Thor lay on the floor of his room, one of his red blankets pulled over him and a bundled jacket functioning as a pillow. There wasn't a new bed in his room yet, and Thor hadn't been able to do much more then get rid of the old bedframe and clear a spot so he could sleep. There were others who needed walls shored up and roofs patched – replacing a bed in the palace wasn't very high on anyone's priority list, and Thor didn't mind. The civilians needed the help far more than he did right now.
He had slept on the forest floor, both in a sleeping roll or just on the grass, so this wasn't the most uncomfortable bed. What made him uncomfortable was the dream – the nightmare he was trapped in as he slept. His breathing was light and shallow, and fear and pain in his nightmare made Thor's features cringed as he rolled over on the floor.
He was replaying the images of the battle in his dreams. Unlike when he was a child, the sight of blood and bodies didn't make him sick. Thor had seen it too many for it to make him feel ill, a not entirely pleasant thought, but it was the identity of these bodies that made it such a vicious nightmare. It was his mother and his friends that were dead, killed by Celestial disruptors and lightswords.
Trapped in the nightmare, for you were always trapped in nightmares, Thor turned away from them with his heart in his throat to try and find a way through the fog that encompassed his view. Fingers of it seemed to grab at him and cling to his clothes as he wandered around, trying to find a familiar landmark or a way to jolt himself awake. Falling off a cliff would bring him out of his nightmare and wake him up, but this land was smooth as the floor he slept on.
Thor left the bodies behind him, walking unsteadily from illness despite knowing this was just a nightmare and everyone he had seen dead were still alive. Then he heard a hiss of a blade being drawn from a scabbard and a snap-crack of a lightsword being activated. The sound of the Celestial weapon made the blood drain from Thor's face and he ran towards the noise to see the fight. He wouldn't watch someone else be killed, even in a nightmare, if he could help it. A thought to summon Mjölnir drifted across Thor's mind, but this was a nightmare, and nightmares did not follow your whims like dreams did.
A layer of fog had settled on the ground, obscuring Thor's feet as he ran towards the sound. He could hear the sound of combat as the lightsword and blade hit each other. There was no sound of spells, so Thor wasn't sure who was fighting.
He slid to a stop with an annoyed hiss, unable to pinpoint which direction the combat was coming from as the sounds echoed around the area. Despite being prepared for it, Thor still flinched when he heard a moist, choking gasp as one of the fighters gasped for their dying breath. Something hit the ground, and he heard the lightsword deactivate back into the hilt.
Thor knew where that sound came from, and he ran towards it. The fog parted as he approached and Thor slid to a stop at the sight before him. It was Loki. He was standing over Tilaria's body as a pool of blood slowly started to spread from the killing blow Loki had dealt to her. Her head was turned away so Thor blissfully couldn't see her face.
"L-Loki," Thor stuttered, unable to look away from Loki, "brother… what did you do?"
In his nightmare, Loki laughed. It was the same laugh Thor had heard during the Battle of New York.
"You're little brother died a long time ago," Loki promised Thor with a smile too twisted to be called a smile. "He died centuries ago, although you didn't realize it until last year, he died long before he fought you for Asgard's throne. You were just too stupid to see it."
Blood was dripping from Loki's fingers to the ground steadily, and Thor swallowed, forcing himself to stand strong.
"I know," Thor told Loki. "I was a selfish fool, and I'm sorry."
"Sorry?" Loki asked in amusement and tilted his head to one side. "What good does that word do me?"
The blood hissed as it touched the ground, and Thor gave a start as it rose off the ground and formed a cloud. It was not blood anymore, but a dark red-black viscous liquid that pulsed with power as if it had its own heartbeat. Loki raised his hand to Thor's chest and the strange substance raised with it. Loki smiled, and the substance struck.
Thor jerked awake at last with a gasp, and it was fortunate he was on the floor because he surely would have rolled out of his bed otherwise. He was sitting up, breathing rapid and quickly as is heartbeat very slowly began to drop back to normal levels. Sweat had plastered his blonde bangs to his forehead, and he felt suffocatingly hot. After swallowing dryly a few times he threw the blanket off of himself.
Mjölnir was sitting obediently next to his blanket despite having been left on the other side of Thor's room, having been summoned by Thor's distress. Thor was glad that he had left Mjölnir in his room because thanks to that there were no holes in the wall. His doors were still hanging open, gapingly showing the hallway.
Limbs trembling, Thor scrambled to his feet and unsteadily looped towards a jug of water, bowl, and rag he had set on the floor. He would normally go to the bathroom, but it had suffered as badly as his room and he had no running water. With effort he poured some of the water into the bowl and scooped it up with his hands. He splashed the water on his face and let the drops run down his chin and drip to the floors and his pants.
The wooden floor was chipped and broken in places, and warmed than it should be as the temperature regulation spells around the palace had failed. He looked into the water in the bowl, able to see his reflection. Noon bright sunlight was pouring through his glass-planed French doors, every plane broken and carved out and the doors hanging too off their hinges to close. Broken glass still littered the doorway and floor.
Thor was surprised, not by his nightmare so much as the fact he had apologized to Loki. He had tried say he was sorry to Loki for failing him as his brother already, but had yet to get the words past his lips. Loki had saved him with his veins of ice, and Thor couldn't even take responsibility for his own failure. The only time he could say it was when he was in a nightmare, and that meant nothing to Loki. Loki would probably react the same way as the illusion in the nightmare had, saying the words were useless and laughing at his naïveness.
Thor shuddered at the thought of the red blood-like substance that had struck him. He knew it wasn't blood, he just knew it wasn't. What was it though? Even just seeing it had scraped Thor's nerves raw, and he knew it had seen it somewhere before, but where?
Someone knocked on one of Thor's battered door, and Thor gave a start. His hands had been resting near the bowl of water and he almost upended the bowl. Water splashed over the rim, but Thor managed to save the bowl from flipping. With the filtration spells shattered, water had suddenly become scarce. He couldn't afford to waste it.
Thor turned without standing, and saw Azura standing in the doorway hesitantly. She had something in her arms, but wasn't entering. He gave her a weak smile and stood, waving her over. Azura approached, stepping around debris.
"Azura," Thor greeted her.
"Prince," Azura returned the greeting and looked past Thor to his makeshift bed. "You've been sleeping all day."
"I was working long into the night trying to find civilians in the debris," Thor explained. "No one woke me up, so evidently they didn't need me very badly. What do you have?"
"Combat rations," Azura told him and held out her hand. "The kitchens and food storerooms were as ransacked as the rest of the palace, and since we don't have a steady supply of water anymore we can't cook. The Celestials didn't take these."
"Field rations," Thor said and scrunched up his nose as he looked at the package wrapped in sealed wax paper. "I've had these before. They are one of the few things completely without taste."
"Maybe," Azura agreed, "but because they're time released they give you all the nutrients you need for three days. We don't have a steady supply of food or water, so you should be grateful you have this."
"I am," Thor admitted and tore open the sleeve, his words hallow.
He pulled out a flat circular piece of protein, colored like cream. It fit in the palm of his hand and was only about half an inch thick.
"Did you have something to do other than give me… this?" Thor wasn't quite sure how to address the meal he had.
Azura gave him an amused look at his disgust, her eyes still a little red and puffy as if she had been crying recently. "The council meeting's going to start in an hour. Your father expects you there since you've been released from the healers."
"Right," Thor said slowly, having forgotten about the council meeting.
Azura could tell Thor had forgotten, and she was a little relieved by it. Thor always forgot stuff like this. It was strangely comforting to see at least one thing was still the same as it had been before. She curtsied to him, and left as Thor nibbled on the corner of the ration. There was absolutely no taste to it, making it hard to swallow down. He used most of the water he had left to eat it, and then quickly looked around his clothing to find some that wasn't too badly damaged.
Eventually, Thor ended up wearing the same tunic he had taken off before he had gone to bed. He laced up his boots, wishing that he had a fresh change of clothes. This set was still blood-stained from the battle, and torn at the elbows, smeared with dirt and ash. A bath also sounded like a blessing, but there was no running water. It was remarkable how many things you took advantage, and you wouldn't even know it until they were gone. Thor had never lived in conditions where running water, fresh food, a hot bath, and a change of clothing had ever been an issue. He didn't like this situation.
With a sigh, he picked up Mjölnir and put it on his belt. Then he slipped between his broken doors into the hallway to head to the council hall. It would take some time to walk there.
He wasn't sure who all would be there, but he assumed it would be the normal members: Odin, General Tyr, Commander Vir, and a few captains that could attend. A lot of people who would normally be there, Eir or Fey or one of the healers, and Freyja to represent the mages, would probably be too busy to attend.
Dust coated the hallway in a thin layer, crunching almost silently under his boots. There were stains of blood flung across the wall in an arc of dots. The once beautifully glowing gold palace was dull and dark. The light crystals that normally illuminated the interior hallways had shut down with the collapse of the magical network that kept them illuminated, the water running, and the temperature comfortable. It became unusually dark without a window or crystals to illuminate the hallway, and Thor wrapped his fingers around the ring Loki had given to him within his pants pocket. The night vision charm sharpened his sight and the shadow-clogged hallway became bright in shades of green and white, allowing him to walk unhindered.
Thor realized for the first time as he walked down the stairs to head to the lower floor that Loki wouldn't be there. Loki had always attended the council meetings, even when Thor couldn't' be bothered. Usually he did so as a prince, and Thor would have him fill him in later when he got back from adventuring with his friends. Sometimes Loki would attend in Freyja's place to represent Asgard's mages, sitting at the table only a chair away from Odin. For the first time since they had been old enough to attend council meetings, Loki would not be there.
He turned a corner to reach the hall, and was blinded by light as his eyes, made hypersensitive by the charm, were overloaded. Stars flashed in his sight as Thor stumbled backwards with a curse. He stood around the corner and released the night vision charm as he shook his head. The darkness in the hallway was accented by light from around the corner, and Thor peered around the corner.
Someone had lit torches along the hallway to provide brightness against the dark and Thor had been blinded by their light. Loki had warned him not to use the charm in a brightly-lit area, Thor remembered. Once the dancing dots of white light in his vision vanished, Thor approached the council hall.
The torches, to Thor's surprise, were normal fire lit by flint. They weren't even magical, and the heat and smoke they gave off felt unusual to him. It wasn't even a magical flame. He approached the doors again, not blinded this time by the torches' orange-yellow flames.
He hesitated for a moment by the doorway, a part of him wondering if Loki would show up because he hated missing meetings. Loki wanted to know everything that was going on, and he usually did. Yet there was no sign of him, and the realistic part of Thor was not surprised. Loki might have trusted Angborn, but he didn't trust Thor anymore. That much had been made clear.
He touched the front of his crimson sleeveless tunic where the veins of ice that Loki had used to save him still existed, torn. Then he took a breath, and forced himself to enter. Loki would either show up or he wouldn't. Even if he did, Thor doubted Loki would address him.
Are you surprised by Asgard's sudden disgrace? In all the fanfics I've read our heroes go through trials, but nothing ever happens to Asgard - only other realms. That doesn't make sense to me. Thor's actually in a pretty good spot compared to most of the other Asgardians. He is sleeping in a secure location where there is no crime, as there will be once Asgardians start fighting over supplies, and the palace doesn't run the risk of collapsing on his head like other buildings might.
Two important things to say about this story:
One, I am putting this on the back burner a little more then my other stories. Have no fear, I do not abandon stories halfway through. It's just not my primary update. My primary update is the stories of Loki as a child - Pre-Thor, everything that leads to the first Thor movie, and Pre-Tilaria, which is before Tilaria was introduced when Loki is ten. I invite you to read those in between these updates if you're not already doing so.
Second, I get the feeling people are scared this is going to become a LokixOC pairing. Don't worry, those usually annoy me to. I have no intentions of pairing Loki off with Tilaria and twisting the storyline by changing the story to some sappy romantic (especially since I'm not good at writing romantic). Please don't drop my story because you're worried about it. Any chance of the pairing pretty much vanished when Tilaria got kidnapped 30 years ago. They've both changed too much, and although there is a kinship between them because they grew up together, the romantic spark has faded.