Tricksters and Gods

Chapter 21

Loki had just finished packing everything when he noticed something...odd...coming from his desk. Normally this wouldn't worry him too much, except this particular drawer had all the effect of Dumbledore which had been given to him by his brother who owned the Hog's Head Tavern as his way to 'pay' Harry for all the pain his brother had caused him over the years.

Though the wand he took personally from the old goat, once they found out the hard way the blasted thing wouldn't be snapped in half. It was later revealed the thing was some sort of power amplifier for magical cores, boosting them beyond normal limits. When Loki looked at his invisibility cloak, he found it was actually made of heavily magicked Asgardian cloth, hence why the enchantment had yet to fade, and the cloak was still useable.

The only 'Hallow' that Loki refused to examine was the Resurrection Stone, which he still had no idea how Dumbledore even found it...or why it had that strange marking on it. After reading about the Infinity Gems when he learned the Tesseract was one, he wanted nothing to do with anything that even remotely resembled the most dangerous of the six. Well, that and he really didn't want to deal with a pissed off Hel after his ass.

By all accounts the Stone would bring back a shade of the dead, but the thing had just as bad a history as the wand did. Aside from removing the curses Riddle put on the thing, and removing it from the ring to keep anyone from accidentally wearing it, Loki had all but forgotten he even had it.

So why was the thing acting up now of all times?

Loki pulled open the drawer...and stared in horror at what was inside.

The second his mind registered what was actually in there, he slammed it shut and counted to ten. His luck couldn't possibly be this bad...or if it was, he briefly wondered who in Helheim he pissed off this much in his past lives.

The stone, which had been a bone white color the same shade as the wand, was orange. The 'marking' of the Hallows was gone completely and for the scant time he had the drawer open he heard whispering from it.

If it wasn't imperative he left this area before, it most certainly was now. If Odin learned he had this in his possession without realizing it...or worse...Thanos found out...Loki shuddered.

He had no desire for absolute power. Not since he grew up and got over the fact he was adopted and that he didn't actually want the throne of Asgard. Besides, history in any of the Nine Realms spoke ill of those who got too confident after receiving power that they didn't develop naturally. Power earned was far more reliable than any power gained by outside influences. It was why he had Gabriel show him how to locate the outer branches of the Yggdrasil through the old paths rather than rely on the power of the Tesseract to escape the realms he was known in.

Well...that and it was a great test of his ability to traverse the old paths without any outside aid. It had been a long time since he had a decent magical challenge like that.

Loki took a deep breath to calm himself, placed his 'box' as Tony liked to call it, in his bag where it would be jostled too much by his 'death' and escape, and went to join Thor. Gabriel had already been transferred into a newer holoball, allowing Loki to safely contain the Aether in the reactor without having to mingle the Tesseract's energy with the Aether. And that had been a pain in the ass to separate what little had been corrupted when he shoved the shard into the reactor.

Tony had at least given him several replacement reactors.

~

When Loki arrived, he very firmly kept his mouth shut about the discovery he had made in his house. The less Thor knew about that, the better. Especially since he was already pushing it because Thor knew he would be taking the Infinity Gems controlling Space and Reality with him to another world where no one would be able to find him. Without those two, no one would be able to complete the Gauntlet. And with the one he hadn't realized he had in his possession, it would be impossible for anyone to try and complete it anyway.