Loki sat in the cold unforgiving sliver cells beneath Asgard, stripped of his his princely possessions. His long black hair was tousled and the moss green frock and simple pants he had been reduced to wear were dirty and worn from 3 days of life in a cell. Still he sat upon his cot with all the regality and pride his ego and body could muster. His body still ached from the thrashings he had been dealt just days before, especially the one by the senseless green monster Hulk.

It was his own fault, this pain of his, he had allowed himself to fail. He had obviously make a mistake somewhere along the way. And he played the events of his invasion over and over in his head thinking maybe he could figure it out. So far he had managed to think of nothing. Except that the "Avengers" had given him many different chances to give up, Thor had even afford to take him home, and yet he had stayed and he had been defeated and now was patiently awaiting the wrath of Odin. He did so proudly, and willingly, knowing how much he deserved it.

And yet even as he awaited the judgment of the Allfather, he could help but contemplate how he might escape his imprisonment. He could still easily rule the earth, and give the humans the world peace they so desperately wanted. Maybe it wasn't what they had in mind, but was that not what he had been offering, a world under the rule of one almighty leader to whom they could all depend on and kneel to. His thoughts turned to the Avengers and how easily they would fail without Thor, and if they had been challenged one on one. That had been one of his mistakes, he allowed them to form a group in which he of this army could not face. If he went back, and took them down one at a time, the monster first, then Stark, and as long as his "brother" stayed out of the way the others would fall easily, them being so pathetically mortal. Of course, his brother would never stay out of the way.

And yet he knew that escape was a nonexistent option. He was in the All-father's kingdom now, and there was no way, that Loki could conceive, to avoid the wrath in which he was about to endure. He wrung his hands still lost in calculating thoughts. Time seemed to slip by at that point, minute turned into hours, and soon Loki was sleeping in a dreamless sleep that could only come from thinking too hard.

Loki soon heard the clicking of opening locks, and he smiled up at the ceiling. The muscle and cuffs that had been placed on him had been removed when he had arrived in Asgard. Odin had known that Loki was no match for Thor if Thor had made up his mind and therefore he had simply put the God of thunder in charge of making sure Loki made it to the cell. The cell itself canceled magic, which was another reason the silly human devices had not been needed, and the only reason that loki was not already long gone.

As the sound of footsteps came closer he lowered his head and relax his maniacal smile. "So I assume that they have reach a decision as to my punishment." Loki asked the nameless guard who was approaching.

"No," a cool feminine voice responded. "they are still deliberating." Sygin rounded the corner, she gave her once-husband a cold smile. She was beautiful as ever, her long red hair curled softly away from her soft square face, she wore a flowing mint dress that feel soft across her tall lithe body with a perfect grace that was not unlike her own.

Loki sat up and continued to smile back at her, but subtly he examined her face, she was horrible at hiding her feelings. "And you're not up there pleading my case like a good wife." He asked, playing at being hurt.

"I'm not your wife anymore. Not under the laws of Odin." She said her gaze clouded over with her words, it was obvious how much the fact hurt her. "Plus, there really is no case to plead. There is no way of saying you're innocent, and I have no sway over the Allfather or Thor and you know that."

"Ah, yes that's right you aren't my wife are you. When I fell from the bifrost and I was presumed dead and our marriage was made mute and void wasn't it, I had almost forgot." That was the first of many lies he tell her that night.

" Don't play naive, you didn't fall, you let go!" she screamed, her cool smile breaking. "the All-father had you by his staff, and you are strong enough to easily pulled yourself up, but you let go. And in that moment you let our marriage go as well.

Loki stood and strode across the cell and stood in front of her open to her anger. He had known their marriage would end when he let that staff go, and yet he had done it and he knew that he deserved her wrath. "I'm sorry," he simply stated, honestly. "I am sorry I hurt you, but I do not regret letting go. I have grown in my power, and am a more powerful man now and although I regret losing the battle for earth, I can not be sorry for leaving."

He meet Sygin eyes and watched as a tear fell down her white cheeks, and his heart felt hard. He did love her, she was one of the only things in the nine realm that he had ever truly loved, but he had made a choice on the bridge and that choice had not been her. Looking at her now he did not know way he had made that choice, or how he ever could have left her...

"I grieved for you and my heart ached for a long time and it still does. But I love you and so I forgive you." she said, reaching through the bars to brush away a lock of hair that had fallen into the prince's face. Their gazes locked and they stood like that for a long while, her hand resting on his face gently and he staring into her tortured brown eyes examining their depth not for the first time, and for a moment it was as if the bar did exist and it was just to two of them. Then, all too soon the spell broke, Sygin was the first to pull away, but Loki was quick to follow suit, she was not his wife anymore, but with a little luck she would be again.

"What are my Brother and the Allfather debating?" Loki asked leaning up against the bars, breaking the silence that had fallen.

Sygin sighed, knowing that he no longer wish to speak of their broken marriage. "Well, Odin is partial to making you work in the mines for a few years, and then allowing you back in your seat as the rightful prince of Asgard. Thor on the other hand has more... creative... ideas."

And what could possibly be so creative that came from a mind as brilliant as Thor's?"

She sighed once again, and stepped away from Loki to begin pacing. "He speaks of sending you to earth."

Loki grinned widely, "That is rather creative, but not very intelligent."

"I told them such" She agreed. She continued to pace silently then, playing with her hair and never bringing her eyes up to meet Loki's she stopped dead in front of him. When she finally brought her eyes back to meet his, questions and emotions danced in them. Loki waited patiently to be bombarded for answers she more than deserved, but instead she simply stated a fact.

"I've remarried," she said, letting the fact hang in the air between them.

Loki simply looked at her, not knowing what to think, he had been gone long enough and she had had every right to remarry. " I am happy for you," he lied, he loved her, and it angered him that she had moved on so easily but she had already been through too much. He would not rub salt in her wounds by turning his anger on her, "who is he?"

"His name is Bjorn, he is a warrior from the northern province." She replied, pacing ounce more. "We had been friends in our childhood."

"Yes I recall you telling me about him in your stories. You two were close."

"Yes we were, but if I had known you would return, I would not have married him." she promised desperation teasing in her voice.

"Do not cry Sygin, you know I hate it when you do." he said turning away and returning to the cot. He stared at the ceiling and cringed as he heard her give out a sob. It made his heart pound with anger at himself for leaving and at her for moving on. "Sygin," he called her name in a strong stable voice. "Are you happy with him?" he asked.

"yes.."

"Does you love him?" He asked giving her a patient look.

"Yes, I do..."

"Then I am not angry, and there is no need for you tears, you are only making us both hurt." He was lying through his teeth, he was angry, more than angry in fact his heart raged inside his chest, and his pride was hurt but he did not want to hurt her any further than he already had, because of all the people in all people in all of Asgard she was the one he wanted to hurt the least, even if it meant allowing her not to be his.

Sygin seemed to agree, for she wiped her eyes and straightened herself. "Yes you are right, I cannot regret what has been done. I have been being foolish crying over something we cannot change now, and so I will leave now before I embarrass myself more. I wish you the best Loki, goodbye." she said, her voice never wavering. She had always been a proud creature, hardly ever crying or any other show of weakness even when they were married, and Loki had expected her to react like this. He bowed his head to her and whispered a simple goodbye, because honestly he only wanted her to leave and to be alone once more so that the pain in his chest could stop. She left quickly and silently then, the locks clicking behind her, and yet the pain in his heart still ached, in fact it only got worse with her departure.

In all the time he had been gone, he had hardly thought of Sygin. But now, as he realized that she was no longer his and how deep the hole in his heart for her was, he wondered how he had ever left. She was such a deep part of him, a part that he had never noticed until now it was gone. And it almost gave him hope. That whatever his brother and father chose to do to him, none of the tortures they could choose to put him under could ever compare to what he had done to himself at this very moment.

Loki tried to push those thoughts out of his mind, and tried to kill the clenching in his stomach and the images of her troubled brown eyes. So he turns his thought instead to why in Valhalla his brother would want to send him to earth...