Darkness There, and Nothing... CH. 10 - Booyacashah (or the Interrogation Begins)

Chapter Ten

Booyacashah

(Or the Interrogation Begins)

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"Why did touching you allow her to use her talents?" Thor interrupted. Loki shot him a look, but the elder prince pressed on, "Was her gift a form of seiðr? Was that it? Or was it that your powers were compatible?"

"We didn't know," Loki replied, and for some reason the words wavered as he whispered them into the room. A brief flicker of pain cast a fleeting shadow across his face. "I still don't."

"If you had the use of her gift, then why did you not escape?"

Loki growled, "If you would perhaps allow me to finish—"

Thor held up his hand and Loki sighed before gesturing for him to ask whatever question preyed upon his mind. The crown prince hesitated, then asked, "Before you continue, I need to know…you are certain that Sophie's father is dead?"

Green eyes closed wearily. "Yes."

"You killed him."

Thin lips curled in a smirk and the pale prince replied, "I suppose, in a way, so did you. Yes, I think his blood stains your hands as well. Don't you feel it, Brother? The burn of innocent blood like acid against your skin? I know that pain well. The savage bite of regret…"

Hope flared in Thor's chest. "Then you regret it? Midgard, the attack on Jötunheim, sending the Destroyer? Coulson? Lying to me about Father?"

"I don't regret telling you Odin was dead," Loki said coolly. Thor flinched as if he'd been stung. Those cold eyes like glacial emeralds fixed on the prince's face. "It worked, didn't it?"

Thor frowned. "Worked? What do you mean?" When Loki said nothing, the Asgardian snapped, "If you mean you succeeded in breaking my heart, then yes. Yes, it worked, Brother. Are you pleased by that?"

"I am pleased that it worked, yes," he said softly. "And I do not regret what I did to your Agent Coulson, either. Or to Agent Romanoff, for that matter." Disgust twisted Loki's features, morphing them into a hideous mask. "That self-righteous little hypocrite, pretending to some higher purpose, some halo like an angel, as if she weren't doing the exact same thing I intended…only her betrayal was deeper. I never intended to help the Chitauri conquer Asgard. I only allowed them to think I would help lead the Midgardian invasion because I needed time until Sophie was…"

Loki's eyes squeezed shut. The hand he'd laid on the table convulsed into a fist so tight Thor's own knuckles felt the strain. His little brother drew a deep, shuddering breath that seemed as if it hurt. He hung his head, minute tremors shivering through his long, lean frame, and rasped, "I should have been there for Thea when…it was my task to be there, to help her, to try to…but I was busy. With more 'important' matters. Busy trying to play the charade to the end so the Chitauri wouldn't…but they killed her anyway. I should have expected it. The Chitauri always need fresh blood, after all. I was blind and foolish to think they would keep their word to me."

Thor leaned forward, propping his arms on his knees. Gazing at his brother intently, he searched the haggard features for some sign, some proof. Because Loki had said such things often before…but Odin would need definitive evidence, and so far they didn't have much.

"They would have let her live had you succeeded in conquering Midgard," Thor murmured. Loki pursed his lips. "And you would have…what? Made her your vassal? The wife of one of Earth's mightiest heroes brought to heel?" The words were sharp but the tone was gentle; surely Loki could see the folly of such an idea.

But his brother scoffed, flashing that irritating and familiar sneer that made Thor's blood boil in his veins. "One of Earth's mightiest heroes? Her husband was hardly that."

"Do not mock Coulson, Loki—"

"I wasn't," he replied wearily. "And I would not have made her my vassal." A faraway look came into Loki's eyes and the sorrow there suddenly seemed a thousand times heavier. As heavy as Mjölnir. "I would have made her my queen. I would have set her on a throne and given her a crown, would have demanded the Midgardians at last give her the respect she deserved. I would've protected her people, as you have failed to do."

"Her people?"

"The mutants," Loki said. "They are hunted by the so-called 'normal' mortals, attacked, often killed. Do you know how many times Thea had seen such violence? Her school where she tutored children of her ilk was a safe haven, but it was a rare one indeed. You're the protector of Midgard—how do you not know this?" Before Thor could reply, Loki added, "But of course it was stupid of me to hope the Chitauri would actually keep her and Sophie safe. Would actually spare them. If they couldn't harness her powers as a weapon, they would use her blood as a tool."

Oddly chilled, Thor shook his head. "Use her blood?" He echoed, just the words filling him with a strange sense of foreboding. "What do you mean, use her blood?

Loki's gaze took on a half-mad edge and shocks of blue threaded through the green as he whispered, "Don't you know? Chitauri power, their technology and their seiðr, is fueled by blood and pain. Agony resonates with their power. Anguish and despair feed it, make it stronger. The Chitauri are a parasite that feed on bloodshed and pain. Such things only give them more power. You've seen it…" Seeing Thor's baffled expression, Loki scoffed. "But of course, Brother, you had no idea what you were looking at."

"What are you talking about, Loki?"

There was a moment's hesitation, then Loki said, "After I tell you this, do you want the rest of the story? Because my answer will give you questions, but you must wait for their answers."

Thor weighed his options briefly before nodding. "I can wait, Brother."

"Your word?" Loki prompted.

"My word."

"Very well. You saw the thing I speak of on the day I stabbed Coulson with the Chitauri staff."

"What?" When Loki only smiled and shook his head in indulgent exasperation, offering only infuriating silence, Thor growled, "No! No, you cannot say things like that to me and then…" Then he recalled Loki demanding his word on the matter, and snarled like an enraged lion. "Well played, Brother. Very well, tell the rest of your story…but I won't forget this."

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"Then I can use my powers," Thea whispered. The single thread of hope in her voice was enough to nearly strangle Loki. He hadn't even noticed the absence of hope, with all of the girl's forced joviality, until it had returned. "We can get out of here."

Suddenly all of Loki's attention sharpened, focusing on the Midgardian woman. "What?" It was too much to hope for, too much to consider…but…but if they…

"If I can use my powers, then I can trick the guards into letting us out. I mean, it'll be hard—really hard, because I'll pretty much be casting blind—but it should work. All I have to do is make an illusion that their superior, whoever he is, comes up and tells them there's been a change of plans and to let us out and take us to the head guy. Whatever his name is. Except when they let us out, then I can hit them with, oh, I dunno…blindness. See how they like being stuck in the dark without being able to see jack."

Loki's heart threatened to shatter the fragile cage of his ribs as the full force of Thea's words struck him. Out? He—they—could get out? Out of this box, this coffin? Out into the light, the fresh air? He would see light, real light from the glowing surfaces he'd glimpsed illuminating the corridor before the Chitauri had shoved him into his cell and slammed the door. He would be able to feel the wind against his face for the first time in so long…

But it would take careful planning. Everything would have to be accounted for, every detail, every potential pitfall. After all, Thea couldn’t cast an illusion over the entire compound…could she?

Tasting something too wild to be hope and too light to be desperation, he asked her that very thing.

"Oh, tech-no. No way. Not that many people. I can do…well, in practice, the most I could ever do was a couple dozen, and they had to be in close proximity to each other—like, in the same room—and it couldn't be anything super complicated. This will definitely be complicated. I'll have to get the guys who let us out, but if we run into the guy I'm making the illusion of, I don't know what will happen."

Everything in him yearned, ached to scream that it didn't matter, that they would make a run for at the nearest opportunity, that they would escape no matter what it took…but Loki wasn't so far out of touch with sanity that he actually did so. All would be for naught if they slipped their shackles only to be caught outside their cells through an easily avoided mistake. They had to be rational about this. They had to be clever, cunning.

In truth, they might not be able to do it at all. That was a possibility that throbbed in his mind like a vicious toothache, leaving him edgy and restless as a prowling wolf in a cage.

And the thought of the outside world was like a siren song in his brain, whispering to him of everything he'd missed in the past six moons. Fresh air, real food, crystal-clear water. The song of the summer birds, the rustle of the wind through tall grass, the crashing surf against the shores of Asgard. So much; he'd missed so much, and now it all lay within his grasp if only—

"I'm a little giddy, actually," Thea blurted into the dimness. He turned to her, peering through the break in the wall to see she clutched her flashlight so hard the beam wavered as it illuminated her dirty, bloodied face. Her eyes were too wide in her face, Loki thought. She was slipping, as he was, now that possible escape tantalized so cruelly. "Are you giddy? Or is it just me? I hope it's not just me, or I'm going to feel pretty stupid.

"It'd be like that time I was at a party and everyone was drinking except me and they were just buzzed but I was all, 'Whooooo, whooooo.' Because of the smell, it was just getting to me, making me loosen up a little too much. Some people are like that, did you know? And, you know, semi-telepathic powers and alcohol don't mix, right? So I'd basically dropped acid because once my shields started flickering I was getting everybody's buzz and it was making my powers do weird things and I am so babbling right now, I am so sorry, we're supposed to be discussing important stuff but here I am, freaking out because I like you and all, but I wanna go home, this Evil Box of Darkness sucks even though the company's great and oh my gosh I'm freaking out, I gotta get out of here."

She bit down on her knuckles and squeezed her eyes shut, hunching her shoulders. "I'm sorry," she added desperately. "I'm sorry, I'm just not used to this kind of pressure. We can get out if I don't mess up, holy crap I'm gonna mess up, we're gonna get killed, I'm gonna get you killed and then I'll go to Hell for letting you die, Phil is going to murder me—"

"Thea," Loki said sharply, recognizing the rising hysteria and knowing he had to curb it now before she broke beneath it. Her gaze snapped to his face, her panicked expression framed by the edges of the hole in the wall. "It's all right," Loki added a touch more gently. "We need to plan first."

She nodded. "Plan. Plan is good. Why am I freaking out? I don't know. Oh, yes, I do. If I mess up, we die. You die. Why aren't you freaking out? I could get us killed."

"Then you will have to practice." If she wasn’t used to working under pressure, he would have to find a way to change that, to give her the necessary experience. And they didn't know all the limits implemented by the inhibitor collar. If she had to be touching Loki in order to cast her illusions, then that would make things very difficult. What if they lost hold of each other during the escape? What then? And what if there were more pitfalls?

"Practice?" Thea echoed, but not as if she was surprised. More as if she was trying to think of something. "The professor always said I needed to practice the more difficult stuff in case some whacked out stuff happened. I'll have to tell him he was right when I get back. Here's a question, though—how do we get out of here after we get out of our cells? I mean, if the Chitauri are aliens, then are we…are we even on Earth? If not, how do we get back to Earth? Or…where are you from? You're not a Martian—even with those gorgeous green eyes—so what planet are you from exactly? Would it be easier to make it back there instead?"

For some reason it was difficult for him to remember why it wasn't easier when she said things like that. Gorgeous green eyes. And she'd mentioned his eyes before…and his chin, strangely enough. She was flattering him; why? What did she hope to accomplish by it?

"Loki?" Her voice held an oddly vulnerable quaver to it that struck him in an odd way. What if…just perhaps…she wasn't flattering him? A woman—more of a child, really, as all Midgardians were compared to his race…or rather, Thor's race—held captive, frightened of the monsters and of being in the dark, longing for home…perhaps she needed him, truly needed him, as much as he was loath to admit he needed her. "Loki? Hey, are you okay?"

"Fine," he replied absently, shaken by the thoughts crowing into his brain. No one had ever needed him before. Thor had relied upon him in battle but somehow it wasn't the same. But she'd asked him a question. She'd asked him about Asgard, whether they could return to it. "No, we cannot go to…to my home." Or any of the other realms that knew of the Æsir, or they would send word to Odin as soon as Loki was recognized. "We would need to go to Midgard."

Thea sighed. There was a rustling and a soft thump as she slumped back against the wall. In the faint ambience of the flashlight, he saw her slender fingers creep through the hole in the stone, so white against the shadows. After a moment's hesitation, Loki covered it with his.

"You're trembling," he murmured. It was the first sign of actual fear—as opposed to simple nerves—he'd seen from her.

"I am freaking out. I don't know if I can do this. What if I can't project an illusion without touching someone? There's a girl I went to school with whose power is limited like that. I can't touch the Chitauri from in here. We'll be stuck, just like before."

"Then we will be no worse off," he said. "For now, you must calm yourself." So strange, that he should be the one gentling her, when she had been his savior mere hours ago. "Perhaps you can try practicing. You said illusions help you feel calm?"

Another sigh. "Yeah. Let's try that and see what happens."

That same tingling began in the tips of his fingers, buzzing across his palm and shooting up his arm to flood him with heat that washed down his spine and filled his veins with white fire. It didn't hurt. It felt almost like it should have, but it didn't. There was that same flash of light, vivid jade and creamy porcelain whiteness, and then a blinding flare of brilliancy that had Loki raising his arm to cover his eyes.

He felt the wind. It ruffled the long green tunic he wore, ran caressing breezy fingers through his hair. A hollow bongk, bongk, bongk filled the air. Steady percussion thudded through the firm, stony ground under his feet. Slowly, allowing his eyes to adjust to the glare again, he lowered his arm and looked around.

They were back on the strange stone courtyard, the sunlight shining down on them. His eyes suddenly felt wind-stung as he realized he could actually feel the sweet warmth of it gliding across his face, along his skin. Blinking away the moisture in his eyes, he drew in a deep breath and smelled the crisp sweetness of grass just after rainfall. Each blade shone vibrant and flush with green life in the golden glow of the sun. The playful zephyr carried with it the scents of fresh-laid hay, warm horse, clean leather, and timber; there was a stable nearby. Birdsong—how he'd missed simple birdsong—chirped and cheeped from the nearby stands of trees.

Thea stood beside one of the metal poles, bouncing the orange sphere—a ball, he realized now, though a somewhat large one—against the stone underneath her feet. With the surprise of the illusion dulled somewhat, Loki took a moment to actually look at her.

Chestnut hair fell in thick waves down her back; streaks of honey-blond from the sun twined through the coppery-brown tresses. A thin white shirt with three-quarter sleeves allowed her to move easily as she continued to bounce the orange ball. Her well-worn, blue trousers seemed to be made of some sturdy material, like canvas but somewhat softer. Words had been stitched everywhere in a myriad of colors.

"Hey," she called, beaming at him. "Catch."

The ball shot toward him. A strange itching sensation prickled at the nape of his neck, and his hands came up automatically to catch the ball. It was hard and rubbery, covered in tiny bumps, but warm from the sun. The crisscrossing black lines formed a pattern that reminded him a little of the red, white, and yellow lines painted on the slab of gray stone all around.

"It's a basketball," Thea said. Seeing his expression, she added, "You were looking kind of confused. Wanna play while we hatch daring and possibly suicidal escape plans? It’ll loosen you up, make you feel better."

It had been well over two centuries since he'd played any sort of childish sport involving a ball. He turned the carrot-colored sphere over and over in his hands. The texture against his palms had a distant relief twisting inside him; it was softer, warmer than stone, and didn't have the bone-smoothness of the stone walls of his cell. He tossed the ball back to Thea.

"I don't know how," he confessed. He could learn—he was clever and quick—but would she want to waste time teaching him when they had more important things to do? Why did it suddenly feel as if nothing were more important than learning to play this game of hers while the sun shone down on them and the breeze brought sweet scents from the outside world? Things Loki hadn't felt in so many days and weeks and months. They should be plotting their escape…but Thea needed the practice, they both knew that, and he wanted more sunlight, more fresh air.

He wanted…he wanted the world back: rain and wind and the crackle of a fire and the sting of smoke in the air, the spice of evergreens and the babble of a brook gurgling in its little bed, the softness of freshly-laundered bed linens and the humming notes of his mother playing her harp by the fire and…he wanted the world back. No more darkness. No more silence. No more loneliness.

"Okay, I only have a rudimentary knowledge," she emphasized the phrase with a caricatured scholar's voice, "of the game, but I know that you have to get the ball," she tossed it in the air a couple of times, "into the hoop." She gestured to the red metal hoop attached to the silver pole. "Like this," Thea added, tossing the sphere. It hit the red circle and bounced back toward the ground. "Okay, not like that. That was a failure. Don't do that. I'm no great shakes at this, so no mocking, okay?" She jogged over to the ball and scooped it up. "Let's try that again." After two more shots at the hoop, she managed to send the ball through the net. "Ha!" Thrusting her fists in the air, she gave a little hop. "Booyacashah!"

Loki's brows rose. "What did you say?"

Thea froze in the act of preparing to hop again. She jerked her arms down and held them against her torso, looking mildly embarrassed. In fact, if Loki hadn't known better, he would have said she was blushing. "I said," she mumbled, "'booyacashah.'"

"Beg pardon?"

"Boo-yah-kuh-shah. Booyacashah. It's like a victory cheer." She suddenly grinned. "You have to say it when you score a point."

The corner of Loki's mouth twitched. "Indeed." She nodded earnestly. "Is this a rule of the game?"

"It is when you play with me."

He wondered vaguely if she were mocking him…but there was no malice in her excited expression or in her eyes, lit with the freedom of being outside in the open. "I have to say…booyacashah?"

Thea nodded. "Here, you gotta practice. You gotta sound triumphant when you say it."

"Triumphant." The excited girl was absolutely serious; Loki could see it in her face, as plain as a campfire in the dark. "Is that right?"

"Mmm-hmmm. Come on, let's hear it. Just yell it out. Come on." When he just looked at her, she sighed in exasperation. "Oh, come on. You're playing around inside my brain, for crying out loud. No one can see or hear you except me. Come on. It'll make you feel more manly. Like, for real. I promise. Totally works for me. Please, Loki? Please?"

He couldn't help it; he laughed. "You won't give up, will you?"

There were so many other, more important things to be discussing at the moment…yet this girl's enthusiasm, her willingness to totally immerse herself in the freedom of the moment, the freedom of the illusion she'd created, made him want to forget for a time the danger that loomed beyond the walls of his cell. He didn't want to return yet, even in his thoughts, to that festering pit, even if it was just to plan their escape, he didn’t want to have to think of the darkness and the torture…or to the events that had transpired before he fell from the Bifröst.

"Nuh-uh," she replied, half-walking and half-bouncing over to him. She actually gave an excited little wiggle as she rocked back and forth from the balls of her feet to her heels and then back again. "Come on, I'll say it with you. Just take a breath and yell it out. Go, 'Booyacashah!' Come on. On three—one…two…three. Booyacashah!"

And though he felt a bit like an idiot, he said it with her. "Booyacashah."

Thea groaned. "Oh, that was terrible. That was prissy. You sound like someone's pulling your appendix out through your nose. Come on, give it some oomph. Some pizzazz."

"Pizzazz?" Where did she come up with these things?

"Yeah, you know, pizzazz. It's like pizza with two Z's at the end." He stared at her blankly. Her eyes widened and a look of horror spilled over her face. "Holy creampuffs dipped in dark chocolate, have you never had pizza? Okay, forget basketball for today. Food time. Hang on, close your eyes. Wait…you still haven't said it. Well, you said it, but it was more like a zombie groaning than a war cry. C'mon, show me what ya got."

Another laugh emerged. How bizarre; it was the third time he'd laughed in the last handful of hours, and all because of this childlike Midgardian who refused to be cowed—at least not cowed for long—by the darkness.

"All right," he agreed at last, and rolled his eyes when she hopped up and down, beaming like a child. Why did it excite her so much? "I will do it one more time."

"Okay. On the count of three. One—two—three—booyacashah!"

"Booyacashah!"

"Yes!" She dropped the ball, letting it bounce away from them, and jumped into the air as if her strange excitement buoyed her up. "Yes, you said it! Oh, my gosh, I'm so proud of you! Whoo! Do it again! Booyacashah!"

He was laughing now, though he had no idea why. The girl had to be mad. How else could she enjoy such a silly thing when so much darkness waited for them? But her enthusiasm was bizarrely infectious, pulling him in like gravity, so he obliged her, crying, "Booyacashah!"

"Booyacashah! Whoo! Yes! And when we kick those Chitauri's butts, then steal one of their gross little space-pod things and zip back home, we will wave at them through the windshield and yell that brilliant, glorious, and utterly high-larious word as we leave them choking on our space dust."

Shoving her hair out of her face, she grinned at him as if they were compatriots in some shared reckless venture involving the stars only knew what sort of mayhem. It was a smile like Thor had given him once, inviting him to share in the half-mad joy of whatever scheme his brother had come up with. Thea's smile slid between Loki's ribs like a knife, but the sheer exuberance of it somehow helped staunch the wound it left behind.

"One more time," she said, biting her lip lightly in her obvious excitement. "Please. Gotta hear it just one more time."

This was getting ridiculous…but he found himself matching her bright grin. "Greedy little thing, aren't you?"

"You should see me with key-lime pie-flavored ice cream," she replied, sliding her hands into the pockets of her odd blue trousers. "Get your fingers near my limey goodness, I'll shank you with an ice cream spoon. Come on, you say it different from me."

"And how is that?"

"It sounds all cute when I do it, but when you do it sounds kind of cool. As the kids are saying these days, it's epic. Must be your voice. If I had a deep resonant man-voice, it would probably sound cool when I did it too. I love that word, though. Booyacashah. It's from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles."

Now he knew he had to be hearing things. "What?"

"I'll explain after we move scenes. I mean, I seriously have to introduce you to pizza. You poor, poor man. No pizza ever? What kind of underprivileged planet did you come from? Unless you've had alien pizza. I wonder what alien pizza tastes like. Is it made from real aliens?" She seemed to think about this for a brief moment, then shuddered and mumbled, "Ew. How do I even think of this stuff?"

"Are you sure you're a tutor and not a court jester?"

The mortal woman perked up. "Why? Am I making you laugh?"

Loki chuckled. "Yes."

Her grin mellowed into a gentle smile and she sighed as if in contentment. "Good," she said softly. "You deserve a good laugh after everything you've been through, I think. So, close your eyes and I'll take you inside and we can—"

"Can we not stay out here?" The question escaped him before he could help himself. The ice-water of his Frost Giant blood helped keep a blush from burning too obviously in his cheeks, yet humiliation seared him. To beg to remain on the outing like some needy child…but it had been so very long since he'd been outside. This wasn't even truly the outside world, but the sun was so warm, the air so crisp and delicious with its fragrances. He didn't want to lose that yet, even if it was to go to the comfort of whatever place she would take him next.

A shadow of what might have been sadness passed over Thea's face. Did she want so much to go indoors? But then she said, "Okay, we'll stay outside, but we'll be somewhere better. I know the perfect place. Will you trust me?"

Did he have any choice but to trust her? If he wanted to continue to bask in the sun, then no, he didn't. Loki inclined his head. She smiled.

"Okay. Close your eyes."

Against his better judgment—what was she about to do?—he did as she instructed. Something cool and prickling slid over him, across his face and down his chest, slipping along his spine and down his arms, spilling around the length of his legs and over his feet. Pins and needles pricked his skin, though nowhere near as sharply as before.

Then Thea whispered, "Open your eyes."

He did, and felt his jaw go slack as he stared up, up, up…at the cliffs that speared the sky above the beach in Asgard. The ocean waves lapped at the golden sands. Hermit crabs, the first signs of life he'd actually seen in sixth months other than Thea, scuttled across the sand in their tiny shells. Gulls cried overhead. The sun was low, but not quite setting, over in the west. Loki kept glancing between the cliffs towering over him and the surf singing behind him before he turned his back on the craggy rocks and took several unsteady steps forward.

Suddenly his knees gave way and he sank to the sand. A tremor shook him as grief, sharp as a blade of ice, twisted in his guts. He bowed his head another shudder ripped through him. Some feral sound escaped him despite how he clamped his lips together.

Small, slender hands touched his shoulders. He wanted to twitch away from the intrusion at the same time that his body, left untouched for so long, leaned into the caress. A warm weight settled against him and he realized Thea pressed close, trying to peer into his face and decide whether she'd made a mistake or not.

After a long moment, he lifted his head and looked at her. He opened his mouth. Words sat on the tip of his tongue, heavy as stones and just as bruising. She shrank back a little at whatever she saw on his face.

"Thank you," Loki whispered before turning his face away. "Thank you."

Several moments passed in silence, then Thea asked, "This is where you live, right? You said you couldn't get there, so I thought I'd bring it to you." She hesitated. "Bad idea?" He said nothing. He didn't know what to say. She muttered something under her breath, then growled at herself, "Stupid. Stupid, Thea. Great job. Wonderful. I'm such an idiot." To him, she added, "Loki, I'm sorry. I thought this would make you feel a bit better, I didn't mean to upset you—"

"I'm in exile," he gasped, cutting off her apology. "I can never go home. I…I thought never to see it again."

Why was he telling her this? Why did she need to know? She didn't. Why was he telling her anything? Why didn't he rebuke her for what she'd done, snatching one of his memories without permission? Yet he saw how much she'd wanted to please him with this…gift. That was what she'd intended it to be—a gift. And it truly was…but a painful one.

"I'm sorry," she said again. The compassion in her voice surprised him. Why did she even care? Because he was trapped in the dark of the Chitauri dungeons with her?

Did it matter why, so long as she was kind to him? It had been so long since he'd known real kindness.

"Don't be," he whispered. "It was well meant."

Another hesitation, then Thea asked, "Do you want to go somewhere else? Anywhere you've been or I've been—or anywhere someone's been whose memories I have—I can take us there. Do you want to leave?"

It felt as if he were strangling slowly on the emotion and the words in his throat, but somehow Loki managed to shake his head. "I want to stay."

"Okay," she said. "No problem. Anything you want to show me?"

And suddenly there was. Anything, so long as he didn't have to remember why he would never see Asgard again—not just because of the Chitauri, but because of what he'd done, what Sif and the others had done, what Thor and his father thought of him. What his mother probably thought, now, too. And Balder and Hermod…what did they think? His little brothers…and Víðarr, so newly come home, and of course young Bellalyse. Loki had tried to spare a few moments to speak kindly to the girl, knowing a simple herdsman's daughter would find the palace overwhelming, to say the least.

He was thinking of his family again, he realized. He needed to stop that. Stop it now. They had no place in his life anymore. Loki shoved thoughts of his parents, his brothers, his new sister, and his friends from his mind because even the echo of memories of them raked his heart like talons. Why had he let go of Gungnir's haft? Why had he let himself fall into the abyss?

Because of Odin's disappointment and condemnation. Because he'd done what he could—with very little time to plan—for Asgard, to protect it, and his father had unequivocally rejected his attempts—

"Loki?"

He jerked himself from the circling, biting thoughts and focused on the girl beside him. He had something to show her, he reminded himself. Something that would help him to forget his family. Something that would perhaps test the limits of her gift, because surely it would be difficult to recreate it completely, and she needed the practice.

"Yes, forgive me. Come with me."

The disguised Frost Giant led the mortal across the beach, stopping to show her the hermit crabs in their pearlescent, rainbow-hued shells or a seagull's nest atop jutting boulders. He pointed these things out because they were small details that Thea had somehow provided for the illusion. Not only that, but the sand was thick and malleable as wet sand was in the real world; the beach smelled of seaweed and brine, wet stone and sun-baked sand drying in the salt air. He could not tell the difference. If he hadn't known this was an illusion, he never would have suspected it.

They reached the large stone jetty he'd often gone to when he'd needed a place to think quietly. Loki climbed the rock easily, but Thea had a bit more difficulty. When her foot in its inadequate Midgardian "tennis shoe" slipped over the slick surface, Loki quickly reached over and grasped her arm to steady her until she regained her footing. Her arm was slim and fragile in his grip. Her skin was warm beneath the thin material.

When they finally reached the top, Thea looked out at the surging sea and gasped. Loki followed her gaze. Gold and crimson from the setting sun blazed across the water, dying the blues and greens and grays to splashes of fire. As they watched, a streak of emerald light zipped from the heavens toward the surface of the sea. Thea gasped even louder, clapping her hands at the sight.

She'd recreated this day so long ago perfectly, right down to the spark of jade like a falling star. Very impressive. And this place, his private place, had no memories of his family attached to it.

"So," Thea said, leaning back on her hands. Loki mimicked her posture. The stone was pleasantly warm beneath his palms. "Pizza?"

A wan smile touched his mouth. How did this girl's simple mortal charms make him forget the pain of losing Asgard? No, not forget…but it helped ease the pain a little. How? He didn't ask her. He doubted she knew. Perhaps it was merely that they had only each other against the darkness of the Chitauri. Whatever it was, Loki nodded. "Pizza." Then he had a thought. "What is pizza?"

Thea looked pained. "I'm feeling a terrible and agonizing pain somewhere in my midsection for the cruel deprivation you've suffered," she said flatly. "It's food. Good food. Great food. So bad for you, but so very delicious. It's like a Twinkie, but with more pizza-ness."

He chewed that over for a moment. "That didn't make sense," he finally said.

"Just go with it," she said with a smile. "Pretend it's a rollercoaster and you're along for the ride."

"What is a rollercoaster?"

"Oh, for the love of chocolate lasagna," she cried. "What kind of childhood did you have? You know what, don't answer that," she added before the question had the chance to do more than slice him once, quickly, across the heart. "At some point, I'll take you to my mental Disneyland. I've only been there one time, but my mom made sure I went on every ride at least once so I could store the experience up in here." One slender finger tapped her temple. "I've done pretty much everything at least once. Now hang on."

Thea closed her eyes, drew a deep breath, and smiled beatifically. Her nostrils flared. She made a sound halfway between longing and pain, then grinned. Slender brown eyebrows lifted toward her hairline.

"Ta…da!"

In front of Loki appeared a plate that seemed to be made of stiffened waxed paper. On it sat a triangle of what seemed to be bread covered in a red sauce, melted white cheese, and circles of meat. More cheese oozed out of the base of the triangle, which was made of thicker bread covered in what might have been powdered garlic. White powder covered the triangle.

"Take a bite of that," Thea instructed. "Careful, it's hot. Scalding the roof of your mouth on super hot pizza is like, major suckage. And start at the pointy end. Theo starts at the crust and it drives me crazy. It's not natural." She lifted a similar triangle with both hands and brought it toward her mouth. Just as the point touched her lips, she jerked back and glanced at Loki, who hadn't moved. "You'll like it, trust me. But I just realized—this won't taste the way pizza would actually taste to you."

He frowned. "How do you mean?"

"You'll taste what I normally taste—which is good stuff, don't get me wrong, but my taste buds are different from yours. So if you ever have pizza in real life, it won't taste like this. Just warning you. And it won’t fill you up. I mean, you’ll feel full, but you won’t get any nutrition from this. It’s not real. Tastes good, though."

Then she took a bite and moaned as if she'd…his mind skittered away from the thought. He'd noticed over his long life that women sometimes made sounds like that when in other situations, though only some of the females of his acquaintance did it by accident. He suspected Thea didn't realize quite how she sounded. But since she seemed to be enjoying herself, he decided it wouldn't hurt to try the odd Midgardian food.

He meant to take a single bite, but once the food—real food, not the slop the Chitauri fed him—crossed his lips, Loki's control snapped. It seemed like one minute he held a triangle of pizza and the next, it had vanished down his gullet. He stared at his empty plate for a moment before glancing at Thea to gauge her reaction.

She was laughing. "Oh my gosh, you're such a guy. My brothers eat like that all the time. So, you like it? Or were you so busy inhaling it that you didn't actually taste anything?" Her piece, Loki noticed, was only half-gone. "It's like a party in your mouth and everyone's invited, huh? Want another piece?"

A party in his mouth? Midgardians used such odd phrases. He cleared his throat. "Please." Three more appeared on his plate and he set to with a will, only one thought echoing in his mind: food. Real food.

When he'd gorged himself on the food—which oddly didn't make him sick, when stuffing himself after so long being starved should have made him ill—he leaned back again and stared out at the sunset, which seemed to have halted at the cusp of its most perfect moment. Had Thea done that, as well? Was she the supreme puppeteer of this world?

"So do you think we'll be able to sneak out using my powers and steal a ship and fly back to Earth?" Thea asked softly, gently breaking the companionable silence that had fallen between them while they ate. "Or are we kind of screwed?"

"Screwed?"

The girl shifted to lay on her belly on the jetty, folding her arms to pillow her head. Her chestnut hair fell over her like a thin blanket. "Yeah, you know. Screwed. Out of luck. In trouble."

Loki hesitated. He didn't want to tell her to abandon hope, but the odds of being able to make an escape as they were hoping were so slim…If he gave her their true chances, would she panic as she had before? It had been a momentary lapse in her usual chipper demeanor, but it had been enough to make Loki worry. How much fear was the girl actually hiding?

"I don't know," he finally admitted, taking a gamble. He glanced at her from the corner of his eye. She closed her eyes and didn't speak for several minutes. Only the crash and sigh of the ocean and the cries of the gulls filled the air.

"What are the odds they'll kill us if we fail?" Thea asked at last.

He sighed. "I do not know that, either. All I do know is that if we are captured again, they will separate us. We'll both be trapped in the darkness again, but this time we will be completely alone."

Thea bit her lip. "Should we risk it?"

Every fiber of his being leapt at the thought. To escape the Chitauri once and for all, to go…anywhere, anywhere at all…it was almost too much to hope for. How could he dare hope after all this time? So much was now at stake…and he didn't think he could bear to come so close, only to fail, and lose his only companion in the process. He couldn't bear the darkness again. It would burn the very heart out of him.

But it was cowardice to fear so…and it was not his decision alone. "What do you wish to do?"

"Honestly…since I can use my powers, we're not just stuck in some box in the ground. We can go places. Escape that way. And I know Phil's coming for me. So is the professor. They'll come, or their people will come, and when they do, we'll get out of here. I think we can hold out until then if we stick together, but by ourselves…I think a snowball in Hades has a better chance than we do, to be honest. I mean," she added when Loki didn't reply, "if you're going to make a break for it, I'll go with you. I'll help you. But I think our odds go way down if we do that."

He frowned. "Then why go with me?"

One slender brow rose and she rolled onto her back, thrusting her feet into the air. She'd kicked off her tennis shoes after getting to the top of the jetty; now she seemed to find her toes fascinating for some reason.

"Well, how else are you supposed to get out if I don't help?" She pointed at him. "Snowball." Then she spread her arms, gesturing to the beach around them. "Beyond this idyllic sand pit full of crabs lies Hades. I don't like your odds, so no way am I letting you go it alone. Don't you know? Two snowballs will melt slower."

Loki shook his head, utterly baffled. "Why would you do that? Why help me?"

She shrugged. "Because I like you, duh."

"You don't even know me," the prince replied, further bewildered. "How could you possibly like me when…" When his own friends, comrades held dear for so long, despised and betrayed him in favor of his brother? But he didn't say that.

Thea sat up abruptly and scooted closer to him, until her face was merely an inch away from his own. He could see every individual lash like a fringe of dark lace around her silver-blue eyes, see the scattering of freckles that had been obscured by the dirt on her face in the real world. Loki blinked and raised an eyebrow as she leaned in a little closer. What in the name of Mjölnir was she doing?

"Loki," she said softly.

"Yes?" His voice automatically lowered to a whisper.

"You're basically chillaxing inside my brain," Thea said in her normal voice. She leaned back, releasing him from the ridiculous staring contest. "If I didn't like you, do you think I'd let you party around in here? I like you. We're friends…aren't we?"

Friends? "We barely know each other."

"Pfft. And? Here, we'll fix that. My name is Althea Susan Valerian. I’m twenty-four. My mom's name is Sophie, she plays the cello, and currently lives in Portland, Maine, where she moved after all of us mutated kids graduated high school. My brothers' names, youngest to oldest, are: Jason, Zack, Emmet, Theo, and Austin. I have two sisters, Cleo and Joie. My favorite color is black—it is so a color—and green. Well, fancy that?"

She grinned at him and he suddenly found it a little difficult to meet her gaze without the faintest heat flushing his cheeks.

"I have over six thousand books memorized, thanks to my powers; I'm a huge fan of Disney; I can't cook but I can bake anything as long I have a recipe to work with; I love chocolate lasagna, which is like heaven in your mouth and I will totally make for you at some point; and I love hugging people. When we get to that point in our relationship, please let me know. There. Me in a nutshell.

"Oh, and I detest people who double-cuff their blue jeans or wear blue jeans with a tucked-in shirt and a belt. It's tacky; says so in The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. So there." She gestured to him. "Your turn."

"What…should I say?"

"What's your favorite color?"

"Blu…white."

"Blue and white," she said, and he cursed inwardly. He hadn't meant to say blue. Blue would now forever remind him of the stigma of his true parentage. "I like that combination," Thea added. "Do you like cats?"

He blinked. "Yes…"

"If you could be an animal, what would it be?"

"I…a merlin. Or maybe a horse."

"Oh, cool! See, we're bonding. I would love to be a squirrel, except then I'd get chased by dogs. My mom's dog, Poncho, is kind of an idiot. He runs into trees all the time chasing squirrels. Um, okay, lemme think…do you like pudding?"

Loki's brows furrowed. "What is pudding?"

A small porcelain bowl filled with a creamy yellow substance appeared in Thea's hands. She thrust in a spoon that seemed to materialize from nowhere and shoved the whole thing at him.

"Here, eat that, it's good for you. Puts hair on your chest. Do you have hair on your chest?"

He paused with the spoon halfway to his mouth. "Why do you want to know?"

She shrugged. "It just popped into my head. What's your favorite song?"

"I don't have one."

"Huh. Weird. Mine's 'Chopping Broccoli,' which is the most ridiculous song ever. Hence why I like it. And I love 'Radioactive' by Imagine Dragons. My mom is amazing, she can play it on her cello, she—is—so—awesome! Anyway, what's your favorite drink?"

"Ale. Or white wine."

"Ew." She wrinkled her nose. "Gross. I adore Pepsi, which you've probably never tried either. We will fix this, don't worry. But not now. Eat your pudding."

Somehow a grin was curving his treacherous lips even as he asked sternly, "And how am I supposed to do that when you're forcing me to answer your questions?"

"Talk with your mouth full," she replied airily. "Do you like waffles?"

"I do not know what a waffle is."

She dropped her face into her hands. "I'm going to die alone in a ditch of muddy misery with no jelly beans to succor me—yes, I said jelly beans, don't tell me you don't know what those are or I will have a heart attack and die—and thus I will have failed in my purpose in life, which is," she yanked her head up, "to introduce you to decent food. No pizza, no pudding—stick that spoon in your mouth—no waffles…what did they feed you on, stale bread crusts and broccoli? I suppose you've never had a slushee, either."

Loki shook his head and obliged her by putting a spoonful of pudding in his mouth. Lemon flavoring flooded his mouth. His eyes widened. Thea grinned.

"See? I'm a genius. I know everything—including that pudding gives you superhuman strength, like Popeye and spinach. Okay, it doesn't really, but it's good, right?" She gave a little bounce when he nodded. "Wait until I've had you in my clutches for a while. I can totally show you a good time." She frowned. "That…came out dirty. So, so very dirty. Why? Crap. I didn't mean it like that. I mean, I can show you a good time, but not a sexy fun time good time, you know? I mean, not that you're not hot and stuff, but I'm not the kind of girl who…I mean, I just…why am I still talking? I'm shutting up now."

"I'm actually quite cool," Loki reassured her.

Peeking up at him through her thick lashes, Thea said, "I wasn’t referring to temperature. On Earth, at least in America, saying someone's hot means they're attractive. You know, handsome."

"Then why did you refer to me that way?"

She stared at him blankly for a minute, then replied, "Seriously? What planet are you from? Is everyone ugly on your planet? Like, is it the reverse of Earth? Are ugly people hot on your world and hot people considered ugly or something? Because on Earth, your face would be splashed all over the internet. People would make weird memes and posters about you and quote everything you say and make up random facts about you like…um…that you can silence a crowd just by giving them a smoldering look or something. I don't know, but on Earth, girls would be all over you. Drooling, imagining you saying weird pickup lines, whatever. It happens to all the hot men on Earth."

It was best, he decided, to focus on the essential part of her statement. "So you think me handsome?" Perhaps it was cruel of him to bait her, but when he asked, her cheeks flushed pink. How sweet. She was so outspoken. Asgardian women didn't speak like this to men they didn't know. Well, prostitutes sometimes did, but Thea's childlike sweetness wiped away any such shadows from her demeanor.

Thea shook her head in amusement. "Are you fishing for compliments? Yes, you're handsome. Dude, the hair. It's like…if I were ten years younger I'd probably be all, 'Can I touch your hair?' Since you're not all grungy in our little La-La Land. My students do that with guys they like all the time, it's so funny. I just look at them and wonder, 'Do you want a boyfriend or a poodle?' And like I said, beautiful eyes."

"Thank you."

"No problem," she said. For a while after, as if that hadn't been one of the strangest conversations Loki had ever had, Thea stared out at the sea, letting the wind gently blow her hair back from her face. She sighed happily. "I love the ocean. I've been over it, under it. I love it. It's beautiful."

Loki nodded. "It is. How long can we stay here?" He added, voicing the question he'd been dreading the entire time.

"Until I get too tired to maintain the illusion," she replied. "So we've got a couple more hours, I think. Do you want to play Twenty Questions again? Because your answers are awesome."

He shrugged, as if it hardly mattered—yet he found he found release in speaking to her just as much as he did in hearing her speak to him. "If you like."

"Summer or winter?"

Summer."

"Autumn or spring?"

"Spring."

"I love spring, too," she said. "Planting things, watching them grow. I love flowers. And in the spring there's this mist you get early in the morning around the school, like a billion tiny diamonds floating above the ground in this silver cloud. But I like fall, too. The trees with their leaves and the scent of pumpkins and apples. And then there's Halloween. I hope I don't miss it this year."

Loki rearranged his long limbs on the jetty to make himself more comfortable. Over the centuries, he'd worn slight depressions in the stone to fit his body. "What is Halloween?"

Thea laughed—a joyous, infectious sound that brought an involuntary smile to Loki's lips. "Oh, man. When we get to Earth, whenever that is, remind me to illusion us so we look like little kids and we can go trick-or-treating."

"Trick-or-treating," Loki murmured musingly. He could feel the wish for a little mischief sparking in his blood. "That sounds like just the thing for me. Now tell me about these…mutant turtles."

Thea laughed.

.

Thor watched Loki as his brother settled onto his cot, weary jade eyes fixed on the ceiling. There was a heaviness hanging over the crown prince in the wake of this latest installment of the story. He sighed, a sound saturated with regret.

"She made you happy."

Loki closed his eyes. "When I needed lightness and cheer, she provided it. When I needed a court jester, someone to chase the shadows away, she obliged…and when I needed more, she was always there."

And what was more? Thor wondered. Had Loki turned to Thea for more than consolation in the dark? How, he wondered, could they have done anything of that sort when locked in two different cells? Unless it had been after…when Loki had turned to the Chitauri, unable to bear their tortures any longer. Had he sought solace and nepenthe in Thea after that, taking her as a concubine to ease his loneliness, his shame?

The thought of his little brother lying with the wife of his fallen friend left a sour taste in Thor's mouth. And how could Thea have allowed it? Had she no loyalty to her husband? The thoughts twisted in the Asgardian's head, snarling like tangles of wire, because something didn't feel right about them…but he couldn't pinpoint what that was.

"I think part of her gift was empathy," Loki continued. "She always seemed to know what I needed. And she always…I don't know. It seemed as if I fulfilled some need of hers. As if there was something about me that she'd been looking for. That is what she told me, anyway. It was why she was always so excited to speak to me—I made her happy." He paused, seemed to weigh the risks of revealing his next words, but finally Loki added, "I had never made anyone happy before."

"That isn't true, Brother," Thor protested. "You have made me happy before. You've made Mother and Father happy. Balder and Hermod, Víðarr. You have made us all happy in the past. Why do you believe us to have been dissatisfied before…"

"Before I went mad and tried to usurp the throne?" Loki finished bitterly for him. "You and everyone else had made it very clear over the centuries that I would never be more than second-best, if that." Then he sighed, and the bitterness seemed to drain away. The snarled brow smoothed out and the anger faded. "I'm sorry, Thor. That isn't what I meant, anyway. Thea seemed…I know not how to explain. There was a joy in her whenever we spoke, a peace that seemed to settle over her. As if she'd been searching long and hard for something, and found it at last, she always said. I gave her peace."

Rising to his feet, the crown prince went to the glass. It was late in the night now, and both he and Loki needed sleep eventually. "She gave you peace, didn't she, Brother?"

"Yes."

Thor hesitated, then murmured, "Loki…if I had known of her…I would have helped you try to save her. I swear to you, Brother. Her and Sophie." Loki simply rolled over, turning his back to Thor. The Asgardian laid his palm against the glass. "How long did it take you to realize what had happened? That you were in love with her?"

"Not long." The words were muffled by the wall. "I spent all day, each day, in her company. We whiled away the time in her illusions to keep from going mad in the darkness. I took her all over Asgard; everywhere save the Bifröst Gate and the palace. She took me all over her world, showed me the places she'd seen either herself or through the eyes of others. Sometimes she would read to me from her mental store of books and poetry. I know when I fell in love. One day she…"

But Loki trailed off, never finishing. Thor, uncertain if he ought to leave, said, "You haven't told me how the Chitauri discovered they could use her and Sophie against you." Or where Sophie came from, but Thor didn't voice that point. By now he was fairly certain—Sophie was the daughter of Thea and Coulson. How that fit into everything else, he didn’t know, but he would find out. For now…"How did the Chitauri discover your weakness, Loki?"

Silence for several tense heartbeats, then Loki whispered in a voice tight with agony, "They discovered it…because I told them of it."

Thor jolted. "What? How could you do that?"

"I had no choice."

"What do you mean, you had no choice?" He demanded, wide-eyed. "You sold the woman you claim to love and the child you claim to care for to the Chitauri and for what? To purchase your own freedom?"

Loki bolted upright, hatred and mad fury suffusing his face. "How dare you? Claim? Claim? I loved them!" He was on his feet, striding forward, features twisted into a caricature by an insane tangle of grief and rage. "I loved them! Both of them! More than a wretch like you could ever love anyone! But I had no choice! Not if Sophie was to survive! She would have died if I hadn't…" A long painful shudder racked his body and he leaned hard against the glass as if for support. "I had to…for her sake."

"And I suppose you killed Coulson for her sake as well?" Thor snapped, wrestling with his temper and losing—badly.

Savage electric blue spread through Loki's eyes. Thor had to fight not to step back from the morphing gaze. What was going on? Had his brother's eyes flickered like this on Midgard? Thor couldn't remember. Had he even bothered to look?

"Yes," Loki snarled. "Yes, actually, I did. I stabbed your comrade for Sophie's sake. For Thea's sake. I did it to save them. My last-ditch effort in case I was too weak to fight someone dear to me for what I held even dearer."

A lump came into Thor's throat. Someone dear to me…Loki couldn't be talking about him? He couldn't be…

"But as always," the half-mad prince continued, "I was betrayed by the ones I thought I could trust to do what was necessary, for my lady and the child if not for me."

Thor shook his head. "You were a fool to trust the Chitauri with something you deemed so precious, Brother. And I could not—"

"I wasn't referring to the Chitauri or to you. I was talking about Coulson."