Unbroken

Chapter 60

Loki froze. The anger washed from his face and he felt like he'd just been punched in the stomach. How was Laufey coming? How could this be happening?.
"He's- Laufey is- is coming to Asgard?" Loki asked, Thor hadn't heard loki stutter like that in a while and he wasn't happy that it was back.
"Yes. He is, but we're going to make sure he doesn't get anywhere near you" Thor promised him. He wasn't happy that Loki was as afraid as he was, but Thor was happy that he could explain why he'd beaten him up so badly. "I didn't want to tell you, but that's why I was going so hard on you. I don't want you to get stuck in a situation with Laufey and be overtaken by your past fears" Thor said. Loki shook his head, the panic was evident on his face.
"No. No Odin told me that he'd make sure the meeting took place on Jotunhiem. He told me he wouldn't let Laufey come here" Loki said, not understanding how any of this was happening. Thor nodded a bit.
"I know.... he's been trying to get Laufey to change his mind for over a week but-" Loki cut him off.
"Over a week? Thats when he sent the message, he told me Laufey hadn't contacted him back" Loki said, becoming even more confused.
"I know, but apparently he was.... concealing the truth from you. Laufey got back to father right away demanding that the meeting be here on Asgard, father had been going back and forth with him for  over a week trying to make him change his mind, but this morning father got a message from Laufey and Laufey basically said that if the meeting wasn't here on Asgard then he wouldn't be willing to meet at all" Thor said, loki looked like the solution was obvious.
"So then don't meet. Laufey sent an agent to kidnap me and now he's being uncooperative, why are we catering to his requests?" Loki asked, seeming to forget about his physical condition as he stood up to talk to Thor.
"Because, Laufey is making up some story about how he feels that Asgard is threatening them. He said that if father doesn't let Laufey Come here then he'll take it as a sign of hostility. Father wants to avoid a war and as you well know, Laufey isn't reasonable. Sometimes the only way to avoid a big problem is to accept a smaller one" Thor explained.
"I would hardly call Laufey coming here and staying in the palace a little problem. He's crazy, and so is Ilkay, they're not going to follow the rules, they'll cause everyone tons of problems" Loki said back. Thor nodded a bit.
"I know, i know, and trust me, we're taking extreme precautions to make sure that he doesn't do any damage to you or anyone else" Thor told him. Loki had no more to say, he was in a bit of denial and now that all his questions had been answered, the sinking feeling in his stomach was starting. Laufey was actually coming back now, he wasn't just sending agents to do his dirty work anymore, he was actually coming here himself, no doubt in an attempt to take Loki back himself. Thor let Loki be for a few minutes, he knew a lot was going on in Loki's mind and he didn't want to add fuel to a fire.
"Loki i need to know more about Laufey and Ilkay. I know you don't like talking about them, and I know you've told me bits and pieces before, but I need the whole story, I need details about each of them. You've seen them in ways that no one else has before" Thor said, hoping Loki wouldn't feel like Thor was being pushy or invasive. But Loki just nodded and sat up more.
"Alright, sure" he said. "What kind of things do you want to know?" He asked, there was a lot that he could say about his psychotic birth parents.
"Anything. But I'd like to know more about Ilkay, Laufey has contact with us a lot, he's the one father told me about growing up, but I don't know much about Ilkay. I just need to know how they think so we can figure out what their plans might be" Thor told him, Loki nodded a bit, it made sense, and he was pretty sure he'd be able to give helpful information.
"Alright... well Ilkay is totally insane. As I told you a long time ago, she was a human when she met Laufey. But when the war was happening, when the frost giants were invading earth, she decided that the jotuns had the right idea. She met Laufey and aided him in destroying her own world, she believed that the frost giants were a higher being, and she wanted to be one of them" loki explained. Thor was surprised, when he heard Loki's mother was a human he sort of imagined that Laufey had kidnapped her, then she just started to become evil for some reason. It was really weird to hear that she actually wanted the jotuns to win and destroy earth.
"So she actually wanted to go with Laufey?" Thor asked. Loki nodded.
"She was in love with Laufey to the point of following him blindly" Loki said "I was..... conceived on earth, then after I was born and the war was over, Laufey did tests and experiments on her to make her into a frost giant. He didn't force her to do anything, she was the one who asked to be experimented on, she wanted to be a frost giant" Loki told Thor, trying to convey that she's crazy all on her own.
"And... did the experiments work?" Thor asked, he knew it wasn't important right now, but he was curious.
"You've never seen Ilkay have you?" Loki asked. Thor shook his head.
"Well when you see her you'll have to decide for yourself if you think it worked" Loki told him "anyway, the point is that she's crazy, she married Laufey willingly in order to gain power. And she's sneaky, she's not obvious like Laufey is, she might seem sweet when you meet her but in some ways she far worse than Laufey ever was" Loki added, he was able to speak pretty well about them, but he was starting to look uncomfortable and anxious. Of course it made sense, he's talking about how terrible these people were to him, he's thinking about the horrors of his life and all the while, in the back of his mind there's the thought that they're going to come here.
"Is she a soldier? Does she fight?" Thor asked, trying to shift the topic back onto more practical questions.
"I don't really know to be quite honest... she tricky, she's the kind of person who keeps everyone on their toes, no one really knows all that's she capable of. I've never seen her in combat, but I'd bet just about anything that she could do some serious damage."
Loki told him, his tone was pretty serious, and the way he talked about Ilkay made a chill run up Thor's spine. How did Loki survive these people for so long? How is he not dead? Or how did he not at very least go crazy?
"How about Laufey? What can we expect from him?" Thor asked. Loki nodded a bit.
"Laufey is more obvious. He's the kind of person who wants everyone to know just how powerful and dangerous he is, so very little of his scheming is kept hidden" loki explained. Thor nodded, Loki hadn't given him tons of information, by what he did give him was useful, especially the parts about Ilkay.
"Alright, I'll go speak to father and the rest of the council" he said as he turned to leave, Loki, however, followed him.
"I'm coming with you" Loki said. Thor stopped and turned back to Loki.
"Stay here until-" Loki didn't let him finish.
"I'm fine" Loki said.
"Loki your neck is bruised from me choking you, your eye is swollen half shut, and you're limping" Thor pointed out, and all of it was true. But Loki stood his ground.
"Look, I'm a member of the counsel, and I know Laufey and Ilkay the best. The whole conflict is centered around me, and I'm also the only person in this palace who ever thought of getting beaten half to death as part of the daily routine. You need me to be there because quite honestly, you people don't know who you're dealing with, but I do. Pain never stopped me from doing anything before, and it certainly won't now. I'm going" Loki said in a surprisingly authoritative tone, and Thor found himself not really wanting to argue.
"Alright, fine" Thor said, he wanted to tell Loki to do something just so he could keep some of the authority that was in the room, but he couldn't think of anything to say so he and Loki just left and headed to the meeting room.
Once they got there they saw that Odin was assembling the rest of the counsel, all of them were a little surprised that Loki was here, they assumed he'd be busy planning to run as far away from the palace as possible to avoid seeing Laufey, and honestly, that's exactly what Loki wanted to do, but he wasn't going to be a coward.
"I assume Thor has filled you in?" Odin asked Loki as everyone took their seats. Loki nodded.
"Yes sir he did" Loki said. By now everyone was looking at loki with a new curiosity. Why was he so beat up?
"what happened to you?" Jalil asked, who had been much more friendly ever since the issues with Laufey first came up.
"Training accident. Nothing to worry about" loki said, making it clear that he was shutting down the conversation.
Odin got the meeting started and began filling everyone in on what exactly was happening. Thor had already told all of this to Loki, so Loki's mind zoned out a little bit. He started remembering everything about his old life, the life he so much wanted to be able to forget, but it seemed that it was always being thrown in his face somehow... what would he do if Laufey tried to take him back? Would he be able to fight Laufey? He'd never ever tried to resist laufey, Laufey was the one person who he never, not even once tried to resist. He didn't know if he'd have the mental strength to do it, if Laufey was able to kidnap him then his life would be over. His mind continued to go down dark paths until the meeting was over. He hadn't been listening much, but he was pretty sure he already knew everything that was discussed, the only things they talked about were the things that Loki told Thor.
"That's all for now, until we know what Laufey really wants there's not much we can do, we can only be ready for them and be on guard. You're all dismissed" Odin said in conclusion. Loki was brought out of his thoughts as everyone got up to leave.
"When will he be coming?" Loki asked before everyone left. He wanted to at least know how much time he had to practice winning.
"We don't have a date yet, but sometime next week" Odin told him. Loki felt his stomach drop again. So soon?
He needed something to make him feel better, something to make him remember the good things about his life. Loki got up from his place and left the room, going to the gardens to find Trinity.