Tricksters and Gods

Chapter 20

Thor was with Loki. Odin had not been happy when he found out Loki had essentially broken into the systems in place that kept the palace safe, but the fact was that if he hadn't, then more would have died.

He also hadn't taken the news that Tony Stark could have hacked the entire thing in thirty minutes or less very well either.

It was Thor's plan to remove the Aether that had Loki most on edge though.

"Let me get this straight. You want to take the Aether to Malekith and attempt to destroy it once he removes the energy from Jane."

"It will be vulnerable once he removes it from Jane," said Thor.

"Are you really this much of an idiot or are you just pretending to be? Never mind, don't bother to answer. Every time I come back I'm reminded why Earth is so much easier to tolerate."

Thor looked suitably offended.

Loki sighed.

"This...might be the most insane, idiotic and outright brainless thing you have ever come up with...however..."

Thor perked up.

"It's also the best chance we have of containing the Aether safely before Malekith can use it. The only issue would be the chances of the arc reactor's energy combining with the Aether," said Loki.

Thor made a point to check if anyone was listening. He had already done it by coming to Loki to suggest what could very well be treason of the highest order. But considering what he did know of the arc reactor's energy source it was best to make sure.

"Are we absolutely certain no one can overhear this?"

Loki rolled his eyes.

"Gabriel has full control over Asgard's defenses. No one would come near us without him telling me. And this area is laced with enough spells that no one would hear us anyway."

"I know there's a major risk, putting those two together. But the risk of Malekith is one I will not suffer idly. Besides, if we do this right, no one will realize what happened to the Aether outside of us. Especially if we give them a decoy," said Thor.

Loki looked quite impressed. This was almost cunning of Thor.

"You mean for me to make a second container, one with the Aether alone to throw them off," said Loki.

"All the realms are aware we have reclaimed the Tesseract. We would be fools to allow it to be placed in the same area as the Aether. So if we were to contain the brunt of it inside Gabriel's power core..."

"No one would realize until after they tried to put them together. I'm almost impressed, brother. I might actually praise you if we pull this off."

Thor knew that the Aether and the Tesseract were two of the six Infinity Gems. Only a fool would keep two of them so close together. A fool or a madman.

Loki looked at his brother, then brought up the PDA.

"Gabriel, if we succeed in containing the Aether in the reactor, I want you to start planning an escape route. Someone will sense what we've done and I for one don't want you destroyed by Odin because of well-justified paranoia," said Loki.

"Good thing I've had time to analyze the energy generated by the Convergence then. Though a little more data would be nice to have," said Gabriel

"With what we're about to pull, you're about to get more than enough. We cant risk staying on any of the nine realms known to Odin once he finds out what we're about to do," said Loki.