The bargain
Odin stared at Loki without expression for so long Alex began to wonder if time had stood still. The rest of the hall held their tongues, just as she did, waiting for a reaction.
They were probably curious about what Loki wanted to say, and she couldn't deny she was too, but the knots in her stomach and the fresh memory of his hand on her throat reminded her no good could come from him speaking. He was up to mischief, at best, and spinning some plot that would end in more violence, at worst. Thor obviously felt the same way; he was glaring at his brother with no small amount of suspicion.
When Odin spoke, there was still a lack of emotion to his words. "You may answer any question I ask of you, and no more." His proclamation was quiet but the words carried in the quiet of the hall.
Loki opened his mouth to speak again and frowned when he could go no further, his eyes narrowing to slits as he met the king's gaze. So Odin's statement wasn't just empty words—Loki really couldn't speak unless he was asked to. Odin knew his son too well.
"What information do you have for the court that you believe will have bearing on your sentence?" he asked.
"The Chitauri track the Tesseract still," Loki replied, expression poisonous. "It will lead them to Asgard."
That shocked the quiet out of the room. People didn't even bother to whisper their alarm, breaking into conversation with those around them, making it too easy to pick out the words they used: invasion, war, traitor. Even the black-cloaked figures were leaning across to each other to talk.
Loki's eyes closed as he basked in the small amount of chaos he'd been able to cause.
"I see," Odin continued, his focus entirely on Loki. "How does this affect our ruling on you?"
"I have knowledge that will help defeat them—but I will only discuss this matter in private. Not on open display like a common criminal."
The king's angry growl was enough to make Alex flinch, but Loki just raised his eyebrows in challenge. "Very well," he snapped. "You are all dismissed. The court will reconvene when I call it."
Some of the crowd hesitated, some were quick to flee, and Alex glanced around wondering where she should go. Thor was one of the only seated figures not moving and Odin had made no move to chastise him, so she figured this was going to be royal business. She didn't know anyone here but royalty. Maybe she could corner a guard and ask them to show her the way back to her chambers.
"Is there something else?" Odin asked, and she realised Loki had been shaking his head.
"Not her. She needs to stay."
She should have escaped while she had the chance. Frigga caught her arm and Odin fixed his beady eye on her from across the room. Curious gazes found her, including that of the furious Sif.
"OUT! All of you," Odin repeated. The crowd scarpered, leaving only the royal family of Asgard, Alex and a handful of guards in the vast hall. Frigga urged her forward until they were clustered round the dais, the chairs now gone, Odin regally positioned on the throne. Alex placed herself between Thor and his mother so she couldn't see Loki unless she had to, Thor forming an effective wall between them.
"You have your privacy and your tongue has been loosened," Odin told Loki.
"And I appreciate it, my liege." Odin did not appear impressed at the title. "You know already that the Chitauri seek the Tesseract, which is why you bade Thor bring it back to Asgard, to dissuade them from invading Midgard. You hope to conceal it from them, but their leader knows if I have been captured it will be in your hands again."
"I would look less happy about that situation, if I were you," Odin warned. "You've brought war to Asgard after centuries of peace. You, who once mocked your brother's impetuous nature and his eagerness for war. You held contempt for his actions against Jotunheim, yet you find yourself repeating his errors. He learned and grew in his exile, but it is clear you have not."
She couldn't resist peeking at Loki's face then, just to watch the smirk falter and fade into a stony mask.
"War was never my intention."
"What was your intention?"
"Claiming the birth right you raised me to believe I was owed. A throne."
It was Odin's turn to frown, though he didn't respond. Frigga stepped forward as if she had something to say, but he waved her back, and she turned an unhappy glance his way.
"However, as circumstances stand I'm willing to bargain," Loki continued. "You believe you can hold fast and defeat an invading army, as you always have, but you don't know the power their leader wields. He is not Chitauri and he can bend the universe as well as you or I."
"What do you mean?" Thor asked. "Who is he?"
"I know only his name—Thanos—not his origin, nor how he came to lead the Chitauri. It was he who found me in the void the Bifrost created, and him I made my bargain with. It may take the Chitauri some time to reach Asgard without the Tesseract to speed their journey but he will find ways to hasten it nevertheless. And when they do arrive, even if he brings only the scantest of forces, I am not confident he will be kept out of the realm by even the impressive defences we have. He has manipulated the cube from across time and space before and could do so again."
Alex was on the wrong planet entirely, it seemed, about to be smack bang in the middle of another war.
"You have a proposition, then, to earn your freedom?"
"Of course, Allfather." He put a little too much emphasis on the title, and Alex saw Frigga's expression fall. Their family drama was going to take years to resolve, if it ever could be. Alex's presence was definitely not going to help with that.
"So let us hear it."
"I take the Tesseract to Thanos."
"Brother!" Thor warned. "This is no time for jesting."
Frigga huffed an exasperated sigh. "Loki, be serious."
"Are you out of your mind?" Alex said.
Once more, Loki was delighting in the reactions he caused. "I am perfectly serious. Even Thanos, with all the skill he has, is woefully equipped to detect illusion."
"You intend to take him a replica of the Tesseract," Odin guessed.
"One even he will not be able to distinguish from the original, one imbibed with a fraction of its power to sate him for a time. I will tell him I escaped from Asgard with it and brought it to him. He has already warned me that if I failed to deliver it I would suffer, so I have motive to do so—I also have reason to want to escape this realm. I will take my leave before he has chance to discover the lie and return for whatever punishment you feel I am still owed. In the meantime, we will have chance to prepare Asgard. It will, if nothing else, buy the realm time."
It sounded a dubious plan to Alex's ears, with it all hinging on Thanos and the Chitauri believing the fake cube to be the real thing. Then again, if anyone was going to be able to pull of that lie, it was Loki.
"You will need to siphon some of the Tesseract's power into the duplicate," said Odin.
"Enough to travel there and back, and for Thanos to perform a few simple tests to be convinced. No more."
Odin gave a grudging nod. "I will consider this idea. However, I fail to see what guarantee we have that you will return to us, rather than take the chance to join our enemies. This seems an opportune way for you to escape what punishment awaits you."
"Why, my king, you have the perfect hostage for my good behaviour already in your palm."
"No." She couldn't look at either of them, Loki or Odin. How could he? How could he? She'd been here mere hours and Loki was already entangling her in the very machinations she'd wanted to avoid.
"You would use her to bargain?" Odin asked, and Alex stared up the dais, shaking her head.
Loki inclined his head. "You know I will return to Asgard when I have completed my part of the plan. If—and only if—she remains on Asgard. Immortal."
"You can't!" she yelled, still facing Odin. "You have no right!" Hands gripped her arms, though she'd made no attempt to move, and she was aware of vague, soothing murmurs from Thor and Frigga even as she ignored them. "I belong on Earth. I failed your test, you should make me mortal again and send me home."
"Would you really do that?" Loki continued. "Would you send her back to Midgard, defenceless, to be locked away by their soldiers until that monster arrives to butcher her? He knows of our connection and he will target her for it."
"Don't you dare, not after what you did today—"
"For your own good."
"Does your father know? Your mother? Do they know how you grabbed me by the throat just so you could get your own way?"
Odin remained passive, though Frigga gasped beside her. Alex turned to the other prince. "Thor, you promised. Tell them I have to go home."
"Lady Alex—"
"I'm sorry, child," Odin cut in, addressing her directly. "I've made my decision. This is both for your own protection, and for the protection of the innocent souls of this realm. Once the danger has passed, things may change."
"NO!" She was on the second step of the dais before Thor caught her, dragging her away and across the hall. She caught sight of Loki's face and for once he wasn't gloating that his plan had worked. He had control again. He would always be in control of her life. When he returned from his fun with the Chitauri, he'd find another way of keeping her here. He'd never let her go. "I will never forgive you for this," she spat, still struggling against Thor's grip.
"Perhaps not. But better you alive and hating me than dead, my love," he responded, and for once there was something like real sorrow in his voice.
The door to the hall shut in her face, sealing her off from Odin and any chance of going home. Her angry curses bounced off the walls all the way back to her chambers.
A/N: Reviewers get teasers :)