Abandonment

Night

Part 1

Darkness is a concept not truly understood by many—especially by Asgardians. The heaven-like realm is a beacon of light, so even at nightfall the buildings, the water, the people, everything glows. Even at the darkest hour of the night—midnight—Asgard still possesses the luminosity of a candle.

Midgard, I realized, is different. In a moment of raw indifference, before the dread set in, I pondered why such a place was deemed so important. Odin seemed to favor Midgard, but as far as I could tell it was a barren wasteland of darkness. I couldn't even see my own hands.

Without thinking, I yelled out, "Loki?"

Silence.

"Loki?"

I heard a click to my right, so I jumped to my feet and sprinted in that direction. Almost immediately, I tripped and tumbled to the ground.

"Loki?" My voice was cracking. "Loki…Loki…Please…"

Then the tears began to fall. I pulled myself from the ground and looked up into the sky, because I knew not where else to look.

"LOKI!" I screamed. "Don't do this! Loki!"

I absently realized I was sobbing. If I was not blind to everything around me, perhaps I would have been disgusted, angry with myself, but the darkness made me feel undone.

For perhaps the first time in my entire existence, I was alone.

Though I could see my hands, morning brought no enlightenment. I knew not where I was; I knew not how to return home. Heimdall would not hear me no matter what I did. Loki made that clear.

Galdrs in hand, I stumbled across the desert in agony. I hungered for sustenance, as I had only eaten an apple a full day ago. My body still ached from the sex of two nights before. My thoughts, however, were, by far, the worst.

He is punishing you. He will be back any moment to collect you. He will take you home. Do not lose faith.

The words of reason I repeated to myself eventually were smothered by the idea that he truly had abandoned me. He hated me. He wanted me out of his life.

Perhaps it is time we end this pointless relationship.

At the memory of his cruel words, I dropped to my hands and knees, choking on some invisible force that left me gasping for air.

I screamed to the sky again, voice refusing to reach a reasonable volume due to my sobbing, "LOKI! FORGIVE ME! LOKI! MY KING!"

I collapsed to the ground and curled into fetal position, unable to imagine anything other than his arms around me.

Eventually I pulled my mind and body into an empty shell of myself for the sake of finding food and water. I trekked across the desert until long past midday and came across a dirt road. Off in the distance, I could just see a building rising out of the cracked earth. I turned in that direction.

I walked into a town made up of five buildings.

"Ma'am? Are you alright?" I turned to see an older man with a strange hat on his head and shaded spectacles over his eyes. He pushed them up his nose with his thumb.

Suddenly I realized what I must have looked like. I still wore one of my glamorous Asgardian frocks, with my hair pulled back in a golden clasp, but I was covered from head to toe with dust from the desert.

I opened my mouth to respond to the man, but the roof of my mouth was so dry that words wouldn't come out. I shook my head.

"Come into the diner, I'll buy you something to eat."

While I waited for food, the man directed me across the restaurant to the bathroom. Looking in the mirror, I realized I looked worse than I thought. My skin was coated in a mixture of dirt and sweat, making my pigmentation darker than I had ever seen. The makeup from Asgard was now smeared across my face, making my tear stained cheeks extremely obvious. My eyes were bloodshot.

I looked insane. I took care to wash my arms and face so that I was presentable to some degree, then returned to the table, where some sort of breaded meat awaited me. I was too hungry to care and inhaled the entire meal and three glasses of water.

"How did you get this far out?" The man asked me after a while. "You came walking in from the desert—there ain't nothing out there."

I sighed. "I am not from around here…"

"That much is pretty obvious, honey," the waitress chimed in from the other side of the counter. The wagged her finger at me. "What happened to you?"

What could I possibly give as a reason for being out in the middle of the desert. These humans possessed no knowledge of Asgard and therefore mentioning Loki or that I was his betrothed would do nothing but make me sound crazy. I had read about the evolution of the human world. They no longer worshiped the great Odin as god.

There was no way to explain it. "Thank you for the food. I apologize for not having any money."

"Happy to help."

"I would like to get to a bit more populated of an area. Which way should I travel?"

"The next town's Clarkston, twenty miles east of here," he pointed in the opposite direction of where I came. "It's a bit bigger but not much."

"I see. I shall continue on by foot then. I thank you again for your kind charity. I wish there to be some way to repay you for your good deed. I bid you farewell."

He nodded, glancing between the waitress and I.

I walked until the sun was setting, then crawled onto a rare patch of tall grass and slept the night through.

I reached the town before midday and was greeted by a sign reading 'Welcome to Clarkson, New Mexico.'

It was quite a bit bigger than the last town, but it was still miniscule in comparison.

What am I even doing? It was as if I was attempting to travel somewhere, but I still had hardly any idea where I was. I was not a scholar—I did not study Midgardian geography for fun. The land known as 'New Mexico' meant nothing to me. No battles took place there. There were no temples constructed to honor Odin.

On top of all that, I didn't know the name of a single human being, nor did I have a way to earn currency to make a living for myself. Humans have a reputation for barbarism. How could I possibly lower myself to such a level?

I stumbled into another diner and politely asked to use their washroom. The woman looked a bit annoyed, but allowed it. I drank my fill of water there and washed my face again. I desired to be able to wash my hair, but there was no way to do so. This time, I took more care to wipe the dirt from my dress as well. Then, I continued through back into the desert.

I traveled onward for two more days and nights. Food posed a bit of a problem over my journey. I was lucky when others offered to treat me, but generally there was no one. It was not a long term solution. Eventually, I would need to put faith in someone and settle down. Even after contemplating it for two straight days, the idea was disturbing and difficult.

On the morning of the third day, I woke up what I imagined was halfway between two towns. I would likely arrive at the outskirts of the next town by noon, at which point I would need to come by some food, or at least some water. I walked for a couple hours, and could just see some of the town's outer buildings when I heard a vehicle come up behind me. I had already grown used to the humans' mode of transportation. They seemed convenient—more so, I imagined, a bit guiltily, than a legion of horses. Most just drove by, but some slowed to a halt and asked me if I wished to be driven to the next town; I always refused. This one seemed to be the later. I turned my head to see a larger black one move by and stop a little ways ahead of me. I slowed down, but didn't stop walking.

Three men got out, all wearing darkened spectacles and suits, even in the hot weather. They were far more clean shaven than those from the towns. One of them removed his spectacles and took a few steps closer.

"Hello, Miss," he said, with a faint smile on his face. "Would you mind if I ask you a few questions?"

It was suspicious. I remained silent, pondering him for a moment. When he took another step towards me I moved Galdrs in front of me, hoping to be a bit threatening. To my surprise, he jerked back, as if fearing a great blow.

"You may," I finally allowed.

He visibly relaxed. "According to our sources, you wandered into a town fifty miles west four days ago from the middle of nowhere. Where did you come from?"

"Far away." It was an intentionally stubborn answer. He has obviously been tracking me. I didn't like that.

"Far as in Arizona?" I looked at him, a bit confused. He sighed. "I'll be blunt. Over the past few days, there have been quite a few disturbances in this area. Extraterrestrial disturbances. There have been a lot of strange people walking around and I would venture to guess that you are one of them."

"Strange how?"

He ignored me. "Are you an Asgardian?"

"…Yes."

"I would like you to come with me." I opened my mouth to retort. "Please don't misunderstand me—I am aware that you have enough strength to go on your way. But—and correct me if I'm wrong—you seem to be wandering aimlessly. You don't have anywhere to go, right?"

I nodded curtly. It was immature, but, despite the fact that this man's arrival had given me some resemblance of a purpose, I was angry that he felt he could waltz in and manipulate me.

"Then, please." He gestured to the vehicle. I stepped inside and took a seat on one of the benches. Someone slammed the doors shut behind us and I felt everything jolt as we began to move.

"What shall I call you?"

"Sigyn."

"Agent Phil Coulson," he said, extending his hand. I took it, a bit awkwardly, and we shook hands. "How did you end up here? Thor, apparently, was banished."

Thor. He was telling the truth. "Is Thor here?" Why didn't I think of that before? Oh, please, let him be here.

"No, he returned to Asgard two days ago."

No. No.

Coulson was still watching me, waiting for me to answer his question. "I was… left here…"

How did I even begin? He would never understand. He must have sensed my reluctance, because he went on speaking as if he was satisfied with my answer.

"Six days ago, a man and a hammer fell from the sky. The man—Thor—was brought to a local hospital. The hammer became a point of excitement around the area, as no one could lift it. We claimed the area to study it. Thor came to retrieve it, but he was unable to lift it, and we kept him for holding. Apparently he had lost his powers. Thor eventually was allowed to leave. This is, I believe, around the time you arrived, four days ago?"

I nodded.

"Once he was back in town, four more people arrived—three men and a woman."

"Lady Sif and the Warriors Three," I cut in. He pulled out a notepad and wrote that down.

"Shortly after their arrival, a large metal being arrived. It maimed a few of our employees, then continued on to the town."

"The Destroyer."

"The… Destroyer?" I nodded and he wrote that down. "What do you know about it?"

"It is invincible. A servant of the king. There should be no reason for it to attack a town…"

"Thor, at some point, regained his strengths, and the hammer, and defeated it. He and the others said that it was sent by Thor's brother—Loki."

All of my composure left me instantly when I heard his name. I put my head in my hands and the rawness returned. Blood roared in my ears. My arms shook. How could he? He would attack his own brother?

He abandoned you. This is no lower.

"Then what?" I asked without looking up. I had to know.

Coulson hesitated for a moment, confused by my reaction. "Thor and his friends returned to Asgard, where we can only assume a battle ensued. Our scientists were already studying whatever energy it was that transported Thor and the others, from the signal received when he first arrived. It flickered and disappeared entirely after an hour."

I considered this. He was talking about the energy produced by the Bifrost, but, supposedly, that energy never entirely disappeared. Something wasn't adding up.

"We intercept an encrypted message—directed to a woman Thor befriended while he was here—stating the threat is gone, but the Bifrost had to be destroyed."

The threat is gone. The threat was Loki. What does that mean?

"If you don't mind me asking, what is your relationship to Thor and Loki?"

I couldn't tell him. How could I admit that the man that wrecked so much havoc across the area was my fiancé? He isn't anymore. He made that very clear.

My thoughts were the death of me. Blood drained from my face. I pressed my hand to the bridge of my nose.

"Loki… he left me here." I raised my eyes to watch his reaction. He opened his mouth, then snapped it shut again.

"…Why?"

"I am—he is—" I stuttered. "We were betrothed."

After taking a deep breath, I explained in very, very little detail what occurred in Asgard while Thor was on Earth, along with what my relationship with Loki was. He took notes, which was intimidating and, quite frankly, annoying. It was like he was studying me.

"So you're Loki's fiancé?" Coulson asked. I felt the vehicle pull to a halt.

I hesitated. "I—I don't think I quite am… anymore…"

He looked a bit awkward, as he stood up.

"What is next for me, then?" To be entirely honest, I was a bit afraid that he would toss me back on the street.

"We could use some help studying Asgard, if you'd be willing."

"I do not have anything better to do, I suppose."

A/N Reviews are appreciated!

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