Elise followed Loki through the forest, hanging onto his arm for guidance and support. She couldn't tell what time it was, but the sky, which had been dark and black for a long time, was growing grey with light. It was long past the hour when most people, herself included, would normally have gone to sleep, and it was approaching the time when alarms would rouse the people in the city.

"Are we going to stop soon?" Elise asked.

"Why would we stop?" Loki answered.

"To sleep, maybe. It's really late."

Loki chuckled. "We cannot stop now. We must go as far as we can from that scene you caused."

"The scene I caused?"

"Oh, yes." He smiled proudly. "It could not have happened had you not set it in motion."

Not wanting to discuss it further, Elise didn't dispute his accusation. "There are only so many places we can hide," she pointed out. "It's a big forest, but it's not that big. The police are probably already looking for us."

Loki's expression darkened. "What are you implying?"

Elise shrugged. "I just thought I'd let you know."

"Should anyone come for us," Loki said, his eyes fixed on some distant point in the darkness, "we will slaughter them like cattle."

It wasn't a sustainable strategy. It seemed that Loki was treading water, that he hadn't actually considered what they would do once they escaped S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Helicarrier.

"You're really not worried?" Elise questioned. "Not even about S.H.I.E.L.D., or Tony Stark, or Captain America?"

"Not in the slightest," Loki said. "By the time they find us, this realm will be at war, and it will matter not where you and I are."

Elise swallowed her words and kept walking at Loki's side. Exhausted, she struggled to match his even pace. He just kept marching to his undisclosed destination, slowing to a halt only when they came upon a clearing, a leaf-littered circle into which dusk was slowly creeping.

"What is it?" Elise asked, out of breath. "Are we stopping?"

"Only momentarily," Loki replied. He broke away from Elise, took a few steps toward the center of the clearing, and then turned to look at her from a slight distance. Smiling, he said, "I have a test for you."

To an exhausted and half-conscious Elise, the words were like a punch to the gut. "I don't think I can pass a test right now," she whined.

Her complaint went unacknowledged. "Would you survive here without me?" Loki said, pacing the circle. "Even for a day?"

Elise shook her head. "You're not leaving," she said. "No."

"I may be." Loki knelt down and picked up a twig. He examined it, turning it over in his hands. "What would you do?"

"Out here?" Elise looked around for a sign of civilization – a road, a path, or even just a pile of campfire ashes – but became dizzy before she found one. "Probably die."

Loki chuckled, still holding the twig in his hand. "You would die without me. Is that so?"

"Out here, yeah," she answered nervously. "But you're not really leaving, right?"

In response, he laughed again.

"Don't leave," Elise urged desperately. She moved toward him, as if she truly thought she could overpower and restrain him. "Seriously, please, don't leave. You have to-"

Just as she reached out to touch him, Loki vanished. Elise had suspected that he would.

"That's just great," Elise snarled. She was immensely frustrated, but she was sure that he would return promptly.

She remained there in the clearing, arms crossed at her ribcage, waiting. When she exhaled, she saw her breath crystallize briefly in the air. It had not been apparent until she stood still just how cold it was outdoors.

"I'm not gonna chase you," Elise shouted into the air.

She wandered back and forth as she waited, not leaving the treeless plot of land, pacing faster and faster to keep warm. Several minutes passed, but still, she didn't venture out into the forest. She wanted to be there when Loki returned.

Eventually, Elise became tired of moving. She sat down, butterfly-style, on the damp, dewy ground. Already covered in dried and drying mud, she wasn't concerned about picking up a bit more. The solitude, however, grated at her nerves.

"I get it," she called. "I'm nothing without you. I need you. You can come back now."

Of course, he didn't come back. For a few minutes more, Elise sat, fidgeting, tearing up leaves and pulling the bark off of sticks, until she couldn't stand to sit any longer.

"Okay," she announced as she stood, "I'll look for you, if that's what you want."

She left the clearing and went out into the woods. More than searching, Elise was wandering. She knew that Loki would return whenever he deigned to do so, and not a moment sooner. It was a game of hide and seek, and as seeker, Elise knew she stood no chance. It wasn't until the shadows of the trees began to grow shorter that she became concerned. She wasn't really alone, she reassured herself. Loki had not once let her out of his sight, and today would be no exception.

The air became thinner and warmer as time elapsed. Minutes became hours, and the morning gave way to afternoon. Elise was getting thirsty, and her head felt full and achy. She was tempted to lie down and go to sleep, so she kept moving, not giving herself the opportunity. The sooner she found Loki, the sooner she could rest. She just had to play his game, she thought.

It was a game, wasn't it? It seemed less and less so as the day progressed. With the sun high in the sky and making its way west, Elise couldn't go on. He was nowhere to be found, and to make matters worse, she had stopped making a conscious effort to orient herself in relation to the place she had been when he left. She slumped against a tree and sank down to the forest floor, breathless, dehydrated, and afraid, but just when she thought nothing could make her move, a droplet of warm water fell on her head, then another, and then another. As they conspired together and grew into a downpour, Elise lost her patience. Her lips curled inward, and she shut her eyes tightly as she stood, tilting her head upward to face the broken sky.

"God damn it!" she hollered, her voice clear and round and full with despair. She trudged along in an indiscriminate search for shelter. The woods were full of caves, most pf them leading underground, but it was only after several attempts that she found one with an entrance large enough to accommodate her hips. On her belly, backward, she crawled inside, hesitant to step away from what light still remaining outside. It was cold and damp, but she was out of the storm, and that seemed to be the best that she could hope for.

As the afternoon drew to an unsatisfying conclusion, Elise was sure that she had been abandoned. There was barely room to stand inside, so she sat, her back against the cold, mossy stone that served as a wall. She began to imagine sensations on her body: bugs crawling up her arms, spiders in her hair, snakes slithering across the tops of her feet. All but the last disappeared as she rationalized them away. She wiggled her toes, but still, the feeling of something scaly and sinister on her skin wouldn't leave her. In a more vigorous attempt to shake it, she kicked, and when she did, she heard something hit the wall opposite her. Then, she listened closely, and she heard a collective hiss.

Elise's screaming echoed and shook the cave. The more she moved, the louder the hissing became. Even in the dark, it quickly became evident that she had disturbed not just one serpent, but an entire nest. She willed herself to be still, and she stood, stiffly, as the pool of reptilian flesh ebbed and flowed against her ankles.

"Help," she mewled, her eyes fixed on the exit.

She scanned her brain for any knowledge of venomous snakes she may have accrued, but she found none. She wanted to climb up out of their den and leave them behind, but she couldn't bring herself to move, afraid to incite one of the serpents to violence.

"Help me, Loki!" she wailed. "Don't leave me here alone!"

As if he had been waiting for her cue the entire time, he called from outside the cave.

"Where have you gone, Elise?" he seemed to sing. "I hear you, but I cannot see you."

The tension in her body distorted her cries into pinched whimpers. "In here! I'm in here!"

Loki's boots appeared in front of the cave's opening. He crouched and peered inside, his eyes penetrating the fog that had begun to form.

"There you are," he said. "What's the matter now?"

"Snakes," Elise replied in a protracted whine.

"How ever did you get down there?" he scolded as he extended an arm down into the hole. "Must I keep you under constant watch lest you find yourself in peril?"

Elise didn't begrudge him his patronizing tone as she grasped his wrist and allowed him to pull her out into the rain. When she was completely outside, she seized him with both arms, clinging to him before he could stand up and disappear again, exhaling shallow breaths into his chest.

Loki reciprocated her embrace, wrapping an arm around her back and cradling the back of her head in his opposite hand. "It feels terrible, being left alone, does it not?"

"Yeah," Elise sighed, tensing her shaking arms around his waist. "Please don't do that again."

She couldn't see his face, but Elise heard a smile in Loki's next words: "Tell me that you never want me to leave."

"I never, ever want you to leave," she repeated reflexively, pulling back so that she could look into his eyes and show her sincerity. "You aren't going to, right?"

"This was just a bit of fun," Loki said, tilting his head slightly. "Still, intuitively, it seems, you were drawn to danger." His eyes narrowed, and his lips parted as he drew in a long, slow breath. "No, no," he continued, in what sounded as though it was meant to be an internal dialogue, "you would have been killed were it not for me. How fortunate you were that I saw you, that I heard you..."

His mumbled words melted into Elise's psyche slowly, each phrase reinforcing her fear of being left for dead in the forest. She was in too deep; she needed Loki, whether she liked it or not. Oddly, though, she did like it, at least when she knew she could depend on him. But what did she bring to the table? In a moment of deep insecurity, Elise panicked – what was motivating him to keep her around?

She rested her forehead against his chest once more. "I'm so sorry," she muttered, her frustration with herself distorting her tone.

"For what?" Loki asked, his hands sliding down to her lower back.

"For being such a needy..." Elise stopped just short of saying something cruel about herself. She lifted her head and sat back, extending her arms behind her to lean on them. "I'm sorry I'm so useless."

Loki chuckled, his eyes sparkling with either dementia or amusement, and rested a hand on her bent knee. The contact made Elise's skin crawl. She felt embarrassed at her weakness and undeserving of his affection, but she wanted desperately to solidify whatever it was that kept him from vanishing for good. She sat still as his hand crept slowly onto her thigh and squeezed.

After a few moments, Elise repositioned herself, tucking her calves beneath her, and she leaned forward to kiss Loki. He responded somewhat forcefully, gripping the back of her head and kneading her lips between his as he moved closer, his knee sneaking in between her folded legs. He brought his forearms around her torso, and abruptly, he stood. Elise wrapped her legs around him, and he began to carry her away.

"Wait," she protested, "where are we going?"

"Nowhere," he replied quietly.

Quickly, Elise found herself trapped between Loki and the stout trunk of a tree. The wet bark gnawed at her back with every movement, but she didn't think to sacrifice the security of Loki's body at her front or his mouth locked in hers. He pressed harder and harder against her as the minutes passed, nearly suffocating her by the time they were disturbed.

"Loki!" Thor's voice resonated even in the damp forest. "This has gone too far!"

Loki turned toward him suddenly, causing Elise to fall to the ground and land on her bottom. Once she was back on her feet, she watched apprehensively as Loki approached his estranged brother. His posture was confident, but he walked carefully, as if he were afraid to startle Thor while he held his hammer. "I thought you would never find me," Loki taunted quietly. "Tell me, what caused such a delay?"

Thor's rage seemed to subside; instead, he appeared exasperated. "Loki," he said, "I do not wish to fight with you."

"Of course not," Loki laughed sarcastically. "You would never wish for a fight. Especially not with your dear brother."

The remark seemed to inflame Thor's temper; he took a long, firm stride, closing the gap between himself and Loki. "End this at once," he growled. "End this, or I will."

The tension was palpable, even from where Elise stood, at a relatively safe distance. She was astonished at Loki's composure, even as Thor, clearly the stronger of the two, threatened him.

Loki's tone was harsh and low: "No, Thor," he said, "you cannot end this. Not without me, and certainly not without knowing what will happen next."

"I have come to warn you of what will happen next," said Thor. "Brother, if this does not cease, you will surely be killed."

"At whose hand?" Loki snarled, cracks forming in his calm. "You had the chance. The Iron Man had the chance. Everyone has had a chance!" He drew in a deep breath. "But not a single one of you has risen to the occasion. Why is that, Thor?"

"This is not a game to us!" Thor yelled, shaking the leaves on the trees. "I would never wish death upon you. You will it upon yourself!"

Loki bowed his head slightly, seeming to contemplate what had just been said. "Have you truly come to talk of peace?" he asked.

"Yes," Thor answered. "For the final time."

Elise saw Loki glance at her over his shoulder.

"Then leave your weapon here," Loki said. "Walk with us."

"Us?" Thor questioned. "Surely, you do not mean to involve the maiden in this."

"Oh, but I do," Loki replied, turning slightly to open the conversation to Elise. "I have been advised to speak to you only with my lawyer present."

Elise looked to Loki, then to Thor. "Right," she said, nodding in compliance with whatever Loki had just started. "That's probably for the best."

Thor glared at her, then turned his attention back to Loki. "Fine," he said. "But I will not leave my hammer here."

"I must insist," Loki responded. He raised his hands slightly, palms facing Thor. "I am unarmed. You will have no need for it, I assure you."

Thor held his hammer at his side, and he eyed Loki with suspicion before he dropped it, causing it to become lodged in the mud, handle-up. "You are aware that I can call Mjolnir to me if I wish, are you not?"

"Of course," Loki said, a bit too sweetly. "I only ask this of you as a show of good faith." He stepped backward to where Elise stood and, not turning his back on Thor, asked, "shall we?"

Thor gave a quick nod, and the three of them began walking despite the weather. Elise's head was swimming in the stress and the pressure in the air, and it was hard to see through the fog of her headache and the rain in her eyes. She was tempted to loop her arm through Loki's and hold onto him for stability, but she worried that a show of affection might undermine his position in the negotiation to come, and that undermining him, even for the sake of balance and physical well-being, would be regrettable.

"Tell me," Loki said, his head turned slightly toward Thor on his left, "what exactly are you offering?"

Thor had clearly practiced his opening argument: "I am offering you the chance to restore what order there was before you became entrenched in this Midgardian justice scheme," he stated. "I will take you back to Asgard. You may come home, and you need not live like this any longer."

"But you are not offering me freedom," said Loki. "You would have me locked up again, perhaps even more securely."

"No more securely than before,"Thor replied, glancing quickly to Elise. "Though I have learned to trust no one but myself with the task of-"

"Do I understand this correctly?" Loki interrupted. "You expect me to go with you when I have already come this far, do you? And you expect me to reveal to you the what lies ahead, all so that you may lock me away in my chambers, never to be seen again?"

"Have you not heard what the Midgardian tribunals have planned for you?" Thor argued. "Midgard would have you killed."

Loki turned to Elise as soon as the courts were mentioned. "Your tribunal could not have decided that yet, could they have?"

Elise shook her head. "Not at all. You can't be sentenced to death without a trial."

"Elise," Thor said, raising his voice slightly, "surely, you do not believe that the Midgardian tribunal would let my brother live."

"First of all, we call it a court, not a tribunal," Elise replied, pleased with her own snark and for the chance to finally be helpful. "Secondly, juries are unpredictable. It's a lot harder to get them to enter a guilty verdict when it's life and death."

"But this court, it will try to have you killed," said Thor, his attention back on Loki. "Is that a risk you wish to take?"

"There is no risk," Loki chortled. "Even if Midgardian law were to condemn me to death, no Midgardian could carry the order out."

"Do not be foolish, Loki," Thor cautioned. "Do not-"

Loki stopped suddenly and faced his brother. "These are my terms," he hissed. "Give me Midgard, and after that, neither one of us shall interfere with the other." He drew in a tense, shallow breath. "Is that not enough for you?"

Thor's voice grew even louder. "This isn't about me, brother, this is-"

"These things are always about you!" Loki snarled, contempt curling the skin on his face and turning it bloody red.

Thor and Elise locked eyes briefly, neither wanting to engage with Loki in that moment. Elise did not want to provide a direction for his directionless loathing, and when Thor looked away, she stared at the ground.

"At least let her be," Thor suggested, nodding in Elise's direction. "Do not drag her through this disaster with you."

"She remains at my side of her own accord," Loki replied, instantly calm. "Is that not so, Elise?"

The question confused Elise; she couldn't be sure whether she was expected to actually answer, so she didn't.

Loki rephrased his inquiry. "Elise," he said, "do you wish to go with Thor and enjoy whatever freedoms he has to promise you?"

"No," Elise replied, quickly and quietly. "I really don't want to do that."

"Would you prefer to remain with me?" Loki asked as though it were merely a rhetorical question.

Elise simply nodded.

"She fears you," Thor said. "This is not truly her will."

"That's what I want," Elise blurted before Loki could respond.

"There would be no punishment for you," Thor informed her, "not if you part ways with Loki now."

"I can't," she replied.

"But why not?"

Elise found that she could not articulate her justification adequately enough. She shrugged and and searched her vocabulary, but there wasn't a word for what kept her in her place.

"She loves me," Loki said with a snide smile. "But worry not, Thor. I shall look after her."

"Look after her?" Thor repeated. "You speak of her as though she were a child or an animal."

"You have your mortal pet, and I have mine," Loki replied through gritted teeth. "Mine, however, knows far more useful tricks."

"Is that what this is about?" asked Thor. "Is this jealousy?"

"Never has this been about jealousy," Loki seethed. He closed the physical gap between himself and Thor. He snapped up Thor's forearm in his hand, and, as had happened in Elise's apartment once before, a change occurred. Loki paled, and the droplets of rain and sweat on his skin crystallized into glittering beads of ice as he gradually became blue.

Thor cried out and, with all his might, tried to wrench his wrist from Loki's grip. Loki lifted his second hand and seized Thor's throat. As frostbite spread onto his skin from Loki's fingertips, Thor wheezed and choked. The ice crept up Thor's arm and down his neck, paralyzing his shoulders and slowing his struggle.

Elise looked on as Loki subdued his brother, lowering him to the ground as he weakened, but she didn't pity the mighty Thor. In fact, as she gawked at him, tangled in Loki's grasp, she felt vindicated. She had heard what he had put Loki through. She had seen the full picture, and she had come to realize that New York's extraterrestrial hero was a cruel captor, a vain bully. Silently, and quite uncharacteristically, she cheered Loki on.

When Thor was finally still, crumpled on the ground, threadlike frost veiling the color and life in him, Loki swiveled around and faced Elise. The startling red in his eyes quickly drained, and soon, he was himself again. He started walking, setting a fast and steady pace.

"Where are we going now?" Elise asked, scrambling to catch up to him.

"We have an appointment to keep," he grumbled in response.