The Robbed That Smiles
Chapter 03:
"The Infinity Stones? The parallel universe this woman claims to be from was devastated by someone using the stones?" Wong muttered, repeating what Strange had just told him but in question form, the result of being befuddled by it. Not the idea of multiple universes - his years of learning from the Ancient One about magic and different dimensions had long dispelled any disbelief of the Multiverse. Nor the thought that the Infinity Stones could be used for such destruction and evil - they were after all extremely powerful, and power was always tempting to those not wise enough to resist its pull. Even the wisest sometimes gave in. (Like the Ancient One's use of magic from the Dark Dimension.) What befuddled him was difficult to pin down, more complex than the separate ideas.
"It appears that is the case." Strange replied, skim reading through a book of old and powerful protective spells. After Lokki's shocking revelation to Banner and Loki, after which she refused to answer any more questions, Banner had called back the other Avengers. (It irked Strange to find out that, contrary to what he'd first thought upon seeing through Lokki's illusion, he had fallen for the goddess' trick. That Loki was the only one not to fall for the layered trick, did little to lessen the doctor's annoyance, and had instead increased it.) To make up for it, he was determined to protect all the Infinity Stones currently in the Avengers' possession.
"You believe her? This female version of Loki?" Asked Wong, following Strange as the other man finished with one book and picked up another. "The god of lies?"
"There's few reasons to doubt her, and every reason not to." The surgeon-turned-sorcerer replied, putting back the tome he'd just picked up and meeting Wong's gaze. "The stones are too dangerous not to believe Miss Lokki's claim. Because if someone's devastated her universe with them, then there's probably someone in ours who'd do likewise."
Wong drew in a breath, then nodded in understanding. "The person who's been manipulating events over the past few years to draw out the stones, according to Thor. That person or entity or whatever - they want to use the Stones the same way."
"It's likely." Strange skim-read through another book, this one dealing with various spells and incantations, mostly psionic in nature. Though there were mystic and entropic ones as well. It even included a section about truth and other interrogative spells. "I'll find out more when I question Miss Lokki. There is the possibility that our universe is different enough from hers that we are not in such danger. But I don't hold much hope for that. The Infinity Stones do exist in our universe."
Wong didn't reply and only nodded, agreeing with his fellow wizard. Before either man could say anything further, Strange's cell phone beeped, the text-tone one the surgeon-wizard assigned to those from Stark's number.
"...Thor and Natasha are on their way with Miss Lokki." Strange commented aloud after reading the message, slightly curious. Not about the female Jotunn being brought to the Sanctum - until Stark managed to reinforce the walls and floors at his containment facility to withstand colder temperatures, it was agreed that Lokki would be transported to the New York Sanctum for interrogation and holding. There she could be restrained by Strange and the other Sanctum sorcerers if she tried escaping, without causing too much trouble.
"I thought Thor's brother was also to come along, to make sure Miss Lokki didn't use illusion magic to escape?"
"Apparently there were some issues and…" There was another beep indicating a new text, which Strange opened and immediately cocked an eyebrow. It was a snippet of video sent with an accompanying caption, underlying what the 25 seconds of film conveyed in Stark's brand of banter. "'Reindeer Games 2' pwning 'Reindeer Games 1.'" The wizard read Stark's text verbatim after hitting play on the clip, his mouth twitched with amusement as he watched Lokki suddenly kneeing Loki when the latter Jotunn was talking with Thor. A string of foul language - both English and Asgardian by the sound - from Loki followed.
"...ooh." Wong, peeking at the video clip, cringed as it finished and auto-repeated, feeling the reflective empathy any guy who'd ever got kneed between the legs felt when seeing it happen to another. "...that's gotta have hurt."
"Yeah." Agreed Strange, while watching the clip again, his focus less on the pwnage and more on the reaction and glares between the two Lokis. It was obvious that Loki had midway through his swath of swearing moved to retaliate, even summoning a dagger, but had stopped. The human wizard frowned.
Thor's knocking on the Sanctum's entrance interrupted, drawing both wizards' attentions from the video clip. Wong hurried downstairs to usher in their guests, while Strange pocketed his phone and placed the book of interrogative magicks back on the shelf. Afterwards he cast a spell on the floor, reinforcing it against any magic the female Jotunn may use. The room Lokki would be lodging in had already been so prepped.
"Upstairs, to the right. First open door."
"Got it. Thanks." Thor said to Wong as the sorcerer led him, Natasha, and Lokki up to the Sanctum's private library.
"Good evening." Welcomed Strange as he exited into the hall, eyeing his guests, especially Lokki. The frost giantess was sandwiched between her two escorts, Thor on her right holding her upper arm firmly, and Natasha on her left, holding just as tightly to Lokki's wrist. Both Avengers appeared annoyed.
"L…."
"Stark already messaged me." Strange interrupted. "Said your brother was...indisposed and couldn't make it." The wizard noted the smug grin Lokki gave when hearing about the mischief god and the comeuppance she'd given him. He also noticed the seidr-binding magic around her wrists, a temporary restraining measure he sensed was Loki's payback for his female doppelganger's assault.
"Yeah." Thor grumbled, annoyed; many thoughts going through his head. He, as with Stark and the other Avengers, had been gobsmacked by Lokki's sudden attack on his brother. Him even more so, because while Stark and Banner may have been too far away to know it, Thor had been talking with Loki. The mischief god hadn't done anything or said anything to prompt the female Jotunn to knee him. "Should I bring Sis to her chamber or are you planning to question her tonight?"
"Questioning first." Strange replied, not missing the quick glance Lokki gave Thor when the Asgardian referred to her as his sister. Thanks to his photographic memory and keen mind he deduced it to be a confused glance, and he felt his curiosity about the mischievous goddess increase.
"Can't I have some refreshments first? I'm famished." Lokki asked, her tone not reflecting any acknowledgment of Thor's or Natasha's annoyance.
"You had food at the tower." Natasha snapped, letting go of the goddess' wrist after Strange cast a stronger magic-silencing spell on the Jotunn sorceress.
"You call that greasy and heavily salted abomination food?!" Lokki gaped at the red haired assassin, appalled. "It wasn't even fit for a dog!"
"Sister, you're the one who wanted fish n chips." Thor groaned, reminding the jotunn that she'd requested - actually demanded - the Midgardian meal consisting of deep fried potatoes and battered fish. It had been the first thing, since her revelation about the Infinity Stones earlier that afternoon, that she had said. And thus Thor, feeling responsible for his adoptive sister from another universe, had asked his fellow Avengers to get the meal for Lokki.
"I'm n…." Lokki grimaced, her sea-hued gaze glaring at Thor, her hands resting over her stomach and smoothing out her shirt. (The same green tunic and black slacks outfit Loki had seidr summoned for her after dispelling her basilisk spider shape-shifting spell.) "I didn't know you were going to get it from what has to be the worst Midgardian kitchen. I'd rather have a hamburger from one of their fast food thingamabobs."
"Thing-a…what? You mean restaurant." Thor corrected, earning him a smoldering glare from Lokki, whose cheeks slightly pinked.
"Thingamabob is a legit Midgardian word, you…"
"All right. All right." Strange interrupted the Jotunn sorceress, his eyes locked on the magic silencing binds he'd placed on Lokki. Despite it being virtually impossible, the sorceress had subconsciously started straining them, her irritability nipping away at the magic binds. Hiding his alarm, Strange stepped forward, addressing Lokki. "I'll see about getting you something to eat, Miss Lokki. Thor, you and Natasha can go, Wong and I can handle your sister."
"See? At least someone here's decent." Lokki jabbed, crossing her arms and turning her back to both non-sorcerers.
Thor rubbed his temples, a headache forming there, while beside him Natasha rolled her eyes and started down the stairs. The thunder god soon followed, both of them done with the Jotunn sorceress' attitude. After the two left, Strange turned toward Lokki and motioned towards the library.
The mischief goddess simply glanced through the doorway, noticing the magical reinforcements arrayed around the room and on the floor. "...going right into it, huh?" She sighed, referring to her soon-to-happen interrogation. "What about getting me some sustenance? I don't tend to be agreeable on an empty stomach."
'Are you ever?' Thought Strange to himself, before preparing to simply portal Lokki into the library. The Jotunn surprised him by quickly entering the room without any further complaint or comment, except for snapping a 'I'm going, alright?' after realizing what he was about to do. As she walked by him (he was standing closer to the library door than her, despite her being a foot or so further down the upper corridor), he glanced her over. He immediately noted that his magic-dampening spell, despite being strained by Lokki's frost magic minutes earlier, was once again at full strength.
'That's a relief,' he thought as he watched the Jotunn sorceress smooth out the front of her tunic again while waiting for him to follow, her hands lingering over her abdomen. Resting them there a few moments longer than necessary to smooth out the fabric, while a hint of a softened smile tugged at her lips. So brief Strange almost missed it.
For some reason it made him pause, and he thought of the video clip Stark had sent. In it, their Loki had been about to retaliate against the new Lokki but had stopped and instead stalked off. A reversal that happened seconds after the mischief god met the goddess' glare and noted her hand resting deliberately on her stomach.
Strange's eyes narrowed, realizing the look and gesture for what it was - a nonverbal spat between Loki and Lokki, in which the latter had dared the other to retaliate. Only to stop the god of mischief with a most innocuous gesture. Not a very threatening move but their Loki had immediately backed off.
That made little sense. Strange didn't care if the two Lokis were aliens, simply placing a hand on one's abdomen wasn't threatening. Not in the slightest.
'Neither is aiming for the stomach of the person holding a knife to your throat.' The wizard muttered quietly as he thought of Banner's description of his and Loki's recapture of the female Jotunn. Perplexed by the reversal, and suspicious that it was a ploy of some kind, Banner had told his fellow Avengers exactly what had transpired. Including how Loki had seemed apologetic to his female doppelganger immediately after. 'Unless….'
Strange stiffened and his brow furrowed, the spark of a possible explanation clicking in his brain.
"Wong." Strange called out to his friend and fellow Sanctum wizard. "See about getting something to eat for our guest, something healthy. Takeout or delivery." He said, handing the sorcerer some cash while saying thanks. The next moment he passed the library threshold and approached Lokki, who stood in the center of the front part of the library. The goddess appeared calm, but Strange noted the minor hints of tiredness. With a gesture he summoned and placed a chair beside the frost giantess. "You should sit."
"I…." Lokki glanced at the chair, then at Strange, a crease forming in the space between her eyebrows. It wasn't the start to the type of interrogation she'd expected, nonetheless she sat down a moment later without much fuss.
"Good." Strange headed towards the table-slash-desk, summoning a book to him as he did so. "Before we begin...As you claim to be your universe's version of the god of lies and mischief, it shouldn't surprise you if I take some precautions to make sure you're truthful." He flipped open the book in his hands, its pages containing incantations and spells useful for interrogation and discerning honesty. Each quite powerful, to varying degrees. Although he suspected none would be as effective against a god (or goddess) of lies as they would against others. "You don't mind?"
Lokki, eyeing the book and reading its cover, recognized the tome for what it was. A volume of mediocre spells, incantations, and elixir recipes used for extracting answers from the unwitting. Not one of which would be useful against her - Strange had at various times attempted to use the strongest of them on their universe's Loki, which the god of lies had always countered. Through either magic or his silver-tongue. The goddess, the human wizard assumed, would likewise be ready against the techniques, and thus wouldn't mind...
"I do mind." Lokki blurted, glaring at Strange and the book when the wizard started muttering aloud techniques and spells from the book. All ones that were dangerous, either by themselves or because they required powerful and invasive magics. When Strange read out one truth spell that required the ingestion of an elixir made from ingredients not wholly safe, the goddess paled and snapped. "Absolutely not!"
Strange looked askance at Lokki, lifting an eyebrow at her response, and at the woman's hands once more reflexively shielding her abdomen. "Why? None of these should be too dangerous, considering your ancestry." He eyed her closely, paying attention to her alarmed expression and how her frost magic seemed to be rearing up again. Not enough to break through his binds on her, but enough to concern him. "That is unless there is something I should know before we start? Any sort of illness or pregnancy…"
Lokki blanched and drew in a breath, the look she flashed him all Strange needed to know the answer. He closed the book abruptly and placed it on the flat surface of his table, mulling over his next words.
"This is a predicament." Muttered Strange who sat down in a chair beside the desk-table, considering his options. "None of the spells strong enough to interrogate you are safe for your condition." He paused, glancing at the sorceress. All while thinking that he wouldn't interrogate her now, even if the spells and techniques were safe.
"Then don't use them." Lokki replied, scrutinizing the surgeon-turned-sorcerer. "...Doctor."
Strange's brow furrowed at the emphasis on his title, his brain both beaming and suspicious of Lokki's purpose for addressing him thus. There could be many reasons, but he suspected it was for what it represented.
"Midgardian law on doctor-patient confidentiality is still a thing in this universe, right?" Continued the frost giantess, her question causing the sorcerer to cock an eyebrow, bemused.
"Are you actually asking me to be your doctor?" The sorcerer leaned back in his chair, regarding the goddess with a stoic and discerning leer. It had briefly occurred to him to do as the woman's words suggested and use his medical profession, with its confidentiality rules to convince Lokki to talk. Hearing the earnest tone her question took made Strange wonder if the Jotunn female actually knew anything about the confidentiality law. His lips pursed when Lokki shrugged. "You do know I was a surgeon, not an obstetrician."
Lokki just shrugged. "A doctor's a doctor, right?" She muttered while Strange grimaced, his demeanor similar to when their Loki had revealed that the statue prank had been for April Fools day. No part of him wanted to explain the nuances of Earth's medical profession and its specialties. "It's that way in the other of the nine realms."
"No." Strange replied after a moment, shaking his head. "I won't be your doctor." He paused and leaned forward slightly. "However, if you answer a few questions, I promise not to tell the Avengers about your condition."
There was a brief silence, before Lokki nodded.
0
Reclining on the twin-size mattress and box-spring combo bed, though it could hardly be called that, in the room (one much smaller than his cell on Asgard) that the Midgardian Avengers had grudgingly given him after he'd been kicked out of another country, Loki gazed pensively at the ceiling. Not really seeing it, but rather focused on his thoughts and the events of earlier. It was difficult to fathom that not even a day had passed since his female doppelganger had appeared, the Avengers were so focused on her and how her universe had been devastated that it felt like days should've passed, not hours. On Asgard, where the general lifespan was 5000 years, everything, except emergencies, moved along slower paced, with much more time put into planning and festivities.
The rushing pace that defined the lives of the Midgardians was so different and, though it caused issues between New Asgard and her Midgardian-human allies, Loki had thrived on it. Mischief is much more fun when the payoff happens quickly, and after just a few months on Midgard, Loki had realized just how much more closer to chaos Midgard was than the other realms. And how better suited Midgardians were for handling it.
If the god of mischief had pulled even a quarter of the stunts he pulled during his second year on Midgard in any of the other realms, he would've been imprisoned indefinitely. And the realms would still be dealing with the fallout for years to come. The Midgardians, though, had repaired all the damage caused by his, at times, destructive and dangerous stunts, within weeks and months, if not days!
This had quickly fascinated Loki, and he'd viewed it as a personal challenge to come up with some mischief that wouldn't be fixed by the Midgardians so quickly, but that also wouldn't result in Nuclear Armageddon.
(After one of his more dangerous pranks, he'd learned how volatile international relations were between the Midgardian countries with WMDs and, actually frightening, how willing some Midgardians were to use them. There weren't many, and most were against using them except as a last resort, but just the idea that the Midgardians would ever use nukes against each other, without the safety of being on another planet, had shaken Loki. He was sharing the planet with them after all!)
He ultimately settled on replacing the Statue of Liberty with one of himself - actually replacing it, not merely using an illusion spell. Thus leading to the first event of that afternoon, and his threatened exile to Antarctica. Both which had been immediately overshadowed by the arrival of his doppelganger and her reveal.
"Norns…" Loki muttered under his breath, his arm pillowed under his head as he stared at the ceiling. Not finding the Midgardian pillows comfortable enough for reclining on the bed, he'd tossed them aside. "What a hell of a day it's been."
He continued to stare at the ceiling, not yet inclined to read any of the books stacked throughout the bedroom. Nor to cast an illusion spell to hide that fact from the cameras placed in the corners - Stark had insisted on installing them as a temporary condition of Loki being given the room, and hadn't yet removed them despite admitting he didn't monitor them as heavily as before. (An unadmitted, direct result of the mischief god engaging in certain - private - activities almost immediately whenever he was alone to spite the Midgardian.)
"Fucking hell." Loki swore to himself, his thought of the cameras and how he got revenge on the Avenger for insisting on having them installed reminding him of how his female double had stript naked and flirted with Stark. He hadn't felt particularly self-conscious or embarrassed when he'd engaged in his particular activity knowing that the Avenger was surveilling him. But that was because he knew it would repulse the other man and get him to lay off watching. What his female doppelganger did...that was just - urgh.
'I need to erase that image from my memory.' Loki sat up and reached for the drawers beside his mattress, taking out a glass bottle of Midgardian alcohol which he had pilfered some weeks ago from Stark's collection. 'How the hell could any version of me flirt with that...urgh?! Naked! And he flirted back!' The mischief god cringed and took a swig from the bottle, not caring how strong the alcohol was or that the Avenger could very well see him drinking it from the cameras. Or that he would get in trouble for stealing the bottle. (He'd placed a fake on the shelf that he'd taken it from, thus its theft hadn't been discovered yet.) 'Norns, he better not be the f….'
The god of mischief suddenly coughed and sputtered, his thoughts going to his female double and a particular tidbit he'd gleaned from her frost magic. It wasn't something the Midgardians could know, and his brother would likely have forgotten if Thor had even ever listened to the parts of Odin's stories not dealing with actual battle, but female frost giants reached colder temperatures than the males, and much more quickly. But that second part only applied to pregnant female Jotunn. It was, from what little Loki could discover in Asgard's library both while growing up and after learning his true heritage, a defensive measure female Jotunn had developed to protect the unborn life inside them.
It was horrible to think about, but according to books dating back to Odin's father Bor and prior, male Jotunn would often murder the unborn children of rival clans. This was on top of kidnapping the rival clans females and forcing them to bear the new clan's offspring. A barbaric practice, and one of the many reasons Loki never considered moving to Jotunheim after learning of his heritage.
Even if the fact that Laufey had abandoned him to die as a newborn because he was small wasn't enough to dissuade him, Loki knew he would never move to Jotunheim. Not even to claim his birthright as heir to Jotunheim's throne. (Similar to its other uncouth traditions, the throne of Jotunheim was historically passed down to whatever son of the king defeated or even killed the other sons. Laufey had done so himself, forcing his siblings to submit and killing those that didn't.) Thus Loki could have had a throne for himself in the ice kingdom of Jotunheim, using his intelligence and magic to defeat Laufey's other sons, but he never wanted it. He was too much an Asgardian, truly a son of Odin, to consider it.
"Norns, if he is…" Loki muttered after clearing his lungs and esophagus of the alcohol that had spilled into them, his stomach feeling queasy. It had been shocking enough figuring out that his female doppelganger was pregnant, (his pointing his dagger at her abdomen had been him testing his hypothesis, which he'd formed after seeing her drastic shift in temperature and realizing that she'd given in too easily to him and Strange.) but the possibility that it could be Stark's or rather her universe's Stark's, was too much. Anyone but that! Anyone would be preferable than the Midgardian.
'Anyone?' His subconscious whispered in his head, tauntingly. 'Even if it could be Thor….'
"Fucking hell no! No way...bloody fucking…." Loki swore, his stomach flip-flopping like he'd drunk a whole Asgardian party worth of wine and mead. His subconscious torturing him with the one idea worse than Stark as the father of his doppelganger's baby. "No bloody way that's possible."
Even as he said that, he realized that it wasn't impossible. He, and thus his female double, wasn't Asgardian by blood. Odin had adopted him. And although that likely meant his double, especially since she shared his name 'Loki', had likewise been adopted by her universe's Odin, it did not guarantee it. Female Jotunn were rare. About only 20 to 30 percent of the population. The idea that even a cutthroat like Laufey would abandon a daughter for the same reason he'd abandoned Loki, was mad. Male Jotunn were the fighters, it wasn't until they passed fertility age that female Jotunn fought alongside the males.
Of course this information he'd culled from the books in Asgard's royal library, and thus it could be biased. Or inaccurate. Or just plain lies. But Loki hadn't seen a single female frost giant when he'd gone to set up his plan to kill Laufey. He knew they existed since Jotunn reproduced sexually and had live births. That was an undisputed fact, considering intermarriage between Jotunn and the citizens of other realms like Vanaheim did happen. Rarely, but it did. Before the Jotunn-Asgard war, before the frost giants aggressed on Midgard, there were even pairings between Jotunn and Midgardians.
Thus it was possible that this other Laufey hadn't abandoned Loki's female double, and even if the bastard had, it was also possible that Odin may not have adopted Lokki. If the old man had been honest when saying he'd hoped raising Loki as a son would bring true peace between Asgard and Jotunn through him, then it was possible he would see a Jotunn daughter as a similar tool. Albeit with the caveat that a political marriage was much more useful than a royal hostage.
"Fucking hell." Loki mouthed, grimacing at the thought and grabbing once more for the bottle of Midgardian alcohol. Before he could do more than bring the bottle to his lips, Stark's voice boomed through the speaker below the camera over the door frame.
"Hey, Reindeer Games, that bottle is worth 30 times more than your and your brother's ages combined per glass. Stop drinking and put it down, unless you want to owe another 60 grand." Loki rolled his eyes, closing his lips around the bottle in spite of the Midgardian's threatening tone. "Fine. The heads of Homeland Security and Shield are still waiting for my decision on what to do with you for the statue mess. Should I tell them to prepare an Antarctic cage? Or maybe a ship to send you to Jotunheim?"
Loki glowered in response towards the surveillance camera and speaker, before placing down the alcohol bottle.
"Good. Now come down to the lab, there's some things we need to discuss."