Disclaimer: I don't own Thor.

A/N: Thanks so much to my beta krystal lazuli

Warning: Blood, prison and sadness.

"Thor I need to tell you something," Thor glared down at the man that he used to consider his brother in disgust. His hair was lanky and he had a disheveled look to him, but that's was not why his lip was curled. Loki had killed their father and then had been found and imprisoned. Loki was sentenced to be executed in a few decades, until then he was to be imprisoned in this dank, dark, cell that was reserved for the worst of offenders. He wasn't sure why he had come and was even less sure when a mad crooked smile cropped up on Loki's face. His teeth were stained and some had been beaten out of his face. Thor had been responsible for that when he had first discovered Loki's treachery.

"Anything you have to say to me you need to say today because I will not be visiting you again," Thor said icily wrapping his arms around each other. Loki just laughed a sick sounding wet laugh that would have made Thor concerned, except for the reason that Loki was imprisoned.

"Very well, I don't have anything to say to you after this either." He swung slightly and then managed to prop himself up against the concrete bench that was supposed to be his bed. He grinned for a long moment and Thor found himself staring at the gaps where Loki's teeth used to be.

"The time has come, Odin's son, to tell you the truth," he said not losing his grin at all. It was very disconcerting. "The truth about how we came to be here in our present predicament."

"We are here-"

Loki put up his hand and hissed. "Silence!" he smoothed his features over and was back to his mad smile again.

"Now, as I was saying. The truth. I know I'm not known for it, but I think it's time that it was spoken. There is little need to recap what happened before the fall, I think we both understand what went on there," Loki said with a slight nod of his head. "You would have been a terrible king and I was trying to save Asgard from your horrid ruling." Red starting creeping over his face. It was part embarrassment and part anger. Thor knew he hadn't been ready, but to hear Loki's justification for everything he had done be because he was trying to save everyone from his ruling rubbed him entirely the wrong way. If there were not bars between the two of them he was sure that he could take out another couple of Loki's teeth. "Granted I'll admit that everything after you fell to earth, was perhaps not as well-thought out as it should have been," he said with a more somber nod. "Still, all I ever wanted to do at that point was protect Asgard, to be Asgardian in his eyes," Loki didn't need to elaborate for Thor to know that he meant their late father Odin. "Ever after he denied me part of me still thought that somehow I could prove it to him," he said with a shake of his head giving the indication that he now thought that was foolish.

"When I fell into the abyss it felt that the fall took centuries rather than only half a year. Centuries of only my own thoughts in my head spinning, whirling thoughts that were my only companions. But even that was better that what awaited me when I got to the bottom of the abyss."

Thor didn't speak as he was just absorbing information. Loki had never once spoke of what had happened between the time he had let go and the time that he had popped out of The Tesseract on earth. He had given small hints, but even at his two trials Loki had never actually spoken about what had transpired, and despite himself he was curious.

"Thanos was down there."

Thanos? The Mad Titan? His father had told stories about him when they were young and cautionary tales as they grew older. Most of what he understood from the stories was that it was much better to never meet him because he was mad, sadistic and a tyrant... not to mention incredibly powerful. Loki seemed to notice the look in his eyes and he grinned even wider than before.

"Thanos is every bit The Mad Titan that the stories make him out to be. He enjoys the suffering, torment, and especially the death of others. After all, he thinks that he's courting her," Loki said then laughed his sick, wet cough again. "So obviously when a new plaything falls into your lap what do you do?" he said lifting his arms into a very slow shrug he seemed to be aiming for nonchalance but his form trembled slightly. "You play!" he said jumping forward so that he was standing only a few feet from him. Thor jumped back at Loki's unexpected movement. "You play that thing like a fiddle," he said shaking his head moving slightly towards him with each step and Thor found himself taking a step backward for every inch Loki took forward.

Thor wasn't sure what to do or think. Torture. Torture was what Loki was implying happened there. The brotherly part of himself that he thought he had buried long ago crept out slightly, but only slightly. He reminded himself that he couldn't believe anything that Loki said because Loki was a liar. Besides, even if he were tortured it did not make up for everything that had followed. "And you play," Loki continued moving forward his eyes focused intently on Thor's. "And you play and you play until that fiddle sings glorious songs," he said finally stopping at the bars. He gripped the bars and pressed his face against them. "But what do you do if you want it to play a song that it doesn't want to?" he asked practically snarling. "You've already practiced quite a bit, what else can you do?!" His eyes were bulging practically out of his skull and Thor honestly was a little frightened even though he was in a cage in which there was no hope to escape from. "You offer it something it wants!" Loki yelled at him. Anger stirring up in him again.

"So it offered you kingship of Midgard and you gave in!" Thor shouted at the mad man in the cell.

At his words, Lokis' eyes narrowed into slits and he shouted."No, you idiot! I didn't want Midgard! I told you that! I told you I never wanted to rule, but no you didn't listen to that you never listen to anything!" he said shaking the bars vigorously as he said the last part.

"Then what could he-"

"He offered me Asgard!" Loki shouted. "Not to rule, but it's safety. He said that if I gave him the Tesseract that not only could I protect Asgard from his plans, but if I ruled Earth I could protect it as well!"

Thor stared for a long moment at his brother not sure what to think and even less what to say. This could not be correct ,this had to be some sort of lie.

"After I fell I cared little for father or you even though part of me still thought that I could prove myself," he laughed again and Thor winced this time at the wet sounding cough. This had to be a lie,"But mostly I wanted to protect mother,"

"If this is true why have you not spoken about it before?" Thor accused.

Loki's legs chose that moment to drop him down to his knees and he hit the ground with an oomph.

"Why do you think, Odin's son?" Loki asked this time without a smirk as he seemed to be trying to battle the pain in his limbs that had just failed him.

"I don't know, that is why I asked." Thor said glaring down at the now even shorter looking man.

"It was part of the deal," he said a moment later "Thanos didn't want anyone to know of his role in anything until he had all the of the infinity stones. That way no one could stand in his way. He had tried before and people banded together to get rid of him. The only way I could save Asgard and Earth was to give him the Tesseract and tell no one about our arrangement." He looked up at Thor, his lips drawing back into a sneer. "You and your friends," he said with a short laugh then winced. "You doomed both Asgard and Midgard. Thanos will get the Tesseract anyway, but this time he will destroy both Asgard and Midgard and it will be entirely The Avengers fault," he laughed again the wet laugh he laughed before but this time blood started coming out of his mouth. He didn't seem surprised, only morbidly fascinated by the blood escaping from him. Loki pressed a hand to his mouth and when removed it, his hand it was black.

There was something seriously wrong with Loki, but Thor found himself focused on what Loki had just said. Loki was a liar. He had to be lying. He had to be. There was no way that he could be telling the truth. It would mean everything that he thought about his brother had been wrong. If Loki had been right, he had been trying to protect both Asgard and Midgard even if it had been only mostly for their mother's sake. His crimes that had brought him here were because he was trying to protect their realms. Well except for one, one crime could not be explained by this story.

"And what of father?" Thor demanded. "At that point mother was already dead so if you were trying to save her then you were already too late.

"Yes," Loki said looking up from the black blood on his hand. "I wanted her memory to live on. If everyone on Asgard died then no one would remember her.. and there were a few people on Asgard that I thought deserved to live. However, there was one large obstacle in the way of me saving her memory and those people. I was in prison, with no access to the weapons vault." He stopped and then bent over as another tremor went through his body followed by another very wet cough. Thor finally realized how serious this was and motioned to the guards to summon a healer. Loki wasn't supposed to die for another decade or two. It wouldn't do for him to die before his time, especially if what he was saying was true, that the actions that he was imprisoned for and to die for were as well-intentioned as he was claiming they were. Loki didn't straighten up and if he was bleeding more, Thor couldn't see it, but Loki continued.

"You let me out and I saw my chance. The only problem was that in order to access the weapons vault with no one stopping me I had to be king and that meant that Odin could not be." Loki straightened slightly, but Thor still couldn't see his face or hand. "I have to admit by that point I didn't care much when I killed him. He had disowned me and told me my birthright was to die in Jotunheim. Still, he was going to die in a few years anyway and it was the life of one old man for all of Asgard and Midgard." He straightened up again and Thor found himself looking at his brother in horror as black blood drenched his brother's hand. Blood trailed down from his lips as well making him look, especially with his brother's pale skin, like a Midgardian vampire. Thor knew that something was wrong in that moment, something more than just a little sickness from being in that cold, dark, damp cell.

"Loki what is happening to you?" Thor asked worried, something he thought he would never associate with Loki again.

"Oh yes, this." he said gestured with his non-bloody hand to all the blood on him. "There's another part of the agreement between the two of us that I haven't-" He broke off to lean forward and coughed that hacking cough into his hand again. He looked up as soon as the coughing ebbed; more blood trailing from his mouth and the blood on his hands had spilled over and started making its way down his arms or onto the ground. He smiled his teeth bloody this time "mentioned. In order to ensure that I keep this information to myself, my life is tied to this agreement. If I spoke a word of it, I die," He didn't seem at all bothered by that. "That is what's happening now and none of your healers can stop it. Just like no one can stop Thanos from coming and destroying you all now that I have spoken about the agreement and it's now void." His form trembled again and then again his brother leaned over and this time vomited mass amounts of black blood onto the floor of his cell for several moments before he looked up at him again.

"I won't be dying at your execution, then again I will not be the only one dying, but by then maybe you will join me in the great beyond," he said and then promptly fell over right into the puddle of his own blood. He didn't move. His chest didn't rise as far as he could tell and Thor felt his own breathing and heart stop in his chest.

He didn't care that this could be a trap. He didn't care about the events of the last few years. All he could see and feel was Loki in a pool of his own blood not moving. He didn't think, he just reacted. He used Gungnir to open Loki's cage half expecting Loki to pop up and hit him and then run out. His brother didn't, he stayed right where he was, Thor was the one that moved towards him as fast as his feet could carry him. Loki. Loki had tried to save everyone. While it seemed impossible, due to the strange illness that had taken hold of Loki, he was starting to believe it. He knew little about medicine except for purely basic stuff. He tried to feel for a pulse but couldn't find one. That didn't necessarily mean anything as he was terrible at finding pulses, especially Loki's. Instead, he did the only other thing he could think of doing he threaded his fingers in his brothers tightly and waited until he heard hurried footsteps coming towards them. A single glance told him it was the healers. He just had to hope that they weren't too late and that his brother was wrong.