Brother Avengers

Brother Avengers Chapter 19

For the FIRST section, I listened to the Thor Soundtrack "Odin Confesses" and "Loki's Lie."

For the SECOND section, I listened to the Thor Soundtrack "Laufey."

For the THIRD section, I listened to "Laufey" again, then the Hobbit Trailer (Dwarf Song) Misty Mountains, IMMEDIATELY followed by Peter Pan-14-I "Do Believe in Fairies," then "Requiem for a Dream."

Enjoy!

VVVVV

Chapter 19

"You are now at a crossroads.

This is your opportunity to make the most important decision you will ever make.

Forget your past.

Who are you now?

Who have you decided to become?"

-Anthony Robbins

Thor stood stiffly next to the fire and the carcass that turned on the spit, bereft of Mjollnir. Steve also no longer wore his sidearm, and Tony stood in just his black jumpsuit, his armor folded into a box at his feet. The Jotuns had been unable to decide how to disarm Logan, however. So the four of them stood close together, completely surrounded in the quiet banquet hall, just waiting.

"I don't like this," Logan muttered.

"You don't like this?" Tony shot back, his arms wrapped around his chest. "They let you keep your coat—I'm freezing to death."

Thor let out a short breath. The vapor of it rose into the air. He had no idea how the fire could be blazing just feet away and yet the air still be so cold. He glanced around, his jaw tightening.

Ten Jotun warriors, their arms clad in razor-sharp ice dirks, stood in a circle around them, their eyes never leaving the Avengers' faces. Captain Alfrid stood a few paces off, his arms folded, Mjollnir stuffed into his belt. Thor glanced past him for the hundredth time at the door where Loki had disappeared. He fought back a sharp twinge that traveled down his throat. The hall remained totally silent—silent as midnight on the winter solstice.

The door flew open. Thor, Steve, Logan and Tony jumped. And two figures strode out.

The Jotun king led, taking long, sweeping steps—but Loki, completely unharmed, kept pace with him, his cape billowing behind. Together, they crossed around the pillar throne and stood before it, in the full light of all the torches and the fire. The king held one hand behind his back—and his features beamed. But Loki—Loki had gone death white.

Thor's heart beat faster.

Then, across the distance, Loki turned his head and looked at Thor—right at him.

And something inside Thor's ribcage clamped like an iron vise.

"My people!" the king shouted—his voice carried like thunder through the whole chamber. "I bring you glad news—gladder news than we have received in many an age."

The Jotuns frowned, turned toward their ruler, watched him carefully, listening. Thor tore his attention away from Loki and forced himself to hearken to the king.

"You know the lies Laufey told you," the king went on. "When he told you that he had hid my elder twin brother upon his delivery, sheltered him with a common family to be safe until the war's end." The king lifted his chin. His expression turned ugly. "You also know the truth that I and my mother revealed to you: that Laufey had not kept his word, but instead left my brother on the stone floor of the temple in the midst of a storm and Asgardian onslaught, to be killed. Because of his smallness. He did this to his own son. Our prince."