Through the looking glass, darkly - Chapter 1
A/N: Just what this place needs-another angsty story! Am I right? ...Probably not, but here goes nothing...
Title: Through the looking glass, darkly
Status: WIP
Pairing(s): dark!Thor/Loki; also includes a few implications of Thor/Loki, as well as suggestions of other pairings
Film(s)/Spoilers: This fic begins at the end of the Avengers, immediately after Loki is caught; I also strongly advise that you watch Thor before reading this...
Rating: Nc-17
Warnings: The regular universe/plot will cross over with a slightly alternate universe, meaning that you will have both the regular characters, a dark!Thor, and a good(better?)!Loki. Other warnings include: consent issues, violence, some language, and implications of mpreg (because Loki is, historically, a mother of monsters...)
Disclaimer: If I owned Marvel and its characters, Loki would've been in every scene. Seriously...
Summary: The Chitauri are defeated and Loki is apprehended, but the brothers' journey home is cut short when the Bifrost of an alternate universe crosses over with their own, paving the way for not only an altruistic Loki but also a Thor of a darker disposition...
~*~/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\~*~/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\(((???)))/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\~*~/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\~*~
This is how it begins:
Odin's voice rumbles through the heavens, like the quick harsh snap of the universe splitting in two, and the whole of Asgard falls silent. His sons are closest to him when he speaks and the sound penetrates them both to the core; paralysing, as though words alone could strip them of their immortality. In a sense, they can, as they already have with the sole object of Odin's rage-his eldest son, the heir, who stands now before the portal to Midgard stripped of his every worth.
Tears do not prickle the corner of Thor's eyes, but he has trouble meeting Odin's stare and thus keeps his gaze trained on the ground. Loki is equal parts horrified and amazed, torn somewhere between pity and relief as his brother's banishment is finalized. All that he has both feared and desire, here, now, before his very eyes...
He is free.
He is free...
When the final blow is dealt, Thor's armour melts away into hot sparks and molten iron. He is thrown back into the portal, arms outstretched, and it is in that instant that the unthinkable happens.
Mjölnir is already pressed close to Odin's lips, but the All-father has barely whispered the first of his commands when the hammer is torn bodily from his grip. Down into the void it tumbles after it's one true master, spiralling madly toward Midgard, where the mortals roam, free from all pain and suffering but that which they inflict upon themselves.
Loki's breath catches in his throat. Odin is already calling Heimdall forth, ordering that Thor's descent be altered if not altogether stopped before he reaches the mortal world. And Heimdall tries, that much is clear, but how effective he is in doing anything other than tearing Thor apart somewhere between here and there is a mystery even to him.
He edges closer to the portal and gazes into the abyss. Loki can feel it almost, the trail Thor has left in his wake, and it is because of this he is confident enough to signal Heimdall to close the bridge before the mortals' world can be torn apart.
“Where?” Odin asks, because he knows how Loki sometimes slips between the fabrics of the nine realms for no other reason than that he can.
“Midgard...in a fashion,” he murmurs. It feels oddly now as though he has a second shadow-as though they all do, as if there is an imprint of this realm overlying the original and now somehow Thor has managed to cross over to Midgard's twin... “I will need time. And volunteers.”
Odin doesn't ask how long, only waves one of his guards forward when he catches the glint in Loki's eyes and requests that soldiers be assembled for the journey. Sif will undoubtedly come, Loki thinks, and perhaps another of the Warriors Three, because tearing Thor from a universe wholly unprepared for his rage is not a job for any one man.
Glancing up at the All-father, Loki is painfully reminded of how old he is. The white of his beard, the lines at the corners of his mouth and eyes-he's delayed his slumber for too long now, waiting for Thor to take over as king. Loki knows it; Frigga knows it; Thor knows it-was perhaps hoping for it, even...
“We will find him,” Loki says, although getting Thor to do anything he doesn't want to has always been a feat in and of itself. Loki has his tricks, of course, but there's only so much he can do before Thor applies his muscle as a quick solution. “We won't return until we do.”
Odin nods; smiles sadly. Then he turns away and retreats across the bridge toward the city, for once in his life wholly, and truly, defeated.
~*~/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\~*~/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\(((Steve Rogers)))/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\~*~/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\~*~
His brain doesn't register the pain until well after the fight. This body of his was built to withstand the worst of war, but it's been so long since the last time he's truly had to struggle just to see the end of another day. He feels edgy, even after he's told that none of the alien corpses have managed to reanimate themselves since their untimely demise, and realizes, dimly, that he hasn't eaten anything in the last twenty-four hours.
Naturally, the Avengers assist however they can in the aftermath of the attack, searching for survivors in the rubble that line the streets. Three days since their victory and Steve is still keeping track of their losses; feels a sharp pang of guilt every time he lifts a slab of iron or concrete to find a cold, stiff body in a pool of blood. Feels worse still when he realizes how many victims have yet to be identified, wondering if there's someone out there searching for them, yet uncertain of their fate, the same way Peggy probably mourned him after he disappeared beneath the ice.
It is now that his body starts to ache. It hurts to bend his back and he begins to feel fatigued, but both Stark and Banner tell him that, considering his fitness regime, it's more likely than not a symptom of stress, so he stretches himself out as best he can and tries to sleep-and eats, occasionally, whenever one of his companions reminds him to.
The fourth day he wakes early and makes himself a half-decent breakfast of scrambled eggs and slightly-burnt sausage, then bikes down to one of Shield's lesser known HQs to see if there's anything else he can do. He finds Thor there, which isn't too surprising, considering that Loki's been confined there, indefinitely, at least until Thor can figure out how to use the Tesseract himself. Selvig is nothing less than helpful in that department, but watching Loki through the glass panels of his new prison and knowing that the Asgardian already knows the secret of its use irks him a way he wouldn't ever care to voice out loud.
The prison itself is essentially a vacuum. Loki has been warned that tampering with the walls or making any attempt at an escape will result in a sudden lose of oxygen, not enough to kill him, certainly, but swiftly enough to suck the breath out of him before he can so much as an utter a spell. Thor assures Fury that their father will attempt to send him some form of restraints before they leave, but until then Loki sits smugly in the corner of his cage and makes a habit of cutting passerbys to the quick with a few choice words to pass the time. He makes a few jabs at Steve when he comes to watch Thor argue with his brother, but Steve is numb now in a way he hasn't been since he first woke up to realize his old life was over and there isn't much anyone can do to change that.
It comes as a surprise to everyone then when an Shield agent pulls Thor out of the room to enquire about how exactly this 'All-father' intended to send the restraints, because their satellites have been picking up a strange reading on Governor's Island that resembles the signature of Thor's first visit to earth and they want to know whether or not to take evasive action.
Thor gives him a weird look (which is really saying something when you consider how odd earth is as a whole to the man and how well he's been taking it all so far), and then brushes past him toward the stairwell, cape wiping the air behind him as Steve jogs to catch up. No sooner are they out the door when another Shield agent runs them down, requesting that Steve jump on the next jet with Natasha to examine the site, because they just got another reading and this one is considerably stronger than the last.
Thor is up in the air before Steve can even blink, but the island is less than a five minute flight away, and apparently Stark is already there, having hacked into Shield's satellites when no one was watching.
It's late in the evening, and Steve doesn't particularly enjoy fighting in the dark, but the three figures they see standing by the island's National Monument just off Comfort Rd don't exactly spring into action the second the jet's spotlights settle on them. It's a small mercy considering the sharp breath Natasha takes when they realize that one of them bears a striking resemblance to Loki. His hair is shorter but there's no mistaking the face of the man with a penchant for terrorizing mankind.
“Uh, did somebody pay this guy's bail when I wasn't looking?” Stark mutters through his helmet's speaker, “Or is Fury in the habit of handing out day passes now?”
The Loki that stands before them doesn't look angry or alarmed-even goes so far as to rest his hand on the shoulder of the woman beside him when it looks as though she means to raise her spear. The blond man to their left already has his sword drawn, but decides against levelling at anyone when he notices Loki's gesture, and so the three of them merely stand there, silent, as the air seems to thicken around them until a thin sheen of green light surrounds them like a sphere.
“...He just raised a force field,” Stark says, sounding stupefied. “When the hell did he learn that trick?”
Nobody gets the chance to answer that question, because no more than two seconds later lightning flashes across the sky, an angry swell of storm clouds spiralling into existence above them. Loki and his lackeys cast their eyes skyward, weapons drawn, but Thor takes them all by surprise when he soars onto the scene at ground level from the east, shredding through Loki's force field in a shower of green sparks before knocking the God of Mischief clean off his feet. Together they tumble to the ground, the force of impact carrying them several meters off to the side as the woman takes aim with her spear.
Stark swoops down and tackles her before she can throw it, but she rolls back to her feet an instant later, stabbing the ground with the end of the spear in order to pole-vault herself at his head. She catches him in the face as he turns to stop her, bowling him over with the kick before he can level his arm cannon in defence.
Natasha hovers close enough to the ground for Steve to jump safely out the back of the jet before turning on her speaker. “Loki, call your people off. You've got nothing to gain.”
Stark appears, more or less, to have the wild, amazonian woman under control, keeping relatively even with her, hit for hit, so Steve chases after the other man, who, in turn, is already half-way to where Loki is trying desperately to dodge Thor's hammer. Loki is screaming something at Thor, but he looks nervous more than anything else, and eventually Thor stumbles to a halt.
Both Steve and the other gentleman slow to a jog, eyeing each other warily as they approach the brothers. Steve isn't exactly getting a creepy vibe from the guy, but he raises his hand anyway when it looks as though he means to walk over to him, taking a half a step back to make the message clear. “Stand down.”
“If you think we came here looking for a fight, you're sadly mistaken,” the man replies, and he looks sincere enough to mean it. He even sheaths his sword for good show. Then he glances back at the brothers, each of which is staring at the other in bewilderment. “We're here for him actually. Please-believe me, we have no quarrel with Midgard...”
Steve's heard 'Midgard' enough times from Thor to realize that this guy is from Asgard, and since Thor also only ever mentioned Loki as being unduly hostile, Steve figures that there's a good chance this guy is telling the truth.
Over by the monument, though, Stark and the woman are still duking it out.
“Stark,” Steve mutters after taping his earphone, “stand down.”
“Why don't you tell Wonder Woman here that?”
“Stark.”
Stark sighs into his receiver, but he turns his busters on and rockets into the sky where the woman can't reach him. She watches him warily for a moment and then glances over at the rest of them, lowering her spear cautiously to her side.
“-home?” Steve hears off to his left, and it's then that he realizes that both Thor and Loki look as though they're trying to come to some sort of an agreement.
“How long have you been here?” Loki asks, taking a hesitant step forward.
Thor frowns. “Since when?”
“Since you fell. I tried to follow as soon you left.”
“That was several moons ago.” Turning, Thor now addresses the other man. “My friend, what is this trickery?”
The 'friend' in question can offer him nothing more than a horribly confused look before casting his gaze questionably in Loki's direction. “This is the Thor we're after...is it not?”
Loki opens his mouth as though to say 'of course it is', but then stops himself short. Swallowing thickly, Loki returns his gaze to Thor. “...Even if you somehow managed to lead me astray, Mjölnir's power leaves a trail of its own.”
“Mjölnir?” Thor murmurs quietly, glancing down at the weapon in his hand.
“Yes, and you came here, to Midgard, mere moments before we arrived ourselves. Of that I am certain.” Loki gives him the once-over then, clearly unsettled by what he sees. “...How you've come to change your appearance is beyond me, but seeing as I am hardly the only one who can cast illusions, I wouldn't put it past you to try. Now-don't interrupt me, Thor-we've come to take you home. If you leave now, peacefully, I promise to speak with father on your behalf.”
Thor opens his mouth and gaps, looking every bit like a fish out of water. It's comical, in a way, until Stark lowers himself beside Thor and pats him heartily on the back. “You haven't got an evil twin tucked away somewhere, do you?”
Thor brushes his hand off with no real menace, ignoring the comment altogether. “Forgive me, brother, but you couldn't be further from the truth.”
Loki looks a little pissed now. Instinctively Steve raises his shield, but Loki only closes his eyes then and sighs, and suddenly Steve feels as though they just avoided some sort of nuclear crisis. “You slipped between the fabric of two realities...I suppose it's possible then that there exists another Thor Odinson, and that that counterpart could be you.”
Steve's mouth suddenly goes dry. Two Thor's-two Loki's, even, are more than he thinks Shield can handle. Hell-more than humanity can handle.
“Call me crazy, but I think we should head back to HQ now, you know? Maybe compare Loki A with Loki B before we come to any conclusions...”
It's about the most diplomatic thing Steve's ever heard Stark say, so Steve lowers his shield and watches as Thor takes Loki gently by the arm-much to Loki's surprise-before disappearing with him up into the sky.
Sighing, Steve turns to the other Asgardian and nods his head at the plane. “Unless you and your other companion can fly, I suggest you get in the jet.”
“...Jet?” the man enquires.
Steve opens his mouth to explain, but realizes, dimly, that he's not entirely sure how to describe it himself. Stark more or less cackles into his speaker and then takes off, leaving Natasha and Steve to deal with their alien visitors.
Steve doesn't imagine they'll have much trouble with the man, but one look at the woman and he figures that things are far from swell between them. Then again, she keeps glancing around, eyes focused on the thunderclouds overhead, as though she's expecting someone else to drop out of the sky at any given moment...
Steve doesn't say anything, but he gets the feeling that her fears are far from imaginary. He can sense it too, as though someone is watching them, waiting for the right moment to spring. What they're doing here, though, and what they hope to achieve is beyond him, but as long as it doesn't entail another attempt at world domination, he doesn't think he'll lose his mind just yet.
Natasha grounds the jet long enough for them to board, and then, before either of the two warriors are seated, takes off again into the night. The man falls into his seat in surprise; the woman, grabbing hold of one of the siding straps, smiles.
“You've mastered flight,” she breathes.
“Yes,” he replies. “Is Thor the only one who can fly on his own?”
Her smile wavers. “He...well, no.”
“I'm sorry-I'm not trying to intrude.”
“No,” she assures him. “We have no secrets to keep from you, but...there are many things Thor can do. Flight is the least of it...”
Her companion clears his throat, arms stuffed awkwardly through his seat's straps to better brace himself. “Perhaps we need not worry, hm? Thor can be reasoned with...when he wants to be.”
The woman and the man share a look then. It's not lost on Steve, but he decides against enquiring further. He'll have the answers soon enough, and then...
And then, he supposes, they'll search for Thor, wherever it is this alternative deity could be.
Even if, apparently, he doesn't want to be found...
~*~/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\~*~/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\~*~/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\~*~
A/N: Well, that's all for now, my lovelies! Expect another update soon.
Hope you enjoyed! ;D
((PS: I'm not entirely sure why the font keeps changing, but I have yet to figure out how fix that. My apologies...))