Minding Your Ps and Qs
AnnaDruvez prompt: Star Trek/Thor(Norse Myth): Q meets Loki. Is it competition?
Friendship? Love? Hate?
*As AnnaDruvez has reviewed just about every "chapter" of Bite Sized Bits of Fic, (and only made this one request!) I really, really wanted this to be something special. The Norns of Norse myth live by "the Well of Urdr" and they use this holy water upon Yggdrasil daily, so the Ash does not rot. Now, very strangely, 'q' does not occur in any Norse name of person, place, or thing. The Norns made letters.*
Q snatches Loki out of a black hole, is how it really begins. A peaceful and kindly gesture toward one of the Frost Giants of Jotunheim: one of the most interesting of races that Q knows of – this is true enough. No improvement needed thank you very much: also, Q was rather alarmed that this one seemed the last of its kind so he took it away to where it couldn't be hurt or hurt itself. It's a saving gesture, mostly innocent. That Q expects a favor in return is unspoken, that Q is purely selfish to have a desire for that long body of deep blue skin, that dark hair, and those red eyes – well, that's unspoken too, and a bit ahead of himself.
That's how Q sees it. But it isn't, really, the first meeting between Loki and Q, as Loki recalls.
Loki does not take kindly to finding himself in a different time, in a different place, on a spaceship called Enterprise – being prodded by a Dr. Beverly Crusher. He is not his brother and does not appreciate a lovely female face hovering over his while he feels like he has been hit by a truck. A truck doesn't even begin to compare to what the weight of Mjolnir upon his chest had been like.
Thor, breaking Bifröst (cutting the Asgardians off from all the known universe: for a time) – thwarting the one thing that Loki had determined to do with his life, to rid the Asgardians of his own inherited genes – what Thor, what Odin would do to him after? After the fall of Jotunheim, he wondered - but it did not matter now, he had failed, and his own hide saved when he had intended self destruction. Somehow.
"How…?" He asks, forgetting himself - but Dr. Beverly Crusher has no answers for the likes of him. She does, however, have questions. She does not hesitate to ask them, while he wakens and is not quite himself.
"My name is Dr. Beverly Crusher of the Enterprise. How did you come to be aboard?" She asks, calm, thought watchful of his every movement. Loki does not make many of them, he lies on his back and breathes and thinks it's enough evidence of his life for now.
"What species are you?" Bland, but interested. Loki is interested in turn – as he turns to see who'd spoken, though he flinches from that question, the being that speaks is a machine. Pale skin that can not contain blood of any color: black hair. Loki twists onto his side and surveys his surroundings.
"This is a spaceship." Loki hates to say the obvious, but it is the impossible he is facing. Impossible not because of a machine that mimics human form as closely to gain humanity, but because the woman is human. She should not then be on a spaceship, as the laws of Odin forbid advancing Midgard before it's time. It's his doing, he realizes, and that the laws of the Asgardians can not be upheld. He swallows, and looks about at the people: he must put things to rights.
Dr. Beverly Crusher is not, after all, alone. He's apparently drawn a crowd. Seeing him looking about, the machine takes it in its head to make polite introductions.
"The Enterprise is commanded by Captain Jean-Luc Picard, his staff includes first officer Commander William Riker, ship's counsellor Deanna Troi, Klingon chief of security Lieutenant Worf, conn officer Lieutenant Geordi La Forge." Loki studies them, one and all, and then tilts his head to look back at the machine mimicking human customs.
"And you are?" They are a problem he understands – being on a space ship and not allowed by Odin's laws.
"Lieutenant Commander Data, an android." Slowly, Loki nods.
"I do not know how I came to be here." Loki confesses it, hushed, as there is no shame in it when no one he knows is about to see his admitting it.
"I do~!" A voice sing-songs, and feet skip eagerly forward. Everyone is tense, barely breathing – and Loki takes notice of him. Long limbed and sharp boned, and unavoidably not human. Loki did not expect to solve this mystery so swiftly.
"You are responsible for this?" Loki looks about himself, and makes his meaning clear. Or thinks he does, that humans are in space, and this being is answering for it.
"Oh, yes." Q purrs, thinking of all the ways this Frost Giant could thank him: and, being all but the last of his kind, he'll need to reproduce – and that is a duty Q is more then glad to step in for: for the good of the universe.
"And what, prey tell, are you?" Loki asks, soft and threatening. Or so he would sound to any who knew him, Q shivers and draws closer, enraptured.
"Q of Q Continuum." Loki only blinks, slowly.
"Your mothers - the Norns...?" Q winks an affirmative.
"Why are the humans in space?" Loki asks, his red eyes flicking over them. Uneasily, they look between one another. Q bounces closer to sit beside him, an arm wrapped around Loki's shoulders.
"I brought you here, to a time and place you'll be safe. I think you were the last – surely you are the last of the Jotunheim in this now." Loki breaths out, and he doesn't know if it's in relief to be rid of that loathed race, or to be the last, or to be…alone. With his sigh, his body shifts into what he grew up with, black hair, snow pale skin, and ice blue eyes. There are gasps, and Loki remembers that Q and he are not alone.
"What then, is the year?" This he asks, not of Q, but of the humans crowding him. They do not know if he should be protected, or if he is a danger. He is both.
"Star Date 2367." Captain Jean-Luc Picard says, confident despite Loki's different face. Loki tenses, and Q giggles.
"There is no going home, Jotunheim." Loki knew that, for the Bifröst bridge did break, and it would take a long time to fix – but this long? Something in Asgard must have gone wrong: a war, a death. He cringes inside, thinking of Odin so near death to sleep so deep: of Thor, fallen and never crowned.
Loki puts his fingers on the back of Q's neck, his wrath a burning ice. Q hisses, pained, but makes no attempt to get away. He seems, instead, all to pleased with Loki's reaction – giggling as his neck darkens.
"If you go back, you will find your welcome in Asgard will not be to your liking, Loki – so you would not be missed, I took your place in-between the times of here and now." Loki is very cold inside, and rather then risk killing Q – throws him toward the wall. He blinks out of existence, before falling and smashing his face in – standing before the Enterprise crew, and bows – grinning.
"Enterprise crew, I present to you Loki Odinson, though born of Laufey – the curious case of a Jotunheim raised as an Asgardian." Loki, despite his weakness, rises and curls his hand into a rune shape – but Q is gone and Loki curls those outstretched fingers into a fist. He breaths in, out, but breaths and lives.
"He is gone." The Enterprise ship's counsellor Deanna Troi reassures him, her eyes dark and worried – for Loki.
"I know." Loki affirms telepathically with her with a soft smile, she feels his emotions – and he feels hers. Her eyes widen at that realization.
"I do not know what Q has done to my name, my family. May I access that history?" Loki could find it out without asking, but it is better to ask, especially if he is to be stuck upon this ship for any great length of him. Uneasily, Riker looks to Captain Picard who nods, slowly, so there can be no mistaking his affirmation.
"I would help him, sir." Data states and Loki bites his tongue, that he needs an android to show him how to use technology! The idea is laughable. It is far more likely that they want to keep an eye upon him, and so are going about it…politely. Loki steps to Data, who leads him to a computer – he puts his hands upon it, closes his eyes, and uses technology so advanced to be called magic – to pull up the information stored, and put it into his mind, images flashing before his eyes.
The history of humanity is there, and Loki opens his eyes, and found his cheeks are wet. Q had spoken truth, had fought Thor with his skills and his face, and Thor….Thor must hate him.
"I see." He nods thanks to Data – to Captain Picard, and blinks away his tears.
"You are alone, the last…" Deanna Troi can't help but say what she feels from him, his emotions having gotten away from him. He reels them in, so quickly and so skilled that the ship's counselor takes a step forward, following, as if she is a fish hooked by his pain.
"Yes." Loki confirms, soft and sure.
"Then you are the Loki, god of lies, mischief." Geordi La Forge mutters, wonderingly, Loki can not see his eyes behind a visor: but knows well that tone of voice.
"Yes" A second time, damning as the first. He admires in these people, that they face the truth, a god, and do not say what Loki wants to hear. They are…interesting.
"Then you bring Ragnarök?" It occurs to Loki, the irony of Norse myths, that they say he was trapped in a dark "cave" – and got it right, for a black hole might well be that – that poison drips upon him, and that the poison was in his heart all this time – that he is bound by the flesh of his own kin. That he will bring about the end of an age. It is not any human that asks this of him, but a Klingon.
Loki looks down at his own hands, hands that can bring with a touch - frostbite. Loki chuckles.
"I was truly named for fire, for I am the flame of creation, Ragnarök is not the ending, but a new beginning. Yet I am a Frost Giant of Jotunheim." A never-ending irony, a truth his father – Odin and Laufey both – had named him for.
He clenches his hands into fists.
"This I give my word upon, mortals, so take heed. There is no greatness in the godlike, and the likes of Q will soon deal with the likes of me and mine. So, you see, you will be free of us, one and all – may you never thank me for it." Loki's eyes gleam red when he takes one last glace at the crew of the Enterprise, and then passes away from sight.
Loki stands at the heart of Asgard, and bows low to Odin.
"You have been long away, Loki Odinson." His father greets, and Loki stands straight backed as any Odinson. Loki smiles, his eyes gleaming green. Q finds himself at the feet of Loki, entrapped in chains.
"I was not myself." There are hushed murmurs that echo in the high walls of the court hall.
"It is good to see you, brother. We feared Q had lost you." Thor stands at Loki's side, his hand on his brother's shoulder. At his feet, Q giggles.
"What will you do?" Frigga asks, she who is mother, and not mother, of the two sons of Odin. She who knows more wisdom then she will ever speak, but knows well what it means to go to war.
"A trade: Q took me from Asgard's reach for over three hundred years. Now he is mine." Loki smiles, and in silver light like water, the Norns appear – they have never left the Well of Urdr, but do so now – for Q is born of them. Loki does not expect such a show of loyalty – though a loyalty to who is a question about to be answered. They look between each other and then bow their heads to look down upon Q.
"To quick." Old Urd warned.
"That's that." Verdandi sighed.
"We agree." Skuld smiled.
"Abide by Loki." Urdr, their mother, Q's grandmother – declares for all to hear. It is a warning for Q, and a blessing to Loki. All four look to him with favor, and he bows his head in a gesture of likened respect. When he looks up, they are gone. Slowly, Loki smiles at Q, kneeling down to speak into his ear.
"You are mine." Q only shivers, for it's a truth that Q has never fought. It's meant to be.