Once confident they had reached safety, Barton pulled the truck off the side of the road into the desert, the various vehicles trailing him doing the same. Loki, Pym, Banner and Rogers climbed from the bed of the truck, Barton and Romanoff from the cab. Loki continued to clutch the necklace in his hand as vehicle doors opened, occupants exiting and gazing into the distance in the direction from which they had come. The imposing facility, which should have been discernible even in the dark of night was no more. A stunned silence fell over the scene as Stark descended next to Rogers.
“Still think they want that thing just to keep the milk cold for your Wheaties?” Stark asked.
Hill approached Fury as he climbed out of the passenger side of the vehicle, Coulson from the driver’s side.
“Sir...we lost Shaw. He was behind me...then he wasn’t. Not sure how many were with him,” Hill said.
“Call in search and rescue. Get a head count, find out how many and who we’re missing,” Fury ordered Hill.
Hill nodded, returning to her vehicle and the agents gathered around it.
Loki walked away from the truck and the refugees from the facility into the cool desert night, continuing on in silence before seating himself on the parched earth, overcome by the aggregation of events. Those gathered at the truck watched him for a moment before Romanoff stepped forward, Barton gripping her arm.
“Give him some time,” Barton said quietly before releasing his hold on her.
Ignoring his advice, Romanoff continued on, approaching Loki from behind, taking note of the necklace in his hand, the chain with the broken clasp wound around his fingers, the pendant in his palm, his eyes fixed on it as if in a trance.
“Hey….” Romanoff said softly, Loki startling.
“There’s not many people who can sneak up on me,” Loki said, turning his attention back to the necklace as Romanoff lowered herself to the ground to sit next to him.
“They want her alive or they wouldn’t have bothered to take her. We’ll find her.”
“Do you know what it is to live your entire life in darkness?” Loki asked.
“I have some idea,” Romanoff replied.
“Then one day within that darkness suddenly there appears a light...but you’ve been in the darkness so long...you don’t want to grow accustomed to that light for fear it will go out, of what you will become if it does.”
“I was always told love made you weak. Then I met Clint and his family. I realized I’d been lied to. It doesn’t make you weak, it makes you stronger...to have something to live for, to fight for other than yourself.”
“Loki…?” Loki heard Verda’s voice, quickly raising his head and rising to his feet, scanning the darkness.
“Verda?” Loki replied in disbelief.
“What is it?” Romanoff asked, confused, as she also rose from the ground.
“Are you alright?” Verda’s voice asked, Loki realizing the voice was within his own mind, wondering if he was descending into madness as in his visions.
“We were able to escape. How are you speaking to me?” Loki answered with his thoughts.
“The necklace...I learned the spell from one of your books. I was afraid you wouldn’t find it, there wouldn’t be time. I wasn’t sure it would work. I’d never tried it.”
“Where are you?”
“I don’t know...a dungeon. I’m beginning to believe you derive pleasure from seeing me locked up,” Verda joked, Loki couldn’t help but smile at the quip despite the situation, “You must return to Asgard. If Heimdall can see me, you mustn’t come for me. She plans to kill you and replace you with the other you she brought here. She would have him press your claim to the throne of Jotunheim. They would be unable to resist. With Asgard’s army as well as that of Jotunheim and the one she’s building here, they would conquer Midgard before moving on to the other realms and beyond.”
“You planned this?” Loki asked.
“Did you think yourself the only one able to devise a trap? I sensed his presence, the same way I knew you weren’t dead before. I knew he would come for me.”
“I’d sussed out her scheme some time ago. I believe I know yours as well. He’s mad. He cares for no one. You can’t save him.”
“I have to try.”
“You’ve already saved me.”
“Return to Asgard. I will speak with you again soon,” Verda told him.
“I must return to Asgard,” Loki said to Romanoff as he walked away from her some distance before coming to a stop, turning to face her, “Tell the others to be ready. Heimdall, bring me back!” Loki called out, the Bifrost descending, its light blinding in the darkness, its energy sending tremors through the ground under everyone’s feet.
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Barton left the others to stand at Romanoff’s side.
“Where’d he go?” Barton asked.
“Home. He said to be ready.”
“Ready for what?”
***********************************
“My lady…” the tall man with the German accent, shaved head, and monocle said as Lorelei entered what appeared to be a sort of hybrid between a workshop and a lab, various devices resting on stands atop tables around the room, “Everything is operational. When they arrive we will be more than ready for them. Allow me to present a demonstration. Oskar, can you join me for a moment?”
From an adjoining room, a young man appearing to be in his mid 20s entered, approaching Strucker and Lorelei and standing at attention.
“You require my assistance, Herr Strucker?” Oskar asked with eagerness.
“You are just the right height. Do you see that red X on the floor?” Strucker asked, pointing across the room as he picked up one of the devices from the table, what looked like a large chrome plated rifle with a wide barrel, “All you need to do is stand there as I make a small adjustment to the sight.”
Oskar turned, crossing the room to stand upon the marker Strucker had indicated, turning to face Strucker and Lorelei.
“It will only take a moment.” Strucker said to Oskar.
Strucker lifted the weapon, aiming it in Oskar’s direction. A bright blue blast of energy shot from it, striking Oskar, his body instantly disintegrating.
“Dummkopf.”
“Nothing can stand against us,” Lorelei said as she faced Strucker, putting one hand on his shoulder, the other caressing his face, “You have done well. You will be rewarded.”
***********************************
Verda lay on the worn pallet on the cold stone floor of the cell. Hearing the sound of footsteps echoing off the walls, she opened her eyes, raising her head to see Loki approaching the door of the cell, a bowl in his hands. Stooping down, he slid it through a small opening at the bottom of the cell door before turning away.
“Wait…” Verda said as she sat up, raising herself to her feet, approaching the bars of the cell, “She will kill you eventually. You are but a means to an end. This isn’t you. It isn’t who you are.”
“On the contrary, I have never been more myself. You know what I am...the monster parents tell their children tales of at night. It was I who murdered Thor. I wanted my father to see his golden boy rot.”
“She will do the same to you as she did Haldor, all the others. You mean nothing to her! She doesn’t care about you, she doesn’t love you...I do.”
“Be silent!” Loki exclaimed angrily, turning and reaching through the bars for Verda’s throat.
Verda’s form vanished, her true self reappearing to the side of where her illusion had stood. Her arm shot through the bars, grabbing hold of the front of Loki’s tunic, pulling him forcefully forward, his head violently striking the bars of the cell, the clanging, metallic sound of the collision echoing throughout the chamber as Loki collapsed to his knees. Verda fell to hers as well, again thrusting her hand out through the bars, placing her palm on his forehead.
***********************************
Loki, a child, sat under a towering tree surrounded by the dense forest of Asgard, his knees drawn up, his head resting against them, warm tears staining his cheeks as his body shook with sobs of anguish and frustration.
“I am worthy! I was born to be a king!” Loki said angrily through clenched teeth as he raised his head from his knees, balling his fists and pounding the ground on either side of himself, “I’ll show them! I’ll show them all! They’ll all kneel before me!”
A shrill scream pierced the air from somewhere in the distance. Birds reacted to the shriek by taking flight, the sound of their wings flapping overhead. Loki looked in the direction from which he discerned the sound had originated.
“Help! Help me! Somebody! Please!” a young girl’s voice desperately called out pleading as she sobbed.
Loki wiped the tears from his face with the back of his hand before standing, listening as the cries continued. Starting forward, he followed them.
“Is someone there? I’m down here!” The girl’s voice called out as Loki neared the trap he had set some time ago and to his disappointment was never sprung by its intended victim, its existence having been long forgotten.
Loki reached the edge of the sinkhole, looking down into the pit. A girl, her hair a bright copper color, stared up at him in wide eyed fright.
“Your savior is here!” Loki said, turning from the pit, scanning his surroundings for anything he could use to reach her.
Spying the long length of a dead branch that had fallen from a tree Loki raced to it, hefting it up and returning to the pit.
“Take it!” Loki said, lowering the branch, Verda wrapping her hands around it.
“I’ve got it!!” she called back.
“Hold on!”
Loki walked backwards as he pulled the branch out of the pit, one hand over the other. The top of Verda’s head emerged, her hair catching the light filtering through the canopy of branches above. Soon Verda lay atop the branch on the ground near the edge of the pit. Loki quickly dropped the branch, and stepped back in the direction of the hole offering his hand, Verda taking it, rising from the ground.
“Thank you!” Verda exclaimed as she sobbed, practically falling into Loki, wrapping her arms around him so tightly he had to struggle for breath.
“Are you injured?” he asked as she finally released him.
“I don’t think so. I’m lost. Are you lost too? I heard you crying.”
“I never cry. It must have been a Gjalla bird. They sound as if they’re weeping when they call to each other. I know the forest well. Come with me,” Loki said, extending his hand, Verda taking it.
Loki led Verda along a dirt path, the two children continuing through the forest. As they exited, Verda looked to the horizon, daylight beginning to fade.
“It’s growing late. I must go. I don’t want to get in trouble if I’m not already. You should be on your way home as well. I wouldn’t want you to get in trouble,” Verda told him.
“I doesn’t matter. I’m always in trouble,” Loki replied.
“Thank you again,” Verda said, turning to Loki and embracing him once more.
As she ended the embrace, Loki put his lips to her forehead. Verda smiled as she blushed, looking down at her feet.
“Off with you,” Loki said to her, Verda walking away from him, turning her head, glancing over her shoulder at Loki as he watched her go.
***********************************
Loki placed his hand on his throbbing head as Verda removed hers, slowly opening his eyes, staring at Verda as his vision focused.
“I can’t believe you fell for that,” Verda said with a smirk.
Loki rose to his feet, still holding his head with one hand, gripping a bar of the cell with the other, Verda standing along with him on the other side of the bars. Loki lowered his hand from his head, continuing to stare at Verda in silence before unlocking the cell door, swinging it open.
***********************************
Loki, Fandral, Volstagg and Hogun stood at the side of the throne, examining a holographic projection of what looked to be a large stone castle as the sound of footsteps echoed through the throne room. The four men turned their heads to see Sif approaching the throne, a cloaked figure following behind her.
“Heimdall has located Verda. She’s being held in a land called Sokovia within a fortress. I have ordered our warriors to prepare to go to Midgard. Lady Sif, I grant you the honor of leading them,” Loki said as Sif stepped aside.
“A wise choice,” the figure said in a familiar voice, Loki, Volstagg, Fandral, and Hogun stunned and speechless as the man removed the hood.
“Brother??” Loki gasped.