Asgard
He took a deep breath, filling his lungs with the scent of his home. His trip to wait out his father’s foul mood was short. He still missed his home though. He spied Heimdall conversing with one of his father’s advisors. The gatekeeper merely nodded.
“Loki, we’ll take him to the dungeons. You should go see the king," Sif said. The king's mood had gradually improved, but he was still displeased with his sons.
“I aim to. There is much we need to talk about as soon as Thor returns.”
He decided a stroll was in order. He was in no hurry and refused to take a horse. The difference in perspective, knowing there was at least a purely evil Loki who had destroyed his home, made him realise how little he had appreciated Asgard. The sights appeared brighter to his eyes. It was as if there was a new light for them that one had never seen before.
“Feels nice to be back home,” Cosmo said, her voice as light as he felt.
“It does.”
“Do you think your dad’s still pissed off?”
“Probably,” he said. Though, the prospect of peace might have calmed him.
“What about the other one?”
“Laufey?” He looked down at her. “He can rot in the cells for all I care.” His birth father’s fate didn’t concern him. It never had, actually, but Laufey didn’t seem to get the memo. Spending the rest of his life in the cells, or imprisoned back on Jotunheim, might get the idea across.
“My prince,” the guards at the entrance to the palace bowed. The door swung wide open, and the two walked forward, giving small greetings to the soldiers. The rush in the palace seemed to have calmed down significantly.
He attributed it to the presence of the Jotnar.
The Einherjar were in a state of alert, but it wasn’t beyond what they would present in the most peaceful of days. If they hadn’t seen the need to be too cautious, then the negotiations must have gone well. Not that Helblindi had any other choice in the matter.
The final set of guards opened the door to the throne room. He sent Cosmo away since she found these proceedings boring.
“Father, you seem to be in a good mood,” he said, greeting his mother and the new king of Jotunheim.
“Indeed,” Odin said, dressed in his robes rather than his armour. “King Helblindi and I were discussing a permanent peace between Jotunheim and Asgard.”
“Excellent news.”
“What of the situation in Midgard?” his father asked, glancing at the expressionless faces of the Jotnar delegations. They were unable to stop Laufey from reaching Midgard through a hidden pathway.
But they had offered to send soldiers to arrest their wayward old king.
“Contained. He has been sent to the cells. Thor is explaining the situation to the Midgardian authorities,” he said. Helblindi sighed in relief. He didn’t need to read his half-brother's mind to know why they were so worried. Beyond Asgard’s retaliation, he had left a strong impression.
“Is that so?”
“They do have a right to know what has happened,” he said. Odin gave a small nod. Under Asgard’s protection or not, their sovereignty mattered more.
“I would like to be excused unless there is any need for my presence.”
“You may go, my son.”
They had much to talk about as a family, but it would have to wait until Thor returned.
—
Earth
New Mexico
“Who are you exactly?” the government agent asked. In the short time he was on Midgard, he had come to learn SHIELD meant business. The one before him, Phil, Son of Coul, was calm on the outside, yet he could feel a storm brew inside him.
“Thor, son of Odin and a prince of Asgard,” he said, his voice echoing in the small cell.
Coulson checked his notebook. “The God of Thunder?”
“Yes.”
“Okay, so what’s a god doing on Earth, blending among us humans? Were you on vacation or something?” Coulson asked. Thor raised an eyebrow, impressed with the human’s attitude.
“No. My father banished me to your planet for an offence I committed. I recently regained my powers while defending the town from Laufey, the previous king of the Frost Giants.”
“And why did he try to kill you?”
“I committed the offence on his face,” he said, his lips twitching.
“What about the rest of the Frost Giants? Can we expect any more of them to arrive?”
“No. Their current king is discussing peace with Asgard. This was a standalone attack by Laufey for revenge, nothing more.” At least he hoped so. Otherwise, there might actually be a war.
“What can we expect from Asgard now that we know you exist?”
“Asgard has long protected the Nine Realms, including your world. We took care not to interfere in your growth. We shall continue to do the same. However, we will do it in contact with you.”
Coulson’s brows furrowed. “That’s it?”
“We fight for the same cause, Son of Coul. Peace,” he said, holding his arm out, with a small, reassuring smile.
Slowly and hesitantly, Phil grasped his arm.
—
Asgard
After a lot more questions, Coulson agreed to let him leave in peace. He promised Jane he would be back and called for Heimdall. His home seemed different as the lights of the Bifrost faded.
“My prince, welcome." "It gladdens us to see you return so swiftly,” the Gatekeeper said, lowering his head.
“Many thanks, Heimdall.”
“The negotiations with the Jotnar are going well. I believe peace will be declared soon,” he said. War would surely be terrible, but mostly for the Jotnar. With the Casket of Ancient Winters gone and Asgard’s current state, any war, provided the Jotnar could even leave their planet, would be very one-sided.
He still didn’t wish for the slaughter.
Thor felt light, as if a great weight had been lifted off his shoulders. “Great news indeed. And Laufey?”
“He will be imprisoned in Jotunheim per the terms of the treaty.”
Thor nodded before spinning his hammer and taking off.
—
His mother was the first to greet him. She was waiting at the entrance and immediately gathered him in a hug. “Welcome back.”
“Thank you, Mother. Where is Father?"
“Inside with your brother. I believe there is much we all need to talk about.”
“That we do.”
—
His father and brother were seated on opposite ends of the small table. Loki was in a carefree mood, while even the prospect of peace didn’t seem to raise his father’s spirits. The Allfather looked even more vulnerable than he was in Odinsleep. The weight of what he had to say must be unbearable.
“Should I start first?” Loki asked. He seemed to be enjoying this moment far more than he should.
A single weary eye glanced at him. “You too, Loki?”
“Oh absolutely. I have been keeping them just for this moment.”
Odin huffed, but there was no mirth to it. “No. I will start first.”
“Before I had you two, before I wanted peace and prosperity for all, I was a different person. I craved war, conquest, power and glory,” he said. His tone was heavy and laced with sorrow. His eyes glazed for a moment, face scrunching in pain.
The memories must be unpleasant even by his standards.
“When Hela was born, her mother didn’t survive the birth. I think deep down she knew what her fate would be.” He shook his head, eyes misty. She was insistent that he promise to raise her well. At the time, he had not given her words much thought, believing he would leave the task to her.
“A seer?”
"Perhaps, or perhaps the intuition of a woman who was about to be a mother.”
“I raised Hela like I was raised, a warrior. Upon discovering she could command the dead, she became more than just a general. With her endless horde of the dead at our command, we could have conquered the galaxy.”
“I wasn’t content with just that. I began to gather the Infinity Stones. It was the ultimate power, and I couldn’t, didn’t resist the allure,” he said, averting his eye. He was too ashamed to face them.
“You had the Power and Space Stones,” Loki said, remembering the gems embedded on Gungnir.
“I did. It didn’t take long before I located the Soul Stone as well. That’s when things changed.”
“The stone required a sacrifice of whom I held dearest to my heart,” he revealed. His wife reached for his hand, giving him a reassuring squeeze.
“Hela,” she said. Bloodthirsty or not, a child was not so easily discarded. Even now memories of his daughter caused Odin pain.
“I realised that I wasn’t some honourable conqueror bringing order to the universe but a bloodthirsty butcher seeking glory.” For all that he did for power, he never considered sacrificing Hela like a sheep on the altar.
“I gave up on my plans of conquest.”
“She disagreed,” Thor said. Hela had told them as such. She simply didn’t know why their father changed his mind.
“All she knew, all that I taught her was war and conquest. She told me she would be nothing without them. I knew she was right.” What was she but what he raised her to be?
“She tried to usurp me, to take my place. I banished her to Niflheim in the hopes that it might temper her thirst for blood,” he said. Deep in his mind, the conqueror side of him knew she would attempt something drastic.
The king and father in him would not entertain the idea.
“When she escaped, I couldn’t bring myself to face her in battle, to slay my own daughter.”
Thor’s fingers curled, leaving gashes on the table, settling into a tight fist. “You sent the Valkyries like a coward, and they all perished.” His eyes hardened, remembering the corpses that the two of them had spent an entire day enacting proper burial rites.
They did not deserve it.
“Yes,” Odin said in an almost silent tone.
“When I realised she had grown too strong for anyone except me to stop, I imprisoned her in Hel, binding her in a cage with my lifeforce as the bars. She couldn’t escape as long as I lived.”
“That’s why you have been giving us lessons in survival, in how to rebuild a civilisation."
“You both are strong, and I believe when the time comes, you will be stronger than me. I am afraid that day is far from when your sister will return,” Odin said. He believed in his sons.
Only, time was not on their side.
“I hid my crimes, ashamed and afraid as I was. I promised to spend the rest of my days making up for my mistakes.”
“How did you come to know so much?” Frigga asked her youngest son.
Loki twisted his spread out fingers anticlockwise, turning the glass pitcher on the table to sand. “We spoke to Hela, and I took a little trip through history to discover your past.”
Odin’s one good almost popped out of its socket. Frigga laughed, a melodious sound that lifted their mood. Thor just smirked at their expressions.
“Now it makes sense how you knew about the Soul Stone,” the Allfather said, rubbing his head. Spells that could manipulate time were rare and dangerous. That Loki could pull this off without an issue showed how far he had come.
He put it aside for now. “The truth has been revealed, and now you know who I was.”
“What of you, Loki? What secrets have you been hoarding for this moment?” she asked. She was already aware of her husband’s deeds, except for the Soul Stone part. Her son’s secrets were a mystery to her.
“Well, to begin with, I destroyed Svartalfheim. It was an accident at first before I decided to finish it,” he said, pushing his chair back and rising to his feet. Slowly, his outer layer peeled away, exposing what he had become.
“Loki, what is this?” his mother asked, the sides of her eyes creasing. She approached closer, inspecting him.
“I was researching what made the Celestials so powerful. I found a particle that could command all matter. Synthesising a variant with seidr proved to be doable, but there was an unforeseen result. There has to be a bare minimum of these particles together to keep their cohesion. "I lost control, and it consumed my seidr, body and mind.”
“When I came to myself, I was no longer of flesh and blood but pure energy. The explosion was what damaged Heimdall’s eyes since I was using a spell to block his vision of me,” he said.
“I was starving, and since no one else lives on Svartalfheim, I decided the planet would do.” He reconstituted his outer layer, sitting down again.
Odin turned to his eldest son. “You don’t seem surprised, Thor.” The very first moment Loki shed his skin, he realised what he had become.
Thor crossed his arms. “He is my brother; he tells me everything.”
“You became a Celestial?” Odin asked, breathless. He had seen many incredible sights. Someone, anyone, becoming a Celestial was not one.
“No. I don’t need a shell to exist. I simply am Loki, son of Odin and Frigga.”
They accepted his new state of existence with huffs of laughter. They were mighty angry at him risking his life by fighting two Celestials.
He revealed the four stones he had next. Space, Reality, Soul and Power Stones were together in one room, perhaps for the first time since their creation. The circumstance of how he came to acquire them was amusing to them. Each stone was discovered while he was focused on a completely different task or had fallen on his lap.
His father couldn’t contain the bitter laugh that escaped his lips when Loki told him how he had acquired the Soul Stone.
Together, the six Infinity Stones were unbeatable. No amount of seidr could stop the effects when the stones were used as one. Individually, they were manageable. The Reality Stone was hidden in Svartalfheim; the Space Stone had sent a Midgardian to his room, and the Power Stone was the Golden High Priestess Ayasha’s leverage to save her life.
“Anything else you would like to shake our world with, Loki?” Frigga asked. She felt her head spin with the revelations that her son had ascended, for lack of a better term. While the Aesir were called gods, they were in truth long-lived mortals.
Loki had become a true god, one not bound by time.
“Do you remember the day I told you I lived twice?” he asked his father.
Odin tilted his head, thinking. “No, I do not believe so.”
“Right,” he said, dragging the word out slowly. “Since TVA technically never existed, that day didn’t technically happen either.”
“Is this about the long story you mentioned in Midgard?” Thor asked. Whatever his brother had discovered, it had affected him. He had taken care not to show it, but he knew his brother.
“It is. Out of everything I said, this one might be the most interesting one,” Loki said, creating an illusion of the Citadel at the end of time.
“That is not reassuring,” Frigga muttered, watching the dark, dreary castle.