Chapter 14
[ Haunting the Tower [ REMAKE OF THE REMAKE ]
Sometimes, Loki questioned what his life has become. Abnormal and downright crazy things happening—mostly because of him— were the norm now, like his life was a walking fanfic trope or something.
Getting stuck in an Elevator and almost dying? Happened four times now. Almost dying because buildings were just so damn fragile? What is it, a Tuesday? Having to escape the dungeons earlier for extra shenanigans only to end up in even more shenanigans? Eh, happens often enough.
Point was, if anything could happen to someone, it had happened to Loki three times over already, because life apparently hated him. At least it kept life semi-entertaining.
He put a hand to his chin, thinking hard as he kept staring at the corpse laying on the ground. His corpse.
Well, anything except this. This was very much new ( even if a sense of deja-vu kept plaguing him like it was the third time already . But that was definitely impossible. )
Loki knew, theoretically, that it was possible to remove his soul from his body. But when doing so, the body died. And loops restarted when he died, so he never thought about doing it.
And, by all accounts, this shouldn’t be possible. Because Loki’s body was very much dead, but here he was, body dead and cycle still going strong. Hm, weird. Well, Loki wasn’t gonna complain. Being able to remove his soul from his body was very useful, actually, and opened lots of new possibilities!
He still had a small problem though— Which would be his dead body. Or rather, the way and where he had ‘died’.
He glanced up, back at his corpse. Thor was kneeling next to it, staring at it as if in a daze. Seems like he’d used up his energy and finally stopped shaking Loki’s corpse like a maniac or something.
Next to him, the other Avengers were standing, Watching in heavy and kinda awkward silence.
“Pointbreak…”, Stark began, but Thor interrupted.
“I don’t get it- Why would he…”, Thor swallowed. “…Again…”
“None of us do.”, Barton said, voice eerily emotionless. He’d been like this since Loki accidentally killed himself. Does it still count as suicide when it was an accident? Hm…
“The thought of going back Asgard does tend to make me want to kill myself.”, Loki deadpans, despite knowing fully well that no one could hear him, but look, he just couldn’t resist!
But to his surprise, everyone whirled around, weapons pulled. They stood like that in silence for a moment, before slowly taking them down again.
“…Did you all also hear that?”, Stark asked, scratching his head.
“Well, yeah, obviously.”, Barton said, rolling his eyes. “Do you think we would’ve turned around and posed if we didn’t?”
“I dunno. Maybe.”
Hm,
“Uhm, hi?”, Loki said, awkwardly. Within a second, a bunch of weapons were being pointed at him— through him what the hell Stark—
“Loki?”, Thor said, voice torn between hopeful and angry.
“That’s me.”, he confirmed. “Why am I not- Oh by god, Stark, could you maybe move your weapon out of my head?”
“…What.”
“It’s in my skull!”, Loki stressed. “Which is really fucking distracting!”
“WHAT?!”
“Technically it’s going through me but it’s still really weird-“
“Loki!”, Thor interrupted. “Make yourself visible at once! How dare you fake-“
“I would if I knew how!”
“What do you mean you don’t know how?!”, Thor demanded. “You’re a sorcerer!”
“A dead sorcerer!”, Loki corrected, huffing. “This is my first time being a ghost too, so please, do tell me how I’m supposed to know how to make myself visible!”
“Wait Wait, A ghost?!”, Stark asked, disbelief clear in his voice.
“Uh, what do you think? That I somehow cloned myself and the other me spontaneously combusted??”
***
Thor was sitting in the royal gardens and staring up at the dark sky. The sun had disappeared behind the horizon hours ago, and he was left looking up at the —admittedly beautiful— black sea dotted with dozens of small stars.
The reason he was out there?
A ritual. He had learned, from his fellow Midgardian Friends, that when someone saw a shooting star, it was a ritual for them to make a wish. No one knew if it worked out, but he heard it gave many people hope. Something he needed right now.
See, five hours ago, Heimdall had picked up on Loki’s presence for a split second. Loki. His brother. Loki, who tried to destroy Jotunheim. Loki who fell down into the void and was considered dead. That Loki.
“ Like A candle flickering back to life for a second, only for the flame to disappear again. “
Those had been the words of his all seeing friend. Thor, along with his mother and even if he didn’t show it much, his father, hoped. Desperately hoped.
But he had so many doubts. Did Heimdall imagine it? Did he mistake someone else for Loki? And even if Loki was alive, why was he hiding his presence? Did he not want to return? Or worse, did he seek revenge?
…
There were many reasons to doubt, so Thor decided to get himself some extra hope.
As if on cue, a star shot over the sky, shining brightly. Thor closed his eyes and wished.
“I wish…that Loki returns home…and that we can all be happy again. Please…”
Only the rustling of the trees and the sound of quiet footsteps answered him.
…
Wait. Footsteps?
Thor slowly stood up, listening to the sounds around him. Tip-tap-tip-tap. Footsteps.
This was very weird for multiple reasons. First, these were the royal gardens, and only the royal family and the gardeners were allowed in there. Second, it was the middle of the night. That only left one possible conclusion.
A thief.
Or worse, an Assassin.
Thor didn’t hesitate. Within a split second, he had thrown himself onto the figure causing the quiet sounds, hand outstretched and Mjölnir flying into his hands. The Intruder yelped in a weirdly familiar way, and immediately kicked Thor off them.
Thor immediately came to a halt, looking up and hammer raised to fight— only to see that the hooded figure was doing no such thing, just standing there quietly. Their hand— singular, because he couldn’t see their second arm— was hovering around uncertainly, as if they didn’t know what to do with it. Despite the shining golden dagger they could easily grab, the Intruder just continued to stand around weirdly.
Thor, in turn, also stood awkwardly. Attacking someone unarmed was just asking to be lured into a trap.
He narrowed his eyes when the Intruder awkwardly shifted on their feet, before bringing their hand up to their head. Thor tensed, grip on his hammer tightening. They removed the hood obscuring their face and revealed—
Thor dropped his hammer in shock.
—Loki?!
“Uhm…hi, Thor.”, his brother said awkwardly, giving him a small wave.
“…Loki?”, Thor whispered in disbelief. “How…?”
“You uhm…”, he said, gesturing to the spot Thor sat in a second before. “Wished for me to return. So I kinda… had to.”
Thor didn’t understand what Loki was saying in any way —how does a wish force someone to do something??— but he frankly just did not care.
He threw himself at Loki, who did a small, panicked jump to dodge— but he wasn’t fast enough to escape Thor’s hug.
“Loki…! You’re alive!”, Thor said, smiling uncontrollably. “You’re alive and okay! Oh my norns, you’re okay!”
“Mostly, yes.”, Loki confirmed, voice muffled by Thor’s clothes. He gave Thor a pat on the back.
“I missed you so much! I’m so sorry, ever since-“, Thor froze, and unattached himself from his brother, instead grabbing him by the shoulders. “You’re not planning to destroy Jotunheim again, right? RIGHT?!”
“Uhm—“
“RIGHT?!”
“No, I’m not.”, Loki said, looking amused. “I had some time to…rethink things. Maybe trying to destroy a whole realm was a bit of an…overreaction.”
“A bit, he says.”, Thor mocked.
“Okay, it was a big overreaction.”, Loki admitted, chuckling. “But so was Thanos’s reaction to—“ Loki stopped mid sentence. “Never mind, I forgot what I was gonna say. “
Thor narrowed his eyes.
“Are you going soft on me? Because that was a bad lie.”
Loki laughed. “I just don’t want to talk about it. How have you been?”, he asked, folding his hands behind his back. Thor suddenly realised he still couldn’t see Loki’s right arm. It felt important, somehow. Thor had the feeling he shouldn’t let Loki change the topic.
“Loki. Who is Thanos?”
“No one important.”, Loki said without skipping a beat. Thor’s grip on his brothers shoulders tightened unwillingly, and Loki let out a hiss of pain. Thor immediately let go, eyes widening. He scanned Loki for any injuries, but the stupid coat covered him up almost completely.
He brushed it off—
— and took a shocked step back. There was of silence for what felt like an eternity.
“…Loki. Loki what—“
“Thor—“
“Loki, where the hell did your arm go.”
“Uhm. So uh, you see, there was this guy-“
“Oh my norns!”, Thor said, and what he saw finally registered in his brain. “Loki— Loki, your arm—“
“Is gone, I know.”, Loki said with a deadpan. “If you would maybe let me explain…—“
“WHAT IN HEL-“
“Thor, how about you calm down. It’s not that important—“
“NOT IMPORTANT?! LOKI, YOUR ARM. IS. GONE.”, Thor shrieked, slightly hysterically. Not important— “GONE!!”
“Yeah, but shocker, I know.”, Loki said, rolling his eyes.
“HOW ARE YOU SO CALM ABOUT THIS?! LOKI, YOU’RE MISSING AN ARM—“
“It’s just an arm—“
“JUST AN ARM?!”, Thor shrieked, grabbing Loki by the shoulders and shaking him. “IT’S NOT JUST GONNA GROW BACK YOU— YOU IDIOT! HOW DID IT EVEN—“
“Thor.”, Loki said, grabbing Thor’s arm with his remaining hand. Norns, remaining hand— “Calm down. It happened a week ago, I don’t really care much—“
“A WEEK?!”, Thor shouted. “Loki. Loki, you are going to the Healers right now.”
“Uhm, I don’t think that would be a good idea-“ Thor ignored him, grabbing Loki by his arm and dragging him along. “Aaand you’re ignoring me.”
“How— Why—“, Thor muttered, mind a racing mess. How did Loki’s arm— He thought-, and each scenario got worse and worse.
“Thor.”, Loki said, stopping. “Let me explain first. Or you’re just gonna continue panicking.”
Loki was speaking weirdly. Thor only noticed it now, but the big words and fancy way of talking common in royalty were gone. Despite the— the arm, his voice was always light or sarcastic . He was more expressive in general, as if he was trying to make how he feels obviously.
…
Or fake it.
“…Okay.”, Thor agreed.
“Great!”, Loki said, before deciding to sit on the floor. “Norns, I’m exhausted.”, He sighed, before shaking his head.
Thor sat sown next to him, frowning. “You look exhausted.” Thor answered, which was a nice way of saying he looked awful. Messy hair, cuts on his face and eyes… empty.
How was Loki so…cheerful? He’d never been this positive and expressive. He’d changed so much.
“Okay. After I fell, I was captured by a Titan— Thanos.”, Loki explained, gesturing around with his hand. At least that didn’t change. “He wanted me to…attack and take over Midgard for him. Naturally, I refused, so he threw me into a cell instead. His Children— that’s what his closest followers are called— tried convincing me, but I didn’t change my opinion.”
Thor grimaced. If Loki meant what Thor thought he meant with convincing… Let’s just say Thor suddenly had a hit list.
“A week ago, I escaped. Long story short, my right arm didn’t make it out with me. I passed out somewhere and honestly, I expected them to have caught me again when I woke up. Or that I wouldn’t wake up at all. But I apparently made it out of the Void, so they couldn’t follow me. Then I spent the past week having a fever and feeling like dying, because like the dumbass that I am, I got sick. And tomorrow morning I got on my way back here.”
…
“…Loki….”, Thor whispered, tears building up in his eyes.
“No— No! Don’t be sad! I don’t care about my second arm, so you don’t have to care either!”
Thor just teared up harder.
He was certain now. Loki was being so cheerful because he didn’t want anyone to feel bad. Because he didn’t want to make Thor sad.
Suddenly, Loki perked up, looking down the hall.
“Shit—“ Within a second, he had pulled himself and Thor into one of the bushes of the royal garden.
Thor kept sobbing.
“Thor- Please, if you have to cry, do it a little quieter—“,
The footsteps stopped, and Thor recognised the legs he could see as Mothers.
“…Loki…?”, she said, voice hopeful. “Loki? Is that you?”
“Why the hell do I even bother?!” Loki said, throwing up his hand, which ended up with him slapping Thor and making him cry harder.
***
Tony blasted another beam at another alien-monster-thingy (Seriously, what even were those guys supposed to be?!) , before looking around for any civilians, because he could have sworn he heard screams just a second ago—
His eyes landed on Loki, who was currently stabbing the hell out of another alien-monster-thingy, while two kids were on the floor a bit behind him. Tony quickly figured why they weren’t running away— the left leg of the younger boy was bleeding badly, and the older one wasn’t strong enough to carry him on his own.
Tony flew over and collected the injured boy into his arms, before making room for the other one—
He wasn’t moving, eyes looked onto something behind Tony in a silent scream. Stark turned around and—
Shit! Fucking— SHIT!
There was a SWORD sticking THROUGH Stark’s new apparently-a-magician friend!
“Hm.”, said Loki, looking up from the sword and to the thing that stabbed him. “It sword of seems like you have a problem with me.”
Tony really tried, but he couldn’t help the half-amused half-horrified snort he made.
—
Thor watched in horror as the cursed’s blade tore through Loki’s chest. His brother stilled, before slowly turning to Thor, shaking with….laughter…?
“Oh my god, I just had a thought! Wouldn’t it be hilarious if I just flew away like the uh, balloons?? Can you even imagine how funny that would be???” He pulled out the sword without as much as wincing. “God! Just. Thor!! Do it again and imagine it! Pretend the first time didn’t happen!!”
“What the actual fuck.”, Jane whispered. “Is— Is he actually insane??”
Thor refrained from saying I’m pretty sure he hasn’t been sane at all for years but yeah this is a new level of insanity out loud.
—
Steve really didn’t know how to feel about Loki of all people suddenly appearing to help with Ultron, but he really wasn’t complaining. The more the merrier, he guessed.
That didn’t me he didn’t have a bunch of questions though. How did Loki escape Asgard? Why was he helping? Did Thor free him to help? Then where was Thor?? And how did Loki get better at fighting in a prison cell??
And most of all: why was he behaving so goddarn weird?
The Loki he remembered from New York spoke about superiority and destruction with a voice full of scorn and poison. The Loki he remembered from New York didn’t fight as if it was a dance, basically flying across the battlefield with grace while commenting on everything in a way that reminded him of Stark.
The Loki he knew from New York hated them all, so he would never protect any of them, much less at the cost of his own health.
As Steve quickly realised, this was present Loki he was dealing with, and all the former statements didn’t apply to him.
Which is how Loki ended up with a sharp piece of metal through his chest because he shoved Steve out of the way when it flew towards him.
Despite Loki being someone Steve hated —more disliked than hated after all this— he couldn’t help the pure and utter horror that welled up in his chest.
Loki hadn’t moved for the past ten seconds, instead squinting down at the piece of metal through his chest as if he couldn’t quite comprehend it was there.
“Well….”, he said, coughing a bit. “This is kinda awkward… Hey uhm…Cap. Would you… mind… catching me when I…”
With those words, he stumbled forwards. Steve, prepared for it, caught him easily. Loki gave him a pat on the arm.
“Thanks man…” , Loki said, breath shaky.
“H-Hey, don’t worry. You’ll… be fine!”, he tried to reassure, but it felt awkward whenever he remembered who he was talking to.
“Mhm…”, Loki hummed. “You know…the most annoying thing…about this?”
“No uh, what is it?”, Steve asked. He didn’t really want to know, but Loki needed to stay awake right now—
“My favourite lung got pierced…”
Steve couldn’t help the laugh he barked out.
—
“Oh for gods sake— HEY!”, Loki shouted, momentarily making everyone stop moving. “Does anyone see my dagger anywhere?? I uh, kinda need it, you know!”
Thor stared at Loki with what he was pretty sure was a exasperated expression. What kind of idiot asks for their weapon on the battlefield…while fighting their brother??
Some of The Chitauri answered with the same garbled noise that Loki seemingly understood?? Because he nooded.
“Eh, okay. Thanks anyway—“
Thor took a step back, drawing in a breath.
Natasha had given Loki his dagger….it was just…sticking through his chest…
Loki looked down, but instead of screaming or falling over or anger he…brightened??
“Thanks a lot! I was searching for this!”, he chirped, and pulled out the dagger from his chest.
Thor was suddenly far less certain about his chances of victory.
( —
Loki stabbed another Chitauri, and another…and another. He imagines he must be looking quite feral, as the next group he targets actually shy away from him. Loki had somehow managed to install fear into something that didn’t feel emotions.
How funny.
He slaughtered them anyways. By now some were actively running from him, walking straight into the traps of the Avengers. His teammates.
…
It still felt weird to think that.
But it was reality now, and maybe it would be forever. He was so close. He had managed to force the fight with Thanos a year earlier, and everyone was still alive. Nothing had reset yet.
He was on the right track.
Now he just needed everyone to survive this final battle and to, of course, win. Then he would be done. He would be free.
But of course, luck wasn’t on his side. Because Stark wasn’t noticing the sword being thrown at him from behind.
It was stupid. The sword would only hit his arm, and he probably wouldn’t die. He’d be fine.
And even if he wouldn’t , he disliked Stark the most of everyone. Reminded him too much of himself. But he really didn’t care much for any of them, except Thor. He…didn’t care if any of them died.
But despite all this, he still moved without thinking. Despite it all, Loki was now the one with a sword in his chest, not Stark, who was instead holding the god in his arms.
Loki was laughing hysterically. Not because of the sword or dying ( both had happened so often by now ) but because of the implications his actions bore.
He cared.
He cared enough to let himself get impaled to save Stark from a bit of pain.
Caring was dangerous. When Loki cared, he became to attached. To quick. It distracted him. Was in his way.
When he cared, he could’t let that person get injured just because it would be more convenient for the timeline. He couldn’t lie and manipulate them without the sinking feeling of guilt in his gut, making him feel sick to the core.
When he cared, he did stupid things. Like this.
Loki closed his eyes, and resigned himself to a lot of injuries to come because of his inability to be cruel to those he cared about.
How ironic. )
***
Loki could not fucking believe this. It had been a joke. A joke. He’d done it as a joke, but for some reason, people really wanted him, a terrorist , to be president??
Why would— What did a president even do?? Repeating, he run for president as a joke!! He had no fucking idea what their job even was!?
Okay, Okay! He could do this! Just make a bunch of bad decisions, and no one will want him for president. He’ll be free off this goddamn job he never wanted and go back to terrorising New York with magical cats!
Perfect plan! What could possibly go wrong?
—
Everything went wrong.
Declaring war on Canada? Oh shit, they were secretly planning to nuke Washington! Good Decison, Mister President, you just saved millions of lives —
Banning Doritos! Suddenly no one gets cancer anymore— Loki had found the reason for cancer and banned it quickly! You’re such a goose president, Mister President!! How did you find out about the Doritos?!
Jailing his Vice President? Shiit, turns out he was a terrorist! A spy! You probably just saved every secret the state has, Mr.President!
Pinwheels being taken down! No more environment friendly energy! Suddenly tornados and bad storms become less common. Pinwheels were thwarted cause of the natural disasters! You’re such a genius, Mr.President!!
His approval rate is 100%. He’s voted the best president in the history of humanity.
***