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It all went so fast for Thor after he discovered that his brother was posing as Odin. He feels as if he has been from one fight to another. Surtur, Hella, the Arena fights and lastly Thanos, who is now laying slain by his feet. His victory is hollow. No Asgard to celebrate this ‘glorious’ battle. No big parties and no grand stories of this and previous battles. It had been a dirty war and Thor can only fantom how close the universe was to share the same faith as Asgard.
Thor stares at the lifeless arm as he holds it in his hands. The glove still attached to it. The stones glowing. The mind stone keeps on teasing him. We grant you power. Everything you ever wished for. No more enemies. The teasing whispers goes on and on. The stone will come up with anything to lure Thor into using the stones.
“What are you waiting for, Goldy Locks? Hit the reverse key on that thing.” Tony has come standing next to Thor. Peter Parker standing right behind Tony, eating a granola bar. “Yeah, don’t you want to see your home again? Your friends? Your family?” “You can even decide to leave out the ones you don’t like.” Says Clint while leaning gently on his bow. This little line helps Thor to break away from the mantra of the stones. Getting in complete control of himself again. “No, I’ll bring them all back.” Thor looks stern to Clint. “And YES that includes my brother too. Without him, I wouldn’t be what I am now.” A lighting trails over Thor's body. “Ok.. ok..” Clint backs away a bit. “I was only saying.” He holds his hands up in mockplay.
Thor sighs. The path is now clear. He takes the glove off of the lifeless hand. The detached arm falls unceremoniously on the ground, while Thor puts on the glove. “Now how does this work?” “I dunno, just think about what you want? Oh and don’t forget to bring back Dr. Strange.” “And Gamora too.” ads Quill. “To bring back more than just Asgard. To bring back beings I don’t even know. Is that possible?” A slender but firm hand suddenly rests on Thor’s shoulder. “Just close your eyes and go with your feeling, Thor.” The soft but strong voice of Captain Marvel advises Thor. “Many things you know by birth, because you’re a god Thor. It’s deep inside you. Go on.. Close eyes and concentrate.” Thor has stared at her. He had felt as if his mother was talking to him.
Thor closes his eyes and concentrates. Deep inside himself he feels a source he has never felt before. An universal source of unlabeled knowledge. The voices of the stones have quiet down. Thor feels how his very being gains control over the stones. Making them obey him, not making him their mindless slave. Joyfull cheers enter his ears. Close by he can hear soft murmurs of two lovers followed by a kiss. He feels how his power shifts. He knows that now he’s bringing back Asgard. The voices silenced as they watch the appearance of the first Asgardians. But the voices are heard after a while. It doesn’t feel that they are in awe by the sight of Asgard. Something is wrong. Thor opens his eyes and sees his mother and father standing there. His father in his usual golden battle regalia, holding Gungnir in his hand. Thor takes a good look at his mother. She is dressed for battle too. A golden armour matching her husbands and wearing a small yellow cape. A sword hanging by her side and Thor has no doubts she has stashed daggers somewhere too. The two of them are holding hands. Next to his mother is Val. Back in her Valkyrie armour.
Odin smiles at Thor. “Hello son.” Thor is happy to see them. But his happiness fades quickly. He looks bewildered around him. “Where’s the rest?” His mother takes a step forwards and puts her hand on his arm. “They were not dead Thor. Thus they can not be here.” Odin takes a step closer to Thor as well. “My son. It is time you take your place as the King of Asgard. And I know, Asgard has already crowned you. Now you must live up to your title. Go find Asgard.” Odin hands Thor Gungnir but the staff vanishes when Thor wants to grab it. “Find the staff and you find Asgard.” Frigga encourages her son. Thor gets a bit worried. “ What about Loki?” Frigga smiles. “When it comes to Loki, things will work out just fine.”
Thor glares at Frigga and Odin. This staff disappearing thing doesn’t sit well with him. He wants to use the glove to check if it isn’t Loki in disguise, but the glove refuses. Thor get a ‘Don’t ask dumb questions.’ from the stones. Thor looks at the glove and notice that the Soulstone is missing. He looks at his father and points to the empty spot. Frigga sighs. “ You have brought back the sacrifice that was needed for the Soulstone. Because of that, the stone is back where it has always been.” Frigga swats the hand of Odin away when he wants to take the glove from his son. “You need to look for Asgard without the aid of the Infinity Stones. The journey is very important. Your father and I will do our duty again with the stones.” Odin carries a wicked grin on his face. “ Yeah. I don’t think Thanos was happy with the places I hid them.” Frigga and Odin chuckled together. Something Thor hadn’t seen them do in a very long time. As if a weight had fallen off their shoulders. Thor puts the glove in the outstretched hand of his mother.
Tony and the others had followed the entire conversation. “Your highnesses, have fun playing the Easter bunny.” Tonye makes a playful bow towards Thor parents. Odin looks a bit displeased, but Frigga giggled like a schoolgirl. She looks at Thor. “ He’s cute. You should keep him.” Which leaves Tony flabbergasted. Thor chuckles. “I rather have him in his original habitat.” Frigga and Odin changes into something that could pass on for Asgardian leisure clothing. Frigga plucks the Mindstone out of its socket with her bare fingers. She studies it for a bit. With a soft cheerful glee.” I know where this one should be put. It will have such great fun there.” Odin pokes at it, then smiles. “ You’re right.” Scarlet Witch walks hesitantly up to to Thor's parents. “Ehm.. your highnesses.. Gods. May I ask something from you?” Frigga smiles. “ We will see what we can do.” “ That is the Mindstone you’re holding. It was in my husbands head and it gave him life. Without it, he’s dead. Can you put it back into him?” “What for, child?” Odin asks. “What kind of guarantee do you have that he will come back to life and be himself again?” Followed by a soft ouch as Frigga kicks him against his leg. “There will be no guarantee, my dear. But we can try.”
Frigga conjures a nice little ladies purse out of nothing. She plucks the rest of the stones out of the floating glove and put them into the purse. Closing it tightly and wrapping the handle several times around her wrist. In her hand she still holds the Mindstone. With a simple gesture she makes the glove floating towards Tony. “Here, you can make good use of it. It’s the purest gold in the universe and the strongest. Be careful with it and have fun exploring it’s potentials.” Tony’s eyes glitter with excitement while his glasses are already analyzing the metal in his hand.
Odin gestures to the Scarlet Witch to lead the way and holds his arm up and Frigga hooks her in his. Like an old married Midgardian couple with strange fashion sense, they follow the Scarlet Witch. They all can hear Odin tell his wife that when this is done, he knows a nice little cafe from the time Loki had send him to Midgard. Frigga answers and while they both wave at Thor, they disappear behind a fallen building.
“Well, Goldy Locks, you have some work cut out for you. Need some assistance?” Tony looks at Thor and before Thor can answer. “ Yes you do. You need a spaceship because I don’t think the rest of Asgard is on Earth. You need a crew to fly that ship and to keep maintenance. Some, what you call, shield brothers on the side.” He has to reach up a bit, so he can pat Thor on the shoulder. “ No worries, you’ll find them. So, where to start, King Goldy Locks?” Thor has managed to follow Tony’s sea of words. He thinks for a while. You can see his mind slowly starting to work on this. “I think, starting where the old Asgard has been blown up.”
Starlord has offered to use his ship and his crew, since that’s the only real spaceworthy ship on Earth at the moment. And his crew know the universe more than Thor does. Tony has grumbled a bit but he has accepted it. He could study the ship so he could later on build one back at home. And thus, Thor, Tony and Val joins the Guardians of the Galaxy in the Benatar to go out into the stars.
Only Thor knows how you can fly to the realm where Asgard used to be. A part of the journey they fly only on Thor’s gut feeling because their instruments have trouble navigating through this part of space. Once they get at the place, they see only a big cloud of rubble. They scan several big rocks but Thor shakes his head every time. In the middle there is one major big rock. Big enough to land a ship and walk around a bit. One could build a home with a garden on it, if one wanted to. The surface gives off a strange golden glow.
Thor gets out of the ship with Starlord and Tony to examine it. “Aside from some strange materials, nothing else on this piece of rock. Why are we here again, Thor?” Tony asks after they have been walking around the big rock for a while. For the last ten minutes Thor was sitting in the middle of the rock, his eyes closed and his bare hands on the rock. He opens his eyes and looks at Tony. “This is the heart of place called Asgard” He smiles. “ It sings to me. I can feel it’s vibe.” “That’s great that your mojo has a connection here, but how are you going to find the people of Asgard?” Thor rubs his chin while thinking. “ I wish Loki was here. He knows how to deal with this sort of thing.” Starlord joins the conversation. “Can’t you use a piece as a compass to find them?” Tony gets curious. “Is it able to work like a magnet?” Thor rubs his beard. “It could work.” And with those words he swings Stormbreaker and slashes a shard of the hard rocky surface, making the floor tremble. With a fine lazer Tony makes a small hole in it. Back on the ship a small cord is put through.
Now the Asgard Finder, as Thor named it, is ready for use. They leave the realm of old Asgard. Thor feels that they are done here. While having dinner, Thor wonders how to use it. He keeps it up, dangling at it’s rope. Mindlessly he starts to play with it. Letting it spin and turn. Swinging it like a pendulum. After a while he discovers that the shard always gets back to one position. He marks a tip with some sauce he has still on his dinner plate. He let it spin again and when it stops the saucy end points into the same direction again. He tries it several times, all with the same result. It does work like a compass. Happily like a kid, Thor shows it to the others. Tony immediately makes an A on the saucy end with his fine lazer.
No matter where they fly, the marked end is always pointing in the same direction. For weeks they fly through space. Thor sees parts of space he’s never seen before.
Suddenly the stone starts to tug at it’s cord. It clearly points to a desolate planet in this solar system. They land the Benatar on it’s inhospitable surface. Toxic air rolls over the surface. They all suit up with helmets and protective clothing before stepping outside. The stone is tugging at it’s cord like a puppy on a leash. It leads them to a small entrance of a cave. Once inside they see that the ‘cave’ is more like a corridor. They can’t see the end of it. The stone pulls them deeper and deeper into the planet itself. The walls are covered here and there with some local vegetation that lights up. It gives the corridor a strange eerie feel.
Tony had started to read the composition of the air around them, the moment he had gotten out of the ship. And the more they advanced into the cave, the less toxin floats in the air. When the cold starts to curl around their feet and the layer of cold gets bigger and bigger, the air becomes more and more like the air on Earth, breathable. When the entire corridor is filled with frosty winter air, the air quality has never been this good on Earth. Crisp and free of any toxin, just healthy clean air. “You can take off your helmets. The air is..” Before Tony can finish, Thor has taken off his helmet. He inhales and claims: “This is Jotunheim.” He turns and looks at Tony. “It’s exactly like on Jotunheim.” His eyes grow big while that old playfull twinkle, that Tony hasn’t seen in a long time, returns in Thor's eyes. “Loki… This is Loki’s doing.” Starlord frowns for a second. “ Your brother is an ice mage?” Thor laughs. “ No, my brother is adopted. He’s from Jotunheim. He’s a Frost Giant.” And with those words, Thor realises he has never seen Loki in that form. Why should he? They were raised, believing that Frost Giants were monsters.
Thor starts running. The rest has problems keeping up with him, except Tony. He starts to fly to stay close to his, what Thor calls, shield brother. When they turn a sharp corner, Thor bumps into something solid. Tony manages to hit the brakes just in time. They both take a few steps back to look at it. Before them is a wall of solid ice. Tony clicks his helmet back in place and scans it. “It’s not completely solid. It's 10 inches thick. Nothing a laser can’t handle.” The nanites start to crawl over his body and a handy laser is formed on top of his hand. He adjusts the setting so it will only cut through the ice and not hit anything that is right behind it. It takes a while but Tony manages to cut a nice portal for everybody to go through.
Thor is through first, letting out a weird squeaking sound. The rest hurries in and stare at the same panorama as Thor. There is a big cave in front of them. The roof is covered in moss, setting the cave in that same eerie light. The cave is not empty. It’s filled with shards of ice. Some are big, some are not. Some are laying down or leaning against a wall. When they focus their eyes on the big ones in front of them, they discover that there are beings in them, humanoids.
There is one standing out. Behind it there are four other ones in a straight row. Starlord walks to it to rub it. He thinks somebody is in there. Thor holds him back. “Watch it, this is heavily guarded. Tony looks around and notice two corpses, in a dehydrated state in the corners. Thor points at the ceiling, the floor and the walls. Symbols in ice, radiating the same weird light as the plants in this cave. “I recognise them anywhere. They are protection runes. My brother was very good..at.. It” Thor’s speech slows down as he looks at the first ice shard. Unlike all the others, this shard has a dent in it at shoulder height. Thor walks slowly towards the shard, looking at where the head should be. “Wait, I can’t do it, but you can?” Thor turns his head and grins. “ Yeah, I’m a god and you’re not. Well. half perhaps, but not good enough for this.” Thor turns back and rubs on the surface. The first thing he sees are two bright red eyes looking at him.
“Wait, this can go faster.” Tony smiles while he lifts his hand up. “ Step aside Thor. One Iron Man polishing machine coming up.” From his hand pulsar a wide spread laser appears. When it moves over one of the shards, it simply polishes it up till it’s a clear as glass. Thor gulps. Now the figures are clear. Up at front, is Loki. But not as they all know him. He’s completely bleu with natural horns on his head. His hair still jet black. Bright red eyes look straight forward while he has taken a stance, holding Gungnir. Behind him, in a fight stance, are the Warrior Three and Lady Sif. Thor notices that behind them are the guards.
“I don’t understand.” Thor mumbles,” I saw them all get killed by Hella. They were all dead. I witnessed Asgard being slain by the soldiers of Thanos. My own brother, choked to death. And now.. It was all an illusion?.. What.. what..?” “It looks to me, your brother has taken precaution. Magic users sometimes have a knack for knowing things before it happens.” Tony Stark tries to explain with the little knowledge he has. “Why don’t you wake him up and ask him yourself?”
Thor stares at his ice covered blue brother. He has no idea how to wake his brother up. Loki is the one with magic knowledge, not Thor. “How do you greet your brother when you see him after a long time?” Starlord asks. “I think you think too complex. Think simple. Loki knows how much you know about these things.” Thor closes his eyes. When he opens them, he automatically lays his right hand in the nook of his brothers neck. The place where there is this big dent in the ice. The moment Thor’s hand is resting on the ice, Loki’s eyes blink. Red light seems to glow from his eyes and the Warrior Three and Lady Sif open their eyes too. All their eyes glow with the colour of their eyes. The ice around Loki melts rapidly and within seconds, the ice is gone. Thor’s hand resting on Loki’s armour, the one Loki wore on Asgard when he caught him personating Odin. Loki’s eyes blink and he smiles at Thor. “Hello brother.” And he places his hand in the same gesture on Thor’s neck. “Loki, how did you do all of this. I don’t understand.” Loki looks at his brother with a melancholic smile. “Brother, ruling is thinking ahead of your opponents. When I returned from Svartalfheim, I found Odin weakend on the throne. Stricken with great sorrow over the loss of Frigga. The court circling around him as a flock of vultures. Sending him to Midgard the way I did went too easy.” Thor stiffens when he hears this. In his mind, Loki is still responsible for his father death. “I expected him to come out of it while processing his grief. Actually, I had expected him to show up, not you. I knew Thanos was on the move and would come to Asgard sooner or later. I wasn’t sure if Odin would have returned by then and be full power again. And I knew I wouldn’t have enough power to stop him. So I did the best thing I could. I duplicated each and every one on Asgard and letting the duplicates live their lives.” Tony has listened to the whole story, softly rubbing his chin. “Same souls, different bodies?” Loki Doesn’t look away from Thor. He keeps looking into his brothers eyes. Reading his emotions as he talks. “Yes. And the moment one of them died, their soul would return to its original body but would stay in stasis. And thus ‘staying dead’ for the time being.”
With lingering tears in his eyes, Thor asks his brother, “ Brother, tell me truthfully. Would you have the same thing when you knew you weren’t a double?” Loki blinks and briefly looks away. Contemplating how he would tell it so his brother could understand it. Then he looks his brother back in the eyes. “Nobody knew they were in a body double, including myself. When I had the last one in stasis, I had to do myself and get rid of my own memory of it. Because if Thanos or one of his lieutenants had picked it up, Asgard would have been really completely destroyed.” Thor tugs Loki in bone crushing hug. “You do realise you’re hugging a Frost Giant, brother.” Thor only chuckles roughly. “I don’t think you could have done this if you weren’t one. Brother in all except in blood.” Loki lets out a small sigh and deepens the hug.
It takes a while before they let go of eachother. Loki turns and defrosts The Warrior Three and Lady Sif. He immediately has her sword on his throat, the moment she sees him. It takes a lot of explaining, before they all have their weapons put away. It will take time to defrost Asgard completely and transport them to Midgard. Letting them settle there for the time being while Thor and Loki will figure out a way to get the realm of Asgard up and running as well. Thor is confident they will manage it all. He has Asgard back, his friends and his brother. Thor feels as if he’s on top of the universe again. The future is golden. Golden with a playful streak of mischief here and there.