Loki had not anticipated finding himself hosting eleven additional refugees within the in-between. His power was stretched between Thor, Lynn and himself - to add the additional five Avengers along with Thor's Æsir friends meant that the trickster would have to pick and choose who to sacrifice to the native parasites of the World Tree. He found the choice no challenge, but Thor would protest if his friends were to start disappearing into the darkness. Loki shuddered to think of the thunderer's opinion should he discover how Loki abandoned the others to their own fates.
It was a boon, then, that the Tesseract had been left behind by the Titan. The trickster might tap into its power to increase his ability to shield everyone at once, rather than be forced to spread himself too thin to serve any use to any of them. However, he first needed to know how these mortals tapped into the same power source with their own machine. He could manipulate the Tesseract for a short portion of time, as he had done to create this very portal - but the doorway was short-lived and would close moments after the final Avenger entered the in-between.
Loki could not wait for the group. Rather than pause to make sure all of them followed, he strode ahead into the darkness. A fire flickered in the distance, guiding his hurried steps, and he was so focused on his goal that Tony's voice startled him into a momentary stop.
"So, where are we going?"
Loki turned to face him. He had run to catch up and was swelling with accusation and mistrust. Loki, never one to resist a good tease, smiled lazily.
"Such lack of trust, and so undeserving."
Tony narrowed his eyes, but instead of replying he turned to watch the approach of Thor's Æsir friends.
"Loki, at ease," Fandral said, holding Hogun under the arm, and now with Volstagg and Sif taking up the rear four of Thor's friends were within speaking distance. Loki did not want to converse with any of them, and turned on his heel to continue hurrying away.
"Loki -" Fandral began, only to be cut off by the trickster himself.
"There is no time. Thanos will have felt the Tesseract's power." There was more, but Loki kept the remainder to himself. Thor's friends were less than worthless for the needed task, so he saw no purpose in including them in his urgency.
He abandoned them there, dragging their injured friend between them and unconcerned over whether they could see where he was headed. The only beacon to see flickered up ahead, drawing friends and foe alike. Loki needed the Tesseract soon to force those which made the in-between home away.
He burst into the makeshift camp ground and paused. Thor was standing to the side with fists braced and turned wild eyes to Loki.
"Loki," he said, "there were -"
"I know." The trickster approached slowly, uncertain of his reception. "We must hurry, Thor. The Chitauri world still stands."
"I will not leave Lynn Creed alone." The wildness had not yet left Thor's expression. Loki stopped advancing and glanced behind the thunderer. Lynn was still and silent as before, bundled thickly inside of a blanket. Thor would not allow him close enough to check on her. Loki raised both hands in a gesture of peace.
"Your friends will be here shortly, and will protect her in your absence."
"My friends?" The wildness began to fade, and the more jovial side of Thor's nature emerged. "You discovered them alive?"
"Yes, Thor," and the trickster was gratified with perfectly planned timing, as the words barely left his lips before Fandral and Volstagg entered the scene, Hogun braced among them.
Loki felt the headache even before it manifested.
"My friends," Thor boomed with great abandon. "You live yet! But where is Sif?"
"Stayed back with the metalsmith," Fandral said while Volstagg helped Hogun to the ground. "She wanted to assist Steve and the others."
"All alive?" Thor sounded baffled. Loki stepped behind him and crouched, pressing his fingers against Lynn's blanket to infuse more warmth into the cloth.
"All alive," Loki admitted, "and coming this way. Amma Lynn will be protected, and once I have the Tesseract I will shield all of us."
"Should we not wait, to ensure that the mortals join us safely?"
"There is no time, Thor." Loki straightened and looked the thunderer in the eye. "The Tesseract was awakened - he will have felt that, and come to collect it, or finish the world where it rests. We must go."
"Brother -"
Loki grabbed a handful of Thor's vest.
"Do not argue," he commanded, and reached for a branch of Yggdrasil. While Thor's friends watched, the two of them vanished.
From the darkness left behind, a low, slurping grumble rose.
Sif could not abandon the mortals to a chance fate. She sent her Æsir companions forward and pressed back with the metalsmith to retrace their steps. They had not come far, ultimately, and she was nearly upon the portal Loki created when Tony asked a question of her.
"Can we trust him?"
"No," she replied immediately. There was no question in her entire being about the true nature of Thor's false-begotten traitor brother. His actions had led to this - all of this - and now Asgard was gone and the last remnants of the Nine had no realms to return to.
"Great," Tony said. "I guess we get to dance."
"It is a fool who dances to the trickster's tune," Sif replied.
"Do we have choices here?"
"I am uncertain," she said. "If Thor truly lives, he will assist us."
The portal shimmered, and Steve emerged from the nothing. The three stared at each other, mutually surprised by his sudden appearance, until Natasha appeared from behind, forcing the soldier forward. Clint and Bruce followed in turn, and all six of them took a long, silent moment to turn and survey their surroundings.
"Where is this?" Clint asked.
"Loki calls this the 'in-between.'"
"Holy cow," Bruce said, staring up at the gently glistening tree which spanned miles and miles above them. "Is this the World Tree?"
A slithering, deep grumble echoed across nothing at all. Tony and Bruce exchanged a look.
"I am not meeting any Shoggoths today," the inventor said, and charged both repulsors.
"What's a Shoggoth," Steve asked, in the same moment Natasha pointed and said, "There's a fire." They all turned and watched the inviting flames beckon them closer. Sif clenched her jaw.
"Loki does illusions," Clint said. "Is it a trick?"
"Let's find out," Steve said, and waved them all forward. "We can't stand here forever."
As a tired, bedraggled group, they started forward toward the light.
The rumbling growls slithered ever closer as they walked.
Thor trusted his brother, often when there was no evidence to support that trust. In the past few years, that trust had led to a downward spiral of antagonism and pain, and he was hard-pressed to admit that he had never thought, for one moment, how much easier life would be if Odin had simply left that baby to die.
It was a terrible notion, to hold the actions of the cruel adult against the innocent child he had once been, but Thor was far from perfect in his thoughts. He might appear overly forgiving, and he might even act upon that perception and offer his brother more chances than most would be willing to. Yet alone, either in his head or the rare moments when a Crown Prince was truly alone in his quarters, the thunderer indulged in a different set of thoughts. He had witnessed far too many tears from his dear mother and father, too much destruction wrought upon the innocent of Midgard, and too many deceptions aimed at himself to resist occasional moments of weakness.
In the instant Loki took his vest, commanded him to silence and ripped them across the realms, Thor wanted very badly to pull himself from his brother's grasp and demand a longer explanation for these abrupt actions. Their world was gone, and himself no longer a Crown Prince to a mighty realm - but he remained the elder and a leader of Asgardian forces, unaccustomed to following the command of another.
They materialized and Loki released him. Thor stumbled a step and blinked, his eyes struggling to adjust to a stronger light than the dimmed World Tree. He looked up to see the source of such brightness and saw a great black expanse, lacking in stars or other signs of a world beyond this rocky realm. The light instead emanated from the side, splashing over a hill in blue-white pulsations.
"This is as close as I dared bring us," Loki said, staring at the white halo of power. "Thanos may yet be watching. Find Mjolnir, quickly, and I will fetch the Tesseract."
"Not alone," Thor said, and took his brother's sleeved arm. "If Mjolnir is here, it will come when I call upon it."
Loki turned burning red eyes to Thor. The thunderer thought his brother might request that Thor release him, and clenched his fingers in anticipation. Loki's face tightened - and he looked away.
"All right, Thor," the younger said, and Thor loosened his fingers in surprised gratitude. "Come with me, and remain silent. I will cloak both of us to prevent sight, but I lack the strength to silence our sounds as well."
"You have not rested, brother," Thor said, and released his brother's arm so that they could fall in step with each other as they walked.
"I do not rest," Loki replied.
"By choice or by necessity?" Thor asked. Loki chuckled.
"Do not concern yourself with my affairs," he said. Thor looked about the ice-coated landscape.
"I must, Loki. It appears that you flounder when I attempt to leave you to your devices."
"I am not a fool," Loki snapped.
"No, you merely conspired with Asgard's greatest enemy."
"Thanos was not -"
"I am not referring to Thanos."
The brothers stopped together when they crested the ridge. The Tesseract pulsed below them, its power radiating outward from the mortal construct housing it. Loki turned his head, inspecting the outcropping for signs of tampering or traps.
"Be silent, Thor," he muttered. "We are in the realm of the beast now."
As methods of halting a conversation went, Thor admitted that this was a fine angle. Still, he took exception to Loki's description of their foe, and voiced his discontent.
"He is no beast, brother - merely a Titan, which our father once defeated. We, too, will triumph over his power."
"He did not have the Gauntlet then," Loki said, and ignored the rest. Thor did not draw attention to the familial claim and Loki's lack of outburst in the meantime.
The Tesseract sat within the mortal machine and shone brightly in the otherwise-dark landscape, a flashing beacon of power. Should anything still live in this realm, Thor thought it might be called in this direction, and Loki was not keen on dawdling. There was no time to waste debating with his brother. Thor held forth his hand toward the scene below and summoned Mjolnir to him.
The hammer whipped through the air and slammed into his open palm within seconds. The thunderer held his hand aloft and felt energy sizzle through his body at the reunion.
"He left it be," Thor said with ill-concealed joy. He turned when Loki did not reply to share his excitement and found Loki vanished; the trickster was already gone to collect the Tesseract. Thor looked forward again and tried to spot his brother's shadow among the darkness. Though Loki had shrouded them both from sight, he had not prevented them from seeing each other.
The Tesseract appeared frenzied, its colors swirling rapidly and illuminating the mountainside. Thor thought he saw a dark hand reach into the machine - and instead of taking the Tesseract, the hand grasped the handle of Loki's scepter and pulled it free of the machine. The Tesseract's energies ceased instantly, plunging the realm into black save for a small circle of blue-hued light surrounding the machine. Thor thought he might have bellowed, but the raging noise continued and he realized it was not his own voice roaring in anger.
Thanos manifested from the darkness, the Gauntlet now providing light where the Tesseract did not shine. As the light flashed, Thor saw his brother standing before the machine with scepter in hand - but he wore no look of triumph. Rather, his eyes were wide and fearful, an instant of weakness dragged into the light.
Thor spun his hammer and prepared for battle. Thanos would likely kill them both with the Gauntlet, but Thor could not abandon his brother in a time of obvious need.
"Thanos," he called, "I have pledged to kill you!"
The Titan turned as Loki plunged a hand into the machine and took up the Tesseract. The sizzle of burning flesh echoed even to where Thor stood. Thanos pointed his gloved hand at Thor and power built around the fingers, bright red against the night. The thunderer braced himself for impact - possibly for death itself - and an embankment of fog rose up between the two.
The fog carried hues of gold, green, red and blue, and a form began to take shape. A vision bloomed: a woman, harsh and cruel and beautiful, rimmed with bones and disease and famine. Death.
"Thanos," she said, and Thor heard carcasses and rot in her voice. Loki's hand grasped his arm and tugged him to the side.
"Idiot," the trickster hissed, "forever challenging a foe you cannot hope to defeat! Away, Thor, away!"
The thunderer ran alongside his brother, whose hands held both the scepter and the Tesseract. He had not wrapped his fingers to shield them from the cube's power, and his fingers burned bright against the solid object.
"Where are we going," Thor called as they ran. "Can you not transport us now?"
"We must be further. I cannot hold the illusion and our concealment - here, this should be fine." Loki stopped and offered the scepter.
"Take this, and I will open the way. Quickly, Thor!"
Thor accepted the scepter with a shocked expression. That his brother would relinquish the weapon so easily -
Loki's face was strained and taut with exertion. He was struggling to hold the vision; the brothers were no longer concealed, and now he attempted to open a portal to let them into the in-between. Thor reached for the Tesseract; Loki snarled and jerked it away.
"No, fool, I am using its power -"
The air wavered, and Loki shoved Thor forward by the arm. The thunderer stepped into the in-between as a howl pierced his ears.
"The illusion collapsed," Loki panted out, "quickly!"
Thor took his brother's hand and pulled him through the portal. They staggered into the in-between and Loki collapsed to his knees, tossing the Tesseract to the ground before him and gripping his wrist in pain. Thor reached to check the hand and Loki hissed him away.
"I am not an invalid," he said, and pushed to his feet with a grimace. "Give me the scepter, it will help me to balance."
"Loki, you must rest," Thor insisted. "You have demanded too much of yourself -"
"The Tesseract is infinite," Loki said, and this time he wrapped his hand before reaching for the cube. Thor stepped between the trickster and his target to prevent Loki from touching it again.
"No, brother. I will bear this burden." Thor slid Mjolnir into the holster at his hip, gave the scepter over, and took the cloth from Loki, then wrapped his palm before reaching down to take up the Tesseract. Even with the layers, he felt the cube burning through.
"Quickly, then," Loki said, and turned to begin walking, leaning heavily upon the scepter.
"That woman - that was Death?"
"I needed to distract Thanos before he killed us both and took the Tesseract. Just think of your friends, Thor, trapped forever in the in-between until the Tree perishes."
"You have seen Death?"
Loki paused and raised his eyebrows, looking at Thor.
"This troubles you?"
That Thor should have asked at all was evidence enough. Thor answered Loki's question with another of his own: "When?"
"Thanos introduced me many times over." The trickster began walking again. Thor switched hands to relieve the burning sensation from his fingers. The process was slow and methodical, unwrapping one set of fingers in favor of another, and Thor took the opportunity to think on Loki's declaration.
"Loki, did Thanos torture you?"
The trickster laughed and did not even stutter in his steps.
"No, Thor - is that what you suspect? No. I chose my actions as surely as you choose yours."
Thor knew Loki was lying - the man's lips were moving, were they not? Yet he could not determine which portion was the lie. They were still far enough from the camp to encourage honest replies from the slippery trickster. Thor continued to press.
"Then invading Midgard was your choice," he said, and Loki chuckled.
"Yes, Thor. I wanted to rule your precious world."
"You claimed you never wanted to rule."
They walked several steps, and finally Loki began to speak again.
"Thanos' greatest power, when not wearing the Gauntlet, is his insanity. It is a powerful force that infects all those near him. I thought myself shielded - I set guards within my helmet, and wore it at all times in his presence - but like a slow tide, the insanity rolled forward and began to leech into my thoughts."
"Then your thoughts were not your own?"
"My thoughts were my own, and his as well. Thus, where Thanos craved subjugation of Midgard, so did I."
Thor could not piece that logic together, and his brow furrowed in confusion. "That makes little sense to me, brother."
"Accept that your brother is gone, Thor," the trickster said quietly. "He died a relic of the past, and will not return."
"He stands at my side, and looks weary for his exertions. You will rest, will you not?"
"Will you cease asking should I say yes?"
"Perhaps."
"Then accept this lie: Yes, Thor. I will rest."
The camp was ahead, and Thor saw several shadows huddled around the bright-burning branch. His heart swelled when he recognized the silhouettes of Steve, Banner and the other Avengers - Loki paused and looked to him.
"Perhaps you should take the scepter now, to prevent a dreadful misunderstanding."
Thor ignored his concerns and cupped a hand around his mouth, bellowing ahead.
"Friends!" he declared, "we have returned!"
The figures turned as one to look in their direction. Steve positioned himself in front of the group, shield in hand - Banner stood toward the back, unassuming but ready - Barton and Natasha took up positions on either of Steve's sides, joined by Sif and Fandral. Volstagg hung back with Hogun, who remained seated.
Loki chuckled quietly, just loud enough for Thor to hear - and Thor thought of times gone by, when Loki would find amusement and share this with him alone. He would laugh in just this manner, then turn his head to speak to Thor, lowly enough that only his brother might hear -
"See how they fear me still, Thor? Even when their worlds are gone, they would fight for a cause."
Thor had been so lost in reminiscent musings that he had missed Loki turning and addressing him. The thunderer's heart clenched - another memory to keep to himself, lest he trigger Loki's incessant denials of kinship.
"They are cautious, Loki - you gave them much cause to distrust you." Thor raised the hand clenching the Tesseract. "Ho, friends!" he called.
"Mortimer has his hat," Tony said from below. Thor had missed the metalsmith initially, and now realized he was crouched next to Lynn Creed. "Why does he have his hat?"
"Loki," Steve said, "we don't have time for tricks. If you make us fight you, we will."
"And beat you down again, just like last time," Tony added. Loki smirked.
"I have no intention of fighting," he drawled. "Although if you are determined, Thor will likely humor your craving."
Thor could stand the heat in his hand no longer; he leaned down and set the Tesseract, bare and exposed, against the black ground. Bruce and Tony both approached while Steve clenched his jaw at sight of the thing; Barton and Natasha remained focused on Loki.
Sif looked at Thor, worry creasing her face.
"Hogun needs better care than we have here," she said. Loki scoffed.
"There is nowhere to take him to. Make do."
Sif scowled and began to reply, but Thor held up his burned hand to stop her. She stopped as commanded, then stepped forward and took his hand in hers.
"You need healing as well, Thor."
"I will heal soon enough. What of Hogun?"
Sif squeezed his hand before dropping it. Bruce spoke up. "He lost a considerable amount of blood, and he's dizzy. We don't have any food or water to help replenish what he's lost."
"There is no water in this realm," Loki said, "but food is abundant."
"I am not eating a Shoggoth," Tony insisted. Thor did not know what manner of creature the inventor was referring to, and imagined that Loki did not either - yet the trickster remained quiet, and even laughed a bit as though he understood Tony's meaning - which, in turn, gave the appearance that the trickster did know what Tony referred to. Thor wondered how much of Loki's intelligence emerged from simply knowing when not to say a word.
"Yggdrassil is more than capable of providing nourishment," Loki said as he reached and cut a tendril free. "There would be no parasites in this realm if it were otherwise."
"Parasites?" Tony asked. "Is that what keeps lurching around out there?"
"What kind of parasites?" Bruce asked.
Loki stepped close to the brightly burning fire and tossed the clipped branch within. The fire caught and blazed across the surface briefly before dulling to its original glow. "The beasts which inhabit this realm may be beyond your mortal comprehension."
"Look, H.P., you better give us something to work with," Tony said angrily.
"I cannot explain what you cannot conceive." The trickster stood next to the fire, watching the tendril burn. Natasha looked at Clint, who was watching the Æsir. Thor seemed unaffected by Loki's appearance, even accustomed to it. As for the others, there was no mistaking the drawn, taught faces of suspicion - and no small amount of surprise. Clint wondered what Loki's form might mean to them.
"Why are you blue?" Clint asked. "Is it related to the whole 'adopted' thing?"
Loki turned narrowed eyes to Barton. Instead of answering his question, the trickster next looked at Thor, and ire pulsed from his figure.
"Just who in this gathering have you not informed?" Loki took a step back from the fire, then turned on his heel and began a slow path. He wove around the fire, then angled himself to pass close by every Avenger. "Your mortal friends - yes, you would have told them, to distance yourself from the bastard prince of Asgard. But the Æsir?" He stopped in front of Sif, whose nostrils flared as she tilted her chin up to meet his gaze.
"He did not warn a one of you, did he, Lady Sif?" Loki's voice was serene, even teasing. He stepped forward until they stood nearly touching. "And what does the lady warrior of Asgard think of the revelation now?"
"Back off," Steve said to him, and pulled Sif back. Her fists were clenched and her posture defensive; the last thing any of them needed was a brawl. Loki laughed at the two of them, still focused on Sif.
"You called me your king, once. Do you remember, Lady Sif? How you spat the words!"
"How long have you known?" she asked, ignoring the barb. Loki scoffed and turned away.
"Long enough," he snarled.
"Loki," she repeated, "when did you discover this?"
"It matters not," he replied. "I have always been the changeling prince, a Jötun bastard -"
"The attack on Jötunheimr," Thor said, "which led to my banishment."
"Be silent," Loki hissed, and Thor ignored him. "Loki is no mere Jötun, my friends, but -"
"Still your tongue," Loki rasped, and the sound of guns cocking combined with pulse blasters charging rooted him in place - for the moment. "Speak no more of this irrelevance, it is -"
"- he is the son of Laufey himself."
Sif gasped and covered her mouth; behind her, both Fandral and Volstagg turned widened eyes to Loki, whose eyes burned with hatred as he glared at Thor.
"Cursed fool, why must you -"
A monstrous worm, brown and slick with thick black spines rolling along its back in segmented rows, slammed itself down amongst the group. Screams and yells erupted as the creature swayed from side to side, throwing Avengers and Æsir aside. Tony fired directly into what might be the beast's face - a sound like a roar echoed against the World Tree, and the worm reared backward, twisting itself and weaving its myriad of thick, bulging legs along the length of its body.
"Avoid the spines!" Loki called out. "Their poison will kill even an Æsir!"
Thor hefted Mjolnir and spun the handle in his palm.
"To arms, my friends!"
This place was pleasant, and warm, and far away from the things she didn't want to see or know. She could hear distant sounds: sometimes yells, sometimes a deep soothing voice - she ignored them, preferring to remain cocooned and safe in a warm haze of quiet darkness.
The yelling became louder, more persistent and harder to ignore. Lynn buried herself further into the cocoon and found herself followed by the noises echoing above. Wake up, they shouted. She huddled away. Move her!
She was jostled and lifted. The sounds were closer - no, they were everywhere. Reality rushed back in a sudden wave of sensations. Sounds. Tastes. Sensations.
Her arms ached. Why did her arms always ache?
She was settled away from the louder noises, still wrapped in a warm cocoon. Stay here, the voice she knew said. And then it was gone.
Just let me stay away, she thought. But she was awake now, and her mind would not allow her to sink down again. It pushed her into the light - not literal light, no, but she could hear -
Lynn opened her eyes and heard –
"It was drawn by the Tesseract!" Loki's voice rang over the beast's roar as it reared back and flexed hundreds of hooked legs at the group. "A source of power while the Tree is dying, it will reverberate through this realm - they will all be drawn. Give me the cube, I will shield us all -"
"Like hell, H.P. -"
"Thor!"
The worm crashed forward in a surge aimed at Thor, who was confronting it directly with Steve at his side. Thor swung Mjolnir and connected with the side of the creature's head, while a solid two-fisted punch from a set of large green hands smashed into the creature's opposing side. Head and body twisted in opposite directions; the beast gargled and collapsed, twitches rolling along its body.
Steve brandished his shield and approached the head cautiously, Sif at his side. The twitches continued; the beast writhed and began to roll, twist and jerk, its dying throes more dangerous than the initial attack. Barton and Natasha stayed back out of reach; Fandral had dragged Hogun further away and was standing before his friend, defending him.
The worm contorted its body into spirals, flailing and throwing itself into different positions. It bashed itself against the portion of the World Tree where Lynn had previously sat, curling itself around the bark while thick slime oozed from its body.
"Sif," Steve said, and she nodded and extended her spear, approaching the poor creature to grant it a proper death.
Loki stood above the Tesseract, which was guarded over by a kneeling Tony, who had both palms faced toward the god's head.
"Try it," the inventor said. The Hulk approached behind him, snarling at the trickster. From the darkness, lurching shadows edged closer.
"There are more, you fools - I cannot shield us unless you let me -"
"Allow him through!" Thor bellowed and advanced, raising Mjolnir as though to strike the both of them. "He speaks the truth!"
Loki's grin bloomed in amused triumph. "Surely you do not think Thor a liar?"
"Plausible deniability," Tony said. Above them, branches creaked and swayed under great weights. Those branches closest to the group began to bend and bow.
"Fool of a mortal," Loki snarled, "how does your machine channel its power?"
"Like I'd -"
"Like closing a circuit." Banner's voice was calm and collected as he stepped forward. "We treat it like an outlet. We plug in, it lets power flow through."
"Loki," Thor called, "quickly!" The trickster dropped the scepter and held his hand out; the Tesseract shot forward into his blue palm. The hiss of burning flesh accompanied the scent of the same. Loki braced both palms against the Tesseract and reached deep into his depleted well of seiðr, drawing forth a thin thread of power. He spooled the thread outward, through his fingers and directly into the Tesseract's core. In a flash of light, the pure blue-white morphed into an emerald glow, Loki's seiðr fueling and combining with the infinite power within the cube - he felt himself pulled forward to join the will of the cube, felt its hunger striving outward to engulf all present - he pulled away from that endless flow of power, dropped the cube, spread his hands in a wide fan and draped the entire realm in his power.
The shadows and noises around them ceased as the shield fell into place, concealing them from the in-between - and vice-versa.
Loki lowered his hands, feeling more invigorated than he had in years. His mind felt sharp and clear rather than the muddled mess he had grown so accustomed to these many months past. He had not tapped into the Tesseract directly before - rather only funneled its energy through the staff, which lay at his feet now. He'd needed it before to lean upon, for his body was tired and worn - but he needed nothing any longer, his steps were sure and certain as he strode away from the metalsmith and the beast. Tony shot to his feet.
"Hey, what the hell -"
"Brother," Thor said, and reached to grip Loki's shoulder as he passed. The trickster paused and looked at Thor, who squeezed his shoulder in silent support.
"Loki, are you well?" Thor met his brother's fiery eyes; the trickster looked down upon himself. He raised his hands and turned them to see both sides of his Jötun palms.
"I am well," he replied, and his skin rippled into the pale flesh of an Æsir. He turned pale eyes to his brother, and Thor shifted his hand to the back of Loki's neck. He had not seen Loki, his brother, in so long.
"Welcome home, brother," Thor said. "I have missed you."
Loki turned to look at the Tree, glowing so dimly in the dying light of its own power. He could feel the energy leaving the roots and branches as surely as he felt his seiðr coursing through him. If the Tree died, the realm would collapse, and these few remaining denizens of the Nine would die along with the in-between.
"Brother," he said softly, so only Thor could hear, "I have a plan."