In hindsight, Loki would always think that he should have known it was too easy. His spell to get himself and Thor out went perfectly, they escaped the palace and battlefield without a hitch, the gate to Earth opened quickly and silently, and the two brothers were standing in the middle of the desert in virtually no time at all.

"Where's Jane?" Thor asked, looking around and noting that they were alone.

"She'll be here," Loki reassured him; "I didn't have time to show here where to wait before I left, so she'll be using her technology to find us. She shouldn't be long."

Thor nodded.

There was silence for a minute.

"Thank you, brother, for accepting my help," Loki said at last.

Thor chuckled. "You hardly left me much choice," he commented.

Loki smiled. "I do try," he teased.

Thor smiled back.

"How have things been, since I left?" Loki asked. "You've been crowned king, I take it?"

"Yes, I was," Thor confirmed; "very shortly after you left."

"I'm sorry I had to miss it," he said.

"As am I," Thor said somberly.

Loki sighed. "Have I…been missed?" he asked hesitantly.

"I've missed you, brother," Thor replied. "Mother has missed you just as much, if not more."

"And Father?" Loki asked softly. "I don't suppose there's any possibility that he has missed me?"

"I…believe he has, in his own way," Thor said; Loki didn't miss his hesitation.

Loki chuckled humorlessly. "Has he expressed any sorrow whatsoever that I've been gone?" he asked. "Answer me truthfully, brother."

It took Thor a moment to respond.

"No," he finally admitted.

Loki nodded; though the truth was painful, he had expected as much, and he didn't push the matter any further. "Has your new job been difficult?" he asked instead.

"No," Thor answered. "With the Bifrost destroyed, my duty in keeping peace among the realms has been reduced to a title, nothing more - while I can watch, I cannot intervene."

Loki took a deep breath. "I hope…it was worth it," he said.

"As do I," was all Thor could say in reply.

Loki nodded at Thor again, then turned to look around, waiting to see the lights from Jane's car on the horizon. Then, he realized what he'd just seen, and he did a double-take, looking at Thor's empty hands.

"Thor?" Loki said, working very hard to keep his voice steady.

"Yes?" Thor asked in reply.

"Where is Mjolnir?" Loki asked.

"I left it with Father," Thor answered.

Loki's eyes widened. "You did what?" he exclaimed.

"I left it with Father, for him to use," Thor told Loki.

Loki felt as though he'd been shot down from the sky. "Since when do you willingly go anywhere without that thrice-damned hammer?" he demanded.

"I've no need of it here," Thor said, clearly confused by Loki's reaction. "Father needs it more than I, especially now."

That's exactly the problem! Loki wanted to shout. He put a hand over his face, trying to contain himself; he hadn't factored in the possibility that Thor wouldn't bring Mjolnir with him. Odin was old and weak, but Mjolnir's power was great - the hammer alone gave the All-Father a chance at victory. Thor never went anywhere without Mjolnir…

"What's the matter, brother?" Thor asked.

Loki sighed, unable to bring himself to so much as look Thor in the eye, much less answer.

After a moment, Thor asked in a darker tone of voice, "Why would you not want Father to have Mjolnir when all of Jotunheim aims to destroy him?"

Loki shook his head.

"You deceived me," Thor said accusingly.

At that, Loki did look up. "No, I did not!" he snapped. "Nothing I said to you was false!"

"But you didn't come for me, did you?" Thor countered.

"I would have!" Loki answered. "Saving you would have been more than reason enough for me to come for you!"

"But that's not why you came, is it?" Thor demanded.

Loki sighed and shook his head. "Oh, what does it matter?" he asked.

"Why can't you tell the truth for once in your life?" Thor snarled.

"Nothing I said to you was a lie!" Loki shouted, rounding on Thor again.

"But it wasn't the whole truth!" Thor argued.

Something inside of Loki snapped.

"Oh, so you want the whole truth, do you?" he asked menacingly. "You think you want to know the whole truth?" Without giving Thor time to answer, he said, "Very well then, I will tell you the whole truth."

"Please do," Thor said.

Breathing deeply to try and keep himself contained, Loki said, "Before I do, though, perhaps I should remind you of something - something that will help you to understand the 'whole' truth. Tell me, brother, do you remember our last conversation in this realm? It was just after you discovered that Father had taken away your power to lift that accursed hammer. Do you recall?"

"Yes," Thor answered.

Loki nodded. "Do you remember how I told you that Father was dead because he'd been forced to exile you?" he asked cruelly. "How I told you that Mother had forbidden your return, and that I was to rule Asgard?"

"How could I forget?" Thor asked in reply.

Loki nodded again. "Tell me, brother," he sneered: "How did that feel?"

Thor blinked.

"How did it feel, to have a parent who, for all intents and purposes, may as well have never existed; to have another who would turn on you in your time of need; to have a brother - who loved you dearly, mind you - but who took everything you ever wanted, everything you believed to be rightfully yours, all while you were powerless to stop it?" Loki hissed. "How did it feel, to have nothing and no one…and worst of all, to have no one to blame but yourself - to have no reason to think that there was anyone to blame for your pain except you? How did that feel?"

Thor's eyes were wide, his expression one of shock.

"I may have said those things firstly to break your spirit, in the hopes of buying myself time," Loki told him, "but there was another reason I told you those lies: I wanted you to live my life for a change, just as I was finally getting a chance to live yours. I wanted you to know what it felt like to be me, if only for one day!"

"Loki…" Thor breathed.

"You know, come to think of it, I actually went easy on you," Loki snarled; "at least I told you I was sorry! You were always so damn oblivious to everything that you could never have even known how I suffered by your side, much less be sorry!" Loki shook his head furiously. "You were always a spoiled, selfish, reckless, arrogant, ignorant brat!" he spat. "I doubt you even know that I didn't start becoming 'Loki the Trickster' until after Father named you his heir! Did you?"

"Wh…?" Thor shook his head bewilderedly. "What are you talking about?" he asked.

"Exactly," Loki sneered. He took a breath. "When we were growing up, I idolized Father," he told Thor: "every lesson he tried to teach us, I strove to learn; every word of wisdom he spoke, I committed to my memory…I spent every waking moment of the first thousand years of my life working to be what he tried to raise us to be, to become wise and noble and honest, to make him proud to call me his son." Loki shook his head disgustedly. "And then, there was you," he said scornfully. "You only ever listened to Father when he told stories of great victories in battle; you shunned his lessons, neglected your duties, scorned his wisdom and guidance - all you ever worked to be was a warrior, like any other Asgardian brute! You showed absolutely no respect for the responsibilities that came with being the son of the king - you showed no respect for Father himself! While I spent our free time working and studying to be worthy of the name 'Odinsson', you were out with the commoners learning to do battle! And which of us did Father favor? Me - the one who respected him, who strove to be worthy, who did everything he ever asked of us; or you - the arrogant, reckless, disrespectful brat?"

Thor could only blink, too stunned to answer.

"You, of course!" Loki snarled. "Nothing I ever did was good enough for him, and nothing you ever did made him so much as frown! All the work I put into our upbringing, you got praised for! It was as though Father was completely blind!" Loki shook his head angrily. "I couldn't understand it," he told Thor; "I couldn't understand why nothing I ever did even managed to earn so much as a smile from Father. I did nothing but try my hardest to be worthy of his name…Of course, I assumed he was judging us fairly." He sighed. "In spite of Father's apparent disregard for my efforts, I always felt certain that he would name me his heir, when the time came - after all, surely he could see how the realm would suffer under your rule, and that I would only have done my best to take up his mantle and keep the peace. When the day came, and he named you, I couldn't believe my ears! How could he think you more worthy, more suited for the throne, than I? What could possibly be blinding him so? It didn't make any sense!"

"Loki…" Thor shook his head remorsefully.

"Oh, don't start," Loki said spitefully; "you were so completely oblivious to reality, there was no way you could have seen how things were transpiring. But I learned something that day: I learned that honest work would get me nowhere in life. So, I started thinking that perhaps, working dishonestly might get me somewhere…and thus Loki the Trickster was born." He chuckled humorlessly. "Of course, I did have a natural talent for the art of manipulation, there's no denying that," he said; "the irony is, I may well have never discovered my talent, had I not been forced to take desperate measures to try and prevent you from ascending to the throne. Oh, and in spite of what some people may say, my efforts to thwart you were not borne of envy - had you worked as hard as I to earn your title, then yes, when you were named heir to the throne, I would have been jealous, but I would have accepted it, and not tried to stand in your way, because you would have earned and deserved it. The reason I worked so hard to bring you down was because I knew how the realms would suffer under your idiotic rule. It was for the good of the realms I behaved thus; having been raised so well by Odin, what else could I have done?" Loki's voice dripped with sarcasm as he spoke the question.

Thor sank to his knees, slack-jawed with shock and, if Loki wasn't mistaken, guilt.

"Every scheme I concocted always went exactly as I planned them," Loki went on; "that is, until the very end, when Odin was always supposed to finally acknowledge that you weren't worthy. You would always make exactly the mistakes I knew you would, right in front of his face, but he never responded as he should have. I could only keep trying, but nothing ever changed. I didn't know, of course, that I wasn't taking all the factors into account. How could I? How could I possibly have known that Father was judging us based on something other than our merits? How could I possibly have known about…this?"

With that, Loki focused on the ice in his marrow and summoned it, not bothering to wonder whether or not it would work. He felt the ice spread quickly as, all at once, Odin's veil was lifted, and his true skin and face were revealed.

Thor gasped, jumped to his feet, and took a stumbling step back away from Loki, all in one movement.

"Oh, I'm sorry," Loki said coldly; "do I disgust you like this? Does it sicken you, to see me as close to my true self as I can get? Do you despise me for this glimpse of the body, the appearance, that is mine by birthright? Do I disgust you, looking like this, as I did Odin, just for having this underneath the veil he cast over me? Do I?"

Thor couldn't respond.

Loki pushed his Jotun blood back beneath the surface and changed back to his normal self. "Well, there, I'll get rid of it for you, then," he hissed.

"Loki, I-"

"Oh, I'm far from finished, brother," Loki snarled, cutting Thor off. "You said you wanted to know the whole truth, yes? Well, that was only the beginning. For the next piece of the 'whole' truth, I once again call on your memories. Do you remember when your friends - oh, and while we're on the subject, let's be very clear about something else," Loki added as he suddenly thought of something: "They were always your friends, never mine; I was only ever allowed to tag along because I was your 'brother'. I was never part of the team; none of them would ever have sacrificed anything for me, though they were willing to give up everything for you." He shook his head angrily. "When I was given charge of Asgard during your exile, they immediately thought it was a disaster," he told Thor. "They never, for one second, considered the possibility that I might be a good king, that - unlike you - I might actually rule with wisdom and humility, and put the good of the realms before any selfish ambitions…Honestly, were you even listening to the promises you were swearing to keep at your coronation? You never had any intention of keeping them. But no; Lady Sif and the Warriors Three were convinced that you were to be king, and that I was the one who would begin a reign of terror." He laughed humorlessly. "Some friends of mine they were!

"Anyway, as I was saying: Do you remember when your friends came here for you, and told you I had lied? How did that feel, to discover that all the suffering you'd willingly endured was in fact not at all your fault, but based entirely on falsehoods that someone had deliberately told you; that someone you loved, someone who claimed to love you, someone you should have been able to trust, had looked you in the eye and lied to you, just to cause you pain? How did that feel, brother?" He shook his head mockingly. "You must have been furious," he hissed. "Oh, how you must have loathed me in that moment. You probably had half a mind to come back to Asgard just to kill me with your own two hands, didn't you?"

Thor said nothing.

"Didn't you?" Loki shouted.

"…No," Thor finally answered faintly. "I was…hurt…and confused…and angry, yes, but…not to the point of hating you."

Loki's eyes widened. "Oh," he said mockingly; "well then, it seems we have a bit more in common than I thought - that was exactly how I felt when I discovered the truth. I never resented Father, though I should have - even now, I don't, though I know he detests me for the very reasons he took me in. And don't you try to deny it!" he shouted when Thor opened his mouth. "You know he never loved me, and I know you know it - don't bother trying to make me feel better! I know the truth, and I won't trade it in for pretty lies any longer!" He paused, catching his breath.

Thor was speechless.

"Do you know why I went to the trouble of luring Laufey to Asgard before slaying him, instead of just using the Bifrost to destroy Jotunheim at the very start?" Loki finally asked Thor in a low voice.

Thor shook his head, his expression very shell-shocked. "No," he answered.

"It was because I wanted Odin to know, without any doubt, that he was my father, not Laufey," Loki told Thor. "I waited until the last moment so that I could be certain that Odin would see me make my choice, right in front of him, in the clearest way I possibly could. I wanted him to know that I was not a Frost Giant - that I was his son, through and through, and that his son was all I would ever be. Only after that did I go to destroy the rest of Jotunheim, which I did because I reasoned that, since he hated me for my blood, the reason he didn't want to go to war and wipe out the rest of the Jotuns must have been concern for the lives of his own subjects; I figured that, if I could wipe out the Frost Giants without any cost to any of the other realms, I would be granting his ultimate wish." Loki shook his head angrily. "And what did he do in return, after all the effort I went to to finally make him see that I was his son?" he asked furiously. "He banished me. The harder I tried to make him happy, to make him proud to call me his son, the more he resented me! I couldn't win!"

"Loki…" Thor shook his head, but couldn't think of anything more to say.

There was silence for a minute.

"That is my pain, brother," Loki finally said. "That is the suffering I endured at the hands of the All-Father. Can you blame me, then, for siding with the Jotuns in this conflict? Can you blame me for wanting to get Mjolnir out of the way, so that they have a fighting chance at achieving their goal of killing him? As I said, getting you out of the whole mess would have been reason enough for me to come on its own, but can you blame me for seeing the fact that you never go anywhere without that wretched hammer as an added bonus to taking action?"

Thor closed his eyes and lowered his head. "No," he admitted. "No, I cannot."

Loki nodded. "Well, then, there you have it," he hissed; "you now know the whole truth. Are you happy now, brother?"

Thor sighed. "No," he answered.

"I didn't think you would be," Loki said mockingly.

Thor took a deep breath, then raised his head again and looked Loki in the eye. "Loki," he said, "take me back."

Loki blinked. "What?" he exclaimed.

"Take me back to Asgard, brother," Thor said firmly; "now."

"But-!"

"I will retrieve Mjolnir," Thor went on; "then, you can bring me back here again, and we can ride out this storm as you had hoped to."

Thor's demand to return to Asgard threw Loki for a loop; his reason threw Loki in a loop in the complete opposite direction. "You'll do what?" he asked. "You would leave Father defenseless?"

"He will not be entirely defenseless," Thor replied; "and…it's the least I can do."

Loki shook his head. "Brother, I hope you didn't misunderstand me - you owe me no debt," he said quickly; "any pain you ever caused me was borne entirely of your own ignorance - it would be unfair of me to begrudge you for it."

"Loki," Thor said firmly, "take me back."

Loki looked at Thor for a minute.

"You would really do this for me, brother?" he finally asked softly.

Thor nodded. "Yes," he replied; "but hurry - if the Jotuns reach Father before I retrieve Mjolnir, it will be no small task to do so."

Loki shook his head, all but speechless. "I…I don't know what to say," he said breathlessly. "I…Thank you, brother."

"Don't thank me now; save it for after we return to this realm with Mjolnir," Thor said, holding out his hand.

Loki took the hand he was offered, hardly daring to believe it. Just before he reopened the gate to Asgard, though, he remembered.

"Damn," he cursed, releasing Thor's hand and pulling back.

"What's the matter?" Thor asked.

"Jane," Loki answered; "she'll be here any minute - we won't be back by the time she arrives."

"So?" Thor asked.

"So, if she gets here and we're gone, what do you think will happen?" Loki demanded in reply. "Best-case scenario, she'll think she miscalculated our whereabouts; worst-case scenario, she'll think I betrayed her!" He shook his head. "I cannot risk losing my place here, brother," he told Thor; "this realm is my home, and I cannot lose it, as I have lost every other home I might ever have had. Erik distrusts me even now, and if I take you away before Jane gets here, she'll feel his distrust is warranted, and Darcy…" Loki closed his eyes and shook his head again, this time painfully. "She would not be so easy to convince, but even she would have reason to doubt me. I cannot risk giving her that reason. She's…all I have left."

"Loki…"

"It's no matter," Loki told Thor, though he was trying to convince himself as much as his brother. "You're safe; that's what's important. Perhaps once Jane has come and we've filled her in, I could take you back to retrieve Mjolnir."

"There's no time to waste," Thor pointed out.

"I'm well aware of that," Loki responded, "but there's no help for it. I appreciate the gesture brother - truly, I do," he added, looking Thor in the eye, "but it's too late now."

Thor sighed but said nothing.

Loki sighed, too. It's not fair, he thought. Either I stay here and miss the chance to give the Jotuns the upper hand, or I go and risk losing my home…

When both of two options have undesirable outcomes, find a third option; if there is no third option to be found, then create one.

Loki remembered the little trick he'd learned over the years - the very formula that had allowed him to manipulate Thor into walking away from the battle…and after thinking for a minute, he slowly smiled.

"I can't just leave," he said out loud, "but maybe I can…"

Loki took off his helmet and stepped out of the range of the gate. He looked around, then decided that five steps away in any direction would probably work. When he was far enough away, he set his helmet down on the ground, then crouched down and wrote a short message in the sand right beside it. He smiled, then stood back up and walked over to Thor.

"Let's go," he said, holding out his hand to his brother. "That message won't be enough to reassure Erik, and it might not be enough for Jane, but it will be enough for Darcy - she'll keep them here until we return."

"What was your message?" Thor asked.

"Just that we will return shortly," Loki replied. "Now come; we have no time to lose."

Thor nodded and took Loki's hand. Loki grasped his brother's hand tightly, activated the gate, and returned to Asgard, carrying Thor with him into what would be his, and the universe's, final judgement.