~AN~

Gonna apologize, this chapter isn't as long as the last, but to be honest the next chapter (or the next few) are going to be pretty eventful, as you shall soon enough see. Also, I wrote this basically in one day, so yeah. Prepare the feels. RFFSTTFN

~DatGlowstickThoe

~Three Days~

It was early morning, and I sat in the corner of my room, paying no mind to my bleeding knuckles from when I'd punched the mirror. I stared into the darkness ahead of me, my head reeling. I could still feel the chill of my monstrous form as it refused to leave was a while staring into the darkness before I slipped into unconsciousness, nightmares instantly consuming me.

It was cold there. Cold and dark. A combination of things that describe my mind as well as a number of places. In this case, it was Joutenheim, and I was on the throne, crowned as their King. I looked down at my hands which were blue, just like the rest of me. From a doorway came two guards, dragging a prisoner, who was pushed to his knees in front of me. He looked up to me with his striking blue eyes.

"Why, if it isn't the Prince of Asgard.."I found myself saying with a smirk. "What has brought you here?"

It was not Thor but a guard that answered me. "We found him trying to break into the castle, quite literally, with his hammer."

"There were Joutens in our weapons vault!" the Prince interjected. "You broke the truce, and I came to find out why!"

I smirked and stepped down from the Throne and stood in front of the Prince. "As if you are not breaking the truce by being here yourself? You of all people should know the consequences of trespassing, Son of Odin!" I held out my hand, and a guard placed an ice dagger in my hand. "There are places, weak points, in everything, even your palace." I chuckled lightly.

Just before the dagger plunged through his heart, I awoke. I was not in my corner, I was standing. In the place of the ice dagger was my own dagger, and in place of Thor was the wall. What had happened? Sleepwalking was not a word to describe this. Sleepmurdering? Only, it was a wall, thank Valhalla, and not my brother that had been stabbed, so not real murder was committed. It scared me, though, that I did this without knowing. What if next time it wasn't a wall? It was then that I heard knocking on my door, but I didn't respond.

"Loki?" came Thor's voice before more knocking. "Loki, are you okay?! I heard something all the way down in my room; are you okay?!" The concern in his voice grew with every word. Finally he just opened the door. He must have noticed the damage I'd done to my room, for he whispered, "Gods..." to himself as he made his way over to me. He grabbed my hand nad pulled the knife out of the wall, and then out of my hand, setting it aside. "Loki, what happened? Why did you have a dagger?"

I didn't move, didn't speak. I couldn't bring myself to do anything. Even if I wanted to do anything, I wouldn't have been able to.

Thor's hand rested on my shoulder, and he looked me in the eyes, even though my eyes were focused on where the knife had been. "Brother, please say something!" He shook me a little. "Loki, speak to me!" He was shaking me harder. "Please! Loki!"

But it was too late. I had zoned out. I was trapped in my mind once again.

~Two Days~

It was noon before I had been able to snap myself out of my mind. I looked around. The room was even more so trashed than before, and I didn't understand why. I looked at Thor, who was sat beside me, looking exhausted and powerless.

"Thor..?" I muttered, my voice a bit rough from misuse over the past hours.

He looked at me and immediately pulled me into an embrace. "Thank Valhalla," he said, his voice conveying his relief. "I thought you'd stay like that forever... You scared me. Just when I though you were back, you'd start mumbling this nonsense, acting like there were people there, like they were trying to hurt you.. You started throwing things at one point and... Gods, you scared me.."

"What...?" Had I mentally lived my nightmares, but battled them physically? Just like the day before?

"Where were you, Loki?" he asked, pulling away from the embrace. "Surely your mind was not here?"

"It was not..." I replied. "Nightmares, per the usual.."

"But do you normally do this? Do you normally yell at nonexistent people?" I could tell just how concerned he was.

"I do not," I admitted. "But I'm fine."

"Loki, do not try to comfort me. Tell me what's really going on."

I sighed. It was about time I said something. For not only Thor's sake, but for my own aswell. I thought for a moment, trying to find the right words.

"I do not know what happened, why I was doing the things I did," I said, looking at the floor. "It was just a few nightmares at first. Joutuns, New York, Falling... you... But then Thanos..." I shuttered a bit at his name.

"Thanos?" Thor asked, when I did not go on. "Who is Thanos?"

I took a deep breath. "I am only going to relay this story once, and only to you, so listen close," I warned. "You have asked me more than once to tell you of the events after I fell from the Bifrost. That is precisely what I did. I fell. I do not know for how long, but it was an eternity to me. I landed on a realm that I did not know of, and I could not tell you its location, nor its name. Nobody knows of its existence, aside from its inhabitants and me. Not even Heimdal, of this I am sure. Other wise, he would have told you I was not dead, only wishing that I were... Anyways," I continued, trying to stay focused and not zone out in the telling of my story, "He...Thanos found me. It was all well and fine... until he began torturing me..." I was certain I saw Thor's eyes widen and mouth open slightly in shock from my peripheral vision. "Every day pushing me to the edge of death, and forcing me to pull myself back. He made me an offer. He said that not only would he release me, but he would give me opportunity. He would supply an army and weaponry, and I would gain him the Tesseract. Once the mission was done and he ruled the Nine Realms with the Tesseract's power, he would give Asgard to me, and let me prove to you and Odin and all of Asgard that I could be a King... I couldn't refuse him, could I? I guess that since I failed him, and he can no longer physically hurt me, haunting my mind will have to suffice until he can find find me and torture me physically once more..." There was silence. Pure silence. No awkward shifting, no clearing of throats. Pure silence, and it drove me insane. "Well?" I finally said, breaking the silence. "Say something!"

"Loki, I... I had no idea that you... that..." Thor was at a complete loss for words.

"Yeah, I know you didn't," I said. "But now you do, and I would thank you to never bring it up unless I do first."

He nodded. "I promise I won't."

~One Day~

I went the rest of that day without zoning out. Of course, I refused to sleep that night aswell, afraid that I might do something. It had been a long day, and a long night, so I told Thor that he needn't stay up with me. After much protest, he finally went back to his room. I didn't feel tired, so I stayed up.

Then, I remembered the picture that I had put in my pocket a few days before. I pulled it out and looked at it. I could remember the day the picture was taken. We had all woken up extra early that morning to get ready for the family portrait, and I, for one, was excited. Thor, not so much. He didn't like the getting up early part. Or the dressing nice part. He complained that he would much rather be out sparring with his friends, but eventually I convinced him that the picture was not the end of the world, and he would have time to change into his normal clothes and spar afterward. I remembered begging Frigga for a copy, so she gave me one, and I had put it in that album.

It wasn't a particularly special picture. It was Thor, Frigga, Odin, and I standing in front of a plain backdrop. The reason I loved this picture so much was the fact that in this picture, we were a family. It wasn't the Allfather, Queen Frigga, the Golden Prince of Asgard, and a war criminal. It was Odin, his wife, and two sons. We were all happy, smiling. There was no betrayal, no lies. Not in that time. It was just loving, caring family. Something I would only ever have in the form of this picture.

I found that slumber had grabbed my hand and was pulling me toward it. I was powerless against it, and so I fell asleep. It was peaceful at first, but would you expect it to stay that way?

Soon enough, my mind brought me back to the place most of my nightmares took place: Joutenheim. The first thing I did was check my skin. My hands were on the verge of becoming blue, and my temperature was dropping. When I looked back up, there was Laufey, a few good yards away. Behind him were Odin, Frigga, and Thor, chained to the walls, powerless to do anything. It was evident then that I had to save them.

One of the guards unchained Frigga, and brought her to Laufey. I began running, but before I reached him, he stabbed her. In a rage, I transformed fully into my Jouten form. Ice gathered on my arm to make a sort of ice-sickle spear. I sprinted and stabbed him straight through the stomach, but in place of Laufey's cry of pain as I stabbed him, I heard a woman's scream, and it wall went to black.