What If... HYDRA Got Hold of Loki?

no one will find you

"Hello, Loki."

It's been months – years? – since he's heard that voice, but he would recognize it anywhere. No amount of time could possibly bring him to forget Heimdall. This is his friend, his guardian, and now, he's never been more relieved – or surprised – to see him.

Loki looks around, and he's greeted with the all-too-familiar sight of Heimdall's outpost in Himinbjorg. Its golden structure is a sharp contrast from the dull grays and whites he's become accustomed to. He never thought he'd see this again. He never thought he'd see him again.

When he meets Heimdall's gaze, he's hit with a wave of emotions.

Relief.

Fear.

Anger.

They left him for so long.

Asgard left him.

They abandoned him in this world of pain, left him to suffer through this alone.

And now, after all this time, they've come for him? As though nothing's changed? As though Loki hasn't been torn apart and put back together again hundreds of times over while they sat up there in Asgard and twiddled their thumbs?

He doesn't know which emotion is the most fair. He doesn't know which he should act on. At this point, he feels like he doesn't know anything. So, all he says is,

"Why now?"

"Loki..." Heimdall smiles sadly. "We never stopped looking for you."

Loki bites his lower lip. They didn't?

"Your parents were devastated when we lost you. They've torn this world apart trying to find you."

Loki can feel his eyes begin to sting. They have?

"They've thought of nothing else since you disappeared," Heimdall says. "It was hard to lose Thor. They couldn't stand to lose you, too."

The sound of Thor's name sends a pang of grief, of guilt through him, but the fact that Odin and Frigga have been looking for him... They never abandoned him. They never forgot him. They never stopped loving him.

His family loves him.

He didn't know he needed to hear that until he did.

"Do they know where I am?" Loki asks. He hopes they do, because he hasn't the slightest idea. He can't help them. He can't guide them to him.

"They do," Heimdall assures him. "They're coming for you now. They're going to bring you home.

Loki's eyes snap open.

They're coming for him.

They're going to bring him home.

"Mother!" He bangs his fist against the cage. "Mother! Father!" He slams his fists against the bars, over and over and over. "In here!"

He can't see.

This stupid blanket over the cage.

He needs to see.

He summons all the magic he can muster and flings the blanket off the cage. He can see the whole room now, and the lights nearly blind him after so long in the dark. But he doesn't care. He just looks to the window.

They're coming for him.

They're going to bring him home.

"Mother!" His throat hurts from screaming the name so loudly. He doesn't care. "Father! Heimdall!" He's right here! He's waiting for them! Don't they know that he's waiting for them?