"Do you think you can keep up with me, brother ?"

"You have no idea!"

Thor laughed and climbed on his horse as easily as if the beast had been a calm teddy bear and not a tall stallion. The blond child turned his bright blue eyes toward Loki who was already on his mount and enjoined him to follow him. The boys pushed their horses forward and started galloping under Asgard's sky. They knew their father had forbid them to go this fast on their own but isn't childhood about doing forbidden things after all? In this moment they both felt happy, free, innocent. They were brothers and there was no doubt about this.

They both let go of the reins and opened their arms to feel the wind and the speed of the horses. Thor rose his tiny fist above his head and, shared a warm smile with his brother who yelled with him:

"Odinsons!'

…

Loki's eyes opened so suddenly that the weak light of the candles hurt his eyes for a moment. He wanted to rub the tiredness off his face, but he remembered that he could not move a muscle. His bonds of magical thorns were so tight it was even hard to breathe. The only thing he could do was blinking his eyes when he was not sleeping. He was living a nightmare, being awake or not.

After Thor had pulled him back to Asgard he had instantly been arrested, imprisoned and then judged in the eyes of all Asgard. Thor tried to take his defense and avoided him the death sentence. As a compensation, Odin condemned Loki to be bounded in thorns and to remain imprisoned until another Asgardian king would undo the judgment. Loki was still wondering why Thor had been so eager to protect him. After all he had done, why was he so indulgent? Why did he save his life?

The dream he just had was hammering his brain as hard as Mjolnir. His head was still filled with the memory of this day, with his brother's smile, with his own happiness. He knew he would never feel this way ever again. It was all gone and it would never come back to him. After months of being immobilized in the thorns, anger and madness had faded somehow, making room for another kind of bitter feeling to torture his mind: regret. Not only the regret of being a forsaken and a shadow but also of all his actions. His attempt in taking over the Earth was stupid and base. He had been a fool, deluded by childish desires. But... he was not going to repent. Loki knew the real nature of what he had done but he would never apologize. Why would he anyway?

He rolled his eyes to observe the room around him. The only thing that was changing was the light of day tinted through a narrow window that was ten feet high above his head. In Asgard the sky was multiple, in one step you could go from day to night and have a beautiful sunset on your right hand and admire a cosmic night sky on your left hand. From the small window of his cell, Loki could see a handful of stars vanishing in the golden light of the sun. It reminded him of the days spent as child trying to figure where the other realms were in this endless universe.

Then, suddenly, he felt a sudden urge to get out of his jail. He had felt this way before but this time it was violent, painful and his entire body was burning. He had to break free, now! The thorns strangled him even more, cutting deeply in his flesh. He would have yelled but the iron gag was keeping him hopelessly mute. Only his eyes could move, only his eyes could cry, only his eyes could see. And they saw.

All of a sudden, all hell broke lose. By the narrow opening in the wall, Loki saw the flames before he heard the terrible noises of the explosions. The walls started to shake and massive pieces of the ceiling crushed on the floor only a few inches from the bed of thorns.

Outside everyone was running. Terrified civilians were led to safe places by soldiers who were too surprised to understand anything. Everything was exploding, and falling to pieces. Children were left alone in the chaos, crying there eyes out. Warriors were trying to get organize but could not clearly identify their enemies. Panic took control of Asgard.

Sprinting through the palace, Thor was desperately looking for his mother, Jord. He found her by the great throne and ran to her breathless.

"Thor" she exclaimed when she saw him. "My son we have to go!"

"What?" Thor hissed as he reached her. "What do you mean leave?"

"Your father gave the order to evacuate Asgard by the portals we installed. I do not know what tragedy is upon us but Odin wants the people to run away from here."

Thor nodded but his heart felt heavy. He knew that if Odin gave such orders Asgard was almost lost. He wanted to try something but it was obvious that there was nothing to be done. Everyone was fleeing and he had to make sure they could go safely. This perspective of giving up was unbearable to him but he swallowed his pride and helped his mother down the great hall. To be faster he gently lift her in his arms and ran to the nearby portal.

After an endless corridor they finally reached the portal room where two guards were still waiting for them. The sound of the explosions was getting closer as the walls of the palace were falling one by one and huge pieces of stone were falling everywhere. Apparently they were among the last people to evacuate and the two soldiers encouraged them to hurry up. Thor put his mother on the floor as they got near the portal.

"Where does this one lead?" he asked one of the soldiers.

"Earth, my prince." the man answered briefly, taping complicated codes on a magical tablet in front of him. "We must hurry your grace, the portal will not last long."

As he took a step forward, Thor remembered something. A strange feeling tickled his mind, a feeling of lack and emptiness.

Loki. His brother was still in his cell!

He brutally stopped and his mother turned to him when she heard his exclamation of fright.

"What are you doing?" she shouted as the soldiers were pushing her toward the door.

"I have to get Loki!" Thor said in a panicked voice.

"This is madness Thor, you will never make it!"

"I can't leave him behind." He took his mother's hand and pressed it against his heart. "We will meet you on Earth, mother. Wait for us there and tell father we are okay."

Jord tried to beg her son not to go but it was too late. He had pushed her in the portal along with the two guards. She fell in the vortex faster than light and sound, crossing galaxies and worlds she had never seen. The light grew stronger and stronger as she was getting closer to her target: the Earth.

Would she ever see her sons again? Was Odin waiting for her? She did not have a clue, she only knew that she was alone now. Alone and desperate.

At this moment, on Earth, somewhere in Siberia an unusual storm was ravaging the icy desert. It was a succession of tornadoes of fire that vanished a second after they appeared. But the strangest thing in all this was the people these tornadoes seemed to be "delivering". They were no tornadoes, they were the different portals created by Odin to replace the Bifrost and the people landing in the snow were the Asgardian survivors.

Of course, the S.H.I.E.L.D was there and nick Fury was speechless in front of this scene. Jane Foster had called him some hours ago to tell him that abnormal magnetic disturbances had been detected above Siberia and that it looked a lot like the ones recorded when Thor landed on Earth for the first time. The director of S.H.I.E.L.D gave at once the order to his team to go there and once he was in the place he figured that it was worst than what he had expected.

After hours trying to organize the disoriented crowd, the agents, with the help of the Asgardian guards finally got the civilians calmed down but the mess was still terrible. Relief came when Odin arrived in one of the last portal openings. His appearance gave people hope and eased things up for the human agents.

As soon as he got there he asked to see Nick Fury and was lead to him by Natasha Romanoff and Barton who had been called for the occasion. On his way to Fury's truck he spotted Jord who was surrounded by some guards and looked awfully weakened. He ran to her, leaving Natasha and Barton behind, and took his wife in his arms.

She was so relieved to see him alive. Without being able to help it she broke in tears against Odin's chest. He helped her up and gave her his arm to balance lean against.

"My love, you are alive." he said in a broken voice. "I feared the worst. I am so sorry."

"I am too Odin." Jord muttered trying to get rid of the tears in her eyes without success. "Thor... Thor stayed behind."

Odin's face became livid.

"How is it possible?" he asked.

"He helped me getting to the portal. He was about to come with me but he said he had to get Loki. I am so sorry, my love, I could not stop him. He pushed me in the portal and it was over."

Natasha and Barton had joined them. When they heard Jord they shared a glance full of sadness. Did this mean that Thor was dead? At the same time, Nick Fury was walking to them, Jane Foster trotting behind him. The scientist's arms were full of papers and complicated instruments that were showing graphics and satellite views of the area. She was still talking to Fury when they got to Odin and his wife.

"...and it would mean that this one was the last one. The disturbances are wearing off and..."

She stopped as she saw the expression of pure agony on Odin and Jord's faces. Apparently this was exactly what they did not want to hear. Nick Fury greeted the two Asgardians politely and they told him what they knew about the situation. When it came to Thor, Jane felt her blood freeze. It was not the cold of the Siberian night that made her shake at this moment, but the idea that Thor was certainly dead. Fury took Odin and Jord to the tactical tent where they would try to find out a solution.

Jane sat in the snow staring at the white snow-flakes falling gently on the ground. She knew that she would be called in a minute to explain what she had found or to show the results of the latest calculations, but she did not care, she just needed a minute to swallow the information: Thor was dead.

She fell in love with a man she had spent twenty-four hours with and then she lost him without a farewell, without seeing him. She had spent months hoping she could see him again, looking at the sky in hope that she could catch a glimpse of him. And now he was gone for ever.

She wanted to cry but no tears were coming to her eyes. She just felt dry, cold and broken.

"Ho my gosh look at that!"

"Careful, it's coming back!"

"Move, move, don't stay here!"

Dozens of voices suddenly started to shout all over the camp and the wind started to blow and converge to the large burned circle where the Asgardians had arrived earlier. Some agents tried to secure the light objects that could be blown away by the tornado and children were placed in the cars and trucks for their safety.

Then thunder hit the ground and the noise was so loud everyone was deaf for a handful of seconds. Jane held on to the trunk of a nearby car not to fall down and was blinded by the flash of lightening. When she opened her eyes, the silence was back and all the eyes were staring at the zone where the thunder had fallen. Without knowing why, Jane ran down toward it. A strange smoke was surrounding the place where the portal had opened and she could barely see where she was going.

The smoke was hurting her eyes and she had to slow down to figure out where she was walking, but she could not even see the floor, nor her legs, nor her arms or nose. Suddenly, she cried out in surprise when her foot hit something soft that made a noise of crac as she walked on it. She knelt in the snow and touched the strange thing with her shaking hands. It was an arm, and it was linked to a body and to a... coughing head.

"Hey! Are you okay? Can you hear me?" she asked, as she was trying to help the person up.

The smoke was fading more and more and they finally got on their feet but the Asgardian was so disoriented that he stumbled on Jane and they both fell back on the ground. Jane pushed back the man who was coughing his lungs out and sat by his side and slapped his back to help him breathe. She put a hand on his chest to pull him up and felt something warm and liquid flowing on her fingers. Was it blood?

"Mister you have to get up." she said pulling on his elbow. "We must get out of this smoke or it's only gonna get worst."

She could only distinguish his silhouette but it seemed to her that he nodded yes. He was terribly weak and breathed with difficulty. They got up successfully this time and walked awkwardly their way out of the smoke. She had put an arm under his shoulder to help him She heard Nick Fury's voice above all the others when she got closer to the lights of the cars that were out of the smoke.

"Miss Foster! Where are you?"

"Right here! There's an injured man here, he needs a medic!"

She was walking out of the smoke with the Asgardian tottering by her side when another voice came out of the smoke.

"Loki! Where are you!"

She recognized it at once, it was Thor!

Carried away by excitement, she rushed to Nick Fury's agents, to give them the injured man and run back to Thor. But when she got in sight, every single weapon was aiming at her.

"Do not move Jane." Fury said calmly.

"What? What the hell are you doing?"

"Don't worry Jane it's gonna be fine. Just get away from this guy."

She was completely out of the smoke and all the lights were converging toward her and the man she was helping. She slowly turned her glance to him and saw him for the first time. He had long black hair, a pale skin and dark green eyes. His features were very refined but blood was spilling from his nose and an iron gag was hiding half of his face.

She did not know what to do. He was badly hurt, now she could see the big cut in his chest, he was harmless. She was about to answer Nick Fury when the wounded man was snatched from her. She had not seen it but a big strong arm had just pulled the man away. When she turned around she saw Thor staring straight at her. He was holding the injured man by the arm and seemed to want to protect him.

"Hello again Jane." he murmured to her before turning to Nick Fury's men. "You can lower your weapons... he will not do anything."

"How can we be so sure?" Barton hissed, his arrow aiming straight at Loki's face.

"Because his powers were taken. You can believe me he is harmless."

Fury raised his fist and all his men lowered their guns. Jane felt like a huge burden was leaving her shoulders and breathed again. Then Odin went through the crowd and came to his son.

"Thor!" the old man shouted. "I can't believe it, my son. We thought you were..."

"No, father. But I bring terrible news." he turned his head to the group of agents behind his father and called. "Mister Fury."

"Yes?"

"You'd better call everyone. The Earth is in great danger."