.-.
Beneath
Chapter One Hundred Fifty-Seven – Reentry
In the jamesway, it was quiet and still. For a while, Jane just sat there, alternately tracing stars across Asgard's sky in her corrected sketch and staring at nothing with unfocused eyes.
Loki was gone. And this time there was no Pathfinder to bring him back, spitting mad or parading about nonchalantly with a broken sword sticking out of his back.
Loki was gone, and with him, Thor, Odin, Frigga, Eir, Tony. It was just her and the rest of the regular Polies, the ones who were always supposed to be here, the ones who probably weren't very fond of her at the moment. She was down her best piece of equipment, and the best research assistant she'd ever had. No offense, Darcy, she thought, though she was pretty sure Darcy wouldn't take offense. Well, at least not until she provided the name of her best research assistant ever.
Jane found herself eyeing the mattress Loki had occupied. That one wouldn't do – she couldn't see from where she sat at the table, but it probably had blood stains from two different alien species. There were, however, another dozen or so beds in the tent to choose from.
She rolled her eyes at herself. It wouldn't be easy, but she could handle whatever anyone here threw her way. She'd handled way worse, and besides, she'd started learning an Asgardian ten-year-old's level of self-defense. But that didn't mean she was looking forward to it, she thought as her eyes fell on the various piles of Loki's junk that remained out here. She thought perhaps she should get a storage bin – or ten – and box it all up for him, rather than have anyone else stumble across their private workplace and start poking around his things. Pathfinder, too, need to be boxed up, its remains carted off to the various appropriate disposal bins.
She'd have to find the boxes; there were a few in the Science Lab, and there had to be more elsewhere. Sue would probably know where. If Sue – who'd helped her get her two-step stool, who'd told her what she needed to know to guide an airplane and helped her find the materials for the lightsabers she'd used, and who'd made paper mache penguins with her for Loki's birthday party – would even talk to her now. She'd sounded angry before, in the galley.
It could wait, though. People might wander out here later, but right now, they were probably too busy to even think about it. And, Jane knew, she should be in there right alongside them, helping clean up, helping plan and carry out the testing and recalibrating of the various scientific equipment. She was a member of this team, and if they wouldn't accept her as such, then she would help anyway. She was used to not being accepted. She could handle that, too.
/
/
Loki woke feeling relaxed, then jerked up in a moment of panic.
"Nothing happened. Be calm," Eir said.
He took a few seconds, rubbing his eyes and rolling his neck, then stood. "You got what you needed?"
"Yes. I'll work on this in the Imaging Chamber. I'm sure Bragi's arrived by now; you can use my office. You were resisting the sleep stages, so it took a little longer than expected. Closer to half an hour. Drink," she said, handing him a glass of water. "Are you feeling all right?"
"Fine," he answered, then took a drink. He was thirsty, it turned out, and he downed the glass before Eir made it out the door. Dry South Pole air, he thought, though he knew it probably had more to do with the paces Eir had just put him through in his sleep, or perhaps from nearly exsanguinating the day before.
Outside, Thor stood waiting with Bragi; Loki signaled them in and quickly sized them up. Bragi looked a little tense, doubtless unhappy at being summoned here by Loki, while Thor was visibly on edge, hands fidgeting at his side.
"What happened?" Loki asked.
"The Gjallarhorn sounded while we were waiting. The attacks have resumed," Thor said, looking Loki over as best he could. The scar, if it was still there, was hidden. As they were walking to the Healing Room, Thor had noted how much paler Loki looked than normal, a result of living without sunlight for several months he knew, but as soon as their destination became clear Thor had wondered if the paleness might also stem from blood loss. His coloring, though, was unchanged from before Loki had seen Eir. In fact nothing about Loki looked any different than it had before, other than a slight rumpling of the hair at the back of his head.
Loki pivoted to step over to Eir's desk, and to hide his reaction. He had lived as an Aesir for far too long to be unbothered by the fact that the Gjallarhorn had sounded and he had slept right through it. He forced his expression to relax to neutral and turned again. "And this is the first time you haven't taken straight to the skies upon learning of a battle, is it?"
"Not the first, no," Thor said, not certain of Loki's point. He wondered if Loki for some reason thought that his instincts shouldn't tell him to go fight at the call of the Gjallarhorn. "Gullveig made another of his little speeches. How we've had a taste of peace and we could make it permanent with only a few small concessions. He's projecting his voice across the battlefield," Thor explained to Loki. He hadn't heard this message himself, but it had been conveyed to him and Bragi moments before Eir emerged. "I would like to strangle the voice right out of him." He paused, exhaled loudly, and turned to Bragi. "As we discussed, Bragi, Loki has some questions for you about the war."
"Yes," Loki said, trying to forget about the unanswered Gjallarhorn. He pushed Eir's half-eaten lunch aside and hauled himself up on her desk. "Tell me, Bragi, what is the function of a diplomatic advisor in wartime?"
"To advise on matters of concern among the realms. On the expected and observed political effects of actions taken, with regard to the realms' leaders and publics. Diplomacy is not only for peacetime, my prince."
"I see. But you have exhausted all diplomatic means, have you not?"
"I…I am not sure that I would say that."
"So you believe that you may still convince the other realms to capitulate of their own accord?"
Bragi glanced at Thor. "Not by purely diplomatic means, no."
"You refer to the decidedly non-diplomatic intent to try to capture Gullveig while simultaneously provoking a revolt against him and his war, thus somehow resulting in the other realms all backing down?"
"Yes," Bragi ground out, expression hardening. "Not just somehow. We have plans."
"Incredibly optimistic ones," Loki said, his voice communicating what he thought of them. His mother had outlined the basics. The idea was creative, but Loki thought it screamed desperation. And failure. "Have you considered something blunter?"
"Such as?" Bragi asked.
"Well, I realize the bifrost is no longer an option, thanks to His Majesty here, but we have several weapons in the Vault that could devastate any of the other realms. Why haven't you used any of those?"
Bragi's jaw dropped, but Thor spoke up. This was getting out of control. "Because we don't destroy other realms. We don't slaughter indiscriminately."
"Why not? They're trying to starve you, aren't they? Isn't that indiscriminate killing? Will you let them knock down towers until they can breach the wall at will and turn the city to rubble?"
"That is not battle, Loki. You ask us to destroy entire populations to avoid our own deaths?" It was insulting, but Thor's temper was firmly in check. Heated discussions were nothing new in the course of this war.
"I'm not asking you to do anything. I'm trying to make a point, one which you don't appear to be getting."
"I do," Bragi said. "I think. You're saying we should make sure the other realms know that we're above such acts. That even though we have the means to destroy them to save ourselves, we will not. That we are not the unstable aggressor their leaders have made us out to be, when we do not use these relics against them even in our own defense. This is not a new idea, Loki. We've been trying that from the beginning. We have…can we speak openly here?"
"We can," Loki confirmed.
"We have loyal Asgardian citizens on most of the other realms, spreading doubt and dissent wherever they can, conveying the shameful tactics of Gullveig in particular, and Asgard's restraint in not responding in kind. These efforts have resulted in protests against the war and growing unrest on several realms, most significantly on Vanaheim. And-"
"And this unrest has had precisely what impact on the war?"
Thor's hand shot out toward Bragi before the other man could respond. "It hasn't ended it. But it has helped us hold out this long despite an onslaught of overwhelming numbers. Do not defame these efforts, Loki. Those undertaking them face great risk. One of our citizens died on Svartalfheim trying to spread our message."
Loki narrowed his eyes and tried not to react to the sudden chill he felt. "The one who saw me there?"
"What? No. He returned safely. A woman died. Half-Aesir, half-Svartalf. We told each of those on Svartalfheim to come home after you were spotted there and Dantral Ferison was compromised, but Jormik insisted on staying. She thought she could pass as fully Svartalf."
Loki's moment of relief swerved straight back into guilt and anger. He hadn't directly caused that woman's death, but he'd unintentionally initiated a chain of events that probably indirectly contributed to it. After all, you couldn't fault an Aesir for bravery crossing the line into stupidity. Fantastic, he thought in dark glibness. "It was not my intent to defame anyone. But build on those efforts. On her efforts. Do more. She and the others have prepared the ground. So you haven't attempted to destroy them. You haven't even attacked them at all. That's abstract. Make it more concrete. Gullveig likes public addresses? How ostentatious. Make your own. Tell them what an underhanded coward Gullveig is."
"We intend to," Bragi said. "We're going to raid the palace and capture Gullveig, without harming him, and then project a message detailing Gullveig's misdeeds. We've even had a few of his warriors agree to make statements about Gullveig forcing them to break their oaths not to return to the fight."
"It was Maeva's idea, to make a public address."
Of course it was Maeva's idea, Loki thought bitterly. Still stealing my ideas and trying to upstage me. It wasn't so much Maeva he was irritated at, though – although they were not friends, passions of both love and hatred had cooled a long time ago. It was himself, because he was getting nowhere, but he couldn't admit that he was getting nowhere, or give any hint of how frantically he was searching for a good idea. "Why only on Vanaheim, and so I presume, only in the capital? Do it on every realm, in as many places as you can. Why limit yourselves?"
Thor looked to Bragi, who appeared lost in thought. "Can we?"
Bragi hesitated. "I don't know. I'm not sure how the announcement will be made. It must rely on active magic…I'm not aware of any pre-existing ability to do such a thing. I will ask Maeva whether we are able to broadcast a message across multiple sites on multiple realms."
"Do that," Thor promptly said. "As soon as we're done here. And tell her to work with anyone necessary to make it possible, engineers, other magic-users, anything she needs."
"She'll like that; it will massage her ego nicely," Loki said acerbically.
"You two always did have so much in common," Thor responded with a wry smile.
Loki sighed heavily. "Who's been working on Nadrith?"
"I have," Thor said, defensive hackles rising already, though he tried not to give in to the reaction. "I haven't gotten as much from him as I'd hoped, though. He's confident of his position, of the outcome of all this. He refuses to see reason, and says the same of me. He didn't know about the-" He paused and glanced at Bragi. "The earthquakes."
"I see." Loki held back the strong urge to roll his eyes. Give it a week, he thought. All Nine Realms will know about Asgard's best-kept secret of Glodir wrecking the realm over a woman who wasn't interested. He swallowed, settled himself. Bragi gave no indication that he had questions. "That's all you've learned? I was under the impression he'd been here a while."
"It was important at the time, Loki. We thought the heavy use of the talismans opening all those portals might be causing it, and we thought it might be intentional."
Loki filed that away; it could be useful. "Mother said that Nadrith wants to be the next All-Father."
Thor laughed darkly at that. "The next All-Father," he scoffed. "Not while I draw breath. I tried to sway him from his alliance with Vanaheim by pointing out Gullveig's less-than-honorable actions – the explosion inside the palace, what was done to Vigdis, forcing men to return to fight after they'd sworn oaths not to – did Mother tell you about that?" He continued with Loki's nod. "Arrests of those who opposed the war, too…including Gilla. She was placed under house arrest, though as far as we're aware she never even spoke out. Nadrith was unaware of much of this, and I think he was unhappy to hear about Gilla. Do you recall that they were once involved?"
Loki nodded impatiently, though this, too, he filed away. He hadn't remembered, actually, until Thor mentioned it. Their "involvement" had never been more than a brief infatuation, as far as he was aware.
"But otherwise, it doesn't bother Nadrith at all how Gullveig has conducted himself. He's taken care to ensure that his own actions appear noble and just by comparison, so that after the victory he's certain is coming his way, the other realms will look not to Vanaheim but to Alfheim for leadership. He tried to cast himself as their lead negotiator, even before the war started. And in captivity here on Asgard, he was eager to find a way to amend the terms of surrender to make them more palatable to me, as though it were all up to him alone, rather than an alliance of multiple realms and rulers. I think he wants to not only regain whatever influence his father lost after the concessions Alfheim made to Svartalfheim, but to far surpass it."
"And his attitude toward Svartalfheim?"
"He has been gracious toward them, officially. But I believe that personally, he still holds them in distaste."
"Hm," Loki murmured, thoughts drifting. He wondered what Niskit and her band of conspirators would think of all this. Ultimately, it would probably depend on whether Nadrith planned to extend benevolent friendship and equanimity toward Svartalfheim after taking his place in Yggdrasil's crown, or to force them into some degree of subservience, perhaps even exacting revenge for centuries-old grievances. If the latter, Niskit would certainly regret her attempt to assassinate him ninety years ago. Unless, of course, it was attempted assassination that had helped push Nadrith to where he stood today. After all, Loki had not known about the incident, but Nadrith surely had. And if he'd not known about one, perhaps there had even been others. Something else to file away. "Is that all?"
"Yes, I believe so."
"There is the amulet, Your Majesty," Bragi put in.
Thor nodded. "That's right. Nadrith was trying to use it when I subdued him. It sends a signal to the one with the corresponding talisman to open a return portal. And of course we also have the gemstone that was under Vigdis's bed."
"Well, thank goodness someone remembered to mention these little details to me," Loki said, letting his gaze drift slowly but deliberately from Bragi to Thor.
"Loki, much has happened these last months. It's difficult to remember everything that you don't know. I'm doing my best."
"We all are," Bragi said soberly.
Loki frowned. Bragi had taken exceptionally well to the transition from warrior to diplomatic advisor, and of course by now he had centuries of experience as the latter. He heard the admonishment in the older man's voice despite the fact that the words themselves and even the expression on his face were entirely innocuous.
"What else, Loki?" Thor prompted.
What else? Loki asked himself. Finding the right questions wasn't easy; Loki didn't know what he didn't know. It would never have occurred to him to ask whether, by any chance, Nadrith might happen to have a device that could be used to trigger the opening of a portal. And apparently it wouldn't have occurred to Thor to tell him. "Who's leading Alfheim?"
"Mostly Halith. In some matters, Saltra."
Nadrith's younger brother then, and their younger sister. Loki knew them both reasonably well, but neither as well as he knew Nadrith. "Is there any division among them?"
"None to our knowledge," Bragi answered. "We had hoped there would be, of course, but it seems that they both fully support Nadrith and still consider him king. We've had no success swaying them from their loyalty. We've barely even had any success communicating with them. The most contact we've had was over the second prisoner furlough."
"That was when the Ljosalf prisoners made their stand for Nadrith, and he gave his little 'I'm better than Gullveig' speech?"
"That's correct," Bragi said.
Loki closed his eyes and tried to forget that Bragi and Thor were there as he thought through his problem and what else he'd learned about it. As complex as it was, no matter which angle he tried to examine it from, the center of it was always the same. The same as it had been since his mother first mentioned it.
When he came to the conclusion that further consideration wasn't going to change that, he opened his eyes to two men watching him intently. "That is all, Bragi. You may go."
Bragi looked to Thor, who nodded. "Thank you, Bragi." He continued once he and Loki were alone. "What now, Loki? Do you have more questions? Or do you want to get your rest now?"
"No more questions come to mind at the moment. And rest can wait a bit longer." It would have to anyway, since Eir still had to figure out how to prevent The Other from slipping into his sleeping mind. "I think now is a good time to have a few words with Nadrith."
/
/
Jane pushed through the heavy plastic just inside the Destination Zulu door and stood there. She hadn't consciously thought about it, but she realized now that she'd been expecting people to be waiting for her. Ready to pounce. She briefly allowed herself to indulge in a fantasy in which everyone here was totally cool with Loki having lived here in secret, and her having helped him do it. After all, he'd led the effort to put the station back together, and helped made sure everyone evacuated safely. That totally outweighed four months of lying, and a violent attack on Manhattan.
Or not, she thought with a gloomy laugh as she left her outer layers in the changing room and continued on to the Science Lab. She opened the door and took a quick left, following the sounds of voices.
"-any movie about alien invasions? They have to know the composition of the atmosphere."
"They could find that information anywhere, Elliot. He'd already been to New York and that town in Germany. You don't think he figured out everything he-"
"Hey, Jane," Austin said, interrupting Wright.
"Hi," Jane said to a staring gaggle of scientists – Wright, Austin, Carlo, Sue, and Elliot. "No need to stop talking on my account. And no, Loki wasn't here for atmospheric research data."
"But he could have been gathering information about us," Wright said.
Jane shook her head. "He wasn't interested in any of you or your work. Remember how he barely said two words to anyone he didn't have to in the early months? Pretty much all he really wanted once he got here was to leave."
"Jane, you do see the gap in logic there big enough to drive an entire planet through, don't you? If he wanted to leave so bad, why did he come here in the first place?" Sue asked.
"It's like I said before. He came here because of me. Because Thor and I are friends."
"You didn't explain that," Carlo said. "Thor has other friends, no? The Avengers?"
Jane saw the change in Sue's face, but couldn't think of anything to say to head her off at the pass, and then it was too late.
"You and Thor? He's like some…some blond superhero beefcake. You and Thor, really? How long?"
"What?" Wright said, looking back and forth between the two women.
"You are the least perceptive man in the history of imperceptive men. Brody had the wrong brother," Sue said. "There's no way you're getting out of telling us about this."
"There's not that much to tell," Jane said, realizing with some surprise that it was true. They'd had a handful of memorable moments together, spread over about a year and a half. When this was all over, they were really going to have to fix that. "We're seeing each other…just without a lot of the seeing part. It's been a long distance relationship, since he lives, you know," Jane said, pointing up.
"On the roof?" Carlo asked.
"Yeah," Jane said amid scattered laughter. Austin and Wright went back to sorting the random tools and replacement parts that had tumbled off the shelves. "Lucas didn't like it here. He didn't know he was getting extreme cold and twenty-four-hour darkness. He didn't bother to look up a weather report."
Austin looked up. "Are you serious?"
Jane nodded and Austin's laughter spread.
"When did he first figure it out?" Wright asked.
"Um, I don't actually know," Jane answered, her own laughter bubbling up.
"Radio, Telecom, and all purpose repairs!"
Jane and the others looked up to see Gary, who'd spoken, Zeke, who was on crutches, and Rodrigo entering.
"You guys need anything?" Gary continued.
"What's up, Docs?" Rodrigo asked when the laughter didn't quite die down.
"Lucas didn't check the forecast before he came down here," Carlo said.
"Just picture the look on his face when he stepped off the plane," Elliot said through laughter.
"Don't have to picture it," Wright said. "Saw it. And now I understand why he turned around screaming at the pilot 'Take me back, take me back!'" he shouted, waving his arms wildly.
"Like that scene from Cool Runnings, when the Jamaican bobsled team steps outside the airport in Calgary," Austin said.
"That explains why he came here dressed like he was going to some country club," Zeke said. "'But I don't understand, where is the golf course?'" he said, imitating Loki's accent.
"That explains why he had a giant stick up his ass when he first got here," Wright said.
The laughter faded then; everyone knew there was more to Loki and a stick than him being shocked by the cold.
"Listen, I…I know it wasn't fair to any of you, what happened, that I didn't tell you when I found out the truth, that you weren't given a choice in any of this. Lucas-"
"Jane," Sue interrupted, "we know his real name now."
"Sorry. Habit. Loki didn't like it here in the beginning. Probably more accurate to say he hated it. He had a sense of superiority over us like you can't imagine."
"Oh, I think we can imagine," Wright said.
"Yeah," Zeke agreed. "I just thought he came from money and was kind of spoiled."
"Well, he is a prince," Jane said.
"Maybe nothing can surprise me anymore, but that definitely doesn't," Gary said.
"Remember what he said that time about nothing being good enough for his father?" Austin asked.
Jane nodded along with Carlo, Wright, and Zeke. She hadn't been there, but Ronny and Paul had told her about Loki saying something like that, as they rode in the back of the PistonBully to the SPRESSO site.
"He said that to be president would not be good enough," Carlo said.
Gary nodded thoughtfully. "I guess it wouldn't be – your old man's got a whole…what, a planet? And you've got a measly country?"
"Hard to imagine he's the same guy who attacked New York," Rodrigo said. "He was kind of…standoffish? I thought he was going to turn out to be one of the room eaters in the beginning. Seemed like he was starting to fit in, though."
"Well, let's be honest, this place is full of mountain-man freaks who'd sell their souls to live in the harshest environment on the planet, and no-holds-barred nerds. Not that hard to fit in. It's not like it's the jocks' and cheerleaders' club here."
"Oh yeah?" Rodrigo asked. "Which are you, Zeke? Freak or nerd?"
"There are of course a small handful of exceptions, normal people who happened to wind up here," Zeke said, hand over his chest, giving a little bow at the end.
"Uh-huh. Who was it again who rigged up all that fake fire and smoke stuff for the Mass Casualty Incident drill, just for kicks?" Rodrigo asked.
"Being thorough in my work makes me neither freak nor nerd. And hey, remember how Lucas was then? You could hardly get him to say a word, he couldn't be bothered. But when he heard about the wired panel I was fiddling with, remember, to simulate electrical fire, and especially the smoke generator, I couldn't get rid of him until I explained how the whole thing worked. In detail. I think he looked it up online, too, from some of the questions he asked about it, stuff a layman wouldn't know to ask, and I swear every time I turned around he looked like he was about to start pulling it apart. Not that I was trying to get rid of him, exactly. I don't mind explaining stuff. As my better half will tell you, I do like the sound of my own voice. And he was okay, even then."
Jane tried to hold back her grimace at Loki's interest in smoke and fire. She wondered if he'd had ulterior motives.
Sue, meanwhile, was shaking her head. "Before you guys get all warm and fuzzy about your memories of Loki when we thought he was Lucas, let's just all keep in mind that he's obviously a great con artist. Anything and everything he said and did could have been a lie."
"Hey, Jane?" Austin said before Jane could respond to that; a few heads were nodding in agreement. "Is that why he attacked New York? To prove himself to his father? Nothing less than planet-wide king was good enough?"
All eyes fell on Jane. It wasn't an easy question. Loki had given her different versions of an answer over time, and never a particularly complete one. She wasn't sure Loki himself knew the complete answer. He'd certainly never put it quite like that. But as she considered it, and thought back on what she'd observed of Loki and Odin, and what Loki had told her about never measuring up to Thor in the things that mattered on Asgard, she thought that in some strange way, Austin might be right. "Like I said before, you'd have to ask Loki to get-"
"He's not here," Wright said. "You are."
"I was going to say, only Loki really knows why he did what he did, but yeah, I think that was part of it. maybe a big part of it. Where he comes from, and the other realms, the other planets, they have these really long life spans, and one ruler for the whole planet, and they're way more advanced than us technologically, and we just…"
"We must seem like we could use a good single ruler to straighten us all out," Gary offered.
"Yeah. To some of them, I imagine. And because we're less developed… I mean, think about colonialism. The idea that powerful civilized European nations were bringing a better way of life to a bunch of weak, ignorant savages…that was how it was justified, right?"
"Look how well that turned out," Rodrigo said.
"Lucas saw us as the weak ignorant savages?" Wright asked.
"I think so. Something like that. He saw us as insignificant."
"But he doesn't now, does he?" Carlo asked.
"No."
"He wasn't pretending. He wasn't lying," Austin said. "The things he talked about. You asked about horses, Carlo. His mother confirmed it."
Carlo nodded. "I think he was honest when he could be."
"Hey!" Wright suddenly exclaimed. "Oh, man, the band! Loki the Conqueror was in our band!"
"No wonder he didn't know a single one of the songs or movies," Austin said.
"He said when he was a child he played a double-reed pipe, and also something more like a recorder. He said he couldn't remember their names," Carlo said.
"He did play something. I knew about the bellpipe, anyway. I'm sure he just didn't tell you the names because…well, because whatever instruments he played as a kid, they weren't from Earth."
"Bellpipe," Carlo repeated, gaze unfocused.
"Jane?"
"Yeah?" Jane responded, turning to Gary.
"I have to say, I thought of Lucas as someone who was a little troubled, maybe came down here in part to get away from problems back home."
"She basically said he was going through rough times, back when we had his birthday party," Sue said, shooting Jane a look that she wasn't sure how to interpret. She knew Sue was unhappy with this whole situation – and Sue was generally more of a loner who kept her own hours and did her own thing and thus hadn't spent as much time with Loki as most of the people in this room. But she and Sue had been friends, and she really hoped that Sue didn't now see her as an enemy.
"That's true, too," Gary said. "And I thought…sometimes a young man in a rough patch, he needs the ear of someone older, someone who's been there, done that, as they say. But, uh…what was that birthday party for? Thirty-two? He's not thirty-two, is he?"
Curious eyes again all fell on Jane. "No. Closer to a thousand and thirty-two. And change."
"A wha-wha-what and thirty-two?" Wright asked amid other expressions of shock and disbelief including a few swears, his eyebrows reaching for his hairline.
"Huh," Gary said. "And here I thought I was doing a little bit of the classic father-figure thing. He must have thought I was such a douche. Pardon my French."
"No, he didn't. He really didn't. I think he appreciated it. I know he did. He mentioned it once, that he liked you and Zeke, that you'd lived interesting lives despite how short they were. I think that's pretty much an exact quote, actually."
"Well, shiver me timbers," Zeke said, lightly elbowing Gary. "And I wasn't trying to be anybody's father figure. I got enough trouble with my actual kids without adding a thousand-year-old Loki into the mix."
Laughter rose up from the group, and Jane joined them.
"I still can't believe any of this is true. I thought I had some crazy stories to tell. How did you deal with this all this time, Jane?" Rodrigo asked.
"Yeah, you were keeping quite a secret. It couldn't have been easy," Gary said.
"It wasn't. There was a lot of stress, and guilt. Fear, in the beginning."
"So how are you doing now?" Austin asked.
"You know…I think I'm okay. It helps a lot that you guys don't seem to hate me as much as I thought you might," she answered with a tentative smile.
"Nobody hates you, Jane," Rodrigo said. "I still think you should have told us, or at least the managers, but you made a tough decision in tough circumstances. You didn't ask for this either. Both of us got on that plane with him at McMurdo, and neither of us knew who he really was."
Jane was gratified to see smiles on the faces of her friends. And if Sue wasn't exactly smiling, neither was she racing to attack. "Nobody" might be too strong a word, though. Mari was really upset, and Selby probably wasn't going to be her biggest fan. The station was made up of a lot more people than were standing in this room.
"Speak for yourself, Rodrigo," Wright said. "I told you more than once that I do not like drama, Foster. And you were hiding Loki the Alien Conqueror here at the South Pole? I mean…if you look up 'drama' in Webster's Dictionary I'm pretty sure it says 'hiding Loki the Alien Conqueror at the South Pole.'"
"I think we've all had enough drama over the last couple of days to last at least until the end of the season," Zeke said.
"Then how about we get back to work and ban Loki-talk for a while, huh?" Sue said. "All of the equipment we've tested here thus far is working," she said to Zeke, Gary, and Rodrigo, who'd originally swung by to inquire if any repairs were needed. "We've just got a lot of stuff toppled over because this place is a junkyard, some of it's broken but so far nothing critical. So while we're cleaning up…Jane, what's Thor like? Jane is dating Thor," she added for the benefit of the three who entered right after that had come up.
"Woah, what? Seriously?" Zeke asked. "Wait a minute. Guys, you go on ahead, and if anybody needs any electrical repairs, you'll find me here. I want to hear this. Because I'm pretty sure you said you know himbefore, now you're telling us you know him-know him. In the Biblical sense."
"No! Zeke, give me a break, you guys have such a one-track mind."
"It wasn't me! Tristan started it. He said he saw you sneaking out of Lucas…out of Loki's room yesterday morning looking embarrassed and rumpled and losing y-"
"I had a sleeping bag, Zeke. We were j-"
"Cozy," Elliot said.
"He was upset. We stayed up most of the night talking. That's all. Okay? Can we please put that to bed now?" Jane let out a strangled groan as laughter rose up and Zeke positively lost it.
"I'd stop digging that hole if I were you," Gary said. "You're about five feet down already."
Jane rolled her eyes, but smiled. "I'll tell you about Thor, okay? We met in this little town in New Mexico, Puente Antiguo. He kind of just…fell out of the sky."
"Wait, Puente Antiguo where that military test equipment went haywire a year or two back?" Elliot asked.
"Let me guess," Austin said. "Not military test equipment."
"Nope. But that has to stay secret, too. They don't want anyone to panic."
"You don't think it's a little late for that?" Rodrigo asked. "I mean, after New York…?"
"It's probably-"
"Hold on," Zeke said. "Is this going to be some mushy chic-flick story? Thor's great, I'm sure. But what about the other Avengers? What about Captain America? He's a legend."
"Do you know Captain America?" Gary asked, eyebrows raised.
"I've never met him," Jane said, then laughed at the expressions of disappointment around her.
"What about that chic with the red hair and the painted-on black get-up?" Wright asked. "I don't suppose you have her number? Or her name?"
"Sorry. I'm not even sure who you're talking about."
"I am," Austin said. "And somehow I doubt she's into science geeks."
"Hey, you never know," Wright said with mock defensiveness.
"Can we get back to Thor now?" Sue asked.
"The three of us better keep moving, actually," Zeke put in. "But if there's any juicy bits, save 'em for later, okay?"
"Sure, Zeke," Jane said, exchanging goodbyes with him, Gary, and Rodrigo.
"So Thor just…dropped out of the sky? Literally?" Wright asked, picking up a hammer from a pile near his feet and giving it a little swing.
Jane smiled. "Literally," she said, taking the hammer and placing it in the overturned toolbox it had come from. "But we didn't realize it at first. My friends and I, we thought he was drunk, or maybe he just…" – she bent down to pick up a few small silver objects from the floor and held them out to Wright, who took them and dropped them in the miniature plastic drawer in a box of parts they belonged in – "had a few screws loose."
Everyone was listening, and everyone also got back to work, and even though they were talking about things Jane hadn't talked about with hardly anyone before, it was almost like nothing had changed.
Except that Loki was gone.
/
/
"What will you say to him?" Thor asked as they entered the palace through a side entrance.
"That will depend in part on what he says to me," Loki answered without answering, paying less attention to Thor and more attention to his surroundings. The stairs they were on now were normally polished spotless and entirely open; only Odin's family, the Einherjar, and the occasional senior clerk or special visitor used them. Servants generally used a separate staircase, and no one else was allowed in the entire wing. But as they ascended, they added footprints on top of smudged footprints and passed six others on the way, only half of whom Loki recognized.
Thor stopped them at the tenth floor, where two Einherjar stood outside a doorway.
"Who else is here?" he asked, interrupting whatever Thor had been about to say.
"Only Nadrith."
"Not here on the tenth floor. Who else is living in the palace?"
"Many others. We've had to shift people about, moving those outside the city walls inside them, moving most of the Assembly and Council members and their families inside the palace, others we need to keep close-by and well-protected. I don't know all the details. Do you want me to find out?"
Loki hesitated. He couldn't care less about the details. But Loki had spent the silent walk here wishing for some way to get rid of Thor so he could do this on his own, just as he knew, or at least strongly suspected, that Thor had spent the silent walk here trying to resist asking questions he knew wouldn't be answered, until finally he could no longer resist. This was his chance. Yes, Thor, I need you to go and find out the names of every single person living here, where they normally live, and why they were moved here. But he didn't know the consequences of a real separation, one in which Thor left, and now was probably not the best time to find out. "No," he answered.
"All right. What's the plan, then?"
"The plan? The plan doesn't involve you. Your part of the plan is to stand there and say nothing."
"I know you don't wish to reveal everything you're thinking, but at least give me some idea. Keeping me in ignorance surely cannot be helpful."
Loki closed his eyes briefly, feeling a headache coming on. He couldn't wait to take that nap he had coming, to just stop for a while. "He's been trying to give you a way out, hasn't he? A way to end this? Quick to renegotiate terms, urging you to see reason, and so forth? I'm going to give him a way out instead."
"It is as you say, Loki. But how? He isn't looking for a way out except through Asgard's capitulation."
"Not yet, anyway. Let me guess. You've tried to humiliate him. To bludgeon him with your self-righteous anger and superior sense of honor. You have grabbed his arm and held it up to your own to show him how much bigger your muscles are than his."
Thor worked his jaw but did not answer. There was a certain element of truth in what Loki had said, even if he'd effortlessly found the most insulting way of encapsulating it.
"What does Nadrith most want?"
"To win this war."
"A means to an end. What's the end?"
Thor nodded; he knew the answer. "To lead the other realms."
"He wants to lead. So let him. Let him lead the other realms right out of the war." Loki watched as Thor nodded again, though clearly still confused. How uncomfortable Thor's boots must be right now, Loki thought, having no choice but to trust me. It was an idea really, more than an actual plan – play to Nadrith's ego and his desire to lead, but convince him to lead in a way that benefited Asgard. But as soon as Loki had spoken it aloud, the beginnings of a plan started taking shape.
/
I hope I've given you a pleasant surprise with a very quick chapter! This is the one that took forever to get ready, both because the different threads were written in different places and pulling them back together was a bear, and because there are so very many callbacks it is a *ton* of work double-checking for continuity. There's not much going on in this chapter (but that's true of a lot of the chapters here!); the next one gets another ball rolling.
Thanks as always to everyone who's taken the time to review! Quick responses to guest reviewers the last 2 chapters: lwolf - Re that "don't make us wait too long" thing, oopsie. Well, at least this one came out very quickly! Guest (Oct 2) - LOL, I hear you, I am one of those attending who is thinking "I know what you're going to be doing tonight!" Ha. Thanks. Guest (Oct 3) - I try, thanks. :-) Nelise - There will be Jane and Loki...and Thor...and other characters. Mum's the word beyond that, sorry! PheadreRochriel - No Chitauri, and no therapy bills either! Thanks. :-) Guest (Oct 8) - Wow, thanks! Guest (Oct 16) - Thank you! MoMoChib - Sorry (uh, no I'm not) I made you sob! ladymouse2 - Thor is sort of on the cusp of really getting that distinction (general insults vs. things that were truly demeaning and insulting and hurtful to Loki), he *has* done some thinking about it, but there's 1,000+ years of history and habit there and it won't change overnight. When Loki walked away he *did* get it, it just came a little too late. "Thinking with the accent on the wrong syllable," ha, I like that! Re Thor being sexist toward Jane...I wouldn't really say so, unless you're thinking of him being a bit overprotective at times? (I'd indeed put that more toward being a bit species-bigoted.) In my conception of Thor (based on his support of Sif's gender-role clash in becoming a warrior) he really is not a sexist, so do let me know if something he does or says in here comes off as sexist and I'll do some thinking about that. AvengersLoki - It was weird for me to, to not have Jane in the chapter at all. Jane hasn't disappeared from the story, but she won't be as central to it for a bit. This is Loki's show right now. Whether to call it a Lokane moment...totally up to you! (I wouldn't...but then to be honest I've never gone for the "combo-name couple" thing. :-)
Previews for Ch. 158 "Nadrith": I know it will shock you, given the title...but Nadrith is involved! And Loki has a few bits of knowledge that Thor doesn't.
Excerpt:
Nadrith gave a short laugh. "Ironic, coming from you, Loki. Do explain it to me, deceiver, exactly how I have been deceived. And please, try to make your tale entertaining. I have never been imprisoned before, and I don't know what your impressions were, but the worst part about it for me has been the boredom. I could use a little entertainment."
"Mmmm, yes, I do agree. And I must say, I think I'm going to find this entertaining, but I fear you may not. On the other hand, I don't think you'll find it boring, either. Shall we sit?"
