Gibbs shoved himself to his feet as Loki joined Thor, a wounded Bishop in the god of thunder's arms, in the center of the mall's atrium. Before the former Marine could reach them, the Bifrost blasted down from the sky and took the three up to Asgard.

DiNozzo and McGee were getting to their feet, looking dazed from the blast of energy. The police officers and FBI agents filled the atrium, Fornell leading the chase after the two suspects.

"DiNozzo!" Gibbs shouted, heading toward the markings burned into the floor. "Take the lead until I return!"

"Boss?" DiNozzo said questioningly, turning to watch as Gibbs stopped in the center of the markings.

"Heimdall!" Gibbs yelled. "Open the Bifrost!"

Within moments, the rainbow colored beam of the Bifrost burst down through the skylight and drew Gibbs up into the sky.

****

Frigga glanced up as she heard the sound of something flying. With Thor as her son, she had grown quite used to that sound.

"Odin," she said, touching her husband's shoulder. "Thor's back."

He looked up in time to see Thor flying past the balcony, holding a woman in his arms. From this distance, Frigga couldn't see who it was.

"Who is with him?" Odin asked.

"Perhaps Jane Foster?" Frigga postulated, feeling excited inside at the possibility of meeting her oldest son's girlfriend. She knew Odin didn't like the idea of Thor in love with a mortal woman, but Frigga saw the look in her son's eyes when he talked about Jane, and knew this mortal must be something special, much like Loki's Eleanor Bishop.

Odin would rather his sons married Asgardian women. Frigga was just happy her boys had both found true love.

"I hope not," Odin grumbled. "I wonder why he's brought a woman here."

Frigga looked out again to see Loki running in the same direction Thor had been flying, streaking across the courtyard below the balcony. She furrowed her brow. She hadn't expected to see him back so soon. She'd expected him to stay with his newfound NCIS family until Thor was sent to call him back to Asgard.

"Loki?" Odin queried, watching him run past. "What is he doing home?"

"I don't know," Frigga said. "And why is he running?" She watched him disappear from sight, quite grateful for the influence of Agent Gibbs on his life. Although Loki's mischief-loving personality hadn't changed, his perspective on life had. He was finally living up to his potential to be a hero.

When Thor and Loki were growing up, Odin had always told them they were born to be kings. Frigga, however, had always told them they were born to be heroes.

Then a new figure came into sight, chasing after Loki and Thor, and Frigga recognized the person as Agent Gibbs. Understanding dawned on her.

"So that's why he's running," she and Odin exclaimed simultaneously.

****

Bishop was already lying on the healer's table when Loki entered the chamber. Panting hard, he stumbled over to the side of the table and collapsed on his knees beside her, running his fingers through her long, blonde hair as it hung over her shoulder. Her skin was pale and her eyes closed, her breathing shallow.

"Darling, I promise I will not let you die," Loki whispered, fear surging up inside him. It was a struggle to keep the emotion off his face, especially here, in Asgard. Caressing her cheek softly, he took a breath to aid his fight against his feelings. I swear on my mother and my badge, Halo will pay for this. "Please, Ellie, just stay with me. Please."

"Prince," the head healer murmured gently. Other healers were entering the room, speaking quietly as they approached the table. "I'm going to need you to step aside."

Loki nodded and stood, wrapping his fingers around Bishop's hand and squeezing gently. Then he stepped back, away from the table as the Asgardian healers blocked his view of Bishop. Thor stood beside him, his expression solemn.

Gibbs burst into the room, slowing his pace as he saw Loki and Thor standing there. He glanced at Bishop on the table as he walked toward them. Without a word, he rested his hand on Loki's shoulder.

Perhaps it was the tension; Loki could feel every muscle in his body drawn taut, like a string. Perhaps it was his fear for Bishop. Perhaps it was simply returning to Asgard again and the stress of the fight with those two enhanced humans. Whatever it was, whatever triggered Loki's response, it was not of his own free will.

Gibbs' hand was knocked off of Loki's shoulder as a red surge of power rippled out and away from him, forcing the NCIS agent and Thor both to take a staggering step away. The reaction was small, simple, but nevertheless, it had appeared without being bidden.

"I didn't do that, I swear," Loki said to Gibbs, his brow furrowed.

Gibbs was studying Loki, his face impassive. "Then what did, Laufeyson?"

The surname. So simple, so small, the one he claimed on his badge. But after his conversation with Hailstohm, her assertion that he was one of them, the name bit at him.

"Brother, what was that?" Thor asked. "I haven't seen you use that magic before."

Magic. Loki could play it off as magic. It would make sense, it wouldn't need to be explained further – magic. Then he met Gibbs' eyes and knew the former Marine would never buy it.

"I get the feeling you didn't tell me everything about that fall you took, Loki," Gibbs said neutrally.

"I'm not quite sure what that red surge was," Loki said, his words coming slowly. "Just that when Sniper and I were transported into that other chamber and struck the pillar there, this...I don't know what it was, but it entered me. And then...we passed out, and then I was almost conscious again, floating in absolute nothingness. Sniper was, too. There were these red tendrils that flowed through me, this strange, alien power. Then we woke up in the alleyway."

Thor furrowed his brow. "All right then."

"I wonder what it is," Gibbs said, his expression growing dark. Loki knew what he was thinking. Another tool of Thanos?

Loki's last stint with NCIS had involved dealing with a memory chip of some sort that Thanos had implanted in his brain. Gibbs had been the only one Loki had confided in about his old alliance with the Mad Titan.

"Loki, Thor," Frigga greeted as she and Odin walked into the room, drawing Loki's thoughts away from the power. "What brings you home so soon?" Then her eyes fell on Bishop, lying unconscious on the table surrounded by healers, and her face grew worried. "Oh, dear." The queen turned to the head healer. "How is she?"

"She will make a full recovery, my lady," the healer said. "But we do need to finish tending to her injuries. They are quite severe. She will need rest in order to fully recover."

Frigga nodded and turned to Loki and Thor. "Eleanor Bishop is welcome to rest here. She will receive the best care."

"I'm not going anywhere without her," Loki said quietly and Frigga nodded again.

"That is understandable, Loki." Then she turned to Gibbs. "My apologies, Agent Gibbs. Welcome to Asgard."

"Appreciated, Queen Frigga," Gibbs said.

Odin sighed. "I thought I told Heimdall not to let him in without an escort," he said gruffly.

"Well, I guess he granted me an exception in this case," Gibbs replied. "Considering my agent's injured."

Odin followed Gibbs' glance to the healer's table. "I will have to have a talk with my gatekeeper. But you are welcome to stay with your agent until she is healed."

Loki looked at his father. "Thank you," he told him.

Odin nodded curtly and turned to leave. But Frigga stayed behind. "May we offer you anything?" she asked.

"We're just going to stay here, with Bishop," Gibbs told her after a quick glance at Loki.

"I can attend to them, Mother," Thor said with a slight smile as he gave her a hug. Frigga smiled at him before turning to Loki, holding him close.

"I'm sorry about this, Loki," she said as she pulled back from him. Then she left the chamber.

****

DiNozzo walked slowly over to the dagger lying on the floor, stained with Halo's blood from when Loki had tried to kill her. Crouching down, he used the gloves he had taken from the FBI's evidence kit to lift it.

I can have Abby lift some DNA off of this.

He had a very bad feeling as to why Halo and her partner looked so familiar to him, but he had to be sure, completely sure.

If he was right, this would not go over well.

Carefully, he slipped the dagger into a plastic bag, sealing it up and standing, looking for McGee. He found the other agent standing by the Bifrost markings, looking up into the sky worriedly.

"McGee!" DiNozzo called, heading over towards him. "Here, put this under your coat. If the FBI gets a hold of it, we'll never know anything."

McGee gave him a look. "You're stealing evidence?"

"Testing a theory," DiNozzo replied shortly. "Just do it."

"Dammit," they heard Fornell say, and turned to see him walking toward them. McGee slipped the packaged dagger under his coat as he pivoted away from the FBI agent and DiNozzo let out a tiny breath of relief. This was a theory he had to test out himself, not leave to the FBI. He didn't even know if they'd be able to get a match. No, DiNozzo had to do this the secretive way.

"Who are they?" McGee asked Fornell.

"We're not entirely sure," Fornell said heavily. "The female's Aurora, the male's Flare, but we've got nothing on identities beside those monikers."

"Oh, I called her Halo," DiNozzo said.

"That's a good one," Fornell said. "They're enhanced and either relatively new on our radar or they've been lying low for years. But all reports seem to indicate they've only been around in the last five months or so." Shading his eyes, he stared up through the broken skylight before glancing at DiNozzo. "So, Gibbs controls the Bifrost now?"

"I don't think he controls it as much as Heimdall, the guy who does, is just afraid to get on Gibbs' bad side," DiNozzo answered, glancing down at the markings beneath his feet. "A good call, career wise and life wise."

"I don't know why it's surprising," Fornell said with a bit of a laugh. "This is the guy who tricked us all into believing he was an ME's assistant in order to get control of a body on Air Force One."

DiNozzo had to smile at the recollection of that day, then his smile faded when he recalled it was the first time he had met Kate.

Or, as she supposedly was called these days, Agent Sniper.

"And in order to keep that body, he handed you over to me in a bodybag to buy him time!" Fornell shook his head.

McGee looked inquisitively at DiNozzo. "What?"

"I played dead," DiNozzo said, spreading his hands.

"But your cellphone didn't," Fornell said, laughing, and walked off to confer with one of his agents.

"Do you think if we asked nicely, Heimdall would bring us up?" DiNozzo asked McGee.

"With Bishop injured, I'm sure this counts as an exception to whatever their rules about the Bifrost are," McGee answered. The two agents exchanged a glance, and then started shouting.

"Heimdall! Open the Bifrost! Heimdall!" After a pause where the only thing that happened was the FBI agents surrounding them giving them strange looks, McGee added, "Please!"

Still, nothing happened.

"Open sesame!" DiNozzo yelled.

"Speak friend, and enter!" McGee shouted. "Mellon!"

"What?" DiNozzo asked, turning to McGee.

"It's from The Lord of the Rings," McGee explained.

"You're such a McGeek."

After several more moments of shouting up to the broken skylight to no effect, DiNozzo and McGee gave up. "Now what?" DiNozzo asked sullenly.

"Now we head back to the Navy Yard and hope the director doesn't ask us where Gibbs, Loki, and Bishop are," McGee answered grimly.

"Why?"

"Last time everyone went to Asgard, I was the one who had to explain it to the director," McGee reminded him. "It wasn't very pleasant. Vance wasn't happy."

"Is he ever?" DiNozzo asked, and McGee nodded in acknowledgement. "This is different. Bishop's injured and they have healers up there."

"I'd like to see Asgard," McGee said wistfully, and DiNozzo looked at him, resisting the urge to grin.

"When you go, make sure you try the beer there."

/**/

Thank you so much for reading! Today is the two year anniversary of the publication of Special Agent Loki Laufeyson, so this chapter is in celebration of that!

Thank you, everyone, so much for reading these books! Your reads, votes, and comments always make my day and I'm so happy you have enjoyed the story so much! There's much more to come!

But this isn't the only update coming today. Keep your eyes open for a special one-shot (to be published in the first book) about McGee meeting Phil Coulson! It will be set after Special Agent Loki Laufeyson but before Dark Soldier.

Skylar Wittenborn