at last. (Strangefrost story)

a beautiful mind.

Strange couldn't believe it. Five years. How it could be five years when it felt like a few hours. And then he remembered Mordo's words: "Did you know the time is running differently here?"  The sorcerer didn't know what to do. 

What if Loki didn't want to see him anymore? What if he really found someone else to copy with Strange's coma. He wouldn't blame him. Stephen actually little hoped Loki found someone to be happy as much as it was possible in such a situation. 

The sorcerer was lying on the hospital bed, his head buzzing with thoughts. Last few days, Wong kept visiting him, as did Wanda and Christine and others but Loki. Stephen wasn't disappointed or sad. No. He was scared. No one wanted to tell him anything about Loki. 

Every time, Strange asked them about the god, they stayed silent or change the subject. Not even Thor said a word about his brother. It was obvious something happened when he was in a coma but no one was willing to talk about it and Strange started to fear the worst.

It was the last day of observation and Strange could come back home. Home. What home it would be without Loki. Stephen doubted he would find his lover, smiling in the doorway of the Sanctum with spread arms, waiting to hug him tight and kiss him to welcome him back. Oh, but how he wished it would happen exactly like this. 

Instead, they came in the empty, quiet Sanctum. It wasn't the happy place Strange remembered. Stephen's chest tightened the moment he stepped into the entrance hall, memories running through his mind. This is where he saw Loki for the last time. 

"Where is Loki?" He suddenly turned to Wong. "Why don't you all want to tell me anything? I deserve to know!" Strange was getting frustrated. Wong frowned worried about Strange reaction, "we didn't want you to freak out or something. You needed to stay calm to recover so we decided to wait a little more to tell you." 

And with those words, he led Stephen down in the cellar. "How long do we have a cellar?" Strange asked, his confusion growing with every second. He was sure there wasn't a cellar before. 

Wong didn't turn, stopping by the door at the end of the stairs, taking the handle, he carefully opened the door, letting Strange in, "we had to build it for him," Wong said, pointing at the big window to the other room Strange didn't fully notice before, taking Wong's words in.

The sorcerer stepped closer to the window, spotting skinny figure lying on the floor, back turned to the watchers, clothes partly ripped and covered with few bloodstains, the raven hair complete mess, the bare feet covered in dirt. 

The room looked more like a cell than a room, no furniture, no door, no windows except for the one they were looking through right now. Strange placed his hand on the glass, watching the poor body on the floor, a tear running down his cheek.  

"Loki," he whispered after a moment of silence, then turned to Wong, anger boiling in his veins. "Why did you do this to him? Do you hate him so much?" He almost shouted. Wong raised his hands in a defence manner, "let me explain, please. We had to do it. For his own good.. and all around him too." 

Strange gasped, looking back at Loki who suddenly turned around on the floor. Strange could now see his face and the view broke his heart even more than it already was. Surprisingly, Loki wasn't sleeping, the look in his eyes so empty as if he wasn't even there, like a ghost of the past everyone forgot, abandoned. 

"What do you mean 'you had to'?" Wong took a deep breath, "you may want to sit down for this." "What do you mean 'you had to'?" Strange growled, clenching his jaw, both of his hands on the glass, not looking at Wong.

"After the accident, Loki stayed by your side, first few weeks, he refused to leave the hospital. Eventually, he gave up, helping me with the Sanctum, visiting you every day for almost two years, drowning in depressions. He never told me but I could see it behind the mask he decided to wear. 

However, one day, he just snapped. It was like a switch, the need for revenge fueling his actions. He left the Sanctum, staying at the compound, joining for missions, trying to find Mordo at all cost. 

That's when it all started to get even worse than before. He stopped eating, talking to us. Day by day, he was more and more desperate for Mordo's blood, despair slowly consuming his mind. But at least, he still kept visiting you. 

One day, he came back from a mission, beaten up more than ever before. Clint, who was helping him with searching for Mordo, told me they found the base of his minions, Loki slaughtered them all without a glimpse of mercy, he killed dozens of men and women with his bare hands, not stopping until the very last of them was dead. However, Mordo wasn't there. 

When they arrived, Loki stayed in his room for the rest of the day, only loud noise and cries heard. When Thor came to check him up, he found the room destroyed, pieces of broken furniture and glass everywhere, Loki lying on the floor, passed out from the exhaustion. 

We tried to take care of him as much as we could but you know how powerful his mind is. He created his own world with you in it, his happy place, where he locked himself in. He is here and isn't. I'm not sure if he fully perceives his surroundings anymore. 

However, from time to time, he fully wakes up as if something was trying to get him out of his world and as soon as he finds out it was all just his mind playing with him, he gets furious and aggressive, attacking everything and everyone, trying to beat off the unbearable pain, then leaving the reality again. 

That's why we locked him up. Otherwise, he would hurt someone or himself. I'm sorry, Stephen, we had no choice." Wong finished with a visible sorrow in his eyes.