~
A/N:
I hope each and every one of you have the merriest of Christmases and happiest of Holidays!
And that's pretty much as bright as this one's going to get...
~
When there's nowhere else to run
is there room for one more son?
~
Loki's limbs felt heavy as he trudged across the dirt.
Not in weakness, but still in foreign strain.
The common act of walking would not have been his first method of travel but he thought better of using his magic at such a time. Malekith would be watching for it. He was certain after the way Jane was being scoped out. And to stir the air so close to the cave would only give his adversary a bigger lead.
He kept the mountain range just off to his right but his eyes remained in the direction of the storm clouds building within the northeastern skies.
He recognized them easily, knowing exactly who he would face beneath them; expected to see them sooner or later, but still hated them with a bitterness that matched the biting winds.
At the first flicker of lightening he would teleport, using its robust energy as a form of protection over the much smaller blip of his own. Robust and much too flashy. His brother claimed to control lightening but what a farce that was. Nothing controlled lightening. It was wild and greedy and overly ostentatious. Suitable for its master he supposed. To truly be in control meant restraint; a skill that even before he'd been handed the hammer, his brother had no care to study, no matter how much he had persistently urged him to.
So when the bright burst of electricity cut in fine, blue branches across the blackening sky just as he knew it would, Loki transferred to its origin.
An unfair battle unfolded in the gully below him. Dust drifted up from clashing bodies like a coppery smoke screen doing everything in its power to hide the carnage just beneath.
Its efforts were useless.
Guns blasted dark energy like molten mercury. At least thirty mask-clad attackers swarmed Thor and the petulant Lady warrior at his flank. Thor called to the skies above for aide against them.
And for a while, Loki only watched.
Where his brother was harsh, Sif was harsher still; bashing enemies with the blunt force of her shield when they drew near enough and finishing them off with an inelegant lunge of her great sword. She bled from a deep gash along her hairline.
He carefully took note of how easily the God of Thunder moved around her; with her, their backs aligning and shifting as they covered one another amidst the swarm of dark matter and fiery explosions. How her shield came up to block each time a shot should have passed over her shoulders to sting the back of Thor's. How his lightening danced around the pair in such practiced, odd, precision, whipping at any enemy that stray too close.
Graceful? No, that's not what it could be called. There was no grace before him.
But what he did see was unprecedented opportunity.
He waited for the right moment to make his move. To intercede.
To strike.
It came when a fleet of five Dark Elves stormed toward Thor, his focus on the first to charge allowing the others to break his chain of energy as they closed in on him and tore with ragged swipes of daggers and mangled claws at plated armor.
Sif turned hastily to aide him.
Loki blinked through the air and made it to Thor's side before she could complete the motion.
He felt the weight of his armor mold around him in a protective embrace. At the same time, he drew his daggers from golden bracers, ducking his tall stature beneath an orb of black without having to look in the direction it had been fired from.
He could feel the magic clashing with his own as he dodged around another blow and drove blades into the ashy, exposed skin between the shoulder blades of an elf clawing at Thor's back. For a few seconds, the would-be attacker became a make-shift shield.
"Loki?" Thor peered over his shoulder to watch Loki drop the dead elf to the dirt. He turned back around just in time to deflect a dark matter grenade with his hammer. It bounced back into the sea of elves and exploded, sending flaming shrapnel through the air and dwindling their numbers substantially.
Loki heard the surprise in his brother's voice. He could see Sif glaring acid at him over her deteriorating opponent, proving she'd heard it too. His eyes never left hers as he lunged forward to dodge another shot, the edge of his blade sweeping through the soft flesh behind his attacker's knee.
"Let's save the welcome party till this is over, hm?"
And with that, he spun around to catch another enclosing elf up under the neck, just behind his jaw, his blade rising up to the hilt in unseen carnage. His victim dropped to his knees before him as he rose to his feet and he couldn't help but to wonder if they knew just what it was they were fighting so passionately for; giving their lives up with such relentless honor for nothing.
Either way, they were so recklessly misguided that he had to silently praise their master.
He drew back, watching as the soldier's stained mask fell even more lifeless upon the red ground.
Jane watched the day pass as the silhouette of rocks just outside the cave casted longer and longer shadows across the uneven gravel. Whether it was his lingering words to her or the throbbing she could swear he still felt in her hand, she wasn't sure, but she had never felt so mentally strung out.
Her mind had always tried to wrap around every trial placed before it. She loved a challenge, being faced with new strands of information, weaving bits and pieces into theories. Testing them till there was no room or place for error. Bringing irrefutable evidence into light and proudly stamping her name on it, proving everyone who ever doubted her wrong.
Though now it seemed like the evidence just kept piling up and the facts were too much to intertwine.
"Magic's just science we don't understand yet."
She'd quoted Clark multiple times before when the two deities had sparred against one another within her own world. Now that she had been whisked away to another, it was painfully clear that she'd only held a sliver of understanding about just how right the wise author was.
Now there was an alien species toying with her mind; accessing her thoughts and making her see things that didn't actually exist. But she had felt the snake; its scales writhing over her jeans. Its teeth in her skin. It mixed with the lingering tingle of his touch and the steel.
She still glanced down at her hand every so often. Her brow twisted this time.
None of this should exist really. She had made it her life's mission to align the stars and bridge the gap of unknown darkness between them. And when she finally did, it only made it clear that they had been distinctly separated for a reason.
The human race was inferior to all the others thus far. She'd learned firsthand. Seen it in New York. Watched on helplessly from her prison cell. Felt it when she stood too close to them; how her skin prickled in the presence of Thor's power and Loki's, well, presence.
She could also feel it every time the Aether pushed too tightly through her frail, human veins, reminding her that her body was nothing more than a shell for it to hide in; her own lesser life force nurturing it and sustaining it just enough until it could find a more suitable dwelling.
A cave within the caves.
Her hollow huff was loaded with disdain.
They were all gods in comparison, every one of them, and if one god or another didn't end her life first, the dark energy in her blood would do so for them.
Her mind went to work and sought out every possibility; every outcome that could result from this. Some knotted her stomach. Others brought the Aether to a fuzzing simmer. And while none of them were necessarily good, a few were much more appealing than others.
She could keep her promise to Loki and fight or she could sit still as instructed and rot within the cave, waiting for either the devil or his advocate to reappear on her doorstep.
Jane slowly spun the dagger's handle between her thumb and forefinger to calm herself. It froze in her hand when she realized that the small swell of anxiety that overcame her was not only for herself.
If Malekith's magic so easily pierced the cave's veil from who-knows-where, then just what he was capable of up close and personal was a troubling thought. Loki's war story didn't help either. Facing an enemy that wanted nothing more than to send the universe back into total darkness was almost as terrifying as it was captivating. And judging by his claims before he'd left the cave, that was exactly what he planned on doing.
Even though she had spent days with him now, his intentions were still more unclear than their actual enemy's. What she did know is that whatever he had planned would play in his own favor. He had always seemed like he had something to prove and she was sure that, much like with the battle for Earth, his end game was not going to be pleasant, no matter what skills or kindness he offered her up until then. She was nothing more than a pawn trapped amidst his battle of tricks and wit.
And she had thought his first attack had been too close to home...
While the Chitauri army had been terrifying in their own rite, she was quickly learning that there was nothing more frightening than being under a Trickster God's direct attention; nothing more confusing, or heavy, or perplexing. Especially when he held the advantage; just as he always did, sweeping her feet out from beneath her in one way or another.
He did not need a hammer.
And she was not one to succumb to a challenge, no matter how godly it was.
With the three of them slashing, bruising, and outwitting, the Dark Elves' numbers steadily depleted.
Thor's arm tightened around the final enemy's neck and he was about to bring down the final blow.
Loki could see the bitter hatred reflecting back at him from the elf's unmasked eyes.
"Let him live."
The words silenced everything but the winds and brought Thor's hammer to rest.
Sif pulled her blade from the chest of a fallen enemy, stepping over a badly battered form toward the golden-armored god.
"Who are you to make commands?" Her tone was as harsh as her swing. "We came here to finish what you started so let us get on with it."
"What I started?" Loki took a slow step back, holding dagger-filled hands out before him in mock surrender. "He can be used to gather valuable information. And you clearly need it, considering your facts are as muddled as your intentions."
Thor dropped the elf in question to the ground just in time to free an arm to block her path. If a look alone could set fire, Loki would have been draped in smoke.
"And what of yours?" Thor asked straightforwardly, though it failed to hide the wariness upon his brow.
Loki's eyes tightened on the pair.
"Why chose to practice inhibition now? We all know what truly troubles you."
Thor's arm lowered from barring Sif down to his side. She blinked her eyes to the ground.
Thor's brow pulled down, sullen.
"Then you should know that it is what awaits us back home should this not go smoothly."
Loki was left surprised by his brother's words. He had not expected them or the dark expression that looked strange on the God of Thunder's normally flamboyant features. It was almost enough to make him seek further details.
He thought better of it and focused more on the pain building within his chest, sneering instead.
"What awaits us?" Loki lifted a brow at his brother's insolence. "Our mother's death was all part of the plan then? Just a casualty of your quest for the throne?"
This time Sif's hand rose to grab Thor's forearm.
"Why must you constantly twist my words, Loki?" His voice shook through the sand. "Do you even know why she lost her life?"
Loki dipped his head though his eyes stayed level.
"Because you allowed it."
He watched as his words ripped Thor apart momentarily, just as they were destined to. His forehead lost all sign of struggle soon after, with well weathered expertise.
"She died how she lived. By protecting that which needed protection, just as she has always done... And she would not want this for you, brother." He paused in an attempt at reason. "Now let's end this and go home."
The order in his voice reminded Loki of his father.
He hated his father.
"My home… my place in Asgard… it died along with her. I was caged away like an animal, leaving her protection to fall into your hands and because of your reckless heart and wretched quim, it simply does not matter what she would want now." He pointed a blade at his brother, his eyes filling with uninvited moisture and white heat. "And having even an ounce of hope in my welcomed return shows just how imprudent you truly are… how senseless you believe me to be."
Loki moved toward the pair of perplexed gods, and with a rise and fall of his hand, made it so that they were frozen where they stood. He watched the faint clutch of Sif's fingers around the hilt of her sword. It was nice seeing fear liven the goddess' hateful features.
"How many more creative ways do I have to come up with to show you how far beyond penance I am?" He craned his neck with fervor as if he searched for an answer.
Because he just might have been at that moment.
"Loki…" Thor warned, only his eyes moving to train down on Loki's empty hands as he neared. They showed no fear; only heavy disappointment.
Enough so to refresh the idea that he approached a true son of Odin, but not enough to deter the weight of shame the look from his brother placed upon his shoulders; in a way that even Odin himself was never able to achieve. He internally shook it off just the same, stopping a single pace before the tense twosome.
Loki wrapped glowing fingers around the edge of Thor's chest plate and gritted his teeth against the unyielding weight of his haggard expression.
"There is only one way for me to return home. Your interference is not needed again. I do not want to be rescued from this, brother."
He released him with a disgusted push and Thor's huge stature limply toppled over onto the ground. He turned his attention down to Sif and returned her piercing glare.
Loki took her chin slowly; lightly in his fingertips, smearing in the blood that had made it that far down her face. He drank in the unadulterated disgust that crossed her features.
His eyes snapped over her when the white light of another huge conduit glistened bright along the distant horizon and trembled the land around them.
He was scorched by her mocking grin when he finally looked back down.
"I see I am not the only one aware that it is much too late for things to go smoothly." He drawled as her eyes fluttered closed and he released her limp body onto the dirt.
For a while, he searched the grey skies and steadied his breathing.
Then he moved to bitterly grab the wounded Dark Elf up from his curled heap on the dirt.
"Tell the Accursed I wish to speak with him... tell him what you saw here," he ordered. "I hold information about Asgard that will aide him significantly in his pursuit of darkness." He reached down to grab a few relics from the ground around him, brushing off a coat of red dust from one and tucking away others with the grace of a skilled magician. "Oh, and do add that if he refuses my request, I will personally escort him into the brightest fires of Hel."
He handed the elf a mask that nearly matched his own and released him over to the sand.
Epigraph: All These Things That I've Done - The Killers