All characters, places, and events you recognize belong to Marvel, Disney, etc.

Please note that the actual science-y part of this story is largely from my own imagination. I've done some research, but the science will be very, very fiction. I hope you can roll with it. :)

Thank you to the lovely dristi5683 for her help!


Day 123

Puente Antiguo, New Mexico

His not-brother was an even bigger fool than he had realized. Loki stood over Jane's sleeping figure, eyes narrowed. The mortal had finally exhausted herself trying to avoid sleep. She had lain on the couch, sniffling and mewling, muttering to herself, then paced for an hour, before retiring to the threadbare sofa with a small book and her ever-present telephone. She lay on her back, legs tangled in a white sheet, book clasped to her chest, her throat exposed. Loki's fingers twitched and his eyes narrowed. Patience.

Loki studied her, this mortal who had foiled his plans to rid himself of Thor and seal Odin's approval. In the moments when Thanos was not torturing him, Loki had fantasized about torturing her. He had seen only the briefest glimpse of Jane through the Destroyer's eyes, but a human who had effected a cataclysmic change in the God of Thunder must be the most remarkable, most beautiful woman in the Nine Realms.

He took in her plain, shapeless clothing, wrinkled and stained with remnants of food and drink, her greasy brown hair, the dark smudges under her eyes, and her sallow complexion. She was not only not beautiful, she was repulsive. Loki bent down and sniffed delicately, then backed away. Distaste curled his lips. He had assumed that sour smell came from the overflowing waste bins, but it was emanating from her unwashed body.

Jane turned her head on the pillow. "Thor…"

Loki immediately disappeared from view, then realized she wasn't awake. Ugh. She was dreaming about the great oaf.

"No...stop...don't…"

Dreaming about telling Thor no? Loki smirked. Maybe this wasn't so bad.

"Help...Erik! Eriiiiik!" The last word came out as a half-scream. Jane's head thrashed back and forth, and tears slid from the corners of her closed eyes.

"Darcy...no..." Jane threw her arm out, grasping at the air.

A small frown creased Loki's brow. He moved to kneel at the end of the couch and ever-so-lightly placed the fingertips of his left hand on Jane's head. Soundlessly mouthing an incantation, Loki closed his eyes and bowed his head in concentration.

Jane's dingy lab falls away. Loki stands in a small shop of some sort, worn wooden planking under his feet. Jane sprawls on her stomach across the threshold, facing hell. The world is bathed in harsh sunlight choked by black smoke. Twisted debris and bloody body parts litter the dusty road. The smell of chaos fills Loki's nostrils, and he grins. Excellent.

"DAAARRRCCCYYYY!"

A beam of liquid fire immolates a dark-haired woman. Jane moans and rocks from side to side.

That fire is familiar. He narrows his eyes and searches through the smoke. A large form materializes, sparkling in the sun's rays. Loki's eyes widen. A nightmare about the Destroyer! And judging by the carnage outside, her imagination is even darker than his own. Glee bubbles up inside him, and he clamps his jaws shut before it can escape.

"Brother!"

Loki and Jane both stiffen in shock. Loki summons a dagger to his fingertips, then remembers this isn't real. Jane writhes on the dirty ground, incoherent noises issuing from her throat.

"Whatever I have done to wrong you, whatever I have done to lead you to do this, I am truly sorry…"

Loki grinds his teeth. Sentiment.

CRACK! Thor's body lands heavily, blood spraying around him. From his torn lips, "Jane…"

Ugh. So noble. Loki rolls his eyes and waits for the happy ending. We all adore Thor, our hero!

Jane whimpers. "Thor, don't leave me alone…"

Any second now, that blasted hammer will slap into Thor's meaty paw.

The Destroyer turns and faces Jane. What was this? The metal monster's faceplate whirrs and clicks out of the way. A furnace roars to life.

Jane moves, and Loki smirks. You can't run fast enough, mortal.

Except she isn't trying to escape. She pulls herself through the door, toward the Destroyer, pleading, "Let me die."

Fire streams from the Destroyer toward Jane. Darkness suddenly falls as the dream breaks and Loki is disconnected from Jane. He blinked, disoriented. He was leaning on the arm of the couch and she was screaming, a high grating that clawed his ears. Panic grabbed his throat until he reassured himself that his cloaking spells were in place. He stood swiftly, moving away from the painful noise.

Jane wrenched herself upright. Her eyes were open, but they were glassy, distant. She kicked at her bedclothes, frantically bleating her terror. She gagged, her body heaving, but nothing came out. She scooted herself into the corner of the couch and folded herself up, rocking back and forth.

Loki stared, fascinated by this pathetic display. He had fantasized about terrorizing her until she gave up hope that Thor would save her. But her dreaming mind had already accomplished this for him. How delicious…

You will long for something as sweet as pain, Loki No-One's-Son.

The memory of that hissing voice broke into Loki's thoughts. He scowled and shoved his elegant fingers through his hair. The desire to get revenge against Thor warred with the desire to please Thanos and survive. A long moment later, Loki cursed and stalked away from Jane's makeshift bed to the darkest area of the lab.

He extended his arms at waist height, palms up, then beckoned with his fingers. Obeying their master, green tendrils of magic gathered on his palms and ran up and down his leather-clad arms. Loki shaped the magic as a potter would clay, preparing it to serve his purpose. He softly spoke instructions until the emerald ripened to gold. Satisfied that it was ready, Loki carried the ever-shifting golden orb to the couch.

Jane sat jammed into the corner of the sofa, arms wrapped defensively around her middle, knees folded to her chest. Her hair hung stringy on either side of her gaunt face. She had stopped rocking, but still stared sightlessly ahead of her. Loki raised the ball of magic above her head and ground it to dust between his large hands, allowing the spell to sift over her gently.

He stepped back to gauge the effects. Would the spell work on a human? Several minutes passed. Jane sat catatonic. Then, a long slow blink. And another. Jane sighed. She yawned and unfolded her limbs, until she was sitting on the edge of the couch. Another yawn, another blink, her eyelids too heavy to hold open. She tipped toward her pillow, blindly groping for the sheet. Another sigh, a sweet moan of relief this time, a few gentle snores, then silence. Complete silence. Loki raised his eyebrows and bent over Jane's still form. He fixed his gaze on a point under her jaw, waiting to see the quiver of her pulse. Nothing.

Loki mouthed a command, then twisted his hands and drew them to his chest as if pulling a rope. Gold sparkles rose from Jane's body and met in his hands. Loki repeated the motion, and Jane suddenly drew a deep breath. He watched her carefully until he was sure that she was only sleeping.

Humans were ridiculously delicate creatures. Now that he had determined to help her sleep, he would have to monitor her all night. Loki sighed. The sleep spell taxed his energy; he was in need of rest himself, but he would have to wait. There was a proverb here on Midgard about that, wasn't there? Something about punishing good deeds. He lowered himself to the cold floor of the kitchen, resting his back against the cabinets, trying to avoid the sharp handles. For the rest of the long night he kept vigil over Jane.

oooOOOooo

Day 124

Puente Antiguo, New Mexico

bzzzzzzzz...bzzzzzzzz

Jane scowled and burrowed deeper into her pillow, but the noise only got louder.

BZZZZZZ...BZZZZZZZ. She groggily pushed a hand under the pillow and found her phone. Oh. It buzzed merrily at her. Darcy. She pushed the green phone icon.

"H'llo?"

"Jane! Hi! Good morning!"

Jane groaned and held the phone away from her ear.

"Hi, Darcy. What time is it?"

"It's ten o'clock, woman! Whatcha been doin'?"

Jane pulled herself up to a half-sitting position. What had she been doing?

"Um, I think I was sleeping."

"You were sleeping? Oh, dang it, Jane, I'm so sorry I woke you up. I'm not used to you sleeping. Woo-hoo for sleep! Yay, Jane!"

"Yeah, um, yay me."

"So the, you know, nightmares? Are they done, then?"

Jane pushed her hair out of her face. "I don't know. I think I had one last night, but then I went back to sleep."

"Sweet! So, what? Did you find some kind of new sleeping pill? Some meditation? What?"

"Umm. I don't know."

"How do you feel right now?"

Jane took a few seconds to check. "I don't think I could run a marathon, but my mind's a bit less fuzzy. I want some coffee."

Darcy laughed. "Yeah, you do! Hey, I've gotta go to my next class. I just wanted to touch base, 'kay? I'm rootin' for you, Jane! Love you, bye!"

oooOOOooo

Jane leaned back in her office chair, pulling another long swig of strong coffee. She narrowed her eyes at the columns of numbers. Dates and times were followed by enormous numbers, ranging from near 10 billion up to the ridiculously large octodecillion. These were unmanageable numbers. What did they have to do with the Tesseract?

She swiped her phone and read Erik's last message again.

Erik: The whole project will fail if you don't help. I beg you to reconsider.

Jane sighed.

Me: Okay, I'll bite. What are these numbers?

oooOOOooo

"How is it?"

Jane startled and glanced at the older woman sitting across from her. The woman—Isabel, that's right, from the diner—pointed to the plate in front of Jane.

"Taste good to you?"

Jane nodded.

Isabel smiled her satisfaction. "Dr. Selvig said you might be hungry."

A few minutes earlier, a knock at the door had nearly triggered another panic attack. Jane had hesitantly opened the door to find an older woman, nearly hidden by the bags and boxes she carried. The woman had swept inside uninvited, plopped all her packages on the counter, flipped on the overhead light, pulled a few items from a bag, and placed a plate of lasagna on the table.

She had pointed at Jane, then at the plate. "Sit. Eat."

Jane had been too dumbfounded to do anything but comply. Now she pushed the empty plate away and blinked at Isabel.

"Erik?"

"Yeah. Dr. Selvig called and asked me to come check on you. Said to tell you it's either me or the sheriff." Isabel got up and busied herself unloading the rest of the bags. "He said you hadn't eaten in a few days. Too busy working, as usual. Dr. Selvig seemed very worried." She fixed Jane with a look. "Are you okay?"

Jane waved her off. "No, I'm fine, just, you know, busy. Fine." She flashed Isabel a smile. "Great. Yeah."

Isabel didn't return the smile. "You're a lousy liar." She scanned the dusty, cluttered room, the pile of dirty dishes in the sink, the tangled bedclothes on the couch. Then she turned to study the younger woman. Jane picked at a loose thread on her shirt.

"You go shower. I'm going to clean up." Isabel's tone brooked no argument, and Jane wordlessly obeyed.

oooOOOooo

Me: thanks

The late afternoon sunlight glanced off the laptop display. Jane slowly spun the chair, examining the fruit of Isabel's labor.

Her phone rang. Unknown Caller. Jane drew a deep breath, then answered the call.

"Hello?" Pause, hiss, click. "Hi, Erik."

"Hello, Jane."

"Thank you. For sending Isabel."

"It's nothing. I'm glad you let her in. How are you feeling now? Better than yesterday?"

"I feel a bit more human. I showered, I had a hot meal, and Isabel cleaned the whole place. In like an hour. She's scary efficient."

Erik chuckled. "Yeah, she's something, all right."

"She told me that she used her compensation money to rebuild the diner. She said she's never been so thankful for a glitch. Erik, did you know SHIELD told everyone that…" Deep breath, Jane. "...the, um, attack was the result of a computer virus infecting Tony Stark's newest prototype?"

Sssssssss.

"Yes, I did know. The World Security Council doesn't think the human race is ready for proof that we're not alone in this universe."

"But we're not. Alone, I mean. How does denying it help us prepare for the next, uh, visit?"

"I am—we are—trying to prepare, Jane. We're tackling the problem from all sides. SHIELD is working on defensive shields and offensive weapons. And we hope Thor can help us with diplomacy and creating alliances—"

"We don't even know if Thor is alive. There's been zero communication since he returned to Asgard."

"I know, but don't you think no news is good news?"

"How does that make sense?"

Ssssssssss.

Erik's voice was very gentle and he spoke slowly and carefully. "I think that if Thor had been, uh, defeated when he returned to Asgard, if Earth was at the mercy of Thor's crazy brother, that we would have already been attacked again."

"Then, if Thor is okay, why hasn't he come back like he promised?"

SSssssssss.

"I don't know, Jane. But listen to me: I'm working on preparing Earth in case there's a next time. And I really, really want you with me on this."

Jane massaged her temples with her free hand. "I want to help you. But I don't know how much good I'll be. Last night was the first time in ages that I've slept more than two hours. My brain is Swiss cheese."

"Just go at your own pace, okay? I'll be happy for any insight you can offer."

"Thanks."

oooOOOooo

Jane returned to her laptop. Erik had sent a lengthy email. She opened it, pleased to feel a bit eager to read what he'd written.

Hours later, Jane was worn out and irritated with herself. Erik wrote that these numbers were power readings from the Tesseract. It was a living thing, pulsing and fluctuating. But what determined when it surged and when it ebbed? To harness its energy, they had to understand it. And these power outputs were just crazy big, magnitudes larger than nuclear explosions. How was it possible to even record these readings?

Jane plugged the data onto a graph, then studied the resulting image. The peaks and valleys looked familiar, but she couldn't tease out where she had seen this pattern before. She sighed and closed her laptop. The burst of energy she'd felt this morning was gone.

oooOOOooo

Loki sat against the wall of the lab, waiting for Jane, amusing himself by retracing the secret paths through the stars by memory. How many times had Heimdall scolded him for suddenly appearing on the Bridge? When had he realized the Gatekeeper wasn't truly all-seeing? Frigga would—no, he would not open those wounds.

The mortal sat on her couch, reading a book. Loki looked her over. Thank the Norns she had bathed. Her clothing was still fit for a peasant, but at least she smelled less like a hog pen and more like...vanilla? He noted detachedly that her hair, when clean, curled at the ends.

After Jane's third round of yawning, Loki released the golden sleeping spell. Some of the sparkling fragments caught in her eyelashes. He watched her closely as her eyelids closed and her breathing evened out. The spell was weaker than the first one, but he couldn't risk losing her. He settled in for the nightwatch.

oooOOOooo

Day 125

Puente Antiguo, New Mexico

A knock at the door made Jane jump.

"Coming! Just a sec." Jane set her coffee cup down and hurried to the door of the lab.

Isabel stood there again, bearing a steaming, fragrant burden. "Hi, Jane."

"Isabel! Please, come in." Jane closed the door behind Isabel and met her in the kitchen.

"You look—and smell—a little less like something the cat drug in today." Isabel softened her blunt comment with a warm smile. She slid a cinnamon roll across the counter to Jane. "Hungry?"

"Yes, ma'am. You are a miracle worker."

oooOOOooo

Solar flares! That had to be it! This year had been an active year for the Earth's sun. She searched the internet until she found a table of this year's solar activity. A grin spread across her face. Yes! These flares matched some of the Tesseract's power spikes. Perhaps it was responding to the energy released by the sun.

Jane frowned. Solar flares could be as powerful as one billion megatons of TNT, but some of the Tesseract readings were much higher even than that. Clearly she needed more data. She hit reply to Erik's email and simply wrote:

Can SHIELD get me all reports from these dates from the NEIC, NASA, and NOAA?

There had to be an explanation for the wild variations in readings. Earthquakes, storms, atmospheric disturbances, something.

oooOOOooo

Loki stared at cheaply spackled walls. The morning sun limned the edges of cracked window shades. Down the street from the old service station, an inn had escaped total destruction, and he had found a hiding place. With worn carpeting, gaudy wallpaper, and a rust-stained sink, the room was well beneath a prince of Asgard. Compared to the black rock on which he'd just spent an eternity, it was palatial.

His hands shook and his body ached. He was utterly spent. The negotiations with Thanos had left him weak. He had traveled thousands of light years under his own power and spent much of his energy on Jane, without resting. The spell cloaking him from Heimdall's view was his highest priority—he couldn't afford to lose his grip on that. He tugged off his leather overcoat and set to working the buckles of his breastplate. Several failed attempts later, Loki groaned in frustration and surrendered. A drop of his precious magic vanished his garments. He collapsed naked onto the bed.

Last night he had to constantly fight to keep Jane in a deep enough sleep to avoid a nightmare. He didn't have the energy reserves for that. As he fell asleep, a tiny smile touched his lips.

What if avoiding the nightmare wasn't the answer?

oooOOOooo

...Thor, your father still lives...

...a deadly funnel from the cloudless sky…

...charred flesh, nausea, terror…

...no…help...help…

...just kill me…

The Destroyer trains its faceless gaze on her. Hellfire billows up inside the metal monster. Jane shuts her eyes, waiting for the blessed searing pain.

A calm, authoritative voice rings out through the sickening haze of fear and death. It pronounces one word. She cringes—what fresh torture was this? The Destroyer's furnace extinguishes. Jane stares, unable to believe what she was seeing. Another word, another. They are in some strange language, but the Destroyer is responding. It topples to the ground in a deafening scream of metal. Another word and the monster implodes, sucked into itself like a demonic vacuum.

"Get up, Jane."

Wait—she understands that. What is happening? Is the Destroyer really gone? The world around her begins to swirl as though it, too, is being sucked away.

"Who are you?" She squints, trying to see the origin of the voice.

"That isn't important. Get up, Jane."

Jane slowly obeys. "Did you destroy that—that thing? Is it gone?" The bodies disappear, the rubble vanishes.

Her savior shimmers into view in front of her. Dressed all in black leather, with long wavy black hair and a piercing gaze, he doesn't seem much safer than the monster.

"It's gone for now. The next time it comes back, you will destroy it, Jane Foster."


A/N: Going by the MCU timeline, Jane wouldn't have seen Loki or any photos of him yet, since The Avengers hasn't taken place. So she wouldn't recognize him.

I didn't realize how much fun reviews were...thanks to those who've written reviews and sent PMs. :)