Scene 4. Loki and Steve stranded in San Francisco

Original placement: end of Chapter 44 – Troubled Minds

The military didn't know what to do with them. After several minutes of heated exchanges among the soldiers, a profoundly irritated major insisted Thor, Loki and Rogers head over to a truck parked by a ditch about a couple hundred feet down the road from the site of the battle. The truck's cab and chassis was painted to blend with the terrain and a layer of undyed canvas formed the roof of the back section. Loki scrunched up his nose as he climbed inside. The back of the truck reeked of stale sweat and swamp water; it was probably best not to dwell on who had been the truck's last passengers. The three of them shuffled to spots on the benches that ran along each side — the same spots they had chosen for themselves back on the quinjet.

'You had best stay in here until orders are relayed to us,' said an infantry man who had positioned himself across the path off the truck. Through the gap in the canvas behind him, Loki could see more men constantly moving about. They weren't officially being held, but they weren't exactly free to leave either.

'Lord Almighty,' Rogers muttered, 'this place actually feels familiar.'

'The back of an unwashed vehicle?' Thor asked while Loki had to stifle a chuckle.

'I've spent a lot of time in the back of filthy trucks. This one does look sturdier than the ones I remember struggling through every pothole in Europe.'

Loki cocked his head. 'How long exactly has it been since they defrosted you?'

'Seven weeks,' Rogers replied, not quite meeting Loki or Thor's gaze.

Thor seemed to be mulling over what should be the appropriate response this information, but studying Rogers' drawn lips and furrowed forehead, Loki got the inkling that Rogers wouldn't appreciate a pair of aliens offering commentary on his situation. Loki crossed his arms together and glanced to the armed man in front of the exit — Esposito, according to his name tag.

'Do you have a mobile phone on you?' Loki asked. 'They gave you one, right?'

Rogers winced. 'They did. I left it on the table back in the bunker; not really used to carrying it around just yet.'

'Where've SHIELD been keeping you?' Loki asked. 'As much as I appreciated the hospitality of the local military, we need to rendezvous with Coulson and his people. Or we can encamp at Stark's? I hear he has a fine tower all to himself.'

'Tony Stark lives in New York. That's where I've spent the past seven weeks also. It's on the other side of the country,' Rogers replied. 'I do have Coulson's number memorised.'

'Well, that's something,' Loki muttered. He rose from his seat and walked over to their unofficial guard, who twitched a little at Loki's approach, but said nothing. 'Private Esposito, is it? Could we trouble you for a phone we could use for a few minutes?'

'Hang on,' the private said gruffly. He called over his shoulder to the soldiers working in the vicinity of the truck. After a few exchanges well-peppered with crude language, someone thrust a mobile phone through the gap between the canvas flaps. Esposito took it and offered it to Loki.

Loki had never actually used one of these though he had seen them used often enough. He glanced at the buttons and the coloured screen. The numbers looked like the standard ones used across much of Midgard, the rest of the symbols left him mystified. He had seen people make phone calls plenty of times, but he had never paid particularly close attention to the process. Swallowing his pride, he handed the phone to Rogers.

'I hope I get this right,' Rogers remarked as he gingerly began pressing buttons. Someone had been intelligent enough to take him through the process, but didn't go over it enough to make Rogers comfortable with what he was doing. After a dozen buttons, Rogers pressed the phone against his ear and waited. Long seconds trickled by. Rogers pulled the phone away. 'There's no one picking up the line, it just keeps ringing.'

'Try again.'

Rogers nodded and repeated the process with the buttons. This time the seconds seemed to stretch out even longer and Rogers' darker. Then he jerked in his seat. 'Hello?'

A crackle on the other side of the line.

'Hello, Natasha,' Rogers said, his voice becoming calmer. 'I was actually after Agent Coulson. We are in a dire need of a lift back to base.'

Rogers nodded along to whatever Romanoff was telling him; the sound didn't carry well enough for Loki to make out the words. After a minute he pressed his fingers over the bottom half of the phone and whispered. 'She's on her way.'

'Good,' Loki replied.

> Why the scene was cut: In the first draft of the San Francisco battle, I did have Thor stay back rather than pursue Ebony Maw and Tyr. Halfway through writing this scene I realised that having Thor around offers no benefit – he fades from the scene and you barely even notice. At that point I knew that I had to rewrite the end of the San Francisco battle sequence and much of the aftermath. This scene was the first thing to go. It had some interesting dialogue from Steve, but the rest of it didn't work for me. I couldn't see Loki meekly allow himself to be shuffled into a truck and far too much time is spent on making a simple phone call.

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Scene 5. Loki and Thor have a late-night chat

Original Placement: end of Chapter 46 – A King's Oaths

Loki got through three pages of SHIELD's briefs and half a mug of tea before he was interrupted.

'Brother, a word if it's not too much trouble?' Thor asked. He stood in the doorway, fiddling with the strap of his left vambrace. At Loki's nod, he took a place at the dining table beside Loki, but continued fidgeting. 'There is something I must ask of you before... Well, it concerns whatever might come in the future generally.'

Loki raised his eyebrows. 'Please, do keep me in suspense until the next millennium.'

'This isn't an easy subject and I don't have your way with words, Loki.' Thor jerked his hand away from his vambrace, as if he's just become conscious of what he'd been doing. 'Over the past few months I've thought a great deal about Jotunheim. I do appreciate the lengths you went to in order to rescue me, but I must ask you never to do that again.'

'What are you talking about?'

'You ordered Heimdall to unleash the Bifrost upon Jotunheim. You were ready to sacrifice all the Jotnar in exchange for my life.'

'They threw me away when my existence became inconvenient,' Loki replied. 'It was fair retribution.'

'No, it wasn't.'

Loki cocked his head at his brother's sharp change of tone. 'Where does the sudden affection for the frost giants come from?'

'You're a frost giant too, Loki,' Thor said. Loki was about to respond, but Thor motioned for Loki to wait his turn. 'My request to you has nothing to do with frost giants, but since you asked. When they first captured me, I couldn't see anything and only heard snippets. Once they brought me to Utgard, however, Sigran gave me back my sight and hearing. During the time they kept me in Laufey's Hall, I was witness to all the comings and goings in that house. It didn't take long to see how life in Laufey's House mirrored life inside the palace on Asgard, although the Jotnar were poorer and more desperate. They weren't beasts we read about in our storybooks, just people like any other. They do not deserve condemnation for what Laufey did to you.'

Loki couldn't refute that. The fate he inflicted on the inhabitants of Utgard had nagged at him from the moment he had dragged Thor back to Asgard. The fact that his half-sister was supposed to be ruling in Jotunheim, when Byleistr and his two children had been ahead in the line of succession, didn't bode well. He wrapped his hands around his mug. 'They could've found a way to be rid of Laufey if they found his governance distasteful. Asgardians were quick to do so with me.'

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

Thor's expression darkened, then he drew his head back until he peered up at the air conditioning vent above them.

'And that is another matter that reinforced my conviction,' he said. 'I'm used to you telling me tall tales. So when you first told me what happened on Asgard during my absence, I thought you exaggerated and assumed it was likely about half of what you said was true. What an unpleasant surprise truth was when the trials began. I was almost glad you weren't there to hear the bitterness pouring out of Tyr.'

'And thus, the frost giants are not wholly evil and the Asgardians are not wholly good? Is that your great revelation?'

'Mock me all you like, brother.'

Loki sipped his rapidly cooling tea. 'It's not half as fun when you are ready to roll over and take it.'

'Ah, so that's the secret?' A shadow of a smile crossed Thor's face, but he forced himself to remain sombre. 'There's one more thing I think you should consider. It regards your blood father. The day before you rescued me, Laufey and his sorceress had a conversation up on the peak that didn't make sense to me then, I understand it now. Laufey spoke of his regret at having to give up a child he named Farbautisson and his elation at the child's return. He was contemplating giving the child large territories of govern after the war was finished.'

'It was a trick, nothing more. Eventually he would have revealed to you that I had switched sides, causing you further mental anguish. Laufey didn't believe for a second what I told him.'

'Maybe he didn't. But maybe he wanted to believe you.'

Loki thought back to his last interaction with his birth father and Laufey's outburst at Loki's betrayal. There had been genuine anger there — too raw to derive from dispassionate calculation. Loki had touched on a nerve with the old frost giant, but there was no telling now what nerve Loki's knife had struck.

'Do you think I shouldn't have killed him?' Loki asked.

Thor leaned back in his chair. 'That, I don't know.'

Loki shrugged and silence fell between them, interrupted only by Loki gulping down the rest of his tea before it cooled completely and became unpalatable.

Thor drummed his fingers along the polished tabletop. 'It seems there was a lot we didn't get a chance to discuss before you rushed off. We've rather strayed from the purpose of this conversation, haven't we? Would you give me your word, brother? Should whatever the Mad Titan have in store overwhelm us, you won't trade my life for Midgard.'

'You're being ridiculous.'

'I was raised a warrior. I proclaim myself the Protector of the Nine Realms. It would be an honour to see the fields of Valhalla if my death assures the lives of the people of this realm.'

Long live the petty brat I saw crowned a year ago. This is the Thor I lost the first time around.

Loki could scarcely breathe around the lump at the base of his throat. Did he have to explain the measures he had taken to ensure Thor's survival? He had come back to undo the devastation Thanos had inflicted upon the universe, yes. He had come back to make up for his part in Thanos' victory too. But most fundamentally, he had thrown himself back into the past because Thor had been lost to him. Thor — who had always forgiven him for the tricks, the lies, the betrayals and the cruelties Loki inflicted upon him. Thor, who had remained once their mother, their father, their home and their people had perished. And now Thor wanted Loki to agree to let him die?

No, absolutely not. The thought nauseated Loki.

And yet, wasn't that the same kind of callousness towards every other living being in the universe that the Avengers had displayed? He had heard the story — the Avengers had handed the Mind Stone to Thanos because they were unwilling to sacrifice one of their own. Thus, they sacrificed half the universe for a talking machine.

Was Loki about to make the same error? Could he live with himself if Thanos won once again, but Thor's life was assured? Would Thor forgive him for such a thing? And if not, where did Loki draw the line? What was his brother's life worth — Midgard? Asgard? The Nova Empire?

Loki buried his head in his hands and forced himself to take a breath. 'Sweet mercy, Thor, this is a miserably morbid thing to contemplate. Would you let me die to save our newfound Midgardian friends?'

Even from what little Loki could see from between his fingers, the stiffening of Thor's shoulders was unmissable. Loki pulled his hands away from his face and smiled coldly.

'Don't answer that. In turn, I won't answer the question you posed for me either. But, for what it's worth, if a situation like that ever arises, I'll take into consideration what you shared with me tonight.'

With that, Loki grabbed the file he had been intending to read and strode out of the room. He had a lot of regrets in his life, but this was the first time he found himself regretting the decision to venture out for a cup of tea.

> Why the scene was cut: Ok, this wasn't cut, just completely rewritten.

>

> Sometimes a writer gets impatient and writes scenes out of order. This is what happened here. I was still working through Part II when this scene started nagging at me. I hadn't outlined Part III back then and only had a vague notion that there would be a skirmish that Avengers would lose (the San Francisco battle). I wanted Gamora to trap Thor under a collapse building and have Loki give up his chance to capture Gamora in order to help Thor, which would precipitate this conversation. Although it's not explicitly stated in the text, this conversation is set in a kitchen in Stark Tower, a location the story never ended up visiting.

>

> How did the scene end up flipped on its head? When I got up to this scene chronologically, I realised it didn't work at all. I couldn't figure out what could happen during the battle that would endanger Thor's life (figuring out how to kill Thor and Thanos was a headache in general), something was off about the emotional arc for Loki and most importantly, it's ham-fisted foreshadowing of Thor's eventual fate. I decided then that I'd be mean and drown the story in 'foreshadowing' of Loki's death instead.

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Scene 6. Loki and Thor discuss Hela/Ragnarok

Original Placement: end of the first scene in Chapter 52 – The Victor's Table

'You never explained how Asgard was destroyed,' Thor said.

Loki swallowed a grimace. 'That's a miserable story. And now isn't the time.'

'Will there ever be a time when I'd want to hear it? We are supposed to be venturing into the lair of a dangerous madman and the future of the universe is at stake. But I can't go twenty seconds without my mind turning back to your tale. It's been more than a week already, Thanos can wait another half an hour. I won't go into this fight distracted.'

'Bold of you to assume that what I have to tell you won't leave you all the more distracted.'

'Talk, Loki. Did you have a part to play in Asgard's downfall too?'

'Only with your blessing,' Loki replied snidely. Thor gave him a hard look, but Loki offered no direct reply and only motioned towards the other end of the beach. The strip between the water and the escarpment behind them was narrow, but the beach looked to stretch out for a good half a mile. 'Might as well take as stroll while we talk.

'As it turned out, my true blood isn't the only secret our father kept from us. On his death bed — a metaphorical death bed anyway, he was seated at the time — he came clean. We have an older half-sister. Hela. She was a vicious warmonger, whom he locked away for the safety of the universe, but her confinement ended upon our father's death.'

Thor's eyes narrowed. 'Why keep such thing a secret from us?'

'Our father had a taste for conquest in his youth. He and Hela brought the Nine Realms to heel, but then he changed. One old man I spoke to on the refugee ship thought that meeting our mother was the catalyst. Whatever the truth, while our father decided to recast himself as a protector of the peace, Hela's ambitions only grew. Remember that Valkyrie from Sakaar? She was a survivor of that quarrel. Odin sent the Valkyries to capture Hela and she slaughtered them. Brunnhilde was the only one to make it out alive.'

'Still, why the secrecy?' Thor pressed. 'Or if she's so dangerous, why imprison her, not kill her? Surely he knew she would break free one day.'

He's still so young.

Loki glanced up at the darkening skies; there was no telling whether this was a natural deterioration in conditions or whether Thor's mood left the storm brewing. 'I think he wanted to bury the past he was ashamed of, yet he couldn't bring himself to kill his firstborn. He didn't have me executed either, merely locked up.'

'What happened when she broke free?'

'I did a foolish thing then. We were on Midgard and I called for Heimdall to take us back to Asgard, but she pursued as through the Bifrost. You and I she knocked out mid-travel, while she made it home. We ended up on Sakaar and she wrought havoc on Asgard. You, the Valkyrie and Banner, whom you didn't get to meet this time around, found a way back to Asgard, but it was too late. She had already shattered Mjolnir on our first encounter, now she took your eye. She drew power from the realm and with every hour she grew stronger. There was nothing else we could do.'

Thor took a quick step forward and whirred around so he was in Loki's path. 'We destroyed Asgard?'

'She wanted to conquer the universe, it wasn't merely Asgard at stake.' Loki had been about to offer up details of how they had turned their home-world into dust, but Thor's pale face brought an end to that plan. He merely waited for Thor to say something, yet the rumble of incoming waves ruled the hour. Loki sighed. 'That was a different time-line, Thor.'

'What does that matter? She's alive here too and one day our father will leave this world. How can he be so selfish as to keep this a secret?' Thor gritted his teeth. 'I don't know where I'd start when I see our father again.'

I told you, you won't feel better once I explained.

'That sense of betrayal you feel now, think on that. It is the same feeling I felt when I learned Odin lied to me about what I was.'

'I suppose that's true.'

Loki kicked the pebbles under his feet and sent them skittering across the beach. 'That was then. It doesn't have to be this way here. Once we're done with Thanos, we will find a way to deal with Hela too.'

'Yes, we'll make it so.' Thor took a step back and looked up at the sky. He seemed to mumble something to himself, speaking so softly that Loki had no chance of hearing his words, then made an effort of recomposing himself.

'You satisfied now?' Loki asked.

'I'm certainly ready to smash someone's skull today. Prepare yourself, Loki.'

> Why the scene was cut: There were two problems with this exchange. Firstly, Thor is well on the path towards calming down here, which seems too quick after Thor's behaviour the previous chapter and it diffuses the narrative tension right before the story climax. Yet there was no logical reason for Thor to hear Loki's account of Ragnarok and still aim his anger at Loki.

>

> This leads into the second problem. Loki's explanation introduces a potential new antagonist (Hela) and an additional emotional grievance (Odin kept her existence secret from Thor all his life) at 130,000 words into the story. This is way too late for new story arcs.

>

> Besides, it's more emotional for Loki if he's unsure how Thor felt about his brother at the end.

>

>