Loki fumbled through his clothes until he found the flask he was looking for. His standard policy for any event on the Grandmaster's social calendar was to arrive with no fewer than two antidotes for the aphrodisiacs and any other mind-altering substances on offer to the party guests. He pulled the cap off the flask and tipped its contents into his mouth.

'Fine, take me to Midgard, Heimdall,' he said once the warm buzz at the edges of his mind began to recede.

If the antidote hadn't fully yet done its job, the force of the dark energy Heimdall had wrapped around Loki tore the last vestiges of the celebratory air he had been enjoying. The Bifrost was always an experience, but the architects of the rainbow bridge had done what they could to channel and contain its raw energy. Since he was not coming from or journeying to Asgard, Loki couldn't make use of the Bifrost, so once more he had to endure the primordial magic of the universe that Heimdall had only a modicum of control over.

He crashed more than landed on Midgard. The ground beneath him was uneven — all bits of crumbling concrete coated in dust. When Loki flipped over to his side and began to clamber up, he realised he had narrowly avoided landing atop remnants of an inch-thick steel pole that tapered gracelessly to a jagged end. In Loki's mind, here was more proof that Heimdall deserved to have his hide stripped for insubordination.

A light beam swivelled towards him. He threw up his hand over his eyes.

'Loki?' Thor's voice boomed from the distance. 'My friends, do not be alarmed! He's an ally.'

By the rustles that followed, a couple of rifles seemed to have been lowered and several people were approaching. Their boots slipped and their movements were uneven. But with the boom light still rigged up to shine directly in Loki's face, he couldn't make out even the silhouettes. Irritated, he moved a few steps to the side. The boom didn't follow him, but the echo of the light had burned a great red sphere into the centre of his vision.

'Brother!' Thor exclaimed, all but tackling Loki as he drew Loki into a hug. 'Is it really you? Have you any idea about how much I've missed you?'

'And I missed you too,' Loki replied. In a well-practised manoeuvre, he extricated himself out of his brother's grasp before he began to suffocate. 'Who are the people you are with? Care to make the introductions?'

The Midgardians had caught up to Thor by now. The bulk of them had formed a semi-circle of stiff-backed, uniformed men, but two stood within that semi-circle and theirs were the only names Loki caught in the list Thor rattled off. Phil Coulson. Natasha Romanoff. Coulson smiled pleasantly at the two brothers. It was the insipid smile of a middle-ranking bureaucrat who knew better than to make his opinions too clear. Romanov, on the other hand, was still on alert, her finger half an inch from the trigger.

'I'm Loki,' he said, 'of Asgard. How do you do?'

'Huh. Well, nice to meet you,' Coulson replied, offering his hand out to Loki, who took it and did his best not to think about his last interaction with the man. 'Should we be expecting the giant snake to pop his head out of the Atlantic next?'

'Maybe. There's a lot of water on this world. Who am I to say where that beastie chooses to make his nest?' Loki chuckled when a few of the SHIELD agents behind Romanoff and Coulson exchanged concerned glances. If the Midgardians were going to make up ludicrous stories about him, he reserved the right to enjoy the profits of those tall tales.

At the same time, he was back on Midgard for a reason and he didn't want to slip too far off-track. Loki glanced around, but found few clues to anchor himself. The air was cool and reeked of char. The few boom lights illuminating the area cast everything else into deeper darkness, so there was no making out the details. Coulson and Romanoff's presence brought the helicarrier to mind, but what little Loki could see didn't look like the ship at all.

Maybe we are standing amid its ruins?

Conceding defeat, Loki asked, 'Where exactly are we? What's happened here?'

'This was a Midgardian research facility,' Thor replied. 'They were studying the Tesseract here. Tyr and two accomplices opened the wormhole inside —'

'Tyr?' Loki cut in. 'As in Sif's father, the traitor, who should be rotting in a cell right now? Why is he involved in this?'

Thor exhaled tiredly. 'I would've informed you, but you didn't want to be contacted and I didn't think the news would bring you any joy, so I didn't go against your wishes. Tyr escaped. A rogue faction of the Einherjar arranged his break out from the cells and spirited him somewhere beyond the Nine Realms. We've been searching for them, but there was no sign of him or those who fled with him until today.'

'How long ago was this?'

'It'd be more than six months back now.'

That explained a great deal. Loki's exploits in the Sanctuary had turned Thanos' eyes towards the Nine Realms. While he dug out his supporters from the burnt out sections of the Palisade, he would have sent spies to gather information to ready his revenge and to prepare to claim the space stone. There were few people more perfect for Thanos' purposes than disgraced traitors, such as Agnar and Tyr. Better yet, Tyr and Odin had been very close in their younger days. Loki wouldn't have been surprised if Tyr had accompanied Odin when Loki's father had hidden the Tesseract on Midgard.

And earlier, I failed to account for the months I spent on Sakaar before being taken to the Sanctuary. I had already brought the entire timeline forward before Tyr got involved.

'That's bloody wonderful,' Loki groaned. 'So what's the outcome here? Was the Tesseract taken?'

'Yes,' Coulson replied. 'Before you arrived, we were about to show your brother the footage we retained from the incident. Would it be of interest to you to see it also... your... highness?'

'Loki will do. And it would very much interest me.'

Coulson nodded and motioned for everyone to follow him. As they all did their best not to stumble over the shattered concrete and twisted chunks of metal, he provided Thor and Loki with the background to the situation. 'The Tesseract research project was considered extremely high risk and the facility was designed to detonate should the Tesseract laboratory become unstable. The Tesseract has been showing activity patterns over the past three days that we haven't encountered before, then four hours before the incursion, there was an energy surge. An evacuation order for all personnel had already been issued for the site when the Tesseract became fully active.'

'Are we now walking on top of what remains of the laboratory?' Loki asked. At Coulson's nod, he frowned. 'How do you have footage then?'

'The video feed from here was always transmitted live to the central office.'

'Ah, important people were nervous about playing with artefacts they didn't understand.'

Both Coulson and Romanoff were stone-faced at that remark, and neither of them had anything to more say until they reached a huddle of white tents. SHIELD agents and emergency personnel swarmed the area and there seemed to be more tents in the process of being erected at the back. Coulson took them inside the largest of the tents, which was choked with computers and communications equipment haphazardly set up on plastic fold-out tables.

'Travers,' Romanoff said. 'Pull up the footage of the incident again.'

The SHIELD agents who had shadowed Coulson and Romanoff had fallen back at the entrance of the tent, which was a wise move. The tent didn't have the space to accommodate that many additional people. As it was, Loki found himself pressed against Thor's side as they gathered around a trio of wide-screen monitors.

The screens flickered, then footage from the Tesseract laboratory began playing. The three screens displayed three different views. Two cameras had been set high up, one to look down at the Tesseract and the rig holding it in place, the other to the workbenches. The last peered at eye level directly into the luminous blue of the Tesseract.

At first, there was nothing worth watching: laboratory staff trying to finish up their work while the evacuation alarm blared overhead, Selvig talking too much, Hawkeye and another SHIELD agent discussing something among themselves. But as they drew closer to the Tesseract, it began to emanate a visible energy field. Hawkeye and Fury staggered away.

Just in time too, a blue-hued pulse burst out of the Tesseract and spilled out across the room. The camera that had been focused on the Tesseract went dark, but the remaining two cameras caught the wormhole opening and the Tesseract's energy convalescing into three distinct shapes.

'Perfect, that's just perfect,' Loki spat out.

Romanoff paused the footage. 'Something on your mind, Loki?'

Just the fate of half the universe.

'This wasn't quite who I'd expected to see,' he admitted. 'The man is Tyr — you've already heard Thor and me talking about him, but these others. When Thor spoke of co-conspirators, I'd expected a few of the Einherjari officers loyal to him.' Catching Coulson's slightly uncertain expression, Loki went on. 'The Einherjar are Asgard's military force. Tyr was their long-standing and well-loved commander until he staged a coup d'etat against my regency.'

Thor leaned forward to peer more closely at the frozen screens. 'I don't know the two with Tyr. I don't even know what planet they'd be from. Do they look at all familiar to you, Loki?'

'I know who they are.' Loki pursed his lips. 'The woman is Gamora. She was a Zehoberai. And the one with the sceptre is Ebony Maw. I have no idea what he is or where he's from. Not that it matters really, I suppose. He's dangerous and that's all you need to know.'

'How do you know this?' Thor asked.

'I encountered them and their master during my recent travels. There was a reason I advised you to pay closer attention to the state of Asgard's defences.' Coulson began to speak, but Loki shook his head. 'I can tell you that entire, miserable tale later. Can we watch the rest of the video? I'd like to know exactly how much of a mess this is.'

There are three of them here. I came alone and I caused plenty of trouble even before the Chitauri arrived.

'Natasha, the play button,' Coulson said.

The images on the two remaining video feeds resumed and Ebony Maw took two slow strides forward.

'Sir, please put down the spear!' one of the SHIELD personnel shouted out.

Loki tried to make out his facial features — he was definitely familiar and a high-ranking member of the agency. He had gloated to Loki's face whenever he had been in SHIELD's custody. His name, however, eluded Loki.

Ebony Maw made no move to comply with the man's banal request. While Gamora and Tyr moved to widen the flanks around the Maw, he simply smiled pleasantly. 'Do not be alarmed by our arrival on your planet,' he said. 'Rather, hear my words and rejoice. You will have the privilege to know the grace and the unbounded mercy of the Great Titan. Shortly, you will all become the Children of Thanos.'

'Who is this Great Titan you're talking about?' the agent asked, his face twisting into a frown around his black eye patch.

Before the Maw had a chance to reply, Tyr raised the blaster rifle in his hands and shot towards one of the researchers who had been furiously typing at his station. The woman flew back. Tyr was past his prime, but he was still a competent soldier. On the other hand, perhaps not the smartest one. Now that the first shot had been fired, the Midgardians understood what this alien incursion foreboded and they let out their own firepower.

Amid the booms of Tyr's blaster, the blue-tinted pulses of the sceptre in Ebony Maw's hands and the flashes of gunfire from SHIELD weapons, the video feed couldn't quite capture what was occurring. The microphones, however, picked up enough of the screaming and the shouting to convey the sum of what had taken place.

Then, not half a minute after Tyr's blaster had initiated the fighting, calm fell over the room. Loki cocked his head; SHIELD agents were good at playing dead until it suited them. Indeed, while Gamora said something to Ebony Maw, her voice too soft for the camera microphone to pick up, one of the agents dragged himself toward the Tesseract.

Gamora was upon him all of two seconds, grabbing him by the back of his jacket and flinging him over onto his back. She lifted her hand, her sword reflecting the Tesseract's simmering light.

'I will have him,' Ebony Maw declared.

He strode towards them, oblivious that another SHIELD agent was also on the move. Tyr was more observant. A click of his blaster and Agent Barton crumpled on the ground. The poor light in the laboratory hid the injury, but by the way he had fallen, Loki guessed it wasn't a wound a human could shrug off.

'This is where it gets really interesting,' Coulson remarked darkly.

For the Midgardians. Maybe for Thor too. Loki had no reason to be surprised as he watched Ebony Maw lower the tip of his sceptre and press it against the one-eyed agent's chest. The man stilled, his remaining eye turning glassy, then straightened up and stared at Ebony Maw with a blank expression.

'Retrieve the Tesseract,' the Maw ordered.

'Who is he?' Loki asked as the agent pulled the Tesseract out of its containment rig and slid it into a briefcase.

Coulson sighed. 'Nick Fury. He is our director.'

Nick Fury. Now that he heard the name spoken, Loki couldn't believe he hadn't come up with it himself. Fury — the Director of SHIELD himself. A good catch for Ebony Maw. No, the more Loki thought about it, the troubled this development left him. Barton had given him a wealth of information on Midgard, on SHIELD and on the Avengers. And Barton had been a mere field agent. How much more information did Fury hold inside his head?

'And presumably he knew the laboratory was rigged to explode,' Loki said as Fury motioned towards the exit. The repeated boom of the evacuation signal swallowed the words that accompanied the gesture, but the rest swiftly followed him.

'Yes,' Coulson replied. 'The detonation was less than five minutes later. They were out of the containment zone by then.'

'Pity. It would've been a good day if you had managed to drop a building and a couple hundred tonnes of dirt on the Maw's head. Tyr's too.'

Thor gave his brother a perplexed look as he spoke, 'You must have lost many good people today.'

'More than we could afford,' Romanoff responded. She shut down the video feed and seemed to be about to say something more, but then thought better of it.