At the Ancient God-King Retirement Home:
Ra: I have been reading this fanfic and I must admit that I am confused.
Odin: Why?
Ra: Loki was able to find out his heritage by touching a magical artifact. Why can't Bragmir simply do the same?
Odin: Uh…
Kronos: I say the story should end with someone being eaten!
Ra: Come, Odin, make the story speed up. It's becoming tiring. Is Bragmir Modi or not?
Odin: I will talk to the author.
-n-n-n-n-
Coulson's car circled the town, finally stopping at a small restaurant.
"I should call Jane," Thor said. "Have you a telephone?"
Coulson wordlessly handed him his cell phone. Thor set down Mjollnir on the sidewalk and began cautiously dialing Jane's number.
Magni quietly reached out for the hammer.
"Magni," Thor said warningly.
"I didn't do anything."
Jane picked up the phone and Thor was immediately occupied. He stepped away from Mjollnir. Magni's face lit up and he nudged Bragmir.
"You try picking it up," he whispered.
"No."
"Try!"
"No."
"Don't be a coward."
Bragmir sighed and moved to pick it up.
Thor jumped as lightning struck behind him.
"Is it raining over there?" Jane shouted into the phone.
"Just a moment!" he yelled, throwing the phone to Coulson.
"Hello, Mrs. Odinson," Coulson said imperturbably into the phone. "How are you enjoying the weather?"
Thor plunged into the lightning storm surrounding Mjollnir. He plucked it from his son's hands and the storm died.
"I see," Coulson continued. "Yes, it should snow soon, actually . . ."
"I have told you, Magni," Thor said. "You are not allowed near Mjollnir anymore—"
He paused. The boy he'd taken the hammer from had fair skin, and was redheaded and blue-eyed. As he watched, the fair skin faded to blue and the red hair turned black.
"I'm not Magni," Bragmir said. He blinked once, with yellow eyes, and collapsed.
"How come he can pick it up?" Magni complained from behind a display case.
-n-n-n-n-
They had been on Midgard for a week. It was nighttime and everyone was either asleep or getting into bed. In the morning, they would head back to Asgard.
Bragmir sat silently on the edge of the cot for a long time. Magni and Nari were both startled when he finally spoke. "Nari, what kind of curse is on me?"
"I think it's a fairly simple shape-changing spell," Nari said.
"Can you get rid of it?"
"I think so. Should I try?"
"Please," said Bragmir, sitting down on the floor.
Magni settled on his own cot and rested his chin on his knees to watch.
Nari knelt in front of Bragmir and held out his hands. His lips moved silently and the air began to glow, green and blue.
Bragmir leaned back, looking panicked.
"Don't move," Nari said, biting his lip in concentration.
"Is it going to hurt?"
"Talking counts as moving," Magni said. Bragmir shot him an enraged glance out of the corner of his eye.
Blue pigment seeped up Nari's fingers and hands. His eyes fluttered.
Magni quietly got off the cot and hid behind the washing machine, peeking cautiously over the top.
Sweat tickled Bragmir's eyes. The Anger swirled inside him, stirred up by his fear. He quickly inspected his skin, trying to see if it was changing color. The temperature in the room rose steadily. Water beaded on the ceiling.
"Almost . . ." Nari gritted out from between clenched teeth. One of his eyes was a clear piercing green, and the other was red, like a frost giant's.
Magni stood up from behind the washing machine to see better.
That was when the spell blew up in their faces.
A few floors above, Thor and Jane were shaken out of their sleep by the shuddering of the walls and floor. One of the bookshelves fell over, spilling books across the floor.
Magni groaned and pushed the badly dented washing machine off himself. "I'm all . . . right. Are you both all right?"
Bragmir had hit the wall so hard that he'd penetrated a few inches. He fell out of the new body-shaped hole, plaster crumbling around him. Nari lay in a crumpled heap at the foot of the opposite wall.
Nari was as Asgardian as ever, and Bragmir was as Frost Giant-y as ever. Magni quickly checked himself over to make sure that he hadn't turned blue or purple, and then ran to Nari's side.
"That should've worked," Nari mumbled as Magni rolled him onto his back.
"You're alive!" Magni sighed in relief. Bragmir dropped to his knees next to them and rubbed his face in exhaustion.
The door flew open.
"Magni?" Jane called frantically. "Boys, are you okay?"
"We're all fine," Magni called. "You don't have to come—"
Jane ran down the stairs, with Darcy and Thor (carrying a sleepy Thrud) on her heels.
"—down," Magni finished reluctantly.
"There was an earthquake!" Darcy said.
Nari raised his head. "It was my fault."
"No, it wasn't," Bragmir said. "The spell was my idea."
"I was trying to lift the curse," Nari said, with a jerk of his shoulder.
Jane stared at them, at the plaster falling from the walls, at the wrecked washing machine and fallen cots.
"Oh, Nari . . ." she groaned.
"My ceramic unicorns!" Darcy almost screamed, and ran back up the stairs to check on the contents of her attic.
-n-n-n-n-
Darcy drove them to a deserted spot on the edge of town. They stood back and she waved wistfully.
"Bye," she said. "I'll e-mail you when I get the test results back."
The Bifrost opened. Moments later, they stood in the observatory, as the walls slowly stopped spinning. Heimdall watched them imperturbably.
"Well, that was fun," Magni said.
"Ah, it's good to be home," Thor said, clapping his son on the back. "Jane, why do we not have a feast to celebrate our return? Give Magni a chance to meet some eligible maidens?"
He guffawed at the look on Magni's face. "I was jesting."
"I want to go back to Jotunheim," Bragmir said suddenly.
"You can't go!" Jane cupped his hand in both of hers. "We just found you!"
He wasn't looking at her.
"I said I'd visit," he said. "I visited. Now I want to go back to my village."
"Don't leave!" pleaded Magni.
"I can still take the curse off!" Nari wailed. "I just need to find a good spellbook. Really, I can help!"
"I don't need any help," Bragmir said distantly.
Thor pulled Jane aside. "Let him go."
"What? No! Are you insane? It's Modi! You saw him with Mjollnir. This is our son we're talking—"
"Jane," Thor said gently. "Give him time to get used to it. He'll come back."
With Thrud on his shoulders, he ushered his wife out.
"But—but—" began Magni.
"Come," Thor said. Magni and Nari followed reluctantly.
"Heimdall, send him wherever he wishes to go," Thor said.
"Yes, my king."
The family disappeared.
Bragmir gulped. Somehow he could still feel Thor's eyes boring into him. With difficulty, he summoned the words to address Heimdall. "Can you set me down near my village? But not too near?"
"Of course, my prince," Heimdall said without a blink.
Bragmir turned towards him sharply and would have said something, but the Bifrost opened and he was flung out into space, rushing towards Jotunheim.
-n-n-n-n-
Hildy and Ull were waiting at the gates of Asgard. Ull was carrying a bouquet of wildflowers and wearing a grumpy expression.
"Welcome back!" Hildy sang out as Magni trudged past her. Her face fell when he didn't respond.
"Aren't you going to ask why Ull's carrying flowers?" she asked, as Nari plodded after him. "It's really a funny story! See, we made a bet—"
"Didn't Bragmir go with you?" Ull asked.
Jane paused and stared bleakly at them. They stepped back in tandem.
"We won't ask any more," Hildy said meekly, elbowing Ull into silence.
Thor walked looking over his shoulder, back towards the spinning observatory.
And so the family of Thor proceeded together into the city of Asgard, as Bragmir fell alone towards the icy wastelands of Jotunheim.
END PART II.
Kronos: Well, that was lame and anticlimactic!
Odin: Oh, shut up.
