Lord Njordr read the verdict without preamble as soon as he called the court to order. "Loki of Asgard, of the charge of allowing entry of foreign trespassers with criminal intent into Odin's Vault, you are found guilty. Of attempted murder of Prince Thor, you are found guilty. Of attempted genocide against the Jotun people, you are found guilty. Of attempted destruction Jotunheim, you are found guilty. Of attempted conquest and personal usurpation of Midgard, you are found not guilty by reason of mental possession." He paused for breath. "With regards to sentencing, the court does admit to certain mitigating factors, namely your traumatic brain injury leading to amnesia of all these crimes and the convincing regret you have expressed. You are therefore spared the death penalty, which we have determined would be both cruel and meaningless punishment. Instead, your sentencing will be as follows:

"Firstly, for the most heinous crimes of attempted genocide and planetary destruction of Jotunheim, you are sentenced to neural evisceration." Loki almost winced at the words, even though he was half-expecting it and technically should not anticipate any adverse effects from the procedure. "The neural evisceration will be carried out by Lady Loralei in one month's time and will purge any remaining angst or violent thought you may have with respect to the Jotun people, their planet, and their former king your father. This decision is final and not subject to appeal. You will also officially renounce your familial claim to the throne of Jotunheim. You will be committed to one hundred years of cultural and moral tutelage under Ambassador Skadi of Jotunheim, or her successor should she yield her position to another. You are barred from travel to Jotunheim pending completion of this reformation for a thousand years, on pain of death. The only exemption from your exile will be if your talents are required for rebuilding efforts on Jotunheim and specifically requested by the reigning monarch. Such requests you are not permitted to refuse for the rest of your life, excepting that request directly conflicts with your obligations to Asgard. Additionally, in return for your life, Asgard will agree to pay twice the weregild of a royal as additional reparations to Jotunheim. The form of this payment will be determined pending further discussion with the Jotun government." Loki's eyes widened. A royal weregild amounted to a fifth of Asgard's annual gross domestic product. Even paid in more reasonable installments, Jotunheim would be receiving reparations for a century at least.

"Secondly, for the crime of permitting trespassers within Odin's vault, you are officially stripped of all princely titles and privileges for a minimum period of one hundred years, except for security clearance which is restricted to need-to-know at the Allfather's discretion for a minimum of only twenty years, and residency which is unrestricted. However, the Allfather may further restrict your residency and security clearances at his discretion. After sentence is complete, the Allfather may restore some or all privileges at his discretion.

"Thirdly, for the crime of attempted murder of Prince Thor, you are sentenced to two hundred years of community service, on the advice of your intended victim. Do you have questions regarding your sentencing?"

Loki took a deep breath. This was better than he had expected, in all honesty. "Just one. As there is a risk with neural evisceration of further mental deterioration, if I am incorrect about my lack of enmity towards Jotunheim, I would petition the Allfather that my first four weeks of community service be dedicated to relief efforts to Jotunheim if they have current use for my services, and to Midgard if Jotunheim does not. My victims should benefit from my best mind while I still have it." He would guess Midgard's need to be more dire at the moment, but his greatest obligation was to Jotunheim.

"Allfather?" Njordr deferred the question.

"Granted," Odin rumbled. "We will coordinate with Jotunheim and Midgard to prioritize and coordinate your activities and delay the evisceration procedure if necessary. Will three days be sufficient for that do you think, Ambassador Skadi? Ambassadors of Midgard?" Loki did not turn but assumed all the ambassadors must have nodded. "Three days it is."

"Other comments or questions?" Njordr asked. "There being none, I declare this trial at an end. The defendant is excused and will report to Prince Thor in three days' time for assignment."

The crowd was subdued as Loki left. Most brushed past him without stopping or acknowledging him at all. He was not surprised. There were many who would be personally unsatisfied by the sentencing, he knew, no matter how much opinion had supposedly turned in his favor in the wake of his near death and the poisoning of the Allmother.

He was not surprised when Fandral found him and took his hand, beaming with relief. Fandral had got himself appointed to coordinate security throughout the trial, the only way he was able to attend every day without completely forsaking his military commission.

He was not surprised when Lord Forseti smiled and winked at him before putting on his hat and striding out the door, only to be accosted by a journalist. Loki slowed down immediately to give Forseti time to have his say with the journalist and get away before he caught up to the pair.

He was surprised when the three human ambassadors popped up on his other side. The Nicaraguan ambassador thrust out a hand. He took it cautiously and kissed her fingertips politely. She blushed, so perhaps that had been the incorrect response, even though he vaguely recalled watching the human gesture at one point. "Are congratulations in order, Prince Loki?" she asked, extracting her hand.

"Arguably, Ambassador Ortega," Loki answered when he remembered her name.

"Then congratulations. What is neural evisceration, exactly?"

"It is a magical procedure that can be used to purge criminal intent," he said carefully.

"What do you fear will go wrong?" She sounded genuinely concerned for him, remarkably.

"Nothing. Lady Loralei is an excellent master telepath." He lowered his voice and said honestly. "And I anticipate my amnesia has stripped all such urges already."

"So... nothing will actually happen with it?" she asked in confusion.

"Most likely," he agreed. "The procedure will merely confirm my innocence of mind. However, if I am wrong, then at worst... convicts have been rendered demented in the past."

"Oh," she said, eyes wide.

"Which gave me an excellent excuse to ensure my services are immediately available to your planet," Loki finished smoothly.

"Oohh..." She understood his meaning immediately. Her expression turned calculating. "What exactly can you do for us?"

"What needs to be done? I am a licensed magician. I can use my abilities to aid with cleanup or reconstruction, environmental decontamination, or even healing if there are some whose injuries have continued to severely affect their quality of life." He shrugged. "Depending on the task, I may be able to accomplish it myself, or I may be able to find alternative resources..." All three of the ambassadors looked both excited and confused now. "Since none of you are actually representatives of the United States or Germany, as I understand it, might I suggest you introduce yourselves to Ambassador Skadi and to my brother Thor, with whom you will have to coordinate, but then go back to the Observatory and have Lord Heimdall send you home to discuss the arrangement with both the United Nations and regional authorities? You can make return plans for tomorrow with Heimdall. If needed, you can contact me directly with questions, or I can also put you in touch with a colleague from the Sorcerer's College who may be better able to do a rapid feasibility analysis of anything you propose." Depending on what the humans came up with, Baldr's assistance could be most helpful.

"Thank you. Dónde está Ambassadora Skadi?"

"Por ahí," the Mexican ambassador answered, pointing behind him. Loki blinked at the sudden switch to Spanish but realized she was no longer talking to him. He nodded respectfully and stepped closer to Fandral out of their way. Why had they been speaking anything other than their native language in the first place? With Allspeech, it didn't matter.

Fandral leaned towards him and whispered in his ear, "You're not going to be executed or imprisoned! Can we please celebrate now?"

Loki grinned. "Soon. I think Thor and my parents might kill me if I disappear before they get out here."

"Vainka vinut myohemmin ikvin?"

Loki stared at Fandral. "What?" That was Vana, and Loki understood it, but it sounded... he let go of Fandral and inspected both his hands, which looked normal. He rolled up his sleeves, and found a tell-tale spot of red on his bicep. On the left, where he could not feel the needle prick. "That was clever of them," he whispered.

"Varumi, Loki?" Fandral asked. He switched to accented Aes. "What's wrong?"

"I need to go to the healing chambers again," he sighed. "Fast. And magic isn't working, so please be my crowd-breaker for me." He started walking and found he was stumbling just as badly as ever with no proprioceptive magic to guide his ataxic movements, despite his regular training sessions with Hogunn.

"MOVE!" Fandral shouted. He grabbed Loki's arm and half-supported, half-dragged him forwards. All eyes swung towards them in surprise. As they finally passed the threshold of the court room, Forseti of all people took his other arm. But then Loki's Aes illusion started flickering and fading, and Forseti let go again in surprise. Fandral did not, until frost started spreading out from him. Ambassador Skadi replaced them both, hoisting him up with one arm around his waist and striding away much faster than he could have walked himself, supporting him on her hip. Fandral dashed ahead, clearing the way.

Skadi looked at him and actually grinned. "The court sentenced you to service, not to death, little Odinson. You must have misheard."

"Thank you," Loki slurred. His lips were completely numb, and it felt as if his tongue was swollen.

"You're not getting out of your obligations to us so easily. That is the first lesson I will teach. The second is that I am fair." If she listed off further lessons, Loki missed them because his ears started ringing, and that sound masked everything else. His vision started blurring as well, and he was nearly blind by the time Skadi set him down, presumably in the healing chambers although he had no way to know. People moved him around, and he let them. That was all he could do, really. He occasionally attempted to give his carers updates about his symptoms. "I am still blind and deaf and numb. I do not feel pain," but he was not sure if his words were comprehensible.

Fortunately, it did not get any worse, and with a few hours of Lady Eir's treatment, it actually started to get better again. His vision was no longer white but blurred. His hearing was no longer absent, merely muffled. His lips tingled, but he could feel them. "What was it this time?" he finally asked when he had the chance.

"A neurotoxin, introduced through the skin. Fortunately, this time, your attacker did not do their research. The poison would have worked well on an Asgardian, but not on a Jotun. You have the target ion channels on your sensory nerves but not on the heart. I still accelerated the elimination process. You should be back to normal by the morning, when it's worn off. It is not a toxin that causes additional tissue damage in Jotun, just transient dysfunction."

"Oh, good."

"And Captain Fandral already caught the one that did it. It was not hard since the list of possible culprits was much shorter this time." Loki sighed. He should talk to Thor about what his brother actually intended to do with all these would-be assassins. Maybe a massive fine and public shaming? They could hardly keep locking people up for wanting him dead if attacks kept happening this frequently.

"I am hopeful this will be the last one for a long time," Odin's voice said, seemingly reading Loki's thoughts. Loki squinted around and finally found his father sitting on a bench by the wall. Odin stood up and came over to hug him. "It's long past dinner, but if you are agreeable, I will escort you to the kitchens and then to your room."

"I would like that," Loki said tiredly. He got up and leaned on Odin's arm to keep his balance. They started walking, slowly and carefully. "Where are the others?" he asked after a time.

"Your mother is in conference with the other leaders of the Nine Worlds, discussing the results of your trial and these latest events. We drew straws. She lost," Odin explained before Loki could ask why that was not the Allfather's duty. "Thor is meeting with Ambassador Skadi and the Jotun prime minister to see what if any projects they would like to requisition you for in the immediate future." He shrugged. "Possibly none, particularly as Thor plans to push for you to go to Midgard first and the regular Jotun people are likely to object to your presence even if it is to put you to work, but we shall see." They rounded a corner, and Odin pulled up short. "And Fandral is here," he announced.

Loki squinted. Fandral was indeed approaching them, with a large, covered plate. "Skarde wanted me to give this to you," Fandral said. "How are you, Loki?"

"Everything's a blur, but otherwise fine. No harm done, I'm told."

"May all your assassins be idiots," Fandral prayed as he fell in step with them. "Seriously. This one was obvious when we reviewed the footage. The moron must have forgotten the trial was being broadcast to the rest of the Nine Worlds."

"Or he thought to win fame and honor by taking me down."

"Not much acclaim to injecting you with poison while you were distracted in a crowd. But I still vote we avoid crowds from now on."

"I can live with that."

"And make you wear plate mail from now on."

"No."

"Scale mail?"

"Still no."

"Fine, keep your leather armor. See if I care."

"I will."

Odin snorted. Once they reached the top of the steps to the royal apartments, he said, "I think I will say good night and go rescue your mother. Be well, Loki."

"Good night, Father." Odin left him at the door to his own suite, which Fandral opened for him. Loki sank into the couch with some relief. Walking was more of a chore than usual when he could barely see. He also wondered if there was something wrong with the balance organ of his ear contributing to his disequillibrium.

Fandral closed the door, sat down beside him, and put the tray down in front of him. "So... hooray, it's over." Loki laughed. He thought Fandral smiled. "Are you hungry?" Fandral asked.

"Not really. I should probably eat, though."

"Yes, you should. And don't worry, I already had it checked for poisons when I ran into Bragi randomly."

"Thank you. Eir would not be amused if we showed up in her domain again tonight." Technically, he could still perform the spell to detect poisons, he just could not sense what the hell he was doing with his magic.

"No, I don't imagine she would." Fandral offered Loki a dish that looked vaguely like vegetables when Loki squinted at it. Squinting was not very helpful, actually, he just could not resist the vain attempt to clear his vision. He sampled the dish and almost spat it out.

"Fagh!"

"You don't like it?" Fandral asked, surprised.

"There's... just no taste at all! Like chewy water."

"Oh." Fandral slowly set the dish back down. "Some celebration dinner this is going to be, eh?"

"Aye. I'm feeling less and less celebratory," he grumbled.

"Hey, remember you did get the outcome you were looking for. You still have your head. And you're not going to be thrown in prison. And you have actual permission to do what you can for Midgard and Jotunheim. You'll even be done with all the official punishments in two hundred years! That's way less time than it took you to get out of your arranged marriage!"

"That's true," Loki said, smiling faintly. He would not say he was filled with joy at the victory, though. If anything, he was feeling more depressed now than he had yesterday. Was it just because someone tried to poison him again? He sighed. "I feel... like nothing's changed."

Fandral shifted beside him. "Was it supposed to?"

Loki laughed softly. "Maybe not right away, but... yes. Norns, Fandral, the whole point of this trial was to be able to move on, and here I am, half blind and deaf and stuck in my room, and... and feeling like it's always going to be like this!" He did not notice he was crying until a tear dripped off his face and onto his hand.

"It will get better," Fandral said firmly, though even he sounded tired.

"When? When they run out of poisons to try on me? Or maybe when I figure out how to bring people back from the dead and bring fertility back to the lands I destroyed on Jotunheim with a snap of my fingers? I was an fool to think going through the motions of a formal trial would help! It was a sham anyways, and everyone must know it," he said angrily.

"It wasn't a sham," Fandral said.

"If it were legitimate, I would be on death row," Loki said savagely. By all rights, he should have been in prison this whole time, and facing execution next month rather than a bogus telepathic procedure...

"You don't believe that," Fandral said soothingly.

"You don't know my mind," Loki snapped, shifting away from him. "Don't presume you do."

"Then tell me about it," Fandral said. There was a note of distress in his voice now, and that made Loki feel even worse. Fandral was trying to help, naturally, but Loki was beyond helping.

He shook his head vigorously. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I should not be putting you through this, Fandral. I am treating you horrendously."

"Well, I won't say I like you yelling at me, no," Fandral said mildly.

"Get out," Loki said softly.

"Excuse me?"

"Get out before I say something we'll both regret."

"Loki, it's okay. You are hurting, and I want to help you, so long as you're not planning on heaping abuse on me..."

Loki shook his head again. "This isn't going to work." The words escaped him almost before he realized what he was thinking.

"What isn't?"

"Us. This."

Fandral leaned back, clearly shocked. "What?"

"Fandral, I'm broken, and I'm not going to get better any time soon, if ever. I refuse to keep... hurting you, all the fucking time."

"Loki... I am not hurting. Really, I'm not. I only worry about you."

"Then worry about me as a friend," Loki told him mercilessly. He was hating himself so much at the moment, he could not image anyone actually wanting to be around him. Fandral wasn't thinking.

"Would you really give up something as good and beautiful as what we have because it might not last forever?" Fandral said in a broken voice. "Loki, I understand you may not be given to the same kind of loves as I; most are not. But please, do not abandon this, abandon us, for... I don't even understand what for anymore! For fear of impermanence? For fear of hurting me when I'm telling you I'm not hurt?"

"You don't see it, Fandral. You don't see the decay, but I do. It's seeping out of my mind constantly. It will infect you if you try to stay with me. I am hurting you in so many insidious ways, keeping you from your other loves, from your best work, from your joy, from your best self. You need to get away from me."

"The only thing that hurts me is watching you do this to yourself," Fandral said hotly.

"Then don't look. It will be easier for me to tolerate myself if I don't have you distracting me."

"Distracting you?" Fandral repeated. Now he sounded angry to. "Is that what I am to you?"

"The way I am now... that is all you can be." He was never going to actually love someone ever again, he knew it. It was impossible to be in love when he disliked himself so much.

Fandral breathed in deeply and exhaled forcefully. "This is stupid," he said after a moment. "You're clearly still sicker than we thought, and I'm clearly not helping by sitting here arguing with you about it."

"The morning isn't going to change my mind," Loki said raggedly, not looking at Fandral.

"We'll see. I will see you tomorrow. For a proper celebration."

He got up and left without another word. Loki fully dissolved into tears as soon as the door closed. He got up and felt his way along the furniture and wall back to his bedroom and dug out the stupid, plush bilgesnipe out from under the bed again and hugged it to him, in lieu of an actual person to calm his nerves. Norns, he was such a child. But that meant he was right about his relationship with Fandral. Its foundation was a miserable swamp of need, doomed to failure. There was no love in him, not anymore. That was a part of his personality that had been shredded. Fandral would definitely be better off without him.

Author's note: this quarrel... has been coming for awhile. As a friend of mine once said, "being in a relationship doesn't cure depression." So yeah, there's a walloping catastrophe blowing up what should have been happy victory. Sorry, not sorry. It's not over, though, and it is safe for the shippers to keep reading 3