Loki's Adventures

#4 Bad News

#4 Bad News
Loki’s breath was coming in short panicked and shallow wheezes. His hands gripped the arms of his chair so tightly, that his knuckles were bone white. He dropped his Thor disguise. Dr. Strange had seen straight through it.
“Loki…” Dr. Strange said cautiously, as if he was speaking to a cornered animal.
“Shut up!” Loki gasped and leapt from his chair, knocking into the book shelf. Books spilled out unto his shoulders and fell to the floor. His legs felt like jelly and he was shaking like a leaf. He felt so weak. Loki had had many panic attacks in his life, but usually he was able to hide and cry in private. After Thanos had tortured him, he hadn’t had a panic attack the entire time he was taking over the Earth, but that was because of the scepter.
Loki slid to the floor, buried in books, and placed his head on his knees, trying to take deep breaths. Dr. Strange was still sitting, watching Loki, a calculating look on his narrow face. Loki noticed the man’s hands were glowing slightly.
Finally, Loki’s lungs stopped seizing and he was able to breath in and out. In and out. He glanced up, his green eyes bright and his skin pale and glistening with sweat.
“Where am I in this world? In this timeframe?” he asks, angry at himself for the quiver in his voice.
Dr. Strange tilts his head to the side, debating. Then he says, “You are dead.”
Loki lets this sink in. He’s dead. It doesn’t concern him that much. He’s been dead before. When he was with Thanos, he had wished to die. When he was dangling off the Bif-rost, holding unto Odin’s staff, he had decided that death was a better life than constantly living in Thor’s shadow and being a monster that his whole family hated, including himself.
“And my Mother?” Loki asked, managing to mask his features into a calm and dangerous expression, void of emotion.
“Loki, maybe I should get your brother over here and he can tell you-” Dr. Strange started, but Loki interrupted.
“TELL ME!” he yelled, jumping to his feet. More books tumbled to the floor.
Dr. Strange sighed. “Your Mother died protecting the Ether from the Dark Elves.”
“The Dark Elves?” Loki gaped. “They’re supposed to be extinct!”
“Well, they weren’t. This was a very long time ago Loki. More than ten years-”
“Ten years is nothing in the life of an immortal,” Loki hissed. “Tell me, did Thor kill every single Dark Elf in the Universe?”
“Yes. The Dark Elves are gone.”
“And where was I when my Mother died?”
“You were in prison… for trying to take over Earth…” Dr. Strange seemed to be contemplating Loki’s position. “Let me ask you something now,” he said, “Is that where you just came from? You have the Tesseract, don’t you?”
“Answer your own question mortal,” Loki replied disdainfully.
Dr. Strange nodded. “I thought so.” Dr. Strange was dealing with the old Loki. The hurt one. The broken one.
“Now tell me about this Sister of mine,” Loki said, not sure if Dr. Strange was pulling his leg on that one.
“Well, she’s dead now,” Dr. Strange explained. “She was trying to take over Asgard, and then the Nine realms, but you, Thor, and the Valkrye stopped her. Before that, you and Thor were at Sacaar and met the Hulk. And before that, you, uh, kidnapped your father, and took over Asgard yourself. But that weakened the spells Odin had placed on Hela, that’s your sister’s name, thus, you kind of started it in the first place. Anyway, your father didn’t exactly die, but he turned to glitter and floated away to join your mother.”
Loki stared at Dr. Strange. That was a lot of information. “So I saved Asgard’s people,” he finally said, disbelief obvious on his face. “When did I get out of prison again?”
“You were the only one who knew how to get off Asgard without the Bif-rost, and Thor let you out to help avenge your Mother’s death. Which you did. But you faked your death and kidnapped Odin.”
“Ohhh,” the connections connected. Loki nodded. “Go on. Tell me how I died.”
“After you saved Asgard’s people, you had to drop Surt’s crown into the everlasting flame-”
“The Eternal Flame,” Loki corrected reverently. “And I did that to stop Hela.”
“Yes. But on the way out, you kind of grabbed the Tesseract as well.”
“And Thanos came for us.”
“Correct. Thanos killed most of the Asgardians and he killed you because you tried to kill him.”
“I tried to kill him?”
“Yes, you wouldn’t let him kill your brother.”
“I saved my brother’s life?” “Yes.”
“Huh.” Loki said. The last thing he remembered of his brother was Thor shoving him in the back to get in the elevator. The second to last memory Loki had of Thor was Thor saying,
“We can do this. Together.”
And then Loki stabbed Thor and Thor picked Loki up over his head and threw him on the floor and then the Hulk smashed Loki, and Loki didn’t want to think about it anymore.
“Where’s Thor now?” Loki asked Dr. Strange.
“Thor has gone through a lot,” Dr. Strange said with a slight smirk, “He’s a bit different than what you remember. Physically. Though it’s been a while since I saw him, so…”
Loki smiled and straightened his leather coat. “Well, Dr. Strange, I thank you for your cooperation-”
Dr. Strange stood up and Loki didn’t like that the wizard was just as tall as he was. “Where are you going?” the man asked cautiously.
“That,” Loki smiled, “is none of your business.”
Loki pulled out the Tesseract and Dr. Strange’s eyes widened. In the Wizard’s mind, he saw all the things Loki could mess up with that time and space traveling stone. “Wait, Loki, don’t go-” he said, his hands glowing brighter, and suddenly, yellow disks appeared in his palms.
Loki immediately recognized the threat. But just as he was about to leave, an enormous force flew into him, knocking him off his feet and into another bookshelf. The Tesseract fell from his hand and bounced unto the floor. Loki looked up.
Agent Barton, Spiderman, Wanda, and Dr. Strange stood looking down on him, varying shades of anger and admiration (Spiderman had never met Loki before) written across their faces.