Thor and Loki were so kind, they claimed that if the plan was to have any real effect, neither Jane and I could know what it was, so as to elicit real and natural responses from us. The only time I heard something of what they were planning was Loki vehemently protesting against something, although I wasn't sure what. Whatever it was, it couldn't be that bad because it looked like Thor was able to convince Loki do go along with it.
When they finally finished, Thor went back to Jane and Loki beckoned me back to his side.
"What I could've done with the power that runs through those veins."
"It would've consumed you."
"She's holding up alright. For now."
"She is strong in ways you could never even know."
"Say goodbye."
"Not this day."
"This day, the next, one hundred years, it's nothing! It's a heartbeat. You'll never be ready. The only woman who's love you prize will be snatched from you."
"And will that satisfy you?"
"Satisfaction is not in my nature." Well that certainly wasn't his attitude last night.
"Surrender is not in mine."
"Son of Odin–"
"NO! Not just of Odin! You think you alone were loved of mother? You had her tricks but I had her trust."
"Trust? Was that her last expression? Trust?! When you left her defenceless to die!?"
"What help were you in the hall!?" Thor advanced on Loki.
"I saved her. I SAVED HER LIFE!"
"But she's still gone. She's still as good as dead!" Thor grabbed him by the shoulders and shoved him backwards against one of the engines, hand to his throat and the other ready to punch.
"She wouldn't want us to fight." Thor set Loki back on his feet.
"Well she wouldn't exactly be shocked." Thor smiled sadly.
"I wish I could knew if I could trust you." Some things would never change and it looked like Loki was truly hurt by his statement.
"Trust my rage." Loki whispered.
"You have your own mortal to lose. Why rub mine in my face when you know I can do the same?"
"Because I'll have three to four hundred more years to get her an apple from Idun." Thor opened his mouth.
"Don't ask." I cut him off as Loki pulled me back across his lap, "An apple from Idun?"
"Idun is the keeper of the golden apples of youth. She is also the goddess of youth and fertility. Whoever consumes one shall become immortal and be forever young."
"But why would it take you hundreds of years to get one?"
"Odin thought that she was being to lenient with who received the gift of immortality and for that, he banished her from Asgard. No one knows where she is now."
"But you think you can find her?"
"I am positive. She would have drawn attention in Vanaheim and Midgard and most of the realms cannot support her apples so that leaves Alfheim. I'll find her. I promise you." He whispered that last bit to me, his breath brushing the shell of my ear and making me shudder.
We flew around aimlessly for the next hour or so and Thor was growing more and more anxious by the second. At first, he spent every moment with Jane, trying to wake her up but she refused to stir. As more time passed, he floated around the speeder, looking at the wreckage from the battle more than five thousand years ago. Unlike Thor, Loki had no trouble staying in the same place. He was very content to stay sitting by the steering stick with me draped across his lap. His hands were in constant motion and he never had me stay in one position for too long. He and I both knew that I was trying to hide my soreness and discomfort left from last night and he was really making an effort to massage anything that hurt. After that, he settled for straddling me over both of his legs, keeping our fronts pressed together. I had my head resting on his unarmored shoulder and he leaned his on top of mine. To put the cherry on the cake, Loki had his hands on my back, angling his nails just right to scratch through my clothes.
I must've fallen asleep because the next thing I heard was Loki's voice whispering in my ear.
"Kitten, you're drooling." My head shot up and sure enough, there was a wet patch where my mouth had been.
"I'm sorry, Loki."
"I find it adorable. Show your wings again?"
"Again?"
"When you fell asleep."
"Mmmm." I let them out and Loki wasted no time taking hold and brushing my feathers with his long, thin, and dexterous fingers. I was about to fall asleep again when Jane got up and went to the side of the speeder, looking at something in the distance.
"Jane." A large, black, T-shaped ship was descending from the clouds.
"Malekith." Her voice was different but that didn't last long. The ship landed in a large, flat area so Loki landed the speeder some distance away, up a hill. When we disembarked, I found that the ashen ground was much like sand, my feet sunk a bit into it and the wind was sweeping up swirls of it. The four of us kept low to the ground as we approached the ridge. Loki drew me close when about a dozen figures emerged from the ship and walked halfway across the field before stopping.
"Alright, you ready?" He was looking at Jane.
"I am." Jane looked in our direction, her eyes electric blue instead of soft brown.
"For what?"
"Stay down." The two brothers stood up to their full heights, drawing Malekith's gaze.
"You know this plan of your is going to get us killed."
"Yeah, possibly." Loki held his still-cuffed hands out to Thor.
"You still don't trust me, brother?"
"Would you?" Despite what he was implying, he unlocked the cuffs. Loki rubbed his hands and wrists as he turned back.
"No I wouldn't." This wasn't Loki. Something was up. But I didn't have time to check his eyes because Loki stabbed Thor and shoved him down the hill.
"Thor!" Jane got up and I rushed after her while Loki jumped after Thor.
"Jane, wait!" Thor's fall had stirred up a giant ash cloud, drawing Malekith in our direction and Jane running after them only made it bigger. We arrived at the bottom seconds after Loki.
"You really think I cared about Frigga? About any of you?" Loki kicked Thor across the face.
"All I ever wanted," When he turned, I stopped short. His skin was blue and his eyes blood red. I hadn't really seen his Frost Giant form since he held me captive in Stark Tower, "Was you and Odin dead at my feet and an Angel enslaved to do my bidding." Thor reached out to pull his hammer to him but Loki grabbed his wrist and mercilessly chopped his hand off. Thor yelled in pain and the hammer soared past him. It was only then that Loki stood back and allowed Jane to go to him but grabbed me before I could follow.
"Play along, little Kitten." He hadn't called me Kitten to be mean since New York but I wasn't really paying attention to his words, I was far too curious about the cold touch of his skin. It had almost given me frostbite when I tried to touch it the first time. My subconscious still understood his warning and I grabbed his hand with both of mine. Satisfied that I got the message, he seized Jane around the waist and pulled us both to Malekith. Now that we were closer, I could see that ten of the twelve were just soldiers and the other was the beast that had stabbed Frigga.
"Malekith! I am Loki of Jotunheim, and I bring you a gift." He threw Jane to the ground between us but kept me, "I ask only one thing in return. A good seat from which to watch Asgard burn." The beast turned to Malekith and whispered something in another language. Malekith looked at Loki again but headed over to Thor. Loki remained strong and silent, standing tall to assert dominance.
"Look at me." Thor was still writhing in pain so the dark elf nudged him with his foot and rolled Thor onto his back. Then, without looking away, he raised his right hand and Jane floated into the air. Her feet were well above our heads and an unnatural wind swirled around her, making it look like she was underwater. When Jane stopped her ascension, Malekith actually looked at her. On cue, a red, liquidy substance flowed out of her and floated in the air some distance from her. The entire experience was very surreal. Once the flow stopped, the floating red substance was big enough to be some alien right out of Star Trek. Jane dropped to the ground.
"Loki, now!" I was suddenly dropped back on my feet as Loki removed his spell on Thor's hand, restoring it and allowing him to summon Mjolnir. Everything was happening so fast, Loki dove for Jane, positioning his body over hers as a shield and Thor used his hammer to electrocute the Aether.
"Mira!" Loki was looking at me with pure terror in his eyes. I looked back at the Aether, it was smoking as millions of megawatts of electricity surged through it. I did all I could with the little warning I had been given. I wrapped my wings around myself as best I could milliseconds before the Aether shattered and the darker of the two suns in the sky eclipsed the brighter one.
When everything went silent and all I heard was ringing in my ears, I let my defences down to see nothing but a giant cloud of smoke and ash. It faded quickly, however, and everyone recovered from the brief confusion. Thor was on his feet, Loki was crouched over a very confused and dazed Jane a few feet away, the dark elves hadn't moved, and the Aether was on the ground in tiny, glass-like shards. That is, until they levitated into the air and re-joined to form a liquid before rushing into Malekith. The dark elf let out a pained cry but when it was over, his skin was no longer a pale white but an ashen gray. But that wasn't the creepiest part. His eyes were blood red, the very color of the Aether.
We had failed.