A/N: I can't believe how amazing you guys are. The fact that this story has 99(!) followers and I'm not even near halfway is just beyond amazing. Thank you so, so much!

Loki collapsed to his knees as soon as he felt the ground beneath his bare feet, and he snapped the portal closed behind him before anyone could follow him through. He doubled over, gripping his hair with his hands, and let out a scream of pure anger.

Why could he not have anything? Why did everything he owned- touched- loved- get ruined?

Why could Odin not leave him in peace?

Maybe it was too much to ask. Maybe this was his punishment for all his misdeeds and wrongdoings. Maybe the Norns had a grudge against him. Whatever it was, Loki was sick to death of his whole life crashing down and burning.

Dropping his palms to the ground, he lawed at the dirt, snapping his head up and glaring around at his surroundings. He cursed himself for traveling to Midgard of all places- (He cursed himself anyway; his very existence was a hindrance.)- and so he checked that he was alone.

He was in a field, with no signs of life around him in all directions.

And so he used his solitude to his advantage.

Flexing his hands, he cracked his neck and released the magic that had been itching for release. It pulsed outwards like a tsunami in every direction, crackling like green lightning- (Thor, why didn't you do anything? You stood by and watched as I broke all over again. How could you?)- and not stopping for miles and miles.

He didn't know how long he let his magic out for, but the raw power that escaped him barely scratched the surface of his reserves. Not after what the- (Don't cringe.)- Tesseract did to him. (Is there no end to this? Am I to be tortured by these memories forever?)

When he finally closed the channel of power, he hunched forward and collapsed onto his side. He was so, so tired...

"Thor?" Four year old Loki whispered, nudging his brother's shoulder with his bony hand. He sniffed, tears still leaking from his eyes from the horrible nightmare.

Thor mumbled and buried his face deeper into his pillow.

Loki let out a weak sob. It was dark in Thor's room. The monsters could get him in the dark. He shook his brother's shoulder harder. "Thor, wake up."

The sound of Loki crying seemed to rouse the blonde prince, and his blue eyes opened. He blinked blearily a few times before focusing on Loki. "What's wrong?"

"I- I had a nightmare... Thor, please don't make me go back to bed alone," Loki begged, more tears leaking from his eyes.

Thor smiled and scooted backwards in the bed, lifting the covers. "C'mon, brother. I won't let the monsters get you."

Lok smiled and sniffed again, climbing in beside Thor. The elder brother wrapped them both in the covers and looped one warm- (Safe)- arm around him.

"Thank you..." Loki mumbled.

"Sleep well, little brother..."

In the middle of a field- tall grass blown flat and charred black from hours of magical exertion- Loki curled onto his side and slept, no longer caring about the nightmares that awaited him.

Sigyn closed her eyes, but the image of Loki's tear-stained face appeared before her even in the darkness.

"Father..." Thor trailed off.

Sigyn opened her eyes and stared at the Allfather with a blank gaze. She had long since perfected hiding her thoughts from those around her, thanks to Loki, and she was more than thankful for those skills now- Sigyn could be imprisoned in Asgardian custody for her thoughts of Odin alone at that moment.

"Do you have any idea what you've just done to him?" She asked slowly, quietly.

Odin sighed, but did not reply.

"You may have come here hoping to reconcile with your son, but I fear you have just lost him for all eternity," she said, then turned to Thor. "And you. You are supposed to be his brother, and you allowed him to be hurt yet again."

Sigyn shook her head, turning away and walking back towards the room she shared with Loki. "If you'll excuse me, I have to clean up your mess."

Sigyn had a god to find.

Guilt clawed at Thor's heart as he watched Sigyn walk calmly away. When his ex-sister-in-law was like this, there would be Hel to pay if anyone got in her way. Not that Thor could blame her.

(You fool. This grand mess is all your fault. He will never trust you again, and it is all your fault.)

What could be done about it now? He could not very well turn back time and tell himself not to be so stupid as to let Odin talk to Loki. But even though he had known that nothing good would come of his father speaking with his brother, Thor had said nothing to stop him.

He had to fix this.

Without looking at his father, he turned and followed Sigyn.

Thor had a little brother to find.

"Sir, we're picking up massive energy readings in Norway..."

Director Nick Fury walked over to the screen and looked over the data. He frowned. There were trace energy readings of the Tesseract...

"Get a satellite image up," he said, folding his arms. The last thing he needed was more alien shit back on Earth after that whole mess in London.

The SHIELD agent tapped away on her keyboard for a couple of minutes before bringing up a live feed. "Sir."

Nick looked closely at the video. His frowned deepened. It looked like a tsunami of green electricity, pulsing outwards in waves. From its epicenter, it had a radius of ten miles and the energy readings were off the charts. This definitely wasn't human.

"Give me an update if anything changes."

"Yes, sir."

Nearly four hours later, the very same agent barged into Nick's office. He raised an eyebrow at her, not liking the panicked expression on her face. She was holding some printed pictures in her hand, the ink having rubbed of onto her fingers which told him that they'd just been printed. This could not be good.

"Sir," she panted, like she'd just ran straight from the Surveillance Department. "The anomaly- it just stopped completely. We were able to get an image of what was at the epicenter and..." She handed him the pictures.

He took them and looked over them. The first was of the aftermath of the anomaly: charred, blackened ground for miles and miles around, like a giant crop circle that could be seen from space. The second was of a slightly zoomed in image of the epicenter: there was no crater, as would be expected from a missile of some kind, but rather a small blur of something on the ground. The third was zoomed in again: Nick could just make out the figure of a person at the epicenter. But the fourth was what sprung him into action. The fourth was zoomed in as close as the satellites could allow, and a very recognisable man was lay on the ground.

He stood from his chair and walked out of the room, the agent on his heels. "I want the Avengers called together. Give them a quick debriefing and get them to Norway. Secure the area around him, and send a team in as backup. Who's closest?"

"Agent Coulson and his team, sir..."

Nick mulled over it for a second, but he soon decided that it was a necessary evil to do this. He could trust Phil to be professional and cool about the situation, and this needed to be dealt with immediately.

"Alert them about the situation and get them to Norway. The Avengers will take a few hours to get there, and we need to make sure that son of a bitch stays where he is."

"Yes sir," the agent said, and ran off to do the tasks he had ordered.

Nick went to the brig and glared out of the window.

(You're not gonna destroy another city, Loki. Not on my watch.)

The Director had a villain to find.