Havoc and Retribution

Devolution for Survival

There isn't much structural support left in the basement of the Avengers Tower.

There is, for one thing, a hole in the floor into which many mercenaries fell and Hel disappeared. There is also the wreck of the cell where they imprisoned the goddess of chaos, although "imprisoned" sounds like a farce of a word now considering the destruction surrounding them. Metal beams are twisted into skeletal shapes, concrete bricks scattered like children's toys across the room.

The Avengers are strewn about the basement as well, slow to rise in the face of this setback. Again, here, setback doesn't sound like an adequate word considering Jaycee is utterly lost to them.

Even though they are helping each other to standing, each Avenger is lost in their own thoughts. Watching a former friend break so suddenly, in such as monstrous moment has rattled them all.

Tony is helping Steve. The normal fissure of sarcasm is gone now between them. There is no time for any of Tony's wisecracks when Steve has rebar sticking out of his body. Stark has managed to extricate him from the wall and is using his Iron Man suit's built in first aid tools to cauterize the worst of the wounds. Steve meets his eyes once, which is once more than Tony can handle. There is defeat there, something Stark never thought he would see from Steve. Hel/Jay has finally snapped the final hope that there is a way back for her.

Clint and Thor are clearing what wreckage they can, looking for any clues left behind as to where Hel/Jay has gone. The floors are scarred with runic lines, great burned swathes of symbols glittering with rainbow residue. Clint and Thor set about the final unsightly task of moving Jared Bradlich's body as well. Both of them hate the man but are decent about setting him aside. Just looking at his face, Clint has to turn to the side for a moment, the memory of Jay snapping his neck seared into his memory. Thor looks a little lost, his eyes finally falling on his brother.

Loki looks... like he is grieving internally. That is the only way Thor can think to express what he sees on the face he grew up with. Natasha, always flexible and pragmatic, has put aside prejudice and judgement and is helping the trickster god up. They may be gods, but Thor has not seen Loki wounded like this before. His brother meets his eyes across the room but the look is shaky and laden with things unsaid. Thor reads the despair he never thought he would see there in his brother's eyes. Loki has just seen the demon Sigyn could have been, the terror the woman he loves has become.

They come together in the center of the room, no one wanting to peak first.

A blast of rainbow light suddenly sears across their vision.

Barely ready for another attack, the Avengers are still going for their weapons when they realize it isn't Hel, back for another round. Instead, in the middle of a runic mandala, characteristic of the Bifrost, is Frigga, queen of Asgard, and a very scantily clad Bruce Banner.

Shell-shocked faces greet her. "My sons," she says, stepping forward. Thor steps towards her and Frigga folds her much larger son into a hug. She looks over Thor's shoulder to Loki, seeing the pain there. She holds Thor back from her, looking at the stunned Avengers. "I come to you with aid," she says.

A shimmering rainbow portal coalesces behind her and Bruce has to step out of the way hurriedly. From it step Asgardian soldiers in full armor. Frigga, standing in front of the soldiers of Asgard, looks every bit the warrior queen she is. "It is time Asgard joined this fight," she says to her sons.

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It will be many years before Sigyn learns when and where she lands in the realm of Midgard.

Years in her future, she will learn that she landed in a small town outside of Aleppo in the year 1915. The world will not recognize what happens in this year, in this area of the world, for years to come. Sigyn will rage at the silence from governments, having seen the mass graves herself. Years later, Sigyn will know she arrived on Midgard during a mass diaspora of Armenian people that will reinvent the word genocide.