Once upon a time, the place was a bog at the edge of civilization, a day's walk from the nearest town. Now it was only an hour's drive from the heart of London, and all the worse for it. Yet no one noticed the burst of rainbow-coloured wind as it carved a complex circular pattern on the rooftop of the old apartment building. The colours drifted into wisps of shimmering smoke before fading away, revealing two tall, powerfully built men. The thuggish blond on the left with shoulders like an American u-haul truck and zero fashion sense was Thor, the God of Thunder. The lean, lithe man with sleek black hair and an impeccable black blazer (over a deep green silk shirt that brought out the colour of his eyes) was Loki, God of Mischief and technically still Allfather of the Nine Realms.

"Unhand me, you brute," Loki tried to jerk away, but Thor's fingers were like bands of Uru around his arm, "I am no common criminal to be handled thus."

"You are a traitor and a usurper, and the self-styled God of Mischief to boot," Thor surveyed their surroundings, as if expecting an ambush.

Loki rolled his eyes. Even if he had planned an ambush, Thor could hardly have spotted it like that. "Will you stop that? There's no trap. How would there be a trap? You think if I'd known you were coming I'd have been lounging around watching plays?"

"Perhaps that was simply a ploy to get me alone and off-guard in Midgard, where your catspaws might find it easier to dispatch of me," Thor punctuated his suspicions with a smile that made it clear what he thought of that. "Perhaps you would then return to Asgard and pretend to be me. Isn't that how you operate?"

"Operate?" Loki pulled at his sleeve. To his surprise, Thor let him go. Rubbing his hand, he looked at the god he'd once called brother. "You speak like a Midgardian now."

"I have learned much in my time here."

"Oh, I am sure. The rustic ways of the backwater savages. Perhaps they have helped you get in touch with your spirit animal. But what have they taught you of the managing of an empire?" Loki smiled mockingly, "The Crown Prince who refused his crown. A fine jest."

"And you thought to remedy my refusal with your usurpation, is that the way of it?" Thor stepped forward, his jaw hardening, "You could not be king, so you would tarnish the good name of Allfather-"

"I was a better Allfather than Odin ever was!" The words tumbled out before Loki could put a cynical twist on them. "I gave the realm peace and prosperity, whereas you would have left it to burn while you played at heroics with your mortal pets and played house with your mortal bed warmer; while Odin-"

Thor cut him off by seizing him by the jaw and lifting him off the ground. "Do not. Speak. Of Jane. Loki." He dropped him and turned away. Loki rubbed his jaw. It seemed the wench was far more of a sore spot than he'd suspected. It might be useful, if he needed to make a hasty escape.

"Peace and prosperity," Thor's voice was low and filled with bitterness as Loki had never heard before, "Do you know from whence I came to find you, guised as father, bedecked in silk and jewels as he never was?"

"Muspelheim, wasn't it? Your clothes were all burned up," Loki felt uneasy at Thor's tone. "And I must say, Odin forbade any soul of the Nine Realms to seek out the Fiery Realm, so you're not much for obedience, either, are you? And how did you get there? I'd have known if you'd come to Asgard."

"I went searching for answers. Much was amiss, and I sensed a larger game was afoot," Thor continued as if Loki had been silent, "All I found was death. Death and devastation." He turned with his whole body to look at Loki. It was an impressive motion. "Billions dead. More made homeless. And where were the armies of Asgard?"

Loki stared at him incredulously. "What madness is this? If anything like that happened anywhere in the Nine Realms, I'd have personally led the legions to destroy the perpetrators."

Thor's electric blue eyes bored into his uncomfortably, but he held the gaze. "It was not within the Nine Realms. It was on the edge of Kree Space. An entire star cluster, home to seven species."

"Well, how am I responsible for that?"

"Are you not listening, brother!?" Thor seized Loki by the lapels and shook him bodily, "The stars had been made into portals out of Muspelheim. Surtur was staging an invasion into Midgardian Space, and you knew nothing of it!"

Surtur was staging an invasion. The words sent a chill down Loki's spine. Odin had regaled him and Thor both with the horrifying tales of Surtur, King of the Fire Demons. Frigga had always considered them inappropriate for children. Secretly, Loki had agreed. In his tenure as Allfather, he'd dug up quite a lot of lore that Odin had not seen fit to regale them with, and they confirmed his fear that the tales he'd told them were, in fact, children's versions of the truth. "I-I didn't know," he said foolishly, then added quickly, "But if you've defeated him then he couldn't've all that bad, now, could he?"

"Father would have known. You would have known, if you had not antagonized the all-seeing eye of Asgard. What madness seized you, Loki, that you would seek to rule without Heimdall?"

"Well, I could hardly rule with Heimdall," The wretch had found him out in less than two months.

"And what reason is there for drawing all of Asgard's armies into the Golden Realm itself? One would think you were girding for war, and yet the Marauders pillage unchecked and at every hand, a new rebellion rises. What were you thinking?"

Loki hesitated, then cleared his throat. "If you must know, I was not lying when I said there were dark forces afoot. I was simply doing what was necessary to defend Asgard."

"Against whom? Heimdall? Lady sif and the Warriors Three? Me?"

Loki stared at his well-meaning, simple-minded brother. How could he grasp the scope of his fears? If Loki did not guard the Realm against the enemy, all would be ruined. But he could hardly do that now without bringing Thor into the fold. "Have you never wondered," he began, "From whence came the army I'd unleashed upon your Midgardian friends?"

"The Chitauri?" Thor narrowed his eyes, "They could never threaten Asgard."

"No, not the Chitauri," Loki couldn't suppress a manic grin. "I speak of the one who threatened them." "Who commands the would-be king?" Thor had asked him on that clifftop that night. If only he knew. Even now Loki dared not speak his name out loud. "I speak of the Mad Titan."

Thor looked at him for a long moment. Then he said, "Who?"

Loki rolled his eyes in exasperation. "You've never heard of the Mad Titan?"

"I… may have heard mention of him, once or twice."

Loki threw up his hands. "Let us simply find Odin and be done with this. Then you can execute me or lock me up or exile me to Svartalfheim or whatever it is you fancy. Or whatever he fancies, I suppose," Loki paused for a second, then added, "Most likely exile in Jotunheim."

For a second or two Thor seemed to be on the verge of pursuing the previous conversation, but he seemed to decide against it. "Very well," he boomed, "Is father in London, then?"

"I placed him in a mortal facility in Greenwich. They are well-versed in tending the elderly."

Thor shot him a scathing look. "An old home? You put our father, Odin Allfather, King of Asgard and Protector of the Nine Realms, in an asylum for the infirm?"

"Your father," Loki shot reflexively, deriving great satisfaction from seeing Thor wince. "And he was certainly infirm when I put him there."

Thor's uru grip returned behind Loki's neck. "If you have harmed him-"

"I haven't touched a hair on his head, Odinson," Loki rolled back his head to look Thor in the eye, "The old fool was wasting away in grief and weariness. He was far past his prime, you know this as well as I. And when you rejected him-"

"Do not try and blame me for this, Loki. Whatever happens now, it's on you," Thor began to twirl his hammer, making the wind fly into Loki's hair and whip it across his face, "To Greenwich it is."