Rowena felt sick. She had slipped into the audience hall and had overheard everything that Loki had said and the sentence Odin had passed on him. Now she hurried back through the streets of Asgard to Garmond's shop to tell him and the others the news. When she got there she fairly fell upon the door and knocked insistently on it. Nothing. All was quiet. With a sigh Rowena realized she was a fool, for she had forgotten that they had a secret knock now. With a bit more composure she carefully knocked out the sequence and the door was immediately opened to her. She hurried into the crowded room as everyone pelted her with questions.
"Silence!" Garmond bellowed over the commotion. When everyone had quieted down, Garmond moved a chair out into the middle of the room for Rowena and asked her to sit down. "Now," he continued once she had complied. "Tell us everything that happened."
"Well, The Phantom and I were just finishing our rounds and coming back here, when he suddenly pushed me away and told me to run as the skies suddenly lit up with lightning." Rowena began. "I ran and hid in a stable and saw that Prince Thor was making the lightning before he darted down into the streets. After a few minutes I decided I had better go find them and try to distract Thor from catching The Phantom, but I was too late. When I came upon them something had happened to the Phantom's hand, it was all bloody, and Prince Thor took him back to the palace. But harken to this, The Phantom Watchmen is none other than Prince Loki!" At this a incredulous murmur arose from the assembly.
"It's true!" Rowena protested. "I followed them back to the palace and went in by a different way and waited for them in the audience hall. It turns out that Loki was bitten by a wraith, giving him the ability to phase through walls! He did it with me once, but he told me it was magic. But here's the worst part: because no walls can contain him, and he is supposed to be a prisoner, the King has decided that he must be sent to the prisons among the roots of Yggdrasil!"
Silence. Everyone was to stunned to say anything.
"But. . . he does not deserve that," one woman whispered.
"We should write a petition," one young man suggested. "Beg the Allfather to reconsider."
Everyone murmured in agreement until Garmond's voice rose above the rest. "No," he said firmly, causing everyone to quiet down. "A petition would avail us little given the circumstances. Rather, we must honor The Phantom's legacy and continue to help the poor with no glory to ourselves." Everyone reluctantly agreed. "Everyone go now to your homes, and pray daily to the Norns for mercy for our Phantom Watchman." Everyone quietly filed out the doors until Rowena and Garmond were alone.
"No doubt there will be a crowd to see Prince Loki off. Will you come with me there?" Rowena asked.
"I will," Garmond affirmed. "We must support him to the end, even if he does not see us."
"Agreed," Rowena said as Garmond opened the door and escorted her back to her abode in silence.
The sun rose the next day and illuminated the grand city of Asgard with a gold hue. But despite the cheerful glow of the metropolis there was no joy among the members of the royal household, for today was the day Loki was to be sent off to his dismal doom. The spaceship was prepared for departure, and besides four guards, the two pilots were ready and waiting. The royal family was assembled at the landing platform along with various nobles and officials that had come to ogle at the condemned prince of Asgard. Loki was brought forth from the dungeons, blinking in the brilliant light, as the soldiers moved a respectful distance away that the family might say their final goodbye. Frigga flung her arms around her youngest son and began to sob unconsolable as Loki tried to put comforting arms around her despite his chains.
"Don't cry mother, look at the bright side: you'll never have to worry about me getting into trouble again," Loki said, seemingly indifferent.
"Don't say that, I'll always worry. More now than ever before. Oh my son, I love you so terribly much."
"I suppose it wouldn't do any good to remind you that I'm not your son," Loki said callously.
"You will always be my son Loki. Always," Frigga said as she regained control of herself and pulled away from her son, wiping the tears from her face. Odin stepped up and laid a hand on his wayward son's shoulder.
"I am sorry for the mistakes I have made in the past Loki, but I cannot change what has happened. Please understand that I act now in the best interest of Asgard."
"I sometimes wonder if you do not rule Asgard, but rather that Asgard rules you," Loki said a bit harshly. Odin just gave a slight nod in acquiescence and stepped back as Thor stepped up.
"I always knew that there was still good in you, brother, and I am sorry you must be punished for the good you have done our people." Loki was silent for a few moments, seeming to not be able to think of any derogatory remarks for his brother.
"Promise me something," Loki said abruptly.
"Almost anything," Thor responded with a slight smile.
"Promise me you won't do anything rash or stupid in my absence, will you?" he asked as if he was only going to be gone for a short time. Thor's eyes filled with tears as he embraced his little brother in a tight embrace and said lowly in Loki's ear,
"I promise." They pulled away and Loki gave him a curt nod and started to walk towards the ship as the guards closed around him again.
"Your friends are here, over to the right," the wraith murmured into his mind. Loki casually looked it that direction and caught sight of Rowena and Garmond. When he saw Rowena's sorrowful face he slowed to a stop as the guards looked curiously at him.
Suddenly Rowena couldn't stand it any longer and she ran up to Loki, much to the guard's shock, and flung her arms around his neck and kissed him full in the mouth, much to his astonishment and everyone else's. When she pulled away after a few moments he laughed, almost gayly, much to the assembly's bewilderment.
"So after all our misadventures, you still insist upon loving worthless me?" he asked flippantly.
"Yes, I do," Rowena replied, thrown a little of balance.
"Whatever possessed you to do that?" he asked casually.
"Love does not follow logic, it goes wherever it wills," Rowena replied earnestly.
"Well you have waisted your time, I have never loved you and I doubt I'll even miss you," he said harshly as he caught sight of Garmond who had come up to stand behind Rowena. "See to it that she finds someone who will actually love and care about her," Loki said as he roughly pushed Rowena towards Garmond and continued on to the space ship with long, quick strides.
Rowena was stunned. Tears wouldn't even come to her eyes as she watched Loki board the ship and depart into the sky. The royal family came up to them and the Queen gently put her arm around Rowena's shoulders.
"He was lying," Garmond said quietly, immediately gaining Rowena's attention. "When he looked up at me I could see the aching affection, the regret, the sorrow in his eyes. I think he really did love you Rowena, but wanted you to hate and despise him so that you would not be heartbroken."
Rowena bowed her head into her hands as the tears finally came.
It takes six days to travel to the roots of Yggdrasil and six days to travel back. This was the fourteenth day from Loki and his escort's departure. Thor strode quickly into the audience chamber and it was immediately evident that Odin had come to the same conclusion as Thor had.
"Ships must be sent to search for the missing vessel," Odin said at Thor's approach. "Take five ships and all the men you need and search for them," he commanded.
"Right away, Father," Thor said as he strode out of the audience hall mere seconds after he had entered. Sif and the Warriors Three were waiting for him without.
"Did he agree with your proposal?" Sif asked as they approached Thor.
"Yes, but I didn't even have to ask. Did you have the five ships prepared as I told you?" Thor inquired.
"Everything is ready for our departure," Frandal confirmed.
"Excellent, let us go," Thor said as they headed toward the spaceship docks.
Eight days after Thor's departure, one ship returned bearing grim news. Prince Thor had sent the one ship back to Asgard bearing the remains of the body of one of the guards assigned to Loki. The body could not be identified any further, so mangled and burnt it was. The crew of the ship reported that the others had remained to search for more wreckage and evidence in that area of space, and would return in two more days.
Two days later, right on schedule, the fours ships returned. Thor went to the audience chamber to make his report to his parents and the other noblemen and officials.
"What did you find?" Odin inquired when Thor reached the base of the stairs before the throne.
"Very little," Thor replied in a grim voice. "Besides the body we found floating in space that was returned here earlier, we found only a few small chard pieces of hull from the ship, and that was all."
"No evidence of who attacked the ship or what happened to the other passengers?" Frigga asked despondently.
"No, nothing," Thor said dejectedly. "I have asked Heimdal to continue looking for them, so for now all we can do is wait."
They had appeared out of nowhere. Before anyone on the ship bound for the prisons of Yggdrasil could react, a tractor beam had locked onto them and was pulling them towards the massive cube. The direness of the moment gave incentive for the guards to yield to Loki's pleas and unlock the chains that not only bound his hands but also his magic. When his bonds were loosed he immediately launched an attack on the ship and destroyed the tractor beam. As soon as the ship was free it went at full speed back on it's course. But the speed of the Asgardian ship was nothing compared to the speed which the giant cube could exert. In a matter of seconds it was back on top of them, and sent a short burst of energy into the engines of the ship, causing them to explode and instantly killing one of the guards who was standing to close to the engines, and wounding or knocking out the other guards.
Loki too was throne against the wall from the impact, and as he drifted off into unconsciousness he saw three figures appear from nothing inside their ship and say in unison,
"We are the Borg. You will be assimilated. Resistance is futile."
The End
But Also The Beginning
A/N: Obviously, an explanation is is order. I had trouble figuring out how to end this story, so I decided to make is go right into my next story, which is in progress but not yet posted. As you might be able to tell if you are a Star Trek fan, the next story will be a crossover. If you like my stories, check out my account on , on which I update and post on MUCH more quickly, because it is much easier to use than this website. Also, if you are a picture lover like me, check out this story on Quotev and it will have a picture for every chapter. Thanks for reading! Comments are appreciated.