"He's coming!"

"Jane, wait a minute!"

"Come back!"

Heedless of the words of her close friends, Jane ran toward the cyclone of dust that had kicked up in the middle of the Aurora Borealis that had appeared in the sky.

"You're back!" she shouted, overjoyed. "You came back! You're back! Thor! You're back!"

As the dust cloud began to settle, a figure of a man with a cape became distinguishable in its midst, and Jane ran towards him.

"You're back!" she cried. "You're back! "You're-!"

Suddenly, she realized that the man was not Thor.

"…not…him," she finished as she stopped short, stunned, as the dust settled.

"I'm sorry," said the man, his back to her, as well as to Erik and Darcy, who had run up beside Jane. "Were you expecting someone else?"

"I…uh…yes," stammered Jane, embarrassed.

The man chuckled slightly. "Well, in that case, I do not need to open my eyes to find out which realm I've landed in." He stood up - he had been down on one knee - and turned around to face the three mortals who were staring at him, dumbstruck. "Hello, Jane," said Loki. "It's nice to finally meet you in person."

Many lightyears away, on Asgard, Thor roared and rose to his feet in frustration as a cloud covered Earth, making it impossible for him to see who had just landed there.

~o~

The man standing in front of Jane was wearing a green cape, similar to Thor's red one, but his outfit, though certainly Asgardian, was much less armor-like than Thor's, and the featured color was green. He had straight black hair that was slicked back and came down close to his shoulders, and he would have been very attractive, if in a different way from Thor, except that his skin was a blue-white color, his eyes were red-violet and glowing, and red streaks slashed across his face like cuts in his skin.

"Who are you?" asked Darcy.

The Asgardian smiled. "If I told you that, no doubt you'd be upset…" He turned to the sky. "Not that it really matters."

"Um…" said Jane hesitantly. "Do, um…well, you're from Asgard, right?"

The Asgardian laughed. "I was once," he said cryptically, "but no longer."

"Okay…" Jane said slowly. "Um…do you know Thor?"

The Asgardian laughed softly but didn't turn to face her. "Indeed I did," he answered; "very well."

"Okay…" Jane said again, wondering why the Asgardian was so fixated on the sky. "Do you know where he is?"

"Doubtless, he is sitting on the throne of Asgard, as its new king," the Asgardian replied. Then, at last, he turned to face her. "He will not be coming," he told her.

"Why not?" asked Jane, her mind moving slowly to absorb this statement.

The Asgardian shrugged. "He cannot. It is no longer possible for anyone to travel between the realms, due to his actions."

Jane's head was spinning, and she was too dumbstruck to think, but Darcy asked, "Then how'd you get here?"

The Asgardian smiled. "I have…a gift," he replied. "You see, there are secret, isolated passages between the realms, but to my knowledge, only I have the ability to sense them without guidance."

"So…can you go get Thor, then?" asked Jane timidly.

The Asgardian laughed again, and Jane realized what was so strange about his laughter: there was absolutely no humor or mirth in it. "If only," he answered. "Sadly, I am no longer welcome there."

"Why not?" asked Darcy.

Before the Asgardian could answer, however, Erik spoke at last.

"Are you okay?" he asked. "You don't look so good."

The Asgardian looked silently at his bare hands, as though only just noticing that they were a bluish-white color. Then, he closed his eyes, raised his head, and breathed deeply, his sigh one of relief and relaxation.

Suddenly, his skin faded from bluish-white to waxy whitish, then to the typical brownish-pink of normal human skin, the strange patterns on his face faded away, and when he opened his eyes, Jane, Darcy, and Erik saw that they were a deep blue and no longer glowing.

"Better?" he asked, seeing the surprise on their faces.

The group of three nodded wordlessly, staring at him. As had been expected, he was very good-looking; more of a beautiful-handsome than a rugged-handsome, but extremely pleasing to the eye all the same.

"How…" Darcy said hesitantly. "How did you do that?"

To her surprise, the Asgardian bowed slightly and said, "Forgive me for my prior appearance; a year and five days in the icy realm of Jotunheim, and as much time living among my blood-kin, nearly undid the transformation the All-Father worked on me in my infancy; the warmth of this realm has allowed me to regain my preferred my form, and banish all semblance of my natural one."

"Who are you?" asked Jane, his words meaning absolutely nothing to her. "And how did you know my name?"

The Asgardian smiled. "I know your name, Jane, because you are my brother's woman." His smile widened, but it wasn't a pretty sight. "You are the woman who changed him, and made him worthy of his powers, title, rank, and right to the throne of Asgard…and the one who made him wish to protect the Frost Giants from annihilation. Rather ironic, really, that the change you induced in him caused him to feel the need to destroy any chance of seeing you again, simply so that he could prevent the destruction of a race of beings he had no reason to believe to be anything but monsters."

"You…" Jane breathed, shock temporarily preventing her from reacting.

"Me," replied the Asgardian with a nod. Then, he bowed formally. "Loki Silvertongue, at your service," he said graciously.

"Loki?" exclaimed Darcy. "Thor's brother? The freak who tried to kill him?"

Loki sighed. "While I do not understand the logic behind your calling me a freak, apart from that, yes, that is I, though I am not proud to admit it."

"What are you doing here?" Jane demanded, anger rising past the shock.

Loki smiled humorlessly. "It seems what gods exist in this universe feel that this is to be my home…Either that, or my already-miserable existence is to finally be put to an end by your hand, if your anger at my past actions is great enough," he replied.

Jane blinked, unsure how to respond.

"Why can't Thor come, again?" asked Darcy.

"Why does it matter to you?" asked Loki in reply. "You are not his woman."

Darcy was rendered unable to respond, but Jane said, "Answer the question."

Loki sighed. "My brother has destroyed the Bifrost - the Rainbow Bridge," he said. "Oh, I'm sure he would return here if he could," he added, seeing Jane's expression, "and he did not wish to destroy it, but he felt that the race of Frost Giants was more valuable than keeping his word to you, for reasons I still cannot fathom."

"I don't understand," said Jane. "What are Frost Giants? What do they have to do with the bridge?"

"It is a long story," Loki said with a shrug, knowing that that was the common expression to use in such a situation, and that Jane would beg him to tell her anyway.

"So tell it," demanded Jane, exactly as she knew he would.

Loki gave a long-suffering sigh.

"Long ago, a war was fought between the people of Asgard and those of a realm called Jotunheim, the latter being a race known as Frost Giants," Loki began. "That war ended around the time I was born, with the Asgardians being the victors. The people of Jotunheim had a war relic similar to Mjolnir, called the Ice Casket, which could magnify a Frost Giant's powers over ice to the degree of encasing an entire being in ice within seconds. That relic was taken from them at the end of the war and locked on Asgard, and they have since sought to get it back…or, at least, so it was assumed."

"What does any of that have to do with-?" Jane began.

"Less than a day before you met my hapless brother, he was to be crowned king of Asgard," Loki continued, interrupting her. "His coronation was cut short when some Frost Giants broke into the armory on Asgard in an attempt to take back the Casket…less than a second before his being crowned king would have become irrevocable, which is fortunate. The Destroyer stopped the Frost Giants before they could return to Jotunheim, and no great harm was done, but my brother, being arrogant and battle-hungry, plead with our father to restart the war with Jotunheim. Our father, realizing that this meant that Thor was not ready to be king, refused, and cancelled his coronation. Angry and self-righteous, my brother gathered Lady Sif, the Warriors Three, and myself, and went to Jotunheim seeking battle." Loki sighed. "I will admit that I had a great deal to do with all of these events," he confessed. "It was I who let the Frost Giants into Asgard, to spoil my brother's big day, and I manipulated him into going behind Father's back to Jotunheim - though it didn't take much!" he added defensively, seeing the looks on the three humans' faces. "All I did was give him a tiny bit of encouragement, then try to talk him down once he got the idea in his head - admittedly knowing that that would only encourage him all the more - and he did the rest! Really, all I did was give him a little nudge, one that would have done nothing had he not already been arrogant and selfish!"

"Excuses, excuses," said Darcy.

Loki glared at her. "I wanted to make Father see that he wasn't worthy of the throne," he told them, "because he wasn't. You yourselves saw what he was like - going on and on about being 'the mighty Thor', looking down on everyone and thinking he could do anything with impunity." He shook his head angrily. "Father always told us that it is a king's duty to prevent war, not declare it, but the way my brother was, he would have started warring with the other realms before bearing the crown for a full day! I never understood how Father failed to see this, and why he always looked down on me and passed me over in Thor's favor, no matter what Thor did or how hard I tried to do better." He sighed angrily. "At any rate, we went to Jotunheim, though not before I secretly told Father where we were going - yes, I admit I did that too, which was fortunate, as we would all have perished had I not!" he added defensively as Jane and Darcy opened their mouths. "Thor and the king of the Frost Giants had a brief exchange, and we were offered a chance to leave, which I accepted, and tried to get the others to, but one of the Frost Giants threw a petty insult at my brother, and…well, that was all it took; my brother attacked, forcing all of us to fight. During the battle, one of the Frost Giants managed to lay a hand on one of the Warriors Three, whose skin was burned by its frost touch. He called a warning to us not to allow them to touch us, but a second later, one of them grabbed my wrist." He paused and looked at his hand, as though he had never gotten a good look at it before. "It did not burn me," he said. "It did not even hurt. It merely felt…peculiar. The gray color of Frost Giants' skin spread from the point of contact, and it felt as though ice was spreading through my body, not from the Frost Giant's hand, but from my marrow." He shook his head as though trying to clear it. "I slew the Frost Giant who held me, and my hand went back to normal, completely unharmed. I didn't have time to wonder at it, though, not then. At any rate, we eventually fought our way back to the gate, but of course, the Gatekeeper could not open the way back for us, not with the Frost Giants on our heels. Fortunately, as I said, Father came and rescued us, and only just in time. Once we had returned to Asgard, he and my brother argued; Father tried to make Thor see that going to Jotunheim in pursuit of battle was foolish and reckless, and Thor tried to make Father see that war was the answer, not that it was or is. Their argument grew heated, and my brother called my father 'an old man and a fool'…and at long last, after millennia of effort on my part, Father was finally forced to acknowledge Thor for what he was, and banished him here."

"Wait, wait, wait," Darcy interrupted. "Millennia?"

"Yes," Loki replied. "I still find it hard to comprehend why it took so long, even considering the circumstances, but-"

"You're telling us you're thousands of years old?" Darcy exclaimed.

Loki blinked. "Yes," he answered. "Why does that surprise you? I am aware that the lifespans of mortals such as yourselves are significantly shorter than that, but I have been a part of the mythology of your race for several millennia already."

Darcy blinked, embarrassed. "It's just…you don't look old," she said sheepishly.

Loki tilted his head, as though considering this, then gave her an odd half-smile. "Thank you," he said, his tone indecipherable.

"So then what happened?" Jane asked quickly.

Loki turned to Jane. "Then, he met you, and you know much of the rest of his story," he replied. "As for what happened back home - back on Asgard - Lady Sif and the Warriors Three were debating about what to do about Thor's banishment. They didn't want to leave him here; they failed to understand his faults, and that he deserved what he got - which is understandable, I suppose, as they were, and still are, his friends. One of them - Volstagg, the one who was hurt by the Frost Giants' frost touch - did little more than eat and complain about his burn wound. A whole day passed thus, and I finally had time to wonder at how he was so grievously wounded while I was completely unharmed…and I had a sudden thought, one that made everything clear to me." He closed his eyes and sighed, his tone becoming distant as he began to lose himself in the painful memory. "I went down to the armory, where the Ice Casket was kept," he said. "I held it in my grasp, picked it up, and felt its power flow through me…as though it were part of me. That was when I knew…I was not an Asgardian. I am not an Asgardian, not by blood. No…" He clenched his fists and sighed painfully. "By blood, I am a Frost Giant myself."

"You don't look like one," Darcy said, sounding surprised. "I mean, not that I know what they look like…What do they look like?"

"Oh, they look nothing like me," Loki reassured her. "Well, not right now. They look a bit like the way I did mere minutes ago." Seeing the confusion on the faces of his audience, Loki explained, "The All-Father - Odin - is very powerful. When he found me, he worked a change on me, transforming me into a member of a different race. I realize this may be hard for your kind to comprehend, but such is the power of Odin One-Eye."

He paused. When Erik, Jane, and Darcy were silent, he continued, "No sooner had I realized what I was than Father came to me and told me the truth: not only am I a Frost Giant by blood, but I was the son of King Laufey."

"So you're the prince of the freezer people?" Darcy asked.

"Frost Giants," Loki corrected, "and yes, I was…by blood, nothing more." His fists clenched, and he turned back to the sky. "Suddenly, everything made sense to me," he said, a cold fury creeping into his voice. "Why nothing I did, and nothing Thor did, seemed sufficient to change the fact that Father favored him over me. It had nothing to do with who I was, nor with who he was; Father simply didn't want a Frost Giant on the throne! What was more, when I asked him why he took me, he told me he hoped that one day I would be able to bring about a peace between our two races. A tool - that was all I was to him! An ancient relic, left over from the war, locked away on Asgard until he had a use for me! I wasn't his son! I wasn't even a person to him! I was…I was…!" Loki shook his head angrily, temporarily rendered speechless by his rage. "I was nothing to him!" He gritted his teeth. "That would have been bad enough, had he at least been honest with me about it from the start," he snarled, "but he made me think, all my life, that I was Loki Odinsson…that I was somebody to him. He gave me the illusion, all my life, that I had a chance, that I could be worthy in his eyes, that it was my fault that he looked down on me!" Tears welled in his eyes - tears of both rage and pain, that had been withheld for far too long - and he paused, fighting to keep holding them back, while Jane, Darcy, and Erik stared at him in shock.

It was a full minute before Loki trusted himself to speak again. He took a deep breath. "I was angry when he told me this," he continued in a low voice, "and I shouted at him…essentially what I just said to all of you. Between my rage and Thor's banishment, however…it was too much for him. He collapsed into the Odin Sleep."

"So it was you who killed him, not Thor?" Jane exclaimed.

"The Odin Sleep is not death, Jane," Loki replied. "It is merely an affliction of his, a result of his age. It happens every now and again, and it is a simple matter of him falling into a coma, nothing more, if one from which he cannot be awakened, and during which he must be cared for intensively." He sighed. "Unfortunately, in this particular instance, because it was brought on by stress, it was unexpected, and we were not prepared for it. Mother - the queen - was therefore deeply concerned that he would never wake, and refused to leave his side."

"So Thor was here, Odin was in a coma, and the queen was…"

"Otherwise engaged," Loki finished for Darcy, nodding. "That left no one to take on the responsibility of being ruler of Asgard…save for me." He gave the others a twisted smile. "And a realm should not be left without a leader. How your kind manages to get by without one absolute ruler is beyond me."

"We don't do it very well," Darcy said, almost to herself.

Loki's smile widened. "Indeed," he agreed, "but we digress. To return to what I was saying, yes, the duty of ruling Asgard fell to me…but I knew it was temporary. I knew, as soon as any of the house of Odin was available to rule once more, I would be pushed aside, and what I foolishly managed to convince myself to be my chance to prove to Odin that I was not a Frost Giant, and that I was worthy of his name, would be gone." He sighed again. "I was desperate," he said, looking at the three humans who were all but entranced by his story, "and I did some things out of desperation that I would take back, if I could…most notable of which was sending the Destroyer to wreak havoc on your realm and kill my brother. I feared that he would return, and I knew I would lose everything if that occurred…Of course, I had nothing to begin with, but I held on to false hope, for it was all I truly had." He sighed again, this time sadly. "It was not my brother's fault that Father did what he did to me," he admitted, "and I should not have taken out my pain on him…nor on the people of this realm. My action thus was an atrocity for which I cannot even begin to ask for forgiveness. In my defense, I was not thinking clearly, though I am aware that that is no excuse."

There was silence for a minute.

"About why Thor can't come back…" Jane began hesitantly.

Loki sighed again. "While my hapless brother - and, later, Lady Sif and the Warriors Three - were here on Earth, I worked to prove myself to Father before he awoke," he continued. "I lured King Laufey of Jotunheim to Asgard, telling him that he could reclaim the Ice Casket and kill my father in his sleep. He accepted, having no reason to doubt me once I told him that it had been I who had allowed the Frost Giants to break into the armory on the day that would have been that of my brother's coronation. Just as he was about to slay my father, I slew him-"

"Which one?" Darcy asked suddenly.

"I beg your pardon?" Loki asked, confused.

"Which father?" Darcy asked. "Odin, or that freezer guy-?"

"Frost Giant," Loki corrected, "and I slew Laufey, not Odin. Laufey was not my father, blood or no." He paused, then went on, "No sooner had I done this than Thor returned…but I was so close. I had but one last thing to do to complete my plan, and I couldn't stop then, not after I'd come so far. So I brushed aside my brother's accusations and went to the Bifrost to destroy Jotunheim."

"To destroy Jotunheim?" Jane exclaimed. "How-?"

"Oh, come now, Jane, surely you of all people can guess at the potentially destructive force of the bridge," Loki said. "I opened the gate to Jotunheim, then used the powers I hold over ice - the powers that are mine by blood, which are not easy for me to use but remain mine nonetheless - to freeze it open. I knew that if the gate between the realms was open long enough, the force of the bridge would completely obliterate Jotunheim." He paused to shake his head with the remnants of the surprise he had felt at the time. "To my complete surprise, however, my brother came to stop me," he said, his tone one of mild aftershock. "He came after me to save Jotunheim, for reasons I still cannot begin to fathom. After all, he had no reason to think of the Frost Giants as anything other than monsters." He shook his head quickly, as though trying to clear it, then went on, "We argued. I had to goad him into actual combat - which was a first, and came as no small surprise to me." He looked at Jane. "I threatened to harm you," he admitted. "I didn't mean it; I only wanted him to fight me, so I could prove that he was no greater than I." He closed his eyes, a pained expression on his face. "We fought. He overpowered me, if only just barely, but there was nothing he could do to save Jotunheim…or at least, so I thought." He opened his eyes again and looked at Jane. "Being unable to close the gate, he took Mjolnir and smashed the bridge with all his might. I tried to stop him, pointing out that if he destroyed the bridge he would never see you again, but he didn't pause…or no, wait, he may have paused, for a moment," he amended, a hint of cynicism creeping into his voice. "I think he may have said out loud, 'Forgive me, Jane', but nothing more. He destroyed the bridge. The break caused a massive explosion, which left us both falling towards the hole the destroyed Bifrost left behind, but just in time the All-Father awoke and grabbed Thor, who had in turn grabbed me…well, Odin's staff, which I was wielding at the time, and which I was holding onto." He sighed painfully. "I looked into the All-Father's eyes, and I knew he knew everything I had done, and tried to do…and I saw a cold fury there that told me that he didn't understand. I wanted to explain myself to him. I wanted to make him understand my actions, so that he might look at me favorably for it. But I had little time. So all I said - all I could say - was, 'I could have done it, Father. For you.'" Loki's fists clenched again. "And he looked at me, his gaze colder than any Frost Giant's touch, and he said, 'No, Loki'…and I knew what that meant: that not only could I not destroy Jotunheim, but no longer was I to call him 'father'…no longer was I his son, not that I ever was. He banished me from Asgard with those words…so I allowed myself to fall, as I had nothing left." He gave a humorless smile as he finished, "I should have died, but it seems I fell just in time to pass through the opening to Jotunheim before it collapsed. I have spent my time since then in Jotunheim, seeking a way out - though I was welcomed there, I have no desire to be a Frost Giant, thanks to the All-Father's having raised me."

"They welcomed you?" repeated Darcy, surprised. "Even after you killed their king?"

Loki gave her another humorless smile. "I explained what happened to them, much as I just did to you, if in far fewer words," he told her. "To my surprise, they sympathized with my plight, and forgave me for my crimes against them." He sighed wistfully, turning to the sky once more. "They are a great people," he said, his voice distant. "I have learned a great deal about them over the course of the past year and five days…enough that I wish I could accept a place among them. Sadly, I cannot; the All-Father's influence has corrupted me over the course of the millennia I spent living as his 'son', and though I now know that he could not be more wrong about them, they disgust me, and I would rather die than be one of them."

For a minute, everyone was silent.

"Thank you for telling me," Jane said finally, her tone strangely hollow.

Loki turned to her in surprise, only to see her eyes closed as she fought back tears. "You are not angry?" he asked her. "Thor broke his word to you to save a race he knew nothing of!"

"He did the right thing," Jane said softly. "I'm not upset…that he did it, and…it…it's good to know that he's not staying away because he doesn't want to come back. It's comforting."

Everyone knew that she was trying to convince herself that it was okay more than she was trying to convince anyone else, but no one said anything.

There was another pause.

"So…" Erik finally said, speaking up for the first time since Loki had started telling his story. "Why are you here?"

Loki chuckled mirthlessly. "It seems that fate has a cruel sense of humor," he replied. "I sought a way out of Jotunheim from the moment I arrived there, pledging that I would make my way in whatever realm I first came to…which, it would seem, is this one. This is to be my home now." He turned to the sky again. "It seems my life is one cruel twist of fate after another," he said, more to himself than to the others.

Again, there was silence.

"Do you…Would you like us to help you?" Darcy finally asked.

Loki looked at her. "No," he said. "I've caused you enough trouble as it is."

"Things here are different from what you're used to," Darcy protested. "You're going to have a hard time fitting in here-"

"I am a bit more well-versed in the ways of this realm than my hapless brother was," Loki told her. "I will manage."

"But-!"

"Darcy, if he says he doesn't want our help, don't pester him," Erik said suddenly. He looked between her and Jane. "Come on, girls," he said, "let's go." He turned around and started walking away. Jane followed him, and Darcy, after hesitating for a minute, followed in turn, leaving Loki alone in the middle of the desert…free, but trapped.