Disclaimer: I don't own anything Marvel: Thor: The Dark World, or anything other than Anna.

Chapter 35

Too Much Talking

Wreckless plans were things Anna was very used to. It was something that, as weird as it sounded, didn't freak her out or make her uneasy. There were so many occasions in not only undercover work, but during team missions she now knew, that required pulling a new plan right out of their butts. Things never really went as planned, and that was something Anna was okay with as long as, in the end, the mission was completed successfully.

But any plan that required the help of Loki, Anna was very, very uncomfortable with. While Lady Sif was off kidnapping Jane, and Thor was breaking Loki out of his prison, the group would then proceed to the Harrow Ship where Volstagg was (which was a very stupid name for a ship, if anybody asked Anna, which they didn't), they'd use that to get out, and as a distraction. Later they would depart that and join Anna and Fandral in the flying skiff, which was currently parked under the west bridge waiting for the signal. Anna was sitting on side of the boat, staring down into the water, while Fandral looked towards the castle.

It was obvious by the way he was shifting from foot to foot that he was uncomfortable and bored. So it was no surprise when he turned and started to address the brunette. "So, how did you end up doing what you do, Young One?" He sat down on the bench by the steering, his legs crossed and posture perfect.

Anna sighed and got up, facing the way he had just turned his back to. Somebody had to keep an eye out for the Harrow Ship. "Uh, I was born into it," she answered.
"But that doesn't mean you have to stay," he said. "Why do you keep doing it? You're pretty and smart, I'm sure there are many opportunities for you."

Anna ignored the compliment and went on to address the rest of his question. "Guess I don't really want to do anything else," she answered. "It's been my life. Plus, I've been told my morals, honor, and sense of duty control how I act so…"

"Ah, yes, I understand," Fandral said. "And I would like to apologize on behalf of Asgard for the grief Loki has caused you."

Anna nodded and crossed her arms. "You have nothing to apologize for," Anna said. "He does."

"And if he did, would you accept it?" Fandral pressed.

"Honestly?" Anna asked, turning her eyes to the blond. "I don't know."

"I don't blame you," Fandral said. "I know we don't."

Anna just nodded again, though this time it was more absent mindedly than really answering or acknowledging his words. Her eyes caught movement in the distance, and by the second, the objects grew bigger and bigger. It was the ship, and it was now time for them to work.
"Fandral, they're coming," Anna told him, moving aside so he could work the flying skiff, seeing as she had no clue how to.

Once he took his spot, he started up the skiff and off they went. Anna held onto the side of the contraption, worried he'd turn suddenly and she'd be thrown into the water. "And now the fun truly begins," he laughed.

"I think we have very different definitions of fun," Anna muttered as they caught up to the ship.

Before they could do anything else though, out flew a person, falling as if they had tripped and fell out of the Harrow Ship. Fandral slowed down do they would fall into the skiff, and once they made contact, the skiff dipped from the sudden addition of weight. It didn't affect the path they were on as they continued to wait for the rest of the party.

Originally, Anna had moved to help whoever it was, but once they were inside, she stopped and stared, then glared. It was Loki.

Thor landed a couple moments later with Jane in his arms. He too looked down at Loki as Fandral laughed. Loki staggered to his feel, disgruntled from the fall, which obviously hadn't been his fault. Anna wouldn't have been surprised if Thor pushed him out.

"I see your time in the dungeons has made you no less graceful, Loki," Fandral teased.

Loki just ignored him and glared at Thor as the man laid Jane down. She looked far worse than Anna had last seen her. So Anna ignored Loki and the unsettled feeling in her stomach and went to check on the woman. She moved a strand of hair behind her ear so it wouldn't tickle her face.

"You lied to me," Loki told his brother. "I'm impressed."

Thor stood back up, feeling better than Anna was watching over Jane. "I'm glad you're pleased," Thor said. "Now, do as you promised. Take us to your secret pathway."

Compliantly, Loki moved to the control, where Fandral moved to the side to allow him his room to work. And that seemed so unwise to Anna. Her whole being told her not to trust anything to do with that man.

"I really don't trust him behind the wheel," Anna told Thor softly. Thor just ignored her concern.

Openly staring at Loki, she watched as he manipulated the tiller and grinned in genuine glee. He moved them away from the bridge, but kept them just above the waterline, just as Fandral had. This new course drew the attention of more skiffs though, and they began firing at them. Anna ducked over Jane, shielding the woman in case one came towards her. The skiff wavered left to right to avoid the shots, but it was obvious they were going to need to take them out. Loki needed to change his path again though for the direction of the pathway through, which left them even more exposed.

"Fandral," Thor called.

"Right," he answered, instantly knowing what he was to do. The blond grabbed one of the ropes and looked at Thor one last time to say, "For Asgard" before jumping over the ledge.

Anna couldn't see what he was doing, but soon after he left, the shooting stopped. Once it stopped though, Anna sat back, still watching over Jane, and her eyes staring at Loki once more. He wasn't paying much attention to the occupants of the skiff, instead, he was watching where he was flying, which was towards the rocky mountain peak, where there was a small narrow cave.

"Loki…." Thor muttered cautiously.

"If it were easy, everyone would do it," he answered back.

"Are you mad?" Thor demanded.

No shit, Anna thought.

"Possibly," Loki answered with a wicked grin.

Anna tried to look over the large pointed front of the skiff, but before she could get a look, Thor moved over her and Jane to protect them, which meant she couldn't turn and look at anything.

The skiff bounced back and forth against the walls of the caver, knocking rocks into the skiff. Had Thor not been protecting the two women, they would've gotten hit several time. Before she knew it though, they were out of the tunnel and she heard Loki chuckle out a "Tada!" which seened highly inappropriate to her.

Thor sat back, onto the other side of Jane, running his fingers over her hair comfortingly as she slept. How she could sleep through all that, Anna didn't know. Not even when she was exhausted.

It as no wonder this was the home of the Dark Elves. The sun was in a constant eclipse, basking the world in very little light, and distorting the colors that were visible Right around where they arrived, the ground was covered with broken and abandoned ships, making it feel even more eerie.
"So, where are we?"

"Svartalfheim," Thor answered.

"I don't think I can say that," she muttered.

Thor chuckled. "It's not a world we speak of often," he said.

"It's definitely not one I say frequently."

"I know you."

Thor and Anna turned their attention to Loki, who was sitting in the seat Fandral had previously occupied. He was looking directly at Anna, his eyes narrowed as if trying to figure out who she was.

"Unfortunately," Anna answered.

"You are not of Asgard," Loki continued on, still racking his brain for just how exactly he knew Anna. "You are friendly with Thor, and you know of Thor's mortal woman, so you are a Midgardian."

"Oh, he's very intuitive," Anna grumbled to Thor, who just kinda smirks at her words.

"And we are acquainted?" he went on.

"Yes, on Earth," Anna answered.

It was like the proverbial light bulb went off over his head. "Ah the opinionated little sister." And there he had it. He knew who she was. She was the girl that tried to relate to him, to show him his humanity while he had been locked up in that glass containment unit back on Earth. The girl he used and showed how easy it was to just let the darkness consume her. Apparently, what he had shown her hadn't stuck though. "I see you're still pretending to be a hero."

"I told you this before, and I'll tell you again: I'm not trying to be a hero. I'm just trying to do the right thing," she reminded him.

"You still care too much. If you keep this up, you'll become exactly like me," Loki informed her.

"A prisoner?" Thor added in.

Loki glared at his "brother" as he continued to address the brunette female. "How is your dear big brother, Child?"

There was an awkward silence as Loki waited to hear her reply. Anna wasn't going to lie. Perhaps she could make him feel something if she told him the truth, though she highly doubted it. "He's dead," she answered.

That took Loki off guard. He furrowed his brow, his lips agap just slightly as the information processed in his head. Before he could even think of something to come back with, Thor placed a hand on Anna's shoulder in a comforting manner, and she went on to say something different, something she knew he wouldn't be very comfortable with.

"I spoke with your mother," she informed him, staring right at him. "She said you've talked about me. Guess talking about me doesn't make you remember what I look like, does it? I mean, took you a pretty long time to remember who I was."

The topic of Frigga was obviously painful for him. She knew she didn't have much of a right to speak of the Queen, especially her her sons, adopted or otherwise. It did get him to shut up though. And Thor, though pained by the memory of his mother, was interested in the interaction between the two.

"I want to give my condolences," Anna told him. "I know how it feels-"

"How could you possible know how it feels," Loki spat.

Answering came so smoothly now that it didn't really affect her emotionally, not unless she was already a mess. "Because my parents were murdered right in front of me, and I couldn't do anything to stop it," Anna said. "So yeah, I know how it feels to have them taken away from you. I know from them, my brother, my uncle, so yeah. Don't tell me I don't know what it's like because as much as you like to think you know me, Loki, you don't."

"I know enough," Loki said.

"Really?" Anna inquired. "Please tell."

"Anna," Thor warned. He knew she might not like what she heard.

The blonde was ignored by everybody.

"You think me a monster, a heartless being that forced you to do terrible things because I believe it to be fun, and regret none of it because I truly don't care about anybody but myself," Loki started to explain.

Anna just laughed. "Really? That's what you think I think of you?" She shook her head and looked at him sadly. She got up and walked across the skiff to him, sitting down on the floor and looked up at him as he sat in the driver's seat. "You really don't know anything about me at all."

"Oh, then enlighten me," he pressed.

"You think I hate you and blame everything I did on you," she said. "But I don't. I told your mother this before she died, after she apologized for your actions to me. I don't."

Anna had never seen a more confused face on the trickster, not even after being played by Widow. He just gaped at her in silent confusion, hoping that she'd go on and not keep him hanging. Perhaps she would give more information if she just kept going.

"I know what it's like to be vulnerable, week, and to not have control over anything, despite control being the only possible thing you truly long for," Anna said. "I don't claim to understand why you did it, or to justify why you did any of the things you've done, but I do know how you've felt. And I know what the scepter showed me. So no, I don't blame you. I may not like you, but I don't hate you. And I'm not indifferent either."

"I give you every right to hate me, yet you don't," Loki said. "I can't tell it you're stupid, or-"

"Kind," Thor finished for him, though that was definitely not the word Loki would have used.

But in reality, it was true. Anna was kind. She rarely hated, and though she had enemies, she didn't always fault them. She knew not everything was as it seems, and there were always things, factors that she could didn't know that were in place, and so she tried to never hold anything against anybody. Some would call her stupid, some would call her opinionated, and others may call her kind.

The silences in the boat seemed to bounce off the utter silence from all around them. The way the conversation ended made the tension in the boat unbearably tense and awkward. At least Jane was unconscious for it. She didn't have to suffer through it, though Anna wouldn't have traded places with her because of her situation (though that was a lie, Anna would have traded places in order to prevent the woman from suffering, which went all the way back to Thor's description of Anna being kind).

Loki watched Thor as he fixed the blanket over Jane as she rested. He stood up, and Loki shook his head. "What I could do with the power that flows through those veins," he muttered.

"It would consume you," Thor answered.

"She's holding up alright," Loki pointed out. "For now."

"She's strong in ways you'd never even know."

The way Thor spoke about Jane was so sweet, and it would make any good swoon, especially if he was talking about them. It made Anna's heart clench. Anna had pretended to be in love before, not just with Yassa either. But she had never had the privilege of letting anybody get close enough to the real her (whomever that may have been, she didn't really know at that point anymore), to have the chance of falling in love. Yassa was sweet, but there was always something about the way he spoke that made her long for someone else to say them. Perhaps it was because of his slutty ways, but she didn't always believe him. He'd eventually move on, and someone would love him the way he claimed to love Yana. There wasn't a future there.

But was there even a future for her while she was at SHIELD anyway? Phil died before he could marry the woman he was falling in love with, and that had only broken the surface of what the relationship could've been like. It was hard for agents of their rank to be able to live happily ever after. Clint was a rarity, but his relationship with Laura, and what Thor felt for Jane made Anna wish for that too.

But Anna, despite being more optimistic than some, was far more realistic. SHe didn't expect for any of that happen to her, which just made her heart hurt even more.

"Say goodbye," Loki said. Anna glanced up at him with a curiosity he had shown her earlier.

"Not this day," Thor answered.

"This day, the next, a hundred years, it's nothing. It's a heartbeat. You'll never be ready," Loki said. "The only woman who's love you prized will be snatched from you."

Isn't the saying 'It's better to have loved and lost than to have never had loved at all?' Anna thought.

"And will that satisfy you?" Thor retorted angrily.

"Satisfaction is not in my nature," Loki said.

"Surrender is not in mine," Thor shot back.

"The son of Odin-"

"No!" Thor corrected, standing up and stalking over to Loki. "Not just Odin. You think you alone were loved of Mother? You had her tricks, but I had her trust!"

"Trust?" Loki spat. ""Was that her last expression? Trust? When you let her die!"

"What help were you in your cell?"

"Who put me there? Who put me there!"

Thor stepped closer and grabbed Loki's arms, shoving him backwards. "You know damn well. You know damn well who!" He raised his fist back as if to punch his younger brother, but something compelled him to stop. He backed off, obviously still upset. "She wouldn't want us to fight."

It didn't even take Loki a second to respond with a much lighter sentence than the hurtful things he had previously been saying. "Well, she wouldn't exactly be shocked."

Anna had never seen a situation defused like that before. One moment the two brothers had been about to kill each other, and the next they were remembering their mother fondly, because of the first behavior. It was like, for just a brief moment, Anna had seen what the two had been like when they were younger, before everything fell apart with the family. Two brothers, often in conflict, but always brought back together because of love.

It was heartbreaking.

"I wish I could trust you," Thor said, finishing the scene before turning back to Jane.

Loki wasn't finished though. He'd have the last word. Anna watched as he stared at the back of his brother's head, his expression that of one that could've possibly been interpreted as regret.

"Trust my rage," he whispered.

They went back to the silence after that. And it was strange. One moment Anna thought there had been no hope for either of the brothers, but after seeing that human side to Loki, perhaps there was just a slim change, one that she hadn't seen before, for things to improve. Maybe that's what Frigga saw. Or, at least, Anna understood that's what she hoped for.

So there we have it! The conversation between Loki and Anna everybody has been wanting. I hope you all liked it. I know it was very hard for me to write, that's for sure. Anyway, next chapter they take on Malekith. So let me know what you think in a review and I hope you all loved the chapter!

Thanks go to the following for their reviews on the previous chapter:

Howling2themoon- Thank you!

FelixFelicis02- There you have it! Loki and Anna have met once more and spoken. I hope it was everything you had hoped it would be.

Jedi Jelsa777- I just wish FF had a feature where you could set up a designated time for things to get posted, you know? Like how YouTube does. I'm glad you liked the chapter even though it's your least favorite part of the movie.