Chapter 89 (Patreon)

Loki apparently wasn't expecting that—or for the spear to be carved with Asgardian symbols. The spear met his sceptre with a clang.

Using his longer weapon's greater reach, Harry twisted his weapon downwards, bringing it slashing across Loki's shoulder.

Before it could damage him too deeply, Loki stepped sideways, immediately lashing out with his sceptre, catching Harry's spear between the two blades out the end and attempting to twist it from his grip.

When the spear became a wand once again, Loki stumbled forward, allowing Harry to slip inside his guard and stab his wand into his gut.

Without his Asgardian skin to block the next round of stunning spells, Loki collapsed limply to the ground, his sceptre falling alongside him.

'I told you that I could kick your arse.'

'It's not fair,' Loki grumbled. 'You surprised me about a dozen times, and had me helping you to render my most useful magic obsolete.'

'That's your fault. You shouldn't have helped me, then.'

'What, and let you, and me by proxy, die?'

'Is a cause really worth fighting for if you're not willing to die for it?'

"Loki!" a voice said through a megaphone. "Surrender!"

Harry turned around and saw that the SHIELD agents and Captain America had finally arrived, and that they were talking to him.

He looked quite different after all, what with his illusion gone, cape laying on the floor a few metres away and his crown nowhere to be seen.

He sighed and decided he couldn't be bothered to explain this to anyone. He bent over, lifted Loki and the sceptre, and activated a Portkey.

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Harry idly toyed with the sceptre, waiting for Loki-Two to awaken. He directed a bit of power through it and blasted another hole in the wall.

He frowned as he noted that it had not taken any of his energy—Asgardian magic usually did. Wizard magic did not, and yet this was nothing like wizard magic.

Wizard magic drew from energy—magic—in the area around you and directed it through you and then your wand. With this, however, all the energy seemed to stem from the gem at the sceptre's head.

He did not dare to touch it until he had tested it further and interrogated Loki-Two about it. Even now, he could feel the gem reaching out to him, attempting to do…something to his mind. What, he knew not.

'Have you ever seen anything like it before?'

'Yes,' Loki said. 'I once saw a glowing gem. Unfortunately, it did not seem to be a sentient source of infinite power.'

'I, too, also once saw a gem. It was not, unfortunately, glowing. I'm not sure whether or not it was a sentient infinite power source, though. I didn't think to ask it.'

In front of Harry, Loki-Two shifted slightly, probably attempting to conceal the fact that he was awake. That said, he couldn't have shifted much more, seeing as he was chained to the wall.

"Stop pretending to be asleep!" Before Loki-Two could react, Harry flicked his wand, spraying Loki-Two with mild water. Cold water wouldn't have worked as well, what with him being part Frost Giant.

As it turned out, mild water also did not wake him up.

"Perhaps he's really still unconscious," Harry muttered. "I should electrocute him."

'Or you could just use the counter spells to the stunning spells.'

"What fun would that be?" He smiled and pressed his wand up against Loki-Two, silently sending the most powerful electric shock he could muster through him.

Loki-Two spasmed for a few moments, before coming to rest with a groan.

"Congratulations, Loki, you've awakened!" Harry exclaimed. "Welcome to my humble abode!" He motioned at the window and the storm raging outside. "I hope that the chains and the storm and the black stone walls are suitably ominous and evil for you! I was considering hosting you in the dungeon, but it's not just airy enough."

One of Loki-Two's eyelids cracked open. "Of course. One can only be imprisoned in so many dungeons before the experience begins to grow stale. This is quite the breath of fresh air."

Harry nodded sympathetically. "You see, my trick is not to get captured in the first place. It's quite easy when I'm stronger than almost everyone on the planet. Unfortunately for you, you don't exactly have that advantage." He paused. "Well, maybe you do, actually, seeing as I'm basically you."

"You're…me?"

"Well, no, but you're in my head."

"As nice as that is, you're not my type."

"Don't try and lie to me, you whore. You know well as I that people who look almost exactly like you are just your type."

Loki-Two shook his chains. "Of course, and my attraction is only enhanced when they chain me up."

Harry grinned. "Anyway, that's enough foreplay. Let's get down to the action. So, what happened to you after you fell from the Bifrost?"

"I fell for a while." He shrugged. "And then I ended up here. Are you going to explain why you look like me?"

Harry stroked his chin. "Let me think… No." He smiled. "Well, not until you tell me how you came across the pretty gem and the pointy sceptre."

"Is 'with great skill' an acceptable answer?"

"Is 'if you don't tell me, I'm going to invade your mind and see if it causes some kind of paradox' an acceptable answer?"

Loki-Two raised an eyebrow. "A paradox?"

"Well, maybe. For all I know, you're just me from the future who was deliberately defeated in order to maintain the timeline. Or you're the Loki in my head from the future, who didn't need to be deliberately defeated, since he's a little bitch anyway."

Loki-Two blinked. "I'm fairly sure that I am not from the future."

"Stop avoiding my question, you slag. How did you get the sceptre?"

"Well, I—"

"—am bored." Harry surged forward and grasped Loki-Two by the hair, yanking him forward to force him to make eye contact. With the mental force of a dozen freight trains, he ripped into Loki-Two's mind, Loki with him, guiding Harry through his own defences with careless ease.