Special Agent 2: The Dark Soldier

Chapter 56

"A minute to the jump point," Quill announced.

Loki took a deep breath, feeling cold. Once again, he was forced to return to Jotunheim, his real home world. He felt Hailstohm at his shoulder and glanced over at her.

"Why would the Dark Elves come to Jotunheim?" Hailstohm asked quietly, her gaze distant as she stared out the viewport. "We have no Infinity Stones there, nor is the Aether there. I would have thought they would have gone to Svartalfheim, or even to Midgard. But Jotunheim?" She was silent for a moment. "What would they be looking for there?"

"I don't know," Loki replied in a low voice.

Hailstohm glanced at him. "It looks like you will be going home sooner than we had expected, Loki."

"It's not my home," Loki told her. "I am Asgardian now."

"Loki," Rocket said, jumping up on the back of the navigator's seat and standing upright. "Loki. I still feel like I know that name. Why is that, I wonder?" He cocked his head up at the god, snapping his fingers as his lips curled back into a malicious grin, baring his sharp teeth. "Oh, wait! I have heard about you! You're that guy who jumped off a bridge because he couldn't have things his way." The creature spoke the last part in a high-pitched, whiny tone.

"I didn't jump," Loki insisted, gritting his teeth. "I just...let go."

"Let go!" Rocket howled. "Let go! Ha!"

A hand touched Loki's shoulder and he jumped, jerking away from Drax who had come up silently behind him. "My friend, you need help," the Kylosian stated.

Loki scowled at him. "No, I'm fine. That was three years ago, anyway. I'm fine now."

"But it's still funny!" Rocket snorted.

"Three years ago?" Hailstohm furrowed her brow thoughtfully. "That's right. That was when the Bifrost broke...after being in contact with Jotunheim too long." She slid her eyes over at Loki and he felt uneasy. Asgard had never released the full report of what had happened, that night at the observatory. The Bifrost striking Jotunheim was passed off as a malfunction; Loki was reported dead. Only Odin, Heimdall, Thor, Frigga, and Loki knew that the "malfunction" had been intentional.

"Reaching jump point," Quill announced. "Buckle in."

The Milano shot through the jump point, jolting the passengers as they exited the Nova Empire and arrived on the outskirts of Jotunheim. The frozen expanse filled the viewport, the least inviting thing Loki had seen all day.

"That looks very cold," Quill commented. "Turning the heaters up and entering the atmosphere."

****

The sheer biting cold of the vast frozen planet had little effect on Arvolt. The Dark Lord's darkness coursing through his veins was enough to sustain him, no matter the temperature or planetary conditions. Matter was of little consequence – in the end, only darkness truly mattered.

The Power Stone gleamed from its position in his chest, its amethyst strength twining with the obsidian darkness and making him ever stronger. And he could sense the beckoning presence of the Aether, the Dark Lord's coveted prize.

But yet...something was off about the presence. It wasn't...full, the way Arvolt had felt it during the last battle against the Asgardians on Vela Gjölf. Then, it had been bristling with power, oozing with magnetism, transforming light into darkness. But now...now it was weaker, watered down, whispering instead of screaming, injuring instead of slaughtering, dozing instead of being fully awake. It wasn't...itself.

It was inside the Asgardian mereling, before. Now...it is elsewhere. It moves.

Arvolt did not know why that was so. But it was so. He had his task, and he had to complete it before his body was forfeit to the Dark Lord. The power surging through him would only last so long.