Kidnapped
It’s dawn. Bruce isn’t used to waking up to dawn. But they’re on-planet now, not reliant on the artificial cycles of the ship. The sun breaks through the porthole windows, dragging Bruce from sleep with a groan. Adjusting to different planet schedules was worse than any jet lag Bruce had ever experienced, and that’s including when he ran off to India and took four planes to get from California to Mumbai. The Asgardians didn’t seem to be as affected as him, but they didn’t seem to be affected by much.
He wondered how they were feeling after last night. Thor, Loki, and the Valkyrie had gone off to the royal palace of this planet, and that usually led to some kind of raucous feasting and drinking. He’d gone to bed pretty late and they hadn’t been home, so it must have been a wild night. He must have really been out cold, to have missed them coming in completely.
He opens his eyes to empty beds.
He’s not used to waking up alone either.
He dresses quickly, surprise quickly growing into worry. Thor had never spent the night away from the ship before. Valkyrie and Loki had, on occasion, but they had always informed them beforehand. They didn’t just stay out all night.
He finds Heimdall standing at the hatch, looking out with an inscrutable expression on his face.
“They have not returned,” The Watcher says in his grave, deep voice.
“Yeah, I noticed. And they didn’t radio?”
“No, I have received no communications from them. And I cannot see them.”
“You can’t…is that…is that normal?”
“No, it is not.” He sighs. “Loki possesses the skill to hide himself from me, and he could hide the others as well, but it does not seem likely.”
“You don’t think Loki’s…”
“No. Perhaps, at an earlier time, I would have suspected him. But there is no motivation here for him to betray us now.”
“And the-”
“The Tesseract remains in its case. He would not have left without it. No, something else is going on here. And something that could hide them from me…”
“Yeah. That’s not good.”
Even less good is Bruce an hour later, finding himself trudging through the woods towards the castle, on his way to rescue his friends. Alone.
The decision was a logical one. The Asgardian citizens on the Ark could not be risked and most lacked the necessary skills for a mission of this sort. They were farmers, craftsmen, children and old people, those who had been spared Hela’s wrath. Heimdall was a symbol of authority; thus, he had to remain with the people. The Sakaarans had all taken off to the gambling halls the night before and were not expected to return until their scheduled departure date, the day after tomorrow.
So Bruce trekked alone, with the hope he would find them quickly. And he had the Hulk for backup anyways.
This planet had reminded him a bit of central Europe. It was thickly forested. The castle, as seen from the ship, was a towering stone fortress, adorned by flags and pennants. Bruce had explored the market a bit the day before and it had been overflowing with goods. The people seem generally happy, prosperous. There was little poverty, a stark difference from the many poor and crumbling planets they’d visited along their journey. It seems like a nice place. But if something had delayed his friends, that meant there was something not-so-nice lurking under the surface.
When he reaches the castle, he’s stop by guards.
“What business do you have with the Queen Amira?”
“Um, I’m just a traveller,” Bruce says. “An explorer and ah, scientist. Passing through. I wanted to pay my respects to the queen, I’ve heard she is very wise and ah, welcoming.” Oddly enough, that gets him in. They are either truly welcoming or else, very secure that they’re the boogeymen of this story.
He’s shown through the castle and finally to a huge set of double wooden doors by the guards, who incline their heads and gesture for him to enter.
“Presenting Bruce Banner, of Terra,” One of the guards announces as he enters the hall. It’s crowded, by people dressed in flowing silk dresses and heavily made up, who look at him with curiosity. And maybe some scorn. He’s never felt so underdressed in his entire life.
“From Terra? How wonderful!” Queen Amira sits on a raised dais, perched on a heavily carved wooden throne. Her dress, bright scarlet and embroidered with birds so realistic they could take off at any moment, flows from her throne down to the first steps. She is very beautiful, with shining dark hair and smooth skin. Her eyes are bright green and her lips are full and painted red. She smiles down at Bruce. “We never receive visitors from Terra, since so few of you make it to our corner of the galaxy. I simply cannot wait to hear of your travels and how you made it to our court.”
“Of course, your majesty,” He says with an awkward bow. “You’re right, most of us…Terrans…don’t make it far from our planet. It’s a long story, but the short of it is, I’ve been traveling with a group of Asgardians.” The expression on her face barely falters, but Bruce catches it. “I believe some of my friends may have passed through last night.”
“My, my, a Terran traveling with the King of Asgard himself. That is a mighty impressive friendship.”
“Well…yeah, Thor - King Thor and I go way back.”
“They did indeed come before me last night. I received the king and his brother, along with their guard. They stayed for the early meal but departed before the real feasting began, unfortunately.”
“Oh, okay. Too bad, I was hoping to catch them on my way back to the ship, guess I missed them.”
“Yes.” The queen smiles tightly. “You’ll stay for dinner of course? And you’re welcome to explore the grounds, we have a wonderful museum of this planet’s flora and fauna on display, just next to the gardens.”
“Sounds lovely, your majesty, thanks for your hospitality.”
“I will see you later, I’m sure.” She gestures and they show him the way out. The next supplicant is already entering the hall and being announced.
Bruce does go to the museum, and the gardens. He also talks to people, feints interest in the culture and landscape to get more information from the locals. (If he’s playacting a little, pretending to be a Hardy boy, well, he’s the only one who has to know anything about it.)
He learns several interesting things.
Most importantly: the three Asgardians had certainly stayed for the feasting.
“Oh, the king, of course I remember him,” A garden attendant blushes as she recalls flirting with Thor. “I served him a glass of wine at the start of the evening festivities and he was very…friendly. I thought…well, I thought he intended for me to find him later in the evening, but when I looked, he was gone. I confess I was disappointed. I assumed he found someone more entertaining.” Bruce reassures her, compliments her flowers and moves on.
Several of the guards vividly remember drinking with the Valkyrie.
“She downed an entire bottle of molten whiskey,” One of them says with wide, impressed eyes. “Remember her? In one gulp, without stopping for air, remember?”
“Aye, I remember,” His companion says, taking a bite out of an apple. “She drank half the guardsmen under the table, barely wavered.”
“I would marry her, if I wasn’t already betrothed to the miller’s daughter,” The younger of the two sighs.
“Marry her? She would eat you alive before the ceremony was over! And plus, Valkyries aren’t allowed to get married, are they?” Bruce frankly has no idea, so he just mutters something about rules being flexible and hurries away.
An older woman remembers talking to Loki.
“He was very polite, the prince was,” She says as she peels potatoes. Bruce offers to assist and takes up the extra knife. “Thank you, dear. Yes, the prince was a very polite young man. Quiet. He seemed nervous, but then again sorcerers are often nervous here.”
“Why is that?”
“Because of the queen’s power, of course! She’s a powerful sorceress herself, some say the most powerful in this quadrant. But Loki of Asgard is also very well regarded in magical circles, I confess I was surprised to see him so disturbed. It gave some of the younger mages great pride in their queen. They were gathered in a cluster, clearly gossiping. The prince saw them and seemed put off by whatever they were saying. I couldn’t hear, can’t hear as well as I used to, you know. Ah. I was so embarrassed at their conduct. They never teach these young mages any manners nowadays, they just let them run wild and grow prideful in their powers. When I was young, any magical practitioner was deserving of respect, no matter how much you believed our magics were superior.” She huffs. “The prince stayed close to the king after that. I believe they left early, as I didn’t see them when I was cleaning up. You’ll apologize to the prince, won’t you? For the young ones’ behavior? Such a polite young man.” Bruce finishes his pile of potatoes quickly and leaves her so he doesn’t have to hear the disturbing words “polite young man” in reference to Loki ever again.
The mystery deepens. The revelation that the queen is a sorceress makes Bruce extremely nervous. He swallows down his nerves and keeps poking around.
A librarian gives him a little bit more information about the queen’s magic.
“She’s the most powerful witch in this galaxy,” She says. “It’s how she came to rule on her own after her husband died. It’s not usual to have sole rulers here, there is always two, or three, to share the burden of the throne. She has her followers, her advisors, of course, but she always makes decisions on her own, always does the most powerful spells on her own.”
It seems she has more followers than the librarian implied. There is almost a cult of worship surrounding her. She is near universally adored, especially by the mages in the court. Bruce gets a demonstration of her magic around lunchtime, in the gardens. There’s a patch of roses that have died off, and on a tour of the gardens the queen pauses. Bruce is eating, an apple the old woman had spared him from the kitchens, and watches from a distance.
The queen listens to an apologetic gardener, who clasps his hands in supplication. She smiles and raises her hands. Light, a faint, pale green, flows through her, through her hands and into the ground. It surges through the roses and they are left plump and red. The courtiers surrounding her applaud politely, exchanging impressed titters as she bows theatrically.
“New look for her majesty,” One lady whispers to her neighbor.
“It’s a good look for her,” He responds. “I like it.”
“Let’s see how long it lasts, hopefully longer than the last one.” Bruce stops listening. Fashion had never really interested him.
He finds the Valkyrie almost 100% by accident.
He continues to follow the logic that the service staff always has the most knowledge about the workings of any institution, he heads to the stables after the magical display in the garden. Maybe someone remembers the Asgardians leaving, if maybe they had a mechanical failure on the escape pod they’d rigged into an on-planet transport and borrow horses, then got lost. (It was possible. Bruce hadn’t been quite certain what those odd symbols meant when he ignored them and soldered two wires together to install the steering column.)
The stables are abandoned when he arrives. But then he hears snoring. A very familiar snoring.
“Hey! Val!” He calls, following the sound. “Where are you?” A groan. He finds her lying facedown in a stall, on top of a bed of straw. He unbolts the door and rushes inside. “What have they done to you?”
“What have who done to me?” She rolls over, the empty bottle falling from her fingers. “Oh, my head hurts. This planet’s got some good stuff, I’ll have to sneak some back to the ship before we leave.”
“Val, what happened?”
“Huh? Bruce, wait, you weren’t there last night, were you?” She rubs her forehead. “Man, I got drunk. Last thing I remember is the rules to a very interesting card game I’ll have to teach Loki, he’ll cheat but that’s the whole point, should be fun…”
“Val, focus! Where is Loki? And Thor?”
“What do you mean where are they?” Her eyes are starting to clear but her forehead is still creased in confusion.
“You didn’t come back last night, none of you. I came to find you and the queen lied and said you’d all left early, but there’s been no sign of-”
“Shit. Shit, shit, shit, shit.” She unsteadily gets to her feet. “I lost the princes, I can’t believe I lost the princes. If this had been the old Asgard, I’d literally get my head cut off, did you know that? I’d literally-”
“Okay, yes, head cut off, focus. We have to find them.”
“No shit. Water, do you have water?”
“No, but I’m sure-” She’s already stumbling from the stall, dunking her head in a bucket of water by the front doors. “Kay. What else do you remember?”
“It was just a party. The negotiations had gone well, we didn’t have anything to worry about, I kept an eye on Thor, Loki was hanging pretty close by, but then I started drinking with the guards. And drinking. There was a card game, you had to drink every time someone called your bluff and I just kept having the shittiest hands.”
“Do you think they rigged it? To get you wasted on purpose?”
“Well that sure seems likely now,” She shouts. “We have to find them and get the fuck off this planet.”
Bruce fills her in on what he’s found out so far.
“Okay, you said the old kitchen maid said there was a group of mages, and Loki had some sort of confrontation with them?”
“Not exactly, she seemed to say they were gossiping and he overheard and got nervous. She said that’s when he started sticking close to Thor.” Bruce says. “She also kept calling him a ‘polite young man’ which was very weird…”
“Okay, let’s find the mages. Maybe they’ll know something.”
They find the young group loitering outside the main hall. The group ranges from teenagers, to mid-20 year olds, in Bruce’s approximation.
“We shouldn’t,” The smallest says. “We’ll get in trouble.”
“Don’t be a baby.”
“Yeah, come on Tristan, we’ll just take a peak.” One of the older ones puts an arm around his shoulders. “And you don’t have to be afraid of him, he won’t be able to hurt us.”
Valkyrie raises an eyebrow and inclines her head towards them. They trail the group of young mages as they slip through a door next to the hall that opens onto a staircase. They wind deeper into the castle, chatting amongst themselves. Valkyrie makes a sharp gesture when Bruce trips on a rock, but the youths never hear them. They enter through a stone door. The Valkyrie pulls Bruce behind a stack of chests and motions him to silence. They watch, and wait, and a few minutes later they emerge.
“You’re going to get us all in trouble. If the queen finds out-” The smallest one wrings his hands, glancing behind them at the door swinging shut.
“Relax, it’s not as if we took any of it. Just…tested it,” A tall girl says. “Stop worrying so much.” Their voices fade as they climb the stairs. Their words had made no sense to Bruce, but he doesn’t have time to question it because the Valkyrie’s already moving. The stone door surprisingly has no sort of locking mechanism on it and opens easily under her hand.
The room is a mirror image of the hall above them, but all in stone. Deep trenches are cut into the floor. Odd, symbolic tapestries line the walls. In the center, on the stone dais, sits a throne.
Loki is draped over it, unconscious and ghost white.
“Shit,” The Valkyrie hisses. They rush forward, climbing the dais. “He’s breathing.” It’s shallow, but Bruce can see the faint rise and fall of his chest.
“What did they do?”
“I don’t know, has to be something magical, right?” She touches his face, lifts his head from where it rests awkwardly on the arm of the chair. “Come on, highness, wake up, we don’t have time for a nap right now. Time to go.” His face twitches once, but he has no more response to her words, or her gentle tapping of his cheek. “Shit, lackey, I swear-”
“Shouldn’t we just take him and leave? We can figure out how to wake him up when we are out of this creepy room, right?” There’s a hum of energy permeating the place and it’s starting to make Bruce feel nauseous.
“You’re right. We’re going to have to find Thor fast though. Whatever they’ve done to him, whatever they wanted him for, someone’s going to notice pretty quickly that he’s gone.” The Valkyrie lifts Loki’s limp body, tossing him over her shoulder. “Let’s go.”
They make it about five feet from the dais. Bruce is a little ahead when he hears a heavy thud and the Valkyrie’s curse. He turns. “What, did you just drop him?” He asks, when he sees Loki sprawled out on the floor, the Valkyrie bent over him.
“Something stopped me.”
“What are you- Nothing’s here! What could have stopped you?”
“Fucking magic.” She slides her hands under his armpits and starts to drag. There’s some kind of invisible barrier that she can’t cross, no matter how hard she pulls. She drops Loki again. “Fuck!”
“What do we do?” She thinks for a minute.
“I think we have to leave him here.”
“Leave him, in this creepy-ass throne room?” Bruce says. She looks at him with a deadly serious expression on her face. “What do you think they’re going to do with him?”
“I have no idea, but I don’t see any other solutions. I don’t have any magic, you definitely don’t have any magic. We can’t undo this spell.” She lifts Loki’s limp body again, carrying him back to the throne. She places him on it, trying to arrange his limbs in a way that’s looks reminiscent of how they found him, but at least a little more comfortable. “We’ll try and find Thor first, then confront the queen.”
“Thor’s not going to be happy when he finds out we left him passed out here.” Something about this just looks wrong. Bruce finds himself feeling sorry for Loki. He’s still entirely unconscious, but the expression on his face looks somehow pained, miserable. He is very, very pale.
“If we can’t find Thor in an hour, we’ll come back here and check on him, okay?” She touches Loki’s hair in a moment of uncharacteristic softness. “I don’t feel any better about this than you do. But we’re out of ideas. We have to find Thor.” They reluctantly turn and leave the odd throne room. Bruce spares one last glance back at Loki before the door shuts on him.
“How are we even going to find Thor?”
She shrugs. “Every castle has a dungeon.”
It doesn’t take long. The Valkyrie has been in enough castles and fortresses, she manages to logic their way to what appears to be a dungeon. And then they can follow the sound.
Not snoring this time, but furious, constant shouting.
“If you do not let me out of here, I will break my way out and tear every single person-” The door squeaks as the Valkyrie wrenches it open and interrupts Thor’s monologue. He very helpfully pounds on the door, revealing precisely which cell he was hidden in. Thor is making this very easy for them.“Finally, someone appears. Let me out, I am a king-”
“No shit, majesty,” The Valkyrie says. “We’re here to rescue you.”
“Valkyrie! Thank the Norns, you have Loki with you?”
“Er, not quite,” Bruce says.
“Banner! What are you doing here?”
“Heimdall sent me when you guys didn’t come back and he couldn’t see you.”
The Valkyrie is examining the lock. “Fairly primitive,” She mutters. “I think I can-”
“I got it,” Bruce says. He slips a few things he’d swiped from the kitchen. Long, narrow blades and a knife sharpener.
“Well, I’m impressed. Seven PhDs and you can pick locks? Midgard seems an interesting place.” The cell door swings open. Thor steps out, looking tired and angry but unharmed.
“I used to forget my keys a bunch, so I first learned how to bust into cars, then use my credit cards to get into my dorm. Natasha taught me a bunch of different locks, for fun. Thor, what happened?”
“The queen is not what she says she is.”
The negotiations had gone better than expected. Queen Amira was welcoming and sympathetic to their plight. She offers them fuel cells at an insanely reasonable price and contacts with a few other planets who may be able to help them. She even gives Loki privileged access to her library of magical texts, something that Thor would think would delight his brother. Loki politely thanks her, but Thor can read tension in the lines of his body.
“What is it?” He asks before they separate, Loki to the library, Thor and the Valkyrie to the training yards. Loki shakes his head tightly.
“I don’t know. I just…something feels off.”
“Loki, this is the best planet we’ve been to in two months. You’re just being paranoid, you’re too used to the crime families and the tyrants. Don’t do this to yourself.” Loki just purses his lips and goes off to the library.
The next time Thor sees Loki, he’s even more agitated.
“You don’t know how to take good things at face value,” He accuses. “You’re trying to ruin this-”
Loki grabs his arm. “Thor, something just feels wrong. I’m not trying to ruin anything, but-”
“Stop. You need to relax. We’ll talk about this on the ship.”
The dinner continues without incident. Loki, instead of sulking away from him like he usually does, does not stray far from his side. He’s not talking to Thor, but he’s not leaving either. As the night turns from dinner to a true party, he grasps Thor’s arm again.
“Thor, I don’t care if you believe me or not, just…just be careful tonight. I still think something is wrong.” Loki looks genuinely afraid, the anxiety naked on his face. Thor feels himself give in, surrendering to his instincts as an older brother. He twists his arm out of Loki’s grip and cups his neck, brushing his thumb over his jaw.
“Loki, relax. It’s okay. We’ll just have a few drinks for politeness’ sake, then we’ll go back to the ship. And I’ll be careful. I promise.” Loki still looks uncertain but he nods. He steps backwards out of Thor’s grip, and knocks into an older woman carrying a basket of fruit. The mask of the prince is back on his face in an instant.
“My apologies, ma’am, let me help you with that.”
“Your majesty,” A young blonde woman says. “Would you like a drink?” Thor gives her a warm smile.
“But of course, especially if it is served by you. Your hospitality has been very refreshing…”
He flirts with the waitress for a while, then chats with the guards. A while later, Loki finds him again. His hands are twisting together in a familiar anxious gesture that reminds Thor achingly of their mother.
“Thor, please, I think we should leave.”
Thor is well on his way to being drunk, and grows annoyed at Loki’s theatrics. “Loki, I’m losing patience, this is the third time-”
“Brother, I don’t care, I don’t care if you’re angry at me for this, but please, I feel like something’s truly wrong here and I think we should leave.” Loki’s hands are shaking. “I don’t think the Queen can be trusted.” He says in a whisper.
“Loki, you would return her hospitality with-”
Loki huffs. “I understand the protocols well, brother, just as you do. Better, probably. But if this means our lives-”
“Don’t be dramatic.”
“Brother, please, if you would just listen! I’m trying to tell you that I feel that something is wrong, that I don’t feel safe, and you promised three months ago-”
Thor sighs. He grasps his brother’s shoulder. “Aye, I did promise. If you do not feel safe, I will keep that promise. We will find the Valkyrie and make our excuses.” Loki visibly relaxes.
“Thank you.”
But they can’t find the Valkyrie.
Ten minutes later, Thor curses. They well and truly cannot find her, and Loki is on the verge of panic.
“Where could she have gone?” Thor groans in frustration.
“Or who could have taken her?”
Thor gently takes Loki’s arm, squeezing in reassurance. “She’s probably just raiding their wine cellar. Come, we’ll find her and then-”
“Are you going somewhere?” Thor whirls, sweeping Loki behind him in one smooth motion. It’s the queen, smiling sweetly at him.
“We were looking for the Valkyrie. We noticed that she was missing from the party and wanted to make sure she was alright.”
“Why would she be anything but? This is a safe planet, we have no violent crimes here. You’re not planning on leaving early, are you? But the night has just begun!”
Thor smiles. “Of course, we just wanted to check on our friend, get a little air before the party really got in swing.”
The queen smiles. “The throne room is empty now. I confess, sometimes I slip away to take a quiet moment there myself sometimes. Parties can be overwhelming, especially when one has been aboard a refugee ship without such entertainments for months. Won’t you join me?” She gestures towards the door.
“Thor, wait,” Loki hisses, but Thor ignores him. He drags his younger brother reluctantly forward.
The second he’s through the door, it feels like a blanket had been thrown over him, smothering a fire within him. A strangled gasp from Loki tells him his brother has been subjected to something similar. The door slams shut behind them.
Three mages stand around the throne as the queen approaches it. She turns and smiles at them.
“Come on, come forward, dears.”
“What is this?” Thor growls. “What have you done to us?”
“Just a few dampening spells my associates here cooked up. Come forward.”
“Do it.” A guard by the door says. Thor grits his teeth and complies. The queen sits on the throne with the brothers before her, much as they had been during the negotiations.
“Brother, if we get out of this…” Loki whispers furiously.
“Yes, yes, you’re going to kill me, I’m going to owe you, I understand.” Thor’s hand closes around Loki’s wrist. “Ready?” Loki slips a knife into his palm.
“Now.” The brothers move to attack but it’s no use. The magic, suppressing theirs presses down and the queen raises her hand. The knives bend down to the floor, dragging them with them.
“Nice try, your highnesses,” The queen says, her light purple magic sparking at her fingertips. But the magic falters, and a frustrated expression crosses her face. Thor nearly breaks free and he sees a spark of green light from his brother, before the other mages take over and their magics are stuffed down again. The knives turn red hot and bend towards the floor, dropping from their hands. “You should not fear, highnesses. Your lives will be going to a greater cause.” Loki inhales sharply. Thor glances at him and his eyes are wide and panicked.
“It’s going to be okay,” Thor whispers. Loki manages to gather enough anger to glare at him. Thor turns back to the queen. “What greater cause do you speak of, your majesty? If we are giving our lives to it, I would prefer knowing.”
“You’ll be contributing to the stability and prosperity of this land.”
“We’ll be going to your own power you mean,” Loki snarls. “If you intend to do what I suspect and steal our magic for your own.”
“Why, how clever. You live up to your reputation, what a rare thing these days. You are correct, of course. It’s true, it’s your magic I’ll need. But that’s how I keep my planet safe, how I keep us prosperous.”
Loki struggles against the magic binding him. “You thieving whore!” He snarls. “You are lower than a worm, a sorceress who steals power from others, this is the most base, horrid-”
“I don’t really care what you think of me,” The queen sighs. Her hand twists and the air in the room seems to twist. Loki collapses. In the wake of the odd magic, Thor is freed and manages to catch Loki before he hits the ground. His body is completely limp in his arms.
The Queen is looking at her hand. The light that sparkles around her fingertips is green now.
Rage, hot and red, fills Thor.
“You’ll pay for this.” He shifts Loki, holding him tighter. “You’ll pay for this, I swear to the Norns-”
“I doubt it. My, my, your brother’s power is…extraordinary. I do hope he lasts through midsummer, the illusions will be spectacular.”
With a final roar, Thor succumbs to the combined power of the mages. Everything goes black.
He wakes up locked in a cell, with Loki nowhere to be seen.
“I was a fool,” Thor laments. “I should have believed him, or at the very least just…listened when he said he felt unsafe, as I’d promised. Should have agreed, without questioning, and left.”
“It’s not your fault. This is…I’ve never even heard of a sorceress-queen who was so bold as to kidnap other mages to fuel her power, and I’ve been around the galaxy a few times.”
“It’s not about that,” Thor says, rubbing his face. “It shouldn’t matter. What we know now about Thanos…I have to do better. Once we get out of here, of course.”
“We’ve found him, he’s alive. He’s out cold, in some weird facsimile of the throne room.”
“We tried to take him with us,” Bruce says. “But there was this barrier.”
“Of course, there’s no way she would leave her power source without guard. He’ll be bound to that chair, drained of his magic while she profits. Take me to him.”
“It’s this way,” The Valkyrie says. “But the magic-”
“Show me to my brother, then you’ll stay with him and I’ll go confront the queen. Once I have subdued her and she has released Loki, we will get out of here.”
“I still don’t really understand why she needs Loki,” Bruce says as they walk swiftly through the halls.
“She needs his magic. She’s not nearly as powerful as she claims to be, she’s been stealing other mages’ power for years. She keeps them alive just to feed off their magic, until they run out and die of it, then lures in the next victim. It’s disgusting,” Thor growls.
“We’re lucky though, she had to keep both of you alive at least, to keep stealing the magic. I think I was just lucky I passed out in that stall or she would have killed me.” They reach the door. “It’s here,” the Valkyrie says.” But this time, it doesn’t budge under her hand. “Shit, those kids. They must have caught them, locked the door this time.”
“Let me try this one.” Bruce crouches in front of the door. It’s a trickier lock this time and he feels the impatience radiating off of both Thor and the Valkyrie and it makes him clumsy. But he gets the door open and they rush in.
The queen is standing in front of the dais, hands folded in front of her. A patient smile is on her face.
“Welcome, I’ve been waiting for you.” There’s a ring of silence before the door slams shut behind them. Two of the older mages, the ones who had been in the shadows of the throne room, step out from behind them. “It’s been really entertaining, watching you three run around on your little adventures. Like you could really escape. It’s far too late for that.”
“It is not,” Thor roars. “You will release my brother.” Loki has not moved from the throne. He looks impossibly whiter, the color of bone. His breath is shallow and his face is completely blank.
“I can’t do that. You must understand, I need the magic to rule. You’ve seen how prosperous this planet is, all of that is due to the sacrifices made in this very room,” She gestures around. “It’s a service, what your brother’s doing. What you’ll do, someday.”
“We’ll distract her and the mages,” Valkyrie whispers at Bruce. “Go to Loki. Stay with him.” Bruce nods.
“You don’t need magic to rule,” Thor says. “Using it like that, it’s a crutch, it’s weakness.”
“And Odin didn’t use magic to rule? You don’t also rely on your brother’s magic?”
“My father used his own magic to rule. I use Loki’s magic, freely given, by his own will and under his own control only. This abhorrent thing you’re doing…this isn’t using magic, this isn’t ruling, this is rape-”
“I do what I have to do to save my people. I thought you would understand that.” She steps closer to Thor. “I had my own power, I did.” Bruce slips around to the edge of the room. As she talks and moves closer to Thor and the Valkyrie, he sneaks up the dais to Loki’s side. He puts two fingers on the pulse point in his neck. The beat is faint, but steady. He doesn’t know what else to do, so he rests his hand on Loki’s shoulder and watches the confrontation.
“You used it up gaining power,” The Valkyrie accuses.
“Yes. Sometimes that happens, a mage’s power doesn’t regenerate after large expenditures. I sacrificed myself, to become the sole ruler of this planet.” She says it with the air of nobility, like she’s going to start crying. “My husband was dead. His siblings were waiting in the wings to take my place. I couldn’t let that happen. There was a fight and I slew them.”
“You didn’t sacrifice your magic then,” Thor sneers. “It left you because you murdered them in cold blood. You made it twisted and hateful and it fled from you.”
“Lies!” She shrieks. “It was a sacrifice, one for my people. They worship me now. They bring me sacrifices. I nearly died killing my rivals and in it a became a god.”
“You are no god.”
“We’ll see about that.” She raises her hand and the light shoots towards Thor. It’s darker green now, stronger, and nearly identical to Loki’s own seidr as Bruce has seen him use it on the ship. The Valkyrie tenses, nearly throwing herself in front of Thor, but stops when the lightning gathers, spreads.
Light flashes and for a moment Bruce is blinded. Thunder booms and there is a shriek. When the light and the spots in his eyes clear, Bruce can see Thor, sparks covering his skin and filling his remaining eye. The queen is stumbling back clutching her hand to her chest. The two other mages are unconscious, maybe dead, overpowered by the sheer force of Thor’s power. The sparks of lightning travel across the floor, covering even Bruce and Loki. They don’t hurt, just tingle slightly.
Loki twitches under Bruce’s hand.
“Loki?” But he’s still out cold. Bruce takes his pulse again and find it stronger, but racing. Sweat beads at his temples.
“Let him go,” Thor booms.
“Never!” The queen shrieks in return. The lightning flashes again and she screams, falling back.
Loki’s eyes snap open and he surges to his feet with a cry. He stumbles while backing away from the throne and Bruce has to catch him before he falls down the stairs. He’s still colorless, wan. Even his eyes are pale, a soft, watery green. He blinks at the scene, breathing heavily. Then he bends at the middle and retches.
The Valkyrie joins him on the dais, helping him hold Loki up.
“Get him off the stairs,” She says. “He’s going to collapse.” His heaves slow and he lets the Valkyrie help him stumble down the steps. He drops to his knees at her feet.
“Make her give it back,” He croaks. “Give it back, give it back, give it back.” He clamps his hands on either side of his head and gags again, but there’s nothing left to bring up.
“Come on, highness, take a breath,” The Valkyrie says quietly. She crouches next to him and puts her hand on his back. Bruce things about how Thor had called this rape, thinks about how it would feel to have someone steal something so intimate, so a part of himself, and he steps in front of Loki, surprising himself at the surge of protectiveness within him.
The lightning flashes dangerously again.
“Release it!” Thor commands. The queen laughs.
“Even if I do, where will you go? You can’t escape this castle. My people will stop you, they will bring you back to me and I’ll cut your throats as a true sacrifice to the magic-” She is cut off, screaming, as a targeted bolt of electricity strikes her in the chest.
Loki makes a strangled sound. His back arches and the Valkyrie steadies him as something happens with a sudden cold gust of air. When Loki blinks his eyes open his eyes are dark green again, and soft green light flows from his hands. The Queen is the one who is colorless now, pale and trembling on her back.
“How dare you, how dare you, you’ll pay for this, that magic was mine, MINE!”
Loki and Thor lock eyes and Thor nods once.
“Thor, wha-” Bruce tries to say. But then an ice cold hand closes around Bruce’s and reality bends. Air and matter and space twist together in a paralyzing, dizzying moment. Bruce opens his mouth to scream but before he can, before the Big Guy can tear his way out of his skin, reality slots into place again and he, Loki, and the Valkyrie collapse on the gangway of the ship, where Heimdall has been waiting for them.
“What the fuck!” The Valkyrie moans. “What the fuck.”
“Did we just leave Thor there? Loki? Did we just leave Thor there?”
Loki rises, still unsteady, but the panic is gone from his eyes. Heimdall rushes for him, catching him.
“Heimdall, are we ready to take off?”
“Yes, I’ve called back the Sakaarans and done a headcount.”
“Start the engines. We need to be ready to depart as soon as Thor returns.” Heimdall guides him to a stack of crates and leans him against it, making sure Loki won’t collapse before rushing off to fire up the ship.
“Oh, you expect Thor to show up soon, since we just left him there!” The Valkyrie staggers to her feet.
“We had to,” Loki says. He won’t look at either of them, trembling. “If we had stayed, we would have been a liability, a distraction. She still had a connection to me, to my seidr. If she had gotten hold of it again, she could have ripped all of it from me and used it to destroy my brother.” He twists his fingers together, worrying anxiously at his palm. “Besides,” He says with a small uncertain smile. “Do you really doubt so much in Thor? He’ll be fine.”
“He’s right,” Bruce says. “If anyone I know could blast his own way out of there, it’s Thor, and it will probably be easier if he’s not worried about dragging us behind him.”
The Valkyrie still looks angry, uncertain. “If he’s not back-”
“Of course, my lady, if he does not return promptly, you’re more than welcome to go charging back in there with your sword if you please,” Loki says. Silence falls.
“You should sit,” Bruce says after a minute. Loki looks at him, startled. “You’re shaking.”
“Oh,” Loki says, quietly surprised. The Valkyrie, her animosity buried down if not forgotten, fetches a chair and helps Loki into it.
“Are you okay?” Bruce asks. He gently wraps a hand around Loki’s wrist, feeling the pulse. It’s fast, a little thready, but much stronger than before.
“Hm? Oh. Yes, my magic’s back. She wasted quite a bit of it but I was unharmed. Just a little…shaky, I suppose.” Bruce moves his hand to his shoulder and keeps it there.
“I’ll get him some water,” The Valkyrie says. They give him water, and some dry bread to suppress the queasiness. The Valkyrie watches the clock.
Thor bursts through with a swirl of bright lightning, touching down on the gangway and hitting the button to close the gates.
“Heimdall, get us out of here,” He booms. The ship shudders and starts to rise. The lightning starts to dissipate. Loki lurches to his feet.
“Brother-” Whatever he was going to say is cut off by Thor scooping him up, hugging him to his chest. Loki wraps his arms around his neck and holds on.
“She won’t ever hurt anyone else again.” That’s all Thor has to say about the subject. The stains on his hands say the rest.
It’s much later and the five of them are gathered, having a quiet evening in the ship’s bar. They’ve just finished setting their next destination, a market on the outer edge of this solar system, to make up for the fuel cells they were supposed to get from the queen.
“I guess it really was too good to be true,” Thor muses.
“What was the proposed exchange?” Heimdall asks.
“Eighty cells, for fifteen hundred credits.”
Heimdall whistles. “That is a good deal.”
“It just turned out to be fifteen hundred credits, and the lives of Asgard’s royal family and our magic,” Loki drawls. He’s laying, feet next to Thor, hands folded over his stomach. His hair drips water over the arm of the couch and onto the floor. He had washed for twenty minutes, exceeding the usual allotted time, but no one had said a word. They were just glad his cheeks were pink again, flushed from the heat of the shower. No one had really complained when their own showers were cold.
“I have a question, Thor,” Bruce asks, taking a drink. “How did you know she murdered her rivals in cold blood? Or were you just trying to get a rise out of her?”
“I confess, I didn’t know for sure,” Thor says, rubbing his short hair. “But I recalled a theory, that using magic for pure evil could result in magic being taken away.”
“I thought that was a children’s story,” Valkyrie says. “Told to young mages to keep them in line.”
“It’s technically true,” Loki says. “Though it depends on the circumstance, and the source of the magic. You think the queen fell prey to this curse? I believe I was still unconscious for this exchange.”
“She claimed to have fought her husband’s siblings, killed them in the struggle over the throne. She framed it as self-defense, a sacrifice of her magic to protect her people from their despotism. That’s how she says she lost her magic, and why she needed more ‘sacrifices’ to continue protecting her people.” Thor shrugged. “Whether she did murder them in cold blood, or indeed sacrificed her magic, it matters not. She had to be stopped.” Loki thinks for a moment.
“I suppose either could be true. If it were the first, I feel no sympathy for her whatsoever. To have her own magic desert her, she would have had to do something so profoundly cruel, she is deserving of no sympathy. But if it is the latter,” Loki sighs. “I suppose if she truly did make that sacrifice, I would pity her.”
“Really?” The Valkyrie says. “She was going to kill you - she has killed, countless others, stole their magic from them.”
Loki shivers. “Yes. But if you haven’t felt how wretched it is to have your magic taken from you. Far less than that drove me entirely mad, Banner can testify.”
Bruce quietly disagreed; from the snippets Loki had let slip about what happened between his suicide attempt on Asgard and the invasion of New York, he believed what happened to Loki was far, far worse than just the loss of magic, but he kept his opinions to himself. “Didn’t it hurt you when she was taking your magic?” He asks instead. Loki frowns.
“At the end, when I woke up, it hurt very badly. But while I was unconscious,” He pauses. “I can’t explain it. I felt it, felt every time she used it but I was paralyzed and floating. I felt so tired. I think I was too tired to feel the pain. I believe I would have stayed like that, getting more and more tired as she drained me. She was very good at it, she designed the spell so that her victims wouldn’t even struggle against her.”
“Practice makes perfect,” The Valkyrie says dryly. They fall into silence.
“They all knew about it,” Bruce breaks the silence.
“Who?” Thor asks. “The people of the planet?”
“I’m sure not all of them, but everyone I talked to…they were all workers in the palace or in the inner circles of the court. They all had to know and they lied to my face. Even the old woman I helped peel potatoes. She kept calling you a ‘polite young man’ when she knew you were dying in the basement. Damn.” There’s quiet for a minute.
“But they gave you information that contradicted what the queen said,” Valkyrie says. “You said the old woman told you about Loki looking nervous. And the librarian was the one who told you about the queen’s magic. Maybe they did want it to stop, but didn’t know how to get it to. Maybe letting the information slip was their way of asking for help.”
“But why did it take so long?” Thor wonders. “She’d been on the throne for decades. And when she took us prisoner she acted like Loki wouldn’t last more than a year, and he’s particularly strong-”
“I can’t believe it’s taken this to get you to compliment my magic, brother.”
Thor nudges him as he half smiles. “I compliment you on occasion.” Thor’s hand closes around Loki’s shin. “Maybe not enough.”
“Oh, don’t get sentimental on me now,” Loki says with a tired smile. Thor’s hand squeezes. “People don’t know how to refuse rulers sometimes. Perhaps they were scared of what she would do to them if they spoke out. Most likely, they liked the prosperity and riches her magic brought them, and agreed that the sacrifice of some foreign mages was a small price to pay for their comfort. Guilt worms away at them over time but it doesn’t counterbalance how good the benefits are.”
“I guess human nature is the same everywhere in the universe,” Bruce says, half to himself. He takes another drink.
“I’d like to propose a toast,” Heimdall says, interrupting their grave silence. “A toast to Dr. Bruce Banner, who didn’t hesitate for a moment before going into danger to rescue his friends. He has proven that human bravery is unchanged the universe over.”
Bruce blushes. “Come on, I hesitated a moment.”
“To Bruce Banner!” Thor raises his bottle. Valkyrie winks at him, tipping her bottle in his direction.
Loki looks at him with sharp eyes. “You don’t even really like me. I was once your enemy and even so, you stepped in front of me, when I was panicked and vulnerable. Heimdall is right. You’re a very decent person, Dr. Banner.”
The conversation moves forward. The tension begins to bleed from their group as the ship takes them farther and farther away from that wretched and beautiful planet. Bruce finds himself smiling, just watching as the others talk and joke and tease.
He thinks to himself, he may have actually found a home after all. He’s glad he hasn’t lost it. He’s glad he was enough to save them. The Hulk continues to slumber within him.
Coda:
She holds her husband’s hand as his breath rattles in his chest.
“Promise me,” He rasps and her hand tightens. He breathes his last and she sits with him for a long time, as his hand grows cold. She doesn’t weep.
She dresses in her finest mourning clothes and leaves the body in the bedroom. She goes to the common area where her husband’s family is gathered, waiting for news. They sit in silence around the fire, faces pale and drawn.
There has never been a sole ruler. She intends to be the first.
“Amira,” Her husband’s twin has noticed her standing there finally. He rises, and his wife takes his hand. “Is it…”
“It’s over. He is gone.” A quiet cry goes through the room. She watches them, resolve strengthening within her. Her husband’s twin, his three sisters, all their spouses.
She will be the sole ruler. She will have the sole power. She cannot abide anything else.
When she is done with them, their blood streaks the walls. The corpses lay in pools of it, faces twisted in agony. Their magic stirs in her core. She walks from the room.
“My lady,” The guard outside the door greets her. “The children have been brought to the lower throne room, as you requested.”
“Excellent. Bring me to them.”
The Captain of the Guard meets her at the entrance. “The children are inside. You are certain…”
“They cannot be allowed to challenge me. This is the only way, the only way to end it. The only way for us to be strong enough.”
“The people are behind you, lady.”
“Good. Bring me those that are not.”
“Yes, your majesty.” Then she enters the lower throne room, the one made of stone and metal. It had been built for sieges, to provide sanctuary in times of danger. There are 16 children inside, the offspring of her husband’s siblings.
It takes the castle cleaners weeks to finish washing the bloodstains from the stone.
On the full moon, six months after Amira took the throne, she wakes feeling odd. Hungry.
Empty.
When she realizes what has happened she screams and screams. It takes time for the last of her twisted and cursed magic to burn its way from her body, but she survives. Survives but with nothing.
Then she remembers the prisoners, the ones who had disagreed with her singular rule. There had been a mage among them. She summons the captain and has him bring the mage to the lower throne room.