Chapter Text
Everything was dark. I couldn’t move or breathe; I felt like floating. I was in a timeless void, and I couldn’t get out.
Until I heard shouting.
Suddenly, my eyes popped open. I had to shut them again as the light violently shone on me. Not being able to escape from the light so easily, I raised my hand to cover the harsh fluorescent bulb above me.
“Dana, you’re awake!” I heard Tony. His voice was strained with exhaustion and worry. I peeped an eye open very slowly to see the dark shadows under his eyes. “Thank God, kid.”
A hand gently grabbed my other arm, giving it a squeeze. Thor was smiling at me, his eyes bright with joy and relief, but there was something else in them. I could only faintly see the desperation beneath them.
“What happened?” I croaked.
Nat handed me a glass full of water, which I accepted gratefully. Steve recalled to me last night’s events with Lorelei. Apparently, she had done no real damage to me, fortunately missing all the big arteries. She had escaped, of course, but Loki was currently in pursuit.
“He left only after he knew you were okay,” Thor whispered to me. My heart felt lighter at that, but it didn’t drown out my worry over him. Why was he so adamant on killing this woman? Yes, she was evil, but there were plenty of evil people in this universe.
“Clint and Bruce are trying to track her down as well, but so far, nothing.” Nat refilled my glass, anticipating my needs expertly.
“And if they find her?” I asked.
Tony’s eyes were hard as he looked at a spot in the wall. “Then we destroy her.”
I spent the night under Tony and Thor’s watchful eyes. Nat and Steve would come in every now and then with food and water. However, the one person I really wanted here wasn’t around. My thoughts kept flipping to him and stressing over if he was okay or if he had found her.
I detailed hundreds of possibilities and scenarios of Loki finding Lorelei, that by the time he came back, I was so wound up with anxiety that I almost shot out of bed to hug him. Only Tony’s presence stopped that.
“What have you found?” Thor stood up to speak to Loki quietly, but the whole room was silent enough to where I could still hear them.
Loki shook his head. “Barely anything,” he hissed. “I do think I know where she’s headed, though.”
“Where?”
“She came to us,” Loki’s eyebrows were drawn together as he focused, “she’ll come to us again then. She needs something we have.”
Thor took a step forward. “And that is?”
“I should head to bed, kiddo,” Tony interrupted. He stretched in his chair before getting up and patting Thor on the back on his way out.
Loki’s eyes were drawn to me, and I instinctively wrapped my arms around myself. Thor noticed this subtle exchanging of looks and let himself outside. Loki slowly crossed the room to my bed and sat down on the chair Tony had vacated.
“I’m sorry I left you,” he whispered, his eyes turned downward in shame. “I just thought I might find her if I searched sooner.”
I shook my head. “It’s okay, I understand.” I put my hand over his without thinking, purely to calm him. His hand relaxed under my touch and brought his fingers through mine.
“She could’ve done much worse to you.” His hand suddenly bunched into a fist, and I could tell he was about to go into a blind rage.
I grabbed his hand again and placed it on my lap. “But she didn’t,” I pointed out.
He gave me a very weak smile before kissing the hand that held his. “I am immensely glad to see you okay, my little one.”
His face also looked taught and tired. I could tell he hadn’t slept either, nor did he plan to.
Dawn was coming through a bit a few hours later when Nat showed up with breakfast. Loki and I had separated ourselves, and he was seated across the room. She looked at him suspiciously but let it drop.
“You holding up alright?” she asked, a little smile showing on her face.
“So far.”
She handed me more toast, but I refused. “Dana, you need to eat more and gain your strength before we go kick the shit out of that witch,” she teased. I giggled at her joke, but I saw Loki stiffen immediately.
His hands clawed into his thighs as he tried to hold himself back. Something was up, and I needed to find out.
Once Nat left to go help Clint, I took the opportunity. “Why do you hate her so much?” I blurted.
Loki seemed startled at this outburst, but he swallowed and unclenched his hands. He came back to sit by me and tried to smile. “It’s nothing important,” he said quietly. Too quietly.
“Yes, it is,” I demanded. “Thor told me, okay? He told me you and her were engaged.”
Loki changed. His face went pale white, and it looked like a battle just went off in his head. “Aye, we were,” he muttered.
He didn’t say more only looking elsewhere for help. His eyes were scared and furious, his Adam’s apple bobbed up and down as he tried to swallow his words.
“Loki, please tell me!”
He stood up, startling me. “It is of no concern,” he shouted, glaring at me.
I shrank back in my covers at his fury. I had never seen him so angry, not even when he sent the Destroyer.
He realized his affect on me and softened his eyes. Running his hand down his face to clear his head, he apologized. “I’m sorry, little one, it’s just…”
“Just what?” I encouraged. To no avail. He sat down again and remained silent.
I couldn’t stand it anymore, the secrets, any of it. So, I kept prodding. “Thor said she killed a noble.” Loki’s face grew dark. “Did you know the person?”
He turned away from me for a long time, contemplating what to say next. When he finally turned around, his cheeks were wet with tears, and I knew he couldn’t hold back anymore.
“Aye, I did,” he whispered. I felt his hand reaching for mine and gave it without a word. “Lorelei and I were engaged, but she turned to darker magic.”
I had already known this part but listened intensely to him describe their early relationship. They both had felt like outsiders and seidr brought them together. Frigga had even treated her like a daughter.
It was only common sense for them to have been together intimately.
But suddenly, she changed.
“She read a book, in the hidden depths of the library where no one ventured to,” he explained. “I had been there some times myself, but she had found a book on dark magic. Frigga had forbidden me to read it, and I respected her enough to listen. But Lorelei, she fell to it.”
She had become mean and agitated at the tiniest of things. She snapped at Loki more than once a day on inconsequential matters, and he had tried to reason with her.
“Nothing helped. Soon she started harming people. She would break a leg or drive a woman crazy, things that were too evil to be just simple pranks.
“She tried to pull me into it, and a little bit of it connected with me then. Of course, more of it would help me, well doom me, later.”
He paused, rubbing his left hand with his right—a nervous tick he had since he was a boy. “She got pregnant,” he breathed. I almost shot out of my bed, my heart had kicked so wildly. I couldn’t believe this, in fact, I wouldn’t!
“At this point she was downright cruel, but she chose to keep the child saying that her child would be as powerful as she, and we would rule as a family. I don’t know what she meant by that, maybe taking the throne of Asgard.
“Well, the pregnancy had complications, and the baby, my beautiful daughter, was born early and with severe disabilities. The healers assured us she would be fine, though.”
His eyes welled up once again as he relayed this part. “I told Lorelei, I kept telling her I would care for her and our daughter no matter what. I would always have them wanting for nothing.”
He took a break, clearing his eyes of tears. I gently ran my fingers over his cheek. “What was her name?”
He smiled faintly. “Her name was Sigyn,” he laughed. “Legends told of her as my beloved, but in the wrong way. She was my beloved, my gorgeous daughter.”
“Lorelei was not happy, though,” his whole body shook with this. “She was outraged that a baby of hers would be born not as powerful as she. But when I left one night to grab her food and more blankets, she…”
He didn’t need to finish. His fists were clenching the side of my bed as tried to regain himself, but it could not be done. He had let himself be shown to me, and his body wouldn’t stop now that the words were out.
My heart broke for him. I wanted to ease his pain, wipe his tears, do SOMETHING. But I could do nothing. A part of himself was ripped from him.
“Frigga and Odin kept it between ourselves,” he sobbed. “We never told Thor or anyone else. We locked her away in the darkest corner on Asgard and kept her there for hundreds of years.”
I then understood his desire to hunt her down. She had taken away a precious piece of him for no reason at all. “So, your threat to her about dying alone, it’s because…”
“It’s because she had our baby die alone. Now she will come to feel that by my hand.”