A Child of Mischief (Loki/Avengers story)

18. Whose to Blame

Standing in the middle of the throne room covered in Cora's blood, Thor watches as Odin paces the room. He stops every so often, to scoff at Thor and look at him with disgust.

"Have you gone back to your old ways?" Odin suddenly asks, Thor is taken aback by the question that he just looks at his father.

"Old ways? If you are referring to when all I cared about was winning battles and my overly active imagination of being King of Asgard. No, those times are far behind me. We have more pressing matters to deal with, such as—." Thor begins to say, but is then cut off by Odin.

"A child is nearly dead because of your insular thinking. Do you have any idea as to how this looks for us?" Odin screams, Thor's eyes go wide as Odin screams at him.

"Father, please. A mistake was made and I intend on making it right. The attack on Cora was a mere miscalculation. No one expected there to be one creature hiding out and waiting to attack." Thor says defensively.

"A miscalculation? A miscalculation! No, a miscalculation is a mathematical mistake. This is a child's life that hangs on by a thread. And not just any child, but a child of Asgard." Odin screams, his good eye goes wide as he realizes what he has just said.

Thor's eyes go wide as he hears his father yell the last few words. Both Thor and Odin just stare at each other as the room becomes eerily quiet.

"Child of Asgard? Father what are you talking about?" Thor asks as he tries to play dumb to the fact that his father may already know who Cora truly is.

"Do not play mind games with me. It did not take long to figure out who the child truly was yesterday when she first entered this room." Odin says, looking toward the doors of the throne room, Odin's eye goes wider as he see's Loki. Thor turns and see's Loki staring at him.

Loki lunges at Thor, and tackles him to the ground. Seeing red, Loki begins to punch Thor in the face, in between punches, Loki screams at him.

"How could you let this happen?" Loki screams as he pulls Thor to his feet and throws him across the throne room.

"That is my daughter, and you let her get seriously injured. Not to mention, you broke the promise you made to me before you put her in exile." Loki says as he stands over Thor and begins to kick him.

"Loki, stop." Odin simply says, Loki looks at Odin and moves away from Thor and stands in front of Odin.

"Why should I? You are the one who ordered her into exile. And now she lays in the infirmary clinging to life." Loki screams at Odin. As Thor shakily gets to his feet he see's Peter suddenly appear in the throne room. All three pairs of eyes fall on Peter.

"What is it, boy?" Loki says and goes over to Peter. Peter looks at all three of them before speaking.

"All of you are needed to the infirmary." Peter simply says and then disappears, making it known that it was just a clone of Peter that had been in the room.

Loki is the first one out of the throne room and down the hall. His heart races with fear and uncertainty as he makes his way to the infirmary. Without hesitation, Loki bursts through the door to the infirmary as he reaches it. Rushing toward the back of the infirmary, Loki places a hand on Queen Frigga's shoulder as he gets close to her. Turning ever so slightly, Queen Frigga looks at Loki and then back to Cora. Loki's eyes go wide as he follows his mother's gaze and see's that Cora is fully engulfed in a thin shimmering gold dome like force field.

"What is that?" Loki asks as he moves closer to Cora. Peter sits at the head of Cora's bed and watches Loki. Everyone watches the monitor as they hear Cora's heart rate jump a bit after Loki speaks.