Author's Note: I do apologize for taking so long to update this story.

Chapter 9: Shatter

"Another!" Thor shouted, tossing his glass against the wall. The group he was sitting with roared with laughter. A servant ran quickly to his side, bringing another ale. Thor grinned at the young lad. "Thank you! Now, where were we?"

"You were telling us about how you saved Earth," one of the pretty ladies seated at his table prompted.

"Wait… he did not save Earth alone. Someone had to have helped him," Hogun tossed in.

"I did indeed save it," Thor countered. "Without your help. Just as I conquered the invaders to your village. I seem to recall showing up in the midst of that battle… finding the town on fire, and a battle raging."

"We had it under control," Sif shouted from the neighboring table.

"Yes, someone neglected to tell us to start with the big one," Fandral added with a laugh. "A toast to a good battle!" He raised his mug up, as did everyone else around.

"TO A GOOD BATTLE!" A shout rose from the crowd.

Katirya grinned, nudging her husband. "Your brother appears to be in fine form tonight."

Loki chuckled. "Indeed."

They had left the banquet hall following the meal and wandered through the city stopping in at various celebrations. They were currently in one of Thor's favorite pubs.

Frigga entered, and spying the couple, joined them. "The children are finally asleep. They were wound up, especially Kai. He was not expecting that announcement today; you rather surprised him. And Brandt is sleeping over tonight. I did send word to his parents."

"They will appreciate that," Loki replied. "And I look forward to seeing how Kai takes to training, hopefully better than I did."

"You always did prefer your books," Frigga smiled at her son.

"Thor always did tease me about that," Loki answered. "Told me I needed to practice my fighting skills. Perhaps he was right, so I think it wise for my son to learn from the best."

"There are many ways to fight, my dear," Katirya interjected. "One does not always need to use a weapon, words can be just as good."

"True," Loki conceded.

A palace guard approached them. "My King, Heimdall has sent you a message."

"If you ladies will excuse me a moment," Loki stepped away, following the guard out of the pub.

"I wonder what that is about?" Frigga asked.

"I am certain we will find out soon enough," Katirya replied.

"Another!" Thor's shout rose above the crowd.

Katirya nodded towards Loki's brother. "He appears to be getting over Jane. She is here, in the room, yet he is celebrating with others."

Frigga nodded, noting that the table where Thor was currently seated contained a group from Vanaheim. Jane and her friends were seated at a table off in the corner. "Yes, Jane is nice…"

"Nice?" Katirya interrupted her. "Perhaps she might once have been, but the Jane that is here is far from nice."

Frigga looked at her sharply, surprised to hear Katirya speaking negatively about the woman. "What do you mean?"

"Oh, nothing in particular. But since her capture by Thanos, Jane has been anything but nice. I have allowed her comments, simply because she cannot be faulted for them, but I was surprised when she showed up today," Katirya replied.

"I had not expected her to come either," Frigga admitted. "I wonder what prompted it?"

"Thor?" Katirya asked.

"I wonder, does she still love him?" Frigga mused.

"No, she has forgotten him completely. She remembers none of that time," Katirya replied.

"But then, why Thor?" Frigga asked.

"I do not know why I even said that," Katirya admitted, shaking her head. "I know she does not recall her experiences from that time, when she thought she was in love with him."

"You do not believe she truly loved him?" Frigga asked.

Katirya shrugged. "Perhaps, I honestly do not know. She… met him under rather unusual circumstances… then, everything fell apart. Was it love? We will never know."

Loki returned to the pub and walked up to them. "What are my two favorite ladies up to? You look so serious."

The two women exchanged a quick glance. "Just idle talk," Katirya replied.

Loki pulled his wife into an embrace. "Nothing you do is idle, my dear."

"If you must, we were simply commenting that we were surprised Jane Foster came," Frigga admitted, nodding towards the table where a sullen looking Jane sat with Darcy, Ian, and Erik.

"As was I," Loki replied. "And yes, wife. I have done as you requested."

Frigga looked curiously at him but did not press the issue. "Thor's friends, the Avengers, appear to be having a good time."

Katirya and Loki focused on the group from Earth. They had split up, mingling with others at the celebration. Fury, along with the other Avengers had joined a group near the bar, while Jane and her friends were seated at a table near the door. "They do, but I do not believe they understand things any more than when they first arrived," Loki said.

Katirya sighed. "No, they do not. I am not certain there is anything we can do to change their minds. I fear they think they can handle anything."

"Mortals," Frigga shook her head.

"Well, we have tried. If they choose to go off on their own…" Loki's voice trailed off as Jane stood up.

"I have had enough of this!" Jane shouted; standing up at the table she was at. "I do not want to hear one more thing about how 'wonderful' Loki is. I cannot believe you people." She slammed her fist down on the table.

The group at her table stared at her, aghast that she was saying anything against the King of Asgard. Several people even moved away from her vicinity, trying to distance themselves from her.

"My lady, perhaps you do not know him well enough. He has been a good king, and with Thor helping him, they have created a balance of peace in the Nine Realms. Since his marriage to Katirya…"

Jane cut him off. "That witch?"

All conversation near her now stopped, and conversations in the room quieted. Heads swiveled to see what was happening.

"She is no better than him. Ask her yourself. She came here intending to marry one of the brothers; she said as much," Jane snarled.

"My lady, that does not mean…"

"I am not your lady!" Jane snapped. "That woman is evil."

Katirya took a deep breath, taking one step towards Jane. Frigga put a hand on her arm. She looked at Frigga, "No, I think I need to handle this." She headed directly towards Jane, putting a smile on her face. "Indeed, I did come here hoping to convince the All Father that one of his sons ought to marry me. I never said I did not. I did not imagine the eventual outcome." Katirya sent a loving look towards Loki.

"You are a conniving bitch, and they all believe you are so sweet and wonderful. Don't they?" Jane accused her.

"I have never made claims to be 'sweet and wonderful' as you put it. I knew I could never rule Cartherion alone, that I would need help. I had no desire to marry the individual that Althanas had chosen for me, so yes, I came here, hoping for marriage to a prince of Asgard," Katirya countered, still maintaining a smile. "Now, I believe you might have partaken of too much of our wine. Perhaps a rest might be in order." She reached out a hand towards Jane.

Jane slapped it away and roughly pushed Katirya back. "Get away from me. You'll turn me into something evil. You are just like him, with your magic!" She pointed towards Loki. "And there is another you all believe is so perfect. Did no one ever wonder what happened on Svartalfheim? When he supposedly died, trying to save me? He just pretended, didn't he? How else could he have returned here? He's good at that. He did that before, or did you all forget? Pretended to fall off the Bifrost, only he ended up going to Earth, trying to rule us. If it weren't for Thor, he would be King of Earth!"

"Jane, Loki wasn't himself. We know that now. You have to accept that," Thor stated calmly, rising from his seat he walked to join Katirya.

Jane rounded on Thor. "Oh, he knew exactly what he was doing. I can't believe he brainwashed you that much," Jane snapped. "Then he allowed you to oh so tamely bring him back here for justice. Justice? Really? You call ruling Asgard justice? What punishment was he given? None!" she shrieked.

"Jane, he was punished. Odin placed him in prison…"

"Right, until Malekith conveniently appeared to let him escape. Oh, wait. No, he did not escape, did he?" Jane shouted. "Did you not realize he was working for Malekith? You let him out thinking you could use him to capture Malekith, but he had no intentions of helping you, did he? He was working for him. It was all part of his plan."

"Jane, really. Enough," Erik rose, moving towards her.

"Get away from me! All of you! You are all so stupid. Did anyone ever ask what happened to Odin? How he died? Isn't it rather convenient that Loki reappeared just in time to take over? Malekith helped him. THAT'S how he got back here, unnoticed, just in time to manage to kill Odin. I'll be he was even happy you managed to kill Malekith, so he did not have to worry about that little issue. You are all so stupid. Loki has been in this since the beginning, intending to rule the Universe. And then she showed up, with one of those stupid Infinity stones. Even better! Now he has someone with a bunch of power on his side. Someone he can control… they both want to rule the Universe!"

A shocked silence came over the entire pub.

Author's Notes: Thanks for continuing to read this story. I still cannot believe I have been working on this story for over a year… and looking at my outline, I still have some ground to cover.

I also have another Loki story that I've stared – "The Tenth Realm" – a crossover with the Hobbit - yes, a very unlikely combination, but a fun tale.