Beneath
Chapter One Hundred Sixteen - Tremors
"What is he doing on Midgard? Is he attacking?" Thor demanded of the Assembly at large as soon as he entered the throne room. It was an awkward location for such a large gathering – for one there was nowhere to sit save the throne itself and it was the middle of the night and no one was getting enough sleep – but the protective magic here was thick and layered and carefully wrought. Here, they could hold a hastily arranged meeting in safety.
"He has brought a personal guard of six with him," Heimdall said, stepping forward. "But they are not attacking. I have been watching him as often as I can, as you ordered, and turned my gaze upon him just as he entered a Svartalf portal. He emerged in Tonsberg, a Midgardian town you may recall from your study of the Ice War, but after querying several residents, he returned to Vanaheim, then immediately journeyed to the city of New York, to the palace of the United Nations. He insisted on speaking with its king, and eventually gained an audience with him. He was disappointed to learn that this king is in reality merely a secretary, his United Nations does not actually unite the realm, and he lacks the kind of power he would need to get what Gullveig wants."
"And that is?" Thor asked, voice low and rumbling. An alliance with Midgard? he thought. As ridiculous as it sounded on the face of it, he realized it could prove problematic. Asgard's alliance was with SHIELD, forged through personal relationships first with Phil Coulson, and then with the warriors at whose side Thor had fought. He had never heard of this United Nations, and it had never really occurred to him to wonder what the rest of the realm's opinions might be on alliances.
"Loki," Heimdall said.
"Loki," Thor repeated, surprised. "But he must know that Loki is no longer on Midgard. He was seen on Svartalfheim. Gullveig was surely informed."
"I report only the Vanir king's words to the secretary, not his thoughts."
"Your opinion, then?"
Heimdall turned to Bragi, who spoke up then. "As we have already discussed, Loki is not the most important prize to Gullveig. That is the Tesseract. But Loki is the most important prize to…well, to you, Thor. You told him so yourself, did you not? You told him you would never hand Loki over."
"If they can capture Loki," Jolgeir said, "wherever he may be – remember that if he left Midgard he could have returned there –"
"Loki had no interest in Midgard other than in ruling it," Thor put in. And in finding Jane, he thought with a shudder.
"We speak only of possibilities, Your Majesty," Bosi said. "It is possible that he is hiding on Midgard."
Loki doesn't hide, Thor thought immediately, but managed not to say it aloud, because yes, Loki had "hidden," in his own way, many times, across many realms, though never on Midgard. On Midgard, he suspected, Loki had found a way to escape elsewhere as soon as he realized he could not locate Jane. "Go on," he said, motioning to Jolgeir.
Jolgeir nodded. "If they do capture Loki, they may feel that they've eliminated the biggest obstacle to our capitulation."
Thor considered that, though his first instinct was to reject it outright, along with capitulation in general. Surrendering the Tesseract was difficult to imagine, but it was no longer so difficult to picture returning the Ice Casket to its native realm, provided the guarantees Nadrith had offered that it would not be used against Asgard or any other realm. The thought crawled under his skin, for it meant that capitulation was somehow less unimaginable. And it meant that while he was supposed to be getting into Nadrith's head, swaying him against the war, Nadrith had actually gotten into his head. He'd learned something this morning when speaking with him at least, and he was reminded that he still needed to discuss it with his mother, and had been distracted from by the ferocity of the battle. He set that aside to focus on the present discussion, and Loki, and the fact that some of his advisors now looked uncomfortable, and Jolgeir was watching him expectantly. "You think that Gullveig may be pursuing Loki because…"
It was Tyr, blunt Tyr who rarely had patience for conversational politeness when serious matters were at hand, who finished his sentence. "Because you yourself told Gullveig that Loki would never be part of any deal. And with the All-Father's absence and Nadrith's message to the paroled prisoners, he may very well know that you are king now, and that the decisions are thus in your hands."
Thor glanced to his mother, who stood there listening in perfectly composed silence, then back to Tyr, and Jolgeir, and Bragi, and Bosi, and everyone else. "You're saying it's my fault. They're actively pursuing Loki because of me. I made Loki a target."
"That isn't what we mean to say, Your Majesty," Finnulfur said, though Thor could not see how they meant anything else, and he could not see how they were wrong. It was his fault. He'd declared Loki the thing he would never give up under any circumstances, and now Gullveig sought to remove Loki from the list of demands by taking him himself.
"It's merely one of the possible rationales for Gullveig's journey to Midgard that we have been considering while awaiting your arrival," Bragi explained.
"And the others?" Thor prompted, avoiding looking in his mother's direction.
"He may be seeking to turn Midgard against us," Bragi answered.
Thor nodded. That had been his first thought, more or less.
"We don't believe the other realms have learned that Midgard is assisting us," Geirmund said. "But they do know that we have good relations with the Midgardians, through your own efforts, Your Majesty. And it's possible they suspect."
With a grim smile that was part guilt and part embarrassment, Thor decided he should provide a clarification. "Midgard has no central ruler. It is composed of hundreds or even thousands of individual kingdoms. Our relations are with a few people from one of those kingdoms…I think. The warrior organization SHIELD may represent more. I…I am sorry, Bragi, I am no diplomat."
Bragi gave a little huffing laugh through his nose and smiled fondly at Thor. "Nor was I, Your Majesty. We learn as we live."
Thor nodded, appreciative of the grace he was being shown for what was in hindsight a serious blunder. "So you think Gullveig may be trying to ensure that Midgard does not offer us any assistance? Or perhaps allies against us? But how? What cause has Midgard to…" Oh. Thor's heart sank again. "Because Loki caused death and destruction on their realm…and we sent him back."
"Without informing any of Midgard's myriad authorities," Bragi said.
It had seemed like the right decision at the time, the decision his father had made, to send Loki in secret, with simple garments that should not draw him too much attention. After all, Thor had arrived on Midgard much the same way, and he'd found friends even when he wasn't looking for them, and he'd learned and matured. Would Loki and all of Asgard now pay for what his father had done? Would he now have to leave Asgard so that he could try to explain the situation to the secretary Gullveig had gone to?
Not for the first time Thor was struck with a yearning for his father to be here. Odin All-Father would know what to do. Thor had no idea.
"Perhaps it will be of no consequence," Vafri said. "We don't even know where Loki is, and he hasn't been spotted in…over two months? And if the United Nations is led by a secretary and has no power and does not actually unite the realms' kingdoms…then what can King Gullveig really accomplish there? Even if Midgard did ally with them against us…does this worry any of us? We ourselves did not see any benefit in their assistance…other than the one thing," he finished with a nod to Geirmund. The food deliveries were a closely guarded secret, one they almost never spoke of aloud.
"Tony," Thor said, to a number of confused looks. "My friend Tony will be able to advise us. I'm certain he will know of this United Nations. It's in the same city where-"
"Your Majesty," Heimdall interrupted, his gaze distant. "King Gullveig is…attempting some new tactic."
/
/
Loki and Jane traveled from Alfheim's night to Asgard's twilight, where they walked for over half an hour as Loki, hidden once again by the cloak he'd stolen on an earlier trip to Asgard, led them to an open area where they could be alone and signal for Pathfinder to bring them back to Earth. They moved about in silence, Loki with his longer stride often getting ahead of Jane and having to stop to wait for her to catch up. Jane went as fast as she could; every time Loki had to stop he turned around and looked annoyed, even angry. Jane held back on telling him to cut it out, that it wasn't her fault he was nearly a foot taller than her, and that she couldn't help the fact that her dress further limited the length of her strides. He'd had a rough day, and she knew he was upset and maybe still in pain. She figured she could let him get a good night's sleep before trying to talk to him again.
In truth, her day had been rough, too. And long. And she needed a good night's sleep, too. She felt fatigued, and not up to getting into any kind of confrontation with Loki.
Asgard passed by around them; the rain had stopped while they were gone and people were out enjoying the cool evening, laughing and talking, many with arms linked together or tossed over shoulders. Jane's eyes flickered around her trying to take it in, but through her exhaustion and the need to put all her concentration into keeping up with Loki it was mostly a blur.
In a small playground with slides and swings that looked pretty much the same as on Earth, Loki opened up his satchel and handed Jane the devices for her wrists, and the third with the RF switch that would let Pathfinder's signal finally link up with theirs again. "Let's go," Loki said perfunctorily as soon as everything was in place, without meeting her eyes. It was like he preferred not to have to acknowledge her existence anymore.
Jane started to count the seconds in her head, but found herself losing track of the numbers. A watched pot, she thought, giving up. Loki was staring at the swings. She wondered if he'd played in this same playground a thousand years ago. Probably so, given how little Asgard had apparently changed over time. It was an incongruous image, Loki as a young child, grinning and laughing and shouting as his mother pushed him higher and higher.
Loki was flying toward her on a swing when the signal came and they were sucked back through Yggdrasil. Jane was unprepared for it and when they stood on ice in the perpetual night of the South Pole winter her stomach gave a horrific lurch and she bent over, hands on her knees. When she straightened again, having managed not to throw up, Loki was gone. She supposed he'd exhausted his supply of inquiries into her well-being.
Jane wrapped her bare hands in the edge of her cloak and hurried around to the front of the jamesway as quickly as she could on the ice. She felt awful. The cold was brutal, the air thin, her head pounding, her stomach still unsettled.
When she got inside to the relative warmth, it was just in time to see Loki's horned helmet fade from his head. His coat and its layers shifted slightly, too – his back was to her so she couldn't know for sure, but she assumed he'd illusion-dressed himself in the same garb she'd seen him wearing with the helmet before.
"Loki," she began, stamping her feet to get her blood pumping.
"Don't," he said, turning and unclasping the old cloak. "It's late here. You should change and go back to the station. Let yourself be seen."
Jane watched him a moment longer, as he removed the wrist devices and then the cloak. "You're not coming in?"
"Not yet."
"Okay," she said with a reluctant nod. She went back into the still-standing bedroom she'd left her other clothes in and got changed. It was strange pulling on thermal socks and long johns and Carhartts and all the rest – like exchanging one form of dress-up for another. But once everything was on, it felt natural and there was a comfort in its familiarity. Conditions here were harsh, but Jane knew exactly what they were, and how to deal with them, and she didn't have to worry about changing history or crazy old elf women who were more than happy to try to rip apart Loki's molecules and make him pass out from pain. It was good they were back. Loki would settle down, and she would help him talk things through, figure things out, if he would let her. She thought maybe he would, once he'd had a little time to himself.
And that was about all the thought she could spare for it at the moment. She was tired. Loki virtually ignored her when she emerged and told him she was going in. She straightened the balaclava over her sticky hair – she couldn't wait to shower – put on her hat, tightened the hood of the jacket, pulled on the layers of gloves, and set out again. Now properly dressed for it, the cold did not sting, and it felt right to be following this regularly-trod path again under the stars and a bright green aurora.
She was almost back to the station when she heard a shout from somewhere off to her left – someone was approaching the station from the direction of the Dark Sector. As she continued on to the station the person shouted again and changed course in her direction. A minute later there was another shout, and this time she could make out the words: "Jane, is that you?"
"Yeah, what's up?" she called back. With all the layers and the nearly identical clothes they wore outdoors, it was hard to recognize anyone at a distance, but Jane figured she might be a little more recognizable because of her height.
"Oh, thank God!"
Jane's brow wrinkled in confusion, and then she realized with a sinking feeling that they must have missed an unscheduled radio check. Their radios had been in their commandeered jamesway all day, turned off.
They met near Destination Zulu, and Jane finally saw that it was Selby. He was out of breath. "Jane," he said, around panted breaths, "where've you been? We've been trying to reach you and Lucas on the radio, and we were really getting worried. I was just out searching the DSL. Do you know where Lucas is?"
"Yeah, he's, uh…we were just looking at something in-"
"Just now? You were with him just now?"
"Yeah."
"Okay. Hang on," he said, unclipping the radio from his jacket and turning the channel dial. "Carlo, I found her. She's fine. Lucas, too. Will you call Sue?"
"That's good news. Sure, I'll call her. See you inside."
"Carlo and Sue are checking Ice Cube and MAPO."
"I'm really sorry we worried everyone. I just forgot to turn my radio on. Lucas, too. It was stupid of me. Did we miss a fire drill?"
Selby laughed, little puffs of air crystallizing onto his balaclava. "You missed a lot more than a fire drill. Come on, let's go inside first."
They got out of their ECW gear and left it in the changing room; Jane clutched her black backpack that held her radio underneath her ankle boots, the Asgardian-style clothing, and the Ljosalf cloak. "Okay, come on, Selby, tell me what happened."
"Okay, well, first of all, some people kind of flipped out a little, because we had another earthquake here, and this one a lot of us actually felt. I mean, it was still really small, the USGS is still looking at the data but they think it was about a 2.5."
"Surely there wasn't any damage," Jane said. Damage to the elevated station or to their fuel supply could be catastrophic, but 2.5 was tiny, and Jane had the impression you couldn't even feel one that was that small.
Selby was shaking his head. "No. But it's got some people worried, after that first one, which we're assuming was a foreshock."
The first one, Jane thought, trying to remember what she could of it. It had been in the station newsletter. Below the reliable detection threshold.
"And then, well…we got another really interesting sat phone call. You're never going to believe this."
"Try me," Jane said with a grimace. I just came back from another realm, ninety years in the past.
"Somebody showed up at the UN today and he's either the world's best illusionist or he's telling the truth and he's from another planet."
"Thor?" Jane blurted out. But it couldn't have been Thor, could it? Why would Thor go to the UN? And Selby knows Thor is from another planet, and he knows which one.
"No. Not Thor, and not Loki either," Selby said, lowering his voice and glancing around nervously. "Not even from the same planet. This guy's name is Gullvine, something like that. Rodrigo dragged out a couple of old ham radios, and they've got one of them set up in Commo to listen to the reporting. When I left to go look for you, this guy was actually giving a press conference. Says he's the king of a place called Vanaheim, and he assures us he wants nothing but peaceful relations with us. 'We come in peace,' you know? I guess it's better than the entrance Loki made, but I have to say…as much as I love studying the stars, I'm really beginning to wish that the people that come from these other stars would just stay there."
Jane forced a smile and a nod while her thoughts swam, mind racing but as though through mud. She knew that name. Gullveig. He was the king of Vanaheim. And Vanaheim was at war against Asgard. And Earth was supplying Asgard with food in secret. And Gullveig was on Earth. "We come in peace…"
"There's more."
"More?" Jane echoed in exasperation. She hadn't even been able to think through the fact that the king of Vanaheim had shown up on Earth.
"Yep. Tony Stark tried to call you on the sat phone. Rodrigo said he sounded a little…tense. Well, he said it more colorfully than that."
Jane nodded. "Okay. I'll go call him b- Wait. Tense? Was he worried that he couldn't reach me?"
"Yeah."
Jane took off at a run, with energy she hadn't thought she had left. "Gonna go call him back now!" she shouted over her shoulder as she left Selby behind. She tore into Commo to find over a dozen people standing around, some talking quietly, mostly listening to what was obviously the voice of a female reporter. "Rodrigo?" she called, unable to spot him in the crowd.
Heads turned, and several people came her way with words of concern and relief. "Was Lucas with you?" Zeke asked.
Jane nodded, but then spotted Rodrigo coming her way and stepped around Zeke. "Hey, I heard Tony-"
"Yeah," he said, holding out a phone and a notecard to her. "You should call him back right now. He's called three times. I think his cheeks were clenched really tight."
Jane thanked him and slipped out of the room and into one of the unused admin offices, already dialing the number on the card before she closed the door.
"Jane?" was the response she got on the first ring. Maybe it was just the quality of the connection, but she thought Tony's voice sounded a little strange.
"Yeah, it's me. I'm fine. I just had my radio off all day. You're not, uh, doing anything rash, are you?"
"If by rash you mean skipping out on a business lunch in Helsinki with billions of euros at stake to take a flight long enough to make me really glad I added a sanitation system to the suit after all the coffee I drank to try to wake up enough for lunch…eh, it's a toss-up. Nah, I don't think it's all that rash."
Jane sat down and let her eyes fall closed. His voice did sound different. Because he was talking from inside the suit. "Tony, where are you?"
"Uh, Jarvis, a little help?"
"Coming up on Ukmergė, sir."
"Uk what?"
"Ukmergė, Lithuania. Forty-five miles north of Vilnius."
"Lithuania. Okay. Long way to go. But it'll only take-"
"No, Tony, you have to turn around. You can't come here."
"Really? Jarv, cold weather suit modifications all up to snuff?"
"They are, sir."
"Sounds pretty much like I can go there, then."
"Tony, I'm serious," Jane said with a weird sense of déjà vu. Every now and then talking to Tony didn't feel all that much different from talking to Loki. She suspected neither man would take well to hearing that. "There's no need for you to come. Everything's fine here. The earthquake didn't do any-"
"Earthquake? You had an earthquake?"
Jane silently cursed. She was trying to reassure him and had instead given him another reason to show up at the South Pole in one of his Iron Man suits, which would go over really really well with Loki and his concerns about being able to protect himself right now. "Yeah. But just a teeny-weeny little one. Less than three on the Richter scale. Barely over two. No damage, no injuries, hardly noticeable."
"Did Loki do it?"
"Cause an earthquake? No. Come on, Tony, have you been reading Norse mythology? Loki doesn't actually cause earthquakes."
"How do you know?"
"Because-" Because we weren't even here. "Because I just know."
"You trust that guy too much, Jane. I worry about you. But I didn't decide to fly from one Pole to the other because of that. Do you guys get any news down there? Do you know about this Gullveig guy showing up in New York? And speaking of mythology by the way, Gullveig, if it's the same person, is supposed to be a lady. But this guy looks pretty convincingly like a guy. Old guy in white robes. Probably not the same person. This one's the king of Vanaheim, one of the realms that's at war against Asgard. Thor told me about him a few months ago."
"Yeah, I heard about it. What's he doing here? He says he wants peace, but then why show up on Earth all of a sudden?" Jane asked, grateful to be off the subject of the earthquake, which seemed far less consequential at the moment.
"You obviously didn't hear about all of it. I don't know why now, but he's here for a reason, all right. He's here for the Norse God of Crazy you've got hiding out down there."
"Loki?" Jane asked, stunned. "He's here for Loki?"
"He pretty much said 'I'm here for Loki,' so I'm going to go with a straight 'yes' on that one."
"Did he say why? Oh…I know why. Loki's one of the three things the other realms are demanding from Asgard. Did Thor-"
"Told me all about it, yeah."
"But he doesn't know where Loki is, right? I mean Gullveig. I know Thor doesn't know."
"No reports of freak lightning storms over the South Pole."
"Yeah," Jane said with a grimace. "When Thor finds out about this…it has to come from me."
"I still don't think I'd want to be anywhere near that. But I will," he added hastily. "I mean, I think I should. I can hold my own against Point Break. Probably. Enough to make sure he at least hears you out before he goes after Little Bro with his magic hammer."
Jane wasn't sure whether she thought that was a good idea or not, so she let it pass. "About Gullveig, then…?"
"No, he doesn't know. Apparently he met with the Secretary-General and that didn't get him anywhere, and then somebody explained to him the wonders of the modern press conference. They had to shut down traffic on First Avenue it got so crazy, and that was with it being past midnight. He's got some kind of 3D hologram projector that's frankly not quite as impressive as I think he thought it was – he obviously hasn't seen my tech. But you want to freak out New Yorkers? Project a twenty-foot-tall completely realistic-looking image of Loki in all his reindeer glory. It was actually kind of funny, really, but Pepper didn't think so, and, well. But it was funny. He was smiling. And not crazed-maniac-let-me-make-you-free-from-freedom smiling, real smiling. Weird. Anyway, Gullveig was going on about how Loki can be manipulative and seem friendly and gentlemanly and all – listening, Jane?"
"Yes, Tony," Jane said wearily.
"And he made sure to remind everybody of what an ass Loki is, what he did on Earth, what he wanted to do on Earth, that he tried to destroy one of the other realms. And then, just to make sure nobody missed this next bit, he explained in tiny words that it was Asgard that took him prisoner from Earth, then turned around and sent him right back here instead of locking him away for the rest of his very long and unnatural life. No mention of any voodoo that doesn't let him go around blasting people to bits anymore."
"So he's trying to turn Earth against Asgard."
"Seems that way. Never mind that the general public had never even heard of Asgard, or the name "Loki," for that matter, except for the nutty conspiracy buffs who heard the name "Thor" and saw the hammer and started googling…I guess they aren't so nutty, actually, huh?"
"I guess not," Jane said, rubbing her temple. This was not helping her headache.
"And just wait. It gets better."
Jane groaned. "Of course it does."
"The UN, bastion of peace and lovingkindness that it is, assigned Good King Wenceslas some kind of liaison officer and a couple of staff. Probably grabbed some poor schmucks on their way out of the cafeteria or something. So he's learning all kinds of things about how to get stuff done on Earth. He offered a reward of ten million dollars – small potatoes, really, for a guy who would've had access to every treasury on Earth if he'd had his way – and he gave out some phone number at the UN. Like a hotline. Do they seriously use US dollars on Vanaheim? Where's he supposed to get dollars? That doesn't seem to bother anybody, though. The line's been busy ever since he announced it. And it's all over the internet. Trending on Twitter and all that. His face is everywhere."
"Oh my God, what are we going to do?" Jane said, eyes wide as it finally sank in just how serious this was. It was a total disaster, and she didn't know why it had taken her this long to recognize it. "Loki's going to lose it, Tony. And everyone here… The window's not open yet, we don't have anything but radio here at the moment. But when we get the satellite again…all the images online before were bad quality or else with his helmet and everything on…wait, you said he had the helmet on in the image Gullveig was showing? Is that what you meant by the reindeer thing?"
"Oh, did I forget to mention that? With and without. Very helpful to the viewing public. He looked a lot less homicidal, actually. Probably went to the barber a little more recently. But don't worry. I'm already on that. Got a program running that tracks down all the online images of Loki and degrades them. Long as he's got a parka and long johns on I don't think anyone will make that leap."
"Are you serious? You can do that? Okay, it's kind of creepy that you can do that, but Tony…thank you so much. I don't know what we'd do without you. Maybe this is going to be okay after all."
"We? Just to be clear, Jane, I'm not doing this for Loki. I'm doing it for Thor. And for you, but mostly for Thor, all right? Because he said he didn't want anyone tracking Loki down, and I agreed to help him out, as long as Loki was keeping his hands and his magic gizmos to himself. Is Loki keeping his hands and his magic gizmos to himself?"
"Yeah, he is," Jane answered with a slight wince. On Earth, anyway. Jane told herself that that was all Tony meant. "Have you talked to Thor?"
"Nope. Figured he'd want me to check on you first. Also, dramatic as another guy from outer space with questionable fashion-sense showing up on Earth is, nothing's actually come of it so far, nothing that really matters. I figured Thor has more urgent things to deal with than a PR disaster here. And it won't affect our food deliveries – that's done privately through subsidiaries of Stark Industries. We're buying from every continent on the planet…well, except yours…and none of them know where it's ultimately going. When the war's over, he can come back here and do a press conference of his own. I have plenty of people who can advise him on what to say and how to say it, and they'll be thrilled to work with someone who might actually take their advice."
"You're saying it sounds worse than it is."
"Yeah, weren't you listening?"
"I'm listening, Tony. I'm just tired, okay? And now this on top of everything else…"
"On top of what else?"
"Just…nothing. I mean the earthquake."
"You're sure Loki didn't do that?"
"Tony…"
Tony gave a put-upon sigh. "You sound like Pepper now. I didn't think I was being particularly exasperating. But yeah. I'm definitely keeping an eye on this – well, Jarvis is – and we're monitoring the calls that go into the UN, because their telecom security is a total joke, and we're watching for alien armies showing up. SHIELD's on high alert, as is the US military and probably every other military on the face of the Earth. Nobody wants a repeat of New York in their backyard. For right now, though…the public is busy spotting Loki Bogey-monsters everywhere, but otherwise everything's calm."
"Okay…all right," Jane said, running her fingers through her hair and further messing up the braid she'd forgotten about. "We'll deal with this. It'll be okay. It'll have to be," she said, with nothing but stubbornness behind it. It felt like her brain was barely functioning anymore.
"So…you still want me to turn back?"
"You haven't yet? Yes, Tony, turn back. This would be such a bad time for you to show up."
"Gee, thanks. Okay, well, in that case…Jarvis, back to New York. Seems it's the place to be."
"Very good, sir."
"Jane, listen…one thing. I told you in the beginning of all this that I wouldn't lie to Thor about Loki. That hasn't changed. If he asks…"
"I understand. I wouldn't ask you to lie to him. Just…if he asks, have him call me, okay?"
"You want to tell him Loki's been with you this whole time over the phone?"
Jane grimaced. "Maybe not. Can you tell him tactfully, then?"
Tony didn't say anything for a few seconds. "I'll have him call you."
/
/
Loki sat at the table he'd sat at so many times before, staring blankly. It didn't seem real, this day. It couldn't be real. He'd eaten breakfast here at the South Pole. He'd hurried down rainy Asgardian streets with Jane. He'd teased her to get a rise out of her, because doing so and observing her reactions brought him pleasure. And while he knew at times he'd been on edge and out of sorts, on the whole it had been an enjoyable morning.
And somehow it had all gone wrong. Like everything else.
Again and again he came back to the thought that Niskit was wrong.
She hadn't tried hard enough.
Even the green beast repeatedly slamming him into a concrete floor had not knocked him unconscious, and his body still ached deeply and thoroughly from how hard she had tried.
She was afraid of Odin.
She wouldn't invite an unnecessary clash, but she'd just been part of an assassination plot against her own king; Niskit wasn't particularly afraid of anyone or anything, not even Odin All-Father.
She'd lied.
She had no reason to, and while Niskit kept her own counsel on many things – obviously – he'd never really known her to be deceitful.
She was incompetent.
He knew she wasn't.
Again and again he came back to the conclusion that Niskit was not wrong.
Odin had ensured that this little "enchantment" could not be removed by anyone but him. His hand brushed absently against the snow spew on the partly-crumbled leather he'd removed from his satchel, and he wondered what its presence really meant. He'd felt extreme heat, but he didn't remember feeling extreme cold, and if he'd turned Jotun-blue Jane would have pestered him with incessant unpleasant questions about it, and Niskit would have recognized him as the pretender he was. It was also true, though, that he didn't remember much of what Niskit had done, and what he did remember was hazy and made little sense – flashes of Midgardian crowds kneeling and laughing at him, Thanos forcing him to the ground. Thanos had not succeeded, not really; a battle did not make a war. Odin sought to succeed where Thanos had failed.
Loki released a shuddering breath. Odin would not succeed. He could not. There would be another answer. Another way. If he could just think.
He turned his head toward the door. He would have to go through it eventually. He could stay here; 30 degrees was entirely bearable, and there were multiple simple beds in this summer dormitory. Bearable, though, did not mean comfortable. And drained as his body was, he was both thirsty and hungry. It was getting late, well past ten he saw on the open laptop. Jane had been in for a while now; she should have gotten her own supper and left the cafeteria. He would go in, find some of the frozen-heated-cooled leftovers and heat them once again. He would take his plate back to his closet of a bedchamber, struggle to create a basic sound blanket, and dine at his cheap mass-produced desk. As though he had never left. As though he belonged here, with these mortals.
He did not belong here. How long has it been since I remembered that? He used to remind himself of it frequently, that he did not belong here. That he was not one of the mortals. That he was better than them, in every way that mattered. That pretending he was one of them, for the sake up his goals, did not make it so. Did I forget? Did I become complacent? Did I enjoy darts and poker and music and movies and Jane so much that I let myself forget? That I wanted to forget?
It wasn't supposed to be like this, he thought, forcing himself up and stripping the Asgardian clothing from his body piece by piece. Even these imperfect items he removed – old coat and straps and buckles and armor, damaged tunic, pants from the future where they'd been abandoned at Niskit's home – were infinitely superior to the rough and unflattering materials he wore when going outside here. The fact that the ECW gear now smelled like him instead of the previous owner did not help matters. He'd once taken pride in the expensive Midgardian attire he himself had purchased. Now it sickened him to think that he'd valued it. With his magic he could clothe himself in whatever way he desired.
He lifted his chin and left the jamesway. He had little choice, if he didn't want to be cold and hungry and thirsty. Most of the mortals, at least, would be in bed by now, and if he was lucky he wouldn't run into a single one of them. He trudged over the tiresome landscape that he detested – he'd forgotten how much – and entered at Destination Zulu on the second floor, finding himself in an empty corridor. He breathed a sigh of relief and continued on to the galley. As soon as he reached the door he heard a voice inside and hoped it was at least someone he didn't often interact with. He was not interested in pretending to be Lucas Cane anymore. He reviled the very name.
"…of his manipulations, his attempts to charm and beguile…"
Loki rounded the corner and missed the next few words. Around 25 of the Midgardians sat or stood around one of the long tables in the middle of the galley; the voice came from none of them, but rather seemed to come from the center of the table, blocked from his view.
"…cannot trust him, no matter how sincere he may sound. Do not forget what he did to your realm. He…" Loki knew that voice. It took him a moment to realize it, out of context and filtered through primitive Midgardian technology. "…calling himself 'King Gullveig' just after midnight in front of the United Nations headquarters in Manhattan…" Another voice was speaking now. "…from a planet called Vanaheim, and explained that the warlord Loki was responsible for…" So now I am a warlord? Did they miss the part where I said that I wished to free them? Loki thought with a spiteful smile over clenched teeth. "…sent him down to Earth. They did not warn you. They did not inform you at all. He walks among you even now, free, doing as he wills." The other voice began again, a member of Midgard's media, he assumed.
"Can you believe this?" Ronny whispered to him.
He hadn't even realized how close he'd drawn to the others, but now he saw the clunky device on the table that was transmitting the news report with variable clarity.
"…requested that anyone who had spotted Loki anywhere on Earth since he led the invasion of New York immediately call 212…"
"Where've you been, Lucas?" Austin asked, approaching him from the side.
Loki turned to look at Austin. No one else was paying him any attention. Even Ronny was leaning forward now and whispering something to Brody. I'm right here, and they do not see me. "Outside," he answered, then ignored him.
"…still waiting for the President to address the nation, but given the unprecedented nature of this event, and with much of the country still asleep, the White House has issued an initial statement noting that the President will wait until 7:00 on the East Coast and use this time to prepare and to consult with other world leaders. Meanwhile, British Prime Minister…" As if it mattered what any of these Midgardian "leaders" said. Loki gathered Gullveig had already given his little message to the fine peoples of Earth, and now the reporters were replaying it and adding their own commentary, speaking to hear their own voices. Much like their "leaders."
The others apparently thought the same, for as the reporter droned on about all the mesmerizing comments by Midgard's myriad rulers, calling for calm and asking their citizens to contact their national authorities if they caught sight of that evil warlord Loki, conversations began around the table.
"Why'd we let that guy go in the first place?" Gary asked generally to those around him. "The US captured him, had him secured…since when do we have extradition treaties with alien planets?"
Loki liked Gary. Respected him even, some days. He hardened himself against him so that the words did not sting. The words were truth. Gary's friendlier words had been to a man who did not really exist. Lucas was the lie.
"The US didn't capture him. Not like the FBI or the Army or something. Didn't you see all that stuff online? It was some secret international paramilitary organization. Like the French Foreign Legion," Brody said.
"The French Foreign Legion? Give me a break," Ronny said.
"Do you even know what the French Foreign Legion is?" Gary asked.
"It didn't say it was the French Foreign Legion. I just mean…maybe the group that got him isn't bound by all those laws and treaties we have to follow."
"Maybe Asgard bribed them to hand him over."
"The French Foreign Legion?"
"No, dude, the…well, Iron Man. Captain America. Those guys, and whoever they work for now."
"You think Asgard bribed Captain America? And he accepted? And Iron Man…that's Tony Stark. He's like a gazillionaire already. What are you going to bribe him with?"
Loki listened to the rambling nonsense and grew increasingly comfortable with the new reality that Gullveig was trying to launch a manhunt for him on Midgard, and that everyone was now talking about him in blissful ignorance. There were benefits to living in a place as cut off and isolated as this.
"We should capture him and hand him over to Vanaheim," Selby said, almost to himself. The larger conversation was dominated by the younger men at the Pole; Selby had remained silent until now.
"How exactly would you propose accomplishing that?" Loki asked, turning to Selby with a look of innocent curiosity.
Selby looked at him in surprise. "I don't know. I don't know anything about things like that. I'm just saying that if we get him, we should turn him over, and this time to a planet that's not going to just send him right back."
"Do you think he should suffer?" Loki asked.
"I can't say I'd be opposed to it. He's caused a lot of suffering on Earth."
Loki inclined his head, as though considering it, as though they were having some philosophical discussion, then left when the news broadcast began playing some further portion of Gullveig's earlier speech and Selby's attention went back to the device on the table. He had heard enough. He needed to think.
/
Wait, when has Loki thinking ever resulted in anything good? Ha, well, I just thought of that while putting in the little section break slash thingee. This chapter, and all the preceding Alfheim chapters, takes place on June 8.
A couple chapter references, in case - I know, inconcievable! - you have forgotten a few things along the way. Loki was seen on Svartalfheim? Ch. 47 "Daggers." Thor told Gullveig he would never let Loki be handed over to the FGs? Ch. 18 "Isolation."
A couple of short(-ish) responses to guest reviewers: "LittleRedDot" - "Jana is not my girlfriend" is an afterthought for Loki, it doesn't matter to him, practically speaking or personally, whether Niskit thinks that; this denial comes as he realizes Jane must object to it (though it doesn't actually particularly bother her). So it's another manifestation of his off-kilter self-esteem, and you could say mixed in with respect for her as well - he cares what she thinks and doesn't want to make her uncomfortable. "What caused the snow spew?" I imagine a lot of people wondered! There *was* a rapid and pretty extreme temperature shift in Loki. There was a little bit of Jotun-y-ness going on there, but he didn't go full-on Jotun. Bear it in mind for down the line... "Where did Gullveig land and who did he first meet?" That was funny because at first I was confused, "it's in the chapter, right there...oh...they haven't read that chapter yet." Ha. Sometimes I do forget that you haven't read the chapter prior to the one I'm currently working on. Anyway, I imagine him encountering a couple of really stunned Norwegians who nonetheless politely answered his questions. Guest Jan. 28 - What an important observation. Yes, Thor needed a dose of humility. That boy had no self-worth issues! Loki lacks self-worth and covers it in a "cloak of arrogance" as you put it so well. They are not the same. Their "issues" are not the same. And yet, Odin told Frigga he always treated them the same...(Ch. 20 "Mythology") And thank you to all reviewers!
And the fantasy. Wow. Well, I knew it would get a reaction. ;-) Thanks for all the reviews, questions, comments. What a delight! And let me say, when there a plenty of stories out there that would give more instant gratification and *way* more than a pinky touching a leg (ha, to put it in plainer language than I used to try to paint the atmosphere in the last chapter)...I take it as a huge compliment that this moment meant so much to so many of you. The fantasy was about escape primarily and Jane secondarily, and there's loads of room for interpretation among all that and I'll leave you to it.
And Niskit. So glad you've enjoyed her! As I've told all of the registered reviewers who mentioned her, I loved writing her. Haven't you ever wanted to break social convention? Because you were tired, or in a hurry, or in a bad mood, or whatever? Niskit, at some point after her husband died, just decided she wasn't going to bother with that anymore. Ever. And if you don't like it, tough cookies on you, she couldn't care less. ;-) That's part of her anyway, and that's a big part of what makes her fun to write.
If you reviewed in the last few days I'll get back to you very soon. And if I haven't answered your PM from up to like 3 weeks ago...I will! To recap my last few weeks: (1) out of the country with limited connectivity (2) overwhelmed at work the next week [see (1)] (3) ill and drained from stomach upset for the next 5-6 days after that. Ha. Been a bit crazy.
Previews: Loki does some thinking, and yeah, he's still really not dealing with what happened...or he is, in his own way; Jane's night doesn't go as planned (the day didn't either, so what do you expect?); Thor & Co. try to figure things but they're missing a Loki-shaped puzzle piece.
Excerpt:
"I already know about it," Loki said without turning. He had no doubt about what Jane was speaking of. They were in front of his chambers now. "Half the station is gathered in the galley."
"I just got off the phone with Tony," Jane said. That got his attention. He turned, hand slipping from the doorknob.
