Author's Notes:

Chapter 19

Jane knelt nervously before the Allfather, trying to process his words. It didn't seem possible. Could he really have just offered her what she wanted?

"You have heard of the Tesseract?" He asked, seeing her perplexed expression.

"I've heard of it but...not in detail." She replied.

"It is one of the great infinity stones, a sister to the Aether that infected your lifeforce. It is extremely powerful." Odin explained. "It was the power source we used to restore the bridge after it's reapir and part of its power still links to the bifrost. Unfortunately the cube is somewhat sentient, that makes it extremely dangerous and it can only be wielded properly, by those of great strength. If it remains connected to the bifrost, then it will eventually corrupt its users with its power."

"You mean Heimdall or the people who travel on it?" She frowned.

"Potentially all those who come into contact with it, certainly our Gatekeeper is at greater risk as he himself already holds a great power. The two combined could be disastrous in time. The Tesseract cannot be held by Mortal hands, your new status should provide you with the ability to touch it without it harming you physically. However, it's magic may still affect your mind so proceed with caution." The King agreed. "I would charge you to research the workings of the bridge and find a way to separate the Tesseract from it while still allowing it to work." She froze, unable to reply. He had said it, actually offered her a job doing exactly what she wanted. "Unless you'd rather work in the kitchens of course?" He added with an almost invisible smirk.

"No! Of course, I'd be honoured research the bridge." She said quickly.

"A word of warning Jane Foster, my son may know a great deal about the Tesseract and of travelling realms but he is forbidden to enter the room of relics. The risk of him being tempted into its web of power is too great. Few will be allowed access to it, you must respect my command on this or you will be tried and punished, in a way fitting of the laws of Asgard. Do you understand?"

"I understand Sir." She said, swallowing the fear that tightened in her chest.

"Good, we welcome you as a ward of Asgard, you may go. Tomorrow you will be escorted to the room of relics, beneath the palace, to begin your research." The King nodded.

"Thank you." She nodded. Thor offered her a hand to help her to her feet, which she took gratefully.

"I will walk you to your room." He offered. Jane nodded, as he slid her arm through his and guided her from the throne room. She found herself grateful for balance as they reached the corridors.

"Did that just happen?" she asked him.

"I believe it did, yes." He nodded with a smile.

"I can continue my work, from Earth but here!" she said excitedly. "I wish I had my equipment, I don't even know where to start…there's so much to think through."

"I am certain you will find a solution." He told her confidently. "Heimdall says that you perhaps know more about our own bifrost than anyone here."

"That is a huge exaggeration, I have more interest in it than most but I'm sure you have your own experts. Heimdall was very kind to let me question him so much about it." She replied. "Honestly, I was beginning to think that String theory, interstellar travel…wormholes…were just science fiction after all. I was beginning to lose hope, when you landed in front of my car. Wait, Heimdall…he said something to your father about me?"

"He may have mentioned, that it would be a shame not to at least attempt putting your knowledge to use. My father wanted to send you to the Healers but he has conceded that this is worth trying first, especially given how new you are to using magic." Thor nodded. Jane's insides fluttered at the thought of someone thinking so highly of her. The outwardly serious Gatekeeper certainly knew how to make a girl happy, or a scientist at least. He had been partially responsible for her now having the chance of a lifetime. "I must ask you Jane, can you handle this? Do you think that you can work so closely with the tesseract and not fall prey to its darkness?" Thor asked her seriously, taking hold of both of her hands.

"I don't know, I won't know until I've seen it." She admitted.

"I implore you not to keep this from my brother." He said, staring down the hall. "He has had many things kept from him but he trusts you I think, I fear what may become of him should another person betray his trust."

"I…I'll tell him." She nodded, not convinced that it was a good idea. She had to admit though, that it would be helpful to get the input of someone who had used the tesseract already and Loki obviously knew something about travelling between realms also. Not to mention that Thor was the second person today that had been so foreboding about Loki's actions should he be upset in future.

"Good, never doubt yourself Jane." He said turning back to look at her. "I truly believe that you are doing him some good. Goodnight."

Jane sat in her rooms for a while thinking over her position. She was about to have access to something huge, not to mention the fact that the bifrost was essentially a working wormhole. Though granted it seemed like her role was more to do with the Tesseract and separating it's power from the now working bridge. It was still fascinating.

All her scientific career, her theories had been held back by a few major flaws in interstellar wormhole travel. Firstly, the stability of a wormhole was unlikely, a wormhole would likely collapse in on itself at random, making use of them for travel dangerous. Secondly, it was extremely likely that anything entering a wormhole would simply be torn apart by the sheer gravitational force. Not to mention the risks of travelling without knowing an exact location and the fact that it was theorised to be almost as likely to end up traveling through time as it was space.

Asgard had a working Einstein-Rosen bridge. It existed so it was possible. They seemed to be able to choose destinations and it was stable. To her knowledge it had never collapsed on anyone. It was a working model and she was allowed access to it. Her chest tightened suddenly, what if she broke it?

Then there was the Tesseract, the cube that had wrought so much destruction on earth, both from Loki and those before him. The cube that had turned mortals to ash by touching it...part of her was terrified that despite her mutated state, she would still be harmed by the Tesseract. Clearly Odin didn't have the same concerns since if it killed her, it would also kill his son...not to mention angering Thor. It was thrilling and terrifying. If she spoke to Loki about it, would he tell her anything? After all, he had a habit of not giving her answers unless he felt like it. She decided that there was only one way to find out.

Deciding not to put off the inevitable, Jane went in search of Loki. She checked the library first, as she seemed to have a habit for running into him there and then wandered the gardens but found no sign of him. Typical that the one time she actually wanted to find him, he was nowhere to be found.

Unfortunately she had no clue which room was his and didn't really think it appropriate to start knocking random doors this late. Then again, in Asgard was it appropriate to visit a man's room at all? She wasn't sure.

Jane stood by the palace steps, looking out over the gardens and the city. She wondered if it was worth continuing her search tonight or if she would fare better by trying to find him in the morning. She paused when she felt a lurch in her chest, a spasm that stole her breath in an instant and then faded away. Her hand flew to press against her ribcage, which still ached from the strange tightening feeling a moment ago. Her heart rate was normal, her breathing was normal now...she hadn't even been walking fast, so she hadn't been under physical strain. It was odd. She was about to write it off as nothing, when she saw a lone figure in the distance, sat at the edge of the shores.

Jane's eyes widened, remembering how Loki had appeared in her room after she had cut her arm. Was he hurt? She made her way over to the shores as quickly as she could in the gown she wore.

"What are you doing here?" His voice asked, before she got close. He had known that someone was there without turning and he had known it was her without her speaking. She wondered if that was because of his magic. Then again, Loki was perfectly able to make someone think he was sat here, when in fact he could have been sat cloaked several meters away and perfectly able to see all who approached him.

"I was looking for you." She replied, moving closer. He sat on the ground, looking out at the water; never turning to look at her, as she came to sit on the rocks beside him.

"Well you found me? What is it you want?" He asked.

Jane focused on his tone of voice, closed off and controlled...something was wrong.

"I wanted to talk to you but it can wait." She replied, glancing out at the water with him. The last time she had been here, it had been watching many boats leave the shores and many lights fill the skies. Frigga's funeral…and Loki hadn't been there. She suddenly felt like an idiot for intruding. That was what the strange feeling had been, it had been him...he was mourning his mother. "Would you like me to leave?"

"If that is what you wish." He replied. Jane translated that to mean; you can stay but I'm not going to admit that to you.

"It's beautiful here." She said softly, wrapping her arms around herself against the breeze. After a moment of hesitation, she shuffled closer to him and leant against his side, offering some form of silent support while still allowing him to ignore her if he chose. They sat in silence for a while before he spoke again.

"What did you want to talk about?" he asked her, finally turning to look at her. She shook her head and shuffled to get more comfortable against him. Loki wouldn't accept comfort from her, not out in the open like this for certain but hopefully being right here beside him could offer him something, remind him that he didn't need to be alone it he didn't want to be. Besides, if anyone did see them, it could be passed off as her feeling the cold like the weak Midgardian she was.

"It can wait Loki." She said softly.

"Was it beautiful?" he asked after a few moments of silence, staring back out at the water.

"One of the most heart breaking and beautiful things I've ever seen." She replied honestly. "I am sorry that you didn't see it." She felt him tense next to her but he said nothing. She carefully slid her arm across the leather of his coat until her hand reached his. "I wish I could show you what it was like through my eyes."

"You can actually but I'm not ready to see it." Silence fell between them again until Jane decided to press her luck with his seemingly open mood.

"Why do you think she wanted us to meet?" She heard him sigh. She could practically hear his brain working and wondered if she would get an answer, if she did would it be a lie again or the truth?

"I don't know." He said, she tried to swallow her disappointment. "Not for certain. But what I do know is that my mother sometimes saw things, things that will come to pass, things that won't, things that might. Potential futures, waiting to be set aside or carved into stone with the passage of time."

"You think she saw this happening." Jane guessed.

"I believe she saw something." He nodded. "It made me wonder if she even gave her life for it but she would have defended the Aether either way, anything to keep it from the Malekeith's clutches." Jane didn't really know what to say to that.

"Well…it's not like anyone else knows what's going on either." She sighed. "I can honestly say it's been a weird few years for me, randomly getting super powers notwithstanding."

"You think your meagre abilities count as super powers?" he snorted.

"The power itself does, it just doesn't seem to come with a user manual." She laughed, shivering slightly from the wind. "Super strength would have been so much easier."

"But then you wouldn't be able to do this." He murmured, offering her a plain black cloak that he had seemingly pulled from nowhere. "Oh wait, you still can't do that can you?"

"If your stupid magic came with a manual I could." She muttered, releasing his hand to elbow him in the side with a laugh. She took the cloak gratefully and wrapped it around her shoulders, she sighed in relief at the protection from the cold air.

"I would suggest the archives but I fear you would never return." He chuckled before pulling a thoughtful face. "Perhaps you should go there after all."

"Hey, just because you- Wait! There are archives?" she asked in shock.

"Of course." He scoffed. "Far larger than a mere library. An entire building the size of half the palace; dedicated to knowledge, filled to the brim with scrolls, charts and books."

"Why didn't you mention this when I was tearing my way through every book in the palace library?" she demanded. He turned and lowered his head closer to hers with a smug smile crossing his lips.

"You didn't ask." He said. She huffed to herself, remembering that day they had argued over her training, when she had told him the reason he hadn't known was because he didn't ask. She had a feeling that would now be Loki's answer to everything she didn't ask. She supposed that it was a good job that she asked a lot of questions.

Jane gaped at the walls before her. This was the archive building that no one had thought to mention in all her time here? The walls of books and papers dwarfed that of the library. Tables filled the centre of the room in a large circle, upon them more papers and books left haphazardly.

"There has to be something useful in here." She breathed.

"Nothing I've found so far." Loki shrugged, "I've been searching here for weeks now. Still, I suppose there are enough books in here that it would take decades to read them all, even for me. There may yet be something useful. Of course you will only be able to read a small portion of them, unable to read any languages but your own."

"I read German." She said defensively, lifting a handful of books from the nearest shelf to begin looking at. He just laughed in response and waved a hand towards the table closest to them. The books on it lifted and sailed through the air around them, all making their way back to their places on the shelves. "Show off."

Jane reached for the chair and pulled it out, only to let out an undignified squeal as the chair burst into flames. She snatched her hands away and leapt back.

"I didn't do anything!" She spluttered out in panic, glancing at her hands as if she expected them to ignite at any moment. She stopped panicking when she saw the mirth in Loki's face.

"Just a bit of fun." He said innocently, the flames vanishing with the slightest motion of his fingers. "You did just accuse me of showing off, I thought I'd prove you right." At that Jane couldn't help but laugh as he then pulled the chair out for her. "Safe this time I swear." She sat down and glanced back at him, something about his face seemed…brighter than usual. She had never seen him looking almost happy before. Amused, angry, hurt, jealous but never with an unguarded expression of happiness.

"Is this you?" she asked curiously.

"I'm afraid I don't follow." He replied, his brow furrowing.

"The practical jokes? Is that what you're like when you're not trying to take over planets?" she grinned. He moved to sit in the chair next to hers and looked thoughtful for a moment.

"I suppose it is." He replied carefully. Loki was surprised when her face lit up with a huge genuine smile.

"Do you think there any books here on the Tesseract?" She asked suddenly.

"Why?" he frowned.

"That's why I was looking for you yesterday." She told him, already skimming through the contents of the book in front of her. "My job...yo- the King, he asked me to find a way to unlink the Tesseract's power from the bifrost."

"He asked you to work with it?" He asked in disbelief.

"His words were that he charged me to." She commented, then she grinned up at him. "Oh and he specifically said that you are still forbidden from getting near it."

"Hardly a shock." He murmured. "So why did you need to tell me this?"

"How about because it's not a secret? Because it's apparently more on the magical scale of things than the scientific and I don't do well with magic?" She said cheekily. "Besides, you used it. You used it for the wrong reasons but you still used it and successfully opened a wormhole into deep space."

"The void." He said absently.

"Yes, the void. You used it, now I'm being asked to study it. Why wouldn't I ask you about it?" she counted.

"Because Jane, I am me." He snorted. "Then again that seems to mean little to you, you don't much care who you interrogate as long as you get your answers. Even Odin himself."

"Well...I try not to do that. Now that I'm sort of a refugee stranded here, I'm trying to avoid being sent to the dungeons." She said biting her lip.

"I'm sure Thor wouldn't allow that." He said, Jane couldn't help but think how insincere he sounded. Loki's finger pressed to his lips in thought for a moment before he continued. "I'm sure he could convince Odin to release you, or I suppose I could just stage an escape…though that would probably require hiding on another realm for a decade or two for his temper to calm down before returning."

"I'd far rather a life on the run, I think my brain would melt away if I were stuck in a cell for any length of time." She sighed. "He seems to think that it won't vaporise me on the spot now that I'm not an ordinary human but...how dangerous is the Tesseract?"

"Very."

"Thor is worried it will try to control me." She said, closing her book to focus her attention on the man next to her.

"It can't control you, it doesn't have that power." He explained. "But power corrupts well enough all on its own. Judging from your difficulties controlling your own magic, I would say that touching it unless absolutely necessary would be most unwise mortal or otherwise." Jane couldn't really say she could argue with that assessment.

"Is it really limitless?" she asked instead.

"Nothing is truly limitless but for the purposes you mean the word will serve." He agreed.

"He could have asked you, couldn't he?" She asked, looking away from him. "He may have used it to reactivate the bifrost but he didn't know how to wield it properly. You know don't you?"

"I do." He nodded.

"Are you going to help me?"

"Perhaps, although I think you may like to puzzle it over for yourself first. Satisfaction lasts that much longer when you achieve it yourself." He said, summoning a book from the shelf. It flew easily towards him and he caught it without effort. "Although if it is information on the tesseract you are after, the books you require will be over there." Jane followed the gesture of his hand to the wall on their right. She frowned, he hadn't really narrowed it down considering that the bookcase was around there times her height.

Half an hour later Jane let out a huff and dropped her head to the table in defeat.

"Right, so as far as I can gather the bifost is a self-sustaining wormhole that can be activated at will to open gateways between nine different universes at least. The bifrost was destroyed-"

"By my Oaf of a brother, yes, you forget, I was there." He drawled.

"Let me finish." She huffed. "So anyway, you guys were able to repair the physical aspect of the bridge but to get it running it needed power, like jumpstarting a car battery. So Odin used the Tesseract to jump start it but once it was running it no longer needed it to run. But...the Tesseract is dangerous to wield and can only be used by incredibly strong individuals. Not only that but...from the writing I've found on the Tesseract just so far it seems like it can protect itself. So it could be that it is literally protecting itself from being shut down and removed from the bridge."

"I'm impressed." He nodded. "Though that wasn't a question."

"So, if it protects itself from being shut down, how did the Avengers close the portal in New York?" She asked him. Watching her eyes alight with interest and the grin on her face, he couldn't help but find her enthusiasm somewhat contagious.

"When you have the answer to that question, you'll have your solution."

"You know how they did it."

"I know how they did it." He agreed.