Chapter 8: Distrust
~∫ Thor ∫~
Thor watched his brother leave, his thoughts confused. Loki was right; his friends
constantly looked to him for direction, rarely heeding Loki. He heard their
movement as they all jumped up the instant Loki left the room, walking towards him
all starting to speak at once.
"I do not know why..."
"He is not right, we do..."
"But why did you..."
"STOP!" Thor silenced them with one word. "Enough, my brother is right. You do not
offer him the respect he deserves. Others look up to you, follow your lead, so when
you act as if he is not truly the king of Asgard, others give him even less respect. You
undermine his authority, and that is not right."
His friends looked at one another before finally Sif spoke up. "But you do not trust
him. I do not trust him. I am surprised that he did not kill you when he had the
chance, for he has tried many times. Why should we trust him now?"
"I do trust him, Sif. He is my brother and..." Thor paused as he considered his next
words, knowing he needed to explain why he continued to feel loyalty to his brother
despite all his previous transgressions. "My family has not done right by him. Odin
did lie to him. I did not know of his parentage, but I always acted like I was the only
one fit to rule. Father did say we were both truly kings. Loki..."
"Loki is mad." Volstagg finally spoke. "He is hell bent on ruling everyone and
everything. If he got his hands on the six stones...."
"The stones? He wouldn't... but..." Speaking under his breath more so than to his
friends, Thor voiced these words and suddenly knew where Loki had been headed.
Not bothering to explain what he was doing, he raced out of the room and headed
towards the Vault.
"See!" Sif shouted after him. "I told you!"
He heard the words but heeded them not at all. Racing down the hallways, he
headed to the vaults where Odin had stored relics. It was also were the Tesseract
had been placed.
He entered the vaults. To the right lay the Tesseract, to the left were other relics. He
did not hesitate; turning left he headed for one specific room.
~§~ Lady Sif ~§~
The four friends looked at each other as Thor raced out of the room.
Sif did not regret her comment. She was certain Loki was off to grab the Tesseract.
She wondered what he would do with it once he had control of it once again. She
looked at the men still in the room and shouted, "Come on! We had better follow
them. Thor is bound to need help if Loki gets his hands on that Tesseract!" She took
off down the hallway after Thor followed closely by the other three.
Thor had the advantage and was far ahead of them. They saw him racing down the
hallways towards the vaults, but he quickly outdistanced them. Not deterred, Sif
kept running as fast as she could and knew the others were at her heels.
Reaching the vaults, she entered and took the first right heading towards the
chamber holding the Tesseract. Entering into the chamber Sif saw the Tesseract. She
looked around the chamber only to discover it was empty.
Volstagg, Hogun and Fandral ran into the chamber behind her and quickly
surrounded the Tesseract.
Sif finally spoke. "Where are they?" She had been certain this was where Loki and
Thor were headed. To not find them in here completely caught her by surprise.
"I do not know." Volstagg voice expressed the disbelief that they had not discovered
Thor and Loki in this chamber continuing their argument. "We saw Thor heading
this way. There is no other place down here they could have gone to. They must be
somewhere in the vaults, but where?" He gestured to the Tesseract. "And it's still
here, untouched."
Sif considered what Thor had said to them back in the council chamber. "Do you
think Thor is right? That Loki has changed?"
Hogun snorted. "He will never change. He has tried to kill Thor many times. He
craves power."
"But he is the king now; I wonder if that is not enough," Sif was trying to be
reasonable, thinking over what Thor had said to them. It still went against her
beliefs having seen how Loki treated Thor in the past, but she did trust Thor.
"So what if he is king, he is not the rightful king," Volstagg started shouting. "Odin's
firstborn and chosen son was Thor. He was all set to pass over the rule when Loki let
those frost giants in the first time, getting Thor banished to Earth. Then, he let them
in again to kill Odin."
"But he did kill Laufey, before Laufey could kill Odin." Sif countered. "He did save
Odin in the end. Perhaps he realized his mistake."
"That was no mistake Sif," Volstagg was adamant. "It made him look good to 'save'
Odin. And remember, Laufey was his father. He knew that by then, yet he killed his
own father. Why stop there? He tried to kill Thor later on Earth. He has no reason,
and thus we have no reason to follow him. Who knows, maybe he even killed Odin!"
Sif gasped; shocked that Volstagg would even say something like that. "How can you
say that?"
"Why not? Think about it,Sif; he kills off Odin before Thor returns. Thor is confused
over that mortal, Jane Foster. Loki needs only to talk to him a bit; you know that
silver tongue of Loki's. He probably convinced Thor that he doesn't want to rule and
thinks Loki will be a better ruler. Really? Look at the mess he caused with the
Chitauri. That is no ruler."
"But how did Loki survive? Has anyone thought of that? First he fell into that
wormhole only to show up on Earth." Fandral finally chimed into the conversation.
"Then Thor asked for his help against Malekith and Thor returned to say he had died
on Svartalfheim. That's the second time he's disappeared to only reappear again.
Thor is too trusting of his brother. I think Volstagg is right, there is something amiss
here."
Sif considered everything her friends had said and reached a final decision. "We
need to watch Loki, every step he takes. Thor is blinded by his love for his brother.
So now the question is, where are they?"