Transparent ❅ Loki

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WHEN Thor returned, he did not return alone. He had come with the Tesseract and his brother in tow. Loki's hair was longer than she could ever remember it being and he was paler too, but that seemed to match the gaunt appearance of his face. Syn stepped toward the two, a frown stretching across her lips at the muzzle and shackles her beloved wore. "Loki," she whispered his name. He could still hear her sweet voice and glanced up. I know your face.

"Syn," Thor reprimanded, raising his hand as she drew closer, not knowing what to expect from her or his brother. She reached up, running her fingertips across the small scrapes and bruises on his face and down to the silver and gold muzzle. It was emplaced by magic, she could feel it, and only Thor or Odin could remove it. Loki reached forward with his restraints and grasped one of her hands, his eyes were soft, but with a lurking darkness that hadn't existed before. Are you not afraid of me?

She had thought him dead less than a week ago, but now he stood before her. Alive, but changed. "Take it off," she demanded, tears gathering in her eyes. She wanted to hear his voice in person and not just in her head. Thor shook his head and Syn's eyes hardened. "Do as I say, Thor." But he did not relent to her wishes, no one did.

❅❅❅

She had been summoned by Odin to attend the trial of his son. It was far from the first trial she had sat in on, after all, it was in her nature to see truths, call out falsehoods, and hold people to their oaths.

Loki was already within the great hall, his eyes burning into the back of her head as she strode past him and knelt before the throne. "Syn," Odin greeted, he stretched out his left arm and motioned for her to take a seat on the dais, "I need you to see through the prisoner's lies."

There was a lump in her throat, but nonetheless, she nodded and folded her hands in her lap. Syn met Loki's gaze and found that it was full of betrayal and resentment. "Traitor," he sneered, taking two steps toward her before the guards pulled back on the chains that bound him and prevented him from moving any closer. She turned her gaze downward and did not think to look up again until her specialties were required.

He was lying. She believed that even without her gift, having known Loki long enough, that it would be easy to spot his lies. Especially one so poorly told. However, she liked the truth even less. So when Odin looked down at her, awaiting her judgment, Syn straightened and lifted her chin, meeting Loki's crisp green stare. "He speaks the truth, your grace." The old king did not question her judgment, only accepted it and in turn sentenced his son to a life in the dungeon.

Once excused, she followed the guards out of the throne room. They stopped for a moment when she slipped in front of the prisoner. His eyes were harsh and burned into her soul like white embers. Too many words had been left unspoken between them, though when Syn opened her mouth to speak, Loki cut her off. "I don't love you anymore, you traitorous wench," he snarled.

Syn smiled and shook her head, his words did not hurt her. Time had not made him a better liar if anything he had grown worse. "That's the worst lie I've ever heard," she replied, stepping aside from the contingent of Einherjar that led him to the dark depths of the dungeon.

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It took a week before she was able to garner enough allies within the guards and have an audience with Frigga to be able to sneak into his bleak cell one night. Loki felt the hair on his neck stand up in her presence. That was something he had noticed since his return, Syn unnerved him, and he hated it. He hated that she could see right through his ploys, his lies, that she could see the truth of his actions and the truth of his heart and mind. He found himself almost to the point of hating her. Maybe he always had hated her.

Loki turned to face her, his hands clenching and unclenching at his sides. He didn't know how to approach her, what to say, what to do. She looked so different from the young girl he had known as a child, even a handful of short years had made her look all but a stranger to him. They had been betrothed and she wore the pair of gold rings on a silver chain around her neck. Loki had loved her and she him, but that had been years ago. "You knew I was lying and you said nothing," there was a trace amount of anger in his voice.

She stepped closer to him, lowering the walls she had built around herself. She had seen the truth, knew of the tortures and lies that had been fed to him. Syn knew the truth of the pact he had made with the Mad Titan, she knew that he had failed to uphold his end of the bargain. "I knew that you would not want him to know." She stated and he cursed her for being right.

"Syn," he breathed, stepping toward her until she spoke again and the words stopped him in his tracks. "You promised him the Tesseract," she announced.

"I had no choice," he snapped, beginning to pace along the cell wall. "That's a lie," she retorted, even without her abilities she would have been able to see through those words. Loki lowered his gaze to the floor. There was no point in trying to trick her, it had never worked, she would always know the truth.

"I didn't want to die," his voice had grown so soft that if it weren't for the silence within the dungeons she would not have heard the admission. She did hear it though, and it broke her even more than having to be a part of his punishment.

Syn stepped forward and took his hands into her own. "Look at us," she whispered and only then did Loki see that she was broken too, "look at what we've become." There was a time when they were happy and everything was right, but that time had been far too short.

"The Goddess of Truth and the God of Lies," Loki mused, one of his hands resting on the small of her back, the other lazily brushing through strands of snow-white hair. He rested his cheek on the top of her head, pulling her flush against him. He had missed this, missed her. But just for a moment, they could pretend that nothing had changed. "We'll be each other's demise," he whispered.

❅❅❅   

Syn entered the throne room out of breath, "Thor!" She stumbled for a moment upon seeing the God of Thunder standing beside his father's throne. His hair had been cut short and Mjölnir was gone from his side. Thor stepped down from the throne and immediately took Syn into his arms. He had feared the worse upon seeing the empty palace as Heimdall did not know her whereabouts. "Where is Loki?" She asked, glancing around as if expecting him to appear from the shadows.

She saw Thor's jaw clench. "Still on Sakaar," he answered and saw the anger flare up in her gentle features. "I could not risk his betrayal," Thor explained. Syn opened her mouth to refute, to call him an oaf for leaving his brother behind, but he gripped onto her shoulders. This was not the time for arguing. "I need you to get the Bifrost," he said, "help Heimdall."

It took a moment for her find the words and though she knew she would have to help the people there was only one thing she could muster at the time. "You left him!?" Her words were mixed her anger and incredulousness.

Thor sighed and stepped back, standing atop his own broken likeness. The palace shook. "I don't have time to argue with you about this, Syn. Go, please." She did not budge. "Listen to me," the God of Thunder spoke in a low voice, "our people are going to die if we do not leave. Heimdall will need your aid."

"But-," she began to protest but he cut her off. "Loki is safe, Syn. He will come for you, but first, we must leave." Alas, she nodded and turned toward the side, running off to aid the people of Asgard.