AN: A look at everything going on behind the scenes of Bloom's insanely dangerous life! Takes place moments after Bloom gets on the ship with Sky back in Greenwich and her brothers go through her shortcut to Asgard. A look at exactly why Loki was in New York and trying to get the Tesseract for Thanos - because the mere mention of the guy shut him up in that vision thing he did in the movie with the Spear.

Loki and Thor walk through Bloom's portal, and find they're back in her room - how she finds the strength to do all this stuff when she was nearly passed out before is beyond them, but they are really glad she finds it.

Loki could tell she and Sky were more than just friends, but he didn't say anything at the time because there was more important things going on - like trying not to get killed in a fight, because Bloom would never forgive them that one. Thor noticed how she seems to trust this Sky but he didn't say a word about it either - besides, he seems like a good person, Bloom can take retribution on him very easily if he turns out to be like Fandral, and they have the Scrying bowl to keep in touch with her.

Both of them are in quiet debate about what they're going to tell Allfather to explain the whole mess, especially since Bloom had apparently destroyed the Aether during the Dark Elves' attack on Asgard. Bloom said she's willingly take the punishment for their plan if they were in trouble, but neither of them want her to be punished for this.

When they get into the Grand Hall, however, Odin is nowhere to be found. In fact, he's not anywhere in the whole palace - they search everywhere, he's just missing.

Loki quietly says "Thor, this is bad. Very bad. I've been on the throne - not for very long, I know - but Asgard relies on its ruler more than you know. We grew up thinking Asgard was a perfect society, but a few hours on the throne disillusioned me of that rapidly. And neither of us wants to be on the throne anymore - if you were at all wondering, I don't want that thing anymore, I never wanted it to begin with."

Thor sighs, and says "But the fact remains, all the more so with your revelation, Asgard needs a ruler - it needs Allfather."

Loki throws his hands up in the air and says "Yes, Asgard needs Odin. But he's not here, and…no. Thor, no, that's a terrible idea."

"You haven't even heard it!"

"Thor, you want me to impersonate Odin until we can find him. I'm telling you, it's a worse idea than going to Jotunheim. And that was the worst idea you'd had in centuries."

Thor says "You let the Frost Giants in Asgard in the first place."

Loki scowls, and says "Yes, but that was a bit of payback for all the years of Bloom and I 'knowing our places.' She was tired of it as well, had hoped that the throne would keep you too occupied to berate and belittle her. I didn't know it would spiral so out of hand so fast."

"You encouraged me to go!"

"I was trying to calm you down, Thor. You usually calmed down from a rage if someone agreed with you! I tried to stop you from going, telling you it was madness. But you didn't listen, despite saying I was wise not a minute before."

Thor can't argue with that, he knows full-well it's true to the last letter. "Brother, that's the whole reason? Everything that's happened, the Frost Giants getting in, you leaving Asgard by letting go of Father's spear, New York, all that was because of me?"

Loki looks away, and says "I set the ball rolling, I didn't know how very far it would roll. But, in essence, yes, that's why I postponed your Coronation. Now, here we are."

Thor mutters "I was a fool, Loki. An arrogant fool, I know that now. And I know little else aside from my banishment and meeting Jane would have made me realize this. When I tried to lift Mjolnir, I couldn't. The shock of having my powers in reach and not being able to use them, it was jarring - you saying Father was dead, that was even worse though. Though you deceived me, you also enlightened me to my foolishness. For that, I thank you."

Loki sighs, and says "I was trying to keep things from going as far as I could at first, then I discovered my secret parentage - I may have lost it for a while there, gone mad like you saked yesterday. The Bifrost being destroyed by Bloom, however, that shocked me back to reality with the fact that the power came from Bloom. She'd never shown a power like that before - not counting Jotunheim, where she burst into fire and collapsed."

"She was out for days after the Bifrost was destroyed, then immediately knew something was wrong when you weren't there."

"Not surprising, given what we know now. Destroying the Bifrost would have taken a massive amount of energy, especially going as strong as it was. But back to the problem at hand, how exactly am I supposed to impersonate Odin? I know you're going to say illusions, but I can't act like him convincingly!"

"You've spent more time on the throne than I have, brother. That gives you an edge - aside from the fact that you're the one who can do illusions, another point for you doing this."

"Why can't you just take the throne for the time being until we find him? I'll have a lot more time to search for him if I'm not on the throne all the time."

Thor sighs and says "Brother, I have to protect the Nine Realms. If trouble is brewing on Midgard, they won't be too happy if you show up instead of me."

Loki sighs, knowing it's true and knowing why it's true. "Yes, well, that part notwithstanding, what about the rest of Asgard? If they find out I'm impersonating Odin? People may tolerate me, but I seriously doubt they'll take the news too well that I'm the one sitting on the throne without their knowledge. Thor, this plan has so many holes and ways it can go wrong, that I might as well have taken Gungir to it! Many times!"

"I know, but do you have any better ideas? You said it yourself, Asgard needs Odin."

Loki sighs and says "No, I don't. But I do know that you'll have to fly around the Nine Realms like a madman to keep any uprisings or real threats from occurring. And I know that I'm going to go mad myself now, really."

Thor quietly asks "Why did you do it, Brother? New York, all of it? Things aren't adding up, Bloom and I talked about it until she had to leave again - we're missing something, we know it."

Loki sighs, figuring he'd have to dodge questions eventually - these questions, what happened to him to make him want to invade Midgard. "Thor, if I tell you, you have to swear Bloom won't find out. I mean it, Thor. You meant it during your Coronation when you swore to protect the Nine Realms, you have to mean this even more. Otherwise you won't get anything out of me."

Thor studies Loki's face - which is turned away from him, staring at a wall - and quietly says "You're afraid. Loki, what happened?"

"Swear, first. Swear Bloom will never hear of this."

Thor looks closely at Loki, and sees the same stubbornness Bloom showed when they'd finally reached her limit and she wouldn't give another detail to them. "I swear."

Loki glances at him out of the corner of his eye, then sighs and says "At first, I fell. I fell for one very long stretch of time. Then, I was found. Found by a man named Thanos, and his minion. The Other, he's called." Thor swears Loki's going pale, and he can feel the temperature dropping fast as Loki goes on, but he doesn't interrupt once. After one extremely long, and horrifyingly torturous explanation of how Loki's will was beaten and finally broken, how all Asgard's secrets were ripped from him through beatings, whippings, and things too dark to even imagine, Loki's finally done. He lets out a strangled laugh that Thor swears was born of a sob, and says "Now you know. Satisfied?"

"Why didn't you tell me this before? On Midgard, I asked you who was controlling you! You simply dodged the question, why didn't you-"

"Thor, you don't understand. Thanos isn't someone you can fight. He's not someone anyone can fight. Had I turned on him, or failed - like I did, thank you for that death-sentence right there - he'd have killed me. Killed me in the most gruesome, horrifying way possible. And if I hadn't agreed to try and get the Tesseract willingly, he'd have just used the Spear on me, controlled my mind and given me no choice - honestly, I'm still amazed he gave me a choice in the first place. No, I didn't want to invade Midgard, I did want to get as far away from that monster as it's possible to be. Not that anyone would have cared, Thanos was listening through the whole thing(1) - I had to play my part or he'd have known."

"So, when you locked me in that cage…"

"Thor, we all know you've survived far worse than that. It wouldn't have killed you, we both know that."

"And Bloom?"

"I didn't want her to get hurt. They were shooting bullets already! Why do you think I told the mercenary to knock her out instead of kill her?"

"The Tesseract needed an extremely powerful source of heat to break through a protective cooling layer. Who else do we know that can control fire?"

"I didn't know that! All I knew was that Selvig needed Iridium for some machine! We went to get it, because Barton said he knew where to get some and he needed a distraction. Believe you me, what happened in Germany was nothing compared to what I saw between leaving Asgard and returning to Midgard." There's ice on the floor now, and Loki lets out a near-hysterical laugh that sounds on the edge of madness. Thor remembers asking if Loki had gone mad, now he thinks maybe his response wasn't nearly as sarcastic as he thought.

Thor sighs, then hugs Loki before he can react. Loki immediately tenses up, exactly like Bloom did; Thor internally groans, knowing Loki is likely going to be every bit as hardheaded as he and Bloom can be. "Well, there's nobody better-protected on Asgard than the King."

Loki sighs, and mutters "Low blow, Thor. Really, is that the best argument you could think of?" He sighs again though, and says "Fine, I'll do it. But I'm not fighting Thanos. And Thor, Bloom can't know. Thanos has a habit of razing civilizations and taking a 'daughter' from them. I met two of them, Nebula and Gamora. He trained them both to be ruthless, moral-less assassins loyal to him alone. And Nebula…he changed her. Replaced parts of her with machinery whenever she lost to Gamora in a duel. Last I saw her, she was more machine than person."

Thor looks horrified anew, and says "Bloom won't hear a word of this from me if it'll keep her out of his hands." Loki won't admit it, and Thor won't bring it up, but they both know there's another reason why Loki doesn't want Bloom to know - and it's not her explosive temper. She always looked up to him, and he doesn't want that to change. "Loki, does anyone else-"

"No! Nobody else knows. Mother didn't, Father didn't." Loki nearly chokes up at the mention of Frigga, and quickly looks away at the floor.

"Listen to me, Loki. If he attacks Asgard, tell Bloom that you know of him and that he's dangerous and evil."

"Thor, she'll want to know how I know of him. You weren't there, but she got her hands on the Spear in Germany. The glowing end of it. A reaction happened with her powers, and her mind got sent off to the other end of space in a vision or something. She and The Other talked, along with some guy with a red skull for a face - no, I'm really not lying. She knows about The Other, would recognize him at least. If she goes looking for him, she will find Thanos."

"Then she just has to not have a reason to go looking for him. Look, she said her life was dangerous enough, right?"

"Yes, but-"

"But, that will keep her occupied for some time, yes?"

"Yes, possibly, but-"

"But nothing. Loki, that alone will keep her focused on her own battles for the time being. She's currently looking for the blonde woman, Diaspro. They have an entire universe - one that doesn't have Thanos - to search, that alone will take a good chunk of time. You keep everyone thinking Allfather is still here, I'll keep the Nine Realms safe - and keep a lookout for Thanos and any of his minions, along with Allfather - and neither of us mention this when Bloom is around." Loki hesitantly nods, looking more vulnerable then Thor can ever remember.

The last person who looked like that was Bloom last night, I can't seem to protect my siblings - how am I supposed to protect nine Realms?

1: Thanos seems to know when people have failed him - Age of Ultron, the teaser scene after the main movie showed him putting on the Infinity Guantlet and saying he'd 'do it himself.' That means he knew about everything that was happening, so he'd likely know about Loki's defeat.