AN: Odin's speech is pretty much straight from the movie.

Blues Brothers Ch 2

The night stretched, vast and endless, stars flung on velvet black like scatterings of ice. Below lay the desert floor, dark mountains circling the flat, scrubby land. The air was warm and still, heralding high summer.

A van stood in the middle of the flat sprawl of desert scrub, three people arguing stridently within.

High overhead and behind the van, clouds started to gather. Brightening, the roil of clouds began throwing off a soft kaleidoscope of colour.

Shouts and exclamations from the van carried only faintly in the night as the van raced towards the swirling clouds, dust kicking up high behind it.

Shrieking winds twisted down from the clouds, licking up dust into a haze of grit on the desert floor. Like a wall of lightning, a column of searing brilliance punched through the clouds, there and gone in a heartbeat.

Now swerving erratically, the van lurched into the heart of the dust cloud. Someone screamed. There was a yell and a dull thud.

The van's engine died, and there was only silence.

He didn't know which was more dangerous, Loki reflected as a little more feeling leeched from his hands; being trapped in the frozen mountains of Jotunheim, or the knowledge of his and Thor's true heritage in Sif's hands. Loki had easily picked out the conflicted disgust she'd been trying to smooth from her features. At least she'd agreed to keep it secret for now, and her warrior's honour would demand that she keep her word. Back in Asgard though… but that was for later.

Wrenching his mind back to the present, Loki pressed himself to the frozen rock, listening intently. Fandral breathed quietly next to him. The whirling snow made it all but impossible to see where they were going, but somehow Hogun kept them on track, charting their way up the huge boulders back to the Bifrost site. No trace of the Jotuns yet.

Except for the snowstorm, it was eerily silent. Loki looked around, straining to see. He twitched when Hogun tapped him on his forearm, motioning to move forward.

With Fandral badly injured, they'd decided to count on stealth rather than brute force. Hogun, Loki, and Fandral went one way, Sif, Thor, and Volstagg another. That left Sif's group fighter-heavy, but they'd reasoned that Loki's magic and Hogun's stealth would be more likely to reach the Bifrost site without incident, and so the wounded Fandral went with them.

Loki nodded at Hogun and helped the wounded blond up the sharp incline. They were almost there. Loki's nerves twisted tighter, his back itching where imagined enemy eyes tracked their progress.

The Jotun beast's body had been left where it fell. Now, almost a day later, it was frozen solid and obscured by streaks of snow - only the gaping maw identified it for their small band. This was it. The three of them hunkered down, waiting for the others.

Sif was a decent tracker, better than Thor or Volstagg, and so it had fallen to her to lead the second group. Hogun was still the best though, and Loki was not surprised that they'd arrived first, even with Fandral to escort.

Shouts rang out nearby, distorted by the blowing wind. Weapons sang and Jotuns roared. Damn. "Stay here, I'll bring them to us," Loki ordered. Hogun looked conflicted, but nodded. They had to be quick. If the Jotuns massed in force, Heimdall wouldn't open the Bifrost, and Loki didn't know if they'd survive to try again. "And call Heimdall!" Loki yelled back as he ran into the whirling snow.

There! Loki felt a Mjolnir-spawned tremor vibrating through the rocks underfoot, saw Sif's flashing blades just ahead. Locating the attacking Jotuns, he picked them off one by one with glowing daggers of light, striking them from behind. Not the most honorable behavior, but this was a battle for survival, not honour.

The wind slackened for a moment, affording Loki an open glance over the snowy plain. Even dark as this world was, the wave of approaching Jotuns was only too clear. Loki was hit by the realization that, but for Odin's magic, he would be one of those barbaric monstrosities. He choked back bile and refused to let it overwhelm him. "Thor, hurry!" he yelled, sending two more monsters dead to the ground as Thor caved in a third one's skull and Sif's blades licked out to decapitate the last. "This way!"

"Heimdall!" Hogun was yelling as Loki approached at a dead run, the others short on his heels. "Heimdall, open the bridge!"

Nothing. Damnit, no, not again.

"Heimdall!" Thor thundered, turning even as he skidded to a stop, Mjolnir raised. Shoulder to shoulder the five of them stood where they'd entered Jotunheim, Fandral crouched behind them, staring down an army of oncoming Jotuns.

The Jotuns were almost upon them. "Heimdall!" The Bifrost remained closed.

The Jotuns yelled, a note of triumph in their bellows. They knew whom they faced, and they'd pour out their lives like water to take down the princes of Asgard.

Their small band yelled back in defiance, weapons ready.

The Bifrost exploded open behind them, sending Fandral sideways into Hogun and Loki nearly to his knees. Odin, in full armour and astride Sleipnir, rose up behind them, radiant in the light of the Bifrost.

"Father!" Thor cried, and Loki almost echoed his brother, relief like a physical force within him.

"Silence!" Odin hissed, otherwise ignoring them in favour of gazing out over the gathering of Jotuns.

One Jotun rose on a living pillar of ice until he was even with Odin. "Allfather," the Jotun said mockingly, giving Odin a contemptuous look. "You look… weary."

"Laufey," Odin replied, grim and stern, and Loki's heart sank. He'd been serious when he'd told Thor that Odin was old, but now he sawit, more clearly than he ever had before. Odin was still strong in mind and body, but the Allfather was tired, dangerously so.

Loki watched Odin and Laufey talk, dread pooling in his stomach as Laufey controlled the conversation. Where was the bluster, the anger that should have been pouring from Father? He must at least be ready to string up Thor (and probably Loki, too) by his innards. But Loki saw no sign of it. Instead Father spoke of peace, and Loki knew that the Jotuns understood it as weakness.

Laufey spoke not of peace, but of war. Loki felt himself go cold. War. No, surely Father would find some way to avert-

"So be it," Odin said flatly. The ice-dagger Laufey raised was almost expected, but a blast of Odin's power sent Laufey tumbling away, taking his ice with him.

Loki felt the Bifrost yank at him, pulling him from Jotunheim to Asgard in an instant. Odin's furious gaze was already turned on them as they rematerialized in the Bifrost chamber. Where was your anger when we needed it,Loki raged silently, head spinning with shock and dismay.

"Get him to the healing chambers," Odin snarled, dismissing Fandral, then yanked Heimdall's sword out of its place and flung it not-quite point-first at the gatekeeper, who retreated discreetly.

Sif and the Warriors scurried off as quickly as possible, deeming speed the better part of valor. Feeling Odin's wrath like fire as the Allfather rounded on them, Loki wanted nothing more than to join them, but this was not the time to leave his volatile brother to his temper.

Of course, things were never that easy. Loki's attempt to interject some reason into the brewing argument about diplomacy vs. battle was quickly shut down by Odin, and Thor continued to escalate.

"We should gather the warriors, go in with full force, take the fight to them!" Thor insisted, agitating for a preemptive strike.

Loki felt something hot and dangerous well up from deep inside him, shattering his façade of calm in a heartbeat. "I agree."

"What?" Odin demanded, rounding on Loki.

"Laufey all but declared war, or were you too tired to hear that?" Loki spat, horrified at what was coming out of his mouth but unable to stop himself. "It doesn't matter how much you speak of peace," he plowed on, "they do not want it."

"Exactly! The Jotuns are spoiling for a fight, I say we give it to them!"

"This is pride and bloodlust speaking," Odin replied hotly.

"It is common sense!" Loki knew Odin was right, he just didn't care.

"You do not speak as kings but as petulant boys!" Odin bellowed.

"At least we are not fools and cowards!" Thor roared back, red faced.

The faint roar of the water was loud in the sudden, ringing silence, all three of them shocked into stillness as Thor's insult registered.

Odin bowed his head, but Loki's bitter rage had subsided, giving way to alarm. "Perhaps I was," Odin said grimly, voice gone pained and regretful. "A fool, to think either of you were ready."

"Thor Odinson, Loki Odinson, Princes of Asgard."

Loki tried to find something to say, but instead could only stand by his brother, silent in the face of Odin's judgement.

"You have betrayed the express command of your king. Through your arrogance and stupidity, you have opened these peaceful realms and innocent lives to the horror and desolation of war," Odin said resolutely, the disappointment in his eye pressing upon Loki as if Mjolnir itself had been laid on his chest.

Odin drove his spear, Gungnir, into place, activating the Biforst, and Loki felt the breath leave him as lightning arched overhead and the Bifrost hummed around them.

"You are both unworthy of the trust placed in you, of these realms, and of your titles. I now take from you both your power!" Mjolnir flew to Odin's hand as Thor looked on helplessly, and Loki almost doubled over as he felt his magic scream within him. "In the name of my father, and his father before him, I, Odin Allfather, cast you out!"

Loki could see the blast coming, but he was frozen, unable to even think of dodging, and he felt himself flung back violently into the whirling Bifrost, catching a fleeting glimpse of Thor's horrified face before the bridge caught them and plucked them from the only home they'd ever known

Loki felt hard packed earth beneath his feet. Dust swirled in the dark around him, clogging his lungs. Light swept over him. Impact.

They went down hard, Thor taking the brunt of the attack. Loki wheezed, breath knocked out of him, and clawed his way out from under his unconscious brother, disoriented and aching.

A form coalesced from the dust, and Loki automatically tried to form a dagger, but his magic was silent.

"Please don't be dead!" It was a woman, he saw, and not dressed like a warrior either. Not a danger. Probably. His head swam and he collapsed back on Thor and the warm earth, just breathing. The woman's voice sounded distant and tinny and there was a whine in his ears. The world went black.