The Ant and the Boot

Cameras swam before my eyes in a metallic sea, their incessant flashes burning my eyes like the hot August sun. My scepter was gone, as was my helm. An Asgardian gag in my mouth tasted metallic and held my mouth closed, leaving me silent as my brother fitted me with shackles.

“Wait, Point Break.”

Stark broke through the crowd, no longer dressed in his suit but in a white suit with a lavender tie and glasses. I wondered what city's custom that was, thinking he looked ridiculous.

“What do you wish, Stark?” My brother asked, turning to him. In his hands he held a vaulted cylinder containing the Tesseract. I stared at it loathsomely, wanting it and despising it at the same time. All that power had led me astray, but it was so potent that without it I felt weak. It was an addictive drug.

“I want you to take the gag out of his mouth. I've got one more question for him before you fly away,” Stark replied. I looked away, eyes narrowing. Did he feel it necessary to gloat? To flaunt to me that I had lost to his race? Thor released the contraption from my mouth and I spat, trying to rid my mouth of the taste of metal and grit of cement. I still was barely standing after my encounter with the beast yesterday.

“What do you want, Stark?” I asked coldly, turning to him. “Isn't our business finished now that you have reclaimed your precious earth?”

“No, not yet.”

He regarded me with angry eyes that were obscured by his glasses. I could see his hands tighten into fists as he watched me. Every reporter with a camera was holding their breath, waiting to hear what his last words were.

“Where's Dove Lancaster?”

“I already gave you the location,” I snapped. Stupid mortals. “In my safe house, where I hid all of my servants.”

Stark twitched at the word 'servant'. “You're lying, Loki. I went and scoured that place myself and I didn't find her anywhere. I even asked your 'servants' before arresting them and they didn't know. Thor looked, too, when we sent your stuff back to your daddy's castle in the sky and she didn't turn up. We finally had to demolish the building and stop looking. Any nook, any cranny, any place that you might have locked her away – she wasn't there.”

My heart turned cold. How could they have demolished the building before they found her? I knew she was there: she must have hidden herself away, better than Stark or my brother could search.

I stared numbly at the ground. Everything I had worked for on earth had now been crumbled into dust.

“I know where I hid her,” I said, my voice soft. “She was there. Wherever she was hiding she was probably... probably killed in the demolition.”

I looked up at Stark. His face was pale, angry. His hands clenched and unclenched.

“I don't like loose ends, Loki,” Stark growled, “and I don't like whatever game you're playing. I'm going to find her and if she's been harmed in any way...”

He dropped off as his anger swelled, teeth grinding together.

“Don't wreak your anger on me,” I said, voice turning as numb as how I felt. “I'm not the one who killed her.”

Stark stared at me for a moment then turned heel on me, shoving his way through the crowd.

“The girl's blood will still be on your hands, Loki,” my brother said softly as he fitted the gag back into my mouth. I coughed and spat as I glared at him, my hatred swelling.

He was wrong, as he always was. I failed when I attacked the earth, miscalculated the Chitauri, and had underestimated the humans, but this was one stand on which I would not waver: I had not killed Dove. I would never kill her, never harm her.

But that didn't change that she was dead now. I closed my eyes as my brother gripped my shackles, the power of bifrost wrapping around us as he brought me back to Asgard to face Odin.



I never found her. I searched through the night and into the early hours of the morning, overturning ever goddamn stone and piece of metal that remained of the building. There were no secret safes, no vaults, no hidden corners. She wasn't there. Or if there was there wasn't enough left of her to find.

I blasted apart the last standing wall of the building out of frustration, a plume of fire rising as I hit one of the building's gas lines. I had been the one to bring the building down. I should have checked harder then, refused to move until we had found her.

I killed that girl, I thought to myself, landing to stand on the building's remains. I had killed her, and now I had to live with the blame.

“Shouldn't you be spending this day relaxing after saving the world, sir?” Jarvis asked, his voice ringing in my headset. “Banner and Pepper have been calling about what plans you have, and Steve stopped by earlier this morning looking for you.”

“Who the hell is Steve?”

“Captain America or 'Captain Crunch', sir.”

“I thought his first name was 'Captain'.”

My nose twitched inside my mask. I started to walk, bracing myself before throwing myself into the air.

“I can't take today off, Jarvis,” I said, muscles protesting as I went airborne, even as my thrusters stabilized me. “Tell Banner and Pepper I'll be back in a few hours. I have a funeral to plan.”



I had made my way to the bed after a few hours, curling up underneath it before anyone could find me. I knew sometime they would rifle through Loki's stuff and I didn't want to be caught as a stowaway. I feared that the Asgardians would generally take after Loki in their views on humanity.

Hunger gnawed at my stomach as I curled up on the floor, the bedskirt obscuring me beneath the frame. Footsteps and voices moved past and faded and I swallowed, trying to ignore how dry my throat was. A feeling of dread crept over me as I realized that I would have to reveal myself if I didn't want to starve to death. Loki's supply containers hadn't had any food in them, leaving me without anything to tide myself over with.

The rhythmic marching footsteps of soldiers approached and I pushed myself farther back under the bed, pressing myself tightly against the wall. It was cold and rough against my back, and the buttoned overshirt I wore was too thin to not notice the bumps in the paint. The doors opened, admitting those marching footsteps, as well as the booming footsteps of a king.

I held my breath, thinking Odin had come back. Did they, somehow, know I was here? Had they come to tear me out and throw me in the dungeons?

“Thank you for your escort. Now please leave us; I need to share a few words with my brother before his reckoning.”

My heart leapt into my throat: that wasn't Odin's voice. It was Thor.

“Yes, my king.”

The footsteps marched out, leaving the room silent. My head reeled, trying to decide if I should show myself now or wait.

“Loki, I know not what father has in store for you, but I am sure it is fitting of your crimes against humanity,” Thor said, his voice softer than I would have expected. A sharp pain went through my chest as I realized it reminded me of Prosper's voice. Until now I really hadn't had the time to miss him.

The sound of metal clicked like a lock being opened, followed by the sound of someone spitting.

“So what, brother?” Loki's voice rang out, cold and passionless. “Then I shall be killed. Is there something you wish to say to me before I die? I don't care for your words.”

“I do not believe father will kill you. That is not a custom of Asgard.”

“Ah, but I am not an Asgardian. I am Laufeyson, the Frost Giant, and Frost Giants, I believe, father has had no qualms of killing in the past.”

“Loki, you are still of Asgard no matter what your blood line is. You were raised as an Asgardian prince and will be treated according-”

“I was raised as a shadow, always trapped behind you and never so loved, never so wanted. Even after you led your crusade against the Frost Giants – my people – and you were banished the people still yearned for you and your stupidity. In my days of rule I was an undesired king, as if they all knew what I really was. Even to our mother and father I was always the second best, the distant second loved, no matter how I tried to please him,” Loki spat. Unbidden I felt my heart break, not for Thor but for Loki. I pressed a hand to my chest, feeling cold.

“I never saw you as a shadow, Loki. I do not pretend to understand father's actions, but I wish you to know that I will still love you well, despite your crimes, after your reckoning. Do not forget that.”

“Please, don't offer me your pity,” Loki growled. Thor sighed, a sad sound.

“I shall see you soon, brother.”

Thor's heavy footsteps retreated then, followed by the metallic click of a locking door.

Loki sat on the bed a foot away from where I lay hidden, his feet silent as he moved.

“What do I care of there reckoning?” he scoffed, voice soft and broken. I had never heard him sound lik this. I lifted my head a little, listening.

“Father has already banished me once. He has shown that he doesn't care for me, just as all of Asgard has. What more can they take from me but my life? It is torturous enough to be given back my old rooms and know that it is all a facade, that I will never be admitted to their world. They all know what I am.

“Damned Thor. He knows not what he thinks, knows not what he feels. I can see the hatred in his eyes, just as I hate him. He has left nothing for me, too: stole my crown, broke my body, took my power, even killed the woman I cared for...”

His voice broke off and I sat there, confused. Had Loki once had a lover?

“How could they not have found her?” Loki hissed, striking his fist down on the bed. “I know where I left her. How could they have brought the building down upon her? How could he have failed to even find her body?”

A cold feeling ran up my spine as I put the pieces together. He was talking about me. Everyone outside thought I was dead.

My heart had broken enough for him, despite the hate that still lingered in my heart, to leave me cracked. I silently pulled myself from under the bed, watching his back for a while. His features were bowed, defeated. I swallowed hard, clasping my hands together as I stood to my feet.

“They never found me because they sent me here with your belongings,” I whispered.

He spun on me, eyes wide, cloak shifting in a wide flutter of green as he jumped to his feet.

“Dove-” he choked, but said no more as he pulled me off my feet and against his lips.