Thor's eyes narrowed and he faced his brother, his pacing ceasing, “The reward did outweigh the risk when I sent out the first search party, the first set of surveillance, the first time I went out myself to look for her. Do you want to know what the reward was? I got to see you, I could think that you’d finally think of me as a brother if I helped you search. You would finally be happy.” He jabbed a finger towards his brother, taking a step towards the cell, “The risk wasn’t an issue until time went on, until your demeanor changed, until I realized that the chance we’d find her was getting slimmer.” Setting his hammer on the ground so he wouldn’t do anything he would regret, he continued, “I would never chain you up, deplete you of your power, leave you in a cell unless you forced me to. And you’ve pushed me to keep you in here because of your relentless searching for her and obsession with finding her.”
"you forced that Change when you held back your patrols. When you slowly sent fewer and fewer men to search. I saw that you were losing your faith in finding so I forced my hand in trying to amp that hope. Apparently, that just made things worse, and now we're here. Back when we we're fighting for power. Back when wI as merely and hated prince. When you were deemed worthy of the throne." Loki snarled, taking a step back and clasping his hands behind his back
His last comment made something change in Thor’s mind, his eyes narrowing more and his hands clenching into fists as he growled, “I’m still worthy of that throne, more worthy than you will or have ever been. You care more about the life of one person instead of the greater good of a kingdom, that’s why you’re not the king. If Avalin is still alive, now she’s completely on her own. I’m pulling back this patrol, and you can thank yourself for that one.”
Every single light in the holding blanked out with a loud shattering. Loki's magic was the only thing illumination the room along with his eyes "I wonder, if the roles were reversed, would you stop looking for your beloved, dear brother." He growled before sniffing out his magic completely and standing in complete darkness
He didn’t answer that comment, his eyes flashing dangerously in the dark as he grabbed his hammer and stormed out of the room, calling behind him, “Don’t ever challenge my kingship again, you can figure out how to find your wife from there, without my help and without getting out of that cell.”
"oh you can count on it brother, but I assure you it will not be from withing this cell." He turned and waved a hand, his magic reappearing in his palm "you'll have more than half of a missing kingdom to worry about." He threatened, flicking his gaze to his brother before turning his back on him completly
He didn’t seem to listen or believe Loki as he stormed out, already telling one of the guards to pull back the patrol and to have someone replace the lights everywhere but in his brother’s cell. It made him furious, everyone knew not to question his ruling, especially when he was under so much stress with having to try to find missing people and deal with the nobles constantly.
Loki sat on the far wall, closed his eyes and thought back to when he last was with Avalin. Back on the beach where the water turned blue at her feet. How beautiful she looked before the dust took her away from him. "I'm sorry my love," he muttered softly "I hope you're somewhere better than here."
Thor finally got to the throne room and collapsed into the throne, sighing and wondering how he could go from being so close to his brother to now having him as an enemy to the crown again. He wished it was easier to search for someone that had turned to dust, but it wasn’t, making it a lot harder to find Avalin and help his brother.
Avalin couldn’t feel anything. She couldn’t tell where she was, she couldn’t tell the day or time, she wasn’t hungry or tired or anything. She was just there. There didn’t seem to be any solid ground beneath her feet, but she wasn’t falling anywhere, and the bright whiteness of wherever she was didn’t help. For the first few weeks of being in wherever it was, she called for help, or even just another person nearby. As time -the messed up sense of time in this place- went on, she started to accept the fact that she wasn’t going to see her husband ever again and mourned the fact. Queenie wasn’t anywhere to be seen, and she worried about Spot and if the puppy was still doing alright.
Loki stood and cloaked the room in an illusion, sheilding him from the guard's prying eyes so he could be alone. "Forgive me my queen. I'm not who you came to love." Loki squeezed his eyes shut, reminiscing in the final moments of being the man he had grown to be when with his wife and brother. When his eyes snapped back open, he became the man who had wanted power, but instead of power, he wanted his wife. No matter the co sequences of getting her back "I'm so sorry…"
(Time skip to the 5th year?)
(Ya)
Thor sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose, ignoring the blabbering merchant who was trying to sell him something. Another year of stress had taken its toll on the king, with his eyes showing more of the weight of running Asgard than his body. The kingdom was finally running smoothly though, getting used to only half the people working and actually thriving. The remaining Avengers has reassembled and had asked Thor to join them, supposedly finding a way to bring everyone back.
Loki had been using his few oportunities alone, mostly during the night to time travel back in time to the last time he saw Avalon at the beach to try to find any evidence of her dissapearence or whereabouts. After a month or so of looking he got furious and cracked the glass in his prison wall. Loki had managed to slowly chip away at the glass until he could shift and slip out unnoticed, using an illusion as a distraction.
No one in Asgard had noticed Loki’s disappearance when he left, the guards still stationed by his cell. Soon, Thor joined the Avengers again and Asgard was left on its own, waiting for him to get back.
Loki adjusted his button down shirt and walked out, sneaking into the weapons room and stealing his daggers. "You've left me no choice brother." He growled softly, making a quick stop at their room and taking some books and supplies, along with spit. "Hi spit, I've missed you too." He let the dog jump on him in greetings "ready to finally find her?"
Spot barked and wagged his tail, no longer the small puppy they had taken home from the shelter. Now he was fully grown, and quite tall, but with the same spotted coat as when he was just a puppy. He seemed to understand where they were going and seemed just as excited to finally be looking again as Loki was.
Loki crouched down and burried his face in the dog's fur "yeah I know, I miss her too." He stood and sighed. He waved a hand to disguise himself as a servant to sneak out of the castle and headed out. "Keep quiet spot, just until we get to the Bifrost."
He barked again before following him, attracting no attention from any of the other servants as they were used to him wandering around the castle all day and occasionally begging them for snacks.
Once at the Bifrost, Loki dropped all illusions he held. He sighed softly and turned towards the Bifrost "this should be fun."
Spot just wagged his tail, head tipping to the side in curiosity. He started forward with no worry, padding along and only looking back to see if he was coming once.
Loki followed Spot and waved a hand to close the Bifrost. "We'll head first to Earth. Maybe stop by Lillian's " he said with a hopeful smile
The dog just wagged his tail faster, taking up a spot next to Loki as they traveled through the Bifrost to Earth. Spot stuck his tongue out and looked up with big eyes, most likely for pets from him.
For the first time in years Loki broke into a small smile and petted spot's head "maybe get some food as well."
Spot seemed to perk up slightly when he heard the word food, leaning against Loki’s legs when they reached Earth and he didn’t know what to do.
He glanced up and sighed, the clear memory of Avalins excitement at being on Earth for the first time still clear in his mind. "Stay close," he said to spot
The dog seemed to understand, already sniffing around the new area but staying within a few feet of him. His tail wagged happily and he looked up at him to make sure he was still there before going back down to the ground and sniffing about for anything interesting.
