A/N: I've had this idea floating around in my head for a while now, and I finally decided that I might as well write this down. There will be major spoilers from Thor, Avengers, and Thor: The Dark World, but this will not be strictly canon-compliant, and this will not be a retelling of the movies. Actually, this is going to start before the movies, and is going to be pretty AU-ish as far as the plot goes. I will warn you that I have seen the movies and have heard a little bit about the comics, but I have not read any of the Thor comics. I'm choosing to use Sigyn as the main character because I like the name and because there are bits and pieces of her relationship with Loki from the comics that I want to play with. That said, this is 100% OC!Sigyn, so please do not expect her character to be represented accurately at all.

PROLOGUE

Time was a fickle mistress.

Few in the Nine Realms would be unfamiliar with such a truth, but none could claim to fully appreciate exactly how fickle a mistress Time truly made – none more so than Sigyn, at least. She understood more of Time's capricious nature than any other ever would, for she had spent centuries courting the flighty Lady, had for a while considered Her a kindred spirit, even.

Sigyn knew Time well, knew that She could heal and nurture just as easily as She could harm and fell. What She helped to build, She could also level, and what She allowed to flourish, She just as readily allowed to wither. Time could be helpful and Time could be devastating, could be drawn out and could also be rushed.

But Time was not constant or unwavering; She could be courted, swayed to one's will, provided one possess the requisite… talent.

Sigyn was certainly not alone in this ability, but as the ages passed, Time took to fewer and fewer. Even among the Vanir, the gift became an exceptionally rare thing, with Sigyn being the first born with Time's favor in millennia.

A great deal had been revealed to her over the years. Sigyn was allowed glances here and there, at first only into the future, but then as she grew closer and closer to Time, she was allowed glimpses into the past, as well. And she had seen things that never should have happened, had been warned of things that never could be allowed to come to fruition. Sigyn had been shown what might have been and what undoubtedly would be, but rarely did she know which it was as she saw it.

The past existed in multiple perspectives, and the future was full of varying possibilities.

No, Time was not constant.

And She could be swayed – would be swayed.

Time was flighty, inconstant, and undependable, but Time was also variable. Rarely was She loyal, Sigyn knew, but just this once, She would have to be. Sigyn would ensure She was, would find a way to convince her old friend, would do whatever needed to be done.

Because this… this could not happen. This could not be what had been meant to happen.

Sigyn wouldn't accept it, wouldn't believe what her senses were all telling her. No, the one she clutched to her chest simply could not be so unnaturally still, could not be colder and paler than usual. The shrill cry that pierced through the palace air could not have been her own, for none of this could have been real.

She must have been imagining the weight that she felt in her arms as she rocked back, head bowed down and lips parted in anguish. She must have been merely seeing a future that was meant to be avoided, as she pressed her cheek to dark, blood-stained hair and wept harder than she had ever wept before – harder than anyone could have ever wept before. She must have been delusional.

She could not be holding Death so close when she had just begun to feel Life brimming with strength within her. It simply was not possible – the Norns could not have been so cruel… so cruel to him that they would grant him his one greatest desire that he had never dared to hope for, only to tear him away just as it was finally within sight but still barely out of reach… so cruel to her that they would make her choose – choose the accident of fate that was everything, that had allowed the life that now filled her to be conceived, that had given her more than she could ever have dreamed of, or choose the one she loved with every fiber of her being, the one she now clutched to her heart in despair.

The movement around her stilled as she let out another pain-filled cry, the sound falling upon deaf ears as Time brought the worlds to a standstill.

A choice, to determine whether the worlds continued forward or were propelled backward.

Time was offering her a choice, and Sigyn knew not what she wanted to ask of her old friend.