Althia was full of her power and touching Loki's bruised and stitched body while the healing waters of Asgard reflected and amplified the light.
"You are Jibana Meye now." mama said and smiled at her over the head of Asuet.
"I love you." a man was said sweetly. "I love you too but I can't you'll die." she replied softly touching his face.
"When?" a plaintive whine tinted the voice of her daughter as she begged.
"When you stop being naughty." a young man laughed and picked the girl up. "Baba I want it now though? I'm not naughty now."
"I need you no one else understands!" she said and listened as her mother chuckled.
"Mom make him stop!" Asuet cried and Althia called for her younger son to leave his sister alone.
Footsteps running down sandstone halls, the sound of someone breathing hard "Children run; now! To the river."
Screaming coming from everywhere "Momma, Momma!" a child's panicked voice rose above the chaos. Not hers but a child in such distress tore her heart.
Loki held her face above the water; no one would get in the water with them as the waters were swirling in agitation from no source and emitted the same glow she did when she healed. Loki's black hair curled down his neck and dripped light. Thor was holding a crying Jane against his chest even as she fought him. She had started to jump in the water when it was clear that Althia was below the surface and unconscious. The waters had turned white with her light the second she touched Loki with her power. He'd woken screaming into the air her name pounding into his ears by a handful of voices. A glance down told him why there was such a panic. He stood now the tiny body in his arms slowly coming out of at the water. Althia started sobbing softly water dribbled from her lips bubbled out of her throat and he couldn't hear her words till his ear was nearly pressed to her lips "run baby, just run…I'm here. Let them go…please no...My babies my babies." She shuddered and her skin went cold as he lifted her out of the water. He dragged her to the surface as she coughed clear her lungs.
Her skin was hot to the touch at first as if her light was a fire within her. He lifted her slowly watching to see if there was any reaction to leaving the water. As soon as her glowing skin was free of the water the light that had been coursing in undulating waves through it evanesced. She cried in great choking, heart rending gasps her only words "My babies! My babies!" Thor cleared the room and let Jane help Loki get her out of the now quiet water. Wrapped in a robe, Loki sat with Althia as she tossed and turned. She was asleep deep in the recesses of her mind where some things that she had hidden from herself still existed.
Those who visited listened to strange conversations in a language none of them spoke. Sometimes Althia spoke with authority and command and others in a hushed whisper, giggling as if to a lover. She was holding conversations that much was obvious to anyone. Jane listened for a while after she had changed and arranged for her equipment to be brought to the healing hall. "She's remembering something!" she shouted. Thor and the others jumped. "What do you mean?" He asked staring at the almost coy look on Althia's face as she whispered. "In the notes Dr. Banner gave me. It said she doesn't dream she remembers things. Kind of going over her memories sorting and reviewing. This is what he meant by she never forgets anything because her mind doesn't work like a normal person." A woman in healer garb was staring at Jane. Shock and some hidden knowledge on her face. "What?" Jane asked the woman and was surprised when she scampered out of the room without answering or bowing to her prince. Jane shook her head confused before continuing, "It's some form of Asian language but some of the words sound almost Egyptian when she speaks. Does anyone know where she was first taken prisoner?" Thor looked at her confused. "No, does it matter so much?" he asked leaning against the wall. "On earth different places developed different languages. I can recognize it but I don't speak it." Althia laid unresponsive to any of the attempts to wake her the healers used; Jane got worried. "If we knew what she was saying it might help." Jane said to the room. It took over an hour for Jane to compile the data she had gathered. Giving it to Thor in two different flash drives she told him. "One for Tony and Bruce and one for SHIELD. Don't let SHIELD get them both." Thor was sent for a translator and to deliver Jane's data while Jane stayed with Althia.
Odin and Loki had a very odd conversation while Jane was examining Althia. Someone posed as the All Father with an illusion good enough to fool Loki or had using a shape shift had paid a visit to Loki. This individual had tried to order Loki to kill Jane Foster thus severing any association with Midgard. They then couched the situation in such a way as to get Loki to drink with them introducing a delayed magic until Loki threw a fit. Which was guaranteed when he thought his king wished him to assassinate his brother's lover in order to secure Althia in Asgard permanently. In the end Loki and Odin were of a like mind; someone was playing game in the court of Asgard. Odin left to order inquisitors brought in to investigate. As he was moving towards the throne room a healer came to him respectfully but in a highly agitate state. "My, lord I come bearing news of the Midgardian woman." Odin watched the healer and signaled them to come closer. "My king, I was in the healing hall assisting Jane Foster and Prince Thor when they were discussing the reasons for the woman's strange speech. The woman is not of Midgard but likely Vanir." The healer waited while Odin considered this information. "Tell me how you came to this reasoning?" the healer brought up how some of the Vanir notably common legendary ones who rose to eminence were known to never had fanciful dreams but instead used their sleep to further their studies and contemplate various subjects. Odin listened patiently to this and agreed that it was common among the Vanir. "My king the woman Althia Sacmich does not dream. Jane Foster claims she remembers when she sleeps." Odin thanked the healer and bid them hold their tongue until it was confirmed. He didn't want whoever was determined to keep the woman on Asgard having any more incentive.
Loki spent time in the lore library waiting for his brother's return. Long before there had been a great deal of comings and goings between the realms. Wars had been fought won and lost on all the realms and each on inevitably left behind some from both sides. Midgard in particular was a much chosen battle ground for the other realms due to its central location. He had meant to make a list of those possibly left behind who might fit the image of who had held Althia. This seemed an opportune time. So much had changed for the prince since Thor retrieved him from Jutonhelm. All his experiences, since he came from the dark trenches, had been much more to his liking than in many of the centuries before. Servants, guards, and warriors alike now treated him with respect on Asgard. The women looked at him with lust not for adventuring with the god of mischief but as more than a casual dalliance. He had long lost interest in courting any of them but it was gratifying none the less. Yes, Althia had been a wonderful ally and friend to him in a way he had seen Thor treated for the vast majority of their long lives. Loki let go his reflective mood and focused his mind on the task of searching not only for Althia's elusive enemy but also for possible enemies of his own who would seek to maneuver him into killing Jane Foster.
Jane was worried when Thor did not return by night fall. He had been gone hours and Althia wasn't responsive enough to eat. The healers didn't understand the concept of intubating her to force food and water into her body. They started treating her more like she was Asgardian than human and it made Jane wonder what they knew. She checked on Althia quickly before she quietly moved out of the room and across the next listening. It wasn't difficult if she kept he skirt under control because her shoes were soft soled and well padded. She didn't hear anything from the door to the hall and no one was on the small balcony lift that took people to the gardens inside the V of the palace. When she eased into the next room she could hear voices. Walking to a section where she could hear them without being observed she found a vantage point that over looked the city.
"Are you sure the information is correct?" The elder healer Althia had shocked said. "Yes, my lord healer. Jane Foster had no doubt that she does not dream but instead remembers." Shuffling and pacing as someone muttered. "If she is Vanir what bloodline could she come from? None have been to Midgard in centuries. Not since the Juton wars and the treaties of autonomy." Someone was moving a chair around in the next room. "Sit my lord healer. I will get you refreshments." Then another voice a woman, Jane thought maybe it was the one who'd drawn Althia's blood, said. "Vanir and Axi-Tun do not mix. There have never been a cross between the blood of our people and theirs. It simply doesn't take." Jane jumped in shock and moved quickly and quietly back to Althia. She needed to think and most of all she needed to contact SHIELD. There had never been any mention of Althia being completely alien. Now she was completely alien and of two races who couldn't breed. The information was vital but had been hidden. She wondered how long they would try to keep her in the dark. She sat on the balcony where she could see Althia who at the moment was sleeping muttering in that strange language. She didn't realize she'd fallen asleep until she was kissed. She jumped and rubbed the sleep from her eyes to find Thor squatting in front of her his big hands gently rubbing her cold arms smiling. "I brought friends." He said before leaning forward to kiss her again. "When did you get back I was getting worried?" she asked hugging him as he stood lifted her out of the chair. "Director Fury delayed me as did Doctor Banner. They both had many questions about her that I could not answer. Come." He said taking her hands from around his neck and leading back to Althia where a familiar set of shoulders was leaning down listening while writing as fast as he could on a note pad. "Eric!" she gasped and he looked up smiling before he focused on what Althia was saying. "He's been like that since the second he got close enough to hear her." Another said, this one calm and controlled was a woman's voice. One to make men's heads turn and forget themselves unless they knew her. Jane looked over at Natasha Romanoff where she was sorting through Jane's notes. "Hi, you're …" Jane was stunned by the appearance of The Black Widow who was smirking at her with a raised eye brow. "Yes, now tell me what else you've figured out." Jane pulled Thor close to the assassin and she started whispering. She told them what she had gathered from her equipment and the strange babble coming from Althia. Then she swore Thor to silence and told them about the conversation she had heard in the other room about Althia's blood results and about Althia's dreams. Thor rubbed his chin thinking hard, he wasn't as conversant with the aspects on the Vanir and other races that some were. With a moment's thought he was sure who to ask without arising suspicion. "Where is Loki?" he asked Jane. "He went to the Lore Library. He didn't say why just left." She told him and watched him nod. "I will speak to my brother and see what he can make of this development. Then I will bring him back here to try and wake Lady Althia with Black Widow's assistance." He turned to say good bye to Eric who looked up "This is amazing! She's speaking a combination Bengali and ancient Egyptian I can translate the Egyptian it's an old dialect hasn't been heard in 200 or more years! The most amazing part is she's having her half of a conversation well several actually over and over again. It's like she's reliving the same events over and over it's exactly the same! We need to get an active brain scan going." Eric tended to babble on even when others were trying to talk. "Eric, I go to seek my brother's wisdom I will return soon." Thor tried to get the man's attention but it wasn't working. "Of course, of course, go ahead." Eric said distractedly as he started writing again. "Facinating!"
Natasha followed Thor out as he went looking for his brother. She was calm even though she was on an alien planet surrounded by the largest palace in the nine realms. Her mind enjoyed the view and organized a route back to the Healing Hall as they traveled. "Thor, why Loki?" she asked as they ascended to another level using an antigravity lift. "Loki has always studied the lore of the nine realms a habit father wished us both to have but I was never overly fond of. If anyone can be trusted to know the answers we seek, and keep silent, it will be him." Natasha nodded and grinned to herself at the gapping stares she receive from the conservatively dressed Asgardians they passed.
They arrived at two large but not huge doors with intricate carvings of a group of people on the panels. There was no sign near it but the door panels were unique compared to all the others Natasha had seen. This place was a maze, beautiful, but still a maze. "Wait here I will only be a moment." Thor said. She shrugged and leaned on a column near the door. She was adjusting some of her equipment when a hand snaked out and grabbed her. In a rabid series of automatic motions she had the thumb and pinkie of the hand twisted backwards and threw her weight away from the column bringing who ever had grabbed her with her to the ground in a clatter of metal on stone. It was one of the guards she'd seen all over the palace. She recognized the armor when she rolled forward into a position to attack. The doors burst open and Thor and Loki came skidding out on the slick floor within seconds. Three blinks and Loki was sitting laughing his head off on the floor and Thor fell back against the door his head back laughing with him. The guard wasn't happy and she watched him with calm eyes as he got up. Loki popped of the floor and with exaggerated curtesy offed his hand to Natasha. "My lady if I may?" She looked at him then his hand before she let him pull her from her defensive crouch. He winked at her and turned back to the guard seeing three more moving rapidly towards them. Thor was still laughing leaning against the door. "I do apologize for this misunderstanding." Loki said guiding Natasha into view. She slinked like a cat to stand hip cocked, arms crossed, with an eye brow raised, out where everyone could see her. "My dear lady please accept my deepest apologies for the guard startling you." Loki continued he looked at her not the guard and she realized he was getting off on the guard being taken down so easily by her. "It's ok, but do you want to explain why he tried to grab me?" She asked. Loki smiled brighter but there was no pleasure in his face and turned to the guard. "Yes, do explain why you chose to sneak up on the lady instead of announcing yourself." He purred in a low menace. That cut Thor's laugh off like a switch. "What manner of thought would possess you to treat a guest of Asgard in this way?" He was mad now and the guard stuttered while bowing repeatedly. "My apologies my lord princes I did not mean give offense. I did not realize…" there was no way out of it; he was playing cute with the strangely dressed woman and had found himself in the untenable position of having offended a warrior of unknown origin and both Princes. Loki perceived that the guard had mistaken Natasha's strange dress as a different kind of woman entirely. "Get out of my sight you buffoon before I lose my temper and give you to her as penalty for your crude behavior. Midgardian warriors are not to be trifled with like a common wench." Loki snapped at the guard. "Spread the word that this woman is the one who began Lady Althia's warrior training. See to it such occurrences are not repeated." He paused and glanced at Natasha who licked her red lips suggestively. "I will not rescue the next man who offends her." The guard turned and left in a hurry with his compatriots close by.
"Did you enjoy yourself?" Natasha asked blandly and Loki smiled malicious delight in his eyes. "Oh, yes my dear very much. We shall have to do this again someday when we have the leisure to take our time." She looked at him calmly and stood straight. "I'm not a toy Loki, don't forget that and try to keep your eye on the goal here." She said as she moved past him. "I am. These little moments are a delightful break from the tedium." He whispered as she walked by him. She rolled her eyes and grabbed Thor's bicep. "Let's go before I break any of your knights." Loki filled them in on what he'd learned and stopped walking when they told him what Jane had overheard. "That is interesting in the impossible sort of way. Then Althia has been doing a lot of impossible things since we arrived." With that he began to hurry towards the healer hall. Showing Natasha a different, shorter, route than Thor's. They talked quietly as they moved through the halls discussing how to wake Althia.
"Jane, Eric we have returned?" Thor said as they entered the room. Jane looked up from a stack of notes Eric had made and smiled. "We had some interesting news while you were gone." She stood and carefully set aside the notes. "Apparently Althia has a very mixed bag of genes in her body. It would seem she was born to not one but two very different parents both of whom held alien DNA." The three looked at her quizzically. "Ok, so how do we wake her?" Natasha asked skipping the new problem in favor of clearing the old.
"It's really rather easy." Eric said walking in without looking up from his notes. "The energy signature Dr. Banner registered is a harmless frequency most of our technology considered white noise." He walked over to some print outs and started scribbling notes directly on them before turning to where he thought Althia was. "By looking through and discussing the wave variants with the healers here. Brilliant people I must say. All we have to do is expose her to the gamma altered, human DNA of Dr. Banner and the energy of Asgardian magic at the same time." With that he looked up with a smile in front of Loki without realizing it. "You!" he growled dropping his notes and backing up into some of Jane's equipment. Loki grinned slightly and bowed slowly. He missed Eric Selvic raising a collapsible stand but saw the shift in the professor's legs and dodged to the side as the heavy legs swiped by his face. "Hardly the way to treat one who showed you the universe is it?" Loki said and Eric went to take another swipe at him. Natasha blocked the pole while Thor moved to engage the professor before he did some damage to the equipment. "Eric, Loki is here to help. Calm yourself and let us explain." Thor kept between the two and Natasha pulled Loki to where Althia was still sleeping mumbling her conversations. Loki went to her and sat by her side, taking he hand he reached out to touch her mind, fingers delicately pressed to her temple.
'Where are you my queen?' He asked pushing his magic into her mind. "Loki! Mesneh debeh sen!" she screamed clear and loud. Eric forgot his fight with Loki and rushed to the woman. "What did she say? Exactly as she said it!" He demanded "She said your name what else." He grabbed Loki's cloths and shook him without giving him a chance to speak. With a sneer Loki shoved the man back and stood "Mesneh debeh sen" Loki repeated her words verbatim to the demanding and flushed profession. Who dashed over to a stack of books and started tossing them around. Loki watched him, irritation replaced with curiosity. "I've got it, I know I brought it. Aha." he said lifting a battered book and flipped through the pages. "It doesn't make sense." He yelled at the book. "What did she say Eric." Jane asked pulling him around to look at her. "She said 'go backward ask the kiss.' well roughly we don't speak the language so…" Loki ignored the man and looked at Althia. The others were debating what it could mean if translated into proper English. Loki turned after a minutes thought and looked at the mumbling woman. "I know what she means." He said and everyone looked at him shocked. "I need a blade. If I am to access her power one of us must bleed into the healing waters." He look at the tiny healer as she mutter in her sleep. "Brother is this wise?" Thor asked him. "The kiss likely the one where she healed me. It wasn't a kiss it was a combining of our gifts." Loki looked into his brothers blue eyes. "She needs a guide back. The professor said it himself. She is repeating the same conversations." He stepped back from the bed and shrugged off his coat. "No one thought to combine our gifts again while in the healing waters." Thor called the healers and as Loki disrobed behind a curtained enclosure they agreed it wouldn't hurt to try but that the wound would have to be significant. The eldest healer wanted it to be Althia taking the wound which led to Thor grabbing Jane as she screamed and started to swing on the healer. Thor knew she could be very volatile when she wanted she was also very protective. The healer tried to convince them that a mortal who could heal so rapidly would have no problem taking a wound. "What manner of insanity has taken you?" Loki asked as he stepped out of the enclosure in a robe. "When did your take up injuring those entrusted to your care before you healed their wounds?" His words were calm and casual but his body was taunt with contained anger. The healer pulled himself up to his full height till he glanced at Thor and saw the same anger burning in his eyes. "Get out and pray the All Father is more merciful than I. For I would dearly love to rip the tongue from your mouth for such an utterance." The healer blanched at the words of the wayward prince and looking around the room. He realized he had no allies in this conversation. He bowed stiffly and left without a word. The group carefully went through what they hoped would happen once Loki and Althia entered the water. Eric offered to give Loki the wound to a resounding no from everyone except Loki; he didn't seem to care who did it. Thor settled it by giving the blade to Natasha the only one who hadn't volunteered to cut Loki. She raised her eye brow at him and smiled a wicked smile. "Do not make me regret this choice." He said without blinking. She shrugged still smiling and walked over to Loki. Everyone except Loki, Natasha and Thor went into the other room. Althia would be nude going in the water and Jane suddenly felt defensive about her dignity. Not to mention when Loki got in the water the robe would be gone as well.
Natasha tested the balance of the dagger and toyed with it for a moment. "I like it, do you have any more of these? I'd love to have one for myself." She threw a version of Loki's words back at him before looking up into his eyes. "Are you enjoying yourself my dear?" he said with a smile. "Not yet, but I'm about to. I think this is our leisure time." She reply as she set the tip of the dagger into his chest piercing the skin. He clenched his jaw and said nothing. Slowly she dragged the dagger down across his chest angling towards his hip. "Seems a shame to waste all the work she put into you. I hope you're right." She whispered as she stepped into his body and drove the dagger into him and felt it grate against the bone. It was a lot harder than stabling a human and she had to work at the blade. He grunted then wrapping his arm around her waist, pulling her tight against him, grinding the blade in. "My dear, you are a tease." He whispered against her cheek and stepped back dropping into the healing waters up to his waist. His blood was running down his chest slowly where the cut was shallow but faster when she had nicked his hip bone; his blood quickly obscuring the water. Thor had Althia in his arms and leaned down to give her to Loki. "Be careful bother, I do not wish to lose you." Loki's blood smeared across Althia's chest he dropped her legs and crushed her to his chest. His lips brushed hers and he pulled in his power like a breath before dropping his mouth to hers and kneeled in the water.
The moment her body hit the water and his wound at the same time Althia burst into a hot white light. Loki screamed his lips pressed to hers muffled the sound. 'My queen come to me!' his mind demanded.
Loki could see the dark green ocean stretched out in front of him it was a beautiful view. He stood on the edge of a cliff the bottom not too terribly far away but not a trip anyone would wish to take. He heard children laughing and turned. Althia was running and laughing with three children her belly swollen large with a fourth. She was beautiful, he thought and he moved through tall grass under a crystal blue sky. She saw him and with a teasing laugh beckoned him. He chased her and the children stopped to watch him. Their laughter hidden behind dark hands. Achenaten, Bennu her sons, Asuet, her daughter, and the child of her womb, his child, would be a girl named Nefer. Loki laughed and ran to catch her but she dodged at the last moment and his fingertips brushed the edge of her dress. He pivoted and cut across her path; when the children cried out warning she looked at them and ran into him. Laughing she looked up into his eyes and relaxed her lips slightly parted with her exertion. The child within her moved between them he could feel the tiny arms and legs stretch and press against him. He lowered his lips a green and gold smoke trailing in the breeze as she closed her eyes for a kiss. He could see the white light between her parted and welcoming lips. 'My queen it is time to come home.' His mind whispered as their lips met. Her eyes opened in the vision shredding it to darkness. They were full of panic and memory but he held her, forcing the kiss, and with his power he over whelmed her will. She begged him not to leave the children, to save her babies from what was to come but he knew that was a desire he couldn't fulfill. She was the Jibana Meye not he and there was no healing or life for him to give them. They had been gone too long for even the dust to be left of her children.
The pair went down below the surface as Althia's power recoiled into their bodies. A force like an explosion shook everything in the room and rattled everyone in the adjoining rooms. A deep boom moved throughout the palace it was more felt than heard. For a moment Thor and Natasha were blinded and all they heard was a splash. As their vision cleared they could see Loki and Althia below the water. Loki's body was in the light and healing. Althia was wrapped in roped of green and gold power that undulated and stretched around her blurring in the glowing water. Without warning the light went out and the ropes were gone almost before the two registered they were there. Loki stood up, pulling the choking Althia from the water. She was clinging to him, gasping for breath, tears streaming down her face but awake. Loki lifted her into his arms and walked out of the water his eyes never left hers. Natasha was there, she held open a blanket, and Loki lowered the woman to her feet. She fell into Natasha's arms speaking the strange language mixed with English, and German this time. Loki's face closed down and he turned without a word. The memory of her pregnant and the feeling of his child inside her haunted him. Not his memory but a mortal's memory; one long dead and gone with the children she'd begged for. Thor followed him leaving Althia with her angel.
Loki got dressed and left alone without a word to Thor. He spent time walking the halls reliving the vision. He'd felt emotions he had forgotten, seeing those children and her swollen with another stirred him and his own past. "Nefer" he whispered into the dark hall.
He found himself before the throne room and stopped. Thinking for a moment as he stood staring at the doors a servant approached and bowed. "My lord do you wish to visit upon the All Father?" Loki nodded and the servant hurried off. He couldn't shake the happiness he had felt. He supposed it would be the way any man felt seeing his children and wife so happy. The emotion had obviously been a result of her empathic abilities influencing him while he was part of her memory. It felt as though they had been his emotions and his moments though so deep and strong. He frowned 'Was his attraction to her imposed' he asked himself. That was easily tested by simply avoiding her for a time. He wasn't god of mischief without merit. The doors opened before him and running his fingers through his hair he found it had dried smooth and straight back from his forehead. He stood tall and with confidence he entered the high seat of Asgard.