Chapter Text
The Scepter
By CC
February 2026
I make no money with this. I’m only having fun writing stories.
He was falling into nothingness, but at least he was certain that his place was not in Asgard. It had never been. It explained so much. Loki wished he had known who he really was. Odin had brought him to Asgard to use him like a pawn, no matter what he said about fatherly love. And Frigga… Frigga had accepted him and cared for him as if he were her own son.
But he was not her son but a trophy that Odin had brought from Jotunheim. It was Thor who was her son, and she preferred… No, Frigga had never made differences between them. Frigga loved him.
Mother…
The pull of a strange planet caught him, and Loki let it happen, hoping to end his life. Something inside him rebelled at the last moment. He would not die. He would survive and return to Asgard to recover his rightful place as king. He tried to use his power to stop his fall, but another force pulled him down and after a short struggle Loki felt the land coming faster and when his body touched it, he lost consciousness.
He was tied up on a metal slab when he woke up. He looked around and saw a strange creature working on a computer-like machine. Loki tried to loosen his bonds, but it was futile.
“How dare you tie me up, you pitiful creature! I am Loki of Asgard!”
“We know who you are, Odinson, or should I say Laufeyson?”
The voice was deep and guttural.
“Who are you?”
“I am called The Other, Loki Odinson, and you are my prisoner.”
Loki opened his mouth to protest but an electric current ran through his body, making him scream. The Other placed something in his mouth and continued electrocuting him as if he wanted to find how much pain he could take. When it was over, Loki lay on the slab, unable to move or articulate a coherent thought.
That was when the strange creature came to his side and freed his ankles and wrists. Loki tried to use his magic, but he could not muster the strength, so he had to suffer the humiliation of being carried to a cell. The creature let him drop to the floor and locked him up.
Loki was furious, but he was also afraid. Who was this “Other” who had dared to imprison him? Where was he? He was too tired to reach with his power and feel the air, the landscape, the water. He was so tired that despite his efforts he lost consciousness.
Chapter Text
Loki was taken to many worlds, always under the vigilance of The Other, always unable to stop him from intruding in his thoughts. Loki hated it, but there was no escape, and at least The Other allowed him to vent his frustration while Thanos continued his quest to destroy worlds. How had he become the subject of such creatures?
Pain, unending pain in the hands of the Other had done this. When he first came to the Sanctuary, The Other had tortured him with his ability to inflict pain, and though Loki had resisted, he had learned to control his anger, and to pretend to be compliant with Thanos’ orders.
The Other had tortured him daily, anyway, and sometimes he had believed himself to be a servant of the master of the Sanctuary. There was less pain when he stopped fighting that thought. He needed to regain his strength and submit for a moment until…
NO!
“Still fighting me, I see, but you will come to understand that we are your only chance to get revenge on those who wronged you, Asgardian.”
They were going out again, following Thanos on another destruction rampage, and though The Other was fully armed, Loki was only allowed to use a crude warrior’s helmet and breastplate. He was given a shield and a sword and allowed to fight with the foot soldiers. His powers were dampened by the collar he always wore.
You will wear it until you submit to me, Asgardian. I can easily destroy you, but I have more important things to do than be your babysitter.
I need no babys---
The pain had sent Loki to the floor, and the electric shocks had raked his body until he had stopped fighting, and then The Other had left him alone in his cell, and the pain had come back without warning at different intervals of time until Loki had pleaded with The Other to stop it. And now he was battling against strange creatures, killing them, without his powers, his face and body spattered with their blood as if he were a common soldier.
He had been allowed to bathe and change his clothes after half the population of the planet was destroyed, but not before he worked with other soldiers, burning bodies and cleaning the remains of the battle. Now he was inside his cell again, trying not to think of his mother, or Thor. The Other knew about his family, and where they lived, but Loki needed to forget about them.
They were not his family.
Yet Frigga had taught him all he knew about magic, and Thor had protected him when he was a small child. He had studied and prepared himself to be chosen as Odin’s successor, but it was never his destiny. He was a Jotun, a lowly one even in the eyes of his ‘people’. Weak and small, abandoned to die, and Thor had stopped him when he tried to get rid of all the monsters, only because that way he would no longer be a part of a monstrous race.
But you are a monster, Loki Laufeyson, The Other’s voice sounded in his mind. There was no pain this time, just a recreation of the scene when he was born and rejected by his real parents. Look at your face now, Laufeyson, and a mirror appeared in front of him. He looked like an Asgardian, but there were shadows under his eyes, and something like fever in them. He was weakening and going mad.
Yes, The Other said, and once you understand who your master is, you will lead the Chitauri and conquer Earth and give us the Tesseract.
Chapter Text
The Other looked at Loki, connected as they were through the mind stone. The Asgardian believed that he could control the Scepter, that it was a device Thanos had given to him so he would be able to influence the people from Earth’s weaker minds. Loki never realized that it influenced his mind too, or if he did, he thought of himself powerful enough to resist its influence.
The Asgardian was killing and manipulating humans with ease, and his anger grew as he confronted the Man of Iron and the Captain of old times. The real test was the moment when Thor came for him, and the Other felt a change in the carefully crafted maelstrom of rage in Loki’s mind.
For a moment Loki was affected by his brother’s presence, but the intervention of the other Earth defenders interrupted the moment. Everything was going according to plan, and soon Loki would destroy New York with the Chitauri army and retrieve the Tesseract.
The Other was aware of the risks of sending the Asgardian, but he had modeled him into the perfect weapon of destruction. Loki was intelligent and cunning, but he had such a need to show his former family that he was strong enough to be a king. The Other had seen it all in his mind, his love for Frigga, his hopes to be Odin’s heir, his mischief, his love for his brother, tainted by envy as they grew up.
Now the plan was about to give fruit and…
Something had changed, he realized, and cut his connection with Loki. The defenders of Earth were starting to push back, and they were succeeding. The Chitauri were being destroyed and so were the Leviathans. The Other realized that it was over when the portal was closed and the missile sent by a rogue pilot was sent through it.
Loki was captured, and he had the Scepter with him. The Mind Stone was lost. Thanos would be displeased. The Other would have to weave a careful explanation to escape his master’s rage.
Loki had been captured and lost the Scepter in the process. He was still angry, at Thor, at Earth, at the Mindless monster that had defeated him. Would the Other come back for him and take him back to the Sanctuary? He doubted it. Thor was determined to take him back to Asgard.
A memory came to him, of Thor making him look at the destroyed city, of him saying that it was too late. He had almost given in, but rage had risen inside him and he had stabbed Thor, betraying him once again. They were no longer brothers, Odin was not his father, Frigga…
Thor’s hand on his shoulder shook him off his memories. It was time to go back to Asgard and be judged by Odin. It was time to see his mother again. The only regret Loki had was that he had failed her.