Siggy came-to slowly, with the world moving even slower. Female voices drifted through her consciousness and she was starting to keep up.
"So the geas dinna hit her just yet?"
"Wait...what."
"I said geas, it means mystical compulsion. It's derived from the Gaelic word
"Wait, what the fuck is this Braveheart?"
"Obviously our mums are all different, so "
"Freedom!"
"Danny!"
"Oh calm down, Grace...So Scotty, you knew your mom?"
"Ach, no. But the family I was raised with was in Scotland. My mum and my da are Scot and I am their girl. Hence back off yeah, Ms. 'Merica?"
"Tch...I like ya, Scotty."
Siggy opened her eyes and examined the room she was in. It was...a cabin. She was in a goddamn log cabin!
Really? She thought.
"Oi!" Sigrün instantly stiffened and looked up at the doorway. It was crowded with three women, all fairly tall and muscular. Valkyrie, she thought, dumbstruck. If she had any sense of fear before, she had none now.
The one in the middle was who Siggy felt was the earthy aura. She had wavy chestnut hair and dark green eyes with a matronly air about her. She clearly held the reins, if there were any to be had in the situation at hand.
The one to the right of the lead had a dyed, pink pixie cut with a toothy grin and an air of lightness and energy. The woman to the left had black hair with an aura of pure strength, as if she could smash someone with her bare hands.
"Oh god..." Siggy whined and sat up shakily. "You're...we're actually here."
Mother Earth offered a smile and stepped forward. "Oh yeah, we are real...My name is Grace. We were called to you. You might have overheard Moira, but we believe you will be...compelled soon to participate in the duties we've been forced to follow."
"The geas." quipped the blonde Moira.
Siggy took the information offered and looked around the room, calculating. "So, I'm guessing you didn't know who I was when you found me?"
"No," the earthy one, Grace said. "We just...traced to your location. We were called to you like a beacon."
Siggy picked at the blankets that had gathered in her lap as she tried to recall memories from her last state of consciousness and now. "So...you all know...um, my state. I overheard you all talking." At least one of them had the decency to look apologetic.
"That ya been done knocked up?" barked the pixie-cut Danny as she plopped on the bed at Siggy's feet. "Yup, we knew pretty much immediately. So, who's the daddy?"
The redhead on the bed frowned and tried to push her still raw anger. "So...I'm guessing the Collector is now cashing in his dues. He hit the mark he aimed for?"
A collective coldness permeated the air and Siggy knew instantly that they all resented their servitude. Grace's eyes suddenly turned deadly. "He somehow did...none of us knew the number was so small. Yet, considering the rarity of our kind it should have been a factor each of us considered."
"Are we the only ones?"
Grace stepped forward with her hands on her hips. "No, there are five more but we four were closest, time-wise, when we offered our hair. As far as we can feel from the geas, as Moira so lovingly puts it," a shrug from the blonde, "we will likely be working together toward our freedom."
"Can we fight it?" Siggy asked and looked at the three females nearby.
"No." Moira intervened. "Can ya feel it? The compulsion, that geas is only gettin' stronger for ya now."
"She's right." Danny said with a frown.
"Soon we have'ta get ya out o that bed and on the move, lass."
"Yes, you'll be hit with a wave of geas, as we have been, and you need to be on your feet for it or it'll hurt worse. "Grace finished.
Siggy suddenly felt overwhelmed as beginnings of the feeling she'd suffered right before she passed out flushed her nerves. However, this was more condensed and would not allow her to push it away. This she felt deep in her bones. She would move, even if she were near death; she would have to.
"Well shit, so we loose consciousness when we're sent to do the bastard's bidding?" Siggy snapped and looked to the others. "Right?"
Grace looked sad while Moira and Danny simply looked enraged; Siggy had her answer. They'd be fully conscious of their actions, commanded to do the will of the Collector, Taneleer Tivan.
000
"Heimdall!" Loki shouted as he neared the entrance to the Bifrost. The dark Asgardian turned to eye the king, reluctant as he was to call the god such.
"King Loki, you care to grace this one with your presence?"
"I'll ignore that display of sarcasm for the moment," Loki snapped and stepped forward menacingly. "Where is she?"
"My king?"
"Sigrün!" Loki spat and ran a head through his hair. "The last coordinates you've sent me were false! Where...is...she?" The hiss in his voice and pure rage staved off any retort Heimdall would have said.
"My king, I'll search her out."
A moment later, the guardian blinked and looked to the floor. "I...she is concealed from me."
"What do you mean she's concealed?" Loki yelled, eyes turning nearly manic as he stepped up to the gate guardian.
"There are others with her; three females. However, I cannot see her at all. She is as obscured as her location."
A shot to the gut would have hurt less as Loki took the news. "Why can't you see where she is? Who are the others?"
"I cannot see the others with her, only know them to have the same aura as she."
Loki staggered back and looked out into the expanse of the stars beyond the Bifrost. She can't have been right...
"Loki, you never told me what she was."
"What?" he muttered and looked back at the gate guardian. "What are you talking about? You knew what she was all along, have you not?"
"She is clearly a Valkyrie, of the pure-born, more powerful than any we have here on Asgard. They," he pointed a hand toward the city, "search for lost souls for Ragnarok. Those that are like lady Sigrün, well...they are avenging warrior-goddesses with no limit to their power. She was not one of them to my eyes before this moment."
"You're telling me you haven't seen this in all the times past which you've searched Midguard for the elusive wench?"
Heimdall shook his head. "No. I may not be able to see her, but her power radiates just as the others."
Loki frowned at the information. She'd evolved even further into whatever the pure-born Valkyrie were. They were anomalies, pure speculation until the Avengers sent her with to obtain the promise of an infinity stone, then as payment for such a promise she gave up some hair. Hair! He'd thought it all ridiculous and brushed aside her fears during their last meeting. What manner of compulsion could possibly control the actions of the spitfire that was his...
Loki grit his teeth and tried to reign in his emotions. "Keep an eye on them. On her." He snapped and practically tore out of the room.
I have to find that insufferable woman.
000
Siggy had been working with the others for a week and so far they'd only done a few morally questionable duties. Stealing high profile relics seemed to be their motive at the moment and it would hopefully be their only calling. None of them had to showcase any of their crazy power. At most Grace had to produce a sleeping toxin and Danny was their way onto location via her conjured portals. She could only use them every other day so it wasn't as if they could bounce all over the globe.
It wasn't too horrible being a thief by force; in fact it was almost fun. Though if she ever felt the need to fight the geas she'd become immediately sick and weakened. The instant she stopped fighting it, her strength rushed back and the cold sweat and her racing heart instantly subsided.
Speaking of strength...
Siggy found herself suddenly rivaling Thor himself by her sheer ability to crush doorknobs by accident and take doors off of vehicles. Only Danny seemed to struggle to control herself like Siggy. Grace told them it was because they were new to their power. Turns out Moira and Grace had given up their locks to Tivan many years before; the Scot twenty years before and Grace herself over fifty.
Another side effect of she and Danny's newfound growth showed up if any of their emotions got to be too intense. Suddenly lightning would rage outside and their voices would begin to rattle any nearby fragile object. "That," Grace had snapped, "is basically something you need to avoid unless you're in danger or in a fight."
Apparently a Valkyrie's voice could incapacitate or entrance an immortal, or at the very least burst an eardrum. A scream could do more, but Grace wouldn't elaborate, except to say it could kill someone.
That morning they were making breakfast when suddenly they all felt the summoning. Danny moaned and stepped into the middle of the room, her hands glowing pink. "I knew two days off wasn't a coincidence."
"Wait...you canna be serious? Another galaxy! Fuck me standin'!"
Grace frowned at the language and Siggy took a deep breath. "Always traveling somewhere for work, it seems."
After a moment Danny produced one of her seamless portals. Before they could pass through, Taneleer Tivan himself stepped through the glassy gateway. With a smile he looked at them and lifted his gloved hands.
"My Valkyrie! You're all looking so stunning in your power. I do hope I'm not overworking you."
Grace stepped forward with her arms crossed. "Just let me ask you one thing...when are we going to be done with you?"
"Ah," the man said and took a piece of bacon from a plate nearby. "Once I have what I needed going into the negotiation for your services, or and this is an unlikely or, the object I seek is no longer available to be had."
"And what is it you want?" Siggy said and moved to stand near Grace.
He took her in and smirked at her still flat stomach. "I wonder...would the child of a god of lies and a Valkyrie of flame produce a child...or a monster to be feared?"
Siggy didn't think. She sprang forward and dug her claws into the Collectors throat. He couldn't speak, couldn't breathe, and she grit her teeth so that her tiny fangs shown in the light of the kitchen. "Fuck you!" she screamed.
The windows bowed outward and shattered while the three females around her crouched low and tried to protect their eyes. Suddenly pain speared through her brain and she hit a knee as vomit roiled up her throat and nearly escaped as she dropped her grip on the man.
Tivan coughed and threw a hand to his neck while he tried to stand up again. "M-my my little one, you " he coughed, spit out some blood, and continued, "You are quite the spitfire." Siggy looked up from her place on the kitchen floor, her molten eyes catching blood running down the man's ear.
"You will never talk about my unborn child like that ever again. Unless you want to see what its like to breathe through holes in your larynx. Get it?"
Tivan raised his gloved hands in surrender and focused in on her. "Well then, I am sending you in as the head of this next job. This is the big one. You will kill anyone in your way, do you understand?" He said with eyes hard as Siggy glared.
She felt hands under her elbows before she was pulled up to her feet. "You know I do. What is it you want...really."
"The Infinity Gauntlet."
When he got a grouping of blank looks, he sighed as if put-upon. "Ladies, please keep up...it is as I say it is. You don't need me to tell you, because you already know, but I want to be perfectly clear about this order." He caught each of their eyes and finally continued. "You will go to Asgard and retrieve the Infinity Gauntlet from the legendary armory there. If you do this successfully, I will free you all."
Siggy didn't need to look at the others to feel what they were thinking. They were all thinking the same; the man was blatantly lying.
"Fine." Grace still said and waited for him to tromp back into his hole.
"I want this done now."
"What?" Moira snapped. "You know verra well that Danny canna conjure more than one portal a day! Let alone two!"
"I am not asking." The Collector snarled and rolled his cape over his shoulder as he watched Danny seem to shrink into herself despite her height.
"I...don't know if I can do this."
"Oh," he hissed, "but you will or you will die trying."