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Lately I've been feeling like a bird without it's wings,
Tell me, how can one still fly without the other?
My heart's missing a big part that only you can see,
We tried so hard to patch the hole with friends and lovers.

And I know you can save me, if I could learn to let go.
I've just gotta let go.

I could ask you my questions but I know the answers,
I know what's missing from this life.
I could search for the meaning, but I know what's waiting,
I know I need you in this life.
There was a time when I could hear you calling out to me,

Was there so much noise it's gotten in the way?
I know that I could be the girl you want me to be,
I just pray that you still recognize my face.
Bird Without Wings- The Material

Sigrun walked behind Thor, following Odin down into the vault; farther down than where even the most dangerous artifacts were kept. The ringing in her ears and the red seared across her mind almost made her completely oblivious to their mission—to send Thor to Midgard to bring Loki and something called the tesseract home, but her mind was in such turmoil about Loki, she didn't listen when they were told of the situation.

Loki.

For months, she thought he was dead, lost in the endless expanse of space, when he was, in fact, alive—and, for all she knew, well. It infuriated her that he had been alive and that he hadn't tried to contact her; it gave the evil voice that resided in the back of her mind more ammunition to throw at her in her darkest hours—that Loki didn't love or care for her, that he blamed her for his downfall, that she should have just pushed him from the bridge herself, and that for all these reasons he wouldn't return to her.

Shaking her head, pushing those thoughts aside, she focused on the large form in front of her. She asked, "How does Odin expect to get you to Midgard without the Bifrost?"

"Father has access to dark magic…darker than most people even have knowledge. Although," he looked on to where Odin had just turned the corner, "I don't know if that is necessarily a good thing."

Sigrun silently agreed as the continued to follow Odin further down. When they came to a large stone door, Odin suddenly turned to them.

"You two will be the youngest people to enter this room in quite a long time," he said solemnly.

"If Thor is the one going to bring Loki back, then why am I here?" Sigrun asked bluntly, not impressed by Odin's statement. She didn't want to be here if she didn't have to be—she would rather be alone in her room with her self-loathing.

"You are needed," he replied simply, then pushed the doors open.

Sigrun looked up at Thor with her eyebrows raised. He shrugged in response and followed his father.

"Why am I needed?" she asked again.

"You will be joining Thor."

"Excuse me?" Sigrun stopped dead in her tracks and folded her arms across her chest. "Did you know about this?" she glared at Thor.

"No, I didn't."

"I would have thought you would have wanted to go." Odin scanned the shelves that covered the walls. Books of various sizes were stacked in rows—it reminded her of the secret room below the library and of Loki.

"I think it's a little presumptuous that you think I want to be where Loki is," she said stiffly.

Thor turned to look at her. "I know you don't mean that."

"What if I do?"

"Then we have to hope Thor wants to find him more than you do." Odin pulled an ancient tome from the shelf and began flipping through its pages.

Her heart raced as she realized she could just be moments from being face to face with truth was she didn't mean what she said, but it made her feel better to think she had a choice in the matter… and the way Thor and Odin looked at her made her think they knew that too.

"In the center of the circle," Odin ordered pointing.

As soon as they were in place, he began chanting and tapping his staff on the floor in rhythmic beats. Lines that they wouldn't have been seen on the floor before in the darkness came tolife in bright swirling colors, as Odin's chants picked up in ferocity. She jumped when Thor wrapped a strong arm around her middle and pulled her tight to him, but suddenly all her senses were filled with Loki, and if she didn't know any better, she would have thought it was Loki's long, slender arm around her—followed by the unpleasant sensation of flying through a too narrow tunnel.

Thunder cracked around them and when the familiar scent of Midgard hit her nostrils, she knew without a doubt where she metal was under their feet and the air was thin and cold as it whipped around them. Sigrun kneeled down to keep her balance as Thor tapped his hammer on the metal craft and her stomach leapt as their situation dawned on her—they were in the air!

The craft below them began to shake as the large door of the craft opened; Thor grabbed her arm and leapt down. Sigrun saw Loki's eyes widen in surprise when he saw Thor, then flicker to her for the briefest of seconds before focusing back to his brother. Sigrun glanced at the others in the cabin: a handsome man in a blue suit and another in clad in red and gold metal approached Thor, only to be beaten back by Mjölnir. Thor let go of her for a moment as he grabbed Loki by the throat, ripping him out his seat, and after grabbing Sigrun by the arm again, they leapt from the plane.

It seemed like they were falling through the air for hours, but reason told Sigrun it was only moments. She saw the ground cut through the clouds and growing closer with each second. Thor threw Loki to the ground before they hit so he had both hands to help Sigrun land.

"Thanks," she muttered as Loki groaned and laughed on the ground next to them, causing a shiver to crawl up her spine.

"Where is the tesseract?" Thor asked, turning back to Loki.

"Oh, I missed you too," Loki's voice sounded breathless.

Do I look to be in a gaming mood?"

"Oh, you should thank me! With the Bifrost destroyed, how much dark energy did your father have to conjure to get you here?"

Sigrun screamed in her mind for Loki to look at her but he didn't. It was like she wasn't there at all.

"We thought you dead," Thor rumbled in a low voice.

"Did you mourn?"

"We all did. Our father-"

"Your father. He did tell you of my true parentage, did he not?" Walking away from Thor, limping slightly, Loki paused, "What of Sigrun?" His tongue caressed her name; Sigrun's body purred at the sound.

Thor seemed taken aback by the question and looked at Sigrun and back to Loki.

"A part of her fell with you." He said slowly, "She is not the girl she was; she has wasted away; I have not heard nor seen her smile or laugh in such a long time."

Sigrun felt the weight of Thor's words; she hadn't realized how much she had fallen apart—but couldn't Loki see her for himself? Loki groaned. Sigrun wondered if he was remembering their stolen hours in dark corners of the palace.

"Brother-"

"Don't call me that!" Loki snarled, his face covered by shadow.

"You are my brother! We were raised together, we played and fought together! Do you remember none of that?"

"I remember being stuck in your shadow! Always overlooked by your greatness," Loki spat the last word.

"So you take this world that is under my protection? The world that I love, as recompense for your imagined slights?"

"Your protection?" Loki laughed at the words, "You do such a fine of protecting these worthless creatures while they slaughter themselves in immeasurable numbers."

"You mean to rule them?"

"Well, yes."

"Then you miss the point of ruling! A throne would not suit you." Loki let out a snarl and pushed Thor aside, walking dangerously close to Sigrun but still acting as though she wasn't there. "I have seen places and been to worlds you have never known about! I have grown strong in my exile, Odinson," he sneered the word, "I have seen the power of the tesseract, and when I wield it-"

"Who has shown you this power?" Thor asked, stepping toward Loki, "Who controls the would-be king?"

"I am a king!" Loki screamed.

"No! You give up this pointless dream, the tesseract, and you come home!"

Loki shook his head, "I don't have it. You need the cube to bring me home, and I've sent it off I know not where."

"You listen well, brother-" Thor pointed his hammer at Loki, and then a flash of red and fire; Thor was gone. Loki's eyes followed the direction Thor disappeared.

"I'm listening," he mocked.

Loki settled into the mountainside, watching the commotion below. Sigrun knew she should be worried about Thor, but she couldn't seem to think about anything other than the fact that Loki was only steps away.

"You always show up at the most inopportune times," Loki said, not looking at her, "It used to be a comfort…after…in the dungeons." He glanced at her over his shoulder, "But now I feel like you are simply judging me. Just like before."

"Dungeons?" she asked weakly.

Loki let out a low snarl, stood, and walked to her, "The last thing I need is my mind to conjure you up now; I don't need the distraction. Go away!" He waved a hand like he was swatting away a fly, but Loki froze when his skin touched her—nearly causing Sigrun to jump out of hers.

"What in the Hel?"

"All right, reindeer games, let's go." The man in the metal suit came up over the hill and stopped short when he caught sight of Sigrun, "And who is this?"

"My sister. She's with me," Thor explained shortly as Loki's eyes widened.

"The whole family," the man in the blue suit commented as he jerked Loki's arms around to shackle his hands together, "Let's go. Romanoff landed the plane just at the bottom of the mountain."

"Can I give you a hand m'lady?" a metal clad arm was offered to her.

"Leave her alone, Stark, she looks like she's had a time of it."

"Always the boy scout, Rogers," Stark retorted, patting the man in the blue suit on the shoulder.

Sigrun wordlessly grabbed a hold of Thor's arm as they climbed down the mountainside. They mainly walked in silence, with intermittent jabs from Stark about Thor's fighting abilities. When they reached the plane, Sigrun dropped Thor's arm as he and Rogers frog marched Loki back into the craft, and Stark explained to the pilot and a pretty red-headed woman about the two new arrivals. Rogers smiled gently at Sigrun and pointed at a place for her to sit—which happened to be across from Loki.

As the plane lifted into the air, she felt Loki's eyes on her, but found she couldn't lift hers up from the floor to meet them.