Chapter 21
"Let me go back!" I screamed, kicking at the person holding me, who let go and let me fall to my hands and knees onto the cold floor of the Bifrost. I looked up and saw it was Thor, who was covered in little cuts and bruises, but otherwise unharmed. He did have a hurt expression on his face. "Please! I have to go back for him!"
"Ashley!" Natasha ran up and pulled me to my feet. I swayed, and she grabbed my shoulders, steadying me. "Ashley, he's gone!"
"The entire cliff is gone," Heimdall said.
I looked up at him. "He's not dead," I whispered, letting my head fall back down. I backed away from Natasha and looked around. Thor, Natasha, Jeremy and I were the only ones who came up. "W-where is everybody?"
"Steve, Clint, Sam, Peter, Susan, and Johnny are all with healers," Thor said, and my head spun.
"Tony, Rhodey, Reed, Ben, and Maria took most of the villains back to Avengers Tower before the cliff collapsed," Natasha added.
"Most?" I asked.
"Some escaped," she sighed.
"And Doctor Banner?" I asked.
"I have no idea," she admitted.
I sniffed, and then looked down at my clothes. My battle armor had dissolved, and I was back to the black tank top and yoga pants. I took a deep breath and created an illusion of my gray robes until I could actually go back to my room and put them on.
"Are you three hurt?" I asked them. Jeremy was staring amazed at my new outfit, but all three of them shook their heads. "Good. Let's go up to the palace and check on the others. I will have the guards find you two sleeping arrangements for the night, Thor, you... whatever," I shook my head and quickly walked out onto the bridge. I had to keep mentally reminding myself that I was still Queen until Thor decided to take the title away from me, and people were looking to me for strength, so I couldn't be crying. But I couldn't help it. Even though I kept saying he faked his death again, I couldn't stop thinking; What if he really is dead?
I pushed the thought away and looked around at the stars. They were truly gorgeous, even if they seemed to be shining just a bit too bright, given the circumstances...
Damn it, Ashley, they're stars; they don't know Loki just died! A little voice in my head mentally shouted at me.
He's not dead! I shouted back.
Saying that won't bring him back.
The little shit faked it again. That's all, I thought firmly, ending the mental argument.
We finally arrived at the palace, which seemed to take a lot longer than usual, and were greeted with shouts and cries of joy. Citizens who heard about what happened had gathered around the palace gates to see if we were okay. As we walked by, I nodded and shook hands, but I didn't hear a word anyone said until I felt someone shake my shoulder. I looked back and saw Sif standing there, her face full of concern.
"My Queen, where is Loki?" She asked.
"Lady Sif, please inform the city that I will be making an address later tonight. I will explain everything that happened," I said, and she nodded, and then turned around and walked away quickly.
As soon as the four of us were inside the gates, they were shut tight behind us, shutting off the commotion. My head was pounding and my ears were ringing as we entered the palace foyer. I let Thor lead the way up to the healers' room so I didn't get us lost. When we got up to the door, it sounded like a party was going on.
We walked in the door and found all six of them that were brought up here were up and sipping on drinks and chattering away. As soon as I walked in the healers bowed, and I walked up to the lead healer.
"How are they?" I asked.
"Fine, ma'am. Nobody suffered any permanent injuries, and we were able to heal all of them without trouble," she said happily.
"Good. Thank you," I said, and she nodded. I walked back out of the room, leaving them to their happy victory. There were four guards in the hallway, and I stopped them as they were walking by. "If you could, please, I have guests staying here tonight, if you could find them beds to sleep in. There are five men and two women; they can sleep in the same rooms respectively. Also, if you could have an extra bed sent up to my room, for my brother. Thor will be in his own room."
"Yes, My Queen. Right away," one of them said, and they all bowed and marched down the hallway.
"It must be nice having all this power," I heard my brother say behind me.
"See," I started, turning around, "I do like it, but I'm trying not to abuse it. I don't want to turn into a dictator."
"Like Loki."
I didn't answer him. "I just try to show them the respect they deserve. And it's honestly really hard having servants. You know me, I don't like people touching my stuff, but if I try to clean or do anything, they freak out," I started walking down the hall to the throne room, and motioned for Jeremy to follow.
"But it must be nice not having to clean and cook," he argued. He was always lazy. I was the OCD organizer in the house.
"Up until this point, no, it really wasn't. Unless Loki was out somewhere, I wasn't needed in the throne room, so once I got back from my morning run, I had nothing to do all day except read, practice magic, or train in the arena."
"You sound like this has been your life forever. Ash, you know it's only been two and a half months, right?"
A few guards walking by gave him a wary look when he called me by my nickname, but I shook my head and they walked on. "Yes, I realize that," I said, "it just feels like longer. Loki makes me feel so at home, so... wanted; I just feel like this is where I've been my whole life."
We made it to the throne room, and after making a big deal of bowing to me and then questioning me about Jeremy, the two guards opened the door, and whatever Jeremy was going to say next was lost in the gasp he made when he saw the beautiful room. I smiled to all the servants as they stopped what they were doing and bowed as I walked to the throne. Instead of sitting on the throne, however, I sat down on the steps in front of it and patted the floor for Jeremy to sit next to me.
"What now?" He asked as he sat cross-legged beside me.
"I have to prepare a speech, I suppose," I sighed, and looked down at my lap. "And go put on my actual robes."
"How did you do the thing earlier where you had the silver armor?"
"It's an illusion that I can make semi-permanent while I'm fighting. Loki didn't explain exactly how it works, but when my heart rate goes down, the illusion fades. My sword is kind of the same. When I pull it out, I can use it perfectly, but as soon as it leaves my hand, it dissolves."
"Cool," he whispered.
"Yeah. I should go change. Come on, I'll show you our chambers. They should have set up a bed set up for you."
We stood up and walked the winding labyrinth up to our chambers. I walked in and gasped when I saw the living room. Every piece of furniture was in a different place, and hastily put there, like someone had ripped through the place looking for something and had not bothered to put anything back where it belonged. There was a servant coming out of the spare bedroom, and I stopped her.
"What happened in here?"
"Um, King Loki was in a bit of a fit, ma'am, and he sort of tore the place apart, and we haven't gotten to putting all the furniture back in its original position," She said, looking a little ashamed.
"Oh, that's alright, it just looked like there was a burglary. There is no rush."
"It will be done tonight, ma'am," she said, curtsied, and walked out of the room quickly.
"Oh, Loki," I sighed, lifting the couch up with my magic and straightening it out. As I walked to the bedroom door, I straightened all four of the bookcases, and then pulled open the door to our bedroom. I turned around to Jeremy, said, "Give me a minute," and shut the door behind me.
I changed out of the torn-apart tank top and pants, throwing them in the bathroom garbage, and into my gray robes, tying the silver ribbon loose around my waist and not even bothering to weave the small ribbons through my hair. I simply brushed my hair out and left it alone. I went back out to Jeremy, throwing my brand new, now muddied up and ripped sneakers on the floor by the door, and pulled on my knee-high leather boots.
Jeremy stood up off the couch and we went out into the hallway, following the twisting hallway out onto a balcony that was over the entrance that overlooked the courtyard between the palace and the gates. This courtyard was packed full of people. One of the guards on the balcony brought Jeremy a chair, and had him sit off to the side where he couldn't be seen by the public.
I cannot believe I am about to wing a speech to the Asgardian public, I thought, feeling my face flush. I took a deep breath and stepped up to the railing. All the chattering that had been going on ceased immediately, and everyone stared up at me. I inhaled deeply through my nose and scanned the crowd, trying to think of something sophisticated to say to start off with.
"Good evening," I said, and immediately wanted to smack myself, "Thank you all for gathering here this late. I will keep this short for you, I just felt you all deserve to know why your king and queen have been gone for five days.
"Loki and I went to Midgard for me to introduce him to my family. When we arrived, we were taken as prisoners by the Avengers, a group of Midgardian heroes who dislike Loki with all of their existence. A lot of small things happened, I will spare you the details, but Loki ended up, on day three of us being on Midgard, joining a group of Midgardian criminals trying to kill the Avengers and a few other heroes. I refused their offer to join, but when I was on my way back here, I was taken prisoner again by the heroes. I ended up helping them devise a battle strategy to stop the villains. It worked, for the most part, resulting in minimal casualties on both sides. I say minimal with a heavy heart, because one of those casualties was Loki," There was an apprehensive murmur from the crowd. "Yes, I understand exactly, you do not believe he is dead either. The Avengers say he is dead, but you all know exactly what Loki is like. I believe he faked his death once again, because that seems like something he would do, is it not?" The crowd murmured in agreement. "Yes, so this is why I am not planning a memorial service until I have solid proof he is not coming back.
"That being said, I plan on returning to Midgard tomorrow to search for his body. I understand this will take a while, but I will try my best to find him, and if I do not succeed, I will plan a funeral. Until then, I am going to go off the belief that he lives.
"Thank you all for coming out here tonight. Have a good night," I nodded as an end, and turned around quickly, practically running back into the palace.