Chapter Text
Thor did not wake Loki up at eight by banging on his door and shouting that there were donuts on the common floor, and that to delay was to risk Clint and Tony (and, unspoken, Thor himself) eating them all.
He did not wake him by stomping around and loudly making pancakes, then offering to share in order to soothe his brother's irritation.
He did not even knock until he got a half-awake grunt in response before coming in and flipping his brother out of bed, his preferred method for when the Avengers had an urgent task that required their aid.
No, this morning Thor crashed into his room with the subtlety of a charging bilgesnipe and grabbed his shoulders, startling him awake at what he was almost certain was earlier than any thinking being had a right to be up.
Which was how Loki found himself blinking up at a clear lavender sky, sitting in a field of golden grass. Not the pale, weak straw of Midgard, either, but a heavy, rich gold, glittering and nearly oversaturated after his time on the human realm.
He blinked, taking a deep breath of air that smelled wilder and more clean than he was now used to. Vanaheim? But how did he end up here, when the reflexively cast spell should have taken him only a few feet at most, just far enough for him to get his bearings and respond if someone had attacked him? It should not have even been possible for him to come so far by mistake.
Something else about the landscape felt wrong as well, and it itched at him as he pushed to his feet.
He reached out with his senses and took a tentative step forward, only to have the soft grass beneath his feet fade out as he found himself standing in his room on Midgard once more.
"Brother, there you are," Thor said, worry heavy in his tone. The feeling of oddness, of wrongness passed, and he turned to face an uncharacteristically disheveled Crown Prince of Asgard. "I just received a telephone message from the Lady Darcy." Thor fidgeted anxiously, and though he looked ready to pace he was restraining himself for now. "Jane is missing."
His irritation with his brother for waking him so early evaporated as he took in the naked worry in Thor's eyes, his clenched jaw. "Where?" He cast a quick spell to summon in his armor, sans the helmet, and almost as an afterthought he summoned his brother's as well. While Thor could do it himself, Tony appreciated when more subtle measures were used, measures that did not involve the indoors of his tower being blasted by a column of pure lightning.
"London. I was going to fly there using Mjolnir but I thought—"
In the blink of an eye Loki found a Path and pulled them along it, depositing the two of them straight in the middle of a cobbled street. The soft electric light of the tower gave way to the glaring mid-morning sun, the still indoor air to a light breeze. When Thor froze Loki grabbed the base of his cape and dragged him out of the way of traffic, dismissing wide-eyed onlookers with an apologetic wave.
"Where is—" Thor began, but Loki shushed him, searching out a familiar spark of his own magic. The humans would likely not approve if they ever found out he'd fixed them with a short-range tracking spell, but they'd never noticed and he didn't intend to tell them. In any case, they had proven helpful more than once, so he wasn't sorry to have placed them. This one was faded—it needed to be renewed, much longer and he wouldn't be able to find it at all—but find it he did, and he grabbed Thor and pulled the both of them to the lot where Darcy Lewis was arguing with several officers of the law.
Thor frowned when he saw them and stomped over to intervene, but Loki paused, distracted by something he couldn't quite place. The air smothered him like a sticky, humid blanket, itching against his skin as though he were walking through a corridor of cobwebs; the sky held the color of a faded fabric, grey and uninteresting. Yet for all that, something drew his thoughts back to his unintended trip to Vanaheim only moments ago, some sense of history repeating. It was in the sense of something being off, the way the fabric of reality stretched and pulled in places like an ill-fitting garment.
He took a few tentative steps in the direction opposite where Thor and Darcy and the police were now involved in a three-way shouting match. The air felt eerily still and charged, and beneath the persistent smell of dust and oil and bodies that permeated large human cities he thought there was something older, faint stirrings of dead air that did not belong on this realm at all.
The shouting changed in pitch and the grey skies started to drizzle; Thor was agitated, but not yet so upset that he needed to intervene. Loki kept half an ear on their conversation as the rest of him tried to make sense of what he was feeling. He closed his eyes, doing his best to block everything around him and isolate the odd sensation.
There was a faint snapping that he felt rather than saw, as though the world around them had recoiled back to position like a released rubber band, and the sense of wrongness dissipated.
A heartbeat later, Jane Foster herself stumbled out of an old building and into the sunlight.
"Jane!" Darcy noticed her first, and Thor spun around, the anger and worry in his face draining to relief.
"It is good to see you well." Thor swept over, his cape trailing behind him, and pulled her into a hug that probably would have been more comfortable had he not been wearing metal armor. Jane allowed it without complaint, so either Thor was finally learning to be gentle or she was tougher than she looked.
"Thor," Jane said, pulling back. "When did you get here?"
"The Lady Darcy called to tell me you were missing." The police took a half-step forward, but Darcy cut the foremost of them off before he could speak.
"Hey Boss, you do know it's considered polite to, I don't know, tell the people you're with before you decide to vanish off the face of the planet?"
Jane frowned. "I was only gone a couple of minutes."
"Yeah." Darcy snorted. "No. Try more than an hour."
The officer took advantage of Jane's stunned silence to interject himself. "You people are still trespassing," he said, and a harsh look from Thor didn't even cause him to step back. Loki wasn't sure whether to admire the human's bravery or be appalled by his stupidity.
"No, I can't have been gone more than five minutes at the most." She pulled out her phone, taking a half-step forward as she showed them the time. She pulled it back to her, frowning as though the numbers were surprising, but Loki had already picked up an energy signature, something that most definitely did not belong on Midgard.
When he focused he could almost see it humming beneath her skin, an energy that wasn't hers, wasn't even compatible with her own. Worse than that, it was big, bright enough to his magical senses that he could not accurately gauge how powerful it actually was.
"Brother," he said, but Thor was too busy arguing with the law keepers again to hear him.
His arms shot out and, with a twisting motion, he pulled all of them a short ways away, under cover of one of the buildings and away from the rain and the officer who very well may have been about to arrest the Crown Prince of Asgard.
"Brother," he said again. "Something is very wrong."
Loki was doing that thing he did, the one where he said something worrying then went all enigmatic and vague when you tried to ask questions.
Once upon a time he might have done it on purpose, just to irritate his brother, but Thor didn't think that was happening now, and that made it all the more worrisome. From what Thor could make out, something was wrong with Jane, though he couldn't get Loki to specify what.
“Her energy is wrong?” he attempted to clarify, but Loki only shook his head.
“No, the energy isn't hers, it isn't even of this realm. It is inside her.”
“Jane is being possessed by space energy? That doesn't sound healthy.” Darcy's voice sounded level, but her eyes were a bit wild. He could relate.
“I don't feel like I'm full of any kind of energy,” Jane said uncertainly, looking between them with wide eyes somewhere between curious and scared.
It struck him that, disoriented as though he may be, he at least had some reference for this. Magical ailments, while uncommon and usually unpleasant, were not unheard of on Asgard. For Jane, however, living on a realm where magic was all but unknown, this must be even more terrifying.
Still, she carried herself well, facing the situation with courage. A rush of pride and affection pulled a small smile to his lips.
“I dunno, it sounds like maybe we should take you to see a doctor.” Darcy spread her hands, cutting off any protests. “I'm not saying anything is wrong, just saying maybe it would be a good idea to get checked out. Just in case.”
Thor crossed his arms. “If something is wrong with Jane we should take her to Asgard. The healers there are more advanced and will be better able to set it right.”
Darcy's eyes widened. “Whoa, you're going to kidnap Jane to space? Can I come?”
“I feel fine,” Jane insisted.
“You don't look fine. No offense,” Loki added quickly when Jane gave him a hard look. “But the energy I am seeing looks dangerous.”
Jane's glare faded to a sharp interest. “What does it look like?”
Thor made up his mind. “We are going. Heim—”
Quicker than thought Loki clapped a hand over his mouth, cutting the command short. Thor glared.
“Father won't like us bringing a mortal to Asgard.”
Thor shook himself free. “I care little what Father thinks. If they can help...”
“Brother,” Loki said, his patience sounding strained, “how long have you known me? When has ‘Father won't like it’ ever meant I thought we shouldn't do it? I am advocating a less conspicuous method of travel. If we do not announce our presence we are more likely to get her the help she may need before he decides to interfere."
“I don't want to cause any trouble.” Jane's normally steady voice was pitched with uncertainty, and the open anxiety in her tone softened him. She had to be frightened, and their arguing couldn't be helping matters. He was saved from coming up with reassurances, though, when Loki waved a hand.
“Don't fret,” he said smoothly, “we have a long history of bending our father's rules, myself especially. Believe me when I say we have done far worse for much weaker reasons than this.”
Well, that was more true than she knew. She still looked unsure, so Loki continued.
“Besides,” he added, “magical phenomena are a particular interest of mine. I'll admit I'm curious to see what this is.”
Anyone else would probably be offended; Jane seemed to relax and gave an understanding nod. Apparently her well-being was not a convincing enough reason in her mind to defy the Allfather, but satisfying an idle curiosity was.
Actually, when he thought about it that way, it did make a sort of Jane-sense.
She brightened a little. “When you figure out what it is, will you tell me?”
“I'll do my best, though I'm not sure how much you'll be able to understand.” Thor almost winced at the implied insult, but when she started to look offended, with that stubborn set to her jaw like she was about to argue, Loki moved to explain. “I'm afraid you and I speak a different language when it comes to describing the fundamental properties of the universe. I doubt the terminology of magic would hold much meaning for you, and I unfortunately do not understand enough of the language of your science to translate.”
She considered this, then nodded. “That's fair. But you'll try?”
“Most certainly.”
“This is actually happening.” Darcy looked between them again, her eyes wide despite the steadiness of her tone. “You're taking Jane to another planet.”
“Another realm,” Loki corrected.
“That doesn't make me any less jealous.”
Loki tilted his head. For a second, Thor thought he might offer to bring her along. “When we return,” he said instead, “I can take you someplace where visitors from foreign worlds are better received. Would that be an acceptable substitute?”
“Are you serious? Wait, nevermind, I don't care if you're serious, I'm holding you to that. Asgardians have to keep their promises, right? Honor culture and all that? You can't back out, it's too late.”
Loki nodded solemnly, eyes betraying his amusement. “Would I, the god of mischief and lies, lie about such a thing?”
“Oh no, you don't get to use—”
“Brother,” Thor interrupted, “we should go.” As entertaining as their banter might be, his brother's vague warnings left him with no idea how serious Jane's ailment was, and not knowing left him with a gnawing anxiety. While he wouldn't insult Jane by calling her fragile, Midgardians were remarkably susceptible to injury and illness.
Loki reached out and rested a hand on both of their arms, then with a stretched feeling and a flash of non-color like light behind closed eyelids the scene changed, and they stood in Asgard.