Chapter Text
Months passed as he used Odin’s influence to prompt the other realms to come together for a diplomatic war council. He had to be careful with how he presented his knowledge, but he supposed the over exaggeration of Odin’s all seeing and powerful nature helped. He wasn’t able to come right out and say the information had come from Loki himself. No one would've taken it seriously enough.
He felt just getting the advisors and diplomats to come together and talk…. To take the threat seriously, was his first miracle.
His second? That was the unifying treaty that swore each leader of each world to help. Surtur, though weakened in his current state, had agreed to send minor demons, as foot soldiers.
Helblindi, the new King of Jotunheim, had agreed to use their magic to send the fire army to whatever battlefield they needed to be on to fight Thanos and his minions. There weren’t enough warriors to allow the King to send his own battalion. Loki felt momentary guilt about that. Only a small section of their planet had been affected by the bifrost in his attack, but it happened to be one of only 5 cities in their entire realm. Jotunheim was sparsely populated and always had been. It was a small world drenched in magics so old some of their abilities were envied even among Alfheim
Frey, his uncle was sworn to send Vanir warriors to help in a second wave.
Entri, King of the Dwarves had already started churning out as much weaponry as they could, fortifying regular weapons with Uru.
Loki was left pondering how he could get the unruly and young Midgard to help their defenses…. He knew after the Battle of New York, he would have to be careful. Their realm knew of aliens, knew they were outclassed in nearly every way…. But still.
He was going to need to call Thor back and give him a new mission. He just begged the Norns his ‘brother’ wouldn’t royally screw up his orders. Dealing with the various leaders of Midgard was going to present a challenge, but he couldn’t be in two places at once. He couldn’t play Odin AND his son.
It was late at night and he’d been pacing in Odin’s chambers. He couldn’t get his mind to settle. He could feel the slowly ebbing energies of their realm and how they were beginning to gather around the All-Father. He’d already penned a letter explaining the threat and why he had done all that he’d tried to do. It burned somewhere deep to lay everything out to Odin, but he had to.
He explained his motives, his worries and his….. hope that the King would take his warning to heart and listen to him for once. He knew Odin didn’t particularly think much of Midgard and mortals in general. He’d been surprised by the bomb that had decimated the Chitauri, but that was about the extent of his ‘regard’ for mortals. Impressed by a few truly terrifying weapons. He held no interest in including Midgard on the universal stage.
Loki knew that was a mistake but he was having a hard time figuring out how to go about handling the various leaders and organizations….the Avengers… it was just a complete headache.
Because of his anxiety, he slipped out of his father’s rooms and made his way to the throne. The ancient powers Heimdal could control were also imbued into the throne itself so the ruler of Asgard could see everything in the universe as well. Something was prompting him to look towards Midgard.
His consciousness took off flitting around the green and blue globe, but it was looking for those he knew to be the upholders of justice where he stuttered. His confusion kept him from reacting right away as it became apparent the two main pillars of strength on Midgard were battling each other.
This wasn’t just a fight. This wasn’t a meaningless squabble.
This was knock down, drag out pure rage and desperation. It looked to Loki as if Stark had lost his mind and was attacking with a pure vicious single track abandon. He knew he couldn’t afford to let Stark kill or injure the Soldier or his metal armed friend. It was as he was forcing his legs to work and make him stand that he caught the blast of a well placed repulsor. The metal arm, which had been threatening to do some serious damage to the Iron Man suit suddenly flew across the room.
Loki was absolutely stunned. It was not in Stark’s personality to be so ruthless. He could see a flicker in the mortal’s face. He caught the flash of surprise and a tiny moment of guilt before the Captain was exploding in his own vicious rebuttal. Stark was still fighting, but his rage seemed curbed. It didn’t seem to register for Rogers as he beat the suit into a semi broken submission. Loki had a moment of unease as he watched the arc reactor charge up from it’s place trapped under the weight of the Avenger, but the unibeam was never fired. The very moment it would have gone off, the light dulled. Loki could guess Stark had decided in that moment that he truly didn’t want the death of his teammate on his shoulders.
He was still forced to watch as the Captain didn’t seem to process the same thing. He raised his shield and brought it down multiple times, each hit more forceful until…..
Until the chest piece caved in and broke.
The bright light of Stark’s mechanical heart flickered and died. Broken into pieces. The mortal’s face was shocked and contorted in pain. He couldn’t make out their words, but he could easily see the frothy pink at the edges of his lips as he yelled at the retreating soldiers.
Was the Captain leaving? He was limping away with the other man’s good arm thrown over his broad shoulders. Both men were obviously in pain but able to move.
Stark on the other hand….. Slumped in the suit, he watched the others leave and Loki couldn’t fathom how the armor, as mangled as it was, could possibly hold his fragile body together.
He couldn’t spare another thought and reached for the branches of Yggdrasil.