Chapter Twenty-Six – Day 187

With an unsteady step, Jane emerged in a forest clearing. It had been a bit of a rougher journey than the Convergence's natural portals, but all that mattered was that they had made it. Though, she wished she had concentrated better on the destination – she recognized the clearing as the one Loki had taken her to, so it would be a long walk back to the palace.

The tear snapped closed behind her, sealing off the chance for anyone to follow them. Thor's hand tore free from her grip as he crashed down to his knees beside her. The cat jumped down from its perch on her shoulder immediately, raising its hackles and hissing at her once it hit the ground.

She rubbed at the claw marks on her shoulder, feeling no sympathy for the ginger creature. "Sorry, kitty, but you didn't have to come."

Thor grumbled as he picked himself up. "It's not a cat, you know. I tried to warn you."

Jane looked down at feline; it certainly looked like a normal – if extra pissed off – cat. "Then what is it?"

"It's a Flerken. They look harmless, but they have tentacles that come out of their mouths from another dimension."

Jane raised her eyebrow at him. "Are you sure that's not just something your parents told you so that you'd stop asking to get a pet?"

She chuckled at the affronted look he gave her, but an unexpected boom in the distance distracted them both. With barely a glance at her, Thor took off, racing down the faint path that cut through the trees toward the sound. Sighing at how they never seemed to catch a break, Jane took off after him, grateful for the boost to her stamina the cube gave her now that she had burned off some of its energy for the portal.

Beyond the tree line was pure chaos. Eight immense holes rippled across the sky, each one revealing a vastly different location. The Convergence must have started. An enormous spaceship hovered above the city, and the sounds of gunfire and clanging swords filled the air. Thor paused, reaching absently for the hammer that should have been hanging from his hip. "I need to get to the armory and find weapons."

No way was he going to just ditch her here. Recovering her breath, Jane replied, "I'll come with you."

"You're not trained for this sort of thing," he argued, muscles tensing to start running again.

She scoffed. "And you're only at a fraction of your strength. Now, let's stop wasting time."

After a moment more of hesitation, he nodded grimly, to her relief. They would go into the fray together, for better or worse. And besides, they had a stalker possibly-not-a-cat to protect them.

They reached the outer bounds of the palace's defenses without too much resistance; most of the fighting seemed to be happening within. Jane tore down part of the wall with only a thought, letting them sneak onto the grounds unnoticed. The evening sky provided enough light for them to find their way.

The sound of a scuffle reached their ears, and Thor dashed off toward the noise, leaving Jane to scramble to catch up. By the time she reached the fight, Thor had already pulled a sword from somewhere and was running it through a giant blue man. Jane watched in revulsion as the man clutched at the hole in his chest, keeling over to one side as Thor yanked his weapon free. Thor had been right; she was not prepared for this kind of brutality.

It was only then that Jane noticed the person Thor had been so desperate to help. Caught up in his arms was Sif, who looked to be hugging him back just as fiercely. "How did you get back!?"

He pulled away just enough to jerk his head toward her, the first smile in days gracing his lips. "Jane helped me."

"Jane?" Sif's face lit up with another smile as she saw her, letting go of Thor to pull her into a quick embrace. "We thought you were dead."

"I thought I was dead, too, for a while," Jane replied with an incredulous laugh. "But what's happening here?"

Sif looked back at Thor, her manner adjusting to that of a soldier addressing a superior instead of a friend. "We're under attack from two enemies. The Dark Elves have returned somehow, and they must have convinced the frost giants to partner with them in a joint assault. It's sheer madness inside. I don't know how long we can hold them off."

Thor adjusted his grip on his sword. "Where is my father? I must go and help him."

Her tone softened as she gripped his arm comfortingly. "He has fallen into the Odinsleep. The queen was injured during the attack on Jane, so Loki has taken the throne." Her voice grew insistent. "Thor, you must do something; I think your brother has lost his mind!"

A brief flash of indecision flickered across Thor's face before he turned to Jane. "Stay here with Sif. I need to find Loki." Hefting his sword, he ran off deeper into the palace.

Jane watched him go in disbelief. Why was that man so determined to ditch her? Her power was at full strength, and she was not about to let it go to waste. "Well, I don't know about you, but I am not just gonna sit here. I'll cover you while you keep fighting."

Sif eyed her with confusion until Jane held up the cube. It was game time.

Loki's patience was running out. He lurked in the shadows of Odin's sleeping room, flexing his grip on Gungnir. The staff was heavy with untold power, power he was ready to unleash. The sounds of the battle raged on outside the room, but he had to wait. Laufey would come.

This new plan of his was considerably less elegant than his scheme to delay Thor's coronation, but after how much had gone wrong with that one, Loki was willing to accept a little haphazardness. Malekith's threat had been enough to convince his warriors to prepare for battle, so it had provided an ideal opportunity for him to persuade the Jotun king to attack Asgard while Odin was asleep. Asgard's warriors would be prepared for a surprise attack, just from a different foe than they were expecting, and his conquest of Jotenheim would keep their spirits high enough to take on the Dark Elves whenever they arrived. He just had not anticipated the alliance between his two enemies.

It mattered not. The warriors who met their deaths tonight would be welcomed in the halls of Valhalla for their courage, and every last Jotun would be wiped from existence. It was a fair price to pay for cleansing the universe of their vileness.

The door creaked open, revealing the creature he had been waiting for. A few more of the beasts spread out across the room, likely anticipating his treachery. But they would never see him; he just had to wait for the right moment.

The Jotun king took his time as he taunted the sleeping Odin. With deliberately slow and savoring movements, he climbed over the sleeping god. As Laufey finally raised his ice blade high, Loki took his shot, blasting the king to the floor with the power in the spear. He was dead before his guards had time to react. Grinning madly at his successful execution, he whirled around as he took out the remaining giants. Each of their deaths meant one less connection he had to their monstrous race. Soon, he would be free of them. He would be free of everything.

"Loki!"

The call pulled him up short. No, it was impossible. Thor was powerless and banished to the mortal world; how could he be back when his own victory was nigh at hand?

"Loki, how could you… You just killed their king!"

He turned to face Thor, the blond prince standing dumbfounded in the doorway. Something about the shock on Thor's face caused a fit of deranged laughter to bubble up through him. "Well, I thought, 'Why not?' You would have done the same." He gestured at Thor's outfit with the spear. "Though I would have thought you'd be at least smart enough to don some protection. I'm surprised you even made it past the front door."

Thor took a few steps forward. "My only thought was to come help you, brother."

The word hit him like a knife to the chest, a sharp reminder of all that was now lost to him. But all that seeped from the wound was contempt. "Oh, yes, because how could I do anything without the help of the mighty Thor? You'd steal my one moment of glory for yourself, even in this mortal state. You had your chance; now it's my turn." He glared at Thor, who only looked bewildered. There was no time for this. "Now get out of my way; I have an entire race to destroy."

Thor moved to block his path. "I don't know what madness has taken hold of you, Loki, but it must end! Our defenses are weakening; this cannot go on."

"And that's why it won't." Loki cocked his head to the side, his brow furrowing. "Did you not understand a word of what I said?"

"All I heard were the ravings of someone bearing no resemblance to my brother," Thor insisted, a hand coming up to grasp Loki's shoulder. Loki brushed it away irritably with the spear. "What would Jane say if she saw you right now?"

If it had been a knife before, his words were now like a thousand blades, cutting him down to his core. Every drop of grief he had so carefully buried inside so that he could set out on this new – and final – plan now threatened to drown him as they erupted from within. He shrieked in blind fury, "Don't you dare say her name! Don't you-"

Thor cut him off urgently, "Loki, Jane is waiting for us in the courtyard with Sif." He gestured emphatically at the door. "So, pull yourself together so we can end this."

Loki's heart stuttered to a stop, arresting the gush of madness in his mind for the length of that missed beat. It could not possibly be true. He should cut out Thor's deceitful tongue for even daring to say such a thing. And yet… Thor was such a terrible liar that he should have seen some sign of falsehood. But his mind wanted so badly for it to be true that he could not trust his own observations. Feeling the new tear in his sanity, he spat out darkly, "If you are lying, I will make you suffer an agony the likes of which you've never dreamt."

Thor's eyes were bright as he assured in earnest, "I swear to you, she is alive and well."

He refused to give in to the hope blossoming in his chest. Until Thor's words were proven and she was safely in his arms, it was only a dangerous distraction. His first priority had to be destroying Jotunheim.

Turning his back on Thor with a noise of frustration, Loki walked further into the room until he reached the corpse of the Jotun king. The chill that emanated from the blue skin had already faded, making it safe for his touch. He grabbed the body by the arm and started dragging it toward the door. Thor eyed him questioningly, and the familiarity of the expression made him roll his eyes. "What, did you think the Jotuns would just take my word for it that I'd killed their king?"

Jane ducked as another piece of the marble pillars came crashing down. The Dark Elves were using some sort of inverted grenade that sucked all matter within its blast radius into nonexistence, destroying a worrying number of columns that supported the elaborate ceiling of the main hall. If they had not been under attack, Jane would have loved to ask them how the devices worked.

Sif's cry of pain pulled her back into the action. One of the blue giants had knocked her down with a club made of ice, advancing on her to swing a deathly blow. Jane's magic reacted almost on instinct; the swirl of red in her mind melted the club into a puddle of water. The distraction gave Sif enough time to get back on her feet and thrust her sword deep into the giant's side. To her disgust, it was getting easier to handle the sight of so much blood.

Grinning at her, Sif's grateful expression swiftly turned to panic. "Jane, behind you!"

Before Jane could move, the falling body of another giant slammed into her, sending her sprawling across the floor. There was no time to brace for impact; her fingers lost their hold on the blue cube. The clinking it made as it tumbled away was drowned out by the abrupt amplification of its song. Her hands slammed against her ears, but it did no good. The call was inside her head.

Forcing herself to look up, Jane saw that Sif had already been distracted by another giant, but she was holding her own. Her eyes scanned the room wildly as she picked herself up; she needed that cube back.

Sensing its pull, Jane saw where the cube had landed. It had fallen at least fifty feet away from her, but it had already attracted the attention of a few Dark Elves. Jane watched in dread as they neared it; the sudden deprivation of the blue energy had left her own power in a state of trauma, rendering her unable to do anything to stop them.

A flash of orange sprang into her eyeline. The cat… she had lost track of the animal during the fight, but now it raced forward with such a ferocious yowl that the Dark Elf's outstretched hand paused in its reach for the cube. Her concern for the small feline turned to shock as its jaw seemingly unhinged, massive tentacles emerging from its mouth to swallow the trio of Elves in a flash of light. As its mouth snapped shut, Jane was faced with the sudden whiplash of the siren call ending as abruptly as it had started. The cat just sat there, staring at her with innocent eyes.

It had eaten the cube. And it had a tentacle mouth. Oh, Jane was so ready for this crazy day to be over.

"Ah, the little mortal has returned to deliver what is mine."

So much for that wish.

Loki was grateful for the adrenaline pumping through his veins. The Jotun king weighed more than he had imagined, and straining from his weight would have ruined the vision of triumph he had set out to create. Perception was everything, after all.

Thor had remained by his side, determined to help him, though Loki was certain the man had not understood his intentions at all. If he had, then Loki suspected that it would be Thor dragging along his dead body instead. But if Thor wanted to waste his energy defending him from attackers, then Loki would let him.

They reached the main hall. From his position, he could see over most of the room. A crashed speeder had torn through the room and knocked down innumerable support columns, its wreckage bisecting the hall. Neither army seemed to be winning. The Dark Elves were firing off guns and implosion bombs at the remaining Einherjar; Loki sneered at the display. Only uncivilized creatures relied solely on offensive weapons that killed so indiscriminately and impersonally. Even the Jotuns swinging their ice blades had more valor than them.

Amplifying his voice with the power of Gungnir, Loki shifted his grip to the back of the king's neck, holding the corpse up as high as he could while announcing, "King Laufey is dead!" The cry echoed around the room and throughout the palace, bringing the battle sounds to a momentary halt. "Flee back to your homes while you still can and mourn your dead. Any who remain will perish alongside their Elven comrades." He tossed down the frost giant's body, a satisfied grin crossing his face at the resounding crack of it hitting the marble stairs.

The silence lasted only a second longer before the gunfire resumed. A handful of the Jotuns looked around in confusion, unsure if they should accept his gracious offer, but a pair of them had decided they wanted retribution and rushed toward him. Loki readied himself to meet them; what was wrong with a little more carnage?

Thor's hand gripped his wrist, staying his movement. "Let me handle these ones, brother. You need to help Jane." He pointed insistently at the end of the hall, toward the giant hole that revealed the dusky sky.

A flash of red drew his gaze to what had caught Thor's attention. It was the same sort of flare that had felled his brother oh so long ago. Jane was here.

A tidal wave of pure joy swept over him, and he allowed himself a second to bask in the sensation. But she was not yet safe. He nodded to Thor. "Go on then." They parted, Loki cutting down anyone in his path without mercy. What had Thor been thinking in letting Jane get anywhere near the fighting?

The horde of Elves was thick, and Loki sliced and stabbed his way through them pitilessly. He had only caught a glimpse of Jane between their converging forms, and it was not nearly enough to provide him with any comfort. If anything were to happen to her now…

At last, the final Elf in his way met a bloody end, and as his eyes rose from its mutilated body, he saw her unimpeded. Her pale form was lying on the floor, her mouth open in a silent scream and her eyes a pure black as her body arched up. Malekith stood only a few steps away, hands held out toward the trickle of red light floating up from her center.

Ruthlessly, Loki blasted Malekith with Gungnir. The leader of the Dark Elves flew back and crashed down, unmoving. How he had escaped from the dungeons, Loki neither knew nor cared right now. He raced to Jane's collapsed form, the spear clattering to the floor as he dropped to his knees. "Jane! Jane, are you all right?"

Her eyes fluttered open, still shining blacker than midnight. "Ow."

The astonishment in her delayed reaction made Loki chuckle despite himself. He tamped the laughter down before it could devolve into hysterics. He still had a battle to win; there would be time to deal with everything else later. "Let's get you out of here."

There was a solid thud behind him. Whipping his head around, he took in the sight of the mass of writhing limbs on the floor, a golden head fighting a white-haired one. Thor had tackled a very much not dead Malekith mere feet away from him. Reacting to an instinctive burst of panic, Loki reached wildly for the forgotten Gungnir; a mortal Thor stood no chance against a being who could survive the king's spear.

He was too late.

He could only watch in horror as the Dark Elf pushed Thor back, plunging his sword clean through the prince's gut. How could this be happening? However much he had resented Thor throughout the years, however much he hated him for being what he could never be, he had never wanted this!

Loki barely registered Jane's cry of anguish as Thor's blood seeped onto the floor. Her hand stretched forward, sending out another beam of red light. If he had been looking, he would have seen a brief flash of surprise on Malekith's face before he turned into dust. But he only had eyes for Thor.

He crawled over to his side, taking Thor's hand in his. "You fool," he choked out bitterly. "If anyone was to die today, it should have been me."

"What kind of… big brother… would I be… if I didn't protect you?" The words came haltingly, Thor's face contorted in pain.

"An alive one, for starters." The tears in his eyes belied his grim attempt at humor, but Thor's lips twitched in a smile anyway.

"Oh, Loki…"

Thor's chest stilled, the light fading from his blue eyes. Loki did not move. He felt Jane's hand on his arm as she kneeled beside him, but he was numb to the battle still raging behind them. What did killing all the Jotuns matter when the only family he had ever known were all dead or dying?

A second set of hands yanked at his shoulder. At their unyielding insistence, Loki looked up, utterly apathetic to see Sif above him, shouting words his ears refused to understand. She removed a hand to point at the sky visible beyond the hole. His eyes drifted to follow. Something was flying at them. Something small.

Huh. Looked like Mjolnir had a very sentimental definition of worthiness.

A/N: Phew, that was a wild time. Action scenes are hard lol. But Jane got to help save the day and Loki got to lose some more of his sanity, so that was fun :)