Another boom, and a far more violent shudder. Voices rose in alarm and the Allfather motioned to his guards. "Find out what is happening!" he said.

The prisoner's head was thrown back, veins stood out on his neck as he strained against his bonds. There was a green tinge to his skin and his eyes were wild.

"What is happening?"

Through the gag the gathered asgardians could hear his mewls of pain — restricted, contained, and somehow more gut wrenching for it. The skin on his wrists began to chafe against the metal of his chains and he fell to his knees.

"He is unwell!" Thor made to leap forward, but the brown hand of Hogun stopped him.

"Ware, Thor. This is more of Loki's trickery."

"Have you no heart?" Frigga's voice cut through the mutterings, and the queen of Asgard knelt next to the man whom everyone had thought to be her son. "He is hurting. Remove the gag."

"Your majesty…"

"Oh for the sake of all that is holy…" She reached up herself and snapped the cord on the gag, then unlatched the chains from his dais. Loki crumpled to the floor, and Frigga went with him, cradling his head in her hands and staring into eyes that were wide with fear and pain.

He gasped. "Mother…"

"Loki…."

"The Chitauri…"

She brushed hair from his forehead and cupped his cheek in her hand. "They cannot come to you here, Loki. Do not fear."

"'Tis too late," he said. "They are already upon us."

Fandral drew his sword. "What further treachery, Loki?"

Loki snarled at him. "Fool! They do not come to attack you, nor to they come to free me," spittle flew from the accused's lips and he moved his gaze from Fandral to his brother. His back arched with another wave of pain and he held his manacled hands to his head. "They come to claim me," he said when the fit had passed, head bowed almost to the floor. Thor had to lean close to hear his next words at all. "Did you not hear me? I failed."

Thor was the only person present who had seen the Chitauri in action. He locked eyes with his brother for a long moment. "We must prepare to fight," he said finally. "Take Loki to his cell."

"No!" Loki said. "If you hand me to them, they will leave you be. They are not fools enough to challenge you, weakened as they are."

Thor's mouth twisted into an incredulous line. "Brother you outdo yourself. Do you take us all for fools? They will free you."

"Thor please." His voice throbbed with pain and remembered pain and Thor flinched, but Odin's eyebrow lifted and Thor remembered that moment, on Earth, in the chamber they had built to hold a monster as the glass of the cell door shut upon him.

Are you ever not going to fall for that?

Thor's jaw clenched and he shook his head. "No, Loki." He turned towards his father.

Odin was on his feet, looking at his sons. For a moment, Loki kept his gaze on Thor's back, but as his brother started giving orders to the soldiers around him he looked down and shook his head. "So be it," he said softly.

Thor's head whipped back around and he started forward, but he was distracted as the edge of the throne room shivered as the portal began to open. "Guard it!" Thor shouted. "Don't let Loki near it!". Wind whipped through the room, people were shouting and stumbling away from the abyss, but the guards were together enough to run to the portal and block it from the prisoner.

On the floor, Loki started to laugh.

Thor scowled down at him. "Brother, what have you done?" Loki shook his head and struggled to his feet. Frigga put one hand on his arm and he covered it with his own, squeezing it once, before firmly putting it aside. "I told the truth, Thor," he said, and shrugged. "I suppose that will count for something. Eventually." He smiled crookedly and stepped back from his mother. The room shook again, far more violently this time. "Last time this happened it left a crater several miles around," Loki said, one eyebrow lifting as he continued to step backwards. "You might want to consider clearing the building, it's what I'd do." He flexed his hands as though they pained him.

"The gag!" Sif shouted. "He gathers magic!"

Heimdall roared, lunging forward and drawing his sword, but Loki simply grinned and stepped aside.

"They will ask you where I have gone," he said, as Heimdall turned back, ponderous and slow for all his power. "Tell them…" he smiled again. "Tell them whatever you want." There was a twist in the air and Loki was suddenly gone, a low chuckle in the air and the tinkle of the chains that had bound him hitting the floor the only hint that he had even been present.

"Loki!" Thor's voice throbbed through the throne room, but Odin laid a hand on his arm.

"We have other things to worry about, my son," he said. The portal stuttered and snapped shut suddenly, leaving behind a single figure.

Of the people present, only Thor had seen the Chitauri, and he had only seen their warriors. The figure who knelt on the floor in front of them was no warrior. He was all angles and gaunt paleness, a frog of a thing. When he looked up, gasping, they saw he was masked, only a withered mouth lined with teeth visible.

Most who were present were happy they could see no more.

The guards lowered their spears until the visitor was ringed in gold. He made a small movement of his head as his breathing slowed, recovering from the stress of his journey.

"Where?" he croaked out.

Odin nodded to Thor, who strode forward, hefting Mjollnir in one hand.

"You are in the hall of Odin, in the realm of Asgard, Chitauri. As I suspect you well know."

A dry chuckle escaped the creature's mouth that turned into coughing. "….Indeed." He lifted his head and looked at the assembled. "He is gone, then?"

"Do you speak of Loki?"

The visitor's mouth curled in what looked like a sneer. "That was his name."

"Why do you seek him?"

"My master would have words with him."

"Loki is beyond your reach, Chitauri," Odin stepped forward and Thor moved aside.

The Chitauri chuckled again. "I think not," he said. "My master wishes to deliver a message to you, Asgardians." Strength seemed to be returning to the Chitauri, and he gained his feet, standing taller than they had expected, more proud.

Odin lifted an eyebrow. "Oh?"

The Chitauri nodded. "Hand over the failure for his punishment. Or suffer our wrath." There was a small silence as the Chitauri's words sunk in, then Thor threw back his head, and laughed.

The Chitauri's turned his gaze on him, hissing. "You dare mock me?"

"I have fought your people," Thor said, leaning forward. "Fought them and defeated them. Your army lies in tatters, your strength diminished." Thor spread his hands. "This is Asgard, not earth. You could not hope to threaten our might and yet you dare to come here and make demands?"

Odin held up his hand and Thor subsided.

"Do not presume to know our strength," the Chitauri said, looking from Thor to Odin and back. "The humans dealt a small blow against our armada. It can be rebuilt easily enough."

"Empty threats!" Volstagg shouted.

Hogun nodded. "If you are so strong, why not simply attack?"

The Chitauri hissed again as the throne room started to shake once more. Power gathered behind the visitor. "If you deliver Loki to us, we will be merciful. Should you keep him," the Chitauri shrugged and spread his hands, "it will not go well for you." He stepped backwards into the suddenly open portal. The guards moved to follow, but Odin shook his head.

"Let him be," he said. "He is a messenger only."

The portal snapped shut and the palace gave one final shudder. Odin stood staring at the place where the Chitauri had stood for a long moment, before turning on his heel and stalking from the room.

Thor was left in a rapidly dwindling circle of Asgardians. The hall emptied quickly, no one was willing to stay close to the source of so much magic and mayhem. Sif and the Warriors Three congregated near the site where the portal had appeared, while Thor stood, deep in thought, at the dais that had until recently held his brother.

He ran his fingers over the slots that had held his brother's chains. "Loki told us the truth," he said.

"He can't have expected us to believe him," Volstagg said. "Seriously. As though we would hand him to the Chitauri in exchange for peace!"

Hogun's face was its usual impassive mask, and his voice was low and soft. "Maybe that was the point. We went so far in our distrust of him that the only way he could gain his freedom was by counting on that distrust. Now he is free of the Chitauri and Asgardian justice." Hogun inclined his head. "It was well played."

"If he what he said about the Chitauri was true — and I have to say they didn't seem like the most polite of people — then perhaps he was innocent of treason after all." Fandral didn't look like he enjoyed that thought.

Thor glared at Fandral. "You were not there, Fandral," he said. "You did not see how many were killed."

"And yet Loki was right. Had it not been the Midgardians, had we gained the tesseract… Asgard would have been their target."

Thor shook his head, letting out a breath. "Loki may have manipulated our mistrust of him, but this could have been avoided if he had an ounce of trust for us."

Hogun didn't look convinced and Sif looked downright murderous.

"He should have died in the abyss," she said.

"He said he wished to," Thor said softly.

The friends left together, leaving the hall for clean up for the remaining guards and servants. As is customary when large groups of people gather, there was debris to be cleared and furniture to be straightened. It took some time for the hall to be made spotless, yet in that time, none of the servants or guards went near the dais that had held the prisoner.

Some time later, the advocate for the prosecution entered and made her way towards the dais that had held the prisoner. She stood, contemplative and silent. The dais had had to be constructed especially — never had a master magician of Loki's calibre been brought before Asgardian justice. They had done the job well. Or so they had thought.

Had someone been watching, it would have been impossible to read her thoughts as the advocate reached out one finger to touch the chains that had held him — the chains that he had freed himself from with barely a blink of effort. A small smile touched her lips

"Sigyn!" A guard entered, one of Odin's lesser emissaries. He nodded to her as she looked up. "Odin requests your presence."

"As you say," the advocate said, standing. She followed him from the room, leaving the chains and the dais as they were.

Loki would call her soon, and she must be ready