To Begin Again

Chapter 1 - Troubling Thoughts

Loki was in his chambers in the palace sitting at his desk staring out at the landscape of Asgard across his balcony rail deep in thought.  He was considering the recent events of his life, turning them over and over in his mind. He slowly got to his feet idly stretching his limbs and walked across to the balcony, leaning forward he rested his arms on the railing and looked down into the palace grounds.  As Loki looked at the gardens his eyes fell on Thor who was walking in the grounds with Jane Foster at his side.  He did not understand why Thor found Jane’s company so appealing.  In all their years growing up he had never imagined Thor as he was now, he had changed so much in the last few years.   Although Thor remained a warrior the mortal Jane Foster had quite clearly taken possession of his heart.  For no longer did Thor spend time drinking and revelling with Fandral, Sif, Volstagg and Hogun, when their training sessions were over.  These days Thor would either return home to the Palace to Jane or, if she wasn’t in Asgard to his chambers before each night she was away paying a visit to Heimdall at the Bifrost.

Loki watched them both now as they stood arm in arm looking up at the stars, he was confused he couldn’t understand how a mere mortal woman could have this effect on an Asgardian.  Growing up they had always been taught that mortals were lesser beings, so while he understood Thor’s need to protect Midgard and its inhabitants, Loki had never expected that one day Thor would fall in love with one.  He walked back into his chambers still deep in thought about the last few years’ events.  It had been three years now since he had tried to get Thor into trouble and it had back fired on Loki big time.  

At first, he had helped some Frost Giants into Asgard to spoil Thor’s big day as he was named heir to the throne of Asgard.  Then he had cajoled Thor into getting their band of warrior friends to go to Jotunheim, home of the Frost Giants that had backfired when he found out that he may be one himself.  Odin had to rescue them and because of their visit he then banished Thor to Midgard temporarily for defying him until he earned his position back on Asgard.  While Thor was away Loki’s heart had been torn apart by Odin when he admitted to him the truth about his parentage and that he was in fact a Frost Giant.  In anger and frustration at this Loki had tried to win Odin’s favour while keeping Thor marooned on Midgard and finally he had fought with Thor.  After Loki killed Laufey the King of the Frost Giants, and his true father, Thor returned to Asgard and the two brothers ended up fighting because Loki tried to destroy Jotunheim using the Bifrost.  While they were fighting Odin tried to stop them fighting ultimately Loki fell from the Rainbow Bridge of Asgard into a worm hole. 

After his fall through the worm hole Loki had spent his time wandering the nine realms as a lost soul having no home.  During this time he encountered the ‘Other’ the servant of Thanos. The memory of Thanos makes Loki shudder as he remembers the mind powers with which they had control over him.  The ‘Other’ had agreed to supply Loki with an army to help him recover the Tesseract for them and in exchange they had promised him that he would be ruler of Midgard.  This last plan had ended disastrously for Loki, Thor had joined with the other Avengers to defeat the Chitauri army recover the Tesseract and take him back to Asgard where Odin imprisoned him.  Loki possessed magic, brains, cunning and guile whereas it seemed to him that Thor possessed only brute strength, yet at every turn Thor had always come out on top, this Loki could not get to grips with.  It seemed as though the relationship between Thor and Jane instead of weakening him had in fact somehow made Thor stronger than ever.

This all left Loki confused and feeling in need of someone to discuss things with and so he decided to go and pay Heimdall, the all-hearing all-seeing Asgardian sentry, a visit at the Bifrost gateway to the other realms.  Before her death Frigga, Loki’s adoptive mother, had been the one to whom he would turn if he needed to discuss matters, but now that she was dead it was Heimdall to whom Loki turned when he needed to discuss his musings.  Loki walked to his bed picked up his cloak and set off, unaware of the fact that Thor and Jane had been watching him leave his balcony.  “Thor I’m worried about Loki.  He is so quiet and always avoids everyone”.