Chapter Text
T
The Old King looked smaller to the guard.
Not small, but smaller. As if he were if not a man, but a great monument to a man that had lost some of its finer details. Not worn down by time, but broken off by, say, toppling over after losing the thing that had propped it up.
Or maybe it was he did just look like a man for the first time, not a monument at all.
A man sitting in a ruined, cold hall, on a broken throne, with no one around.
The guard gave a low bow, and reported to the King. His elder son was still at large, but his younger son’s body had been found on the dead planet of their enemy. His icy corpse had been frozen to the ground and they had not been able to bring him home for burial. Yet. After their enemies were vanquished there would be time to-
The King silenced him with a small gesture. A flick of his fingers from the hand that covered his red, raw eyes from the sight of his inferiors. From everyone.
The guard bowed again and turned to leave his lord to his private (and surprising) new grief.
He had almost made it to the great iron doors of the throne room when his father’s voice, a whisper that could be heard in the vaults of heaven, said, “Loki.”
He stopped and turned back, “Loki is gone, All-Father.”
Odin may have been diminished and even broken. But a broken sword is just as dangerous as a whole one, if thrust hard enough. In a few steps he was nose to nose with the man dressed as a royal guard. “Even if you think me weak, even if you think I do not love you well enough to know you anywhere my child, do you really think I am so blind as to not know that imperious stride of yours anywhere? My son?”
The All-Father pressed the tip of his forefinger into the space between the other man’s eyes, his magic forcing him back into his Asgardian form.
For a long, still moment the two kings, past and present, of Asgard simply stared at each other.
Loki smirked and gave a one shouldered shrug, sending a wave of black hair down his back. “Well, it was worth a shot.”
“If Thor thought you dead why did you even return? You could have gone anywhere, the realms would be yours to walk and menace at will while we dealt with the chaos for ages to come.”
In a dead voice the prince responded, “This is home.”
“Ah, I see you saved my room for me! Lovely. On Midgard you would probably have already turned into a place to do your hobbies. Making little starships out of bits of wood. Collecting mead bottle labels from around the realms. Golf, perhaps.”
Loki stood in the cell he had so recently been freed from by his brother. Although he had left it in less than beautiful condition the silent, ever vigilant servants of the palace had been at work restoring it to the relative luxury his mother had-
No, he would not think about that.
Loki sprawled into one of the chairs, his long legs spread wide, and picked up the book he had been reading before his world had fallen into even greater darkness and misery than the old darkness and misery he had long since made himself friendly with.
Ah, a monograph on the role of mathematics in the magical structures of pre-literate societies. Yes, a perfect way to while away a few million afternoons.
He could feel his Not-Father’s eye on him. When he was a boy he had decided that because Odin only had one eye the disapproval that he so often felt from it was that much stronger and more focused than it would have been if he had had both. Thor had agreed, on the few occasions he gotten himself into real trouble. To give Thor credit, he had managed to be a real disaster more than once.
With a little help from his little brother. Of course.
He smiled thinly at the memories and tried to pretend Odin wasn’t there. Which he managed, he had always been good at escaping into himself. So he jumped when Odin spoke.
“I have decided, my son, to give you a chance at redemption.”
Loki stood and sauntered as imperiously as he could manage to stand facing Odin though the golden energy shield. “Well that is very generous of you All-Father. Or can I call you Borsson? Or just Odin? Or do prefer your majesty? The etiquette for our situation is sooooo tricky, don’t you think?”
“Call me father. I am your father, Loki.”
“How sweet of you to think so, sir.” Loki tapped a long finger on his chin, “No, I don’t like sir, too human.”
“You don’t care for the Midgardians, for all that you wished to rule them.”
“Thor said that you referred to his pretty, witty mate as a goat, so I would say I am not the only here who does not think highly of them.”
Odin scowled. “I did not call her a goat, I said she did not belong on Asgard. Which was wrong of me.”
Loki stood very still. His father had never admitted to being wrong before. At least not in his hearing.
“Jane Foster is a very fine woman. Intelligent, good hearted, and brave, all the things any being should be. Very much like your mother.” His mighty voice cracked, but he caught himself, “Even if she is bizarrely tiny.”
Loki nodded. “Yes, how is it that Thor managed to find the smallest possible woman to be his leman? He must have to be very, very careful when bedding her. I wonder if he can even find-“
“Enough! You will not distract me with vulgarities!”
“I don’t know if it is vulgar, but more a matter of physics…”
Odin gestured towards Loki, who found himself stilled as if grasped in a great, lightly squeezing hand.
“Your brother and his woman are not your concern. Thor’s punishment was the making of him. A bit of humbling might do you some good as well my son. And the Midgardians have already brought you low once.”
“Oh NO! You are not going to do to me what you did to that brute fool! Do you really think that sending me to Earth, powerless, will result in anything other than my death at best, the deaths of countless others at worst? Think, old man!”
“I know I cannot send you as yourself, powerless or otherwise. Your face is as well-known as any on Midgard. But you are a shapeshifter. If I change you, and then take your powers, there will be very little you can do but endure.”
Loki laughed. “Well that is a gorgeous punishment father. And really, why bother coming up with something too original for me? So what will it be? What punishment will humble your heartless child? Will you make me one of those boy soldiers in Africa? I will have my own kingdom in a month. A factory worker in China, going mad putting together electronics like a slave? Do you think I wouldn’t end up owning the industry before the end of the fiscal year? Or maybe a sex worker in the Favelas? I could go on, but I think you see the problem. There is no misery, no violence, or no corruption that I could not be able to turn to my profit.”
Odin gave Loki a smile that he had never seen on his father’s face before. But he had seen it in the mirror more than once. Suddenly he was a bit apprehensive.
One of the fluorescent lights was flickering just slightly, giving the off beige and off grey conference room a slight horror film quality. There were a few others in the room. An older black woman wearing a purple suit, with short hair and perfect posture that marked her as former military. Three very young men with the pallor of life-long computer gamers. Two woman in their late 20s who had already managed to bond over images they were sharing with each other from their phones.
Loki felt his whole body lurch with nausea. Except it wasn’t his body. It was a human body. It was limited. It was small. It appeared to have post nasal drip and slightly sweaty hands.
He turned, slowly, to look at himself in the window looking out over the open plan office.
No! No! NO!!!!!
Why couldn’t the All-Father have just killed him?
The door opened and a tall, tired looking woman with brunette hair falling out of a bun on the top of her head and the expression of someone who was disappointed not to be facing a firing squad entered the room holding a stack of folders. She gave a resigned smile.
“Good morning everybody, my name is Nora Walsh, and I will be running your orientation. Welcome to CDV, and Roxxon.”
Loki wondered if the All-Father had killed him, for this was surely Hel.