Chapter 6

"Well, that went better than I expected."

Jane drags her gaze to Loki as he stands above her, brushing fragments of fractured ice from his long leather coat. She opens her mouth to deliver a retort, but the words hitch in her throat, trapped within the breath that won't free itself from her chest.

"Come on then." He extends a hand towards her. "The slaughter of Asgard's finest won't divert their attention for long."

Recoiling from Loki's reach, Jane forces herself to her knees, and then at last her feet. "Was that your doing back there?" She gasps finally. "Did you set up Odin and his men - "

She falters then, memories of Skadi's Hell Beasts ploughing through the golden-cloaked warriors still so horribly fresh in her mind. "Is it… Is it your fault they're all dead?"

In lieu of an answer, Loki holds her gaze with shrewd eyes. His expression giving away nothing. It's pointless, she realises. He couldn't care less about anyone but himself.

"If we hurry, we might make it to the same portal by which I arrived." Already Loki is turning to walk away, but Jane catches the words he throws over his shoulder. "Although whether we make it to Earth before Malekith is anyone's guess."

"Wait!" Gathering the furs around her, Jane throws a glance to their deserted surroundings of tumbled ruins and ice spires, and forces herself to run after the retreating Asgardian. Grateful for how much more pleasant it is to travel across ice with a pair of good thick boots.

Loki's strides are long and fast, and when Jane finally reaches his side, she's panting with the effort. "How do you know where Malekith is going?"

"I took the opportunity to catch up with some light reading while I was mustering an army to rescue you."

He says it so nonchalantly, Jane has to take a moment to process his words just to be sure of what he said. Grabbing his arm, she forces him to slow his pace. "Your father was amid that army." She says fiercely, fingers pressing firmly into the supple leather of his sleeve . "Did you see the way those creatures ripped into them? Because I did. And your father -"

"Relax, Jane." Loki stops, laying a cool hand atop of her own. "That man was not my father."

"But he was the All-father! And those beasts...They just..." Fighting hot tears that suddenly prick at her eyes, Jane tries to snatch her hand away. But it's Loki's turn to hold firm.

"Nor was that man the Allfather." He continues, his voice smooth and sanguine. "Rest assured, Odin is safe from harm."

"But I saw - "

"A clever trick. I"m quite full of them, you know." He winks, as if it's all a game to him. As if the death of all those men and the manner in which they died means nothing. He really is insane, Jane thinks.

The dark prince releases her then, stepping back to spin on his heel and continue picking his way across the frozen land. Jane stares dumbfounded, deeply unsure of whether following Loki is the right thing to do. He's an unrepentant murderer. A mad man. And if somehow he's telling the truth - if that wasn't Odin astride that great horse…

"Then what of all the soldiers?" She presses. "Were they just tricks too?"

"Oh, no." He doesn't face her this time, instead his words thread across the wind. "Unfortunately, their deaths were quite real."

Something twists hard within Jane's stomach. She stares at Loki's retreating back. Watching as his long strides carry him further ahead. All of those men died - for her. It makes no sense. It makes no sense that Loki would bring them here to rescue her. It makes no sense that Odin would allow a genocidal maniac to lead his army - even if he did somehow believe she still held the Aether. There's so much more that Thor's brother is not telling her. And she's almost too afraid to ask for further details. Loki's answers do nothing but cause more confusion.

"The portal is not too far ahead, Jane Foster." The words carry to her just as Loki crests a hill and disappears from sight. "I suggest you get a move on."

A soft rumble from behind causes Jane to turn suddenly. The ground trembles beneath her feet as the rumble builds to a roar, and a great segment of the Jotun palace she left behind slides away from itself; sending boulders of ice into slender spires that crack and fold in upon themselves before crashing over the edge of the ravine. Another roar rises. Human-like. The cries of men. Jotun or Asgardian, she can't be sure - until they spill from the palace's skeletal remains, swarming the rubble. Blue giants that suddenly appear so small against the carnage.

"Come on!" A hand clamps her arm, tugging her into action. She turns to meet Loki's startled eyes as he half-drags her away from the explosion. The urgency in his face is frightening. "Now! Before they come for us."

And then she's nodding, dumbfounded, allowing him to half hold her upright as they scramble towards the hill. To where the portal lies somewhere beyond.

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Jane doesn't need Loki to point out the portal. She recognises it by the way the falling snow oscillates within. It's smaller than the one she came through. Perhaps a little wider than a child's paddling pool. Though the real challenge is the fact that it hangs ten feet in the air, above a large outcrop of rock and ice.

"It appears to have drifted." Loki muses, half to himself. "But there is a possibility it might shift back."

"Really?" Jane snorts. "It might float back down to a more manageable distance? And your theory is based on… what exactly?"

"Newton's third law of motion?" Loki shrugs, before Jane's open-mouthed stare draws a nonchalant grin. "I met the man on more than one occasion. Clever chap."

Jane stares for a moment. "Right." She says slowly. "And do we have time to stand around and wait?"

"Oh no, I hardly think so." He scoffs. "In a few more hours, Malekith's ship will reach Earth. Greenwich, to be precise. He'll set a perimeter which no Earth missile will be able to penetrate. Then he'll eradicate the local population to be sure no one tries anything heroic. From there, he'll simply have to wait for the planets to fully align, and our entire Universe will be destroyed."

"Uh huh." Pressing a thumb and forefinger to the bridge of her nose, Jane squeezes her eyes shut. She wonders if Loki also met Lewis Carroll. Perhaps providing inspiration for the Mad Hatter. "And you got all this… From a few books?"

"Not entirely. I discovered the location of the Convergence from a tome, yes. The rest..." He hesitates a moment before continuing. "Well, it's what I'd do."

"Fantastic." Jane sighs, reminded again of the kind of psychopathic, power-hungry madman she's been forced to co-operate with.

"Look, I can toss you through it." He offers, changing the subject back to the portal. "Easy."

"I'm not a basketball, Loki." She winces. "What if you miss, and I end up splattered on the rocks?"

"What if you stay, and end up threaded onto a Jotun spear?" He counters coolly. "I'm sure those that remain will not take kindly to the mortal who caused the destruction of Utgardhall."

"Me!" She splutters in disbelief. "How could I…. You! You're the one who did that!"

"What makes you think I had anything to do with it?" He asks glibly. "I was already outside."

"So was I!" Burying her face into her hands, Jane tries counting to ten. He's winding her up on purpose - she knows it. But she can't stop herself from rising to his bait…

"Everything was fine until you came along." She mutters, before raising her eyes to meet his own. "They were kinda polite! Then I thought I could fast-track everything by mentioning you, and suddenly I was public enemy number one!"

He laughs. Cold and humourless. "How could you think associating yourself with me would give you any kind of safe passage?"

"Because you called yourself Loki of Jotunheim when you spoke to Malekith!. Doesn't that stand for something?"

"Yes! It stands for, the Jotun wish to kill me for trying to destroy their planet!" Loki snaps bitterly. "Does that sate your thirst for details?"

"You… You tried to destroy their planet, too?" Jane gasps.

"Evidently, it doesn't." He mutters.

She stares at him in furious silence, before finally hissing through gritted teeth, "they were going to kill me. Worse, they were going to torture me. Because of you! "

"Well Jane, you really should have thought to keep your mouth -"

"Oh. No." Jabbing a finger at Loki's chest, Jane steps closer. "Don't you dare finish that sentence!"

Loki closes his mouth with a snap before a genuine smile lights his face. "You are so easy to agitate!" Ignoring her dark look, he continues smoothly, "Unfortunately we're going to have to continue this sparring match at a later date, my dear. That portal may not stay open for long and - "

"And we've still gotta get past those guys..." Jane finishes reluctantly, her voice trailing away as she stares beyond Loki - to the three Jotun warriors who have stepped out from the rocks, to stand on guard before the cosmic gateway.

"What?" Turning slowly, Loki's eyes flutter close as he mutters, "fantastic. Seems I'll be getting that family reunion after all..."

"Family?" Jane repeats, dumbfounded. But Loki is already moving towards the warriors. Hands at ease beside him, even as his gait is that of a panther stalking its prey.

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"Helblindi." Loki stops before the grim-faced warrior who stands a half-step of his men. "How wonderful to see you survived your invasion of the Realm Eternal, brother."

"It was you who led us in, Loki." The Jotun giant rumbles. "It was you who betrayed us to Odin."

"Ah. Now you see, that was a misunderstanding." Loki allows his expression to settle into one of remorse. "I led you into Asgard to see my father killed. It simply slipped my mind to mention Laufey was my father."

The air cracks at Helblindi's side. His hand transforms into a blade of ice which he raises towards Loki's abdomen. "Whelp! I would kill you now, but that I have granted Skadi the honour."

"You do realise that, as the eldest of Laufey's sons, I am the rightful King of Jotunheim, don't you?" Loki inches forward, so that the Jotun's blade presses firm against the leather of his coat. "It is, after all, the reason as to why Odin raised me alongside his own heir."

"You were bastard born, Loki!" Helblindi spits. "And a runt at that! Your birthright was - "

"To die? Yes yes, I've heard it all before." he waves a careless hand. "But such things are mere technicalities. As Allfather, Odin has the authority to - "

"The Allfather is dead!"

"Oh? Have you spies in his palace? As that is where I saw him last. Seated quite cosy upon his -"

"He died in battle. Here, within the stronghold of Utgard." The Jotun King's smile exposes a row of pointed teeth that gleam against his deep blue skin. "Torn to shreds by Skaldi's own beasts."

"You see the thing is..." Loki returns his own slow, glittering grin. "That wasn't Odin. That was a decoy. A dedicated soldier of Asgard who wore the illusion of the Allfather and sacrificed himself for the greater good."

Helblindi's stoic expression twists into rage. The ice-sword crackles again, extending further so that it's fine point slips between the weave of Loki's jerkin. "So, Odin has grown so weak he must stoop to parlour tricks, rather than face his enemies with honour?"

"Well to be fair…" Loki grunts, feeling the thin trickle of blood down his torso, "I didn't exactly give him a choice."

From the corner of his eye, Loki can see Jane has ventured down the hill, to stand nearby. Damn. He bites his lip with a frown and wonders just how well his next parlour trick will work now.

"Which is just as well for you, when you think about it." he continues. "Because if Odin had fallen in battle, that would leave no one to rule the Nine Realms. Except for me."

"You!" The Jotun King laughs, and the warriors that flank him share in his mirth. "Have you forgotten Thor?"

"Thor is dead." Loki's eyes narrow. "He died trying to protect the realms from the Dark Elves. And yes you're right, Odin is weak. He can barely hold his own staff. It won't be long before I am the rightful King of Asgard and Protector of the Nine Realms."

Helblindi's rage deepens upon his face, but he waits, wordless.

Satisfied with the direction of their conversation, Loki continues. "So even if Odin declines to sever you from your throne, I will have the authority to do so myself - soon enough. However, should you agree to my terms - should you agree to help us defeat Malekith - I will graciously allow you to continue in your rule of this... rock."

A muscle twitches in Helblindi's jaw. He presses his sword arm forward an inch, grinning as it pars deeper into his bastard brother's flesh. "You will never come to power, little runt."

Loki ignores the sharp pain and smiles. Behind the Jotun warriors, the portal hovers. A city of steel and concrete waits beyond. At his side, he hears Jane gasp as she recognises the landscape, and for a moment he regrets what he must do next. "And you will never see Jotunheim again."

Then he throws up his arms, palms outward, a sharp intake of air hissing between his lips as he feels the ice blade jerk deeper. He uses the pain; channeling the energy until his fingers blaze with a thousand pinpricks of energy. Then he focuses on pushing the Jotuns back. Back. Teeth clenched. Until finally an invisible force shunts the three warriors backward; sending them through the portal just as it oscillates faster, and begins to close…

Leaving nothing but the sharp angles of Jotunheim in its distance.

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"What the... How did… " Jane struggles as awe and anger wrestle for dominance. "Did you just let them steal our ride!"

"Trust me, it wasn't my first plan." Loki grimaces as he presses a hand to his abdomen. Then, shooting her a dark look, "didn't I tell you to stay out of the way?"

"No! No, you didn't!" Anger juggernauting, Jane folds balled fists into her armpits to keep herself from Hulk-raging. "You just muttered something about family reunions and left me on the hillside!"

"Well, why couldn't you have just stayed where I left you!" he steps forward, narrowing the distance between them so that his presence dominates her own. "I had a plan!"

"Plan? What plan?" Unperturbed, the words escape her lips with an indignant hiss. "how was I to know there was a plan!"

Jane snorts as the Asgardian merely winces in return. "See? There wasn't a pla-" And then she stops as follows his gaze - to the blood that drips between his fingers; leaving splatters of red upon the snow.

"Oh god." She breathes. "You're not dying on me, are you?"

Ignoring the withering look, Jane prises Loki's hand from his stomach and push back his coat. Blood trickles through the punctured seam between two strips of leather weave, and she presses a hand to the gap as if holding the jerkin's stitches together will make everything okay.

"Okay, I'm no doctor so…" Swallowing hard as a rivulet of red tracks between her fingers, she looks up to meet Loki's sharp gaze. A hot flush prickles her skin as she becomes overly-conscious of his breath softly ghosting her cheek. "I… I actually have no idea what to do." She finishes quickly, ducking her head to avoid that unnerving stare.

A soft sigh ruffles the crown of her hair. Loki's hands alight upon her own as he pushes her away. "Thank you for your concern." There is a surprising lack of sarcasm in his tone. "But it's entirely unnecessary. My body will heal itself soon enough."

She pulls the furs tighter around her, dragging her fingers through the fibres to wipe away the blood. "Okay. back to the plan " She says briskly. "What were you saying about the plan again?"

Loki moves to a group of rocks. Face pinched tight as he lowers himself to sit. "I was going to create a diversion. A small avalanche. Something that would take their attention from me for a moment or two, so that I could project myself back to you and leave them a decoy."

"You… " Jane gapes; mind fumbling for words. "You can do that? You can physically… teleport?"

"Of course." he raises a brow, as if it's a small trick anyone can do. "The decoy would have fled. The Jotnar would have followed. We would have escaped through the portal." He sighs as his gaze drifts to the empty place where the portal once spun in its lazy circles. "It would have been so simple."

Jane is silent as her mind tries to understand Loki's claims. "If you can do this…" She begins slowly. Doubtfully. "Why didn't you use teleportation to get us up that cliff? Or out of the palace? Or…"

"It takes dark energy to travel so." He snaps, his tone haughty. "Such power is heavily taxing, even for one such as myself. A mortal would never survive."

"I survived the Aether." She says softly. "Maybe mortals are more resilient than you give us credit for."

"Shall we test that theory?" He levels her with a dark look. "Shall we find out just how resilient Jane Foster truly is?"

"I think you've tested my resilience well enough." She says hotly, refusing to be cowed by the sudden mad shine of his eyes.

"Fair enough." He concedes, much to her surprise. "So we find the next portal on foot."

"The next…" She frowns. "Is this land riddled with them or something?"

"Under normal circumstances, no." As Loki rises to his feet, Jane can't help but notice how he sucks in a breath and steps gingerly; for all that he keeps his expression well-schooled. "There are one or two pre-existing pathways between each realm, but the approaching Convergence is throwing out unstable anomalies - the likes of which I have never before seen."

Jane nods slowly as she thinks of the abandoned factory in London. "That one in the cave - I was sure it would take me back to Earth. But it deposited me here instead."

"Yes." he chews his lip thoughtfully. "these portals are unpredictable. This one brought me from Asgard but it sent the Jotnar to Earth"

A silence stretches between them as they both consider how close they had been to where they needed to go. "Look," Loki says at last, "we need to reach a very precise destination as quickly as possible. For all we know, that portal could have deposited us on the other side of -"

Jane clears her throat. "Pretty sure I got a glimpse of the Tower of London just before you pushed those blue guys through."

"Right." There's a weighted pause. Loki meets Jane's scowl with a roll of his eyes. "Alright fine. Should I ever need to teleport again, I'll take you with me - whether it tears your body apart or not. Deal?"

She swallows hard; equally terrified and elated by the thought.

Then, before she can find an answer, the air sparks and crackles around them. Light snapping in the air as if an invisible flint is trying to ignite.

"What the…" The snow rises and swirls in a furious maelstrom, pressing around Jane's face. Blinding her. Suffocating her. She drops to the ground, throwing her arms around her head. Then there is warmth and darkness and the hard press of leather and metal as she realises Loki has thrown himself over her to act as a shield. Just as he did on Svartalfheim, her mind supplies unnecessarily. But this is no blast. This is so much worse.

As Loki pulls her to him and cries "hold on!" against her ear, she feels an enormous force wrenching at her body. Dragging her from all directions until she frantically wonders if this is what it's like to be torn apart - if being inside a portal as it's born into the world can do that. The landscape shifts like a kaleidoscope; spinning with a myriad of colours. Blurring faster and faster until there's nothing left but the rush of falling and the scream of the wind that sounds so painfully human…

And then there is nothing.

Long explanatory chapter note: Thanks to those who have left your reviews on the story so far - your feedback feeds my soul! Or at least, it helps to provide snacks for my muse! Also, a long-overdue rewatch of The Avengers helped with a portion of this chapter - namely, the scene where Loki teleports a short distance to stab Coulston in the back with his Glowstick of Destiny. (Some might argue that he cannot teleport and it was all the work of holograms, but it was a physical Loki that stabbed Coulston, and a physical Loki that shimmered back to the control panel to launch Thor through the longdrop. So… I figure he's capable of teleporting short distances, but assume he relies on dark energy to do so which, according to the Thor 2 prelude comics, is quite damaging.)

I realise this story is confusing to some readers, what with Jane portal-jumping to Jotunheim and Odin sending his army after her… How can there be time for all this while the Convergence is taking place?! I made this chapter quite dialogue heavy to try and clarify that a little (while still trying to keep some cards to myself for later), though I should probably at this point remind readers that this story does not attempt to exactly mirror the events & timeline of Thor 2. Malekith unleashing the Aether during the Convergence is of course still the obstacle Loki and Jane have to ultimately overcome, but we know all that stuff already… I want to put my own spin on it so it's hopefully not entirely predictable. And, given that this fic is inspired by a Lokane prompt with a very specific line Loki must at some point use on Jane… I need these characters to have more than two point something hours together. Thus, as mentioned in a previous note, I've extended the timeframe so that the alignment takes place over a matter of days rather than hours. Also! I'm not finished with the game Loki is playing with Odin and his throne! Mwahaa. Perhaps more details in regards to that will be revealed with the next chapter… ;)

Anyway, thanks for enduring this waffle, and I hope you lot come back for the next chapter! Feedback is welcome. It really really is. :)