Chapter 24: Thor's Plan

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(Thor back on Asgard)

Thor was sitting in some sort of tavern and he waited as Heimdall came and sat next to him.

"You were not at Odin's War Council." Thor said as Heimdall took of his Helm and sat across from him.

"The Bifrost is closed by your father's orders. No one is to come or to go. We face an enemy that is invisible even to me, what use is a guardian such as that?" Heimdall said as he sighed in resignation.

"Malekith will return you know this." Thor said while Heimdall raised an eye at his words.

"I need your help." Thor said.

"I cannot overrule my King's wishes. Not even for you." Heimdall said.

"I'm not asking you to. The Nine Realms need their Allfather strong and unchallenged whether he is or not. But he is blinded Heimdall, by hatred and by grief." Thor said hoping to placate Heimdall's worries.

"As are we all." Heimdall said disagreeing with Thor's words.

"Well I see clearly enough." Thor said with conviction.

"The risks are too great." Heimdall replied.

"Everything we do from here on is a risk. There is no other way." Thor said with finality.

"What do you require of me?" Heimdall said.

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(Thor, Sif, Volstagg, Fandral, and Heimdall)

The group of 5 were meeting in a private room to discuss Thor's plan. Thor prefaced the conversation with a warning.

"What I'm about to ask of you is treason of the highest order. Success will bring us exile, and failure will mean our death. Malekith knew the Aether was here. He can sense it's power. If we do nothing he will come for it again, but this time lay waste to all of Asgard."

"If Malekith could sense the Aether then why did he not try to attack the warrior Caedos?" Fandral asked.

"I do not know. My only guess is that he could somehow sense the Aether was once inside Jane, but could not sense it from Caedos. Maybe it is his powers that are suppressing the Aether. It could explain why he has shown no signs of being affected by the Aether inside him." Thor replied.

Thor continued. "We must move Jane and Caedos off world."

"The Bifrost has been shutdown and the tesseract locked away in the vault." Sif interjected.

"There are other paths off Asgard, known only to a few." Heimdall explained.

"One, actually." Thor corrected.

Fandral, Sif and Volstagg looked at Thor in shock as they realized who Thor was talking about.

"No." Volstagg said.

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(Flashback to Thor meeting Loki in his cell)

"Thor. After all this time and now you come to visit me. Why? Have you come to gloat? To mock?" Loki said as he walked over to where Thor was outside his cell.

"Loki enough. No more illusions." Thor said.

Loki's illusion faded and he could be seen sitting on the ground disheveled and everything inside his cell was destroyed.

"Now you see me brother." Loki said.

Thor slowly walked to the other side of the four sided cell to get closer to Loki who was sitting on the ground by that side.

"Did she suffer?" Loki said with sadness clearly evident in his voice.

"I did not come here to share in our grief. Instead I offer you a chance at a much greater sacrament." Thor said obviously trying to bury his sadness.

"Go on." Loki said interested in what Thor had to offer.

"I know you seek vengeance as much as I do. If you help me escape Asgard, I will grant it to you. Vengeance, and afterward this cell" Thor says gesturing to Loki's cell.

Loki paused for a moment then chuckled lightly before saying. "You must be truly desperate, to come to me for help. What makes you think you can trust me?"

"I don't. Mother did. But you should know that when we fought each other in the past, I did so with a glimmer of hope that my brother was still in there somewhere. That hope no longer exists to protect you. If you betray me, I will kill you." Thor said, playing on Loki's love for his mother.

For the first part of Thor's words there was a glimmer of sadness in Loki's face but by the end he just smirked and said. "Hmm. When do we start?"

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(Back to the meeting)

"He will betray you." Fandral said referring to Loki.

"He will try." Thor said with certainty.

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(Loki and Thor sneaking through the castle)

"This is so unlike you brother. So clandestine. Are you sure you don't want to just punch your way out." Loki days while he is walking with Thor.

"If you keep speaking I just might." Thor says back annoyed.

"Fine, as you wish. I'm not even here." Loki says as he uses magic to make him look like a palace guard.

"Is this better?" Loki asks smugly.

"It's better company at least." Thor responds still annoyed.

"Still, we could be less conspicuous." guard Loki says as he uses magic to make Thor look like Lady Sif and himself looking back to normal.

"Why brother you look ravishing." Loki says joyfully.

Thor lpoks down, sees that he looks like Sif and says while clearly running out of patience for Loki. "It will hurt no less, when I kill you in this form."

"Very well, perhaps you'd prefer one of your new companions, given that you like them so much." Loki says as he made himself look like Captain America.

"Oh, this is much better. Ooh. The costume is a bit much. So tight. But the confidence... I can feel the righteousness surging." Loki says.

Loki turns around and starts walking backwards as he continues. "Hey, wanna have a rousing discussion about truth? Honor? Patriotism? God bless Ameri...."

Loki didn't get to finish as Thor covered his mouth and practically threw him against a pillar to keep him quiet. Loki transformed back into himself as he asked. "What?"

Thor gestured to the two guards walking by. Loki saw the fully armored guards and looked at Thor.

"You could at least furnish me with a weapon. My dagger, something." Loki said exasperated.

Loki hears the sound of metal clanging and just smiles waits to be given a weapon.

"At last, a little common sense."

Loki then looks down and sees a pair of handcuffs click into place binding his hands and looks at Thor irritated.

"And I thought you liked tricks." Thor says as he chuckles and walks ahead.

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(Back to the meeting)

"Well, what then? Your lovely mortal and Caedos are being guarded by a legion of Einherjar who will see you coming from a mile away." Fandral says.

"I won't be the one who comes for them." Thor says as he looks at Sif.

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(Jane at her room)

Guards are walking inside bringing her food. Jane looks up and says to the guards.

"I'm not hungry."

The guards then get knocked out by Lady Sif who came up behind them. She looks at Jane and says "Good, let's go."

Lady Sif and Jane are walking through the castle and they meet up with Thor and Loki.

Jane sees Loki and says in shock "Y-you're..."

"I'm Loki, you may have heard of me." Loki says smugly.

**SLAP**

"That was for New York!!" Jane said as she slaps him hard in the face.

Loki pauses after the slap then looks up and then at Thor and says "I like her."

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(Back to the meeting)

"And what of the Allfather?" Sif asks.

"It is my sworn duty to notify him of crimes against the throne." Heimdall replies.

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(Heimdall at the Bifrost gate with Odin and some guards)

"You called me here for an urgent matter, what is it?" Odin asks.

"Treason, my lord." Heimdall says.

"Whose?" Odin asks, already having an idea of the answer.

"Mine." Heimdall says as he removes his sword from the slot causing the guards to raise their weapons to him but stop when they see he just placed his sword on top of his hands.

"My King!! The mortal has been taken." Tyr captain of the guards says as he rushes in front of the King.

"Stop Thor, by any means necessary." Odin says after he looked from Tyr to Heimdall.

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(Back to the meeting)

"Assuming you can get Loki's help, and you can free this mortal and Caedos. What good would it do? We'd all be dead the minute we step one foot outside the Palace." Volstagg said with frustration.

"I believe I can take care of that Volstagg." Seth said as he appeared out of thin air scaring everyone in the room including Thor.

"Caedos, my friend?!?! How did you escape!?!" Thor said loudly.

"Now Thor, you already know of my powers. Do you remember what I showed in the throne room kn the day of the attack?" Seth said with a wide grin.

"You are a clone? But how were you able to remain hidden?"

"Well, as any good warrior knows, never reveal everything you have to anyone. It is a best practice to keep some things close to the vest. I didn't tell you about one of my powers. Not only can I generate forcefields, I can become invisible, and make other things and even people invisible. Also since it is not magic, it can't be detected by the restrictions put in place by the Allfather." Seth explained.

"HAHAHAHAHA!!! A MIGHTY WARRIOR INDEED!!!" Volstagg shouted merrily.

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(Back with Sif, Jane, Thor and Loki)

A group of guards come up a set of stairs and see the group of 4 and rush over.

"Go! I will hold them off Go!" Lady Sif says as she gets ready to fight the guards, but before Loki got past Sif, she grabbed his arm and said.

"If you betray him, I'll kill you."

"Nice to see you again Sif." Loki said smiling.

Just after they rounded the corner, the group became invisible which was a shock to both Loki and Jane.

"What magic is this?!?" Loki said confusedly.

"It's not magic, it's my power." Seth said arrogantly.

"No, I recognize that voice! I saw you die! That damn beast of a Dark Elf killed you!" Loki screamed out.

"Keep your voice down you idiot, I made us invisible, not mute. Anyone around us could still hear you if you are too loud." Seth said in a whisper.

Loki begrudgingly nodded and they went outside towards the socks where they were going to grab a ship. When they saw two ships, with Fandral and Volstagg aboard one, and one that was empty. Seth wrapped everyone in a giant forcefield and floated down onto the ship which then also became invisible.

"Thor! Fandral and I will lead them away from you to draw their fire." Volstagg said as he had jumped onto the other ship.

"Thank you my friend." Thor replied.

As the group was passing by Volstagg, he stopped Loki and said. "If you even think about betraying him I'll...."

"You'll kill me? Loki finished for Volstagg then said. "Evidently there will be a line."

Volstagg scoffed and then jumped onto the other ship and started it up.

Seth had wrapped the two whole ships with an invisible force field which in turn made the others invisible but able to see eachother.

"Good luck my friends." Thor said to the two as they flew off and their ship slowly became visible again before Asgardian ships began to fly after them and fire upon them.

"This whole plan was rather devious of you, I'm impressed." Loki said while genuinely looking impressed with Thor.

"I'm glad you're pleased, now do as you promised take us to your secret pathway."

Loki then took the helm of the ship and had a manic look on his face that slightly unnerved Seth as he headed to his secret path.