Sorry it took so long. Writer's block. Summer activities. All that.

Guest: Aww, I know. *heart breaks for Loki*

Cassy27: … … …Dang, you're good. You always seem to know my plans.

elizabeth14: That's a cool idea, but I'm trying to make this story possible. Like, it won't interfere with the movies' plots. I know it doesn't seem that way now, but things will wrap up in a way that will prevent the movies from being tampered with.

IvyLinkin: Wow, you and Cassy27 should get a gold medal for uncovering my plot ideas before I even wrote them! Great job! XD

Talk Bubble: Yeah, this story is confusing to write as well as read. I've heard some of those theories. I'm curious what will be unearthed in Thor: The Dark World. Thanks for your input! It's very much appreciated.

AaylaKit: Yeah, I remember that haha Odin's not a great father to poor Loki. YAY I love that I got you into Loki! It makes me so happy! In response to your final review on Invasion, I must smile and say "Puny god." And I won't forget you guys! I'll still have breaks.

Nada1224: Thanks! I had to make sure that it was clear who was talking without using repetitive adjectives. I'm glad no one was confused.

StarTrekFanWriter: I've taken a Physics class, though I'm not extremely educated in the subject. I was afraid to do this story because it would break Physics and I would have to research stuff…so I made things up as I went along. XD Since it's Fanfiction, I guess it doesn't have to be politically correct. Cool that there're theories out there.

Loki stared uncertainly at his future self for a long time. "Where are we?" he whispered. His companion shook his head, indicating that he did not know either. They both looked around, recognizing the location but not the time. The youth pulled the artifact out of the future Loki's bound hands and took a few steps back so that he could get a better view of their surroundings.

"Prince Loki!" It was a guard's voice. "You—you have returned!"

Understanding dawned on Loki. "We're in my time, aren't we?" His counterpart shrugged in response. "I think we are! Come on!" He grabbed Future Loki's hand and tugged the older god along with him. "Where is my father?" he demanded.

The guard eyed the older Loki. "Um…he's in the Throne Room, I believe…"

"Okay, let's go." He pulled on his future self's arm to get him going. It was not long before they were in the halls, making their way toward the Throne Room. They were almost there when a sharp voice stopped them.

"Loki?" It was young Sif.

Both Lokis turned around and immediately stiffened. Both knew full well that Sif was not a huge fan. The girl studied them, her intelligent gaze missing nothing. Though she knew little about the situation, she was able to easily put two and two together. The intense green eyes were identical, the face shape similar, and the stature familiar. The resemblance was there.

"I'm seeing doubles," she said, rubbing her eyes. "Loki, what were you thinking? Bringing someone home from the future could endanger everything! There's a delicate balance, you know, and I think you've just successfully disrupted it."

Loki bristled. "Do you think I brought him here on purpose?" he snapped. He paused and took a deep breath. "Glad to see you, too, Sif. I see that my presence was not deeply missed, considering your sharp reaction."

Sif decided not to tell Loki how much Thor missed him. She was too angry to reassure him of anything. "It was idiotic of you to go into the Weapons Vault. You know that it isn't a play area, yet you run around and cause mischief as always." She eyed the older Loki. "What is that thing on his mouth? And why are his hands chained?"

Loki had no patience to deal with Sif at the moment, so he merely waved her off and continued to pull his future self toward the Throne Room. "I'll take that off of you now," he said upon arriving at the door. The older of the two bent his head a little so that Loki could pull the device off of him. "Is that better?"

His counterpart nodded. "Much appreciated. Now, I'd like to know what is going on here. Based on the conversation with Sif, I assume that we are indeed in your time. This complicates things, doesn't it?" He gazed at the door. "It looks like speaking with the All-Father is inevitable, so we may as well go in now."

Loki silently agreed and nervously pushed the door open. "Father?" He stepped in, leaving the future Loki to wait in the sidelines, out of the room's occupants' lines of sight.

"Loki?" Odin, who had been sitting on his throne, rose. The queen was right beside him and she started at her son's presence. Both figures stood in shock as if they weren't entirely sure that it was truly their son that they were looking at.

"It's me," Loki confirmed, but was cut off by his mother rushing forward and pulling him into her arms.

The future Loki watched, eyes narrowed. Though he was unnoticed, the scene before him was not. How wonderful, he thought, tempted to jump in and mess up the moment with his presence. Sentiment.

He was pleased, however, so see young Loki back away and stare boldly into his father's eyes. "Why didn't you tell me?" he demanded, an edge of anger creeping into his voice. Odin did not reply. He seemed to know exactly what his son was talking about, but was reluctant to comment on it. "Why didn't you tell me that I'm a Jotun?"

Instead of responding to his son's question, Odin asked another one. "What did you learn?" he asked quietly. "How did you come about this information?"

"You," Loki said simply.

Frigga placed a hand on her husband's arm. "He told you?"

Loki shook his head. "Not directly. I saw you talking to an older version of me in the Weapon's Vault. You revealed everything, and then fell into Odinsleep." Bitterness entered his voice when he said, "My future self was hanging over an abyss. I know not what he did, but you told him no. He fell and later ended up on Midgard. It was there that I found myself first, face-to-face with him." Loki gestured for his counterpart to reveal himself.

The older Loki stepped into the room and smiled coldly at the younger version of his adoptive father. "Hello Father. I never expected to see you again in the near future…or should I say the past?"

Odin blinked, shocked at the unexpected appearance of the future Loki. "You brought a replica of yourself here?" he demanded.

"It was kind of an accident, but yes," Loki responded. "He has a lot to say about how you've treated him. Or will treat me, I suppose."

Odin studied the older version of his son, who said, "No, you were right the first time. The way I was treated at that age was the beginning of the end. Most children are happy and innocent. I was neither. You'll find that jealousy consumes you when your older brother—your adoptive brother—gets all the attention while you just shake your head, wondering what you've done wrong."

Loki nodded. "I know why now." He stared, hurt, at his father. "It's because I'm not really your son. You led me to believe it, and you did a great job, but I'm smarter than you think. I always knew that something was wrong. Thor always got a smidge more attention, a wider smile from you, and plenty of approval. I've seen you sit down with him and tell him stories. I've seen you teach him lessons about what it takes to be King of Asgard. You hardly ever give me such lessons, though you know that I care about learning them."

Odin sighed, but before he could say anything, a new voice interrupted. "Loki?" Both Lokis turned around to see young Thor in the doorway. The blond-haired boy stared for several moments before rushing forward and hugging his brother tightly. "You came back!"

Loki hesitated and did not return the hug. His arms stayed at his sides. "Hello, Thor."

The adult Loki gazed at the scene, his eyes glazed over. It was all sentiment. Somehow, though, he could not shove the memories of young Thor from his mind. He remembered how his older brother had always defended him against the Warriors Three and Sif. He remembered the mischievous adventures they sometimes shared. It wasn't easy to forget the fact that Loki took all the blame for every failed prank that Thor came up with. But the boy had meant well, even when they were caught and Loki was blamed.

"Loki, who's that?" Thor asked, his gaze finally taking in the strange man that stood beside him.

The future Loki decided to have fun with this one. "Your younger brother, Thor."

Thor blinked. "What?"

"Evidently Loki here decided to bring back a souvenir from his trip to the future," Sif said from the doorway. She studied the chained hands. "Looks like he's not very popular in his own time, is he?"

The older Loki tensed. "What do you know? You haven't the slightest clue what I have been through. I don't intend on telling you, either. I will not give you the satisfaction, nor the luxury."

"Sif has made a fair assumption that you are not in good terms with your time. Tell me—are you a prisoner?" When Future Loki didn't reply, Odin added, "If you do not speak, there is room for theories from us and they will probably not be pretty for you."

The older Loki shrugged. "Fair enough. I have nothing to hide. If you would like the full story, I tried to destroy Jotunheim with the Bifrost. Thor destroyed the bridge and we hung over an abyss. You looked me in the eye, All-Father, and told me no. At that point, I fell and later made a deal with a powerful being that promised me an army in exchange for a powerful artifact called the Tesseract. You probably know what it is. Tis an Asgardian relic that ended up on Midgard. Either way, I fought the Midgardians for that item. I was supplied an army as promised and we fought against a group called the Avengers." He grimaced. "They were a handful."

"Who are the Avengers?" Thor asked. His voice was so innocent and inquisitive that the future Loki almost flinched.

"You will be one of them, Thor. They are a group of six 'heroes' that decided it would be nice to defend Midgard from my invasion. Pity. I would have made a great ruler."

"So you lost, then?" Thor prompted. "That's why you're in chains?"

"Yes, obviously, I was unsuccessful. The Avengers were crafty. They managed to defeat my army and overtake me. When the Thor from my time took me back to Asgard, he took this little Loki with me. It was then that we both ended up here, in this time, by use of the Orb."

After the story was finished, Frigga continued to stare sadly at the grown version of her son. She had a hand over her mouth and tears in her eyes. "What went wrong?" she whispered. "How did my wonderful little boy turn into this?"

Future Loki laughed coldly. "The truth hurts, and reality catches up with you." When a single tear rolled down his past mother's cheek, though, Loki's throat closed. Seeing the lovely mother figure upset like that disturbed him. "I…" I what? Loki wasn't sure anymore. This scene made him uneasy.

"Are you…um…okay?" Thor asked cautiously. He was unsure how exactly to handle this older version of his brother. The fact that he was a war criminal didn't really help. "You're making mother cry. Is this what you wanted?"

The Future Loki found himself shaking his head. "No, it wasn't part of the plan to make your mother cry, Thor."

Odin massaged his temples with his fingers. "Whoever created the Orb of Time should never have done so. It is situations like these in which I need to use my full power. For now, I need to speak with the queen about my next course of action. Thor and Loki—why don't you escort our guest around a bit? I am sure he knows the place very well, but it would not hurt to walk around until I reach a decision."

"Can we take these off, please?" the younger Loki asked the All-Father, gesturing toward the chains that bound his counterpart's hands.

Odin shook his head. "I would say yes, except it appears that they are restraining his magic. I would prefer to keep the magic at a minimum. I do not want that much anger released here." He waved his hand. "Go along, then. I will summon you when I have decided what to do next."

Thor eagerly took one of the older Loki's hands. "Let me introduce my friends to you!"

"Thor, he already knows them," his brother pointed out. "He grew up with them, remember?"

"Oh, right. Let me rephrase; let me introduce you to my friends. They've definitely never seen someone from the future before." As they walked, Thor chattered on. "So am I to become King in the future? You said I'm an Avenger. So, basically, I'll have to fight Loki. Or you, I guess. I'm not sure how time travel works. Either way, I'll fight my brother, right?" He gazed sadly at his younger brother. "I don't want to fight him. Ever. I love him too much."

The younger Loki smiled despite the situation. It was no secret that Thor cared about him, but to say that he loved him? This didn't happen often, though it did happen sometimes. "To be honest, Loki, I understand that you're angry about Thor being favored all the time," he began, "but I really don't think I could fight him. I really don't."

The future Loki sighed. "Perhaps I would have felt the same way, had I been informed of my parentage at a young age. But it matters not. What happened in my time happened in my time. If I even had a trace of regret—which I don't—then there is nothing I could do about it."

"I think you do regret something," the younger Loki said. "You just seem to feel too far gone to recognize or admit it to anyone. Including yourself."

How does he know? Future Loki wondered, perplexed. Where did he—I—get this insight from? He then remembered that he had always been insightful since he was a boy. He could pick the little things up, like the way Odin treated Thor a little better than him. "As I stated before, it matters not. I cannot change anything that I did. The only thing that can change is what you do with your life. You have everything ahead of you now. You can make the choices that you want to make now that you know everything that happened in my lifetime. If you wish to change it, then do so."

The two boys exchanged glances. Their expressions rang the same message: I don't want to fight you.

The adult Loki picked this up easily. "All right, then. You know what you want. Now go after it."

"Thor? Sif told us that there's a Loki from the future here. Is that him?" Fandral's voice interrupted. He emerged from a room, followed closely by Hogan and Volstagg. "That must be him. You can see the resemblance."

Thor half-smiled, but it was hard to be happy when he knew that the future version of his brother was bitter because of the actions of his future self.

"He's got the pale complexion, the green eyes, the jet black hair…" Volstagg listed off the similarities. "So this is what you will look like when you're older, Loki?" He frowned. "Not bad. A little skinny, which you are. You really need to eat more."

"Says the one that eats constantly as if it was a sport," Thor joked.

"Jest not. I eat because I'm hungry," Volstagg said indignantly.

The future Loki smiled despite the situation. "Your future self does as well. It does not matter if the situation is tense or cheerful. You will still eat as if your life depends on it." He hated to admit it, but being around these kids almost…lightened his mood a little. His past self, though quiet and a bit reclusive, was calm and observant. He missed those days of simplicity. He was surprised that the youth could maintain such a cool air after all of the burdens that have been loaded onto his back.

For the next several minutes, the children talked in high, eager voices while the two Lokis watched in silence. The younger Loki inserted a few comments here and there, and his older counterpart answered any questions he was given. Watching the innocent back-and-forth conversations was almost…pleasant to him. They all lost track of time and were startled by the presence of Odin approaching.

Disclaimer: I do not own the Avengers or Thor.

AN: What did you think? I know I ask this every time, but it's a legit question. I think that the story is reaching its end soon because I'm going to college and there isn't much else I can do with it. Unless I get an uber-cool idea from myself or one of you. So GIVE ME IDEAS, my wonderful fans! :D