So, the whole 'evil siblings' thing came to be while my friend and I were swimming back in August. I was bouncing off alternate reality ideas and the idea that Jor might be a little shit in another universe popped up, so I rolled with it.
Marvel isn't mine, Erika is, her siblings are and are not mine.
No matter how many times Tony tried to calm Erika down, she kept freaking herself out and chanting "I fucked up," over and over again.
"Come on, this guy can't be that bad," said Tony.
Erika gave him a disgusted look. "He beat someone, raped them, and then ate them!"
" . . . . Ick. Okay, so we're dealing with a magical fucked up Hannibal. Great."
Erika groaned. "Ugh, so much for the Butterfly Effect," she whined. "The world's gonna end and it's my fault!"
"Well, how do you stop it?"
"I don't know!" Erika snapped. "I mean, I could try imprisoning him again, but it took Odin to bind him and—wait." She stopped mid-sentence. "That's it! Yeah, I'll have to own up to fucking up and freeing him in the first place, but if Odin can put him back in the ocean . . . . . . I gotta go!" she said, and then she was gone.
The throne room she teleported to was empty.
"Damn, where's the One-Eyed pain when you need him?" she muttered.
"Talking to oneself is a sign of madness," said a deep voice from behind her.
Oh. There he was.
Erika spun around and, as much as it pained her to do so, dropped to one knee and put her fist over her heart. "Odin Allfather, I beg of you, I need your guidance."
Odin studied her. "And why should I lend you my guidance?"
Erika swallowed. "I did something terrible. I freed the World Serpent, and now I think he's going to end the world." She looked up. "I didn't know about Ragnarok, I swear—I never would have freed him if I'd have known how awful a person he was."
"The World Serpent is not a person," Odin began. "He is a monster, bathed in the blood of the Nine Realms. He went on a rampage throughout each realm, taking hundreds of thousands of innocent lives." He moved past her and sat heavily on his throne. "My younger son's second eldest was a beast. His mother pleaded for his life, so instead of killing Jormungand I banished him to Midgard, cursed to bite his own tail until Ragnarok. Only his blood could have broken those spells. I ask you this—who are you?"
Erika swallowed again and stood up on shaky legs. She took a deep breath and straightened as much as she could (her leg didn't like the whole 'kneeling' thing and was now protesting). "You might not believe me," she said.
Odin gave her a humorless smile. "Try me."
'Okay, then,' she thought, taking another deep breath.
"I'm his sister."
At first, Loki could not believe his ears.
Here was a woman—clearly a mortal—believing herself to be his monstrous son's sister.
"Jormungand has but one sister in this world, and she resides in Helheim," said Loki, still using Odin's form.
The woman bit her lower lip. "That's the thing—I'm not from this world. I'm from a different reality. Jormungand, Fenrir, Sleipnir and Hela are my half-siblings in that world. Also, I would like to point out that in my world, Jormungand never killed anyone, and his banishment was undeserved and happened after he was abused by one of your guards."
Loki's face remained impassive, though his mind was whirring like the gears of a clock. "Who is your father?" he asked, already knowing the answer she would give.
She bit her lower lip again—a bad habit, apparently. "Ever heard of Tony Stark?" she asked hesitantly. "Thor calls him the Man of Iron, though the suit's technically a gold-titanium alloy."
That . . . . was not the answer Loki had prepared himself for. "This Son of Stark is your father. What is your full name?"
"Erika Maria Stark-Lokadottir," she answered confidently. "I guess that makes you my grandfather."
Loki was tempted to drop his illusion, but he held onto it. "I suppose so, Erika Maria Stark Lokadottir. So, my son had a child with a mortal. Interesting."
Erika blushed heavily. "Okay, so not why I came here," she said. "I need you to put Jormungand back in the ocean. No Jormungand, no Ragnarok—right?"
Loki shook his head. "I will revisit my mages and have a spell ready that will banish Jormungand back to the ocean. You freed him, though, so you must cast it, and before I do, you must prove to me that you are worthy."
Erika paled.
"There is a cave along the furthest southern edge of Asgard, and in that cave there is a mountain of treasure. In that mountain, there is a ring. Find the ring, and bring it to me. You will know which one when you find it."
Erika opened her mouth, then shut it. "Alrighty, then," she muttered, and then she bowed hastily and retreated from the room.
Loki was left to ponder exactly who this child was. If she accomplished her task, he would help her and banish his son back to the ocean, but only because he was not ready for the End of Days—there was far too much fun to be had, after all, especially with a new player on the board.
Besides, Jormungand had been trapped on Midgard for centuries – it wouldn't hurt to let his son have a little fun before he had to go back.
Erika was worried she wouldn't be able to find the cave, or that she wouldn't be able to find the ring if she even found the cave.
She didn't have to worry about that.
No, what she had to worry about was the dragon guarding the treasure.
"You gotta draw the line somewhere, you gotta look inside yourself and ask, What am I willing to put up with today? Not. Fucking. This." She muttered angrily while hiding from said dragon behind a boulder outside the cave. She waited for what seemed like hours, waiting for a sign that she could safely enter without being served up extra crispy.
Everything sounded calm, so she peeked around the corner.
No dragon in sight.
"Okay, get the ring, get out. Get the ring, get out," she chanted to herself, and then moved as quickly and quietly as possible until she was behind a pile of treasure. She scanned the pile, but nothing stood out, so she moved to a different pile. "Okay, ring, ring, where's the ring, where's the ring. Not it, not it, not – oh, is this it?"
A silver ring with a single blue stone stood out from the rest of the gold and jewels. Erika picked it up and turned it over in her palm.
This one . . . . felt different. It felt like it wanted to go with her.
Weird.
Erika was so focused on the ring she didn't even heard the dragon coming closer to where she was until she heard a low rumbling growl.
"Who dares steal from me?"
Erika's eyes widened. "Shit." Thinking fast, she stood up slowly. "I need this," she said without preamble. "I can't explain why, I just need it. I'll trade for it."
The dragon snorted. "What does a human have to offer me?"
Shit. What did she have? "Uhmmm . . . oh! How about this?" She reached down the front of her shirt and pulled out a medallion with two snakes woven together making an S on it.
The dragon's eyes narrowed. "Where did you get that?" it demanded.
Erika swallowed nervously. "My mother gave it to me. She said it was one-of-a-kind."
"That medallion has the Trickster's seal – if your mother obtained it, she did so by peeling it from his corpse."
Okay, ew.
"The news is true, then – the Trickster died in the realm of the Dark Elves?"
"Yep." Not a lie—Loki was technically clinically dead for about five minutes while his body healed himself. "So, trade? Your ring for my medal?"
". . . Agreed."
"Sweet. Here ya go," she tossed the medallion towards the dragon. "Thanks a lot, gotta go!" She teleported away before the dragon could change its mind.
Later, as she presented the ring to Odin, he watched her with a critical gaze. "I saw what you did – you gave up your parent's heirloom. Did it mean so little to you?"
Erika scoffed. "Oh, what, this?" She pulled the medallion she'd supposedly left in the cave out from underneath her shirt. "Yeah, like I'd really just give this away. Man, that dragon's gonna be pissed when they find out I gave them a fake."
Odin said nothing. He turned the small ring over in his hand, studying it.
"What's so important about that?" Erika asked.
"It belonged to the queen. After her death, her treasures were stolen and sold off amongst thieves. They were all recovered, save for this one." Odin fixed his one eye on Erika again. "You have done me a service, Erika Maria Stark-Lokadottir, and in return, I shall help you bind the World Serpent to the oceans once again. You need not stay here - –I'm sure your Father worries for you."
Erika nodded, turned to leave, but then stopped herself. She turned back to Odin and gave him a hasty little bow, and then she left.
Loki held his mother's ring tightly in a closed fist, memories of Frigga flooding his mind. This ring was all he had left of her. Her other treasures were all secured in a vault and they meant little to him. This, though, this meant something.
He'd given her this ring as a present when he was a boy, and she'd worn it until her death. A servant that helped ready her body for her pyre probably took it, but from there he didn't know how it had come to be in the dragon's possession, nor did he care.
All that mattered was that he had it now, and he was never letting it out of his sight again.
A/N: The dragon was a last minute change. I hope it's not too dumb. The 'you gotta ask yourself, what are you willing to put up with?" thing is something I heard on Tumblr.