Exhausted from weeks of negotiating a complex trade agreement between warring clans on Binaro, in the Outer Rim, Anara was looking forward to slipping into a deep meditation during the three days it would take her to return to the Jedi Temple on Coruscant. She was anxious to get back. A feeling of unease had been worming its way through the back of her mind for the last few days, making her wonder if all was well with the situation back home. Little did she know, as she slipped into a trance, that things were about to go very, very wrong….
Alarms and bright swirling light pulls Anara from her meditation. What should be a streaming star field outside the view screen is instead a chaotic swirl of rainbow-hued light and darkness. Looking at the control console, she sees that the navigation computer has completely crashed. Taking a deep breath to calm her nerves, she reaches for the hyperdrive controls but never touches them. Darkness engulfs her vision, and then pain, more excruciating than anything she's ever experienced, pierces her body– a feeling as if her heart is being ripped from her chest. She screams and collapses into oblivion.
Loki, annoyed with his brother Thor, slinks off to his favorite musing spot in the hills overlooking the royal palace of Asgard. Unable to escape the attention of Muninn, one of his father's ravens, he sits down in a huff.
"Leave me alone!" he screams at the bird. Muninn cocks his head and stares back, unperturbed by Loki's outburst. "Fine," Loki whispers as he relines back on the grass, and gazes off into the Sea of Stars above him. Lost in thought, it takes Loki a few moments to realize one of the stars he's staring at is becoming brighter and expanding in size. Muninn squawks and ruffles his feathers, looking at Loki.
"Fly to Father and tell him something's coming!" Loki tells the bird. Muninn launches himself off his perch and with two flaps of his wings, disappears into the aether. A roar, like the thundering hooves of a herd of Bilchsteim begins to grow louder, and Loki looks back to the sky to see a flaming ship hurtling towards him. Leaping out of the way, Loki tumbles to the ground, rolling over to see the ship scream by above him, hurtling towards the nearby hillside.
Loki looks away and covers his ears as the ship hits the hill. Metal screams and chunks of debris rain down around him as the forest begins to catch fire. Turning back to the sight of the crash, Loki sees that the ship has flipped, exposing the cockpit to his view. A lone figure can be seen slumped over, a section of the ship's bulkhead across its back, and even from a distance, obviously bleeding badly.
"THOR!" Loki bellows to the sky and takes off at a run for the burning ship. As Loki reaches the cockpit, he can see the figure inside is female and appears to be human. He searches for some type of hatch release around the cockpit window but finds nothing. Loki begins to hammer at the transparasteel cockpit with his staff just as he hears Thor roaring in with Mjölnir.
"By the Gods Brother, what has happened here?" Thor questions, as Loki's staff finally smashes through the cockpit.
"What does it look like, you fool?" Loki sneers. "Use that damn hammer of yours to put out the flames. I'll get the girl out and take her to the Healing Room." After a glance at the figure in the ship, Thor complies with Loki's demand, and spins up Mjölnir, creating a vortex that sucks the flames from the ship and surrounding forest. Within minutes, only gentle wisps of smoke remain.
Meanwhile, Loki enters the cockpit of the cruiser and examines the pilot. Covered in blood, she's pinned under a large chunk of metal. Loki can see it's cut through her spine, but amazingly, he can see she's still breathing. An attempt to move the twisted metal only seems to push it further onto the girl. In frustration, Loki calls again for Thor, "Brother, in here!"
Thor appears in the back of the ship, having found the gangway open. "Loki," Thor says quietly, putting his hand on his brother's shoulder, "I think she's dead. We should wait to move the body until Father gets here."
"You fool! Look closer. She still breathes! Now help me move this metal off her so I can get her to the healers."
Together the brothers struggle to move the heavy piece and after several attempts, finally succeed. Loki carefully gathers up the girl in his arms and walks down the gangplank.
"Wait here for Father if you wish. I'll be in the Healing Room," Loki says as he walks towards the forest and disappears.
A woman carrying a basket of bandages jumps in fright as Loki suddenly appears in the hallway in front of her. Striding past her, his face a visage of fury and maybe just a little fear, covered in blood and soot and carrying someone who looks to have seen the very worst of battle, Loki is a formidable sight.
Running to catch up to him, the woman, a healer by the cut of her tunic, says breathlessly, "My Lord, the AllFather bade us to make ready the Healing Room. The Master Healer is there and ready."
"Good," is all Loki says as he walks through the door.
Flashes of light, the smell of smoke, the feeling of tumbling, of falling – all this flashes across her mind's eye as she struggles against the intense pain. The sensation of falling stops suddenly, then there are voices, so very far away. Anara can tell she's slipping away from the material world. In spite of the pain, her mind is able to take stock of her body's condition and it's not good. Her spine's severed at her shoulder blades, allowing her to breathe, but paralyzing her from the waist down. Her arms are broken, and there are lacerations everywhere. As she slips again into oblivion, maybe for the last time, she notes her heart is undamaged, though strangely, the pain emanating from it is the most intense of all her injuries. She slips away, puzzled.
Stepping aside quickly, the healers make room for the dark god to set his bloody charge gently on the table in the center of room. Having known Loki from his days as a babe, the Master Healer, Gustause, ignores the look on Loki's face and ushers him out of the room.
"Your job is done here my lord. We will do what we can," the healer says, as he closes the door in Loki's face and rushes to tend his patient.
Through the smoky glass walls of the Healing Room, Loki can only see shadows of people rushing from the table to cabinets and back. A flurry of voices can be heard as well, but none are distinguishable, only frustrating Loki more. He paces the hall in front of the Healing Room, his dark visage and icy glares causing servants and apprentice healers to duck their heads and hurry to find duties elsewhere.
"Why do I care?" Loki asks himself. "She's just a human woman, not worthy of another thought." But he can't get her out of his head. Her face, covered in blood and yet still beautiful, floats in his mind. Her eyes, so full of pain when she opened them briefly as he carried her out of her ship, haunt him. Though he tells himself to leave, he can't. He finds himself desperate to know if she'll live, to hear the sound of her voice, to see her face unmarked by blood, and so he paces.
Hours pass, and the flurry of activity in the Healing Room continues unabated, but still there is no word on the woman's condition. Loki's mood darkens even further as he recognizes the pattern of Thor's footfalls on the stones of the hallway coming toward him.
"Brother, I am surprised to find you still here. How fares the maid you so gallantly rescued?"
"I don't know." Loki hisses, unwilling to turn and face his brother, lest his face reveal this unwanted emotion. "Maybe you can get old Gustause to talk to you – he always did like you better. No one's left the room since I brought that wench in." Changing the topic quickly to prevent Thor from asking questions he'd rather not answer, Loki asks, "So did you and Father figure out where that ship came from?"
"Alas, no, brother. It's not a design from within the Nine Realms. Father has people looking at it now, trying to find out if whoever was inside was alone, or possibly some type of scout and a harbinger of yet another war," Thor says, frustration clear in his voice.
"Do you mean to tell me the great AllFather, lord of all the Aesir, can't see into his crystal ball to divine the answers?" Loki replies, the sarcasm practically dripping off his tongue. Thor chuckles and slaps his brother on the back.
"Always the sarcastic one, aren't you? You know as well as I that Father can't see that which lies outside the known Realms." Dropping his voice to avoid the listening ears of the servants walking by, Thor steps closer to Loki and confides, "Father's worried about this ship simply appearing out of nowhere. He says when he looks at and past its arrival, all he sees is chaos. He's deeply troubled."
As if speaking of him drew him there, Odin appears at the end of the hallway. Clad simply in cream leather pants tucked into tan boots, and matching tunic, he projects a regal air. Servants hurriedly bow and back into alcoves to allow the AllFather to pass.
"Any word on our uninvited guest?" he asks as he approaches his sons.
"None Father. And I fear our dear Loki grows impatient." Thor says as he casts a teasing look at his brother. Loki simply glares back in response.
"Well then, let us leave them to their work and go see what the cooks have waiting for us in the Meade Hall. It's well past dinner and I'm afraid your mother will be upset that we missed it," says Odin as he puts a hand on each of his son's shoulders and guides them away from the Healing Room. Motioning to a passing healer, Odin instructs, "Have the Master Healer report to me at once when he has finished with his charge. I will leave Huginn here, should he have urgent need of me." Odin holds up his arm as his raven appears from nowhere and lands on his arm with a loud caw.
"Of course AllFather," replies the healer as she bows and continues on into the Healing Room. As Odin ushers his sons away, Loki looks back towards the doors as they open and Huginn flies through. Only Odin catches the look of despair that briefly crosses Loki's face as they walk away.
More lights, lots of voices. The sensation of being turned over. Anara briefly opens her eyes to find herself looking through a hole in the table at what looks like a stone floor covered in blood - her blood. She shuts her eyes again.
"By the AllFather, will you look at that!" She hears someone exclaim.
"What are you gawking at you oaf, you've seen worse on warriors after one of Thor's escapades," says another voice, full of the power of authority.
"No, Master Gustause, I meant the scars – she's covered in them," the first voice replies in a hushed tone.
Looking towards the door and the silhouettes of the men walking away outside, Gustause snaps back at his assistant, "As I said, quit gawking. And fetch me the tissue regenerator. If we don't get her spine put back together, I'm not sure she'll survive, and I don't want to be the one to tell Loki that we lost her."
A jolt of pain lances through Anara's heart, making her gasp. Her heart starts to flutter and she starts to slip into unconsciousness again. Alarms from nearby equipment start to sound. "Damn, we're losing her," spits Gustause. Turning to the raven sitting quietly on the edge of the shelf he pleads, "My Lord Odin, we're losing her. I'd like your permission to give her an elixir of the Golden Apples. It won't heal her completely, but I can't save her without it." Huginn cocks his head to the side; a beady black eye studies the healer. As the bird opens its beak, Odin's voice is heard.
"You have my permission, but only enough to save her. We don't yet know her intentions towards the Realms." Turning from the bird with a sigh of relief, Gustause begins giving orders to his assistants.
"Vila, she's waking up. Give her more sedative – enough to make sure she sleeps though the regeneration process. She's not likely to want to remember that."
"Liela, take my key; get the bottle of elixir from my rooms; and be quick about it!" says Gustause as he prepares to start knitting Anara back together.
All this Anara hears as if she's far away from the chaos in the room surrounding her. It's as if they're talking about someone else, she feels so detached. Anara feels a prick of something sharp on her arm and this time drifts quietly off into the darkness without pain.