Disclaimer: Thank you all for your patience. All characters in this fanfic belong either to Marvel or Norse mythology. I own nothing but the imagination I used to write this.

"Sir. I've lost contact with Stark Tower."

"What?" Tony did a barrel roll to avoid Chitauri fire. "What do you mean, you've 'lost contact'?"

"Exactly as I said, sir. Communication with the tower has been severed."

"...Loki." Tony dodged back the other way and returned fire, knocking the flyer out of the sky. Of course that son of a bitch would show his true colors now. It wasn't as if the signs hadn't been there either. When he got a hold of that bastard…

Lightning split the clear blue sky and Tony pulled up short to stare. "….Jarvis."

"It appears that Thor has joined the fight. How fortuitous."

"…..Yeah." Had Loki sent him? Now Tony wasn't sure quite what to think. Okay, so maybe he wouldn't kill Loki. Just throw him out a window. He was Asgardian, he'd be fine. "Jarvis, give me a-" He broke off when an angry roar shuddered through the air. "Was that...holy shit." Well, it made sense to get Thor and Bruce out of the way, though to send them to help their comrades-well 'help' was relative, depending on how Hulk was feeling-and if Loki had dug out the scepter and used it on them... "Son of a bitch." He fired his repuslors. He had to go find out what was happening. "Rhodey! Where are you? Tell me what's going on!"

"We've got bogeys flying in from I have no idea where." Rhodey reported. "It looks like they're focusing on the warehouse."

"Bogeys? Really? Who even says that?"

"Tony! Focus!"

"Yeah, gotcha." He pulled up in the air again and started looking around. "Jarvis, scan for, I don't know, atmospheric anomalies...other than the one Thor's churning up over there."

"Scanning, sir." Jarvis took a minute as Tony helpfully turned in the air and looked in as many directions as possible, both for the scan and to make sure nothing was coming up on him. "I detect no atmospheric abnormalities."

"Well, there goes that theory." Tony muttered.

"We've got a runner with a briefcase!" Clint's voice crackled over the com, followed quickly by Natasha's "On it!" and Tony headed in their general direction. Since the Chitauri were focusing on the warehouse, it seemed to be the place to be anyhow.

Natasha had taken off by the time he'd arrived, but Tony did notice that Thor was very nicely beating up the Chitauri via lightning, and when they fell out of the sky, the Hulk and Steve were finishing them off. Clint was only having to fire off the occasional arrow, so tightly were the Chitauri clustered and Tony landed on the roof, not seeing any need to get involved. "Hey, Honeybear. It looks like Spangles, Big Green Rage Machine and Thunderdome are mopping up here. I'm going to hang with-"

"If you give me a nickname, I'm going to stab you with an electronic-disrupting arrow." Clint interrupted.

"-with Hawkeye and help pick up stragglers. Think you can find where Natasha went and track down whoever she was chasing?"

Rhodey sighed at the nickname Tony used to address him. "I'll see what I can do."

Natasha was just sloppy enough to let him catch her, the knife to her throat a thrill she hadn't felt in a long time as she stared back at his angry eyes. "Hello, James."

The man identified as James sighed heavily and moved back, shoving the knife back into its sheath on his leg. "Natasha. What are you doing here? SHIELD isn't supposed to have a presence in the area."

"Things changed, or didn't you notice who was helping kill the aliens attacking your building?" Natasha responded dryly, before adding; "I didn't even know you were here until I saw you make a break for it. Do you have the gem?"

He frowned slightly at her. "What's going on?"

That was Yasha's tone, and it didn't even make her blink. He's been in this place for five years, and while she didn't know the details of his mission, part of it might have had to do with the Time Gem. Still, he wanted answers and the only way to get hers was to give him his.

So she told him about the Infinity Gems and who they had been told was coming to get them. She left out just who they were relying on for help, which James wasn't going to be happy about, but she frankly didn't have all day.

"So you're trying to get the gems before this other person does." James said.

"...Yes." Loki apparently had the Power gem, but while Natasha was explaining things to her once handler, her fellow Avengers were engaged in combat and she wanted to get back to them and help.

"Right." He arched a brow. "Well, thank you for bringing me up to date."

"You know, it would be nice if you offered to help." Natasha remarked dryly.

"It would be, but like you just pointed out, those bug things want this gem, so the wiser decision is to hide it."

The Hulk roared in anger and Natasha twitched. "...Do what you think is best, James." She turned away to look back the way she'd come, waving an okay to Rhodey when she saw the suit roaring through the sky toward them. There was going to be some explaining to do later, but for now the only concern was containing the Chitauri.

Loki bowed low before the hardlight projection. "Master."

"Loki." Thanos greeted him in return, looking vaguely curious. "This is quite the effort just to beg for your life."

Loki chuckled softly, though a muscle in his cheek jumped. He straightened up and held up the Power gem. "I wished to make an offer in exchange for my safety, actually."

"The Power gem." Thanos sounded unimpressed, but his eyes betrayed his eagerness. "Perhaps you're not a complete failure after all, worm...if you're not trying to trick me, of course."

"Ahh...of course not." The muscle twitched again. "I would never be so brazen, Master. I know better."

"Indeed you do. How do you intend to deliver it to me?"

"I would never presume to use its power myself, so I would ask you to meet with me." Loki used the hand not holding the gem to bring up an image taken from Central Park. A wide open field. "Here, if you find it satisfactory."

Somehow the image had also appeared on Thanos's end and he examined it critically before he smiled. "No tricks, hm worm?"

"I would never be so foolish, Master."

"Show me how well you remember the lessons, fallen King."

Loki hesitated, but then he swallowed thickly and unbuckled his armor before he vanished it entirely. Scars previously hidden by clothing and thick illusions were now shown in sharp relief on his torso and lower arms, as well as words in the Titan script carved into his chest and stomach. Loki then turned to show Thanos the whip and hook marks on his back. Unlike the injuries inflicted upon him by the acid viper, these marks had stubbornly remained. Thanos was chuckling when he turned back to face him.

"It seems you do remember." The Titan flashed a grin. "Very well, worm. I'll meet with you. Don't take long. If I have to hunt you down..."

"I shall go there shortly, Master." Loki was quick to assure him. "I simply could only contact you from this location." He bowed deeply and with a flick of his fingers, disconnected the connection. When he straightened up, his eyes were wide and his skin was paler than normal, but fury was also there within his expression and he rematerialized his armor before he turned sharply away.

"Jarvis. Unlock my staff and show me where it is. I'm going to need it."

Fourty five minutes later, the last of the Chitauri were dead and so were all but one of the men who had been defending the building. The one who was left was being triaged by Natasha and Clint, but there wasn't much hope that he would survive without immediate medical attention until Thor himself stepped forward with some Asgardian 'healing rock' that he crumbled into the bullet wounds, forcing out the projectiles and mending the injuries behind it.

"Wow." Clint commented. "Gotta get me some of that."

Steve meanwhile was staring up at the man who had shown up toward the end of the battle on a roof with a sniper rifle. He couldn't see him clearly, glimpses here and there as he packed up his gun, but something was bothering him. While it shouldn't have been said that there was something familiar about the man's shooting, Steve was observant and he could have sworn that next to Natasha, the sniper was covering Steve's back the most and barely bothering to cover his other teammates. Though, Steve supposed that other than Hawkeye, he and Nat were the most vulnerable members of the Avengers, so maybe he was reading too much into it.

He decided he'd get his explanation later and turned away, stepping over to another of his teammates. "Bruce. How are you doing?"

"Well. I got shoved through a magic portal, forced into mean and green, and now I'm wearing some dead person's clothing." Bruce said from where he sat on a broken piece of wall beside dead Chitauri. "I'm doing just peachy, and I could really go for some burgers."

Steve chuckled softly. "I'm sure we can arrange something." He put a finger to the communicator in his ear. "Rhodey, Tony. Status?"

"Still good, Captain. Thanks for asking." Tony replied, touching down near him with Rhodey. Their armor was a bit scorched, but seemed to Steve's eyes, to be still mostly functional without any sparking or initial evidence of significant breach. "So, who else noticed how easy that was?"

"Easy compared to the last two times we've had to deal with them, maybe." Steve replied with a heavy sigh. "They weren't bulked up monstrosities like the last time, at least. Still, it was good of Loki to send the Hulk, I guess."

"Yeah," Tony said, flipping up his visor. "About that. Just when Thor showed up, Jarvis informed me he'd lost contact with the tower, and who do we know who showed he could hack my stuff just by touching it?"

"Loki." Steve grit his teeth. "He was working to get our trust, convince us we were all on the same side...and then there's conveniently a Chitauri attack on an entirely different continent...shit." Frankly, he felt like saying a lot worse, but swearing wasn't going to fix the problem they now had on their hands.

"To be honest, I think his bag of cats has evolved into an entire zoo." Bruce spoke up. "He sent off Thor and Steve on a hunch about that storm, sent the rest of you here and then went outside and basically electrocuted himself. I guess Mjölnir's magic really didn't agree with him and that was the best way to get it out, but...I'm not counting much for his sanity."

"He freaked out when this individual named 'Thanos' was mentioned." Steve continued, nodding slightly to Bruce, but looking at Tony. "Actually...he was outright panicked. He was badly hurt, and he told us outright he shouldn't be using his magic, but he insisted we needed to be here..." He sighed heavily. "Whoever this Thanos guy is, Loki is terrified of him, and I think anyone who can make someone like that panic is someone we should be careful of."

"Well, this is all fantastically informative but...hold on." Tony turned in Thor's direction. "Hey! Thunder down under! Come over here!"

Thor, who was still standing with Natasha, Clint and the formerly injured man, looked over and scowled at Tony, but he obligingly stepped over. "Yes, Man of Tin?"

"Oh har har." Tony arched a brow at him for the obvious return attempt at cheesy nicknaming. "Listen. Your brother's cut me off from the tower, which obviously means he's up to something nefarious. Any demigod hoodoo you can pull off to get us back to New York?"

"I am not a demigod, Stark." Thor corrected. "And seiðr is not 'hoodoo'. ...But perhaps. Gather everyone around, and we will see."

Once everyone-including the stranger with the sniper rifle and dark goggles-were gathered close around Thor, the heir to Asgard's throne lifted his hammer to the sky. "Heimdall! If the Bifröst is repaired, I implore you to open it to us!"

They waited in silence for several moments before the uncomfortable shifting started. "Well, blondie. I guess your pal-" Tony began only to be cut off when a rainbow beam slammed into the ground and took them across space to the Realm Eternal.

When Loki arrived in Central Park there were already the bodies of several humans strewn around the feet of Thanos, the Other and the small force of Chitauri they had brought with him. Loki took a quick assessment, noting the lack of Amora's presence even though the Other held the Tesseract and approached slowly, scepter held low. "Master. I came as quickly as I could."

"You were still tardy, worm." Thanos responded. "I was about to send my forces in search of you."

Loki knew that to be a lie, but he hadn't yet lost enough of his wits to point such things out. He only bowed his head briefly. "If I may ask one question?"

"Speak."

"Where is the woman?"

"The woman?" Thanos sounded amused. "Do you care about her fate?"

"Not at all. Simply that she is conspicuous in her absence."

Thanos' amusement only grew and the Space gem flashed. Amora suddenly tumbled right into Loki's arms, though he only caught her automatically and then promptly dropped her, where she crumpled limply to his feet. "She's dead." He stated flatly, taking a step back.

"As might you soon be." Thanos replied. "Now. The Power gem."

"Of course, Master." Loki brought it out, though he paused to stare at it. Something seemed strange about it in the daylight.

"Don't keep the Master waiting." The Other spoke up and Loki flinched.

"Yes, sorry. Of course." Loki stepped forward, trying desperately to review his plan of how he would get the gauntlet and turn things around on his once Master. He had thought Thanos too arrogant to bring anyone with him.

Arriving on the other end of the rainbow journey, the Avengers and tagalongs found themselves in a room that was obviously not quite finished yet. The gears that ran and swiveled the Observatory still slightly visible from gaps in the floor that hadn't been filled in yet for whatever reason, it was as well open in parts to the sky, which no doubt hindered its motion.

"My Prince." Heimdall greeted him while the humans were busy gaping at their surroundings. "What would you have of me?"

"We must get to Loki." Thor replied. "Can you see what he is about, my friend?"

"Yes." Heimdall replied, shifting the Observatory to aim at the correct location. "Dealings most foul. I wish you and your mortal companions the best of luck."

"Hey!" Tony exclaimed. "Wait! Hang o-" But Heimdall sent them away to appear in dazzling light near where Loki stood with his once master and a complement of Chitauri warriors, as well as this strange robed creature that had its eyes covered-if it had eyes at all.

Thanos snatched the gem from Loki and then promptly backhanded him with the gauntlet, causing him to stagger. Loki hissed and turned his attention on the Avengers, his hand to his face. With a sweep of his scepter, they were thrown backward and he straightened up, lowering his hand and revealing a bruise already forming.

"So the Bifröst was repaired." He said, wincing with nearly every second word. "Good for them. In fact, great for you. Now your final moments can be spent in the glory of my Master."

Thanos gave Loki an amused look, like he was a dog performing a cute trick and fit the Power gem into its place on the gauntlet. The man who Natasha had called James flung a grenade in their direction, but Loki used the scepter to hit it back toward the Avengers. Fortunately for them however, it exploded in midair. Once more Loki swept out with his staff, and once more they were forced flat. "Stay down." He advised them. "It will be far less painful that way."

Thor was the next to attempt to retaliate, but he got an outright blast from the scepter for his trouble. "Stay down." Loki hissed. Norns below, these 'heroes' were going to ruin everything for him.

"Enough of this." Thanos said behind him and Loki flinched, turning back to see the Power gem activating.

"Master, wait!" Loki wasn't sure what Thanos was doing, but he certain he wasn't going to like it. "I sent them after the Time gem! Surely one of-"

There was hardly any warning. A crack developed within seconds along the length of the Power gem, and then there was a violent explosion that sent Thanos and his allies flying in one direction, and Loki in the other. The concussion was so bad that it flung Amora's corpse almost all the way to where the Avengers and company had been huddled, trying to whisper a quick plan of attack before Loki would be able to retaliate again.

Loki lay on his back, staring at the sky as the dust cleared, and then he began laughing incredulously. He couldn't believe it. Mystique had tricked him. She had managed to switch the gems somehow, and had tricked him. Truly, she was his daughter through and through.

He didn't have time to fully revel in being tricked by his own flesh and blood however. The Chitauri were stirring, as was the Other, but most importantly, as was Thanos. He scrambled up, though his head was ringing, only for his foot to hit the gauntlet, which it seemed had been blown off Thanos' hand. Loki didn't stop to ponder this, for there wasn't any time left and he could only pray to the Norns that it still worked.

Donning the gauntlet, the other gems impossibly still fixed firmly in their slots, Loki called upon the Space gem and immediately felt the drain upon his lifeforce. Of course Thanos was the only one with enough power to use it, but Thanos was only a powerful alien. Loki was a god. There was also another hope...his eyes fell upon the Tesseract and he flipped his scepter onto his back to affix there by force of magic alone, switching briefly from the Space to the Reality gem to bring the Tesseract to him.

"WORM!" Thanos roared, and Loki flinched in spite of himself before both the Tesseract and the Space gem once again activated, a black hole ripping itself into being.

The very air itself screamed in protest, a furious wind whipping up that dragged the Chitauri and the Other into it before they had a chance to do more than register surprise while, in further defiance of natural laws, everything from Loki and behind remained untouched by the inescapable gravity while Thanos slammed both hands into the ground to anchor himself. No words could be exchanged, but bright blue eyes met one another and neither showed fear. Then, surprisingly, Thanos let go and allowed himself to be sucked in and the wind ceased, the singularity winking out as if it never was.

"Ah...it seems the X-Men weren't needed after all." Loki intoned before he swayed dangerously and fell to one knee, the Tesseract falling from his hand, and his scepter from his back.

In what seemed only moments to Loki, but was in reality nearly a minute, Thor was at his side, pulling the gauntlet off his hand while Steve picked up the Tesseract and Natasha darted in to grab the scepter. "Brother." Thor intoned. "What did you do?"

"It wasn't obvious?" Loki turned his head, eyes once more a vivid blue focusing groggily on Thor. "I was the hero."

Steve sighed explosively. "So, is that the end of it, then?" He looked around their immediate surroundings, disturbed at how peaceful it all seemed, especially considering what had just sucked in their enemies.

"For a time, at least." Loki shuddered and moved to get to his feet, eyebrow arching when the humans all shifted back from him. "Really now? I've worked myself almost literally to death for the sake of your lives and your planet, and you still don't trust me?"

"We're grateful, not stupid." Tony remarked, pushing up his faceplate. "Like hey, super impressive there Prince of Stringbeans, but you've kinda been working behind our backs the entire time."

"Well, of course I have." Loki shifted his gaze to look at Natasha. "But then again, so has she." His gaze shifted again. "Oh, and the Winter Soldier is sneaking off."

"What he does is none of your concern." Natasha spoke, somewhat unnerved that Loki had identified James when not even Steve had figured it out yet. "Now, are we finished here? What did you do with them?"

"I threw them into a singularity; a black hole." Loki brushed at his clothes. "They're either dead or at the other end of the universe, which might as well amount to the same thing. The Chitauri leaders are gone, either way. They shouldn't be able to cause any of us further trouble. So to answer your question, yes. It seems we're finished here." He held his hand out to Natasha. "My scepter, Romanoff."

"Where is the real Power gem?"

"With Mystique still, I imagine. She managed to switch with one of the fakes I made. If it isn't with her, then it's either with Doctor Doom or Magneto, unless she changed her tactic. I wish you luck getting it back, though the idea of that in SHIELD's hands makes me somewhat nervous. As does the Time gem. Hand that over too."

"I don't have it." Natasha said smugly. "None of us do."

Loki squinted at her, then looked off in the direction James had left. "...Damn. I see." He sighed and looked back at her. "The scepter, Romanoff. Captain, please hand my brother the Tesseract. Oh..." He sighed at Amora and stepped away from Thor to pick her up, slinging her corpse over his shoulder like a sack of grain. "I suppose Lorelei will want this back."

"Loki." Thor scowled. "Show some respect."

"For a traitor and a murderer? I think not. No such accord was granted me, so why should she have such honors? Who knows? I might even be able to find her soul, even though she perished outside the Nine. We'll see. Now for Norns sake, will you just give me my blasted scepter!"

"Testy." Natasha smirked when she handed it over, though Loki noticed she was quick to step back again.

"Goodbye, don't write." Clint said. "And sure as hell don't come back."

"Oh Earth has hardly seen the last of me." Loki replied, stepping back over to Thor. "Or of Thor, though we'll likely not appear together again. It has certainly been interesting, Avengers."

"Heimdall!" Thor called, and the Bifröst slammed down to take them back to Asgard.

Six months passed Asgard by. The Tesseract, Infinity Gauntlet and Chitauri scepter were all locked up securely in the Vault. Loki managed to resurrect Amora, but she returned traumatized and ended up being locked up for everyone's safety rather than because of her allegiance with the Chitauri, and suspected murder of Skadi.

But for Loki, those six months were a trial. Slander and insults against him for being a Frost Giant continued, coming from too many different directions for him to effectively combat. Fandral and Volstagg maintained that they were his friends, but they both seemed visibly nervous around him and Loki very quickly got fed up with it all.

So he hatched a plan. A plan to reset everything without his own memories being erased with it, but a plan that if it happened as he hoped, would ensure that all of his crimes were erased along with the common knowledge of his heritage. It took a few weeks more, but he finally perfected it. Special keys. Complex in plan, but once the final thing they unlocked was found, so too would his memory be. Seven keys he made, and into seven magpies he placed them. He then set the birds to alight just outside the gates with instructions to fly as far as they could once Asgard caught fire.

Then he wrote a letter to Balder, with whom he had been estranged since an accidental poisoning with mistletoe when they were adolescents. In the letter was an apology for that long ago incident and a wish to reconcile. He sent the letter through magical means to ensure that the Nornheim Queen Karnilla couldn't intercept it through the usual means, and if she so much as touched it, he would know. The very next day, Balder's reply came by the normal post, saying he would be happy to see his family again and make amends with Loki. A celebration was planned, and when Balder arrived, he requested a meeting with Loki alone.

"You are going to do it, aren't you, Loki." Balder said, standing near the door in the reception room usually reserved for diplomats from the other realms. The words sounded like a question, but the tone made it a statement and Loki furrowed his brow, glancing at the other from where he stood by the window.

"You are back in Asgard, and we are to celebrate your return." Loki's voice was puzzled. "What is it I am to be doing?"

Balder smiled slightly, the expression warm and amused. "You're about to reset the cycle. But it's a little soon, isn't it?"

Loki sighed in exasperation and turned to look at the younger god. "Enough. We have been centuries separated, but I do not remember your words being so cryptic. You are not a wordsmith, Balder. Just be clear."

Balder smiled more and Loki found himself reminded of the many ways that the younger god had infuriated him, that arrogance which had led Loki to poison him with ground up mistletoe in the first place, though at the time he hadn't intended for the Balder to nearly die from it. "You invited me here, for you intend to bring about Ragnarok." Balder stated.

Loki gave him a queer look, but inwardly he was panicking. How could Balder possibly know what he planned? That he had in truth sent the letter of apology in order to lure Balder back to Asgard where he could be killed and so be rid of the only warrior who could not die in battle before Loki let Asgard's enemies in?

"Your time in the company of Karnilla has made you strange, Balder." Loki said, crossing his arms. "Such a thing to accuse me of. I should be insulted!"

"Yet you are not." Balder pointed out, seeing through Loki's lies as he always had. "You have brought me here to kill me."

Loki snorted. "If you suspected such a thing of me, then why did you come?"

"Because I was curious." Balder shrugged as if the conversation was of a far more casual topic. "It's too soon, so I thought maybe this time I was wrong. But no, all the signs are there."

Loki forced a laugh, but it sounded manic and he knew there was no convincing Balder that he was wrong. He turned away, working his jaw. "...There needs to be a cleansing fire."

"In time." Balder agreed, much to Loki's surprise. "But not yet. It's too soon, by several centuries at least. You'll fail."

"...I might." Loki said at length. "But I need to try. I've come too far, planned too much..."

"I'll play the part I must," Balder said, once more surprising Loki. "But this is too soon. Asgard is too strong, and she will withstand your efforts. You will fail."

"We will see." Loki replied. "But even in failure, Loki might win."

"We will see indeed." Balder agreed. "The future isn't set until the moment it becomes the present, after all."

Loki nodded and turned back to Balder. "On to the feast then, and I promise. It won't be in the food this time."