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Gears of Midgard

Summary:

There is war brewing between all the realms. A war that Midgard is gravely unprepared to be a part of. It starts with portals that have no business being where they are and then escalates to attacks on the realms from evil, dark forces that want nothing more that destruction. Midgard is not the first one to be hit, but it is one of the realms that suffers grave consequences from the first massacres. With this new threat come upon them, Midgard pools it's greatest minds together and comes up with new weapons to help defend their world. Gears are specially-genetically made soldiers/citizens that were specifically made to take on this new threat that is gradually wiping out the entire human race. With this new addition, they hope to win their war and bring peace back.

Notes:

Okay, this is going to be a long one.
The first chapters, about 10-12, will be the prologue chapters, just the story telling about how it started and how it led up to where I wanted to start telling the story(seriously, I wrote like 5000 words and then my brain went, wait tell everything else too! and I was like, okay!).
I have been stewing over this whole fic idea since 2017, maybe even a little before. 2017 is just when I sat down and spend some time actually outlining the chapter outlines.
This is going to be primarily m/m pairings, looking to be endgame, Loki/Tony Stark/Stephen Strange.
(Used to be endgame Stony, but then, you know, stuff happened and my brain went, haha-no. Although, depending on how my writing turns, there might be a temporary relationship between them for a while, it just won't be endgame. They will be friends though, because Found Family is my trope for life)
I hope you enjoy the first chapter of this(going-to-be-long-ass) fic and you stick with me through the entire long-ass journey it is definitely going to be, lol
Happy Reading!

Chapter 1: Johtenheim Born I

Chapter Text

It was easy to overlook, something that an average person could pass off as just a trick of the eye. It shimmered, just the tiniest bit, like it wanted to hide, but was so full of energy that it couldn't help itself by showing through just a bit. It was a crack between worlds and it was not supposed to be there.

Loki knew every portal in Asgard and where they were all hidden away. There was not supposed to be one here.

So, why was it?

Loki approached it, cautious, keeping an eye on it and looking for any other anomalies, other cracks. He sent out his magic, holding out his hand and wiggling his fingers. There was no real need for him to do the gestures of course, but they comforted him.

Loki had been deemed the god of mischief and lies because that was his personality and things he reveled in causing, because someone in that damn golden cage had to have a sense of humor (and not Thor's kind, because what a way to start Ragnarök that would be). He caused nothing but chaos, he was always told so, though some were more careful than most about how they said it. Loki has encouraged these views of himself throughout his long life, but there was a constancy that he had always taken comfort from. The lessons from his mother. The rules of the magic she taught him. The laws of the universe. The way of things, and the how of it all, and the why of everything living in the realms of their kingdom. The rules were a constant and they were a comfort to Loki when everything became too... everything. His brother is a constant cause of this, even after all these hundreds of years that Loki has had to accommodate himself to the big blond oaf.

This rip was not supposed to be here and it greatly unsettled him.

His magic touched the edges and sparked, causing the questing strands he sent out to snap back violently. Loki stepped back hastily, clutching his right hand with his left. He tripped over his feet and fell backward, "Curses!" That was not supposed to happen.

Loki got up from is graceless sprawl and backed up further from the crack, narrowing his eyes. Right. he had to tell his mother.

He left the cave where he had wondered into while on his walk. As the second son, Loki's presence was not required for as many things as Thor's was and Loki took advantage of it shamelessly, wondering off to be left to own devices; or off to his mothers library to hone more of his growing magical talents.

Unless he was dragged off by his insufferable brother to go slay some unsuspecting beast again.

Loki had walked here, but he could teleport back, a delicate bit of magic that was nearly impossible for him in the hustle and bustle of the city and the high chances of him being interrupted in the palace. The isolation of the deep woods was an advantage.

Loki sent out his magic from him, holding out his hands, then he stopped, looking back through the entrance of the cave he had just walked out of. Maybe more distance before any sort of casting was done.

When he had walked a good mile and a half away, he started shaping his magic for a portal, letting it slide out through him and--explode.


Loki came to in the dark, confused and perturbed about being confused. He did not like not knowing what was going on.

He got up, looked down at himself, got a good look at his hands. "That's just wonderful." They were burned, down from his fingertips and a few down his palms and the back of his hands. As soon as he noticed them the pain registered. Loki gritted his teeth, breathing through the pain and the irrational anger that came with the hurt. His hands shook a little.

His magic had done this.

Loki thought about trying another spell, a small one, just to see if the same thing would happen. Then he realized that, that would be something Thor would do and didn't.

He would have to walk, which was not a hardship, but it was dark, which means he had been unconscious for hours and usually Loki would have been back at castle before day turned to night. Which means his mother would be worried, because he always wished her good night after they read for at least an hour every day.

Loki started walking back, at most, he was only an hour away from the palace; walking wasn't a hardship


Loki went from the gate straight to find his mother.

He took the back-ways, pulling the hood of the cloak down and moving fast. Loki was in a hurry, but he wasn't alarmed enough to forget to avoid human interaction--especially one certain older brother-- and never mind that it was late; Loki did not manage to accomplish what he had because he let overconfidence take over.

It was quiet as he went, once or twice hearing the commotion of a group of rowdy friends. Then he was slipping past the palace gates and entering the palace through a backdoor. The first place he went looking was his parents personal rooms, taking a chance that his mother, at least, was still awake.

He knocked, "Mother?"

There was no answer.

Loki knocked again before just entering. The lights were out. Nobody was here.

A search of other rooms around the palace where his mother would usually be ended in naught.

He could've tracked down and asked a servant, but for one it was late and likely require far more effort, and for another, would require Loki speak to a person. Loki did not want to talk to a person he did not know at this time. Loki would have sent out his magic to quest out for his mother, but he was still not willing to risk what happened before to happen again. If he did his hands would be blown to the bones; who knows what that scar of bad energy did to his magic.

It was no use spending more time looking for his mother, her and Odin were not in the palace that night. he would wait in his mother's personal library for her. So, he could speak to her as soon as he could.

The scar was something he had to tell his mother about soon. Loki could feel it.

He settled into one of two chairs in the room where his mother kept her favorite books, with one of the books to read while he waited.


Loki woke up with a start and a snort, flailing gracelessly and throwing the book he had started reading against the bookshelves.

What? What?

Loki gripped the arms of the chair, heart racing, breathing heavily through his nose.

What?

Loki stayed still, looking slowly from side to side. What had woken him up?

Slowly Loki settled back into the chair, deliberately trying to relax his stiffened spine. How long had he been asleep? Loki forcibly calmed himself, keeping his eyes open, slowly loosening each muscle that had tensed.

The door to the room across from him, in eyesight; when Loki had settled in to wait last night, the door had been left open. It was still open and Loki was relatively sure he was alone, because the room was just a box; four walls, open floor, two chairs, and the bookshelves. there was nowhere to hide, unless they were using magic; which Loki doubted, because usually he sensed it. But who knew how messed up his magic truly was at the moment.

Loki decided to ignore it; if there was someone there, they would strike his turned back. he liked to think people would be at least that smart about hiring someone to kill him. Hopefully.

So, he got up and left the room, but nobody tried to kill him and he was only half disappointed, because that meant there was a different reason he had woken up.

The library led out to a hallway with the left leading to his parents bedroom and the right to the public area of his parents apartments.

Daylight shone through the windows.

Loki frowned; they hadn't come back last night. If his mother had, she would have woken him up.

They had been gone all night.

Loki left, shutting the door securely behind him and went off to find a servant who could inform him as soon as she arrived. Loki told the servant that he would be in his mother’s study and walked off.

Maybe there would be something to help him in there, and something to help him figure out about the scar.

Of course, it just had to be his luck that while walking down the loud corridor, that he would run into the female warrior Sif. Shield sister to his brother Thor.

The warrior nodded at him coolly, "Loki."

Oh, the coolness in that voice, it was just begging him to poke the bear. Loki never could resist poking the dragon when it was something, or someone who loathed him.

So, Loki smiled the smarmy smile, the one that he knew unnerved many, and specifically, piss the warrior off. He clasped his hands together behind his back, "Lady Sif, what a pleasure. May I inquire as to what you may be up to this fine day?" Loki also knew nothing pissed her off faster than him being polite. It brought joy to his plotting, mischievous heart.

"I am well." And that was all she said.

Loki gave it exactly a second, then dismissed her and continued on. Just before he finished turning, he caught the tick of disdain he had been expecting and let her see his smirk.

It was so much fun antagonizing others.

Loki walked away, boots echoing down the hallway. then Sif called after him, "Thor is looking for you. He's in the sparring field." He didn't bother replying, they both knew he wouldn't go.

The dislike others had for him had stopped truly bothering him long ago and the 'why' had become unimportant.

He paid attention to what mattered now. Never mind anything else.

The rest of the walk to his mothers study was uninterrupted and he managed to shut himself away.

Immediately, he started combing the shelves for the one book he remembered his mother pulling out when teaching him about the portals between realms. There was only one, which he had always found odd, but his mother had proceeded to teach him about illusions and how to cast them. That had kept his attention for quite a while.

Now, Loki found the book and sat himself down to immerse himself in it.

Portals were what he spent the most time studying, as soon as his mother determined that was his weakest point. Not portals to the other realms, those would take too much of his own magical energy to ever produce; but ones that could get him back in under a minute instead of four hours back to the palace from wherever he had wandered that day. Hours of meditation had consumed his days. They still did mostly, but more for daily maintenance now than anything.


Loki's in the study for a few hours when there's a knock, "Prince Loki?"

Instead of giving the person permission to enter, Loki finished the sentence he was reading and carefully marked his place before setting it aside.

The servant Loki opened the door to was not the one he had told to inform his mother that he needed to speak to her urgently and where he would be waiting for her.

"Yes?"

The servant stepped back, lowering a raised hand and bowing, quick, efficient, right to the point. "Prince Loki, your mother, the Queen, is in the vault and requests you come to there."

Loki pushed down the small bit of annoyance, if she was asking for him to come to her, his mother must have something important taking up her time for the day. He was thankful she was making the time for him.

"Very well."

The servant didn't leave, Loki narrowed his gaze and narrowed it further when he caught the flash of annoyance before it was hidden. Loki watched the annoying man walk away, back far too straight. So much hate in such a small body.

It wasn't strange for the servants to dislike him of course, but rarely was there such clear loathing. Usually, they were better at hiding it; that one must have been new.

Loki looked back into the room quickly, taking note of what boos he had set up by the chair he had sequestered himself to. Hopefully his mother would know what was up with the crack, and if not, hopefully there were some books she just hadn't shown him yet.

The vault was quite a walk away from where he currently was. His mother's study was a room with big, open doors leading off into the garden; the vault was in the center and under the palace. It was the most secure room in the entire kingdom. If his mother was there, the situation must be far more serious than he had been originally thinking. Waiting would be no problem, he was capable of being patient.

One does not choose magic as a discipline and not learn to be patient. For Loki, like Thor(ugh), he wasn't naturally patient; unlike Thor(heh), Loki learned it far quicker and always kept to those lessons. It still annoyed him. It was a fault, Loki was okay with it.

When Loki gets down to the vault doors, they're open and that cause him a seconds pause. It's only a bit, but still open and Loki is reminded of the first time Odin had brought Thor and him down here.

One of the first things the King of Asgard had told them was how important it was that the door reaming closed and locked. The most powerful objects in all the realms were locked in the vault; items that had led wars and been what was used as horrible weapons to commit genocide. It was dangerous to ever let even the chance of the wrong person walking in, from ever happening.

Loki stepped back, looked behind for the two guards that were supposed to be stationed there.

The steps down to the vault were many and there supposed to be guards at the top and four more pairs stationed at intervals on the way down; all within yelling distance. Loki thought back and could only remember seeing three pairs on the way down.

Loki looked back at the slightly open door, he recalled the way the servant had acted and shook his head with his hand on his right hand on his cocked hip.

Well, this was embarrassing.

Usually he had a better sense of when a plot to kill him was about to go down. Either he was losing his touch, or he had been far more distracted by the crack than he had originally though. Definitely distracted...

If he had been Thor, this is when his idiotic brother would barge into the room that was very obviously a trap, and then rely solely on his muscle to get him out of it.

Loki was not his brother.

So, he pulled out his daggers and began to make his way back up the steps. Cautiously, without noise and alert to anything that was supposed to come down after him. then a clang echoed from behind him in the vault and immediately after a rumbling growl spoke in a language that ticked at Loki's memory. he knew that language, but it was not one that he had ever heard spoken aloud before. Most languages he only knew because of his mother’s teachings in written form.

Again, if it had been Thor down here, there would be 'heroic' charging and possible death by stupidity. Again, Loki was not his brother and he was the smarter of the two, so he would be retreating.

He unfroze and quickened his steps, still silent, still with his weapons out.

Now he had enemies on both sides, At least it wasn't a boring day. With any luck he would get a chance to stab somebody. That would cheer him up.

Halfway up, the staircase started to become chiller, Loki gritted his teeth and quickened his pace. Then threw caution to the wind and outright sprinted when there was the echo of the heavy vault door opening and then an angry bellow.

It was usually here that Loki would leave behind an illusion as a distraction and allow himself a further lead from his pursuer. It was instinct, just how he had always fought, and his magic reacted thus. The doppelganger stayed, turned around and held his weapons ready. For a second, Loki thought it would all work out.

Then it exploded into lightning and ricocheted around the staircase.

There was a yell, a tumble and then one of the bolts hit his left leg and Loki fell too.

"By Odin's Beard!" Loki scrambled up, grabbing the closest dagger and deeming the other one too far to grab too. Of all the stupid ways or him to die--the arm with the weapon was grabbed and he was wrenched up.

The Frost Giant held Loki up to its own face, snarling; behind the one holding him captive two more Frost Giants walked up. They spoke in their tongue, growly and deep, the one holding Loki up seemed to be the one giving the orders.

Loki scowled, bracing his free arm against the opposite shoulder.

Frost Giants.

What in the Nine Realms were these giant ice men doing in Asgard? How were they able to get to the vault? There was only one thing in there that they would want and--out of the corner of his eye, he saw it, the one on the right had it in a two-handed grip-- and they had it.

The Casket of Ancient Winters.

Wasn't that just great. Didn't that just fill Loki with awe and confidence.

Odin was going to find a way to blame this on him.

The one in charge barked at the one holding the Casket, baring its teeth. The cold that they lived in and were so embodied of themselves, were frosting the stairs around them. Oddly enough Loki wasn't anywhere near freezing. His breathe wasn't frosting.

In-charge guy noticed where Loki had been looking and threw him, growling.

Loki hit the wall so hard it stunned him; he had managed to bring his hands behind his head before he hit the wall so he wasn't concussed. Loki would think that the way Thor was, was because of too many hits to the head, except he knew the guy from when they shorter than Odin's knee. It took him enough time to reorient himself though, that the Frost Giant was able to grab him before another attempted escape could be made.

This time though, Loki was grabbed by the neck, their skin coming into direct contact with his own and it felt like his ears popped and a chill came over him and didn't go away, but settled deep into his bones. To the Frost Giants, their captives skin shifted to blue and his eyes changed color and then they had one of their own kind before them and not a hated enemy.

Loki didn't really have time to register what had changed before he was being thrown over a shoulder and the whole lot of them was moving.

Back down the stairs and through the vault doors; Loki braced himself against the shoulder he had been thrown against and immediately jerked away, because he remembered reading about how freeing the Frost Giants skin was. Touching them gave the person immediate and very severe frostbite.

When he looked at his hands though, they weren't frostbitten, they were blue. "What is-" then there was a shift, a magical shift, one that Loki recognized as the passing through a portal. Like, but not similar, because then they were falling--and not from the sky.

Okay, Loki ignored his blue skin and was still panicking though, because then he pulled a Thor-like move. The smart thing to do would be to let them take him with them through the magical tunnel that acted like the Bifrost and then try to escape so that when a rescue party came, they could just go. Another was to just let the bargaining for his life commence. Besides, Odin was just as likely to come in and charge. Like Thor... Instead of any of that, Loki reached back, grabbed the third blade he kept hidden on his person and stabbed the one who was holding him.

The Frost Giant bellowed, Loki struggled, his captor's grip was lost, and Loki went flying away and out of the portal tube and into open space.

Stupid.