…before he found himself, awake and alive and present and real, laying on the very real floor. That was the first thing Thor knew upon waking. The second thing was that, to his dull surprise, Loki was there, kneeling over him, one hand holding tightly to his in a shaking grip and the other resting on his forehead. His brother's eyes were strangely unfocused, but only for a second. Then he, too, came back to the real world, and Thor saw Loki's eyes light up with relief when their gazes met, saw him smile very faintly. When Thor tried to push himself upright, Loki was there with a hand on his back to steady him. Thor saw as he sat up that he was not where he'd been, out in the hall. Instead, the door to Loki's cell was open, and his brother had clearly dragged him inside to recover from…

From…

"I'm sorry," Loki said quietly, and that more than anything got Thor to look at his brother in undisguised surprise, because Loki had come very, very far in the last several years, but a true, spoken apology from him was as rare as an alignment between the Nine Realms. Indeed, Loki looked truly apologetic, to the point that he could no longer meet Thor's gaze, fidgeting where he sat like a chastised child.

"I…try not to think about it. Then," the sorcerer went on in a mumble. "Most days, I don't. I suppose I thought you wouldn't, either. I forgot, it would all still seem so…raw, to you."

It took Thor a long second to realize that Loki had been tortured until he was nearly beyond even Thor's recognition, and he was apologizing that Thor had seen even a glimpse of it.

The warrior felt his throat tighten to the point that he nearly couldn't breathe, felt his eyes sting with sympathy and love. And then he reached over and carefully, gently, wrapped his arms around Loki in a soft hug. This time, it was less because he wanted to remind Loki that he was loved, and more to remind Loki that he was safe. That he wanted to give Loki something kind and loving in the face of those memories that he had been forced to relive, even if only to pull Thor out before he lost himself.

Loki slumped against Thor with a soft, shuddering sigh, a sign of weakness he would only allow himself down here in the dark, only let Thor see if he was just that tired. After a long second, he wrapped his arms around Thor in turn with a fierceness that was surprising even now, and just…held on. Thor moved one hand to the back of Loki's neck, rubbing lightly in that gesture of affection that had always, somehow, been uniquely theirs'.

For a long moment, they just clung to one another, as they hadn't done since they were very small, as their minds sorted themselves back into their proper places and states. Then, with some obvious reluctance, Loki pushed himself back and away.

"You should go," he said softly, still seemingly unable to even look at Thor. "You should pay a visit to Mother. She'll be able to make certain that nothing's been…left behind."

"I think…" said Thor, very carefully. "…that I should bring Mother down here."

He tried to phrase the suggestion for what it was – a suggestion. If Loki truly still did not want to involve their parents, Thor resolved that he would keep quiet. Even though what he'd seen had only made him more worried for Loki…his brother had earned the right to decide what he did with his own mind. Up until now, Loki had been doing well. Perhaps, with some time to rest and recover himself mentally, with some time to think on what he'd seen in Thor's mind, h would do well once more. Time might not be able to heal all wounds, but it could certainly help.

Because this had never been about changing Loki. It had always been about giving Loki a chance to change, to understand, learn, and trusting that he would take it. The fact that he had was what had come to matter most. Yes, he'd dug in his heels sometimes. But he'd always let Thor drag him along.

Loki closed his eyes as though the very suggestion pained him, his breath catching in his throat. You're safe, Thor wanted to say. I am here for you. We only wish to help you be well. But he didn't say such things aloud, because to so openly acknowledge Loki's distress was to wound him with it. Instead, Thor only kept his hand on the back of Loki's neck, ran a hand through his brother's hair, gestures of affection that were normal by now between them and so didn't have to mean anything if Loki didn't want them to. Even if they were meant to convey the words unsaid.

This time, however, they seemed to. At long last, Loki nodded, just once, in that way he had that said do it before I see sense.

Thor nodded, not bothering to hide his relieved smile. He hugged Loki tightly once more, before hurrying away from the cell and up the stairs to fetch Mother to finally set things to right.

Mother looked borderline aghast to hear what they'd been up to, and her expression was grim when she hurried down to the cells once more with him. To Thor's surprise, and selfishly his relief, Loki was the one who received the brunt of her worried lecturing. You don't know enough about this sort of magic, she was saying. You chose to disregard it, and to make the attempt now, when you knew you weren't feeling up to it, to involve your brother as well…

"I knew what I was getting into," Thor lied, from his place by the door.

"No, you didn't," said Loki simply. His voice had that slightly dreamy, faraway quality it got when he was trying to think in the real world and the arcane at the same time. With Frigga guiding him, now, he could actually manage such divided attentions. "I didn't, either."

Thor fell silent, feeling himself smile wryly. Only Mother had ever been able to bring out this…docility, in Loki. Thor knew how much his younger brother nearly worshipped their mother, knew even better now just how deep that love ran because it was one of the very few things about him that the Other hadn't been able to entirely pollute.

Thor and Frigga sat together in the center of his cell, legs crossed before them, hands joined. Thor could see very little of what was transpiring between them, but Loki gave the occasional sign. A twitch, a flinch, a soft, shuddering sigh. Whatever Frigga was seeing in his mind wasn't enough to break her trance-like calm, and whatever she was allowing Loki to see in hers' seemed to keep him calm.

But even as Thor watched, Loki nearly doubled over where he sat with a choked gasp of what could only be pain. His grip on Frigga's hands was suddenly tight enough that his knuckles went white.

Thor couldn't even remember moving, just that he was suddenly by Loki's side once more. Then he remembered himself, remembered what was going on, and looked to Frigga worriedly for some sign of what, if anything, he could do. Frigga nodded at him in silent encouragement and, this close, Thor could see that she wasn't quite so unaffected by the state of Loki's mind and memories as she had first appeared. There was a shadow in her eyes, and signs of pain that were well suppressed but present all the same. Hidden for Loki's sake.

Such was the way of mothers, Thor supposed, feeling a fresh stab of love for her as well.

Frigga could not touch Loki, like this, couldn't break the link of their joined hands. But Thor could, he could rub Loki's back or run a hand through his hair, give him something grounding to the physical world, and so he did. Frigga, in turn, could still speak, and she did, soft and soothing. "Remember where you are, Loki. You are here, with me, with your brother. Whatever you are seeing has passed, now. It cannot harm you any longer."

It felt like it took hours, but in reality, it was only a few seconds before Loki seemed to remember how to breathe normally, before he straightened up where he sat and the phantom pain seemed to leave him.

"Let's keep going," Loki said, a stubborn note audible in his voice despite how faint and distant he sounded. "I…I can keep going. We've almost found it."

Frigga nodded, squeezing his hands lightly. "If you want to."

"I do. I…" He bowed his head, trying to breathe around another flash of phantom pain. It passed after a second, however, as one more knot of poison was undone, and Loki smiled in relief to feel it. "For what it's worth, brother," he said softly, tilting his head slightly against Thor's hand. "I do hope you're right about this."

"For what it's worth, brother," Thor replied, laying a hand on the back of Loki's neck. "I hope I am, too."

He had learned all too well that day what an ephemeral thing memory was even without outside influences. Thinking back, Thor truly wasn't sure now if he would ever be entirely certain of anything in his past ever again. But sometimes you couldn't be certain. Sometimes you just had to take a leap of faith, and trust in the people around you to paint a picture of the past and chart out a course to the future.

In the end, Thor was just glad to have taken this step with Loki, been allowed by his brother to reach this new level of understanding with him. It gave him hope that, when the day finally came when Loki's sentence was at an end, they would be able to truly face the future together.

Until then, Thor sat with Loki, doing what he could to soothe him through the pain of his mind being made fully his own again. More than anything, he was glad to be able to do something to help put his little brother just this little bit more back together.

And there we have it! Endings to these fics are never easy, but I hope this one satisfied. Thank you for reading, and I hope you enjoyed!