"Where did you put the children?" Loki asked as they wandered aimlessly through the streets of the city. It had taken them a while to get there, but neither of them were particularly tired, yet. Loki had explained all he knew about Hela, swiped two identity bracelets, and bought them both sustenance.

"Pepper has mine, and Va's with Eir." Sigyn explained shortly. "They should be fine for quite a while."

Loki nodded in agreement. "We still ought to get back as soon as possible. We don't know how quickly time runs, here."

"Fair point. You have a plan?"

Loki grinned wickedly. "When do I ever not?" He laughed, discreetly turning them into an alleyway, away from a flood of people swarming down the street, screaming about a particular "champion." "That sounds promising…"

"Here's my plan." The Trickster led her through the alleyway into a less frenzied, but still crowded street. "One: find out whoever's in charge, here, discover as much as we possibly can. Two: worm our way into the in-charge-person's good graces. Three: borrow one of their ships, and fly through one of those wormholes that was over the junkyard, hopefully coming out somewhere in the Nine Realms, and make our way back to Midgard, where we can get our children. Notice, when I say borrow, I mean steal and most likely destroy. Those things don't look very kind to spaceships."

"What about Thor?" Sigyn pointed out. "Hela will destroy Asgard, and then the Nine, and Midgard won't be safe. What will we do, then?"

Loki tapped his chin in thought. "Excellent point. I have a friend – we met before our wedding – who goes by the name of Star-Lord. He has a ship, the Benetar, and he rarely even enters the Nine Realms. I could track him down, and if he's willing, which he most likely will be, we're rather good friends, we can mooch off of him for a while, until we can find another place."

"And just abandon the Nine?" Sigyn gasped. "And Thor? Tony? What about all them?"

Loki shrugged. "Tough luck. We must do what we can to survive."

"We need to at least help Thor." Sigyn declared. "He's our brother!"

"He's probably already dead, Sig." Loki cynically stated. "But, if it makes you feel better, we could probably discreetly drop by Asgard, and pick him up if, by some miracle, he lives. We can't stay very long at all, there, we'll be discovered and killed. No more than an hour."

Sigyn frowned. "What if he managed to defeat her?"

"Not possible." Loki told her. "You saw what she was capable of, even on Midgard's soil."

Sigyn sighed in frustration. "The whole situation is just so… out of our hands. I know we have to do something, but… there's nothing we can do."

"Who knew Princess Ziggy could be so depressing…" Loki mused. "Here, this looks promising." He guided her into one of the larger buildings, with faces carved on the side. "Alright, I'm going to gather information, try not to look suspicious."

Sigyn nodded, and Loki glanced around, then set her against a hot-pink bench. The color scheme of this planet was nauseating, but Loki would have to stand it. "Stay here, I'll be right back." Sigyn nodded, and Loki slipped off through the crowd, ears alert, and eyes searching for answers. An overheard conversation here, a few well-placed words, there, and it became rather obvious what, exactly, this place was. It was the palace of the Grandmaster, who was, indeed, in charge, here. The "champion" Loki'd heard of in the streets was the champion of a gladiator-type event, which was the main attraction of this planet, Sakaar. With this information gathered, he weaved his way back to Sigyn, who was sitting on the bench, having a conversation with a bug-like creature.

"I'm back!" He smiled, sitting down beside her. The creature seemed to be offended by Loki's existence, and wandered off. "Did you find anything out?"

"Yes, but I may have been a bit obvious about it…" Sigyn admitted. "I asked who was in charge, here, and his name is the Grandmaster, so I asked directions for getting to meet with him. He's currently having a party on the highest floor of this building, but he hasn't made an appearance, yet. The elevator is down that hall, behind the last door on the right."

Loki clapped his hands in glee. "That is very valuable information, Beloved, well done!"

"What did you find out?" Sigyn asked eagerly. Loki told her, and they agreed to go to whatever party this was, and try to meet the Grandmaster. They stepped into the elevator, and just as the doors were closing, a man with strange blue markings painted on his face, and white, sticking-up hair dashed into the elevator. "Room for one more?" He grinned cheekily. "I'm running a bit late."

"Of course." Loki nodded, giving him a small smile.

"Great number of travelers coming in for the show, this year, huh?" The man rubbed his hands together gleefully. "I haven't had this good of a turn-out since I found my champion. I assume you've come to see it?"

Loki nodded again. "Indeed, fame of you has spread throughout the universe. My wife and I simply had to come, Grandmaster." Loki hazarded a guess, and it turned out he wasn't wrong. The Grandmaster smiled, obviously flattered. "Look at that, he knows who I am!" he preened, then gave Loki a quick once-over.

"Yes. I'm afraid I have yet to introduce myself." Loki forced a careless smile. "My name is Loki, and this is Sigyn. We're from the Hesiar division, have you heard of it? It's rather far away." He named the division for Alfheim, in case the man decided to check out their credentials.

"Hesiar… yeah, I'm pretty sure we had a fighter from there, once." Grandmaster nodded. "That's a long way to come, for a rumor."

"I must say, you don't disappoint." Loki smirked. "The legends don't even begin to describe your realm in all its glory."

Sigyn bit back a laugh, well aware of what Loki actually thought of this place. Grandmaster didn't seem to notice though, and was extremely flattered by the fake-praise. "Well, I look forward to seeing you, there. Hey, if you wanna hang out, sometime, you're always welcome in my throne room-thingy."

Loki suddenly felt dizzy, and placed a steadied himself, placing a hand on Sigyn's shoulder, then offered the Grandmaster a polite smile. "Thank you, the offer is very kind."

Sigyn was not amused. Not. Amused.

"You'll probably want a new outfit, the both of you." Grandmaster continued. "Here's everything you'll need, go find Topaz, she's somewhere around here, she's short and never smiles. She'll give you everything you need if you give her this," He handed him a small trinket-ish thing. "Clothes, room, food, you know." With that, he turned, and strolled out into his raging party. Loki stiffly followed him from a distance, Sigyn protectively wrapping an arm around his waist. Everything was so bright… so colorful… the light suddenly seemed to be boring into his skull. "Topaz?" He distractedly asked one of the party-goers, who pointed him in the direction of a very not-amused woman, watching the festivities with a grim look, a strange sort of scepter in her hand that looked like an orange on a stick. Loki approached her, silently holding out the token. Topaz raised an eyebrow, giving him an almost pitying look. "What do you want?"

"We'd like a room." Loki explained shortly. "Also, clothes for the both of us. I believe that'll be all for now."

Topaz nodded, and held out her wrist. Loki stared in confusion at it for a few seconds. "Your bracelet." She explained shortly.

Loki held out his own wrist, transferring the information from one bracelet to the other. Apparently, they were more like the Midgardian smart watches, but they also contained currency, maps, and a few other handy things. The largest bead projected a small image, being a map of the building, and Sigyn guided Loki to their room, lit up in pink.

In the safety of their own personal room, Loki collapsed on the couch that served as a bed, piled high with pillows, and buried his face in his arms. Sigyn sat beside him and patted his shoulder. "You okay?"

Loki glanced miserably up at her. "I don't know…"

"What's wrong?" Sigyn asked, feeling his forehead for temperature irregularity. "You're not feeling good?"

"This place is the worst." He mumbled. "Everything's so… loud… and bright…"

"I think you're getting another headache." Sigyn deduced. Loki nodded numbly, squeezing his eyes shut as Sigyn got up, and dimmed the lights considerably. "That better?" She asked quietly, brushing his hair behind his ear. He nodded again, drifting off to the sweet embrace of sleep.

The next morning, Loki was still bed-ridden from the "spears of fire using his cranium as a trampoline". His words, not Sigyn's. Sigyn used his bracelet, since it had the map, to locate the center for getting clothing. She spent most of the morning trying to find a reasonable number of outfits that weren't hopelessly skimpy, or just ridiculous-looking. Once she'd gotten that job completed, she went to the mess hall, compiled two plates of food, and headed back to her room. It was still darkened, Loki lying in a miserable heap under the covers, and clutching his head.

"Melleth?" Sigyn whispered, setting down the plates on the nightstand.

Loki only whimpered in response.

"Dearest, you need to eat something." She stroked his cheek fondly.

"Mmm…" He groaned, painfully sitting up, his eyes squinted in pain. "Where."

Sigyn pushed a cup full of soup into his hands, and he slowly drank it down, then slid under the covers, again. Sigyn gently played with his hair in silence. She hated seeing him this miserable, but there was really nothing she could do. Feebly, he swatted her hand away from his scalp, and pulled a pillow over his head. Sigyn sighed, and stood up, about to leave, until Loki rolled over, and vomited over the side of the bed. Guiltily, he glanced at her, before pulling the blankets over his head, again. Sigyn thought she heard a whispered apology from under the blankets, so she gently ran a hand over his shoulder, giving him a silent message of understanding, before cleaning up the vomit.

By afternoon, he was feeling somewhat better, so Sigyn convinced him to get dressed, and they both went to the Grandmaster's "throne room thingy". Loki flattered the Grandmaster, while Sigyn slunk around, gathering information, and access codes.

Apparently, there was a huge event coming up in a few weeks, the "Contest of Champions", in which the Grandmaster would kidnap people falling from the wormholes, and send them into a gladiator ring against each other. Sigyn found the whole idea repulsive, and could only be glad Loki had managed to keep her away from the "scrappers". Anyway, the Contest was the greatest attraction of the realm, and everyone attended. Obviously, this would be the best moment to escape.

The next day went almost exactly the same way, Loki hanging out with the Grandmaster, Sigyn floating somewhere in the nearby vicinity, looking for information, and keeping an eye on her husband, at the same time. This same pattern went on for two weeks, until one day… Grandmaster's favorite person, Scrapper 142, came to visit, and brought a particular god of Thunder with her as a gift.

Casually, she listened in on their (admittedly hilarious) conversation, until Grandmaster mentioned to Topaz that he was a fighter. To any normal person, that would just mean he had spirit, or something, but Sigyn knew exactly what that meant. Thor was going to be thrown in the arena. It was just then that he caught sight of her.

"Psst! Sigyn!" He nodded for her to come over to where he was strapped to a chair. In exasperation, she glided over, put her hands on her hips, and raised her eyebrows at him. "You're in a pickle, huh?"

"No, I'm in a chair!" Thor hissed with a "duh" expression on his face. "Where's Loki?"

Sigyn gestured at where he was sitting, telling a story to a group of aliens. "I thought you were dead."

Thor glared at her. "I thought Loki was dead, is that fair?" He turned to face his brother. "Hey! Hey, Loki! Over here!"

Loki glanced up, and spotted Thor. With an exasperated expression, he excused himself, then strode over to where she and his brother were. "SHHHHHH!" he shushed him. "Sh!"

Sigyn crossed her arms over her chest.

"You're alive?" Loki asked quietly, almost irritated about this.

"Yes, of course I'm alive." Thor snorted.

Loki shook his head in disbelief. "What are you doing here?"

Thor snorted again in annoyance. "What do you mean, what am I doing? I'm stuck in this stupid chair. Where's your chair?"

"I didn't get a chair." Loki rolled his eyes.

"Get me out of this one!" Thor insisted.

"It's not that easy." Sigyn started. "We really can't."

"What?" Thor looked betrayed.

Loki nodded in agreement. "We've made friends with this man. He's called the Grandmaster."

Thor glanced at the aforementioned man. "Ah, yes. He's crazy."

"We know." Sigyn sighed.

"I've gained his favor." Loki explained. "The Bifrost brought us out here about two weeks ago."

"Weeks ago?" Thor was confused. "I just got here!"

Grandmaster suddenly appeared next to them, startling them slightly. "What are you whispering about?" He whispered conspiratorially.

"Yeah, time works real different around these parts." Grandmaster agreed, having only asked to guilt trip them. "On any other world, I'd be like, millions of years old. But here on Sakaar…" He trailed off, his train of thought suddenly gone, then turned with a bright smile to Loki. "In any case, you know this… what do you call yourself, Lord of Thunder?"

"God of Thunder." Thor corrected irritably, turning to his sibling. "Tell him."

Loki shook his head apologetically. "I've never met this man in my life. Have you, Melleth?"

Sigyn narrowed her eyes at him in frustration. "He's your brother."

"Adopted." Loki quickly dismissed the subject.

"Is he any kind of fighter?" Grandmaster asked excitedly.

Say no, say no, Sigyn mentally pleaded him. They didn't have a mental link, so there was no point to it, but it was the thought that counts. Loki shrugged, and made a "so-so" gesture. Thor, of course, had to ruin everything.

"You take this thing out of my neck, and I'll show you!" He growled, pulling at the Obedience Disk lodged in his neck.

"Now listen to that." The man chuckled. "He's threatening me! Hey, Sparkles, here's the deal. If you wanna get back to your Ass-place, Ass-berg…"

"Asgard." Thor corrected irritably.

"Any contender who defeats my champion, their freedom they shall win." Grandmaster finished, a sly smile on his face. Sigyn mentally died.

"Fine." Thor seethed. "Then point me in the direction of whoever's ass I have to kick."

Grandmaster laughed gleefully. "Now that's what I call a contender! Direction would be that way, Lord!"

Loki and Sigyn glanced at each other in unease as the guards took Thor away.

"What do we do now?" Sigyn hissed. "We didn't plan him into the equation!"

Loki nodded. "Well, if I can convince him, we could break him out of the Gladiator dorms."

"Today?" Sigyn shook her head. "He'll be too busy fighting, tonight, it's our only option. We really don't have time, today, anyway!"

"Then… hope he survives?" Loki shrugged. "It's out of our hands, Dearest. If we're leaving, we have one opportunity. You understand, don't you?"

Sigyn grabbed his collar, and pulled his face down to her level. "I'm not leaving without him. Got that?"

Loki sighed. "Yes."

Sigyn nodded, and released him. "What suddenly makes him so dispensable in your book, anyway?"

Loki raised an eyebrow at her. "We're choosing between him and our children, here, Princess Ziggy."

Sigyn shook her head. "You're acting like we have only two options. Leave him here, or abandon the kids. We'll think of something. We'll get out of here. All of us."

Loki shook his head, but said nothing.

"We could, you know…" She mouthed "take over" to him.

Loki raised an eyebrow, prompting her to continue.

"Well, if the Grandmaster were no longer in power," Sigyn whispered softly. "There would be nothing keeping us here."

Loki nodded. "That's a good point. So, we stage a revolution before sundown, and break Thor out of prison?"

Sigyn shook her head. "No, after the Contest. Assuming Thor survives."

"He won't." Loki sighed.

Sigyn rolled her eyes. "Always the pessimist. I bet you my firstborn child he will."

"I bet mine he won't." Loki huffed.

"That is a terrible thing to assume." Sigyn pouted.

Loki shrugged. "You've heard – seen what this 'Champion' can do. He's ripped people limb from limb without blinking. Thor won't stand a chance, especially without Mjolnir."

Sigyn cringed. "Oh, yeah. I'd forgotten about that."

"Yeah." Loki smirked triumphantly. "One Narfi says Thor will not survive."

"One Sleipnir says he will." Sigyn countered. "The bet doesn't specify whether he has to survive in one piece, or not."

"What are you talking about?" Grandmaster popped up behind them, making Sigyn yelp in surprise. "Would you stop doing that?"

"Oh, we're just placing bets against that Lord of Thunder you brought in." Loki smirked. "Sigyn, here, thinks he's going to survive."

"He won't, don't worry." Grandmaster grinned cheerfully, moving back to the piano, and plinking out a tune. "You two haven't seen my Champion. This'll be great."

"He'll be ripped into little smiling shreds." Loki rubbed his hands together gleefully.

"You two have a problem." Sigyn rolled her eyes.

TheOnlyHuman.