Loki thought how strange it still was to see someone else operate the bifrost. Not to have Heimdall greet him when he came home. Home. He huffed out a laugh. The new Gatekeeper looked concerned. It took Loki a moment to realize he hadn't bothered to veil his battered appearance.

"My prince", she said and bowed her head. He nodded at her and left straight for his quarters. He'd deal with Thor some other time.

Back in his bedroom Loki gave in. He'd refrained from doing this for so long, but tonight he just didn't know how to deal with his failure on his own. He sat on the floor, legs crossed, and closed his eyes.

Even with his eyes still closed he could tell that it had worked. Her aura filled the whole room, and he started to cry again. He kept his eyes closed, wishing she'd come to him, hoping, pleading in his mind. When she finally touched his cheek he came undone, melting into her arms, pride be damned.

"Mother", he breathed, and she guided him to lay down onto the floor, his head resting in her lap. Home.

She held him for a long time, gently running her slender fingers through his hair, tracing the cuts and bruises on his face, his broken nose. She took his injured hand in hers.

"You didn't heal yourself."

"No."

"Do you want me to?"

"You're not really here."

She sighed.

"My beautiful, complicated child. Will you tell me what happened?"

For a long time Loki didn't say anything. Then he sat up and faced Frigga.

"I conducted an experiment. It was a failure."

Frigga just sat there, on the floor of his bedroom, patiently waiting for him to go on.

"I needed to know what a man I would have become if – under different circumstances. So I created a duplicate of myself, but I only gave him my childhood memories. He never knew that he was adopted. He never fell into the abyss. He never – nobody ever hurt him. I took care of him, lived with him, as his brother, on Midgard. It turned out I'm a killer no matter what. A monster. The darkness is there. I'm evil, even under the best of circumstances."

Frigga took his hands, both whole and broken.

"What happened?"

Loki told her about his fight with Billy, and how his duplicate had tried to kill him.

"And then I ended his existence."

"You defended yourself."

"He attacked me, mother! The moment he learned that he might survive if I died, he tried to murder me! Even if everything in my life had been good, and peaceful, and kind – I would still have turned into a killer."

"His existence was threatened, and he was fighting for his life. That's not evil. It's self preservation, Loki."

Loki didn't say anything. Frigga caressed his injured hand.

"Let me heal you", she said softly.

"I'm not sure I deserve that."

"I am."

He closed his eyes and nodded once, and the pain stopped. When he opened his eyes, Frigga was gone, and that hurt just as much as it always had. But he started to smile through his tears. When Thor knocked on his door he was ready to talk to him. It turned out there was a diplomatic crisis, and Thor desperately needed his brother's help.

THE END