Chapter three

Into the jungle

"So what do we do now?" Darcy asked. She was forever asking questions, but he knew he was being rather vague; he didn't want her to know what his plans were. Loki was not quite sure how the mortal would react, but he just needed her to come along with him. He knew one of the Stones would involve two people; it had been so well-hidden and so heavily guarded that he doubted even Thanos would be able to get it. What a shame. Loki had a long way to go before he could even consider taking Darcy to that place; he needed to study the Tesseract some more.

"We will rest for now, or rather, you will; take this time now to sleep and regain your energy; I will make sure we have enough sustenance," Loki said, leading her in another direction, through more corridors and up some stairs before they came to a door. He opened it with magic and led her up a set of spiral stone stairs that seemed to go on forever until they reached a landing with ornate double doors with a symbol of a snake eating its tail on each top pain.

"Is that an ouroboros?" Darcy asked.

"Very good," Loki said. He led her inside and he was rather relieved to find that his old room hadn't been touched…save for the odd hint of his mother's presence. It struck something within him and he quickly hid the emotion that welled up. His mother was the only one who had been able to get into his room; he didn't mind. Loki watched as the mortal looked around in awe. The room was a large space, with large floor to ceiling window panes to the left going out onto a balcony, accessed by one of the panes doubling as a door. There was a large four poster bed in the middle against the wall opposite the door. The bedclothes, pillows and curtains were green, while the under sheets were a rich gold colour. The wood making up the bed and posts were a dark mahogany. To the right of the room were two doors to his bathroom and to his study.

"Wow…this is incredible. This is in one of those large organ pipe things? It totally doesn't look big enough to house such a room," Darcy said.

"It is fortified with everlasting magic; even if the creator of the spell dies, or under strenuous circumstances, the spell will remain. There are, of course, ways in which to reverse it, but it involves a lot more than a simple spell," Loki explained. "Now, wait here one moment." Loki transported himself to the kitchens, invisible, his magic around his room potent enough to allow him such passage. Odin had obviously fortified the palace. Loki retrieved some food, made a slight detour and reappeared back in his room. He put the food down and followed the open door to the study, where Darcy was admiring all of the books.

"Have you read them all?" Darcy asked.

"Of course," Loki smiled.

"I suppose you've had plenty of time to; sometimes it makes me sad that I probably won't be able to read all the books in the world…you know, my world, anyway. Even more depressing now I know there are more worlds full!" Darcy said.

"Yes, that is a pity; perhaps you should fall in love with an Aesir and become worthy of an apple, then you would be immortal," Loki said in playful humour. The chances were extremely low. The girl whirled around to look at him with dry humour in her features.

"Is that your way of hitting on me? Because I'm sooo not interested," Darcy said.

"Not at all; you would get no apple by falling for me; I am both dead and disgraced," Loki grinned, turning and returning to the main room. "Come, there is food and then you must sleep." He sat on a chair in the corner and brought out the book he had also fetched from the library to read while the girl ate and slept. She didn't even bother accusing him of poisoning her, which was an improvement. There was silence for a little while, punctuating only by the slight noises of cutlery to plate, something of a novelty given the amount of noise he had heard in his time eating with Thor and the warriors.

"So, um, thanks for that," Darcy said, making him look up. He gave her a small smile and gestured to the bed.

"Sleep now, I will remain here and we shall make our way to the Collector's abode in the morning," Loki said.

"I don't have anything to change into, and I'm not sure I'll be able to sleep with you…there, even if you are reading a book," Darcy said. Loki waved his hand and she was suddenly dressed in what he knew to be Midgardian pajamas. Green, of course. Just because it was good fun. He also made a potion appear on his bedside table. "Ha ha very funny. Green? You're so creepy."

"The potion will send you to sleep. Either way, you will sleep. Mortals are so frail," Loki said.

"And Asgardians like you are jackasses. Maybe even lacking a few limbs if you don't cut out these barbed comments against my people's lack of immortality. It's not our fault," Darcy said. Loki carried on reading his book through all of this.

"Just sleep," Loki said. The mortal soon got into bed and Loki was left with his thoughts. Just what had awoken him from death? He had already survived the fall from Asgard. Long ago, many centuries past, his mother had saved the life of the twin daughters of Valhalla's Guardian and was granted two special wishes in return. Frigga naturally asked that her young sons be spared, should they come to the point of death, and Loki had used his up before he had even reached adulthood; a horrific and very rare illness that had him bedridden for months. So it couldn't be that; the Guardian of Valhalla could grant certain wishes on extremely rare circumstances, but never for nothing. It puzzled him, and although he knew Thor hadn't needed his part of the wish yet (the Destroyer killing him while he was mortal and being brought back to life was due to Odin and Mjölnir), he knew it wasn't transferrable.

Loki must have fallen asleep because he found himself blinking awake to find the mortal in front of him, her hand on his shoulder, looking rather dishevelled. Quite a sight, he had to say. Loki blinked some more and leant back in his seat. He looked to the side for a moment before standing up and fixing her clothes to some fresh, Asgardian ones. Plenty of mobility and yet, some protection too. Something like what Jane Foster wore, except with greens, gold plating and far more practical. He watched as Darcy stared down at her dress and went into the bathroom to presumably take a better look. Loki heard a few murmurings of awe and surprise before she came back towards him.

"So, it's pretty cool. Although, a little more revealing than I'm used to," Darcy said. Loki chuckled.

"You will blend in a little better and pose fewer questions. Now, you need sustenance and we shall be on our way," Loki said, the food appearing on a plate and he passed it to her. Darcy sat down, eating but looking suspiciously at him.

"You being nice is oddly more worrying than you being shady," Darcy said. Loki laughed.

"You complain when I am seemingly malevolent, and you complain when I am being generous; clearly there is no pleasing anyone," Loki said. Darcy finished her food quickly and Loki vanished the plate. "You will find your weapon sheathed on your person as well as a flask enchanted to always carry fresh water, along with a few other useful items. For now, we must depart."

Loki didn't allow her time to investigate these items as he led her out of his quarters and through the palace; he knew of a path out of Jotunheim that would carry them to their place of destination. Loki wasn't overly fond of the idea of traipsing into that wasteland once again, but his last failure with regards to the realm was by his own hand. He just had to make sure they both lived to tell the tale. Poor little mortal girl; the convergence really did do a lot of damage, and not even to the scale of the time before last, where Odin's father had apparently defeated the Dark Elves of Malekith's ilk. Loki knew that even if he had to take her through Midgard in order to get somewhere, he couldn't let her return home. No, he had a use of her; he would not let go of her just yet. Of course, once they got to Jotunheim, he could make use of the Tesseract and he would not need his full capabilities to transport them instantly anymore. Loki wasn't sure how long it would take his magic to fully recuperate; his time with Thanos and his time in prison had affected his abilities in a way that he could barely begin to describe.

They returned to the little ship they had been flying and Loki steered it in a different direction to which they came, to the left of the palace and he saw in his peripheral that Darcy was facing the front, practically on her stomach, giving him a wonderful view of her posterior. He sped the boat up and they soared through the portal that was a little away from the palace. Loki remembered the intricate spell; creating a temporary portal for the Frost Giants to use once they came to Asgard in order to get straight into the palace undetected. Honestly, he regretted it. Many chain of events later and here he was. On a small boat with a mortal; dead to most people and unwelcome in most places. Still, this was exciting enough. Admittedly the mortal girl was more entertaining than he could have imagined. Loki couldn't deny she was a good looking thing too. Loki managed to keep his eyes ahead as they sailed through to Jotunheim. It was…desolate. An eerie feeling of lifelessness ran through him and he saw Darcy shiver.

"We will be out of here in one moment," Loki said, bringing out the gauntlet. "Come closer to me, I have never used this properly. I would hate for you to get lost." He saw her get up with an eye roll and make her way over to him before he wrapped his arm around her, staring at the gauntlet and transporting them and the boat where they needed to be.

They appeared in a rather tropical place, but unlike what Darcy would be used to, the trees and leaves were massive. Loki noticed Darcy was out of the boat and examining one of the trees, amazed. It was rather strange and yet somewhat familiar; he remembered the awe and fascination he held for the new realms he visited when he was young.

"Wow, these leaves are bigger than me! Where the heck are we?" Darcy asked.

"Nidavellir, which is the home of dwarves and many other fascinating species. The dwarves mainly live in caves and underground communities, so the aboveground is built up if various different peoples, including fairies and trolls. It is also rather vast in forest and jungle," Loki explained.

"This is really cool. Although, speaking of cool, what was the place we were in just before?" Darcy asked.

"Jotunheim; home of Frost Giants and not a particularly pleasant place. Besides that, you would have frozen in little time if I were not to clothe you in warmth," Loki responded, watching the emotions play across her face; agreement and something else. Lack of concern for not having been able to explore it, he would surmise. He wouldn't allow it regardless of temperature problems; his head would be taken if allowed to be seen. "Come, we should go."

"Alright, but afterwards can we…explore this place? I mean, if you're able to transport us now, you have the ability to take me back to Earth. But you haven't, so you've obviously got some devious plan for me and the least you could do is give me some thrills before inevitable misery and/or death," Darcy said. Loki chuckled at her tenacity.

"You believe I will kill you?" Loki asked.

"You're the God of Chaos and Destruction where I come from; you were quite happy to kill all those people, so yeah, I don't think I'm coming out of this in one piece," Darcy replied.

"Alright, I can show you around a little," Loki said. "Now come, we should really be going." He took hold of her hand and led her through the wilderness.

"I didn't take you for a hand-holder," Darcy said. Loki looked at her with an amused smile on his face.

"It is easier to traverse through this jungle in such a way; many get separated in their journey," Loki said.

"You totally got lost from your mom when you were a kid, didn't you?" Darcy sniggered. He raised an eyebrow.

"You are quite astute," Loki said, surprised especially since she was only an intern, some assistant to a great scientist.

"Just because I don't know science, doesn't mean I'm a dumbass," Darcy said. "People forget that science isn't the only thing in the world." It was quite remarkable to feel some sort of likeness with such a girl; on Asgard, warriors were the norm and were highly praised, whereas magic was quite underappreciated. Loki was silent as he led her through the jungle, past big leaves and large flowers, making sure Darcy didn't have the chance to be distracted. It didn't take too long to find the strangely shaped, glassy building that sat in the middle of a mini island surrounded by a calm, purple-watered river. Flowers floated within it and Loki took her to the part before the bridge over to the building.

"We will enter invisibly; he will not give it up for anything, and you must remain quiet," Loki said. "Inside will be many a strange thing; do not touch and do not stare for too long. When I tell you to do something, you follow my order. Otherwise you might find yourself trapped and I cannot guarantee your safety." He felt her hand shake; he was sure that if he was holding her hand in a more intimate manner, her fingers would have tightened around his. "Are you ready?" She nodded her head.

Loki led them across the bridge and he squeezed her hand to reassure her, before phasing them both through the door and into the strangeness of the great collection. To her credit, Darcy had barely reacted to that piece of magic and Loki could not really put his finger on why she seemed to trust him. Or at least, enough to get her through this. Loki walked through the labyrinthine mass of strange objects and glass cases, preserved bodies of ancient and extinct peoples and animals, obscure artefacts of differing levels of danger and placidity.

"Close your eyes," Loki whispered, before carrying on through a particularly nasty sector; a mirror to capture people inside, perhaps not activated, but he could not take the risk. That and even deactivated artefacts could work on mortals regardless. Aha, the orb of insanity. She'd lose her mind and become a walking zombie, or a lunatic without of a hope of salvation. He took her out of the section and told her she could open her eyes. Loki could feel the question burning on her tongue, but was pleased with her willpower. The whole floor did not have what he was looking for, but then, he knew it wouldn't. Loki could sense the Aether, and knew it was far below their feet. He found the stairs and helped her down them, leading her through more labyrinthine passages. It felt like an eternity walking through them, but they finally came to a room and he halted before the door.

"Stay behind me," Loki said. He ran his hands over the air in front of the door, feeling various enchantments protecting it. Loki smirked, the feeling of excitement at such a challenge. Although, they weren't exactly the strongest defences he had come across, so maybe only a slight challenge. He spent about five minutes working through the charms meticulously before they finally broke and Loki led Darcy through the door into a vast chamber.

"How…is there even space for this cavern?" Darcy asked.

"It is much like my chambers; space does not necessarily need to fit the container," Loki answered. Loki walked straight towards the cuboid that contained the Aether and checked for enchantments and curses that may be placed upon the object. Naturally, there were even more here. He worked upon them, hoping that Darcy would keep her hands from all of the items here; they were all cursed in some way. There was no doubt about it. This was the treasure trove; the most valuable part of the collection and Loki could take it all. But he wouldn't; he didn't have time for that, and the more he took, the more chance of them realising it was him. Once he undid the enchantments, he brought out the gauntlet and released the Aether, locking it into its slot. He turned around to see Darcy admiring some old Elven artefact and walked over to her, taking her away from it.

"We are finished, now. Let us make our way," Loki said.

"What was that thing?" Darcy asked.

"Used correctly, it could either trap your soul inside it or switch souls between bodies. It is quite a complicated object to use, however, and often the user would find their own souls sucked out. The artefact next to it is the soul container," Loki said. "I believe it was an attempt to recreate the Soul Stone, although they misinterpreted what the Stone does in the first place."

"Why was I…I don't know, I felt like I couldn't look away," Darcy said.

"In this state it would just mesmerise you, not strong enough to do much harm," Loki explained. "I will get us out of here now."