Loki's Daughter

Chapter 10: Blue is Better

Chapter 10: Blue is Better

They appeared on a beautiful, verdant planet, surrounded by hills and tall mountains. The tesseract had put them out on top of one of these high hills, overlooking, steep, sweeping fjords. Clouds draped over the rounded summits of the neighboring mountains, reaching down into the deep valleys below.

Kuna wiggled on Loki's side to get down. He put her down on her feet and she ran towards the edge to look out over the fjord below them. A single sun peeked out at them from behind a few clouds above their heads. Kuna let the light shine on her face before the sun disappeared once again behind the clouds. She smiled and fell back on the grass, feeling it with her arms and legs in long strokes.

Loki smirked. This did look like a rather nice place. He certainly preferred it over the desert planet the tesseract had previously stranded him on.

It looks like Asgard.

The insidious reminder sent a fiery sensation through his body. Disturbed by the sudden thought, he looked around for any signs of the golden palace in the distance. Even on the tallest mountains and in the deepest fjords of Asgard, you could still see the massive golden palace in the center of Asgard. Odin had designed it as such; dominating, overpowering, annoyingly shiny. Yet, on this planet, they were completely alone on the vast hills.

"It's not Asgard, idiot. I don't know where we are but it's not there," he mused to himself.

The cube is misbehaving again. It could take us anywhere. The girl nearly gave it to Thanos. She's a liability.

He looked at the gleaming cube in his hand. He was not amused by its behavior of late either. The cube, which had hitherto served him so well, had seemed now to have gained a mind of its own. A glimmer of white light shot up from deep inside the cube, sending a little zap through Loki's finger tips. He recoiled and the tesseract fell out of his hand.

Loki gasped and flailed about, trying to catch it. He caught a corner with one finger, then another, not quite able to grasp it. The cube fell, bouncing off a rock, and tumbled across the grass towards Kuna. It came to a gentle halt against her leg. She sat up and smiled at it. A blue glimmer lit up her face.

It's chosen her over you, the voice hissed inside Loki's head.

Loki grit his teeth and stalked towards Kuna and the cube.

I told you to get rid of her. You could have killed her. You could have left her on any one of those wretched planets but no, you had to keep her because you've gone soft.

Loki closed his eyes, fists clenched. He inhaled deeply through his nose and scooped up the cube before Kuna could pick it up. He stared into the swirling ocean inside the cube.

Toss her into a portal. Maybe one to a white dwarf star. No, the planet with the cannibals. Which one?

"No," Loki thought.

No, of course not. Too many to choose from. There must be something more suitable for her.

"Stop."

I've got it. Just open a portal to anywhere in space and leave her there. Let the vacuum take her.

Loki squeezed his eyes shut, trying to force the voice away.

Better yet, a black hole.

Loki's breath came hard, his jaw clenched. His arms trembled with the effort to control himself. He felt a hand on his arm and wrenched himself away. Kuna stood on her tiptoes, reaching for the cube.