Chapter 7
(Haunting the Tower [Remake]: Part 1/1) (or: How Loki found out being a Ghost was an option)
Loki starred at his body with a mixture of horror, shame and amusement. Mostly shame though. How the fuck did he manage to mess up a spell this badly? Not even Thor with his short as fuck memory would have made that mistake! Loki then glanced at his Brother. This was, all things considered, Thor’s fault.
Loki had just been trying to teleport away! As often he had been muttering his spell to do so, careful not to alert the Avengers while doing so. But after he had done it so often, he had become a bit careless, which to his utter shame, made Thor realise he was doing something. Why? Well, he had maybe muttered a bit louder this time, but it was still barely hearable. He had, to be fair, forgotten that Thor stood closer to him than usual.
Thor had, upon noticing what Loki was doing, tried to stop him. By using that fucking muzzle! Loki did not like that muzzle, the many times he had to wear it had been enough, thank you very much. So, Loki had, in his panic, said a word wrong. One word! Normally, that would cancel a spell, as they had to be exactly correct, but to Loki’s luck, or rather lack of it, there had been a spell exactly like the wrong one he had said.
There had been a bright green light, and he had opened his eyes to his own body laying on the floor. After blinking once and sorting his thoughts, he had realised that this wasn’t his body, but rather his corpse. His fucking corpse.
Which, all things considered, should not be fucking possible! Loops reseted when he died! And he was, right now, starring at his corpse! So, by simple logic, the loop should restart, which it did not!
For one brief moment he thought he was out, but then he realised the ever present hum of magic had still been there.
He shook his head and went back to analysing the situation. He was a ghost. Or a spirit of some kind. Why he thought that? Well, he could look through himself and he didn’t have a shadow. Glancing around, the Avengers were all starring at his Corpse, with Thor by his Corpse and the others positively freaking out.
It looked like they couldn’t see him, but just to be sure he walked up to Rogers and showed him a middle finger for the cat he had stepped on last loop. Rogers did not react in any way, his eyes not even focusing on him.
Okay, he was a ghost for the next-whenever this loop reseted.
Now, could he touch things?
He walked over to the wall of alcohol Stark had and eyed the bottles, briefly wondering which one getting destroyed would annoy Stark the most. He had no Idea. So, in his good old Loki fashion, he tried to push out all of them with one arm scoop. His arm did not go through the bottles, effectively making all of them crash on the ground.
“My Alcohol!”, shrieked Stark, immediately getting himself looks of annoyance by everyone in the room.
“Stark, your Alcohol is hardly important right now.”, said Rogers.
“What do you mean my Alcohol is not important? It’s very important!”
“Stark.”, Romanoff said, dead serious. The man in question shut up rather quickly before sighing and gesturing to Lokis Corpse.
“Yeah, sorry. Back to Reindeer Games.”
“Thank you. Now, do we know of this is an Illusion or-?”
“He doesn’t have a heartbeat, Clint. That’s hardly something an Illusion could fake.”, Natasha said.
“I don’t know! Maybe they can! It’s not like we know anything about magic. I just find it a bit hard to believe that he would just kil-“, Clint stopped, shooting a look to Thor, who was standing still, starring at Lokis corpse. “-that he would just die like that.”, he then awkwardly finished.
There was silence for a moment.
“…Thor?”, Natasha asked carefully. Thor snapped his head at her.
“Yes?”
“Can Loki use Illusions to-?”
“Lokis Illusions break at touch.”, he interrupted, then starred back at Loki.
Awkward silence.
“So he…died. Using uhm, magic.”, Stark said awkwardly.
“Yes…”, Thor whispered.
The room was silent once again.
Loki groaned. This was all so sappy!
Loki walked towards the window, not wanting to listen to this any further. He, on his way, walked through the table, confirming to him that to touch something he had to want to. Loki phased through the window.
And was promptly pulled back by green whisks of magic.
He stumbled, just barely catching himself.
“No.”, he said and tried to walk through the window again, getting in the same result.
Well, Fuck.
So he couldn’t leave the Tower. Great. Fabulous. He had to witness the Avengers sappy stuff now. Ew.
It was moments like this he wished he could die and restart the loop. Maybe jump off the tower, but since he couldn‘t even leave it-yeah.
Wait, why the fuck did he suddenly look like an corpse? Oh-wait he had read about that once. Ghost change their appearance based on thoughts, right? If that was the case…yup, he was wearing a dark green hoodie with a gold symbol, which translated to Seidir. In his head was now also a golden headband with too golden horns on them.
All together, he achieved his goal of looking harmless. Because he had just had a fabulous Idea. Granted, it would only work if he could somehow get himself visible, but it was genius!
He had, a few hundred years ago, read that some ghost ended up without memories, or missing part of them. It had been confirmed that some ghost only remembered good things, while other only remembered bad things and others didn’t remember anything or everything, but it was never confirmed what the factors were to decide what and what not one would remember.
Loki himself had theorised about it for a few weeks, before ultimately giving up since there just wasn’t enough information.
Back to his Idea- Loki would act amnesic! More specifically, only let himself remember bad memories! It would be particularly fun, and , maybe, he could try out only happy memories or none at all the next loop!
Either way, he concentrated and imagined being visible. He wasn’t sure if it had worked…Someone yelped in surprise. Looking to the Avengers, he realised that they were now all starring at him, back at the Corpse and back to him. Loki shifted on his feet uncomfortably.
“What the fuck.”
***
Thor looked up at the sky, to the trees, then at the Sun and lastly at Loki, who was sitting on a blanket in the middle of the park.
“Loki.”
“Thor”, Loki replied mockingly.
“Why.”, asked Thor with no small amount of exaggeration.
“Why what?”, Loki asked, face perfectly innocent.
Thor gestured at the pink sky, the purple sun, the trees made of stone and the blanket Loki sat on, which was actually a giant snake. “That.”
“Oh that, yeah that was already like this when I arrived. I didn’t know Midgard was on World rearranging level yet and their colour choices are…questionable, but hey, if that’s Midgards style I won’t stop them.”
“Loki”, the single word was spoken with an unreasonable amount of exaggeration. “Midgard changed when you arrived. We know you did it.” Loki raised an eyebrow.
“You are aware that to rearrange worlds, one would need seidir stronger than mine, right? I hadn’t had enough time to study Magic that far, I threw myself of the Bifröst before I could, remember?”
“…If you haven’t done it, why does Midgard look like this?”
Loki hummed.
“You may want to tell your friends not to play with the Tesseract again. Next time they could replace Humans with bees or something like that. Or get rid of all water. Oh and I suppose the things on the side I came from would want trough too.”
Thor was getting mad now. How one knew? The sky was clouding up and it started thundering. Oh and it started raining.
Thor flinched back when the rain hit him.
“Is that…Glitter?”, he asked no one in particular, but Loki still went out of his way to answer him.
“Yes, it would seem so. The Scene looks quite magnificent, does it?”
“Loki-”
“Why the fuck is it raining Glitter.”, Stark interrupted. Loki turned to him with a grin that looked only slightly mad.
“Because Shield, as you call it, played around with the Tesseract!” Stark stared at Loki for a moment, then he cursed.
“Fury you fucker.”
***
(A Ghost a second time: Part 1)
Thor whirled around.
There was no one behind him.
Just to check if it were anyone invisible, he waved around his hand, but nothing was there.
Thor sighed.
Of course there wasn’t, Loki was dead.
And if he heard his Brothers voice than that was just Thor imagining things.
—
Stark stared at Thor.
Thor stared at Stark.
“Okay. You’re telling me Asgard was attacked, your Mother died-sorry about that by the way- so you broke out your Brother, the guy who tried to take over earth not too long ago, and got him and your friends and girlfriend to commit treason, having Loki sneak you out of Asgard, then tried to trick the Monster that attacked you. And you almost died but Loki sacrificed himself for you. And now Loki is dead.”
Thor looked away-Tony felt a bit bad, the guy had just lost two family members in the span of a day- and fiddled with his fingers.
“Uhm, yes.”
Tony tried to reason with himself, but hadn’t he just seen Loki? I mean, it could have been an hallucination, but the fuck? Tony was sure he had just seen Loki pass by him, which had given him a heart attack by the way, but had chalked it up to his imagination, because Loki was imprisoned.
And now he hears Loki is dead. And the first thought he gets is faked death.
But why the fuck would Loki walk around in his kitchen if he was alive.
And eat a Nutella sandwich. Why that? Well, there were the ingredients to make a Nutella sandwich laying around in his kitchen.
But back to his question.
Why the fuck would Loki make himself a Nutella Sandwich in Tonys kitchen?
He was definitely just being paranoid.
—
Steve starred at his Shield.
Who would even do that. Oh wait, it had to be Stark. Or Clint. It just had to be one of them.
Who else would write ‘if lost, please return to americas ass’ on his Shield with permanent marker. The Shield he used for missions.
The one everyone could see.
The one people would make memes about.
God help Stark and Clint. He was coming for them.
—
Clint drew his bow and shot, all in less than a second.
His arrow, unsurprisingly, hit nothing but air.
Clint sighed and put down his bow.
Loki was dead. Dead. Gone. Forever. He wouldn’t come back. Especially not to the place of his defeat.
While Clint was personally not convinced about the loki changed in prison part, he could accept that the god was dead.
Him hearing his voice was probably because of the shit he had put him through. Nothing else.
—
“Okay, I’ve got to bring it up, but am I the only one who keeps hearing and/or seeing Loki in the tower?”, Barton asked one not-anymore-beautiful Sunday.
The defining silence made him rethink the question.
“I-I mean, I’m not insane or anything-”, he tried to defend, when Stark chimed in.
“S’ good man. I keep seeing Loki too, you’re not going insane. Anyone else want a Nutella Sandwich by the way? Someone keeps leaving the ingredients on the kitchen counter.”
“I’ll take one.”, Barton
“Me too, please.”, said Bruce. “Oh and I keep hearing and seeing him, by the way. Hulk has complained about it too.”
“So, we’re not all going insane then?”, asked Natasha. “Because I have thought that I was for the past few weeks.”
“No, I’m pretty sure we all saw or heard him at least once.”, Rogers said.
“Well shit, does that mean he’s still alive?”
“Probably, but I wouldn’t know how. The Corpse matched his DNA, so it had to be him.”
“What, so he’s a ghost now?”
…
There was silence as everyone realised.
“That’s why I never hit anything when I shot out of reflex!”
“It also explains why we never see him!”
“And the pranks that everyone thought Clint or Tony were at fault for, even if they kept denying it!”
“And the Nutella Sandwich!”
Everyone turned to Stark.
“Tony, I’m pretty sure a ghost doesn’t eat. Someone else is leaving the ingredients out all the time.”
“Pah, think what you want, I know it’s Loki!”
—
Tony stared at the script and up to the other Avengers.
“Are you sure I should say exactly this?”
“Positive.”, Barton confirmed, looking as if he was already laughing at just the thought of Tony reading this. Tony shot his team an Middle finger.
“Fuck you, I’m not reading this.”
“Just do it.”
“Yeah, or you’ll never be able to prove it was him who left out the Nutella Sandwich ingredients.”
It was a trap. But he really had to prove the Nutella Sandwich things. So he just sighed in defeat.
“Fine.”, he looked down at the paper.
“Oh Ghost of Loki, God of Mischief, attempted conquerer of Earth, drama queen, fucking asshole with a god complex, man with the biggest family issues in the universe, guy that got used by Hulk like a rag doll and man quite some people simp for for no apparent reason, would you like to honour us with your presence at this very beautiful and very civil Hello Kitty Tea party?”, a few ‘coughs’, “We plan on bitching about you and some other villains, read cringy y/n fan fiction and have the biggest pillow fight of the Universe, all while drinking Tea out of our limited edition Hello Kitty tea sets.”
The whole room, including Tony himself, was now ‘coughing’.
Until the Hello Kitty themed candles were blown out by seemingly nothing and a cold breeze went trough the room. The ‘coughing’ immediately stopped.
Tony and Clint squeaked as they were pushed apart by some magical force and watched as a few of their limited edition Hello Kitty pillows moved to a pile and then bended like some sat on them.
It was completely quiet in the room.
The room was suddenly very cold and Tony got himself and everyone else a Hello Kitty blanket out of instinct. He gave everyone one, who each thanked them. And, just to be sure, he threw one at the empty space next to him too. The Blanket went right through and Tony was ready to breathe out in relief, before it moved on its own and twisted over as if laying on someone’s legs. Said Person had to be sitting cross-legged and one of their feet bouncing up and down rapidly.
A few seconds later a bit of ice appeared on the table they were sitting around, forming letters.
It spelled ‘thanks’.
…
…
…
What was Tonys life.
—
The Tea party had, all things considered, gone really well. Loki, or at least they assumed it was him, but they never said his name just to be sure, had an surprisingly good sense of Humour, AND knew some embarrassing stuff about their enemies.
The best part was probably when they read cringy Fan fiction. They had found one about Asgard. One very ridiculous one, but Loki, had laughed (or cried they couldn’t know since he wasn’t visible or made any sounds) so hard that quite some things in the room were pushed over by his ‘astral energy’, as he later explained it.
Steve had squeaked like a little kid when that one Hello Kitty Plushy fell on top of him.
Tony only remembered the ghost holding a very ridiculous and definitely not civil tea party with them was a Villain when he had shot up in the middle of the night some days later.
(The Avengers eventually grew comfortable with the whole having a Ghost in your house doing Mischief thing, and at times it was almost as if Loki was actually there and breathing.
And though no one would admit it, if the Trickster were to disappear one day, they would miss him a bit more than they probably should.)
—
“So, uh, Lokes, how does the being a ghost thingy even work?”, Tony asked. Then: “Here’s some paper and a pen if you’re here.”
The Pen began levitating (A normal occurrence by now) and started scribbling down something.
“I’m unsure.”, Tony read out loud.
“Hm… Are you like a Vengeful Spirit or something like that?”
‘Why would I be vengeful’
“I don’t know. When we first figured out you were here we were all certain you want to kill us all or something, but you really changed a lot since we last met.”
‘Well, the me that tried to invade Mid- Earth would probably have done that’
“Huh, lucky us then! But you really have no Idea why you’re a ghost?”, a pause. “Wait is everyone who dies a ghost and you’re just the only one that is able to communicate with us?”
‘No, I’m the only ghost here’
“Good. The Idea of having a bunch of ghosts everywhere is kinda freaky. Anything else you want to share about being a ghost?”
‘I miss some Memories of my life’
“Wait-you’re saying you’re more or less amnesic? Is there any specific pattern about what you remember and what not?”
‘You’re gonna laugh at me. It sounds completely stupid.’
“It can’t be that bad, Lokes.”
‘… I don’t know if you would believe me’
“Lokes. I know I haven’t known you for long, but I trust you. Okay? I’ll believe you.”
Silence for a moment, then the pen scribbled again.
‘I can’t seem to remember anything good or happy that has happened before I began to be a ghost’
Wait, what. Loki only remembered bad memories. Holy shit. (Tony didn’t even question if it was true or not, as he later realised)
“So you-you forgot all happy memories? Shit, Lokes, are you okay?”
‘I’m good, thanks.’
“You sure?”
‘Yes.’
“Alright then…but don’t you remember your Invasion?”
‘I do.’
“What. Why?”
‘Well, there was nothing really happy about it.’
“…Why did you do it then?”
There was silence and the pen fell to the floor.
“Lokes?”
No answer.
Tony sighed. That was one shit ton of trauma to talk about, hm?
—
“-But why do the Invasion then?”, Steve asked.
“…I have a theory, but it’s not a nice one.”
“Spit it out.”, Barton said. Barton had gotten quite protective over Loki, Tony noticed. He wasn’t sure if the man even realised it.
“Well…You know how Loki’s eyes are blue?”
“Yeah?”
“Well, on his corpse they were green, and Thor too confirmed that their supposed to be green.”
“Shit.”
“Shit indeed.”
***
“So, what did you do wrong?”, Thor asked like a disappointed Mother. Loki mumbled something under his breath.
“Loki. What did you do wrong?”
Loki grumbled.
“I backstabbed people when I promised NOT to.”, he grumbled out eventually.
“That’s right Brother! I’m glad you’re finally acknowledging what you did wrong! So, because you backstabbed people when you promised not to you are currently where.. doing what..?”
“I’m in the ‘I backstabbed people when I promised not to’ corner and I’m currently writing an apology for Father, because I backstabbed him when I promised not to.”
“Great! I’m really proud of you Brother.”
“Mmm”
“Now, let me see your apology letter.”
“…”
“…”
“Loki, brother, how many times did I tell you not to draw Chibi versions of you killing whoever you’re supposed to be apologising for on the apology?”
Loki deeply regretted not trying to take over Midgard this loop.
***
Loki stepped onto the gala where he stole that mans eye from in the original timeline, put on a poker face and began acting.
He used magic to swipe people out of his way and walked up the Stairs.
“We’re all going to die!”, he sang-talked as he did so. “Thanos is gonna come, he and his Children, and they’re going to kill everyone on this planet!!”
He bumped into someone.
“I apologise. Now…where was I…Ah, yes! Nothing matters! We’re all going to die and nothing can change it! I would know, because I tried! But nothing will eork, so hide and pray he won’t find you!”
“You’re the guy I’m supposed to collect?”, asked the person he bumped into earlier. It was Stark. Loki grinned.
“Chances are high, Mr.Stark, but I haven’t done any crimes yet, so you can’t arrest me!”
“How about falsely spreading information?”
“It’s not false if it’s the truth.”
“Somehow I don’t trust what a crazy looking alien that came from space through a portal without invitation says. Don’t know that might just be me though.”
Loki gasped in fake offence.
“Mr.Stark! I must correct you, as I am not only crazy looking! I am indeed mad and lost my mind!”
“See, proves my point!”
“I never denied being mad though! I only politely informed you that you can’t arrest me because I haven’t done anything! Though, if you continue talking I may soon be guilty of murder.”
***
(???)
“Mobius, we have a problem.”
“A big problem or a small one?”
“A branched timeline that keeps resetting itself is considered a big problem I assume?”
“It resets itself?”
“Yes. We don’t know if all the timelines are the same one, as they start randomly and end randomly, or if it’s something that spreads. The branches too are getting closer to the red line in record time, that’s how stupid they are sometimes.”
“Stupid? How so?”
“Well, as an example in one Loki died and was a ghost somehow and in another one Thanos apparently told him to attack Earth with giant Cats instead of the Chitauri. In another one Stark went insane because a cat was smarten than him.”
“Well…these certainly sound interesting. I’ll look into it. For now, I think it would be best to try and see what happens when one of these Timelines gets pruned.”
“Alright, I’ll send out a team of minute men. This” Paper rustling was heard “Are the files to all of these Timelines we have found. Maybe you’ll find something.”