Special Agent Loki Laufeyson

Chapter 9

Loki ghosted through the alleyways of D.C., disguised as a normal young man. When he felt he was far enough away from the Navy Yard, he sank to the ground beside a dumpster, back against the brick building, and laughed.

"That was almost too easy," he chuckled to himself.

"He'll be working as an NCIS Special Agent until he's either been considerably reformed or ends up dead."

Loki shook his head to rid himself of the recollection, but another one just took its place.

"All this because Loki desires a throne."

"It is my birthright."

"Your birthright was to die! As a child, cast out onto a frozen rock. If I had not taken you in, you would not be here now, to hate me."

"If I am for the axe, for mercy's sake, just swing it. Not that I don't love our little talks, it's just...I don't love them."

Loki put his head in his hands with a shudder. The memories were flooding his soul. Frigga, his mother, had prevented his death, pleading for his life from the hands of his own father. Loki shook his head quickly to shake the thought from his head. No. His kidnapper. Odin was not his father, Thor was not his brother. Frigga...was not his mother.

He had no family. No one would ever want him. He had killed his biological father, Laufey, had alienated the family who had raised him so that they now wanted to kill him, for the most part, and had failed Thanos.

Thanos....

Loki felt the piercing pain in his skull again.

"Your ambition is little, and born of childish need. We look beyond the earth, to the greater worlds the Tesseract will unveil!"

"You don't have the Tesseract yet." The Other spun to face Loki accusingly as the god of mischief continued. "I don't threaten. But until I open the doors, until your force is mine to command, you are but words."

"You will have your war, Asgardian. If you fail, if the Tesseract is kept from us, there will be no realm, no barren moon, no crevice where he cannot find you! You think you know pain? He will make you long for something as sweet as pain!"

"Pain," Loki mumbled. "Yeah, right. Pain." His fingers fiddled with something in his belt and he withdrew it to see the leather wallet Gibbs had given him, to hold his ID and badge. He flipped it open and stared at his picture and name.

"Special Agent Loki Laufeyson, NCIS," Loki read, running his fingers over the words. He stared at the photo of himself. It was the one Fury had taken shortly before he was sent to NCIS. Loki was straight-faced, a second away from rolling his eyes after the director had sarcastically asked him to "smile and say cheese!"

"Your ambition is little...."

"Your birthright was to die...."

"You should know that when we fought each other in the past, I did so with the glimmer of hope that my brother was still in there somewhere. But hope no longer exists to protect you. You betray me, and I will kill you."

"What is left for me?" Loki wondered, leaning his head back against the bricks. He barely noticed the odors in the air or the trash littering the alley before him. "I have nothing. No family. No inheritance. No escape."

"One false move and I put a bullet through you faster than you can say 'kneel.'"

And then he had held the gun to Loki's head, fury and indignation clouding his eyes, but he hadn't shot. Despite the fact that he said he would, he hadn't. He had kept him alive, even though nobody would look twice if he was killed in Gibbs' custody.

Loki jerked to his feet. There was something left for him. NCIS. Gibbs had told him one false move and that was it. He had made several, attacking Tony and McGhee, but neither Gibbs nor Bishop had shot him. Maybe these for the most part uncontrollable flashbacks would come in handy.

"Always so perceptive...about everyone but yourself."

Loki shook his head angrily, chasing Frigga's words from his mind. Forget about that. They were not useful.

****

Loki had expected the NCIS team to react when he showed up in the squad room, his disguise gone, but he had not expected this enthusiastic a welcome. And when he said enthusiastic, he meant it sarcastically.

Tony's gun was pressed to his head and Bishop clapped handcuffs onto him before frisking him. Abby, who was sitting in Gibbs' chair, jumped to her feet and put her hands on her hips angrily.

"You!"

Loki's eyes darted to Tony, who scowled and pressed the muzzle into his skull. "Don't move, Laufeyson."

"Abby, call Gibbs and McGhee," Bishop ordered. "Tell them we got him."

Tony jerked his head in the general direction of the interrogation rooms. "Let's get him in the room, Bishop. And no tricks this time, Loki."

"I think you misread my intentions," Loki argued, keeping a neutral tone to his voice. "I came to surrender."

"Yeah, right," Tony scoffed.

"Thor's not going to be happy at getting called to help find you," Abby commented, hanging up with Gibbs.

"You called Thor?" Loki demanded.

"Yeah, Loki, what'd you expect?" Bishop asked. "You tried to attack New York the last time you were here. No way were we letting that happen to D.C."

Loki looked at her. "I have nothing. What makes you think I would attack D.C.?"

"You're a liar," Bishop shot back. "Why would I believe you?"

Loki didn't feel like moving and running the risk of getting shot, so he just flicked his eyes in what he hoped was a conceding gesture. "True."

"How'd you do it?" Abby asked inquisitively. "Escape the room. You just vanished!"

"I don't talk with a gun to my head," Loki said stiffly as Bishop and Tony turned him and marched him off to the interrogation room.

"You won't have a gun to your head forever!" Abby called after him. "Then you can spill your juicy secret!"

Loki just shuddered. Abby had no idea how many secrets he had.

Nobody did.