(A/N - I'm back! Finally! It's been ages since I've been here. Here's a chapter for you guys focusing on Loki :D Lemme know how you all find it.)

CHAPTER 10

Location: Various Planets

Loki kept walking the second his legs touched solid ground and looked around the planet they had ended up on. Behind him, he could hear Fandral and Volstagg's shouts of surprise as they fell down on the ground, while the others stumbled and fell on top of them.

"My toes!" Fandral squeaked. "Sif, get off me."

"Leave my hand, you imbecile!" Sif ordered and managed to get her hand out of his grasp before getting up and stepping on Fandral's feet once again in order to regain her balance. She noticed that Loki was the only one who was upright and went to join him while the others picked themselves up.

"What was that?" she asked in anger.

"What was what?" Loki raised a brow at her before going back to looking at their surroundings. They had ended up somewhere on the outskirts of a forest filled with giant trees, far bigger than any other tree he had ever encountered. In front of them was an open area that resembled some sort of a haphazard market place. Aliens of all colors, shapes and sizes roamed the market place. The prince could identify a few species from his time travelling and on Sakaar but most were unknown to him.

"That…" Sif said, pointing at the other warriors.

"You were supposed to keep walking." Loki said in a bored tone, not bothering to look at her or the others and started walking towards the market place, knowing that the others would follow. "We were travelling at a high speed on the pathways, even if it did not feel like that. You were supposed to keep walking to slow down naturally."

"You could have told us that beforehand." Hogun grumbled but didn't notice the playful smirk on Loki's face. "Where are we, anyway?"

"Let's find out, shall we?" Loki said as they neared the market place and avoided some old lady (at least he thinks it was a lady) selling fruits. From past experience, he knew not to tangle with the hawkers, especially on unknown planets. He told as much to the others, who thankfully didn't question him much.

"How can you not know where we are?" Fandral asked, as they all huddled near an automated information booth.

The green eyed prince sighed in exasperation and explained, "I have not travelled to this side of the universe before. Using the pathways is like travelling on a road, unless you already know the road and the area, you cannot know where you will reach. I only stopped here because there was a break in the pathways and this was the closest planet. Also, I did not know for how long Volstagg could continue without throwing up." He didn't mention that he could not travel for a long time or distance without taking any break as the travelling was essentially done by using up his own energy. Such sensible things should be understandable to the group but he didn't want to point out a weakness on his behalf.

"I do feel queasy." Volstagg muttered, clutching the side of the information panel that Loki was messing around with.

"I cannot see where we are." Heimdall said in his usual monotonous voice.

"Energy of the pathways covers your sight." Loki explained distractedly as he read the information on the panel.

"That is how you manage to hide yourself from me." Heimdall said as realization dawned on him.

"Can you even read that?" Sif asked as she pointed to the weird runes and designs on the panel.

"Yes, I used to travel around. This is one of the selected universal languages and most species know at least how to read or write it. So I learnt it. It's not common in the nine so the All-Speak cannot translate it."

"This planet is called Paramatar. It is a hub space port. We should leave soon. This planet is prone to…" Loki trailed off as an explosion blew up a shop somewhere to their right. "…that."

"Don't draw your weapons." Loki ordered in a hiss and slid the panel back into its place. "Let us leave."

"Leave a fight?" Volstagg asked incredulously.

"Yes, leave a fight." Loki rolled his eyes. "This is not our fight and I rather not get into trouble right now. This planet is filled with bandits and mercenaries and all sort of low life."

"Don't be a coward!" Fandral said, looking at interest at the fist fight that had broken out in front of them.

Loki rounded up on Fandral and glared at him. As it is, he was regretting taking these idiots with him. Why did he have to agree with Infinity? They better be of some use to him.

"This is not about being a coward. This is about being smart. You will walk away or else I am leaving you here. The same goes for all of you. Find your own way back to Thor."

With that Loki walked away, leaving the others to sigh and follow him.

A few minutes later, they all found themselves near an almost empty parking lot, containing a few hovercrafts and such other vehicles. The sounds of the fighting which had now escalated to lasers and blasters, could still be heard even though they were pretty far away from the market place. Volstagg and Fandral were looking longingly in the direction of the sounds. It had been far too long since they were involved in a decent fight. Hogun and Sif were keeping an eye on Loki, who was doing a pretty good impression of Heimdall standing at the Observatory. He was standing still and looking at nothing in particular and yet it felt like he could see something that none of them could. Heimdall, too was in the same stance, albeit a bit more confused than Loki.

Sif involuntarily shuddered as she thought about the journey through the pathways. It had felt like one of her trips with Thor and Loki when they were young and had managed to commandeer a skiff and Loki had dared Thor to fly it at full speed. On the pathway, she could feel the speed even when there was no wind to indicate just how fast they were going. It made her dizzy and left her wanting to hold on to something for safety. But there had been nothing around them and she had been far more scared of falling then, than she had ever been in her life. She still couldn't believe that they were trusting Loki of all the people to carry them around like that. But now that the danger was over, she could barely resist the smile that was forming on her face thanks to left over adrenaline. She now wondered what sight would have met her eyes had she not closed them the second she had been pulled into the pathway.

"What are you looking for, my Prince?" Heimdall asked in a whisper to Loki.

"Another pathway." Loki replied curtly.

"I don't see you doing anything. How are you searching for it?" Sif asked, barely restraining the curiosity in her voice. It had been a long time since she felt curious about the ways of seiðr. When she had been but a little child, she remembered staying with her aunt for long durations whenever her parents were busy with their duties, both being part of the King's Court. Her aunt had been an enthusiastic seiðkona and had tried to lure Sif into that lifestyle. That had been the only time Sif had been remotely interested in seiðr but even then her attention had always strayed to seeing the boys around her practice different styles of fighting. It wasn't until she was old enough to receive the minimal warrior training that every Asgardian was required to go through, that she realized that she wanted to be a proper warrior and not just another common noblewoman. After that, the more time she spent with the boys while training, the more respect she lost for anyone with seiðr and by the time she had met Loki, she had more or less thought of seiðr beneath her and anyone with any sort of self-respect.

Loki, startled by her question and more importantly, the hint of curiosity in her voice, looked at her and contemplated, looking for signs of mockery as had been present throughout their lives. Sif's eyes were solely trained on his face and her eyebrows were losing the battle of feigning disinterest but despite all this, there was a wariness on her face that hinted that she didn't expect a straight answer from him. Loki was not one to confirm to other's expectations, so he decided to be straightforward and honest with her. It would definitely throw her for a loop.

"I surpassed the level in my training long ago where I would need to actively chant a spell or … how do you common people say – do the 'elaborate hand movements' – that are required for most of the complicated spell work." Loki said with a slight sneer, not as vicious as his usual ones but enough to show that he thought them all to be beneath him, which they were. He had no doubts about that. "All of that is not only over the top show-y but also gives away your position to others."

"But you still do them. The 'elaborate hand movements'. I have seen it in battle." Sif said in a challenging manner and ignored Hogun, who was discreetly trying to tell her not to engage with Loki.

"Only when I need to hold something or if it is a particularly difficult spell that would require complete attention to be done inconspicuously." Loki explained and turned his attention back to the invisibility glamour he had put on his seiðr while searching for the next pathway.

"And what if there is none other pathway than the one we came through?" Hogun interrupted before Sif could ask another question. He remembered that Loki usually took offence to being asked a lot of questions about his seiðr. It was as if he thought that they were never genuine with him, which if Hogun was to admit, they had hardly ever been but even when they had genuinely wanted answers from the younger prince, they had been scoffed and made to feel inferior in front of him. That was the main reason they all treated him with disdain.

"Then we go back to the one we came from and retreat till we find another pathway." Loki replied nonchalantly. This art of his was more of a trial-and-error than he was comfortable with, especially with Thor's idiots accompanying him. "The one we came through is an old one. There are chances of falling off it if we were to continue on that. Anyway, this is a port planet. These types of planets usually have plenty of pathways surrounding them."

"Now what?" Volstagg asked, joining the others.

"Portal to the nearest path." Loki said and waved his right hand lazily in a circular motion, more for show than necessity. A shimmering green and golden portal opened up in front of them and Loki stepped aside to let the others go through first.

The six of them stepped into the middle of what looked like a residential area. A few roadside shops littered the area but much was covered with children playing and adults mingling with each other as the sun set behind the forest to their right. Loki walked to a light yellow plant near them and plucked a few leaves off it.

Distributing the leaves to the others, he said, "Medicinal herb. Keep smelling it whenever you get dizzy or sick while travelling on the pathways. I do not want to handle any more problems." As the others tentatively smelled the leaves, Loki asked, "Ready?"

"Wait!" Hogun exclaimed and looked at Loki as he remembered something. "You said you haven't come to this side of the universe yet."

"Yes?"

"So, how do you know where we are going? How do you know where Midgard even is?"

"I don't." Loki shrugged.

"You don't know where Midgard is?" Sif asked in disbelief.

"No." Loki replied and walked away from the horde of children playing near them. "But," he said as the others followed him, "I am going towards the newer sections of the universe. The Nine Realms were created somewhere in the middle time periods as regards to the universe creation and we are currently in a pretty old sector. So I have to go towards the newer areas…"

"There must be hundreds of these 'newer areas'. How are we to reach the Nine Realms?" Fandral asked.

"The inherent energy of the Nine Realms is the same energy as my seiðr. It calls to me."

"It calls to you?" Volstagg repeated skeptically.

Loki rolled his eyes. "Yes. Now if you are done asking stupid questions, can we move on?"

"Come on." Sif sighed and held out her hands, asking the others to come closer so they could continue with the journey.

They continued in the same manner for quite some time, stopping at a few planets on the way. They had found the next pathways pretty easily on the other planets that they went to and even the others had started to get confident over this unorthodox method of travel.

The six of them walked briskly as they touched ground on yet another planet and walked right into the middle of a sort of party. To everyone's except Loki's surprise, none of the party-goers even so much as looked at them as they walked to a slightly private and secluded area of the party.

Volstagg moaned as he stared at the various food that was spread over the central table and hungrily eyed the brown colored, wrinkly alien who was devouring the food with gusto. Even the others were now looking at the food and Volstagg commented, "As long as we are here, we might as well help ourselves to the food."

"We might," Heimdall agreed but argued, "but we do not know what sort of people they are or if they would take offence to us."

"Hurctarians." Loki said, nodding to a couple of brown aliens. He was casually leaning against a wall and scanning the area for any threat. The others were huddled around him to hear him over the blast of noise that was probably music. "They originate from the planet Arago-7 but have spread over many parts of the universe, which is why it is difficult to identify the planet just through them."

"How do you know all of this?" Fandral asked.

"I travel."

"So, we can eat now?" Volstagg grumbled in annoyance.

Loki took a moment to leave the support of the wall and said, "We are currently invisible…"

"I was wondering why no one seemed to notice us or at least me. I am extremely pleasing to the eye." Fandral preened while the others ignored him.

"Did you really think we could appear anywhere we want and no one would question us?" Loki asked with a roll of his eyes. "We are cloaked. No one can hear or see us, which is why none of you should pick up anything without telling me, for I would need to cloak that too. Now stay here, I will go get some food."

Heimdall opted to accompany Loki while the others stayed back without complain. Now that they had taken some time to relax and were not immediately jumping into some or the other portal or pathway, they realized how tired they were.

Hogun inhaled the sharp but sweet smell of the leaf that Loki had given them on the first planet they had landed on and felt the dizziness of travel ease. Leaning against the wall as Loki had done, he asked, "Is it just me or does Loki seem different?"

"Different how?" Fandral asked distractedly, looking at the various ladies around them.

"Calmer, I would say." Sif said as she followed Loki and Heimdall with her eyes. The two of them were collecting a few items from the table when no one was looking. As she focused on Loki, she realized that she was correct. He did look calmer than the last they had seen him, even though he looked pretty tired. It wasn't evident from his face or posture but she had gone on enough trips with him and Thor to know when either of them were feigning strength when they were low on energy. She supposed that if they were tired from the travel, it would be far more draining for Loki, who was actually carrying them around. She remembered that her aunt used to say that using seiðr was like exercising – after a point you would start losing energy or something like that. She had hardly ever paid attention to what her aunt used to say.

"Hmm…" Volstagg wondered. "Calmer… yes, he does seem like that even though he is as annoying as ever. He was different when Thor had broken him out of the dungeons."

"Well, he had been brought out of solitary confinement. I would say anyone would be different then." Fandral commented.

"Mmm… something else too." Hogun said, as he watched Loki and Heimdall make their way towards them.

"Like what?"

"I don't know."

They all fell silent as the two companions returned and handed out the food, which they ate in relative silence while looking at the people. Loki informed them that there was excess food since it seemed that the party had been originally for a far larger group but they must have disappeared after Thanos succeeded. That was all the information Volstagg needed before he gorged on as much as he could without raising suspicions.

The huge warrior belched and patted his stomach in contentment as he finally put down his bowl of some sort of pudding. They all had moved outdoors to a pretty well-kept garden and were currently sitting below a huge tree with equally enormous roots that were well above the ground. They all were leaning against the roots, comfortable and content with the food and alcohol that they had just consumed.

It was night on the planet and they could make out the shape of another huge planet which was most probably pretty close to the one they were on. The air was thicker than what they were used to and the weather warmer but it was still comfortable enough for them as they already had lots of experience with weird climatic conditions on their various quests and adventures.

Fandral launched into a glorious tale of their past adventures as Loki went to sit on top of a root, leaning against the tree trunk. He was close enough to the group to be able to hear them and yet at a polite distance from them under the guise of wanting to keep an eye on the party and see if anyone made their way towards the little group. Halfway through the tale, Volstagg interrupted Fandral with his snores and the group chuckled while Loki sighed in relief. This way at least he had a feeble excuse of staying on the planet for some more time. He could regain his energy now without worries.

"I suppose we are staying here then for the night." Heimdall commented and looked at Loki who made a noncommittal sound and kept an eye on a group who were dancing pretty close to their location.

Loki erected a shield around them as additional protection and then let his seiðr flow out of him in small quantities so as to not attract attention of any other seiðr user. Automatically being attracted to the energy of the pathways, his seiðr went out in search of the area they had landed in and encountered the remnants of the energy. He had had to manipulate the pathway's energy to bend inwards towards the planet, which had taken a lot out of him. As the foreign energy flowed into him, he relaxed a little and let the natural conversion process take over. He knew, come morning, both his energy and seiðr would be replenished. The only unfortunate side effect of doing this in one go rather than in little quantities over time, was that it made him sleepy and he did not trust the others enough to sleep with them as back up. Once, he may have trusted them enough for that but not anymore. He suddenly found himself wishing that he could replace the others with Thor. He trusted Thor enough with his life to not let any harm come to him. Trusting his older brother with his heart was a matter that he would rather not even think about. That trust had been lost over the years and Thor had never done anything to even try and win it back. Loki wondered sleepily if Thor even knew or cared about that lost trust. He had been trying to be more open with Thor in areas that mattered but he needed some sort of acknowledgement from his brother regarding it. He knew that Thor too had been trying to get back to their old ways but Loki knew that they were no longer those two naïve boys and their relationship would never get back to what it used to be before. He wished that Thor too would recognize and accept that fact. Then maybe they could move forward.

Years of training and the recent hypervigilance was the reason that his hand caught the rock that came flying towards him even when he was almost asleep. Well, not anymore. Dropping the rock, Loki raised a brow at the others.

"I thought you were sleeping." Fandral said in lieu of an explanation.

"What do you want?" Loki asked in irritation. He had been so close to blessed sleep. Although, now that he thought about it, it was good that he didn't fall asleep with the others as company. If he had one of his usual nightmares… no, no, it was better to stay awake. But the lull of sweet, sweet sleep… no! Loki pinched his thigh discreetly and reminded himself with all the reasons to not sleep.

"Answers." Hogun answered.

"Regarding…?" Loki, sitting up straighter and unclasping his cape to roll it up and use it as a pillow. He was sure he had some or the other pillow in his dimension pockets. He had way too many things in there including but not limited to his entire library and parts of his mother's library that he had taken during his little stint as Odin and his favorite rocking chair that he was not going to leave to collect dust in his room.

"A lot of things." Sif said, carefully keeping an eye on Loki as his eyes hardened even though his body language remained the same. She was sure that one wrong question or wording would have him shutting down around them and until they reached Thor, they needed him to be on less hostile terms with them.

"Yes, like, what really happened on Svartálfaheimr or why you never told anyone that you were alive or why you took away our positions except for Hogun's or why you sent Sif away or even why you paraded around as Odin or…" Fandral listed while both Sif and Heimdall tried to catch his eye to shut him up.

"Or Thanos." Hogun said grimly.

"Yes, why would you work with him?" Volstagg asked sleepily, having woken up a few minutes back.

You think I wanted to?

Loki gritted his teeth as he saw all of them look at him at that question. He wanted to shout at them and ask whether they really thought that he would do something like that willingly. He wanted to tell the truth. Hel, he had been wanting to tell the truth to someone, anyone, that wasn't Odin stuck in Odinsleep. The closest he had come to, was telling Thor and then too Loki had only hinted and let Thor build up on that. But he knew what truth meant. It meant weakness. It would show them that he was weak enough to be trapped and influenced by the Titan and that was something he would not allow. So, he gave them what they wanted to hear – another reason to hate him. Hate, he could manage. It was pity that drove him mad.

"Why do you think?" Loki sneered.

"Power?" Fandral suggested and Loki stayed mum. He knew that they would take his silence for acceptance but he didn't care. As long as they stayed away from the truth, it would be better for him. He had learned early on that the only way to protect himself from heartache was through lies. The more he lied, the less people prodded into his matters and he was left alone to nurse his broken heart in peace whenever required. He had learned that no one really cared whether he spoke the truth or not. As long as they got what they wanted, no one really cared about him and his so called ex-friends were the very first people who had imparted that very important life lesson.

"What more power could you require than the heir to the nine realms?" Hogun wondered aloud.

"Second heir to Asgard, not the nine realms. It is but a rumor that Odin ever had control over the realms. He never did. The other realms had pledged allegiance, that's all. They could have gone against All-father's words but that would encourage war and no one really wanted that." Loki corrected, still not actually answering the real question. He wondered what tall tales they could derive from his silence. He had observed that people were very creative and imaginative when it came to slandering others.

"So, you did all this because you were jealous of Thor? That you could never get the throne of Asgard so instead you wanted Midgard for your own?" Volstagg frowned, his ire now obvious on his face.

Loki bristled and said, "I had the throne of Asgard."

He hated the fact that they all, especially Sif, considered him to be jealous of Thor. Sure, at times he was jealous of his brother but not for the reasons that they thought. Ever since he was a child, if there was one truth that he was aware of, it was that Thor would always be the one to ascend to the throne of Asgard and he had made his peace with that long before they had even hit maturity. It was the fact that Loki had to work ten times harder than Thor to get even a smidge of acknowledgement from anyone that wasn't Frigga that always ate at the younger prince. As was his birthright, in the eyes of the people who didn't know his real heritage, he should have been as acknowledged and appreciated as Thor had been. But that had never been the case. The throne was something that Loki had no use of. It would only tie him down to one place and like he had told Thor once – satisfaction wasn't in his nature. He would never be satisfied with being the king or living in one place. He was curious since birth and he wasn't meant for one place. His wanderlust was very real and being in any one place would drive him crazy, which was why the solitary confinement was the worst sort of punishment Odin could have ever given him.

"As Odin, maybe." Fandral scoffed.

"I had it before that too."

"Sure…"

"Heimdall?" Loki said sweetly, turning to look at the all-knowing gatekeeper and silently daring him to lie.

Clearing his throat, Heimdall informed the others, "Both the times Loki took the throne, it was his right to take it, with the All-Father in sleep and Thor on Midgard, the first time due to his banishment and the second time due to renouncing the throne. Although I am sure that there was some trickery involved in the second time."

"Then Loki didn't forcefully take the throne from Odin when Thor was banished?" Volstagg asked in confusion.

"No, you dimwitted fool!" Loki growled out and then took deep breaths to calm himself, reminding himself not to kill the others as of yet.

"No, he didn't." Heimdall replied. "His fight with Odin, along with Thor's banishment was what acted as the catalyst to the Odinsleep and he was properly handed over the throne in the presence of All-mother."

"Why wasn't anyone informed of this?" Fandral asked.

"Maybe because my brilliant brother had as much as declared war with Jötunheimr?" Loki seethed. "It was a tactical decision. As long as no one knew of the change, the jötnar could not be aware of the weakening in the family and could not target it, especially in the middle of the night. The bifrost was then closed and all communications were under strict monitoring. No one could have known of it outside Asgard." Loki glared into the distance and then looked at them and said, "By the way, this marks you as traitors to Asgard. All of you. Officially!"

It may have been a little childish to point that out, but he had been waiting to do that for far too long.

"And you knew of this." Sif said to Heimdall. "Then by law…"

"By law and by my oath, I should not have let any one of you even enter the Observatory, let alone use the bifrost." Heimdall said with a nod and sighed. He looked at Loki and decided that maybe the boy could use some explanations in his life. Maybe that would encourage him to tell the truth about Thanos. "The reason I let you go was that I had witnessed the argument between Loki and Odin and I knew Loki was breaking under the pressure of betrayal…"

"And?" Loki sneered. "Go on, say it. Say that you couldn't obey a jötunn."

Heimdall calmly looked at Loki and said in an even voice, hoping to get through to the troubled child, "I could obey you. I always knew of your birth. I am bound to obey the king, no matter who it is. But I could not obey a child, who, while being adept at politics, was way out of his depths in ruling a kingdom without any support. I had hoped that the Warriors Three and Lady Sif would have been successful in getting Thor home and then the pressure could be off you."

"Lies." Loki gritted out. "You disobeyed even Odin by letting us leave in the first place."

"And pride." Heimdall continued as if he had not heard Loki. "Pride because somehow you had managed to get enemies of the kingdom inside without my knowledge. And for that I admit, I wanted to see you fall. That was the reason why I went against explicit orders both of the times."

"Well, fall I did." Loki said in a hollow voice and turned to look at the party that was somehow still in full swing. Did the people not care that half of the universe had just been murdered?

"That is not what I meant."

"That is what happened." That is what I deserved.

"That must have been when you met Thanos." Hogun observed. "After that you went to Midgard and since then we all knew you were in the dungeons and later disguised as Odin."

"Yes." Loki said curtly and watched an insect make its way around the roots they were all sitting on and wondered when the warriors had grown a brain. Maybe they needed one with no Thor or Loki to entertain them fulltime.

"Loki, why did you work with Thanos if you knew what he would do this-this killing of half the universe?"

"Did you know he was planning to do this?"

Loki made a non-committal sound. To be honest with himself, he couldn't remember when he found out the purpose of Thanos' quest. Whether it was while he was in the Sanctuary or later on, he had no clue. Unfortunately he had a lot of memory gaps from his time over there – possibly a combination of all the mind control he had been subjected to or his own mind blocking out the memories to suppress the trauma. Whatever the reason, he only ended up retaining the important facts and figures and not the actual memories.

"Then why did you agree to work with him?"

Loki looked at Volstagg, who had asked the question with a put upon bored expression. He knew they were all waiting for his answer but he was in no mood to answer anything. Thanos, Chitauri, the 'elite group', they were all a can of worms that he rather not open. Out of the corner of his eye he could see Heimdall's golden stare on him and he risked a look at the older man.

"Unless, you didn't know or found out only after you were in too deep." Heimdall said after some time when Loki had not uttered a word. Loki hated that tone of voice – that tone which suggested that the gatekeeper knew more than he let on and the trickster wondered whether Heimdall had heard the little talks that he and Thor had had on the Statesman. If that was the case, then the gatekeeper would have had enough knowledge to put together a rough idea of the truth. But what was he trying to do now? Was he trying to gain sympathy for Loki or something like that by hinting at something to the warriors? Didn't he know that no one cared? That if they hadn't put it together after seeing something so out of character for him, they would never understand it? He let it know through his glare that he didn't appreciate whatever the gatekeeper was planning of doing.

Sif stared at Loki for some time, trying to pinpoint exactly what was eating at her. After a few moments it hit her. Loki had been acting a bit weird ever since the topic of Thanos had come up and she suddenly understood why.

Fear was not something that she could equate to Loki but somehow it was the only thing that made sense to her. She had known the younger prince for almost their entire life, ever since that one day Loki had been old enough to attend the training classes. By that time, she and the Warriors Three, minus Hogun, who had joined their little group later on, were already fast friends with Thor and after some reluctance, had taken in Loki at Thor's insistence. But barring the first few years, she had never seen Loki being afraid of something, not for his own sake anyway. He had been plenty worried for Thor over the years, but never himself. Which was exactly why she was now having trouble in pinpointing the emotion beneath his casual demeanor. The shield maiden was sure that had she not been as close to Loki as she had once been in their childhood, she would have had difficulty in figuring it out, but she had always prided herself for being only second to Thor when it came to figuring out Loki. Unfortunately, Thor hadn't been all that good at that, which meant that she had been pretty horrible when it came to understanding her once friend.

"You are afraid." Sif pointed out and regretted voicing her opinion the second Loki turned his venomous glare at her.

"Excuse me?" Loki asked in a quiet voice, a brow raised in indignation.

Fandral laughed and said, "Sif, you jest! Have you ever seen Loki being afraid of anything other than Thor?"

Ignoring Fandral in favor of her newly found understanding, she continued undaunted, "That is the only explanation to your ill-tempered behavior every single time the name comes up. It is not all that surprising considering he was the one who killed you."

Loki barely resisted himself from massaging his neck, a phantom pain throbbing in the general area and he could almost feel the Titan's hand around his neck, squeezing painfully. He had been resisting the urge to check for huge finger indents around his neck, for some time now. Even the high collars of his leather armor was restricting but the only reason he kept it on was that it would be out of character and telling for him not to be wearing the armor at all times.

"Why did he kill you?" Hogun asked.

"Hmm let's see. I work f-with him to get the Tesseract. That doesn't happen. Failure equates death and here I am." Loki said bitingly, still glaring at Sif for being all too perspective.

"Must you be so rude?" Fandral asked with a sigh. "We only wish to understand."

"Understand? Are you even capable of such a thing?"

"Loki!"

"I suggest you all get some rest. We will be leaving come morning."

Volstagg shook his head at his companions, warning them not to provoke Loki much and they all left the topic for now. Whatever discussion had taken place just yet, had been too personal for the young prince and further needling would only make him more hostile towards them. It took them some time but they all drifted towards an uneasy sleep.

Loki closed his eyes as he rested his head against the make shift pillow and basked in the red moon's glow. If he could ignore the conversation that had just taken place, he would say that he was almost as relaxed as he could be in the given situation. Obviously that didn't last long. As soon as the others were asleep or almost there, Heimdall joined Loki on top of the roots.

"Maybe you should tell the truth." Heimdall murmured as he looked at the night sky.

"Maybe you should not listen to conversations that are meant to be personal."

"I am not apologetic for doing so. At least I have a semblance of understanding now."

"Understanding?" Loki opened his eyes to look at the man next to him. "And tell me, gatekeeper, where has this new found understanding gotten you?"

"Relief." Heimdall responded, looking back at Loki. "Relief that we hadn't truly lost you to that monster. And anger at myself, for not having seen it beforehand."

Loki turned his gaze away from Heimdall. The gatekeeper was being sincere. That much he could tell. But for the life of him, Loki couldn't figure out the reason for such sincerity. But honesty needed to be responded with honesty sometimes and Loki let a little bit of it slip out.

"When my own so called family could not see it, then what hope did you have? Rest, Heimdall. I am keeping watch."

Taking the dismissal for what it was, Heimdall nodded once and went back to where he had been sitting, leaving the prince to his pensive thoughts.