Above All Shadows [Loki Timetravel fic - Completed]

6. Brother

That wasn't my doing.

Loki pursed his lips, berating himself for playing around with untested spell-work until Thor's disgruntled muttering startled him out of his thoughts.

'The second guard didn't survive the power of the Casket,' Thor explained when Loki threw him a questioning look.

'How many would?' Loki replied and gestured to the body of the frost giant who had wielded the Casket. 'How did he get to it in the first place?'

'I brought him down earlier on. He wasn't as dead as I thought he would be,' Thor answered curtly as he surveyed the empty space where the portal had been.

'Mistakes happen. It doesn't matter now - the frost giant's dead and the Casket is still in Asgardian hands.'

To be precise, the Casket now lay on its side in the middle of the Weapons Vault's ante-chamber, amid melting ice and washes of spilled blood. Loki shifted away from it. Thor could pick the Casket up and return it to its designated stand. It was bad enough the frost giants had seen Loki's true form, he didn't need to offer Thor that revelation this evening as well.

'If they can open a portal into the palace, the Casket isn't safe. Nor anything else in the vault,' Thor replied. He seemed to give up hope of finding answers in the empty air where the portal had been and turned his attention to the bodies now scattered all around them.

Loki cocked his head. 'That might well be true. We could move the vault's contents to the Treasury and order for the guard to be doubled throughout the palace.'

'That's not enough.'

'Father would know what to do,' Loki said. He didn't much care for the dark undertone in Thor's words. 'Summon him.'

Thor started, then jerked to a stop. He crouched down beside one of the frost giants lying slumped by the door to the vault and flipped him onto his back. 'This one's alive.'

The frost giant's thigh and shoulder bled, but his life didn't seem to be in immediate danger. Consequences of Thor's wrath aside, of course.

Thor slid his fingers under the collar of the frost giant's chest piece and lifted him off the ground. 'Your name!'

'Baugi,' the frost giant muttered.

'I have questions. It'll be best for you if you answer them, and answer them well.' As he spoke, Thor lifted the frost giant higher until Baugi's body spasmed and he moaned with pain. Baugi's armour hid the exact nature of his injuries, but Loki suspected Thor's rough handling had put additional pressure on the shoulder wound. Whether this was his intention or a happy accident, Thor gave no clue. He waited until Baugi stilled, then went on. 'How did you get into Asgard?'

'A portal!' Baugi let out a strangled chuckle. 'Has all the gold in this thrice-damned palace left you blind?'

'Who opened the portal? How was this done?' Loki asked.

'Not my place to know these things.'

'So now you claim blindness?' Loki scoffed. 'How could you not see who held the portal open for you when you came through?

'I didn't stop to look around.'

At that, Thor wrenched up Baugi even further, until Baugi was nearly eye to eye with Thor, but then Thor groaned in frustration and released his grip on the frost giant. Baugi flopped to the floor and screamed as the fall jarred his injuries. Thor wasn't done, however. With a warm smile, he set Mjolnir atop the giant's solar plexus.

'Think quietly for a while, my friend,' he said. 'I expect you will find you have more to tell me than you first thought. Call out when you're ready to talk.'