Chapter Text
A monstrous purple face swam in front of his own, indistinct and ugly and mocking him as he kicked wildly in the open air. He was pathetically weak and helpless in the titan’s grasp. If he could only get a breath … He could feel himself dying, his vision tunneling and his strength leaving him, but if he could only get a breath ...
There was a sickening crack, and then nothing.
Loki woke, gasping, watery eyes darting wildly in search of the mad titan. His neck throbbed where the man had wrapped his hand around his throat, but he could breathe. The acrid smell of burnt flesh singed his nostrils. When his vision cleared, he realized he was alone and in some sort of pit, the sides of it gently sloping down to meet him. The source of the smell also became evident. His leather armor was burnt and cracked, and when he moved bits of it broke off, fluttering to the ground beneath him. What was even stranger was that his hands showed no evidence of being burnt at all.
He tried to rise to his feet, but a wave of dizziness overcame him and he fell gracelessly back on his ass. A cloud of dust rose, settling in a fine coat over him. The pit was made of unstable pulverized rock, and a few jagged pebbles broke free to fall down onto his head. Sighing, he resigned himself to the fact that he’d have to crawl out.
The crumbled stone couldn’t hold his weight at all. It gave way beneath him, showering more rocks on him from above and dragging him back down. He fought against it, scrambling to resist the tide. He didn’t know how long it took him, but finally, he grabbed onto something solid and hauled himself onto it.
From the rim of the pit, Loki could see that it was in a massive expanse of shattered stone. It appeared to be an impact crater. That would explain his charred clothes, but not why he was entirely uninjured despite falling hard enough to break the rock.
Glancing up, he only saw an empty blue sky. He scanned the landscape, searching for anything that could help him. There were no people, no animals, and no plants in any direction; just an endless expanse of stone. It looked, for all intents and purposes, like a dead planet. Perhaps that is why he was alive, he thought and winced. Thanos had left him here to starve.
This time when he clambered to his feet, he managed to not fall over. If him dying here was what Thanos wanted, then he had underestimated Loki’s tenacity. There were secret pathways between worlds, and in his time he had located a great number of them. If there was one on this planet, he would damn well find it.
Closing his eyes, he focused on sensing magic, trying to feel for any folds or dips in reality. The fact that this place was so barren would actually make it easier because there was no background buzz of life to distract him. Now he just needed to concentrate.
A small part of his mind wondered what had happened to Thor, and like that his focus was shattered. He huffed and tried to focus again, but now he had thought of it he couldn’t push it away. Of course his brother could distract him even if he was dead.
He shoved his hand through his greasy hair, tugging on the ends. He couldn’t tell himself he didn’t care anymore, not when he had given up the Tesseract the second his brother started screaming. Had that even been for anything? There was no way to tell if Thor had survived, but given the fate of the rest of the Statesman, it seemed unlikely. He viciously kicked a stone into the pit.
Thor had been alive the last time Loki had seen him. Reminding himself that he hadn’t seen the oaf die made it easier to breathe, and he hated himself for it. Hadn’t he pointed out, time and again, that Thor wasn’t his brother? Hadn’t he tried to kill him himself? He was being a sentimental fool. Regardless, the thought that Thor might have somehow survived by sheer pigheadedness was a small comfort, and he allowed himself to dwell on it before trying to find a pathway again.
There was a strange twist in reality somewhere far to his left, and Loki steeled himself for a long hike.
It was eight days before Loki stumbled upon somewhere familiar, and another three before he reached a portal he knew led to Midgard.
Loki knelt in front of the passage, staring. It wasn’t really much to look at. There were no swirling rainbow lights or other visual indicators that it lead to another realm. It just looked like a cliff face in the middle of the woods of Alfheim. He had found this place when he was a child, but hadn’t made much use of it before now.
If anyone knew where his brother was, it would be the people of Earth. That was where Thor had been headed last. There was, of course, the small problem that he had not endeared himself to the local population. The worst part was that second-rate sorcerer, who had beaten him so thoroughly and quickly that he hadn’t even caught his name. Ever since he realized he would need to return to that damned place, he’d been trying to think of some better way to cloak himself.
In his youth, Loki had mainly focused on finding a way to hide from Heimdall’s eyes, but that focus most likely had left weaknesses elsewhere. This time he would be prepared. He had hidden himself in every way he knew, using a significant portion of his power to make sure that no one could possibly detect him. Even if that failed, the last time he had been on Earth it had taken the sorcerer a few minutes to spot him. He just had to be quick.
He took a deep breath. It would be fine. He would find his brother, and he would be alive . No one would even know he was there, and then he’d be gone.
He stepped through to Midgard.
There was no ground on the other side.
Loki tumbled, disoriented, through the ring of sparks and onto the highly polished floor below.
“And there he is,” the voice of the sorcerer said. Loki’s eyes snapped to him just as the man hurled a strange metal contraption in his direction.
It latched onto him where it struck, then unfolded along the rest of his body, down his legs, and up to his face. The device grabbed and twisted. Loki strained to fight it, but despite its creaks and groans it still managed to make him kneel. It brought his hands straight behind him, straining them to their limit and removing all leverage. It held him so tightly that it was nigh impossible to squirm. He cast his eyes around wildly and realized that not only had he been caught by this bastard again, but it seemed he was friends with the Avengers if standing right next to Tony Stark was any indication.
This was a nightmare.
“Is that...is that Loki?” a young sounding voice asked from nearby.
“Yeah, it is,” Tony said, glancing at him over Loki’s head. “Look, Spidey, maybe you should-”
“I assure you it’s fine,” the sorcerer said. “Trust me, I can handle him.”
Loki spat a choice few things from behind the mask.
“Uh huh,” the sorcerer said, barely sparing him a glance. His attention was on Tony Stark.
“Remember when I went over all the possible outcomes of the fight against Thanos, and how there was only one where we won? I looked a little farther past the endgame, and-”
It looked like Stark was barely listening. He had the countenance of a man who was considering murder, and all his focus was trained on Loki. He could barely twitch, let alone defend himself, and he suspected that since Thor hadn’t made himself known yet he wasn’t around to save him. He knew, on some level, that he should be terrified, but after all he had been through it just made him furious.
He clenched his hands into fists and repelled everything away from him with the force of his rage. He heard several things shatter, saw some of the Avengers stumble, but only heard one person fall. Damn.
“Did you really think that would work?” the sorcerer asked, raising an eyebrow. Loki wanted very badly to bury a knife in his chest.
“As I was saying, I checked the future after we defeated Thanos-” Loki stared at him in disbelief. The two strongest Avengers had been with Loki, on the ship, and they had barely been able to slow Thanos down. He had been assuming all this time that it was some hitherto unknown, extremely powerful entity that had defeated him. Perhaps someone like Hela.
“Oh, yes, you didn’t know about that.” the sorcerer said. “I saw myself forgetting this, but then I forgot about that.”
“Sounds annoying,” Captain America said from somewhere behind Loki. He hadn’t even known Rogers was here. It made the back of his neck prickle.
“It is,” the sorcerer confirmed. “Regardless, it wasn’t that important. Yes, we defeated Thanos.”
Loki wished he could ask more. The sorcerer rolled his eyes and stepped closer. He reached towards Loki’s face, but instead of gouging out his eyes or something similar he removed the part covering Loki’s mouth.
“Please tell me he’s dead,” he said in a rush, not bothering to mask his fear.
Stark snorted. “What, not a big fan of your boss?”
Ah, so they knew about that. It didn’t bode well, given the way Stark was glaring at him. Loki picked his words carefully.
“I...wasn’t particularly happy to be working for him, no."
“Really? Because last time you were here, you didn’t seem that upset.”
“That’s because I wasn’t,” Loki said casually. Stark narrowed his eyes, his expression growing even darker. “I was happy to be away from that madman.”
“Ha!” One of the surrounding people said, “That’s rich, coming from you.” The man was in a red and black suit, with a silver helmet that tapered down to a point above his mouth.
“I’m sorry, who are you?”
“Ant-Man!” he declared, crossing his arms over his chest.
Loki blinked at him, and then a grin crept onto his face. “Did you willingly call yourself that? Are the Avengers recruiting insects now?” He focused on the rest of the group, picking out people he hadn’t seen before. “Who are you? Beetle?” He asked the odd-looking man with the red face. “I guess that makes you Moth Man.” He told the stranger with wings. “And...” He could now turn his neck just enough to see some of the people behind him and instantly lost his levity. “Banner!”
Loki was surprised at how glad he to see him alive.
“Hi, Loki,” Banner said, uncomfortably fiddling with his hands.
“Banner. Is Thanos dead?” It hurt like hell to twist his neck like this, his bruised flesh pressing against the contraption as his craned his head back. “I honestly don’t know if you remember anything that happened, but he came for me . If he isn’t dead, he’ll come again, so if you want to execute me you’d better do it quickly.”
“I thought he had come for the Tesseract,” Banner said to a point above Loki’s head.
“He would have come anyway. Granted, maybe not at that exact time, but I had lost him an infinity stone. Is he dead?”
Banner finally met his eyes. “Yes. He’s dead.”
Tension flooded from Loki so quickly that he felt lightheaded. “Thank you,” he said, and it came out as a whisper. Then, before he could be interrupted again, he asked the question he had come to Earth to have answered. “Is Thor alive?”
“Yeah, uh, he’s in space right now. He got a message a couple days ago from Valkyrie so he went to meet her and the rest of the refugees?”
“Oh.” Loki could feel his eyes getting wet. It was ridiculous. After everything he had done, after all the poisonous words he had spat in the face of Thor and Odin, he wanted to weep with relief that his brother and his people were safe. He wasn’t even Asgardian. Blinking rapidly, he focused instead on the floor. He could feel this later when he wasn’t surrounded by enemies.
Strange started speaking again. “As I was saying, once Thanos was defeated, the Infinity Gauntlet was used to bring everyone who he killed that day back to life. That included Loki.”
Spider-Man spoke up again. “Loki was killed in the Snap?”
“No. He was killed before that. Regardless, he’s back now.”
Banner cleared his throat. “Anyway. Doctor Strange? You were saying that you looked at the future? I imagine you were going to say you saw Loki coming.”
“Yes, but there’s a bit more to it than that.”
“You wanna share with the class?” Stark asked. “Why exactly did you dump him in the middle of my facility?”
Strange shrugged. “It was the safest place to put him.”
“You’ve only been alive for ten days and you’re already a pain in my ass.” Stark closed his eyes, pinching the bridge of his nose. After a moment it seemed like he had a sudden thought. “What do you expect me to do with him?”
“Thor would no doubt be grateful if I was returned to him,” Loki said, tilting his head to the side. “You are...friends, are you not?”
“No, nope, I’ll stop you right there. You,” he said, jabbing a finger in Loki’s direction, “do not get a say in this. You’re not part of the discussion. You don’t even get to listen.” Stark glared at him, but then shifted back and addressed the room at large. “Wanna move this to the meeting room?”
“You’re not going to leave me here, are you?” Loki said to Stark’s turned back. “That strikes me as incredibly unwise.”
“Of course not,” Strange cut in. “Please do remember that it is still entirely within our ability to subdue you,” he said as he pressed something near Loki’s chest.
The contraption let go and Loki fell flat on his face. He began to sit up as he heard the assorted sounds of weapons being raised.
“Dude, what did you just do?” Spider-Man asked, his voice going high.
“Don’t move,” Stark had turned around, his repulsors aiming directly for Loki’s head.
“Yeah, what he said!” Ant-Man yelled.
Loki sat cross-legged on the floor and held still. He wished he could do something else, but they all had eyes on him so illusions wouldn’t hide his real body, and he did not like the odds of a straight fight.
“Show me your hands, please,” the sorcerer said, calm as ever. Loki shot him a look but complied. “Good. Now I’m going to put these on you,” he said, pulling out a pair of handcuffs. “Hold still.”
Loki watched as the cold metal encircled his wrists. At least it was better than that full-body restraint.
“Stand up,” Strange commanded.
“Stop giving me orders,” Loki said, but stood up anyway because he didn’t want to stay on the floor.
“Of course, your highness,” he said. “Stark, I’d ask if you have a room to put him in but I know you do and I know where it is. I’ll join you all soon.”
Loki took the opportunity to see who was gathered around them. All of the original Avengers sans his brother were present, as well as the unfamiliar faces he’d already noted, a skinny youth in a red costume that he assumed was Spider-Man, a dark-haired woman, and Colonel Rhodes.
He couldn’t help but think that if the Avengers had beaten him before when they were disorganized and fewer in number, then now he was really screwed.