Annabelle Riggs gripped the handle of her carry-on tightly as she boarded her flight at Keflavik International Airport. She kept her back straight, made eye contact only in passing, and all in all tried her best to look like someone who wasn't smuggling a six foot tall Norse goddess in her head.
'Six foot three, actually. You Midgardians are awfully small.' Annabelle could swear that she felt her smirking. She couldn't explain how she knew, but she could tell you that the Valkyrie's lips would curl to the right and that her cheek would dimple just slightly. Normally she might have found such an expression attractive, especially when worn by a muscular, blonde amazon of a woman, but as it was she just focused on repressing a shudder. Double vision she could have acclimatized to, but the sensation of having two faces, both of which she was simultaneously viewing and viewing from, was something else entirely.
'You need not worry so, Annabelle Riggs. Once I return to Asgard and find Laufeyson, I will wring his scrawny neck until he returns us both to our natural states.' Annabelle glanced doubtfully at her own bony hands. Before she could inform Valkyrie of exactly how many necks she had wrung in her life (i.e. none) her hands curled into fists without her prompting and she felt a sensation of unfamiliar strength racing through her arms. Okay, that she kind of liked.
You're still getting way ahead of yourself, Annabelle thought back, furiously wishing that they were alone so that she could actually speak the words aloud. Having a conversation with someone entirely inside her head felt a little too close to crazy for comfort. I told you, I don't even know if Thor is in New York. I mean, we all assumed they'd set up shop there, but Stark went off-grid months ago, no one's seen the Hulk, Thor's been keeping quiet since Alien Invasion: Part Two, and if we didn't have the odd seventy year old talking about seeing Captain America on the news every once in a while, I'd just think they all up and vanished because god knows what the other two have been up to.
'So you are telling me then that we are setting out with no true course and no certainty of success.'
Right, she agreed.
'But we have no better option than to proceed anyway.'
Nope.
'Exactly how I like it. Let us make haste to "New York", Annabelle Riggs of Midgard.'
It happened in the way that most strange things do - without warning and when expecting a different kind of misfortune.
The weather had been bad. Road conditions were dangerous enough just to get to the dig site and it was no surprise that her colleagues had called the whole thing off that day rather than spend time outside, exposed to the elements. That she had called up her grad student (a sweet and earnest boy named Billy Kaplan whom she'd half-requested, half-stolen from the college) and told him that under no circumstances was he to try to and come in should have meant that she had enough sense not to go out herself. Being at the dig site by herself in such dangerous conditions would be stupid and foolish and even if she found anything worthwhile she would get in a whole lot of trouble for doing it.
But she was meant to be there, she could feel it. Something in her told her that she had to go because something was going to happen. She couldn't ignore that feeling - for all she knew whatever she was going to find at that dig site was going to make or break her career (which probably never would amount to much unless she decided to move to Iceland anyway considering the unsurprising if depressing decline in academic interest in Norse history in North America, but hey - maybe having literal Norse gods laying waste to New York would help bring people around, a girl could dream).
So when Annabelle unearthed the statue what she felt was less surprise and more of a sense of irrefutable fate.
And then the world washed away in a sea of white and she knew nothing for some time.
In the numbing darkness Annabelle heard a woman screaming a name. Over and over she screamed it.
Heimdall!
Slowly the numbness faded and Annabelle could feel wire wrapped around her limbs. Even in the darkness she became sure that she was trussed up like some kind of marionette. Each time the woman yelled for "Heimdall" the wires were jerked and Annabelle felt them bite into her skin, more painfully with each repetition. She wanted to beg the woman to stop, to tell her that Heimdall obviously wasn't fucking listening, but her mouth would not move. There was no wire with which she could be made to speak.
Heimdall! Why do you not answer me?!
When Annabelle woke up she knew only three things for certain.
One - she was in a bed that she did not remember falling asleep in.
Two - she was very much naked.
Three - she was not alone.
Trying to keep her breathing slow and even so as to feign sleep for a few more moments, she struggled to remember who it was she had slept with. She hoped to god it wasn't Misty. That one time during the White Mountain dig had been a mistake - if there were ever two people who were better off as friends it was the two of them.
And then Annabelle felt the phantom sensation of braids falling across her shoulders and felt her own mouth moving without her permission.
"Ah, you're awake. Good," the voice that most definitely did not belong to Misty Knight said, "I believe we have much to discuss."
Adjusting to life as two was...difficult, to say the least. She and Valkyrie were so opposite in some ways that it almost felt like the universe had decided to play some cosmic joke on the both of them. A classic odd couple, a tale as old as the sitcom, but with an innovative new twist – instead of sharing an apartment they're sharing a body! Coming soon to a dead end time slot near you!
Valkyrie was everything Annabelle had never been. The only thing harder than her abs was the alcohol she drank and she was often left sullen because Annabelle, a social drinker at best, had only stocked her fridge with a single case of beer (just in case she and her colleagues found cause to celebrate). Valkyrie liked to fight and fuck and hated to have to rely on anyone. Valkyrie was god who had watched the lives of mere mortals pass like nothing at all.
Annabelle - mousy Annabelle, nerdy Annabelle, Annabelle who didn't know how to dance, Annabelle who had dreamily pursued her passions against her mother's advice, Annabelle whose childish Indiana Jones daydreams had never gone away, Annabelle who always fell first and hard and had cried for hours after her one and only one night stand - found herself trying to measure up to this strong personality that had taken up residence in her head and feared she would fall short.
Annabelle Riggs liked girls. So did Valkyrie, but she also liked boys. More than once Annabelle found herself flying awake at night, fleeing from a dream that was half memory about a man that she did and didn't know, and she wondered how they would ever deal if they couldn't fix this. She wasn't sure which of them she felt sadder for.
The things that they had in common were even worse, though. Their stubbornness, their resentment of being underestimated, their drive to prove themselves, their appreciation for strong women, their impatience with day to day mundanities. Sometimes Annabelle couldn't tell where her thoughts and feelings ended and where Valkyrie's began and that terrified her.
Several times she contemplated calling Misty, not knowing anyone else who could even begin to help her sort it all out, but she never quite brought herself to. She told herself she was being considerate - she knew Misty was getting involved in something big, she didn't need any distractions. It was probably truer to say that she was afraid that revealing her situation to anyone else would confirm that it was all in her head - no supernatural forces involved, just mousy Annabelle losing her mind. Or maybe she was afraid that it would confirm that it wasn't and that she really had somehow gotten involved in something so much bigger than her, something that was probably dangerous.
It was hard to say what would be worse.
Things had reached a certain routine, a level of forcibly calm stillness that left Annabelle feeling like they were teetering on the precipice of something when the news about London hit. She hardly dared to breathe watching the grainy and occasionally blurry footage of the destruction that took place and Thor in all his impossible glory battling once again for the fate of humanity. She didn't want to be the one to break the stillness, but Valkyrie was silent inside her and the news had already moved on to a story about a dog that learned to ride a skateboard and she knew. She knew.
"You're pretty sure about Loki being behind this, right?" she asked, wanting to be sure because she knew.
'I know of none other in Asgard with both the capability and the motivation to rid me of my body and hide me from Heimdall's sight,' Valkyrie admitted, sounding reluctant to acknowledge that Loki might have bested her, but cautiously thrumming with the same hope that was almost sweeping Annabelle away.
"Thor won't still be in London," she said.
'But you have some idea where he might be.' It wasn't a question.
For the first time in forever, Annabelle laughed, helpless with joy and relief because she finally knew.
Annabelle watched the clouds pass through the airplane window, feeling disappointed in spite of herself. She had kind of hoped that Valkyrie would be impressed with the plane ride. Somehow she'd forgotten to take into account that Thor could fly.
Valkyrie laughed, deep and rich in her mind. 'Not all of us in Asgard see fit to swing ourselves about by our "mighty hammers",' there was an edge of mischief to her voice that lead Annabelle to believe that she was insinuating something less than innocent, 'But I am also acquainted with the pleasure of flight, yes. Take heart, Annabelle Riggs, it has been a very long time since I have visited Migard and I am most impressed with the advancements you have achieved. I am just accustomed to traveling with a little more style.'
Annabelle saw a flash of a glorious white pegasus in her mind's eye and bit back a gasp.
It felt like Valkyrie was practically preening. 'I shall introduce you to him one day, if you desire it.'
I'm gonna hold you to that one, Val, Annabelle replied, allowing herself a small smile.
'That is..."Valkyrie" is a title of high esteem, it is not usual to shorten it for the purposes of creating a diminutive form of reference.' She sounded startled.
Sorry, I didn't think - referring to friends by nicknames is sort of a custom here on 'Midgard'. I won't do it again.
'No, it's alright. You may call me that if you wish,' Valkyrie said, considering, 'You are a most unusual person, Annabelle Ri - Annabelle'
Okay, so her freshman fantasies of being swept away by a shieldmaiden of legend on some grand adventure hadn't gone quite like this.
Maybe a little "different" wasn't quite so bad, though.
A/N: So, I know (by which I mean I've seen more than one Tumblr post on the subject) I wasn't the only Val fan in Marvel fandom asking where the heck she was in The Dark World and lamenting the perfectly good opportunity to introduce her to the MCU that was passed up. However, I'm not one to waste a perfectly good opportunity to play with my favourite characters during my fandom funtimes.
I have not seen Winter Soldier yet - not living within an hour of any movie theatres makes life difficult that way. If I contradict anything from that film (which I'm sure I almost definitely will in some way or other), I ask that you please, please do not spoil me, hard as it may be to refrain from pointing it out. I'm looking forward to actually watching it (whenever it happens) rather a lot. Since obviously none of these characters are expected to show up in the MCU any time soon, just mentally mark this as an AU and try to roll with it if you can.
This story will have explicit components, which will only be available on AO3 (and eventually Tumblr) in order to comply with ff-dot-net guidelines. I will alert you when these scenes come up.