Father's Daughter

1.03

CHAPTER THREE

The winds howled through the mountains, sharp and biting as Thor slammed Loki into the rocky side of the mountain. The thunder god’s muscles tensed beneath his armor, his mighty hammer Mjölnir crackling with energy. He towered over Loki, anger blazing in his blue eyes. The sight of his brother—alive after all this time, causing chaos yet again—stirred a storm of emotions within him.

Thor’s voice echoed through the barren landscape, deep and thunderous as he demanded, “Where is the Tesseract?”

Loki, always one for theatrics, merely laughed—a mocking, hollow sound that grated against Thor’s raw nerves. “I missed you too,” he said, his smirk smug despite the bruises already forming from their scuffle.

Thor’s patience was rapidly wearing thin. The ache of their history—the betrayal, the lies, the brotherhood torn apart—gnawed at him as he took a step closer, raising Mjölnir. The hammer glowed ominously, the energy within it threatening to be unleashed. “Do I look to be in a gaming mood?!” Thor barked, his voice cracking like the storm gathering above.

Loki tilted his head, still taunting, as though none of this affected him. “Oh, you should thank me. With the Bifrost gone, how much dark energy did the Allfather have to muster to conjure you here? To your precious Earth?” His words dripped with venom, mocking the very world Thor had come to protect.

Thor’s grip on Mjölnir tightened as he dropped it to the ground, the hammer’s weight sending tremors through the mountain. He moved forward, his heart torn between duty and the lingering bonds of family. In a single motion, he grabbed Loki by the front of his leather armor, hoisting him off the ground with ease. The anger in his voice was tempered with the weight of loss. “I thought you died.”

Loki’s eyes glinted with something between amusement and bitterness. “Did you mourn?” he asked, his voice quieter now, but no less sharp. There was something wounded in his tone, buried beneath layers of anger and resentment.

Thor, his grip loosening slightly, nodded. “We all did. Our father—”

“Your father!” Loki spat, his voice turning cold and hard as ice. “He did tell you my true parentage, did he not?”

The words hit Thor like a physical blow. He released Loki, stepping back, the distance between them growing in more ways than one. Loki began to walk away, his back to Thor as he widened the gulf between them with every step. “We were raised together. We played together. We fought together. Do you remember none of that?” Thor’s voice was tinged with desperation, a flicker of the bond they once shared shining through.

Loki turned then, his face an icy mask of contempt. “I remember a shadow,” he said, his words slicing through Thor like a blade. “Living in the shade of your greatness.” He took another step forward, his expression bitter. “I remember you tossing me into an abyss. I was and should be king!”

Thor took a deep breath, frustration bubbling beneath the surface. “So you take the world I love as recompense for your imagined slights? No, the Earth is under my protection, Loki.”

Loki’s derisive laugh echoed through the mountains, a sound that grated on Thor’s already frayed nerves. “And you're doing a marvelous job with that,” Loki said mockingly, his eyes gleaming with mischief. “The humans slaughter each other in droves, while you idly threaten. I mean to rule them. And why should I not?”