Loki was bored, bored, bored. He was never getting out of this cell. He would never see another living person besides the guards ever again. His brother didn't come see him. His father had abandoned him to life in the cells. He only saw illusions of his mama and those were rare, when she could sneak away.

Odin hadn't believed him when he had explained that he'd been mind controlled and tortured. He hadn't cared that the last time he had seen Loki was when Loki was falling to his death from the Bifrost. It was more convenient and easier for Odin when the problem of Loki had been dead. Then he didn't have to deal with the treaty with Jotunheim or any of the consequences of his lies.

Frigga had tried to help Loki as best she could, making sure he had food and books and what comfort she could give him.

It wasn't enough.

The solitary confinement was driving him crazy. His magic was bound to the inside of the cell. He kept using illusions to play back his last day of relative freedom. He wanted to know what had happened to Kat, but he was stuck in a cell and couldn't find out. He knew her magic should be intact. Even with the Tesseract locked in Asgard's vault, it was an infinity stone. It could support her powers even from realms away. She'd helped him and he didn't even know if she was alive.

*

Time passed. Loki grew more angry, depressed, isolated, suicidal. He lost track of time as the solitary confinement drove him toward insanity. He heard footsteps approach his cell. It didn't sound like guard. A guard would just mean pain, most likely, maybe food, but usually pain of torturing the 'traitorous prince'. The footsteps were too heavy to be his mother's.

Maybe Odin had decided to kill him after all. The only reason he was still alive was because it would upset his mama if Odin had had him executed. It would have also completely shattered the treaty with Jotunheim. He knew he was a hostage against Jotunheim's good behavior. His life had been forfeit ever since Thor had started the war with Jotunheim.

It was only a matter of time before he died.

He barely looked over when the footsteps stopped at his cell. "Brother?" Thor was on the other side of the cell wall and sounded heartbroken.

Loki opened his dull green eyes and looked up at Thor. He understood the heartbreak in Thor's voice. He knew he looked like Hel. His hair was lank and uncared for. He was lank, thin, unkempt. Unlike his usual self. He knew his mother was worried, but his state was out of her control, despite her promises of fighting Odin about his verdict.

However, Thor shouldn't have been able to see it, not under the illusions Loki hid behind. So why the heartbreak?

"Thor. After all this time and now you come to visit me," Loki crooned in a dangerous, malicious tone, his illusion moved toward the cell wall. He didn't trust Thor or his motives. His brother had thrown him in this cell to rot. Just as Odin had. He leaned forward, nearly to the glass. "Why? Have you come to gloat? To mock?"

Thor sighed and looked exasperated and just as heartbroken. "Loki, enough. No more illusions," Thor's tone was firm. He knew what he looked at was an illusion of his brother, put together, regal, even in a cell.

The illusion stepped back, shock registering on it's face before it rolled its eyes and faded away, leaving only Loki as he truly was. He looked up into Thor's eyes, daring his brother to have pity, to say something cruel. "Now you see me, brother," he said coldly.

"I did not come here to gloat or mock," Thor said gently, kindly, talking to his brother as one would a scared injured animal. Now that he knew what he was truly dealing with. Loki was broken, perhaps beyond repair from how he'd been treated. Thor's rage grew at his father for doing this.

But first, he had to care for his brother.

"Then why are you here? I have not seen you since..." Loki's words trailed off as his mind wandered another broken path, remembering his trial instead of focusing on the present world.

"I'm here to get you out of here. Father has agreed to let you out of this cell," Thor told his brother gently.

Thor watched as the distrust and pain filled Loki's eyes. "To see me executed? It's about time,"

Thor shook his head firmly. "No. We are going to Midgard. We'll work with the Avengers. I've already worked it out with them,"

Loki tilted his head. "Why by the nine would the Allfather allow that?"

"Mother convinced him that you would be making amends. It was the only way she could get him to agree to let you out of here. You don't deserve this brother. We've been fighting to get your sentence changed,"

At the mention of his mama, Loki perked up a little. Perhaps there was hope here after all...