Authoress Note: Welcome to Chapter 23 of God of Lies and Mischief and the Woman of Many Faces. Thank you to those who have kept up with this story and have left reviews. It really does mean a lot to me. I can't wait to show you guys this next chapter. I'm excited to see what you guys think. Do you think that Everleigh should tell Odin that Loki was indeed innocent? I hope that you guys enjoy this next part. Without further ado Chapter 23. Enjoy!

Chapter 23

Everleigh sat in her room alone with her head lowered. Her mind reeling with everything that had happened recently. Her little meeting with Odin prior to being in her room hadn't gone all that well.

"You wished to speak to me about something?" Odin said, looking down his nose at the young woman.

"Yes." She said softly, looking up at him. "About Loki."

Odin waved his hand at what she had said. "What is it that you wish to discuss about him?"

"Sir, Loki had no control over what had happened." She said softly, pursing her lips together hoping that Odin would actually believe what she had said.

"And you believe that."

"I know he was under control of the very scepter that he was given." Everleigh said standing her ground. "You wouldn't punish someone who had no control of what they did."

"And how did you know that he was under control?"

"His eyes are naturally green, correct? They were blue when I met him."

Odin waved his hand as the guards came over to where she stood. "Take her to her room."

"I'm telling the truth." Everleigh said as the guards ordered her to go to her room. "I'm honestly telling the truth. Loki had nothing to do with what happened. Someone much darker and cruel made him do that."

Everleigh let out a breath and shook her head. She couldn't believe that Odin was so stubborn to not believe what she had said. She slowly looked up at the Aether surrounding her and everything around her turned bright red for a moment.

Volstagg entered the room with two guards with him.

"Everleigh Vincin. You need to come with us." One of the guards said, looking at her.

Everleigh slowly got up to her feet taking a breath slowly following Volstagg and the two guards. Her eyes were glued to the ground as she slowly walked. She heard the chattering between Odin and Fandral.

"We are still unable to restore the palace shields. Our artillery cannot detect them, even Heimdall cannot see them. My King, we are all but defenseless." Fandral said to Odin softly.

Thor walked up to them. He noticed the guards around Everleigh. He felt a spike of anger go through him. "She's your prisoner now?" He looked at Fandral,Volstagg and the two guards. "Leave us."

They started to walk away leaving Everleigh with Thor and Odin.

Everleigh pursed her lips together nervously. She hadn't thought that she was a prisoner, but perhaps she was now due to what had happened.

"I do not wish to fight with you." Odin said, looking over at his eldest son.

"Nor I with you, but I intend to pursue Malekith."

"We possess the Aether, Malekith will come to us."

"Yes, and you will destroy us."

"You overestimate the power of these creatures."

"No, I value our peoples lives. I'll take Everleigh to the Dark World and draw the enemy away from Asgard. When Malekith pulls the Aether from Everleigh it will be exposed vulnerable, and I will destroy it and him."

"If you fail, you risk this weapon falling into the hands of our enemies."

"The risk is far greater if we do nothing. His ship could be over our heads right now and we'd never even know it."

"If and when he comes, his men will fall by ten thousand Asgardian blades."

Everleigh looked down gripping her hands at her sides. She couldn't believe that they weren't allowing her to have a choice really of what to do.

"And how of our men shall fall on theirs?" Thor demanded looking at his father.

"As many as are needed! We will fight! Until the last Asgardian breath, the last drop of Asgardian blood."

"And how are you different from Malekith?"

Odin let out a chuckle. "The difference, my son, is that I will win." Odin walked away from his son.

Everleigh looked over at Thor. "I want to do your plan, Thor." She said softly as her eyes locked with it. "I should be able to have a choice…"

Thor looked over at Everleigh. "You want to do my plan?"

Everleigh nodded her head. "It's my life in the balance among your people. I'm a danger, Thor. If your father keeps me here, the Aether will kill me and you know it."

Thor's hands gripped tightly at his sides. "You know I would never allow that to happen."

Everleigh touched his shoulder lightly. "I don't expect you to let me die, Thor. Never."

TDWTDW

Thor walked up to Loki's cell where he was standing looking well kept and clean.

Loki looked at Thor, his lip curled a little. "Thor, after all this time and now you come to visit me. Why? Have you come to gloat? To mock?"

"Loki, enough. No more illusions." Thor demanded as he looked at his brother, his voice in a low growl.

Suddenly Loki's cell was transformed, the illusion was lifted and Loki's cell was a mess, everything had been thrown around and he sat on the floor, looking unkempt and messy in the other corner of the cell. "Now you see me, brother."

Thor walked up to the other side of the cell to be closer to his brother.

"Did she suffer?"

"I did not come here to share our grief. Instead I offer you the chance of a far richer sacrament."

"Go on."

"I know you seek vengeance as much as I do. You help me escape Asgard and I will grant it to you, vengeance. And afterward, this cell."

Loki let out a chuckle. "You must be truly desperate to come to me for help. What makes you think you can trust me?"

"I don't. Mother did. Everleigh does. You should know that when we fought each other in the past, I did so with a glimmer of hope that my brother was still in there somewhere. That hope no longer exists to protect you. You betray me and I will kill you."

Loki smiled. "Hmm. When do we start?"

TDWTDW

Loki and Thor walked out of the Asgardian prison.

"This is so unlike you, brother. So clandestine. Are you sure you wouldn't rather just punch your way out?" Loki questioned as he walked with his brother.

"If you keep speaking I just might." Thor grumbled out as he walked next to Loki.

"Fine. As you wish. I'm not even here." He transformed himself into an Asgardian guard. "Is this better?"

"It's better company at least."

"Still, we could be less conspicuous." Loki then turned back into himself before turning Thor into Sif. "Hm, brother. You look ravishing."

Thor looked down at his body and replied. "It will hurt no less when I kill you in this form."

"Very well. Perhaps you prefer one of your new companions, given that you seem to like them so much." Loki then turned himself into Captain America in his full Captain America gear. "Oh, this is much better. Woh. The costume's a bit much, so tight. But the confidence, I can feel the righteousness surging. Hey, you wanna have a rousing discussion about truth, honor, patriotism? God bless Amer–"

Suddenly Thor grabbed a hold of Loki and put his hand over his mouth and pushed him against the wall causing Loki to turn back to himself.

"What?"

Thor looked to the side and they saw two Asgardian guards walking away.

"You could at least furnish me with a weapon. My dagger, something!"

Thor looked at him.

The sound of a sword being drawn.

"At last, a little common sense." Loki then looked down and then held up his hands which were now in iron handcuffs.

"And I thought you liked tricks." Thor turned and walked off.

Loki grumbled as he slowly followed his brother. "I do not like this type of trick, brother."

Thor shrugged his shoulders as he walked.

"You say that your friend, Everleigh, trusts me."

Thor shrugged his shoulders once again. "She seems to trust you. She was the one that wanted to see you."

Loki looked at his brother. "She wanted to see me on her own."

"Yes, tell me Loki, were you afraid of what is happening with her?"

Loki swallowed the lump in his throat and his hands gripped tightly turning white. "She's insane to have the Aether in her body."

"I don't know how it got into her body, but I promised I would help to save her."

Loki swallowed the thick lump that formed in his throat again. Would this crazy plan succeed?

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This is the end of Chapter 23. I hope that you enjoy this chapter. I enjoyed writing this chapter a lot and we got a Loki/Thor scene of being brothers. I have to admit that I had a lot of fun writing it. I promise there will be more Loki/Everleigh scenes. I kind of do miss writing them, but right now trying to get the story moving on. The next chapter will even be more interesting than this one. Please leave a review and let me know what you think. I'll try to update next Monday. Until next time.