Hello :) Here is the next chapter – hopefully – for your pleasure! Still a Loki POV this time. Let me know what you think ;)

PREVIOUSLY ON ASAF: All of a sudden, it ended. The sceptre slipped from his inert hand, and the blindingly hot force pulsed through his entire being one last time before being snuffed out like a spark in outer space the moment Stark's hand fell from his. With nothing to support him he crumpled to the floor and darkness overcame him once more; but not before a familiar voice – Fate, he remembered now! – whispered in his mind: "You are now one soul."

CHAPTER 2

It seemed like an eternity later, but it must have been mere minutes. When he opened his eyes, the world only slowly came into focus, and the moment he tried to move every muscle in his body burned in complaint, and his head felt like it was being split in two. He had barely inched a hand forward on the tiled floor when the sound of a charging energy source reached his ears. It almost felt like magic, in its raw, wild form – before it was shaped into a spell – and yet there was an unnatural tang to it. When he finally managed to lift his head, he understood why.

Loki squinted up at the source; it was coming from Stark's armoured hand, and it was pointed straight at his face. The mortal was crouching a few feet away, one forearm cradled against his chest – the hand Loki must have crushed involuntarily – and his unmasked face stared at him suspiciously. His skin was moist from sweat and his hair flattened by it; perhaps Stark had not been as unaffected by the raging magic in the room as Loki had first thought. The sceptre was nowhere to be seen.

"Who are you?" Stark said, and Loki merely blinked back in surprise. What an odd thing to ask!

"Why, Stark," he rasped, his voice broken by his previous screaming, no doubt. "I didn't realise your memory was even shorter than your lifespan."

"Yeah, okay, so you're still the same arrogant prick as before. What the hell happened to you?"

"I am… unsure." Loki managed to shift his position to a sitting one, even though ever muscle involved in the operation quaked harder than before. Even when he stopped moving, his body continued shivering for no apparent reason.

"Well, I hope it's not contagious or anything. I'd like to keep my nice tan, and that kinda blue doesn't suit me. Though I gotta say, with the green and the leather, it's quite the fashion statement you have there!"

Loki looked down at his lapis-coloured hands in shock. How could he not have realised? How could he not have seen? He brought two quivering hands up to his face and touched the bumps and ridges edged on his skin. He closed his eyes – crimson eyes. Eyes that Stark had seen. Stark had seen him. His true form. His monstrous form. His breathing accelerated in a way that he stubbornly refused to call panic.

"What, is it contagious? Are you gonna die? Am I gonna die?"

He released a humourless chuckle that had the benefit of calming him down. He looked at the worried mortal again. The almost magical weapon was not pointed at him anymore, and Stark had chosen to cradle his injured limb with his other hand instead.

"I am not going to die," he said, and his tone was as incredulous as he felt. He had survived! He had survived all that incredible magic coursing through him! And even more incredulously, his mind was free from Thanos' influence! His mind was his own again! It felt like an eternity since that had been the case. After all the craziness after Thor's near coronation – the discovery that his whole life had been a lie, the sudden drunkenness of a power he had never truly wanted – after the loneliness and the cold of the void, after the torture and the sweet promises of revenge, his mind was finally free. Finally clear. Clear enough to see the humongous trouble he had caused once again, even though it was not entirely his fault.

"Yeah, well, what about me? I'm not gonna become a Smurf, am I?"

Loki smiled depreciatively. Whatever a 'Smurf' was, it probably was meant as an insult; any word referring to Jötnar usually was. "You will not become like me, no, as this is merely the skin I was born in." Even though it was only the truth, those words left an acrid aftertaste on his tongue.

"Oooh, right. Thor did say you were adopted." Had he? How unsurprising! The moment Loki did something unseemly, Thor did not waste a second to renounce him, did he? "I didn't expect the blue-skinned alien thing to be a thing, though. It's kinda cool! And Thor, does he change colour too?"

Loki could not stop himself from smirking at the thought. "Not unless I curse him."

Stark threw him an answering smirk. "Too bad! I was already imagining him in neon pink!"

Just for an instant, Loki's lips morphed themselves in a genuinely amused smile, and he could have imagined that the situation was a completely different one. One in which this mortal and he were not enemies, in which they could even be said to be on friendly terms. The idea did not last more than a second, though.

An army he was supposed to lead was going to burst from the sky at any moment, leaving only destruction in their wake. What was he supposed to do? It was not as if he still had the ludicrous delusion of ruling this Realm; it was not as if he had ever really wanted to rule any Realm. Ruling only brought responsibilities and took away so much freedom – unless one was a bad ruler, of course. The only thing he had wanted was to best Thor and be recognised as worthy once and for all. And that was never going to happen now – never mind that he had brought distraught to a weak and innocent world such as this. He was a Frost Giant. Frost Giants were never worthy.

"Sir!" an unknown voice said, and Loki looked around without finding the source. "Some sort of gateway has formed above the Tower, and unidentifiable lifeforms are passing through it."

Stark sprung to his feet immediately, obviously intend on going outside to fight. As if a mere mortal could fight a Chitauri army! The fool had no idea he was walking to his death! "Wait!" Loki said, even though he had no idea why he should be bothered. What was one mortal in the scheme of things? They would all die soon anyway, even if it was not in combat. Still, he felt responsible for this man's life, because taking the sceptre away from him might very well have saved him. And that might mean a life debt. Loki might find most of Asgard's traditions foolish, but life debts at least should be honoured in any Realm.

And in a way, Loki was responsible for the deaths he had already brought on Midgard, even if they were only mortal lives. Furthermore, it was his presence in the hands of Thanos and the Other that had brought this invasion upon Midgard right now. If not for him, it might have taken the Mad Titan years, maybe decades to get here; it was the reason for the portal after all.

If not for this life debt, however, he would not be considering helping. He should leave this Realm as soon as possible. Thanos would seek retribution for escaping his grasp. And yet, he was contemplating defying the most terrifying sorcerer in the universe, to avenge himself for all the pain he had endured at his and his subordinates' hands. It was as stupid as most of Thor's quests, and yet he still felt drawn to the idea. And if it happened to save Midgard and this particular mortal in the process, so be it.

"Listen, Cookie Monster, I don't have time for you right now, I have an alien invasion to stop. So if you intend to kill me, have at it! Otherwise, I got to go."

Loki nearly growled at the monster comment, but managed to rein it in at the last second. This was not the time to wallow in his unfortunate origins. He got shakily to his feet, not looking at his still blue hands when he pushed himself up; he did not have the time or the energy to get out of this skin right now. "I don't intend to kill you, I'm trying to save you! You cannot possibly defeat the Chitauri army!"

Stark looked at him as if he had lost his mind – or, at least, became even crazier than before. Loki could not blame him for that; he had had his hand on the mortal's throat some minutes ago after all. "What's it to you? I thought you would be doing the happy dance once we 'mortals' were all dead."

"I…" Loki couldn't really explain his reasoning. It was complicated to say the least, and he was not even sure if he understood it all himself. Any explanation would be taking too long either way. "Let's say I changed my mind." And wasn't that the understatement of the century? His mind had certainly changed; it was free of influence once again. "Perhaps you appealed to my humanity after all," he smirked, remembering the first thing he had said when he confronted Stark in his home.

Stark's demeanour changed immediately, and reminded Loki of Thor when he was trying to entice a woman into doing his bidding with his eyes alone. "Was it my ruggedly handsome charm?"

Amused, Loki lifted an eyebrow and swept his eyes over Stark's amour-clad body. "Spin whatever tale you wish."

"Ouch!"

Before the Midgardian could try to leave again – Loki could hear voices coming from the man's armour, beckoning him to fight – he should explain enough to persuade him to do this the right way. "There is an army of more than a million beings on the other side of that portal! The Chitauri fight using a hive-mind, so if the portal were to be closed, the sheer distance might be enough to sever the link and they would all collapse."

"Let's imagine that I believe you – you, the God of Lies—"

"I am NOT the God of Lies! I am the God of Mischief!" Loki shouted. It was perhaps not the most productive turn the conversation could take, but it certainly needed to be mentioned. He was sick of always being pegged as a liar.

"As if that's any better! So, let's pretend you're saying the truth for a second here. How do you propose to shut down a portal generated by the Cube, that happens to be shielding itself with everlasting power?"

"The sceptre. It can breach the barrier and deactivate the Tesseract."

Stark snorted. "Your sceptre! Figures! And you're probably going to say that only you can do it, so that I give you back your weapon and you can kill me with it!"

"I would not need the sceptre to kill you, if that were my intention. And as long as you stop doubting me at every turn, I won't have to. As for the sceptre, I would prefer to never touch it again." Loki had no way of knowing how strong Thanos' connection to the weapon was, or if the connection was still there. He would rather not find it out first hand.

"Well, you can't expect me to suddenly trust you!"

"I am not asking you to. It would be unwise of you to trust an enemy." Never mind that Loki was not truly an enemy of Midgard. "I'm merely trying to save all our lives, mine included. You realise that if I help you, I will become the Chitauri's enemy as well."

"I thought you said they were your army? Can't you just tell them to stand down or something?"

"Oh, no, they were never my army. I was only supposed to be the vanguard, sent to open the way for Thanos' true forces." Perhaps he should not have named the true evil behind this attack.

"Who's Thanos?" Loki would have sighed in defeat if he had been alone. Evoking the Mad Titan's name was never a good idea, and this was hardly the time for such a conversation; something had to be done about the army pouring out of the city's sky.

"It does not matter! We have to close that portal!"

"Okay, sheesh! Don't get your panties in a bunch, princess! We're going!" Stark stalked back towards the bar, opened a cabinet door and pulled the sceptre out of it. He had hidden such a dangerous weapon in a liquor cabinet! Did this mortal have any brains at all? Sceptre in hand, Stark walked towards the elevator, then inside it when the doors immediately opened. "Come on, Doctor Manhattan, we don't have all day! I thought you were in a hurry?"

Loki made his way to Stark as quickly as he could, his knees almost betraying him too many times to count. Once inside the metal box he slumped against the wall and tried not to appear as out of breath as he felt. All he really wanted to do was hide somewhere safe and sleep for a whole year. Instead, he was risking his life for mortals who would die a few decades from now at most. It seemed like such a waste.

A few seconds or so later – too soon – the doors opened again to a gravel-covered roof. "All right, Jarv', let's get battle ready!" Stark said, grimacing as he flexed his swollen hand and walked into the sunlight.

"That would be unadvisable, Sir." It was the same disembodied voice Loki had heard before, though this time it came both from Stark's armour and from the still open lift.

"I know that, and I don't care, just do it!" A gauntlet unfolded itself over the mortal's skin, and Stark yelled and swore in pain when it closed around his flesh. "Fucking hell, that hurts!" Through his mask, Stark's voice sounded artificial, and yet it managed to convey his anger perfectly well. "You owe me a new hand, you bastard!"

Loki's answer of "I am well aware" was drowned amongst the barrage of shots between Iron Man and passing Chitauri, and all Loki could do was hide inside the elevator like a frightened maiden. He hated being so powerless! Yet both his body and his magic were depleted of strength, and he would rather not end up full of holes. He could not even summon his armour into being – how humiliating could this get?

Fate must be mocking him for his last thought; for Stark decided then that climbing up the ladder would either be too slow or too dangerous, so instead he leapt inside, awkwardly grabbed Loki by the waist with one arm, dragged him out and flew up the few yards to the Tesseract and an unconscious Dr Selvig.

"Jarvis, tell the team I'm working on closing the portal and cut communications, I don't need them chattering in my ears right now." Stark shot at a few more passing enemies with projectiles that flew out of his shoulders. "All right, Blue Beauty, now what?"

Loki barely had the time to be surprised by the strange moniker. A ripple of resounding thunder and a streak of red chose that exact moment to fly towards them at high speed. Thor's landing caused a shower of gravel, some of the small rocks hitting the Tesseract's barrier – those pieces were thrown back with such force that one of the Chitauri vessels went down after impact. Loki was lucky that the one that whistled passed his ear did not choose another, more unfortunate path. His oaf of an adoptive brother could be such a bumbling idiot!

When Thor looked at him, he only faltered for an instant when he saw his true appearance. "Loki, stop this madness before it is too late!"

Oh, for the love of Yggdrasil! Loki groaned in frustration. "What do you think I am doing, you imbecile!" he snarled. That seemed stop Thor in his tracks; obviously he'd had a whole speech prepared, and Loki's answer had derailed him. Typical! "Go save those poor mortals you love so much instead of standing there gaping!"

"What?"

A Leviathan cried out as it entered Midgard's atmosphere, and any response died on Loki's lips. "Uh oh!" Stark said, and he couldn't agree more. This was all getting out of hand fast. The portal had to be closed! Now!

He looked back at Thor. "GO! What are you waiting for?" And for once in his life, that blond idiot had the decency to listen to what Loki said. Thank the Norns for small miracles! Loki turned back to Stark, who was still looking up at the portal and what was beyond. "Thrust the point of the sceptre through the barrier and nudge the Tesseract out of alignment!" Stark did not move, however. "Anthony Stark! What are you doing? Close the portal!"

"Hey Jarvis, zoom in on that, would you? Holy shit, is that what I think it is?"

"I cannot say with any certainty, Sir, but it might indeed be a mothership," the disembodied voice answered, and Loki looked up again. He could not see whatever it was Stark saw, but he did not doubt that the size of the Chitauri army hidden behind this small gateway into space was rather substantial. In any case, the size of the army did not matter. All they had to do was close the portal, and the attack would be cut short!

"Say, Loki. You said these aliens had a hive-mind, right? Does that mean the 'head' is the biggest ship up there?"

"Probably. That's why when we close the port—"

"We'll come to that. But first—"

"STARK!"

"—want to know if whoever is invading Earth – if it ain't you – will come back some other way if we close the portal."

All Loki could do was stand there, mouth slightly agape. Of course, the mortal had a point, it just surprised him that such a young and ignorant being could get to that conclusion on his own; closing the portal would only delay Thanos' thirst for Midgard, and the Chitauri would come back through regular space travel, even if it took years. Even so, what else was there but closing the portal?

"Of course they'll come back! There is nothing we can do about it right now! All there is to do is stop this invasion!"

"What, you don't think we could blow their mothership to smithereens first, or something?"

Loki laughed. He just laughed, even though this was all far from amusing. "You think you, a mortal, can destroy an entire army?"

"Well, not me specifically." Loki laughed again, and Stark lifted his mask to frown at him. "Right, so you're telling me that our weapons are so pathetic that you would survive a nuke in your face?"

"What is a 'nuke'?"

"Ah, I see! You are merely uninformed! How about I show you what we 'mortals' can do? Jarv', get me Fury on the line." There was a pause. "Hey, if it ain't my favourite pirate!"

"What do you want, Stark? I'm a little busy here!" another voice grumbled, and Loki recognised the voice of the director of S.H.I.E.L.D.

"I got a tiny little favour to ask. If you could, you know, send a nuke flying towards my tower—"

"What?"

"—not at my tower, mind you, just towards—"

"Have you lost your goddamn mind?"

"—so I could throw it through the portal and hit the motherload, that would be great. I have it on good authority that if we blow up the mothership, all these puppets will get their strings cut and drop like flies. I'm counting on you, sweetheart!"

"Wait fucking minu—"

"Stark out."

Stark turned to Loki then, thrusting the sceptre in his direction, and Loki couldn't stop himself from taking a hurried step back. "Okay, listen up, Articuno. I'm gonna go catch myself a flying bomb, and throw it up to outer space. Your job is to close the portal when it's done. Not before, otherwise New York City is going to explode, and you and me with it, and not too late either, or the explosion out there," Stark gestured towards the hole in the sky, "will irradiate us all anyway. Simple enough, right? There you go, then!" And the mortal tried to hand him the sceptre once more. Loki stepped back further.

"I really think it would be unadvisable for me to—"

A groan loud enough to be heard over the Chitauri vehicles zooming past stopped him mid-sentence. Dr Erik Selvig was sitting up, with his head held in his hands, and Loki held his breath, wondering. When Thanos lost control over him, did the mind-control spells he cast through the sceptre vanish along with it, or could the sceptre still maintain the spell on its own?

The answer was rather forthcoming when Selvig opened his eyes and looked up at the travel-spell-thread, then followed it up to the portal that was pouring out enemies of Midgard in an unending cascade. "What have I done?" was the first thing he said, and Loki did not need to see the lack of unnaturally blue irises to know that this man's mind was free of influence once more.

"Hey there, Doctor… What's your name again?" Selvig abruptly turned his head, noticing them for the first time. His eyes swept over Stark without much surprise, but when he looked at Loki he screamed and scrambled back, getting dangerously close to the edge. "Woah, woah! Calm down! We're all good guys here! Right? I mean, it looks like you got hit on the head, so…"

"Who's that?" the astrophysicist shouted, pointing at Loki. Ah, so the fearful scream was not one of recognition, but more one of surprise. It was no wonder; the only thing Jötnar could do was inspire fear after all.

"What? Oh, never mind Stitch, he's here to help. Are you all right, Doctor…"

"Selvig."

"Ah, yes. You're all right, aren't you? Great! Then I'm sure you can lend me a hand!" Stark helped Selvig get back up on his feet in one swift move, and before Loki could do or say anything, Stark said "You hold onto this then," and put the sceptre in the other man's hands. How foolish could that mortal be? Who knew what could happen to anyone who had been touched by the sceptre's power! One was not supposed to handle the artefacts one had been cursed by so recklessly! Only when a few seconds had passed and nothing had happened did Loki release the breath he had been holding.

The disembodied voice that Stark called Jarvis spoke then. "Sir, I have been asked to tell you that the 'package' is underway. ETA three minutes."

Stark looked at Selvig again. "Right. Selvig, you close the portal only when Megamind here tells you to, all right?" The Doctor looked down at the weapon in his hands, comprehension dawning, then looked towards Loki suspiciously for a moment. When his eyes strayed on the Tesseract however, he seemed to make up his mind and nodded.

Stark turned to Loki then, and two metal gauntlets latched themselves onto his shoulders. The mortal was sporting the most serious expression Loki had ever seen on his face – him, the man who seemed to smirk arrogantly at every perilous situation he found himself in. It worried the god, even though he had no reason to; it should not bother him if this mortal were to die through his own recklessness, life debt or not. "Neytiri, dear, I gotta go. Don't screw up with the portal, and fingers crossed that I don't get to meet Eywa today!" His face broke into a smile then, and he had the gall to wink before flying off at high speed. Loki closed his eyes and sighed in defeat. And people were calling him crazy!

When he lifted his eyelids again, Selvig was standing before him, sceptre pointed towards him as if ready to defend himself with it. The mortal's eyes were still clear, so this was all his own doing. The suspicion in his gaze made Loki wonder if the man truly did not know who he was. Perhaps it was merely an unconscious inkling.

Loki walked towards the barrier surrounding the Tesseract, with as much dignity as he could muster in his state. He locked his knees once he arrived, and wished he could do all this sitting instead of standing. "Place the point of the sceptre here," he said, pointing. Selvig hesitated a moment, but Iron Man vouching for him must have been enough, for the mortal slowly did as he said. "Good. When I tell you to, thrust the sceptre in with all the force you can muster and push the Tesseract aside. Don't do it before I tell you, though. Stark said to coordinate with his 'nuke'."

"What? They're sending a nuclear bomb? Have they completely lost their minds?" In his bewilderment, Selvig scraped the sceptre's point along the barrier, causing a shower of sparks.

"Director Fury seemed to share your sentiment."

Selvig opened his mouth to say something, but whatever it was was cut short by Stark and a humongous missile flying straight passed the tower and directly into the portal. Selvig obviously saw that as his cue; he pushed the sceptre through the barrier, and Loki was barely in time to grab the man's arm to try and stop his momentum. "Wait, you fool! Don't close it now!" The barrier's magic was crackling around the golden staff and the sceptre's point was only an inch or so away from the sparkling blue cube.

They both looked up at the portal when Chitauri started to fall from the sky, inert. Beyond the gateway space was illuminated to a point where nothing could be seen anymore but fire and light. Loki was starting to feel faint again, and Stark was yet nowhere to be seen.

"I have to close it now—" Selvig started to say, and Loki held onto the mortal tighter – though if it was to stop him or if it was to help himself stand, he could not say. He could only mumble "No" in a voice that was failing him, and darkness surrounded his vision when the light in the sky only grew. He did not know why, but one thing was certain: he could not let Stark die out there. For some mysterious reason he whole-heartedly believed that.

"I'm sorry, I have to." Selvig pushed the Tesseract then, and the spell-thread broke. Loki fell to his knees, face still upturned, yet his eyes were unfocused and he could not see. Just before the darkness claimed him for good he remembered Fate's words: you are now one soul. He finally understood her meaning; only now it was too late. He was gone even before he hit the ground.

Gosh, Loki is fainting a lot today, poor dear XD So, readers of mine, care to share your thoughts?

Spread the Luv!

LL