Fic: Black Holes and Beyond (Avengers, Mature)

[lilacsigil]

Title: Black Holes and Beyond
Written for: avengersfest
Recipient's name : tristesses
Rating: Mature
Pairing/Characters: Jane Foster, Darcy Lewis, Amora/Lady Loki, Sif
Word Count:16,500
Warnings (if any) : None

Summary: Amora the Enchantress has escaped Asgard to find Loki, and Sif is in hot pursuit. Jane and Darcy have been sent to Norway for their own protection, but instead this puts them directly in Loki's way. These four women must use their combined talents, science and magic to save the world from Loki's desperate schemes.



Odin's ravens were lively this morn, jumping from his shoulder to his throne, grooming their glossy quills with their cruel beaks. Sif felt this an ill-omen, with Thor so recently delivered, alone, to Midgard. Loki had been sighted there, not lost after all. For all that Sif was gladdened at his survival, she could not rejoice whole-heartedly, for Loki had lost the trust of all Asgard with his ill deeds and his lies. The destruction of the Bifrost meant Thor's journey would be fraught with peril and at the end of this journey lay what? A deceitful brother who would rather fall through the Nine Realms than face his shameful deeds? Sif could not think that all would end well, though Fandral assured her that it was only that they craved battle and this waiting drove all warriors mad.

"My king!" Heimdall's voice boomed through the throne room, and all turned to see what had so roused the usually taciturn guardian. He knelt before Odin and waited for permission to speak.

"Good Heimdall, we would hear your words," Frigga spoke before Odin, which she rarely did. Sif was sure none would blame her, when her sons were likely in peril.

Heimdall still addressed Odin. "My king, I see treachery. Amora the Enchantress slipped past my watch and entered the ruins of the Bifrost. I saw her kneeling, tapping at the crystal with a tiny silver hammer of some evil craft. The Rainbow Bridge was damaged further by her deed – long threads peeled from the crystal like wool thread from a skein."

Odin nodded. "She is kin to the Norn and deals in fate, enchanting and refashioning the crafts and wills of others. Amora will be punished, but this is of no great importance, Heimdall."

"My king, you have not yet heard the end of the tale. When I approached her, sword at the ready, she laughed and leapt from the bridge, shining threads gathered about her. She vanished into the dark and I can no longer see her. She has left this realm: not into death, but into Midgard."

Sif gasped, and a shocked mutter went around the court. Even Odin sat back in his throne, startled. He stroked his beard and his ravens settled on his shoulders, squatting low and silent.

"The Enchantress has oft had dark dealings with Loki, and has long wished to humble Thor. Whichever her aim, she risks causing great destruction, beyond anything she may intend. She must be returned to Asgard."

Sif and the Warriors Three leapt forward. "We will recover the miscreant," Volstagg vowed, but Sif held out her hand.

"Nay, good Volstagg. Amora's powers over men are great, and even the ever-watchful Heimdall found himself briefly off-guard. I must go alone."

Odin stood. "Not simply through strategy, Lady Sif, but through necessity. It was most difficult to send my son Thor to Midgard, and I have not the strength to send anyone else on that path. Heimdall will set you on Amora's trail, but doing so will damage the Bifrost further. Sending one will cause less harm than sending four."

Fandral in particular looked most disappointed to hear this, his fine moustache drooping in disappointment. Nonetheless, he and Hogun helped armour Sif for her journey, and Volstagg sharpened her spear.

"You were not wrong, Fandral, my friend," Sif told him. "Now that an adventure is here, I am entirely cheered."

"See how that lasts," Hogun muttered, tightening her left greave.

"My friends! I will return soon, and bring you tales of Midgard, for well you know we barely glimpsed its strangeness!"

The three of them escorted her to the very edge of the Bifrost, where Heimdall pointed to the faint shimmer of a trail left by Amora's stolen magics.

"Your journey is dangerous, Lady Sif, and sending you causes as much damage Amora's thievery did."

"I will do that sacrifice honour," Sif told him, and, gripping her spear with all her strength, hurled herself from the bridge into the blackness.

***

"I spy, with my little eye, something beginning with L."

"Light switch," Jane replied without even thinking about it. SHIELD had told them to turn off all the lights and stay away from the windows, and her butt was going numb sitting on the floor.

"You're too good at this." Darcy passed her another M&M.

"I Spy is a terrible game in the dark."

"Not as terrible as that cold coffee you made. I know you've got caffeine needs, Jane, but we've only been on lockdown for two hours."

A knock at the door reverberated in the little condo. Jane and Darcy waited until a voice called out the SHIELD authorisation code, then they scrambled to their feet and headed for the door.

Commander Maria Hill was there, half-a-dozen SHIELD soldiers behind her, and they all looked as if they'd been through hell. All the soldiers wore dirty uniforms, and the usually impeccable Hill bore several cuts on her face. More were visible on her arms where her uniform was torn.

"Crap, what happened?" Darcy pushed past Jane, forgetting about the taser in her hand.

Hill pushed Darcy's arm down as the soldiers started to lift their weapons. "Dr Foster, Miss Lewis, you're being evacuated to Norway."

"To Tromsø?" Jane asked immediately. She'd been corresponding with a few of the scientists at the auroral observatory there: they'd had the best readings of the Bifrost explosion. If SHIELD was sending her to Tromsø, it must mean that they needed some practical application of her research right now.

Darcy made a face. "Haven't there been enough hot Nordic blonds in my life already?"

"For Dr Foster to continue her research and for Miss Lewis's protection," Hill snapped. "Thor's brother Loki has shown up, and he's already attacked a SHIELD facility. There'll be a full briefing available soon, but I'll warn you now that he's controlling people's minds: if you see anyone with glowing blue eyes, remove yourself from the area immediately. Don't trust any contact without visual confirmation, even if they have SHIELD codes."

"We packed already. Is Dr Selvig coming too?"

Hill gestured for them to get their bags. "Your cover is a consulting gig, but Tromsø is ready to work with you. Dr Selvig is at a different secure location."

That made sense, Jane thought. No use putting all their eggs in one basket, no matter how secure it was meant to be. Still, she had a few theories she'd rather have run past Erik before taking them to the unrelenting sceptics at Tromsø. She snorted and grabbed her bag, and an extra coat. Compared to the Norwegians' stubbornness, it was almost soothing to listen to Darcy negotiate with Hill what grade the government should give her on the final that she'd be missing.

***

Tromsø did have hot Nordic blonds – and a much higher percentage of grumpy old astrophysicists – but every time Darcy was starting to have a good conversation with somebody, Hill's warning about mind control crept into her head. And, even with the beautiful Arctic scenery, it was so boring here! Darcy had loved being Jane's intern when they were out in New Mexico, and they were great roommates in their rent-free SHIELD-funded condo at college. Here, though, Jane was among her own kind and there was nothing for Darcy to do except bring Jane coffee, keep warm, and look out for mind-controlled assassins. Worse, she was finally in Europe but she was entirely confined to one small area of one university. Technically she wasn't confined – the SHIELD guy who'd stayed with them was mostly hanging with Jane – but she had no intention of wandering off and becoming Robin the Boy Hostage, because for sure Jane was no Batman.

Jane and the Norwegian astrophysicists were arguing about time dilation and Darcy could feel time dilating just listening to them. With an epic sigh, she strolled from the Astrophysics department to the café to get another morning coffee. She was looking around to see if that Spanish math student with the good taste in music was here when one of the cafeteria workers grabbed at her arm.

"Whoa, old lady! Are you okay?" Darcy caught the woman before realising this might be the mind control trick that Hill had mentioned. Darcy risked a glance at the woman's eyes, but they were hazel, not blue, and definitely not glowing. The funky fibre optic bracelet she was wearing did, but SHIELD hadn't mentioned hypnotic jewellery.

"Lady Darcy! Friend to Thor!"

"Yes?" Darcy wanted to pull away, but the woman was shaky and Darcy was worried she'd fall without Darcy's support. Helpless-looking old ladies was probably how they got you with the mind control, Darcy thought darkly, but she didn't let go.

"Ah yes, you look exactly as you did in my glass. You may not recognise this mortal form, but I am Sif, friend to Thor and sworn protector of the Lady Jane."

Darcy peered closer. "Sif? Is this some kind of Narnia thing where time moves differently in your dimension? You were way younger and cuter when I saw you last. In New Mexico, not in a glass."

Sif shook her head, looking slightly confused. "Good Darcy, this is not my body. This mortal form belongs to another. My essence is trapped between this world and Asgard. Since the Bifrost was destroyed travel has been most difficult."

Darcy held up a hand. "You need to see Jane. She and the scientist guys talk about nothing but the Bifrost." She put Sif's arm across her shoulders to support her and turned them towards the observatory.

"Yes, the Lady Jane, gate-shaper. I have need of her aid. And there is great danger."

"Yeah, we heard, Loki's here, he's attacking stuff, mind-control, blah blah blah."

"Mind-control?" Sif, who was slowly recovering her strength – either that or getting used to this body – looked appalled. "That is not his nature! He is a trickster and an illusionist, not an enchanter."

"I don't know how you guys split these duties up, but yeah, that's what he's doing, according to Commander Hill. He's probably tricking people too, don't worry!"

Sif did not look comforted in the slightest.

They arrived at the Astrophysics department and Sif was well enough to walk up the stairs without help, though not with the strength and enthusiasm that Darcy associated with the warrior woman. Getting to experience someone else's body from the inside didn't seem as much fun as Darcy had always thought it might be.

"Hey, Sif? Is the woman who owns this body still in there? Is she okay?"

Sif turned, startled. "I – I'm sure she's fine." She didn't sound particularly convinced of that, or particularly bothered about it. Human lives must seem weird to Asgardians, but Darcy wasn't impressed that they meant so little.

Darcy flung open the door to the conference room that was serving as Jane's office-slash-lab and hurried Sif in, ignoring the Norwegian guys with Jane and whatever epic equation they were arguing about. "Jane! It's Sif! She needs your help! She's stuck in this other chick's body because the Bifrost got wrecked, but she's not really old, and apparently she's your sworn protector?"

The SHIELD guy, Lee, leapt between Jane and Sif, his hand on his gun. He watched Sif closely but relaxed as she ran her fingers slowly down his arm like she was stroking a cat. As far as Darcy knew, Sif was more a "stab people with a spear" chick than a "soothe men's troubled souls" chick. Before she could ask Sif about her handy trick, Jane irritably pushed past Agent Lee.

"Sif? We just now monitored a bridge opening! It must have been you!"

"It couldn't have been more than a few microns in size! And you still haven't explained the negative energy to stabilise it!" protested one of the physicists.

Jane turned on him. "Information has been transmitted. Remember the MacTaggart telepathy proof? This could be a similar transmission, and the observer position requires quantum entanglement – "

Darcy grabbed Jane's arm. "Focus, Foster! Can you help Sif?"

"I am here to battle Loki," Sif added, "But came first to you as the destruction of the Bifrost makes travel between realms most hazardous. As you see, I have not my usual form nor strength."

Jane focused. "Let me take some readings. I think you're used to travelling bodily through the wormhole, but with the Bifrost damaged, I guess that's not working so well."

"Impossible!" interrupted the same physicist, then he caught Sif's eye and abruptly shut up and left the room. His colleague followed him, looking concerned, as did Agent Lee, after a final stroke of his arm from Sif.

"Stay here in the observatory, ma'am," he told Jane as he left. "I need to follow him, check this out."

"Aren't you meant to be guarding us?" Darcy called after him, not that she actually wanted him to return. She had the feeling that Agent Lee really wanted to find a threat and shoot it, no matter how weirdly charming Sif might be.

Sif showed Jane her glowing bracelet, three threads wrapping around each other . "This is made of the Bifrost. It should have brought me here safely, but instead has brought only my mind. I have heard of such things happening in the past, but I cannot fight Loki in this form. You are Sif's good friends, and I trust that you will help."

"And then you can let this poor chick go," Darcy added. She wasn't sure if Jane, poring over the bracelet, had heard.

"Come down to the lab," Jane told her. "There's no reason why the gate couldn't transfer the information that makes up your body as well as your mind. Maybe you're not in the right energy state to reassemble everything. Telepathy – mental information – is actually highly resilient, and the energy requirements to create such a tiny gate would be far lower."

Jane kept chatting all the way down to the lab, Darcy helping Sif when she was startled by the elevator, and sharing a confused look with Sif as to exactly what Jane was saying about transmissions and directions and some dudes named Schwarzschild and Visser.

***

Jane took a quick glance at the computer the Norwegians had loaned her to see that her readings of forty minutes ago – the tiny gateway – had repeated, and nearby. Maybe someone else had come through? That was excellent: she'd have the two to compare when she was done helping Sif. If the gate was equally small, the newcomer might well be having the same problem and need her help, too. Presuming that the transmission of information through the gate was complete, it should be easy enough to provide the energy for Sif's body to reconstitute as her mind had. Jane started up the field magnetometer and observed the complex field surrounding Sif and her human host.

"Hey, uh, Jane," Darcy asked, stepping well clear, "You know how Sif is kind of tall and built? And this woman is kind of short and skinny? There's no chance that Sif is going to burst out of her body or anything?" Darcy puffed out her cheeks and made an explosive gesture and Sif looked most alarmed.

"There is no history of such a thing," Sif offered.

Jane shook her head. "No way. Two people can't occupy the same dimensions. The brain has more than enough room to accommodate the extra activity of an entire telepathic presence. I wish I'd read that paper by Dr Farouk from Cairo now, there was something about epileptic fits? At worst, Sif's body is currently dispersed, but considering how coherent her mind is, it's much more probable that her body is simply out of phase."

"That's good?" Darcy asked.

"The histories tell of our people speaking through the mouths of men or appearing suddenly at battles and feasts, not…" Sif made the same explosive gesture.

"There, that's precedent." This far north, the magnetosphere was highly active. If this was their means of energy transmission, no wonder they'd originally appeared to the people of the far north, she thought. It would be far easier to reach Norway than the equator. Jane flicked on the nearest of the array of electromagnets in the lab and calibrated it to the non-human energy field she had read from Sif's human form. Jane turned to see a bright rainbow light glowing about the woman and the light quickly brightened to unbearable levels accompanied by a loud chiming sound.

"You could have warned us!" Darcy yelled, shielding her eyes with her arm.

"Sorry!" Jane called back, already itching to get to her readings.

The light and sound suddenly cut off, and two women stood before them: the cafeteria worker, who slumped to the ground, and the tall form of an Asgardian woman. She was not Sif, but a blonde woman in a green velvet dress, still wearing the bracelet made of glowing threads. She looked most pleased with herself.

"Who the hell are you?" Darcy was the first to speak, even as she scurried over to check the fallen woman's pulse.

"Thor did say you were most skilled, Lady Jane, and I am both shocked and pleased that the dunce has been proven right. Your devices have brought me here safely, and for that I thank you."

"She's okay, I think!" Darcy called, rolling the unconscious woman into recovery position. "Got breathing and a pulse. But you're still not Sif."

The green-clad woman stepped right over them. "I trust you will forgive my little lie about the true identity hidden in this mortal form – humans, like Asgardians, will always prefer to help a friend than a stranger.

"Wait!" Jane called. "Who are you and what are you doing here?"

"Excellent questions, Lady Jane! I am Amora the Enchantress and I am here to destroy Loki Odinson. I owe him a debt, you see, and that is a dangerous thing. But my scrying tells me he has amassed dangerous allies who could as easily be his mortal foes, and I see great opportunity." She strutted over to Jane. "And now that you remind me, I'll take you with me, gate-shaper. You could be of tremendous use in finding Loki."

"I'm not going anywhere with you," Jane told her. As fascinating as it was to meet another Asgardian, she didn't trust Amora. She'd already lied once.

At the same time Darcy bellowed, "SHIELD guy! Agent Lee! We need some help in here! Right now!"

"They will not aid you, handmaiden of Jane," Amora told her.

"Yeah? I think they might try, at least." Darcy left the unconscious woman on the floor away from the doorway and came to stand beside Jane. Jane quickly glanced over her readings to see if there was any way she could reintegrate Amora with her former host, but their magnetic fields were entirely separate now. The bracelet on Amora's wrist was giving very odd readings itself, but Jane had no more time to review her data.

Agent Lee marched through the door, followed by the two astrophysicists and four other men Jane vaguely recognised as building staff – two mathematicians, a janitor and a grad student from Spain. They all looked glassy-eyed and drunk, and all of them gazed adoringly at Amora.

"As you see, all men obey only Amora."

Darcy glared at her. "Oh, did you send them away before so you'd have us alone? And is this some kind of succubus bullshit? I know for a fact that at least two of those guys are gay."

Laughing, Amora gestured, and the men all capered in a foolish dance. "I care not how these men regard me – it is only my regard of them that matters."

Jane's readings had changed again, and she peered at the screen, giving Darcy a poke in the side to encourage her to keep talking and distract Amora. She still couldn't make sense of the readings from the bracelet, but there was definitely another strong magnetic field approaching, as strong as Amora's and stronger than any of the humans'. The second gate opening must have sent someone through, and they were on their way here. Jane hadn't had such sophisticated equipment available last time in New Mexico – she was going to have so much data to examine!

The click of a gun's safety catch called Jane back to their current situation. Agent Lee had drawn his gun and was pointing it at Professor Hagen.

"If the Lady Jane refuses to come with me? I'll simply slaughter these men one by one until she agrees."

"No!" Jane shouted. "No, don't. I'll come with you and I'll help you, if you promise not to hurt me, or Darcy, or anyone else."

"I'm coming too," Darcy stated firmly, slinging an arm around Jane and slowly edging them out of Agent Lee's line of fire.

***

Amora thought it no matter if Jane wished to bring her pretty handmaiden. At best she might assist the gate-shaper, at worst it would keep Jane docile. Still, she hated to look weak, so she drew out the moment. Amora was no warrior herself, but she did not cower at the threat of violence the way these humans did.

"I accept," Amora replied, enjoying the relief that flashed across the women's faces. They understood her power and would obey.

A loud cry came from the door. "Halt, villain!" A stout woman of Midgard stood there, fearless of Amora, a very familiar spear held in her strong hands. The inscription on her brooch identified as her "Anna", but Amora could see the silhouette of her true form. Sif must have followed Amora's path, damn her.

"Sif! How came you here?"

Jane called out, "The electromagnet is still running! You're going to have your own body in a moment!"

Sif raised her spear, but as she stepped forward a bright light shone forth from her body, dazzling even Amora's sharp eyes. Sif was emerging from the human's body just as Amora had. Amora snapped her fingers to command her men forward, and they stumbled towards the light, flailing their arms. No warriors, these! The armed man, however, aimed his weapon carefully.

"Don't shoot!" Darcy shouted, and the warrior was distracted for a moment. It was a moment too long, as Sif, now wearing her own face and her familiar armour, lunged low out of the fading brightness and bore the man to the ground before he could attack, his steel weapon sliding across the floor and out of reach. The other men turned to continue their attempts to halt her, but Sif leapt from her crouch over the fallen warrior's body to hurl herself, spear-tip first, at Amora.

Cursing the Bifrost for bringing through the magical spear as it had her own bracelet, Amora caught the spear in one of her ornate golden wristbands and flung it aside. Too late, she realised that the spear jab was a feint and the true attack came behind it in the form of Sif's left fist. The impact knocked Amora backwards and a shove from Sif landed them both on the floor, Sif on top. Amora struggled to maintain her hold over the men in the room – without them, Lady Jane would not obey her – and in that moment Sif knelt on Amora's arms and Amora was painfully pinned.

"Got you, Enchantress! Now release these men from your spell!"

Amora smirked. Warriors always thought that physical incapacity meant helplessness. She twisted her body upwards between Sif's wide-parted legs, rubbing against her enough to kindle the smallest spark of lust in Sif's body – so easy, warriors – and stared into Sif's bright eyes.

"Sif, my dearest Sif, why don't you let go and stand up? I'm not going to hurt anyone. Lady Jane heard my promise."

Sif leaned back a little, relieving the pressure on Amora's soft arms. The nature of Amora's magics meant that controlling a woman was never as simple as controlling a man, no matter how much lust she drew forth. Amora could have ordered those men to do anything, but Sif would take more persuasion.

"Is this true, Jane?" Sif asked and Jane, as blindly truthful as her paramour Thor, nodded immediately.

Her handmaiden Darcy interrupted. "Don't let her up, Sif! She was going to make Agent Lee shoot you!"

"His weapon is gone, now," Amora purred, stretching herself upwards again to reinforce the power of her touch. "And my promise to harm none could include you, if you stand up."

Sif's expression was uneasy, but she stood, pulling Amora up with her. Amora stood on tiptoe and kissed Sif's cheek, as soft as any other girl's despite her armour and unadorned hair. No matter that Sif's arrival had made her plans more difficult. Amora was oddly flattered that Sif had come all this way to find her, choosing to travel the same road that Amora had travelled despite Sif's lack of protective magic.

Darcy had gone to kneel by Anna, the woman Sif had possessed, and rolled her on her side. "I thought it was your regard that mattered, Amora, but it looked like you were doing a number on Sif when she looked at you. You okay, Sif?"

"I am well," Sif replied. "Amora has stolen threads from the Bifrost and has travelled here to aid Loki in his mischief."

Amora smiled at Darcy. "Occasionally, I may briefly capture the regard of certain women as well. And no, good Sif, I am not here to aid Loki but to destroy him. He is greatly weakened by foolish and desperate alliances, and I wish him gone."

Sif nodded slowly. "You owe Loki a debt, do you not?"

"Exactly so. He is no longer in control of the thread of his fate. He schemes and plots and scries, but in truth he is more vulnerable than he has ever been."

Lady Jane stepped forward, holding a mechanical device in her hands. "I think I might be able to find him for you, if we can use the auroral observatory. Amora and Sif, you had very different magnetic fields to anything I've ever seen. I should be able to find others like you with the specialist equipment they have here."

"Excellent!" Sif was decided, and Jane obviously agreed with her. The handmaiden seemed less convinced, but Amora ignored her interjections and put an arm across Sif's shoulders. Jane was not quite as absorbed in her craft as she seemed, since she neatly ducked Amora's other arm.

"Let us to this observatory, sisters, and find Loki, wherever he may hide!"

***

Jane had texted Erik Selvig three times now, to no reply, and the SHIELD emergency number hadn't responded either.

"What jewel is that?" Amora asked her the third time, leaning uncomfortably close.

"It's a measuring tool." Jane put it on the bench beside a monitor as if she didn't care, and carried on with her scanning. Amora was attracted to anything pretty and shiny – Darcy had almost lost her glasses until she quickly distracted Amora by handing over her earrings instead – so Jane didn't dare keep texting in case Amora took her phone. Jane had seen Darcy texting, too, and she was famous among grad students for her ability to get a signal absolutely anywhere, so Jane could only hope that help was on the way.

Jane's nonchalance outlasted Amora's interest, and Amora wandered over to bother Sif instead. Sif was watching over the men that Amora had hypnotised, though now they were sitting quietly by the wall. The two women who had been possessed by Amora and Sif had awoken, but seemed equally confused, so Darcy had given them some water to drink and tucked them under a handy first-aid blanket alongside the befuddled men.

Amora pressed herself against Sif's back. "Dear Sif, it was good of you to come after me. Did Heimdall report my journey so quickly?"

Sif's shoulders were tense, but she answered politely enough. "Heimdall was angered at the further damage to the Bifrost. It is my duty to return you to Asgard, not aid you in this mad scheme. And yet I cannot fight you."

"Indeed, you cannot, though I see you do not wish to obey me, either. It would be so much easier to stop fighting." She slid a hand over to Sif's breast.

"No!" Sif pushed Amora away, not with great force, and turned to face her. "I know not whether you truly wish Loki harm or merely travel to aid your old comrade in magic, but Thor will not take kindly to either goal when he discovers you."

"So Thor has also been sent? We must make all haste, then. Lady Jane! Work faster!"

Jane's first instinct was to cheer, but she squashed it hard, letting out a sound that was closer to a hiccup instead. Glancing sideways at Darcy, she got a tiny hopeful grin in return. Apart from the exciting electromagnetic readings, this was the best news all day. Jane had been beginning to think that something might have happened to SHIELD and no help was coming. If Thor was here on Earth, he'd surely be looking for his brother: no matter which of them Jane found first, the other would soon arrive. Jane returned to her search with renewed attention.

Now that she had readings of the peculiar magnetic signature of Asgardians Jane would have no difficulty tracking down more signatures, as long as they were above 45o North, within the range of this observatory. Since Sif had mentioned Thor, Jane was now hoping for two new signatures, but no, her sweep had picked up only one. It seemed to be remaining stationary, somewhere Jane guessed was probably southern Germany or south-eastern France. She sighed. Thor would be dashing around trying to find his brother. A static signal would most likely, therefore, be Loki.

"Found him," she told Amora.

Amora leapt to her feet. "Handmaiden! Fetch us conveyance!"

Jane started packing up her equipment as Amora directed everyone towards the door in a disorderly parade.

It didn't take Darcy long to borrow Professor Hagen's keys and retrieve his battered little VW Golf from the building parking lot.

"Cars only have four seats," Darcy told Amora. "You can't take the men as well." Sif opened her mouth to speak, but Jane realised that Darcy was trying to make Amora leave her hostages behind. Jane kicked Sif in the shin before she spoke of the larger vehicles she had witnessed in New Mexico.

"That's right," Jane confirmed. "Only four people. But you have our promise now, so you can leave the men behind." Personally, Jane was wondering how on earth they were going to make it fifteen hundred miles to Stuttgart and into the range of the portable magnetometer before the Asgardian in question went elsewhere.

Amora pouted. "Oh, I suppose I can find more men easily enough. Men, go into the building and sleep until morning."

The scientists, janitor and SHIELD agent all turned and shuffled away. Jane caught a glimpse of them curling up on the lobby linoleum before the doors swung closed. Well, at least they were safe, and surely someone would find them soon. Agent Lee would be able to update SHIELD and with any luck, SHIELD would help them after that.

Amora had produced a small sewing needle and was scratching symbols into the paintwork of the little silver car.

"What are you doing?" Jane asked her, unable to resist her own curiosity. Some of the symbols looked similar to the markings left by the wormhole in the desert.

"You tell me that the Stuttgart is far from here, across land and a narrow sea."

"It's just Stuttgart. It's the name of a city."

"Nothing is only a name." She pointed at the design she had scratched along the side of the car. "These are names, names and invocations, but they will transport us far and fast in this poor chariot. For someone with such skill at reading magic, you have a poor understanding of transformations."

Jane bristled then realised a moment later how silly it was to get angry at someone for saying she didn't understand magic. Of course she didn't, yet. Thor had been so comfortable with the physical rules of his world that he hadn't been able to explain them to her except in mystical terms, which is probably how it would sound if Darcy tried to tell Thor how her phone worked. Amora, however, seemed to understand how what she called magic worked. Jane crouched down to look closer: Amora's lines of symbols looked very like equations.

"It's going to take us a while to get to Stuttgart, and I've had no chance to learn your kind of magic. You're obviously very skilled: will you show me?" Jane knew she was terrible at flattery and always had been, but Amora accepted the compliment anyway.

"As you have already sworn to aid me, perhaps a lesson will not go amiss. Enter this 'car' and I shall teach as we travel."

Everyone piled in, Darcy at the steering wheel. With a gesture from Amora the car lifted from the ground, oriented itself south and zoomed forward at tremendous speed, pushing even the Asgardians into their seats. It soon reached a great height and level speed and Jane could breathe again.

"NATO's going to shoot us out of the air in ten minutes flat!" Darcy shouted.

Amora reached forward and twisted one of Darcy's curls around her finger. "I know not of this warrior NATO, but fear not. So long as we fly we are unseen by all. I am no fool, Darcy! Midgardian men are weak and foolish, but this only drives them to bear stronger arms and attempt to destroy their enemies in the first strike, avoiding combat they fear to lose."

Darcy turned to look at her, tugging her hair from Amora's grasp. "Gotta say, you're getting a pretty good understanding of how Midgard works. Still, try to land us somewhere isolated and I'll drive us in."

Their smooth, swift flight was over before Jane had got a signal on her phone. She did at least manage to copy down a runic alphabet primer in her journal, at Amora's instruction. Finding somewhere isolated in the late afternoon in Stuttgart was harder than it sounded and Jane was starting to get worried that Amora was going to get impatient and land anyway. She'd probably end up taking more helpless men hostage, and that was not something Jane had ever had to worry about. At least, not outside of that one really weird student film that Darcy had been in.

"There are fine vineyards!" Sif was pointing out the window. "We may return to the ground on the tracks among the vines!"

Jane peered out, dubious that there would be agriculture so close to the city, but Sif was right. The neat lines of the vineyards would be a perfect place to land, and the signal indicated by the Tromsø observatory had been to the east of Stuttgart proper, where the vineyards were.

Darcy cheered. "All right! I get to drive after all!" She turned to Sif. "Never let Jane drive. She's terrible."

"I have heard tell," Sif replied solemnly, but winked at Jane.

Amora, with no apparent effort, guided the little car down to a narrow blacktop road that ran beside a small vineyard on a steep hill. As it landed, Jane shivered at a slight but sudden temperature drop. That must be Amora's spells wearing off. Jane was pleased to record the physical evidence of what Amora called magic. Every piece of data moved her understanding forward.

By the time Jane looked up from her journal, Darcy had started the engine and Sif had climbed out her window and onto the roof of the car.

"I see nothing of import!" she called, and nimbly swung her long legs back through the window, remaining sitting in the doorframe, her spear close to hand and getting in Darcy's way.

"Move that stick! Jane, which way should we go? Any readings on that thing?"

Jane retrieved the magnetometer from under her feet and fired it up. They were close enough to pick up something similar to those peculiar Asgardian readings, almost due north-west.

"That way! I can't guarantee it's not something else with a similar reading, but it's a good start."

Darcy turned them to the north-west and started heading along the road. They could see a large tour bus up a hill, and a few other cars and tractors about, and there was a background rumble indicating heavier traffic just out of sight. Jane felt the same way she did when she was up all night with new data: everyone else was far, far away, but what was in front of her was in sharp focus. She shook her head. That was a dangerous way to think, when Amora had already shown herself to be quite willing to hurt people, and Thor's brother sounded equally dangerous.

***

Amora was entirely unsurprised that Lady Jane had tracked Loki to a rich vineyard. He was always one to grasp after the finest of things, to boast when he had them, only to be dissatisfied and overreach himself trying for more. Not that Amora could criticise his desires, no, it was the insatiable ambition that she scorned. Amora's own ambitions were entirely satiable: she wished freedom from obligations, ease of living, and the utter devotion of handsome men. Her gaze had fallen on Thor many a time with disappointingly infrequent success, but it was not now hard to see that Thor preferred more honesty and less mystery in his women. Lady Jane might be far more learned than her paramour, but she had his blunt way of speech and dull singleness of purpose.

"We're close now! But these readings are strange…" Jane bent over her device as they proceeded up a green hill, above the pretty tiled rooves of the houses. Purple grapes hung thick from the vines and Amora could see many people out in the fields tending to them in the golden afternoon light. A rich land, this, far from the barren desert Thor had described; she was glad that Lady Jane had removed herself to somewhere more pleasant by the time Amora found her.

Sif leaned further out of the window of the vehicle as they approached a large white dwelling. She was now holding her spear out the window as if she were in a chariot. "I see guards!"

"Glowing blue eyes!" Darcy shrieked at tremendous volume and brought the car to a sudden halt, throwing everyone forward and Sif clear out the window. Sif rolled to her feet and ran at the closest man, who was indeed possessed of glowing blue eyes and wielding a sturdy hoe. He was no match for Sif, of course, who dodged his swift attack and spun him to the ground, kicking away his makeshift weapon. He lay still, entirely winded by his fall, and Sif took on the next man.

Jane turned to Amora. "We were warned that Loki was controlling people, and the outward sign is glowing blue eyes."

Amora pouted. Loki was stealing her kind of spell, when he had plenty of his own. Leaving their eyes glowing was clumsy, though. Amora would never do that. She stepped out of the vehicle to examine one of the men Sif had felled. He was still struggling to get up and fight again, which indicated a strong control, but it didn't remind her of Loki's subtle touch at all. Rather than be beguiled and tricked, these men – oh, and the two woman with large knives now fighting Sif – had simply had their will overpowered. Whatever enchantment had caused this was not one that Amora wished to fight. A loud yell came from behind her and she turned to see another man trying to climb in the window of the car where Lady Jane and Darcy remained. The vehicle lunged forwards and the man toppled out and fell into a fence. Amora herself had to quickly move aside to avoid meeting the same fate. The car drove onwards all the way to the white dwelling, where another man stood, his eyes also glowing. He had a bow at hand, an arrow nocked, and pointed it directly at Sif.

"Stop. All of you." He sounded disinterested, someone with whom it would be difficult to bargain.

"We're not here to fight," Amora called out in her sweetest voice. "We're friends of Loki."

He cocked his head, his aim never wavering even as Sif sidled towards him, spear at the ready. "Then put down your weapons and keep your hands up."

Darcy climbed out of the car. "Hey, I know you! You're that SHIELD guy from New Mexico. You worked with Agent Coulson, right?"

"Keep your hands where I can see them. And put your taser on the ground, Darcy Lewis."

"Don't have it, sorry. SHIELD sent us on a regular commercial flight. So, does SHIELD know you're here?"

Sif had moved closer, but the man had kept his arrow at the ready and she surrendered, laying her spear and daggers on the ground and raising her hands to show peace. Amora joined the group, unworried – her weapons were not physical.

Amora smiled at the archer, although she did not touch him and did not try to undo the heavy control on the man's mind. "Will you take us to Loki? I owe him a debt and I wish to repay it."

Whatever the mind control was, it obviously didn't override a warrior's instinct. Impressive. The arrow stayed aimed at Sif's heart, and he called out to one of the women Sif had disarmed. "Go inside. Tell him that Doctor Jane Foster, Darcy Lewis, Sif and another woman are here to see him."

Amora kept her mouth shut. No need to ruin any possible element of surprise by giving her name.

The woman ran into the building, and everyone waited, tense. The other men and women Sif and Darcy's car had knocked down had all staggered to their feet and now waited in an uncertain cluster a few steps away from Sif.

The doors opened, and the archer gestured them inside. It was not a home, but a large dining hall containing many small wooden tables. The delicious smells of wine and roasting meat filled the air, and the distraction meant that Amora took a good moment to find Loki, standing as he was in the shadows beside a bright, sunlit window. Indeed, it was the faint blue glow of his staff that first drew her eyes. It was a strangely crafted thing, Asgardian in appearance but utterly foreign in construction and power; the blue was the same colour that glowed in the enthralled people's eyes. It reflected on Loki's drawn face, dying him as blue as a Jotun.

Amora smiled and slunk towards him. It had been a long time since she had taken Loki to her bed, but she was not one to forget what a man enjoyed. Secrets, darkness, teeth. She reached from the sunlit square of the window into the shadows where Loki stood, to cradle his face and draw him down for a kiss – so simple, even the smartest of men – but the moment her palm made contact with his cheek she felt the magic ripple through him. Instead of Loki's stubbled skin, she was touching the soft flesh of a woman.

"Oh, Amora," Loki laughed, his female voice higher but no less scornful. "That old trick? We've all moved beyond it now." She threw back her long dark hair and caught Amora's wrist with an iron grip, jerking her forward to stumble to her knees. Loki was still armoured, and her gloved hands dug into Amora's flesh cruelly.

Darcy yelled across the dining hall. "Don't hurt her! She's come to help you because of this debt thing!"

Loki stared not at Darcy but past her, at the slight form of Lady Jane poring over her device. "And I see you have indeed brought me a gift, Enchantress."

Pulling herself up against Loki's body, her wrist still held prisoner, Amora caressed Loki's arm with her free hand, whispering in her ear. "Thor's lover, the gate-crafter. I have sworn not to harm her, but I pledged nothing of you." She fell to the ground with a shriek as Loki let her drop.

Loki dashed towards Jane, staff held ready, that blue light still hollowing out her features. Jane scrambled away, but Loki was much faster than her and caught her easily, swinging her around by the shoulder so that they were face-to-face. Loki raised her staff and lowered it towards Jane's heart, the blue glow between them both intimate and cold.

Before the staff touched Jane, Sif hurled herself forward and thrust her spear between them, knocking the staff away. Loki had no time to steady herself and Sif was on her. A hard thrust with the butt of Sif's spear to Loki's stomach sent Loki sprawling on the wooden floor, her helmet rolling away and the staff skidding after it. Jane, Darcy and Amora dashed for cover behind the tables as the blue-eyed archer appeared in the doorway and nocked an arrow, but Loki raised her hand.

"Halt, Barton. And Sif, halt. I surrender."

Barton froze. Sif stood over Loki, with a dubious frown and her spear at the ready. "It is good to see you alive, Loki, no matter your form." She took a deep breath. "We have sparred together many a time, yet I have never known you to surrender so quickly unless it was part of a ruse. What is it this time?"

"Not a ruse, dear Sif, but a plea. Amora may not have meant to help me, but she has nonetheless brought me something of tremendous value." Loki slowly stood, hands spread wide and harmless, and turned to face Jane and Darcy who, along with Amora, were peeping out from behind a sturdy table they had overturned. "Lady Jane. I throw myself on your mercy, and I offer the same terms as Amora offered you: I will not harm you or your friend, nor Sif, nor Amora."

With courage that surprised Amora, Jane stood up and left the safety of the table. "And the people you're controlling. You won't hurt them either."

"I will not directly cause them to come to harm," Loki promised. "But that it is all."

***

Jane folded her arms as if she was used to negotiating with inter-dimensional Norse Gods, but she would admit it was comforting to have Darcy at her back and Sif close to hand. Loki looked like a desperate woman, her face drawn and shadowed, not the powerful being she'd expected, let alone a man. Amora and Sif didn't seem too surprised by Loki's female form, so Jane wasn't going to be the one who rudely mentioned it. She did have to wonder if changing sex was common among Thor's people, and if Thor could do it. Still, whatever body, this was Loki who had lied to Thor and probably tried to kill him, and she did not have to give ground.

Sif let Loki up, safely distant from the glowstick, and Loki knelt before Jane. Jane would have been a lot more impressed if she hadn't caught Loki subtly peering up from behind her hair to check the effect she was having.

"Lady Jane, your realm has attracted the attention of terrible beings, and they intend to force their way here. They have charged me with opening a gate for them, something that has never been done from Midgard. If I do so, they will leave your subjugated world to me –"

Amora laughed, a bright and cruel sound. "You cannot rule the mighty so you will rule these mice?"

"Thank you, Amora, the grown-ups are talking," Darcy snapped. Loki glared at Amora, a look so nakedly vicious that Jane almost took a step away, but Loki quickly composed herself and returned her attention to Jane.

"Your Doctor Selvig was studying a device named the Tesseract, a great source of energy which will open a gate between any two realms. That will be their prize."

Darcy stood by Jane. "So if they need you to help them get here, why don't you just…not?"

"And if they can't come here without this Tesseract, how did you get here?" Jane added.

Loki's lips thinned, though in fear or scorn Jane could not tell. "When my brother destroyed the Bifrost, I was cast into the spaces between realms."

"He tried to save you!" Sif shouted, but Loki ignored her.

"The spaces between pulled at me as if I was stretched on some celestial torture rack. As soon as I was dragged into oblivion it started all over again ."

Jane nodded in excitement. Loki seemed to be describing travel through black holes. Maybe he could change his form to survive that, too.

Loki continued. "Finally, a creature freed me – a creature who had been observing Midgard and me with it – and we struck this bargain."

"Thanks for selling us out," Darcy muttered, but Jane shushed her. Combined with the strange electromagnetic readings she'd taken from the Asgardians, she was starting to understand.

"Okay, I've got a working theory here. This creature you met uses a method of inter-universe travel that is fundamentally unstable. Instead of a stable bridge like the Bifrost, they must excite black holes, long enough to send something small through. It would take huge amounts of energy to do that."

Both Loki and Amora were watching her seriously, concentrating on her words. It was Amora who spoke. "So they can't hold it open without the Tesseract. They can't send their army."

"Exactly! And the different methods of travel leave different signatures." Jane picked up her magnetometer. "Sif and Amora have almost the same reading, but yours is noticeably different, Loki. And it didn't change when you, er, changed shape."

Loki stood, her face grim. "They told me that they could find me anywhere, in any world. And that, Darcy, is why I cannot simply refuse to act."

"Yeah, I agree," Jane nodded. "Once you've travelled their way, it changes your EM signature. You're marked."

"Jane! You're not helping!" Darcy whispered. Jane wasn't sure how failing to tell Loki the truth would have helped.

"And thus you see my problem. If I don't open the gate, they can find me and destroy me. And, to be entirely honest, the fate of your world interests me less than my own survival."

"Gee, thanks." Darcy sounded vastly unimpressed.

"However, I do not wish to give them the Tesseract and thus the power to maraud throughout the universes, their strength growing with every conquest. Your world – and I – are mere stepping stones. I don't enjoy that thought." She pushed her long hair back from her drawn face.

Jane frowned, deep in thought. "If I could hide you, would that work? It's got to be difficult for them to get enough energy to operate their black holes, or they'd pop them open everywhere and spit out armies wherever they wanted. They're not going to be able to comb an entire universe looking for you."

Her face relaxing into something approximating relief, Loki nodded. "That would be enough."

"If I hide you, you'll have no need to open the portal. You can let everyone go."

Loki nodded assent.

"There's a few things I'll need, though."

Darcy grabbed Jane's arm. "You're helping her? You don't even know that any of this is true."

"I confirmed these EM readings. And if she was trying to get my sympathy, wouldn't she confirm my theories rather than give me entirely new information?"

"God, I don't know how science flirting is meant to work!"

Loki crooked a finger and Barton came over to them. "He will find you whatever you require. But remember, our time is short." She turned to Amora. "I believe, Enchantress, that we have a debt to discuss."

***

Sending Sif and the Midgardians off to some secure cellar, Loki took Amora by the elbow and steered her further into the house. Amora peered into the rooms as they went, trying to ascertain the extent of Loki's new powers. There were handsome bedchambers on the second storey, and a few of Loki's men were lying on grand beds, restless in sleep. From the window, Amora could see more standing guard at the front of the house, agricultural tools and cooking implements at the ready. It was growing dark outside, but the house was as well-lit as Odin's hall.

"You will not have much of a feast with all the kitchen hands doing duty as soldiers," she told Loki, not sure whether she should wriggle free of the bruising grasp on her arm or whether she should move closer. Loki's female form diminished her influence, it was true, but would not completely eliminate it, as Loki seemed to think.

Loki shrugged. "I have drunk of their wine. My slaves need little sustenance."

"You should not talk so of slaves, slave as you are to this creature you fear."

Loki shoved her against the wall, her face contorting with anger. Yes, Loki still rose to the bait as easily as she ever had, sensitive to slights despite being the first to slight others. Amora took advantage of her changed position to free her arm.

"Amora, I doubt you've simply come here to pay your debt. Tell me why you travelled so far."

Amora leaned forward and slid her palm against Loki's face, intending only to test her influence, but was surprised at Loki's small, sharp intake of breath. Loki's gaze went not to Amora's hand but to her face, betraying not lust but loneliness. Before Loki could hide her reaction, Amora slid her hand into Loki's thick, dark hair and grabbed a handful at the back of her head. She dragged Loki's head down and kissed her mouth, her daring rewarded by immediate response.

Loki grabbed Amora's upper arms as if to push her away, but only pulled her closer, and bit hard on Amora's lip. Amora's body tingled at her passion and she laughed into Loki's mouth as blood seeped from her lip and tainted their kiss with the taste of iron. Amora pulled Loki's head to the side and bit at her neck, kissing and lapping at the long tendons there.

"Why do you waste your time on controlling them one by one when you could simply rule them?" Amora whispered, licking a cool line on Loki's extended throat.

"You're one to ask!" Loki pulled the two of them across the hallway and into a bedroom, tipping them both onto the bed, Loki underneath. "No, they are contemptible and weak, most of them, and for them I will waste no time on persuasion. They work all the harder with their doubts and fears eliminated." She started to slide a hand under the armour and into her own pants, but Amora caught the hand and guided it under her dress and up her own thigh instead. Loki might intend to be as selfish a lover in female form as in male, but Amora would not let their connection break, not when she had a chance of influence.

Amora gasped at Loki's touch and edged forward to allow those long fingers better access. She was rewarded with a hard pinch to the soft skin of her inner thigh, and a smirk from Loki. She swiftly raked her nails down Loki's face, following with a swift slap on the stinging marks.

"You protest too much, Amora." Grabbing Amora's long hair, Loki dragged her down onto the bed and rolled herself over Amora's body to sit on top of her. Amora was now lying supine beneath her, pinned in place by Loki's hold on her hair. "I remember this. You want to be told what to do. You want men in charge of you, for once."

Amora scowled, then cleared the expression away as if she were trying to hide it. Let Loki think what she had wanted him – it had been him then – to think last time. Loki loved nothing better than finding out a secret, or discovering a lie that was nearly the truth. Amora would continue to lay a trail of secrets and lies for him to find. She had not failed to notice that Loki's gaze was locked on her body and her face, as desperate for her own kind as a drowning man for air.

She arched her body up beneath Loki's, as she had done with Sif. "Tell me what you want, then. Tell me as a man."

Loki gestured and her clothing shivered and changed, the cold armour replaced by a green gown alike to Amora's own. "You think me as simple as my brother? That your body so entrances me that I imagine only one way to own it? No, I will command you as boldly as a woman as I ever did as a man."

Amora decorated her face with her prettiest pout. "You are welcome to try!"

Loki released Amora's hair, only to haul up her own skirt and thrust her cunt into Amora's face. "Pleasure me."

Amora reached up but Loki lifted herself forward a little and pinned Amora's arms with her knees, straddling her face. "Not with your fingers. You've hurt me already with those nails."

Instead, Amora opened her mouth and licked her way along the slippery inner walls, sucking and dragging her tongue until Loki began to moan softly and move with the rhythm of Amora's attentions. At that moment Amora bared her teeth and scraped at Loki's pearl, bringing a gasp of pain and lust, and Amora knew that her debt would be forgiven. She whined softly as she tended to Loki's cunt, pressing her own legs together and twisting from side to side in an effort to minister to herself as well, but Loki only leaned more weight on Amora's trapped arms, pressing her down harder into the bed. The message was clear, and she tried to concentrate solely on Loki's increasing pleasure, her juices wetting Amora's lips and chin. She sucked and scraped and tenderly bit at the pearl – knowing Loki was inexperienced here in this form – and it didn't take her long to hurl Loki over that edge, her body pulsing and flexing above Amora's.

Amora meant to ask about her debt, but her body overwhelmed her. "Now me," Amora complained, "Now me," and Loki cast her a half-lidded glance of scorn.

"Is that a command, Amora?" Her voice was slow and sleepy, but rage was never far from the surface.

"A plea! Please, please…or let me loose to help myself…"

Loki released the pressure on Amora's arms and reached back to plunge her fingers into Amora's sopping wet cunt, her thumb brushing at Amora's pearl to complete the sensation, and Amora threw herself after Loki, with a delighted shout.

As her body convulsed around Loki's hard fingers, she managed to grab Loki's other wrist with her tingling, blood-starved hand. She stared into Loki's green eyes. "I brought you Jane. Forgive my debt."

Loki was caught. "Yes, it is forgiven." She slumped over beside Amora and fell into a light sleep, her fingers still wet with the juices of Amora's body, the long muscles of her thighs still trembling.

Amora sat up, stretching out her satisfied body. All was well. She was free.

***

A wine cellar, though a bit chilly, was hardly the most difficult place Jane had ever worked. It had light, power, and enough floor space to lay everything out. Two of Loki's hypnotised men stood guard, and Barton the SHIELD agent had scavenged the items they needed. Jane was currently taking apart a microwave to create a high-energy radio frequency emitter, a HERF gun. If she could use it to hit Loki with an EMP, it should change the traceable electromagnetic signature as she had promised.

Darcy tried to chat to their guards.

"So, how is it working for a megalomaniac from another dimension? The cosmetics industry would pay a fortune for those blue eyes, you know. Have you thought about freelancing?"

Barton didn't respond. Jane wasn't sure he was even blinking.

"Anyway," Darcy continued, "You know who has blue eyes and the skills to make one of these gates? Doctor Erik Selvig. Barton, you worked with him in New Mexico, you and that Coulson guy. Seen him since? Erik, that is, not Coulson."

Jane glanced up at Sif, who was now listening to the conversation with great interest.

"I've…seen him." Barton said, every word rough as sandpaper.

"Yeah? With Loki or with SHIELD? Cos Erik's eyes get any bluer and I'd be worried about the panties of half the population of the USA."

Barton swallowed before speaking, the words slower than ever. "He's working hard. On the Tesseract. For us." He sounded to Jane like a student questioned by a particularly harsh professor: aware that the professor would leap on any wrong word so choosing with absolute concentration and care.

"Darcy! Go easy on him, he might pop a vein. And strip the ends of these wires for me."

Darcy crouched down with Jane and waved Sif over. "So, they've got Erik. Can he build one of these stable gate things? And do you think he'll be okay?"

"I don't know…it doesn't look as if Loki is mistreating these people, I guess."

"He made them fight Sif!"

Jane closed her eyes for a moment and put Erik out of her mind. She couldn't help him right now, but she could work here. "If the Tesseract provides as much energy as Loki seems to think, then sure, Erik could do it. The energy source is the issue, not the math. But it's not the only way to make a gate. Theoretically, I mean."

"You could make one?" Sif leaned close. She was much more animated now that she was away from Amora's influence. "Could we travel to Asgard and bring reinforcements? I have seen no sign of Thor's presence."

Jane plugged in the soldering iron. She wasn't entirely sure that the ancient electrics of the wine cellar could handle it, but it seemed to be working so far. "Sif, I'm sorry, even if I had the energy source there's no way I can direct it to Asgard, out of all the dimensions that might exist."

"Then what is your plan?"

"Well, firstly I'm going to try to do what I promised to do, and hide Loki from these scary creatures that want to take over the planet."

"He's lying. I've been reading a lot of Norse myth lately, and, I mean, that's practically his purpose in life," Darcy interjected.

Sif nodded. "Yes, of course he's lying about something. But I have known Loki all my life, and that was true fear on his face. Whatever his other plans, he genuinely wants Jane to protect him."

"Okay, so we go along with him. Then what?"

"Backup plan!" Jane cheered. She must have been louder than she thought, because Barton and the guards at the door turned and looked at her. She lowered her voice to a whisper. "Backup plan. I've been thinking about why the Bifrost bridge worked so well, and worked two ways, while all the other methods are haphazard and one-way. I think the answer is negative matter of some kind, and that guy Thor says guards the bridge –"

"Heimdall," Sif and Darcy answered together.

"Yeah, obviously he can use it. And Amora must, too, since she used pieces of it to get here without his help. Using negative matter, they could theoretically be shaping a portal from one dimension to the other, and the negative matter would determine the size and shape of the portal."

Darcy handed Jane the stripped wires. "So, big shiny bridge, big portal that can send several people. Little broken bridge, only sent information which we had to reconstitute, just add water. Or energy, whatever. So what about this Tesseract?"

"A massive gate to send an army." Sif's expression was entirely serious. "Jane, if Heimdall told you how to use this negative energy, what could you do?"

Jane loosely scrunched up two wine labels to equal size and held one in each hand. "The thing about using black holes as a bridge is that to be stable, the opening has to be equal on both sides. So we use the negative matter to narrow the portal on our side - " she squeezed one hand to crush the label further – "the other side will have to shrink to match or everything going through it will get torn to pieces by trying to be different sizes on each side." She squashed the two paper balls completely. "So at best, the army can't adjust it and they don't come through, or maybe they try anyway and get splinched. At worst, they have to come through a much smaller gate."

"Nerd," said Darcy fondly.

Amora's honeyed voice came from outside the door. "Loki has ordered you to stop the prisoners leaving? Then it will be no breach of your duties to let me enter, good men."

Sif had kept her spear, despite the nervousness of the guards. "I will not let her ensnare my will again."

"Oh, dear Sif, I have no need of that!" The guards held the door open and Amora swanned through. Her face was flushed pink, her lips swollen and her hair untidy.

Darcy rolled her eyes. "Oh, great, I can see you've been hard at work defeating Loki. In bed."

Amora merely laughed, and Jane put a cautioning hand on Darcy's arm. Amora might not be as physically threatening as Sif or Loki, but she was still an Asgardian, with all the power that entailed.

Sif stood ready to defend them, but Amora made no attempt to harm Darcy or Jane, nor did she look in the slightest bit troubled by Darcy's barb. Instead, she wandered over to look at the remains of the microwave Jane had disassembled.

"Can this device really hide Loki from his enemies?"

"I hope so, when it's finished. But what I really wanted to ask you about was the bits of the Bifrost that you're wearing on your wrist."

Amora glanced at the glowing threads. "Oh, Lady Jane, you are indeed a match for Thor in dullness. Your only task here was to be a bargaining piece in my dealings with Loki. I care not for your feeble attempts to learn the ways of Asgard."

"Amora!" Sif shouted. "Lady Jane has already saved you from Loki once, and I remember you extolling Thor's virtues to his very face not so long ago. You dishonour yourself, yet again."

Jane turned back to the pieces of the HERF gun that she was nearly finished assembling. She really didn't need to get involved in Amora's obvious baiting, and she was entirely unsurprised to hear that Amora was interested in Thor, as well as every other man – or woman – who could give her something she wanted.

Darcy seemed equally unimpressed and sat cross-legged next to Jane, picking up a screwdriver. "You think Asgard is all like this? Honour and sex and shouting a lot?" Sif and Amora were indeed fulfilling the shouting part of Darcy's theorem, but Jane ignored them, concentrating on her work.

Jane twisted the exposed end of a wire along a screw. "I don't think we're seeing them at their best, to be honest. Thor was…much more complicated than that, at least until that robot thing turned up and it was suddenly all honour and fighting and shouting a lot!"

"Yeah, I notice you missed out sex."

"Oh come on, there wasn't time after that! Lucky it was him and not Amora that showed up, I suppose."

Darcy laughed. "Amora would have made time! Tall, blonde, kind of earthy…yeah, totally your type."

The door flung open and Loki stood there, a man again, in an expensive suit and coat, glowing staff in hand. "Time runs short, Lady Jane."

Jane checked the last of her circuits and stood up. "Okay. Let's try it. Everyone except Loki should stand behind me. It's enough to hurt a human."

Darcy helped Jane turn the HERF gun so it was pointing at the stone wall rather than the open door – Loki didn't seem interested in telling his hypnotised slaves to stand clear, but Jane wasn't going to zap them if she could help it. She fired up the assembly and the electromagnetic pulse hit Loki. He shook his head slightly as if disoriented, but apart from that the only obvious effect was that the light bulbs hanging from the ceiling glowed brighter.

Jane shut it down and checked her readings. "Damn. Not enough."

"I have no time!" Loki shouted, but Jane held out a hand.

"Wait. The other strange readings I found were from the strands of the Bifrost that Amora is wearing. Let me wire those in and maybe it will provide enough power to alter your EM signature."

Loki held out a gloved hand and Amora, still pouting, gave him the bracelet. Darcy quickly unravelled the tangled bracelet and handed the three strands to Jane. After a quick trip by Barton upstairs to rip connectors from the winery's optic fibre internet, Jane wired the Bifrost strands in place. She would much rather have run some tests first, but there was no reason why the Bifrost strands wouldn't modulate the EMP, and Loki seemed uninclined to wait.

"Okay, everyone clear." Jane fired up the HERF gun again, and this time there was visible light as well as the electrical hum. Instead of a stronger pulse, though, it fired a single coherent beam of light, and Loki cried out in pain. Jane glanced down at her magnetometer: his EM signature had still not changed.

"It's not strong enough – the Bifrost strands can only shape the pulse, not amplify it."

The second Jane had switched off the HERF gun, Darcy had hurried over to see if Loki was okay. He pushed her aside with a snarl.

Darcy kept her footing and glared at him. "We're trying to help you!"

"Help me! Insolent worm!" Loki's face twisted in rage and he struck at Darcy, lightning-fast with his staff. Sif threw herself in front of Darcy to deflect the blow but the force was so great that she was thrown into Darcy and both women skidded into the wall. Sif rolled to her feet immediately, but Darcy slumped to the ground. Loki was still shouting. "I should not have followed Thor's lead and placed my trust in lesser beings! They were right, what they said about you: the vermin who crawl on this clump of dirt are fit only to be serve. Oh, sweet Amora, I truly hope that your stay here is long; long enough for you to understand that you are on their level, a creature of petty appetites and weakness, someone who does not deserve to walk free!"

Jane stared at him in honest terror. It had been exhilarating to be with Asgardians again, to be in that place where all her calculations sprung to life, where signs and numbers directly shaped the universe, but every time, every moment, she forgot that this meant meeting beings who were used to exerting their will and having it come true. In Thor's case, this had been thrilling rather than terrifying because she had seen his good heart and honesty beforehand; Sif was of the same cloth. Even Amora's ambitions were small and personal, for all her trickery and bad temper. But Loki had the same strength and determination as the warriors, harnessed to the self-centred vision of Amora. Jane wasn't sure whether or not he was going to kill them on the spot.

"I – I can still fix this," she croaked out.

"You! Why would I want anything from you? Clinging to Thor, or worse, obeying Amora as if even the least of the Asgardians is your ruler! Pitiful, all of you. You are fortunate that I have more important things to do or I would take you as a trophy and gift my brother your raddled corpse."

Jane shrank back, Sif stepping forward to block her from Loki's view, but Loki did nothing more violent than turn on his heel and stalk out, Barton following in his wake.

Amora turned to follow them, pausing only to rip the Bifrost threads out of the HERF gun.

"Hey, wait!" Jane called.

Amora smirked. "What need have I of your foolish machine? Loki has forgiven my debt and now I can leave him to die at the hands of his allies, as he so fears."

"You would let Loki die such a death?" Sif spat, and grabbed Amora's sleeve.

"He is not pleased that he forgave my debt so easily, but forgive he has, which means that I have no more need to help him. Farewell!"

Suddenly, Sif let go of Amora and began to laugh. "Oh, Amora, you fool."

"What? What means this, Sif?"

"Unlike you, I've been listening to Jane. You're trapped on this planet the same as Loki. When his allies come to scourge this planet, you'll be right here with us."

"No, I can return. I have pieces of the Bifrost."

Jane grinned, although she hardly feeling pleased. "Sif's right. The Bifrost threads might be able to shape a gate, but that's useless if you don't have an energy source to create one. What you wished on Loki? Well, you're going to be here to see it happen."

Amora paled, the warm, satisfied pink fleeing from her face, and she turned away from the door.

***

Darcy hadn't lost consciousness, but that was sounding really nice right about now. Sif had saved her from Loki's attack but getting tackled by Sif was like getting hit by an attractive sports car, and Darcy was so winded that she couldn't talk. This was a first: she had been hit by an actual car when she was ten and that time she hadn't stopped talking all the way to the hospital.

"Jane…" she managed to wheeze out, and Jane dashed over to help her.

"Darcy, have you broken anything?" Jane prodded at Darcy's limbs and head for signs of injury, though Darcy wasn't sure what exactly Jane thought she'd find with her random patting.

Sif knelt beside them with a glass of wine. "Here, Darcy, this will revive you."

"No, she might have a head injury!" Jane protested, but Sif held the glass to Darcy's lips and she swigged down the lot. It was good wine, too, not the budget stuff she usually imbibed.

"Okay, that's better." She still couldn't entirely catch her breath, but the Asgardian alcohol therapy had at least stopped her head spinning so much. "Jane, we've got to tell SHIELD what's coming."

"I've been texting them, but I don't think my messages are getting through."

Amora joined them, wine bottle in her hand. "Oh, those. Yes, I stopped them."

Darcy pulled her fortunately intact phone from her pocket. "So that means you can unstop them, yes?"

"Well, I could, but why? You'll call down your armies on me, and I probably can't control all of them."

"Especially as their armies contain many women," Sif added, with a glare in Amora's direction.

Darcy shook her phone at Amora. "But we don't need to call the army on you. You kept your bargain not to hurt us, and you're not the threat any more. Loki is. If he opens that portal we're going to get invaded by things that even Loki is scared of, but if we can contact SHIELD and they can contact Thor…"

"Thor can come here and rescue us all!" Amora finished, entirely cheered up.

"No, you bimbo! Thor can stop Loki! We'll rescue ourselves." Darcy immediately regretted shouting, as her head pounded.

"Thor has defended us before," Jane said, "So this time we can help him."

Amora pouted. "I don't see how. You might understand bridges and portals but you don't have anything as powerful as the Tesseract. Sif might be a match for Loki on his own, but not with his minions at the ready. All my spellwork can do is distract and charm. Loki is far more powerful than I, even when he's not stealing my tricks."

Jane reached out and tugged on Amora's glowing bracelet. "Yeah, but you and I can put our knowledge together. You know how to manipulate these threads to shape a gate, and I know the best way to use that."

Darcy wasn't sure what Jane's plan might be, but Jane and science were always a solid team. "So what you need to do, Amora, is let us use our phones. Oh, and could you and Sif handle those guards?"

"Fine!" Amora waved her hand and Darcy's phone shimmered slightly. All her old messages looked as if they'd sent, even if Amora said they hadn't, so she tried a new one, direct to the SHIELD emergency number.

found LOKI in Stuttgart Germany pls help

A text returned immediately, as Amora opened the door to talk to the guards, Sif behind her with a study barrel stave in her hand.

please advise if safe to call

Darcy replied. yes pls call

Her phone rang.

"This is Maria Hill. What's your current situation?"

"We're fine – I've got Jane and two Asgardians here, and we saw Loki. He's going to open a big portal and bring some kind of alien army to conquer Earth. And he's got Erik!"

"Is Loki at your current location? And who are the Asgardians?"

"No, Loki left, but Jane can probably track him, I think. We've got Sif and Amora here – Amora's kind of evil and weaselly but she's helping us out now."

Jane grabbed at the phone. "Let me talk to Hill, okay?"

"Sure!" Darcy let her have it and went to see how Sif and Amora were doing with the guards. Loki's hypnotic glow stick must have been stronger than Amora's persuasive powers, because Sif had had to whack Loki's victims on the head to stop them. A middle-aged man in a chef's uniform was holding his head and groaning; a younger man lay unconscious on the floor beside him and had thrown up on himself. He had a large bruise forming over one eye.

Darcy quickly checked the unconscious guy's breathing and pulse, but he seemed to be okay so she rolled him into recovery position to prevent him breathing in his own vomit. Sif might be on their side, but she was kind of careless with innocent people. Or maybe Viking gods didn't believe in first aid.

"You okay?" she asked the older guy, crouching down next to him, and was surprised to see that his eyes were just regular brown, not the eerie ice blue of before.

"Yes…American?"

"Stay here. You've had a hard day, but it's all over now." She patted him on the shoulder, then ducked to the cellar to see Jane, who had just hung up the phone.

"The German authorities are on their way, and they're going to get us to the geomagnetic observatory near Munich. That'll have everything we need."

"Are they sending ambulances? Sif's kind of rough with the de-hypnotising."

Jane was already staring off into space. "I guess. I told them about all the hypnotised people."

"Jane! Get it together, woman!" Darcy grabbed her arms to bring her back from Physics Land for a moment. "What do you need from here?"

"Oh! Nothing, just my notebook and the magnetometer. And Amora's bracelet, and Amora."

Darcy had heard weirder lists. "Okay, let's go. Preferably before she and Sif give everyone concussions."

By the time they made it upstairs, Darcy could hear approaching sirens, and wondered what her life had come to that this was a relief rather than a cue to flush the evidence.

***

The police helicopter landed them right outside the geomagnetic observatory near Munich. Despite all the armed men and the SHIELD agents waiting for them, to Jane this felt like coming home: the buildings were the familiar 1970s concrete blocks common to so many university labs; the building smelled of floor cleaner and ozone and damp; the hum of an electrical substation was palpable through the industrial linoleum of the ground floor. Hollow-eyed grad students were still here in the hours before midnight, chipped mugs of coffee in hand and security passes hanging from their necks. Jane took a deep breath and opened her notebook.

She and the technical staff didn't stop working even when the reports came in from Stuttgart of a man with a glowing staff terrorising a crowd. Loki was then captured by Iron Man and some guy dressed as Captain America, but Jane had no idea what to make of that. Sif and Amora both agreed that Loki had allowed himself to be captured, though they argued over why there was still no sign of Thor; Darcy kept the coffee flowing and an eye on Amora, who did keep sidling towards the male staff members when they were too busy to be watching out for her. At least the SHIELD guards were, sensibly, all women this time.

As night turned to dawn in Munich, Maria Hill called them with an update: Thor had returned and was currently guarding Loki at a SHIELD base.

"Take care of Thor!" Jane wasn't pleased that he was with so many military types. It had gone very poorly in New Mexico. "He'll probably blame himself for all this and try to nobly sacrifice himself again."

"Yeah? He can get in line. We've got that heroic type out the wazoo here."

"But Erik Selvig! Where is he?" Darcy protested. "You guys should be looking for him – he's the dangerous one. Well, Loki's made him that way."

"We're hoping that the brainwashing wears off without Loki to reinforce it. It has for the staff of the winery where you were held."

Sif shook her head, then spoke carefully and clearly into the phone. "Captain Maria, I am afraid that the servants of the vineyard were but little affected. Loki had no need for their skills, merely for their service as guard dogs. Your soldier Barton was held in much stronger thrall, and I fear our friend Erik will be much the same. He needs them to be cooperative and helpful prisoners, not mindless draugar."

"Good to know," Hill said dryly.

A few hours after dawn, Jane had everything set up and data sent to other linked observatories, but no portal was in evidence, so everyone stopped for breakfast. The cafeteria food here was noticeably better than in New Mexico, or maybe they were here early enough for Darcy to swipe the best of it.

"I wish to apologise for striking Loki's men and women with such force," Sif told Jane. "I did not think to compensate for your weaker bodies."

There had been several broken bones and five serious concussions among the winery staff. At least they'd heard that the Trømso University staff and SHIELD agent who had been under Amora's control were all fine.

"Look, you know for next time. And you protected both me and Darcy from Loki – he certainly wasn't holding back." Jane put her hand on Sif's strong arm. "Don't worry. They're getting good medical care and they'll be all right. We've got to concentrate on the portal."

Darcy was giving her a dirty look, but Jane ignored it. If Sif hadn't defended them, Loki's hypnotised slaves would have captured them the moment they drove up to the winery. They'd probably all have glowing eyes and a deep desire to work for Loki by now.

"And how will we journey to where this portal appears? Your Captain Maria said that Loki could have placed the good Erik anywhere, and Loki himself is now far from us."

"It is of no matter." Surprising Jane, it was Amora who spoke. "Lady Jane does not wish to make a safe and secured gate. She wants to crush their gate closed."

Darcy brushed poppy seeds off her front. "Is this some kind of physics-magic convergence thing?"

"Yes!" Jane pointed to Amora's bracelet and the techs came over to see what was going on. "This observatory will let us pinpoint where the portal opens, and quantum inequalities mean that the greater the distance, the longer the effect will last. We can work from anywhere in the world."

Sif nodded. "I do not understand your words, but I am glad that we can remain here and I do not have to defend you against an entire army."

Three hours and many coffees later, the SHIELD agents suddenly lost contact with base. Jane might not know where their base actually was, but she was prepared to bet that Loki was there and had something to do with the problem. She and the techs started up their sweeps for the energy of an opening portal.

Amora stood uncomfortably close behind Jane, pulling her glowing bracelet round and round her wrist. "He will never forgive me if I do this. Loki is a bad enemy to have."

Jane wasn't sure what to say, but Darcy hitched herself up on the bench beside Jane's monitor and stared up at Amora. "What's your nature? I mean, you talked about Loki's nature a lot, and Sif is obviously a warrior: what's yours?"

"I deal in emotion, in desire and sex and the fleeting moments of life. I am neither maiden nor mother and men fear that." Amora drew herself up straight. "I am the angry shadow of a wise decision and the lustful drive behind a kind word. But I do not battle. I do not challenge. I do not create."

"That's why you're scared of Loki, huh? You inspire stuff, he does stuff?"

"Yes! He should be tricking men into clever ills of their own making. It is my part to have them simply obey their baser desires. He thinks himself more subtle than me, but in truth he is merely stronger, influencing the heart's wisdom rather than the loins'."

Jane really didn't want to think about what that meant in terms of Amora's debt with Loki, especially considering that Amora was now idly stroking Jane's hair as she talked.

"Uh huh." Darcy sipped her coffee and removed Amora's hand from Jane's ponytail. "Look, I can see you guys are pretty gender essentialist, on the whole, but I don't think you're as bound to your nature as you're saying. I saw you lying about being Sif. I heard you turn me and Jane over to Loki. I saw you make a car fly over a thousand miles in an hour. Disguise it all you want, but you want to be in charge of your own destiny. Otherwise that debt wouldn't have chafed so hard."

Amora bit her lip. "I – it is not this way in Asgard. There I am surrounded by great beings who scorn my ways, but I steal learning in whatever bed I find it."

Sif shouted, "Is that how you stole past Heimdall, and travelled on the Bifrost?"

"Of course it was," Amora snapped. "Not all of us want to be you. Or can be you, Sif. But it's different here. The men are no more foolish than men of Asgard, but I am powerful among you."

Jane turned from her monitor to look at Amora, realising that she'd seen this moment before. Thor had lost his power to learn about using it; Amora had gained power to understand her own strength. "Being on Earth is changing you, as it changed Thor."

Amora closed her hand around her glowing bracelet. "I will be no less than him! If Midgard has so altered Loki and Thor alike, then I will decide how it changes me." She looked sideways at Sif. "Midgard has not changed you."

Sif smiled, a little lopsided. "I am not unhappy with myself, Amora: I have already altered the thread of my fate."

It was another two hours before the alarms went off, sending everyone jumping sky high; Sif grabbed her spear and the SHIELD agents' hands went to their guns.

"You could have set the volume a little lower," Darcy muttered to Jane, but all attention turned to the screens. The portal was opening right over Manhattan.

"That's a huge city. They'll kill hundreds of people. Maybe thousands," Jane explained to Sif and Amora, quickly confirming the data and calculating its exact direction.

Within a minute the portal had gone from a speck to nearly four hundred feet wide, and still rapidly expanding. Darcy pulled up the CNN website to see streaming footage of grey-skinned aliens zooming through the portal on flying platforms, weapons blazing.

"Hoverbikes!" she exclaimed, smothering a hysterical laugh.

"Keep it together!" Jane snapped. "The faster we shrink that portal the fewer soldiers they can send through."

Amora pulled the Bifrost strands from her arm and threw them into the air where they hung suspended above her head still looped into the shape of a bracelet. "Jane, direct me."

Jane grabbed a vector magnetometer and entered the coordinates, then turned Amora in precisely the right direction. "Can you sense it?"

Amora stared into the far distance, the Bifrost strands circling eerily in mid-air. "Yes. You were right: the distance matters not. I feel the shape of it, as I felt the shape of the Bifrost. And, with Heimdall's teachings, I think I can control that shape."

The three glowing threads suddenly flung themselves apart, slicing through the walls and flying out of the observatory.

"What mischief is this?" Sif asked Jane.

"The threads are expanding to mimic the size of the gate over New York," Jane said and ran over to the computer monitor. Readings scrolled down the screen almost as fast as Jane could scan them, and she clapped her hands in excitement.

"Jane!" Darcy grabbed her arm. "Check your data later! Amora needs help!"

Amora had collapsed into Sif's arms and was muttering syllables that sounded vaguely familiar.

"Those are runes – write them down!" Sif stayed where she was, supporting Amora, but Jane opened her notebook with the runes Amora had taught her and quickly copied down the sounds Amora was repeating.

"What does this mean?" Jane waved her paper at Sif.

"I know not!"

"A circle," Amora muttered. "Write them in a circle. My few threads cannot encompass a portal so huge. I must bring the threads together, pull them close like purse strings."

Jane and Darcy quickly complied. They used Sharpies to write in two half-circles on the ancient linoleum, moving away from each other and meeting again behind Amora.

The moment the circle was closed with a final Perthro rune from both women, Amora stood on her own feet again.

One of the SHIELD agents ran into the room. "The threads have started moving towards you!"

Jane was about to return to her monitor when Amora grabbed her hand.

"Stay. Form the circle." She clutched at Sif with her other hand, and Sif took her place, Darcy closing the circle. Jane felt warmth run through her, flashing from the top of her skull to her groin, and shifted slightly, involuntarily clenching at the strange arousal. No wonder Amora always looked so smug and satisfied when she worked her spells.

Amora's hand was hot in hers, as was Darcy's on her other side, and the runes glowed black beneath their feet. Suddenly Jane could feel the shape of the portal on the other side of the world, a perfect sphere in the sky – not a circle as it seemed on the broadcasts – and she tried to feel what it contained. An alien dimension, or at least a massive stellar distance, must be within her sight.

Jane. Stop. Amora's thought thrummed through her. No, not only Amora's, but Darcy's and Sif's as well. We are shadow, not light. We close the portal.

Jane let it go. People were dying in Manhattan, they must be, and the portal had to close.

"Thor is there! And Iron Man!" shouted a SHIELD agent from the monitor. Jane could not spare a glance, but she did smile for a moment. This was exactly the kind of battle of which Thor had told her – and sung about, that time he and Erik got drunk – and she could imagine his ferocious joy. Her task was to protect him, and those he was protecting. The four women leaned closer and closer together, the strands of the Bifrost feeling ever nearer. They were dragging the portal shut, every ounce of strength they could summon directed into pulling those threads together.

"It's closing!" the SHIELD agent called out. "But they're sending something huge through! Some kind of giant armoured slug! Two of them!"

Jane could feel innumerable massive blocks of matter hanging beyond the shrinking sphere. The shapes on one side were familiar – the skyscrapers of Manhattan – but on the other there were huge worm creatures a hundred times the size of the ones that had slipped through the portal, orbiting great sleek ships the size of California.

"They're testing your defences and blooding their young warriors," Sif breathed. "These are but the first foot-soldiers. If they fall the rest will follow."

"They will not!" Darcy's hand tightened on Jane's.

Another enormous worm creature poured itself through the portal to attack the city, and an even larger one nosed angrily against the edges of the portal but turned away, back into space. Amora's efforts to close the portal were succeeding: the glowing threads were visible in the lab now, the portal less than a hundred feet across, barely enough for a single worm to slide through.

Amora gasped and the women moved closer, their arms around each other now to support the shaking Amora and to keep the circle closed. They had reached some kind of impasse. Jane hadn't thought that the Tesseract could possibly contain enough power to counteract the Bifrost strands, but she had been wrong. No wonder these aliens coveted it so much. Even if Amora couldn't close the portal, the four of them could pull the edges as tight as possible and prevent the most terrible of the alien weapons making it through. It was too small for any more worms now, at least.

"Thor is there. He will stop his brother," Sif thought, and her certainty raced through them all like lightning.

Long minutes later, the Tesseract's energy suddenly cut off, and the strands of the Bifrost slammed together, closing the portal entirely. Amora collapsed to the floor, pulling the other three down with her, and Jane passed out to the tinny sound of cheering through the computer's crappy speakers.

***

Sif was immeasurably proud of her mortal allies, and even, she must admit, of Amora. For all that Amora had a hand in worsening the problem, it could not be denied that she conducted herself bravely and with honour. Once Lady Jane had persuaded her, at any rate.

The battle of Manhattan had taken a great toll of lives, the messages had said, but Thor was alive and Loki captured, so Sif bowed her head and wished those brave souls well on their journey. Her own journey would be far simpler: Jane had managed to replicate one of Amora's spells to communicate their location to Heimdall in Asgard, and he had responded. Any moment now, he would reach out with threads from the Bifrost and the threads would connect with those Amora had stolen, bringing both the Asgardians and the stolen pieces back to Asgard.

Sif held her thread firmly in one hand; Amora had the others and was saying her goodbyes to Jane and Darcy, outside the observatory that had been their home these two days.

"I wish you well in your learning, Lady Jane." She embraced Jane, then Darcy, who held her paper cup of coffee safely away from the embrace, and stood well back from them as Sif was doing, ready for Heimdall to reach out for them.

"Stand here by me, Amora. You have earned your place with the protectors of Midgard," Sif called out, extending her hand in friendship.

Amora smirked and Sif's heart sank. "Lady Sif, I should prefer to stand over here, alone."

Sif narrowed her eyes, as did Jane and Darcy, but then felt the thread in her hand tug her upwards. Heimdall was summoning the Bifrost strands – and those who held them – home.

"Have a wonderful time! I'm rather enjoying this realm and thought I might stay a while!" Amora called, and Sif turned to realise that Amora was not lifted from the ground at all – Jane and Darcy were. Amora must have stealthily placed the Bifrost threads on them when she said goodbye.

Jane looked startled to be ascending into the air, then she pressed her lips together in determination. "I'm coming with you, Sif! When else am I going to get this chance?"

"You're not going without me!" Darcy yelled, grabbing Jane by the shirt. "And I've got a cup of what will be the only coffee in Asgard!"

Sif threw her arms wide. "Protectors of Midgard, gate-shapers and brave women, you are welcome!" She took their hands and the three women vanished in a streak of rainbow light and a shout of laughter.

Amora laughed with them. She was ready to embrace this world and all the chaos and change within it, and within herself. She smiled warmly at the startled SHIELD agents by the observatory. She was sure that this world was ready to embrace her, too.

Comments

[havocthecat]

Surprise ending! Amora having an actual growth moment! Sif! Darcy and Jane being co-worker buddies! Only coffee in Asgard! I cannot describe in how many ways I love this story.

[lilacsigil]

Thank you so much! It was a lot of fun to write, so I'm glad it was fun to read, too.