SOMEWHERE UNKNOWN: VICTOR
Victor had blacked out when he finally fell off Surtur, the fight had drained all the energy out of him, like a rag doll he flopped into Maximilian's arms. When the darkness faded out of his eyes, he was back in the cave.
Victor swore under his breath: "Oh great..."
However what was peculiar was Loki's solidarity, neither Gullveig nor his mother was anywhere to be seen. Loki lay bound several meters ahead of him. His smile had not been dulled the last time he had been here, it was as wolffish and sharp as it had been before. The fires in his eyes were brighter if anything, almost as if Loki was regaining his radiance.
Loki spoke, like an angel's voice, his filled the cavern: "I see you've met my general for Ragnarok. Powerful? No? However I feel compelled to compelled to say Surtur's not as refined as I."
Victor ignored the first comment, meeting Surtur had triggered a question in his mind: "What's your endgame father?"
Loki shrugged in his bonds: "What does a wildfire desire?"
Victor racked his mind: "To burn freely."
Loki smiled with pride: "I see my intellect was not wasted on you. I'd lie, but I feel like it would be a futile effort. Yes Victor, above everything I yearn for freedom, but above that, tell me victor, what would I want when I am freed?"
Victor cast his mind back to Loki's history, then a conclusion rose out of his mind, grotesque, hideous, repulsive: "Revenge. You are wild fire. Wild for your freedom, fire for your enemies, a burning desire to see the Aesir all burn."
Loki was beaming with pride: "Funny things names. That fool Shakespeare was wildly out of line with the importance of names. While a rose by any name would smell as virginal and sweet, but the word 'rose' alone is an anagram for Eros. So my refutation of that is that a rose by any other name would lose its inherent distinction and connotations. So as my wildfire would burn as freely, yet would not define me as such. A named thing is a tamed thing, and once you define something, define yourself, you will know thyself."
Victor suddenly felt his heart fall through a hole, like a black hole sucking the air out of his lungs: "Ragnarok. That's your plan."
Loki rolled his eyes: "You make me sound so crude. But does not even one part of you desire to see those pompous bastards sitting in their gilded halls in Asgard fall? You think I don't know what you think Victor? You should be a prince Victor. They stole from me the right to live freely, instead I languish in bondage, where did leave your mother? Where did it leave you? I can feel your longing for power, you're powerhungry, me. You're cunning, me. You're a budding sorcerer, me. All your desires are mine. You thought remastering my rune gave you a feeling of power? When you claim the power of prince of Asgard. It will fill you."
Victor felt Loki's words flow over him, the turbulent waves of his mind soothes and pacified by Loki's promises of power. He craved power, he knew that. It was a desire he never thought about until he felt power in his hands. Loki's power. Now the promise of Asgard to rule after Ragnarok, he would have been lying to say if he wasn't seriously tempted. But two faces swam to his mind's surface. Skylar would never sacrifice her friends for anything. Maximilian would never leave his friends for anything. What was he doing? Maximilian's home was Asgard. Would he destroy it for power? What would be enough? Loki looked at him expectantly: "Well son?"
In that moment Victor realised, what his heart wanted, what he always said ever since he tasted power, it had to be his to gain. Nothing in life cane for free certainly not a seat on Asgard. Loki would not make him happy, if only satisfied. What would the helpless boy a week ago want? The one that looked at Maximilian in adoration and respect. Yes he had longed for power. He had always wanted it, Midgard had taught that. It's no surprise from his turbulent upbringing had taught him that power brought autonomy instead of being swept by the tide of the fates. But now that he had power, he learned it wasn't the fix all for everything. In the fight against Hrym, the fight against Fafnir, the fight against Surtur, it wasn't his powers that saved him, it was his friends. If his powers channeled form his emotions, where did those emotions come from? More often than not, from his friends, so were his friends not the source of his power? And that was his answer.
Victor spoke: "Don't call me son. I'd be lying to say I wasn't tempted, but my loyalty isn't to my power it is to my friends. And least of all, to you father. Have fun rotting here."
For once, Victor saw Loki's facade of civil demeanour and non chalance waver, turn into anger, the cave trembled as Loki's grin faded into a sneer: "You will join me for Ragnarok yet."
Victor felt something important rattle in his mind: "What part am I to play in all of this? Why am I so important to your plans for Ragnarok? Don't tell me you have a bleeding heart."
Loki laughed: "I am trying to cure a cancer in the universe. You think death will stop me? If dying means I see Odin and his Aesir fall, so be it! Think about that when you're in Helheim."
