“Kicking the shit out of you,” Shadow answered, but although the vehemence was still just as present in his tone, inwardly his anger was already waning. It wasn’t in Shadow’s nature to hold onto these rare bouts of rage; if Loki had tried harder to fight it might have fueled the rage long enough for Shadow to have done some serious damage to the god, but a single failed attempt at a knee to the crotch and a refusal to answer a simple question, while infuriating, weren’t enough to justify the kind of damage a man as big as Shadow could inflict.

He wanted to beat him senseless, but he couldn’t. In the end… it wouldn’t be worth the price.

Both fists gripping Loki’s shirt, Shadow pulled him away from wall and threw him to the floor, hard enough to jar the god’s body.

“I’m still waiting for an answer,” he said. “I saw you die.”

And then, suddenly, he remembered Wednesday’s words at Loki’s death; The battle will bring him back. As the battle will bring me back for good.

“That’s it, isn’t it?” Shadow asked softly, somehow horrified. “I stopped the battle… but there were still so many dead. It brought you back. But… Wednesday?” Odin. My father. “Is he… is he alive too?”