Above All Shadows [Loki Timetravel fic - Completed]

20. Asgard

'Heimdall! Reopen the Bifrost,' Thor shouted. 'I will have my vengeance.'

'Hold here, Thor.' Loki threw himself into Thor's path. He lacked the strength to physically stop his brother, but he hoped at least to slow him down. 'Take a look around you, will you?'

The anxiousness in Loki's words must have stirred some common sense in Thor. He jerked to a stop and took stock of the cracked walls and half-obliterated ceiling in Heimdall's Observatory.

'Sweet mercy,' Thor muttered.

Loki took a step towards his brother, forcing Thor to back away from the opening to the Bifrost. 'This is what Asgard looks like, the destruction in Jotunheim is a hundred times greater. They have paid dearly for the insult they have inflicted upon Asgardians and Laufey, who has stirred up trouble between the two realms, is dead. Please, brother, let your hammer rest for now.'

'The sorceress still lives.'

'I know.' Loki sighed. 'In time we will find a way to back her back for what she did to you, but today isn't the day for that. Asgard is in disarray and you are the king. You have responsibilities here.'

Thor snarled in frustration, but he lowered his hand and let Mjolnir rest idly by his thigh. Behind him, Heimdall let out a noise which was a close to a relieved sigh as Loki had ever heard from the man. Loki mouthed a quick thank you to him, then called over the bewildered-looking Einherjari soldiers that were positioned by the entrance to the Observatory.

'Take a message to Lords Agnar and Tyr,' Loki said. 'King Thor has returned.'

None of the Einherjari soldiers were eager to be caught in whatever tumult would follow Thor's return. All four of them immediately saddled their horses and galloped down the length of the bridge. Thor's gaze followed their passage.

Loki carefully rested his hand on Thor's arm. 'Are you well?'

'I... don't feel quite myself. While she held me, my body didn't belong to me. I'm sure this will pass soon enough.' Thor forced a smile. ' That's a very good disguise, Loki. I almost didn't recognise you.'

Loki swore under his breath. After a week surrounded by frost giants, the hue of his own skin had faded into the back of his mind. Thor, on the other hand, had never seen him like this previously. Nor did he know anything about the sorry tale of Loki's adoption.

That realisation chilled Loki to his core. The last time he hadn't been around when Thor had first learned Loki wasn't his brother by blood. True, he did offer Loki his acceptance when they encountered each other again, but Loki didn't know what his initial reaction had been. And, this time, Thor had been a prisoner of the frost giants for weeks. Loki could only guess at what torment they could have inflicted upon Thor.

'You must have spun a good story. The sorceress claimed you her cousin,' Thor added, oblivious to his brother's distress.

Loki cocked his head. 'You heard that?'

'I heard everything, from the moment they took me to the moment she released me.'

'I see. Well, to be clear, it was never my intent to kill you.'

Thor attempted to separate the worst of the tangles in his hair. 'I gathered as much.'

'Good.'

There was so much Loki needed to explain to his brother. Asgard lay just on the other side of the bridge; Thor needed to know the political situation in his realm before he returned to the palace. He also needed to know about Loki. And Loki didn't know where to start. He still felt the warmth of Laufey's blood on his skin and felt the rumble of mountains quaking under the Bifrost's incessant pulse. Were Hyndla and Thrym safe? What of Baugi and his family? Baugi probably was. He was supposed to be somewhere further out, on the front lines. And that was another issue in need of resolution - the Einherjar remain on Jotunheim.