To Guard the Light By AmayaRamiel

DISCLAIMER: If they were mine... naughty things would happen.

A/N: Wow, first long story I've written in five years! I had been toying with this idea for about a year now, mostly because I was frustrated with the severe lack of stories where Loki and Coulson are the protagonists. Given the many - many! - Loki-redemption stories out there, it seems weird to me that there aren't more that focus on him and the guy he killed.

I must warn that this isn't slash (well, it is "background" slash, because Loki's pregnant, so duh), though it can be read as pre-slash. And why not? After all, there's hardly any frostagent fics out there! (a crime I feel compelled to rectify).

A note on where this fits within canon; I'm generally labeling this as AU because it's pretty much non-compliant with anything post-Avengers or post-Season 1 of Agents of S.H.I.L.E.L.D.

I've watched the first three seasons of the show, but it was well over a year ago, so I've definitely gotten character behaviors wrong. The only plot points from the series I've used is the T.A.H.I.T.I. project in order to explain how Coulson's alive to Loki. Coulson has his team and they're established at the Playground (secret base) instead of the Bus, but S.H.I.E.L.D. is still up and running and Fury is still Director (so, non-compliant with the last episode of the first season).

Basically, no events from the series, except for Coulson's discovery of T.A.H.I.T.I. have any bearing on this story.

As always, I apologize for the OOCness of everyone involved. Nonetheless, I hope you enjoy the story! Let me know what you think; review, favorite, follow - all that good stuff!

PS. This story is complete, but I will post it over the course of the week as I proofread it.

Chapter One

Coulson's POV

The energy signal that represented the creature – whatever the hell it was from whatever the fuck it came from – was on the move.

Agent Coulson's team had been dispatched twenty minutes ago when the call came of a large monstrous creature rampaging in lower Manhattan. Fitz and Simmons had found a way to track it; the thing gave off a massive energy output including something, something about negative outputs and something similar to the energy pattern of Einstein-Rosen Bridges.

Coulson had pretty much zoned out when the pair begun babbling their explanation. The bottom line was that they could track the thing, not that that would have proven to be difficult given the train of destruction it left in its wake.

Coulson and the team arrived on the scene on their smaller mobilization helicopter, hovering over the tightly packed buildings and beholding the mess on the streets below. The creature had rampaged its way through the main road and, with an apparent goal in mind, punched its way into a tenement building.

Agent May and Skye, armed with Shield's latest energy weapon, rappelled down to the street to try to sneak up on the monster from behind, while the rest of the team approached from the roof.

Well, Coulson thought, by "rest of the team", I meant me. His plan was to go in through the maintenance entrance on the roof and try to evacuate civilians while May and Skye took down the monster.

At least that was the plan, up until the moment Coulson came face to face with alien-threat-number-one, Loki of Asgard.

Coulson was ushering people up the stairs and onto the roof when he glanced at the corridor ahead and, among the throng of people fleeing the chaos below, spotted Loki, who froze like a deer in headlights when he spotted Coulson in turn.

There was a moment when neither of them did anything, both too surprised by the entire situation to respond, before Loki took off back down the hallway he had come from and Coulson took off after him.

Shoving himself through the crowd, Coulson chased after the alien.

"We've got a situation!", he shouted into his mic to the rest of the team.

"I thought that was obvious. Did you fall asleep, boss?" came Skye's snarky reply.

"No, I mean, things just got worse. I think I know why that monster's attacking. Loki's here; he's doing this."

"Who's here?" replied Skye, while Agent May simultaneously replied "What?! Isn't that the guy that led the alien invasion two years ago?"

"Yes! This situation just escalated! Fitzsimmons, inform S.H.I.E.L.D. immediately that Loki's back! Tell them to contact the Avengers Initiative!" Coulson ordered while running after the crazy Norse god that had managed to kill him during their last encounter.

"I'm relaying the message to HQ. Should we retreat, sir?" came Simmons's reply.

"We have to get these people out here, and try to neutralize that creature through whatever means necessary. I'm going after Loki."

Coulson turned the corner at the end of the hallway and saw said alien running down the next one when the stairwell ten feet ahead of him exploded upwards.

Loki almost tripped over his feet as he tried to turn away from the creature that was shoving its way into the hallway.

The thing was an enormous writhing mess of tentacles and muscles and limbs and teeth. It also seemed to somehow be shifting or shimmering, as though it wasn't entirely in this plane of existence or something. Coulson wasn't sure what the hell was going on, especially now that Loki was running back down the corridor straight for him, a look of utter terror on his face.

Coulson raised his weapon and pointed it at the sorcerer.

"Stop! Loki, you are under arrest! Stop that creature, now!" he yelled out, blocking Loki's way.

Slowing down and frantically looking around him for a way out, Loki yelled back "This is not my doing! I've not done-!"

Anything else Loki was about to say was cut off by the creature's horrible howling growl and thunderous movement as it took off towards Loki and Coulson. Its hide glowed blue – a familiar Tesseract-like blue – as it picked up speed towards them, and the shimmering increased. Coulson's eyes couldn't focus on it properly.

"Stop it, now!"

"I cannot! Please! We must run!"

Coulson was about to agree and take off running, but the thing was almost on top of them. He aimed his gun at the creature and fired shot after shot, but they seemed to be useless. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Loki lift his hands defensively.

"No!" Coulson heard Loki cry out.

In that instant, as Coulson turned his body to run or drop to the floor or whatever his instincts were telling him to do, the world seemed to turn inside out and suddenly explode outward again.

The floor disappeared from under Coulson's feet and only to re-appear a good six of seven inches below said feet, causing him to stumble and fall to the ground with a yelp; a similar cry of surprise followed by the sound of stumbling and a body hitting the ground came from somewhere to his left.

It was all he could do to prevent his head from hitting the ground.

Lifting his head, the first thing he noticed was the oppressive darkness all around. It was pitch black, and Coulson's eyes actually hurt as they tried to adjust to the complete darkness. The agent quickly reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone, turning on the flashlight.

As he steadied himself on hands and knees, a grunt to his left had him turning his head only to discover Loki sprawled on the ground next to him.

Coulson raised his head and took in his surroundings. It seemed they were no longer in the hallway in New York, but in some underground cave. The ground, walls, and roof above them was all made of solid rock.

Coulson shuffled to his feet as quickly as he could and aimed his gun straight at the alien invader, thankful that he hadn't lost his grip on the weapon in… whatever had just happened.

Loki was curled protectively on the ground, and he seemed pained when he moved to try to right himself; one arm was clutching his lower abdomen, and Coulson momentarily wondered if he had injured himself.

The Norse god was just starting to raise himself onto his knees when he saw the gun pointed at his head.

"What the hell just happened? And where are we?" Coulson inquired calmly, letting the coldness in his voice convey to Loki that he wasn't in the mood for games.

Loki, on his part, slowly raised his arms in the universal sign of "I'm unarmed" and cautiously glanced around.

"I truly do not know." he replied

"You don't know? You brought us here."

"Perhaps… but it was not my intention. The spell clearly backfired."

"Clearly? I'm supposed to believe that?"

"I don't care what you believe or don't believe. I have no idea where we are and your belief or disbelief will not change that. I would, however, appreciate it if you aimed your weapon elsewhere."

Coulson raised an eyebrow at that.

"Yeah, not gonna to happen. Get up."

There was a moment of hesitation in Loki's eyes, but he complied, slowly getting up on one knee and then hoisting himself up with what appeared to be some effort. He never took his eyes off of Coulson's gun, however.

Now that he got a good look at him, the Shield agent was surprised at Loki's overall appearance. Gone were the fancy Asgardian armor, the shiny gauntlets, and the golden horns. In their place were baggy and mundane looking clothes, not even in particularly good condition, and unkempt messy hair that hung even lower than Coulson remembered. As his eyes drifted across Loki's body trying to ascertain whether the former invader was hiding any weapons, he noticed that the front of Loki's shirt appeared baggier than the rest.

"What are you hiding under there?" he signaled with his gun. It would be just like Loki to have a weapon secreted under his clothes.

"Please. I intend no harm." was Loki's reply instead.

"What. Do. You have. Under. Your. Shirt?" Coulson restated, quickly running out of patience.

"Look, I don't know what your game plan is here," he added, "but last time we chatted, I ended up dead, so you either do what I say or I take care of all my problems right here and now." He jabbed his gun forward to punctuate his point.

"Please… if I tell you… will you promise not to hurt me?"

Loki's words and tone threw Coulson for a loop. If he didn't know better, he'd think Loki was genuinely … scared.

"Well, if you think about it logically, you've got two options. Refuse to answer and get a bullet between your eyes, or answer and find out what happens." He wasn't about to tell Loki that he probably wasn't about to actually shoot him unless Loki actively threatened him. No matter how distrustful he was of the alien, Coulson seldom shot unarmed people.

His reply, however, seemed to unsettle Loki further. The would-be conqueror of Earth seemed to lose his composure and began, to Coulson's utter shock, to plead for his life.

"Please…, please… I swear by Yggdrasil itself, I am hiding nothing that can threaten you. I.. I'm.." Loki's hesitancy appeared to be coming from a place of genuine fear. "I'm with child."

The words we so softly spoken than Coulson was sure he misheard them.

"I'm sorry, what did you just say?"

Loki looked straight at Coulson, his bright green eyes holding his gaze firmly, and in a much steadier voice he repeated,

"I am with child. That is what you perceive underneath my clothes."

"What? What do you mean you're with child? You… you're a man."

"I am not a 'man'. I'm from another planet, remember?" There was the patented Loki snark Coulson remembered. It seemed that, even when pleading for his life, Loki's haughty attitude couldn't help showing through the cracks.

Coulson would have rolled his eyes if it didn't involve taking them off of Loki.

"I mean, you're male. How gullible do you think I am?"

Loki looked like he wanted to say exactly how gullible he regarded the Shield agent, but thought better of it. Taking a calming breath, trying to appear as nonthreatening as possible, he replied,

"Males of my species can carry offspring. And no, Thor can't. He's Asgardian. I am not." He added, anticipating Coulson's follow-up question given the baffled expression on his face.

"Right…. 'adopted'." Coulson murmured, about as confused as he'd ever been. "Look.. what proof do I have that you are telling the truth?"

"I suppose we can stand here for three more months and then you'll have all the proof you want." came the acerbic reply.

Coulson's eyes narrowed in annoyance.

"Which brings us to the question, where in the hell is 'here'?"

"I told you, I do not know."

"But you brought us here, didn't you?" Coulson reiterated.

Loki flinched slightly, and after a moment replied "Yes" in a small voice.

"So, how can you not know where we are?"

"It… it was not my intention to bring us here… wherever here is. Truthfully, all I wanted was to escape our situation, but my magic is somewhat… compromised at the moment." He lowered his gaze pointedly at his abdomen, before glancing back at Coulson apologetically.

Coulson was trying to consider his options and gauge the situation.

"Ok, so what were you doing in New York with that thing?"

"By 'thing' I assume you are referring to the Chitauri berserker?"

"So it is Chitauri. I thought you said you didn't know what it was."

"No, I said I did not cause it. Though…" Loki paused for a moment considering his words, "in a way, it was there because of me."

"Explain."

"The berserker was hunting me. I imagine its intentions were to take me back to Thanos."

"Wait.. who?"

"The Mad Titan, Thanos. He's the one who orchestrated the Chitauri attack on your planet over two years ago."

"So, your boss, I take it? And, what? He was angry you failed so he sent his hunting dog after you?"

"An understatement if there ever was one." Was Loki's sardonic reply. "Thanos is undoubtedly furious with both my failure and my escape."

"Uh.. escape?'

"Well, I escaped his clutches, did I not? I should have returned to him when the invasion failed, but I successfully angered your green beast and freed myself from Thanos' hold."

Coulson stared at Loki with mouth agape.

"Ok.. hold on.. let's backtrack here. You pissed off the Hulk on purpose?"

"As much as I was able to, obviously."

The two of them stared at each other in complete confusion.

"Are you implying you were mind-controlled?!" "Do you mean to say Thor never told you?!" Coulson and Loki both burst out at the same time.

Coulson was frankly floored by Loki's gall to claim mind-control. After what he did to Banner, Barton, and Selvig, and after the destruction he brought upon hundreds of people, he dared to claim he wasn't in control.

Loki, on his part, was less surprised, if exasperated, by the fact that Thor had considered him so insignificant as to not even relay the truth to his comrades.

"No wonder you consider me such a threat! Thor never informed you of the results of my trial in Asgard, did he? So much for his protestations of familial bonds!"

"So, not only do you want to claim that you're somehow pregnant – and I can't believe I just said that out loud – but you are also disavowing your involvement in the alien invasion?"

Loki held his gaze for a moment before throwing his head back with a sigh. The sorcerer's eyes then fixed on the cave floor, crestfallen, as if all energy had been zapped from him.

"There's nothing I can say to convince you of any of this. I cannot offer you proof that I am truly with child, and you will not trust my word alone with regards to being in Thanos' thrall two years ago. Moreover, I can offer no solutions to our current predicament. All I can do is beg that you do not chose to end my life. I swear, on my child's life, that I will not harm you unless you threaten me, for I will protect this small life with all the strength I still have in me."

Coulson contemplated Loki silently. If he was lying – and experience told him to lean on the side of caution – he couldn't give Loki an inch. And yet, he couldn't bring himself to shoot a person who hadn't currently made any aggressive moves against him and was actually begging - which in itself was new coming from Loki – not to be harmed.

"Ok… here's what we're going to do. We have to get out of wherever we are, and I'm not letting you out of my sight for a second. So, you're going to walk ahead of me and if you so much as twitch wrong, you'll get a bullet through your head. Are we clear?"

"Completely." Waiting for a cue from Coulson, Loki carefully placed one foot in front of the next and walked past the agent, who stepped back to ensure he was out of the alien's reach.

In this manner, they began their long trek through their underground prison.

End notes: First chapter done!