Beneath
Chapter One Hundred Thirty-Seven – Barriers
"Jane Foster has been living here the last several months?" Frigga asked when they arrived on Midgard and it was nothing like the place she'd left hours earlier that day. If she hadn't just seen another part of it with her own eyes, she would've feared Midgard had been hit by another Ice Age – or an attack from Jotunheim that Heimdall had missed in his preoccupation with the attacks on Asgard. "I wouldn't think the Midgardians could survive in such a place." They stood in near darkness, close to what was probably the back of a small arched tented building, part of a row of other similar buildings, while in the opposite direction lay only ice.
"Yes," Thor said, looking down at Jane with a swell of pride that briefly overshadowed everything else he was feeling. "Only a few dozen of them live here during the winter. I don't know how they survive, but somehow they do. I don't understand, though," he said, the more urgent matter again taking precedence in his thoughts. "Where is Loki?"
"A fight took place here," Odin said, and the rest of their band – Frigga, Thor with Jane in his arms, and Eir – drew closer to him and to the damaged device and smaller bits of broken machinery and several gloves and a couple of snatches of cloth.
Thor surveyed it with a practiced eye. He'd seen enough mortal machinery to know the damage to these items was extensive. But there was no sign of any physical injury on Jane, unless it was hidden beneath her layers of clothing. "I don't think Jane was involved," he said. "But Heimdall sent us here for a reason. I'm going to check inside this building. Eir…will you take Jane? I want to make certain there's no danger."
"Yes, of course," Eir said, and Jane was passed from Thor's arms to hers.
"Stop," Odin commanded when Thor broke into a run as they walked down the longer side of the tent and overtook him and Frigga. Thor turned, Mjolnir in hand, clearly impatient. "I'm going in first. If Loki is in there, he will appear Jotun."
That gave Thor pause. He knew Loki was Jotun, but he'd never expected to see him look Jotun, and he didn't understand how or why Loki would look like a Frost Giant instead of like Loki. Ultimately, though, it didn't matter. "His appearance makes no difference. He will answer for what he's done either way." He started forward again, but felt Odin's hand clamp down on his arm.
"I am speaking as your father, Thor. As Loki's father. I am going in first, and if there is danger, I will contain it. Is that clear?"
"Yes, Father," Thor said reluctantly, falling into step behind him, alongside his mother. He was afraid for Jane, angry at Loki, and accustomed to battles and killing on a daily basis. Perhaps it would be better that he entered second, lest he lose control of himself and leave Loki unable to answer questions.
Through another row of long tents ahead of them, in the distance, was a long silver-gray building, austere in a way, built, Thor assumed, to withstand the severe winter here. And severe it was. Colder than Jotunheim, at least at the time and place they'd been on Jotunheim; it occurred to Thor that perhaps it wasn't always like that there, not everywhere, just as Midgard wasn't like this everywhere.
None of them were dressed for it, and it was rather uncomfortable, but they would be fine. Except for Jane… "Eir…it's too cold for her." He'd started to remove his cape, but it was Jane's hands and especially her bare head that really needed to be covered, and he didn't wish to smother her in the process.
"I'm warming her."
Thor nodded his appreciation, then peered into the distance again as he resumed his forward progress. The design of the large metal building was odd, something in the angle of it, though it was too far away to see in any detail – probably a special design for coping with all the ice and the drifting snow. Like his mother, he could hardly believe Jane was living here, and by choice.
They reached the next corner of the smaller tented building then and rounded it, to the narrower side that Thor now assumed to be the front, for there was the door, right in front of them. Behind that door, he was certain, he could almost feel it, was Loki. Control yourself. Stay calm, he ordered himself. "You're only as strong as your ability to control your strength," his father had told him on more than one occasion. He'd taken the words more as encouragement to display his strength than criticism that he did not always sufficiently control his strength or himself. Now he recognized that this had long been a weakness of his, but the epiphany was a recent one, after he'd provoked a war and returned home with injured friends and a brother who might never be the same. And even that hadn't really done it.
Odin opened the door slowly, then stood there in the doorway, seeking to delay Thor as long as possible. He was in a tiny vestibule, just a box of a space by the door where a short flimsy wall had been added to separate the entryway from whatever else this primitive structure contained. From where he stood, he could see only a small table and two chairs. And the inflamed wounded sole of a long narrow foot.
"Wait here," he turned and whispered to Thor, who held Mjolnir at the ready and was right on his heel. Thor gave what was clearly a reluctant nod; Odin stepped forward. As he approached, he saw that Loki looked essentially as he'd expected him to, with the addition of small bony growths on his head that he hadn't had as an infant. He hadn't expected to find him like this, though, on the floor, slumped over, breathing loudly and, it seemed, with great difficulty. He caught a whiff of blood over a few other odors in the tent – alcohol? – not the vaguely coppery scent of red blood, but the slightly sweet grassy smell of Jotun blood that he hadn't smelled since the Ice War. Another Jane Foster lay on the floor in the middle of the open area at the front of the tent, not far from Loki, but Odin rushed past her to Loki. Leaning Gungnir carefully against the rather insubstantial inward-sloping cloth "wall," he knelt down. When he put a hand to Loki's chest, over the same black overalls the mortal was wearing, he found it cold and wet. Blood. "Eir!" he shouted, putting a bare hand to Loki's chin and lifting his face. His eyes, as bright red as Laufey's, slowly opened, blinking heavily; Odin reached under his arms to lift him from the floor.
At Odin's call, Thor dashed forward, his mother and Eir still behind him, and into the hut-like building. His father was grappling with a Frost Giant; Thor instinctively drew Mjolnir back, ready to unleash it, though he could not get a clean hit with his Father so close to the small Giant. No sooner had he prepared to use his weapon, however, than he remembered Odin saying Loki would look like a Jotun, and then he realized that Odin was not fighting with the Jotun, but trying to maneuver him up and onto his feet. The Jotun – Loki, he knew as a fact though he could not quite grasp it – was staring at him with blood-red eyes. His mother pushed past him then, followed by Eir, and the eye contact was broken. Thor released a heavy breath and looked down, still reeling from the sight, and only then did he see Jane. On the floor. His head snapped up to Eir, who was talking to Odin. And who was holding…Jane.
"Loki," he said, voice tight. "What have you done to Jane? What's wrong with her? Why are there…two of her?" He wasn't sure anyone heard him. Everyone was hovering around Loki. He was the one who needed to talk to him. To demand answers from him. He nudged his mother aside and planted himself in front of the brother he did not recognize. "Tell me right now. What have you done to her?"
"Thor, get out of the way," Odin said.
Thor stood there, a wall blocking their passage, and Odin began to guide Loki – mostly dragging him, really – around him.
"He's badly hurt, Thor," Frigga said. "Let us get him to the bed."
Hurt? He scanned the Jotun body in the Midgardian clothing as it was carried past him. His eyes fell on the damp stain on the chest, an outline on the black, a dark purplish color creeping underneath it up to the green tunic. Blood? But there was no sign of any other damage to the clothing, no tears or holes. He watched them settle him on the bed, watched the overalls be unhooked, the green tunic, thicker than a tunic, soaked with Jotun blood, pulled upward. He knew what he would see a second before he saw it. A penetrating wound with no indication that any weapon had penetrated his clothing. A stab wound, he saw. Which meant Loki had stabbed someone. His eyes immediately sought out Jane, the Jane in Eir's arms, with clothing that could not be removed. But there had been no blood, either. Even through the greater layers she clearly wore, he was certain he would have seen some sign of it had she been bleeding so copiously. He went to the other Jane, the Jane lying just a few steps away from him on the floor. She was breathing, her heart beating, and there was no sign of blood.
"Thor, take her," he heard Eir say, and when he turned Jane was already being transferred to his arms. "How do we find the other person?"
"Other person? The person he stabbed?" Thor asked, but no one was listening to him. He'd missed whatever they'd said amongst themselves.
"Loki, listen to me," Odin said, hand again gripping Loki's jaw to try to keep him focused, although it was beginning to hurt. "Who did you stab, and where is he?"
"Stab," Loki repeated back, the "b" never materializing. He was looking up at Odin, so close, gaze so intense, and he couldn't bear it. He couldn't turn his head but his eyes drifted around – he saw Eir, Mother, Jane, in Thor's arms. "Jane."
Thor's arms tightened protectively around Jane and he thought immediately that it was a very good thing his hands were full. "You did not stab Jane. Unless…is this some other kind of magic? Did you stab her?" His arms tightened further and he had to force himself to relax his grip so as not to hurt her himself.
"No," Loki managed to get out on an exhale, the word barely recognizable except that it was definitely not yes. "She…drank…"
"Loki," Frigga said, leaning over him as Odin straightened up a little. "We know about that. Please don't worry about Jane. We'll take care of her. We need to take care of you now. But to do that, we have to find the other person. The person you stabbed. Where is he?"
Loki heard the words, but they flowed over him like smooth cool water, Mother's gentle voice. She wasn't angry; he'd thought she'd be angry. Even Father didn't seem angry. His gaze drifted back over to Jane. They would take care of her. Eir would heal her. He found Thor's eyes then, and they were angry. Like thunderstorms. You never had to wonder if Thor was angry; you knew with one glance. Mother and Father were inches from him; Thor kept his distance. There was more in his eyes than anger. He remembered then what he looked like. What he was. And he knew what that look was. Disgust. He tried to force a smile, a cruel smirk. "Brother," he tried to say, but his eyes rolled back before he got it all out.
"Loki," Odin said, squeezing his chin harder, but this time it got no response. Loki was still alive, still breathing – barely – but wouldn't rouse. Fear spiked in his heart. Why would you do this? After all this time! You tried to murder a mortal?! The last vestiges of magic being stripped from him, that he'd expected, had expected it much sooner, actually. This, though…
"Jane," Frigga said, giving Loki's arm one last squeeze and reluctantly standing up straight and turning away from him. "Jane probably knows."
"We don't even know what's wrong with her," Thor said, looking down yet again at her slack pale face, glad to be distracted from that disturbing expression on the face that was not Loki's calling him "brother" with a curled lip, and the shiver it had sent down his spine. An expression like that on Jotunheim, when he and Loki and his friends had gone there, would have earned Mjolnir wiping it off. But he'd stood there frozen as surely as if Loki had encased him in physical ice, unable to respond or even to think.
"I think I do," Frigga said, coming to Thor's side and stroking a hand down Jane's long tousled hair. "The enchantment on that gem is incredibly powerful. It had to be, to bring Loki from anywhere in the Nine to my side, which is what it was meant to do, in case of true need, for his protection. Jane obviously used it instead."
"Because she needed protection instead. To escape Loki," Thor said, casting an angry look Loki's way, then just as quickly averting his gaze. Somehow he'd still expected to see his Loki, the way Loki was supposed to look, even though he'd just been looking at a Jotun Loki seconds ago.
"No. To save Loki," Frigga corrected. It was obvious to her, but there was no time now to explain it to Thor. "But a mortal…I don't think a Midgardian would survive a journey made this way. It would have been difficult and dangerous even for Loki. So I included magic for protective measures in the tonic. They should have preserved Loki's body in the journey…but I think with Jane, they prevented her actual body from taking the journey in the first place. This Jane," she said, hand still on Jane's head, "is a projection, a false body meant to maintain her consciousness separated from her true body, but even that was apparently too much for her."
"So that is really Jane?" Thor asked, looking down to the identical Jane at his feet. He clung only to the basics of what his mother said, as such magic was entirely alien to him. It was what magic-users sometimes referred to as dark magic, he thought, more powerful but more volatile, best avoided except in dire circumstances. Like when his father sent him to Midgard to capture Loki when they had neither bifrost nor Tesseract. Like something else his mother had drawn on centuries ago, and to his knowledge had not done so since, not until now.
"Can it be that simple?" Odin was asking.
"I think so. I hope so," she added, mustering a weak smile before kneeling down over Jane's actual body.
"What? You know how to…to fix this?" Thor asked, glancing between his parents, wishing he'd inherited his mother's talent for magic.
"She still has the necklace," Frigga said, holding it up from where she'd pulled it out from under Jane's shirt, exactly where the other Jane's had been. She put it back there, then carefully arranged Jane's body from the position she'd been in when probably she'd fallen backwards, straightening her legs and arms, placing the arms down at her sides. She didn't think it was actually necessary, but it might make things easier. "Lay her down here, right on top of the other Jane. The real Jane. The gem will know its duplicate."
Thor nodded. He didn't understand any of this, but he trusted his mother. He got down to his knees, and with his mother helping him, he placed one Jane directly on top of the other, lining up arms over arms, and legs over legs as best he could, given the awkwardness of her chunky white boots.
"Let go now," Frigga whispered, nodding to Thor.
They waited no more than a couple of seconds before the Jane on top shimmered and seemed to lose cohesion. In sudden terror Thor reached for her, but Frigga grabbed his hands and held them hovering above the two Janes. The Jane on top sank downward, into the other, and then there was only one Jane. Thor sighed in relief. But she still wasn't moving.
"Jane? Jane, dear, wake up. You need to wake up now," Frigga said, letting go of Thor's hands and taking one of Jane's. "We need your help, Jane. Do you hear me? Loki needs your help. And so does someone else here. Jane?"
"She's stirring," Thor said, noticing with leaping heart a small movement of her lips.
Frigga nodded and continued talking to the woman, leaning over her to look straight into her eyes, brushing a strand of hair from her face. Suddenly her body jerked as she drew in a gasping breath and her eyes opened. Frigga pursed her lips and closed her own eyes for a moment to acknowledge her gratitude. "Hello there," she said a second later. "I believe we've met."
Still breathing heavily and feeling dizzy despite the fact that she was pretty certain she was lying down, it took a moment for Jane's eyes to focus. As soon as they did, they flew open wide in fear. "I didn't come here to hurt Loki," she said.
"I know," Frigga said with a smile. "I remember. We have a lot to talk about. But first…can you tell us what happened? Where is the person that Loki hurt?"
"Selby," Jane said, looking up at Frigga. "I made it. You have to hurry. He's in bad shape. He stabbed Selby. At the South Pole. Earth. Midgard."
"Yes, we know that part, Jane. We're already there. But there are many buildings. Where exactly is Selby?"
I didn't make it? I'm still at the Pole? You found us here? Jane wondered, head pounding. "Selby…he's in the main station. The building raised up on pillars. You go…go straight toward it, and you'll see stairs, lit up by the red lights. Destination Zulu. Go up two flights and go inside. Club Med…the Healing Room, you'll be facing it, just to the left. You'll see the sign. Nora, our doctor, she's doing surgery. I had a healing stone but I used it on Loki instead of-"
"Shhh, that's all right. You just rest now. We're going to heal Selby, and then we'll heal Loki. You did well, Jane Foster. You did very well." Frigga patted her hand, then laid it across her chest and let it go. "Eir, let's hurry. Thor, look after Jane. Odin…"
Odin looked up from where he sat on the bed behind Loki, propping him up, Loki's head lolling back on Odin's chest, Odin's hand over Loki's chest to keep pressure on the wound with the fresh cloth Eir had supplied, Loki's bare feet resting on the thin bundled-up silver crinkly blanket that had been at the other end of the bed.
"Very good, Your Majesty," Eir said from the edge of the entryway vestibule, where she'd already moved upon hearing where the other patient was located. "We'll be back as quickly as we can."
Frigga and Odin shared another look, then Frigga ran after Eir to the door.
/
/
Jane rolled her neck around – it was stiff and the back of her head hurt, too, she realized – and saw Thor.
"Are you all right?" he asked with a strained smile, wishing he could block out and forget everything and everyone else and just bask in her presence.
"Yeah," Jane said, though she wasn't all that confident in the answer. "How did you find us?"
"You found us, Jane. You were on Asgard. Well…sort of, I suppose."
"I was? I did make it?" Her eyes grew unfocused as more of what had happened came back to her. "I felt hands around my arms. Someone was grabbing me. But I couldn't see."
"It must have been the Einherjar. The guards at the door to my parents' chambers. They thought you were an intruder, there to launch an attack."
"I get that a lot lately," Jane said with a weak laugh.
"I find that hard to believe," Thor said with a more relaxed smile.
A little part of Jane melted on the inside. How she'd missed that smile! Those little crinkles around bright blue eyes. That spatter of blood on his cheek… "Are you okay?" she asked, remembering the war he was fighting.
"Much better now that I'm at your side and you're awake. And there's only one of you," he added to lighten the heavy surge of emotion.
"One…? Oh…I tripped over…myself. There was another me on the floor. Wait," she said, looking down around her. "I was right here. The other me."
Thor nodded. "I don't fully understand it, but it was caused by the magic you used. It separated your body from your mind. Mother said your body wouldn't have survived the journey to Asgard."
"Right," Jane said absently, thinking it over. It made her head hurt worse, and she thought maybe she'd think it over later instead. "Just another day at the office, huh?"
Thor merely smiled, enjoying the moment while it lasted. He saw the moment it ended, the moment worry overtook Jane's face.
"Where's Loki? Is he okay?"
He took a deep breath. "Did he hurt you?"
"What? No. No. He didn't-"
"I want to know exactly what happened here."
Jane pushed herself upright; Thor leaned forward to put a hand behind her back when the dizziness picked up again. "Who's that?" she asked. Thor had placed himself right in front of her, in between her and whoever had spoken.
"Can you stand?" Thor asked.
"Yeah, I think so. Just maybe, you know…don't go too far away."
"I'll be right beside you."
Jane nodded and Thor helped her up; as he did so, she finally saw Loki, probably unconscious, leaning against an older man. Jane was instantly certain who it was.
"Jane, this is my father Odin, king of…ah…"
"All-Father. Father of the king. And of Loki. Now tell me what happened to him."
/
/
"How bad is it?" Frigga finally asked as she and Eir neared the stairs Jane had directed them to.
"Bad. He's lost a great deal of blood, and he hasn't been getting enough air. The wound hasn't healed at all."
"Odin assured me this wouldn't happen. And I don't understand why it would happen now, either. It wasn't self-defense; he ensured there was an exception for that. How long has he been here, living among these Midgardians? Why would he do such a thing now?"
"I don't know, my queen," Eir said, starting up the stairs and gripping the small bag of supplies she'd brought with her, hung under her arm.
Of course Eir didn't know. No one knew. No one except Loki knew, and probably Jane, Frigga suspected. They did have a great deal to talk about. But it would have to wait. They made it up one flight of stairs, to a door, then the second flight of stairs, where there was another door. Frigga knocked. After a long ten seconds' wait, she opened the latch. "Be careful," she told Eir, pointing downward; there was a gap of two or three inches between the stairs, which felt a little unsteady, and the building. The door was heavy and thick but opened easily; behind it was a thick clear film of some sort. She pushed through it and saw no one in the little alcove they'd entered. They continued forward, entering a wide corridor, and just to their left stood a tall dark-haired, bearded man, leaning against the wall next to double doors, above which was a sign that read "Club Med." The man looked up at them as they approached.
"Good evening," Frigga said.
"Um, hi there. It's uhhh… it's actually afternoon."
"It is? Oh…of course. Is this where I can find Selby and the doctor Nora?"
The man hesitated, and Frigga grew anxious. She'd only asked out of politeness; she knew Selby was behind those doors. "Yyyyeah. Ummmm, you know, I'm pretty sure I'm not that drunk, really…who exactly are you and how did you get here?"
"My apologies, sir. Eir…?" Frigga said, turning to the First Healer and glancing pointedly at the doors. They were in a hurry, but they could not trample over these mortals in their haste; there was a bigger picture to think of, too, one they could not simply ignore.
Eir nodded and went through the doors.
"I am Frigga, queen of Asgard. The other woman with me is named Eir. We've come from Asgard, another realm far from this one, to aid my son Loki and another man here, Selby. Do you know them?"
"I, uh, yeah. Loki? You mean…aw, geez, Selby was right? I thought it was just some weird idea of a joke or else maybe he's even more tightly wound than I thought. Lucas is Loki? Sax man? Holy… And you're the lady who was on the radio today? In New York? We were just listening to it, what…a couple hours ago? Oh, wait…I asked Jane about that bump on her head, the concussion…she said Lucas didn't do it. I was pretty sure she was telling the truth…. Oh, dear God, I volunteered to take on Loki." The man leaned back against the wall again. "I must have passed out, and this has got to be the world's most bizarre dream, or a hallucination or something. I think I need another drink or three."
"Loki has been going by another name here?" Frigga asked, cringing at the mention of an injury to Jane and hoping that she had indeed been telling the truth.
"Yeah, Lucas. Lucas Cane. He's been working with Jane, and with me and Selby and Carlo and Austin. Since before the station closed. And he's been just a normal guy. I don't know…maybe you've got it wrong. You came to the wrong place, you must have. Lucas is just a guy, a little weird sometimes, but I mean, maybe no more than anybody else here really. He kicks our butts at darts. And he's in the band, sort of. He wouldn't play with us today…"
"The band? A musical band?" Frigga asked, intrigued and more than a little surprised.
"Yeah, but…if he's really Loki, that guy who led the attack against New York…we have to call…who do we call down here? Nobody can make it here until the season ends…except for you I guess," he said with a crooked smile. "I don't want to call that Gullvine guy, he gives me the creeps. I don't like him."
"Please don't call him, or anyone else," Frigga cut in immediately. The man was alert but definitely inebriated, hopefully not so much that he wouldn't be able to listen to her and remain calm. "I swear to you that you are in no danger from Loki. And I really hope to talk with you further about him, later. Right now I need to make sure that Eir is able to heal Selby. She's a doctor. Please, I beg of you, in the meantime, please don't tell anyone else what I've told you. I don't want to needlessly frighten anyone, and for my son's safety, it's best if his presence here remains a secret from the outside world. He's been safe here, and I'd like it to stay that way."
"Okay. For now. I don't think I could tell this story right if I tried, anyway. They wouldn't believe me any more than they did Selby. And right now I'm just worried about him, so if your doctor can help…"
"She can. Thank you, Mr…?"
"Wright. Cyrus Wright. Call me Wright."
"Thank you, Wright. Truly. And we will speak further later."
"Okay, sure. Yeah. I'll be here. You know, because I can't leave and all."
Frigga smiled and nodded. She remembered then that Thor had told her after his visit to Jane to warn her of Loki's return to Midgard that Jane was going to a place where she could not be reached, a place apparently cut off from the rest of the realm for much of the year. Little wonder then that Wright had been stymied by her and Eir's arrival.
She stepped into Club Med, hoping things were going well inside as she realized Eir would be facing the same reaction from the Midgardian healer. Just as she reached out to push open the door she heard shouting from inside and feared Eir was getting a considerably worse reaction. Once it was open, she gasped in alarm. Two men hovered right next to Eir, one with a small knife in his hand, and blood dripped down Eir's arm to the floor.
/
/
"Uhhh, hi," Jane said, wary of the situation and for some weird reason – in addition to the fact that he was helping to keep her steadied – grateful for Thor's arm firmly around her shoulder. She wasn't sure what, if anything, Loki would want her to say to his father, especially since help had already arrived. "How's Loki?" she asked.
Odin took his time responding. Quite a stubborn mortal, he thought. And hardly intimidated at all in the presence of kings. She had known Thor, but as neither king nor prince. He suspected it was Loki who had inured her to that fear. "Alive. Very weak. He has suffered a mortal's injury, and I would like to know why."
"I think…that should be up to Loki."
Odin's jaw tightened. Has she picked up the refusal to answer a direct question from Loki, too? "He isn't talking right now."
"But you're able to heal him, right? Right?"
He moved his arm over Loki's. "Yes." He would entertain no other answer. "Eir will heal him as soon as she returns."
"Jane," Thor said, tearing his eyes away from Loki, torn between staring and avoiding, "how did he get here? You said he wouldn't be able to follow you."
"I didn't think he would be," Jane answered, grateful for the distraction from Odin's heavy gaze. She wasn't sure what to think of him, or how to deal with him, after the things Loki had told her, and she was afraid for Loki, but she'd done everything she could, and now it was out of her hands. "I was on one of the last flights here before the station closed for winter. You've seen what it's like out there, haven't you? Airplanes and other vehicles can't get here during winter, and winter's about nine months long. But he…he pretended to be someone else, and I believed him. And he still had access to some internet tools through SHIELD, and he got himself added onto the roster of the scientists here, and…to make a long story short, I thought he was my assistant, Lucas Cane."
"He was here with you the entire time? So when I spoke with you, from Tony's home, you-"
"I still didn't know it was him then."
Thor raised his eyes back to Loki, and looking like that it was easy to let anger bordering on hatred well up inside him. "If he ever tried to hurt you I swear I'll-"
"He didn't," Jane quickly interrupted. "He didn't," she repeated, wrapping a hand around his arm, as much of it as she could, anyway.
After a few deep breaths Thor felt calmer, though his emotions were in turmoil. Loki was badly injured…but his injury was the result of meting out the same injury to a mortal. Loki was unconscious, helpless…but he'd tracked Jane here and his intentions could not have been honorable and Thor was furious at him for it. Loki was his brother…but he looked like them. "Then why did he come here? I knew he wanted to follow you. I found out later. Tony Stark found the man who let him into his home in some town in Canada. He said Loki wanted to see his brother's family in Tromso. I thought he would want to use you against me, to gain some advantage over me. But I thought he hadn't been able to reach you. So what did he want? Why did he follow you?"
"He's never really told me, exactly. But I think maybe, in the beginning, it was something like what you thought."
"In the beginning?"
"Yeah. And then, over time, after I found out who he really was-"
"When? When did you find out?"
"Um, it was…March thirty-first. Over two months ago."
"Two months," he repeated, stunned. "Jane…why didn't you tell anyone? I suppose Heimdall couldn't hear you, but you could have contacted Tony. And you spoke with Jolgeir and Geirmund. Why didn't… Did he threaten you? He forced you to remain silent?"
"No. Well…okay, maybe, in the beginning. But it was a mutual threat. I mean, he couldn't really hurt me, right? Not without…you know," she said, glancing at Loki, lying disturbingly still against Odin, "hurting himself. And if he did anything he wasn't supposed to, I could call Tony. But I didn't want to have to do that, because I didn't want them having some giant battle here and our people and our buildings paying for it. So…I guess you could say we set some ground rules."
"And he respected them? Your rules?"
"Yeah, he did. Well, mostly," Jane said with a strained laugh.
"You keep saying 'in the beginning.'"
Jane nodded. "Things changed, over time. We got to know each other. We became friends."
Thor stared and blinked, those words sounding too farcical, too fantastical, to be true. "He pursued you in malice. I have seen him in malice. I know the coldness and cruelty he dispenses in that state. And you became friends? Surely you jest. You came to…to tolerate his presence, perhaps?"
"I've seen that, too, the coldness and cruelty. It's a front, or a mask or something. He uses it to push people away."
"And he's successful. It's not just a mask, Jane. He can be those things. He has been mostly those things since…" He looked toward Loki again, Loki who he wouldn't have recognized had he passed him on the street. Not that such circumstances – an Aesir passing a Jotun on a street – were even possible. He turned his eyes back to Jane. Her eyes were the same shade of brown as always, but still… "Perhaps he has somehow" – Thor paused, searching for the right words to use, to not offend or insult Jane – "confused you?"
"Confused me? You mean like Stockholm Syndrome or something? No. My eyes are wide open. And okay, maybe sometimes it's not a mask, not always. But sometimes it is. And we did become friends. It's a long story," Jane said, giving another short laugh. "It didn't happen overnight. I guess I realized eventually that there was a good person inside him, though he seems to try to keep that person hidden a lot of the time. And I realized that a lot of his anger, and his temper and the mean things he says sometimes, it's something he holds on to, like a mask, to hide a lot of serious emotions. A lot of pain. He hides a lot of stuff. But if you can get beneath all that…he's a pretty good guy," Jane said with a shrug. She wished she could think of exactly what to say to Thor, to convince him not to be mad at Loki, to help him understand, but from his perspective, she knew, it didn't look good. And if she told him the whole story, it might not improve matters. After all, it was just yesterday that Loki had set out to kill him. Changing his mind, entirely of his own accord, spoke well of him, Jane thought, but she wasn't certain Thor would see it that way.
"Truly?" Thor asked after a moment. "You've seen that in him?" It was what he'd hoped, what he'd wanted so badly to believe even as Loki disappointed him and betrayed him at every turn. But even now, hearing it from Jane, he wasn't quite able to accept it. She'd been here with Loki for a long time, and Thor knew all too well how skilled Loki was at lying and manipulating.
"Yeah," Jane breathed.
"He's changed?"
Jane turned toward the voice, toward Thor's and Loki's father, and took a few steps toward them, feeling much steadier on her feet now. "I don't know if I'd say 'changed,' exactly. I mean, I guess so, yeah. Yeah, he has, from when I first met him. Definitely his attitude toward us, Midgardians I mean, has changed. But…I asked myself a lot of times, 'Who's the real Loki?' And it's like I said, I think a lot of who he is has just been hidden."
"'The real Loki,'" Thor repeated, eyes fixed on Loki. Has anyone ever known the real Loki? His thoughts jumped to the past, the distant past, the carefree days of their youth, untainted by everything that would follow, untainted by the reality of Loki's birth. That was the real Loki…wasn't it? The nostalgia, for a moment, was overwhelming. "Did he…talk to you?"
Jane turned back to Thor in surprise. "Uh, yeah. A lot, actually."
"About what?"
"Thor, did you hear her say it was a long story? You are needed on Asgard."
He let out a frustrated breath. He was needed on Asgard. He'd meant to stay only long enough to see Jane well. Jane was well, if still rather pale, probably, he realized now, simply from the lack of sunshine here. But to leave now, with so much unsettled, with Loki's life still in danger, with Jane down here with him… "You'll take care of Jane?"
"I don't need taking care of. I'm fine."
"Yes. One of us will," Odin said, ignoring the mortal. Until he knew what had happened here, he wouldn't trust what she thought she did or didn't need.
"All right, I'll return to Asgard now. Jane, I'll come back as soon as I can get away again."
"Don't say that," she replied with a crooked smile. "Bad memories."
"I'm sor-"
"Don't come back unless there's a lull in the fighting. You are needed there, Thor. And you are not needed here. Even if there's a lull, don't come back until you can look at him as your brother," he added, speaking more softly, though Loki hadn't stirred in some time and Odin didn't think he would again, not unless or until Eir returned having healed the injured mortal.
Thor stood where he was, unmoving, dazed. The words stung. Because they were true. No matter his musings on the inappropriacy of the Aesir ignorance of and prejudice toward the Frost Giants, no matter his pondering of his own instinctive hatred of them and his rejection of that as an acceptable attitude…those were just ideas, abstract concepts, but the reality of this, Loki being not just in theory or imagination a Jotun, but in truth, right before his eyes, blue flesh and blue blood…this had never seemed quite so real as it did right now.
"Why does he look like that?" Jane asked, watching Thor stare at Loki. Something was going on. She was used to being the one that knew what was going on, here at the Pole anyway. But there was something now, something between Thor and Odin, that she knew she wasn't a part of.
"That, too, is for Loki to tell," Odin said. Obviously Loki hadn't told her as much as she thought.
Thor nodded. "Jane, I am sorry, and I will return. Heimdall can see you now; if you have any trouble, you can call to him." He looked at Loki for a moment, thoughts and emotions still in a jumble, then met his father's eyes. "I will return," he repeated. He took Jane's hand, smiled, brought it to his lips. Her smile was muted, but still it warmed his heart in this frozen land of uncertainty and fear.
Jane watched him go, and even before he disappeared out the door of the jamesway she grew more aware than ever of Odin's eyes on her. She took a deep breath – and tried to hide it – then turned back around. Where are you, Eir? Loki needs you, and I'd really rather not be alone here. "So…. You're Thor's and Loki's dad. I'm sorry for the circumstances, but it's nice to meet you."
"You took a big risk in coming to Asgard the way you did."
Okay. I guess now's not really the time for polite small talk, anyway. The waiting was terrible, now that it was just her and Odin; she was much more acutely aware of every passing second, and just how still Loki was, and the grayish pallor his skin was taking on. "He would have done the same for me," she said with an awkward little shrug.
"You're certain of that?" Odin asked, watching her carefully.
Jane tried the staring match with him for a moment, but Odin obviously had a lot more experience at it than her…millennia more, probably. "Yeah. I'm certain of that. You don't believe me?"
"I believe that you believe it."
Jane frowned and looked away, feeling distinctly uncomfortable. Does he think Loki's not even capable of doing something good? Or caring about someone?
"I would like to believe that it's true," Odin added. "But I will judge for myself."
"Okay," Jane said, slowly turning back to face him again. "I can understand that. You don't know me, and I guess you haven't seen Loki for a while."
"The last words he spoke directly to me, were a thinly veiled threat against you."
"Oh," she responded after a few seconds, aiming for nonchalance. Much as she trusted Loki now, at least when it came to their friendship and her safety with him, it was still creepy to be reminded in such blunt terms that he'd first entered her life as some kind of intergalactic stalker who'd planned to do more than just look. She watched as his eyes darted to the entryway and back and the lines in his face deepened with a frown. Her heart softened toward him, just a little. He might act gruff and harsh – he might be gruff and harsh – but he was worried about his son, like any other father. "I'm sure she'll be back soon," she said, in something of a peace offering. Please be back soon.
/
Kudos to you if you caught the vague homage to Stargate: SG-1 in here...
I thought about naming this chapter "In Medias Res," a cheat because it's not a noun. It's a Latin phrase used to mean basically "in the middle of the action," and a phrase I learned from a fellow writer on here. I liked it for this chapter, because from the Asgardians' perspective this is very much "in medias res." For Jane, too, she's getting the sense that there's stuff going on she doesn't know about, things said that are understood by everyone but her, so she's sort of thrown in "in medias res" in the sense of being thrown into the middle of this family.
I threw out a question on my profile page at one point, who would you most want to see locked in a room together? No one wished for Jane and Odin...and trust me, neither of them wished for it either!
As for the previous chapter, to be honest I thought people would find it boring! So it was rather a shock (a good one of course!) to see that many of you really liked it. If I do the extra-chapter-delay thing BTW, I think it will start after the next chapter, I don't think it will be necessary for the next one.
Tiny excerpt from Ch. 138:
"How many times have you been to Asgard?"
"I don't know. Does that last one count?"
