Welcome!

This first chapter is similar to the one shot in my collection of Jane stories. So even if you've read it, I'd recommend rereading to refresh your memory and catch the changes that are important to the plot

Disclaimer: I do not own Marvel, Disney, Thor, Loki, or really anything. lol

Chapter 1

Jane stared at the thick, creamy envelope with her name and address handwritten in a golden elegant scrawl, now crumpled and flattened, with smudges of God-knows-what marring its beauty. A wedding invitation. Worse yet, from Donald Blake. She'd thrown it away several times, but always reclaimed it before Darcy could empty the trash.

It could only mean one thing: he'd finally found his soulmate. She should be happy for him, but it had barely been six months since he'd broken up with her after realizing they hadn't aged a day, and she found it hard to be gracious. Three years of a happy relationship meant nothing. Three years of her life, dedicated not only to her work but to his, meant absolutely nothing.

Snatching up the envelope, she ripped it in half, then again, and again, until she could no longer bend the stack of scraps. With a grunt of frustration, she hurled it toward the trashcan and grimaced at the cloud of festive confetti she'd made. Golden filigree sparkled in the sunlight as each paper danced and twirled its way to the floor.

Pity party indeed, she snorted.

A knock on the front door made her flinch in surprise, and then rush to snatch the lingering remnants out of the air while shoving the bits on the floor aside with her boot. "Just one moment."

Darcy and Erik wouldn't knock, no one from town ever stopped by, and her mom was in London the last time Jane checked. Her brows furrowed. Who could possibly be at her door?

"Dr. Foster?" a man asked.

After shoving the handful of paper in the trashcan, she darted over to the peephole and found a middle-aged man of average build and features in a dark suit with a fist raised, ready to knock again.

Jane kept her gaze trained on him. "Who is it?"

"Agent Coulson." He held his badge to the peephole and waited.

She'd never heard of SHIELD. "What do you want?"

"I have a couple questions I need to ask you." He paused. "May I come in?"

Fingers resting on the deadbolt, she hesitated. "What is SHIELD?"

"Soulmate Homicide Investigation, Education, and Law-Enforcement Department."

Homicide? She glanced at the bits of wedding invitation still littering her floor, and, in a rush, she unlocked the door to throw it open. "Is Donald okay?"

"Who?"

Her brows pulled together. "If this isn't about Donald, why are you here?"

"I'm working on a longstanding case, and we think you are linked to it." He walked past her, looking around, then gestured to the couch. "You might want to sit down."

"Jane?" Erik's voice preceded his entrance. "Whose car's out front?" When he stepped inside, he looked the Agent up and down. His voice lowered. "Do we need to get a lawyer?"

"There's no need for that, Dr. Selvig." Before the older man could act on his surprise, Coulson continued. "It's good you're here. Please sit."

He ushered them to the couch as if he owned the place, then removed a set of pictures from his coat's inner pocket, but kept the images hidden from view. "What is known about soulmates is that we don't age after we reach twenty-one until we find ours. We have roughly one hundred years to find them before we die." He waited for them to nod. "If someone finds their soulmate, they typically live happily until one of the mates dies. We know that the ones who die first try to return. Most don't have enough time to be reborn since the surviving mate does not often live very long."

Jane made sure her gaze did not drift to Erik. His soulmate had terminal cancer several years back. To say he'd been a wreck was an understatement. If it hadn't been for their work, she was certain he wouldn't have lasted a month longer.

"What is not publicly known is that if someone kills their soulmate before the bond is triggered, they live far longer."

Jane gaped. To kill your soulmate was practically unheard of and just plain wrong, as wrong as choking on air.

"There is a man who has killed his soulmate three times," Coulson said.

She raised a brow. "Three?"

"Reincarnation. This person was fast."

Unease hardened into a rock in the pit of her stomach. "He's been alive for at least three hundred years then. He's learned how to be immortal, but how? How do you find out who your soulmate is, then get close enough to kill them without triggering the bond?"

"That's easy: sunglasses, gloves, not speaking. It's locating them that is the hard part. Luckily, we finally figured out his method." He watched her closely and took a breath, as if reminding her to do the same. The air was sticky and heavy. He was about to deliver some bad news. She just knew it.

Eric placed a comforting hand on her back. He sensed it as well.

"The serial killer, Dr. Foster," Coulson said, "is your soulmate."

She blinked once, twice, then shot off the couch and marched over to the kitchen. With a swipe of her hand, she snatched Darcy's bottle of dark rum off the counter and took a deep swig.

Her soulmate was a serial killer, and she was his only target. She'd been reborn four times now. Four times. Jane took another gulp.

After a long moment to herself, Jane replaced the bottle's cap and walked back to them, grateful they had given her the space to process. "I'll help."

Surprise flickered across Coulson's face.

"That's what you wanted, right?" she asked. "I'll do it."

She took the set of pictures from him. Some were black and white, old but well preserved. Others were more recent with clarity that showed every detail, from the magnificent green coloring of his eyes to the deep blue-black of his long hair. He was tall and lean with stances that portrayed grace and poise rather than clumsiness or rigidity. He was handsome, one of the most attractive men she'd ever seen.

She lowered her hand, careful not to crease the pictures in her tightening grip, and took another steadying breath.

Erik stepped to her side. "May I see?"

Without realizing it, she passed him the pictures and moved to the couch to collapse onto the cushions. An odd nebulous daze filled her mind. All she could see was a handsome ghost, moving through the shadows to sneak up behind her and slice open her throat.

"All we need you to do is go about your daily life," Coulson said, now standing before her. "We'll watch over you and intercept him when the time comes. You'll have nothing to worry about."

She must've nodded because he soon left, along with his pictures. In the days afterwards, she'd often wished she could look over them. She wanted to memorize the face of her would-be killer, but a small part of her just wanted to look at her soulmate. Instead, she poured herself into her work, escaping into the mysteries of the universe, barely registering the transition of day to night and night to day, or Erik and Darcy's concerned glances. Until her computer wouldn't turn on.

Jane glared at the empty port for the power cord—she'd already looked everywhere for it—then stood. "All right, give it back."

Erik paused flipping through the latest readouts to acknowledge her. "I told you I didn't take it, and I don't know where it is. But maybe this is a good thing. You need a break."

"Darcy," Jane chided her. She had to be the culprit.

The woman in question wore an innocent expression. Too innocent. She lifted the van's keys. "I guess we need to go buy another one."

Jane let out a long breath. "Fine, but I'm driving."

Darcy's red lips spread wide as she grinned and tossed her the keys.

The trip out of town to the mall was uneventful, if you didn't count the black cars and SUVs discreetly following her, then setting up a perimeter to keep an eye on them.

"While we're here, why don't we get our nails done and do some shopping?" Darcy declared.

"No."

"Please."

"No."

"Pretty please?"

"No. No. And no." Jane kept a brisk pace, slipping around strolling couples and straggling children, passing shops without a glance in their direction. "We're only going to the electronic store and that's it."

Five minutes later, Jane found herself in an oversized reclining chair with her feet soaking in scented, warm water, her hands coated in paraffin, and cucumber slices covering her eyes. If Darcy had a superpower, it was the ability to get her way no matter what. It was nice though, a colossal waste of time, but nice.

The sound of boots thundered into the salon, followed by gasps of surprise. Jane bolted upright as soldiers with lowered guns looked around corners and in each of the small rooms. One questioned the receptionist.

"Which way did he go?"

The young woman's mouth still hung open.

"The tall man in a baseball cap and black attire." When he got no response, he continued. "He just came in."

Darcy leaned toward Jane and whispered, "He was here, and not one person saw him."

All Jane could do was nod. Her frantically beating heart clogged her throat.

Another soldier announced there was a back exit, and they all vanished through it.

"Do we stay or should we get out of here?" Darcy asked.

Jane touched her throat. He could've killed her, and no one would've been the wiser.

"Hey." Her intern prodded her with a finger. "Snap out of it."

Taking a deep breath, Jane slid out of the chair and then grabbed her purse. An unexpected weight nearly pulled the bag out of her hands.

Darcy sidled up to her. "What is it?"

"I don't know." She slipped her hand inside and found a thick, hardback book with some loose papers stuck between the pages. Her insides sunk to her feet, like a rock in a pond. He'd gotten close enough to sneak her something, close enough to kill her. And yet, he hadn't.

Darcy shoved her hand inside and just as quickly pulled it back out. "A book?" She snorted. "He is your soulmate."

Jane was tempted to look, but decided to wait. Something told her to keep this secret. "Let's go."

They wasted no time buying the cord and getting back to the van. As soon as she slammed the heavy door closed, she pulled out the book. "Norse Mythology?" Jane questioned.

"So weird," Darcy said, looking over her shoulder. "Open it."

She turned the cover, then unfolded one of the loose papers and read aloud. "Jane Foster, read this with an eye of a philosopher instead of a scientist. What you and I seek lies inside."

"Damn," Darcy exclaimed. "It's not signed. A name would've been a nice clue for Coulson. But maybe he can get prints off it." At Jane's silence, she added, "Yeah, you're right. He would be smarter than that."

Jane flipped through the book, pausing only long enough to read his handwritten notes along with the highlighted texts. Rainbow bridge? Realms? Seers? "He's crazy."

"Well, yeah. What did you expect? The man is a serial killer. A sociopath. Probably delusional."

Jane closed the book and stared blankly out the window. What you and I seek lies inside.

"Agent Coulson," Darcy said, not to Jane.

Snatching the phone from her intern's hand, Jane stabbed the red button to end the call. "What are you doing?"

"Updating Coulson."

"Not right now. Just give me a day to wrap my head around this." The rainbow bridge did sound awfully similar to an Einstein-Rosen bridge, and the realms were nothing more than inhabited worlds with alien life. But seers? She didn't believe in fortune tellers and astrology. "Maybe I'm missing something."

Darcy watched her carefully, then slowly nodded.

Gripping the steering wheel, Jane drove home with her mind elsewhere.

Jane spent the next week with her nose in books about all things Norse mythology, using his notes to guide her. She started thinking of her work in a new, more abstract way. If her colleagues knew what she was doing, they would blacklist her forever. Erik was bad enough. They fought and fought until Darcy couldn't take it anymore and scolded them as if they were no better than squabbling children. Erik had come back from his room after a long bout of bitter silence, unhappy with her decision to use what the serial killer had provided, but willing to help, if only to keep her safe.

The entire section on the Convergence had been highlighted and contained the most notes, so she focused her work around it, and quickly realized one was about to happen. Such an alignment would cause the affected worlds to vibrate in the same frequency, thereby creating pockets that were nothing more than spontaneous wormholes. It was quantum mechanics on a large scale. All she had to do was find an anomaly, record it, and present her findings in a scientific journal using language the community understood. It would be a breakthrough similar to the confirmation of Einstein's theory of gravitational waves.

It took another week, four sleepless nights, and three cut fingers to design and build a handheld device that could detect the wormholes. If one didn't look too carefully, it appeared no different than an older blackberry with an oversized screen.

Erik and Darcy huddled around her, pressing shoulder to shoulder, as she breathed out, counted to five in her head to calm her nerves, and then pressed the power button.

The screen lit up, but it was nothing more than a colorful staticky mess.

Muttering under her breath, Jane adjusted the filters and reset the codes. It didn't help.

"Hit it," Darcy suggested.

Erik sighed. "That's not going to—"

Jane banged it hard against her hand several times, and the screen cleared to show a rotating miniature Earth along with actual readings. It even beeped incessantly.

"Hell yeah!" Darcy whooped.

Jane smiled wide. Multiple anomalies were scattered all around the Earth. There was even one relatively close by. Excitement gave her a stronger buzz than any triple espresso could.

"We have to go there," Darcy demanded.

On the verge of agreeing, SHIELD came to mind. Deflated, her arms fell to her side. "We can't. If I leave, they'll follow me and find the wormhole as well. Hello bureaucracy, goodbye scientific freedom."

"Maybe it's for the best," Erik said. "We don't know what we're dealing with. Something could come out that we're not prepared to handle. Or it could grow and envelop us, depositing us on one of those inhospitable worlds."

"Or." Darcy paused for effect. "I disguise myself as you, take the van, and get them to follow me. You sneak out and take my car."

"No," Erik declared.

Jane ignored him as she took in Darcy. Lose the red lipstick, add a pair of sunglasses, throw on a hat, carry a large box to hide their most obvious difference in body type, and her intern could very well pass as her. "That could work."

It took all of five minutes for them to enact their plan, despite Erik's protests slowing them down. She watched Darcy leave, and then the agents. As soon as they were clear, she darted out of the lab and hopped into the small car, surprised to find Erik right behind her. She lifted a brow as he quickly buckled up, but said nothing. If he wanted to come, he was more than welcome. He often picked things up she didn't. It's what made them a good team.

The beeping sped up the closer they drove to an abandoned warehouse. She parked outside the metal building and walked where the device guided her. Their footfalls on the metal walkways echoed in the cavernous room. Without air conditioning, they were moving through an oven. Sweat slid down her back, but she kept going.

Several stories up, she stopped near a corner that appeared perfectly normal, yet her readings were going haywire.

"This is it?" Erik asked.

Jane nodded and bent to scoop up a crumpled and faded magazine.

He stepped closer to her. "What are you doing?"

"Seeing if it's actually there." She tossed the magazine, and it disappeared mid-air.

Her heart thumped offbeat and she swallowed hard. Not because she'd found a wormhole, but because she caught sight of someone hidden in the shadows on the other side of the walkway. A tall man with dark hair and sharp features that were both beautiful and frightening. Her soulmate and would-be killer. His glasses hid his eyes, but she knew he was looking right at her.

An odd mixture of cold fear and warm desire filled her. It was as if her body recognized her soulmate even without the bond and rejoiced, pulling her towards him. And yet, her mind knew him as her serial killer, screaming at her to run away. In the end, she stood frozen and confused.

"Jane, what's wrong?" Erik asked, looking around but unable to see the man through the darkness.

Her soulmate smiled at her.

This was a trap, to get her to leave the safety of her lab and SHIELD. She expected him to raise a gun, throw a knife, shoot a poisoned dart, do something to kill her and buy himself another hundred years.

Instead, his gaze returned to the wormhole, and he took a step in its direction.

The movement caught Erik's eye, and he gasped, pulling her back.

"Stop!" a familiar voice shouted from down the walkway behind her serial killer.

Before she had a chance to find Agent Coulson, at least twenty soldiers in combat gear moved to the edge of the walkway above them in unison. They snapped their rifles over the railing and aimed at the tall man who had heeded the command. He'd paused mid-step with his weight about to lift off his back foot.

"You are under arrest for the murder of three previous soulmates and the attempted murder of your current one," Coulson said as he approached the taller man. He had a pair of handcuffs in his grasp around his raised gun.

He didn't seem like he was about to kill her, though. He had been focused on the wormhole, ready to walk right in even.

Her soulmate lifted his hands as instructed, his face twisting with fury. He seemed to ignore Coulson reading his rights and the soldiers ready to shoot-to-kill.

Once he was cuffed, Coulson turned to Erik and thanked him for keeping them informed. Jane bit back a curse and glared at her old mentor.

As soon as they were walking back to Darcy's car, she said, "I can't believe you've been spying for them."

"You should be glad I did, or we might both be dead right now."

But she wasn't relieved. He hadn't been about to kill her. Right before Coulson had stepped out, a look had crossed his features that she had recognized even with his glasses on. A look of relief. Just what was on the other side of that wormhole? And why did he want to go there so badly?

She glanced back as they drove away from the metal building being cordoned off with tape and stationed with armed guards. Looked like she'd never know.

Unless...

Except for the lone man handcuffed to a metal table, the room was empty. Jane stepped inside and then nodded a dismissal to the soldier who had unlocked the door. She'd agreed to work for SHIELD on the wormholes if they allowed her a private visit with her soulmate.

The door clicked shut behind her, but Jane didn't move an inch. Her stomach held a thousand butterflies from hell. Part of her yearned to walk right back out that door, but she had no other choice if she wanted to finish her project without SHIELD dictating her every move. She had worked too long under her own authority and was too close now to retreat.

His gaze was trained on his intertwined hands, handcuffed to the table and resting atop a pad of paper. He refused to look at her, of course. He wore no glasses and didn't want to risk triggering the bond. He wouldn't speak, either, which was why SHIELD had granted him the paper and pencil.

She told herself it didn't matter, that he was not mentally well, but her heart ached all the same. Out of all the people in the world she had to be bound to someone who would rather kill her for more years than spend his last days happily fulfilled at having found his soulmate. Not everyone got that chance.

Ready for whatever might happen, she took a breath and then asked him what was on the other side of the wormhole, all the while being careful to not accidentally bite the tiny device hidden under her tongue. When—if it was time, she'd use it to signal Darcy.

He flinched, then relaxed when her words didn't set off the bond. But it could still be his words that did it, or a touch, or an eye-locked gaze.

"Well?"

He picked up the pencil in his long fingers with perfectly kept nails and wrote something down. Moments later, he turned the pad toward her.

She didn't want to step any closer to him, but her curiosity demanded otherwise.

In a stylish scrawl that reminded her of calligraphy, he'd written that Asgard resided on the other side. So it was all real. Which meant there were frost giants and fire demons.

"Why?"

He didn't take back the pad, not even after the third time she asked the simple question.

"Everyone here believes you set me up to kill me."

Besides a hardness setting his shoulders, he showed no other sign of what he might think.

"Everyone but me."

Even with his face lowered she saw his brows pull together.

"You wanted that wormhole, not me." Forgetting herself, she took a step in his direction. "You've been waiting hundreds of years to get back to Asgard. Killing me—the past me's—was out of necessity, wasn't it?"

Silence.

"You had to wait for the Convergence, for someone to help you find a wormhole, but why? Why do you need to leave?"

She leaned over the table, waiting for an answer he would not give.

Heart thumping, slowly trying to work its way to her throat, she steeled herself and lowered her voice to barely a whisper. "I can help you."

That almost had him jerking to gape at her, but before their eyes could meet, he schooled himself and looked back down at his hands.

She licked her dry lips, but her tongue might as well have been a dehydrated husk. Could she actually go through with her plan? Could she chain herself to a murderer knowing that very bond would make her feel something for him? Her stomach rolled.

"Is there a way to break the soulmate bond?" she asked.

He sat unmoving for such a long moment he might have dozed off. Then he nodded.

Relief flooded her so thoroughly she nearly collapsed into the chair opposite him. "Trigger the bond, be my test subject for the wormhole, and you'll be free to go to Asgard. Of course, once you're there, you'll have to get rid of the bond before our separation kills us both."

The pencil snapped in his white-knuckled grip.

"I'm not going to risk breaking you out of here, only for you to kill me again and again until the end of time." She shook her head. "You either die rotting in a cell on Earth, or die a free man on Asgard."

His chest heaved with a sudden, deep breath, then he looked her in the eyes. His gaze gripped her more firmly than had he done so with his hands. Green consumed her, and yet nothing clicked. No world-altering effects. Which could mean nothing. Many people didn't feel a thing. It was how roommates could suddenly realize they were growing old, thereby discovering they were each other's soulmate. Not to mention why a couple could live together for years and only realize they weren't meant to be until they saw the truth in their unchanging faces, she thought bitterly.

"You will come to regret this, Jane Foster."

A cool sensation washed over her, as if she'd just walked through a gentle waterfall on a sweltering day. A shiver raked her body, as it did his. Jane looked at him, a connection settling in place that unnerved her. She'd never heard of a bonding that strong before.

Dragging her feet back, she breathed out in relief that she was still in control of herself, that she wasn't madly in love with him. She searched her feelings and found a kernel of fondness for him that hadn't been there before. She could live with that. So long as it didn't grow into anything more.

"What now?" he asked.

She bit down on the tiny device in her mouth and waited.

The fire alarms shrieked and flashed. As he glanced up at them, finally showing his face fully in front of her, she absorbed everything about him. The pictures hadn't done him justice. He looked like he was about to put on a fashion show of orange prison garb. It just wasn't fair.

Jane wanted to slap herself. She didn't care that he was handsome. He was a means to an end, that was all.

The door opened and a female soldier stepped inside. Darcy.

Jane sighed. So far so good.

After the door clicked shut, her intern smiled at them. "You called?"

Jane motioned for her to unlock the handcuffs, and then peeked outside to find a guard waiting close by despite everyone else moving swiftly to the exits.

"Fire?" Jane asked because she needed a reason to be poking her head out.

He gave a sharp nod and answered, but her attention zeroed in on Agent Coulson and two soldiers walking around a corner toward her.

She popped back into the room. "We have to go. Now."

Darcy drew herself up, hardening her features, then marched outside holding onto Jane's still semi-bound soulmate. The handcuffs would surely fall from his wrists if he jostled them. The other soldier fell into step with Darcy.

Jane glanced back to see the hallway mostly empty and Coulson picking up his pace. He shouted something, but it was lost to the alarms. She looked at the soldier's ear-piece, certain he would be radioed to halt and wait for the Agent to catch up to them.

Her chest clenched tightly with each pounding beat. She might die of a heart attack before they made it to the stairwell or out of the building.

Just as they rounded a corner, her soulmate elbowed the guard in the face hard enough to make the stout man drop as if his bones had melted.

Darcy yelped in surprise, but it was Jane he addressed. "Calm yourself. I can feel your fear like filth on my skin."

Before she could give him a piece of her mind, he knelt to strip the uniform off the man and don the too-baggy clothes. It took all of three seconds, just a flash of his bare skin, pale and taut over defined muscles, then they were moving again, down the stairs with other employees and soldiers. His longer legs made her take two steps at a time, risking her neck to keep pace. Darcy struggled just the same.

By the time they reached the bottom floor, she was out of breath and lagging well behind her soulmate. He waited at the door, his jaw ticking like the second hand of a clock.

They strode through the lobby with Jane glancing over her shoulder and jumping whenever someone got too close to them.

"Stop that," her soulmate demanded.

Heeding his advice, despite wanting to balk, she fixed her gaze on Darcy's back and repeated pi's long sequence of numbers as they flowed with the stream of people out the exit. It wasn't until they were in the car and driving away that the tension drained from her coiled muscles and locked rib cage.

"Where are we going?" he asked.

Darcy answered for her. "There's another wormhole out in the desert."

He fell into silence at that, and Jane wished she could hear his smooth, mellifluous voice again, until she wanted to triple slap herself for even thinking that. He had killed her numerous times. He didn't want the bond. And he was plainly an arrogant asshole.

He clicked his tongue. "One should not hold such distasteful emotions toward their soulmate, dear Jane."

How could he feel her that strongly? She got nothing off him. The realization as to why that was hit her like a punch to the gut. He felt nothing for her, not hatred nor desire. Just nothing.

Darcy cleared her throat. "What's your name? SHIELD doesn't have anything on you besides some pictures."

After a long pause, he said, "Loki."

Jane twisted in her seat to look back at him, thinking of the Norse mythology book he'd given her. "Loki, brother to Thor, Prince of Asgard?"

He nodded, though just barely.

"Are you really a Frost Giant?"

His gaze sharpened to daggers.

Undeterred, Jane continued on. "Can you shapeshift? Did you really turn into a mare and give birth to a horse for Odin?"

"Oh, for Norn's sake. If it'll shut you up, yes, I am a shapeshifter, and no, I did not birth a horse or any children for that matter. And as to the absurd Frost Giant accusation—" He ended with a disdainful scoff that was answer enough.

The car swerved slightly, but other than that Darcy seemed to be taking it well.

Turning back to him, Jane realized their intense bonding had to have been because he wasn't human. If not for her situation, she would've believed interspecies soulmates were impossible.

His stare pulled her out of her thoughts. "So where's your magic? Why are you stuck on Earth?"

"It was my punishment. To live and die as a worthless mortal."

"What did you do?"

"Ruined Thor's inauguration by nearly starting a war between Asgard and Jotunheim. People died. The Casket of Ancient Winters was almost freed from the Vault." He shifted, picking imaginary lint off his borrowed uniform. "It was not my finest hour."

Jane took a moment to process everything he'd said. "Why would you want to go back to where you're clearly not wanted?"

"Because it's the only home I know."

Jane faced the front of the car and settled into her seat for the drive. He hadn't lied to her. She didn't know how she knew, but she did. She wasn't even certain if he could lie to his soulmate. The bond reacted differently for each couple, and theirs seemed particularly strong.

As much as she hated it, she understood him. She never felt like she belonged either, not in school, not with her family, and not in her lab. But she'd always attributed that to not having a soulmate bond. Now, she wasn't sure about anything.

They stopped at the site, and she stuck sensors on him while Darcy set up the equipment. His taller height blocked the sun from her eyes and silhouetted his shirtless form, but she did her best not to stare. Regardless, her body hummed in delight at their close proximity, at each little brush of skin on skin.

Stepping back, she checked on Darcy's work and nodded in approval. Everything was hooked up to the car's battery and already spitting out readings.

Loki moved to the edge of the anomaly, his grey prison guard shirt now draped over his shoulder, and paused. He looked back at Jane. Something inside of her twisted. She shouldn't feel anything for him, let alone regret his leaving. She shouldn't. But repeating his offenses over and over in her mind didn't help soothe the pang building in her chest.

He shifted and one of the sensors went silent. They all needed to be working to get an accurate reading.

She told him to wait a moment and plodded over to him. His gaze shifted from her to the portal, his hands clenching and unclenching.

When she was close enough to adjust the defective sensor, he gripped her arms and pulled her closer to him. "I warned you, Jane Foster."

And then she was surrounded by darkness that pushed against her like a thousand bodies. Her skin and marrow stretched until their very molecules would rip free to drift across the universe.

What felt like a thousand years in a scant couple seconds passed, and the darkness vanished. Golden light blinded her, forcing her to shield her eyes until they adjusted. Jane turned, taking in the beautiful city in the distance with its towering spires glinting in the sunlight, the sparkling water of the lazy river not four feet from her, and the vibrant green leaves of trees so full they appeared to be overgrown bushes.

Jane's mouth fell open. "Asgard."

A/N: I am super excited to start posting this story. It'll end up being somewhere around 70k words with some action, adventure, and romance. So sit tight and watch these two overcome their issues as they are maneuvered into saving the Nine Realms.

My planned update schedule will be every Friday until this baby is done. :)

Thanks for reading! And thanks to my awesome beta, Mercury97, who catches all of my flubs and teaches me grammar. She's awesome. She's also a skilled writer, which is why I highly recommend the lokane story she's currently writing: The Ties that Bind. And I can't leave out my sister's contribution who reads everything I write with gusto. She's my personal cheerleader, and I love her.