I collapsed on the large bed in the center of the room. It felt fantastic to lay down on something that wasn't a floor. The covers caved in around me. Just hours ago I had been sitting against the rock hard wall of that stupid cell. I almost fell asleep when I realized what would happen if I did. I sat up and watched Loki. He stood in the bathroom, touching up the hair on his face. He had already washed up. He changed clothes and now wore a seemingly familiar outfit, but it suited him perfectly.

He must have noticed me staring at him since he gave me a sly smile. I rolled my eyes and tried to stand. I clenched my rib cage, trying to ease the pain. He shot me a worried look, but I brushed it off. I stood by holding on to the edge of the bed. Loki stepped closer, but I needed to do this on my own. "Come in here," he said. "There's a bath going for you. When you're done, I suppose you should change back into your, er, Valkyrie outfit."

"Okay. Thank you."

"Can you make it?"

"Yeah, I'll be fine." I slowly walked across the room with Loki ready to catch me. I made it into the bathroom and carefully shut the door behind me.

I almost cried when I saw myself in the mirror. I looked horrible. My hair looked nasty. It was filthy and all tangled up. My face had bits of food all over it. My body responded to the low food intake by shrinking considerably. And not in a good way. I looked weak. I was weak.

I traced the curve of my side and felt more points than I remembered. I had been perfectly fine before. I had looked healthy, but now I was like a twig waiting to be snapped.

I stripped and sank into the tub. The warm water engulfed me as I went in. I went under the water to get my face wet. I was doing just fine until I remembered Thanos nearly drowning me. I pulled myself above the water and sat there uncomfortably. Nothing was right. I felt wrong. I looked wrong. I was wrong.

I reminded myself that I needed to hurry. I quickly scrubbed my face and washed my hair. It was hard to untangle it, but I managed.

My nails had grown a lot longer, so I dealt with those, too.

"Are you alright?" Loki asked from the other room.

"Yes," I replied. I wanted to say otherwise, that I wasn't okay. I wasn't myself, but I didn't want to make matters worse. I got out and dried myself off. I changed into my new Valkyrie outfit. It still looked stunning, but it didn't fit me the same way it used to. I threw my hair into a ponytail and opened the door.

Loki had pushed his hair back into its usual style. He looked like himself again. I wish I could say the same about myself. "I got you some food," he said. He handed me a small plate with what looked like a piece of chicken and a biscuit. I sat down and tried to eat it quickly, but not so fast that I couldn't hold it down. After just a few bites, I felt full. I had hardly eaten any of it yet. I wanted to finish it, but I just couldn't

"You don't have to finish it. I understand. It will take time to get you back on your usual diet." I set the plate down and stood up. I wrapped my arms around him and squeezed him as tightly as I could. I didn't want to lose him again. I wanted to just stay here and enjoy being with him. But I knew things had to get done.

I was about to let go when he returned the hug. His arms wrapped around me as he pulled me into his chest. We just sat there for a while, just holding on. Neither of us wanted to let go. I breathed in the smell of him before slowly pushing away. I met his gaze, and he nodded, knowing what I was going to say.

I turned around in his grip and held on to his arms in front of me. His hands were severely scarred. It was like they were burned.

"What happened?" I asked him. He hesitated.

"I... The day they took you away, I tried to reach for you. I thought you were going to die. I tried to push through the barrier. I knew it would burn but I didn't care. Nothing burned more than the thought of losing you."

"Oh." He quickly cast a spell over his hands, looking embarrassed.

The two of us separated, and he took my hand. We peeked out the door to see Thor waiting for us outside.

"Are you ready?" he asked. We both nodded. "Then let us be on our way."

******

We walked through the castle halls. Loki kept teasing Thor. I was laughing behind them as he fooled around and snorted when he turned into Captain America. I stopped laughing when Thor slammed him against the wall and threatened him. I didn't step in, but I tensed. Loki asked for some sort weapon. Before he knew it, Thor had handcuffed his hands together.

Loki looked surprised. I wanted to take them off of him right there, but I knew I couldn't. I hadn't thought about weapons, either. As we kept walking, I tried to summon my daggers to my hands. I was too weak. The things they used for my hands must have had some sort of magic like Loki said his cell had.

I saw Sif coming towards us with another woman beside her.

"You're..." she began as she faced Loki.

"I'm Loki," he said. "You may have heard of—" She interrupted him with a slap to the face. I was tempted to tackle her on the spot. Instead, Loki smiled.

"That was for New York."

"I like her," Loki said. I shot him a glare, but he didn't notice. The woman seemed to notice me standing behind the brothers. The others continued their conversation as she stepped over to me.

"I'm Jane Foster," she said, extending a hand.

"I'm Lilith." I shook her hand.

"You're American?" I nodded. "Oh, I guess I expected you to be... well, Asgardian."

"Nope."

"What's your story then?"

"I'm sort of Loki's Valkyrie I guess." Her eyes widened.

"Really? I didn't know that was a thing."

"Neither did I." Our conversation was cut short when we heard guards approaching. They yelled for us to be captured, but Sif said she'd hold them off. We began to run the other way when Sif stopped Loki. I waited up for him when I saw.

"Betray him," she said, "and I'll kill you." He merely chuckled at her.

"It's good to see you too, Sif."

After meeting another of Thor's friends

—evidently, threatening Loki is a trend— we ran onto a ship. The two of them bickered over flying the ship as Jane and I stayed in the back.

In the midst of their fighting, Jane collapsed to the floor.

"Oh dear," Loki said. "Is she dead?" I glared at him again as I knelt down to her side.

"No, she's fine. I think." I had never seen Loki act like this before, but I had never really seen him with other people around. I guess he really was a mischief maker.

"Now they're following us," Loki said.

"Yes, thank you for the commentary Loki. It's not at all distracting!" Thor yelled. The ship crashed into a large statue but managed to keep going.

"Well done, you just decapitated your grandfather!" He looked back at the other ships following us. "You know this is wonderful. This is a tremendous idea. Let's steal the biggest, most obvious ship in the universe and escape in that. Flying around the city, smashing into everything in sight so everyone can see us. It's brilliant, Thor! It's truly brilliant!"

All of a sudden, Thor shoved Loki out of the ship. "Loki!" I screamed. I looked at Thor like he was crazy, because he apparently was. He came over and scooped Jane into his arms. He pulled me up and held onto my arm. "What are you—" And then he shoved me out, too.

I screamed as I fell, not realizing I was going to land on a much smaller ship being piloted by a blond man. "What the hell?" I yelled.

He must have been talking to Loki because when Thor landed, he said, "I'm glad you're pleased. Now, do as you promised. Take us to your secret pathway." Loki took up the position the man was in and began steering the ship.

"Why, it's a pleasure to meet you, Milady," the man said while kissing my hand. He earned a glare from Loki. "I'm Fandral."

"I'm Lilith. Let go of my hand before you lose yours." I saw Loki smirk as Fandral raised a brow at me before turning towards Thor. I walked towards Loki, glancing back to check on Jane.

Fandral yelled something I couldn't hear and jumped off onto one of the attacking ships. Meanwhile, Loki began taking us towards mountains.

"Loki!" Thor yelled.

"If it were easy, everyone would do it." He kept the course straight for the mountains.

"Loki, are you insane?" I yelled.

"Possibly." We went through a small opening in the rock that could have killed us.

"What the hell, Loki?!" He quickly shushed me as we exited from the other side. We slowed down, and the brothers began to bicker again.

The topic came to their mother, and I could feel the tension in the air. I stood up and walked behind Loki, holding his hand behind him. He gripped my hand tightly as he yelled at his brother.

"What help were you in you cell?" Thor asked him.

"Who put me there? Who put me there?!" Loki yelled at him. Thor grabbed him, causing him to slip out of my grip.

"You know damn well. You know damn well who!" He readied himself to punch Loki but stopped himself. "She wouldn't want us to fight."

"Well, she wouldn't exactly be shocked." The two of them laughed. It was a sight for sore eyes. I had never actually seen them happy together. I wished I could see it more.

"I wish I could trust you," Thor said. It kind of infuriated me. He didn't know the whole story, but he didn't bother listening. He should have trusted Loki. He chose not to.

"Trust my rage." All of a sudden, Jane's eyes opened. She looked... different. Her eyes were dark, and a red aura surrounded her.

"Jane," Thor said.

"Malekith," she almost whispered.

Malekith? I thought.

"I'm sorry we didn't fill you in, but we have no time." I almost jumped. I had forgotten that we could do that for a moment. The ship landed, and we hopped off. We went to hide behind some large rocks.

"Alright," Thor began. "Are you ready?" Jane nodded, but I just sat there confused.

"I am," Loki said before glancing down at the people we had been watching. "But this plan of yours is going to get us killed."

"Yeah, possibly," Thor admitted.

"Plan?" I asked. "What plan?" Loki looked at me as if he wanted to tell me, but Thor's look told him no. He shifted his gaze back to Thor.

"You still don't trust me brother?" he asked.

"Would you?"

"No, I wouldn't." Before I knew it, Loki lunged at Thor and planted his dagger in his brother.

"No!"