Loki completed walking a circuit of his cell for the thousandth time (literally) and decided that if he was going to be bored, the rest of his family could stand some negative emotions as well. He couldn't get true and proper revenge, but he could make his brother angry, his mother upset, and Odin miserable in a single move. That was certainly worth something. And depending on if certain prophecies were True or not, this could potentially allow him to win the long game against the Mad Titan, who was undoubtedly somewhat annoyed with him at this point. It wasn't every day you lost someone's Infinity Stone after all.

So he leaned against one of the walls of his cell to smirk at a guard. "I'd like to speak to Prince Thor, please. Tell him it's urgent, and quite personal." The guard gave him a dry, skeptical look, but silently inclined his head and left Loki's line of sight. Loki chuckled and sat down on the edge of his bed. In times like these it was important to make his own fun, he felt.

It was an impatient Thor who met him a scant half-hour later. "What do you want brother?" He said shortly. Loki did his best to keep his face neutral, but a small part of him was touched that Thor still thought of him as such.

"Do you remember Miramir?" He asked without preamble. Best to keep Thor focused and relatively off guard. For his part, Thor blinked.

"Aye, of course. What does she have to do with anything?"

"She was pregnant when she left you." Loki said bluntly. "When our father gave her a sack full of money and a one way trip to her home galaxy in the Bifrost." Thor froze, blinking rapidly as he processed Loki's words.

Miramir's sudden vanishing had always bothered him. Certainly, what they had could hardly have been called courtship. There was no discussion of marriage or anything of the kind. They'd enjoyed each other's company outside of the bedroom though, enough for Thor to consider her a genuine friend, and her simply vanishing one day without a word had felt...off.

At the same time though, Miramir was a bard, a woman with a good ship and a fondness for traveling, nomadic by nature. Her simply leaving one day had always been a possibility. So while it had bothered him, he'd done his best to shrug it off and move on. What Loki was saying though…well it made a kind of sense.

"Do you have any proof?" Thor asked warily, rather tired of being tricked by Loki at this point. Loki gave a languid shrug.

"Not really, but why don't you ask father, or Heimdall? If I'm lying, you haven't exactly lost anything. Father can hardly punish you for fact-checking my stories." Thor couldn't find fault with this logic, so he politely nodded to his lost brother and turned, leaving the dungeon.

The minute he entered his father's office Odin let out a sigh. "Loki has been telling tales." The All Father said tiredly. Thor blinked and Odin gave him a look. "Do you think I don't have ears in the dungeon son?" Thor nodded, conceding the point.

"Did he speak the truth?" He asked, voice stiff. Odin let out another sigh and nodded.

"Yes, Miramir was pregnant with your daughter when I sent her away." As Odin spoke the sky outside the window grew dark from storm clouds.

"Why?" Thor demanded. Odin glanced out the window and sighed yet again.

"A number of reasons. For one, this was a decade and change before your intended coronation. And even at that time I was aware you had rough edges. Do you truly think you were prepared to be a father at the time of your…tryst with Miramir?" Thunder rumbled in the distance as Thor stared at his father in stony-faced silence. "In addition to that, Miramir was mortal. Demigods are…difficult, for a variety of reasons, and trying to raise a child with a mortal equally so. And finally, she was not your wife. The Crown Prince of Asgard cannot father a bastard."

This was met with a crack of thunder louder than had ever been heard in Asgard before. Horses, dogs, and birds cried out in alarm, extending the auditory chaos for a minute after as Thor stared at his father in silent fury.

"Does Mother know?" He asked quietly. To his relief his father simply shook his head in silence. He had one family member who wasn't hiding anything dangerous and serious at least. "How dare you? That…how could you do that to me? To them? Who gave you the right?"

"I am your father and the king of Asgard!" Odin snapped, eye blazing. "I had a duty! To you, the son I was trying to make a king! To the people of Asgard, who needed an heir dedicated to them and the throne! And to the granddaughter you were in no position to raise! I gave Miramir enough money to buy a small moon, and you were left non the wiser until your brother decided he was bored and miserable and wanted to share that with us."

"And you took away my choice?" Thor retorted in anger. "It was not your decision to make!"

"Perhaps not. But while it takes a good man to be a good father, sometimes it's hard to be a good man and a good king." Odin said, voice quiet, full of pain and tiredness. "And sometimes, a king must be a king before he can be a father. I'm glad you haven't had to learn this yet my son." He turned his back to Thor, staring out the window as rain began to fall, the thunder becoming a steady occurrence. "You may go find her if you wish. I give Heimdall permission to send you to wherever she may be." Thor stormed out with a low growl, and Odin heaved a heavy sigh.

To Thor's surprise, Heimdall looked rather relieved when he showed up at the Bifrost only a minute later, having flown with Mjolnir the moment he stepped outside. "About damn time Loki said something." Heimdall said grimly. Thor blinked. "Your father expressly forbade me from telling you what had happened. And from updating him about the status of Miramir and your daughter. I suspect he worried you or Loki might overhear a report." The golden-eyed god let out a small sigh and gave Thor a sad look.

"Miramir is dead, Prince Thor. Her ship was shot down." Thor froze, body going stiff as he stared at Heimdall. "It is my duty to keep an eye on all the members of the royal family, even if the king doesn't wish to hear about them." Heimdall said stoically. "Illegitimate child or not, your daughter is of the royal house of Asgard."

"You said my daughter is." Thor said desperately. "Does she still live?" He had to cling to something. He may not have loved Miramir the way that he loved Jane, but she had been a dear friend and her loss was a knife in his gut. But if he had a child out there still, then the priority was clear. Mourning could wait for the moment if she lived.

"Yes. She is, however, in a less than ideal situation my prince. Stranded on a wasteland planet for the last seven years after the death of her mother." Thor's stomach dropped. That long? "Her life is a hard and lonely one, though she's come out of it surprisingly strong and kind, all things considered. Her day is just beginning, fortunately. I will send you to her now."

"You haven't told me her name." Thor said softly as Heimdall manipulated his sword. Heimdall nodded.

"Her name is Rey." He said gently. "No surname. The planet she's on is Jakku, and she is a scavenger, picking over the remnants of a battlefield for useful scrap to trade for food." Thor nodded at the information, trying to suppress his anger at this information. It wasn't his daughter's…it wasn't Rey's fault, and she didn't need him angry when he first met her. That wouldn't do any good. "I will put you down within sight of her home, and then I will tell your mother where you have gone." Thor blinked again, and Heimdall gave a small, grim, smile and Thor was reminded that the man was a father. "I cannot tell her about Rey, but I can tell the Queen that I sent the Crown Prince to a dangerous world to collect a lost Princess of Asgard marooned there by your father. She's a smart woman, she can put the pieces together from there."

Thor let out a short, somewhat strangled, laugh. Earlier that day the thought of strife between his parents would have been unpleasant. Now he rather felt his father had it coming. A part of him even regretted that he probably wouldn't be able to see it unfold. But he had more pressing matters to attend to, and so stepped into the Bifrost with urgency.

OoOoO

Rey sighed softly to herself as she tightened the straps of her speeder's cargo harness. Another day of living, another day of working. And unfortunately the Teedo had managed to raid some of her defenses and torn them up for scrap, so she couldn't even devote a whole day to scavenging. But at the same time she couldn't afford to not scavenge. She had a small stash of portions, but those were for days she was too sick or injured to work.

She shook her head, forcing herself back to her task. She was fifteen, too old to be getting distracted by her own thoughts or wishing for an easier life. Until her mother returned to Jakku, or her father found them, she was stuck here. And that meant making the most of every second and every hour.

Rey had just clambered on top of her shabby speeder when a beam of multicolored light hit the sand a few meters to her right. She jumped, startled, and stared at the column of blinding light until it dissipated, leaving behind only a man and a runic pattern of glass.

The man was very obviously new to Jakku. Even if Rey hadn't seen him arriving, his clean clothes, too thick and colorful for the desert, would have been evidence enough. His body was all wrong too, built strong and like a walker. Nobody ate that well on Jakku *and* worried about their musculature. The beard was unusual too, given the heat and dust.

He carried no blaster, just a large hammer that he was twisting in his hands. Now that was unusual. Blasters were rare on Jakku, because ammo was expensive and rare, but Rey was under the impression that they were fairly common elsewhere in the galaxy. That hammer had even less range than her staff, and it certainly wasn't a lightsaber.

Then Rey realized with a start that much as she was studying him, the man was studying her. It was an unusual gaze, at least in the context of Jakku. He wasn't looking at Rey as though he was weighing her as a potential threat, or prey, or a prize. Rey couldn't honestly say what she thought he was feeling, her life had left her rather bad at gauging the emotions and body language of her fellow humans, but it wasn't anything she was used to.

The man cleared his throat nervously. "Are you Rey, daughter of Miramir the Bard?" Rey's eyes widened, and suddenly old bedtime stories her mother had told her came flooding back. Stories of Rey's father, a golden warrior god, master of the storms and wielder of a mighty hammer that brought thunder, lightning, and water wherever he wished, who traveled in bridges of colored light. She'd buried those stories after her second year on Jakku, deciding they were just that. Stories. But here was a man who fit those stories almost exactly, who knew not just her name but the name of her mother. Knew her mother's job.

"I am." Rey said, voice weak. "Who are you?"

"I am Thor Odinson." The man said, his own voice sounding as weak as Rey's. "And…I am your father." Rey stared at him for a long moment. There were quite a few emotions struggling within her, and she didn't notice the subtle wind that picked up around her, weak but unnatural. Rey wasn't sure what to do, or say, wasn't sure what the right reaction to this was. So she said the first thing that came to her mind.

"Prove it." She said, her voice short but less combative than the words were usually delivered. "Moth…Mother said you could bring storms with your hammer." She looked up at the clear blue sky, then back to Thor. "Make some clouds." Thor blinked, then nodded shortly in acceptance. He seemed to understand Rey's concerns at least, for which she was glad.

He raised the hammer, seeming to concentrate for a brief moment, and then suddenly everything got darker. Rey gasped as she looked up to see the thickest, darkest clouds of her life gathering above them, blanketing the sky. Thor lowered his hammer and the clouds stayed put, a further rarity on Jakku, as he looked at Rey. There was no challenge or smugness to his expression, which Rey appreciated.

"Okay…where in the kriffing hell have you been?" Rey demanded, not noticing as the wind got stronger, hopping off her speeder to get closer to the man who was either her father or so dedicated to convincing her that he was that she didn't know if there was any point to arguing. For his part Thor looked pale and sad as he watched her. "I'm fifteen standard years old! Where were you when Mother was trying to raise me by herself? Where were you she left me here? Where were you?"

Thor looked so sad that Rey almost apologized, but then her hunger pangs flared for a second and she got angry again.

"Your existence was hidden from me by a god who's stronger than me." Thor said softly. "I only just managed to discover you. I…I can never undo what has happened to you. But I swear that I will do everything in my power to make the rest of your life the best you could hope for if you let me." Rey stared at him for a long moment, then slowly deflated and nodded. She could give him a chance, at least. Though…

"Mother might come back soon." Rey said softly. "I should leave her a message." She turned and walked towards her shelter, ignoring Thor's stricken expression.

"Rey…" He said quietly, walking towards her. "Your mother is…"

"She's been gone for a while, and I'll have questions for her too." Rey said briskly, scooping up her doll, helmet, and puzzle cube into a sack. She debated, then slipped the three datapads she'd kept to read into the sack as well. Her meager personal belongings taken care of, she grabbed her blade and began carving letters next to her tally marks. A short message for her mother, just saying that father had found her. "But she'll be back. Soon probably. She should know where I am, so she doesn't go looking for me. Where do you live again? It…it's been a while since Mother told me stories."

"...Asgard." Thor said quietly. "I'm not sure how to write it in the script of this galaxy though, I'm sorry." Rey blinked, then nodded.

"I'll just say you took me to your home. She should know where that is." Rey could hear her father shifting uncomfortably behind her but she ignored it, focusing on writing her message. She knew that without her to defend it eventually her shelter would be taken by one of the other scavengers, or even dismantled for scrap. But she had up do something. Mother would be expecting to find her on Jakku after all.

She finished the message after a few moments and stood back up, grabbing her bag. Thor followed her wordlessly as she retrieved her staff from the speeder, and she took a moment to rest her hands on the side of the craft. It wasn't good, exactly. Rey did her best to maintain it, but it was cobbled together from junk to begin with. Still it was hers, built by her own hands, her lifeline and her freedom.

Rey took another breath, then nodded and turned back to her father. "I'm ready…father." The words felt alien and strange to her, but sent a thrill down her spine all the same. "How do we go to…Asgard?"

Thor gave her a small, soft smile and took a step closer, though he still gave her space. "Brace yourself, and feel free to grab on to me if you feel ill. The Bifrost can be disorienting on the first few trips. It's recommended that you close your eyes as well, but the choice is yours." Rey nodded, shifting and bracing herself a moment before the beam of light that had brought her father to her came crashing down.

Thor hadn't been lying. The trip was disorienting, entirely unlike anything Rey had experienced before. It was bright and fast, and stable in a weird way. She felt deep in her bones that this should be a jerky and wild experience, and the fact that everything was fine and still was almost as disorienting as if it had been a mess.

Then suddenly Rey was in a golden dome, one that was slowly spinning, decelerating as she watched and allowing her to make out the intricate carvings in the metal.

"Welcome, Rey Thorsdottir." A deep voice called out, and Rey jumped slightly, turning to stare at the man who had spoken. He was a tall man with dark skin and eyes like fire or a setting sun. Clad in gold armor and with his hands on a large sword, he gave her a slight smile and inclined his head. "Welcome to Asgard." The man nodded at the opening in the dome, and Rey directed her gaze in that direction, gasping at what she saw.

Without really thinking about it, Rey strode out of the dome and stood at the foot of the bridge, which looked rather similar to the Bifrost if she thought about it. Not that she was thinking about it. Her attention was stolen by the view of the city that lay before her.

There were no cities on Jakku, but even if there were Rey was fairly certain they wouldn't, couldn't, look like this. More water than Rey had ever seen in her life, than she could have imagined, stretched out before her, a blue sea that fell away in roaring waterfalls, into a void. And beyond that were gleaming spires, tall and curving beautifully. The shining city of the gods her mother had told her about, all set in front of her.

"Welcome to the Realm Eternal." Thor said softly, walking up behind her. "Welcome home."