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Odin dismissed the last of his advisors from the War Room with a tired wave of his hand. He had been sending search parties to numerous worlds outside of Heimdall's sight- searching for Loki. He had leaned back against his chair with a sigh. There had been no sign of Loki anywhere- no playful mischief, no outlandish pranks, nothing that indictated Loki's presence. They had Heimdall searching for Loki in case he managed to fall somewhere within Heimdall's sight- nothing still. It had been weeks of searching for the Fallen Prince but the Allfather kept searching, mostly for Frigga's sake. Odin had noticed the way the others reacted to Loki's disappearance as well.
Loki was their son but Frigga and Loki were closer than Odin was to Loki or Thor. The first week without Loki was difficult for Frigga. She would disappear into Loki's room and Odin would find her there, clutching a tissue and one of Loki's journals as she cried over their lost son.
Thor was less jovial- the loss of his brother and missing his far-away mortal affected him deeply. His smile often missing from his face and his eyes usually off in some far away place. He was no longer as eager as he had been to partcipate in celebrations of any kind. He would occasionally find Thor wandering around aimlessly as if he was looking for someone he could not find.
He missed Loki too. He expected one of his advisor's to come up to him, complaining about Loki's lastest prank- turning his mead into a snake or hiding all his important notes the moment he turned away. Odin missed his little boy's laugh. He missed the look of admiration that always gave him a sense of pride because his son was looking up to him. He had wished to have eplained Loki's heritage to him earlier on. He was a fool, he made a mistake. He should have told him. Perhaps, he would have still been here. Perhaps, if he had known, Loki wouldn't have let go.
Odin leaned forward and put his head in his hands.
Because of what Loki had done, things would be different now.
Loki was a criminal. He had harmed the inhabitants of the nine realms by starting a war with the Jotuns. He had killed many thousands of Jotuns already before the Bifrost was destroyed.
He would have to face punishment. Loki would have to be imprisoned in the cells deep below Asgard's surface. There was nothing that could justify his actions to keep him out of the prisons. Frigga would be heartbroken; but at least, if he could be found, Loki would be safe in Asgard. Imprisoned for the rest of his life but safe from those who would seek to harm him for the destruction that he caused.
If only they could find him, then they would know that he was alive or dead or safe or injured. They needed to know. They had to know what had become of their son, their brother.
"M'lord?" A voice whispered, Odin's head jerked upright at the sound. One of the newer guards assigned to Heimdall's observatory stood in front of him. "Heimdall has sent me to deliever the news. He has seen Prince Loki. He is on Earth and he now has the Tesseract in his possession. Heimdall says it seems that he plans to use it to open a doorway to another realm."
"Bring me Thor as quickly as possible."