Hey all! I wanted to get this next part up real quick, because I just hate leaving things unfinished especially when it comes to wrapping up big things. And I KNOW you guys have been waiting ever so patiently for this part! So, here it is! Let me know what you end of thinking of the big reveal! Enjoy! Xoxo-NickyLynn
After the battle had been won, Loki had been apprehended, and clean-up crews deployed, Tessa and the others escorted Thor and Loki down to Central Park. Thor would be taking Loki and the Tesseract back to Asgard, where they belonged. Tessa couldn't deny that it felt good to get rid of the energy source. That thing had brought nothing but misery into her life and she was glad to see it off.
She was currently guiding the glowing cube from the suitcase it had been stored in, into the glass chamber that Thor had provided. Once it was safely inside the glass unit, that Dr. Selvig had been holding open, he snapped the lid shut, sealing it in. Erik handed the cylinder over to Thor, who gave him a pat on the shoulder. As the two made their goodbyes, Tessa's eye slid over to Loki.
His hands were bound together in special cuffs and a mouth cover, that had also been provided by Thor. Loki's eyes connected with hers and Tessa found herself unable to break away. His eyes shined with all the words he was unable to say and in that moment Tessa knew….he hadn't been lying to her. Loki knew something about the past she couldn't remember. He was the key she needed to unlock the secrets that had been buried in the depths of her mind. But, she also knew that she would probably never get the chance to uncover them. Thor would take Loki back to Asgard to face punishment for his crimes, and with him, he would take any chance of her knowing the truth.
Tessa watched him for a moment until Thor stepped between them, blocking her view of Loki. "Thank you again for your help Lady Tessa." He told her, extending his hand out towards her. "I owe you a great debt." He said. Tessa reached out her own hand and they latched onto each other's forearms.
"Just make sure the Tesseract stays far away from Earth and we're even." She told him, her eyes dropping down to the glowing cube.
"Of course. It will be secured deep in the vaults of Asgard promptly." He promised, dropping his hand and turning around towards his brother.
Tessa took a step back next to Natasha and Clint as Thor held the chamber towards Loki. Loki looked down at it for a moment, before bringing his hand up and latching onto the opposite end. Loki's eyes fell on Tessa once more before Thor twisted the handle of the cylinder, activating the Tesseract. The pair of Asgardians became encased in the glowing blue that so closely resembled Tessa's own powers, before they disappeared in a beam of light that shot up into the sky.
Tessa watched at the light faded out of the sky above them. She let out a breath as she realized it was over, though there were parts of her that fought between feeling relieved by the news and feeling distraught over it.
"What was that about?" Natasha asked, leaning towards her.
Tessa looked back down, her eyes moving over to Natasha. "What?" she asked, pretending to not know what she had been talking about.
"The smoldering intensity." Natasha said with a raised brow.
"It's nothing." Tessa said, crossing her arms and walking away. "Come on Steve, I'm in desperate need of a shower and some sleep." She called over to him, motioning her head over to the car she had been so graciously been gifted by S.H.I.E.L.D..
"Aw, you're not going to come help me clean up the mess at Stark Tower?" Tony asked her, falling into step beside her.
"Nope." Tessa said, popping the p. She slid her sunglasses down over her eyes and grinned over at him, not feeling bad in the slightest. "I'm steering clear of that place until Pepper calms down. That woman is scarier than any alien army." She told him, knowing the woman was probably a force to be reckoned with right now.
"You're telling me." Tony said with a shudder. "Well, see you around then." He told her, as he moved towards his own car. "And, you know….thanks for the whole making sure I didn't fall to my death thing." He said nonchalantly. Tessa rolled her eyes at him before she leaned in and pulled him into a quick hug.
"Mr. Stark." Steve said, coming up behind them as they pulled apart. "I just wanted to say that I was wrong." He admitted. "You did good. The world is lucky to have you." He said, holding out his hand towards him.
Stark lifted his brow as he slid his hand into Steve's. "Made a pretty good team back there." He commented. "Maybe we'll do it again sometime." He said as they dropped the handshake.
"Let's hold off on any world saving catastrophes for a while, yeah?" Tessa said, loud enough for everyone to hear.
"No promises." Natasha said back, reaching into her vehicle and pulling out Bruce's belongings.
Tessa smiled over at her before making her way towards her car again. "Come on soldier." Tessa called behind her shoulder before she transported herself into the driver's side of the vehicle. She turned the ignition as Steve pulled open the passenger door. He threw his bag into the back seat as Tessa messed with the music, selecting the song she had been dying to play. As the vocals of Freddie Mercury began singing 'We are the Champions', Steve turned in his seat, giving her an unamused look.
"Really?" he asked her. Tessa smiled over to him, cranked up the volume and pressed down on the gas. The tires skidded against the road as she tore out of there and headed back towards Brooklyn.
Over the next few days, Tessa did nothing. She slept more than she had in weeks. She let herself recharge and recover from the intensity of the last couple of days. The most she did as far as any actual activity outside of sleeping was making the occasional meal for her and Steve, or lounging on the couch, mindlessly watching television. She had been trying to keep her mind off of the things she was trying to avoid thinking about, but she wasn't always successful. No matter how hard she tried to avoid it, her mind would inevitably drift back to Loki and the secrets that swam behind his eyes.
The fifth night after the attack on New York, while Steve was out shopping, Tessa had been sprawled out on the couch, reading Tolkien's The Hobbit, when a loud knocking pulled her attention from the book in her hand, over to the front door. Thinking Steve had forgotten his key again, Tessa latched onto the door handle with her powers and pulled it open, not wanting to move from her comfortable position. As the door swung open though, it was not Steve on the other side. Tessa shot up from the couch, having been surprised by the unexpected visitor.
"Thor!" she exclaimed, coming to a stand and moving closer. "Uhm, come in." She told him, as he stood there in the hall looking completely out of place.
"Thank you." He said as he stepped over the threshold and shut the door behind him.
"What-" Tessa began coming to a stop in front of him and crossing her arms, suddenly very aware that she was in nothing but small shorts and a large baggy shirt she had stolen from her brother. "What are you doing here? Did everything go alright with the Tesseract and Loki? Was there a problem?" she asked in concern.
"Oh, yes, everything went smoothly. The Tesseract is safe on Asgard and Loki has been punished accordingly and currently sits in a cell underneath the palace." He assured her.
"Oh, then why-" she began before Thor cut her off.
"I wanted to offer an apology for Loki's behavior." Thor told her. "I know it may seem hard to believe but he wasn't always filled with such hatred. There is no excuse for the actions he has taken against your realm, but I hope you understand that he is still my brother and I still care very deeply for him, no matter the mistakes he had made."
Tessa did understand. There was a part of her that understood the love that came with having a sibling to protect. That part of Tessa pitied Thor and the heartache he must have been going through, having to imprison his own brother. "You said he was adopted." She said, her eyebrows drawn in together. "Was that true?" she asked.
"Yes." Thor said with a nod. "Loki's parentage was kept from him. It was kept from all of us. When Loki found out about the deception laid upon him his whole life, well…. I think it broke him." Thor admitted.
"Well, it's no wonder the guy has issues." Tessa commented. "Why would Odin keep something like that from him for over a thousand years?" she asked, baffled, truly not understanding how a parent could keep something that monumental from their child.
"I think my father was just trying to protect himself. I think he feared driving Loki away." Thor responded. "You see, Loki is not the only child who has been lost to us. Odin once had a daughter too, and I think he feared losing Loki like he lost her."
Tessa's eyebrows drew together at that. She had studied Norse mythology when she was younger, and again after learning about Thor's visit to New Mexico, but she had never heard of a daughter. "You have a sister?" she asked him.
"Once, a long time ago." He said with sad smile. "She was Loki's twin…or, at least that's what we had been raised to believe. In truth, they merely used her birth as the perfect cover for Loki's own secret origin. They played it off as if the two had shared a womb, when in reality it was only her who had been born to the Odin line. You'd never guess it though. The two of them were identical. Same black hair, same blue eyes. Though, I'd wager Odin had a hand in that."
Tessa's mind began to reel as she listened to his story, not liking the feeling that was beginning to take hold of her. "You said she was lost…." She said quietly. "What happened to her?" she asked, not sure she wanted to hear the answer.
"She fell through a Yoran Hole when we were very young…..children still." Thor said. "It's a type of wormhole, they pop up and drift around unpredictably. They're very rare. Her and Loki had been exploring a cavern where they had discovered one on Asgard. She fell in and by the time help arrived, the portal was gone and so was she." He explained.
Tessa could hardly hear his words over the sound of her pumping blood. "What was her name?" she asked him.
"Rania." Thor responded.
That one word drew with it a memory long forgotten. A boy screaming out that name. Hands reaching towards each other. The sound of Loki's name being screamed by a shrill, terrified girl as she fell…..fell into the darkness. Tessa felt dizzy as the images flashed through her mind. She stumbled back to the couch, dropping down on it. She raked her fingers through her hair, face cast down to the floor in thought.
"Before Loki was led to trial, I spoke to him. He told me he found our sister. At first, I didn't believe him, but for once it seems that Loki wasn't lying. Tessa…. you are Rania." He said, his words shattering Tessa's world.
Tessa began shaking her head. "No, no. I-I can't be." She told him, looking up at him with wide eyes. "I mean you said you were children, that had to be ages ago!" she said, nothing making sense to her.
"It was. Over a thousand years ago now." Thor agreed.
"Then I can't be your sister!" she insisted. "How could I be your sister when I was a child not even a hundred years ago?" she asked him. "I mean, it doesn't make sense that I was a child when you were already a man." She reasoned.
"Yoran Holes, fall out of time and space." Thor explained. "They do not lie anywhere in the nine realms, nor in any part of space at all. When you fell into it, you would not have experienced time the same way as those outside of it. When you fell back out of it, on Midgard of all places, you came out the same age as when you fell in."
Tessa's head was swimming with all the thoughts that were flying through it. None of it made any sense to her…..yet at the same time, it all did make sense. "No, this….this is impossible." She said, refusing to believe the insanity of it all.
"Tessa, the bracelet on your arm. It was created by Loki. That's how he knew. You are Rania Odinsdottir. You are my sister." He insisted, coming to stand over her.
Tessa looked up at Thor, her mouth going dry. She felt like she was suffocating all of a sudden. She shot up from the couch and moved towards the door. "Come on." She said, not bothering to change out of her current clothes as she grabbed her keys off the side table.
Thor stared after her confused. "Um, where are-" he began before Tessa whipped around and cut him off.
"To get proof that this is all some big misunderstanding." She told him, before marching out the door. Thor followed her down to her car and she drove them over to Manhattan. The ride over was a quiet one, not for lack of Thor trying to talk to her. In fact, he had tried to converse with her the entire trip, but Tessa couldn't find it in herself to answer him. She was desperately trying to keep herself from spiraling out of control. So, she kept her mouth shut tight and her fingers wrapped tightly around the steering wheel. When they pulled up to Stark Tower, Thor looked over at her in question.
"What are we doing at the Man of Iron's Tower?" he asked her, perplexed.
"Getting answers." She told him, pushing open the door and getting out. Thor followed her into and through the tower, which was busier than normal considering all the repairs that had to be made. Tessa guided them over to the elevators and pressed the buttons that would bring them up to the private upper levels.
When the doors opened back up and they stepped out of the lift, J.A.R.V.I.S.'s voice greeted her. "Good evening Ms. Rogers." It said. "Shall I inform Mr. Stark of your arrival?"
"No thanks, J.A.R.V.I.S." she said, moving down the hall, towards the lab. "I'm just going to be processing a quick blood sample." She said.
"Blood sample?" Thor asked, looking down at her in alarm.
"I can run a comparison on out DNA." She told him. "If we really are related, the samples will be matches." She explained as she took a turn and pushed open a door and an automatic light switched on, illuminating the lab.
Tessa moved over to the cabinets, wasting no time in getting ready. She pulled open the drawers and pulled out the necessary syringes and collecting tubes. Once she had all her supplies gathered, she moved back over towards Thor. "Here, have a seat." She told him, pulling out one of the wheeled chairs.
Thor looked down at the needle she was preparing in apprehension. "Will it hurt?" Thor asked her as he lowered himself down onto the chair.
Tessa stopped unwrapping the sterile needle and gave Thor an unbelieving look. "Not nearly as bad as taking on a Chitauri army." She told him, finding it ironic that he would run into battle fearlessly but baulk at the sight of a needle. She finished preparing the syringe before wrapping a band tightly around Thor's upper arm. "Okay, you're going to feel a pinch." She warned him as she sanitized the crook of his elbow with an alcohol pad before lining up the needle and pressing it into his flesh. Thor's muscle twitched under her fingers as she inserted the collecting tube and watched as it filled with his red blood. She pulled the needle out after getting what she needed, holding down on the site with a cotton ball. "Hold that on it for a minute and you'll be fine." She instructed.
She then prepared a syringe for herself and quickly gathered her own sample. When she had both blood samples in her hands she walked over to the equipment on the opposite side of the room. She slid the samples into the centrifuge and pressed the start button. She moved over to one of the screens and logged into the system. "Well, let's see what Maury has to say." She mumbled, pressing the necessary keys and starting the analysis. She looked back over her shoulder at Thor, who was still sitting in the chair she left him in, smiling brightly at her.
"So, what does the Maury have to say about our blood?" he asked her.
Tessa's lip pulled up slightly as she realized Thor had no idea what he was asking her. "It'll take a few minutes to process." She told him, before looking back at the screen. Tessa watched the screen, the tip of her thumb pressed into her mouth in nervousness. Her foot was bouncing uncontrollably underneath the desk as the minutes ticked by. After what felt like hours, J.A.R.V.I.S. informed her that the samples had been run against each other and she nervously pulled up the results. Her thumb dropped out her mouth and her heart came to a stop inside her chest. "Odin….you are the father." She whispered out in disbelief. She turned her stool around and looked over at Thor…..at her brother. "There's a sixty percent match." She told him, her voice devoid of emotion. "You're my brother."
The smile that split across Thor's face was undeniable. He shot up from his seat in excitement, moving over to her. "This is wonderful!" he exclaimed. "Oh, I can't wait to show you Asgard! Mother and father will be so happy to see you! All of Asgard will rejoice! I can introduce you to my friends! Oh Rania, you are going to love it on Asgard!" Thor ranted, caught up in his delight, that he didn't notice her obvious distress.
"Whoa, whoa!" Tessa told him, coming to a stand. "Who said anything about going to Asgard?" she asked him, suddenly feeling incredibly overwhelmed.
"Well, of course you're coming back to Asgard with me." He said, looking down at her, confused.
"Thor, I can't-I'm not just going to run off to Asgard right now! I-I have to process this! I have to-" she began saying, everything becoming too much. "I just….I need space and time to adjust to this! It's not like I just found out I had a long-lost family from Ohio! This is just too much!" she told him, looking over at him with frantic eyes.
Thor's face fell. "Oh. Yes, of course." He said, trying to understand how she must have been feeling. "I shall stay on Midgard for however long you require and when you're ready, I shall escort you home myself." He told her.
Tessa looked over at him as the word 'home' struck a chord in here that made everything seem that much realer. "I-I'm sorry." She told him, taking a step back. "I have to go." She said, before transporting herself out of the room and far away from him.
By the time Tessa had made it back to her Brooklyn apartment, she felt like she was living somebody else's life. There was no way that this could all really be happening. Steve rushed over to her when she pushed the apartment door open, having been worried sick when he came home and found her gone with no note or anything. "Where have you-" he began before taking in her wide, red-rimmed eyes. "What's wrong?" he asked instead, worry washing over him.
Tessa looked up at Steve, feeling like she was stuck in some strange dream. She felt overwhelmed, yet empty all at once. There was always a part of her who wished to know where she came from….who her real family was…..but she wasn't sure this was what she wanted. I complicated her already complicated life and left her head spinning. "I…" she began, not knowing how to respond. "Odin is my father." She finally said looking up to him, the words sounding unbelievable, even to her own ears.
Steve looked down at her, sure he had misheard her. "What?"
"I'm an Asgardian." She told him. "I'm a God damn a lost alien princess."