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All around Thor, New York City burned. But he couldn’t think about that. About how it was him and his people who had reigned destruction on Asgard. He needed to focus on how to stop it here and now. There was only him and Loki. Get through to Loki. But was that even possible, after everything that had already happened. They locked eyes on top of Stark Tower, maybe 30 feet apart but it felt like thousands of miles to Thor.
“Loki!” He called up to the one he once considered his brother. “Turn off the Tesseract, or I’ll destroy it!”
“You can’t,” Loki sneered. “There is no stopping it.” He pointed the scepter at Thor, and Thor felt his chest tighten. Loki wouldn’t actually mind control him just like all the mortals, would he? Thor’s fears were confirmed when Loki walked over casually, the infinity stone in the tip of the spear beginning to glow a sickly blue, its light radiating outwards. Thor stood his ground. Any humanity left inside of Loki wouldn’t want this. This wasn’t right. Loki fed on the rivalry between the two; he thrived on their banter. He wouldn’t really want Thor under his control… right? But then it was too late. The stone’s energy began to consume Thor’s thoughts, and he felt an overwhelming surge in his mind that cleared out all conflicting thoughts, that narrowed his focus to one objective only: serve Loki. Loki was his master.
The god of mischief smiled viciously. “Finally. The heir to Asgard under my control.”
Yes, Thor thought. This was meant to happen. This is how it should be. I serve Loki, and he is the rightful king of Asgard. He closed his eyes and knelt before his master, tuning out the sound of destruction all around him. All that mattered was Loki’s voice, Loki’s thoughts, Loki’s motives.
A new sound entered Thor’s headspace, a clatter of heavy metal on concrete, but he dared not open his eyes, dared not move unless his master gave him permission to do so.
Loki’s voice sounded entirely different. There was a gasp, a pained shudder of breath. “Thor?”
Thor opened his eyes but didn’t lift his head or move. Strange. The scepter was on the ground. His master must’ve dropped it. But that scepter was the key to everything, the final component in getting the rightful heir to his throne. Thor grabbed hold of it, and without lifting his head, offered it up to his master with both hands.
There came a gasp from Loki again. “Thor, look at me.” He sounded… distressed.
Confused, Thor’s eyes lifted to his master, his hands still outstretched with the scepter awaiting.
A hand flew to Loki’s mouth, and tears immediately sprung to his eyes. “No,” he breathed. “What have I done?”
“You dropped this, my king,” Thor intoned, eager to see his master take back the Tesseract and claim his throne on Midgard.
Loki’s face went white as his eyes dropped to the scepter. He reached to grab it, then squeezed his eyes shut. His hand trembled just over the scepter, and he let out a long exhale, then took it gingerly, like he was afraid of its power. Thor frowned. That wasn’t right. His master wasn’t afraid of power. The king he served thrived in power, bathed in it.
“My lord,” Thor began, impatiently waiting to see what part he would play in Loki’s path to glory. “What–” He never finished. Staff in hand, Loki pointed it directly at Thor’s chest again and siphoned its energy, removing the mind control from his brother’s thoughts.
A rush of panic and fear ambushed Thor, and he fell forward, catching himself on the concrete with his hands. He did it, he thought incredulously. He actually controlled me.
“Thor, can you hear me?” Loki pleaded, kneeling to get down on his level and letting the scepter fall beside him once again with a clang. “Say something.”
“Loki…” Thor growled, rage heating his blood, but the effects of the mind control had weakened him, made him unable to fight. He struggled to even hold himself up on the ground with his hands. “What have you done?” He looked up and was at first confused by the expression on his brother’s face. It looked like anguish, fear, maybe even guilt, but Thor knew better. This was a trick, an illusion, as was everything with the god of mischief.
A tear was sliding down Loki’s face, and he seemed worn, tired, but he wore a sad smile. “It’s good to see you, brother.”
“Brother,” Thor spat. “After what you’ve done? You are not my brother. You are a monster.”
Loki’s smile dissolved, and his hand reached to wipe the tear from his face. His eyes drifted to the scepter, and Thor felt a surge of strength, reaching to snatch it before Loki could have a second thought. He gripped it tightly in his hand, rising to his feet and pointing the stone right at Loki.
Loki hadn’t moved from where he was crouched on the concrete, but now he slowly stood, his expression weary. Somewhere in the back of Thor’s mind, he registered how none of this made sense, even for the god of lies. Loki no longer seemed at all interested in the spear. His eyes were locked on the god of thunder. He hadn’t even made a move to take it back.
“What…” Thor shook his head like there was water in his ears, trying to clear out the remnants of thoughts that said that he should be kneeling, that Loki was his master. “What is this?” His eyes narrowed on Loki’s chest, ready to… he didn’t know what. Take control for himself?
“I am not the Loki you know, and I don’t have much time.”
“For once in your life, brother, stop lying. I have the staff, I wield its power, and I will not hesitate to use it on you if you utter one more deceit from your treacherous–”
“I’m not lying.”
Thor tried to will the infinity stone to work against Loki, but he didn’t know how to activate it, didn’t know if he wanted to activate it. The thought sickened him, but if it was what needed to be done, he would do it.
“Thor,” Loki said again, voice even. “Look at me.”
If I look at you, you’ll lie your way into my head and convince me to give it over. Despite himself, Thor looked up into his brother’s eyes. They had grown up together, and Thor knew every hidden look, every last ploy in Loki’s arsenal of tricks. He could read the minuscule lines on his face and had grown a sixth sense to know the moment before Loki was about to do something foolish. So his heart skipped a beat when he searched his brother’s face and couldn’t find a sign of evil… anywhere.
“Loki, what is going on?” His voice was beginning to shake, but he tried to hide it.
“I was hoping to come sooner. I missed the mark.” Loki sounded bitter about this. “I wanted to come before I used the stone on you, but when I was watching it from Yggdrasil, I… I don’t know. I hesitated.” He chuckled dryly. “Some buried part of me from all that time ago wondered what it would’ve been like, I suppose. To have you under my control.” His face darkened, and there was a deep heaviness to his expression. “I’m sorry I’m late. We’ll both have to live with that now, I suppose.”
Thor shook his head. “You’re not making sense.”
“I know. I…” Loki glanced up at the sky, and Thor couldn’t suppress the feeling that it looked like Loki knew the sky, knew every cloud and the stars beyond it on a personal level. How, in a matter of moments, did his brother seem so different? “I came from Yggdrasil, Thor. From the end of time.”
Thor staggered backwards. Before he could stop himself, he thrust the staff forward and touched the stone to Loki’s chest. He waited for the god’s eyes to turn electric blue, for Loki to stiffen and lose himself. It didn’t happen. Instead, Loki peered down at his chest and the staff touching it, vaguely surprised but not upset.
He tilted his head at Thor, his eyes searching. “What would you have coerced me into doing, brother?”
Thor felt like he couldn’t breathe. He swallowed hard. “To tell– to tell me the truth. Why… why didn’t it…”
“As I said, brother, I am not the Loki you know. I am filling his place briefly, because together we can change what is going to happen. If I were the Loki you knew, that would’ve worked. I was born as a frost giant and you as Aesir, but we are all made of the same stuff. Everyone is subject to the power of the Infinity Stones. Everyone, that is, except for the being holding the universe together at the end of time.”
“No,” Thor whispered, but something deep in his gut told him it was true. He was Aesir, but more than that, he was Asgardian, and the stories that went back generations from Odin to the first titans sang in his heart. Loki wasn’t lying. He had come from some terrible place where Ragnarok had happened, and he had stood on the other side of it, at the heart of Yggdrasil, seeing the consequences of all of time. At the end of everything would be Loki. Of course it would, Thor thought. Somehow, despite the terror that eclipsed them across New York, this made sense in Thor’s mind. “How did this… why are you… who… what are you?”
Loki’s smile was thin and pained. “You and I are more equipped to know it than the mortals who roam Midgard in 2012, but there is more than one timeline. There are infinite branches that make up time, infinite stories and curves and twists that make up the World Tree we know as Yggdrasil. Sometimes, those branches crack like twigs underfoot. When they do, I step in.”
“How… how is it you?”
“I stood here once, Thor. Across from you, like this, the scepter in my hand, power at my fingertips. I seethed at your inheritance, I longed to be seen as your equal, a ruler for all ages to come. But I never –” the word came out aggressively, and Loki paused to breathe. “I never would have done what I just did. You were – you are my brother. To force you to do my bidding…” Loki flinched. “That was never me. In my timeline, we fought here. I stabbed you and escaped. The staff never touched you. You and your friends rallied together and defeated me, and the Tesseract fell at my feet. I took it, creating an alternate branch in time that was destined to crack. I was taken from my reality, and I was shown the truth. I saw the way things could have gone. Eventually, Thor, you got through to me. For a brief moment in time, we were united as brothers. I…” He hesitated to get the words out as below them, screams and explosions echoed in ricochets off the buildings of New York. But Thor wasn’t focusing on that now, not because someone was controlling him not to, but because he felt like he was seeing his brother for the first time. His heart was racing. His vision began to blur as tears rose from the weight of Loki’s words. “I was good. I sacrificed myself to keep the Tesseract from a being who would go on to wreak havoc on countless planets.”
Thor blinked, and the thought came to him – as much as he wanted to believe that this was all true, that Loki was good, that this wasn’t the same god of lies who had just mind controlled him into kneeling, he knew that no matter what, his guard had to be up. Loki’s true nature had never been this. His grip on the staff tightened, and Loki’s shoulders dropped.
“You don’t believe me,” he sighed, defeated. “I can’t blame you. How could you trust me, after…” He gestured to New York. “After all of this? After controlling you.” He said the words with such disdain, Thor wanted so badly to believe him.
“Please, Loki,” he said, strained. “Prove to me that this isn’t another one of your lies.”
Loki thought for a moment, then glanced behind Thor at the forgotten Mjolnir, sitting on the concrete. Thor’s heart skipped a beat. That was impossible.
“Loki…” He growled, a warning.
Loki shut his eyes instead, and slowly reached out a hand, the same way Thor had millions of times. As he did, the god’s appearance began to change. The gleaming horns dissolved, the cape dissipated, the Asgardian war robes faded. In their stead was something odd – a gray button down. A dark tie. Black pants. The clothes of a mortal businessman. The red of blood blossomed on Loki’s right arm, a cut wound, from what, Thor wondered. He stared awestruck at Loki, and then something heavy and stone whistled past his ear, pushing his blonde hair into his face. Thor shook it aside, and there was Loki, much less formidable, smiling sadly at the hammer of the gods in his hand.
He glanced up at Thor, whose jaw had dropped understandably. He couldn’t stop himself from beginning to grin playfully at the god of thunder. “It’s heavier than I’d always thought it would be,” he quipped.
“It’s really you,” Thor breathed. “This… this is who you really are,” he said it like he needed to convince himself.
Loki had to bite his lip to stop the sense that he was going to get choked up. He stared straight at his brother, Mjolnir forgotten in his hand. “I am so sorry you have had to think differently for so long.”
In an instant, Thor dropped the staff and Loki dropped the hammer. They embraced, and this time, Loki couldn’t stop himself from crying. He’d wanted to hug his brother for so long. For eons. He’d sat in Yggdrasil for centuries, imagining what it might be like to reunite with the rightful king of Asgard once again. His shoulders shook as he felt the tangible reality that Thor was here, Thor was real, and Thor was forgiving him for everything, right now, in front of him. “Thor…” he tried to speak around the heavy breathing. “I’m so sorry. It’s all my fault. I’m so sorry.”
Thor pulled back, tears streaking down his face. “I called you a monster. I renounced you as my brother. Please forgive me, Loki.”
Loki put his head in his hands, the guilt washing over him again. “That wasn’t… I deserved that. I am a monster, Thor. I did these things. And worse things, horrible deeds you don’t even know of yet.”
Thor was already shaking his head. “It doesn’t matter. None of it matters. All that matters is this, right now. You are good, and you are here. And I have forgiven you.”
Loki couldn’t speak, could barely hold himself up, and Thor hugged his brother once again. Finally, Loki backed away, clearing the tears and running his hand back through his now-messy hair. “Thor, you must listen to me. My time is running short. This branch, your reality, this timeline, it cracks because of what I’ve done. When I hold you under the staff’s control, it leads me on a path towards universal destruction, to claiming the Infinity Stones for myself, for destroying everything you have ever cared about. I came to stop the crack.”
“Stop,” Thor interceded, his voice hurt. “Stop saying you. This wasn’t you. This Loki, it was someone else.”
Loki’s eyes were full of shame. “It doesn’t matter. I was… I am capable of this. The darkness, the carnage, it could have just as easily been me.”
“You said it yourself, brother. You would never use the Tesseract against me. This is not on you.”
Loki’s expression darkened. “I came to give you this warning: the only way the Loki in your reality can be stopped is at this moment. In the original timeline of this branch, he destroys everything, with you at its center. He uses you to bring him the Infinity Stones. Don’t let him get the scepter. Don’t let him… embrace… the darkness within him. Just…” He sighs. “Just be his brother, Thor. As terrible and annoying and selfish as he is. Forgive him, over and over. Bring him back to the goodness that you… you know is there, better than I. It’s the only way. It will be hard. It will be exhausting, and painful, and you won’t feel that it is worth it. But it is. I promise.”
“What happens now?” Thor asked, already knowing the answer but afraid to make himself say it.
Loki looked back up at the sky, almost as if he could see Yggdrasil there for himself. “Now, I give you the scepter, and I leave this vessel, and I return to the World Tree. I keep scouring the universes, fixing their cracks and binding time together. Maybe one day, I see you there again.”
“So you’re leaving,” Thor responded flatly, not wanting to believe it. “This is it, then. I’ll have to face my brother as he was, willing to use me as his slave, to destroy Midgard.”
Loki could only nod, fighting back tears. “You have to look out for him, Thor. He doesn’t understand… he doesn’t realize what he’s doing to you, to himself. You are the only one who can make him see.”
“How do you know it will work?” Thor pleaded, the tears starting again.
Loki smiled, and he pulled his brother in for one last hug. “Because the sun is shining on us now. Thank you, my brother.”
And in an instant, the ruler of time was gone, and in its place stood a gold-helmeted Loki, eyes vengeful and hand held out as though he was expecting the scepter to be there. But instead, Thor was holding it.
“What,” Loki snarled, confused and outraged. “I blinked and you were–”
Thor smiled. “Hello, brother. I have a few friends who would like a word.”