A Story So Bizarre...

Disclaimer: I don't own the Avengers, X Men First Class or Thor. They are Marvel's property. I just write about the characters.

A/N: Hello again to those of you coming to this from 'And That's When Things Get Complicated' and a warm welcome to those who haven't. This is in fact the third story/volume in my 'Future Changes' trilogy despite the new setting&characters, but I don't think that you necessarily have to have read both the previous volumes to understand this(it would still help). This story will include themes of time travel, post apocalyptic/futuristic wartime earth, and will be partially focused on issues of identity, self, and cultural prejudices, as well as continuing other previous themes. It will also include mild slash(Charles/Erik) and an intersex Loki.

WARNINGS: This story will contain violence, abuse, torture(mostly retrospective) and depictions of PTSD. I will mark the chapters with more specific warnings where necessary.

Chapter One: It starts with something small

Loki lay on the cot in his brightly lit cell, tossing an empty drinking cup into the air and catching it with his right hand. His left, he kept tucked casually behind his head as a more comfortable pillow. The plate of food he'd been provided, rested untouched on the little table next to his bed. Beside it, a tome that his mother had browbeaten the Allfather into allowing him, languished. Loki's bitterness and carefully-masked pain over their separation for what very well could be the rest of his life was tempered only by the knowledge of the wrath Odin had no doubt incurred by passing such a ruling. After all, as dysfunctional and downright twisted as his childhood had been, Loki had always known that there was nothing in all of Yggdrasil that was more precious to Frigga than her children. Besides that, adopted or not, Loki had inferred long ago that he was her favorite. That thought brought the faintest of smiles to his lips- only for it to fall away before it could completely form when a scuffle between two of the incoming prisoners reminded him of his predicament. He kept his expression composed, not reacting in the slightest to the catcalls that two nasty-looking marauders directed at him before they were shoved onward by one of the more conscientious guards.

Loki was still technically a prince, after all, and as far as the people of Asgard knew, his adoptive-brother Thor might still take issue with anyone mistreating him too much. Not that that protection would hold much longer; no one had visited him yet... Well, Fandral had actually dropped by to hover outside the Trickster's cell and talk at him two weeks into his captivity, but Fandral didn't count.

There was a soft skittering sound, probably from a small stone being kicked farther in through the walkway. At the same time that innocuous detail caught his attention, a frigid charge rolled through the atmosphere of the cell-block. The familiarity of it sent a shiver down Loki's spine. There was a strong and entirely-unwelcome sense of déja-vu spreading through him. He sat up to study the last guard and the prisoners as they moved out of sight. They shrugged off the chill; the guard absently readjusted his cape, but that was all. You see? It's nothing, Loki chided himself, trying to get control of his breathing. Stop being childish. You can't let them see!

Loki forced down the lingering traces of fear and forced himself to take a few slower, deeper breaths, not allowing his hands to tremble anymore. He picked up the textbook from his bedside table and resumed at the ribbon-marked page. Then he frowned and closed the book, looking over at the tiny, dodecahedral prism that was lying innocently on the floor of his cell. How did that get there? He considered getting up to inspect it, but decided that he'd rather just ignore it. Why should he care? Because you know nothing of its purpose, a voice in the back of his mind supplied. He began to reread the passage he'd been trying to finish. It could be a danger to you, the voice of his subconscious insisted. For some reason, it sounded a lot like Thor. Exactly, he thought rebelliously, Not. Looking. At. The Prism. Then he wondered if this internal argument indicated that he was going mad. I am probably already a bit mad, he decided and went back to studying.

This text was mainly about the dynamics of defensive energy manipulation. But why is it here? He'd bypassed the section on Fire Weaving for the time being in order to avoid depression, and was now halfway through a very interesting section on bending light (counter-intuitively referred to in the chapter as Shadow Dancing). How did it get here? Stop it! Within the next five minutes, Loki was stubbornly engrossed in his reading, so much so that he didn't even notice the soft sound of footsteps nearing his cell.

"It's you!" said the therefore-unexpected female voice from just outside the force-field, causing him to twitch in surprise and snap his laser-like gaze to the speaker's face. At least he'd managed to stop himself from a complete flinch. "Oh. Wow! Did I startle you?" Damn! She did notice. Wait, is that a mortal? Loki looked the petite woman over through narrowed eyes, before clapping his book shut and sitting up on his cot to face her.

"You don't belong here," he stated, keeping his tone as bland as his expression.

"I know. It's just... Um, actually, I sort of-" The woman cut short her fumbling attempts at a response and straightened her posture, seeming to come to some sort of conclusion. "Hold on. You're Loki, aren't you?" she more-stated-than-asked.

Loki looked her up and down, mentally calculating the foolish mortal's chance of surviving down in the cell-block unaccompanied, in contrast with the unlikelihood of the guards heeding his call. To use a Midgardian phrase, she was 'totally screwed'.

"The closest guards are stationed down the hall to your left. Good luck explaining your presence here," Loki informed her with an air of detachment, lying back down and opening his book for the third time in the past five minutes.

"You are Loki! You're just the way your brother described you." The woman gasped and took a hasty step back when he leapt to his feet to stare her down from the opposite side of the barrier.

"What did you say?" Loki snapped, still staring, unblinking, into her wide brown eyes.

"Oh, well. Not so concerned I guess," she muttered to herself as though amending some internal commentary. "Okay. That makes sense." She cleared her throat and continued at a more audible volume, "Yeah. Hi, I'm Jane Foster. I'm a friend of Thor's from, um, from Midgard?"

Loki relaxed, despite himself, upon hearing her introduction. He had to give the girl credit, she had recovered from her shock with admirable speed.

"Oh good; you've heard of me. Listen, I was just with your mother - Queen Frigga - a second ago, and then I was... suddenly here. So if you-" Jane let out a shriek and ducked as a resounding boom echoed through the chamber. A few scattered bits of rock and shrapnel flew past Jane. "Ohmygod!"

Loki scowled, trying to get a glimpse at what was going on further into the dungeon, "Was that..."

"An explosion?" Jane breathed with an enviable amount of composure. "Yes. It was."

He saw Jane's eyes widen. Then she squeezed them shut, turning her face sharply away from the events on her right. A chorus of frightened shouts and screams rang out immediately after, followed by the sound of massive, stomping feet marching closer from the point of the blast. Jane hesitantly blinked her eyes open again as a strange, yellow glow began to build from the same direction.

"Oh, no..." She lamented, sounding resigned to whatever fate she saw coming for them out of that unnatural light.

"Dr. Foster-" Loki began, but stopped when Jane dropped into a crouch on the steps between them, throwing her arms up to shield her head in reaction to the latest explosion. Loki knelt down next to her, and instructed simply, "Hide."

"Where?!" Jane whispered sharply, and Loki gave her a flat look before jerking his head in the direction that she should already be running. Honestly, must I do everything? he thought to himself, stepping back into the illusion he'd just created.

A hulking beast of a man with, not just too many horns, but tusks, and a complexion like weathered stone – who was presumably the cause of this mess – finished busting out other prisoners and came to a halt in front of Loki's cell. The sounds of the escaping prisoners faded into an eerie silence. Loki's likeness stepped forward as the stranger stepped up to the barrier, scrutinizing him from the spot that Jane had vacated scant seconds ago. The warrior was of a species that Loki had never seen before (which was intriguing in itself) and exuded an aura of raw energy so potent that it was starting to make Loki's eyes water in such close proximity.

He wondered how a living thing could stand to contain it. The alien leaned in, mere inches away from the pane of golden charge separating them; Loki heard a hastily-smothered gasp from Jane's hiding spot, and resisted the urge to roll his eyes. Honestly, Woman! It's only threatening me. The alien's glowing eyes studied his double's face before they locked gazes. The slightest smirk adorned the projection's lips while they stared each other down. Then without a word, the creature turned away towards the stairs, leaving Loki's prison untouched. Loki heard Jane begin to fidget in her hiding place. The normally diminutive sound was dangerously amplified in the quiet of the dungeon.

"You might want to take the stairs to the left," Loki's image called, drowning out the sounds of rustling fabric. To her credit, Jane stilled before the sentence was finished to avoid being noticed. The alien turned back to regard Loki's image thoughtfully before moving on towards whatever destination he had beyond the dungeon. Odds were that Thor was going to kill the beast anyway. It was none of Loki's business.

After the last echoes of the creature's footfalls disappeared into the distance, Jane carefully crept out of her hiding place, partially obscured behind the projected oak chest that had blossomed into existence along with Loki's double.

"I can't believe that worked! How did that work?" Jane inquired, her dark eyes scrutinizing every inch of Loki's cell.

"It's a simple enough trick," Loki responded. The extra bite added to the word 'trick' did not go unnoticed by the astrophysicist. Her gaze flickered up to his projection's face before she looked away, still searching for something beyond her perception.

"Well, thank you. I know that you had no reason to help me..." Jane said sincerely, gazing into what to her must appear to be empty space, with an earnest expression. Loki knew that it was mere coincidence that it was the place where he was sitting. "I'm not sure why you did, but... Thank you."

Loki looked sharply away. She shouldn't be thanking him. Loki himself didn't know why he'd done it. It was a pointless act, delaying the inevitable. I shouldn't- I don't care.

Jane turned away as if to leave, but hesitated after only two steps and turned back.

"I was with Frigg-"

"So I've heard," Loki affirmed a little too hastily, and now she was scrutinizing his image again.

"I'll give her your love, okay?" Jane offered with a wry little half-smile.

"I doubt that the Allfather would approve of your conferring with me," Loki dismissed.

"I don't think he approves of me either," Jane replied, drawing a startled glance from the Trickster. "You're probably right."

After the silence began to stretch too long, Loki responded in the most noncommittal way possible: "A riot is bound to start." And with that, his double turned and went back to his cot to resume reading, signaling an end to their conversation. To his relief, Dr. Foster got the message and scampered away, presumably to find Thor or Frigga. Loki's relief didn't last. His eyes were unwillingly drawn to the prism lying in the far corner of his cell. It seemed to beckon to him from the edge of his awareness, leaving a faint impression of safety and peace, and oddly...Assam tea. Loki glared accusingly at the alien object, forcing away all traces of the calm that it seemed to coax him into. The crystal had appeared in synchronicity with Dr. Foster's inexplicable appearance, and Loki had never been one to believe in coincidences.

Jane ran through the palace halls as they rapidly filled with bustling guards, soldiers and fleeing servants. It was beginning to get too dangerous for the fragile human to continue pushing through the mass of larger and much sturdier alien bodies. Jane let out a shriek as she was knocked aside by a careless servant running in the opposite direction, to bounce off the back of a soldier, landing on all fours amidst the sea of running legs. There was a fleeting moment in which Jane reflected that she'd lived through a whole hell of lot to simply be trampled to death. Before that could happen however, a pair of strong, slender arms scooped her up and bundled her out of harm's way.

"Jane Foster! What are you doing out here?" asked a very concerned Lady Sif as she set the smaller woman back on her feet. "I thought that you were with Queen Frigga."

"I was, but then I wasn't. I-" Jane began, cutting herself off at the sight of Sif's perplexed expression. "You now what? That's not important right now. Do you know where she is? Or Thor? I need to get back."

"Of course," Sif agreed, grabbing Jane's hand in a firm grip and leading her back into the flow of traffic. "Keep close to me."

Sure enough, a riot had broken out down in the dungeon. Warriors had charged into the fray by now, and Loki was fairly certain that he'd heard Fandral's voice coming from somewhere close by. Loki figured that Thor's other friends were probably around here too, if not the Crowned Prince himself.

"Now, I will give you a chance to surrender..." a booming voice announced cockily from the entryway a few paces behind Loki's current perch. Ah, there he is. The Trickster stifled a smirk at the sound of a prisoner smashing something over his brother's armored shoulders in response, and instead, turned to the next page in his textbook and continued to read.

He was almost completely ensnared by the latest chapter, when a burly, somewhat-stunned prisoner flew into the force-field inches from his face. The barrier flashed and issued a loud crackling sound. Loki looked up from his book to glare at his clueless brother for breaking his concentration, then shifted his attention to Fandral, who had darted over to knock the stunned prisoner unconscious.

"So sorry to disturb you, Milord," the blond remarked playfully. The lightheartedness of it startled Loki right out of his glare. He blinked incredulously at his almost-sort-of-childhood-friend. Fandral smirked and winked at him before whirling back into the chaos and out of sight. Loki shook himself and tried to recall which passage he'd been on. I should not be so surprised. Fandral never did hold grudges.

Frigga sealed the doors to her chambers behind her and turned away to address her son's mortal love.

"This will not hold them at bay for long," the Queen warned, crossing the room to join Jane at the door to the bedroom. "You have something urgent that you wish to tell me."

"There's something else going on. It isn't just the aether anymore. At least, I don't think it is." Jane explained, still a little breathless from their run in a way that Frigga was entirely not. Wow. No wonder the Vikings thought that these people were gods.

"Indeed," Frigga agreed. "Your disappearance... Where did you vanish to?"

"The dungeon. I popped up in the cell block where Loki's being kept," Jane explained hastily, adding as an afterthought "He loves you, by the way- Not that I was the one who told you. Anyway! It's lucky that I did, because I'm not sure that any other prisoner would've been so willing to help me hide."

Frigga's fleeting amusement at the covert message shifted into an inquisitive arch of her brow upon hearing of her youngest son's unprompted act of kindness.

"I know. It surprised me too, but that's not all. The explosion down there came from one of the cells. There was this big guy with these glowing, red eyes, and he-" Jane jumped at the sound of someone trying to blast their way through the doors.

"Later," Frigga told her firmly, ushering her back towards the bedroom. "Now. You will do exactly as I tell you."

Loki's head jerked up to watch Lady Sif belatedly enter the fight, looking annoyed and impatient. He didn't care exactly, but it was strange for her to miss so much of the action. After all, by this point, half of the mob had already been dealt with in one way or another.

"Lady Sif! I had begun to fear that you might miss all of the fun!" Thor called to her.

Loki resisted the sudden, overpowering urge to face-palm at his idiotic- No. Just Thor. We are not related, he consoled himself. It was at that point that Sif noticed him watching her, which was sort of unfortunate given the smirk he happened to have on his face.

She glared daggers at him.

He batted his eyelashes at her, just because. Hey, if she was going to be cross with him, he might as well earn it.

"Piss off!" Sif growled and Loki's smirk grew more genuine. It was also just fun to mess with Sif, especially when there was a heavily-reinforced barrier between the two of them. Loki decided to give up on his attempts at reading and just enjoy the show. He reclined against the edge of the sill and watched the chaos unfolding around him, letting his mind sort through the events of the day. It was actually strangely comforting. Perhaps it was due to the familiarity of the situation. ...It wascomforting, until he discovered that his left hand was toying with the mysterious prism without his approval. And there was that energy emitting from the stone again, warm and inviting, as if it were beckoning to him.

Loki swallowed, distrustful of the perceived falsehood of the soothing welcome, and shoved the offending object into his sleeve. The chill in his veins increased; he had intended to hurl the crystal away across the room. There wasn't anything that he could do about it now without risking drawing unwanted attention, so he forced himself to go back to observing the others. The rioters were wearing down now, and it wasn't long before the last stragglers were subdued. Mostly by Lady Sif, who Loki suspected to be trying to prove a point.

She kept staring in his direction while knocking people out and he couldn't help but find it a bit unsettling. Fandral seemed to have caught on as well and was giving her a wide berth just in case he drew her ire by accident. Thor was characteristically oblivious, but he was immune anyway, going more or less unnoticed even when he left the others to deal with the clean up before the battle was technically over. Wait. Why is he leaving?

Frigga turned to face the doors as they were blown open and Malekith strode into her rooms, accompanied by the creature from the dungeons that Jane had described to her. Frigga threw out a protective arm, warning the frightened woman to keep back, and Malekith gave her a patronizing look.

"I am here to reclaim what is rightfully mine," Malekith declared, stalking forwards. "You would do best to keep out of my way."

"I will not," Frigga returned simply. She drew her broadsword when the warrior from the dungeons moved to strike her, and the two locked in battle while his commander stood impatiently to one side with his eyes locked on Jane's trembling form. She tried to ignore him as much as possible, instead watching Frigga's movements intently.

Jane had this horrible feeling in the back of her mind, that she already knew how this would end. Frigga is going to be stabbed in the side. She didn't know how. She just knew that it was going to happen. It was as though she were watching an old story that she'd heard a million times before, come to life, and she wanted to stop it. But how can I know? The warrior managed to get in a good punch, and swept Frigga's sword out of her hands.

"Wait. Hold her," Malekith ordered, and the warrior grabbed the Queen, spinning her around so that he could hold both her arms pinned to her chest from behind. Malekith turned and prowled towards Jane, openly amused by his prey's attempts at escape, trapping the frightened mortal against the wall, a stone pillar blocking off the inner doorway.

It's going to happen soon. I know it! I know it! How can I know it?!Jane fretted, in a near panic.

Malekith reached out, eager to claim his prize, only for his leer to morph into a furious grimace when she melted away in a flicker of warm golden light. "You!" he accused, rounding on Frigga.

The Queen regarded him with an expression of grim defiance. "I."

"Time travel..." Jane breathed, barely even loud enough to be called a whisper. An accented voice drifted through her mind like a fragment of a half-remembered dream. 'Listen to me very carefully...' "Charles!" Jane realized, angry at herself for having forgotten so easily, and began to search the shelves within reach of her current hiding place for anything of use.

Malekith's eyes shimmered dangerously as he looked from Frigga to his warrior. "Tell me where you've hidden her!" he demanded.

"I cannot," the Queen responded obstinately.

It's now or never... Oh, I'm gonna die! Jane reflected, tightening her grip on the handle of her discovered weapon.

"So be it," Malekith declared, swiping a hand across his throat in a cutting motion.

Before Frigga's captor could follow through on the order however, Jane jumped out of her hiding place with a shout and stabbed his master in the shoulder.

Malekith let out a roar and shoved her violently away to bounce off of the stone pillar behind her and roll limply across the floor. He marched over and began to drag the dazed mortal up off of the ground by her hair. Jane could hear Frigga and the warrior struggling in the background but was still too stunned really to process it.

"You should not have crossed me, Mortal," Malekith growled.

Jane had just enough time to register the glint of the same bloody knife she'd just stabbed him with, coming way too close to her face, and Frigga shouting "No!" before everything went black.

Loki shivered, recognizing the vast, impenetrable darkness around him. There were no stars. There was no sound. Sound needs air to carry it, and there was none for him to breathe- but still he would not die! The cold alone should have killed him by now, as even Jötuns require some heat to survive. Or at least it should have numbed the horrible pain in his lungs, but the Void did not abide such things as logic, or consistency, or even the laws of physics. The one constant that he had witnessed was the utter lack of any sense. He was neither alive nor dead. His heart refused to beat, and despite their continued fruitless struggle, his lungs drew in no air to keep him amongst the living. Yet he was somehow still perfectly conscious.

No. No! It can't be! I made it out. I'm free now! I can't still be in the void. What if I am? But I made it out! I remember! That was real. Was it real? Was it just another delusion? NononoNO! It has to end! I have to be-

There was a faint, bluish light trickling in from somewhere at the edge of Loki's vision.

Shhhhh, a gentle voice soothed inside his mind.

Loki stalled at the new sensations, feeling a wave of calm creep over him to chase away the burning cold. There was no light in the void. He had witnessed no evidence of another living thing within that dreadful place. How could there be when even he had been suspended there without life?

What is this? Loki wondered, grateful for the reprieve.

You're safe now. The reply was more felt than heard, which only added to his curiosity.

Who are you? Loki could feel the warm light around him smiling.

Wake up.

Loki jerked awake in his perch beside the front barrier of his cell, sucking in a huge gasp of blessed air. He actually jumped this time when he heard someone address him out loud.

"Bad dream?"

Loki's head snapped up to face his interrogator.

Fandral raised an eyebrow at him from the other side of the barrier, hoisting an unconscious prisoner up onto his back to haul away to his cell. Fandral's expression was caught halfway between amusement and concern.

"You still pretend that you care," Loki deflected, pretending not to hear the disappointed sigh from the warrior as he turned away. He shouldn't have allowed himself to fall asleep again with so many people around to witness it. Loki had always seemed to need far more sleep than any of the others. He knew now that it was due to his Jötun heritage, but that hardly mattered. At least before, the greatest concern involved was the risk that Thor's friends might tease him about his laziness- or in his early youth, that Balder might fuss over his 'baby brother's' apparent illness - but now... now, Loki only had bad dreams. It had been that way ever since his fall into the abyss.

On good nights, he merely dreamed of Thanos and his morbid promises and perverse torments. It had grown almost monotonous to him to hear the gravelly voice promising him a slow, and special death. He didn't even want to think about the worst nights. Death would be welcome if he were to be stuck with those horrors for the rest of his existence.

Jane sat on the massive stone windowsill of the guest room where she was now technically imprisoned, looking out at yet another spectacular view of Asgard. Odin was calling this 'enforced guard,' but that was really just politician-speak for 'let's lock the human up where no one will see her'. As soon as she regained consciousness, Jane had seen Frigga lying in the bed next to hers looking pale and drawn, and she knew that she had failed. The Queen had reached out to gently grasp her wrist in a comforting gesture before Jane had even realized that she was crying. Once Jane managed to get a hold of herself again, Frigga returned her attention to Thor and Odin, her mind set on explaining Jane's strange discoveries to Thor while he hovered between their beds looking utterly lost. Frigga had stubbornly fought to retain her faculties long enough to warn him that she had 'felt a great rift spreading through Asgard'. She also made him swear to her that he would look out for Jane and Loki, as she feared that they were 'caught at the heart of it'.

Jane understood that her wording may have been affected by her mortally-injured, semi-lucid state, but Odin, already grieving over his wife's imminent demise, heard the words 'Loki' and 'look out' in the same breath, and assumed the more threatening meaning must apply. Jane was fairly certain that he was blaming her for what had happened to Frigga, but that was fine. Jane blamed herself too. If she hadn't wandered off on her own and gotten infected with the Aether, Thor and Loki's mother would still be alive and well. Jane would be back in London continuing her research, and she and Loki would both be in a little less trouble with the Allfather. Loki may be serving a life-sentence for intergalactic war crimes - now there was a phrase she had never thought she'd use - but he'd still protected her from that alien down in the cells, and getting him in even more trouble felt like a horrible way to thank him. Besides that, ever since their encounter, she'd had this nagging doubt in the back of her mind. The Loki she'd met wasn't anything like the sadistic, mass-murdering psychopath described in all the SHEILD reports and witness data Jane had managed to access back on Earth.

As she had noted aloud during their brief conversation in the dungeon, he seemed more like the inscrutable, not-so-malign little brother whom Thor had described during his stay in Puente Antiguo. Jane had to keep reminding herself of the catastrophic end to that particular adventure provided by the Trickster himself. It was probably an act... Why? The nagging doubt nudged a little harder, reminding her of the fleeting shock that had passed over his features when she had first mentioned Thor.

He had lashed out at her as one would expect. But there had been a moment. The briefest pause, barely a second, when she'd seen something flash through his eyes. He had looked so frightened, almost hurt. It reminded her of a wounded animal, or the way that some of the rougher looking alley-cats back home would panic and growl at any human who ventured too close to them.

Jane knew there was no way that Loki was afraid of her. He'd made his unwariness of her abundantly clear from the first moment he laid eyes on her. So, what then? She came to a decision, pushed herself up off the windowsill, and walked over to knock crisply on the locked chamber door. After a brief pause, one of the massive, aesir guards pulled the door open and peeked curiously into her room.

"Good eve, Milady..." he said with obvious confusion.

"Yeah, hi. Same to you. I need to talk to Thor," Jane informed him, letting her frustration with the entire situation fuel her resolve. There was no way that she was going to let anyone else down again as she had when she'd failed to save Frigga.

"With respect, my Lady, the Crowned Prince has many pressing issues to attend to in this time of war," the guard hedged. Wow. I know I've heard that one before, Jane thought wryly I guess some things are universal.

"I understand," Jane assured him in exactly the same, superficially-polite tone, "You can let him decide whether or not he has time for me when you relay my request." She hated to push like this, but she had learned in her time, struggling for her place in the world of academia, that sometimes assertiveness was the only way to get through. "Or do you actually believe that it takes two of you at once to guard one ninety-pound, mortal woman?" She highly doubted that. As this guy's very muscular hand looked to be about the same size as her head.

The guard scowled in annoyance, and ducked back into the hall without further argument. She was pretty sure that she'd heard his comrade let out an amused snort at his expense. Then the door was pulled shut and the guard's footsteps stalked away down the corridor.

Loki lashed out, thrashing and kicking, throwing anything within reach, with no thought for his appearance or the injuries he was collecting or, well, without any lucid thought, really. He just smashed and raged until he had finally worn himself out. He let himself slide numbly down the wall, panting and so empty. 'Queen Frigga is dead.' The Einherjar's words echoed through Loki's head over and over without any meaning. 'Frigga is dead.' His empty eyes wandered over the cluttered contents of his cell. Everything was broken. He had gotten smears of blood on the walls and floor. Mother would doubtless- Loki went completely still. Mother is dead.

Loki reeled back, barely noticing his head smacking against the wall behind him, and he screamed. It was a loud, endless thing, full of all the pain and anger, and everything else that he had left. He didn't stop screaming until he was shaking from the effort and lacked air in his lungs to continue. Mother is dead, and I wasn't there.

There was a warmth against his hand. Loki ignored it, staring unseeing into the darkened, suddenly dead-silent dungeon. It didn't matter. Nothing mattered. He was alone... As I deserve to be. The warmth against his hand gave a little crackle, almost like a mild electric shock, as if in response to his morbid thoughts.

Finally, with his eyes falling shut in resignation, Loki slipped a hand over the source of the sudden warmth. Sure enough, he felt the now familiar, dodecahedral shape under his palm. The prism. Now that he was paying attention, Loki realized that the heat he had felt was not constant, nor was it building at all. Instead, he could feel it flickering- It was pulsing in a steady rhythm, not unlike that of a heartbeat. As the surface of the crystal contacted his skin, Loki felt something else, intangible, but definitely real. There was an energy emitting from the crystal. It almost felt like-

There was a thud from the adjacent cell, then a shuffling sound from one of the prisoners next door shoving the other one. Ah, he struck the wall in order to get my attention. Loki didn't even have the energy to be disdainful about it.

"Oi! What in Helheim was that, Silvertongue?" the brute bellowed, "Have you finally snapped?"

There was a mumble from the prisoner's cellmate and a bout of chuckles. The prisoner across the way called out another, more audible and far less tasteful gibe about the dark prince's mental state (among other, even less appropriate allusions) and the tension among the other inmates seemed to vanish.

"Ha, ha! Indeed. The limber little ergi don't need much sense. He'll be good fun all the same come bathing hour tomorrow," one of the marauders loudly agreed from cell across the walkway, and to the left of Loki's.

The Trickster's nostrils flared at the implication, but he did not respond any more than that instinctive reaction. These boorish cads are so very lucky that the house of Odin cares for me no longer.

The prism in his hand let out another, softer, little surge to show his disapproval-

His? Where did that idea come from? Loki, paused and held his hand up to regard the crystalline enigma in the palm of his hand. It glowed with a soft, blue light for a couple seconds before the light retreated into its core. Loki knew that light.

Who are you? Loki focused, sending the thought out towards the prism.

Nothing.

Naturally. Perhaps I have lost my mind.

...friend...

Loki stared. It- He had responded, if only faintly. It had barely been a message, more of an impression, or a feeling, than a complete thought, but it had been there. A friend? Hmmm... This merits further study.

A spark of amusement danced at the edge of his awareness in response to his decision.

Loki didn't respond, although he did make a note of 'His' currently monitoring Loki's thoughts. The light built once more before receding again more gradually until it was barely discernible. Loki closed his hand around it, looking out through the barrier more lucidly when he heard someone descending the stairs on his right. A split second later, a golden light swept over him and a neat, impassive Loki could be seen casually reclining against the wall of his pristine cell while he waited to see the newcomer.

A/N: Okay, guys. I know that was long and that some of you are feeling a lack of Charles here, but please bare with me. The Cherik will return in its own time, lol. -Don't kill me. Hopefully I'm doing a good enough job introducing the new cast and setting to be forgiven, eh? Anyway, thank you all for reading this, and special thanks to my dear icanhearthedrums for her continued help and support. As always i hope y'all review.