One Little Change

"HE'S NOT MY FATHER!"

"Then am I not your mother?"

Loki thought about that, and then replied, "You are my mother, but Odin does not deserve to be called Father by me after what he has put me through. You, however, will always be my mother."

Frigga smiled softly. "And you will always be my son," she said. Then the illusion of her faded.

~XXXX~

When Malekith and the Dark Elves attacked, Loki had a bad feeling that was centered around Frigga. He was quick to leave when a prisoner smashed into the controls of his cell, freeing him, and he ran for Frigga's chambers, picking up a sword someone had dropped on the way. He easily evaded the guards, and made it to Frigga's chambers.

Loki was both enraged and terrified when he found his mother in the clutches of Kurse, and shouted, "Stop!"

Malekith looked at him, amused. "And why should I?" he asked. "She will be dead before you reach her."

"Take me," Loki said, before he really knew what he was doing. "Kill me instead."

"I want the Aether," Malekith snarled. "I care not for the lives of you, nor Frigga."

Loki thought fast, and said, "A trade, then. If you give me Frigga, unharmed, I will tell you where the Aether is. You have my word."

"Loki-" Frigga started, but Loki shook his head.

Malekith looked amused, and motioned for Kurse to release Frigga. Loki immediately ran to her, catching her as she stumbled, then heard Malekith ask, "Where is the Aether?"

"Somewhere in Asgard, as it always has been," Loki replied, and teleported both himself and his mother out of there.

They landed in Loki's old room, and Frigga looked worried. "Loki, what about-" she started.

"Jane Foster? I will go get her and kill Malekith," Loki said. "Please stay safe."

"Loki-" Frigga said again.

"Please," Loki said, letting some of the emotion he was feeling show. "I do not want to lose you."

Frigga smiled, and Loki teleported back to her chambers just in time to see Malekith start to pull the Aether out of Jane Foster's body. Once it was all out, Loki struck, sending a spell at the Aether. It scattered before Malekith could absorb it, and Loki conjured a dagger, which he threw at Malekith before the Dark Elf leader could attempt to capture the Aether. Malekith dodged it, but that was all the distraction Loki needed to conjure a container and get the Aether's attention; it was currently flowing around looking for a new host. Loki knew he was powerful enough to catch its interest, and while throwing another dagger in Malekith's direction (and hitting him in the shoulder this time), Loki captured the Aether in the container, slammed the lid on, and sent it into a subspace before Malekith could get it back. Malekith howled in rage as Thor came running in, and glowered at Loki. "What?" Loki asked irritably. "The Aether is out of your mortal, Malekith is throwing a hissy fit because I got there first, AND I saved Mother's life, so why are you looking at me like that? Why not kill Malekith instead?"

Of course, Malekith chose that moment to order Kurse to attack Thor, so Loki was left to deal with Malekith, who was eyeing Jane. "Is she not too young for you?" Loki asked mildly. "I assure you, the Aether is no longer within her."

"Give me the Aether!" Malekith shrieked.

"I refuse," Loki said. "You are acting like a small child throwing a temper tantrum, and personally, I do not see the point in making the universe dark."

Malekith attacked him with a dagger- which appeared to be the one Loki had thrown into his shoulder. Loki smirked and conjured two daggers, then began fighting with one in each hand. He landed far more hits on Malekith than Malekith did on him, and soon the Dark Elf was cursing Loki out in several different languages. "Quite inventive," Loki said, smirking. He decided to put an end to their fight soon after, and slit Malekith's throat, then stabbed him through the heart and left him to die- which he did in short order as Loki went over to Jane Foster, who was trying and failing to hide behind a pillar. He grabbed her by the arm and teleported to his room again. Frigga wasn't in there anymore, so Loki set the mortal down and looked at her. She looked back, and asked, "Why did you save me?"

"Thor does not need the distraction while fighting that thing," Loki said. "If Kurse kills him, I will not get to."

"You're STILL hung up on killing Thor?" Jane asked. "Why not just let the weird elf guy take the Aether, by the way?"

"I am not fond of utter darkness, which is what we would have to deal with if Malekith got the Aether," Loki said.

Jane blinked. "You're afraid of the dark?" she asked.

"I am NOT afraid of it, I just do not like it!" Loki growled. "How would you like it if there was no light in the universe?"

"Point taken," Jane said- then went up to him and slapped him across the face.

"What was that for?" Loki asked, honestly puzzled.

"Trying to kill Thor in New Mexico," Jane said. "And putting Erik under mind control, and trying to take over my planet. You do realize Erik's completely lost his sanity thanks to you, right?"

"Sanity is overrated, but he was working with the Tesseract for so long that even if I hadn't come along, he would have gone insane someday anyways," Loki commented. "What is it with you mortals and sanity, by the way?"

"It's not all of us- I'm fairly certain Darcy is insane," Jane said.

"And you are not?" Loki asked, raising an eyebrow.

"I don't know," Jane replied. "Why are we even having this conversation?"

"Because otherwise you will go and touch something ELSE that will get you in trouble," Loki said. "And because I will not be held responsible for a Dark Elf killing you, therefore we are staying in here until Thor comes to find you."

Jane sighed. "Alright," she said. "So how exactly did Thor manage to break the Bifrost?"

"He smashed it with Mjolnir," Loki deadpanned. "Why, I do not know; I was trying to destroy Jotunheim, which he's been wanting to do since we were children, so I do not know why he decided to try to save them, but at this point, I do not really care."

"What is it with you and destruction?" Jane asked. "I mean, Thor can be kind of destructive as well, but I don't think he's ever tried to destroy a whole city like you did with New York. And most of the destruction he causes is collateral damage."

"You didn't know him when we were younger," Loki said dryly. "Once he got Mjolnir, he became like me with fire spells."

"You're a pyromaniac?" Jane asked.

"You could say that," Loki replied. "The point, however, is that Thor has caused so much destruction and killed so many people over the centuries that I do not know why everyone vilifies me; I have a far smaller body count, I do not take pleasure in wanton killing and destruction, and I do not destroy everything I touch. Did he tell you about the time with the statue in Frigga's garden?"

"No, what happened?" Jane asked.

"It was shortly after he got Mjolnir, and he wanted to 'play' with it," Loki said. "I told him he wasn't supposed to be 'playing' with lightning, but as usual, he did not listen to me, and went out to the gardens, where he proceeded to destroy a flowerbed and a fountain with lightning that he called down. Mother was furious, and for once I did not get blamed for Thor's misdeeds, as the storm was rather obvious, and I cannot control the weather as Thor does. Also, the scorch marks were rather telling. There was also the time he destroyed a statue of his grandfather, and Odin locked him up for a week. It took nearly a century for Thor to actually control the lightning, and I particularly enjoyed when he somehow managed to make Odin's hair stand on end for a week."

Jane was giggling. "I would have liked to see that," she giggled.

Loki smirked and created an illusion of the memory he had of Odin with his hair standing on end. Jane burst out laughing. Loki got an idea, and started sharing the most embarrassing stories about Thor he could think of. Jane was soon sitting on the floor from laughing so hard, and about an hour later, she was still laughing when they heard a knock on the door. Loki went to open in, and found Thor outside, looking rather beat up and weary. "Loki, what have you done to Jane?" he asked warily.

Jane was still alternating between gasping for air and giggling, and Loki said, "She wanted to know what you were like as a child. I simply indulged her. She found the bilgesnipe adventure very amusing."

Thor looked horrified. "What ELSE did you tell her?" he moaned.

"Every embarrassing story I could think of," Loki smirked.

"I am doomed….." Thor moaned miserably.

"Hey Thor, are you really ticklish?" Jane asked.

Thor glared at Loki angrily. "Oh come on, I was being friendly," Loki said. "So why are you really here, besides to glare at me?"

"Mother and Father would like to meet with you," Thor said grouchily.

"Great…." Loki said unenthusiastically. "Do I get to meet your friend Lady Darcy afterwards? Lady Jane thinks we would get along well for some reason."

"No. You and Lady Darcy in the same room will bring about Ragnarok early," Thor deadpanned.

"Sounds fun," Loki said, and got the evil eye from Thor. He sighed. "Fine, let us go find Mother and Odin, and see what they want," he said. He followed Thor out, and Jane did the same. "Are you coming along?" Loki asked her.

"I don't really have anything better to do, and I don't think it's appropriate for me to stay in your room," Jane shrugged.

Thor perked up a bit, and offered his arm to her. She took it with a smile. Loki followed them to the partially-demolished throne room, and found Odin and Frigga waiting. Odin looked sour, but Frigga looked happy to see them. Odin sighed and stood. "Loki, what have you done with the Aether?" he asked.

"I put it in my pocket," Loki said, straight-faced. "And unless you have a safer place, I think it should stay there."

"Your pocket is safe?" Thor asked incredulously.

"Considering it's a dimension that only I have access to, no one but me can access the container with the Aether anymore," Loki said.

"How exactly is that a good thing?" Odin asked.

"Well, I have no use for it, since I don't particularly need or want it, so if it stays in my pocket, none of your enemies can use it against you, and no one can accidentally become its host again either," Loki commented. "In truth, I'll probably just forget about it soon enough; that pocket has a lot of junk in it."

"Junk?" Odin asked warily.

"Clothes, books, old weapons that look ugly, Thor's teddy bear…." Loki listed, then smirked when he heard Jane struggling to keep from laughing. Thor was now glaring daggers at him.

"Loki, why do you have Thor's teddy bear?" Frigga asked.

"He abandoned the poor thing, so I gave it a home," Loki said innocently. "It has a few friends now."

"Friends?" Thor asked.

"My old fox toy, and a few others," Loki said. "Don't worry Thor, Lord Furry is fine."

Jane giggled. "Lord Furry? That's cute, Thor," she said, giggling.

Thor dropped his head into his hands and sighed. "May we focus on something OTHER than the many embarrassing things I have done in my life?" he asked plaintively.

"Very well," Odin said. "Loki Odinson, I have decided as a result of your actions today, that you will be allowed to go free- however, you will be going straight back to the dungeons if you attack anyone."

"Very well," Loki said. "May I go meet Lady Jane's friend now?"

"Friend?" Frigga asked.

"I told Loki I thought he and my friend Darcy would get along well," Jane said.

"I still believe that those two in the same room will create disasters of epic proportions," Thor grumbled.

"Come now Thor, Lady Darcy cannot possibly be any worse than I am," Loki said in a falsely comforting tone.

"I think it is a good idea for you to make friends, Loki," Frigga said. "I have no problem with you accompanying Thor and Lady Jane to Midgard to meet this Lady Darcy."

"Thank you, Mother," Loki said, smiling.

Thor just groaned.

I might consider a sequel, but I'd like to see what the readers think first. Please review, and let me know what you think!