"And how exactly do you plan to accomplish this? " Sigyn asked.
"Heven's legions are now mine to command." Loki informed her. Sigyn looked down at the empty glass in front of her and pushed it back across the bar as another song began to play. ( watch?v=zbC-Z4NFZss).
"I think I'll have another." Sigyn said. Loki looked at her with astonishment. He knew well that Sigyn was not much of a drinker. Loki lifted the decanter and poured another drink into her glass, sliding it back to her. Lifting it, she took a drink before sitting it down. She looked into his eyes, at the expression on his face. "I know, it's not like me, is it?" she said before taking another drink. "Funny, I was thinking the same about you."
"If you mean I'm not the milquetoast I'd become as your leige man, you're correct. I was never meant to be a mere appendage. I have far loftier aspirations. I've been reawakened to my true purpose." Loki answered. "My brother and his compatriots only delayed for a time the inevitable. I will finally after millennia fulfill my destiny and in doing so bring peace to this wretched world."
"My father used to say that true peace, the kind that lasts doesn't come at the end of a sword. That's why he chose to become a diplomat."
"What would a man who beat his own wife and child know of peace? Your father was nothing but a doltish drunkard." Loki said, ironically pouring himself another drink and downing a long swallow.
"His fear, his pain, his sense of loss led him to become someone he was not. The same happened to you once. This isn't you, it's the stone. Bruce Banner told me it's like a computer program. In a sense Thanos programmed it to control you in order to use you to get what he wanted."
"Thanos is dead." Loki said. "No one controls me. Not Thanos. Certainly not you. I am my own master." Loki said.
"I've never tried to control you, I've never wanted to. I've always been loyal to you." Sigyn said to him. "If I wasn't I wouldn't be here now. Give me the scepter, the stone. I can take it far from here." Sigyn stood, walking around the bar to stand in front of Loki, putting the palms of both hands on his chest, sending all the peace and calm she could muster to pass from them into him. "Come home. Come back to me, come back to your children. They need you. I need you. I love you. Please, let me help you." Sigyn pleaded. Loki stood silent for a moment, his features appearing to soften before they hardened once more.
"Sentiment..." Loki sneered before walking around her to the middle of the room, his back to her. Sigyn walked back around the bar, standing in front of it to face him. He turned to face her. "I don't need your help. I don't need you. I've never needed anyone. I'll go it alone as I always have." Loki said, his voice hard and cold. Sigyn fought back tears. Though she knew they weren't truly his words, they cut deeply nonetheless. As the song playing ended, silence fell upon the room as Sigyn looked to her feet before looking back to Loki. The next song began to play as she seemed to come to a decision. ( watch?v=YuKfiH0Scao&list=RDYuKfiH0Scao&start_radio=1)
Sigyn removed a ring from her right hand, her coronation ring. Walking up to Loki, she reached out, taking his left hand, moving it out in front of him palm up and placed the ring into it.
"The throne of Heven...it's yours. I never wanted a crown or a throne." Sigyn told him. "All those centuries, all I really wanted was you." Sigyn removed Frigga's wedding ring, now hers, from her left hand and placed it into Loki's palm next to her coronation ring. "The children and I will start a new life elsewhere, far from Heven or Midgard." Loki stared down at the two rings in his hand as Sigyn kissed his cheek before turning and walking back to the bar. Loki remained standing where she had left him, continuing to silently look down into the palm of his hand. Loki looked up to her as she grabbed the half filled glass that she had left there and downed the rest of the drink, placing the empty glass back onto the bar. In her other hand she now held a transport cylinder. " I hope when Midgard falls before you it's everything you hoped it would be."
"Wait-" Loki began to say as she vanished in the glow of its light. Stunned back into silence, Loki looked back down at the rings in his hand before closing his palm around them, opening his hand again to reveal it empty. Loki's expression transformed into one of anger. With a raging, primal cry, Loki pointed the scepter towards the bar, sending a blast of energy from the scepter towards it, the shelf and bar exploding.
Loki looked on in surprise as thick strands of white webbing wound themselves around the scepter, it quickly thereafter pulled upwards from his grasp. Looking up, Loki saw the Avenger whose existence he knew of only through the memories his brother had shared with him. Spiderman, attached to the ceiling by his feet and one hand, held the scepter in the other.
"Hi...uh..Mr. Loki...your majesty...sir..." Parker said as he looked down at the God of Mischief and Heven's King.
"Insect!" Loki cried.
"Actually spiders aren't insects. They're arachnids. You ever see that movie, Arachnophobia...that scene where all the spiders come out of the sink? I was afraid to go in the bathroom for a month! Seems sorta ironic now." Peter Parker said.
"Either is equally crushed under my boot!" Loki exclaimed as he sent a blast of energy from his raised palm towards him. Spiderman leaped away, attaching himself to the wall as the area of the ceiling where he had previous attached himself crumbled, raining debris.
Dr. Strange stepped out of a glowing portal a few feet from where Spiderman clung to the wall. Parker tossed the scepter to Strange.
"I thought you said if we took that away from him, he'd be normal!" Parker said to Strange.
"I'm quite sure I didn't use the term 'normal.' It will take some time for its effects to wear off." Strange replied. Loki glared savagely at the Master of the Mystic Arts.
"You...wizard. I should have known. You've enchanted her, turned her against me."
"I think that was your own special brand of charm. I've found that when you tell a woman you don't need her, she tends to disappear. without the use of magic." Strange said.
With a growl Loki leapt towards Strange only to find his momentum come suddenly to a halt as he felt a large hand close around his leg. Dangling in the air upside down, in the grasp of Banner's uninjured arm, Loki looked at the humongous green scientist in terror.
"Surprise." Banner said.
"Unhand me you dull creature!" Loki exclaimed.
"Do I really have to do this again?" Banner said.
"No! Wait! Perhaps we can-"
Before Loki could finish, Banner flung Loki onto the ground like a rag doll before lifting him and repeating the procedure once again. Strange and Parker stood together, Parker having removed himself from the wall, watching in awe and wincing.
"I think our part in this little drama has played out." Strange said as he opened a portal back to the Sanctum. "After you." he said to Parker, gesturing for him to enter before him. Strange following Parker through the portal closed it behind him.
"Alright! That's enough!" Sigyn's voice called out. She stood on the walkway above where the bar had previously been, Barton at her side, his bow at the ready. Banner tossed Loki to the floor where he lay in a depression not quite as deep as during his previous experience. Banner stepped back as Sigyn descended the stairs, Barton following, crossing the floor to look down at Loki who stared blankly at the ceiling. Kneeling beside him, she reached over, taking his hand in hers, putting her other to his cheek.
"Loki..."
Loki slowly turned his head towards the sound of her voice, his eyes still wide.
"Sigyn?"
"Let me help you...unless of course you don't need me."
"Please..." Loki managed to say. Sigyn assisted Loki, easing him into a sitting position, then with an arm around him, helped him rise unsteadily to his feet. Loki, still in a daze looked towards the remains of the bar. "I need a drink." Barton, stepping up, handed Loki a flask. Raising it a bit shakily to his lips, Loki took a drink before handing it back to Barton. "Thank you."
Barton handed the flask over to Sigyn, taking hold of one of Loki's wrists, placing shackles on it, then shackling the other. Loki looked down at his shackled wrists, his brain still not firing on all cylinders after his pummeling, then looked back to Barton questioningly.
"Better safe than sorry. Gonna take some time for all that garbage in your brain to work itself out." Barton explained.
"I think I can handle him from here. I'm taking him home now. Thank you, all of you." said Sigyn.
"Anytime." Banner said. Loki looked to Banner with fearful eyes.
"I'll get out to the island in the next few days with a few other guys. We'll get it all cleaned up...decide where to go from there." Barton said.
"I appreciate it. I'll be in touch." Sigyn said. Producing a transport cylinder and taking Loki's arm, both disappeared in it's pink-violet light.
Loki lay in the bunk of his cell in the dungeon of Heven staring glumly at the ceiling. A stack of books rested on the table next to the bunk. He turned his head as he noticed movement outside his cell. Sigyn stood looking in at him.
"Are you ready for me to bust you out of here?"
"Considering recent events, it may be in everyone's best interest for me to remain where I am." Loki answered. Sigyn deactivated the force field.
"It wouldn't be in mine." Sigyn replied.
"On the contrary, I believe it would be in yours most of all." Loki answered. Sigyn entered the cell and walked across it to the bunk and sat on the edge facing away from Loki.
"Did you mean what you said? Do you really feel that way?" Sigyn said. Loki sat up looking over to her.
"Which part? Do I feel what way?" Loki asked.
"That you live in my shadow, that you're merely an appendage."
"In a way, perhaps...believe me when I say I would far rather be appended to you than to rule an empire alone. Did you mean what you said, on the island?"
"What did I-" Sigyn began to inquire turning to look at Loki before recalling their conversation. "Oh...yes...maybe, I don't know." Sigyn answered. "What I do know is the two that we now have are waiting for you." As Sigyn began to rise Loki reached out, taking her hand.
"Patience is a virtue. I think they can wait a little longer." Sigyn sat back down, looking to Loki questioningly.
"I thought you'd be chomping at the bit to get out of here."
"I'm feeling up to a little mischief. All the time I've spent in dungeons...there is one thing I've never yet done in them..."
"What would that-" Sigyn began to ask puzzled as she looked to Loki and the mischievous grin on his face. "Oh!" she said as understanding dawned on her. Loki's lips met hers, putting an end to any further discussion.
Loki sat on the chaise in the great room, Frigga sleeping in his arms. He looked down at her tranquil face and caressed her cheek. Sigyn, wearing a long silk robe,entered the great room from the door to the bedchambers and approached him.
"I'll take her." Sigyn said. Loki lifted the dozing infant, kissing her softly on the forehead before transferring her into Sigyn's arms. Sigyn walked back through the door of the bedchambers. Loki rose from the chaise, walking to the window and looking out into the darkness before then approaching the table holding the record player and standing before it.
Sigyn soon joined him, putting a hand on his shoulder.
"They're both out like a light. I think I'm going to join them. Are you coming?" Sigyn said.
"I have something to return to you...if you want them." Loki said holding out his hand and opening it, revealing two rings.
"Of course I do." Sigyn answered. Loki slipped her coronation ring back onto her right hand, before doing the same with Frigga's wedding ring onto her left. Taking her left hand, Loki raised it to his lips, kissing her finger and the ring now back in its place. Turning, holding her left hand in his, he moved the needle onto the record, music filling the room as he took Sigyn in his arms, she wrapping hers around him. ( watch?v=vDEambbz2Yk)
When I need you
I Just close my eyes and I'm with you
And all that I so want to give you
Its only a heart beat away
When I need love
I hold out my hands and I touch love
I never knew there was so much love
Keeping me warm night and day
"I'm glad I brought this one here. I used to listen to it all the time. I'm surprised I didn't wear a hole in it." she said.
Miles and miles of empty space in
Between us
A telephone can't take the place of your
Smile
But you know I won't be traveling
Forever
Its cold out but hold out and do like I do...
"Would you have really left me, taken the children?" Loki asked.
"If it had really been you...I mean if it wasn't the stone...yes."
"Good." Loki replied.
"Is it over? Can we go back to our lives?" Sigyn asked.
"Yes, my love, it's all over now." Loki answered.
Loki walked down the sidewalk after leaving the same bar he and his past self had once visited, albeit in another timeline. Reaching the record store a few storefronts down from it, he turned and entered. The bell on the door of the shop rang as it opened, the proprietor upon hearing it, looked up from behind the counter to greet the customer who had just entered. Loki, a notebook in his hand, walked towards him at the front of the shop, past the displays and counters containing long boxes filled with record albums.
"Can I help you?" The man behind the counter asked.
"I very much hope so." Loki said as he sat the notebook on the counter.
Sigyn looked out over the ocean from the sailboat, the island only a tiny dot, barely perceptible in the distance. On the deck of the boat sat a long chest.
"I think we're far enough out." Sigyn called out to Loki who turned from the back of the boat and made his way to join her. Loki taking one end of the chest, Sigyn the other, hefted it up and carried it to the side of the boat. Inside the chest rested the Aether and scepter containing the mind stone, both now encased in concrete. "Are you ready?"
"Let's be done with it." Loki answered. Both he and Sigyn pushed the chest over the side of the boat, both watching it sink out of sight into the depths of the ocean.