Chapter 11 – Death Becomes Her

"Oh…" Katirya stared down at her ruined dress, then focused on the burns on her exposed skin. She lifted her right forearm up to inspect it more closely. One of the burns on her arm suddenly flared up. "Loki?"

"What?" Loki stared at her arm. "How?"

"Her," Katirya jerked her head back towards the pile that had once been Jane. She closed her eyes, and the flames subsided. Her eyes fluttered open, and she scratched at the spot where the flames had been. "I need to see Eir."

Loki swept Katirya up into his arms as they exited the room. She snuggled up against him as they walked swiftly towards the Healers. Ian tugged Darcy along behind them, with Thor bringing up the rear.

They passed Fury and several of the Avengers in the hallway.

"What happened back there? Where is Jane Foster?" Fury demanded.

Loki brushed past, not answering.

"You stop right there and answer me!" Fury shouted to Loki's retreating back. He stepped forward, attempting to follow, only to find his way blocked by a wall of guards. He nodded to the other Avengers and they each scattered through the room heading for different exits, only to find them blocked by guards.

"My lord! What has happened to the Queen?" Eir greeted him as the group entered.

"Jane Foster." Loki walked past Eir towards one of the healing rooms. He set Katirya down on the table and turned to face Eir.

Eir frowned. "Jane Foster? That is impossible." She shook her head.

"The other Jane. Please, see to my wife as I show the others," Loki requested. He leaned down and kissed Katirya on the top of her head. "I shall be right back after I explain everything to them."

Katirya smiled at him. "I will be fine. You deal with that issue."

"Gylla, please fetch the Queen a new dress," Eir directed one of her assistants.

Gylla nodded and left the room.

"Now, let's see about these burns…" Eir muttered, bending over to inspect the ones on Katirya's arms. "I think we can find something that will work on them… any clue what caused them?"

Katirya shook her head. "Other than the spontaneous combustion, no. I do not know how she did it."

Loki shepherded the others out as Eir focused on Katirya. He directed them to another room down the hall. "In here, please. Perhaps this might explain things better if you see it."

Darcy gasped when she saw the body on the table. "How… how did Jane get here? She… exploded, back in the pub."

"Jane!" Thor raced to Jane's side, looking down with concern. "She is dead, isn't she?" He glared at his brother.

"Yes, she is dead. We found her this way."

"But… we saw… she burned… back in the pub," Darcy spluttered.

Loki shook his head. "That was not Jane Foster, at least not the Jane you knew. That was an imposter."

"No! That is impossible. It was Jane. I ought to know," Thor insisted.

"Jane was with us the entire time. How could it have been an imposter? How do you know for certain?" Erik inquired, stepping closer to the body to view it. "Although this does look like Jane."

"Trust me, it is the real Jane Foster. Kiri discovered the difference the instant your party arrived in Asgard. She sensed a stranger in your group but did not probe further. She had hoped to determine who it was, and perhaps even discover who had sent them."

"Why would someone come pretending to be Jane?" Thor demanded.

Loki lifted his eyebrows at this question. "Really? You ask that? Remember, Kiri has found five of the Infinity Stones. That alone would attract our enemy. From what just happened in the pub, I would speculate that they were sent to try to retrieve the Stones, or kill Kiri… or perhaps both. It would disrupt things here sufficiently to allow someone to infiltrate Asgard to find the Stones."

"Won't they still try?" Darcy asked.

"The Stones are safe. Kiri only had the Cronuth with her tonight," Loki assured her. "The fact that they did not succeed means that the next part of their plan could not be implemented, plus we were prepared for something to happen."

"The guards!" Darcy exclaimed.

"The guards?" Thor looked at her curiously.

"Fury mentioned it when we joined the party. How Clint had pointed out that there were, like, a ton of guards there. I didn't think anything of it, I mean… there always seems to be a lot of guards around." Darcy shrugged as she finished speaking. "Were there more? And how did you find the real Jane?"

"Yes, there were more guards that usual. As to finding Jane, I asked Heimdall to send someone down to Earth to discover what had happened to Jane. The guards found her dead in her room. I am sorry, but whoever was posing as Jane is most likely the one who murdered her," Loki explained.

"So, we don't know any more than when we started," Thor said despondently.

"Correct. Although, I suspect one or more of your friends, the Avengers, are involved," Loki replied.

"The Avengers?" Thor looked sharply at his brother. "How?"

"I do not know; it is just a suspicion. Kiri doesn't even know that I think that, but my belief is that someone has contacted them, offered something to earn their trust. It would explain their overconfidence, their belief that they are untouchable in this war," Loki answered.

Thor thought about it for a few seconds, then nodded. "It is possible, but who?"

Loki shrugged. "That is the question."

Hela quietly entered the room. She glanced around at all the somber faces before approaching Loki. She drew him away from the others and spoke to him quietly for several moments. Loki nodded, and they returned to the group.

"Lady Jane's friends," Hela addressed Darcy and the others. "I have an offer for you. I know your traditions on Earth are different than the customs we follow, but if you wish, Jane can be taken to Valhalla – as an honored guest, if you are amenable."

"Or, we can permit you to quietly take her body back to Earth, but until we know who was behind this, you cannot tell anyone that the Jane back in the pub was not the real Jane," Loki added.

Darcy looked at the others from Earth. "What do you think?"

"You do not need to decide immediately…"

"LOKI!" Eir's shout carried down the hall into the room.

Hearing the urgency in the healer's voice, Loki abruptly left the room. He entered Kiri's room to find his wife, still in her burned dress, attempting to leave the room.

"My Queen, you must let me finish…"

"Kiri?"

"Loki! Tell Eir I have to check this out!" Katirya held out her shoe, or what was left of her shoe.

"That is your shoe," Loki pointed out.

"I know it is my shoe, but look at this!" Katirya pointed to a spot on the heel. "Recognize it?"

Loki stared at it. "What? How did that get there?"

Katirya rolled her eyes. "It ought to be rather obvious. When that thing burst into flames. Look familiar?"

"Yes. This is significant," he stared at the tiny dot of pink goo on her shoe. "Are you sure you did not pick this up earlier in the day?"

"I wasn't wearing these shoes earlier. They were new, made especially for the ceremony," Katirya answered. "Now, we need to go down to those labs and investigate."

Thor burst into the room. "What is wrong?" Seeing Katirya in one piece, he calmed down.

Loki held out the shoe. "See anything you recognize?"

"How did that get there?" Thor asked.

"Jane, or the not-Jane person," Katirya answered.

"We must follow up on this. It connects Stark to our enemy. Who did he work with in the labs?" Loki asked.

"A few of our scientists. Why?"

"We need to talk to them… now!" Loki said. He put his arms around Katirya and lifted her up. He set her down on the table and chucked her chin. "Now, my dear, you will stay here until Eir is done with you while my brother and I investigate this. Understand?"

Katirya wrinkled her nose as she frowned. "Really. I can help…"

"You are half-dressed and still covered in burns. We will be fine."

Katirya sighed heavily. "Fine."

"Thank you, my King," Eir smiled at him.

"You are most welcome. Now, Thor, shall we?"

Thor nodded.

The two brothers exited the healers, taking off at a run towards the labs.

Author's Notes: Thanks for continuing to read this story. I do wish to remind you if you have questions, please PM me. I have recently received a few "Guest" reviews that I rejected as they posed questions that required answers. Even if you leave a name, there are often multiple people on FFN with similar names and I cannot identify which one you are. All 'guest' reviews are moderated, so those that simply pose questions are rejected.

In response to a few of these:

I have no intentions of linking these stories to Thor 3, Avengers: Age of Ultron, or any future Marvel movies. I have no clue what is going to happen in any of these future movies.

This story takes place at the end of TDW and is my interpretation of what happens. At this point, we are several years after the end of that movie. Much has changed and the characters have grown and changed as a result.

Jane Foster – she is the way she is because that is how I wrote the story. This is a result of how I viewed her character in TDW. I used the movie in a paper I wrote for a graduate class where I had to analyze several factors in the movie. During that time, I watched the movie with a more critical eye and noticed several things about the character that resulted in my wanting to write this story in the first place. I am not going to explain why she ended up the way she did in terms of personality. If you've read the stories, you should have seen the changes and realized why she changed.

This is "my" story. I will refer you to a part of my FFN profile – "I always appreciate reviews, and I always try to reply back. I realize not everyone is going to like my story, but please note that one tiny word = MY. This is my interpretation of the characters and they behave how I desire them to. If you think a certain character should do something differently - that is perfectly fine - but do not tell me they cannot do it in my story. I simply suggest you write your own story."

Sorry for the lengthy notes, but I felt the questions needed a response.

And if you'd like to see a different version of Loki – check out my story "The Tenth Realm".