Chapter Text
“Ugh.” Phantom said. “I do not want to go back home.”
“We’ve been out here for hours.” Loki pointed out. “And you look exhausted.”
Did ghosts get tired? Apparently teen ones did because Phantom looked like a wreck. Loki hadn’t noticed when the ghost had first arrived but now that he wasn’t literally freezing from the inside out he could see the weariness leaking out of the ghost. The boy’s glow was a mere flicker compared to it’s normal torch like status.
“Right.” Phantom said. “Doesn’t change what I said.”
“Why ever would you not want to go home?”
“I got the call about you right in the middle of a fight with like…my nemesis.” Phantom said.
“Your nemesis? People have those?”
“Let’s make one thing clear. He came onto me. I did not put out an ad looking for someone who wants to ruin my entire afterlife at every possible moment.” Phantom snapped.
Well. Loki could hardly argue with that. Slowly he stood up from his place in the snow and focused. His blue skin bled away back to the form he’d always believed to be his own. Now that the ice magic within him had stabilized he was now able to actually feel the bitter cold in his aesir form. A problem easily remedied by conjuring a coat.
“And you think this rival of yours will be waiting for you?”
“No. He’s slunk back to the hole he lives in. He’ll crawl out eventually but I won’t see him for at least a month.”
“Then why not return home?”
“Because I literally got the call during the fight. Plasmius is the one who answered my phone which means that Tony and your brother heard the whole stupid fight and…and I do not want to talk about that. Ever.”
“Hmmm.” Loki said. “Well I am an expert at avoiding conversation, you can stay in my room for the night, I’ll magic you up a bed. That is if ghosts even need a bed.”
“A bed would be nice.”
“Then a bed you’ll have.” Loki said. “You can rest and then tomorrow decide how best to avoid Thor and Stark.”
“And Spiderman. And Shuri. And well…” Phantom trailed off floating next to Loki and looking rather miserable. Loki knew then that the boy would disappear with nothing but a puff of green smoke left behind if Loki questioned him even a little.
“Turn yourself invisible and follow me.” Loki ordered. “I’ll tell Thor you disappeared into Hel, then you can just float up to my room.”
“Thanks man. Really.”
Loki made a disparaging noise that implied how much he did not want the boy’s gratitude. Phantom disappeared and Loki started the snowy trek back to New Asgard. They were a fair distance away and while Loki could teleport himself he didn’t really trust his magic to take him there without any additional ice. Besides, there was something comforting about walking through the snowy plains.
“So.” Phantom said. “Frost Giants.”
“What about them?” Loki asked.
“Have you ever met any?”
Loki thought about stabbing through the heart of his biological father while Odin watched. He thought about tricking Frost Giants into being killed by the Destroyer in the vault.
“No.”
“I haven’t met any living ones.” The ghost said. His voice implied that he was floating a comfortable distance away on Loki’s left. Loki couldn’t see the boy so he just had to trust his ears as he glanced over at the air that probably held the boy’s frame within it.
“How fascinating.” Loki drawled.
“Ugh! What I’m trying to say is that the dead frost giant ghosts I’ve met have been…well they’ve been pretty nice.”
“Yes thank you for that glowing recommendation.”
“Loki.” Phantom said. “It might be a good idea to talk to some of them. I have no idea if living ice cores work differently to you know dead ones and if you’re so against talking to living Frost Giants then a ghost one is going to have to do.”
“Out of the question.”
“Oh, come on dude! What if your magic goes all wonky again?”
“Then I will fix it.” Loki said simply. “And I will do it without interacting with those brutes in anyway.”
“Brutes? They’re not…”
“They threw me away!” Loki hissed, unable to hide his disgust for very long. “They threw me away to die.”
“Is that what Odin told you?” Phantom asked.
Loki stumbled a little in his walk and tried to pass it off as having slipped on some ice. That was exactly what Odin had said. He thought back to Phantom’s words earlier in the day about Odin’s shitty propaganda and wondered, not for the first time, why he still believed anything Odin ever told him. Why, even now that the man was dead, Loki took his words to heart.
An invisible hand reached out to help steady him and Loki shrugged it off.
“What else am I meant to think then?”
“I think you should try to find the truth, whatever that is.” Phantom said. “Don’t take my word for it, don’t listen to what Odin said. Just go and learn for yourself. Because even if Odin wasn’t lying to you at least learning the truth for yourself means you don’t have to rely on him.”
Now that did sound appealing to Loki. Not relying on Odin was a very attractive idea. He sniffed a little and then spoke.
“So then I just waltz up to the next frost giant ghost who comes my way?”
“Dude. I’ll just take you to the Far Frozen, it’s where all the coolest ghosts hang out.”
“Phantom.”
“Okay fine fine.” He said. “Most ghosts with an Ice Core live there under King Frostbite’s rule. It’s peaceful there because the place is literally so cold that without an ice core you’ll just freeze, ghost or not. The only ghost who ever managed to invade the place without an ice core was Pariah Dark and even he only managed to wage war there for a few decades before he was locked away in his coffin.”
“Katar told us that you were King instead of this Frostbite.”
“Katar doesn’t know shit. Frostbite’s my friend.” Danny said. “We’ve never fought so there’s no way, even under ghost law, that I could be King. And would you just forget about the king stuff already?”
“Excuse me.” Loki sneered. “But I don’t understand why you’re so against it.”
“I told you that they’d never accept a halfa…”
“Oh shut it.” Loki told the invisible being floating next to him. “With the power you wield you could make them accept it. You’ve defeated every foe that you’ve come up against, so even if they all tried to end you for becoming king, they wouldn’t manage it. Try another lie.”
“Well maybe, I just don’t want to! Ever think of that?”
“But why?” Loki asked. “It’s not like you have to be Thor. You’d be a king of a people who need nothing from you, you wouldn’t have to broker trade deals or protect your people from famine or war. You could have all the power and none of the work.”
“Power’s overrated.”
“I can assure you it isn’t.”
“Weren’t you just saying I was already powerful enough to handle my enemies?” Phantom argued. “Why would I need more?”
“Why wouldn’t you?” Loki countered. “Who’s to say there aren’t potentially more world destroying monsters around the corner?”
“Pariah Dark was kind of a… one of a kind sort of deal.” Phantom said calmly. “As far as I know there are no other ghosts like him.”
“I didn’t say the monster would be a ghost.” Loki corrected remembering purple skin and cruel burning eyes.
Phantom became visible right in front of Loki forcing Loki to freeze mid-step. He slipped a little on the snow but managed not to fall right into the ghost.
“What are you talking about?”
“Nothing to concern yourself over right now Phantom.” Loki said.
“Right now?” The ghost said. “What about tomorrow? Or next year? Or the next decade?”
“If things go well, hopefully it will be never.”
“Because you’re so optimistic. You wouldn’t have brought it up if there wasn’t something.”
Loki glared at the ghost and then stepped forward, the ghost was forced to turn intangible as Loki walked straight through him.
“Hey!” Phantom flew around to try and stop Loki again.
“Tell me about this Plasmius fellow then.” Loki insisted.
“Do not try to change the subject.”
“Oh, there’s nothing trying about it. Plasmius, tell me, is he as annoying as you?”
The boy growled and then disappeared, clearly very willing to do anything to avoid the subject. Good. The rest of the walk back to New Asgard was done in silence. Loki wasn’t even sure that the ghost boy was following him at all. Thor was waiting for him at the city limits still wearing the entire ridiculous winter getup he’d thrown on his body before dragging Loki out of the city.
“Loki?” Thor asked.
“It’s fine now.” Loki said. “My magic has settled, Phantom helped me get it under control.”
Thor whooped and pulled Loki into a hug, Loki choked as the air was roughly pushed out of him and his ribs were almost bruised. Thor put him down and then started looking around.
“Where is he?” Thor asked.
“Left, said something about a fight he had to get back to.” Loki lied easily.
“Oh.” Thor frowned. “I do hope it wasn’t with that ghost he was fighting when I called him.”
“What? Why?”
“He…He knew how Phantom died.” Thor growled. “And he was using it against him, threatening him. I have never heard such screams.”
Discovering the truth of Phantom’s death had been disturbing for all three of them. Thor had taken to leaving his hammer in their house instead of carrying it on his hip, as if the mere presence of the lightning-summoning hammer would be offensive to the poor ghost. Thor had also refrained from making any storms, at all, no matter how bothered. Spiderman had been seen listlessly swinging around New York, fighting crime but with none of his usual spunk. Loki himself had done his best to not think of it at all. So what the boy was dead, it wasn’t like Loki had been the one to kill him or anything.
At least that’s what Loki told himself.
Then Phantom had shown up again, saving Loki’s life and most of New Asgard in the process and it had been very easy to forget. Phantom acted so alive, even as ghostly as he looked he hardly resembled the dead as Loki knew them to be. Now Loki was forcibly reminded that the child he had just been trying to convince to become king over an entire realm was for all intents and purposes three years old and had been killed. He’d shared his greatest weakness with a dead child.
When Loki had first met Phantom he had been disinterested and untrusting. A ghost protecting the living must have had some ulterior motive. As time went on Phantom proved himself to be a mischievous spirit and Loki had felt a kinship with him. He’d wanted to mentor the ghost child, teach him how to maximize the fallout of his shenanigans. Discovering the boy was also powerful enough to weild Mjolnir and defeat literal ghost kings had made the teen all the more interesting as a candidate.
But now the idea of trying to mentor and mold the boy felt wrong. What right did Loki have to try and guide someone who had been through more than Loki had? For all of Loki’s adventures, Loki spent more of his time cheating death than actually experiencing it first hand. For in person kill counts, Thor had killed more creatures and enemies than Loki had. (Thanos-induced invasions aside of course.) Loki didn’t know death, didn’t know that trauma.
What he did know was that some asshole had used such a painful thing against a child with a pure heart. A child who had looked at him in his true form and declared him worthy of help and friendship. A child who had helped Asgard and Loki and the world in more ways than Loki cared to count.
Loki’s hands fisted themselves and his jaw clenched.
“I see.” He said. “Hopefully Phantom is safe from him.”
“Stark is trying to track him down, but we don’t know who it was. I thought to ask Phantom but he’s gone.”
“Don’t worry.” Loki said. “I’m sure it’ll all work out.”
A sentence he had every intention of making true.
“I hope you’re right. Come on, let’s go home, you need to rest.”
Loki didn’t argue and let Thor mother-hen him all the way back to their ‘palace’. Thor ushered Loki the entire way up to his bedroom and even went so far as to bring Loki some tea while Loki got himself ready for bed. It had been a long few days with his magic as out of sorts as it had been and Thor had bore the brunt of that strain. Once Loki had convinced Thor to leave him alone to sleep, not an easy task, Phantom became visible.
“We’re not talking about Plasmius.”
“Wouldn’t dream of it.” Loki lied. Loki had had a lot of rapid fire day dreams about what he would do to this Plasmius should they ever ‘cross’ paths.
“Good. Now…about that bed?”
Loki waved his hand conjuring a bed out of thin air right in the far corner the room. The ghost thanked him for it and fell right onto it. Phantom phased through the blanket, using his powers to pull it over his body. Soon there was a lump with nothing but a tuft of white hair sticking out as to indicate who the lump was. Loki rolled his eyes and laid down himself.
“I’m turning off the lights, you best not glow too brightly.”
“I’ll turn off my mega-watt smile, don’t worry.”
“See that you do.”
Loki snapped his fingers and the room was immediately bathed in inky darkness. The parts of Phantom that were visible were the only source of light, a sort of comfortable glow that spread out softly over the room in the same way a candle wick would. Loki closed his eyes and let the sleep of the truly exhausted claim him. Loki was so exhausted that he didn’t notice the involuntary transformation of a sleeping ghost that sent a flash of light through his room.
Loki slept through the subsequent second transformation back that happened about three hours after he passed out when Danny woke up and realized which form he was in.
Perhaps a few important things might have become clear to him if he had been awake to know the true nature of the ghost but he wasn’t.
When the morning broke it was to Loki waking up to find an empty bed and a note that merely said ‘Thanks for the bed! Call me up whenever you want to explore the n-icy side of life!’. Loki rolled his eyes and pocketed the note. He’d take the boy up on the offer eventually, but it was best not to seem too eager.
After breakfast in which Thor asked no less than 5 times if Loki was truly alright, Stark invited them to New York for a ‘meeting’. As it had nothing to do with the Accords or with Rogers it wasn’t very difficult at all to determine what that meeting would be about. To absolutely no one’s surprise, Stark wanted to talk to them about Phantom. More specifically about Vlad Plasmius.
Not that they had much knowledge to share. Thor and Tony had both listened to Plasmius torture and threaten Phantom but they had no idea who he was or where he was stationed. Asking Phantom resulted in him stonewalling them completely. Likely in an attempt to protect them from danger.
“Honestly.” Loki said. “The only way you’re ever going to figure this out is to drag Plasmius out.”
“Drag him out?”
“Plasmius was threatening Phantom because he was spending time with the Avengers yes? Well if you bring Phantom to New York, making it seem very permanent then…well Plasmius will be forced to appear again. And when he does I do believe we’ll all be quite ready for him won’t we?”
“Phantom wouldn’t leave Amity unprotected.” Thor said.
“So provide it some protections. Throw enough money at those ghost hunters, maybe even build them some sort of AI that’ll track ghosts for them so that they can defend the town instead of relying on a dead child to do it for them.” Loki said. “Then Phantom can start haunting this tower instead.”
“That’s…actually not a bad plan.” Tony said. “If Danny’s here, even for a month or so, we can learn more about ghost fighting and tech while also laying a trap for that asshole.”
“Do you think you can convince him to come?” Thor asked.
“Oh.” Stark said grinning. “Trust me that’s not going to be a problem. I’ve got a trump card on the kid.”
“Trump card?” Loki asked.
“Blackmail.” Tony corrected. “Top secret blackmail in the form of a phone number. It’ll get Phantom here in New York for the next month at the minimum, no muss no fuss.”
Loki didn’t bother to ask what the blackmail was. He wasn’t stupid, blackmail was only effective if no one but the victim knew what it was. Instead he hummed and then looked over at his brother. His plan to get Phantom to New York was a good one but it just didn’t feel quite right. What if Plasmius moved quickly once he heard of the ghost’s relocation?
“Thor?”
“Yes Loki?”
“Would you mind terribly if I relocated here to New York for a time? Things are going quite well in New Asgard and…”
“And you want to protect Phantom.”
“No.” Loki lied. “How dare you imply I have any thing close to a good intention. I want to annoy Rogers some more.”
“If that’s why you’re here then trust me.” Stark said. “The tower will always be open to you.”
“Excellent.”
Loki added ‘Annoy Captain America’ to his mental to-do list. It was right below ‘Teach Phantom how to block magical lightning’.
*****
“Hello? Jack! It’s Tony! I’m calling about Danny. I have a great idea for the kid! You were talking to me about how much his grades have suffered because of his hero gig. I’m thinking of offering him an internship, just for the summer! It’ll look great on his CV and then I can write letters of recommendation for him. He’ll get into college with a snap with me backing him!”
“…”
“I know right? Just send him here for the next month or so. He can help finish up the creation of those ghost weapons we ordered and help train the team on them. He can also learn some engineering tricks from yours truly!”
“…”
“Don’t thank me Jack! That’s what science bros are for!”
“…”
“Great! And don’t worry about Amity, I’ll make sure the town’s protected so that Danny doesn’t strain himself trying to be two places at once. It might be good for him. Who else can teach him how to balance the work of being a hero with their personal life better than me? Trust me. Danny’s going to learn so much.”
“…”
“Have fun telling him the news! Iron Man out!”