"If you'll allow me to look into your mind, I can see if you're truly innocent or guilty." Frigga suggested.
Detective Loki appeared a bit nervous as his adopted mother's variant got ready to place a hand on his head.
"What's the matter? Is there something you don't wish me to see?"
"Something? There are so many things I've done I wish I could forget." Loki thought. "My past relationship with my Thor, my assault on Jotunheim, my attempted takeover of Midgard… all of the plotting I've done against my own family, all of my betrayals, back when I actually did attempt to kill Thor… how can I let her see all of that!?"
"Loki, don't worry about your past." Sylvie encouraged him telepathically. "She's your mother: there's nothing you can hide from her, and if you try, you'll only seem guiltier. If see sees your past, she'll see your upbringing too; she'll see your motivations, your circumstances, your pain, and she'll understand. Then she'll see your growth into a better person, and she'll know without a shadow of a doubt that you're not the man you were before. I've made the mistake of not trusting someone I cared for too. This is the woman you're going to name our child after, isn't it? Let her in: of all people, you can trust her."
Loki paused to take her words in, and he relaxed. "Sylvie, you are wonderful. Thank you." He nodded at his mother, allowing her to read his mind.
In a flash of green, Frigga was back in Asgardian Loki's early childhood, a young Loki Odinson playing games and fighting with a young Thor. She saw her husband, telling the boys stories of past wars and adventures of their people, particularly against the "monstrous" Frost Giants, who attempted to turn Earth to ice before the Asgardians stopped them. She saw how afraid Loki was of the Jotuns and how insecure he was compared to his warrior brethren.
She saw her biological son preparing for his coronation, no less headstrong than in her universe, and Loki's plan to sneak a small band of Jotuns into Asgard came to action, revealing his brother's arrogant recklessness that spurred him on to face the entirety of Jotunheim with only himself, Loki, and his four friends. She saw his motivations to delay the war-loving Thor's rise to kingship for the good of Asgard, despite his love for his brother.
Then came the second war with Jotunheim; Loki and Present Frigga were both shocked to see Odin banish Thor to Earth, Loki was horrified to discover his origin as a Frost Giant just before his adopted father fell into Odinsleep, and Frigga watched as the frightened and emotionally unstable Loki had to take the throne in Odin's place and plotted to wipe out his entire race and anyone who stood in his way, even his own brother! She saw Loki kill his own father to prove himself to his cold, distant adoptive father and attempt to remove all traces of what he believed made him a monster. Present Frigga, however, was relieved when Odin saved their son from falling and was proud of her son's personal growth, tears dripping from her eyes, yet that same Odin's cruel rejection of his adopted son gave her different cause to shed tears as she watched Loki let go and fall into the abyss.
She then shuddered as she watched the unspeakable nightmares and tortures Loki endured in the abyss, leading to his working for the Mad Titan. When Thor stopped him again after another big fight, she witnessed his abduction by the TVA, who annihilated everything and everyone he knew, leaving him feeling more alone than ever. Current Frigga especially noted how upset and hurt watching her death left Loki, then watching Odin turn to dust and even Loki himself dying on screen, yet meeting and working with Mobius and Sylvie eventually helped his lonely, untrusting heart heal as he led an army to defeat the villains who threatened all time and saved the multiverse!
Then the trio formed the Time Detectives, and Frigga's smile grew wider seeing Loki's joyful reunions with his family's variants, his acceptance into Mobius's family, his engagement to Sylvie, and the excitement of their baby on the way, but their happiness quickly faded as they revisited past memories of Loki being falsely blamed for his mother's death and Earth 199999's King Loki's traumatic response to being kept locked up during her funeral. Party Thor's unexpected death played again, leaving both present-day spellcasters in tears once more.
"What is it, Queen Frigga?" Jane asked. "Is he guilty?"
"No, he's not." She then immediately wrapped her arms around Detective Loki. "I'm so sorry… sorry you've had to endure so much pain and loss and fear… and mistrust…" She wiped the tears from his eyes as he returned the embrace.
"And we can be sure Loki didn't trick Frigga into saying that?" Dr. Selvig asked.
"We can indeed." Frigg answered. "Great grandmother Frigga is Asgard's greatest and noblest sorceress: if she says Loki speaks the truth, then they both do." Selvig and the others nodded, accepting the ladies' statements.
"Told ya." Mobius reminded them. The Ataraxians then very reluctantly released Jörmungandr from the net, who immediately slithered over to his master.
As he left Frigga's warm embrace, Loki looked around. "Now that I've been cleared, where are Fiamma and her siblings?"
"Oh, they must still be looking for clues into Heimdall's murder!" Mobius recalled. "We rushed over here so quick after we heard the news about Thor, I guess we left them behind!"
"You want to question her about the attack on your variant?" Sylvie figured.
"That and compare a sample of my own that I took right before we healed him: a few embers from his burns." He brought the evidence out before him. "They don't seem like Muspel embers, but it'd be best to have her here to be absolutely certain."
Detective Loki left to find the trio, and in less than half an hour, he returned with not only them, but Mantis and two tied up Ravagers.
"It looks like they've come bearing gifts!" Sylvie remarked.
"Allow me to tell the tale!" Logi offered. "After we heard you announce Thor's murder, we decided to question the Ravagers of space, and we came across this band in the middle of an attempted kidnapping! We stealthily approached and overheard these two creeps in particular talking…"
"We've got 'em!" He recalled the Ravager Gef shout moments ago, the greedy Ravagers hidden behind their spaceship. "But what should we do with the girl?"
"LET ME OUT!" Mantis yelled from the inside of the Ravager ship.
"Easy, we sell her too: that way if our buyers aren't pure enough to ride, they can get antenna girl to help them like we did!" Taserface explained. "And keep your voice down; do you want the elves after us!?"
"No."
"Well, they seem pretty evil." Logi told his sisters. "Should we book 'em?"
"You two go ahead." Fiamma instructed them, motioning to her restraint. "I won't be any help today."
"That doesn't sound like the Fiamma we know! Wait…" Gnista said. "I have an idea!"
A blue man with a dark red fin on his head in a brown overcoat stepped between his two inferiors as the Muspels made their move. "What in blazes are you two idiots doing!?"
"Captain Yondu, it's the score of the century: we've captured the mythical unicorns of Alfheim! Imagine how many units we can make off of these!"
"That's all great profit-wise, but why do you have a woman trapped with them? We're thieves, not kidnappers!"
"You're one to lecture us about kidnapping, Captain!"
Yondu glared at Taserface. "That's exactly why I'm the one lecturing you about it, and you'd best be careful what you say next, or I might just-"
His train of thought was interrupted as they heard the whinnies of the unicorns, and they quickly freed themselves after kicking down the ship's door.
"You were right, Gnista." Fiamma admitted as Mantis joined them. "We do have a talent for spooking these sissy glitter donkeys!"
"Not her-"
"After we burned through the roof to break in, it only took one look at Fiamma, and those unicorns got so scared, they bust themselves out in a panic! And so, their Captain Yondu let us tie these troublemakers up and take them for questioning!" Logi summarized his story.
"We don't know anything about any murder!" Taserface told the detectives.
"We shall soon see." Frigga stated, stepping up to them to read their thoughts as she did with Detective Loki. She briefly placed a hand on each of their heads, and then she disappointedly turned her head. "They are also innocent of Thor's and Heimdall's murders, though they are guilty of many other… shameful assignments."
"Yes, but they do not feel any of the shame." Mantis told her.
"It's not them we should be questioning anyhow!" Jotun Loki argued, and he pointed to Fiamma. "It's that fire demoness Fiamma that's guilty!"
"I'm not so sure." Detective Loki countered. "You said you didn't see your attacker clearly, and she is yet restrained from using her powers. Did you not say she struck you with a burst of flame before you escaped her?"
The Jotun prince shrugged. "My back was turned; it could have been her brother."
"Me?" Logi looked puzzled.
"No, that was definitely me: pretty much everyone at the party saw the blast and heard me shout." Fiamma stated.
"Not when you saw him and your sister together, moments ago, when someone stabbed him from behind on his way to the falls under an hour ago, when he was alone!" Detective Loki corrected.
"Seriously? No, like you said, I'm still cuffed, and I was stopping the Ravagers then."
"Look into her mind then and see!" Jotun Loki proposed.
"There's no need." Frigga assured. "I've already seen her alibi proved truthful in the Ravagers' minds."
"I thought as much; the embers from my counterpart's wounds aren't Muspelheim ones anyhow." Detective Loki figured. "Now perhaps we can cease all these hasty accusations and go find some solid evidence, starting with that purple-haired Light Elf girl?"
"What if she's ran off by now?" Mobius asked.
"She wouldn't be able to get far." Odin reassured. "I've cut off the Bifrost from this realm completely since we heard the news about Thor. I have also taken the liberty of putting up an impenetrable barrier around the atmosphere of this world, and there are Einherjar guarding the secret passage back to Asgard. As I stated previously, no one leaves until the murderer is found and apprehended!"
"Excellent!" Detective Loki put his hands together in approval. "Loki Laufeyson, will you help us identify her?"
"For Thor, gladly!"
"I will accompany you as well." Lady Sif volunteered. "I am no substitute for Heimdall, yet I have a keen sense of sight that serves me well in combat. To get justice for Thor, I'll make sure it serves us even better in locating his killer!"
"And us!" Fandral joined in.
"This cowardly scoundrel will not escape the Warriors Three when their friend has been wronged." Hogun added.
"Indeed." Volstagg agreed. "And whoever would put poison in perfectly good elvish delicacies is the foulest of villains!"
Loki Laufeyson and his entourage then led the Time Detectives, Lady Sif, and the Warriors Three to the cottage near the Sugar Woods where he met the girl, asking around if anyone had seen her. Detective Loki and Sylvie aided their variant's descriptions with their enchantment, projecting Jotun Loki's mental image of the girl for the other Light Elves to see until they were pointed in the right direction. They found her in the capital city of Ljosalfgard, chatting with some of her friends.
"That's her!" Loki Laufeyson recognized her, and they all faced his direction in surprise.
"Oh, it's the prince the party is for!" One of the girls recognized him in return.
"Happy birthday, Prince!"
"Thank you for the kind wishes, ladies." Loki Mobiusson politely conversed. "But if you'll pardon the intrusion, we're detectives on a murder case. We need to speak with Miss Dawn for a moment: our brother Thor has been poisoned from a plate of elvish cookies and candies, procured from the Sugar Woods, and our birthday boy here told me that you led him to them."
Dawn slowly shook her head. "I'm sorry, but it wasn't me. I didn't lead anyone into the Sugar Woods. I can't believe someone would poison our sweets!"
"It was her, I remember!" Jotun Loki insisted. "Purple hair, pink eyes, and that exact bluish green cloak!"
She continued to shake her head. "This is the first time we've spoken today!"
"No, that can't be. You… don't have a twin sister, do you?"
"No."
The Jotun prince made a puzzled face and turned to his variant. "Your turn: let's see if she's telling the truth."
He nodded. "We'd like to be sure. May I look into your mind?"
"You don't believe me?"
"Like I said, we need assurance. We've both already seen the memory of you in his head, and besides, it seems rather counterintuitive to not believe myself." The charming detective showed her the image from inside his variant's head, and she eventually let him see into her mind too. He searched her memories of that day, but astonishingly, he didn't find her talking to his variant or mentioning their candies in any of them! "That's odd… there's nothing in her memories of her directing you anywhere. She is innocent."
"How can they both be telling the truth with two such contradictory statements?" Sif wondered.
"I don't know."
"There must be something tricky going on here." Mobius put a hand to his chin. "You don't think… it could have been a Skrull that took on her appearance?"
"We haven't questioned them yet." Sylvie informed them. "Why don't we?"
Detective Loki thanked Dawn for her cooperation before they returned to his original adoptive parents, his grandnieces, and the others.
"So, you believe that the Light Elf maiden who led you to the poison was an imposter?" Odin summarized back to them.
"Yes, a shapeshifter, most likely!" Detective Loki confirmed. "If not a Skrull, then perhaps a sorcerer or sorceress?"
"That would widen our list of suspects a bit: the Vanir that performed here are talented in magic, like my wife's family, and so are many of the Light Elves, particularly their queen!"
Detective Loki turned to his variant. "You did say that the woman who tried to kill you used fire, and she was bathed in a warm light… it could have been the light of elvish magic! Of course, the Vanir have similar elements of sorcery, as do the Asgardians, though you and Frigga are the only Asgardians here who know real magic, if you don't count Sylvie and I."
"So, who do we interrogate first, the Skrulls, or the spellcasters?" Mobius pondered.
"I propose we form groups and split off, interrogating each people separately." Frigg suggested. "Each interrogation group would have one spellcaster of our own to search their minds and at least one warrior, in case they resist."
"That sounds like an excellent plan." Frigga commended. "Odin, you and I can question my people, since they'll likely be the most cooperative with me. And the young lady with the empathic abilities, I'd like you to accompany us."
"I'm sure."
"I'll go with you too." Jotun Loki added.
"As will I." Laufey joined him.
"Sylvie and I can question the Skrulls; we have experience with them from an older case." Mobius offered.
"We'll go with you." Sif and her friends volunteered.
"Then I shall accompany Great Uncle Loki to interrogate the Light Elves who are adept in sorcery." Frigg announced. "Sisters, I leave the protection of the masses in your care."
"We'll go with you and Detective Loki too, in case you need some firepower." Gnista suggested.
"And even with my fire bursts blocked, I can still dominate anyone or anything that tries to cause us trouble!" Fiamma assured them.
Suddenly, Jane Foster approached them. "Loki, I'm sorry Selvig and I accused you of killing your brother. If the doctor wasn't so stubborn, I wouldn't have to apologize for both of us. We- I want his killer brought to justice just as much as you do!"
Detective Loki gave a slight smile. "I understand. Besides, I'm already used to the Selvig from my universe not being fond of me."
"Here." Mobius handed Odin and Frigga his TemPad. "If you find anything, you can notify us with that, and we'll come to you immediately."
"Thank you." Frigga replied as she graciously took it. "Alright then, let's be off."
"Wait!" Loki turned to his serpentine companion. "Jörmungandr, protect Sylvie and Mobius."
The three teams split off, and Detective Loki looked back at Mobius and Sylvie before they parted ways to find the mysterious killer!