Chapter 46 - Unknown Dangers

"Do you think it's possible that Father didn't know?"

"You have to be kidding, Thor. He had to have known."

"It's true that the map wasn't very well hidden; which is a bit suspicious, I suppose."

Occasionally, Thor caught Loki off guard by managing to be ever so slightly more insightful than himself. He was right, it was a little too convenient that the map had just been stuck in the atlas for the first person that picked it up off the shelf to find. "You're right; someone must have put it there because they wanted us to find it—or for you to find it, anyway. Who in their right mind would put something they want you to find in a book, I couldn't begin to guess."

"You know, it really isn't necessary for you to say everything that pops into your head. But don't you think that the most obvious answer is that Father left it for me to find?"

"When would he have had a chance to put it there? He couldn't have known that you would take his place on the throne so suddenly." Then again, maybe he had known; with Odin, anything was possible. Perhaps the old man was faking dementia, and everything that had happened since their last trip to Asgard was part of some elaborate scheme of his. Part of Loki wanted it to all have been a scheme, while the other part vowed to give the bastard an opportunity to meet his granddaughter if it turned out to be true.

"It might have always been there," Thor suggested.

Loki shook his head. "I used to sneak in here to read these books. I must have looked through those maps half a dozen times at least. It wasn't there before."

"Perhaps father knew you had a habit of sneaking in to read and hid the map? He might have put it back when you were no longer around to snoop around and find things you weren't supposed to."

"I suppose that's possible. Anyway, it doesn't really matter how it got here. What are we going to do now?"

"I don't know that there's anything to be done. So there's another realm that we never knew about. There's probably a reason for that."

"Aren't you the least bit curious?"

"Of course I'm curious, but I have enough to do without going on some inadvisable journey for the sole purpose of satisfying my curiosity. That kind of thing was fine in my youth, but now—"

"You aren't that old."

"Perhaps not, but I feel as though this job has aged me five hundred years. I'm sorry brother, but I have too many responsibilities to go lollygagging around the nine realms."

"Then send someone to check it out. Like Sif."

"You just want me to order Sif to leave Midgard."

"Is that so wrong of me? I really don't need her to babysit me."

"She's there as your bodyguard."

"I don't need a bodyguard."

"Loki, you double crossed an insane Titan who's after a set of magical artifacts powerful enough to destroy the entire universe in the blink of an eye. Plus, you're still mortal, though I suspect you could do something about that if you wanted to. You do need a bodyguard, and if it isn't Sif, it's going to be someone else. Fandral, perhaps."

"Did I say you should send Sif? I meant to say you should send Fandral."

"That's what I thought."

"In all seriousness, Thor, you could send the Warriors Three to check it out."

Thor shook his head. "I couldn't ask them to go into such unknown dangers. We really have no idea what we're dealing with here."

"Father used to send them and us into 'unknown dangers' all the time."

"Yes, but there were six of us then. And let's be honest, without Sif's sword, my hammer, and your magic—"

"You're right, you'd be sending those fools off to almost certain death. There's nothing for it then. You'll have to send Sif and I with them."

"Absolutely not."

"Why? My magic is almost completely back now."

"You're still mortal, remember? And even if you weren't, I'm not sure you should ever have gone with us on journeys before. You're too young."

"Thor, how many times has my magic saved your life?"

"I know, Loki, but we could have taken another magic user with us."

"Like who? Amora or Lorelei?"

"Obviously neither of them would have been suitable, but we could have found another. There are plenty of magic users on both Vanaheim and Alfheim."

"You can't seriously be saying you would have wanted to travel with an elf?"

"Why wouldn't I? You really should take a good look at all these biases of yours, Loki."

"Oh, come on Thor, you and I both know that elves are to Asgardians what the French are to Americans."

His brother sighed. "I assure you I have no idea what you're talking about; but why do I have a feeling you're starting to pick up Tony's biases now, in the same way you picked up all of Odin's? This is all hypothetical anyway. We can't go back in time and do things differently. All I can do is protect you in the present; and don't try to tell me that you don't need my protection, because whether or not you think you need it, you're going to get it."

Loki sat down next to Thor on the sofa. "I do appreciate it, believe it or not. Just knowing that there are people that do worry about me—" Loki couldn't quite find the words to express what he felt. "But you have to understand how frustrating it is for me to have everyone treating me like a child again. I'm still one of the most powerful mages in the nine realms, and that isn't just vanity."

"I know it isn't, and that's another thing that scares me."

"You're scared of me?" Loki wasn't sure whether to be offended or flattered.

"No, that's not what I meant. I can't explain it fully, not even to myself; but knowing how much magical potential you have makes me scared for you."

"You think I'll be taken advantage of, then."

"Yes, that's it, I think. Like with Thanos; if you hadn't been able to use the scepter, he wouldn't have had need of you."

"Which wouldn't have made me any safer, only more disposable," Loki pointed out. He didn't want to talk about Thanos, so he changed the subject."Are you going to let Mother keep the scepter?"

"I could ask her to hand it over so it could be locked up in Asgard's treasure room, but I'm not sure it would be any safer. Besides—"

"If Mother intended to hand it over to you, she would have already. You can't compel her to, because she isn't a subject of Asgard anymore, and you can't force her to, because she's Frigga and even as All-Father you're still about as magical as the filament inside a light bulb."

"That isn't fair, Loki. I may not have your talent for magic, but—"

"But?"

"Er—I have a big hammer?"

The corner of Loki's lips quirked upward, and he couldn't keep his eyes from drifting to Thor's lap. "Your ability to keep the ladies satisfied aside, are you really suggesting we do absolutely nothing about the fact that there's an entire realm we know nothing about?"

Thor scooted a little farther down the couch from him and crossed his legs. "We could just ask mother. She might know something."

"Which she won't tell us."

"Loki, I'm sure that Mother has had enough of the lies that drove our family apart, just as we have."

"How sure are you of that, Thor? If she knew about this, she might have mentioned it by now. Perhaps it just slipped her mind, but do you really want to give her an opportunity to prove you wrong?"

Thor's face fell as he likely realized that Frigga probably was still keeping some secrets from them. "No, I don't. Perhaps we should ask someone else, but who?"

(?・・) [ X ](・・?)

Ikol had taken his male Aesir form again and sat cross legged on the floor in front of the maps Loki had laid out. "I would leave this alone if I were you."

"So you do know something about it."

"I'm in charge of an organization that oversees all of time. I know just about everything, which I believe is why you asked me. And while I'm inclined not to interfere too much—"

"You've already interfered. Quite a bit."

"—I will tell you, nothing good can come of seeking out a daughter of Odin."

"What do you mean, 'seeking out a daughter of Odin?' Do you mean to say that Thor has a sister, or a half-sister, residing in this unknown realm?"

"Sister—daughter of—you can't mean the daughter that Frigga bore Odin?" Thor sputtered. "But Mother told me that the child was killed before her eyes!"

"Oops. I've said too much." Ikol's hand flew to his mouth—to hide a smile, Loki thought.

He began to think that his other self was right; they should leave this whole thing alone. On the other hand, he had always wanted a sister. Technically he had both Wanda and Zora now, and Natasha was a bit like an older sister to him as well; but he wasn't particularly enamored of Wanda or Zora at the moment, and unless he figured out how to turn mortals into immortals, he wouldn't have Natasha for more than another sixty years or so, even if she managed to live into old age. An immortal sister, however— "Thor, I think we should check this out."

Thor nodded solemnly. "If our sister is out there, we have a duty to find her." Then his voice dropped, and Loki barely heard him say, "After all, as Odin's first child, such a child would be Asgard's rightful queen—"

"I really wouldn't get your hopes up if you're thinking that you can pass off your responsibilities onto her," Ikol warned him as he casually examined his nails. "I highly doubt she'll have any interest in taking over when she was raised by Asgard's sworn enemies to believe herself one of them."

Thor paid him no heed. "Loki, you and I shall go to this unknown realm to find our sister and bring her home."

Loki arched an eyebrow at him. "You want me to go now? Because I thought you regretted bringing me on your previous journeys."

His brother put his hands on his shoulders. "I may need your magic, Loki, and I've no time to find another mage. I'm sure it will be fine, though. It has always been fine before."

"There's always a first time to die horribly," said Ikol, his voice containing no more emotion than it had before. "Usually, it's also the last."

If Loki died trying to bring the daughter of Odin and Frigga back to Asgard, would Hela send him back? Loki wondered. However, it had been much too long since he could really use his magic, and he was itching for an opportunity. But then something else occurred to him. "What are we going to tell Tony?"

"Right, Tony. Obviously, he won't approve," said Thor. "Perhaps we can tell him you've decided to stay for a while instead of returning to Midgard right away—"

Hold on, you mean you're actually starting to figure out when I wouldn't approve and then you're not doing that thing? Not gonna lie, this feels like real progress, said a little voice in the back of Loki's head. The thought of lying to Tony made Loki's stomach tie itself into a knot. "Thor, on second thought, perhaps we could put this off. Just for a little while."

Thor frowned. "By that, you mean you want to wait until Tony is dead, don't you?"

"Or until his mind goes the way of Odin's—one of those."

"Sure, that will only take another half a century or so," his brother pouted.

"You know, if all you want is to avoid your responsibilities to Asgard, there are other ways to accomplish that," Ikol told him.

"Really?" Thor sat up straighter, then cleared his throat. "I mean—I'm definitely not trying to avoid any responsibilities; but if one did want to avoid such responsibilities, what could one do?"

"For one thing, you could always just appoint someone to rule in your stead while you go on an 'important diplomatic mission' to somewhere or other."

"Like Midgard?"

"That's one possibility, obviously."

"But who would I—I mean, who would one appoint—"

"Sif was all set to be Asgard's warrior queen," Loki reminded him.

"But then she realized how poorly she had treated you when we were children, and decided she was not fit to be queen."

"So convince her that not only is she fit to be queen, she's the only candidate. I'll tell her I forgive her for all the times she bullied me if I have to."

"You really want her gone from Midgard, don't you?"

"It's more than that, Thor. I've—I've missed you." It took some effort to force the words out of his mouth, because telling Thor how he felt went against everything he believed in; but if that was what he had to do to get rid of Sif, that was what he was going to do. "I need you around, and I want you to come back with us."

"But what do I—I mean, what would one—"

"Thor, everyone here knows you're talking about yourself. Just say what you mean."

"Oh, very well. What do I do with Father?"

"I don't see that you have to do anything with him. Aren't mother's handmaidens tending to him?"

"I can't leave him to them indefinitely. Taking care of Father isn't really their job. And now that mother isn't here, many of them have begun making plans to return to the places they came from. Syn and Sjofn wish to marry."

Loki snorted. "Who would marry Syn?"

"Sjofn," said Thor, as if it ought to have been obvious. "Anyway, I just wouldn't be comfortable leaving him in Asgard with no family near him."

"You're not suggesting that we take Father back to Midgard with us, are you? Because I doubt Tony would want him moving into the tower with us." Actually, it was Loki who didn't know how he felt about that. Maybe part of him had begun to acknowledge Odin as a father again, but that didn't mean he was ready to see him on a regular basis.

"You know," Ikol interjected, "if you wish to keep Odin near to you, but not too near, Midgardians have these wonderful things called nursing homes."

Thor's eyebrows knit together. "That's terrible! We cannot put Father in a—wait, what is a 'nursing home?'"

(-̀◞_◟-́) ρ(-_- )ﾌﾟ (´～`)

"Friends, let us all drink to Doctor Banner, and to our mutual green friend!" Thor stood at the middle of their table at the front of the hall, his arm slung around Bruce, who was hunched over and looked a little like a turtle attempting to shrink back into its shell. He threw his head back and drained his tankard as Bruce took the smallest possible sip from his own. He smashed his glass against the floor, and called in unison with all the other Asgardians, "ANOTHER!"

"He seems to be in a good mood." Tony pretended to take a drink, then poured half the contents of his tankard into the empty soup tureen in front of him when no one was looking.

"Ikol explained to him about nursing homes," said Loki, who sat between Pepper and himself.

Tony wasn't entirely sure he followed. "Okay—"

"He's decided to return with us, by the way. Sif shall be returning to Asgard to rule in his place. If you ask me, it was high time for the glass ceiling to be broken in the realm of Asgardian politics."

"Aww, and I was just getting used to having her around." It wasn't a complete lie; Sif actually wasn't that bad once you got used to her. Like Loki, she was still just a messed up over-a-thousand-years-old kid, albeit one with a little bit of a short fuse. "Is that really a good idea, though? I left you guys home alone once and she threw a party and drank all my booze."

"We weren't home alone. Steve was there too," Loki reminded him. "Anyway, that was highly atypical of her behavior. She's usually very responsible. I mean, I think there's a one in ten chance at most that she'll start a war with Alfheim or something. And even if she does, who really cares?"

"As long as she doesn't start a war with Earth, I guess."

Loki reached for a miniature eclair from the dessert tray in front of him, but Pepper turned around just in time to get him the evil eye. "You need to eat a little more dinner before you have dessert," she told him, and spooned a heap of some sort of green vegetable onto his plate.

Loki poked at it, but when Pepper turned back around to talk to Betty, who had been moved up to the head table along with Bruce and Leonard, he dumped it into the soup tureen along with Tony's ale.

(*ﾟーﾟ*)ｰ( ￣▽ )_皿

Thor had literally been whistling a happy tune the next day when they all took the Bifrost back to Central Park. Loki would have liked to tell him to knock it off, but she knew it wouldn't have been any use. Besides, she felt almost like whistling herself. She really had missed Thor, as short a time as he had actually been gone, and she was looking forward to once again having someone to practice her transformation magic on. She kept learning more and more about the abundance of exotic animal life on Midgard, and ever since she had seen a picture of one on the Internet, she had had a feeling that Thor would make an exceptionally cute Mexican mole lizard.

While Thor decided that he couldn't wait to return to Midgard, and Loki had agreed that Sif wasn't likely to believe that Thor truly intended for her to serve as temporary queen unless she heard it from Thor's own lips, Odin was not with them. They had decided it would be better for Thor to come back on his own in a few days' time to fetch him; that way, they would have some time to find a nursing home where they could dump him. Besides, Happy was supposed to pick them up from the park, and it would be crowded enough in Tony's limo with six adults, three adolescents, all their luggage, and one magpie nestled snuggly in his cage.

Thor only stopped whistling for the few minutes it took them all to travel via Bifrost, and once they found themselves in a snowy Bethesda Terrace on a cold winter's morning, he started up again. He only stopped when he saw a small brunette bundled up in several layers of padded coats and scarves marching towards them.

"Where the hell have you been?"

"Why should you care where I've been? You broke up with me!"

"So? We break up at least once a month! But this time, I never heard from you afterwards."

"I was under the impression that you didn't want to hear from me this time."

"You could have at least told me you were going back to Asgard." Jane threw her hands into the air. "But that's why we keep breaking up. You never tell me anything. You didn't even tell me your mother was getting married."

Thor looked in the direction Jane had come from, and saw that a small, dome shaped two-person tent had been pitched right there on the terrace, only a short distance away. "Jane, have you been camping out in this park, waiting for me to come back? I do not believe that is allowed."

Loki rolled his eyes. "If those two get back together, will someone please put me out of my misery?"

"Hey, I get it, those two are completely cray-cray."

"Who are you?" Loki asked a second brunette with glasses, also bundled up in several layers of clothing, who had just emerged from Jane's tent.

"Darcy Lewis." Darcy put her hand out, and Loki eyed it suspiciously. "I'm Jane's assistant."

"So you're like, what, her handmaiden?"

"Uh, no. I was actually her intern, but since I'm not in school anymore now I'm her assistant, like for sciencey-stuff. Really though, I just make sure she remembers to eat and sleep, make the coffee, and try not to break too much of her equipment." Darcy continued to hold out her hand, and Loki continued to stare at it. Meanwhile, Jane and Thor continued to shout at one another. "I'm guessing you're Thor's insane little sib—"

"I wouldn't have had to camp out in a park if you would have just called me to tell me what was going on!"

"You specifically told me not to call you!"

"Did I?"

"You did. You said 'don't call me, I'll call you,' and yet it sounded as if you did not intend to call me at all."

"That's just a thing people say, Thor!"

"You can't expect me to know 'what people say,' Jane. I'm not even really speaking the same language as you are."

"You can say that again."

"I said that you can't expect me to know—"

"I heard you, Thor. It's another turn of phrase."

"I'm sorry, did you just call me insane?" Loki made a face as he watched Thor and Jane berate one another. "Norns, please never let the two of them produce offspring."

"I don't know, I think their kids would be pretty cute," said Darcy. "They'd be all blond and pretty like their dad, and they'd be all smart like Jane."

"Or they would be hardheaded like—well, both of them—and scatterbrained like—well, both of them, come to think of it." That was when Loki realized; though on the surface they seemed like wildly different people, in truth, Thor had made the same mistake he had when he had dated Sigyn. He was dating the female version of himself; though oddly enough the female version of Thor happened to be a smallish Midgardian woman who was obsessed with astrophysics.

Suddenly, Thor and Jane weren't fighting anymore. Instead, they each had fistfuls of each other's hair and clothing and were in the process of trying to suck each other's souls out through their mouths.

"Get a room," Loki shouted.

"Get a room," Darcy shouted.

"Jinx," said Darcy, as Loki continued to watch Thor and Jane in silent, frozen horror.

Thor and Jane didn't look in their direction. Without breaking apart, they slowly moved towards Jane's tent and disappeared inside.

"Alright, I think it's time for us all to get out of here." Tony had been standing a small distance away the entire time, fiddling around with his smart phone, but now he put it away. "Happy just texted me. He's going to pick us up over on 5th and 77th."

Darcy gave the tent one last glance and stuck out her tongue. "I'm coming with you guys, if it's okay."

"Yeah, sure. The more the merrier." Tony scrunched his nose up at the tent himself, then grabbed Loki by the arm and began to drag her away.

...φ(^◇^；)

Author's Note:

Sorry this is late again! I'm starting to have difficulty finding time to write since I started working full time. I intend to keep at it, though.