Loki glanced at Jamie, who looked sick at the thought of having to step through the portal again. Her eyes met his, and she swallowed.
"Just looking at the portal makes me want to vomit," she mumbled.
"Just close your eyes and hold on to my hand," Loki whispered. "It'll be over before you know it."
Jamie bit her lip and nodded, sliding her fingers between Loki's. Thor, who was watching this little exchange, chuckled. Heimdall, on the other hand, eyed Jamie carefully. He didn't bat an eyelash as the portal opened; his gaze was fixed on the female Midgardian who stood beside the God of Mischief.
Seconds before Jamie stepped through the portal, she turned around. "Thank you, Heimdall."
The Gatekeeper nodded once. "You're welcome."
Loki gripped Jamie's fingers tighter, and together they went through the portal. A split second later Loki felt his feet hit solid ground – but Jamie wasn't holding on to his hand anymore.
She had fallen on the ground as she had landed, and the impact had thrown her off balance. "I swear, interdimensional travel isn't my favorite way to go between realms."
Loki helped her to her feet and she looked at him gratefully.
"Welcome back," Jane greeted. She was holding a cup of coffee and was in a gray coat and jeans. "Glad to…"
Jane broke off in mid-sentence as Thor strode past Loki and Jamie. The God of Thunder enveloped Jane in his powerful arms and buried his face in her hair. "Jane."
Jamie glanced at Loki, silently telling him that they should give Thor and Jane some space.
"We'll be, um, in the next room," Jamie said, grinning. "No rush."
"Help yourself to some coffee," Jane called after them. Loki walked after Jamie, who had made a beeline for the coffee maker. As she poured some coffee inside a mug that said I LOVE FLORIDA, Loki changed his armor to a pair of jeans and a forest green shirt.
"How long have we been away?" Jamie muttered to herself, rummaging through her overnight bag. "I know I packed for a few days' stay, but I think we left Asgard at around three."
"Time flows differently between realms," Loki answered, sitting on one of the chairs. "It may be two days after we went through the portal."
Jamie turned her mobile phone on. She sipped her coffee – Loki wasn't in the mood for caffeine – while she waited for it to detect a signal. When it did, a series of short beeps sounded.
"Bloody hell," Jamie swore, taking a seat beside Loki. "Tony's sent me at least a dozen messages, plus Pepper sent me an e-mail about the latest report about the merger with Hellman Corporation, and I forgot that I had to take the ser…" She then broke off, glancing at Loki.
The god raised his eyebrows. "You forgot to take what?"
"Nothing," Jamie said quickly.
Loki frowned. This was the second time he sensed that Jamie wasn't being completely honest with him, and he didn't like it. But he knew better than to push her; she was just as stubborn as he was and he knew he wouldn't get anywhere by forcing her to tell him.
Jamie answered some of the messages on her phone, finally slipping it back in her bag after a few minutes. "I can tell Tony when I meet him again. No sense tiring my fingers out. Hey, what's the matter, Loki? Cat got your tongue? Did you leave your voice behind in the Bifrost?"
"No, everything's fine," Loki answered. "I was thinking."
"About what?" Jamie smiled and set the now-empty mug on the table. "What prank to play on your brother? I've always wanted to see a master trickster at work."
Loki chuckled. "You don't seem to like it when I tease you."
"Yeah well that's different," Jamie insisted. "You keep saying these really sexual jokes and it makes me uncomfortable."
"You're 26, Jamie Stark. You should have at least had one lover."
Jamie narrowed her eyes. "Believe it or not, Laufeyson, I haven't had a boyfriend...a lover yet. You? How many lovers have you had?"
"He's got a wife and had a Frost Giantess for a lover," Thor replied, striding into the room. He and Jane were holding hands. "Sigyn and Angraboda."
"Any kids?" Jamie tried not to show that her questions were bothering her, but Loki noticed that she looked rather…shifty.
"Two sons, a daughter, and an eight-legged horse." Thor grinned. "And those are the children we know of."
"I'm sure you are a great dad," Jamie decided, smiling at Loki. Thor shrugged noncommittally while Loki tilted his head.
To be honest he never liked thinking about his children, who were all dead – save for Sleipnir, of course. Nari and Vali had died a long time ago and Hel…
Loki shook the images from his mind and focused on Jamie. The memory of his only daughter's death haunted him sometimes, but he didn't want to dwell on it too much. He then felt Jamie's hand rest over his; she squeezed his hand gently, giving him silent reassurance.
She always seemed to know when he needed to be comforted, and Loki found it endearing. Thor and Jane sat opposite Loki and Jamie, as if they were waiting for something.
"Um, shouldn't we be going?" Jamie finally asked, still holding Loki's hand. "Thanos only gave us four days."
"Fury said that he'll be contacting you," Jane answered. "Have you switched your phone on yet? I don't think local mobile phone providers offer services in Asgard."
Jamie laughed and took her phone out of her overnight bag again. "Yeah, they don't. My brother's sent me a lot of messages, but so far I haven't seen anything from Fury."
Still, Jamie checked her phone again to be sure. When she was done, she set her mobile phone on the table and got up to pour more coffee. Loki could hear Thor and Jane talk about how they could use the Tesseract to stop Thanos (neither of them knew that Jamie had already partly figured it out).
"Loki? Sure you don't want any coffee?" Jamie asked from the kitchen counter. She had taken out another mug and was in the process of pouring a lot of milk in her mug.
"I'm positive." Loki smiled thinly that Jamie, who chuckled and returned the extra mug back into the cabinet.
Jamie was on her way back when her phone suddenly rang: the lyrics to a familiar song blared out from the tiny speakers. Blushing, Jamie snatched the phone and pressed the "Answer" button. "Hello?"
"Jamie, thank god you're back," Tony said. "Did you receive my messages?"
"Yeah, all of them," Jamie answered. "You sound weird. Are you okay?"
"Um yeah, I'm spiffy. Listen kiddo, tell Thor and Loki to go to Cairo as soon as they can. And I do mean soon! And stay where you are!" Tony said.
Jamie's protests were silenced by the loud noises in the background, but she couldn't quite make out what it was. Suddenly a loud boom reverberated through the earpiece, and Jamie held the phone away from her ear. "Tony, was that an explosion?"
"Um, kind of. Just tell them to come here, stat! I love you, Jamie. Don't you forget that." Tony terminated the call before Jamie could reply, and she set the phone back down in a daze.
"Jamie? What's wrong?" Jane inquired, leaning forward. "You look as pale as a ghost!"
"I think…the Avengers are fighting Thanos right now," Jamie answered. She then looked at Thor and Loki, who had his hand on her thigh. "You two need to get to Cairo right now!"
"We don't know where that is." Thor glanced at Jane, who stood up and hurried back to the lab to get a world map.
While Jane was gone, Jamie quickly explained her theory about how they could use the Tesseract against Loki. It sounded complicated, but the crux of it all was that they needed to place the Tesseract parallel to Thanos's heart, which was where most of his energy was stored.
"It's the most logical place, isn't it?" Jamie reasoned. "The heart is responsible for pumping life-giving blood to the rest of the body; it's only natural that Thanos would choose that spot to store the energy and power that he got from the Tesseract."
"But how do we remove the energy?" Loki asked with a frown. "I only used the Tesseract to get energy, not take it."
"I'm not sure about that," Jamie admitted. "How did the Avengers stop the Tesseract in the first place?"
"With this," Dr. Selvig interrupted, holding the scepter Loki had used. "I had built a failsafe in the Tesseract to help me stop it."
Loki stared at the scepter, remembering what it felt like to hold it in his hands. Loki pried his eyes away and looked at Jamie. She smiled slightly and patted him on the arm.
"How does it work?" Jamie asked, just as Jane came back with the map.
Dr. Selvig explained that they simply needed to slip the scepter inside a slot, which would reverse the polarity of the Tesseract and cause it to suck energy from a certain power source.
"Looks like we need two men to do it," Jamie quipped, looking at Thor and Loki.
The brothers glanced at each other and nodded.
"Nothing we can't handle," Thor said confidently.
After Jane told Thor and Loki where Cairo was located, Jamie stood with the two gods, remembering that Tony had told her to stay where she was.
Hell, I'm going, she thought, but to her surprise, Loki stopped her.
"No, you stay here. We can handle this," he said.
"But…"
"Jamie Stark, if you continue to protest I will tie you to a chair," Loki threatened. "Or a bed."
"Sounds tempting," she teased, but Loki sighed exasperatedly.
"Stay with Jane. We'll be fine."
Jamie bit her lip. This was the first time Loki was going to a battle without her: first they had gone against the Other, and then they had fought a small army composed of the Chitauri and Leviathan.
It seemed unnatural that he would go alone. Well technically he wouldn't, considering his brother would be with him, but Jamie felt like she'd known him for so long that the thought of him going without her was unacceptable. But the longer Thor and Loki stayed, the higher the chance that Thanos would win. Silently Jamie nodded, and she felt Loki's hand slip from her grasp.
Her hand felt empty, incomplete.
She watched as Thor and Loki walked out into the street, the latter reverting to his green and gold armor as he walked. Before they could teleport, Jamie called Loki's name.
The God of Mischief stopped and slowly turned towards her, his cape rippling in the breeze. Before she realized what she was doing, not caring that Jane, Thor, and Dr. Selvig were there, Jamie ran to Loki and threw her arms around him.
Their lips automatically sought each other out, finally meeting in one smooth movement. Jamie felt Loki's tongue enter her mouth slightly, and her knees nearly gave way from under her. Loki's hand, which was pressed against the curve of her back, stopped her from falling.
"Come back," she whispered in his ear, inhaling his familiar musky scent. "Please."
Loki ran a finger down her cheek, pulling away so that he could stare deep into her eyes. "I will."
Reluctantly Jamie stepped away from him, her eyes never leaving his face. It was then when she finally heard Thor's exaggerated coughs and Jane's amused chuckle.
Loki stared back at her before slowly turning away. Seconds later, Thor and Loki disappeared.
I love you, Jamie thought. So much.
Cairo, Egypt
Thanos made his way out of the pyramid of Giza, which was where he had taken up residence. Although he had promised the Midgardians that he would give them four days to decide whether to give Loki up or not, by the second day he found that he was bored.
He ended up unleashing his Chitauri army earlier than planned, and was now destroying the majestic symbols of ancient Midgardian power. Thanos knew that the Avengers were in the area as well, but he knew that their efforts were in vain.
His army easily outnumbered them, and Thanos expected them to be defeated before the day was out. Even now he could hear his minions report the status of his foes, which told him that the Avengers were suffering major damages.
"If they had only surrendered the god to me," Thanos murmured to himself, finally stepping out into the harsh sunlight. "They were willing to protect a single person at the cost of millions of lives. How selfish."
But Thanos also knew that that wasn't true. He had planned to unleash his army whether or not the Midgardians had given Loki to him. Thanos had gone so long without destroying an entire race that he feared that he had lost his touch.
He was wrong, apparently.
While Midgardians died, Thanos reveled in the bloodshed and mayhem that he caused. He made his way down to the pyramid, frowning as sand flew into his eyes. He cursed softly and shook his head in an attempt to clear his vision.
When his vision did clear, he nearly cried out in shock to see a person he didn't expect standing a few feet from him.
Loki Laufeyson.
New Mexico
Jamie padded to the window, staring out at the dark sky. She wondered what time it was in Cairo, but she didn't want to call Tony and risk distracting him in the middle of an important fight.
She had kept her mobile phone close to her at all times, even plugging it into the charger that she had brought with her.
Jamie had spent the entire day with Jane, exchanging ideas about interdimensional travel and other scientific facts. It was nice to finally find someone who was interested in the same things as she was, and Jamie found herself liking Jane even more.
Another common thing between the two women was that they had fallen in love with a prince of Asgard.
Jane had admitted that she doubted that Loki had changed, but when she saw the way Loki had clung to Jamie, Jane had realized that she was wrong.
"Now I know why he's changed," Jane had said over dinner, looking at Jamie meaningfully.
"It's mostly because he wanted to," Jamie insisted. She was mollified at the idea that people thought that she had changed Loki; on the contrary, Jamie liked him just the way he was.
Minus the part where he tried to take over the planet, of course.
Since it was just her, Jane, and Dr. Selvig in the lab (Darcy Lewis, Jane's assistant, was on vacation with her parents), dinner was spent in relative silence. Now, Jamie paced the small bedroom that she was in.
She was worried. Jamie didn't know if her brother was okay, or if Thanos had managed to get Loki. Her throat tightened at the thought.
No, Loki promised me, she thought, although she knew that it was quite possible that something could go wrong and that Loki would…
Stop! Just stop, okay? Imagine he's fighting the Chitauri or he's kicking Thanos's ass.
Jamie sighed, her breath forming mist on the glass. Before the mist could dissipate, she used her finger to trace Loki's name on the window.
Far above her, a million light years away, a lone figure in gold armor watched her every move.
In Cairo, Loki Laufeyson faced Thanos, his face hardening as he realized that the massive being had tried to mentally torture Jamie. Tony Stark used his repulsor ray to blast a Chitauri that was about to take a shot at Natasha, only to earn a powerful shock wave on his back. Steve and Bruce valiantly fought off wave after wave of Chitauri, protecting a group of locals who were hiding inside an evacuation center. Natasha and Clint, on the other hand, flew above the city, giving the team aerial updates and shooting at Chitauri that were chasing them.
And the battle for Midgard truly began.