It never happened before. Usually his golden eyes saw everything, every event in every nook and cranny in all the realms of the World tree.
But that night his eyes were too focused... too preoccupied with the fallout of choices the king of Jotunheim made. The frozen world had closed off from the rest of the realms, sending the envoy from Vanaheim away; refused to sell their most prized ore, refused to trade like they have for centuries.
All realms were self-sufficient, could easily support the entire population living there. Jotunheim was no different. The Frost giants had everything they needed inside the borders of their own world.
Except for one thing. Their lost prince.
From his position Heimdall saw it all.
But he did not see Farabauti giving birth on Midgard that night like the Jotuns claimed. His king had him testify as such when the emissary from Alfheim arrived to speak to the AllFather about Laufey's accusations.
And because he was so focused on Jotunheim he missed the boy on Midgard revealing his hidden legacy in front of mortals. Escaping from them and hiding away.
Even when his eyes did look once more over all realms his did not see the boy hiding in the caves he was born in. Nor did he see the Casket responding to him. Be it magic or natural occurrence, something was blocking his all seeing eyes from seeing what was below the surface.
And so Loki of Jotunheim remained lost for a long time.
PRESENT TIME
The streets of a small town in New Mexico were deserted.
At the edge of town, behind the large glass panels, the air-condition working on full blast desperately tried to cool down the stuffy air inside the large laboratory. Several computers that worked on different calculations were making it's job a whole lot harder.
But Jane Foster was out of options.
Her theories weren't accepted in the scientific community, they were considered ridiculous and waste of her time and talent. Because of that it was difficult for her to get funds and a better research center. So she had to resign herself to the turned on oven that was Puente Antiguo.
But that didn't stop the young astrophysicist from continuing to work on her theory that an Einsteimn-Rosen bridge wasn't just possible on the paper, something other scientist questioned as well. She believed it was possible to build one, perhaps not in her lifetime for the amount of focused energy one would requite to activate the bridge couldn't be produced by ten nuclear plants together.
Or that is what her test equations said.
Still she didn't give up.
A cup of coffee was placed on the desk next to Jane's right hand and she looked up from the paperback book she was reading to smile at her intern.
"Thanks Darcy."
"No problem, boss lady. Not sure how you can stand to drink something hot in this weather but I am here to keep you hydrated."
Jane took a sip of the piping hot liquid and sighed. She needed that.
Yes, it was hot outside... and inside too, but she's been working on recalibrating the only scanner she had that was strong enough to read more clearly strange radiation that appeared suddenly somewhere in Europe. And it took all her skill and patience. Not to mention it took her almost the entire night.
The radiation appeared little under a week ago, before vanishing again. She didn't paid much attention to it at first, thinking it was natural occurrence. But when it started to appear on regular basis it became clear it was everything but natural.
Still, she could have let it go. Let someone else chase it, and discover what it is.
But when Erik, her father's old friend and her mentor, suggested she drops the matter and focuses on the Bridge theory... that was when Jane decided she needed to get to the bottom of the mystery.
She never told Darcy about her suspicions, and therefore didn't know her intern had few of her own.
The fact remained both women were convinced Erik didn't just work in this strange laboratory with Jane. He worked somewhere else too. But where and for whom, they did not know.
The door at the back of the building opened and Erik Selvig exited his small bedroom. Usually he would be up earlier, but he didn't return from wherever he went to till late in the night, only staying in the lab long enough to tell Jane she should take a break and get some sleep before going to his room.
But Jane couldn't leave something unfinished, as Darcy discovered when she arrived in the laboratory early that morning, to find her boss sleeping on the sofa. At least this time she managed to reach a soft surface and didn't fall asleep at her desk like she did some nights.
"Long night?" Darcy asked Erik as he poured himself a large mug of coffee.
"I am not as young as I used to me." he responded and sat at the round table, "Have you been up all night again, Jane?"
"No. I got a few hours of sleep." she responded and got up. Her cup was empty and she needed a refill. Not to mention her muscles were stiff from the sofa. It might look comfortable but it wasn't.
"So I talked to a friend of mine yesterday..." Erik started to talk and instantly got Jane's attention, "He said there is a position open for an assistant at the-"
"I am not interested Erik." she interrupted him mid-sentence, "I am not giving up my dream to teach on a college."
"There might not be another opportunity like this one for years Jane." he pointed out and she just shrugged.
"Anyway..." Darcy could sense the conversation was going in the worst possible direction and decided to intervene. She loved Jane and admired her courage to follow her dream rather than to play it safe. Something that Erik seemed to try and change in the past several months.
"Are there any Pop Tarts left?" Jane suddenly said and started to rummage through the kitchen cabinets for the food only she considered acceptable.
"Next to the microwave." her intern pointed her in the right direction.
Jane mumbled a thanks before preparing the quick and unhealthy meal for herself. With a plate and a fresh cup of coffee she returned to her place in front of the laptop and sat back down.
"How are things going with the equations?" Erik suddenly asked, noticing Jane paused with her favorite food half way to her mouth, "Jane?"
"They are going." she muttered before taking a bite and focusing back on the story she was reading.
She heard a sigh and a squeak of a chair being pushed back on the linoleum floor as Erik stood up. She knew what he was going to say. He said it often when she got off the course, when something else attracted her attention. And while each time it turned out to be a complete waste of time Jane was certain that this radiation signature meant something more.
"I worry about you." Erik said as he placed a hand on the back of the chair and looked over her shoulder, "You are losing your focus again. You have such a potential, but instead of utilizing it properly... You can't chase every single strange reading Jane. Your budget is tight as it is."
"I am not wasting my time or funds Erik. I am doing what I always wanted to do!"
The older man knew there was no way he could win this argument. Jane was far too stubborn, she was like her father in that way. That was why he got asked to keep an eye on her.
They had no doubt she could accomplish much, and if Jane was any different they would have approached her already to recruit her. But if she worked for them then her research would be their possession and she would never agree to that. Erik told them that straight away.
Jane wanted the whole world to know once she succeeded.
They would never allow potentially dangerous research results to reach the public.
That was why he got his order to keep them informed of her newest research results every week, so they can, if necessary, pull the plug. Erik hated doing this to Jane but it was for her own good.
"How's the book?" Darcy's question interrupted the awkward silence and Erik looked down on the desk to see what Jane was reading this time. Usually it was one of her old textbooks but today it seemed to be a fiction novel.
"I love it, thanks for the loan Darcy." she answered over her shoulder.
Erik lifted the pages on the left side to see the cover and instantly frowned. He was familiar with this nonsense, "You are aware this was written by a quasi-historian who claimed the story was based on old tales from some village in Norway and that he had in fact seen the lost prince with his eyes? Before he suddenly became invisible."
Jane shrugged, "It's still a good book, no matter who wrote it. And who says it's not true?"
"Everyone." Erik deadpanned.
"You have to admit it would make sense." Darcy perched on the edge of the desk, ignoring Jane's grumble not to do that, "The punishment mentioned in it, I mean."
"You are a scientist Jane, I expected you at least would stick to fact, rather than fiction."
Jane frowned at Erik, "I'm just reading a book. What is the big deal? You own Prose Edda, and that is just as fictional. Or do you actually believe a god named Loki exists and that he had intercourse with a stallion and gave birth to an eight-legged horse?"
"Jane..."
"If that is supposed to be possible, than why is it impossible to believe that Odin would punish the Frost giant king Laufey by hiding his son among humans as a punishment for attacking Earth?"
"Anyone who is a Frost giant or a giant in general would be noticed throughout the history." both girls blinked in confusion at Erik's words.
But Darcy was the one who said what both of them thought, "You need to lay off coffee, you are taking this way too seriously Erik."
Before he managed to respond Jane's scanner started to beep, startling them all. It was the one she recalibrated to the specific resonance of the radiation she's been picking up. The results were still unclear but she had a much cleared location, something other then somewhere in Europe.
Norway.
A groan made Jane turn away from the computer screen and look at her intern, "What?"
"I know you boss lady. You are going to do something crazy."
The first light of the day found Jane Foster with a phone receiver in her hand as she tried to explain her plan. The message she received, as a response to the one she sent the previous day, said they would like to hear more about it. But it was obvious to her it was all a waste of time.
"So what you are basically saying is-"
"I am sorry Miss Foster but we are at the moment unable to fund your trip and continued research solemnly based on your current findings. If you, at any moment in the future, discover something more solid than just odd radiation readings we will off course offer our full support and aid."
The beeps signaled that the call was disconnected.
As much as she wanted to slam the receiver back on its place Jane lowered it down carefully, still in the daze of yet another rejection. She was aware she didn't have much... but how can she gather more data if no one was willing to help her?
Even the University of Tromso remained deaf to her request. They didn't even dignified her with a response after she sent the full report about the radiation origins.
"Damn it!" angry tears escaped and Jane instantly wiped them off. She didn't want to cry, not over this. But the frustration of constantly being rejected by the science community and not being taken seriously stung.
More beeping interrupted her musing and Jane angrily slammed her laptop shut.
She knew what was on the screen anyway. The scanner once more caught the radiation signature, possibly localized it better since with each passing day she had more data and could recalibrate the sensitive machine by hand.
But at the moment she didn't want to even look at it. Even if it pinpointed the correct location in the inch, she didn't want to know. Not right now.
The temperature outside was slowly rising and Jane turned on the air-conditioning units that kept the laboratory livable before standing up and walking to the large windows.
For the hundredth time in the past couple of days she wondered if it was all worth it. Her dream... her research... She was only causing herself emotional pain. A rejection after rejection, committees that didn't even listen to what she had to say, funds received on a dropper.
And then there was Erik.
Few months age Jane would have sworn her father's friend and her mentor was on her side all the way. Now she was no longer sure.
Jane sighed and leaned her forehead on the cool glass.
The sudden sound startled the young astrophysicist, making her bump her head on the window panel. She glanced around with a frown, trying to see what could have made such a noise. But all the machines around her beeped in one way or the other. None of them... vibrated?
A silver object lied innocently on the round dining table. Seconds later it vibrated again, proving without the doubt that was what surprised Jane.
She recognized it without a problem. It was Erik's cell phone, the one he was never without. The one he never left out of his sight. But by some strange happening he seemed to have forgotten it last night before going to bed.
Jane ignored the device and walked to the back of the building where the two small bedrooms and a tiny bathroom were stationed. Since she had her trailer the bedroom were occupied by Erik and Darcy.
Well, of of them was empty. Darcy went back home with her six credits yesterday morning. And upon knocking several times on the other door, and then opening them to peek inside, Jane realized the other room was empty too. And the bed looked like no one slept in it.
Erik, who said he was tired and retired early last night, didn't actually slept in his bed.
Brown eyes looked to the right where the back door stood at the end of the hallway and flashed in anger.
He lied to her.
Jane stormed back in the laboratory. She would get her answers, courtesy be damned. Even if it meant she would learn Erik was having a secret relationship with Izzy; she wanted answers and she wanted them now. Not when he returned. Now!
The phone wasn't locked, Erik most likely didn't think such protection was necessary since he never left it unsupervised. Jane was grateful for that. It saved her a lot of time and trouble.
On the screen was a photo of an old star chart, like the one her father had in his office. That little fact reminded her she was currently prying into something private. And she would have left the phone where she found it... left the questions unanswered... if not for the fact Erik had two new messages.
And both were from someone who was on the contact list named Coulson-SHIELD.
The Internet search on SHIELD popped out some pages on medieval weaponry, nothing special really. Nothing that gave Jane the answers she needed.
Opening the messages might, but then Erik would know she read them. She could delete them...
With renewed dedication Jane stormed in the kitchen area and took the cell phone in her hand. Erik may be her mentor but right now she didn't trust him. If she's wrong she'll apologize for the breech of privacy, but if she's right...
First message was short, "Denied."
Second made Jane wish she was strong enough to crush the phone in her hand, "Agents are on stand-by to seize Foster's instruments at your discretion. She must not get the exact location before SHIELD. Keep us in the loop."
Jane didn't care if the phone screen cracked after she slammed it on the table, she didn't care that her stomach growled cause she hasn't had anything to eat yet, she ignored everything but her laptop. Earlier she didn't want to check the scanner's latest results, too furious to do it. Too disappointed.
But now...
The brunette entered the correct program and scrolled through the readings. The origins of the radiation were somewhere in Norway, Erik knew that and now most likely this Coulson that he is in contact with knew it too.
The newest batch of readings didn't do much, it narrowed down her search but it was still a large territory. Whatever it was that radiated so unusually it was up on the North. A quick search of the maps and Jane decided on her destination.
The University of Tromso didn't respond to her message, but it doesn't mean she can't travel there on her own.
Jane looked around the laboratory and easily identified the most important of her machines, it were the ones that she built herself. It pained her to even think what she had to do, but even that was better then allowing someone to get their hands on her stuff.
Her mind was made up.
All she had to do now is make few calls and pack.