Chapter 5

Special thanks to Hazeleyes92 for your wonderful review! I have bigs plans for this story and I hope I don't disappoint! We are just getting started yet so on with the show!*

Loki tossed his goblet across the room, it shattering when it made contact against the wall. Wine red as blood running down slowly to meet the broken shards on the floor. He sneered and began to pace the room. Things had been going so well. Everything was falling into place but it seemed the fates were against him.

Of all the towns, in all the countries of the mortal realm his good-for-nothing brother had to land were SHE was. He had spent the last twenty three years watching over her. Keeping her safe and making sure she was happy and looked after and by mere CHANCE he was sent to her.

Loki snarled, kicking over the sitting chair in his room as rage boiled in his blood. At first she kept her distance of her ignorant Father but then, THEN, then he watched their little road trip and he felt his control of the situation slip. They had smiled, laughed together. Worst of all he had questioned her. How dare he bond with her? Loki had kept a careful eye on his niece all these years. Once he had secured the throne he had planned to call for her, show her who she truly was and all the greatness she was meant for. He would train her to be his successor, his right hand. She would look up to him with a grateful smile and love in her eyes. He would support and guide her like a proud father. She would be his equal as he had dreamt of being Thor's.

He was unable to ignore the fact that over the years he had grown to care for the girl. Love her as family should. The Selvig couple had done well raising her but she was destined for so much more then that.

Loki cracked his neck and straightened his collar. This was only a minor set back. Opportunity would present itself in due time and he would make his move. Soon Valerie would be by his side like she belonged. His mother would be able to hold her granddaughter again and they would be a loving family and rule with compassion. All of Asgard would worship them and forget the oppressive rule of Odin and the arrogance of Thor.

Valerie parked a good distance from the crater site, the duo having decided it was best to approach on foot to lower their chances of being seen. The darkness of the desert night was perfect cover as they hurried towards the edge of the crash site, crouched low as they weaved between the dirt, rocks and desert shrubs.

They sunk low as they neared, hidden between a large bolder and a weedy looking bush. The crater had been transformed into a military style base. A chain link fence surrounded the perimeter, flood lights illuminated the area, and a maze of white tents lead through the camp to a large square construction that was clearly meant to hide whatever was inside.

Valerie glanced upward as thunder cracked overhead. The temperature began to drop around them and she could almost taste the moisture in the air. She looked back down to the site, leaning against the bolder. "Well that's definitely doesn't look like a satellite crash." She whispered in anger to her companion. Thor used his hand to push a few branches from his line of sight but said nothing. "I doubt they would have built a city around the damn thing."

Thor began to shift next to her, removing his jacket. "Here." He passed it to her. Thunder crash ahead once more and she took it without question. Her jacket would protect her for the most part but it was good to have a little extra. "Stay here. Once I have Mjolnir, I will return for you and take you back to your family and return the items that were stolen. Deal?"

She nodded. After her and Thor's lovely chat about the weather a hurried phone call from her Father at a payphone had informed her that the lab had been cleaned out by the government. She had returned to seething. It had been the icing on the cake and as Thor had predicted her anger of the situation had caused the thunder to blossom around them. Thor hadn't decided to talk her down, letting her bubbling anger be used to his advantage.

"I need you to do something for me." He had said in the car after she parked. "I want you to keep focus. Focus on that anger you felt back in the car and back at town. Don't try and control it."

"Deal. So what?" She began to question. There was a hard edge to her voice as her rage boiled but the man knew it wasn't directed at him. "You're just gonna walk in and ask nicely for our stuff before walking out?"

"No," he smiled, "I'm going to fly out."

Valerie rolled her eyes as her companion left her side. "I'm definitely going to prison for this." She mumbled. As he made his way down to the fence the rain began to fall and Valerie pulled the extra coat over her head to block it out. Once Thor was through the fence she couldn't make him out among the other figures moving around. The storm crashed around her as she felt worry creep into her mind. She didn't know the man well but didn't want to see him hurt. After what felt like hours additional lights snapped on over head of the camp. Spot lights moving about the area and a large crane could be seen lifting into the night sky. Valerie cursed under her breath. She had to do something. But what could she do? She couldn't stand up to a bunch of government trained thugs. She was strong, but she wasn't that strong.

Dread filled her as she tried to focus on what was happening below. A deep cry rang out and forgetting herself Valerie tossed the extra jacket away and stood to get a better view of the scene below. She could make out Thor wrestling with an agent in the mud outside the tent. "Common." She whispered. Cheering him on as best she could from her perch.

He finally tossed the man to the ground and quickly disappeared into the opening in the tent. Through the frosted glass of the centre construction she could make out his form entering. He paused for a moment and everything seemed to still as he reached for the object in the centre. Valerie held her breath, waiting, watching, but nothing happened. She watched his form fall to its knees and a pained cry echoed through the crater. Valerie's heart broke. She'd never heard such a sound of heartbreak before. If this man was who he said he was it wasn't her controlling the storm above anymore.

He had failed.

Valerie raced back to the lab, breaking every speed law in the state on her way. Her tires screeching as she came to stop outside.

"We have to help him!" She declared as she paced the now empty lab after she gave the group a quick recap of what had transpired.

"Valerie." Her father's tone was chastising. A tone she'd been hearing a lot of lately.

"Don't 'Valerie' me!" She pointed at him. "You didn't see him down there."

"Maybe she's right." Jane cut in. "He may have been a little rude but that doesn't mean he doesn't deserve our help."

"Hey!" Darcy butt it, "It's mew mew!"

Valerie moved to lean over the girls shoulder. "You mean Mjolnir?"

"Thor's hammed?" Jane questioned. The girls stood together across the table from Erik.

"Listen to yourselves." He scolded the girls like he would his students. "Don't you hear yourselves? This is crazy."

Valerie took the book, flipping through its pages as the scientists argued. The pages fell to land on the story of Asgard. Her mind rolled over the conversation she and Thor had had on their way to the crater.

She closed the book carefully, holding it to her chest. She closed her eyes and took in a deep breath. "He knew me Dad." She spoke softly. The three around her stilled and turned to where she stood. "I know it sounds crazy but he understood. He knew things about me no one else does. I told you I wanted answers and I think he has them, or can at least help me figure them out."

Erik stood slowly and made his way around the table to his troubled daughter. "There's nothing wrong with you Sweetheart. You don't need him telling you who you are."

Valerie turned her deep blue eyes on his, the sadness he seen there broke his heart. "Please Dad." She whispered.

His shoulders sagged in defeat. He couldn't believe he was doing this.

Erik flipped through one of the folders Thor had managed to sneak out of the compound along with Jane's note book as they exited. It held a number of information they had collected from the 'John Doe' who had attacked the base. It had the basics, height, hair colour, eye colour, build, blood type. S.H.I.E.L.D. Had been busy in the hours Thor had been with them. However what interested Erik the most was the DNA profile they had made.

He slipped Valerie's DNA profile from his wallet and laid them side by side. His frown deepened as he looked between the two nearly identical sheets of paper. One old, one new.

"You know." Thor broke the silent between the two. "I had it all backwards. I had it all wrong."

Erik swallow his pride to speak to the man next to him. "That's not a bad thing, finding out you don't have all the answers. Means you start asking the right questions."

Thor thought for a moment before he spoke. "For the first time in my life I have no idea what I'm supposed to do."

"Anyone who's ever going to find his way in this world has to start by admitting he doesn't know who the hell he is." Erik paused to take a sip from the drink in his hand. "Valerie's had to start all over again. Why shouldn't you?"

Thor didn't know how to respond to the wisdom he was given. "Thank you." Was what he finally settled on.

"No," Erik cut him off. "Don't thank me. I only did it for Valerie and Jane. I love Valerie, more then anything in this world. And Jane, her father and I taught as university together. He was a good man." Erik lost himself in thought of his lost friend. "He never listened."

"Neither did I." Thor mumbled. "My Father was trying to teach me something but I was to stupid to see it."

Erik glanced back down at the papers before him for a moment. "I don't know if you're delusional or if you're pulling some kind of con. I don't care. I just care about them. I've seen the way Jane looks at you."

"I swear to you," Thor began, feeling he needed this man's approval. "I mean her no harm."

"Good." Erik concluded. "And what of my daughter? What did you tell her out there in the desert to make her believe in you?"

Thor took a swig from her beer to give him more time to decide what the tell the young warrior's father. "I told her the truth. I believe she is more powerful then she knows... and somewhere deep in my heart I know she's important."

Erik sighed, "I figured as much. She's said the same thing about you." Erik pushed the sheets across the countertop. "Do you know what these are?"

Thor glanced down and knit his brows into a tight line. "No."

"It's a DNA test." He began. "They use you're DNA to determine certain things about a person."

"Things like what?" Thor asked slowly.

"Things like family members." Erik leaned over and pointed at the newer sheet. "This one here is yours." He then pointed to the second. "This is one I had made for Valerie a few years ago."

Thor looked in confusion. "I do not understand."

Erik took both pages and folded them together before putting them into his jacket. "I don't know if you noticed but Valerie isn't my biological daughter. My late wife and I adopted her after we found her abandoned. I raised her, took care of her, loved her, but I always knew she was different. She wasn't like other children." Erik paused to finish his beer. "When Valerie was a teenager she started showing more changes then just a young girl going through puberty. I had the test run to see if I could track down her birth parents to find if she had any genetic traits like mental or physical illness I should be aware of. The DNA test came back inconclusive, said she wasn't human."

Thor held his breath, "And what does that have to do with me?"

"Your test has a fifty percent match to hers." Erik eyed the man beside him. Thor's gaze met his. Unable or maybe unwilling to read between the lines. "That means your related." Erik laid all his cards on the table. "Siblings probably."

Thor looked down at his hands. The last of the pieces falling into place. Disbelief washed through him but it made sense. However he couldn't believe them to be siblings. To look so close to him they would have to share the same parents but why would Odin and Frigga abandon their only daughter on Midgar? His mind raced back over the last twenty five years to all maidens he had bedded. He closed his eyes and clenched his jaw in shame at the number. Feeling guilting about his past behaviour with his attraction to the young scientist rolling in his mind recently.

His mind settled on a busty kitchen maid with golden locks he had favoured for a time. After a few playful nights together she had suddenly refused to see him. Some months later he had leaned or her passing but thought nothing of it as he had moved on to the next maiden who caught his fancy. Thor gulped. His father must have hid his daughter from him to preserve the family line and name.

Shamed welled inside the God. He had been so foolish and so blind. He looked over to Erik who was still staring at him. The man who had raised his daughter. Thor gave a tight lipped smile, bringing his hand up to give the other man a tight squeeze on his shoulder.

Erik wasn't sure what the blonde thought of the information but gave his own tight lipped smile in return. "You look like you could use another drink." Erik caught the barkeeps attention. "Two boiler makers!"