Chapter Text
Chapter #32 – Very Bad
No.
Loki wasn’t moving and Tony was freaking.
Tony watched in horror as the Frost Giant King howled in triumph, his feet planted on either side of the fallen god.
He fired both repulsors, blasting Býleistr forward, to tumble a few feet in front of Loki. Snarling, the Frost Giant twisted, flinging a handful of ice shards. Tony narrowly avoided being diced by cutting all power and dropping like a rock to the ground as the shards passed through when he had been just a moment earlier. The leg of his suit that had been damaged by an ice shard earlier buckled when he landed causing him to lurch to the left as the shock absorbers on that side failed. The jolt of pain up that leg was so bad it made him dizzy and slightly nauseous.
Oh no.
Hitting all his thrusters as hard as he could Tony rocketed up in the air narrowly escaping an ice spear that the leaping Jotun had fired at his chest.
In one smooth motion Býleistr pivoted again planting his feet on either side of the fallen god and grabbed Loki’s long black hair wrenching his head back.
Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck. The angle was all wrong for repulsor shots and incendiary rockets this close might take out Loki also.
Before Tony could reverse his direction of flight, Býleistr grew a short ice sword and sliced through the fallen god’s neck.
“NO!”
“Tony? Tony are you alright?” Bruce called.
Loki was dead? Tony thought he was going to pass out. Jarvis was trying to tell him to breath or something, Bruce was yammering at him on the comm, but Tony ignored them, shocked at what had just happen. Gods... Gods were immortal… Weren’t they?
Loki couldn’t be dead. He was a god. He was Tony’s. Dread curled around him, crushing his chest, pooling in his belly, dark, black, clawingly painful. His vision tunneled, the only thing he could see was his god laying in the snow surround by a pool of blue blood.
Suddenly, Tony’s chest felt like it was ripping apart. Screaming savagely he fired a barrage of missiles at the bastard holding the sword.
He was Tony-God-Damned-Fucking-Stark. And nobody takes his stuff and gets away with it.
Nobody.
Several things happened as Býleistr lifted Loki’s bloody head in triumph.
The missiles Tony fired splattered harmlessly against a green tinged force field. Loki’s head and body both disappeared causing the Jotun ruler to shriek in rage. And then Loki, his Loki, appeared leaping up directly behind the king, swinging the blade on his staff with both hands across Byleistr’s own neck, slicing it almost all the way through.
Tony thought he was going to faint.
While it took another swing to finally part the head from the body, Tony was fiercely glad to see that Jotunheim no longer had a king.
Deciding that he had been in the air long enough, Tony dropped down, landing heavily right behind Loki and pulled him into an almost bone crushing hug. He wasn’t crying or anything. He was Tony ‘Fucking’ Stark, and Tony ‘Fucking’ Stark didn’t cry. He was just… a little moist. And maybe he was a little light headed with relief and really really glad that his god wasn’t dead.
“Stark!”
Ignoring the indignant squawk Tony spun Loki around, running his gauntleted hands up and down him, checking for injuries.
“Stark! You’re bruising me you idiot,” Loki snarled, trying to back out to the way of those hard metal hands.
Which wasn’t strictly true. Many of those bruises, slices and shallow scrapes had come from the fighting. Tony flipped up his visor. “Loki, you have to quit scaring me like that!”
Just as he was getting ready to unleash a scathing reply, Loki paused, taking in Tony’s anxious expression, he sagged a bit smiling. His eyes half hooded in gentle humor he asked in a warm, but mocking voice, “Stark are you ever NOT going to fall for that?”
He is such a bastard, Tony thought fondly as he roughly pushed the god away.
“Loki, Tony, you have company coming!” Coulson called urgently. “I can’t keep them contained anymore without killing a few.”
Tony spun around to see dozens of Frost Giant warriors stalking grimly towards them weapons raised.
Loki, clasping the severed head to his chest, slipped between Tony and the advancing threat. “Take us up. Now.”
Putting and arm around Loki who had the dripping severed head clasped to his chest, Tony shot straight up, not doing too horribly bad a job of keeping them stable with only the repulser in one palm to balance with.
As they climbed high enough to be out of range of flung ice shards, Loki asked Tony to just hold them in place so he could address the remaining Jotun warriors. Tony was fine with that, what he wasn’t fine with was all the blue blood that was getting all over his suit. Heck, forget wiping it down when he got home, at this rate he was going to have to run himself through a fricking car wash. And Loki… he was covered worse than Tony, the god had better have a lot of bibbity-boppity-boo at his finger tips to get himself clean or Tony was going to drag the god through a carwash too, custom leather outfit be dammed, no one was dragging that much blood into his tower. Some of the entry rugs were antique for Christ’s sake.
Loki, with a hand on either side of Byleistr’s severed head, held it out at arm’s length as he called out loud enough for all to hear, his features stern and his voice harsh as it rang across the snowy landscape.
“Warriors of Jotunheim, Býleistr is dead. If you leave now, no one else has to die. Go back to your homes, mourn your slain and never more challenge Midgard. Twice you have trespassed here and twice you have been sent home at a loss. Should the Jotun people threaten this realm again they will all be destroyed and the story of your race will pass from the branches of Yggdrasil into the void eternal.”
“Kinslayer! Kinslayer!” Shouted several groups in the crowd, other clusters were shouting, “Laufeyson,” but Tony noticed all of them, even the ones not shouting were regarding Loki with either fear and uneasiness or hope and expectation. Strangely, he did notice that many of the warriors alternated from one set of emotions to the other.
Tony could see the whole fear and uneasiness thing. He knew how scary Loki’s green eyes looked when he was angry, so Tony was totally sure that the god looked even scarier with angry ruby eyes. So yeah. Tony was totally down with the fear thing. For some reason that whole expectant hope look on so many of the other faces was making Tony really nervous. Something was happening that he wasn’t sure he would like.
Tony also didn’t like that they now had two or more groups of powerful warriors who might at any moment start to tear each other apart. Better of course that tearing civilians apart… but it could still get pretty messy, collateral damage and all that. “Coulson, you might want to move the QuinJet so it’s a little more conspicuous, this could go bad real quick.” Tony muttered into his comm.
“Silence!” roared a deep voice. The warriors below parted, allowing that group of ornately helmeted old Jotuns to stand between the crowds and where Loki and Tony hung in midair.
“Crown Prince Loki, son of King Laufey and Queen Fárbauti, I am Speaker Karthey, head of the Jotun Royal Council. If you would descend, I would have words with you.” His steady gaze regarded them as the ranks of councilors formed behind him.
“Loki, don’t forget, you are not authorized to make agreements for earth.” Coulson said through the comm link.
“Fuck that,” Fury’s voice intruded. “He’s already made promises and threats, what’s next? A god damn treaty? Coulson, get down there, freelance contractors don’t get to make first contact with Royal Councils of an alien planet.”
“Do forgive me Directory Fury, but I thought you wanted them to leave,” Loki said sarcasm laden on every syllable. “How was I mistaken?”
Darcy’s agitated voice drifted over the comms, “Fury, Loki is a god and a royal prince of two fucking realms, both of which also have an interest here and the most powerful sorcerer on earth at this moment. You might try to remember that, he’s not just some two bit S.H.I.E.L.D. contract employee!”
“Coulson! Get her off the comm.” barked Fury.
“You want down Loki?” Tony asked amused at the byplay. Coulson really needed to remember to mute his mic when he was not speaking if he wanted to keep Darcy out of the conversation. Or maybe shoot her if he wanted to be really sure she’d shut up.
The god nodded.
Landing Loki several yards away from the Head Speaker, Tony released his hold and then stepped sideways a bit more to get a clear line of fire. He also un-racked some missiles just in case, grinning as some of the warriors flinched at the sound of his suit retracting and the firing racks locking into position.
“Bide.” Said Loki’s low voice over the comm.
Setting Byleistr’s head down in front of him, Loki straightened, head slightly tilted, one eyebrow raised in inquiry.
“Head Speaker Karthey, esteemed council, to what does Midgard owe the honor of your visit.”
“Býleistr sought to bolster his popularity by bring invading Midgard. He promised spoils to his followers. To say that the council was divided on act would be an understatement. However the one thing council has not been divided on was trying to find you Prince Loki.” He gave Loki a look not unlike that of a beleaguered headmaster confronting his most troublesome student.
“You,” he said sourly, “were a very difficult prince to find. Our best scryers could not find you, nor could our spies in Asgard get any word of your whereabouts for many years. Then just when you were found, reportedly imprisoned by Odin for starting wars in Vanaheimr and Dvergar prior to the convergence, we received word that you had been killed in a battle against the dark elves on Svartálfaheimr. It was not until today, that we were even able to confirm that you were still alive.”
“Why would you think me dead?” Asked Loki in his amplified voice, his lips in a thin bitter line that twitched up at the corners.
“You have many enemies, do you not?” The old speaker responded tartly.
“Well there is that, yes.” Loki said with a small chuckle. “And yet I still stand. Marvelous isn’t it.”
“Indeed.” Karthey gestured to the councilors behind him. “When news of your presence was brought to us, we held a meeting, a very brief meeting. Since your ties have been severed with Asgard, we resolved to offer you a chance to challenge your cousin for the throne of Jotunheim.”
“He’s very proactive you know,” Tony interjected.
“What?” Tony whined at the vengeful look Loki tossed over his shoulder at him.
Loki looked back towards Karthey, eyes roaming over him and the councilors behind him.
“Why?”
Karthey snorted, “Perhaps we hope if you rule Jotunheim you will no longer try to destroy it. Perhaps we tire of having kings that you will slay?” He inclined his head, looking down at Loki, “Or perhaps we think it would be a good thing to have a king with so many varied gifts and connections on the throne. Powerful reasons all.”
“I don’t see how, I don’t even know much about Jotunheim.” Loki hesitated a moment and then continued, “I was raised in Asgard, your bitterest enemy, I was taught to think of the Jotun as Frost Giants, as monsters.”
“So?” The old Jotun countered, “Your mother Fárbauti was a gifted Æsir magic user. There is no law that the king must be full blooded Jotun. Odin is part Frost Giant through his grandfather Bölþorn, yet he reined in Asgard. Many Jotuns consider the Æsir to be ravening beasts of war, but it was not always like this, once we were allies. And having been raised there, you will know exactly what they are thinking and what they might do in a given situation.”
“And I am not exactly on good terms with Asgard’s king or heir, so that could be a problem.”
A loud sound like two rocks slapping together came from Karthey, who wiped a tear of laughter from his eye. He looked to the sky a moment and then with a wide grin fixed his gaze on Loki. “And as that, it has been more than a millennium since we have had a king that has been on good terms with Asgard. Should such a condition persist, I doubt it will trouble us unduly.”
Karthey dropped to one knee, the council behind him following suit immediately. After a moment of stunned incredulousness, the warriors behind them also slowly dropped down to their knees.
“Well hey,” Said Tony brightly. “At least that would solve the problem of you being involved in the decision making here.”
“Coulson, land that damn thing and get your ass down there right now!” Fury shouted. “And don’t you dare let Lewis or Stark talk to anyone important!”
OoooO
It had been an interesting hour of jockeying between all the concerned parties, with Darcy and Tony flitting around, talking to everyone and getting on the absent Fury’s last nerve.
“Such a decision of course cannot be made immediately.” Loki said smoothly with a regal dip of his head, indicating respect for Head Speaker Karthey. “Such an honor would require additional discussion, before accepting, to make a decision while standing here, your words esteemed Speaker Karthey still hanging in the air… Well that would be like a child accepting a treat, not nearly respectful enough of the honor you and your council have offered. ”
There was some shifting, a few veiled glances on both sides and more than a few pleased, if suppressed, smiles on the faces of the Jotun council. Coulson of course maintained his polite smile, perhaps deepening the creases on the corners of his lips just a bit at the depth of the bullshit piling up around them.
We could arrange to leave a delegation here to ‘discuss’ terms and acceptance while sending the main body home tomorrow.” Karthey said with a faint scowl, his large blue hand brushing down the side of his fine white fur kilt. “However that would also send several lesser contenders home to work dissension while the main council is here talking terms.
The old frost giant stepped closer, his chains of office chiming gently on his horned head piece as he lowered his head towards Loki. “Loki Laufeyson,” he rumbled in a low voice. “Quick decisions and changes of direction are your trademark. It would be best for everyone if you could speak privately to council this evening and perhaps come up with at least a preliminary answer by tomorrow midday.”
Loki huffed, the small laugh drifting away to be lost in the light breeze as emerald eyes locked upon ruby. “Speaker Karthey, I will be frank with you on that subject. The decisions I have made in haste have not always been my best.” He raised his brows as if in pained reminder as his polite smile twisted into more of a lop sided grimace.
The rest of the assembled might well have been absent, for all the attention either man was giving them. Loki could feel the old Jotun trying to look inside him, perhaps trying to see if the advantages that Jotunheim would gain through Loki’s powers and connections were worth handing over the direction of the Jotun people to someone who would not willingly give up his Æsir appearance and whose mind had more than once been given up to insanity.
Among the small noises surrounding them, Loki was sure he heard teeth chattering behind him. “If you and the council would like to make sure your troops are stood down, perhaps I can arrange a meeting in a few hours?” He pulled his phone out, it was almost five. “Perhaps at we could meet again in three hours? I could send someone to you with a transport to bring you to the meeting site?”
Loki looked over to Coulson and received a small nod. He then drew the shivering Darcy forward, giving her an admonitory look. She responded with a quirked eyebrow but then indicated assent by tilting her head and smiling at him. “I am sure that Ms. Lewis would be charmed to wait with you, and facilitate any matters that come up while you are waiting.”
Darcy stepped forwards as Loki pushed her gently before removing his hand from the small of her back , She looked up at Karthey a moment before giving him cheerful grin, “Sure, why not. I’d love to.”
Karthey stared at her a moment, something, perhaps puzzlement flitting across his face. Cocking his head he studied her intently and after a momentary pause, smiled at her. He ducked down and held out a large hand; Darcy promptly held hers out to him. At first it looked like Karthey was going to kiss her hand, but he merely inhaled deeply, his smile increasing.
“We would be most honored by your company,” he told her solemnly, before straightening up and nodding to Loki.
Loki manifested a heavy green hooded cape which he draped across her shoulders. Darcy turned slightly towards him; Loki then waved his hands again and put a soft black and green scarf around her neck before tugging the hood over her head. Leaning forward, Loki whispered in her ear, “The cape is much too long for you; please make sure you don’t trip.”
“Yeah, right. You just want me to make sure I don’t drag it in the dirt.” Darcy retorted, tugging him down slightly so she could whisper back at him.
“Well there is that of course. It’s my favorite winter cape you know.” Loki responded in a more conversational tone as he straightened up and turned her again to face Karthey.
“Loki.” Coulson called. “If you don’t mind, I’ll leave Agent Romanoff to assist Ms. Lewis.” Loki indicated his assent with a wave of his hand. Coulson snapped his fingers at one of the other agents and said something to him that couldn’t be heard where Loki was standing. But the command was easily deduced by the way the man skinned out of his over coat and handed it and a pair of gloves over to Romanoff.
“We will meet again in a few hours then,” he told Karthey, the frost giant indicated assent. “Ms. Lewis will let you know as soon as we have arranged a meeting location.”
OoooO
“One last thing before we part,” Karthey said, drawing Loki slightly away from the others for privacy. “Tell me Loki, son of Laufey and Fárbauti, how do you intend to rule this realm?” Karthey asked, with a dark smile.
Stealing a glance back at Tony, Coulson, Darcy, Romanoff and the rest of the on lookers, Loki widened his eyes innocently and turned a charming smile upon Karthey.
“Lightly,” Loki breathed, amused at Karthey’s insight. “Very lightly and at a distance.”
Karthey roared, his laughter startling some of those distant watchers. “Well Laufey was a strong king with a gift for finding faithful assistants, but he could never have consolidated his rule without your mother Fárbauti’s cunning. She was a jewel of an Æsir female you know, able to bend her mate and all around him to her will without any of them realizing it. A master manipulator as it were.”
He looked over Loki’s shoulder at those distant watchers, before smiling down on Loki. Karthey’s eyes glowed a few moments with amusement, before dulling somewhat as less pleasant memories. “If she had lived, there might have been a different ending to the war.” He sighed, but then brightened back up a bit, his gaze boring into Loki’s. “I have no doubt you, Loki, have inherited that gift along with the many others Fárbauti possessed. Manipulation is not a common Jotun trait; it will give you quite the edge,” Karthey’s smile deepened, “even if it is wielded very lightly.”
~Fini~
OoooO
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