Hey, so enjoy~
Serene calm demeanor and a voice a smooth as silk….It was no wonder she won over the minds of the folk of Jotunheim. Her powers, the ones she openly showed, had a remarkable knack of healing. What would once be a festering wound, soon would be nothing more than a scar. She had a gift from the Gods themselves.
Many called her an enchantress, to her following, a priestess, yet Loki knew truly what she was. And while that word seemed to be tossed around a lot, especially on Asgard, she was genuine. The Unnoticed, the Unseen.
Her place of worship was easy enough to be invited into, yet to be a true pilgrim from her flock, you must show your devotion to them, since she sat on top of a snowy peak, nestled into the mountainside. The journey to would be numbing to the fingers and toes, but you would soon be warmed once that, well, all one had to do was look like a devout follower. Easy enough for the trickster god himself. The doors to her own palace were designed intricately in plated golds and white birch the doors you would be instantly relieved from the winds. She was by herself, the room smelling of incense of cinnamon and dirt, all while being dimly lit by dozens of candles.
They sat on a bed which was sunken down into the ground slightly and it was made entirely of assorted lush colored pillows of gold and teal. Blankets of silk were draped along the eaves as curtains. They billowed slightly whenever a cold breeze swept into the room. Curiously enough were the tiny pebbles of rocks that floated around her, aimlessly.
"Who are you?" She was turned away from him. Yet her voice sent little vibrations through the rocks around her. It was deep, commanding.
"I am but a mere person, looking to gaze onto your worth." Loki spoke back to the woman in front of her.
"Try not to fool a woman who invented the trick long before you were even a thought in your mother's mind." She spoke harshly, and stood up.
Her dress flowed down to the grown and rippled on the floor, even with her impressive height, the gown was left with at least two feet of material spooling out around her, trailing her as she walked towards him. She was an impressive sight to gaze at.
"Now, I will ask once more, my darling. Who are you?" She spoke calmly, waiting for a reply.
Loki licked his lips, she was more unnerving than he originally intended. Her blinded eyes, could tell nothing of how serious she was, yet he knew if he once more tried to fool her, Loki would not have an easy fight ahead of him.
"Darling? Oh we are already getting on fast huh?" He smiled, trying to ease into why he initially came. "Well, something already tells me that you know who I am."
She scoffed: "What makes you think that you would hold any importance to me?" She walked past him, and towards the windows, seemingly bored.
"Right...Well, you may know me as The Trickster God?" He was met with silence. "Nothing?"
"Weren't you the one who tried to take over a kingdom, then failed miserably? I can't get into specifics though darling, we would be here all day." She smirked.
He reverted back to his original look, and put his hands in the air. "You caught me, it is I, Loki." He kept a tame face, but anger did start to swell within him.
"Why are you here?" She turned around once more, and sat in her chair of alabaster marble. Crossing her legs, she waited. The contrast from the throne to her skin was mesmerizing.
"We have something in common." He spoke gravely.
"Oh I may doubt that, sweet thing." She laughed. It sounded of chimes.
"I know who you are." Loki came out and said it abruptly.
The once upturned smile she just had, went back into her muted fade again. She had her head turned towards the windows again. He wondered if she could actually see underneath her eye mask.
"I'm a Priestess of Jotunheim, I take care of the sick, and tend to my mass. Whatever grandeur illusions you may have Loki, is not something my powers can fix." She spoke wearily.
"Now, see. This is who you are now, but before, before all of this." He gestured around him. " You were to be the crowned Queen of your Realm! It was your birthright."
"Unlike yours?" She laughed, knowing full well how it would anger the prince. "I don't care about a jeweled crown, if you thought I would, then clearly you do not know me at all."
"And what of the other things you have lost to time?" He spoke again.
In one swift movement she was inches from his face. She spoke menacingly; "You dare speak of it? Do not think the names should ever touch your sickly tongue. I have nothing to say to you, Odinson."
Loki chuckled, "You see sweet thing that, is where you are wrong. I have seen things in my travels, a great deal actually." He began to tell her a plan, the would set things in motion, that even the enchantress could see
"Do you not trust me?" The man held himself confidently as he sat down next to the women he was here to make an offer with. He mocked hurt in his tone of voice.
"I trust you enough as one should, Fury. You helped Tony, and you have helped Steve….I am grateful for both." The women was silent for some moments before speaking again. "I have a life here, at the mansion. I'm a teacher, I have students who love me. Charles and Margot are here too….What you are asking me to do is a lot ya' know." She fidgeted ever so slightly in her chair. The room was silent, except for the distant sound of laughing kids that could be heard outside.
"I know it is and that's why what I'm asking for you is just consider. You have knowledge on this." He said, starting to take out a few folders from a case.
"Knowledge on what?" She chuckled "I know I've been around for a while but it doesn't me-" She was cut off by pictures of the Cube.
"You kept it?" She asked incredulously, Jaime could feel her stomach start to churn.
"Your old pal Howard Stark was the one who dug it up, and SHIELD kept it for study." Fury showed some photos of the site, the site Steve crashed down on.
"And what do you need me for? I'm not a scientist, it's not my field." She closed the folder, flustered. She knew that wasn't what he was asking.
"We don't need you to study it, we need you to retrieve it. It was stolen and I need not remind you of the ramifications of what happens when it ends up in the wrong hands."
It was an automatic and unwanted pull back to seventie years ago in her mind, she could almost hear the gunfire and screams of World War II. They were all so hurt. Pulling herself out of it, she spoke again. "I will give you an answer in 72 hours." Her face was stoic.
Fury smiled. "Great, see you soon." He got up and walked to the door but before leaving the director said one more thing; "I do not want to get in between your new life and your old. But they had to meet eventually... Good day Ms. Vasquez."
Until she could see him leave, Jaime withheld a breath and only released until otherwise. Overwhelmed at the proposition that sat in front of her. 'What am I gonna do?' she thought, and thought, and thought.
"Well you could go." A warm voice said behind her. He rolled into the study and went beside her chair.
"Charles, I'm sorry." They have been together for so long, he could usually tell when her mind was overthinking. She didn't want him to worry. She never did.
"No need to apologize my dear." He tenderly held her hands on his lap. "We both knew this time would come."
"But it doesn't have to." She added in.
He chuckled. "And what of when I pass away? Would you just ignore it? We cannot stay as young and beautiful as you."
"Don't say that Charles." Jaime looked at him forlornly. The years changed everyone, but her.
"I am old, I have wrinkled. Soon my time will come, eventually." He chuckled again. Charles was never afraid of what his destiny may entail.
"You fool, why are you laughing?" She exclaimed, exacerbated by his mood.
"I have lived a wonderful life, with a remarkable woman, who I had a daughter with who is also beautiful. We run a school for people like us, so they can be loved and accepted. We fought for it, and this is what we got in return. I'd say that is an eventful life. Even for a fool." He took her hand and kissed it. His face dropped to concerned; "I've seen you while you slept my dear, you scream out for your friends, and because of the war you wanted nothing to do with. You suffer from so much ill…. But you have a chance to begin again, to help with your night terrors. To perhaps end this on your terms once and for all."
He was right, he was always right. "Charles…"
"We will always be here for when you come back." He reassured her. "Just give it some thought love. Perhaps it is time for you to move forward and start the next chapter of your ever-curious life." He said while going towards the door and leaving.
Events over the next week for Jaime began too quickly. She knew that the Cube didn't need too much time to cause devastating a small luggage bag and going through the large room and study tower Charles had let her use when she first arrived was no easy task, even still, she didn't think it would be this hard to organize her items and plants but she supposed 100 years of living, you end up collecting a lot.
"Need help?" A voice said behind her.
"Margot, actually yes. I am glad you are naturally gifted with strength." Jaime laughed, pointing to a few couches needing to be moved. "My dearest daughter can do that in the very least."
"Can't your mind powers just do this?" Margot sighed out, "and you were never happy about me being strong ma."
"Actually no, the 'mind powers' can't just do all my work for me. And when have I ever told you I wasn't happy about them?" She was shocked by the accusation.
"When I accidentally pushed dad through the second story."
"There was a wall Margot."
"We were playing tag! And you saved him, so it doesn't even count really."
"Uh-huh." They had this fight a dozen times over by this point, and it always went around in circles. "Now are you going to be ok with taking over my spot while I'm gone?" Jaime asked, folding some clothes into her suitcase.
"I think I can handle some teenagers in a history class ma. And as for taking your spot on the team, it's not like we really have done much in like the past forever."
"And that's a good thing." Jaime levitated a book back to its place on the shelf. The soft blue glow dissipated as swiftly as it came around it.
"Are you not bringing your suit?" Margot asked, sitting down on the bed.
"No, apparently Tony is making me something new, with as he said "a little less yellow."
"Wait, Uncle Tony is making you a suit and you are going to help SHIELD? How is that fair? Why couldn't I go? I am more than capable." Brows furrowed together on her forehead.
"Who told you I was helping SHIELD?" Jaime ignored the rest.
"No one." Margot replied quickly and coyly.
Jaime stared at her until she broke. She had a true mother's gift, that was for sure.
"Okay!" She raised her hands up in defeat. "Logan did."
Jaime sighed. "Why do I tell that man anything."
Margot replied in a cartoonishly sounding voice: "Cause we're just know big happy family." She spoke normally: " If family had freaky powers and fought bad guys of course... And if that family had a jet too." She looked off into the distance, deep in thought of just how weird her family was. A mother, who in a several years would look younger than herself, and a father who was now into his eighties. They loved eachother very much, but it was more symbolic than anything nowadays. They were each other's best friend. Margot hoped to meet someone like that one day herself.
"Well there is my answer then." Jaime looked at Margot, and frowned. "I don't have to go ya know."
"Mom." The younger one protested, now cut out of thoughts. Margot didn't really know a lot about her mother's past, she was never really open with it, and neither dad would speak much on the matter either. Saying: 'if your mother wants to tell you, then she will. But it's rude bringing up one's past, especially one as hard as hers.' Although her grandmother's said that she was very close to Captain America and Sergeant Barnes when they were kids growing up. A few quick searches on the internet showed that she was deeply involved with the success in taking down Hydra, but yet when she questioned her, Jaime dismissed it. Her mother was an enigma.
"It's just that this will be bringing up a lot of deeply buried things...And I don't know how long I'll be gone." Jaime said, ready for the smallest of reasons to stay at the mansion. Yet of course they both thought that this was the best course. Saying goodbyes to everyone at the school was more hard than she thought, but that too came to an end.
She could always come back, right?
Her phone went off not long after her departure, immediately answering; "Tony, please tell me you will be here on time." Jaime pleaded over call.
"You know me, how busy I am, people to meet." He replied.
"You sit in your basement and screw around with fancy shit. You have been doing that for as long as I've known you, T." She said with annoyance, looking out over the landscape below.
"Glad to see the whole motherhood thing calmed you down. No one would even notice you that you are a crocheted old women."
"I'm not the one with grays." Before she would let him make a retort she spoke again. "Look I'm just not feeling good with the company we are gunna' be keeping."
"Ah, frozen boyfriend gotcha down?" She could hear the smirk on his face lifting.
"It's not like that T. It's just, he thinks I died a long time ago, as a perfectly average human. They didn't know about that stuff. They didn't need to know about that stuff...The forties wasn't the most forgiving of places."
"Well, what did you think would happen? Once Cap was defrosted, Fury was setting things into motions for you." She could hear Pepper in the background.
"Yeah." Jaime said, knowing it was the inevitable. "Tell P, I said hi." She added.
"Look I'll be there when I can, and uh, it'll be fine." He reassured. He hung up, in usual Stark fashion.
"Yeah it'll be fine my ass, Stark." She grumbled and settled down into her seat more. That man was one of her closest companions, she saw him grow up for god's sake, but he always worried her to no end. Even with intrusive thoughts, Jaime ended up nodding off and while it always started off okay, it would soon turn into nightmares, nightmares that kept her feeling haunted, usually in a pool of sweat. Charles said it was PTSD, but who didn't have it during the War?
"Due to your part with helping us synthesize Project Rebirth, we are granting you access to work alongside Steve Rogers, as you yourself requested for payment. Not on any battlefields of course, but you will be going through basic drills along with him, instructed by Ms. Carter. You will learn what it means to be a citizen of the great United States, working for the Military is a honor. Do not waste it, Ms. Vasquez."
The women nodded, determined.
"We have also been instructed to under no circumstances convey that fact that you are a naturally enhanced human being to anyone who is not deemed qualified. That also includes your friends, Steve Rogers and James Barnes, do I make myself clear?"
"Yes sir." She smiled, this is how she wanted it to be.
"Okay. Welcome to World War II." The man named Chester replied, shaking her hand.
Jolting awake in the back seat, Jaime realized that they were getting closer to the carrier. She went over scenarios in her head, trying to pick the best one, and all of them seemed like shit. What am I going to do? "Hey Steve, I'm not dead! Heya Rogers, how's it going?... Cap." For the love of every god, she could not make this any worse sounding than it was right now in her mind.
"You'll be fine, ma'am." The pilot spoke for the first time since the beginning of the trip. "You'll be working with the best."
Jaime chuckled. "Oh I know." She whispered. Landing, they came to a halt. The bustle of the airstrip almost overwhelmed her. It's been awhile since she went back to the real world. Life at a mansion filled with genetically enhanced humans was surprisingly quiet.
"Here's go nothing."
On the other side of the massive carrier, Steve Rogers looked around, amazed. He was still getting used to anything relating to the new world order. He met up with an Agent Coulson almost immediately. More so, the man ran up to him. After introductions went through, and the strangest request of asking to sign some cards, he went on about another:
"Lotta old faces coming back on the scene, Captain. It'll be great seeing Era back in action, I'd imagine right? Besides that, she hasn't really been in the news since Cuba in the seventies…. I have cards of her too." He smiled; "Limited Edition." He spoke excitedly.
"Era?" Steve asked, eyes still looking in every direction.
"Oh yeah, sorry! A mutant, you probably haven't heard of that term much. They only showed up in papers really until the seventies as well. She has an incredible power set at her disposal. From what we all can tell at least. Real glad she is on our side. And she didn't go by that codename to recently so you probably didn't know." He answered, waving over to a man.
Steve was still in awestruck, everyone seemed to have a gimmick these days.
Blooming and slow steady clouds in all pastel yellows and pinks painted the setting sky around Asgard. Even if the sounds of music could be heard on the wind, it was being offset by the dark mood over the Throne Room. In it sat the king of the Realm, and kneeling was his son and his companion, a silver haired maiden, who was vicious on any battlefield they have fought on.
"We are not for certain what my quisling son is planning, but he had always been one for sitting and waiting for a plan to be conceived…. And it seemed that just that has happened. I have a task for both of you. " The king of Asgard extended and permitted for his children to fair closer. Glancing at one another, they nodded and stood up to look at the all-father.
"I know of the relationship the two of you have with your younger brother but I must insist you put all feelings of clemency aside." All father spoke gently due to the circumstances.
Odin looked to the dusky skinned women and spoke; "Sigrun, you knew Loki more intimately than Thor himself, it has come to my attention that during his absence he sought you out specifically."
His Words struck into her mind deeply, her eyes wandered as her thoughts found themselves in dark places that she hadn't visited since Loki's betrayal was known. 'You are not what you have been lead to believe. Come with me, away from the deceit and cruel chains that once bound us. No one will stand in my way, I will take the throne and once I do… only I can set you free.' The words slithered around in her mind, like a sickly snake poisoning her brain with his bite.
Her hand tightened on the knee she prostrated on, taking a moment to close her eyes and exhale. "All-father, though Loki sought me out it was nothing more than his futile attempts to turn me against my realm and my king. I, Sigrun, daughter of Asgard, am a knight and protector of all the nine realms." She declared firmly.
"Very well my daughter, truer words of loyalty could not have been spoken." He smiled a rare smile.
His gaze turned towards Thor next, "Heimdal has been watching the humans, something has been set into motion and I will not have a wolf at my back." All father's words echoed throughout the halls of the vast throne room.
"The humans are powerful allies father. I do not see the need for bro-" He tried to convince his father of their worth and honor, but was cut off.
"They are mortal. A mere moment in the vast ages in that which we exist. You most of all my son must understand that you heart is misplaced among them." He knew his attachment over the human woman, Jane, that he sought to protect was small in the grander scale of life.
"Father, loyalty to my home will always exceed my personal desires, but-" He was interrupted once more.
"My children do not let your heart steer you away from the path that I have placed before you. It will be by your hand that all nine realms will be united and thus once again safe." He looked down to both Sigrun and Thor, and was confident in their mission placed before them.
"We shall not fail you father." They spoke unanimously, and with one more bow, they dismissed themselve out the throne two were silent, yet held doubts and questions. Making their way slowly to prepare for the journey ahead the tension could be felt in all that regarded them.
Thor watched Sigrun inspect her armor, "Why did you lie to father Sig?" He questioned.
"I do not know of what you speak of." She continued to look down at her armour.
"I've known you for over 300 years Sigrun, we grew up together, fought together. You are my sister in everything but blood. I know when you are lying. You learned that skill from Loki." He spoke accusingly. "So I ask you again." The god corners her against the stone wall. "What are you hiding?"
She wouldn't meet his eyes and it seemed like her guilt finally broke her resolve. "What are you hiding, Thor." It was a statement. "You lied as well." Her eyes flew open and scowled back. "Do not think you are the only one that wants to protect their own heart." A hint of jealousy flared within her, one she hoped Thor couldn't see.
"Are you scheming with my brother?" His tone grew impatient. As she tried to leave, he stepped into her path once more and grabbed at her forearm. "Tell me the truth Sigrun and I shall not doubt your loyalties any longer." His voice was almost a whisper, that sent shivers up her spine.
"I owe you no explanation." Sigrun said, staring him straight into his eyes. They stood there for moments before she finally spoke again."I was deceived at first by Loki's lies. I turned my back on you for fear of what you had become. Everyone had at some point begin to doubt you."
He gripped her arm harder, and in a swift movement was put up against the wall harshly. "Your body betrayed you...since it doesn't explain the reaction from father when he spoke of Loki. " She was so close to his face, Sigrun could count each freckle if given the time.
"You are not the only one that suffered physical scars of his betrayal. Any more than that is none of your concern or business. Now release me." She commanded.
He looked at, trying to search her face for any cue for him to continue this discussion, but after moments of silence, he let her go and went back the prepping table. "I am sorry for threatening you Sigrun. I have been at a loss as to who I can trust after all that has happened."
She didn't know if she should have replied, or left him in silence, but she gave in; "I as well Thor but you need not worry about my love for you dear brother. I shall be your blade in this life and the next." A smile graced her face.
"To Valhalla and back." He replied, smiling too. They gripped each other's forearms in an extended handshake. They would be connected till the end of their days.
They didn't know what would be entailed onto their long trek back through the stars and onto Earth, but they knew that they had to stop Loki and retrieve the Tesseract. By any means necessary.
So that's chapter 1. Please let us know what cha think
-Ellie and Sparrow.
