Loki: The Burden of the Throne

Chapter 21

"I can't believe any of these are still around." Steve Rogers said as he signed Coulson's vintage Captain America cards laid out on the conference room table. He now understood why Fury had given him the marker.

"There aren't many. It took me awhile to track them down." Coulson said. "Never thought I'd ever be able to have them autographed. I was there, after they found you. It's still hard to believe...was it just like being asleep? Did you dream?"

"I'm not sure. I don't remember any." Rogers answered and not entirely honestly which was unlike him. He knew for certain that he had dreamed at least one dream as he recalled it quite vividly He had often replayed it in his mind since he had awakened, the memory of it his and his alone, sacred, not to be shared with anyone. Rogers finished signing the last of the cards and capped the marker, slipping it into his pocket.

"After all this is over, I thought maybe you'd like to see my collection. There's a lot I'm sure you'd recognize. Maybe you could answer a few questions I have about a couple of them."

"Yeah, sure." Rogers said, watching as Fury, Banner and Pym who had been talking together filed out of the conference room, Barton, Romanoff and Stark who had been conversing with Loki and Verda following, leaving the two Asgardians behind.

"The closest I came to meeting an alien before today was reading science fiction magazines. They usually weren't the good guys. Can we trust them?" Rogers asked Coulson in a quiet voice. Coulson glanced in the two Asgardians' direction.

"Yeah." Coulson said. "Just don't meet him at the bar for a drink."

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"They have it. What are you-" Verda began after she and Loki had entered the quarters that Coulson had shown them to after their arrival, they having decided it would be more expedient to remain on earth. Loki put a finger to his lips indicating for Verda to be silent as he stepped over to the radio he had earlier asked Coulson to procure for him that now sat on a chest of drawers. Loki switched it on, turning up the volume.

"They may be listening." Loki said quietly as he returned to Verda and took her hand, leading her to seat herself along with him on the edge of one of the two bunks in the room. "The Tesseract must not remain here on Midgard. Their intentions for it are not limited to a warm light for all mankind to share. In any case, he will come for it." Loki said quietly. "I believe the time has come to revisit the agreement my father made with Midgard. They don't need the Tesseract. There is much knowledge that we could share with them that would resolve many of their difficulties."

"I'm not sure that's a good idea. Even that knowledge would likely be misused by such beings." Verda replied. "They continually war amongst and slaughter each other, often over trivial matters as they have for millenia. I fail to understand what it was about Midgard or mortals that Randolph became so enamoured with that he wished to remain and live amongst them. In the future I come from, after you, even after Thanos, after learning they were not alone in the universe when one would think their eyes would have been opened they continued to do so. Would it not be better to allow such ignoble beings to continue to go their own way until they bring about their own inevitable end?" Verda responded. Loki, considering her words, appeared thoughtful.

"They are not all so ignorant or ignoble." Loki said, recalling Erik Selvig and Jane Foster.

"No, but it is true of far too many. Midgard poses no danger to Asgard or other realms, but if you were to pass on to them such knowledge, that could change."

"You've given me much to think about." Loki said, contemplating.

"Is that not one of my duties?"