A thunderstorm assaulted Sigyn's island with copious thunder, lightning and a driving rain. Inside Sigyn's house, a new large screen television set had been installed on the wall. Across from it, seated on the couch was Loki, intently watching the movie on the screen. Behind him, in the kitchen, Sigyn salted a large bowl of popcorn and began to carry it from the kitchen over to Loki. She glanced to her right and saw a drop of water fall from the ceiling. There was already a bucket and a large bowl catching water from two other leaks around the room.
"Damn, there's another one!" Sigyn said, quickly handing the bowl of popcorn off to Loki.
"Hmmm?" Loki asked, taking the bowl and setting it on the coffee table in front of the couch.
"Another leak. Thankfully there's none in my room yet. Quill would have a stroke if any of that got wet. Need to get the roof patched. Probably just need to tear it off, replace the whole thing. I'll talk to Clint. Maybe he'll come out and take a look at it. See what he thinks" Sigyn told Loki.
"Barton?" Loki said, as he ate popcorn.
"Yeah...he does that kind of thing...have to catch him when he's not off doing some Robin Hood meets James Bond shit. Thinking about putting a bike path in too. It would probably look strange if their Queen was out riding it around outside and no one would probably appreciate me riding it through the corridors." Sigyn put a large mixing bowl under the newly discovered leak.
"How many times must I tell you? You're the queen, you can do whatever you please. I've removed mother's spell. We could as easily demolish this whole thing, bring our people here, they could build something far better in a couple of days."
"But I like this place. It's nice coming here, getting away from everything...being just like normal people for awhile."
"My love, neither of us have ever been nor will we ever be 'normal' people...by anyone's standards." Loki said, eating more popcorn.
"I said 'like' normal people...we can pretend...you know, like we used to." Sigyn said. Thunder rumbled outside followed soon after by bursts of lightning. "Aside from the roof being a sieve though, this is the perfect weather for this. It's always better to watch horror movies during a storm."
Sigyn rejoined Loki on the couch. They were watching the 1990 remake of Night of the Living Dead.
"This is supposed to be frightening...I thought it was a comedy. These people are unbelievable morons even for mortals." Loki said.
"This is one of my favorite movies. It's why I put this on my list." Sigyn replied.
"It should be renamed 'Night of the Imbeciles.' Honestly, they're keeping that plague child in the basement? It's as if they wish to die. This is a study in what is never to be done were such an event ever to occur."
"Just wait, you'll love this next part." Sigyn told him.
"These daft idiots actually survive long enough for there to be another part?" Loki asked, laughing. Sigyn playfully slapped him on the arm.
On the television, a young man and his girlfriend race their truck to a locked gas pump. The man exits the truck and attempts to unlock the pump only to discover he's taken the wrong keys.
"As I said, imbeciles..they're all going to die." Loki commentated on the movie from the couch.
"Wait for it..." Sigyn said, smiling.
On the screen, the man with the wrong keys pulls out a rifle and shoots the lock on the gas pump, causing an explosion, the truck, the man and his girlfriend going up in a ball of flames.
"Yes!" Loki cried out, jumping from the couch. "I knew they would die! I told you!"
"Yes, I know...I've seen this movie." Sigyn said, laughing. Loki sat back down on the couch next to Sigyn.
"I've changed my mind. I like this." he said.
"Wait until they show them taking target practice on the zombies hanging from trees."
"Don't give the best parts away." he told her. "I was not aware you had such a darkside. Not that I'm opposed to that..."
"I love scary movies. Even before that...the stories you would tell me..."
"You were not such a fan of the Ghost of Eigill." Loki reminded her.
"Yeah, well, I wasn't expecting that. But anyway, I have all kinds of movies...Nightmare on Elm Street...we should watch that one next...Poltergeist...The Exorcist...on second thought, we should probably skip that one..."
"What's it about?"
"Possession...demons..." Sigyn said. Loki looked uncomfortable.
"I concur. I believe I can go my whole life without seeing that one."
"Well, maybe someday...it's a good movie." Sigyn said, reaching for more popcorn. Loki and Sigyn quietly watched the movie for a few more minutes.
"Anyway," Sigyn spoke again, "How's your project going? Your play. I know you want to get the theater going again."
"It's coming along. I'm in a bit of a conundrum. I'm not sure what to keep and what to leave out."
"What's it about? I've been so busy, this is the first time I've had time to think to ask."
"Well...I thought it would be fitting to reopen with the story of your ascension." Sigyn looked worried and skeptical.
"This isn't going to be another 'The Tragedy of Loki of Asgard' is it?"
"How did you know about that?"
"Thor told me, when I told him you were writing again. It sounded like it was quite the...um...spectacle."
"The highest of art. I'm afraid Thor never appreciated theater...or anything else that doesn't require punching or knocking holes into things. It's a shame that no copies of the script survived."
"On a related note, I think you should hold off on the statues...we have bigger priorities...there's still things that haven't been rebuilt since the war..."
"How did you find out about those? They were to be a surprise." Loki said, disappointment in his voice.
"I'm the Queen, I'm going to find out about most things, eventually."
"We must get the artists working. Loriel didn't seem keen on art of any type. Perhaps just the one?" Loki said hopefully. Sigyn sighed and laid her head on Loki's shoulder.
"Maybe just the one. Anyway, back to your play, I can tell you a few scenes to leave out of it...like the one where you tell all of my subjects that I was a virgin."
"Well...I suppose everyone is at some point. Why would that be-"
"Leave it out."
"If you wish it."
"I do. I really, really wish it. That other thing too...you know...the messenger..."
"Yes...yes...I think the story will progress satisfactorily without that level of detail."
"And the part where-" Sigyn began.
"By the time you're finished, there will be no story left to tell." Loki said.
"Maybe that would be better." Sigyn told him. "Anyway, we can talk about it later. We have to go back tomorrow, I have to get ready for my trip to the conference. The realms have been kept too isolated, even by Odin. If Loriel would come back, make an appearance somewhere or something else were to happen, if we had relations outside them, others to call in our defense..."
"Yes, but that also puts us on the hook if it's the other way around. One of the reasons my father avoided it." Loki said.
"I know...but she's still out there...somewhere. She'll be back. We have to be ready."
On Heven, Sigyn dressed in a flowing gown, the circlet with the stone on her head, which she preferred to the bigger, more heavy formal crown of the realm, supervised angels as they carried two large trunks onto Sif's ship. Loki walked up behind her, wrapping his arms around her from behind.
"Why don't you use the Ladder? It's what it's there for." Loki asked.
"Mostly because of all this. It's just easier. You told me I have to look the part, commissioned all this for me. I'll be there a week. I may as well put it to use. Plus it gives me time to just relax."
"You can relax here." Loki said, with his arms still around her.
"If you'd let me." she said, feigning annoyance then grinning.
"Well...we do have certain responsibilities to fulfill...we have to leave all this to someone..."
"As Barton said, practice makes perfect. At least when the time comes, when we're sure we're safe, we'll know we'll get it right." Sigyn said turning her head and smiling at Loki.
"She isn't coming back here. My father said-"
"I know what he said. Just a little longer, until we have all our defenses back where they should be, where I want them to be." Sigyn turned to face Loki, the two standing with their arms around each other. "I want it too, as much as you do, believe me. I just don't want there to be any chance...I don't want the same kind of thing that happened to me...another child go through anything like that...or what you experienced. When our people out there find her..."
"Life is never completely safe, for anyone, anywhere. It never will be. If not her, something else. You know this." Loki told Sigyn.
"I know. I just need more time I think...to get used to all this. It's only been a year. It's kinda like learning to ride a bike I guess, you feel a little wobbly for awhile, even if you don't look it." Sigyn told him. Loki smiled.
"You are doing far better at this than you did on that contraption."
"We should be going." Sif said from the hatch.
"I'll be right there." Sigyn said to her.
"Why are you going in this thing? We have the two ships in the hanger...far nicer than this rust bucket." Loki told Sigyn.
"Watch your mouth. You may be king here, but it won't stop me from punching you in it." Sif said.
"Just like old times." Loki said to Sigyn, grinning.
"I don't think she's joking." Sigyn said to him.
"She wasn't back then either, if you remember." Loki said.
"I just like being inconspicuous, I guess." Sigyn said, answering Loki's question.
"You are a Queen, you will never be inconspicuous."
"I have to go." Sigyn said. Sigyn and Loki shared a kiss before Sigyn pulled herself from Loki's embrace, Loki reluctantly letting her go. She walked up the gangway into Sif's ship and turned waving to Loki before Sif retracted the gangway and closed the hatch. Soon after, the ship lifted off, Loki watching it as it flew away and out of sight. He then turned and strode quickly towards a uniformed angel standing a few yards away..
Inside Sif's ship, Sigyn opened one of the chests and pulled off the circlet around her head, stowing it in the trunk and reaching halfway into it, under a pile of gowns, pulled out a pair of leather like leggings and a blue V necked top with gold trim around the collar and black boots, along with her belt holding her sheathed sword and dagger. She put the leggings on under the dress, then stripped the gown off over her head and replaced it with the blue top, tossing the gown into the trunk, then pulled off her shoes, throwing them into the trunk as well and slipping on the boots, then slamming the trunk closed. She moved up to the copilot's seat and sat down. Sif looked over to her.
"So how long are you going to do this? It's not like you to lie, especially to him."
"I'm not lying, I'm going to to the conference...we have three days. As usual, I just didn't tell him my whole itinerary. I don't always have to tell him everything."
Sigyn punched a code into the com system and waited a moment.
"Quill? You there?" Sigyn and Sif heard music coming through the com system.
"Yeah...Sigyn...didn't think I'd hear from you for another hour or two." Sigyn could barely hear Quill over his music.
"Quill...turn it down, I can't hear you.." Sigyn said, unable to keep from smiling.
"Oh...yeah...sorry." The volume of the music lowered.
"So what do you have for me?" Sigyn asked.
"Sounds like it could be our girl...or whatever the hell she is...or one of 'em anyway. Thought you'd want to check it out. Sending the coordinates now. They said she hangs out in the bar...been seen taking a lot of guys home...or somewhere...they don't seem to end up return customers but no one there ever reports anyone missing, no bodies...so who knows. Just been a lot of chatter so far. Calls herself Lamia. It's a rough place...watch yourself."
"I can be a rough woman when I want to be. Also got one of the best in the business with me. I'll be fine." Sigyn told Quill.
"Keep me posted. We're not too far from there, a few jumps. If you need back up, give us a holler."
"I will. I'll let you know what we find. I'm out."
Sigyn ended the call and then called up a playlist on the console in front of her and a song began to play. ( watch?v=nI33SNkIsMw)
You got me runnin' baby
You give me somethin' way beyond revenue
You put the magic in me
I feel the magic when we do what we do
And oh
I can't do without you for too long you're my situation
You're my kinda lover
My kinda lover
My kinda lover
My kinda lover
My kinda lover
My kinda lover
"Glad I talked you into installing this. That first trip I about went crazy."
"Tell me about it." Sif said.
Loki piloted the platinum toned ship away from Heven. He sat in the pilot's seat with a determined expression. A beep sounded from the console and Loki reached over and hit the switch.
"Where's she going?"
"Sending you the coordinates now. It's not a big system, pretty rough...a lot of the type looking for that kind of place, somewhere to lay low, where people don't ask questions, or to make or meet connections. Ravagers spend a good amount of time in and out of there. Been there myself but not lately." Quilll said over the com.
"And she thinks she's there?"
"Like I told her...sounds like it could be...or one of them. Calls herself Lamia. Whatever she is, doesn't sound good. She's got Sif with her, but two, even Asgardians, going up against what they might run into there...might end up in over their heads, especially if it is her and if she's made any friends there."
"And she's still going by the same name?"
"Yeah...Angela. She's kinda starting to get a rep out there...she's not bad, for a newbie. Guess Sif's taught her a few things."
"I'm sure she has. Thank you."
"Yeah, no problem. Tell you the same thing I told her. We're only a couple jumps away...if you need us, won't take too long. Anyway, I'll keep ya in the loop like I've been doin'"
Loki signed off with Quill and then, as Sigyn had done, pulled up a playlist on the ship's computer and set it playing. ( watch?v=tqQGWhge5yo)
I can't seem to face up to the facts
I'm tense and nervous and I can't relax
I can't sleep 'cause my bed's on fire
Don't touch me I'm a real live wire
Psycho Killer
Qu'est-ce que c'est
Fa-fa-fa-fa-fa-fa-fa-fa-fa-far better
Run run run run run run run away oh oh
Psycho Killer
Qu'est-ce que c'est
Fa-fa-fa-fa-fa-fa-fa-fa-fa-far better
Run, run, run, run, run, run, run, away oh oh oh
Yeah yeah yeah yeah
The End
Read the next story in the trilogy, Loki: Blood Royal