Change || Loki.

17.

Loki was in a dilemma while he watched Odin furiously glaring at his elder brother after he sent off Fandral into the healing room. He had never really witnessed Thor to be in trouble so now he couldn't tell if he would be deservingly punished for his foolishness.

"There won't be a kingdom to protect if you're afraid to act. The Jotuns must learn to fear me, just as they once feared you." Thor argued against his father, his confidence shocking Loki. "That's pride and vanity talking, not leadership. You've forgotten everything I taught you about a warriors patience."

"While you wait and be patient, the nine realms laugh at us. The old ways are done. You'd stand giving speeches while Asgard falls." Thor sneered, his arrogance heightening.

"You are a vain, greedy, cruel boy!" Odin shouted, suddenly, with a scowl on his face.

"And you are an old man and a fool!" Thor sneered, his anger taking over. Odin's eyes softened at the words as he looked down for a mere moment. Thor immediately regretted his choice of words as guilt washed over his ocean blue eyes.

"Yes." Odin said softly, in agreement. "I was a fool, to think you were ready."

As Loki had planned, the trip to Jotunheim was a disaster, one that could've possibly cost him his life but now, it all seemed worth it.

Loki stepped forward, faking concern towards Thor. "Father-"

"Aye!" Odin howls, cutting him off, his anger scaring Loki. He turns back to look at Thor and spoke. "Thor Odinson, you have betrayed the express command of your king though your arrogance and stupidity, you've opened these peaceful realms and innocent lives to the horror and desolation of war!" His voice transitions from a low tone to a shout till the end. He walks closer to Thor and pulls apart Thor's cape. "You are unworthy of these realms. You're unworthy of your title! You're unworthy!" Odin shouted at Thor who was starting to get teary eyed, looking at his father. "Of the loved ones you have betrayed." Odin said lastly, his words rising a sense of guilt in Loki who looked between the two, his heart beat fastening, unsure of the events that were to be followed.

Odin steps back and raises his hand towards Mjolnir. "I now take from you your power! In the name of my father and his father before. I, Odin Allfather, cast you out!"

Thor is pushed out by the power of the Bifrost, causing Loki to run in his direction with genuine concern in his eyes. He felt his heart flooding with regret and remorse as he watched his brother being banished out of Asgard.

This was not at all what he intended. The joy he had minutes before had faded into a guilty and shameful conscience. He felt sickened by his actions that led his brother to face such consequences. He looked back at his father with pleading eyes but Odin just turned away and left.

And there he stood alone, with his thoughts. Thor wasn't the only thing on his mind. He looked down at his pale hand, his mind jamming up with the remembrance of the sight of his hand turning icy blue when it came under the touch of a frost giant.

He couldn't help but think he was cursed. Would that explain why he was treated so differently? But that didn't sound right.

The only thing that seemed right was to test it himself.

__________________

Loki's hands shook as he raised them to the casket. He took a deep breath and wrapped his fingers around the handles of the casket, picking it up from the stone pillar it rested on.

"Stop!" He heard Odin's voice echo in the vault. He slowly placed the casket back at its place. "Am I cursed?"

"No." Odin answered, his voice softer than it usually is. "What am I?" He asked, his voice heavy and coarse, building nervousness in Odin. "You're my son."

Loki turned and looked up at Odin, his icy blue skin and glowing red eyes fading away into his usual form. "What more than that?"

Odin decided to stay silent, unable to put words together. Loki walked closer to him, slowly. "The Casket wasn't the only thing you took from Jotunheim that day, was it?" He asked, tilting his head as he tried to hold back the build up of anger and despair in him.

"No. In the aftermath of the battle I went into the temple and I found a baby. Small for a Giant's offspring, abandoned, suffering, left to die. Laufey's son." He answered, his heart pounding against his chest as he spoke. Loki looked his way with shock painted in his eyes as tears start to well up.

"Laufey's son?" He asked, his voice laced with disbelief. "Yes." Loki looked away in silence for a moment while confusion started to rise in him. His lips parted when he looked back at Odin. "Why?"

"You were knee-deep in Jotun blood. Why would you take me?"

"You were an innocent child." Odin answered quickly, trying to convince Loki but Loki was far from convinced. His chest was getting so warm, it was as if someone had lit it on fire. His lungs were almost forgetting their function when Loki started to run out of breath.

"No. You took me for a purpose. What was it?..." He asked, walking closer to Odin, pointing out his index finger. Odin remained silent, as if ashamed to tell the truth. Loki only grew impatient in the tense silence and couldn't help but let out a throaty shout. "Tell me!"

"I thought we could unite our kingdoms one day. Bring about an alliance, bring about permanent peace... through you." He admitted, looking down.

Loki couldn't believe it. He was disgusted. This was all he meant to them, all his life. He could never do anything to mean something more.

"What?" He asked with an unbearable amount of pain in his heart as he stared at Odin in disbelief.

"But those plans no longer matter."

Loki was breaking. His senses were maddening. His mind was circling into a hurricane and his legs were getting weak.

"So I am no more than another stolen relic, locked up here until you might have use of me?"

"Why do you twist my words?"

"You could have told me what I was from the beginning! Why didn't you?"

Odin shakes his head, denying Loki's reason of pain. "You're my son... I wanted only to protect you from the truth..."

"What, because I... I... I am the monster parents tell their children about at night?" He stuttered unable to find the words fitting enough for his feelings.
Odin lightly clutches his chest as pain starts to grow while continuing to try and calm Loki down. "No! No!"

Loki only steps forward towards Odin who's health was growing unstable

"You know, it all makes sense now, why you favored Thor all these years, because no matter how much you claim to love me, you could never have a Frost Giant sitting on the throne of Asgard!" He yelled, his veins bulging out as his eyes were burning in red while in his harsh words, seeped out the pain and wrath of all those years he was mistreated.

Odin overwhelmed, collapsed and fell on the floor as his breaths became softer. Loki looked down at the man he called 'father' all his life and his eyes softened at the sight of him in pain.

He knelt down towards him and reluctantly, placed his hand on Odin's while fighting back the tears that were threatening to spill.

"Guards!" He shouted, his voice echoing. "Guards, please help!"