Chapter Text
“Bring my son before me,” Odin ordered his Einherjari. Thor had brought Loki back to be judged before the throne for his crimes against Asgard and Midgard. But the wily king was puzzled. Nothing his mischievous son had done since he had discovered his true heritage seemed in keeping with his normally even-tempered nature. It was almost as if someone else had inhabited his body and mind. Frigga also agreed that the actions Loki had instigated with Laufey and the Jotun as well as on Midgard seemed like they had been done by a different person. Loki had never wished to take over Earth, or to subjugate its people. He had visited Midgard before and shown only curiosity and amusement at the world which was so young compared to Asgard—and so unadvanced compared with Asgardian science, medicine, and magic.
Odin was determined to get to the bottom of this mystery. He watched as Loki was led into the throne room, concealing a flinch at the clank of the chains and shackles the guards had placed upon his son. The king almost banished them, feeling ill that any prince of the realm should be chained like a dog or a common criminal. But he forced himself to remain impassive.
The guards halted with Loki between them, and Loki gazed at his father and said in a flippant yet cold tone, “I really don’t see what the fuss is about.”
Odin blinked. “Do you not realize the gravity of your crimes, my son?” There it was again, this niggling feeling that something was not right.
Loki shrugged, as if disinterested in whatever Odin had to say. “My crimes? Are you sure they were mine, Father?”
Odin leaned forward. “If not yours, then whose?”
Loki did not reply, simply gazed at him with his bright emerald eyes. Those eyes usually sparkled with mischief and fun. But there was something different about them on this day. They were flat and lifeless, like the eyes of a corpse.
Odin shuddered. His sense of uneasiness increased. The apathetic response was not like Loki. “Did you not bring war, chaos, and death to Midgard?” he persisted.
Loki’s lip curled. “So you believe. According to my brother’s testimony.”
“Loki! Speak plainly!” Odin ordered.
Again those lifeless orbs met his one good eye. “For mercy’s sake, if you are going to execute me, then just swing the axe. It is what you wish is it not? To remove the mistake you made so long ago, by harboring the Jotun monster in your midst. Do it and be done! Then your precious true son can rule. As you said he was meant to.”
Loki’s words were spoken in a tone devoid of emotion, as if he discussed the fate of some stranger, not his own.
Odin shook his head. “I will not execute my own son.” He was goading the king to kill him. Indeed, he looked almost distraught when Odin refused. “What in Hel happened to you, Loki?” he asked softly. For he knew something terrible had occurred, for this shell of his once proud and laughing son to stand before him thus.
“Why do you care?” Loki hissed.
Odin frowned. “You are my child.”
“I have none of your blood.” Loki replied chillingly. “I am blood of your enemy. Why do you hesitate?”
“Why do you wish to die?” Odin countered.
“Why would I not?” Loki spat. His eyes were deep pools of despair and they sucked Odin into their depths, where the old king saw the pieces of a soul shattered.
“What happened to you?” he repeated, trying to draw Loki out.
But Loki simply gazed at him with that bleak look. Then he said two words. “I died.”
Realizing he was getting nowhere with his recalcitrant son, Odin turned to the Einherjari. “Put him back in his room. Remove those,” he indicated the shackles. “He is to be guarded at all times, until I figure out what to do.”
His guards saluted and tugged on the chain, dragging Loki away.
Odin watched him go, his heart heavy as a mountain within him. Oh, Loki what happened to you? I must know! For this is not my son that stood before me. It is naught but a shell, a husk of the brilliant, fun-loving, prankster I used to know. He thought again of what Loki had said to him. I died. Then he recalled what Loki had said when asked about his crimes. Are you sure it was me who committed them? What was that supposed to mean? That Thor lied? Odin did not believe that. Or that Thor had been mistaken? There was something he was missing, and he was determined to figure out what it was.
He rose from his throne. He needed to speak with his Watcher.
As he was leaving to travel to the Bifrost interface where Heimdall watched, Frigga approached. “Did you find out what happened?” she asked worriedly.
Odin sighed. “Not really. I need to see Heimdall.”
“Loki would not speak with you?”
Odin shook his head. Then he leaned down and whispered what Loki had said in her ear.
Frigga put a hand to her mouth, her blue eyes gleaming with tears. “Odin! He wanted you to—to execute him? Norns have mercy!”
“He is lost, Frigga. Broken,” the king whispered. “And I must find out why.”
Together they went towards the Bifrost.
Loki’s chambers:
The Einherjar unlocked the shackles and took them away, leaving Loki alone in his chambers. They looked the same as always, with the green carpet and golden wood floors, the velvet draperies drawn back so he could see the noonday sun on the balcony, and the large four poster bed with its green hangings and duvet. His books and desk remained the same as when he had left, yet nothing was the same.
Loki rubbed absently at his wrist where a shackle had irritated his skin then shrugged and went to sit in the window seat. He gazed out at the picturesque landscape but his eyes were unseeing of the beauty they beheld. Instead they saw only nightmares.
Bifrost:
Heimdall stared as he saw his monarchs approaching. He waited politely with his hands at his sides for them to arrive, then he bowed and said, “My Queen, Sire, what do I owe the pleasure of this visit?”
“I wish to speak with you about Loki,” Odin began with a nod.
“What about him?” Heimdall asked.
“I wish to know what occurred after Loki fell from the Bifrost into the Void.” Odin said calmly. “No, not fell . . . he let go. Tell me, Heimdall, what you Saw after I restored you.”
Heimdall looked uncomfortable. “Sire, why—” he began, but Odin cut him off.
“Tell me!”
Loki’s chambers:
Loki stared out the window, wondering why he was still alive, when the doors to his room opened and Thor strode in. Thor always strode everywhere, commanding attention as he always did. Loki ignored him until Thor came up to him.
“Loki,” Thor began.
Loki turned his head a quarter turn. “What do you want?” he asked colorlessly. “Come to gawk at the prisoner?”
“No. I came to see how you were,” his brother replied.
Loki rolled his eyes. “You’ve seen. Now leave. I don’t need a guard or a baby minder. I have two already.” He jerked his chin at the door, where the Einherjari were on duty.
Thor winced at the drawled lifeless tone. “No, but perhaps you need a brother.” He seated himself beside Loki in the window seat and together they looked out the window, not speaking.
Loki stiffened, but made no attempt to protest, simply gazing out the window with unseeing eyes, his mind far away.
Thor wished to put a hand upon his brother’s shoulder, but did not dare. So he just sat beside him, hoping his presence would bring Loki out of the fugue he wandered in.
Bifrost:
Odin glared at his friend and Watcher. “Let me see if I am comprehending this correctly. You Saw Loki captured by this Thanos being and brought aboard his ship, where Thanos proceeded to interrogate my son on the whereabouts of the Tesseract which Bors had hidden deep upon the Earth, and when Loki refused to speak of it, Thanos tortured him and mind-raped him with some alien scepter device and you didn’t tell ME?!”
His fists clenched and his good eye flared.
“Heimdall, why? We asked you where Loki was,” Frigga began, laying her arm upon her husband.
Heimdall looked ashamed. “I . . . At first I could not See where Loki had gone. Then later . . . I . . .refused to tell you because I was angry. Loki had betrayed me by freezing me solid and . . . bringing Laufey into Asgard. So I thought . . . we were well rid of him after . . .”
“You thought? You thought?” Odin raged. “You pledged as my Watcher to tell me anything of import in the Nine! I trusted you to keep your word! And instead I find you keeping secrets! About my own son! Because of your hurt pride!”
Heimdall bowed his head and went to his knees. “Forgive me, Sire. I overstepped . . .”
Power crackled about the furious god. “I ought to . . .!”
Before Odin could complete his sentence, Frigga placed her hand on his arm again. She was the only one who would have dared to do this. “Odin! Think about what you are doing, dear,” she called. “Yes, Heimdall made a grave error, but—”
“But what, Frigga?” Odin snapped. His power flickered. “He watched our son being tortured!”
“I know. And he owes restitution to Loki. But . . . Heimdall is not the one you ought to be furious with,” Frigga reminded. “It is this Thanos who deserves your wrath.”
The angry king paused, reining in his volatile temper, to consider what his beloved wife had said.
Long moments passed, and Heimdall remained on his knees, praying to all the Norns that Frigga’s cool common sense would prevail.
"You are right, dear wife," Odin finally said.
Heimdall heaved out a breath of relief.
Odin held out a hand. “Get up off your knees, you fool! I ought to beat you senseless, but I will allow you this mercy.” Heimdall allowed himself to be drawn to his feet.
“Thank you, My King.”
“Humph! Thank Frigga.” Odin snorted. “Now . . . tell me where this Thanos is.”
"I have seen him in two locations. One is the planet called Titan. The other is a vessel called the Q-Ship. That is how Loki was rescued from the Void. They used some sort of beam to bring him on board the ship," Heimdall said.
“I see,” the king said thoughtfully, rubbing his beard.
Frigga eyed him askance. “Odin, what are you planning?”
Her husband gave her a sly smirk, his blue eye glinting wrathfully. “I am planning to show this upstart Titan that one does not harm a member of my family.” He turned to Heimdall. “Open the Bifrost.”
“As you will, Sire.” Heimdall inserted the sword into the interface and the Rainbow Bridge sprang to life.
Before he could disappear, Frigga called, “Give him a few from me, dear!”
Titan:
Thanos perched upon his hover throne, watching the goings on of his Black Order as they walked among the populace, who shrank from them. Nebula and Proxima Midnight strolled along the street, both women carrying their signature weapons, their blue skin glinting in the afternoon sun.
Beside the giant Titan was his right-hand man, Corvus Glaive, a tall, lean muscled alien who wielded a weapon of the same name. On his left was the pale and slender Ebony Maw, an alien with wrinkled parchment like skin, haunting dark eyes, and a bald head. Maw was Thanos’ spokesperson as well as his master torturer, a psychic who could break minds and telekinetically restrain people. Behind the throne was the hulking Cull Obsidian, a brown skinned creature the size of a barn with a fierce expression on his face.
Thanos stirred, and as he glanced over to his right there came a brilliant flare of rainbowed light and then it resolved into Odin, whose form seemed to tower to the heavens, Gungnir crackling in his grip, his good eye flaring with his Odinforce. His Asgardian golden armor gleamed with light, and his helmet sparked with lambent energy.
Thanos frowned. “Well, well, my children. Look who has dropped by to see us. It’s the Wanderer of Asgard!”
“SILENCE!” Odin thundered. “You face the Wrath of the Allfather!”
“And you face the wrath of Thanos!” Ebony Maw taunted.
Odin spun upon him, recalling what Heimdall had told him, and suddenly Gungnir flew from his hand.
The Black Spear was like a flicker of light as it sped towards the psychic alien.
Maw attempted to halt Gungnir with his telekinesis, but the Black Spear was not affected by the alien’s mind powers and blew through the shield as if it were paper.
Maw gurgled as Gungnir impaled him, slamming the master torturer into the earth. He shrieked in agony as Odin twisted the spear and yelled, “No one tortures my son and lives to tell the tale! No one!”
Heimdall had informed Odin that Ebony Maw had mentally tortured Loki under Thanos’ directive until he broke him.
Odin summoned his power and Gungnir crackled with electricity, lighting up Maw like a star gone supernova before it reduced him to ash.
“Maw!” Thanos bellowed, shocked that his favorite lieutenant was dead. He pointed one purple finger at Odin. “Kill him!”
But the Asgardian King of the Nine was not so easily defeated. Corvus Glaive launched himself at the god, his spear that cut through almost anything slicing through Odin’s armor and cutting his side.
But Odin shrugged off the hit and spun, conjuring a sword out of nothing, and used the magical weapon to shatter the glaive into pieces. Corvus gasped as his weapon fell at his feet, then before he could dodge, Gungnir found his heart.
“Brother!” Cull Obsidian howled and went to slam Odin with his giant fist.
But the old king ducked the blow, which might have knocked him down, and Cull’s fist swiped harmlessly over his head. Then Odin augmented his strength with his Power and slugged Cull so hard the huge creature was knocked ass over teakettle and sent flying off the hill to crash down on top of a house a few miles away.
“Nebula! Proxima! To me!” Thanos yelled.
But his daughters were too distant to hear him at first, and Odin took full advantage of that fact. He stamped a boot on the ground and caused an earthquake, which separated the hill where they stood from the earth. His one eye flashing destruction, Odin growled, “Now, Mad Titan, you face me! And for your evil actions towards Loki I will teach you a lesson you will be dying to learn!”
Thanos laughed. “I beg to differ, old man! It is you who will be dying this day! Like your weak-willed son, whose weakness was his family!” the Titan sneered.
Then Thanos pulled a disruptor from his belt and fired it.
The destructive ray sliced into the god’s armor . . . and was repelled by the mystic protections upon it.
Odin spun the Black Spear about and thrust it at the Titan, who parried with a black blade that shimmered in the light.
Back and forth the two titanic beings struggled, light entwined with dark, and blood spattered the broken ground. But despite Thanos’s greater strength and younger body, the Mad Titan found he could not prevail over the Allfather.
The Odinforce lent the elder Asgardian the energy and power of a thousand suns, it was the primal force of the universe itself, harnessed into a form that a physical being could wield, and Odin did so with impunity.
For he knew from Heimdall that not only did Thanos mind control and torture Loki, the Watcher had spoken to him of a distant future where this mad being in his quest for ultimate power would someday destroy half the universe and begin that destruction over the body of Loki. Odin knew he had to prevent that from happening. Thanos must not be allowed to gain control over the Infinity Stones. Not now and not ever.
Odin’s hand shot out, faster than the blink of an eye, and closed upon the Titan’s neck.
Thanos’ eyes went wide, and he tried to wrench Odin’s fist from him, gasping with denial.
The old god snarled, “This is for Loki! For all that you have done—and all that you will do!”
“Release me!”
“As you wish!” Odin thundered and then he summoned the OdinForce through his gauntleted hand.
Thanos lit up like a giant supernova before he exploded.
Below on the ground, Nebula and Proxima Midnight screamed in horror as they saw Thanos destroyed and discovered Glaive and Maw dead, their bodies lay where they had fallen.
Odin turned, still haloed by his majestic and terrifying might. One finger stabbed down at the two women. “You!” he bellowed. “Bear witness to my righteous wrath! And know that whosoever brings harm upon my family, will reap that harm a thousandfold! I, Odin, King of Asgard, give you this warning!”
So the universe was saved from the depredations of a madman, and millions of lives and worlds, because of a father’s vengeance.
Odin thrust Gungnir towards the sky and as if on cue, the brilliant rainbowed light of the Bifrost washed over him and transported him away, back to Asgard, where he hoped he could help his son mend the broken pieces of his heart and mind.