Beneath The Bitter Masks

Chapter 17

A light flashed in front of Loki and pushed him back. He was sent flying but flipped in mid-air and landed gracefully on his feet. In front of him now stood three maidens otherworldly in form and shape.

Loki snarled crouching on three while the others watched in amazement at the sight in front of them.

The Warrior Three and Lady Sif had also come, bruised and cut but nothing else. They did not seem to have any intentions of fighting so the Avengers also left them favouring to see the sight in front of them.

In front of them stood three maidens, clad in armor over white robes looking ready for battle. One had beautiful wood brown hair holding a staff. The top of the staff held a gem with colors swirling inside. The other had hair so blonde they looked white with a double bladed battle axe in her hand. Whereas the third one had the darkest black hair anyone had ever seen holding a sword that seemed white in the light. Loki stood up.

"Who are you?" one of the council members asked. "Why are you here?" This guy sounded like the kind of guy Tony would have no qualms about punching the everloving daylights out of. The three maidens gazed towards him briefly.

"We are the three Sisters of Fate and why we come here is not of your concern." the brown haired maiden said her voice filled with ages of wisdom, melodious and ethereal. She gazed at everyone in the room with electric blue eyes. Every Asgardian's eyes widened in disbelief.

"I am Skuld."

"I am Urd." the dark haired maiden said.

"And I am Verthandi." the blonde maiden finished for the trio.

Loki was looking at them confusion evident but nothing else. No fear, no disbelief. Then Odin started laughing, a laugh that grated in the Avengers nerves, sounding vile and hateful.

Loki looked at him anger returning, "You see Loki even the norns are against you. You have no one boy, no one who can love a monst-"

Skuld waved her hand and Odin became frozen as he was. Loki once again attacked but it was intercepted midway by Verthandi. Loki jumped back and took a fighting stance.

The gathered Asgardians couldn't believe it. Loki was going to fight the Norns. Verthandi took a defensive stance while Skuld started chanting in another language. Urd floated towards the Avengers.

With a flick of her hand the force field gone. "All of you must evacuate the citizens. They can get hurt if they will remain here." The Avengers and Warriors nodded and rushed towards the scared commoners and hurt guards. She then looked to Eir.

Her eyes softened as she spotted Frigga. Eir had managed to stabilize her health for a little while but she made no move of getting up. Queen Frigga was in a coma.

Urd gently touched her forehead chanting in an ancient and forgotten language. And suddenly Frigga sat up wide awake looking around frantically, searching for something.

"My son, where is my son?" she looked around frantically. Before she could get up Urd placed her hand on her head, her hand glowing white.

"Sleep now. Your child is safe. We will not let anyone hurt him." Frigga fell back now looking as if she was sleeping peacefully. "Take her to your healing chambers and monitor her." Urd said to Eir. Eir bowed and quickly left.

Urd now turned to watch the fight unfold between her sister and the Jotun child. The Avengers had led the citizens outside and now returned standing a little ways of from Urd. Thor and the Warriors remained outside tending to the injured and assuring the people. They looked at Loki who kept attacking with various methods only to be blocked by Verthandi. Whatever Skuld was chanting caused Loki to be surrounded by light.

He stopped bewildered. The light now formed a dome around Loki. Golden chains bound themselves on his wrists effectively trapping him. Tony couldn't help speaking out. It was his friend they were holding, "What do you think your doing? Let him go."

They all went towards Loki standing only a few feet away. "It is alright Anthony Stark, these chains do not hurt him in the least. They merely keep him bound. If we do not do that he will break free." Urd gently explained. "We cannot have him killing Odin."

"Why? The bastard deserves it after what he did to Loki." Clint said watching Loki struggle against the chain wishing he could help.

Verthandi smiled as if indulging a child, "Yes but your captain has already explained why he can't." In their conversation no one noticed Natasha walk towards Loki who was still struggling against the chains, looking scared.

"Nat? What are you doing?", Captain America called out but she ignored him. Standing in front of Loki and lightly called out his name.

"Loki", in a voice only Clint had heard her use to calm him down, "Loki it's me Natasha." Loki looked up a look on his face that none of the Avengers understood. "Loki, it's alright. You're safe. We're all safe."

"Safe?" Ever since he became blue this was the first time he spoke and it sounded so different from his normal voice. It was almost as if there was a growl in it. "Safe?" he asked again sounding almost desperate, pleading. Thor walked in at that moment and hearing his brother's pleading he rushed towards him.

"Loki, my brother of course we are safe. Mother is alright. I am alright. Nothing will happen to us."

Tony walked up to Loki, Steve behind him, "Hey Rudolph it's me and Cap. You remember us don't you?" Tony tried to be sarcastic but failed due to the obvious worry laced in his voice.

Steve then spoke, "Loki we're here to take you home. We promised to do that and we're gonna keep it."

"Home?" Loki asked in his growling deep voice.

Clint and Bruce came up behind Natasha, "Yeah home, you know the Avengers Tower. On Earth. We still have to find a puzzle you can't solve. And you can't do that if your tryna' kill that bastard." Clint pointed towards the still frozen Odin.
Loki shook his head, "Monsters-monsters don't have homes."

"Loki you are not a monster. We already said that didn't we. You are not a monster but you are an avenger and we are never going to leave you."

Loki let the words sink in. The memories of those few days he spent with the Avengers came back. Those few days in which he felt more at home than he ever had in Asgard. Then his eyes went back to his familiar green and the blue receeded, returning his skin back to alabaster. The chains disappeared and he fell to his knees.

One tear fell from his eyes then another.
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Welp! Loki's back to his good old self. And yes I decided to use the Sisters of Fate i. e the Norns from the myths to help subdue Loki and bring him to his senses.

The three Sisters are known as the most important of the Norns and are said to control time with each sister representing either past, present and future.

While others say they control a man's fate. They are supposed to reside in the roots of The World Tree 'Yggdrasil'.

Nat's kinda OC but hey she's softened up and really cares about the Avengers and Loki. Also the story is about to end. Sudden right?

That's all for now. Thank you for reading. Please share your thoughts.

Your sincerely,
YeranJ.