Continuing Tales

Overlapping Spaces

A Marvel Movieverse Story
by Khilari

Part 33 of 37

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Overlapping Spacesl

Time passed and Loki couldn't tell how long, except that his drink was still hot when he finished it, the warmth of it pooling in his belly. Everything around him seemed hazy, muffled, but when he started to focus again Jane was talking about her research, and he let the words sink into his brain passively, driving out other thoughts lurking beneath the haze. Jane offered to show him her laboratory; there were guards around the tesseract and they straightened when he entered. He did the same in response, but Jane just ignored them, so he followed her instead and listened to her talk about her equipment and her research. Possibly she could make a Bifrost with some adaptations of some of it, he thought. He offered a suggestion at one point and she smiled at him, bright and slightly forced.

After a while they returned to the other room, with the softer furniture and without equipment. Dr Selvig didn't come with them this time, he'd drifted over to the tesseract and the guards hadn't stopped him. Loki could feel its pleasure, he remembered it had liked Dr Selvig before, he hadn't minded, had been glad to be able to provide it with someone it was so happy about.

Jane made more hot chocolate and offered him something called a Pop Tart, although he had doubts about the translation and suspected the Alltongue was doing its best with some form of nonsense word. He declined a second one, not sure why this amused her, and agreed to eggs. Jane discarded a few as spoilt but cooked the rest and handed him a plate, then eventually settled on the other end of the couch, hands curled around her own mug. 'So,' she said slowly, 'would you mind going over some of what happened back there with me? I feel like I missed a few points. Probably a lot of them magical.'

Loki shivered, but the food was doing a lot to restore him physically at least, and he was starting to feel less panicked, less like he had to get awaynow as if his crimes were stalking him like a snow lion. 'Where should I start?'

Jane shot him a sympathetic look. 'This is kind of going backward, but what exactly happened with the tesseract? I -' She sighed. 'I feel bad about bringing you here for a number of reasons, but it seemed to me like we were... somewhere and nowhere and it wanted a destination you weren't giving it. And I had no idea where we were going to end up and kind of freaked out.'

'I don't know where we were,' Loki answered. The exact way the tesseract worked...he could feel it, when they were connected, but he couldn't understand it when they weren't. 'I didn't give it a destination. Nowhere I could think of was a good idea.'

'Okay. Maybe I'll ask it later. Or something.' She blew across the surface of her mug. 'I'm guessing the elf who broke into your room did something to the bracelets.'

'Yes.' Loki took a mouthful of egg, chewing and swallowing it carefully. 'It seemed necessary at the time, to have a way to act if I needed to. They said Odin would be too slow, that I knew things he didn't. I should have known better than to listen to elvish flattery.'

Jane didn't comment on that. Instead she said pensively, 'And Malekith... wasn't physically there for very long after he got loose, was he.'

'I don't think so. I don't know how long he had been an illusion, but I'm sure he was long gone by the time we realised.'

'Probably no point in arguing over whether we saw an apple or not, then.'

'No.' Loki looked down at his plate. 'He threw it to me and it turned black, because of the frost. You really didn't see it?'

'No. And none of this is making a lot of sense to me - I don't know why he'd want us to see different things, I can't see why a metal apple would react to frost and your hands were not actually that cold anyway, and I don't know when he'd have gotten one.'

'I don't know either. I don't know how the apples work, they're metal and they're alive anyway.' Frost was death. Frost would creep across the garden, covering the fountain and encasing the frogs like insects in amber, withering the grass and leaving the butterflies dead on the ground, like scraps of abandoned silk.

Jane reached over and put her hand on his, and held on, even though there was a fork in it. He realised he was shivering. 'I certainly don't understand that, but I can't see why they'd react to cold worse than a normal apple. I think he was trying to upset you.'

'He was rather successful at that.' Bare and broken branches and scattered leaves and feathers in drifts against the walls. 'I don't know how he did it, but the garden...it's broken. I don't even know what that will do to Asgard.'

Jane paused, and he felt her shudder, but she said, 'My point was more - I'm not sure that's true. He didn't exactly have a lot of time, and wouldn't an illusion have been easier than actually somehow getting to it in less than two minutes and doing a lot of damage?'

'I can usually tell when something's an illusion. But I couldn't this time, when it was Malekith. I held the apple, though. I specialise in illusions, and they don't do that. You can't touch them.'

Jane swallowed. 'I still - never mind. Okay.'

'I wish I could believe it wasn't real.' It was like being trapped in a nightmare and knowing he couldn't wake up. What was he going to do? Staying on Midgard was impossible. Staying anywhere was impossible, no world would want him and they'd send him back to Asgard if they could. Except Alfheim, and Alflyse was in on this. Maybe Nidavellir? He could pass for a dwarf if people didn't look too closely, and it was unlikely he'd be found there.

'The apple is still... weird,' Jane said, leaning down to put her mug on the table and then shifting closer to him so she didn't have to stretch to reach his hand. 'But I'm still not sure the rest of it makes sense either. You know the garden was fine while Malekith was still imprisoned. I can't see how he'd have had time to do anything to it.' She frowned. 'There has to be some kind of security. If somebody could just walk in and break the garden in sixty seconds, it would've happened earlier. It's not like anybody let him visit.'

'I -' Loki pulled away from her hand long enough to put his fork down and set his plate aside, before holding it properly. It was warm. 'I don't know. I just saw it broken, you can't even imagine...the trees were...' His voice was shaking.

Jane swallowed hard. 'It sounds absolutely horrible,' she said. There was a tremor in her voice too. 'And I really, really hope it isn't true.' She bit her lip and then went on, 'I'm sorry. Whether it is or not, I wish I hadn't-' She stopped suddenly. 'What do you mean you saw it?'

Loki looked at her, puzzled. 'I saw it. There was a dead bird...a starling with enamelled feathers...the branches were broken from the trees.'

'You didn't go anywhere.' She was frowning. 'I didn't think you did the distance-seeing thing?'

'I don't...farseeing is a difficult skill, and not one I've studied.' Loki answered without thinking and then stopped, trying to think. When had he seen it? He couldn't remember. It didn't feel like a vision, it felt like a memory with no event. Like memories from early childhood, where he perfectly remembered Frigga with pearls in her hair and holding a violet but had no context for the image, no idea what had been happening around it. Only in this case there should have been context, should have been something besides a memory with no possible event it could have come from. He rubbed at his forehead.

'I think...' Jane looked a bit more hopeful, but she fell silent for a long moment while he thought, then picked up again, 'Well, we know Malekith isn't trustworthy. And that he apparently likes messing with people's heads.'

Maybe. It wouldn't be the first time he'd had to distrust his memory, and Malekith had used mind magic before. There was no way he could have seen what he remembered seeing, and he wanted so much to hope that it hurt. 'He must have done something. He needed Asgard to believe I'd worked with him, he did something for me to be blamed for.' Something Loki deserved the blame for, for falling for Malekith's tricks.

Jane hesitated. 'What about escaping?' At Loki's doubtful look, she went on, 'Well, we know that part. And... I kind of hate to say it, but maybe he meant them to think you'd worked together to get both of you loose. If the messenger was his, say.' A wince. 'Maybe he expected you to leave.'

'I'm sure the messenger was in on it with him. I think Alflyse was, although I'm not really sure what she intended to get out of it.' It was hard to think, every time he tried to think about it logically he wound up with images of broken animals, crushed flowers and scattered leaves. 'I really didn'twant to leave,' he added miserably.

'I really hope this isn't her idea of courtship,' Jane said. 'And - honestly, I think they'd want you to come home no matter what he did.' She bit her lip, looking at him. 'Do you mind if I hug you?'

'It actually might be.' She'd always wanted him or Thor, and the messenger had taken care to hint that she'd welcome him and that he was her first choice. There was something about this as courtship that make his skin crawl, in a way that manipulation in the service of just about anything else hadn't. 'And I don't mind.' He could really use a hug.

'Oh good.' Jane let go of his hand to do it, and something about the way she held on and leaned her forehead against his shoulder made him think she'd really wanted a hug herself too. Loki bent his head down and swallowed an altogether misplaced nervous laugh, thinking she should have known Asgard had chamomile; she'd obviously been washing her hair with something that smelt of it. Homesickness clenched in his chest and stomach, a hard knotted pain like a cramp. Nidavellir would be easy to get to from here, but he didn't want to live out his life in hiding there. He wanted -

The door banged open with the smell of open sky and lightning. Jane started and twisted around without quite letting go of him, and Thor stared at them from the doorway for a moment, looking huger than normal and wild-eyed with wind swirling in past him. Then he exhaled and seemed to shrink with relief and relaxation, and flopped into one of the chairs, which creaked alarmingly. 'There you are.'

Loki tensed, clutching at Jane without thinking about it as if he could hide behind her. Thor didn't look angry though; slumped in a chair looking as if he'd just had a fright and was relieved it was over he didn't even look particularly alarming. 'How did you find me?'

'And hi,' Jane said mildly, squeezing back just a little even as she shifted to face more comfortably outward.

'I had informed SHIELD that if they had need to contact me, they should shout Heimdall's name and he would pass on the message that followed it.' Thor smiled, looking weary. 'Which they did, but I wished they had said more. I was unsure what to expect or if you might be gone before I could arrive. They did say you believed some harm might have come to Asgard, and I was required to wait until Idunn's garden could be examined before leaving, because Mother said that was likely to be your fear. It is well.'

Jane slumped back against the couch, and his arm, with a soft relieved breath.

'It is?' It wasn't real, just a nightmare after all. Asgard was fine. The relief was dizzying. 'Does this mean I can come home?'

Thor gaped at him for a second, like a flounder confused by the presence of air. 'Can - of course you can come home!'

'Thank you.' It was almost a whisper, he felt choked and had to swallow. It really was over, he still had a place to return to, even after letting Malekith loose and putting everything at risk. 'I'm sorry. I - I know I don't deserve it.' It hurt, to say that to Thor of all people. But Loki owed it to him, perhaps, the acknowledgement that he understood how unworthy he was of a second chance.

'Loki,' Jane said, while Thor went on looking completely lost in the conversation, 'don't-' Words apparently failed her, and she hugged him again instead.

Thor shook himself and straightened in the chair, which complained again. 'Loki, there was never - I didn't know you thought you couldn't! Why do you think I was looking for you?'

'In case I hurt someone, I suppose, last time I was on Midgard...' He looked at Thor and then quickly looked down again. 'They wouldn't be happy if you left me here - although I never intended to come here - I don't think anywhere would be happy to be stuck with me.'

Thor stood up and came around the table, and then - apparently deciding that looming was a poor idea - sat down on the couch at Jane's other side. 'I came to bring you home, Loki. We've always wanted you there. If the garden were destroyed, I would still have come.'

Loki leant slightly towards Thor's presence, managing to hold onto enough dignity to not just slump against him. The mixture of magical and emotional exhaustion was probably to blame, normally if he felt like this it would be the end of some adventure and he'd be resting against Thor by a campfire while Volstagg handed him a plate of food. At least if he wasn't trying to pretend he wasn't tired out and snapping at them as a result. He blinked away the sudden rush of memories.

Thor reached over a little hesitantly; he looked like he might embrace Loki by the neck, but then lowered his hand to grip him by the arm instead, just below the elbow, and relaxed when Loki didn't pull away. 'I feared you wouldn't want to come.'

'Are Mother and Father angry?' Facing them was going to be hard, no matter how relieved he would be at going home.

'A little,' Thor admitted, looking as if he'd rather not. 'More worried, but I suppose Father may shout more once he knows you're safe. Ah - Malekith left mind-spells on your attendants, and at first they were saying you'd conspired together, but I think perhaps he did not understand their profession.'

'He did that to me as well. I'd rather like it taken off.' Knowing the garden was fine didn't stop the images of destruction every time he thought about it.

'I can do that,' said Birla. Loki jumped a little at the sound of her voice; it did make sense for Thor to have brought her, especially if they knew Malekith had been using that type of spell, but he'd been so focused on Thor that he had no idea when she'd come in.

Considering Birla was professionally obliged - or had been - to observe him and had seen him in any number of embarrassing situations so far it probably wasn't worth worrying about being seen half collapsed on his brother and Jane. 'If you would.'

Birla walked over and rested a hand lightly against his forehead. His first reaction was an instinctive attempt to reject the magic, pulling his defenses into place, but she simply held the spell without pushing it until he reined that in and allowed her to proceed. Rough, cold, stinging, the sensations were unavoidable, a mental scouring that felt rather like it sounded, but left things clean in its wake. The images of the garden cleared away, along with the remains of the panicky feeling that Asgard couldn't possibly be somewhere he could go. He was still nervous about facing Odin, he still remembered the fear and guilt of believing Idunn's Garden destroyed, but when he thought about the garden he remembered it as he'd seen it with Frigga, beautiful and whole.

'Thank you,' he said.

Birla smiled at him. 'It's what I came for.'

'Can you check me, actually?' Jane asked abruptly. 'I'm not sure he bothered and I haven't noticed anything, but last time...'

'Of course.' Birla put her hand against Jane's forehead in turn; Jane squeezed her eyes shut. After a few minutes she pulled back. 'I think you were fine, but I used the counterspell in case.'

'Thank you.' Jane blinked a few times, looking relieved.

Loki sat up a bit and rubbed his eyes. 'When were we going back?' With Thor here it was almost certainly safe to fall asleep, but he'd still rather not do so in the middle of a group of people he'd been at war with once. And maybe he wouldn't really believe he was going back to Asgard until he was there.

Thor's hand moved up to grip his shoulder. 'We will have to fly back - we are some distance from the Bifrost site.' He paused, looking from Loki to Jane to Birla. 'It might be more comfortable to make multiple trips.'

'I can wait,' said Jane. 'Actually, I could probably get a flight out there myself. We'll figure something out, anyway.'

'I can wait as well,' Birla told them. 'I think you two getting back as soon as possible might be a good idea, the King and Queen are worried and still have no idea what is happening.'

Loki nodded and levered himself to his feet.

'You might undo the spell that conceals you from Heimdall now, brother, if you haven't,' Thor suggested, standing with him. 'But aye, let us be off. Jane, will you give my regards to SHIELD?' He bent to kiss her swiftly.

'Sure.' She gave them both a quick hug and stepped back. 'I'll tell them to alert air traffic control.'

'I'm sure that is a good idea.' Thor slung an arm around Loki's shoulders and led him toward the door.

Loki leant against Thor, not really paying much attention to where they were going. Presumably Thor knew, and it was enough at the moment that one of them did. SHIELD personnel gave them strange looks as they went past and Loki ignored them completely. Thor just smiled at them, and Loki wondered if he realised how strange this would seem from their perspective.

They kept going up, and Loki realised part of the way there that they were probably going to the roof, so he wasn't terribly surprised when the door at the top of the last stairway opened on clouded sunlight. Thor shifted his grip to Loki's waist. 'Hold on.' He always said that. It was never actually necessary.

Loki wrapped his arms around Thor and rested his head against Thor's shoulder, positioned so he wasn't jabbing Thor in the neck with his helmet. It occurred to him, rather belatedly, that after spending months avoiding Thor this should feel strange, but he'd done it too often before for it to be anything but a comfortable position to be carried in.

Thor hoisted Mjolnir. There was a little jolt as it took them off the ground, and then Loki shut his eyes against the wind streaming over them. Once they were in the air he had a brief memory of Thor throwing him from the Bifrost, but even before he could tell himself it was fake it was overruled by memories of all the other times he'd done exactly this and been delivered safely to his destination.

It was a long flight; that was the thing about living on whole planets, they were huge. Thor's grip on him was warm and solid and utterly secure. It said a few things about Thor, that as soon as he'd had Mjolnir he had started gleefully flying Loki and their friends about, and only one of them was that he liked to show off.

The angle of the sun changed over them, and at last their own angle of approach changed, feet downward, and Thor lowered them to the ground with the wind whipping their capes together and dust scudding over the intricate knot of the Bifrost mark. 'Are you ready?' he asked quietly.

Loki remembered he was still hidden and cleared away the spell obscuring him from Heimdall, before answering. 'Yes.'

Thor let him go briefly and then hugged him - no utilitarian excuses, and that insistent tendency to pull Loki close by the back of the neck as if his head were an essential participant in the embrace, which he didn't do to anybody else. Thor pressed their foreheads together for a few seconds and then stepped back, smiling, and with water standing in his eyes that hadn't been called there by the wind. 'Heimdall!' he bellowed, tilting his head back. 'Open the Bifrost, my brother and I return home!'

Overlapping Spaces

A Marvel Movieverse Story
by Khilari

Part 33 of 37

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