A/N: This is a small addition that another author allowed me to write in addition to her series. Tried to make it as much a standalone as possible, but the link for Part One of Here Comes Your Man is /works/1036973 (still very worth a read even if I wasn't writing this up).
Basic theme is: Soulmates exist in Asgard. It's a rare and cherished thing and when it happens it is meant to be a thing of joy. What happened between Loki and Tony was a little different due to Tony's Arc Reactor interfering with all things "magic." Events in Iron Man 3 removed that obstacle and the bond asserted itself. What happened from there was a clash of their personalities before they realized they wouldn't be rid of each other and they worked out some semblance of a relationship with a little interference from Thor. In the process, however, they forgot two very important facts: Pepper and Sigyn.
She stood on the edge of the bridge, looking over the vast tree that towered above everything. It was enormous, more than three times her arm span in width and quite possibly three times that in the circumference of its trunk. Every branch as far up as she could make out was heave with apples whose skin glinted a warm gold in the afternoon sunlight. Though the tree was magnificent, eventually her gaze traveled down its length to the system of gnarled roots at its base where a solitary figure stood sentry and regarded her with ancient, amber eyes from within a face that was pretty but not beautiful in the way the lips drew down in a frown and the eyebrows drew together in concern.
"Sigyn," the sentinel said, tipping her head towards the female who had entered her territory. "I confess myself uncertain if I should offer my sympathies or my congratulations in light of these events."
A wry smile touched Sigyn's lips as she tucked a stray, dark strand of hair behind her ear. "I confess I find myself at a loss as to which is proper myself, Idunn. It should be...joyous...that Loki has found a Soulmate, but I do not feel joyous. I feel..." she stopped as the emotions swamped through her and threatened to overwhelm what restraint she had left. Instead, she shook her head and continued, "I find it...humorous, I suppose...that even you knew before I did of this...turn of events."
Something dark flickered through Idunn's gaze as she regarded the younger Asgardian. "In that case, Loki has my sympathies. You are not a creature whose displeasure I would provoke." Silence settled between them for a moment before she said, "You know I cannot give you what you seek, no matter your reasons for it."
"You cannot freely give it, no," Sigyn said as she stepped from the bridge. "All things come with a price."
"You are not the first to come to me for this. No one has ever chosen to make the trade," Idunn warned. She watched Sigyn close the distance between them and sighed. "Admittedly, your reasons for coming are different. You know what I will ask, how it is that I test the mettle of those who come. I cannot give you what you seek."
Sigyn stopped within arm's reach and regarded the sentinel with wary resignation. "You know what has happened, you know my history, yet you are wrong in what I seek. I have seen the agony inflicted by the passing of a Soulmate and tended to the aftermath of that kind of torn grief and heartache." She paused for a moment and recalled the last pair of Soulmates that had fallen to her care in the passing of one and the aftermath of the loss for the other. "If I can prevent that for him, I will." She looked at Idunn, her expression suddenly fierce. "I know what I ask and I am willing to pay the price. I will bear your test."
"You will know regret," Idunn said softly, but it was more statement now than an attempt to dislodge the determined set of Sigyn's shoulders.
Sigyn just smiled a little at that, an expression that was pinched between amusement and pain. "Yes, but the choice is mine and I can live with that, but come. First you must test my mettle."
Idunn studied the other female for a long moment even as her knuckles tightened over the hilt of her Firebrand dagger. "You truly are stubborn," she sighed and unsheathed the blade. "Strip. There will be no magic, no diverting it. There will only be the blade through flesh and your tolerance for the pain of these fifty marks." The dark blue healer's robes Sigyn wore pooled at her feet. Her tunic followed along with her breeches until she wore only her under garments. She stepped away from her clothes and held out her hands to Idunn.
After that, there were no more words, no more expressions. When Idunn gripped her wrist, the first bite of the dagger into her flesh was like the drag of fire through her blood and it pulled from her a startled gasp. The second, third, and fourth mark were no different and when Idunn paused to study the flow of crimson down her arm, she had to grit her teeth against the throbbing of the pain in time with her heart. Then, Idunn drew the blade across the first marks and it was like the skin of her arm wanted to crawl in on itself. By the tenth mark, she was sweating and breathing in controlled bursts.
Again, Idunn paused and studied her handiwork. Fifteen marks, blood pumping steadily from the wounds to drip into the dirt. She switched to Sigyn's other arm and held the blade just over the unmarred skin, touching but not slicing. She waited until Sigyn opened her eyes and held her gaze before she made the next mark. It was just like before, fire racing through her blood and sweat gathering, but it was with the twenty-fifth mark that the feeling changed, that it spread through her body like the slow drip of acid against her skin and a scream caught in her throat. She started to yank her hand back, Idunn's grip loosening and the blade pausing above the next mark.
No. Stop. Loki.The only reason she had ever needed to endure Asgard, to endure the loss of children and family. Loki. Tears pricked at her eyes as memories of a thousand years of love and patience and bitter pain flashed through her mind. His laugh, the glint of his eyes when he had done something clever, the way his lips quirked when he looked at her, those moments he was so wholly focused on a new spell. Her. Done. All gone, in a heartbeat. He would never be hers again. Is it worth the pain? Her fingers closed around Idunn's wrist before the contact was broken even as the tears slid free. Yes. It had always been her answer, always.
The pain lanced through her again, somehow less, somehow more, but it was there. From her arms to her shoulders and then across her ribs and still the scream did not escape her. Then it was done. Idunn had released her, stepped back and wiped the blood from the blade, but still she stood rooted to the spot, her every nerve sending fire through her still. "Sigyn."
She took a shuddering breath and wrapped her arms around her sides. Her head felt light and she could only stare in semi-shock at Idunn as the world spun slowly around them. Then, there was only the weight of a golden apple plucked from its branch and the soft, murmuring sounds of the binding and the assent and knowledge of the fate that awaited.
The "I do not wish to fight with you" hung between them like a tangible thread stretched taut across marble flooring and, for once, Thor was glad that his father had dismissed his council before they spoke. For a moment, he wondered how he had come to have this conversation, this argument, and then he need only recall the precarious situation on Midgard which had only just sorted itself between his brother and Tony Stark.
"I will not give this mortal of his an apple. It will only set expectations that will not always be fulfilled," Odin said, softer this time.
Thor had to chew on the first two answers before he settled on, "You would deny Loki the chance to spend a lifetime with a soulmate? Simply for your dislike of the choice that I have made? I do not ask this for Jane, but for him. I would ask that you do not condemn him to suffer for the rest of his life once Stark has passed and there is nothing left of their bond but darkness and pain."
There was another short silence as Odin regarded his son and heir, weighed his own answer and said, "He has Sigyn. He would survive the mortal's death and live on. Mortals die, it is the nature of their species to become sick and pass on. You would ask me to bend the laws for this one?"
It was in the tone he used and the creases around his mouth and eyes that Thor knew that this was an uphill battle he would not win. Some part of him stepped back from the image he had always held of his father and...let go. Before he could phrase his next words, before he could even choose them, there came the muffled sound of raised voices the snarled response of another's voice. Almost reluctantly, the large doors to the council room were nudged in and into the room slipped the lithe form of the dark haired, green-eyed Sigyn whose hot glare was still being cast over her shoulder even as she nervously rolled a golden orb between her palms.
When she finally looked at them, her expression went flat and Thor could tell even beneath the thick, blue healer's robes she wore when her shoulders stiffened. She surveyed them and Thor had to shift uncomfortably beneath that blank look she usually favored his father with. "Well, this is awkward," she commented mildly. "Am I interrupting something?"
Odin looked at his son, briefly, and said, "No, we were just finishing a long overdue conversation." He tried to smile then, but it came off as more of a pained grimace, "Do tell, what is it that brings you here?"
He knew the dismissal even when it wasn't said in so many words. With a nod and a quiet, "Sigyn," as he turned to walk away from them, he came up short when one of her small hands pressed against his breastplate, stalling him from walking past her. Her other hand pressed the golden orb against her stomach even as Thor gazed at her with a mixture of pity and curiosity.
"Funny, that you should use such phrasing, All-Father, for it is my husband that brings me here. Would that I had known weeks ago we need not have had this conversation," she said and Thor could hear the slight rise in her voice, the change in her pitch. Anger. "Though had you ever done right by us we need never have done this at all."
Odin, for all his powers, could say nothing to that and, for one moment, she seemed lost. The blank expression slipped and Thor could see the twisting grief and pain winding its way through her features and her eyes before she was in control of herself again. Her palm pressed a little more firmly to his chest and, when he took a step back, she slipped her touch away to fold her hand over the little orb entirely.
"Shall I repeat the most fascinating tale that Heimdal has told me?" she asked. In their silence, she glanced sidelong at Thor and continued, "No? Well, I'll repeat it anyways since it's a tale worth repeating. It starts with Loki and a mortal by the name of Tony Stark and ends with them being Soulmates."
Thor jerked around to stare at his father, uncertain of what to expect, but grim resignation was not it. For all that his father had had his differences with Loki and Sigyn, he had never once stopped to consider that Odin would not have passed along the news along to Sigyn. That she had not come to him-brother in all but blood-with her questions and her concern hadn't surprised him. She was a healer and Asgard had fought enough battles recently to keep all of their healers busy for weeks on end.
"Our warriors needed your full attention and your power," Odin replied softly. "You saved a great many lives without that distraction."
She laughed then, a deep throated bark of a sound that was neither amused nor entertained. Her chin fell to her chest and she closed her eyes to gather her thoughts. When she looked at Odin again, it was a hard look that had Thor watching her. "I have worked my magic to the point of exhaustion and beyond with more distractions than the news that my husband has a Soulmate. Did I not prove that when I helped you to restore some semblance of peace with the Jotuns after Laufey died and Loki fell? This? News that he has a Soulmate…it is not devastating, but it is something that I would have liked to have known and made the decision for myself. I'd-" she cut herself off and bit down on the words that she would have used. She looked away, swallowed, and continued, "No, never mind. What is done is done. I came here only to tell you that I take my leave, that whatever contact Loki has with Asgard in the future will be of his own desire. I am done. I will heal for you and Asgard no more."
The shocked silence that followed then wasn't a comfortable one. Odin's gaze sharpened upon her until she looked back at him and held that gaze. Thor, though, was simply trying to sort through the complicated tangle of emotions that her words had caused.
"You swore an oath, a binding one, when you became one of Asgard's healers. You cannot simply abandon your duty," Odin said.
Sigyn shrugged one shoulder. "For all that it is was a binding oath, I swore loyalty for so long as you held true to me. I swore to use my power and my gifts to defend Asgard for all of eternity for so long as faith was upheld." She paused and looked down at the little golden orb she was cradling and turned her palms up and away from her stomach to show-Thor's heart leapt into his throat-an apple and not a bauble. Odin's one eye focused intently on that apple. She looked up again and her eyes glittered. "For all that you speak of loyalty and justice and balance, there has never been anything to balance the loss of the sons you took from me," she snarled softly. "Narvi and Vali were innocent of Baldur's death and in the end you brought him back. So, their deaths were meaningless and meant to do nothing but satisfy that revenge crazed…mother…of his." She pressed the apple to her stomach again and Odin met her eyes and he was the one to look away first. "You broke loyalty and faith the night you took them from me. Yet, I have never demanded a price in return. There was nothing to equal their deaths or the lives they could have had. Nothing until now. I have made my bargains to gain this apple." She looked tired then, in the way her lips quirked in a half, bitter smile and in the dark lines beneath her eyes. "Loki will have his Soulmate for a thousand-odd years, more if they will accept my healings, and you will not have to be concerned about Ragnarok for at least another hundred odd years. Is that not worth it in the end, losing my skills like this?"
She turned from them then and walked six paces to touch a hand to the door. "And if I forbid you from taking that apple from these halls? What then?" Odin asked.
When she turned her head to look at him, her eyes were glittering again and a half-smile touched her lips as she studied him. "I am Sigyn of the Vanaheim and I am not yours to command."