Barely an hour after Sif, the Warriors Three, and Dr. Banner vanished from the lab, there was another, larger blaze of blue light, and Thor, Hogun, Volstagg, and four gray-skinned, noseless aliens in ragged clothing materialized around one of the transporters. Jane and Erik, who'd been intently studying the tracking device, jumped and almost fell over.

"Hey guys," said Darcy, looking up from an illuminated book on the history of the nine realms. There wasn't a lot she could do as Jane's intern in a place like this, so she'd been spending most of her time (particularly when Fandral wasn't available to show her around Asgard and make out with her behind pillars) reading about alien history and politics. She was pretty confident she'd be able to persuade her advisor that she deserved a lot more than six credits for this gig. Her professors would kill to get their hands on these books.

"That was fast," said Jane, before wrinkling her nose. "Why do you smell like dumpster?"

"Sakaar is covered in garbage," said Thor.

"Aye, I should go wash or I won't be able to stomach my supper," said Volstagg, looking down at himself. "Assuming Hildegund even lets me back in the house." With that, he left the room.

"So everything worked?" said Erik.

"It did," said Thor. He looked around, frowning. "Where's the other transporter? We activated them at the same time."

"Both of the signals left Sakaar," said Jane. She twisted one of the knobs on the tracker, and a small hologram of Asgard shimmered into view above it. One blue light blinked inside the eastern wing of Gladsheim, where they were, but the other was a few miles to the south, in the middle of a major market square Darcy recognized from one of Fandral's tours.

"How did they end up all the way over there?" said Erik.

Thor didn't seem interested in the answer to that question. He growled something in a language Darcy didn't recognize and said, "Hogun, go alert Lady Eir that Loki needs her. And get my parents if you can, and Lady Gerd."

"Of course," said Hogun, but Thor was already dashing for the open balcony and throwing himself over the edge, Myuh-myuh raised high. Hogun ran out the other direction, leaving Darcy, Jane, and Erik alone with the four aliens.

The two groups stared at each other for a few seconds.

"'Sup?" said Darcy.

X

The two weeks Bruce had spent on Asgard had been some of the most relaxing and interesting of his life. Everything around him was a stunning feat of architecture or craftsmanship, incorporating technology he had never imagined and magic he had never believed possible. The resources at his fingertips here were incredible, and he didn't have to work alone or hide himself away. So far, he'd gotten to know just about everyone who worked in the palace library, the team of royal tailors and armorers (all of whom had been very excited by the opportunity to design clothing for someone who could change size so dramatically, and who would be happy to know that their efforts were not wasted), and several of the palace servants.

His only complaint was a minor one: the Asgardians were so unafraid and unwary of the Other Guy that he actually had to fend off multiple enthusiastic invitations to spar at the training grounds on a daily basis. He understood that they were game for a challenge, and he was intrigued by the idea of the Hulk in a friendly sparring match, but he'd rather they let him come to them when he was ready to risk it. His overall impression of these people was that they were cheerful, helpful, and welcoming. He didn't know if they were that way with everyone or if guests of the royal family were given special treatment, but they were so earnest that he suspected it was the former.

The way they reacted to the sight of Loki, therefore, came as a surprise. After a few initial screams and shouts and a scramble to get farther away, a hush fell over the square, and everyone was staring at the prince. Maybe the outright panic had stopped because of how visibly sick and injured he was. He obviously wasn't going to lunge at anyone and attack. Bruce wouldn't pretend he hadn't been shocked when he first saw Loki's blue skin and ruby-red eyes on Sakaar, but in that coliseum full of so many different species, he was hardly the strangest sight there. Apparently that wasn't the case on Asgard.

Bruce exchanged worried looks with the two SHIELD agents, the only other humans in the square. He looked at Thor's friends. Fandral was avoiding meeting anyone's gaze, and Sif was the opposite, looking from Loki to various members of the crowd and back. She looked like she was undergoing an intense inner struggle. The final member of their party, the black woman in leather armor, was still the only thing keeping Loki from collapsing to the ground, but that seemed more automatic than anything, because her eyes were unfocused and she was extremely tense. Bruce wasn't sure she'd even noticed what was happening with the people around them.

X

Whispers began to rustle through the square, and they quickly grew loud enough for Sif to hear.

"Was there a battle?"

"Is this about what happened at the coronation?"

"Did they try another attack?"

"They may be monsters, but surely they aren't that foolish."

One young woman who stood partially concealed by her father's broad torso piped up, "Lady Sif, is the Frost Giant your prisoner?"

Sif could feel the weight of every eye in the square upon her as she stared at the girl, then at Loki. The sight of him was so familiar, yet so terribly strange. She thought of the stories she'd grown up on. The stories of the war, of what the Jotnar had done to the defenseless mortals, of their dark, inhospitable world, of their fearsome scarlet eyes, frozen skin, and towering height. To think that she'd been training and fighting alongside one of them since childhood—that she'd trusted him with her and her friends' lives. With Thor's life.

...But Thor knew. Thor knew that Loki was one of them, and he counted him no less his brother for it. He had run to embrace him despite his Jotun form. He had praised him for using his powers over ice to destroy one of their enemies. He had eagerly brought Loki with him to Midgard and Sakaar, treasuring his counsel and help over anyone else's, and Loki had gone to such extremes in proving Thor right in doing so as to put his own life in danger.

Thor loved Loki, Jotun or not.

Well. That made things very simple.

Sif moved to Loki's side. The commander still supported him on his left, so Sif drew his limp right arm over her shoulders, suppressing an instinctive flinch when she initially made contact with his skin. "He is no prisoner," she said loudly. "He is our prince. He and his brother have just returned victorious from a dangerous mission for Asgard and he is unwell. We must get him to Lady Eir's healing room."

The crowd reacted with more murmurs, shock, and confusion. Maybe even a little anger. However, Sif's words (and the additional support for Loki's weight) seemed to pierce through the commander's preoccupation. "Oy!" she barked. "You heard her. Clear out of the way and someone send for a skiff!"

It was the first time the people in the crowd had a reason to pay attention to her in particular, and within seconds, Sif could hear at least three voices hissing, "Is that a Dragonfang? Is she a Valkyrie?" This new, exciting possibility helped to break the tension. The people made way for Sif and the commander to carry Loki in the direction of the palace, though they pressed close and craned their necks for a good view of both the Frost Giant and the possible Valkyrie. Fandral picked up the transporter and followed, and the three mortals brought up the rear.

At such close quarters, Loki's suffering was plain. He winced or groaned feebly at every movement that jarred him and seemed blind and deaf to all that went on around him. His feet trailed on the ground, with him only able to make the most cursory of gestures towards taking his own steps. And all the while, those trails of steam continued to trickle from the markings in his skin—skin that was warm enough to the touch to be worrying for one of the Aesir, let alone a Jotun.

Witnessing him in this state was more distressing than Sif would have expected. Loki should be supplying witty, biting commentary to everything being said or talking circles around them all or finding someone to play one of his tricks on whether they deserved it or not. For him to be rendered so silent and helpless was like the sun suddenly changing its course and moving backwards across the sky. But Eir would sort him out. Yes. He'd be back to his usual infuriating self in no time.

Loki didn't have to wait for a skiff. They had just gained the upper street when a moving shape appeared above the rooftops in the distance. A few seconds later, Thor dropped down on the cobblestones in front of them. "What went wrong?" he asked, while reaching for his brother. "Our transporter took us straight to the palace. Why did yours bring you here?"

"I don't know," said Sif. "I set the destination to Gladsheim."

"I can take a look at it," said Banner. "It might just need to be recalibrated after each long trip."

"Thank you," said Thor, and he flew off with Loki at top speed.

The skiff arrived shortly thereafter, and they all climbed in. "To the palace, with haste," Sif told the youthful helmsman.

"Aye, my lady," he said.

"Do you think Loki's going to be okay?" said Barton, taking a seat between Romanoff and Banner. "He looked pretty bad."

"Eir is the finest healer in Yggdrasil," said Fandral. "If anyone can help him, she can."

Sif turned to the Valkyrie. "Commander, you were with him on that ship, weren't you? You know what they did to him."

"I already told you, I'm no commander," she said, scowling. She turned her back firmly to them, facing the approaching palace with arms folded. "Look, if what I know will help, I'll talk to the healers. But I'm not some long lost heroine of Asgard, so don't treat me like one."

Sif wanted to protest. Brunnhilde Sigursdottir was absolutely a heroine of Asgard! A Valkyrie returned to them after a thousand years? It was cause for celebration on a grand scale! Sif had so many questions for her, and she was desperate to see her in battle. Her imagination ran wild. She could picture herself training under Brunnhilde and, if she could prove herself worthy of it, becoming the first in a new generation of Valkyrior. It was what she'd wished for as long as she could remember, only now there was an actual, living Valkyrie standing before her. What had once been nothing but wistful fancy was now possible, and she would give anything she owned to make it reality.

"What kept you hidden away on a place like Sakaar, my lady?" said Fandral.

"That's my business," she said, and Sif had never heard a woman (besides maybe herself) be so curt with Fandral the Dashing. "And I'm even less a lady than a commander. Find a different tree to bark up."

Romanoff erupted in a brief coughing fit, and Sif had to hide a smile of her own at Fandral's flabbergasted expression.

X

Thor flew into the healing room directly through one of its high, vaulted windows. Hogun had been good to his word, as always. Eir, Frigga, and Gerd, as well as several of Eir's assistant healers, were rushing about in preparation for the patient's arrival.

Frigga was the first to spot them. "Oh, Loki!" she cried, dropping an armful of linens onto a table and running to them. She lifted Loki's face in her hands. "What happened to him? Hogun could not give us details, and neither could Heimdall."

"They saw us coming," said Thor, guilt and shame gnawing at him. "I rushed us in without a real plan and gave Ebony Maw the perfect window to capture him." They followed Eir's gestures towards a large copper basin full of ice water, besides which Gerd stood in her Ljosalfr disguise. "I did all I could to get him back safely, but Maw had him for days, and he tortured him. Loki was able to fight back in the end. He thinks that's what caused this fever."

Eir waved a hand over Loki vanishing his armor in a flash of red-gold seidr and leaving him in nothing but his smallclothes. His body was covered in evenly spaced circular bruises that turned his blue skin a much darker, more purplish color. The markings on his face and hands continued all the way up his arms, across his torso, and down his legs, and the steam was coming out there too.

"Into the basin with him, quickly," said Gerd. Thor helped his mother lower Loki into the water. Loki's eyes shot open when he hit the surface and he let out a gasp. Thor and Frigga both called out his name automatically, but he didn't respond. He went limp again as he sank up to his chin in the water, and his eyes rolled back.

"Where is Father?" said Thor, still watching Loki.

"He was in the middle of a Council meeting," said Frigga. "I don't know when he'll be able to get away."

"Why is all that steam coming out of him?"

"He overloaded his system with heat," said Gerd. "His body is designed to draw it in, hold it, and use it—not let it back out. It's trying to do that now, but he's essentially being cooked from the inside."

Frigga made a sound like a sob, covering her mouth with one hand and running the fingers of the other through Loki's disheveled hair.

"We need to get his temperature back down as quickly as possible, and then we can assess how much healing he'll have to do," Gerd went on. "The saltwater ice bath will help, and he should only eat frozen things and rehydrate with solid ice until he's out of danger. Did you see what he was using his frjosleikr on?"

"The bridge of a large spaceship, it looked like," said Thor. "He brought the whole thing out of the sky."

Gerd's mouth fell open.

"How much danger is he in?" said Frigga, tears now shining in her eyes.

"I-it's hard to say, your majesty." Gerd looked pale, even by Alfar standards. "I've seen it go either way from this stage, and permanent damage is a possibility."

The door to the healing room flew open. They all looked around. Odin stood framed in the doorway, and he was holding the Casket of Ancient Winters in his hands. "Will this help?"

At first I was sort of at a loss for how to approach this chapter. The crowd scene was another one with way too many characters having interesting reactions to things, and I actually went through each of the six major characters who aren't currently super out of it from fever to figure out who should have the initial PoV. In the end, Bruce worked best. Nat and Clint are very perceptive, yes, but they were only on Asgard for a couple hours before Thor whisked them away to Sakaar, while Bruce has been there for weeks. He has the best outsider view on how jarring their attitude towards the Jotnar is compared to the way they are about most other things. Brunnhilde and Fandral have their own issues I'll be dealing with later, and I didn't want to hone in on Sif right away.

Darcy's perspective was another one that I picked after lots of bouncing around looking for the best one to do. I should've figured it out sooner. She's fantastic.

I've been looking forward to dealing with Loki's heritage on a broader scale for a long time. This is the first of my fics where the secret gets beyond the House of Odin. I don't have super specific plans for how it's going to play out, but I think I've gotten my head around how each of the major characters will react. Which brings me to Sif. I have always adored Sif, but I didn't want to just make her the good guy in this situation because I like her. I thought about this a lot. In canon, she's the most hostile and outspoken against Loki, but that's because it looked like Loki was trying to steal Thor's position as crown prince and was maybe plotting with Asgard's enemies to do it. I wish she would've given him more benefit of the doubt (and she *really* doesn't understand Loki if she interprets his attitude towards Thor as jealousy for his position rather than the way everyone treats him), but it makes sense. The core of Sif's character, for better or worse, is her absolute loyalty to Thor. In this situation, the clearest way for her to be loyal to Thor was to join him on Team Loki, regardless of her legitimate grievances with him and her less legitimate bigotry against his species.