Chapter 15

"He's not American, but he has rights! All I want is to see him so I know he's ok!" Jane Foster, anxious as to Selvig's wellbeing, stood in the lobby of the police station arguing with the officer manning the reception desk who appeared as if he would rather be doing anything else up to and including busting a crack house or a den of mobsters than dealing with the irate woman.

"I've told you ten times already, he's not in our custody. They outrank us. There's nothing I can do."

"So they just get to waltz in here and do whatever they want?" Jane asked, frustrated.

"Pretty much," the officer replied as a door on the opposite side of the lobby opened.

"Jane..." Selvig called to her as he stepped through.

"Erik!" Jane cried in relief as she rushed to him, "I told them you hadn't abducted anyone!"

"I did, actually."

"What?!"

"I'll tell you everything," Selvig said, glancing at the officer Jane had been harassing, "but not here. They're returning our equipment. We should get back."

Loki, Verda, and Coulson entered the lobby after Selvig through the same door, Jane staring at Loki with an expression of shock.

"Jane Foster, it's good-" Loki began, Verda upon hearing Jane's name turning her attention to the mortal woman as Jane stepped in front of him, slapping him across the face.

"That's for lying! You ARE one of them!" Jane exclaimed angrily, Selvig moving her back.

"How dare you!" Verda proclaimed indignantly, taking a step in Jane's direction before put his arm in front of her.

"Girls! Girls!" Selvig said, attempting to prevent a brawl from breaking out between the two women, both Verda and Jane turning their heads to glare at Selvig with irritation, "I mean ladies."

"It's not as if you've never done the same," Loki reminded Verda.

"That was different. You were dying," Verda replied as Loki turned his attention back to Jane.

"He's not one of them," Selvig informed Jane.

"They aren't responsible for my brother's murder. They've agreed to assist me," Loki explained.

"Oh...well...alright then," Jane responded as the exterior door to the lobby opened, an older man, bearded with gray hair and glasses entering.

"Erik!" Hank Pym called out, relieved to see his old friend outside of a jail cell and that he hadn't disappeared off the face of the earth.

"Hank! What are you doing here?" asked Eric in surprise as he crossed the lobby to Pym, placing a hand on Pym's shoulder.

"Jane told me S.H.I.E.L.D. had taken off with you. I got here as soon as I could," Pym explained.

"It's all been sorted out. Banner's alive. I know where he is."

"We should be going," Coulson said to Loki amid the reunion of the two scientists.

Loki and Verda followed Coulson to the door, Loki halting as he reached Selvig and Pym.

"Thank you again, Erik Selvig," he said, extending his hand, Selvig taking it.

"My pleasure. If you need me I'm sure Heimdall can find me," Selvig replied.

Loki and Verda followed Coulson out of the police station.

"Was that Lucas?" Pym asked.

"His name's not Lucas. It's Loki," Selvig answered.

"Like the god?"

"Not like...he is," Selvig answered, Pym and Jane, who had joined the two men, appearing befuddled at Selvig's answer.

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"That was Jane Foster?" Verda asked Loki as the Asgardians and Coulson crossed the parking lot in the direction of a group of black cars parked beside each other.

"You know of her?"

"Your brother spoke of her....your brother in my time. I don't see what he found so special about her. She's a mortal like any other," Verda said, sounding slightly irritated.

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After a short flight on the Quinjet that had been awaiting them in the desert outside town, the trio arrived at the nearest S.H.I.E.L.D. facility in the Mojave desert. Coulson had received word that Randolph's location had been ascertained and confirmed, a team of S.H.I.E.L.D. agents dispatched to collect him though it would be a few hours until his arrival.

Coulson led Verda and Loki through the facility, arriving in an expansive, high ceilinged room. The space was empty, not at the moment in use for any specific purpose. A doorway to a corridor could be seen on the far side, Coulson making his way to it, their footsteps echoing off the metallic walls.

"I'll show you to the living quarters. There's a common room, a television and game room, library, all the comforts of home, here on Earth anyway. We'll let him cool his heels for awhile once he gets here," Coulson said, not mentioning the fact that he was well aware the same tactic had been used on him after his arrival in Asgard.

As Loki took stock of the cavernous room, a now familiar pain came over him once more, stopping him in his tracks. Coulson, his back to Loki, failed to notice as he continued on, Verda grasping Loki's arm in concern.

"I am burdened with glorious purpose…" Loki muttered softly, his eyes closed, a vision assailing him.

"You've been here before? Not you, I mean-" Verda asked.

"Yes….." Loki answered as he recovered, raising his eyelids, all the equipment that had filled the room in his mind's eye not extant in his current reality, "Where are you keeping it? The relic?" Loki called out to Coulson.

"Relic?" Coulson questioned as he stopped, turning to face him, Loki unsure whether the agent's apparent confusion was sincere or feigned.

"It possesses power you cannot hope to control or contain. He will come for it."

"Not now," Verda whispered to Loki before speaking to Coulson, "At times he has visions of possible futures. Perhaps there may be an accident here that might put your people in peril."

"I'll pass on the warning," Coulson replied as Verda led Loki forward.

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"Do you think they would just hand it over to you?" Verda asked, seated in an oversized chair as Loki perused the shelf of books before him after Coulson had excused himself, leaving them alone in a small library/reading room, "If you take it from them, what will you do with it?"

"It could be taken to Nidavellir and jettisoned into the heart of the dying star that powers the forge. Even if it's not destroyed, it couldn't be obtained," Loki said, pulling a book off the shelf and opening it, scanning the first page.

"One thing at a time. Let's deal with Thor's murderers first, then you must return to Asgard and speak with your father. If that isn't dealt with, nothing else will matter."

"Of that I'm well aware," Loki said, turning the page of the book.

"There's something I must tell you. I would rather you hear it from me than Randolph," Verda said after a few moments of silence between them.

Loki closed the book, turning to face Verda, uneasy at the tone of her voice and her discomforted demeanor.

"What is it?" Loki said, leaving the bookshelf and approaching Verda, sitting in another chair across from her as Verda bowed her head, clasping her hands in her lap.

"I told you I visited your brother, your brother in my time, to give him a gift. It would not be the last time. Before he began to seclude himself, when I went each day to honor you he would be there. In our shared grief, we grew close...I should have known it to be doomed from the start. We were searching for another in each other. He was not you and I was not Jane. I thought I could help him...but in the end It was not enough. I was not enough. He sought solace in drink and petty amusements. I could no longer watch him destroy himself. We never spoke of our relationship with others, 'went public' as they say in Midgard, but I'm sure others suspected as frequent as had been my visits. Randolph must have known. Perhaps he had visited New Asgard previously and heard talk of us. He must have believed that if anyone were to know where Thor had hidden what he was seeking it would be me," Verda finished.

"You...and my brother...?" Loki said before rising and turning away from Verda, exiting the room.

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Coulson stood between Loki and Verda in front of a large two way mirror as Elliot Randolph, confused and bewildered, was led in shackles into an interrogation room.

"That is the man," Verda said.

"You'll be able to hear everything we say," Coulson said as he pressed a button on a wall panel and moved off towards a door a few feet from the window that led into the room, leaving Loki and Verda alone.

Verda glaced over at Loki as he stared at Randolph as he was seated at a table, a dark expression on his face she was certain was not only due to the presence of the man she had met in New Asgard.

"Maybe I shouldn't have told you. I didn't want you to be caught off guard if he mentioned it," Verda said, finally breaking the silence that had fallen between them since Loki had left her in the library.

"Did you love him?" asked Loki.

"Of course, but it was different...He left us. He didn't say goodbye to me, as if he had forgotten I existed. As much as he'd been drinking, maybe he had."

Verda was quiet for a moment, contemplating. Removing the necklace Loki had given her, she took his hand, placing it in his palm.

"You should not spend your days questioning if your Queen's heart belongs to another," Verda said as she looked down at her feet.

Loki gazed down at the pendant of the necklace in his hand for a moment, his eyes drawn to the damage it had sustained when she had been attacked.

"The man you knew was not my brother. My brother died nobly in his bed. He was not a drunk who would treat with disdain one who had cared for him," Loki said before placing the necklace around Verda's neck once more.

"I'm just a university professor. I haven't killed anyone! I haven't had anyone killed! Why would I?" Randolph said, Loki and Verda returning their attention to him.

"You've been positively identified by a witness. How do you explain that?" Coulson grilled Randolph.

"I haven't left Spain in almost two years," Randolph answered, Verda's expression changing to one or realization.

"He's telling the truth..." Verda said, trailing off before turning from Loki, making her way to the door to door of the interrogation room.