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Do you like Loki's creations, dangerous experiments, and willingness to challenge enemies that appear above his league? Then you will definitely like Thairon, the protagonist of my original story, Arrival : Ruptures. Comments, likes and reviews are appreciated. Here are the links for : AO3, Spacebattles, Royal Road and Webnovel.
—
Asgard
"We never wanted you to feel different," his father said, meeting his eyes.
"I visited dozens of civilizations across the cosmos. Those that cared about the matters of adoption all agreed that the children must be made aware at a young age that they were adopted for mental health."
He already knew what he was and did not have the issues that came with a late revelation. Had he, his wrath would have been a terrible thing to behold.
"Yet you turned out well," Odin said. Better than well, he was adored by the public as a creator, whereas Thor was seen as a defender.
"Because I was always more mature than my peers. Otherwise, I would not be taking this so well."
"The book," Odin said, snatching a leather-bound tome from his desk, one that certainly did not belong there. "The one on child-rearing. Is this your work too?"
Loki chuckled beneath his fist. "I thought it might give you some inspiration."
The book was laden with a spell that would always return it to his father, no matter what.
Frigga left her seat, pulling her sons down to cup their faces, her eyes glinting with unshed tears. "I am so proud of you both. A mother could not ask for better children."
"We love you too, Mother," they said at the same time, each hugging her on one side.
"It appears you were correct once more, my dear." Odin was smiling at the sight, still wondering how everything had turned out so well.
"The other matter I called you concerns Laufey. Somehow, he has received a recording of the moment I took you from the temple."
Loki huffed. "He will most likely use it to bargain for either me or the casket." There was no other reason Laufey would ever visit Asgard.
"That is what we fear as well."
"Why fear? He can't afford a war, not when Asgard is stronger than ever. And if he thinks he can take my brother by force, I will not spare him like you did," Thor said, hand on Mjolnir.
"There will be no war." Odin glared at his eldest. "Yet, giving Laufey an excuse does not sit well with me."
"It is an excuse if he can hold it against you. If not, then Laufey is just humiliating himself," he spoke. His birth father was a fool to even think of using that recording.
The one that sent it, for whatever reason, is an even greater one.
"What do you propose?" his father asked.
"Simply tell Asgard the truth of my birth."
"Our sons," Frigga patted them on the shoulders, "are beloved by the people. They would not hesitate to go to war for their princes."
"You are correct. I suppose my fears stem from something else."
"What would that be?" Thor asked, nose twitching. He still hadn't exposed the truth about Hela, but his patience was running thin.
"Nothing of concern for now." Odin dismissed the question.
"I will make the announcement."
—
The Allfather's sight was projected all across both Asgards.
"People of the Realm Eternal. I speak to you this day to reveal a secret I have kept for far too long. At the end of the war against the Jotnar, I discovered a child abandoned in the temple…"
The citizens' reaction to learning their bright prince, who had given so much to Asgard, was the son of Laufey, King of Jotunheim, who wanted to leverage his existence as a bargaining chip, was to march to the palace, chanting Loki's name in support.
They left the Tenth Realm in droves, crowding the entry points. The Einherjar had taken the front, holding a rhythm with their weapons to the screams of the masses.
Loki appeared before the crowd, waving his hands. It fueled their cheers. The citizens began to throw flowers at his feet and a not-so-insignificant amount of undergarments with suggestive messages from unwed ladies.
He knew how the people would react.
He couldn't wait to see Laufey's face after realizing he had only embarrassed himself by trying to leverage his former existence as a Jotun.
—
Laufey arrived swiftly in Asgard. d. The morning of the day after the announcement, the Bifrost brought him to Asgard. d.
He was imposing.
Red eyes, blue skin, and marks that clearly bound them when he was a creature of flesh and blood. His golden pauldron, faulds, bracelets, and headpiece were all he wore. He was every part of what the Aesir expected the King of Jotunheim to be.
He had brought twenty more Jotnar with him, along with his son and heir, Helblindi, Loki's half-brother.
"The Allfather greets me at the door. How generous."
"Do you not do the same to your guests, Laufey?"
"You know what I came for. Your Gatekeeper must have told you as much."
"He has. Come, we shall speak inside."
—
The Allfather sat on the throne, silencing the murmurs. Laufey stood before him, unbending as a pillar.
"Odin Allfather, you have stolen from me," Laufey said, suddenly acting all theatrical.
Loki rolled his eyes, trying to think of a reason to not blast this fool to dust. Or better yet, erase him from existence so there wouldn't be a diplomatic crisis.
"Oh? And what is it that I stole, King Laufey?" his father asked, playing the game for the sake of public opinion.
Laufey's index finger slowly rose, pointing at Loki. "My youngest son."
He glanced at him for a moment, lips quivering, and turned around.
"The son you abandoned in a temple?" Odin said, narrowing his one good eye.
"He was merely left there for protection."
"Yet there were no caretakers around, no guards. That temple was abandoned."
"By fools who shirked their duty. They died for it."
He was about to leave, but the back and forth between the two was quite vexing.
"There is a simple way to solve this."
"What is it, my son?" Laufey asked, smirking.
Loki shuddered. He raised a finger, and everyone except Laufey froze in their places. Unblinking and unmoving, time had stopped at that moment. Chests did not rise; the misty breath of the Jotnar brought by Laufey was hanging in the air.
Even Odin was frozen as he was raising Gungnir, ready to silence the murmurs of the crowd.
He appeared before the King of Jotunheim, hands around his throat, forcing him down to his knees. "You call me that again, and I am going to transform you into a worm and leave you on a pond in Midgard." His eyes glowed with seidr, ready to disintegrate his birth father on the spot.
"What did you do?!" Laufey rasped. The giant's palm struck his face, trying to push him away, but Loki simply squeezed harder. His struggles became weaker, each punch slower, each swipe more feeble.
"I froze them in time. No one will ever believe you," he said, gesturing to the people.
"Now, do we have an understanding or not?"
"We do," Laufey choked out, the light in his eyes fading.
"Great." He launched the Jotun back to his place the moment time had stopped, all signs of an attack gone.
He snapped his fingers, and Gungnir came down on the floor.
"He is not your son, Laufey, not in any way that matters."
Laufey's wide eyes darted to him, then back to the Allfather. "A slip of the tongue," he excused, avoiding Loki's gaze.
"What do you suggest, brother?" Thor asked, glaring at Laufey.
"Oh simple," he snapped his fingers. A silverish globe of liquid appeared in the throne room, spreading into a mirror. The dull surface rippled, reaching across time to bring a moment in the past to the present.
"My king, the child is a runt," a Jotun said, kneeling before Laufey in his throne room.
"A runt?" the King of the Frost Giants roared, slamming his fist on the throne's arm rest, shattering the thick ice. "After all her claims of a great fate for him? Leave him in the temple; he is of no use to me."
"As you command."
He dismissed the mirror, memorizing the look on Laufey's face. Every second of that wide-eyed visage was a precious piece of revenge.
"Well, that settles it," Thor said, grinning at the Jotnars.
"Mere trickery," Helblindi rose to his father's defense.
Loki snapped his fingers once more. Another Jotun, this one clearly a female, appeared in the middle of the throne room, looking around with wild eyes.
The silent, rapid blinks at the mirror had left its place to gasps from the gathered crowd.
"Farbauti," he breathed out, seeing his second wife for the first time in over a thousand years.
She looked at the Aesir first, seeing the Allfather sit on his throne, surrounded by his family, and then turned to "Laufey."
"We can always ask her." He gestured to his birth mother.
It was the first time he laid eyes on her, one that he could remember anyway. She looked softer compared to the males. Black hair, the same face shape—he could see she was a master of seidr as well.
He felt nothing.
"Any excuses you can create, King Laufey, I can find answers to," he said, banishing Farbauti back to where he had plucked her out of.
The Aesir were sniggering at the Jotnar now, hidden behind coughs and fists. Even the Jotnar Laufey had brought with him looked displeased by their king.
He left the throne room before seeing the conclusion of it, excusing himself for an important matter.
—
He slipped back into the moment the recording arrived through a temporal gate and walked through before it closed.
—
He expected a wildly different environment. Perhaps a hyper-advanced race watching the universe through the use of technology. Or cosmic entities, gods, observing the mortal realm for one reason or the other.
A Midgardian office building was not one of the many he had imagined.
Desks, chairs, papers, and old-style computers were mixed with machinery beyond the current level of Midgard.
"Another one?! Arrest him now!" Someone screamed from the door.
He turned, scanning the humans. Black, body-fitting armor with helmets and three orange letters.
TVA.
He was at the correct place.
The agents charged at him, holding sticks that he had seen destroy two Einherjar, not even leaving dust behind. He flicked his left hand, as if swatting a fly, and all the agents except the leader were dead. They turned to bloody smears, splattering on the desks and the floor.
The agent at the head stopped, hearing the visceral noise behind. His head turned ever so slightly, seeing the blood-soaked room.
Since she did not wear armor like the rest, instead going with a suit, Loki assumed the female to be higher ranked.
"Your name, Midgardian," he demanded. The mortal before him was a human of Earth, he was certain, yet the details of how it could be possible escaped him.
"You, uh, you don't know?" she asked, trying to back off, but stopped upon stepping foot on the blood of her underlings.
"Why would I ask otherwise?"
"I am Judge Renslayer; we met. Or rather, I met versions of you"
"Ah," Loki's eyes glinted, floating closer to the human. "Tell me more, Renslayer."
—
Loki pondered the information he had just received.
An organization with the sole purpose of ensuring only the sacred timeline existed by destroying the rest was not something he saw coming.
"Tell me, Judge Renslayer. You are familiar with my past, yes? Since this organization commands such great control over time, you should be."
"Yes."
"Someone sent Laufey a recording of the moment when I was found by my father. He has come to Asgard and made a ruckus about it. I," he turned sharply, eyes aflame with green cosmic energies, "am annoyed, to say the least."
She flinched back, raising her hands. "I don't know anything about it. The true creator of TVA might though."
"What makes you so sure?"
"He has been hiding, manipulating everything behind the scenes. If it wasn't him, I don't know who it could be. Messing with timelines in that manner is against our operation."
He could see the truth in words. She believed this true creator was hiding in the void, and was certain no one in the TVA would send such a recording to Laufey.
"Where might I find him?" This person wanted his attention, he would find it a dangerous prospect to earn.
"I believe he is hiding in the void, the place where every pruned timeline and person is sent to."
One of the batons flew to his hand. He turned it over, inspecting the device, and jabbed it at Judge Renslayer's stomach, watching the pruning in effect. It wasn't out of a desire to avenge his counterpart but simply to find where the device took her without testing it on himself.
He observed the particles and blinked out of existence.
—
Asgard
"I have nothing against the Jotnar, but seeing you return empty-handed gives me a satisfaction few things can," Thor said, watching the Jotnar delegation leave, escorted by Einherjar.
Both kings agreed to keep it a silent affair since nothing had been achieved by either. Laufey could not take the casket, and his father did not manage to achieve lasting peace.
"Is that so, boy?"
"It is."
"Beware, Odinson, your brother is a monster. And you know what they say about playing with monsters."
"What did you just call my brother?"
Laufey smirked. "A monster."
Thor tilted his head to the side involuntarily, his smile falling off.
—
"Are you out of your mind?!" Odin screamed, his voice shaking the observatory.
"I have never been more sound of mind," Thor replied, leaning on the wall, unconcerned with the fury of the Allfather.
"Then why have you attacked Laufey? What drove you to start a war with the Jotnar?!"
Thor looked at the entrance to Bifrost, where he had struck Laufey hard enough to launch him inside with broken bones. "He called Loki a monster."
"Is that all?" Odin kept raising his voice. "Just because Laufey decides to be petty, you fall for his goading?"
How had his son made such a blunder? To the king of a realm that had arrived in Asgard under the flag of truce? Laufey was wounded, severely enough that this could not be solved with words.
"No. It was simply the last straw. I couldn't take it anymore, and I lost control," he explained. He wasn't proud of himself, far from it. Laufey was just the irritating soul who had destroyed the last vestiges of his patience.
"What was it that you couldn't take anymore?" he demanded, walking to stand before his son.
Thor crossed his arms, matching his father's glare. "Your lies."
Odin's stance slacked for a brief moment. "My lies?"
"Yes. When Laufey called Loki a monster, do you know who came to my mind?" he asked.
"Who?" The rage in his father's voice was gone now.
He chuckled in return, watching the cosmos.
—
Notes: Loki will put an end to the TVA and avoid a multiversal war in the same breath, while meeting his counterparts, including the canon Loki.
—
In the next chapter:
"That's alligator for growling and saying 'liar' at the same time." Those were the first words he heard once inside the bunker.
An older version who seemed to wear his undergarments outside; a child version; a muscular one with a hammer; an alligator; and the final one who looked exactly like him, minus the scuffed suit he was wearing.
"Well, well, well. I have been looking forward to this moment for a long time," he said, inspecting each variant.
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