Summary: The war between Jotunheim and Asgard draws to a close, but thanks to a horrible twist of Fate (or perhaps not), the nameless runt of Laufey-King is not discovered by Odin and so begins a remarkable journey of life that should not have been. Jotun!Loki AU. Set pre-/during-/after Thor/Avengers Assemble. MCU-verse only.
Warnings: ANGST! Loki-whump! Language, adult situations, violence, child abuse, dub-con, sexual assault (also of a minor), substance abuse, one abortion scene (sort of), slavery, sex trade (maybe), some mild original character/Loki M/M pairings. Also F/M pairings.
Comments: This is not a slash fic. Sorry. It's Loki-centric, although I definitely show the rest of the Avengers and etc. Please review! Constructive criticism welcome.
Disclaimer: I do not own Avengers. Marvel owns it. I do not get paid for this piece of work. Sadly, but understandably. LOL.
Inspirational Music: Assassin's Creed OST, The Village OST, Machinarium OST, Enigma, Monument Valley OST
Thanks to all reviewers who are so patient and encouraging in their comments towards myself. This story is far from perfect and feels like its far from over, so thanks for hanging in there guys! I so appreciate you all!
Thanks to: Guests, Sophia, Elizabeth, wbss21, jai parker, leeanne noack, InsolentKatt, vincent1875, Basia Orci, zippy zany, vonhinten
Over 10K of words... I hope you guys like! Please review after with questions/comments if you wanna encourage the writer~!
Distortions In Time
Chapter 78
Revelations
They never made it to New York.
-0-0-0-
It took the better part of a day and a half but eventually the small van approached the border of the two countries, turned itself into a more innocuous family vehicle bound for holidays and passed the guards, passport checks and light questioning that always accompanied them before finally continuing onward into the neighboring country. Good ol' America, Jace had called it but Loki, as he descended further into fevered dreams, wondered if that was indeed the actual name or some form of sarcasm on Jace's part.
Mildy, noticing that their patient's condition was worsening, kept her voice light and focused on keeping the small group of travelers calm. Explaining in her usual steady way, Mildy rambled on about the relationship between the two neighboring countries – one large in size with a much smaller population and one a little smaller in size with a much larger population, how their relationship was defined within the world of trade and commerce and politics, and how their history was more or less characterized by a peaceful interdependence. Compared to other countries, the two got on pretty well.
Other countries. Loki got a whole discourse from Mildy on how the entire planet held over six billion beings, human and non-human and an awesome variety of flora and fauna. Interwoven with dreams of the Stars and Asgard falling to dust, Mildy's voice filtered into Loki's thoughts, bringing with her soft patter memories of wars and empire building and migrations and great deeds of unknown heroes.
Loki said nothing but drifted on the vibrations of the vehicle and Mildy's gentle chatter, sometimes falling into restless sleep. The rest of the time, he stared dazedly out onto the passing landscape of grey rocks and stark, splintering, naked trees and muddied ground with swampy puddles. The remnants, he thought idly, of snow or great rains. The beginning of spring.
Like Asgard, but not. Asgard was golden and pure and sweet; its colors more vivid, its odors more pungent, its sounds more vibrant. Midgard was a different world all together – like Jela, yet busier, teeming with life. It was a blur of grime and sweat and smoke and green things and life and death. Such a medley of sights and sounds and smells made it unique in its own way. Boisterous, naive and confident, Midgard was a young world.
A red barn passed by and with it, its usual accompanying white and grey home for the farmer – wide and welcoming and at the end of a long, narrow and rather rutted, unpaved muddy lane. White fencing met the road and edged it and the fields were the usual mixture of mud and dead grass and new patches of green. Several horses huddled in the center of the field, looking rather disenchanted with the world about them. Loki imagined them galloping free across the fields until they met the horizon.
That is the order of things. He pressed his forehead against the comfortingly cool glass of the vehicle which carried him closer and closer to his destination. That is how all creatures ought to be. Wild and free...
The car drove onward and Jace, glancing out the back window of the van blinked in surprise at the sight of a suddenly missing white fence.
"Oh shit..."
"What?" Mildy stopped at Jace's interjection. "Everything okay back there?"
"It's... uh... good. Keep going, keep, uh, keep driving."
Loki glanced at Jace. The young man had been changing colors over the past hour, but then so had Loki. Illusions, he knew. Illusions with little connection to reality. He hoped. That was what he told himself as he watched Jace. Jace, who smiled as his skin slowly peeled away revealing blue skin and unfamiliar yet familiar dark blue lines of the Lesser Kindred. The young man raised a dark eyebrow.
"I saw what you did there."
The young man grinned secretively and Loki found himself hard put not to recoil in horror. The face of a monster.
No, Mal said, sitting down beside him and taking his hand, the face of a friend. Your own. Nothing to fear... nothing to hate...
"Un-unrealistic optimi-optimism," Loki snorted and then twitched as her similarly blue fingers ran over his cheekbone, past his sweat-coated temples and into his long, tangled hair.
The truth, Mal replied with a smile, smoothing back his hair. A beautiful truth, for there is beauty everywhere if one is willing to find it. Have you forgotten so quickly?
"You-you are ss-special."
I am but one of many, Mal assured him. One of many who stand invisibly behind you, who support you, who carry you onward to where your destiny lies.
"You are not – not invisible t-t-to me," Loki shivered.
She took his hand and grinned then. I should think not – not after all the work I have put in to cultivating you.
"Is th-that what you c-c-call it?" Loki chuckled painfully and found himself shuddering with aching pain from the exertion.
You are not well. You should rest, Mal gave Loki a stern look. You have a long way to go before you reach home – and the road you must take has many twists and turns.
"That – that would b-b-be my luck," sighed Loki in the barest of whispers.
You will reach the end, Mal repeated, you will reach the end. She leaned forward and kissed him on the brow. We are waiting.
We are waiting.
[...what secrets do the stars hold...]
[...what treasures do they hide...]
[...across time and space...]
[...lost to history...]
"He's not gonna make it in time."
"When was the last time you gave him Karl's meds?"
"Half an hour ago," Jace's voice was tight. "It's not the detox. That's… it's – it's his magick. Burning him up. Detox is the last thing he's feeling right now." Pause. "Probably."
"Probably...?"
"Well, you heard him. Talking to who knows what. Creeping me out, seriously."
"Hallucinations?" Mildy asked.
"Or something else..." Jace suggested darkly.
"There's not much we can do to control it." Mildy sighed. "Except to watch his progress."
"And run." Catching Mildy's look, Jace blinked, "What?"
Mildy adjusted the rear-view mirror downwards sharply and watched the dark head on the small pillows move restlessly. The now pale skin of their guest was flushed and sweaty and his eyelids fluttered intermittently. A sure sign of dreaming. She sighed.
"Karl was pretty certain we weren't going to make it," she finally admitted. "New York was a bad idea."
"Why didn't Karl say so before?" grumbled Jace.
"He did. Just to me."
"So that's what you two were up to for so long. He – uh – Loki thought you were plotting."
"We weren't plotting," Mildy said testily. "Just making some back up plans."
"What was the backup plan?"
"Well," Mildy glanced back again before readjusting her mirror. "He awake at the moment?"
"He's out. Well, as out as he can be."
"'Kay, well, there's Plan D."
"We had a Plan D?" asked Jace in disbelief.
"When don't I have a few back up plans?"
"Fine, so what's Plan D?"
"Well," Mildy sighed. "There are groups all spread throughout this area, as you know."
"Yeah…" Jace gave her a look. "I remember Tanna. Our second cousin somewhere in Ohio, right?"
"Uh, yeahhhh-"
"The snooty Starbucks girl."
"No, wait," Mildy frowned as she attempted to recollect her cousin. "I thought it was some kind of family diner."
"I was sure she was at Starbucks."
"Maybe she moved."
"Who would move from Starbucks?" Jace raised an eyebrow. "Free frappes."
"I'm pretty sure you don't get stuff for free just 'cause you work there, Jace," Mildy rolled her eyes. "Never mind. The important thing is that there are other Kindred about. Karl told me they are more than likely friendlies."
"No clan wars in this area for some time," Jace agreed.
"Not since the early eighteen hundreds anyways," Mildy corrected her younger brother. "At any rate, Karl told me that some are in law enforcement." The young woman double-checked the lane before moving over and settling down at an easy pace. Speeding at this point won't help us, she thought grimly. We'll have to play things by ear. "If anything were to happen-"
"Which it will-"
"If anything were to happen, then they'll help us out. Karl's already sent word ahead."
"Huh. I don't suppose they'd turn a blind eye to ambulance hijacking or something?"
"We're trying to stay under the radar, Jace." Mildy shook her head and exhaled a gusty sigh. "Just let me know when his levels go over the fourth bar. As soon as that happens, we stop the vehicle and run for it."
"I think I mentioned running earlier in this conversation."
"Well, we aren't going to ditch him unless we know he'll end up in friendly hands."
"Or SHIELD." Jace shuddered. "Sort of friendly hands."
"They aren't that bad," Mildy said uncertainly.
"Torq told me-"
"Don't believe everything coming out of Torq's mouth, idiot. He's a misogynist perv and has the IQ of a maggot. SHIELD has its problems – who doesn't? Even the Council has its own factions and conspiracies. The key is vigilance-"
"I swear, Mil," Jace said seriously, eyes focused on the small grey box in his hands with its flickering screen – the magick counter which Karl had given them. "Sometimes you sound just like Dad."
"Hey now," Mildy found herself hard put to suppress a smile. "No need to be mean!"
[...across time and space...]
[...lost to history...]
Like a ship lost in a tumultuous storm, Loki drifted through a world of fire, an ocean of green and blue flames which broke, wave after wave, over him. Drowning him. There was no end to the horizon of the empty world surrounding him. There was only a steel grey and black sky and the overwhelming sensation of sinking.
Drowning him. As he fought to keep afloat, as he fought for control, Loki choked back a cry of agony. Was he screaming? Were they listening? Was anyone there to hear?
Was anyone there to hear...
[...lost...]
[...so lost...]
Loki could feel it building up from within again – a new wave of power rising upward and out. It burned along his nerves, dancing like wildfire and like wildfire it exploded outward uncontrollably. He turned, hand stretching out in warning, entreaty -
Run. Run.
But there was only light and wind and a crashing, roaring sound as the entire world ripped apart.
[...the World That Is borders the World That Is Not...]
[...that Which Is Seen washes against the shores of that Which Is Unseen...][...overlaying and underlying...]
[...throughout Time...]
[...throughout Space...]
[...the song of the stars, the voices of the spirits ring out...]
[...and those close to those infinite powers...]
[...flare out and burn...]
Despite Karl's device, Mildy and Jace had only three minutes to exit the vehicle. One minute, Jace was yelling at his sister to stop the van. The other two minutes the two whipped open their doors and raced to the far ditch, throwing themselves down the steep incline just as the entire thing went up in green and blue flames and an ear-deafening BOOM reverberated through the clear, crisp countryside air.
For a moment, the two young people sat there huddled, arms tight around their knees as they watched pieces of leather and metal fly over their heads.
Jace with his head on his knees attempted to get his breathing under control as he remembered the last image of his patient. Not patient. Loki, the mage. The Voice. A mage whose eyes had caught fire and the entire air about him had quivered as tendrils of blue and green had slowly emanated from his skin.
"All our lives, Mum and Dad talked about mages and I just..." Jace's voice trailed off as he tried to recall what he saw again, trying to remind himself that this was not some kind of dream. "This is real, isn't it? It's happening to us?"
"Yeah."
Mildy's voice sounded small and her face, Jace saw, was wrung with worry and sadness. She angrily scrubbed away at her face with the heel of her hand buried in her black hoodie. This was no time for tears.
"There's no way he could have survived that..."
"Maybe... maybe he'll be OK. Karl said that Loki would make it," Jace didn't sound too convinced.
"How?"
"It's magick, isn't it? Mum and Dad always said Voices were special."
"You think he's actually a Voice?" Mildy asked curiously.
"Well," Jace hesitated. "You said he was."
Loki's eyes had been blue and green flame and the power which had flared out from within him had bent the world about him, had oscillated the very reality, the very particles of space about him. He had seen it with his own eyes and Jace knew for the first time in a long time, with utmost certainty, that he would remember that moment to his dying days.
"He tried to warn us." Jace finally said, staring straight ahead at the rising green and brown wall of the ditch. "He tried-"
"Voices aren't evil," Mildy said finally. "They are blessed and they are cursed. They are dangerous. That's all." A pause. "When you speak for the Stars, when you speak for Fate... you go deeper into... into that world and sometimes you can't go back. Sometimes... it's too much for you to handle."
"Unless he was able to channel it somehow." Jace shivered. "He could have expended it somewhere... Hey, I'm cold."
"It's shock."
"No. I mean. I'm really, really cold. Don't feel that?"
Mildy raised her head and glanced up at the grey sky from which now fell large white snowflakes. Reaching out, her hand caught a few. They paused there for a moment before finally melting, the only sign for her lower internal body temperature.
"It's snowing."
"It's quiet," Mildy said, turned – and then paused and pointed at the edge of the ditch now coated in thick ice. "Something happened. I'm going to go up and look."
"Me too."
"We'll have to give the local police a call. There's no way to hide this."
The two of them stood up, automatically (and fruitlessly) brushed at the mud now caked on their backsides before turning and making their slippery way back up the incline.
"What's the official story? Did Karl make a back up story?" asked Jace.
"We were passing by on our way to relatives. We saw a man on the side of the road, administered first aid and put him in our vehicle. Upon which he exploded. Keep it simple, keep it as close to the truth as possible."
"Let's hope there's a friendly on the force."
"There should be." Mildy stopped at the sight of her vehicle. "Karl says Michigan all the way to Maine are stomping grounds of several clans."
"Let's hope they're friendly..." Jace's voice trailed away as he finally focused on what lay before them. As the reality of what happened hit him once again.
It was a wreck. The entire top of the black van had blown away and the only remnants of the windows were small jagged triangles of glass at the edges of the now charcoal flaked metal frames from which lines of melted rubber and plastic now ran. At first glance, everything inside that was flammable was now black and the thinner plastic appeared to have melted into lumps.
Getting to it would be difficult as well. Somehow the explosion had created a thick field of ice along the road for several meters, which then dissipated into a thinner veneer of ice for as far as the eye could see. Closer to the "ground zero" as it were, spiking upward, the frozen water formed tiny sharp-edged waves which glistened weakly under the grey light.
"Holy shit."
"Yeah."
"Crap."
"Yeah," Mildy agreed again.
"My phone's gone," sighed Jace.
"I've got mine," Mildy reassured her brother.
"Yeah, that's nice for you," Jace grumped, voice tight as he slowly turned and looked around for any onlookers and finding none. "What am I going to say to Dad? This'll be the third one I've messed this year."
"Glad to see your priorities are straight," Mildy stepped forward carefully and nearly ended up on her face. "Is he... there...?"
"Uhhh..." Jace edged forward, his feet never leaving the ice, making his careful way around the spikes. "Here, hold my hand. Wait – what – you can't walk and call at the same time! Wait until we get to the van at least."
"I'm scared," admitted Mildy, pocketing her phone temporarily.
"Join the club."
The two made their slow way over and cautiously peered in. As Mildy had guessed, the entire inside of the vehicle was blackened by the flames. Their papers, their plans, their pillows and cushions and blankets and first aid kit were entirely or mostly burnt. An arid scent drifted upward – charcoal and melted plastic.
"He's – he's..." Jace slowly peeked in and glanced over at Mildy, stunned. "He's – alive!"
"And naked," observed Mildy, also following her brother's gaze.
Half curled up on top the twisted van seat, Loki appeared to be unconscious among the debris.
"And blue. Again. Got some nasty burns by the looks of it... Surprise, surprise."
"Hm," Mildy pulled off her coat.
"How we're going to explain it..."
"We won't. We're stupidly helpful kids who just wanted to help the guy. It's not our fault he's a mutant. Probably," Mildy sighed.
"Oh, right, right. Backup Plan B." Jace tugged on her coat. "This side is all melty. I'll go round and wrap up his man parts. You call it in."
Giving each other one last nod, the two separated to their self-assigned tasks. Within fifteen minutes the local sheriff had come out, accompanied by a very small ambulance. It was not as confidence inspiring as Jace would have hoped, but the young man held his tongue and watched from his place at Loki's side as his sister approached the men.
The sheriff, a tall, lanky, dour-faced, dark-haired man, gestured at the paramedic who immediately made his way over the ice. Flicking his hat brim up, the sheriff approached carefully around the treacherously slippery ice. On reaching Mal, the office tipped his hat in greeting and said laconically, "Sheriff Robson."
"Mildy Kantor."
"Heard you had an accident... an explosion?"
"Something like that."
"Let's see then."
With that, the man slowly circled around the vehicle, giving the paramedic space and ignoring the odd blue skin of the victim before returning to Mal's side. Together they stood there, looking over the burned vehicle calmly. Hands on his hips, the sheriff sighed.
"Well..." He scratched his chin. "Karl did warn us."
"Karl?" Mildy asked innocently.
"Ah, it's been a while since..." the sheriff turned to look Mildy up and down with new-found respect before adding, "Many have fallen to the shadowed lands."
"But we will return to the Realm of the Cold Suns." The barely perceptible trace of tension disappeared from the girl's posture and Mildy smiled back cautiously. "Karl told you."
"He did. Thorough and cautious. That's Karl." A smile crossed over the sheriff's face and disappeared. "I see that he has raised his clan well. Not like some of the others. How's Canada these days?"
"Clement."
"Heard its getting warmer."
"Some winters more than most," agreed Mildy, "but it's still nice. Quiet, for the most part."
"Yeah, yeah," Sheriff Robson turned to look over the vehicle. "Except for recently. Heard you guys got yourselves a tidy present from the Great Council. Some spaceship or something."
"It's a Sarcofagi and it's not ours," Mildy said carefully remembering Karl's whispered warnings.
The inter-clan politics have always been a minefield, Mildy reminded herself. Now's not the time to make things worse.
"It's everyone's," Mildy shrugged. "It just happened to land on our side of the lake. Really, the most important issue is warning the humans about what's coming. Non-interference, that's the basic tenet we have all held to. Successfully... but... the size of the threat..."
"The grapevine says its a Titan."
"Yeah... that's what the info said..."
"I thought Titans were just a – a story," the sheriff sighed. "Guess not, huh."
"I hear you."
"Karl and the Council are convening."
"I figured," Mildy shrugged. "He's got the black box." She glanced sharply at the sheriff. "You didn't think he'd sit on the info?"
"Well... I suppose not..."
"And let the world burn?"
"That's kinda... melodramatic." Sheriff Robson turned to the young girl. "You really believe in this Titan stuff, huh. I thought all that tradition craziness was just that... craziness."
"I suppose you are much more hip these days. Probably got yourself a Warm-blood wife and all," Mildy retorted and then stopped, sighed and shook her head. "It's neither here nor there. It doesn't matter what you believe or what you think will or won't happen. It doesn't matter what I believe either. There is only what lies before us – what task you have been given."
"Call in the Feds, in SHIELD, whatever," Sheriff Robson sighed. "Yeah, I can do that. It's gonna be interesting, that's for sure. Hopefully all of our stories will sound okay on paper. I'll get all the paperwork ready – we'll have to go back to the office and make it all official. We'll get your witness statements down and have it signed and send you off packing sooner than later. If everything turns out alright."
"You'll make sure they're going to treat him well?" Mildy asked, voice tight.
"I know they don't have a bad track record, but they are the Feds. Not HYDRA. We've got people in SHIELD. He should be fine." Sheriff Robson glanced over at the paramedic who looked up and shook his head. "He's not doing well, either. Still blue."
"Detox and magickal restraint backlash."
"Damn. What are they doing out there?"
Mildy said nothing. There was nothing to say – only conjecture and such kinds of conjecture, she knew, if she spoke of her thoughts, would pass through the rumor mill within the day, spreading throughout the clans. Prisoner of war, possibly. That would be the best bet – but without proof... I can only talk about what I know for sure, what I have seen with my own eyes.
"He's a Star-Walker. A Voice," Mildy finally said. "And Karl treated him like... someone very important."
"So he's an actual Mage who sees mumbo-jumbo stuff..." Sheriff Robson sighed again. "Well, I'll add something about magic into the report..."
"Well, how else would you explain the ice on the road and the localized snowstorm? And the explosion? And the shape-shifting? And the blue skin?" Mildy asked sarcastically. "Coincidence?"
"If only we were that lucky. Unfortunately, SHIELD isn't most folks..."
A pause.
"I'll need to get on the radio." Sheriff Robson watched as Jace and the paramedic carefully pushed the stretcher to the edge of the worse ice coverage, where it slowly flattened into smaller bumps and the two vehicles waited. Lifting the now securely strapped and bundled patient into the small ambulance, the paramedic and Jace disappeared inside for a few moments before the paramedic emerged and shut the doors.
"Mike will take care of your, uh, friend. We'll have him on his way and out to SHIELD in no time."
"Loki." Mildy said quietly. "His name is Loki."
Loki. That name... a fairy tale, a myth. But she is... The sheriff, reaching for his walkie-talkie, froze, glanced over to the waiting ambulance and then looked back at the dark-haired, muddy-looking girl who stared back at him. A fairly normal looking young woman who looked like one of those outdoorsy kind of university students – plaid shirt and jeans and dark hoodie, yet her eyes were old. Older than me, or perhaps she had experienced more than me– or perhaps she had Seen something... Sheriff Robson twitched. Creepy traditionalists. Just... creepy...
"Loki," he repeated. "Well, that's..."
Just dandy. Creepy. Great. That's just great. Sheriff Robson stifled a shiver and jerked his head toward his waiting SUV.
"You can hitch a ride with me back into town. I'll get Dan – he's the local mechanic, a Warm-blood but a good guy – out here to retrieve your, uh, van. You can fill out the insurance stuff and the witness reports in my office... and your brother too. And we'll keep the, uh, patient, um, Loki, as stabilized as we can."
With that, the sheriff made his way back to his vehicle, muttering about the long task ahead of him. He did not check to see if the girl was following him. He did not look back at the blackened van and the swirls of ice and the slowly thickening blanket of snow. He did not look back.
-0-0-0-
"Where did they find him?"
"On the side of some road," Coulson said quietly, looking down at the security camera video feed of the restlessly twitching and jerking prone figure of their most recent captive as he was being loaded into SHIELD's fastest helicopter.
Not a captive, but not quite a guest, Coulson mused. A quandary. A problem. Problems can be fixed, even difficult ones. It is merely a question of time. Time which we may not have.
"On the side of the damn road," Nick Fury, chief officer of SHIELD and the captain of SHIELD's highly secretive and incredibly technologically advanced Helicarrier. The dark-skinned, one-eyed man eyed the screen again with disfavour and incredulity.
"Apparently." Coulson held up a thick stack of papers. "I've got the statements here and a USB with the video interviews. Two kids driving by on their way to a cousin in New York saw a man lying on the road. They stopped, saw that he looked injured, tried to get him in the vehicle."
"Who does that these days?" Hill's dark eyebrow rose as she flipped through her copy of the accounts.
"Young Samaritans are out there." Coulson said dryly.
"Not cynical about the youth of our nation, huh."
"I'd like to believe people have it still in them to do the right thing," Coulson replied mildly.
"Even with all the evidence is to the contrary?" Fury asked. "So, he doesn't look good."
"To say the least," Coulson nodded. "Blew up the vehicle somehow. His powers or whatever people like to call them nowadays seem to be out of control. Multiple reasons for that kind of thing... but in this case, it's fairly obvious. Torture and drugs. He's clearly delusional. Whoever he is."
"But he's emitting the same radiation."
"The remnants of radiation on Lake Superior's water's edge were difficult to pick up but the match to this explosion is too much of a coincidence to overlook. Our scanners picked his signature up-"
"His?"
"Long hair, blue-skinned with strange scars, but it, or he I should say, he's an, uh, he. So far as we can tell," Coulson gestured at the screen again as the bed was rolled into the elevator. "Scans will tell us more information as to what we've got on our hands."
"And he's alien? Not a mutant?"
"Hard to say, sir," Hill flipped through the pages. "He's not saying anything now – nothing coherent anyways – but when he was picked up, apparently he asked for Thor."
"Thor." Fury turned to Coulson. "When were you going to tell me this? I needed to know that yesterday, dammit."
"We can't be certain," Hill pointed out. "It might be coincidence."
"Uh, well, let's see, around four days ago," Coulson gave Hill a disbelieving look, "Thor comes to me with a feeling that his brother is coming. Soon after, we get signals of a radiation burst and lights over Lake Superior which resulted in a fruitless scan of the area, revealing only that something had been there and has since then disappeared."
"It's suspicious-" allowed Hill.
"Damned unnerving is what it is," Fury snapped. "How could an entire space ship disappear off the face of the earth overnight?"
"It was small?" Hill suggested?
"It was far away and there was that hour spent dealing with the RCMP," Coulson shook his head. "We don't want to mess relations with our friends over the border..." A pause. "Then," here, he frowned, "we got the Tesseract-"
"It's been acting up for a while now," Hill said. "Selvig is certain something – or someone – is interfering with it."
"How?"
"Well," Coulson shrugged, "he said something about it potentially being an object used as a door... maybe someone is knocking."
An uncomfortable silence ensued as the three of them stood there considering the implications of what Coulson had just suggested.
"All in all," Coulson continued, seemingly unperturbed, "things look odd – and this explosion on a back road in upstate New York does beg several questions."
"Such as," Fury said scathingly, "how the hell the passenger of the missing spacecraft got onto American soil?"
"No papers, nothing," Coulson quickly scanned the reports further. "Very strange. The Sheriff took some notes... thinks that most of the paperwork if there was anything went up in the fire. Or he swam... it's all conjecture."
"Yeah, conjecture is one way to put it... Who the hell would believe he swam across the Lake?" Fury glared irritably at the screen.
"Unless it landed closer to the American side and then drifted..." Hill suggested bravely.
"He's not saying?"
"He's out of his mind, showing all the signs of withdrawal. Preliminary reports point to torture, physical abuse, recent attempts at self-administered aid as well as odd radiation signatures." Coulson shook his head. "Whoever he is and whatever he's here for, we won't know for a little while. Agent May and four others for security have flown him straight to DC, where we've got a secure hospital room for him."
"Not a cell?" asked Hill with surprise.
"Not yet," Coulson shook his head. "We have the usual security parameters in place, of course. A host of suppressors and such-like based off of our initial tests with the Hulk a while back... That should suffice. If we get Thor in there, if our, uh, guest is in fact related to Thor, it'd be better if we look like we aren't the bad guys in the situation. Besides, it's not as though our guest is in prime fighting condition."
"Well, at least I know one person is thinking straight," Fury nodded, his broad shoulders relaxing a little underneath his ubiquitous leather coat. "He's in our hands, he's not resisting, he's not going anywhere and he will provide us with some kind of information eventually, if Thor's premonitions are correct... I've got a few things to spin for the Council at least. Half of the battle is knowing your plan."
"Let's hope it's the right plan," Coulson turned away from the screen, wondering yet again why the silent replay of those dark-blue lips moving in muted entreaty gave him such feelings of unquiet.
-0-0-0-
It was raining in Washington, DC when Coulson landed. Gloomy, dark-grey skies lowered overhead and short gusts of wind brought heavier torrents of rain underneath his umbrella which didn't provide much coverage as a result from the wet. By the time Coulson had made his way down the long sidewalk in through the purposefully unimportant side entrance to SHIELD's Washington, DC headquarters, it felt like the bottom half of his suit and his shoes were entirely flooded with water. Squelching in a rather unimpressive kind way down the hallways, Coulson briefly considered changing before dismissing the thought and making his way straight to the elevators.
A few minutes later, the short-haired, soft-spoken agent was on the other side of the glass looking across a bare, sterile room at their newly acquired guest. There were no windows other than the one-way glass window through which he now observed the scene. Even the door was solid metal. The walls, empty of any decoration, were a pale blue-white, giving everything a hospital-like feel.
Hospitals, Coulson grimaced. We've all been there... but it's never fun. He glanced over at the two doctors who stood and watched the patient – guest – before them. A tall, wispy-haired man wearing dark glasses and a shorter, Asian woman, both wearing blank expressions. Dr. Slane and Dr. Wang. Coulson wondered if they had any comprehension of bedside manners, before he reminded himself that the guest more than likely had no realization of where he actually was and no doubt did not have the cognizance to care. Judging by the twitching and jerking, by the incoherent speech broken by intermittent groans and soft cries emanating from a speaker somewhere, the patient had reached breaking point and was thoroughly submerged in a private world of agony.
Not so private, Coulson mused, as his eyes wandered over the small room in which he now stood. It was full of blinking machines – various monitors and computer screens scrolling rapidly with incomprehensible data. Useful information, he hoped. Information Fury likes would even be better.
"What's his status?"
"Well, he's in withdrawal. Or something we would call withdrawal or detox. More or less," Doctor Wang passed over her clipboard. "You probably won't get the jargon, but in layman's terms, he's working through some kind of drug detox at an alarming rate. I've never seen anything like it."
"Alien," interjected Doctor Slane. "We've typed up our reports and submitted them – but we've got the copies here..." He handed over a small sheaf. "Our initial scans suggest a kind of hermaphroditic species. Age indicators are way off, but if you put the numbers in relation to Thor's genetic code, quite close in age – younger even. Alien, as I said, of course. The, ah, blue skin comes and goes, which points toward a shape-shifting kind of creature. An actual biological ability, apparently. Very interesting."
"Like a mutant," Wang explained helpfully.
"As opposed to...?" Coulson blinked.
"Well, there's always..." here, Wang shrugged uncertainly, "there are some who suggest that some creatures have abilities that enable them to bend reality on a molecular or sub-atomic level which results in the appearance of change or-"
"You're talking about magic?" Coulson asked, an eyebrow rising.
"It's possible..."
"But you don't think this shape-shifting is magic."
"A bit of both, according to him," Slane added.
"He's talking."
"Sometimes," the woman frowned. "As his personal doctor I do not allow in-depth interrogation, but some light questioning has yielded some answers and created more questions – and some of the information he volunteered on his own."
"Whatever he is, whoever he is, wherever he actually came from," Slane caught Coulson's eye and gave him a solemn nod, "Agent, he's not here to harm us."
"That is for the Director to decide, but I will bear your opinions and judgments along with your reports to him personally and we will consider our next steps carefully."
"Loki has continued to ask for his brother-"
"Loki?"
"That's his name. It's in the report," Wang replied stiffly. "Apparently, he can... feel... his brother."
"This is where you are getting your discussion on magic from, I see," Coulson flipped through the sheets quickly, feeling damper and unhappier with each passing minute. He could feel a headache coming on already from the small type. So much to read, so little time.
"We've seen things... it's all on the security tapes – although the tapes fuzz out sometimes," Slane added, his voice suddenly gaining scholarly excitement which apparently couldn't be dampened by Wang's look of dislike. "Loki says he's not able to control it because of a recent removal of limitation – and the detox."
"I think we need to take everything with a grain of salt here," Coulson had to point out. "He is, after all, not in the best of health – and coming off of drugs and, if I'm reading your charts correctly, Doctor Wang, there are definite signs of torture... He's probably out of his mind-"
"In regards to his mental status, I'm not sure myself," sighed Wang, tucking a long black lock of hair behind her ear. "However, what we've seen, we've seen. He's got something up his sleeve – magic or some hidden technology and he's scared, scared and desperate. He talks about his brother – but he doesn't want Thor – his brother – to see him. Considering how nervy and crazy he is, it's best to appear as though we are going along with his wishes, if temporarily."
"He's mentioning Asgard and doom," Coulson's eyebrows rose. "That's not good. I thought Thor said his family were all up in Asgard... how did Loki end up down here – coming off of drugs and being tortured... did Loki say?"
"Not yet. He just..." Wang glanced at Slane who shook his head. "Closes up."
"There's something out there, Agent Coulson," Slane said somberly. "And it's not pretty."
"Okay..." Coulson took a deep breath, rubbed his eyes, feeling his years more than usual and sighed. "I think you two need to give yourselves a rest – I think we all need a rest. How long have you been watching him – for a day or two, right? Let's regroup tomorrow and see what's what. I don't know if we are all thinking straight at this point in time."
"What do we tell Thor?" asked Wang.
"We don't tell him anything. Yet," Coulson said quickly. "We'll bring him in when Loki's feeling better and, uh, more stable. If they are actually brothers..."
"Thor isn't related to Loki," Slane interjected.
"Adopted."
"Adopted, right. Yes. Same difference," Coulson shook his head. "Long night. If they are actually connected, then we'll bring in Thor to ease the questioning."
"He's in no state to be questioned-" Wang protested.
"Not now," Coulson repeated, "but it will happen. We will be watching and we will wait until Loki is good and ready. Obviously, from how Thor talks, Asgardians have hangups about appearing weak and I'm pretty sure that royalty even in other dimensions have issues with adopted kin coming off of drugs. Let Loki have his privacy and we'll pull in Thor in a week or so."
"You don't believe him," Slane said.
"No," Coulson replied bluntly. "Not yet, but maybe I will. He's talking doom, he's talking Asgard, he's asking for Thor... it's obvious whoever he is, he's worried about something. If we combine it with a few other facts-"
"Like the missing craft which crashed into Lake Superior-" Slane interjected.
"Oh... that happened?" Wang asked, eyebrows rising.
"It happened – insofar the signals and computer data says it happened but eyewitness reports are vague and there are no remnants of the spaceship if there was one-"
"He was there though, because of the radiation match," Slane continued.
"We think so," Coulson turned to look at the patient who was now shouting at someone called Korvath. "If there is any connection between these events, it looks as though our patient has all the answers."
"We'll do our best." Slane promised. "Seems like there's a lot more questions that need answering that I knew of."
"I trust you to keep an eye on things, Slane. Doctor Wang, great work so far. I appreciate it – Director Fury, as well. I'll be back in the morning... maybe try to chat with him a bit – no interrogation, I promise."
"We'll see you tomorrow then, Agent," Wang smiled stiffly, her dark eyes filled with worry. "You take care of yourself as well. We'll all need each other working as team the top of our form if we are to solve any of this."
"I'll get some zees in," promised Coulson.
With that, he left behind the dim room, the steady mechanical beeps and the unnerving whispers of the half-conscious patient. Whispers of a dark threat, a never ending Void, a nameless horror, the lure of great, silver-white power and the call of the unseen. It was calling.
[...power encapsulated in treasure long buried...]
[...power of ancient races long submerged...]
[...guarded secrets of deep memories...]
[...the lost peoples of the icy realm...]
[...for once...]
"She's misbehaving, Director," Selvig's voice crackled over the phone through rising static. "We've had a real time of it today, collecting all sorts of data. The gamma ray index has been steadily rising with each energy spike, not only increasing in power but also in duration, which leads me to believe that at some point in time, there may be some kind of-"
"To the point, Doctor," Fury interjected, "we don't have all day."
"It may achieve critical peak function-"
"Are we talking about explosions?"
"A massive explosion, Director, but we are certain we can give you a fairly close prediction as to the mass and power output as well as-"
"Will your calculations give us a time frame? Will we be warned in enough time for an evacuation? We'll want to evacuate everyone before it blows," Fury said clearly and slowly, since the scientist seemed to be, as usual, beside himself with excitement over the progress of his experimentation.
"Oh, yes, yes," Selvig paused and seemed to collect himself. "Of course."
"I'll be sending an agent over. Barton." The Director paused to let that sink in. "He'll keep me apprised of the situation."
"Right, yes. We'll, ah, we'll look forward to his coming."
"I am sure you will," Fury turned about to look out at the busy command room of the Helicarrier. Heads bent over screens and various staff and personnel were coming and going, bearing clipboards and tablets and files. Overlooking the controlled chaos, Hill, wearing her usual dark, neat uniform, walked about and gave advice and more specific commands as needed. "Security will be increased."
"Problems, Director?" Selvig asked.
"Doctor Dormer's initial scans were correct. The Tesseract did in fact respond to an incoming vessel."
"Ah. Yes, the resonance of the incoming gamma rays – ah, the flares had spiked in response to something like a wormhole. You found the aircraft or whatever it was that came through?" Selvig, if possible, sounded even more excited. "I would very much like to see what would set off the Tesseract..."
"No, I'm afraid Lake Superior has as yet to yield results," the Director rubbed his forehead. "That remains a mystery, but we appear to have recovered the passenger... and he seems to be connected to Thor and possibly the Tesseract."
"The, uh, alien mentioned her?"
"The Tesseract was referred to, we think."
"Well, I talked with Jane."
"That would be Doctor Foster?" Fury asked carefully, a frown creasing his forehead.
"I didn't say anything about the Tesseract, of course, but I mentioned the signal we picked up and she said that her people in Arizona picked up some signals which indicated massive amounts of gamma radiation combined with the usual gravitational warping found in wormhole phenomenon. Which was rather odd since Einstein-Rosen Bridges, ah, wormholes, are theoretically-"
"Theoretically?"
"It's theoretical physics, Director, excepting the, ah, Bifrost, which appears to function in its own... special way... there has been no real observation achieved for wormholes."
"Of course."
"Right, yes, but theoretically, wormholes are accompanied by high levels of radiation. What kinds of radiation is as yet uncertain, but I am pretty sure no one was expecting such high levels of gamma radiation... So Jane, she said that it couldn't have been the Bifrost. The energy signature and wave signals aren't the same as what happened the other night. More like a standard wormhole – except for the part where it wasn't so standard what with the high level gamma radiation and a few other particles of matter even we aren't certain of. Perhaps what our sensors picked up were the first actual detection of dark matter at work. Who knows?"
Fury rolled his eyes, feeling once again as though he had gone down some strange, unpractical rabbit hole with the physicist yet again. Not for the first time he wondered how such people sprang into existence – eyes on the stars and their feet wandering into every pothole known to mankind. If you let them, they'll jabber on for hours, he sighed.
"Well, whatever happened that night out on Lake Superior," Fury said, cutting off Selvig from further babbling on about radiation and particles and atomic whatnot. That's for another day. Another day when we don't have the Tesseract acting up and strange aircraft landing and disappearing and aliens exploding on back roads in upstate New York. "We want to know. Our guest will hopefully shed some light on the matter. While we get that information, we are putting the Tesseract under high security. Please keep a close eye on it. It's key for the operation. You know what I mean."
"Yes, of course," Selvig's voice fuzzed in and out. "Look. She's spiking again. I really should go."
"Do and let me know when things get critical."
Fury hung up and leaned back in his favoured black leather chair. The Council would need to be updated. Of late, they had been breathing down his neck more than usual. Hill needed his newest notes from Selvig, as did Coulson. And there were other things to consider. The one-eyed Director swiftly considered the worst case situations which came to mind first hand. Barton to Selvig. Coulson to Rogers and Thor. Romanov to... Stark? Did they want to bring Stark into this mess. He could make it worse. On the other hand... If something goes wrong with the Tesseract, Stark could help... so could Banner. Banner. Fury shook his head. That path led to madness. But, he mused, at least I have options.
So much to achieve...
[...what secrets do the stars hold...]
[...what treasures do they hide...]
[...across time and space...]
[...lost to history...]
There was another time, another space, another Loki. A Loki who had grown up in a golden world. A golden life, filled with love and uncertainties and as fragile as a glass. When truth revealed himself, the mirror cracked and all that he had known about himself seemed so fruitless. A lie. An illusion.
What was he really? What was inside?
There was nothing. Nothing but a monster.
And he had ran and ran and ran until only the darkness could find him and he lost his way home.
"You are an idiot," Loki told him. "You had it all and you threw it away."
Like you were any better, the other told him with a bitter smile.
"I was doing it for my people."
So was I.
"You were also doing it for yourself, for your ambition, for a game."
And you were not?
"No..." Loki said. "No. No, I wasn't." A pause. "Yet, here we are."
The two of them were standing on the edge of a tall grey block-like building, looking down at the expanse of a great city. A Terran city. A great metropolis fo Midgard. Swarming with Chitauri aircraft and various armed Midgardian aircraft, the air hummed with energy and tension. Explosions rocked a couple buildings as one of the great Chitauri creatures crashed into the buildings. On the ground, small dots spread out across the street. Helpless, like ants.
"What happens next?" Loki asked, turning away from the pathetic sight.
Odin is right. The Midgardians have no real way of protecting themselves. The Realm Eternally Sheltered indeed.
The other pointed upwards to the sky. Clouds swirled about a massive hole in the sky. A form of Muthr'a'Ginnung, a tunnel between space-time, supported by the steady injection of power from a mechanical object.
"The Tesseract? It is here after all."
So many things, the others smile was sharp like broken glass and as hard and glittering as obsidian.
"The great treasure house of Asgard," Loki mused. "Midgard."
Indeed. Power for those willing to grasp it. Those who show no fear.
"Power..." Loki reminded the shrieking of the Bifrost and the thrum of energy filling the air as he attempted to destroy his birthplace. Not his home. Never his home. No. "Power... without responsibility, it destroys all of us."
He stared back at himself, baffled.
"It destroys all of us – until there is nothing left but regret."
The other did not move, but the blue-stoned scepter in his hand lowered.
"You have not learned that yet," Loki said softly. "You will never truly know until you lose it all. Lose what you hold most dear. And you will know the truth..."
Truth? What truth? He hissed back, green eyes glistening with tears.
"That power can never bring it back... it's a lie. An illusion..."
An illusion? This is all an illusion-
With that Loki fell back into the dark.
[...guarded secrets of deep memories...]
As a young child, he had been afraid of the dark, had hidden beneath his sheets or his bed and watched the shifting shadows with wide green eyes.
No.
More often than not with his imagination running wild, Loki had ended up slipping into Thor's bedroom and curling up on the wide settee before his older brother's fireplace.
No. No.
If dreams ran too deep, delved into dark memories of black towers starkly rising to cold stars on a wind-swept world. If dark whispers preyed upon his fears, speaking of the twilight, of hate, of a death-filled hate. If Loki could not stave off the night, he would hide within the arms of his mother.
No. No. That was not how it was.
And she would sing, whisper-sing, soft lullabies and her warmth would surround him and for a night or two, there would be hope that everything would be fine, that it was all but a dream or an illusion born out of a fevered imagination.
That was not how it was...
Frigga sang to him now. And yet...
And yet...
Underneath her soft voice brewed such great power and her face as it turned toward him, blurred and shifted. Who – Loki's thoughts halted as unfamiliar lips turned upward.
...Fear not, dear heart...
...you are at the door...
...just open it...
...open...
...and you will be free...
...free...
[...for once...]
[...catch whispers of a long-forgotten flames of hope renewed...]
[…flames of hope renewed in the fires of exploding stars...]
[...in the steady signals...]
[...in the surge of power...]
[...as the door between space is opened and closed again...]
He was free. Spent, yet free; free, yet spent. He just was.
Loki. Loki of Asgard. Loki of Asgard on Earth seeking his brother. His brother, Thor.
Loki's pale blue eye-lids slowly fluttered open as he whispered yet again that name.
"Thor."
But not yet. His magick had as yet to return with his illusions. Soon, Loki told himself. Soon.
-0-0-0-
On the other side of the window, Coulson shared a look with Doctor Wang and then nodded. A week had passed and with that quiet whisper, they now knew that their patient had returned.
Loki was now on the mend. It was time to call Thor.
-0-0-0-
"Thor," Coulson rose from his seat behind his desk. Bringing a file folder with him, he drew the tall, muscled, blond-haired alien-turned-man down into the sofa opposite.
"You have news of Loki?"
"Loki?"
"My brother."
"Yes," Coulson nodded. "I didn't forget... Have your premonitions about Loki faded?"
"No," Thor shook his head, blue eyes worried. "I still worry. Of course," here, the ex-god forced a smile. "Worry is the duty of all older brothers."
"Of course," Coulson agreed. "Well, I've got good news and bad news."
"Loki has come? He is safe, well?"
"Yes and no." As Thor half rose to his feet, Coulson quickly waved a hand, moving quickly over to the sofa couch closer to Thor. Laying a hand on the thick forearm of his newest employee, Coulson smiled reassuringly. "Hear me out, Thor. Just, hear me out, OK? Then you'll see what I mean. It's a very... sensitive matter."
"Has Loki done something wrong? If so, he that was not his intention, for Loki has no concept of Midgardian laws and expectations – and as a rule, Loki is very careful, so if-"
"No, no, no. Loki has done nothing wrong. Your brother..." Coulson said slowly and carefully. "He was very ill when we found him. Hurt and, ah, very, very sick." A pause. "Has your brother ever shown signs of mental... illness?"
"Mental illness? He is sick in the mind?"
"Well, he's not entirely... he was not entirely coherent... talking about doom and darkness and a shadow and he made reference to the... to other things. Things only classified officers of SHIELD and our government know about."
"Loki has abilities of Sight and he has mentioned hearing the Stars before," Thor frowned. "It is entirely possible that Loki has Seen such things. I have come to grips with the fact that perhaps I was always a little jealous of those magickal abilities which came to him so easily... But," here Thor gave Coulson a serious look, "Father always told me such giftings came with a price and I have seen Loki push himself to the edge before. It is painful and disorienting, he told me, but he always..." Thor trailed off his voice smaller and more painful. "He always came back."
"Well, he's getting better," Coulson reassured Thor. "The doctors tell me that there were signs that he was tortured-"
"Tortured?!"
Coulson had to wrestle Thor back into his seat.
"You said there was a war going on back on Asgard between your Realm and another one?"
"Yes, Jotunheim! How did they capture Loki?"
"I don't know. We haven't asked Loki any questions – not many anyways. He asked after you and he spoke with us a little, but never really coherently." Coulson shook his head. "I thought perhaps you could talk with him. We would listen in, of course, but perhaps he would be more comfortable... with you finding out what's going on."
"You think he came to warn us?"
"Well, he seems to think he came to warn us – but from what? He says things that are not clear and he was coming off of... well... more on that later, but yes, your brother was clearly trying to communicate but until yesterday, he wasn't able to communicate coherently."
"Why not?" Thor's blue eyes were now stormy with worry and his broad shoulders were tight with tension underneath his red and brown leather bomber jacket.
"Well, I know that in Asgard, weakness isn't... good. Physical or mental illness doesn't happen so much and I suppose people who take drugs are rare..."
"Drugs?"
"Medicines or plants or powders that alter your consciousness."
"Ahhh... yes, we do have some who try such things," Thor looked troubled. "Some men who wish to see what the Mages see, some Mages who wish to see more than what is given to them naturally..." A pause and then he added in a lower voice. "They exist in Midgard, but it never ends well."
"Yes, well, you know that here on Earth we have similar stuff. Drugs and we know that with the will of the addict and the aid of doctors, drug reliance can be diminished or removed entirely."
"Darcy told me about such drugs and things she calls rehab." Thor frowned. "I do not know what this has to – Loki has been taking drugs?"
"He appears to have been forcibly injected... Yes. Appears. Whether he wanted it or not, that isn't certain," Coulson sighed. "Although I think it was probably under force since drugs are often used as methods for interrogation. Still, there is so much we are uncertain about – and your brother seemed very upset about you seeing him in his detox state, so we waited a week before telling you."
Thor glared down at his hands before looking up, tears in his eyes.
"He will... live, won't he?"
"Oh, yes, yes," Coulson hastened to reassure the ex-god. "He's fine! In fact, it's nothing short of a miracle, really. It's like nothing we've seen before. Most addicts take up to a month to get through detox properly, but for some reason, your brother appears to have burned everything out of his system... Literally. Truly fascinating."
"So he is well," Thor gave Coulson a shaky smile. "I was worried. Do not tell him that – he will never let me live it down."
"I'm sorry to worry you, Thor, but we just had to wait. Now that Loki's worst is over, he's weak but he is no doubt ready for you to come and meet him. He needs encouragement and... support. He doesn't look a hundred percent – his magick is wonky and fluctuates-"
"Ah, yes, that has happened before," Thor mused. "Loki went on a mission for Father once and came back very wearied and... ah... I suppose you would say 'burnt out'."
"Yes, so, he, um, looks like he's been through the wars, no doubt literally he has been through one, but don't worry because he has the best of care. And don't talk too much about the drugs since he has hang ups about that – and apparently his shape-shifting is on the fritz, so not much of that's going on for him right now. But never mind that... What's important is that you are there for him and we find out what's up."
Coulson watched Thor's emotions war for dominance – sadness, happiness, relief and anger. It was easy to read the prince and Coulson, despite his many years of experience on the field, felt a twinge of worry. Training kept his voice steady and his face a neutral expression of sympathy. After all, the guy has a lot to process, Coulson told himself, and he's not the quickest on the uptake.
"So, Thor," he said quietly. "How about we give your brother a visit?"
[...for once...]
[...catch whispers of a long-forgotten flames of hope renewed...]
[…flames of hope renewed in the fires of exploding stars...]
[...and that which goes round in full circle...]
[...returns yet again...]
Loki's hospital room, Coulson told him, was very bare and white and not super hospitable, but it wasn't a cell. There were barriers and a small security detail allotted to the room – only for Loki's safety, to keep his presence secret and to protect the rest from the various explosions which Loki had apparently been emitting. He had, Coulson said, destroyed a vehicle somewhere on a back road in America where he had been found, apparently attempting to make his way to Thor.
The explosions, Thor mused, must be his magick, but the humans wouldn't understand Loki's abilities. Remembering Jane's off-handed mention of humanity's inability to appreciate the alien and the different, Thor fought down a new surge of anxiety and anger. Getting angry at SHIELD for their secrecy and tactics will not help Loki, he reminded himself. If I must extricate my brother, I can – but it must be done carefully. We are only two...
Now they stood before the door.
"We'll be watching on the other side," Coulson patted Thor on the shoulder. "He's been told that someone will be around to talk with him – so this should be a nice surprise."
"Loki has always been the trickster," Thor smiled fondly. "Now it is my turn."
With that, Coulson signaled to the soldiers, they passed into a small antechamber with two doors. Coulson turned to the one on the right and motioned Thor toward the door straight ahead.
"He's just past there. Good luck!"
With that Thor opened the door and walked through. The room was large, windowless, white and spartan, just as Coulson had said. There were machines and various other medical devices, just as he had expected. And there was the bed in the middle – but Thor barely noticed his surroundings as his gaze fixed on the only being in the room.
Man. Being. Creature. A blue-skinned creature. A blue-skinned man with lines and long dark curling hair. A creature with curving and edged lines raised along cerulean colored skin.
A Jotunn.
The room fell into silence as red eyes met blue – wide with shock. There was only the sharp intake of breath and for the barest second Thor was back on Jotunheim, back in the Vault. Memory piled upon memory – his father's rhetoric on the last wars, his tutors' lectures, his friends' jokes, the old wives' tales – until it was all but a white blur.
The moment passed and he was Thor again. Thor on Earth, facing someone he knew.
He recognized the high, proud brow, the slender nose, spare mouth and sharp chin. He recognized the quizzical brows which often tilted upward in remonstrance or pleading or knit together in gentle frowns. He recognized the spare frame, the narrower shoulders and long thin hands.
It was Loki. Loki...
Thor sighed with relief.
"Loki. I didn't... I didn't recognize you," Thor tentatively approached the bed and took a seat. "Coulson said that your magick was not working as it should. I had no idea that it would affect your form in such a way. How did this happen? How long..."
How long will you remain in Jotunn form?
At the unspoken question, Loki looked down at his hands and then up. His eyes darted to the large glass which was set in the wall opposite them. After a few moments, his dark lips parted, opened and then shut. Thor watched with rising alarm as his younger brother sagged back in defeat against the white pillows piled up behind his head.
"Loki-"
"You weren't," Loki finally said softly, voice cracking. "You weren't supposed to come... it's too early." A pause. "Too early."
"Loki. What are you talking about?" Thor frowned. "Agent Coulson said that you were better and that the drugs had passed from your system. You look well to me – other than the," here he gestured vaguely, "magickal mishap."
"It is no mishap," Loki finally whispered. "Have they not told you?"
"Told me..."
"It is no mishap," Loki repeated softly.
Agonized red eyes slowly met blue.
"This is me," Loki finally added, slowly and clearly. "What I truly am. The truth I never wished you to face."
Like a great stone, the truth, for Thor saw from Loki's barely concealed fear that it was the truth, dropped like a heavy stone into a still pond. The two sat there in silence unable to break the spell which now lay between them.
[...can you hear it?]
[...it is even here... in the silence...]
EMO-NESS AHEAD! . THOR struggling with facts of life and Loki struggling with his ultimate fears... YAYYYYYY!
Author's Note 1: Concerning Mildy, Jace and Karl. For some who were worried about the deus ex machine of these charas, I hope this chapter clears most of it all up. If anyone has questions/isn't clear as to who they all are, then be sure to PM me. XD
Author's Note 2: Concerning Sigyn, the foundation of my issues lie with this fact: If I were to make her act the way I wanted to she would no longer be Sigyn - just someone who has Sigyn's name. I dislike it when I read an MCU-Loki fic and discover it's merely a myth or comic Loki masquerading under the MCU name and tags... I assume there are others out there who are happy I'm not reinventing Sigyn entirely. HOWEVER... I'm gonna discuss with my substantive editor and discuss Loki's permanent partner (or whether he'll have one and if he has one who it will be, since I've not decided on her yet) and whoever she is (Sigyn or not) I may (may!) add her into the second edit of the book. I hope this makes sense!
Thanks so much to you guys for the encouragement and comments and discussion! Keep them coming - I seriously appreciate the dialogue! It helps me question myself and hopefully we will all help me on my road to professional writing! Thanks a ton!
-KI