The Last Shifter (a Loki romance)

Chapter 94

Rest In Peace, Stan Lee

In the past few weeks since Ammon had warned me about the Power, but he'd yet to contact me about Ronan making a move. A couple weeks ago, Loki had managed to convince me to go visit Jane for a couple days. Thor had been living with her, but he had given us our space. I could tell that he'd wanted to ask me where I'd been and how I was doing, but had managed to hold his tongue. I could tell Jane knew about my 'shortened life span', she gave it away with stolen glances and almost nostalgic wording. I had wanted nothing more than to correct her, to tell her that Loki was still alive, but I knew she'd tell Thor so I didn't. Jane and I did as much as we could to pretend that we were just normal, mortal friends. We went to the mall, saw a chick flick in the theater, and spent a day at an expensive spa, but there was a dark air that hung around us in those moments of silence when neither of us could think of anything to say.

I hadn't used the Bifrost to get to Midgard, instead I used the secret portal. However, getting back was a bit of a challenge. After bidding Jane farewell, I took my bags and went up onto the roof of her building. From there, I drew on the power of my rings as much as possible and pictured my chambers on Asgard. It would be a long shot, but it worked. I knew the energy was well-spent when I made Loki jump out of his skin. He'd just emerged from the bathroom totally nude when I popped into the room.

"Jesus!" He'd heard me say it often enough, I was rubbing off on him, "What the hell, Arista!"

"Sorry!" I snickered, "I'll give you some warning next time, but I wasn't sure if it would work." He stopped trying to cover himself and came over.

"How was your visit?"

"Good. Slightly awkward, but it was lovely to see her." He embraced me.

"This is new." He was looking at the leather jacket I had on. His skin had turned Jotun where the cold metal had touched his skin, and he let it overtake his body.

"Yes it is. Courtesy of Jane's huge salary."

"And the rest of what you have is too?"

"Hey, two bags is nothing! She had, like, four." Loki laughed a bit.

"I will never understand Midgardian women and their need to shop." I took off my jacket and his face became one of mock-betrayal. I was wearing a casual Avengers T-shirt.

"What? We thought it was funny. Plus it's nice and soft." He shook his head.

"We can talk about this later, right now I intend to welcome you home properly." I grinned.

"What are you smiling about?"

"Oh, nothing." I whispered something in his ear, and it confused him.

"What's a Brazilian?"

The next morning, I was up early, as it was my turn to be on the throne, but my plans were brought to a screeching halt when an alarm went off. It was a mental one, audible only to me, and it was the last one I wanted to hear. It was the alarm that the Power had been taken. As soon as it registered, I dropped my toothbrush, spat and rushed to get the paste out of my mouth, and ran back into the bedroom, where I shook Loki awake.

"Alright, alright!" He groaned, "I'm awake! What's wrong?"

"The Power. It's been taken!" That woke him up.

"Did Ammon contact you at all?"

"No. I need you to get on the throne. And I may need some energy."

"You got it. Go."

"I love you."

"I love you too. Be safe." I nodded and summoned my battle armour and stood back, picturing my destination. I hadn't been there in centuries, but it was a place where I had spent a lot of time as a child. It was the only remaining colony of the Shifters. It was totally uninhabited, Thanos's wrath had turned it from a paradise to a barren rock of volcanoes and geysers. The only reason it wasn't totally destroyed is because it was farthest from the Motherworld and the only reason I'd spent so much time there is because one of my father's brothers had lived there.