Chapter 39
Ten minutes later, Loki and Steve were crouched behind a chunk of concrete, waiting impatiently for either Tyr or the Other to speak.
The Other proved more impatient.
“Loki Laufeyson!” The Other demanded, “I believe you have something that is mine!”
“What is he talking about?” Clint asked, his voice scratchy over the comms, “What do you have that they want?”
Tony’s voice joined in.
“Loki, I swear if you took the Tesseract again—”
“No, you idiots!” Loki hissed under his breath, “I didn’t steal anything!”
“Oh, really?” Steve could hear the glare in Stark’s voice, “Then what is it, Reindeer Games?”
“Loki, what do the Chitauri want?” Steve asked, though he already knew the answer.
It had to be believable.
Steve wished that Bucky had been here instead.
Too bad he was a terrible actor. Maybe then he wouldn’t have had to stay behind.
“I—“
And damn, Loki was really good at acting, the look he gave Steve so remorseful and vulnerable, like he knew he was going to regret what he was going to do next.
Despite knowing it was all a ruse, Steve felt a rush of fear for him.
Loki rushed out towards the Other, daggers in his hand, but he knew he would fail to fight off all of them.
The Other’s army backed him into a corner, and the Other stepped toward him.
That’s his cue.
Steve attacked about a half a dozen Chitauri before they grabbed him and held him still to watch.
“I hear you’re the new boyfriend,” The Other chuckled, and Steve ignored him.
Keep to the script.
“Let him go!”
“Now, why ever would I do that?”
“He doesn’t have it.”
“What?” The Other stopped, glaring at him.
“What you’re looking for; he doesn’t have it anymore,” One of the Chitauri holding him pressed its claws closer to his throat, and he squeaked out, “He got rid of it.”
The Other moved closer to Steve, keeping Loki in his vision all the while.
“And what, pray tell, is it that I’m looking for, human?” He asked, “It is not something that you can simply get rid of.”
“What?” Steve said, making an effort to sound shocked and confused.
“I’m simply interested in my specimen’s results,” Steve frowned at the Other’s words, “It did take us a while to get it to stick, didn’t it, Loki?”
Loki didn’t answer. His face had gone pale, and he refused to meet Steve’s eyes, continuing to glare at the Other.
“Loki, what is he talking about?”
The Other’s eyes glinted mockingly, “He hasn’t told you about me? Loki, I’m shocked! I would have thought you’d enjoyed the time we shared together.”
Loki scowled, but still remained silent.
“I know I did. You were the perfect specimen.”
There was that word again. Specimen.
Steve’s blood boiled with rage.
“Most others gave in easily, but Loki never did. That was what made him so delightful to work with,” The Other spoke with a sick fondness towards the god, “That’s why I took him as my queen. After all, if you intend to produce an heir, might as well have fun doing it.”
At that moment, Loki lunged, lashing out at the alien, his eyes searing with hatred.
The Other dodged the attack easily, and made to counter the blow with his own, but behind him, the real Loki appeared in a flash of light and thrust a dagger through his back.
The Other made a muffled gurgle, and collapsed in a heap on the ground. Loki’s illusion faded with the Other’s last breath.
The real Loki took a stuttered breath, dropping the dagger with a clatter to the floor.
The Chitauri, without their leader to direct them, fled, and Steve was left staring at Loki, who had frozen with his back turned.
Tyr was nowhere to be seen.
Well, at least the first half of the plan worked.
But Loki still hadn’t turned to face him, and his shoulders had begun to shake.
Something was wrong.
A little unsure, Steve laid a hand on his shoulder.
It lay there for a moment, before Loki suddenly seemed to realize it was there and shoved it off.
Tears threatened to spill over as he stared down at the Other, “They thought I was Asgardian, but when they found out I was Jotun, and I could . . . that I . . . they—“
“Hey, it’s okay.”
“No! It’s not!” Loki turned to face Steve with a snarl, “Stop! Stop trying to tell me that it’s okay. It’s not. It’s not okay! I’m—I . . . ”
He looked back down at the Other.
“I don’t even know if it’s his. . . “ He said, his voice barely above a whisper.
His breathing hadn’t yet calmed, in fact, it only seemed to become more rushed. Loki’s glamour, with his seidr so dangerously low, started to fade. A pained gasp, and he clutched at his stomach.
Loki started whispering a teleportation spell.
Cold realization washed over Steve.
“Loki, Don’t—!” Steve took a step toward him, but Loki scrambled backwards, red eyes wide in terror, before disappearing in a puff of smoke.
This wasn’t part of the plan.
He was supposed to tell them when he was ready, to let them help. He wasn’t supposed to disappear to who knows where to face this on his own.
What if something went wrong?
What was he supposed to tell Thor?
Steve couldn’t come up with any reasonable explanation, so when Thor showed up to the tower the next day, he told him the truth.
And Thor laughed.
“Good one, Friend Steve! Loki is a being of much mischief, but I know my own brother. He is repulsed by the very idea of participating in such an act, much less enough to bear a child!”
“I know, Thor,” Steve said, forcing himself to look him in the eye, “but it’s not a trick.”
“But that doesn’t make any sense . . . “Thor’s face twisted in horror at the implication of what happened to his little brother, “W-we have to find him!”
“You think we haven’t tried?” Bucky asked, looking dejected, “We have.”
“He’s erased any footage in the tower from the past three days!” Tony butt in, incredulous, “I don’t even know how he did it!”
“There has to be something,” Thor grasped for straws, “a-a clue, some kind of trail we can follow.”
“Zip, zero, zilch, nada,” Bucky growled, crossing his arms.
“He can’t have gone far. Maybe he’s hiding somewhere in the tower.”
If only it were that simple.
Steve shook his head, “He teleported, Thor.”
“But he can’t go very far without seidr.”
“What do you mean?”
“It takes seidr to cast the spell. The farther the spell reaches, the more seidr it costs. If he didn’t have enough seidr for his illusions . . . ” His expression saddened, like that of a kicked puppy, “He could’ve hurt himself trying to teleport.”