Chapter 17
This time Loki was the first to catch it. It was just a slight muscle spasm in his hand, but he remembered what had followed the last time he'd started twitching. Or enough of it to dread what came next.
"Thor," He tugged at his brother's sleeve, cutting off the (glorious, Loki was sure) battle story that he was spouting. "I'm… getting twitchy." Why why why. Why here in front of an audience? This was even worse than being carried around.
Thor just about jumped out of his skin. "Clear a space of furniture!" The others stared blankly. Loki would have blushed, but he was a little preoccupied by the rapidly multiplying twitches and the wave of terror as he realized he would almost certainly see more horrors from the years that he couldn't remember.
Thor scooped him off the couch and barked at the others again. "Clear a space! He's got a seizure coming on!" This time they hopped to, just barely in time.
He was surrounded by… creatures. Twisted grayish things that stood on two feet and wore a sort of armor, but were otherwise nothing like any race he had ever met. They snarled and poked at him with their spears like little boys poking a particularly interesting specimen of roadkill with sticks. He scrambled backward over rough rock that cut his hands, realizing that he hadn't the faintest idea where he was. This enraged them, and he was pinned against the rocks, a spear point digging into his throat just over his pounding pulse. Then they parted to let through another creature, similar but not quite the same and if anything more horrifying, with a bloody look to its mouth.
"What is this?" He demanded, mustering his bravery, "How dare you threaten me? Do you know who I am?"
The creatures laughed and shoved spear points harder into every gap in his armor. "Do tell." The other hissed with a toxic smile, "What makes you so important that we should not make you our new toy?" Its fingers trailed across Loki's face, burning as if covered in acid. "What use is it to us to show you mercy?"
He was lying on the floor of the nice familiar balcony where he had whiled away many an hour with his friends, soaked in sweat and hyperventilating, Thor bending over him and telling him to take deep breaths. A phantom of that burning touch still lingered on his face, and he clawed at it blindly although a rational part starting to wake again in the back of his mind realized it was just his imagination even as his hands were caught and pinned to the floor.
"Their toy." He gasped out, still disoriented, trying to make himself remember the fleeing fragments so he could understand. "Gotta be useful. Don't wanna be their plaything. They wanna torture me for en'ertainment."
His head was clearing and the memory gone but for what he'd just said, but he was drained, too tired to do anything but lay panting on the floor.
"Can I release you without you hurting yourself?" So it was Hogun who had the iron grip on his wrists. He nodded weakly and as soon as he was released he found himself swept up and draped against his brother's massive torso. He didn't protest the indignity. It was more comfortable than the floor.
"Just when I think you're getting better you give me a new scare." Thor was rubbing his back, as much trying to comfort himself as Loki. "I'm scared to leave you unattended if you're going to hurt yourself."
"Di'n't mean to." Loki mumbled into his shirt.
"We're calling in a mind healer." Thor informed him bluntly. This was as good a way as any to tell him. "They'll know what to do about this." He expected some resistance but received only a weak nod, barely perceptible against the younger man's trembling.