Manhandling
You’re a destroyer, Odinson.
The power, the spark, goes out as soon as quickly as it came. Heimdall is gone, but the dancers still writhe. Hands are on his back, dragging him down, dragging him deeper into Hel.
A dark, hooded figure cuts across his vision. The hands leave him and he follows the cloaked figure as it moves through the rough carved halls of Hel.
“Wait!” He cries and his voice echoes. “Stop!” Eventually, the person does stop, in a wide cavern. They step up onto an altar.
The figure turns, and with long, pale fingers, draws the hood back from their face.
“Loki,” Thor breathes.
Loki is ghost white, looking at him with wide green eyes. “Ask me again.”
“Loki, what happened to you? How did you come here?”
“Ask me again.” Loki reaches out for him in desperation. “Ask me again!”
“Ask you what, Loki! You have to tell me what you want!”
“Ask me again.”
Thor is going to go mad, hot frustrated tears coming to his eyes. “Say something else, say anything else.”
“Ask me again.” When Loki opens his mouth to speak this time, blood blooms on his lips. “Ask me again.”
“No, no, no, no, no, no-” The front of his shirt grows wet, spreading from the center. His hands reach out for Thor, straining.
“Ask me again.” The veins of his throat turn black.
“Loki, don’t-”
“Ask me again.”
Thor wakes with a gasp the second Loki’s knees give way.
It takes him a long moment to get control of himself, hand pressed over his face as he breathes hard. The vision that Wanda had pried from his mind haunted him still. He had had nightmares of it while on his quest, before they were supplanted by the prophetic nightmares of Ragnarök. They’d returned with a vengeance on the Statesman - the Ark, as Bruce had started calling it. And they feel more real than ever.
But Loki is on his side, safe and whole, breathing evenly in sleep. He is as close to the edge of the bed as he can be, as far away from Thor as possible. Sharing the bed had been an utilitarian decision. The ship was tightly packed, some of the common folk living seven or eight to a room, and Thor wouldn’t hear arguments that he should have his own quarters as king.
The brothers had shared a bed countless nights in the past. But after all that had happened between them, the arrangement was awkward. Loki would lie, stiff and tense, until Thor fell asleep, then somehow always ended up on the very edge of the mattress, perilously close to tumbling off the edge.
Thor gently moves him away from the drop, settling him on his back.
There’s no stain in his shirt, no black lines twisting up his neck. He breathes smoothly, looks peaceful. All is normal.
Ask me again.
Ask what again? The question dogs him throughout the day. What could the vision-Loki possibly want him to ask again.
He considers briefly, that it’s a product of his own mind. But the rest of what he learned in Wanda’s induced nightmare - his powers, the end of Asgard, the stones - all that had been true. Why would the last part be any different?
He watches Loki through dinner.
Loki catches him. “You’re staring.”
“Am I?”
“Think I’m going to run away, again, brother?” Loki flicks him on the forehead. “Ah. See? Still here.” Then he turns and goes.
Ask me again.
He is right on the cusp of it, he knows it. Ask me again. What had he asked, and Loki not answered? What is it that he must ask again?
Loki in the dream never says anything else. He just says ask me again over and over as the Kursed’s wound opens on his chest and Thor wakes just before he collapses.
He pours himself a drink and looks out at the wide window on the stars, and thinks.
Ask me again.
It comes to him in a flash. Heart pounding, he sets his drink aside and goes to their room. He’s shaking by the time he slips inside. He knows what he has to ask. He fears it.
He grabs Loki’s arm roughly, dragging him up. Loki wakes with a soft, surprised cry as Thor pulls him from the room before he can disturb the others.
“Thor, what are you doing?”
“We need to talk.”
“Norns, can we not do it at a reasonable hour? I was sleeping.”
“I was not and we need to talk.”
“Dammit, Thor.” They reach the bar and Thor lets him go. He staggers a little, leaning against the table for support. “What has gotten into you?”
“I’ve been dreaming about you, you know?”
Loki blinks. “I’m flattered?”
“On Midgard, there was this witch. Wanda. She induced nightmares, pulled from our worst memories to torment us.”
“That’s rude.”
“I saw you.”
“Of course you did,” Loki sighs. “Well? What so horrified you about me? Was it our fight on the bifrost? Or the moment you learned what I truly was-”
“It wasn’t like that! It was…for me it wasn’t like the others, it wasn’t just a nightmare, I saw things. Like my dreams of Ragnarök.”
Loki huffs. “You really are Yggdrasil’s worst seer, aren’t you? Is that why you woke me? To help you interpret your vision? You know, you could just learn-”
“You appear to me, hooded. We walk to a stone room and you turn to me and say “ask me again.’” Loki’s brow furrows. “Ask me again, that’s all, over and over again. No matter how much I scream at you, beg you to say anything else, all you ever say is ‘ask me again.’ Then…the wound in your chest. The Kursed’s wound.” Loki touches his chest absently with the tips of his fingers, then starts pacing, hands twisting together. “When I first had the vision, and many times when it appeared in my dreams, I still thought you were dead. I was so frustrated I could scream. There was something I had to ask you, and it was too late.” Thor moves, putting himself between Loki and the door. Loki has a look about him like he wants to bolt. “And now, on the ship, I’ve been so frustrated that I couldn’t think of the question.”
“Well? I’m assuming this little midnight chat means you’ve figured it out.”
“I have. So Loki, who controls the would-be king?”
Whatever Loki thought he was going to say, it evidently wasn’t that. The color drains from his face.
“What?”
Thor grabs his arms. “Who controls the would-be king?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Loki won’t look him in the eye, trying to step out of his hands. Thor won’t let go, gripping him so tight he’s probably leaving bruises in the shape of his fingers.
“I asked you that, when I first saw you on Midgard, during your aborted invasion. I asked who controlled you. Who commanded your armies-”
“Let go of me-”
“-who gave you the scepter, who told you about the Tesseract-”
“-Thor, release me!”
“No! Who held you after your fall? Where were you?” He shakes Loki. “Tell me!”
“I can’t!”
“Loki, you have to tell me! I know it has to do with the Infinity Stones, I know it has to explain why so many of them have appeared in such a short time, I know Loki, and I have to ask you again.” Loki is trembling, still not looking at him, leaning away. “Who controls the would-be king? Loki, who-”
“Thanos! His name is Thanos!” Loki’s breaths come as heaves but once his mouth opens the words spill out rapid fire. “He is also know as the Mad Titan, Death’s Lover, he has dozens of Children who are just as cruel as he and twice as creative, he lives on a great black ship outside of the Nine that he calls Sanctuary.” Tears drip down his cheeks. “Let me go.”
“No. What does he want? The Stones?” Loki nods.
“He seeks the Stones, I know not for what end.”
“How did you come to be under his control?” Loki shakes his head desperately.
“I was not under his control, I…I…I believed it would work. I was cast out from the bifrost, cast out of Asgard, and I fell endlessly through the Void before he found me. He took me from that torment and he…shaped me. Made me…part of me wants to say stronger but in the years since, I’ve learned which parts of my mind aren’t my own anymore. He made me harder. He made me colder, which is a pretty impressive thing to do to a frost giant,” His breath hitches. “I wasn’t even cast from the bifrost, was I? When I saw you on Midgard, I truly believed you had thrown me off. Pushed me into the Void. But that’s not right. I let go. I remember that clearly now. Letting go. I ended Loki of Asgard. I chose my fate. I chose Thanos.”
“What did he-”
“He trained me for the invasion. He made sure…I was on the same page. He made sure I was ready, could resist…temptation. Then he gave me the scepter and sent me to Earth and…and…promised I could rule on Earth and I thought if it wasn’t Asgard, at least it wasn’t Jotunheim…”
“Loki, he was never going to let you rule, you know that right?” Thor releases his arms, cupping his neck instead. “He would have taken it from you and killed you once you were of no more use to him.” Loki lets out a sob that’s half a laugh.
“I think I did know that. Deep down. But I didn’t know what else to do.”
“You could have told me, you could have answered when I asked-”
“I wasn’t under his control, I invaded Earth of my own free will-”
“That’s debatable-”
Loki holds up a finger. “But that doesn’t mean he didn’t have ways of making sure I did not stray from the path.” He lets that hang for a moment. “I will say nothing else of this matter.”
Ask me again. There are so many more questions he has now, all stemming from the confirmation that his brother was under another’s command when he invaded Earth. Those will be answered in time. But something more eats at him. Something more feels unanswered.
“If there is anything else you have to tell me, you should do so now.”
Loki looks at him for a long moment and Thor is prepared for him to turn away. He doesn’t.
“I took something. From the vaults. After, after the fire started.”
That hateful blue glow washes over them.
Thor steps back, his heart sinking.
“Loki, no.”
“I had to! I had no choice. If I had left it there, he would have found it in a moment, it would have been entirely unprotected.” Loki holds it out. “Take it, take it. I didn’t keep it to use it, I kept it because I couldn’t leave it.” Thor takes it and it hums. He doesn’t know what to believe anymore.
“You weren’t planning on using it to run?” I trust you, you betray me, round and round and round and round…
“I swear, Thor. I swear.” But then why hadn’t he revealed its presence two weeks ago? Why had he lied and hidden it away?
“Stay here,” The weariness in his own voice surprises him. “I am going to wake the others. We have to talk about this.”
He takes the Tesseract and leaves Loki to sink to the floor.