"Why are we doing this in the garden shed, again?" Jane asked, taking a seat on a large bag of dirt. She had been shuffled around to six different parts of the the castle since waking up in Thor's arms, in a cellar on Asgard. It was almost sunset, and she was getting tired. Actually, physically tired. She had grown tired of being Thor's damsel in distress many hours ago. All things considered, she had reached the conclusion that seeing Thor again was not worth imbibing some mysterious magical poison and losing her graviton and phase meters to boot.
"Because it's not part of the main building and not built out of stone, so there won't be as much damage if it blows up," Odin said. He inspected their surroundings critically before scooping up an armful of shovels, rakes, and other metal implements and moving them outside.
"How likely is that to happen?" Jane asked.
"It won't," Thor assured her. "Loki is a genius when it comes to magic. He will be able to help."
"It's not his ability that's the problem, Thor, and you know it," Odin growled. "He's just not ready for this kind of task."
"He'll never be ready, never get better, if we don't push him to improve."
"He'll also never get better if he ends up hurting himself trying to help you. I'm sorry, Jane Foster, but I am unconvinced you're worth the risk, or the delay in mobilizing our forces."
"Thanks," she said sarcastically.
"Particularly as he's liable to kill you as well, trying to help," Odin finished.
"Oh. Thor, maybe..."
"Soft, he's coming," Thor said, clearly not listening.
She barely recognized Loki when she glimpsed him, flanked by his mother and the healer Lady Eir Jane had met a few hours previously; he hardly looked like the same person who had terrorized Stuttgart and New York less than a year ago. Loki fixated on Jane the moment he entered the shed, eyes clearly tracing the lines of power in her skin, although these had been invisible to everyone else without technological assistance. He smiled broadly and strode across the room to crouch next to Jane's dirt bag. Jane shivered a little when he reached out to run a finger down her bare forearm, eliciting a thin tongue of dark red fire in its wake. He drew slow circles with his index finger, winding the fire into a thread.
"Er... hello," Jane said.
Loki paused, eyes flicking up to her face. "Hello," he said cautiously. He looked over to Thor, then suddenly lifted his hand from Jane's arm, allowing the red fire to slither back from whence it came. "I apologize?" Thor snickered and nodded. "I apologize," Loki repeated in a more formal tone, looking back at Jane. "For touching you unannounced and uninvited... and for anything I might have done to offend you at any previous encounters. I am Loki, the brother of Thor. You are... your name escapes me. I am informed you are the woman Thor met on Midgard... recently, I think." His brow furrowed. "Now I'm confusing myself," he muttered. He looked at Thor. "Was I there with you and her down on Midgard? Or did I steal her countenance from your mind? Or, no..." He stared at her face, shifting slightly to capture it from all angles, poked her cheek critically, and finally shook his head. "I apologize again. You must forgive me for being vague on the details, my lady; my mind and memory are not functioning normally, I am told." His gaze flicked down to her arm once more, and his fingers twitched. "I am pleased to meet you officially, under such interesting circumstances. Although unfortunate for you I suppose..."
"Pleased to meet you too, Loki," Jane ventured. "My name is Jane. I think we can forget what happened before. Start afresh."
"Oh, good," Loki said with evident relief. "How may I be of service?"
Jane offered him her arm. "The king and queen can't get this Aether thing out of me without killing me. Neither can Thor. Neither can Lady Eir or the other healers. Neither can the head of the sorcerer's guild. Can you?"
Loki took her arm and once more drew a finger along the skin, summoning up the crimson power, but he stopped a second later, frowning. "Without death or presumably serious injury. Let me think. Thor, what all do I need to avoid?"
"What do you mean?"
"What kills humans?"
"You don't know?" Jane asked, taking her arm back in alarm.
Loki raised an eyebrow. "I suspect many things, but this seems like something I should confirm."
Jane glanced around at Thor worriedly. Thor smiled reassuringly and put a hand to her shoulder. "It's alright, Jane. This is just what he does to check what's real. Like I said earlier, I'm his lodestone, or truth-teller, for now."
"Thor, what is wrong with your hand?" Loki interrupted.
Thor looked over at him. He was staring hard at Thor's left hand on Jane's shoulder. Thor lifted it away. "Nothing," he said with forced casualness.
Loki's hand darted around Jane to grab Thor's wrist, hauling it up to hover in front of his nose. Thor let him, posture very deliberately calm, Jane noticed. Loki ran his hands over Thor's, with a sharp inhale. "There is something," he said in a distinctly accusatory tone.
"No, there isn't," Thor said, subtly nudging Jane as he did. She took it as a warning to get out from between them, but there was nowhere to go, pinned against the wall of the shed.
Loki's eyes widened in disbelief. "You're... you're lying!" He shoved Thor's hand away and stood up, backing up into Odin's waiting arms. He started muttering to himself. "I exist in thought and in body. Externality... probably exists. Deception exists. Who is the deceiver?"
"Loki, hear me and calm yourself," Odin soothed.
"Unhand me," Loki hissed.
Odin loosened his grip instantly but stepped around so he was looking Loki in the eyes. "Talk to me, Loki."
"Thor's not supposed to lie to me," Loki moaned plaintively.
"If he does not tell you the full truth, it is not deliberate deception," Frigga said firmly, stepping up beside her husband.
"Where there is one lie, there may be more," Loki argued. "There's no way to tell, no way to confirm... no way to distinguish truth from deceit."
"There is," Odin admonished. "Trust. You can trust that Thor, nor I, nor your mother, would mislead you over anything of importance." Loki did not believe him. It was obvious in his face, and for some reason this alleged lie was unspeakably important to him. Odin sighed and leaned close to whisper to his son, "Thor did not lie exactly. There is nothing wrong with his hand. There is something different, as you noticed, but that is between him and me. I instructed him not to tell anyone, even you, for now. Do not force him to break his word to me." Jane raised her eyebrows and glanced at Thor's hands, which he quickly tucked away. They looked and had felt perfectly normal to her.
Loki's cheek twitched. He glowered. He clearly was not satisfied, but miraculously, he nodded acquiescence. He tapped Odin's arm, and the Allfather released him. He spun on his heel and walked back to Thor and Jane, staring down his nose at them. "I will attempt to remove the Aether from your body, Lady Jane. I can think of several likely methods. I swear I will do nothing that might harm you, to the best of my thought and ability."
"Also do nothing that might hurt yourself, Loki," Thor amended.
Loki cocked his head to the side, and grinned. "A good point, Brother."
"In fact, so long as we are discussing it, do nothing that might hurt yourself in general, Loki," Thor said earnestly. "Take no risks without discussing them with me or with our parents, not for anything, not until you are fully recovered."
"You pick strange timing for your instructions even as you bid me play with the ancient powers of creation."
"Only because I didn't think of it before. Promise me?"
"For what it is worth, I promise not to endanger myself," Loki said with a slight bow.
"Thank you."
"May I get on with it now?" Loki asked, holding out a hand to Jane. He slowly started coaxing the Aether out of her, for the third time. After a few minutes, he paused and fiddled with the small ball of liquid power in his hand. It transformed into the shape of a spool of thread, which he continued to neatly wind, humming absently to himself as he did.
"You're shivering," Thor said after a moment, taking Jane's other hand.
"The longer he works, the colder I get," Jane agreed. "It's like the spell is sucking the actual blood out of me."
"No, don't think of it that way," Loki corrected.
"She does not mean anything by it," Thor said.
"No, but this is the Reality Stone. It is what the wielder makes of it. Jane, you still hold more of it than I do. Your thoughts can shape it more easily than mine if you let them. If you think it is blood, then it is blood. Whether that means you die by exsanguination as I draw it out of you or suffer a stroke or heart attack due to hyperviscosity of excessive blood cells... I do not know. So don't think of it as blood. The Aether is like a close-fitting knitted garment which I am unraveling. Understand?"
"Got it. I'm wearing the long-johns from hell. Can you unravel it any faster?"
Loki grinned. "Not at present. But the process will accelerate as the link to your mind and life force grows weaker." His eyes wandered over to Thor's hands holding Jane's, and the grin vanished. "Thor, you distract me."
"I'll be quiet."
"Your presence distracts me, like a fly in my ear. There is a buzz of untruth which I find difficult to ignore, and perilous given the very Seed of Possibility is growing in my hand..."
"Go wait outside," Frigga said from behind them. "And you, Odin. Lady Eir and I will stay." Thor and the Allfather left without a word. Lady Eir took Thor's place at Jane's side, draping a blanket over her and setting a finger over her pulse. Frigga knelt by Loki. "Will it distract you to tell us what troubles you?" she asked softly.
"Not at all," he murmured. "It may even help to explain, clarify things. You have told me many times that my grasp of real and unreal, the physical and the mental, is thin... I did not understand quite what you meant until today. I thought... I thought it was a problem of perception and one that didn't really matter. But this thing is powerful. It desires to warp reality. Unless I keep the form of the world I... believe to be true firm, unyielding, and constant in my mind, then..." his lips quirked. "Then all of you would experience my thought in truth, and that is not something that can be allowed to happen."
"Why not?" Jane asked, curiosity winning out over chills and nerves.
"Because my thought is unfixed and uncomfortable and would drive you all as mad as me, make the world as mad as me."
"We have suffered your illusions before, Loki," Eir said with some skepticism. She didn't deny his insanity though, Jane noted.
"Those were small and fleeting."
"You're saying this magic Aether thing can change the nature of reality itself?"
"Yes, but only with some deliberation, and only so long as the wielder holds the vision in mind, if the spell is not augmented by the gem of power. The danger will pass once I no longer hold it."
Jane was somewhat reassured. "Huh. How does that even work?"
Loki chuckled. "That will take some time to explain."
"I'm not going anywhere."
"Hmm...how much do you know about probability physics?"
It was Jane's turn to grin. "Rather a lot more than the typical human. My doctorate is in astrophysics, but there's a lot of overlap with quantum field theory in my research on black holes and similar phenomena."
Loki raised his eyebrows. "Impressive. Very well. In simplest terms, the Aether takes the magical principles of transmutation to the extreme. It offers the wielder control over the fundamental property of probability inherent in all matter."
"Uh... I can't say I'm familiar with the 'magical principles of transmutation,' but if you're saying this is physics, and a fundamental property of matter... are you talking about superposition?"
"That may be what you call it in your language," Loki shrugged. Incidentally, his spool had grown to a hefty red skein.
"Superposition is the ability of a quantum system to be in multiple states at the same time until it is measured," Jane explained, rattling off the definition she used for introductory undergraduate classes.
"Ah. Then yes."
"But," Jane sputtered, "but that's not how that works!"
"Yes it is."
"No it isn't!"
"Is so."
"Is not!"
"Children," Frigga admonished.
Loki blinked at her and smiled. "It is, when you extend the limit to infinity."
"...You're gonna have to show me the math on that one. The calculus and linear algebra I know don't add up to 'and then a unicorn appeared out of thin air,' even with infinite limits."
Loki laughed. "I'd be delighted to break it down for you, just as soon as we are no longer in imminent danger of accidentally killing ourselves."
"Great." Although now that he reminded her of what had started the argument... "Are we sure this is worth the apparently extremely high risk?"
Loki shrugged. "I'm not the best person to ask as my perspective is uniquely skewed. How much value do you place on your life?"
"Normally a lot," Jane said. "But frankly, I'm probably not worth blowing up the ruling family and chief healer of an entire planet, particularly when there's also supposedly a galactic war brewing."
Loki paused, brow furrowed. "Don't say such things," he said finally.
"I mean, they kind of have to be said, though," Jane said.
"He means don't say that to him," Frigga broke in. "Not right now."
"Oh. Oh."
"I have to trust Thor," Loki muttered tensely. "Thor is real, that I promised to believe. Thor says it is worth it. I have to trust him. Everyone has to trust him. Thor is the axle on which the universe spins..." He pulled a face and started winding the Aether again. "Or at least on which my universe spins."
"Sorry," Jane said quietly. She hadn't quite grasped that when Thor called himself Loki's truth-teller, he meant it completely literally. The younger brother appeared to have zero frame of reference besides what his family told him, specifically Thor. It must be a hellish way to live, Jane thought.
Any further talk was silenced by a sudden alarm blaring outside. Frigga swore in a language Jane didn't know, but it sounded serious. "What is it?"
"The city is under attack. And here we are, the whole family, with the Aether, sitting ducks in the shed." She shook her head. "The garden is warded, walled, and well-guarded, and Thor of course is outside, but I would still prefer to be inside the fortress. How by the Norns did this happen with no warning from Heimdall?"
"The Convergence," Loki said simply.
"Should we move?" Lady Eir asked.
"No," Loki and Frigga said simultaneously.
"Can you go faster?" Eir asked Loki.
"Yes, but you will have to support her. See that she can take it and stop me if she can't."
"Don't stop," Jane countered. Loki flinched. "Circumstances are changed," she told him firmly. "Thor wouldn't want you to stop, even if I am at risk. Trust me."
"I'll try to." He dragged a thicker filament of power from her. Fire lanced up to her shoulder, and her arm started to bleed as well. She bit her lip.
"It's not blood," Loki reminded her.
"Right. Long-johns of doom." The bleeding stopped.
There was a thunderous boom all around them. "They've struck the wards," Frigga announced. She stood up and closed her eyes. Silver armor sprouted over her torso, a long sword in her hand. Casual impossibilities that Jane just accepted at this point. It had been a really weird day. The queen set her back to them, at ease facing the door. There was another series of thunderous booms, then a higher-pitched crash followed by a staccato of unmistakable gunfire, although with a strangely musical pitch identifying the gunmen as... not humans, obviously. "They've broken the wards," Frigga said, unnecessarily. She raised her hands, and a golden glow spread out from her to reinforce all the walls of the shed, muffling the sounds of battle with a new ward.
The walls shook as something impacted the ground outside. Then one corner of the building scraped away, shuddering the entire structure. Jane saw a very non-Asgardian spacecraft through the opening in the roof before it vanished from her sight again. Now they could hear Thor's deafening thunder unmuted. There was still gunfire, but also the shouts of soldiers and the rhythmic clashes of metal-on-metal signaling hand to hand combat.
Loki bent closer over her arm, now drawing the Aether out in shimmering ropes that hurt as they exited her skin and tried to wrap themselves around his fingers. Jane sank panting against Eir as the chill gripped her chest. Lady Eir pushed something that felt like summer sunlight into her back, boosting her.
Then all hell broke loose. Thor's hammer slammed through the wall and knocked Frigga off her feet. This was followed closely by Thor himself, collapsing in a daze on top of his mother in a pile of broken stone flower pots. The roof fell in on top of them. A huge creature in spiky black armor stomped in after Thor, but it was clearly aiming for her and Loki. Eir stepped between them with another dagger from nowhere, but it was hardly impeded it all. Once their blades locked at the cross guards, it punched the healer squarely in the face, knocking her backwards and unconscious. It reached for Loki, but without even looking he twisted easily away from its grasp. He held her wrist in a vise and dragged her behind him. Just as Frigga had done minutes before, green magic flared into armor, and a long knife appeared in his free hand.
His expression wasn't as cool as his actions, however. He held his knife up in front of him but made no move to attack. He was still literally tied to Jane, and he seemed debating what to do next. Jane opened her mouth, trying to tell him not to worry about her, to just do what he had to do, but instead she screamed. The creature took advantage of Loki's hesitation and stabbed him in the gut. Loki started to dodge and parry, too slow. He doubled over in pain as the two-edged sword slid back out of him, but his face snarled in pure fury. He dropped his knife and instead lifted the shining Aether in his other hand. Jane fell to her knees as all the remaining power was ripped out of her in an instant. Yet, she managed to stay conscious.
Loki closed his fist around the glowing red orb. "You are stone," he said. Or rather, he said something completely different, a guttural and almost inorganic sound, but Jane could hear the meaning in her mind, such was the power of the command. The attacking alien froze in its tracks. Its color morphed to gray... sandstone. Loki raised his other hand in a complicated gesture that ended in a slicing motion that sent a wall of green flame expanding outwards in front of them. The sandstone statue collapsed into fragments, as did the remainder of the wall facing them. Well, that was one way to win a fight, Jane thought giddily. Then Loki fell to the ground clutching his gut. Whatever magic he had cast suddenly ceased, the statue shards transforming back into a shredded alien corpse.
Thor erupted out of the rubble looking around wildly for his foe, but finding only his brother in a bed of gore. "Loki!" Thor cried, leaping to his side. Frigga also pulled herself out of the rubble, glanced at Loki worriedly, then raised her hands to erect a new golden dome around them, this one even thicker and brighter, so Jane could see and hear nothing of the devastated gardens outside.
Loki's shaking fingers found Thor's arm. "It's so real," he whispered. He was clutching closed a horrible, gaping wound in his abdomen, more blood seeping from the corner of his mouth. His eyes were wide in pain, and wonder. He coughed wetly, blood pouring from his lips. "It's so real, Thor," he choked.
"No, no, no... I've got you, Loki. Now, you have to stop the bleeding." Loki looked at him blankly, his battered mind still floundering with his new injury. "Loki," Thor uttered in a commanding tone as he pressed Loki's hand harder against his wound, causing him to cry out in agony, "This is real! No one else is here to help, at least not quick enough. If you don't do something fast, you are going to die!"
All too slowly, a precious light of understanding entered Loki's face, along with a fair dose of panic. Warm green light flared around them, concentrating on the hole in Loki's belly. Tendrils of light stopped up every bleeding surface and pulled the edges of the wound into proximity. After a few more coughs to clear his lungs of stray blood, it was clear the God of Mischief would not be dying any time soon. He was even paler than usual, though, and his abdomen continued to shine with the healing spell. He started to sit up but fell backwards immediately with a groan of pain.
Frigga nudged Eir with one hand. "Still out cold. Thor, take your brother and Jane and get out of here."
Thor nodded. "Loki, you have the Aether?"
Loki opened his blood-slick right hand to reveal a glittering ruby.
"It's a stone," Jane said slowly.
"It is what I told it to be," he murmured. Thor picked up the blood-red stone and set it precariously on the second knuckle of his left hand, where it wavered for just a moment before vanishing. "Aha!" Loki cackled. "So that's what's wrong with your hand."
"Hush," Thor said, scooping him up in one arm. "Jane?" He held out his other hand to her.
She crawled over to him. "I don't understand. How are we supposed to get out of here?"
"The Tesseract," Loki answered. "Isn't this exciting?"
Thor frowned at him but said nothing. He tightened his grip on both of them and pointed forwards with his left index finger. The world around them melted into brilliant blue light.
Author's note: well... that moved things along. Couple topics came up, one being the quantum physics concept of superposition. I was inspired by the transfiguration methods of Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality for that one... a very interesting and weird fic I've actually referenced before in this story, though not by name. The Reality Stone works at the subatomic level in this fic, aligning the spins of fundamental particles in such a way as to reconfigure matter itself, and of course performing all the calculations necessary to accurately reflect the will of the caster. One could suppose similar, smaller spells are possible, where the math has already been done, all the quarks counted to transform, say, the body of a person into that of a snake. The difference between regular transmutation and the Reality Stone is one of scale, flexibility, and unpredictability, as an unwary caster might do extraordinary things by accident if the Reality Stone misinterprets the intent. In conclusion: infinity stones are dangerous to everybody involved.
The other theme for this chapter actually goes back to Descartes: he only found a way out of his doubting by believing in some external something other than himself, which for him was God, for Loki is Thor. Loki's faith is being tested, I'm afraid. He's not wholly convinced the Deceiver isn't himself.
