A.N. First time posting. Two snippets. One of Jane Foster, one of Loki. In my head-canon, Alydia Rackham's "Fallen Star" happens after Thor 1, except Loki and Jane do not end up happily married in Asgard. Thanos is watching and snatches them up, believing they will both be useful. He intends to use Loki's guile and cunning to head the invasion of Earth, and originally intends for Jane to serve as hostage for Loki's good behaviour…Except he realises that she, though mortal, has the capacity to bear an Infinity Stone. Then he plans to mould her into one of his "children".
Don't own, blah, blah, blah. Marvel owns all, blah, blah. I'm poverty-stricken, so obviously don't own the copyright, blah.
As she was hurried down the razor path, she caught a glimpse of something bone-white and writhing in one of the pits. She sucked in a shocked breath.
The green-skinned woman didn't seem to turn, just was one moment striding ahead, and the next, statue-still facing Jane, dark eyes boring into her own.
"You find something interesting, Terran?" She inquired, voice rich, deep and deadly.
"Umm…uh...No! No, ma'am," Jane squeaked. "Nothing of interest here. Well, not unless you count the atmosphere bubble around the asteroids. How do you keep the oxygen concentration at the right level to maintain life? I mean, these fragments are nowhere near large enough to attract and retain the necessary concentration of gases. Is it some sort of force field...thing? Or a form of magic? O-or something?" She tailed off, realising that she was bleating on like an idiot while the green warrior's hostile expression grew amused.
"You walk the Way of Blood, between the craters where my father sends his pets to suffer in limitless agony, knowing that your Asgardian princeling and your own frail carcase may come to rot there soon, and you wonder about the air?" She laughed, an acrid little laugh.
Cold fingers clutched Jane's heart and she shuddered with fear.
"Oh, Terran, you will amuse him. And it's better by far to die at once than amuse him."
And, just as abruptly as before, the woman wheeled about, and was walking ahead with the fluid, savage grace of a panther in her movements.
Jane breathed in, then wished she hadn't and tried to cough out the nauseating stench of decay.
"It is said the stone will hold weak minds in thrall to your will," said Thanos. "Take it, Loki No-one's-son. Take up your destiny."
There was no such simplicity in the call of the amber stone as there had been in the aged and ageless lure of the Tesseract. It was a thousand shadowed whispers, hinting, lurking, seducing. His hand moved towards it, impelled by a subtler temptation. One finger brushed its surface. Electricity shot up his arm, and he gasped.
Every secret he had ever had, every lie he had ever told, was suddenly illuminated, all the private recesses of his soul fathomed in a searing instant. His mind no longer his own, shared
by the thousand hissing voices, which echoed in the stone, trapped for eternity.
Loki recoiled. The giant's grim laugh reverberated from behind him. "Is there a problem, Liesmith?"
Waves of nausea and dizziness swamped him, but he could not show weakness now, not now that the monster watched him. Not now that lives depended on his resilience. Not now that Jane -
He cleared his throat and answered.
"No, o mighty one, there is naught to trouble you. Your trinket will make a magnificent weapon, and should you wish me to create from the mortals a mindless horde to equal the Chitauri in unreasoning obedience, if not in strength, then I ask no better tool.
"However, Master, if their frail minds are shattered, how may they retain the knowledge that will lead me to your prize?"
"Enough, Asgardian. I weary of your insolence. What do you suggest?"
"That I craft a housing for this priceless treasure. One that will... mitigate its potency for use among mortals, crafting willing, intelligent servants."