A/N: Sorry this took so long! I've been really busy with school, but summer is close, so I'll definitely be updating sooner!

Chapter Nine

The girl just looked at him as if he fell out of the sky. Her eyes were wide and her lips were slightly parted to convey incredulity. But she didn't look scared. There was an intrigue, a vulnerability, behind her gaze that made him feel warm. His Sigyn— No, no. Not Sigyn. Despite what he'd just told her, she was not Sigyn. He only said that so she could trust him.

He looked past her at the control board she stood in front of. The director had been very explicit when demonstrating what it could do.

It was—no, she—was the key to his escape.

"I never thought I'd see you again," He started, his voice soft like velvet. "Sigyn—"

"Hannah." She cut him off, blushing. "My name is Hannah. Sorry, it's just… Weird. Being called Sigyn. And weren't you, like, pissy about this two seconds ago-?"

"But that's you." He suggested gently with a small smile. "It is you. How can I be opposed to having my wife in my reach?"

She looked down at her hands, which were tightly clasped together. "You think so? You think it's me?"

"Certainly. I know your beauty is unparalleled."

He wasn't called a silver tongue for nothing. Her face flushed pink again, and reached up to tuck a lock of gold behind her ear, but her eyes remained glued to the floor. Her leg bounced rapidly, nervously. Good nonetheless. If compliments could get him out of this damned box, that wouldn't be the last of them.

"This is all so surreal." She said with a tiny shake of her head. "Two days ago, I woke up looking forward to another normal day. I'd go to classes, maybe see the city some… But it was all routine. And then you came along that night. All of a sudden, I'm special. Not normal. Not just some girl from suburban America. I'm… I'm supposed to accept that I'm the wife of a god, that I have powers, that I'm more than what I thought I was. But I just don't know if I can."

He wanted to groan, but he couldn't break character. He had to get her to trust him—to do anything for him—so he could get out before the entire carrier was blasted away. His plan to have the place implode was already underway, and he knew he had very little time to escape.

She is not Sigyn, she's only a pawn. She is not Sigyn, she's only a pawn. She. Is. A. Pawn.

"And you said this was my destiny." She continued, finally looking up. He wanted to look away because her eyes were so familiar, but he couldn't let himself be fooled. "Because Sigyn was really faithful. You said it yourself—I'm loyal to you. And… And I used to not believe in destiny, but now…" She paused and wrung her hands. "This would've sounded absolutely impossible two days ago, but I'm, like, drawn to you. I guess. Ever since Stuttgart. And even while aboard the carrier. That's why I'm here, I think. I… I can't stay away. And that's really scary."

Well.

"You mustn't be scared now." He chided warmly. "Not when you weren't before."

She remained silent.

"You loved Asgard." He said softly, deftly, as if his words could bathe the entire room in precious silver. "You thought it beautiful since the moment you stepped foot in the palace. You'd wander the halls, walk around the gardens for hours. But most of all you loved the stars, the night sky. You'd—"

"Watch them from the palace's highest tower." She finished, the words tumbling gracelessly out of her mouth. "And… And you took me there one time. That's how I fell in love with the view."

How… How does she know that?

There wasn't a way she'd have knowledge of that. He once again felt his heartbeat quicken and his throat tighten. That piece of information wasn't in any book written by the humans.

"You remember that?" He prompted, keeping his composure nonetheless. He couldn't turn her away now, not when time was tight, and certainly not after what she'd just said.

"I don't know how." She admitted. "But there's a lot of things I don't know the answer to."

"What else can you recall?" His own pulse pounded in his ears. He knew he shouldn't be wasting time interrogating her, but she'd managed to get under his skin yet again.

And there was only one person that could do that.

Her brows creased. "I… I don't know. That just came to me out of nowhere when you mentioned it."

She swallowed thickly, her eyes darting side to side unsurely. His goal wasn't to make her uncomfortable, but he had to know.

She closed her eyes, taking a deep breath. Whatever she was going to say, though, was silenced by the sound of a shrill, piercing alarm. A small part of him wanted to smile, knowing that he'd taken down Earth's mightiest without having to lift a finger, but looking at the girl in front of him, he couldn't deny it any longer: she was Sigyn. He'd tried to distance himself from the notion despite his efforts to charm her into opening his cell, but that'd failed pathetically; there was only one way for her to know about the palace's highest tower, about the stars in Asgard. Who cared if she was now a human—it was her.

And he was going to have her back.

Hannah ran.

She turned on heel, and bolted towards the door as if the floor were hot. It was like that dumb game she used to play as a kid—"the floor is lava!"—where if you weren't fast, you'd "die". How funny to think something so normal could apply to such an abnormal situation where her life was quite literally on the line.

"Hannah! Wait!"

Something made her pause right before reaching the door. It was that innateness that she couldn't explain about half an hour ago, but now she kind of could; it was terrifying and exhilarating at the same time. She turned to look back at Loki. He was the man everyone had made their priority of contain, but also the only person who'd made an attempt at explaining her situation.

And she kind of believed him.

It all made sense now. And despite her doubts and her fear, the resolution, that explanation, was cathartic.

And maybe, just maybe, a bit enchanting.

"You and I both need to leave." Loki said through the glass that separated them. Hannah had no clue how he could remain so calm. "You need to open this cell."

She looked behind her at the console that operated the thing. It looked complicated to operate, but, she was sure she could manage.

Still, a little voice in the back of her mind screamed that this was a terrible idea.

"Why do you need to leave?" She asked suddenly, the rational part of her mind taking over. "I mean, yeah, the carrier is probably falling out of the sky, but you're a prisoner—"

"You want me to die?" He cut her off, that silver tongue sharpening itself into a blade. "Hannah, love, please. We can't be together if you don't get me out."

She bit her lip, trying to block out the wails of the alarm. A large part of her wanted to comply—her curiosity just couldn't be satiated by seeing him through glass. But that little voice, that damned little voice; it protested against her thoughts in rage, telling her she was stupid, and that he's a pathologic liar, dammit.

But it all makes sense.

She raced towards the console without thinking. The alarm's shrieks assaulted her ears, prohibiting her from concentrating. Her hands shook upon the screen, and she could feel Loki's pleading eyes on her as she tried desperately to reason her way through the controls. Finally, she managed to open the cell.

Her heart fluttered in her chest like a caged bird as she watched him exit. The door didn't automatically close behind him, but Hannah didn't really care too much. She stood there, unsure of what to do, as he made his way towards her.

"What now?" She whispered against the blaring of the alarm. "I can't exactly go out there with you."

"Don't fret about it." He said, his lips curving upwards ever-so-slightly. "I've got it under control."

It didn't really appear that way, but just as Hannah was about to voice her concerns, the door to the holding chamber opened. A man in heavy grey body armor entered. He was holding Loki's glowing staff in one hand and a menacing rifle in the other.

Loki nodded as he took the staff from the man. "She'll be coming with us."

Am… I?

"Um, where are we going?" She asked, frowning.

"To New York City, of course." Loki answered. Suddenly, his smile looked more sinister. "I've heard it's quite intricate as far as human civilizations go."

Hannah glanced down at the staff. Its tip glowed a bright, blinding blue. The light made everything it fell on look sharp and dangerous. The voice of reason in Hannah's head had shut up, but Hannah didn't need it to know this was a really bad idea.

"No." She said, her voice wavering. "I can't go with you."

He raised an eyebrow calmly, but she all of a sudden felt the urge to step back. "And why is that?"

"Be—"

The door opened again, this time to reveal Thor. He roared in anger, and charged towards Loki, who simply stood in front of the open cell door as if nothing were happening. Something inside Hannah made her want to push him out of the way before he got hit in the face with Thor's hammer, but that moment never came; rather, Thor seemed to phase through his brother and ended up in the cell.

"Are you ever not going to fall for that?" Loki asked Thor, who was trying to break through the glass with his hammer. Loki turned towards Hannah. A cold feeling grew in the pit of her stomach.

"Come," He said, offering his free hand. "Let's leave."

Hannah wanted to take his hand, but she knew she couldn't. She shook her head. "No."

He took her hand anyways. Hannah suddenly felt violated, wrong. She tried to yank her hand out of his grip, but he was unnaturally strong. In the background, she could hear Thor banging on the glass; she looked towards him for a brief second, and saw him frantically shaking his head at her as if telling her to run.

"You want this." Loki said, his voice suddenly more like obsidian than silver. For a second, Hannah believed him, and let her hand go slack, but then her own will hardened against his words.

"You caused all this, didn't you?" She exclaimed, her own voice suddenly rising in panic. "This was your plan all along, to endanger everyone's lives! I can't be with someone—"

"There's no escaping it." He continued. "You're meant for this."

Hannah stood her ground. "No."

He let go of her wrist, which she knew was bruised. "Very well."

Hannah blinked. Thor kept smashing his hammer against the cell walls; every hit warranted for the entire place to tremble from the sheer force. Loki smiled wickedly, looking up towards the trembling ceiling, and made his way to the control console.

"The humans think us immortal, brother," He said nonchalantly, looking down at the control panel. The chamber shook again from another blow of the hammer. "Should we test that-?"

"Move away please."

Hannah's head snapped towards the entrance. The guard in the armor lay groaning at the feet of the man who appeared on her doorstep in Stuttgart, Agent Coulson. He was carrying what looked to be a really, really dangerous weapon that reminded Hannah of a cartoon death ray. Loki slowly lifted his hands off the screen, but Hannah knew he had something up his sleeve. He always did.

"You like this?" Agent Coulson said, giving his death ray a pat as he slowly neared Loki. "Started working on the prototype after you sent the Destroyer." He shrugged. "Even I don't know what it does." He turned it on, causing the barrel to glow orange. "Wanna find out—"

It happened so fast; one second, Loki was standing at the console, and the next he was plunging his staff into Coulson's back. Hannah and Thor both screamed, watching as the man crumpled to the floor in a bloody heap. She rushed to Coulson's side. His white shirt beneath his jacket was already dark with a growing splotch of blood.

Loki went back to the controls. With a flick of his finger on the screen, the chamber began shaking violently again. This time, though, it wasn't from Thor's hammer; rather, the cell Thor was trapped in seemed to be pulling itself away from its foundations. A gaping hole opened beneath the cell. There was now the blue of the sky underneath it.

And just like that, the holding cell freed itself from its confines and tumbled towards the ground with Thor inside it.

"You will come to me eventually," Loki said coolly without even looking at her as he opened the entrance door. "There is no way around it."

With that, he left, leaving Hannah with blood on her shaking hands and red in her vision. She popped Coulson up against the wall, but she knew it was futile.

"I'm sorry," She managed, feeling her throat close up and tears cloud her eyes. "I'm so, so sorry. This is all my fault. I shouldn't have let him out, God, I'm so sorry—"

"He won't win." Coulson managed, his voice fading. He closed his eyes. "He won't win."

A/N: Thanks to everyone that left reviews! They make me really happy!