All righty, much like Chapter 6, I wound up loving this chapter way too much to hold it back. So, all of you get it without delay. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it!

Thor had expected an argument from Fitz and Simmons when he'd come to them to ask what they knew about this so-called "hub" of Tesseract energy that had appeared once again in New York. He had expected hesitation, resistance, doubt of him and his motives in charging off to find Loki and Jane.

What he hadn't expected was for the two of them to bring up a map of New York City and launch into a hasty discussion about where their best guess to its point of origin might be, and chide Thor for not carrying a phone so they could upload the map straight to it for his reference.

"We'd offer you a spare one, but we don't usually keep them around," Simmons finished apologetically.

"HQ gets very…pointed if you lose them," Fitz added. "That said, we're pretty sure the signal is coming from somewhere underground, and our measurements were leaning towards the northwest when things, um, got complicated. National Portrait Gallery seems to be a good landmark."

"That is more than enough," said Thor, and meant it. It was certainly more than he'd expected. Maybe more than he deserved, given the havoc Loki had wrought here. It was this fact, this admittedly wonderful and welcome senselessness, that drove him on to ask. "My friends…" For, if they would do this for him, these two truly were his friends. "I am grateful for your assistance, but I confess…I find myself curious as to why you offer it at all."

Fitz and Simmons exchanged a look. Even from the outside, it was an achingly familiar look, one that made Thor smile to see.

"The thing is…" Simmons began.

"We know how it feels," Fitz continued. He darted a look at Simmons, and smiled. "When people who are…important start acting strange. And even if you don't know how to do it, all you really want to do is help them."

"And even if they don't know how to say it, all they really want is to be helped," Simmons finished with a sheepish smile, first at Fitz and then at Thor. After a moment, she cleared her throat, clearly embarrassed, and added: "Besides, if you really can get this all sorted out without Coulson needing to get involved…"

"…we think that might be for the best," Fitz finished. "Between you, us, and the test tubes, Coulson gets a bit, ah, emphatic, where Asgardians are concerned. Or memories about New York. Or about what happened to him."

"And it's not that we don't trust him," Simmons added hastily. "It's just that, well, we're his team."

"Teams keep each other safe," said Fitz with a definitive nod.

"I understand," said Thor, and he did. "All the same, if there is anything I could offer you in payment for your kindness, you have only to name it."

Simmons almost immediately brightened up with a slightly worrying smile on her face. "Since you mention it, if you or your brother would be willing to submit some physical samples? Blood, saliva, any of that? Maybe some measurements, like heart rate, blood pressure?"

"You wouldn't even need to come back here," Fitz added hastily. "We could just get in touch with Doctor Foster."

"The last time we had a chance to get up close to an Asgardian, we were sort of busy trying to stop him from bleeding out. And we've never seen a…what did you say he was, Thor?"

"A 'Jotun'," said Thor, feeling himself a little dizzied at this sudden turn of events. "More conventionally known as a Frost Giant."

"Jotun! Right! There haven't been any recorded cases of them on Earth, and anything we could learn about them would be amazingly helpful."

"I can see where it would," said Thor. A thought struck him then, and he smiled. In fact, he could see how such measurements might be helpful to more than just these two scientists. Loki was always hungry for knowledge, after all, and despite the beginning of Odin's attempts to turn him to a different way of thinking on Jotun, Thor knew that his brother still mistrusted, feared, even hated that part of himself.

Maybe putting it to numbers, measurements, facts would help see Loki that he really was nothing to be scared of.

"Not that we'd rat you out to Coulson or anything if you said 'no'," said Fitz with a smile, drawing Thor out of his thoughts.

"But if you wanted to pay us back," Simmons added. "That would be a perfect way to do it."

"I understand," Thor said, with a nod and a smile. "I will see what can be done, once this matter is put to rest. Thank you again, both of you." He offered them both a bow. "Whatever happens, I will not forget your kindness."

Then Thor left them both there, then, striding out of the lab, back up into the main body of the plane, and out towards the loading bay. It was, thankfully, still open, and Agent May was still there, now with Coulson, working busily to repair the tires on a bright red car.

They both looked up at the sound of his entrance. Thor looked back at them, and something in his eyes seemed to make them decide not to bother. They just turned back to their work.

Or so he thought. Just as Thor had stepped to the edge of the ramp and unhooked Mjolnir from his belt, Coulson spoke.

"If anyone dies, he's ours'. 'Asgardian justice' clearly isn't cutting it."

"Then I will make certain no one dies," Thor replied, his heart heavy. That wasn't in his power to decide, of course. Loki already seemed so far away, and Thor was having to forcibly keep back the doubt in his mind that he would be able to hold on to him. If something happened…

…but he would fight like hell to make certain nobody died from this, whatever this was. Least of all Loki himself.

With that, Thor gave Mjolnir a few hard spins, and shot off into the open air in hot pursuit.

He reflected as he flew that Fitz and Simmons had been more right than they could have possibly known. After all, most of the reason why Thor had been able to convince Odin and Frigga that Loki hadn't been entirely in his right mind during the fighting had been because Loki himself had denied the possibility so vehemently.

Their hasty search took them to the backyard of an old apartment block, and what looked like the boarded up entrance to a cellar. Jane had actually done a double take as he ripped up the rotting boards. He couldn't blame her. The enchantments surrounding it to keep anyone unsuitable from nosing around were truly exceptional.

"Is everything quite all right?" he asked her, using his coldest tone, as he hefted the boards aside. She'd been staring at him fixedly for the last few minutes, and he knew it couldn't have been to do with that rather pathetic feat of strength. In fact, judging by the way she kept leaning and fidgeting, she was trying to get a look very specifically at his face.

Jane started visibly at his question, looking guilty. "Yeah," she lied. "I was just, um, wondering." She fidgeted a little more, before apparently deciding to go for broke and blurting out, "While we've been walking, it's been more and more noticeable, so I really have to ask. Should your eyes be quite that…blue?"

Loki sighed, allowing himself just a moment to feel as tired as he was. "Yes," he said simply. "It means we're close." Snapping the combination lock on the doors was a rather more notable feat of strength, one that Loki followed by heaving open the doors themselves, letting out a rush of warm, stagnant air into the early evening breeze. He saw stone steps, leading down into the gloom, and started down them. What little light there was left in this dingy alleyway didn't provide much in the way of dispelling the darkness, even to his keen eyes. Of course, he already knew the way anyway. Anyone suitable who came this way already would. It would just be a matter of letting yourself be led, not fighting, submitting to the call. He knew that he could probably make the journey from here with his eyes closed, provided he never planned on walking out under his own power again.

Resisting was already getting harder. Submitting, even just to clear away the growing pressure in his head, didn't seem like such a bad idea. After all, what was freedom if not life's great lie?

Loki bowed his head, growling softly with frustration and pressing his palms to his temples as though he could drive out the whispers, still so damnably familiar.

Of course, he wasn't strong enough. When it felt as though he could open his eyes and still trust that it was him looking out through them, however, the first thing Loki did was look back up at Jane. He half expected to find her gone, and yet there she was, hovering at the top of the stairs, her form silhouetted by the dying light. She looked uncertain, but determined to stumble along in any case.

He shouldn't let her. She was "unsuitable", in more ways than one. She wasn't wanted, she hadn't been chosen, but oh, of course, he could fix that, he could make her see the way, and wouldn't that be just perfect to make Thor understand as well and no.

Damn it. He should send her away now, he knew, because venturing any further was likely to get her dead or worse. Yet Loki knew that if he did, that would be it for him. He needed her presence. She was, quite simply, the only thing keeping him sane. He needed her humanity like a starving man needed food. After all, he had so very little of his own to spare.

There was pride, and there was practicality.

So Loki offered her a hand. "Coming?"

Jane, in turn, obviously tried not to show the faintest bit of gratitude as she took his hand and held it. "All the way."

The empty, abandoned cellar led to a concealed doorway across the cluttered floor. It was not, however, so cluttered as to have precluded a clear path taking shape to guide the way of those who knew where to look.

Loki led Jane along by the hand as certainly as he could. It was the least he could do, and it was something to focus on. Yet as he reached the closed door, designed in such a way as to be nearly indistinguishable from the wall surrounding it, Loki knew with another painful throb in his head that it wouldn't be enough to focus on. He needed something else, something more to hold on to besides her hand. Down in this darkened tunnel, however, marching towards what was, for her, an unknown end, Loki doubted that Jane would be terribly in the mood to talk.

Then he remembered that, of all the one-way chatter that had filled the stolen van, there was one topic they had so steadfastly avoided. He almost, almost smiled at the twisted irony of the universe.

The door creaked on rusted hinges as he pulled it open, revealing a rougher tunnel beyond, high enough for them to stand up straight and broad enough for them to walk side by side. Loki kept Jane behind him, however, moving slowly enough that she could test the floor as it sloped downwards.

He, however, had no such difficulties, and so as soon as the noise died away, Loki made himself speak before he utterly lost his nerve to pride. "So. I imagine you see a great deal of Thor, over the course of a year."

He tried to keep his voice as brusque and professional as possible. This was, after all, just another distraction to keep him grounded. Just a means to an end. Even if Jane was obviously terrified, Thor was easy to talk about. It just came with being memorable and well-liked, it seemed.

There were some lies, however, that Loki couldn't even tell himself. He told them anyway. Just to keep in practice.

He felt her start in surprise behind him, felt her gaze searchingly on the back of his neck, above and beyond what he expected to feel given that he was probably all she could see right now. After a few seconds, Jane ventured a cautious, hesitant, "Yeah. I mean, not as much as I'd like, for my boyfriend, but he comes to stay for a few days every few weeks. Can't complain, I guess. He's a busy guy."

"Is he?"

"Well, you would know better than me."

"This might come as much of a shock to you as it has to me, but Thor has proven staggeringly reluctant to talk about himself or his personal affairs during our time together."

"Actually, I can believe that." He thought he heard a smile in her voice. "I think he sees his time with you as…well, I guess you could call it his big day off."

"Does he?" Loki found that he couldn't keep the confusion out of his voice. That made no sense. Loki was one of Thor's greatest responsibilities, as he was now. After all, the fate of the Nine Realms depended on the "success" of his education.

"Yeah. I mean, there's the way he talks about you." Her voice softened, turned almost gentle, and Loki felt something ugly and strange twist in the pit of his stomach. "He's always so excited to see you, and think up what sort of places to take you. He's…" She took a deep breath, and plunged on. "He's really proud of you. The first time he came to see me, after he took you to the library? He wouldn't stop talking about it all day. He made me help him remember all the books you'd been reading, because he wanted to read them, too. Gotta say, for a guy who had to take in all of human literature over the course of an afternoon, you have pretty good taste."

His throat felt tight. Loki told himself forcibly that it was only because of how close and stagnant the air was down here. As though sensing the lie, and how poorly he told it to himself, Jane squeezed his hand. It was, unmistakably, a gesture of comfort. The fact that she saw the need to comfort him made Loki want to laugh, but he wasn't quite sure he would be able to keep control of himself once he started.

"He is proud of you," Jane repeated, her soft voice nevertheless echoing in the tunnel. "He loves you. Once we save everyone, we'll go back, and I'll help you explain, and…"

…it will be okay. A lie, but a sweet one, and Loki knew better than most just how powerful those could be.

She didn't get the chance to say it, however, because the two of them turned the corner and both saw, at the end of the darkened hallway ahead, light pouring out through a doorway. Jane sucked in her breath in a sharp gasp, and even Loki felt the bottom drop out of the pit of his stomach at the sight.

Despite himself, he gave her hand a squeeze before leading her on. She was only human, but she was here. And he hoped the gesture was enough to express his intent to keep her safe. He owed her that much.

Even Loki found himself forced to blink his eyes clear as they stepped through the doorway into the vast room beyond. All the same, as his vision adjusted, he took in hasty impressions. Strung up electrical lights, powered by something located down another hallway. Some sort of machinery mostly constructed in the corner, its shape familiar but its function beyond him. Signs of life all around – cots, sleeping bags, pillows. Piles of canned food in another corner.

All, he assumed, the belongings of the dozen or so people scattered around the room. Loki felt the presence of others, out of sight, maybe down the other two hallways that branched off this room, but close. Very close.

He felt something else, too. A dark, cloying presence, like poison in the blood or smog in the sky or blood on the tongue. A horrifically familiar presence, one that even his cell couldn't hide him from anymore. Out of sight, but close. Very definitely here, and watching him, and he could almost taste its glee.

The assembled humans looked happy, too. Every single one was staring at the door as though they'd been waiting for hours, and as the two of them came fully into the light, every single one smiled. Loki looked around at them all, and couldn't see anything besides sincere joy in their expressions, and utter, devoted focus in their blue eyes.

He almost smiled back. He caught himself just in time, but not quite quickly enough to avoid feeling sick at himself. And yet, the urge was there, and it wasn't going away. What was there to trouble him? Here was his army, arrayed before him once more, more faithful than any in his life had ever been. They had clearly carried on his work without him, gathered more forces to their banner, and they had been waiting for his return. Such good vassals, such faithful soldiers, what a joy it would be to command them again, and this time…

"Loki," Jane whispered behind him. Her hand was trembling in his.

Loki shook his head, forcibly. There was a feeling like surfacing from deep water, and suddenly he could breathe just a little more. Suddenly, he could see.

A figure rose from the crowd. He recognized Clint Barton. He couldn't ever not. His former lieutenant looked so, so happy. He even saluted, the picture of a perfect soldier. "Welcome back, sir."

A shiver ran through Loki's body, at the chord those words struck. He tightened his grip on Jane's, reminding himself that he didn't need to hold on much longer. He just needed enough energy to play his part just a little longer.

Erik Selvig rose as well. He, however, was looking over Loki's shoulder.

"Jane," he said, like a proud father to a dutiful child. "At last. You've come to join us."

…this time he would not fail.