AN: I offer my most sincere apologies to any reader who was following this story, which has been dormant for many years. During this time my writing style has changed, as so I've decided to rewrite and republish the current nine chapters, and keep writing until I reach the ending (Now that the Multiverse exist, all ficts are canon!). I advise anyone who has been so kind to follow this fict to please reread it again; the story is the same, but I've polished certain detail that didn't age too well, plus added more ideas. This said, let's see what would have happened if…

Chapter 1.

Angry, biter words resonated inside the Observatory. The Allfather, despite his display of anger, wasn't expressing the whole extent of his wrath before his sons, but that didn't make the scene less intimidating. Loki stood aside, looking uneasily at the other two men as they reminded him of all the times on which, as a child, he had to swallow his tears when such fights occurred, lest he would be the next in line for a reprimand for not acting as a warrior should. Later he would always resent Thor for always being the cause of so much discomfort, and yet manage to always being the favorite one.

Now that they were adults that terror had given way to an uncomfortable knot in his stomach. He had learned to deal with Thor's miscreant behavior and steer him out from trouble, but this time luck didn't seem to be on Loki's side, with the fate of two kingdoms at stake.

Father and son's tempers clashed like two tidal waves, and whoever tried to stop them would risk being washed away. Only Frigga, the Queen, would calm the storm with her mere presence. But Odin's wife wasn't there, and thus it had to be Loki the one to take matters on his hands, one way or another.

"While you wait and be patient, the Nine Realms laugh at us!" hollered Thor. "The old ways are done. You'd stand giving speeches while Asgard falls!"

That had definitely gone too far! Loki's mind raced, thinking of a way to make them stop and not divert their fury towards him. Only one thing occurred to him, a simple spell he had practiced back on Midgard, but that he had never dared to cast on Thor.

"You're a vain, greedy, cruel boy!" Odin accused.

That was now or never! With a flick of his wrist, he conjured the silent spell and watched Thor's lips sealing mid-sentence.

"And you ar-" Thor's retort was cut short as his lips sealed together, rendering him mute.

"LOKI!" the Allfather bellowed.

"Father-"

"How dare you interrupt a discussion between your elders?" Odin's right hand trembled slightly from sheer rage.

"This needs to end," Loki said, trying his best to keep his calm now that the fury was, as he feared, directed at him. "I couldn't stop him from going to Jotunheim, yet I couldn't let him go unguarded."

Odin glared at him. Since he could remember, the Allfather had been an intimidating force, capable, with a single glance, of choking the words in his throat. Loki didn't know what force had possessed him that time to be able to speak, but part of him was starting to regret his decision.

"You couldn't stop him," Odin repeated, slowly, in a disdainful tone. "You? The one who could persuade a Frost Giant to light a fire and sit on it?"

Loki swallowed hard. He was at a loss for words. It was true that he had arranged for the failed coronation, that he had knowingly struck the right chords on Thor's mind afterwards so he would do something reckless that would push back his official investiture; but he had never foreseen that one of those brutes would insult Thor. The rest was all too predictable. Thor's pride was as tender as thick and hard was his skull and a simple name calling was enough to awaken his ire.

"You wanted this to happen, didn't you?" Odin asked, far too knowingly. The iciness in his voice pierced him deeper than any weapon as the Allfather slowly stepped towards him. "You stood idle while your brother plunged head first into a dangerous situation and only sent Heimdall for me when the damage was already done, when you could have gone to me first and foremost before treading through the ice of Jotunheim.

"You disappoint me, Loki" he continued, stopping at an arm's reach from his son. Despite his calm tone, the Allfather gripped Gungnir so hard his knuckles grew white. "I always thought you too wise to fall prey to envy. You wanted to appear as the sensible one, the all too responsible brother who couldn't help being swept along and only acted out of the uttermost loyalty."

Loki swallowed hard. It was seldom him the one who got into trouble with Odin. His yearning to be the perfect son would push him to never make a mistake, so his father would see some day that he was fit for the throne as much as Thor, if not more. However, he saw all his hopes vanishing in an instant.

Silently, Odin walked back to the center of the Observatory and, plunging Gungnir into the control panel, turned it to life. The turret above their heads groaned as it turned, and the ground shook as the Bifrost energy built up around them.

"Loki Odinson," the Allfather's clear voice thundered over the cacophony of the transportation device. "You have permitted disobeying the express command of your King," the Bifrost's energy built up until it almost peaked. Now the energy made their garments billow around them. "Through your treacherous and egoistical behavior you have put in danger your own kin that you sworn to defend with your life, and have helped exposing these peaceful Realms and their innocent people to the horrors and desolation of war."

The three last words were almost shouted by the Allfather. Loki could hear the portal opening with a loud roar behind him, but he could neither move nor react. His eyes were fixed on his father's face, his silent fury badly restrained.

"I hereby," the Allfather extended his hand. "Take from you your powers."

Wind swirled around Loki as his father spoke and he doubled in pain. Out of the corner of his eye, he had seen Thor struggling to run towards him, but he had barely any time to register it. Then he heard his brother's voice, and knew his powers were sealed. He wanted to scream, but forced himself to not let a single groan escape his lips.

"In the name of my father," Loki felt his armor disappearing in the whirlwind. "And of his father before, I cast you out!"

The wind tore him away from the Observatory into the open vortex. The last thing he saw was his brother, running towards him with his hands outstretched.

xxxxXX-0-XXxxxx

He landed on a ground of sand and dirt. It hadn't been a smooth traveling, swerving without control and with no idea of what his destiny would be. For all he knew, the Allfather could have sent him to Muspelheim without so much of a second thought but, as events unfolded during the following seconds, Loki didn't have much time to fully assess the situation as he would have liked.

He tried standing on his feet, despite the dizziness and the dirt making him cough. It was pitch black, except for a set of lights approaching him at great speed. He made to dodge whatever it was about to run him over, but the vehicle swerved and hit him with its side.

"Motorcards… rudimentary… Midgard," were the loose thought he could conjure in the split second before he was hit and darkness enveloped him again.

He heard hurried steps approaching him.

"I think it was legally your fault!" a woman's voice said behind him. They spoke English, a Midgardian language.

"Shut up and get the first aid kit!" a second woman replied angrily.

Small hands turned him on his back and cupped his face.

"Please," the second woman's voice said above him. "Do me a favor and don't be dead!"

He opened his eyes with a groan. The vehicle's lights illuminated the young female human crouching at his side. It would take more than being run over by a vehicle to actually hurt him, and the fact that he had almost lost consciousness was more due to him having his powers sealed and his travel through the Bifrost, or so he wanted to believe. He wished to calm that young lady with such information, but the word started spinning around him.

"Wow," the first woman said. Loki couldn't see her. "Does he need CPR? 'cause I totally know CPR."

He groaned, closing his eyes again. Theatricals had always been his forte, but his current headache didn't need any rehearsal.

"Where did he come from?" the woman next to him asked to a man standing behind her. Then she took Loki's arm to help him to his feet, but out of the blue she darted away. "Oh my god, Erik… look at this!"

The man named Erik quickly grabbed Loki by the shoulders to support him and asked if he was all right.

"So much for helping the injured," Loki thought.

What had distracted the young woman was nothing but the mark the Bifrost always left each time it was used. It served as a visual beacon to help pinpoint the Rainbow Bridge for the following connection. Of course, on Realms where the weather was less than welcoming the mark always got covered or erased before it was time to return to Asgard. Loki had suggested at some point that it would be better to leave a luminous sign only visible to Asgardian eyes, but he was always rebutter on the basis that magic was too risky; furthermore, a geometrical pattern on the ground looked more natural, as if someone had drawn it for their own amusement. Loki doubted very much that anyone would consider "natural" that one of their fellow citizens had such fanciful distractions but, seeing how proud Heimdall was of the patterns he had designed, he didn't voice his opinion on the matter.

"We've got to move fast before anything changes!" the young woman exclaimed as she took out a small contraption from her bag and pointed it towards the ground.

Loki, sensing his dizziness disappearing, disengaged from Erik and staggered back some steps. Seeing that these people used something akin to electrical torches instead of oil lamps, and combustion vehicles instead of horse-drawn carriages gave him some ideas.

"Shouldn't we bring him to a hospital?" the man asked the woman with the contraption, his eyes never leaving Loki. He spoke English too, but he had an accent Loki couldn't quite locate yet. He had spent too many years away from Midgard.

"It'll take too long," she said, still busy with her gizmos. "We need soil samples before it gets blown away and-"

"Who are you?" Loki asked in a panicked voice.

"Are you all right, son?" Erik put his hands up and didn't try to approach him. "My name is Erik Selvig, this here," he pointed to the woman analyzing the soil. "Is Jane and the one with the first aid kit is Darcy."

Erik then took a step towards him, but Loki stepped back.

"Take it easy, son, we are friends," Selvig assured. "Tell us what happened to you."

During those brief instants Loki could observe the man and the two women. Jane was now looking at them, as was Darcy, who held a small white metallic box close to her chest.

"I…" he lowered his eyes and grimaced, then he clutched his head. "I… can't… I…"

"Oh, God, amnesia," Darcy murmured.

"Jane!" Selvig put one of his arms around Loki's shoulders for support again. "He needs medical attention now! Leave that and help us!"

He closed his eyes, and left his "rescuers" do. Erik helped him into the vehicle, while Darcy started the engine. Jane hopped in just as they started moving.

Hospitals were a more or less safe place, and Loki knew it. They were ideal to spend a night and collect your thoughts or just seek a safe haven for a few hours. It was also quite convenient that he had found out good-willed people, since he couldn't use his powers to shield himself from hostile eyes. But what Odin couldn't seal was his brain. That was the main difference between the two brothers: If you stripped Thor off his strength and Mjolnir or the weapons he had been using before he inherited it, what remained? Only his charm when dealing with maidens (which, in some cases, was debatable), and his bravado. Loki, however, had his wits and his way with words.

He feigned losing consciousness as soon as he sat inside the vehicle, so he could have enough time to observe the various attempt at advanced technology, but which looked more like the electronic experiments Thor and him made under the surveillance of their tutors when they are infants.

His rescuers' conversation was hushed and scarce at first, mostly dealing with Darcy's driving skills and how the girl had run him over, to what Darcy rebutted that it had been Jane's fault in the first place for plunging them into the base of a supernatural lightning tornado at fool speed, and then swerving the wheel like she did. The argument ended when Selvig claimed the girls were giving him a headache.

Under the right circumstances, Loki would have enjoyed himself playing a prank of them to get even but, without his powers and with no way back home, he had to rely on what little help these strangers could give him. What distressed him the most was knowing that Thor was alone. Just when he needed to be restrained the most, Odin separated them. Loki could only imagine the havoc his brother's temper could be causing at that moment in Asgard, or the things he could be yelling at the Allfather while drunk with rage.

Brother…

Where they brothers after all?

The moment that Frost Giant grabbed his arm kept playing in his mind. His skin should have been burnt from the extreme cold which disintegrated his armor, but he didn't feel any pain. Instead, his skin turned blue, and swirling patterns appeared along his arm, like those of the Frost Giants. It had slowly disappeared as soon as the contact broke, but that Giant had seen it, and the both stopped their fight for a fraction of a second and locked their eyes. There was a silent question in the fierce Giant's face, one that Loki silenced with a dagger through the heart.

But that question kept repeating inside his mind.

What if…