I'm sorry it's been so long since an update. I don't have an excuse, but I will try to keep this updated. Also, I will be ignoring the plot of Thor 2; there's no way what happens in that movie will fit in with the plot here. As always, I'd like to thank everyone for reading, reviewing, following, and favoriting.

Death, more than almost anything, enjoyed visiting Midgard. The life there was frail and short, but the people were some of the most optimistic beings in the nine realms. In the old days when she traveled there, she would bring about plagues and disasters to thin the crowds. Nowadays, however, a more personal approached proved more rewarding. There was a certain feeling she got when the humans perished that was nearly indescribable; their deaths fed her power, and her power went primarily to their deaths.

The past few times she went to Midgard, however, she had taken the Asgardian's form. Because of the increased amount of travelling between realms, though, her ability to shift into him was limited. Her eyes still appeared nearly completely black, and her face, while holding the appearance of Loki, looked bruised and battered. It was passable though, and Thanos had insisted on her visiting the girl and different Midgardian organizations as Loki. She had been watching the movement and containment of the tessaract for a few weeks now, and had even begun influencing the mind of a few doctors and agents tasked with studying and guarding it.

Death returned from Midgard to Thanos, changing back into her own appearance. He was standing over the Asgardian, speaking to him about his upcoming task. Even from where she stood, she could see the wounds on his back and arms. Death believed the physical torments were a bit much; to control this one, psychological suffering had a greater influence, and the supposed death of the girl had already hurt Loki more than anything else. As of recent, Loki had all but lost the will to survive. The suffering Thanos or The Other inflicted barely even had an effect on him; besides the fact they never even gave him enough time to stop hurting from the previous session, Death recognized that the pain in his soul was no match for anything anybody could do to his body. At that thought, Death grinned.

"Stand." Thanos' voice suddenly picked up. Death watched as the Asgardian struggled to even move, let alone follow that order. "I am giving you a task, Laufeyson. One I trust you, given your supposed birthright, will be able to manage."

Death looked closer at Loki; the marks from beatings covered him and the signs of dehydration and heat made his expression even weaker. His eyes were blank and hollowed, and he'd lost a considerable amount of body weight. Death had insisted Thanos not go to such an extent with him physically, but his use for the Asgardian was more physical than what she had in store for him.

Loki stood before Thanos. After all this time here, he still was able to show at least a little bravado. Death began circling them, listening without showing interest.

"And what tortures do you have in store for me today?" Loki said boldly, though he was barely able to stay upright.

"None today, Asgardian," Thanos said. "Today, I'm going to teach you."

"Teach me what?" Loki asked, raising an eyebrow. As Death walked around them, she saw a thin line of blood going down the side of his face from a wound on his left temple.

Thanos smiled. "I'm going to teach you how to lead an army."

Loki tilted his head and smiled, though his eyes remained drained. "And what army am I to lead?"

"There is a race known as the Chitauri," Thanos explained, "Quite the force to be reckoned with. They are yours to command." Loki appeared to be thinking. Thanos continued, "I am sending you to your human world."

If that sparked something within Loki, he didn't show it. Instead, he stared at something beyond Thanos, calculating.

"And if I say no?" he said distantly.

"Then you will die on this rock, and it won't be for a very, very long time. You will serve me, or you will suffer."

Loki, to Death's surprise, grinned. He appeared absolutely mad. "I'll suffer wherever I am. So this means my choice is simply whether or not I serve you." He shifted his footing and nearly fell over. Playing it off, he continued. "As much as I desire to be one of your underlings, I'm afraid I'll have to decline your most gracious offer. Even I have my limits, and a moral compass."

Thanos smiled now. "I thought you'd say something along those lines. However, I think you'd like to hear our offer. You see, there will be an attack on Midgard regardless of whether you lead them or not. If someone with less structure, less conviction, were to lead the Chitauri, then who knows what would happen. A controlled attack would allow the leader to rule Midgard. Chaos would end in countless casualties, possibly even that scientist woman you befriended."

Loki didn't react to the threat. Death watched his eyes for a sign of emotion but saw nothing.

Loki listened to Thanos with a blank face, though his mind was more or less alert. He had a splitting headache he tried to ignore, in addition to the countless other wounds.

"If you were to agree," Thanos said, "You would lead an attack on just one city. Beforehand, you would find something called the Cosmic Cube. On Midgard it is known as the Tesseract. The cube is an infinite power source and of great importance to me. We will send you directly to it, and then you will take it to the city you will attack and use it to bring your army. After the attack, you will be king and you will give the cube to me."

Loki scoffed. "Lead an attack with a species I'm not familiar with on a species I don't want to harm to give you an infinite power source? Why doesn't this sound like something I'd be behind?"

"You'll be rid of me," Thanos offered.

"I have a feeling you'll find a way to reconnect anyway," Loki said dryly.

"You will be a king."

Loki clenched his jaw. "I don't want to be king."

"We both know that that's not true," Thanos said, taking a step forward. "You were promised a throne, and then when you took it you were rejected. They saw the monster instead of the king."

"Stop," Loki warned.

"And when you fell, they all thought you had perished. They thought that the abyss had swallowed you whole. And that's true, is it not?"

Thanos stood closer now. Loki tried backing away, but the pain in his head was growing and his legs weren't responding.

"They didn't even mourn you, Laufeyson," Thanos spat. "They hated you. They cast you out. Now is your chance to prove them all wrong. Now, you can rise from the abyss and show them how wrong they were. You can show them the king you were born to be."

Loki felt his energy draining. The headache was becoming unbearable. Out of the corner of his eye, he watched Death still circling them, her eyes always on him. With that, combined with Thanos talking at him and the pain from so many different sources, Loki fell to his knees.

"I can heal you," Thanos said, stepping forward again so that he was right in front of him, looking down at him. "If you are cooperative, I will help you." Thanos reached out and grabbed Loki by the hair, jerking his head so that he looked up at him. "If you serve me, all of the pain will stop. Do you accept my offer?"

Loki, barely able to even compose concise thoughts, processed that. The possibility of not feeling any pain seemed impossible for him right now. Even if Thanos was telling the truth about healing him, no amount of magic could help Loki completely. Loki thought briefly of Darcy, the source of most of his pain. He wondered what she would say if she could see him now.

With the last bit of energy he had in him, he was able to put together one word. "Yes," Loki slurred, and with that he slumped to the ground unconscious.

Darcy and Jane sat in the lab together, neither one wanting to speak. They were waiting on a computer to finish up with some readings they had gathered the night before. It wasn't anything particularly exciting; the two women had had nothing but dead ends for months as far as Einstein-Rosen bridges went. Darcy glanced up and saw Jane staring at the cup of tea in her hands like it was the most fascinating thing she'd ever seen.

The potential Loki sighting a few weeks back still plagued her mind. She was fairly certain she had been awake at the time and that it had not been a dream, but it wasn't something she wanted to believe was real. The last she definitely saw of Loki, he was on a rock in space with an evil magic ape-guy. Loki couldn't be the only trickster in the universe, so maybe ape-guy was messing with her. The thought that it was a trick by Thanos didn't comfort her much; that meant Thanos was watching her at least some of the time and that he'd been in her bedroom, and that was about the creepiest thing she'd ever heard. Plus that meant Loki's whereabouts and wellbeing was still a mystery, which was definitely not good either.

Darcy pulled herself from her thoughts. "So the calculations should be done by three?" she asked, breaking the silence. Jane looked up at her.

"Two thirty," Jane corrected, glancing at her watch.

"Hmm."

Jane bit her lip. "Darcy, if you need to talk about anything…"

"I'm fine," Darcy cut her off. "Really. I don't want to talk about anything."

"I kind of know how you're feeling, Darcy," Jane offered, smiling weakly. "I haven't seen Thor since May."

"No, you don't know how I feel, Jane," Darcy snapped. "You know that Thor is out there and all right and trying to get back to you. You know that he's safe in Asgard. I don't even know if Loki's alive; for all we know, something horrible happened to him. He didn't have his magic. He was weak and that fucking lunatic Thanos is powerful— powerful enough to mess with our portal from wherever it is he is. If Loki is even still alive, Thanos is probably torturing him, Jane. So no, you don't know how I feel."

Everything came pouring out before Darcy had the chance to even think about what she was saying. The look on Jane's face said it all; she had gone way too far. Jane was just trying to help, and Darcy ruined it.

"I'm sorry, Jane," Darcy said. "That was really out of line."

"No, you're right," Jane said. "We don't know if Loki's ok. We don't know if he's alive. I do know one thing, though. If he's alive, he's trying his hardest to get back here, just like I know Thor is. It may take a while, but they'll find their way back."

Darcy paused before responding. "I hate gods," she eventually said.

"Me too," Jane agreed, smiling.