Okay, here's the idea I moved from the ideas thread where instead of ending up with the Chitauri and Thanos when he fell from the Bifrost, Loki ended up in the DCAU.
"No, Loki."
Those were Odin's words. Those were the last words Loki heard from his so-called father. A rejection of all he had done for Asgard. Loki being stepped over again for the favored son. In that moment he understood. He would never be good enough. He would never be more to Odin than another war trophy. No different than those relics kept in the Vault beside the Casket of Ancient Winters. So, in the end, Loki decided he had enough. He gave his brother a bittersweet smile and let go. Perhaps he could spend some time trying to repair his relationship with Hela in the next world.
Loki fell for what seemed like eons, as a bewildering mix of colors and utter blackness swirled around him. He could feel energies unlike anything he had ever encountered pulling at him, threatening to team him asunder at every turn. He knew it would only be a matter of time before the cosmic eddies between the Realms ripped his very essence apart.
He welcomed it.
Then, just as he was certain he had met his end, he felt something pulling at him. Something ancient and... evil in a way that made even Loki balk. He did all he could in his freefall into oblivion to avoid the hand? reaching out to him but the effort seemed futile. He had resigned himself to be captured by whatever malevolent force sought him out when something unexpected happened. By pure chance, a blinding flash of white opened up behind Loki as he had tried to recoil. And, in the brief moment Loki Odinson made contact with the white, with the briefest tear in the fabric of spacetime that lasted for a mere moment, and vanished.
Had he remained, be might have witnessed the fearsome visage of Thanos scowling at a lost opportunity.
*****
It was some time later when Loki became aware of his surroundings again. More specifically, he was aware of the hard pavement he had crashed into as he created a sizable crater. He looked up in confusion at what appeared to be a Midgardian city as he tried to regain his bearings.
"Hey mister, are you alright?" a voice asked to his right.
Loki was prepared to offer a rather scathing response only to come up short at the sight of a human child no older than six or seven standing at the edge of his impact crater with wide eyes. Say what you would about Loki but he was not the type to insult a child. He had faced that enough in his own childhood, and seen it often enough with his own brood to consider himself above such behavior. Whatever reply he was about to make, though, was cut short as he was hit with a beam of red energy that sent him flying through the wall of a nearby building.
Loki shook his head and bit back a snarl as he crawled out of the rubble left from his second impact in as many minutes and looked through the whole to see who had attacked him. He swore that if Thor had followed him just to continue their brawl he would flay his idiot brother alive.
Needless to say, he was somewhat confused as he witnessed what looked like a white and grey humanoid blob with a single large red eye brandishing some kind of energy weapon. A weapon that he was now pointing at the terrified child that had tried to check on Loki. Now it was not secret that Loki had little regard for mortals in general. That was true of most of Asgard. But he also was not the type to take a blindside attack or the intimidation of a helpless child with good humor. No, this would not stand.
"Excuse me, but I do believe your quarrel was with me," Loki sneered before letting loose a blast of magical energy that was far more devastating to the blob-creature than the creature's own attack had been to Loki.
The God of Mischief looked on with satisfaction as the creature was literally blown apart before taking stock of his surroundings in more detail. It was clear that some tragedy was facing Midgard that Loki had been wholly unaware of. Where he had initially thought it to simply be night, he now saw that the skies above him were choked black with a thick smoke coming from some kind of alien looking red and black monstrosity of a factory in the distance. Terrifying white war machines with what looked like red eyes similar to the creature he had just faced that stood at least a hundred feet tall and walked on three legs in a shape reminiscent of a huge jellyfish walking on its tentacles were patrolling the streets and laying waste to the area. And he could see several more of the blob-creature converging on his location from the factory-like structure belching its noxious smoke into the skies.
"That was totally awesome mister. Are you a superhero or something? Like Superman?" the boy asked with the enthusiasm only a child could muster even as what Loki assumed to be his mother scurried out of hiding to grab hold of the boy and try to spirit him away to relative safety.
"I am... something. I am Loki," the fallen god said as he surveyed the scene grimly. Loki had seen much of battle in his years at Thor's side. This did not look good for Midgard. Although the child's reaction offered the hope that some of the more powerful beings of Midgard might yet rise up to confront the threat. Not that Loki cared about that. But these creatures had attacked him and he was already having the worst day he had faced since his father had allowed his lips to be sewn shut. Oh no, he would not tolerate another insult today. It was just one straw too many upon his back. These creatures would feel the force of his displeasure.
Loki muttered a spell under his breath as the largest bits of stone and concrete debris began to glow and change until the formed into half a dozen or so golems. "Go and deal with that vermin," Loki ordered with a scowl. He would teach these creatures not to trifle with a Son of Odin.
"WOW! You really are a superhero. Did you see that mom? Mr Loki is awesome. Does he have a toy like Superman? I want a Loki toy," the boy said excitedly.
"Not now Tommy," his haggard mother replied. She turned her attention to Loki with tears in her eyes as she said, "Thank you for saving him."
Loki's first impulse was to tell her he had done nothing for the child's sake, but he held his tongue. Certainly having a reputation as a local hero of some sort would benefit him when the Allfather and Thor came for him. Better to stay in the good graces of the locals for now. "You are welcome. Now get him and yourself to safety. This is just the beginning," Loki ordered as he surveyed the attackers.
"Thank you," the woman repeated gratefully as he took off in a run. Once she was clear Loki allowed himself a feral grin. He had no idea who these invaders were, but the fact they were the aggressors here made them free game. He had centuries of frustrations to take out and the blob creatures had clearly volunteered. This would be... stimulating.
*****
The events of what would later be dubbed the "Imperium War" seemed like a blur to Loki when he looked back on them later in life. His defense of what he later came to know was the city of Los Angeles, a large city that seemed to lack a major resident hero at the time was fortuitous as a way to establish himself. His "fierce defese" if the people of Midgard (really more of taking his anger out on the invading Army but what they didn't know worked to his favor) had earned him a great deal of goodwill and the attention of what seemed to be a new alliance of Midgardian champions. It also left Loki with a bit of a quandary. None of these Midgardians were people he had head of.
Unlike Thor, Loki was almost meticulously studious in nature. As men and women of great power began showing themselves on Midgard in greater number, Loki made an effort to at least know something about the local champions and rogues to better put them to use someday if he would need them of face them across a battlefield. Certainly he would have heard of this "Superman" who could rival Thor himself in pure strength. Nor had he heard of the woman Diana, who claimed close ties to the Greek pantheon, longtime allies to the Aesir. In fact all of these heroes, who seemed well known to each other with the exception of the Martian J'onn, knew about each other at the very least.
But where was the Man of Iron? The green rage monster the Midgardians called the Hulk? Those so-called "mutants" that were getting the humans so up in arms?
No, this wasn't right at all.
Although it pleased Loki to note that the locals were as confused about him as he was about them. That much was obvious when they managed to contact him to learn more about him after the battle. Needless to say, they were somewhat shocked to see someone of his power fighting the invaders that J'onn had somehow missed. And the conversation after the more mundane introductions were out of the way was nothing of not entertaining.
"So you're trying to tell us you're the actual Loki from Norse mythology? The one from Asgard?" Green Lantern asked with a look of skepticism.
"Where else would I come from?" Loki drawled with a bored expression.
"But that's impossible. All contact with Asgard was lost long before my people emigrated to Themyscira. The gods of Olympus told us that they had not heard from Aesir for thousands of years," Diana insisted. "They believed the people of Asgard had faced Ragnarok."
Now it was Loki's turn to be confused. Granted, they did not mix often in large groups, but diplomatic envoys were traded between Olympus and Asgard with a great degree of regularity. "That is impossible. I can assure you that the Realm Eternal is quite intact. I was just there until right before this... invasion," Loki countered.
"And how did you come to be here?" Batman asked with a blank expression.
It took a great effort on Loki's behalf not to blast the dark mortal as he scowled before he admitted, "I fell. There was a battle and the Biforst had been broken. I was plunged between the realms until there was a flash of white and I found myself making an impressive crater in the City of Los Angeles in the middle of the attack."
"Who was attacking?" Hawkgirl asked.
"The Frost Giants of Jotunheim. To stop them Thor destroyed the Bifrost and I was caught in the aftermath of his attack. My brother was never one to think his strategies out too carefully," Loki lied. He wasn't about to tell these people that Thor had destroyed the Bifrost to stop him from destroying Jotunheim, or that Loki himself had let go rather than face the shame and rejection of the Allfather for his deeds.
"The Frost and Flame Giants are ancestral enemies to the Aesir," Diana supplied with a look of concern.
"Well it is of little consequence now. With the Bifrost broken and the Casket of Ancient Winters in the hands of Asgard the Jotunn have to way no enter the Realm Eternal. Although I imagine it would be some time before before there would be time and resources available to try to collect me. Assuming they even know that I survived," Loki assured her.
"I can try to ask the gods to make contact for you if you would like Loki Farbautson," Diana offered.
That brought Loki up short as he looked at Diana as if she had gone mad. "What did you just call me?" Loki asked with wide eyes.
"Loki Farbautson. That is who you are, is it not? Loki, son of Farbaut and Lassus, adopted son of Odin and Frigga, and foster brother to Thor and Balder," Diana asked.
"I am Odinson, but I can assure you that Farbaut is NOT my father. My birth father was Laufey," Loki responded, too shocked to lie in this instance.
"How could that be? The histories of taught on Themyscira were very clear about the allied pantheons to the Gods of Olympus. We were told you were the child of Faurbaut and Lassus, not Laufey," Diana insisted.
"That makes no sense. The Allfather himself told me of my parentage. My father is Laufey and my mother was Farbauti. I don't know where you got your legends from but they are grossly misinformed," Loki sniffed.
"They are not legends. They are the histories handed down to the Amazons from the gods themselves," Diana insisted.
"Well they are wrong. It was less than a week ago Odin told me of my parentage for the first time," Loki spat in agitation.
"It could be possible that you're both correct," J'onn interjected. "Loki, you said that you were falling between the realms when you fell from your Bifrost. Has that ever happened before?"
"The unwary have fallen before, but none have survived the trip. I was certain I had met my end until I arrived here," Loki conceded with a scowl.
"Lantern, is it possible to scan for dimensional anomalies with your ring?" J'onn asked John Stewart.
"I see where you're going. You think he might have landed here from an alternate reality?" John replied.
"Such things were not unknown in Martian science," J'onn confirmed.
"Are you trying to tell me that this isn't Midgard?" Loki insisted.
The Green Lantern for sector 2814's eyes and ring glowed for a moment as he conducted his scan before he replied, "Not your Midgard at least. Your dimensional signature is significantly different than our own."
"Could that be because he's from a different Realm?" Diana asked.
"Everyone from this Universe scans with the same dimensional resonance frequency, Princess. Even Darkseid would show up as local. At best he should be close if he was anything approaching local," John answered.
"This is not possible. I can't have. This..." Loki said, somewhat at a loss for words.
"What will you do?" Superman asked, getting involved for the first time since introducing himself and thinking Loki for helping the people.
"I... I don't know. I must try to reach the Realm Eternal I must see it for myself," Loki insisted woodenly.
"Can you activate the Bifrost?" Diana asked.
"No. Even if you are right and the Bifrost still exists here I can not activate it without either Heimdall's sword or Gungnir. And not from this end. But there are old paths I can try to search out. I must search them out. I must know the truth," Loki responded, feeling more alone than he had even when he was told of his heritage.
"And after you have checked this theory out?" Batman asked.
Loki swallowed hard as licked his suddenly dry lips as he replied, "If Asgard is truly dead, then... I have nowhere to go. At best I could return here." It was a solid idea on Loki's part. There was no saying that Thor and Odin might not still locate him eventually, although it would take considerably longer across dimensions. Better to play nice on this odd Midgard and rebuild some of his reputation. Besides, these Midgardians were his best hope to eventually find a way back if they could decipher his predicament so readily. That would make convenient allies to have until he could find a way back.
"If you need help, you can search us out. We'll do what we can for you," Superman offered. He knew well the pain of discovering you were truly alone in the universe. He did just wished this new hero of the west coast did not have to experience it.
"My thanks... Superman," Loki said with a courteous nod.
Off in the shadows Batman remained silent as Clark stuck neck out again. He would have to do more research before making any kid of decision about this Loki person. He hated working with unknowns.
"And I will try to contact the gods to seek their counsel" Diana added.
Loki gave the brunette beauty a wan grin and echoing his thanks to her as well before fading from sight.
"Poor guy. I hope he finds what he's looking for," Flash lamented.
"Aren't you taking his side a little easily?" Green Lantern asked.
"Hey, the guy is a hero. You just saw he can teleport and stuff. He didn't have the fight the Imperium after falling from the sky. That makes him a good guy in my books," Flash defended.
"We'll see, Hotshot," John muttered before using his ring to take to the sky.
New cotent
It took Loki longer than he liked to map out and traverse the ways between the Realms in this "new" Midgard he had found himself in so that he could locate the local Asgard. It probably didn't help that he was using extra energy to cloak himself in an invisibility spell should he find it occupied. Better to not upset the locals, as it were, if they still resided in their version of the Realm Eternal.
Upon his entry into the local Asgard he learned that he needn't have bothered.
It was, simply put, a ruin. Everywhere he looked there was nothing but the crumbling remains of a Realm ravaged by battle. And until Loki's arrival, the only ones there to witness it were the skeletons of the fallen. Loki reached out with his senses for as far he could manage and, although he sensed the lingering enchantments of several artifacts of varied power, he could not feel the active magic of a single living soul. He let his spell fall away fading back into sight as he tried to take in what he was seeing.
Ragnarok. The end of the Nine Realms (with the exception of Midgard which would be reborn). It had to be. There was no other explanation. He idly wondered if his local counterpart had played a part in it here the way the mortals liked to whisper about. Another part of him vehemently did not want to know.
The first thing to catch Loki's eye, other than the massive devastation, was that this Asgard seemed much closer to how the Norsemen described the Realm Eternal than his own home was. It favored stone and wooden construction with massive mead hall type structures and forested areas interspersed with the buildings rather than being relegated outside of the walls of the city proper. And there wasn't nearly as much gold present as in his Asgard. Speaking of which, there were two things that at least DID look familiar to him, namely the wall he had played such an integral part in getting built, and getting his "firstborn son" Sleipnir for his trouble, and the bridge part of the Bifrost itself.
Loki decided to inspect the bridge and it's lookout point first rather the ruminate over the wall. Not that he had any unpleasant memories regarding his time distracting the stallion Svaldifari so its Jotunn master could not finish the wall and claim Freya as a bride. It actually amused him how the Midgardians somehow mistakenly morphed the story into some sordid tale of him getting himself raped by a horse. In truth, he had simply used his magic to conjure a mare to distract the beast and when the horse caught up to it and did the deed, the "mare" was left with a foal. Given that the mare was actually made from Loki's magic, you could claim in a roundabout way that Loki was Sleipnir's "mother."
His musings were cut short as he reached the end of the bridge and winced. There were two long dead corpses locked in what looked like a battle to the death. He assumed the larger of the two to be the local Heimdall, although the bit of red hair clinging to the skeleton made him wonder given Heimdall's actual appearance at home. That would make the one that had killed him...
"Hello, me. Or rather, hello Loki Farbautson. Whatever did you do to set this all in motion?" Loki murmured with a look that bordered between pity and disgust. Even at the height of the mania that had taken him after Thor's banishment and the events that followed he would not want to bring about the end of all things.
He grew tired of looking at what he thought to be his counterpart's corpse after a time and instead made his way toward what he thought to be the local version of the Royal Palace. It was certainly the largest building in this strange Asgard as well as the most opulent. Not that it was saying much to say so. He was halfway to the palace when he found what could have only been Odin himself, given the eye patch still on the skull of the skeleton there, next to what looked to be the bones of Fenrir. Loki had no words for this version of his father, although he did note what looked like Gungnir clutched in the fallen god's hand, as he tried to swallow back the bile at the sight of what could be his lupine-formed son's corpse. Eventually, he dragged his attention away from Fenrir to regard the spear in the fallen Allfather's hand.
"This should not have been left to the dead in a battlefield like this. It's worse than when Thor lost Mjolnir to that drunken lout," Loki whispered. He reached out to take the staff and at least return it to either whatever version of the Vault existed here, or failing that to an armory. He was wholly surprised when a light flashed as he made contact with the staff and an image that looked far too much like his adopted parents took shape before him.
"Greetings Loki Laufeyson. If you are seeing this, then what we have seen has come to pass and we have gone on to Valhalla. I know you must have many questions, Loki Planeswalker, and we shall do all we can to answer them with this message," the other Odin said gruffly.
"Know first that you should bear no guilt for what was done here, Loki. For while it was the Loki we raised that brought about Ragnarok as prophesied, your destiny will lie upon a different path. Whether that path be one of light or one of darkness will be your own choosing," the local Frigga added with a look of sadness that broke Loki's heart. He held resentment toward Odin and even Thor for many things, but in his heart he could never deny Frigga her place as his mother.
"As you well know, I sacrificed my eye for knowledge, and my wife was born with the gift of prophecy, which allowed us both to see your coming long before we even adopted Loki Farbautson. We have seen the trials and tribulations that brought you here and we have seen how different you are from our fallen son," Odin explained.
"We also saw the darkness that is in your heart, Loki. Though it is not my place I will say what your Frigga cannot because of the circumstances. You are better than you know, Loki. Although you have darkness, you also have a light still within you that our son lost long ago. He lost it with the murder of Baldr, who was the favored among the Aesir. He let his bitterness and ambition take him to ruin. And while you have wanted a similar path, you have not completely lost your way. Do not abandon the light, Loki. You will find happiness there where your anger and resentment will leave you in ashes. Please spare my counterpart the pain of foreseeing your death. I beg of you," Frigga pleaded.
"You are a strong warrior, loyal to Asgard, Loki. Even in your anger you tried to do what would benefit the Realm and what you thought would please your king. And while genocide was not the answer, your intentions were still pure. Take comfort in that. Know that your Odin would be proud of you in his own way for I still found pride in My Loki, who was far more twisted than you," Odin recited.
"Our time is short, and our Loki draws near with his armies. We have two favors to ask of you, Loki Planeswalker. The first, though macabre, is to provide us proper funeral rites, including your counterpart. For although he had fallen, our Loki was still our son, just as you will always be Odinson in heart," Frigga asked with a kind look.
"The second is that you take my Gungnir for your own. It is a weapon suited for battle, and should not be left to gather dust or to burn on a funeral ship. I would also ask that you find a safe place to store the treasures of Asgard. The enchantments placed here will protect them for a time after your first arrival but they are fading with age. Do not let the treasures of Asgard fall to common scavengers. This I ask you not as king of this Realm, but as a fellow Asgardian about to face his end," Odin added steadily.
"I will find a place to protect the treasure of your realm. This I swear lest I be called Oathbreaker for all to see," Loki whispered solemnly.
"Take care of yourself son of another Frigga. And seek out happiness. The mortals and new gods among the mortals that you have found can become the key to that. Remember, Loki, seek the light. There will be a mortal saying that would appeal to your nature, 'living well is the best revenge.' Live well Loki Laufeyson, and know that honor what you do for us. And... I love you, my son," the local Frigga added on the verge of tears.
With that the couple in the recorded message embraced before fading as the enchantment used to record the message ran its course.
Loki fought back the tears he felt in his eye at other Firgga's words with a visible effort as he muttered a disgusted "Sentiment," at his reaction.
"I will honor your requests Allfather of this Asgard. And I will... try to be happy, mother" he swore.
With that said he gingerly took Gungnir from Odin's hand and marveled at how the well balanced spear fit in his own. "I suppose I am your new master, now. I'm sure my Allfather would develop an ulcer at the very thought. Better you than Thor's overgrown meat tenderizer, though," Loki remarked at the dwarven-forged weapon.
It would be more than a couple of weeks before Loki would be able to return to the local Midgard as he fulfilled his promise and gave the corpses he could find full fuerary rites. It was only through the application of ridiculous amounts of magick, including making duplicates of himself and an untold number of golems and other constructs, that he was able to achieve it.
The matter of where to store the treasures of Asgard would have to wait. He did not know enough about the local Midgard to secure them on his own at this time. He would have to think long and hard to figure out what he should do with them. In the meantime the would keep. If nothing else, he could ask his "friends" in the Justice League for advice.
Either way, he felt a great deal better once his first task was complete and he was able to return to Los Angeles. It was good to be back amongst the living once more.
"No, Loki."
Those were Odin's words. Those were the last words Loki heard from his so-called father. A rejection of all he had done for Asgard. Loki being stepped over again for the favored son. In that moment he understood. He would never be good enough. He would never be more to Odin than another war trophy. No different than those relics kept in the Vault beside the Casket of Ancient Winters. So, in the end, Loki decided he had enough. He gave his brother a bittersweet smile and let go. Perhaps he could spend some time trying to repair his relationship with Hela in the next world.
Loki fell for what seemed like eons, as a bewildering mix of colors and utter blackness swirled around him. He could feel energies unlike anything he had ever encountered pulling at him, threatening to team him asunder at every turn. He knew it would only be a matter of time before the cosmic eddies between the Realms ripped his very essence apart.
He welcomed it.
Then, just as he was certain he had met his end, he felt something pulling at him. Something ancient and... evil in a way that made even Loki balk. He did all he could in his freefall into oblivion to avoid the hand? reaching out to him but the effort seemed futile. He had resigned himself to be captured by whatever malevolent force sought him out when something unexpected happened. By pure chance, a blinding flash of white opened up behind Loki as he had tried to recoil. And, in the brief moment Loki Odinson made contact with the white, with the briefest tear in the fabric of spacetime that lasted for a mere moment, and vanished.
Had he remained, be might have witnessed the fearsome visage of Thanos scowling at a lost opportunity.
*****
It was some time later when Loki became aware of his surroundings again. More specifically, he was aware of the hard pavement he had crashed into as he created a sizable crater. He looked up in confusion at what appeared to be a Midgardian city as he tried to regain his bearings.
"Hey mister, are you alright?" a voice asked to his right.
Loki was prepared to offer a rather scathing response only to come up short at the sight of a human child no older than six or seven standing at the edge of his impact crater with wide eyes. Say what you would about Loki but he was not the type to insult a child. He had faced that enough in his own childhood, and seen it often enough with his own brood to consider himself above such behavior. Whatever reply he was about to make, though, was cut short as he was hit with a beam of red energy that sent him flying through the wall of a nearby building.
Loki shook his head and bit back a snarl as he crawled out of the rubble left from his second impact in as many minutes and looked through the whole to see who had attacked him. He swore that if Thor had followed him just to continue their brawl he would flay his idiot brother alive.
Needless to say, he was somewhat confused as he witnessed what looked like a white and grey humanoid blob with a single large red eye brandishing some kind of energy weapon. A weapon that he was now pointing at the terrified child that had tried to check on Loki. Now it was not secret that Loki had little regard for mortals in general. That was true of most of Asgard. But he also was not the type to take a blindside attack or the intimidation of a helpless child with good humor. No, this would not stand.
"Excuse me, but I do believe your quarrel was with me," Loki sneered before letting loose a blast of magical energy that was far more devastating to the blob-creature than the creature's own attack had been to Loki.
The God of Mischief looked on with satisfaction as the creature was literally blown apart before taking stock of his surroundings in more detail. It was clear that some tragedy was facing Midgard that Loki had been wholly unaware of. Where he had initially thought it to simply be night, he now saw that the skies above him were choked black with a thick smoke coming from some kind of alien looking red and black monstrosity of a factory in the distance. Terrifying white war machines with what looked like red eyes similar to the creature he had just faced that stood at least a hundred feet tall and walked on three legs in a shape reminiscent of a huge jellyfish walking on its tentacles were patrolling the streets and laying waste to the area. And he could see several more of the blob-creature converging on his location from the factory-like structure belching its noxious smoke into the skies.
"That was totally awesome mister. Are you a superhero or something? Like Superman?" the boy asked with the enthusiasm only a child could muster even as what Loki assumed to be his mother scurried out of hiding to grab hold of the boy and try to spirit him away to relative safety.
"I am... something. I am Loki," the fallen god said as he surveyed the scene grimly. Loki had seen much of battle in his years at Thor's side. This did not look good for Midgard. Although the child's reaction offered the hope that some of the more powerful beings of Midgard might yet rise up to confront the threat. Not that Loki cared about that. But these creatures had attacked him and he was already having the worst day he had faced since his father had allowed his lips to be sewn shut. Oh no, he would not tolerate another insult today. It was just one straw too many upon his back. These creatures would feel the force of his displeasure.
Loki muttered a spell under his breath as the largest bits of stone and concrete debris began to glow and change until the formed into half a dozen or so golems. "Go and deal with that vermin," Loki ordered with a scowl. He would teach these creatures not to trifle with a Son of Odin.
"WOW! You really are a superhero. Did you see that mom? Mr Loki is awesome. Does he have a toy like Superman? I want a Loki toy," the boy said excitedly.
"Not now Tommy," his haggard mother replied. She turned her attention to Loki with tears in her eyes as she said, "Thank you for saving him."
Loki's first impulse was to tell her he had done nothing for the child's sake, but he held his tongue. Certainly having a reputation as a local hero of some sort would benefit him when the Allfather and Thor came for him. Better to stay in the good graces of the locals for now. "You are welcome. Now get him and yourself to safety. This is just the beginning," Loki ordered as he surveyed the attackers.
"Thank you," the woman repeated gratefully as he took off in a run. Once she was clear Loki allowed himself a feral grin. He had no idea who these invaders were, but the fact they were the aggressors here made them free game. He had centuries of frustrations to take out and the blob creatures had clearly volunteered. This would be... stimulating.
*****
The events of what would later be dubbed the "Imperium War" seemed like a blur to Loki when he looked back on them later in life. His defense of what he later came to know was the city of Los Angeles, a large city that seemed to lack a major resident hero at the time was fortuitous as a way to establish himself. His "fierce defese" if the people of Midgard (really more of taking his anger out on the invading Army but what they didn't know worked to his favor) had earned him a great deal of goodwill and the attention of what seemed to be a new alliance of Midgardian champions. It also left Loki with a bit of a quandary. None of these Midgardians were people he had head of.
Unlike Thor, Loki was almost meticulously studious in nature. As men and women of great power began showing themselves on Midgard in greater number, Loki made an effort to at least know something about the local champions and rogues to better put them to use someday if he would need them of face them across a battlefield. Certainly he would have heard of this "Superman" who could rival Thor himself in pure strength. Nor had he heard of the woman Diana, who claimed close ties to the Greek pantheon, longtime allies to the Aesir. In fact all of these heroes, who seemed well known to each other with the exception of the Martian J'onn, knew about each other at the very least.
But where was the Man of Iron? The green rage monster the Midgardians called the Hulk? Those so-called "mutants" that were getting the humans so up in arms?
No, this wasn't right at all.
Although it pleased Loki to note that the locals were as confused about him as he was about them. That much was obvious when they managed to contact him to learn more about him after the battle. Needless to say, they were somewhat shocked to see someone of his power fighting the invaders that J'onn had somehow missed. And the conversation after the more mundane introductions were out of the way was nothing of not entertaining.
"So you're trying to tell us you're the actual Loki from Norse mythology? The one from Asgard?" Green Lantern asked with a look of skepticism.
"Where else would I come from?" Loki drawled with a bored expression.
"But that's impossible. All contact with Asgard was lost long before my people emigrated to Themyscira. The gods of Olympus told us that they had not heard from Aesir for thousands of years," Diana insisted. "They believed the people of Asgard had faced Ragnarok."
Now it was Loki's turn to be confused. Granted, they did not mix often in large groups, but diplomatic envoys were traded between Olympus and Asgard with a great degree of regularity. "That is impossible. I can assure you that the Realm Eternal is quite intact. I was just there until right before this... invasion," Loki countered.
"And how did you come to be here?" Batman asked with a blank expression.
It took a great effort on Loki's behalf not to blast the dark mortal as he scowled before he admitted, "I fell. There was a battle and the Biforst had been broken. I was plunged between the realms until there was a flash of white and I found myself making an impressive crater in the City of Los Angeles in the middle of the attack."
"Who was attacking?" Hawkgirl asked.
"The Frost Giants of Jotunheim. To stop them Thor destroyed the Bifrost and I was caught in the aftermath of his attack. My brother was never one to think his strategies out too carefully," Loki lied. He wasn't about to tell these people that Thor had destroyed the Bifrost to stop him from destroying Jotunheim, or that Loki himself had let go rather than face the shame and rejection of the Allfather for his deeds.
"The Frost and Flame Giants are ancestral enemies to the Aesir," Diana supplied with a look of concern.
"Well it is of little consequence now. With the Bifrost broken and the Casket of Ancient Winters in the hands of Asgard the Jotunn have to way no enter the Realm Eternal. Although I imagine it would be some time before before there would be time and resources available to try to collect me. Assuming they even know that I survived," Loki assured her.
"I can try to ask the gods to make contact for you if you would like Loki Farbautson," Diana offered.
That brought Loki up short as he looked at Diana as if she had gone mad. "What did you just call me?" Loki asked with wide eyes.
"Loki Farbautson. That is who you are, is it not? Loki, son of Farbaut and Lassus, adopted son of Odin and Frigga, and foster brother to Thor and Balder," Diana asked.
"I am Odinson, but I can assure you that Farbaut is NOT my father. My birth father was Laufey," Loki responded, too shocked to lie in this instance.
"How could that be? The histories of taught on Themyscira were very clear about the allied pantheons to the Gods of Olympus. We were told you were the child of Faurbaut and Lassus, not Laufey," Diana insisted.
"That makes no sense. The Allfather himself told me of my parentage. My father is Laufey and my mother was Farbauti. I don't know where you got your legends from but they are grossly misinformed," Loki sniffed.
"They are not legends. They are the histories handed down to the Amazons from the gods themselves," Diana insisted.
"Well they are wrong. It was less than a week ago Odin told me of my parentage for the first time," Loki spat in agitation.
"It could be possible that you're both correct," J'onn interjected. "Loki, you said that you were falling between the realms when you fell from your Bifrost. Has that ever happened before?"
"The unwary have fallen before, but none have survived the trip. I was certain I had met my end until I arrived here," Loki conceded with a scowl.
"Lantern, is it possible to scan for dimensional anomalies with your ring?" J'onn asked John Stewart.
"I see where you're going. You think he might have landed here from an alternate reality?" John replied.
"Such things were not unknown in Martian science," J'onn confirmed.
"Are you trying to tell me that this isn't Midgard?" Loki insisted.
The Green Lantern for sector 2814's eyes and ring glowed for a moment as he conducted his scan before he replied, "Not your Midgard at least. Your dimensional signature is significantly different than our own."
"Could that be because he's from a different Realm?" Diana asked.
"Everyone from this Universe scans with the same dimensional resonance frequency, Princess. Even Darkseid would show up as local. At best he should be close if he was anything approaching local," John answered.
"This is not possible. I can't have. This..." Loki said, somewhat at a loss for words.
"What will you do?" Superman asked, getting involved for the first time since introducing himself and thinking Loki for helping the people.
"I... I don't know. I must try to reach the Realm Eternal I must see it for myself," Loki insisted woodenly.
"Can you activate the Bifrost?" Diana asked.
"No. Even if you are right and the Bifrost still exists here I can not activate it without either Heimdall's sword or Gungnir. And not from this end. But there are old paths I can try to search out. I must search them out. I must know the truth," Loki responded, feeling more alone than he had even when he was told of his heritage.
"And after you have checked this theory out?" Batman asked.
Loki swallowed hard as licked his suddenly dry lips as he replied, "If Asgard is truly dead, then... I have nowhere to go. At best I could return here." It was a solid idea on Loki's part. There was no saying that Thor and Odin might not still locate him eventually, although it would take considerably longer across dimensions. Better to play nice on this odd Midgard and rebuild some of his reputation. Besides, these Midgardians were his best hope to eventually find a way back if they could decipher his predicament so readily. That would make convenient allies to have until he could find a way back.
"If you need help, you can search us out. We'll do what we can for you," Superman offered. He knew well the pain of discovering you were truly alone in the universe. He did just wished this new hero of the west coast did not have to experience it.
"My thanks... Superman," Loki said with a courteous nod.
Off in the shadows Batman remained silent as Clark stuck neck out again. He would have to do more research before making any kid of decision about this Loki person. He hated working with unknowns.
"And I will try to contact the gods to seek their counsel" Diana added.
Loki gave the brunette beauty a wan grin and echoing his thanks to her as well before fading from sight.
"Poor guy. I hope he finds what he's looking for," Flash lamented.
"Aren't you taking his side a little easily?" Green Lantern asked.
"Hey, the guy is a hero. You just saw he can teleport and stuff. He didn't have the fight the Imperium after falling from the sky. That makes him a good guy in my books," Flash defended.
"We'll see, Hotshot," John muttered before using his ring to take to the sky.
New cotent
It took Loki longer than he liked to map out and traverse the ways between the Realms in this "new" Midgard he had found himself in so that he could locate the local Asgard. It probably didn't help that he was using extra energy to cloak himself in an invisibility spell should he find it occupied. Better to not upset the locals, as it were, if they still resided in their version of the Realm Eternal.
Upon his entry into the local Asgard he learned that he needn't have bothered.
It was, simply put, a ruin. Everywhere he looked there was nothing but the crumbling remains of a Realm ravaged by battle. And until Loki's arrival, the only ones there to witness it were the skeletons of the fallen. Loki reached out with his senses for as far he could manage and, although he sensed the lingering enchantments of several artifacts of varied power, he could not feel the active magic of a single living soul. He let his spell fall away fading back into sight as he tried to take in what he was seeing.
Ragnarok. The end of the Nine Realms (with the exception of Midgard which would be reborn). It had to be. There was no other explanation. He idly wondered if his local counterpart had played a part in it here the way the mortals liked to whisper about. Another part of him vehemently did not want to know.
The first thing to catch Loki's eye, other than the massive devastation, was that this Asgard seemed much closer to how the Norsemen described the Realm Eternal than his own home was. It favored stone and wooden construction with massive mead hall type structures and forested areas interspersed with the buildings rather than being relegated outside of the walls of the city proper. And there wasn't nearly as much gold present as in his Asgard. Speaking of which, there were two things that at least DID look familiar to him, namely the wall he had played such an integral part in getting built, and getting his "firstborn son" Sleipnir for his trouble, and the bridge part of the Bifrost itself.
Loki decided to inspect the bridge and it's lookout point first rather the ruminate over the wall. Not that he had any unpleasant memories regarding his time distracting the stallion Svaldifari so its Jotunn master could not finish the wall and claim Freya as a bride. It actually amused him how the Midgardians somehow mistakenly morphed the story into some sordid tale of him getting himself raped by a horse. In truth, he had simply used his magic to conjure a mare to distract the beast and when the horse caught up to it and did the deed, the "mare" was left with a foal. Given that the mare was actually made from Loki's magic, you could claim in a roundabout way that Loki was Sleipnir's "mother."
His musings were cut short as he reached the end of the bridge and winced. There were two long dead corpses locked in what looked like a battle to the death. He assumed the larger of the two to be the local Heimdall, although the bit of red hair clinging to the skeleton made him wonder given Heimdall's actual appearance at home. That would make the one that had killed him...
"Hello, me. Or rather, hello Loki Farbautson. Whatever did you do to set this all in motion?" Loki murmured with a look that bordered between pity and disgust. Even at the height of the mania that had taken him after Thor's banishment and the events that followed he would not want to bring about the end of all things.
He grew tired of looking at what he thought to be his counterpart's corpse after a time and instead made his way toward what he thought to be the local version of the Royal Palace. It was certainly the largest building in this strange Asgard as well as the most opulent. Not that it was saying much to say so. He was halfway to the palace when he found what could have only been Odin himself, given the eye patch still on the skull of the skeleton there, next to what looked to be the bones of Fenrir. Loki had no words for this version of his father, although he did note what looked like Gungnir clutched in the fallen god's hand, as he tried to swallow back the bile at the sight of what could be his lupine-formed son's corpse. Eventually, he dragged his attention away from Fenrir to regard the spear in the fallen Allfather's hand.
"This should not have been left to the dead in a battlefield like this. It's worse than when Thor lost Mjolnir to that drunken lout," Loki whispered. He reached out to take the staff and at least return it to either whatever version of the Vault existed here, or failing that to an armory. He was wholly surprised when a light flashed as he made contact with the staff and an image that looked far too much like his adopted parents took shape before him.
"Greetings Loki Laufeyson. If you are seeing this, then what we have seen has come to pass and we have gone on to Valhalla. I know you must have many questions, Loki Planeswalker, and we shall do all we can to answer them with this message," the other Odin said gruffly.
"Know first that you should bear no guilt for what was done here, Loki. For while it was the Loki we raised that brought about Ragnarok as prophesied, your destiny will lie upon a different path. Whether that path be one of light or one of darkness will be your own choosing," the local Frigga added with a look of sadness that broke Loki's heart. He held resentment toward Odin and even Thor for many things, but in his heart he could never deny Frigga her place as his mother.
"As you well know, I sacrificed my eye for knowledge, and my wife was born with the gift of prophecy, which allowed us both to see your coming long before we even adopted Loki Farbautson. We have seen the trials and tribulations that brought you here and we have seen how different you are from our fallen son," Odin explained.
"We also saw the darkness that is in your heart, Loki. Though it is not my place I will say what your Frigga cannot because of the circumstances. You are better than you know, Loki. Although you have darkness, you also have a light still within you that our son lost long ago. He lost it with the murder of Baldr, who was the favored among the Aesir. He let his bitterness and ambition take him to ruin. And while you have wanted a similar path, you have not completely lost your way. Do not abandon the light, Loki. You will find happiness there where your anger and resentment will leave you in ashes. Please spare my counterpart the pain of foreseeing your death. I beg of you," Frigga pleaded.
"You are a strong warrior, loyal to Asgard, Loki. Even in your anger you tried to do what would benefit the Realm and what you thought would please your king. And while genocide was not the answer, your intentions were still pure. Take comfort in that. Know that your Odin would be proud of you in his own way for I still found pride in My Loki, who was far more twisted than you," Odin recited.
"Our time is short, and our Loki draws near with his armies. We have two favors to ask of you, Loki Planeswalker. The first, though macabre, is to provide us proper funeral rites, including your counterpart. For although he had fallen, our Loki was still our son, just as you will always be Odinson in heart," Frigga asked with a kind look.
"The second is that you take my Gungnir for your own. It is a weapon suited for battle, and should not be left to gather dust or to burn on a funeral ship. I would also ask that you find a safe place to store the treasures of Asgard. The enchantments placed here will protect them for a time after your first arrival but they are fading with age. Do not let the treasures of Asgard fall to common scavengers. This I ask you not as king of this Realm, but as a fellow Asgardian about to face his end," Odin added steadily.
"I will find a place to protect the treasure of your realm. This I swear lest I be called Oathbreaker for all to see," Loki whispered solemnly.
"Take care of yourself son of another Frigga. And seek out happiness. The mortals and new gods among the mortals that you have found can become the key to that. Remember, Loki, seek the light. There will be a mortal saying that would appeal to your nature, 'living well is the best revenge.' Live well Loki Laufeyson, and know that honor what you do for us. And... I love you, my son," the local Frigga added on the verge of tears.
With that the couple in the recorded message embraced before fading as the enchantment used to record the message ran its course.
Loki fought back the tears he felt in his eye at other Firgga's words with a visible effort as he muttered a disgusted "Sentiment," at his reaction.
"I will honor your requests Allfather of this Asgard. And I will... try to be happy, mother" he swore.
With that said he gingerly took Gungnir from Odin's hand and marveled at how the well balanced spear fit in his own. "I suppose I am your new master, now. I'm sure my Allfather would develop an ulcer at the very thought. Better you than Thor's overgrown meat tenderizer, though," Loki remarked at the dwarven-forged weapon.
It would be more than a couple of weeks before Loki would be able to return to the local Midgard as he fulfilled his promise and gave the corpses he could find full fuerary rites. It was only through the application of ridiculous amounts of magick, including making duplicates of himself and an untold number of golems and other constructs, that he was able to achieve it.
The matter of where to store the treasures of Asgard would have to wait. He did not know enough about the local Midgard to secure them on his own at this time. He would have to think long and hard to figure out what he should do with them. In the meantime the would keep. If nothing else, he could ask his "friends" in the Justice League for advice.
Either way, he felt a great deal better once his first task was complete and he was able to return to Los Angeles. It was good to be back amongst the living once more.
