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A/N:
Hello lovelies! I'm going to be a bit slower on updates but I promise to keep them coming.
You can always find the long, drawn-out reasons why on my profile if you're interested.
I will always try to keep you guys posted.
TONS of cookies for your love and patience.

~
You try your best to mock me
you're always in my way
you've lost what you've been given
you'll get it back today
~

Her touch had awakened him, a small finger against his temple drawing him from dream. For the first few seconds, he thought it had been a part of it until his mother's smiling form faded into the darkness behind his eyes.

Jane sought something. He could tell by the way she lingered for a moment longer, drawing soft patterns over his closed eyes. The realization was overcome by a sheer force of will to remain still. Clashing forces dueled within him; one prodding him to pull away from a gesture so foreign and another fighting back against an unexpected urgency to lean into it. His instincts had always had their disagreements but never did he have to fight against the lot of them so hard.

He only breathed freely when the sensation was suddenly gone and he listened as she hurriedly made her way to her feet and out of the cave.

That's when it all made sense. She was testing his consciousness before attempting an escape again. His injury had led her to believe she held the upper hand. He rose onto one elbow.

The notion was stunted when instead of her footsteps fading, they steadied. He could hear just over the wisps of evening wind that her breathing did the opposite. And as she sunk, he found he followed.

For a long while he studied her from his spot on the ground. The way her fingers clutched desperately into the waist of her jacket. The starlight playing on her chestnut hair; how she sought the darkness for comfort, leaving her to miss the sight above entirely.

He never fully wondered what it was that troubled her enough to do so. She seemed so fond of such sights. But what did it matter? There was a growing list that he had both helped create and continued to add to. Feeling the slightest remorse for any of it would make him out to be as hypocritical as his all righteous brother.

That's what he'd told himself as he struggled to his feet and shuffled to her side.

The way her spirits lifted with her eyes was well worth the pain of making it there. Her youthful wonder was refreshing in such a place; the real Jane that lie just beneath Svartalfheim's choking mist. The same one who had once believed the Aether could do more good than harm. But he knew it would not be long till that small flicker of hopeful flame would be stamped out, just like the rest.

So he captured it while he could.

He had carried no intentions of bringing his mother into the conversation but just as the closest stars sit brightest in the sky, it had happened all the same. He didn't know quite what to make of it when Jane's soothing words had done just that. How his chest loosened when she'd made the distinction of his true heritage. Clever girl. But he wondered why she troubled herself with it. Her eyes had carried in them his burden, as well as her own, and judging by the way they had turned sorrowful on the stars, it weighed on her with the same raw pressure he felt in his bones. The only way to know such a pain was to experience it.

He unwillingly remembered the elder astrophysicist back in New York; his thoughts and endless rambles of nonsense. When they were not about theories, they were about her. How proud he was of her advancements, the way she followed in his footsteps just long enough to take her own steps ahead… how she had come so far from when he'd first taken her under his wing. After she'd lost her parents... So young and so sudden.

He had almost allowed his curiosity to get the better of him, but he had learned enough from Selvig before releasing him to whatever fate he'd found after his services were no longer needed. He never dreamed he would be trying to remember the crazed man's words.

But he found that he did not like the look of loss upon her face. It reminded him too wholly of his own and it was one weakness he decided he would not play on. Not tonight. So he fought it away by changing the subject of discussion to one he knew would bring the real Jane out once more.

"I'm sorry, but you're wrong." Jane crossed her arms loosely under her chest and eyed him squarely with a soft, victorious grin.

"Oh am I?" He countered, rising up a few inches from his leaned back position on his elbows to face her direction.

She giggled at the astonished look that distorted his face.

"Yeah."

"Due to the fact that I now find myself in the universe's unkempt armpit, I can say that I have traveled to every dimension in existence. I am quite thorough with my endeavors."

"Not thorough enough."

She watched his head tilt slowly to one side as his eyes drew thin with growing intent on hers.

"Try me."

A warm heat fluttered in her stomach; nerves and the unknown. It was just as potent as the few other times she'd felt it earlier that night; every time she'd taught him something.

Jane cleared her throat.

"Well the universe is billions of years old."

"I know this," he confirmed with an obvious hint of impatience, though it was rounded off by the same degree of anticipation that grew clearer and clearer in his eyes as the sky lightened around them.

"And with its magnitude, can you honestly believe that there is an end? That a few little galaxies hold an incomprehensible amount of undying energy?" Her eyes turned toward the orange glow on the horizon. "According to our mythology, you have only lived to see a few thousand of those years pass…" for a moment she was stopped short by her own words. The man beside her had been alive to see changes and phenomenon she couldn't even imagine, much less try to prove in her theories. It nearly silenced her but she couldn't resist. "You've barely lived."

A soft laugh rumbled from his chest; a genuine thing that melted the sharpness of his eyes and the static in the air all at once. It was so different than the harsher counterparts, brought on by dark intent, that for a moment she could only stare as he sent a brilliant smile up to the last struggling stars.

The new sound soon became infectious.

"Your impressions need some work, Miss Foster."

She pursed her lips in harmless challenge at his lightened mood.

"Sounds like a weak attempt to change the subject to me."

He blinked amused eyes at her.

"Just admit that I'm right," she continued.

"I cannot be sure...the accent threw me off," he was clearly fighting a smirk. "And it certainly did not aide such far fetched claims."

She fought to keep herself from laughing until a long forgotten memory made it too easy.

His accent truly was his own and she remembered how easy it was to tell that someone else was trying to mimic it... how easily Malekith had gotten past Loki's shield and into her head...

"Speaking of..." her eyes dropped hesitantly. "I have to tell you someth..."

A sharp jolt of energy shook through the mountain.

Everything went out of focus.

The rock behind Jane's head vibrated clear through her brain nearly causing her to bite down on her tongue. She squeezed her eyes shut at the dizzying potency and blinding white light. Before she could flinch at the booming sound that tore through the air, a force lifted her weightlessly to her feet and quickly guided her across the trembling ground. She ducked her head in reaction and threw her hands out before her to catch herself.

Her forehead rested against something cool and sturdy. It helped dull the growing sickness in her stomach. The sting of leather nipped her nose. She instinctively gripped the tendrils of it that brushed against her hands, bracing herself. A painful ringing sound filled her right ear. She held her breath.

Until the world finally stilled beneath her feet.

Her eyes slid open. She drew her head back slightly when she realized where she found herself; braced against Loki's back, just within the magic barrier of the cave.

She craned her neck to peak over his right shoulder.

"Quite an entrance," Loki spoke to the dust cloud a few feet in front of him, his words dripping with scorn as they passed his lips.

As the winds and twirling sand settled, Jane spotted Thor crouched at the cliff edge, leaning forward against his hammer's handle. He turned it over in his hand and rose to his feet in one swift motion. He looked tired, his armor battered and stained, his scarlet cape catching the wind and trailing out behind him as he stood, holding more life than anything else she could see.

His eyes burned upon his brother.

This was bad. Really bad. She could read it in Thor's stance and feel it in the way slick leather nearly vibrated in her hands… Though maybe it was her own nerves. She released him and took a step back.

"…Thor."

Her first thought was to duck around Loki's form and run. A few short feet and she would be free.

Jane took a small step over to the side to better see around him.

The toes of her boots pressed hard against the stone when she thought back to the last time she'd look to the thunder god for help. He would unflinchingly do whatever he thought was right; whatever it was that Odin led him to believe. And it stilled her like stone when she realized she may be more free right where she stood than in Thor's protection. It was enough to bring bile to her throat.

Thor quickly looked over what he could see of her before returning his full attention to the only form that stood between them.

"She is not well," Thor's voice was quiet with reason.

"Undoubtedly because you have deafened her," Loki signaled Thor with a tilt of his chin, crossing his arms. "you were never one for subtleties but I had been led to believe she was an exception. Now you lead the enemy here with a show like that?" He tilted his chin the slightest bit further. "I hope you at least provided them with directions…"

Jane had to look over at Loki with the way his tone had so abruptly changed. He was mocking Thor, that was clear enough, and without warning she was standing behind the malicious god that had dragged her down into oblivion all over again. Not the intellectual she had just spent the night talking to.

Though the dulling ring in her ears proved him right on one at least account.

"I am beginning to wonder who my enemy truly is," a hint of gloom weighed upon the warning in Thor's tone. He looked to her again. "Are you alright?"

Jane pressed the palm of her hand against her ear and pushed twice. She could hear the sizzling ocean of energy that coursed through her veins. Loki shifted his weight more in front of her.

"Yes, it's healing. I'm fine."

"Healing?" The elder god questioned both of them, his eyes rising from Jane's and growing accusing at Loki. His free hand clenched. "What are your plans for this power, Loki? What is she to you?"

A murderous stretch of defiant silence followed, blossoming a blistering grin across Loki's jawline.

It awoke an anger in Thor she had not known existed, seething bright blue in his eyes. His hammer dropped soundlessly into a pile of dirt. In three quick strides, he had Loki by the shoulders.

Jane moved toward them but was stopped short by the barrier. She pressed her fingers against it in wide-eyed confusion.

Loki cringed as his back met the rock at the left lip of the cave.

"Now is no time for silence, brother. Answer me!"

The god of mischief looked so small in Thor's grip that it stopped her struggle; a child being scolded for his tricks, unyielding hands easily overpowering the sinew of his shoulders. Loki's head pulled back against the stone behind him as if he expected Thor to strike with more than just words. Wild eyes glazed over as they flicked from where Thor held him to his face.

"Do not dare brother me," he spoke quietly between his teeth. It was somehow more chilling than the thunderer's rage. "What makes this moment any different from the rest?"

Jane watched something pass between them, so raw and wrenching that for a moment she had to divert her eyes away.

One of Thor's hands falling slowly from Loki's shoulders a few moments later pulled her gaze back up to them. His other hand relaxed some.

"You do not have to prove anything to me, Loki. You never have."

Blue eyes were so suddenly filled with unrestricted shame upon glistening green.

Again, Loki was silent, only blinking at the unshed tears pooling along his bottom eye lids. The scorching heat that came from them seemed to evaporate their moisture as quickly as they appeared. His jaw clenched and unclenched in a slow rhythm.

"Not everything is about you," he finally replied.

Thor took a step back and searched his brother's face for a moment longer before turning in Jane's direction. His featured grew solemn.

"You're right. We must get her somewhere safe until she can be cured."

Loki surprised them both with a dark chuckle.

"We?" His torso leaned forward a fraction against Thor's light hold with renewed fervor. "That was your job and you failed the second you brought her onto Asgardian soil. Though I suppose that is becoming a common occurrence for you. The white paint chips from your armor each time."

The strain that took Loki's voice was personified by Thor's tightening jaw and the way he restrained the smaller god as if it were holding both of them in place. He suddenly released him entirely and threw his hands out to his sides.

"Why must you continue to test me this way? Do you believe I carry no shame at all for what's happened?!" his voice rumbled like the thunder he claimed. "Why were you not at her side with me? Was your quest to rule Migard worth all of this?"

Jane cringed. She was sure that somewhere deep within the fibers of his still-tender scars that Loki did too. He had just grown accustomed to showing it in other ways.

He took a jolted step forward.

"What choice did I have?!"

The overwhelming pain in his voice was ageless with damnation.

Loki seemed to catch himself, straightening fractionally in an attempt at composure.

Thor's genuine surprise showed that there was much more to Loki's story than anyone knew.

Even those closest to him.

"Let me help you this time…"

"No." The bitter finality rolled from his tongue. His arms tensed at his sides, he pushed off the rock and Jane watched fixedly as the glistening emerald of a daggers hilt slipped soundlessly into his hold. "You are always too late."

"Don't!" Jane yelped.

The warning was just enough to allow Thor to catch Loki's lunge, grabbing his arm and sending him tumbling toward the opposite end of the cave entrance. Loki's boots ground against rock as he scratched to a stop and found his footing. He rested his free hand against the wall. Two breaths expanded within his chest… Then he blurred.

He knocked into Thor with a raised elbow. Plate metal clashed against the left side of his jaw and in the same motion, Loki dipped down with a practiced swipe against the thick padding of Thor's shins, sending his towering form toppling toward the ground.

He drew back, placing the toe of his boot deep between the armored ridges along Thor's rib cage with unnerving precision. It sent him rolling over the steep drop and out of sight.

Jane pounded her fists against the invisible field that trapped her, growing more urgent as Loki made his way to the edge of the cliff to follow his fallen opponent.

"Stop this," she pleaded as he passed her. He seemed to pay her no attention, instead completely focused on his destination. The sides of her fists slid along the unseen glass and with the sensation came the nauseating déjà vu. "This isn't you, Loki."

It must have been something in her voice, because though he did not stop, he faltered.

"We can all work together… we can fix this together."

He paused just short of the sharp step down. The rising sun crowned auburn light just above his temple.

"You are safer in there."

His words of caution draped the world in crimson as she watched him lower himself from the ledge.

Epigraph: Born Like This - Three Days Grace

Also, Loki and Jane are debating the Vanishing Dimensions Theory.