Author's note: I'm so sorry for the late update, I was supposed to upload this ages ago but time got away from me. Enjoy!


Chapter two

Breaking in

Darcy was infinitely glad when they came across some boat thing that wasn't terribly far away from where she had met Loki. She reluctantly followed him and got into the boat, sitting at the front while Loki hopped into the back.

"Where are you taking me?" Darcy asked, warily. This was a seriously bad idea, but she had no clue what else she could do. The convergence was over and there was nothing to take her back, except Loki. Loki, the God of Mischief and oh-so-treacherous. She hadn't really gotten much from Thor or Jane about his involvement in all of this, but it truly sucked to have only him to rely on. If she got out of this alive, Darcy would go and find some safe, normal job where there was no crazy aliens going to cause trouble. That seemed to be impossible, though. New Mexico, New York and London had all found themselves in the paths of some form of destructive alien force and, well, maybe if she stayed in one of the places, disaster wouldn't return. Lightning never strikes twice. Oh, ha ha, terrible. Thor came to London twice. Oh God. What was she going to do?

"Are you quite alright?" Loki asked, though she doubted he actually cared.

"Oh, shut up. If you had been taken to some crazy place with no way out, I'm sure you'd be lost in thought too," Darcy said.

"Yes, it is called prison. Thoughts were the only company I had," Loki said, but it was almost cheerful. Darcy rolled her eyes.

"Where are we going?" She asked again.

"To Asgard," Loki said. She brightened up.

"Oh! Then I can go down the bifrost-whatsit to Earth, right?" Darcy asked. Loki laughed.

"Heimdall would not see where you came from and you would have far too many questions that you could not answer; I am afraid it is best if you stay with me for now," Loki said, smirking a little. Darcy frowned at him.

"Why are you so adamant for me to stick with you? Why didn't you just leave me on Svarralheim?" Darcy asked.

"Svartalfheim," Loki corrected her.

"Whatever. Answer the damned question," Darcy said, glowering at him. Loki shrugged. She growled. "Is this to do with Thor? I'm his friend so you want to mess around with someone he values?"

"Not at all; perhaps I wish for company, and perhaps I will need assistance in my endeavours. I like to be prepared," Loki answered.

"What exactly are you endeavouring to do?" Darcy asked, imitating his accent a little. Damn him for having a sexy voice and being hot. Why couldn't he be a good guy? Although, even then she wasn't sure she'd stand a chance. If she got out of this, she might ask Ian out, and apologise for being mean. She'd just been so excited about getting her own intern and making herself feel a little bit more important, that she didn't take his feelings into account. He was a nice guy, and hadn't just up and left her after all of her remarks.

"We are going to borrow the tesseract from Asgard, and maybe even the Aether; I imagine they have locked that up tight as well," Loki said.

"Borrow, huh? You mean steal, right?" Darcy said dryly. "I'm staying in the boat."

"You are coming with me; do you not seek adventure? Excitement? What do you do on Midgard that could possibly be more exciting than this?" Loki asked. Shut up stupid hot alien.

"I…uh, do a lot of exciting things, thank you very much," Darcy replied not-so-smoothly. Loki cocked his head at her with a small, infuriating smile.

"Oh? Like what?" Loki asked.

"Fine! I'm just an intern! I graduated college with no job prospects and just continued on with Jane, brilliant Jane who has a hot alien boyfriend! I got myself an intern to make myself feel better. Are you happy now?" Darcy asked, babbling more than she really needed to. God, her life was rather dull. It was actually more exciting when these aliens came around. Urgh. And Loki was now smiling smugly.

"Then you will find far more adventure and excitement if you come along with me. I cannot really guarantee your safety with or without me, but despite what you know of me, I have always been the one to keep my allies safe," Loki said.

"You know what? I can't really trust anything you say, but it's not really like I got much else going for me right now," Darcy said. Loki smirked as he pulled the lever thingy at the back and the boat started moving. It started off slowly, and they were there a long time, him standing at the lever and her sitting at the head of the boat in awkward silence. To her surprise he was quite focussed on his driving task and didn't look at her. She didn't look at him too much either; just sat staring out at the place. What a strange place; so murky, so gloomy. She was glad she didn't live here. It didn't look at all habitable. Still, she got to see another world without having an extraterrestrial boyfriend and Asgard was next…would she see any other worlds? If she did, she'd probably beat Jane in that respect. Not that she was competitive. Much. Well, okay, not usually, but it would be pretty sweet. Darcy still couldn't quite work out Loki's deal; was she to be some sort of sacrifice in some sort of scheme? She'd read up on Norse Mythology after Thor left Jane two years ago, and it was all rather bonkers. Darcy thus wasn't going to take any of it completely seriously.

Darcy gripped the sides when the boat started going faster and suddenly they were flying through a very narrow gap and the sides were touching rock, sparks were flying off of it and it seemed to become rather colourful. It was so bumpy that Darcy ended up hurtling forward and she found her face next to Loki's boot. Oh, this was not funny at all and she could hear the jerk chuckling away to himself like it was the funniest thing ever. She sat herself up and clung to the side some more. They seemed to zap through to…wherever the hell they zapped through to and Darcy was lurched back again. This time Loki took pity on her and caught her, pulling her up so that she was held fast to him. She looked around at the water they were flying over and felt like jumping into it; it was that embarrassing. He did, however, hold her appropriately, so her beloved taser wasn't going to be needed right now. Darcy stepped out of his grasp once they were riding smoothly and sat down again, staring at the bottom of the boat rather than risk motion sickness. She looked up in time to see something shimmer around them and then looked up at Loki, who simply smiled.

"To make us invisible; we do not need anyone seeing our arrival," Loki responded without her having to utter a word. It was so strange seeing such magic; she had grown up reading Harry Potter, Artemis Fowl and other books with magic in them, but this was something different. Darcy was actually rather interested in finding out about magic now that she knew it existed, but she wasn't overly interested in interacting with Loki more than she had to; she was here for adventure and for the lack of anything better to do, and that was all. She looked out over the expanse, admiring the glittery, colourful bridge.

"Is that the rainbow bridge?" Darcy asked.

"Indeed; the Bifrost bridge, and at the end, the observatory, where Heimdall watches," Loki explained. Darcy looked out over to the left and saw the city. It was beautiful, even from this bad angle. They came towards the land and the boat ascended into the air and flew them out over the city towards the palace. It reminded her of Gallifrey from Doctor Who, except it wasn't in some weird dome. It also reminded of a very large pipe organ. She actually found she could ignore Loki's presence for the time being as she held fast to the sides and looked out over.

They came closer to the palace and landed in some little alcove in one of the pipey things. Loki got out of the boat and helped her out, even though Darcy really didn't need him to.

"Follow me, and listen to what I say, otherwise you will get yourself killed. Caught with me, you will be sentenced to death," Loki said.

"Aren't we going to be invisible?" Darcy asked him. Loki smiled a wicked smile.

"Invisibility spells do not work so well inside the palace; I am currently using a spell to keep us hidden right now, but it is not particularly good for the long-term," Loki explained, far too cheerfully.

"Then what the hell are we supposed to do?!" Darcy asked, fuming and panicking. Oh God, oh God, she was going to die and it was in some stupid other planet. Greaaaat. Then all of a sudden he was another person and she blinked down at herself. Darcy could see herself and yet see something else ghosting over her. She frowned and looked up at him.

"It is an illusion; I thought you would prefer that than the surprise of being shapeshifted into another gender," Loki winked. "Come, we are off to the weapons vault; where all of Asgard's most precious and dangerous artefacts are." Kill me now. Oh wait, bah. Why why why was she here? Was this some cruel joke by the non-existent higher powers? Ha. Loki. Darcy sighed and walked in step with Loki as they walked through the halls.

"Now, make sure not to look around in wonder; you know your way around here, you are a guard," Loki whispered. Darcy nodded and kept her eyes forward, focussed on pretending to keep an eye on things just like a guard would. Theoretically. Stairs. Corridors. More stairs. Corridors. Endless passageways and whoa, now they were walking into something rather different. It was dark, but things seemed to just glow. Loki was quickening his pace and walked to a cube that was light blue and glowing a little.

"Hey, it's the C-Cube!" Darcy said.

"What?" Loki asked, frowning at her.

"Nevermind...Artemis Fowl reference…" Darcy said. Loki picked the cube up out of its case after presumably performing a few spells; it was all very silent and quick. Loki then looked around and walked over to some metallic glove. Or gauntlet or whatever they call them. Darcy had to admit it was kind of exciting being in this place; she didn't imagine there was a lot of opportunity to see the proverbial royal jewels of another planet. If only she could take a picture…oh, to hell with it. "Hey, can you take the illusion off now?"

"Now that I have the tesseract, there is no limit to what I can do," Loki said. Their illusions faded and something bubbled around them. Probably invisibility again. Darcy really didn't think this through; she should have just run away and tried to get an Asgardian's attention. Surely by handing him over they would overlook the strangeness of her being there? Plus, she could claim kidnap; it was practically true. Maybe. Darcy looked at Loki.

"What are you using this for? And the Aether…please, please tell me you're not causing Ragnarök? Pleaaase? Or anything equally evil?" Darcy asked.

"Do you really think I would have you with me if I were performing an evil task? You are a liability. I had almost expected you to run tattling as soon as we hit ground," Loki said. Darcy blinked at him. Was he a mind reader or psychic or something?

"I figured you'd probably just catch me and kill me," Darcy drawled. He smiled and petted her hair, which she frowned at. Whether he would have or not, well, there was no answer. Darcy fumbled for her phone and while Loki admired the gauntlet thing, she went and took random pictures before walking back to Loki who had taken the gauntlet and she wondered if the 'admiring' was actually working out how to take it without triggering possible traps. He knew what he was doing, but then…she wasn't surprised by that. She watched as Loki made the tesseract smaller so that it would fit into one of the six circular slots in the gauntlet. Loki looked at Darcy.

"One down, five to go. The Infinity Gauntlet is an added bonus," Loki grinned. "Now we will see what is happening with Thor and his noble quest."

"It's the nearest you're getting to a noble quest," Darcy muttered, although almost regretted it when she saw Loki look at her, but he was still amused. Was this a good or bad thing? She imagined him the type to smile and murder you as if it were all a good joke.

"If you are quite done with your insults, we must go; I think Thor has returned to Asgard," Loki said, taking her hand with the one that wasn't clutching the gauntlet and wrapping his long fingers around hers. Surprisingly gentle for a crazy murderous God. Had someone fed her drugs and she couldn't remember? Because this was some weird shit.

Loki made the gauntlet disappear and she assumed it was one of those…things. Vanishing something somewhere where it was easy to retrieve it again, whereas not having had the item before, he couldn't just summon it from this place. One of the many things she would like to ask, but, well, she also didn't. She followed him out of the vault, through more corridors and a couple of sets of stairs until they were hiding behind a pillar. It was a large room and an old man was sat on a large golden chair. Darcy was a little uncomfortable with the fact that she was a little caged in with Loki right behind her as they watched Thor enter the hall. They were definitely invisible because there was no way in hell that they could remain unseen. They watched Thor and Odin speak, of the battle, of Loki, of how Thor could not take the throne. Darcy heard a little noise from Loki; something akin to surprise, maybe. Gods were weird. Loki was King of weird, just, well, not King. Hence the whole crazy nutter thing going on. When the exchange ended, they watched as Thor walked out and Darcy wondered who would take the throne instead.

Odin seemed a little surprised at the sound of Loki's death and he had an amazing pokerface, but the guy was clearly affected. Loki's an asshole. Why didn't he just announce that he was alive? Thor was devastated, she knew. But there was nothing Darcy could do. Not without getting herself killed and she kind of valued living. Loki took her hand again and she followed him out of the room after Thor. It was truly strange and she wasn't really sure whether it was in a good way or a bad way, the feeling of his hand around hers. They followed Thor until he came to Volstagg, Fandral and Sif. She recognised them and also realised there was one missing. She looked up at Loki before nudging him.

"Can we speak? Is there an enchantment on our voices?" Darcy whispered. Loki smirked.

"Of course," Loki replied.

"Where's, uh, Hogun was it?" Darcy asked. "He didn't…?"

"On Vanaheim, with his family, I would assume. I would have heard something by now if he were dead," Loki said.

"Even though you were a prisoner?" Darcy asked dubiously.

"There was one guard who took pity on me; kept me up-to-date every few months. Either that or mother would have…" Loki stopped, and Darcy noticed something then. He was staring at the ground and there was sadness in his eyes. He wasn't smiling either.

"So you did care about someone," Darcy said, but not in a mocking way. It was genuine. Loki seemed to shrug out of his stupor and looked back at Thor and his friends.

"We need to find out where the Aether is," Loki said. Darcy would let him drop the issue; it was clearly painful and she knew it had to be hard. No matter how much of a psycho he was.

"You never did tell me why," Darcy said.

"It is not important right now," Loki replied, and they watched Thor.

"Friends, I will return to Midgard…I do not wish to spend anymore time away from Jane," Thor said. He pulled out a stone cuboid and gave it to Sif. "Can I trust this to you? We cannot hide it here on Asgard with the tesseract; it would be far too dangerous. You know where to take it."

"Yes, certainly. I will gladly do this for you. And I know how much you dislike that place," Sif teased him lightly.

"It is unsavoury, but nevertheless appropriate. I thank you, Sif," Thor said. They started walking off, headed towards the Bifrost no doubt.

Loki didn't seem to be following. Darcy looked up at him.

"Aren't we going to follow?" Darcy asked.

"No. I know exactly where they will take it and ooh, Thor has had many a bad idea in the past, but this one really outshines them," Loki said.

"Why, where are they going?" Darcy asked.

"To the Collector's place; all sorts of unusual and rare items are collected by this man, and he isn't exactly as trustworthy as Thor thinks. In fact, these stones are in far worse hands with the Collector than I," Loki said.

"How come you never told him?" Darcy asked.

"I only fairly recently found out. As long as we retrieve it from him, we shall not have a problem," Loki said. Darcy heaved a sigh; things were only going to get more exciting from here.