Thanks to anelson21 for requesting a Thor Ragnarok oneshot. :) I cut this one a little short... sorry! (It was just getting closer to 3,000 and I decided not to do everything in a play by play.)
Tbh, I'm not exactly sure how Loki's "hiding Odin" shenanigans would work with how I changed things up, but let's just pretend it makes sense for now.
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The knocking on her door was far more booming than it usually was. Sutton almost dropped the pan she was using as the noise startled out of her daydream. Letting out a huff and removing the pan from the burner, she moved to the front door and straightened her hair.
Normally Sutton tried to check who was at the door before opening it, especially with such loud knocking, but as she neared her front door it was suddenly thrown open. She managed to catch it before it crashed against the opposite wall.
"Loki," a deep voice admonished.
Thor stood in her doorway, wearing a hoodie and a jean jacket, with Loki behind him in a black-on-black suit. Sutton blanched.
"Nope!"
"I told you," said Loki.
She tried to slam the door back closed, but Thor casually wedged his foot in the way as he spoke.
"Sutton, please," he said, "just hear me out."
Sutton pushed against the door with all her weight, her feet sliding and slipping on the floor, but it refused to even budge.
"You let Loki come back here." She grunted. "After everything!" The door continued tp stay open.
"Our father is missing," Thor said. Sutton stopped trying to force the door closed. "I thought perhaps you could help."
"Help? How could I possibly help with that?" Thor shrugged.
"You know. You have your-" He wiggled his fingers as if casting a cheesy magic spell. Loki rolled his eyes and Sutton pointed at him.
"He has magic, not me!"
"But you can do your believing thing. It's so useful. And you're so pretty and wonderful. Remember when you gave us a heads up about the Dark Elves? That was so awesome and saved so many lives. Wouldn't you like to do that again?"
Sutton groaned and rubbed at her face.
"Thor," she whined.
"My mother is super worried about him."
Sutton pointed sternly at him.
"Don't. Don't you dare bring Frigga into this."
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Sutton couldn't believe that she was tagging along after Thor and Loki as they trekked down the sidewalk. She felt like a tiny ant in comparison to them, and more than a little uneasy that Loki was walking around freely. Probably worse was that Thor decided she might be useful at all. Either he thought this was bigger than a simple rescue mission, or he believed that Loki might be luring him into a trap again and wanted a convenient way out. Sutton didn't like those possibilities.
The sound of beeping construction equipment sounded ahead of them and Loki's face fell as the sound grew louder. Sutton eyed his expression and then noted the pile of rubble that had been a building. Thor and Loki stopped, staring at the heap of brick and dust and Loki hummed awkwardly.
"I swear," he said. "I left him right here."
Sutton facepalmed and Thor shot Loki a disparaging look.
"You mean on the pavement outside, or actually in the building currently being demolished?"
A placard lay prominently on a pile of brick to be easily read. Shady Acres Care Home was engraved into the brass.
"You left Odin in an old folks home? On earth?" Sutton's tone was beyond exasperated. Loki shrugged.
"He is incredibly old," he defended.
"You're old!"
Thor rolled his eyes and frowned, looking grumpy and put out more than distressed.
"I can't believe you did this. After everything. Do you never learn?"
"Never learn? This was me being kind."
Turning to her, Thor gave her his patent puppy eyes and tried to grin.
"Well? Do you think you can-?" His voice tapered off and Sutton scoffed.
"What? Reconstruct the building? Make your dad appear? How do you think this ability works?"
Thor implied that either of those options would work, or both of them together. Sutton explained that would be the equivalent of her basically turning back time which she politely refused to do. She'd prefer to stay alive and/or out of the hospital if she could help it. Loki smirked smugly at their conversation and Sutton scowled up at him.
A few women ran up, giggling, before they could continue talking and asked Thor for a photo. Sutton begrudgingly scooted closer to Loki in order to get out of the way and they both rolled their eyes at the same time over the fanfare.
"Thanks! Sorry Jane dumped you!"
Thor's face fell to look aghast and insulted as the girls pranced away. He sniffed and raised his head up proudly.
"She didn't dump me," he defended. "I dumped her. It was a mutual dumping."
Loki nodded in humoring sympathy and patted Thor on the back. Sutton shrugged sheepishly.
"Long distance is difficult for people on the same planet. Let alone across galaxies."
"And you would know," Loki questioned. She hated the way he could tower over her. All smug and dark and self righteous.
"Hardly," she snapped. "It's been hard to get dates between trying to save the world from a diabolical madman and the planet finding out just where you're from."
"Those are very legitimate sounding excuses, darling."
"Excuses?" Her voice rose an octave. "I don't need to make excuses." Loki's smirk only grew and she stomped closer to poke him in the chest. "Need I remind you, that it was you that put me-"
A golden circle suddenly flared and sparked around the two of them. Loki stiffened and Thor blinked in surprise. Sutton performed a quick personal inspection to make sure the sparking ring wasn't from her before she glared back up at Loki.
"What are you doing?"
"Loki, what is this?"
But Loki looked concerned and unsure.
"This isn't me," he said.
The ground was suddenly pulled out from under her. Sutton let out a shriek as she dropped and felt her stomach rise up in her throat. Loki let out a short, choked yelp as he dropped with her.
The light disappeared from above them and Sutton reached out blindly for anything to stop her fall. Hands reached back and grasped her around the arms, then pulled her towards a body.
"Loki." She growled under her breath.
"Do you really have a better option at the moment?"
His voice was a bit pinched and his grip tense, which told her he was just as lost in this situation as she was.
"Who'd you upset now?"
"You think I can keep track of that?"
"Oh, you're absolutely useless."
They were still falling. The butterflies in Sutton's stomach had come and gone as they plummeted for an unnatural amount of time. It was as though they were falling through a void. After it appeared they weren't hitting the ground or any sharp objects any time soon, Sutton let out a huffy breath, her eyes straining to see in the pitch black dark.
"I don't need this Alice in Wonderland garbage," she said. "Why did I have to fall for Thor's guilt trip?"
"You're not the first."
"Yeah. I remember how he got all of you to go on the Jotunheim trip from the first movie."
The void continued. Their conversation stalled; what exactly did they have to discuss while plunging either forever or to an eventual death? But Loki did tug her closer at one point, switching from holding her arms to locking her close to him with hands clasped around her waist.
"This is more comfortable," he said before she could snap at him. "My strength may surpass anything you mortals could ever hope to possess, but even I can experience muscle strain."
"That sounded frighteningly close to a humble brag."
"Merely facts."
Light suddenly flared underneath them, Sutton could see a room fast approaching. Another yell escaped her throat and even Loki let out another yelp as he rotated them so that he would be cushioning her from impact with the floor.
Sutton squeezed her eyes shut and she winced as she heard Loki hit the ground with a crack!
She opened her eyes, trying to catch her breath, and Loki squinted as he grit his teeth in a seething pain and anger.
"We've been falling," he yelled, his tone rising, "for thirty minutes!"
Having used Loki as a landing pad, Sutton clambered off of him feeling more dizzy than injured. She stood and instinctively offered him a hand to help him up. Loki tore his eyes away from the people he was looking at and hesitated, but he accepted her hand and stood whether he needed the help or not.
Sutton looked to see who else was in the room and her face lit up as she spotted Thor.
"Thor! Oh, thank goodness, I-"
Her sentence was cut short as her gaze caught sight of the man standing next to him. She let out a reflexive yelp and stumbled backwards into Loki, her breathing becoming shorter as her eyes widened.
"No- how?"
Khan? How had Khan gotten back into the Marvel universe? It shouldn't be possible!
Thor looked from Sutton to the man next to him and back before his face finally lit up in understanding.
"This isn't your nemesis, Khan," he said. "This man is called Stephen Strange."
"Doctor Stephen Strange," the man corrected. His voice was more nasally than Khan's, with more of an American accent than a British one. "Sutton Regan," he said, turning to her. "Sorry you got caught in that. We should have a chat when you have more time." Sutton's eyes widened further.
"No thank you."
Whether that bothered him or not, she couldn't tell. He just switched his attention back to Thor and gave him a prim smile.
"Alright. You can handle him from here."
Behind her, Loki tensed. He shook his arms out at his sides and gripped two daggers that fell from his sleeves.
"Handle me? Who are you? You think you're some kind of sorcerer? Don't think for one minute, you second-rate-"
Doctor Stephen Strange waved his fingers in a circle and another sparking ring flared up in front of them.
"Bye-bye," he said cheerfully. Then he thrust his hands towards them and the ring shot in their direction. Thor accepted it, Loki lunged, Sutton attempted to scramble away.
"No, wait! Not me! I'm not part of this- wait!"
She stumbled and caught herself before eating it on the grass. Loki wasn't so lucky. Thor was the least phased out of all of them, probably having been more mentally prepared for what was about to happen. Sutton snapped up to look at their surroundings. They were on some sort of cliffside, by an ocean, and she had a feeling she wasn't in New York State anymore.
"Oh no," she muttered. "Tony is going to kill me."
"I promise to return you home before we return to Asgard," Thor said.
She didn't want to wait. She didn't want to be involved in the royal families' internal problems at all. Raising her eyes to the sky, she lifted one side of her face hopefully.
"Heimdall?"
"Heimdall isn't manning the bifrost at the moment."
"What?"
But they were distracted by a figure sitting on a large rock outcropping staring out at the churning waves. Odin.
Thor and Loki moved forward to speak with him and Sutton held back. It wasn't her business, and she was pointless now that they'd found him.
She sat on the grass and tried to huddle down and hide from the wind as their conversation drifted over to her.
Forgiveness. Goodbye.
Those were the messages that Odin was giving his sons. Sutton felt her own chest tighten as she kept her eyes locked on the grass, pulling out individual blades, and tried to pretend she didn't hear all of it.
Whether Odin was just deciding he was done, or he knew his time was coming, she didn't know. But right before he left, he dropped a bomb on everyone.
Thor and Loki had a sister. An evil, powerful sister who'd been locked away for thousands of years. An evil sister who gained power from Asgard itself and who would be set free with his death.
Sutton's gaze shot up and she stared at the back of Odin's head with wide eyes. Thor and Loki's faces were shades of floored and distraught. She pushed herself to her feet and wrung her hands as Thor tried to plead with his father to stay. To help them.
Odin refused.
If she had been uncertain of her involvement in their situation before, she was vehemently against it now. She watched as Odin disappeared into a gold mist and drifted over the ocean. There was a still, sad silence as the two Odinsons stared out at the fading light.
She didn't know who her own dad was, and from what she'd seen of Odin he wasn't exactly her favorite person, but she could still imagine the pain of losing a parent.
Sutton swallowed thickly and flinched back as Thor yelled at Loki. Blamed him.
"Thor? Are-are you ok?"
Thor turned to her as if only just remembering she was there. He grit his teeth and curled one hand into a fist as he took a steadying breath.
"I'm sorry, Sutton."
She shook her head and rubbed at her arm.
"I'm sorry," she insisted. "I-I'm sure he's at peace. Ah, in Valhalla." Thor smiled thinly.
"Thank you."
Loki let out a huff and sniffed.
"Eloquently put," he said. Sutton cast him a sympathetic look as well.
"I'm sorry for you too." He snapped his teeth together and shut up.
There was a noise suddenly behind her. The wind picked up and Sutton turned while shuffling back as a dark portal tore open before them.
"That isn't me," she said
Thor strode forward, clutching a disguised Mjolnir and pushed her away.
"Get behind me," he said firmly. Sutton willingly complied, scurrying back as both brothers moved a ways in front of her and changed back into their original armor with a dramatic flair unrivaled by mortals.
A figure emerged from a swirling portal. A woman with pale skin and dark hair and a maniacal smile.
"Your sister?" There was a defeated whine to Sutton's tone. She eyed the woman's dark suit and hair. "Loki, I think you stole her look."
"Shut up."
"I am Hela," the woman said, tilting up her jaw. Sutton sneered.
"Wish you'd go back to your namesake."
Loki cut his eyes back to her.
"I appreciate the cheek, but now might not be the best time."
Sutton took another few steps back and sighed. She really just wanted to go home.
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Moral of the story: Do not fall for Thor's puppy eyes. It won't end well for you.