You're My Son

The Heart of the Casket

Loki and Thor helped their friends to their feet. They looked around at the now Casketless room, disappointed that they have failed. The battle had hardly begun.

"Asgard is too powerful," Sif spoke up. "They've been prepared. What do we have that can defeat them?"

Nobody answered. Nobody knew. Asgard had years of preparation and all the weapons from other realms that they can use, including the Casket. Asgard was ruler of all the other Nine Realms. What did Jotunheim have? They've been broken for years, thinking of nothing but survival. All they had were their powers that are weakening every day. They had no chance.

After a few minutes of silence, Loki spoke up. "The people are out of harm's way, yes?"

"We believe so," Volstagg answered.

"Then our main priority right now is getting the Casket. At least with that we have a better fighting chance with Asgard."

"How do we do it?" Fandral asked. "The Destroyer is nearly impossible to take down."

"I have an idea how. All of you fight with the others. I'll meet you there."

"What will you be doing, brother."

"Something drastic. Don't wait up for me."
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The Frost Giants looked about ready to give up, and the battle had just begun. The Destroyer stood next to the king of Asgard, holding the Casket in its hands, as if mocking them. Whenever someone would attack it, immediately they would be killed. No one dared trying to fight it again.

Odin and Laufey fought each other. Odin had the upper hand, having Laufey pinned down with his leg on his chest and Gungnir pointed at his face.

"Why do you do this?" Laufey asked. "All we wanted was our Casket, our survival. Why do intend to take everything away?"

"I will not allow you to use the Casket for your own personal gain. You use it to destroy and mock other realms."

"You speak from experience, King of Asgard."

Odin stood frozen for a few seconds after Laufey's statement, but didn't dwell too much into it. He let his anger boil up inside him. He was about to let a beam of deadly light escape from his weapon when he heard a sound like an object stabbing metal.

He turned to face the Destroyer. A giant spike of ice came out of its chest. But the sight of the Destroyer wasn't what surprised him at all. It was who made the spike of ice. The one he raised and loved as his own, now blue-skinned and red-eyed, stood behind one of Odin's greatest weapons. Loki was learning the powers of the Frost Giants. When did he find the time to learn it?

"End this, Odin!" Loki yelled. "There's no point in fighting. We only want the Casket for survival, not for reign." Ice formed on the prince's hands.

Odin let go of Laufey and stared at his son in disbelief and anger. "Why would I believe a traitor? One who causes mischief and chaos?"

"Everything that I believed about the Frost Giants were a lie. Everything that I knew about you was a lie. You were no different than the others. What makes you believe that you are more trustworthy?"

Odin held Mjolnir and Gungnir with a tight grip.

"I thought a wise king never seeks out war," Loki mocked. He looked over at the Destroyer and walked slowly toward it. "But he must always be ready for it."

Loki brought up more spikes of ice to stab the Destroyer until it dropped the Casket. Then he grabbed the Casket and ran toward the mountains of ice.

"No! Coward!" Odin yelled. He threw Mjolnir at the small Frost Giant. He ran after Loki in rage. Heimdall tackled the king and pinned him down as best he could.

Thor saw this as his opportunity. As his weapon was about to hit his younger brother, it flew another direction and landed in Thor's hand. He summoned lightning from the sky and shocked all the Asgardians and the Destroyer before they could get to Loki. However, the lightning only stopped the Destroyer for a second.

Thor ran to his four friends. "We need to stop the Destroyer before it can get to Loki. We need to buy him time."

"He didn't just run away?" Fandral asked.

"If I know my brother, he has something mischievous going on in his mind. He said he would do something drastic."

"Then let's go," Sif said.

Odin wasn't held down for long. He threw Heimdall off of himself. "Why do you betray me? You were a good, trusting friend."

"So were you."
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Loki was already miles away from the battle, deep into the mountains. He ran into a hidden cave that Laufey told him about the last time he was here.

Once he was deep in the cave, he dropped onto the floor to catch his breath. He never looked back, so he didn't know if anyone knew where he was.

It is said that the Casket itself is only a container for what truly lies inside. Only a Frost Giant with the right heart can withstand its power. If one with a wrong heart even touches the heart of the Casket, they die by a frozen death. Loki pondered at Heimdall's words, scared of what would happen if he touched what was inside the Casket. If that person uses it, they can be almost impossible to defeat. Every power that the Casket has will be theirs.

Loki didn't know his heart, whether it was good or bad, wrong or right, but his people needed him. He doesn't think that the war was about the Casket anymore, but about the feud between Jotunheim and Asgard. If that was the case, the Frost Giants were in more danger than ever before. He couldn't let them down. He couldn't let them die by Odin's wrath. His people didn't deserve that.

They were his people, his pride, his home.

Loki grabbed a big piece of ice from the ground. He took a deep breath. The next few seconds would be a gruesome death or power flowing through him.

He threw the ice and broke the Casket into pieces. He grabbed the crystal inside without hesitation.