Cleave | Loki x Reader

• five - daddy dearest •

Present day, Midgard

Loki

'I'm sorry.'

Deafening screams.

That voice.

'Nooo!'

Her gaze locks with mine,

her face etched with pain,

shock,

disbelief.

She collides with him,

they plummet,

the void closes around them.

Her lips form my name.

Then there's nothing but silence.

As the golden glow of Gungnir's power recedes from my hands, a hollow ache gnaws at my insides. A void more profound than the one that has swallowed Thor and Y/n.
My mind replays the scene over and over. Her eyes, the way she looked at me in those last moments, pierces through my very core.

I am a fool. Always have been, always will be.
Most often for her.

Guilt, raw and unrelenting, tears at my chest. I only ever wanted to protect her, to claim the future we were meant for. But in my desperation, all I had succeeded in is driving her as far away as a different realm!
The power I had sought, the glory I had desired, now feels like ash in my mouth, and I know I hadn't done this to protect her heart, but mine.

With the Odinforce still lingering in my veins, I am tainted.
This power, this throne, it was meant to secure our destiny, to prove that I was more than just a misfit and a trickster. But what use is power when the heart is empty?
She is my anchor, my confidante, the one who believes in me always. But now I fear even her goodwill has likely found its end.
I need to bring her back, but also: how ever can I?
She will resent me just as I grew to resent Thor. Power has that effect.

I stumble to the edge of the Bifröst, my legs barely supporting my weight. The city of Asgard, bathed in the soft hue of the setting suns, seems distant and indifferent to my agony. The very air feels heavy with the consequences of my actions, and I can almost hear the whispers of the realms, their judgment.
In the silence, I whisper her name, a prayer to the void, a plea for forgiveness that would only come if I act.
My fingers tighten around Gungnir, the symbol of my temporary triumph. But most of all, still... a symbol of absolute power.
As the first stars begin to shimmer in the twilight sky, I know there is no turning back. The path I have chosen may permit me the light of redemption, yet it will safe everything else.
She will come to understand. I hold the Odinforce within my grasp, how could this path ever be the one that's wrong? She will come to accept.
She will come to revel in it just as much as I do.

The Odinforce coursing through me surges at the vivid images of her drawn up by my heart's deepest desire.
My mind's eye is suddenly drawn to Midgard, to the mortal realm where I have banished the traitor and my love.
Flashes of them appear before me - Thor kneels in the mud, Mjölnir thrones on an earthy pedestal before him. I cringe at the scene.
Where is Y/n?
He has abandoned her.
He had her killed.
He has lost my darling yngri hetja!

A flicker of light to my right. Then, there she is, had been here all along, watching the charade as I have. Whole and unbroken.
Until she suddenly isn't anymore.
Her knees give in, and she crumbles. Shoulders shivering uncontrollably, she appears as though shot through from the back - stare blank, jaw hanging, tears leaking.
And I realise, that this is my work.
A dagger in the back, treacherous and diabolically egoistical.
By jinxing Mjölnir's loyalty to Thor, I had not just banished him, but Y/n as well.
But she doesn't really think I would ever let that happen, would she? She must know that I'd destroy every branch of Yggdrasil just to return her into the safety of my arms. She must.