They twisted the Tesseract's case together, and Thor felt the wormhole take them.
But where they landed was nowhere on Asgard.
Loki looked at him, eyes wide and full of fear and betrayal.
"I do not know where we are," Thor told him. "It was programmed by Father before I left Asgard."
The world was desolate. The air was breathable, but it was clear to Thor that neither of them would last more than a few days here. There was no food and it seemed little or no water.
And it was too cold for Thor. Now, while the local sun was up, it was chilly, but he had no doubt the night could be deadly to him unless he found shelter. He was already feeling himself begin to shiver.
This world must be comfortable for Loki, then, Thor thought.
It was not a good thought.
"He promised we were bringing you home."
Loki stared at him.
"I swear it, Brother! I have no way home from here either!"
Loki let go and sat in the dust. There was a determined look in his eyes, and fear.
Ever-greater fear.
After a long time, he took a deep breath and reached out to the ground with a trembling finger.
"T R A C"
Loki gave a little cry in his throat and fell to his side, eyes trying to roll back and his body shaking.
Thor caught his hands as he fell, mind not willing to think it might be a trap. "I am here with you, Brother. I will not leave you in this place."
What could it mean? Of course Heimdall would be tracking them...
Thor felt himself chill even more.
When Loki had mostly stilled, Thor helped get him over to a rocky outcropping where there was a good flat clean place to lie down out of the dust. "Brother, I think I need to ask you some things."
Loki's eyes widened and the fear and pain was apparent. But he laid down without prompting.
And then he grabbed for Thor's hand.
"Still say we are not brothers, Brother?" Thor asked, trying to keep his voice kind.
Loki started weeping.
"You have been under the control of another."
Thor didn't need to see the way Loki's eyes lost focus to know he was right.
He let Loki rest, clinging to his hand, and thought about what to do next.
"I will borrow a lesson from you, Brother. Yes or no questions. Where one answer would be something they would not want me to know if correct and the other would not."
Loki's hand trembled in his.
"So that I will get the answers they do not wish anyone to have, and nothing you suffer be needless."
Loki's eyes filled with fear, but he nodded.
It took an hour, and Loki's eyes were losing focus by the time it was over, but Thor found out what he'd wanted to know.
The army had been a loan, not Loki's own. The army had been controlled by a third party, someone who Thor did not know the name of (Loki had visibly not appreciated being asked if they were controlled by anyone from Jotunheim, but he had accepted Thor's explanation of working through the known realms group by group).
