Chapter Text
Chapter 1: The Arrival
Norway was colder than Asgard.
At first, it hadn’t bothered Thor. He wasn’t one to complain about the cold. He had been hardened to it through months of camping in the vast forests of Vanaheim and Alfheim, sleeping under the stars with Loki, Sif, and the Warriors Three. At times, he found himself welcoming the cold because of the way it drew up those memories.
It was becoming clearer, though, that this wasn’t Asgard’s cold.
Thor had never thought he would ever consider a chill to be traitorous, but the wrongness of this winter set in like its frost on trees, slowly sinking into his bones. Every day proving to him more and more that Norway wasn’t Asgard. Every day reminding him that he wasn’t home, his family wasn’t here, he was alone, and they were…
Dead.
Everything was gone. Stolen from him and reduced to ruin.
Thor couldn’t help that he felt ruined with it too.
“Um, excuse me.” A small voice came from his right side, startling him out of his thoughts. He blinked down, meeting eyes with Tony’s spider-child. The boy only gave him a hesitant but genuine smile. “I don’t think I introduced myself. I’m Peter Parker.” He held his hand out.
It took Thor a second to remember the Midgardian custom of shaking hands, but then graciously grasped Peter’s in his own.
Around them, the Quinjet shook and rumbled. Natasha piloted the jet with Tony in the co-pilot seat, trying to annoy her with increasingly scandalous double entendres. Nat, for her part, kept an impressively straight face, though her smile occasionally quirked at the corner.
Stark had said that the flight would take about three hours, so they should be landing soon.
“Hello Peter, I am Thor, son of Odin.” He almost said ‘of Asgard’ but he couldn’t bring himself to yet. It was too early and too incredibly distant.
The boy’s smile widened, his eyes sparkling. Then he started talking faster than Thor thought physically possible. “This is so cool. You’re so cool. I saw you on TV and all that crazy stuff with the lightning and I think it’s awesome. You’re like an original Avenger! I want to become an Avenger too. Mr. Stark is training me, that’s why I’m on this mission. He says it’s going to be pretty low-key, but I still think it’s cool. Are there really going to be Asgardian ruins there?”
Thor blinked, taking a second to fully process all the words that had just poured from the boy’s mouth.
“Uh, well, we do not truly know if they are Aesir made, but I am hoping to identify them if they are.”
Thor had been hesitant to come when Nick Fury had contacted him about a cave etched in runes that could possibly be connected to Asgard. The hurt from the loss of his home was still raw, open wound, and if he was completely honest, runic identification had never been his strong suit. Loki had been the scholar and would have been more useful than Thor could ever hope for. But just thinking about Loki, how bright he shone and how that light had been snuffed out, made a familiar hurt ache inside him.
He knew that this mission would be painful, especially if the runes did prove to be of Asgard. They would only remind him of what he had lost, who was gone now, and all the things he couldn’t get back.
But there were rumours of people going missing, apparently being drawn to this cave and never emerging again. Nothing had been proven, not yet, at least, but it meant that he had to come, even if he would be mostly useless.
He had failed so many people, he couldn’t let himself fail anymore, especially if the reason was his own cowardice.
“Mr. Thor,” the boy’s spoke again, his eyebrows in a worried crease. Thor realised he must have been silent for too long. “Are you alright?”
The sudden urge to laugh suddenly bubbled in him, and he forced himself to tamp it down. He knew that if he did, his friends would only keep giving him looks. Looks that said they thought he would shatter if they pressed too hard.
And maybe he would, he wasn’t too sure anymore now.
With everything gone and broken, how does he even answer Peter’s question?
With a lie, of course. How else would you answer, you oaf? said a voice in his head that sounded suspiciously like Loki’s. Lying had always been Loki’s solution, a method to deflect and daze so that people couldn’t get too close. Thor could see the merit in that now.
Figures that it would take Loki being dead to finally listen to some of his advice.
“I’m fine, Spider-child. I was merely lost in thought.”
The boy nodded, and he gave Thor a soft, empathetic smile. “Yeah, I get like that too sometimes.” Peter looked away, his own memories flashing in his eyes. It made Thor ache to see someone so young look so haunted. “Music can help, though, I brought my iPod if you want to listen to something with me?”
Peter looked for something in his bag and pulled out a small, shiny rectangle that was apparently the aforementioned eye-pod. He met Thor’s eyes with a hopeful grin. “I can also show you how it works. I promise it’s easier than a toaster.”
Thor huffed a small laugh. Apparently, his propensity for destroying toasters had made it to the boy. He would have to be sure to get Stark back about that one later.
“Thank you, I would appreciate that,” he said, feeling something warm inside his light up when the boy began excitedly babbling and showing him various things on the lit-up rectangle.
He nodded along, not quite understanding everything, but he appreciated the distraction.
The memories still haunted him, standing on the edge of his mind like waiting phantoms. It would only be a matter of time before one of them reached forward to grab his hand.
But maybe this mission could be a way to get away from them, at least for a little bit. It could be something that would make him feel useful instead of like the broken creature he had become.
Maybe it would even make him feel a little bit more like a hero again?
Inside his head, the voice that might be Loki’s laughed, wicked and wily.
There’s my brother, always trying to be the hero.
*****
The Quinjet landed in Nesna, a small town nestled in the heart of one of Norway’s great Northern forests. Pine trees rose as high as buildings and stood like darkened sentinels around the village. It reminded him startlingly of the forests on Alfheim and the great wildernesses that he and his brother used to use as a playground. How many times had they crashed through the woods, reckless with youth and their need to explore? It wasn’t uncommon for them to just disappear for weeks on end, vanishing into the mountains with only each other to rely on. Every time had nearly driven their mother mad, but also made pride sparkle in his father’s eye.
Thor couldn’t help but feel comforted and unsettled by the forest at the same time. The trees only seemed to make the memories encroach upon him more.
The Avengers disembarked from the Quinjet, each of them already dressed in casual clothing. Beside Thor, he could practically feel Peter vibrating in excitement.
The townspeople had gathered in a loose circle around the aircraft and were looking at them with curious, relieved faces. Some of the children were gaping with awe and pushing at each other to get a better look at the superheroes.
Thor’s eyes caught a little girl’s, and he gave her a small wave that sent her ducking behind her mother’s legs. Almost immediately, though, she was peering at him again with huge, round eyes.
If Loki was here, Thor was sure his brother would have flashed her a bit of magic, something ethereal and beautiful, just to get her to smile. He loved seeing wonder in a child’s eyes, and Thor ached when he thought that he would get to see his brother do that ever again.
Thor turned, forcing himself to face away from the children, and towards a town spokesman that was approaching them. He had told himself this mission would help him get away from those kinds of memories, and he wouldn’t let himself be bogged down with them.
The first thought that popped into Thor’s head was that the man looked tired. His shoulders were slumped forward, his clothes seemed to hang off of him. His pale face was marred with black circles around his eyes, and his watery eyes seemed on the verge of tears. He tried to give them a nod in greeting, but the movement only came across as an exhausted jerk.
Natasha stepped forward to introduce the team.
“Hello, you must be Mr. Haavik.” She reached out to shake his hand, “I’m Natasha Romanov, Director Fury sent us to help with the cave situation.”
The man nodded, his face turning grim. “Yes, Mr. Fury told us a team was coming, though I didn’t expect it to be so…” His eyes flickered between the Avengers, “famous. I don’t want to take up too much of your time. I’m sure that you have better things to do.”
It was small and almost unnoticeable, but something in Natasha’s face softened. “Don’t worry about that. We want to help, and we will do everything we can to make sure we can keep people safe.”
“Thank you, thank you.” The man’s eyes shone in gratitude, and he gave each of the Avengers a grateful smile before he sobered again. “We had two more people go missing since we last spoke to Mr. Fury. I don’t know for sure that they went into the cave, but they had been saying that they were hearing voices from it. And I…”
He tried to grasp at words, but it was obvious that the disappearances were taking their toll on him.
“I don’t know what’s happening,” he settled on, looking up at them hopelessly.
Natasha stepped forward and took one of the man’s hands. They were shaking violently. “Mr. Haavik, we will find them. We are here to figure this out, and I promise that we will do everything in our power to bring them home to their families.”
The man was lost for words, but gratefulness shone in his face.
Natasha took her hands back, momentarily looking over her shoulder at the rest of the team. Tony was nodding in agreement, with an uncharacteristically serious expression. Thor couldn’t agree more.
When Natasha turned back to the man, he seemed a bit more composed.
“If it’s possible, could you show us to the cave site? I think it would help if we could take a look and then talk to some of the locals.”
“Yes, yes, of course,” he said, ushering them forward into the village. “It’s only about a 15-minute walk from here. My son, Soren, will show you the way. He can answer any questions you have. I would come also, but I was with the families of the disappeared before you came and…” Grief welled up in his eyes again.
“Not a problem.” Tony cut in, stepping forward, “Let us take a look at the rocks, you can go back to helping their families.”
Haavik once again thanked them and, then, the Avengers were led into the surrounding forest.
Just as the town spokesman had said it took them about 15 minutes to get to the site. Thor didn’t need to be told that they were getting closer as they walked, because he could feel it.
He stepped into the area and immediately knew something was wrong. These were hallowed grounds, but in all the wrong ways. It was an ancient power, but, luckily, dormant. A relic. But its power had seeped into the place and it prickled on his skin, and settled on to him, sticky and uncomfortable. The shadows seemed darker, fiercer and almost, almost, like they could start moving on their own.
Tony and Natasha didn’t seem like they had noticed anything amiss, but the Spider-child had noticeably begun shivering more since they approached the site.
He slowed his steps until he was walking right next to him. The boy looked impossibly small next to him, and briefly, Thor wondered when Stark had begun to take on apprentices so young.
“Do you feel it too?” he asked, under his breath. Peter jerked, obviously not expecting to be addressed.
For a second, he looked confused and then understanding dawned on him. “You mean the weird, creepy feeling that makes it seem like we are walking into a horror movie?”
Thor nodded, and Peter grimaced to the ground in front of him. He was clearly as unsettled by this as Thor felt. “Yeah,” he admitted, and then asked, “Do you know what it is?”
He shook his head. All he knew that something was amiss, but why and from what source, he didn’t know.
His brother would have known. Hel, his brother probably would have felt it the moment they stepped off the aircraft. He was much more attuned to things of a more magical nature, and Thor only had the slightest grasp on the concepts.
Just another reason Thor was a poor substitute on this mission.
He huffed a bitter laugh to himself as he felt the familiar want come roaring back. He was truly failing on his mission to put thoughts of his brother out of his head.
Before he could really think about it, though, Tony’s voice cut through his thoughts. “Hey, Point Break, hurry up and come tell us about the weird chicken-scratch they have written on these rocks.”
He glanced up to see that Nat, Tony and their guide, Soren, were gazing up at what appeared to be an archway sculpted around the entrance to the cave. It looked almost natural, but closer inspection revealed that the lines were a little too perfect, and the slopes a little too smooth.
It was an imitation of nature.
Just another wrong in a place that seemed saturated with it.
He walked up to where the other Avengers were standing, hearing Peter slowly follow.
Natasha met his eyes when he stood beside her. “They don’t look like any language that I’ve seen before. Is there a chance they aren’t from Earth?”
Thor found the runes she was describing. They were etched into the stone in a complex series of hard-edged lines and looping swirls, smooth and sharp grating against each other in a loose pattern. They were obviously ancient, with some parts of them smoothed over and moss growing in the dips. Thor’s face scrunched up, as he tried to decipher them, but knew almost instantly that it was a lost cause.
“You are right, Natasha, they are not of Midgard. They are Asgardian, but not in our modern language,” Thor recognised some ancient ancestors of the letters he grew up with, but couldn’t understand anything else about them. “I can tell that it is merely writing. No spells or enchantments are behind the words, but I cannot read them. I know not what they are marking.”
His brother would have known. Loki had been a scholar of many languages, ancient and modern alike. Thor had never quite understood his passion for the subject (why spend time on learning so many languages when All-speak took care of so much communication?), but he quickly realised that it was another point to which he’d been ignorant. Frustration welled in him. How had he been so oblivious to these things that Loki had understood so inherently? He was so useless, completely useless beyond his hammer and his strength. He was fooling himself if he thought anything else.
The voice that sounded like his brother’s whispered in his ear. Brother, what-
He shook his head as if he could physically dislodge it from his brain.
“I am sorry that I cannot be of more use.”
Tony patted him on the shoulder. “Don’t worry, big guy, we all have performance issues from time to time. And, if you ask me, I’d rather the disappearances not be part of some big Asgardian magic mystery. I would take a regular search and rescue any day.”
Nat also nodded, “I couldn’t agree more, especially because it means that our chances of getting those people back increases.”
Then she looked up to the sky, noting how it was rapidly darkening. Soon, the whole forest would be plunged into the night’s murk and Thor didn’t want to be here when that happened.
“I suggest we head back,” she said, motioning for their guide that they were done here, “We can talk to the locals and see if we can find any clues about what makes this cave so easy to get lost in. We will also need to gather supplies before we go cave diving because I doubt there’s going to be much light down there.”
“Sounds like a plan,” Tony quipped, turning back to the direction of the village, and eager to get out of the cold. The spider-boy followed after him like a puppy. Thor couldn’t blame them; he wanted to leave this place also.
He was just about to start walking when Natasha’s hand caught his arm.
“Hey, I wanted to talk to you,” She said gently, “I know that you’ve been out of the field for a while, and I just wanted to make sure you’re okay.”
That question again.
Everyone kept asking that question, and he still didn’t know how to answer it. But he knew that lying to Natasha would be about as successful as lying to his brother. He met her eyes and tried for a smile.
“Thank you, Natasha, for your concern. I am…” The words were hard to get out. “I am taking it one day at a time.”
The spy hummed. “I guess that is as much as I could hope for. I know that you’ve been through a lot these last months. It’s just, Thor, please take care of yourself and let us know if we can help.”
Thor had to fight to keep back a bitter laugh. Yes, it has been a lot. Losing his father, his brother and his home planet almost all in the same week. Not to mention finding out he had another sibling who was hellbent on destroying his home, and the Titan who still waited in the far reaches of space, ready to pounce upon them like a ravenous wolf.
It had been a lot, and Thor was still figuring out if it had been enough to break him.
“If you want,” Natasha spoke again, “I can see about getting you transported out of here. I’m sure that me, Tony, and Peter can handle the rest of this.”
Thor shook his head vigorously. That was exactly what he didn’t want. It would only prove that he was still a failure and only a loose shadow of who he once was. He didn’t want that anymore. Panic rose in his throat at the thought of being dismissed, of being deemed not even worthy enough to aid others, of being too fragile to answer a call for help.
He just wanted to feel useful again.
Natasha leaned in closer and gave him a hug. She was also comically smaller than him, but at the moment, her arms seemed like the only thing grounding him.
“Hey, I get it.” She said softly, “We want you here and I just want to make sure that you want to be here too.”
Thor nodded, some of the anxiety releasing from him. “Yes, I do. These people need help and I want to be able to give it.”
“Good, I couldn’t agree more.” She gave him a confident smile, and Thor tried his best to mirror it. It wasn’t perfect, but it was getting there. “Now, let’s go find Tony before he gets himself lost in the woods.”
They began to head back, and Thor was grateful that, as he walked away from the site of the cave, the eerie feeling slipped off of him. By the time they reached the village, he had nearly convinced himself that it was just his imagination. The only thing that was keeping him from fully committing to that theory, though, was Peter’s similar sense of it.
He and Natasha unloaded their supplies and put them in the quaint hostel that the village had prepared for them to stay. They planned to get an early start tomorrow, hopefully explore the cave, and find their missing people before nightfall. Just in case, they were also preparing rations for a few days within the cave, but didn’t plan on being there for that long.
“Alright,” Natasha said as she finished double-checking their supplies for the morrow. “I think that’s done. I’m going to head in for the night, but I think Tony’s downstairs at the bar if you want to see what he’s up to.”
She phrased it like a request, but the meaning behind her words was very clear: Make sure he isn’t making a fool of himself because we have work to do tomorrow.
Thor laughed and began to walk towards the stairs. “I will ensure that he gets to bed.”
“Good. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“Sleep well, Natasha.”
Thor began to walk down, around hearing the familiar raucous of a pub as he approached. Tony’s full-bellied laughter rang out.
As Thor walked in, he was immediately struck with an instant bout of nostalgia. The architecture of Norway and Asgard shared many similarities, and he could clearly see where they had inspired each other centuries ago. The pub was warm and filled with the golden light of a fireplace flickering on the wall. The smoky smell of the fire mixed with the rich scent of food, reminding Thor of the many pubs he had visited in his adventures. If he closed his eyes, he could almost fool himself into thinking he was on a hunting trip with the Warriors Three. Almost like he was back home before the world was complicated and willing to destroy everything he held dear.
“Point Break! Hey!” Tony called out to him from the bar, waving a half-drunk pint over his head. Peter sat next to him, nursing what looked to be a steaming cup of tea.
He chuckled to himself as he took the seat on Tony’s other side. He met the bartender’s eyes. “Mead, please, if you have it.” The man nodded and went to fill another glass.
He came back and placed the glass in front of the god. “You really the god of thunder?” he asked gruffly.
Thor lifted a hand and summoned a couple of sparks to light in his palm. The barkeep nodded approvingly. “My bedtime stories were about you. Is that one about you in a wedding dress true?”
“Wait what?” Tony cut in, “What story about a wedding dress?”
Thor grimaced. If his brother was here, Loki would surely be laughing and retelling the tale in great and excruciating detail. He used to take every opportunity to embarrass Thor with that particular story, and centuries of practice had perfected Loki’s ability to tell it in the most mortifying way possible. He did not miss the embarrassment, but he ached for his brother’s rare and sly laugh and that mischievous glint his eyes got when he prepared to regale a story.
“It was my brother’s idea,” Thor admitted gruffly. Of course, it was Loki’s idea. All of their craziest adventures always were.
The bartender laughed with a friendly sparkle in his eyes. “If he were here, I’d buy him a beer for blessing us with that story.” He reached out a hand, and Thor shook it. ” The name is Gavin. Gavin Bergeson.”
“Thor Odinson of Asgard.” He said, although the man probably knew that already. “It’s a pleasure to meet you.”
“Please the honour is all mine. I really do appreciate you coming out here to help our people. That cave has always been creepy, there’s even some legends about it, but I never thought it would become dangerous.”
Thor couldn’t help but perk up a bit at that. On Tony’s other side, Peter seemed similarly interested. “Mr. Bergeson,” he asked politely. “What kind of legend?”
Bergeson wiped at the bar, humming as he did. “It’s an old tale, one that’s told to scare the youngins from wandering into the forest alone. I even remember being scared by it when I was growing up here.
Legend tells that this forest used to be the hunting grounds for a terrifying monster. People wouldn’t leave their houses at night, and, when it got dark, the forest would come alive with its howls and shrieks as it stalked all living things. Many people died trying to take it down, and for every life it took, it only grew stronger.
The village lived in fear until two warriors arrived to slay the beast. They brandished otherworldly weapons and abilities that no human could possess. They knew the monster that hunted the woods and said that it was called a Jotunn.”
Thor’s breath caught in his throat, and he fought to keep a blank face. Instantly, memories of his brother rushed into his mind, so fast that they almost swallowed him whole. It took him a moment to realise that the bartender had started talking directly to him.
“I guess those warriors were two of your folks. Have you heard of a Jotunn? They are supposed to be pretty nasty creatures.”
Something in Thor wanted to break everything in the bar. Something else in Thor just wanted to crumple with all the shame that welled up inside him. He settled for taking another drink from his beer like a coward.
“I’ve met a couple,” he admitted, as Loki’s face flashed in his mind. What would his brother think about him now? Not even brave enough to defend his brother in death.
The barkeeper continued without noting Thor’s discomfort. “Well, the warriors came to slaughter the beast.” Thor flinched at the word. Peter’s eyes flickered onto him in curious concern. “The battle was long and hard, and the forest was awash in screams that night. It’s said that you can still hear the echoes of them if you listen to the forest closely.
The warriors were brave, but the beast was stronger, and it became clear they could not overcome it. So instead they trapped it in the cave, sealing it away to a place where it could never hurt anyone again.”
The barkeeper finished and took Tony’s finished glass from his hand to begin to clean it.
“I wouldn’t worry about the legend though; it’s just a fiction. The cave has been explored many times, and there’s nothing down there except for rats and spiders.”
Peter grimaced, “I hate spiders.”
Bergeson laughed, “Well, hopefully, that’s the scariest thing you’re going to encounter. Now you all should go to bed; you have a long day in front of you, and you don’t need to be sitting here and hearing an old man’s tale. Off with you now.”
Thor didn’t need to be told twice and began ushering Tony upstairs and to bed. Peter followed behind; his shoulder muscles were tensed and hunched.
“Mr. Thor,” he said, his voice quiet like he didn’t want to disturb the gentle peace that had settled on the hostel. “You don’t think that the story the barkeeper told us was true, do you?”
Thor shook his head. “Perhaps, it had some basis of truth, but the Jotunns were...” he caught on the next word, “‘exterminated’ from Midgard by the Aesir thousands of years ago. There is not a chance that we would not have left one alive.” Shame flared tight in his chest. His previous words echoed in his head. His promises to Loki to kill every breathing Jotunn even as he called one brother. He had thought himself brave then, but he was a fool for thinking that bravery could be bought with blood.
“Do not worry, young spider. There won’t be a Jotunn in the cave and if there is anything. I will protect you.”
“Thanks, Mr. Thor,” Peter said, actually looking relieved. The tension had leaked out of his shoulders, and he was back to looking like a puppy again. “I’m going to go to bed. I’ll see you in the morning, alright?”
Thor clapped a hand on the boy’s arm. “I will see you in the morning.”
He watched Peter walk down the hall and turn into his room, before going to his own bed. The voice that sounded like Loki’s was whispering in his ear, urgent and insistent, but he shut it out.
He would not entertain ghosts while awake, especially when he knew they would only continue to haunt his nightmares.