Resurrection

The battle had raged on for days, Aesir fighting one another, fighting the soldiers from other realms. Thor felt lucky to have survived so long, to have not killed anyone he knew well. There were many that he had seen die, though, and he knew that at the end of this battle, he would be different. He will have changed the course of history, and it will be his choice who to bring back from the worlds beyond once the fight ends.

Then he saw him. Not far away, Loki was battling for his life and losing. Blow after blow Thor watched Loki weaken and stagger. He struggled to block and parry the strikes. Thor wanted to run to Loki's aid, but the person he was fighting was on Thor's side. Loki was not. Sif saw Thor's stillness. She followed his gaze and knew he was out of the fight, at least for the moment. She signalled to Fandral and he signalled on to Volstagg and Hogun. They would guard him so he could be distracted as long as he needed.

Loki fell. Thor could not help running to him, screaming for his ally to stay his hand. The other warrior did, understanding that Thor had a right, on some level, to stand over his brother as he died. Thor threw himself on the ground beside Loki and gathered him in his arms. Loki was struggling.

"Deal the blow, Brother. End this. Please. Let me go," he asked.

Thor choked back a sob and held Loki close, "I cannot, Loki."

Loki clutched at Thor's armour, trying to grip any loose piece, his hands slick with blood, "I will die one way or another, my wounds are mortal. Please, don't make me suffer. Let it be by your hand."

Thor kissed his brother's forehead and slipped one of Loki's daggers from his belt. With his eyes closed, he drove the blade deep into Loki's side under his arm, into his heart. He felt Loki shudder and gasp.

"Thank you," Loki managed to say before he died.

Thor gave himself only a moment to grieve before returning to the battle.

Days later, the battle over, Thor sat alone in Asgard, charged with the task of deciding who would return to the living. He began by resurrecting those he knew were innocents in the slaughter of the past few days and followed them with the friends and family members who had fought by his side, those who would be loyal to the realm. Once he had gone down the list and resurrected everyone recommended by those he had already brought back, he was left with one person he questioned bringing back.

Loki.

Thor loved his brother, there was no doubt in that. He wanted, with every beat of his heart, to bring him back. His better intuition, however, hesitated, asking if they could handle him, if they could deal with the chaos he caused just by existing. Thor asked his friends, Sif and the Warriors Three, what they thought.

Fandral opposed the idea, knowing what Loki could do and had done, looking out for the safety of all the realms.

Hogun hesitated, also knowing what Loki was capable of, but clearly seeing that Thor would not be complete without his brother.

Sif advised Thor to listen to whichever voice in his heart was loudest, but also reminded him that Loki would not be well received in Asgard, a rejection that could spiral him easily back down the same road he had been down before.

Volstagg, however, looked at things another way, "My friends, Loki was once one of us, someone we fought beside and loved as a brother ourselves. You are right to fear what he could once again become, but is not love what he always sought? The acceptance of his family and the approval of what he was capable of? What would be a better way to show that love than to bring him back alongside us, to take him in our arms, and to embrace him as one of us? To reject the rejection of long ago, to forgive what he has done, and to raise him up as our king's brother, a trusted advisor and dear friend to the crown?"