"From which stars have we fallen to meet each other here?"
Friedrich Nietzsche


Some nights Jane dreams she's falling into the sky, bound for worlds no one's ever seen before. Her flight is ceaseless because she doesn't quite know what to imagine at the end; her dreams terminate right before she can conjure a vision of the realm of the gods. She fantasizes about the Einstein-Rosen Bridge, the culmination of all her research, the Bi-Frost, and tries to recreate the spectral lights in her mind. And lastly, she hears the echoes of Thor's promise to return to her. Those nights always end with her waking up with a pang in her chest.

She spends her days in her laboratory, working on a device that would allow her to find her way to him. It had been months since he left to supposedly quell the insurrection of his brother and he had yet to fulfill his end of their deal. She'd thought up of theory after theory on what could have happened to him as he went back to Asgard, but she had no means of ascertaining any of her ideas; and neither did it do her any good to ponder on all of the trouble he could be in. All she could do for the weeks that followed was to wait, staring up at the sky and waiting for a sign, a beep on her reader, anything that would tell her that he was back on earth once more. But none came, so she resigned herself to paving her own path – as she had for most of her life.

Erik has been nothing short of understanding, helping her every step of the way. Rechecking her calculations, staying up with her as she analyzed data, even bringing her much needed cup of coffee at precisely eight o'clock in the evening. With Darcy back in college and finishing her degree, Jane needs the company and all the support she could get – even if it is only Erik, he is more than enough.

One day, she thinks she's finally done it. They've compartmentalized the machine into a small sphere that shoots up a mass of energy into the sky that will simulate the environment of the opened bridge. Erik won't admit it, but Jane knows he fears what could happen should the trial go awry. Once he's fast asleep after their little celebration that involved Jane trying to get him to pass out with all the alcohol in her stock, Jane drives off to the middle of the dessert, invention in tow, ready to try out what could be her only chance in getting back to Thor.

Jane releases the safety and starts the procedures which will allow the device to power up. She waits in anticipation as the lights flicker and the soft hum of the apparatus starts to amplify. Just when Jane's filled with hope, the machine stops working. The astrophysicist frowns and takes a step closer to the device, but after a second she's thrown back into the air and lands on the cool sand, a good thirty feet away from her previous standpoint. She regains her bearing and rolls over to be in a more apt position to stand, but a flash of brilliant light illuminates the entire landscape. The sky above her is chromatic and there is a beam that stands out and it is centered right where her invention is.

She couldn't believe that she's actually done it. For a moment, she considers that it is another vision she's construed for her fantastical purposes, but she blinks and it's still there. The bridge is actually there. When she gets back on her feet, she runs – recklessly, at that – to the light. Like a moth attached to a flame, Jane could not bring herself away even though the event practically screamed of danger. She couldn't hear the warning tolls; all she could think of is that right in front of her is what she has dreamt of her entire life, is the way to the worlds she's always believed existed beyond their human grasp.

Jane runs and runs and runs, until her feet are no longer on the ground and she's not running, but falling.


Not in the first time of the history of man does one learn that actuality is quite different than what occurs in the realm of dreams.

Jane is weightless in this tunnel of light, this rainbow bridge, and she speeds through space as though time is a non-existent dimension. She can name the first few stars she passes and then she enters unfamiliar territory to mankind. The fact that she's the first human to gaze upon these constellations astounds Jane and terrifies her at the same time. She is alone, light-years away from her kind, and only presently does it register that this was – is – a terrible idea.

But it is too late for her to turn around now. The desperation to be reunited with Thor dwarfs her instinct to be safe and sound in the comfort of her laboratory. Is this not what she had worked for? Possible misconstrued relationships aside, Jane wants this – to be closer to the stars, to have other worlds in her reach.

So when she perceives another world with upstanding towers of gold that shines like it is a sun in itself, Jane can only assume that she has stumbled upon Asgard. Her heartbeat races as she sees that her reconstructed bridge ends on a literal bridge leading to the realm of the gods – her god – and Jane can't believe that she's actually made it.

She reaches out, the light bending around her hands, and it is so close that she feels something solid on her fingertips. The tunnel fades around her and she is left grasping on the ledge of this new world. She screams out for help as she feels the muscles in her arms strain with every second she tries to hold on. But Jane has never thought of physicality as her strong suit; rather, her intellect had kept her afloat in the world for so long – it had brought her here, had it not? – that she'd overlooked the need for strength and endurance. When she hears the drumming of someone else's steps to her direction, it is too late.

Jane is falling again.


There is no channel directing her motion this time around. She feels as if she is falling endlessly; there is nothing around her to signify the distance or the time that has passed since then and now. She experiences every emotion as she falls, but mostly there is fear as she questions the possibility of her ending back on earth.

Where else she could end up? There were other worlds, Thor had told her, but which one could possibly be habitable for her? Would she end up murdered on sight in the next world for simply being human, Midgardian? Perhaps she should have brushed up more on her mythology – maybe that would have allowed for a slightly better understanding of where she is headed to. All she can recall is Thor's lulling words as he explained how everyone and everything were connected to the world tree, Yggdrasil.

Jane closes her eyes. It is a miracle that she's still alive and breathing in what should be the vacuum of space, but soon, she thinks, soon she'll probably burn up as she closes in on a star instead of another world. The silence is maddening, but Jane tries to compensate through the tears that pass her closed eyes by thinking of all her loved ones. It is the only comfort she has.

Jane doesn't want to admit it, but at this point she's waiting to die. Like the many other scientists she's idolized, Jane likes the fact that at least she would perish in pursuit of knowledge.

So she falls and falls and falls, until she no longer feels weightless and there is a mass of land beneath her. She's no longer falling and she's finally somewhere. After an infinite trip, Jane is too tired to register anything of her surroundings. Her eyes remained closed, her breathing ragged, and her hands clutching the land beside her – as though any moment it could be taken away from her.


When she awakes, she takes in her environment despite the fatigue that tells her to keep her eyes shut. It would appear that she had landed on a rock floating in space – a meteor, perhaps? Everything is tinted dark blue, as though it is perpetually night; there is no sun , no massive star centered at the orbit, but there are galaxies – brilliant shimmers and swirls of blue and violet, interstellar dust and stars. As Jane further inspects the heavens, she could see moons nearby as well, impressively large and close enough for Jane to see its craters. All in all, it is a astonishing sight, despite its grimness.

After she blinks, she spots a cloaked figure stepping out from one of the tall pillars and Jane yelps, unsure of this new lifeform she's encountered. She is still sitting on the floor, her back supported by another column.

It first speaks to her in an undiscernible language. At her look of confusion, it – he? – starts over.

"Midgardian."

The way it speaks is patronizing, as though it is belittling her for being from earth. Jane would defend her race if she had any idea what to say, but her tongue acts as though it has never learned to speak. She swallows the moisture in her throat and prevents bile from rising up at the sight of the creature's blood-covered teeth.

"How far you have wandered, Midgardian." One moment it is in one place and the next, it is displaced meters away. Jane has to blink to make sure that she is not simply hallucinating. "What is your name?"

"J-Jane Foster," she says, stuttering. "Where am I?"

"You are in His domain, Jane Foster. Trespassing," it hisses. It takes another step and now it is right in front of her, hand wrapped around her throat to bring her up on her toes. "Do you wish for your demise to come so soon?"

"P-please," she chokes out. Jane's vision blurs, but her eyes remain fixated on the creature before her. How it has no eyes, only blinds which cover the upper-half of its face; how the red of its teeth stands out against the blue veins of its skin. Her fingers are clawing at its hands, yet he does not release her. "Please."

It feels like another lifetime – like she has fallen yet again – passes before he lets her go. She takes in a huge gulp of air and lets it sit in her lungs, her whole body convulsing all the while, before she breathes it out.

"Jane Foster. A vessel for darkness, a portent for the death of the universe. You possess a strength unmatched by ordinary humans. You will bear an infinity stone within you." It recites mechanically; but she is still too busy recovering to note anything it says. "You can be of use to Him."

Before she can speak another word, the landscape around her shifts. The rocks blur out and the stars in the sky disappear; her vision is filled with only darkness. Her mind, nothing.


When she finally comes to her senses, Jane realizes that she is now in a dim room with the only light source being one torch hung to the wall on her right, its blue flame lambent. She sees no windows, no doors, no way in or out – but she is not alone.

"So you live." The flame flickers and casts light on the stranger's face. Jane can only see little from the distance between them, but she can tell that the other person she's entrapped with is a man – whether he is from Asgard or another world, she couldn't tell, but his form isn't as foreign as the previous creature. His eyes are fixed on hers and it is all she can do to return his gaze. "The Other should have killed you if he didn't foresee a purpose for you. You must be truly remarkable, then, Jane Foster."

The fact that the person before her knows of her identity takes her aback.

"All my prayers, and it is you—" When he refers to her, there is a hint of repugnance in his tone. He stops mid-speech and shakes his head. Instead of completing his thought, he looks to the wall with the torch. The new angle allows Jane to observe his profile; the steep slope of his nose, the sharp angle of his cheek, the clench of his jaw. There is a grin on his lips and a manic glint in his eyes – his face, the model of madness.

With a blink of an eye, he stands closer to her than before. Just like the creature before – or The Other, as he had mentioned – this man had incredible speed which her human eyes could not perceive. Or is it a means of magic, some kind of teleportation? Jane does not know what it is that makes them move from one place to another so quickly.

He does not take a step further. Jane stares up at him from her seated position and his expression changes from frenzied to disconsolate. His hand shoots up and curls into a fist, banging it on an invisible wall she hadn't noticed is there between them.

"Why is it you who must find me here, between worlds? He should have just let me die. They should have let me die," the man spits out bitterly before walking back to his end of the room. "Odin, Frigga, Thor—"

The god's name rings an alarm in her head and she's on her feet, walking to the center of the room. "You know Thor?"

"Know him? Ha!" The man laughs as he parks himself, back reclining on the wall, long legs stretched out on the floor. "Had he not bothered to mention me at all during your little tryst?"

The referral of his spending on earth with her as a mere tryst is insulting; Jane feels indignant and ready to slap the smug off his face, but she almost walks into that wall she could not see, and he snickers. Now, the earlier curiosity of his identity is replaced with rage.

"Who the hell do you think you are?" she lashes out, hitting the wall with her bare hands, kicking at it with her worn out trainers. "Thor is a good man. He saved my town from an alien machine that threatened to destroy everything, he taught me the way to the stars—"

"Taught you?" the man interrupted. "But he didn't show you? Why, because he didn't deem you important enough; because you are a mortal whose lifetime is but a breath to him? Thor, the golden prince—you truly believed him to be your equal? Then you are a greater fool than I thought, Jane Foster."

"He left because he had to deal with something in Asgard. His brother, Loki, threatened to destroy the rest of the realms—"

"Oh?" Again, he interjected. "Is that a fact or a postulation of your making to ease your discomfiture at the notion of him not returning to you? Had he whispered sweet promises into your ear, kissed your hands; like how he was taught to do to ladies of the court? Had he led you to believe that he could possibly choose you over the throne of Asgard?"

"I don't care about any of that! What matters is that Thor is a decent man – god, whatever. He is a worthy prince and to-be king."

"He is not worthy! He is but a child in his yearning for the throne. He would wage war and put Asgard in peril just so he could quench his thirst for blood. He would kill our people before he could lead them."

"And who are you to say such about him? How do you know Thor?"

The man stands up again, dusts off his pants, and takes long and slow strides to meet her at the middle.

"Thor is – was – my brother," he answers as he takes the final step. Jane could not look away from his intense gaze and could only watch as the light of the flame flickered its brilliant blue in the depth of his irises. "I am the shadow of his being, the evil he loved to spurn when he himself was no better!"

"You're…" Her breaths are terse. "You're Loki."

"And you, Jane Foster." Loki smiles, baring his teeth. "You have fallen so far from home."

So have you, Jane thinks as she recalls holding on to Asgard on the tips of her fingers. This is not at all what she expected when she decided to test out her machine. She had thought she'd be with Thor, that he'd let her study the stars of his world and that of the others – not this, whatever this is: being trapped in a cell with his renegade brother somewhere between worlds.

But so long as she isn't alone, Jane decides, she just might be okay.