coffeemugsmash | So farewell to the King, farewell to the throne...

So farewell to the King, farewell to the throne...

Getting back to earth proved to be no easy task, but it was not impossible. The moment Loki appeared there, Heimdall was aware of his presence. Messengers were dispatched. Plans were put into place. Power summoned. The question was...would they be in time? Loki had already killed far too many people, an entire fortress collapsing after his arrival. They worked as fast as they could to get Thor back there to stop him.

As Loki entered the gala, a storm began to brew over the city. Wicked storm clouds forming in the otherwise clear sky. But they were too late to stop the attack inside. To stop the events elsewhere with Clint. As Loki began his speech to the people, forcing them to knee, an aurora flashed among the clouds. Followed by a bright flash of lightning.

"Look to your elder, people...." The words from the trickster rang out above the crowd. But as the staff came up, something red and black and furious streaked from the sky, landing with a thunderous crash in the middle of the crowd.

Disheveled and furious, Thor stood up, putting himself between Loki and the brave old man.

"Put the scepter down, brother!"

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It'd been going so well. His arrival rough as it was was just as he needed, Selvig in hand, the tesseract in easy grasp and even a capable agent of Shield to take for his own.

Fear and desire drove him, all that he did what what he needed to do to accomplish his goal, to capture his kingdom. He'd gotten a little carried away with the screams, so thrilled by their sound.

But now Thor stood before him. Pity. He'd hoped he wouldn't have to rush.

"Thor, just in time. As always." The words were bitter though he kept his vicious smile. "Come to save these wretches yourself?"

And there was his anger, burning in his gut and pushing to rise into his chest. His fingers gribbed the staff harder as he eyed the other.

Thor's hand shifted on his hammer, ready to strike should Loki make a move against all these people. He was meant to return the tesseract, and to take Loki back to Asgard. But he couldn't start making such demands when so many people could be injured in his brother's wrath. He needed to lure Loki away from the crowd.

"You have no quarrel with these people," he said, stepping toward Loki. "Leave them out of this!"

Loki's smile grew sharp as he watched his brother shift, clearly torn between the desire to defend and the knowledge that moving too soon would cause more harm than good.

"Quarrel? Tis naught but a lesson. A king says kneel" his voice rings out and those closest to him flinch away. "and his subjects do so."

Thor advanced further. The people around him were starting to take advantage of the distraction, pulling back from the pair as much as the rest of the terrified crowed would allow them.

"Is that what you think it is to rule?" His hand tightened on his hammer, expecting his brother to lash out at any moment.

"Is that not how you would do it, before your fall from grace? Before you became so soft!"

Loki lifts the staff and fires, arm rocking back as the energy blasts away from the sceptre. To Thors eyes, Loki advances, teeth bared in a mad grin as the true Loki side steps, lookin for an opening. Around them, the audience scream and run, scattering like exposed rats and Loki feels disgust thats not entirely his own.

Thor brings his hammer up to block the blast, but is only able to hold off the worst of it. He is forced backwards a few paces, only to have Loki bearing down on him immediately after. He lashes out. Not to attack but to block that wicked looking scepter.

Instead of metal meeting metal, his hammer strikes at empty air, the false Loki vanishing with a gold shimmer. The unexpected absence of resistance rocks him forward. Teeth grit hard, he twists, looking for the real one.

"Loki! I have no patience for your games!"

Another blast from Thor's left streaking towards him and this time Loki follows after, or seems to.

"It's not patience you will require, Thor!" He shouts throwing a magically charged blade towards the hammer weilding brute. Make him angry, make him react, make him lose his defenses. It was the only way to defeat Thor.

And react he did. Rolling out of the path of the blast, he failed to see the blade that was hurled at him. Instead, he was focused more on throwing his hammer. Aiming for his brother's midsection.

But the moment the hammer left his hand, searing pain erupted from his side. He staggered back, hand falling to the blade. Yanking it out, he hurled it to the ground.

The hammer passes through another illusion and Loki takes the opening, striking at Thor's wounded side with a hard yell, levering the sceptre, he strikes down, aiming for Thor's head.

Thor cries out as the still-healing wound is struck. He falls to one knee, strain obvious on his face. He doesn't have time to call his hammer back. Or to attack. His arm comes up, barely halting the staff.

"It doesn't have to be this way! You can come home, Loki!" But even as he speaks he thrusts out his free hand, calling his hammer back to him.

"Home to a place where I never stood as equal?" Loki snapped pressing down before stepping backk, bringing the other end to strike Thor in the chest.

"Home to a place where I am but a monster? Why would I wish to go home with you?"

He snatched the hammer just in time to be struck. He was thrown back by the force, tumbling across the pavement. He pushed himself to his feet, ready for another attack.

"You are no monster to me, brother! You never have been! Stop this madness before you turn such a lie to truth!"

"I am not your brother!" He shouted back. "I never was. Or has the Allfather continued to lie to you?" With a shout he fires another blast at Thor. He can hear engines, the approach of an aircraft. Loki fires again and spinrs to shoot at the approaching SHIELD craft.

Having no idea what a blast from that thing could do to a person, he wasn't about to learn first hand. He dove out of the path of the blast, landing in a crouch. "We were raised together!" He shouted. "We played together, we fought together. Do you remember none of--"

But another blast came, this one he could only move to deflect with the hammer. He was getting rather weary of this fight. And the appearance of the strange aircraft could be nothing good. Growling, he thrust his hammer skyward, the clouds responding with a thunderous clap and flash of lightning. Whipping the weapon around by the strap, a vicious wind started to kick up.

The craft swerved and over the sounds of the sudden ferice winds came a voice. "Loki, lay down your weapons." Something thin appeared from it's belly and Loki sneered, firing again.

But Thor's distraction was well timed. Hammer spinning, the other wouldn't be able to stop him as Loki approached, veild as his illusion shouted over the winds. "I'll just leave this to you shall I?"

Thor didn't know what that thing was, but he wasn't prepared to take any chances. The wind might disorient the craft, but trying to throw it to the ground would risk too many lives. There were still far too many people on the streets. He stopped the spinning to instead grasp the hammer by the hilt, thrusting it up once more. Loki's words nearly lost in the responding thunder clap.

"Brother...." he warned with a growl, too focused on the aircraft and gathering power above him to seek out the source of Loki's voice. "...We can stop this. You and I. Together."

"That we will." The voice came from closer than Thor may have expected, Loki appearing sceptre in one hand, the other hand clamped around Thor's wrist.Someting was fighting in Loki's eyes, their usual hue more blue than green. The tip wavered, barley an inch from Thor's chest.

"Though not the way you may hope."

The sceptre moved foreward and tapped Thor's chest, humming with power.

It happened too fast. Loki was too close, and too much of Thor's power was focused in the clouds above. Even through the leather of his light armor, he could feel the power coming off that thing. He'd been warned about the staff, but not the full details--he'd been in too much of a hurry to listen to the full report. He only knew that a blast at such a range was very like to kill him. If he brought down the power from above to stop his brother, it would be just the same.

He tried wrenching his arm free. Tried shoving his brother away. "Loki, don't!" He demanded, releasing the power he'd summoned above him.

The Scepter pressed and pulsed and Loki's will and Thor's mind merged, one filling and subjugating the other.

Loki watched for the blue to fill the others eyes and for a moment trembled. What had he done? What had he done?

What was neccesarry a voice whispered in his mind, one that he'd assumed was his own.

Stepping back, Loki waited to feel victorious, to feel like he'd won. Waited to see if it had worked.

The sudden shock of the power registered first. His entire body stiffened, eyes going wide. It did not feel as though something were merely trying to invade his mind, but force all that was him out. Pain, unlike anything he'd felt, as that alien power forced its way into his heart.

He tried to fight it. Lightning crackled overhead as he lost his grip on his hammer. It dropped to the pavement behind him, cracking it from such force. All of his power instead focused on fighting back. It only made the pain worse.

He managed to choke out his brother's name. Trying to ask why he would have done such a thing. But the shadow overtook him before he could say any more. Without Loki's support, he fell to his knees. Still trying to fight. A battle against a force he knew nothing about. A battle he had no weapons to fight. But the betrayal took away one of the few things he could have used to hold it off.

As he felt himself slipping away, falling under that immense power, he looked up just as that blue glow started to reach his eyes. His face said it all, though he could not speak it.

"How could you?"

The tension faded at last, as his eyes were entirely consumed. Looking far more composed than he had since arriving, he rose to his feet. Pausing only long enough to pick up the fallen hammer.

A piece of him still remained, trapped behind the immense power that commanded him. Watching. Helpless.

How could he indeed?

Loki felt all at once hollow, all his anger and desire estinguished with Thor's free will. Loki gaped at Thor's body, shocked to the core. He stepped back, trying to summon a smile. He'd done it. Thor was beneath him. this was a victory... it should feel like one but...

Something pushed at Loki's chest, an agony somewhere deep cracked at the shell he'd built around his heart. His breath hitched and it broke through. With a despairing yell, Loki span and fired at the SHIELD vessel, striking at it's wing. He fired at the crimson and gold figure again and again until he struck true and sent the man of Iron flying.

It didn't help. Loki could still feel it, still feel Thor there. He could feel the betrayal.

Turning back to Thor... Loki's composure started to crumble.

"No... No. Fight back. Fight back!"

Only mild confusion passed over Thor's features. Fight back? Against what? Loki had just defeated both possible targets. Under the power, he understood. He could see it. Distantly. He didn't know the full situation. He wasn't even in full possession of his mind. A mere fragment of himself that managed to hold on, to not be forced out. Not enough to rationalize, only react. Responding to the raw emotion in Loki's force. He pushed back as hard as he could, fighting with all he had left.

On the outside, however, Thor only gave a wince of pain. As though he'd been struck in the temple. Shaking it off, he reached to take his brother's arm. "We need to get out of here," was all he said.

Loki jerked away and struck Thor in the face with the end of the sceptre.

"No. Fight back! FIGHT BACK!" He roared the words and struck out again. Whatever rationality Loki had left was snapping, the vicious mess of confliction emotions tearing him apart from the inside out. Tears marked his cheeks as he dropped the sceptre.

"Fight back, Thor! Fight..." He gripped the others checkplate and pulled.

"Come back..."

Thor merely accepted the strikes. Even as one drew a bloody gash across his cheek. He did nothing to stop it as that sudden pain erupted in his head again. As that small piece of himself fought with more ferocity than Loki showed.

He placed a massive hand on his brother's shoulder. His voice still calm and collected. "We do not have time for this. There will be others coming."

Edited 2012-08-05 14:59 (UTC)

Something in Loki breaks and he knows what he's done. His head feels clear, terribly so and he knows... He knows just what he's done.

"No..." He said weakly as he sank down to his knees. "It's not supposed to feel like this. I've won. I've won..." He looked up at the blank faced Thor.

"Didn't I?"

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