Beneath
Chapter One Hundred Fifty-Four – Agreements
"How do you propose to do that?" Odin asked.
"Naïve indeed," Loki said with a smirk. "Where is my leverage if I divulge my plans? I require freedom of action, including freedom of movement. I require Heimdall to obey my orders."
Odin gave a sharp laugh. "You are mistaken about which of us here is naïve."
"Come now. I haven't heard even one proposed solid solution from either of you. And what else will you do with me, really? Your prisons are overcrowded, your towers crumble and your city is in imminent danger of being overrun and your prisons thus emptied, and there is not a single other realm that would have me. Jotunheim, of course, but where's the point in that without also surrendering the Ice Casket and the Tesseract? My solution, I think, and I do realize I may be biased, is far superior to anything the two of you might eventually come up with. My freedom, for the very survival of Asgard. And I'll do it without even lifting a weapon."
"You'll do it with trickery?" Thor said, leery of Loki's bargain, of his sudden good will even if it was hardly altruistic, of his utter confidence that he could accomplish what the whole of Asgard had thus far failed to, and not for lack of trying. "You have truly lost your mind if you think you can simply snap your fingers, weave your words, and win this war."
"Perhaps, but I think I've found it again, actually. And from what I've heard, I'd think you'd have grown quite comfortable with trickery by now. But all right, to assuage your delicate moral compass, I'll do it without lifting a weapon, and I'll do it without lies. Well, mostly without lies. I trust you'll grant me one or two in extenuating circumstances."
"Much mischief can remain within truths told in careful words," Odin said.
"Exactly," Loki responded with a wide grin that was not at all false, mind abuzz with new potential.
Odin, Thor thought, seemed to be giving credence to Loki's offer. Perhaps he envisioned possibilities Thor thus far could not. "Our honor must remain intact," Thor said. He still wasn't certain how serious – or truthful – Loki was being about all this, but he was beginning to let himself hope. The use of the most destructive weapons protected in Asgard's Weapons Vault, however, had never been and would never be an option.
"Your honor will be as pure as South Pole ice. Extremely pure, I'm told, so pure that drinking the water from melting it can actually be harmful to one's health. The honor of your enemies…that will be perhaps less pure."
Thor looked to Odin, and Odin thought. The Nine Realms were one, through Yggdrasil. Destruction of one – as Loki had not understood, or had not cared – meant destruction of all. Destruction of Yggdrasil, also, meant destruction of all. The dishonoring or humiliation of the other realms, the creating of internal upheaval on them, while not something Odin desired, neither for Asgard itself nor for the peoples whose leaders had drawn them into war, was the lesser evil, something Odin could live with. A price he was willing to let the other realms pay to avoid Asgard's own destruction and the looting of her most dangerous artifacts. A price far less than Asgard's surrender, and infinitely less than surrendering Loki to the Jotuns, who now hated Loki as much as he them.
But the question of Loki himself remained. Odin's thoughts were no more than hypothetical musings if Loki could not actually accomplish his ostentatious objective. Or if he had woven one of a hundred loopholes into his offer. Full freedom had not been among the possibilities that Odin had been contemplating in dissatisfied frustration; as he'd told Thor, Loki had never given him a sign that he could really be trusted, despite being presented with multiple opportunities to do so.
"How can we believe you? How can we trust that trickery is not already involved?" Odin asked.
"Trickery is involved in everything, as you yourself have in essence stated. I merely said that I would have no need of lies. Nor am I lying here. Asgard's throne should be mine. But if it cannot be, then trust that I have no desire to see Nadrith or that pretentious fool Gullveig perched upon it, or pulling the strings of the one who does, while someone else pulls their strings."
"You mention Alfheim and Vanaheim. We are at war with seven realms. What of the others?"
"What of them? Only those two matter."
Odin narrowed his eye. "Why? Svartalfheim initiated the war. Surely Svartalfheim matters."
"Svartalfheim did not initiate the war. Svartalfheim is irrelevant. Am I to understand you haven't filled him in?" Loki asked, turning suddenly to Thor.
Thor startled at being addressed; he'd been watching and listening carefully, weighing what both his father and brother said. Though Loki could not know much of the course of the war, it was striking that his conclusions about where the focus of Asgard's strategy should lie were in line with those of Thor and his advisors. "I have not had any opportunity to convey what we discussed. And you never said Svartalfheim was irrelevant. Or even that they didn't initiate the war. What about Brokk? He's clearly-"
"Irrelevant. A clever link in a chain."
"And what of Jotunheim?" Odin asked. If Loki were to be involved at all, Jotunheim had to be discussed.
"What of it? Exceedingly irrelevant."
"Your last act toward Jotunheim was to attempt to erase them from existence. Now, two of the demands of the other realms are directly related to Jotunheim. How do you intend to convince them to abandon those demands?"
"Hmmm… I don't know," Loki answered, as though deep in thought. "Is it too late for your plan to install me on Jotunheim's throne? If so…I accept. Though full disclosure is only fair, my reign will be quite short as I will be forced to eliminate my opposition…namely, the entire population, whatever remains of it."
Thor's eyes jumped from Loki to their father and back again in mystified confusion. Loki on Jotunheim's throne? His life, he thought, had become nothing but madness since the day he was meant to ascend the throne. Loki on Jotunheim's throne, he repeated in his head, trying to picture the impossible that wasn't, he supposed, in fact impossible. Loki, he reminded himself, was Laufey's son by birth. And though he hadn't really thought of it before, Helblindi and Byleister, Laufey's warring sons, had been born decades after the Ice War. Loki was, technically, the heir to the contested Jotun throne. "I never wanted the throne! I only wanted to be your equal," Loki had claimed that fateful day in the Observatory. He wants a throne now, though. And if he's denied Asgard's… "Loki…do you wish to claim Jotunheim's throne?" he finally asked, interrupting nothing more than a pointless staring match. If Loki did wish that…and of course if he did not truly intend to further decimate Jotunheim's population, then as incredible as it sounded, as impossible to imagine as it was, he thought he should – and would – do what he could to support Loki in this. Perhaps Jotunheim, somehow, could in fact be convinced to accept Loki's rule as a better alternative than the civil war they now endured. It seemed far-fetched to put it mildly, but… Then Loki looked his way. And Loki, Thor was immediately certain, had no interest whatsoever in Jotunheim's throne.
Loki fixed an icy glare on Thor and let it linger before speaking. "If a Dark Elf were slinking up behind you this very instant I would not speak a word of warning, nor lift a finger for defense, nor call for a healer as every last drop of blood poured from you."
Thor smiled. Loki, he suspected, had not intended it, but his overblown words called to mind all the horrible things they'd said and done to each other over the centuries, all in jest. For the most part. Words spoken by the brother he knew and loved, and not the madman who'd taken his place.
"Wipe that idiotic grin from your face. You look like a simpleton."
"Of course, Brother," Thor said, and made an actual attempt to do so, though he didn't quite manage it.
As soon as Thor called him "brother," idiotic grin still on his face, Loki realized what he'd done – or rather what Thor thought he'd done. If he tried to deny it, or speak of it at all, really, Thor would only be further convinced of his foolish notions. Instead, he simply turned and put his back to Thor. "Well? Are we agreed? My freedom for your victory?"
"Victory is not possible. Too many lives have been lost already," Odin said, still trying to glean some insight into what Loki might have in mind, and whether that even included defending Asgard.
"All right, if you must be pedantic. Let's define victory as the other realms ceasing their attacks, apologizing, and promising to never again attack Asgard unprovoked. Satisfactory?"
"As a definition, yes. If you can achieve this, your freedom of movement will follow."
"I will not accept that. I require freedom of movement to accomplish the task. Do you expect I can do so from here? Or from within the palace walls?"
"Do you expect that I will give you leave to disappear?"
"We have been over this already."
"Yes. And you have yet to give me any cause to trust you."
"I am wanted on eight realms now. Nine if you count Asgard itself. While 'Intergalactic Outlaw' admittedly has a certain ring, I truly dislike hiding. I have no intention of disappearing."
"You will be able to go where you feel you need to; you will merely need first to advise what your intentions are and to receive permission."
"As though I were a youth again? No. Why do you not say what you mean? You wish to track my movements, to maintain control over me, so that if I fail – which I assure you I will not – recapturing me for a gift to the Frost Giants will be little trouble."
"You put words in my mouth, Loki. You remain under judgement. No one under judgement would be allowed the degree of freedom you seek."
"A convenient excuse."
"Father…"
Loki and Odin both turned to Thor, who'd been largely forgotten by both of them.
"Yes?" Odin said.
Thor hesitated. Now that he was about to say it aloud, the idea seemed unwise, likely to draw his father's censure. "Loki…if you really have a plan for ending this war in Asgard's favor…how much time would you need?"
Loki eyed Thor with suspicion, but couldn't discern what he might be thinking. "Not much. Days. Perhaps as few as two. Perhaps even one, though that may be overly ambitious even for me."
"Two days," Thor said, thinking aloud. He was glad he'd asked; it was less than he'd imagined, to the extent he'd actually been able to imagine it at all. "I could go with him."
"That's it. Never mind," Loki said sharply. "Enjoy your defeat. In my other skin I can survive here on my own. Perhaps I'll make my way to the coast, take another face, who knows what opportunities will come my way?"
"Loki, wait," Thor said. "I won't get in your way. I'll be your key to locked doors. You won't need to explain to anyone else."
"To anyone else except for you," Loki called over his shoulder.
"I will allow this. You should recognize a good bargain when you hear it, Loki. You will not hear a better one. And you know I cannot grant you unrestricted movement otherwise."
Loki continued, but his pace slowed. Then stopped. "If swinging Mjolnir could have won this war, you would have won it by now," he said, back still to Odin and Thor.
"I know that," Thor said. "War is about more than just physical strength. If your knowledge, your skills can help us…then I will be grateful for your assistance. I will leave the battlefield to stand by you, Brother."
Loki sighed, turned around. "Laying it on a bit thick, aren't you, Thor?"
"I speak truly."
And of course, he did, Loki knew. He had little talent for speaking otherwise. Considering his options did not take long. Probably, though, he thought, he wasn't considering quite the same things that Odin and Thor were. "Agreed. I go where I want, I say what I want, I do what I want. You are to do and say nothing, unless I ask it. Understood?"
"Understood. Agreed."
"Then let's return to the maintenance building and make our plans to return to Asgard," Odin said. If this went well – and the "if," in this case, was quite a wager – it could go very well indeed.
/
/
"The first series!" Thor exclaimed in surprised delight when he, his father, and his brother reached the Vehicle Maintenance Facility after a silent walk back.
Jane dropped her arms and leaned onto the scrap piece of 2x4 she'd been holding up over her left shoulder. In front of Frigga, it had been comfortable – the woman may be a queen but she had an almost preternatural ability to make you feel more like she was the cool aunt you could hang out and be yourself. Especially with her hair bobbing about in a high ponytail and an unzipped Big Red on over her heavy gown. In front of Thor and Loki and Odin, she suddenly felt silly.
"Yes, she's a fast learner," Frigga said with a smile and a nod to Jane. She lowered her plank, too, though it wasn't quite long enough for her to lean on. "And she told me, Loki, that when she mentioned learning to defend herself, you laughed at her. That's not very nice, dear one."
Thor regarded Jane with raised eyebrows. She was tiny, and a mortal – he could understand the essence of Loki's reaction without approving of its particular expression – but Jane was also feisty and determined, and he could well imagine Jane's own reaction to Loki's laughter.
Loki, meanwhile, was peeling off his gloves, and once his hands were free, he cast his gaze casually about the cluttered space, lingering on a snowmobile, and extended his little finger in Jane's direction.
Jane laughed and looked away. She knew exactly what he was saying. "This one is nice, once a week or so," he'd told her, pointing to the tip of his pinky, after she'd joked that he didn't have a nice bone in his body. She looked back at the men, then, brow knitted in curiosity. Loki was joking. He didn't look defensive. There was even something different, something she couldn't put her finger on, in the way he moved, the way he held himself. And none of them looked angry.
"This is what you saw me perform in that parade, isn't it?" Thor asked, approaching the women and rubbing his hands together; he'd foregone the gloves this time. "I still can't picture it, that you were there, watching me, when I was still a child." He glanced back at Loki, who was now joining them, and wondered about what seemed to have been some private moment of humor between his brother and Jane.
"That's how all this came up," Jane explained. "And then…I'm sorry, what should I call you?" Jane asked, turning back to Frigga.
"How about 'Lady Frigga?'"
Jane nodded. "Then Lady Frigga offered to give me a lesson."
"If you think this prepares her for defending herself, then by all means, let's fit her for armor and prepare her to be sent into battle as one of our warriors," Loki said, smiling politely. "Asgard has apparently grown desperate."
"Of course Jane wouldn't fare well in battle against the other realms, but on her own, it can't hurt to be better able to protect herself physically, can it," Frigga said rather than asked.
"Ah, but her realm no longer fights with swords."
"Neither do you, my dear," Frigga said. "Either of you."
"True enough," Thor said with a chuckle. "But we all know those movements. The first series is full of basic blocks that work just as well against an arm or a knife, possibly even a hammer, as they do against a sword." He took the length of timber his mother held and raised it slowly toward Jane, who got her own mock weapon up into more or less the right position to block his. It was clumsy and imprecise, but not bad for what couldn't have been more than a few times through the routine. He smiled down at her and hoped that the jovial mood that was growing inside him was not misplaced. He was not missed on the battlefield now. But in what he estimated now at less than three hours, Gullveig's announced reprieve would end and while his next moves were uncertain, particularly if he suspected any form of alliance between Asgard and Midgard in the war, renewed attacks on Asgard were surely a given, and Thor would not be part of the defense. His smile faltered at the thought of what a risk he was taking. On Loki.
"Loki has offered to win the war for us," Odin announced, joining Frigga.
Thor stepped around to Jane's side; Jane and Frigga both turned to Loki in surprise.
"What do you know that you haven't told us, Loki?" Frigga asked after a moment.
Jane waited, wondering the same thing. Loki had told her that he didn't know anything that would actually help Asgard. "Nothing much. Nothing that I care to divulge now. If I gave you all the instructions, you might be able to follow them and solve the riddle without my help. And then where would I be? I will solve it on my own, and then I will be anywhere I wish."
"On your own, perhaps. Alone, no. Thor will be joining him," Odin explained.
"So you're going back to Asgard?" Jane asked. She knew there was no point in asking for details, so she didn't bother.
"For a start. We'll see what happens from there."
"Do you really think you can do it? Just…win the war? Just like that?"
"Of course. The realms are led by blind fools," Loki said, hoping Odin and Thor noticed that he'd included Asgard in that statement. "I don't think I'll even break a sweat."
"Confidence is a strength, Loki," Odin said. "Overconfidence, a weakness. Take care you recognize the line. Now, there are a few matters we must address." He reached for the small but thickly padded pouch at his side, and from it withdrew a healing stone.
"Odin! You've had that all this time?" Frigga asked, accusing. "When we weren't sure that what Eir had left would be enough to heal Loki?"
"I would have used it had it been necessary; it wasn't. And our production cannot keep up with our need. I have carried this same stone since I first offered it to you, Loki. If I had used it then, I would not be able to now, and no healer would spare a stone now for such a wound. But this one, I offer again to you, Son."
Loki stared at Odin. There was a catch. He was certain of it. But catch or no, he was tired of walking on an inflamed injured foot, and even if no magic prevented its healing now, the wound had been open for so long it would heal slowly and badly if left on its own. He strolled over to Odin, conscious of the pain in his right foot in a way he normally was not, and reached for the stone. And Odin snatched it away.
Odin grasped the stone loosely against his chest, rotating his wrist so that Loki could not simply grab it away from him with a snarl. "Allow me," he said. "Sit."
Loki stared at Odin again, this time seething. "Fine," he finally said. "If you wish to kneel at my feet, I shall not stop you." His eyes widened, nostrils flaring, for a split second as soon as the words were out. Those words, said to Asgard's king, even Asgard's former king and possible future king again, were a hair's breadth from treasonous. Perhaps not even a hair's breadth.
Odin gave a small smile. "It will not be the first time I've knelt at your feet, Loki. I once kissed your scratches and bruises. And when you were very young, you thought my healing powers were even better than your mother's. Then just a few months ago, I knelt before you with this same stone and you would not accept my care."
"I would have, had I known there was a curse involved."
"I am not so sure," Odin said. Loki had been recklessly self-destructive then, and obviously still had trouble with those impulses; though Loki had quickly tried to mask it, the moment when he recognized he'd gone too far was obvious. "But you yourself have already knelt before a mortal this day, so perhaps you attach less significance to it than you say."
Loki squinted his eyes, about to deny it while questioning Odin's mental acuity, when he realized what Odin was referring to. Zeke. Zeke's knee. He'd knelt on the ice to provide what little healing he could. He hadn't even thought about the fact that he was, technically, kneeling before a mortal. "Let's just get this over with, shall we?" he asked, then went over to the nearest chair and dropped into it unceremoniously. He worked off his right boot, lifted his leg, and flexed the foot.
Odin planted Gungnir nearby, then dropped to one knee before Loki, gently grasped his ankle, and rested it atop his raised knee. I love you, Loki. You vex me, challenge me, infuriate me, pain me, but I love you. The words did not escape his thoughts to reach his tongue. The path between the two was long and arduous, and if somehow the words made it out, Loki, he knew, would merely mock them or otherwise dismiss them. He tried to let something of his feelings show on his face, and wished that he still had two eyes. Perhaps then Loki would understand.
Or perhaps not, Odin thought as he crumbled the stone with great care while Loki looked off somewhere to the left, away from him and everyone else, oblivious to anything on Odin's face. The wound was in practical terms still a fresh one, so the stone healed it quickly and fully. He gave Loki's foot a squeeze and stood. Loki stood, too, testing out his healed foot, while Odin signaled Thor to join them.
Loki rolled his ankle around, and pointed and flexed his foot. The surface of it was smooth and for some reason felt very large. There was no pain, no matter how he moved it, even when he jumped on it, but after months of it aching to lesser or greater extents, the lack of pain actually felt uncomfortable. He was sure, however, that he would adjust. He worked his foot back into his boot and tightened it.
"How does it feel?" Thor asked, standing next to Loki.
"It feels like a foot that hasn't been a swollen oozing infected wound for the past four months," Loki answered, straightening up. As he did so, something gold flashed in front of him, toward him; in automatic response he reached out with his left hand while twisting a bit to the right and pulling back the right hand that grabbed his sheathed dagger. Before he'd fully processed what had happened, his left hand clutched Gungnir. Just below Thor's right hand. A small jolt, a little burst of something, sparked through him.
His fist burst open and jerked away, leaving Thor still holding on to the staff. Something had just happened. Loki didn't know what, but he knew he was angry enough that he was physically trembling.
"Loki. Put the knife away," Odin said.
Sound returned; the rest of the space around him returned. Footsteps – his mother's – approached on his right. He could hear Jane breathing somewhere behind him, frightened, probably. He angled his head slightly to the left, to see Thor, and thought from the vaguely worried and confused expression he wore he probably didn't know what had just happened either. Odin knew. Odin always knew. His mother's hand closed around his right wrist; he relented and let her guide his arm down.
"What just happened?" Frigga asked, voice tense, tone indicating she expected an answer.
Loki could still feel his chest contracting in on itself tightly with every heavy exhale, and he wished his mother had stayed out of it, at least long enough to allow him to ask himself, in much stronger words.
"I have made it a little harder for you to leave Thor behind at the first opportunity."
Loki slipped the dagger back into its makeshift sheath and looked down at his left wrist. He wore no bracers, just bands of dark leather over a simple green tunic – comfortable and basic, thin, hastily formed from Carhartt overalls. The scar was covered.
"It isn't connected to the mark," Odin said when Loki started pulling at the material over his wrist.
"What, then? You've bound me to him?" Loki asked angrily, examining his wrist and finding it no different in appearance from before.
"You are not bound to anyone. But you have made an agreement, and precautions are necessary to ensure you abide by it. You would think me a fool, and rightly so, if I did not take them. It has surely at least crossed your mind to disappear as soon as we return to Asgard."
Loki rolled his neck and forced himself to relax. Whatever new curse Odin had just doled out he would simply have to live with. It had not crossed his mind to disappear as soon as they reached Asgard, but only because he hadn't yet thought that far ahead.
Odin retrieved Gungnir from Thor's loose grasp and stood beside Frigga, whose face was pinched in that way that told him she wished to say something but was withholding it for the moment. Jane, whose presence here was unnecessary but essentially unavoidable, stood just behind and between Loki and Frigga, all of them now in a loose curving line.
"There will be neither trial nor punishment for your time travel," Odin said, eye on Jane first, since she was in fact there, before shifting his gaze past her to Loki. It was the least important thing he had to say, and the easiest. Delaying the most difficult a few minutes more may be a sign of weakness, of old age, but he saw no harm in this minor indulgence of it.
"What a relief," Loki said with measured dry sarcasm. "It would prove difficult indeed to win a war from a cave on Nidavellir with my voice taken from me." He'd already assumed there would be no additional punishment for that, at least for the moment. He was relieved to hear that no punishment would follow, either, but one question remained. "Will I be fighting my own madness while I fight all of Asgard's enemies single-handed?"
"You refer to Glodir's madness? Glodir was not punished with madness, not directly. Nor was there any evidence that it was directly caused by time travel. He went mad from the isolation."
Jane glanced up at Loki with an uncomfortable mixture of surprise and relief. She had assumed all along that Glodir went crazy from being stuck in a cave for years and maybe even millennia with only the rabbits and goats or whatever they had on Nidavellir for one-sided conversation. Loki had apparently thought otherwise. Jane was glad that was one worry that had been defused before it had occurred to her to be concerned. When Loki briefly met her gaze, his face was a mask.
"I cannot hold against you your attempts to remove the enchantments; I expected it, and if I'm to be honest, I can even admire the creativity you applied to the problem. Whatever else you attempted – and I know that you attempted more than what you've spoken of – it was selfish, irresponsible, and dangerous. You are not at the center of the universe. Even were it not destructive to Yggdrasil and the Nine, you have no right to interfere in history, to change the lives of everyone around you in ways they may not wish. No one should have that kind of power; it is ripe for exactly the kind of abuse you-"
"Not everything-"
"Jane, it's rude to interrupt," Loki put in quickly. She had already tried to interrupt twice, but this time Odin had paused. "Odin All-Father is dispensing his great wisdom. I for one am most eager to be enlightened." He flashed her a tight grin over a clenched jaw before looking back to Odin. The words weren't easy to say, but he forced them out. "Continue, please," he urged when Odin remained silent.
"There is no point," Odin said. And there wasn't. Not one he hadn't already tried – and probably failed – to make. Perhaps there was harm in submitting to this weakness with minor procrastination after all. "You will disregard everything I say anyway. You must know, Loki, if not before then now, that attempts to interfere with time cause only damage and heartache."
Heartache. At that word, entirely unexpectedly, a fresh wave of grief hit Loki. Heartache. Such a genteel word for the sensation of having someone reach into your chest and wrench the heart right out of it. Loki swallowed thickly, and forced the memories and the feelings back down. "Marty McFly would disagree."
Jane closed her eyes and sighed.
Odin looked to her; she could be just as stubborn as Loki, but when she answered, she usually at least answered sensibly. "Do I need to know who Marty McFly is?"
Jane's eyes shot back open. "He, um…not really. No."
"I am more interested in whether you would disagree," Odin said to Loki, relegating Marty McFly to the status of pointless minutiae. "But I doubt you will give me a truthful answer. However, the machine you used has been destroyed, has it not? And you yourself created it, Jane Foster?"
"Yeah. Yes. It's pretty thoroughly damaged. It uses a huge amount of power, from a power source that you can't just pick up at your local Radio Shack, and it's shot. Tony, Tony Stark, he gave me some input on the electronics, but I'm the only one who ever had all the final schematics."
"Then we have no immediate concern that such distortions of Yggdrasil will recur. Moreover, to hold a trial would mean exposing this secret to the magistrate and many others, something which is best avoided. You did not know the full effects of your actions, and because your journeys were much fewer; Yggdrasil should recover quickly. The only known serious damage manifested is here, and in my judgement, you have already made amends for it. This matter, so long as it is neither repeated nor spoken of, we may consider closed."
"This is good news," Thor said to his brother who of course ignored him, though Jane met his eyes afterward and nodded and smiled. As king he had his own ability to refer matters to a magistrate, but Loki had faced enough judgements – one more would change nothing – and Loki and he both had other things to deal with now. Not necessarily more important things, given what Odin had said about the severity of the damage that could have been done, but certainly more immediate. And, if he were perfectly honest with himself, he didn't particularly like thinking about this "time travel" matter.
"Two more precautions are required, however. First, you will no longer be granted free access to the Weapons Vault. And second…you are removed from the line of succession."
Frigga's eyes fell closed in sorrow and concern for Loki; Thor was initially surprised but quickly resigned himself to the necessity of his father's edicts; Jane watched each of the others, hoping Loki wouldn't take these new announcements too badly, and wondering what exactly was in that Weapons Vault that Loki wasn't trusted with.
I was still in the line of succession? Loki thought, and decided he would have to consider that further, later. Because what came to mind next was considerably less indifferent. It might not have been a surprise, but hearing it said aloud, in front of Jane no less, was a humiliation. "How fascinating. I don't even know where to begin. I think I must have been suffering delusions due to blood loss, because I have this incongruous memory of you telling me that the mark on my wrist signifies all that is still mine. Yet now it seems that considerably less is still mine than you claimed."
"It grieves me deeply to make these decisions, Loki, but you have left me no choice. You have all but declared your unchanged desire to destroy Jotunheim. Do you not yet understand that these Nine Realms are all interrelated? Interdependent? We go to war if we must, but one realm's destruction is the destruction of all nine. I am not yet certain where your loyalties lie, but even were I convinced they were with Asgard, I could not permit the possibility that someone who craves the outright destruction of one of the Nine, and has proven himself willing to act on that craving, may reach Asgard's throne."
Loki drew in a full breath, to lungs that seemed to resist it, and released it as slowly and steadily as he could. Losing his temper wouldn't help. He supposed there was a certain degree of logic in Odin's words, particularly if one realm's destruction literally meant the destruction of all nine. And if it was not merely metaphorical…that was something to keep in mind. But being king meant having the power to make one's own decisions, one's own policies, and not being beholden to Odin's. The Frost Giants offered nothing of benefit to the other realms, offering them instead only brutality amidst lands and seas given over to ice. Better to offer the Frost Giants a swift end to their existence.
So he would not have the throne, even if both Odin and Thor died. He would not have access to the Ice Casket or any of the other artifacts in the Vault. So be it. He had not planned on having any of those things anyway. He lifted his chin. "My loyalties lie with myself."
Thor looked aside in disgust, but the reaction was fleeting. Loki was neither shouting nor attacking. He was going to fight for Asgard, somehow, and no matter his motivations or his ultimate loyalties, Thor would gladly take Loki as an ally, even a temporary one, even one who could not be fully trusted, instead of an enemy. And temporary, perhaps, could be made to last.
Jane, meanwhile, frowned at the floor, interpreting Loki's words as just another way of maintaining distance in the face of what had to be genuinely hurtful news, his sarcasm aside. She had to agree, really; Loki shouldn't be king of anything that gave him the power to act on his hatred of the Frost Giants, his hatred of the Frost Giant part of himself. But if he wanted to make himself seem as fully self-interested as he'd been when she'd first met him, when she knew he no longer was, she figured in these circumstances that was his prerogative. Anybody who'd seen what he did here last night and this morning knew better.
"I'm sure it isn't permanent," Frigga said as the silence lingered. She wished for some time alone with Loki again, to comfort him if he would allow it, to ask if he really still yearned for Jotunheim's annihilation or if his particular variety of pride and his feud with Odin and Thor merely forced him to say so. Seeing it come to this was painful, but if that attitude was genuine, then as long as it remained unchanged, Loki indeed had no place on Asgard's throne, wielding that much power. It didn't stop her heart from aching for him.
"Few things are truly permanent," Odin agreed. "I would be pleased to see you returned to the line of succession someday."
"You'll understand if I do not hold my breath waiting for that day," Loki murmured, then continued more loudly. "Well, then, now that my status has been made plain, shall we go? While this has been quite informative, I do have a war to win, let's not forget."
"Yes, we can return now," Odin said, glad to be moving past this. "Heimdall, you may turn our way once more. We will be calling on you shortly. Prepare the Tesseract," he said, turning from Loki toward the door. He had known Loki wouldn't take his removal from succession well, but it had to be done, and it could have gone much worse. He could install Loki on the throne this moment and grant him sole access to the Weapons Vault and full command over Heimdall and the entire Assembly and Loki would still treat him with contempt and scorn. So be it, he thought. Loki would come back to his senses or he would not. Perhaps working with Thor would help. Or perhaps it would bring them to blows again. Odin could control some of the circumstances; he could not control the outcome.
"I ask you not to reveal my involvement. I prefer to make an asset of stealth," Loki said, turning also, but the long way, away from the door first, which allowed him to briefly catch Frigga's gaze. "I am counting on your discretion."
"You shall have it, Loki," Frigga said.
"The War Council and Assembly will have to be informed. I will swear them to secrecy," Odin said.
Loki didn't respond. It was true he didn't want his targets to know he was coming, but he'd already assumed that everyone present, even Jane, knew enough about war to not make public pronouncements about such things. It was his mother's assurance he'd been seeking.
"Let that last journey remain between us," Loki said before heading out to observe Odin and Thor, then quickly continued when she'd started to shake her head even before speaking. "He doesn't need to know. As you said, for you it was a thousand years ago. For me…it won't happen again. What good would it do him to know?"
"I doubt it would do him any 'good' at all. But he's your father. He does love you, Loki. He needs to know. He would want to know."
"He wants to know everything. Allow me this for myself." Loki worked the muscles around his eyes to strain them in just the way he knew would make them water, and pushed as much vulnerability into his voice as he could without overdoing it – it was fully feigned, for feigned vulnerability and desperation were much easier to manage than the real thing. "Mother, please."
Frigga sighed and looked away for a moment. "How many times, my boy, have you pleaded with me with that same face, that same voice…and I have given in to whatever you ask."
Loki let his face relax, and slowly cracked a crooked smile. "Including this one?"
"Including this one," she said, her reluctance coming through her tone. "But this is less your victory and more my strategic retreat. I won't tell him now. I won't tell him until you've done what you need to for Asgard. I won't give you anything more to trouble you in that time. But I will not keep secrets from him anymore. Or from you, all right?"
Loki had agreed, in the end. Frigga wouldn't be further budged, begging was not his favorite activity, and outside his fate – in an overcrowded prison on Asgard, an icy prison on Jotunheim, or a natural cave prison on Nidavellir – had hung in the balance, a balance he was eager to tip firmly in his favor. And tip it he had. Only freedom awaited him now, with the minor detail of winning a war standing between him and it.
"You'll be all right here, Jane?" Frigga asked. Some of the others who lived here, including Olivia, the woman in charge, had shown animosity toward Jane, though Olivia at least did not seem to be the type to hold onto grudges, given the gracious way she'd spoken to Loki.
"Yes, thanks. It's probably going to be awkward, but I've dealt with worse. I'll be fine."
Loki looked at Jane in his peripheral vision. He'd been so wrapped up in his concerns he'd forgotten about hers, that she would be left behind to deal with everyone she'd lied to about him. He was leaving. Without her. His mouth nearly opened before he closed it again. He had to talk to her. Alone. Indifference toward her was no longer so important, now that he was certain she had not earned Odin's wrath with their time travels, but the degree to which he needed to talk to her, that he could still not let anyone else see.
Jane glanced over at Loki, whose eyes shifted away immediately, then looked around to find everyone was looking at her. She hated goodbyes, and this one was going to be a doozey.
"Thank you for what you have done for Loki, and thus for all of us, Miss Foster," Odin said.
Jane hesitated, then nodded, uncertain what to say in response and so remaining silent.
"It will not be forgotten," Frigga said before pulling Jane into an embrace. "Thank you," she whispered into Jane's ear, then stepped away, joining Odin nearer the door. "If you need me, call for Heimdall."
Thor and Loki were both holding back, and Jane realized they both wanted a moment alone with her, though Loki was doing his best not to show it. It was Loki who walked away first, nodding to her and heading for the door and apparently giving up, so Jane quickly grabbed Thor's hand. "Next time you come to Earth, you're going to take me out to dinner and a movie."
Thor relaxed into a smile. "Gladly, Jane. But you'll first have to tell me what a movie is."
Jane gave an easy laugh then looked Loki's way just as he looked hers; he wore a perturbed expression and made a point of rolling his eyes before continuing toward Odin and Frigga, who were waiting by the door. "Basically a play, a drama, that's recorded, and then you watch it on a screen. It's better than it sounds," she hastily added when Thor looked skeptical.
"It doesn't matter. We'll do whatever you want to do. I only want to be with you. To enjoy peace with you."
"Here's to peace," Jane said, nodding, throat tightening at the emotion in Thor's words. He didn't make a big show of his emotions, not that she'd seen, but the intensity of them, of his longing, was unmistakable. In that moment, she remembered exactly what it had felt like to look into the depths of his blue eyes and see such intensity, all focused on her, back in the desert outside Puente Antiguo. He was magnetic, and her heart was speeding up, and for a moment nothing existed except Thor. A scuffed footstep reminded her that other people did exist, and not all that far away. Loki existed. And he was almost to the door.
Jane threw her arms around Thor and squeezed, shivering a bit as her cheek met the cool metal of his armor.
"I almost forgot," Odin said to Frigga, grateful for a distraction from the display going on only some fifteen feet away and the concerns it caused him. He slipped his hand into his pocket and pulled out the necklace he'd retrieved from Jane.
/
Extra-special thanks as always to all reviewers including guest reviewers, and including Guest (Aug. 25) - it's not rude to note something you didn't like, it's completely okay, and actually I wonder if it was one scene that made you particularly feel that way or the chapter as a whole, let me know, if you feel like it. Otherwise, no individual responses to guest reviewers this time, I have to get to bed, and "Ladymouse2," it would take me lots of time and space to respond to all of your comments! But I read and appreciated them all and I hope you know I don't mind rants at all. :-) Oh, and "Meta," I love you for loving Odin despite his deep flaws as a parent! :-) Ha, okay, so a guess a few guest responses after all.
So, previews for Ch. 155...well...there's some talking. How's that?
Excerpt:
Well...I had one here and then took it out because I thought it was a bit too spoilery. If you didn't see it and want it, just ask and I'll give it to you.
