In Mens Rea

Travelling by any other means than the Bifrost and Rainbow Bridges was torture as far as Athena was concerned and she was quite sure, given the pained noises Thor was making beside her, it was equally as troublesome for him as well. It felt like they were being twisted and pulled and turned and tugged from every direction. Her skin felt like it was being pricked by thousands of small needles and it was cold, bone chillingly cold. Even for all their training in frigid temperatures and in sweltering deserts, this sort of cold wasn't normal, they both knew that. It seeped into their skin, into their bones, into their very souls it felt like. It truly was as dark and dangerous a magic as Odin had proclaimed it to be and Athena was quite sure that Thor was silently swearing to himself that he would never learn and never use such magic as this ever even when he was king. It was pure torture. They were falling into the darkness and the winds were howling around them and they could hardly see the other person next to them. She would have thought Thor lost to her if not for his agonized cries of pain mimicking her own and the feel of his hand gripping her hers with such force that she knew if she were a mere mortal he'd have broken her hand.

But, then again, she was entirely sure that she would have broken his hand as well. It was all they could do though, to ensure they would get to their destination together. They had no idea where they were, how they were travelling, if they were moving through the abyss Loki had been lost through. Whatever the case was, they couldn't let go of each other. Her mind filled with horrible images of what could happen if they did, one of them would land where they were meant to, the other would go flying off into the darkness, landing who knew where. And they both knew that, wherever they ended up, if it was not where the portal Odin had conjured intended, they doubted the portal would be able to open up and take them back to Asgard. This was dangerous and tricky magic at work and they were not going to disappoint Odin or Frigga. They knew they were heading into what might be a battle, but they did have hope that they would be able to find Loki and prevent it, but it wouldn't change anything for Loki.

Odin had been told of Loki's plans and the fact that he would use the Tesseract to attack Earth, it was a betrayal to Asgard that he would not use it to return to them, that he would instead use its powers for something it wasn't meant to be used for. To abuse the power of it in that way, to refuse to come home and restore the Tesseract to the Vault, it meant that Loki would be seen as even more of a traitor. She knew that Thor had all the hope in the world of getting to Loki before he managed to start his plan with the box, that he hoped to prevent the battle but also prevent Loki from doing anything too severe that could work against him in his hopes of returning as his brother and not a traitor. But she also knew what darkness and loneliness could do to a person, the true madness it could drive them to. Oh she had seen people struck with madness in the past, human, monster, and god alike, it could happen to anyone and if Loki had been afflicted by something, he wouldn't even see his actions as wrong.

She liked to think and hope that, somewhere inside him, Loki had realized that the genocide of Jotunheim had been wrong, that he regretted it, for if he didn't then it would be the true sign that Loki was gone. She liked to hope, but she was also a realistic person. She knew that the shock and betrayal that Loki felt had likely caused some sort of fracture in his mind. To be raised Asgardian all his life and be told stories of how Jotuns were monsters that deserved death…and then to find out he WAS one? To do all he could to try and be seen as a hero and loyal son (in the worst possible ways) and have that fail, it could only drive a person so far. She and Thor had seen it, the moment that Loki truly fell to the madness within him, when he'd been laughing and crying and questioning them about if it really as madness. He was lost, she knew that full well, he was lost but Thor would never accept that.

And so she would try, for him, to help him get his brother back from the insanity he'd fallen into. It was why she was there, right now, clutching his hand as they fell through space and through the realms, feeling like she was being torn apart by the elements around her. Odin, when he'd been told what the vision had entailed, had offered her a choice. He was not one to order her about as though she were just one of his subjects, he knew not only was she a warrior but an advisor, she was thoughtful and logical and she reasoned things out. She was the least likely to make rash decisions though she would admit she had made many in the past, but with each case she worked to do and be better the next time. He had offered her the choice, to go with Thor, or to have him go alone. For the betrayal that he felt, the Warriors Three and Sif felt doubly so, they felt betrayed by Loki but equally they felt the hurt that the betrayal had caused Thor and his family. They were less likely to attempt to help stop Loki than they were to try and outright kill him. And, given that choice, how could she selfishly refuse to go with Thor? She had told him once before that she understood betrayal from family and that she would never let him face it alone and to say no would mean condemning him to just that, to facing his traitor brother by himself.

Her life, in the scope of the universe, meant little. She was not a queen, she was not an heir in the sense that there was a kingdom to be taken over, she was not important in Asgard. She liked to think she was important to Thor, but the life of a warrior was to always be aware that each breath could be their last. She had made peace with that when she'd come to Asgard, she had understood that being there could lead to her death, and she had accepted that. If it was her fate to die on Earth, she would die on Earth, she would not leave Thor alone till literally her last breath. She had a small hope though that what her brother had seen in his vision, what he interpreted it to be, was not all that there was to her fate. His visions came in snippets and flashes, left to him to piece together. There could be more that he had not seen, he could have seen something in the wrong order, he could have only seen the beginning of something but not what came after. She was always cautious with her brother's visions, while they were never wrong, while they happened exactly like he saw them, there were times where there was more to it he hadn't seen.

Right now though she truly felt like she was being killed, like the breath and life was being sucked out of her the longer they were in that swirling black vortex of pain.

Athena let out a deep gasp as she finally felt a breath of fresh air hit her…along with rain, as she and Thor fell out of the bottom of the portal and into the middle of a storm. She wasn't sure which was worse now. There were dark gray clouds gathered around them, rain coming down around them, equally as chilled winds, but now, instead of travelling through the portal, they were plummeting in air.

"Athena!" Thor tugged her closer by her hand still holding his and wrapped his arm around her before he lifted Mjolnir, using it to help them fly instead of fall.

"Where is Loki!?" she shouted above the sound of the winds whipping around them, "The Portal should have taken us right to him!"

They looked around, trying to find the missing prince, not sure why the portal had opened in the air instead of somewhere closer to the ground. Thor lowered Mjolnir, allowing them to sink down below the torrent of rain and clouds around them. And they could see it, one of the large metal birds, planes Jane had told them they were called last time they were there, soaring below them. And they knew it had Loki in it, not only was it too small but...there was also a S.H.I.E.L.D. written on the side of it and they knew that it must be Coulson and his agents within. Even if Loki was not there, SHIELD would be able to help them find him.

"There," Athena pointed at it, Thor nodding, realizing the same thing she had.

He lifted Mjolnir higher, summoning lightning and used it to propel them both forward, leaving a roar of thunder in their wake, the two of them flying for the plane.

Unfortunately they were not quite equipped and practiced in the art of landing on a flying moving metal bird and ended up landing too hard, shaking the plane in the process. Athena toppled out of Thor's grip, her arm slamming on the metal of the bird, causing her to groan and hiss in pain, clutching her elbow, while Thor used Mjolnir to steady himself. He looked over, seeing her a few feet away but she shook her head and waved him off.

"Go get Loki," she told him, "We haven't the time to waste on minor injuries," she sat up and flexed out her arm, flinching slightly but showing him she would be alright.

Thor gave her a firm nod and moved to the back of the plane, having seen a large gate-like door moments before they'd hit the top of the plane. He paused, seeing in a flash of lightning that it was actually opening, he knew that it had to mean someone inside was coming out but he had little time to think on who, time was of the essence, the sooner he could find Loki the better it would be for him and Athena and the Earth. He feared that, if Loki had been taken by SHIELD then it was already too late to stop the man's plans, but he had to be certain, he had to see if Loki was even in there. He jumped off the back of the plane and onto the small door, his gaze going right to Loki as he sat, his hands manacled together, on a small bench to the side. He hardly cast a glance to the others that were in the craft though he noticed it was two men and a women. One man, with dark hair and a moustache and beard, was in red and gold armor, a shining circle of light set in the breastplate of his armor. There was another man, with yellow hair, short and slick, in blue, white, and red armor as well, stars on it with a large round shield that appeared to be a target with a star in the middle. He could barely make out that the pilot of the craft was a woman in black, with short curly red hair. But that was all he allowed himself to notice as his attention focused solely on Loki once more.

He stormed towards his brother, not seeing the Tesseract anywhere in the craft or on his person but knowing that Loki had many tricks that could hide it from him. The man in red and gold armor tried to move in his way, but he didn't even stop, just slammed Mjolnir into his chest, sending him flying back and into the man in blue. He moved right over to Loki, unable to help but feel a rush of anger for him, for what he'd done. He hadn't just allowed Jotuns into Asgard as a joke, he had manipulated everything. He had endangered the lives of their people if his mischief went wrong, guards had DIED because of what he'd done. And after that, he'd killed the king of another realm which meant, if the Bifrost was ever repaired they had to disconnect Jotunheim from it or risk retribution. He had tried to destroy the realm and, worse yet, he had allowed himself to fall into the abyss of space. He had forced them to mourn him as though he were dead.

All he could think about as he looked at his brother was the sight of his mother in tears when he had to tell her what had become of Loki after he'd gone to stop him from destroying Jotunheim. He saw the months of her in black, mourning him, months of hearing her tears and her false smiles and her small smiles and sad smiles. He remembered every bit of agony his cowardly death had caused their mother and, before he even realized he was doing it, he reached out and grabbed Loki by the throat, dragging him to the door just as another figure jumped onto it, Athena.

She was at his side in an instant, her sword out and pointed back at the two men as they tried to attack him from behind, threatening them to stop where they were and come no closer. She had her determined and focused expression on her face that he recognized from their battles, she was in her warrior mind frame at the moment and he was thankful for it. His mind was in turmoil seeing his brother again. He felt relieved he was alive and angry that he'd betrayed him, he felt hurt that Loki had turned on him but still happy that his brother drew breath, and…numb as well, he felt numb. He had mourned his brother, he had cried, he would admit, he had tried to honor him in his death and had tried to let go of his anger. It hadn't worked but he had tried to move on, he had let his brother go…and now he was back and he didn't know how to act around him or what to think, he'd mourned the loss of him and Loki was standing right in front of him once more. He would need Athena's focus and dedication and strength to handle this.

And he trusted her to the point where he didn't even need to look back and make sure his back was defended, he knew that she would defend him and protect him from the two men. He reached out and held a hand to her, and she took it with her back still turned to him, knowing he was reaching for her. He almost smirked, wishing he could see the look on the men's faces when they jumped out of the plane, Athena doing so backwards, and into the night.

He held tight to Mjolnir, using it to guide them to earth, the two of them nearly crashing into a cliff in his anger and the small niggling in his head that told him his brother deserved to be bruised and hurt a little after letting them all think him dead. Loki was resourceful and clever and he didn't doubt that Loki would have come up with some way to contact them or to send them a sign that he lived. But as they neared the cliff, he recalled that Athena was right beside him and he would NOT allow her to come to harm just because of the spite he felt for his brother. So the two of them landed on the cliff, and he threw Loki to the ground, hopping down beside him as his brother groaned.

"Where is the Tesseract?" Thor demanded, Athena landing behind him, moving to his side, her hand on her sword, but she kept quiet, knowing that this anger was something to be watched and not goaded or tried to temper. She had experienced it herself, the sting of betrayal and being confronted with the person who committed it, it had to be worked through, not controlled by someone else.

"Oh ho," Loki smirked at him from the ground, "I missed you too."

"Loki," she hissed, silently telling him NOT to attempt jesting with Thor at the moment.

"Do I look to be in a gaming mood?" Thor demanded.

"Oh, you should thank me," Loki rolled his eyes, "With the Bifrost gone, how much dark energy did the Allfather have to muster to conjure you here?" he wondered, "Your precious Earth…"

Athena strode forward, pointing her sword at Loki's throat before Thor could react, she knew he was an inch away from dropping his hammer and attacking his brother physically and they needed answers, not an unconscious Jotun, "Hold your tongue Loki," she threatened, knowing that this was a very delicate subject, Thor's mother and father, and for Loki to bring up the dark energy that Odin had needed to use was too much for Thor. It was also a reminder that Loki had held Gungnir, he had sensed its powers, he had used it himself, and Thor had not, it was just another reminder of his betrayal, "Or I cut it out and we use other methods of getting information from you."

"I thought you dead," Thor snapped at Loki.

"Did you mourn?" Loki asked.

"ALL of us did Loki," Athena told him, "Even the ones who knew the truth about where you hailed from," she added, being sure to remind him that, despite being a Jotun, they had ALL considered him Asgardian.

"Our father…" Thor began.

"YOUR father," Loki cut in with a glare, "He did tell you my true parentage, did he not?"

"I did," Athena shook her head, slightly concerned about the question, Loki should have known fairly well that Thor knew the truth given their last encounter, "I saw your skin in Jotunheim when the Frost Giant touched you."

"But it matters not," Thor shook his head, "We were raised together, we played together, we fought together. Do you remember none of that?"

"I remember a shadow," Loki sneered, pushing himself to his feet, "Living in the shade of your greatness. I remember you tossing me into an abyss. I who was and should be king!"

Athena shook her head, "Says the man who claimed to not have wanted the throne?" she scoffed, but there was an uneasy feeling settling in the pit of her stomach about that. It was like Loki was changing his story on them, especially that remark about being 'tossed' into the abyss…when HE had let go of Gungnir himself. There was no tossing, there was no one who wanted the throne…she honestly wasn't sure if this was a trick by him or if there was something else going on.

Because this…this didn't seem like Loki and she knew that being lost in just darkness would not be enough to twist him into this.

"So you take the world I have sworn to be an ally to as recompense for your imagined slights?" Thor frowned, "No. The Earth is under our protection, Loki," he gestured between himself and Athena.

"And you're doing a marvelous job with that," Loki scoffed, "The humans slaughter each other in droves while you idelly fret. I mean to rule them," he grinned, "And why should I not?"

"Have you fallen so far into madness that you think yourself above them?" Athena frowned at him.

"Well yes."

Thor shook his head sadly at that, "Then you miss the truth of ruling, brother. Throne would suit you ill."

Loki shot him a glare and shoved past him, "I've seen worlds you've never known about. I have grown, Odinson, in my exile. I have seen the true power of the Tesseract, and when I wield it…"

"Who?" Athena stepped after him, hearing a hidden meaning in his words, he hadn't SEEN things like that, he had BEEN SHOWN them, "Who showed you the power of the Tesseract?"

Thor stiffened, realizing what she had, if there had been someone else with him in his exile…as Athena had been in his own, it was possible that they had manipulated Loki in his depression, that they had used what he saw as a betrayal to get his trust and twist his mind. He had seen it as well, a flinch in Loki when Athena had first asked 'Who?' and he felt bile rise in him at the realization that the flinch was not one of a secret let slip but of a pain, as though he expected some sort of punishment for doing so, "Who controls the would-be-king?" he murmured.

But Loki just rounded on them, "I am a king!"

"Not here," Thor shook his head, "You give up the Tesseract to us," he told Loki, "You give up this poisonous dream! You come home."

Loki looked at him a long while before letting out a breath, "I don't have it."

"Loki he isn't saying that the Tesseract is the only reason we've come," Athena shook her head, seeing Loki genuinely thought Thor had only come for the cube and not his brother, "YOU are part of our quest as well."

Loki scoffed at that, "You need the Cube to bring me home but I've sent it off I know not where."

Thor held up Mjolnir at him, "You listen well brother…"

"Thor!" Athena gasped as a blur of red and gold went soaring past them, taking Thor with it as Loki just stood there.

"I'm listening?" Loki smirked.

Athena just gripped her sword tighter and lunged at him.

~8~

Thor flew through the air, the man in Gold and Red armor grabbing him, sending the two of them crashing into a series of trees in the forest beside the cliff. They tumbled to the ground, the man lifting a faceplate that was guarding his head.

"Do not touch me again!" Thor threatened, leaping to his feet with Mjolnir in his hand.

"Then don't take my stuff," the man countered.

"You have no idea what you're dealing with."

"Uh…" the man eyed Thor, "Shakespeare in the park?" he guessed, and Thor could tell by his tone it was meant to be both jesting and insulting at the same time, "Doth mother know you weareth her drapes?"

"This is beyond you, metal man," Thor warned, "Loki will face Asgardian justice."

"He gives up the Cube, he's all yours," the man shrugged, "Until then," he reached up and dropped his faceplate armor, "Stay out of the way," he took a few steps back, about to turn and leave with a mutter of, "Tourist."

Thor glared, not sure what that word was but not about to be insulted again, so he threw Mjolnir, hitting the man of metal right in the chest as he turned, hearing the attack coming, sending the man flying onto his back.

"Ok!" the man growled, pushing himself up as Thor summoned Mjolnir back to him, swinging it in preparation for a battle.

The man held his hand up, firing a blast of energy at Thor before flying right for him, kicking Thor in the chest and sending him flying back through the trees this time. Thor jumped to his feet, having seen an energy like lightning in the man's attack and summoned more to his hammer, using a tactic Athena had taught him to observe his enemy to send a bolt right back at the man, fighting fire with fire. The man tried to fire back at him, the two of them standing off against the other moments later, their fists clenched, ready to fly right at each other in a split second. And so they did.

They launched at each other, smashing the both of them through the trees and right into the cliff's side before they fell back to the forest, taking trees down with them as they landed in a mangled heap. They stood quickly and faced off again. Thor moved to threw a punch at the man, making him about to punch back, but he grabbed the man's hand, moving to grab the man's other hand when he tried to punch with his other hand. He grit his teeth and started to crush the metal around the man's right hand, but the man lifted his hand and sent a blast at Thor's face. It did nothing to him save anger him. And when the man moved to head butt Thor and failed to distract him, Thor threw his head forward, head butting the man instead, sending him flying back. The man's feet dragged in the dirt before he threw himself forward, flying at Thor, sending him flying into a broken tree.

It simmered slightly after they regained their footing, moving into more of a fist fight instead of one with weapons. However it didn't last and soon Thor was summoning his hammer and slamming it down on the breastplate of the metal man, but the man ducked to the side, causing Thor to fall mid-slam. As Thor stumbled to get to his feet, the man swooped in and punched him in the gut, the two of them about to resort to dealing blows once more when a round shield ricocheted through the woods and slammed into both their chests, knocking them away from each other.

"Hey!" the man in blue shouted, catching his shield as he moved into the now-man made clearing that the two had created in their fight, "That's enough!" he jumped off a tree and stepped up to the two men, looking more at Thor than the other man, "Now I don't know what you plan on doing here…"

"I've come here to put an end to Loki's schemes!" Thor declared.

"Then prove it," the blue man challenged, "Put that hammer down."

"Uh, yeah!" the metal man winced and turned to the blue man, "No! Bad call, he loves his hammer…"

Before the man could even finish, Thor swung Mjolnir back, sending the metal man flying back once more, "You want me to put hammer down?" he shouted, before leaping into the air and slamming the hammer right at the blue man.

But the man raised his round shield above his head to protect himself, the hammer connecting with the metal of the shield and creating a loud boom and flash of light that sent all three men flying backwards.

"Are we done here?!" the blue man demanded as he scrambled to his feet, panting and glaring at the two others, gesturing around at the utterly destroyed part of the forest.

Thor lifted his hammer to speak, when another sound rose.

"Et hem?" a voice cleared behind them.

All three men turned to see Athena standing there with her arms crossed, an unamused expression on her face, "Have you all quite finished with your little spat?" she asked, a tone of no-nonsense in her voice as she eyed each of them in turn, "Or have you forgotten the prisoner you were transporting?" she gave a mock-thoughtful look, "I wonder who's guarding him right now while you're all preoccupied with your little tiff?"

The men looked at each other, as though just realizing they'd left Loki unattended, and ran back where they'd left him…only to stop short when they saw him on the ground, tied up and gagged…glaring at Athena as she smirked.

"Never leave a man to do a woman's job," she remarked wisely, moving over to Loki and slamming the hilt of her sword across his face, held tightly in her fist, knocking him out for the moment. She straightened and turned, sliding her sword back into her sheath as she saw them staring at her, "What?"

"How…" was all the blue man could muster as he pointed at Loki.

"She is one of Asgard's most skilled warriors!" Thor boasted as he came to her side, moving an arm around her shoulder, a wide grin on his face.

Athena rolled her eyes, "He barely put up a fight," she warned him, "It was far too easy to subdue him," she looked at the metal man and the blue man, "Had he truly tried to fight you, you would both be dead," she added, "Which means wherever you were bringing him was somewhere he WANTED to go. He only let me be victorious so that he could be recaptured."

The two men looked at each other, having their own suspicions confirmed by her words, and turned to her, "I would like to extend a truce," the blue man stated, "For the sake of the Earth, we should join forces."

"And why should we?" Athena asked, not sounding condescending, but genuinely curious.

But it was Thor who answered, "They are aware of the Tesseract," Thor told her, recalling the metal man's words about the cube, "They are in search of it as well."

Athena let out a long breath, "Then Loki has already set his plan in motion."

A/N: We'll be getting a more complete telling of what happened before Athena and Thor arrived in the next chapter, they'll have to be briefed and brought up to speed about what Loki's done ;)

Some notes on reviews...

I can say that the man Athena spoke to will appear again in The Dark World and we'll find out for sure who he is ;) As for You-Know-Who, we'll have to wait a little longer to find out who she is ;)

If I did a Man of Steel story, it probably would be Clark/OC :) I like Lois Lane well enough, but I've seen so many portrayals of her that I couldn't really see a connect between her and the men playing Clark :/