The Blood Between Us (Loki/Avengers)

Meet Loki, the Escape Artist (1)

Meet Loki, the Escape Artist (1)

~LOKI~

The guard must have had enough of my mouthing off, so he retreated to the far corner of the prison wing and promptly disappeared, excusing himself to "have lunch."

Excellent.

I leaned my back against the corner of the cell, the cold seeping in through my thin shirt. I'd carefully arranged myself to look inconspicuous; leaning back, relaxed, legs spread in front of me. Of course, what I was actually doing was making a mental map of an escape route, and without the guard blocking my view, I could see up the staircase leaning down here and into the main corridor of the palace.

Of course, I'd been stuck here for over twelve human months, so I had a pretty good idea of the palace.

As well, there'd been whispers of a threat coming against Asgard. I couldn't decipher much, but I did manage to snag something about cohorts of dark elves from Svartalfheim, and destruction on the edges of both Asgard and Earth. I had tried pressing the gossipy wardens for more information, but they had not been as stupid as I'd hoped, and refused to keep talking to me for the rest of the day.

But no matter. I could barely hide my excitement. Today, I would be free.

However, there was still the matter of deciding where I was to go. The realm of humans, or Midgard, was immediately out. Svartalfheim? I couldn't stand elves. All three realms of the dead were out of the question, as well as Muspelheim, that fire pit.

But what about...there? Where the wormhole had brought me after the Bifröst incident? I immediately shook that thought away. That was not an option.

I made myself look annoyed and shouted, "I am hungry! When is the next meal?"

The guard returned and scowled, but otherwise ignored me.

"Are you deaf?"I asked incredulously.

This provoked him further. "It is coming. I'd have though you'd gained a bit of patience, what with being stuck in that cell for the rest of your life."

Anger snapped like a whip inside me, but I knew by now not to take insults personally. I was about to call back a rude retort when another guard rushed down the steps and began talking quickly to my current warden in a low voice. I had to concentrate to hear him, but I managed to get the words, "The Allfather requests to see the prisoner."

My guard sent me a bewildered glance, and began talking hurriedly back to the messenger. He repeated himself, and the guard finally marched over to my cell and flung open the door.

"On your feet," he ordered, yanking me up by the arm. I let him haul me up, but stumbled into his side as he started walking. He shoved me off of him, growling, "Mind yourself, wretch."

"I have not eaten in a day!" I snapped, backing away from the guard as he grabbed my wrist and lurched me forward.

Neither of them noticed that my warden's dagger was missing as I tucked it carefully into the waistband of my pants.

We were at the top of the stairs when I made my move.

In a single, fluid motion, I grabbed the dagger and slashed my guard across the face. He fell back and tumbled down the stairs. The messenger drew his own knife and tried to bring me in, but I threw my weapon onto the man's thigh. He yelled and tried to throw his own knife, but the pain had incapacitated him, rendering him defenseless. I strode up to him and belted him over the head, and he fell, unconscious. I heard the guard picking himself up, and I instantly flew down the stairs and knocked him out as well. Once they were both out, I slid their clothes and the messenger's helmet over me, as well as removing my dagger from the man's leg.

I walked quickly through the palace, and no one batted an eye at me, thinking I was just the messenger. Making my way through the painfully familiar corridors of the castle, I scanned my memory for a possible device allowing transportation between the realms. But nothing was there.

And then it hit me. The Tesseract.

That, of course, would be kept in the treasure hoard where the Casket was also kept. I navigated through the place and approached the dark room, cold emanating from its walls. The two guards posted there immediately crossed their spears in front of the ancient doors. "Halt!" one commanded, "Who goes there?"

"Messenger of the Allfather," I replied, raising my voice a pitch. "Here to monitor the Tesseract."

The guards nodded and lowered their spears. I swept past them and into the treasure room, dark memories making my paces falter.

"Am I cursed?"

"...No."

I shook my head and purposefully stayed away from that train of thought, when I came across a room bathed in blue light. Barely able to reign in my excitement, I pushed open the door -

- and nearly ran into Heimdall.

His face was stern, but his ethereal orange eyes cut into me like javelins. He was conveniently positioned in front of the Tesseract. Anger rolled inside me, as I'd forgotten about the all-seer problem. "Is this an object of fascination, Loki?" he asked.

Wasting no time, I slashed at his right arm, trying to disable him from being able to lift his spear. He darted to the side and leveled his spear at me, the end glowing dangerously. I lunged and lifted the weapon at the ceiling, far away from my face. We wrestled for control as the spear shot beams of light into the ceiling over and over again, the rock above us starting to crack. With one more blast of light, pieces of the ceiling started falling with a rumble. Heimdall seized the opportunity and hooked me over the head with his spear. My vision flashed and I lurched to my feet, ignoring the pain, and pushed him into the path of a falling mass of rock. It landed on top of him, knocking the all-seer to the ground as well as making him pass out. I kicked the spear out of his reach and darted over to the glowing blue cube, which had an energy modification device added to the pedestal.

I set to work immediately, setting the mode to inter-realm transport. A list of possible realms popped up, and I decided on Vanaheim, the blue lable sitting in between Asgard's and Midgard's. I was about to select it, when an all-too familiar voice echoed down the halls.

"Loki!" bellowed Thor.

I whipped around enough to see my hand slip and select the word Midgard.

"Damn you, Thor!" I snarled as I tried to change the realm, but the Tesseract was already lighting up with power, the glow surrounding me as well. Before I was shot off into space, I saw the silhouette of powerful broad shoulders, long and shaggy blond hair, and a levelling warhammer, when I was pulled roughly between the universes.

~~~~

Travelling by Tesseract, I realized, was alot less comfortable than travelling by Bifröst.

Instead of taking me directly to the ground, it let me off fifty feet above the ground, which did not make for a pleasant landing. I groaned as I picked myself off the dirt, the fall that would have killed a human instantly had only probably given me a large bruise. I brushed some unruly black hair out of my face and gathered my surroundings.

I appeared to have crashed on the outskirts of a large and familiar city, and I realized that this was the city that I'd staged my attack on the Earth. The same place where I'd had the Tesseract secured, and victory was imminent. The place where I'd been beaten horribly by SIX human outcasts with their own pathetic little weapons.

Frustration welled up inside of me, and I realized that I was now on the same planet as the six guardians and about another million other humans who would love to kill me. And now, I had no way to get off this ball of rock.

"Oh, wonderful," I spat as I took a seat on the grass, trying to determine my next move.

(A/N What do you guys think so far? Let me know below (vvvvv) *wink*)