Valaskjalf, Age of Odin, Asgard
Despite Anthony’s words of encouragement, Loki had very clear expectations of what would face him once he returned to Asgard.
He expected a sneering gatekeeper to be the first thing he saw even though they weren’t travelling by Bifrost. He expected the Warriors Three and Sif to be waiting in the Observatory, so that they could throw their malevolent words his way as they dragged him across the broken Bifrost. Maybe the nobles and the merchants directly in front of the castle, pointing and laughing at their fallen prince.
Then he would be thrown by Thor at the mercy of Odin and left there by himself with the man, his sentence only overheard by Odin’s most loyal Einherjars.
He wouldn't see anyone else, and then his neck would meet the axe if Odin felt generous.
Those were his expectations.
Instead, the first thing he saw when the world righted itself around him was Frigga, standing in front of him with the most beautiful smile he had ever seen.
“Oh, Loki,” she said and before he could even try and make sense of what was going on, she had thrown herself in his arms, hugging him as tightly as she could. “Oh, my son.”
“M-Mother?” The words did not leave his muzzled mouth, but she seemed to sense them anyway, as her hold tightened further around him.
Loki wasn’t quite sure what to do. He couldn’t have hugged her even if he wanted to, considering he was in chains. And he wasn't sure he wanted. He wasn't sure what his feelings were, at the moment. So he simply stood stiffly, forcing his eyes to remain dry as he tried to assess the situation.
The first thing he noticed was that he was not on the Observatory (had it not been rebuilt yet?). He was in one of the room adjacent to the entrance of the Valaskjalf, and there was no one else around him except for Thor and Mo- Frigga.
Not even a single guard.
“What’s... what’s going on?” he finally asked, as she let go of him and took off the hated muzzle from his lips.
It was both nice and jarring to see that she had not changed in the slightest. Anthony and Pepper had both looked a little different than when he had seen them last. Nothing as drastic as he would have feared, but there had been slight differences in their appearances.
Amaya had grown in leaps and bounds.
Frigga looked exactly the same.
Loki wasn’t quite sure what to do with this information.
“Your Prince Anthony,” she said, voice soft even as he flinched, “He called upon Heimdall. He told him he had information for the Queen that Thor would corroborate himself once you returned. In doing so, he strong armed the Gatekeeper in calling upon me, and gave me time to prepare a testimony for you when the All-Father called for your trial.”
Loki did not know what to do with this information either.
Anthony had all but blackmailed Heimdall?
That was a terribly dangerous gamble. He had shielded them from Heimdall’s gaze all those years ago, but if they deliberately went and called for him, he’d be able to see them. And Heimdall would definitely notice if he suddenly was no longer able to see Anthony.
But the Bifrost was not yet ready, and the All-Father had far better things to do than use the Tesseract or the Odin Force to push himself or others to Midgard and investigate a lone mortal who his son had shielded from Heimdall’s gaze.
“I don’t understand,” he finally said, trying to push down the hope in his chest. It wouldn’t do well to start hoping and then to have that hope squashed once more.
Frigga put a hand on his arm and Loki did not shove it off as he would have done with Thor. “If Thor simply arrived with you and the proof given to you by Prince Anthony, it would have been too late.” Meaning Odin could have cast his judgement before Loki even arrived, without anyone being able to stop him. Loki had known this was his plan all along, and yet his heart still managed to feel hurt at this. “But because he made Heimdall call upon me and told Thor that he would be telling me, Heimdall had to tell me what was happening. And I was able to shift a few things around.”
He didn’t dare hope.
“What are you saying?”
There was a sudden knock at the door, and Frigga stood up straighter, every inch the Queen of Asgard and Princess of Vanaheim that she was. Thor, who was mostly quiet beside them, also stood straighter, coming to stand beside Loki.
The fallen Prince did not say anything else, letting his mind wander around, jumbled up thoughts filling his mind as he allowed himself to be lead outside the small chamber.
He wasn’t quite sure what to think of Thor, right now.
The oaf had been both horrified and slightly distrusting, in regards of the tale Loki had shared with him and the Midgardian officials about the truth of the Invasion. He was sure the man believed Loki to have been taken by the Mad Titan, but he was just as sure he thought Loki was exaggerating in regards to what had happened to him.
And why wouldn’t he? He healed incredibly fast. There were only hints of the suffering he went through still on his body, and Loki had not shown them to him, or anyone else. He was sure Anthony had guessed - seen how careful he had been regarding Loki’s back - but he too hadn’t seen the extent of the injuries and scars still left on his body.
Sudden noise made his head snap up.
He hadn’t even seen the guards that had been escorting them, but the opening of the doors of the Great Hall was hard to ignore, especially with the cacophony of noise erupted from the room.
For a second, Loki froze in his steps, and he was quite sure he heard Frigga swear beside him.
Any other time, he'd have laughed.
When imagining his sentencing, Loki had imagined a near empty room. A couple of loyal Einherjar standing guard, and perhaps his mot- Frigga. Thor would not be present, but Heimdall perhaps would be.
At most, he had expected six people to be around; Odin would not want to shame his reign by having too many people witness his son’s execution.
But the room they stepped in was full of nobles and warriors. They were all around the room, watching Loki with their hateful and judging eyes and immediately Loki knew exactly what Odin was planning.
He held his head high and resumed his walking, almost leisurely, ignoring the worried look on Thor’s face and focusing more on the glare on Frigga’s.
Odin was glaring right back at his Queen.
He hadn’t expected her to walk Loki inside the room, he guessed, slapping the entirity of Asgard’s nobility with the truth of who had her loyalty at the moment. Who she supported.
Thor was quite possibly unaware of the political game he was playing by walking beside Loki too, with an armful of proof ready to be shared with the entirety of Asgard for his sake, but he too did not falter.
The room fell silent only once they had stopped, and Loki fought to keep his uneasiness at so many potential enemies standing at his back. The Idiots Four were at the very front of the room, but he couldn’t see their faces from this angle.
He could imagine Sif’s scowl, though.
Once they stopped before the throne, only Thor kneeled before his King. Both Frigga and Loki remained standing and that spoke volumes in the quiet room.
And when Frigga remained standing beside him instead of coming to sit at her husband’s side?
Loki had to blink back a couple of tears.
She had never stood up for him and by him like this in all of his life.
“Welcome back, Thor Odinson,” said Odin, no emotion in his voice, “and Loki.”
There were whispers at the slight, but Loki did not as much as blink.
“Queen Frigga,” finally said the old man. “What are you doing?”
His mo- Frigga raised her head in his direction, an almost challenge. “I am here to speak on behalf of my son,” she said, making her claim as clearly as he had failed to add the ‘Odinson’ to his name.
It would not do to start crying like a babe at this, Loki knew this.
Odin did not look pleased or impressed by this. “I see. Loki,” said the All-Father, yet again not giving him a family, “you stand accused of attacking Midgard and almost bringing war to the Nine Realms. Do you admit to this?”
Such a simple question.
Loki’s plan, once he had been freed by the Other through whatever means necessary, had been to be convicted of whatever crime Odin could lay at his feet and possibly die or be elsehow banished or imprisoned. He would have expected a small amount of people to be present to his sentencing, and hear his crime of bringing Frost Giants into Asgard be brought to light (though they had no proof he had done it). Perhaps even his attack on Jotunheim.
But his plan changed now that he remembered Amaya. Now that Anthony had asked him to at least try and come back.
He had already missed two years of his daughter’s life because he had thought to end his own life (how could he have been so selfish? he had deserved Thanos, for making such a horrible choice); he was not going to willingly lose more, not if he could help it.
“No,” he answered, and again the whispers rose in the room.
Loki pressed his lips together to avoid a sneer at the way Odin’s expression twitched.
After all, Loki knew exactly why Odin had gathered such a great crowd to witness Loki’s sentencing. Frigga’s expression meant that she had not expected anyone other than perhaps the Idiots Four and Heimdall, but it made sense.
Odin saw him a spoiled, selfish and prideful brat, who would rather allow himself to die than allow his weaknesses to be aired in front of the Court.
And perhaps, if he had not remembered Amaya and Anthony, he would have stayed quiet.
But he wanted to get back to Amaya, and he remembered Anthony too had been taken and hurt by the enemy. And he too had ‘broken’ under the torture.
That however, did not make him weak.
“No?” repeated Odin, ‘distractedly’ looking at the crowd around them.
Loki might not be his blood, but he had learnt to be manipulative from him.
“No. I was taken, tortured and controlled by an enemy of Asgard, Midgard and all the Nines.”
This time the entire room exploded in noise. Loki kept his eyes on his father, even as his neck felt hotter under the attention of everyone in the room.
Odin had miscalculated not only Loki, but also Asgard as a whole. He had bet on Loki allowing himself to be taken rather than telling the truth. And he had forgotten that Loki was still Asgard’s prince. Even if the nobility and warriors hated him and considered him weak for falling to torture, not even Heimdall, Tyr or Sif would stand for someone - anyone - hurting a prince of Asgard. Only they were allowed the dubious 'privilege'.
Odin thumped his spear against the ground, shutting up the room with calculation in his eyes. Re-assessing the situation.
Had the man ever even loved him? Saw him as something other than a pawn?
“You have proof of this?”
Thor stepped forward. “The people of Midgard have offered me every scrap of evidence regarding the attack, and in this there is also the proof of Loki being under someone else’s control.”
Odin raised an eyebrow. “Loki fell to someone else’s control?”
Loki did not twitch or give him the satisfaction of seeing his pain at the words. The way he was trying to show the people how ‘weak’ his son was.
“Aye,” answered Thor, and Loki internally scoffed. Either Thor was stupid enough not to see what Odin was truly saying or he agreed with him that Loki was weak.
Frigga did not move, but her eyes narrowed. “One of the mortals was kind enough to call upon Heimdall so that he could tell me everything that he had gathered to prove Loki’s innocence. The evidence starts with the fact that Loki’s eyes were clouded by someone else’s seidr, and now still I can feel the foreign and powerful energy troubling his mind. With my magic, I can sense the amount of distress and pain his body has gone through.” She gave him a look that had none of her maternal love, and all of her pride as Queen. “To have gone through all you have, and still manage to betray the Chitauri and thwart the invasion in a way they wouldn’t have expected, all this to protect us all... you truly are an hero of Asgard. The Nines owe you a debt they don't understand.”
Again Loki forced his expression to remain blank, even as he gave a half nod to Frigga.
Had she ever defended him so ardently? Loki had never truly doubted her love for him - except in those dark moments on the Sanctuary II - but he did not expect her to stand for him in this manner.
It was... nice.
Odin’s eyes softened ever so slightly. Loki did not know what to do with that. “Indeed. Still, you have caused great trouble on Midgard. Lives were lost and while you were not in your right mind, I cannot ignore that.”
Oh, Loki had so many words. So much to say about that sentence.
("If there is any chance for you to cut down whatever sentence Asgard plans on giving you, Loki you have to take it.")
But he didn’t.
Frigga spoke instead of him. “You will imprison him for the actions of another? For falling off the Bifrost only to land in the hands of something worse?”
He had let go, Loki wanted to say. No sugar-coating things.
“Our relationship with Midgard is important, my Queen,” said Odin and since when? “I cannot simply forgive his crimes. According to Heimdall, he wasn’t always controlled.”
“He was always watched!”
“But not always controlled,” repeated Odin, a dangerous look on his face. Frigga fell silent. “Loki of Asgard,” he pronounced and Loki straightened up, heart beating faster against his chest. “For your crimes against Midgard, I sentence you to help with the reconstruction of the Bifrost and to remain sequestered in your chambers for as many years as there are lives lost due to your attack on Midgard,” he said, and with that, he slammed Gugnir against the floor.
Loki’s face remained impassive even as people started speaking loudly, his mo- Frig- oh, who was he kidding, his mother whispering something in his ear.
But inside? Oh, inside he allowed the hope he had been feeling to finally bloom.
Because there was absolutely no way he was staying locked in his chambers for a century, no matter what Odin said.
Which meant he’d find a way to be back to Midgard.
He would return to Anthony and Amaya.
He would be free once more.
“You’re here.”
Loki was there.
It had been so long since they shared a dream that Tony could not help but stare at the man for a while.
They were in the Malibu Mansion but it looked like it had back in 2010, before Tony sort of revamped the entire place.
Loki was standing near the door with a hesitant smile on his face. “I’m assuming this is what you felt when you kissed me?”
Tony grinned, coming to stand beside him and taking his hand in this. “Yup. I’ll be honest, I’ve seriously missed this dream link thing. My Arc Reactor just wasn’t the same without it.”
Instead of laughing, Loki’s eyes filled with tears.
“Lokes?”
The dark haired man just shook his head slightly, a tremulous smile on his face. “It’s... it’s okay. I just, I never thought I’d see you again.”
Tony felt a sense of panic raising in his chest. “W-What did Odin say?”
Loki gave him a stronger looking smile. “He sentenced me to fix the Bifrost - which is almost already fixed - and spend one year for each Midgardian life lost to the Invasion.”
That did not assure Tony at all. “Er, Lokes, I’m sort of human. And 96 people died in the Invasion.”
The other simply rolled his eyes. “I’m not staying that long.”
They had yet to freely speak about everything that happened. Tony knew the who and how, and he knew that something happened that made Loki let go of the Bifrost, but they had not fully spoken about everything. Hell, he did not even know what degree of control Loki had.
There was a lot they needed to speak about, and he knew Loki knew that too.
The kiss had been a spur of the moment thing, where Tony had feared for a few minutes that Loki would truly be killed, that he might lose him all over again.
He did not even know if Loki felt about him the same way he felt all those years ago. He didn’t know if he felt the same way.
“Not yet,” said Loki, and Tony looked up to find the mage looking at him with a half heartbroken half hopeful expression on his face. “I know we need to clear the air, and speak all of our truths... but please, not today.”
Tony nodded, giving him a soft smile.
For today, they could pretend nothing happened. They could pretend this was their normal and that nothing was wrong.
They could pretend.
+++
July 2012, Washington DC, Earth
Tony was waiting for his meeting to start when he got the call from Fury.
If he was honest, he was quite disappointed by how long it took them to call him. Steve had handed in his debrief before he fucked off to God knows where, and he had shown Tony beforehand that he had included him knowing Loki from ‘before’.
He’d have expected them to have figured out his plan of actions quicker than they had.
“Hello.”
“Stark!” immediately spoke the Director, sounding very vexed. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”
Tony blinked his most innocent expression at the camera, knowing the man couldn’t see him. “Nothing much. Just have a small meeting with President Ellis, the US Generals and the Secretary of Defence. You?”
“Every scrap of information we had on Loki had suddenly disappeared from our servers,” informed him the man through gritted teeth. “Every picture taken of him in Stuttgart is gone, and every video or audio file is corrupted or missing.”
“Wow. Aesir magic is impressive, how did he manage that?”
He could feel the pirate’s glare. “I know you had something to do with this, Stark. Rogers claims you knew him. I ought to have you imprisoned for treason.”
Tony rolled his eyes at his empty threats. “Okay, you can do that after I’m done speaking to the people truly in charge. Also, if your bosses are on your ass regarding what happened, you can let it slip that I have acquired footage of the people who deciding nuking Manhattan was a good decision.”
There was a slight pause from the other man before he spoke again. “You are playing a very dangerous game, Stark. And for what? A man who brought an alien army to Earth?”
He knew he was being baited, but Tony couldn’t help the way he glowered at nothing at those words. “Correction: for the man who was mind controlled by Thanos, the Mad Titan.”
“You can’t prove any of that. You are obviously compromised, no one is going to simply believe you regarding the man’s integrity,” warned Fury. “You can’t prove his innocence.”
“Can’t I?” asked Tony and then dramatically ended the call before the man could even voice a single opinion.
Oh, Tony did not assume it would be easy.
But he was not an idiot.
He had been doing his work. He had first proceeded to take any picture of Loki off the internet, paying close attention to Germany in particular.
He doubted they would ever allow him entry ever again if- when he came back to Earth, but he was sure he could absolve him of any wrong doing between political immunity, and the fact that very few actually remembered who Loki was or what he looked like. No one had had the time to film him live, and now there was no footage that they could show around.
JARVIS had made sure of that.
New York? No one had seen Loki in New York.
Maybe a couple of people would have noticed a man with golden horns flying around, but no one would have been able to tell you if he was with the Avengers or not.
Everyone knew the Chitauri were the ones who attacked Earth but they did not know why. Between SHIELD’s willingness to remain in the shadows and the fact that they did not want to explain that their own experiments on the Tesseract brought the aliens to begin with, they had basically covered Loki’s ass too.
Tony was sure Fury knew that, and hated it immensely.
So no one except some higher ups knew about Loki’s involvement.
SHIELD and the WSC were getting raked over coals for handing him over to Asgard for justice - not that they had a choice - but that was the final decision, a decision they couldn't rectify or change their minds about. Earth could not punish Loki and they had agreed to accept any punishment Asgard saw fit.
All Tony needed to do, was prove to them that Loki truly was not their enemy and that he had always been a friend of Earth.
The proof of brainwashing could help, but Earth did not know Loki and his changing eye colours. They did not know him before this Invasion, they had never met him.
Or so they thought.
Tony forced himself to not appear too smug when the first video was played by his lawyer as evidence.
It was a video from the last time Tony saw Loki before he had to return to Asgard.
[Pepper was the only one in the living room with Loki and Tony and she was questioning whether his turning into female form was a trick or not. In response, Loki proceeded to turn into a female version of himself on the spot and get poked and prodded by Pepper for several minutes, before turning back to the male version of himself.]
The Secretary of Defence frowned. “And what is this supposed to prove, other than the fact that the criminal Loki can... change genders?”
Tony’s lawyer gave him a sharp smile. “Simple. It proves that Loki is able to appear female. In the audio, you have heard what her voice sounded like and have seen what she looked like.” She pressed a remote. “Exhibit two.”
Everyone in the room looked absolutely shocked at seeing Loki - in female form - sitting at a very public event with Tony, both of them chuckling and talking, and pointedly ignoring the various cameras flashing around them.
“The pictures were in a number of magazines, which I have provided you all with. Exhibit three.” She pressed the button again, and this time Loki and Tony were sitting in a restaurant. Loki was very attentively listening to the waiter in front of her, and offered him a smile when he was done. “The waiter is willing to testify regarding Loki’s character and remembers her and Dr Stark very clearly. They made his day, that day.
“Exhibit four.”
And she went on and on, producing more and more proof of Loki’s character. From pictures taken when Tony and Loki went to the beach, to the front pages of when Obadiah had tried to hit on her, as well as the various videos from JARVIS in which Loki spoke about Asgard and her father (not that Tony had known about Asgard, back then).
Tony was sure to have his lawyer show the video of Loki saying that she did not want the throne because she did not want to be Queen against the video of Loki - sickly and clearly tortured, with blue eyes - claiming that humans were meant to be ruled.
Then he provided the scans of Loki that JARVIS had taken since the second the man had stepped on the Tower, against the scans from before and the scans directly after his painful cognitive recalibration.
In the end, it was easy enough.
Oh, he didn't doubt that SHIELD someone would try and raise a stink if- when Loki returned to Earth. But considering Tony had just proved mind control, and Clint Barton's footage from Germany had not been erased, Tony was the one holding all the cards.
Just like last time they tried to fuck with him, Tony had SHIELD by the balls.
Loki, he thought, looking out of the window of plane as they flew back towards California and Amaya. I'll see you soon.