The Final Trick up his Sleeve

Loki sighed and gazed straight ahead, right at the entrance of the cave he was imprisoned in.

It is late in the evening now, and it seems that he would not be receiving any visitors today. Not like he was complaining of course. For the past two months when he was imprisoned in this dark wretched cave, chained to a large boulder, Thor and Frigga had made it their business to 'visit' him almost every day, attempting to coax and persuade him to 'be good' again.

Loki did not know which was worse: Thor's constant nagging and occasional somehow fairly amusing displays of exasperation at his brother's refusal to listen or Mother's tear-stained face. Even Father himself had come to see him twice in his brief period of imprisonment.

Thor had been annoying and Frigga had actually managed to induce the slightest tinge of guilt in the trickster, but Odin had caused a far greater impact. In both visits Odin had tried to talk to Loki, to reason with him, and yet there was an undeniable tone of disappointment in his voice. Disappointment. Sadness. Dismay.

Loki closed his eyes and attempted to block out the immense pain and flurry of emotions flooding into his heart.

All I had ever wanted was some recognition from you, Father.

Loki calmed himself down and regained his usual composure. Well, none of that matters anymore. He gazed down at the thick metal chains that were binding him to the rock, enchanted by Odin himself to ensure that the God of Mischief would not be able to escape. It has been extremely effective so far, such that they had not even bothered to block up or guard the cave's entrance. Even with Loki's prowess as a sorcerer, he had been unable to budge a single inch from the boulder.

Odin had decreed that Loki was to be imprisoned until he truly repented the errors of his ways and learnt his lesson. Loki took it to be a more complicated way of saying that he would basically be imprisoned for life. Firstly, Loki felt that he had nothing to repent about. Secondly, he had learnt his lesson; the next time Loki attempted to take over the world, he certainly will not take momentary pauses to attempt to talk reason and logic into dull, green, steroid infused creatures. They would certainly not treat him with the respect that he as a god, deserved. He had learnt his lesson the hard way. It was literally smashed into him.

However, despite Odin's sentence, Loki did not plan on being imprisoned for long. No, he had a plan. A backup. A seed that he had planted 20 years ago before all this ever started on one of his visits to Midgard. Loki had a son. One born from the union between him and a Midgardian female.

Ironically, Loki had not planned the involvement of his son before all of these events. 20 years ago, he had visited Midgard out of boredom and encountered a female swindler, Thea, while browsing through the streets. After their ill-fated first encounter which involved Thea trying to trick the Trickster God himself, Loki found himself strangely attracted to her, perhaps due to her sassiness, beauty and maybe that aura of rebellion that surrounded her. They courted, made love and eventually had a child. However Loki had to leave before Thea gave birth as his time on Midgard was over as Odin had requested for his return. He had explained his true identity and his reasons to her before leaving.

"Our child will be special." He had whispered into Thea's ear as tears flowed down her cheeks. "This will protect him from all harm and unlock his true potential when the time comes. It shall be my replacement for the time being." Loki said as he dropped a glowing violet pendant into his lover's hands, a powerful, magical relic that Loki had found and conveniently claimed as his own while exploring one of the realms previously, having recognised its value.

"Wait!" Thea had cried out as Loki turned to leave. "Our son… what do you want to name him?" Loki considered it for a moment. "He will be my descendant and therefore the descendant of the All Mighty Father, Odin himself. I shall name him Leif." With that, Loki had left.

From time to time, Loki had checked on his lover and child by using magic to allow his mind to wander to Earth. He soon learnt that Thea died during child labour and had mourned her for months. He gazed lovingly at his new born son, endowed with his jet black hair and emerald green eyes, looking remarkably like him. He witnessed how the grubby woman in charge of the orphanage his son was sent to had greedily eyed the pendant he gifted Leif with and stolen it, selling it for a measly hundred bucks.

Loki had raged as the pendant was passed from one dim witted dealer to another, none who understood its real value and finally smirked when a dunce accidentally triggered the relic's true power, conveniently blowing himself up into smithereens in the process. He watched as the pendant was taken by the organisation S.H.I.E.L.D and mused at how it was kept in one of its buildings for further analysis, remaining a mystery to those fools even till today. He observed as Leif was adopted by a normal Midgardian couple, and from then on had occasionally taken glimpses of the boy's life as he grew up.

Loki had planned to bring Leif to Asgard eventually, after his son had grown up into the prince he knew he could be proud of. He had planned to present him to Odin, to surprise his Father with a grandson he knew Odin would be proud of as well. And all along, Loki kept his son's existence a secret, meaning to spring a pleasant surprise in the future.

Well, not anymore…

Loki smiled bitterly. He had forgotten about Leif briefly since Thor's banishment the year ago. At that time he had believed he could take over the throne of Asgard and had concentrated on that task. Then during his short return to Earth recently he had been pre-occupied with his plans to conquer Earth. It was not until a month ago, when he had been chained to this damned rock for weeks, nearly driven to despair when he remembered his beloved son. His only hope now. Loki gazed out of the cave again and saw that it was getting dark.

Time to pay my precious son a visit.

Loki smirked as he closed his eyes and concentrated. Odin may have bound his body to this cave, but he can't bind Loki's mind. And if Loki's mind is not bound, then well, he can never be truly imprisoned.

XXX

Leif Matthews gazed around at the silvery green fog surrounding him.

Oh no, not again… not another one of these weird dreams… He thought drearily as he waited for that strange man to appear.

For as long as he could remember, Leif always had strange dreams like this one. However, they were rare, perhaps occurring only once every five to six months. When he was a child, he had been scared stiff of this black haired, green eyed stranger who always appeared in these dreams. Absolutely terrified. It took six to seven of these encounters for the man to coax a bawling toddler Leif to warm up to him. Since then Leif had always chatted casually with this man when they met in this 'Green and Silver Wonderland'.

However, even after all these years, Leif never knew anything about the man, not even his name. Every time Leif asked a question related to him the man would somehow evade it slyly and change the topic back to Leif. All these dreams had been about Leif and how his life was, never about him. Thus Leif called him The Stranger, a man he was so familiar with and yet knew nothing about.

Leif gritted his teeth, annoyed. These dreams have started to occur more frequently lately. Despite being somewhat enjoyable experiences in the past, they were starting to become disturbing.

After they had stopped for a period of about a year and a half, these dreams are back with a vengeance, like bad tummy aches. Strangely, a month after the alien invasion in New York City, the dreams appeared almost every day. Furthermore, these dreams had become increasingly perturbing.

The Stranger had changed. He was no longer the attentive quiet listener who paid attention to Leif as he rambled on about school life, smirking and grinning occasionally at Leif's quips. He has become more aggressive, urging Leif to pursue more and to look deeper into his life. He had also recently (and ridiculously) told Leif to question his own identity. The Stranger seemed to be hinting about something to him.

Leif frowned, there was a certain air of slyness hanging around this man, something that tells Leif that he should not and cannot be trusted. Leif should know, as he is a rather cunning individual himself if he wants to, an attribute his teachers and friends know too well. However, there was also a certain sense of familiarity about this stranger, something Leif felt since young, a bond and connection that he could never quite explain or understand. It was like they were somehow similar in a way he could not describe.

Who is this guy?

Leif had enough of all this. He firmly made up his mind to ask this man for the answers to his questions. Who is he? Why the hell is he in Leif's dreams all this time? And why for god's sakes should Leif question his own existence? Is that guy a creeper or something? Tonight Leif was determined to get answers, and if he had to twist the guy's arm, literally, to squeeze them out of him then he would sure as hell do it.

"Hello once more, Leif." A silky voice drawled. The black haired man appeared out of thin air suddenly, just a few centimetres in front of Leif. His emerald green eyes were sparkling with mischief and his lips curled up in a smirk. He watched in amusement as the boy gave a little jump backwards, startled at his sudden appearance.

Well, this will be another interesting night. Loki thought to himself, grinning widely as Leif glared at him, silently cursing him for startling him again, as he always did. The Avengers and Odin may have thought that they had Loki cornered for good, but little did they know, the trickster still had one final trick up his sleeve.

To Be Continued…

This is my first time writing a fan fiction story. I had been lurking around for quite some time and decided that now would be the right time to contribute

I am a huge fan of Loki, or Tom Hiddleston's Loki at least. He is such a wonderfully complex character, so many layers of hurt and felt betrayal under that cold, sarcastic mask of evil he usually wears. So many layers…. Like a onion, as Shrek once said :P Like many of you, (or as I believe) I too wish to see Loki become good and finally embracing his family to receive the love he really deserved. But somehow I feel as though portraying him as such would put him out of character. Therefore I have created an original character that is extremely like Loki and yet a teeny bit different: his son. You will see… later in the story if you continue reading.

So basically Loki is up to his old tricks and mischief again, nothing has really changed about him. He is still bitter and hateful towards Thor and Odin and you can be sure that he will cause chaos.

Thanks for reading! Please give me some reviews. Constructive feedback and suggestions on how I can improve my writing are extremely welcome.