Ronan didn't know how Thor dispelled the barrier around Loki's cell, and he couldn't bring it in himself to ask how he'd managed it. He was still reeling at the fact that Loki had openly admitted he trusted him and that...that had to be big. After what Ronan knew, or thought he knew, to be true, Loki putting his trust in anyone was something that the pseudo god didn't seem to do a lot, and Ronan knew he should treasure it.

"We can't have you wandering the castle looking like that." Thor sighed heavily. "I'll retrieve your armour." This didn't take as long as Ronan expected - in fact, Thor didn't even have to leave the dungeons, as the armour was tucked away in a compartment that was expertly hidden amongst the architecture of the room. Loki merely pulled it on over his clothes, running his fingers through his hair in a desperate attempt to neaten it.

"Better?" He shot Thor a look that was more scathing than grateful. "As soon as the guards see us they'll know what you've done either way. And trust me, they will see us soon enough. They will recognise me." Ronan frowned at that, before speaking up.

"Could you just use...you know?" Ronan waggled his fingers. Loki took a second to look amused, but also impressed, before his form changed.
Hair grew longer and his shape grew softer, having more of an hourglass figure. The armour changed to look more feminine, features more gentle, lips fuller and eyelashes longer. It took a second for Ronan to remember - Loki was genderfluid.
Also he had been referring to them as he the whole time.
"Shit."
"Do you not -" Loki looked disheartened, but also defensive, and Ronan rushed to correct himself.
"I've been referring to you with male pronouns shit are they your pronouns? Or is it female? Or something else? I am so sorry." Loki looked at him, the look on their face odd. Like...they'd never been asked about pronouns, or been apologised to for calling them the wrong ones.
"...He and him is...fine." Loki managed.
"What about your form? Are you...comfortable?"
"Should I not be?" Loki tilted his head, Ronan slightly mesmerised by the movement of his longer hair.
"That is a fair point." Ronan offered Loki an arm, and he rested a pale hand in the crook of Ronan's elbow. They looked not too out of place, would blend right in of not for Ronan's stout refusal to get rid of his oversized hoodie.
"This...does not bother you?"
"Should it?" Ronan had to ask, before frowning when realising he had to look up to look Loki in the eyes. "The only issue is that you're taller than me, but honestly? That's an issue whether you look male or female."
"Or neither?"
"Yeah, or neither."
"As lovely as this is," And Thor sounded honest when he said that, not mocking like Ronan initially feared. "We need to move. Now."

Even with Loki's form visibly changed, it only took a few minutes for the guards to acknowledge the fact that they had lost a prisoner, one being sent to inform Odin, who would by now be at the Bifrost. With any luck, they wouldn't have to deal with him before executing their plan, but that didn't account for the other guards. Nonetheless, Loki dropped the glamour, which Ronan couldn't help but feel grateful for.

He knew this form, knew it's tells - he wasn't sure how many of those little things would translate over to the feminine one.

They met up with Jane and Sif soon enough, Jane having to walk slightly too quickly to keep up with Sif's elegant strides. He heard the beginning of a question, and suddenly a look of rage came across her face and she headed over to Loki.

Ronan had to bite his fist to not laugh when she slapped him. Sure, maybe he knew Loki wasn't entirely responsible for New York, which Jane claimed the slap was for, but she seemed to have a thing for hitting Asgardians. Sometimes, he really did love his friend.

Ronan didn't expect a second slap, though.

"And that," Jane managed, voice hard. "Is for holding a knife to my friend's throat."

"I like her." Loki informed Thor, the grin on his face one Ronan knew. It didn't mean anything good, but it also meant Jane was probably not going to get killed, which was a good thing.

"There!" Ronan managed to not curse at the yell from one of the guards. Sif drew her sword, turning to Thor.

"Go. I'll hold them off." Ronan managed to not scoff at the impossibility of that - Sif may be a good warrior, but even she would be no match for a whole group of guards. She was hopelessly outnumbered. Thor seemed to have reached the same realisation Ronan had, his brows drawing together in worry. But still, he nodded.

"Thank you." And they were off, running towards the throne room. Jane, although appearing to desperately want to ask questions, remained silent.

Malekith's ship was just as imposing as Ronan remembered, and the shiver the sight of it that went up Ronan's spine was one of foreboding. He did not like this, and his luck was telling him this ship was bad, bad, bad. But right now it was empty, and it was their only way off Asgard. He pushed the bad feeling down, squashed it with a mental boot, and followed Thor after he finished his brief exchange with Volstagg. Ronan wasn't oblivious to Loki being stopped both by Sif and Volstagg, probably being threatened. No, definitely being threatened. Ronan had decided not to comment on that, though - he knew very well Loki wouldn't betray Thor, both because he actually cared a great deal about his adopted brother, and maybe a little bit because Ronan would then be put at risk.

Only the tiniest bit the latter, though.

Honestly, the inner teenager in Ronan was getting excited about being inside an alien spaceship. It was the sort of thing he'd read about in comics, or seen on television when he was younger, so right now he was living the life a younger him only ever dreamed about. He would never admit to maybe fanboying slightly when they got inside the crashed ship. Ronan had always wanted to be inside a spaceship when he was little, staring out of a window during lessons and dreaming of new worlds and, well, here he was. Watching as two aliens slash gods argued over how to fly the ship.

"I thought you said you knew how to fly this thing?" Loki's voice had gone slightly hysterical and Thor shot him a criticising look.

"I said how hard could it be." He countered. Ronan rolled his eyes, before nudging Thor out of the way of the console with his hip.

"Allow me." He said, rolling up his sleeves and laying his hands over the console. He thought about how he needed to fly this ship, how he needed to be lucky enough to get it to work.

The console lit up like a Christmas tree and Ronan managed a smile before he stumbled backwards, suddenly feeling drained. Loki started forward to catch him before his clumsy feet sent him crashing to the ground, expression alarmed.

"What's wrong?" Jane's voice was sharp and Ronan waved it off with a hand.

"I'm fine. Thor, you might want to take control. Like now - dunno how long our luck will hold."

That spurred Thor on, easily taking control of the ship. Easily, as in he was eager to - the flight itself was anything but. Ronan automatically reached out to steady himself against the side of the ship as it crashed into just about every column in the palace. He then proceeded to fly out through the palace wall. Ronan was grudgingly impressed by the amount of destruction caused in a few seconds.

"Why don't you let me fly, I'm clearly the better pilot."

"Loki, have you ever actually flown one of these things before?" Ronan countered that statement, and Thor let out a noise of triumph when Loki only grumbled something in annoyance. "Don't act so smug, Thor. We aren't out of Asgard yet."

Of course, Asgard had defense mechanisms and protocols in place. The first few blasts from stationary weaponry were easy enough to avoid, but then they were being followed by smaller ships, armed with the Asgardian equivalent of guns, which were quick and easy to maneuver. The pilots knew what they were doing, that much was obvious, whereas Thor had never flown this ship before. Ronan was suspecting his luck was the only reason they hadn't been blasted out of the sky.

He also suspected it was the only reason he managed to catch Jane as she nearly passed out, avoiding her hitting the floor painfully.

"Oh, dear." Loki blinked. "We have a problem."

"I'm fine." Jane's voice was weak, barely a whisper, and she lifted a hand to wave off concern.

"You're obviously not." Ronan rolled his eyes. "Any time now, Thor!"

Thor managed to cast a look behind him, eyes immediately narrowing with concern.

"Jane -"

"Statue!" Ronan managed to yell, and Thor narrowly avoided crashing into the side of a cliff, but breaking apart the statue in the process. "Eyes forward, Thor! Pay attention to the ro - er, sky!"

"You just decapitated your grandfather." Loki actually sounded impressed by that feat, which was honestly not helpful at the moment. Also, the diversion into the gap between the cliffs hadn't exactly thrown the other pilots off course, and Ronan cursed when they narrowly avoided getting shot by one.

"Thor!" Ronan found himself yelling despite the fact he didn't really need to. "If you want to implement our plan any time soon that would be great!"

"It's an amazing plan." Loki's voice had gone scathing. "Let's get the biggest, most obvious ship around and escape in that. Never mind the fact you had no idea how to fly it, and all the while we're getting shot at. It's brilliant, pure geni -" Loki's tirade was cut off as he screamed - he definitely screamed - when Thor pushed him out of the ship. Ronan winced.

"Now?" He asked and Thor nodded. "Ok. Let's hope I'm lucky enough to not die."

He managed not to scream as he stepped off the ship, wind whipping his curls into a frenzy as he fell. For a brief second he panicked, sure he was going to hit the water, only from this height it would be like hitting cement and he would be dead, but his feet hit solid ground and he managed to stage his landing so his body didn't hate him for it. He glanced around, and Fandral gave him a grin. Loki was on the floor of the ship, struggling to his feet when Thor joined them, Jane in his arms.

"You tricked me." Loki managed, before managing a small smile. "I'm impressed."

"Thank you." Ronan flashed him a grin, all teeth, and Loki's small smile grew bigger. "Care to get us out of here?"

"For you? Of course." Loki took control of the boat from Fandral, ignorant to how his words made Ronan's heart flip and this was not the time, feelings. He noted how Loki's smile grew wider, more real and he flew the ship. High on freedom, maybe, of being allowed to be sneaky and not condemned for it. It made Ronan a little bit sad, but the smile on Loki's face was real, which did not help with the way his heart was acting up.

It also didn't help when another boat caught sight of them and began shooting. Ronan cursed under his breath and Thor turned to his blonde friend.

"Fandral." Fandral nodded, picking up a rope and tying it to the end of the ship.

"For Asgard." He said, before jumping off the ship in a move that Ronan had to admit was very Steve Rogers esque - as in, if not for the rope he swung from, he would have fallen very far and survived thanks to superior genetics.

He needed to make friends with people who were sensible, Ronan realised suddenly.

He caught sight of Fandral saluting them as Loki sped up, and Ronan turned back to look at the direction they were going.

He could only stare as Loki directed the ship to the tiniest of gaps in the cliff face. He turned to gape at the god, wind whipping his curls into a frenzy about his face. "You're completely mad." Was all he could say, and Loki shot him a grin that was one hundred per cent cheek. "Thor, your brother has lost it."

"Loki…"

"If it was easy, everyone would do it." The dark haired man countered, grin still on his face. Ronan closed his eyes, clenching them shut, bracing himself for death.

It didn't come, the ship only lurching as Ronan felt the bottom of his stomach drop. He opened a wary eye, before the other joined it, staring.

It had worked. They were in Svartalfheim.

XoooX

Thor wasn't surprised to find Ronan and Jane asleep soon after their arrival. They wouldn't meet with Malekith just yet. He wanted to allow the mortals a chance to rest. Ronan had laughed slightly hysterically once they had reached Svartalfheim, before collapsing next to Jane and falling asleep. Jane had managed a small, fond smile, running a hand through his curls before joining him in slumber.

"What I could do with the power in her veins…" Unfortunately, Loki hadn't joined them, and had disrupted the peace with that comment. Thor didn't like the tone of voice, mind going back to the tesseract, to the sceptre, to what Ronan had suspected had happened to his brother. Power never lead to anything good with Loki. It usually ended up with him hurt.

"It would consume you."

"She seems to be doing alright." Loki's voice was full of false confidence, before it almost softened. "Say goodbye." Thor shook his head.

"Not this day."

"This day, the next, a hundred years, it's nothing. It's a heartbeat. You'll never be ready. The only woman whose love you prized will be snatched from you." Thor could almost ignore Loki's words. Almost, except despite what some Midgardian's believed, Thor wasn't stupid. He detected the underlying worry in Loki's voice, the way his gaze flickered to where Ronan was curled up next to Jane. His hand, once empty, was now curled around one of Jane's, clutching it like a lifeline.

"I do not believe you are speaking these words to ward me off." Thor retorted, and Loki snorted.

"Why else would I be speaking them?"

"Because you care, brother -"

"I am not your brother."

"- For the mortal you let live." Thor finished as though Loki hadn't interrupted him. Loki's eyes yet again flickered to Ronan, who mumbled something about stones under his breath. The look on Loki's face was one Thor had never seen before - utterly fond, almost heartbreakingly so. "He will die too." Loki's hands clenched into fists, knuckles white.

"I will not allow it." Thor felt his heart break for Loki, Loki who had wanted to rule Asgard, take over the world. Loki, who was his brother, who had somehow fallen helplessly in love with the mortal boy with clever hands and too big a heart and the power over luck.

"Even you cannot control death, Loki."

"I have to try!" Loki's voice cracked, and it startled Thor because he hadn't heard Loki sound weak. Not until he saw Ronan when they'd rescued him from the dungeons and, oh, wasn't that a stunning realisation? That Ronan did make his brother break where no one else could. "Out of everyone in this universe, I can't lose him!" His breathing came out heavy, panting, and his eyes were wide like he couldn't believe that he had admitted that. That he had appeared weak. "I nearly lost mother, I can't...not him."

"Not yet." Thor reached out to place a hand on Loki's shoulder, but his younger brother pulled back violently.

"I don't want your...your pity." Loki scowled at him. Thor didn't want to pity him, he understood - gods, of course he understood. His own love was mortal, on the precipice of death. Though Ronan had the power of luck, he doubted it would extend to increasing his life span. That would be a stretch at most, too good to be true. Thor's thoughts drifted to Iduun's apples, a split second of hope, before realising that would be fruitless. His father would never allow it. He heard Loki's heavy sigh, and his brother sounded so very tired. "Can we just finish this?"

The rest of the journey was silent, and Thor pretended he hadn't noticed the tears gathering in Loki's eyes.

XoOoX

Sorry for the wait!

I'm currently having issues with work, meaning I haven't had a day of since before Christmas (excluding Christmas because we weren't open) and I'm pretty sure that may be illegal. So. That's a thing that's happening in my life and I need to leave before I actually die.

Anyways, hope you enjoyed this chapter! I'm planning on another interlude between this and the next main segment (Silver instead of Iron, I think it shall be called, but I'm still tossing around ideas) but it shall be more relevant to things that happen in the AoU rewrite than TWS, so there's that.

Reviews are greatly appreciated as always! - Jazz xox