Once confident they had reached safety, Barton pulled the truck off the side of the road, the various vehicles trailing him doing the same. Loki, Pym, Banner and Rogers climbed from the bed of the truck, Barton and Romanoff from the cab. Loki continued to clutch the necklace in his hand as vehicle doors opened, occupants exiting and looking off into the distance in the direction from which they had come. The imposing facility, which should have been discernible in the distance even in the dark of night was no more. A stunned silence fell over the scene as Stark descended next to Rogers.

"Still think they want that thing just to keep the milk cold for your Wheaties?" Stark asked.

Hill approached Fury as he climbed out of the passenger side of the vehicle, Coulson from the driver's side.

"Sir...we lost Shaw. He was behind me...then he wasn't. Not sure how many were with him." Hill said.

"Call in search and rescue. Get a head count, find out how many and who we're missing." Fury ordered Hill. Hill nodded, turning and moving off back towards her vehicle and the agents gathered around it.

Loki walked away from the truck and the refugees from the facility into the cool desert night, continuing on in silence before seating himself on the parched earth, overcome by the aggregation of events. Those gathered at the truck watched him for a moment before Natasha Romanoff stepped forward, Barton gripping her arm.

"Give him some time." Barton said quietly before releasing his hold on her. Ignoring his advice, Romanoff continued on, approaching Loki. As she reached him she stood to the side and slightly behind him, taking note of the necklace in his hand, the chain with the broken clasp wound around his fingers, the pendant against his palm, his eyes fixed upon it as if in a trance.

"Hey…." Romanoff said softly, Loki startling slightly.

"There's not many people who can sneak up on me." Loki said, turning his attention back to the necklace. Romanoff lowered herself to the ground to sit next to him.

"I won't say I know how you feel, because I don't. She's still alive or they wouldn't have bothered to take her. We'll find her."

"Do you know what it is to live your entire life in darkness?" Loki asked.

"I have some idea." Romanoff replied, recalling her upbringing, raised since childhood to be a cold hearted assassin.

"Then one day within that darkness suddenly there appears a light...but you've been in the darkness so long, it's part of you...you don't wish to grow accustomed to that light for fear it will go out...for fear of what you will become if it does."

"I was always told love made you weak, that it was for children. Then I met Clint and his family. I realized I'd been lied to. It doesn't make you weak, it makes you stronger...to have something to live for, to fight for other than yourself."

"Loki…?" Loki heard Verda's voice say. Loki quickly raised his head, looking away from the necklace, rising to his feet, scanning the darkness.

"Verda?" Loki replied in disbelief.

"What is it?" Romanoff asked, confused as she also rose from the ground.

"Loki...can you hear me? Are you alright?" Verda's voice asked. Loki realized the voice was within his own mind. He couldn't help but wonder if he was already descending into madness.

"Yes, I'm unharmed. We were able to escape. How are you speaking to me?" Loki answered with his thoughts.

"The necklace...I worried you wouldn't find it. I learned the spell from one of your books. I wasn't sure it would work. I'd never actually tried it."

"Where are you?"

"I don't know. I'm in some sort of dungeon. I'm beginning to believe you derive some sort of pleasure from seeing me locked up. This is twice now," Verda joked. Loki couldn't help but smile despite the situation. "You must return to Asgard and remain there. If Heimdall can see me and tell you where I am, you mustn't come for me. She plans to kill you and replace you with your other she has brought here and disguise herself as me. No one would know the difference. She would have him press your claim to the throne of Jotunheim. They would be unable to resist. With Asgard's army as well as that of Jotunheim and the one she has been building here, they would conquer Midgard before moving on to the other realms and beyond. I'm sure she plans to eventually end your other as well. Without an heir she would take the throne."

"If that's her plan, why did she try to kill you before?" asked Loki, puzzled.

"It wasn't me they intended to kill. It was Lorelei, her other. She didn't want the competition. They set my other up to fail. All that time I was there alone...they waited for you to arrive. We did exactly what she wanted us to do."

"You planned this?" Loki asked.

"Did you think yourself the only one able to devise a trap? I was sure he would come for me sooner or later. I knew he was here, maybe even before you reasoned it out. I sensed his presence, the same way I knew you were not dead before. I don't know how or why. I didn't foresee the rest. I never meant to put anyone else in danger."

"You think to save him? He's mad...after Thanos' influence and Lorelei's enchantment, he will care nothing for you."

"I have to try."

"There's no need. You have already saved me." said Loki followed by a moment of silence, Verda making no response. "Verda...are you still there?"

"Yes...I must rest. The spell is draining. Return to Asgard. I will speak with you again soon. I love you."

"As I love you." Loki said quietly aloud as well as in his head.

"Who are you talking to?" Romanoff asked, looking at Loki, puzzled.

"I must return to Asgard." Loki told her as he walked away across the desert before coming to a stop, turning to face Romanoff, "Tell the others to be ready. Heimdall, bring me back!" Loki called out, the Bifrost soon descending, its light blinding in the darkness, its energy sending tremors through the ground under everyone's feet. Barton left the others to stand at Romanoff's side.

"Where'd he go?" Barton asked.

"Home. He said to tell everyone to be ready."

"Ready for what?"

***********************************

"My lady…" the tall man with the German accent, shaved head, and monocle said as Lorelei entered what appeared to be a sort of hybrid between a workshop and a lab. Various devices rested on stands atop tables around the room. "Everything is now operational. When they arrive we will be more than ready for them. Allow me to present a demonstration." Wolfgang Von Strucker said. "Oskar, can you join me for a moment?" Strucker called out. From an adjoining room, a young man appearing to be in his mid 20s entered, approaching Strucker and Lorelei and standing at attention.

"You require my assistance, Herr Strucker?" Oskar asked with eagerness.

"Yes. You are just the right height. Do you see that red X on the floor?" Strucker asked, pointing across the room as he picked up one of the devices from the table, what looked like a large chrome plated rifle with a wide barrel.. "All you need to do is stand there as I make a small adjustment to the sight." Oskar turned, crossing the room to stand upon the marker Strucker had indicated, turning to face Strucker and Lorelei. "Yes, that's it. It will only take a moment."

Strucker lifted the weapon, aiming it in Oskar's direction. A bright blue blast of energy shot from it, striking Oskar whose body instantly disintegrated.

"Very good." Lorelei said "Nothing can stand against us." Lorelei faced Strucker, putting one hand on his shoulder, the other caressing his face. "You have done well. You will be rewarded."

***********************************

Verda lay on the worn pallet on the cold stone floor of the cell. Hearing the sound of footsteps echoing off the walls, she opened her eyes, raising her head to see Loki approaching the door of the cell, a bowl in his hands. Stooping down, he slid it through a small opening at the bottom of the cell door before turning away.

"Wait…" Verda said as she sat up, raising herself to her feet. Loki stood with his back to her. "You know she will kill you eventually. You are but a means to an end. Without an heir, she will take the throne. She will enchant enough people that no one will stand against her. There will no longer be any need for her to disguise herself."

"Be silent." Loki commanded.

"This isn't you. It isn't who you are."

"On the contrary, I have never been more myself. You know what I am. I am the monster parents tell their children about at night. It was I that murdered Thor. I could have killed him then and there but I wanted Odin to see his golden boy rot."

"Did she tell you we had a brother? He was her twin. They shared a womb, were born together, grew up together...she enchanted him to end his own life. She enchanted my father to murder my mother and then to end his life as well. She will do the same to you as she did to Haldor, to all the others. You mean nothing to her! She doesn't care about you, she doesn't love you...I do."

"If you care to keep your tongue you will be silent!" Loki said, wheeling around, reaching through the bars for Verda's throat, a dagger in his other hand. Verda's form vanished, her true self reappearing to the side of where her illusion had stood. Her arm shot through the bars, grabbing hold of the front of Loki's tunic, pulling him forcefully forward, his head violently striking the bars of the cell, the clanging, metallic sound of the collision echoing throughout the chamber as Loki collapsed to his knees. Verda fell to hers as well, again thrusting her hand out through the bars, placing her palm on his forehead.

***********************************

Loki, once again a child, sat under a towering tree surrounded by the dense forest of Asgard, his knees drawn up, his head resting against them, warm tears staining his cheeks as his body shook with sobs of anguish and frustration.

"I am worthy! I am! I was born to be a king!" Loki said angrily through clenched teeth as he raised his head from his knees, balling his fists and pounding the ground on either side of himself. "I'll show them! I'll show them all! They'll all kneel before me!" Loki dissolved into tears again, lowering his head to rest once again on his knees.

A shrill scream pierced the air from somewhere in the distance. Birds reacted to the shriek by taking flight, the sound of their wings flapping sounding from overhead. Loki raised his head, peering off into the distance.

"Help! Help me! Somebody! Is anyone there?! Please!" a young girl's voice desperately called out pleading as she sobbed.

Loki wiped the tears from his face with the back of his hand before standing, listening as the cries continued. Starting forward, he followed them.

"Help! Please! I'm down here!" The girl's voice begged as Loki neared the trap he had set some time ago and to his disappointment was never sprung by its intended victim, its existence having been long forgotten.

Loki reached the edge of the sinkhole, looking down into the pit. A girl, her hair a bright copper color, stared up at him in wide eyed fright, tears coursing down her cheeks.

"Your savior is here!" Loki said, turning from the pit, scanning his surroundings for anything he could use to reach her. Spying the long length of a dead branch that had fallen from a tree he raced to it, hefting it up and returning to the pit. "Take it!" he called, lowering the branch. Verda wrapped her hands around it as tightly as she could manage.

"All right!" She called back.

"Hold on as tight as you can! I'll pull you up!" Loki began to pull the branch from the pit, Verda clinging to it.

Loki walked backwards as he also pulled the branch out of the pit, one hand over the other. The top of Verda's head emerged, her hair catching the light filtering through the canopy of branches above. Soon Verda lay atop the branch on the ground near the edge of the pit. Loki quickly dropped the branch, and stepped back in the direction of the hole offering his hand, Verda taking it and rising from the ground.

"Thank you!" Verda exclaimed as she sobbed, practically falling into Loki, wrapping her arms around him so tightly he almost had to struggle for breath. Loki held her, comforting her until her weeping subsided, transitioning into sniffles. "I thought no one would ever find me...I would die!"

"Are you injured?"

"I don't think so. I'm lost. Are you lost too? I heard you crying."

"I never cry. It must have been a Gjalla bird. They sound as if they're weeping when they call to each other. You're lost?"

"Yes. I came here to hide. My sister was cross with me. She said she was going to take an axe and cut off my head!"

"Surely she was only trying to frighten you. I know the forest well. Come with me. This way." Loki said, extending his hand. Verda took it, leading her away from the pit. Loki led Verda along a dirt path, the trees growing more sparse, until the two reached the edge of the forest. Verda looked towards the sky as it was just beginning to slightly darken. .

"It's growing late. I must get home. Thank you for saving me." Verda said, turning to Loki and embracing him once more. As she ended the embrace, Loki put his lips to her forehead. Verda smiled, blushing and looking down.

"Off with you, then." Loki said to her. Verda stepped away, following the path that led back to civilization, turning her head for a final glance over her shoulder at Loki as he watched her go.

***********************************

Loki, once again a grown man, placed his hand on his throbbing head as Verda removed hers, slowly opening his eyes, staring at Verda as his vision focused.

"I can't believe you fell for that." Verda said with a smirk. Loki rose to his feet, still holding his head with one hand, gripping a bar of the cell with the other, Verda standing along with him on the other side of the bars. Loki lowered his hand from his head, continuing to stare at Verda in silence before unlocking the cell door, swinging it open.

***********************************

Loki, Fandral, Volstagg and Hogun stood at the side of the throne, examining a holographic projection of what looked to be a large stone castle as the sound of footsteps echoed through the throne room. The four men turned their heads to see Sif approaching the throne, a cloaked figure following behind.

"Heimdall has located Verda. She's being held in a Midgardian land called Sokovia within a fortress. I have ordered our warriors to prepare to go to Midgard and join our mortal allies when they arrive. You will all join them as well. Lady Sif, I grant you the honor of leading them." Loki said as Sif stepped aside.

"A wise choice." the figure said in a familiar voice. Loki, Volstagg, Fandral and Hogun stood stunned and speechless as the man removed the hood. Fandral standing beside Loki reached out, grabbing hold of Loki's arm, holding him upright as he swayed, on the verge of collapsing. Loki at last found his voice, willing himself to speak a single word.

"Brother??"