Loki waited until Odin was alone before appearing suddenly before his adoptive father. The King of Asgard blanched to see him, and his lips parted in shock.
Loki smiled at him briefly, and then he spoke, "This is a sending. First off, I'm alive, and I'm sorry for the pain I've put you through this past year keeping that from you. Second, I am well, I am safe, and I am happy, living on Jotunheim. Third, we received portent today here that looks to indicate the activation of a far-off Infinity Stone, according to the most experienced magicians here, and I agree with them. It looks like you have received the same signs. What is happening?"
"I... Loki..." The Allfather was in tears, just staring at him.
Loki grimaced. "I know. I'm so sorry, and I will do what I can to make this up to you, when we have the time. Now, what is happening? And are we in danger? If you need assistance with notifying and mobilizing the rest of the Nine Worlds, I can do so via sending. You know I have more range and stamina for it than most."
Odin shook himself, visibly fighting to reign in his emotions. "You're right. I'm just... overwhelmed to see you, my son. I thought you dead, well, you must have known that... it hurt so much to lose you. But you're right." He cleared his throat. "You come to me as a prince, and I will speak as a king. Yes, we received the same signs. The Realms are not presently endangered, but we are making arrangements to secure the artifact, if it is indeed an Infinity Stone."
Loki grinned at Odin's weak attempt at obfuscation. "I can see from your expression it is, Allfather. Your deceits are far more effective when you keep them utterly silent rather than lie to my face." He kept his tone light, but Odin still winced at the barb. "You are forgiven," Loki said hastily. "Just tell me what I can do to help."
Odin regarded him, then shook his head. "There is nothing you need do, Loki. I prefer to keep the nature of this event quiet until Thor's mission on Midgard is complete. Panic in our disunited alliance is the last thing we need."
If Thor was going to Midgard, that meant the object in question was probably the Tesseract. Loki fought not to roll his eyes. Odin clearly knew exactly what was going on, but he was trying to keep it secret to save face, despite the fact that sorcerers far and wide could not fail to notice and wonder at the massive power burst spreading across the cosmos. He schooled his features into an expression of anxiety and said in a rush, "Is Thor already away? Word came to Jotunheim that the Bifrost was broken. I did not believe it at first but checked for myself later the day I sent a sending to Mother. I hope she told you about that? Speaking to her was all I had the energy for at the time. Anyways, has the Bifrost been repaired?" Odin winced again. Loki widened his eyes dramatically. "Oh... then you must be gathering dark matter even as we speak. But... it will take days to collect enough, surely?! And you'll have to send him alone!"
"Thor leaves in two more days," Odin confirmed reluctantly.
"Norns..." Loki narrowed his eyes suddenly, then looked up at Odin again with a sly grin. "Did you ever figure out how those two thieves made it into the Vault last year?"
Odin raised his eyebrows. "We did not. I have kept the security measures you added as regent, amongst other enchantments."
"I did," Loki informed him. "No one knows me as your son here. The greatest of Jotun magicians have mastered the technique of shifting between worlds. Once I recovered from my journey here, one of their magicians who recognized my own considerable talents despite my questionable stature and origins took me under his wing." As per Jotun tradition, Loki was not, technically, lying. He and Ikol had experimented for several months to perfect Loki's original coin trick into a more generalized interplanetary teleportation spell. The spell still required a physical totem shaped with sapient intent, so every Jotun ship was tasked with bringing back a crate of knickknacks from all over the galaxy, along with their regular cargo. He knew for a fact they had some artifacts of Midgard, collected in Xandar of all places. He had no idea how human technology had ended up on the other side of the galaxy.
The offer was too good for Odin to refuse, naturally. But he frowned. "You had the means but still chose not to return?" he asked sadly.
Loki debated how to respond for a moment, but eventually answered vaguely, "It is not so simple as that."
Odin sighed. "If you can get to Midgard today... then do it. I willingly trust the Tesseract to your hands, even if you have found Jotunheim to your liking." Loki's eyes widened slightly again at the unexpected vote of confidence. He had rarely earned such when he was actually an Asgardian prince. "I will still plan to send Thor as soon as possible, in case you meet resistance. Once you have it, please...come home, Loki."
Loki smiled. Odin was being a little sneaky. "Well, I will certainly have to bring Thor home at least," he pointed out, "unless you were hoping to banish him to Midgard again. I somehow doubt he would want to come to Jotunheim." Odin winced this time. Loki continued, "If you're sending us both, you should tell him I'm Jotun, if you haven't already. I don't want to be the one to explain it to him, particularly after... what happened." He allowed his expression to darken.
"Of course," Odin said hastily. "Good luck, Loki. Heimdall last glimpsed the Tesseract in human possession on the western land mass."
Loki smiled again. "I will not fail, Father." He released the sending and opened his eyes. Now to find Laufey and Ikol.
Loki traced the Tesseract within hours of landing on Midgard. The good news was it was still there. The bad news was it was in the hands of a human governmental entity that was rather loath to give it up, no matter what logical arguments Loki made or how many times he evaded the traps they insisted on laying for him over the doors in their headquarters building.
Two days later, he was in the middle of dismantling their most creative defense yet when a whole squad of soldiers suddenly ran down the hall, led by charming Captain Rogers, and started yelling at him to "freeze" and "stop what you're doing" and "put down the... thing."
Loki straightened up and turned to Captain Rogers. "Good morning," he said mildly. "Did you come to tell me my brother is here? He's supposed to arrive sometime today or tomorrow."
"Depends. Did you know your brother was going to break into the lab, kill twenty SHIELD agents and steal the Tesseract?"
"Ah... well, while I would not put it past him to do something so idiotic, I highly doubt that was his intent. Asgard does have laws against attacking and killing humans or other less advanced species and civilizations. Are you sure it was him? I told you a hundred times that the signal from the Tesseract would be attracting attention from everywhere, not just the Nine Realms. The only reason no one came sooner than I did is because most civilizations lack the Nine World's capacity for expeditious travel across the galaxy, else your nearer neighbors would surely have invaded by now."
Rogers studied him a moment, then nodded to a subordinate. "Open the door. Let's show him the footage. No funny moves, Loki."
"I wouldn't dream of it." He waved a hand to magically bypass the final layer of the fancy new locking mechanism on the door and pushed it open. He half-bowed to the humans. "After you."
A few minutes later, ensconced in a conference room, Loki was able to confirm that no, the murderous intruder was definitely not Thor. "I think he's from Scarros, but honestly, I'm not sure under the armor, and it doesn't help that much to know. The alien definitely isn't from any planet in your local star group, and Scarros is farther away from here than either Asgard or Jotunheim. They're a hired agent for someone else. Which means the news of the Tesseract is all over the galaxy now, for a price. Which means we need to find it again before that alien gets it off-planet, and then I need to take it away before you suffer a full-scale invasion from some warlord or other. Are you willing to work with me now?"
"You could have been the lookout man and distraction for that alien," Agent Romanoff said. She was a naturally suspicious individual, due to her position as a spy. They'd probably have gotten on quite well in other circumstances.
Loki snorted. "I could have, sure. I also could have turned myself invisible and waltzed off with the Tesseract myself on day one, but graciously agreed not to when you all decided to throw a tantrum. I believe your exact words were 'over my dead body,' and I'm opposed to needlessly killing mortals." He had wanted to prolong the mission here to make sure he met Thor again for the first time on neutral ground, and to ensure Thor could claim the victory of the Tesseract's retrieval, allowing Loki's upcoming visit to Asgard to remain discreet. Speaking of, the conversation was interrupted by a faint shaking of the floor and all the lights suddenly flickering out. Loki smiled. "Now, that is probably Thor. Shall we go meet him? I'll try to trace the Tesseract again while we walk. I doubt they've gotten it off-planet yet."
"Loki!"
Thor did not sound particularly happy to see him. He instead sounded peeved, even angry. "Hello, Thor."
"You told me Father was dead!" he shouted, rather than anything immediately relevant.
Loki blinked. "I did?" Thor flushed red in anger, and the air crackled with ozone. The humans raised their weapons again and edged away from Loki. Loki thought back a year ago, trying to remember his last conversations with Thor. His eyes widened slightly. "Oh! Right. I did. Sorry."
The red deepened to furious purple. "You're sorry for making me think I'd not only started a war but also caused our father's death?!"
"Very sorry?" He shrugged impatiently. "Surprised you're not over it by now, considering Father is very much alive and living on the same planet as you. Forgive me, but I thought I would have a chance to apologize quickly and explain myself. I hadn't planned on dying when I told you that! I just needed you to focus on something besides Jotunheim!"
"But you weren't dead," Thor pointed out.
"No. I lived. Do you imagine my sudden plunge to Jotunheim was pleasant, Brother?" he asked, injecting his voice with the crackle of ice as all Jotnar could. Loki watched Thor make his own assumptions from his question and tone: that Loki's initial experience on Jotunheim had been anything but pleasant, that he had perhaps been badly hurt and unable to contact Asgard at first even if he wanted to... Loki sighed loudly. "Do we really have to do this right now?"
Thor's expression was currently torn between relief, guilt, and anger. Anger unfortunately won again. "Yes, dammit. Loki, you let me believe I killed you! For a year!"
"Well, you did knock me into the overloading beam of the Bifrost. And then, you apparently blew it up rather than turning it off! Forgive me for not thinking of your hurt feelings, but I was a little preoccupied at the time. Tell you what, next time, you can be the one shot into enemy territory and abandoned for dead, hmm?"
Thor's anger finally broke, and he sniffed once, then suddenly hugged Loki instead of continuing the argument. The winds around him died. "I'm so sorry, Loki. You're right. I was angry and confused last year, but I was also reckless, and I could have killed you with my recklessness. I know that. I am so happy that you're alive." He sniffed again.
Loki realized he had some tears in his own eyes. He returned Thor's embrace. "I'm sorry, too, for the pain I caused you," he admitted. He really was. The guilt of what he had done to his adoptive family by faking his own death had gnawed at him most nights for the past year. He still acknowledged the necessity of lying to them, though, both then and now. His own mild guilt was a more than worthy price for living peacefully and happily on Jotunheim.
One of the humans cleared their throat. "Er, hooray for you both? If you aliens are done shouting at each other, can we get back to the matter of the missing doomsday device?"
Loki grinned at Thor. "Of course."
It was almost a pleasure to work alongside Thor again. It was very different to what Loki had come to expect of his brother. Thor waited quietly while Loki searched out the trail of the Tesseract with his magical senses and worked with their human hosts to figure out precisely where it had gone so far and where the thief was likely headed. Not once did Thor speak up to either take over the strategic discussion or assert Asgard's claim on the Tesseract. It was refreshing, and odd. When the humans started discussing tactics to retrieve the Tesseract, Loki smiled at his brother. This was one mission where Thor's method of find-the-enemy-and-hit-it was totally appropriate and much more efficient than sitting around dithering over the details. Safer, too, if one considered the odds of even more interested parties showing up the longer they waited here. "Shall we?"
"Shall we what?" Captain Rogers asked.
"Not you. Thor's more than capable of defeating the intruder single-handedly. He can fight the alien, and I'll get the jewel. It's safer for mortals not to be involved at all. If you feel you must come along, your resources are best spent keeping your civilians out of harm's way." He glanced slyly at Thor. "That was a problem the last time an Asgardian became involved in hand-to-hand conflict on your planet." Thor managed to keep his expression clear as he stepped on Loki's foot under the table.
The humans did not argue much further. They weren't like Asgardians; it was becoming increasingly clear to them they were out of their depth in this matter, even the stubborn and territorial ones like Director Fury. And so, in a matter of minutes they were away. In less than an hour, they were battering down the building the alien had taken refuge in. A few hammer strikes, a few illusions, and Loki had the Tesseract in hand as he watched Thor beat his enemy to a bloody pulp.
"Pleasure doing business with you," Loki said, shaking hands with Captain Rogers, Agent Romanoff, and Director Fury in turn when it was all over.
"I really can't say the same," Fury said resentfully.
Loki smiled. "Just remember that it could have been much, much worse. Imagine a horde of ugly aliens flying around your city, knocking into buildings, shooting indiscriminately and nattering on about taking over your 'puny planet,' or something. Then you'll think fondly of me."
"Loki, don't antagonize them," Thor said, rolling his eyes. "I apologize for my brother's sense of humor. No one at home appreciates it either."
"Do you think more aliens are still headed this way?" Captain Rogers asked.
Loki nodded. "Probably. Most won't cause a problem once they scan the planet and find the Tesseract has already gone. I'll ask the Allfather to make sure to have Heimdall keep an eye on things here, though, so Thor or somebody can come back if there's trouble." He glanced at Thor to back him up, since he wasn't exactly an Asgardian prince anymore. Thor's eyes softened, and he nodded agreeably.
"Ready to go home, Loki?" Thor asked.
Loki nodded. "I'm ready." He held the blazing blue cube up between them. Thor folded his hand over top of it. Loki reached for the surging currents of spatial magic in and around the thing and twisted them. Together, he and Thor shot across seventy-odd light-years, back to Asgard.
Loki took them straight to their parents' outer chamber. He had no desire to see anyone else while he was here, only his family. Almost as soon as the blue light cleared around them, revealing the moonlit room, Frigga was in his arms and weeping into his shoulder. Loki allowed Thor to take the Tesseract from him and silently wrapped his arms around his adoptive mother. He thought guiltily that she had lost weight. She felt slight and frail under his hands.
"I'm sorry, Mother."
"I hoped, Loki. After you contacted me, I was so sure... but then there was nothing, and Odin said it was impossible, and... oh my baby..."
Odin walked up and embraced them both silently. Thor joined the group hug a minute later. At some point, Odin started nervously talking, and Loki just listened while Frigga continued to sniffle and Thor occasionally shuddered at his back. Odin babbled a little about the changes Asgard had seen in the last year, and the retributions he had meted out in the wake of what he very much saw as Heimdall's treachery against Loki. He talked about what he had wanted to say to Loki in the Vault before he lost consciousness, and what he should have said years and centuries ago.
"...We're so happy to have you back, my son. I promise it will be different. You will have the respect you deserve. I will make sure of it. We..."
Loki shook his head. "I can't stay." He smiled weakly at Frigga when she looked up at him, startled. "The Jotnar... they figured out who exactly I was pretty quickly. Laufey's son, I mean. Laufey had no other living children..."
"What is your position on Jotunheim, Loki?" Odin asked carefully.
"Heir apparent, I guess. You know they live even longer than Asgardians. My, er, aunt is acting as regent at the moment. I've got a hundred years until my Jotun majority and little official authority until then even as a blooded prince of the realm, but the high council would like to crown me king eventually. Assuming I've been sufficiently 're-educated' none of my distant cousins decide they need to challenge my claim to the throne. It's complicated."
"Is that what you want?" Odin asked. His voice was... thick, as if holding back tears.
Loki shrugged. He didn't want to hurt Odin and Frigga more by telling them exactly how miserable he had been here. "I do like living there, and I found I have a better knack for Jotun politics than I ever did for Asgard's. I don't want to abandon them to a civil war, which would be almost assured if I left now while the planet is, well, still recovering from last year. My aunt would be hard-pressed to preserve the peace without the promise of my potential. The whole court regarded my sudden appearance as a sort of miracle salvation after the disaster of Laufey and the Bifrost, you see..." He stopped his vague and rambling explanation of the lie Laufey had decided on and shrugged again.
Thor squeezed his shoulders from the outside of their huddle. "I don't want you to go away again, Brother," he said brokenly.
Loki slowly disentangled himself from the group so he could face all three of his adoptive family at once. He smiled at them, gently and sadly. "Like it or not, Jotunheim is my problem now, and one I am absolutely willing to keep, especially after the part I played last year in causing their current predicament. Most of the Jotnar are not the warmongerers we have mostly experienced. They were and are innocent. You were right to try to stop me on the Bifrost, even if another method may have been...preferable. We both made mistakes then, Thor, and it is our responsibility to correct them."
Thor flinched but reluctantly nodded.
He grinned to lighten the blow as he looked back at Odin. "I imagine you would prefer me than one of my several war-like cousins in any case."
Odin returned his smile. "I probably would, at that. Very well, Loki. We will miss you, but at least now we shall know the parting is not forever. Stay as long as you are able, and return as often as you please. Between the Allfather of Asgard and the Crown Prince of Jotunheim, I declare our realms at peace."
Loki nodded with formal, regal dignity. "I will take the message to my regent, and look forward to making normalization of relations a reality."
Author's note: I had made notes about what might happen in this timeline in the future, debated whether to make it an epilogue or sequel, then left it alone for a year. Decided to make it an epilogue when I rediscovered it. Enjoy. There won't be any more.
