Chapter 18: "Treason of the Highest Order"
The next day, Thor approached his father who was currently involved in a meeting with a few other palace guards and warriors to discuss what remained of Asgard's defense tactics after the Dark Elves attack.
"My King, we are all but defenseless," Fandral warned, gloomily looking to Odin for understanding.
Odin pondered the fate of Asgard quietly, before being interrupted by Thor.
"She is your prisoner now?" Thor asked, glaring at Odin with utter hatred. "Leave us," he demanded to the others who stood watching the exchange. They all quickly left as Odin unwillingly discussed the subject with his son.
Odin walked down the stairs of the dilapidated throne room and away from Thor as he spoke. "I do not wish to fight with you."
"Nor I with you," Thor stated, following his father before continuing. "But, I intend to pursue Malekith."
"We have the Aether. Malekith will come to us," Odin responded glibly.
"Yes, and he will destroy us," Thor replied, getting irritated at his father's arrogance.
Odin continued to ignore Thor's pleas, as he insisted the Elves were not a major threat, so long as they didn't possess the Aether.
Thor simply stated that he valued the meaning of Asgardian lives and does not want to risk anymore of his people dying. "I'll take Jane to the Dark World, and draw the enemy away from Asgard. When Malekith pulls the Aether from Jane, it will be exposed and vulnerable, and I will destroy it and him," Thor assured, having well thought through his plan.
"If you fail, you risk this weapon falling into the hands of our enemies," he reprimanded, banging his staff against the ground in an authoritative manner.
"The risk is far greater if we do nothing," he explained, trying to appeal to his father. "His ship could be over our heads right now, and we would never even know it."
Odin simply denied Thor's idea and stated that, "if and when he comes, his men will fall on 10,000 Asgardian blades."
"And how many of our men shall fall on theirs?" Thor reprimanded, watching as his father grew irritable.
"AS MANY AS ARE NEEDED!" Odin roared, silencing Thor in his attempts. "Ah. We will fight! Till the last Asgardian breath. Till the last drop of Asgardian blood."
Thor then looked up at his father from where he stood with a defeated look spread across his face. "Then how are you different from Malekith?"
Odin chuckled arrogantly at his son. "The difference, my son, is that I will win."
Odin then walked away, leaving Thor overpowered and defeated, but ready to plan out his next move.
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After the pointless talk with his father, Thor had sat in a tavern on the outskirts of the castle, awaiting Heimdall's arrival.
He had decided that since Odin had denied his request and in doing so had put the Bifrost on lockdown, Thor would go to Plan B to accomplish his task. He had scheduled a meeting to discuss the other ways off of Asgard and who knew of them.
Upon seeing Heimdall approaching, he spoke. "You were not at Odin's war council."
"The Bifrost is closed by your father's orders. No one is to come, or to go," Heimdall informed, setting his helmet down on the table before sitting down in the chair diagonal to Thor and gazing off into the distance. "We face an enemy that is invisible even to me. What use is a guardian such as that?"
"Malekith will return, you know this," Thor began, looking pleadingly into Heimdall's eyes. "I need your help."
"I cannot overrule my king's wishes. Not even for you." Heimdall explained, silently wishing he could be of more help.
"I'm not asking you to. the realms need their Allfather strong and unchallenged, whether he is or not. But he is blinded, Heimdall, by hatred and by grief."
Heimdall nodded, stating that they all were, before continuing to listen to Thor.
"Well, I see clearly enough," Thor assured, continuing on with informing Heimdall of his plan.
"The risks are too great," Heimdall warned, understanding Thor's want to commit treason for the greater good of Asgard.
"Everything we do from here on is a risk. There is no other way."
Heimdall looked down, deep in thought at Thor's proposition before speaking. "What do you require of me?"
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Adaline slowly began to awaken, completely unaware of the battle that had taken place.
Her body was still extremely overheated even for herself, and still needed cooling down, but she had managed to gain consciousness once again. She still felt extremely weary, but as she sat up from where she lay on a hard bed, she was quickly stopped in her movements by a healer demanding she lay back down.
"Where am I?" she asked, wiping her eyes and looking around startled by not knowing where she now was.
"Thor brought you in. You had passed out, Lady Adaline."
At that moment Thor walked in, surprised to find Adaline awake, before moving to pick her up into his arms.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you. She is still burning up," the healer warned , watching as Thor still continued in his actions.
"I have a remedy," Thor replied before leaving the room and walking down a few hallways before walking into another room with a dining table.
Adaline was currently unable to stand as she still was trying to gain some of her strength back, so she watched as Thor sat her down at the table beside Fandral.
Thor had filled her in on everything that had happened and Adaline felt immense pain upon hearing of Frigga's death. She worried if Loki was tearing himself up inside from her passing. She hoped he wasn't.
She leaned against Fandral's shoulder in pure exhaustion, noticing that Sif, Heimdall, and Volstagg were present as well.
Fandral, noticing her eyes drooping and her weary stature, wrapped his arm around Adaline letting her rest against him comfortingly as Thor began to speak, proposing his plan of escape, that would inevitably help Asgard for the better.
"What I am about to ask of you is treason of the highest order. Success will bring us exile, and failure shall mean our death. Malekith knew the Aether was here. He can sense its power. If we do nothing, he will come for it again but this time, lay waste to all of Asgard," he paused, looking around at each of his friends. "We must move Jane off-world."
"The Bifrost has been shut down and the tesseract locked away in the vault," Sif spoke, confused on how they would even be able to leave Asgard.
Heimdall spoke up from where he stood behind Thor. "There are other paths off of Asgard. Ways only known to a few."
"One, actually," Thor added, noticing the widened eyes of everyone at the table, except for Adaline, who was currently paying attention on saving her energy.
Everyone began to look at each other as they pondered the risky idea. Adaline, now with some newfound strength, sat up on her own. She hadn't necessarily been paying attention, but noticing the eerie silence, assumed it had to do with Loki. This information made her excited, but she didn't dare show it to the others, instead sitting in silence as her heart began to flutter at the thought of seeing him again.
"No," Volstagg exclaimed, breaking the silence and staring at Thor with bewildered eyes.
From beside Adaline, Fandral now spoke, voicing his thoughts. "He will betray you."
"He will try." Thor then continued to explain his plan to get Jane off-world.
Fandral then sat back, crossing his arms over his chest. "Well, what then? Your lovely mortal is being guarded by a legion of Einherjar who will see you coming from miles away."
"I won't be the one who comes for her," Thor replied, before looking over at Sif who couldn't believe what she was hearing. Sif despised the mortal and to be honest, was quite jealous of Thor's love for her.
Sif rolled her eyes, now accepting her duty and proposed another question . "And what of the Allfather?"
Heimdall simply replied that it was his duty to notify Odin of all crimes against the throne.
"Assuming you can get Loki's help, and you can free this mortal, what good would it do?" Volstagg posed, getting slightly unnerved by how the plan was not very well thought out and obviously had plenty of risks. "We'd all be dead the minute we set one foot outside the palace."
"That, my friend, is why we won't be leaving by foot."
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As Thor walked up to stand beside the barrier of Loki's cell, he could easily tell that something wasn't right.
Loki stood with an arrogant smirk, staring back at Thor from inside the enclosure.
Thor found it odd for Loki, who had just lost his mother, who he loved dearly, and did not know what his beloved Adaline's fate currently was, to be so composed and so cocky was not what he expected, so he immediately knew this was another one of Loki's tricks.
"Thor. After all this time and now you come to visit me," Loki sneered, with his hands behind his back as he glared at his brother before continuing. "Why?" he hissed, leaning slightly forward in a foolish attempt to threaten Thor. "Have you come to gloat? To mock?"
Thor just stared at his brother with depressed eyes as his brows slightly furrowed at Loki's illusion. "Loki, enough. No more illusions."
Loki's apparition widened his eyes before closing them and slowly fading away to reveal the room and all its furniture lay in shambles. Loki sat leaning against the white prison walls. His hair was a frizzy mop atop his head and his eyes were bloodshot from the tears he had cried.
"Now you see me, brother," he muttered, watching as Thor walked around to the barrier that Loki was sitting closest to. "Did she suffer?"
Loki did not bother to mention who he specifically was talking about but figured that Thor would think he was talking about Frigga. While he still did not know the fate of Adaline, he hoped that Thor would try not to cover up if something had happened to her.
"I did not come here to share our grief. Instead I offer you the chance of a far richer sacrament."
Loki tilted his heads at his words, intending to hear him out before speaking. "Go on."
"I know you seek vengeance as much as I do. You help me escape Asgard and I will grant it to you." Thor said now looking at Loki who still lay on the floor in despair. "Vengeance, and afterward, this cell."
Loki gazed around the room, deep in thought at Thor's proposal. He then looked back at Thor then at the ground once more before chuckling grimly. "You must be truly desperate to come to me for help."
Thor then took a few steps away as Loki continued to speak.
"What makes you think you can trust me?"
"I don't. Mother did, and Adaline still does." Thor paused. "But you should know that when we fought each other in the past, I did so with a glimmer of hope that my brother was still in there somewhere. That hope no longer exists to protect you. You betray me, and I will kill you."
Upon hearing that Adaline was alive, Loki's heart leaped as he slightly ignored the rest of the words that followed. Thor's words confirmed that she was alive, not necessarily what state she was in , but it gave him a sense of hope and he couldn't wait to see her.
He wanted to ask her why she didn't visit him or hear from her at any point from the others.
Getting back to the conversation, Loki gave a mischievous smile as he gazed at Thor, humming in thought. "When do we start?"
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Last edited - 9/7/20
2,012 words
Author's Note // next few updates may be behind on getting publishing. My laptop has crashed for some reason and I am trying to get it sorted out as quickly as possible. Thank you all for your patience.