It was a beautiful day in Asgard and Loki had called together the masses through his disguise as Odin to see a play he had written. He had done all as one big joke really, along with the monumental statue of himself and Vanessa standing over the threshold to the theatre.
"I cannot believe you did this." Vanessa muttered as she watched the play that Loki had ordered through his Odin disguise.
Odin sat next to Loki on a humble throne, while Loki shared a fainting couch with Vanessa. Needless to say at first the people of Asgard were skeptical at the sudden change in Odin toward his adopted son, but with the ways things were going they were willing to overlook it. Under Odin's new rule with Loki's council Asgard was thriving more than ever.
"It's just a bit of fun." Loki grinned as the play reached its climax with Loki's reconciliation with Thor.
"Oh, like the statue?" Vanessa gestured behind them where a statue of Loki in gold with one arm held around a statue of herself in silver, his other arm held out.
"Exactly." Loki pressed a kiss to her cheek.
"Thor is never going to believe that Odin just walked away after he sees all of this." Vanessa shook her head.
"He will if you explain." Loki shrugged.
"It would be nice to have some help in explaining though. Have you had any word from Heimdall?" Vanessa asked.
"No, not since Odin departing." Loki furrowed his brows. "He said that he needed to leave."
"And Scurge was the best you could find to replace him?" Vanessa raised a brow.
"Maybe not the best, but he is loyal." Loki nodded.
"You know he's been using the bridge to collect things, right?" Vanessa said, no one noticing Thor as he took a place amongst the crowd. He looked from the stage to where Loki and Vanessa were sitting, his eyes glancing over Rhea then to Odin.
"I'll speak to him about it...again." Loki assured her, glancing over to where Rhea sat, her hand pressed to her mouth as she tried to hold in her laughter.
He was very proud of the young lady his daughter had grown into and was almost ready to forgive Tony for allowing her to take up hero work without his or Vanessa knowledge. What he wasn't ready to forgive him on was the young man she had become involved with. They had come to earth to look for Odin and instead found out their daughter had a boyfriend.
"I've got one more question." Vanessa said. "Why can't you do an illusion of Odin instead of one of yourself?"
"People are more prone to being near the Allfather than myself, I find it easier to maintain his tangibility if I am putting the illusion around myself." Loki replied as the crowd erupted in rapturous applause as the players bowed ending their conversation for the moment.
"Bravo! Bravo! Well done. Bravo." Odin stood up prompting a standing ovation from the crowd.
"Father." Thor stepped forward out from the crowd taking a knee.
"Oh, shit." Odin and Loki cursed under their breath at the same time, before Odin spoke louder and became rigid as Loki struggled to maintain the illusions. "My son! Thor has returned! Greetings my boy."
"It's an interesting play. What's it called?" Thor asked.
"The Reconciliation of Loki and Thor of Asgard. The people wanted to commemorate the momentous occasion." Odin commented.
"Indeed they should." Thor eyed Loki.
"You are to kind brother." Loki strolled forward clasping hands with his brother. "Perhaps you'd like to go inside, you've had a long journey."
"I like that statue. A lot better looking though. A little less weasely. Less greasy maybe." Thor went on.
"Is that so?" Vanessa raised an eyebrow.
"I spoke only of my brother I assure you sister." Thor accepted a hug from Vanessa and Rhea while Loki rolled his eyes at Thor comment. "The statue does not do you justice."
"Thank you, but really Thor, we must go inside, we need to…" Vanessa tried, but Thor cut her off holding up the skull.
"You know what this is?" Thor looked to Odin.
"The skull of Surtur? That's a formidable weapon." Odin replied as Thor handed it over to a guard.
"Do me a favor. Lock this in a vault so it doesn't turn into a giant monster and destroy the whole planet." Thor ordered the guard who nodded and took the skull away.
"So it's back to Midgard for you, is it?" Loki asked as Thor started YO-YOing Mjolnir, turning back to them.
"Nope. I've been having this reoccurring dream lately." Thor commented. "Every night I see Asgard fall into ruins...
"That's just a silly dream... signs of an overactive imagination." Odin waved him off. "Now my son if you'll come with…"
"You really going to make me do it?" Thor asked.
"Do what?" Odin asked. Thor spun Mjolnir and then hurled it off into the distance, and grabbed Odin by the back of the neck. Everyone gasped in shock as the Einherjar bodyguards rushed Thor, but he kicked them away.
"You know that nothing will stop Mjolnir as it returns to my hand." Thor warned as Mjolnir stopped mid-air and started rocketing back. "Not even your face."
"Thor! That is enough!" Vanessa snapped, but even her powers were not great enough to stop the mighty weapon as it approached at a terrifying speed.
"Uncle, stop." Rhea called out.
"Yield...brother." Thor ordered and shimmering illusion dissipates, revealing Loki as his copy disappeared.
"Alright, I yield!" Loki moved out of the way and Thor caught Mjolnir. Loki looked to Thor, hands up defensively.
"Behold! Thor...Odinson." Skurge arrived on the scene, a little late to warn Loki.
"Yes, we can see that." Loki sighed with a tiered glare.
"Where's Odin?" Thor ground out.
"Thor, this is not the place to…" Vanessa tried, but Thor advanced on Loki ignoring her, who backs away from him.
"Where's father? Did you kill him?" Thor demanded pressing Mjolnir onto Loki's chest.
"We don't know where he is Thor." Vanessa said grabbing his hand and pushing it away from Loki. Thor saw the troubled look in her eyes as well as Rhea and Loki's causing his stomach to drop as he stepped back.
"What has happened?" Thor asked more sedately.
"He disappeared and we've not been able to find a trace of him." Loki told him somberly.
"We were able to track him up to a certain point then there was nothing." Rhea chimed in.
"Show me." Thor ordered.
-0-
They stood before a nursing home sign on a brick wall that crumbled away revealing a demolition site.
Thor Rhea and Loki stood before it all wearing street clothes. Thor carried an umbrella wearing a pair of jeans, zip up sweater, and a shirt. Loki was dressed in a black avant-garde suit, and Rhea in a pair of black skinny jeans, a purple and white thick stripped long sleeved shirt, a black loose scarf, and a pair of black shin length boots. Vanessa opted to stay behind in order to reassure the people that everything was fine, but Rhea needed to go back to earth so she could attend school.
"So this is where the trail ran cold? Right here on the sidewalk? Or right there, where the building that's being demolished?" Thor sniped at Loki.
"What more did you want us to do? How were we supposed to know he'd just up and leave Asgard in the middle of the night? Can't see into the future. I'm not a witch." Loki snapped back.
"Then why do you dress like one?" Thor asked sarcastically.
"Hey." Loki shot him a look.
"I can't believe this." Thor shook his head.
"Uncle Thor, Grandpa was acting all sorts of crazy while in Asgard. Eir did everything she could for him, but he…he kept saying that Grandma was calling for him, that he had to go find her..." Rhea crossed her arms as her brow furrowed. Despite the rocky start she had come to know about between her parents and Odin he really had turned over a new leaf. He had become supportive and even encouraging. He was the one that trained Rhea in her abilities with the spear. "He went to bed that night and when we woke up the next morning there was no sign of him. We tried to get word to you, but we couldn't find you. We've been searching for him ever since while mom and dad tried to maintain the realms. If they knew for an instant that he was gone then everything would have fallen in ruin."
"Ask him." They heard a girl with a group of friends say, all of them giggling.
"Hi. Would you mind taking a picture with us?" The other girl asked Thor.
"Sure." Thor smiled for the camera while talking to Loki through his teeth. "Start figuring out where he is."
"Oh, my god." The girl gushed.
"Rhea Stark, can we have a picture with you to?" Another girl asked.
"Of course." Rhea smiled for the camera with them, not missing the way her father frowned at her surname. He knew that she could not use Lokisdaughter unless she wanted to be completely ostracized, but it was still painful.
"We love your music, its so good." The girl complimented her.
"Thank you." Rhea smiled brightly, always liking it when someone praised her musical skills as a DJ.
Her genre was known as glitch-hop although she was accomplished in other genre's as well, a talent she had picked up from her mother. Once the pictures were all taken, fielding probing questions of why she was out with Thor, and autographs signed the girls took their leave.
"Sorry to hear that Jane dumped you." Another girl said to Thor.
"She didn't dump me, you know. I dumped her. It was a mutual dumping." Thor defended himself as the girls walked away.
"Dad, what's that?" Rhea asked her father as a gold circle surrounded him.
"What's this, what are you doing!?" Thor demanded. Loki looked down to see that the sidewalk had started to glow beneath him in a circle of ancient symbols.
"This... isn't me." Loki shook his head looking worried.
"Dad!" Rhea made a grab for him, but he dropped out of sight, vanishing through the solid concrete. Thor spotted a card on the sidewalk where Loki had been before he had fallen into the hole and poked it cautiously.
"Loki?" Thor questioned.
"Its not dad, it's an address card." Rhea smacked his arm as she bent down to retrieve the card. "177A Bleecker Street."