Beneath

Chapter One Hundred Twenty-One – Breach

The door was unlocked, which simplified matters considerably.

Once he was inside, it was clear why. There was nothing here to steal, except for a few tables and desks and chairs, and whatever items might be hidden away in cabinets and drawers. Loki thought if he put some effort into it he could reconstruct where each one of Jane's devices had been by the outlines in the dust. A note on an otherwise empty table read, "Erik, I'm out in the trailer, let me know ASAP when you get back. With Thor, fingers crossed!" Jane's handwriting. Loki pursed his lips together. Erik Selvig is with Thor? That would be awkward. Much as he did not want to see Jane here, that would be infinitely preferable to seeing Erik here. Erik, the first one to realize who he was, or at least the first to announce it out loud for everyone else to hear – "Loki, brother of Thor," as if that's all he was, an appendage that did not exist apart from Thor Odinson. Did Thor tell him who I was? Or did he know me because we'd already met, here, in this time?

No, Loki decided. He was here to change things, not to confirm a past that had already happened. But Niskit made me leave my knives outside the next time I… No. It probably didn't happen that way originally. It couldn't have happened that way originally, because I hadn't yet travelled to the past then. He and Jane had changed the past, and that had changed what came after, making Niskit paranoid that Loki would lose his temper along with all rational thought again and draw a knife. As a result, Loki's memories were changed. That had to be it. It hadn't worked quite that way in Back to the Future – Marty remembered only the original timeline while the new one was a surprise to him – but Jane had said the movie wasn't meant to be entirely accurate.

For the first time he felt the stirring of real curiosity over how it all really did work – not just how it would affect him and his life, or Jane and hers, but how it truly worked – and began to grasp how Earth's inhabitants could find the topic so intriguing, absent the strong taboo on it that existed elsewhere. There was a certain regret, a certain disappointment in knowing that if his current theory – the first he'd ever put much thought into at all – was correct, in a little while he wouldn't remember that time travel was even possible.

Scouting the perimeter of the former Smith Motors with divided attention, Loki considered that insight further. In fact, he realized, Pathfinder wouldn't exist at all, because Jane wouldn't have been motivated to build it.

Jane. Not only would these months with her never have happened, which he'd already accepted, he wouldn't even remember that in another timeline they had. He wouldn't remember her. At all. She'd only come to his attention when she'd thrown herself at Thor's supposedly dying body. And they were never going to reach that point now. Regret and disappointment sharpened. He liked her. Irony of ironies, on this planet he'd come to claim as his own, to rule its weak and hapless inhabitants, there was only one inhabitant he'd vowed to visit, one he'd focused his hatred on, one he'd delighted in manipulating and tormenting above all others…this one he now liked above all others. He would miss darts and even the band for some inexplicable reason and especially poker and he would have really liked to have driven a snowmobile. He would miss Austin and Carlo and Gary and Zeke and Ken and…but Jane…he remembered how quickly she'd gotten up when she'd feared Great Spiny River Crickets were about to devour her. How she'd clutched the edge of her sweater watching Jurassic Park. How she'd laughed over the ridiculous Midgardian tale about Sleipner. Laughed with him, and not at him. He closed his eyes, and he could still feel the soft warmth of her body against him as they rode back in the carriage. It was a bittersweet memory, made more bitter by the thought that he would not have it much longer. Because it would not have happened.

He didn't like the way it made him feel. Hollow. Bereft. Thor would be back soon, and Loki would end this. He wouldn't feel this way anymore when he no longer remembered what he was losing.

/


/

"Jane," Olivia said once the meeting concluded and the others were hurrying out to get ready. "Hear me out before you interrupt, okay? Are you sure you want to do this? I'm going to be honest with you, I'm a little worried about you. A concussion isn't something to mess around with."

"I know. But I swear, I feel fine. Great, actually."

"You looked a little distracted at the earlier meeting."

"I…I'm sorry. I was. Listen, Olivia…I…it's really important to me to be a part of this," she said, stuffing her hands in the pockets of her cargo pants. She hadn't planned to say anything, not yet, but now alone with Olivia, who had the ultimate on-site responsibility for station safety, she couldn't entirely keep this from her. "There's a…one of the pieces of equipment I brought here, it uses an unusual and really strong power source, and I'm…I mean…I'm a little worried-"

"Is it unstable?" Olivia asked, expression quickly reflecting a new type and level of concern.

"No. No, it's definitely stable. Please keep this between us for now, but it's basically the same power source that Tony Stark uses for his Iron Man suit, the same source he uses to power his building in New York. So I'm not worried about its stability, it's just…it's the only other unusual thing here, and…" Well, that and Loki… But Jane nipped that thought in the bud. Mythology and Tony's quips aside, Loki did not cause earthquakes by his mere existence.

"It doesn't sound like that could be connected to the seismic activity, then. I'm no scientist, but I don't see how a power source, as long as all it's doing is generating power, could cause earthquakes. And New York's not having earthquakes, as far as I know. Is that why you're so determined to do this? Guilt?"

"No, I…" Yes. At least a little… "I feel a certain sense of responsibility, okay? But in all honesty, when it comes to installing the updates on the equipment out there, Wright and I are the most qualified people here. We need the most accurate information we can get, and I want to make sure we get it."

"But are you one hundred percent confident you're physically capable of this trip?"

"Olivia…do I look like there's anything wrong?" Jane asked, growing a bit desperate and trying to hide it. Deflecting. Like Loki, she realized as she heard his voice saying the words she'd just echoed. There was definitely something wrong with him…

"No. And I talked to Nora and she confirmed that you have no more symptoms of concussion. But I don't want you doing this either out of guilt, or out of some sense of needing to prove your courage."

"I'm doing it because I'm the best person to do it, given that we don't have any seismologists here who are already familiar with the equipment. And I honestly feel fine. Really."

Olivia gave her a hard look – it was the first time Jane had really seen this side of her – but Jane didn't flinch even slightly. Olivia had nothing on Loki. "Okay. But be careful. Don't make me regret this."

"I won't. I mean I will. I mean-"

"Go get ready," Olivia said with a half smile and a wave of her hand.

/


/

So little time Thor had spent here. Loki would have suspected he'd spent no time here at all were it not for the empty box of strawberry Pop-Tarts with four empty silver packages on the kitchen counter. Jane ate the things, too, but he doubted she had polished off a whole box of eight.

Signs of Jane, however, were everywhere, despite all the things that SHIELD had to have stolen from the premises. A flannel shirt she wore at the Pole draped over the back of a chair. Stacks of worn scientific texts in a cabinet next to the coffee mugs, two of which had that ridiculous beaver "mascot" on them. Two pairs of shoes that looked to be Jane's size abandoned in a small heap not far from the door.

It made his skin crawl. Jane was coincidental to this, entirely uninvolved at this point, and he disliked the constant reminders of her here, even as it also fascinated him in some strange way and he could not stop looking for them. This was her real life, her normal life, the one he'd never seen before, the one without him in it, and only a flicker of Thor. This was what he was returning her to.

The hour here was drawing later, past 10:00 according to the clock on the wall, his second nightfall in two days, as though his life, too, were "normal." Erik had still not returned with Thor, so Loki eventually sat to get off his foot, avoiding the chair adorned with Jane's shirt. The sound of the vehicle, when it arrived, would alert him and allow him to move to one of the more concealed locations he'd identified.

"Do you have the key?"

Loki drew in a quick breath. For a split second, the sudden sound of that muffled voice, and the laughter that followed, overrode all his training and instinct. He then silently slid out of the chair without moving it – so much for hearing the vehicle – and darted back behind one of the structure's metal support beams. The double doors and much of the surrounding walls here were made of glass; Loki was spared being spotted because the lights were out, and Thor's head was down, distracted by dealing with Erik, who was leaning heavily on him. Erik, whose mind was unburdened. Who had never met Loki. And who now never would. "The Tesseract is showing me so much," he'd said, lost in the attraction to the cube to which he'd fully given himself, under the scepter's influence. Erik had worked more closely with it than anyone; perhaps it had indeed done him real damage, physical damage. Loki had never considered it before. He'd never cared before.

Erik, meanwhile, was mumbling something barely intelligible – Loki strongly suspected he was intoxicated – as he entered with Thor, who'd discovered that the door was not locked. He peered around the beam. He knew he shouldn't keep watching, yet he couldn't quite bring himself to look away from the two men, Thor looking quite common in hideous clothing Loki couldn't imagine he'd chosen for himself. Unfortunately, absent a conveniently-placed mirror or some other reflective surface, one could not really expect to watch without eventually being noticed.

"Somebody's watching us," Loki heard Erik say, head no doubt turned precisely in his direction. He'd withdrawn fully behind the beam and squatted down low as soon as Erik's gaze happened to turn his way. It was humiliating, really, hiding instead of simply making himself invisible. But making himself invisible was no longer so simple.

"Jane? Are you here?" Thor asked. His voice held a clear smile that made Loki's jaw clench.

"Not Jane. Somebody…one of those goons from SHIELD. We've got nothing to hide, do we Donnie?" he asked loudly, then laughed. Donnie? "Come on out, there's nothing left here to hide!"

"I think your mind plays tricks on you, my friend," Thor said with a chuckle that quickly faded. "And I'm sorry for that. I meant to retrieve all of her belongings."

"She told me. I told her you're crazy, you know. And I was right. You'd have to be crazy to…to…"

"Are you all right, Erik? Here, sit."

Loki heard a chair being moved, and Erik sitting, or more likely half-falling, followed by more laughter.

"I haven't been in a bar fight in thirty years. And you- Look, she left a note. She's out in the trailer. Through the side door."

Leave it to Thor. A bar fight. On this realm little more than 24 hours and he's made both friends and enemies already, and been in at least two fights.

"I can take him. I know I can."

"Thor, have you lost your mind? He's twice as big as you!"

"He's not twice as big. And I'm at least as strong as he is. I know it. Let go, Loki, I can take him!"

Thor hadn't taken him. But there'd been very few he'd been unable to best in the years and centuries that followed.

Loki pulled himself out of the more distant past. It wasn't a good place to linger. It would be too easy to get caught up in reminiscence, in false sentiment for a false brother and a false childhood and a false life.

Thor was helping Erik across the large open chamber, and Loki shrank in on himself as much as he could while shifting a little to the right, trying to keep the beam between him and Thor. Loki had seen the "trailer" as he approached the building, and later peered out through the glass side doors at it further. It was about the same size as the berths at the South Pole. It seemed wrong to have this large workspace and confine oneself to such tiny living chambers…but knowing Jane he wasn't in the least bit surprised that she would prioritize her work over personal comforts and live in a portable dwelling.

A scuffling sound came as the door opened; Loki risked a careful glimpse in their direction and saw Thor hoisting Erik up over his shoulder in a move that was familiar but couldn't be as easy for him now as it usually was.

And then they were gone, out the door headed toward Jane's home on wheels. Loki stood up with a sigh, frustrated that he'd done nothing more than snoop around a building, hide like a child, and eavesdrop on something that couldn't even qualify as a conversation. Erik, though, it was clear, would be out of the picture soon, and Loki would be ready.

/


/

Jane had hoped to make a trip out to the jamesway before they left – both to look for Loki and to make sure he hadn't used Pathfinder again – but the planning meeting had run long. They'd had a conference call of sorts over the satellite phone with a team of seismologists from the US Geological Survey, and lots of discussion of contingency planning. What if they had trouble locating the site in the dark? What if the PistenBully that was going to take them out there died somewhere along the way? Backup plans were critical, but Jane preferred to stay positive. She wouldn't be able to do her work efficiently if she was constantly worrying about things going wrong. Being stranded three miles from the station, in the dark, in -75 degree weather, was too awful a possibility to dwell on.

She put worst-case-scenario thoughts firmly out of her mind, and in their place Loki showed up again. Because that was the same thing Loki had done on Alfheim, she realized. He was so convinced it would work. She remembered what he'd once told her and Rodrigo, that he somehow made reality what he wanted it to be, turning optimism into realism, as he'd put it. It had seemed the height of arrogance and at the time she'd taken it as his odd brand of dry humor, because that kind of arrogance, if real, bordered on insanity. Of course, that was when she'd thought he was a grad student. Maybe if you were a prince who walked on streets that drained rain water and you did honest-to-goodness magic, you could shape reality to your liking. But even then, there were always limits. Insisting it must be so didn't always mean it would be. If Loki had truly lost sight of that…Jane wondered if he was more genuinely disturbed and deluded than she'd realized. She pictured him restraining Niskit and holding a knife to her throat; the look in his eye could definitely have been described as "crazed." She thought he really would have tried to kill Niskit if she hadn't stepped in. Disturbed and deluded, she thought again as she continued getting into the extra layers she was wearing for this trip.

Actually, he's kind of done that a lot. Trying to bend reality to his will, regardless of whether it's rational or not. She thought through some of the things he'd done. The failed and entirely untested attempt to go the future. The attempt to massively rewrite history by saving his younger brother's life. The attempt to convince Earth to bend its collective knee to him. And it didn't seem to work out in his favor very often. Or maybe ever. Loki Versus Reality, she thought with a worried half-smile. Selby could wait. The first person she was talking to when she got back was definitely going to be Loki. And it was going to be a long talk.

Of course, she had to find him first. He's here brooding somewhere, she thought, recognizing that she may well be in her own futile battle with reality, but hoping nonetheless that she was right, because there was nothing she could do about it at the moment.

/


/

Thor had disappeared into Jane's trailer, Erik still over his shoulder. A few minutes later he emerged again, this time with Jane at his side. Loki hid again and let a wave of bitterness toward both of them wash over him. It was late. Jane went to bed early. At least she did at the Pole. She should go to bed now. In her trailer, where Erik was. If you're so worried about him, why are you going off and leaving him alone? You can't bear being apart from him already? And you, Thor, why are you entangling her in your life? You, who claim to care about this realm's inhabitants so much. What good do you think will come of it for her? Obviously nothing.

"I wouldn't trade it for anything."

The voice in his head was accusing. Quarrelsome, as Jane was wont to be. But Jane's imagined protestations were pure delusion. She valued scientific discovery – her scientific discovery – more than her safety and other similarly rational concepts. For all her vehement opposition to time travel on such firm moral ground, it had required almost no effort to talk her into going to Asgard's past and she'd actually insisted herself on going to Alfheim's past. With Thor, her greatest discovery thus far, she'd walked right into situations she knew were dangerous – had she really not seen that object arcing through the sky toward her like one of her realm's missiles? Did she think it was a coincidence? An oddly-behaved bird or airplane? Loki himself had not seen it, for the Destroyer hadn't been facing it, but Erik had called out to her and obviously had seen it, and thankfully had enough sense to pull her away, for left to her own devices she would have gotten herself electrocuted. She pursued space travel and lied about it to SHIELD even though they were paying her salary and the considerable expense of her polar adventure. She claimed to enjoy spending time with him – and apparently wasn't lying – him, who she'd at various times called a "mass murderer" and a "sick freak" and she really wasn't incorrect…but he, too, was a form of discovery for her. He corrected the inaccuracies found in Norse mythology and told her about Alfheim's dual suns and enabled her to be the first human to ever set foot on Asgard or Alfheim. She valued these things enough to conveniently forget or at least set aside who exactly was responsible for them.

Loki sat stewing several minutes more, but Thor and Jane had disappeared around the back of the building and had neither emerged on the other side nor returned to the trailer. There was nothing but desert beyond the building. He took a slow deep breath to steady himself and refocus his thoughts. He couldn't simply stand here all night hoping Thor would eventually walk in alone. But the thought that he might peer around the back of the building and spy Jane engaging in acts with him was rather revolting.

Instead, when he crouched low and took a careful look, he saw no one. No Jane. No him. No acts. There was a wide metal door that appeared to roll up to the ceiling when it opened, but it was closed and even had it been open there was no way they could have somehow snuck inside without him seeing them. His gaze traveled more carefully along the back of the building.

There was also a ladder.

/


/

The portal trembled and sparked from the lightning Thor directed at it. Fire Giants were spilling out of it, hundreds of them so far, already more than the group of Aesir who'd just arrived to oppose them. Thor's arm twitched as it held Mjolnir thrust out toward the portal – the most effective thing he could do right now was limit the number of Giants who made it through, but he desperately wanted to throw his whole body into actually fighting them, instead of watching them pour through. It was working, though, as it did each time, just too slowly for Thor's liking. Another minute later, the silvery frames of the portal quivered more violently and then suddenly snapped shut, leaving behind the now-familiar evidence of the unfortunate warriors who'd been only partway through at the time.

He turned to the battle, perhaps a hundred feet away, and kicked off at a run, but stopped before he truly started when he caught sight of several Aesir frantically waving at him with one hand while still wielding their swords or other weapons with the other.

Those who saw him looking their way then pointed behind them. Behind them lay the city.

Thor looked that way, and his hearing, previously filled with the continuous crackling roar of electricity from Mjolnir, came rushing back. Two notes in quick succession from a ram's horn. Silence. With the first sound of a horn again, from the same location – well inside the city – he began swinging Mjolnir in a frenzied circle, and by the time of the second he already had sufficient momentum to throw out his arm and let Mjolnir launch him aloft.

The shield protecting the city – the city where food and weapons and other supplies were kept, where prisoners were held, where the healers toiled to try to save the critically wounded, where every child in Asgard was now housed – the shield had been breached. Eleven towers were down, at last report, but it should still not be enough to permit whole armies through. At least twice Heimdall had spotted portals being formed over the city, but they were very small and immediately guarded by sentries itching to defend the sacred ground of their home. The other realms had not even attempted to send anyone through them before they closed again.

At the wall he set to the ground at a run, eyes on the lone Einherjar at the gate. Gates were normally guarded by a minimum of four Einherjar, even in peace. More evidence of what he feared. And then it was confirmed – "Breach, Your Majesty! By the Shembli!" the Einherjar called as he opened the gate. Thor spared him a nod and barreled past, going aloft again as soon as he'd cleared the gate.

The Shembli was a residential tower with spacious apartments, many of which housed families with children. He doubted the building had been specifically targeted; their enemies had simply found one of the growing gaps in the shield after perhaps countless attempts that hadn't resulted in any successful portals at all, and had promptly sent through as many warriors as they could fit through. Once the area came into sight, he saw that in fact they were still sending them through, Dark Elves and Light Elves, incredibly. That made his task clear. He hit the ground hard, redirecting Mjolnir's power and calling lighting while still descending. The nearest elves immediately turned toward him, easily breaking off from the Aesir they outnumbered and who were still arriving.

Normally, when the enemy tried to attack him while he was trying to close a portal, he simply redirected Mjolnir to the ground for a few seconds, sending the attackers tumbling down and stunning them long enough to allow Aesir warriors to take care of them so that he could give his undivided attention to the portal. Now he stood on a small lawn, some ten feet from a residential tower. He would have to fight differently here. It was ugly, and nothing he had ever been taught, but when the group of about ten elves got close enough he swung Mjolnir around but kept the lightning erupting forth from it. Brief bursts of screams came from some of the elves, as all but two or three on the fringes of the attacking group jerked under the onslaught and dropped to the ground. They were so close to him that the smoke made his eyes water and the smell of burned flesh turned his stomach.

Those still standing hesitated – one was knocked down by a falling body – and the delay was enough for two Aesir to break away and finish them off. One of the Aesir, an Einherjar missing his helmet, nodded at Thor who had already directed Mjolnir back at the edge of the portal, and wiped a hand through the blood that was pouring from a gash on his forehead. His eyes were wide, almost wild. Thor nodded back and focused on the portal, but the image of the bloody Einherjar was burned into his mind. He didn't know the man's name and likely never would, but he also didn't think he'd ever forget him.

When the portal finally collapsed, reinforcements had arrived, including his dear friends Sif and the Warriors Three, Hergils, and even Tyr, who spent most of his time strategizing to aid the younger warriors rather than fighting himself, and the fighting was nearly over. The last few of the enemy who made it safely through the portal were cut down mercilessly if their weapons were raised, and swiftly taken prisoner if they were lowered and stayed that way. Thor started to take off to a pocket of swinging weapons but quickly realized there was no need. It was three Light Elves surrounded by eight Aesir and the only question was whether the elves would surrender or die.

Of his closest friends Volstagg was nearest and Thor wanted to embrace him, for he had not seen his friends nearly often enough during all this, but Volstagg nodded and saluted. It startled Thor, who eventually nodded back. The thought that Volstagg – and Fandral and Hogun and Sif – might believe their friendship had changed because he was king, and worse yet the thought that immediately followed that maybe it had changed, was something Thor had no time to worry about at the moment. Instead he approached Hergils and Tyr, as Volstagg was doing, and felt an unexpected sharp pang of missing Tony Stark's company. Tony didn't treat him differently because he was king. He was still calling him by those odd nicknames, the ones that Thor suspected were meant to make fun of him. I'll have to ask Jane-

Thor stopped. He'd begun having to tread carefully due to the bodies strewn on the ground, but he'd seen countless bodies since the war had begun, and it was not merely a dead body that had brought his thoughts and his steps to a halt. It was the body of a woman. An Aesir woman. Her hair, perhaps a shade lighter than Jane's, was pinned up and her face was clear but for a few spatters of blood; he did not know her. From what he could see, she was only lightly armored – a metal plate hung loosely over her chest and metal bracers covered her arms from wrist to elbow. Her legs were not visible, for she was partially covered by the body of a Dark Elf. Thor bent down and pressed his fingers to the pulse point on her neck. He could detect nothing. "I need a healer!" he called anyway.

A head popped up from among a thicker pile of bodies, blue markings on the woman's shoulders. He could see her eyes go wide when she saw him. "There's a woman here," he added so that the healer did not think it was her king who was injured. He could see her chest heave in what must have been a sigh of relief, and she stood up the rest of the way from where she had been checking the fallen and hurried in his direction. Tyr, Hergils, and Volstagg were now headed his way, too, with Hogun, Fandral, and Sif separately approaching as well.

"There were two sentries in the area," Tyr began while they were still closing the distance. "Neither survived. Four women from Shembli were designated as protectors for their building. That's one of them," he said, pointing toward where the healer now stood over the woman's body shaking her head. "Only one of the four survived. She's been taken to the Healing Room. They were overwhelmed. But they and the sentries kept the attackers occupied, kept them here, until more sentries arrived and then those fighting beyond the wall."

"They died heroes," Volstagg said; Sif nodded gravely. "Fighting against insurmountable odds."

As are we all, Thor thought. It was easier to stomach when it was trained warriors sacrificing for Asgard. Much less so when it was a woman, trained to defend herself and her home, but not to hold off what appeared to be, by the end, about a hundred fifty or two hundred total Svartalf and Ljosalf warriors.

"Our dead are about eighty," Hergils said, "most of them from the earlier part of the attack, when the enemy was arriving more quickly than our reinforcements. We've been fighting outside the wall for so long that we're spread dangerously thin. These losses are too high for such a minor battle. We-"

"Minor?" Thor echoed, temper flaring. "They made it inside the wall. Children live in that building behind us. Women died here."

"Yes. In many ways, not minor. But the enemy gained nothing from this. They took no territory and they destroyed no infrastructure other than a nicely trimmed lawn."

"They did gain something," Tyr said. "Asgardians are no longer safe anywhere in all of Asgard, and our people know it. Don't underestimate the mental aspects of war."

Hergils nodded, posture tense, but the First Einherjar was nearly as unflappable as Heimdall. "My point, Your Majesty, was not about the scope of the battle. It is that we were unprepared for it, even though we knew we were down twelve towers."

"Twelve? I thought eleven," Thor said. He'd been told that only a few hours ago. He glanced at Volstagg, whose mouth had fallen slightly ajar, as Fandral swore.

"We just lost a twelfth, around two hours ago," Tyr said.

"No one's going to want to hear this," Hergils prefaced, "but we need to pull back some of our warriors from beyond the wall to the city, so we can react more quickly and with greater numbers to future breaches."

Volstagg slammed the handle of his battle ax against his other palm, capturing everyone's reaction. "If we pull warriors back, we'll only lose more towers and allow greater numbers of the enemy to make it through ever larger portals inside the city. They attack the towers every chance they get. They know getting past the wall is the only real chance they have of…"

He didn't finish the sentence. He didn't need to. Everyone knew what he'd been about to say, but to actually say it, here amidst fallen heroes, was simply not done.

"I know," Hergils said, face so taut Thor almost thought his skin might spontaneously rip. "But if we don't, we will have this every time. They're taking out the towers anyway. By the time we get one back up, they've taken three more down. The gaps in the shield are going to grow regardless. Does anyone doubt that? The gaps will grow, their odds of finding one will grow, and when they find one, it will be larger, and they'll open a larger portal, and they'll send more warriors through, and we'll have a handful of Einherjar on sentry duty with a handful of women tossing aside a ladle for a sword to stand between them and their objective." He paused for a deep breath after wheezing out his last words in a rush. "Permit me to be more blunt. We will have more dead women."

For a long moment, nothing was heard but the occasional call from a healer or moan from a casualty, and the sound of an unseen woman crying at the entrance to the Shembli.

It was Fandral who finally spoke, as Thor tried to come to terms with the realization that he was no mere observer in this tense conversation; this decision was his and his alone. "Our Aesir women are beautiful, delicate flowers," his friend said with an air of wistfulness. "But they are also strong, courageous, loyal, and quite prepared to lop a man's head off if properly motivated."

"Do we still have excess weapons and armor?" Thor asked after a moment.

"We do," Hergils said. "We're careful to recover what we can from the fallen," he added, gaze flickering away for a moment. "Our stocks have dwindled without resupply of weaponry from either Nidavellir or Svartalfheim, but they have not been depleted."

"Then ensure that the women, as many of them as possible, are well-armed with weapons and armor. Encourage them to find ways to refresh their training. Tyr, Hergils…try to determine if even a small number of warriors could be pulled back, if they could make a difference for us here without costing us too much out there. Perhaps if we rethink their positioning within the city…"

The two exchanged a glance. "We'll consider it," Tyr said. "We'll report at this evening's Assembly."

"I'll attend," Thor said with a nod.

"We have warriors returning to battle before they're fully healed," Hogun said. "They could take sentry duty instead."

Thor nodded again, this time with a spark of renewed spirit. Hogun rarely offered suggestions, but when he did, they bordered on brilliance. "Yes. If there's no attack underway in the city, then they have the chance to more fully recover while on sentry duty, instead of returning to battle when they're less effective and more likely to be injured again, but in an emergency, they'll be able to fight at least until reinforcements arrive." Thor clapped his friend on the back and squeezed his shoulder, more grateful for the idea than he could put into words.

"We'll work it into the…"

Hergils fell silent and all eyes fell on Thor as the ground began to shake. He glanced down at Mjolnir, resting idly in his right hand. He looked back up at the others. "It wasn't me."

The smaller ram's horns that each of them had attached somewhere exploded with multiple voices at once, but from nowhere on Asgard did any trumpeting sound come from a signaling horn. There was no new attack, and no unexpected crisis in an ongoing attack.

The men exchanged confused glances.

Volstagg then looked out toward the shattered bifrost. "Yggdrasil's groaning?"

Thor looked out toward the bridge, too. He still didn't understand what that meant. As the shaking came to a stop, he could only reaffirm what he'd already concluded: it unquestionably couldn't be good.

/


/

Dawn was breaking, and though he could not say what it was, he knew that something was very wrong. Echoes of it flickered across his mind, a horrible screeching of something he could not identify. Metal scraping metal but somehow both more powerful and more insubstantial. Wind howling against wind. But more fundamental. Existence battling existence. He became aware of a pressure on his hand, just as real as the battle. Just as strong. He tried to squeeze back, and a few more rays of sunlight pierced the darkness.

/


Am I killing you with how drawn-out this is? Advice to writers: when you feel the urge to add Plot #34, pause, take a breath, and tell yourself, "33 plots is perfectly sufficient for one story." ;-)

Shoutout to "LingeringSentiments" for saving my tail tonight! I had a "dummy" line in for Loki's recollection of Jane telling him she didn't regret him being in her life (essentially), probably from one of those times I had no internet to find the actual line at the time. Then it came to final edit...and I couldn't find this place in the story anywhere and was afraid I'd imagined the whole thing! "LingeringSentiments" found exactly what I was looking for...and this is not the first time one of you has stepped in and found something I couldn't (though it's the first time it's happened like within an hour of me uploading the chapter!). Several of you have also offered advice for my technology issues recently. You all are the best readers - and co-journeyers - in the world.

Re technology: If you've been following my profile updates, you've heard me complain ad nauseum about the various power and internet problems that have been grinding this story to what feels like a halt some days. Fabulous news, I have a functioning UPS now and a lot of that (not the far-more-frequent-than-is-acceptable internet outages) is in the past. I'm hoping the update frequency will return to pre-move normal now. I'm so behind responding to PMs and reviews, this is due to the same problems and I'll be catching up now.

Guest (Apr. 6) - thanks!; "Matchgirl42" - thanks! And wasn't familiar with any of the songs, listening now, thanks for the recs! While writing I occasionally listen to the Thor or Thor 2 soundtracks, but if there are words I get distracted and sing along. ;-); "unseen" - several folks on here have said they'd like to read something I publish, SUCH a huge compliment, watch for notes at the end of this story, I'll come up with a way to let interested readers know if it happens; Guest #2 (Apr. 6) - You have fabulous theories, though I neither confirm nor deny any of them! Glad you liked Jane defending Loki. It was a small yet really important moment that snuck up on Jane. LOVE your passwords!; "Armand" - thanks!; "jaquelinelittle" - Jane was returning Maria's call, not calling because she wanted to. Loki finally thinks about how time travel works here, though far from thoroughly...and really, you think his plan will fail? Whatever for? ;-); Guest (Apr. 9) - Thanks, problem solved at last!; "MICHELLE" - Pathfinder in San Francisco might be bad!; "anon" (if you get here) - I'm surprised the length doesn't dissuade *everyone*!; Guest (ch. 47/48 but I'm guessing meant for 120) - Yeah, he avoids it like a 3-year-old (okay but with cause) but he does sleep occasionally, he hasn't gone 10 days without!

Previews from Ch. 122: Jane goes out; Thor goes in (to a really difficult meeting); Loki goes up.

Excerpt:

He climbed slowly, smoothly, lightly. The ladder was perfectly secure and made no noise as he ascended. Their voices reached him as he neared the top; they were talking softly, but he still had the hearing of an Aesir. Or of something that wasn't mortal.