"Darcy, get the door!" Jane Foster told her intern as she intently studied a mineral specimen under glass.
"Uggggh, what I need to get is another intern to do this stuff for me." Darcy whined as she slouched to the door. "Who are you?"
"We're detectives on a missing persons case." Mobius told her.
"Detectives? Show us your badges!"
Loki, back in his disguise, and Mobius displayed their badges. "May we speak with Miss Foster?" Loki asked and gestured to Røskva. "We need her assistance to find this girl's parents."
"Why do you need my help with that?" Jane asked him.
"This is Røskva Madsen: her parents disappeared through one of the portals opened up during the convergence 3 and a half years ago, and seeing as how you're quite knowledgeable on that phenomenon, we were wondering if you could track them with your technology?"
"Oh, um…" She squatted down to Røskva's eye level. "I'm really sorry, but the singularities my equipment opened up transported objects in a completely randomized pattern: I have no control over which realm will be on the other side of the wormholes. Anyways, I can only affect the portals that opened up during the convergence during the actual convergence, so it's too late. I wish I could help you." Røskva frowned but nodded in understanding. Suddenly, her face brightened as she noticed Dr. Erik Selvig walk by.
"Hey, it's Den Nøgne Nordmand!"
Jane and Darcy exchanged confused expressions as Selvig just looked away in embarrassment. "Say what now?"
"The scientist guy from Norway who streaked across Stonehenge: we call him 'The Naked Norwegian.' …It's a catchier name in Danish and a pretty funny meme."
"Ahaha, Selvig, you've got internet popularity!" Darcy laughed.
"Doctor Selvig, maybe you could help us?" Mobius explained the situation to Selvig, but he shook his head. "Sorry, I know the science of the convergence and how to manipulate it, but I can't track it."
"I see. Well, we'll have to keep brainstorming ideas. Thank you for your time." Røskva left with the Time Detectives. Fresh out of plans, they began to talk amongst themselves, although the topic of conversation gradually started to shift.
"Wait, you beat Logi in the eating contest?" Røskva repeated, amazed. "You ate more than fire itself?! Wow, you were right: those myths have got nothing on you! You're awesome!"
"Yes, but unfortunately along the way, I also managed to impress his power-lusting sister, who's currently on a Loki-dating spree across time and space until she finds her 'perfect match.'" Loki elaborated.
"A 'Loki-dating spree?' If only I were older, I'd like to get in on that!"
Loki's eyes shifted back and forth, as if he was being watched. "Actually, don't tell him I told you this, but I know a Loki at the end of time who looks to be about your age, maybe a bit younger." Røskva held back a fangirl squeal. "He's even a king!" He paused for a moment. "A king, that's it! I have an idea: maybe if we find Odin, he can have Heimdall search the realms with his 'all-seeing eyes' for your parents!"
"That's not a bad strategy, but do you even know where Odin is?" Mobius countered.
"Of course I do, he's in Asgard, sitting on his golden throne as always."
"Afraid not. By this time, you've banished Odin to Earth for over 3 years and taken his place on the throne. By now he's definitely broken free of the spell this timeline's Loki put him under and out of the old folks' home he brought him to, and is making his way to Norway, but he shouldn't be there yet either. And we can't ask Doctor Strange where he is, because he's still finishing up his training."
"Then… we ask me, yes?" Loki thought for a moment. "Did you say I put Odin in a retirement home?" A silly grin formed on his face as he imagined Allfather Odin playing bingo, and when he didn't win, shouting curses and flipping the tables in a rage, and even hurling his pudding cup at the number caller's head. "Ehehehehe, I'd have liked to see that! I'd wager he was quite upset when he broke free?"
"Well yeah, he did demolish the home, but- to Asgard?"
"Indeed, our new objective is to find Heimdall, whether we inquire of his whereabouts from the real Odin or an imposter."
"Um, Mr. Loki?" Røskva interjected.
"Yes?"
"I noticed you don't call Odin dad: are you still mad at him?"
"Not nearly as much as I was, but Mobius actually adopted me as his son after I saved my brother from a god butcher and found our prank calling Loki."
"More like the other Loki saved you and Thor." Mobius reminded him.
"But I saved Thor first." Loki bragged.
"When did you meet the Grievance guy?" Røskva asked.
"Oh, on the planet that hired me to stop Fiamma and the other Muspels. I was saving his last host, a small boy, from one of her fires, and Grievance saved himself by attaching inside my body. At first we didn't get along: he wanted to eat Mobius's brain, and I wanted him out of my body, but now we work in tandem as partners."
"He wanted to eat Mobius's brain!? Is he a zombie?"
"No, a symbiotic alien, but there's a lot more to him than only eating brains: he can amplify my powers, he can split and reform himself, he's a healer, he's learning to make a rather decent spaghetti and meatballs…" Loki looked thoughtful for a second. "Healer… Grievance, you wanted me to give you a nickname: how about Healer?"
"Healer? Because that is the ability you associate with me the most, me healing your injuries?"
"Not just me: you're also healing, aren't you, from the issues you had with your own father and your past bonds and relationships? I don't know the details of your life as well as you know mine, but I know you well enough to at least recognize how alone you've been your whole life." Loki smiled. "And from my own experience with healing from family drama, I'd say you're well on your way, Healer."
"Ahhh… I have been renameddd. I am no longer a Grievance… I am a Healerrr!"
Loki held up his pointer finger in correction. "Oh no, we are a Healer." He opened up a door to Asgard, and Healer hid back inside his host while they entered. As Røskva took in the grand sights of the great golden city in awe and Loki and Sylvie savored the nostalgia, Mobius followed them to the palace until they reached an immense golden statue of Loki in his horned helmet and Asgardian leather, in his signature open-armed pose.
"This is beautiful." Loki immodestly commented. "I see the Asgardians' taste in fine art is ever improving."
"It is a devilishly handsome statue." Sylvie agreed. "Though the model could stand another lesson in humility."
"I want one." Røskva admired.
"Hey, there's a commotion going on over there!" Mobius interrupted. "I could see your variant over there, pretending to be Odin."
The detectives and their client snuck their way into the crowd, trying to see what the excitement was about. They were all gathered around a large stage, the curtain drawn as people could be heard moving around on the other side, just barely through the crowd's excited whispers.
"It looks like we made it just in time for a classic Lokian drama." Mobius whispered to his Loki.
"You said at this point in time, I'm disguised as Odin, acting as king in his banishment. Did I write plays during that time, or were they written about me after my presumed death?"
"Yes, both. You wrote autobiographical plays of the key moments in your life to commemorate yourself, and your people performed them for you, to 'ease their Allfather's grief over losing his son.' I could tell you more, but it looks like we're about to catch the premiere."
"I could have done it, Father!" Actor Loki shouted as he dangled from the Rainbow Bridge set. "I could have done it! For you, for all of us!"
"No, Loki." Odin's actor simply replied.
Røskva gaped, the actor's words reminding her of her own attempt to win Loki's favor. She waited for Odin's actor to expand on those two words, to reassure his son that his disapproval of his actions didn't mean his disapproval of him as his son. The Loki standing next to her just looked down with a saddened expression, knowing exactly what came next.
"Father…" Loki's actor sprayed his face with water, producing artificial tears in his eyes as his hand slipped from his brother's grasp. "So, the unloved Jotun monster will never be worthy of your love after all, no matter what I do for you. Then I no longer wish to live my life without purpose, without love, so now, I join the cold nothingness of space. For perhaps in death, in this abyss as empty as my broken soul, I can finally be at peace."
"Loki!" Actor Thor noticed, but he watched helplessly as his adopted brother let go of him, falling into a black blanket with a starry design, closing around him and swallowing him up.
"Farewell…" Actor Loki muttered before he disappeared from sight.
"NOOOOO-"
"No." Actor Odin repeated. As he pulled Thor's actor to his feet, he faced the audience, addressing them in retrospective narration. "That was the first time I lost him: Loki, my youngest son. If only I had been honest with him from the beginning, if only I showed him the same love and warmth that my wonderful late wife Frigga had, if only I had acknowledged his desperation for my approval, perhaps I could have saved him back then." He shook his head. "Yet his efforts were rewarded with but cruel rejection and apathy. Why didn't I tell him he never needed to prove his worth to me? Why didn't I merely pull him up with Thor to me, wrap him in my arms, and assure him that he wasn't the monster he feared he was and that he was just as loved as any on Asgard, even his brother?"
Røskva noticed the real Loki on the verge of tears, holding them back so she wouldn't see, yet she also saw that Sylvie was crying, heartbroken to see her fiancé attempt suicide. They both hugged him, though Loki continued restraining his tears.
When Mobius noticed, he spoke to Loki. "Hey, remember what I told you about not keeping your emotions bottled up? You release them regularly, in a healthy way, so you don't explode on others. It's okay to let it out: you won't be noticed." He consoled, pointing out several Asgardians weeping around them.
"I-I'm fine." Loki lied. "I don't need to… anymore… I'm… fine."
"Son, your fan won't think any less of you if she sees you cry, she looks up to you. It's good for her to see you have feelings, just like her. I mean, you see that Odin is such a bad father, this Loki has to give himself decent parenting and encouragement in his adopted dad's place, because he never got any from the real Odin. Man, if that was me, I'd be bawling my eyes out." At that, Mobius embraced him too, patting his back while Sylvie stroked his head and his Symbiote Healer nuzzled under his chin, and Loki finally let the tears drip from his face, breaking into a gentle sob. An Asgardian lady passed him a handkerchief as the group hugged.