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It’s difficult for Thor to figure out how he feels. He got what he came for – his brother – and now it is time to return home. There is no real sense of victory, or even relief. Mostly, there is regret. Regret that once again he is leaving, without even the chance to see Lady Jane. To talk to her. Regret that whilst he is bringing his brother home, it is in chains and unwilling.
Before they leave, he looks over at Loki. His brother – for so he shall always be, regardless of his deeds or heritage – meets his gaze and there is something there. Thor wants it to be something he can understand. Guilt perhaps, the desire for redemption. Something he can work with. In Loki’s green eyes, vivid and watchful even in defeat; he sees only mystery and madness.
Back on Asgard, he is relieved when Odin greets them on the remains of the bifrost. He isn’t sure he could stomach being the man to drag Loki in front of their people for judgement. Even after the death and destruction he has caused. Odin greets his sons with sorrow in his eyes. They watch in silence as Loki is taken away, down to the cells. Out of sight.
‘What will you do with him?’
‘I don’t know.’
‘I… I would plead leniency father.’
‘After all he has done? To you, to your friends?’
‘Yes.’
Odin sighs, softly.
‘And yet he must be punished Thor.’
‘I know.’ Thor puffed out a breath. ‘His crimes, were they any worse than mine? I started a war too.’
‘You did. You acted foolishly, and re-started a war. What Loki has done. It is not the same.’
It’s not the same, not really. Thor knows that, though it hurts him to admit it. His actions, they had been wrong, and it had taken banishment for him to learn it. But they had been actions against an old enemy, one he had been taught to hate his entire life. Loki… Loki had found new allies, and started a war with a world they had never had any quarrel with. A place chosen to spite him, more than for any other reason.
‘Father? Banish him. It worked, for me.’
‘But Loki is not you Thor. Would you really trust him out there, in the world?’
‘You could strip him of his powers, as you stripped me of mine.’
‘And would you have me strip him of his mind too?’
Thor doesn’t have an answer to that, so he simply turns and walks away. Loki has never made things easy, why would he start now?
Weeks pass, and he cannot bring himself to visit Loki. Not yet. Not until he can carry some news to him of what he can expect. Not until he has worked out his own anger and frustration, neither of which will help Loki now. And he cannot believe him to be beyond help, beyond salvation. Not yet, not until he has tried.
He and Odin argue back and forth, in frustrated circles. Loki must be punished, but with a chance at redemption. How can he do that, locked away? And yet it is undeniably quieter, safer with Loki out of both sight and mind. It gives them respite, in which to think and to decide what must be done.
He is sparring with Sif when the warriors three come running to find them.
‘Thor! They are here!’
‘Who?’
‘The Chitauri! Heimdall has seen them, they have come for Loki!’
He is running then, for the dungeons, with his friends close behind him. No! Loki will NOT escape, not now. He has seen the madness sparking in his brother’s eyes and dreads to think what mayhem it will cause when lose in the world once more, untempered. Screaming his brother’s name, he jumps over the fallen bodies of the guards just in time to see Loki, surrounded by his allies blinking out of existence.
Too late. He was too late.
They have the tesseract now, and it makes sending Thor to Midgard once more an easier task than before. Thor hesitates outside the Avenger’s HQ. It is not going to be an easy thing, walking in there and letting them know that he has allowed his brother to escape. That he has failed to keep them and their world safe, after all his promises.
Stark only laughs as if he’s not surprised. It is hard to tell if he takes the threat seriously or not, but then he’s always been a hard man to read in some ways. It is Steve who comforts him, tells him not to blame himself, even as Natasha goes to Hawkeye. The man is fingering his arrows with a blank, glazed look upon his face.
There is no time for recrimination or guilt however. If Loki is once again free, if the Chitauri are still out there then they must prepare for war.
‘Cheer up Clint. Hey, this time you might get to stick an arrow through his brain. Won’t that make you feel better?’
‘Tony, please. He is still my brother, adopted or otherwise.’
‘And also still a mass murderer and war criminal. Just saying.’
The man has a point, and Thor can’t bring himself to argue. Fury lives up to his namesake when he finds out, but once he has finished ranting he is the first to calm down.
With war on the horizon once more, regular contact with a friendly off world force is deemed a good thing. Project re-build the bifrost suddenly jumps up in priority, and finally he sees Jane again. She grins up at him, as if she last saw him only yesterday, as if he has not been gone for an age. As if he has not been missed. But when she leads him off to see the progress she is making, she takes his hand and doesn’t let go for hours.
With Midgard and Asgard working together, it takes less than three months to connect the two realms. The bifrost is not complete, not the beautiful rainbow bridge that it should be. There is still work to be done, but it is functional and for now that is all they need. Sif and the warriors three are the first to cross over, and they bring with them dire new.
‘They have made their first move.’
For all his quips and jokes and drinking, this Tony manages to pay attention to.
‘What, what did they do?’
‘They came for the tesseract.’
‘Shit!’
‘They didn’t get it, of course they didn’t. Do you think we would leave something so valuable, so dangerous just lying around for the taking?’
‘Given that they managed to walk Loki right out of his cell? Yes.’
‘They didn’t get it. They did take something else…’
‘What?’
‘Loki’s staff.’
Thor closes his eyes and shakes his head in denial. The staff had been removed to Asgard months ago for safe keeping. Whatever it was and wherever Loki had acquired it, it was a powerful weapon and couldn’t be allowed to fall into enemy hands. Worse, in Thor’s mind, it confirmed finally and completely that his brother was firmly working against him. Against Asgard, and everything they had ever shared. Trying to conquer Midgard had been bad enough, but to turn against his home…
Days later, he is sitting at a table in SHIELD, arguing with Fury, Hawkeye and Natasha when Tony’s voice booms out of some hidden speakers.
‘Guys? You may want to head to Stark Tower.’
‘Now is not the time for a party Tony.’
‘Natasha, now is always the time for a party. But seriously, I have an unexpected house guest and you’re all invited to the come and arrest Loki celebration I’m planning.’
Thor slams open the door, mjolnir out and ready for action. He expects to walk in and find chaos, signs of battle. He doesn’t expect to find Tony sitting down, calmly sipping from a glass and keeping a watchful eye on the bruised and battered god sleeping on his sofa.
Loki looks small, for all his height and fragile. He is paler than ever, his hair longer but matted and unkempt. They Avengers crowd round, assembled but not entirely sure what course of action they should be taking now. At their approach, the sleeping god stirs, his eyes flickering open. As he looks into them, Thor can’t help but swallow back a sob. If his brother was mad before, it is nothing to the crazed, manic energy that burns in those green eyes now.
‘Good. You came.’
‘Of course we came. Kicking your arse a second time is just too good an opportunity to miss.’
Hawkeye has an arrow trained on Loki, his own gaze not entirely sane. Meeting it for a moment, Loki only starts to laugh, and his laughter is wild and inappropriate.
‘We can fight later, if you like. Right now there are more important things to do.’
Fury cuts in, his own eye narrowing.
‘Right. So what is it this time? World domination again? Another alien army? Whatever it is, it won’t work.’
‘Oh, for all our sakes I hope it will.’ Loki’s grin is vicious and feral, and it scares Thor just a little. ‘This time, it’s more than an army. It’s a horde, a swarm, headed by death himself.’
‘Let me guess, death is you?’
Loki’s gaze switches to Stark. For a moment there is a flicker of something that Tony almost recognises, fear perhaps. Or hurt. Loki’s next words are choked out in a ragged whisper.
‘Oh no. Death doesn’t want me.’
Loki’s babbling is making no sense, and even if he seems in no fit state to take them on, even if it’s sort of hypnotic listening to him, they can’t just ignore the potential threat he poses. Thor steps forward, a hand reaching out to catch hold of his brother when Loki does the unexpected. He flinches.
It’s not pulling away, it’s not evading capture. It is a flinch, such as that a frightened, abused animal makes, or a beaten child. It stops Thor in his tracks and he forces himself to really look at Loki. His brother has always been thin, but now… His has always been a body of sleek, honed muscle. Now he is simply skinny, only the thinnest layering of soft flesh where those hard muscles should be. His eyes are shadowed and dark, his lips cracked and bleeding. For the first time, he wonders if Loki left that cell on Asgard willingly.
‘Don’t touch me. Don’t any of you touch me.’
Hawkeye and Cap, who had moved forward to back Thor up stop and stare at him, along with the others. Loki’s eyes are wide and there is nothing sane in them, nothing that can be reasoned with.
‘Touch me and I’ll go. You’ll never see me again.’
Tony shrugs.
‘Which would be bad because?’
‘Because you’ll all be dead. The whole world will burn. All worlds.’
‘Not sure you’re in a position to be making threats.’
‘Not a threat. A warning.’
‘Sure, we touch you, you’ll run away and destroy the world. Got it.’
‘No, you don’t get it. Not me Tony Stark. It won’t be me.’
‘Then who?’
Loki shakes his head, closes his eyes for a moment. He looks on the verge of collapse. When he opens his eyes again they are clearer, if no less crazed. There is purpose and intent in his dark gaze.
‘This time, I am not here to take your world. I am here to save it.’