Their ship had been under attack for some time. They had suffered heavy casualties, and the ship had been crippled. They had gotten off a distress call, but they were in a distant quadrant of space and with Asgard destroyed, the nearest ships that might be able to respond were much too far away to be able to help them. They had no choice, and so the order had been given to abandon ship.

Loki had taken Rinah aside after the order had been given.

"You must go with them", he had told her.

"No, my Prince", she had protested, "my place is beside you, and you have elected to stay and fight to give the citizens a chance at escape".

"Rinah", Loki took her by the shoulders and gazed seriously into her eyes, "this is no time to argue. Asgard must survive. The people will need strong leaders, and fierce fighters. There's no telling what awaits them. You must go with them."

"But…" Rinah began to protest again, her voice tight with the emotion she was just barely managing to hold back.

"Captain", Loki intensified his gaze, "that's an order."

Rinah paused for a moment before bowing her head. "Yes, my Prince."

Loki nodded and released her shoulders, but he continued to look at her. She saw a brief shadow pass in front of his eyes, the type of shadow she had seen in the eyes of others heading into battle, as they realize that today might be their last. Then he smiled gently, placing a hand on her head.

A soft green glow came from his hand and also shone in his eyes, as he whispered: "May my mischief be with you". Then he removed his hand, gave her one last look, and turned on his heels to rejoin his brother-his raven black hair and dark green cape flowing as he left the room.

XXXXXXXXXXXX

She had seen the explosion. They had all seen it from the escape pods. The Statesman had blown into a thousand bits, and her heart sank. Loki, Thor, Heimdall...those three, and others, had been aboard that ship. The escape pods were programmed before launch from the main ship, and could not turn around and go back. They could only go forward, towards their destination - Midgard.

XXXXXXXXXXXX

They had landed in a country in the far northern part of Midgard, and there had established a colony for themselves, calling it "New Asgard". It was a lovely place...green and verdant, bordered by the ocean, with long summer days and long winter nights. It was a lovely place, but it wasn't home. Asgard, their Asgard, was long gone. There was a heaviness that hung over the group, even as they went about the business of establishing their homes and larger community. Everyone had someone they were mourning, someone who was lost on the ship when the Mad Titan named Thanos had attacked them.

Rinah kept largely to herself when she was not busy with the duties of the colony. She had a small hut on a cliff that overlooked the ocean. She liked to retire there, to enjoy the murmuring of the ocean in the evening. She often sat outside and gazed out on the water. Many times, her mind would drift back to those last moments on the ship, when Loki had ordered her to leave. She could still see the green light that shone from him as he whispered the last words she had heard him speak. Her heart ached with a terrible guilt for leaving, even though he had ordered it. She did not know his fate, and it haunted her that she had not been there.

XXXXXXXXXXXX

Darkness. That's all there was….a heavy, palpable darkness. She could see nothing, hear nothing. A heaviness pressed on her, making it hard to draw breath. Then...she couldn't draw breath at all….

Rinah woke up with a start, sitting straight up in her bed, soaked in sweat. Again. She had had this dream countless times over the months, always the same. Always the darkness, always the crushing heaviness that robbed her of her breath, always waking up gasping for air.

She held her head in her hands and calmed herself. What did this dream mean? Where was it coming from? And why was it so relentlessly repeating?

XXXXXXXXXXXX

Rinah had volunteered to go out on the fishing ship. She thought that some time on the water, with no task save the repeated casting and retrieving of the net, would do her good. She had come to know Leif and Einar pretty well, having been on the same escape pod with them during the long journey to Midgard. She felt comforted in their presence, and had come to trust them.

Once they reached the area where they were to start casting their net, they began the pattern of casting, dragging, and retrieving the net. They worked largely in silence, each one of them lost in the meditation of the routine as well as their own thoughts. It was like this for much of the community, many had grown quiet and thoughtful as a result of the collective trauma they had endured.

They worked like this for some time, until they decided to break for some food and a brief rest. As they passed around mead and salted fish, it was Leif who started the conversation.

"How fare thee, Rinah?" He asked, his mouth filled with a bite of fish.

"Didn't anyone ever tell you not to talk with your mouth full?" Rinah smirked at him. "Anyway, I'm fine. As fine as anyone else around here."

Einar took a long drink of his mead. "Are you sure about that, Rinah? Those circles under your eyes tell a different story."

Rinah closed her eyes for a moment and cursed silently to herself. Then she opened her eyes, drew a breath, and began to speak. "I haven't been sleeping well lately. I keep having this recurring nightmare."

Both Einar and Leif nodded, no stranger to nightmares themselves since escaping to Midgard.

"What is the dream about?" It was Einar who spoke again.

"I'm not sure, actually. There's just darkness and heaviness, and then I can't breathe and it wakes me up. It's the same bloody dream, time and time again."

Leif and Einar looked at each other for a moment, then looked back at Rinah. Leif put an arm around Rinah's shoulders, while Einar refilled her cup of mead.

Leif was gentle with his words. "They say that repeating dreams carry a message. I'm not sure what that message is, but you should try and find out."

"How?"

"Try to stay in the dream", Leif continued. "It will be hard, but that's probably the only way you're going to find out what the dream is trying to tell you."

Rinah nodded, drawing a breath. That was not going to be easy. Silently, they all finished their meal. They said little to each other for the rest of the day, as they finished their fishing and brought their catch home to New Asgard. They were exhausted by the time they parted ways.

XXXXXXXXXXXX

The familiar darkness. The familiar heaviness pressing on her. The feeling of not being able to breathe. The terror. But this time, she knew she must not wake up. She struggled against the pressure that was robbing her of her breath, struggled to stay in the dream. She saw stars before her eyes. Was she passing out? No, she couldn't be. It was a dream.

She realized the heaviness was gone. The stars she saw were actual stars. She was in space. And then she heard it, albeit faintly.

"Rinah." It was a voice, calling her name. It was soft, like a whisper. But she knew this voice. It was a voice that she hadn't heard since those last moments on the ship. It was his voice.

"Rinah." He called her again. The stars began to fade.

"No", she called out in her sleep. "Don't go. Where are you?" But it was too late. The stars were gone, and she opened her eyes in her bed.

XXXXXXXXXXXX

They called her The Valkyrie. No other name, just that one. They called her this because she was the only surviving one, after the Valkyrie had been sent to recapture Hela, the Goddess of Death. She was the de facto leader of New Asgard, since Thor had disappeared from public view.

And she was looking at Rinah like she had lost her mind.

"You want to borrow The Commodore and do what?!"

"Look, Val" - everyone called her Val for short - "I know how it must sound, but I have been having this dream over and over and over again. Always the same one. I think it's a message. I think I'm supposed to go back out there."

Rinah had conveniently left out the part where she had heard Loki's voice calling her name. It all sounded crazy enough, without that. And without knowing what she was going to find, she didn't want to get any hopes up that she would return with the Prince of Asgard in tow.

"And what do you expect to find?" Val asked her, one eyebrow raised. "We all saw that ship explode. There's nothing left. Just debris."

"I'm not sure what I'll find, to be honest with you. But I truly feel I'm being called to go."

Val stared off into the distance for a moment, obviously thinking things over. She then nodded slowly. "All right, you can go. But I expect a full report when you get back."

Rinah bowed slightly. "Yes, Ma'am."

XXXXXXXXXXXX

There was nothing around her except the silence of space, and the stars and planets around her. She had gotten the last known coordinates of The Statesman from the ship's log. She was nearly at the coordinates but she didn't see much in the way of debris. The debris field had been scattered by time.

She navigated The Commodore, her eyes open and looking, though she admitted that she had no idea what she was looking for, and there wasn't much to see.

"Rinah." She heard her name, softly in her head. It startled her. She looked around, but she saw nothing that caught her eye.

"Where are you?" She asked softly.

"Rinah", came his voice again. She felt something, a pressure in her hands, that seemed to guide her to turn the ship's wheel. She changed her course. Up ahead of her, she saw a very small planet. It was barren, and uninhabited. Her new course was angling her straight towards it, so she flew on and came in for a landing.

She exited the ship and looked around the barren landscape. Her eyes saw something in the distance when she heard it again, louder this time.

"Rinah. There."

She walked towards the object she saw in the distance. As she got closer, she began to recognize what it was, and her heart sank. The green cape, the leather armor, the black hair….it was Loki. Once she was beside him, she sank to her knees and turned him over with trembling hands. Cold. He was dead.

The wail that tore itself from her chest echoed across the landscape. The Prince of Asgard had fallen. And Rinah had not been there to defend him. She wept for him for several minutes, before drying her eyes.

She went back to the Commodore, where she broke up supply crates and anything she could and stacked the wood outside. She then placed Loki's body on top of the pyre. She may not have been able to save him, but at least she would give him the honor he deserved in death. She retrieved a flare from the ship and used it to ignite the pyre.

"May I see you again one day in Valhalla, my prince. Farewell."

She stood by the pyre, keeping watch over it as it burned, tears running down her cheeks once more. The pyre was fully engulfed when she heard it again.

"Rinah," his voice came once more, "hold out your hand".

Rinah held out a shaking hand. Through her tears, she could barely see the green ball of light that formed in her palm. The ball of light floated up and several feet away from her, before taking the spectral shape of the God of Mischief.

He looked down at her, and then over at the funeral pyre, and shook his head. "That was a rough day."

"Loki?" Rinah was beyond confused by what she was witnessing.

"Yes, Rinah, it's me."

She looked at the pyre, then back at the spectral figure before her. "How?"

"Rinah, do you remember the day it all happened? I left part of myself with you. 'May my mischief be with you'. I wanted you to be able to find me, no matter how things turned out."

"But…..you're dead…."

"In that form, yes," Loki said, motioning towards the pyre. "But Rinah, remember that I'm a god. Do you honestly think that they could truly kill me? Do you think that this is the only reality that exists?"

She just looked at him, stunned by what she was hearing.

"Rinah", he looked at her with a conspiratorial smirk on his face, "I'm everywhere, my dear. As you've just seen, I'm with you. And I'm with others, too….by different names, perhaps, but with them. Everyone who invokes a Trickster invokes me. And I have other forms, in other universes. I'm never truly gone. So take heart. Dry your tears, and do not grieve me. One form may be gone, but I am still around."

"What do I do?" Rinah asked.

He waved his hand towards the pyre. "This is a good start. Thank you for finding my body and giving me a proper farewell. As for what comes next…" He laid his hand on her. It wasn't solid, but she could feel a warmth from it. "Follow your instincts. I'm part of you now, and you will always be my Captain. Farewell, Rinah….until we meet again."

The spectral form of Loki condensed back into the ball of light, which floated back towards Rinah. She held out her hand and caught it, closing her hand over it. When she opened her hand, it was gone.

Rinah kept watch over the pyre, lost in thoughts and memories, until it was completely burned down. With one last look at the barren planet where she had found him, and up into the stars, Rinah climbed back into the Commodore and lifted off. As she made her way away from the planet, a smile crept across her face. She looked out across the vast expanse….knowing that Loki was still around. Somewhere, in another universe, he existed in physical form.

And Rinah was going to find him.