hello! I am here, with a new chapter! I hope you like it...Please leave a review!

They were ready and out the door in five minutes. It was tense, hurried; Jane, Ian, and Darcy rushing round grabbing gear, Thor, hammer at his belt, helping in any way he could, and Erik distrustfully eying Loki as he slipped knife after knife into the various straps, flaps, pockets, sheaths, and boots, his face calm, composed, deadly-blank, his eyes icy cold, with a promise of death. Erik feared for this baddy, Malekith's, life.

And rightly so.

The battle lasted barely five minutes. Malekith arrived before they could finish setting up the poles, and was immediately besieged by two powerful, and very angry gods. He never stood a chance.

At first there were equal burst of lightning, green magic, and deadly-sharp silver Aether, but the lightning quickly vanished, followed by the Aether, as Loki brutally tore at Malekith. Thor was left to hang on the sidelines, face twisted into sorrow, as he watched his brother scream and slash like an animal, driving the dark elf into the ground, clawing and punching and screaming screaming screaming.

And finally Malekith lay still, bloody, and mangled, his limbs askew, his face smashed almost flat; and still Loki hit him, again and again, his voice raw and torn. Thor softly approached him.

"Loki."

The screaming died down, turned to grunts and brief cries, and still Loki punched, slow, painful, as if every movement cost him.

"Loki..."

And now he was gasping, painful breaths and coughs with every weary, heavy slug, his shoulders trembling.

"Brother, it is over."

One final punch, and Loki slumped over, shoulders heaving, gasping and coughing and sobbing, fists clenched in the dead elf's tunic. Thor knelt by him, lay a hand lightly on his arm, and, when Loki didn't pull away, didn't stiffen or flinch, didn't scream or hit him or stab him with a knife, he dared lean his head forward, resting it on Loki's shoulder. And Loki let out a great shuddering sigh, and leaned back.

"It's all right, brother. Malekith is gone, and we have won. It is over."

"But mother is still dead." Loki lifted his eyes, bloodshot and rimmed with pink and tears. "She's still dead, and it's my fault."

"Oh Loki..." Thor threw caution to the wind, wrapping his arms around his brother and pulling him to his chest. "Oh Loki, Loki, it's not your fault. We talked about this. I do not blame you for mother's death."

Loki buried his face in Thor's shiulder, his body slumped and boneless, and dead-heavy. The lifeless flop of one worn out by tears. He heaved out a cough, Thor wincing at the tearing, bloody sound, and rasped out "But it was still my fault. I told that beast where to go..."

"Loki you did not know! It was not your fault, brother. Please hear me."

But Loki did not hear him, continuing glassy eyed. "They didn't let me go to her funeral, my own mother. But of course they didn't. I'm the one who killed her, it was me, and she's not even my real mother, is she? She never could be. She was beautiful and wise and kind and good, and I am nought but a hideous monster. I am evil and twisted to the core, and all I can do is hurt and kill and destroy. She loved me. Why did she love me? Why would anyone love me? I am a horrible beast, a monster to hide in closets, the shadow under the bed, and I deserve the love of no one. I don't blame Odin for wanting to kill me, because that's all I deserve. Nothing more or less. It should be painful, it should hurt, and I should scream, because I am a monster, and I deserve–"

"ENOUGH!"

Loki's head snapped up, his gaze focusing on Thor, eyes wide and dazed.

"Enough, Loki. You are not a monster, no matter how much you tell yourself you are."

Loki's face twisted into a sneer. "What would you know Thor?" He wrenched himself from Thor's embrace, hissing at his not-brother. "You were always the golden son. Loved and adored by all, never questioned, mistrusted, blamed for anything. You could do no wrong, and I no right, and where you were cheered and praised I was scorned and dishonoured. So tell me not that I am good, Thor. I am a monster, and you would do well to remember that."

"No Loki–"

"SHUT UP, THOR!" Loki spat. They stood statue still if not for heaving chests and gasping mouths, only ragged breathing filling the air, trapped in a standstill.

Several feet off Jane, Darcy, Erik and Ian stood, staring at the scene before them. It seemed a moment trapped in time, the two brothers glaring at each other, equal amounts of pain, sorrow, and, in Loki's case, hate etched across their faces. And then Loki's gaze dropped, and he let out a short, mad laugh, turning from Thor. He moved several paces away, head tilted upwards. A wild, sad, manic grin played at his lips, and his pale, pink skin shifted, faded into deep blue. When he turned his face back to Thor, still kneeling upon the ground, his bloody eyes were twinkled with spite, and his teeth bared in a viscous grin.

"Can you look at me now, and still say that I am not a monster?"

Thor's face broke, crumpled into tears, "Loki, of course I can. What race you were born matters me not, you are still my brother."

Loki twisted away again. "I never knew you could lie this well, brother. I suppose you did learn from the best. Everyone knows that lying is the only thing I'm good at. Lying, and killing. And hurting. Because that I am a monster is the only truth I have ever spoken, and no sweet words from your mouth can make it false."

Thor opened his mouth to protest, and Loki slammed an ice dagger into the earth an icy from his face. Leaning in close, he hissed "I am a monster, Thor. What must I do to prove it to you? Must I drive this dagger through your eye? Or perhaps that pretty mortal?"

Thor flinched, snarled. "Loki, your quarrel is with me, not Jane. Do not harm her, or I will harm you."

Loki blinked, pulled back, and smiled, sweet and innocent. "So that is it." And then he was gone, and Jane was screaming, and Thor was roaring, and the two brothers clashed together in an explosion of green and red and ice and lightning.

Metal screamed and sparked, magic swirled and ozone filled the air. Both brothers were screaming, insults, pleas, hatred, sorrow, self-deprecation, assurances. Loki pounced upon Thor like a wild thing, clawing and shrieking.

And then, all of a sudden everything stilled. Thor stood, hammer loosely held in his hand, over the crumpled form of his brother. As Jane watched from the side, protectively held by Darcy and Erik, Loki pulled himself over, flopping to his back. His whole face and chest were caved and bloody, his face screwed into a madly grinning grimace of agony, sharp shallow breaths pulling his broken lungs. And then Mjolnir dropped from Thor's hand, and he fell to his knees, an long, sharp ice-dagger half melted slipping from his chest. His hands flew to the wound on his chest, and both brothers lay gasping and bleeding on the ground.

Finally, with a choked wet cough, Loki spoke. "So you see, Thor, it seems I am a monster after all."

And with that he flickered and vanished in a burst of green and swirling black, and Thor lay by himself, eyes unfixed and breathing shallow. Jane rushed to his side, Darcy called 911, Erik and Ian stared at the broken landscape.

A week and a half later, Thor returned to Asgard, where the Allfather raged at him for losing the traitor, and forbade him from returning to earth. And so Thor began his search for Loki in secret, with the help of but a few of his closest trusted friends.

I sort of see this bit as showing how broken Loki really is, how torn up he is over Frigga's death, and how much he blames and hates himself, and how much he really doesn't know how to tell anyone, or ask for help. So yeah. Please review!:)