Songs for this chapter: "Sacrilege" by Yeah Yeah Yeahs; "Stockholm Syndrome" by Muse
Chapter 10
After what felt like ages of Loki beating Jane at Æsir and Vanir combat in their Alfheim meadow, both of them were spent. Loki conjured some passable dinner from the organic matter in the grass, soil, and nearby trees and they ate in silence.
Not needing as much to eat was a benefit of being Jötunn. Not being able to taste food any longer was both benefit and disadvantage. Tonight though, Jane felt it was a definite benefit. The indulgences of Asgard and Vanaheim seemed so trivial under her new taste buds, and Jane wondered how Loki managed growing up so surrounded by food. She didn't ask. Instead she lay down in the grass and conjured a blanket to wrap around herself. It was not cold, but the blanket gave her a sense of comfort, a lingering sentiment from her human life. She looked at her blanket and saw it was bright green. She laughed to herself and closed her eyes, too tired to change its color. The night before she'd thought she'd never be as tired as she was then, but after all the physical activity of the day, tonight proved her wrong. Soon she was asleep, not caring if Loki crept into her mind.
That night, she had another one of what she had come to call visions. It took place on Jötunheim. In it, Loki was naked in his Æsir form, chained to a rock underneath a great serpent. The set up was familiar to Jane from a painting that she had seen in the Tromsø Museum during her time working in Norway. The painting was part of the Ragnarök section in the mythology room, and depicted Loki tied down just like this. Of course, Loki in the painting was not the actual Loki as she saw him in the vision now. Ragnarök, if it was even a real thing, had not happened, or at least she did not think it had since nearly all the characters in it were still alive in her world, so she focused on the vision more intensely.
Besides Loki being himself in the vision, the most immediate difference she could see was that the serpent glowed in a burning way that suggested it was made impossibly of stars. Her mind connected that the serpent was the flesh form of the Jörmungandr constellation. In Earth's stories of Ragnarök the serpent who tortured Loki was not Jörmungandr. In fact, it was Thor who ultimately was killed by Jörmungandr in the mythology's folklore.
In the vision though, venom made of starlight dripped steadily from Jörmungandr's fangs into a bowl that a woman was holding. The woman was turned away from Jane and she could not see her face. In the myth that went with the painting, this woman was Sigyn, Loki's wife. The idea of Loki having a wife was ludicrous to Jane, but in the vision she could see that the bowl the woman was holding was about to overflow with venom. The woman too recognized this and hurried to dump the contents into a nearby abyss. While she was gone, the venom continued to drip. Jane watched in horror as it visibly burned the flesh of Loki's chest in a searing hiss that left his pale skin marred with chemical burns. The noise that followed deafened Jane in its howling and haunting roar. It sounded like a tornado just on the other side of a cellar door. Jane became unstable as the ground all around her started to tremble and shake. The rock she was standing on began to descend and she saw there was a giant crack in the rockbed between where she stood and where Loki was tied. She turned behind her to see that she was on the edge of the abyss. Jane leapt towards the now cliff face in order to save herself. Her arms caught the very edge and she fumbled to gain traction with her feet, the ground where she was standing a second before literally having fallen away. As she pulled herself up, she saw that the woman was running back to hold the bowl up over Loki again. Once she was back in her spot, the ground became still again and the noise of Loki's cries of anguish quieted to a small whimper.
"Why is this happening?" Jane called out from the cliff's edge.
The woman turned to face her and Jane saw that she was her own self.
"The wicked are punished in the end." The vision Jane replied. "This is the end of days. This is the start of Ragnarök."
Jane woke from the vision feeling unsettled and upset. She found the sky to be dark. The lack of stars assured she was on Alfheim, not Jötunheim, and she tried to calm her breathing. She still felt unsteady though. What she had seen felt all too real, as if she had been given a glimpse into the future. It reminded her of the Well of Mimir and she blinked a few times as the idea that she had somehow drank from the well and could now see the future spun around in her mind. She thought back to when she last had drunk anything. Nothing on Alfheim. Nothing while she was being examined by the Jötnar. Nál had given her Iðunn's apple.
Then she remembered. Nál had also given her water to wash down the apple. But that wasn't what it had been for at all. Nál had given her the gift of Mimir without even asking. Why? Jane wondered. She knew this meant all the other visions were real; that her fate was to become the queen of Asgard. There was only one way to stop that, and it meant she had to get back to Asgard in time to save Thor from the illness killing him, which she had foreseen the night before.
Jane sat up and found herself alone in the field. She stood and walked to the boat, finding Loki inside, staring at the vacant sky. He looked at her inquisitively. Jane climbed in and slid next to him.
"Loki," she said. It came out as a whisper even though she didn't intend it to.
"You're scared?" Loki asked.
"Another nightmare." She lied.
"Did I kill you in this one?"
"No." Jane barely managed to say, remembering the pain she saw him go through. That he would go through.
"What happened?" he asked softly.
Jane shook her head for a while. Finally she said, "Can I sleep next to you?"
"Yes, of course." Loki said.
"But against you? I just feel like I need to be touching someone." She said.
Loki said nothing and pulled her body against his. He stroked her hair and said, "Close your eyes. Think of Midgard. Think of home."
Jane thought of Jötunheim. She thought of Nál's smile of hope. She thought of Loki's lips lingering on hers when he had given her the human guise and expanded her mind for the inclusion of magic.
Loki's long fingers traced her jawline and the outer edge of her ear, causing their forms to change. She adjusted herself into his chest and wrapped her arm over his slender Jötunn torso. Eventually she fell asleep.
~.~.~
Jane woke to a whimpering sound beneath her and quickly surmised Loki was having a nightmare. She pushed her mind into his and found herself surrounded by Chitauri on a planet foreign to her. She could feel, quite overwhelmingly, Loki's raw fear.
"You have failed, fallen King of Asgard." The Chitauri leader said to Loki. "You thought we would stop looking for you. That Asgardian justice would be enough for Him."
"No," Loki said. "This is not my failure."
"Your words have no meaning without the tesseract!" the leader said. "You have imagined the pain we would inflict on you, I am certain. But all you imagined has been an illustrious sweetness compared to what you will experience now. Your suffering will be beyond measure. Worlds will quake in the tremors of your pain."
Loki said nothing, but Jane could feel his terror. She wanted to comfort him and assure him it was only a dream, but she knew that his final suffering would mimic this dream. It was beyond anyone's power to alter Ragnarök.
The dream continued with the Chitauri leader overseeing the chaining of Loki to a rock structure. A serpent that was different from Jörmungandr hovered in the background, waiting for its cue to attack.
"You thought your death would stop us!" the leader said. "But He never stops. Death is not a boundary He knows, our great leader."
"I didn't die for Him! I didn't die for any of you! Your venomous lies and claims of greatness. You are a wailing breed of reptiles. Vermin to be expunged. To torture me will gain you nothing!" Loki spat in his dream. Jane could tell his words were fabricated from fear and desperation, like when she had begged him for her life on Asgard.
"If you do not work to serve Him, then you have no purpose!" the Chitauri leader said.
Loki made no reply, but Jane could feel his thoughts. He felt regret and dismay. The events of Earth's Battle of New York played out in his mind on a high speed replay. He was skipping what Jane felt was important, what she needed to see. All the moments with Erik were blurred. Finally she saw Thor in real time, trying to speak sense into Loki. She could feel Loki's reaction to himself in the dream. He was so angry with himself for not killing Thor when he had the chance. The replay picked up speed again, landing on the destruction of the Chitauri fleet. Loki's mind had been freed in that moment. Jane realized that Tony's heroics had saved Loki from whoever 'He' was.
The dream resumed on the Chitauri planet with the Chitauri leader laughing at Loki's reverie. Loki didn't visibly react, but Jane felt his inward shudder.
"Let me show you suffering, Prince of Asgard." The Chitauri leader hissed.
The image of Jane filled the space in front of Loki, as if the Chitauri was projecting it onto an invisible screen. Jane watched as the image of herself took in the aether. Her image's body convulsed a few moments before going rigid.
"Look inside of her." The Chitauri urged. "The power you desired mingled with her blood. She should be dead. She will die in moments. Look inside of her, Prince!"
"She is strong." Loki said. "She will not perish. I have seen it."
The image of Jane looked directly at Loki and said in an emotionless tone, "You know nothing of my strength. You know nothing of my suffering. You think you understand pain. You think you know darkness. You tell yourself you know ultimate power. But you have harnessed nothing of those. You are nothing, Loki Laufeyson. You mean nothing and no one will be there to pity you in the end."
Jane wanted to shout that this was untrue; that she would be there. Instead she was overcome by the grief Loki felt. The sense of utter disappointment.
"Forgive me, Jane." She heard him whisper in the dream. She felt the sting of pain he felt as he severed the space behind his ear.
Jane watched in horror as bluish-black blood pooled around him. She could feel him dying in the dream and she realized this was her chance. She quickly looked at the fading images of the Chitauri, memorizing how they looked. Six fingers—four digits and two thumbs. Whitish taut skin. Face covered by a golden grate. No visible eyes. Shrouded by a hood. She could do this. She could get herself out of Alfheim tonight.
~.~.~
Loki could hear Jane calling for him. He had just killed himself to avoid the oncoming torture the Chitauri sought for him, but Jane's voice rang clear. After a long enough moment of not dying from the fatal wound, he realized he was dreaming.
He forced himself awake to find Jane screaming for him as she was dragged away in chains by a Chitauri guard. He conjured a bolt of energy from his lifeforce and threw it at her captor. The captor turned before the bolt hit him and blocked it with a wrist shield. Jane looked back at Loki, her eyes wide with terror.
What have I brought her into? He thought angrily. The Chitauri had been clear that he could not hide from them. He had to save Jane though. This was not her fight. He moved to stand, but a thick hand pushed against his chest.
"Yes, your whore seems lovely." The hand's owner said. Loki saw it was the Chitauri leader. "She will serve Him well. Unlike you, Prince of Asgard. You have disappointed my master greatly. Then you betrayed Him with your mockery of death. He who commands so much will not be fooled by your petty tricks. You vex Him with your actions. You will pay an even greater price than promised before."
Loki grabbed the Chitauri leader by the throat, hoping to rip out its vocal chords, but the skin was slippery. Soon his fingers burned and he shrieked in pain.
"What is this poison?" Loki cried.
"A taste of what is to come." The leader said, moving in front of him. "You will beg for death, but you will not be granted such a luxury."
Loki was unsure what to do. He always had a plan, even if it wasn't fully formed, but nothing would come to him. The Chitauri leader was approaching him now, ready to bind him in chains. Loki transported himself to the meadow, but the Chitauri was so fast he caught up almost immediately.
"Where will you run?" he asked Loki. "You have nowhere left to go."
Chitauri emerged from every side, closing in on Loki.
"Let her go." Loki said.
"The whore? What is she worth?"
"Let her go." Loki commanded.
"Kill the whore!" the Chitauri leader yelled.
"No!" Loki yelled. He looked up to the boat to see the guard holding Jane captive stab her forcefully through the heart.
"No." Loki breathed. He felt like the force of mjölnir had struck him in the gut and he collapsed to the ground. The Chitauri leader approached him and he tried to find his lungs again. As the leader swiped his hand to grab Loki by the collar, Loki transported himself to Jane's side on the boat.
"You will pay for this." He snarled at the guard who killed her. The guard hissed at him and Loki focused his attention to Jane's body. He wondered if he could heal her still or if the wound was too fatal. He hovered his palms over the gaping hole where her heart should be, the green light emanating from him, but he could see the damage was too great.
Loki knew he could not return to Asgard without Jane alive. Everything was shattered now and the Chitauri had taken from him what he was rightfully owed. He would not go to his eternal suffering without a fight.
He looked back to Jane's limp body, the color fading from her skin. She could not come back as Jötunn after her heart had been forced from her body so violently. He went to push her hair away from her face, but at his touch her body shimmered gold and green then disappeared.
"What?" he uttered.
He looked to the guard and touched him as well. His body too shimmered away. Loki stood and turned to the meadow to find the Chitauri leader. Instead he saw Jane perched on the edge of the boat, taping her wrist as if she wore what Midgardians called a watch.
She looked over at him and said, "I think it's time to go back to Asgard, don't you?"
"That was…" Loki started.
Jane cocked her head.
"You are…" Loki tried again. This time he walked over to her. He picked her up and put her on the floor of the boat. His hands lingered on her waist and he moved his right hand over her ribcage to feel for the warmth of her heartbeat.
Jane pulled his hand from her upper torso and gave him a berating look.
"Sorry. I needed to make sure you still had a heart." He said.
"I am not you." Jane replied.
Loki smiled at this.
"Okay, it's you." He said. "And Jane?"
"Hm?"
"I'm impressed."
"Good. Now let's go." Jane said.
"Not yet." Loki said.
"A deal's a deal." Jane said. "Unless you're planning to betray me again like you did in Utgard?"
"No, I won't betray you again, Jane."
"I wish that were true." Jane said softly.
"We have to wait for Asgard to ask you back." Loki said. "It'll be any day now. Heimdall grows anxious. Whatever is happening there is spreading. Asgard never has plagues, but Midgard frequently does. Heimdall just needs to convince Thor that you can help."
Jane thought about this. Why wouldn't Heimdall just invite her himself if they were in such peril? Unless there was a command against it, Heimdall would call for her. He valued the realm above all else.
"Oh." She thought aloud.
"What?"
"No, it's just… Thor must be king now."
"Odin is only dead a day! The mourning period must end first. It's impossible."
"You're measuring time by the light, but there are no stars here. Light holds no measurement here." Jane said. "You're too intelligent for this, Loki."
Loki groaned and said, "It's so frustrating when you're right."
Jane grinned widely.
"Fine." Loki said. "But first we go to Midgard so you can be transported from there."
"What about you?"
"Oh, that's part of this plan. I'm sneaking into Asgard with you. Otherwise I'm on trial for murder."
"Sneaking in?"
Loki disappeared and then reappeared.
"Sneaking in." he said.
"Okay," Jane said. Her mind was racing now, working out a plan that would benefit only her while still being mostly in conjunction with his plan. "It might work." She added. Her comment was more to herself about her own plan.
"It will work." Loki said. "As long as you don't betray me."
"I'm not you." Jane said. To avoid suspicion she quickly added, "When do we start?"
Loki grinned and pushed past her to the boat's controls.
"You still need more fight training." He said as he flew them back towards the golden canyon.
"I doubt I could ever have enough." Jane said. "You're the only person I've ever fought."
"It's obvious." Loki said.
They were picking up speed now, heading for a curve in the canyon wall. The tiny opening of rock became visible to Jane and she looked around Alfheim once more before they slipped into the rock and accelerated through the portal to Midgard.
The desert's dry wind rushed over Jane's face and she covered her nose against the blast of sand. The wind was roaring and the visibility was abysmal. Loki's passageway had jettisoned them into some kind of sandstorm. She felt him pushing into her brain before she could block him.
"Sorry," he thought into her mind. "Shall we abandon the ship here and transport to your abode?"
"Sure." Jane thought back. "You know where it is or are we going together?"
"Why don't you take us? It'll be good practice." Loki thought.
Jane moved towards him and wrapped her arm around his waist.
"Please use both for your first try." Loki thought.
Jane sent an angry thought his way before fully embracing him. She looked to the swirling storm around them, the boat still mid-flight. The visual of atoms made the storm appear even more chaotic.
"Can you do this?" Loki thought in her head.
"Shut up! I'm focusing." She thought back.
"I like my form as it is, you know."
Jane could see a passage from the storm now through the dark matter.
"Your vanity is atrocious." She thought and let her magic flow through both of them. Their atoms moved through the dark matter and out of the sandstorm. From this vantage point Jane could see they were above an enormous desert, but she could not tell which one. The sun was blocked out by a stratus cloud, which seemed odd for the desert and unfortunately rendered it useless for telling direction. She knew the only way to figure out where on Earth they were would be to keep moving and looking for landmarks.
"I don't know Midgard well enough." Loki thought to her. "Reassemble our dropar and we'll figure it out on land."
Jane ignored him and set a course, looking for visuals on the ground. Soon the Hoover Dam came into view. They were going southeast. She corrected them northeast and went full speed. In this form she could not unlink herself from Loki. In fact, it was as if they were one entity hurtling through space. Moments later they materialized on her building's roof in London. Loki immediately went invisible, but stayed linked inside Jane's mind.
"I can't guide you if I don't know where you are." She thought to him.
Loki showed himself and thought back, "Fair enough, but only you can see me through our mindlink. We need to get you inside, cleaned up, and integrated back into life. Then you will have to call Heimdall."
"You're concealing me from him." Jane pointed out.
"Yes, I know. Once you step in for your illusion, I'll drop the concealment. So don't do anything stupid."
"Don't you trust me?" Jane grinned.
Loki wrinkled his nose and Jane took that as a reluctant yes. She made the leap to her balcony and Loki followed. Jane looked out at the familiar view of London for a moment. The rain seemed darker than she remembered, but she thought it might just be her Jötunn eyesight.
"Does the rain look different to you?" she thought to Loki.
"Not especially, but I see a lot of alien rain, so who can know?" Loki thought back.
Jane frowned, but shrugged it off, turning towards her locked apartment. Using magic she unlocked the balcony door and went inside. Everything was in place and her illusion was sitting on the couch engrossed in a journal.
"What is she doing?" she thought to Loki.
"Being clever."
"Can she see us?"
"She is me." Loki thought. "Now go find those clothes in your—"
He stopped once he realized Jane had already conjured matching clothing onto herself. Her skin was free of cuts, bruises and different colored dried blood, and she looked at him to indicate she was ready.
"Well that was quick." Loki smiled.
"We are lacking on time." Jane thought. She kept her mind clear of any thoughts of saving Thor. Loki had to think they were going back entirely for him or else he would sabotage her plan.
"Take the journal and get ready to sit in her place." Loki said, his hand poised to remove the illusion.
Jane hovered over the illusion of herself waiting for Loki's signal.
"Now!" he thought.
Jane grabbed the journal and slid into the illusion, which Loki made disappear at her touch. She felt a weight lifted from her and realized that her concealment was over. She continued to keep her mind clear, despite her excitement, and focused on the journal her illusion had been reading. It was full of equations she didn't know, that she hadn't written, even though they were in her handwriting. After flipping through a few pages she realized it was all equations to make space-time travel possible through the harnessing of dark energy. There was no evidence to support the theory, other than the Bifröst, which might not count as evidence on Earth. It was Loki's handiwork.
As she turned the page, she noticed sketches of possibilities for how to engineer a device that would permit such travel. She flipped through quickly, realizing the sketches took up dozens of pages, focusing on a single design more narrowly as the journal went on. Across the top of the last page of sketches, Tony Stark's personal email address was written in gorgeous calligraphy, but then scratched out quite forcefully, as if Loki desperately meant to conceal the lapse into his own handwriting.
"You could write that gracefully, too. I had training." Loki thought to Jane, reading her mind's reflections on her own ugly handwriting. Truthfully he had enjoyed writing in her squat little scribble. It moved quickly and focused entirely on the content instead of the presentation. It did not try to put on airs and its form reminded him a little bit of the runic writing of the Jötnar. Theirs had always been his favorite alphabet to draw.
"What did you do?" Jane thought demandingly to Loki, referencing Tony's email address.
"Nothing," Loki thought back in a playfully guilty tone.
"Did you email these to Tony?" Jane thought.
"Technically, no." Loki thought.
Jane let out a sigh and tried not to roll her eyes. Heimdall could be watching her and she needed to appear to be alone. She got off the couch, tucked the journal into her jeans' back pocket, and went to search for her cell phone.
"On the kitchen counter." Loki thought to her.
She snatched the phone off the counter and noticed the wall calendar was turned to November.
"That can't be right." Jane said softly out loud. She thought to Loki, "Did you change my calendar month?"
"Of course. You're anal about your calendar, how would it be believable if I hadn't?" he thought back.
Jane felt herself starting to blush and quickly concealed it using magic. Loki laughed, able to read her thoughts of embarrassment at being judged accurately as anal. Jane cleared her throat and unlocked her phone.
'13:08, Wednesday, 26 November' the front screen read. She had moved to Asgard on September 7th. Oh my god. Jane thought to herself. I've been gone more than 2 months?!
"We have been gone." Loki corrected her through thought. "We were on Jötunheim for a month. So, we must have been on Alfheim for about a month as well."
"This is insane." Jane thought to him. "It felt like a few days on Alfheim."
"Hours have no measure when engrossed in pleasure." Loki thought with a grin. When Jane gave him a confused thought back he replied, "You don't have this saying on Midgard?"
"Sort of. It goes 'Time flies when you're having fun.'" She thought. "Though if our time on Alfheim is what you call 'fun' then we have bigger issues."
"You enjoyed yourself, Jane. Your thoughts can't lie to me." Loki teased. Part of him itched to take Jane back to Alfheim and stay there with her forever. This was of course impractical, but made him glad his new plan did not involve harming Jane like his previous plan had.
"I'm ignoring you now." Jane thought back to Loki.
She looked at her phone and noticed the scores of missed texts. The top one was from Erik and it read, "I'm coming by after lunch to make sure you're alive." She checked the time and date of the text and saw it was from today and only an hour ago. Shit. She thought. We need to go now. Erik's coming.
The doorbell rang.
"Answer it." Loki thought. "It will seem weird to Heimdall if you try to leave now with Selvig on your doorstep."
Jane checked the peephole first, then unlocked the door and gave Erik a smile.
"Hey!" she said. "I got your text. I'm alive, see."
"Can I come in?" Erik asked. His tone sounded serious and he looked her over as if checking to see if she was hurt.
"Sure, of course. Sorry." Jane stammered. She moved out of the doorframe so he could enter the apartment. Erik took off his coat and hung it on her overloaded coat rack.
"Um, is everything okay?" Jane asked. She tried to remember how to be human. "Do you want anything to drink? Coffee?"
"Coffee would be nice." Erik nodded.
Jane smiled and went to the kitchen. It was not unused. Loki's attention to detail was impressive. Jane almost laughed imagining him doing dishes as her illusion. While Thor had always been helpful and cleaned up while visiting, it was impossible to think of Loki in his Asgard garb resisting the use of magic in the face of dirty dishes.
Loki wasn't sharing his thoughts with her and Jane turned to find him observing Erik from a dark corner by her television. He looked concerned, so Jane turned to Erik. He was sniffing around Jane's apartment, as if searching for something specific. She pushed the journal deeper into her back pocket and opened her cabinet with the coffee. She filled the coffeemaker and pressed the BREW button.
"So, what's really going on?" Jane asked Erik, walking back to the living area.
"Director Hill's worried about you." He said. He was using his paternal voice now.
"Why?" Jane asked. She immediately thought to Loki, "What did you do?"
"Nothing extravagant," He thought back. "Promise."
"You've been avoiding her calls since getting back from Asgard." Erik said.
"Thor and I broke up. Why should I have to field calls from Hill?" Jane said.
"What? You didn't tell me." Erik said.
"Yeah, I just...thought it would be obvious since I came back." Jane said. She realized she needed to act more upset. "It just wasn't what I expected, being there with him."
"What changed?" Erik asked. "You were so happy with him before. I really thought..." Erik trailed off.
"Yes, Jane, what changed? I'm dying to know." Loki thought grinning from the corner.
"Thor's in love with Sif." Jane said plainly. "You saw when they came here for Ian's party."
"Jane, why would you go to Asgard then?" Erik asked, moving to the kitchen to tend to the bubbling coffeemaker.
"I...didn't want to believe it." Jane said.
"Liar," Loki thought. He had seen in her mind by now what her true intentions had been in moving to Asgard. She had gone to collect information and technology to bring back to Midgard and share with Tony and that mongrel Banner. The way she idolized Banner in her head made Loki hate the beast even more. Still, he admired the way Jane had used Thor. By sending Tony the space-time travel equations and sketches while he was Jane's illusion, Loki at least had lived out some of her true goals for her. Plus it enabled him to know Tony in a different way, which had been a lot of fun. He quite enjoyed Tony, as it turned out.
"Hm," Erik said back to Jane from the kitchen.
"Is that really why Hill's concerned?" Jane asked. Something was going on here. Erik was acting weirdly distant. She wondered again what Loki had been doing as her illusion for the last two months, but he gave her no indication now.
Erik prepared their coffees, frowning at the spoiled milk in the fridge and just serving them with a little sugar. He walked over to Jane, who had sat down on the couch, and placed a mug in front of her.
"No," Erik said. "She wants you to come in."
Jane could practically feel Loki leaning over her shoulder in curiosity even though she could see him seven feet in front of her.
"What's been happening?" Jane asked Erik.
"It's all need-to-know. I can't brief you until you come in." Erik said and looked out the window.
"You've been there too long." Jane smiled teasingly.
"Maybe so," he laughed lightly.
"Okay, but is it world threatening or just a project?" Jane asked. "Because there's some stuff going on in Asgard they need me back for."
"Jane, you can't go back there." Erik said.
"Says who?"
"Hill won't allow it. The lines to space are closed." Erik was serious. "There's been... you just can't leave."
"Erik, if you can't tell me what's going on, then I have no reason to stay. But Asgard does have a reason for me to go. Thor is dying and they think I can help."
"Were you even going to say goodbye?" Erik said.
"I'm coming back." Jane said. She wasn't sure that was true though.
She put down her mug, having drank none of it, and stood, walking towards the balcony.
"Jane, I can't let you go." Erik said. "I'm under orders to bring you in to headquarters. Our flight leaves in an hour."
"Well, you can't detain me. If Hill really wanted to bring me in, she would have sent someone stronger than you." Jane said. She opened the balcony door and walked outside, Loki following directly behind her. She looked to the sky and called out, "Heimdall, I'm ready."
"Jane, wait," Erik said, following her outside. He approached her slowly, putting his hands on her shoulders. Jane knew Heimdall must be watching because he did not send the Bifröst down.
"You don't need to save him you know. What more can you do for Thor that Asgard cannot?" Erik said.
"Erik," she began. She looked away from him and saw Loki had moved to the railing to look out over London. Her eyes stayed on Loki as she said, "I wish you were right. I wish that I couldn't help him. But it seems my fate lies beyond the stars."
Loki looked over at these words and held her gaze. She had cleared her mind and he could not tell if she was talking about him.
"Just be safe, Jane." Erik said. "Our world is darker when you're not here."
Jane looked back to Erik and smiled, "I will be safe. My time away changed how I approach danger."
"That's what I'm afraid of, Jane." Erik said. "You're not immortal."
"Neither is Thor." Jane said flatly.
Erik let out a sigh and gave Jane a long hug.
"I'll try to send word from Asgard." Jane said. "I nearly finished an idea for the communications portal before I left last time."
"Intergalactic email?" Erik mused.
"Inter-realm," Jane corrected him.
Loki smiled at this and then cleared his throat. It was time to go.
"Okay," Jane said. She was really speaking to both men at that point. Loki conjured on a pair of gloves so he would not turn her Jötunn during the journey and Jane moved away from Erik a safe distance.
"Goodbye, Erik." Jane said. She looked towards the sky again and said, "Heimdall, now I'm ready."
Loki wrapped his arms around her tightly and she felt the now familiar tug of dark energy swarming around them as Heimdall sent the Bifröst down. As their bodies raced through space-time, Jane focused on Erik in order to keep her mind clean.
The trip seemed to take longer than she remembered, but she put it down to her nerves. Finally her feet made contact with the Observatory floor and she yelled out quite clearly for Heimdall, "Loki is with me!"
"Traitor!" Loki cried out to Jane as Heimdall's arm seized his body. Heimdall placed a muzzle over Loki's mouth to bind his magic and Jane felt the removal of his mind from hers as it happened. She moved away from them out of Loki's reach, rubbing her head to ease the pain. When the pain subsided, she conjured a pair of Æsir handcuffs and tossed them to Heimdall who effortlessly put them around Loki's wrists.
"Where is Thor?" Jane asked Heimdall.
"In the king's chambers." Heimdall said. When he emphasized the word 'king', Loki's eyes narrowed.
Jane gave Heimdall a nod and fixed a cool stare on Loki's angry eyes.
"First things first, Loki," she said to him. "We are not friends. At no point should you ever think I remotely care for you."
"What shall I do with him?" Heimdall asked Jane.
"You cannot kill him, unfortunately." Jane said to Heimdall. She looked Loki in the eyes again and added, "Our fates are linked for now."
Loki stared back at her with hollow eyes and she turned to the Rainbow Bridge and began to run towards Asgard.
