Asgard - Broxton, Oklahoma - Tuesday
The air of the room rushed forward, past Loki and into the stand where the helm rested. As though taking all the energy around him until it was almost painful to be near. Finally, the pressure broke (had he been from Midgard, he would have likened it to ears popping on an airplane.) and a giant, glowing green figure stood before him. Familiar and yet unfamiliar all the same.
"I am Loki, whose whim brought Asgard crashing down. I am Loki, whose tongue was an anvil where the sharpest lies were forged. I am Loki, and I have things to say that you must know. I am Loki, who you must not trust."
"What are the chances? I'm Loki, too. We should be the very best of friends," he replied, forcing himself up onto his feet. Weakness was a luxury for someone less worthy after all. "Where am I? What are you precisely?"
"I am the echo of a scream. This room is hidden behind a whim, buried in a daydream, covered in bad thoughts and malice. To find it involves a little reading and even proper punctuation. It is a place that Thor would never locate."
So much faith in his brother.
"It is my message from me to you; from me to me."
"Then speak it, elder-self. I solved your riddle. I demand amusements," Loki replied, allowing boredom to seep into his voice. It was preferable to fear. "Explain what puzzles all of Asgard so. You brought down the hammer of your hate on Asgard... and sacrificed yourself to save it."
The figure now had an expression that Loki was perfectly familiar with. That of someone who had pulled a trick successfully and was eager to show it off.
"Is that right?"
"No, it's not," Loki decided, arms crossed over his chest as he chased down the logic of the move like a hound after a hare. "If you wanted to live, you would have hid yourself beneath the rug of the universe before the final blow was struck. You chose to die. That means you needed to die. There is only 'why?'"
"There is only one who Loki would sacrifice himself for."
"You sacrificed yourself for... yourself?"
"Aye. I was a creature of spite and will. I was the god of chaos. But in my capriciousness, I was totally predictable. No god of chaos worthy of the name could stand such a thing. I wrote myself out of the Book of Death. I slipped predestination's noose. All I had to do was escape my personality..."
A task that destroyed Asgard along the way. Clever Loki.
"After a glorious death, I would be found or find my way back. A new Loki: a fresh page with fresh ink to write a free future."
"You went into oblivion with nothing but the hope that there was something out there? Or that someone would show you the path home?" Loki asked, incredulous.
"The people of Midgard have a saying: change or die. I would rather die than not change. I would rather be nothing. Thankfully, it did not come to that."
It was not a confirmation or denial. Then again, what would one expect from him?
"I should tell Thor of this," Loki said thoughtfully. "Or Odin."
"Yes. You should."
"If I wanted to be killed, I should. Thor couldn't keep them from my head. They'd think me part of some plan, a scheme beyond the grave."
"I think you correct."
"They would be correct, too. This is a scheme from beyond the grave. But one beyond their imagining. So, what next?"
"Power corrupts. Therefore, you will have little. You must become a new Loki, with naught but your wits to guard the nine realms. For soon they will be in peril."
Of course. There was always peril.
"Peril looms?" Loki asked.
"They cursed Loki's name, but even without he, there was enough wickedness to assure threats as common as the tides. Those waves must be survived. A trickster is naught without a playground..."
"And you would offer me advice?"
"Yes, but you should pay it no heed. Knowledge is what I have and what you should take. Lifetime upon lifetime of mysteries, packed into this spirit by your dead, older self. I will be whatever you wish."
"What I wish..." Loki said, looking down at the helm. He wished for many things since coming to this place with Thor. Wishes meant very little in his estimation. "Is to be Loki."
He held his hand out, pulling all the energy that had been used to create the spectre of his former self. Shrinking him down further and further until all that remained was the magpie.
"You are done. You are gone. You are now Ikol, my opposite, bird of mine, pet supreme. You are an ear-whisperer and a worm-eater. You'll tell me what I want, and nothing more."
"Yes, master," the bird crowed in a voice the very same as his elder self.