Loki Misses the Asgardian Prison System

Chapter 166

He was never supposed to be back here. He was never supposed to see this place again. He was supposed to be free.

But then, one can never truly be free of a monster like Him.

Loki tugs frantically against the hands that hold him, desperate for an escape, but their grip only tightens. No matter how hard he tries, how much he fights, he can't get free. He's just trapped, helpless, entirely to blame for whatever atrocities are to come.

Before him stands a monster – a true monster, beyond all comprehension. In one hand, He holds the scepter, the stone within it glimmering even in the darkness of the Sanctuary. The other hand laces itself through Thor's hair, pulling it tight, tight enough that Thor groans in pain.

"Let him go!" Loki sobs, his vision growing blurry through his tears. "Just let us go!" He's been screaming and screaming and screaming until his throat ran dry, and now all that's left of his voice is a hoarse whisper, choking through his sobs.

But He's unmoved. "I did let you go," He reminds him. "I let you go with the most powerful object in the universe. I gave you a whole planet. And all I asked..." He pulls tighter on Thor's hair, and he cries out in pain. "All I asked was that you give me what was mine."

"I'm sorry!" Loki screams, as loudly as his broken voice will let him. "I'm sorry! I did the best I could! I'm sorry!"

That earns an indignant scoff in return. "You're sorry?" He repeats. "Is 'sorry' going to bring me back my scepter?" He slams the base of the scepter – he has the scepter? – against the ground, and Loki flinches, curling in on himself as though he could possibly make himself smaller than he is. "Is 'sorry' going to get me the Tesseract?"

Loki can hardly see straight. His vision is blurred with tears, and his sobs have left the whole world spinning. But he can make out his brother's face as clear as day. He can see his pain. He can see his fear. And nothing scares Loki more than knowing that his brother's afraid.

"You took something very important from me," He growls, tightening his grip in Thor's hair even further, and He almost seems to find pleasure in the cries it causes. "Now I'm going to do the same to you."

"No!" Loki screams. "No, don't–!"

But it's too late.

He's stabs the scepter through Thor's heart.

Finally, the hands that hold him back let go, and Loki barrels into him, dropping to his knees in front of his brother and putting his hands on his shoulders to keep him steady.

Blood pours from the wound, coating the golden scepter in red. Thor's head falls forward, open-mouthed, and a cough sends blood splattering across the floor. For a moment, Loki's frozen, helpless in his uncertainty. His brother is dying. He's dying. He's been stabbed, and now he's dying.

Loki pulls the scepter out, and only then does he remember that he's not supposed to do that; that he's only making things worse, letting him bleed and bleed and bleed. But he's already done it, so he presses his hands against the wound, and Thor cries out in pain – pain that Loki caused him. Loki's hurting him. He's trying to help, and he's hurting him.

Thor chokes out a sound, a word, a... name? Loki's name. It's mumbled, near-incomprehensible, but it's his name.

"Shh," Loki whispers. "Save your strength." He's going to need it if he's going to live – and he is going to live. Loki's not going to let him die. He's not going to let anything happen to him. He's going to live, and they're both going to be free, and they're–