The God's Awakening

Chapter 14

It had been only three days since they had lost contact with the five teams they had dispatched to retrieve the subject and now Commander Troln found himself standing at their last known location. The complete destruction that surrounded him was a surprise but he did not let it show, keeping his face blank. Trees had been snapped in half as though they were twigs, large ice shards lay scattered, broken and slowly melting around the clearing and there were large gouges in the ground beneath the newly fallen snow. Silently fuming the Commander realised that there would be no tracks due to the heavy snow fall over the last two days. Retrieving the bodies had proved enlightening. The majority had been so badly beaten they were unrecognisable. After a count of the fallen, some of whom had been found past the tree line, they had found two missing. Deserters, they will be seen to. Troln thought sternly.

He had decided to take charge in retrieval of the subject after they had lost contact with these teams. This had been the first sighting of the subject since it had escaped two years ago and he was losing patience. If S.H.I.E.L.D hadn't raided our compound I would have had the creature completely under my control. It would be an effective weapon. It would be completely loyal to me. If only they had given me control of the Winter Soldier I could have been unstoppable! Fools, all of them.

"Sir." A young agent said, pulling him from his thoughts. "The target is not in the vicinity. Due to the snow fall we are not able to track where it went".

"Hmm."

"Sir, if I may. If the subject caused all this damage will we be able to capture it?" the young man said nervously, glancing at the destruction surrounding them. Troln had to give the agent points for having guts. Normally no-one questioned him like that, either because they were too afraid or because they knew better yet he found it strangely refreshing. Taking in the area he saw something mostly buried in the snow glinting in the light.

"I do not believe the subject caused all of this." he said, moving over to the object and kneeling down in the snow. Taking hold of it he pulled it out, revealing the shift of an arrow. Examining it carefully he found words engraved onto it. "Well, things are getting more interesting". A feral glint entered is eyes as he read the words, Stark Industries.

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Fandral couldn't believe how blind they had all been. It was their own foolishness which had pushed the youngest Prince away from them. He had spent the previous night going back through his memories, both good and not so good. He recalled that Loki had first introduced them to Sif. He, Thor and Hogun had been around 150 years of age, only children, Volstagg around 290 years. They had been training in a clearing just outside the cities walls when the younger Prince, 138 years, had arrived accompanied by two young girls, both of noble blood. He had introduced them to Sif and told them how she wanted to be a Warrior.

He could remember how Loki looked a little nervous but proud of her. Initially the young Warriors had thought it the funniest thing in the world and laughed so hard that Volstagg was rolling around on the ground. It was only after Sif had dropped Fandral on his back that they had taken her seriously. It had only been a few days later that the young Prince had shown them a spell he had learnt and instead of supporting him they had treated him poorly, calling him Ergi.

How could we easily accept Sif as a Warrior but then deride Loki? he thought, sitting heavily on the bench under a large blossoming tree. There are other Seidmadur, even the Allfather can weild Seidhr. What made Loki any different? The guilt fell heavily in Fandral's stomach. Not even Thor supported him! he realised with a start.

The blonde swordsman could remember so many pranks he and Thor had pulled which they had never gotten in trouble for because the blame had fallen on Loki and he never denied it. Holding his head in his hands he couldn't stop thinking about the worst prank that they had pulled which had gotten the young God of Mischief in serious trouble.

They had been around 300 years of age and Sif had grown her long hair to below her waist. Whenever they were training it would take a long time for her to pull it back. Fandral could recall that at that time Sif had been supportive of Loki learning to use his Seidhr, in fact she would always try to gain the attention of the younger Prince though he seemed not to notice, conferring with the other young lady who would join them, though now Fandral could not recall her name. He did remember that he had flirted with her a time or two. Whenever Sif would vye for Loki's attention Thor would become annoyed.
One evening after training Thor had pulled Fandral aside and asked his help in a prank. An hour after the sun had gone down the two boys had met and snuck down to Sif's abode. Her father had been out and it had been easy to enter. Sif had been sound asleep when they found her. Thor had then pulled out a knife which Fandral recognised as one of Loki's throwing knives from training. Picking up the ends of Sifs hair he was about to cut off only a small amount of her hair when she turned in her sleep. The knife slipped and sliced through more than intended. It had taken off to almost chin length. Fandral still could not understand how so much had been cut but then again Thor had always been terrible at handling daggers. Both boys had been shocked and, dropping the hair and knife, had fled.

The next day Sif had been furious, especially after finding Loki's dagger with her shorn hair. Not giving him a chance to defend himself she had struck him across the face and then kneed him in the groin. After that she had gone to the Allfather who had put his youngest in isolation in the dungeons with his powers dampened for two weeks and then forced to apologise publicly. He didn't know if the young Prince ever found out that it was he and Thor who had done it but he did know that the raven haired man had never denied the deed.

After that Sif was harsh and even cruel towards Loki and they had pushed him further away. Thor had eventually confided that he had been interested in Sif and was annoyed that she vied for Loki's attention which made the fact that Sif's transfer of interest to Thor now made him uncomfortable.

From that time Loki would spend most of his time in the library, training his Seidhr or on his own. Thor would demand that he would join them on some of their adventures or missions and with much reluctance, he would but they would never make him feel welcome. He had gone from being their friend to being the annoying little brother of their friend.

They always thought he was planning and plotting mischief, always jealous of Thor when it was not always the case. It was not until recently that they had found out the youngest Prince had been personally helping the poorer areas of Asgard to prosper, which is why many of Odins Council did not like him. The simple fact was that the young man was too clever and talented for them. Fandral, for the first time ever, questioned why no one had seemed to recognise this.