Author's note: Thanks for all the reviews and favourites, I love them. 3 Sorry for the delay, I've been a bit busy and absent-minded. Hopefully you'll enjoy the three chapters I upload to make up for it. xD

Just a warning, chapter 8 isn't a false upload, all will be explained by the end/chapter 9.


Chapter seven

Awe and wonder

Loki lay on the ground staring into the distance for what felt like days, though he couldn't be sure how long it was exactly regardless. The memories were still flicking across the wall and he was no longer reacting to them, appearing more like an empty shell right now. He couldn't move; after Darcy left, memories of his time invading Midgard crackled across the cave like something out of a horror story. He heard the screaming; it was something he hadn't been aware of when he was actually down there, but then, he had been barely aware of anything he was doing. He noticed the memories stop, which was strange, but he still couldn't move. It was then that a ghostly figure appeared in the shape of a ethereal woman, both beautiful and yet one of the most terrifying women in existence. Urd, of the Norns.

"You have fallen so far, Loki. I remember a time when you could have easily walked this cave and brought forth the Mind Gem," Urd said. Of the three Norns, she appeared to be the middle one, even though all three were born only minutes apart. She the last. "Instead you send in a mortal who has no knowledge of what lies ahead of her; do you think she will succeed?"

"Yes," Loki answered quietly.

"You speak so soon, but you have only known her four days," Urd said. "What makes you so certain?" Loki shrugged. Honestly? He didn't know. He just lay there staring into the darkness, defenceless should anyone wish to hurt him.

"I know not," he whispered.

"You know quite well that you can change your own destiny, but you can also change the destiny of others," Urd said. Loki stared blankly, waiting for her to carry on her speech. "The convergence is a powerful thing; for a long time we could not place anyone's fates exactly beyond to this point. It flickered between you being dead and you being upon the Asgardian throne as your disowned father. Now it seems you travel a different path. If I were you, I would continue down this path. You have already made an oath upon your magic; it will be ever so unpleasant, should you decide to go against it."

"I have no intentions of doing so," Loki answered.

"Then I have no further reason to be here; you are alright, Loki. An unlikely force has brought you and Darcy Lewis together. Look after her and she will look after you, because Loki, no matter your difference in strength, you need her. What she lacks in physical strength, she makes up for in emotional and mental vitality. Already she is saving your life. Do not part ways with her, but do not force her hand. Good day, Loki," Urd said, before disappearing. As confusing as always. How could he stay with her and yet, not force her to be with him? How puzzling.

His thoughts were interrupted by the sound of footsteps and the quick appearance of Darcy, holding a glowing purple gem in her hand. She had done it. She had found the Gem. Relief rocked through him and he sighed. Darcy dropped down next to him.

"So after meeting two of these Norn people and going through three tests, you're welcome, by the way, I got the Gem. Honestly didn't think I could do it," Darcy said. Loki smiled a genuine smile at her; she had really done it for him. "Come on, get your ass off of that floor and let's get going." But he couldn't. He needed time. She seemed to realise this as she sat down properly, pocketed the gem and pulled his head into her lap again. He had fallen so far from grace and yet here was this mortal, comforting him, as if he hadn't done all of those things to her realm.

"Huh, this cave is all normal and red now. Weird," Darcy said.

"It no longer needs to defend the Mind Gem," Loki said.

"Aha! He speaks!" Darcy said, which would have had him rolling his eyes if he could be bothered. Silence fell between them for a few moments and Loki felt like he was going to fall asleep any minute. "So you had a pretty tough time, huh? Is that why you did what you did?"

"Something like that," Loki murmured unhelpfully. "I would rather not talk about it."

"You have just had a bit of a rollercoaster ride of those memories, so sure. In the future, maybe," Darcy said.

"Your memory…did it not affect you? You were…" Loki said.

"They didn't get far enough to steal my virtue, but it was a bad experience…however, I'm well over it and I guess I'm just not easily thrown. Plus, I have my trusty taser," Darcy said. He hadn't met a person with a taser outside of the mortal police force before; he knew that there would be people who did, of course, depending upon the legality of their usage, but never one in person.

"So that is why you carry one. It is a little tragic," Loki said. "Are you still virtuous?"

"Oh, wow, okay I see you're still a psycho perv; what next, you going to pin me down and have your wicked way with me?" Darcy asked sarcastically. Loki laughed a little.

"I prefer willing bed partners, thank you very much," Loki said.

"You were sooo going to add some sassy remark, weren't you? Go on, say it," Darcy said.

"I would prefer to have you screaming my name in awe than in fear," Loki smirked. She hit him a few times in the chest, though clearly with no intention to hurt him.

"Ass," Darcy said.

"You did ask for me to tell you," Loki said. Darcy scoffed, but he knew it was playful and they both ended up chuckling together. Darcy pulled out the Mind Gem again and he could see an idea in her eyes as she placed her hand on his forehead.

"I don't actually know how to use this, but I'll see if it can help your brain," Darcy said. Normally, Loki would have been worried, particularly because he wasn't fond of people messing around with his mind, but he found he neither had the energy to stop her nor the real want to do so. Did he trust her? That was a big question that he didn't have an answer to yet. All he knew was that he felt his mind becoming more at ease as she used the Gem and he smiled a little. When she finished, she put it away and stroked his hair. It was rather odd how affectionate she was, but he was grateful for it.


Loki must have fallen asleep because he was blinking awake. He looked around and realised he was using Darcy's stomach for a cushion; at least it wasn't anywhere else, or he would likely be hit by her weapon again. He'd prefer to steer clear of that while he was so vulnerable. She was, however, without a cushion and yet she seemed to be sleeping. Loki sat up quietly and swivelled his wrist around a few times, wrapping her almost completely in a comfortable, padded wrap. As far as he could tell, it was very early the next day. He leant against the cave wall and closed his eyes again. Hours passed but he didn't fall asleep again this time. When Darcy awoke, she was quite surprised by her wrap.

"I thought you could do with a little more comfort, after you assisted me so," Loki answered without her having to inquire.

"Thanks," Darcy said. She looked at him, but said nothing.

"I think it would be best to find a village here and go there to fully recuperate," Loki said. He stood up and helped her up, taking her out of the cave and leading her back to the boat, which they used to travel to the nearest village. Once there, Loki led her into the village and requested refuge for a little while, which was allowed. As it happened, they had empty stone huts for the times when they had guests. Loki settled them into the hut which had twin beds in a separate room, a separate bathroom and the rest of the space altogether, which was bigger than she had anticipated.

"Lucky that we've been mostly shacking together anyway," Darcy said. "And this is literally shacking up." She sniggered. Loki sat down and watched as she eventually joined him. She took the Mind Gem out of her pocket and handed it to him.

"Thank you, truly. I had not…anticipated that I would be beaten so easily. My mind is not what it used to be," Loki said.

"Maybe, but perhaps it would have fallen anyway; this thing is like the Gods of power, right? You said Infinity Stones, so I'm assuming these things are hella powerful," Darcy said. "So who knows whether it still would have worked or not."

"Yes, I suppose you are right," Loki said, summoning the gauntlet and inserting the Mind Gem.

"So the Aether is on the thumb knuckle, the Tesseract over the index knuckle and this Mind Gem is over the pinky knuckle…any particular reason?" Darcy asked.

"I am not quite sure; rumour has it that where you would place them tells a lot about one's character, but honestly, each Gem is said to be incredibly powerful and dangerous on their own," Loki said. "So I am unsure how it would really matter."

"I'm guessing we have no idea where the next one is?" Darcy asked.

"Not a clue; so far they are technically on different realms, so perhaps we shall visit Vanaheim next. For now, I need to rest and would not mind finding out more about this unfortunate circumstance with the dead Muspel girl," Loki said. He saw that she was staring at him a little. He raised an eyebrow at her.

"I still can't work you out," Darcy said. Loki smirked.

"Good," Loki said. "I would prefer to remain unsolved."

"You know, it wouldn't hurt you to let someone in," Darcy said. "Maybe it would help; whatever I saw in that cave―"

"You will forget what you saw in that cave; I appreciate what you did for me, but that does not mean you can delve into my memories and life any further," Loki said.

"Oh, okay. So it's okay for you to kidnap me, but not okay for me to find out more or get an answer to why I'm helping you?" Darcy asked. "You're a dick, you know that? I need to be on my own right now." Darcy stood up and went into the bedroom, slamming the door and presumably propping something against the door.


Darcy was relentless in her anger towards him; she only came out of the room for food and even then, she took it to her room, and to explore the village. Her room. They had been here a week and he had been stuck out there, not allowed to turn the sofa into a bed because it was disrespectful to do such a thing in Muspelheim. Magic was present somewhat on the realm, but not particularly in the people themselves, aside from their fiery powers, much like the Jotunn had their ice powers. It was considered impolite to change what had been so graciously given to them. So he slept on the sofa, thankful that the giants were, well, giant. Thus it was bigger than normal sofas. The Muspel were about the same sort of size as the Jotunn. Loki had always had trouble with friends; Sif and the Warriors were Thor's friends, though he had gotten on very well with Fandral and Volstagg in the past. However, that was no longer an issue. They were no longer friendly with him. No doubt they knew of his Jotunn heritage by now; who would keep that secret? Other than them, he had a sprinkling of friends across the realms, or rather, across Vanaheim, Nidavellir and Alfheim. The Muspel, while not quite as secretive as the Dwarves, were ones he had never really had much interaction with. They kept to themselves and had even less contact with Asgard than Nidavellirean Dwarves.

Another week passed and Darcy had been making more friends. The Muspel seemed to enjoy her presence, much more than they did his. It wasn't really a surprise; few people ever preferred him over others. It was the story of his life and he had long ago learnt to just deal with it. On the last day of the second week, Loki'd had enough and when Darcy returned to the hut, he had locked the door with magic, forcing her to turn to him.

"Open the door!" Darcy said.

"We need to talk, so sit down," Loki said, gesturing to the sofa he slept on. He was sat in the armchair.

"No," Darcy said, making to return to the village. Loki used his magic to force her onto the sofa; he wasn't usually one to do something like this, but they needed to talk. He forced her to stay there, though he could see her struggling. "Get off! You're violating my privacy!"

"Darcy, I apologise. For it all. I know I took you with me against your will, but you were right when you said I needed you. I do, and I promise you that I will not be killing you at the end," Loki said. "I swear upon my magic that I will not kill you nor will I let you die; I will protect you to the best of my ability." Darcy's eyes widened and he held out his arm.

"For real? I mean, you said such an oath…" Darcy said.

"Oaths are not sworn lightly; Thor swore to cast aside selfish ambition and preserve the peace in the realms, but he marched into Jotunheim and nearly caused a war. It was albeit with some of my help, my bitterness at play there, but he nevertheless chose to act on his impulses. He was banished for it," Loki said. "You have every reason not to believe me, but I have no reason to lie to you, especially after you have so graciously assisted me." He watched her clearly think about his words for a few moments before sighing.

"Alright. But I want to stay here a little longer," Darcy said. "I would have liked to stay at Nidavellir longer, but I can live with that."

"You enjoy it here?" Loki asked.

"Yeah, it's really interesting seeing a completely different planet and their lifestyle, the culture…I'd have no way of seeing them again, so I'd like to spend a bit more time with the friends I've made," Darcy said.

"Then we can stay; I have no leads yet anyway, and I could do with some rest time," Loki said.

"Thanks!" Darcy said, jumping up and looking to the kitchen. "I'll try and make us some food. It'll just be like cooking in the middle ages or something. Can't say I know a whole lot about them, which makes me want to do so now." He watched her attempt to cook. She was doing very well until she set her hair on fire. He used magic to get rid of it and appeared beside her, assisting her from then on. It was an enjoyable meal and they went to bed in better spirits that night. Loki remained on the sofa to give Darcy her privacy.


Loki and Darcy spent another two weeks there in the end, which gave Loki ample resting time and Darcy socialising time. It was quite funny, really; if Darcy Lewis were to use her education, she could think about being an Ambassador for her realm. She was certainly well-liked with the Muspel of this village and they really wanted her to meet the members of the Muspel higher council and royalty. She had certainly made an impression and it was rather interesting. Sadly, he had to pull her away from Muspelheim and take her to Vanaheim, which was automatically a strange jump from the orange-reds to blues and greens. Vanaheim was quite a realm of variety, with its villages, its towns and what Darcy might call 'futuristic' cities. He was no way near Hogun's village; he did not need word getting back to the grim warrior that he was, in fact, alive. At least for now. He led her through one of the floating cities, not the capital, but one of the most famous for scholars and education.

"This city is floating!" Darcy squealed. "I love it! Man why couldn't I have been born here? No offense mom and dad." Loki found himself laughing, thrilled that she liked it so much. It was one of his favourite places. Especially the library; he could literally just live there. He didn't realise Darcy had been staring at him with a small smile on her face until she spoke and he turned to look at her.

"You love this place, don't you? You have this contented little smile on your face," Darcy said. Loki instantly hid his expression and rolled his eyes at her.

"I suppose I enjoy being here," Loki said.

"You know, you can show your emotions now and then; I won't judge you," Darcy said, shaking her head. "I do like the look of this place, though. Beautiful."

"Do you mind if I take you into the library? I assure you that you will not be bored if you like books," Loki said.

"Yes! Though will I be able to understand anything?" Darcy asked.

"Yes, there is quite a bit in our tongue," Loki said. He led her to the large building that took up a lot of space. He could see the wonder in Darcy's eyes as she tried to, presumably, work out how this whole city could float. The building had a huge set of ornate double doors which led into a grand hallway. There was a large staircase that led into the main library. He led her through there and he saw her expression become even more fascinated. He took her over to a circle with runes inside it.

"This is a very useful device; if you have a specific book or a specific topic you are looking for, it will transport you there. If there are numerous sections for the latter option, you will be given the option of each of them," Loki said.

"Ooooh," Darcy cooed.

"Perhaps you would like to explore while I do some research?" Loki asked.

"Yes!" Darcy said, stepping onto the circle and disappearing. Well, she was enthusiastic. Loki looked around and sighed, wondering if there would be anything in here. He stepped onto the circle.

The Reality Gem. One of the Infinity Stones. Preferably in reference to a location.

Away he went.