Ragna stood beside the soul forge, Verda lying upon it as Thor had the last time Loki had found himself in the healing room only days before. He had stepped back a few paces to give Ragna room to do her work, though his instinct was to remain at Verda's side. Ragna examined the golden representation of Verda's body projected above her with concern.

"The wound is superficial, it is not a mortal wound in itself...but as was the case with Thor it is not healing. If it follows the same course, and I must assume it will do so, it will begin to necrotize. The infection will spread throughout her body as it did your brother's with the same outcome."

"Is there anything that can be done?" Loki asked anxiously.

"I could attempt to debride the wound...to remove the tissue around it...she would suffer scarring, though that is a minor concern when considering the alternative and I can minimize it a great deal. However, we're dealing with magic of a very nefarious sort. To do so would be fruitless and would hasten her end if her entire body has been affected. There is no way to know."

"Yes there is." Loki said approaching the soul forge on the opposite side of Ragna. Before Ragna realized what Loki was about to do, he produced one of his own daggers and sliding the sleeve of Verda's gown upwards to expose her forearm, used it to inflict a small wound, little more than a scratch, the type of slight wound that for any healthy Asgardian would heal quickly within a minute or two. Ragna, now realizing what Loki was doing, watched along with him for any signs of healing.

Loki's heart sank, his world shattering as the wound remained unchanged. His vision blurred with tears as he placed his hand over his mouth, emitting a short vocalization of anguish before he turned away. After he had stood in silence for a few more moments, Ragna remaining equally silent, knowing that there was nothing more to be said, Loki appeared to compose himself, lowering his hand, though he remained with his back to the healer.

"How long?" Loki asked.

"The wound involves far less tissue and no major organs unlike your brother's. If it progresses at the same rate...a day, perhaps two."

"Loki...I was only now told..." Frigga said as she entered, Loki turning towards her as she rushed to her adopted son.

"The wound is minor, however, the weapon was cursed." Loki told his mother, fighting to keep his voice from breaking.

"I had only just left her." Frigga said.

Loki stepped away from his mother to the soul forge, lifting Verda from it.

"If she is to die, she will do so in our own chambers." Loki said carrying Verda towards the door from which Frigga had only recently entered, Frigga following.

"Wait…" Ragna said, Loki and Frigga halting and turning towards the healer as she approached holding Verda's necklace, Frigga taking it from her.

*********************************

Coulson approached the door as it opened, an object wrapped in a cloth in his hands, before freezing in place as he saw Loki enter bearing a dark, grim expression, Verda in his arms appearing to have not yet regained consciousness. Frigga followed behind Loki, looking to Coulson questioningly.

Without a word to Coulson, Loki headed in the direction of the doorway that led to his and, only within the last day, Verda's shared bedchambers. Frigga continued to follow Loki, assuming from his lack of response to viewing Coulson standing there that his presence in Loki's chambers was known and expected.

"I am Loki's mother, Frigga.,.join us." Frigga said to Coulson, her face devoid of the usual smile she would have given upon meeting someone under rosier circumstances and also forgiving her son under the current circumstances for his apparent rudeness in not acknowledging Coulson or introducing them.

"Phil Coulson of S.H.I.E.L.D." Coulson replied, introducing himself as he followed Frigga.

"You are Coulson? Seeing as you are not in the dungeon I must assume my son has found you innocent."

"Yes, m'am...Mrs. Odin...your majesty?" Coulson floundered.

"Frigga will suffice."

"I'm investigating the murder of your son." Coulson explained.

"You do this willingly?" Frigga said in surprise.

"Define 'willingly.' I was given the choice between that or spending the rest of my life living in a box eating insects."

"That does not sound like a choice." Frigga responded.

"That's what I said."

"Forgive my son. He has been overwrought and is sometimes overzealous in his passions. If you wish to return to Midgard-"

"I'm involved now. I can be somewhat overzealous myself."

Loki, with Frigga's motherly assistance, settled Verda into the bed. Loki stood beside the bed looking dazed and lost as he gazed upon her. Frigga, standing beside him, put a hand on his arm, holding out her other hand before him, the pendant of the necklace lying in her palm, the chain dangling from her hand. Loki took it from her, seating himself on the edge of the bed facing Verda, placing it once again around her neck. His eyes fell on the slight damage that had been done to it by the dagger.

"The body's been taken to the morgue with the others." Coulson informed Loki, uncertain if it was the proper time but feeling awkward standing at the foot of the bed in silence. "Did she have a twin?" he asked, though he was relatively sure she didn't, at least not one she was aware of considering both her and Loki's reaction to her assailant's unmasking.

"No." Loki answered.

"I have the weapon here. No markings. Again, likely custom made...or I guess forged in this case. No way to trace it to anyone other than the woman who last used it. There was nothing else on the body." Coulson walked around the bed, handing the cloth wrapped dagger to Loki. "How is she?" Coulson asked, turning his gaze to Verda, surprised that she had not yet regained consciousness. The wound had appeared minor and he had assumed her fainting to be a result of shock at seeing her double lying dead before her after being unmasked.

"She's dying." Loki answered simply.

"I didn't think it was serious." Coulson replied, stunned.

"The wound itself was not. The weapon was enchanted in the same manner as the sword which felled my brother." Loki said. "If one were to suffer so much as a scratch from this blade…" Loki said, uncovering the dagger.

"I'm sorry." Coulson said, unable to think of anything else to say. Frigga looked from Loki to Coulson.

"I will have you escorted to the guest chambers." Frigga said, looking back to Loki with concern as he continued to sit in silence on the edge of the bed, staring down at the dagger in his hands. "I will return." she said to Loki before escorting Coulson from the room.

Loki considered a question he had often found himself pondering many times over the previous centuries. Was he cursed? Another thought entered his mind as his eyes rested on the dagger, what Verda had said to him, that she would give her life to save his own or, barring that, she would die with him. She had wished to remain on the Statesman and share his fate after Thanos' attack and would have had those accompanying her not misled her. The last thing he had said to Coulson before his departure echoed in his mind...a mere scratch from the blade that now rested in his hand…that was all it would take...all that would be necessary.

His father had never wanted him to take the throne and he was certain that if the people of Asgard knew his true origin, they would not wish it either. Even once he was king he would know in his heart that he did not truly have, or would not have if the truth were known, the love, respect and admiration he had so long craved. He would not be taking the throne because his father had found him worthy of it or even because he had devised and succeeded in pulling off a clever scheme, but simply because he was the only option. Of course, that wasn't completely true. Odin could bestow the throne on anyone he saw fit, that he considered worthy...a cook in the kitchen, as Verda had said.

Frigga, returning to the room, sat down beside Loki on the edge of the bed.

"I will lead an army to Midgard...if they do not surrender this Randolph and all those in league with him, they will burn."

"Your father would never allow that. Do not let him hear you say such things. Midgard is not our enemy."

"They slaughter each other in droves and now they slaughter us...my brother, she who was to have been my wife and the mother of my heirs." Loki responded.

"It is the work of a few. There are billions of souls on Midgard, most of whom do not even know we exist. It is your grief and anger that speak now." Frigga cautiously and carefully reached over, moving the cloth back over the dagger and taking it from Loki. "It would be better if this were to be in my possession." she said, as if she had read Loki's previous thoughts.

"Summon father. He has not yet given us his blessing but if she awakens, if she is able, I wish us to take our vows to each other. Though she will not live to be Queen, she will die as my wife." Loki said to his mother.

Frigga reached over, squeezing Loki's hand before she rose with the dagger, making her way to the exit of the bedchamber. Loki stood from the edge of the bed and moved a chair beside it facing Verda and sat down, reaching out and taking her hand.

Loki sat with his head bowed, gazing towards his feet. Only days after watching his brother die before his eyes, he would now witness the death of the woman he loved...the only woman he had ever loved and to whom he had been able to say those words. He raised his head as he felt Verda's hand grip his own. Transferring himself from the chair back to the edge of the bed, her hand still held in his, he caressed her cheek with his other.

"Loki…" Verda said,

"My love...I should never have left you alone...I'm sorry. Forgive me."

"The blade...it was cursed…"

"You will feel no pain. I would never allow you to suffer." Loki said, struggling to maintain his composure.

"She was me...the me from this time, it was her...she is me now..."

"I don't understand." Loki said, confused. Were the effects of the wound affecting her brain and so soon? He recalled that Thor had been coherent to the end.

"Her essence, her soul...it joined with my own...it's why I fainted...he lied to her...he had taken her to Midgard...he told her I was an imposter...she thought she was protecting you...my sister….you must bring her to me...he told me...her...it was she who put the curse upon it...she can reverse it..."

"You have told me she bears you no love. If she refuses?"

"She won't...not after you offer her what she most desires…"

*********************************

"Do you believe him?" Hill asked Fury after they had left the interrogation room, Fury motioning for another agent to enter it and cuff Selvig once again to transfer him to one of the jail's cells.

"I don't know what to believe. It sounds crazy...but one thing I've learned in this job is that just because something sounds crazy doesn't mean it's not true." Fury answered.

"Yeah...but Thor...Loki….really?" Hill said incredulously.

"Any history of mental illness? Has he been prescribed any psychiatric drugs or anything that might affect his mental faculties?" Fury asked.

"Nothing I could find. I checked all his records everywhere he's spent any time for the past decade. I could go back further. The bartender said he'd been there the night before and left pretty wasted but that should have been out of his system by the time Coulson arrived. The man he was with told the bartender his name was Lucas King. She identified his voice from the recording from Coulson's earpiece as the same man. She said he drank as much as Selvig, maybe more, but when they left you wouldn't know he'd been drinking. There's no records of anyone by that name living here or visiting the area recently so it's likely an alias but I'm not ready to say he's a god."

"He was talking about holding Thor's hammer. Either he's telling the truth or this other guy is one of the best con men to ever live to fool a sane, respected scientist with a Ph.D in astrophysics into believing in the existence of old world gods. Before we went in he was talking to someone, he asked that this Loki be told he was here. I say we wait and see if he shows up."

*********************************

Lorelei sat at her desk in her cell in the dungeon, a writing implement in her hand, scrawling on a piece of paper she had pulled from the top of the stack resting on the corner of the desk.

"Lorelei."

Raising her head and placing the implement upon the paper, she rose, turning to view Loki standing outside of her cell.

"What is it you want? Did you also come to gloat? To mock?" Verda asked, obviously perturbed. Her words struck Loki as familiar, though he did not experience the same pain in his head as he had previously. "I have been told. My simpleton sister is to be queen. Clearly intelligence is not a trait you find attractive in a woman." Lorelei appeared to be examining Loki for a moment, "I can't say what it is my sister finds attractive in a man. Obviously it differs from my own preferences...and those of most other women. Why are you here?"

"I believe you know why I'm here."

"No. I do not. Enlighten me."

"Verda has been attacked. The dagger was cursed by your own hand." Loki said. Lorelei laughed darkly.

"And how would I have accomplished that? As you well know, as it was your father who created and forced it upon me, the collar renders me powerless."

"Obviously you've found a means of circumventing that impediment."

"If I had managed to do so, do you think I would still be here?"

"I've come to make you an offer. Remove the curse, save her life, and I will release you from this cell and free you from the collar as well as arrange passage off Asgard if you agree never to return." said Loki.

"Do you take me for such a fool? I am not so gullible as my sister. It is well known that you are not to be trusted. Loki, the trickster. Why are you really here? Did your father deny you his blessing on account of me? I step one foot out of this cell and it will be all the excuse you would need to put me to the axe. The people would no longer have reason to fear her wooing you into releasing me." Lorelei sneered, moving to the front of the cell.

"We have already received my father's blessing and were wed by him before I came to speak with you." Loki said, holding up his left hand, a ring on his finger. "I had predicted you would voice suspicion of such a conspiracy. If you were to still refuse my offer, I wished her to die as my wife." Lorelei peered out at Loki, at the anguish in his eyes, her demeanor changing from mocking to one of astonishment.

"You're serious…."

*********************************

Lorelei, shackled, the collar about her neck, entered Loki's bedchamber. Reaching the side of the bed, she looked down on the pale visage of Verda and the wound visible on the upper middle portion of her chest. The edges of it were already beginning to blacken, emitting a slight scent of rotting flesh.

"Sister…" Verda said. Lorelei turned to face Loki who stood behind her. He removed the shackles followed by the collar. Lorelei turned back to face Verda, reaching out and placing her palm over Verda's forehead as if checking her for a fever. She held it there for a moment, closing her eyes in concentration before lifting it. Loki watched as over the next few moments, the wound visibly began to heal, the blackness and scent of rot fading. Lorelei turned to Loki, looking into his eyes, a seductive smile on her lips.

"I believe I now know what it is my sister sees in you. You will leave her and serve me. Together we will rule Asgard and conquer the realms and beyond." Loki stared back into Lorelei's eyes, entranced as she moved her lips towards his.

Reaching up with both hands, Loki placed one on each side of Lorelei's head as if he were preparing to kiss her before twisting it sharply, her neck audibly snapping. Lorelei's eyes stared blankly, her mouth limply hanging open as her body sank heavily into a heap on the floor. Putting the palms of both his hands to his ears, Loki covered them before lowering his arms, removing the spell he had placed on himself that had rendered him deaf.

Odin and Frigga appeared behind Loki almost as if they had walked through the wall, though they had been standing along it, invisible, since before Loki had entered with Lorelei. Loki removed the ring from his finger returning it to his father.

"Guard!" Odin called out. An einherjar that had been standing outside the bedchamber door entered, looking to Odin as he awaited instructions from his king. "Remove the body of the criminal and burn it." Odin said. The einherjar made his way towards Lorelei's body.

"Wait." Verda said, rising from the bed, kneeling beside her sister's corpse. Reaching out, she closed Lorelei's staring eyes.

"I fulfilled our bargain. I freed her from her cell and the collar and gave her passage off of Asgard. I simply neglected to tell her of her destination." Loki said.

"I wish things had been different. If only she had loved me as your brother did you." Verda said in a melancholy voice. Verda's words struck Loki, a wave of sadness and guilt surging within him. He recalled his visions once again, Thor pleading with him not to let go as he dangled from the Bifrost, Thor's anguish as he believed he was witnessing Loki's death on Svartalfheim after battling the dark elf monstrosity, how Verda had told him that Thor had mourned for him, telling her stories of their childhood and how Thor's mourning for him was in part what had led Thor to descend into a drunken depression so deep he was rarely seen by anyone, only leaving his abode to secure more drink. How often he had fantasized doing to Thor what he had just done to Lorelei or something similar, though he had known he would never do so...and not only because he knew he would end up losing his head or spending the remainder of his life in the dungeon. "I said the next time I saw you it would be your corpse. Goodbye, sister." Verda said to the lifeless remains of Lorelei before addressing the waiting einherjar. "Take her."

*********************************

Fury and Hill sat in the interrogation room facing each other as they had seated themselves on either side of the table, a cup of coffee sitting in front of each of them as they waited. What they were waiting for, neither were exactly sure.

"Why does jail coffee always suck?" Fury asked. He removed a flask from inside his leather duster that he still insisted on wearing, even in the oppressive heat of New Mexico, and poured a healthy dose of whatever it contained into the coffee, holding the flask out to Hill.

"No...thank you." Hill said. Fury screwed the cap back onto the flask, replacing it in the inside pocket and lifted the coffee cup, taking a drink from it.

"Better...not a hell of a lot." he said, taking another drink. As he sat the coffee cup down, the door behind him opened, Coulson entering. Fury and Hill stood up quickly from their chairs, shocked at the sight of their missing colleague and friend. Loki and Verda entered behind Coulson.

"Coulson! What the-Where on god's green earth have you been?" Fury exclaimed.

"Ironic you should use that phrase. The answer to that question would be nowhere. There was a bit of a misunderstanding. I'll explain later. Loki, Verda…. this is Maria Hill and Nick Fury. Release Selvig and return his and his team's equipment and after that I need a current location for Elliot Randolph, the professor at the University of Seville. Get a team together to bring him in."

"On it." Hill said, leaving the room.

Coulson looked at Fury who stood staring at him speechless, a state in which Coulson had rarely seen the man. Engendering such a response in his boss gave Coulson a strange sense of accomplishment.

"It's a long story...and it's not over yet. You'd better sit down." Coulson advised Fury. "You still have that flask?"

"Yeah...just put a little...more than a little...in this shitty excuse for coffee." Fury answered.

"Good, because you might need it."