Loki went silent and still, his face gone pale to the point that it had an unhealthy greyish tinge to it. He gripped the back of the chair again, so hard that his arms shook.

"I had no other choice!" he suddenly shouted, like the words had been torn from him. He'd seen no other way out, seen nothing but more of the same or worse, punishment for the great good that he had tried to do. "Everything I had done, none of it mattered. You saw that. I had no other choice." He bowed his head, jaw working.

What other escape had he, from Thor, from Odin, from everything that had gone so terribly wrong, from all the lies that had been built around him?