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Chapter Text

Frigga was still pale, but a day after the attack she was already sitting up in her bed in the Healer Hall. Thor was happy to see it, even if he was troubled by other news. He pressed her hand and smiled at her. "I’m glad to see you looking better."

She wasn’t fooled by the smile. "What is it?"

"Jane," he answered heavily, unable to keep it from his mother. "She collapsed this morning. She is on her feet again, but the Aether.… She will not survive much longer, I fear," he added softly. "Father will do nothing. Can do nothing, he claims. But I was thinking, Malekith would know how to remove it from her. If we go after him and bargain to spare her life--"

"Thor," she interrupted gently with a shake of her head. "You can’t give the Aether to Malekith. He will use it to remake the universe in the shape of his choosing, and that will kill Jane and far more than that."

"But if I can trick him- or kill him -before she...." The weight of her eyes made his words taper off into helplessness. "What can I do, Mother? I can’t just watch her die. There must be a way."

"There is, perhaps," she said slowly, her fingers tapping the blanket that covered her legs. "Malekith is not the only one who might be able to remove the Aether from her body."

"You?" he guessed, but she shook her head. "Father?"

"He has the power, but I fear such strain would kill him, since his strength is much diminished of old. He would not, regardless," she answered, and by the movement of her hands, he read the answer before she looked up and added, "Loki."

He barked an incredulous laugh. "Loki! You think Loki could do such a thing? He has nothing but tricks, and you think he could handle the Aether?"

Her expression flattened, eyes narrowing, and he felt suddenly in the presence of the queen, not his mother. "Tricks?" she repeated. "Is that how you spoke to your brother about his skills? So much more becomes clear."

He opened his mouth, only to find the words caught in his throat. "I- I’m sorry?" he tried, knowing he’d mis-stepped, but not sure why. "But that’s what they are. Illusions, little fires, nothing… grand." His voice faltered at the chill in her eyes.

"Because his abilities are not flashy, you disdain them, knowing nothing of skill or power. Only appearance." He wanted to object, but her chill scorn froze the words on his tongue. Chastened, he hung his head. She continued, "I don’t know if he would try. But make no mistake, Thor, he is the only one who might succeed."

Thor scratched at his beard, not able to meet her gaze as he tried to sort through his shock at the idea that, of them all, including Frigga herself, Loki was the only one who might be able to save Jane.

But it was impossible, wasn’t it? "How do we risk letting him possess the Aether? It would be foolish. We’d never get it back. He could destroy everything. All of Asgard. The Nine Realms."

Her gaze was steady. "Did you know, he never touched the tesseract? If he were what you believe, he would have taken it for himself. But he did not."

"He tried to conquer Midgard! We cannot give him the weapon to try it again!" Thor rose up from his chair, anxious at the absurdity of this plan.

She sighed softly as if disappointed. "Then you will make that choice," Frigga answered. "It is for you to decide what the risk is worth. That is what a king must do."

"Father would refuse."

"He would," she agreed with a nod of her head. "But you must learn to make your own decisions. You will have to be your own king when he is no longer here to decide for you."

"But, Mother--" he started and then let out a sigh, meeting her gaze. "Is it the only way to save Jane?"

"I believe so, my son."

"Then what hope is there? He’ll never agree. He hates me, he hates this place, he hates mortals... He’ll laugh to see her suffer and die, if it will hurt me." He shook his head, despairing. "I don’t understand how he changed so much."

Frigga’s hand laid over his and gripped it. "My bright boy, do you not see? Loki hates himself, and he lashes out in all directions. You put yourself near him, and he struck to hurt you as he has hurt." She squeezed. "Do not give up on him, Thor. He’s still there."

Thor mulled that one over, hoping it was true even if Midgard had given him little evidence of it, and gave a nod. "I’ll try. At least I can ask."

Thor went down to the cells. Many were wrecked and empty, but one was still brightly lit and intact. Not letting himself hesitate, Thor had to pull back his shoulders and ignore the grip on his insides at what he would find.

Remember Jane, he told himself. This is for her.

He rounded the edge of the forcefield to look inside. There was simple furniture within: a chaise which must also serve as his bed, a chair, a bowl for washing and towel hung on a stand, a pile of paper books. Loki was sitting against the inner wall, reading another in his lap. Presumably nothing powered was allowed in the cell.

He glanced up at the shift of light outside, and saw Thor. For a brief second he was surprised, but covered that with a slow smile. "Well, look who’s come to visit the beast in the cage. We’re still here, so I presume the Dark Elves lost."

Thor hesitated and nodded. "They did. There was some destruction. Mother was injured--"

In a blink Loki was on his feet across the field from Thor. "Injured?"

Thor was taken back. "Did no one tell you?"

"No one tells me anything," Loki bit out impatiently. "She was hurt?"

"She was trying to defend Jane--" He saw Loki’s brow crease in confusion at the news and stopped. His brother truly didn’t know what was happening. He certainly wasn’t going to help if he was kept in the dark.

"During the Convergence, Jane Foster - you remember her?"

"The wench of yours on Midgard. I don’t care about her. How did Mother get hurt?"

"I’m telling you. Jane accidentally fell into a space where the Aether had been hidden. And she absorbed it. She came here to get our help. But Malekith came here to get it, too, and while trying to defend Jane, Mother was stabbed by the long blade of Algrim the Kursed. She was hurt, she’s still in the Healer Hall, but she’ll live."

Loki didn’t say anything, eyes dropping away from Thor’s and pressing his lips together, before turning away. "Oh. It seems foolish to risk her life for a mortal," he murmured, "but that does sound like something she would do. I presume Odin has dispatched you to avenge this attack? Is that why you’re here?"

"No. He’s forbidden going after them."

Loki snorted. "Well, at least he’s consistent in his weakness. But since I can’t imagine you’re intending to do it without daddy’s approval, what do you want?"

Thor felt the sting and retorted, "I would! I would avenge her if she had died. But she’s alive and she said not to."

"You didn’t answer the question."

Thor almost turned and walked right out. He knew what Loki would say already; this was completely pointless. But instead he opened his mouth and said, "I need your help."

"My help?" Loki lifted his brows high and drawled, "Well, you must be desperate."

"Mother says you’re the only one in all Asgard that might be able to take the Aether out of Jane before she dies."

Loki froze, then turned to pour himself water from the decanter on the small table. He sipped at it, taking his time. "She said that?"

"Is it true?"

"Maybe. I’ve never handled it. But if she thinks so, well, she’s right about most things."

"Would you?" Thor asked. "As a favor?"

Loki glanced at him before bursting into laughter. "Oh, you’re adorable. You want me to risk my life to save your precious mortal - a mortal who will die in a few short years whatever happens - for nothing?"

"Because it’s the right thing to do." Thor’s voice went up slightly at the end, making it a question, and Loki smiled.

"Is it? Or you’d have Odin’s approval, and you don’t. So you’re going to have to do better than that."

"I can’t let you go free."

Loki shrugged. "Then you’ve got nothing I want." He headed for the chaise, flopped down on it, and closed his eyes as if he had every intention of going to sleep.

"Loki."

Loki peeled his eyes open again and turned his head. "You want your mortal saved, I want out of this cage."

"What would you do if I set you free?"

"Would you believe anything I told you?" Loki countered.

Thor offered, "If you did it without compensation, I could speak to Father. He’d see that you’re trying to atone--"

"But I’m not. I don’t care about Midgard or your mortal, and I especially don’t care about Odin’s approval," he snarled. "So I want something in exchange for this very dangerous thing you ask. Bargain with the devil, pay devil’s prices, Thor."

"What about..." Thor chewed a lip trying to figure out what else he could offer that would also keep the Realms safe, "if you go free, but have to leave the Aether."

Loki chuckled. "Once I have the Aether, there’s no force that can take it from me. And I have no intention of letting the old man keep it upstairs with the tesseract. I will, however, promise I won't give it to anyone else. Which if you knew anything, you’d know was a valuable promise, but since you’re an ignorant fool, you think it’s a lie. But no matter. I will take care of it. Responsibly." He chuckled as if to underline the sheer absurdity of him being responsible.

"And Midgard?" Thor asked. "Will you stay away from there?"

Loki rolled his eyes. "Did you not just hear me say I don't care about them? I don't. Never have."

"Then why did you attack them?" Thor persisted.

Loki froze, and his eyes flicked to the side. Then he chuffed a bitter laugh and drawled, "Because of you. Why else? Isn't everything about you, Thor? Your mortal girlfriend, your pet Realm, all of it about Thor Odinson."

"That's not true."

"Of course it is. Thor's little brother. Thor's shadow. Thor's inconvenient villain. My entire history erased and replaced and disguised so I look more like you. So ask yourself this question: why wouldn't I want to write myself out of your story?"

Thor opened his mouth to argue, but reminding himself what his mother had said, closed it again. Because didn't he have a point? "They lied to both of us," he said, instead. "Why are you so determined to punish me for it?"

Loki cocked his head to examine Thor's face. "When you figure it out, come back and let me know. Until then, I hope your mortal doesn't explode."

"Loki!" When Loki turned away, Thor beat a fist on the barrier, making it flash with light, but it didn't fall.

Loki turned back. "Do you think I care?" He stalked back to stand opposite Thor, his flat stare pinning Thor to the ground. "Let me put this plainly, though I thought having seen it with your own eyes you would understand already -- I have faced worse than you in ways you cannot imagine, and I stopped fearing death a long time ago. So until you understand that, I have nothing to say to you."

He moved back to his chaise and picked up his book, with every intention of ignoring Thor.

Deciding to give him what he wanted, Thor grimaced and left. He felt Loki's eyes on his back, but when he glanced over his shoulder, Loki's nose was buried in his book.

It was with a heavy heart and no little confusion that he returned upstairs, wandering the familiar halls, while his thoughts circled restlessly.

He knew he should concentrate on the Aether and Jane, but over and over his mind replayed the conversation. Loki's bitterness and hostility had been expected, but there had been something.... What had he meant "having seen it with your own eyes"? Seen what?

Thor tried to remember everything on Midgard. What had Thor seen that Loki thought he'd failed to understand?

His feet stopped in the middle of the western hall, and three servants nearly ran into him, dodging with apologies. But Thor heard none of it, as he realized.

"Stopped fearing death"

It wasn't Midgard he was talking about, but the moment he had let go of Gungnir. He'd fallen to his death, or so they'd all believed.

When Loki had reappeared, Thor had told himself Loki hadn't really meant to die, that he'd intended to escape. But that had been a lie, because even now he remembered Loki's face, as the hope had washed out of it.

Was that what Loki meant? He'd already decided he wanted to die, he'd thought he had nothing left to lose, so ... why not attack Midgard? Hurt Thor as Loki felt hurt, surely, but... was that all? Madness and death?

Thor had thought so before, but now he was suddenly less sure.

"faced worse than you"

What could that be? Death itself? The fall off the Bifrost? The nothingness of the void?

He was suddenly sure that if he could figure out the truth, not only could he save Jane, but Loki, too.

Thor ran down the steps of the detention level and back to Loki's cell.

"My goodness, back so soon?" Loki said with false excitement. "I don't merit a single visit before your girl was dying. But now it's twice. Did you change your mind about the bargain?"

"I just... want to understand," Thor said.

Loki heaved a sigh. "You can't. You never will. Go away. This is already boring me."

"You don't look as if you have anywhere else to go," Thor retorted drily.

"Lucky me."

Of course Loki was not going to help Thor figure it out, but Thor wasn't sure what he wanted to ask. Loki waited a moment, then rolled his eyes.

"That was thrilling. Please come back tomorrow and we'll do it again." He flopped into the arm chair and put his head back.

"You said I saw it with my own eyes, and I realized you meant the Bifrost, didn't you? That you didn't care whether you lived or died."

"Neither did anyone else. That was rather the point."

Thor was incensed by that rather bland declaration. "We did! I did!"

"You?" Loki straightened to glare at him. "You threw me off."

Thor shook his head, frowning. Before it had made him angry at the accusation, but now he was alarmed by Loki's insistence on something which Thor knew hadn't happened that way. "No, I didn't. You let go."

"Did I? Oh well, that makes it all right then."

Taking a step closer, Thor's frown deepened. "Do you not recall how it truly happened?"

"I remember enough. And that was you running home and ruining everything," he sneered the words.

Thor refused to be baited from the point. In fact, the attempted diversion seemed an admission that he really didn't remember the truth. "But why would you recall it that way?" Like a bolt of his own lightning, he knew and cursed himself for being so stupid. Loki had said it: "ways you cannot imagine" and Thor had known all along that Loki hadn't been alone in the attack.

"Because someone told you I did," he murmured, and didn't miss Loki's twitch, even though he was affecting ease. "Where were you?" he asked.

The reaction was not what Thor expected, as Loki tilted his head back and laughed. The laugh was amused, yet sharp as glass shards. "Finally. Someone asks the question!"

"Loki. Where were you?" Thor repeated.

Loki didn't answer. His expression filled with the same dark amusement at some jest only he understood, and his tone was bright ice. "I kept holding on to the belief that all of you who profess to care so much might actually ask where I've been. What happened. And yet no one did. So I wonder," he stood up again and approached the barrier, "did Odin not care to find out, or did he always know and not bother to do anything? I mean, if it's true I did just let go, why wouldn't you and he wonder where I was? But if you threw me away, well, that explains everything, doesn't it?"

Dismayed, Thor realized far too late the trap that had snapped shut around him on Midgard. The abrupt question of "did you mourn?" took on new meaning, and he saw how he had failed the test.

"Nobody meant-- We didn't-- " Thor stumbled.

Loki's smile didn't touch his eyes at all. "Care. I think that's the word you're looking for. You didn't care."

"We did. We do! But we thought you were dead."

"Oh? And when I magically reappeared not dead, there was no confusion? No interest in what happened? Even Mo-," he cut himself off, turning away, his voice falling. "So you see why I have some trouble believing any of you actually did care."

Thor wasn't sure what to say. What could he say?

Loki seemed to take the silence as an admission that he was right, and his lips turned up a sour smile. "I thought so."

"No, no, you're wrong. It wasn't like that. Nobody knew what to say, how different you were--"

"No one asked," Loki returned furiously, eyes alight.

"And we should have," Thor agreed. "So I'm asking now. Tell me what happened. Where were you?"

Loki stared at him for several heartbeats of silence before he let out a sharp breath. "You know what? No. It's too late. You all think the truth drove me mad, and I can't say it's not so. Go with that, if it makes you feel better."

He turned his back, but Thor could see he was rubbing his thumb over his opposite hand in an anxious gesture he'd picked up from Frigga.

There was something there, Thor knew it now. Loki needed to believe he'd be heard, when he hadn't been before.

"Loki, I'm sorry," Thor said. "We were ... careless. And they didn't tell you the truth about your blood, I understand you're angry about that. But I'm here now. I want to know. I want to understand. Please tell me."

"You get one question and I will answer it." Loki's voice was low and he seemed to be standing rigidly, as if bracing himself against a blow.

Thor bit his inner lip to keep from blurting the first question that hit him, knowing this was important. One question. One answer. Maybe more answers if he chose well, but if he chose poorly, Loki would lock up and his answers would die with him.

He cleared his throat and started carefully, "Between the time you fell from the Bifrost and reappeared on Midgard, what happened to you?"

Loki inhaled. "That's a broad question."

"You only gave me one. What else did you expect?"

"Something I could answer. I can't answer that."

About to be annoyed, Thor caught the word choice and asked, "Can't, or won't?"

Loki's jaw worked before he answered with a low honesty, "Can't. Because I don't know."

Frowning, Thor tried to figure it out. "You don't know what happened? What do you mean by that?"

Loki dampened his lips with his tongue and his gaze was distant and dark. "Until I spoke to Selvig on Midgard when I came through the portal, I thought it only days later from when I fell."

Horror shivered up Thor's spine. "You spent so long in the void?"

But Loki shook his head once. "I wish that were so, but I think not."

About to ask what else could have happened, his own words came back to him: "Who controls the would-be king?"

"What prevents you from knowing?" Thor asked carefully, not expecting an answer if there was truly something keeping Loki from revealing his whereabouts for a year.

But he did get an answer, and it was worse than no answer at all.

Loki held out his hand and green fire extended to either side into a handle and a pointed blade with a shining gem. He clenched that fist and the image disappeared.

The recognition was a block of ice forming deep within Thor and his breath seemed stopped in his throat with horror.

The scepter. The thrice-damned scepter.

Chapter Text

The scepter had been in front of him the whole time. It had been in Loki's hand. All its power to manipulate minds and somehow Thor had managed never to think about what that might mean. "It wasn't yours, was it?" Loki didn't have to verbally answer that, merely glanced at him with scorn that couldn't quite hide the fear lurking in his eyes. "Oh Norns." It had never been just a weapon Loki carried. "Someone gave it to you. Someone used it on you."

"I don't know," Loki answered, his voice went hollow, while his gaze was haunted with old dread. "But I doubt much else would leave so little behind."

Thor's hand reflexively went to grip Loki's shoulder in comfort and smacked the barrier instead.

Loki didn't notice. "Trying to remember, to put fragments together...." He held out his hands, and they were visibly trembling. "I thought it was me. I want it to be me. But... I think it wasn't," he finished in a whisper.

Thor swallowed back his dismay and horror of what Loki was forcing himself to say. Mental manipulation on that scale against Loki meant the culprits were powerful. Who controls the would-be king, had been closer to the mark than he'd known.

"What else?" Thor murmured. "What did they do to you?"

Loki shook his head and retreated a step. "Nothing. I don't know. I don't remember."

It was clearly not nothing. Nothing would not cause that empty staring gaze or the pinched look around his eyes and mouth. Thor hadn't noticed on Stark Tower, but in the bright light of the cell, Loki's face held signs that he'd aged decades since that day on the bridge.

Thor set his head against the barrier, despairing. How had this gone so wrong? How had this happened?

Someone had held Loki captive after his fall from the Bifrost and used the scepter on him to warp his mind. Loki had hoped for the question of what had happened to him and then set his hope on fire, because no one had asked. He'd set a simple test, and the family had failed it.

But why hadn't Thor asked? Because he'd been angry and confused about how Loki had behaved after the aborted coronation and the trip to Jotunheim. Loki had been mad and broken and suicidal, and after the void seemed just more the same. Yet Thor had known there was another involved, and he'd known the scepter was not Loki's, so that seemed little excuse.

"We didn't ask," Thor murmured, pained. "Why didn't I ask? I should have known. I knew - we all knew - there was something wrong on Midgard. You weren't yourself. I am... so sorry. I know you don't believe me, but I am, Loki. We can put this right." He raised his face, hoping that Loki could see how much he meant all of it.

"No, you can't," Loki said, his voice gentle. "It's too late, Thor. You see, the problem is, they set free the monster that was always inside. They feared it, but they fed it, too, made it grow, and now what else is there but the monster?"

"You're not a monster."

"I believe Odin's exact words were that I should've been left as a baby to die on a frozen rock."

Thor stared at him in dismay. Was this another one of his false memories? How could he believe that Odin would say such a thing? "What? No, he--"

"You weren't there, but she was. She can tell you he meant it, too. So forgive me if I find the promise of 'putting things right' a bit... lacking."

The ugly thought reared up. How much had Odin seen? He'd seen enough to warn Thor that Loki was acting as someone else's general but how did he know that, if he hadn't seen the people with Loki?

But if he'd seen it, how could he be so cruel? The cell only made sense if he thought Loki had attacked Midgard on his own, didn't it? Thor shook his head to clear away the doubts for what was important. "I'm not Father. You're still my brother."

Loki sighed. "Still on that?"

"Because it's true. Not even you can pretend a thousand years didn't happen. Or were all bad."

"Ah, that must be why I've seen nothing of you after you dumped me in here. Brother," Loki's mockery was biting but still Thor was glad to hear the word.

"He wouldn't let me come. You can't hold it against me."

"Yet here you are, so what else am I to think?" Loki retorted, sounding somewhat amused.

"I'm trying to help you."

Something in the words pricked at Loki's temper and his expression closed up. "Is that what you're doing? We've established you knew nothing, can't help, and don't really care, so why are you here? Oh yes, the girl." He folded his arms. "The deal is the same. You let me out, I take the Aether, and I leave. Asgard and Midgard will never see me again."

"I don't want you to go, I want to fix this."

"It's broken. It cracked a long time ago, and the Void destroyed it. There is no saving it."

"I don't-- I won't believe that. Everything can be mended. Relationships. People."

"Not all people. Some cannot be saved."

Thor knew he wasn't talking about his relationship to his family, only himself. There was only one way to prove to him that wasn't true. "Of course they can. You know how?" he asked and toggled the cell controls. The front barrier disappeared, leaving an odd quiet without its low hum.

Loki's expression was nothing but blank astonishment. "What- what are you doing?"

Thor stepped inside. "What I should have done months ago," he answered and corrected himself, "years ago. I'm saving you." Loki stepped back from Thor's determined stride, but there was nowhere to go as Thor grabbed his shoulders and pulled him close. He stood stiffly, confused in the embrace, wriggling in a half-hearted attempt to get free, but Thor didn't let go, wrapping his arms around him. "I should've saved you from the Bifrost," he whispered, bending his head close to Loki's. "I'm sorry I wasn't there when I should have been. You are my brother, for always."

In the pause afterward, Thor waited for the denial, but it didn't come. Instead, Loki stilled, and after a moment, the rigid posture softened, and his head tipped against Thor's.

"This is foolish," he murmured.

"Maybe," Thor admitted, and one hand couldn't resist rising to clasp the back of Loki's head to bring it closer, hand tangling in the unkempt strands. "But someone has to save you, and I want it to be me."

"You know I could've already killed you and been out the door? Why are you such a fool?" Loki protested into his shoulder.

"You're still here," Thor said. While it was meant as a retort, it was also true. Loki was still here. Loki wasn't even trying to move away, so his chiding Thor for carelessness lacked some conviction.

"I am so tempted to lock you in here and run away," he muttered and sounded so much like his younger self, Thor had to smile and press a kiss to his temple.

"I know. Now come on, let's go." Thor pulled back, finding Loki frowning in confusion and disbelief.

"What are you doing? Go where?"

"Out of here, to start with."

Loki shook his head once. "Thor, this isn't going to work."

"Yes, it will," Thor insisted, wondering why Loki was being so resistant to this. He'd demanded being set free in return for saving Jane, but now he was refusing to leave at all. "Come with me. I can't let you just rot away down here."

"Maybe you should. That's what the king decided."

Thor snorted. "Then he's wrong, and I will prove it to him." Thor declared the words boldly, while having no idea how he was going to do that, but it didn't matter. "Come save Jane and you can show who you are. We can fix all this."

Loki looked distinctly skeptical with arching brows and a grimace, but he didn't say anything, just raised his hands in a shrug and headed for the open side.

Thor half-expected him to do something when he was outside - vanish, attack Thor, summon a dagger, something - but all he did was inhale deeply, look both ways down the corridor, and a green fire washed over his body, leaving the illusion of Sif in its place. "There," he said in his own voice, "that should make things less fraught. Try not to stumble into her, though. It would be awkward."

"You're not going to run away?" Thor asked as they started for the exit stairs.

Loki sighed. "I should. But I'm curious to see how your foolhardy plan ends."

Thor wondered if that was because he actually wanted things to be fixed. Or maybe he wanted to get his hands on the aether before he ran away, and this was all a ploy. Thor had no idea.

But he was going to try, no matter what. Loki was still tense with resentment and anger, Thor wasn't so naive to think that was all gone, but there was no way of easing it while Loki mouldered alone in the dungeon. After he helped Jane, they could talk and try to figure out the truth of what had happened to his brother.

With "Sif" at his side, Thor headed for the infirmary. In the west hall, he checked to see if the real Sif was there, but it seemed she was away from the palace when people were surprised she was 'back'. That meant the illusion wouldn't last long, if she heard she was also in the palace. She would guess that meant Loki, but hopefully they wouldn't need to hide him for very long.

Abruptly Loki left his side. Thor tensed but realized he was merely detouring to the colonnade, to walk in the sunlight streaming in through the windows.

They avoided the Great Hall and the main stairs, keeping away from Odin, and climbed the back stairs to get to the private chambers of the infirmary where Jane was staying.

At the main entry, Thor paused to look down the corridor. His mother was nearby and though he doubted she was wandering about, he didn't want to risk her warning his father too soon. Odin might also be near to check on her, and that would be a disaster.

But the hall was empty. "It's clear," he whispered and stepped out. Loki followed, still in Sif's appearance. It was a little unnerving how perfect it was.

Thor led the way to Jane's chamber, and he waved a hand at the chime. "It's Thor," he announced.

The door slid aside and Thor entered, to see Jane sitting up in the bed. She looked wan, but awake and smiling. "Thor, come in. And Sif?" Her brow creased in confusion, but smiled anyway at her guest.

But Loki didn't enter and Thor turned back. "Sif?" he asked carefully, wondering why Loki wasn't entering.

"Sif" chewed on her lip and said, "The All-Father warded the door. The whole room, I would think, to contain the Aether if it escapes. But crossing it, he'll know."

Thor grimaced. Loki couldn't enter, then, or Odin would know he was out immediately. That left only one solution, Thor had to bring Jane out. He strode up to the bed. "Are you well enough to stand? We need to go elsewhere. We think we..." he glanced back at Loki then Jane, "have a way to get the Aether out of you."

"You do? That would be wonderful." She threw back the blanket on her lower legs and got to her feet. Thor stayed close in case she fell, but she seemed steady as she slipped on her shoes and wrapped a mantle draped on the nearby chair over her thin gown.

Loki kept a wary eye on the hallway, and when Jane was near she frowned curiously. "Where are we going? You both seem very tense."

"We're taking you somewhere to save your life," Loki said shortly. "So stop wasting our time."

Jane drew her shoulders back, stiffening with offense, but said nothing as Thor ushered her out the door. "Where can we go?" he asked.

Loki glanced in the direction where Thor had seen their mother, and then turned the opposite way. "We need not go far, only a place without a ward."

True to his words, he opened the door of the waiting area, which was used as a place for family members to entertain themselves while waiting for the healers to finish their work. Today it was unoccupied and the large corner room was mostly empty. Its tiled floor was scarcely scuffed by any use, and decorative columns framed one wall open to the air with a view of the western city. A group of padded chairs, a lounger, and small side tables were the sole furniture pieces, and Loki led the way there after he shut the door.

Green fire washed over him, erasing Sif's image to restore Loki's in more ordinary fighting leathers. "There. Better. Sit there, Jane Foster."

She blinked at him and stared. "Loki? But- I thought-" Her eyes went to Thor's in confusion. "What's going on?"

"Taking the aether out of you before you die," Loki reminded her.

"You can do that?" she demanded.

He shrugged and forced a grin at her. "We won't know until we try, will we?"

"But I thought you were in prison, for attacking Earth?"

He snorted. "For a handful of dead mortals? No. For the terrible crime of not being dead and embarrassing the Allfather? Oh yes. Sit, Jane Foster. Unless you'd rather dissolve into scarlet fire, in which case we can keep chatting about the past."

She looked again at Thor, brow furrowed and biting her lip in uncertainty and confusion.

"It'll be all right," Thor reassured her, and she nodded and sat in the nearest chair.

Loki moved up and informed her drily, "Well, it will be better than if I do nothing, which will mean your imminent demise, but I make no promises of success."

"Loki..."

Loki flicked a glance at him. "Should I lie to her then, that I've done this before? Standing next to the tesseract for a handful of days does not make me an expert on handling Infinity Gems." He drew in a deep breath and let it out slowly. "Let us see what there is to work with." He extended a hand toward her. She shied back but on realizing he was not intending to touch her, held herself stiffly.

Abruptly his hand dropped and he whirled around to face the door. Thor more slowly followed his gaze, to find Frigga standing there. She wore a simple gown of blue, her hair in a loose braid down her back, and she was barefoot as if she'd risen out of bed.

Loki's voice was very level. "Hello, Mother." He took a step toward her and then stopped. He flexed his hands, as if to show he held no weapons, but otherwise held himself very still. "Are you well?" he asked, his voice catching a little.

She smiled. "I am."

"I'm glad." Loki asked, not taking his eyes from her. "What brings you here?"

Her brows lifted and her smile widened in amusement. "Did you think I would not notice the presence of both my sons nearby?" Thor grimaced because he hadn't, but when he looked at Loki, his brother's jaw tightened but he wasn't surprised.

"And?" Loki prompted. "What will you do about it?" With that, Thor knew he had expected her to find him, to find out the answer to that question. He'd set another trap. Thor found his hands clenching with sudden tension, hoping she said the right thing.

"I told Thor you were the only one who could help Jane Foster," she said for answer.

"So?" he countered, with chill interest. "Why did you do that? To see what I would do with the opportunity? A test?"

She took two steps nearer, shaking her head. "To help Jane," Frigga answered. "And you. If I could."

"Me? Why should I need help? I was tucked safely away," he added with a bitter twist to his lips. But despite his mood, apparently her answer was all he'd needed to believe she wasn't here to stop him as he turned back to Jane. "Shall we be on about this before more guests show up?"

By which he meant Odin, Thor knew. What was Odin going to do when he found out what happened? Or if he sensed it happening before it was finished? He would be upset that Thor had freed Loki from prison, of course, and would try to stop it, no doubt. Which was why Loki wanted to do it quickly.

But it suddenly struck him how dangerous this was. If he was wrong about Loki - if Loki was right about himself - or if the lure of the power was too much for him, even if Thor was right....

Suddenly uncertain about this plan, Thor's gaze met Frigga's. She said nothing but lifted her hand a little in a gesture for him to be patient. So he nodded. "We have some things to talk about after this," he told her, hoping she understood there was more happening than Loki agreeing to remove the Aether from Jane.

Loki held out a hand toward Jane again, and immediately the reddish fire of the Aether suffused beneath her skin and made her eyes start to glow.

"Mmm," Loki murmured, fingers bending and his wrist turning as if holding something invisible. "Yes, come forth."

While there was nothing there at first, a rivulet of scarlet fire appeared between his hand and Jane's arm. He raised his other hand to pair with the first, calling another skein of power to that palm.

"Careful, Loki," Frigga urged softly.

He didn't acknowledge her, but kept moving his hand, drawing out the fire as it coiled around his hands and writhed like something alive. Jane was watching with wide eyes and didn't dare move.

Loki was clenching his jaw, staring into the fire with such complete concentration he could see nothing else in the room. Carefully, he pulled and pulled, until the red fire diminished inside Jane's skin and it engulfed Loki's hands.

Thor could feel the power, stirring across his skin and awakening his sense of the storm even though there was none here.

With a careful delicacy, Loki brought his hands together, gathering the glowing tendrils into a fiery ball between his palms, which he shaped smaller and smaller until his hands clasped together and the glow winked out.

He let out a breath of relief, echoed by both Thor and Frigga, and he collapsed to his knees, visibly exhausted.

"Are you all right?" Jane asked in concern.

Before he could answer, the door slammed open. Thor whirled around to see his father holding a glowing Gungnir. "Release it at once!" he bellowed in command.

Loki opened a hand to display a glinting ruby gem sitting in his palm and he laughed softly. "Why should I?" he whispered. He closed his hand around it again.

"Loki! No!" Odin commanded.

"You said that before, do you recall?" Loki asked with a poisonous civility. "Shall I show you what happened after that? Shall I show you what you wrought that day?" He rose to his feet, gem still hidden in one outstretched fist, as tendrils of red flame spun and collided around his hand. "Or do you already know?"

"Loki, sweetheart--" Frigga started, but her voice stopped at the sight of his smile.

"Do you know?" he asked. "Did you see it, too? Is that why you never asked?" He added with a harsh deliberation Thor didn't understand, "Mother? Now hush."

Scarlet strands, thin as smoke, spread from his hand. Odin stepped back, Gungnir held tight to ward it from him, but it didn't seem to help as Loki's eyes turned glowing scarlet. The walls and ceiling faded away.

Space formed around them, the dark arc of the sky above sprinkled with stars distant and unfamiliar. Stone formations appeared all around, lit by an odd purple glow.

"Keep in mind," Loki said, his tone light and conversational, "I could have you live this, not merely see it. Appreciate my mercy when you showed none of your own."

A tall, thin, cloaked figure now stood there, holding the scepter with the curved blade and glowing gem in it. Thor thought the figure was Loki, until he noticed the alien hand wrapped around the haft of the spear.

On the stone floor at its feet there lay another person. His skin was nearly the same color as the stone beneath him, which made him hard to see, but when Frigga gasped, Thor recognized it was Loki. There was also a strange blur to the image, as the hooded alien bent and placed his hand on Loki's head. Loki convulsed, screaming.

The image abruptly halted, frozen into stillness and silence. "Apologies. I didn't mean to show this," Loki said with a forced calm. "I don't actually remember it. I only see it when I sleep. Let's move on to the fun." He glanced at Odin. "This part you'll enjoy the most because I recovered this memory so it's clear."

The surroundings remained the same but grew more detailed. Now three people surrounded the splayed form. Two of them held long, thin blades, pinning through Loki's shoulders. The third stood apart, watching as a dagger moved on its own, slicing his abdomen. Blood pooled, looking black on the stone.

"This is the only one I remember," Loki commented. "But I know it wasn't the only time-- look how I don't even scream. I knew better by then. I knew it didn't help. No one would come."

"Cease this display at once," Odin commanded. 

"Why?" Loki returned, tilting his head to glance at Odin with glowing scarlet eyes. "Is it boring? Did you already watch it the first time? Oh, see, now Maw's peeling the skin back. Jotnar have the same insides, it looks like."

"No, Loki, why--" Frigga choked out. Jane put her hand over her mouth, distraught, and Thor wished he could comfort either of them, but his own horror fixed him to the floor.

Loki didn't turn his eyes from the scene. "Why show you? I waited and I waited, and I thought, surely my mother would want to know what happened to her son." He fixed her with a glare of eyes glowing scarlet. "You didn't. None of you did. I knew I was right all along. I was nothing but your pet Frost Beast you dressed in Aesir clothes and made dance to your tune for your own amusement."

"Loki, that's not true!" Frigga protested. "You're our son."

"Am I?" he retorted and flicked his eyes at Odin. "He's plotting how to kill me right now, even though every word I've said is true."

"Release the Aether," Odin commanded and leveled Gungnir at him. "You are a threat to Asgard."

"To Asgard? No. To you? Very possibly," Loki returned, and bared his teeth in what was not a smile. "You see how he doesn't even refute what I said."

"Your deranged mewlings need no refutation," Odin spat in fury at him. "You will release the Aether."

"Or what?" Loki held out his palm, a tendril of scarlet fire twining around his hand. As that tendril extended into a long haft and solidified, he was holding Gungnir.

Odin's eye beheld his own empty hand with open confusion in his face, and he clenched his fist as if to prove it was no illusion.

Loki let out a peal of laughter. "It's the Reality Gem, fool," he said, grinning with malicious glee as he twirled the spear. "Did you think me ignorant of its true power?"

"Loki..." Thor started, unsure what he could say. Or what he should say, when the image of his torment still glowed on the floor. "This is... I didn't know. None of us did."

Jane swallowed and turned to address Loki, licking her lips before asking, "This was before New York?"

His eyes flicked to her, looking astonished, either that she dared to speak at all, or that she was able to speak through her horror, but he answered in a more reasonable tone, "Yes. One of the few memories I recovered of that time. You see, that scepter held the Mind Gem within it."

"The Mind Gem?" Frigga repeated in blank shock, and Thor felt equally aghast. When he looked at his father, even Odin was surprised.

"I did not know what it was until the green monstrosity cracked the chains it had put on me." Loki's smile faltered briefly then widened. "The most amusing part is, if any of you had bothered to ask me about it, I would have told you." He hefted Gungnir in his hand as if weighing it against the scepter. "Perhaps if you hurry, you might retrieve it before the mortals do something completely stupid with it."

Frigga took a step closer, her hand outstretched. "Loki..."

The display vanished, restoring the bright golden splendor of the room, and he brought Gungnir across his body defensively.

"My son," she persisted, and Thor wanted to stop her. This wasn't going to work any more than calling Loki 'brother' had worked on Earth. "Now that we know--"

He interrupting, scoffing, "What? I should return to my eternity in a cell? No, thank you." He looked to Thor. "I will fulfill the remainder of the bargain, and trouble none of you again."

Thor shook his head frantically. "No, Brother. We can fix this, please, don't go."

"Someday perhaps we can. But not today. I know what's coming and there is much to prepare." His gaze fell on Odin, who was clutching the back of one of the chairs with one hand as if to keep himself upright while the other was extended to call Gungnir to him. The spear did not waver in Loki's grip. The king's blue eye glared at Loki, who laughed at him. "No. I can make better use of it than you."

He made a slashing gesture with Gungnir, so the air opened up into a doorway framed by green fire. The other side was featureless grey mist as Loki stepped through without another word.

"Brother, wait! Loki!" Thor had taken only one step to follow when it closed. Loki was gone. Shoulders slumping, Thor shut his eyes, trying to hold onto that 'someday'. Loki hadn't said forever, he had said someday.

Jane's small hand fell on his arm and called him back from his grief. Smiling with soft eyes when she had his attention, she flinched when a chair crashed to the floor.

Thor stepped in front of her, to find that Odin had hurled the furniture in a rage.

"Where did he go?" Odin demanded of the queen. "You saw the traces. We must pursue him."

Frigga's voice was cold as Niflheim. "I will do no such thing." Her fingers twisted, as if pulling something from the nothingness and flicking it away. "And no one else will either."

"Frigga," he growled in warning and she lifted her chin to glare back at him.

"I have lost my son twice now because of you," she hissed with her own rage, her hand shaking as she pointed toward the place on the floor. "I have seen him in agony, captive and harmed, when you claimed he was dead. And I know I was deceived."

She said the last as a whisper, but it was no less powerful for that. The declaration rang through the chamber with the force of a curse, and Odin stumbled back. His step was unsteady with no spear to keep his balance. Or to enforce his will.

Frigga's mouth curled into a scornful smile and her eyes gleamed like Loki's. She turned from him and held out her arm. "Come, you two." She ignored the king utterly as she gathered up Thor and Jane with her and they left the room.

Behind them, the All-Father ordered them back, but Frigga ignored the call and shut the doors on him. As they walked down the hall, Thor eyed her, shocked. In all his life, she had rarely crossed Odin and never with such defiance that he could recall. It seemed the sight of Loki tortured on the floor had reforged something within her.

It was something the king seemed unwilling to confront, and as the hours passed Thor thought he might not do anything at all. Hopefully the king was reassessing his actions, but perhaps doing nothing was the best the rest of them could get.

Later, once Jane had been left in her chambers for rest, Thor joined his mother in her sitting room. She let out a tired sigh and rested her head against the cushions of her armchair. Thor abruptly remembered she'd been hurt recently.

"Mother? Do you need to return to the healers?"

She glanced at him as if astonished he would ask such a question. "The injury is not what pains me. When I sent you to Loki, I hoped it would be the first step to bring him back to us." She sipped her wine and shook her head, sorrow in her face. "It was a foolish hope, built on what I did not know."

Thor nodded. Neither of them had known, and because they had not, Loki had left. "He did say 'someday'," he offered tentatively. "He has much greater power now; he'll be all right."

Her gaze fixed on the golden flames in her hearth as if searching for her lost son once more. "He took the Aether and Gungnir for a purpose and he cares little for his own survival. That seems unlikely to end well."

Thor grimaced. It was no more than he feared but he wished she had said something more comforting. He set down his cup before he threw it in his anger and frustration then had nothing to do with his hands but clench his fists against his thighs. "I should be with him. He shouldn't do this alone. This vengeance." Because that had to be what Loki intended, though Thor didn't think that was all he was planning.

"I can be only a little glad he does not seek it against us." She sighed and with some effort tried to shake off the weight of her regrets. "I will watch the fires and listen to the wind, but I fear I cannot find him if he does not wish to be found."

He nodded understanding. Especially with objects of such power in hand, Loki could wrap the shadows around himself and stay hidden forever.

"But, perhaps," Frigga's finger tapped the rim of her goblet, "this is also a test to see if we look."

Thor's head shot up and his gaze met hers, with a flowering hope rising within him. Loki thought the worst of them, so it was time to show him otherwise. Whether Loki meant this to be another trap or not, Thor could not step into it again. "Yes. I think so. He may not accept my help in his quest, but I must offer it. He feels betrayed."

"He was," she murmured, eyes closing and her brow furrowed in pain. "He was betrayed and abandoned. Flesh knits," she touched the front of her gown, "but that wound might never heal."

He covered her free hand with his own and squeezed gently. "We will not give up hope. First, we must find him."

Once they found him, Thor would go to him so he would know that he was found this time. They would be together, and they would fight together as brothers, as they should. This time, Thor would keep him safe.

end.