The Convergence
Loki was comfortably lingering in the space between sleep and consciousness when his momentary peace was ended. The doors opened, and Thor and Jane slid into the front seats of the car. Loki looked up and saw Erik Selvig, the young woman who Jane had addressed as Darcy, and a young man, getting into another car.
Loki waited until both cars had pulled out and they were again driving down the road to ask, “Where are we going?”
Silence. Thor ignored him completely, and Loki couldn’t help but be annoyed by this. Jane shifted uncomfortably as she drove. The tension in the air was thick.
Thor noticed her discomfort and, for her sake, relented with a sigh. “We are going to where the height of the Convergence will happen. That is where Malekith should be headed.”
“And what exactly do you plan to do once we get there?” Loki asked.
“You’ll see,” Thor responded curtly, obviously still agitated over the reminder of what Loki had done to Erik. His tone made it clear that that was to be the end of the conversation, and Loki knew the wise thing would be to leave it, but well… where was the fun in that?
“Let me guess. Step one, dramatic entrance.”
“Loki…” Thor warned.
“Step two, glorious battle.”
“Loki.”
“Step three, bash Malekith’s head in with Mjolnir.”
“Loki!” Thor snapped.
Loki smirked and leaned back in his seat. The car fell into silence, leaving each of them to their own thoughts. For Loki, that meant thinking through possible scenarios, plans… and betrayals.
When they arrived, Jane pulled the car into a parking spot and the three got out.
“Ok,” Jane said. “We’ll get the gravitational spikes set up. You guys handle Malekith.”
Thor nodded and quickly steered Loki and himself away. Loki looked over his shoulder and saw Erik and the others unloading some kind of equipment from the back of the other car.
“Are you going to take the cuffs off now?” Loki asked Thor as they walked.
Thor kept his eyes forward. “Why? You do not need to fight yet.”
Loki gave a frustrated sigh but said nothing more. He would have them off soon enough.
When the brothers got to the open area where Darcy, and the young man — Ian, if Loki was hearing Darcy’s somewhat obnoxious shouts correctly — were frantically running around hammering Erik’s devices into the ground, they stopped. Now, all they had to do was wait.
“So, back to earlier’s topic, do we have any true plan for this, or are we just going to — what do your mortals say — ‘wing it’ and hope everything works out?”
“Well, that has always been my style, has it not?” Thor snarked. A beat passed, then he added, “And they’re not my mortals.”
Loki scoffed. “Oh please. Brother, like it or not, at least be realistic. You are the only person in the Nine who does not actually live on this planet and still gives a damn about what happens to it.”
Thor grimaced. His tone softened a bit. “They are people too, you know. They have families, and desires, and emotions. They feel happiness and pain, same as you and me.”
Loki had to resist the urge to roll his eyes. “Yes, and then they fall apart and die all within a century’s span and no one ever thinks about them again.” He shook his head. “You will see, brother. In a hundred years these people will be nothing but memories, and you will find yourself wishing you had spared yourself the pain of getting to know them in the first place.”
Thor seemed to think on that for a minute. “Is that how you feel about the group of mortals you befriended last century?”
Loki was caught off guard by that comment. He gave his brother a sharp look. A warning. “I did not befriend anyone. If you recall, I was given no choice but to work with them. And you know what? Now they are dead. Just as your mortals will very soon be.”
Thor opened his mouth to reply but was cut off as the Dark Elf ship suddenly appeared out of thin air. It scraped slowly along the ground as if it was a knife through butter. Civilians screamed and scattered, running for cover.
Loki felt adrenaline begin to burn in his veins once again. “Perhaps now you could consider taking the shackles off?” he asked somewhat rhetorically.
Thor reached over and undid the cuffs. Then he met Loki’s eyes and said, “I would like to trust you.”
The words sent a chill down Loki’s spine. They weren’t resigned this time. They were hopeful, and he didn’t know how to respond to that. He stared at Thor for several seconds before the nearing threat forced both of them to refocus. Standing side by side, they turned towards the Dark Elf ship.
Malekith and the remaining elves stepped out of the ship just as the last of the civilians fled the area.
“You needn’t have come so far,” Malekith said, his voice carrying across the distance between them. “Death would have come to you soon enough!”
“Not by your hand!” Thor shouted.
“Your universe was never meant to be,” Malekith said angrily. “Your world and your family will be extinguished!” The Aether formed around him and shot out in spikes towards the brothers.
Loki threw his hands up, forming a shield in front of them. He grit his teeth as the raw power of the Aether struck his shield and it cracked, just barely holding together. When the Aether retracted, he quickly pulled his hands to his chest as if he’d been burned and hissed through his teeth.
“I won’t be able to do that again,” he warned.
“Noted,” Thor said and sent a bolt of lightning straight towards Malekith. Malekith met it with another blast of the Aether, this one stronger. It overtook the lightning like it was nothing and struck them. Loki brought his arms up in front of himself defensively as it sent them both skidding backwards.
Thor regained his balance and took a step forward, adjusting his grip on Mjolnir. “You know, with all that power,” he taunted, “I thought you’d hit harder.” He flung Mjolnir at Malekith, who went flying backwards from the impact. Without a word, Thor followed after him.
Loki watched the two disappear, then conjured his dagger and began swiftly and efficiently taking out the Dark Elf soldiers. He had already managed to kill several of them when he felt reality warp beside him. Multiple Dark Elves disappeared as one of Erik’s gravitational spikes activated.
Loki glanced over his shoulder and saw Jane and Erik on one of the balconies. Jane gave him a thumbs up and he nodded in return.
“Not bad,” he mumbled to himself with a hint of admiration as he turned back to the elves and resumed fighting.
At one point, Loki saw both Malekith and his brother falling out of the sky over his head before disappearing into another portal. He was pretty sure he also saw Mjolnir launch into space at one point and briefly thought about how comedic this whole situation would be if it weren’t for the murderous elf whose goal was to destroy the universe.
Loki put a throwing knife through an elf’s eye socket and turned to see Jane and Erik running from several more. He teleported between the two groups and flung his arms out, releasing a wave of green energy that instantly tore the elves apart down to their very molecules.
Loki tilted his head curiously. The intensity of that energy blast had been stronger than anticipated. His interest was peaked as he realized that the loosening of reality’s boundaries was causing his power to be magnified. He sighed in frustration, knowing that this would likely be the only time he’d ever see the Convergence and he was spending it fighting off a species that was supposed to have been extinct for the last five millennia instead of actually appreciating the uniqueness of the event.
There was nothing that could be done about that now though, so taking advantage of the unusual freedom of his power, Loki made quick work of the remaining elves. Once the last of them were dealt with, he glanced around, making sure there weren’t any strays. There were none.
Loki tipped his head back and closed his eyes, panting. He only allowed himself to rest for a moment though before opening his eyes again. His mind was working now. He was alone. Thor and Malekith were off fighting somewhere, the Dark Elves were dead, Jane and the others were nowhere in sight… and his magic was free.
The situation was too irresistible. He turned, quickly leaving the open area, intent on disappearing into the city. He was almost gone when he saw Malekith appear through a portal and go rolling across the ground. Loki paused, waiting for Thor to appear as well. When Malekith stood up and raised his arms above his head to begin summoning the full power of the Aether and Thor still wasn’t there, Loki began to feel nervous. He looked upwards. The Convergence was reaching its peak, the realms laid out before them, a beautiful display in the sky. Malekith was about to act, and no one was there to stop him. Well… almost no one.
Loki looked back out towards the city, towards freedom. It was so close, yet he knew better than to think his escape would make any difference if Malekith were to succeed. He groaned, then reluctantly turned his eyes back to Malekith. His gaze hardened.
Loki teleported across the distance to stand only feet away from Malekith. As he appeared, he brought his hands up and grabbed ahold of the now exposed Aether. It shot into his veins, and he gasped as raw power flooded his body, setting his nerves on fire. Loki locked eyes with Malekith. The Aether was connected to both of them now, a bridge between them. It simultaneously began swirling upwards, encasing them in a tornado of crimson energy.
Malekith pulled on his end, and Loki pulled back. The Aether writhed between them, sounding like glass shattering over and over again. Its loyalties were divided between the one who had previously wielded it and the sorcerer’s skilled touch.
“Give it up, boy! This is not a fight you can win!” Malekith yelled over the shrieking in the air. “The Aether has belonged to the Dark Elves since before your realm existed! It will not so easily turn from its master!”
Loki grinned. “Oh Malekith, you should know that Reality knows no master but itself!” He pulled again and felt the very molecules in his body vibrate.
By the way Malekith grit his teeth, he could feel it too. “You will kill us both!” he screamed.
Loki shrugged — as much as he could, anyway. “You planned to destroy the universe! At least this way I get to drag you down with me!”
“Then what difference does it make to you!?”
“Easy!” Loki yelled, his face twisting into a snarl and hatred burning in his soul. “You killed my mother.”
The two continued to strain against each other, both trying to get the upper hand. The Aether’s swirling mass towered above the buildings. Its upper tendrils would reach for the portals into the other realms but then double back on themselves as if unsure whether or not to proceed. It was a battle of wills, a test of endurance. Loki didn’t have to survive. He just had to survive longer than Malekith.
Loki was beginning to feel light headed now. His body felt like it was coming apart at the very seams. Both his and Malekith’s eyes, as well as every vein in their bodies, glowed red with the power that was slowly consuming them. Shards and tendrils swirled in a raging flurry around them. Suddenly, Loki felt a push of something against the outer wall of the Aether.
Thor.
With a twist of his hands, he opened a pathway and watched as Thor stumbled into the vortex where they stood. Thor did a double take on Loki, seeming understandably caught off guard by his brother’s current appearance. Under different circumstances, Loki would’ve found Thor’s expression quite amusing.
As it was, however, their eyes locked for only a moment before Thor refocused and charged at Malekith. He brought both his hammer and several of the gravitational spikes down on Malekith with a roar. Loki conjured a rune covered, stone box. It wasn’t made to hold this much energy, but it would have to do. Thor struck Malekith, stabbing him with the spikes. At the same time, Loki pulled the swirling Aether down and forced it into the box. A wave of power erupted outwards like a sonic boom. All three of them went flying. Loki’s vision flashed, and he hit the ground unconscious.
The world slowly faded back in. Loki groaned, and his eyes fluttered open. His vision was blurry and everything sounded muffled. Carefully, he sat up on the ground and pressed the palm of his hand to his forehead as everything began to come back into focus. He could feel his body tingling and his remaining magic writhing, still recovering from the foreign energy that had saturated his form a moment prior.
He glanced over at Thor, who was awake but still lying on his back. Jane was crouching over him.
“Hey. You alright?”
Loki’s eyes snapped to the voice. Darcy stood there looking down at him with something akin to concern. Erik and Ian stood further back.
Loki stared at her for a moment, then nodded. “I’m fine,” he said tiredly. He looked down at his trembling hand and clenched it into a fist. It wasn’t just his hand though. His whole body was shaking.
Darcy watched him skeptically. “Are you sure? You look like a corpse.”
Loki squeezed his eyes shut as a shudder ran through him. “I will recover,” he assured her, and as if to demonstrate this, he, although a bit shakily, got to his feet. He looked around, taking in their surroundings. The lifeless bodies of the Dark Elves still littered the ground, but Malekith and the ship were gone, portaled away by the gravitational spikes. He looked up and watched as the last signs of the Convergence faded from the sky.
He turned at the sound of Thor getting to his feet. Thor walked over to the box that lay discarded on the ground and scooped it up, holding it in front of his face. The Aether’s screeches could be heard through the stone container. Loki looked back and forth between the Aether and his brother carefully.
“So, that’s it? Is it over?” Jane asked hopefully.
“It is over,” Thor said, staring down at the box in his hand with a solemn expression.
Several seconds of silence passed before Ian spoke up. “So… what now?”
The question hung in the air. Thor looked up at Loki. The brothers stared at each other, tension building between them. Now it was time to return to Asgard. Loki took a slow step backwards.
“Loki…” Thor said carefully.
“I will not be locked away in a cell again. You cannot make me go back,” Loki said lowly.
Thor’s jaw tightened. “Can’t I?” he threatened. “You know I cannot let you escape.”
Loki shifted from foot to foot, considering his options. Relying on his magic was out of the question right now. It was still squirming unhappily and would likely be useless if he tried to use it. Engaging in a physical fight or trying to run probably wouldn’t work out too well either. The truth was, he didn’t have a many options.
Thor interrupted his thoughts. His voice was softer now. “Loki… come home with me. I will talk to father. I will tell him what has happened and of what you have done today. We can work out a change for your sentence.” Thor took a cautious step forward. “I swear to you, even if it takes me becoming king, you will not live the rest of your life in a cell. And until you are released, I will come to visit you.” Loki watched with a conflicted expression as Thor continued, his eyes full of sincerity. “Please, Loki. Let us try to mend what has been broken between us.” He held out a hand.
Loki stood there silently and motionlessly. His thoughts were a mess. That spark of sentimentality that he normally kept buried deep within himself was begging him to take the hand. And perhaps it was the lack of a better option. Perhaps it was the exhaustion or desperation within him. Perhaps… perhaps it was his own longing and hopefulness to have exactly what Thor just said, to be brothers again.
Loki slowly reached out and took Thor’s hand.
The brothers landed in the Observatory, and the Bifrost’s bright colors faded behind them. They were greeted by Odin and a large group of Einherjar. Odin’s gaze was fierce and cold and locked on his older son, and although Loki was perfectly fine with Odin’s wrath being directed at Thor instead of himself, he couldn’t help the pang of bitterness that arose when the Allfather didn’t even spare him a glance.
Several Einherjar approached and took hold of him. Loki didn’t fight them. He kept his head up and his eyes forward as he was led out of the Observatory.
The Einherjar took him somewhere to clean up and change back into prison clothing, then brought him to his cell. He was surprised to find that it had been cleaned up since the last time he had been there. Though all that was in it now was the little bed, a table with a glass of water on it, a chair, and to his even greater surprise, all of the books that had survived his rage and grief.
When the guards left, Loki slowly crossed the cell and picked up one of the books, staring at it. Most of the books in the pile were from the library. Just a few, however, were from his personal collection. This was one of them.
It had been a gift from his mother. Loki remembered the day she gave it to him. He also remembered the day it had been sent to his cell, along with a short note expressing her love to him.
Loki’s eyes teared up just thinking about it. He sat down on the side of his bed and clutched the book to his chest, closing his eyes. It was the only thing he had left, the only thing he had left from the only person he’d had left—
But no. Thor said he’d come back. He would come back…
He had to…