Warrior's Heart |Thor|

20. The Man Who Was (a False) King

Memories were funny things. They could turn into terrible nightmares or the best dreams of someone's life. With what Esme had gone through, it all depended on where her consciousness was at the time of sleep.

Unfortunately for her, this was one of the less happy times.

~*~

Though Esme could admit she was not the smartest being in the galaxy, she had known something was up with King Odin. His mannerisms changed, almost as though someone had switched bodies with the Allfather.

Little did Esme realized she had been onto something.

Esme paced in her prison cell, one of many that she used to patrol to prevent jailbreaks or prisoners from getting any funny ideas about trying to win back their freedom.

Aside from the guards that she used to patrol with, Esme got no company. Thor was away tending to other realms in danger. If only she had had a way to reach him, to tell him the truth!

If he is Odin, where did he hide our true king? Esme had to wonder. Of course, this was assuming the Allfather hadn't been murdered in order for the switch to take place. It was hard to say with Loki; he was ever the wild card, even to those who said they knew him best.

As Esme spent her time slowly making a rut into her floor, she almost paid no mind to the visitor she was about to have. When she caught a glimpse of the fake king, she stopped in her tracks. Anger boiled in her veins.

"If you're not in the mood to talk, I shall come back another time." Though it sounded like Odin, Esme knew it was not.

"Unless you have come to let me out, I don't believe we have anything to discuss. Or better yet, unless you have come to make things right and come out with the truth, I suggest you go back to playing king."

"King Odin" looked around the hall. Light shimmered around him, transforming "King Odin" into Loki. His true form angered Esme even more. How he could get away with this! How was it that she was perhaps the only one to notice the subtle differences?

"Happy now?"

"Not in the slightest. You've fooled them all, you royal pain in the arse."

"Even your love."

"He isn't the most observant of people. What he lacks in that, I make up for."

"Yes, annoyingly so."

Esme took steps forward, very well aware of the barrier that separated her from Loki. If it was down, oh she'd take the chance to hit him! The man before her was nothing like the child she had played with in the fields of Asgard, along with Thor. He was not the child that would amuse her with little tricks of magic.

"I cannot believe you!" she hissed.

"It was either this or exile, or death."

"You would really kill me?" Esme was crestfallen at that notion. "All that to keep the throne under a false image?"

"As if Asgard would ever accept me this way!" Loki gestured to himself.

"If you weren't you, perhaps they would."

"Did Thor ever tell you about my true lineage?"

"He'd told me that you claimed you're not blood brothers, that's all."

"Tell me something then, Esme. Would the people of Asgard accept a ruler like me?"

Before Esme could get the retort from her lips, she took a step back. Loki's skin changed to blue, eyes red. She recognized the traits of the Frost Giants. "W-well...it's not like you show off that form all the time."

"And your hesitancy, your fear that I see, is why I do not." Loki's skin became its normal complexion. "How did you figure it out, Esme?"

"Oh, that you're not Odin? You have quirks that he never had." Esme sighed. "You know, when you're found out, it will have serious repercussions. You may find yourself back here on the other side of the barrier. Maybe you'll be sent out into exile."

"Well, no one else seems to be as observant as you, so, I don't see an immediate end to my rule."

"Until you slip up big time. It will come, Loki."

"Yes, well, until then, get cozy. I may pay you a visit, depending on my schedule."

"You mean Odin's schedule. Oh, please, do come back," Esme remarked snidely. "The guards pay me no mind." She couldn't believe none of them even wanted to trust a syllable of the truth that came from her mouth. It was baffling. The only explanations she could scrounge up was that they were morons, or Loki had some control over them, or a combination of both.

Loki smirked. "As they shouldn't. The ramblings of a mad woman aren't worth their time."

~*~

Esme sat up in bed. While the dream did not involve violence of any kind, she hated that most of the memories she had with Loki were her butting heads with him, or chasing after him to stop him from destroying the world. The only decent memories with him were when they were children, or the last moment she had seen Loki alive before, according to Thor, Thanos murdered the God of Mischief.

She rubbed her face, feeling her eyes water with fresh tears. Beside her, Thor was sound asleep. She moved slowly, quietly, as to not disturb him.

Esme padded down the hall, heading for outside. It was a bad choice on her part, light snow fell. She didn't head for the ground, rather, she sat against the door, staring at a fixed point in the white flakes.

You'd redeemed yourself too late, and for that, you lost your life. How unfair is that, Loki? I wanted to see the new side of you that Thor kept insisting that he saw. Why couldn't you fake your death, one last time? If not for yourself, but for your brother?

Esme fell back, hitting the inside of her home. Thor was over her, though from how she was laying, he was upside down. Regardless, he looked confused and concerned.

"Did you fall asleep against the door?" he asked.

"No, I needed some air. What, did you think I ran away or something?"

Thor helped her to her feet, Esme got the door shut to prevent flakes from wandering inside. "No, but I worried when you weren't there, or anywhere in here. Is everything all right?"

"Had a dream that I woke up from, couldn't go back to sleep right away."

"A bad one?"

"In a sense, yes. In all the time I knew Loki...we never had a lot of good times. Most of it involved him getting in trouble and us picking at each other."

"To be fair, he and I didn't have a lot of good times, either. I miss him, too."

"You ever think he was faking his death, and he did so well, he's hiding somewhere so he's not to be bothered?"

"I've wished that to be the case many times, Esme. Unfortunately, I don't believe it's true. I don't want to start another search if it takes years away from me and I end up with nothing. I can't go through that."

"Then don't. We remember him as he was, the better parts of him. When people speak badly about him, we tell them of the times he looked as though he was becoming a hero."

"He was, towards the end."