Cassandra stumbled behind Jane, arms shooting out at her sides instinctively to aid in regaining her balance as her eyes settled on the gold flooring beneath her shoes. Her stomach swirled vaguely, threatening to sour, and she took deep breaths to avoid provoking it any further. When she finally came to a stop as the momentum wore off, she forced her gaze upward—and her stomach thudded into the soles of her feet.
The large room they now stood in was entirely colored gold, and the wide opening on the other side she assumed was the exit lead onto an incredibly long bridge. At the end of it, more gold as a dazzling palace erected from the edge of a harbor and it sparkled in the light of some kind of sun. Nestled around it was what appeared to be a city. Asgard. Even still, as disbelief and genuine shock piled one after another like bricks inside her chest, the one thing she couldn't look away from was the man in the center of the room.
He stood atop a platform, his hands clasped together loosely before him, and his gold armoring was just as reflective as the palace. Though, in contradiction with the overall intimidating appearance of him, a corner of his mouth was tugged up as he looked down at Jane and Cassandra. "Welcome to Asgard," he greeted them. His voice was warm, Cassandra noted, and he spoke in the same accent as Thor.
"Heimdall," Cassandra's head tilted slightly as the realization touched her mind, and his name drew his eyes—and Thor's and Jane's. "I'm sorry- it's a pleasure to meet you. I've heard a lot about you."
"Indeed, you have. The pleasure is mine," he bent gently, briefly in a nod of acknowledgement.
"Come, I will take you to the healing chambers. Surely our physicians can determine what's happening to you," Thor told Jane, as he came to stand near her. Though, he looked to Cassandra next to inaudibly usher her along with them. There was no way he was about to leave either of them alone somewhere on Asgard—but especially not Cassandra. That would be the most foolish thing he could do. Well, aside from bringing two humans home with him.
He was absolutely going to be hearing from Odin about this, but there were much more pressing matters to be concerned with at the moment. Jane's well being was far more important than any scolding from his father. And whatever was happening to her could potentially harm countless others if he were to leave her on Earth. He couldn't be expected to ignore that possibility—though, Odin most likely would. Even still, Thor kept the thoughts to himself as he and Jane made their way to the bridge.
Cassandra attempted to return Heimdall's nod respectfully before following after Thor and Jane. However, Heimdall's words did stick with her. If Heimdall knew that Loki told her about him, what else did he know? Had he seen every visit Loki ever made to her apartment? Or, did someone simply mention it to him? Either way, it was a bit unnerving, and it felt just violating enough to make her skin itch. And she surprised even herself when she stopped at the tall opening to the room. Though, when she turned back around to face him, Heimdall was already looking at her, waiting silently.
"Do you know?" her voice was thrust from her throat by some unseen force, the part of her that whispered wildly now perched atop her lungs and screaming, carrying her desperation and urgency into the spaces between words. Forcing herself to swallow, she blinked at her own voice. "I mean- did you- could you hear what was said about Loki?"
Heimdall expected a question such as this, though his shoulders still straightened as he took in the sheer angst painted over her features. "Yes," he nodded once.
"And you didn't tell Odin?" she questioned, reflexively.
"He would require proof—and it simply does not exist. Life sentences cannot be commuted on the basis of conjecture, Cassandra."
A shudder rolled through her like a blackout and her lungs once again seized—but she attempted to conceal it with a nod, lips pulled thin as her jaw clenched hard enough to ache. Even Heimdall had not seen who was pulling the strings behind Loki's actions in New York. That much was clear. Though, she couldn't tell if her physical reaction was a sign of relief at knowing Loki was in fact still alive, or terror at the thought of convincing Odin of his innocence on a premise Asgardians would obviously not accept.
Either way, she swiveled on her feet and continued on her journey out. The fresh air was calling to her, and she pleaded with it to calm her steadily worsening stomach. Her balance hadn't quite fully returned amongst the dizzying combination of adrenaline inducing emotions. It was almost like walking on ground that swayed, and she quietly struggled to retain some semblance of a normal stride as she, too, arrived at the start of the bridge. The rainbow bridge.
Though, it wasn't very colorful now. She stared down at it, at the way it marbled like ice inside the glass-like surface, but the tread of her shoes found it as easy to grip as any other solid ground. Then, her eyes swept over what lay ahead. Behind the tight configuration of the city was a mountain range of greenery, the tops of the mountains dusted with what looked like leftover snow. With a shaken exhale, Cassandra moved in brief clouds of purple to catch up with the others, arriving just beside them. Jane startled, gasping. "Jesus," she hissed beneath her breath. "You're worse than Darcy."
"Do we need to walk the whole way? I can take us to the end of the bridge," Cassandra looked up at Thor towering over them both, unintentionally ignoring Jane's comment. Though, there wasn't much to reply to anyway.
Thor's brow furrowed curiously. "You've never been here before."
"I can see the end of the bridge," she explained, calmly. "Anywhere I've seen with my own two eyes, I can teleport to."
"How far can you travel?" Thor inquired. He was genuinely interested—the concept of individuals with inhuman abilities was not foreign to him by any means, but teleportation without some kind of device or magic was intriguing, and a bit perplexing.
"As far as I want. I haven't reached a limit yet. Well, I couldn't teleport here-"
"Are we not going to discuss this?" Jane questioned, unabashedly interrupting. "I mean, won't Odin be upset that we're here? What if I blow up again and someone gets hurt? I don't even know where we're going!"
She was understandably exasperated, and for that Thor was patient in his response. But Cassandra sighed heavily and averted her eyes, instead looking again at the city, memorizing every ethereal detail. She had imagined a version of this place since she was first told of it. However, she was certain no way of human description could possibly describe this. "Do not worry about my father. We will deal with these things as they come. For now, we're going to the healing chambers," Thor answered Jane.
Jane tried to calm herself with a breath in through her nose, exhaling the air past her lips. "I'm sorry. This is all just a lot to take in."
"Do not apologize," he spoke reassuringly, smiling gently, warmly down at her beside him as they walked. "I assure you, we will get to the bottom of this."
"Why am I here?" Cassandra wondered, then. Her sudden question drew both Jane's and Thor's eyes, but Cassandra only looked at him. It made perfect sense to bring Jane. After all, who better to handle a Tesseract-esque energy than the realm it most likely came from? Still, Cassandra didn't quite understand why Thor would extend such an exclusive invitation to her specifically.
Though, Thor didn't hesitate to explain, "If something were to cause Jane to erupt again, someone with your abilities would be very useful."
It made a bit more sense then. He was right. Cassandra could attempt to harness the energy radiating off of Jane just as she took control of the Tesseract in an emergency situation—but she wouldn't attempt it for any other reason. Not after what happened last time. And if it should in fact happen the same way again, for any reason, Loki was not there to bring her back from the edge of death's front porch. It would be up to her alone, and she was sure her body would not be able to handle something so strenuous.
Cassandra nodded once. "You want me to contain the blast," she came to the conclusion aloud. "I'm warning you now—last time, the cracked-out energy you people have here literally killed me. If it comes down to it, I won't be able to do anything like that again."
"I won't ask."
Thor's features were firm, sure. The confidence he exuded was almost calming enough to bring her relief. Almost. "I want to see him," she said, and he sighed heavily, averting his eyes to the palace ahead. There wouldn't be a way to arrange an official visit. Odin made sure of that. Thor wasn't quite sure where he truly stood on Loki's punishment—he wanted to be angry enough to agree with his father, to petition for something more, but then he was overwhelmed with too much sadness to truly commit to it.
"If you want me to risk my life to protect your girlfriend—no offense, Jane—then I need you to get me in to talk to him," Cassandra pressed, briefly holding up a hand as she addressed Jane in the middle of her demand. Jane simply rolled her eyes at the mention.
Eyebrows furrowing, Thor looked to Cassandra then. "My brother thoroughly betrayed you, yet you barter with Jane's life for the opportunity to see him again?"
"Okay, fine- you wanna know why?" Cassandra's eyebrows popped on her forehead, twisting as she continued to walk in order to better face him, and regret began to swirl in his chest at the sudden surgance of determination. "The guy who can read minds that was helping me on the helicarrier? The Professor? He made it into Loki's mind when the portal was shut down. Loki was being controlled just as much as my brother was."
"And he's sure of this?" Thor questioned. He was understandably skeptical, though still unbelievably hopeful.
"Yes. When it comes to shit like that, I'd bet my life on Charles. Think about it—Loki resurrected me, he let us capture him, and he didn't fight back the entire time, even when you were about to take him back here to be punished. He was himself."
Jane spoke up then, glancing at Cassandra, "How are you going to explain how you know he's innocent to Odin, though? It's not like you can bring the Professor here."
"She won't need to," Thor shook his head, drawing the gazes of both women. "We will visit Loki together, Cassandra. If what you say is true, and he will admit to it, I will petition my father for his release myself."
Enough relief to loosen up her lungs for one deep breath to fill her chest, and Cassandra could finally exhale. It was an added confidence to know that he was willing to see her side and join it if necessary. After all, the word of a prince meant more than a human, a non-citizen, a commoner no less. She was here without permission and that fact would only work against her. But Thor himself was hearing her out. Surely that meant that winning was possible. Still, she couldn't allow herself to truly relax.
There was a chance that Loki could refuse, continue to keep his innocence to himself as he'd done for over a year already. Though, who would truly believe him if he'd confessed sooner? If what he'd told her about his family and their relationship woes was true, the answer was none of them. "Thank you," the words came from deep within Cassandra somewhere, the mad woman feasting on the grain of hope given in silence, and Thor nodded once, earnestly.
She stood near the edge of the room, leaning her lower back against the stone, golden wall as her arms remained woven over her chest, but her eyes lingered on the orange-ish gold light that shimmered above Jane. Jane laid out on a table in the center of the room, surrounded by practitioners that were just as dumbfounded as Thor was. But the kind of technology the Asgardians used was almost mesmerizing. An outline of Jane floated above her only to become a kind of cloud of light.
It showcased a splash of red, crimson to mark the foreign energy stored within her now. Jane, however, was less inclined to simply let the physicians do their work. Instead, she bombarded them with questions. Typical, Cassandra thought, with a sigh. "That's a quantum field generator, isn't it?" Jane asked, amazed.
The lead physician replied, "It's a Soul Forge."
Cassandra squinted at that. She wondered, briefly, just how they came up with that name. Though, that wasn't what Jane wondered. "Does a Soul Forge transfer molecular energy from one place to another?" she asked, a bit rhetorical.
The physician paused her movements then, allowing her hands to fall at her sides as she looked down at Jane with mild surprise. "Yes."
Jane rolled her head against the table to look at Thor, who remained on the other side of the room, allowing the physicians space to work. "Quantum field generator," she whispered, with a series of excited nods.
Cassandra couldn't help but feel entirely out of place. She considered simply slipping away, finding a way to the dungeon on her own—but that was the woman again, done feasting on her morsel, come back to infect Cassandra's thoughts with her whispering. It was so hard not to listen to them. To take them to heart and let herself feel the urgency threatening to overcome her. But she knew she needed to remain level-headed, rational. It would be much more difficult to convince Odin to see things her way should she get herself in trouble acting impulsively.
Thor smiled at Jane's excitement. Despite everything, his heart still warmed at her intelligence, her curious spirit. The things about her that he'd fallen so in love with. However, his smile faded completely, the warmth short-lived as the cold of his father's voice ran down his spine suddenly. "My words are mere noises to you that you ignore them completely?" Odin announced himself, voicing his disappointment with his son.
Cassandra startled against the wall, her eyes darting toward the man standing at the mouth of the room. The gold armor that adorned his shoulders reflected the light from the flames on the wall, the white strands of his hair braided behind his ears, but it was the patch of gold over his right eye that solidified his identity. Though, even without his appearance, his voice alone commanded enough attention, held enough authority to give him away.
"She is ill," Thor attempted to explain Jane's presence.
"She is mortal," Odin countered, carelessly, walking toward the table in the center. He waved a hand and the gold shimmering above Jane disappeared, the physicians all but scattered from the room, as he neared Thor. "Illness is their defining trait."
Thor defended his actions, "I brought her here because we can help her."
"She does not belong here in Asgard any more than a goat belongs at a banquet table—nor does Cassandra."
There was a certain bitterness in his withered voice when he finally uttered her name. She wondered when or even if he was going to acknowledge her, and it wasn't surprising he would do so so callously. Even still, her head instinctively tilted, an eyebrow dragging up, and Thor gritted his teeth. The last thing he needed was a verbal altercation to clean up on top of the mess at hand. Though, to his surprise, Cassandra stayed quiet.
Even more shocking, it was Jane who spoke up. She pushed herself up into a sitting position on her palms, twisting to see Odin as he stopped to stand opposite the table from Thor, too close to Cassandra for comfort. "Who do you think you are?" she questioned him boldly, somehow completely unaware of the power he held.
Cassandra's eyebrows shot up and her eyes darted to Thor's face, but Odin responded before any damage control could be done. "I am Odin, king of Asgard. Protector of the nine realms," he told her, chin up at her lack of decorum.
"Oh. Well, I'm-"
"I know very well who you are, Jane Foster."
Jane paused, surprised. Then she looked to Thor beside her, "You told your dad about me?"
It was then Cassandra rolled her eyes. "Something is within her, father. Something I have not seen before," Thor tried to continue making his case, as Odin moved around the end of the table to finally meet his son on the same side.
"Her world has its healers. They're called 'doctors'. Let them deal with it," Odin was insistent, voice increasingly becoming more frustrated. He took steps backward, toward the exit, before turning to leave completely. "Guards, take them back to Midgard."
The guards he'd brought with him rushed forward to force Jane off the table. Panic rose within Thor, and he stepped toward them quickly, trying to warn them off, "No, I would not-!" but he was too late.
Cassandra teleported across the feet between the wall and the table in the span of a blink, arriving in a half second, as the guards reached for Jane. Sure enough, when their hands touched her arms, crimson energy erupted from her body in a solid wave. Cassandra's hands instinctively shot up and lavender electricity engulfed her fingers, heat surged into her palms from somewhere deep within her gut, and she pushed against the red. It hit the lavender wisps that danced from her palms like a speeding car meets a brick wall.
Pressure appeared in her chest as Jane's hostile energy stuttered, and fought against her—but, ultimately, resigned to a stalemate. It hung in the air as a kind of fog in the early morning, and Thor exhaled a quiet breath of wonder despite the tremble of her arms. She was struggling, but she was doing it, and no one was harmed. Odin paused at the door when Thor shouted a second before the outburst. Now, he stared at the scene before him in a mixture of intrigue and bewilderment.
But Cassandra could feel the energy from within Jane where it touched her outstretched hands, digging into the skin of her palms and traveling the length of her arms, biting and licking at the tissue like a flame. It would be too difficult to hold it much longer. So, she pushed harder, willing her own energy to guide it back into wherever it came from, and the translucent crimson retracted. Slowly, Cassandra stepped forward to follow as it dissolved into Jane's small frame.
She laid back on the table now, vaguely unconscious from the outburst, and Cassandra took care to ease it away. The red energy crawled inside Jane's body in retreat—though, Cassandra knew it was strategic. This was simply a defense mechanism. If it were truly trying to attack any one of them, she would not be able to block it, much less disarm it. When the energy was hidden away completely, Cassandra's muscles shuddered as they relaxed. Never before had energy felt so heavy.
"Did you see that?" she questioned, harshly, turning on her heels to face Odin's dumbstruck features, exhaling heavily against the burn of her lungs. Seeing the look on his face, the direction of his eyes, she continued. His visage drew too much disdain within her gut to regard him with any pleasantries, and the current situation only worsened it. "Good. This is your responsibility. If you protect the nine realms—take it back before my friend ends up dead and you have to punish someone else for your inability to do your job."
Thor's head snapped in her direction, eyes slightly rounded. "Cassandra-"
"Come with me," Odin interrupted, as though his son hadn't spoken at all. "All of you."
He appeared calm—though, it was hard to tell just what that old man was thinking unless he was yelling. Emotions blurred together on him in a pool of neutrality that made it difficult to properly communicate. Perhaps that was what he was going for? Either way, Thor helped Jane from the table before guiding her along Odin's path to the exit, and he tipped his head in a gesture toward Cassandra. She rubbed at her forearms now, the burning feeling from that damned energy still lingering in her nerves, but she followed—however begrudgingly.
Odin lead the way through the halls they'd come from, before taking a slightly different route. Having not been there before, or given any real description of the interior of the palace, Cassandra had no way of knowing just where exactly they were headed. She hoped it was some place that could store whatever was inside Jane. Somewhere that could be useful. Though, their destination was somewhere completely unexpected. The dark gold doors were open, leading down steps into a large room, the height seemingly endless.
But it was the tree in the center that caused Cassandra's feet to falter. It's base was thick and sturdy, growing up toward the darkened ceiling, and its branches stretched out to hold swirling light amongst its leaves. They looked like little galaxies balanced delicately on the wood. Her pace slowed as she craned her neck to stare up at it, counting the swirls of light as they reached higher and higher up the tree and Odin's voice touched her ears—but it carried no words. "Yggdrasil," she whispered beneath her breath. "The world tree…holy shit."
These kinds of wonders were never meant to be seen by the human eye. It felt like an intrusion, a transgression against each one to witness them, yet she could not find it within herself to look away. Because it was not meant to happen, it made the happening almost seem special. A divine gift. A blessing. Who would give up the opportunity to be in such a place and see such things? To experience another world so closely? Though, there was a tinge of bittersweet at the edges of her eyesight like a vignette.
Cassandra couldn't truly be in awe without acknowledging who told her of these things first, the reason why they seemed so wondrous to begin with. She'd dreamt of what places and things Loki had told her of would look like. Seeing them in person now without him felt so entirely wrong. And it was that seed of unease, the copper taste on her tongue it left behind, that finally caused her to blink back into reality. To become aware of where she stood, how long she'd been standing there.
Her eyes swept quickly over the room in search of Thor or Jane, but they were nowhere to be found. With a short but heavy sigh, Cassandra started walking in the direction they'd been headed before she'd become awestruck by the tree. How long had she truly been standing there? She wondered, however briefly, just how stupid she'd looked to the other Asgardians in the room. Standing there like some bewitched tourist while her group carries on without her.
She shook her head at herself for the idea. In the corner of the room was a smaller side-room, its doors hung open and waiting, still as she passed through the doorway. Inside, bookshelves lined the walls and another door on the other side lead to what looked like a library. However, more importantly, Thor and Jane stood near Odin at the table in the center of the side-room. The table was sporadically cluttered with books, but Odin read from only one. It was a rather large book, its pages glowing with magical illustrations and Asgardian passages.
Thor glanced up as movement caught his eye, and he paused. Had Cassandra not been in the room this whole time? When had they lost her? Why hadn't he noticed? He hadn't thought he was that distracted, being so focused on saving Jane, but he was. Jane was his top priority—anything else was an afterthought. Feeling a small pang of guilt for misplacing her, Thor gestured for Cassandra to further enter the room. "Is that the book of Yggdrasil?" she asked, a mixture of rhetorical and awed, as she approached.
"Yes," Odin regarded her with a softly squinted eye. His response was clean and clipped, short like his temper. She'd missed everything he'd explained to Thor and Jane and he was not about to repeat himself for her—no, not her. It was hard to find the will to entertain her at all with the knowledge of her connection to Loki. And her prior attitude was like a spat in the face.
Though, Cassandra didn't pay much mind to his demeanor. It didn't matter. Jane's volatile energy was the priority, Loki's freedom was second—anything else was simply wind. She came to stand near Jane beside the table just as Jane began to speak. "Does the book happen to mention how to get it out of me?" Jane asked, looking at Odin skeptically.
"No. It does not."
With that answer, Odin turned and excused himself from the room. Thor sighed heavily and followed after him without hesitation, determination settling into his features. Surely his father was going to continue looking for a solution. How could he not? This situation affected him now, too, as well as all other realms. If what was inside Jane managed to find its way into the wrong hands, it could mean the end of life as every living thing knew it.