It wasn't supposed to go like this. They were never supposed to even make it to Jotunheim. They were never supposed to face Laufey, and they certainly weren't supposed to start a war. Something had gone horribly wrong. Heimdall was supposed to stop them at the Bifrost. Odin was supposed to yell and scream and shout before the bridge was ever even opened. Odin was supposed to be angry, but not like this. This was never in the plan. This had gone too far, and now neither of them could go back. They were hurled from the observatory, stripped of their power, and with no idea where they were going. They fell together, both screaming in pain and fear and rage.

Thor hit the ground first, only seconds before Loki landed near him. Loki stayed on the ground, watching blearily and confused as Thor jumped to his feet, only to have some giant machine crash into him and throw him back to the ground. Loki tried to get up, but when three people emerged from the machine, he stayed low, watching as they threw blame over who had caused the machine to strike him. Not wanting to be seen, Loki tried to draw a cloak over himself, to make himself invisible, but that magic was no longer available to him. Not sure what to do, and not wanting to make any hasty decision, Loki stayed down on the ground where he wouldn't be seen.

Seeing Thor get back up again filled Loki with a strange relief. Still, he stayed where he was, in the darkness outside of the machine's bright lights. Thor spun around, growling about his hammer and making demands of the terrified locals. When he pushed the locals too far, Loki wasn't surprised that one of them drew a weapon. When the weapon laid Thor flat out on the ground again, Loki finally rushed to his feet to go to his brother's aid.

"Is he dead?" he asked, looking down at Thor's prone body.

"Jesus Christ!" The girl who had bested Thor spun round and pointed her weapon at Loki. Having seen how easily it defeated Thor, Loki jumped back and held his hands up, showing them empty.

"I ask again. Did you kill my brother?" Loki said calmly.

"Aw, fuck," the girl said, backing away. "I-no. I don't think so. What the hell are you doing out here?"

Loki looked down at Thor again, and then up at the sky. He didn't know the stars or their constellations, or anything of the dry, cold desert he stood in.

"I don't know," he admitted slowly. "Where are we?"

He knew he was repeating Thor's question, but he hadn't actually heard an answer he understood.

"New Mexico? How wasted are you guys?" the young girl asked.

The older woman with her swatter her on the arm. "Darcy!" she scolded quietly.

"What?" the girl called Darcy asked. "You took us out here to look at a Pink Floyd Laser Light Show, and then you ran over Shaggy and Scooby."

"Darcy!" the other scolded again.

There was a third in their company; an older man at least twice the age of the women. He frowned down at Thor and sighed deeply.

"This is your brother?" he asked grimly.

Loki looked back down at Thor, and realised then that Thor had been stripped of not just his power, but his armour as well. He lay there in his woollen under garments, still unconscious in the sand. Loki realised he was also without his own armour, wearing little more than a black tunic and trousers. He figured it was no small wonder he felt the cold of this realm so acutely.

"Yes," he answered after a moment, trying not to shiver. Not even Jotunheim had felt as cold as this place did. But on Jotunheim, Loki was a different man. He wondered if Odin had not only stripped away his power, but everything that made him Asgardian as well.

"Okay, come on," the man said, trying to herd Loki over to the large machine nearby. "I think we need to get you both to a hospital."

"We were abandoned here," Loki said, suddenly realising it to be true.

The man leading him to the machine stopped and looked at him closely in the dark.

"Who abandoned you?" he asked quietly, before looking over his shoulder at the desert around them. But Loki knew he'd find nothing, so he shook his head in response.

"Okay," the man said, opening a door at the back of the machine. "You're freezing. Get in the car."

Loki obeyed, figuring it would be easier to figure out where he was before trying to make any move to try to get back to Asgard. He half expected them to leave Thor out in the desert, planning to come back for him in the daylight, but he was surprised to see Thor get carried into the back of the machine by the other three.

"Uh," Darcy said, looking into the machine at Loki. "Can I ride up front?"

Her older companion - possibly her father, Loki suspected - looked down at her, and then at Loki and nodded. "Yeah, I'll sit in the back," he said, before climbing in and sitting in the seat across from Loki.

As they began to leave the area, they all sat in silence. Loki looked at his hands in the dark, thinking that his skin looked blue in the dim light. But it was just that, he knew; dim light. It made everything look blue. He knew that under brighter light, his skin would be fair and normal. He knew it because nobody had yet shrieked and cried monster.

He listened as the small group began to nervously talk, but said nothing himself. The man was called Erik, he learned, and the older of the women was called Jane. They were nervous and frightened, worried about something called cops. He understood the word "prison" though, though he didn't know what crime they had committed to be worried of such matters.

"So, uh," Erik said eventually, turning his attention away from the women, and toward Loki. "Your brother. He said his name was Thor."

Loki wasn't sure if it was a question or a statement, so he only answered with a shrug.

"And what do we call you?" Erik asked.

Loki shook his head and looked away. "It doesn't matter," he said.

He could still feel the chill of the realm. He wrapped his arms around his chest, still trying not to shiver. His tunic was wool, but it was also very thin, and did little to keep him warm. It wasn't meant for warmth, but to keep leather and armour from chafing and blistering his skin. He had felt cold before, but never quite like this. It felt as if it was seeping into his bones through his pores, as if to slowly freeze him from the inside out.

"Hey, Jane. Turn the heater up, would you?" Erik asked.

"This is as high as it goes. It doesn't really work very well," Jane said. "Sorry. We'll get there soon, I promise."

Erik sighed and took off his coat, but Loki refused it when he handed it over. He hated that he was so obviously cold, but he didn't want to admit to it as well. But Erik didn't give him much of a choice. He sat forward and put the coat over Loki's shoulders. Loki accepted it, only because he was too cold to resist it.

The hospital Jane took them to smelled of sickness and disinfectant, but it was warm inside. Loki watched nervously as Thor was taken away, and tried to follow after, but the healers wouldn't let him. Instead, he found a seat along the wall and sat while Jane and Erik gave the woman behind the desk all the information she asked for.

"He said his name was Thor?" Jane said, unsure.

Erik leaned in closer to the woman. "We haven't been able to get much out of the other one. He says they were abandoned out there."

The woman nodded. "I'll send a nurse to take a look at him."

Erik nodded and stepped away from the desk. He wandered off down the hall a ways, before returning with a folded blue blanket from a cart. "I'll trade you," he said, offering the blanket to Loki.

Loki had forgotten he'd been wearing the man's coat. He took it off and traded it for the blanket, forgetting about pride and wrapping himself up in it. It was thin and scratchy where it rubbed against his neck, but Loki was still cold enough to ignore it.

"Try to stay out of trouble," Erik said, before leaving with the women.

A few minutes later, a man in a blue tunic and trousers came over and sat down beside Loki. He held something small in his hand, and had a few other devices hanging over the back of his neck.

"How you doing?" he asked easily.

Loki regarded him suspiciously. The other three, he had little choice but to trust, but this man was new, and Loki didn't like his cheery demeanour.

"Fine," Loki asked stiffly.

"I was told you were out there in the desert tonight. Can I get your temperature, to make sure you didn't get too cold out there?" the man asked.

"If you must," Loki said warily, wondering if he'd be forced to anyway if he said no.

"Just need you to open your mouth for me," the healer said, holding the device up. "And this goes under your tongue."

Loki took the device from him and looked at it for a few moments, before complying. When the healer closed Loki's mouth around the device, he considered fleeing, but before he made up his mind, the device beeped, and the man took it away.

"All right," he said, nodding and writing something down on a piece of paper. "You guys been drinking tonight? You take anything?"

Loki frowned, not entirely understanding the question. "No," he said.

The man nodded again, and kept writing. "Okay. You think you could tell me your name?"

"No," Loki said, looking away. "We're done."

The man nodded patiently. "Okay. You just let anyone know if you need something."

He got up and took the paper to the woman at the desk, but Loki ignored what they said. He tried to get comfortable in the hard chair. He was beginning to feel tired, but didn't dare sleep where he was. Not where so many could spy on him and molest him. When it became clear that his week, mortal body would not let him push his limits like he was used to doing, he quietly got up and searched for a quiet place to try to sleep. This hospital was a place of healing, and he knew he'd find beds eventually. When he found an empty, dark room, he slipped inside and laid down on the strange, inclined bed. He expected it to be uncomfortable, but even sitting up as much as he was, he fell asleep almost instantly.

He went the entire night without being bothered, and it wasn't until shouting rang out in the corridor outside that he woke up. For a moment, Loki forgot about the horrors of the previous day, until he saw he was still in some strange, sterile room. The shouting outside grew louder, though, and soon he recognised Thor's grunts and growls amongst them as objects began crashing to the floor in the corridor. Leaping from bed, Loki rushed out to follow him, staying well behind him as he led a trail of destruction through the corridor and outside. Once out on the hard ground outside, Loki recognised the realm at once. Blue sky, single yellow sun.

Odin had banished them to Midgard. Groaning at the bad luck of it, Loki started to chase after Thor.

"Thor!" Loki shouted, catching up to him.

Thor turned around, and in that moment he was distracted, Jane Foster's car moved into him, knocking him to the ground. Unable to believe what he'd just seen, Loki covered his face and tried not to laugh as three familiar humans scrambled out and surrounded Thor.

"I swear I'm not doing this on purpose!" Jane shouted.

"Do it a few more times. It might knock some sense into him," Loki said, making the other three jump. When he saw the distrustful look on Erik's face, Loki pointed to Thor where he lay on the ground. "He's the one who caused the trouble. I was in bed."

"Loki," Thor growled as he started to come round again.

"I'm right here, trying not to be left behind while you lay waste to Midgard," Loki told him, kicking him lightly in the shoulder.

"Midgar?" Darcy asked, looking up at him. "Are you playing Final Fantasy?"

Erik clearly heard something else. He looked at Thor and Loki suspiciously, as Loki kicked Thor a few more times.

"Get up. You're causing a scene," Loki scolded.

"Do not kick me again," Thor warned.

Loki kicked him again.

Growling, Thor hauled himself to his feet, but Loki dodged out of the way before Thor could take a swing.

"Good. You're up," Loki said. He turned to the others, inclining his head slightly. "And thank you for your help. We'll be on our way now."

He grabbed Thor by the arm and started to pull him away, looking around them to be sure they weren't still being followed. It was only a matter of time before someone from inside the hospital tracked them outside, and Loki wanted to be gone before that happened.

"Wait!" Jane called after them suddenly. She looked at Erik strangely for a moment before following after Thor and Loki. "Wait. Uh. Come with us. Please."

"Jane," Erik said sternly.

Jane ignored him. "Some of this is kinda my fault, and well. I have some questions I'd really like to ask you. If you don't mind."

Loki looked over at Thor, and what he was wearing. He stood out against most of the other people Loki had seen during their brief time in the realm. As did Loki himself, he knew.

He knew the realm was Midgard, but it was not the Midgard he knew from childhood stories. Without his power, the humans would not treat them like the gods they were.

"I think that might be best, actually," he decided, giving Thor a tug back toward Jane's car. "Come on, brother."

Thor continued to glower and glare, but he let himself be led back to the others, and climbed into the back of the large machine. The girl, Darcy, was in back as well, sitting against the back of the seats and holding her weapon in both hands.

"Keep your hands to yourself," she warned.

Loki sat against the opposite wall. "Of course," he said. When Thor didn't respond, Loki elbowed him in the side.

"As you wish," he said lowly.

It did little to assure Darcy, but they had little else to offer her in this matter.

hr

Jane unlocked the old dealership she'd been leasing as a lab, but Thor and Loki were strangely hesitant to step inside. Loki actually stopped to examine the threshold before crossing it. Thor seemed to be trying to hide his own apprehension and confusion by holding his arms out at his sides to seem even bigger than he was. And they were both big already, though Thor was a little wider than his brother; both tall and built like they spent time in the gym.

"Jane, are you sure about this?" Erik whispered quietly. "You don't know who these people are. They could be dangerous."

Jane sighed. "Look at them," she said, pointing to them as they both curiously examined everything from a distance. "They fell out of whatever that was out there. I'm telling you. They're not from this world."

"Maybe they're from a cult," Darcy said as she found a nearby chair to sit in.

"What?" Jane asked.

Darcy shrugged. "He said they were abandoned. Not that they crash landed. They probably got thrown out of like, some weird Amish cult or something."

"There aren't any Amish in New Mexico," Jane argued.

Darcy shrugged again. "Or something," she repeated.

Shaking her head, Jane stepped away from Darcy and Erik and approached Thor and Loki.

"Do you guys... need anything? Can I get you something?" she offered, feeling strangely helpless.

"I would actually like to bathe," Loki said, looking up from the iPod he'd been examining.

"Yeah, uh," Jane said, trying to figure out how to answer that request. "There's not really a place for that. Right here. We have to go somewhere else, usually. I can get you guys some clean clothes, though?"

Loki looked over to Thor and nodded. "That will suffice," he said.

"Okay," Jane said, stepping away. "I'll just. Be right back."

She shrugged at Erik as she passed him to go outside to her trailer, which aside from the hotel room Darcy's student loans were paying for, was the only place to shower. Somehow, Jane didn't think letting them shower in her trailer would be the best thing to do. But she knew she still had some of Don's old stuff, from when he used to visit her out in the field. Some of it might even fit the two very strange men who had fallen into her life. She dug around in the cupboards beneath the bed, eventually finding the crate of Don's stuff. T-shirts and jeans, mostly, but they were clean. Rather than trying to dig through it, Jane pulled the entire crate out and took it back inside. Nothing terrible had happened in her absence, and with the brothers slowly making their way toward the back of the large room, Darcy and Erik seemed to be relaxing a little.

"Here we go," Jane said, putting the crate down on an empty patch of table. "I don't know. Uh. Find something that fits you. You can change in the restroom over there." She pointed to the wooden door, leading to the tiny restroom.

Thor got to the crate first, digging through it almost greedily. When Loki joined him, he picked through almost methodically, pulling out a pair of jeans and looking at them like he'd never seen them before. While they continued to look, Jane walked back to Erik and stood beside him.

"I'm telling you. I am on to something here," Jane said quietly.

"I sure hope you know what you're doing," Erik told her.

Jane sighed, not wanting to admit that she didn't, really. But she knew she was right. These people weren't from any cult. They probably were abandoned, but what Jane saw out there in the desert had something to do with it, and she knew it.

Eventually, Thor and Loki both wandered back to the restroom, talking too quietly for Jane to hear from the other side of the room.

"Probably getting their story straight," Erik said grimly.

"I just want to ask them a few questions, and then we'll send them on their way," Jane said. "Promise. And I did kind of hit one of them with my car a couple of times. I think we at least owe them something for that."

"You may be right about that, but it still doesn't mean I like it," Erik said.

The restroom door opened suddenly, and Loki stepped out, wearing nothing at all. He started to say something, but it was lost in everyone else crying out in surprise. Erik quickly rushed over, grabbed the jeans from Loki's hand, and used them to cover him up.

"What the hell are you doing?" he demanded.

Loki looked around, seeming just as startled as the rest of them. "There's a basin in here. I wondered if I might be able to shave," he said slowly.

"Yeah, fine. Whatever. Just get dressed first," Erik told him, keeping himself between Loki and the rest of the room.

Loki looked around for a moment, and nodded slowly. "I see. My apologies," he said before stepping back into the restroom and closing the door behind him.

"See, this is what I'm talking about," Erik hissed as he returned to Jane.

"Maybe he didn't know any better," Jane defended.

"Yeah, maybe nudity is all right in their cult," Darcy chimed in. She was still leaning over in her seat, as if hoping to get a second glance at one of them.

Jane knew Thor and Loki weren't from any cult, and sighed. "Thank you," she said anyway.

"What?" Darcy asked. "I can look."

Shaking his head angrily, Erik walked over to his luggage still under one of the tables, and began to dig through his bags. Coming up with his electric shaver, he put it on the table and stepped away again. When Loki came out a few moments later, he was at least clothed in the jeans and a small hoodie, although he seemed to move uncomfortably now, but like he was trying to hide it. He looked at the nearest table, walking right past Erik's electric razor, frowning.

"It's right there," Erik told him, moving no closer.

Loki turned back and looked over the clutter again. "Where?" he asked.

Erik looked at Jane in a mix of impatience and confusion, before walking back to Loki and picking up the shaver. "Here," he said, handing it over.

Loki looked at it, turning it over in his hands to examine it. When he found the switch on the side and turned it on, he jumped sharply, as if not expecting what happened. Unable to help feeling just a little smug over someone not knowing what an electric razor was, Jane glanced over to Darcy. Darcy looked over at Jane, raising her eyebrows knowingly. One of them was right, and even Jane was starting to feel the smallest hint of doubt in her own conclusions. But it was small enough that she still thought her theory was right.

Loki hummed as he turned the shaver off, turned it over in his hands once more, and shrugged. "Thank you," he said to Erik, an uncertain edge to his voice.

"You're welcome," Erik responded stiffly.

While Loki shaved, Thor came back out and resumed his examination of the table clutter, ignoring the others in the room. Every now and then, he'd turn back to glance cautiously at Loki, but said nothing.

"Uh. Hi," Darcy said, as Thor inched closer to her.

He looked up at her, and nodded curtly. "Hello," he said.

Darcy watched him as he moved past, picking up and touching everything that wasn't nailed down. Jane wanted to rush over and tell him to stop, but she felt vaguely out numbered, and was beginning to pick up on Erik's nervousness.

As Thor touched everything in the lab, Loki came back out to the open area, looking vaguely displeased. He handed the shaver back to Erik with a nod. "It will do," he said.

Erik looked down at the item in his hand. "Good," he said.

Loki cast a glance over to Jane, and walked quickly to Thor, pulling him to the far end of the room. He talked quietly, so the others couldn't hear them, making Jane want to step closer.

"Jane," Erik warned, pulling her back before she even realised she'd started to move.

"What?" Jane asked. "They're fine. They haven't done anything. Look at them." She looked over at them again, and was surprised to see that they looked like they'd started to argue about something.

"You sure about that?" asked Erik.

Thor stepped close into Loki's space, forcing him to either back up or get stepped on. "Yeah," Jane said, knowing she wasn't.

"You're too paranoid," Thor said loudly enough for her to hear, and for a second she thought he'd overheard them. "What can these people do to us?" He stepped into Loki's space once again, forcing him to once again step back.

"You tell them nothing," Loki hissed at him, obviously not realising their argument had got louder. "They don't need to know any of it. We'll stay here, wait until Father calms down, or Mother makes him change his mind, and we'll go home and put this all behind us. But until then, you do as I say."

Thor was starting to look pissed, and he was the sort of guy who was scary when he was angry, Jane saw. She took a small step back, crowding Erik a bit and wondering how to calm the situation down without getting between it.

"Listening to you is what got us here in the first place, Loki," Thor said. This time, when he stepped forward, Loki held his ground. He looked even scarier when he was angry.

"I told you not to go to Jotunheim!" Loki said, properly shouting now, as if their audience had been forgotten.

"You did no such thing!" Thor shouted back.

Loki threw his hands into the air and shook his head. "It's not my fault you never listen to me!" he said.

Suddenly, Thor stepped back and swung out, punching Loki right in the middle of the face. Loki stumbled back and fell over, which Thor seemed strangely surprised about. Gasping, Jane broke away from Erik and rushed over, afraid she'd find Loki dead on the floor. But he was already pulling himself up to his elbows, looking dazed and disorientated.

"What the hell was that?" he said, sitting up and covering his face with both hands.

Jane crouched down beside Loki and looked up at Thor in shock. He seemed at equal parts satisfied and worried, but Jane didn't want to get into it. As Erik rushed over to herd Thor away, Jane turned her attention back to Loki and tried to inspect the damage.

"Let me see," she said, gently tugging his hands away from his face.

After a moment's protest, Loki gave in for the most part, though he still kept poking at the already blossoming bruise around his left eye.

"What was that all about?" Jane demanded.

"Nothing," Loki said flatly.

"No, that was definitely something," Jane argued.

Loki didn't respond. After a moment, he got to his feet, swaying unsteadily, and seeming surprised about it. Not wanting him to fall over and hurt himself even more, Jane steered him toward the old sofa nearby.

"Why don't you sit down," she said, hoping he stayed there. "I'll get you some ice or something."

Loki started to protest, but Jane rushed into the old break room before he got more than a few syllables out. The break room had come with a fridge and a microwave, and after using the building in the winters for the last few years, Jane had managed to get a few more appliances installed. But right now, all she cared about was what was in the freezer. She grabbed a few ice cubes out of the ice machine's tray and put them into a towel that was on the nearby counter. By the time she went back out to the main area, Thor had broken away from Erik, and was sitting next to Loki, their argument already forgotten. She could see Thor asking Loki something quietly, but Loki only answered with a confused shrug.

"Here," she said, handing Loki the impromptu ice pack. "It should keep the swelling down, at least."

Loki took it with confusion, and didn't press it to his face until Jane moved his hand up for him. He immediately pulled it away again, looking at it as if it had bitten him.

"I think I'm fine, thank you," he said, handing the ice back.

Jane no longer knew what was going on, and took the ice pack without protest. "Uh. So. What the hell was that all about?" she asked, not sure what else to say.

"It was nothing," Thor said, sounding as if he was being coached. "We require sustenance."

Jane tried to follow that logic leap, and failed. "You hit him because you're hungry?" she asked.

When neither of them responded, she shook her head and went to go throw the ice into the break room sink. For a moment, she thought about trying to feed them from what they had there in the cupboards, but suddenly, she felt she might be safer in public. Maybe they'd be less inclined to throw punches with more people around.

"I think we could all use some breakfast," she said as she walked back out of the break room and found her handbag.

"Yeah, I'm pretty starving too," Darcy agreed.

Jane cast a pleading glance over to Erik, and wasn't at all surprised when he nodded.

hr

Loki had been surprised when Thor laid him out so easily, but even more surprising was the pain refusing to go away. He'd been punched by Thor before, and was always able to give as good as he got. But this new body was mortal, and had all the weaknesses mortal bodies had. Including, it seemed, the inability to take a punch.

While Thor ate a stack of fried cakes, Loki went for a meal that was a little more familiar. Bacon, sausage, ham, eggs; all piled high on his plate. The meat was salty and greasy, and the eggs fluffy and warm, in a way that was both familiar and completely alien.

He ignored the others while they talked about nothing, focusing instead on trying to figure out the best thing to do while they waited for Odin to change his mind and let them back into Asgard. But Loki had also been there for that conversation, and knew Thor would not be patient. Thor would want to fight his way back into Asgard, in any sense of it, screaming war cries all the way. But Loki knew screaming and fighting wasn't what Odin would value right now. It was what had got them into trouble in the first place.

For the moment, Thor had calmed down, and was even behaving almost playfully with the mortals. He even decided to show off, and smashed his cup to the floor, which went entirely unappreciated. Loki watched him casting about in confusion, and learned an important lesson.

Throwing one's dishes was not a sign of respect in this realm. Wrong as it seemed, Loki made a note to keep that in mind.

In the midst of Thor's rebuking, two more mortals let themselves into the dining hall and began talking loudly about craters and satellite crashes. At once, both Thor and Loki perked up, knowing that whatever these men thought they had found, they might have found their way home. Thor jumped up from his seat to get the location of the hammer, while Loki was already halfway out the door. Their mortal companions scrambled about in confusion, not catching back up with them until they were out at the corner.

"Fifty miles; that's a long distance in these bodies," Loki reminded Thor quietly.

Thor nodded in agreement as Jane rushed up to them.

"You own a satellite now?" she asked,

Thor started to answer, but Loki elbowed him hard in the ribs.

"I-No," he said. "But we need to get there and reclaim it all the same."

Loki shook his head, wishing Thor would shut up. "We must be going now," he said, before Thor could say anything more. "Thank you."

He turned to leave the mortals behind, and took Thor with him. He could hear the humans talking quietly behind them, but ignored it.

"We could have got a ride in her cart," Thor argued.

"No," Loki said with finality. "The more time we spend with them, the more they'll know what they shouldn't."

"What does it hurt?" asked Thor, either stupidly or being deliberately obtuse. Loki hadn't the patience for it either way.

"Look around you!" he said, stopping to gesture at the town around them. "Does this realm look like it knows anything of us? Like it needs to? Have you listened to nothing you've been told about Midgard?"

Thor shifted uncomfortably, looking around them to see what Loki saw. Loki could see him remembering, slowly and painfully, all the lessons they'd been taught of the realms. Of this realm in particular.

"Humans kill their gods," Thor recited.

"And look at us, Thor. We're not exactly fit to defend ourselves should they send a mob after us," Loki pointed out. He pulled on the hem of the hooded tunic he was wearing, reminding Thor where they were and what had happened to them.

Thor frowned and nodded. "Aye," he agreed bitterly.

Tugging Thor along by the arm again, Loki started to stalk down the street. "Let's go. There should be horses around here somewhere."

They walked through the town, finding nothing resembling stables. There were shops and places to repair their moving carts, inns and dining halls, but nowhere to rent or purchase a horse.

"What's that?" Thor said eventually, pointing to a shop that sold animals.

Loki followed Thor's reasoning. If they sold small animals, they may know where to find the larger ones. They quickly walked down the road to the shop, and stepping inside found it full of small pups, tanks of brightly-coloured fish too small to eat, and noisy, shrieking birds.

"We need horses," Thor declared, to the consternation of the man behind the counter. When it became clear that the man wouldn't be able to help them, Loki stepped back outside, and was surprised to see Jane waiting for them in her machine.

"Do you guys need a lift?" she asked, sounding strangely desperate.

Loki turned to see Thor stepping outside as well, and knowing they were out of options unless they wanted to spend several days walking through the desert, he shrugged.

"I suppose we do," he said with resignation.

She was obviously there without the permission or approval of her father, and sat nervously as she took them across the desert. It was long minutes before any of them spoke.

"I've never done anything like this before," Jane said, breaking the silence. "Have you ever done anything like this before?"

Thor chuckled. "Many times," he said.

"Thor," Loki warned from the seat behind him. He could see Thor nod grumpily, but at that moment, he didn't care about his brother's mood.

"Okay, so what's the deal with that?" Jane asked impatiently. "What aren't you letting him say?"

"Our business is our own," Loki told her flatly.

"Because you were inside that event?" asked Jane. "What, is it some sort of conspiracy we're not supposed to know about?"

"Our business is our own," Loki repeated.

Jane sighed in frustration, but stopped arguing.

The desert they rode through was expansive, bordered on all sides by mountains. They searched for something that might have looked like a landing site, going off of only the vague directions given to them by the locals. Eventually, as the sun was beginning to descend, they found what they seemed to be looking for, down in a small valley below. Loki had expected Jane to leave them in the desert, but instead, she stopped her machine and got out with them. The three of them walked to a raised hill before the valley slope, looking down in the fading light at the hastily built tents and shacks surrounding the large crater. There, they stayed, waiting patiently for the light to fade completely, before going in under the cover of darkness.

"Wait, where are you guys going?" Jane said, reaching out to stop them as they started to get up.

"To retrieve what is mine," Thor said.

Jane gaped at him wordlessly, watching as he and Loki got up and made their way down the hill, quickly and silently. Even with their mortal bodies, they still had all the training of Asgardian warriors, and knew how to move efficiently. By the time they reached a flimsy metal fence at the bottom, rain had begun to fall from a sky that had previously been clear and cloudless, telling them they were on the right track. Mjolnir would be waiting for them, right in the middle of the humans' fortifications.

Loki had expected a fight once they broke in, but he expected the humans to also be weak and pathetic. But these men were strong, and fast, and carried metal weapons with them that Loki knew to avoid. This sort of tactic, to rush in and punch everything that moved suited Thor, and he threw his weight into every swing. If Loki were in his proper self, with the speed and strength he knew was his, he knew this fight would be nothing. But he was slower, and his fists carried less weight. He could see the same in Thor, even if Thor himself didn't.

Together, the two of them fought through the soldiers being sent after them, with Thor rushing in without thought, and Loki forgetting again and again that he couldn't just appear and disappear to confuse the enemy. Eventually, he took advantage of Thor deciding to take on four men at once, and managed to slip ahead, into the white corridors that circled the crater. Loki looked around, picking directions at random until he found what they were looking for. There, in the centre, stuck in the mud and the rocks stood Mjolnir, gleaming uru metal in the pouring rain.

Thor broke through in the next moment, tearing one of the walls out of his way and coming in from the other side. He jumped down to the ground and strode purposefully to Mjolnir, grabbing her haft to lift her.

But the hammer stayed right where it was, in the mud and rock, as if it were a part of the earth. Seeing Thor straining to even move her, Loki jumped down as well, hoping to see whatever magic or trickery held her in place.

He realised it the same moment Thor did; saw the spell in the metal and knew what it meant. Thor screamed to the heavens as Loki fell to his knees in the mud, staring at the hammer and everything it represented.

When the men of Midgard came to put them in chains and drag them away, neither of them resisted.