The Warling

Chapter Nine

Chapter Nine

“Lies!” Loki spat. “Thor was guarding me right up until your execution, ensuring I didn’t have a chance to rescue you. Neither of us slept a single wink that night and he never left my presence.”

“It wasn’t that Thor and Odin who rescued me,” Mira patiently explained, not at all upset by Loki’s anger. “They were from the future.”

Loki glared for a few more moments, then he began to bark with mirthless laughter, but Jane couldn’t see the humour in this.

“Whatever was done to your brain had obviously caused more damage than I suspected,” he scoffed.

“I was sceptical at the time too, but they showed me the time infinity stone that they used.”

Loki shook his head but he didn’t respond.

“I speak the truth, Loki, and I can prove it. They knew you wouldn’t believe me, so they gave me something of yours.”

“What?”

“I hid it back on Asgard, along with relics to convince Thor and Odin that I’m telling the truth.”

Loki considered her for a moment.

“Say I believe you, why would Odin travel through time to rescue someone that he gave to me as a spoil of war?”

“Odin did so for strategic reasons. They wouldn't tell me everything because they couldn’t risk my changing their past too much, but what they did say is that in the near future, Thanos presents a very real danger to all the nine realms.”

Loki stiffened at the mention of his name.

“I fail to see how I­-”

“You will die, Loki. In the original timeline, you will die when Thanos attacks.”

“Why should I believe they will care?”

“They both seemed upset by your demise, Thor especially so. According to what they said, in this present conflict with Earth, you succeeded but when Thanos attacked later, you joined forces with Thor and awoke Odin to help repel him. But you were hard and unreasonable and… you fell in the first battle, before they could get any detailed intelligence from you about your time with Thanos.”

“I still fail to see how saving your life alters that.”

“It was Thor’s suggestion, and he told me that asking for my execution was his biggest regret. He said that the hardening of your heart began that day. He said that not only did you lose me, but he lost you too. You pretended to be his friend but looking back, he could see that you never were, not after that.”

“So why not halt the execution altogether?”

Her eyes actually filled with tears. “Thor wanted that, he and Odin spent quite a bit of time arguing in front of me, but Odin said that if you didn’t think I had died, you might never have fallen into the void and encounter Thanos. Thor tried to argue that maybe you were what brought the 9 realms to Thanos' attention, but he was unmoveable on that point. Odin carefully manipulated my mind to allow my memories to seep out only during slumber, and the memory of meeting him in your room would remain hidden until I was restored, then he made me human and sent me to Earth. I guess he assumed I would recognise you during the attack on New York, which I did. He said he hoped that being reunited with me would make you rational enough to survive the first battle.”

“So I am still nothing but a stolen relic,” he said with surprising sadness. “Useful only for the intelligence I might have.”

He got up and went to the windows, watching dawn break over the London skyline, although Jane noted that he didn’t seem to be taking in the stunning view.