A/N: This is it. The tipping point.

Notes on terminology etc.:

Valaskjálf – what I named the Asgardian palace (found the name on Wikipedia and it sounded nice)

Jotun armour – Yes, I am aware that in the film we saw them wear something metallic-looking. I thought bone-armour was cooler, pun intended.

pårtyin – one of the worst insults the Jotun tongue has to offer, this basically implies that you wouldn't wipe your behind with a person's face

Three – Foreign Skin
[Loki]

This was not what was supposed to happen.

Odin, Thor and Loki were on their way to the Vault. Where Laufey was.

Laufey.

Anxiety prickled under Loki's skin like beetles crawling along his bones and he felt like he'd swallowed nightshade poison, nauseous and feverish.

This was not what was supposed to happen.

The Destroyer should have incinerated the Jötnar. And even without the metal golem's protection, the Casket should have been safe, protected by the strongest wards Loki knew how to weave.

But when the Jötnar (and their king, he thought with something akin to panic) had reached the Vault, suddenly something had pushed against his wards, and they had shattered in an instant, the force of it nearly bringing him to his knees.

Luckily, with all eyes on Thor and the Allfather, no one had noticed.

His magic still felt strange and…brittle, but Loki didn't slow down for one second, staying right behind Odin and Thor as they hurriedly passed through Valaskjálf's halls. They reached the Vault's golden doors in record time. Behind them, the Einherjar formed a wall of armour and grim faces.

"Thor, Loki, you will not speak until spoken to."

"Father, shouldn't Laufey have left with the Casket immediately?"

Why didn't he run. Why not leave for Jotunheim the moment he had the Casket. Why, why, why?

Odin turned to face his younger son, face set in an expression that Loki privately called 'the king mask'.

"By all rights he should have. I know not why he lingers, but we must be prepared for the worst."

Loki felt like his heart was going to beat out of his chest as Odin pushed the doors of the Weapons Vault open.

I did this. This isn't what was supposed to happen! How…

His thoughts ground to a halt at the sight of the Jötnar.

They stood a good two to three heads taller than the average Asgardian, all five of them clad in dull white armour that looked to be made of bone. Laufey stood in the middle, the Casket held almost casually between his hands.
The whole Vault was covered in ice, and the Einherjar who had been guarding it were naught but frozen corpses at Laufey's feet. Loki felt like he was about to keel over.

But before he could so much as take one more step towards the horrifying scene in front of him, Laufey's crimson eyes met his own, freezing him in his tracks without any magic at all.

Does he know?

Did Laufey know or suspect that he was Leif? But surely he would not have come to Asgard if…

"Allfather. You look weary."

The Jotun king didn't so much as glance at Odin.

"Laufey."

"Do you know what I came here for, Odin, son of Bor?"

Laufey shifted slightly where he stood, his unwavering gaze still fixed on Loki. He went on before Odin could answer.

"I came here, to seek the heart of our world. But now the Casket is in my hands, and yet I linger. Do you know why?"

"Your reasons elude me, Laufey."

Thor made as if to step past Odin, but thankfully his father's raised hand was enough to keep him from doing something ill-advised.

"You have stolen from me, Allfather."

Odin moved forward ever so slightly.

"And you hold the Casket now. You have already gained back what was taken from your Realm. If you leave now, peacefully, our truce need not be broken. Neither of us wants war, Laufey. Your people would not survive it, and mine would suffer for it. It would be nothing but useless bloodshed. We still have an agreement. If you leave now, I will not consider it forfeit. Your people suffer without the Casket's power, and a good king always looks to ease his people's suffering. I understand this, and I will be merciful and allow you…"

"How dare you!"

Laufey's enraged roar all but shook the Vault's walls, and the Casket lit up in his hands. Icicles burst forth from the frost-covered floor, and Loki heard a pained shout behind him as one of the Einherjar was speared by one. But he couldn't look away from Laufey, who in turn was looking at Odin for the first time since the Allfather had entered the Vault, eyes filled with nothing but hate.

"How dare you speak of mercy, you, who have shown none! Not to my people, not to my Realm! Who took the heart of my Realm and left its people to suffer, who desecrated our temples and ripped the very life from our world! And yet that was not enough! You stole my child, pårtyin! And if it would not doom my people I would kill you where you stand!"

Loki blinked in utter surprise, and one look at Thor confirmed that he wasn't the only one caught completely off guard. He couldn't see Odin's face, but figured that judging by the silence that had fallen over the Vault, the Allfather likewise had no words.

He was proven wrong a moment later.

"You are mad, Laufey. I took no child of yours."

The Jotun king looked, if that was even possible, more wrathful than before. It was a frightening sight, even discounting the Casket still clutched in his hands.

"LIAR! Do you think me blind, not to recognise my child when they are standing right in front of me!?"

Laufey pointed a blue hand at Loki in an accusing gesture, who instinctively looked over his shoulder.

…

And then spent one endless moment staring at the empty spot behind him.

…

When he – slowly, ever so slowly – turned his head back around, Laufey was looking directly at him, red eyes boring into him as if the Frost Giant wanted to look under his skin. He found that he couldn't look away, however much he wanted to look at Odin to gauge his reaction.

Laufey bared his teeth like a wild beast going in for the kill, his voice suddenly, frighteningly calm.

"You lie, Allfather. My child was stolen, hidden under a false skin and raised as your own. Words can lie, but blood does not."

With that Laufey raised the Casket, pointing it directly at Loki's chest.

For a long moment, nothing happened.

"LOKI!"

Loki didn't even realise that he had been holding his breath, his seidr gathering in his hands, until he heard Thor's horrified shout. He turned towards his brother, even though he was reluctant to leave Laufey out of his sight.

Thor was staring at him with an expression Loki had never seen on his usually jovial face. Horror, mixed with something Loki didn't dare name.

"Thor what is it?"

His brother made an odd choking sound. Loki grit his teeth. It had to be bad if it could render battle-hardened Thor speechless.

"Thor. What. Is it."

"Y-Your face. And your hands."

Blinking in confusion, Loki looked at his hands.

Blue.

It was his first thought on seeing the changed colour of his hands, and it came without any accompanying emotion. His hands were blue.
It took a long moment to connect that with the raised markings on the blue skin.

Blue skin. Jotun skin.

He had the skin of a Frost Giant.

"My child was stolen, hidden under a false skin and raised as your own."

It took a small eternity until all the pieces fell into place. When they did, Loki looked first at Thor, who was still staring at him in silent horror, then to Odin.

Odin, who was watching him with an unreadable expression, not the smallest trace of surprise written in his features.

"Father?"

"He is not your father!"

Loki's eyes snapped to Laufey.

"You are my child, and Odin stole you!"

"I did not."

Odin sounded resigned, but not angry.

"At the end of the war, I went into one of the Jotun temples, and I found a baby. Small, for a giant's offspring. Abandoned, left to die. Laufey's son."

Loki whipped his head around to stare at Odin, feeling like all his bones had been replaced with ice and his chest filled with shards of glass.

"Laufey's son."

His own voice was no more than a whisper, and it felt like the words burned his mouth.

Odin nodded.

"I'm Jotun."

The words tasted like ash.

Odin nodded again.

"Yes."

There was a loud sound of metal on stone as Thor dropped Mjölnir, but Loki didn't hear it. He wanted to run away – or maybe to wake up, because this had to be a nightmare – but he couldn't. His head turned of its own accord, so he was facing Laufey again.

"No. No! He's lying, you're both lying! He did something to me, that Frost Giant monster cursed me! He cursed me!"

Anger bloomed in his chest, filling his veins like molten lead. He pointed a hand at Laufey, green magic crackling around his fingertips.

"You did something to me, undo it! You're lying, and you cursed me! Undo it, or I'll kill you!"

If it hadn't been that of a monster, one could have called Laufey's expression sad. The Jotun king's voice was calm, and he didn't look afraid of Loki's anger, or his magic.

"It is no lie, and it's no curse. You are my son, and this is your true skin. You were not abandoned, your sire brought you to the temple to protect you. We thought you dead, and it is the only reason I did not come for you sooner."

"NO! YOU'RE LYING!"

"No, Loki."

Odin's voice cut through Loki's anger like a knife through water, leaving a numbing, cold feeling in its wake.

"What?"

"You are Laufey's son. I thought you abandoned, and that is the only reason I took you with me. I see now that it was not so, and that the assumptions I made were wrong. King Laufey is your father, and he has the right to demand you be returned to him. I thought that you were cast out, unwanted. That I took an orphan. I see now that in truth I took a prisoner. That is unforgivable, and if I do not meet Laufey's demand, he is within his rights to go to war with Asgard over you. I will not allow that."

"Father, are you mad!? How can you believe that monster's lies?! He did something to you, the Casket's magic addled your mind!"

Thor. Loki felt something like relief in the small corner of his heart that wasn't cold with soul-crushing horror. Thor would make his father come to his senses. Odin listened to Thor. Odin always listened to Thor.

"Silence!" Odin brought Gungnir down on the floor. "Thor, Loki will go with Laufey. I cannot risk another war, not even for your brother."

Thor stepped towards his father at that, Mjölnir raised in his fist.

"NO! As King of Asgard, I will not allow it! He is not taking my brother!"

Sudden as lightning striking in a storm, Thor was blasted back by a wave of golden seidr, hitting the Vault's wall with a crash.

"But you are not king! Not yet! I will not risk war for the life of one person, even if that person is Loki! THERE WILL BE NO MORE WAR UNDER MY RULE!"

Drawing his attention away from Thor, all anger gone from his features in a flash, Odin turned towards Laufey.

"Laufey, Loki is your son. But he was raised on Asgard, as one of her people. I think you will understand that, if I am to allow for him to be taken from the only home he has ever known, I must ask for more than your word in return. I am willing to negotiate, but a promise of peace is not enough."

"FATHER!"

The Allfather completely ignored Thor's cry of incredulous rage, only motioning for the Einherjar to hold his son back when Thor tried to advance on him. Mjölnir lay on the floor, rendered powerless by Odin's magic.

"What do you say, Laufey?"

Loki wanted to scream, or to…something, he wanted to do something (hit Odin, scream at his father, run away and hide, beg not to be sent away with the monsters), but it was like some magical force had frozen him. Maybe the Casket's ancient seidr had. His own magic was unreachable somewhere deep inside off him, intangible, evading his grasp like fine sand slipping through desperately grasping fingers.

"The Casket. You know that we are powerless without it. If you let me return to Jotunheim with him, I will leave the Casket behind."

"FATHER! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!"

Odin turned towards where Thor, from the sound of it, was fighting the Einherjar restraining him, his face as impassive as if his expression had been carved from stone.

"Negotiating. I must do this, Thor, for the good of Asgard."

He turned back towards Laufey, while Loki could do nothing but look on in silent horror. The Frost Giant king's eyes never left Loki's while Odin spoke, and Loki was trapped looking into red eyes filled with something that looked almost like hunger.

"Very well. You will use the Casket to travel back, but the artefact will remain here. But you cannot take my…Loki from us forever. Allow him to return, for a while, after he has spent some time in Jotunheim. A visit is all I ask of you. So we may know that he is well, and whole."

Laufey finally looked away from Loki's face, fixing Odin with a hard stare.

"Three turns of our moon. Then my child may return here. For a while."

It almost sounded like a threat.

Desperately grasping for his magic, Loki wanted to scream when not even a spark of it obeyed him. He wanted to shout at Odin, who was trading him away for some ancient trinket, to run to Thor who seemed to still be fighting to get to him. He wanted to tear all of Asgard to shreds.

But no sound left his mouth, and not even a wisp of magic lifted from his paralyzed limbs. He had never felt so utterly helpless and frightened in his whole life.

Odin brought Gungnir down on the floor again, and to Loki it sounded like a death bell tolling.

"Very well. So be it."

Laufey raised the Casket, and a mirror-like portal opened up behind him, glowing white and blue. The other Jötnar, who so far had only stood silently behind their king, stepped through it one by one, until only Laufey was left in the Vault.

Wake up. This is the time to wake up. This cannot be real. Thor probably just hit you with Mjölnir again. You are just dreaming this. Or maybe a little to much mead. Tried to out-drink Volstagg again didn't you. How stupid. Wake up.

Wake up. Wake up. Wake. Up!

Loki struggled to free himself, blood rushing loudly in his ears, and then nearly fell over when whatever bonds held him frozen disappeared. As quick as a cat pouncing on a mouse, Laufey stepped forward and grasped his arm.

Then Loki felt a sensation he had only ever experienced while travelling with the Bifröst, like and invisible cord wrapped around his insides pulling him away.

The last thing he heard before he was drawn into the void between worlds was Thor's voice desperately screaming his name.