Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Odin had cast a ward over Loki, one more subtle than even his sons had considered. It did not stop magic or illusions, oh no; it traded on them. One could appear to be someone else, but then, so would that someone else appear to be him.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
ON MIDGARD:

Uniform's getting a little tight, Steve noted, making a mental note to talk to Hill or whomever in SHIELD would listen - Coulson never did tell me who he'd gotten to make my uniform in the first place. And then, as he stretched one arm to observe if the fabric flowed any differently this time, he noticed it wasn't his arm that was attached to his shoulder. Frowning, he looked at the nearest reflective surface...

Seeing his reflection, Steve didn't see himself, not right away. First he saw Loki standing where he, Steve, was. Only then did he see himself walking and skipping along beside Thor, talking about truth and patriotism and surges.

There was a noise behind him, and Steve (looking to be Loki) whirled around, the entire time fearing it was -

Schmidt. Red Skull. Thanos.

- and saw it was Tony in full armor, a hand-repulsor aimed at Steve's head. "Easy there, it's me," Steve said, and realized he even sounded like Loki.

"Uh-huh."

Watching the palm light growing ever-brighter and hearing the warning whine, Steve shook his - mine, not Loki's, though yeah I look like him for whatever reason right now - head and waved his arms just as Stark fired at him -

And not at him: the blast struck a man-sized lens of ice which focused the blast back at Tony, knocking him into the wall behind him.

Steve looked at his own - Loki's own - hands, watching the blue palms narrow into veins, into nothing noticeable. Steve frowned, and noticed that he was back to normal. My hands, my uniform...my face. So what just happened, that I looked like Loki, only with Firefly hands? "Jarvis? Can you ask the others to come up here?"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
IN ASGARD:

She had been about to leave her quarters to join Thor in his treason, when her footfall struck her ears as different. Sif paused, looking to her feet - and saw Boots, of the sort I never wear. One hand entered her field of view, and it was familiar to her memory: Thor's.

"So he's freed Loki," Sif said to herself, reasoning that that was the only possible reason why someone would have cast a switching or substitution spell. Though she knew of at least one problem with that line of thought: What could be happening that would - No, were it a matter of blending in, surely Loki would look like me now. She drew a blank when it came to wondering what the brothers believed her to have more authority in than Thor possessed.

Looking at her reflection entire in her mirror, Sif saw no reflection. Instead, she saw Loki walking next to her in a column-rich hall, and telling her "You do look ravishing."

To that, the guise of her (which covered Thor) looked down, and the true Sif felt the impulse to slap Thor for the view; then Thor said "It will not hurt any less when I kill you," he said to Loki beside him.

You underestimate my skill, my prince, Sif thought, and, the spell coming to an end, departed her quarters as herself once more.

Chapter Text

SVARTVALHEIM:

A portal opened at the crest of one of the hills overlooking where once a great ship had floated as its masters had strode out to attempt to defeat the brothers of Asgard and woman of Midgard. The portal was not large, but it did not need to be more than a pinprick in size for it to command the air around it:

Winds picked up, scouring pebbles and stones as they went. Pathways were charged, stormclouds growing and growing angrier, fiercer, violent. Waves of magic crashed against and over and within the ground and the air, a sea spray of quantum foam and less tangible magicks flickering in all directions.

From his place within and on the other side of the pinprick, Nidhogg summoned, now.

Two bodies appeared just off the ground in this storm; in the next instant, the wind was gone and so were the clouds. All was clear and calm as the bodies dropped centimeters onto the foot of the hill.

Long training let their bodies rise to their feet while their minds were still processing the change of place. "Where are we?" Steve asked, looking around. Well, this isn't a Welsh coal mine.

Sif frowned as she said, "Svartvalheim," recognizing it from paintings and war stories. "This is where Thor and Loki went."

yes said the archaic voice from the mountaintop.

Both Sif and Steve looked up to that point, seeing the pinprick bold against the sky. "May we know your name?" Sif asked it.

No response.

"Does that usually work?" Steve asked, and then nearly apologized for sounding more like Tony.

She nodded. "There are agreements and conventions, and rules of politeness." That and those who are powerful tend to not shy away from letting others know whom they are. "As to names, yours is...Captain America," recognizing his garb from the tales Thor had shared frequently over the past year.

"I am. My name's Steve Rogers," he said, introducing himself to Sif, offering her a hand, whether she'd take it or not.

"Sif," she replied, having heard enough of this gesture from Thor, to shake Steve's hand. "Shieldmaiden and companion of Thor. Warrior in the armies of Asgard." Looking up to the dot floating above the hill, Sif shouted at it, "Why have you brought us here?"

"Umm..." Steve said, looking behind her, well behind, at the cairn which had been errected at some point.

She looked where he was looking, and saw it as well. "All the bodies which litter this world and have done so since before Bor's death...why does one alone rate a cairn?" and she took wary steps towards it, with Steve keeping close - though there were times that he tried stepping between her and the cairn. "Block my way, and I will kill you," Sif warned.

Steve nodded, but said "Better women than you have tried."

Lowering herself when she arrived at the cairn, Sif noted that one stone was - "A keystone," Sif noted, "a capstone, sealing the others together."

"Looks like Thor's hammer hit it," Steve said.

Sif nodded, and drew her glaive, letting the blade slide out like water.

"Um, no offense, but Thor's hammer is kinda -" and stopped when the tip of the glaive-blade touched the capstone, which fell apart beneath the blade. "How did you...?"

Did Thor neglect to mention? and found herself not entirely surprised. "My glaive's blade was crafted from the slag leftovers from the crafting of Mjolnir."

"Oh. Cool," he said, pretty sure he was using the word right.

Together they removed the rocks of the cairn to reveal who Thor had buried here.

"Loki," they each said, each with a different tone of voice and undercurrent of emotion.

Sif felt a grip upon her heart, upon her lungs, upon her stomach, upon her brain.

Steve felt pains of a sort he hadn't felt since before the serum, before Erskine; back when he had been a scraggly fighter always standing up to people.

A flash of - light and darkness and something else entirely - burst in the air between Sif and Steve and Loki, engraining itself in their memories as Loki took his first breath since before Thor had left. The engraving faded from the air while Loki's eyes adjusted to the light, while his mind adjusted to the fact that he was not dead or dying.

"Loki?" Sif asked.

"How are you alive?" Steve asked.

"Would that I could claim credit for it," Loki replied, sitting up. They helped him to his feet, unsteady feet.

"Earlier today, I looked and sounded like you."

"That - that I can claim credit for, though the underlying magic was the Allfather's."

Sif nodded.

"You were him too?" Steve asked.

"Thor."

"I should apologize properly, Sif," Loki said, "once my sinuses cease their spinning."

Said the dot on the hill, now you shall do a great thing. you three, you striving three.

Loki swallowed nervously.

"Friend of yours?" Steve asked.

"Friend of none but the Valkyries and, maybe perhaps, the Norns," Loki said. "On the other side of that portal, is Nidhogg."

"I've heard of him..." part of my early attempt to figure out what Schmidt was up to. Looked over so many photos of that raid he made of the town. Held in my hand the cast-aside woodcarving which had held the Tesseract. A carving of Nidhogg. "The dragon gnawing on the roots of Yggdrasil."

"And the deer eating the branches of the Great Tree," Sif said. "He is seen by many Realms as various creatures, but always usually as a thing which keeps itself to itself."

"Not that I'm ungrateful to be alive once more," Loki called up to it, "but why me, why we three?"

Nidhogg said, odin crucified himself upon yggdrasil. bor drew asgard apart. buri carved the realms, limb by limb. by the whence this convergence ends, it will have been a battle of note, but still only a battle. your names will not be made here. find a deed which will establish your names which all of ensuing time shall know.

Should I be relieved or insulted that I still have yet to make an eternal name? Loki wondered. "Suggestions are most welcome, Great Pruner."

And no reply came.

"Do you know a way back, Loki?" Sif asked, "Or are we reliant upon the caprices of Nidhogg to send us to a Realm we can travel to or from?"

"You would - the both of you would take me with you?" Loki asked.

Sif shot him a look that said 'of course, you idiot.'

Steve opened his mouth, and nearly said something.

think further. Nidhogg asked, who would follow you? i ask this of the boy who grew. if in your retinue travels loki, whom your friends call foe, who will guard your back?

"We shall not leave him!" Sif cried up fiercely. "Be it already a regret to you, or a deed you still consider proudly, you have raised up Loki and reunited us."

Nidhogg asked, your intentions will be cast aside by those doubting your loyalty, strong woman. be bewitched by magery or a heart, they will care not. who will follow you, if you follow him or he follows you?

"He speaks the truth, to you both," Loki said dryly. "Give me a little time, and I can send you both to Asgard without me. I do understand."

"I am shieldmaiden to the House of Buri," Sif reminded him. "I shall not ignore my duties a second time, nor my friend."

"Just promise not to kill anybody," Steve said, pointing a finger at Loki, "and I'm in."

Loki looked at him. "I will endeavor to not kill anyone who is not threatening us. Will that suffice?"

Steve looked like he was considering it, but he didn't say no.

The pinprick portal evaporated away.

About to suggest a game to pass the time, Steve found himself wondering if Asgardians played dice or jacks or cards. While he was thinking...

"I'm unsure which would be worse," Loki said. "For us to claim that I faked my death, or that Nidhogg brought me back to life."

"We shall deal with that when we must address it, and no sooner," Sif said. "Are we all well enough to travel?"

Steve and Loki nodded.

Once he felt able, Loki parted the air in front of him, revealing a crevice-narrow passageway through to elsewhere. Holding out his hand behind him, "Don't let go," he advised.

Sif took that hand without hesitation. Steve held her other hand.

When they arrived in Asgard, it was into an empty room they stepped, the passageway closing shut behind them. And no sooner did they all breathe a sigh of relief that that was done, than Odin appeared in front of them.

Reflexively, Sif dropped to her knees and Loki lowered his head and Steve tensed, muscles abruptly ready to fight.

"At ease," Odin said, and Steve relaxed, Sif stood, and Loki looked up again. "It is good that I see you back," he said. "I am going for a walk. But unlike past excursions, I dare not leave the throne empty," and clasped one hand on Loki's shoulder. "You will occupy it in my absence."

A walk? Steve wondered.

"Me?" Loki asked.

"You, Loki. I charge you, Sif, the living War and daughter of War, to be first and foremost in the ranks of guardsmen; personal guard to the king in my absence." And then his eye looked at Steve Rogers. "One foot in each of two Realms; I charge you with being interlocutor and link between Asgard and Midgard in my absence, to assist Thor when he is present, to be foremost when Thor is not.

"Do you three understand these duties as I have charged you with?"

"I do," Sif said.

"Yes," Loki said.

Steve saluted and said, "I do."

And then Odin was gone.

Chapter Text

"That makes you king, Loki," Sif said, including the unspoken again.

"In Midgardian parlance, yay," Loki said. An idea occurred to Loki. "Although..." and placed a hand on Steve's shoulder.

Steve began to appear to be -

"Loki?" Sif asked. What are you up to now?

He smiled.

Then Steve (appearing to be Loki) took on the appearance of Odin.

"Now then," said the real Loki, "I'll be right back."

"Appearances?" Sif asked, hating that word no less than she had as a child.

"Yes. Now, rest assured, good Sif, I shall return," Loki said, and backed away until he was flush with a wall - which swallowed him up in a ripple of space-time magic.

Sif worked her jaw, placing on her tongue all the things she wanted to say to Loki upon his return. Then she turned to Steve - in Odin guise - and said "Will you be able to do this?"

"I think so," Steve said. "I've listened to Thor and Loki enough, and I've read Beowulf, and the works of Shakespeare, just in case," though I read them back before war broke out.

With a shrug, she led him while thinking I once knew a Beowulf; "This way to your throne, if you would follow me," not about to call king someone who was not her king, not even to advance a disguise.

"Take your time, please," Steve said, trying to get the hang of walking like Odin, which is harder than it might seem, since I've never seen him before - what, five seconds ago? - so yeah, bit of a challenge. "Might I ask you a few questions...good Sif?" trying it out, and hoping she didn't deck him for it. For all I know, that's something only Loki calls her.

"Of course," Sif said. "You may test my recall at any time," she said.

If that tone of voice means the same it did when Peggy used it...Sif's saying things like that are completely normal. Huh. "What do you believe I should be informed anew of, concerning recent events?"

"Do you include your sons in that question?" Sif asked.

"I do."

"This is what I know..." Sif said, and Steve listened as she spoke of Thor's banishment and Loki's integrum on the throne, of Asgard's loss of Loki (with Thor eventually bringing him back from Midgard), and all the events of the quashing of uprisings and Thor's attempted treason which had ended so recently with Loki's death.

By the time they reached that point, they had reached the foot of the royal throne, and Sif stopped where she was; Steve did too, but then he caught himself and forced himself to walk the rest of the way, and was about to sit down - could I get shot for this? ran through the back of his mind as he was about to sit, when -

"My lord," said Tyr, personally saving Steve's day. "You have a petitioner."

Steve turned around and looked. The only person in the room, aside from Sif and himself, was Tyr and - "Come," Steve (Odin-looking) said to the small child standing by Tyr's legs. "Let me hear what you wish to say."

The child walked up the first step, and held his position there. "Great Allfather Odin, I know the ways of metalworking and smithing have not been the way of Asgardians since your noble father Bor, King of Asgard, reigned."

Seeing something in the boy that he recognized from himself, Steve said, "But you wish to learn the craft of smithing?"

And got an eager nodding in reply.

"Then so be it."

Then the eyes grew wide, as if reality had just paddled the boy's dreams like a recalitrant child. "But that would - I shouldn't - No-"

"Am I the Allfather?" and sincerely hoped that, if he was going to be struck down, that the universe please wait five minutes. "Even if I were not the Allfather, not king of Asgard, I would support your choice," Steve said. "Let him who wishes to stop you from pursuing your dreams and aspirations, know that they must first deal with me," managing some thunder and menace in his voice, alongside the current of authority which worked on both soldiers and SHIELD agents.

Dropping to his knees, the boy thanked him and kept on thanking him.

"Would you like to ask for anything else?" Steve asked.

The boy looked up, and Steve knew that look too: the look that says 'I can't believe I got this from Santa, and no way am I going to ask for anything else, because really, what else could I ask for that's half as great as this?' It's good to be the king.

Tyr and the boy didn't budge.

"If there is nothing else..." What do say here? "Go and eat, play, train. Do what you will do," Steve said, and watched them go. And then realized that, at some point when he was talking to the little Asgardian boy, Thor had arrived. "Thor..." Oh. Crud, just as a servant with a certainly-familiar voice whispered in Steve's ear that the Nine Realms were more unified than ever, though Steve could tell there was a need to ask for a qualifier there.

After Thor had left, Steve, rubbing the appearance of Loki off his face, turned to Sif and asked, "He knew I wasn't him, right? I mean, Thor knew I wasn't Odin."

"Why would he have thought so?" Sif asked.

"How I talked to the kid. I didn't want to - heck, I've been right where that kid was at that age, and -"

"What did you think Odin said to me when I was that age?" she asked, interupting him.

"I'm sorry?"

Sif's lips quirked. "Truly, Thor has spoken so little of his own kingdom?"

"We were busy, last time I saw him. That was also the first time I saw him." Steve thought; "So, what I said, what I did...that just sold the idea that I'm Odin?"

"Reinforced, buttressed; yes," Sif said.

FIVE MINUTES AGO:
Location: NIDAVELLIR:

As soon as Loki appeared in the Realm, he was grabbed by Thurses and their arachnoid selves carried him the rest of the short distance to the throne room, where he was set down before the imposing stone figure seated on the Nidavellir Throne.

I have come here to see to the few Realms who would be least likely to present a united front alongside the other Realms. "You look familiar," Loki said. Contrary to what humans say, if you've seen one stone face, you have not seen them all.

"I am Jord, once-wife of Odin the Allfather of the Nine Realms. I am Jord, mother of Thor."

That's why you look familiar. "Of course. Your Majesty. Shall I relay anything to your son when next I see him?"

"No."

"You yourself are little better, boy," Jord said to Loki. "Your work is so sloppy. Particularly on Midgard."

"That was not entirely my doing."

"You partook in the doing. Regardless of where blame falls, you share in the responsibility for the raggedness of the undertaking and the outcome."

"A team was -"

"Formed in a most slipshod manner. Odin is not the only one who retains eyes in that Realm." She stretched one granite arm along the armrest of her throne. "But you came for another reason, Sonsbrother."

"The Convergence," Loki said. "What will be the reaction of this Realm to the events which have transpired?"

"Nothing," Jord said.

"Nothing?"

"Understand, child. Thor has slain his cousin, the child of my cousin; the reckless youth, all bluster and force. With that, I need no reason to stay my hand. Understand that, should I stay my hand, the Dwarves will move against Asgard, now that the Sons of Ivardi hold a majority in their number. And while the Sons may be willing to forgo aggression against you princes, there is another in your company whom they would see dead before they breathe a whisper of peace."

Sif, Loki knew. "Can I persuade your hand to be stayed?"

"I would speak with my granddaughter," Jord said. "And with the thurses of Midgard. Bring them to me, and the Sons will lose their majority."

A courtly bow and "I shall scour the planet and bring them to you," Loki said, though last I checked, there were no thurses - eight-armed or otherwise - on Earth.

"Then our business is concluded."

Location: MUSPELHEIM:

No-one and nothing escorted Loki to the massive volcanic lake which served as the throne room for Surt and Sutur - for the simple reason that nothing else lived in this Realm but those two massive aquatics (if 'aquatic' also includes beings which live completely surrounded by active lava).

When Loki asked, Surt confirmed that "We Saw. Well Did We See. Cooperation Saved The Cosmos."

"Again," Sutur added.

Loki nodded, but before he could make the suggestion -

"Thor's Soul Did Save Existence. Thor's Heart Did Endanger Everything," Sutur observed.

"The mortal which holds his heart, will be an anchor holding him from the throne until some time after her death," Loki said.

"What Assurance Do You Give?" Surt asked.

"The word of one who has known Thor for his entire life, much as your own hallowed word is seen as possessing more authority than a secondhand report."

"Truth."

"We Shall Remain Here," Sutur said. "Hold The Realms At Bay Longer, Asgard."

"We Will Slumber More," Surt said.

"What if I can offer you more," Loki said.

"More?" Surt and Sutur asked, their voices echoing across mountains and chasms.

"More," Loki confirmed. "Would you be interested in a device which permits you to interact with the other Realms, while you yourselves remain in near-slumber in the comfort of your homes?"

Silence.

Loki waited.

"We Hired Dwarves To Attempt That. Five Billion Years Ago," Surt said. "They Failed."

"We Destroyed The Forges Which Failed," Sutur added.

Should Stark accept this commission, that would certainly be motivation not to fail, Loki mused. "Are you still interested?"

"Yes," both answered in echo.

NOW:
Location: ASGARD:

As they sat on the exam table - an actual table, Steve thought to himself again - each looking like themself once more, waiting for Eir to finish her exam of the three of them after so much excitement, "So...'more unified than ever'?"

Having been the servant earlier - that being a disguise while Thor was present - Loki gave a half-shrug. "There is an official peace only between three Realms - Asgard, Vanaheim, and Jotunheim; with the others, it is more of a mutual agreement not to invade one another at the first sign of weakness. Then there is Muspelheim, which has never needed a treaty with anyone."

"Being able to incinerate an offending planet, makes that possible," Sif said.

"What kind of weapon is that?" Steve asked.

"The same sort as your hand," Sif said, remembering Jane slapping Loki. "What of...up above?"

Loki said, "Hela's realm is the only one of the three I did not visit; Sutur and Surt, I offered a deal to - and a different deal to Jord who now rules Nidavellir."

"Hela, as in...Hell?" Steve asked.

"You would consider it analogous, yes. She rules the uppermost Realm, which includes the worlds Niflheim, Helheim, and Niflhel."

"I thought - I thought Asgard was at the top of Yggdrasil," Steve said.

"Nearly so," Eir said, coming over with their results. "Only the possessions of Hela sit above us. But, as she has never expanded her territory in the last 14 and some billion years, most consider it safe to not count her among the names of possible dangers to any Realm."

"What did you find?" Sif asked Eir the doctor.

"You and the...human are well enough, though he sits at the edge of his kind."

Steve had an uncomfortable memory of Schmidt telling him something along those lines.

Eir said, "I would venture that, beneficent as Nidhogg was in this instance, Loki, you were not as lethally dead as you and Thor had thought."

Loki frowned while Sif raised an eyebrow and Steve said, "How's that?"

"When the Realms came into being at the dawn of the lit universe, we Asgardians were not the first enemies the Dark Elves found themselves facing. First were the peoples of Jotunheim - the Thurses, Jotuns, and Etins. And as a veteran of your father's War, my prince," Eir said, "I can assure you that Jotuns do not keep their vital organs arrayed in the same way as Asgardian innards are arrayed."

"I'm sorry, but how is that relevant?" Steve asked.

Eir looked to Loki.

"Best you both know. Though for different reasons," Loki said to Sif and Steve.

"Loki, of what does she speak?" Sif asked.

"You recall my insanity, the madness which gripped me?"

"And the army you rode in on," Steve said.

Grimly, Loki said "That was an imposed madness."

"When you were king for a time," Sif said, "and you sent the Destroyer to Midgard, and you slew Laufey the king of Jotunheim."

"Yes. Coincidence or not, that followed a revelation, the Allfather revealed to me that I was taken in by him when he found me in Jotunheim. A red-eyed infant bluer than the sky, bluer than the sea, bluer than hypothermia's proud reign." An amused half-smile on Loki's face, and he said to Steve, "This marks the third occasion in all her life when I have been able to render the noble Sif speechless."

Location: MIDGARD:

The beam of phased light passed harmlessly through the atmosphere, and struck the ground on a hill outside of Rome in Italy in Europe. Grass singed where the light struck.

When that light faded away, a woman stood there, her body sheathed in a replica of the same clothing she had worn on her last visit to this world: the habit of a nun, well able to muffle the grinding and sliding motions her body made. "Rebuild your strength," she said to pebbles she let fall from her sleeves, the pebbles producing sparks between themselves as they fell and as they went into the soil, "and erase all evidence of my son's disturbance upon this Realm. So says Jord, your queen and commander, that you do this - and first, disperse widely."

Jord stood there and watched them go to do their work. Then she began walking toward the nearest city, which she felt still had a weakness, a passageway between Realms traversable. I trust Loki as far as I trust Odin who raised him. "I shall do what your father never could, Thor my son, I shall teach you to clean up your mess."