The Poisoned Crown Chapter 1

By: Cadet Deming

I don't own the rights to Thor, Marvel does, so please don't sue. Rated T. Includes spoilers and possible missing scenes from Thor: The Dark World. Reviews are appreciated.

Loki wouldn't give him an honorable death. His false father, the so-called All-Father Odin didn't deserve it. People who died in the glory of battle's souls went to Valhalla, but those who died without bravery's souls were cursed to Nifflleheim or Hel. Or was that another lie he had been told?

Loki hung back outside of the throne room, the very throne room where Odin had condemned him to life imprisonment. A crowd had gathered to watch the sentence passed upon his brother Thor's friends Sif, Fandral, Volstagg and even the mighty Heimdall. Metal shackles covered their wrists and feet. The realm's top fighters were reduced to prisoners.

He scanned Odin for weapons. Other than a sword, he wasn't wearing any. Loki sneered to himself. In a time of war, their fearless leader had the foolishness to walk unarmed.

Odin bellowed, "In this time of greatest threat, you all defy my order and help Loki escape with the mortal Jane Foster!"

Loki checked his reflection in the mirror. He had shapeshifted into a palace guard, so he could walk freely among them. He slid in to the back of the room.

The warrior Fandral was the first to dare to speak. "My Lord, if it pleases you, we were only following your beloved son Thor's orders. It was the only way to prevent more bloodshed."

Odin screamed, "Bloodshed is the Asgardian way! Only I decide who lives or dies!"

Sif muttered, "Did you decide to allow a thousand of us to die at the hands of the Dark Elves, including your own wife?"

If Frigga hadn't been one of the only people he'd ever loved Loki would have laughed, but he couldn't risk giving his identity away.

Odin pointed a finger at her, "Silence, woman. I condemn you all to the prison, in whichever block hasn't been destroyed yet. Take them out of my sight before I decide on more deaths!"

Volstagg asked, "Will we be fed regularly in captivity?"

Loki slid in with the other guards and grabbed Sif by the arm. She gave him a defiant glare. It was familiar to him as they had grown up together, even if her eyes showed no recognition.

He walked them back to the cells that had been his home for so long, listening to their chatter, waiting for an opportunity.

Fandral said, "The Nine Realms are at stake and Odin confines his best warriors. What is he thinking?"

Heimdall said in his deep baritone, "Have decency. He is still our King and deserves our loyalty."

Loki lost his composure and let his sarcasm fly, "Yes what do you think he'll do, condemn you to prison for life?"

Everyone turned to him.

The head guard peered at Loki. "I would watch your tongue. Who do you think you are?"

Loki threw up his hands. "Oh, I'm just an entry-level palace guard. Just an everyday nobody. I'm not important. Pay me no mind."

Sif looked at him quizzically. He wondered if she recognized him, and if that would be dangerous.

He led her into one of the cells.

Trying to sound casual, he said, "I do believe you're the first woman to ever be held here."

She answered tersely, "I have been the first woman on Asgard to do many things."

"Sounds promising."

She frowned, "You are quite talkative for a guard."

He wondered if he should reveal himself to her.

"I'm just curious." He whispered in her ear, "Why did you really do it? Why did you help Loki escape?"

"Because Thor asked me to."

Loki felt a pang of dejection.

"And if he asked you to jump in a frozen lake?"

"I would leap in a lake of fire for him."

"Why?"

"You really are quite nosy for a guard."

"All guards are nosy. It relieves our boredom. The chatter is that Loki is dead."

Her expression stayed neutral, as if he had announced the weather was sunny with a chance of light showers.

She said, "It wouldn't be the first time he died."

Her indifference cut him like a dagger through butter. He'd spent millennium hoping her outward hostility towards him was an expression of deeply buried feelings, but this dashed his hopes.

To twist a knife of his own he said, "The gossip is Thor is in love with this Jane Foster."

Her proud shoulders drooped and she stared at the ground.

She said, "Thor does as he wishes."

"Perhaps you'd best not spend your time pining for a man who will never return your feelings."

Sif turned away. "I don't take counsel from strange men. Leave me."

Loki gritted his teeth. He hated being treated like a nobody. He hated impotence.

He locked her in, but kept a spare key for himself. Thor's other friends were imprisoned in the other cells, jailed out of loyalty to Thor. It was the type of loyalty that couldn't be bought or forced.

It was loyalty that was waning from Odin through his bad decisions and hot temper. Loki thought he was a horrible king. He knew he could do a much better job himself.

An idea grabbed him. Originally he sought only to murder Odin and flee Asgard, but what if he killed him, and used his shape shifting to take his place? He would no longer be burdened by his past reputation and could start anew on the throne where he belonged.

He smiled and looked out the window. He would do it tonight.

Loki changed his form to the captain of the guards and approached a group of soldiers.

He announced to them, "By Odin's orders everyone is to leave the palace tonight and patrol the city's perimeter. Spread the word immediately."

A man asked, "He wants us to leave the palace open to attack?"

Loki said, "Do you want to disobey his orders?"

The men all vigorously shook their heads and scattered.

He whistled a tune as he opened the doors of the palace armory. What could he use that would be powerful enough?

His eyes took in the various axes, swords, and knives. He picked a knife made of dwarfish steel. After his wits, knives were his favorite weapon of choice. He murmured an enchantment.

Cloaking himself in an invisibility spell, he crept to Odin's chambers. Loki waited for what felt like hours but was most likely minutes.

Odin entered and took his armor off. It creaked with his bones. He seemed so old, like he'd aged hundreds of years.

Loki walked behind him, clutching the knife.

"Hello Father," he whispered.

To Be Continued