Chapter 7: Plans

   Thor, Lady Sif, the Warrior Three and Jane Foster were following the image of Loki, it was quite a shock for Jane to see Loki, especially after his attack on New York and it took a lot of convincing from Thor for her to agree to listen to Loki.

    The reason no one, not even Heimdall, couldn’t see Loki is because the spell was projecting the image of his Æsir form and voice only in minds of the ones he intended, it was possible for other to discover that there is a spell over the eyes and ears of the group, but only if they were to look very closely and thoroughly so only Heimdall and the healers can discover that.

    The image of Loki have a very small sliver of the original’s seidr so it could create illusions to fool the einherjar, this allowed Thor’s group to sneak into the docks to steal a small ship, but the moment that the ship leaves the whole asgardian army will know that something is amiss.

    As they all got on the ship Loki said, “One thing before we go, I going to need to control one of you to steer the ship.”

    “I knew you couldn’t be trusted!” said Sif unfolding her sword.

    “Wait Sif! Brother explain yourself,” said Thor to Lady Sif before addressing to Loki.

    “Of course, using the sliver of my seidr that is over the your bodies I am going to assume control of the arms of a volunteer to steer the ship and navigate through the secret path between realms” explained Loki.

    “Why should one of us volunteer for your plan?” asked Hogun to Loki.

    “First it’s better than your original plan of stealing a dark elf ship and second the amount of seidr used will be very small just enough to control the arms, you can break my control with little effort,” said Loki.

    “Or so you said,” added Sif pointing her sword at him.

    “Indeed, better not resist though,” said Loki before adding, “because if you do I won’t be able to steer the ship and navigate through the treacherous path and you all die.”

    “And what about you?” asked Volstagg munching on his last piece of food, an apple.

    Loki look with disdain at the Lion of Asgard but nevertheless he answered, “Have you forgotten, what stands before you is just an illusion.”

    “I will do it brother,” said Thor with conviction.

    “Thor you can’t do this, who knows what he will do,” said Jane trying to stop Thor.

    “We need him to guide us anyway, with or without him controlling one of us,” said Thor before adding, “without his help we will not make it anyway.”

    “Very well,” said Sif accepting Thor reasoning and folding her sword, while the Warrior Three was still uncertain but there is nothing they can do now, the only reason they got this far without being detected is because of Loki’s illusions.

    Ready or not they took off with the stolen ship, the moment they did that the alarm was sounded and the einherjar were mobilized, going to their designated positions while others entered the ships.

    Loki used his seidr do create subtle illusion over the boat and that caused the einherjar that were chasing and shooting at them to miss by a very small margin as they sailed across the atmosphere of Asgard.

   “Whoever is going to be the my conduit better get ready because as soon as I take control you can not resist and I won’t be able to use misdirection to defend the boat,” said Loki their vessel was being pursued by two others.

    Thor on the helm relaxed as much as he could in the situation when he felt Loki’s seidr coursing through his body, he felt his arms on the helm moving without him wanting to move them, steering the ship in the direction of one of Asgard’s mountains near its edge.

    “Loki whatever your secret path is we better use it now” said Thor as the ship moves toward the mountain and Loki just looks at the group’s distress with amusement, “Loki we are going to crash on that mountain” said Thor looking at the image of Loki just standing there with his hands behind his back, “Loki, do something” said Thor again as the were nearing the rocky surface, “Loki!” Thor said again and still no answer, “LOKI!!!” screamed Thor as a collision became inevitable, only for them to pass through the rock as if it wasn’t there.

    Having passed the illusion covering this secret entrance now they found themselves in a very narrow passage the boat almost didn’t fit, despite being narrow Thor, in this case Loki, was navigating through its curves by slowing, accelerating and inclining at the right moment.

    “I never knew such a passage existed,” said Fandral.

    “Quiet, I need to concentrate now, we can talk when we reach a safe area,” said Loki before adding, “Thor do not tense your muscles, if you want this group to survive the trip keep your muscles relaxed, I don’t want the ship getting off course or crashing.”

    After 15 minutes they reached a empty area, literally empty with nothing except for the structures in the distance.

    Releasing Thor of his control and pointed to a specific sphere in the distance and said, “That is Svartalfheim just go in that direction, it will take some time to reach it though.”

    “What is this place?” asked Fandral looking at this void.

    “The space between realms, we are jumping from one branch of Yggdrasil to another,” explained Loki.

    “Like using the Bifrost,” said Volstagg.

    “No the Bifrost creates a tunnel between two realms like a artificial and controlled version of the Convergence connecting to points of Yggdrasil, we just jumped from one of its branches and now we are on the empty space between them,” Loki clarified.

    “So we are outside of the Tree of Worlds!! This is madness, if I knew that this was your plan I would never have agreed,” said Hogun.

    “What is done is done there is nothing we can do about it,” said Thor.

    “Indeed, now we wait,” said Loki.

Hour Later in Svartalfheim

    In a desert of black sand the asgardian boat appears and crashes in one of its dunes.

    The passengers were recovering, except Loki who was just floating near the group, from the unexpected landing.

    “It won’t be long before the dark elves arrive, what is the plan?” asked Fandral.

    “We must….

Few minutes later

    They see Malekith landing his ship and lead the search party.

    Loki’s seidr left the bodies of the asgardians and converges into the image of Loki giving him physical form to interact with the world.

    “Now!” shouts Thor.

    Thor throws Mjolnir at Malekith, he dodges, as Mjolnir is coming back and Thor’s friends are about to reach the search party a green glowing chain of energy binds their limbs and a glowing green blade cuts Thor right hand off causing Mjolnir to crash behind the group.

    Pushing the pain of having his hand cut off aside he looks at the one responsible only to see Loki holding the green chain on his left hand and a green sword on the right hand while smirking at them.

    “Malekith I am Loki Laufeyson from Jotunheim and I believe this belongs to you,” said Loki while pulling the chain with Jane and putting her on her knees in front of Malekith.

    “And what you want in exchange?” asked Malekith.

    “I knew we couldn’t trust you vi-” Lady Sif started but was green muzzled, very similar to the one used on him after his defeat in Midgard, appeared over her mouth, just to be sure he muzzled the others as well.

    “I just want a front row seat to see Asgard burn,” said Loki.

    “Very well” answered Malekith as he extended his arms and extracted the Aether of Jane’s body.

    “Now!” shouted Thor as a green flash of light covered his severed hand and disappears, on his arm the illusion was dispelled revealing that he was fine and still had his hand, calling Mjolnir and raining down the lightning on the Aether.

    As this was happening Thor’s friends leaped from false chains and attacked the other dark elves letting out a battle cry as the muzzles disappears.

    Thor’s lightning couldn’t destroy a Infinity Gem and exploded sending him into one of the dunes with great speed, Malekith raised his arms commanding the Aether to come into his body, so he could use its power and spread darkness throughout Yggdrasil.

    The Aether seemed to obey him and flow toward him only to shoot past him, turning around he witness the Aether coalescing into a floating sphere of liquid above Loki’s extended left hand.

    “You can control the Aether?” Malekith asked in disbelief.

    “I can do many things, like this for example,” said Loki as a green swirling portal opened just behind him.

    Spears of ice came from the portal, struck the Kursed and they were frozen solid, jotnar walked out of the portal and joined the battle.

    The group of jotnar is being lead by….

    ...King Laufey.

    As all dark elves were frozen solid the asgardians got into defensive formation around Jane.

    They prepared for the jotnar’ attack but it never came.

    “Look what we have here, a group of lost asgardians” said King Laufey with his deep voice.

    “Laufey how can you be alive Loki killed you?” asked Thor.

    “That's not my story tell son of Odin, if you want answers ask the Trickster,” said the King of Jotunheim.

    “How can we trust a word of what you say frost giant?” asked Hogun, more like demanded in a rude and disrespectful tone.

    “How dare you speak with King Laufey like this, I should behead you where you stand,” said one of the jotnar.

    Laufey raised a hand signaling for him to stop before saying, “You don’t asgardian, the only reason I don’t kill you and your friends is because I am under a geis.”

    “How we can be sure you are not lying?” asked Fandral.

    “Because I was the one that put him under that geis,” said Loki with the Aether floating above his left hand.

    “You made a oath with Laufey?” asked Sif in disbelief.

    “Of course, how else was I supposed to make sure he helped when I needed?” sarcastically asked Loki.

    Laufey growled at Loki’s tone of voice, Loki just ignored him knowing that there's is nothing he can do about it.

    As Laufey glared at Loki the Bifrost shoot at the ground not far from the groups and from it came the Allfather with a squad of einherjar.

    Odin didn’t let his surprise show at seeing Laufey alive or Loki present in this place, approaching the two groups he asked, “What is the meaning of this?”

    “My king we were fighting the dark elves when Loki used his seidr to summon the frost giants that you see before you and freeze Malekith and his forces,” reported Hogun to the Allfather.

    “Laufey” said Odin as he turned to face the king of Jotunheim, not bothered by the height difference.

    “All Father” said Laufey in return.

    “I see that you somehow survived,” said Odin.

    “Not without paying the price, now I am under a geis and incapable of wage war against Asgard, in the end it seems you finally got what you wanted,” said Laufey.

    “I am sure both of you have a lot to talk but if you don’t mind I have to go, here is the Aether,” said Loki as he conjured a case with a handle around the Reality Gem and let it float to the hands of the Allfather, Odin just accepted the item in question, he could get his answers later.

    “Don’t worry the portal will close once you are back at Jotunheim, so I will leave you to your conversation, bye bye,” said Loki as dissolved into green mist and disappears.

Realm of Statera, Canterlot Castle Loki’s room

    Loki woke when she felt the memories of his thought projection that she sent to help Thor against Malekith as well as the projection that she sent to Jotunheim to recruit the help of Laufey.

    Soon it will be the time to set her plans in motion.