Woohoo, chapter 3 finally! Reviews are, as always, appreciated. The next chapter is when things get really exciting, I promise. Also, I'm on tumblr as letyoursoul, let's be friends.
When you're dead you have nothing to prove, which can be nice. Loki had taken the form of the jewelry woman again; he had since forgotten who she really was, but he liked the way others respected her while staying just a bit wary. After they had sold the ring, he and the human had indeed acquired a bottle of very fine wine, which Loki's alluring form may or may not have scored them free of charge. He had quite enjoyed watching Rae struggling to contain her amusement as the wine seller raked his gaze over the mysterious woman. But then, as they went to go, the salesman cautioned, "The Allfather won't like it, you know. Humans have no place in Asgard, no matter what sort of trouble you're in. You would be wise to go back home."
Rae kept her chin high and didn't look at him as they walked away. Loki knew he was right. Even Thor's beloved Jane had been coldly rejected until the circumstances revealed her to be of importance to them. He imagined Thor was with her now, somewhere on Earth, ignoring his duties, ignoring him...But Rae had laughed at his magic, the first in a lifelong string of rolled eyes and turned heads and sighs. And, being dead, Loki didn't have to worry about anyone else's opinion of him. He led her to the gate of the bifrost, nodded discretely for her to follow, and jumped deftly off the side. Rae was stunned for a moment, but then followed suit. They landed on a beach of sorts; a sloping shore of coarse bronze sand, under the bifrost and between the great waterfalls, stretching down into the abyss of the stars. Loki grinned and shimmered back to himself, sitting down just beneath the translucent colors of the bridge above. Rae joined him, and snatched the bottle while he was busy feeling smug about his impressive hiding spot.
After a very long drink from the slender bottle, Rae let herself look at the God of Mischief who sat beside her. She handed it over, and he took a short sip, then locked his eyes back onto her, watching. It was a stale mate of sorts. But Asgardian wine was very efficient, and after a quiet moment, it was Rae who spoke first.
"Come here often?"
The joke was lost on Loki, who replied, "From time to time." He offered the bottle again, and she accepted.
"You trying to get me drunk?" he was too quiet and it was making her nervous. But Loki was all stoicism and seriousness at the moment, quietly watching her as the bifrost glowed in dancing muted colors across their faces. "Perhaps," his eyes flickered over her, and for a moment breathing was painful, until he continued. "I have always found intoxication to be fascinating. A solicitation of truth and reality amid a web of constructed personalities and lies."
"Why don't you just cast a truth spell on me then?"
He smiled faintly. "If only such a thing existed. Lies are intangible; sometimes we even believe them as they are spoken. Such a thing cannot be controlled."
"I'm not lying about the fragment," Rae said.
"But there is more you have not told me."
She leaned back against the slope of sand and studied the stars all around her. The information she had exposed to the Earth was important enough to risk her life over, so handing it over to a fallen prince from another planet required a second thought or two. But then, Asgard should know. And then, on the other hand, once Loki learned all the details he needed, what was to stop him from killing her and taking the Tesseract fragment? As long as she held bits of her mystery, she held on to her worth. Which was pretty depressing, to say the least. Maybe a bit melodramatic, too. There was wild madness in the bright green eyes that watched her, but not evil. Not that she could see.
"S.H.I.E.L.D. has been gathering artefacts and information for a very long time. They say they lock it up and keep it away from the world because that much power should never belong to anyone. Now, imagine if all that information, all those procured puzzle pieces and superhuman power sources weren't actually buried from everyone, but instead they were kept, catalogued, studied, duplicated. Hybridized and enhanced. The only thing more powerful than alien technology is human arrogance. S.H.I.E.L.D.-they're you and you're Chitauri army, only add decades of careful research and several miles of warehouse full of amped up technology. And they don't just want the planet, they want the universe. They've been preparing for a war, some kind of grand display of power, to prove that the humans are the best and the brightest, and the rest should fear us all."
Loki looked disgusted. "Ridiculous. Humans waging war on gods. You're sure of this?"
"I wasn't anyone important when I worked there. I did mostly data entry taking pictures of organic specimens for the archives, that sort of thing. But, being unimportant and unnoticed has its advantages. It gave me a lot of opportunity to poke around under the radar."
He smiled. Much like being dead. "That I can understand. Although, if what you're saying is true, I may not have the luxury much longer."
"What do you mean?"
"I mean that someone ought to warn-" Loki stopped short and his eyes darted up above them. He threw up a hand to silence any reaction from the girl, who also heard the footsteps-heavy, confident, and followed by the surefooted gait of two guards. Loki leaned in close and whispered mockingly, "The king approaches." He was walking out to Heimdal's post. It must have been a summons of great import, to call the king out to speak with him. For a moment Loki worried that his memory spell hadn't worked, but that was impossible. His craft was perfect. Something else was going on, and he wanted to be the first to know. After the footsteps had passed overhead, he conjured a faint green glow in one hand, preparing.
"I'm going to take a closer look at this. Wait here," he commanded definitively, and closed his eyes to focus on the magic. Rae interrupted. "What? No way. Let me come. I should tell Odin about S.H.I.E.L.D. anyway-"
"Are you mad? A strange human girl, completely out of nowhere, drops into his realm and threatens war? He'll probably have you killed on the spot. Now, let me handle this."
"At least let me come. Make me invisible or whatever."
He quirked an eyebrow, gave an amused look that frankly sent terror into Rae's very soul, and shrugged. "As you wish." In a brief flash of light, Rae looked up to see a black bird fluttering into the air where Loki had stood. Oh, clever. But what about...oh. Rae stretched out her arms to discover they were, in fact, black feathered wings, and her entire bird-shaped body buzzed with a strange electrical energy. So that's what magic felt like, then. She tried to fly up to where Loki hovered, only to flip over and plummet back onto the sand with a thud. The raven above flew in quick circles and she swore if birds could laugh, this bird was laughing at her. Another try and she was flying beside him, struggling to keep up as they cut through the air and overtook the procession of guards and the Allfather just as he greeted the gatekeeper. The birds perched quietly above and listened.
"My king," Heimdal bowed, still a bit cautious since his recent treason had been forgiven.
"You summoned me with news," Odin prompted, all business.
"There have been many mysteries on Asgard lately. We have lost time and no memory of what has happened, and now this."
Rae saw Loki ruffle his feathers proudly. He was getting away with it-for now, at least.
"Speak," the Allfather demanded.
Heimdal stepped closer to the window which overlooked the stars. "Someone is trying to get in. I can feel it. There is a thinning of the walls, and pressure at the back of my vision. It is as if somewhere, on the other end, a portal is being created, although it is not yet strong enough to open."
Rae threw a look at Loki, and as far as she could tell in their current forms, he understood. SHIELD was on the move, already. Odin looked concerned, but not entirely worried by the news. "Our defenses will hold, and you will watch this doorway closely. What more can be done?"
"My king, this energy feels different. Strong and complex. I do not understand it and I cannot see through to whom is weilding it. This worries me greatly. You should take precaution," the low voice was full of dread. Odin looked quietly at the stars for a moment, then turned to face him again.
"Tell no one of what you have seen. Asgard will face any foe that dares breach our borders, and we will not cower in fear." He turned and walked back down the bifrost to conclude the issue, leaving Heimdal staring vacantly, confused, into the sky. Loki shot off into the sky and back to the shore beneath the bridge and Rae had to fly hard to catch up to him. When she landed-clumsily-beside him, another flash of light brought them back to their natural forms. He was fuming.
"Coward! Idiot! A fair warning is handed directly to him and he choses to ignore it! And all along they've noticed the lost time when I've impersonated them, but it never crossed their minds that-" he huffed and paced and raked a hand through his hair. Rae blinked and dusted the sand off herself. "Does no one see anything? Listen to anything?" He continued. "Of course not. Everyone is too tied up in their own stupidity to think." If he were king, he thought, such things would never even be possible. The humans would know better than to test him.
"So what do you propose we do then?" Rae was ready to take action. Her expose must have triggered them to speed up their research. She had tried to stop them, but instead, she made them desperate. A sickening feeling dropped into her stomach then. They were coming to Asgard. They would come for her.
Loki turned and loomed over her, and she tried to hide the fear that answered his glare. "We do not do a thing, my dear, because, you will recall, I am dead and you are no one important."
"Maybe it's time you...stopped being dead?"
He looked away, into the darkness, far away into a distant and twisted future full of branching possibilities, all terrible. All the ways he could be rejected again and again. He couldn't bear to imagine the shock and frustration on his so-called family's faces when they saw that he still lived. Or, worse yet, the complete indifference. To be reduced again to a useless shadow, locked away where he could cause no more unneeded damage.
"Out of the question."
Rae drew in a breath and tried to steady herself. It was as if she could feel them getting closer, see them frantically changing the chemistry and the alignments and the formulae, not caring what they destroyed in their path. Anything to break through to another realm-just to prove they can. And then? What else would they prove?
"They'll find me," she was unable to still the trembling in her voice, or the shaking of her hands as she twisted them together. Tentatively, with the delicate uncertainty of a fearful child, Loki took her hands in his and stilled them. She didn't look at him, but watched the slight, nervous movements of his own fingers.
"Not if I can help it."