Because it came up in a review and in a couple post-review chats, in case you've forgotten - it's been a while! - the reason Jane did not recognize Loki all this time before now is covered at the beginning of "Chapter 7: Acquaintance." Loki's concern that it may not hold under certain conditions (pretty much the ones that happened) was mentioned in passing in I think two other chapters. Regarding Baldur - yes, in my take on all this Baldur existed (he died a little over 1,000 years ago), but it didn't go quite as recorded in mythology; it'll be covered here later, after another big development that's to come (related to the "hidden plot" I have hinted at from time to time, really an additional plotline that won't be made explicit for a while yet).

/


Beneath

Chapter Thirty-Four – Panic

Jane stared at the door. Loki – Loki! – was somewhere not far beyond it. Her room was near the end of the A-1 berthing wing closest to the station's interior; the medical facilities where Lucas – Loki! – had been taken were just opposite the door to the berthing wing. The medical facilities where he was taken after I dragged him out of the B-3 lounge. After… Images started flashing through her mind, too fast to process – Lucas, Loki, with her in the galley, in the DSL, in the jamesway, in the Science Lab, in the Arts and Crafts Room, in the machinist's shop at MAPO, in the bathroom, in her room. She sucked in a breath. She'd been alone with Loki, in her room. She stared down at her chair on its back on the floor, blocking the narrow space between her desk and her bed. He'd sat on that chair. She looked at her desk. He'd asked about some of the things on it. She looked up at the poster of a Malibu sunset on the wall above the desk. He'd helped her hang it.

Denial came rushing back. This is absurd! Lucas can't be

The screen on her laptop had gone dark; she frantically rubbed her index finger over the mousepad to wake it up. And there it was again. There he was again. No matter how impossible it seemed, she had spent every day of the last nearly two months with Thor's brother Loki, last seen trying to take over the planet and killing anyone who got in his way.

Thor. More memories flooded in. This is the whole reason he showed up in Norway. And in New Zealand. She'd thought about those visits from time to time, but when she did, she thought about cheesecake and intact coffee cups and auroras and kissing a king. Not about Loki. "Don't worry, Thor. Loki won't find me, Loki can't follow me where I'm going." He called me! she suddenly remembered. He even called me! And I told him not to worry, again! Don't worry, no "troublesome" visitors here, isn't that what he called him? I was on the phone with him and I assured him Loki wasn't here! She remembered walking out of Comms after that phone call, and Loki waiting outside, right out in the corridor where he could see her as soon as she emerged. Did he know? No…he asked. "Who were you talking to, Jane?" In her memory the question sounded sinister.

Talking to… Jane's eyes flew to the telephone on her desk. She could call other station phones with it, or, with a phone card and an internet connection, she could call anywhere in the world. She had Peter Larson's number in Tromso. She had Tony Stark's and Pepper Potts's numbers. She had Maria Hill's number in case of emergency, and plenty of people below her. What she didn't have was a phone card.

On her laptop she pulled up the VOIP program she used – no need for a phone card there – and found herself paralyzed with indecision. She wanted to call Thor. But since that wasn't possible…Tony, she finally decided. If Thor had last been to see Tony, maybe Tony knew how to reach him. And if not, maybe the Iron Man suit works in really, really cold temperatures…

She opened the file with his number, copied and pasted it in, and clicked on "Dial." She chewed anxiously on the knuckle of her left index finger as she waited. "Unable to establish connection." With an angry huff she tried again, and got the same error message. Her face fell in a pained grimace then as she remembered that Carlo and Austin had sent a huge data package through this morning, taking up nearly all of the station's allocated bandwidth. E-mail, then. Short, text-only, it should get through. She glanced at the time; about half an hour remained before they lost the satellite window for the day. Copy-paste, copy-paste, copy-paste…now she didn't have to choose. She put every SHIELD address in she had, plus Tony, Pepper, and Bruce Banner.

"Subject: Loki here at South Pole"

Jane shook her head.

"Subject: Loki here at South Pole – not a joke"

She typed out a few quick sentences fueled more by panic than rational thought, punctuated by phrases like "I'm serious" and "I mean it." She clicked send and stood there waiting. 3:02 here, 9:02 PM yesterday on the East Coast, middle of the night in Norway. Surely someone would see the e-mail come up on a computer or hear it ping on a cell phone. It seemed to take an hour before even a minute ticked by on her laptop's clock.

Jane suddenly jerked upright from where she'd bent over her desk. You idiot! The Iridium! The sat phones used different satellites than their internet connections – they were available 24-7 if there was a legitimate need. "I think this is a legitimate need," Jane murmured.

She stepped over her chair and was at the door, hand on knob, when she remembered that Comms would still be buzzing with activity from the MCI drill. Even if the drill were concluded – and it probably was by now – Rodrigo and Zeke and maybe the team leads would be over there going through everything and logging it all for the report that would have to be written up. There was no way she could just burst in there and tell them Loki was here, or make that phone call in front of them – they wouldn't understand, probably wouldn't even believe her. And it wasn't like they could do anything about it. There were no weapons here, as far as she knew. Even if there were, SHIELD agents at the New Mexico facility had fired automatic rifles at him and it hadn't slowed him down in the slightest. Maybe there was still a way, though. She could put on her calmest face, go down there, and ask Rodrigo if she could borrow an Iridium phone.

Jane was practicing her calm face when a knock came on the door. The calm face disappeared and the panicked one replaced it.

Only one person here had ever knocked on her door.

/


/

Thor squeezed his eyes shut for an instant to try to beat back the pounding in his head, then redoubled his effort to get to his feet, something that was requiring far more time and effort than it should have. When he made it up, he promptly collapsed back to one knee in a wave of dizziness. On the second effort he got to his feet and stayed there. It felt like it had taken an hour but in reality no more than a minute or two had passed.

Far too long, though, for the sound Thor only now heard: two warbling notes from a ram's horn. He looked to his right and saw the reason for the odd warbling – an Einherjar guard was racing up the obsidian stairs toward him and had been sounding the alarm as he ran.

Thor looked back at the entrance to the throne room. The sound of the horn seemed to have cleared much of the remaining fog from his mind. An explosion. Inside the palace. Where his father was. His mother. Three of his closest friends. He didn't know whose name to call first, so he called none aloud but held out his hand to call Mjolnir to deal with whatever foe had managed to get inside. He had no idea where the hammer was, but it flew to his open hand anyway with reassuring force, reaching him at the same time as the guard.

"My prince, your head! Are you well?"

Thor felt the back of his head with his left hand; it came away red, but it was nothing, hardly enough to keep him from doing what he had to do. "I'm fine. See to the Lady Sif," he said with a glance toward his dear friend, still not moving, arm still at that unsettling angle. There was nothing he could do for her right now besides get her to a healer, and there were others trapped inside, probably likewise injured, with unknown foes around them. "Then join me inside, and quickly. We don't know who's in there, or how many there are." He let Mjolnir carry him up the twenty or so stairs between him and the arched portico entrance. "I give you permission to enter!" he remembered to call at the last moment, and then he was inside the palace, coughing on air thick with dust.

He could barely see his hand in front of his face. He advanced slowly, ignorant of where the enemy might be hiding.

"Thor," a rough voice said, followed by a cough. Thor spun to his right, and out of the black air emerged Volstagg, the white of his eyes standing out against his dark gray skin, hair, and clothing.

"What happened? Have you seen the others?" Thor demanded in a loud whisper. The only other sounds were their breathing and an ominous groaning that seemed to be coming from the walls themselves.

"Fandral and Hogun were right beside me, but…there was an explosion. I never saw anyone else. The two Einherjar on patrol, the two standing watch by the throne. Did Sif make it out?"

"She did, but she's hurt. I'm not sure how badly. Where was the explosion?"

Volstagg shook his head, forced to rest his voice as a deep cough racked him. "I've no idea," he finally said. "It couldn't have been far though. It threw me into the wall back there."

"Was my father-"

"Shush! No. Don't even think it. No, he'd left already. I'm sure he is safe."

"But if we're under attack from within, we have to-"

"There was no one else here, Thor. No attackers. No battle. Just an explosion."

"Just an explosion." In the throne room of Asgard! Thor shook off the outrage; there was no time for it. "Come on then," he said, clapping a hand over Volstagg's shoulder. "We have to find the others."

They started moving forward, a few feet away from each other, still carefully for the floor was littered with debris that couldn't be seen. The two of them called out names, Fandral, Hogun, and Jolgeir; neither knew the names of the other three Einherjar who'd been in the throne room.

"Here," a voice said weakly after they'd made it further in. Thor increased his speed and his shin struck something big and unyielding, almost sending him toppling over it. He bent down closer and saw it was a thick gold-wrapped stone pillar lying on the ground – it was supposed to be holding up the ceiling. Thor glanced upward but could see nothing, and then he heard the voice again, and realized it was Hogun's and it was coming from underneath the pillar.

"Hogun, hold on, we'll have this off you in no time," Volstagg said from beside Thor.

"If we lift, can you move?" Thor asked, bracing his legs for the feat; the pillar was perhaps four stories tall, but he hoped it had broken into smaller, more manageable pieces in its collapse.

"I…don't know," came the quiet answer, followed by a gasp of breath.

"Prince Thor!"

"Here!" he called over his shoulder, keeping his feet planted. Whoever was arriving could help Hogun get free of the pillar. "Volstagg, lift!" At his command they both bent low and slipped arms under and over the pillar as best they could, struggling to lift it, straining arms and legs. Thor couldn't see either end of the pillar. If they couldn't do this from here, they might need to try to find the closest end and try lifting from there.

"Prince Thor!" came the voice again, the Einherjar from outside, who'd finally managed to sound the alarm, who'd gone to take care of Sif.

"Here!" he answered again through clenched jaw, trying to focus only on lifting, and not on Sif for whom he could do nothing, not on Fandral who was still missing, not on his parents whom he could only hope were safe, not on how dizzy and light-headed he was beginning to feel.

The guard finally found him through the dark haze of the dust; Thor heard the oomph when he stumbled over something close behind him. He started to speak but Thor cut him off.

"Get my friend out from under here," he ordered brusquely, no energy to spare to put any more formalism or politeness into it.

"Friend? Oh! Yes, I…I've got him."

"Volstagg, everything you've got, now!"

Volstagg grunted and the pillar inched further up – everything he had was quite a lot; few besides Thor were stronger. Thor, too, was giving it everything, but he was certain he was not at full strength. His arms and legs were screaming for relief and his entire body burned for air he didn't seem to be getting enough of. Something wet was dripping down the left side of his face and he couldn't tell whether it was sweat or blood.

He heard rustling noises from below. "He's out, he's out! He's clear!" the Einherjar shouted.

"Hands free!" Thor shouted – or tried, it came out instead as a hoarse grunt – and immediately dropped the pillar, then fell to his knees. He shifted around to sit on the ground, his back to the pillar. "How is he?" he asked, at the same time as Volstagg called Hogun's name and went to one knee at his side.

"His legs are badly damaged. He needs a healer."

"He's grimacing, Thor," Volstagg said.

Thor heard the smile in his voice, although he couldn't see it through the haze. "Then he will be fine!" he declared, then began pushing himself back to his feet. "If you'd said otherwise I might have worried. Hogun, be well."

"My prince," the Einherjar said, "guards and warriors and healers are amassing outside, but they cannot enter."

Supporting himself against the pillar Thor cursed inwardly. This magic was meant to protect us. We were better off without it. "I give all sworn warriors and Einherjar permission to enter and exit as often as they need to this day. Healers should remain outside to treat the wounded. It isn't safe in here. Stay with Hogun and ensure he gets to a healer. Tell the others that no attackers were seen but we can't know for certain until we've made a thorough search of the palace, and we must account for everyone else who was here. There were at least five others in this room. And after that we must clear everyone out and ensure the structure is stable."

"Yes, my prince!" The Einherjar snapped to attention and pressed his right fist to his chest before yelling out to the growing crowd outside that had by now realized they were no longer being prevented from passing through the porticos.

Thor realized he had seen the Einherjar's movements; the dust was beginning to settle. He reached down for Mjolnir. "Let's move," he said to Volstagg, who nodded and stood.

/


/

Jane stood frozen, hand still on the doorknob.

"Jane?" Loki called from the other side, quietly as was the custom in the berthing wing.

"The drill is over. All personnel stand down from the drill."

Jane's eyes went wide in alarm. Station all-call announcements were followed by radio all-call announcements. Hers was clipped to her belt. It would give her away. There was no way she could open the door; in her panic she couldn't even remember what the last thing she'd had up on her computer was – could it have been him in Stuttgart? Or her e-mail demanding that SHIELD figure out some way to get down here right now? Not to mention she was a breath away from falling to pieces.

As the station all-call sounded again, she eased her left hand slowly under her right arm toward the radio, the right hand still on the doorknob for fear if she moved it she might accidentally turn the knob and he would see. It was awkward doing it with her left hand, but she thumbed the radio to "off" easily enough.

When the radio call came a second later, she heard it through Lucas's radio on the other side of the door, and it made her jump and suck in a breath that she then held in fear, afraid he might have heard. But as the announcement continued the sound was clearly fading; he was walking away, to the left, toward the main corridor. She exhaled slowly, quietly, and waited another minute – counting slowly to sixty in her head – before letting go of the doorknob.

She went back over to her laptop, stepping over the chair. No response yet to her e-mail. She found herself getting angry at every single person she'd sent it to. Then she felt a flash of guilt, because Thor had specifically told her he didn't want SHIELD or the Avengers to know Loki was back on Earth, and she'd just told two Avengers and over a dozen SHIELD agents. Suddenly she thought of Selby; maybe I should tell him. She pressed her palms to her forehead, shook her head, breathed deeply. Concentrate. Focus. Forget Selby; all he does is report back to them. Forget what Thor said. What's done is done. And if Thor knew Loki followed me here I'm pretty sure he'd want me to call in the cavalry.

Jane straightened her back and squared her shoulders. You're tough, Foster. You can do this. He doesn't know. He thinks you still think he's Lucas Cane. So he is Lucas Cane. If you see him, just stay calm. Don't freak out. Stay calm, don't freak out. She repeated the words as a mantra as she put one foot in front of the other, placed her hand back on the doorknob, and turned it. She tried to act nonchalant, but as soon as she stepped out of her room her head darted from side to side in a decidedly nervous manner. No Lucas. Loki. Lucas.

Jane bit down hard on her lip as she tried to get herself under control again; her hands were visibly shaking so she hid them away in the pockets of her jeans. It's only Lucas. Stay calm, don't freak out. You walk down this hall every day. You see him every day. You've lived two doors down from him all this time.

Unfortunately that line of thought wasn't helping much.

She passed the bathrooms and opened the door to the main corridor to leave the berthing wing. She turned to the left, toward Comms, and there was Lucas, emerging from the galley, turning toward her.

"Jane, I was just looking for you," he said, quickly crossing the distance between them as Jane stood frozen in place.

"I was in the bathroom," she forced herself to say, similarly forcing herself to meet his eyes.

Loki hesitated, uncertain why she felt the need to share that particular detail. Her eyes were a little wide and she was breathing more heavily than normal; perhaps she was ill, or more overexerted from the MCI drill than he'd thought. "I wanted to offer my assistance with the circuit boards. I'm certain if you'll show me what to do I can help."

Jane's thoughts were racing as "um, yeah, okay," tumbled out. Circuit boards were the last thing on her mind right now. "Maybe…maybe later this afternoon? I, uh…I'm kind of tired from…from everything. From the drill. You're really heavy." She stopped then, realizing she was basically rambling, and wondering now if he was heavier than he looked because he wasn't human. Her gaze was drawn down to the opposite end of the long hall, past Loki, toward Comms.

Loki smirked at her. "I would have guessed I've lost weight here given the rations available. And you managed quite well for someone of your size. But you're headed in the wrong direction if you're wanting to rest."

"Oh, well…" Jane licked her dry lips and tried to smile. Her hands clenched into fists in her pockets and she squeezed her arms to her sides. It's just Lucas. He doesn't know. But when she looked at him now all she could see was Loki, killing, threatening, taunting, taking over minds. Comms was so close. Loki was unfortunately much closer. "I just needed to talk to Rodrigo about something. About the drill," she finally managed to get out.

"Was there a problem?" Loki asked. "You really should have given me some oxygen before taking me out. I told you I wasn't breathing." He watched her carefully; she was clearly nervous about something. He wondered if she'd had a run-in with Selby, who had participated in the drill as part of the Hasty Team. He wondered what Selby might have told her, if so.

"You were right next to the fire, we had to get you out first. And we don't bring oxygen into a-" Jane stopped, blinking rapidly. What are you doing? What is this? Arguing with him like nothing has changed? Jane gulped. Of course, that was exactly what she should be doing, she knew. But the moment was gone and he was Loki again. "It doesn't matter now. I just wanted to talk over the whole thing with Rodrigo, okay?"

"All right, then, how about 4:00?"

"Sure, yeah, that's fine," Jane said. Whatever! Just go away and let me get to Comms.

"I'll walk with you. I'll go work in the Science Lab in the meantime."

Jane nodded, swallowing heavily, and they set off together. How many times have we done this? This is no different, Jane, she told herself as they passed Club Med, the Computer Room, the divide between the two wings that could be dropped to the ground in case of a real fire emergency to prevent it from spreading, then finally the Science Lab.

"See you at four," he said at the door.

"Mm-hm, see you," Jane said with a smile full of false cheer and nerves. He went in, and she continued on, concentrating on keeping her pace steady as she passed the administration offices and finally reached Comms. Rodrigo and Zeke were there, along with winter site manager Olivia, all deep in conversation and looking closely at paper on a clipboard. It was strange, standing there watching them, when they hadn't yet realized she was there. They had no idea who they were harboring here. None of them did. Mari had no idea the person responsible for the destruction of her old office was living here, had even sat down to dinner with her before.

"Oh, hey, Jane, what's up?" Rodrigo asked when he finally noticed her.

She took a few more steps into the communications hub with its computers and radio microphones and speakers. "Nothing much, I just… I really need to make a phone call home. It's kind of important, but personal. Can I use one of the Iridiums?"

"Can't you do it over VOIP?"

Olivia shook her head. "Ice Cube team sent a bunch of stuff today, not enough bandwidth left."

"Oh, that's right. And we're about to lose the window anyway," Rodrigo said, glancing at the clock up on the wall. "Okay, hold on a sec." He handed the clipboard over to Olivia and grabbed one of the sat phones, then stepped away from the huge U-shaped desk over to Jane, and led her over closer to the door. "Is everything okay? Do you need anything?"

"No. I mean, yeah, everything's okay. But thanks," she said warmly. She knew if she did need anything he would do his best to help out. And she felt bad for not telling him the truth. Didn't he deserve to know what she did? But if he knew, he would probably only panic, too, and it was safer for him at this point not to know.

"Okay, well, here you go. You remember how to use it?"

"Sure, it's easy."

"Yep. Okay. You can take it back to your room or one of the offices or something for privacy, but bring it right back, okay? We don't have that many, and we don't want them wandering off. Oh, and don't take it apart," he added with a smile and a mock warning look.

"Yes, sir," Jane said with a nod and small laugh despite everything.

She stepped out of the room feeling much calmer than she had since she'd realized who Lucas really was. Life was continuing as normal at the station. No one was worried about Lucas; no one was worried about Loki. So she wouldn't either, she decided. She clipped the sat phone over her belt at her right hip, then arranged the flannel shirt she had on over a white T-shirt so that the phone was hidden to the casual eye. She would go to her room, and walk confidently past the Science Lab as she did so.

But when she reached it, the door opened and Loki stepped out.

Confident, relaxed, calm. He doesn't know.

"That was fast," he said, falling into step beside her as she continued down the corridor.

"Yeah, Rodrigo was busy. They're still in there going over the drill. I guess they have to get ready for tomorrow's debriefing." See? Easy. Nothing to worry about. Just Lucas. Grad student. Assistant.

"And you still want to rest for a while before we get back to work?"

"Uh, yeah. You know, long day. Yeah, I'm kind of beat."

"Jane…" He reached out and put a hand lightly to her right elbow, stopping her. "Are you sure you're all right?"

She opened and closed her mouth once before she was able to get out a response. "Of course I'm all right. I told you, I'm just tired. You got to spend that drill lying down pretending not to breathe. I got to spend it lugging around 40 extra pounds of gear. So I'm just going to go back to my room and rest for a while, okay?" She started to turn but his hand on her elbow tightened.

"You know, Jane, there's something I realized about you earlier," Loki said, a gentle smile on his face.

"What's that?" she asked with a nervous smile.

"You're just as bad a liar as Thor."

/


/

Loki sat down at his designated desk in the Science Lab. He was far from alone in the room at the moment, but he felt it was best to do this here anyway, to remain closer to where Jane was, rather than go down to the Computer Room. As long as he kept an eye out for people walking by, no one should be able to see his computer screen.

He'd already checked Jane's e-mail early in the morning – he usually did it before she got up – but her behavior was odd, and he thought it prudent to check her outgoing mail in case she'd given someone an indication of what was going on.

He opened up the e-mail account that served as a clearing house for her mail. His breath froze mid-exhale.

"Loki here at South Pole – not a joke"

He clenched his jaw and remembered to breathe. He opened the e-mail. No more than rambling pleas to contact Thor, to send help, and to be taken seriously. The immediate problem was easily solved. He clicked on "Reject message" and watched it disappear to the Trash folder.

He exited out of his e-mail and logged out of the computer. On to the larger problem. She knows. He had no idea how she knew, but that hardly mattered now. She knows, and everything has changed. I was so close. I am so close. He stared blankly ahead and tried to imagine how he could spin this, what kind of story he could tell her to convince her to continue helping him. To keep his secret instead of blabbing it to half of SHIELD plus Tony Stark and Bruce Banner and his mindless beast.

Loki's face suddenly transformed into an expression of cold anger fueled by an icy strand of fear. His eyes narrowed almost to slits and slid to the right toward the door, his lips pressed tightly together. Jane had been heading for Comms. Where the satellite phones were kept. The satellite phones that would put her in touch with anyone she wanted, and he would have no control or even influence over it. No matter what else happened, he couldn't allow that to happen. He would have to put a stop to it. Now.

/


/

After several more long minutes of searching through the rubble of the throne room, Fandral and two of the guards were found unconscious and taken out to the healers. Another guard had been crushed under debris; for him it was too late for the healers. It was becoming clear that the worst damage was to the left of the throne, and around a hundred men dug through the debris in the colossal room, tossing aside metal and stone. Hundreds more scoured the palace for signs of damage or enemies or anything at all out of the ordinary. Odin and Frigga were safe and accounted for; Frigga waited in their chambers far from the throne room with several guards, ready to leave the building if it were deemed unsafe, while Odin defied Hergils's wishes and joined the search effort.

"Over here! I found someone!" came a shout some thirty feet away to Thor's left. Thor set aside a distorted gold panel, its engravings barely recognizable, and went as fast as he could toward the voice. At the same time, he heard two notes from a ram's horn, somewhere to the west of the palace.

"Someone's a little late to react," he grumbled. His vision was swimming a bit now and he had to admit to himself that the head wound was weakening him, but as long as he could stand on his own two feet and help clear the debris he was staying.

He joined the small group that had converged and began lifting marble and obsidian and gold – only a hand was visible beneath the rubble.

Another ram's horn sounded, one note this time, shortly followed by two notes, this time more to the northwest. Thor shook his head but didn't bother commenting again. Discipline was failing. He could picture the men outside, realizing one by one that the palace itself had been attacked, and, not expecting this kind of underhanded assault, panicking and sounding an alarm for an attack outside their own sector.

A third ram's horn sounded, and a fourth. Someone next to him cursed under his breath and muttered something about children being entrusted with those horns.

"Jolgeir!" someone exclaimed.

Thor's breath caught in his throat. Soon the Chief Palace Einherjar was free of debris, and it was clear he was in terrible condition, his body broken and bloody, his left arm in particular badly misshapen. Thor stared down at him in disbelief, this man who'd watched over him and Loki when they were boys, who followed them everywhere they went and picked up dropped toys and discarded shoes as though he were a nursemaid instead of an elite guard charged with protecting the lives of the two young princes, who most likely followed them even on their apparently not-so-secret adventures to Svartalfheim and elsewhere, who'd made a young Thor nervous with his ability to blend into the shadows but impressed Loki, and later taught them some of his stealth skills, Loki with far more success than Thor. Jolgeir had saved their lives, perhaps more times than they knew.

This brave, honorable man could not die like this. His sword was still in its scabbard.

"He's breathing," the Einherjar hovering beside Jolgeir's bloody face with its broken nose said, as yet another ram's horn was blown. Two of them hoisted him carefully up to get him outside.

"Jolgeir," Thor said. "Can you tell us what happened here?" He easily matched the slow pace of the two Einherjar picking through the rubble to get him to the healers.

"Don't know," he said over shallow, shaky breaths. "Fast. Happened fast. Don't remember. Tell Driffa…"

"Prince Thor, you must come!"

"What is it!" he bellowed, furious at whomever had so callously interrupted Jolgeir's words for his wife. When he met the man's eyes, though, a warrior only vaguely known to him, and saw the emotional intensity in his expression, he spared a glance in Jolgeir's direction as his brethren carried him out and then gave the warrior before him, already speaking, his full attention.

"Portals! Portals everywhere! We're under attack and our battalions are scattered, many of them have left their positions for the palace. We need you with us!"

Thor froze in place for a moment. Each of those horns…each one a separate attack? Not a break in discipline of the warning system…but a break in discipline of the warriors themselves, drawn to the attack on the palace instead of holding their positions. How many ram's horns had sounded now – five ? Six? Seven? Thor had stopped counting. Another one sounded then, two notes, and Thor was instantly pulled from his shocked silence.

"Stay here and find my father. Tell him what you've told me." Thor spun Mjolnir, aware that he was stirring up dust that had begun to settle, but he was deep into the throne room and this was by far the fastest way out.

When he cleared the porticos he found he had no place even to set his feet down on the black steps. Crowds were gathered there, writhing masses coming and going from the throne room, milling about, seeking information, waiting to attend to any wounded that were brought out. The hundreds would soon swell to the thousands as more continued toward the palace, warriors on foot and on horseback, seeking to smite the enemy that had dared strike at the heart of Asgard. Hovering high above them, Thor could see what they could not.

Half a dozen portals in the distance, some low in the sky, some at ground level, and surely others that were not in his line of sight. Framed in gleaming silver, shimmering and distorting the air around them with crackling energy. Pouring out warriors, few of whom had yet met any resistance as they ran, rode, and flew into Asgard.


/

So, first off, thannnnnk you for all the reviews for the last chapter, wow! It was a long time coming and believe me, I was at least as anxious for it as you.

Teasers for the next chapter, 35, "Battle": Loki does what he does best (manipulate everything to his benefit) and Thor does what he does best (swing Mjolnir), while Jane tries to come to terms with her new reality, and does a little of what she does best (science stuff).

And excerpt:

Suddenly she had a terrifying sensation of falling, and hands on her shoulders jerking her upright before she could hit the ground. She blinked rapidly, gasped out a few shaky breaths, and turned to see the owner of the hands – Lucas. Several seconds passed before she steadied enough that he let go of her and full comprehension returned. She'd fallen asleep sitting up and nearly fallen into the table. And the man who stopped her from doing so was not "Lucas," but Loki.

She reached for the illuminated magnifying glass – she couldn't remember exactly where she'd left off on the circuit board – but Loki got to it first and moved it to his side of the worktable.

"Jane, you should have told me you were this tired."

"I'm not tired. I can keep working."

"You sound like a child," he said, and the sad thing was, he was right, and she knew it. "Go on back to the station. I think I can finish these. We'll test first thing in the morning, before house mouse."