to a dreamless sleep.
More and more time passed, and though my broken rib from falling through the void had mostly healed, my physical state continued to deteriorate. Everything I ate, I threw up at one point or the other, and even when I didn't eat, I still threw up. I couldn't bring myself to eat or drink anything, though I knew I should, and it seemed to grow continually hotter in the cavern, which lessened my appetite even more.
The Other visited me again and again, bringing that Scepter with him each time. It gave me such pleasant dreams, but they were still wrong. There was something about them that was strange.
Eventually, there came a point where I was too exhausted to stand. The Other continued to come by and touch the Scepter to my chest, and I didn't fight him anymore. Everything hurt so terribly, but the power in that Scepter made me feel better. It was only temporary, and I was left even worse than before, but I'd rather dream for a few hours than to be ravaged by this constant, sickly aching that burned throughout my whole body without end. It gave me such dreams. New worlds, old knowledge that I doubted even Odin knew of. But it also let me spend a few hours in quiet darkness if I wanted.
Planet Earth had knelt before me, and I stood above it with the Scepter in hand. Everything was as it should be. Thor and Odin had both acknowledged my power, and Thor had begged for the return of Earth, though I continually refused him. Thor's lover resided on this planet, and the planet was mine. He could never see her again.
Nothing could hurt Thor more: to watch his lover grow old and die without being able to touch her, talk with her, anything. I was always in his shadow, but now he was in mine.
Thor was in pain, and by extension, so was Odin. It was petty and perhaps a little immature, but I had an army that no one could fight. No one would stand in my way any longer.
I forced myself to wake up from the power-hungry dream. I would be lying if I said it didn't make me feel good, but it was still unexpected. It was entirely different from the dreams the Scepter usually gave me-though come to think of it, the dreams have been turning darker. They had gradually changed from being on Thor's right hand while he was king to being king myself.
And this wasn't the first time I had dreamed of an army that wasn't Asgardian. "What army?" I muttered aloud.
"The Chitauri," a voice said. I jumped at the sudden sound, sending waves of dull pain coursing through me. "The army was the Chitauri." A hand grabbed my shoulder and pulled me up from the ground and roughly slammed my back into the sharp stone wall. I hissed at the pain of it, but I forced myself to open my eyes and look up, finding the Other. "They can get us both what we want. But only if you accept."
I vaguely remembered that Thanos had wanted me to go to Earth and hunt down the Infinity Gems for him and I had said no, but I couldn't remember why I had refused. Something about Thor.
"Take time to decide," the Other ordered, walking out of the cell again.
My stomach grumbled and sent sharp waves of pain throughout my torso. I hissed at the pain and put a hand to my stomach, trying to quell the pain. I needed to eat, but everything I ate I threw up again and again.
I needed that Scepter. It was the only thing that made everything better. I wasn't in any pain when it touched me.
But the only way I could get it is to agree to what Thanos wanted me to do. I didn't want to be under anyone's thumb, but I was just that whether I stayed here in this cell or did what he wanted. I could always wait here for the Other's frequent visits where he gave me what I needed, but it was always taken away again. I always woke up, and the blissful rush was always forced away. If I agreed, I would have to take the Earth, and the six billion people there would likely die.
But I would have the Scepter.
Like in my dream, Thor's lover girl would be stuck on her planet, and Thor wouldn't be able to help her. He never treated me like a brother anyway. He only ever held himself above me and everyone else, and Odin helped him up. They probably both wanted me dead. Odin did come to save Thor, after all. Nothing would hurt Thor more than to see his woman surrounded by death at every turn and be unable to jump into the fray, and nothing would grieve Odin more than to see his favourite son hurt.
The Other came back into my cell with the Scepter in hand, and the pleasant thought came that he was here to make me dream again.
"Have you decided?" the Other demanded, making my heart sink in disappointment.
I needed that Scepter, but what exactly did Thanos want me to do? I couldn't plunge into this head first without thinking. I wasn't Thor. "What exactly would agreeing entail?"
The Other's mouth twitched up into some dark form of a smirk. He turned his hooded head towards the cell door and waved two guards forward.
The guards marched into the cell and moved to either side of me. They both grabbed my upper arms and pulled me up from the ground. They didn't bother with the black head covering this time and dragged me from the cell. If it weren't for the guards, I probably wouldn't have been able to walk out of there. Even with their support, I was still unsteady and stumbling.
They led me to the same cavern where I met Thanos the first time, and he still sat in his floating throne like he hadn't moved.
"So you've decided," Thanos stated, his deep voice rumbling the earth.
"Just want to know what you exactly want me to do," I corrected in as strong of a voice as I could manage.
Thanos threw his head back and laughed loudly. "I want to find the Infinity Gems. The Chitauri want the Earth to expand their empire, and you want to spite your brother and father."
I bit my tongue to keep myself from correcting him. Odin is not my father. He never was.
"I know the location of one of the Stones on Midgard: the Space Stone. Though some call it the Tesseract," Thanos continued. "You can use that to open a portal and bring the Chitauri to Earth. They can raze it, drawing out the Stones and whoever has them. We can take the Stones, the Chitauri level the Earth, and you'd be above it all."
Asgardians and Frost Giants were over humans in rank because of our longer lifespan, physical and mental capabilities and magic, but I didn't necessarily care if I ruled the Earth or not. It would spite Thor and anger Odin if I did.
"Other," Thanos commanded, raising a hand.
The Other passed the Scepter up to Thanos, and he took it into his hand, its size elongating until it was proportional to his Titan girth. Thanos cupped the stone inside the Scepter for a moment, turning its golden light to a cold blue before handing it back down to the Other.
The two guards let me go, and I nearly fell without their support. I somehow managed to keep myself upright as the Other approached me with the shrunken Scepter in hand. He turned it to the side and offered it to me with both hands.
After a brief moment of debating whether it was a trap or not, I slowly reached for it. The moment I grasped the staff of the Scepter, I was filled with the energy I had lost here. The familiar rush of both bliss and excitement coursed through my veins like it never had before.
"Use it to help you in your task," Thanos instructed. "It will enable you to communicate with both us and the Chitauri. It contains the Infinity Stone of the Mind, and the blue covering will conceal its presence from the humans. The Tesseract has been prepared with enough energy for a one way trip to Earth."
As if on cue, a bright, blue light shone next to us, though it somehow didn't surprise me. The Scepter made everything slightly distant. Almost like I was dreaming.
I glanced at the blue light and watched as it parted like a curtain, revealing a room that looked like a Midgardian laboratory.
"When you're ready, Son of Odin," Thanos voiced.
Stepping through meant that I would have to destroy over six billion lives.
But I had the Scepter now. I could get Thor and Odin back for everything they put me through.
With a short, preparatory breath, I stepped forward and was pulled in through the open portal.
Hope you guys enjoyed! Bud if you're going to see Infinity War, I urge you, take a box of tissues. You will need them. See you soon for the next chapter!