Chapter 19

Realizing that the Convergence might come back to bite him in the ass later, Harry tracked down Jane.

Who had apparently stumbled upon one of the many sites where the paths between worlds intersected. Darcy was in full panic mode because Jane had been missing for an hour already with no sign of her.

"Darcy, keep and eye on this idiot. And make sure his clothes stay on. I don't care how much easier it is to think with them off, they stay on," said Harry grumbling. Darcy gave Erik and odd look.

"Where are you going?"

"I am going to track where that idiot's girlfriend has vanished off to thanks to the Convergence," stated Harry flatly, "It may take a few hours."

Harry had seriously underestimated the amount of trouble Jane Foster was in.

"You stupid, idiotic fool!" ranted Harry.

The second he found Jane and realized what she had done, he had become very furious. Why was it that humans kept stumbling into the worst possible situations?

Jane bristled at his tone alone.

"You couldn't keep your hands away from the bloody thing, could you? No, you just had to touch one of the most dangerous weapons in the universe!"

"Where are we anyway?" asked Jane.

"This is where the previous King of Asgard, my grandfather, stored the final weapon of the Dark Elves in order to keep them from annihilating everyone. It's called the Aether, and it thrives on the life-force of the host. And you had to go and touch the bloody thing," lectured Loki.

Jane had her hand on his shoulder while he lead her back to Midgard. He was furious with her, mostly because this was something he expected of Thor!

"Jane!"

"Don't get too close. The fool actually found a weapon that would have been better off lost," warned Loki.

It took a few seconds for the rain to start, and Loki's irritation only grew.

"Thor, get your arse out here this instant!" he barked.

His brother sheepishly appeared. He had come to Midgard the second Heimdall informed him Jane was missing.

"Brother, it is good to see you again," said Thor.

"Thor, I was in Asgard two weeks ago. Now, we have a bigger problem. Jane has stumbled upon the Aether and it's infected her. If I can't find a way to remove it, or at least make it dormant it could kill her."

Thor's expression turned shocked, then protective.

Loki could tell this was going to be a headache inducing week.

First things first though...

"Gabriel, can you record the energy read outs of the Convergence? You should be able to get a decent recording while we're on the Bifrost," said Loki.

"Okie dokie Loki!"

Loki pinched the bridge of his nose.

"For the love of the All-Father, quit watching that series. It's bad enough you found that pink horse amusing," said Loki grimacing.

Loki cursed the day that Tony stumbled upon the "My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic" series that had a pink Earth pony who reminded him of Gabriel at his most random. While he did find Pinkie Pie somewhat amusing, he disliked the way Gabriel sometimes said "Okie dokie Loki" as a way to respond to his orders. Tony found it hilarious, Loki did not.

"Who is that?" said Jane. He was see through!

"Gabriel, the AI Tony made to act as my personal assistant, since the odds of finding someone as useful as Pepper Potts was extremely unlikely. We recently developed a way for him to manifest so everyone could see him. Unfortunately we're still not able to get rid of the fact he looks like a ghost at times," explained Loki.

"Okay, all set to record the readings from within the Bifrost!"

"Heimdall!" Thor called out, holding his girlfriend close to him.

Gabriel stumbled slightly once they landed, his holo-ball wavering a bit, but he recovered perfectly.

"Who or what is this?" asked Heimdall.

"Hi! I'm the one who keeps Loki from going insane from talking to idiots all day," said Gabriel, popping in a fake candy.

"This is Gabriel, the spirit that inhabits the armor Stark gave me. We recently found a way for him to interact properly with others."

Heimdall eyed the 'spirit' warily. Still, Gabriel had been to Asgard before in Loki's technology.

"I'll need to use the soul forge if I'm to have any idea of how to at least turn the Aether dormant," said Loki, he then eyed Thor. "You do realize Odin will not be pleased with her presence here."

Thor winced at the reminder.

Loki spent three hours examining the Aether. Eventually he came to an inescapable conclusion..one he didn't like.

"I can't return it to a dormant state. It's too active."

Thor's expression fell. Odin's remained as stoic as ever, though he was observing Loki carefully.

"But... I might be able to transfer it to something else. The problem is I only have one container that might be able to handle it and I'm not entirely sure it's a wise idea to move it there," said Loki.

"Loki, whatever you require of me I will give it. Just save her!"

Loki turned his emerald eyes to Thor in annoyance.

"The problem is that I'm not entirely certain I would be able to move the Aether from her. It's sentient and it could react violently. And I will not risk the container on the off chance it will break it. Especially not with who's guarding the only one of it I have."

"What is the container?" asked Odin. He had never seen Loki so reluctant to risk something.

"Gabriel."

The AI floated close to where Loki was, curious as to what his 'boss' needed.

Odin eyed the 'spirit' warily.

Loki took out his PDA and pressed a button on it. The ball fell neatly into his hand.

"Inside this is an energy source Tony created entirely out of human technology. However it is the source of the energy that makes it possible that I could contain the Aether inside of it."

Thor remembered something Tony mentioned after the Chitauri attack.

"Tony gave you one of his arc reactors?" asked Thor.

"He did. This one is small, but the energy inside is still stronger than anything else the humans currently have access to. And considering I helped him to modify the reactor, it's capacity is almost infinite. It is merely a vessel."

Odin had trouble believing such a small thing could hold the energy. Had he known what the reactor ran off of, he never would have allowed Loki to merge the Aether with it.

"Why are you so reluctant to merge this energy with the reactor?" asked Thor.

"Because you simpering oaf, if this fails then I might risk damaging Gabriel and the device! I value his company more than I enjoy being in Asgard at this point! At least with him I know I'll have an intelligent conversation without having to worry about being insulted!" snapped Loki.

Jane wisely kept quiet. While she didn't know Loki very well, she did know Harry. He was a nice person to those he liked, but he had some serious deep seated issues with his family.

The man she knew (whether he was Loki or Harry it didn't matter) was actually quite lonely. Sure, he had a handful of friends he let in a little, but he never quite let them down.

Tony Stark came the closest, and could easily be called his best friend. Jane was close to him as well because she never pried into his personal issues and could hold a reasonably intelligent conversation. Bruce was a somewhat friend of his, but they didn't often mesh that well.

Harry was an outcast and he knew it to his core. He knew without being told that he would never truly fit in with the people he associated with because more often than not those same people would treat Thor with more appreciation than they did him. Loki was so used to Thor overshadowing that he expected it to happen with anyone he befriended. He was just so much more open and people were drawn to his charismatic self without realizing it, whereas Loki tried to keep things closed in.

So the fact Loki was very reluctant to even think of causing damage to the one friend he could always count on to remain beside him no matter what was not surprising to Jane in the least. Gabriel was the only entity Loki ever allowed in past the barriers.

"Aw, come on Boss! You know I could handle it!" chirped Gabriel from the PDA.

"Absolutely not. Especially since the signature keeps changing enough that I can't reasonably remove the damn thing. I refuse to damage the core of your personality on the remote chance I might be able to handle it," said Loki viciously, glaring at said device.

"You're no fun at all," whined Gabriel.

"And I'm not risking the only guaranteed intelligent person I will ever meet just for a theory," said Loki flatly.

Gabriel pouted.

"Well since you're not going to try and remove the energy signature from your friend, can we work on that Convergence reading you had me get?" asked Gabriel.

"Now that I would be willing to work on," said Loki.

After excusing himself, Loki left to check out the readings Gabriel made of the Convergence with Asgard's version of a computer. He could work faster with them than he could with his laptop.

The first clue something was wrong was when he heard the alarms go off for the prisons.

"Oh now what?"

Gabriel perked up from his spot inside Asgard's systems.

"Should I keep working on finding the right wavelength while you're out?"

"Or we could do the smart thing. Seal off the palace now. I have a feeling this is just a diversion," said Loki.

"You got it boss!"

Gabriel was more sophisticated than even Tony realized. JARVIS came close, but Gabriel was all-but-alive at this point thanks to Loki's meddling and a lot of tweaking using Asgard's technology. And because no one really paid Loki any attention since his return once they realized he had little to no interest in trying to compete with Thor for the throne, no one had noticed when Loki hacked Asgard's systems.

To be fair, he had been extremely bored that week.

The shield activated without Heimdall's assistance, startling the watchman immensely. Nothing would be able to get in or out without Loki's express permission, and there was no way they would be able to beat someone as tricky as Gabriel.

Asgardians had grown lax in their 'superiority', and as such the odds of finding one who developed hacking skills were almost next to impossible.

Loki donned his suit, forgoing the Asgardian armor as it was less effective. The second he saw the Dark Elves flying in from the direction of the Bifrost, he knew this day was about to become pear-shaped.

He made a quick decision to insure they didn't retrieve the Aether, so he followed the spell he had laced Jane with years ago. For once, his ongoing prank with the woman was actually going to serve some use everyone could agree with.

Loki caught the tail end of Malekith's attack. He had been so busy helping the Asgardians he was nearly too late to save his mother.

Frigga was badly wounded. If he didn't do something, she was almost certainly going to die.

He reached into his bag for something, anything to save her life. His hand clasped around a single vial, and when he saw what it was, he didn't hesitate to get her to drink it.

Her body relaxed as the potion took full effect. She was stable, but it would take quite some time before she was healed enough for him to administer the antidote.

"Gabriel. Fry them," snarled Loki.

The shield around the palace hummed, despite being weakened greatly by the Kursed destroying the device powering it. The only reason it hadn't been destroyed completely was because Gabriel was using the limited connection he had to the Tesseract to keep it active.

Without warning, an arc of energy slammed into the monster who had weakened the palace's defenses from within, killing him instantly.

However it also allowed Malekith to escape.

"Loki. Is she..." asked Thor. He couldn't see Frigga breathing.

"She'll live. But there's no way she's getting out of bed until this wound stabilizes. The potion at least bought her more time than she would have had," said Loki softly.

Odin looked at Frigga, then at Loki who refused to let her go.

"Loki. What happened?" demanded Odin.

Loki's eyes turned hard.

"She's not dead. But the potion will only hold her body in a near-death state until I administer the antidote. It will take some time before the wound Malekith dealt to her heals enough that it would be safe to do so," said Loki, ignoring Odin's silent demand to know how he had taken full control of the palace defenses.

Odin let himself relax slightly.

"What exactly did you give mother?" asked Thor.

"Draught of the Living Death. A Midgardian potion that puts anyone who consumes it into a suspended state that is so absolute it mimics death. It was the first thing I had on hand that I knew could work," said Loki, "However, there is a small flaw with this potion. If anything were to happen to the body while under the effects, then it would remain that way after the antidote is given. It's considered a last-resort healing potion for extreme cases."

Which was the only reason Loki had given it to Frigga. While she was under it's effects, she would remain alive, but it would also allow Eir time to heal the wound.

"Hey Boss...can I let the shield down now?" asked Gabriel.

"Yes."

You could feel the relief Gabriel had when he released the heavily damaged shield. It sputtered before crashing.