Your sweet/insightful/humbling reviews truly make this so much fun!

~
It's easy to hide
under a very black sky
~

The royalty of Asgard graced the round table.

Odin sat at its head, unspeakable burden worn outward upon his stern brow. His hands clutched the golden arms of the chair as if they were holding him in place.

Thor took the seat at his right, his head wound still swollen and bruised, but healing. The throbbing ache was a constant reminder that Jane had been taken. That his brother had whisked her away to who knows where with less than honorable intentions. He was tense, his huge fist tight around Mjölnir's handle across his lap.

Sif sat beyond him, her dark eyes wide in alert.

Volstagg claimed the chair across from Thor. His large fingers would fidget with a loose splinter on the table at random times, making up for the mead or edible objects that would normally fill them.

Fandral sat completely still beside him, his posture coiled tight like a spring ready to snap as he waited.

All eyes were on their king.

Thor had gone on many a raid with these faces he'd learned to call family, but never one so painfully close to home.

"I know why you've called us here father, but you must listen to me…"

"Silence," Odin's voice, deep with a rumbling finality that shook through each one of them, bounced from the high walls of the large chamber. "I have tried listening and it has proven to be a dire mistake. It is time now to act. The evils that have befallen our realm cannot go unpunished, no matter our feelings toward those who are at fault. We must find our attackers and our prisoners and try them accordingly."

Lady Sif shifted in her seat, her eyes flickering down to the longsword at her side.

Fandral and Volstagg shared an unsure glance before turning their attention over to Thor.

Thor was persistent.

"The Dark Elves will meet their consequences. I will find them and deliver whatever punishment you see fit, I swear it... but you must have mercy on Jane," he brought his fist up to rest on the tabletop. Mjölnir glistened in the natural light from the high windows. "Loki must have heard us speak in the prison. He knows of her power. Who knows what he will do with it... We've seen what lengths he's gone to in the past."

Odin's features went livid. His good eye squinted.

"Tell me son, how is it that Loki escaped imprisonment?" The loaded question tainted the pregnant pause. "I will take no pity on your mortal after she has brought the very same suffering upon us as Loki delivered to Midgard. Wars will rise at her doing. More lives will be lost…"

"I am the reason she came here, Father…" Thor attempted to reason. "I will bring Loki back to serve his time but Jane is an innocent in all of this. She needs help – treatment – you said so yourself that without it, the Aether will be too much for her."

"And what leads you to believe that you are being held any less accountable?!" All at once, Odin crumbled in his seat, releasing a ragged breath. His hand rose to his chest as it shook with choked coughs. Thor half rose from his chair before the Allfather stopped him with a sharp gesture of his hand. "…I leave you with two options," his rage glowed only in the arctic blue of his iris, bringing him to the edge of his throne. His voice grew startlingly calm. "Either you bring both of the prisoners back to Asgard to pay their dues... or you will take their place."

Jane listened to the soft padding of his footfalls echoing from a few feet behind her. Her left fingertips trailed lightly along the moist cave wall so that she wouldn't run smack into it.

The darkness grew impenetrable just yards from the entrance and she blinked her eyes in the sudden blackness. The strange scent of coppery moss tickled her nose and the dampened air was delicious in comparison to the arid air outside. She slid her tongue against the roof of her dry mouth.

"There's water here," she announced intently, listening to faint echo of her voice as it traveled impossibly far down the tight passageway. She slowed to a stop when it was the only sound she could hear. Her own heartbeat began to pound in her ears.

"Hello?"

Just as she turned around, a soft orange glow lit the tarnished walls of the cavern. It was much larger than she had expected. The light didn't quite reach the ceiling, leaving it sheathed in a layer of darkness, but the jagged walls towered high above her head. Their colors reminded her of old pennies, glistening copper in some places and dulled nearly to black in others.

Loki crouched low beside the fire, tending to the small licks of flame with his bare hands, his fingers disappearing from view as they moved to prod at the base. It danced and flickered upon the flat rock of the floor as if the cave itself was a candle and he had ignited its wick.

When the flame stilled, he pulled his hand away and glared down at it, its light curling in the black of his pupils.

"Stay quiet and be still."

Jane swallowed dryly and took a slow step toward him.

"But I need…"

Loki's hardened gaze snapped up from the fire to find her, his eyes holding a simmering blaze of their own.

She moved no further, instead going completely still for a moment before deciding to ease herself down onto the solid floor. The warmth of the fire just barely touched her at her distance, but the chill left her bones when his attention returned to it. The cool air felt good on her skin after spending a long day in the blistering sand anyway.

At least, that was what she told herself.

She folded her hair under the side of her head, doing what she could to form a makeshift pillow over the hard ground. It still smelled of the lingering smoke from the prison.

She settled, though her mind refused to.

It drifted to Thor.

She wondered if he was okay. He had to be.

He would come for her – she just knew it. She had to have faith. But she could only hope it would be in a much timelier manner than the first time he'd promised to do so.

Until then, she would have to remain calm, think straight, and maybe – just maybe, she would make it through this.

It's not like she hadn't been forced to run the gauntlet before. Though she had to admit that each time, the outcome seemed to grow just a little more terrifying.

While she feared the unknown, she had always been just as fascinated by it… the astrophysicist in her coming out she supposed.

And as the thought struck her, she found herself absently watching him.

Loki rose to his feet, the movement flashing a quick wince of pain across his flickering eyes.

It was the last she saw of them as he turned his back to her and took four measured paces to the cave opening, his form fading into a tall, lean shadow as he slipped from the light.

For a short while, he paced; back and forth across the entrance of the cave as if one wall were adamantly urging him back to the next.

Only when he was mid-turn could she make out his features; his brow pulled down tight over glassy, unfocused eyes, his lips arched into a sharp frown. Sometimes his jaw would be relaxed – others, it was clenched so tight that she could see the shadows dance over straining muscle.

It reminded her of the way he'd looked toward the listless woman in his father's arms... His mother...

His mother.

Her breath caught in her throat.

The forgotten figure suddenly came to a stop. His profile shifted.

Jane quickly shut her eyes.

For a moment, she swore she could feel the heaviness of his gaze on her – studying her like a hunter masked within perfected camouflage would watch his potential kill.

It trickled away after a few dragging seconds and she slowly peeked an eye open.

Loki's back was to her again. He pressed his hand flat against the left wall, his silhouette stopped shifting, and for a long while he stared out across the barren landscape.

Jane looked past him and could just barely make out the distant skyline from where she lay. Everything was a deep grey beyond the cave. Dark clouds cast their shadow on the hilly ground, and the sand stirred softly beneath them.

His hand rising up to swipe at his face pulled her eyes back to him. The sporadic gusts of wind shifted the hair at his shoulders.

Jane's hand crept down to her side, her thumb sliding along the chilled steel of the dagger.

Your enemies here will try to deceive you. The words repeated in her head as if they'd been branded there.

He took a small step back, straightening to hold his left hand out before him. He curled his fingers into a fist once – twice… She could swear it was trembling.

He took a breath and relaxed his hand.

Jane's eyes widened at the small sparks of blue that began to sizzle and crack from his fingertips.

Her own wrapped firmly around the grooved hilt. The Aether bubbled warmly in her fast pulsing blood.

Her eyes followed him as he reached up to touch along the edge of the rock, tracing the entire cave opening in three sideways steps. When he returned to complete the jagged circle, the view beyond it went fuzzy for a moment, turned a deep sparkling blue, and then cleared as if nothing had ever obstructed it.

He tested it, his hand moving through it as easily as it would air. Beyond the clear wall, the sparks lit his fingertips again and when he tried to pull his hand back, it met the barrier and stuck there.

A soft sound of content came from him as his hand returned to the shadows.

He moved to his original position, resting his left shoulder against the cave wall. His form went as still as the stone itself.

Jane watched until her eyes grew heavy, the two dark shapes slowly molding together to become one.

She fell asleep like that; her eyes on his back, her fingers resting outstretched along the flat side of the blade, and her mind trying to sort out just exactly why she hadn't used it.

Sif had been the last to leave them, a touch placed upon Thor's forearm and a firm-eyed nod saying all the words and warnings she wouldn't voice in Odin's presence.

Thor stood alone under his father's watchful gaze as the other warriors made their way to the artillery in preparation for his orders.

"I beg you, reconsider," Thor's voice rumbled low in plead.

"A future king does not beg," the Allfather spoke flatly back at him. "What is done, is done. Your visit to Midgard has made you soft, my son, and because your mother is no longer here to show you the error of your ways, I will see to it myself."

Thor's skin bristled.

"If this is what it takes to claim the throne then I want nothing to do with it!" he roared, taking a gaping step toward where his father sat. "Mother would have never allowed this! She had her tricks but she still had her heart!"

"And mine!" Odin's voice broke over the words. He paused, taking a drawn breath to calm himself. "But she has been taken from me… from us… and do you know why, boy?" His tone marked the title a curse. "Because Malekith sought the Aether from your mortal's blood. You've led them straight to us and look at how many lives it's cost! Have you yet laid eyes upon the destruction beyond the castle?!"

Thor's brow fell into a deep frown. "Her name is Jane," his voice softened. "And she did not ask for this. Malekith will pay for what he's done, but I will not bring her back here for further torment."

Odin slumped in his chair.

"I'd be surprised if there is any of her left to be brought back," he mused darkly.

Thor's eyes lost their life.

"Loki will not hurt her," he spoke in quiet, hopeful promise, his gaze turning down to search the floor. "His quest for revenge is not against me..."

"He still lives only because of your mother's incessant compassion toward him. I, however, have learned from my mistakes." Thor's eyes snapped up to meet Odin's just as his voice rose to reach the guards beyond the doors. "Give the command to end this war quickly… by any means necessary."

Epigraph: Under A Very Black Sky - Sick Puppies