It was difficult to be in the mansion; even surrounded by staff it felt empty to her. But it was still the only place in Asgard that she wanted to be, and so she wandered into one of the unfurnished rooms on the second floor and sat cross-legged in the middle of it. She decided to play with her magic for a little bit, since soon it would be gone. She set the floor on fire and then quickly turned the flames to ice. She conjured a small ball of electricity and ran her hand over it, loving the charge of pure energy it gave her. She quickly put it away however, at the sound of a knock on the door.
"Enter."
In walked Hugo, his trademark bag of tricks in hand and a weary smile on his face.
"Hello, your majesty."
She grinned at him, and shook her head.
"Have you come to say good-bye? I cannot believe I forgot to visit with you, please forgive me." She stood and hugged him, leaning back and looking into his face. The room was bright and sunny and the lines in his face were clear. He was worried. "Do not ask me not to go."
"I have worked all day on creating your departure, and so I would not think of it."
An orb of pure energy appeared in the middle of the room and expanded into an oval shape, large enough for Sigyn to step through. It emitted the same kind of light the portal on the Bifrost had, and Sigyn knew it was her ticket to Midgard.
"Amazing!"
He stopped her as she walked towards it and snapped his fingers. Her dress immediately changed into a pair of denim pants and a black cotton t-shirt. She looked down in bewilderment at the clothes.
"Is this how they dress?!"
"Yes. It is not too late for you to change your mind." He was only half joking, though she laughed loudly at his remark. He handed her a rather large envelope of documents, Sigyn opened it and pulled out the key with the blue tag. "Everything you need to identify yourself is in there. You will know when you will need them. When you are asked, you have no family, you are a widow, and you are an American. Tell them nothing of Asgard, the mortals do not believe in us as devoutly as they once did."
"Of course, I understand." She nodded and dropped the key back into the envelope. As she looked into the portal she reached back for Hugo's hand. "I am suddenly very nervous. They do live rather differently there."
"You will be fine. Once you land on Midgard your powers will cease to be so you will not have to worry about exposing who you really are, and the portal is designed so that you will land inside the place you will live. You will remember us, and we will of course be watching over you."
She nodded again, squeezed his hand for a final time and stepped into the light of the portal.
It was a faster trip than she had expected, flying over space and time, and within a few instants she landed on the hardwood floor of what seemed to be a tiny little room, smaller than even the servants rooms in the palaces she grew up in. There was a low back red leather couch with studded details along its back in the middle of the room, a black trunk with silver locks sat in front of it, and there were silver tables on either side of it, with a crystal lamp on each table. A TV and shelves hung on the wall in front of the couch and in the corner of the room behind it was a kitchen, or rather a stove, a refrigerator and a few cabinets on the wall. The door into the apartment sat on the wall near the makeshift kitchen, and had three deadbolt locks on it. Three windows lined the wall of the living room, letting a surprising amount of sunlight in given that the only view out of the windows was the lovely brick wall of the building next door.
She stood up and walked to a door on the same wall where the TV hung, and entered a small bedroom filled with a medium sized bed with a silver bed frame and mirrored dressers, nightstands, a vanity and wardrobe. She more than approved of the décor, and was grateful to Odin or Hugo or whoever had selected it for her. White oleanders sat on the desk in her bedroom, she smelled them before opening the door to the tiny bathroom nearby, and almost jumped for joy to see the white claw foot tub inside of it. She was smiling when she closed the door to the bathroom and opened the door to her closet. She was beaming from ear to ear when she saw that the closet was full of clothes and shoes. As she walked out of her bedroom and sat on the couch in her living room she noticed that besides the noise from the busy street outside, everything was quiet. She was dying to get downstairs and see what it was like out there, but first things first.
She dumped the contents of the large envelope on the couch before her and read them over. Her birth certificate read August 17th, 1989, and that she had been born in Louisiana. Her name was Sigyn DeFleur, and she wondered what possessed them to name her that, as she read on that her mother had died in childbirth and her father was unknown. She put down the birth certificate and read her marriage license. Apparently she had been married to soldier Lucas O'Donnell for only 6 months before he was lost during a bombing in Afghanistan, and later declared legally dead according to his death certificate and military documents. Next she looked at the ID card they'd given her; it read Sigyn O'Donnell with her date of birth, height, eye, hair color, and even a picture of her with her short haircut. Finally, she picked up the small black rectangle with a flat screen that lit up when she touched it, which she assumed was a phone, though the word meant very little to her and she had no idea how to use it.
Still, she was impressed by how thorough they had been in their preparations. She noticed a calendar hanging by the front door, walked over to it and saw the year, 2011. She shrugged a little, the number meant absolutely nothing to her, nor did the month, September. Next to the calendar was a note, apparently she had a job interview at the Red Hook All-Star Diner the next day at 11 am. She figured she should try to find out exactly where that was before she did anything else.
The sudden knock at her door surprised her, and she struggled with the locks for a moment before finally getting it to open. Standing before her in a grease stained white undershirt, shorts and a pair of black fuzzy slippers was a short round little man, with a gut that could rival Volstagg's hanging over the top of his shorts and popping slightly out of the bottom of his shirt. The stubbly face beneath the shiny balding head was smiling at her, and though she found him bizarre and off putting, Sigyn managed to smile back.
"Hello…"
"Hello Miss O'Donnell just wanted to check on you, make sure you were settled." He paused for a moment to allow himself to cough into his hand, a hand which he then extended towards Sigyn. "I'm Mr. Eugene Roberts. I live on the main floor in 1A, I'm the super here."
"Oh. Nice to meet you."
She refused to take his hand, instead waving at him awkwardly and clenching the doorknob a little tighter with her other hand. She wondered how this man knew who she was.
"The landlord informed me of your move in, sorry it took me so long to get up here and properly introduce myself." He leaned closer to her, placing his arm on the doorframe and trying to look non chalant "I assumed he wanted you to get special attention since your rent is paid in full for the year, but I suppose the fact that you are one hot piece would have been reason enough."
"One…hot..piece?"
She was more than confused, so much so that she didn't even think to be offended. All she wanted was for the odd little man to leave. She had the faint notion that she could smell him, and worse, what he had been eating and drinking before he came up.
"I mean, the only way you could make those clothes look any better, would be throwing 'em off on my bedroom floor."
"OH! WOW!" Her temper took complete control of her, and in an instant she had the man's arm pinned behind his back and began backing him towards the stairs. "If you EVER speak that way to me again, I will break this arm OFF, and shove it so far down your miserable throat you'll CHOKE ON IT!" She twisted his arm roughly to emphasize her point "Do you hear me?"
"OWWWW!"
"I Said Do You Hear Me?"
He nodded, she let him go and he made haste down the stairs. Sigyn sighed a deep sigh of rage and disbelief, and as she leaned against the wall next to her door, her eyes landed on the gap at the bottom of the door of the apartment directly across the hall, and saw the sliver of a shadow of someone standing behind it, who had apparently watched the entire incident.
"I'm surrounded."
She mumbled to herself as she walked back into her apartment, grabbed her keys, and headed off in search of the Red Hook All-Star Diner.
Loki opened his eyes slowly, vaguely remembered the recent events that had unfolded, and slowly lifted himself up into a seated position. The creatures had not bothered to clothe him, so he used what little strength he had to conjure himself a very basic tunic and pants, and a pair of boots. He stood, opened the door of the cave like room and stepped into a similarly cave like hallway. There were no guards in sight, there were none of the creatures in sight, but as he turned the corner just outside his room he saw a wooden door far larger and heavier than the others, and he figured this was surely the way out.
He walked slowly towards it, lifted the wooden beam that barricaded it and stepped outside. The planet was still dark; he realized that what he had mistaken for moonlight before was simply larger orbs of electricity. The landscape was mountainous, the earth sandy, and Loki squinted in the darkness to make out any shapes. He did not wish to be startled by these ugly and unusual creatures, for he was still too weak to transport himself elsewhere, and he had a nagging curiosity to know why the leader had taken such a keen interest in him.
"You are awake," rasped the thing, as Loki turned around and it came out of the caves and towards him "Splendid, for we have much to speak of."
"What do you want from me?"
"Do not be insolent, Asgardian, we have restored you to life…or have you forgotten already what it is to be dead?" Loki looked at the hideous creature, which now smirked in his direction, and suddenly remembered the darkness and the silence, the nothingness and the weightlessness, and most of all the peace he had been shrouded in before the violent jolt of green light and his return to consciousness in the cave room with the things of this planet surrounding him. "Did you make it to Valhalla?"
Loki met his eyes with a defiant stare.
"You had no right to snatch me out of death, and do not make pretense that you did it for my own sake. You clearly want something of me…and I clearly need to be alive to carry it out. So I ask you again what do you want from me?"
"Did you wish to die Prince Loki?"
"Maybe and maybe not," he would not give the creature the satisfaction of getting a reaction from him, so instead he kept a calm and disinterested look upon his face, and spoke with just a hint of exasperation at its intent to dodge his question "doesn't really matter now does it, I am alive and will be for the for-seeable future. You on the other hand…"
"YOU DARE TO THREATEN THE LEADER OF THE CHITAURI!"
It was Loki's turn to smirk as the so called leader lost his composure in a fit of indignation.
"So then you are The Other…you Chitauri are so obscure and insignificant to us in Asgard that I know only of you from footnotes in books. Let's see, I read a sentence once about the unique makeup of your council…and your many failed attempts to control other weaker beings, like the Midgardians…but that's about it."
"You are more insolent than I ever could have imagined. But what you did not find in your books you will quickly learn of first hand if you do not learn to watch your tongue…my men would be happy to cut it out and see if it really is made of silver."
"I would lay waste to the entire miserable planet before they could lay a finger on me."
"You exaggerate."
"You hope." Loki felt his strength returning slowly, but a dull ache had suddenly begun to throb behind his ear. "But I will refrain from insulting you any further if you will stop wasting my time and enlighten me as to why I am here."
"You were thrown from the Bifrost. This is where you landed."
"Thrown?" He turned away from The Other and closed his eyes, trying to remember what had happened in his last few moments with Thor, Odin, and Sigyn. He and Thor had been dangling from the edge of the rainbow bridge. Sigyn and Odin had pulled them up, but then someone let go of Gungnir. He could not remember who. "Was I thrown? I was, wasn't I?"
"Indeed, my council can only know what you know, what you saw happen. They say you were thrown…utterly betrayed by Odin, then unceremoniously flung from the Bifrost."
"He lied to me…then he refused to let me finish what I had started, all I wanted to do was protect them, prove myself."
"You were the king, you had every right."
"I was the King, the rightful King."
"Indeed." The Other looked at his back and dared to wonder if his words were actually hitting their mark. "You seem troubled Prince Loki."
"Touch me and you die."
The Other quickly lowered his hand and resisted the urge to attack Loki. If the arrogant and stubborn Asgardian were not the only hope he had to save his planet from the looming threat of Thanos, he would gladly torture and kill him just for amusement. Alas, Loki was the only option he had, and so, he was to be tolerated.
Little did he realize that in the grand scheme of things, as much as he thought he would make a puppet out of the young Prince, he could never match him in cunning or strategy, not even with an all knowing, all seeing council to refer to.
"Your hostility will not get you what you want, Loki."
"And what do I want?"
"To rule."
"And hostility will not help me in that endeavor…how ignorant are you?"
He finally turned around and looked with mocking in his eyes upon the ugly creature. He would never get used to how disgusting they were. He knew one thing for certain; he never wanted to rule Chitauri, not even if it were the last planet in the universe. The Other read the disdain on his face, the disgust, and felt his resentment towards the Asgardian grow by leaps and bounds. Still, there was Thanos to consider.
"Shall I take you to the council? They will be better able to explain to you what we need from you, and how we can in turn help you get all that you desire."
He followed The Other up a winding staircase carved into the side of a mountain to a cliff, upon which stood the members of the Chitaurian council, their hooded figures standing around and gazing into a large pool of dark water. Loki looked curiously around as they all babbled in unison, and The Other allowed him to observe them for a moment before calling to them.
"Your leader has need."
Every hooded head raised at exactly the same time and turned to face The Other. They stood up straight, folded their hands in front of themselves as though in prayer, and reverently bowed their heads towards him. Loki considered the gesture to be rather elegant, compared to the rest of what he had seen on Chitauri.
"You bring us the Prince. He has been the subject of our thoughts for quite a while; we have seen much of what troubles him, much of what he needs to be satisfied."
He admired their abilities, but wished for a way to block them from his consciousness.
"We see how you worry for the fate of the woman in your absence. We can show you."
His eyes grew big in spite of himself, he had not thought that he had thought of her, certainly not enough that he would think they would know of her. He was worried now, as he had not been before. He could protect himself from them, but he was not certain that he could protect her anymore.
"Who?"
"Your beloved wife Sigyn." It was difficult to hear her name. His heart sank that The Other stood next to him, but lifted a bit when he thought that perhaps the creature would be too dense to realize she was all the leverage he would need to get him to do whatever it was he wanted. "We can show you."
They turned back to the pool, and suddenly bright white light rose out of it, then within the light there she was, sitting in her bedroom in her father's palace, at a desk, reading a book. She looked tired and unfocused; her hair fell wildly all over the place. She still wore the nightgown she had worn on the bridge. Sunlight poured into her room and bounced off her skin, suddenly the door opened and in came Thor. They spoke, Loki heard every word and saw the sorrow they seemed to feel as she explained how she knew that Loki was dead. Suddenly the light overtook them, and a new picture came into view: Thor and Sigyn on a balcony, Sigyn's hair completely gone, and her hand in his as they entered some sort of celebration feast together.
"They celebrate your brother's return however the kingdom does not mourn you, your loss is not explained. You are forgotten, utterly forgotten. By all except her…"
The scene shifts to show Sigyn in the empty room of the mansion, releasing Hugo's hand and stepping through a portal, it then shows Sigyn in her apartment.
"She is a mortal now. She resides on Midgard. She could not bear life in Asgard without you."
His eyes were transfixed on the images, so clear, and yet he could not be sure that they were real.
"The council does not lie," said The Other "now, tell him what we have need of."
"Your father's cube, the Tesseract, is the key to unlimited power and is required by our great ally to complete his great mission. We would have you retrieve it."
"And why would I do that?"
He asked, absentmindedly, for the images now showed Sigyn walking through her small new home on Midgard, and he did not wish to look away.
"Because it resides on Midgard, with your beloved."
The Other regretted the words almost as soon as he finished speaking them, especially as Loki tore his eyes away from the woman and turned to The Other.
"I can simply go to Midgard and be with Sigyn if I wish. You have given me no reason to help you, at all. You have actually drawn my ire, by trying to use her against me."
"There are other reasons you could find Midgard of interest. They are a ruler less people. They wander aimlessly and advance at a pace that is painful to watch. They would be an ideal race for you to cultivate, it is a planet that you could indeed rule, and no one could take it away from you."
He internally cursed the council and their ability to make perfect sense, but he could not hide the intrigued smirk that crossed his face as he turned back towards them, taking a seat on a smooth mound of stone.
"Well. You certainly do have my attention…."
She stood on the stairs of the porch to her building and fumbled through her bag for the downstairs door key. Odin's one oversight in his meticulous planning for her life on Midgard was that godforsaken key, and although she had been given two copies of it by Mr. Roberts, she could not seem to hold on to it to save her life. She sighed, her waitress apron blowing in the breeze as she gave up looking and pushed the number 2, then the letter B on the keypad and the little white button beneath it. It was a few moments before she heard the loud buzz that meant she could go in, and she opened the door quickly, this time determined to see her neighbor before he went back into his apartment and closed the door. This was far from the first time she had buzzed 2B to get in, and he always came out to make sure she had gotten in, and quickly went back inside his apartment and shut the door before she could thank him. She didn't even know his name, and though she tried to look on his mailbox, all the mailboxes that hung on the wall had a name on them except 2B. She figured he was an old man, and that he certainly he had to be lonely, and also very kind to not bawl her out for ringing his bell at all hours of the day and night.
She hurried up the stairs, but heard his door close as she got halfway up and frowned. He had every right to ask her to stop ringing him, but he didn't, he didn't seem to mind at all, as long as she got in safely. She was grateful for it, and she thought of going to knock on his door and properly thank him, but decided against it. He had to have his reasons for shutting himself off from the world.
She unlocked her door and flipped on the light to her apartment. The kitchen was spotless, the couch inviting, and all she wanted to do with her rare night off from the diner was fall into it and watch the crazy people on her favorite TV show try to make clothes. She was amazed by how quickly and completely these mortal bodies became tired. She had run all over the diner, filling orders, cleaning spills, being harassed by the dirty old men who came in for lunch, and her body now ached and felt tense. She wanted to sleep, but she had realized that even when she did sleep she still woke up tired. The upside was that she never dreamed, not of Loki or the baby, not of anything good or bad. Her mind was dark in sleep, and she was thrilled about it.
It wasn't until she heard the loud shouting from the hallway that she realized that she had fallen asleep on the couch. She recognized Mr. Roberts' voice immediately and went to her door to see what the commotion was about. She stepped into the hall and saw the young Spanish mother who lived there trying to calmly explain herself to the unreasonable superintendent.
"You Think You Can Just Live Here, Rent Free, You Got Another Think Coming Little Lady. You And Your Baby Will Be Out On The Street If Ya Don't Pay What Ya Owe By Tomorrow Morning!"
"But Mr. Roberts, I can't work, I can't get the baby in daycare."
"Ain't My Fault, Ain't My Problem."
"I can get the money sir, but not by tomorrow, I just need more time."
Suddenly a sharp cry sounded, and Sigyn recognized it as a baby.
"WILL YA SHUT THAT BRAT UP? IF YOU CAN'T I WILL!"
"Please, sir. I'm sorry. It won-"
"No More Time, No More STORIES. PAY OR GET OUT! IF I DON'T WAKE UP TO THE RENT TOMORROW-"
"Can You Keep Your Voice Down? Decent People Are Trying To Sleep."
Sigyn tapped him on the shoulder as she spoke, his eyes narrowed on her then widened as he thought of their last encounter. Sigyn smiled at the young mother, who looked relieved to have a moment to collect herself, her nerves frazzled from being screamed at.
"I apologize Mrs. O'Donnell. I'll try to keep it down."
"Why are you harassing her anyway? You're not the landlord and therefore it is not your business whether she pays her rent or not."
"He asked me to speak to her."
"But did he ask you to scream at her, threaten her and her child, because I'm pretty sure that is against the law."
"Making criminal threats? You're absolutely right about that Maam."
Sigyn smiled at the young man with the muscles and the sandy blonde hair, and he nodded to her, standing on Mr. Roberts' other side, and looking him in the eyes.
"I didn't threaten her! And not paying your rent is a crime too, should we just pretend she hasn't been fleecing me for months."
"She hasn't been fleecing you, she's been fleecing the landlord!" Said the young man, as the young mother shot him a look of shock. "Not that you've been fleecing anybody on purpose, Maam."
"Mr. Roberts," the young mother handed her baby to a startled Sigyn, and placed her hands into the pockets of the long nightgown she wore. She pulled out a hundred dollar bill and a crumpled up five and placed it into his hand. "This is all I have. I will get you the rest by next week. I swear. Please, we have nowhere else to go."
Had Sigyn been able to speak or hear or see anything besides the child in her arms she would have told the woman not to beg a degenerate like Mr. Roberts for anything, and that she and the baby could live with her. But the baby captivated her, from its look of contentment in her arms to the wonderful way it smelled, a stark contrast to the boozy aroma of Mr. Roberts that filled the hall. She was at once a ball of nerves and perfectly at ease with the child there.
"Next week then."
He snatched the money and walked off. The young man apologized to the young mother if he'd offended her.
"No, I thank both of you for helping me, we'd be out on the street right now if you hadn't come out of your apartments." She took the baby away from Sigyn, who tried not to appear too sad to see him go. "I'm Anna by the way."
"Sigyn. Nice to meet you, I live in 2A."
"Yeah, I see you at the diner all the time."
"Oh yeah, that is where I spend most of my life."
"Sigyn," Anna said as she laughed, "that's an unusual name."
"I guess… I like it."
They laughed a little, then their eyes fell on the handsome young man, who suddenly became very interested in playing with the baby, who laughed and giggled at his faces.
"Thank you sir…."
"No problem. See you ladies around."
He turned and walked quickly away, hoping the beautiful one who lived across the hall from him would just let it go, though he had seen that it wasn't exactly her nature to do that. She let Anna go inside and called after the young man, realizing he was going to 2B.
"Hey do you know who lives there?"
"Yeah, just some old guy…he's like 90 and he hates everybody."
He didn't look back as he walked, but his heart leapt as she suddenly touched his arm to stop him.
"Wait a minute, why are you in such a hurry? Hold on!" He turned around to see her smiling up at him. It was her first chance to see how blue his eyes were. He noticed that her face was sweet and innocent, despite the fact that she had a commanding presence and could clearly stand up for herself. It was impossible not to like her. "Are you his grandson or something?"
"I don't know..."
"What?"
"Maam, I'm really tired. I'm just gonna say goodnight okay."
"Wait, your friend or grandfather or whoever has been really nice to me and he never lets me thank him. Could you at least tell me his name so I could write him a note?"
"You are one pushy dame." He mumbled as he turned away and opened his door. She smiled at the compliment and smiled wider as he called over his shoulder. "His name's Steve."