~
A/N:
Your love is humbling.
This one's for you.
~
When it's black
take a little time to hold yourself
take a little time to feel around
before it's gone
~
It was a strange feeling, getting sent out before the usual scouts to scope out a field of battle.
Thor had grown used to, and quite fond of, being the one to sweep in near the end and clean it up.
He held Mjölnir at the ready as his feet met the dirt.
First things first.
The Dark Elves would pay for their misgivings.
He had shown up only a heart splitting moment too late, just in time to hear Malekith order the beast to drive a dagger through his mother's back.
Just in time to watch it all unfold.
The coward.
His monsters would be of no use to him now.
Hopefully he had proven that to him back on Asgard, where a good portion of his army still lay slain, all while he tucked his vermin tail between his legs and hastily departed.
Thor had seen many a 'Malekith' rise and fall in his battles for peace but never once had he wanted to end one so badly with his own bare hands.
He would not be failing his mother again.
A sudden shove between the shoulder blades knocked him forward from his thoughts.
"Move it. If Volstagg falls on me, I may not live long enough to finish this battle."
Thor could only manage to shake his massive head in mock disapproval at Lady Sif's light demeanor amidst world war.
Just as he stepped clear of her path, Volstagg and Fandral crashed to the ground in a way that made both standing warriors cringe.
"What kind of demented hidden portal is this?!" Volstagg grumbled, rising awkwardly from his belly, to his knees, then to his feet. He stilled and his eyes widened as he took in the surrounding landscape. With a sudden, overwhelming amount of insecurity, he eased down to pick his war axe up from the dirt.
"The right one, obviously," Fandral pointed out as he matched Volstagg's tense stance and gauged the surroundings for himself. "And I believed Jotunheim to be the worst of them..."
The harsh breeze tossed Thor's cape about behind him as the brightness of the conduit dispersed in a flash and gave over to complete darkness so quickly that even his godly eyes took a moment to adjust.
It couldn't have been a more appropriate destination, considering the tasks that had been forced upon him.
He turned to face his friends.
"We must find where the Dark Elves retreated to before they have time to regroup. We can split up and circle the grounds. Call to Heimdall at the first sign of trouble. He will tell father where to send reinforcements." Thor bellowed above the breeze. He turned his head to gaze around him, shielding his eyes with the side of his hand. "There," he pointed a finger south. "If conditions worsen or you are forced to fall back, head for the mountains. If we get picked apart we'll..."
Something snatched his attention.
His thick brow scrunched.
He'd heard something shrill and sharp come in just above the sandy hills.
His name...?
His fingers squeezed around Mjölnir's handle.
"We will what?" Sif cocked an impatient eyebrow at him.
Thor shook his head of Svartalfheim's tricks. Even though he hadn't completed all of his readings, he had been well warned.
"We will retreat to the caves if necessary," he continued. "The faster we end this, the faster we can return home. But no one touches Malekith until I can get the location of the Aether out of him."
"You mean Jane's whereabouts," Fandral chimed in, a sly half smile cutting through the darkness of the situation.
Sif shot him an exasperated glance and jabbed the blabbermouth hard upon the shoulder.
Volstagg snorted.
Thor was unamused.
"Heimdall has not been able to see her... Either Loki is up to his schemes or..." His gaze fell to the ground as he pushed away the thought. He moved on instead, though his voice failed to hide the leftover strain. "Keep your focus on the elves. I will deal with the Aether and my brother when the time comes."
Volstagg stepped forward to clasp a giant hand over the armor at Thor's shoulder, giving it a reassuring shake. He met his eyes.
"This ends today, Odinson."
And with his promise, the ground shook beneath their feet.
Two long strides and the rippling portal that appeared before them tickled against her skin as he stepped through it on the third.
The world blinked in a dazzling haze of dark blues and grays, and when she lifted her head to get a better look, she found herself staring into the crescent opening of the cave.
She frowned back at it, realizing that she couldn't have made it very far at all.
The once welcoming sight taunted her.
She pushed back against a ruthless wave of claustrophobia as he crossed the threshold without missing a step, his hands shifting some beneath her as he moved, skillfully as a whiptail along the jagged rock.
Loki slowed as he neared the dying glow of the remaining fire.
He knelt in an unhurried descent to one knee. The gentleness of the act was more than her weary mind was able to even attempt to comprehend.
His hands released her small form so that she leaned against a sloping stone a few feet to the left of the flame.
Jane shuffled her tired legs away from both him and the licks of heat as promptly as she could, not wanting to feel the slightest sweep of its warmth.
He watched her curiously as he rose, taking two drawn steps backward before turning to make his way from the cave. He dipped out of view for only a second, returning with the forgotten canteen of water from where she'd left it outside.
He held it down to her but she couldn't make herself take it from him, instead focusing on where the light danced upon a particular facet of shining rock on the wall opposite from her. It was white and twinkling. She tried to ignore the feeling of hot tears as they still so silently spilled from swollen eyes. Everything was blurry.
She didn't even tense up as he took another step forward, the loose corner of his long coat nearly rubbing against the side of her boot as he bent to drop the container on the ground at her side.
The clang of metal meeting rock ricocheted within the small space.
It sounded miles away.
Again he turned from her, stopping a short distance away to tend to the fading flame.
"Please don't," the ghost of a plead that came from her was very nearly voiceless.
Loki stalled mid-motion, the pale fingers of his left hand hovering so close to the fire's base that they were hued red. His eyes remained on it.
"Of all things to be feared..."
His voice dipped in quiet scorn but not with the level of harshness she'd still been awaiting.
All at once he pulled his hand away and his posture slackened. He fell back easily into a seated position from his crouch, letting the sides of his elbows fall to rest upon each of his bent knees.
"Are you even aware of what you've just done?"
Jane had never heard his elegant voice sound so defeated. She could never imagine him sitting upon the dirty floor, either.
The observation was fleeting.
"I fought back," some of the life returned to her tone as she recalled the thrilling sight that had led her to do so. She blinked once to clear the moisture building in her eyes. "And you might as well end this now because I promise you I'm not going to stop."
He moved his forearms to bridge the gap between his knees, locking his right hand over his left.
"And therein lies our problem. You've ended it for me," his lifeless words successfully drew her eyes away from the wall. "That explosion shook through every inch of sand on this depraved planet... An obvious beacon to anyone - or anything that knows what they are looking for." He paused, curling his fingers and dragging them in slow patterns across his left palm. "It is how I found you so quickly."
She swallowed dryly, her thoughts flicking briefly to the canteen full of water beside her before she refocused on a much more important matter.
"Then you must have felt the conduit too," the back of her dirty hand scratched across her damp cheek.
"Yes," his nod was as lethargic as his words. His eyes narrowed. "I felt its energy first. Enough to restore anyone's faith I suppose. But they are all fools who haven't the slightest idea of what they are getting themselves into."
Jane looked to him, a delicate grimace pulling at her lips.
"How are we any different?"
His brow dipped low over his eyes with her words. They slipped closed for a moment before they reopened to find her.
She watched him spin something over and over in his mind, the process stilling his fingers and slightly uncurling his posture.
"Magic..." The way his voice grasped so despairingly onto the word echoed more through her ears than the word itself. "I was blessed with both its gifts and its curses... and the best teacher in all the lands. Others like my brother are not so lucky. He knows not what he faces."
She recognized the look that flashed across his features more easily than she would have liked to admit to herself.
"I saw you seal off the cave," Jane complied with a soft nod. She watched his jaw tighten. "But the Aether blew straight through whatever shield you put on me. We... I'm not safe here."
Loki cocked his head to considered her with mystified eyes.
"You never were."
A chill crept down her spine, cooling her burning skin. She waited until the sensation fizzled out to speak again.
"With your abilities and Thor's strength this could all be ended without anyone else getting hurt... or anything worse happening..." She began cautiously, but knew she'd already failed when he pushed off his knees to stand. Her tone rose a note as she desperately tried to reach for something within him. "If that conduit really was Thor, he may need our help... He had to have heard the explosion too. He's probably out there looking for us right now..."
Loki's eyes heated to molten emerald, turning so heavily down upon her that she drew her head back against the solid rock.
"Under direct order, I'm sure" his towering shadow trembled diagonally across her legs though the voice that resounded from its caster remained an icy calm. "While I did not care to learn much else about our father (he spat the curse), I knew his rage all too well. Of course Thor is here for us but not to live up to such romantic standards. In case you have yet to notice, I am not exactly going to be welcomed back into Asgard with open arms... And that fact just happens to be one of my highest accomplishments as of yet." He straightened slowly and relaxed his fists at his sides. "There are no heroes here, Jane."
He stepped just past her feet in the direction of the cave entrance.
She shook her head, watching his boots as they moved across the floor.
"No heroes... just brothers fighting for the same cause... The same revenge."
He stopped just as abruptly as she'd expected him to and her anchored heart just as suddenly felt too heavy within her chest. For both of them.
"She was your mother, too, Loki. And I'm sorry for my part in her death..." She managed in a whisper, her features crumpling beneath the weight of the hushed apology. "I truly am."
Jane saw his shoulders slump in the barest of movements before he moved on to take his nightly post.
Exhaustion won over shortly after as she did all she could to remain still so that her angry muscles didn't scream at her in protest. Her mind, however, did the opposite; tirelessly trying to decide if the 'thank you' that'd barely touched her ears had been real or if her imagination had simply gone as wild as her heart.
Epigraph: I Won't Let You Go - James Morrison