"How are you feeling?" Frigga said. She was his first sight upon opening his eyes.

"Like an enchilada freshly-pulled from a microwave, if slightly less cheesy. But I can get there, I'm sure of it," Loki said, his voice weak but his smile genuine.

"What's an enchilada?" Frigga said.

"Something I discovered on Midgard. I shall have to introduce you to them, mother, they are quite the innovation. And Teddy Grahams. Did you know that Midgardian children like to eat food that looks like living creatures? No wonder humans are such uncivil monsters."

"You tried one," Frigga said. It was not a question.

"Of course I did. They are very tasty, especially the chocolate ones. The dinosaur-shaped chicken chunks, however, barely qualify as foodstuffs. I cannot comprehend Judah's love of them. Pudding cups are okay, although tapioca is questionable. Tasty enough, but what are those little fish eggs doing floating about in there? Are they going to hatch? Go-Gurt… not my thing. And Fruit Rollups frighten me."

Frigga grinned. "I think you may be slightly delirious, my boy."

"Perhaps."

"Eir says that there is nothing physically wrong with you except for a case of exhaustion, so after a bit of a rest, you can go home."

"How long have I been here?" Loki asked.

"A few hours, no longer."

He struggled to rise. "I cannot waste so much time."

She pushed him back down. "You have to rest, my boy. Trust those who care for your Judah in your absence to have the keeping of him for a few hours longer."

"Hours here are days on Midgard. I have to go."

"You have to rest. If you go back now before you're ready, you're likely to lose control of your powers," Frigga said. "Do you want that?"

Loki fell back against the pillow, eyes wide. "No," he said.

"Then lay down and shut up. The boy will be fine for a bit longer. It will be much better to hug him without the potential of burning him alive."

"I want Odin to bind my powers again," Loki said.

Frigga passed a comforting hand across his brow and over his hair. "Loki, if he does that, he will play Hel to keep them bound, just as he did for all those years of your life. Doing that and keeping Hela locked away in Helheim ate away at him and pushed him ever closer to death. Do you want to be the reason your father dies?"

Only a short while ago, that nasty, vicious voice inside of him would have piped up instantly with "Yes." This time, he didn't hear it. He was back to the lost child that had looked up at his father from where he dangled off the edge of the Bifrost, clinging for life to the end of Gungnir. It seemed he once again had a choice to make: let go, or hold on.

"No, mother, I wouldn't," he said. He swallowed hard and continued. "I don't want father to die."

"I am glad to hear you say so. I begin to feel as though you may be coming back to us."

"Perhaps. Perhaps I was… slightly wrongheaded in my thinking that… all… my problems… were the fault of Odin and Thor."

She smiled beamingly at him. "It's hard to admit, isn't it? Taking responsibility for our own lives is never easy, but it is a big step towards real maturity."

"Maturity is highly overrated, but when you've laid witness to the destruction of everything you know and love…" Loki said.

"That reminds me," Frigga said. "I always meant to ask you what you did to the Loki who should have been in this timeline. You did not kill him, did you?"

Loki's eyes went wide again. "Why mother, I have no idea what you mean."

"Don't play dumb with me, I know full well you traveled from the future to take your own past self's place. I want to know what you did with him. Did you kill him?"

"Mother, future me died."

"Yes, yes, three times or so, if I heard correctly. The last time of a broken neck? You're losing your touch, boy."

He huffed out a noisy breath through his nose. "Say, for the sake of argument, that I am from the future. Wouldn't past me deserve to die for the things he did?"

"But you couldn't have killed him or you yourself would be dead now. Ah ha! Catch Twenty-two!" Frigga said. "So how did you dispose of him? And what's to stop him from showing up and wreaking paradoxical havoc?"

"Say again, for the sake of argument, that I did take out my past self; you can assume it took trickery on levels even I have never before achieved."

"And, for the sake of argument, where would he be now?"

"Falling eternally through a cyclical wormhole in time and space that I created. His fall won't end until I open it and let him out."

"Oo, that's rather brutal."

"It won't hurt him. Perhaps he'll have time to think."

"If he can think for all the screaming."

"You stop screaming after the first few minutes."

"Speaking from experience?"

"It's an effective means of keeping someone occupied and out of the way."

"So you kidnapped him, took his place in… I'm assuming Germany… played out history in the manner it had happened, and let things go from there, knowing that future Stark was coming to steal the Tesseract? Or just meaning to make a play for it yourself?" Frigga said.

"Knowing Stark was coming for it."

"Why then did you unleash the Chitauri afterward?" she asked, giving him the Stink Eye.

"Because everyone, and I mean Thanos more than anyone else, would be quite interested to know why I did not. I did my best to mitigate the damage they created, and I stuck around afterward to help clean up, though I knew I was in danger."

"And you stayed well clear of the Hulk," Frigga said, nodding.

He winced. "I wasn't going to go through that twice, no matter whether I deserve it or not."

"I can hardly blame you for that."

"Mother, you won't tell anyone about this… will you?"

"While I think it is perfectly understandable for me to be upset that there is a version of my son currently falling infinitely through space, I am quite happy to learn that another version of my son is alive and well when all thought he was dead, so we'll call it even for now. And I am the goddess of secrets, am I not? You can trust me with this."

"Thank you, mother. I should not like to explain this to Thor, for starters. I am quite certain he would hit me."

"You should tell him, though. You should tell everyone. When you are ready, of course, but you should. Keeping secrets like this engenders mistrust, and you don't need any more of that."

"I… will bear that in mind."

Frigga stood up and smoothed out her skirts. "I have said enough. I will go now, and leave you to rest. Try and get some sleep, my boy. You need it sorely."