Chapter 5

Day 1 - After New York Incident

Loki stood in the middle of Time Square with all of its contained chaos. Such a little thing and the Midgardians couldn't handle it. He shook his head, wondering how they had survived thus far.

"Today," said the head mortal, Fury, if he'd remembered correctly.

People watched from cordoned off sections. Some stood with expectant faces, waiting for the show to start; others called out profanities that made him want to crush their larynxes; and then, there were the reporters chattering incessantly into the cameras.

The city reeked of garbage, human excrement, and pollution. Concrete and buildings covered everything. It lacked the natural beauty of the planet or the refinement of an evolved species.

Jane cleared her throat, and he glanced back at her. She was a rare being, born of magic and star dust, and yet, she was a Midgardian. He'd never understood why the spell had chosen such a lowly realm.

She narrowed her eyes at him in question, but he looked back over the city and lifted his hands. If the mortals wanted a show, then he would not disappoint them. As green smoke snaked out of his fingertips, the crowd gasped in awe. He held back a snort of laughter at their simplemindedness.

"Brother," Thor admonished him.

Loki sighed and waved away the creeping blanket of smoke. It disappeared in an instant, earning him a smattering of applause. He flicked his fingers. The poles straightened and the trash cans, struggling against their leashes, toppled over.

After bowing to the onlookers, he turned to Jane and held out a hand. "It is time for us to leave."

She gave him a look that, were it a blade, would've decapitated him, then she spun on her heels to pick up the nearest trash can along with all of its filthy contents. The next one proved to be more of a challenge. She tugged on the metal grating to no avail. Her face, scrunching in effort and turning a light shade of red, made him smile despite himself. He flipped his palm up and all of the receptacles righted themselves.

oOoOo

Day 2

Jane sat at her desk, deciphering the readouts from her last medical scan. She seemed perfectly normal. One-hundred-percent human. Whatever spell Loki'd used to create her certainly hadn't imparted any special abilities.

"What is that?" Loki asked Bruce, drawing her attention.

Bruce smiled as he held up a syringe that looked like it was meant to suck an elephant dry. "We need your blood for tests."

"If that is all..." With a flash of gold, a dagger appeared in his grip, and he slashed open his palm with one smooth swipe. Blood pooled in his cupped hand. "Here."

Bruce's grin fell and he stood staring at him, as if unsure of what to think.

"It needs to be sterile," Jane said. "But your enthusiasm is refreshing. We thought you would've resisted."

Bruce had been counting on it. He was doing his best to get him booted out of the lab and her life.

"My cooperation is advantageous for the both of us," Loki replied. "The faster you finish your Bridge, the faster we leave this wretched realm."

"I've already told you. There is no we."

"There is only you and me, Jane. Nothing else is important," Loki said in that lecturing, disappointed tone he'd used when she was younger. "No one else is important."

Bruce pointed the needle at him. "That right there is creepy and exactly why you need to go." He turned to her. "You don't need him. Surely, Thor could bring us another magic user."

Loki scoffed. "There is no other like me. Your exotic matter device wouldn't even get a reading off them, let alone actually utilize it to teleport."

Thor had basically said the same thing. Apparently, Loki was the most powerful magi in all the realms. Which didn't make her feel better about her situation at all.

She sighed, snatched the syringe out of his grasp, and jabbed Loki, withdrawing his blood until the container was full. Ignoring his stare and the strange cascading tingles her touching him had brought about, she turned and slapped the syringe into her fellow scientist's still open hand.

After she escaped the suddenly tiny room, Jane made a mental note not to ever get that close to him again.

oOoOo

Day 3

Loki watched Jane pass the lab in a simple black dress. He teleported to her side, keeping in step with her small gait. "Where are you going?"

"To a funeral," she responded without looking at him or flinching in surprise at his sudden appearance.

Barton came running around the corner shouting for him to stop.

"Why?" Loki asked her. "Did Selvig die?"

That earned him a glance, though it was a scornful one. "I would be a tad more distraught if he had." She shook her head and stepped into the elevator.

When he brushed against her in the small space, she moved away.

"Then who was it?" he asked.

Barton stuck his hand in to stop the closing doors and then squeezed between them. "Don't do that again," he told Loki.

Jane looked around their chaperone at him to answer his question. "A person who had died when you attacked the city."

"If you think that was an attack, my dear, then you have seen nothing."

Her cheeks turned pink and she practically punched the elevator button for the ground floor. "She was a mother of two and a good person who didn't deserve to die so pointlessly."

"Most deaths are pointless."

Barton cleared his throat, but Jane paid him no mind.

"Do you not care about anyone besides yourself?"

He had, once, and her funeral boat had drifted away with not only her body but much of himself. "I care for your wellbeing."

"No more than your jacket."

He gritted his teeth. "You have no idea of what I had to do to bring about your existence. Of course, I care for you."

"Don't you see, Loki. It's not about me." She moved out of the elevator and walked to the exit,

"You do seem like a selfish prick," Barton said.

Loki growled at him and turned them both into a couple of random Midgardians he vaguely remembered from the streets.

"What the—" The archer flinched at his gender swap. "I even sound like a woman."

"Yes. It would be a poor disguise if you sounded like yourself, now wouldn't it?" He nodded for them to follow Jane.

"You're not supposed to leave the building."

"I am a god. I will do as I want." The doorman looked at them, but smiled as they passed. "Besides, you being here should appease your superiors."

"I'm not suddenly going to start my period, am I?"

Loki ignored him and kept a good distance from Jane as she crossed the street and entered a church several blocks down. She sat in one of the middle pews and greeted the woman next to her.

"What's your master plan, now?" Barton whispered as they took their place against the back wall.

"Observe."

The service was quaint, yet tasteful. As expected, her loved ones cried, especially the children. The two boys' little forms quivered, and they heaved ragged breaths between sniffles. Their silent agony permeated the room and crept into his pores.

He saw himself standing on the Asgardian coast with thousands of others all releasing their balls of light into the night sky. A tidal wave of emotions had crashed through him, but he'd been unable to express it next to the stoic and harsh presence of his patriarch. Yet, this Midgardian father hugged his children to him so tight Loki thought his grip would leave bruises. They mourned together as a family should. And it was all because of him.

oOoOo

Day 5

"You've been awfully quiet," Bruce said to Loki. "Which I'm not complaining about."

Jane kept her head down, but watched him with curiosity. Ever since she'd scolded him, he'd been less of an imposing presence. A worm of remorse wriggled inside her chest, but she couldn't bring herself to apologize. She'd meant every word she'd said and would repeat it louder if he asked.

Loki turned a page from one of his leather bound books that looked to be thousands of years old. "How much closer are you to duplicating my magic?"

"Not close enough." Bruce picked up a file and flipped it open. "I've located the parts of your DNA that differ from ours. But there's a lot more work that needs to be done."

When Loki's eyes found hers, she looked down and refocused on the blueprints for a a device that would harness the exotic matter he emitted when using magic.

oOoOo

Day 7

Loki circled a hand, and one of his tomes appeared on the desk in front of her.

She jerked back in surprise before reaching out to touch it with the tip of her finger.

"It's a book, Jane, not a poisoned apple."

"One can never know when it comes to you."

Her words were harsh, but they held no real heat. He'd come to respect her brutal honesty. Not many would speak to him in such a way. If they had, it was more to wound than to enlighten.

"I've seen you eyeing them. This one is in English."

"That's not possible. It looks to be as old as humankind itself."

He laughed. "It is."

"Then how?"

"I translated it for you."

She blinked at him and then lifted the cover with a careful grip. "It's the theory of magic."

Her excited gaze sung to the depths of his core.

"I can't believe you're actually helping me," she exclaimed.

His brows pulled together. "I've only ever helped you."

Skepticism flickered across her face, but she went back to reading.

"You doubt my sincerity?" he asked.

"How could I not?" she asked without looking up. "You left at a time when I needed—could've used your knowledge the most."

He stood and walked to her. "There was a matter I had to attend to. A couple matters, that is."

Sitting back, she crossed her arm and gave him her full attention. "For seventeen years?"

"While that may seem like a lifetime to you, it is only a minute to us."

"That's a cop-out."

She didn't move when he sat in a chair next to hers . "The spell I used to"—he gestured to her—"came from an ancient tome, far older than this one. It holds many dangerous incantations and charms that have been forbidden and lost to time. Until I freed it."

"And now people are after its magic?"

"One, but I eliminated the threat."

"It took that long to do it?"

He shook his head and opened his hand while calling forth a golden apple of Idunn.

Trying to hold back a chuckle, she said, "And here is the poisoned apple."

"Far from it." He gazed into her eyes, memorizing the subtle striations of copper leaking through the warm brown. "This is eternal life. At least, as close to it as you can get. And I secured one for you."

She stared at it for a long moment. "You knew you'd want to be with me the rest of your life when I was twelve?"

"I knew it as your essence was pulled from the ether and gave you life. I saw the truth of who you are, as I see it now, and I know there is no other for me."

Tears lined her eyes but none fell. "I don't know you. I've never truly known you." She took a deep breath and got to her feet. "I can't be with a stranger. Or a murderer."

oOoOo

Day 9

Loki watched Jane argue with Stark over a machine that looked like a bulky armoire, then answer a question from Banner about the possibilities of magic and DNA, only to turn and point her finger at Fury and Coulson for getting too close to her equipment.

It was the day of their first magic harnessing test, and he couldn't bring himself to tell her it was going to fail. If it had been anyone else, he wouldn't have hesitated.

Thor stood next to him, quiet and solemn. He'd come back from Asgard the day before to scold Loki about blocking Heimdall from seeing him. Nothing else was said, and yet he stayed.

"Has Father sent you back as a babysitter?" Loki asked.

"Aye."

"What of my punishment?" Not that Loki intended on accepting any such thing.

"He did not mention it."

Thor was not usually so reticent. Normally, if he wasn't so careless with his words, then his face was an open book. "Speak your thoughts, Brother, before you drive me mad."

He uncrossed his arms and looked at Loki. "I do not like that no one told me of your true identity."

"None of that matters now."

"If I had only known—"

"You would've done what exactly? Shown me greater kindness? Not have preferred your friends over me?" Loki lowered his voice when Romanoff glanced at them. "You are who you are, and what's done is done."

Thor's jaw worked. "For all the wrongs I've committed, for everything I've done to lead you down this path, I am sorry. I did not know, but that excuses nothing."

As the God of Mischief stood speechless, Thor nodded to Jane. "You are not yourself around her."

Loki didn't say anything for a long time. She was everything he'd wanted and hoped for, but now, whenever he looked at her, a horrid thought slithered through his mind. "I do not deserve her."

oOoOo

Day 14

Loki stared out over the couple blocks of the city his floor's vantage point offered, wondering when his contempt for the mortals had vanished. They were still annoying, petty, shortsighted, dimwitted, and many more negative traits he could spend the day listing, but they deserved life as much as he. Thankfully, they were not long lives. If they were, he doubted the planet would survive past a millennia.

He clenched his hands as a man stole the purse of a woman carrying a newborn and ran off down the street, while passersby barely turned their heads. The moment encapsulated much of what he despised about Midgardians.

Horns honked incessantly, people shouted profanities at each other, pickpocketing was rampant, and sirens blared every other minute. It made him want to grind his teeth.

"You're not planning on taking over our world, are you?" Jane asked as she walked in. She laughed, but he heard the truth mixed in with the joke.

His eyes narrowed as he continued to look out the window. He didn't want to rule. To be bound to one realm was a prison sentence. What more, he didn't like that she thought of him as a villain.

At his tense silence, she paused her paper shuffling. "I was just teasing you."

He plastered on a mask of indifference and turned to walk past her. "Good day, Jane," he said with a dip of his head as he exited the room.

oOoOo

Day 16

Moving invisibly through the city was an enlightening experience. People were wholly themselves when they thought no one was near. But that was not why he'd snuck out of Stark Tower. He'd stopped one store robbery, three small thefts, and a drunken man from stumbling in front of a speeding car, all while on the way to his destination,

There was a bounce in his step that he'd never experienced before. No wonder Thor was always so jubilant. Helping people felt good. Though, it would feel better if his sins didn't darken the experience.

He passed through the apartment's locked door and followed the soft cries of a broken man to his room. The mortal sat on his bed, staring at a picture of the woman Loki had unwittingly killed.

Unable to do anything to help, he moved to the boys' bedroom and placed a hand on their foreheads to ease their turbulent dreams. When they slipped into a deep sleep, he stocked their kitchen full of prepared foods and cleaned the house with a flick of a finger. It wasn't much, nothing could heal the wound he'd caused besides time, but it should make their next day a little less challenging.

oOoOo

Day 21

"It seems we have a new hero in the city," Steve announced as he walked into Jane's lab. Sam was right behind him.

"That's old news, buddy," Tony called out from under the exotic matter harnessing machine. His foot tapped in time with the music playing in the room.

Jane turned down the volume and faced the newcomers. "I haven't heard anything about this."

Stark slid out and stood, wiping his hands on a towel. "That's because you always have your nose in a book."

"And you've missed the last couple meetings," Steve pointed out.

"Regardless"—she gave them a sharp look—"have you met her?"

"What makes you think the person is a woman?" Sam asked.

"Hope. Have you not noticed the amount of testosterone in this building?"

He raised his hands in defeat and went to poke around the room.

"We don't know who it is," Steve said. "SHIELD can't get a lock—"

"Neither can JARVIS," Tony added.

"—and none of the witnesses ever report actually seeing someone. It's always, something bad happens, and then, suddenly, it's not happening."

Kind of like magic.

She swallowed and went about another hour of work and chit chat then excused herself by claiming she was tired. Instead of going to her room, she went to Loki's. For security reasons, he had no special privileges to privacy, but she expected some form of magical barrier. There was none.

She crept inside and peeked around the dark and unadorned room. He had brought nothing from his past to fill the space and make it his. When she found him sleeping in the bed, she almost slipped back out the door, but then something about the situation seemed off. Loki was a warrior. He would've woken up at the first barely-noticeable sound she'd made.

The figure didn't stir as she approached, nor did he move when she reached out a hand. Her fingers went right through him, as if he were made of air. The image shimmered gold before readjusting itself to a perfect copy of Loki, breathing and all.

She marveled at the magic and swiped her hand through it several times before testing various substances against it. Light didn't shine through the image, but powder drifted through it just fine.

"Jane," Loki said from behind her.

She spun around with her heart in her throat. "You scared me."

"What are you doing in my room?"

"I just—" She looked around, and then she remembered why she'd come in the first place. "Where've you been?"

"I didn't realize my whereabouts concerned you."

"Well..." His presence muddled her brain. She wasn't sure if she should bolt or keep talking just to be near him for as long as she could. Blowing out a breath, she refocused and asked, "Why have you been sneaking out?"

"No need to worry, my dear. Nothing nefarious is going on."

Her mouth fell open. "I didn't think that. I just—"

"It is late, and I believe you have an early day tomorrow. You should get some rest." He turned and opened the door.

She closed it. "Loki, have you been sneaking out to do good deeds?"

His sudden laughter made her jump.

"You are truly funny." He took a breath and wiped his eyes. "Now, I believe it is time for us to part ways."

Standing her ground, she said, "I know it's you."

He stared down at her, silent and foreboding.

"While I know you've done some shitty things in your life," she said, "you're not evil."

"As you've so succinctly put it, you don't know me." He leaned in close. "You don't know all I've done."

She lifted her chin to better look him in the eye. "Then tell me."

They stood so close she could feel the heat of his body wrapping around her. She wanted to snuggle into its depths and breathe him into every cell of her body.

The intensity of the emotion left her reeling. She stepped back and steadied her trembling hands by tightening them into fists. With a quick apology, she escaped the room. Her heart didn't stop pounding until minutes after she'd collapsed in her bed.

The draw to him was undeniable, but if it was a side effect of the spell, rather than a true connection, she wouldn't allow herself to return his affections. No matter how much she yearned to.

oOoOo

Day 33

The sense of impending danger crashed over Loki. His spine went rigid and he hopped out of his chair, as if prodded by a hot poker.

Jane's head jerked to him. "What's wrong?"

He closed his eyes and felt the surrounding fields for the disturbance but found nothing out of the ordinary.

"Hey, Rock Of Ages," Tony called, "what's got your panties in a wad?"

Opening his eyes, he called forth the ancient book from his pocket dimension and found a locator spell attached to it. Anger flared within him. It seared his veins and ignited the need to destroy whoever had snuck past his defenses. He furrowed his brows and placed a hand over the cover. Like thick cobwebs, the locator spell crackled as he shredded the foreign magic.

He sighed and sent it back.

"Was that it?" Jane asked in awe. "Was that what created me?"

The security alarm's pulsing shriek cut off any answer he might've given.

Everyone looked around at the lights and then at him.

"Did you trip the alarms?" Banner asked Loki.

"No," Tony answered. "That's something else altogether." He ran out of the lab, calling orders to his AI.

Jane's eyes widened. "Are they after the book?"

Loki nodded. "Stay here."

Just as she opened her mouth to speak, he teleported to the roof to find an army of robots and one lone man, covered in metallic armor and a green cloak, waiting for him.


Author's Note: dun dun dunn. Do you know who this person is?

Thanks for reading, commenting, favoriting and/or following! And thanks to my sister for making sure I keep things clear.

I'm currently working on an outline for a new story, and I'm getting a little nervous because it seems like it will be another long one, like eighty thousand words long. I didn't think I would ever do that again. I don't know what's wrong with me. :)

Up Next: Loki POV.