"As soon as Loki took the doctor, we moved Jane Foster. An excellent observatory in Toronto, she was asked to consult there very suddenly yesterday. Handsome fee. Private plane. Very remote... She'll be safe." Coulson looked up to watch the thunder god stare longingly at the photo on the computer screen.

"Thank you... It's no accident, Loki taking Eric Selvig. I dread what he plans for him once he's done. Eric is a good man."

"He talks about you a lot. You changed his life, changed everything around here."

"Things were better as they were. We pretend on Asgard like we're more advanced, but we come here battling like Bilgesnipe." He said.

Coulson stopped to look at him with wide eyes. "Like what?"

"Bilgesnipe. You know—huge, scaly, big antlers." His hands came up to make horns with his fingers. "You don't have those?"

"Don't think so."

"Well, they are repulsive. And they trample everything in their path." Thor stopped gradually, coming to look down the walkway towards his other Asgardian friend. She was being pleasant, chatting with a Lieutenant who had inquired about the markings on her armor.

"When I first came to Earth Loki's rage followed me, and your people paid the price. And now again, even Aswren has been forced to fight. Just a few years ago her only worries were deciding a dress to be married in and which spell could grow the flowers in our garden faster. Now magic is just another weapon and her marriage has crumbled at her feet because of my foolishness. I don't know if I can bear to have her blood add to that which already stains my hands. In my youth, I called it war—"

"—war hasn't started yet." Nick Fury piped up from the catwalk above them.

"I'm going to ask you something, but I feel that your friend is equally qualified to answer me." His hand waved over to Coulson who turned to his side to call the warrior.

"Aswren!" Her brown head popped up to look at him with doe eyes.

"Come here for a minute."

Thor skeptically took in the man at the top of the stairs. "What is this about?"

"What do you need?" Aswren also said.

Fury came down the metal steps. "You think you can make Loki tell us where the Tesseract is?"

Thor looked over to meet Aswren's same worried eyes, speaking up for the both of them. "I don't know."

"Negotiation would not be that simple. It's not just power he craves, its vengeance." Her eyes became inflamed, wondering where the train of thought was going.

"Against me." Thor continued her sentence. "What are you asking us to do?"

"I'm asking, what are you prepared to do?"

Thor looked at him seriously. "Loki is a prisoner—"

"—So why do I feel he's the only person on this boat who wants to be here?" The senior agent looked at them both with disappointment, demanding answers.

Aswren crossed her arms, inhaling deeply with a frustration that etched lines into her brow. "Agent Fury. Loki won't yield to torture and interrogation when he knows what you want to hear."

"…You're suggesting we play dirty?"

"Precisely."

"You can leave at any time, Aswren. If at any point it becomes too much you can simply walk away. Please do that for me?" Thor whispered into the warm air between them, hand clutched in her hair.

"We don't know what he will do."

"Thor, I have to know."

His polished teeth ground together underneath the muscles of his cheek. "… All right. Be careful."

She nodded back at him, taking the shorter steps two at a time to the metal doors of this mortal ship. Fury's words barely registered as they slipped open with a soft hiss.

"Get us something useful, Aswren. You'll only get to talk to him once."

In the holding cell, the trickster was waiting for her, feigning surprise.

"Lady Aswren. To what do I owe the pleasure of your company?"

She swallowed around her thick saliva. "Who said this would be a pleasurable visit?"

"Well, I mean to imply that you are less of a nuisance now that I assess you are a worthy opponent."

Aswren's eyes narrowed at him. "Is that what I am to you, an enemy?"

"Aren't you? You've picked your side of the battlefield, and it is not the one where I stand."

The condescending grin across his lips was grating against her patience. "How about a friend? Even if we don't agree that doesn't mean we stand apart. Am I no longer your wife?"

"You never were. I recall sleepless nights, an alliance between two powerful realms, but nothing more."

"What?" Aswren whispered, vanishing in a shimmer to reappear inside the trickster's cage. The heroes watching from the conference room sat up in their seats.

"Can she do that?" Captain pointed at the screen. "Is that safe?"

"Don't disturb them." Thor silenced the murmurs with a wave of his hand.

"They have to finish what was started."

"You're going to stand at my feet, and deny that you ever loved me? Hundreds of years?"

"You act surprised. We came together under the terms of a contract, one that has been fulfilled. There's no longer relevance to our relationship."

"Relevance? Loki, you're not making sense."

A thick gulp slithered down her throat as he stepped forward to stand in her space. "The Loki I knew would not pretend that we didn't happen."

"Oh, but Wren." His long, elegant hand crept up to brush a lock of hair from her cheek.

"Did we?"

"Yes!" She moaned in earnest, unwavering in her opinion. "Yes, we did. I've looked into your eyes as you told me so, I've shared your bed, seen you vulnerable, your soul bared to me. No one could build a lie for that long."

"I could, you naïve little girl."

"Loki, stop this. If you don't love me anymore… that kind of wound will heal, but I won't let you do this—"

His hand shot out to her bicep, gripping like a vice so that she could feel her blood vessels breaking and forming a bruise as he spoke.

"—listen to me, you mewling quim. You don't believe me? You are a pathetic excuse for royalty, heiress to nothing more than an overgrown rock populated by savages and witch doctors. The only redeeming qualities you possess is the title before your name, and this vessel for your pitiful soul. Now here you are, nothing more than a concubine graveling at my feet for a petting, mistaking me for someone capable of an emotion as childish and petty as love. I should have you right here, wipe that pathetic look off your face, and let you think about the true nature of our relationship as you scream and beg for my pity."

Aswren's mouth was wired shut in a shock that left her paralyzed, the color draining from her face as his poisonous gaze bore holes in complexion. In the other room, Thor dragged a hand over his mouth, forced to sit down as he swallowed a burning lump in his throat.

"Aswren, I am so sorry." He whispered into his palm.

The trickster mistook his own shaking for hers as he stared at her unblinking with red-rimmed, bright blue eyes. "How's that for reasons? You're trembling, you can't even speak. I've broken you with mere words instead of my body—"

CRACK! Aswren's fist connected with his temple so that the god toppled over, dazed and fighting the black in his vision.

THUD! THUMP. SHINK. Her boot slammed in the center of his chest, knocking him into the air before he fell on his back, completely caught off guard. He finally regained his depth perception when he felt her foot press into his collarbone, sword drawn and blade pressing into his throat.

"…I should kill you. But I know the sorcery of the Tesseract when I see it."

His bitter chuckle wheezed against the blade of her sword, Adams apple unable to move properly. "Oh, Aswren. You always were the cleverest girl."

Gasp.

She immediately pitched her sword away with a loud clang, picking him up by the lapels of his coat to look at his face. The blow to the soft part of his skull caused his eyes to swim, unfocused until they met her own, emerald green and clear.

"Is it really you?"

"…Hello, darling." In the silence of their cage, his whisper raked against her oversensitive ears. Here now, as his real voice spoke for the first time in years and time slowed to a crawl, she didn't have to be strong. She didn't have to paint her face to appear composed for loyal subjects, her mother, father, or even Thor, and the golden mask melted away. Loki alone will set eyes upon this face, the face of a woman at the end of a road long traveled and paved by those who believed to have her best interests in mind. But they couldn't see that the only way to heal two broken hearts is to let them mend each other.

A princess who believed she could never be good enough.

A prince that could never be King.

He taught her to believe that she was beautiful.

She begged him to understand that not all kings wear a crown.

Their worlds for so long had been so small, and even now through trials and tribulations they were still the center of each other's universes. And is that not what makes them so dangerous? The desire to crush the memories of one who has betrayed you cannot trump an urge to take them back into your arms and whisper that everything will be all right. Especially when they are all you've ever known.

"I want to hate you."

"I want you to be my past."

"And yet I need you to love me."

"I need you to stay."

Neither of them noticed how they had become so entangled, Aswren sitting on his lap, her legs laid out behind his back, body folded into a size that his arms could envelope completely.

"Why is this happening to us?" Aswren whispered into his chest, her voice distorted by tears.

Because I love you. Odin withheld the truth because he thought his son was satisfied with the life that he had made with his best friend. Both fathers waited so long to divulge the nature of their arranged marriage because they knew the two were already in love. Aswren's soul was stolen to curb the guilt Loki would feel if she were to witness his crimes. The vengeance that latched itself to the trickster's heart was poisoning him further when he thought of how Odin had not only wronged him but the woman he loved. And for years he stayed away, protecting Aswren from the war that was coming to Earth, from the celestial beings who would come for him in the event of his failure. And to protect her again, he would pretend that he didn't love her.

"When we have her, you will long for something as sweet as pain."

"Get her out of here." Fury's voice commanded from the door.

"What, no! Don't touch me!" Aswren yelled, pulling at the guards that lifted her by the arms up and off the prisoner. They double-cuffed her, hauling her to her feet and dragging her from the cage.

"Let me go! Loki!" She called. The god rose to his feet calmly, brushing off his trousers as he met her eyes. He made no move to answer, nor fight for her release. And as the guards slowly filed out of the glass cage, the door closed with a hiss… and he turned away.

"… I don't understand." She whispered.

In the other room, the soldiers slammed her down into a chair, latching the cuffs to the rungs along the back.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Aswren questioned the man with the eye-patch pacing in front of her.

"I could ask you the same question. You were asked to get information regarding the Tesseract, not get into a fist-fight and host a phony soap opera. You assured me you could get him to talk, but we are no better off than we were an hour ago."

"Let me explain—"

"—no, you're done talking. Now, I don't care if you and Thor are a packaged deal. You are emotionally compromised for this mission and I will not have that as a hindrance. You're off my ship, is that understood?"

"It's an impressive cage. Built not, I think, for me."

"Built for something a lot stronger than you."

"Oh, I've heard."

"… The doctor." Aswren said.

"What?" The captain spat at her.

"Doctor Banner. The monster is his plan, at least on this ship." Her blue eyes refused to meet him, ashamed and suddenly interested in her lap.

"And how the hell do you know that?"

"My people are called Vanir. We have limited telepathic connections with those we are close to. When he was under the influence of the Tesseract, I saw that he means to unleash the Hulk."

Nick Fury leaned back on his heels, arms crossed and one good eye pinning her down. "…That's more like it. In exchange for that information, you can stay. For now. But remember why you are here, Asgardian. The man in that glass cage? You're here to fight, or kill him if the situation calls for it. I won't have the safety of everyone on this ship and my planet in jeopardy because you aren't willing to do whatever is necessary."

"… Agreed."

"Good. You'll stay in that chair until I come back. I don't have to tell you what will happen if you leave."

The Captain made something of a sneer on his way out, quite possibly a sigh as the doors swished open and closed behind him. Aswren slumped against her bonds when he passed by the window, mentally dwelling on how fortunate she was that these foolish Midgardians knew nothing of her race and their gifts. She struggled against the steel cuffs holding her to the chair, cursing the position that kept her from gaining leverage to break them apart. Left alone to her own demons, the goddesses' mind wandered back to minutes before, how Loki had not struggled against the guards that watched him rise to his feet.

He let her go.

She had looked into his eyes, begged for there to be sorcery clouding his irises an icy blue, but there was none.

He had let her go.