Ch.9: And then the sea swept in and left us all speechless
Loki, PLEASE, don't make this worse!
If he doesn't take his hand off you right now, I'm going to-
Going to what? You're a universe away! You know I can take care of myself!
I can still scare him.
I don't need you to scare him. Please, just- don't do anything stupid.
Loki was less than pleased by his current situation. He could see Steve Rogers pinning Sigyn to the wall by her neck. He knew she could take care of it in a blink, but his instincts were to protect her. And knowing there was nothing he could do right now, except watch, he felt absolutely helpless and frustrated.
If I'm ever back on Midgard, I'm going to kill him.
"You lied to us!" Steve repeated, tightening his grip on her neck.
Sigyn just stared at him. Little did he know she had already put a force field around her neck the moment she saw him barreling towards her.
"You know I can knock you unconscious, right?" She said. Steve looked at her confused, he was squeezing her windpipe tight, how did she not feel any effect?
"Steve! Let her go!" Bucky shouted, rushing to help her.
Sigyn didn't wait for Bucky to get close, though. The last Steve saw where her eyes glowing golden. In a flash, she wasn't there and Steve tripped forward. Another flash and Sigyn was behind him, a little push and he was face first on the wall.
"Ow!" Steve growled. "What-? Let me go!"
Sigyn's hand was less than an inch away from Steve's back. The was something pushing him to the wall, something he couldn't overcome. Bucky just stood there in shock.
"Are you gonna calm down?" She said in a low tone.
Steve nodded stiffly. Sigyn let him go of the spell, and he gasped.
"Do me a favor and don't attack me again. I hate teleporting. Makes me dizzy." She said before he could even move. Bucky glared at Steve and got close to Sigyn.
"Are you alright?" He asked her, trying to look at her neck for any bruising. There was none.
"I'm fine." She deadpanned and went to get her abandoned tea. Then she sat on a table and looked at both men.
Steve was breathing hard, still fuming. "You lied to us." He said again. Sigyn rolled her eyes.
"I thought we went through that already." She said, sipping her tea. "YES, I lied to you. I've been lying to a lot of people about that. But, would you have let me help if I'd told you the truth?"
Bucky and Steve shared a glance. She was right, Steve wouldn't have let her anywhere near Bucky if he had known. She still helped him, them. Bucky was willing to overlook it, but Steve wasn't inclined to do so.
"Are you seriously going to throw the whole team on me?" She said, interrupting their wordless moment. "I mean, I expected Sharon, but Wanda? Do you know the danger you're putting her in?"
"How did you-" Steve was now borderline terrified. As on cue, Sharon entered the cafeteria followed by Wanda.
"Don't even try, little witch, you might not like what you see." Sigyn said, side-eyeing Wanda. No one said anything, as Wanda kept staring at her. "Fine, suit yourself." Sigyn shrugged.
Why are you letting the hag read you?
Wait for it.
Sigyn just stared at the table in front of her. It wasn't long before Wanda started panting. Her eyes flooded with tears as she started sobbing uncontrollably. Everyone got a little nervous, but they were paralyzed. Wanda clutched her chest tight, as her sobs turned into an effort to keep breathing. She fell to the floor.
"What are you doing to her?!" Steve ran to Wanda's side. "Stop that!"
"I am not doing anything. I told her to stay away from my head." Sigyn said plainly.
"So much pain…" Wanda muttered, shaking her head.
"What did you see?" Steve asked Wanda, holding her close as he helped her up. Wanda didn't answer, just looked at Sigyn.
"She saw my children being slaughtered." Sigyn was the one to answer. "She saw my husband being tortured. She saw me being executed."
"Wait, you had children?" Bucky asked. Sigyn just looked at him and nodded. "With that guy? How?"
She rolled her eyes. "Midgardians and Asgardians means of reproduction are basically the same." Bucky's expression was right in between confused and disgusted.
"Did he slaughter your children?" Steve asked with more than a hint of malice.
"Of course you lot would think that!" Everyone turned to see Loki standing against the wall with a scowl on his face.
"How is this not making things worse, Loki?" Sigyn snapped. Bucky and Steve were ready to fight, while Wanda, still recovering from Sigyn's memories, tried to blast Loki with magic, but the spell went right through and burned the wall. "It's just an illusion! Sit the fuck down!"
"What a waste of a witch you are if you cannot tell the difference." Loki snarled at Wanda.
"Loki, please, shut up and leave!"
"I am not leaving." Loki said as his illusion made believe he was leaning on the wall. "I am going to be here, while you tell them everything."
Sigyn swallowed hard. Bucky was the first to calm down, and sat in front of her. Steve just couldn't be calm with Loki in the room, illusion or not. Sharon was the one to break the uncomfortable silence, sitting next to Sigyn.
"Bucky said your real name is Sigyn." She nodded. "I read about you. How Loki tricked you into marrying him." Sigyn smiled and Loki rolled his eyes. "And about- your children."
"Narfi and Vàli." Sigyn said, smile dropping from her face. "They were the most beautiful boys in the universe. But-"
"They were murdered." Loki said somberly.
"The myth says something about Baldr?" Sharon tried.
"His wife, Nanna. She thought Loki had killed Baldr."
"Did he?" Steve said coldly, getting a more than a few hard glares.
"No, I didn't." Loki spat.
"But she wouldn't listen. She-" Sigyn stopped, after all this time, the memories were still too painful.
"Nanna mind-controlled one of our sons to kill the other. When Vàli saw what he had done-"
"He killed himself."
Sigyn couldn't help the flow of emotions. It had been a long time since she had spoken about the death of her children. But it still hurt like the first day. It was a shadow that would never leave her heart. Illusions flashed around the room: two little kids chasing each other, a tiny wolf pup with white and golden fur, a raven haired boy hiding underneath the bed. A horse race, an archery contest. One boy studying, while the other threw balls of static at him.
Sigyn…
I'm sorry.
She shook her head and the illusions were gone. "In retaliation, Loki killed her son. And he was tortured for it." Sigyn kept going. Loki was silent.
"I read about the cave and the poison. Was that real?" Sharon asked. Sigyn nodded.
"What cave?" Bucky asked, Loki just glared at him.
"The cave where I was bound to the bedrock and drained of my magic while a serpent endlessly dripped poison on me, melting my flesh away." Loki snarled. "Want to know what it felt like?"
Wanda shuddered visibly: that was one of the things she had felt in Sigyn's mind. Steve noticed.
"You made Wanda see that?" Steve said.
"She was inside my head cause you asked her to, Rogers." Sigyn looked at him with contempt. "But, really. Do you want to know what it felt like?" She repeated Loki's words to him. "Want to see what Wanda saw? What it was that destroyed our family and our lives?" Sigyn stood up in front of Steve defiantly.
"What are you going to do? Torture me?"
"I don't have to." She looked at Loki, who nodded curtly.
Sigyn put a hand on Steve chest. Immediately, he doubled down in pain. His skin felt like molten lava slowly peeling off his body. He fought for breath, but the tiniest movements were ripping his ribcage open. He couldn't see, as he was surrounded in darkness. He wanted to scream, but he had no air left to make any sound. He was drowning, and he was going to pass out any second now.
"Sigyn, stop!" Steve heard Bucky's voice like a distant murmur. The pain slowly subsided, and he was able to breathe again. When the world came back to focus, he was kneeling on the floor, drenched in sweat.
"And that was a tiny glimpse of what Skadi's snake venom will do to you." Loki said.
"Remember how I told you my banishment was my sacrifice?" Sigyn said to Steve. "I offered my life to get Loki out of that cave. Odin accepted it. I was going to be executed." She sat back on her spot.
"Frigga was the one to save her. They tricked Odin, and me, into thinking she was dead."
"But instead I was banished here."
"And I didn't know she was alive until very recently."
Everyone stayed silent for a moment. Steve was still breathing hard. Not only he could feel the physical pain of Loki's punishment. He also felt the loss, the despair that made Sigyn sacrifice her own life to salvage the only thing she had left. Steve had lost his family too, and he knew it was a grief that would never go away. He slowly regained his composure.
I think it's time for you to leave. Sigyn looked at Loki. He looked back, rolling his eyes before disappearing.
"Well, that was the flash version of our story." She said. "It doesn't justify anything, but now at least you know a little more."
Steve was still on edge, but he sat besides Bucky and stared at Sigyn.
"Still doesn't explain why you helped us." He said.
"You're not going to find any reason other than you need my help, I provide it." She explained. "I am a healer, Steve, by profession and by calling. It's what I've been doing my whole life."
"And she did." Steve and Sigyn looked at Bucky. "Steve, she said she was going to help me and she delivered. Blaming her for whatever that- Loki-did is like blaming me for what I did for Hydra."
"Bucky is right, Steve." Sharon agreed.
Steve looked at Wanda, silently asking for her opinion. "I have to agree with them. Everything I saw…" She sighed. "I can tell she's not lying about this."
Steve looked at everybody, feeling extremely uncomfortable. "Even if Loki was not in the picture, what happened today-"
"You're scared of me. You've always been…" Sigyn said with a sigh. "Well, I already did what I set up to do." She added, looking briefly at Bucky. "I'll be leaving tomorrow."
"What? No, you can't leave!" Bucky said, visibly shaken.
"You don't need me anymore, Bucky. I already fixed what I could fix. Everything else is on you."
Bucky shook his head. "I do need you…" He said almost pleading, before turning to Steve. "I'm holding you responsible for that. Maybe I shouldn't have told you."
Bucky stood up, looking as if he wanted to say something, but couldn't, and walked out. Steve groaned loudly.
"Your boyfriend, your problem." Sharon said, making Wanda giggle. Steve just glared at them and followed Bucky.
Wanda sighed and sat on Bucky's empty chair. "I'm sorry about that."
"Yeah, me too…" Sigyn said. "But at least is all out now. I felt really bad lying to you all. Especially you, Sharon. You've been nothing but nice to me when you didn't have to."
"Being me, I do understand the value of secrecy." Sharon said with a smile. "And you were right when you told Steve that he didn't need to know. Look where it got us!"
"It was bound to come out at some point. And I knew he would react that way." Sigyn looked at Wanda. "I'm sorry about what you saw, it was really mean of me to show you all that."
"I blame Steve for it too." Wanda said, crossing her arms on her chest. "He knows I'm still learning."
Sigyn made her half empty cup disappear. "With proper training you could be very good. I know they have trained you in basic combat, but there's so much more you can do."
"Could you train me?"
"If you're ever allowed back in New York…" Sigyn smiled.
The three women kept silent for a while. Out of the blue, Sharon chuckled.
"I'm sorry." She said shaking her head. "I was just thinking about how adorable you were finishing each other's sentences!"
Sigyn laughed loudly. "We basically live inside each other's head."
"Could you tell us more?" Wanda said. "Not the bad side, though, it was enough for one day."
"It's a really long story." Sigyn warned, but still giggled at the eager look on their faces. "You guys are ridiculous, but fine."
I hope you tell them all the good stuff about me.
I'll think about it.
Come on! I wasn't so bad, was I?
Only sometimes.
But you still loved me.
I still love you, you idiot.