Shadows and Lies

Chapter 1

Thor and Loki's relationships was no longer what it used to be.
Loki had always been mischievous and enjoyed causing petty trouble, he found pleasure in the mild chaos he was soo good at causing. Thor was always pretty much the opposite of that; he was responsible, he was respectful, he worked hard toward one day becoming king.
Thor had always been everyone's favorite, not just within the palace where they grew up, but across all of Asgard. Thor was the first son of the king, when he was born the realm celebrated for the new heir to the throne. Loki was the second son, when he came there was celebration for a second prince, but it was nothing like the joy that came when Thor was born. Loki was two years younger than Thor, so All growing up Loki was second to everything; anything he did, Thor had already done two years ago, and therefore wasn't acknowledged as being significant.
All growing up Loki strived to be like Thor, he was constantly fighting for the love and attention Thor received from their father, he wanted to make their father proud the way Thor did, he wanted to be the golden son like Thor was. When they were young Loki simply did everything that Thor did and hoped for the same acknowledgement, when this proved futile, and as Loki grew and gained wisdom, he decided that he simply wasn't like Thor. He didn't fight like Thor, he didn't think like Thor, he was different, and trying to fight that was making things worse; when they started learning combat Thor was a natural, he was a strong soldier and a solid fighter. When Loki started, he was none of those things. He struggled to follow the same techniques that Thor followed, his mind simply didn't work that way, and it cause failure after failure. Now not only was he lost in the shadow of his golden brother, but the only people looking at him were laughing at his inability to "fight like a man".
It was their mother, Frigga, who helped loki out of a seemingly bottomless pit of disappointment; she taught him magic. Finally, something Thor had never done. Something that might give Loki some of his own light as he stood in Thor's long shadow.
Loki quickly became a master of magic, he learned complicated spells and charms much faster than Thor had learned physical combat. He was finally able to find a way to fight that drew strength from his sharp, quick witted mind. Loki's strengths had always been mentally oriented; he was sharp, quick witted, observant, diplomatic, and -as he grew up and matured- very charming. As soon as Frigga taught him magic he felt like he was finally able to get his head above the water, like he didn't have to drown trying to be like his brother. He thought that this would be the answer to his problems, that now that he was being different and standing out, people might see him as an equal to his brother. But once again, his efforts proved futile.
His pain of being the least favorite eventually turned to anger and resentment, because no matter how skilled he was at magic, no matter how many conflicts he avoided because of his smooth speaking, silver tongue, Thor still remained the shining son, the glorious heir, the golden prince. Nothing Loki did evened things out, even when he did things better than Thor; Thor was a soldier, loki was an equally effective soldier, Thor was a diplomat, Loki was a better diplomat, Thor would write a message to another realm leader to try and smooth over conflict, Loki would rewrite it and make it better, he was more cunning, more discrete, and more effective in battle than Thor was. yet he was still stuck in Thor's shadow. This was because there was one thing, one important, impossible to over come obstacle; Thor was the heir, and Loki was not.
Loki realized that no matter how good he got at fighting (and since learning magic and developing his own style, he was a force to be reckoned with on the battlefield), no matter how many wars he helped end, no matter how powerful he became, no matter how feared he was among Asgard's enemies, he would never, /never/ be able to get out of Thor's shadow, all because Thor had been born first. No one really cared about how impressive Loki was, because they weren't paying  attention to him. all eyes were on Thor, watching him prepare to take over the throne, looking on in amazement as the future king walked down the streets, casting Loki aside so they could worship his brother.
Anger and resentment started spreading inside Loki like a virus. Interestingly, he didn't actually hate Thor directly, in fact, he and Thor got along quite well; their differences complimented each other, they each made up for the others weaknesses, and their strengths occupied a wide spectrum of abilities. Loki didn't hate Thor, he just hated hearing about him.
Whenever Loki heard people talking about Thor he would cast a spell to make their tongues go numb so they couldn't speak, he would cause peoples feet to stumble so they had to shut up. His resentment and anger turned his mischievous nature I to a more chaotic one. Thor remained blissfully unaware of Loki's ongoing struggles. Loki had a tendency of bottling up his anger until he had an opportunity to take it out on someone through spells and charms, Thor always assumed that Loki just liked causing trouble, which was true, but the roots were in pain and feelings of inferiority.
Thor ended up being one of Loki's only real fiends, most people were (not surprisingly) more interested in conversing and being acquainted with Thor, and by the time Loki was an adult, he was way beyond begging for peoples attention. He had resolved to spend his life in Thor's shadow, maybe the darkness wasn't too bad, he realized that people didn't pay much attention when he did something good, but they also didn't pay much attention when he did something bad. As long as he was subtle enough, he could cause petty problems and create mild chaos, and people brushed it off as just "Loki being Loki". Thor had his life under a microscope, he had to be perfect all the time, but Loki had a sense of freedom in knowing that he could get away with a lot more. The only person he still cared about pleasing was Odin. It hurt when Odin didn't acknowledge something Loki did, or worse, gave Thor credit for something good that Loki had done. Loki had grown to be quite a trouble maker, so when something good had been done for no specific reason, Odin assumed Thor had done it. Thor always gave Loki due credit , but by then the initial pride or excitement had faded and Loki would receive a simple nod of appreciation from his father.
Even Thor realized this problem, he tried to get Odin to give Loki the love and attention that he gave Thor, but Thor was simply the favorite, and Loki never understood why. Until about three years ago.
Three years ago Loki made a horrific, heartbreaking, and insanity driving discovery; he wasn't Odin's real son. Odin had stolen him from Jotunhiem, the one realm that Asgard actively hated. And to make it even worse, Loki was the son of Laufey, the king of the Jotuns . Loki not only was the second favorite, the second best, lost in the shadow of his brother, but he was the son of Asgard's most hated enemy. This knowledge drove him to destruction. His anger and hatred suddenly turned to Thor, and Odin. He accused Thor of knowing about this all their lives, he exploded in anger toward Odin to the point of Odin falling into the odinsleep. He became dangerously destructive, he tried to wipe out all life on jotunhiem, almost succeeding. His anger turned to violence, his new goal was to become a king by any means necessary, killing anyone who dared stand in his way, and Odin was forced into locking him up. Of course this only made his anger grow hotter, but he was trapped in a cell, what could he do? Nothing but sit there and stew in his own rage, letting it grow.
Loki was only prisoner in the palace for about six months when they were attacked by the dark elves, they invaded, broke into the prison, and set all the prisoners free, including Loki.
Thor and the rest of the Asgardian army were so focused on recapturing all the escaped prisoners that Loki was able to slip out undetected. Thor didn't understand how he got away, then he realized that Loki probably disguised as someone else, walked out of Asgard and never looked back.
That was three years ago, and Thor hadn't seen Loki since. He'd been searching, hunting, desperately trying to find Loki and bring him back. But he was always one step behind, any time he heard about an attack he went after it, hoping to find Loki there, but nothing ever came of it. loki made his way across the realms leaving death and destruction behind, but Thor always got there a second too late, only ever seeing the evidence of Loki's rage and destructive nature.
Thor was angry at Loki for the destruction and pain he'd caused both on Asgard and on other realms, he wanted to put a stop to his brothers chaos, he wanted to recapture Loki and keep him here as a prisoner so he couldn't hurt anyone else. But any time they went after a possible lead Thor Gave the same order; do not kill Loki unless absolutely necessary. After a while his men started to question that order, why not kill him if they have the chance? Loki has killed hundreds by now, any pain he once felt can no longer justify his evil actions, if they have the chance, why can't they kill him? Any time a soldier asked those questions Thor immediately took him or her off the team. Thor knew that Loki was evil, maybe beyond saving now, and certainly deserving of a death sentence, but he couldn't help but feel a bit of responsibility. maybe if he had been more aware of Loki's feelings of inferiority he could've helped, he should've done more to stop Loki from falling into chaos when they learned of his true heritage. He knew he contributed at least a small fraction into what Loki became, and he wouldn't let someone kill Loki now. Thor would do anything and everything to get his brother back. Frigga had died during the invasion of the dark elves, Odin had died a year after that simply from age... as deranged and insane as Loki had become, he was the only family Thor had left, and Thor wasn't ready to let him go.
So now Thor spent his time ruling Asgard as he'd always been destined to do, he stopped wars just like Odin had, but in every moment of his spare time he searched for Loki; any clue, any sign, any chance of finding Loki, Thor changed after.
Thor was sitting in the throne room when fandral, one of his oldest and closest friends, came running in.
"Your highness, Nidavellir is under attack. It's loki" He said. Thor would've been excited to know that they had a location on Loki, but so far any time they catch someone in the middle of an attack, it never actually ended up being Loki. Everyone knew Loki was escaped, so everyone always just assumed he was at the center of all chaos, but Loki always managed to get out before Thor's men even got there, so he doubted this was Loki's doing.
"Assemble a team. We'll move out as soon as possible" Thor said, but he wasn't as hurried as fandral had wanted him to be.
"Thor you don't understand. This is actually Loki, they saw him, they have him there. The dwarves are holding Loki and his army back, but if we don't get there immediately then they'll be able to escape. Thor, this is a real chance to catch loki" Thor had been searching for Loki for three years without success. No one had even seen him for three years. Not until now.

A/N:
Hey guys. This story will probably be substantially shorter than my other three so far, but who knows. This first chapter is more background than anything else, so hopefully you actually enjoy the rest of the story lol