"What happened?" Thor's voice was indignant. He wasn't sure that he heard correctly…Tony had been talking on the phone.

And Tony looked at him. "Apparently your wayward brother took a flight."

"Flight?"

"He's on a ship, heading god knows where, and he's got Jane Foster with him."

Thor felt the blood pulse his temples.

Loki.

He did it again.

"Steve and the others should be here in an hour. I'm gonna get what plans we have together and start on a counteroffensive. No time for your BiFrost, Point Break. We've got a planet to save…" and he left him there.

Thor shook his head. What could he be up to? This was insufferable. He knew that Jane and he weren't together, and yet he still used her to his own end.

He didn't know what he was going to do, he just knew that he needed to get Jane back. She had suffered repeatedly because of him, and he needed to make amends somehow. Thor got up and left the room to look for Tony. He hoped that this wouldn't end in disaster, though there was increasing likelihood that it would.

He looked out into the black expanse. He wondered for a moment if he shouldn't try to turn the ship around. He wasn't certain that this was the best way to handle this…heading for Thanos full on.

But he was hard out to find a more efficient way to do this. Yes, he might be going to the Titan, but wasn't that what he wanted? Hadn't it been his plan to either give Jane to him directly, or convince Thor that giving her to him was the only way to peace? This was better. Saved him the trouble of further compromising himself with a mortal. Of having the burden of feigning attachment to her.

"What are you thinking about?"

He turned, almost forgetting that she was so near. "Nothing," Loki replied. He thought that he might begin his honest treatment of her, but then that would made for a tiresome trip. "Just…thinking about what we should do once we see Thanos."

"We should attempt to bargain with him," Jane said, her brow furrowed. "Isn't that what you were trying to do in New York?"

"Well, now that we are heading straight for him, I guess I thought maybe a different approach was warranted," and he turned away from her.

Jane sighed. "What do you mean, a different approach?" it was exhausting sometimes, dealing with Loki.

"He's a Titan, Jane. He wields much power without any weapon or magic. The fact that he can wear the Infinity Gauntlet is proof enough," he folded his arms and rubbed the bridge of his nose.

"Infinity Gauntlet?"

He looked at her. "A…glove?"

"I know what a gauntlet is," she dismissed, approaching him. "But what is the Infinity Gauntlet specifically?"

"It can hold the stones on it, and together, they can do the wearer's bidding," he looked down at her. She seemed so innocent, peering up at him.

"So just having them isn't enough?"

"Well, I don't know. Few can hold just one…let alone all six."

Jane looked out of the ship's window at the helm, not really seeing anything. "I did," she whispered.

Loki swallowed. He would need to tread very lightly. "Yes."

"How?" she walked away from him. "How could I hold an Infinity Stone?" she paused...how had she not considered this. "I never thought about it…"

"For someone who thinks for a way to earn her living, you'd think you would have considered it to be odd."

She turned and glared at him. "There were a lot of things going on. I didn't have time…"

"Oh yes. I'm quite sure a lot was happening. Not the least of which was your pining over my brawny brother," he rolled his eyes.

"London was being invaded by the Dark Elves," she spat. "And you…" she narrowed her eyes. "What happened to you, exactly?"

"What happened to me?" he felt his anger and some consternation grow. "Mortal, I need not answer your paltry questions."

"Now I'm mortal, am I?" she walked over to him, standing a foot in front of him. "I thought we were a team."

And his stomach fell a bit. She was very close…"Jane. It does no good to be angry when Thanos awaits us at the end of this journey. We'd best come up with a plan."

"Don't placate me, Loki. Answer me, and then we are going to think about how I could hold the aether," she swallowed, looking down. "Inside of me."

"I survived and returned to Asgard."

"How?"

"I have a lot of magic. I was able to heal the wound and get back…" he almost choked on that last word, but managed, "…home." Because it was the only one he ever knew.

And it was gone.

She nodded. "And what did you do?"

"On Asgard?"

She cocked a brow.

He ran his hand through his hair and walked away. "I sat on the throne after putting Odin in a safe place. Thor didn't return…he said he was going to Midgard to …" he paused. "Well," and he looked at her. "I assumed he was coming for you, but I suppose that was wrong."

"You got rid of Odin and sat on the throne? To pretend being King?"

"I was King. I was not play acting, Jane Foster."

"And did you have your fill, then?"

"It was fine," he shrugged. And he wasn't lying. He liked telling people what to do and having them do it without question. But…there was something missing.

They weren't doing it because of him. They were doing it because of his lie.

"I should be furious with you, but I bet Thor already was. And my anger probably wouldn't matter to you, anyway."

Loki shrugged, imagining Jane angry with him.

It was more unsettling than he could admit.

So he didn't say anything.

"Right," she muttered, turning from him and moving to the window.

He swallowed. "Jane…I've lost my home. I'm trying to save my people from extinction."

She felt awful, hearing him say that. She closed her eyes. "Ok."

"Ok?"

"I mean, I understand. And I think that we need to get a plan going and figure out why I was able to hold the aether," she turned now to look at him. She didn't really understand, but she didn't want to argue, either. "Maybe we can use it to our advantage."

He considered her for a moment. While he had thought in passing about the why of her abilities to contain an Infinity Stone, he hadn't perseverated on it, because he had more pressing concerns. He didn't really care why she could, she could, and that was that.

But it was odd indeed that she was able to. A mortal…"What do you know of your parents?"

Jane sighed and sat on a step which lowered into the stern. "Dead."

"Dead?" he went over and sat next to her.

Jane nodded.

He sighed. "Do you have any information at all about them?"

She sat back. "Erik knew them. My mother was beautiful, he said. My father…well. He said he was brilliant."

"And what about their origins?"

Jane looked at him, brow furrowed. "What do you mean?"

"Just that. What do you know of where they came from?"

"Um…my mom was from Boston? My dad…Erik wasn't sure."

Loki looked out into the blackness of space. "There's something not right with that. How can you not know?"

"Because I'm an orphan and it hurt too much to try to discover anything. Erik raised me. I didn't ask questions."

"A poor practice for a scientist."

She bit back a retort. "What does my parentage have to do with this?"

"Everything. A mere mortal could not wield an Infinity Stone."

"So…you're saying…" she felt ill. What if she had been wrong for all these years? What if her parents weren't just scientists? "You're saying that…"

"I'm saying that you're not just Midgardian. You must have other blood in you," and he looked at her. What good would it do, really, to discover her parentage? How could it help him, ultimately? He cleared his throat. "There are catacombs of papers…stories…on Alfheim. Perhaps we could try that. Let the ship here go to Thanos, empty."

"How can we get to Alfheim?"

"Oh Jane. I have many ways of traversing the Tree," he smiled.

"But…what about…what about Earth?" she was about to say, 'Thor,' but didn't. Her schemes suddenly felt so immature.

"We can be on Alfheim, search, and get back to New York in hours."

She shook her head. What was she doing. "Ok," and she stood.

"Excellent," and he stood with her, and took her hand. "Now, this might be a touch uncomfortable…" he paused. "Do you trust me?"

No, not really. She nodded dubiously.

…and he slipped them through the seam of space time…she felt herself being squeezed past endurance…she was going to be sick…

…and when she was able to breathe, she opened her eyes.

She coughed, gagging…and looked around her as she leaned on Loki for purchase.

She saw a glowing world, full of lush trees and soft hues. There were buildings in the distance. She smiled a bit, doubting that they would discover anything of consequence, but delighted at the scene in front of her.

And Loki, for his part, relished her closeness a bit too much. He needed to check himself. His wavering would not yield the results he desired…

But what he desired was becoming more and more murky to his mind.

The ship was landing softly on Titan.

And Thanos, the great Titan himself, was waiting for it. Ebony Maw and Cull Obsidian had not contacted him, so he was a bit concerned.

The ship turned and churned, landing and throwing bits of earth everywhere. Thanos approached, waiting for the hatch to open.

It didn't.

His mind grew angry, and he walked over, opening it himself…"Hello, my children!" he called, entering.

No answering call.

Thanos walked up the stairs, and looking around, discovered that no one was there.

It was empty.

His ire burned, and he seethed…had they been attacked on Earth? Had his children been harmed?

Did this mean that the mortals had more Infinity Stones? Could the elusive Soul Stone be there, too?

"Proxima!" he yelled, leaving the ship…the Power Stone was in place in the gauntlet. But it was the only one he had.

The trickster, Loki…he had the Tesseract, he was sure of it.

Tivan on Knowhere…

The Time Stone was with that ridiculous sorcerer…

And the Mind Stone was somewhere on Earth.

He would discover what happened to his children.

He would then obtain that mortal before heading to Knowhere, and he would have the Time Stone and the Mind Stone in hand.

And he would see if Thor's mortal could hold the Reality Stone…

…before he disposed of her.

He smiled.

No one but he can be allowed to wield an Infinity Stone.

"Hope the jet was comfy," Tony said, kicking back and looking around.

"Great. Really nice. Thanks, Tony," Steve smiled at him. "So…what do we know about those aliens?"

"Not much, except that a couple more invaded New York a few hours ago. And we got a couple of renegades we are now looking for," Tony looked at Thor.

"Who?" Steve's eyes narrowed a touch.

"My brother," began Thor. "And Jane Foster."

"Your ex-girlfriend is on the run with your criminal brother?" Natasha laughed. "I mean, that's good stuff. You should write a book."

"This is no laughing matter," dismissed the thunderer. "Loki was attempting to gain some acceptance and redemption. We don't know exactly what happened. All we know is that they were on the ship, and one of Thanos's lackeys is in a cage on Bleecker Street."

"Bleecker Street?" Steve looked at Tony. "What's on Bleecker Street?"

"Well, that's sorta funny. Looks like there's a Sanctum Santorum there."

"A what?"

"Loki appears to have put a sorcerer of some sort…" Tony paused, looking at Thor. "Somewhere. This guy has an Infinity Stone. He lived on Bleecker Street."

Steve Rogers sighed and folded his hands on the table. "Start from the beginning."

Tony smiled. "Ok. First things first. What's with the beard?"